Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 322 Killing Kakuzu

Kakuzu flapped his wings and barely managed to dodge.

Suddenly, he felt a darkness above his head, and when he looked up instinctively, his pupils contracted.

In mid-air, a figure with its back to the sun clenched its fists into hammers and slashed down fiercely from above.

"boom."

Kakuzu was struck on the forehead, his body fell to the ground, creating a huge crater, with debris flying everywhere and smoke billowing out.

Kakuzu opened his eyes, and a figure broke through the smoke, hooked his foot and shoved, and came rushing in through the wind.

Kakuzu quickly turned around to avoid the loud explosion that erupted from the ground, followed by billowing smoke.

Kakuzu braced himself with both palms on the ground, exerted a little force, and his body lifted into the air. He flapped his wings and flew back into the sky.

Aokiji leaped up and threw a punch.

Kakuzu dodged to the side, a fist grazing past him in the blink of an eye. He formed hand seals and spat out a compressed ball of wind from his mouth.

Wind Release: Pressure Damage.

Aokiji burst out with five tails, forming a ball in front of him to protect him from the impact of the wind ball.

With its tail retracted, Aokiji narrowed its crimson eyes, focused its gaze, and stared at the enemy.

He thought to himself that as expected of an old monster who had lived for more than half a century, even with his perfect Jinchūriki power, it would be difficult for him to quickly gain an advantage.

However, Kakuzu is ultimately a half-baked Jinchuriki. In a protracted battle, Aokiji is confident that he will not lose to him; at most, it will just be a bit more troublesome.

However, before continuing his fight with Kakuzu, he needs to figure out one thing.

With a thought racing through his mind, Aokiji began preparing to escape Kakuzu. He opened his palms and formed a set of hand seals with lightning speed, mobilizing his chakra and causing water molecules in the surrounding air to slowly condense into rectangular ice mirrors that surrounded him.

Ice Release: Demonic Mirror Ice Crystal.

Although it's the same move as that guy, the range and quantity of the ice mirrors are incomparable.

It's not that Aokiji is much more proficient in this technique than someone else, but rather that the chakra he infuses into this technique is on a completely different level.

Any technique, once infused with the chakra of a tailed beast, will become incredibly powerful, transforming into something extraordinary.

Aokiji stepped back, his body merging into the ice mirror. In an instant, the mirrors surrounding him reflected his image.

This tactic won't delay a ninja of Kakuzu's caliber for long, but that time will be enough for him to find that person...

Not far away, Dan Moroboshi, lying on the ground, cautiously observed the two engaged in fierce combat.

Suddenly he sensed something, turned around abruptly, and was punched in the face, his head slamming heavily to the ground.

Aokiji pressed his advantage, unleashing several punches with the force of a mountain collapsing, leaving him on the verge of death.

Aokiji roughly grabbed his head with one hand, staring directly into the other's eyes with his Sharingan, the three tomoe spinning wildly.

Genjutsu: Sharingan...

Aokiji's illusions are relatively ordinary compared to his other abilities. In order to increase the success rate of this move, he deliberately weakens his opponent to the point of near death.

Aokiji used his Sharingan to hypnotize the other party, extracting information: "Tell me, why did you ambush me...?"

The other party moved its bleeding mouth slightly and slowly read out the information it already knew.

Aokiji's heart skipped a beat, followed by overwhelming rage. His jaw muscles bulged, and a blazing red light burst forth from his tears, making him look terrifying.

As if to vent his rage, Aokiji, in a fit of fury, smashed his opponent's head with a single punch. Crimson blood gushed onto the ground, first forming puddles, then lakes...

At this moment, Kakuzu broke free from the magic mirror's ice crystals and came to cause trouble.

"Get out of here!"

His furious voice was filled with intense killing intent.

Jiao Bu was completely baffled and couldn't understand why the other party had suddenly become so angry.

The task information he received was incomplete.

Aokiji transformed into a half-tailed beast, his body enveloped in dark red chakra, his eyes hollow and eerily deep.

There was no time to waste; he needed to finish the battle as soon as possible and head towards Tsunade.

Vanished from the spot, closing in close.

"So fast..."

Aokiji's speed increased further, and Kakuzu was unable to dodge in time, being blasted away by a punch.

Next, Kakuzu dared not hold back at all and also entered half-tailed beast form to fight.

Both are the stages before complete tailed beast transformation, but they are fundamentally different.

The former involves the tailed beast wholeheartedly supplying chakra, while the latter involves forcibly extracting the tailed beast's chakra. The difference in strength is immediately apparent.

If it weren't for his advantage in controlling the airspace, which allowed him to barely maintain the situation, Kakuzu would probably be getting a beating by now.

If this continues, we'll lose...

Kakuzu flew into the air, took out the scroll from his waist, unrolled it, and with a bang, a puff of white smoke dissipated, revealing a gourd-shaped bottle in his hand.

Hero's Water...

Kakuzu drank this stuff and gained a huge amount of chakra in a short time, which was why he was able to barely defeat the Third Hokage.

He drank the remaining Hero's Water in the gourd bottle in one gulp, and a massive amount of chakra gushed out like a geyser.

What exactly did he drink...?

Aokiji felt a sinking feeling in his heart as he sensed an unprecedented surge of chakra emanating from Kakuzu.

Before he could think further, Kakuzu had already charged in. Even so, Aokiji was not afraid at all and fought back head-on.

The power that Kakuzu unleashed was even able to suppress Aokiji at one point.

The intense battle between the two caused massive destruction, turning the surrounding area into ruins.

At this point, the battle between the two sides entered a fierce stage, and it was about to turn into a decisive chapter.

One is in the sky, the other is on the ground.

Kakuzu stood suspended in mid-air, blue and black chakra spheres gathering near his open mouth. These chakra spheres merged together, forming an even larger chakra sphere.

At the same time, fire-attribute chakra and wind-attribute chakra gathered near the open mouths of the two masks on the left and right sides of Kakuzu's head, respectively.

Facing the Tailed Beast Ball swooping down, and the wind and fire releases fanning the flames around them.

Aokiji stood still on the ground, his palms clasped together, his arms raised from below to above his head, and vortexes swirled around his body, pulling him upward and forming a tornado carrying ice and snow.

With icy energy gathering momentum, Aokiji hissed and roared, "Ice Release: Dawn Goddess's Forgiveness."

A laser beam shot out from the fist at a 40-50 degree angle toward the sky.

The two energies collided violently, creating a huge explosion that affected both of them. As the smoke cleared, Aokiji and Kakuzu removed their tailed beast cloaks.

Aokiji quickly got up, clasped his hands together, and raised them above his head.

The moment she unleashed her attack, a chilling goddess aura emanated from behind her.

A burst of extremely cold air rushed towards us, freezing into ice along its path.

The Goddess of Dawn's forgiveness descended upon the world once more.

Kakuzu intended to retaliate, and was about to mobilize his chakra when his pupils contracted. The side effects of the Hero's Water appeared on cue. This was nothing serious in itself, but what was truly deadly was that the Seven-Tails within him began to struggle wildly, determined to perish together with him.

It was in that instant of hesitation that the ice particle beam struck him, and the extreme cold rapidly spread throughout his body, causing his body to freeze instantly.

On his deathbed, certain images flashed through Kakuzu's mind like a revolving lantern, and a self-deprecating smile welled up in his heart.

It's truly ironic that someone who was once betrayed would die in this way...

"ah--!"

With that scream, Kakuzu turned into an ice sculpture, and then, unable to move, was blasted apart by Aokiji's Boil Release: Super Strength, shattering into ice fragments that drifted away with the wind...

Normally, Aokiji might have sighed with emotion, but now he neither had the time nor the inclination.

Aokiji didn't even glance at them before setting off immediately.

I prayed in my heart that it wasn't too late...

(End of this chapter)