Ninja World: I, Kisame Hoshigaki, am no longer human!

Kakuzu slowly rose from the ground and finally unleashed the Earth Grudge Mode.

As he performed the hand seals, the Lightning Release mask merged into the heart area of ​​his body, while the Fire Release and Wind Release masks merged into his left and right shoulders respectively.

"Is this the secret of the Earth Grudge?"

When Orochimaru saw this, he immediately recognized the characteristics of the Earth Grudge Fear technique: it achieves immortality by constantly stealing the hearts of others.

What's most surprising is that the practitioner's body can hold multiple hearts at once, which means there are several lives.

This is similar to the Eight-Headed Serpent Technique he practiced.

At that moment, Kakuzu, having activated his Earth Grudge Fear form, launched his most powerful composite ninjutsu attack at Orochimaru without uttering a single word.

"Fire Release: Head Carving!" "Wind Release: Suppression!" "Lightning Release: False Darkness!"

His main body and the two masks on his shoulders opened their mouths simultaneously, releasing three large-scale ninjutsu: fire, wind, and lightning. They intertwined and formed a dazzling pillar of light that swept towards Orochimaru.

"Triple Rashomon!"

Faced with the terrifying ninjutsu attack unleashed by Kakuzu, Orochimaru dared not hold back and shouted as he unleashed his most powerful defensive ninjutsu.

This move will determine the victor and bring this battle to a close.

177. The Death of Kakuzu

An incredibly intense chakra surge emanated from the valley, and a dazzling light engulfed everything.

Kakuzu unleashed a chakra cannon from all three mouths, combining Lightning Release, Fire Release, and Wind Release techniques to form a chakra cannon with a diameter exceeding ten meters, powerful enough to destroy a town or a mountain.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru, after forming hand seals, pressed his palm against the ground, pouring out all the chakra in his body, and finally summoned three huge doors at the critical moment.

Rumble.

These three gates rose from the ground, lined up in a row, blocking Orochimaru's path. Each of them was over ten meters tall, and carved with the heads of demons symbolizing death; they were the gates of hell.

Triple Rashomon.

The original name of this ninjutsu was actually Fivefold Rashomon, an ultimate defensive ninjutsu used by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. However, since each Rashomon summoned consumed an unimaginable amount of chakra, no one could master this technique after the First Hokage until Orochimaru discovered it.

Even Orochimaru could only barely summon three gates, which was his limit.

At that moment, the demons on the three doors seemed to come alive, opening their mouths wide without any restraint and swallowing the chakra energy cannon that was coming their way.

These three gates have three functions: the first gate is responsible for withstanding ninjutsu attacks, the second gate reduces the power, and the third gate further amplifies the power.

Boom! Boom!

Kakuzu's chakra cannon was indeed powerful, destroying the first two gates one after the other, causing them to collapse with a roar, raising clouds of dust in the valley and creating a huge sound.

However, during this process, the power of the chakra cannon was greatly weakened, and unsurprisingly, it was blocked by the third Rashomon.

"Ho ho..."

Orochimaru knelt on the ground, his hands supporting him, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down his pale cheeks and onto the ground.

Although he blocked Kakuzu's devastating ninjutsu, summoning the Triple Rashomon exhausted almost all of his chakra, leaving him on the verge of death.

It's so hard for him.

These days, Orochimaru seems to be targeted by the whole world, being hunted down by several groups of people, and each time he has to flee in panic.

This time, his luck may be about to run out.

No, I must live.

Driven by a strong will to survive, Orochimaru gritted his teeth, stood up, and staggered out of the valley.

But how could Kakuzu possibly let him go?

Whoosh.

Kakuzu charged from a distance, leaping high into the air, eight giant black lines splitting off from his back like the eight legs of a spider.

"Orochimaru, you're finished! Surrender now!"

As Kakuzu spoke, he manipulated eight black lines to shoot at Orochimaru. They attacked the latter from all angles, sharper than swords.

Orochimaru made a last-ditch effort, turning around in horror and wielding the Tenbu-ryu sword to slash at the black lines.

Swish swish.

He severed several black lines, but ultimately, two fists cannot fight four hands, and he was quickly defeated, even losing the Tenbu Ryu sword to Kakuzu.

Orochimaru himself was firmly bound by those black threads, unable to move his hands and feet, and was fixed in place.

"ended."

Kakuzu declared his victory and walked step by step toward Orochimaru.

hateful.

Orochimaru, having exhausted all his tricks, could only roar inwardly in frustration. He originally had a trump card, the Eight-Headed Serpent Technique, which would allow him to transform into the legendary eight-headed serpent, but due to depleted chakra, he was simply unable to use it.

"You seem quite interested in my Earth Grudge Technique. In that case, before you die, I'll show you the most wonderful aspect of this technique: it grants me immortality."

Kakuzu stared at Orochimaru, speaking as he reached his right hand toward the latter's heart.

What he was going to do next was to use this hand to pierce Orochimaru's chest, forcibly extract the latter's heart and chakra attributes, and then sew the heart back into his own body for his own use.

Orochimaru watched helplessly as Kakuzu's hand drew ever closer, his face turning ashen. A deep-seated fear of death surged within him, causing him to tremble uncontrollably.

He had witnessed too much death and was deeply aware of the fragility of life, which is why he has always been so obsessed with immortality.

But now, it seems his life is coming to an end. For him, the desire for immortality is ultimately just a mirage, a pipe dream.

With that thought in mind, Orochimaru slowly closed his eyes, awaiting the arrival of death.

And just then...

"It seems Orochimaru is truly finished."

In the distance, Kisame, who had been watching the show from behind a tree, thought to himself.

If Orochimaru were at his peak, he certainly wouldn't fear Kakuzu, and would likely even defeat him. However, Orochimaru was severely injured, putting him at a significant disadvantage from the start, making his eventual defeat inevitable.

However, Kisame didn't want to see Orochimaru die like that, since the latter was still very useful to him.

So he immediately activated the "divine power" of his left eye, focusing his gaze on Kakuzu's heart from a distance of tens of meters.

next second.

"Fizz!"

Just as Kakuzu was about to seize Orochimaru's heart, he suddenly gasped for breath, because an unimaginable pain shot through his chest.

He looked down and was immediately horrified to find that his entire left chest had mysteriously disappeared under the distortion of an unknown force.

Yes, it's gone.

At this moment, a large hole appeared in Kakuzu's heart, empty and revealing his back from the front.

His physical heart was thus destroyed.

thump.

Overwhelmed by excruciating pain, Kakuzu was forced to abruptly halt the ritual to seize the heart, collapsing to his knees in agony. The black threads that had shot out from behind him instantly returned to his body.

what happened?

Orochimaru didn't wait for death to come. When he opened his eyes, he saw Kakuzu lying on the ground and was shocked.

However, before he could even rejoice at surviving the ordeal, he suddenly went black and fainted due to extreme physical and mental weakness.

At this moment, Kakuzu, who had inexplicably lost a heart, took off the Fire Release mask from his left shoulder, stuffed it into his chest cavity, and stood up again.

Was it Orochimaru who did this?

He glanced at the unconscious Orochimaru with suspicion, but quickly dismissed the idea, because he suddenly sensed a surge of chakra appearing not far away.

who is it?

Kakuzu looked over with murderous intent and saw a mysterious man wearing an orange swirling mask, with only his left eye showing.

Wait, that eye...

His gaze sharpened as he noticed the other person's left eye, which was not only an unusual blood red but also had a very strange pattern.

When Kakuzu met that eye, his expression suddenly became dazed for a moment. When he came to his senses, the mysterious person had vanished.

Oh no, it's an illusion.

Kakuzu was startled and quickly used the chakra generated by his two hearts to interfere with each other, thus freeing himself from the illusion created by the enemy.

In the instant he regained consciousness, a piercing pain shot through his chest once again.

Kakuzu looked down and saw a blood-stained bone sword pierce through his back and out his chest, cutting him right through the heart.

A snap.

Kakuzu's fire-style mask, covering his heart, cracked open with a crisp sound after being pierced by the bone sword. This meant that he had lost another heart.

Surprised?

Behind him came the voice of the mysterious masked man, or rather, Kisame.

Even now, Kisame, despite bearing such glorious and lofty titles as a demigod of the ninja world and a sage of the Land of Water, has never forgotten his original aspirations and has always maintained the excellent habit of ambushing his enemies.

Just now, he first used Kamui to ambush and destroy one of Kakuzu's hearts, then used the Sharingan's genjutsu to distract the opponent, and took the opportunity to appear behind Kakuzu and destroy another of his hearts.

In the blink of an eye, Kakuzu only had one Wind Release Heart left, and his combat power was less than one-fifth of his usual strength, not much stronger than an ordinary Jonin.

Kakuzu understood this as well.

He wasn't sure if the masked man who attacked him was Orochimaru's accomplice, but that was no longer important. His only thought now was to survive.

call out.

The wind-escape mask on his shoulder shot forward in an instant, transforming into a black masked monster in mid-air, and fled into the distance without looking back.

In order to survive, Kakuzu not only gave up Orochimaru's corpse and heart, which he had obtained, but also ruthlessly abandoned his own body, all in order to seek a sliver of hope.

He's a ruthless person.

Unfortunately, Kakuzu's efforts were destined to be in vain.