When Money Isn't Good Enough (Kakuzu Story)

Chapter 20

Kakuzu hadn't taken long to kill the guards who were in front of him, and once they were all out of the way, he continued onwards to find Ketsu. He told himself several times in his head that he was not allowed to kill him, only knock him unconscious and take him back to Pein—but he could at least land a few blows, right? He deserved them, and it would simply be a taste of what to come; and hopefully he'd get the chance to do that as well. But for now he focused on actually finding him, skimming along the ridge and spotting the place where it ended and he'd be able to easily head up to the next one up—to the place Ketsu was no doubt now running along. He needed to be quick; he'd already had to waste time by killing those guards, so Ketsu would have had a bit of a head start. True, it hadn't been much with the speed Kakuzu had killed those other ninja, but he didn't want any space between him and Ketsu—causing him to put on a burst of speed, swiftly jumping up the cliff and landing on the ridge above, glancing around to spot where Ketsu had gotten to.

Only to find no one was there.

Narrowing his eyes, Kakuzu quickly sped forward, checking all along the ridge—back and forth. He went quite a way ahead along the cliff, but he saw no one down the path, and there was no way Ketsu had managed to get away that quickly. Not to mention there would have been tracks; but instead there was no sign whatsoever of anyone, let alone Ketsu. He'd just disappeared; and so Kakuzu doubled back, finding tracks a couple of minutes after doing so. He followed them along until they abruptly just vanished, as if he had teleported or something. But that was impossible—so where the fuck was he?

Though Kakuzu began to think of an answer as his eyes passed over the slopes down below. He couldn't spot any tracks from here, but it wouldn't exactly have been a struggle for him to jump down there and continue on, on one of the lower slopes. Plus, they were hidden more—so instantly Kakuzu jumped back down there, searching for a minute or so before he found another set of tracks, revealing he had headed even further down the slope. So following once again, Kakuzu then found more tracks; this time continuing on the same level, but a lot more carefully than before. Ketsu had started to hide them, though the fact he was rushing meant he was careless and easily left marks for Kakuzu to follow. He picked up the pace, knowing if he just kept up the pace he would catch up sooner or later—but then instantly noted a change in the tracks ahead of him, and slowed to a halt.

There was another set of tracks; someone else had been here. They had been standing a little way below where he had been fighting those guys; and then abruptly right next to them there was an indent in the dirt. No longer footprints; but as Kakuzu took in the whole shape, saw that it was the shape of a body. With the lack of blood, they had to have just been knocked unconscious and then taken away, and Kakuzu immediately thought of Ketsu. Ryoshi, too, had been chasing after him—what if she had caught him? He might have wanted to catch him himself, but there was no point wasting a chance to catch Ketsu if it had been there in front of her, so swiftly he looked up, scanning the surrounding area to see if she was anywhere nearby.

But even that was strange. If Ryoshi had caught Ketsu, she would have contacted Kakuzu somehow. Regardless of whether she was carrying Ketsu's body, Ryoshi would have been able to get up to where he was to tell him. She had known he had been running this way too, and she must have heard the fight going on. Maybe she didn't want to fully carry his weight; but she could have called out to him to let him know. So what if she hadn't of told Pein first; it's not like it mattered. But Kakuzu had heard nothing. Even then, there was that other way—though he'd never experienced it while properly conscious. Ryoshi had said she had formed that connection; that dream thing that would allow her to contact him at any time. It would have taken seconds to state what had gone on to him through that.

So why was there nothing but tracks and silence?

Looking down once more at the tracks beneath him, running his eyes over the indent, he narrowed his eyes as he ran the information through his mind once more; the significance finally occurring to him. The stationary footprints weren't Ketsu's—they were Ryoshi's. Naturally her feet were going to be smaller, after all. So she had been standing still when Ketsu came down the path; but then why was there no signs of a battle? Or even just a struggle? There was nothing apart from that indent; and as Kakuzu took a couple of steps back to get a better look, he froze in place as the importance of what he was seeing hit him. The size of the indent on the ground; the depth of it—the placement of it in general. Kakuzu had thought he needed to be concentrating on what Ryoshi had done with Ketsu. But now he was starting to think it was the other way around entirely.

What had Ketsu done with Ryoshi?

Those were her stationary footprints; and with the way the indent was placed, it made sense that she had been the one to fall over. She was the one that was unconscious, and Ketsu had changed everything. He wouldn't be heading in the same direction now he had Ryoshi; he would be taking her somewhere he knew they couldn't get to her. He'd disappeared off into the forest, leaving no more traces behind. For a moment, Kakuzu couldn't move, staring ahead of him into the trees as he contemplated what to do. What was he supposed to do now? Where was she? How in the hell was he supposed to find her? Several emotions flickered through his conscious as he stood there, but as an explosion went off a ways behind him, Kakuzu finally began to move, turning on his heel and sprinting back the way he had come.

Within a few moments he had found Pein, and sliding to a halt next to him, he saw Pein's eyes narrow as he looked up to question as to the status of the mission; as to where Ketsu was now and where they were holding him—because he hadn't doubted Kakuzu and Ryoshi would be able to catch him easily. So to see the look in Kakuzu's eyes as one of uncertainty and frustration, Pein immediately knew something was wrong—something that was only confirmed as Kakuzu breathed hurriedly,

"Ketsu's taken her, Leader-sama. Somehow he must have taken her by surprise, and...she's gone. Ryoshi's gone."

Everyone else, too, fell silent with this news, unsure how to respond. None of them had imagined this mission would take long. Ketsu wasn't exactly a high-ranked opponent, and then they had had Ryoshi's tracking skills to add onto their own, making it easy to find his location. Then with Kakuzu's determination to get Ketsu, he hadn't left anything to chance, planning for every situation, and no doubt Ketsu would give up the information easily once they got him, and the mission would be over. The idea that something like this could happen...it had never crossed their minds. Ryoshi had been the one with the tracking skills; if one of the others had been taken, she would have been able to find them. But how was it going to work the other way around?

Kakuzu was torn between screaming at them for saying and doing nothing with his words...and wanting to ask for help. To think things through and figure out a solution. But there was no way he could do that right now. There was too much running through his head. His anger began to bubble up inside of him, but in a way he had never experienced before. It was because of frustration. Frustration at the situation, at Ketsu...but mostly at himself.

He'd been so focused on getting Ketsu's bounty...

That he'd lost Ryoshi in the process.