Grind is My Ninja Way

More thin black tentacles emerged from the four severed palms, intertwining with each other and fusing together once again, forming two complete palms.

Seimei initially thought that those black tentacles could only suture limbs.

Now it seemed that it was far more than that. They could even suture palms that were cut in half.

By that logic, even if Kakuzu were dismembered, he could probably recover.

What could he say?

As expected of one of the infamous immortal duo from the future, with this kind of recovery ability, he basically couldn't be considered human anymore.

The current Kakuzu had probably already merged with the grotesque secret technique creation, the 'Earth Grudge Fear'. Although he still looked human on the outside, his essence had probably already changed.

"No wonder I felt something was off about his aura before. So that's how it is!"

Seimei muttered to himself.

Just then, those two palms reached out to grab him again.

Seeing this, Seimei stopped dodging, smoothly drew his long katana, and unleashed his lv7 (0/0) perfected 'Swordsmanship'.

In an instant, those two palms were sliced into several pieces by him.

During this, those black tentacles still tried to sneak into his body, but they were all blocked by his exquisite swordsmanship.

Seeing that this move couldn't subdue Seimei, Kakuzu no longer hid. He immediately emerged from the ground and tore off the black robe on his body.

One could see that his entire body was covered in black stitching marks, as if he had been cut into countless pieces and then sewn back together.

It looked extremely terrifying.

Not only that, but on his back, there were four grotesque masks stitched to his flesh.

Seimei knew that these were the elemental masks formed by Kakuzu using the 'Secret Technique: Heart Extraction' to extract the hearts and Chakra natures of others.

Each one represented a life of Kakuzu. Unless these four masks, along with his own heart, were destroyed, it would be impossible to kill him.

And just as Seimei was thinking about how to achieve this, Kakuzu turned his head, his green eyes staring at Seimei, and said: "You don't seem surprised by my transformation at all. Why?"

Seimei smiled but remained silent.

"Not going to tell me?"

Kakuzu pondered for a moment and said to himself: "Forget it, I'll find out after I kill you."

"Hmph!"

Then, he let out a low shout, and the stitching between the masks and his flesh on his back suddenly disintegrated, releasing a large number of black tentacles.

These tentacles twisted and intertwined, eventually forming four tall black humanoid monsters around him.

And on the heads of these monsters were the elemental masks.

Seimei could clearly sense the intense Chakra from these masks.

"Wind, Fire, Lightning, Water... His main body is Earth Release, huh?"

Seimei pondered.

At this time, Kakuzu's body shook, completely severing the tentacle connections between the mask monsters and himself, making their movements even more agile.

In this way, facing them, Seimei was equivalent to being besieged by five people, and they were five people with excellent coordination and complementary elements.

"I can't let them take the initiative!"

Instantly, Seimei thought of this.

He immediately raised his hand, formed seals, and performed the ninjutsu - Wind Release: Wind Blade!

Whoosh~

A transparent wind blade shot out rapidly, aiming directly at the Lightning Release mask monster.

All of this happened in an instant.

He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity before the opponent was fully prepared and use the elemental advantage to destroy one of their hearts.

Unfortunately, Kakuzu's combat experience was too rich. He had been guarding against this move ever since he witnessed Seimei's 'Wind Release: Wind Blade' earlier.

Therefore, the moment Seimei made his move, he controlled the Lightning Release mask monster to dodge.

Seimei's wind blade missed, and his expression turned slightly unpleasant.

But similarly, Kakuzu's expression wasn't good either.

He said: "You really know a lot about me!"

Obviously, he had noticed something from Seimei directly attacking the mask monster instead of him.

Under normal circumstances, at this time, people who weren't familiar with his abilities would mistake these mask monsters for his summons.

Thus, they would target their attacks at him, trying to land a fatal blow.

But Seimei?

He directly aimed at these mask monsters, and it was the Lightning Release mask monster, which was most vulnerable to Wind Release.

Combining this with his reaction when he saw the mask monsters appear, Kakuzu easily came to a conclusion: Seimei's understanding of his abilities far exceeded his imagination.

And this also gave rise to an ominous feeling in Kakuzu's heart.

However, he quickly suppressed these thoughts.

As a ninja with incredibly rich combat experience, he knew that at times like this, he couldn't overthink, or he would easily fall into the opponent's trap.

With this in mind, Kakuzu immediately controlled the four mask monsters to besiege Seimei together.

Because these monsters could fly, they quickly surrounded Seimei.

Buzz~

A sound of electric current crackled.

The next moment, a flash of lightning appeared. The Lightning Release mask monster opened its mouth and spat out a sharp lightning spear.

Crackle~

The sound of thunderbolts echoed.

A lightning bolt streaked towards Seimei from afar.

However, Seimei was prepared. With a 'Body Flicker Technique', he dodged the Lightning Release attack.

However, as soon as his feet landed, water balls were spat out from the Water Release mask monster's mouth, like cannonballs, smashing directly at him.

Seimei had no choice but to dodge again, relying on the Sharingan's powerful insight to narrowly avoid the attacks.

Seeing this, Kakuzu immediately controlled the Wind Release mask monster to fly to Seimei's side, then opened its mouth wide and performed the B-rank ninjutsu - Wind Release: Pressure Damage!

The next moment, a fierce wind assaulted him!

Seimei's Sharingan spun rapidly, carefully discerning the distribution of wind pressure in the air. He twisted his body, hiding himself in the area with the lowest Wind Release Chakra density.

Finally, using this force, he landed far away on the ground.

But this wasn't the end.

The power of 'Wind Release: Pressure Damage' was far more than this. Although he used his Sharingan to hide in the area with lower Wind Release Chakra density and dodged the first wave of attacks, when this fierce wind 'slammed' into the ground, it still caused massive destruction, making it impossible for him to stand firm, and the subsequent damage followed closely.

A large amount of soil and gravel was lifted up and smashed towards Seimei. He kept dodging until, after a few moments, he finally completely escaped the attack range of this ninjutsu.

And at this time, the surrounding forest, which he had cleared once with 'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough', was plowed through again.

"Not bad! You're the first ninja to escape from my combination attack."

Suddenly, Kakuzu's deep voice came from afar.

Hearing this, Seimei was speechless inwardly and thought: "Isn't this what you said to praise Kakashi? How did it end up being used on me?"

But, to be honest, the opponent's combo was indeed powerful.

Although he dodged it easily, it was because he had the Sharingan to observe every movement around him and his own physical attributes were not bad.

If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't have survived the previous attacks before the Wind Release mask monster even showed its power.

One should know that the ninjutsu Kakuzu controlled these mask monsters to perform were not simple. The easiest one to learn was also at B-rank.

Although there was no direct relationship between ninjutsu power and learning difficulty, it was undeniable that the more difficult a ninjutsu was to learn, the greater its power tended to be.

Coupled with Kakuzu's massive Chakra, one could imagine their power.

And yet, Seimei still dodged them. It indeed deserved a word of praise!

Unfortunately, Seimei wasn't interested in his praise at all.

Now, he just wanted to finish off the opponent and return to the battlefield as soon as possible.

(End of Chapter)