Kakuzu was a cautious person and he didn't want to engage in a battle where his life was on the line if it wasn't absolutely necessary. That is why he ran away when he faced the1st Hokage.

The bounty on Hashirama was great but it wasn't good enough for him to risk his life. Kakuzu was shocked by the strength shown by Zoro, he didn't expect him to be on his level. ​​

"Since neither one of us can beat each other there is no point in continuing this pointless fight."

Kakuzu turned back and started running away. The thought of going after Kakuzu didn't even enter Yama's mind, his transformation would be undone any second now and he was just hoping Kakuzu wouldn't change his mind and return back.

He summoned Friday back from the scroll and he got out of there with the help of Friday. Of course, Yama being Yama he didn't let the situation end just like that he wanted to make Kakuzu embarrassed to even show up to the black market anymore.

So he spread the news of how he kicked Kakuzu's ass and how Kakuzu ran away from him like a pussy. At first, nobody believed him but since Kakuzu didn't deny the situation so they all assumed Zoro was telling the truth.

From that day onwards Zoro was more feared and respected in the black market. He had also been working on a technique that would help him defeat Kakuzu if not it would guarantee that he wouldn't lose and he finally mastered it, so he wanted to find Kakuzu again for a rematch.

Back to the present.

It had been a couple of days since Yama killed that Kumo Jounin and right now was heading towards Kirigakure to collect the head of one of the seven swordsmen Juzo Biwa one of the future members of Akatsuki.

He got a little information about his whereabouts from the black market and was going after him. He was a little worried he might encounter all 7 swordsmen at the same time but he was certain he would survive.

Although the current 7 swordsmen weren't on the level of Kisame or Zabuza they were still very skilled Jounin and if they worked together they could even be a problem for any Kage alive.

'Juzo is probably the strongest one in the group followed by Fuguki who has samehada and after that the guy who has the needle sword and the guy with the axe and a hammer. The rest of them are not that strong.

'If I try hit and run tactics and decrease their number one by one I can probably take all seven of them. I also have Friday his strength can not be underestimated, if he ambushes one of the weaker ones out of the seven he can probably kill them.

'They each have about 40-50 million bounty, if I can kill them all I will be rich and also their swords, I can't forget about the sword each sword would also fetch me millions of dollar. I have decided, I am going to kill all 7 swordsmen of the mist.'

At Konoha.

Ever since Yama left Guy didn't have anyone to train with or spar with so he was feeling very lonely. He would sometimes go and visit Yama's mom to ask what Yama was doing.

According to her the clan head of Inuzuka clan had taught him four ninjutsu and one of them was how to summon a pigeon so Yama could use the pigeon to send messages back home. So he would visit her often.

Kakashi and he were also on a different team so he also couldn't find Kakashi for a spar.

As for his teammates, their taijutsu wasn't strong enough to spar with him. He couldn't wait to go out and participate in battle but he was only a genin and he wasn't sent to battle.

But a few months ago he was finally promoted to chunin along with his teammates. And today the three of them left Konoha alone to head to the front lines and deliver a message.

Although they didn't leave the village to participate in the battle, Guy was more than happy just to be able to reach the battlefield. Duy was worried about the safety of his son so he secretly followed his son.

A couple of days passed now Team Choza (Guy's team) and Duy who was following them from afar had reached near the border of Kirigakure. They were running in a thick forest so visibility was very low.

Thanks to their luck Guy, Ebisu, and Genma arrived in front of 7 people. 6 of them were holding something that looked like a sword and one of them was holding an axe and a hammer which were connected by a chain.

"The seven ninja swordsmen of the mist." Guy murmured.

The Juzo Biwa guy holding the executioner blade spoke. "Hehe, look who we have here, three Konoha's bitches came here to deliver us their head."

Guy wasn't paying attention to what Juzo was saying all he was thinking about was successfully escaping from them. He looked around carefully and thought about many escape plans but.

"There is no way we can escape." He said with a dejected face.

Suddenly a green glowing figure jumped down in front of them.

"Father, what are you doing here?" Guy exclaimed.

"You kids run away, I will hold them back."

"What do you mean to hold them back, you are a genin while they are Jounin you are no match for them."

"I can open the 8th gate."

"But Papa."

"Remember, the self-rule, only open the 8th gate when you are protecting someone precious to you, I am doing that. Now leave."

Guy couldn't hold back his tears and started crying.

Fuguki laughed. "Such a touching scene between father and a son nearly brought a tear to my eyes."

Duy glared at Fuguki and was about to open the 8th gate.

"Looks like I wasn't late to the party."