Kimimaro reached into his own shoulder, as the sound of tearing flesh sickeningly wet. With a sharp wrench, he extracted his own humerus bone, the calcified mass instantly reshaping itself into a gleaming blade.
Plop.
Without a word, he tossed the weapon backward. Neji caught it cleanly, his gaze fixed entirely on the Bounty Association ahead. He didn't need to look; years of shared missions during their term in ANBU had made their synchronization deadly. The two of them walked with a five-meter gap towards the Akatsuki duo, while Shikamaru and Shino stayed back in the surrounding thickets of forest behind them.
The silence broke with the rhythmic rustling of paper.
High above them, Konan descended like an angel. With a flick of her wrists, sheets of paper detached from her form, swirling rapidly around her head until they condensed into a massive, razor-sharp paper chakram. With a sharp exhale, she sent it hurtling directly at Neji.
Neji brought the bone blade up to intercept, bracing his stance to deflect the projectile. But as the weapon collided with the chakram, a surge of overwhelming force vibrated through his arms. Konan had enhanced the paper chakram with Wind Release, accelerating its spin into a buzzsaw that threatened to break away the bone blade. Neji's footing from the earth, throwing him backward across the forest and separating him from Kimimaro.
Kimimaro clicked his tongue in annoyance, his eyes narrowing as he watched his partner skid back. "Pointless," he muttered, his voice cold. "The plan failed before we even began."
"One down," Kakuzu's gravelly voice boomed as he stepped forward from the Bounty Association as he put the money suitcase to safety. "And you are the only one left standing. Do you intend to continue? I am certain there is a hefty bounty on your head as well."
"Don't let your guard down, Kakuzu," Konan warned from above, her voice devoid of emotion. "There are two more hiding in the brush behind him."
Before Kimimaro could counter, Konan's wings turned into hundreds of fluttering sheets of paper, blotting out with great speed. "Paper Drizzle," she blurted.
The swarm converged onto Kimimaro from every angle. Interspersed within the Paper Drizzle were the explosive tags. The forest erupted in a deafening chain of concussive blasts, tearing the earth to shreds and kicking up a thick wall of smoke and debri.
As it slowly cleared out, Kimimaro stepped out with his body covered with thick calcium-rich mucus oozed out from his pores, instantly hardening upon contact with the open air. Within a heartbeat, he was entirely encased, transforming into a terrifying specter... a White Knight draped from head to toe in a seamless, high-density suit of osseous armor.
"Shikotsumyaku: White Knight!"
The explosions slammed into his armor, the shockwaves tearing open shallow fissures across the calcified plate, but the underlying structure held firm. Recognizing the scale of the assault, Kimimaro gritted his teeth and activated his Cursed Seal of Earth.
The dark marks spread rapidly from his chest, branching out in three distinct directions across his shoulders and face, flooding his chakra pathway with a surge of senjutsu chakra to reinforce his breaking defense.
~~
A short distance away, Shikamaru caught a stray cluster of Konan's drifting papers. He examined the texture before turning his head. "Shino," he whispered urgently. "Do your insects secrete any kind of sticky mucus? If we can gum up her papers and prevent them from spreading, we gain a massive advantage."
Shino emerged slightly from the shadows, his face obscured by his high collar. "They do," he replied calmly. With a subtle wave of his sleeve, a dark cloud of kikaichu swarmed forward, enveloping the fluttering papers in Shikamaru's hands and binding them together in a thick, resinous secretion.
"Perfect," Shikamaru said, his mind already formulating three steps ahead. "Go assist Kimimaro, I will give support. He can't hold both of them off forever."
"I definitely can't let you do that," a voice intervened.
Before either chunin could react, Kakuzu arrived directly in front of them. His arms detached at the joints, held together only by squirming black threads that extended his reach instantly. His massive hands clamped around the necks of both Shikamaru and Shino, lifting them off the ground effortlessly, choking the air from their lungs.
Fwip.
A sudden, oppressive pressure came from Kakuzu's behind. Neji with dark, burning markings of his first-stage Cursed Seal fully activated across his skin. His Byakugan flared, veins bulging around his temples as he locked onto Lightning mask behind Kakuzu's back.
He threw his entire chakra into a point-blank, lethal palm strike aimed directly at one of Kakuzu's hidden hearts.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm!"
A localized shockwave of condensed chakra blasted outward. The lightning-element mask strapped to Kakuzu's back cracked violently under the pressure. The force of the blow lifted the rogue-nin off his feet, sending him flying through the air and forcing him to loosen his iron grip on the duo, who dropped to the dirt, coughing as they gasped for air.
Neji landed gracefully, though he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "I should have compressed the chakra even further," he thought bitterly. "It could have destroyed two of his hearts simultaneously."
Recovering quickly, Shikamaru rubbed his throat and barked, "Shino, go! Assist Kimimaro now!" Shino nodded, fading into the trees.
Turning his attention back to Neji, Shikamaru spoke quickly. "Neji, I have a plan, and I've already coordinated the setup with Shino." He quickly reiterated the strategy, his voice low.
Neji's eyes flicked. "This could actually work," he agreed.
Their window of preparation closed instantly as Kakuzu crashed back visibly angered. The threads in his back erupted, tearing his Akatsuki cloak apart as three distinct, masked entities emerged from his body, floating independently. The masks of Wind, Fire, and Water hovered around him.
Shikamaru immediately snapped his fingers into a hand seal, sending his shadow surging forward across the dirt. His target was the Water mask, intending to seize control of it to counter the impending synergy of the Fire and Wind masks. But the entities were unnaturally agile; the Water mask drifted upward, easily evading the creeping shadow.
Simultaneously, the Wind mask unhinged its jaw, concentrating an immense, swirling vortex of chakra within its mouth.
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
A colossal dome of pressurized wind exploded outward, tearing forest trees out by their roots and pulverizing the landscape into splinters.
Seeing the devastation rushing toward them, Neji leaped in front of Shikamaru. Fueled by the potent chakra of the 1st stage of Cursed Seal, he threw himself into a fierce blinding spin.
"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!"
The dome of absolute defense clashed violently with the roaring windstorm. The timely reaction saved both Neji and Shikamaru from being shredded, though the sheer force of the gale pushed them back dozens of meters across the earth.
As the dust began to settle, Neji stopped spinning. "We can't win from out here. We need to close the distance immediately."
Shikamaru's eyes sharpened. "I'll send you directly to him."
~~
A/N: The plan was wasted before it even began. Kimimaro and Shinobi tanks Konan. Neji and Shikamaru tanks Kakuzu. How do you think the battle will end?
I have started writing extra chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0