Stitched || Kakuzu

Ch. 9 - Hell Is Where The Heart Is

Hideki stopped his movements and glanced at Nozomi, who was standing next to Kakuzu. She stepped forward, tears in her eyes. "It's always been just the two of us. Are you just going to leave me behind? I'm scared. I don't want to be alone. Please, brother."

Suddenly, the ground started to shake and Nozomi screamed, grabbing hold of Kakuzu before she could fall over. The thousands of dead bodies around them started to disintegrate and fuse with the chakra ball. WInds started to blow violently, as if they were standing by a tornado. Kakuzu's eyes narrowed slightly - the whole setup looked very unstable.

Touma grinned, a wild look in his eyes as he watched the chaos unfold. "It's ready, Hideki! Finally, we can commence!"

Whatever feelings of remorse he may have felt for those couple of seconds automatically dissipated as Hideki smirked. Ox. Snake. Ram. Once he formed these hand signs, clouds began to fill the crater. Nozomi cowered back as more and more clouds filled the air, making it hard to see anything. She couldn't locate her brother and he was just a couple feet in front of her. She couldn't even see the chakra ball anymore.

"Kakuzu-san?" She was nearly shaking and she couldn't see the bounty hunter, although she was standing right next to him. The male didn't answer. Further back, she could hear Hidan still fighting with the group of ninja.

"Earth Style: Earth Grudge Fear."

No sooner had she heard those words, Nozomi was flung to the furthermost point away from Kakuzu, a rope of stitches wrapped around her mouth so her screams of fear were not heard. Once she was leaning against a wall, the stitches retracted and she looked down, only seeing the lower part of Kakuzu's arm attached to her. The sight alone was enough to almost make her faint out of shock. He could detach his body parts just like that?

The mist started to fade away, but it wasn't enough for her to see clearly. She could make out two bodies fighting - Kakuzu and Hideki. He had thrown her out of the fight. Between the two fights going on, Nozomi couldn't figure out what to do. She had to do something! Unbeknownst to her, she was about to do something - the very thing she didn't want to do.

Her father appeared behind her with a smile. "Are you ready, my dear Mimi?"

Nozomi could barely react as she turned around to see her father's smug face. His hands were already formulated in a hand sign. "Kakuzu...san..." Her eyes widened as she could feel herself falling back, more like being pulled back into the chakra ball.

The mist was still quite thick as Kakuzu relied on his senses to fight Hideki with one arm. There was something off about his assailant's attack pattern. It was different from before, almost as if they were moving in a circle. When he heard his name being called, he yanked his arm back as one of the masks ripped off his back and blew a strong gust of wind, the mist disappearing. There was a force pulling against his stitchings. Nozomi cried in pain as she felt like she was going to be ripped in half. That's when Kakuzu realized it.

While they had been traveling and were stuck together, the stitches were growing inside of her. They were wrapping around her bones, making her almost completely connected to him. If he pulled on her any harder, he was going to kill her by literally ripping her body apart. The jutsu her brother had used was a curse, but there had to be some sort of backlash on him because it continued to work even when he wasn't around.

Hideki jumped back and looked at Kakuzu. The tanned male was standing in the center of the seal Hideki created by dragging his heels in the earth as they fought in the mist. Everything was finally in place. Using chakra strings, the seal was activated, immobilising Kakuzu. Without the use of his dominant arm, he wouldn't be able to use any major jutsus. As a hunter-nin, Hideki had studied the Akatsuki, starting with Kisame before making his way through the rest of the known members. He was able to determine strengths and weaknesses. Kakuzu's weakest point was genjutsu, which Hideki was very skilled in. The mist he created was completely laced with genjutsu, allowing his movements to become visibly undetected until the last possible moment.

"Great job, my son. Now, we shall witness the rise of the phoenix." Touma shouted with laughter. "Finish off the final step."

Hideki nodded and pulled out a scroll, perform a hand sign, there was a small puff of smoke, but nothing appeared. He stepped into the circle, walking towards Kakuzu. His seal weakened the earth and any earth style jutsus while the victim was still inside the seal. Touching the stitches coming out of Kakuzu's right arm, he released his previous jutsu, which freed Nozomi. The female screamed as it felt like her whole body was being mutilated. She watched as yards of stitching were pulled out of her arm and the wound started gushing out blood. There was... so much blood and it just kept coming out.

Hideki then made a fist as if he was holding something and in one swift move, jabbed his fist towards Kakuzu, his hand stopping in front of male's chest. The male sputtered as the mask fell off his face and blood dripped onto the ground in front of him. A sword began to visualize, going through the male's chest and directly through his heart. Kakuzu could barely roll his eyes. Of course, a Kiri ninja couldn't be complete without his sword. The seal began to disappear and Kakuzu fell to the ground face first, limp.

Hidan turned away from his fight just as he finished killing the last ninja and his eyes widened. The money hungry bastard was finally down for the count. The blond brat was actually able to kill him?

The chakra ball began to waver and Nozomi watched in utter shock as she saw Kakuzu go down. "Kakuzu-san!" She screamed as she felt herself being pulling into the chakra. "Please! You have to get up! You have to save me please!" Her cries were silenced as she was completely engulfed by the chakra ball. The ground began to shake again and dark clouds covered the sky as thunder crashed and lighting bolts filled the night sky. Finally, everything went black.

Nozomi could feel herself floating, but she couldn't tell where or why. Was she dead? Did the jutsu work? "...Where am I?"