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Chapter 4
Our favorite shapeshifter bit out a curse as a clay spider near his foot detonated, causing him to go flipping away in a geyser of sand. He pulled his face out of the dune he landed in while spitting out a mouthful of sand and turned towards the blond man(?) that had more than likely was the cause of the explosion. With his eyes comically wide and tick marks on his head, the homunculus shouted at the bomber.
"HEY! Watch where you set those things off you idiot! I almost died again back there!"
Deidara smirked at Envy and said, "That's the general idea, hm. You should feel privileged to die by my art, especially since your interfering caused us to lose the jinchuriki we spent so much effort to catch, hm."
Envy pointed an accusing finger at Deidara and shouted out, "I'm totally going to kick your ass, you explosives loving, verbal tick using, girly-man!" (The irony of that statement was so thick you could cut it with a kunai.)
Deidara gained a tick mark on the back of his head and was about to either retort; throw more explosives, or both, before Sasori reminded the group of his presence. "Enough," he said calmly though with a bit of annoyance lacing his voice, "We've wasted too much time. Deidara," he turned towards his partner, "as soon as you see an opening, take it an end this," the blond bomber opened his mouth to protest but the redhead silenced him with a glare before saying, "Don't even try to argue. You used much of your clay capturing the jinchuriki earlier and you're also injured. We'll need to fight smart if we are to finish this and recapture the Ichibi's host. My techniques should slow this man enough that you can finish this with one blow, so don't miss your opening." He stated calmly before walking towards the artificial human.
Envy studied the man before giving him a wide smirk, "Heh, seems you've got a better head on your shoulders than Goldilocks over there (Deidara gained more tick marks while gritting his teeth), but do you honestly think you've got a chance against me?" he finished boastfully. In truth he was hoping to buy for time in order for Kankuro to come back with some support. The changeling knew that up until now he had been incredibly lucky in his fights, and going up against two S-rank missing-nins would most likely lead to a very painful and humiliating defeat.
It didn't help when Kurama decided to butt in, "Kid, I'd try avoid using my chakra unless as a last resort. These men are after the Tailed Beasts, and it would be for the best if we just let them think that I'm still reforming from my 'death' three years ago."
Envy inwardly grimaced at the fox's logic, knowing he had a point but it made the current fight that much harder if he couldn't use one of his aces. Meanwhile, Sasori was pulling out a scroll from the inside of his cloak. "You talk a big game, but let's see if you can back it up," the puppet master stated as he unraveled the scroll to reveal a storage seal. "Normally I only save this one for the strongest of opponents, but I feel as though it would be unwise to further underestimate you. I wonder how you'll do against this one? It's my favorite because he was so hard to kill." With that, the redhead released the scroll's contents and a brief cloud of smoke obscured him from view. When the smoke cleared, the Akatsuki member was seen to have a human-looking puppet draped around his shoulders. The puppet took the shape of a man with dark hair and wore a black cloak with a furry collar.
"Meet the Third Kazekage," Sasori said with a smirk as the puppet barreled towards the homunculus. Envy gave a startled yelp as he ducked to the side when the puppet's arm opened up to reveal a crap load of blades that aimed to take his head off. Let it be known that while Envy was a sadist by nature and had an extremely durable body, getting stabbed still hurts like an S.O.B.!
The puppet gave a jerk in midair and its other arm opened up to reveal a storage seal that activated causing a multitude of puppet arms to spring forth and attempted to grab the agile homunculus. 'Nuts to this!' Envy growled out in his mind and he started gathering chakra in his palm and started to rotating it, the technique coming to him easily despite over a century of forgetting about it.
"RASENGAN!" Envy yelled as he barreled towards the hoard of arms. The artificial human tore through the wooden limbs as if they were made of paper with a bright blue ball of chakra spinning in his hand. He almost made it to the puppets main body but the puppeteer pulled it away just in time.
"Most curious," Sasori mused out loud, causing a momentary halt to the battle, "I wonder how you know the Fourth Hokage's jutsu? As far as I'm aware, only four people know of that technique, two of which are currently dead."
The Jealous One gave a nasty sneer at the man, mainly due to the reminder of his previous demise, and snarled, "That's for me to know an' for you to never find out. Now let's actually start fighting for real, or is that all you've got Puppet Boy?"
Despite the insult, the redhead just kept that eerily calm look on his face as he simply shrugged his shoulders and set his puppet in an attack position. "No matter," he said, "Though I must thank you. Once I've added you to my collection, I'll have another powerful technique to utilize." As he said this, an iron, grain-like substance started flowing from his puppet's mouth and he finished, "Just like the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand!"
Envy narrowed his eyes at the floating sand. He was able to deduce that the puppet must have once been the actual Third Kazekage of Suna, but Sasori somehow used his corpse as a modified puppet which allowed him to utilize some of the former leader's abilities. If it wasn't for the fact he was in a life-or-death situation, Envy would have laughed at the irony of the situation. Here he was, someone who enjoys pulling humans along like puppets on strings fighting someone who does it literally. As it was, the androgynous man tried to find an opening to attack the puppet master, knowing that attacking the puppet itself was easier said than done.
Before the former jinchuriki could get 10 yards, however, a clay bird suddenly dive-bombed him and he was just barely able to avoid the brunt of the explosion, though having a charred arm to show for it. Envy sent a death glare at the most likely culprit as the burns on his arm healed in a crackle of electricity. Burning the blond man's grinning face into his mind, Envy made a mental note on making his death extremely long and agonizing. He'd already been burned enough times to last several lifetimes, thank you very much!
The homunculus was driven from his homicidal thoughts as a spike made of iron sand shot at him and nearly stabbed him in the abdomen before he turned away in time. Envy growled lowly in frustration. It seemed that he was left with no other choice but to go after the puppet itself and then work his way to the puppeteer. To quote a certain lazy homunculus and a clan full of genius shadow wielders, 'Troublesome.' Suddenly, the iron sand started forming a large cloud and Envy had a sinking feeling forming in his gut. Before the next attack could be called, the homunculus formed a quick cross seal with his fingers and prayed his gambit would pay off.
"Iron Drizzle," Sasori called out as the cloud started pelting bullets of compressed iron sand at the homunculus. Dust started to kick up as the amount of bullets picked up in intensity. Sasori smirked as he heard the iron bullets impact off a body, but it quickly turned into a scowl as he heard a distinct 'poof', which meant that his opponent had somehow managed a replacement technique even though there wasn't any objects in the nearby area to replace with. He then remembered how the dark haired stranger made a cross-shaped seal before the attack started.
'He made a Shadow Clone and was able to replace himself with it before the attack began! But where…' the rest of the redhead's thoughts where interrupted as a shadow started to form on the area right in front of the Third Kazekage. The puppet master pulled his creation back, but not in time to avoid one of its arms from being hacked off at the shoulder by an extremely large blade being wielded by his foe. Before he could get a good look at the blade, it disappeared in a puff of smoke into a storage seal engraved on the smaller man's wrist gloves.
Envy smirked as his plan worked to an extent. He had quickly formed a Shadow Clone as the sand started to be fired at him and threw the clone into the air before making a quick Substitution with it and using the dust cloud to hide his attack while quickly unsealing his newly acquired sword. While he meant to cut the puppet cleanly in half, the Jealous supposed that weakening it worked just as well. He quickly resealed the blade, not knowing if the puppet's control over iron sand could extend to work on blades, and exited the small crater his body made when he landed while making a 'come hither' motion to Sasori.
Honestly, the homunculus was having a lot of fun with this. While before he doubted his abilities in front of two S-ranked shinobi, he found the muscle memory from his ninja days was starting to quickly return to him, as well as the instincts and thrill of battle. He actually berated himself for being so worried earlier. So what if they're S-ranked enemies? That didn't stop him as Naruto, and it shouldn't stop him now as Envy! So caught up in his musings that he almost missed the black sand rising up into the air.
The iron sand then formed a sort of rectangular shape and made an attempt at crushing the former blond. Envy cursed as he attempted to dodge, but in the process his left leg was severed. It was at this moment as his leg regenerated that he felt a slight burning sensation run through his body before it dissipated. 'Poison,' Envy guessed as he recalled Shino telling him in his former life on how the insect user battled Kankuro and how his puppet had poison soaked weapons. It figures that there are no original ideas out there. It was at this point the shapeshifter came up with a devious, if not relatively simple idea. More than likely Sasori didn't know the extent of his regenerative capabilities, and would think that the poison would weaken or kill him quickly.
The Jealous quickly put up a face that made it look like he was struggling to move and, just as he predicted, the puppet master sent his prized work in close to finish the job. "It seems even your advanced healing is no match for my poisons," Sasori gloated as he made the Kazekage raise a hand that held a sword made of iron sand, "Don't worry though, your death will come before the poison finishes its work. I'll make you death swift and clean so you'll be in prime condition for when I make you a part of my human puppet collection."
'Keep talking, you cocky prick,' Envy thought as he watched the puppet creep closer, still pretending to be paralyzed by the toxins in his bloodstream. 'Just a bit more…NOW!'
With that, the homunculus lunged forward before Sasori could react and punched his fist straight through the puppet's torso. "Heh, looks like you got careless," Envy chuckled as he used his other arm to punch the puppet's head clean off and then ripped the remainder of the puppet off of him one piece at a time. Before long, all that remained of the Third Kazekage was a pile of timber at the homunculus' feet.
If looks could kill, the one Sasori was giving the homunculus would have reduced him to a smoldering pile of ash. As it stands, the puppeteer simply hissed out, "You destroyed one of my greatest works," before that eerie look of calm came over his face once again as he said, "It seems that I've been taking things too lightly. You should feel privileged," he said as he began undoing his cloak and tossing it aside to show the world his body, much to Envy and Deidara's surprise, "It's been awhile since I used myself." He finished showing that his entire body was actually that of a puppet, with a long bladed cord wound up in the stomach cavity and both a stack of scrolls and two fan like blades sticking out of his back. Most curious was the red cylinder in his chest area that had the kanji for 'scorpion' written on it.
"Man Sasori, you've taken you 'art to a whole 'nother level, hm?" said the Iwa bomber, impressed at the depth his partner was willing to go for his art.
'Huh, that explains why he looks so young, despite being an S-ranked shinobi who's most likely been missing for years now," Envy mused, readying himself for the next round of the fight.
Two nozzles suddenly emerged from the human puppet's hands and a stream of fire erupted from them, vaguely similar to the flamethrowers of Envy's world. "Oh, HELL NO!" the Jealous shouted as he dodged out of the flame's trajectory. There was no way that he'd just stand there and take getting burned again. WAY too many painful memories there.
One of the scrolls on the puppets backs broke apart as the stream of fire dissipated and then the bladed cord suddenly shot out of the man's stomach. Instead of dodging to the side, Envy was just barely able to grab the cord just under the blade before it jammed itself into his head. He then tried to yank on the cord and pull the redhead in so he could finish him but noticed that the cord was too slick for him to get a solid grip on it, seeing as it was coated in poison. Instead, the puppet-man shot at him on his own accord with his fan-blades poised to shred the artificial human.
Thinking fast, Envy once again summoned the Executioner's Blade from his wrist seal and used the sword to slice off the oncoming puppet's head. Before Envy could even think he had won, the puppet's head easily reattached itself back onto its body and Sasori continued his charge until the blades dug into the homunculus' ribs.
'Oh, f! $ me!' Envy cursed in his mind and he kicked the puppet away and let his healing factor deal with the damage and the poison before getting ready once more for another attack, only to notice the former Suna ninja had retreated a ways and had a very irritated look on his face.
"It frustrates me how much time it has taken me to take down one single opponent. How in the world can I explain this later?" Sasori said as he reached for a scroll on his back with one hand and undid one of his breast plates with the other. "It frustrates me so much that I have to use my trump card against a single opponent. But I can't help but wonder…" he mused as he unsealed the scrolls contents and a multitude of chakra strings shot out of his chest into the smoke left from the unsealing, "…how that regeneration of yours stands up to this?" with that, the smoke cleared and showed an entire army's worth of red cloaked puppets, each with their own instrument of death and a chakra string connecting them to their master.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets," the puppet master announced as his army got ready to attack.
"…Oh, F!#$ ME AGAIN!" Envy cried out in frustration as he got ready for what was undoubtedly going to be a ginormous pain in his ass.
AN: So, here we are again and I hope I made this fight scene both realistic and enjoyable to you readers. I tried incorporating a version of Naruto's brawler style of fighting with Envy's underhanded and ruthless style of fighting, as well as plenty of unpredictability. I plan on finishing the 'Rescue Gaara' arc next chapter, as well as the fateful meeting between Envy and Gaara, as well as the initial confrontation between our reincarnated Jinchuriki and Team 7! Wonder how that'll turn out (evil chuckle)? Up next will be another chapter of YFBB so stick around. Also, make sure to Read, Review, and all that good stuff because the more you guys talk to me, the more I can improve and hopefully update more. P.S. Belated Happy New Year! Woot!