Deep within the Hidden Rain Village, Kikyo, clad in her pristine, snow-white shrine maiden vestments, faced down the Akatsuki organization's Immortal Duo.
Though locked in a one-against-two conflict, she commanded absolute tactical dominance across the field, forcing Hidan and Kakuzu to taste immense, unadulterated bitterness.
Staring icily at the priestess across the distance, Kakuzu re-stitched the innumerable, bizarre tendrils extending from his fingertips. His tone carried a heavy, suffocating gravity: "Hidan, do not dare display a single shred of carelessness this time. Otherwise, you will genuinely die."
"I get it!"
With his massive scythe whistling through the air, Hidan retrieved a secondary, pitch-black spear, utilizing both weapons simultaneously as he launched a direct physical assault against Kikyo.
It had to be said that Hidan's movement velocity... was exceptionally slow, barely matching the taijutsu capabilities of a standard Mid-Tier Genin or ordinary Chunin.
According to the explicit intelligence parameters provided by Shiraishi, Hidan's battlefield methodology aligned perfectly with his simple, linear intellect.
His specific capabilities could be defined as the most simplistic, raw strength within the entirety of Akatsuki.
Because he possessed an undying physique that prevented death regardless of structural damage, he could initiate reckless, suicidal strikes, serving as the core anchor for highly unorthodox team strategies.
For instance, when Hidan locked an enemy in close-quarters combat, Kakuzu could unleash wide-range area attacks directly into the cluster, destroying both the target and his immortal partner to maximize operational efficiency.
More often than not, this exact chaotic methodology was leveraged strictly to secure a single drop of the opponent's blood.
Kakuzu, conversely, operated on an entirely different immortal mechanic than Hidan. By violently devouring the hearts of others and storing them inside his body, he could continuously swap out failing organs to extend his lifespan indefinitely.
If an opponent managed to systematically destroy all of his hearts within a single engagement window, Kakuzu would be truly and definitively killed. Since he possessed five distinct hearts, he had to be effectively slaughtered five consecutive times.
When analyzing their respective combat methodologies, Kakuzu stood as the vastly more troublesome and strategically thorny entity. As for Hidan, Kikyo's toolkit allowed her to suppress him with absolute certainty.
In Shiraishi's initial briefings, every single heart Kakuzu devoured maintained an independent chakra nature transformation.
Consequently, Kakuzu could fluidly manipulate all five basic elements, unleashing the maximum destructive output of each attribute.
The masked monsters generated via his Earth Grudge Fear technique could deploy these elemental ninjutsu independently, or seamlessly combine them to amplify the spell's collective efficacy.
Furthermore, while Hidan could not completely utilize standard ninjutsu, his undying trait allowed him to maximize the terrifying properties of his Curse: Death Controlling Possessed Blood.
Because the execution of this fatal, forbidden technique merely required him to ingest a fraction of the target's blood, his offensive toolkit was designed entirely around inflicting a minor physical laceration to harvest blood, before executing the curse routine to claim a one-strike kill.
Yet, this entire terrifying framework ground to a complete halt the moment they encountered Kikyo. Possessing the absolute purification energy of an elite priestess, she stood as the definitive, innate natural enemy of the Immortal Duo.
Every single arrow loosed from her bowstring caused a primal, heart-stopping terror to ripple through their frames. The resulting localized gale generated a suffocating illusion that the incoming strikes were mathematically impossible to evade.
This was particularly true for Hidan; his historical strengths had been thoroughly inverted into fatal liabilities. His simplistic, linear offensive style transformed him into a massive, static target before a master archer.
Every single strike loosed by Kikyo inflicted substantial, irreversible structural damage to his frame, systematically unraveling the foundational curse energy anchored to his undying biology.
This woman... is absolutely detestable!
Exploiting Hidan's direct frontal assault, Kakuzu executed a rapid flanking maneuver, adopting a stealth assassination strategy against Kikyo's blind spot.
As a rogue ninja who had survived across countless generations, Kakuzu's real-world combat experience was vastly superior to Hidan's. The absolute starting point of his journey through the annals of history traces back to the very genesis of the hidden village system.
As an elite vanguard of the Hidden Waterfall Village, Kakuzu had been assigned the absolute mission to assassinate the First Hokage.
However, when forced to contend with the Wood Release Sage Body of Hashirama Senju, his offensive was thoroughly and instantly shattered.
It was by no means as simple as historical rumors claimed—that he had merely hurl a single kunai from eight hundred miles away...
Though he had survived that brush with absolute demise, the reality waiting for him upon returning to his village was the crushing stigma of failure and severe, authoritarian punishment.
For a shinobi who had willingly gambled his life for the sake of his homeland, this was an exceptionally cruel and unforgivable betrayal. Consumed by a blazing, unyielding hatred, Kakuzu broke containment and escaped prison.
He violently plundered the forbidden technique deemed the ultimate treasure of the Waterfall, while systematically slaughtering and ripping out the hearts of the village's entire senior leadership tier.
From that specific moment onward, the entity known as Kakuzu was nothing more than a monster who recognized strictly financial capital. Yet, concurrently, he maintained the absolute pride of an elite shinobi: he would never tamely retreat from a challenge!
Right now, he is locked onto a flawless operational window. Hardening his arm through Earth Release, he converted his limb into an elongated, tendril-driven heavy fist, launching it directly toward Kikyo's frame.
Although he was a master who commanded all five elemental properties, Kakuzu's absolute baseline mastery rested firmly within the Earth Release domain.
Sacred Barrier: Iron Soil!
Although this alternate universe lacked the specialized, corrupted soil of the demon Onigumo, Kikyo had systematically secured refined, multi-elemental material samples from Shiraishi.
Suna's Kazekage had provided her with specialized Magnet Release metallic sand to serve as her baseline earth-attribute catalyst. Consequently, the moment Kikyo channeled a trace of Magnet Release energy through her fingers, the barrier transitioned into a metallic, iron-soil shield.
Protected beneath the absolute defense of the metallic dome, Kakuzu's high-velocity, violent fist was forcefully halted in its tracks.
Turning smoothly with the momentum, Kikyo loosed an arrow at point-blank range. The resulting explosion violently vaporized a massive cluster of the organic blood vessels anchoring Kakuzu's torso.
"Hidan! What on earth are you doing, you useless brat?!"
"I... I can't move..."
Hidan remained frozen dead in the center of the clearing, completely incapable of initializing a single physical movement.
In truth, while Kakuzu had been fully entangled in his high-frequency exchange with Kikyo, the purification matrix she had subtly deployed across the terrain moments prior had abruptly activated.
Spiritual Art: Life Purification!
An absolute, forced purification sequence locked onto Hidan's frame. In this exact operational window, the fanatical zealot of Jashin displayed a look of profound, unadulterated terror.
He could feel the foundational curse tethering his undying physique actively dissolving out of existence, causing an immediate wave of pure fear to freeze his veins.
"What did you just do to my body?!"
A gentle breeze rustled Kikyo's long, black hair. "Merely cleansing the malevolent curse anchored to your flesh. Though it appears a standard purification routine is insufficient... is it because the number of innocent souls you have violently slaughtered is simply too immense?"
Wasting zero time on empty dialogue, Kikyo drew the second arrow from her specialized cache—the Twelve Rainbows of Demon Breaking.
In an instant, a brilliant vortex of spiritual light converged onto a single, microscopic point upon the arrowhead. Under Hidan's wide, terrified gaze, Kikyo loosed the definitive strike engineered specifically to eradicate malevolent entities: the Sacred Arrow of Exorcism!
The Sacred Arrow stood as Kikyo's absolute highest-tier finishing methodology and her most lethal reliable tool. Since materializing in this foreign universe, she had rarely found cause to utilize it; after all, the Sacred Arrow was a cataclysmic capability designed explicitly to purge corrupt energy and systematically erase demons.
Under normal parameters, Kikyo would never deploy it lightly. Yet, the two immortal abominations standing before her were, in her eyes, no different from vile demons. In fact, their artificial, parasitic existence was vastly more horrifying than any standard monster.
As the blinding aura of purification illuminated the battlefield, the malevolent Jashin curse structure was forcefully unraveled and erased from reality. The arrow sliced cleanly through the atmosphere, driving its tip directly into Hidan's throat—a single arrow sealing the throat!
Clutching his mangled neck, Hidan desperately attempted to form vocalizations, intending to scream his historical boast that he was entirely immune to death.
Yet, reality offered no mercy when matched against Kikyo's purification output. Even an undying frame anchored to an otherworldly curse was systematically and thoroughly erased from existence.
Blood sprayed across the concrete floor. The terrifying rogue ninja whose entire reputation was built upon an unyielding, immortal biology had been comprehensively slaughtered under Kikyo's exorcism offensive. In that exact moment, Kikyo could faintly perceive the countless vengeful spirits who had historically perished beneath Hidan's malevolent curses being completely purified and guided toward absolute salvation alongside his demise.
Having cleanly executed Hidan, Kikyo utilized a precise spatial shift, materializing directly beside the perimeter where Kakuzu was actively attempting to initiate a strategic retreat. "Next... it is your turn."
Hidan is dead?
An absolutely unbelievable conclusion. Yet, before Kakuzu's ancient mind could fully process the tactical implications of his partner's demise, Kikyo's secondary Sacred Arrow was loosed from the bowstring.
A brilliant streak of silver light illuminated the grim atmosphere of the Rain. Half of Kakuzu's physical torso was violently blasted into microscopic splinters, instantaneously obliterating two of the internal hearts anchored to his framework.
However, the remaining two surviving hearts managed to break containment, transforming into two separate clusters of black, organic monsters that lunged savagely toward Kikyo.
Spiritual Art: Astral Detonation!
Condensing an immense, crushing volume of spiritual energy within both palms, Kikyo directly converted her longbow into a physical weapon.
Spinning fluidly as she lashed out, the sheer, crushing, destructive force of her swing instantly minced the physical structure of one of the incoming monsters into absolute oblivion...
As the fierce engagement continued to unfold across the terrain, a young man with vibrant, flame-red hair sat embedded deep within the enshrouding shadows.
His gaze was as cold and mechanical as an artificial puppet, silently monitoring every single parameter of the brutal war between Kakuzu and Kikyo.
Innumerable microscopic chakra threads radiated outward from the boy's fingertips, weaving through the darkness. Clearly, he was systematically waiting for the absolute, definitive closing moment of the battle to launch his own offensive.
Slowly raising his palm, the red-haired teenager's voice echoed with an icy, metallic detachment: "This priestess... will make an exceptionally magnificent addition to my collection..."
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed. Claim early access on Patreon: Patreon.com/kazama677
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews ignite 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.