Chapter 38: The Price of a Jinchūriki
The inferno of blue fire finally subsided, leaving behind a landscape of scorched earth and glass. In the center of the devastation, Akatsurugi stood completely unscathed.
Kokaki, in her full Matatabi form, stared, her massive feline eyes wide with disbelief. Physical attacks, ninjutsu... nothing had worked. This defied all logic.
"The Sharingan can't be this powerful," she reasoned, the thought echoing in the beast's shared mind. "If it were, Uchiha Kagami would never have fallen. This is something else... a Kekkei Genkai?"
A specific comparison surfaced. "Like the Hydrification Technique of the Hoshigaki Clan, but with fire..."
The realization was a cold shock. If her opponent was effectively immune to fire, then the majority of Matatabi's offensive power was useless. She couldn't kill him.
Having gathered this critical intelligence, her objective shifted. There was no point in continuing a stalemate. A Water Style specialist was needed to counter this specific threat. Her mission was now to report back.
Without another word, the massive Two-Tails turned and bounded away with earth-shaking strides, abandoning the fight.
Akatsurugi was momentarily stunned, then let out a short, sharp laugh. She's running. She figured out my intangibility's weakness and is leaving to regroup. It was a frustratingly smart move. In his current state, he couldn't breach her defenses any more than she could harm him.
But he wasn't ready to let her go. This was his only chance.
Taking to the sky, he retrieved Kato Ei and began to follow the colossal beast from a high, safe distance. He didn't believe she would maintain that chakra-draining form all the way back to the Cloud outpost.
His hunch was correct. After putting several miles between them, the giant blue cat dissolved into a swirl of chakra, reforming into the woman, Kokaki, who slumped onto a thick tree branch, breathing heavily to recover her strength.
This was the moment.
Akatsurugi dropped from the sky like a stone, a silent predator. As he fell, the three tomoe in his eyes swirled and morphed into a distinct, four-pointed windmill pattern—the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Sensing danger, Kokaki's head snapped up. Her body tensed to transform, but it was too late. A dizzying, disorienting sensation overwhelmed her. The world seemed to flip. In one moment, she was looking up at the falling Akatsurugi. In the next, she was falling herself, while he stood calmly on the branch she had just occupied.
Forced Transposition!
Her eyes widened in horror, snapping to the ground below. There, glinting in the sun, were the tips of several kunai buried point-up in the earth, right where she was about to land.
A pathetic trap! she thought with a surge of contempt. A few kunai wouldn't kill a Jinchūriki. She would take the injury, transform, and heal instantly.
As she landed, she twisted her body, avoiding a direct hit to her heart or spine. The kunai sliced into her thigh and side, drawing blood, but causing no critical damage. Blue chakra immediately flared around her as she began the transformation.
But she never finished it.
A searing, impossible pain erupted in her chest. She looked down, her transformation flickering and dying. A gaping, bloody hole had mysteriously appeared where her heart should be. Confusion and absolute terror were the last things to cross her face before the light faded from her eyes.
Back at the tree line, Akatsurugi picked up the kunai stained with Kokaki's blood. He handed it to Kato Ei. "It's your turn."
Kato Ei nodded, his expression grim. Taking the kunai, his body shifted into a stark black-and-white contrast. He knelt, quickly drawing an intricate, sinister-looking seal on the ground. Once it was complete, without a moment's hesitation, he took another kunai and stabbed himself directly in the heart.
Akatsurugi watched, a cold appreciation settling over him. To wield such a power requires a certain ruthlessness, even towards oneself. No wonder he achieved immortality this way.
Akatsurugi soon found Kokaki's body. He confirmed she was dead. The Two-Tails within her would also be dead for now, destined to reform elsewhere in time. He watched as a tremendously thick, vibrant white spiritual ribbon, shot through with flickering blue-black spots of Tailed Beast energy, emerged from the void and flowed into the sealed hilt of Ryūjin Jakka. It was by far the most potent soul he had harvested.
"Things like blood evidence shouldn't be left lying around," he muttered to himself, sealing the body into a scroll. The Jinchūriki of a major village was a significant trophy, but also a liability.
When he returned, Kato Ei was just recovering, the black-and-white pigmentation receding from his skin. "Is it done?" he asked weakly.
Akatsurugi nodded. A problem now presented itself. Handing the body over to Konoha would earn him immense prestige, but it would also mean a full Yamanaka-style autopsy and mind probe. All his abilities—the Flame-Flame Fruit's elementalization, the Mangekyō's Transposition—would be laid bare for Danzō and the Council to dissect. In the corrupt and dark Konoha he knew was coming, that was an unacceptable risk.
Similarly, he couldn't let the Cloud recover the body and learn how their Jinchūriki had been so mysteriously defeated.
He had been careless before, leaving bodies behind. He wouldn't make that mistake again. The prestige wasn't worth the exposure. He would leave a coded marker for Konoha intelligence to find, claiming the kill anonymously, but the body itself had to disappear.
For the next several days, Akatsurugi and Kato Ei continued to operate along the border of the Land of Hot Water.
In Kumogakure, the absence of the Two-Tails Jinchūriki soon turned from concern into alarm, and then into confirmed tragedy.
When the news reached the Third Raikage, his rage was a physical force, cracking the stone floor of his office. A Jinchūriki was not just a person; it was a village asset, a strategic weapon. To lose one without a body, without a conclusive battle... it was an unprecedented humiliation.
"Akatsurugi..." the Raikage growled, the name a curse. "He has grown to this extent?"
The shadow of this lone Konoha ninja had grown too long, casting a pall over their entire campaign. The losses were no longer acceptable. The message was clear: this threat required a personal response.
The Third Raikage made his decision. He would take to the field himself. It was time to end this.