Team Renjiro ran in different directions at a fast speed. However, they were all very exhausted. Kakuzu could match Renjiro's speed. While Kaminari and his clones were faster than Fujin and his teammates.
After flickering 8 times, Fujin's chakra finally hit a low. He hid behind a tree and took deep breaths. Using the last bits of his chakra, he made a few hand signs.
Kaminari arrived almost immediately after Fujin. He saw the tracks left behind by Fujin and saw where he was hiding. He went around the tree and appeared in front of Fujin.
An evil smile appeared on his face. He said, "You brat destroyed half of my right ear. I will make you pay a thousand times."
He expected Fujin to be afraid. However, there was no hint of fear on Fujin's face. He was surprised. Fujin spoke with determination, "Ever since I became a ninja, I have always been determined to give my life for the village. Death doesn't scare me!"
Kaminari was stunned. But soon, he broke into a huge laughter, "Hahahahahaha"
He looked at Fujin with a cruel look in his eyes and said, "Brat, let me educate you. Death is kind. I will show you how miserable life is. By the time I am done with you, you will be begging for death! Hahaha."
Immediately a scared look appeared on Fujin's face. Kaminari's evil smirk grew bigger as he extended his arm to grab Fujin's neck.
At the same time, Hoka and Mieko were also caught by Kaminari's clones. They seemed too exhausted to fight back. Kaminari's clones approached them.
Soon after them, Renjiro was also chased down by Kakuzu. Kakuzu's Lightning mask appeared behind Renjiro and pushed him to the ground and pinned him down. Kakuzu appeared and said, "Your mastery of Water Element is very good! I will take your heart and replace my Water Mask with your heart!"
Renjiro's eyes widened as he processed this information. Threads appeared from the Lightning Mask and drilled into Renjiro's chest. However, Renjiro smirked. Kakuzu immediately had a bad feeling!
Renjiro exploded under the Lightning Mask. Kakuzu moved away quickly, but his Lightning mask wasn't able to. It took the full brunt of the explosion. The mask cracked. Kakuzu was stunned! He lost one of his hearts!
He watched where Renjiro exploded and thought, 'Shadow Clone Explosion jutsu! But when did he make a shadow clone? Was it when he was escaping? No, I was keeping an eye. He didn't have any chance to make a shadow clone. So when did he do it?'
Kaminari's Lightning clones approached Hoka and Mieko. As soon as they reached within range, both Hoka and Mieko exploded. The clones couldn't react fast enough and were caught in the explosion. Both were dispelled!
Though Lightning clones didn't transmit information, the main body could sense when the clones were dispelled. The clones were dispelled when Kaminari's hand was extending towards Fujin. Kaminari realized that both his clones got dispelled and became distracted for a fraction of a second.
Fujin noticed it and he exploded as well! Kaminari noticed and immediately moved backwards. However, his right forearm felt the explosion. Its skin was burnt!
His face became ugly. He thought in rage, 'When the heck did he create a shadow clone? He didn't have any chakra left to be able to create shadow clones!'
He looked around the area but found no signs of someone escaping. He moved towards where his other two clones were dispelled. But once again, he couldn't find any signs of Mieko or Hoka escaping.
After a few minutes of fruitless search, he ran back to where the fighting had happened. Kakuzu was inspecting the area.
He appeared behind Kakuzu. Kakuzu immediately noticed the half-blown ear and a burnt right eye. Kaminari also noticed that Kakuzu's cloak was destroyed.
Kaminari said, "The ones I chased were all clones! There were no tracks that showed someone running away."
Kakuzu said, "Same here. The Renjiro I chased and escaped turned out to be a shadow clone. Bastard exploded it when I caught him."
Kaminari said, "You too? The same happened with that wind user. I am guessing it was the same with the other two as well. But when did they create the clones?"
Kakuzu replied, "We were probably fighting the clones the whole time. Though they tried to hide their tracks, signs are showing that four people escaped from this route.
And their clones all escaped in opposite directions of the Land of Fire's border. It looks like they wanted to lure us away and buy some time to escape!"
Kaminari was surprised. Immediately he became very angry. Blood vessels could be seen on his forehead! He said, "No wonder those two brats were so good with Earth release and Water release! They were Renjiro's disguised clones!"
His chakra flared up as he yelled, "Those bastards think that they can make a mockery of us? Kakuzu, you check their tracks, and I will bring you to them! Those bastards can't escape from us!"
Kakuzu nodded. Sparks appeared on Kaminari's body. He grabbed Kakuzu and moved along the path Kakuzu said rapidly. They were taking the shortest route to the Land of Fire!
After running at max speed for 5 minutes, they finally saw four silhouettes. Kaminari immediately shouted, "BASTARDS! YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN MAKE A MOCKERY OF ME?"
Team Renjiro heard the shout and stopped. They immediately took a battle stance. Kaminari dropped Kakuzu and rushed towards them.
Kakuzu followed him, but thought, 'Something is off!'
Kaminari was much faster than Kakuzu. He reached them in a blink of an eye. Renjiro unsheathed his sword and attacked Kaminari. Kaminari grabbed a kunai and flowed lightning through it and attacked Renjiro.
Renjiro blocked his attack. At the instant their weapons clashed, Fujin, Hoka and Mieko flickered next to Kaminari to surround him from all sides!
Kaminari was surprised by this maneuver. He had a bad feeling. Immediately, all four exploded!
Kakuzu sensed it and stayed behind. Kaminari, however, was completely caught in the explosion! He released Lightning from all over his body to form armor, but he wasn't proficient in such an application of Lightning. It helped reduce the impact of the explosion, but he was hit nonetheless!
After a second, Kaminari jumped out of the dust cloud created by the explosions. His clothes were blasted. Almost all the skin on his body was burnt. He was bleeding a lot as well.
Kakuzu appeared next to him and said, "The trail was left behind by clones! Since this was the shortest route to Konoha, we assumed that they escaped here. To think that they would set up another trap here!"
Kaminari looked at Kakuzu in rage and yelled, "BASTARD! You led me into a fucking trap! And then hid behind and watched me getting hit!"
Kakuzu looked at him and said, "I didn't ask you to rush ahead like a moron. It was your stupidity."
Kaminari yelled, "Asshole, are you calling me a moron? It was your dumb head that led us into this trap in the first place!"
Kakuzu didn't reply, but Kaminari kept yelling at him! After yelling for a bit, Kaminari turned around and walked away.
However, in the next instant, an arm pierced through his right lung. Kaminari looked down in horror. Threads drilled into his body as Kakuzu began taking his heart.
Kakuzu said, "I guess they didn't tell you. My previous partners died because I couldn't stand them and killed them."
Kaminari was stunned. A rogue ninja from Kumogakure, who was on the threshold of reaching S rank, died without anyone seeing.
Well, not without anyone seeing, as two pairs of eyes were watching this act. The first pair of eyes belonged to Zetsu. The other belonged to Renjiro's shadow clone.
Fujin's clone sensed when Kakuzu and Kaminari were chasing after them. He relayed the information to Renjiro's clone who used the minimum amount of chakra needed to create a shadow clone. The clone moved out of the path and hid underground.
After killing Kaminari, Kakuzu removed his heart. Threads gathered around that heart and a new Lightning mask was formed!
Renjiro's clone watched the whole process. Surprisingly, Kakuzu didn't feel anyone keeping an eye on him until he was done with the process.
After the Lightning Mask formed, it entered into Kakuzu's body. Knowing that any further hunt was meaningless, Kakuzu retreated away from the Land of Fire. Renjiro's clone dispelled itself to transmit the information back.
Long away from where Kaminari died, Team Renjiro entered the Land of Fire.