Chapter 32: Chapter 31: Hidan
"I will be sending out multiple search parties to find these Akatsuki members. Everyone will mobilize tomorrow. Get what you need to prepare" Tsunade says to me a few days later.
"I'll go check in on Naruto's training before I go. Pull Jiraiya back home soon from his scouting, he will need to take Naruto to the toad mountain soon for sage training. And remember, do not allow Jiraiya to enter the Rain village for any reason. Input the extra intel I gave you into the platoons data so everyone has it. I don't know exactly where the two immortals will be." I remind the Hokage before taking my leave.
I arrive at Naruto's training site, where a huge cliff has been formed with a flowing waterfall. Yamato seriously has some crazy strong jutsu's at his disposal.
"What is he working on now?" I ask Kakashi quietly as I walk up to him from where he's 'supervising' Naruto's training. He's actually just laid out reading his book like usual.
"He's using his wind to cut the waterfall now. He's almost got it now." He says, and I look again at the 50 or so Naruto clones pressing into the water.
"He has such incredible amounts of chakra. Think he could use a little motivation?" I smirk up at Kakashi, who hums in agreement.
"Naruto, dispel your clones and come down here a moment." Kakashi calls out to the boy. Naruto does as he's told and comes down to us quickly.
"Ami, what are you doing here?" Naruto asks me curiously. "I'm in the middle of training." He grumbles out.
"I can see that." I observe sarcastically. "I figured you could use a little motivation." I grin at him, then jump up to his tree platform he had just left. I turn and call down to him. "Your goal is to cut the waterfall, right? I may not have your insane reserves of chakra, but I do have the experience. Just watch!" I then place my hands out towards the waterfall, and picture a long wind blade in my mind. I channel my chakra, and slice the entire waterfall in half.
"That was amazing!" Naruto yells as I jump back down to join him. "You didn't even use clones."
"I pictured a long sword, basically." I shrug to him. Even Kakashi and Yamato look shocked at what I just did. "Listen, Naruto, do you remember when I was there training the rasengan with you?"
"You were?" Naruto asks, and I hit him on the head.
"Yes, idiot. I was literally there the entire time. I even practiced the first two steps with you." I say bitterly to him. How could he forget?
"Oh yeah! I remember now." He says nervously, clearly lying.
"I swear..." I sigh out, then move on. "Ok, well if you remember, I was the one who told you back then about adding a second hand to move the chakra in different ways. It worked well for the training, and we both moved on to the rubber balls. Do you remember why I stopped learning?" I ask, and he looks away sheepishly. "I stopped because I got cocky and tried to add wind nature chakra at that stage. I sliced my hands so badly I had to stop the training." I say, unwrapping my constantly wrapped right hand and showing him the old scars I had gotten. His eyes widen in shock from it. "You burnt your hands, but your nine tails chakra healed them almost instantly. Wind, however, is much more dangerous than just extra chakra. If you advance your training further, and incorporate the wind into your regular moves, you have to be careful to contain the wind and not let it blow back to you. Make three clones for me please." I demand nicely of him, and he complies in confusion and makes the clones.
"Ok, I'm going to cut this one with just wind chakra, just like I did to that waterfall just now." I say, going to the first clone and slicing it in half. "This one, I'm going to cut with wind chakra that's uncontained, like when we were training as kids." I move to the next clone, and put a lot of force into a wind attack instead of precision. "See the difference? My attack was less precise, but more powerful and dangerous. If I had let that hit myself or my comrades, it would have caused severe permanent damage."
"That second one hurt so much, I could feel the difference. It was insane." Naruto says in disbelief. "What's the third one for?" He points to his third clone.
I smirk at him, "I had to make the wind attacks my own, and make them unique for me and my abilities. Basically, I created an all new way of using wind. Watch." I walk to the last one, and combine the wind with my Gentle Fist technique.
"Ah!!" Naruto yells out when his clone dispels and returns to him. "What the heck was that?! I barely saw anything, but that pain..."
"I combined my Gentle Fist with the wind, and targeted your clone's chakra points." I inform him proudly and watch Kakashi and Yamato look shocked again. "I use it on a larger scale with my fans, where the attack targets the chakra network and creates micro blades that slice quickly with the wind. It took me a long time to figure out how to fine tune that one, and even now I have to be very careful on when to use it. I think you can take some of your specialty moves and use the wind in them, you just have to be very careful. If you or your comrades get caught in them, it can be deadly." I warn him seriously. He nods and thinks for a moment, then he gets back to work with new determination.
"You're heading out now?" Kakashi asks me seriously once it was just me and him again.
"Yes. I just hope my changes are enough. The platoon we had stationed for defense at the Fire temple was already destroyed, these Akatsuki guys are freaks. I'll use my plan, and my backup plans if need be. I'll bring our friend home, Kakashi. Alive." I vow to him seriously. "Just get Naruto training with the wind and then head out and meet us if need be. He's stupid, but he's strong and inventive. Keep things simple for him, and he'll get it. He's ready." I take my leave then after Kakashi nods with resolve.
"Asuma, your platoon will have an extra member. Take Ami Hyuga with you since you are heading to the temple." Tsunade orders the next day as all the platoons are gathered before our proper dismissal.
"Ami." Shikamaru and Asuma say in surprise as I go to join their squad. The other members are Izumo and Kotetsu, who also greet me with a smile.
"Hey guys. I'm gonna join you on this mission, something tells me you're gonna have all the fun." I say with fake enthusiasm. If they notice it's fake, they don't comment on it.
We head out at once, our destination is the Fire Temple first. We get there after a day of travelling, all the while Shikamaru and I plan out potential attacks. This time, we all know in advance about the ritual of Hidan and about Kakuzu's multiple hearts. Tsunade cleverly put it in as 'intel' received from our fallen comrades.
When we get to the destroyed temple, the remaining monks tell us about what happened. They inform us that Chiriko, one of the lead monks, was killed and taken by the Akatsuki members to a collection center. We move out at once to the nearest location to the temple.
"They're there, I can see them." I call out to my team, using my Byakugan to see the two immortals ahead. "Call out for backup immediately, have them converge on that location right away." I order, and Izumo sends out a message for backup to the nearest teams.
We pause and go over last minute strategies before moving in. I take off my weights I'm wearing, which currently total almost 300 kilograms. I have spent the last three years slowly increasing them again, even if they are nowhere near as much as Lee wears, it's still a significant amount.
"There's only one right now, let's move in." Asuma orders, and we set out. We surround Hidan, each of us launching an attack on them. Hidan uses his scythe to try and attack Asuma, but Asuma's too fast and dodges effectively. I summon Ningame, he and I have been working on this for a while now, so he knows the drill.
"Incoming, Shika!" I call out, seeing Kakuzu appearing quickly from out of the collection center and running at Shikamaru for an attack.
I use my speed and get there in time, pushing Shikamaru out of the way of the attack. I take out a small syringe in one hand, and throw shuriken at Kakuzu as a distraction while I lean in close enough to stab the tiny needle into him and steal his blood while he's getting minor cuts in his arm from the blades. I run out of there, glancing down to see the vial full of just enough blood for Plan A to work.
"Izumo, Kotetsu, Ami, regroup!" Asuma calls out. We all move back to our positions together as a group, with Shikamaru securely in the center. He is not a physical fighter, and we will need his strategic mind working until the very end.
"He really is immortal." Izumo says quietly as Hidan pulls his and Kotetsu's great swords out of his body, completely unphased by the attacks.
"Wait for the right moment, Ningame." I whisper down to the tortoise, who nods in agreement.
"You found a good bounty, Hidan. That's Asuma Sarutobi, he's got a large bounty on his head." Kakuzu says to his teammate.
"Kakuzu, don't interfere. These guys will be my sacrifices to Jashin." Hidan says with a crazed tone, and he starts to use the blood from his wound to make his diagram on the ground.
"Fine. Don't let your guard down." Kakuzu says, and stands back from the battle. I keep an eye on him with my Byakugan, but otherwise focus on Hidan for now.
"I'll charge at him, it's our best chance for you to trap him with your shadow binding. When I create an opening, Shikamaru can bind him. You others, guard Shikamaru and prepare for an attack." Asuma says, his tone nervous and we can see he's panicking.
"That's too risky, and not one of our plans." Shikamaru argues quietly. Asuma starts to panic more and claims it's the only plan that will work. He's spooked right now.
"Asuma, just be careful. Don't get cut." I warn him, but let him follow out his plan. This will all be a part of Plan A, but I have backups ready just in case.
Asuma runs in at Hidan swiftly, his chakra blades out and channeling his wind chakra. They fight well for a moment, Asuma destroying the shuriken thrown at him and avoiding the giant scythe.
"Now!" I call out quietly and urgently to Ningame, and we activate our joint genjutsu.
I had seen Hidan graze Asuma's cheek, and started mentally crafting the fake scenario for the jutsu. I use a combination of my insanely enhanced speed that I have without my weights and Ningame making me appear as if I haven't moved, and I rush to Hidan's scythe. I instantly wipe Asuma's blood off and replace it with Kakuzu's, and head over to where Asuma is, the genjutsu making everyone think I'm over by Shikamaru.
We unfortunately couldn't get it so the illusion only works on certain people, I'm not skilled enough to target like that, but I can at least cast a strong enough one to create a fake scenario and everyone nearby believes it enough. Ningame says the best genjutsu's don't alter reality all that much, so the more believable a scenario is, the better. I have the luck of knowing how this scene plays out already, so I use that as my biggest advantage.
I see Hidan lick his scythe right as Asuma uses his fire ash jutsu to surround Hidan. I can see Hidan going to his diagram on the ground, and I summon my scythe in preparation. Asuma ignites the ash and causes it all to explode around Hidan. I focus on the genjutsu, strengthening my mind to make everyone, even Kakuzu, believe it was Asuma who was hit. I know I only have a few seconds before the pain in Kakuzu will kick in and make him realize he's in a genjutsu.
"Asuma!" My teammates all call out to Asuma as I knock him down to the ground in timing with the attack. He's not actually injured, I just need him in the position for a moment. I make everyone see him being burnt as well.
"Captain Asuma's attack hurt himself, how!? Is he in the ritual?!" Kotetsu calls out in fear.
I smirk as I swoop in unseen and use my scythe to slice off Hidan's head, cutting it clean off his shoulders as it rolls a good distance away. I couldn't focus on crafting the illusion that I'm standing by my teammates anymore, so everyone stares at me in horror as I sliced Hidan's head off, all of them thinking I just doomed Asuma to death.
"Ami?! What have you done?!" Shikamaru screams out in disbelief to me, but we are all distracted as Kakuzu crumbles to the ground. I drop the genjutsu, no longer able to focus on it anymore.
"Hey, what the hell was that?!" Hidan screams out from his loose head.
"Shikamaru, Plan Delta!" I call out, but he's still reeling in shock, his eyes taking in Asuma who is standing back up, perfectly fine. "Shikamaru!" I say more firmly, my focus turning to Kakuzu entirely.
Kakuzu is standing back up slowly, glaring at me resentfully, "That was awfully clever. How could you possibly have known how to counter Hidan's ritual so quickly?" He takes in my appearance for a moment. "Wait, I know you. White eyes and a reaper scythe, you're the White Reaper! You have a good sized bounty as well. I will enjoy collecting it." He adds darkly to me.
My teammates all freeze for a second, hearing the name of one of the deadliest assassins that's been going around for the last two years. I grin arrogantly at Kakuzu in response, but shoot my look again at Shikamaru to get on with the plan. He realizes what's going on then, and he finally uses his shadow stitching to pierce into Hidan's body, ripping it apart into pieces.
One down.
"My body! Kakuzu, do something!" Hidan's head calls out angrily to his partner.
Kakuzu immediately goes in on the attack at me. I notice his speed is insane and so is his strength as I use the scythe to block his attack barely in time. He rams me into a tree, using only his blackened fist to hold me down. I smirk at him confidently, all my years of training with Guy Sensei is about to pay off.
"You're strong and fast. But I was trained by Konoha's Noble Green Beast, you don't even compare." I say arrogantly, and use my strength to throw back his fist. I can see with my Byakugan that one of his hearts masks is crumbled and destroyed from when I killed Hidan. I use my scythe and swing at him, but he's too fast and the large weapon is slowing me down.
Asuma joins me quickly, and I can see Izumo and Kotetsu setting up their joint attack sticky sap trap. I angle my attacks to lead Kakuzu to the sap while Asuma uses his chakra blades to push him further into it. Kotetsu uses his giant weird flying mace weapon to slam into the spot where Kakuzu was right before the immortal dodged.
"It missed!" I call out, seeing through the dust with my eyes. I watch as the sap from Izumo follows the mace weapon underground and then successfully traps Kakuzu as the mace comes back up to attack the second time.
I take a moment to focus my chakra on my feet in a special way that Izumo taught me in order to walk on his sap, and run at Kakuzu, storing my scythe so I can use my Gentle Fist at full speed and ability along with my fans.
"You think you have me trapped?" Kakuzu asks as I am running, then he launches his arms out by the weird black tendrils, one aiming for me, the other for Kotetsu who is standing back on guard with his mace. The arm going for me starts to circle, but I use my Rotation to deflect it and advance on him again.
"Eight trigram, 128 Palms, Wind Style Strike!" I channel my ultimate combination of chakra into the closed fans and target 128 of his chakra points, which is incredibly difficult because his body is insanely different that a regular human body. I focus on the points I can reach thanks to my wind and fans.
When my attack is over, I back away to recover for a moment as Asuma moves in to take over the fight. I can see our backup will be here in two minutes, and we still have Hidan out of commission. This is going well for us so far.
"Take this!" Asuma yells out, and gets behind Kakuzu and uses his blade to stab through another of his hearts. Two hearts down.
"It's not over yet, Asuma, we need to keep going. Two down!" I call out to inform him. They can't see the masks yet like I can, so it's up to me to keep them informed. Kakuzu uses an Earth jutsu to free himself from the sap and then gains some distance from us.
"How... How are you getting through my defenses? Nothing can cut my flesh." Kakuzu breathes out in frustration.
"You've obviously never fought against the Gentle Fist. I wasn't aiming for your flesh with my attacks." I say with a smirk.
"Then how did he get through?!" He screams out, pointing at Asuma.
"She blocked your chakra networks. You can't use your jutsu's like normal, can you? If all you rely on is ninjutsu, then a Hyuga is your worst adversary in battle. And I'm a master wind user, nothing is sharper than my blades." Asuma says proudly, preparing to go in for another attack.
Kakuzu throws off his cloak then, and out of his back launch four huge, creepy ink monsters, each one wearing a different mask. Two of them instantly drop down and die, their masks shattered and broken.
"It seems you not only knew about Hidan's ritual, but also about my masks. I heard you counting down. You killed my Lightning and Wind masks. No matter, I will take your heart to replace the wind one, White Reaper." Kakuzu growls out at me and sends the two remaining monsters out to attack us. We all retreat back, myself going to Shikamaru where he is at with Hidan's head.
"Ok, this escalated. Got some plans in that smart brain of yours?" I ask as the Fire mask targets me. I can't use wind against it at all, this was a smart choice on the enemy to send to me. I grab Hidan's head by the hair and throw it to Izumo, who nearly drops it as Hidan starts screaming at him. "Don't lose that!" I call out to Izumo, who uses Hidan's hair to tie his head to his belt. Poor Hidan, that's almost cruel.
The fire monster is launching huge, deadly fire attacks at me and Shikamaru, and I can see that the Earth monster is fighting Asuma and the others. He split us up effectively, putting our worst elements against us as much as he could. I use a water wall jutsu, but it's not nearly strong enough to block the fire attack coming at us. I grab Shikamaru and transport us to my nearest marker, which is back at the front of the collections building we started the fight at. We had only moved a little away while fighting, but it was just enough to escape the blast.
"Thanks, Ami. We need to destroy those monsters, but your wind is useless against the fire one, and not much better against the earth monster. My shadows won't do much against the monsters either." Shikamaru says seriously to me, his eyes calculating as he watches everything.
"Then I'll just aim for the main body. I was effective against him, and I marked him during my attack. Backup is 30 seconds out." I inform him quickly, then take a deep breath and lock my eyes on Kakuzu and transport over to where he is standing in the back of his monsters.
"You're fast! But now I know not to let you hit me." Kakuzu says as he dodges my hits as I go in. I kick up my speed to the max, and go in all out against him. We trade viciously heavy blows, each of us landing hits on the other, and his hits hurt me a lot.
Backup arrives while I'm trading blow with Kakuzu, and Shikamaru directs them to handle the monsters. Choji takes on the earth monster while Raido and Aibo are working together to take over fighting the fire monster.
Kakuzu starts to go harder on his attack, and I am no match for his full strength. At this point, the best I can do is use my speed to evade and dodge, but his speed is intense as well. If this continues on, I will lose this fight.
My eyes widen as one of his arms launches out at me too fast for me to react, and I close my eyes and brace myself for the impact. As I feel the impact and get launched far away, I notice the hit hurt but I had expected a lot worse. I open my eyes and see Ningame is what hit me instead of Kakuzu's fist.
"Didn't forget about me, did you?" Ningame breaths out in pain, and I gently lift him off of me from where we were thrown back during the hit.
"Your shell!" I yell out in shock. His shell is cracked from where Kakuzu hit him instead of me.
"It's fine, it will heal later. I have to go now, I can't stay any longer. You better show this nut what it means to be a member of Team Guy." Ningame says weakly before he disappears, returning back home. I honestly did forget he was here, but I'm thankful he stayed around.
Asuma comes to join me again then as the others are fighting the earth monster still, both of us breathing heavily from exertion. I get nervous for him, this fight is now entirely different than the show and I have no way of predicting moves anymore. We have to fight entirely on instinct and strategies we make up on the spot.
Kakuzu calls back the fire monster and it fuses on his shoulder. "You're both wind users, it'll be too easy to beat you." Kakuzu taunts the two of us, then launches a huge scale fire attack. Asuma and I both dodge it, but we can't get any closer now.
"We need a new plan, he's right, we can't get to him like this. Where are the others?" I ask in frustration, then look and see Choji working with Kotetsu and Izumo. They are winning against their monster, and Kakuzu notices that too. He recalls the Earth monster and it joins him on his shoulder, and Asuma and I retreat to regroup back up with our team.
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