Chapter 112: The Price of a Bounty
A cold sweat broke out on Hatake Sakumo's brow. If not for his instinctive leap backward, those black threads would have pierced straight through his chest.
He looked back at the green-eyed monster. Countless black threads sprouted from its severed neck and head, stitching the two parts back together. The decapitated freak stood up once more, twisting its reattached head with an audible crack before fixing the Konoha ninja with a contemptuous sneer.
"Captain, are you alright?" one of the ANBU jōnin asked, as he and the others swiftly moved to form a protective line in front of the wounded Sakumo.
"Who are you?" the jōnin demanded, kunai at the ready. "Why attack a Konoha diplomatic envoy? Are you an agent of Sunagakure?"
"Suna?" the green-eyed man scoffed, his gaze locked on Hatake Sakumo. "What's Sunagakure to me? Hatake Sakumo... Konoha's elite jōnin. Bounty: fifty million ryo. I'm here for your head."
The Konoha ninjas' expressions hardened. A bounty hunter.
"I've heard of you," Hatake Sakumo said, stepping forward despite the blood still seeping from his chest. The White Fang short blade in his hand began to crackle with faint, blue arcs of lightning. "A mercenary ninja who values money above all else. They call you Kakuzu."
"Hah! So someone still remembers the name Kakuzu!" the man laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Did you know I once assassinated your First Hokage and lived to tell the tale?"
His words sent a jolt through the group. The Shodaime Hokage was the God of Shinobi, a legend whose power was still considered the benchmark, a title even the mighty Fourth Hokage, the Blaze God, had never explicitly claimed for himself.
Kakuzu reveled in their shocked expressions. It was a feat he was immensely proud of.
(Of course, throwing a kunai from eight hundred meters away and then running for your life could technically be called an "assassination attempt." But try telling that to the First Hokage.)
In that moment of distraction, Hatake Sakumo moved. He vanished and reappeared above Kakuzu, the White Fang descending in a vertical slash so fast it was a blur. Kakuzu had no time to react; his body was cleanly bifurcated.
Yet Sakumo did not let his guard down. His carelessness moments ago was the reason his chest was still bleeding.
Seizing the opportunity, the five remaining ANBU formed hand signs in unison. "Combination Ninjutsu: Raging Fire Vortex!" A whirlwind of flame erupted, engulfing Kakuzu's bisected form.
Sakumo's eyes scanned the area, his blade poised, every sense on high alert.
"Ice Release: Icy Ground Conquest!" a voice snarled. A new figure—or perhaps the same one—surfaced from the earth, a mask on its back spewing a torrent of freezing mist that flash-froze the immediate surroundings. The two halves of the previously split body now sprouted thick black threads, pulling and stitching themselves back together.
"A Kekkei Genkai! Ice Release! He's from the Yuki Clan!" an ANBU shouted, leaping back to avoid the spreading frost.
"Damn you brats!" Kakuzu roared, his pride shattered by the relentless, pragmatic attacks. These Konoha ninja had no respect for a villain's monologue! The Hatake brat had launched a sneak attack while he was boasting! If his Earth Grudge Fear hadn't shifted a heart at the last second, he would have lost one.
"Ice Release: Thousand Flying Ice Needles!" Kakuzu hissed. The frozen moisture in the air crystallized into thousands of needle-sharp projectiles that shot toward the Konoha ninja like a blizzard of death.
Sakumo ignored the spectacle, his mind racing. Conventional methods are useless. Decapitation and bisection failed. There must be a core, a weakness. He recalled the first mask he had shattered, and how immediately after, Kakuzu had taken one of his men's hearts. There were five masks then, and five now. The masks... they must be the key. Destroy them all.
"Target the masks!" Sakumo commanded. "That's his weakness!"
His team, seasoned jōnin who had survived the battlefields of the Great War, didn't need to be told twice. While the initial casualty was due to the enemy's bizarre and unknown technique, they were not so easily defeated now.
As Kakuzu's ice needles rained down, the ANBU reacted as one. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" A dome of solid earth erupted around them, the icy shards shattering harmlessly against its surface.
"You think I'd fall for the same trick twice, brat?!" Kakuzu snarled as Sakumo flashed behind him, blade aiming for a mask. But Kakuzu was ready. A different mask spewed a massive sphere of water, trapping Sakumo within it instantly.
"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!" Kakuzu cackled, a kunai already flying to strike the trapped Sakumo's throat.
Poof!
The trapped Sakumo dissolved into a wisp of smoke. A Shadow Clone!
Kakuzu's eyes widened in realization a second too late. From behind him, the real Hatake Sakumo struck like a bolt of lightning, his chakra blade shattering one of the floating masks into splinters.
"Now!" Sakumo yelled.
His squad unleashed a coordinated barrage.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
Caught in the crossfire, Kakuzu was hard-pressed. His remaining Ice Release mask spewed a wave of frost, flash-freezing the swamp. Another mask activated an Earth Release wall to block the fire and wind.
"Die!" Kakuzu bellowed, slamming his arms into the ground. A forest of black threads erupted from the earth beneath the five ANBU, seeking to impale them.
Sakumo was a silver streak once more. His blade danced, severing the emerging threads before they could find their mark.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Jutsu!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Another combination. Empowered by the wind, a colossal fire dragon roared to life and slammed directly into another of Kakuzu's masks. The mask didn't even have time to react before it was incinerated, turning to ash in the inferno.
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