Mud sucked at every step, and shallow puddles mirrored the gray sky overhead. Even with the openness of the field, everything felt strangely muffled by the damp air.
Kakuzu stared across the distance at the Ultramarines.
A single water heart had just been obliterated by a bolter round.
The sudden loss of it rattled him more than he allowed himself to show.
He had lived a long ti, long enough to recognize danger the mont it appeared. But Gaius, Titus, and the towering armored warriors beside them were not rely dangerous. They were lethal in ways he had never encountered.
Their weapons were too powerful, and whatever energy they used, it clearly wasn't chakra. The design looked simple, just straight-line projectiles fired from tal tubes, yet the accuracy they achieved made them terrifying. Their armor ignored fire, lightning, wind…
And with their precision, they had already turned the valley into a deliberate killing ground.
But Kakuzu would not show weakness.
His stitched face remained unmoving. Only the faint tremor of the masks standing behind him betrayed his emotions, anger, irritation, and, buried deeper, a thin thread of caution.
His Earth mask slithered backward instinctively, after all, it was the most powerful mask for escape and survival. Even that subtle, subconscious retreat made Kakuzu consider the possibility of having to flee.
Perhaps… it would be wiser to regroup, wait for an opening
No. He refused to flee in front of Hidan.
He forced the thought down, buried beneath arrogance.
"You think destroying one of my masks will defeat ?!" he shouted, voice echoing across the wet valley.
Hidan, drenched in rain and streaked with mud, grinned viciously beside him. "Yeah, tell 'em! These idiots don't—"
He stopped mid-sentence when he saw Gaius step forward.
The giant in gold armor moved with slow, deliberate weight. The mud depressed deeply under each heavy step. Rain slid off the ceramite plates in thin streams, steaming where droplets hissed against residual heat.
Gaius did not bother raising his voice.
He didn't need to.
"I will end this farce now."
The words carried cleanly, carried by the mist and the calm drizzle.
Naruto swallowed unconsciously behind him. Titus lowered his chainsword slightly, waiting for the command that would surely follow. Diana, on the opposite side of the field facing Kisa and Itachi, sensed the shift in Gaius's presence like a physical ripple.
Kakuzu felt it too, that quiet, absolute confidence.
And for the second ti in years, he braced himself instinctively, a posture he had only ever taken before Pain, after eting those Rinnegan eyes.
Gaius moved.
Not with shinobi speed, not with flickering blurs or vanishing steps.
Just a steady, crushing pace, fast enough that a trained eye could follow, but powerful enough that each footfall vibrated faintly through the mud.
Kakuzu's remaining masks reacted instantly.
The Fire mask leapt forward, chakra surging into its maw.
A torrent of fla exploded outward, bright orange and gold carving through the mist.
The heat warped the falling rain.
Kakuzu expected the giant to dodge.
But Gaius did not stop.
He ran straight through the fire.
His silhouette burst through the wall of flas like a hamr breaking a paper screen. Steam erupted around him. Collecting droplets instantly vaporized across his armor in sharp hisses.
Kakuzu's eyes widened.
He had no ti to command the mask to pull back.
Gaius reached it.
One swing.
CRACK—!
His warhamr smashed into the Fire mask with a violent, wet impact. The construct of flesh, chakra, and heart-tissue ruptured instantly. Fragnts of mask, sinew, and black tendrils exploded outward in all directions.
The mask fell apart.
The connection severed.
Another heart, gone.
Kakuzu stumbled backward as his body lurched, threads snapping internally. The remaining masks recoiled in pure instinctive fear, jumping away from Gaius in an uneven arc across the valley.
Only three remained.
Wind.
Lightning.
And the one heart that mattered most, Earth.
But the Ultramarines did not give them space.
Titus surged forward the mont the Fire mask detonated, splashing mud in every direction. The Wind mask darted away, but Titus was already tracking it, helm lenses glinting.
"Target locked," he muttered.
His chainsword roared to life, teeth screaming against the rain.
SLAASH!
He brought it down in a single decisive stroke, cleaving through the Wind mask from top to bottom. The shrill, fluttering sound the mask emitted was cut short as it collapsed into lifeless chunks.
taurus was next.
The Lightning mask shot a burst of electric chakra toward him, but the sergeant didn't flinch. He brought his double-bit axe around in a brutal arc.
CRUNCH.
The mask split in two, sparks scattering uselessly.
Only the Earth mask remained, and it wanted no part of this.
The mont Gaius destroyed the Fire mask, it had already begun sinking into the soft mud. Now it fully dove underground, vanishing beneath the dark soil and leaving no trace.
Titus's visor scanned the ground, but its unique energy signature dissipated too quickly.
It was gone.
With four hearts destroyed, Kakuzu's main body collapsed in the mud, threads limp. His limbs sprawled lifelessly, steam rising in faint wisps from where rain touched severed tendrils. Only the distant, escaping Earth mask kept him technically alive, fleeing through the underground.
Hidan stared at Kakuzu's fallen fra, slack-jawed.
"W–what the hell?!"
He looked at Gaius.
Gaius was walking toward him.
Slowly. Steadily. Unstoppably.
Hidan felt sothing cold run through him.
Not fear of death, he truly didn't fear that.
But the instinctive dread of prey recognizing a predator far beyond its world.
Still, he swung his scythe.
"Die, bastard!"
He lunged, the three-bladed weapon carving a wide arc.
CLANG.
The blade struck Gaius's armor and bounced off harmlessly.
No scratch.
Hidan blinked, swung again, and again
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Rain sprayed each ti tal t ceramite.
Gaius didn't even blink.
Finally, the giant reached out and caught the scythe mid-swing.
Hidan froze.
Gaius squeezed.
CRACK.
The weapon shattered like brittle bone.
Hidan barely had ti to gasp before Gaius's gauntleted hand wrapped around his throat and lifted him effortlessly off the ground. Mud dripped off Hidan's dangling boots as he hung eye-level with the Ultramarine.
Gaius's voice was low and asured.
"Where is the Akatsuki leader located?"
Hidan's crushed throat strained to produce sound.
"I… cannot die," he rasped, forcing the words out with sheer madness. "I am blessed by Lord Jashin"
Gaius looked into his eyes and saw it, that sa empty, zealous gaze he had seen in Chaos cultists. Fanaticism twisted into devotion. The belief that death held no power over them.
But this world had no Chaos gods.
Only delusions.
Gaius ended it.
CRACK.
Hidan's throat collapsed fully. His body spasd as Gaius tossed him to the mud.
Titus approached, bolter already rising.
"Destroy his body with bolters," Gaius ordered.
Hidan heard that.
And for the first ti, true terror flickered across his face. He knew the bolter had been the one that shot through his body, and destroying his body, ant the chances of his recovery were slim.
He scrambled to his knees, trying to drag himself away despite the damage to his neck.
Titus pulled the trigger.
BAM.
Hidan's right knee exploded. Bone fragnts mixed with mud.
Hidan collapsed, screaming words that slurred through his crushed throat.
He tried to rise.
Another shot.
BAM.
His left knee shattered.
Mud splashed over his face as he fell completely, clawing at the ground, dragging himself inches at a ti. He shouted curses. Desperation. Claims of immortality. Pleas to Jashin.
Titus ignored them all.
He fired again.
And again.
And again.
Each bolt tore deeper into Hidan's torso, shredding flesh, rib, and spine. The body convulsed violently, then weakly… then not at all. Eventually the remaining pieces stopped moving in the mud, rain washing over ruined remains.
Silence settled briefly over the valley.
Only the drizzle remained.
taurus approached Gaius, helm dipped in respect.
"Captain Gaius," he reported. "One of the enemy masks escaped through the earth."
Gaius nodded once.
"I see."
He accepted it without frustration. Their mission was to avenge Jiraiya. The Akatsuki were only an optional target, if they were killed, all the better, if not, it was still acceptable.
anwhile, on the other side of the valley…
Diana stood poised, sword raised, facing Kisa and Itachi across the rain-soaked ground.
Three figures locked in quiet tension.
Fog drifted between them, wind carrying the faint echo of distant gunfire.
Their part of the battle was far from over.
End of Chapter 86
~~~
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