One enemy. Ten paces. High ground on the maple tree branch.
The data registered in Yoichi's mind even as the black fibers hissed through the air.
The stranger did not hesitate.
His sleeves tore open as he unleashed a Thousand Thread Volley, a swarm of jagged needles intended to pin Yoichi to the ground.
A thread grazed Yoichi's shoulder, but he did not flinch.
He focused on the connection point.
As the primary strand coiled around his wrist, he anchored his weight, shifting the entire force of his physical density into his heels.
With a violent jerk of his arm, Yoichi ripped the stranger from the branch.
The wood snapped with the sound of a bone breaking. The cloaked figure plummeted, hitting the dirt and rolling into a crouched position.
Green eyes locked onto Yoichi with a cold, renewed interest.
Distance closing. Five paces.
Yoichi launched himself forward.
The ground beneath his feet cracked from the explosive force of his leap. He pulled his fist back, the air around his knuckles screaming as he prepared to deliver a strike fueled by his entire mass.
The stranger reacted with terrifying speed.
He did not dodge. Instead, he molded his chakra into a specific, rigid flow.
Earth Release: Earth Spear!
His skin turned a deep, obsidian black, shimmering with a cold and metallic sheen.
Yoichi's fist collided with the stranger's chest. The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a mountain.
A shockwave rippled through the courtyard, shattering the windows of the house and kicking up a blinding cloud of dust.
Knuckles throbbed. The sensation was like striking a wall of solid diamond.
Yoichi skidded backward, his boots carving deep trenches in the soil.
He looked through the settling dust, his rational mind adjusting to the new variable.
His 732 KG of force had not broken the man. It had only revealed the monster.
Dark, thick stitches ran across the stranger's arms and neck, holding his skin together like a patchwork quilt.
The cloak had been partially shredded by the impact, revealing a torso that seemed more like a collection of woven fibers than flesh and bone.
"My threads are not so easily broken," the man said. His voice was a dry, scraping sound that seemed to come from deep within his chest.
"I have lived for decades by collecting the hearts of those who thought they were strong. You are worth a lot of money, boy, but your life ends in this courtyard."
Yoichi watched as four distinct bulges began to writhe beneath the skin of the man's back.
The rational part of his mind screamed.
This was not a standard ninja technique.
This was a biological horror.
Four masks. Multiple heartbeats. Ancient chakra.
The moonlight caught the green tint of the stranger's eyes, which were devoid of any emotion except greed. He reached up and tore away the remains of his hood, revealing the headpiece of a missing nin from the Village Hidden in the Stones.
"I am Kakuzu," The stranger declared.
The name meant nothing to Yoichi's current memory, but the sheer pressure emanating from the man told him everything he needed to know.
The 732 KG of force he had spent years cultivating was merely the entry fee for this fight.
He is not human. He is a hive.
Yoichi reset his stance, his breathing becoming shallow and controlled.
He could feel the heat rising from his Spirit Aperture, pushing against the cold dread of the moonlight.
The strange peace of the afternoon was a distant memory.
The physical exchange was a brutal test of durability against density.
Yoichi could feel the heat from the masks and the cold, metallic scent of the threads.
His knuckles were split, and a smear of red stained his hand.
Every logic gate in his mind pointed to the same conclusion. His standard power was not enough to overcome the stranger.
Death's Grasp!
Kakuzu extended his arms, and hundreds of black threads snaked across the ground.
They coiled into a tightening cage, a constricting web designed to suffocate movement. It was the calculated movement of a predator, narrowing the space until Yoichi had no breathing room for his martial arts.
Phantom Steps!
Yoichi did not panic. He initiated his movement technique, and his body became a blur of shifting afterimages. Moving with a ghostly grace that made the threads pass through empty air, he bypassed the perimeter and appeared directly in front of his opponent.
Mountain Crushing Fist!
He anchored his weight and twisted his hips, channeling his entire mass into a single point. This technique doubled his impact as his fist roared through the air toward the stranger's sternum.
Earth Release: Earth Spear!
The impact sounded like a mountain collapsing into the sea. Kakuzu did not flinch, his skin shimmering with a metallic sheen that absorbed the amplified blow.
The force was enough to crack the ground, sending fractures through the stone tiles, yet the obsidian skin remained unbroken.
Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!
The Fire Mask lunged from above, its jaw unhinging to release a core of glowing orange chakra. A wave of searing heat erupted, turning the courtyard into a furnace.
Yoichi retreated, weaving through the falling embers. As he skidded to a safe distance, he flicked a Qi Blood Pill into his mouth.
The sharp crunch of the shell echoed in the quiet moment. A sudden surge of heat flooded his veins, stabilizing his muscles against the heavy recoil of his own strike.
"You waste expensive medicine on a life that is already forfeit," Kakuzu chided. His green eyes remained fixed on Yoichi. "No matter how much you bolster your vitality, you cannot break through the earth itself."
"Shit," Yoichi hissed.
He reset his center of gravity and watched the masks circle him. He understood now that blunt force was being perfectly dispersed by the earth chakra. He was no longer looking for a lucky hit. He was analyzing the timing of the hardening.
Yoichi stood still, his eyes tracking the rhythmic swaying of the black threads.
He realized that the Earth Spear was not a passive state but a continuous expenditure of chakra.
To move or to strike, the stranger had to allow a degree of flexibility in his joints.
Every time the threads lashed out, the metallic sheen on the stranger's shoulders flickered for a fraction of a second.
It was a microscopic opening, a momentary softening of the obsidian shell.
Phantom Steps!
He moved again, but this time he was not closing the distance. He circled the perimeter, his afterimages drawing the attention of the masks. He was testing Kakuzu's reaction speed, forcing the elemental masks to pivot and fire.
Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!
A second blast of flame roared toward his position.
Yoichi leaped over the wave of fire, the heat washing over his skin. While in the air, he observed the Wind Mask expanding its porcelain chest.
He knew the next attack would be a pressurized gale designed to trap him mid-flight.
The logic of the fight was shifting from a test of strength to a game of timing.
Kakuzu remained rooted in the center, his body a fortress. However, the threads connecting the masks were vulnerable during the transition between techniques.
Yoichi landed silently, his breathing deep and regulated. The Qi Blood Pill had finished its work, leaving his body primed for a high-frequency strike.
Wind Release: Pressure Damage!
A massive sphere of compressed air erupted from the Wind Mask, tearing up the soil and stone of the courtyard.
Yoichi did not dodge. He leaned into the wind, using his extreme physical density as a ballast to keep from being swept away.
Through the debris and the howling wind, he saw the Kakuzu's skin matte over as he prepared to anchor himself.
Kakuzu is heavy when he hardens, and slow when he moves, Yoichi noted.
The reasonable path was no longer a fist.
It was a needle.
He began to gather chakra into his fingertips, the blue energy beginning to hiss and spark.
Lightning Spear Thrust!
He launched himself through the center of the wind storm. He did not aim for the armored chest this time. He aimed for the small, unhardened junction of threads beneath the Fire Mask.
Yoichi focused the entirety of his lightning chakra into his right hand, compressing the energy until it screamed.
The technique was a refined application of his physical density and elemental control.
It mirrored the legendary Hell Stab of the Third Raikage, functioning as a concentrated Lightning Release: Chakra Mode.
By channeling the lightning through a single point, he achieved a level of piercing power that bypassed the need for raw mass.
He lunged through the heart of the wind storm. The high-frequency vibration of the lightning acted as a drill, parting the air and the stray threads with ease.
His fingers were no longer human flesh, but a spear of pure electrical discharge.
He targeted the gap in Kakuzu's defense, the exact moment when the earth chakra was diverted to reinforce the feet against the wind pressure.
Earth Release: Earth Spear!
Kakuzu attempted to shift his hardening to his shoulder, but the transition was a millisecond too slow. The lightning spear connected with the dark, stitched skin.
Unlike the blunt impact of the fist, there was no echoing boom. Instead, there was the high-pitched hiss of piercing metal. The concentrated lightning sliced through the obsidian-like hide, sinking inches deep into the bundle of threads beneath the surface.
Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!
The Fire Mask let out a distorted screech as the electrical surge traveled through the connecting fibers. The internal chakra flow of the mask was disrupted, causing the flames in its maw to flicker and die out.
A smell of ozone and burnt protein filled the courtyard.
Yoichi let out a low grunt as he ripped his hand back. He had drawn blood, but the recoil of the lightning had singed his own fingertips. He skidded across the broken tiles, his eyes never leaving the stranger.
The strike had worked. A small, smoking wound remained on the stranger's shoulder, and the Fire Mask hung limp for a moment as it struggled to reboot its energy.
Yoichi had proven that the invincible armor had a threshold. If he could concentrate enough piercing force into a small enough area, the earth defense would crumble.
"Interesting," Kakuzu said. His voice was no longer bored. He touched the wound on his shoulder, staring at the red fluid on his fingers. "I have not seen that level of lightning manipulation since the Land of Lightning. Your heart just became significantly more valuable."
"I do not care about the price of my heart," Yoichi replied, his voice flat and devoid of fear. "I only care about the time it takes to stop yours."
The rational part of his brain was already calculating the risk.
The Lightning Spear Thrust had worked, but it was a drain on his reserves.
He needed to finish this before the Qi Blood Pill wore off and his muscles succumbed to the weight of his own density.
The air in the courtyard began to vibrate with a new, terrifying frequency.
Kakuzu was no longer standing still. Two of the masks, the Wind and the Fire, detached completely from his shoulders.
They floated together, their porcelain faces side by side, weaving a combined carpet of chakra.
Wind Release: Pressure Damage!
Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!
Kakuzu did not use them separately this time. The wind blast acted as a propellant for the fire, creating a massive, white-hot firestorm that expanded to cover the entire width of the courtyard.
The heat was so intense that the stone lanterns began to glow red.
Phantom Steps!
Yoichi moved with a desperate, flickering speed.
He did not run away from the firestorm.
Ruuning toward the edges, he looked for the friction point where the wind pressure was weakest.
His body was a blur of afterimages, each one being incinerated by the wall of flame.
He felt the hair on his arms singe, and the oxygen was being sucked out of his lungs.
Yoichi moved like a ghost through a furnace.
His high-density muscles were screaming under the strain of the constant, high-speed pivots. He was not just moving, he was navigating a thermal maze.
Death's Grasp!
While the fire blinded him, Kakuzu sent his threads through the shadows of the flames.
The black fibers snaked along the ground, cooled by the earth, aiming for Yoichi's ankles. It was a pincer move. The fire was the hammer, and the threads were the anvil.
"Fuck!" Yoichi cursed.
Feeling a thread catch his left heel, Yoichi did not try to pull away. Instead, he used his momentum to perform a violent, mid-air corkscrew.
The sheer weight of his spinning body snapped the threads like dry twigs.
He landed in a crouch, his chest heaving.
The courtyard was a ruin of charred grass and molten stone. Yoichi looked up to see Kakuzu standing behind the wall of fire, his green eyes glowing with a predatory light.
"You have the stamina of a Jinchuriki, but the frame of a genin," Kakuzu stated. He watched the way the chakra flickered at Yoichi's joints, a sign of internal leakage.
"The medicine keeps your spark alive, but your gates are ready to burst. Your density is a jutsu that is eating its master."
_________
Thanks for Daemonic_Dragon and doomslayer24 for power stones!
Thanks, Senior Brothers!