Of course you knew—the Flame of the Infested, whose weaknesses had already been thoroughly exposed, couldn't possibly kill Hiruzen Sarutobi and the ANBU with him. But that didn't matter. You only needed to stall them for a while.
By now, your real body had returned to Root using Earth Style. After swiftly killing and absorbing the stationed ANBU forces and recovering from most of your injuries, you retrieved the "The Sealing Scroll of Techniques" that you had previously abandoned. Then, you created six shadow clones.
One of the clones supported your main body while the rest split into five groups and fled in different directions using Earth Style.
Once you were far from Konoha, you emerged from underground with your shadow clone's help—not because Earth Style was too slow, but because your experience with Root had taught you that Konoha had ways of tracking the remnants left behind by Earth Release. If you relied solely on it, you'd eventually be trapped underground by a sealing technique.
On top of that, your chakra had been divided among the shadow clones, and since it couldn't be regenerated, you now needed to find a place to absorb more and replenish it.
But first, you needed to plunge Konoha into utter chaos—so chaotic they wouldn't have time to chase you.
After forming a series of hand seals, you slammed your palm into the ground. A gray carrier pigeon was summoned. You had prepared it during your first mission outside the village, just in case. And now, it was time for it to shine.
You wrote five identical letters, each one describing how Root had been slaughtered, how Konoha had been set ablaze, how the Third Hokage was weakened, and how Konoha's top-tier combat forces had been devastated. You tied the letters to the pigeon's legs, then released the summoning.
The five letters would now be sent to the intelligence departments of the other four great Hidden Villages—plus the high tower in the Land of Rain. You were certain the Four Kage and Nagato would be very surprised.
Konoha... would soon be nothing more than a historical footnote.
...
After finishing all that, you and your shadow clone used Transformation Jutsu to take the forms of a young man and an elderly one. With the young man "supporting" your wounded self, you hobbled your way into the nearest town.
Once inside the black market, you pulled a gold bar from your sleeve, sliced off a chunk, and handed it to your clone. Before long, you had secured a barrier-sealed room and twenty-plus vagrants captured for slave trade.
You quickly drained them of blood and chakra. Your injuries recovered again. The gaping wound in your chest from the Tailed Beast still remained, but it no longer hindered you in combat.
But trouble followed close behind. Flashing that gold bar had drawn unwanted attention. A group of wandering bounty hunters lurking in the black market had set their sights on you.
Your shadow clone was ambushed on its way out. But the difference in strength was too vast—those arrogant fools ended up as nothing more than a snack. With them eliminated, even your chest wound was fully healed, leaving only minor injuries.
Knowing that lingering too long would risk exposure, you immediately resumed your journey.
...
After a mix of walking and hiding, you finally reached the border of the Land of Fire.
Along the way, all five of your other shadow clones had encountered Konoha forces. One of them was even obliterated in a single strike by an enraged Might Guy opening the Seventh Gate. You were immensely grateful he hadn't been in the village earlier...
Judging by the map, you were now near the junction of the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, and the Land of Rivers.
If you could just set out to sea and reach one of the remote islands off the Land of Water, Konoha's pursuit would become as pointless as searching for a needle in the ocean.
Still, days of running and fighting had left you utterly exhausted.
Your body was fully recovered, but your soul had been nearly shattered by Indra's will. You'd lost the ability to refine your own chakra and had yet to recover from that.
You were plagued daily by sharp, unpredictable waves of pain that no amount of meditation or willpower could suppress. Without proper rest, you feared you might just collapse and die from soul fatigue.
You chose a remote town and decided to rest for the night.
...
That night, you opened Root's Sealing Scroll and studied a few more jutsu—hoping to find something that could heal your soul.
Unsurprisingly, there was nothing of the sort. Even Orochimaru couldn't mend damage to the soul, and your condition was worse—you couldn't even generate chakra on your own and could only absorb it from outside sources.
Fortunately, you found several decent sealing techniques that could help make up for your spiritual shortcomings—such as your inability to cast Genjutsu or your extremely low resistance to mental attacks.
But when you tried to learn them, you realized the damage to your soul had drastically dulled your comprehension. You couldn't retain what you read, couldn't internalize it, and certainly couldn't cast it.
Even thinking too hard made your brain feel like it would explode.
Left with no other option, you went to sleep.
...
Despite all your efforts to conceal yourself, to eliminate every witness or potential suspect, your whereabouts were still leaked—thanks to the omnipresent White Zetsu network spread across the shinobi world.
You had just begun resting when Kakuzu tracked you down.
With a bounty of over two hundred million ryo in hand, he clearly saw you—the "Desert Reaper"—as worth more than ever. Your bounty now even surpassed that of Hiruzen Sarutobi!
Even though he'd fought you before and lost a heart in the process—making the risk painfully clear—the miser in him couldn't resist the lure of two hundred million.
He had made his decision: he would gamble everything.
So it was, in the dead of night, that Kakuzu struck—emerging from the ground with tendrils aiming to catch you off guard.
You reacted instantly, spitting out a wave of verdant green flame. Sensing the rapid loss of his chakra, Kakuzu severed the tendrils himself, avoiding the loss of another heart.
After a brief probe, he knew he couldn't win in close combat. He dropped all restraint and unleashed his strongest jutsu in one go. Either he would walk away with two hundred million ryo... or flee.
Kakuzu's form shifted dramatically.
The Wind, Fire, and Lightning masks of his Earth Grudge Fear technique all gathered onto his right arm. Violent energy from all three nature types compressed together, forming a deep-blue energy beam.
Earth Grudge Fear: Final Shot!
In a flash, the building you were in was obliterated.
No—the entire town was leveled!
It was an attack comparable to the Nine Tails' Tailed Beast. Clutching your scorched body, you crawled out from underground. If you hadn't detected the chakra surge in time and fled into the earth—using the Flame of the Infested to offset the majority of the shockwave—you would've died on the spot.
You'd already realized during your fight with the Nine-Tails-cloaked Naruto: while your Flame of the Infested could absorb most ninjutsu and even chakra from other shinobi, it stood no chance against chakra that was highly compressed.
Unless—you compressed your flames the same way.
Seeing Kakuzu about to fire another beam from afar, you moved quickly—forming hand seals and exhaling a massive green fire dragon.
Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Jutsu!
Shape transformation! Multi-layered compression!
The massive dragon, as thick as dozens of people's arms put together, shrank and shrank again in mid-air under your control... until, just as it collided with Kakuzu's beam, it had compressed down to the width of a single arm.
Two highly compressed, violent chakra forces slammed into each other—locked in a brutal power struggle.
This was a pure contest of chakra reserves. The moment either side faltered, they would be swallowed whole by the overwhelming energy.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+100 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo