Chapter 159: A Rescuer Arrives
"Hmph! Trying to escape? That bounty is mine. Did you think I would let you leave with it?"
Kakuzu's cold voice cut through the chaos. Seeing Shikamaru's team attempting a retreat, he snorted in disdain. With a flicker of will, he commanded two of his mask monsters to press the attack against Suigetsu, while the remaining two—one with wings, the other crackling with energy—swept toward the fleeing Konoha shinobi.
One of the monsters, its mask shaped like a snarling beast, opened its maw. The air distorted around it.
**"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"**
A vortex of violently compressed air shot forth, tearing up the ground as it raced toward the exhausted genin.
"It's too fast... we can't dodge it!" Shikamaru's mind, usually a wellspring of strategies, went blank. He was drained, both of chakra and options. All he could do was watch the annihilation approach.
"**Multi-Size Technique!**"
A roar filled the clearing. Choji, his face a mask of grim determination, ballooned into a giant, his body swelling to monumental proportions. He turned his broad back toward the incoming jutsu, placing himself as a living shield between his friends and the devastation.
"Choji, no—!" Shikamaru's cry was lost in the howling wind.
The vortex slammed into Choji's back with the force of a natural disaster. The sound was sickening—a brutal tearing of flesh. Choji roared in agony, but his feet remained planted, his massive form shuddering but unyielding. He would not fall. Not while his sensei and friends were behind him.
When the wind subsided, the surrounding area was scoured clean. Trees were shredded, the earth gouged. Choji shrank back to his normal size, collapsing face-first into the dirt. His back was a bloody, gruesome ruin.
"Choji!!" Ino screamed, rushing to his side. "Ino, medical ninjutsu, now!" Shikamaru ordered, his voice cracking as he positioned himself defensively in front of his fallen comrades, his shadow imitation jutsu useless without chakra.
Ino's hands glowed green as she pressed them against Choji's ravaged back, stemming the bleeding with desperate focus.
Just as the two mask monsters closed in for the kill, a flash of cold steel cut through the air. Two kunai, moving with impossible speed and precision, struck the masks dead-center. The monsters shuddered and collapsed, the masks shattering into pieces before they could hit the ground. A figure landed silently between the dissolving monsters and the Konoha team.
***
"Tch! Fighting me and you still have the attention to spare for others? You're not taking me seriously at all!"
On his side of the battlefield, Suigetsu was furious at the distraction. He charged Kakuzu once more, the decapitation sword whistling through the air.
"Hmph! Your recklessness ends now!" Kakuzu manipulated one of the remaining masks. **"Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work!"**
A torrent of fire roared toward Suigetsu.
"Annoying!" Suigetsu halted, his hands flying through seals. **"Water Style: Water Wall!"** A surge of water erupted from his mouth, forming a barrier that met the firestorm with a furious hiss of steam.
"Not bad. But try this! **Lightning Style: False Darkness!**"
The second mask monster, this one crackling with electricity, unleashed a spear of concentrated lightning. It was blindingly fast.
"Damn it! Lightning?!" Suigetsu's eyes widened in alarm. He was still maintaining the water wall; he had no defense against this. The lightning spear struck him square in the chest.
"Aghhh!"
The jolt sent him flying backwards. His body convulsed, the hydrification technique failing as electricity coursed through him. He landed hard, his muscles seizing. He tried to push himself up, to reach for his sword, but his arms felt like lead. Water—actual water, not a technique—leaked from his pores as his control shattered.
"H-hateful... I can't move..."
"Hehehe," Kakuzu chuckled, a dry, rasping sound. "The famed weakness of the Hōzuki clan. A single lightning-style jutsu renders you paralyzed. It seems the stories are true. This is the end for you. You cannot move, you cannot form seals. How will you stop this? **Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work!**"
The fire mask opened its mouth again, gathering flames to incinerate the helpless swordsman.
But as the fireball launched, a blur of motion intercepted Suigetsu. The figure scooped him up and leaped clear, the inferno scorching the earth where he had just lain.
It was Jugo. His calm demeanor was a stark contrast to the battlefield's fury.
"Jugo... saved by you. How embarrassing," Suigetsu managed to grate out, his body still twitching. "But... thanks."
"We are companions. There is no need for thanks," Jugo replied simply, setting him down gently against a tree.
"If you're here, does that mean... the other one is dealt with?"
"Yes. The Akatsuki member called Hidan has been eliminated. He was not particularly strong and knew no ninjutsu, but he possessed a troublesome immortality. Even after Chen cut him to pieces, he did not die. In the end, Ren was forced to use Amaterasu to burn his head to ashes."
"Seriously? Immortal? These Akatsuki guys really are monsters. And the boss?"
Jugo pointed across the clearing. Suigetsu followed his gaze and saw the two mask monsters that had attacked the Konoha team lying inert, their masks shattered. Standing near them, his back to the scene, was Uchiha Ren. The job there was already finished.
The balance of power had shifted irrevocably. Kakuzu, now facing not one but two members of the Eagle team, and with his partner gone, was suddenly the one who was outnumbered.
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