The subterranean tunnels beneath the Land of Lightning were a suffocating labyrinth of damp stone and crushing shadows. What little light existed came from a few sparse, ancient oil lamps bracketed to the walls, their dim, flickering orange flames struggling to push back the oppressive darkness.
Through this suffocating gloom, a single shadow darted with blistering speed.
It was Naruto's infiltration clone. His white shinobi sandals splashed silently through the shallow, stagnant puddles of the drainage system, his black stealth gear completely absorbing the dim light. Behind his dark mask, his ice-blue eyes were narrowed in absolute, predatory focus.
His sensory capabilities had evolved drastically since the original body touched the realm of Senjutsu. The ambient, chaotic natural energy of the caves no longer blinded him; instead, his pseudo-Sage awareness filtered the interference, allowing him to pinpoint the massive, overflowing reservoir of chakra violently erupting from the southern end of the cavern network.
I haven't felt the original swap in yet, the clone thought, his brow furrowing slightly. The secondary clone I popped outside must have delivered the intel, but if the boss hasn't used the Raisan to get here, it means he's either setting up a wider perimeter, or he's trusting me to hold the line until he arrives. Either way, I'm ending this.
Suddenly, a deafening explosion ripped through the subterranean air, violently shaking the cavern walls and sending a shower of loose dust and pebbles raining down from the ceiling.
Naruto accelerated, rounding a massive bend in the tunnel and bursting into a colossal, excavated underground dome.
The cavern was entirely illuminated by a terrifying, ethereal light. In the center of the dome stood the fully manifested Two-Tails—Matatabi. Yugito Nii had completely surrendered to her Tailed Beast, transforming into a towering, spectral feline composed entirely of violently burning, cobalt-blue flames.
The battlefield was in absolute chaos. The monstrous blue cat slammed one of her massive, burning paws down onto the stone floor with the force of a meteor, completely burying the screaming, silver-haired immortal, Hidan, beneath millions of tons of pressure and searing heat.
Sensing the devastating strike, Kakuzu—the towering, pragmatically ruthless treasurer of the Akatsuki—leapt backward into the air, narrowly avoiding the shockwave of the Two-Tails' attack.
He was airborne, his defenses momentarily lowered. It was a flawless opening.
Naruto didn't hesitate. Reaching up, he firmly adjusted the black tactical mask over the lower half of his face, completely obscuring his features. In a blur of motion, he drew a heavy, straight-edged broadsword from the sealing scroll on his back.
He channeled his potent chakra into the steel, the blade instantly screaming to life as it was enveloped in a violently rotating shroud of dense, bright-green Wind chakra. He didn't shout a battle cry. He didn't announce his presence. He moved with the absolute, terrifying silence of a true assassin.
He vanished from the tunnel entrance, stepping into a localized burst of pure speed, and reappeared directly behind the airborne Kakuzu.
With a brutal, horizontal pivot of his hips, Naruto swung the blade.
SCHLICK.
The heavily condensed Wind Slash cleanly effortlessly through bone, muscle, and Kakuzu's thick, unnatural fibers. Kakuzu's right arm was severed clean off at the shoulder, spinning away into the darkness in a spray of dark, coagulated blood.
The Akatsuki treasurer hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the momentum. He slid to a halt, his emerald-green eyes widening in rare, genuine shock as he looked at the stump of his shoulder, and then up at the black-clad phantom standing a few feet away.
At the same time, Yugito lifted her massive, burning paw. In the deep, glowing crater she had formed, Hidan's crushed body lay pinned. Opening her monstrous, flaming jaws, the Two-Tails unleashed a concentrated blast of blue fire directly into the crater, thoroughly roasting the zealot alive as he shrieked obscenities.
Kakuzu ignored his burning partner, his analytical eyes locking onto Naruto.
"Who are you?" Kakuzu demanded, his deep voice heavily muffled by his own white face covering. "And what business do you have interfering here?"
Naruto stood tall, his posture completely relaxed despite the immense danger of the room. He leveled his glowing green broadsword toward the immortal.
"You don't need to know who I am," Naruto replied, his voice a cold, localized rasp behind his mask. "I just know this: you are going to die here tonight."
With a flick of his left wrist, Naruto unsealed a second, identical broadsword into his empty hand. He flooded this blade with a different nature entirely. The air violently popped and hissed as a brilliant, jagged aura of bright blue Lightning chakra coated the second sword.
Naruto settled into a highly specialized, asymmetrical combat stance. He rested the flat of the Wind-coated blade slightly behind his right shoulder, while bringing the violently crackling Lightning blade diagonally across the front of his chest, perfectly guarding his vitals.
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, assessing the dual-elemental threat. "Well... it seems capturing the Tailed Beast will have to wait. I will have to dissect you first."
"Hey, Yugito!" Naruto barked, not taking his eyes off Kakuzu. "You keep that silver-haired freak pinned! Don't let him draw a single drop of your blood, or you're dead—his immortality relies on a voodoo ritual! I'll deal with this stitched-up jerk, then I'll come back you up!"
Kakuzu's eyes flashed with lethal intent. "Arrogant brat."
Kakuzu rapidly cycled through a series of hand seals with his remaining hand. He inhaled deeply, his chest expanding to massive proportions.
"Katon: Zukokku!"
Kakuzu unleashed a massive, concentrated storm of superheated flames that rapidly expanded to fill the entire tunnel, roaring directly toward Naruto.
Naruto didn't retreat. He shifted his weight, sidestepping the direct epicenter of the blast. As the searing heat washed over him, he brought both of his fists down in a brutal, horizontal sweeping motion, his Wind and Lightning swords carving a vacuum through the air that violently parted the flames around his body.
Sensing the opening, Kakuzu ripped off his tattered, black-and-red Akatsuki cloak.
His true, grotesque form was revealed. His entire torso was comprised of thousands of thick, writhing black threads—the Earth Grudge Fear. The threads violently erupted from his back and severed shoulder, immediately forming a massive, hardened barrier of interwoven fibers to block Naruto's advance.
Naruto lunged, his Wind-coated blade slamming into the thread barrier with the force of a buzzsaw. The highly compressed wind sheared straight through the hardened threads, violently blasting Kakuzu backward into the cavern wall.
Kakuzu recovered instantly. Landing on the stone surface like a spider, the thick threads on his back tore open completely.
Four grotesque, featureless white masks erupted from his spine, each comprised of coiled black fibers. Kakuzu rapidly wove a new set of hand seals.
"Suiton: Takitsubo no Jutsu!" (Water Style: Waterfall Technique)
"Raiton: Gian!" (Lightning Style: False Darkness)
The Water mask spewed a massive, crashing wave of high-pressure water, instantly followed by the Lightning mask firing a highly concentrated, branching spear of lightning directly into the flood, creating a massive, electrified tsunami.
Naruto's eyes sharpened. He quickly crossed his index and middle fingers.
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!
Four identical shadow clones materialized around him in a cloud of white smoke.
The battlefield instantly devolved into a chaotic 5-on-5 war.
The original clone didn't hold back. He took a deep breath, molding a surge of Fire chakra in his lungs. He exhaled a concentrated stream of flames directly onto his Wind-coated broadsword. The wind instantly fueled the fire, transforming the blade into a roaring, violently spinning inferno of green and red energy.
"Let's go!" Naruto roared, launching himself directly at Kakuzu's main body.
The clones scattered, expertly assigning themselves to their elemental counterparts.
The first Naruto clone charged the Lightning mask. As the mask prepared to fire another deadly spear of electricity, the clone rapidly formed hand seals. "Fūton: Tatsumaki!" (Wind Style: Miniature Tornado). He violently thrust his hands forward, blasting a condensed, devastating twister that sucked the oxygen out of the air, perfectly neutralizing the lightning and shredding the mask's thread-body.
On the opposite side of the cavern, the second clone engaged the Earth mask. The mask attempted to harden its threads into an unbreakable spear, but the clone was faster. "Raiton: Raijū Tsuiga!" (Lightning Style: Lightning Hound). A massive, highly concentrated wolf composed of pure, crackling blue lightning shot from his hand, tearing through the earth-hardened defenses and biting directly into the mask with explosive force.
The third clone, wielding a standard katana, sprinted toward the Fire mask. As the mask opened its mouth to unleash a sea of flames, the clone slammed his foot into the ankle-deep water of the subterranean drainage system. "Suiton: Suigadama!" (Water Style: Water Wave). He commanded the stagnant water, lifting it into a massive tidal wave that crashed over the flames.
Without pausing, the clone seamlessly transitioned his seals. "Suiton: Suiben Hobaku!" (Water Style: Water Whip Capture). The water condensed into thick, steel-like cables that violently wrapped around the Fire mask, completely immobilizing it.
"Not done yet!" the clone yelled, channeling his chakra into his katana. "Suiton: Suisōtui!" (Water Style: Water Hammer). The water ripped from the air, forming a massive, dense hammerhead of highly pressurized fluid at the tip of the blade. The clone swung the sword like a baseball bat, violently smashing the hammerhead directly into the paralyzed Fire mask, shattering the porcelain faceplate into a thousand pieces.
Meanwhile, high on the vertical walls of the cavern, the main Naruto clone and Kakuzu were engaged in a blindingly fast, deadly dance of taijutsu and kenjutsu.
Kakuzu was a monster. Even with his masks detached, the century-old assassin was an undeniable Kage-level threat. He manipulated his black threads like thousands of razor-sharp whips, attempting to pierce Naruto's vital organs from every conceivable angle.
Naruto parried with flawless precision. His dual broadswords—one crackling with blue lightning, the other roaring with wind-fueled fire—deflected, sheared, and burned the threads away. The cavern echoed with the deafening CLANG of steel meeting hardened fibers, sparks raining down into the darkness below as they ran horizontally along the walls, trading blows at supersonic speeds.
Below them, Yugito Nii was relentlessly asserting her dominance. Her massive, two-tailed form pinned Hidan to the wall, blasting him with successive, point-blank volleys of searing blue fire.
"Jashin-sama will curse you, you overgrown furball!" Hidan shrieked, his skin charring black as his unnatural immortality forced him to survive the agony. "I'll sacrifice you to my god!"
"Hey, kitty!" Naruto yelled down from the wall, cleanly severing two of Kakuzu's thread-whips. "Don't let up! Hit that loudmouth with a Bijuu Bomb and turn him to ash! He only cares about his psychotic god—he's too stupid to actually die!"
Hidan's eyes practically bugged out of his charred skull. "What the fuck did you just say, you little brat?! How dare you disrespect Jashin-sama!"
Yugito didn't give him a chance to finish his rant. A massive sphere of condensed, hyper-dense blue chakra formed in front of her maw, slamming directly into Hidan's face and detonating with enough force to vaporize the stone around him.
Kakuzu, seeing his partner's predicament, gritted his teeth. He violently clashed his hardened thread-arms against Naruto's crossed swords, pushing the clone back.
"You are quite strong, brat," Kakuzu grunted, his green eyes locked onto the black mask. "Who are you? With skills like yours, you must have a massive bounty on your head in the underground."
Naruto landed lightly on the cavern wall, channeling chakra into his soles to stand perpendicular to the ground. He casually twirled the broadswords in his hands, the weapons humming with lethal energy.
"It doesn't matter if there's a bounty on my head or not," Naruto said coldly, his voice dripping with absolute disdain. "Because you won't be alive to collect it. Tonight, your grave is going to be inside this stone, and nobody will even remember you. You'll be forgotten... just like the Hidden Waterfall village abandoned you after your pathetic, failed mission."
Kakuzu's entire body went rigid.
"Honestly," Naruto mocked, tilting his head. "What were you even thinking? Did you actually believe you were capable of assassinating Hashirama Senju? You're nothing but a glorified accountant playing with string."
The sheer, unadulterated rage that exploded from Kakuzu was palpable. The air grew thick with killing intent, his black threads violently thrashing around his body like a nest of enraged vipers.
"How do you know about that?!" Kakuzu roared, completely losing his pragmatic composure.
"Why do you want to know?" Naruto taunted, lowering his stance. "I'll tell you when you're on your deathbed... which is going to happen in just a few seconds. Make the most of it, Kakuzu. Take whatever you can with you. I bet all that money you hoarded won't buy you a damn thing in the afterlife."
Naruto didn't give the immortal time to recover his wits. He shifted into his ultimate offensive stance.
He brought both broadswords down toward his right knee, holding them perfectly parallel to one another. His chakra flared violently, illuminating the dark tunnel. The blade on the left screamed with blinding, emerald-green Wind chakra, while the blade on the right violently arced with crackling, sapphire-blue Lightning chakra.
"Try this on for size," Naruto whispered, his eyes glowing dangerously in the dark. "I've been working on this one for quite some time."
He kicked off the wall, breaking the sound barrier.
"Fūton! Raiton!" Naruto roared, his aura blazing brilliantly behind him. "Fusion Attack: Dynamic Slash!"
Naruto brought both blades up in a devastating, cross-shaped uppercut. The Wind and Lightning chakra resonated, fusing perfectly upon impact.
Kakuzu, realizing he couldn't dodge the blinding speed of the attack, made a desperate, sacrificial play. He commanded his two remaining, heavily damaged masks—the Earth and Water constructs—to violently throw themselves in front of his main body.
KR-KR-KRAAAACK!
The Fusion Slash hit the masks like a tactical nuke. The localized explosion of slicing wind and detonating electricity completely vaporized the Earth and Water masks instantly. The shockwave blasted Kakuzu backward, his black threads shredding as he violently crashed into the cavern floor, carving a deep trench into the solid rock.
Naruto landed gracefully on the ground, exhaling a soft huff of breath as the violent auras around his swords dissipated into nothingness.
Kakuzu's arsenal was gone. All four of his elemental masks had been systematically destroyed by the coordinated assault of the clones. He was left completely alone, relying solely on his five remaining hearts and his mangled Earth Grudge Fear body.
The original Naruto clone slowly stood up. From the shadows of the cavern, the other four clones seamlessly materialized, forming a perfect circle around the downed Akatsuki treasurer. They began to walk slowly, their white sandals echoing ominously in the damp cave as they closed the net.
Naruto raised his broadsword, pointing the tip directly at Kakuzu's throat.
"Do you honestly believe you will win now?" Naruto asked, his voice deathly quiet.
Kakuzu was on his knees, violently huffing for air. Dark, unnatural blood seeped rapidly from the countless lacerations across his body. Reaching up with a trembling hand, Kakuzu violently ripped the white cloth mask away from his face.
His mouth was a grotesque nightmare—his lips were stitched together with thick black fibers, his teeth jagged and fang-like. The black threads of his body rose violently around him in a final, desperate display of malice.
"Even if I die..." Kakuzu snarled, his voice a demonic, gurgling rasp, "...I will take you with me to hell!"
Naruto's eyes didn't show a shred of fear. "Yeah, about that... I think you should stop dreaming."
Without warning, the clone standing directly behind Kakuzu lunged.
Naruto's main clone dropped his swords entirely. He stepped into Kakuzu's guard with blinding speed, ducking under a desperate lash of black threads. Naruto planted his feet, twisting his hips, and delivered a devastating, chakra-enhanced uppercut directly under Kakuzu's jaw.
The sickening CRUNCH of bone echoed through the cavern as Kakuzu was launched violently into the air.
Naruto immediately twirled on his heel, executing a flawless, high-velocity roundhouse kick that slammed into Kakuzu's ribs, sending the immortal hurtling horizontally across the massive cavern.
Simultaneously, the clone behind him had already finished molding the ultimate technique. Above his raised palm spun a massive, shrieking sphere of highly condensed chakra, surrounded by four rapidly rotating, razor-sharp blades of pure Wind energy. The sheer density of the jutsu emitted a sound like a thousand screeching birds.
"Fūton: Rasenshuriken!" (Wind Style: Spiraling Shuriken)
The clone violently hurled the spinning disc of death.
It crossed the cavern in a fraction of a second, perfectly intercepting Kakuzu mid-flight.
The moment the Rasenshuriken made contact with Kakuzu's chest, it expanded. A colossal, blindingly bright dome of highly concentrated, microscopic wind blades erupted, entirely engulfing the Akatsuki treasurer.
The cavern was completely flooded with white light. The sound of the explosion was apocalyptic, a continuous, deafening roar as millions of microscopic chakra needles systematically severed every single cellular bond, nerve ending, and chakra coil in Kakuzu's body.
The sheer concussive force of the blast tore a massive, gaping crater directly into the solid rock wall of the cavern, decimating the structural integrity of the tunnel system.
When the blinding light finally faded, and the dust settled, absolute silence reigned.
Kakuzu's body lay slumped at the center of the massive, smoking crater. There was almost nothing left. His black threads were completely vaporized, his skin shredded, his internal organs turned to absolute paste. The remaining hearts inside his chest had been simultaneously destroyed at a cellular level.
The immortal treasurer of the Akatsuki was dead.
Naruto stood up straight, his chest heaving slightly as he dispersed his clones with a single thought. Reaching into his pouch, he withdrew a specialized sealing scroll. With a swift flick of his wrist and a burst of chakra, he sealed Kakuzu's mangled remains securely away—both to collect the bounty and to ensure the dangerous Earth Grudge Fear jutsu wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.
With the primary threat neutralized, Naruto secured the scroll on his hip, rolled his shoulders to relieve the tension, and turned his ice-blue eyes toward the towering, blue-flamed feline on the other side of the cavern.
It was time to finish the job.
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