Chapter 878 : Karma!

Four silhouettes weaved through towering trees which stretched endlessly, their steps swift but calculated. Unbothered by the crisp breeze rustling through the foilage and the distant cries of birds, their sharp eyes scanned the terrain, searching for the faintest disturbances.

One of them suddenly paused near a broken branch, fingers tracing the fresh splinters. "He's close," A cold, feminine voice muttered softly.

Another crouched near a faint indentation in the damp soil, nodding, "He is as cocky as ever. He hasn't bothered hiding his traces at all."

He sounded offended, but the rest didn't react. The one in charge commanded, "No more detours, we're closing in."

Without another word, they pushed forward, their pace quickening as the search neared its climax. With each passing minute, new signs emerged, growing more frequent until, a strong, unmistakable scent filled the air!

The scent immediately angered every one of them! One of them cursed, "It's that bastard! There's no doubt about it!"

Another calmed himself and ordered, "Calm down. Inform Boss first. We'll make our move soon after."

Others calmed down and followed his orders. A couple of minutes later, they followed the scent and a peculiar but familiar sight appeared in front of them. In the middle of the dense forest, a man clad in a demon mask and a sweeping black cloak was seasoning the chicken he was roasting with a blend of exotic spices!

He gently raised his head and looked at the four uninvited guests for a moment before turning his attention back to cooking. Without looking at them, he sighed, "You four again… How many times has it been until now? Are you chasing death or something?"

Controlling his anger, C replied, "Until you pay for your crimes, we will keep hunting you irrespective of the cost!"

As he spoke, C expanded his chakra field to cover the entire area to detect any sneak attacks and traps. Darui grabbed his broadsword and flowed black lightning through it. Samui did the same with her tanto, while Yugito engulfed herself in Matatabi's chakra, forming a cat-shaped cloak around her.

Yet, the person opposite them continued roasting the chicken. If a bystander saw the scene, they would think he couldn't see or sense the Kumo ninjas. However, the Kumo elites had no such delusions.

Instead of taking them seriously, Akuro yawned and said unenthusiastically, "You kids are too weak. Get lost, I don't have much desire to bully you again. Next time, bring that Raikage fellow along. Hopefully he'll put up a better fight."

Surprisingly, Darui and the rest actually stopped flaring their chakra. Darui smiled and said, "If that's what you want, wait here. We have called Boss here. He's running here as we speak. You can fight him to your heart's content."

Having faced Akuro multiple times, Darui and the others knew they weren't his match. If they could avoid fighting until Ay appeared, they had no reason to fight a losing battle.

Unfortunately for them, Akuro scoffed, "Bullshit! That's what you said the last time! However, you liars brought two thousand ninjas to gang up on me instead of one strong ninja! Do you know how much bad karma I accumulated due to that fight? Do you think karma grows on trees? Do you know how many years I'll need to wash off that negative karma?"

C frowned, 'There he goes again, ranting about karma!'

Darui wondered, 'What does he know that we do not? What happens if a person accumulates too much bad karma? We tried analyzing it, but…'

The ninja world was a land stained by blood, where war was never a question of if, but when. In times of peace, most shinobi followed orders and refrained from senseless brutality, unless the mission demanded otherwise. But when great wars erupted, the thin veil of morality was torn away. Villages abandoned all pretenses of honor, and countless shinobi carried out acts so horrific that even the bravest civilians would recoil in terror if they knew the truth.

As such, except a few rare exceptions, nearly every ninja was stained in bad karma. After hearing Akuro repeatedly talk of karma, Kumogakure tried to research it. They studied the history of hundreds of dead ninjas and tried to correlate their actions to their eventual fate.

Unfortunately, the results weren't conclusive. They observed very easily that countless ninjas who committed bad acts met their end very early in their life. However, the result was skewed due to the massive amount of casualties in the Great Ninja Wars. Though the bad ninjas met their end fairly early, so did most of the ninjas who had a good reputation. In addition, there were a few who committed countless atrocities and yet lived on for a long time and died peacefully.

Darui thought, 'We couldn't find any conclusive results despite researching for over 6 months. Perhaps karma does exist, but one lifetime is too short for it to show complete effect. Akuro talks as if he's from a different era. If true, then it may have a bigger impact on the ones who live that long.

Or, there's also the possibility of him being similar to Hidan. The information Konoha sold to us about Akatsuki was sickening. If he's someone similar, then that might explain why he cares so much about karma.

We initially also believed that he could merely be spouting nonsense to confuse us. However, our last clash proved he believes in it. He only killed 158 ninjas despite having a chance to kill several times more. Even though the loss was too high, it could have been catastrophic had he hunted us down while we retreated. I'm afraid we would have lost over half our forces had he been serious about doing so.

Regardless of what it is, there is a lot we want to know from him. Be it his knowledge about karma, his longevity or his array of lightning jutsus…'

Initially, Kumo was hunting Akuro purely to take revenge for the humiliation that he inflicted upon the village. However, as they clashed with him, the goals of the leaders in Kumo changed slightly. While they still wanted revenge, they also craved his knowledge. For Kumo, who wanted to rebuild their forces and catch up with Konoha, knowledge was far more alluring than revenge.

Unfortunately, finding Akuro was an extremely difficult task on its own, let alone capturing him. Excluding the time Akuro raided the Raikage building and barely faced any resistance, Kumogakure had clashed four times with Akuro, but Ay didn't get a chance to face off against Akuro even once. And, every single one of these clashes disrupted their rebuilding plans.

The Kumo ninjas tensed as Akuro finally got up and said, "Oh well, I hope you put up a better performance than last time…"

His words hadn't even faded when Akuro suddenly disappeared, moving straight at the Kumo ninjas at blinding speed!

'Lightning Illusion: Flash Pillar jutsu'

Without weaving a single hand seal, C discharged electricity through his entire body in the form of bright light. It engulfed Akuro instantly, who immediately closed eyes, disrupted his chakra flow and sighed, "This same technique. You should know by now that a technique of this level doesn't work on me… Hmm?"

Akuro's speed slowed as he realized, 'Lightning currents? Along with light, he has also discharged lightning currents. Though they aren't powerful enough to hurt a rank S ninja, they are restrictive… This technique… It's no longer just a Genjutsu…'

A grin appeared behind his mask as he laughed, "A technique that is both a Genjutsu and Ninjutsu… Haha, not bad! You might entertain me for a little while after all."

The Kumo ninjas didn't bother exchanging words with their opponent. C had made a move right after Akuro disappeared. The omni-directional nature of his jutsu meant he didn't need to worry about where Fujin was. Darui immediately sensed the disrupted lightning currents in C's jutsu and made his move.

'Storm Release: Laser Circus jutsu'

A halo of bright energy encircled around Darui's extended hands and from it, countless lightning beams were shot out towards Akuro. Even though he couldn't open his eyes due to C's attack, Akuro easily sensed the powerful Lightning jutsu. He raised his left palm and lightning began flowing through it. A mini-vortex formed in front of his left palm.

Darui controlled his lightning beams, making them approach Akuro from all sides. However, as they closed in on Akuro, they were attracted towards the lightning vortex in front of Akuro's left palm. In the blink of an eye, all the lightning beams were absorbed into the vortex.

No sooner had it happened than Akuro sensed another surge of chakra and caught the faint, high-pitched hum of something slicing through the air. Four tanto, infused with lightning chakra and spinning at high speeds, were already mere meters away from him! Darui knew Akuro would try to absorb his jutsu. His massive attack wasn't meant to harm him but to provide the perfect cover for Samui's follow-up strike!

[A/N: Latest Chapter: Marching to Hunt... Myself]

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