Chapter 37 – Unavoidable
“Two very high chakra energy signatures heading our way. Both are very weird…
...one just feels off while the other looks like a doll made with a bundle of hearts and strings shaped like of a person
My heart drops at the implication.
'~Akatsuki'
Adrenaline floods my veins as I can think of only one person that matches that profile, and if my guess is correct every second is counting and could be our last.
“WE NEED TO RUN”
My outburst catches everyone off-guard.
“Why are yo-”
I interrupt Anko-sensei
“I know the enemy, each is as strong as a Jonin team and if we don’t run right now we are dead”
They finally seem to be starting to understand the seriousness of the situation. Anko didn't seem quite convinced but trusted me for now.
My mind rushes to remember every detail I can think of the zombie combo. Kakuzo and Hidan, both known for their near immortality.
We finally start running East, hoping to make it to safety.
“Hinata, pull your forehead protector up. The string guy, does he have 5 hearts all on his chest?”
“Yes, like the number 5 on a dice, his chakra is immense. They are gaining ground on us.”
Yeah, that has to be Kakuzu and his Earth Grudge Fear KinJutus. 5 hearts means he's not hunting for any more at the moment, but I don't think any of us would have met his standards in the first place.
I'm worried he sees Hinata and chooses to kidnap and sell her off to another village or something. God knows how much the other villages would pay for the Byakugan bloodline.
There is no running from them…
“Sensei, plan S”
“I’ll trust you on this Yami, but you better know what you’re doing. Let's do it”
We all stop for a few seconds and quickly form a shadow clone of ourselves.
Slutra takes over Sakura’s clone and leads the rest further south as we run further north.
A short 10 seconds later we get the result.
“They split up, the string guy is after the clones” reports Hinata
I don’t know which I’d rather face honestly.
Kakuzo might have let us free without a hassle, unless he found the value of Hinata he’d probably just leave after some questions.
But Hidan…
He’s a sadistic psychopath who wants nothing more than to spread pain and death.
The only good thing is that we run every man for himself now we might be far enough to prevent Kakuzo from splitting into several monsters and chasing us all at the same time.
Even then it’s just a matter of time. I have to make some kind of plan.
“Listen, no matter what, don’t try to kill him. He’s immortal and all he wants is our blood for a Jujutsu ritual.”
“How can someone be immortal?”
“HE JUST IS! I can’t explain now Sakura, even if his head is cut off he’ll still talk and be fine once it's reattached.”
“He uses a sickle with a chain meant to get us to bleed and if he drinks our blood his skin becomes multiple times harder.”
I explain as much as I can remember about his moves and how his ritual works.
Anko uses her Sly Mind Affect Technique as he moves closer but it only buys us another few minutes before Hidan’s is once again on our heels.
Eventually, Hidan catches up to us, there is just no way our Genin-level body-flicker could unrun a Jonin's equivalent.
Maybe Anko could have run away faster but were never going to be able to outrun them.
“Ahhh What have we here? A bunch of scared little ninjas, pretty girls even.”
“We were sent to look for the missing merchant, he’s long gone and we don’t know who took him” Waggering that was their goal.
“Ahh yeah… Kakuzu mentioned something like that in our mission, I didn’t really fucking care to listen. However... now that I see there are some pretty ninja girls in here I need to spread the faith of Jashinism”
“That doesn’t sound too bad, we can hold hands and sing some verses if you are up to it?”
I try to approach Hidan non-threateningly while hiding my beating heart.
I try to look at his hormones but they don’t make much sense. Most of them are just missing.
“Ohh here’s a kind lad, I will make sure to teach you well.”
I almost reached Hidan but as I got nearer he swung his scythe toward me.
Even having pumped my body full of adrenaline and knowing what to expect I only barely deflect it with a kunai as I lose my balance.
“Kuchiyose no Jutsu”
“Hiding in Mist Technique”
Anko summons as big of a snake as she can. The resulting snake is over 30 meters tall but my bet would still be on Hidan.
We use the mist as cover as we resume our retreat, leaving Hidan busy with the big snake.
I feel the clone I left with Slutra disperse. They got us some distance and from the talk they had with Kakuzo he seemed only interested in knowing about the merchant's whereabouts and leaving.
Still, he’ll probably fetch Hidan first.
Speaking of Hidan. I can hear the snake scream in pain from almost a mile away.
The snake bought us almost 10 minutes of running but try as we might Hidan catches up to us again.
“Sakura, Hinata, Yami. Keep running”
It won't work... He'll just kill Anko and still chase us after.
“No, Anko, I can't let you, there is only one way we can stop him…”
Moments later the zombie shows up again.
“That was a nice workout. I just love this kind of chase. Got any other tricks or are you ready to depart from this world following the teaching of our god Jashin”