Earthly Grudge Umbrella?What the hell is that!? I never created a technique like this!
This wasn't ninjutsu.This wasn't anything he knew.
Kakuzu had lived longer than most nations stayed stable, and everything he'd experienced, everything he'd mastered in decades of battle, told him one thing:
What he was seeing should be impossible.
That was his hand.His technique.His chakra.
How could someone else take control of it just by touching it?!
He sent a mental command—Return! Recover!—but the severed tentacle didn't obey.Worse: it moved on its own. The umbrella of black tendrils twisted, contracting, reshaping—
—until it became a spear.A spear aimed directly at him.
The flames died down.
Hiroki stood there completely unharmed, the tentacle-spear leveled at its former owner. His expression was calm, almost cold, as if he were examining something in a lab rather than facing a legendary mercenary.
"Earth Grudge… Spear."
The black tendrils writhed and tightened, forming a clean, lethal point.
"Your firewall and verification protocols," Hiroki said quietly, "are way too weak."
Firewall?Verification… what?
What was this kid even talking about?
Kakuzu didn't understand a single word—but he understood the look in Hiroki's eyes.
Malice.Intent.Execution.
This brat wanted to kill him.
And horrifyingly… he could.
"Hiroki! You lead the attack, I'll cover you!" Orochimaru snapped.
Three shadow clones burst into existence behind him.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!""Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
A storm of shuriken tore forward, riding a roaring blast of wind—all aimed at Kakuzu.
Hiroki blinked, a little thrown. He hadn't expected Orochimaru to designate him as the primary attacker.
"Don't even think about it!" Kakuzu roared. "Whatever you're doing—illusion, poison, some trick—you need contact! If you get close, you die!"
The five masks behind him answered the fury of his voice.
Fire Style: Head Hardship.Water Style: Water Curtain.Wind Style: Pressure Damage.Lightning Release: False Darkness.Earth Release: Earth Spear.
A full, multi-element volley—an execution.
But Hiroki didn't run.Didn't dodge.Didn't weave signs.
He simply spun the tentacle-spear in his hand. (Nearly stabbing himself twice.) And then, with a strange casual certainty, he said:
"The next target isn't me."
What?
Before Kakuzu could decipher the meaning, the Fire Mask—the one that should've shot flames at Hiroki—
turned.
Fire Style: Head Hardship!
A torrent of fire exploded outward…
…straight toward the Wind Mask.
Wrong target.Wrong direction.Wrong everything.
Kakuzu's eyes went wide with horror.
This couldn't be real.He had trained with these masks for over forty years. Controlling them was as natural as breathing.
He didn't make mistakes like this.He couldn't make mistakes like this.
This kid—He changed the commands.He hijacked the orders themselves.
When!? How!?Is this genjutsu? No—no it's worse!This was like the Yamanaka clan's mind techniques—but deeper, faster, invasive on a level that shouldn't be possible.
"The first one," Hiroki murmured.
"No—!!!"
The fire-style blast engulfed the Wind Mask.The heart inside ruptured.One life—gone.
Kakuzu tried to retaliate, tried to force the other masks to attack, but…
Nothing responded.
"The second one…"
Kushina's hands covered her mouth. "What… what is he doing…?"
She couldn't process what she was seeing. The enemy's own techniques moved like they were Hiroki's limbs—precise, ruthless, obedient.
Nawaki trembled.A moment ago, he'd thought Hiroki burned alive.Now Hiroki was casually dismantling a legendary immortal.
Was this what talent looked like?Was this the gap between them?
Orochimaru stared, stunned.
This wasn't ninjutsu.This wasn't genjutsu.
This was…
A curse.Something ancient, something forbidden—something that grabbed a limb and used it to strangle the body that owned it.
As if Tobirama Senju had once delved into something far darker than the village knew.
Hiroki kept walking.
The Water Mask suddenly whipped around and blasted the Fire Mask, reducing it to a collapsed mass of dead tendrils and heart tissue.
Another heart destroyed.
Kakuzu collapsed to his knees.He felt his immortality eroding, heart by heart—faster than he could comprehend.
"The third… the fourth…"
Lightning obliterated Water.Orochimaru seized the moment.
"Five Elements Seal!"
His glowing palm slammed into the Lightning Mask, binding it instantly.
Four hearts gone.Only Earth—and Kakuzu's true body—remained.
"You… what kind of monster are you…" Kakuzu whispered. His voice shook. He stared at the approaching child like he was staring at Death itself.
Ten years old.This monster was ten years old.
He had fought Kage. Fought bijuu. Fought legends.
But never—never—had anyone seized his body like it was a puppet.
Orochimaru stepped forward, eyes shining with a strange light.
"Five Elements Seal."
His palm struck Kakuzu's chest.The remaining black tendrils writhed, were pulled free, and drifted lifelessly to the floor.
The battle was over.
Hiroki finally exhaled and walked closer.
He looked down at Kakuzu's shed skin—the empty husk left behind—and reached out to poke it.
Ding.
[A new connectable device—Kakuzu—has been detected.Temporary link established via Chakra Communication Protocol.]
[Open files?]
Even sealed… even reduced to a skin puppet…
…it could still be accessed?