Asuma looked far worse than merely disheveled. Faced with Yuhi Kurenai's teasing, his face wore an expression of utter exasperation.
"You really timed your arrival perfectly, Kurenai."
Asuma let out a breath and spoke in a serious tone.
Yuhi Kurenai nodded, then raised her gaze toward Hidan, who was still temporarily restrained by her genjutsu.
"My genjutsu won't hold for much longer. What exactly is the situation right now?"
Kurenai looked at Asuma with a puzzled expression.
She had noticed the wound on Asuma's leg earlier, but the enemy was far too far away to have landed a hit on him.
Asuma wore a grim expression as he analyzed why he had been struck. While he hadn't figured it out completely, he could guess the general idea.
"This guy's jutsu is extremely bizarre. If I'm not mistaken..."
"...it should be a special jutsu that transfers any damage he receives onto the person whose blood he's consumed."
Asuma glanced at the wound on his own shoulder, recalling how Hidan had licked the blood off his black spear, and spoke thoughtfully.
Kurenai's eyes narrowed slightly at Asuma's words.
She naturally knew about Hidan's near-immortality, but now the man could also transfer damage through blood!
The word "troublesome" didn't even begin to describe this opponent.
Kurenai frowned and looked at Asuma. "The real question right now is how to sever the connection between you and him."
Asuma's eyes flickered. He was also thinking about how to solve this problem, but his clash with Hidan had been too brief to gather any useful intelligence.
Just as Asuma was at a loss for what to do, his gaze fell upon the strange ritual circle drawn in blood beneath Hidan's feet.
"We'll have to take a gamble. Kurenai, can you get that guy away from the eerie diagram beneath his feet?"
Asuma spoke quickly, the pain in his thigh intensifying.
Kurenai turned her head, her crystalline red pupils glancing at Asuma. "Are you sure? If I attack now, my genjutsu will break."
Asuma forced a smile and nodded firmly.
He knew Kurenai was worried about him, but they didn't have the luxury of time to analyze the situation!
In his peripheral vision, Asuma could already see several Iwa shinobi seemingly noticing the unusual situation on their end.
They were heading in their direction but were being temporarily held back by Konoha's ninja.
Kurenai didn't say another word. Her figure blurred into a silhouette as she vanished from her spot and rushed toward Hidan at incredible speed.
In just a few breaths, Kurenai appeared before Hidan and delivered a swift kick that sent him flying!
After executing the move, Kurenai immediately turned her head to look in Asuma's direction.
Asuma was clutching his chest, wincing in pain.
"That kick really hurt, but..."
Asuma spoke with a wry tone, slowly rising to his feet and giving Kurenai a thumbs-up.
Once Kurenai had kicked Hidan away, Asuma could clearly feel that the connection between himself and Hidan had been severed.
Seeing Asuma give her a thumbs-up, Kurenai breathed a sigh of relief, a faint smile crossing her lips.
At the same time, she swiftly reached into her ninja tool pouch and pulled out a kunai attached to an explosive tag, hurling it straight at Hidan!
Kurenai's kick had snapped Hidan out of his genjutsu-induced stupor.
But when Hidan found himself airborne and felt the pain in his chest, he clearly realized what had happened and let out a maniacal roar.
"You damned heretics! This is blasphemy!"
Hidan slammed back onto the ground from midair, completely ignoring the injuries to his body, cursing and screaming as he clambered back up.
Before Hidan could fully recover, he heard a whistling sound tearing through the air. His pupils shrank as he saw a kunai with an attached explosive tag already hurtling toward his face.
A massive explosion erupted right in front of Hidan.
Scorching heat and a shockwave instantly engulfed him completely.
At the same time, Hidan's head was launched into the air from the explosion's flames, sent flying off to the side.
Meanwhile, Asuma had finished bandaging the wound on his thigh and appeared at Kurenai's side.
"That attack was perfectly timed."
Asuma watched the scene, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
Hidan's severed head lay on the ground, continuing to let out screams and curses.
"What an absurd ability. His head came off and he's still alive."
Kurenai wore an expression of disbelief as she listened to Hidan's constant yelling and screaming.
She had expected this outcome, but seeing it with her own eyes was still shocking!
"An ability this bizarre is worth studying."
"Let's take the head with us first. I want to see for myself whether this guy is truly immortal."
Asuma stared at the headless body slowly climbing to its feet, a chill running down his spine as he spoke.
As he spoke, Asuma was already preparing to walk toward Hidan's head, intending to separate it from the body completely.
He hadn't even taken two steps before stopping in his tracks.
In the distance, a figure appeared beside Hidan's severed head and planted a foot squarely on it.
Hidan let out a yelp. He was about to start cursing, but when he saw who was standing on his head, his face broke into an expression of wild joy.
"Kakuzu! You're back! Hurry up and sew my head back onto my body!"
Hidan shouted with a voice full of surprise and delight.
Kakuzu dug at his ear with a finger, his expression completely indifferent.
"I've told you so many times already. Don't talk too much during a fight."
"Otherwise, even with your immortality, you'd be easy to deal with."
Kakuzu looked up and cast a dismissive glance at Kurenai and Asuma. He then crouched down, grabbed Hidan by the hair, and yanked his head up from the ground.
Still holding Hidan's head, Kakuzu walked toward where Hidan's body lay just ahead.
"Kakuzu, you bastard! Pulling my hair really hurts!"
"Can't you just bring my body over here instead?!"
Hidan cried out in pain, shouting in displeasure.
Kakuzu rubbed his ear, showing no intention of answering Hidan whatsoever.
Kurenai saw Kakuzu's movements and her body lowered into a defensive stance as she turned to Asuma.
Asuma wore a grim expression as he studied this newly arrived figure.
Especially when he took in Kakuzu's attire, it was as if something had clicked in his memory.
"Don't make a move yet. I remember now."
"This man must be the one Kakashi encountered on his way to Sunagakure — one of Uchiha Madara's people!"
Asuma raised a hand to stop Kurenai, his eyes deadly serious as he spoke quickly.
After Kakashi and Yamashiro Aoba had returned from Sunagakure, they had compiled a full intelligence report on everything that had happened.
As jōnin, they naturally had access to review these records, which included detailed information about the enemy.
Hearing Asuma's words, Kurenai's body tensed, her face taking on an extremely grave expression.
Asuma and Kurenai hadn't suddenly become cautious because of Kakuzu himself, but because of the man standing behind him — Uchiha Madara!
Kakuzu had already used the black threads on his body to sew Hidan's head back onto his shoulders.
Hidan gave his neck a testing roll and, finding nothing wrong, turned to face Asuma and Kurenai with fury in his eyes.
"I'm going to sacrifice all of you to Lord Jashin!"
Hidan let out a roar and raised his giant scythe, about to charge straight at Asuma and Kurenai.
Before Hidan could even leave his spot, Kakuzu reached out and pressed him back down.
Hidan stared at Kakuzu with a mix of annoyance and confusion.
Kakuzu didn't answer Hidan right away. Instead, he turned his head slightly to glance at something behind the Iwa forces, then withdrew his gaze.
"He's here as well." Kakuzu spoke with a hint of solemnity in his otherwise flat tone.
Hidan blinked, momentarily failing to process what Kakuzu meant. "Huh?"
Just as Hidan was about to press the question, he suddenly fell completely silent.
And it wasn't just Hidan — the entire battlefield fell silent at almost exactly the same moment.
An indescribably terrifying aura!
It descended from above in an instant, like some primordial dread made manifest.
In that moment, everyone felt as though they had been cast onto a storm-tossed sea.
Both the Iwa forces and the Konoha forces simultaneously ceased all offensive actions.
On a hilltop near the edge of the battlefield, Uchiha Madara stood motionless at its peak, his gaze sweeping over the entire field with detached indifference.
The source of that terrifying aura was none other than him.
At this moment, every pair of eyes on the battlefield was fixed on Uchiha Madara's direction, as if that spot had become the center of the world.
Madara was simply standing there, doing nothing at all, yet he commanded the absolute attention of every single person present.
The entire battlefield was swallowed by an eerie stillness!
But that stillness didn't last long.
"All Konoha shinobi, fall back to defensive positions!!"
Asuma was the first to shake off the paralysis, bellowing the order at the top of his lungs.
Spurred by his shout, the rest of the Konoha ninja snapped out of it as well, rapidly disengaging from the fight and racing back toward their defensive lines.
Every last one of them wore expressions of grim severity and barely concealed tension.
From the very beginning, everyone had known that Uchiha Madara would eventually appear.
But now that he was actually here, the Konoha ninja discovered just how deep their fear and dread truly ran.
"This little game has gone on long enough."
Madara's cold, indifferent gaze swept across the battlefield.
He stomped on the ground beneath his feet and launched himself into the air, hurtling down toward the center of the battlefield like a falling meteor.
A thunderous boom erupted at the center of the field!
Where Madara landed, a massive crater appeared instantly, with cracks spreading outward at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Beneath Madara's foot lay the body of a Konoha shinobi, crushed beyond any hope of survival.
At the sight of Madara appearing directly in the middle of the battlefield, every Konoha ninja fled in a blind panic toward their defensive lines.
The Iwa forces, meanwhile, gradually halted their pursuit and simply watched Madara with feverish reverence in their eyes.
This was a primal memory etched into their very genes, reaching from the deepest depths of their souls!
Simply by appearing, Uchiha Madara had already begun to shatter the Konoha forces' morale.
In a sense, it wasn't really the Konoha ninja's fault. Madara's reputation and power were simply too overwhelming!
Faced with an opponent of this caliber, the first instinct of any thinking person was to run.
Madara stood at the center of the battlefield, still radiating that suffocating aura toward the Konoha lines.
"Consider this a warm-up before the real fight."
Madara looked toward the Konoha defensive position, casually formed a few hand seals, puffed out his cheeks, and then unleashed a massive fireball from his mouth.
The moment the fireball touched the ground, it swelled into a towering inferno, surging forward like a tidal wave of flame.
Everything in the path of those scorching flames was instantly reduced to ash.
Several Konoha ninja who hadn't managed to retreat to the defensive line in time were swallowed by the blazing tidal wave, not even getting the chance to scream before they were incinerated.
Watching the wall of flame rushing toward them like a tidal wave, the Konoha ninja stood frozen in disbelief.
"Don't tell me that was just a B-rank Fire Release jutsu."
Kurenai's face was slack with utter disbelief.
"Now's not the time to be standing around!"
"All shinobi who can use Water Release, form your jutsu and block it immediately!"
Asuma roared at the Konoha forces, his face twisted with a mix of shock and fury.
One after another, Konoha ninja skilled in Water Release rushed to the front of the defensive line. With loud battle cries, they formed hand seals and slammed their palms against the ground.
Columns of water erupted from the ground in front of the defensive position, rapidly merging together to form a massive water screen that stretched across the entire frontline.
[
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