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A couple of hours later, in the dunes of the desert of the land of wind;
"I really don't like the desert," Naruto muttered to himself as he ran across the sand dunes. The environment is dead with sand all around, along with a few cacti and other desert plants here and there. It is a good thing that the Land of Rivers will appear on the horizon soon.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me. That's what I just needed right now." Naruto muttered sarcastically as he looked to the side and saw an incoming sandstorm.
Over the horizon, west of where he was heading, there is a massive, flat wall of dense orange and yellow-tinged dust that rapidly overtakes the landscape. It looked like a gigantic creeping blanket of sand and dust that stretched hundreds of kilometres across and about a kilometre high.
Naruto looked back at the direction of the land of rivers, intending to speed up so he could outrun the incoming Sandstorm.
A couple of moments later, after speeding up, Naruto's eyes narrowed at what he was sensing.
Kilometres ahead in the direction of his travel, Naruto sensed two large Chakra signatures. One is clearly larger than the other, but that wasn't what Naruto was thinking about. The two signatures were larger than seasoned Jonin, which was the first red flag.
The two signatures were stationary, which was weird to do in the open desert; they could either be resting or waiting.
But what got most of Naruto's attention was the larger of the two. It was weird, very weird in fact. Usually, a Shinobi had one Chakra network and a Chakra pool in their bodies, no matter how large or strong their Chakra got. But right now, Naruto is sensing five Chakra networks and Chakra pools from this signature, which is shocking and impossible to happen naturally.
A minute later, Naruto spotted them in the distance. Naruto couldn't see their faces as it was obstructed by a conical straw hat (Kasa) on top of their heads. Both also wore matching black cloaks that had multiple red clouds on them.
A few moments later, Naruto felt their eyes fall on him from a distance. That was the moment when Naruto became incredibly vigilant because of the negative change in their emotions when they looked at him.
Another minute later, Naruto now stood about 50 meters away from the two mysterious individuals. Both sides are silently eyeing each other. Naruto eyed the two individuals carefully. The one with the odd chakra system didn't have anything on the outside of his cloak, and Naruto couldn't see his face because of the straw hat and the face mask that appeared on the lower half of his face. The other individual had a large triple-bladed scythe that was attached to him by a rope or chain of some sort.
"Oy, Kakuzu. Is it him?" The Scythe holder asked his companion.
"Yes. He matches the description in the bingo book." The one named Kakuzu replied
Hearing this, Naruto assumed they were bounty hunters. But what is with the matching outfit? Is it an organization? How did they know he was coming here? Did they have spies in Suna, or was Suna the one behind this?
Question after question appeared in Naruto's mind as he looked at the two individuals in front of him. None of them made a move as the two sides eyed each other.
As they continued to eye each other, the scythe wielder seemed to get more agitated by the second.
"Oy, what is taking so long? Come on already, I want to present you to lord Jashin as soon as possible." The scythe wielder shouted at Naruto before rushing forward.
Naruto's eyes narrowed at the rushing nin. While his speed was impressive, at a high jonin level, his choice of weapon was questionable, along with his attacking form, which was riddled with holes, making it easy for his opponents to counterattack. His way of attacking has no sense of self-preservation, a frontal, open attack against an opponent whom he should know about in the Bingo book.
"Haha, I have you now." The scythe wielder said with maniacal laughter as he reached Naruto and swung his scythe downward at him
....
Hidan had a wide, wild smile on his face with a slightly mad glint in his eyes as his scythe approached Naruto with the intent to draw first blood while internally scoffing at how easy this had been.
However, his eyes widened when his scythe met nothing but air before striking the sand and getting slightly buried in it.
"Wha…." Hidan exclaimed loudly as he looked around for Naruto, but was interrupted when he felt the world tilt sideways, before he saw the sandy ground approaching so fast.
...
Thud
Naruto flicked away his sword to remove the traces of blood on it without looking back at the now decapitated body of the scythe wielder.
He had never seen such a way of attacking between fighting shinobi. But in the end, an idiot nin is an easy nin to kill.
Naruto eyed Kakuzu as he sheathed his Katana back into its sheath on his back.
Kakuzu didn't feel like he was sad that his companion had fallen. Naruto could feel him amused and pleased by what had just happened, as if they weren't companions at all.
"With that idiot out of the way. Let's see if you deserve the bounty set on you." Kakuzu said he started to open his cloak.
"The name Kakuzu. I have read it somewhere before." Naruto said as he took out a Kunai and eyed Kakuzu. He knew that this one was different from the scythe wielder.
Kakuzu didn't reply as he though away his cloak and straw hat, revealing his face and what he wore underneath the cloak. Half of his face was covered by a mask. He donned a grey hood that covered his hair. He wore dark pants and a sleeveless vest. Along with a grey scarf that covered his neck and the upper part of his chest. His bare arms showed stitch-like marks or tattoos that went around his arms in multiple places.
What got Naruto's attention the most was the slashed and worn-out Takigakure forehead protector on Kakuzu's head. It made his eyes widen ever so slightly.
There is no mention of a rogue ninja named Kakuzu in the recent bingo books. The closest person to the description is a shinobi from Naruto's great-grandfather's era. A shinobi by the name of Kakuzu, who fought Hashirama and was utterly defeated.
But that can't be. While the man in front of him fit the description, how can a person whose great-grandfather fought and wrote about in his memoir still be alive and looking middle-aged?
"How are you still alive?" Naruto asked, looking at a man who was supposed to be dead.
To be continued.
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