Four masked monsters emerged from Kakuzu's back. Their bodies were pitch-black, with eerie masks where their faces should have been. They looked shaggy, but Kazemori Masaki knew that their black "hair" was actually mutated blood vessels. These masked monsters were all life-forms transformed by Earth Grudge Fear.
Before Orochimaru developed Living Corpse Reincarnation, Masaki considered Earth Grudge Fear the closest thing to the immortality technique Orochimaru envisioned. As long as its user kept stealing other people's hearts, fresh vitality would fill his body. Kakuzu retained terrifying combat prowess even past ninety, a testament to Earth Grudge Fear's power.
If Living Corpse Reincarnation had one advantage over Earth Grudge Fear, it was probably that it used the spirit as its vessel, making it even more mysterious than a technique that relied on physical hearts. But considering the damage Living Corpse Reincarnation inflicted on the spirit, and the need to change bodies every few years, it was hard to say which method of prolonging life was better. Each had its strengths and weaknesses; it came down to personal choice.
Yet in Masaki's eyes, both Living Corpse Reincarnation and Earth Grudge Fear were steeped in evil. He believed life deserved a basic measure of respect. Even when an enemy had to be killed, that fundamental respect could not be abandoned. Both techniques treated life with contempt and trampled upon it.
In all fairness, Kakuzu was an extremely capable man, and he belonged to no organization. In some novels Masaki had read, a protagonist with sufficient ability might have chosen to recruit Kakuzu as a subordinate. Even Masaki himself had once considered whether he could bring Kakuzu under his command, but the thought vanished as soon as he remembered Earth Grudge Fear.
Recruiting Kakuzu would mean confronting the fact that he would steal other