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"You've lost your sight, and perhaps your chakra, for now. But you still push forward. Doesn't it frighten you?"
Neji sat quietly, his head bandaged till his nose, with his eyes pointed toward the fire. "Of course it frightens me. But fear doesn't change anything. If I fall here, then all I've done means nothing. If I crawl back to the starting line, at least I still have the chance to run again."
Itachi looked at him, feeling both admiration and guilt. "I'm sorry," Itachi said softly.
Neji tilted his head. "For what?"
"For not being able to help you, while you've helped me more than anyone ever has. You've given me… hope. And yet all I can give you is bandages and empty words."
Neji smiled faintly, though his lips were cracked. "I don't mind. I don't do this expecting anything back. If you think differently now, that's enough."
--
The sun had long set behind the hills of the Fire Country, leaving streets and alleys drenched in shadow. Kakuzu moved like a shadow within the darkness, his form blending seamlessly with the night. The loss of his hearts weighed heavily on him... not physically, perhaps, for his unnatural body kept him alive, but mentally. One heart had been damaged by the branded Hyūga boy, the other destroyed in a violent confrontation with a Mist elite jōnin who had self-destructed in a desperate final act.
Each loss was a bitter sting, a reminder that his immortality was not absolute. Yet Kakuzu's mind was cold and methodical. There was no time for mourning the loss of his hearts or for weakness. Only one thing drove him now: the final reckoning, the target whose bounty had been taunting him to collect quickly. Gennosuke Mugen.
Kakuzu's arrival in the Fire Country had gone unnoticed... he was nothing if not careful. The roads were littered with travelers, merchants, and the occasional shinobi patrol, yet he moved with a predator's patience.
Inside a tall, fortified building... the Mugen Company's trading hall... Gennosuke was busy, surrounded by ledgers, scrolls, and crates marked for delivery. His hands shook slightly with the pressure of the massive order that had come from the Uchiha clan. It wasn't just the deadline that troubled him, nor the vast quantity of weapons to deliver; it was the knowledge that one misstep could unravel everything he had built. The corridors hummed with guards, workers and junior mercenaries.
And then he saw it.
A figure at the far edge of the courtyard, moving with deliberate, terrifying calm. Kakuzu. His face was almost skeletal, stitched together in places, a patchwork of past murders and ancient craft. Threads of black weaved through his flesh, hints of the unnatural power that coursed beneath. His eyes glinted with a sharp, calculating malice, each gaze a cold measurement of his prey.
Gennosuke froze. His pulse, already racing from the orders and deadlines, leapt. His mind spun for options, escape routes, contingency plans. But Kakuzu didn't wait.
He produced a crumpled bounty notice, worn at the edges, and held it up. The target was clear. The name, the face... Gennosuke Mugen. Kakuzu's gaze swept the office, sizing up the chaos he would leave behind. Then, as if confirming an unpleasant truth, he lifted Gennosuke by the collar, comparing the man's features to the bounty.
CRACK. POP.
The sound echoed off the walls, horrifyingly intimate. Gennosuke's head snapped violently, breaking away from his body, rolling across the polished floor to come to a stop against a leg of the desk. Silence followed. Not a sound escaped from the murderer's lips. The room was still, save for the faint scratch of ink and paper falling from the desk. Gennosuke Mugen was dead.
Kakuzu studied the aftermath with the detached eye of a predator. His bounty target was eliminated. But he knew that wealth attracts protection. A noble merchant would have guards... strong, loyal, and well-equipped. And so he waited for someone worthy to take over the now vacant hearts.
Hours turned into the night, nights into days. He struck quickly, ruthlessly, whenever a guard came near. Those who approached without skill or courage fell under his threaded hands, their hearts replaced or destroyed for the strong ones, their screams ending abruptly. Thirty guards in three days—all unworthy of his time.
Then, finally, a presence he recognized as different. Chiriku, the appointed guardian ninja of the town. Kakuzu sensed the subtle chakra flow before he saw him. Unlike the previous guards, Chiriku was disciplined and strong... a practitioner of defensive arts and careful strategist.
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed, the thrill of the hunt sharpening his senses. This one is strong, he thought. A guardian… he may be of use.
The confrontation was swift and brutal. Kakuzu moved with impossible speed, threads extending like lightning. Chiriku met him head-on, his strikes precise, his body a bulwark of skill. But Kakuzu had learned patience over decades. He absorbed attacks, evaluated weaknesses, and responded with a calculated cruelty.
Finally, in a single motion, Kakuzu ensnared Chiriku by the neck with his threads. The tension was unbearable, a silent struggle that tested both strength and will. Chiriku's eyes widened in shock and realization, his body straining against the inexorable grip.
"You are strong," Kakuzu muttered, almost conversationally, "but not enough to defeat me. Yet… perhaps worth something."
He withdrew the heart of Chiriku while he was alive and inserted it into an unworthy heart which occupied the slot moments earlier with mechanical precision. Chiriku's body stiffened, and the Guardian's strength was absorbed, repurposed, the addition giving Kakuzu a new edge of vitality. Satisfaction flickered across Kakuzu's face, the shadow of a rare, genuine smile.
The kill was complete and the heart was retrieved, Kakuzu moved with chilling efficiency. He collected Gennosuke's body, his mind already calculating the steps ahead. Both the merchant and the guardian were now tools, resources to leverage the bounty. With a flick of his threads, the bodies vanished from sight.
Even as he approached the bounty station, Kakuzu's mind wandered briefly, coldly analytical. The Uchiha orders, the vast supply chain, the ripple effects of Gennosuke's death... it was all the data he gathered in the last few days of his hunt. He could sell this information.
The journey to the bounty collection point was swift, almost effortless. Kakuzu's movements left barely a trace, the weight of his stolen hearts giving him a preternatural confidence.
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A/N: Chiriku was one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja guards for the Land of Fire's daimyō. GM is dead.