Bonus chapter. Thanks for the 100 PS
Here you go, a new chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.
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"Oh, you know of me?" Kakuzu said with amusement and slight surprise.
"There was only one rogue shinobi from Takigakure named Kakuzu. But he was added to the bingo book even before the first shinobi war. And no one will impersonate a supposedly dead shinobi from that era. So again, how are you still alive, Kakuzu of Takigakure?" Naruto said
Kakuzu let out a snort that held some amusement before rushing Naruto with a Kunai of his own.
"You are a smart one, aren't you?" Kakuzu said as he clashed with Naruto. Thuds of exchanged Taijutsu, and sparks of clashing Kunai filled the stretch of desert.
"Don't refer to me as 'of Takigakure'. I despise that place. As for how I am alive, you can try and figure that out yourself." Kakuzu said before his arm, which held the Kunai, clashing with Naruto's own split open from the stitch-like marks above the wrist. Out of it, multiple thick, grey tendrils rushed out towards Naruto's face and neck.
Naruto's eyes widened slightly at the anomaly in front of him before leaning to the side at the last second, making the tendrils miss by a very small margin. Using the momentum, Naruto pushed chakra in his free left hand and threw a left hook at Kakuzu, who saw it coming and leaned back, but he didn't pull his left hand back fast enough as Naruto's hook met the inner part of his arm between his biceps and triceps.
Boom
The sound of the strike hitting was heard, with the sounds of popping and tearing flesh and bones accompanying it, along with a loud grunt of pain emanating from Kakuzu.
Naruto, who had jumped back a few meters after landing the strike, looked at Kakuzu only to see that his left arm was completely torn from his shoulder. But the expected bloody scene that Naruto expected wasn't there; instead, numerous thick, grey tendrils were coming out of Kakuzu's shoulder, which was connected to the rest of his left arm that seemed to have been torn in the places of the stitch-like marks. Kakuzu's left arm was torn into multiple sections at those stitch-like marks and scattered on the sand, all connected by the grey tendrils.
"What in Kami's na…" Naruto muttered but was interrupted by a pained chuckle coming from Kakuzu.
"That's some monstrous strength you got there," Kakuzu said with a pained grunt as his tendrils started moving and pulling his left arm back together.
"Too bad it amounted to nothing," Kakuzu said as his left arm was returned to its place as if nothing had happened, with some bruising on the arm that was disappearing quickly.
Naruto didn't say anything; he just weaved hand signs in rapid succession and took in a deep breath before his hand went near his mouth.
'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu' (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)
A thin stream of fire came out of Naruto's mouth between his index finger and thumb before expanding into a huge, scorching-hot ball of yellow and orange fire several meters in diameter that shot towards Kakuzu with breakneck speed while scorching the ground and melting the sand.
Kakuzu, seeing the incoming fireball, waved his own set of hand signs before slamming his hands on the sandy ground.
Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)
A wide rock wall pushed through the sandy ground, getting higher and higher, fully forming a wall just in time to receive the incoming fireball.
Booom
The fireball hit the rock wall with a thunderous bang, resonating in the desert's dunes. The collision took mere moments before disappearing with a cloud of dust and smoke, showing a black, scorched wall filled with cracks that started to fall apart a second later. The wall was strong enough to barely stop the fireball. If it were weaker, the fireball might have busted through it.
As the wall fully crumbled, leaving just the foundation sticking slightly above the sand, it revealed Kakuzu standing unharmed behind its ruins. Weirdly, he was standing with his upper half naked, and his sleeveless vest was discarded beside him.
Kakuzu's upper half was covered in the same stitch-like marks on his arms that went across his chest and abdomen, crossing each other, and seemed to continue towards his back. It made Kakuzu look like a test subject or like someone had sewn a body back together.
But that wasn't what was getting Naruto's attention.
Naruto's eyes were fixed on what was coming out of Kakuzu's back. What look like four masks were coming out of his back, each one of them connected to the same thick, grey tendrils, seeming like they are trying to burst out of Kakuzu's back.
A moment later, the masks detached themselves from Kakuzu's back before forming humanoid bodies entirely made of tendrils, gaining a darker grey color. While they all looked humanoid, their forms were larger than Kakuzu, with one of them standing on all fours with a wing-like formation of tendrils coming from its back.
'What the hell?' Kurumi muttered from inside Naruto's mindscape
'You humans get weirder and weirder as the years go by,' she continued.
Naruto didn't reply as he focused on what was happening, trying to make sense of what type of techniques Kakuzu was using, as Naruto had never seen or heard of what he was looking at right now.
The only thing that he can confirm is that the four extra chakra networks that he felt from Kakuzu's body before were now split among these creatures.
Naruto, seeing the number disadvantage he was in, along with his lack of knowledge of the extent of Kakuzu's abilities, formed a cross-hand seal before releasing large amounts of chakra.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)
With a burst of smoke, ten shadow clones appeared around Naruto. All eyes were on Kakuzu and the mask creatures around him.
Kakuzu's green eyes, with almost completely red sclera surrounding the cornea, narrowed as he felt how dense and strong Naruto's chakra is. Even though he isn't a sensor, he could feel the quality and quantity of chakra that Naruto used to form these shadow clones. What made his eyes narrow even more was that Naruto didn't look even slightly winded.
'I haven't met anyone with this type of chakra since the first Hokage. The leader's chakra, while close in quantity, doesn't feel as heavy or dense as this brat. Is this a side effect of the presence of the Kyuubi? I need to tread carefully.' Kakuzu thought to himself as a single drop of sweat fell down the side of his face.
The two sides eyed each other carefully, waiting for who would make the first move of reengagement, not minding the approaching sandstorm that was seconds away from reaching their position.
To be continued.
Guys and gals, show me those powerstones.
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