51

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. He recognized this attire, this is it, Ghost's infamous assassination squad.

The bounty was a trap to draw him out. Kakuzu laughed like crazy. He never expected that he would fall into a trap after so many years. He is getting rusty.

"Heh. It was a good trap, I must give it to you, I should have figured that 4 billion plus the bingo bounty is way too much for a single head"

The masked Anbu shrugged, and all of a sudden, in a splendid arc a blade pierced Kakuzu's heart out of nowhere with the Anbu standing behind Kakuzu. The Anbu in front disappeared with a puff of smoke revealing itself as a clone.

The Anbu stares at Kakuzu's body with confusion, how come an S-class is hammered so easily right off the bat?!

He leans to the side narrowly evading the chakra-infused fist that would turn an ordinary man's head into a pulp with an amused smile.

"Sure enough, the one who died was a clone...

Sliding out of the upcoming shadow's reach he darts back while flickering with his fingers as his figure turns into three with a poof of smoke. Using the shadow clone Jutsu, the Anbu takes melee once again. It is a dance of death.

"Leaf Style: Cresent Moon Dance!", The shadow clones all spun around his adversary, in a crescent moon pattern.

Kakuzu on the other hand kicked at the incoming clone, and dodged a combination strike from two others, but ended up in the path of another, the Anbu clones and his adversary trade blows, faster than the eye can see, and in an instant, his clones close in before detonating at once hurling earth and shrapnel.

To Konoha Anbu's amusement, Kakuzu emerges from the dust cloud unscathed, as his figure that laid dead on the ground disappeared with a poof of smoke.

"Come now", The Anbu purred. "You actually thought that was gonna work on me?!"

"Of course not," Kakuzu retorted, "It would not have been fun otherwise"

Kakuzu's features curled in amusement. Reaching into his cloak he quickly withdrew a smoke pellet, hurling it into the ground. In an instant Kakuzu was enveloped in a choking smog of smoke, hidden from sight. Though it proved to be useless as the Anbu's wind Jutsu, simply blew the distraction away with its force.

The Anbu saw that flicker of surprise on his face. In the plume of smoke from before, Kakuzu was replaced by, of all things--- a chair. In his vision, the Anbu detected a trace of movement, and there was Kakuzu hurling a salvo of kunai in the Anbu's direction, whipping in the wind in their wake.

The Anbu showed incredible grace and agility as he flip back the incoming barrage of kunai, blocking the rest using his own kunai that he took out from his hostler.

The Anbu's concentration was interrupted by a hiss as another pellet, presumably dropped during the time when the Anbu was dodging the hail of kunai.

Boom!!!

A huge explosion took place and the sheer winds accompanying Anbu's relentless drive cut through the cloud of smoke with the fire still burning his forearm arm's clothes, dealing a horrendous blow to what initially appeared to be Kakuzu, only to be replaced by a chair at the very last second.

The blazing fire on the Anbu's arm exploded, as the Anbu blocked the incoming punch from Kakuzu that sent him hurtling to the back of the area, continuing to go back until he the solid wall, which he crashed through. "Ugh" was all the Anbu said, as he felt pain all over from the unceremonious punch and colliding with the wall.

A direct hit from Kakuzu means powerful repercussions, Using Earth Release: Earth spear, Kakuzu's body is hard as a diamond. The powerful punch of Kakuzu is great indeed.

Capable of breaking bones of even the hardest of the shinobis.

"I kind of expected more from you", Kakuzu said as he lavishly emerges from within the dust cloud frowning because the Anbu disappeared in thin air.

"Yea", The Anbu emerges from the dust cloud from behind Kakuzu, "I kinda expected from you as well", He said as he took his time confronting Kakuzu once more, a trail of blood seeped from his forehead and mouth, and taking a shortcut between his eyes, followed the same path down to his chin.

His clothes were tattered, with fake skin hanging out from his face.

Kakuzu smirked, "You wear fake skin?! Don't worry, it won't matter anymore, you are going to die soon enough anyway"

A dreadful smirk possessed the Anbu, embedding a vile aspiration of sin within his being, which he conveyed ferociously through his scorching eyes; the opponent is more powerful than he first imagine, but what did he expect from an S-class? However, in this heat of battle, he feels more at home than anywhere else.

Kakuzu has shown his strength. All that remained to be seen now, was his own counter-attack.

Utilizing the detonation between them as a means to conceal his movements, the Anbu plunged his arm onto the ground, channeling his flame-attributed chakra, prompting cracks to form all over the wooden surface. The entire place seemed as though it was suddenly trembling in fear of the Anbu's might, as a volcano began to form beneath Kakuzu's feet, ready to erupt within a moment's notice and unleash upon him a scorching hot geyser.

Kakuzu clicked his tongue in annoyance at seeing the straightforward attack while simple but still deadly. He could feel the surface beneath him groaning, as cracks splintered outward from the wood emanating from their crevices.

The low rumbling gave way to a booming crescendo as the ground began oozing out streams of white-hot flame. He had precious little time to admire the apocalypse before he somersaulted backward, evading the follow-up cascading eruptions, before slamming a palm onto the ground and wrenching a massive slab of earth.

Timing it right he flipped himself forward, reorienting the rock, and just in time, yet another geyser burst open beneath him.

During the entire process, Kakuzu did not take single burn damage while every single person in the bar turned to ashes, and the missing-nin just scrambled out of the bar, the S-rank bounty hunter, Kakuzu on the other hand used his incredible mastery on the hardening technique to protect his body thoroughly.

When the chaos slowed down, Anbu's eyes glare at the empty burning wasteland that greeted his eyes. Kakuzu has disappeared in thin air within the mess. The Anbu ripped the torn fake skin that still barely hanging on his face, showing off his real face.

...

"Damn it!! One day I am definitely gonna kill that guy! And dig his heart out!!"

Within the dark and stinking underground space, with very little source of light, Kakuzu walks on the narrow road that opens to the forest outside. Kakuzu, who somehow managed to escape had his green eyes filled with extreme anger.

"Ah, do you want my heart? You can't do that..."

However, accompanied by the cynical voice, Kakuzu saw a figure in a mask already standing behind him.

"How did you-"

The Anbu amused, "You didn't think it was gonna be this easy to escape from us, did you?!"

"You are pushing your luck too far!!", Kakuzu said as he remove his cloak, revealing four masks on his back and tons of stitches. Suddenly the stitches on his back broke, and a series of black mysterious tentacles emerged from him. They looked like they were growing out of his body taking the masks along with him.

"You know, I did not think that you can be such a pain in the ass. I guess that's the testament to your skills", Kakuzu said with four tentacles creatures behind him, "Now let's fight for real"

The Anbu smirked, sure enough, Jiraiya sama always comes through with the right information. Before coming here he knows about Taki Village and their most treasured secret technique. The one that turned Kakuzu into an immortal.

As Kakuzu lifted a hand and weaved through the hand signs, the wind-masked tentacle beast opened its mouth, using the wind style: pressure damage, and unleashing a raging torrent of wind in underground space. In mere moments, the entire underground space is flooded with the winds raging and swirling wildly, causing the walls to get destroyed, and the ceiling crumbling down, rubbles and dust covered the area, the water level rises up, and the entire cavern floor explodes in a flurry of dust and debris.

Using the utter chaos Kakuzu disappeared yet again.

The Anbu came out from the crumbled underground space with a few scratches here and there, dusting himself off, he brought a communication sealing tag out, "Leader, this guy is scared enough but-", The Anbu said nothing.

Instead, the voice from the seal tag said, "Let's increase the intensity a bit. Gather up everyone", Ghost ordered the entire squad, and the Anbu grinned

...

It's been a few hours since the Anbu ambushed Kakuzu, and Kakuzu finally arrived at the border between the country of fire and the country of rain.

He is no fool. He could tell that the Anbu who was confronting him wasn't surprised when he saw his secret technique. Though he was pretty sure of his victory, Kakuzu chose to escape instead, who knows how many of those were there, just one guy was so tough to deal with. Anything more than one of these guys and he is sure to die.

He deliberately wandered in the country of fire for several hours using different means possible; hiding his tracks in more than one place. Sighing Kakuzu put a bamboo hat on his head and looked at the country of rain in front of him, his eyes carrying an incomprehensible light gleaming in his green pupils.

Kakuzu walked through the forest, the trees and shrubs rubbing against his dark cloth. As he trudged on, he noticed something strange. As if a gentle gust of wind blew through the forest, grazing the leaves and branches.

Suddenly the killing in the air around him became more and more apparent as if countless blades shook and collided like wind chimes.

Kakuzu held his Kunai with a hand sign ready, his eyes watching everything surrounding him. But even after a while, he found nothing.

Rumbling.

The sky, which had been darkened all of a sudden, made a dull sound as if it was about to rain heavily at any time.

Further a mere moment and there were already bean-sized raindrops falling quickly, hitting Kakuzu's wooden hat.

"Talk about bad timing", Kakuzu was at an all-time high alert, the sudden rain has somehow increased the killing intent roaming in the air. He thought about running, but he knows that the moment he let his guard down he will be killed immediately despite being immortal.

It's the game of patience now. Whoever loses his cool first will die first.

In the sky, raindrops fall like comets hitting the ground and splashing in pieces with a sound. The temperature in the air decreased by a huge margin. The suffocating thick mist began to cover his surroundings rather quickly.

Murderous intent hangs in the air, death looms over the horizon. Kakuzu gulped, not daring to make the first move in this tense situation. This thick mist will do nothing to him, he is very proficient in taking care of water release: hidden in the mist users, but the problem here is the deathly aura within the mist. It's like a screaming tsunami, suffocating. Making him very uncomfortable.

The rain curtain dropped at a rather quick speed, as the raindrops smashed into the ground, the sky rumbled with lightning, and with a flash of sudden lightning, Kakuzu saw a pair of eyes staring at him hidden within the curtain of the rain and the mist.

"Who are you?", Kakuzu asked as he readied to defend himself.

The shadow offers him nothing as the pair of eyes from within the mist disappeared without a trace and got covered by the thick fog. Suddenly with a thudding noise, thunder roared overhead, and lightning crackled with a roar.

Kakuzu concentrated his chakra, sensing the presence of many people lurking in the forest, watching him carefully, he tried to sense their chakra, so many of them, all dangerous, but there was one that shook his soul to the core, carrying a dangerous aura, someone who is both terrifying and extraordinary. He knew the name already, "Ghost", he muttered.

The darkening sky rumbled once again, lightning crackled with a roar; flash and thunder struck simultaneously and Ghost was already standing in front of the S-class bounty hunter with a sheathed sword in his hand.

The killing intent in the forest intensified and the rest of the squad appeared out of the fog.

Kakuzu took a step back, his heart was beating so fast; it feels like his heart would burst out from his chest at any time. His breathing was shallow and short. He could hear the pulse of blood flowing in his ears. This much killing intent is simply out of his league.

Kakuzu glared at Ghost and shouted angrily at him, "Why are you after me?"

"Simple. I have a job for you", Ghost said calmly...