Title: Karin's Wrath
...
"I'll hold them down. You tend to Fuû." Sai ordered and Karin immediately flickered to Fuû's side. Sensing her pulse, she found that it was slowly and steadily coming to a halt causing her to panic slightly.
She could've used Medical Ninjutsu to heal her but she didn't seem injured in the least, instead, she seemed to be suffering from intense chakra deprivation.
"You brats!" Kakuzu snarled angrily as he struggled to break free from the Ink bindings. "You can't help her anymore. She's already dead."
Snapping her head towards him, Karin glowered at him. "What do you mean?"
"She's a Jinchuriki and she just had her Bijuu extracted from her, what do you think will happen to her?" Kakuzu sneered at her.
"You...!" Hearing this, Karin's eyes became bloodshot. She knew he was telling the truth, afterall, no matter how much she tried to pour her chakra into Fuû to jumpstart her heart, it seemed to be futile.
"Kukukuku, you could've just let me sacrifice her to the great Jashin-sama." Hidan cackled madly as his chakra burst out, breaking this ink binding him.
In one fluid movement, he cut the ink binding Kakuzu and immediately launched himself at Sai.
Sai, however, didn't let his guard down as a shield manifested In Front of him to block the scythe.
Not wasting any time himself, Kakuzu also launched himself at Sai with his several limbs detached from his body and held together by threads.
Sai was forced to dodge and block the onslaught.
"Hold on for a little longer, let me see what I can do." Karin said and turned to face Fuû, whose face was growing paler by the second.
Letting out a sigh, Sai pulled out another scroll and made a hand sign, releasing a swarm of ink clones. The clones materialized around Sai, each wielding kunai and sword as they engaged both Kakuzu and Hidan, creating a diversion to buy time for Karin.
Karin, with urgency in her movements, focused on Fuû. With the rapid decline of Fuû's life force, she knew that time was of the essence. Drawing upon her medical expertise, she initiated a unique form of chakra infusion, attempting to stabilize Fuû's failing life force.
As Kakuzu's detached limbs and threads closed in on Sai, the ink clones engaged in a fierce battle, countering the relentless assault.
Sai skillfully maneuvered, his clones coordinating attacks to keep both Akatsuki members at bay, much to their frustration.
In the midst of the chaos, Karin's efforts to revive Fuû intensified. She channeled her chakra with precision, attempting to replenish the depleted life force within Fuû. Beads of sweat formed on Karin's forehead as she strained to overcome the consequences of the Bijuu extraction.
Regrettably, through her Kagura Mind Eye, she perceptibly witnessed the extinguishing of Fuû's life force, despite her earnest efforts.
Ba-dum!
As soon she saw this, Karin's heart thumped so loudly that it was audible, causing a shift in the atmosphere.
Kakuzu, as a seasoned mercenary, seemed to have felt something wrong and jumped back from his assault on Sai.
'Something's wrong.' He thought as he observed his surroundings only for his eyes to be drawn to the heartbroken form of Karin. 'It's her... she's dangerous' he mused as he prepared to go all out.
His instinct told him that there was a good possibility of death, and the only way he knew to avert that, was to increase the number of opponents fighting against her.
Unfortunately...
Amidst the suffocating haze of grief, Karin's countenance transformed into a tempest of despair, with unbridled anger, she turned and leveled a death glare at the duo, causing Kakuzu to affirm his initial thoughts.
Hidan, on the other hand, was so blinded by his immortality that he didn't seem to feel the threat of death Kakuzu felt.
He cackled even more madly as he saw her glared and brandished his scythe for another go with the red head.
BOOM!
The sound of explosion rang out and before Hidan could process what was going on, he saw his body kneeling In Front of a girl...No, the girl he was just about to attack.
"What the hell!?" He screamed as his consciousness finally caught up to reality.
"Oh? You're still alive?" He heard and looked up to the owner of the voice. And for the second time, he saw her eyes filled with killing intent.
However, different from his initial reaction, he felt great fear envelope him as she turned and slowly walked towards him.
"I see where your confidence comes from. No wonder I felt something off about you. Your soul...it's not connected to your body, is it?" She spoke as she approached.
"Wh-What are y-you t-talking a-about?" Hidan stuttered in fright.
"You're... immortal. However, I wonder if you'll remain so if your head and brain is shattered." She said, and as she approached, Hidan could feel the weight of her steps on the ground.
"K-kakuzu! Kakuzu my man!!" Hidan's desperate cries echoed, reaching Kakuzu who, despite being engaged in battle, couldn't ignore the urgency in Hidan's voice.
Kakuzu's eyes widened in realization as he witnessed the ominous transformation in Karin.
'Is she...' he thought in shock as he immediately associated her with a certain clan. 'She's got to be. If that red hair is any indication.'
He swiftly disengaged from Sai, leaving his clone who possessed the lightning heart to continue the assault, and rushed toward his ally.
Being who he was, he would have disregarded Hidan if he knew his situation wasn't optimistic, but after his recent partner died, he had been warned not to leave his partner to escape with his life.
If there was one thing he feared, then it would be Hashirama, but if there was one thing he feared other than Hashirama, then it was that unreasonable leader of his.
"You fool, what did you end up like this?" Kakuzu hissed at Hidan, who was now only a head.
"I-I didn't know she could do this!" Hidan stammered, realizing the severity of the situation. He truly felt so close to death right now.
Making a hand sign, a protrusion appeared on his back as another black creature appeared wearing a mask.
'That almost seems like a hollow if you think about it.' Shun, who was spectating the battle, thought with a small smile.
Seeing the weird looking creature, Karin squinted her eyes before a look of realization appeared on her face.
"So that's it. You're also an 'immortal'." She concluded. She had felt something off about these two since she sensed them. One felt like he was here, yet not. While the other felt like he was many in one body.
Now she understood how it was.
"Still, that won't save you." She said and immediately appeared In Front of the creature and shattered its mask. She felt it was the heart of the creature since that was where all the chakra was being directed to.
And as though to affirm her conjunction, the creature wilted.
"You!" Kakuzu was enraged at the loss of a very important asset, but he quickly calmed himself. Afterall, he didn't feel her moving, which greatly shocked him.
This had never happened before. He had been alive for so long and had fought his fair share of Shinobi, even Shinobi from that accursed island of pacifist weren't this deadly.
"Hidan, we're retreating." He immediately made up his mind as another protrusion appeared as another creature burst out of his back and made for Hidan's body.
Without wasting time, he immediately controlled the clone fighting Sai to launch a fire style Jutsu at Karin while another clone burst out of his back and shot a lightning wave at her.
"Futile struggle." Karin snorted as three golden chains burst out from behind her and strangled the two creatures.
She didn't even bother blocking the wave of fire and lightning Jutsu making their way towards her as she seemingly phased through them and made for the escaping Hidan and Kakuzu.
However, before she could go far, something strange immediately appeared in her perception range causing her to come to a pause.
Ba-dum! Ba-dum.
Without wasting so much as a breath, she disappeared and appeared beside Fuû and took her pulse just to affirm what she was perceiving.
"Sh-She's alive." She muttered to herself and then turned to the approaching Sai. "She's alive."
"Really?" Sai asked skeptically.
"Of course, I'm the sensory expert here."
"Yet I saw you taking her pulse." Sai rolled his eyes at her.
"Humph, I am also the medical expert here."
"Whatever you say." Sai said, putting an end to the spat as he knelt beside Fuû. "It's good that she's okay."
"Yeah, unfortunately, we let those two escape." Karin gritted her teeth in anger, which immediately subsided as she observed Fuû's life force getting stronger and stronger.
The two stayed in silent as they waited on her.
"That's right." Sai said and pulled out the scroll Shun had given them. According to him, it contained their mission objectives and should only be opened when they had rescued Fuû from her captors.
"The scroll." Karin muttered as she looked at Sai, waiting for him to tell her what and where they'll go from here.
"Well....damn."
...
Shun's POV.
Wow! That was an interesting fight to watch. She almost reminds me of Mito from back then.
The only difference being that Mito had a more commanding presence, coupled with her calm and regal aura.
That was understandable though. She was born into royalty, so she did everything royally.
Enough about that though, Kakuzu really surprised me right there. If he hadn't made up his mind to run, I'm pretty sure they both could've died right there.
Guess there's still room for some character development for those Ino-shika-cho trio. It's just a pity that Asuma has to die just for them to grow up.
Meh, I'll take care of that when the time comes, at most, I'll...Sigh... the choices we make.
***
A/N: I'll be stopping here for the day. 1.6k words. Tomorrow, I'll begin my Timeskip till wherever I deem interesting.
PS: Just to let y'all know, this is Shun's story, don't expect an extensive show of others POV.