Kakuzu paused, one eyebrow raising slightly beneath his mask. "If you come back to Iwa with me," Muu pressed on, his words tumbling out fast as he felt the killer's fleeting attention anchor onto him, "you'll get paid, and you still get to be my teacher. Lord Onoki will compensate you with more money and land than you've ever seen in your life!
Kakuzu let out a dismissive huff. "Hold your horses, little brat. You're still far too wet behind the ears to lecture me on the riches of this world. You have neither the authority to make such promises nor the strength to enforce them."
He scoffed at the offer, yet he didn't move to strike. The word 'money' had a habit of lingering in his mind like a persistent echo.
Seeing the momentary hesitation, Muu pushed hard, striving to sound confident despite the terror gripping in his heart. "Iwa never turns away true strength. Besides... you don't even have to wait for the village. That Kumo shinobi, Darui, you smashed into the tree earlier? There's a ten-million-ryo bounty on his head in the Bingo Book right now issued by Iwa. Why not collect that first?"
Kakuzu stared at Muu. Then, his shoulders began to shake. A low, gravelly chuckle escaped his throat, booming into an echoing laugh that vibrated.
"Ten million ryo..." Kakuzu rasped, thoroughly amused by the money he had almost walked away from. "A fine suggestion. Though, last I checked, that fool is still breathing. Let me go fix that and take his heart while I'm at it."
Muu watched in silent dread as Kakuzu turned toward the woods where the black-lightning user lay, as he felt a flash of greed at the thought of such a powerful heart being added to Kakuzu's arsenal, but he swallowed the feeling down. He was alive, and for now, that was the only thing that mattered.
"Now, it all depends on what Lord Onoki can say to him at Iwa." Muu thought to himself.
~~
Darui's back still leaned against the bark of the trunk as his body gave out from the internal fractures, slipping down into a slump. Every breath felt like inhaling shattered glass, the agony from his crushed ribs down into his legs.
"He didn't even bother to deliver the final blow," Darui thought, his vision blurring as sweat trickled into his eyes. "Maybe he just didn't consider me enough of a threat to waste the extra second. I have to get this information back to Kumo... somehow. They need to know what we're up against."
With trembling fingers, he fumbled at his leg pouch. His fingertips brushed past a kunai and explosive tags until they caught on a single bead.
The reincarnation pill.
He could still vividly recall the other day En Oyashiro had handed it to him, flatly refusing to keep it for himself despite needing it far more at frontlines. 'My instincts are practically screaming that you're going to need this more than I will, kid,' the old man said with serious expression.
"Who knew... he would actually be right," Darui muttered under his breath as a sharp spasm of pain cutting off his whisper into a hoarse cough.
Just then the sunlight above him was blocked out. A towering figure stepped into his line of sight, casting a long shadow over him.
"Without further ado," Kakuzu's muffled voice rasped from behind his mask, "let's get back to your heart extraction."
The dark stitched skin around Kakuzu's forearm parted, and thick black tendrils burst forth, snaking straight toward Darui's chest.
SNAP!
The crack echoed amidst the silence, but it didn't come from Darui's ribs.
A sudden gust blew as an ash-like substance burst into existence, swirling in a dense vortex. Dust coalesced around the figure, rapidly hardening and expanding, reshaping itself into a distinct human silhouette.
The grey particulate took form, revealing Kakashi Hatake standing like a broken doll. His skin was pale and fine, crack-like lines stretched, and his eyes bore the unmistakable dark hollow sclera of the Impure World Reincarnation.
As consciousness flooded his mind, Kakashi blinked, instantly taking in his surroundings. His gaze locked onto the masked silhouette of Kakuzu standing a few yards away, then dropped to look at his own pale, ash-coated hands.
"I've been reanimated," Kakashi said softly as anger took over him as he remembered the final moments of his death as shouted. "
Miles away, hidden deep within a fortified Kumo, Killer Bee sat being monitored by Dan Kato. The moment Kakashi's soul was summoned to the world, a sharp tug pulled at Bee's consciousness.
Kakashi's strong will flickered, instinctively fighting the chakra binding him to the jutsu, but Bee leaned into the connection. With a surge of intent, Bee crushed the residual free will, taking absolute puppet-master control over the reanimated shinobi.
Kakashi's dark eyes flashed driven by Bee's commands, his body flickered out of sight, leaving behind a sudden displaced air.
Kakuzu reacted purely on battle-tested reflex, rather than dodging like he did against Muu, he drove a heavy kick straight into Kakashi's sternum. The impact shattered bone and tore through muscle, sending the reanimated shinobi tumbling backward.
Kakashi skidded to a halt a dozen yards away, a gaping hole punched clean through his stomach. Yet, already grey ash began to swarm around the wound, stitching tissue back together in seconds.
"This is going to be a problem," Kakuzu grunted, his eyes narrowing as he watched the injury disappear. "Fighting an opponent who can't die for free is a terrible investment."
Muu shouted from behind who was maintaining a safe distance, "Kakuzu-san! You have to seal him immediately, or he will simply regenerate indefinitely!"
Before Kakuzu could receive Muu's warning, Kakashi flickered again, cutting through the distance like a bolt of white lightning. He aimed a lethal strike straight for Kakuzu's chest, intending to crush the rogue ninja's heart. But he had already saw through Kakashi's trajectory.
The moment Kakashi's feet touched the ground, a nest of black tendrils burst out from Kakuzu's back, shooting towards him like iron spikes. Kakashi aborted the strike mid-air, twisting violently to push off a spire of rock and leap backward, widening the gap to reset his angle of attack.
~~
A/N: Kakuzu is a kage-tier shinobi. It is only natural that Darui, a jonin level cadre won't stand a chance.
Can Bee controlled Kakashi save Darui from serious Kakuzu?
Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0