"Just how many layers of seals are you slapping on me!?"
Orochimaru's face went ashen as he glared at Naruto. In barely a dozen seconds, it felt like dozens of shackles had been fastened onto his body. Forget fighting or fleeing—he couldn't even feel his own limbs anymore.
"I'm just making sure you don't run, alright?" Naruto said breezily as he kept laying seals.
Since killing Orochimaru outright would be difficult, he might as well seal him down—trap that dog's consciousness inside his own body.
"With this many seals, you could probably suppress even the strongest of the tailed beasts—the Nine-Tails…" Orochimaru croaked, face growing darker.
"Don't put it that way!" Naruto's lips curled upward. "To me, you're at least ten times more dangerous than the Nine-Tails."
After sealing Orochimaru completely, Naruto added several lengths of seastone chains on him for good measure. Only then did he clap his hands clean, lick his lips, and turn toward the fleeing Akatsuki members.
"You thought you could get away?"
Swish!
A handful of Hiraishin kunai shot out.
A golden flash followed in the next instant.
"What's that!?" Kakuzu frowned at the kunai whistling past him, but since he'd already dodged them, he paid them no further mind.
In a blink, golden light flickered.
"Immortal ninja Kakuzu—yo, you're under arrest." A blond youth's voice rang out.
Kakuzu's face changed at once. Without hesitation he summoned his remaining three Jiongu (Earth Grudge Fear) masks, each gathering a different elemental nature.
"Won't help you…" Naruto chuckled. He extended his right index finger and lightly tapped the heads of two mask monsters.
Crack!
Crack!
Both mask constructs shattered on the spot.
Kakuzu's body went rigid where he stood, staring dead at the blond youth's silhouette.
"What a pity. If I could turn that guy into a human puppet, I'd have another ultimate work of art on my hands…"
Upon a mass of black iron sand, Sasori of the Red Sand muttered to himself, a trace of regret in his voice.
In his eyes, Crocodile was no weaker than the Third Kazekage, and with sand and iron sand able to combine, he'd be one of the most suitable 'ultimate arts' as a human puppet.
"But that 'Zero' fellow isn't bad either. I'll go see if I can find a corpse in a few days…"
Suddenly, Sasori's expression shifted. He snapped his head around.
"Who's there!?"
He'd felt wind on his back—yet saw no one.
"An illusion?"
Just as Sasori frowned and began to turn back, his body went stiff. He forced his gaze downward.
An arm had pierced clean through him—fingers gripping the core cylinder that served as his heart.
Crack…
Naruto pried out the scroll-like core from Sasori's heart-chamber and smiled.
"Puppets aren't bad per se—but if you turn yourself into one, you'll have a hard time against taijutsu-type monsters."
"…"
"Yo, Kisame—where were you planning to go?"
By a river somewhere in Amegakure, Naruto crouched on the bank, watching with interest as Kisame's Samehada bristled in defensive spines.
"Namikaze Menma…" Kisame's eyelids twitched. He tentatively began weaving hand signs.
"If I were you, I wouldn't." Naruto laughed, raising his right hand—wild flames roared to life across his palm.
In an instant, the flowing river began to boil, bubbling up one frothing pocket after another.
Kisame: "…"
"..."
"Itachi-kami, escaping Shisui and Izumi, huh? Not bad!"
In a forest somewhere, Naruto stood atop a trunk, toying with a Hiraishin kunai as he looked down at Itachi, eyes sparkling with interest.
Itachi sighed. "Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), is it… Even though I fled first, you still managed to cut me off…"
"Don't bother trying Genjutsu (Illusion Technique) on me. Won't work." Naruto hopped down from the tree.
Moments earlier, he'd noticed the scene in his eyes and the view from his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) didn't match—his body had been dragged into an illusion.
Itachi sighed again, completely giving up on resisting.
"…"
Soon enough, the scattered Akatsuki members were all rounded up and brought back to Amegakure.
"Hmph. Embarrassing, Kisame!" Kakuzu shot the shark-man a frosty look. "If I hadn't recognized that sword of yours, I'd have thought you and that fat fish-man were the same species."
…求鲜花…
Bruised blue-black and swollen all over, Kisame's mouth twitched, recalling the earlier beatdown at Naruto's hands.
That monster had taken his Daikōdan no Jutsu (Great Shark Bullet Technique) head-on, evaporated the river to nothing, and then pounded him into a pig's head.
But Kisame wasn't about to take it lying down. He sneered. "And you're so much better, Kakuzu? How many hearts you got left?"
Kakuzu's lips spasmed.
"Heh heh heh…"
Sprawled on the ground like a worm, Orochimaru let out a hoarse chuckle and licked his lips.
"If we're talking 'most miserable,' shouldn't that be Sasori?"
0….
He glanced at the scroll-like roll on the ground—Sasori of the Red Sand himself. "Never would've guessed that this is what Sasori really looks like."
In the next second, countless chakra threads burst from the scroll-Sasori, connecting to a wooden puppet.
After reinstalling himself, Sasori said coldly,
"Orochimaru, do you want me to kill you?"
"Shut it, all of you." Itachi said mildly. "We're prisoners. Is this really the time for infighting?"
At that, the group bristled with indignation—yet none could find a rebuttal.
Kisame drew a breath. "Itachi-san, any idea what Menma hauled us back for?"
Itachi was silent for a beat. Under the others' eyes, he said slowly, "He said… he wants a bunch of fakes to witness the power of shinobi."
"The power of shinobi!?"
The Akatsuki members traded looks.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Orochimaru asked curiously. "Is someone out there posing as shinobi?"
"If they're not even shinobi, they must be weak. What's the point of catching us to deal with them?" someone muttered.
Itachi shook his head in silence. He couldn't make sense of it either.
On the other side—
Naruto strolled through Amegakure, idly expanding his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki).
Finally, after a few minutes, he sensed a ripple somewhere—tens of thousands of explosive tags fluttered up like a rainstorm, scattering through the air in sheets.
(End of Chapter)
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