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Thoughts

Paragraphs are memories

…

…

The purple gas that surrounded her was potent and strong enough to kill a hundred men; yet she stood in the center of the violet poisoned smoke tall and proud, completely unaffected.

"What's the matter Sasori?" she asked, her pink lips twisted into a cold hearted smirk, it was difficult to tell if she was chiding him or laughing at him. "Never seen a basilisk before?" Chiyo gasped as her wide dark eyes starred in both horror and wonder at her temporary partner, the girl's emerald eyes were glowing with triumph, her pink hair fluttered around her head almost like a halo.

"Don't you know what a basilisk is Sasori?" oh how he hate's that tune of voice, "no poison can kill a basilisk, except a stronger basilisk." The way she barred her teeth at him, it was as if she was planning on biting him or something, like she was so sure of her victory. "And I'm one of the strongest of my kind; I have yet to come across any stronger then I."

"Basilisk's are rare," Chiyo whispered. "I had heard they had died in the last Great War, how have you survived after all these years?" Sasori gritted his teeth and readied himself for the next attach, his arms raised before him as he readied his third Kazekage puppet.

"I don't care what you are," Sasori growled out as he made a hand sign "I'll kill you regardless!" Sakura laughed out loud, her voice echoing as Chiyo forced the pinkette to her side. "So my poison won't work on you, but I can still Cleve you in half!"

"Go ahead and try!" Sakura replied, her stance changing to an almost relaxed state "Because my Basilisk blood came from my mother! I'm a half breed idiot!" Sakura collapsed to her knees as Chiyo used the mother and father puppets to attack the third, Sasori narrowed his eyes as he watched the girl tend to her wounds as he and his grandmother fought. He didn't have the time to study the girl, he had to focus on the dolls before him or else he'll end up losing.

"So entertain me girl," Sasori growled out as the three puppets separated. "what else are you?" the mother puppet's sword was barely an inch in length and still crumbling, the father puppet's kunai whip held fractured kunai in it. "What kind of freak of nature are you?" he sneered, Sakura's eyes glowed as she watched him with a mocking light in her emerald eyes and sneer on her lips.

"When it comes to being a freak of nature" Sakura replied slowly, calmly "I'm one of a kind."

"Tch," Sasori raised one hand and formed a familiar hand sign. "Well don't keep me waiting brat, what else you got?" he watched as iron sand started to spill out the mouth of the Kazekage puppet, Sakura's eyes narrowed as Chiyo explained to her just what the difference between a wooden puppet and human puppet truly was. Apparently she didn't like what she heard because her face morphed into hatred and disgust, her eyes narrowed into thin slits as she all but incinerated him with her glare. He let the iron sand form needles around him, the girl's eyes going hard as she watched the iron work before her.

"Sakura-san, run," Chiyo ordered as she readied herself. "We've gotten in over our heads on this one, run and leave this to me." Sakura stood up from where she sat beside Chiyo, her eyes wide and her face blank.

"You're too late!" Sasori cried as the needles flew forward. "DIE!" Chiyo cursed as she forced the mother doll to tackle Sakura away from the barrage of needles. Sasori starred at his grandmother as she held the father puppet before her, a chakra shield before him.

"You added a chakra shield, quite the improvement since the last time I've played with them, however…" Sasori's amber eyes narrowed as he watched the Iron clog and freeze the puppet's joints, making the father puppet useless. "My Iron sand eliminates the use of a puppet, what to do now?" Sasori smirked as he raised his arms and moved his fingers in complicated movements, the iron sand rose up again and formed new spikes.

"You mustn't simply block my Iron Sand, you must doge it completely. Now you have one puppet and two targets, what to do?" Sakura scowled at him as she sat up a little higher in her crouching placement. Sasori smirked as he made another hand sign and let the spikes above the women drop towards them.

"Lady Chiyo!" Sakura called as she placed her hands before her, "Use the Mother Puppet!" Sakura cried out as she formed a strange hand sign.

"Sakura-san!" Chiyo yelled as she readied the mother puppet. "NO!" Chiyo cried out just as the spikes landed. Sasori starred at the two dust clouds some hundred feet away from him, his eyes narrowed as he saw that Chiyo used the mother doll to protect Sakura while she used her own right arm as a shield… because it was a puppet arm with the ability of a chakura shield.

"Your own arm… you've rigged your own body." Sasori mumbled with a frown before chuckling and grinning at his grandmother. "We puppeteers… we definitely think along the same lines." He watched as Chiyo pressed a point on her arm and her puppet limb fell to the ground.

"Yes… that maybe so." Chiyo agreed softly. Sakura snapped around and quickly noticed the mother puppet was still protecting her she alternated between staring horrified at Chiyo and glaring furiously at Sasori.

"The Iron Sand has made its way through, so it's finished." Sasori said as he noticed Sakura look at the mother puppet. "Plus, your puppets are useless. What Now?" Chiyo still remembered the time from when Sasori was still a little boy, making his mother and father puppets holding him… until he lost control of his chakra, the threads snapped and his puppets fell. Even now as she stared at the youthful face of her grandson, Chiyo could still see that sad little boy behind that amused smirk of a grown young man.

"A Puppeteer without a puppet is just a regular person, eh?" Sasori mocked, making his third Kazekage puppet control the iron sand to mold a large triangle, a rectangle and wings for the Kazekage puppet.

"Even for someone like me… the situation seems hopeless." Chiyo mumbled before she turned her old black eyes onto Sakura. "Sakura… you must get away!"

Sakura didn't appear to hear her as she watched the sand take shape and over threateningly. She knew the percentage of survival if they split up, she knew the percentage of survival if they stayed together. Sometimes Sakura really hated how her mind worked.

What I can… do now… Sakura thought while clenching one fist. Is…

Gritting her teeth Sakura called out. "Chiyo-sama… Please use me!" Sakura stepped in front of Chiyo, knowing that what she was thinking was risky for her person but if she wanted to make it out of this fight with the best chances of survival then she had to stay and fight. Chiyo was useless without her puppets and Sakura was useless in the fight because a lack of experience and knowledge of the enemy. Chiyo seemed to come to the same conclusions, her head bowed slightly and she let out a soft sigh.

"I am only one-armed now," Chiyo warned softly. "I cannot support you as much as before!"

"That's fine!" Sakura agreed. "I may not have amazing weapons in my like a puppet, but…" Chiyo let chakra strings form and latch on to the girl. "But what I do have is… my master's contempt for losing!"

Tsunade-hime…? Hehe, Chiyo smiled to herself, feeling just slightly better.

"Sandaime's ability is magnetic force!" the Suna elder warned. "So Iron and Steel weapons are ineffective."

"Perfect!" Sakura agreed, smashing one fist into her other palm. "What I also got from my master were unarmed combat skills!"

"This again…" Sasori sighed as if bored with his opponents. "Useless…" Sakura ignored him in favor of rushing forward; the Kazekage retaliated by forcing his triangular iron sand to face the rushing pinkette. Chiyo yanked her hand back, forcing Sakura to jump and avoid the thing as it soared past her and through the wall beside the entrance. Then the rectangle one came crashing down on Sakura's head as she barely jumped and rolled out of the way. Reacting quickly, Sakura rolled onto her feet, pulled back one fist and let it land solidly against the object that nearly squashed her flat.

This girl…Sasori barely dodged the iron rectangle as it flew back at him and into the wall.

"I'm not done yet!" Sakura snapped from where she was half crouched. Looks like I don't get to awaken the other half… that kind of sucks.

…

…

With another explosion rocketing the cave, the roof was blown nearly clean off. The three people each landed at safe intervals from each other.

"And you call yourself a girl with that unnatural strength." Sasori mocked from his place, Sakura didn't bother replying as she panted for breath. Chiyo stayed quite as she thought about Sakura's chosen fight; she was no longer helping the younger girl. Sasori seemed to notice that Chiyo was out of the fight and that he was now facing the girl alone.

"Iron Sand: World Model!" Sasori hissed as the triangle and rectangle clumps of sand merged only to splitter off into thousands of branches.

Sakura hissed as Chiyo yanked on their new connection, trying to get her out of the way. However when the branches hit, the ground seemed to explode. A large piece of rock flew up and pinned Chiyo to the ground, pinning her good arm and breaking the connection she had with Sakura. When the dust cleared Chiyo feared the worse, but to both Chiyo and Sasori's amazement, Sakura started to stand again. Chiyo called out to her, but she received no answer, instead Sakura swayed on her feet.

"Of course I did say 'that's not all'." Sasori grinned, his eyes slightly narrowed. But since she's a basilisk my poison shouldn't have much of an effect… but then again…

…

"Do you understand Sasori?" Chiyo asked as she pointed at the picture in the book. "The stronger a basilisk is the weaker their body… the second Kazekage found this out when he met with one and challenged one to a Taijutsu match. He won almost immanently, and then the Basilisk had to up hold their own bet and explain everything about their clan to him. This article is one of the few pieces of information that the Kazekage had placed in his diary before he died. The rest of his knowledge of them died with him."

…

Maybe a few of her ribs got broken… Sasori mused as Sakura collapsed to her knees before falling flat on her face. Chiyo seemed to remember as well by the horrified look on her face.

"…If it's her heart or her lungs she'll have a few hours or even days…" Sasori thought before twitching his fingers. "But I have no intentions of letting her get any help." The Kazekage flew word, one blade out and at the ready, he was just inches away from killing the girl when her fist rammed straight through the puppet.

Sasori's hands fell to either side of him as studied his ruined puppet before locking his eyes back onto the pinkette. Sasori's eyes widened slightly as he saw that Sakura was healing Chiyo's arm before she handed Chiyo a small vial and began to focus on her own wounds.

Of course she's a medic. Sasori thought furiously. She must have come up with an antidote to my poison. But when?

Suddenly the memory of the simple sand shinobi he had let live just four days ago sprung to mind and Sasori glared at the two kunochi he was forced to fight.

…I should have known better then to fall for that old trick. Sasori thought as he began to undo the buttons on his cloak. It is rather embarrassing… just how am I going to explain that it took me so long to take out an old woman and a little girl?

"It's been a while since I last used myself in a fight." Sasori murmured, glaring at the two kunochi. It'd be pointless to bring out any more puppets.

…

"Lady Chiyo please reframe from getting hit." Sakura said softly as she healed the older woman's arm. "Contrary to popular belief, a basilisk is only as strong as their diversion skills are. Unlike many in my nano of clan, I stand up and fight; that makes my poison resilience not stronger but still stronger then most people. What I'm trying to say is: I can't get hit by Sasori again for the day. if I do I won't be able to stand up against him, my body can slow the reactions to the poison by half, but they'll still have a reaction in me."

"I see," Chiyo sighed as she straightened in her seat and tried to stand. "That must be some of the information the second took to his grave." Sakura nodded in agreement, her hand brushing against Chiyo's as she turned her back to the elder woman.

"This is the last antidote that I have." Sakura murmured to her. "Now neither of us can get hit by him."

"You can," Chiyo chuckled as she hid the shot up her sleeve.

"True, but I'll be weakened greatly." Sakura smirked over her shoulder at Chiyo. "I doubt we'll be getting much help before then."

…

Maybe there's still a chance for mother's bloodline to awaken? Sakura thought with slight excitement as she readied herself once more. I really want to know what it is.