Chapter 199: Perfect Jinchuriki

Kakuzu died a truly unjust death.

Seriously, quite unjust.

Normally, his combat style should have been to use close-quarters fighting first to test his opponent's elemental affinity. With the ability to harden body parts without seals at any time and an effective immortal body, he could usually take a huge advantage in battles.

If he discovered his opponent wasn't a Lightning Release user, then things became even simpler: form the seals for his full-body Hardening and stand still as a turret. If it were an extremely fast opponent, that would just lure them closer, and with his Earth-Spear's hardening plus black threads that could lurk underground for sneak attacks, he had a formulaic style that often proved unstoppable except against certain freakish monsters.

Even the Sharingan wasn't especially scary to him—once fully hardened, he was basically "adamantine." Without a special elemental advantage like the unstoppable "Amaterasu" from the Uchiha or the Tsuchikage's Dust Release, few could overcome his defense.

But in today's fight, right from the start, Linck grabbed his black threads. Kakuzu's body lost control, causing a momentary slip in chakra control.

Because he had been relying on his masked creatures for years, his own chakra control (hand seals stat) wasn't all that high (just a 7). So that slip messed up his chakra flow. Earth-Spear fizzled out. He was then mobbed by the shadows. After a struggle, forcibly using three masked creatures simultaneously, he did manage to repel Linck and the shadows.

The moment he tried reactivating Earth-Spear for full-body hardening, the child's Sharingan hit him with a Genjutsu. Forced to break the illusions by disturbing his own chakra flow, Earth-Spear ended again in vain.

Stuck in a water prison, there was no chance to form hand seals. After breaking free, he dared not remain in place to form seals: once Earth-Spear hardened his body, he'd get heavier and forced to stand, basically letting enemies wail on him. If it were almost anyone else, he'd shrug off the hits, but with Linck specifically, he couldn't risk that.

As a result, the normally unstoppable "bully-lower-level-ninjas" style turned against him. Perpetually scrambling to defend and flee, greed also blinded him further, and in the end, he tumbled deeper and deeper into death.

"Kakuzu and Hidan are so disappointing,"

White Zetsu commented, expression full of mock glee despite sounding "disappointed."

"Itachi didn't even get involved; the two of them both got taken out by Linck."

"Plus, their rings have ended up in Linck's hands. That's going to be a big problem for our subsequent plans!"

He said it in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone, corners of his mouth turning up as though thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

Black Zetsu, on the other hand, couldn't find any pleasure in it. Initially, it suspected that Itachi would fight Kakuzu for the "prize" named Linck. But now there was no fight to watch—one year and Akatsuki had already lost three strong rogue-nin, all thanks to one kid.

If this kept up—given Tobi's idling schemes, Nagato's short-sightedness, and an Akatsuki whose unity was unraveling—just how many years would they need to gather the Tailed Beasts to resurrect Mother?

Damn it all,

Black Zetsu inwardly cursed. By rights, it shouldn't be so emotional—it was literally immortal, it could fail countless times as long as it succeeded once. But they'd gotten so close to success. The nearer the success, the harder it was to accept a sudden setback.

With the Rinnegan awakened in the Indra reincarnate and years of Tailed Beast intel gathered, all that was left was the small matter of re-sealing the soon-to-revive Three-Tails. They ought to have completed the final goals in time.

Yet the plan had taken a drastic turn. Letting Tobi keep stalling while Pain and Konan dawdled—who knew if Akatsuki would hold together long enough to gather all the Tailed Beasts?

It'll be necessary to find a chance to revive Madara sooner…

Black Zetsu considered fresh plans. Gazing from afar at Linck, who seemed proud of himself for the victory, Black Zetsu calmed its mood. This brat was growing too fast; his abilities were too unpredictable, impossible to read thoroughly. If they let Tobi and Nagato keep stalling, they might never round up the Tailed Beasts before Akatsuki fell apart.

…

"Looks like you don't need me anymore,"

Sasori re-sealed his puppet into its scroll and, after tucking it into his sleeve, said calmly:

"If that's the case, our collaboration can wait for another time."

He took a step, only to see Link's shadows block his path.

"Have I given you permission to leave?"

Link turned, narrowing his eyes at Sasori of the Red Sand.

"Wait!"

The Suna shinobi called Mukade came rushing, face tense, shouting,

"Lord Linck, Sasori-sama is no longer a rogue-nin. He's currently a jōnin of Sunagakure!"

"...?"

Link was a bit astonished. He had never imagined Sasori would return to Suna. Could it be a lie? But that sort of lie would be easy to debunk.

Sasori took out another scroll and tossed it toward the shadows—he knew throwing it to Link was pointless; the kid would never accept something from his hand directly.

"Inside is the location of one of Orochimaru's bases as well as a method to summon Sunagakure's messenger hawks. Whenever you have time, you can send a hawk to contact me."

Link thought it over and motioned for his shadows to give way. Right now, he still had no solution to Sasori's space-time manipulations—actually, he had no real means to forcibly keep Sasori from fleeing. If not for that, he'd never allow them so much chatter. "Better to keep Utakata from slipping away," he decided.

On the side, Mukade eyed them worriedly—handing your own village's hawk-summoning method to a foreign ninja? That might be dangerous. In the end, he remained silent. Quietly, he followed Sasori away.

"Now, are we going to fight?"

Utakata had begun drawing on Saiken's chakra. Facing someone who easily destroyed that guy with black threads, Utakata knew he couldn't hold back.

"No." Link gave a small smile, sounding quite unhurried, "You have to figure out how to struggle or run."

"How arrogant of you!" Utakata' expression showed anger; any prior goodwill vanished. "You think I'll be as pathetic as those two?"

"Mng—ngh—!"

Hidan, lacking tongue and teeth, was nonetheless alive, uttering vague howls, spitting out a mouthful of blood as though wanting to spit the Jinchūriki to death.

Link spread his hand, palm up, slowly curling his fingers:

"Whether we wipe away one speck of dust or two, it looks no different to the naked eye."

"You…!"

Utakata, outraged, recognized that this unbelievably proud speech left no possibility of courtesy. Realizing that close combat would be lethal and not wanting to be entangled by shadows, he prepared to let the Tailed Beast's power rampage. Judging by what happened to Kakuzu and Hidan, this settlement had likely evacuated any civilians by now. Then let's see him try controlling a rampaging beast!

Rage flickered in his eyes, though he wore a slight smile. From behind him grew a single tail made of luminous Tailed Beast chakra. Then Utakata' entire body was shrouded in that power.

"Don't you dare die on me, kid!"

His words came out garbled, muffled by a cloak of Tailed Beast chakra.

Perfect.

Link's expression remained lofty, his heart filled with excitement as he considered how to exploit capturing a Jinchūriki.

~~~

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