Kakuzu's Hate, Kakuzu's Grudge

"Let me handle this!"

Hidan swung his Bloody Triple Scythe, eager for a fight.

"I'm going to kill you, Hokage!"

A disciple of Jashin.

An immortal monster walking among the living.

He was dying to draw a single drop of Naruto's blood to end his life.

"And you?"

Naruto beckoned with his finger at the bewildered Kakuzu.

"Don't you plan on making a move? I told you long ago, I intend to claim both your bloodline and your secret techniques!"

With a flick of his finger and a smile, Naruto triggered a massive tree that surged violently from beneath the waters of the Rain Village!

"Does this look familiar?"

"Kakuzu! You once attempted to assassinate the First Hokage of my Konoha. How has your path as a rogue ninja been these past few decades? Did you ever think that I, the Acting Hokage, would come hunting for you?"

Naruto clapped his hands together.

He stood atop a mountain formed by hundreds of giant Wood Style palms.

"Answer me! Why don't you attack? Why shrink back when you possess the secret art of Immortal Stitching?"

"At least throw a kunai at me! What are you cowering from, you coward!"

Naruto's terrifying aura, looming from above, felt like a fusion of boundless darkness and a sky choked with storm clouds.

"Kakuzu! Slaughter him!"

Hidan roared, urging his partner to strike.

But Kakuzu only looked up at Naruto in sheer terror.

How could he be so similar?

"Hashirama Senju!"

Kakuzu felt the familiar fluctuation of chakra, along with that peerless Kekkei Genkai.

Wood Style!

Who else but Hashirama Senju could unleash Wood Style with such overwhelming power?

"So you have returned from the Pure Land! Hashirama Senju! You didn't kill me back then!"

"I don't want your mercy; I want to defeat you! I have attained an immortal body, I will surely kill you!"

In this moment, Kakuzu felt as if he had returned to his youth.

Assassinating the God of Shinobi—what kind of madman would issue such a mission? Yet, he had gone to his death regardless.

Even when he learned of Hashirama Senju's death, Kakuzu refused to believe it in his heart.

To go was to die; to stay was also to die.

Kakuzu had asked himself ten thousand times: if the target of that assassination had been Madara Uchiha, Takigakure would likely have been reduced to ashes.

Throughout his ninja career to date.

Kakuzu only questioned: what if he had been born in Konoha instead of Takigakure, and instead of following those pieces of trash, he had followed the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju?

Perhaps he would have found a home long ago, and would never have become a wandering rogue ninja.

"Kakuzu! Ignite your chakra!"

Naruto thrust out ninety-nine giant Wood Style hands.

"Hashirama Senju!"

What Kakuzu saw in his eyes was not Naruto, but that inescapable figure: Hashirama Senju!

The mortal enemy he longed to defeat, the god he longed to follow.

"Earth Grudge Fear!"

"Combined Ninjutsu: Searing Migraine!"

The masks on Kakuzu's shoulders were the dying struggles of his past victims.

Black threads blanketed the sky, ready to entangle with those devastating Wood Style hands.

Give it everything!

Kakuzu had once gone through fire and water for his village, only to be heartlessly betrayed.

The Ninja World was a place with no room for him, yet it was the only place he had left to inhabit.

Losing to the God of Shinobi was no disgrace, but losing to the people of his own village was a humiliation!

"Hashirama Senju! I hate you!"

Kakuzu shrieked, his face beneath the masks flashing with a sickly green light in his eyes.

The fear of one's youth is, in truth, already a matter for adults.

Yet, in the long lifespan of Kakuzu, it seemed as fleeting as a youthful grievance.

If he had awakened in Konoha after being defeated that day, perhaps he would not have known so deeply that he lived in such a cruel world.

"Why didn't you kill me when you defeated me! Do you have any idea that I never dared to die again! I fear death, I only love money! I became more shameless than those beasts! It's all your fault for not killing me that day!"

Kakuzu cursed, his voice as incessant as Deidara's nagging and as arrogant as Hidan's pride.

The young are always foolish; once they make a decision, they will fight to the end no matter how difficult it is.

Kakuzu, who saw the figures of Naruto and Hashirama Senju merge into one, felt the pitifully small amount of blood remaining in his own body!

Five hearts used pitch-black threads to replace his blood.

He was, of course, the rogue ninja of Takigakure, Kakuzu!

"Look closely."

"Hashirama Senju is already dead. An era has passed, and only you, a remnant of that old era, still survive."

"What you have been hiding and clinging to is merely that shadow you have lived in, never daring to step into the sunlight since you left Takigakure."

"Kakuzu, I'll be taking your secret ninjutsu, and your miserable life belongs to me as well!"

Naruto treated the sea of fire as nothing more than mud.

So what if fire countered wood?

A fire capable of burning down a house was insignificant when faced with giant trees capable of crushing mountains.

The wind from the palms of hundreds of Wood Style giant hands alone was enough to extinguish Kakuzu's sea of fire!

"Earth Grudge Fear: Final Shot!"

Wind, lightning, and fire.

The three chakra natures converged into a cannon-like attack, capable of blasting an enemy into ashes from a distance in a single strike.

Kakuzu might have seemed the weakest, but in terms of raw output, he possessed his own unique advantages.

What Naruto wanted was not just Kakuzu's survival ability, but the chakra cannon that fused multiple elemental natures.

In Naruto's hands, such a weapon would mean being able to condense high-density chakra with a single finger or palm at any time and place.

It would be enough to destroy an entire army!

By then, Naruto would become a long-range thermal weapon capable of high-speed evasion!

His destructive power and combat capability would be beyond compare!

"You want to kill me! Then come and try!"

Kakuzu fired his cannon.

"Wood Style: Wood Dragon Technique!"

"Wood Style: Wood Human Technique!"

Naruto pressed his palms together.

The Wood Dragon coiled upward, resisting Kakuzu's chakra cannon without sustaining a single scratch, and quickly bound his main body.

Kakuzu, with his five masks flying out from his body, desperately tried to release his black threads to find a way out.

But the Wood Human was already standing above his head, and a palm descended!

Previously, Naruto had already brutally beaten Itachi using the Susanoo-clad Nine-Tails.

Now, this terrifying display of Wood Style combat power made the members of the Akatsuki tremble with fear.

Had Kakuzu really assassinated Hashirama Senju back then?

How had he survived?

The blow from Naruto's Wood Human caused terrifying destruction.

All five masks shattered simultaneously.

The black threads were destroyed like sludge.

Only when Kakuzu was crushed by such power did he understand why Kisame Hoshigaki had lost all will to resist before his defeat.

At this moment, his heart surged—this was the power of Hashirama Senju!

This overwhelming sense of defeat made Kakuzu ecstatic; it was as if he were standing in the forest again, attempting to assassinate the First Hokage, only to be beaten into the ground!

"And you still say you aren't Hashirama Senju!"

Kakuzu's will was completely shattered.

As his final heart was destroyed, his chakra was wiped clean.

A scroll rolled out from within the black threads.

"The First Hokage certainly has a lot of fans in the Ninja World."

Naruto picked up the secret scroll from the ruins, and after a single glance, he committed all its contents to memory.

The coffin rose from the ground.

Naruto ignored Kakuzu, who stepped out looking completely bewildered.

He pointed a finger at Hidan, Konan, and Nagato.

"I said I would wipe all of you out today. Who still has tricks left to play?"

Long, white threads of light sprouted from within Naruto's body.

Sage Mode Double had also integrated the abilities of the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique, allowing him to seize the hearts of others at any time to prolong his own life.

"If I can kill you with my own hands as a sacrifice to Lord Jashin, I will surely become the one and only divine messenger!"

"Naruto Uzumaki! No one survives beneath my Bloody Triple Scythe!"

As Hidan threw his scythe, he lunged toward Naruto for a close-quarters kill.

"You want to claim my blood?"

Naruto kicked the scythe away and slammed a fist into Hidan's abdomen.

"You dare try to take my life? You aren't afraid of scaring your Jashin to death!"

Naruto, in his Sage form, battled the immortal cultist!