This timing couldn’t be real; there was no way that the green-hair-girl had come back already. We hadn’t even been fighting for half an hour! Why were they here now?! I could have tried to make them retreat with an extended battle, try, and whittle Kakuzu’s masks down and make it a pyrrhic victory at best. Green-haired-girl and her two Jounin teammates were already halfway through the entrance. Now I somehow had to try and defend three people as well; it was impossible, they were all going to die, and I was probably going to die as well.

The enormous tree in the center of the village had caught fire now, from one of the numerous fire attacks that had been lancing around the battlefield. Thick and dark smoke was rushing up above the village and high into the air; they had have seen the smoke coming from wherever they had been and sprinted here.

“Give me back my weapon, you fuck!” Hidan said angrily.

They were almost here.

“Where is everyone!?” The Green-haired-girl cried, “Anybody?!”

I observed her from a distance.

Name: Fu

Title: Jinchuriki of the Seven Tailed Beast

Gender: Female

Age: 20

Level: 189

Next Level: 73.37%

Health Points - 1400/1400

Chakra Points - 12730/12730

Vitality 310

Strength 307

Speed 225

Perception 93

Intelligence 70

Chakra 1273

Status Effects: N/A.

Emotions: Despair, Panic, Fear.

History: Fu was born in Takigakure and later became the Jinchuriki of the Seven Tailed Beast at a young age. Fu wants to make lots of friends.

I could feel one the Jounin break off from the group and start circling up behind me; he and his teammate were a great deal stronger than most of the Jounin from earlier, judging by what they felt like.

This was going to end badly; they had no reason to trust anything I said; I would have to try anyway.

“Green-haired-girl!” I said loudly, “Focus on evasion! Aim for the masks! They are both S-rank missing-ninja, don’t let the white-haired guy get anyone’s blood, or he can remotely kill you!”

Kakuzu was halfway through a water technique before I had even gotten halfway through the sentence. I Jaunted behind the Jonin, who had stopped directly behind me up on the building and grabbed him on the shoulder as the massive wave of water crashed down on us, and I Jaunted us both directly up into the air.

I had a second to register that his name was Yoro before he broke out of my grip with force and lashed out at me; I barely managed to get my arm in the way of his kick, and Yoro used the force of it to launch himself to safety, and me down towards the water below.

Wow, thanks, asshole!

I jaunted over to a rooftop above the other Jonin, Kegon, who was flashing through a series of hand seals. All of the water that Kakuzu had summoned actually helped fuel his technique as Kegon launched a massive wave of a shuriken made of water at where the two Akatsuki members were still standing.

Hidan howled in glee before leaping straight through the attack without taking any damage and ripping a black spike out from under his cloak. Kegon managed to jump back out of the way, and Hidan gave chase as he started retreating across the rooftops.

Fu charged straight at Kakuzu before she launched into a series of kicks at his chest and head. Kakuzu seemingly fended them off with absolutely no effort on his part, completely reading her movements before breaking through her next kick and grabbing her by the face.

I jaunted behind him with my finger planted against his back, and I knew it was a mistake because the second I appeared, his fire mask abruptly spat out a massive ball of fire in my face and launched me back from the explosive force of it.

“Fuck!” I screamed in pain.

I closed my eyes desperately as the fire rushed over me, and my line spear tore through his upper shoulder instead of the mask. Kakuzu spun around before smashing Fu into the ground by her head, and she cried out. I started blind firing at where I could feel him standing and dumping Mana into Heals until my skin stopped crying out in agony.

Kakuzu was forced to let go of her to move out of the way.

The line spear barrage missed him entirely, but a moment later, a wave of shuriken rained down on Kakuzu, who immediately zig-zagged back across the ground in a series on small hops that allowed him to remain untouched by the falling stars. I shot at where he was going to land, and he pulled himself behind a building with an extended hand. I felt him spit out two masks as soon as he was out of sight, the fire one immediately went after Kegon.

“Incoming fire mask after your friend!” I called loudly before I jaunted over to grab Fu by the back of the shirt before tossing her over my shoulder

The wind mask spat out a series of wind bullets at my position, so I jaunted up back onto the nearest roof. Fu was bleeding from the face, so I dumped about three hundred Mana into a heal, and she immediately woke up. I jaunted away from Kakuzu’s reaching arm and then showered the stretching appendage with lines of Mana.

I actually managed to land a couple of hits on it, probably because Kakuzu was too now busy stabbing his threads straight through Yoro’s chest.

“Who are you?” Fu cried out, from her position over my shoulder, unable to see what was happening to her friend.

“Sora!” I yelled back, “You good to fight again, green-haired-girl?”

“Yes!” Fu called back, “My name is Fu!”

I dropped her on the next roof and then turned back towards where Kakuzu was, I was too late to save Yoro, but I managed to land two hits on the heart that Kakuzu was pulling out of his chest, and he immediately dropped the man.

Kakuzu surged towards them again before vanishing behind another building towards where Fu was. Fu’s chakra had been building up for something big for a few seconds, so I moved to draw Kakuzu’s attention as best I could with another barrage. Kakuzu, with his insane ability to figure out where I was aiming, dodged everything with apparent ease.

I heard Fu call something out in warning that I couldn’t hear, and then suddenly, there was a massive amount of sparkling powder covering the entire area for several blocks. I got caught in the edge of it, and when I came out of my reflexive Jaunt, I was completely blind; I immediately hit myself with a Status Removal, and my vision came back

Kakuzu had leaped straight into the air in an attempt to avoid it, but a trail of sparkling dust was following him, and his eyes were blinking furiously; he was in the process of spearing an arm out towards at building when I shot him three times in the chest. I felt his Wind Mask die before his hand managed to snag the corner of the rooftop and then dragged himself straight through the wall of the building, going for cover.

I started shooting at where I could feel him through the building, and the Line Spears cut straight through all of the walls and out the other side with ease, but none of them hit; he was moving too erratically. His fire mask had begun to speed back towards us, heading towards where Kakuzu was.

Kakuzu only had his original Earth heart in him; this was the only chance we had to kill him.

“Get the fire mask!” I shouted.

Fu immediately leaped in that direction while I continued to bombard Kakuzu while he crashed through walls in an attempt to avoid the barrage. Kakuzu changed direction abruptly and headed straight towards where his mask was giving up his deception in return for speed.

I jaunted in between him and the mask before dropping into Meditate, and I started firing a continuous stream of Line Spears at him to keep him at bay, and despite the bonus Mana Recovery, my Mana was dropping far too quickly to sustain this for long.

I could feel Fu engaging the fire mask, and several fireballs narrowly avoided hitting me due to her efforts to keep it off me. I couldn’t move to avoid the attacks or Meditate would crash, so I kept on shooting at Kakuzu to slow him down. I had a visual on him now, and he was more threads then skin, and the skin that was still there was riddled with holes.

Kakuzu was growing larger and wider by the second, stretching out his mass of threads to make it harder for me to hit his remaining heart. It was a move born of desperation because we both knew that I could feel exactly where it was inside the mass.

Kakuzu moved his heart around inside the thread mass in short bursts trying his best to avoid all the lines but eventually, more due to luck than anything, I landed a shot that grazed it, and he spasmed violently from the pain.

Kakuzu was stunned momentarily, which gave me just enough time to land a more solid hit that took his original heart out of action. Kakuzu immediately fell to the ground like his strings had been cut, all of his threads drawing back inside his torn and shredded body in a burst of movement.

The fire mask desperately tried to make its way past Fu to revive Kakuzu. I couldn’t let that happen, so I used the last of my Mana to Jaunt towards his body and then inventoried it. I felt the fire mask pause from the suddenly lost connection to its host, and then Fu smashed it into a million pieces.

Your level has increased by 7.

I immediately stopped casting everything except Meditate and watched as my Mana abruptly started to rise back up for the dangerously low amount I’d had left. Fu was still investigating the disintegrating mask when I reached half of the total Mana again.

I gave up on recovering Mana when I felt Kegon’s chakra abruptly draining at an insane rate and started sprinting towards him and Hidan. Whatever Kegon was doing was going to leave him with nothing left if he didn’t stop soon. I arrived just in time to see Hidan put his spike through Kegon’s chest, there was shuriken absolute everywhere, and barely a second after he slumped to the ground, they vanished into smoke, leaving a thousand holes behind.

“Hidan,” I hissed.

“I want my fucking weapon!” Hidan howled in a rage and glee as he leaped towards me.

I jaunted behind him and shot him in the back, and it pierced through him and out the other side but did absolutely nothing to slow him down. I hadn’t expected it too, but my strategy wasn’t to one-shot him, because that was impossible. Hidan spun around to face me before lunging again, but I just jaunted up onto the roof behind him and then shot him in the back again.

“Come down here and fight me, you fuck!” Hidan howled.

Needless to say, I didn’t; instead, I kept at least ten meters between us at all times and gave him the Yoko treatment. Hidan threw his spike at me sometime later, but I just Jaunted out of the way and then inventoried it on the next pass.

I had to constantly drop into Meditate after each reposition to keep my Mana running, and if Hidan had any more range options left, this probably wouldn’t have worked, but his cloak was long since shredded, and all he had on was a pair of trousers, with no pouches insight.

I could feel Fu watching from up on a roof, and she remained there until Hidan didn’t have enough muscle mass left in his legs to hold his body up, and by that point, he was just trying to escape. I started focusing on his lower back as he desperately tried to crawl away.

Hidan cursed and shouted the entire time, even after I started on his neck.

“I’m going to fucking bite you to death, you stupid fuck!” Hidan raged, practically frothing at the mouth.

I inventoried his limbs each time I managed to sever them, and then his torso when I finally separated his head from his body. It took me almost five minutes of unending attacks at Hidan’s head for it to be considered non-living enough to go into my inventory, and he raged until he no longer had the parts left to speak.

Your level has increased by 7.

Quest Completed

Kill Kakuzu and Hidan.

Objectives

Save the Green-haired-girl!

Save the two-tailed-chick!

Save Asuma!

Rewards

Exalted reputation with Fu.

Exalted reputation with Shibuki.

Exalted reputation with Takigakure.

Exalted reputation with Yoro.

Exalted reputation with Kegon.

I just stared at the notification, a twisted feeling trying to rip its way out of my chest. I could have completed the quest and saved them all, but I hadn’t because I wasted all that time wallowing, instead of training or coming up with better strategies, or informing the villagers that Akatsuki was coming.

I could hear Fu crying her eyes out over on the other roof, and it made the guilt even harder to ignore. I had come here to save her, and I did, but the cost was every other person that lived here; what kind of fucking monkey’s paw outcome was this?

The great tree in the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls burned.