A/N: And we're back! Last time was pretty heavy, full of lots of tough emotions. This time we have some more straightforward fights, which are happening at roughly the same time that Naruto faces off against Madara and Sasuke receives the Eternal Mangekyou sharingan.

Kisame finally enters the battlefield with the bulk of Kiri's attack force. Then we begin to see how Sandstorm matches up against the S-rank goofballs we knew in canon as Akatsuki. This chapter is actually just the first half of those battles, including Gaara's team vs. Deidara and the beginning of Shikamaru's team vs. Kakuzu. Next time will feature Sakura's team vs. Sasori and the senseis of Sandstorm against the Paths of Pain. I stopped where I did because the chapter was growing so darn long, so Chapters 47 and 48 should be viewed as two halves of the same whole.

Please share your thoughts, concerns and questions! We're in the home stretch now, and every thoughtful review helps me make the remaining chapters that much better. Until next time!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 47

Kisame

Kisame led the bulk of Kiri's shinobi forces towards Konoha's walls. They moved quickly through the trees and across the forest floor, sacrificing stealth for speed. By now Itachi's strike force would have been fighting at the walls for almost an hour, hopefully drawing out the strongest of the Uchiha to face their lost genius.

That had been the plan, anyway. Kisame and the majority of the army were supposed to break through the walls on the other side of Konoha while the Military Police was occupied with Itachi's elite force. Kisame would mop up any other opposition and move to support Zabuza in his battle against Madara, and his reinforcements would finish the Military Police by smashing them in a pincer attack.

But all of that had been the plan before Sasuke's lightning signal, which meant that things had gone seriously sideways. Now Kisame was urging the chuunin and jounin under his command to reach the walls with all possible haste, so they could figure out what in hell was going on.

Kisame sighed. Nothing ever went according to plan, though he supposed he should have been used to that after working in counter-intelligence for so many years.

"Sir!"

Kisame's second-in-command and designated scout, the byakugan user Ao, used a Body Flicker jutsu to come within an arm's length of Kisame. He adjusted his speed until he matched Kisame's in order to deliver his report.

"We're heading directly for a battle already in progress, sir! Looks like Oto shinobi fighting Suna."

That made no sense whatsoever to Kisame, as neither of those Hidden Villages had been in any way involved in Kiri's plans to invade. At the very least he had expected a Konoha ambush, or a few of those Ame missing-nin whose alliance with Madara had come as such a nasty shock at the beginning of the Exams.

"No Konoha shibobi at all?" Kisame asked curtly. "And none of ours?"

"No, sir. The Suna shinobi are holding out, but they're outnumbered and pretty beat up. What should we do?"

"We get some answers," Kisame said grimly. "These fools are between us and Zabuza, with who knows what kind of chaos breaking loose. If this battle isn't some kind of huge hoax to catch us unawares, we need to pick one side and overwhelm the other. Then over the walls, double time."

Ao lost no time relaying those orders to the jounin commanders. Those jounin would notify the chuunin team leaders, who operated with full authority over their teams of three or four.

Shinobi warfare was fast and brutal, especially in an all-out frontal assault. The elite jounin tended to match up against similarly strong individuals in the enemy forces, while the chuunin and older genin fought in small groups with complementary abilities. Once the battle began, Kisame would not need to give any orders besides "advance" or "retreat." And that was a good thing, because in all likelihood he would be too caught up in a grudge match with one of Konoha's finest to think of any orders to give.

Kisame was the first to break out of the cover of the forest into the open, grassy area that extended to the foot of Konoha's imposing outer wall. That meant he was the first to see the pitched battle raging in the shadow of the wall, and it was one of the stranger battles he had witnessed in quite some time.

Shinobi wearing the hita-ite of Otogakure—many of whom also wore purple ropes tied around their waists as belts—were darting here and there like a mob of enraged hummingbirds. Soaring through the air above them was a pink-haired kunoichi on the back of a dragon made from living crystal, and a monstrous man with one amorphous appendage attached to his shoulder that had somehow transformed to become a pair of demonic wings.

A far smaller group of Suna shinobi fought a mostly defensive battle against the larger force arrayed against them. Kisame saw many Wind Release techniques applied indiscriminately, as a means of keeping the swarming Oto shinobi at bay.

Occasionally a throwing spear flew through the air towards the flying man-monster hybrid, detonating mid-air with spectacular force. But the true key to the Suna defense, and likely the reason they had not yet been overwhelmed, was the platoon of puppets patrolling the air over the Suna shinobi's heads.

Ten puppets circled and swooped like airborne guard dogs, launching wave after wave of poisoned senbon, smoke bombs, and explosive tags. Some of them devoted most of their attention to baiting the kunoichi on the crystal dragon, playing an extended game of chicken in order to keep those deadly crystal spears from targeting the shinobi on the ground.

Kisame smiled like the shark he resembled as he made his decision. "Bring out the blue carpet, Ao!" he called to his second-in-command. "It's time to make a splash. See if we can't put a stop to this little pissing contest."

"Yes, sir!" Ao barked orders to the shinobi behind him, sparking a flurry of movement in the ranks.

A team of four special jounin, two male and two female, advanced until they formed a diamond in front of Kisame—or perhaps a spearpoint, with the Kiri forces behind them constituting the remainder of the weapon. Moving in perfect unison, they unfurled Sealing scrolls that had been wrapped around their torsos and bit their thumbs, then smeared precise amounts of their own blood to release the fuuinjutsu techniques keeping the scrolls sealed tight.

"Our target is Otogakure!" Kisame bellowed, even as massive amounts of water burst from the scrolls and flowed together, forming a wave as high as Konoha's outer wall. "Take no prisoners—get to the wall as quickly as possible!"

Kisame and Ao led the others in leaping to the top of the wave. Some chose to run along the surface of the water, and others merged with the water with one of Kiri's techniques. All borrowed the momentum of the tidal wave as it bore down inexorably on the battling shinobi.

It was a shame to waste the terrain-transforming attack here, instead of in the heart of the city as Kisame had originally planned. But speed was of the essence, and even Kiri's genin would become significantly more combat-effective with a makeshift lake to manipulate with Water Release techniques. They had to overwhelm Oto quickly to come to Zabuza and Itachi's aid.

With a massive tidal wave approaching fast, neither Suna nor Oto shinobi wasted any time in prolonged battle. The Suna shinobi hunkered down, many preparing Wind jutsu that would propel them to the surface of the water once they withstood the initial wave.

The smarter of the Oto shinobi tried to gather below the pink-haired kunoichi, who dove for the ground while creating enough pink crystal to build a palace. What she actually built was a curved dome, enclosing herself, the flying monster, and the Oto shinobi lucky enough to be within a hundred-foot radius when her dome solidified.

Several Oto shinobi, too slow to reach safety, beat fruitlessly against the unyielding crystal as the tidal wave crashed down and submerged the dome completely. Kisame had to hand it to that kunoichi—her control over that crystal was impressive, and had certainly saved the lived of most of her underlings.

That didn't mean much for the Oto shinobi outside the dome, however, who were engulfed by rushing water and swept towards Konoha's outer wall. They were helpless targets for the Kiri shinobi, who struck with swift and deadly accuracy. Kisame didn't even bother unsheathing Samehada, knowing that the exposed Oto shinobi would never submerge to take another breath.

The Suna shinobi surfaced one by one. Some held on to the puppets that Kisame had seen earlier, while others virtually rocketed out of the water and into the air, propelled by high-level Wind Release techniques.

But the Oto contingent was far from defeated. The crystal structure rose from the water like a pink, cylindrical submarine. The top of the dome rose up and reformed into the giant dragon from earlier, revealing eighty Oto shinobi alive and well on the pink platform rising out of the water.

The makeshift tidal wave ran its course, impacting Konoha's outer wall and splashing to both sides. The water would flow away until it eventually soaked into the ground, but with water still pouring out of the Sealing scrolls the Kiri shinobi could count on at least five more minutes of a battlefield submerged in water—which was just how they liked to fight.

"Hey!" cried a seriously vexed voice. "What do you think you're playing at, brat?"

The voice belonged to a wrinkled old Suna kunoichi who kept her balance effortlessly on the surface of the water. The other Suna fighters clearly deferred to her, possibly because of the ten puppets that she controlled with nothing but the chakra strings attached to her ten fingers.

It had been a long time since Kisame had been called a brat. But once he recognized the old Suna kunoichi, he could only chuckle. Chiyo was a powerhouse of the older generation, responsible for any number of successful missions into Kiri territory back when she had been active with the Suna Puppet Brigade. Whatever was going on, it must have been big to bring her out of retirement.

"Elder Chiyo!" Kisame shouted in a polite greeting, approaching slowly enough to show that he would not attack. "I thought you were retired."

"Circumstances change," Chiyo snapped irritably. "Now what are you doing with an army?"

"Invading Konoha. At least, that was the plan. What are you doing?"

Chiyo's smile had a bitter edge. "Invading Konoha with Oto's help. At least, that was the plan."

Kisame surveyed the battlefield, with the pink crystal dome elevating the remaining Oto shinobi out of the water. Kiri shinobi began to appear from the depths of the water, followed by the corpses of any Oto shinobi that had been caught beneath the swift waves.

"It seems your plan didn't go very well," Kisame observed drily.

"You don't say?" Chiyo said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "The double-crossing Oto scum were in league with Madara the whole time. I have no doubt that the Kazekage is already dead. I'm just trying to save as many of us as I can."

"Then I propose an alliance," Kisame said immediately. "We're here to take Madara's life, no matter what allies he's found. The jounin of Sunagakure would be a great help in that endeavor."

"I don't see that we have much choice," Chiyo observed, looking sadly at the remainder of her forces. "If you hadn't shown up, we couldn't have lasted much longer."

"Then welcome to the cause," Kisame said. A flash of movement from the crystal dome recaptured his attention. It was the man-monster hybrid, who had taken to the air with wings sprouting from his transforming arm. Even from across the battlefield, Kisame could feel his power and killing intent.

"We never considered Otogakure a significant threat," Kisame mused as he drew Samehada from its bindings across his back. "Were we shortsighted, I wonder?"

"I've never seen that bloodline before, if it even is a bloodline," Chiyo warned Kisame. "He can transform that arm into anything. Be careful!"

"I'm always careful," Kisame said with a bloodthirsty grin that was the opposite of careful. He propelled himself into the air, Samehada held aloft.

His opponent swung his left arm forward, turning it from a pair of wings into a giant axe with a blade even longer than Samehada's. Sword met axe with a clang that resounded like a thunderclap over the water.

Samehada's wrappings fell away as Kisame unleashed the full power of his sword. It drank in the chakra from his orange-haired opponent's arm, growing larger as the many fin-like scales that covered the sword quivering with anticipation. Even though his opponent appeared to be in a berserk rage, his eyes registered some degree of shock as his monstrous arm was leeched of chakra.

"Now!" Chiyo shouted.

Kisame was surprised to see a Suna shinobi emerge from beneath the water behind Juugo, mere meters away from the crystal dome and its scores of Oto shinobi. The young man launched a pair of throwing spears, while Kisame concentrated on keeping his opponent immobile and unable to push more chakra into his amorphous arm.

At the last moment Kisame pushed himself away, Samehada reluctantly relinquishing its grip on his opponent's chakra. The throwing spears landed squarely, one in the man's lower back and one in the gray flesh of his transformed shoulder. The ensuing explosions were deafening, and if Kisame hadn't disengaged when he had, weathering them wouldn't have been a pleasant experience.

When Kisame landed beside Chiyo, his opponent began to fall from the sky. The dual effect of the chakra he had lost to Samehada and the powerful explosions had been enough to incapacitate him. Before the orange-haired man could disappear beneath the water, a column of crystal shot out from the dome and cushioned his fall. The crystal receded quickly, returning the man to the safety of the dome. It deposited his unconscious form at the feet of an Oto nin with a medical pack.

"That was a daring gambit," Kisame said approvingly to Chiyo. "Using the water as cover to get close to the enemy, when they thought all the Suna shinobi would stay clustered near you. He's an impressive young man."

"Aye, Toshiyo has potential," Chiyo agreed, as the young man in question returned to defensive circle of Suna shinobi balancing on the water. "Nothing like chaos and mayhem to bring out the potential of the next generation, eh?"

Kisame acknowledged this with a sardonic grin. "A terrible but abiding truth. Shall we finish this?"

Chiyo did not respond, because at that moment the pink-haired kunoichi who seemed to be the Oto leader took to the sky on a dragon made of crystal. She flew fearlessly towards Kisame and Chiyo, forming crystal shields out of thin air to repel the Water Release attacks that various Kiri shinobi used to try and knock her out of the sky.

"You may have defeated Juugo," she cried, her voice carrying across the battlefield with ease. "But we fight for Orochimaru-sama, and we will not fail! Konoha stands tall. Every single one of us will die before you so much as lay a finger on these walls!"

She gestured behind her proudly, pointing to the high walls of Konoha. As if in response, a section of the wall almost a hundred meters wide exploded outward. A gigantic rhinoceros appeared, fully as tall as Konoha's wall itself, with violet eyes displaying a freaky ring pattern. No longer blocked by the wall, the lake unleashed by Kiri's Summoners swept into Konoha, turning the streets nearest the walls into a series of canals.

The giant rhinoceros—surely a Summons, if Kisame had ever seen one—merely advanced, undeterred. Jumping over an unbroken section of the wall came a vicious, multi-headed dog almost as tall as the rhinoceros, with the same ringed, violet eyes. Both the dog and the rhinoceros had metal spikes impaled in their heads and the back of their necks.

Kisame raised an eyebrow as he addressed the pink-haired Oto kunoichi. "Ah… what was that you were saying about protecting the walls?"

There was a heavy, awkward silence, as everyone wondered if the creatures were friends or foes. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Kisame noticed a patch of air shimmering near his head. A whoosh of air was the only warning that an attack was approaching, and it was barely enough time for Kisame to extend Samehada overhead to block.

Something long and whiplike wrapped around Samehada, regardless of the damage that the chakra-hungry blade must have caused in retaliation. The shimmering intensified and then resolved into the form of a creature, hovering in the air thanks to a pair of deformed wings.

It looked like a giant chameleon, but with the tail of a snake. That tail now held Samehada in an unyielding grip. The chameleon opened its mouth, revealing an enemy shinobi with orange hair, violet eyes and metal studs in a strange pattern all over his face. The shinobi charged forward, wielding a giant shuriken, and Kisame knew he wouldn't be able to free Samehada in time to defend himself.

A dark blur came rushing through the air, forcing the enemy shinobi to turn and defend himself. Kisame smirked as one of Chiyo's puppets clashed with the giant shuriken, then unleashed a barrage of poisoned spikes from hidden compartments all over its body.

The enemy shinobi jumped back to the top of the chameleon's head, and the chameleon proceeded to release Samehada and retreat. Kisame waited for the enemy shinobi to collapse, since it was pierced through by at least twenty iron spikes still dripping with Chiyo's poison. Kisame knew enough about the famed Suna poisoner and puppeteer to believe that this strange Summoner, wherever he had come from, wasn't long for this world.

But he didn't drop dead or falter. He didn't so much as flinch as he regarded the forces arrayed against him. The many-headed dog snarled, and the giant rhinoceros stamped a foot against the ground with enough force to make the Oto shinobi's crystal dome waver.

"Oy, you!" Guren called out angrily to the orange-haired shinobi. "Are you with Madara? We're supposed to protect those walls! Why are you smashing them, huh?!"

He looked at her blankly, those violet eyes showing all the emotion of a corpse. "I was dispatched to defeat anyone attacking Konoha. Collateral damage is not my concern. If you want your subordinates to remain unharmed, stay out of my way."

"Ok, ok," Guren grumbled. "We'll back you up. Just watch out for the old lady—those puppets pack a mean punch."

Kisame signaled his forces to gather behind him. With the loss of the lake, which was fast dispersing into Konoha and the surrounding forest, his advantage was basically gone. And now they faced a new enemy, the likes of which Kisame didn't think he'd ever seen before. Those giant Summoned creatures were bad enough, but what did those violet eyes mean? There was something here he was missing, and if Kisame wanted to keep his shinobi alive, he was going to have to figure out what it was.

At Kisame's side, Elder Chiyo tapped the side of her nose and made a perplexed sound. "Those eyes, and those black rods… You seem like a puppet to me. But who controls you, I wonder?"

oOoOo

Gaara

Sandstorm was about to face the strongest opponents it had ever had the misfortune to encounter. Gaara had known that from the first moment Jiraiya had sent them after the S-rank missing-nin from Ame.

Deidara, Sasori, Kakuzu… they were all names he had read in the Bingo Books from other Hidden Villages, famous for the casualties they had inflicted in the course of deserting their home villages. Each a larger than life story, and yet here they all were, in service to the mysterious Pain. And all of them allied with Madara.

Well, Gaara had known that invading Konoha wouldn't be easy. And he had enough mission experience to know that there were complications to every plan. Still, never in his most pessimistic nightmares had he imagined a situation gone this far to hell.

At least Sandstorm had the clear advantage of numbers. That was why, when the Ame missing-nin had split up, Gaara and Shikamaru felt confident in splitting up Sandstorm into three-person squads to chase down each opponent individually. The three senseis had taken off in search of the orange-haired leader, whose power was likely going to require the best they had to offer.

That was how Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou came to be in pursuit of Deidara, the famed missing-nin from Iwagakure who could infuse his chakra into solid materials to turn them into incredibly powerful bombs. Kankurou had wanted to challenge Sasori, the puppet master who had murdered the Third Kazekage before leaving Suna so many years before, but Gaara had forbidden that for a simple reason: Deidara could fly.

He had created a giant flying bird out of clay, and was now riding that bird towards the outskirts of Konoha. Out of all the Sandstorm shinobi, only Gaara and his siblings were capable of fighting an airborne shinobi effectively.

Gaara propelled his team forward on a wave of his sand, sweeping them along above the rooftops of Konoha. Deidara was high above them, maintaining a speed that was too much for Gaara's sand to match.

"You need to turn him around, Temari," Gaara ordered. "If he finds another battle and starts dropping bombs, we'll have to focus on protecting people instead of fighting back. That can't happen."

His sister nodded and unfolded her battle fan with a decisive snap. Next she summoned Kamitari, the Sickle Weasel whose abilities formed the basis of some of Temari's most powerful techniques. The foul-mouthed Summons lifted his giant sickle in a salute.

"Looks like a shitty day to be alive, boss," Kamitari said gruffly. "Not that I'm complaining."

"No argument here," Temari said, hefting her fan. "See that bastard on the bird? Turn him around. Just don't get too close—we don't know the power of his explosions yet, but it's safe to assume you don't want to get hit by one."

"Roger that, boss." Kamitari shuddered. "I won't play the hero. Diversion only, check."

Temari swept her fan forward, unleashing a considerable amount of chakra in one of her strongest techniques. "Summoning: Quick Beheading Dance!"

She sent Kamitari aloft with a focused maelstrom of rotating wind currents, aiming for a spot slightly ahead of Deidara and directly in his path. Kamitari launched himself aloft. A second later his acceleration kicked in, turning him into a blur moving too fast for the eye to follow.

Deidara's bird stopped abruptly, unable to fly directly into the swirling air currents emanating from Temari's fan and strengthened by the barrage of razor-sharp air currents that Kamitari unleashed with each lightning-quick swing of his sickle.

A series of explosions formed a barrier in the air between Deidara and the swirling cyclone inside of which Kamitari was circling. Gaara exchanged a terse nod with Temari as they saw the giant bird turn around in midair. Deidara was too far away to exchange banter, but Gaara could see the exhilarated smile on his face. It was not an encouraging sight.

Once Deidara sent his clay bird towards Gaara, he clapped his hands together and created a new shape that grew into a dragon twice the size of the giant bird. Deidara leaped through the air to the dragon's back, while the bird bent its wings to produce more speed as it attempted to dive-bomb Gaara and his siblings.

Kankurou had Crow launch a barrage of oversized spikes, each one wrapped with multiple exploding tags. Temari followed this attack with a sweep of her fan, generating a powerful current that propelled Crow's spikes to even greater speeds.

The spikes impaled the clay bird, triggering a massive dual explosion in midair. Gaara had already split his sand and directed some of it between his siblings and the explosion, protecting them from the edge of the terrible blast. When the sand cleared, Deidara and his clay dragon were much closer.

"Do you like my dragon?" Deidara called out. "Beautiful, isn't he? But I haven't even begun to show you the potential of my C2 explosives!"

The dragon he rode opened its maw and expelled a series of clay blobs. They reformed into miniature versions of the larger dragon and flew through the air, separately targeting Kankurou, Temari, and Gaara. They acted like heat-seeking missiles, unerringly orienting towards their targets.

"Here we go!" Temari called to Kankurou, then leapt onto her fan and took to the sky without fear. Crow soared away from the protection of Gaara's sand, going to meet the clay missiles in Kankurou's place. Using combinations of Wind Release jutsu and wave after wave of missiles from Crow, Temari and Kankurou triggered the clay missiles to explode harmlessly in midair.

Before they could feel too proud of themselves, Deidara's dragon spit out another barrage of airborne missiles. Gaara took advantage of the time that his siblings were buying for him to bring his sand up in a solid wall behind Deidara, leaving him with no avenue of escape. The only direction Deidara could send his dragon was down… where Gaara and his teammates were waiting.

"Now!" Gaara yelled to his siblings.

Crow reacted instantly to Gaara's command, swooping around to provide a makeshift platform for Temari. She balanced on Crow's back and hefted her fan. Kamatari appeared at her side in a silver flash.

"Summoning: Quick Beheading Dance!"

Once more Temari used her formidable technique, this time aimed directly at Deidara's dragon. The technique capable of clear-cutting an entire forest ripped through the air, enveloping the clay missiles in pockets of swirling air currents and reversing their trajectory through the air before forcing them to explode.

Gaara followed in the wake of the wind, commanding his sand to propel him towards Deidara. At the same time, he directed the majority of his sand that was towering above and behind Deidara to advance. He wanted to catch Deidara in a pincer motion, now that Temari's Wind Release jutsu had taken care of the explosives in the way.

Deidara created a wall of clay in front of him, but Gaara's sand was ready—it formed an extra-hard shell around his vulnerable body, while also creating a revolving drill that pierced through the clay to continue towards Deidara.

The explosion that followed was massive, but it did not penetrate the specially hardened sand from Gaara's gourd. And once the smoke from the explosion cleared, Gaara could see that his gambit had succeeded. A tendril of sand shooting out from behind Deidara had captured the missing-nin's left arm, and no amount of tugging could free him. His clay dragon was entirely buried in Gaara's sand, rendering it harmless even if the entire thing were to explode.

"You seem to create your clay by means of those mouths grafted into your hands," Gaara said, suppressing the instinctive disgust triggered by such an unnatural sight. "But what happens if you have no hands with which to infuse your clay with chakra? Sand Binding Coffin!"

Without so much as a hand motion, Gaara forced the sand coating Deidara's arm to contract with incredible force. Deidara screamed as his left arm was essentially liquidated. The sand turned red with blood.

"Make your peace," Gaara said, preparing to envelop the rest of Deidara with sand and finish him once and for all. "This is the end for you."

"Is it?!" Deidara screamed, and began laughing hysterically. Gaara's eyes widened. He couldn't believe Deidara could still function after losing his arm in such a brutal fashion. Was he simply going into shock?

"Is it the end for me? Or Konoha?!"

Gaara halted his sand in midair, getting a bad feeling. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "What depraved trick are you trying to pull?"

"Look!" Deidara said, pointing to the sky behind Gaara. "Look at the triumph of my art!"

Gaara turned to observe the sky, and saw too late what Deidara was indicating. Another clay bird was descending from above the clouds, and in its claws it clutched a clay statue with two arms crossed over its chest. As Gaara watched, the bird let the clay statue go. It spread its arms and suddenly expanded, until it was ten times larger. Gaara didn't think Temari's wind would be able to change the direction of this bomb.

"My C4 explosive," Deidara exclaimed proudly. "Once it lands, Konoha will disappear in a beautiful flash. What will you do, Suna jinchuuriki?"

Gaara didn't bother to answer. The vast majority of his sand was already in motion, shooting towards the C4 statue to intercept it before it hit the streets of Konoha and obliterated them.

A sea of sand coalesced underneath and around the statue, triggering the largest explosion Gaara had ever seen. Without the sand to cushion it and direct the force into the air rather than in a full circle, most of Konoha would have been reduced to a smoking crater in the ground. As it was, the sky above Konoha lit up with a radiance too bright to look at directly.

Not that Gaara would have wanted to look anyway. He was too preoccupied with surviving, now that he had committed all of his sand except what was contained in the gourd on his back. Deidara held out his remaining arm, and the mouth grafted into his hand spat a series of clay blobs towards him.

Gaara's sand hardened into a floating sphere around him, reinforced by his chakra to become almost as tough as his ultimate defense, Shukaku's Shield.

For the first time ever in pitched battle, Gaara drew consciously on the power of Shukaku to trigger a Partial Transformation. With the explosions that Deidara was throwing this way and that, it seemed smart to assume a form that could weather far more physical punishment than Gaara's merely human body. After years of training, Gaara could transform into tanuki form in mere seconds, granting vastly improved mobility and sprouting a long tail of sand.

"You took my arm," Deidara called out, his voice echoing oddly as it passed through the sand dome before reaching Gaara's ears. "But you may have gained a bit more than you bargained for. Katsu!"

At that moment, multiple explosions rang out from inside Gaara's protective cocoon.

The bastard created miniature explosives in my sand when I took his arm! Gaara realized, in the instant between explosions ringing out and pain registering. He couldn't believe it; what sane person could focus enough to counter-attack while his entire arm was being destroyed?

If it weren't for Gaara's transformation, very likely he would have been killed outright. As it was, he was grievously injured and momentarily stunned as the explosion tore into the blue-veined sand-colored flesh of his Partial Transformation. His hardened cocoon dissipated into loose sand no longer under his conscious control, and Gaara began to fall from the sky.

Temari angled her fan and went into a dive, while Kankurou quickly directed Crow to swoop through the air before Gaara could crash into the rooftops. But before either of Gaara's siblings could catch him, another form came tearing across the rooftops and launched into the air with a lightning-quick Body Flicker jutsu.

A shinobi in green spandex with orange leg warmers caught Gaara in his arms, letting out a grunt as he struggled with the extra weight of Gaara's miniature tanuki form. Temari reached them a second later, adding her strength to that of the Konoha shinobi—if he was a Konoha shinobi. A single hitai-ite didn't prove anything.

They landed on a red-tiled roof, with Temari cradling Gaara's head protectively. She regarded Gaara's savior with suspicion. Crow arrived a second later, directed by Kankurou who was still several rooftops away.

"You wear a Konoha hitai-ite," Temari growled, "but where's your seal? The only unsealed shinobi are either Military Police, or dead."

"I am a loyal shinobi of Konoha," said the newcomer shortly. His cultured tone clashed with his rather eccentric taste in clothing. "I was dying from Kabuto's doctored seal, but the student of Tsunade the Sannin healed me and a few others. We were ordered to help you against the Ame shinobi."

"Say I believe you," Temari snapped, keeping her fan ready to wield with one hand. "Whoever you are, you don't stand a chance against someone who can land a hit like that on Gaara."

Kankurou arrived in person a second later, Crow upright and menacing before him. "Also, that bowl cut is ridiculous."

"There is no time for personal insults," the green-clad shinobi said, his aristocratic tone conveying a tinge of annoyance. "I can help you."

Gaara gave a hacking cough and opened his eyes. His ears rang, but the adrenaline pumping through his body and the need to suppres Shukaku's bloodthirsty glee at the prospect of a real battle brought him back to his senses in short order.

"Who are you?" he asked the Konoha shinobi. Was it really necessary to wear such tight spandex, Gaara wondered.

"Not important," replied the Konoha shinobi impatiently. "Here's all that matters. Can you get me close to Deidara? If you do, I can finish him in one shot. All I need you to do is protect me from his explosives."

"Fair enough," Gaara said, weighing the situation carefully. It didn't seem like there was that much to lose. He wanted to get close to Deidara anyway, and the plan that he was evolving as he went could incorporate this Konoha shinobi fairly easily. "Temari, Kankurou… let's finish this clay-eating son of a bitch."

Gaara straightened to his full height, reveling in the rush of Shukaku's chakra that his Partial Transformation gave him access to. The bloodlust that accompanied it was a distraction, but a mild one. Gaara had long since reached the point where suppressing Shukaku's voice was second nature.

"You want to use that technique?" Kankurou asked, grinning in spite of the situation.

Gaara shrugged. "Why not? We have to get close somehow. Crow can carry our new friend from Konoha, right?"

"As easily as any other dead weight," Kankurou said snidely, though the Konoha shinobi with the bowl cut did not so much as twitch in reply to the insult.

Temari held her fan aloft one more time, gathering an immense amount of chakra and channeling it so that it coated her fan in a purple haze.

"Hold tight to Crow!" Kankurou shouted to the Konoha shinobi, who obeyed wordlessly. Gaara moved next to his brother's puppet, all the time keeping his attention on Deidara, still hovering in midair on his clay dragon. Kamatari the Sickle Weasel joined them once more, sweat shining on the scrappy weasel's forehead.

"Here we go, Boss. Let's wipe the shit-eating grin off that punk's face!"

Temari swept her fan in a circle over her head, the glowing chakra intensifying.

"Collaboration Jutsu: Wind Tunnel!"

Gaara, Crow and Kamatari jumped into the air, timing their motion to coincide with Temari unleashing the full force of her Wind Release into a column of wind rocketing overhead with inexorable force.

Gaara exulted as he sliced through the skies. Kamatari disappeared, using his inhuman speed to create a vortex that intensified the speed and power of Temari's wind tunnel technique. Gaara's sand joined the vortex in long, spiraling strands that spun faster and faster until they took on the appearance of a solid cyclone. With walls of sand and wind revolving around them, the only thing Gaara and his Konoha ally could see was the target directly ahead of them: Deidara and his dragon.

The dragon spat out more of its explosive missiles, but they only impacted the revolving barrier of sand and Wind natured chakra and exploded fruitlessly in the air.

The Wind Tunnel jutsu reached Deidara's dragon. With perfect timing, Gaara directed the vortex of sand to break away and envelop the dragon. It triggered the construct to explode, but the incredible speed of the vortex, undiminished thanks to Kamatari's Wind Release technique, channeled the force of the explosion backward and away from the shinobi.

Meanwhile, Gaara spread sand from his gourd into a platform that hovered in midair, providing a space for Deidara, himself and the Konoha shinobi to face off. Deidara's feet sank into the sand, which hardened around his ankles to hold the missing nin motionless. The Konoha shinobi vaulted fluidly from Crow's back, landing in a ready taijutsu stance.

"Die!" Gaara shouted, lunging forward with chakra-enhanced speed far beyond what his bulky form should have been capable of.

He led with an attack from his tail of sand, which latched around Deidara's remaining arm. An explosion rocked outward a split second later, destroying Gaara's tail and freeing Deidara's arm. But Gaara was already lunging with his right arm outstretched, and he directed a wave of sand towards Deidara's hand.

The sand forced itself into the mouth on Deidara's arm, clogging it and keeping it from being able to expel any more explosive clay.

Kankurou was already closing the next step of the trap by sending Crow forward. A specialized Sealing compartment in Crow's stomach slid open, and after a burst of smoke, Kankurou's second puppet Black Ant materialized. The capture puppet's huge stomach cavity opened wide, enveloped Deidara completely, and snapped shut.

"He still can't create his clay!" Gaara shouted. "Quickly!"

But he needn't have bothered speaking. Crow was already disassembling into dozens of component parts, all tipped by deadly poison spikes that flew through the air towards the corresponding openings in Black Ant's torso. The weapons slid effortlessly into the chamber where Deidara was trapped, impaling him over and over.

From inside Black Ant's stomach chamber, the sound of weak laughter could be heard.

"You… got me. I knew your sand was formidable, but I underestimated your teamwork. I suppose it's time for my last technique."

Gaara's eyes widened in shock, while the Konoha shinobi advanced towards Black Ant. He knocked on Black Ant's stomach panel, which slid obligingly aside. Inside was the gruesome specter of Deidara with more than a dozen blades piercing him through. One had ripped his shirt down the front, revealing an even more horrible sight: a mouth set in his chest, directly over his heart, stitched closed.

With the last of his strength, Deidara ripped his remaining arm free from the blade that pierced it, and undid the stitches keeping the mouth on his chest closed. It opened wide, and Deidara then scooped out all of the clay remaining in the pouch around his waist. He fed the clay to the ravening mouth, which began to chew with abandon.

Deidara's entire body contracted, dark veins appearing in a circular pattern around his chest and spreading outward.

"This is my greatest technique!" he crowed. "My final masterpiece, which converts my body into an explosion that will destroy everything within ten kilometers. Not even your sand will protect Konoha from the might of C0, my Ultimate Art!"

Before Gaara could frame a response, the Konoha shinobi with the bowl cut assumed an entirely different taijutsu stance. "You're in range of my divination," he whispered.

With a pop the shinobi changed form, shocking Gaara as he realized that he had been completely fooled by a Transformation jutsu. Instead of a green-clad shinobi with a bowl cut, there was now a pale shinobi with raven-black hair and the white, pupil-less eyes of the Hyuuga clan.

The Hyuuga's hands traced silver designs through the air as he closed the distance with Deidara's trapped body.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

Faster than Gaara's eyes could follow, the Hyuuga struck Deidara again and again all over his body. Pinned by the spikes and missing an arm, Deidara didn't have a hope of dodging even one of the attacks.

When the technique finished and the Hyuuga shinobi came to rest, Deidara's entire body was peppered in angry red marks corresponding to his closed tenketsu. The majority of the marks were clustered around the mouth on Deidara's chest, which could no longer chew or even open. The angry dark veins radiating across Deidara's chest had disappeared.

"I knew before joining the battle that you were an explosives expert," the Hyuuga said, his voice cold and detached. "It only made sense that you would have an ultimate technique to use in case you were defeated. My objective was never simply to defeat you, but to shut down your chakra network before you had a chance to use your technique. Borrowing my comrade Lee's form was a necessary ruse, though I am sure he will chastise me later for my 'unyouthful' deception. But whether he does or not, it will be too late for you."

He turned to Gaara, suddenly courteous and respectful. "Would you like to finish him? If you hadn't injured him so grievously, and if you hadn't assisted in bringing me to close quarters, I would never have been able to neutralize his ability as effectively."

Gaara waved a hand, grinning in spite of his exhaustion. "By all means, go ahead. Without your timely intervention, I'd be a bunch of particles floating on the breeze by now—as would the rest of Konoha. I'd say you deserve the final blow, though you'll have to work fast if you want to finish the job before Crow's poison does."

"I will take no chances with a man as dangerous as Deidara."

The Hyuuga gathered chakra around his hands, assuming a low stance. "Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Wall Palm!"

He stepped forward and pushed with both hands, unleashing his gathered chakra in a powerful wave from both palms simultaneously. The wave of chakra washed over Deidara and went through him. As he was already pinned to Black Ant's torso with nowhere to go, Deidara suffered the full force of the technique, with devastating results.

All of his organs were destroyed at once, the advanced Gentle Fist technique shredding his tissue with ease. His brain and heart exploded simultaneously.

The Hyuuga took one last look with his byakugan to confirm that Deidara was truly vanquished. Then he deactivated his clan doujutsu, the angry veins around his eyes subsiding.

"My thanks," Gaara said, though the words alone weren't really adequate for someone who had just saved his life—not to mention thousands of others. "May I ask your name? I am Gaara of Sunagakure."

"I am Neji," the Hyuuga replied.

"You certainly came at the right moment," Gaara said, preparing to lower his sand and return them to the rooftops, where Temari and Kankurou were waiting for them. "Fate must have been smiling on us."

For some reason, that made Neji break into startled laughter. He raised a hand to his forehead, which was clear of any mark or blemish. "Fate?" he repeated, as if he'd never heard the word. "There is no such thing! We make our own destinies!"

He turned away from Gaara and spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the sky.

"Isn't it a beautiful day to be alive?" Neji cried, giddy with more than just victory. "Destiny doesn't seem to mean much up here, hundreds of feet above the ground."

His voice swelled to a triumphant shout.

"No cage shall hold my people captive again; no fate shall shackle our indomitable will! Sing it to the skies, my brothers and sisters. How sweet the taste of freedom!"

Gaara directed his sand to return them to the rooftops with more than usual haste.

I thought I was supposed to be the crazy one…

oOoOo

Shikamaru

It felt good to be able to use his clan techniques again, that much Shikamaru knew for sure. More than a month of hiding his identity behind a suit of battle armor and limiting his team's options in battle had not been particularly fun. Now the need for secrecy was over, and the Ino-Shika-Cho team could use their clan techniques to their hearts' content.

The problem was, they were facing an S-rank missing-nin with unknown abilities and a glint in his pupil-less green eyes that spelled nothing but bad news. Shikamaru recognized Kakuzu's name from the Bingo Book, but the only information he actually had was that Kakuzu was supposedly older than most shinobi now living and often worked as a bounty hunter. That didn't exactly help Shikamaru in coming up with strategies to defeat him.

"Look at you children," Kakuzu rumbled, an undercurrent of amusement in his deep voice. "Snapping at my heels like a trio of puppies. Let's see if your bite is worse than your bark."

The missing-nin hadn't run far. Once he had sensed Shikamaru's team following him, he had turned to wait for them. Now he stood in the middle of one of Konoha's main streets, neither advancing nor retreating. Just waiting for them to make the first move, as if he had all the time in the world.

"Ino," Shikamaru snapped, "are there people in the buildings around us?" He dreaded fighting a battle in which innocent civilians would be at risk; somehow, he didn't think Kakuzu would care much about collateral damage.

Ino focused, using her abilities as a sensor nin to pick out any chakra signatures around them. "We're alone," she replied, sounding relieved. "They must have evacuated once the fighting started. It's just us and Big Ugly over there. But Shikamaru… that guy's chakra is all messed up."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed at this bit of information. He stared at the Ame missing-nin as if he could force his opponent to give up his secrets with the mere strength of his gaze. "Messed up? How so?"

Ino's face scrunched up in concentration. "It's like… like he has more than one type of chakra."

Shikamaru had spent the last eight years with a teammate who had more than one kind of chakra, so it was natural for him to draw the obvious conclusion. "A jinchuuriki?"

"No," Ino shook her head at once. "Not that strong. And there are more than two types. They feel human, just… strange. Wrong somehow."

"We'll have to analyze his abilities on the fly," Shikamaru said reluctantly. Kakuzu still wasn't moving, and this wasn't the kind of battle that they could stretch out indefinitely. The longer Shikamaru spent analyzing and delaying, the more Konoha shinobi would die from Otogakure's betrayal. Speed was absolutely of the essence here.

"Chouji, clear these houses to give us some room to maneuver!" Shikamaru ordered, bringing his hands together in the upside-down diamond shape that always helped him clear his thoughts.

"Roger that, Shika!" Chouji roared, taking a step forward. "Partial Multi-Size Jutsu: Arms!"

His Sandstorm armor expanded with him, triggered by his chakra. Chouji swept armored fists as large as houses to either side, demolishing the buildings lining the street. When he was done, he had cleared a circular battlefield fifty meters in diameter, with the main street running down the center between his team and Kakuzu.

"Let's see how quick you are," Shikamaru muttered as he prepared the hand seals for his clan's signature technique. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!"

His shadow expanded until it was as wide as the main street, then shot out towards Kakuzu with the speed of a thrown kunai. But Kakuzu didn't budge, not even when Shikamaru's shadow merged with his and immobilized him. Shikamaru stepped forward, even more puzzled when Kakuzu mirrored the motion. Surely it couldn't have been so simple to snare an S-rank shinobi?

All Shikamaru's warning senses were tingling, so he decided to try a finishing move with a low risk of counter-attack. "Formation Number Six!" he called to his teammates. "Crush him!"

Ino's role in this formation relied on her knowledge of Earth Release, which she had honed to considerable strength during her years in Suna. Her hands flashed through a series of hand seals, which she ended by driving one hand towards the earth. "Earth Release: Collapsing Wall!"

A wall of earth and stone two meters taller than Kakuzu and three times as wide burst from the ground directly behind him, violently shredding the paved road and sending the scattered debris of destroyed houses flying through the air. The wall began to fall inward, moving with enough force to crush a human like a bug.

At the same time, Choji aimed a punch at Kakuzu, activating his Partial Multi-Size jutsu once more so that his armored fist became large enough to crush Kakuzu back into Ino's advancing wall of earth. Anchored by Shikamaru's shadow, Kakuzu was seemingly helpless before the devastating combination attack.

Shikamaru kept his attention focused on Kakuzu, determined not to miss the tiniest detail of how his opponent would try to get out of his current predicament—because he was confident that Kakuzu had a trick up his sleeve. There was just no way a shinobi of his caliber would have allowed himself to be captured otherwise. Shikamaru's best guess was that they were currently targeting a clone, but Ino would have warned him if Kakuzu's true chakra signature was hidden anywhere.

Right before Choji's fist made contact, a writhing mass of black thread-like tendrils burst forth from Kakuzu's body. One cloud of tendrils intercepted Choji's punch, absorbing the force effortlessly and extending more tendrils to begin engulfing Choji's armored fist.

The trick wasn't up his sleeve, Shikamaru realized. It was under his skin!

At the same time, more tendrils burst out of Kakuzu's back and formed a barrier of his own. It met Ino's falling earth wall and stopped its momentum cold. The tendrils seemed to multiply until they engulfed the construct of earth and crushed it completely.

"Don't let it drag you closer, Chouji!" Shikamaru yelled in alarm, knowing that even if Choji's chakra-reinforced armor could stand up to those threads without breaking, Kakuzu could still tangle him up and keep him from forming any hand seals.

Choji freed his fist with a mighty pull and canceled his jutsu, returning to normal size. At Shikamaru's side, Ino let out a disgusted noise.

"That has to be the creepiest thing I've ever seen."

Shikamaru had to agree. The threads exploding from Kakuzu's body had torn his shirt to shreds, so now his upper body was exposed to view. What little of his body remained visible was criss-crossed with stitches, almost like a rag-doll. And underneath his skin, instead of organs or muscles or anything remotely human, there were only more of those writhing threads.

"You almost impress me," Kakuzu said to Shikamaru. The mass of threads swarmed together and then recombined to form eight massive whip-like arms, each twenty meters long and composed of countless smaller threads. "You forced me to reveal my hand, without much risk of counter-attack. I see you use your head, unlike my late, unlamented partner Hidan."

"What are you? Are you even human?" Shikamaru asked. He didn't care too much about the answer, but luring Kakuzu into a conversation even for just a few seconds would buy time for Ino to read his thoughts and broadcast them to Chouji.

Shikamaru was creating another plan, and he didn't want this one to be overheard by Kakuzu.

"I am better than human," Kakuzu replied, his monstrous appendages waving obscenely. "With my Earth Grudge Fear, the secret kinjutsu of Takigakure, I am unbeatable. I cannot be hurt, and I can never die!"

"We'll just see about that, won't we?" Shikamaru said through gritted teeth. Ino and Chouji tensed, ready to coordinate for the next attack thanks to Ino's telepathy.

"Formation E: Human Bullet Yo-Yo!"

Chouji multiplied in size, becoming a giant fully six meters tall. He could have become larger, but Shikamaru had no desire to wreak even more havoc on the streets of Konoha than they already had. Chouji's arms and legs retracted, replaced by jets of blue chakra, and he began spinning in midair as he prepared to unleash his Human Bullet Tank jutsu.

Shikamaru increased the amount of chakra flowing through his shadow and anchored it to Chouji's shadow, allowing him to manipulate Chouji's trajectory without lessening the velocity at which Chouji was spinning.

Originally, Shikamaru had thought of this formation as a way to take out multiple targets, using Ino's sensor abilities to tell him where to direct Chouji's unstoppable force and overcoming the usual weakness of Chouji's jutsu, which was that it was difficult to aim or change direction at a moment's notice.

But this time there was only one target, and he certainly wasn't hiding. Shikamaru flung his shadow out with the force of his will, sending Choji's rapidly spinning form towards Kakuzu and his deadly thread.

Shikamaru was glad to see that Chouji's speed and power, enhanced to a high degree by the momentum of his rotation, was enough to overcome the grasping strength of Kakuzu's long whips. They curled defensively around Kakuzu, but Chouji's first charge barreled through the tendrils without stopping.

Kakuzu actually had to move for the first time in that battle, repositioning himself with incredible speed to a location across the battlefield. Shikamaru immediately launched Chouji after him, while Ino moved to attack from the opposite direction.

Even more threads burst out of seams in Kakuzu's torso, reinforcing the defenses that stood between him and Chouji's rapidly-approaching form. With no warning, the threads burst apart, clearing an open lane for Chouji to barrel towards Kakuzu.

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

Kakuzu spewed a continuous stream of water from his mouth that formed a solid wall. It expanded outward so that Chouji ran directly into it. Chouij's rapidly spinning bulk pressed forward, but though the wall of water was forced back and plumes of water turned to steam and shot outward from the force of Chouji's rotation, Chouji could not break through. The water technique dispersed, but Shikamaru was forced to yank Chouji backwards in order to begin another attack with renewed momentum.

While the majority of his threads wove an impenetrable wall layer by layer to intercept Chouji's next pass, Kakuzu turned his attention to Ino. She was charging fearlessly towards him, launching volley after volley of shuriken.

"You dare to attack me with your puny toys?" Kakuzu sneered. "Me, who fought the First Hokage and survived? Your impudence no longer amuses me, child."

He moved so fast he left an after-image where he stood, streaking towards Ino. She barely had time to twist in midair and lock eyes on Shikamaru while completing her hand seal before Kakuzu caught her by the throat.

By then, though, Ino's mind was already gone, fired through the aether with her clan's signature technique. She barreled into Shikamaru's body, suppressing a yell of triumph. She now had access to his chakra and clan abilities, and since they had practiced this maneuver many times, she knew how to use them. Ino focused her will and flexed Shikamaru's shadow, hefting Chouhi's Human Bullet Tank form high above the ground.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru arrived in Ino's body as it was being choked to death by Kakuzu. Fighting the blackness already edging his vision, Shikamaru formed the hand seals for a variant of his Shadow Sewing technique. After countless hours practicing with Ino's body, he was almost as adept at using Shadow Possession and similar jutsu with her chakra as he was with his.

With his air supply cut off, Shikamaru couldn't speak the name of the jutsu as he activated it, nor could he see behind him to aim the attack. But he had picked his target the second Ino initiated her body-switch, and he knew where his attack would need to land. Shikamaru forced his chakra into his shadow—or Ino's shadow, technically—and unleashed his Shadow Spear jutsu.

The jutsu was his strongest assassination technique, which he had developed himself from the clan's Shadow Sewing technique. Instead of creating a multitude of thin needles to fly through air and pierce through enemies, the Shadow Spear jutsu created only one shadow blade, which then extended in a straight line faster than the eye could follow. It could pierce through almost anything, sacrificing the jutsu's extended duration for pure power focused into a single point.

Shikamaru's aim was true. His Shadow Spear ripped through the tangle of threads protecting Kakuzu and stabbed his opponent right where his heart should be, extending all the way through his body and jutting out the other side.

Shikamaru felt Kakuzu's grip weaken, and he was able to break free to drop to the ground. Turning, he saw how his shadow still extended beyond Kakuzu's back. He called the shadow back to him, giving it some rotation to maximize the tearing damage it did to Kakuzu's insides as it returned.

Time seemed to stand still as Kakuzu stood to his full height. His black threads returned to his body, revealing that Shikamaru's attack had left a gaping hole all the way through his body. The problem was that there was no blood, and Kakuzu didn't even flinch after the attack obliterated the section of his chest where his heart should be.

Instead of initiating another attack with Chouji's Bullet Tank form, Ino returned him to the ground beside her. Shikamaru retreated with a Body Flicker jutsu, standing slightly in front of his teammates as they stared at Kakuzu in frozen silence.

The silence stretched, until Kakuzu gave a dry chuckle. "Remarkable. To think children like you would take one of my lives. With that intellect and your ninjutsu, young Nara, your heart will be a valuable addition to my collection."

"Ew," Ino grimaced, "did he just say he wants to harvest your heart? Gross!"

Kakuzu turned for a second, showing four bizarre masks sewn into his back, directly next to the hole that Shikamaru's assassination technique had made. The four hearts rose into the air, borne by a black mass of threads. One of the masks floated down to fill in the hole in Kakuzu's body, glowing all over with chakra.

A moment later the hole and the mask disappeared, leaving Kakuzu as if he'd never been injured.

He really doesn't die! Shikamaru thought. They would need to take out the remainder of those masks before they could vanquish Kakuzu, and even then he might have other tricks prepared.

They had taken Kakuzu by surprise once, but Shikamaru didn't think it would be as easy a second time. And he only grew more certain of that when the three remaining masks separated entirely from Kakuzu's body, floating at the head of monstrous creatures composed of Kakuzu's black threads.

Now Kakuzu stood at the head of a trio of monsters, all crowned by his masks. A red mask became the face of a demonic tiger, while the yellow one attached to a shambling, two-legged creature. Last was a mask with light-blue markings on its cheeks, which attached to a four-legged monster with wings that it used to hover over Kakuzu's head.

"I have faced many strong shinobi over the years," Kakuzu said, eyes glowing deadly green. "Each time I met someone worthy, I harvested his heart and added his abilities to my own. That is what I shall do to you, young Nara. You should consider it an honor."

The three masks began to glow with tremendous amounts of chakra, clearly preparing to unleash massive attacks in tandem.

"You can't kill me," Kakuzu declared solemnly. "I have walked this earth since long before your parents were born, and I will walk it long after you are dead."

Chouji looked to Shikamaru with a wry smile. "Uh, Shika… I think we're gonna need another plan."