Chapter 194: A Misunderstanding

Chapter 194: Chapter 194: A Misunderstanding

Neither of the two groups that encountered each other in the forest was in any hurry to make the first move.

Behind Kawa’s mask, Hyuga Kagami’s eyes flickered. At the moment, he was silently assessing Sasori and Kakuzu’s conditions.

Judging from appearances alone, Sasori seemed to be the more severely injured of the two.

For many shinobi, losing an arm was a crippling injury. After all, it meant they could no longer form hand seals, making it impossible to perform more complicated ninjutsu.

Jiraiya’s performance against Pain before and after losing an arm was the perfect example—the difference was like night and day.

With both arms intact, Jiraiya had been able to fight Pain back and forth. But the moment he lost an arm, the tide of battle turned sharply against him. Jiraiya was almost completely deprived of his ability to fight back and fell into an overwhelming disadvantage.

But Sasori was no ordinary shinobi.

As a puppeteer, even with only one arm remaining, he could still manipulate his puppets. So when evaluating Sasori’s combat strength, the more important question was how many powerful puppets he still had at his disposal.

Unfortunately, Sasori kept all of his puppets sealed inside scrolls, making it difficult to judge his remaining strength from appearances alone.

Kagami shifted his gaze toward Kakuzu and discovered that the chakra fluctuations coming from his body were much weaker than before.

The technique that Kakuzu was famous for was Takigakure’s forbidden technique, Earth Grudge Fear.

Because of that, within Kagami’s Byakugan vision, Kakuzu’s body didn’t possess anything resembling a normal chakra pathway system.

More precisely, Kakuzu’s body was filled with a tangled mass of black tendrils resembling chakra pathways. These densely intertwined black tendrils wrapped layer upon layer around the several masks hidden inside his body. Even with the Byakugan, Kagami couldn’t see through the dense chakra fluctuations well enough to make out the details of those masks.

As a result, Kagami had no way to examine Kakuzu’s injuries through conventional means. He could only estimate Kakuzu’s current condition based on the chakra fluctuations within his body.

"Judging from his chakra reserves, he only has about thirty percent of what he had before. Either he burned through an enormous amount of chakra during the battle... or he directly lost several hearts."

Focusing his Byakugan once more, Kagami noticed that the chakra fluctuations in Kakuzu’s chest and the right side of his abdomen were noticeably weaker than everywhere else.

"Could the hearts in those two places have been destroyed? If that’s the case... Kakuzu only has three hearts left right now!"

Just as Kagami was weighing whether he should seize this opportunity to eliminate Sasori and Kakuzu, Sasori spoke from across the clearing.

He coughed twice. "You two damned bastards!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Sasori broke into another violent coughing fit. Blood even trickled from the corner of his lips, making his injuries appear extremely severe.

Kagami didn’t make any rash moves. Instead, he spread his hands and probed, "You can’t blame us for that. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for being rogue shinobi. By the way, the two of you actually managed to escape from the Third Hokage. Not bad!"

Sasori snorted coldly. "I won’t forget this debt."

Kakuzu suddenly said, "Making an enemy of the Akatsuki isn’t a wise choice. You’ll regret it."

Kagami chuckled.

"I’ll return those exact words to you. Making an enemy of Kamigami is something you’ll regret too!"

At that moment, Sasori pulled a scroll from his ninja pouch and asked,

"You want to fight?"

Kagami gently shook his head. "Forget it. There are still large numbers of Konoha shinobi nearby. There’s no reason for us to fight each other to the death here."

Kakuzu nodded. "That’s a wise choice. If we tear each other apart here, Konoha will be the only one that benefits."

Shisui nodded as well, expressing his agreement.

Kagami said, "All right, then. We’ll go our separate ways!"

Sasori kept the scroll clenched in his hand. "Fine!"

With that, Kagami and Shisui moved to one side, while Sasori and Kakuzu shifted to the other.

Kagami and Shisui were heading back toward the village, while Sasori and Kakuzu were moving away from Konoha. Thus, the two groups deliberately slowed their steps as they passed one another.

And then—

The instant they crossed paths...

Kagami’s hands flashed through a series of seals before he leaped into the air.

"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

Shisui took two steps back.

"Fire Style: Fireball Technique!"

Sasori snapped open his scroll.

"Secret Technique: Dance of the Seedling Fern!"

At the same time, two masked creatures burst out from Kakuzu’s body.

"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"

"Lightning Style: False Darkness!"

As though all four of them had shared the exact same thought, both sides launched their attacks at the most opportune moment!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, the entire forest began to shake violently.

Compared to Kagami and Shisui’s probing attacks, Sasori and Kakuzu had struck with far greater ruthlessness. Sasori in particular had immediately unleashed the Kaguya Clan Head human puppet’s ultimate technique—Dance of the Seedling Fern!

Compared to the Shikotsumyaku secret technique, Dance of the Seedling Fern, aside from Kagami’s Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, Shisui’s Fire Style: Fireball Technique and Kakuzu’s Pressure Damage and False Darkness paled in comparison.

As the earth trembled, countless razor-sharp bone spears erupted from the ground, thrusting relentlessly toward the sky!

Kagami reacted instantly. Grabbing Shisui, he pulled him into one of the ice mirrors suspended in midair.

As the forest of bone spears surged upward, the vast majority of the ice mirrors were pierced and shattered. Only a handful at the very top remained intact.

Standing atop one of the bone spears, Sasori let out a surprised sound.

"Hm? You can actually use Ice Style? Are you a member of the Yuki Clan?"

At this moment, there wasn’t the slightest trace of weakness in Sasori. Compared to the pale, blood-coughing state he had displayed earlier, he looked like a completely different person.

Kagami poked half his body out of an ice mirror. While scanning the surroundings for Kakuzu, he casually said,

"Hey, didn’t we agree to go our separate ways?"

Sasori snorted.

"It seems you were the ones who attacked first."

By now, Kagami had already spotted Kakuzu hiding behind one of the bone spears. His two masked creatures had also spread out across the surrounding area, seemingly ready to launch another attack at any moment.

Seeing that Sasori and Kakuzu still retained a considerable amount of combat strength, Kagami weighed the situation for a moment before smiling.

"The Third Hokage is probably somewhere nearby. How about we continue going our separate ways?"

At the mention of the Third Hokage, Sasori’s expression darkened.

"Fine. Looks like what happened just now was merely a misunderstanding."

Kagami nodded. "Exactly. Just a misunderstanding!"

With that, Kagami didn’t even dispel his Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. Instead, he manipulated the ice mirrors into a long line and sped away through them.

Sasori and Kakuzu didn’t waste any more words either. With a flicker, their figures disappeared into the forest of towering bone spears.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Not long afterward, the Third Hokage arrived at the edge of the bone forest with the Adamantine Staff in hand, leading a large contingent of ANBU.

Gazing at the massive bone spears piercing straight into the sky, the Third Hokage’s expression turned solemn.

"This is... the Kekkei Genkai ninjutsu of Kirigakure’s Kaguya Clan—the Shikotsumyaku?"

A short while later, Fugaku arrived as well, leading the group of Uchiha elites.

When the two sides saw that the other had also returned empty-handed, both the Third Hokage and Fugaku wore somewhat awkward expressions.

After a brief silence, the Third Hokage sighed with emotion.

"These bounty hunters are no ordinary shinobi..."

Fugaku nodded repeatedly.

"Indeed."