Inevitable
Chapter 26

"Team Asuma,Izumo, and Kotetsu, I'm assigning you to a mission of replaceing and capturing twoof the Akatsuki."

The listed ninja andShizune looked at Tsunade with shock clearly written on their features.

"Lady Hokage, areyou sure we'll be enough?" Ino asked, fear and doubt evident in her voice.

"The Akatsuki arestrong, but together, you are stronger. There's power in numbers, and it's evenbetter if those numbers have a lot of power themselves too," she replied.

"Which ones arewe going after?" Asuma inquired, not feeling an ounce of fear at all.

"Their names areHidan and Kakuzu. Hidan has white hair, red eyes, and has been reported carryinga scythe and Kakuzu is apparently a creepy looking man with stitcheseverywhere. We got the info from Kirigakure, whose two-tails jinchuriki gotcaptured."

"We're finallybeing assigned an important mission," Kotetsu and Izumo cried silentlywith joy.

Tsunade glared at themslightly annoyed. "What? Getting my sake isn't important enough?"

"N-no, gettingyour sake is an honor," Izumo stuttered.

"We meant that wewill be helping out even more by eliminating threats and keeping our team matessafe," Kotetsu explained quickly, trying to avoid as much of the bad-temperedHokage's wrath as he could. He saw her tense up and then sigh.

"Alright.Anyways, be as careful as you can. We will be sending backup if you contact usfor help. They were last seen heading toward the village on the main road fromSuna, about two hours away. Go and stop them," she ordered.

"Yes," theyall bowed before running out of the building and through the village gates.

The blonde womanwatched them from the window.

"Lady Tsunade, doyou think it was a good idea to send only five people on a mission likethat?" Shizune spoke up.

"I don't know. Ijust hope that they can make it of out alive. I'll be devastated if anythinghappened to them."

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"Well, well, lookwhat we have here," Hidan smirked, looking at the Konohagakure ninja squadthat had landed before him, or as he liked to call them: fresh sacrifices. Heand Kakuzu had taken a break from training with the other Akatsuki members tohunt down some ninja from the bingo book. They had just killed a bunch of monksand captured a man called Chiriku, who was one of the twelve guardians or somecrap like that; Hidan didn't really care. Kakuzu was actually still inside thebuilding that they were all next to, receiving ryo from the capture of thefamous monk.

"You're Hidan ofthe Akatsuki," the oldest ninja glared, getting in a fighting stance.

"And you're ninjawho are messing with the wrong Akatsuki member," the Jashinist held outhis scythe. The younger ninja got into a certain order and went into differentstances as the criminal looked on with amusement. He saw the oldest one chargeat him with blades with glowing air around them.

"Asuma-sensei!"most of the team yelled. The younger one with his hair pulled back in a spikyponytail was the only one of that group who was calm about Asuma running athim. Hidan smirked and prepared to move out of the way, but was shocked when hecouldn't move. He looked down and saw that the ponytail kid had a shadowattaching them.

Asuma's blade slicedright through his neck. The albino’s head fell from his shoulders to theground, rolling away slightly. The ninja squad members loosened up, satisfiedat the quick victory. "Wait, don't get too careless. That was too easy ofa win, especially when it comes to the Akatsuki," the shadow user said,glancing suspiciously at Hidan's unmoving body.

"What do youmean, Shikamaru?" the blonde girl asked.

"He's right,Ino," the biggest teen in the squad narrowed his eyes at the Akatsukimember. "It was too quick."

"You little pestsare right," the Konohagakure ninjas stared in horror at the talking headof what was supposed to be a dead Hidan. They watched as the limp body suddenlygot up and walked to where the head was, picking it up and putting it on the topof the neck where Asuma had sliced through. "Damn, I need Kakuzu to sow metogether again," he growled. "KAKUZUUUU!"

"Don't be such arude partner or I will kill you," the other member came out of thebuilding.

"I refuse to bepolite to anyone, especially to you," Hidan narrowed his eyes. Kakuzu hadjust noticed the company and had his attention set on them, ignoring theJashinist.

"I recommendleaving now before you set off my temper and get killed," he saidemotionlessly. He really didn't want to go through the trouble of fighting whenhe had bounties to collect. That was when he saw Asuma and the mostly whitecloth that stuck out from under his Jonin vest. "I know you fromsomewhere."

The wind user and theAkatsuki member glared at each other for a few moments. "I'm AsumaSarutobi."

"You are worth thirty five million ryo ifI capture you," the man stepped forward slightly. His mind had changed; hewas now wanting to fight so he could get that money.

"Let me doit," Hidan cut in. "That is, once you make my head connect to my bodyagain."

Kakuzu sighed withannoyance and sent out small cords from his arms, reconnecting the body partsof his annoying partner. After it was finished (with the ninja squad watchingin mild fear and disgust), Hidan moved his neck around a bit to make sure itwas readjusted properly. While he did that, he drew a circle with a triangle init from his blood, which the other team just saw as some weird meaninglesspattern. "Thank you for waiting, now it's time to die," he smirked, launchinghimself toward the squad.

He saw shadows movingalong the ground and was sure to dodge them all, not wanting to be immobilewith Shikamaru's shadow jutsu. "Team formation B!" Asuma called.Everyone scattered and circled around Hidan, each trying to get close andstrike him. He was great at dodging, but so were they. He couldn't get any ofthem with his scythe.

"Asuma-sensei!Look out!" Shikamaru warned. The man looked up and just barely leaped outof the way as cords stabbed the ground where he was just standing.

"Stay out ofthis! It's my fight," Hidangrowled. His partner stared at him boredly.

"You're takingforever. We need to get this done and over with so I can collect thebounty."

While they wereslightly bickering, Asuma took the opportunity to charge silently at Hidan.Unfortunately for him, the albino was still on his guard and flicked out hisscythe, the blade slicing a small cut in the attacker's cheek.

"Sensei!"Ino gasped, readying her healing chakra.

"It's alright,it's only a small and shallow cut," the wind user assured.

"It only takesone drop of blood," Hidan smirked evilly. He walked to where he drew thestrange shapes in the ground, and the ninja squad looked on in shock and fearas he licked the few drops of Asuma's blood off of his blade. His skin turnedblack with a few white splotches, the main one being on his face. His blood redeyes stood out even more against his extremely shaded body.

"What… What isthis?!" Izumo backed up slightly. Kotetsu took out a kunai and gripped ittightly, holding it on front of him just in case Hidan suddenly got some extrapower or was made of weapons now or something, though it was evident that hewas solely focused on Asuma.

"Now, should I torturehim a lot or a little?" the Jashinist thought out loud.

"You only gotlucky that one time. You won't be able to get another hit on me," Asumasaid arrogantly.

"Oh, you're sosure about that, are you?" Hidan took his blade and cut a deep wound inhis side.

"That'scompletely pointless," Choji was confused for why the Akatsuki seemed tobe very proud of self mutilation. "He's only hurting himself." Thatwas when Asuma let out a loud gasp and fell on his knees, holding his side inthe same place as Hidan had hurt on himself.

"Haven't youfigured it out, kiddies?" the man smirked. "I'm immortal, which meansI can't die. Hurting myself isn't even painful anymore. It actually feelsgood." He sliced the back of his left knee as he saw Asuma try to get up.The wind user fell back down with a pained grunt before slowly crawling towardsHidan. "It's not a good idea tohave hope here. You're going to lose."

"Asuma!" thethree teens cried. Hidan smirked and punched himself in the ribs hard, breakinga few of his bones.

"You guys should...Get out of here…" Asuma wheezed.

"But-"Shikamaru started to object, only to be interrupted by his team leader.

"Just go!"

"Izumo,"Kotetsu whispered, at a loss of what to do as co-captain of the team.

"He's our teamleader; if he tells us to retreat, then we should… Right?" Izumo answered.

"I thinknot," Choji stepped forward. "Shikamaru!"

"Right!" theponytailed teen performed a few hand seals and the shadows around him startedbending to his will. "Push him out of the symbol. I think that's the keyto stopping that bond of pain."

"Then let's go!Ino-Shika-Cho formation!" Team Asuma shouted.

Hidan noticed theattitude of the squad go from discouraged to determined. He noticed shadowscreeping along the ground once more and laughed. While he was in his symbol,petty elements, ninja tools and shadows couldn't reach him. "Nice try, butyour dumb tricks won't get me now," he smirked.

"Oh yah? Howabout that?" Shikamaru said, pointing behind the immortal. Hidan's eyeswidened when he saw Choji turn into a spinning human boulder that was headingright for him. He wouldn't dare move out of his symbol on his own; it wouldbreak the bond between him and Asuma and it would be a pain to re-establish itsince he was supposed to be dead by the time the bond breaks the first time.

He crouched down,hoping for the best as the Akimichi plowed into him. Against his will, he gotmoved out of his symbol by just a few inches, breaking the link between him andAsuma. He looked over and smirked as the oldest male on the squad was still onthe ground, wheezing and trying to get up.

"Finishing thiswill be easy," he said confidently.

"Not sofast," Shikamaru interrupted his silent pre-victory inner party. "Youshould look where you're standing."

Hidan looked down andmentally swore when he saw a thick shadow connecting him to the spiky-hairedteen. 'Damn it! He caught me! And what isthat old geezer doing about it?' He looked over where Kakuzu was leaningagainst the building, counting money. 'Thenagain, I told him not to interfere. Whatever, I'll win this alone somehow.'

Shikamaru knew that hedidn't have much chakra left to hold the jutsu. "Ino, now!"

"Mind-transferjutsu!" The blonde announced before she left her body slumped on theground, invading and taking over Hidan's body. "Ew, this is really gross.It's like I'm covered in blood but I can't actually see it."

"Ino, pleasehurry up before you run out of chakra and leave me, Kotetsu and Izumo to fightan immortal," Choji said, picking her left-behind body off of the groundand putting it against a tree.

"How do we fight an immortal," Kotetsuasked.

"Goodquestion," Shikamaru answered.

"You don't,especially when his partner gets bored of him failing to fight off a pettysquad," Kakuzu, who previously stuck in the background, was suddenly nextto Hidan with wires ready to attack his partner and kill the soul of theintruding girl. This had turned out to be a pain to wait for Hidan after all…

"Ino, get out ofthere!" the other squad members cried.

"Release!" shecalled, her soul leaving Hidan's body a millisecond before Kakuzu's wiresstabbed through him, ripping his body apart slightly.

"Hey! What thehell do you think you're doing?! I may be immortal but I'm still against youtrying to kill me!" Hidan yelled in fury.

"Then don't getpossessed next time," the old man replied, glaring at his partner.

"You say it like it'scontrollable," the albino hissed. "Anyways, if you want to help thendo what you want. I'm so pissed off that I don't even care who gets killed bywho."

"As long as Idon't have to wait around any longer," Kakuzu glared at the squad.

"Retreat!" thenearly-forgotten Asuma commanded before falling over again.

Hidan marched over tothe man. The Konoha ninjas looked on in horror as he swung his scythe down,cutting open the wind style user's chest and stomach. "Asuma!"Kotetsu yelled.

Izumo turned intowater that quickly flowed to Asuma, picking him up and carrying him away fromHidan and back to Shikamaru, Ino and Choji. "Anyone know a teleportationjutsu?" he asked urgently. The others shook their heads and glared at theenemies who were slowly advancing toward them. Right when the two were about toattack, they suddenly stopped in their tracks.

'Kakuzu, Hidan, come back to the baseimmediately,' Pain's voicerang in the Akatsuki members' heads.

"But we're in themiddle of something," Hidan growled.

'Don't argue, just get here. If you protestagain, I will cut off your head and limbs and pin you to the wall.'

"Okay, okay, calmyour-"

"I wouldn'tfinish that sentence if I were you," Kakuzu interrupted. He turned to theopposing ninja. "It was a shame we couldn't finish you off and collect themoney from your bounties." the two turned around and ran off at inhumanspeeds.

The attention of theninja squad members was turned to the dying man, who was gasping for air andholding back screams of pain. "Sensei!" Ino panicked, instantlyperforming medical ninjutsu, trying to heal him.

"It's no use.Don't waste your chakra," he wheezed.

"But-"

"Ino,"Shikamaru shook his head. She stopped and dropped her hands to the ground.Tears filled her eyes and she started shaking.

"If we'd left thefirst time he told us to, he wouldn't be dying," she sobbed.

In the limited time hehad left, Asuma spoke soft and encouraging words to each of his students,telling them he was proud to have taught them, and in his last breath, askingShikamaru to take care of the child that was currently growing in the woman heleft behind, Kurenai Yuhi. The light had finally dimmed in his eyes, and theyall bowed their heads to mourn. Asuma was dead.