Kakuzu's mask twitched as he stared down at the Hyuga kid. Close quarters—that was a death sentence against someone with that kind of control. He needed distance, and he needed it now.
Seiran's right arm morphed, transforming seamlessly into a cannon barrel. Lightning crackled and danced along its length, building toward a devastating release.
Kakuzu's heart lurched. For a split second, he froze before slamming his palms flat against the ground.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
A sturdy rock barrier erupted from the earth, meeting the surging thunder head-on. The collision sent sparks cascading across the field.
But the wall held.
Kakuzu's eyes widened slightly. The lightning hadn't pierced through. Impossible—it should have. He frowned, then a thin smile crossed his masked face. "It seems your Lightning Release is unique. It barely has any effect on Earth Release."
He felt like he'd discovered a weakness. One step closer to his goal.
Seiran clicked his tongue. The shinobi world really didn't follow normal physics. Lightning was supposed to counter earth, sure—but rocks were insulators. Silica, the main component, couldn't conduct electricity unless it was ionized into plasma. The chakra-infused jutsu broke those rules, but not always perfectly.
Fine. If lightning wouldn't work, he'd try something else.
The barrel on his right arm squirmed, and this time, instead of lightning, a blazing laser erupted from within. Nanoparticles in his synthetic body vibrated at extreme speeds, friction generating intense heat that channeled through the barrel. Accompanied by a rising shriek, fiery shells fired relentlessly.
The Earth Wall shattered like glass.
Shot after shot slammed into Kakuzu. The masked man roared, fury boiling over.
"Abominable brat! You've completely pissed me off!"
He shed the water-based black threads that Seiran had destroyed. The remaining three masks flew to his right arm, wrapping around each other. Three mouths aimed simultaneously at his target.
Three attribute abilities exploded outward in a terrifying chakra ray.
Seiran's body vibrated harder, pushing every ounce of energy toward the barrel. A blazing laser fired back, meeting Kakuzu's beam head-on.
The collision scorched the earth. Reality seemed to distort where the two forces met, matter evaporating in waves, leaving crater-like depressions across the battlefield.
Seiran cursed inwardly. This avatar's energy was running dry. Raw output-wise, he couldn't match a veteran Kage-level powerhouse like Kakuzu. Maybe I miscalculated the distribution, he thought bitterly.
Then Kakuzu's shells pierced through his lower body.
Seiran gasped, sweat dripping down his forehead. His body bucked backward from the impact.
"This is the end of the line, Hyuga kid," Kakuzu muttered.
The three masks squirmed back to his shoulders—one empty now, shattered to pieces. Kakuzu tried to put his coat back on, but it hung in tatters around him.
"I didn't expect even my coat to be broken. The last time I fought this hard was against Tobirama."
He walked to Seiran's side and found the lower half simply... gone. Evaporated by the heat.
"No bleeding? The high temperature must've vaporized it," Kakuzu noted clinically. He cut off Seiran's head and weighed it in his hands, turning it over appraisingly. "Hmm. Worthy of a hundred million ryo bounty. The weight feels right."
Satisfied, he walked away to cash in.
Not long after, the headless corpse on the ground stirred. Silver magnetic fluid flowed up from the earth, condensing back onto the body. Seiran twisted his neck, reforming, completely intact.
"If it weren't for evolution, I'd have wanted to upgrade the main body already," he muttered to himself. This avatar was beautifully practical. As long as the nucleus survived, death was just temporary. Lost body parts could be completely reassembled from the magnetofluid. Even a fatal blow was survivable—he could integrate the nucleus into the ground and re-condense it later, undetected.
Much cleaner than Kakuzu's immortal body setup.
Seiran stood, brushing dirt from his form. The battle had served its purpose: testing the avatar's strength against a genuine Kage-level opponent. The results were clear. If Kage-level was divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced, then his comprehensive strength sat somewhere between intermediate and advanced—well below monsters like the Third Tsuchikage with his atom-breaking Dust Release, but respectable.
Still, he needed to move quickly.
"Magnet Release: Ultimate Transfiguration!"
His body squirmed and shifted, taking on Kakuzu's exact appearance, even down to his distinctive silhouette. Magnetic fluids could mimic any shape, and with proper weight calculations, detection was nearly impossible.
Then he smiled.
"One isn't enough. I need more."
The body split down the middle, dividing into four separate copies. They raced toward the four largest underground black markets in the region, perfectly timed to arrive before the real Kakuzu could cash in his bounty.
BOOM!
The door to the first underground black market exploded inward. A tall figure in a black robe walked through, moving with the distinctive swagger of Kakuzu himself, pinching a severed head in his hand.
"Silver-Faced Asura!" someone gasped.
"That's him! The legendary—!"
"Kakuzu-sama!"
The market's organizer rushed forward, smiling nervously. "I didn't expect you to visit! Any luck lately?"
"Kakuzu" placed the head on the table with ceremony.
Everyone around gasped in unison.
"Isn't that the dual-bloodline ninja who beat Rasa and the Leaf Village's Hyuga?"
"Hmph. Those small-time weaklings are easy prey. Rasa's a waste compared to Hashirama Senju himself," the imposter sneered with perfect disdain.
"Kakuzu-sama, allow me to verify this."
The organizer's eyes gleamed with anticipation.
"Kakuzu" smirked inwardly. No one knew that head better than he did. He'd been running black market cons since his days with Shibi Aburame—knew every verification trick in the book.
"The Byakugan is destroyed, the Caged Bird Curse Mark imprint is intact, all data matches completely..." the organizer murmured, checking each detail.
Around them, whispers of awe filled the air. "Worthy of the First Hokage's rival." "Kakuzu-sama's legend grows." "Public Magnet Release too."
Satisfied, the imposter carried two large boxes of cash and walked out through a crowd of worshipping admirers.
The exact same scene repeated at the other three black markets, timing so perfect that no one noticed anything amiss.
Until the organizer of the first market attempted a closer inspection of the head.
"Why is it—it's hot?"
The head liquefied, dissolving into silver fluid that seeped into the cracks of the table.
"Kakuzu lied to us!"
Meanwhile, the imposter still en route to Black Market Three had a sudden realization—his hand was empty. The head had simply vanished.
Kakuzu arrived at the first black market to find chaos. His fury was immediate and volcanic. He'd been played for a fool.
Worse, the young man was gone.
The real Kakuzu stormed back into the market, ready to level destruction, only to find every shinobi staring at him in shock. His jaw clenched.
"What are you looking at? I'm a man who fought Hashirama Senju himself!"
The organizer's door swung open. The man's face was red, tears streaming down his cheeks. He jabbed one trembling finger directly at Kakuzu.
"You DARE come back here?!"
"Rinima, give me back my money!"
Kakuzu's eyes went wide, then black with rage.
He'd been conned by a dead kid.
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