Aoi smiled playfully, jumped, and landed, putting his hands on the ground.
Metallurgy!!!
Instantly, the ground below his hand turned into a solid metal structure, and it spread at an alarming rate.
"Ahhhh," Instantly, Kakuzu protruded out from the ground, feeling a crisis of death, but his mask and thread became metallic. He raised his head, glanced at Aoi in horror, and shouted, "What kind of ninjutsu is this?"
Aoi ignored his half-metallic body stuck in the metal ground below, turned, and glanced at Hidan; his figure was slowly enveloped in silver-colored mercury.
Aoi raised his hand and signed. The wood forest retracted inside the ground below, revealing the clear ground with a small metallic area where Kakuzu is stuck.
"Well, it seems immortal weakness is sealing ninjutsu." Aoi said calmly, looking at both of them,
"What kind of ninjutsu can turn the ground into metal?" Kakuzu still asked, feeling that the four masks behind his body had also transformed into metallic forms.
"It's a simple combination of earth, wind, lightning, and Yin nature change."
Aoi replied calmly, then aimed at Kakuzu; instantly, his face changed looking at the triangular prism sign.
"How can you use so much blood? That's Second Tsuchikage!" He shouted in horror, started struggling, and then saw himself inside a white, transparent cube.
'It's over,' Kukazu thought. Instantly, the cube shone, and his body perished.
"My dust particle limit can even affect metals; it's interesting." Aoi muttered thoughtfully, looking at the metallic ground, which is sectioned into a perfect cube shape with a smooth surface.
He turned and glanced at Hidan lying there mummified inside the mercury layer's, can't move an inch, "Well, I wanted to experiment on you, but I have lost interest now."
Aoi muttered, then aimed at Hidan with a prism sign. Instantly, the cube covered his body, and then Hidan's body also turned into dust particles, which ceased to exist.
'Well, their deaths will definitely slow down Akatsuki's sealing time, or maybe Payne will use his other clones to fill up the personal count required to seal the tail beasts.' Aoi then thoughtfully glanced at the empty ground around him; his mercury and metal also disappeared.
...
On the other hand,
Despite the timely rescue, Asuma's wounds were fatal. Asuma died, but not before smoking his last cigarette and sharing some final words with Ino, Shikamaru, and Chōji.
Team 10 then returned to Konoha and informed Tsunade of what had happened.
Tsunade sent out the message for the funeral to everyone, but Shikamaru had a message for Kurenai from Asuma and would tell her what had happened himself.
Naruto had nearly created the jutsu when they were informed of Asuma's death and rushed back to the village. Shikamaru told Kurenai the message, and she collapsed from grief.
At the funeral, Konohamaru wept for his uncle, while Naruto comforted him.
Shikamaru didn't attend the funeral, and he spent his time seemingly formulating a strategy and learning how to use Asuma's trench knives. He also picked up Asuma's smoking habit.
...
Meanwhile, Akatsuki went into shock after finding out about Hidan and Kakuzu's deaths. Obito was extremely pissed off because of it. He was annoyed more than any other Akatsuki members, and he felt the deaths of Akatsuki members were widening the gap between him and his goal.
"I have to remove him, or he will become a huge stumbling block in my way." Obito muttered annoyingly,
"I have already told you, don't touch that girl; you Uchiha are an extremely vengeful species; don't forget he is also an Uchiha." Black spoke beside him, and Obito's expression became cold upon hearing Black's comment. He then glanced in the outside direction of the cave entrance without replying.
…
Aoi returned to his residence, inside a new valley, looking at the small pond with waterfall thoughtfully. 'Next, it's time to awaken the rinnegan,'
He sat cross-legged and released the seal. He started irrigating his body with natural energy, and after stoning himself to death, he was resurrected with a little more tough physique and qualitative chakra. It is almost negligible, but as Aoi current strength is considered, the negligible is more than a normal Chūnin.
...
On the other hand,
A sneaky figure invaded the Rain Village. Jiraiya started gathering information about the new leader of the Rain Village, Akatsuki.
Meanwhile, Pain, knowing that an intruder had infiltrated the village, ordered Konan to search for the intruder. She then transforms into multiple origami papers to seek out the intruder. Konan locates Jiraiya and informs Pain, who then changes bodies in a secret chamber.
Konan then went ahead and attacked Jiraiya, who fought, evenly matched, with her for a short time.
Jiraiya then spoke about his history with Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato. When Pain arrives, they discuss Pain's personal ideology and Akatsuki's goals.
Pain, who is convinced Jiraiya is going to die anyway, reveals his reasoning behind collecting the tailed beasts, which was to create a kinjutsu that could wipe away entire nations so that the world would mature and develop an aversion to war. Finishing their talk, Pain summons a crustacean to attack Jiraiya, who defeats it and summons Gamaken.
Having no other choice left, Jiraiya and Gamaken begin their battle against Pain. Camouflaging himself, Pain summons multiple creatures to defeat Jiraiya. Realizing that he is up against a powerful foe, Jiraiya uses a barrier and prepares to enter Sage Mode. Due to the predicament Gamaken is in, he sustains deep wounds from the battle. As Jiraiya has his technique ready to use, Gamaken leaves the battle, and Jiraiya enters Sage Mode after summoning Fukasaku and Shima.
Jiraiya soon finds Pain, who summons two of his other paths to enter the battle.