Zander
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Chapter 123 – Ashes of Akatsuki
🕑 Added 2025-07-19 04:11:00 +0000 UTCChapter 123 – Ashes of Akatsuki
Smoke drifted across the ruined battlefield like tattered shrouds. Rubble crumbled from shattered towers. The air was thick with chakra residue and the faint, nauseating tang of scorched flesh. Lightning still crackled from the remnants of Kakuzu’s attack, dancing across a cratered wall where it had failed to even singe the man it was meant to kill.
Kakuzu stood still, arms crossed, as his glowing lightning mask hissed and cooled behind him.
His eyes swept the battlefield like a hawk measuring terrain before a kill.
The damage was… extensive.
Obito, the one the Akatsuki called “Tobi,” their supposed joke of a subordinate, lay severed clean in half. One limp arm still twitched a few meters from the remains of his torso, while his legs, disturbingly upright, remained standing as if unaware of their own death. Blood pooled like ink, staining the floor.
Not far, Konan knelt beside a skeletal, red-haired figure, wings of paper wrapped protectively around them both. That red-haired man’s eyes were sunken and closed. Whoever he was, he didn’t matter to Kakuzu. He didn’t recognize the man, and if he didn’t know you, your bounty likely wasn’t worth collecting.
But the floating moon above?
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the massive orb of stone still suspended in the sky, no, not floating. Held. The gravity of it still tugged faintly at his cloak and hair. Some kind of jutsu. A monstrous one. The sheer scale was unnatural.
And at the center of all of it, standing amidst the wreckage untouched, was the man Kakuzu had just tried to kill.
Hajime.
His armor gleamed faintly in the dying firelight, grey-silver, marked with faint celestial etchings. But what drew Kakuzu’s eye most, it was the Armor. The Huge Steel Armor that cover his whole body.
This was not some random Shinobi or Samurai elite. Kakuzu knew that face from more than one bounty board. Hajime, Tsunade's so-called apprentice. High-threat, special class, black market bounty: 70 million yen.
“Seventy million,” Kakuzu muttered under his breath. “Looks like the market was underestimating you.”
He had barely finished the thought when the idiot beside him moved.
“GRAAAHHH!” Hidan roared, his tattered cloak billowing as he rushed straight at Hajime, red scythe raised high like a reaper hungry for a soul.
Kakuzu didn’t stop him.
He didn’t even try.
Hidan was chaos on legs, useful sometimes, but rarely smart.
The scythe slashed down, sharp, jagged teeth aiming for Hajime’s neck.
Hajime didn’t move.
He raised one hand and caught the blade mid-swing.
CLANG.
The weapon stopped cold in his palm.
Then
CRACK!
Hajime’s armored fist smashed into Hidan’s skull like a falling meteor. The impact echoed like thunder. Hidan’s head twisted around his neck a full circle with a sickening snap, and his body flew backward, rolling in the dirt like a ragdoll.
He lay there for a moment, limbs twitching.
Then laughter.
“…Heheheh… haha… HAH!” Hidan’s body jolted, still mangled. “You bastard! You think that hurts?! I’m immortal!”
His broken neck slowly twisted back into place with a crunch. “You’ll pay for that. I’ll offer your blood to Jashin-sama with glee!”
Hidan grabbed his scythe again and lunged, screaming curses and holy threats.
This time, Hajime moved.
The halberd in his hand blurred into motion.
A single slash.
SHRRRKKK
Blood sprayed.
Hidan was cut straight through the waist. His torso hit the ground, hissing in rage. “YOU!”
But the moment his body hit the dirt, two elemental blasts tore through the battlefield.
BOOM, BOOOOM!
Kakuzu’s wind and fire masks unleashed a violent, explosive fusion, like a storm cannon detonating. From the other side, a roar of water surged. Kisame’s shark-infused jutsu rushed in like a tidal wave, crashing toward Hajime from behind.
The blasts met at the center.
An inferno and a flood.
The earth trembled, and dust swallowed the entire chamber.
For a moment, silence.
Then
From within the smoke, a flare of radiant light.
Hajime walked forward.
The fire parted around his form. The water hissed and steamed off his halo, which had expanded outward in a protective field. His armor was untouched. His stride was calm.
Like a god walking through mortal chaos.
Above, on the far side of the chamber, Uchiha Itachi watched with narrowed eyes.
He hadn’t moved during the exchange, but his mind raced.
His Sharingan spun, capturing every detail. The Uchiha Madara (Obito) was dead, or nearly so. His body was beyond salvaging. The fool had underestimated his own arrogance. Still Itachi was surprised that Madara was killed as he also have a mangekyo sharingan, especially it was a Space Technique.
Konan remained defensively positioned beside a man Itachi don't recognized.
And the man who cut them all down now… was Tsunade’s apprentice?
Not just an apprentice. He was something else entirely.
Not just power.
Precision.
Foresight.
Control.
Itachi watched as Hajime's shield absorbed all attacks. And then, he made his decision.
He moved.
Just as Hidan’s body began twitching and reattaching with Kakuzu Help again, Itachi stepped forward, and flames erupted in his eyes.
“Amaterasu.”
The black fire ignited Hidan’s chest.
“AAAAAAAGHHHHHH!! WHAT THE?!”
Hidan writhed as the cursed flames latched onto him, impossible to extinguish. He threw himself into a muddy pool to smother the fire, but it clung to him, eating through his flesh.
“ITACHI! YOU SON OF A! I’LL KILL YOU!!”
Kakuzu turned sharply. “Itachi? What are you”
The Mangekyou spun.
Kakuzu’s instincts flared. He backed away instantly, abandoning Hidan.
“No time to argue,” Kakuzu muttered. “That fire doesn’t go out.”
He didn’t care if Hidan lived or burned. He wasn’t going to be next.
Hidan, half on fire, staggered upright again, screaming, enraged beyond logic.
“YOU TRAITOR!” he bellowed, black flames crawling up his arms. “I’LL SACRIFICE YOU TOO, YOU SHARINGAN BASTARD!!”
He charged Itachi, still burning.
Itachi didn’t move.
He watched Hajime through the flames, through the chaos, calculating his next move.
Hajime stood still, his gaze slowly turning toward Itachi.
For a moment, their eyes met.
And in that instant, no words passed. but understanding did.
The battlefield was changing.
Comments
Austin Levy
Nah itachi has to die beat him up and let sasuke fininsh the job then mass clone him
Phantom knight who can’t think of a better nicknam
Well that confirms it I think itachis going to get healed wether he likes it or not which if he doesn’t I think it might just be a fitting punishment for him he wants to die to Saskai but hajime won’t let him would be rather poetic
