"Haa... haa..."
The battlefield was in ruins. With three bounty hunters reduced to cold corpses, and Dai having his neck in Kakuzu's grasp, Dai felt the hope within him diminishing.
'I've already reached my limit, and yet...'
Dai's speed and strength, under the use of the Eight Gates opening, was something that Kakuzu was unable to match. There was nothing the latter could do against Dai's furious set of attacks, and yet, here Kakuzu stood, having withstood all those damages.
"I must admit, that you were much more of a challenge than any other of those Konoha ninjas," Kakuzu said darkly, with his eyes on Dai, "though I have no idea why someone of your caliber would bother to show up here instead of the war zone at the north."
Dai felt as if his body was gradually losing strength, with Kakuzu's suffocating grip beginning to choke him. Kakuzu, watching as Dai's face has begun to turn blue, raised his free hand up, where the black tendrils sprout out of it, before connecting to the four separate masked-creatures of his. Subsequently, they were slowly pulled back toward Kakuzu, and Dai saw suring then,
"Beyond... those masks... those beating organs..." Dai finally grasped the answer to the mystery, "Hearts... you have 5 hearts... and more importantly... you can move them around..."
Every time Dai punched Kakuzu, instead of the blood, the black tendrils burst out of his wound, which would then return to his body and seal his skin back up. Even when Dai punched through Kakuzu's chest, the latter somehow remained alive.
"But knowing that won't change anything, now will it?" Kakuzu said coldly.
'Indeed... I... realized it... too... late...' Dai thought, with his vision beginning to lose its focus—
"So that's how it is."
Suddenly, a familiar voice intruded the two of them,
"Blaze Rend."
before Dai saw with his very own eyes, the four hearts that were being pulled up through the black tendrils connected on Kakuzu's arms, being shredded by the incredibly potent blue flame—all at once.
There, Kakuzu and Dai saw, the brown-haired and dark-blue-eyed teen holding the black sword that is brightly lit up with the brilliant blue flame, landing right where the four hearts burned down into the ashes.
Akashi briefly gazed at Dai, before focusing his attention on Kakuzu.
"You—!!!" Kakuzu screamed in a mix of disbelief and anguish, before shifting his head at where the corpse of shinobi with ninjato lied, "That man was someone entirely different, all along?!"
Akashi didn't answer. Instead, using the gap provided by Kakuzu being caught off guard, he slashed Ryuma with one hand, at Kakuzu's chest, intending to burst the fifth and final heart of Kakuzu.
"Tch...!" Kakuzu, having no other option at this state, let Dai go and back-stepped. But it seemed that he failed to see,
that Akashi was forming single hand-seals with his free hand,
"Fire Release: Ash Clone."
Poof Poof Poof! Three clones from the pile of ashes around Kakuzu, suddenly transformed into the exact copies of Akashi, and launched themselves at Kakuzu, intending to prevent him from gaining the distance.
"Earth Release—" Watching as the clones were at point-blank distance, with Akashi close up, Kakuzu instinctively raised his hands up to form a hand-seals, however, was prevented by one clone, who knocked him up by kicking on the chin.
"Tch...!" Kakuzu, grimacing as Akashi's blazing Ryuma was approaching him, clenched his fists tight as their colour turned darker, indicating his use of Earth Release: Iron Fist.
'That fire of his is definitely the result of mixing fire and wind natures together! And the metal that can withstand such a temperature... I've never heard of a sword like that, damn it!' Kakuzu quickly punched two clones on his left and right, causing them to return back to ashes with puffs of smoke that covered him.
Then, Akashi's blazing Ryuma came stabbing in through the smoke. However, by using the smokescreen, Kakuzu immediately dropped down to the ground by using the 'Hiding Like a Mole' technique, managing to evade Akashi's blow.
Realizing that Kakuzu ran away through the ground below, Akashi immediately stabbed the blazing Ryuma, before pushing the fire through the gap provided by it.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Then, the explosion—the extremely huge one—occurred. It was due to the sudden supply of oxygen and Akashi's fire meeting the trapped gases below the ground of the current battlefield, and for the explosion of this size,
there was no way for Kakuzu to dodge it, especially since he was within that layer of 'trapped gas'—something that he wouldn't have done if he was in the right mind.
"AHHHHHH!!!" And now, Kakuzu was flying in the air, with his body on fire. The black threads rapidly sprouted out from the teared and burnt wound, and repaired the damages on his body, but there also were the scorching pain and the huge consumption of chakra as the cost of reparation.
Akashi, knocked up by the force generated from the explosion, was now floating above Kakuzu. He knew based on the characteristics in which he analyzed from Kakuzu's body, there was only one sure way to defeat the latter: destroy his final heart.
'One shot,' Akashi thought seriously, as he glared at Kakuzu who was floating below him, 'Unlike him, I cannot spontaneously regenerate or heal my wounds. The previous battles rendered me completely exhausted, and I can tell... if I don't manage to succeed this shot, it will be me who will end up dying.'
The desire to survive. The desire to live a carefree life, free from all those pestering bounty hunters. The desire to reunite with his family...
'And there is no way in hell am I dying now.'
Akashi took out the small sealing scroll from his pouch and threw it open in the air, unsealing whatever was inside. Then, as he bit on Ryuma's hilt between his teeth, Kakuzu saw,
"...Kiba?"
The twin Kiba swords, crackling in intense electricity as they were now held by Akashi with both hands.
'Wind reinforces fire,' The blue flame on Ryuma's blade blazed with strength.
'Fire and lightning are compatible,' The crackling electricity on twin Kiba, upon Akashi having their blades touch Ryuma's blade, flew to the blue flame of Ryuma,
'for they, in essence, are forms of energies.'
The food that Akashi needed to intake to gain the energy to live, the heat from fire that kept him warm during the night, the burnt ashes which returned back to the earth, before becoming the nutrients of the plants—the evidences were all around.
Swoo...
Kakuzu watched as Akashi's three blades lit up so bright, that the night seemed to have passed by.
'W-what even is that...?' Kakuzu couldn't help but watch with horror as Akashi began to descend upon him. His only remaining heart beat rapidly in his chest, unable to conceal the feeling of dread that filled his entire body.
'Mix fire and lightning?!' Kakuzu just couldn't grasp his mind, of how such a feat is possible, 'How are you able to harness two wild and unstable elements together,'
"—AKASHI!!!!!!!" As if making his last struggle, Kakuzu screamed at his lungs while making quick series of hand seals. However, before he could finish his final ninjutsu,
his entire body was reduced into ashes, instantly burnt by Akashi's strike.
Tap. Upon the ashes, which used to be Kakuzu just a second ago, falling down like a snow, Akashi landed on the ground, with Ryuma falling out of his mouth.
"...Energy Release..." Akashi then subconsciously whispered, with his form wobbly, "...That's... right. I've... heard that elsewhere... before..."
Thud.
With no strength remaining, Akashi fell on the ground, unconscious—after rendering every single bounty hunter of Koahi town dead, that is.
"Huff... huff..." And to now-vulnerable Akashi, one man who held his neck in pain, Dai, walked at Akashi with some difficulty. Eventually coming to a stop, Dai looked at the teen with inexplicable emotion.
"You... why did you save me...?" Dai muttered, recalling what happened just before, "That look you gave me before, and the way you slashed your sword... you were obviously trying to get Kakuzu away from me."
Akashi was the brutal murderer in Dai's eyes. Having no remorse in killing, willing to do anything for his gain—Dai came to despise Akashi for such traits that he witnessed in the bounty station previously.
'...Tch,' Dai, in the end, looked at Akashi with determination, 'No matter. Ultimately, it is thanks to you that I managed to survive, and now, I will soon be able to return to my son. If so... I have a debt to repay to you, it seems.'
Leaning down, Dai lifted Akashi up by his back, and took a hold of three swords that Akashi didn't have the time to seal.
Then, step by step, the two of them slowly walked out of the ruin, with no other survivor remaining in the site.