“All Done, Let’s get going.” With those words, Kazuo gave the three Chunnin under him a slight nod before using the body flicker jutsu to vanish from his position and appear tens of meters away.
The three though still stumped by what they had just witnessed, followed immediately after Kazuo without any delay. Their bodies flickering before they also appeared right behind Kazuo.
The group of four leaf ninja who had just left behind a chaotic capital as well as a multitude of corpses, continued on their way back.
This time, Kazuo had increased their pace even further as they tried getting away from the capital as quickly as they could.
Staying close to the Capital was just asking for trouble.
Finally, after around three hours of nonstop running, the group arrived close to a small village where Kazuo planned on spending the night.
Unfortunately, fate didn’t seem to want to follow his plans.
As Kazuo slowed down his speed, he started turning his head toward his chunnin, it was at this moment that he saw it.
On their left side stood a man.
A man that Kazuo had known even before he had entered this world.
He was wearing a black headband and a face mask as well as a cloth that covered his hair and brown skin as well as a pair of green eyes with red sclera surrounding them. The man looked more like a monster covered in human skin rather than a Human.
‘Kakuzu’ Kazuo thought to himself as he immediately started circulating his chakra to make a clone, he didn’t have enough time however in an instant, his body was engulfed by a fire, wind, and lightning jutsu.
Managing to see what had attacked him from his right side, Kazuo saw three large hairy monsters with white masks on what was presumably their faces.
‘This fucker.’ Kazuo thought before stopping.
‘Why am I still alive?’ Kazuo thought to himself before he saw it. Something unbelievable was happening right in front of his eyes.
The entire world had turned black and white in an instant before every scene started turning back literally, his ruined body returned to its previous place before it started moving in reverse for around a minute.
Though he didn't know of it, his left eye had changed as this was happening.
It had turned into a bright orange color and inside of his pupils, a clock had appeared, a clock that was turning back.
‘Is this the ability of Time Loop at rank 2? Partial Loop?’ Kazuo thought as he felt himself regain control over his body.
Similarly, as soon as the feeling returned to his body, his eyes changed back to normal once more.
He was now around a minute before his time of death.
‘How can I use this, How can I use them? I don't stand a chance in hell against Kakuzu however I should be able to at least escape him.’ Kazuo thought to himself as he stopped on the spot, the three churning behind him stopping as well.
Turning towards the three, Kazuo gave them a light smile.
“Go ahead there’s someone chasing us, I’ll take care of them and then we can meet at the village close to here.,” Kazuo said, his voice clearly giving the feeling that he didn’t want anyone to question his orders.
“Yes sir,” Azuma replied before he quickly nodded at the other two and used the body flicker to go on ahead.
Kazuo meanwhile felt his lips curl even further upwards before he quickly used the Body flicker jutsu to turn the other way around, taking a longer path towards the hidden leaf.
With speed that far surpassed the previous one he had used with the group, Kazuo continued to run ahead.
Minutes passed before he suddenly felt a feeling of danger coming from behind him.
It was pure unadulterated blood lust.
Turning his head, he saw ‘Him’ again.
Kakuzu was chasing after him.
‘This bastard.’ Kazuo thought as he quickly circulated his chakra in a set pattern.
‘Paper Style: Paper Clone.’
‘Paper Style: Paper Illusion.’
‘Earth Style: Hiding like a mole technique.’
In almost an instant, Kazuo performed four different jutsu.
His real self quickly hid underground whilst under the protection of his paper illusion and his shadow clone took his place whilst a paper clone appeared next to it though it was under a paper illusion as well, making it invisible to Kakuzu’s eyes.
“Finally decided to stop running brat,” Kakuzu said, his voice sounding aged and gravelly beyond anything Kazuo had heard anyone or anything sound like.
“I don't believe I was running.”
“I never thought I would meet someone like you from the leaf,” Kakuzu said instead.
“Sending your comrades to their deaths so that you could escape,” Kakuzu said as four bulges appeared on his back.
Those bulges quickly expanded further and further until Kakuzu’s skin could no longer stretch any further and tore apart.
There were four masks on these bulges that in reality were four monsters made entirely of black silky hair.
“That’s quite disgusting,” Kazuo muttered to himself as he saw the monsters.
“Is it? Well, It's the last thing you will see.” Kakuzu replied before the four monsters launched themselves towards Kazuo at the same time.
Meanwhile Kazuo, the real one was running away underground.
‘I need to create as much time as possible so that I can escape.’ Kazuo thought before he felt it.
It was slow at first but it quickly got faster and faster.
‘Poison? When?’ Kazuo thought as he quickly scanned over his memories.
‘Yesterday when we stopped, that bastard gave me a rations bar.’ Kazuo thought as he remembered taking a ration bar from Kisuke when he had woken up.
‘Fuck. Fuck!’ Kazuo thought as anger started swelling inside of him.
‘Calm down, he should have an antidote.’ Kazuo thought before stopping in place.
In an instant, he gathered his chakra and overloaded his brain, causing it to explode instantly.
Time once again turned back.
Opening his eyes, Kazuo found himself back in time once more.
_________________________________________________________________________
Here’s the chapter, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
A big announcement of sorts:
I'll be releasing a new fanfiction, that's the main reason there weren't uploads last week, I got around 10 chapters ready for it that should be released around Wednesday.
It a fanfiction about Tensura or "That time I got reincarnated as a Slime"
Reborn as a Goblin in Tensura.
Mc will be reincarnated right next to Rimuru. That's all I'll say for now.
I'll try to release another chapter tomorrow but no promises.
As always, Lots of Love