Baki shot through the twin gates of the sand as he shouted to the citizens to step back. Seconds later the three other shinobi ran through the gate after him, carrying Kankuro in a hospital litter. "Make way! Make way, people!" He shouted as the three medical nin ran towards the sand hospital.
"Damn it…" Baki said to himself as he watched the three Shinobi run with the wounded Kankuro in a litter.
"Baki-san!" Exclaimed another shinobi running towards him. "Baki-san! What happened here?"
"Kankuro…" Baki began as he tried to focus on the shinobi instead of on the small group of men running with Kankuro. "He disobeyed my orders. He engaged with one of the Akatsuki and got wounded in battle. But that's unimportant!" He said, turning towards the man. "Have you sent a hawk messenger addressed to the leaf, Ryuzin?"
"Well…" Ryuzin said as he attempted to find the right words. "Yes. I sent Takatsu with a message explaining the events that happened earlier. He should be arriving by now…"
"Takatsu…? Why didn't you send Takamaru instead?" Baki asked.
"Takamaru is still on the mission in the Land of Fire…" Ryuzin explained. "He didn't arrive yet…."
Baki sighed at the news. Two days ago the members of a group of bandIt's infamous for stealing of travelers were found semi dead in the south of the land of fire, near It's borders with the Land of Rivers. One of the bandIt's, the leader, had been taken into custody and interrogated. He had told It's interrogator that him and his group had tried to steal from a blond boy with whisker like marks on his face only to be beaten down to a pulp.
As soon as the story reached the Kazekage, he had sent the fastest hawk to the small town where the bandit was interrogated aiming to get more information on the mysterious blonde. Apparently before the hawk could return the whole incident with the Akatsuki happened. Well, because of the situation they had to settle for second fastest…
Anyhow, the message had already been sent to Konoha…all they could do now was wait.
Meanwhile, in the desert of the sand…
Naruto kept looking at the Third Kazekage's puppet that was floating next to Sasori as he stood looking down at him in front of the crater he had previously created with his other puppet, Hiruko. As he stared at the puppet's yellow eyes he started wondering why shit like this tended to happen with him so often.
Whenever he picked a fight or even better, whenever a fight picked him…his opponent had to have some special power such as the ability to turn himself into a monster because of some stupid cursed seal or to summon a gigantic Tanuki made of sand or simply to have control of a dead Kage with a Kekkei Genkai…
"Naruto Uzumaki…" Sasori said with a sadistic smile on his face. "So far you have proven to be a decent opponent, let us see if you really are worthy of such compliment…" With that, he made a hand seal and the Third Kazekage pointed his left arm towards Naruto as the boy wondered what was to come next. The arm then opened several compartments, all of them with the very same seal, a generic summoning seal.
"What the-" Before Naruto could finish his sentence various arms came out of the compartments, one arm after another in an insane jutsu. "FUCK!" Naruto shouted as he jumped away right before the army of arms hit the ground next to him. He then saw various small handless arms point towards him, those which Naruto soon discovered to also serve as launchers as three kunai were came out of the tubes and towards him. Naruto dodged the first kunai, grabbed the second and used it to swat off the third before jumping high in the air.
While Midair, Naruto touched his arm and applied chakra into it, revealing a basic sealing jutsu in his arm with three circles in line only five centimeters apart one from another. He touched the third circle and with a small poof a paper bomb appeared in his hand. Naruto started wrapping the Paper bomb around his kunai as more tubes rose in the various arms, throwing more and more projectiles that Naruto was forced to spin midair to dodge them before launching his own kunai followed by five hand seals. "Shadow Clone Shuriken Jutsu!" He shouted as the paper bomb powered projectiles multiplied It'self by ten!
Naruto landed on the arms seconds after the kunai hit their respective targets. He made a hand seal while smirking and the army of arms was suddenly covered by explosions. Sasori was surprised by his younger clansman's choice of move but acted fast, jumping back, detaching the Third Kazekage's department of the arm used for his Thousand Hands Manipulation Force. "The fool...did he kill himself...?"
Sasori's question was soon answered as Naruto came out of the explosion left by the smoke wielding his blade. He dashed past the Third Kazekage and stood in front of Sasori readying his Katana for the killing strike.
Sasori had to act fast...he wasn't going down...not alone... the older Uzumaki made quick movement of his fingers as the third Kazekage turned to face Naruto as a spinning buzzsaw coated in deadly poison came out of his missing left arm. Just then Naruto stabbed Sasori in his stomach and the Third Kazekage slashed at Naruto's back with his spinning, deadly blade.
Naruto felt on top of Sasori, who kicked the blonde away before making quick work of getting back up and reattaching his chakra strings to the third Kazekage. "This will be long and painful..." Sasori said with a smile. "But the poison will eventually kill you, so don't worry." Naruto then began to laugh much to Sasori's confusion. "Why...are you laughing...?"
"Because..." Naruto said as he got up. "...this!" He continued as he gave his back to Sasori and pointed with his thumb to the back of his cloak. Sasori couldn't believe it. It was completely unscratched.
"But...how?" Sasori didn't understand, Naruto Uzumaki should be in the ground, suffering in pain, but here he was, standing up to him!
"This cloak is infused with a sealing jutsu, one developed by our very own clan. It uses my chakra to add weight and endurance to the cloak. In other words; if I add a lot of chakra to it, It's weight and endurance will increase." The boy explained.
"I see..." Sasori commented with an eyebrow raised, expressing interest. "Quite the use of Fuuinjutsu..."
"Still...how did you survive the stab?" Naruto asked looking at the hole in the Akatsuki cloak.
"That is none of your business!" Sasori shouted, suddenly getting angry and doing a hand seal.
The Third Kazekage dashed at Naruto as various retractable blades in the formation of a claw appeared on his right arm. The Third started to attack Naruto with his claw and his buzzsaw with such speed that it forced the boy to use the full extent of his five senses. Naruto slowly tried to retreat, he knew that if one of those blades made contact with him it was all over...
Finally, the puppet lifted his arms up and was about to bring his blades down when Naruto saw an opportunity, he back flipped and landed some meters from the puppet before it was able to slash him.
Naruto then prepared his blade pointing to the Third Kazekage before it was enveloped in a white glow. As soon as the glow had enveloped the blade completely Naruto jumped high in the air and raised the blade above his head. "RAZOR..." He shouted before landing his blade on top of the Third Kazekage, the puppet tried to block the attack with It's own blades but had both his arms destroyed as a white explosion caused by the sword blew them up. "...WIND!"
Sasori called the armless puppet back towards him as the sand raised by Naruto's Razor Wind rose high into the air. Out of the sand Naruto walked out with a smirk in his face and his sword laid on his shoulders. "How dare you..." Sasori said, shaking with anger. "How dare you, destroying my art?!"
The Third Kazekage's mouth then opened and out of it black and weird looking senbon needles flew towards Naruto, who spun his Yamato at the back of his hand continuously, every time the needles touched the sword they disintegrated, leaving behind a dark sand, the senbon continued being launched at Naruto and Naruto continued using his blade to turn the needles into black sand. This went on until Sasori smiled and shouted. "HAH!" While making a one handed tiger seal.
The sand that had come from the senbon then started to envelop him, crawling up his legs, much like Gaara's sand burial. At first he wondered what in the world was happening but then he remembered Sasori telling him about the Third Kazekage, who controlled the Iron Sand.
The same Iron Sand that was now crawling over his legs.
Damn it, he was so stupid...
"So, do you like my iron sand?" Sasori asked him with an evil smirk. "I can't control it nearly as well as the Third originally did of course, however it is enough to make you regret ever trying to rescue the One Tail..."
Naruto looked at Sasori with Killer Intent present in his eyes before making three hand seals, it was a difficult task to accomplish with all the sand around him but he somehow managed to do so. "Air Armor!" Naruto shouted as he clapped his hands together. Suddenly, a sphere of wind was around him, pushing the Iron Sand back.
"Very well done, Naruto Uzumaki..." Sasori said, calling the sand Naruto had repealed back as more and more Iron Sand continued coming out of the Third's mouth. "But let's see if you can escape this!" With another hand seal the sand started taking form of a triangular, spear-shaped object with a pointy edge. The spear dashed towards Naruto at amazing speed before hitting his air armor full force, as the spear slowly started piercing through it, Naruto realized his only shield would soon break and then he would be at the mercy of the iron sand spear.
Naruto tried to focus his chakra so the armor wouldn't break, but he knew it was useless. There was only one thing he could do..."Release!" He shouted extending both his arms. An explosion of air destroyed the spear, throwing the Iron Sand back at Sasori and raising normal sand high in the air.
"What is he planning...?" As Sasori questioned his adversary's move a Fuma Shuriken came flying out of the sand and towards him, Sasori however, only made a quick movement with his fingers as the overly sized shuriken trajectory was altered so it passes right over the Uzumaki's shoulder. "The fool...did he forget that the Third Kazekage has magnet abilities...?"
As soon as the sand clears we see Naruto with a smile on his face looking directly at Sasori.
That smile...Sasori was a fast learner, he knew that smile, the same smile Naruto had right before destroying his previous puppet...that kid...he had something up his sleeve...and whatever t was, there was no way in hell the puppeteer would let him use it.
"I don't know what you're planning..." Sasori said as he moved his hands and fingers in drastic movements. "But I will kill you before something else happens..."Sasori made three hand seals at a drastic speed. The puppeteer then raised their hands skyward, in response the iron sand flew above Naruto before taking the form of a gigantic cube. "I will crush you..." Sasori said as he watched Naruto's smile slowly disappearing.
"DIE!" Sasori shouted as made a one handed tiger hand seal. The giant cube then began to fall towards Naruto.
"Damn it!" Naruto said as he made a shadow clone hand seal, two clones appeared in front of him and they entered their positions: two clones stood in front of the original Naruto, the first one in line grabbed the second's feet and the third, which was the original, grabbed the second's feet. The first clone kicked the air and Naruto flew high in the air along with the second one, he stood in the second's back and jumped away, nearly escaping the iron sand cube.
"Gotcha!" Sasori shouted as he made a hand seal, the Third Kazekage then dashed towards Naruto. The puppet's cloak suddenly slipped down, revealing that the left side of his chest had a small compartment; the compartment opened revealing a small apparatus that was emitting some kind of magnetic wave.
In response to the apparatus, iron sand came flying towards the Kazekage puppet forming wing like structures in the Kazekage's back and re-forming the spear that Naruto had previously destroyed.
Naruto smiled. Who would have known...? His plan had worked.
As the Kazekage's spear was about to hit Naruto, the fuma shuriken he had previously thrown exploded with a poof, revealing a shadow clone, the clone formed a wind blade in the palm of his hand and cut the strings Sasori was using to control the puppet. The red hair looked, surprised, as his younger clansman smirked towards him before disappearing in a poof of smoke.
The third Kazekage's wings and spear suddenly crumbled into sand once again and despite not being controlled by chakra strings anymore, the Third continued flying towards Naruto. The speed it had achieved while being controlled by chakra strings had thrown him towards the blonde Uzumaki.
Naruto made a shadow clone next to him who grabbed the boy by his arm and threw him towards the Third Kazekage. Naruto stretched his right hand in front of himself and started spinning chakra in several directions as a small blue ball of deadly chakra spun in his palm. "Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as the sphere made contact with the Kazekage's face, destroying the puppet.
Naruto spun midair before landing about fifteen meters away from Sasori. "So, what will you throw at me next?" Naruto asked to the puppeteer. "Or will you finally give up?"
Sasori watched the pieces of his broken masterpiece fall onto the ground with an expressionless face and half closed eyes. "Well, well...you forced me to this point..." Sasori then began to open his Akatsuki cloak. "I haven't used myself since i joined the Akatsuki..."
What was he talking about? Using himself? Naruto didn't get it...well, not at first of course...but as soon as Sasori took out his cloak his eyes widened and he opened his mouth trying to speak but the words got stuck inside him.
Instead of a normal body, Sasori had something different... his skin was wood, his stomach was a metal rope, there was a pair of spinning claws attached to his lower back, in his upper back there was a holder with four scrolls, he had no heart, only a compartment in his chest that looked like a chunk of meat.
He was a puppet.
"What...what the hell?!" Naruto said as he started sweating...was he nervous?
Sasori chuckled at the younger boy's reaction to his true form. "Why are you nervous...?" He said as he took one of the scrolls from his back and opened it above his head. "I gave you no reason to be nervous yet..." As the human puppet made a hand seal, a small compartment in his chest opened and out of the scroll one hundred shadows came out, one after another. As each shadow flew skyward, a poof came out of the scroll and a light blue chakra string shot out of Sasori's compartment to attach It'self to it.
"Behold..." Sasori said. "MY ARMY OF ONE HUNDRED PUPPETS!" As he completed his sentence by shouting at Naruto, one hundred puppets stood, flying behind him, all wearing red cloaks with ruffled collars. "Do you really think you can still win?" Sasori asked with a smirk.
Naruto didn't answer the question, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again, revealing red iris with slIt's for pupils.
An explosion of red chakra happened then, a red wind that spun around Naruto while he undergone some physical changes. His whisker marks became thicker, his hair was spiked up, his nails looked like claws and his teeth became more canine looking.
"So this is the power of the nine tails..." Sasori said, amused. "Interesting..."
Naruto smirked as he unseated his sword and pointed it towards Sasori. "So..." He said. "Are you ready to get your ass kicked?"
Author's Note: I am now officially drifting off the cannon storyline. Why? Because i felt traped by it and because i already developed the first scratches of this story's ending. Its not ending very soon though, it will go on for a while. This is only the first arc...well, second if you consider the three first chapters that form the prologue...