Sad end, eh? My thought was good riddance, Asuma, you were too weak to be a jounin. And far too weak to be the Third's son. If this wasn't an underperformance then I don't know what is. Other than that, it was a good fight, though, and Hidan's technique is very interesting, although still no hint what might be behind the actual immortality.

Kakuzu's technique, though, wasn't so interesting and while the two losers Asuma and Shikamaru dragged along are probably worse ninja than Konohamaru, they could still have deserved a bit better ending than loose hands controlled by tentacles... Although I guess such a simple technique makes sense since those tentacles seem to be Kakuzu's special ability (they should have at least had a female ninja in the company; a girl bound by those tentacles would have been funnier).

Shikamaru has a really tiny chakra reserve. So tiny it's kind of risky to send him out on missions at all. They might have to give him a desk job in an office next to Tsunade's to keep him safe and sound.