Chapter 62 — All Quiet on the Western Front (Part 8)
Kakuzu stood at a distance, quietly observing the battle unfold.
A few days ago, a strange client had appeared on the black market—offering a staggering eight million ryō to hire a bodyguard for a single person.
Kakuzu loved money above all else. The moment he heard the price, he accepted without hesitation. Protecting one life was easy—so long as it didn't mean directly fighting a Kage, he didn't care who the enemy was.
Now, he watched in boredom as Ren and Uzumaki Nagato clashed—trading ninjutsu, then locking blades, then trading jutsu again. In close combat, Nagato was clearly at a disadvantage. But that hardly mattered—the redhead had killed far more people, and his battlefield experience ran deep.
Still, the turning point came quickly.
The Rinnegan had a critical flaw: between switching from gravitational pull to repulsive force, there was always a brief pause. And the chakra cost was massive—even for someone of the Uzumaki clan, it was exhausting.
So, after losing another blade exchange, Nagato unleashed Shinra Tensei. Nothing unusual there—he'd done the same several times already to escape Ren's pressure.
But this time, it failed.
Ren, using the dynamic vision of his single tomoe Sharingan, tracked the exact direction Nagato raised his hand to release the repulsive force. He slipped out of its invisible path and closed in again.
Ren had no special grudge against Nagato. Yes, he'd probably altered the redhead's fate, but here on the battlefield, there were no friends—only enemies.
And enemies were cut down.
So what if he was the original-series big boss? If I kill him, I kill him.
With that thought, Ren's blade flashed, cutting toward Nagato.
Shhk—
The strike bit deep into flesh… but not Nagato's.
A plain-faced ninja had suddenly emerged from the ground to block the blow.
A White Zetsu clone.
Ren had watched it with his own eyes—one moment the ground was empty, the next, the clone surfaced to take the hit.
Uchiha Madara… he's watching this battle.
Shaking the blood from his blade, Ren kicked the corpse aside and wove seals, vanishing in a blur to continue the chase. He knew there weren't many White Zetsu clones at this point in time—there was no way Madara had a thousand of them just waiting here to save Nagato.
Nagato, rattled by the sudden save, hesitated. He didn't recognize this plain-faced ninja at all—so why had it taken a strike for him?
But he had no time to dwell on it. In that split second of hesitation, Ren's blade light streaked toward him again.
This time, the one who intervened wasn't White Zetsu—it was Kakuzu.
The bounty hunter was irritated. He'd been standing a bit too far back, and it had almost gotten Nagato killed. Whether Nagato lived or died didn't matter to him, but if the redhead fell, his eight million ryō would vanish with him.
Damn, this Konoha brat's sword is fast.
"Oi. This one's under my protection. Go kill the other Ame-nin—you won't hear a word from me."
Through his black mask, Kakuzu's eyes glowed red. His body was stitched together with countless seam-like scars, and though he hadn't yet entered his Earth Grudge Fear form, his inhuman nature was plain.
He planted himself in front of Nagato. Saved, Nagato shot a deep glance at both Kakuzu and Ren before leaping into the forest's shadows.
Another strange man. His eyes—the Rinnegan—were trouble.
They actually brought him in to guard the Rinnegan? Cautious, aren't they.
Ren narrowed his eyes at Kakuzu. Even though the anime and reality didn't match perfectly, the identity was unmistakable. The "Immortality Duo" had left too deep an impression.
Bringing Kakuzu here was a masterstroke by Madara. With five hearts, and a Doton: Earth Spear form that granted near-immunity to physical damage, Kakuzu was almost a perfect counter to Ren's style.
So, should he take Kakuzu's offer?
Forget Uzumaki Nagato, and turn his blade on the other Amegakure shinobi instead?
Ren's fingers brushed the scabbard of Jūan. His grin widened, the thrill in his eyes impossible to hide.
Why should he spare Uzumaki Nagato?
Why should the world be forced to follow Uchiha Madara's script?
If anyone had the right to rewrite this world—reshape it—it ought to be him, Minamoto Ren.
Black cords began to uncoil from Kakuzu's body, spilling out like strands of hair from every seam, even his mouth. These were the "veins" of Earth Grudge Fear—tough, chakra-thread tendrils that bound his body together.
"Well? Thought it over?" Kakuzu's voice was low and cold.
"Plenty of Ame-nin here. One more or less won't make a difference."
Two masks slid up over Kakuzu's shoulders—the Wind and Fire masks—his form no longer entirely human.
From a purely rational standpoint, Ren should have agreed. But…
"I refuse."
He stood, blade in hand, his Hannya mask's demonic grin seeming almost hungry.
"…What?" Kakuzu blinked.
Ren didn't bother repeating himself. He drew his sword—opening with a sweeping, horizontal strike.
He wanted to know: just how tough was this so-called "physical immunity" in the original story?
"Foolish." Kakuzu scoffed, his Earth Spear technique flaring again, hardening multiple vital points across his body into obsidian armor.
Ren knew well how hard those blackened spots were, so he avoided them entirely—yet Kakuzu could shift the hardening instantly. Wherever his chakra flowed, Ren's blade simply couldn't bite.
The black threads lashed out again and again, stabbing like spears—only Ren's speed kept him from being skewered.
Dozens of slashes later, he hadn't marked Kakuzu once—and he'd barely avoided being run through himself. This shell was harder than anything he'd faced before.
But there was a way.
Sealing Technique — Single-Square Seal!
In an instant, Ren flickered behind Kakuzu, slapping his left palm onto the man's upper back. A ring of seal script flared to life, momentarily disrupting Kakuzu's chakra flow.
"Tch—damn!" Kakuzu's eyes widened. He hadn't expected a sealing jutsu—such techniques were rare now, especially since the fall of the Uzumaki clan. Single-Square Seal only disrupted chakra for a heartbeat… but a heartbeat was all Ren needed.
Jūan slid in through Kakuzu's ribs like silk, plunging straight into a heart.
Kakuzu had underestimated him. That lapse cost him dearly.
With one decisive pull, Ren withdrew the blade and body-flickered away. He knew Kakuzu had to be killed five times—each heart destroyed meant the loss of one elemental affinity.
The central mask shattered. Black threads writhed, the broken demon face melting back into Kakuzu's flesh as he dragged himself upright again.
"You… I'll kill you!"
Kakuzu's whole frame trembled with fury. On an eight-million-ryō job, losing a heart was unthinkable.