With Dragon.
Dragon exhaled softly, shifting his attention back to the immortal man before him. He heard Daichi's urgent command through the communication array jutsu and knew his next actions had to be decisive.
'The boss wants the lab here and the other wiped clean along with any possible traces left on that battlefield. No problem. I just need to put these two jokers down first.'
Among the debris was the dismembered remains of Hidan. His eyes and ears were destroyed, body blown apart into pieces but his immortal head gurgled faintly. He let out incoherent curses, but he was effectively neutralized. 'He's out of this fight, though I'd rather leave nothing behind…'
Dragon's eyes sharpened, carefully studying his adversary. Kakuzu stood silently, his right hand pressed to the gaping hole in his chest where his Fire Heart once resided, eyes narrowed in pure malice.
The tiger-like Fire mask laid broken at his feet, its heart destroyed earlier in the skirmish. Without his Fire chakra heart, Kakuzu's temper was dangerously on edge. 'It's been a few years since I lost a heart. To think it would happen again against a nobody like him.' He seethed inwardly. The black threads writhed around his arms in response to his anger.
Kakuzu's gaze burned into Dragon. "You'll pay dearly for that."
The masked man in the green cloak audibly groaned. "Arrrh! I'm getting tired of hearing that line. Almost everyone I met said that. And I'm still here."
"I'll be the last." Kakuzu had a chilling tone. He looked angry but he was calm on the inside. He was trying to make his foe think he was furious and not in full control.
Dragon gave no reply. He simply moved his feet apart slightly and adopted a battle stance. 'I'm a shadow clone, so fighting him head-on won't be wise. I'll have to rely on strategy and range attacks.'
"Hey. What's going on? Dragon, you fucking asshole. When I get back on my feet, I'm gonna enjoy taking my time killing you!"
"You don't seem to be of much use right now, other than yelling pointless threats." Dragon taunted Hidan. "Looks like your so-called immortality has its limits."
"You bastard. I'll make you pay. I swear on Lord Jashin's name." Hidan yelled.
Dragon stayed silent but he was carefully making mental notes of Hidan's regeneration powers. 'His hearing has gotten a little bit better than before. The info 'Observe' skill showed was understating this guy's recovery ability.'
Kakuzu meanwhile, took the split second Dragon focused on Hidan to attack. Threads erupted from his skin, writhing grotesquely as his remaining masks shuddered beneath his cloak. "Earth Grudge Fear!"
A storm of black threads exploded from Kakuzu's body, lunging directly toward Dragon. The masked ninja body flickered to safety but at that moment saw a mask partially emerge from Kakuzu's body.
CRACK!
Electricity forked across the air as the mask with the Lightning heart fired a swift False Darkness beam at Dragon.
The crackling spear of lightning moved forward, forcing the clone to put up a hasty Rock Shield.
Kakuzu's eyes burned with murderous intent. "You'll have to do better than that, whelp," he growled.
The shield collapsed after a few seconds under the lightning's power, scattering pebbles around the lab site. Even so, Dragon escaped the blast radius. He remained calm, while the burnt odor of ozone saturated the air.
"You're quite good at ninjutsu. Well then… Let's see how good you are." As the undead ninja of the Akatsuki said those words, on the other side of the lightning mask, appeared another one. A mask that Daichi sensed contained strong Wind chakra nature.
Kakuzu now had two masks on either side of his head. His body expanded with threads and the masked creatures were partially sticking out of his body.
Kakuzu and the two masks quickly began to gather chakra in front of their faces.
"Water style - Wind Style - Lightning Style: Combination ninjutsu:- Purgatory World!"
3 orbs of different chakra natures were shot towards Dragon's location at great speed.
Seeing the wide range attacks coming, without hesitation, Dragon gracefully dodged and put a great distance behind him. As he moved he formed rapid hand seals for his attack.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bombs!" Dragon inhaled sharply, expelling several blazing spheres of fire that streaked toward Kakuzu.
In response, Kakuzu swiftly countered. "Water Style: Tearing Torrent!"
A fierce jet of water surged from Kakuzu's mask, colliding with Dragon's fiery blasts. A veil of steam enveloped the area, temporarily obscuring vision. Using the smoke screen, Dragon swiftly circled around Kakuzu, tossing explosive-tagged kunai directly at him from multiple directions.
Kakuzu, sensing the danger, shielded himself instinctively. "Earth Style: Iron Skin!"
His body became stone-hard, absorbing the explosions with minimal damage. Even before the explosions ended he began his counterattack.
With a snarl, Kakuzu whipped his arm forward, and from under his sleeve a cluster of black tendrils launched out like spears. The tendrils of his Earth Grudge Fear technique crack like whips through the air, aiming to impale Dragon on the spot.
But Dragon was already moving. In a blur of speed, he leapt backward, the tendrils gouging into the spot he was standing a split-second later.
Pebbles and dust exploded upward from the impact as the clone skidded to a stop atop a broken stone pillar. 'He's fast for his size…' Dragon noted, eyes narrowing at Kakuzu's hulking form. 'Even enraged, he's quite precise with his attacks. One direct hit could end me.'
Kakuzu didn't let up. Bounding forward with surprising agility, he closed the distance, fist cocked back. The fist darkened to a brown hue thanks to the Earth style: Earth Spear jutsu.
He threw a devastating punch at the pillar, aiming to crush Dragon with raw strength.
At the last instant, Dragon body flickered away, cloak fluttering as the punch connected with the stone.
BOOM!
The pillar shattered into small rocks under Kakuzu's iron-hard knuckles. The force of the attack sent shockwaves through the ground.
'That strength… As expected. He's raising his strength and defense far beyond the base stats with earth nature chakra.' Dragon thought as he observed his enemy. The entire pillar he stood on earlier was now a small rubble.
The shadow clone easily avoided the attacks but suddenly his senses sent him danger signals.
Numerous threads were coming from behind him silently and as fast as they could. They snaked around the rocks and boulders aiming to pierce Dragon's body from behind.
'He separated one of his hearts when he was out of my sight. These attacks were to draw my attention.'
Realizing that, Dragon dipped low, sliding beneath the dangerous whirring threads, as they rushed above him, dust trailing his feet. Dragon quickly made seals and vanished to a new position. He looked at Kakuzu and the three masked monsters gathered at his side. 'He's quick to adapt to my battle style. Gotta give him credit. He has a wealth of battle experience from all these decades. But then again I'm no amateur either. Thanks to my Mana tracker skill, it won't be so easy to blind side me.'
Meanwhile Kakuzu stood there and was keeping an eye on everything. 'That attack came from his blind spot and I made sure to make as minimal disturbance as possible. Yet he sensed it coming and was able to escape. He has exceptional senses… Or he can somehow sense me and keep all my hearts in his range. Is he a sensor ninja? I'll have to be careful.'
Each mask had a distinct shape and aura. A demonic, beaked mask dripping with water chakra, a horned mask crackling with electricity, and a four-legged mask with gaping jaws swirling with wind.
Dragon's eyes flick from one mask to the other. 'Wind, Water and lightning. So he must be keeping the Earth heart inside his body.' Daichi concluded as he looked at the creatures. 'Now he's gotten serious.'
The air itself felt heavy with strong chakras mixing together. Static electricity from the lightning mask had Dragon's hair standing on end. The wind mask's presence kicked up dust in spirals while a droplet of water dripped from the beaked water mask's maw, hissing on a hot rock below.
The disguised Daichi wasn't one to be intimidated. Especially now that he's gotten plenty of chakra from the shadow clones that dispelled earlier. He too let his presence be known to the enemy.
The ground shook and small rocks cracked and floated up due to the sheer power that was being released.
Kakuzu felt the sheer power flowing into the air but he wasn't afraid. He sneered as he looked at the masked man. "Hmph. I've been alive for over 7 decades. I've fought and killed so many enemies in my lifetime, I lost count. I've met countless shinobi with special bloodlines. I fought the Gold and Silver brothers. I even battled and survived the likes of Hashirama Senju. The God of Shinobi. And I can tell you right now. You are nothing compared to him. You are not special."
"True. I'm not…"
Dragon's frank admission slightly surprised Kakuzu until he heard the rest.
"Not yet anyway."
Infuriated, Kakuzu charged forward, his speed and raw strength even greater than before.
Dragon immediately formed additional seals. "Wind Style: Violent Whirlwind!"
A massive gust of razor-sharp wind surged forth, forcing Kakuzu to evade and let his lightning heart respond to the attack. "Lightning Style: False Darkness!"
A surge of lethal lightning erupted from the lightning mask near him. The jutsu violently pierced through Dragon's wind attack and hurtled toward the clone.
Dragon narrowly dodged, feeling the heat of electricity streak past him. 'He's reacting faster than I anticipated.' He saw Kakuzu coming for him even as his lightning mask neutralized that attack.
Daichi's shadow clone flipped to a safer vantage while weaving new signs.
"Wind Style: Gale Sphere!"
A translucent dome of wind formed around him, deflecting a fresh hail of needle-like threads Kakuzu spurted from his elbow. The threads hit the swirling wind barrier, leaving small shockwaves in their wake.
'Kakuzu's shaping multiple attacks… he's pressing me from various angles… He's trying to figure out if I'm going to engage in close combat. He'll modify his strategy the moment he's certain I'll keep this a long ranged fight. And for that he's going to get closer.'
As he expected, Kakuzu was trying to get close. He saw dozens of black threads and two fists coming at him from all sides with breakneck speed.
Dragon immediately let go of his wind style jutsu and formed several seals that ended with Tiger.
"Lightning Style: Mourning Rain."
Lightning chakra immediately gathered around Dragon's arm and the next instant, multiple thunderbolts shot out from his hands.
Dragon pointed his hands at Kakuzu's arms and threads and tried to paralyze him with his jutsu.
'Just because you have a superior chakra element doesn't mean victory.' Kakuzu gritted his teeth and increased the power of his own defense. 'You think ninjutsu spamming will save you?'
At that moment Kakuzu's 3 masked monsters surrounded Dragon from three sides in a triangle formation.
"Die!" Kakuzu's voice merges with a chorus of elemental howls. In an instant, the area erupts into a storm of ninjutsu.
The Lightning mask opened its twisted maw. "Lightning Style: False Darkness!" it screeched. Spears of powerful purple lightning tore through the air, converging on Dragon's position with blinding speed.
Simultaneously, the Wind mask reared back and inhaled. With a sound like a giant vacuum, it unleashed its attack.
"Wind style: Pressure Damage!" – a massive blast of wind pressure that turned the rubble and soil in its path into shrapnel, pelting everything in its way.
Finally the Water mask gargled and spat out a high-pressure torrent of water.
Water style: Water shockwave!" – A strong wave that churned up mud and debris, aiming to sweep its target off his feet or smash him into the rock face behind.
All three ninjutsu were released simultaneously with precise timing. The disguised Daichi had less than 2 seconds before the jutsu's impact.
His mental skills activated and mind moved faster than before. Suddenly for Daichi it was as if time slowed down and every second was stretched to an eternity.
He glanced at the jutsus crawling its way towards him and then his pupils moved to the man controlling them.
'This won't be enough, Kakuzu of the Akatsuki!'
The disguised Daichi immediately formed a plan in his mind. He forced chakra through his coils to move faster and weaved new ninjutsu seals at super speed.
"Lightning style: Sango's blessings."
Lightning immediately covered all four of Dragon's limbs.
He vanished from his spot just before the collaboration jutsu hit.
BOOMM!
A large explosion destroyed the area but Kakuzu saw Dragon standing dozens of meters away in another safe location.
"What?" Kakuzu was shocked at the sudden speed. 'Impossible! He escaped my combo at such a close range?'
Dragon suddenly vanished again with such speed that it generated a sonic boom.
Before Kakuzu could react, Dragon was in front of him.
"YAAAA!" Dragon clenched his right fist and gathered as much power as he could. Killing intent roared around him as his red glowing eyes behind his mask bore deep into Kakuzu's own orbs. A moment later, Dragon sent a powerful punch to Kakuzu's face.
BOOM!
The ground underneath Kakuzu cracked. A lightning dome erupted around them as Dragon's lightning jutsu invaded Kakuzu's body paralyzing him.
The next moment a powerful gust of wind blasted outwards from their position and he was sent flying. He crashed through multiple boulders and was rolling on the ground like a ragdoll before coming to a stop.
The instant Kakuzu was sent flying, Dragon continued with his attack. He targeted the masked monsters who were failing to track him.
He vanished and reappeared near the three masked beasts and sent them all crashing in three directions.
Dragon let go of his jutsu and exhaled. 'If this were my real body, I could keep up with my attacks. But since I'm a shadow clone the burden on me is far greater. If I attack at the wrong angle I could also get dispelled due to the sheer force of my own attack.'
Dragon slowly began walking closer to Kakuzu's real body. 'The moment you want to fight me at close range I'll attack you with long range ninjutsu. And the moment you expect me to defend or evade with ninjutsu, I'll crush you with my Taijutsu… It won't be easy to predict me, you old geezer.'
Dragon sensed that Kakuzu began gathering his three masks near him. 'Can't waste anymore time.'
He immediately formed 4 shadow clones to keep the enemy busy while he prepared his final attack.
The clones immediately disappeared from their spot and confronted Kakuzu and his masked monsters.
'They'll be able to split them up and keep him occupied.' Dragon exhaled and began gathering chakra in his right palm. A Rasengan instantly formed in his hand but it was smaller than the ones he usually created.
Daichi began adding his chakra nature to it and several seconds later the small Rasengan began to change color.
—-
With Kakuzu and Dragon's clone.
Dragon's clone weaved through hand seals and slammed his palms to the ground.
"Earth Style: Bedrock Coffin!"
As he sent his chakra into the earth, the ground beneath Kakuzu's feet split open. Two massive slabs of rock erupted from below on either side of Kakuzu, then clapped together as if to crush him in a vise.
"Tch!" Kakuzu reacted instantly – Earth Spear again, reinforcing his entire body to stone-like hardness. The rock slabs smash onto him, but with a surge of strength he shoved them apart, fragments flying.
The other clones managed to separate the hearts and keep them at a distance. Kakuzu saw the tactics and a question was raised in his mind. 'He's separated my hearts. Is he trying to kill my hearts one by one? I can't let that happen.'
"Your attempts to whittle me down… worthless."
Suddenly the clone closed the gap and attacked with a lightning blade kunai. Kakuzu was able to put up a hasty defense but he was startled by the strength of the lightning chakra running through the kunai. He tried to use his threads to strangle and destroy the clone but Dragon moved the blade and cut off the incoming tendrils.
At that moment Dragon spoke. "You said that in your 7 decades, you've come across countless shinobi. How many?"
Kakuzu stayed silent as he looked at the man. 'He has incredible swordsmanship. Who is this man?'
"Ten thousand?" Dragon upped the intensity and sliced off one of Kakuzu's arms and immediately backed away.
'He cut through my hardened defense?' Even though the Akatsuki ninja reconnected the tendrils, he was becoming extremely cautious.
"A hundred thousand?" Dragon asked again. Suddenly he threw the lightning kunai at Kakuzu's forehead with great speed.
The missing nin moved his body and evaded the lightning blade but saw Dragon weaving seals for a wind style jutsu.
Not wanting him to complete the sequence, Kakuzu attacked. His arms extended and quickly reached the clone but the next moment they froze in mid air.
'What? Why can't I move my arms?' Just as he was wondering what was happening, Dragon moved his fingers and the black tendril arms were sliced to numerous small pieces.
The undead ninja of the Akatsuki was shocked. He saw something similar a long time ago when he was fighting a Sand ninja. 'Wind nature used as blades coated on chakra strings.'
"Nine hundred thousand?" Suddenly Dragon vanished faster than Kakuzu could track him. The next instant, he felt a powerful force ramming into his back. The punch Dragon sent pummeled Kakuzu into the ground and created a large crater.
"Nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine?"
Before Kakuzu could get his bearings, he suddenly felt several chakra strings latch onto him and he felt himself become paralyzed with a strong Lightning current.
"Wh-Who… who are you?" He asked, struggling to fight back.
Dragon's clone stayed silent as he sensed his other clone's destruction. 'His other hearts are rushing over here. Good. Just as I thought you would. When your enemy forces you to separate from your team, your instincts will be to regroup. But unfortunately for you, that's also what I want.'
A lightning blast hit the shadow clone and it vanished. But just before it vanished, it tossed a kunai up into the air.
A knife with a specific marking on it.
Seconds after the shadow clone vanished, the three masked beasts landed near Kakuzu. With his additional hearts nearby Kakuzu regained his confidence. 'No. He just got lucky. I'm still stronger.'
"You asked me who I am?"
Suddenly Kakuzu heard a voice coming from a few meters above him. He was petrified for a single moment as he didn't even sense any movement or the approach of his enemy's chakra.
He and his masked beasts suddenly looked up and Kakuzu's eyes widened.
"I am that one shinobi… In a million."
Kakuzu looked at Dragon and his eyes were quickly drawn to a small glowing brown orb of chakra.
—----------------
Author's Note:-
I wanted to complete this fight and another one in this chapter but I've decided to end it here. Sorry for the cliffhanger guys.
Comment your thoughts on the fight. I know its a long ass arc but any other comments?
And For anyone wondering, yes, Daichi used Observe skill on Kakuzu and Hidan and got information on them. But I didn't show it in the two chapters. Didn't think it was necessary.
Now some of you may have doubts about how a shadow clone is bringing an S rank ninja to his knees.
Let me remind you, Dragon's chakra reserves were boosted by The clones Daichi created with Hundred seal active. He also has multiple defensive, speed and attack passive skills.
He's a gamer ninja and has been training like crazy for the last several years. We're only seeing his true strength now because this is the greatest crisis he has faced in the story so far.
Now as I've said before, I want to hear your thoughts and comments. Aside from this arc being too long.
Did the dialogues from Dragon come as awesome, cringe or just meh? I want to improve my writing and your feedback and criticism helps. (But please also be merciful. I am a poor writer with big feelings.)
If you like my story and want to read ahead, then check out my P.a.T.R.E.0.N page. I've uploaded up to 30 additional chapters there.
Patre on.com/MonkWithAPen (No space)