When Deidara had recovered sufficiently from his own surgery, Pain sent the artist duo on their first paired mission.
"You two are to go to the Hidden Leaf Village and collect any medical scrolls you can find and bring them to me. And keep an eye out for any signs of Jinjuriki presence. If you come across one, capture them only if it is possible. " Pain's voice echoed.
The trek from the Hidden Rain to the Leaf Village was four days. Four days was more than long enough for Sasori to lose his patience with his partner and for the redhead to wish that the mission could go faster. The brat would not accept his opinion on both art and way of life. They argued none stop for hours on end and at no point did the blonde back down or tire. He seemed to enjoy the bickering!
The duo entered the village easily enough. Upon Deidara's recovery he quickly learned his explosive creations could now be animated and he used this to his advantage, plus the Hidden Leaf guards were too curious for their own good.
It was almost dawn when the Hidden Leaf gate guards changed over their shift. The eyes of those finishing were half lidded and weary, and walked slowly back towards their homes to sleep, while the fresh guards stretched and yawned trying to awaken as quickly as possible. Not 10 minutes into their shift they heard sounds that had them straining their ears and eyes.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
"Hey what was that?" One of the guards exclaimed. It was no doubt the sound of a summoning jutsu, but for what and how many? The guards saw brief puffs of smoke scattered in the forest around the gates.
"Keep a look out! They could be anywhere! And watch out for the one who summoned them!"
"Right, we're on it!"
Silence
There was suddenly a scurry and rustle of leaves over to the left end of the gate.
"Over there! What is it?!" The men raised their kunai as they saw clay spiders emerge from the undergrowth.
KABOOM! An explosion twice as strong as a paper bomb erupted from behind the ninja on the left.
"Huh?" The ninja turned to face his comrade stationed on the right side of the gate. He gasped shakily, his comrade's head had been blown before he was able to yell.
"And he let his guard down too, hm. Katsu!" The blonde mocked smugly as the second guard fell with a soft thud.
"You need to find a way to make them a little quieter, anyone nearby would have heard that." Sasori growled. The blonde ignored him and the two continued their infiltration. Ti Sasori's surprise, there was hardly a person on the sleepy streets, in fact there were more cats stalking for mice. Dawn had fully broken now and the shops had all of their shutters closed, except for the few cafes that were opening up for breakfast.
"Hey you!" An unknown voice called and quickened footsteps could be heard approaching the duo from behind.
"Hm?" The duo turned around. A teenage boy of around 17 stood before them. He had long dark brown hair tied up low behind him, wore white attire and white eyes of the Byakugan to match.
"This is odd, I swear I know this chakra as someone else, however it appears that we have never met. Sorry to bother." He turned to leave.
"You are from the Hyuuga clan correct? You can read individual chakra signatures like a fingerprint if I remember correctly hm." Deidara inquired.
The boy stopped, "That is correct, but this is very strange…" The Hyuuga replied.
"Neji!" A blonde girl ran up, in Sasori's opinion a female version of Deidara, if not more beautiful. A pang of awe similar to when he first saw Deidara welled up in his chest. Her eyes and hair were much paler than Dei's, but that somehow made her look more pure. The way she ran was careful and delicate as if she was the epitome of a fragile flower. "You suddenly ran off, who are these guys, do you know them?"
"No and I was just leaving." Neji replied. Sasori's eyes snapped back to Neji when he realised he had been staring at the blonde girl. He gave his partner a nudge with his elbow and turned to leave. "Let's keep moving."
Neji continued with a grim expression when the two men were out of hearing range. "I have a strange feeling he is involved with his disappearance."
"What?!" Ino gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth. "I-I don't understand!"
"Neither do I but I can't ignore this feeling." Neji's eyes did not waver from staring at the red-head's heart and chakra.
"What was he on about?" Deidara inquired as they continued to wander the Hidden Leaf for the infirmary.
"I have no idea," the puppeteer replied enthused, "and frankly I don't care."
"So you do know." The blonde continued to prod.
"What part of 'I have no idea' don't you understand?" The scorpion snapped.
"The part where you 'don't care'." Deidara planned his words carefully. "You wouldn't shrug something like this off so easily without already having looked into it at some point, hm?"
Sasori shot a deadly glare. "Just drop it already. I found the infirmary over there. Quit blabbering and focus on these scrolls." Of coarse Sasori knew the truth, but he had no reason to provide his whole life story to Deidara. He was going to live for eternity to repay the boy who gave him a second chance at life. Nothing more, nothing less.
"What about the giiirl?" Deidara emphasised.
"What about her?" Sasori replied flatly. Sigh and he's the one acting like girl trying to catch the latest gossip himself…
"You like her don't you? Don't lie I saw you staring, hm." The blonde chuckled.
"You know I don't like other people,"
Deidara let out a sigh. "Liar."
"You're impossible to talk to."
"I'm impossible? It's you who's avoiding answering my questions."
"Maybe I don't like talking you brat."
"When did you learn to joke?"
"I give up…" If he had been travelling in Hiruko he would have whipped his tail at the
blonde by now.
~~~*~~~
As the artists slowly approached the hospital and the redhead went over the plan again. Sasori ensured that Deidara had not forgotten any details. The scorpion planned to carry out this part of the mission his way and avoid attracting any unnecessary attention. The blonde's way of searching was far too bold for his liking.
Once they reached the doors, Sasori slipped out a small gas canister into the foyer. The can hissed out a yellow gas and span around like a grounded firework. The desk clerk's gasped in alert, but was short lived when the paralysis took effect. When the gas cleared the room looked more like a modern history museum; everyone who inhaled the gas where frozen in place like living statues. The victims desperately tried to yell but no sound came out. It was a miracle they were at least able to breathe.
"We have an hour before this wears off, don't mess this up" Sasori stated then immediately darted off to search for the vaults. Deidara smirked in response.
The vault when they finally found it, was below ground on the lowest floor. The room was locked by a large solid steel chakra sealed vault door, and signed 'contains precious goods'. Sasori tried a few different hand seals he had learned (which opened vaults and other doors back in the Akatsuki lair,) but the door remained firm.
"Looks like I am gonna' to have to blow it open," The bomber stated to Sasori's annoyance.
"Just don't go too over the top, Konaha isn't supposed to know we are here." Sasori reminded.
"Yeah I know, but I can't completely promise, hm." The blonde's hands spat out a small centipede, in which he enlarged with a puff of smoke. The now oversized insect crawled around the edge of the door. Deidara jumped back several meters and the redhead followed suit. The explosion thankfully didn't send the roof along with the entire rest of the building caving in on them but the door did. The crashing of solid metal on the concrete floor bellowed through the halls and it wouldn't surprise Sasori if people outside the hospital heard.
"Tch, now you've done it!" the puppeteer growled. With no time like the present, they dashed inside, knowing they'd have about a minute before the nearest staff raised the alarm for Konaha ninja to investigate. Sasori quickly whipped out a scroll and an ink brush and scribbled down some words. "Scroll Summoning: Duel puppets" Two puffs of smoke emerged and two ink outlines of puppets appeared before morphing into solid hand crafted forms. A sack was also tied between them. They scooped up all the scrolls and parchment in their sights and stashed them into the sack. They had no time to unseal each and every one of them to find the specific scrolls they were looking for, so this was their only option.
"I'm done my side," Sasori called out to the blonde, "same here, Danna!" The redhead reverse summoned his puppets along with the sack of scrolls and the duo ran out.
There are no windows… we can't jump out. Looks like we go out the same way we entered. The duo headed back towards the stairs at the opposite end of the hall. Deidara ran in front, his hands chewing and moulding more clay in preparation for an ambush. Four ninja appeared from the stairs, kunai raised charging at them.
"Don't let them escape!" one of them yelled.
"Hehe don't insult us, HAH!" Two snakes shot out his palms which sent the Konaha ninja jumping to the wall, the snakes then split in half and found a prey each to explode on. The duo continued up to the next floor where they smashed out a window for a quick getaway. Or so they thought.
"Eight-trigram vacuum palm!" Neji called out.
"Ugh!"
As soon as the duo jumped out of the building they were simultaneously knocked down to the ground by a blast of air. The summoning scroll Sasori used for summoning was blasted out of his hand. The ink brush that was stored in the hollow of the scroll flew out, so both the scroll and brush were out of arm's reach of the artist. Without them he couldn't summon his puppets.
"Shikamaru! Now!" The Huga called.
"Shadow stitching jutsu!" another voice yelled.
"Hey what did you do to me? Let me go!" The blonde verbally struggled, but his body was frozen in place.
"That's what you get for potentially harming innocents!" Shikamaru stated and forced the blonde's jaw shut.
Sasori was also immobilised, lying spread eagled flat on his back by a paralysis jutsu. He could hear footsteps approaching him. When in view he saw it was the white eyed shinobi from before. "You not only have his chakra but you have his jutsu style as well. Would you like to tell me what you have done with him?"
Sasori glared the young teen straight in the eyes, mildy annoyed at his persistence. The jutsu cast on his body appeared to stop at his neck, they obviously wanted him to talk. "How should I know?"
"How could you not know?" Neji retorted.
"I was granted life in exchange for your precious friend." The scorpion sighed irritated with the interrogation already. It was true that he knew another boy's life was sacrificed for his own, but it was also true he had no clue who that boy was.
"Gentle fist!" The boy jabbed a finger on the redhead's shoulder, shooting a small amount of chakra which caused a sharp shooting pain down the red head's arm.
"That wasn't very gentle." The Scorpion mocked.
Neji ignored the scorpion and pressed on. "The brush and scroll, how and where did you get them?"
Sasori sighed knowing his information was useless to them. "They were given to me by my mentor. Now I have told you all I know, you're wasting your time, so release me." Neji jabbed him several more times with incredible speed on his chakra nodes. With so many chakra lines disturbed in seconds, it was difficult for even Sasori to keep up. Neji hit a small blow to the heart. Enough to stop him producing chakra for a while.
"Careful. You don't want to destroy the last physical remains of your comrade."
On that comment, the Huga did stop. "So it is true? You have his heart?"
"Let me try!" A young but strong female voice sounded. It the blonde girl from earlier Ino, Sasori remembered.
"Alright, be careful in there!" Neji added.
Stab.
A final jab with the gentle fist on a node near his neck sent a shooting pain of chakra scrambling in his head momentarily. "Mind transfer jutsu!" The weirdest sensation came upon the scorpion mere milliseconds before he could reconnect his chakra. He felt his mind go numb. Recent memories flashed in his head before realising he was being probed. The memories were in rewind from the present and going backwards in time. The memories started from the Infiltration the leaf and its infirmary; the four days leading up to the event; the meeting with Pain; the brief fooling around with Deidara; then his years of training. This point appeared to be of some interest to Ino, as the memories slowed to watch clips in full…
"So tell me, what are your strengths?" Kakuzu's deep voice rumbled.
"I've honestly never battled before, did you forget how terminally ill I was?" The boy sneered.
"Well then, we will have a sparring match and I will tell you." The older man replied. "Starting with tai-jutsu, but don't fret I'll go easy on you."
The boy didn't reply and held his fists up in the air. He honestly had little idea what he was going to do and was fully aware he was no match for this brute, but being told that he was going to go easy on him didn't go down well with Sasori's pride, even if he was nervous.
The older man ran at him then vanished, leaving Sasori surprised and exposed for a moment. He then heard footsteps and breathing to his right, he turned to see a fist shooting at him right as it collided into his arm. The boy was sent shooting across the grass. He quickly got back up and focused on following the man's movements, using all of his senses. While he slow he quickly learned the man's pattern and began start dodging the blows. Towards the end he attempted counter attacks, which if and when they landed were weak and were unlikely to show a bruise on Kakuzu's tough skin.
"Alright, I have seen enough." Kakuzu announced after pulling a surprise attack from the earth below. Sasori panted as he waited in anticipation.
"You have a good eye but no strength to back it up. Well move on…"
The memories skipped over to another time. Sasori was alone in his room sitting on the edge of his bed. He wanted to see if his puppet master jutsu was any stronger now he gained new strength. He concentrated on accumulating chakra in his fingertips until he had enough to form strings. So far it was normal, the strings extended to a few meters. Sasori looked for something to hold and manipulate. He gazed over his workbench but unfortunately his belongings were few, and he had not yet made a puppet. Moving slabs of wood had little amusement, so lifting and opening up a book would have to do. He guided his strings towards the book shelf and attached them to a random book. The strings attached and successfully started pulling the book. Sasori smiled to himself, then twang! The stings broke. Slightly annoyed and baffled, Sasori tried again. This time exerting a bit more chakra.
Twang!
The stings burst without forming.
Getting more flustered Sasori kept trying over and over like he was trying to ignite a firelighter that was low on fuel. His chakra made sparks and his fingertips began to hurt from forcing chakra. It was then he decided to stop trying, for now.
"I am here to help improve your ninjutsu, show me, what can you do?" Konan asked.
"I was raised to use the secret puppetry ninjutsu, however I recently learned that is no longer possible." Sasori was almost gritting his teeth as he spoke.
"Hmm, interesting but not surprising." She pulled out a large scroll from under her sleeve. She walked closer and held out the scroll. "Try using these," she insisted.
"Huh?" Sasori reluctantly accepted the scroll and must have been looking at it dumbly when Konan continued to explain.
"There's a brush inside, use it to draw a weapon."
'This is ridiculous…' Sasori thought to himself, yes he claimed himself to be an artist but not in this way!
He drew out the brush and opened the scroll. He drew the first weapon that came to his mind - a kunai. To the red head's surprise the ink kunai emerged from the scroll. It hovered in the air and Sasori waved his hand to see what it would do. The kunai went flying through the air as quickly as if he had thrown it. Konan stepped aside to let it pass and the kunai crashed to the floor in a splatter of ink.
'Good it worked,' Konan thought to herself. "Now fight me." Konan stated eagerly. Paper was peeling off of her skin and were folding into tiny paper shuriken. Like with Kakuzu, Sasori and Konan sparred. This new jutsu came surprisingly more natural to the scorpion, though he felt more disappointment than grateful. It irritated him he couldn't use his puppetry but instead excel in a foreign technique. He felt in his mind every move he made wasn't his, running around scribbling a drawing that would burst into life and attack. However his chakra agreed to the ninjutsu in a heartbeat. After his taijutsu training with Kakuzu, Sasori learned his body was rather fast and agile. He honed in on this to his advantage, dodging paper shuriken all over the shot and quickly drawing counter attacks where possible.
"How is this possible?" Sasori growled, unable to contain the question any longer.
"How is what possible?" Konan replied dully.
"I am excelling in a jutsu I have never even heard of, yet my own jutsu fail." He restrained himself from yelling like a child having a tantrum, but he didn't feel far from it, he needed to understand.
"You have much to learn about chakra. The heart is the source, not the body. Since you no longer have your original heart you must learn to use the chakra from this new heart, however unnatural it may seem. Who knows, you may one day learn to combine the two."