Chapter 100 - Kakuzu Boss Rush

As Shikamaru ran away with Hidan and Asuma, Kakashi took a look at the other 3 strange creatures near Kakuzu, one had had an animal mask with red marking and took on the shape of a demonic tiger, One had a mask with a yellow nose and and took on the shape of some sort of deformed biped, while the last one took on a strange four-legged body with thin wings and had a mask with blue markings.

'From the report those strange creatures houses the hearts he has stolen from his enemies, and each one specialize in a different Nature, from the markings I think that the remaining ones are Fire, Wind and Lightning'.

But Kakashi didn't have the time to make any more plans as Kakuzu started his attack, soon he starts exchanging moves with Kakashi, while Fire and Wind Mask attacked Taro and Jiro and Choji with the combination of Fūton: Atsugai (Wind Release: Pressure Damage) and Katon: Zukokku (Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work) creating a massive firestorm that zoomed fast toward its target incinerating everything in its path.

Seeing that, Taro and Jiro counterattack with their own combination jutsu, and used the Katon: Hibashiri(Fire Release: Running Fire) and the Fūton: Kamikaze(Wind Release: Divine Wind) to create a massive flaming hurricane, that clashed with the one used by Kakuzu's Mask.

But it is clear that Kakuzu's attack is slowing overpowering Taro and Jiro's one, meanwhile Kakashi is slowly overwhelmed by Kakuzu and Lightning Mask combination, but just as the situation was getting bad, Kakuzu all of the sudden spit blood from his mouth and fell on the ground holding his chest, but before Kakashi could take advantage of this the Lightning Mask once again merges with Kakuzu, and he raises again and says "That Bastard Hidan let himself be tricked like this... years passed since the last time I lost two hearts in one battle... luckily there are enough hearts here to replace the one I have lost".

Then he once again clashes with Kakashi that is still unable to find an opening to attack, at the same time the clash between the firestorm and the fire tornado ends with a big explosion that send Taro, Jiro and Choji flying and all of them clash against the surroundings trees breaking them.

Then the while the Fire Mask move closer to the still downed trio, the Wind Mask goes back and support Kakuzu in his clash with Kakashi, and take advantage of the fact that Kakashi was focusing on defending from Kakuzu's close combat attack and attacks Kakashi with Fūton: Atsugai shooting a compressed tornado-like mass.

Kakashi is forced to jump away but is still hit by the aftermath of the jutsu and sent tumbling on the ground until he hits a tree and spit some bloods from his mouth, and as Kakuzu move closer to Kakashi he says "It is impressive how a bunch of brats was able to pus…pft!" and once again he spit some blood from his mouth and fell on his knee.

But the Wind Mask readily join back with him while he gets up and screams "That bastard Hidan!! How many times you have to fall for the same trick to learn from it... I swear I'll cut his head and dick off, then sew it back on the wrong place, maybe this way it will be easier for his blood to go to his brain".

Meanwhile, the Fire Mask who was still moving to finish off the downed trio, turn his back to them and starts to rush back to Kakuzu, but behind him four buzz-saw like things are moving fast toward the Fire Mask, those things are Hana and the Hanimaru brothers using the Gatenga (Fang Rotating Fang) and soon hits the Fire Mask from four different direction and starts shredding the strange demonic tiger like things in many pieces, and under this assault it becomes smaller and smaller until a strange beating tangle of thread is reveled.

And Ino who was still hidden throws a kunai at it and pierce the heart in it, destroying another of Kakuzu's heart leaving him with only one.

Seeing that the situation wasn't getting good for him Kakuzu decidedly throws a smoke bomb on the ground and starts to run away moving in the opposite direction of Konoha, towards the Land of Hot Water.

Meanwhile, as soon as the smoke clears, the figure of Asuma, Shikamaru and Hayate could be seen coming from the distance, and once closer Asuma ask "Kakashi what happened here? Is everyone safe? Where is the enemy?".

The first to reply is Hana that says "Everyone is alive, Taro, Jiro and Choji are lightly wounded, just some burns, and they took a nasty hit on the head, but the aren't in danger, Kakashi-san got some cuts and bruises too but nothing to worry about..." then Kakashi explains "We were fighting Kakuzu and all was going according to the plan, but when he lost his fourth heart he stopped fighting and ran away not before throwing a smoke grenade to hide his direction, Hana can you or your ninken smell him?".

And Hana shaking her head replies "No as soon as he left he hid underground cover his smell... we lost him..." and Asuma "Well this mission isn't a failure as we took care of Hidan, now Akatsuki is one member less strong, this is already a victory, let just search the area around, together and them let's go back".

At the same time, Kakuzu keeps moving without rest and soon is about to reach the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water while thinking 'First thing I have to do is to find some new hearts, then I have to find who is the mole in the Akatsuki and kill him... they knew all about me and Hidan and were too prepared for us... someone must have leaked our info... but who? Orochimaru, Itachi, Deidara and Sasori are dead... the leader and the woman next to him are impossible... Kisame isn't that kind of guy... the only ones left that are suspicious are the new guy Tobi and Zetsu that slippery bastard...'.

Once he reached a forest in the Land of Hot Water, Kakuzu's thought were interrupted by some strange beast howl, and all of the sudden he found himself surrounded by thousand of strange entities all with various form, but what hey all had in common is a white mask on their faces and a hole where their heart is supposed to be.

And before Kakuzu could do anything, from behind him appeared an almost human like being, the lower body is that of a big snake with white and purple scales, the upper body also looks almost human totally white with a hole in his chest, but his forearm is full of scales and the hand is full of long venomous purple scales, on his head has a demonic white mask with purple markings and a head full of long black hair.

Just as Kakuzu was about to attack the strange being, he suddenly felt a pain in his chest, then he notices that in the being's bloody hand there is a still slightly beating heart, then he falls dead on the floor, while the being's mask open reveling his razor sharp teeth, and ate Kakazu's heart while the surrounding Hollows ate the rest of the body.

Then it spoke in a distorted voice "Magnificent... this body mainly made up of Yin Chakra, is the perfect one I was searching for... unaging, and it perfectly adapted to my soul...not only that, but it is also growing stronger, each time I ate these strange masked beasts, or another ninja... I feel like becoming something more... and this Mask something in me, is screaming that a little more and I remove it... after that I will have my revenge" then he once again moved to find his next victim.