After Meihui and the others drove off Itachi and Kisame, they hurried toward Asuma's group. Unfortunately, things did not go as they had hoped. Hidan had already stabbed Asuma into something resembling sachima, and when Kakuzu saw the Konoha reinforcements arriving, he grabbed Hidan and took off running.
What a joke. With that many people on their side, how could we possibly win? I'm a man who fought the First Hokage, after all. How could I fail to read the situation like that hotheaded idiot Hidan?
Hidan was still shouting, "Put me down! I'll take on ten of them!"
But would Kakuzu really put him down? He had not lived this long for nothing. He gave Hidan a hefty slap, making him obediently shut his mouth.
All Kakashi and the others saw was his retreating back.
There was nothing they could do. The two were already far away, and they could not simply chase after them. It might be an enemy trap. So the group brought Asuma back to Konoha.
Asuma's funeral was held a few days later, and Meihui and the others attended. One person was particularly devastated: Kurenai. She had only recently discovered that she was pregnant with Asuma's child.
Shikamaru had been looking after Kurenai over the past few days. After learning of Asuma's death, she had been so grief-stricken that she nearly fainted. But thinking of the child in her womb, she felt she had to stay strong and keep living, if only to do right by that precious new life. Shikamaru said that Asuma had always looked after him, and he promised to make arrangements for the child's future and become the child's teacher someday.
After receiving that promise, Kurenai became even more determined to keep living.
Once that brief interlude was over, Tsunade gathered