AN: really sorry about the long delay but schools really bad. The time between updates may get longer, but they shouldn't get this bad again, unless I get another test…

Here's the chapter:

Chapter 4: Clay and Puppets

Sasori and Deidara were sitting in the trees outside Konoha watching what they could of the dusk time village over its great walls. Deidara was absently fingering the ring on his right index finger; it had been weird those two days without it after he was brought back.

"We will go in tomorrow morning, it will be easier in the daylight," Sasori sad looking for any intruders on their space.

"I still don't get why we have to do it this way. Go in and be sure to be noticed, but only by the elites, what the hell?" Deidara asked.

"The elites will wait until we leave their precious village before attacking, then we can take them all down easily," Sasori replied boredly.

"It'd be real easy if I just blow up the whole village, show them all my art, yeah," Deidara said watching the guards walk along the wall.

"We don't want to harm the village itself, or the non ninja of the village. And the low level ninja are no threat to us either," Sasori said finally looking at his partner.

"How many you think'll show up?" Deidara asked.

"No idea. Depends on who has missions," Sasori said looking back at the village.

x-X-x

Raven was sitting on the ground breathing heavily, he knew it'd hurt, and he was expecting it. But it wasn't the pain that was the cause of his hard breathing, it was the effort he had to put into the cut, he knew it wouldn't normally be that hard, it was Elvo's doing. And this, this slow healing, it was his fault too.

Lying on the ground beside Raven was his right arm, severed at the shoulder. The tattoo marks on it were glowing a bright white, and the wound at his shoulder wasn't bleeding at all, even though it was wide open.

"Probably take a week. Damn, he thought of everything," Raven said standing up.

He wrapped his shoulder in cloth he took from the last town he visited. Looking down at his severed arm Raven grinned before aiming his left hand at it and sending a ball of fire at it turning the arm to dust. Raven's grin widened as he walked away into the forest, "I'll pick up where I left off in a week, till then I'll have what fun I can."

x-X-x

Vox sat at his desk, arms folded at his chest, eyes unfocused, aimed at the door. Whether he was lost in thought or waiting for something couldn't be determined, though, it was probably a little of both as his doors soon opened and Zool walked in.

"Ah, Master Zool, please have a seat," Vox said, his eyes focusing on his master, his left arm gesturing to one of the two chairs opposite his desk.

Zool said nothing as he sat down, his covered face aimed directly at Vox, as if waiting for the invitation to speak.

"So, what is it you have for me, decided on your captain?" Vox asked lazily, Zool shook his head slightly in response.

"Have our feared enemies risen against us?" Vox asked leaning forward slightly, but again, Zool only slightly shook his head.

"What is it then?" Vox asked intently. Zool leaned forward slightly, extending his left arm closed in a fist over Vox's desk. Vox raised an eyebrow in confusion but the other soon joined it in surprise as Zool opened his fist and two small objects fell and clanked as they hit the desktop.

x-X-x

"Someone better be coming yeah," Deidara said as he and Sasori walked out of the village.

Not two minutes after Deidara's complaint the two were stopped by a group of Konoha ninja. Three ninja stood in front of them blocking their path and four behind. The three in front were unknown faces to the two Akatsuki, but the four behind were recognized on sight, even though it was their first time meeting. Sage, Wiseman, Sin and Edge stood behind the missing-nin.

"It seems you will be getting your fight after all," Sasori said turning to face the Terrors, Deidara doing the same.

On a signal form Sage the three ninja who blocked them jumped past them to stand by the Terrors. There was silence for a long moment before Sasori finally spoke, "well, are you going to fight us, or can we leave?" he asked mockingly.

"Edge, the blond one, that's him, remember what we said," Wiseman said looking at Edge who looked back and nodded.

"I see it. It's… odd it's all I can see, nothing else…" Sage said looking at Sasori.

"What do you mean?" Sin asked following Sage's gaze.

"I don't see him, nothing that you see. Not the blank space of a metal, not even the hollow gap of a dead body, just… nothing," Sage said turning his head slightly form side to side, as if he could see Sasori better from a different angle.

"What do you see then, you said you see it," Wiseman said also looking at Sasori.

"That, him, what's left of him. Nothing form his body is him anymore, nothing but his heart. And I can see it plain as day," Sage said pointing at Sasori.

"Then stay back, give commands to me and Sin, we'll handle it," Wiseman said taking a step forward, Sin following suit.

"What about us?" one of the other three ninja said.

"Cover us, give help if we ask for it or Sage tells you to, get help if it's obvious we're out matched," Sin said looking back at them.

"Don't get help, not if you want a chance to win this war. You're already loosing seven elites, you're gunna be worse off the more you bring, yeah," Deidara said with a grin.

"Let's just do this, Edge, take 'em," Wiseman said pointing at Deidara. Edge nodded and unsheathed all seven of his blades before charging his opponent.

Deidara jumped back and away from Sasori, giving both any room they'd need for the fight. Deidara stopped when he had the room he'd need, but still had Sasori in his sight. A grin crossed Deidara's face as he sent four clay birds flying at Edge. His grin quickly became a frown as all four exploded before they even got close to Edge.

Edge stopped charging Deidara and watched him curiously as eight more clay birds flew straight at him. Halfway between the two warriors they all exploded.

"What the hell? How are you doing that?" Deidara demanded.

"Just like Juret. He made bombs too, he could never touch me," Edge said looking straight into Deidara's eyes.

'Damn, I can't send my art at him… just a little farther away then' Deidara thought as a he made a large clay bird and hopped on its back and started to fly further away form the others, Edge was quick to run after him, his swords following close behind him.

Deidara stopped retreating and turned around to watch Edge, both knowing what was going to happen, and finding himself hoping that it would. Edge kept running at Deidara when he suddenly exploded, a grin appeared on Deidara's face.

Edge was lying on his back breathing heavily, his seven swords scattered around him. He slowly got up, calling his main sword to his hand before his katana surrounded him, he was still breathing heavily, but had a determined look to his eye. Edge wanted to call for help, he knew Sage would know what happened, but they were too far away, he couldn't even see them, he couldn't hear them either. Gritting his teeth Edge charged forward again only for the same thing to happen again, only this time, one of his swords that went flying also exploded when it landed.

"Hahaha, still just like your friend?" Deidara asked. "He may never have been able to hit you, but I'm better, my art's a bang, yeah. I can beat anyone who wants to see my art, yeah," Deidara said laughing.

Edge forced himself to his feet again, calling his swords to him he sheathed them all. He looked up at Deidara with an odd look in his eyes. It was a look none in this time has seen on his face, and the few that had in his old time all died soon after. Edge was mad now, Edge was beyond mad, and it was all focused on one person.

"No. you are not better than Juret! He never had to trick his enemies to beat them; he could do it by showing what he was doing. He didn't need planted bombs," Edge said looking at Deidara.

Deidara's grin wavered slightly, 'how'd he know about my mines? He can't have figured it out this fast…' Deidara thought watching Edge stand up straighter and point his right arm at Deidara.

Before Deidara knew what was happening one of his mines shot out of the ground and flew straight at him. His eyes shot wide open and he swiftly sent a clay bird at it, blowing both up. The explosion was heavy enough and close enough to Deidara that the clay bird he was on shook and he nearly fell off.

Deidara was still regaining his balance and stabilizing his bird when four mines shot out and all collided with the clay bird. Deidara was thrown from its back and managed to land in a tree as his giant mount slammed into the ground and set off several more mines, nothing of the bird was left.

"Damn, I was about to use that too," Deidara said looking at the crater his bird made. Deidara's eyes moved to Edge who was staring straight at him, five of the mines floating in the air behind him. Deidara grinned, "let's see you take this," he said sending out a fleet of clay birds straight at Edge and just as many spiders that crawled down and started going the long way to get to Edge's back.

Just as he had before Edge set all the clay birds off before they even got halfway to him. When the smoke blocking his vision cleared Deidara was gone. Edge started looking around for his foe and as he did, he saw the spiders. With a wave of his hand they all blew up, taking one or two mines with them.

Edge didn't see it until it was too late, Deidara had thrown a kunai straight at one of the five mines around him and hit his mark perfectly. Edge grinned slightly as nothing happened and the struck mine fell to the ground and fell apart, showing it was nothing more than a clump of dirt shaped line a mine.

'Damnit! And now he knows where I am,' Deidara thought as he broke form his hiding spot, sending more birds at Edge.

Edge just destroyed them as he had with all those before them, but this distraction had worked, Edge had only eliminated half the spiders, the rest had reached his back and were all jumping up to the mines. Edge caught the spiders out of the corner of his eye and spun around to see them on the mines and so close to him. before Deidara could detonate the spiders on the mines Edge sent then flying backwards where they exploded in open space, harming nothing and showing that all five mines Edge had around him were fake.

Edge wasn't fast enough to stop the rest of the spiders from going off and when they did they sent him flying back, landing on top of another mine. Deidara was laughing in his tree at the sight and before the smoke of the mine could clear he sent hundreds of his clay birds straight at where Edge was, and was glad to see they made it to their mark.

Finally the smoke died down revealing a large crater where the explosions had all went off. There was no trace of Edge. Deidara made his way through the trees to the scarred land, not sure which bombs had gone off and thinking it better to play it safe. He jumped down when he reached the crater and looked around, there was no trace of Edge or any body at all, and all that was there were small pieces of wood.

Deidara's eyes shot open as he spun around to see Edge standing in a tree, and what could only be called the rest of Deidara's mines floating in the air. Before either said anything all the mines shot straight at Deidara who quickly crouched down and started sending out birds to take out all the mines headed straight at him. He was neither quick enough or had enough clay remaining to make enough birds to get all the mines, thought he got a good portion.

When the smoke was gone Deidara was kneeling on the ground, his body battered and beaten, and a mouth on his chest exposed. He was breathing heavily holding a wad of clay in his hand and looking at Edge weakly. "Bet your friend couldn't do this, yeah," Deidara said cutting the strings keeping the mouth on his chest closed and forcing the clay into it.

Edge started running when he heard Deidara's words, but the explosion was too big, he had no chance of escaping it. All the ground shook from the blast, and the small clearing the two were fighting in was increased is size tenfold.

x-X-x

Sasori waited until Deidara and Edge were clear before shedding his cloak revealing his large form body, the face-like shell on his back and the large scorpion tail. Wiseman and Sin both stood where they were, waiting for Sasori to make the first move, a move he gladly took. The cloth over Sasori's mouth vanished into shreds as the mouth behind it opened impossibly wide and shot out a bladed projectile straight at Sage.

The object didn't hit its mark as Sin shot his arm out and took the hit in his left upper arm. "So this is puppetry," Sin said as the dart struck him.

"I'll get 'em outta the shell, you handle that, scroll said he used a potent poison," Wiseman said glancing at Sin.

"Please, it's me," Sin said easily as he pulled the dart from his arm and dropped it to the floor.

Wiseman nodded and charged straight at Sasori, drawing one of his swords as he did, holding it in his right hand. Sasori's tail came right at Wiseman who stopped running forward to block the tail with his sword and quickly grab it in his left hand. When Sasori pulled the tail back, intent on preparing for another strike he inadvertently pulled Wiseman closer to him.

Wiseman took his chance of momentary surprise to hit the mask on Sasori's back as hard as he could with his katana. Nothing happened. He quickly jumped back as Sasori's large left arm swung around at him shooting four needles at him. Wiseman went intangible as the needles reached him, sending all four through him harmlessly.

The tail came at Wiseman again and he blocked and grabbed again, only this time he grabbed with both hands, leaving his sword on the ground. As soon as he was pulled in the air Wiseman went intangible again, and with him Sasori's tail took on the same state. Sasori started waving his tail around trying to shake Wiseman off, but he just shut his eyes and focused and in a few moments the base of Sasori's tail seemed to shatter into nothing and fell off, flopping the ground lifeless, Wiseman barely managing to land on his feet.

"Well, good to know that still works," Wiseman said breathing heavily looking at Sasori.

Sasori was just looking back and forth between his lost tail and Wiseman, not sure how he had lost the appendage. Sasori raised his left arm at Wiseman and the large piece shot off at him. Wiseman stood his ground and caught the hand in both of his. Everyone watched intently, waiting for something to happen.

And then it did. The arm Sasori fired disappeared in what could only be called an explosive disintegration. There was no blast though, no force let off, but the pieces that disintegrated away left in all directions. There was nothing left of Sasori's hand.

"Nice trick. Where'd you put it?" Sasori asked turning his body to face Wiseman.

"Everywhere," Wiseman said slightly out of breath.

"How'd he do that?" one of the three ninja asked looking at Wiseman.

"When he goes intangible he doesn't just do it, his cells don't just become intangible, he moves his atoms faster than normal. It's how his clothing and weapons go intangible too. He has enough control to move fast enough to not be touched, but slow enough that the atoms don't get over energized and go everywhere," Sage said.

"Huh?" the ninja asked looking at Sage confused.

Sage signed, "He made all the little things that make up the arm move so fast they couldn't stay together and were sent all over the place."

"So you destroyed my arm, pulled my tail off… how does the poison feel?" Sasori asked leaning back on his legs slightly.

"It doesn't," Wiseman said running at Sasori again, sword back in hand.

Sasori shot another dart out his mouth that Wiseman easily deflected. Wiseman saw his target and hit it perfectly, stabbing Sasori through his right hand and into the ground, pinning him down. As soon as he was pinned Wiseman hopped up on his back and grabbed the mask at the two eye holes.

Sasori was quick to pull his hand away form the blade and shake Wiseman off, but it wasn't fast enough, his shell had already vanished. Wiseman rolled away form Sasori, getting to his feet as fast as he could, his one sword now out of reach. From the gaping hole in the back of the puppet a figure jumped out and landed further away from Wiseman and the others.

"You purposely took longer than needed on the hand, just to throw me off," Sasori said taking a scroll out of his robes.

"It's what I do," Wiseman said breathing heavy.

Sasori didn't respond as he summoned his puppet from the scroll, a large one in a large black cloak. "When I was brought back, all my puppets were too, even though they were all destroyed in the fight that killed me. So you will all fall to the Sandaime Kazekage, as so many before you have," Sasori said with a smirk.

The puppet shot straight at Wiseman its right arm wound back, three giant claws folding out form its cloak over the hand and arm. Wiseman stood still waiting for the attack which never hit. When the puppet was nearly in range of hitting Wiseman it was cleaved in two at the waist. The pieces of the puppet hit the ground with a dull thud and a third form Sin stood beside Wiseman, axe in hand.

"Didn't forget about me, did'ja?" Sin asked hefting his axe.

"You should be dead, I hit you," Sasori said irritated, he seemed more upset about that than his puppet.

"We're soldiers, we don't die easily," Sin said simply.

Sasori's response came as a black sand like substance came from the puppets mouth. Wiseman went intangible and took the black sand head on, being untouched by it. Sin wasn't as lucky as Wiseman and received several severe injuries from the attack. The black sand on his skin and in his wounds seemed to sizzle away and the wounds healed, he just looked at Sasori expectantly as Wiseman disintegrated the puppets head and broke it into a few more pieces. . "That can't be all you got. I've heard horror stories about you guys, and so far the Alliance was harder," Sin taunted in a flat tone.

"I am no fool. I learn from my mistakes. You will meet your end now," Sasori said taking his cloak off revealing his own puppet body. "No matter how good you are, everyone has a limitation, they all die," he said opening the panel on the right side of his chest as he took out the second scroll on his back. The scroll unrolled revealing hundreds of puppets, all dressed in the same black cloak as the Kazekage, and hundreds of chakra strings shot from the open panel in Sasori's chest to attach to the puppets.

"Sin, I know it'll hurt, but you know our best shot to do this," Wiseman said scanning over the hundreds of enemies they now faced.

"If I want to survive the day I only have one choice, yes. Get back by the others," Sin said as he started going through hand seals.

"So he is a wise man, he knows when to run. You don't seem so smart," Sasori said plainly as he watched Wiseman run back to Sage.

Sin's response was slamming his open palm into the ground. Moments later dead bodies crawled out of the ground, hundreds, thousands, a whole army of them. "The puppets, break all the puppets," Sin said easily.

The dead bodies responded instantly, each one was a warrior in there own right, several were even ninja, and even though the puppets had countless tricks among them, they were no match for the sheer number of skilled warriors that flooded upon them.

When the ground and air around them shook violently the war of minions stopped. Nearly all of Sasori's puppets were gone, Sin could handle the rest o his own and so he sent what was left of his yard away.

"That was Deidara. His last attack. He's dead now, but then, so is your friend," Sasori said simply.

Sin gritted his teeth and charged Sasori and the handful of puppets remaining blocked his way, he cut them down easily. As Sin cut down the last of the puppets Wiseman ran past him straight at Sasori, one blade in hand and grabbing the second as he ran past. The bladed rope at Sasori's abdomen shot out at Wiseman and passed right through him, Wiseman cut the rope once the blade had passed through him.

Sasori released the last of his puppets and charged Wiseman back, his left hand shedding to reveal a blade beneath it. Sasori lunged forward with the blade and Wiseman knocked it away with on blade and passed right through the surprised Akatsuki, revealing the concealed Sage following in Wiseman's shadow.

"Found your heart," Sage said before ramming a dagger into Sasori's chest, right into the only part Sage could see, the only thing left of the real body.

Sasori fell in a heap on the ground. Sage and Wiseman looking at his dead body, Sin soon joining them back in his normal form. "Where are the three that came with us?" Sin asked looking at Sage.

"Getting Edge, he's still alive, but I can't tell what condition he's in," Sage said handing Wiseman the dagger that had killed Sasori.

x-X-x

Vox leaned forward and picked up the two rings, "Sasori and Deidara. Two down then," he said looking over the Akatsuki rings.

Zool's head jerked back towards the door and Vox looked up at it. He quickly pocketed the rings and called for whoever it was to enter, Pein walked in.

"They're dead," he said simply.

"Yes, Master Zool was just telling me. Anyone know the body count?" Vox asked.

"Not what was planned. One or two, if anything," Pein said.

"Well, who do you think will be able to last long enough to do any real damage to them then?" Vox asked standing up.

"I'll send Hidan and Kakuzu in the morning," Pein said before leaving.

x-X-x

Sakura was rubbing her forehead, this is not what she expected to happen, and she also didn't expect it nearly as fast. She was standing in Edge's hospital room. He was in critical condition but looked like he would make it, he was sleeping now.

"Are you sure it was Deidara and Sasori?" Sakura asked again, she had distinct memories about those two, she was praying they were really dead.

"Yeah, and only me and Sin were hit by the poison, so that order you made can be canceled," Wiseman said from the wall by the door.

"Right, I still have to check you two out for that," Sakura said looking up at Sin who nodded.

"Any ideas on what's going on?" Grim asked from the widow.

"None I can discuss at the moment, but when I'm done checking up Sin-sama and Wiseman-sama I'll want Strag-sama and Sage-sama in my office," Sakura said looking over at Grim.

"Let's just get that over with," Wiseman said pushing off the wall and waling towards Sakura.

"Right, follow me then," Sakura said leaving the room Wiseman and Sin following behind her.

x-X-x

Raven looked around the town. Everyone was staring at him and it was pissing him off. He knew it was because of his arm, but that didn't make it any better. He was eagerly awaiting the day the rest of his limitations were weaseled out of. But until then he'd have to resist the urge to kill everyone who looked at him funny. It would be a hard week.

x-X-x

AN: incase you couldn't remember Juret is the real name of Dea, the one who self destructed to kill Gaze.

Hope you liked it and sorry again.