Battle Kakuzu

"I'll take your head!"

Kakuzu, radiating a terrifying aura, suddenly raised his hand and aimed it at Uchiha Fugaku like a cannon barrel.

The next moment, an astonishing change occurred.

His hand shot out like a cannonball, attacking Uchiha Fugaku dozens of meters away.

Countless strange black tendrils connected his hand to his arm.

Squelch—

The ground was deeply pierced, and Kakuzu's hand stabbed deep into the spot where Uchiha Fugaku had been standing.

However, Uchiha Fugaku had dodged before Kakuzu's hand could reach him.

"Earth Grudge Fear!"

Appearing more than ten meters away in a flash, Uchiha Fugaku looked toward the hand connected by numerous tendrils.

Earth Grudge Fear was a forbidden ninjutsu. After being altered by this technique, the body would grow numerous black tendrils capable of doing many things that defied common sense.

For example, allowing a hand to detach from the body while remaining connected only by tendrils.

Whoosh—

Kakuzu swiftly reeled in his extended hand and looked at Uchiha Fugaku.

That attack had been extremely sudden. Many of the people he had targeted had been pierced through by it.

Yet Uchiha Fugaku had dodged it with ease. His opponent was no weakling.

Still, Kakuzu was not surprised. Although the Uchiha Clan had declined, it was, after all, the clan that had produced Uchiha Madara, a powerhouse capable of contending with the First Hokage.

As the Clan Head of such a clan, it was only natural for him to possess considerable strength.

Whoosh!

Kicking off the ground, his tall, muscular body shot forward, rapidly closing in on Uchiha Fugaku.

As he ran, his hands came together in a rapid series of seals.

"Earth Style: Earth Spear!"

As the hand seals were completed, his hands turned pitch-black, as though they had been dipped in black ink.

This was an Earth Style Ninjutsu that strengthened the skin, making the body as hard as steel.

It possessed immensely powerful defense while also granting formidable destructive force, making it a powerful ninjutsu suited for both offense and defense.

"Sharingan Genjutsu."

Understanding the power of this technique, Uchiha Fugaku naturally had no intention of taking it head-on.

His eyes transformed into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and began spinning rapidly.

A Sharingan genjutsu that required no hand seals activated. Even with Kakuzu's Kage-level mental strength, he could not help but be dragged into the illusion.

However, Kakuzu was a Kage-level powerhouse after all. Given enough time, he should have been able to break free from the genjutsu with his powerful will.

There was no genjutsu that truly had no solution. Even Sharingan genjutsu could not be impossible to break.

But Uchiha Fugaku clearly had no intention of giving Kakuzu that time.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Technique."

His hands swiftly completed the seals, and an enormous fire dragon condensed from flames appeared, radiating scorching heat as it attacked Kakuzu.

In its wake, it left a charred trail across the ground.

Boom—

The roaring fire dragon swallowed Kakuzu, carrying his body onward as it surged forward.

Dozens of meters away, the massive fire dragon dispersed after exhausting its power, revealing Kakuzu within.

His specially made fire-resistant clothes had become tattered and torn.

Yet Kakuzu himself did not have a single burn.

The formidable defense granted by Earth Style: Earth Spear had allowed Kakuzu to withstand the powerful fire dragon attack.

"Not bad power!"

Having already broken free of the genjutsu, Kakuzu glanced at his slightly blackened body and looked at Uchiha Fugaku with interest.

So this was the Sharingan genjutsu renowned throughout the ninja world?

Even he, a Kage-level powerhouse, had fallen for it.

And the Fire Style Ninjutsu his opponent had used afterward was also quite powerful.

The same ninjutsu often displayed different power in different people's hands.

He had seen this Fire Style Ninjutsu before, but when it had been used by that Konoha ninja, its power had clearly been inferior to Uchiha Fugaku's.

"But if this is all you've got, you can't hurt me!"

With his skin hardened by Earth Style Ninjutsu, he seemed clad in a suit of steel. Every step he took cratered the ground as he charged violently at Uchiha Fugaku.

"What powerful defense!"

Uchiha Fugaku frowned slightly as he watched Kakuzu rush toward him.

Kakuzu had not suffered the slightest injury after an attack like that. It was clear just how profound Kakuzu's mastery of Earth Style: Earth Spear was.

After all, his opponent had existed since the era of the First Hokage. Over such a long span of time, his understanding and study of all kinds of ninjutsu had evidently reached an extremely high level.

The thoughts flashed through his mind as his hands formed more complicated seals.

At that instant, his hands moved so quickly that afterimages appeared.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation."

Whoosh—

Chakra gathered in his throat. With an exhale, an enormous fireball like a meteor slammed forward, carrying terrifying heat capable of instantly evaporating all moisture from a human body.

The ground blackened, trees caught fire, and even the air seemed to be burning.

Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation was one of the most powerful Fire Style Ninjutsu possessed by the Uchiha Clan, several times more powerful than the Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Technique.

"Ah—"

Kakuzu was engulfed by the enormous meteor, screaming amid the vast flames produced by its explosion before his cry abruptly cut off.

Even Kakuzu's enhanced defenses seemed to have suffered severe damage beneath this terrifying Fire Style Ninjutsu.

Suddenly.

A figure burst from the earth beneath Uchiha Fugaku, its hand like a sharp spear as it stabbed toward him.

That figure was none other than Kakuzu.

Though he had immense confidence in the defense granted by Earth Style: Earth Spear, he had absolutely no desire to take a powerful Fire Style Ninjutsu like Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation head-on.

Therefore, before the enormous meteor-like fireball struck him, he had used a Shadow Clone to replace his true body. His real body had burrowed underground and approached Uchiha Fugaku from below.

Squelch—

Kakuzu's pitch-black, spear-like hand pierced through Uchiha Fugaku's body.

Blood streamed from Uchiha Fugaku's body, while Kakuzu revealed a bloodthirsty grin.

This prey was stronger than the ones he had encountered before, but he had still successfully hunted him down.

Thirty million was now his!

But the next moment, the bloodthirsty grin on his face turned to astonishment as the Uchiha Fugaku he had pierced dissolved into a puff of white smoke.

He was certain that the Uchiha Fugaku he had just pierced with his arm had not been a Shadow Clone, because that tangible sensation was not something a Shadow Clone could possess.

But why had the heavily injured Uchiha Fugaku suddenly vanished?

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation."

Before he had time to consider why, an enormous fireball like a burning meteor came crashing down and engulfed him.

Faced with such a sudden attack, he had no time to evade this time.

On a tree not far away, Uchiha Fugaku's eyes were scarlet, black patterns spinning rapidly within them.

They were not the Three-Tomoe pattern, but a special pattern formed from three tomoe, a ring, and four black dots.

In fact, Kakuzu had long since fallen into the True Illusion of Uchiha Fugaku's right-eye Dojutsu. Kakuzu himself simply had not realized it.

As for why the heavily injured Uchiha Fugaku had suddenly disappeared, that was no longer difficult to understand.

Within the True Illusion, he possessed limitless life, limitless chakra... and could accomplish many things beyond common sense.