The air above the Land of Hot Water crackled with tension, thick with the scent of sulfur and impending violence. Below, bathed in the steam, Kakuzu and Hidan stood, their argument serving as the perfect distraction.
"You fool! The ritual requires blood sacrifice, not mere bounty money!" Hidan ranted, shaking his scythe.
"The bounty is worth twenty million Ryo, idiot! We secure the money first, then you can indulge your twisted god," Kakuzu snarled, adjusting the black threads that held his limbs together.
Naruto, perched on the ridge, viewed the scene through the enhanced sensory perception of the Chakra Kekkai no Me (Chakra Barrier Eye). He could see their chakra networks clearly: Hidan's radiating chaotic, dark energy; Kakuzu's stable, yet complex web, linking his five separate hearts.
"Hidan is the immediate threat. He must be isolated and neutralized completely. The chains must be surgical," the Collective advised.
Naruto didn't rely on stealth. He needed an opening created by chaos. He tossed the three Chakra Hōkai no Jutsu-infused kunai into the air.
Flick. Flick. Flick.
The first two kunai landed near Kakuzu's feet, barely missing him. The third embedded itself harmlessly in the ground near Hidan. They were decoys.
But the moment they touched the earth, Naruto activated the sealing technique.
"Chakra Hōkai!"
A concentrated surge of chakra-disrupting energy erupted from the kunai near Kakuzu, targeting his complex Ninjutsu manipulation centers. Kakuzu, prepared to unleash a barrage of elemental masks, felt his ability to form Nature Transformation instantly seize up. His hands froze in mid-sign.
"What? My jutsu… it won't flow!" Kakuzu roared, stunned by the instantaneous neutralization of his core power.
Hidan, distracted by the flash of the seals, spun his triple-bladed scythe towards the source of the kunai, focusing only on the chaos.
That was the crucial, split-second opening Naruto needed.
"Kishin no Kōsa!"
Naruto shot out of the steam, unleashing two incredibly fast, thin, silver-blue chakra chains. These were not the massive, heavy chains used to capture Itachi; these were precise, surgical weapons honed by the Collective.
The first chain lashed out and wrapped around Hidan's body, securing his arms to his sides.
The second chain was aimed with merciless accuracy. It hit Hidan's neck with a silent, blinding flash of light and pulled back.
Snick.
Hidan's head was instantly, cleanly severed from his body.
The act was so fast, the cut so precise, that Hidan didn't even have time to scream. His body crashed to the ground, the eyes in his head still wide with shock and confusion.
"HAHAHA! You foolish Konoha whelp! You just made me angry! I can't die, you imbecile! My curse—"
Hidan's headless body thrashed, still alive, driven by the dark power of Jashin. But it was flailing blindly, unable to utilize its full power without its central consciousness.
Naruto ignored the carnage. He had neutralized the greater strategic threat. He focused his full attention on the enraged, paralyzed Kakuzu.
"Hidan!" Kakuzu bellowed, momentarily forgetting his own predicament. "I told you to be more careful!"
"Your concern for him is irrelevant," Naruto's cold voice cut through the steam. "You are alone, and you cannot use Ninjutsu."
Kakuzu was forced to rely purely on Taijutsu and his superhuman physical strength, enhanced by the thick, black threads of the Jiongu technique that held his bodies together. He lunged at Naruto, his fist the size of a boulder.
Naruto met the punch with the pure kinetic absorption of the Sōzō no Fūin (Creation's Seal).
Vwoom.
The impact was negated. Kakuzu's colossal force simply vanished, converted into inert chakra as it struck the sealing barrier on Naruto's arm.
"Another defensive seal? What are you? A walking tomb?" Kakuzu demanded, his eyes glinting with avarice.
"I am the one who collects the price of your immortality."
Naruto did not seek a killing blow. He sought disassembly. He needed to sever the thread conduits that connected Kakuzu's main body to his four masks/hearts.
He activated Kishin no Kōsa again, but this time, he sent dozens of thin, whiplike chains targeting Kakuzu's back and chest. The chains were too fast and numerous to deflect. They pierced the threads connecting his limbs and his secondary bodies.
Kakuzu screamed as he felt the threads—the very essence of his life-preserving technique—begin to snap. His limbs went limp, and two of his elemental mask bodies, which were tethered to his back, dropped inertly to the ground.
Three hearts remaining.
Kakuzu, wounded and isolated, pulled back, staggering. He looked down at the inert masks, then at the sealed Hidan head rolling in the dirt, and finally at the relentless, silver-eyed boy. Pure fear—an emotion he hadn't felt in decades—washed over him.
"You are terrifying," Kakuzu whispered. "You are worse than the First Hokage."
"The First Hokage protected Konoha," Naruto replied, his voice flat and empty. "I protect nothing. Only vengeance."
Naruto moved in for the final, critical strike. He aimed four Ryū-jin no Tsume taps at Kakuzu's core body—one for the remaining threads of his limbs, and three directly aimed at the points where his three remaining hearts were housed beneath the skin.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The seal-detonations were instantaneous. Kakuzu's body seized up completely. The flow of chakra to his hearts was sealed, then momentarily detonated, shattering the intricate chakra-based vitality that kept them pumping.
Kakuzu collapsed, his body convulsing, the four elemental masks now inert on the ground. He was dying a slow, agonizing death as his sealed hearts failed one by one.
Naruto knelt beside the dying Kakuzu. "Where are the Jinchūriki being held?"
Kakuzu, clutching his chest, gasped out one final piece of intelligence before his eyes glazed over: "The Vault… near… Amegakure… Pain's territory…"
Naruto immediately activated a unique, non-lethal Uzumaki sealing technique he had prepared: Fūin Jutsu: Shindō no Tobira (Sealing Technique: Vibration Gate).
He sealed the now-defenseless Kakuzu and the two inert elemental masks into a custom scroll—not to kill them, but to contain them for future use or interrogation.
Finally, he walked over to Hidan's still-thrashing body and his cursing head.
"You asked for eternal sacrifice, Hidan," Naruto said, scooping up Hidan's head. "You will serve Jashin forever, alone."
Naruto used the Kishin no Kōsa to cleanly seal both Hidan's head and his body into two separate, unbreakable Containment Seals on two different scrolls, ensuring the two halves of his immortality could never reunite. He would scatter the scrolls across the globe later.
With the two most difficult-to-kill Akatsuki members defeated and contained, Naruto had decimated the organization's combat power.
"Your path is clear, descendant. Now, the final act of this stage: Jiraiya and Tsunade will be seeking to capture you. You must face them to prove your absolute dedication to this path," the Collective intoned.
Naruto looked toward the Land of Fire, his silver eyes reflecting the coming bloodshed. The Sannin were next.