Chapter 21: The Kenpachi's Garden
The tranquil clearing had become a pressure cooker of killing intent. Fū and her guards remained frozen inside the house, their training screaming at them to act, but an instinct far older and wiser held them paralyzed. They were not participants in this; they were spectators at an execution.
Unohana stood in the center of her zen garden, the serene smile never leaving her lips. "For that," her smile widened, a hint of the ancient, bloodthirsty Kenpachi bleeding through, "you will have to pay."
Hidan cackled, a grating, insane sound. "Pay? Old woman, I'm going to offer your screaming soul to Jashin! You should be grateful!" He spun his massive, triple-bladed scythe, the weapon whistling through the air as he settled into a wide, aggressive stance.
Kakuzu remained still, his eyes narrowed, analyzing. He remembered the Retsu from the past . A prodigy of the blade, a master of medicine. A dangerous combination. He had calculated the variables: her legendary Kenjutsu, her use of Medical Ninjutsu to offset damage, and her mastery of standard Ninjutsu. It would be a difficult fight, but two S-rank Akatsuki against one retired elder? The odds were in their favor. A simple matter of overwhelming her.
That was his first, and last, mistake.
"You take the lead, Hidan," Kakuzu rasped. "Wound her."
"With pleasure!" Hidan roared and charged.
He moved with surprising speed for a man wielding such a cumbersome weapon, swinging the scythe in a wide, horizontal arc aimed to cut Unohana in half at the waist.
Unohana didn't move. She didn't dodge, she didn't block. She simply stood there, her calm smile unwavering, as the massive crimson blade hurtled towards her. At the very last microsecond, just as the blade was about to make contact, she took a single, impossible step forward.
The scythe's arc, designed to hit a target at a specific range, was now misaligned. The outermost blade whistled harmlessly behind her back. She was now inside Hidan's guard, too close for him to effectively use his weapon.
Hidan's fanatical grin faltered, replaced by a flicker of confusion. Before he could react, Unohana's hand shot out. It wasn't a punch. It was a gentle, almost lazy-looking open-palm strike that tapped him lightly on the chest.
It felt like being hit by a mountain.
Hidan's eyes bulged. The air was driven from his lungs in a violent gasp. He felt his ribs crack and splinter under the deceptively soft impact. He was launched backward, tumbling end over end through the air before crashing into the forest line, shattering a thick tree trunk.
Kakuzu froze. He had seen the entire exchange. There was no chakra flare, no ninjutsu. Just pure, inexplicable, impossible physical force. What was that?
Hidan staggered out of the treeline, laughing maniacally, a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. "YES! PAIN! GLORIOUS PAIN! You're stronger than you look, you old bitch!" He licked the blood from his lips, his eyes wild. "Now I've got your scent! This is where the ritual begins!"
Unohana simply watched him, her smile tinged with something that looked almost like pity. "A fascinating ability. To be unable to die. You must get quite bored."
She took a step towards him. And then another. She began to walk, her pace unhurried, as if strolling through a garden.
"Kakuzu! What are you waiting for?!" Hidan shrieked. "Attack her!"
Kakuzu's analytical mind finally rebooted. He thrust his arms forward, and black, writhing tendrils erupted from his sleeves, shooting towards Unohana like a swarm of venomous snakes.
She didn't break her stride. As the threads reached her, she finally drew her sword. The blade of Minazuki slid from its scabbard with a sound like a soft sigh.
Her movements were a blur. She didn't make wide, powerful swings. It was a series of small, precise cuts, flicks of the wrist, and turns of the blade. Each movement intercepted a dozen of the black tendrils, severing them cleanly. She walked through the storm of threads as if it were a gentle spring rain, a serene expression on her face.
Kakuzu's eyes widened behind his mask. She's cutting my threads faster than I can extend them. Her skill with a blade... it's not just legendary. It's monstrous.
Hidan charged again, swinging his scythe on its long cable, creating a wide, unpredictable pattern. "You can't dodge this forever!"
Unohana turned her attention to him. She sidestepped the first swing, ducked under the second, and parried the third with a sharp clang that sent a painful vibration up Hidan's arm. He was the slowest Akatsuki member; to a master like her, his movements were like a child's tantrum.
She stopped moving.
Hidan's eyes lit up with glee as he saw the opening. He swung his scythe in a massive, final arc, aiming to disembowel her. This was it. One drop of blood was all he needed.
Just as the blade was about to connect, Unohana let go of her sword.
Minazuki dropped to the ground with a soft thud. At the same time, she took a swift step back, letting the largest blade of the scythe slice deep into her abdomen.
Hidan's grin was triumphant. "I'VE GOT YOU!"
Kakuzu stared in disbelief. She took the hit willingly! Just as I predicted! But why?!
Unohana didn't even flinch. She looked down at the scythe embedded in her flesh, then back up at Hidan, and her serene smile finally transformed. It became a wide, bloodthirsty grin, the grin of the First Kenpachi.
"And now," she whispered, "so have I."
Her hand shot out, not at Hidan, but at the cable of his scythe. She grabbed it. And pulled.
Hidan was yanked forward, completely off-balance. In that same instant, Unohana's other hand moved. A flash of steel. One of her hidden daggers was now in her grip, and she plunged it deep into Hidan's thigh, twisting it brutally.
"AAAAAGGGGHHHH!" Hidan screamed, a mix of pain and ecstasy. "YES! MORE!"
"As you wish," Unohana said.
While Hidan was still reeling, she moved with blinding speed. She was no longer a healer. She was a butcher. A series of precise, lightning-fast slashes from her dagger. Hamstrings. Biceps. Achilles tendons. She wasn't trying to kill him. She was dismantling him, piece by piece.
"Kakuzu!" Hidan shrieked, collapsing to the ground, his limbs refusing to obey him. "HELP ME!"
Kakuzu finally unleashed his full power. The stitches on his back tore open, and his four heart-masks erupted from his body, black thread-beasts of pure malice.
"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
The two attacks combined, creating a massive, swirling firestorm that incinerated everything in its path, surging towards Unohana.
Unohana simply pulled the scythe from her own stomach, the grievous wound already beginning to close with a faint green glow of Kaidō. She held the massive weapon in her hand. And with a single, powerful swing, she used it to deflect the firestorm, sending the inferno careening into the sky.
The heart-beasts didn't stop. The lightning mask unleashed a spear of pure electricity. The water mask created a high-pressure jet. They attacked from all four sides.
This was the overwhelming force that had defeated countless powerful shinobi.
Unohana dropped the scythe and picked her own blade, Minazuki, back up.
"It is time to end this," she said softly. "Bankai. Minazuki."
She drew her own blood along the blade. The world turned to crimson.
Thick, viscous, blood-like liquid poured from the sky, flooding the entire clearing in an instant. The ground, the trees, the air itself was saturated with her Bankai. The four heart-beasts, caught in the deluge, began to sizzle and dissolve, the acidic nature of the liquid eating through their chakra-infused threads.
Kakuzu recoiled in horror. "What is this jutsu?!"
"This is not a jutsu," Unohana said, her voice echoing from all around him. She stood in the center of the crimson ocean, her blade now dripping with the same dark red substance.
She swung her sword. A wave of blood-like liquid, sharp as a razor, shot across the pool, cleaving through the lightning-mask beast, which dissolved into nothingness. Another swing, and the water-mask was gone.
Kakuzu hardened his body with Earth Spear, but it was useless. The liquid wasn't a physical impact; it was corrosive. It began to eat away at his diamond-hard skin. He launched his remaining threads at her, a desperate final attack.
Unohana simply raised her hand. The blood-ocean rose up like a wall, and the threads dissolved on contact.
"You have lived a long life, Kakuzu," Unoh-ana said, her voice carrying a note of finality. "But all things must end."
She vanished. She reappeared directly in front of him, her blade held high. Kakuzu, for the first time in nearly a century, felt a sensation he had long forgotten.
Fear.
He saw not a healer. He saw not a kunoichi. He saw a demon, smiling down at him from a throne of blood.
Her blade descended. It didn't just cut his threads. It didn't just pierce his hearts. It cut through the very concept of his stolen life, and in a single, silent slash, Kakuzu, the immortal bounty hunter of the Akatsuki, was erased.
The crimson ocean subsided, leaving behind a clean, blood-washed garden. Hidan lay on the ground, still alive, still disabled, babbling incoherently to his god.
Unohana stood over him, her blade clean, her serene smile returned. She looked at the immortal Jashinist, a fascinating new specimen.
"Now," she said to herself, a glint of scientific curiosity in her eyes. "Let's see just how 'immortal' you really are."
Tbc