Capítulo 77: Chapter 77: The Battle
The voice was familiar, especially to Kakuzu. The last time they had met, he'd chased that man off in defeat.
"Aoba Kamikawa, thirty million ryo bounty. He's worth my time."
The moment Kakuzu saw Aoba, his mind went straight to the bounty on Aoba's head, which had reached thirty million ryo.
Meanwhile, Zabuza and Haku were utterly bewildered. They couldn't understand why two rogue ninjas like them had suddenly become so popular.
Somehow, two powerful factions had both come looking for them at the same time.
In their minds, Aoba naturally represented Konoha, while this other group—the so-called Akatsuki—seemed equally formidable.
Even uninjured, Zabuza doubted he could defeat the man who'd used Fire Style against him earlier.
Not to mention the woman who seemed to outrank the man beside her.
Zabuza had always been proud, but now he had to admit that he couldn't afford to offend either side.
Aoba's attention was focused mostly on Konan. Out of the original trio, Konan's story was perhaps the most tragic.
Yahiko, an idealist, had perished in the crossfire of the great nations. Nagato, embittered by Yahiko's death, had twisted and clung to his friend's ideals.
Only Konan silently supported both of them from the shadows.
Aoba saw Nagato as a well-constructed antagonist: an obsessive idealist, disillusioned with the world after the betrayal that led to his friend's death, and aiming to reshape the world's order.
Although a bit overdramatic, his ideology had a logic to it.
Konan, as the often-overlooked member of the trio, had always been there in the background. In Aoba's eyes, she was the trio's true soul.
Without her, Nagato might have completely lost control.
In the story, Konan even believed until her death that Nagato's Rinnegan was his own, convinced he was destined to change the world, adding a layer of tragedy to her character.
As a young viewer, Aoba had loved the series' flashy jutsu and epic battles.
Later, as he grew older, some aspects began to feel unsettling.
Kind-hearted characters like Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Shisui Uchiha, Jiraiya, Konan, and Neji all met tragic ends.
Meanwhile, twisted figures like Itachi, Obito, and Orochimaru were repeatedly redeemed, which had always bothered Aoba. Now that he was here, he was intent on rewriting some of these tragedies.
"Distracted in front of me?" Kakuzu noticed Aoba's wandering thoughts and erupted in anger.
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine."
"Wind Slash!"
Facing Kakuzu, Aoba wasn't truly distracted. With a swift slash of his Kusanagi sword, he cleaved through the thick wall of fire.
Kakuzu dodged the wind blade, his expression growing serious.
Many had seen Aoba's signature sword technique, but Kakuzu could tell immediately that this attack was far stronger than any previous ones he'd seen.
Both in speed and power, it had leveled up significantly.
Just as Konan's intel suggested, Aoba Kamikawa had indeed been hiding his true strength.
Though Kakuzu often seemed arrogant, he was actually quite cautious. His fighting style leaned toward pragmatism; after all, this was the man who'd once hurled a shuriken from a safe distance and promptly fled.
His body writhed, and two masses of black, mud-like tendrils emerged, transforming into human-shaped monsters.
Kakuzu's signature technique, Earth Grudge Fear, allowed each of his elemental hearts to act as an independent entity capable of using jutsu.
This was the reason Aoba had once been wary of Kakuzu.
With two of his hearts out—one for Fire Style and the other for Lightning Style—Kakuzu unleashed a barrage of jutsu.
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball, Wind Style: Great Breakthrough," Kakuzu and his fire heart performed a powerful combination technique.
Having fought Aoba before, Kakuzu knew Aoba's strength in close combat. So he opened with a large-area, long-range attack to keep Aoba at bay.
Amid the raging flames, Aoba's voice echoed.
"Sage Art: Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique."
Kakuzu's combination attack was impressive in both range and intensity, leaving Zabuza and Haku stunned.
Even Zabuza would have to go all out with Water Style to block such an attack. And that was just from two hearts—Kakuzu had another one still in reserve.
But Aoba's response was even more overpowering. With Sage Mode-enhanced Water Style, his Great Waterfall Technique flooded the entire forest, turning it into a torrent.
Kakuzu's fire and wind combination was snuffed out like a torch in a river, vanishing without a trace.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness." Kakuzu's lightning heart fired a bolt, attempting to catch Aoba off guard.
Yet despite Kakuzu's pride in his chakra reserves and large-scale ninjutsu, Aoba's Sage Chakra completely overwhelmed him.
The sound of paper fluttering in the air rang out, and hundreds of paper sheets morphed into shuriken, flying toward Aoba.
Though Konan rarely fought in the original story, she'd defeated Sasori in a direct confrontation to recruit him, proving her strength.
And Konan held a significant advantage over most ninja: she could fly.
"Dance of the Shikigami."
More paper shuriken rained down from above.
Aoba conjured a whirlwind around himself, deflecting the projectiles.
After a few brief exchanges, Kakuzu managed to escape the Great Waterfall Technique, though his fire heart had been completely extinguished by the previous attack.
With a regular Water Style, he might have withstood it. But with Sage Art-enhanced Water Style, his fire heart was completely overpowered.
Now, Kakuzu was genuinely cautious. Losing one of his five lives had made him reconsider his approach.
However, seeing Konan engage, he decided to press on, knowing the "angel" of the Akatsuki was no one to underestimate.
Aoba's Wind Slash cleaved through Konan's body, only for her to dissolve into a cloud of paper.
Countless sheets of paper scattered, and Aoba sensed something amiss. The surrounding air compressed and then detonated.
The scattered papers transformed into stacks of explosive tags.
Konan's unique technique, the Paper Person of God, was a testament to her skill. In the story, she'd used six hundred billion explosive tags to trap Obito, disguising them as part of the sea surrounding Amegakure—a truly insane tactic.
As the explosion erupted, Aoba vanished, reappearing instantly in front of Zabuza and Haku.
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