The bounty station serving Shimogakure proved to be a fortified structure built into the village's commercial district. Unlike the rough establishment where Kenji had gathered his intelligence, this facility showed signs of serious investment—stone construction, defensive positions, and guards who watched approaches with professional vigilance.
Kenji settled into concealment among the mountain peaks, his enhanced vision allowing him to observe activities within the station despite the distance. His patience was rewarded within hours as a familiar, hulking figure emerged from the building's secured entrance.
Kakuzu moved with the controlled aggression of a apex predator, his massive frame wrapped in dark clothing that couldn't quite conceal the unnatural aspects of his physiology. Even at this distance, Kenji could perceive the stitched patterns that held the man's form together, the way chakra flowed through channels that defied normal human anatomy.
The missing-nin departed Shimogakure with purposeful stride, taking a route that led toward the main roads connecting the Land of Frost to the Land of Fire. Traveling alone, confident in abilities that had carried him through over a decade of the most dangerous profession in the shinobi world.
Kenji began his pursuit, maintaining distance while tracking the powerful chakra signature through his enhanced senses. No need for visual contact when his supernatural perception could follow the target through miles of terrain.
They traveled through the night, Kakuzu maintaining a pace that would have challenged most shinobi while Kenji ghosted through the landscape like a crimson shadow. As dawn approached, both hunter and hunted were deep in the wilderness between nations, far from witnesses or interference.
The perfect place for a private conversation.
Kakuzu stopped abruptly in a clearing surrounded by ancient trees, his massive form turning to scan the darkness with predatory alertness. "I know you're there," he called out, his voice carrying the rough confidence of someone accustomed to being feared. "Been following me since Shimogakure. Either you're here for business, or you're about to become business."
Kenji stepped from concealment, his crimson eyes reflecting starlight as he approached the legendary missing-nin with casual confidence. "I am here seeking guidance."
Kakuzu's green eyes narrowed as he studied the approaching figure. Young-looking, pale, with an aura of controlled power that immediately triggered every survival instinct the bounty hunter had developed. The chakra signature was wrong—too dense, too controlled, carrying undertones that suggested something fundamentally inhuman.
"Guidance?" Kakuzu's laugh was like grinding stone. "From me? You're either incredibly brave or phenomenally stupid, boy. My guidance typically involves separating heads from shoulders."
"I seek instruction in the nature of power," Kenji replied, coming to a halt just beyond immediate striking distance. "You have survived encounters that killed lesser men. You have taken the strength of your enemies and made it your own. These are lessons worth learning."
"Lessons?" The massive shinobi's posture shifted, chakra beginning to flow in patterns that suggested preparation for violence. "The only lesson I teach is that money and power are the only constants in this world. Everything else—loyalty, honor, friendship—just gets you killed."
"Demonstrate this lesson."
Kakuzu's eyes widened slightly at the casual challenge, then narrowed with dangerous interest. "You want a demonstration? Boy, I've killed shinobi with decades more experience than you've got years of life. Your chakra is strange, I'll grant you that, but strange doesn't stop kunai from finding hearts."
"Then show me," Kenji said simply.
For a moment, they stood in perfect stillness—two predators evaluating each other across the space between civilized discourse and lethal violence. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath, as if the very trees recognized the potential for destruction contained in this meeting.
Then Kakuzu smiled, and it was a expression that held no warmth whatsoever.
"Hmph," he rumbled, massive hands beginning to form seals. "No bounty listed on you, but that chakra... unnatural. Powerful. That makes you valuable regardless. Your heart will fund my next endeavor."
The battle erupted without further warning.
Kakuzu moved with deceptive speed for someone of his bulk, his fist becoming a cannonball of muscle and chakra that rocketed toward Kenji's head with enough force to shatter stone. The missing-nin's reputation hadn't been built on hesitation or mercy.
Kenji met the attack head-on, the Muzan template's power surging through his enhanced physiology like molten metal through his veins. Physical Augmentation transformed his muscles into something beyond normal human limitation, density and strength multiplying to superhuman levels.
The impact rang through the clearing like a thunderclap, the ground beneath their feet fracturing from the transmitted force. Kakuzu skidded backward a full meter, his knuckles stinging but unbroken. Kenji barely moved, his massive frame absorbing the collision with ease.
"Impressive strength," the missing-nin conceded, his hands already weaving intricate seals with blurring speed. "But strength without technique is just raw meat waiting to be carved. Earth Release: Earth Spear!"
Kakuzu's skin darkened to obsidian black, radiating an aura of absolute, impenetrable solidity. The technique transformed his already formidable physiology into something approaching invulnerability—a defense that had withstood attacks from some of the most dangerous shinobi in the world.
Kenji became a crimson blur in response, launching himself forward in a whirlwind assault that tested the very limits of human perception. Fists, elbows, knees—every limb became a weapon striking with superhuman speed and force. Each blow carried enough power to shatter boulders, delivered with precision that would have overwhelmed lesser opponents.
They struck the blackened skin and sparked harmlessly away.
*THUD! WHAM! CRACK!* The sounds of impact echoed through the forest as Kenji's enhanced strikes met Kakuzu's absolute defense. The missing-nin countered with heavy, economical swings, forcing his opponent to contort unnaturally to avoid crushing blows that would have pulverized normal human anatomy.
Kenji's Biological Manipulation allowed him to bend and twist in ways that defied conventional understanding—ribs flattening to avoid a horizontal strike, spine curving impossibly to slip beneath a descending fist, limbs extending or contracting as needed to maintain optimal positioning.
It was a brutal dance of unstoppable force meeting unnaturally agile defense, neither combatant able to gain decisive advantage through raw physical confrontation.
"Troublesome," Kakuzu growled, disengaging from the melee with professional recognition of stalemate. Masks burst from his back with grotesque suddenness—the Lightning mask crackling with barely contained electrical fury. "Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
A searing lance of pure electricity screamed across the intervening space, its passage superheating the air into plasma and ozone. The technique carried enough power to vaporize stone, focused into a beam no thicker than a man's arm but containing the destructive potential of a natural lightning strike.
Kenji's Cellular Regeneration flared instinctively, preparing his physiology for catastrophic damage before the attack even arrived. He twisted desperately, but the beam grazed his bicep with devastating results—flesh vaporizing instantly, bone charring black, the smell of burned meat and ozone filling the clearing.
Yet even as the lightning's afterglow faded, muscle fibers began writhing back into existence. Bone reknit with sickening clicking sounds as calcium deposits flowed like liquid. Skin grew over the reconstructed tissue in seconds, leaving only faint scarring to mark where the attack had landed.
Kenji showed no pain, no hesitation—only cold, predatory focus.
"Regeneration?!" Kakuzu snarled, disbelief warring with the professional avarice that had sustained him through decades of violence. What bloodline limit could produce such rapid healing? What secrets lay hidden in that unnatural physiology?
The Water mask flared to life. "Water Release: Water Dragon Projectile!" A colossal serpent of chakra-infused water roared from the nearby mountain stream, its form towering above the forest canopy as it aimed to engulf Kenji in crushing, drowning death.
Kenji didn't retreat. His forearms flowed like liquid, muscle and bone reshaping themselves with nauseating fluidity. Skeletal structure extended, muscular systems coiled into new configurations, skin hardened into gleaming surfaces that reflected moonlight like polished metal.
When the transformation completed, razor-sharp katana forged from his own living flesh extended from both arms—weapons that were part of him rather than tools he wielded.
He met the water dragon head-on, becoming a crimson whirlwind of supernatural speed and precision. *SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!* The bone-blades carved through the torrential beast with terrifying efficiency, his augmented reflexes allowing him to target the chakra nodes that maintained the technique's cohesion.
As water crashed down around him, Kenji flicked his wrists with casual precision. Droplets of his blood, infused with the Muzan template's lethal toxins, flew like crimson needles toward Kakuzu's position.
The missing-nin, protected by his Earth Spear technique, allowed the poisoned projectiles to splash against his chest with apparent indifference. "Poison? Futile against stone," he scoffed.
But a faint, almost imperceptible hissing rose from the points of impact. Microscopic pits began appearing in the diamond-hard surface as the potent toxin commenced its slow, inexorable work of molecular dissolution.
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed as he noticed the effect. Persistent... and annoying.
"Earth Grudge Fear: Thread Binding!" The missing-nin's wrists split with grotesque wet sounds, revealing the unnatural modifications that allowed him to survive techniques that should have been instantly fatal. Thick, black threads erupted like steel cables, each one capable of piercing armor or binding opponents with crushing force.
The threads moved with predatory intelligence, seeking to entangle, pierce, and tear. They snaked through the air toward Kenji with terrifying speed, their movements suggesting years of practice in coordinated assault.
Kenji became a nightmare of fluid evasion, his enhanced agility allowing him to flow between the grasping tendrils like water through a sieve. He momentarily sprouted a third arm from his spine to bat aside a particularly persistent thread, retracting it instantly once the immediate threat passed. He kicked off a tree trunk, flipping over a sweeping net of binding cables with impossible grace.
As he landed in a controlled crouch, his hand dipped into his equipment pouch—not for conventional weapons, but for a cluster of explosive tags. He slapped them onto a thick oak as he blurred past, the adhesive seals sticking with practiced precision.
Kakuzu pursued relentlessly, his threads whipping through the air like angry serpents. "You cannot evade forever, freak! Eventually, you'll make a mistake!"
Kenji triggered the explosive tags with perfect timing. *KRA-KOOOOOM!* The ancient oak exploded into a deadly storm of superheated splinters and concussive force, the blast erupting directly in Kakuzu's pursuit path.
The missing-nin raised his Earth Spear-enhanced arms, weathering the explosion with professional stoicism. The technique protected him from the worst effects, but the sheer force of the detonation staggered him backward, forcing a momentary retraction of his thread attacks for defensive purposes.
Kenji seized the opening with predatory efficiency. His bone-katana retracted, flesh flowing back into normal configurations before extending again in new forms—claws like surgical scalpels sprouting from his fingertips, each one dripping with dark, viscous poison that seemed to eat light itself.
He lunged forward, raking the claws across Kakuzu's armored chest with superhuman force. *SCREEEEEECH!* The weapons shrieked against the stone-hard skin, but they left deep, smoking gouges where the molecular toxin began its corrosive work.
Kakuzu grunted, feeling the unnatural dissolution even through his legendary defense. The sensation was unfamiliar and deeply disturbing—his Earth Spear technique had never shown such vulnerability before.
He retaliated instantly, the Lightning mask firing False Darkness point-blank with enough power to vaporize a boulder.
This time, Kenji anticipated the attack with supernatural precision. His torso split open where the lightning beam would strike, flesh and bone parting like a grotesque flower an instant before impact. The electrical lance passed harmlessly through the gap, its deadly energy finding only empty air before the wound snapped shut with wet finality.
Biological Manipulation used defensively—a horrifying display of the unnatural control Kenji possessed over his own anatomy.
He lunged through the fading electrical discharge, a whip-like tendril of hardened muscle and bone extending from his elbow with striking-snake speed. It slammed into Kakuzu like a battering ram, the impact staggering the massive shinobi backward while depositing another smear of sizzling toxin on his increasingly compromised armor.
Rage erupted from Kakuzu like volcanic fury. Years of supremacy, decades of being the hunter rather than the hunted, all challenged by this pale creature whose abilities defied rational explanation.
All three masks flared simultaneously, their combined power creating pressure waves that bent nearby trees. "Enough! DIE! Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique! Lightning Release: False Darkness! Water Release: Water Dragon Projectile!"
The earth beneath Kenji's feet liquefied into treacherous quicksand designed to trap and immobilize. Simultaneously, the searing lightning spear lanced down from above with pinpoint accuracy, while the roaring water dragon surged from the flank with crushing force.
A perfect, inescapable trap—sink into the earth, be pierced by lightning, be crushed by pressurized water. The kind of coordinated assault that had eliminated legendary shinobi.
Kenji's crimson eyes ignited with unholy light as power beyond normal comprehension surged through his transformed physiology.
"Perfect Demon Physiology."
His form erupted into something that belonged in nightmares rather than reality. Skin darkened to deep crimson, veins pulsing beneath the surface like rivers of molten metal. Muscle mass swelled grotesquely, his frame expanding beyond human proportions while maintaining supernatural grace.
Most terrifyingly, a forest of whip-like appendages exploded from his back, shoulders, and spine—dozens of them, each thicker than a man's arm and ending in specialized implements of destruction. Bladed edges that could slice through steel, spiked bone maces capable of pulverizing armor, hooked claws designed for rending and tearing.
They thrashed the air with sounds like ripping metal and tearing flesh, creating a defensive perimeter that defied conventional attack.
Kenji didn't flee from Kakuzu's coordinated assault. Instead, the appendages became both shield and weapon, their supernatural regeneration allowing for tactics impossible with normal anatomy.
*CRACK-WHIP!* A dozen tentacles lashed upward, intercepting the False Darkness beam with their own bulk. Individual appendages shattered under the lightning's fury, charring to ash instantly, but new ones regrew faster than Kakuzu could destroy them. The electrical energy was dissipated through a network of sacrificial limbs, each one healing even as it absorbed potentially fatal damage.
*SWOOSH-SMASH!* Another group met the Water Dragon head-on, not attempting to slice through its form but bludgeoning it with bone-mace tips and shredding claws. The chakra construct lost cohesion under the assault, dispersing into harmless spray rather than maintaining its crushing force.
Meanwhile, other whips anchored onto solid ground beyond the quicksand pit, their incredible tensile strength allowing them to yank Kenji free just as the liquefied earth threatened to swallow him whole.
The demonstration lasted seconds but felt like hours—a display of regenerative combat capability that redefined what was possible in shinobi warfare.
Kenji surged forward through the settling dust and spray, his monstrous form a engine of supernatural destruction. The whip appendages created chaos on every level—striking from impossible angles, high and low and behind, their movements too numerous and varied for conventional defense.
They slammed into Kakuzu with bone-jarring force, *THUD! CRUNCH!* They slashed and scraped with surgical precision, *SHINK! SCRAPE!*, deepening the corrosive damage to his Earth Spear armor with each contact. They snaked around his defenses, seeking joints and vulnerable points with predatory intelligence.
Kakuzu became a fortress of pure defensive capability and measured counter-attack. He moved with astonishing speed for someone of his bulk, deflecting what he could, dodging what he couldn't, enduring what remained. His fists shattered whip-tentacles that ventured too close, the impacts producing sounds like breaking timber.
He fired False Darkness and Water Dragon techniques at point-blank range, vaporizing clusters of appendages in brilliant displays of elemental fury. But they regrew with horrifying speed, the regeneration keeping pace with even his most devastating attacks.
The Water mask unleashed torrential floods designed to sweep his opponent away. The attacks met a wall of thrashing limbs that parted the deluge like a living breakwater.
The Earth mask raised stone barriers to provide breathing room and tactical advantage. They shattered instantly under the relentless barrage of supernatural appendages, their defensive value measured in seconds rather than minutes.
The clearing became a war zone of devastation and supernatural violence. Ancient trees were reduced to splinters and kindling. The ground churned into a muddy morass of craters and upheaval. The corrosive toxin was visibly weakening Kakuzu's legendary defense, patches of his Earth Spear showing deep pitting and structural compromise.
One whip, its tip honed to monomolecular sharpness through biological manipulation, finally found a micro-fracture widened by poison and impact. It sliced deep into Kakuzu's stitched shoulder, the blade missing a heart by mere inches while depositing another dose of molecular acid directly into his modified anatomy.
Kakuzu roared—not in pain, but in pure, incandescent fury at the damage and the sheer unnaturalness of his opponent. This creature defied every assumption about combat, regeneration, and the limits of biological enhancement.
He channeled immense chakra through his compromised but still functional techniques. "Earth Release: Rock Armor!" Jagged plates of stone erupted over his Earth Spear skin, reinforcing the weakened areas while shedding accumulated toxin. The additional layer provided crucial protection against further corrosive damage.
He slammed his reinforced fist into the ground with devastating force. "Water Release: Great Waterfall!" A colossal explosion of pressurized water erupted beneath both combatants, not aimed to harm Kenji directly but to create massive shockwaves and blinding spray that would force crucial separation.