Impervious
The Vigilante
I wake up early as I always have and I glance across the camp to see Zakaru is passed out on the ground. Seems the kid kept trying to get the jutsu right and passed out on the spot, so I can only hope he got it. Amegakure is very strict and I’m not really in the mood to cause a scene.
I stand up and stretch out my arms and legs a bit before I nudge Zakaru with my foot and demand, “ get up kid, it’s time to go.” Zakaru mumbles something inaudible so I deliver a stern kick to his ribs and he doubles over from pain and surprise and shouts, “ Ouch! Gimme a few seconds sensei!”
“ Sorry, I’m not exactly feeling patient and we’re burning time. I hope that cloaking technique is ready.” I say and Zakaru nods.
“ I think I have it down.” He responds and I shrug and reply, “ Well if you don’t we’re going to get caught by Rain ANBU and I’m going to be very grumpy, so don’t fuck up.” I warn as I finish with a dangerous look in my eye.
We take a few minutes to eat a small breakfast and we head north toward the Rain Country checkpoint to Ame. It’s like any other border patrol, but with more ninja on guard and the search you for everything. I finally see the checkpoint up ahead and I signal to Zakaru to start cloaking his chakra presence. We quietly keep to the brush and stay a fair distance away from the checkpoint area. I myself sense ninja patrolling the areas, but it doesn’t seem they’ve caught on to us.
Once I figured we’re out of immediate detection I started to pick up the pace and Zakaru closely followed me. After 30 minutes of sneaking around in the shadows I look back to Zakaru and tell him, “ Ok, we should be in the clear. From here on we should just act like travelers. Since I have my guitar I can pose as a musician so you’ll have to be my nephew to avoid any suspicion.”
“ Gotcha, and should we use fake names?”
“ Don’t think it’s that necessary since we’re not on the run.” I reply and start to walk toward Ame and Zakaru asks me, “ I do have one question though. Couldn’t you have just used your body flicker technique to get us here?”
“ That jutsu doesn’t have that kind of range. It’s made for close quarters combat and evasion. That’s why I had you learn cloaking since it’s necessary for being a shinobi.” I explain to him.
We see the grand metal city resting on the large body of water infront of us, and we walk back to the beaten path and approach the bridge. It’s only an overcast day, but it may rain any time so I might have to pick up some rain gear for Zakaru and I.
As were crossing the bridge Zakaru asks me, “ So, what’s this guy look like exactly?”
“ He’s got long hair, slightly pale skin, I assume he’s going to be masked and wearing a cloak with red clouds.” I whisper to Zakaru and he rolls his eyes.
“ So he’s completely covered up? That makes this real simple.” Zakaru says sarcastically and I chuckle.
“ Don’t get down. When we get in the town I’ll have you rest in a restaurant while I do some private exploring.”
“ Fair enough, but you better give me some money for some lunch.” Zakaru asks and I reach into my pocket and give him a meager amount of ryo.
“ Sorry, that’s all I have on hand.”
We reach the inner sanctum of Amegakure and we walk down the main street to a small little sushi restaurant where I take off my guitar and hand it to Zakaru before we enter.
“ Hold onto that, I should be back soon enough. If I find him we’ll trail him out of here since this isn’t the ideal place for practically anything.” I explain as I thrust my guitar into Zakaru’s chest and leave before he can complain about lugging around my instrument.
I leave the front of the sushi restaurant and I head for the closest empty ally way. I quickly walk down in the ally and I jump up to the top of the building to get a better view. I’m going to have to work quickly so I don’t draw any attention to myself. I’m almost certain Kakuzu is here; I can almost sense his familiar chakra signature.
I jump from roof to roof following my gut feeling, and as I approach one of the larger towers I pick up on something. It’s his chakra for sure; it’s pretty easy to snuff out since it has a very corrupt vibe to it. I head east toward the chakra and I end up over a building where I can sense him in. I quickly create a water clone to go tell Zakaru that I found him, and I then drop down and hide out on the side of the building. Good thing I’m still cloaking my chakra, since if I didn’t someone would probably pick me out as suspicious due to the amount I possess.
I wait about five minutes, and I see a tall-cloaked man walk out of the building holding a briefcase and he starts heading toward the south end of the city through the crowd. I carefully rise up from my spot and I begin to tail Kakuzu in the crowd at a safe distance. After a few minutes I see he’s heading for the bridge to leave the city, so I take detour and head over to the sushi restaurant. Walking extremely quickly now I see Zakaru is standing outside the shop with my guitar looking slightly flustered.
I finally make my way to him and he blurts out, “ I just about had my order come to me and we’re already leaving?”
“ Yes we are, and I need you to follow my instructions very carefully. Ready to listen?”
“ Yes sensei, I am.”
“ Good. This man is extremely dangerous, and is my former student. I will need you to sit back and keep using the cloaking jutsu. If you interfere you will most likely die, so don’t do anything stupid, ok?”
“ Wait…so you’re just wanting to kill this guy? What’s so important about him?”
“ When someone murders your wife and betrays you, you tend to hold a grudge even if it happened over 75 years ago. I’m finishing what that greedy bastard started, now let’s move.” I demand as I turn around and almost at a light jog head for the bridge.
I still sense Kakazu’s presence as I head onto the bridge with Zakaru somewhere behind me using the cloaking jutsu. Once off the bridge I sense he is still one the main path so I follow him for about 10 minutes, and then I sense his chakra take a sudden left off the path and away from the checkpoint area. Where is he going?
Now basically in the field with little tree cover I can see Kakuzu up ahead as a small figure in the distance, so I pick up my pace. We’re far enough from eh checkpoint area so no Rain shinobi should interfere.
Still keeping to cover I’m now only about 25 meters from him hiding behind a tree and I sense Kakuzu has stopped. “ You’re not a sneaky as you think…Yushin-sama.” Kakuzu announces out loud. Looks like he snuffed out my chakra signature as well even though I tried my best to cover it up, and looks like there is no more point in hiding.
I step out from one of the few trees into plain view in the field of basically short grass and a few trees around, looks to be an old logging area and I reply, “ I suppose, but tracking was never my specialty.”
“ Hidan, you can come out now.” Kakuzu order to a tree behind him a ways and I hear someone shout, “ About time Kakuzu! It bugs me to take orders from you on short notice, and boring ones at that!” the man with a matching cloak, a three bladed scythe and what seems to be a bad attitude bark at Kakuzu.
“ Shut up Hidan, this man is very dangerous so be on guard.” Kakuzu orders and his partner responds, “ Don’t tell me this is one of your stupid bounties…”
“ No. This is something personal.” Kakuzu says in a dark tone as he eyes me with his hideous eyes. I remember when they were a normal blue back in the day, but that was before he stole Takigakure’s secret jutsu.
“ After looking all this time it seems your still greedy as ever and managed to get yourself an idiot to boot.” I muse to test his apparently short-tempered partner. I already know the majority of Kakuzu’s abilities, but this other man is a mystery to me. Since he is a part of the Akatsuki he must be somewhat skilled.
“ Idiot! I will sacrifice you to Jashin-sama for such insolence!” Hidan shouts as he raises his scythe. Definitely an idiot.
“ Don’t get hasty Hidan. This man single handedly defeated the Shodaime Kazekage and is my former teacher. Don’t let him get to you.” Kakuzu warns as he assumes a battle position.
“ So he’s your sensei, eh? Why does he look my age then?” Hidan asks.
“ It’s his kekkei genkai ability. He uses water style and wind style ninjutsu as well and don’t get caught by him or he’ll seal you.” Kakuzu says and I reply, “ Very good memory, but my abilities have grown since we last battled, and I doubt your simple minded friend will be any help to you.”
“ Simple minded! Jashin will have your head!” Shouts Hidan as he charges at me with his scythe ready. I pull out a kunai to deflect the slashing attacks, but by the force I’m feeling with his strikes he does have a considerable amount of physical strength.
As I’m parrying Hidan’s strikes I see Kakuzu is readying a wind style jutsu and he says, “ Wind Style: Air Compactor!” and I see a huge pressure wave approach Hidan and me. It seems he doesn’t care for his partners well being.
The jutsu crashes into us, and Kakuzu then turns to his left and lets out a fire jutsu to the tree in his immediate sight and I jump out of the way of the fire blast. It seems Kakuzu somewhat remembers my strategy as well.
“ How did he dodge our combo?” Hidan asks to Kakuzu and he responds, “ Yushin Jourou was once the fastest shinobi in the ninja world and possess the fastest substitution jutsu I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Just keep pressure on him so I can attack and predict his movements.”
“ You remember a lot, but that doesn’t mean you’ll survive. Water Style: Great Downpour.” I say as a weave a few signs and the clouds overhead start to drench the land in a flash flood of water. In the midst of the downpour I use the Hozuki technique to dissolve into the water now pilling on top of the ground to launch my next attack.
“ Watch out, he is a master of water style.” Kakuzu tells Hidan as he runs for higher ground and Hidan replies, “ I can see that Kak-“ I cut him off as a water prison forms around him and one of my clones rise up from the shallow water at his feet.
“ Hidan you fool, just st-“ Kakuzu stammers as he gets cut off as one of my clones catch him in the same water prison jutsu and I rise back up out of the water to look at both of them.
“ You still have much to learn Kakuzu.” I tell him as I approach him to initiate the second step of the jutsu to turn the water prison into basically a human blender.
Just before I get to him the prison explodes with four black figures shooting out of Kakuzu and he replies, “ Don’t doubt my skills…sensei.” And he then looks to Hidan.
“ I wouldn’t worry about him, he’ll drown soon enough.” I tell Kakuzu and he replies with a chuckle, “ Doubt it. You see Hidan is truly immortal and cannot die, unlike you due to his wacky religious practices.”
“ Don’t insult Jashin you asshole!” Hidan gargles from inside his watery prison.
I look over to Hidan, and Kakuzu seems right. Hidan isn’t struggling at all to breathe, it seems the three of us all have one very similar ability, and that is we refuse to die.
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Chapter notes: here's my next update, and we have progression! Hooray! Hope you like it.
Chapter end notes: Cliffhangerish? I'll try not to make you wait long for the next one.