The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass was a jagged line of limestone cliffs and dense, ancient forests. It was here that the influence of the Great Nations blurred, replaced by the law of the blade.
Dan and Shisui stood atop a needle-thin rock formation. Below them, the remains of a Konoha scouting camp were still smoldering. There was no blood on the ground—only charred earth and strange, grey threads that looked like organic wire.
"Stay back, Shisui," Dan ordered, his eyes scanning the treeline with his 3-Tomoe Sharingan. "This isn't a normal shinobi. He's a relic from the era of the First Hokage."
[System Notification: Hostile Signature Detected.]
[Analysis: Multiple chakra cores detected within a single vessel. Five distinct signatures.]
"An Uchiha kid and a brat," a gravelly voice echoed from the canopy. "The Leaf must be desperate to send their 'Architecture' to die in the dirt. I wonder... what are your heads worth on the black market?"
Out of the shadows stepped a towering man wrapped in bandages, wearing the forehead protector of the Hidden Waterfall with a horizontal strike through it. Kakuzu.
Behind him, four monstrous masks made of black thread detached from his back, floating in the air like vengeful spirits.
"Shisui, the masks!" Dan yelled.
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the Fire Mask opened its maw.
"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"
A localized sun of flame erupted, turning the limestone beneath Dan into molten slag. Dan didn't use the Hiraishin; he needed to save his chakra for the "Endgame." Instead, he performed a series of hand signs that blurred into a single motion.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A massive torrent of water spiraled upward, clashing with the flames in a hiss of steam that blinded everyone in the clearing. Through the white mist, the Wind Mask launched a pressurized blade of air, meant to shred the water wall and Dan along with it.
Zip.
Dan appeared directly in front of the Wind Mask. His chokutō was unsheathed, coated in the violet lightning of his Purple Electricity.
"Too fast!" Kakuzu muttered, his threads lashing out to pull the mask back.
Dan's blade sliced through the threads like they were silk. The Wind Mask shrieked as it was cleaved in half, the dark heart within it bursting.
"One," Dan said, landing softly on a branch.
"You... you little monster!" Kakuzu's eyes went red with fury. He had lived for nearly a century, but he had never seen a child move with such "Space-Time" efficiency. "That mask cost me a fortune in effort!"
The Overclock
Kakuzu didn't play around anymore. He integrated the remaining three masks back into his body, his muscles bulging as the grey threads reinforced his limbs. His skin turned a deep, metallic black—the Earth Spear technique.
"You can't cut me now, Uchiha!" Kakuzu roared, launching a punch that shattered the tree Dan was standing on.
Dan flipped backward, his mind entering the Eternal Mirror Space.
System, the Earth Spear is a D-rank Earth Jutsu enhanced by massive chakra. It makes him invulnerable to physical strikes. Analysis?
[Analysis: Earth is weak to Lightning. However, his Earth Spear is reinforced by 'Raw Hatred' chakra. Standard Raiton will fail.]
[Suggestion: Use the 'Mokuton' Sub-routine. Wood absorbs Earth energy.]
But the mastery is only at 18%, Dan argued internally.
[Calculated Risk: 120% Output. The Clone will take the 'Physical Recoil' into the Mirror Space. You have 30 seconds.]
"Do it!"
Dan's hands slammed onto the ground. He didn't use a fire or lightning sign. He felt the Hashirama Cells in his arm scream, the green energy of the forest responding to his call.
"Wood Release: Great Forest Technique!"
From the limestone earth, massive, gnarled roots erupted with the force of a volcano. They didn't just hit Kakuzu; they wrapped around his "Earth Spear" limbs and began to literally drink his chakra.
"Wood Release?!" Kakuzu gasped, his black skin fading to a pale grey as his defense was siphoned away. "The Senju blood? No... you're an Uchiha! This is impossible!"
"The Architecture doesn't believe in 'Impossible'," Dan said.
He appeared in Kakuzu's blind spot. His hand wasn't glowing with lightning this time. It was calm.
[Executing: Human Path — Soul Extraction (Partial Simulation).]
Dan had spent months having his clone study the theory of soul-based jutsu from the Uchiha's forbidden stone tablet. He touched Kakuzu's chest, and for a second, the two were linked.
Dan saw Kakuzu's memories—the fight with Hashirama, the theft of the Hearts, and the location of the Akatsuki's current base in the Land of Rain.
"Found you," Dan whispered.
He pushed a massive burst of chakra into Kakuzu's main heart. The "Immortal" exploded into a flurry of threads, his body disintegrating as the Wood Release roots consumed him entirely.
The Toll
As the last thread withered, the roots turned to ash. Dan fell to one knee, blood streaming from his nose and ears.
[Warning: Physical Collapse Imminent.]
[Mirror Space has absorbed 90% of the Mokuton backfire. Host must enter stasis for 48 hours.]
Shisui rushed to his side. "Dan-niisan! You used Wood Release... if the village finds out..."
"They won't," Dan wheezed, looking at the empty space where a legend of the underground had just died. "Kakuzu is 'dead,' but he'll reform. Men like him always have a spare heart hidden somewhere. But I got what I wanted."
"What?"
"The map to the Akatsuki," Dan said, a cold smile appearing on his bloody face. "And the realization that even a god can be bled if you calculate the right angle."
As Shisui picked up the unconscious Dan to carry him back to the Leaf, a small, white creature with a Venus-flytrap head emerged from the ground nearby.
White Zetsu watched them go, his yellow eyes wide. "Lord Madara was right... this one is a variable we didn't account for. An Uchiha who uses the Wood... we must tell the 'other' Obito."
The war for the future had just escalated.