Chapter 32: Kakuzu

"Shikamaru, your big brain got a plan yet?" I ask tiredly once we regrouped."Yes, and it will work." Shikamaru says confidently. "Gonna need you to hang in there Ami, your speed will be what wins it, you're the only one who's faster than him. Get distance and use an arrow to take out the earth mask monster." He orders me and I nod, beginning to gather chakra while he relays the plan for the others. "Asuma, you back up Ami and work in sync with her. Aoba, you use your paralyzing kunai, get him to freeze in one place, even if just for a moment. Ino, trap his mind and help aid in keeping him still. Raido, you use your katana to go in and take out the Fire mask. Choji, you're the distraction, keep Kakuzu's focus and attacks on you. Kotetsu and Izumo, you join in with Choji but keep your distance. When the two masks are destroyed, Ami and Asuma will go in for the final heart. I'll be back-up to make sure everyone stays out of the line of fire and help further restrain his movements if needed." Shikamaru tells us all quickly. It's a good plan, and should work well."You stupid idiots, he'll see right through your stupid fucking plan. You can't kill him!" Hidan yells indignantly at us from where his head is tied on Izumo's belt. "And someone untie my hair, this hurts like a bitch!"We ignore the talking head and everyone moves out at the same time. I summon my bow and take aim at the earth head. I use one of my spiral arrows and channel as much chakra as I can into the shot so it can fly at the strongest and fastest speed I can muster with how tired and in pain I am. I wait for the opportune moment, and fire it off right when Aoba secures most of Kakuzu's body with his paralysis. I watch as the arrow flies through the air, and see that Kakuzu just barely manages to move the inky monster enough to have the arrow only crack the mask but not shatter it completely. It's wounded, but not dead. Raido on the other hand was successful in killing the fire mask, but now he's being attacked by Kakuzu and getting over powered quickly. Kakuzu is using the black tendrils to stab into Raido and trap him. Asuma and I move in while Shikamaru helps get Raido out of the dangerous area. Asuma cuts the tendrils holding Raido so Shika can pull him out. Everyone else retreats back, giving the two wind users room for our attack. I can see Ino going to heal Raido now behind us."Together!" Asuma calls out to me, and we both strike Kakuzu's main body with as strong a wind attack as we can. Kakuzu couldn't fully harden his skin in time to block my attack, as I got there a split second before Asuma did. My attack landed while Asuma's didn't, though mine was not strong enough to kill Kakuzu by itself. I took aim with my fans, ready to obliterate the enemy as Asuma charged up his blades, ready for another attack."You two are a pain in my side. I don't accept defeat easily. However, If I'm going down, you're both coming with me!" Kakuzu yells out in rage as both Asuma and I prepare for the next attack. The earth monster suddenly causes an avalanche to fall on all three of us, and I use my fan to send off a micro blade attack targeted at the remainder of the monster's mask at the same time. The mask crumbles, but Asuma and I are both in immediate danger of the massive amount of rubble falling on us. Kakuzu wraps his arm tendrils around Asuma's arm when he tries to run to escape, trapping Asuma in place to die with him. I have only a split second to react, so I instantly transport to the marker on Asuma's back right as a boulder lands on his trapped arm, crushing it. We both are getting barraged painfully by the rubble and are about to be buried alive, and I use the last spurt of chakra I have. I transport both of us away before any more boulders can hit us, sending us back to my marker on Shikamaru."Ahhh!" Asuma scream out in pain and agony, and I frantically look at him, thinking that I was too late to save his life. I can see with my Byakugan, his entire arm has been crushed completely, his bones are also destroyed. "Asuma Sensei!" His former genin team call out to him, and Ino immediately starts to use medical ninjutsu to heal him and ease the pain in his arm."Oh my god..." Ino breathes out, assessing his arm. "It's completely crushed." She says sorrowfully as she works to contain the pain.I breathe out tiredly, and use my eyes to look for Kakuzu's body in the rubble. "He's still alive. Barely, he's dying, but he's still alive in there." I quietly tell the two teams around us."Leave it to us." Aobo says, moving in using an earth jutsu to move the boulders. He takes his kunai and slips it into Kakuzu's remaining real heart and effectively kills him. Two down. "We did it." I breathe out in exhaustion, falling backwards and feeling the after effects of the fight catching up to me. I took a lot of damage from Kakuzu while we fought hand to hand, his hits were intense."We have to get Asuma back to the village, immediately!" Ino calls out in a panic. I force myself to sit up again, and Shikamaru is instantly by my side, helping me up."Thank you, Ami. I saw what you did in there, you saved his life. Without you, he would have died here today. Thank you." Shikamaru says, tears forming in his eyes. He doesn't know how true those words are."I would never let my friend die." I saw seriously to him. "He was my Sensei too. I couldn't watch him be crushed to death if I could still move to save him.""You almost got crushed as well. You could have left safely yourself, but you didn't, your eyes were always on Asuma. Actually, you were watching him the entire fight." Shikamaru says, a hint of suspicion. It's true, my eyes were locked on Asuma the whole fight, and I stayed by his side as often as I could.I turn and lock eyes with Shikamaru for a moment, trying to convey a message that I couldn't verbalize. "I'm glad it worked, for the most part. He needs to go back to the village to get treated immediately though." I say quietly to him with sincerity, then turn and speak louder to the others. "Ino, Kotetsu, Choji. You guys get Asuma back to the village immediately, leave now." I order, and they gather him up and start to carefully head out, Ino continuing the medical ninjutsu as they ran. "The rest of you, gather up Hidan's body parts, but keep them separated. We need to bring him back to the village for questioning and imprisonment." I say, then turn to the head still tied to Izumo's belt and smirk. "Sucks being immortal, doesn't it? You'll be begging for death after dealing with Ibiki." I say creepily to him."Hey! Let me go! I don't know nothing!" Hidan screams out in rage, then changes his tune to a condescending calm one with a chuckle. "You're out of luck. I'm the newest Akatsuki member, I only just joined. I don't even know what their goals or plans are." He then starts to laugh maniacally."Someone find the member's rings before you seal up the bodies." I call out, and the others give me a confused expression. Raido, who's injured but healed enough to travel by himself, grabs the one off of Kakuzu and Aoba brings over Hidan's hand to me. I take the ring off of it and add two more rings to my collection. Five down. Five to go. I grin as I put them in my pocket, and go to take a step back to home and realize I can't move. "Oh..." I start to fall but Shika catches me and holds me up. "I'm tired. That was almost as bad as training with Guy Sensei." I chuckle out tiredly."Almost?!" Shika asks me in shock, "Is that how you're so insanely fast and freakishly strong? You're just like Lee with the weights, and like Neji with your genius strategies and precision. Your whole team is unreal." He says with a sigh.1"Thanks for catching me, Shika. Might need your help getting home." I say sheepishly as he smirks at me."So troublesome." He scoops me up in his arms once all the bodies are sealed and ready for transport. We head hack to the village and Shikamaru takes me straight to the hospital when we get there.7"Can you check in on Asuma for me and keep me updated please?" I ask with slight desperation. I want to know his outcome, I need to know that his wound isn't fatal. "And can you send someone to get my brother for me?""You got it, Ami. Get some rest for now." He smiles kindly at me before leaving. The medics work to start healing my injuries and wrapping me up. I fall asleep as they are working on me, exhaustion too much to stay awake anymore."Ami, wake up." I hear Shikamaru's voice from next to me. I pause for a moment, wondering why he's in my home and waking me up. Then I remember what happened and sit up quickly, staring hard at him, wincing in pain at my own sudden movement. "Asuma's awake." He says seriously to me."You don't look happy about that." I say cautiously, nervous for why he looks devastated."His arm... it couldn't be saved. Not even by Tsunade. He'll never be a shinobi again." He says grimly."Perhaps not..." I say softly. "But he's home. And he's alive. There were worse outcomes in that situation. And everyone else made it home too." I start to feel happiness in my heart, and pride brimming in me at my success. I changed Asuma's fate. I saved my friend and sensei.He smiled at me, "Thanks to you Ami. Thank you so much. However you knew that Asuma was going to be targeted, I won't ask. I'm just thankful. Get some more rest, I just wanted you to know he was ok." He says genuinely to me with a smile while I look at him with wide eyes. He's too damn smart sometimes, and he caught me in my act. I just nod and go back to sleep since I was still exhausted, not waking again until later when Neji comes in."Back in the hospital again?" Neji teases me, but I can hear the worry in his voice."Ya know, it's like moving out on my own. Only worse and a terrible relocation." I joke back half-heartedly as I wake up some more. "I'm not as bad as last time. Honestly, I've had worse injuries from Guy Sensei's training than this. I should be fine to leave now.""I'll be the judge of that." Tsunade says, walking in the room at that moment. "You once again exhausted yourself and took a beating. However, your mission was a success. Good job Ami. Neji, could you give us the room for a moment." She says to Neji. He gets up and bows respectfully to her before he leaves. I nod my head when I look around with my eyes activated and see no one is listening. "You did a damn good job, Ami. He came back alive.""He came back broken though..." I say, then shake my head, "No, you're right, he came back alive. That is massively different. He can't be a shinobi anymore though. Could he..." I trail off, an idea coming to my mind. "Could he be an advisor? A village elder? The ones you have now need to be replaced soon anyway." I say casually and she widens her eyes at me."Replace the elders?" She asks me for clarification."Yes. They were complicate in a lot of Danzo's plans. They are a part of what's wrong with the village. They will need to retire soon." I say with an edge. I know that there are only two ways for them to retire, either by choice, or by force. I'm fine with either, they have turned a blind eye to a lot of problems in this village.She narrows her eyes at me for a moment, obviously thinking very hard. "I'll take that into consideration. Asuma would be a good advisor, but for now he's in recovery for the foreseeable future." She clips out. I nod my head and she leaves. Neji returns, this time with Lee and Guy."Ami! I hear you defeated two Akatsuki members, and even brought one back alive! That is amazing!" Lee says enthusiastically to me."Yeah, one of them was almost like fighting Sensei here. It felt like a training session from when we were kids." I chuckle to him and his eyes grow wide in understanding. We got beat up a lot by Sensei when we were starting out. It never really stopped either, Sensei was always stronger than us."I am so proud of you, young Ami. You represented Team Guy and the Will of Fire." Sensei says surprisingly sincerely, no trace of his over-exuberance in his voice.1"Thank you, Sensei." I say in shock for a moment. I start to smile genuinely at him as my brother also looks on in shock, before Sensei starts to strike a 'nice guy' pose and both our expressions drop, know what's coming."It was only under my great tutelage that you excelled this much. It was my youthful training that readied you for this moment." He goes on for longer, bragging about himself and youth while Lee idolizes him. Neji and I just sigh. It was almost a nice moment.I get released later that day out of the hospital, but I headed over to see Asuma before I left. He's in the room alone with just Kurenai when I walk in. "Asuma Sensei? Is this a bad time?" I ask him before entering."Ami." He says warmly to me, inviting me in. "Ami, it will never be a bad time for you. You saved my life out there. Twice." He says, and I look at him for a moment in surprise. "I don't know how you knew to do what you did early on, but I'm grateful. I thought for sure he had my blood. Hell, I thought for sure you sliced my own head off. That was terrifying." He chuckles nervously at me."Yeah, sorry about that. I think I gave Shika a heart attack then, but genjutsu just isn't my specialty. Ningame can help me cast them, but it gets cast on everyone around, so you all had to think I killed you for a moment." I say sheepishly, and Kurenai's eyes widen."You did a genjutsu? You and your brother spent a month just barely learning how to dispel them with me, it's not your strong suit at all." Kurenai says in shock."Yeah, it was a lot of training. It still isn't what I'm good at, by any means. I'll stick to taijutsu, it's more my speed." I say with a grin."Speaking of, your speed is something else too. I'm almost curious who's faster at this point, you or your Sensei." Asuma laughs out. I can see the movement of the laugh caused him pain."Don't forget Lee. I think I'm still slower than both of those two, they're in a league of their own." I admit with a giggle. "How... How are you?" I ask him sincerely."I'll be fine. I'm alive, and I'll be able to see my child grow up." He says proudly, and I look to Kurenai in 'shock'. They haven't officially announced they were pregnant yet, I'm guessing I'm the first right now."Congratulations." I say to her with a smile."Thank you, Ami. Our child will have a father thanks to you, from what I hear. You're the first person we've told." She admits to me kindly. I stay and chat with them a bit more before heading back home to Neji."You have a visitor." Neji says when I walk in the door. "They just arrived a few minutes ago. In your room." He says this mysteriously, so I go to my room curiously."Ami Hyuga." A small hawk asks me, and my eyes widen at it as I nod in confirmation. "Good, I have a message for you, please take this." It holds its leg out for me, and I detach the small note. It waits around for me to read it, so I assume it was instructed to wait for a reply.1'Ami, I completed what you started. Orochimaru is dead now, though he never recovered from your fight and he was already dying. I will gather a team and find my brother now. This hawk is named Haitaka, he will be able to send and receive messages. I can't write often, but you can summon him for emergencies.'"Sasuke..." I say with a smile."Master Sasuke asked me to have you sign a contract, though I am only used for messaging, I cannot help you in battles." Haitaka says, then a small summoning contract scroll appears."I understand, thank you very much." I thank the hawk politely, signing the contract. "Can I send a message back with you?" I ask, and the bird nods. I hastily scribble down a note, informing Sasuke of my recent battle and that we have now taken down four active members of the Akatsuki. I send the note off with Haitaka and go to sleep, thinking about how much I have changed already. I did it, I actively saved a life, and not just by accident like with Hayate.