Running as fast as he could, whilst using his chakra as efficiently as possible. Kazuo practically swam through the underground at high speeds, around chunnin-level speeds when above ground.
The ground parted before him as he moved forward, whilst the parted ground behind him turned into mush and once more closed the gaps of where he had moved through, leaving no tunnel that led back towards his location.
'Good, with this, he shouldn't be able to get to me unless he is a sensor. However, Minato is already there, and he's not in a bad position, he should be able to lock onto the enemy and begin a fight… unless… he thinks that leaving… the rest, and especially Kushina and Naruto, there would be too dangerous. And in this case… the enemy clearly has some kind of grudge against me or at least they consider me dangerous enough that I shouldn't be left alive.' Kazuo thought in annoyance as he once more realised that he hadn't actually escaped.
Arriving outside the village walls, Kazuo could no longer maintain the chakra expenditure as he jumped out of the ground and directly landed on a tree branch.
His body was covered in cold sweat, not from fear or emotions, simply from the overexpenditure and quick forced regeneration of chakra reserves.
'This is bad, I need to use the chakra pills if I want to win the battle however, the chakra used is too high, so I end up like this. On the brink of death.' Kazuo thought, annoyed as he spat out a glob of blood and cleaned his lip with the back of his hand.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. It's been a while since I've been this annoyed. Since I killed that hairy fuck Kakuzu." Kazuo muttered under his breath as he released a shuddered breath before taking a deep inhale and calming himself.
It's at this moment that he clearly saw the mist, or rather fog, coming towards him from the sky.
"So you're here. Who exactly are you?" Kazuo asked, no longer bothering to even fight, he didn't have the strength or chakra needed to currently escape the enemy, and so the best situation was to gather as much strength as he could before dying.
The fog actually stopped for a moment before starting to coagulate together as it started forming a human body. It was clearly a man with a spiral mask on and a black cloak. They looked exactly the same as Obito had back in the anime.
'So it's a new Tobi with techniques that are somehow more annoying than Obito. At least Minato was able to make Obito unable to move after that single clash, but this damn guy… he's still capable enough to chase me to my death.' Kazuo thought to himself as he released a calming sigh and looked at the man directly.
"Why exactly are you coming after me?" Kazuo asked, his tone of voice was light and perfectly controlled, as if he was talking with a leaf villager instead of a Kage-level ninja who clearly was out for his blood.
"Me? Well… you could call me Madara Uchiha." The man said, his voice deep as he took a step towards Kazuo.
'Madara Uchiha my ass. You think Madara would have even needed the nine tails to destroy the leaf?' Kazuo thought to himself, however, on the outside, his facial expression changed to one of pure shock.
"You do know that you have no chances of surviving this. I, however, have a use for you. Join my organisation. Kazuo Hyuga." The masked man said, as he now stood before Kazuo, letting him clearly see the swirling mangekyou sharingan in the man's eyes.
It was at this moment that Kazuo heard a ding-like notification sound inside his mind.
[ Ding! ]
[ User has been offered a recruitment offer from 'Madara' of the Akatsuki. ]
[ Rewards: Title: Akatsuki Member, S-rank Elemental Jutsu, Elemental Affinity of Choosing, Completion of Bloodline Mission. ]
[ Penalties: Heart Seal, Enmity with Village Hidden in the Leaves, Rouge Ninja Status, Loss of all Relations with the Hyuga Clan. Hokage Path Locked. ]
It was at this moment that the outside world lost all colour, the wind stopped moving, the sounds of screams and fires stopped at the same time. It was unnatural. It was a complete time stop.
It was clear that the choice before Kazuo was determined to be a major choice that couldn't be skipped over.
'I could just do the reset and grab the bonus, couldn't I? Just like back then with the root mission.' Kazuo thought to himself with a smirk, however, it quickly got erased from his mind.
At the end of the system notification, there was a small line of words that completely crushed his fantasy.
[ Choosing to accept will move the User's last time checkpoint to this moment. ]
'This… this is clearly a death sentence. I can't do anything but accept the offer if I want to survive. That means the only way to refuse is to refuse right now. Because if I accept it even once… im screwed into accepting it.' Kazuo thought to himself as his mind whirred with thoughts, he wasn't angry, nor was he particularly displeased with the choice.
He was calmly thinking about whether or not the benefits of being an Akatsuki member were worth it.
'The Hokage was never my goal, so that isn't that big of a major loss, and at the same time, for the next twelve years, there really won't be anything crazy happening in the leaf village, so the chances for me to grow stronger will be far and few. And it's not like I can never return to the Hidden Leaf Village… Orochimaru did, and so did Sasuke. And I clearly have a connection to the Hokage Path just like they both did.' Kazuo thought as he finally came to a decision.
Time started to move once more as the world regained its colors.
"I accept."
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