The world, for the first time in a long time, was quiet.
Not the oppressive, ringing silence of a battlefield after the last man had fallen, a sound Utakata knew with an intimacy that left scars on his soul.
This was a different kind of quiet.
It was the gentle sigh of wind through reeds, the distant call of a water bird, the rhythmic lap of water against the mossy stilts of his small, secluded shack. It was the quiet of a life deliberately chosen, carefully curated, and perilously fragile.
He sat on his weathered porch, the air thick with the humid, earthy scent of the swamps that bordered the Land of Water. With a slow, practiced exhalation, he dipped the end of his pipe into a small container of soap solution. He brought it to his lips and blew with a steady breath. A large, shimmering bubble formed, wobbling in the air before detaching and drifting languidly over the water's surface.
He watched it float, its iridescent skin reflecting the bruised purple and soft orange hues of the twilight sky.
It was a simple thing, a child's game, yet in this act, he found a measure of control he had never possessed when the power truly mattered.
He had long since abandoned the life of a Kirigakure shinobi. The Bloody Mist had no use for a jinchūriki who questioned orders, who felt the sting of compassion. They had seen his reluctance, his empathy, as a flaw in the weapon's design.
And so, he had become a missing-nin, a ghost haunting the borders, his master's betrayal a cold weight he carried alongside the slumbering beast within him.
"Your peace is an illusion," a deep, gurgling voice echoed in his mind. "This tranquility you've constructed is a soap bubble. Pretty. Empty. One sharp touch and it will all pop, leaving nothing but regret."
Utakata didn't respond outwardly. He had grown accustomed to Saiken's cynicism.
The Six-Tails had little patience for human concepts like peace or hope. It knew only its own long imprisonment and the bitter taste of humanity's fear and greed.
"I know", Utakata projected back into the shared space of their consciousness. "But even a fleeting illusion is better than no peace at all."
His life here was simple. He helped the nearby villagers. His bubbles, which could become deadly explosives, were instead used to locate schools of fish for the local fishermen, or to gently lift injured livestock from treacherous mud. They knew he was a shinobi, a wanderer. They did not know what he carried within him. Their simple acceptance, born more of ignorance than understanding, was a balm on a wound he thought would never heal.
He was, for the first time in a long time, content.
But the world did not trade in contentment.
The birdsong stopped.
It was the first sign. A sudden, unnatural cessation of sound.
Utakata's head lifted, his gaze sharpening, the bubble pipe held forgotten in his hand. The reeds across the small inlet were too still. The gentle drone of insects had fallen silent.
Saiken stirred within him. "Company. Unpleasant company."
Utakata slowly rose to his feet, his calm demeanor melting away, replaced by the honed alertness of a jonin-level shinobi who had survived things no man should. His senses, expanded by his connection to the Tailed Beast, reached out, feeling for the disruption.
He felt them. Two of them.
They were not hiding. They were announcing their arrival.
From the deep shadows of the cypress trees on the far bank, they emerged.
One was tall and cloaked, his face covered by a mask and the scratched forehead protector of Takigakure. But it was the grotesque stitching on his wrists and the hulking, monstrous pack on his back that drew the eye.
Kakuzu. One of Akatsuki's most infamous bounty hunters.
The other was a whirl of silver hair and manic energy, a triple-bladed scythe resting casually on his shoulders, the symbol of Jashin hanging from his neck. Hidan.
Utakata's blood ran cold. He could sense the immediate threat these two posed.
"Well, well," Hidan cackled, his voice jarring. "Look what we have here, Kakuzu! A little snail, hiding in his shell. Thought this was gonna be a drag, but look at that chakra! Jashin-sama is gonna be thrilled with this sacrifice!"
Kakuzu remained impassive, his deep voice a low, emotionless rumble. "The Six-Tails Jinchūriki. The bounty is… acceptable. Let's make this quick, Hidan. The target is worth more alive."
Hidan spat on the ground. "Alive, dead, what's the difference? Jashin takes 'em all in the end! But fine, have your fun."
Utakata didn't wait. He drew a deep breath and expelled it through his pipe, unleashing a torrent of bubbles. They shot forward, not as a random cluster, but as a coordinated attack.
"Suiton: Hōmatsu no Jutsu!" (Water Release: Soap Bubble Slime!)
The bubbles converged on Hidan, who merely laughed and swung his scythe in a wide arc, popping them. But the soap solution was thick, enhanced with chakra, clinging to his blade, his arms, his feet, making his movements sluggish, his footing treacherous.
Utakata used the opening. He flashed through hand seals. "Suiton: Sanbaku." Explosive bubbles, this time filled with a more volatile mixture. They hurtled towards Kakuzu, who met them with a cold disdain.
"Fūton: Atsugai!" (Wind Release: Pressure Damage)
A monstrous blast of wind erupted from the masked figure's mouth, shredding the bubbles, turning them into a fine mist. But it was a diversion. While Kakuzu dealt with the frontal assault, Hidan, despite the clinging slime, launched his scythe. It spun through the air on its long cable, a silver whirlwind aimed to draw Utakata's blood.
Utakata dodged, but the sheer speed and unorthodox trajectory of the weapon caught him off guard. The rearmost blade grazed his cheek, drawing a single, thin line of crimson.
Hidan's grin widened from pure ecstasy. He yanked the scythe back, licking the drop of blood from the blade. "Gotcha."
He quickly drew a ritual circle on the ground with his own blood, his skin turning a grotesque black and white. Utakata knew this was bad, but he didn't yet understand the horrifying nature of the jutsu.
Hidan laughed, a high, unhinged sound. "Now, let us pray! Let the slaughter begin!" He plunged his own sharpened rod into his chest.
Utakata screamed, a raw, animalistic cry as a phantom agony exploded in his chest, exactly where Hidan had stabbed himself. He stumbled, clutching his torso, his breath catching in his lungs. What was this?
"You see?" Hidan cackled. "This is the glory of Jashin! Your pain is my offering! Your death will be my ultimate prayer!"
Kakuzu watched with detached impatience. "Finish it, Hidan. We don't have all day."
Desperate, Utakata pushed through the searing pain. He channeled Saiken's chakra, a bubbling, corrosive red aura flaring around him. The initial tail of the beast manifested behind him, lashing out, and his skin began to bubble and peel under the strain. He formed a massive bubble and launched it at the laughing maniac.
Hidan made no move to dodge. The acid bubble struck him, sizzling, burning through his cloak, his skin, but he only laughed harder. "It hurts! It hurts so good! You think you can kill one who has been blessed by Jashin? Fool!" He twisted the rod in his chest, and Utakata cried out again as another wave of agony ripped through him.
He was trapped. Any damage he inflicted on Hidan was reflected back onto himself.
Seeing his opportunity, Kakuzu's arms extended on black, thread-like tendrils, his hands shooting forward to grab the struggling Jinchūriki. This was it.
This was the end. His fragile peace, popped like the meaningless bubble it was.
It was in that moment, as his vision began to fade, as Hidan raised his rod for the final, fatal blow, that a new voice cut through the air, cold and utterly devoid of emotion.
"Target identified. Akatsuki operatives, Hidan and Kakuzu. Threat Level: S-Rank. Jinchūriki victim is critical. Initiating termination protocol."
=========================================
[POV Shift: Ryuu Yuki]
The first thing Ryuu felt was the sheer, chaotic ugliness of the chakra.
From their concealed position in the treeline a klick away, he relayed his findings to their team leader, a stoic ANBU with a Falcon mask. "Falcon-taichō. Two targets confirmed. Hostile, Akatsuki. They have engaged the Six-Tails Jinchūriki. Victim's chakra is fluctuating wildly. He's trapped in some kind of curse-based jutsu."
"Visual confirmation," their team's vanguard, a heavy-set ANBU codenamed 'Boar', murmured beside him.
"Intel dictates lethal force is authorized," Falcon stated, his voice a low hum over their comms. "The curse originates from the Jashinist, Hidan. Primary objective is to break his ritual. Disrupting the circle is the only known method. Boar, you will create the diversion. Kitsune," he looked to their medic-nin, "prepare for victim extraction. Crane, with me."
Ryuu's mind raced. Since he had joined the Anbu he had partaken in many missions, some with the newly established team and some with regular ANBU members. He was considered a volatile aspect in the ANBU, being placed in teams that lacked teammates, entering temporarily as a substitute most of the time.
"Taichō," Ryuu said, his voice flat and controlled. "Kakuzu will anticipate a direct assault on the circle. A distraction is insufficient. I need a single, precise opening. My jutsu can provide it, but it will be a one-shot attempt."
Falcon was silent for a fraction of a second, weighing the words. "The call is yours, Crane. We will provide the opening you need. On my mark."
Below, Kakuzu's tendrils were about to ensnare Utakata. Boar burst from the trees, a massive Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall) erupting from the ground, intercepting Kakuzu's attack. It was a brutish, simple move, but it forced the Akatsuki member to recoil.
It was the opening Ryuu needed.
He didn't use his larger, more chakra-intensive jutsu. That would be overkill, a waste of energy. He needed precision.
He weaved a series of hand seals with concentration. His Ice Release chakra quickly flared.
"Hyōton: Hyōchū Gekitotsu!" (Ice Release: Ice Pillar Strike!)
Ryuu slammed his palm onto the wet earth. He focused his chakra deep into the ground, directly beneath the circle Hidan had drawn.
The ground under Hidan's feet didn't just freeze, it erupted. A massive, jagged pillar of dense, opaque ice, easily a meter in diameter, exploded upwards.
Hidan, lost in his ecstacy, had no time to react. The ice pillar slammed into him with force, throwing him violently into the air. He tumbled head over heels, landing in a heap ten meters away, completely outside his circle.
The instant the connection was severed, the phantom agony ravaging Utakata's body vanished. The sudden absence of pain was as disorienting as its presence. With a choked gasp, his strength gave out entirely, and he collapsed into the mud, unconscious but alive.
"Hidan, you fool!" Kakuzu roared, his detachment finally cracking with fury. He had been poised to capture the Jinchūriki, and his idiot partner had been neutralized by a simple shove. His black tendrils, which had been snaking towards Utakata, instantly changed direction, dozens of them whipping through the air towards Ryuu and the exposed ANBU.
But Falcon had been waiting for this exact moment.
"Kitsune, now!" he commanded, his own form a blur of motion as he intercepted the first wave of Kakuzu's tendrils, his trench knives glowing with infused chakra. "Boar, cover!"
The medic-nin, Kitsune, didn't hesitate. She appeared beside Utakata's fallen form, her hands already glowing with the green light of the Mystical Palm Technique, stabilizing his vital signs before hauling him over her shoulder in a practiced manner.
Boar met the second wave of tendrils head-on. He wasn't trying to cut them. He stomped his feet, his hands flashing through seals. "Doton: Doro Gaeshi!" (Earth Release: Mud Wall!) A thick, heavy slab of swamp mud, reinforced with chakra, rose up, absorbing the piercing attack, the tendrils sinking into the mire.
Ryuu's role was now support. He saw Kakuzu preparing a larger attack, one of his elemental masks beginning to peel away from his back. With a series of quick, one-handed seals, Ryuu touched the ground again. The swampy earth around Kakuzu's feet began to freeze over, not with a frictionless sheet, but with a thick, brittle layer of rime that made the ground treacherous and unstable, designed to ruin his footing for a moment.
"Insolent brats!" Kakuzu snarled, his attacks hampered by their onslaught.
"Fall back!" Falcon's order was absolute. "Mission objective accomplished! Disengage!"
Kitsune was already gone. Boar slammed his fists together, creating a final, explosive earth wave to cover their retreat. Ryuu, knowing that even a split second of time was precious, unleashed a thick "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu" (Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique).
A dense fog soon filled the clearing, disrupting vision and sensory perception.
He melted into the mist, Falcon appearing beside him an instant later as they ran as fast as they could.
"Good work, Crane. Your analysis was correct. Your execution was flawless."
From within the fog, they heard Hidan's enraged, muffled screams. "Where did they go?! I'll kill them all! I'll dedicate their worthless souls to Jashin! KAKUZU!"
Kakuzu's reply was a low growl of pure frustration, laced with avarice. "They're gone, you idiot. Along with our bounty. You cost me a significant amount of money."