The Land of Water.
Kakuzu leaned against a massive boulder, panting heavily.
His red-cloud cloak was tattered beyond repair, his chest riddled with several gaping holes. Black tendrils of Earth Grudge Fear slithered out from these wounds, swaying in the breeze.
"Hey, hey, hey, what're you doing?" came Hidan's impatient shout from nearby.
Kakuzu glanced over. Scattered across the ground were Hidan's dismembered body parts, while his head, still yammering, dangled pathetically from a tree branch.
Ignoring Hidan's urging, Kakuzu rested a bit longer before slowly rising and trudging toward him.
As he walked, he gathered Hidan's strewn limbs, piecing them back together one by one. Finally, he retrieved Hidan's head from the tree.
Hidan, reduced to just a head, kept griping, "Making me hang up there for so long!"
"Shut up!" Kakuzu snapped coldly.
Hidan retorted, "Wanna shut me up? Then hurry up and stitch me back together!"
With a dark expression, Kakuzu began sewing Hidan's body back together.
Moments later, Kakuzu had stitched all of Hidan's scattered parts into one. He reattached the incessantly chattering head last.
Now whole, Hidan sat up immediately, inspecting his body while muttering, "Hey, you sure you got all my parts? Feels kinda off!"
Kakuzu replied casually, "Everything I could find is sewn back on."
Hidan scoffed, "This is some crap! Who'd have thought Hidden Mist's Six-Tails Jinchūriki would be that strong? We almost got done in!"
Reflecting on the brutal fight, Kakuzu felt a chill of dread.
Unlike Hidan, whose immortality came naturally, Kakuzu's 'undying' state relied on constantly swapping out fresh hearts. His secret technique, Earth Grudge Fear, allowed him to store up to five hearts. If all five were destroyed, even the so-called 'immortal' bounty hunter would become a cold corpse.
In that battle, he had lost four hearts. The legend of the bounty world had come within an inch of dying at the hands of the Six-Tails Jinchūriki, Yūgao.
"Damn it. If we hadn't let the Two-Tails Jinchūriki slip away before, dealing with a Six-Tails wouldn't have been this tough! Oi, idiot, you put this part on backward!" Hidan complained.
"You've got hands and feet now, don't you? Fix whatever's backward yourself!" Kakuzu brushed him off, then walked over to the unconscious Six-Tails Jinchūriki, Yūgao.
Hidan's whining was annoying, but he wasn't wrong. Because the five great shinobi villages had rescued the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, Yugito, details of Hidan's Death Possession Blood had leaked, making their recent battle far more grueling.
Otherwise, with the advantage of intel, taking down the Six-Tails Jinchūriki Yūgao wouldn't have been much harder than handling Yugito.
Confirming Yūgao still had a pulse, Kakuzu hoisted him onto his back.
Hidan retrieved his Bloody March Scythe. "We got screwed this time. Lost a ton of flesh, and my joints are wrecked. Gonna need some recovery time."
Some of Hidan's missing parts weren't because Kakuzu couldn't find them—they'd been completely dissolved by Yūgao's corrosive acid in the fight.
Kakuzu nodded. "I need to restock on hearts too."
Suddenly, Kakuzu's head snapped toward a nearby grove. "Who's there!?"
As soon as he spoke, a burly figure emerged from the trees. "Move faster. The Fourth's Anbu will track you down soon!"
Recognizing the figure, Kakuzu lowered his guard slightly.
It was none other than the Hidden Mist insider who had provided the precise location of the Six-Tails Jinchūriki Yūgao.
Kakuzu said, "We need a boat."
"It's already prepared," the burly figure replied, then paused before asking, "When will the Akatsuki fulfill their promise to me?"
Hidan smirked. "What's the rush?"
The figure roared, "My position in Hidden Mist is shaky! The Fourth is starting to suspect me. If you don't act soon, I might have to defect!"
Hidan grinned mockingly. "Perfect! You could join the Akatsuki! Yo, Kakuzu, think this guy's got what it takes to join us?"
Kakuzu ignored Hidan's taunting. He knew the figure's value as a mole in Hidden Mist far outweighed any defection. Soothingly, he said, "We're looking for an opportunity. You know how cautious the Mizukage is. And as the leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, even if the Mizukage suspects you, what can they do without proof?"
The Akatsuki had considered targeting the Fourth Mizukage before, but the Mizukage's vigilance made it nearly impossible to pin down their location, delaying any action.
The burly figure's face darkened. "Fine, just go. The village's Anbu are almost here!"
Without further ado, Kakuzu, carrying the unconscious Yūgao, dashed off with Hidan in the direction the figure indicated.
Soon, they boarded an inconspicuous fishing boat and left the Land of Water.
In the boat's cabin, a bored Hidan asked, "That guy's so desperate for us to take out the Mizukage. Gotta be more than just self-preservation, right?"
Kakuzu replied, "If the Fourth Mizukage dies by our hands, with his seniority in Hidden Mist, he might have a shot at becoming the Fifth Mizukage."
Hidan sneered, "No wonder he's pushing us so hard! You'd think he's the one collecting Tailed Beasts!"
Kakuzu said, "We succeeded here, capturing the Six-Tails. With the Four-Tails, Five-Tails, and now Six-Tails in the Akatsuki's grasp, if the other two teams pull through, we'll have five Tailed Beasts."
Hidan counted on his fingers. "That leaves just the One-Tail, Two-Tails, Three-Tails, and Eight-Tails. The One-Tail's Jinchūriki is a kid—easy pickings. The real trouble's the two perfect Jinchūriki from Hidden Cloud and Hidden Mist's Fourth Mizukage."
Kakuzu added, "The Two-Tails is our mission. We let her slip last time. We can't let that happen again."
Hidan chuckled lightly. "Relax, I've got her tricks figured out."
Each Akatsuki team had their own assignments, and the Two-Tails had always been the task of their 'immortal' duo. No one would clean up their mess, so the next attempt to capture the Two-Tails Jinchūriki would still fall to them.