The slender ropes of iron sand crisscrossed, forming a huge prison around him.
"Obscuring vision was just to trap me here?"
Takumi sighed in relief. If that was all, it was okay… it wasn't enough to pose a mortal threat.
"Of course it's not just that."
Kakuzu wore a smug smile, rapidly forming hand seals. "Ice Release: Ice Soul Needles!"
The white mist quickly condensed, forming countless tiny, sharp transparent ice needles.
Takumi's expression changed.
The next moment, countless ice needles assaulted like a sudden downpour.
Ding ding dang dang...
"Hmm?"
Kakuzu frowned deeply. The sound of metal clashing made him startled.
"What's going on? Why is his body so hard? He can actually withstand the piercing power of the Ice Soul Needles?"
Kakuzu was puzzled over there.
Takumi, on the other hand, slowly sighed in relief.
Luckily, he activated in time his Steel Skin. Otherwise, if these chilling ice needles invaded his body, they would definitely freeze him from the inside out!
In that case, he would become meat on the chopping block!
"Since ice needles are ineffective against you, then try this move!"
Kakuzu clenched his hands together forcefully.
The iron sand cage trapping Takumi began to slowly contract.
"This is troublesome."
Takumi scratched his head.
The iron sand cage gradually contracted, compressing his room to move, eventually trapping him to death inside.
This reminded him of Doflamingo's Bird Cage.
With just Steel Skin, although he could ensure he wouldn't be injured, Kakuzu would definitely immediately cover him with iron sand, blocking his breathing.
Any creature, if unable to breathe, would inevitably die after a period of time.
Thump!
A powerful punch landed on the iron sand cage, but it didn't budge at all.
"Is this repulsive force?"
Takumi was somewhat puzzled.
His punch didn't actually make contact… instead, it was separated by an invisible force.
"Useless. This move was specifically researched to deal with you."
Kakuzu looked at the helpless Takumi very smugly. "Finally, you will die by my hand!"
"Since I can't break open this cage, then I'll just take care of you first. That way, the cage will unravel by itself."
Takumi lightly sighed, saying words that sounded helpless, but the content made Kakuzu angrily widen his eyes.
"Bragging! You're trapped in a cage now, it's impossible to hit me! And you still fantasize about taking care of me?"
"Who said you can't hit someone through a cage?"
Takumi smiled slightly, then rapidly formed hand seals. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
He spewed fire towards the gaps in the iron cage. After being enhanced by his Fire Constitution, the Great Fireball rapidly expanded. In almost an instant, it expanded to around three hundred meters!
And this was after Takumi compressed it to a certain extent to avoid completely igniting the canyon forest.
Otherwise, the Great Fireball would only be bigger!
"So this is the Great Fireball Kisame mentioned?"
Kakuzu was stunned, looking up at the massive giant fireball. A trace of despair flashed in his eyes.
"This damn..."
"All my hard work getting these Ninjutsu, and they're instantly broken?!"
"If I get hit by this thing, my hearts will probably shatter..."
"What are you standing there dumbly for!"
Hidan came running at the critical moment, grabbing the stunned Kakuzu and quickly retreating. "Do you want to die here?"
"Of course not!"
Kakuzu came back to his senses. Because Hidan was taking him away quickly, the iron sand, having lost Magnet Release control, turned into scattered sand one after another.
This was an excellent opportunity, but Kakuzu had to admit.
If things had continued, he had a high probability of dying.
"Escaped, huh?"
Takumi narrowed his eyes, his mind beginning to think.
He hadn't expected that the Akatsuki's members would start improving their own strength just to kill him.
This was a bit outrageous!
But complaining aside, the necessary attention still had to be given.
Kakuzu suddenly obtaining two hearts had caused him quite a bit of trouble.
And this was when Kakuzu had just obtained them and wasn't yet proficient with their power.
If he waited until Kakuzu became proficient, combining the power of these hearts with the others to form new combination Ninjutsu, the power would likely be even stronger.
Although the iron sand cage was troublesome, he could completely vaporize the iron sand relying on his Fire Constitution.
This cage wasn't much to Takumi.
But he was somewhat worried that Kakuzu might go get a few more hearts later and use combination Ninjutsu that would give him a headache.
'It seems I still need to continue improving my strength.'
Thinking about it in the end, Takumi still felt his own strength wasn't strong enough.
After all, the Akatsuki were still getting stronger, so he had no reason to stay in the same place.
Having only a dozen or two dozen skills to sweep through the Shinobi World was far from enough!
At that moment…
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Three figures quickly approached. Takumi looked up at them. "You came?"
"Mhm, we noticed that huge fireball. Were you attacked?" Shino's expression was grave, carefully observing the surroundings. "Where's the enemy?"
"There are two people's scents. Seems I've smelled them somewhere before," Kiba sniffed, frowning as he carefully smelled the scents.
"Over there! They've already escaped! That clothing... they're Akatsuki!" Hinata, who had activated her Byakugan, spotted Hidan and Kakuzu's figures. However, the two had already swiftly escaped, so it was impossible to catch up now.
The situation with Kakuzu wasn't a worry anymore.
But the actions of these three were a bit unexpected.
Originally, Takumi knew that Suzumebachi's trio wouldn't do anything to Hinata, and she was just pretending to be Hinata to steal the bug.
So he wasn't particularly worried about Hinata's safety.
But judging from the current situation, Shino and Hinata had clearly misunderstood his meaning.
Not only did they sneakily rescue Hinata, but they also captured the guards, Jibachi and Kurobachi, and brought them back.
"You're really so strong... Should I say, as expected of Konoha's hero?"
Suzumebachi's expression was complex.
Filled with shock, yearning, admiration, and other emotions.
Having that relationship with Takumi, her feelings towards him had undergone earth-shaking changes in her heart.
Especially after learning Takumi's identity and seeing the immense strength he had displayed.
She solidified her determination to stand on Takumi's side.