Finding a single bomb on the vast grounds of the Fire Daimyo's court was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Logic dictated that if you were to set an explosive somewhere, it would be somewhere where the most damage could be done, such as the center of the property. Even then, there was still simply too much ground to cover, too many places to search.
And the job had been left to the epitome of 'work smarter, not harder'. Team 10's own Nara Shikamaru, who figured he could waste time darting from place-to-place, or try and get the location from the source.
The source being the spies that he assumed were still on the court grounds. It was just a matter of finding them and squeezing something out of them.
Shikamaru had taken to transforming himself into the noble that the White Zetsu spy they'd caught in the dining hall had also impersonated. He hoped his Henge was good enough that other White Zetsu spies didn't look twice, and the amount of information he had didn't have enough holes in it for them to see through it.
Honestly, searching for a bomb big enough to take out the entire Fire Daimyo's court was less troublesome than fighting one of the Akatsuki, which was apparently what Naruto was doing. No thanks to that. All of those psychos were crazy-strong. Shikamaru would rather take his chances fleecing a bunch of would-be plant men.
"Oh, you there! Yanagi-dono."
Shikamaru froze in place when he heard the voice of the Guardians' handler Nobuyuki call out in his direction. He turned to see his old superior with what looked to be an elite guard of the standard army. Quickly, Shikamaru wracked his brain, trying to think if the man he transformed into had enough influence to issue orders to the soldiers, but quickly realized it didn't matter.
Nobuyuki could give marching orders to the Guardian Ninja. Any order that Shikamaru could give to a soldier in his disguise wouldn't override whatever order Nobuyuki gave. He'd have to let Nobuyuki in on what he was doing and see if the man couldn't help.
Shikamaru sauntered over with all of the grace of a pretend noble that he could muster, "Yes, Nobuyuki-dono?" He greeted, hoping that the guy he'd turned into was at least amiable with his fellow noble, "What can I do for you this evening?"
"Just wondering how screwed up everything is in the dining hall."
Shikamaru blinked in surprise. Nobuyuki had never spoken in such a... common manner. His words had always been flowery and full of prose. Whenever he tried to explain things, he'd always done so in the most ornate way possible.
So, either Nobuyuki had been putting on a front as the man who gave the marching orders to the Guardians for years... or...
'They replaced him with a White Zetsu,' Shikamaru thought to himself, wanting to run his head into the nearest hard surface. Things just kept getting better, 'Who knows who else was compromised?'
It made sense though, that all of the Guardians, save for Sadao were away on missions at the moment when an important meeting was to happen. One problem at a time though. Shikamaru needed to play this out properly.
"The Fire Daimyo and the head Guardian were tipped off about us being here," Shikamaru said, playing his role, "The Kyuubi jinchuuriki could tell one of us was a fake."
The elite guard's jaw dropped, "What? How? These transformations are almost perfect!"
Shikamaru fought the urge to smirk at their newfound uncertainty, 'Maybe, but the acting has to be up to par,' While they were caught off-guard, he needed to get something substantial, "They know about the bombs. They're coming up with some kind of war plan now. Looking for us, too."
Instead of taking either of them more off guard, Nobuyuki-imposter smirked, "It doesn't matter. They'll never get to the Capitol in time to do anything about it."
The fake elite guard scoffed as well, "Even if they could, they'd never be able to find it."
"Definitely not fast enough to do anything but die in the blast, for sure."
Shikamaru kept noticing that they only talked about the bomb as though it were one – singular, "Where is it? Not like I want to be caught in it whenever it goes off."
Both the fake elite guard and Nobuyuki-imposter both shrugged, "Well, all we have to do is hang around here and help Kakuzu escape with the jinchuuriki. When the bomb goes off in the city and this place scrambles and panics, we'll have all the chances we need to set more things up around here."
All of the talk flying around made Shikamaru's heart race. What kind of conspiracy were they running here? What was Akatsuki doing?
Holy crap. First Kenta, then a noble, now Nobuyuki and an elite guard. That was four White Zetsu spies that had infiltrated the Fire Daimyo's court. How long had this been going on for? How long had spies been in place? No one could guess.
As startling as this all was, Shikamaru kept the best poker face he could until he got all of the information he could in passing. Because finding out how far up the ladder the White Zetsu infiltration went was only arguably the second scariest thing he had to deal with today.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Naruto)
"-A bomb is gonna go off in the Capital at 8:00!?" Nauto exclaimed after receiving a quick rundown of the situation from Ino's mind dive on the dead White Zetsu, "That's, like, an hour from now!"
"Closer to an hour and ten," Ino corrected for the sake of accuracy.
"That's barely better!" Naruto yelled, before turning to Kakuzu, "Hey, Raggedy Andy, where's the bomb?"
A vein formed on Kakuzu's brow at Naruto's offhanded crack at him, "I don't know. I don't care. By the time it goes off, I'll be well on my way out of this hole, with you in tow, of course."
Ino remained behind Naruto speaking into his ear over his shoulder, "These plant-man things were of the understanding that saying a it was something to be used as leverage to get you."
Of course, it was. As far as anyone understood, Akatsuki simply wanted all of the tailed beasts from the jinchuuriki. Anything else was simply a method to help them get closer to that. Clearly, it didn't matter how many were hurt or died in the process.
If Akatsuki had a bomb set to go off in the Capital, it would likely destroy the entire city. Even if Naruto wanted to keep the Kyuubi out of their hands, he couldn't let thousands of people die because of it, "So, the timer will stop if I go with him?" He asked, staring across at Kakuzu.
"Yes," Kakuzu said with a nod, "It's just a means to an end."
Ino scowled at Kakuzu's shameless untruth. He hadn't even tried to be convincing about it, "No, he's straight-up lying. These jerks are going to blow up the Capitol whether they get their hands on you or not."
Naruto's head snapped back to Ino in disbelief, "Why? That doesn't even sound productive!"
"I know!" Ino shouted back, just as put out as he was, "I can't think of why either!"
"If Deidara wants to blow something up, he's going to blow something up," Kakuzu said. Not that anyone else in Akatsuki cared if widespread damage was done to Hi no Kuni's capital, "I wouldn't worry about that right now."
The aggravating thing was that he was right. What their goals were didn't matter. The only thing that mattered were the facts, and the facts were that Akatsuki was present to take Naruto away, and whether they got him or not, the Capital was going to be destroyed.
Ino nudged her boyfriend from behind, "How fast do you think we can beat him? Because we have to go defuse that thing, now."
As a child in the Academy, she never thought she'd be asking 'how fast' could they defeat an S-rank shinobi, instead of simply stopping at 'could they'.
Ino's words didn't go unnoticed. Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the blonde girl, "You know where they are. Now, I have a practical reason to kill you."
Naruto spared a glance between Kakuzu and Ino. She was tough enough to help Naruto stand up to Kakuzu, but she was also the only one who knew what was going on. It would have been the worst decision in the world to let her get bogged down in a battle with one of the most powerful shinobi of the last century.
Naruto gently nudged Ino away from him, trying to guide her away, "Go find Shika and Sadao. Do what you can with that," He turned to spare her a grin, "They're gonna need you more."
To say Ino was not a fan of this approach was an understatement. It hadn't been that long since the last time she'd left him alone in a dangerous situation. He'd almost been lost to her forever then. The thought of such a thing ever coming close to happening again made her shiver.
"I don't like this, Goldie," Ino said, voicing her concern aloud over leaving Naruto to fight Kakuzu on his own.
"It doesn't matter, Ino-chan," Naruto said resolutely, "Someone needs to go find a way to stop this, and he isn't just going to let me go."
Kakuzu laughed at the idea that Naruto could stop him, "I'm not going to let her go either."
Naruto bared his teeth angrily at the man's threat, "You say that like you're gonna have a choice. You're gonna be too busy fighting for your life to worry about her," Naruto gestured with his head for Ino to leave, "Go. I'll catch up in a bit."
"Okay," Ino said, eventually capitulating. Every moment wasted arguing, the bomb ticked down to detonation, "See you on the other side?"
Naruto offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "Yeah."
With that, Ino took off in the direction of the nearest ally she could sense. There was work to be done. It just so happened that they had different jobs.
Kakuzu scoffed at the sentimental parting, "That was sweet. Not bad as far as last words to each other go," With nothing more than a thought, he then sent his fire mask after Ino. It was a mistake to do so.
Just because Naruto hadn't tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra up until that point didn't mean he was averse to doing it, or had forgotten how.
Before the fire mask could even begin nipping at Ino's heels, Naruto flexed the muscles of his tenketsu and powered up, his body entirely covered in a thick red miasma that fueled his assault on his girlfriend's assailant.
The black thread body of the fire mask was torn to shreds in an instant, leaving the mask hanging impotently in the air as it tried to reform. It was shattered by a chakra claw punching clear through it, ripping a live human heart clear out of it... still beating. It was then crushed in his grasp, sending blood and tissue spilling to the ground.
Kakuzu watched his fire mask wither and die. With no small amount of rage, he moved to tear the young man responsible apart. But Naruto was still angry with him, and again took the initiative.
"What did I just say!?" Naruto growled at Kakuzu in warning, before rushing him. He unleashed a powerful punch that knocked Kakuzu off of his feet, and the mask clear off of his face. The man landed on a cushion of black threads from his back, protecting him from hitting the ground.
Underneath the mask, Kakuzu's face was somewhat jarring. His mouth was stitched with some of his thread at the edges. The skin was noticeably darker than Naruto had seen before when he'd tried to hack off Kakuzu's arm, "You... you... do you know what you've just done?" Kakuzu asked angrily.
"Something you don't like, which is all I care about," Naruto commented, his voice distorted by the Kyuubi's chakra, "That punch should have broken your jaw," He idly noticed that his hand had hurt for a split-second before it had healed itself, and not in the way that a hand usually did after one hit something.
Kakuzu chuckled darkly at the upstart that believed he could face him, "Please, brat. You're fifty years too young to think you can harm me that easily, jinchuuriki or not. But... splitting off the masks would clearly give someone like you a chance to pick them off."
Naruto grunted with a calm flick of his chakra tails, despite the angry chakra raging through him, "Guess you've got to do it yourself then. Poor you," His eyes narrowed, his body tensed, all in anticipation, "Let's make this quick."
After all, the clock was ticking on an entire city. It wasn't like Kakuzu had any problems with speeding things up, though, "Took the words right out of my mouth."
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Shikamaru)
Shikamaru's mind raced. He hadn't been able to learn much more from the transformed plant men spies infiltrating the court that he had managed to infiltrate by transforming, but what he had so far was enough to send his brain on a trip down a scary road.
They had to be dealt with. But also, he needed to know if there were more, where they were, what they were doing, and what the end game was. All of this couldn't have been set up only a week ago when the shinobi-samurai meeting was set. That was too many pieces to move at one time. None of this was meant to assist in the bomb plot.
Where was Nobuyuki? Where were any of the people who had been replaced? Were they even alive anymore?
It was all too much to think about. Shikamaru's thoughts bounced around from place-to-place, and he couldn't focus on one branch of conspiracy tree that kept growing in his mind. But something needed to be done swiftly. Thankfully, he received a more than welcome interruption that forced his hand on the matter.
With no warning, Ino's mind penetrated Shikamaru's thoughts with what passed for a message in these trying times, "Shika! Big bomb! I need you to come with me, now! I'm almost to you!"
'Almost to me?' Shikamaru thought to himself, before eyeing his current company suspiciously, '...Oh, no,' Ino was coming to him, and she had no idea what he was in the middle of, "Ino, wait, I-!"
She arrived before he could even finish his thought in warning. It was an odd scene. Shikamaru could see all of the thoughts play out on everyone's face as clear as day.
Ino landed in front of the three of them, at first relieved that she'd found Shikamaru, then confused when she didn't see him where she clearly sensed him. Had she made a mistake? No, she knew his chakra signature. So, why was he transformed?
The two impostors were at first shocked that one of the Hokage's guards had just shown up out of the blue in front of them. Then, they were terrified that she had discovered them together in such an odd scene. They were also able to see the look of confusion on Ino's face, only they read it as her slowly figuring out they were spies. Then their faces twisted to angry determination to kill her before she could make a move.
Their faces then turned to that of pained horror when they were both impaled from behind.
Ino watched what she had thought to be one of the Fire Daimyo's soldiers and Shikamaru and Naruto's old Guardian handler start to lunge for her, when the third nondescript noble ran them through with his... shadow?
The shadow tendrils returned to the body of the Hi no Kuni noble before he sighed in a manner that was very familiar to Ino and transformed in a puff of smoke, "It's me, Ino," When it cleared, Shikamaru stood, looking down at the two bodies of the naked plant men, "You blew my cover."
Ino winced. She had only wanted to find Shikamaru so they could make a beeline to the Capital, "Sorry, Shika. All I could sense were three chakra signatures, yours included," And none of them seemed hostile, "How bad did I screw up?"
Shikamaru gave her a bit of a smile to let her know everything was okay, "You didn't do any harm, really. I've been probing for a while. They haven't given me anything new since they let slip that there isn't a bomb here."
Yes, the bomb. The most pressing issue of the day to both of them that demanded everyone's full attention.
"Right, just the Capital," Ino said succinctly, quickly making sure they were on the same page. They needed to go, immediately, "We've got until 8:00 before it goes off."
Shikamaru cursed at the lack of time to do anything but act, and the two took off together, moving as fast as their legs would carry them in the direction of town, "Sadao, Asuma-sensei, and Hokage-sama are stuck in the dining hall," Going back to get one for help would take too long, "This might be on us."
Ino would try to telepathically get in touch with Asuma while they were moving, but the farther away they got, the harder it would be, "You look positively thrilled about that."
"Yeah, yeah..." Shikamaru said, "What are we supposed to do about this?"
"I... don't know, Shika," Ino said, in a moment of fear. Naruto was stuck fighting Kakuzu, and they had to keep a terrorist bombing from taking place. As much as she tried to keep her head, her heart felt like it was beating up into her throat, "I read one of the plant men before I came to get you. It's not a conventional bomb, or some kind of explosive tag. Even if we get there, I don't know if we'll have time to figure it out."
It wasn't as though Shikamaru expected it to be as simple as arrive and get rid of the bomb, "We'll just have to worry about that when the time comes. And speaking of time, come on – double time."
Despite the severity of the situation, Ino couldn't help but crack a smile and make a joke, "Boy, it must have hurt you to say that," Shikamaru grunted back in return as the pair sped up, "Why the Capital though? What could possibly be there that the Akatsuki want destroyed?"
Kakuzu had mentioned to her something about the guy behind it being a mad bomber, but there was no way the group would allow any of their members to just go rogue on a mission like that. Blowing up a part of the city just for the sake of doing it seemed useless.
'What the Akatsuki want...' Shikamaru thought about where they were, what they were doing, and how Akatsuki could gain from it. It took seconds to piece together, "Crap. You remember what we're here for in the first place, right?"
After Shikamaru's reminder, Ino's brain quickly followed suit, "A sitdown with the Hokage and the head samurai from... Tetsu no Kuni," She trailed off when she realized what he was referring to, "Oh no. You're kidding me."
They were going to kill off the head samurai, and they were going to take down hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people to do it. Tensions between the samurai and the shinobi were already tense, thanks to Orochimaru's vile campaign in the north. If the head samurai died on his way to a meeting with people they already had latent hostility with, nothing good would come of it. Such an international incident taking place now on top of everything else that had been happening would ensure absolute bloodshed.
Asuma's previous little chat with Shikamaru about war being on the horizon was becoming more and more foreboding, "At this point, any little thing going haywire will probably start a war, and I wouldn't call killing the head samurai and his entourage in the middle of Hi no Kuni a little thing."
He was sure that Akatsuki had some sort of scheme to implicate Konoha somehow. Maybe it wouldn't have even been necessary. Who knew? The only thing that mattered now was getting there and stopping a catastrophe from taking place.
If they couldn't? Well, at least they would likely be close enough to the explosion to die in it. It would save them the trouble of having to fight an entire war.
XxX
(With Jiraiya – Tetsu no Kuni)
Trouble came out of nowhere, with very little warning.
Jiraiya's team of himself, Anko, and Tenzo had been doing their best to keep hot on the trail of Orochimaru's party. The trail was warm. It seemed like in his haste to put distance between himself and them, he had gotten sloppier in how he'd been moving. It led them to a town half-buried in a snowy canyon.
Nature had seemed to have done that place in, rather than anything any Oto ninja could be blamed for. The place was quiet, isolated, and capable of being closed off. It was perfect for an ambush. In fact, they had all expected it.
But then, they had expected to be ambushed by humans, not monsters.
Jiraiya watched in awe and horror as numerous humanoid creatures shrouded in blazing, blood red chakra sprinted down the rocky canyon walls at them. More than a few clumsily fell to what could be expected to be their deaths, but so many more of them made it down, stumbling, falling and rolling, but they made it, and continued their charge at the only living things around.
"This..." Jiraiya stared, finding himself at a loss for words, "Is this what he's been doing?" Is this what Orochimaru had wanted those hostages for?
Jiraiya had seen pseudo-jinchuuriki before. Naruto had worked with one who had been stuck with the Kyuubi's chakra during the boy's time with the Guardian Ninja. It was an ugly process, and one that required massive amounts of tailed-beast chakra. To do it to even one person was startling, but to this many…
Thinking and dwelling on such things could wait if they wanted to live, however. Jiraiya didn't hesitate. He'd fought far too many battles to stop simply because he was startled by what he was looking at. The enemy was there. It didn't matter what it was or where it came from – it was going to attack them.
"Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release Swamp of the Underworld)!"
The ground underneath the snowy field turned into a large, thick bog that the pseudo-jinchuuriki attackers charged into headlong, unable to see it at first until they were caught inside of it. They stuck and sank fast, which gave Jiraiya and his team less to worry about from one direction, at least.
Still, the enemy were super-charged berserkers. One portion of them being neutralized wouldn't stop the rest of them from charging forward.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"
A massive boa constrictor barreled into the line of approaching pseudo-jinchuuriki. It was able to crush a few, but the ones it didn't take out pounced on it, tearing into it with enhanced claws. The snake hissed horribly as it met a violent end, only for its mutilated corpse to explode.
Anko clicked her tongue at the successful trap. That was too easy. These things had no regard for their own lives. They only existed to rip, to tear, to rend. But that in of itself was an advantage with the numbers present against them. Eventually, they would reach them. Jiraiya could probably handle himself in-close against them, but she and Tenzo would have more trouble. Anko knew she likely wouldn't last very long at all, given the number of enemies that would be upon them.
Tenzo rolled through four hand-seals and turned his arm into a tree that rapidly extended outward, driving through two pseudo-jinchuuriki, "Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Jutsu)!" Seeing movement from his peripheral vision, he swung his arm to the side, smashing away another stray monster that had been coming in for the kill.
Despite the separate abilities of the three Konoha ninja, Orochimaru's experimental beasts wound up getting within close-range.
"These people are dying!" Tenzo said. He was the most in-tune of the three of them with anything regarding tailed beasts because of his Mokuton abilities, "Whatever made them like this, they're in pain all over. This is eating away at their bodies."
"Don't get sentimental on me, now," Anko said, dodging claw swipes from their attackers, "They're trying to kill us here! At this point, we're doing them a favor!"
True enough. Jiraiya could see it as plain as day. Despite the damage to their bodies by the chakra of the Sanbi, it was also the only thing keeping them alive at this juncture. Extracting it was possible, but it was time-consuming. They would have to defeat them all, then go through the proper process, which would also be agonizing. And it would all be for nothing. With the level of exposure these common folks had received, they would die anyway once it was done.
Still, it hurt his heart – knowing that people who had no choice in the matter had to die. None of this had been their fault. Things should have never transpired this way. He had to set these thoughts aside though, for the good of the mission and his teammates.
But one of those teammates had plans of their own.
Tenzo dashed out ahead of the line Anko and Jiraiya had made with him, halfway through another jutsu as he did so, "Mokuton: Jukai Heki (Wood Release: World of Trees Wall)!"
Instead of a massive defensive wall going up to separate them all from the pseudo-jinchuuriki, Tenzo had cut them and himself off from Jiraiya and Anko.
Anko was surprised by this, "Tenzo, what the hell?"
"What are you doing!?" Jiraiya shouted at the out-of-uniform ANBU, "Get back over here!"
Tenzo did no such thing, prepared to fight off whatever got close first instead, "Jiraiya-sama, you and Anko keep going. I can handle this on my own."
Anko punched the solid wall of interlaced trees to no effect, "Last time I counted like twelve more of those things," They weren't exactly slow and powerless. These weren't harmless civilians. They had been transformed into mindless killing machines, "Come on, quit being an asshole!"
Tenzo wouldn't hear any arguments from Anko, "Orochimaru dropped them because we're catching up. The more time we waste fighting these things, the more time he has to get away again or come up with another diversion," He said, preparing to rush forward and do his job, "Do NOT let him get away again. He can't be allowed to do what he did to us to anyone else."
Jiraiya grimly acknowledged the situation, and in theory, Tenzo wasn't wrong, "You'd better catch up."
From the other side of the wall, Jiraiya heard Tenzo scoff, "Please, I'm better equipped for this than any of you. Go already," He said before his footsteps crunched in the snow, signifying his running off to fight the oncoming horde.
Anko looked downright murderous, but turned to leave with Jiraiya when the man beckoned her to go.
Tenzo had made his choice. Hopefully he knew what he was doing.
XxX
(With Naruto – Hi No Kuni – Fire Daiymo's Court)
Whenever Naruto had fought any member of Akatsuki, they'd always made it a point to fight him in a way that would leave him intact once it was over. Granted, there was a chance that someone could rip Naruto in half and he would have a decent chance of surviving long enough to be stabilized – but the point stood; they still had to keep enough of him to extract the Kyuubi from him.
Somewhere along the line, Kakuzu had lost that particular plot.
The beautiful grounds of the Fire Daimyo had been turned into a war zone. It wasn't as though Kakuzu cared about keeping the aesthetics of Hi no Kuni's capital pristine, and Naruto couldn't afford to.
He would apologize to his former employer later. Maybe if he was nice enough, Konoha wouldn't have to pay for any of it. But that could wait. The S-ranked criminal attempting to maim and capture him had to take priority.
"Raiton: Gian (Lightning Release: False Darkness)!" From Kakuzu's open, stitched mouth, he fired a deadly blast of lightning in the shape of a spear.
Naruto dodged. Tailed beast chakra coursing through his system, or not, any jutsu that he could feel pricking in the air as it charged was nothing he wanted to try and stand in front of to endure. He was correct to do so. Kakuzu's jutsu was capable of shattering the ground itself, so there was nowhere to take cover from it.
Naruto had to rely on his speed and reflexes in order to avoid being torn through. Fortunately, the destructive nature of their fight left plenty of open space for him to get creative, if Kakuzu ever laid off long enough to let it matter.
For once, Naruto wasn't the most reckless person throwing his weight around during a fight. It was a strange feeling, knowing that he was actually fighting more conservatively than his opponent with decades more experience than him.
As he'd previously warned, or boasted, Kakuzu had foregone using any of his masks. It had already been proven that Naruto could and would just blitz them and kill off his hearts. The thread creatures his masks created weren't controlled remotely. They operated solely off of instinct, unless directed by him. They were dumb and simple enough to outmaneuver for a crafty enough adversary. But Kakuzu himself wasn't so easy to trick.
"Come here, boy!" Kakuzu bellowed between blasts as he targeted Naruto. Even when Naruto attempted a measure of subterfuge with clones, Kakuzu split his attack and picked them all off. The original Naruto resorted to desperate measures to avoid being hit, upping his power and allowing extra chakra tails to slip out, making for a grand total of four.
"Fuuton: Akao Shimpuu (Wind Release: Red-Tailed Typhoon)!" Tails spinning like fan blades, Naruto disrupted the trajectory of Kakuzu's wind attack, bending the lightning around him safely. The deadly force of his jutsu also tore in Kakuzu's direction in the form of a red funnel that shredded everything in its path.
Kakuzu's eyes went wide at Naruto's brute force counterattack. There was nowhere to run or hide in the open, and even with the strength of the armor his Earth Spear provided, he didn't fancy his chances of enduring it head-on, so he took to ground out of desperation, "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Jutsu)!"
Kakuzu's body sank deep into the ground; deeper than Naruto's jutsu could carve a trench into in its path of destruction. Naruto canceled the jutsu and waited, knowing that Kakuzu simply finding a way to avoid him wouldn't be the end.
Sight was worthless at the moment. By the time he saw what Kakuzu was up to, if he saw it at all, it would be too late to react. He let out a pulse of his echolocation jutsu, which was only enhanced in effectiveness by the Kyuubi's chakra. It was done timely enough to give him warning that something was coming.
"Doton: Ganban Kyuu (Earth Release: Bedrock Coffin)!"
Multiple sections of rock rose up around Naruto, surrounding him completely and closing in on him, . The plates of earth quickly began grow smaller on themselves and crush him. Only his sturdy biju-enhanced body gave him the chance to keep from being smashed like an insect between two hard places.
All of Naruto's chakra arms, his real ones as well, strained miserably in a slowly losing battle against the walls closing in against him. He was not going out like this, not if he had any say in the matter, "No way! I've already been caught once! I'm really not in the mood to deal with it again!"
He needed a way out, and fast.
Pulling the machete from his back, Naruto coated it in his enhanced wind chakra and hacked the top off of the rock attempting to encase him. It gave him enough space to explosively leap out of his would-be tomb before it could finish closing in on him.
"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu)!"
Stuck high in the air from his own jump, eyes scanning the battlefield for Kakuzu, Naruto had no chance to avoid the large dragon made of water, aimed at his blind spot. Hitting him from underneath, it threw him into the air, before snaking above him and driving him down into the ground with pulverizing force.
Water sprinkled from the air down onto Naruto's body from how the water dragon broke apart on contact with the sturdy earth. His entire body was wracked with pain, not just from the damage of Kakuzu's attack, but from the effects of using four tails of the Kyuubi's chakra.
'This isn't good,' Naruto thought to himself as he picked himself up off of the ground. Every fiber of his being protested at this. The last two attacks Kakuzu had made against him would have killed lesser shinobi, without question, 'This guy... is really tough.'
Not that this was surprising. He had never had an easy battle against any member of Akatsuki. While Naruto was stronger than Kakuzu when it came to raw power, it wasn't as though Kakuzu were a slouch in that department. And with infinitely more fighting experience than Naruto, he had the know-how to neutralize the advantages that Naruto held. From the outset of the battle, he had done a marvelous job in avoiding the fight on Naruto's terms, using the versatility of his ninjutsu arsenal to do so.
Whoever did the recruiting for Akatsuki had done a great job by bringing Kakuzu into the fold. One of the world's premiere bounty hunters also possessed the particular set of skills to be a fantastic jinchuuriki killer. Who would have guessed?
Kakuzu slowly marched closer to Naruto, sarcastically clapping at the young man's effort as he did so, "Congratulations, boy. You killed one of my hearts from one of my imbecile masks. Good for you. Did you really think this would be easy just because of that?"
Naruto growled, more to himself than at Kakuzu's words. In all truth, he had. Easy might have been too strong of a word for what he figured the battle would be, but to have Kakuzu dictate the way the battle had gone thus far? No, he hadn't anticipated such a thing.
Kakuzu shook his head, a patronizing smile on his stitched lips, "Even with the Kyuubi burning inside of you, do you really think you compare to anything I've seen in my life? I survived the Shodai Hokage, boy!"
"...So what?"
Those two words caused Kakuzu's mood to dip completely, "What did you just say?"
Naruto shrugged, chakra tails waving in the air as he expanded on his thought, "You survived the Shodai? So what? Did you almost beat him? Did you leave him with something to remember you by?" He asked rhetorically. Even if Kakuzu had an answer, it didn't matter as far as the point he was making, "You're not the only one who says that either – that you survived a fight with one of the best ninjas ever, so that makes you a big deal."
Kakuzu felt like he could tell where Naruto was going, and he didn't like the destination one bit, "You'd better watch what you say next..." He warned.
Kakuzu's threat went unheeded. Naruto was already fighting him. What worse could the man do than what he already had planned? "I've fought tons of people I didn't end up killing. It didn't always mean they were strong enough to stop me-," He wasn't some bloodthirsty psycho like that Gaara guy from Suna, "-It was just that killing them wasn't always worth it."
He was saying that Kakuzu wasn't worth it. That was how the man interpreted it, and he immediately saw red.
With only a short distance to cover to reach Naruto, Kakuzu was only him almost immediately foregoing any ninjutsu to instead punch Naruto directly in the face. Naruto grit his teeth and slid back a foot before digging two of his tails into the ground to anchor himself. Kakuzu continued to smash him, additionally wrapping threads around Naruto's neck to strangle him, until Naruto fought back.
Enduring one of Kakuzu's punches, Naruto timed the impact and forced Kakuzu's fist to stick to his face. Naruto's other two tails formed a Rasengan each, aimed directly at the trapped Kakuzu. His rage temporarily dulled when he found himself trapped, Kakuzu saw a pair of Rasengans coming and detached his body from his arm.
He smirked at having avoided Naruto's attempt to take a blow in order to land one, until he found himself relieved of a significant weight. Even if the arm had been detached from his body, it had still been connected by Kakuzu's threads.
With a vicious scowl on his face, Naruto severed the thick black threads with his machete, severing Kakuzu's arm entirely. Out of pragmatism and a hint of malice, he pulverized it with the Rasengan in one of his chakra arms to make sure that Kakuzu couldn't use it again. After all, he could reattach his limbs. What good would that do if the limb was no longer usable.
"Oops, sorry," Naruto said disingenuously as he continued to grind Kakuzu's arm into a puddle of blood, tissue, and bone, "Was that important?"
Kakuzu stared at the stump beneath his elbow where his right arm had been. From time to time in his long life, there had been people talented enough to sever body parts, but because of Earth Grudge Fear, it was never a concern. He could always put whatever he lost right back on. Not here, however. There was nothing left of his arm to reattach.
Inwardly, Kakuzu began to sweat. Ninjutsu had been the key to staying ahead of Naruto throughout the fight. He'd lost his cool and lost his arm, which took away the ability to do most hand-seals, taking away a massive portion of his arsenal.
He slowly looked up and stared wide-eyed ahead at Naruto, who was still holding a Rasengan in one of his chakra tails... and for some reason, it now had a grey shell with glowing orange cracks, "Rasentekidan (Spiraling Grenade)!"
The Rasengan projectile blew apart on Kakuzu in an explosion of burning-hot ash. His soot-covered body flew out of the deadly cloud, bouncing across the ground. Had it not been for the threads composing his body, he would have been considered dismembered on eve more of his limbs.
Kakuzu hacked and gasped, choking out thick globs of tar and ashes that had gotten stuck in his throat and lungs, 'That little bastard's jutsu doubles as a bioweapon?' He thought to himself. His body couldn't decide what was more important, putting itself back together properly, or trying to clear his breathing.
Black threads burst from every stitch in Kakuzu's body, lashing out wildly, putting Naruto off enough to keep him from storming in to attack and giving Kakuzu a chance to clear his respiratory system, which was also done with massive amounts of threads.
Naruto kept out of reach, to avoid being crushed by the Earth Grudge Fear, while Kakuzu went to renew his assault anew. He couldn't let Naruto know that he was suffering in the slightest. But it was then that he realized something.
Two of the masks sewn into his back were now broken – the fire one that Naruto had destroyed separately, and now the lightning mask... which was now beating in his chest.
...No. He couldn't have.
And yet, Kakuzu couldn't feel the familiar sensation of energy from his original heart – the one that had the Earth Release affinity.
Naruto had killed him. Whether it had been from the blast of the ash Rasengan, or the residue it had coated his mouth, throat, and lungs with smothering him until he could clear it out, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had killed him and taken away a second integral part to Kakuzu's attempting to keep pace with him. The durability provided to him by his ability to harden his skin, his Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear), was gone. It was what had allowed him to endure any of Naruto's attacks that made contact after he'd started using tailed beast chakra.
He was down most of his offense, and now the best part of his defense.
For the first time in nearly seventy years, Kakuzu took an unconscious step back from his enemy. Whether it was from the Kyuubi's influence, or Naruto's own instincts, he recognized this and pounced. Kakuzu's wildly whipping threads did little to stop the onslaught of Naruto's chakra arms. They ripped, tore, yanked, did whatever they had to in order to fight past the Earth Grudge Fear threads and latch onto Kakuzu's body proper. Naruto himself roared, charging forward with a large, warped, red-shelled Rasengan in his hands.
In the depths of his mind, Kakuzu wanted no other part of this fight. Only one other time in his life could he remember such a growing feeling of despair and desperation welling up in his core.
The failed mission that changed his life – his failed assassination attempt against the Shodai Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
The events of that day ran through his head crystal clear, even then. He couldn't get the drop on the man. When he was discovered, he couldn't fight the man directly. In the end, all he could do was run, and even then he barely made it out with his life.
Probably because Hashirama had allowed him to – because he wasn't worth it. Even as one of Takigakure's top shinobi at the time, he wasn't worth it. In the present, facing down a rampaging and in-control jinchuuriki that had him dead-to-rights, at least there was one thing his pride as a shinobi could allow him to take solace in.
'Damn kids...'
This time, there was no way that Naruto considered Kakuzu as not worth killing. It was a small consolation before Naruto's mammoth Rasengan made contact with his head.
XxX
(With Shikamaru and Ino – Hi no Kuni Capital City)
Shikamaru had made the trip from the daimyo's court to the nearby city countless times. It had never been so frantic and panicked as it was on this day. There was a bomb somewhere in the city that would go off while the group from Tetsu no Kuni were there.
As much as he wished he could have come up with a plan in the time it took to travel there, Shikamaru had nothing in mind. He knew next to nothing about the situation. They were running in blind. And yet, what other choice did they have?
As their feet hit the neat, paved streets, they took a moment to get their bearings. If Naruto had been here, he'd have been able to flood the city with clones to help search. As it stood, it was just Shikamaru and Ino.
"Okay, ideas?" Shikamaru asked, trying to get something in mind to get the gears of his brain turning.
Ino frowned at her own thought on the matter, despite her chest heaving in an effort to catch her breath, "Find the samurai, figure out the bomb situation later."
Shikamaru nodded in reluctant agreement. It was a bit heartless, but the most pragmatic option they had. If the bomb went off without the samurai present, it would be a tragedy. If it went off with the samurai around, it would be a tragedy and an international incident.
Ino was a skilled sensor. While she wasn't familiar with the signatures of the head samurai and his entourage, there was a simple rule she was taught in that regard.
When searching for notable individuals unfamiliar to you, start with the biggest signature you could find. Even if they weren't who you were looking for, if they were that strong, they were probably attentive enough to point you in the right direction.
She led them to a modest hotel near the center of the city. There was no embassy for Tetsu no Kuni in Hi no Kuni, and it was too late to head straight to the Fire Daimyo's court and expect any real reception, or any real discussion to be had until tomorrow anyway.
When they arrived, they kept out of open sight, just in case. Shikamaru didn't see any samurai, "...What the-? Where are the-?"
"-They're not here yet," Ino said, a determined look on her face, "But they're almost here, and this is definitely where they're going. One of us needs to get them away from here, and the other needs to try and deal with the bomb."
He didn't need to hear anymore to know what she was getting at. By 'one of them', she meant her, "I don't like that. I don't like that at all."
"It doesn't matter if you like it," Ino said with a sigh ,equally put out by the situation. She pointed to an imaginary watch at her wrist, "It's time. That thing should have gone off already, whether the samurai were here or not. It didn't. Which means it's not a time bomb. Someone has to detonate it."
In her mind dive into the White Zetsu, she never got details on it being a time bomb. All she managed to get was that it was supposed to go off at 8:00. They could have just been estimating the arrival time of the samurai.
Ino gave Shikamaru a pat on the arm and a reassuring smile before trying to leave. She found herself stopped by Shikamaru's shadow before she could go anywhere, "Wait," Shikamaru said, "You go find the samurai. You'll get to them faster. I'll deal with the bomb."
"Are you sure?"
"No."
"...Right," Ino conceded the point before reaching out and giving Shikamaru a hug, "Please, be careful, Shika."
Shikamaru returned the gesture, patting his childhood friend on the back before shooing her off, "Don't worry. I don't plan on dying over something stupid like this. Just make sure the samurai are way out of the way."
Once Ino left, Shikamaru turned his attention to the hotel. He had to get in and get rid of the bomb. If Ino couldn't stop them, they were all screwed anyway.
XxX
"Pesky Konoha ninja, un," Deidara thought to himself, using a scope over his left eye to closely scrutinize the site of his intended attack from above. He could see Shikamaru head inside, "What does he know?"
The bomb threat from the White Zetsu had been meant to goad the Kyuubi jinchuuriki into Kakuzu's hands. A location should never have been given. Granted, the White Zetsu weren't the smartest, but they didn't cough up information that they weren't specifically told to reveal.
Of course, there had been a Yamanaka with the Nara kid, but the White Zetsu only knew the specifics of the plan, enough to whip the enemy into a tizzy, not enough to let them try and stop it. No locations or details, because they didn't know them.
But the Nara boy was going to proverbially blow everything sky high before Deidara could literally blow everything sky high. Well, there was always a chance to salvage the situation with some old-fashioned terrorism.
Before he could activate the explosive, an object flew through the air and sliced right through the wing and neck of Deidara's clay bird, much to his surprise. As he dropped from the sky, he managed to land safely on the rooftop of one of the city's elevated buildings, his Akatsuki robe billowing in the wind from his descent.
Looking around, he tried to scan his surroundings. He hadn't expected an attack while he had been that high in the air. Even when those two Konoha ninja had approached from the direction of the Fire Daimyo's court, they hadn't caught sight of him or noticed him at all.
"Someone was clearly more attentive than those two, un," Deidara remarked to himself, staying on his guard. If he had been attacked by someone good enough to get the drop on him once and remain hidden, they were good enough to try it again.
Keeping his eyes peeled, Deidara caught sight of what had taken out his clay bird coming at him next – a trench knife, coated in wind chakra.
Deidara dodged the weapon, giving it as wide a berth as possible to prevent being cut by an unseen force. Before he could get proper footing, however, a blur dashed at him and attacked, slicing off his left arm and deep into his chest.
A stunned expression of pain appeared on Deidara's face, until his features melted away from that of flesh and hair, to white clay. That clay promptly exploded after a short delay, long enough for the assailant to get out of range of the blast.
Standing on opposite sides of the same rooftop, Deidara circled the smoke and fire his Clay Clone's explosion had created, getting a glimpse of his would-be enemy, "Heh-heh, and suddenly, I'm graced by the presence of the Hokage's son."
Asuma's fists were clenched around both of his trench knives, having recovered the one he'd originally sent at Deidara, "Consider yourself lucky. Dad wanted to come himself," He commented with a smirk and a shake of his head, "You wouldn't have had a prayer."
Deidara chuckled at Asuma's boast, "Really? Word is, old Sarutobi is ailing after some recent events in your village," He noticed Asuma's eyes harden at the mention of Hiruzen's health and fitness, "Had some trouble plucking some stubborn ROOTs a little while back, or so I'm told."
'Goddamn spies,' Asuma thought to himself while trying to maintain a careless demeanor, "That's interesting. I wonder where you would have heard something like that."
"I wonder how you wound up finding me," Deidara replied with a question of his own, "Those two kiddos running around town with their heads cut off didn't."
Asuma let out an internal sigh of relief. So Shikamaru and Ino were on the ground handling things as best they could. That was one less thing to worry about. He was glad that Ino had thought to give him a telepathic message before they left the court to try and deal with the situation in the city.
"Well, I figured someone had to be keeping an eye on the bomb from a good vantage point," Asuma said. He didn't think it would be from the air until he got to a roof and saw a species of bird that didn't belong to Hi no Kuni flying through the air, "I didn't think I'd be dealing with the premiere explosives expert in the Elemental Nations."
Deidara grinned and held up his hands, revealing mouths on the palms of his hands, complete with teeth and tongues, "Flattery will get you nothing but a close-up look at my art, Sarutobi-san, un!"
Asuma idly filed the sight away as 'disturbing', to think more in-depth on later. For the time being, he had to focus more on the dangerous individual in front of him, "Sure, so long as the one you really wanted to set off doesn't get what you're after. But I guess that's what my kids are for; to take care of that."
If he hadn't blown the bomb yet after being pressed, or hadn't even threatened to do so, it was because it would be more trouble than it was worth at the moment.
'Maybe it takes longer to activate the farther away he is?' Asuma mused to himself. If Deidara took his attention off of him to focus on the site of the bomb for a moment, he would remove his head.
Unfortunately, he was slightly off in his untested hypothesis, "Want me to make the first move?" Deidara crowed, his fingers moving up into the seal of confrontation, "Fine. Katsu."
Much to Asuma's horror, an explosion shook the entire city.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Shikamaru)
Even from a block away, behind the corner of a building, Shikamaru had been thrown off of his feet from the force of the hotel explosion. As he sat up, ears ringing, his hearing focused on the sounds of crumbling material and frightened screams of the populace.
He had at least had the foresight to send a clone in to search for the bomb, as it would have been just as effective as going in himself. He had to remember, not for the first time, to thank his dad for teaching him Shadow Clones. Had he not learned from his father, or otherwise picked it up from his teammate, he would have gone in on his own and been obliterated.
The madman did it. The bomber had actually taken it all out, instead of giving Shikamaru the chance to do something about the bomb. He'd had a plan too, since he had no means of disarming it.
Shikamaru got up and slowly walked toward the demolition zone. People were running past in a panic. People were on the ground, buried by dust and debris, many not moving, many bleeding. He had to be careful not to step on anyone on the ground as he approached.
Surveying the scene, Shikamaru's mouth felt dry. This had all been done for nothing. The samurai hadn't arrived when the bomb had gone off. So many people had been hurt, and for what? What had been the point?
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Ino)
The streets were in hysteria as Ino reached the samurai entourage. She had heard the blast like everyone else. She could see the smoke, and was only grateful that it hadn't happened near the Tetsu no Kuni contingent. As morbid as it was, as long as they weren't hurt here, less people would likely die in the long run.
It was then that she found them, and if their chakra signatures hadn't been available, just from seeing them there would have been no mistake.
The one who was clearly the head samurai was an old man with long, grey hair, almost down to his waist, with bandages wrapped around his head. His eyes were black, with wrinkles underneath them. He had a grey goatee and moustache, and wore a simple purple kimono-like outfit and sandals. He kept his sword tucked in the belt at his waist. He was accompanied by two other samurai at his sides, keeping him secure.
One was a bald middle-aged man with violet, pupil-less eyes and a cross-shaped scar extending across his forehead and down past his missing right eye, with a dragon tattoo above his left. He wore a purple kimono-like outfit, with a red scarf around his neck that covered the lower half of his face
The other guard had black hair in a traditional bald topknot style, thick, black eyebrows and similarly colored eyes. He also had a prominent scar located just above his right eye. He wore a grey kimono-like outfit, with a purple scarf obscuring the lower half of his face.
The other two stood protectively around their leader, prepared to draw their swords at a moment's notice. Stopping near them, Ino found their killing intent leveled on her. She had to take her chances, however, "We have to get you somewhere else. It's not safe here, or at the court."
"What is the meaning of all this?" One of the bodyguards demanded of Ino, the only person around that seemed aware of the situation, "What's happening!?"
A-Akatsuki," Ino said, taken aback by the hostility, before steeling her backbone. This was a matter of life-and-death, of international security "They're attacking the Fire Daimyo's court, and they're trying to kill your... leader? Master? I don't know how you guys work."
"I am Mifune, the general of Tetsu no Kuni," The lead samurai said, not unkindly, unlike his subordinates, which was something Ino appreciated, "And you are from Konoha. One of the Hokage's shinobi."
The bald, one-eyed samurai drew his sword and pointed it to keep Ino at a distance, "Keep to yourself, girl. If things are as dangerous as you say, we won't trust outsiders with the general's safety."
That was fine. They could go where they wanted. Ino just needed them away from there until Akatsuki was dealt with. She opened her mouth to say as much when a squad of the Fire Daimyo's soldiers entered the area.
Somehow, this only escalated matters.
The commanding officer of the squad approached Mifune's paranoid protectors, forcing their attention onto him, "General-sama, we have to get you to the court. It's not safe here."
"Come no closer," the topknot samurai said, "We were just told that the court is no longer safe. Why would this girl have different information from you?"
Ino slowly backed herself out of the way. She could feel tensions rising, with no quick way to deescalate. If a fight were to start, she would have no side she preferred taking. All of it would end badly for her.
Once Ino got to a safe enough distance, she took control of the commanding officer of the fire soldier squad – a temporary means to calm things down. It would be easier to explain away doing something so rash to one of the Fire Daimyo's men than it would have been to do so in regards to the Tetsu no Kuni samurai. Only, once she took over his body, something didn't feel right.
Something inside felt off. In the pit of the man's stomach, it felt like there was a heavy, solid weight there that shouldn't have existed. It made her feel sick. Aside from that, the body itself felt off – different from what she was used to when possessing others.
She wanted out, and she did so in a hurry, just in time for the soldiers to all explode.
Omake: What's Mine Is Yours (4)
Ino gave Naruto a nudge as she noticed him tugging at the collar of his navy dress shirt for the umpteenth time since they'd set out from his apartment, "Goldie, quit fidgeting," She said, undoing the top two buttons for the sake of his comfort, "Everything's going to be fine. You've been over to my parents' house for dinner before."
Naruto rarely dressed up, even in the still somewhat informal way that he'd done so on this evening. Ino liked seeing him that way. And the way she noticed his eye catch on her every few moments, he was a fan of her powder blue dress and white jacket combo.
Naruto slouched, hands shoved in the pockets of his dress pants as the couple continued to walk, "Yeah? Well, that was before I realized that your dad doesn't know we've banged," One of his side glances at Ino caught her wince at his statement, "What are you cringing for? You're the one who wants to tell him tonight!"
Ino waved her arms as though to ward away her boyfriend's damning point, "I know! I know! I just-," She stopped herself, trying to find the proper words, "Is there any way to make this not awkward?"
Naruto looked at her with a curiously raised eyebrow. She was asking him, of all people, if he knew how to approach a situation with more tact than her, "I'm more concerned with your dad taking me hostage in my sleep and torturing me in a bunker somewhere. You guys do prisoner conditioning in T&I, right?"
"I don't have the clearance to share that information," Ino answered seriously, in line with her day job. However, her blue eyes danced with mirth.
"Cool," Naruto replied, smiling despite himself, "So, if I disappear after this and turn up again suddenly wanting nothing to do with you, blame your dad and put my brain back together, would you?"
"That's what I'm here for," Ino chirped, bumping her hip against Naruto's. Before long, they made it to her family's home. Both stood outside of the front door for the longest time before they took a deep breath together, "You ready?"
Naruto was blunt in his refusal, "No. Can I send a clone as a stand-in?"
Ino rolled her eyes and unlocked the door in response, guiding Naruto inside and calling out to her parents, "I'm home! And I brought trouble!"
"Oh, so I'm trouble now?" Naruto muttered under his breath as he took off his shoes.
Ino grinned, batting her eyes at him, "Only since the day we met."
Ino's mother came out of the dining room, prompting Naruto to bow to the lady of the house. Much like she usually did when he came over, she stopped him and straightened him back up, "Now, now, we'll have none of that here, Naruto-kun. You may as well be family at this point."
'Aw, yeah! Won the mom over! Fuck, yeah!' Naruto thought to himself positively, as Ino's mother wrapped her arms around him in a hug, 'Tally one for the asking Ino-chan to live with me score.'
Ino stood back and smiled at the sight. Her mom had encouraged her relationship with Naruto, even all the way back when she'd found out Ino had a crush on him. Whenever she saw Naruto, she always encouraged him to be comfortable, which was something Naruto hadn't been used to for a long time.
Ino's father had never really made Naruto feel unwelcome, but he'd never been keen on Naruto having hands on his 'baby girl'. This had colored all of their interactions after their dating became public knowledge. Ino's mother was an infinitely more welcoming, soothing presence.
Speaking of Inoichi, he left the confines of his office and greeted his daughter and their guest with a smile. A chill went down Naruto's spine as he returned the gesture uncomfortably, "Be careful," Ino warned him telepathically, "Daddy can smell fear."
-Which didn't help Naruto's overactive mind in the slightest.
This was going to be a long night.