Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Clash with Kakuzu
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Uzumaki Menma and Kakuzu emerged from the Bounty Exchange and arrived at an open field.
"Boy, if you're not wanted with a bounty, drop the money and leave, and I might spare your life." Kakuzu stored the money box into his storage scroll, a raspy warning issuing from beneath his mask.
Kakuzu was an extremely arrogant man. After all, he was a powerhouse from the same era as the First Hokage Hashirama Senju—and he had even once "assassinated" the First Hokage.
Though he had been gravely wounded by Hashirama's Wood Release, Kakuzu never tired of bragging, "I'm a man who clashed with the God of Shinobi."
After defecting from the Hidden Waterfall Village, Kakuzu had spent the past few decades scraping by in the shinobi world as a bounty hunter, his greatest hobby counting money.
In the first half of his life, he had endured his village's distrust and betrayal by his partner. As a result, in Kakuzu's eyes, only money would never betray him.
"Do you think killing the Hidden Cloud envoy wouldn't fetch a price?" Menma stood a few meters away from Kakuzu, setting the large suitcase stuffed with cash down beside him. A light chuckle emanated from beneath his mask.
"Fair point. Even without a bounty, hauling your corpse to the Hidden Cloud would still net me something, heh heh." Kakuzu let out a cold snort, his hands flashing through seals at blinding speed.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Spears
Several spear-like rocks erupted around Menma from all sides, thrusting fiercely toward him.
Menma vaulted into the air, his robes snapping sharply in the wind.
A flicker of cunning lit Kakuzu's eyes as his right arm rocketed forward. Earth Grudge Fear activated!
Black threads snaked out from his joints like venomous serpents, propelling his right arm straight toward the enemy to impale him.
This was his signature tactic. Once he'd forced an opponent into the air—deprived of maneuverability—Kakuzu would unleash Earth Grudge Fear without warning, aiming straight for the heart!
He had dropped countless shinobi with this first-strike killer move.
Yet Kakuzu's pupils contracted sharply.
Because the opponent hadn't come back down after leaping—instead, he hovered mid-air, gazing down imperiously.
"Trouble..." A raspy murmur escaped from beneath Kakuzu's mask.
An enemy who could linger in the sky? In all his years prowling the shinobi world, Kakuzu had rarely encountered one.
The black threads of Kakuzu's right arm whipped about as Earth Grudge Fear's tendrils wove a dense net in the air, attempting to hem in his foe's movements.
Menma casually flung several kunai. They slipped right through the Earth Grudge Fear's woven web, hurtling toward Kakuzu on the ground.
"Hmph!" Kakuzu shifted his stance with ease, dodging the kunai effortlessly.
"Is that all you've got, brat?!" Kakuzu sneered—only to hear thunder crackling behind him.
He whipped around. A stab of pain had already bloomed from his back.
An arm wreathed in dark purple lightning punched clean through Kakuzu's body. Amid the shock rippling through his green pupils, it outright pulverized one of Kakuzu's hearts.
-1 Heart Destroyed
"When?!" Sensing the collapse of an Earth Grudge Fear mask after losing a heart, Kakuzu reeled in shock.
He lashed out with the Earth Grudge Fear-linked arm, seizing the backstabber—only to realize it was merely a shadow clone that burst into smoke the instant he grabbed it.
"Aaaah!" Kakuzu howled as he crumpled to the ground.
The scene plunged into silence.
"This technique really comes in handy." Menma toyed with a kunai in his hand.
Transforming a shadow clone—or even his main body—into a kunai, firing it behind the enemy, then striking with thunderous speed. This was a signature Uzumaki Naruto move.
Simple on the surface, but layered with feints and misdirection—true mixed with false, illusion with reality.
Most shinobi in the world couldn't counter it.