Fairy Tail Vs. Akatsuki; Part 4: Kakuzu Cuts His Losses

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia. 

August 12, x790. 

As Sasuke and Itachi disappeared into the distance to settle things between them, Erza, Sun, and Saeko were rushing at full speed to reach the rest of the members of Akatsuki who were still surrounding Alfonzo. Though, when they got there, it was clear that none of them had any intension of getting in the way of Alfonzo and four of the Six Paths of Pain. 

"You two should give up." Erza aid as she ran neck and neck with Sun and Saeko at her side. "With a sword that big, neither of you will be at an advantage when fighting him." 

"Stop trying to hog all the good fights for yourself, Erza." Sun said in a petulant tone. "You got to fight the last Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, too. Why are you being so selfish?" 

In response, Erza fell silent. Even so, she did not slow down her advance. Instead, she raised her speed even further, causing the other two to increase their speed to match her. Yet, that was not enough for either of the three to get the fight they wanted. 

"[Ice-Make: Geyser]." 

Hearing that familiar, more mature female voice coming from above, Erza, Sun, and Saeko all raised their heads. When they did, they saw Ur, with a pair of ice wings on her back, created from her [Ice-Make Magic], gliding towards the group ahead at a much higher speed than they could run. 

*Bang!* 

A moment later, Ur dispelled the wings on her back, crashing down to the ground in front of the three Fairy Tail swordswoman. At the same time, Ur slammed her hands onto the ground as she cast her spell. 

Shortly afterwards, the temperature of the ground underneath Kisame dropped drastically before it was frozen over. 

"What is this?' Kisame asked as he leapt into the air to avoid being frozen by the ice that had frozen the ground. 

However, just as he thought he had avoided being frozen, Kisame's eyes widened before he lowered his word to shield himself. 

*Boom!* 

Just as Kisame hid himself behind his sword, Samehada, the ice on the ground exploded upwards, shooting sharp chunks of ice at him. 

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* 

And with each impact, although the ice shards were weakened by the special effect of Samehada, which allowed it to absorb magic power, Kisame was sent flying higher and higher into the sky by each successive strike. 

At the same time, the other members of Akatsuki were forced to leap away from the place where the [Ice Geyser] was shooting out of the ground. Unfortunately, that only meant that they had to jump towards the incoming Fairy Tail wizards or Alfonzo, who was already engaging in close quarters combat with the four remaining Paths of Pain. 

"Damn it." Kisame grumbled. "I need to do something about this before I'm too high to land safely." 

With that, Kisame stood atop his sword while he was pushed higher and higher into the air. At the same time, Kisame ran through a string of hand signs before taking a deep breath. 

"[Water-Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave]." Kisame chanted just before exhaling the breath he sucked in moments ago. 

However, instead of air, Kisame spewed a large volume of water. In fact, just from the initial amount of water he exhaled, it was obvious that if Ur did not do something quickly, the entire town of Magnolia would be flooded. 

"Shit…" Ur groaned as she stood up and looked at Kisame, who by now had taken Samehada into his hands again and started actively defending against the rising ice shards. "This is bad. I gotta do something about this fast." 

With that said, Ur took her casting posture. Then, she once again slammed her hands into the ground while chanting her spell. 

"[Ice-Make: Wall]." 

With her magic power flaring wildly, Ur created a giant wall of ice. However, instead of a straight wall, this wall curved, causing the water that Kisame was spewing from his mouth to splash violently against it. And as the water rebounded back towards Kisame, he landed atop the tidal wave with little issue. Meanwhile, Ur's [Ice Geyser] had been made completely useless by the volume of water that washed past it. 

"Thanks for the lift." Kisame said while resting Samehada on his shoulder. "I was thinking we were too close to the others to fight, anyway." 

"Damn it." Ur grumbled. "He's getting away." 

With that, Ur pumped her magic power into her legs. Then, she jumped to the top of the massive ice wall she created to block the water from Kisame's Jutsu. After that, she froze a path atop the water so that she could chase her target. 

Meanwhile, Erza, Sun, and Saeko watched Ur and Kisame disappear into the distance with blank expressions on their faces. 

"All that arguing seems a bit pointless now, doesn't it?" Saeko muttered in disbelief. 

In response, Erza and Sun nodded their heads just as blankly. 

*Bang!* 

However, despite the disappointment they were feeling at having their desired opponent stolen by Ur, Erza, Sun, and Saeko never let their guards down. So, when a small metal canister rolled towards them, they did not even think before jumping away. AS a result, they all managed to get clear of the poisonous gas that was released when the canister exploded. 

"I knew it would not be that easy." Sasori said as he walked through the cloud of poisonous gas. "I wish it would have been, though. Adding the three of you to my collection would have been quite worth it." 

"[Requip: Heaven's Wheell]." Erza chanted as she was covered in a flash of magic power. 

In the next instant, Erza appeared in her [Heaven's Wheel Armor] with a dozen swords floating around her. She then mentally commanded those swords to shoot towards Sasori, who easily evaded them. 

"Is that all you've…" Sasori began to say in a mocking tone before he realized that Erza was never aiming for him in the first place. 

"[Heaven's Wheel: Circle Sword]." Erza chanted. 

With Erza's chant, the swords she fired into the poisonous cloud formed into a circle, with their blades pointing outwards. Then, they began to spin at high speed. As a result, an updraft was created, sending the poisonous gas high into the sky. 

Eventually, the poisonous gas formed a cloud of purple gas in the sky. However, before it would begin to disperse into the air, a bolt of lightning rose from the ground, igniting the cloud, and incinerating the dangerous substance. 

Seeing that, Sasori glanced in the direction of the lightning bolt's origin, which was where Alfonzo was exchanging blows with the Paths of Pain. 

'He's not even struggling with Pain.' Sasori thought to himself. 'To think he has the leisure to split his attention like that. What kind of monster have we provoked?' 

"[Water/Sword Compound Magic: Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin]." Sun chanted, drawing Sasori's attention away from Alfonzo. 

Looking toward the sound of Sun's voice, Sasori was just int time to see her falling from above with [Water magic] coating her sword. However, evading an attack like that was no issue for a shinobi as experienced as he was, even if the body he was in was a bit less agile than most shinobi. 

*Splash!* 

And just like that, Sasori was able to leap away from Sun's landing point. However, when he saw just how easily the compressed layer of [Water Magic] that was coating her blade cut through the ground, he had to do a double take. 

Yet, Sasori could not dwell on that for long. And the reason for that was simple, he could feel a wild, untamed killing intent locked onto him. And when he looked in the direction from which he could feel the killing intent, he saw a young woman with long, purple hair tied into a ponytail staring at him with an unhinged smile on her face while she held her sword and sheath in a Battōjutsu stance. 

"[Flying Heaven's Sword-Style: Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki]." Saeko said, naming her technique. 

"[Requip: Black Wing Armor]." Erza chanted at the same time, changing her suit of armor while repositioning to the opposite side of Sasori. "[Black Wing: Moon Flash]." 

In the next instant, while Erza burst forward, Saeko seemingly disappeared from Sasori's line of sight. A moment later, Erza and Saeko appeared in opposite positions from where they started., each in their final attack posture. 

*Shatter!* 

Then, just as the two swordswomen lowered their swords, Sasori's monstrous form fell apart into six pieces, as Erza had made to lightning quick, diagonal slashes, with Sasori was able to follow with is senses, and Saeko made one horizontal slash that he never saw coming. 

Despite that, Sasori was not so easily defeated, as a figure emerged from the remains of the monstrous creature just before Erza's first slash could land. 

"The two of you destroyed a piece of my art." Sasori said as he looked down at the destroyed monstrous body. "Well, I suppose it was foolish of me to think I could defeat the three of you with such a clunky body." 

"Indeed." Erza said as she turned to face Sasori. "In fact, it is foolish to think you could defeat us at all. I would suggest you surrender and await your punishment." 

"It wouldn't even take all three of us.' Saeko replied while sheathing her sword once again. 

Seeing Saeko's actions, Sasori, who was now in the form of a young man with short, spiky red hair and grey eyes, became wary. 

'I couldn't even see that woman move.' Sasori thought to himself. 'She would actually be able to kill me if I'm not careful. And unlike the other two, she has no issue with killing. No, she looks forward to it. This could be an issue. I suppose I need to find a way to take her weapon away from her. And I think I have the perfect thing for that.' 

"How uncouth…" Erza muttered after getting a good sense for Sasori's new form. "You've almost completely given up your humanity." 

"Ah! You noticed more quickly than I expected." Sasori replied in a monotonous tone as he reached into his Ninja Backpack and retrieved what appeared to be a storage scroll. "But yes, I've replaced nearly all of my body with puppet parts. Now, I don't have any of those common weaknesses that humans have. Quite ingenious, no?" 

Glancing around, Sasori could see the expressions ranging from uncomfortable to disgust spreading across the faces of the three Fairy Tail swordswomen. Even so, he was completely unbothered. Instead, using the effects his words had on the three as a distraction, he quickly unrolled the scroll, revealing that it was, in fact, a storage scroll. 

A moment later, after injecting some of his magic power into the scroll, Sasori was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Meanwhile, Erza, Sun, and Saeko readied themselves for whatever came out of that cloud of smoke. Alfonzo had already let them know that Sasori was a master of not only poisons but the Hidden Sand Village's [Puppet Jutsu]. So, they were ready for those two things and anything in between, as well. 

And just like that, the curtain was about to rise on the second round of this fight. 

Meanwhile, Kakuzu, the only member of Akatsuki who was not drawn into battle, slipped away from the area, planning to disappear and not reappear anywhere near the freaks from Fairy Tail. 

"Damn it…" Kakuzu muttered to himself after carefully weaving through the four on one battle that was Alfonzo Vs. the Paths of Pain. "This is the issue with living as long as I have. You think you've seen it all. So, when Itachi gave us all the update on Fairy Tail's abilities from the Grand Magic Games, I dismissed them as him trying to cover his own inadequacies. *Sigh* The old me would have run as far as I could after hearing a report like that. This is even worse than that time I tried to assassinate that Hashirama moron." 

While continuing to grumble about his lack of self-preservation over the years, Kakuzu eventually distanced himself from the battle field. However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the familiar voice of a male interrupted his monologue. 

"Oh, I've heard that name before." The voice said from a seated position on the limb of a tree. "He was the First Hoshikage of that Village Hidden in the Leaves, right? I think he was that scary woman, Tsunade's grandfather." 

Snapping his head in the direction of the voice, Kakuzu's eyes narrowed as he connected the familiar voice with the face he did not want to see since last month. 

"Gildarts Clive." Kakuzu said quietly. 

"Oh, you remembered me." Gildarts said with a smile. "I'm kind of flattered. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember me, though. I mean, that's what usually happens when I hit someone that hard. They either forget about me from the head trauma or they mentally block me out as a self-defense mechanism." 

With that, Gildarts slid off the tree branch he was sitting on. Then, he dusted off his cloak while walking towards Kakuzu, who was ready to start casting [Ninjutsu] at a moment's notice. 

"*Sigh* Do you really wanna do this the hard way again?" Gildarts asked when he noticed Kakuzu's tense posture. "We both already know how that's gonna end up, don't we? So, how about just surrendering? Then, I'll slap a set of anti-magic handcuffs on you and take you in. Nice and easy, right?" 

Unfortunately, Kakuzu did not lower his guard at Gildarts' suggestion. However, he did put on a contemplative expression. Over the month, Kakuzu had replaced the four hearts that Gildarts destroyed in their last confrontation. So, he was at his peak once again. But at the same time, he knew just how futile fighting Gildarts was. 

*Hum!* 

And when Gildarts grew impatient after not receiving a response and flared his magic power, Kakuzu's decision was made instantly. 

"I didn't sign up to be a death soldier." Kakuzu muttered as he dropped his fighting stance. "I only joined the Akatsuki for the money they offered. And since I doubt the Akatsuki will exist after today, there's no point in fighting for them. And since I don't have an active bounty on me, I doubt I'll be imprisoned for too long, either." 

"Huh?" Gildarts intoned in confusion. He then stopped flaring his magic power before pulling a set of anti-magic handcuffs out of his cloak as he continued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you've surrendered. It's not safe for me to fight this close to the town, after all." 

Kakuzu felt his eyebrow twitch violently when he heard that. 

'And we're supposed to be the terrorist group, right?' Kakuzu thought to himself. 'But I bet all ten of us combined, over the entirety of all our lives, haven't done nearly as much property damage as this guy has.' 

"But how is it possible that you don't have a bounty?" Gildarts asked, continuing while unaware of Kakuzu's thoughts. 

"Because everyone who has put out a hit on me is no longer with us." Kakuzu replied with a shrug as he held his hands out, waiting to be cuffed. "Although I enjoying hunting for bounties, I don't enjoy being hunted for the same, you see?" 

*Click!* 

Not knowing how to respond to that, Gildarts blinked in confusion as he snapped the cuffs around Kakuzu's wrists. However, he found himself even more confused when Kakuzu's body went completely limp after he was cuffed. Luckily, Gildarts reacted quickly enough to catch him before he face-planted into the ground. 

"What the hell just happened to you?" Gildarts asked in a confused tone. 

"With my magic power sealed, I can't control [Earth Grudge Fear]." Kakuzu replied. "So, I can't control my body, which is basically just a bundle of the tendrils created by my [Ninjutsu]." 

"I see." Gildarts replied in an understanding tone, though he did not understand at all. "Well then, I'll take you to one of the special cells Alfonzo made for people with special circumstances. We'll figure out what to do with you after the other fights are finished." 

With that, a second member of Akatsuki was defeated and captured and the battle drew nearer to its conclusion.