The raging wind and rain tore wildly through the vast mountains and forests.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Kakuzu pushed the Chakra within his body to an unprecedented limit.
His black robe with red clouds on the back was already torn into strips, revealing his old body covered with rough stitches.
Countless jet-black, wire-like tentacles of the Earth Grudge Fear frantically pierced into the canopy of the ancient tree in front.
Utilizing the small reaction forces of catapult launch and gliding.
Kakuzu transformed into a dark, lightning-like Inazuma amidst the steep, precipitous cliffs and dense forests, charging forward at breakneck speed!
quick!
Just a little faster!
Once you cross that mountain ridge, pass through the nameless underground river of the Land of Rivers, and dive into the underground water veins that are a thousand meters deep!
Even that monster, Senju Kenya, could never possibly track him down deep into the earth!
"As long as I live... as long as I'm still alive..."
Kakuzu was panting heavily as he ran, his single eye beneath the mask bloodshot.
"I can live for hundreds more years! I can earn countless more seven hundred million taels of silver!!"
However.
Before he could even finish calculating in his mind...
"Call--"
A warm current carrying a rich aroma of grass and a faint scent of tobacco suddenly and unexpectedly blew past him three feet above his head.
Accompanying this was an extremely casual, light laugh:
"I said, 'Old Frankenstein, you're quite agile.'"
"Didn't you have tofu pudding this morning? Why are you running around like a constipated old man?"
Kakuzu felt as if he had been struck by a thunderbolt from the heavens!
His hair stood on end, and in his frantic run, he suddenly raised his head in utter terror!
All I could see was a gray curtain of rain overhead.
Senju Kenya, shirtless, with his floral shorts fluttering in the wind, floated side by side beside him as if walking on flat ground, his feet seemingly stepping on nothingness!
He didn't even bother to take his hands out of his shorts pockets.
With a white jade pipe dangling from his lips, he strolled leisurely as if he were in his own backyard!
"How could it be so fast?!"
Kakuzu was terrified; the chill of death instantly froze his very bones!
There's no escaping it!
This man's movement speed has completely transcended the realm of the Body Flicker Technique!
"Die, monster!!"
In dire straits, the ferocity that had been lurking within Kakuzu for nearly a century was pushed to the brink of eruption!
He roared and abruptly stopped in the treetop!
"Rip--!"
The old, calloused skin on his back suddenly burst open!
Chakra puppets, each made of thick black lines and wearing ancient beast masks.
With a chilling hiss, it burst forth from the body and hovered in the air around it!
The Earth Release Mask was the first to activate!
In an instant, Kakuzu's entire thick right arm was covered with a layer of gray-black rock as hard as refined steel!
" Earth Release: Earth Spear! Adamantine Heavy Fist!!"
Using the recoil from the sudden stop, Kakuzu's heavy stone fist, powerful enough to shatter a castle gate, slammed down towards Kenya's face with a violent whistling wind that tore through the air!
However.
Faced with this heavily armored Taijutsu that embodies Kakuzu's century-long legacy.
Kenya hovered in mid-air, not even blinking.
He didn't throw a punch.
He simply and slowly pulled his right index finger out of the pocket of his floral shorts.
"Buzz!"
At the tip of his index finger, a pure and profound jet-black starlight suddenly condensed!
Armament Haki - Shigan!
Click.
Kenya remained indifferent, and with a light flick of his finger, he met the oncoming, massive punch!
"Bang--!!"
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
There was only one crisp, clear sound, like a needle piercing a balloon!
Kakuzu's proud Earth Release hardened arm, which he claimed could withstand the bombardment of Explosive Tag.
In that one-thousandth of a second, the black gold was touched by the fingertip.
"Crack! Crack!"
From the fist to the arm, all the hardened rock layers, along with the bones inside, were pulverized inch by inch in an instant!
The penetrating force, at its most violent and extreme, surged straight in!
It ruthlessly blasted into the earth-attribute mask behind Kakuzu's right shoulder, following the black meridians of the Earth Grudge Fear!
"Crack!!"
The Earth Release) Beast Mask shattered instantly into countless fragments!
The earth-elemental heart inside was instantly crushed into a pulp by the force of the finger!
"Puff--!"
The first heart explodes!
Kakuzu coughed up a mouthful of black blood, not even having time to feel the excruciating pain of his severed arm.
The Lightning Release mask on his back suddenly opened its gaping maw!
Lightning Release: False Darkness!!
Several thick, serpentine, sharp lightning spears shot out from the mask's mouth, attempting to pierce the nearly upon-the-near Kenya into charred remains!
"After using the water guns, are you now playing with lighters?"
Kenya chuckled, his figure swaying slightly in mid-air like a ghost.
He deftly dodged the high-pressure lightning spear that was powerful enough to vaporize rocks!
The next moment.
Kenya's figure appeared out of thin air directly above the Lightning Release mask!
He slightly bent his index finger, then casually flicked it in the air!
" Shigan - Flick!"
"Boom!!"
A ball of extremely compressed air, imbued with a dark and Haki, crashed down like a cannonball!
The Lightning Release Mask couldn't even utter a mournful cry.
The entire mask, along with the lightning-attribute heart beneath it, was blasted through in mid-air, creating a huge hole and exploding into scattered black smoke!
The second heart explodes!
"Bastard... bastard!!"
Two lives were lost in the blink of an eye, Kakuzu went completely mad!
He knew that the man in front of him was simply toying with him like a cat playing with Nezumi!
" Strange Mask Exploding Flame!!"
The remaining Wind Release and Fire Style masks intertwined wildly, simultaneously opening their gaping maws!
The raging wind blades and towering flames merged perfectly in mid-air!
"Boom boom boom boom--!!"
The dense forest, spanning hundreds of meters in radius, was instantly transformed into a fiery inferno!
The massive, complex Ninjutsu even evaporated the torrential rain in the sky into scalding white vapor!
However.
Just as the sea of fire reached its zenith...
"Whoosh!"
A tall and imposing figure stepped out, calmly tearing through the flames as he strode forward, his body swaying through the charred fire.
The sparks Kakuzu of Kenya's floral shorts.
Under the blazing fire, his skin, gleaming with an icy sheen, exuded a despair-inducing quality that would drive even gods and demons to despair!
"The 'Hot Wheels' trick is pretty flashy."
Kenya raised his right hand expressionlessly.
Bring your index and middle fingers together to form a sword finger!
" Shigan - Twin Piercing!"
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Two thin, yet dazzlingly brilliant black lines shot out from Kenya's fingertips, instantly piercing through the void!
The two masks, one a wind-style Wind Release and the other Fire Style mask, trembled violently in mid-air as they roared wildly.
Immediately afterwards.
Under Kakuzu's gaze, a gaze so intense it nearly stopped his heart.
Both masks simultaneously developed a huge hole through their foreheads!
Two vibrant hearts, tightly enveloped by the Earth Grudge Fear.
The violent, penetrating force instantly blasted it into a cloud of blood mist!
The third and fourth hearts were destroyed one after another!
"Boom!"
Without the support of the Chakra from the four masks, the Earth Grudge Fear black lines within Kakuzu's body withered and died wildly!
He looked like a broken, dead Crow with its wings clipped.
It crashed heavily from the treetops, hundreds of meters high, into the muddy, rocky riverbed!
It created a crater several meters deep!
Kakuzu collapsed in the blood, coughing up black blood violently.
The last remaining heart belonging to his original self beat weakly and erratically in his chest at this moment.
"Tap, tap."
The sound of wet flip-flops slowly came to a stop at the edge of the pit.
Kenya, with a white jade pipe between his teeth, looked down at the dying old monster.
Kenya: Kakuzu, I heard you've been saving money for over a hundred years?