Chapter 374: The Power of Pirates! Kakuzu: Phoenix? Devil Fruit?
"Let me handle this!" Marco suddenly stepped forward, standing in front of Kisame, facing Kakuzu.
His face showed curiosity and eagerness.
Marco smiled and said, "I've never fought a ninja before. Although I've seen ninjas in Wano Country, the ninjas there seem different from the ones here!"
Marco's gaze met Kakuzu's in mid-air.
In Kakuzu's eyes, this golden pineapple head was an unfamiliar person.
He seemed to be an unknown figure in the ninja world.
And he wasn't wearing any ninja headband.
It gave him a strange feeling... as if this pineapple head wasn't a ninja.
The problem is...
If the opponent wasn't a ninja, how could they qualify to join an organization like the Whitebeard Pirates?
Kakuzu guessed that the opponent was probably an ordinary crew member of the Whitebeard Pirates.
The ground showed several hideous cracks, indicating just how terrifying the force of that kick was.
"If this is all you have as a ninja, you're not qualified to take our heads!"
He was deeply shocked.
It could also enhance his physical strength.
But when Marco's downward kick collided with Kakuzu's arms, Kakuzu's expression suddenly changed.
Splat—
"However..."
This power was far more terrifying than the explosion of Explosive Tags, and many times more so!
The difference in strength between them made him feel like the first time he encountered the leader, Pain.
Feeling his internal organs shift violently, Kakuzu spat out a mouthful of blood, the crimson liquid even seeping through his mask.
The corner of Kakuzu's mouth under the mask curved up.
The ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
A hand burst out of the ground, striking towards the back of Marco's head.
The terrifying yet familiar sense of powerlessness shook Kakuzu to his core.
Cold sweat broke out on Kakuzu's forehead.
Perhaps he was once a wandering ninja?
Hmph, he should just be an unimpressive pirate!
"Heh, looks like I've been underestimated!" Kakuzu reached out to form a seal. But at that moment, an inexplicable sense of crisis made his hair stand on end.
He suddenly saw the pineapple head in front of him disappear.
Boom!!!
Kakuzu was knocked to the ground by Marco's kick.
Suddenly!
Even the air ripples from the whip kick were visible to the naked eye!
Kakuzu didn't expect that a seemingly not-so-strong pineapple head would possess such astonishing strength!
And where the pineapple head had been standing, there was only a dent in the ground.
This was a Ninjutsu that could harden the skin to a degree comparable to steel.
Kakuzu almost instinctively bent backward sharply.
Even the hand holding the kunai was embedded in Marco's head, showing that Kakuzu's strength was also quite impressive.
Using this Ninjutsu, Kakuzu was confident he could withstand the explosion of Explosive Tags stuck to his body!
"So fast!"
A hand connected by black threads emerged from the ground behind Marco.
Clearly, this was Kakuzu's prepared backup plan.
"It's End!"
His back made intimate contact with the ground.
His wrist was still connected to several black threads, which extended into a pit in the ground and then spread to Kakuzu.
A sharp kunai instantly pierced Marco's head.
It was all to make Marco lower his guard and then launch a surprise attack!
You could see a kunai still held in his hand!
The tip of the kunai was aimed at the back of Marco's head.
Kakuzu was startled and quickly clapped his hands: "Earth Release: Earth Spear!!!"
"Don't get cocky in front of me, pineapple head! A ninja's battle doesn't end so easily!"
Marco's face showed a hint of surprise, but his smile didn't fade: "Hahaha, quick reaction. No wonder you have the guts to try and capture members of the Whitebeard Pirates."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a whip leg brush past his chest.
He thought this pineapple head from the Whitebeard Pirates was already dead.
But his eyes flashed with a fierce and ruthless look.
"Whoa!!!"
Marco's missed whip leg suddenly stopped and quickly chopped down from above Kakuzu.
With such a severe head injury, any normal human would surely be dead, right?
Kakuzu was already preparing to take out his booklet to check the bounty on this pineapple head.
"What a strange body structure!"
However, Marco acted as if nothing had happened, completely ignoring the kunai stuck in his head. He curiously stared at Kakuzu: "What are those lines coming out of you? Are you a cyborg? Or a Devil Fruit user?"
"No, there shouldn't be any Devil Fruits here." Marco scratched his head awkwardly: "Ahaha, sorry, I didn't react for a moment and just remembered this is the ninja world."
Kakuzu: "???"
A shocked Kakuzu quickly jumped back, putting distance between himself and Marco.
Sweat dripped from Kakuzu's forehead: "What's with this guy? He's not dead? Not even hurt?"
"Hmm? Not good!" When Kakuzu saw Marco suddenly reach out and grab the hand he used for the sneak attack, he realized things were bad.
The next moment, Marco tightly gripped Kakuzu's wrist and yanked hard!
With the "Earth Grudge Fear" threads connecting them, Kakuzu's entire body was pulled off balance.
He tried to wrestle with Marco.
But he quickly realized his strength was no match for Marco's.
Instead of succeeding, he was pulled right in front of Marco with a strong tug.
Looking at the pineapple head up close, Kakuzu's palms were sweating!
Danger!!!
He frantically formed hand seals at the fastest speed of his life. The masks sewn onto his back seemed to come to life, all floating behind Kakuzu.
They were the four masks of Earth Grudge Fear: wind, lightning, fire, and water!
"Combined Ninja Art: Wind and Lightning Blast Wave!!!"
Kakuzu roared through gritted teeth.
Chakra surged wildly within him, and the four masks floating behind him opened their mouths simultaneously.
Marco raised an eyebrow.
Boom!!!
The rampaging wind, thunder, flames, and water instantly destroyed the entire long street. Blinding lightning flashed continuously, and the raging flames burned fiercely.
The torrential flood washed away the building ruins, and the strong wind scattered the dust in the sky.
After a few seconds...
Looking around, it was already a wasteland, with even the ground lifted by several centimeters!
Before Kakuzu could catch his breath, his pupils contracted slightly.
In his sight, a special blue flame appeared.
The special flame burned fiercely, but he didn't feel any heat from it.
He watched as the flames suddenly parted from both sides.
Revealing Marco's unharmed figure!
And those were wings burning with blue flames!
"What kind of monster are you?!"
Kakuzu was shocked.
He found that the pineapple head in front of him had turned into a half-human, half-bird monster covered in blue flames!
This strange form was somewhat like the partial transformation of a Jinchuriki.
But, which Tailed Beast's partial transformation looked like this?
Kakuzu, who had lived for nearly a hundred years, had seen many Jinchuriki.
He swore that the special form of this pineapple head was definitely not any Jinchuriki's partial transformation.
"This is the power of a Devil Fruit!"
Seemingly seeing the confusion in his opponent, Marco openly revealed his ability.
Such behavior was akin to suicide in the ninja world.
But Marco was unafraid and frankly said to Kakuzu, "I am a Zoan-type Mythical Beast Phoenix Fruit user. Whether it's physical or elemental attacks, they are useless against me!"
"Fruit user? Phoenix? Mythical Beast? Zoan-type?"
Kakuzu was stunned.
What on earth was this pineapple head talking about?
...
On the other side.
Swish!!!
A terrifying slash shot past Deidara.
Even though the slash didn't hit Deidara, the shockwaves around it still caused his skin to burst open with bloody wounds.
Deidara immediately looked up.
He saw the slash shoot straight into the sky, cutting a cloud thousands of meters high in half!
"Hey, hey, hey, isn't this a bit too much?!"
Deidara shouted, but his hands didn't stop. He quickly made a large number of clay bombs and dropped them towards Smoothie below.
One after another, the clay bombs fell like hail.
But as Smoothie swung her sword again from a distance.
The clay bombs exploded in mid-air.
Boom——
The continuous sound of explosions echoed.
"Ordinary bombs don't seem to work on her!" Deidara quickly analyzed calmly, "My current advantage is in the air, she should... huh? What?"
Deidara's eyes suddenly widened.
Because he saw a tall figure emerging from the smoke and dust raised by the clay bomb explosion!
That tall woman was actually stepping on the air and rushing up!
It was as if there was an invisible staircase in the air that she could step on.
Deidara's brain almost stopped thinking.
This defied the laws of physics!
At only twelve or thirteen years old, Deidara couldn't help but panic a little.
Due to Whitebeard's various interventions in the ninja world, the course of the ninja world had long been skewed, causing Deidara to join the Akatsuki organization earlier, without having experienced the wandering and training in the ninja world.
Now, Deidara was a complete newbie.
He had never fought someone of Smoothie's level!
Although many thoughts flashed through his mind, in reality, less than a second had passed!
Deidara realized that the tall woman was already less than three meters away from him in the blink of an eye!
His palms frantically chewed, trying to create clay bombs.
But his movements were too slow in Smoothie's eyes.
"Kid, I figured out your fighting style in just half a minute. You always rely on your aerial advantage to buy time for your special ability to create bombs. But if you lose your aerial advantage... during the time you make bombs, you are almost defenseless."
Smoothie said with a teasing smile.
The exaggeratedly large sword in her hand came slashing down at Deidara.
In Deidara's vision, time seemed to slow down, but his body couldn't move.
It was as if he was locked in place by the killing intent of the woman in front of him!
When Smoothie's exaggeratedly large sword was only half a centimeter away from Deidara's forehead, it suddenly stopped.
A gust of wind pressure made it impossible for Deidara to lift his head.
Deidara's hair was cut into a distinct line.
Revealing a bald strip from his forehead to the back of his head.
Deidara was drenched in sweat.
And his whole body was sweating.
"That was scary!" Deidara struggled to look up at Smoothie, the panic on his face gradually turning into a triumphant smile, "But I'm not someone you can easily mess with! My clay bombs are hard to hit you, but you came close to me. Sorry, but this time I win."
Deidara's body suddenly began to visibly swell.
Chunks of clay fell off him, and cracks appeared on the surface of his skin, with faint sparks flickering within.
"Art is an explosion! Taste my strongest bomb! This is a self-destructive explosion!!"
Deidara's smile had taken on a mad, crazed look.
It was hard to imagine what this kid's mental state was like normally.
When his body swelled to the limit.
A tremendous explosion erupted in the air!
Boom!!!
A massive fireball with a diameter of several dozen meters engulfed Smoothie, and the explosion's thick black smoke rose like a mushroom cloud, forming a large black mushroom in the sky.
From a certain angle, it even looked a bit like Patrick Star.
Plop—
A lump of clay fell to the ground, and a hand emerged from it, followed by Deidara.
"Haha! Fool!" Deidara looked up and laughed arrogantly, "Do you think I would die together with a no-name woman like you? You thought I was really scared? That was just an act!"
He then turned to Kakuzu and shouted excitedly, "Kakuzu-senpai, do you need my help..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Deidara's voice stopped.
It was like a duck being strangled.
Because...
He felt a large hand pressing down on his head. The hand felt very smooth, like a woman's, and it was so large that it could wrap around his entire head.
"You're quite cunning, kid!" Smoothie said with a smile, "But, have you considered that I might have predicted your prediction of my prediction?!"
"Your special ability, kid, isn't a Devil Fruit power, it must be innate, right? Mama would be very interested in you..."
"Although you're a bit young, hehe... but for Mama, you might be just right."
Smoothie's smile grew darker, and her tone became more twisted as she gently squeezed Deidara's head.
Deidara's eyes widened, his expression turning extremely painful. He tried to struggle, but couldn't break free.
Until he finally couldn't help but roll his eyes.
His whole body went limp.
...
...
(End of Chapter)
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