Chapter 7: Fight for Survival

"Gai, we could really use your help here," Kakashi whispered over the radio he was still wearing.

"Sorry Kakashi" was the hurried response "We've got some problems of our own here. I can't explain, but we'll be delayed a while. Over and out."

"Well that's a shame" Deidera teased, having heard the whole conversation. "I was hoping to have more of you to play with. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to be content with you."

This is a bigger problem than I expected Kakashi thought; I never imagined that we'd have to fight two of them with only three people who can fight. All right, there's only one thing we can do.

"Here's the plan" Kakashi began, while he drew his sword from the sheath on his back. "Naruto, you will assist Lady Chiyo is her battle against the puppet master Sasori. I'll take on the other one alone."

"Hey!" Deidera yelled, "Why am I the one that you think only needs one person? I'm the one that captured him you know!"

"I've heard that the Copy Ninja is quite intelligent" Sasori said, "and it looks like he lives up to it. He's figured out who's the most powerful almost immediately."

Deidera gave Sasori a cold look, before turning back to Kakashi.

"Looks like everyone with a Sharingan underestimates me" he said, while he forced his hands into his pouches of clay. "Then again, I guess it'll be nice to be the one who exterminates that kekkei genkai and I'll start with you!"

Deidera threw more explosives at Kakashi, who jumped backwards to avoid them. Eventually, he was forced outside of the cave and onto the lake.

"Just like I wanted" Deidera whispered, before summoning another gigantic bird. He flew out of the large gap that he had created earlier. Naruto started after him, before being stopped by Lady Chiyo.

"Remember what Kakashi told you Naruto" she said, "he's handling that fight alone while you are to assist me here. Don't worry about him, he should be fine you need to keep your concentration here."

"Right, sorry" Naruto said, before turning his attention to the matter at hand. "So, what's the deal with this guy?"

"The most important thing is that isn't Sasori's real body," Chiyo said, as she repositioned her puppets. "That's just a puppet he calls Hiruko and a powerful puppet it is."

"Well, I figured that it's a puppet" Naruto replied, as he quickly dodged the deadly iron tail that had come his way. "Where's his real body then?"

"It's inside the puppet" Chiyo responded, to Naruto's surprise. "You don't want to know how he creates his puppets, so I'll just say this. We have to destroy that puppet if we are to get to Sasori."

"Is that all?" Naruto asked, smiling as he did so. "That's no problem at all, I'll destroy that wooden shell myself." Naruto made the clone seal and prepared to unleash his signature jutsu.

Shadow Clones? They won't do much good against someone like me Sasori thought; it's almost an embarrassment to face such a mediocre jutsu. Maybe everything Itachi told me about this boy was a lie.

Just as he finished his last thought, the cave suddenly became filled with Naruto's clones. Sasori had never seen anything like it before and it was very concerning.

The chakra required to maintain a jutsu of that scale must be enormous. This might be more difficult than I thought.

The clones attacked en masse and Sasori's tail had to move around faster than the eye could see in order to repel them. Eventually, the pressure took its toll and the puppet masters defence was breached. Naruto's Rasengan smashed into the side of the wooden creation. A shadowy figure scurried out of the remains of the puppet and off to the side.

"I'll end this now!" Naruto declared, as he prepared another powerful attack.

"No Naruto!" Chiyo cried, "We need to re – group. Sasori is far more powerful outside of Hiruko then he was before. Even I don't know what puppets he'll have collected by now."

"Indeed, you are wise to be wary of me" Sasori taunted, revealing a much softer voice than before. "However, I won't underestimate you either. You should be proud, not many get to see this puppet."

Sasori dramatically revealed a scroll that was hidden in his black cloak. Outside, the sound of explosions could be heard as that battle heated up. Naruto wouldn't let himself be distracted by his Sensei's troubles and concentrated on the scroll. He knew that, whatever it contained, it was going to be trouble. However, before unveiling his weapon, Sasori decided to reveal another surprise he had in store. He let down his hood to show his true face.

"I don't believe it" Chiyo gasped, "You haven't aged at all!"

"Yes" Sasori replied, "and that isn't my only surprise. Let's see if you recognise this puppet."

Sasori summoned another of his wooden constructions from his scroll. The puppet was dark in appearance, with black hair and yellow eyes. Sasori's confidence skyrocketed as he played with the deadly weapon as if it were a toy.

"So it was you," Chiyo murmured, "You were the one that killed the Third Kazekage. Now you've turned him into your puppet."

"He was very difficult to capture" Sasori replied, "and that's why he's my favourite. Now, enough of your stalling. Let us begin!"

The puppet flew towards Naruto at breakneck speed under Sasori's command. The Jinchuriki couldn't react and all he could do was stand there and await the impact. However, Lady Chiyo's puppets came to the rescue once again, as she moved them to block the onslaught. The two puppet masters then engaged in an intense duel and neither were willing to give up. Every move that one of them made was countered by the other. Naruto tried to find an opening where he could get involved, but no such moment ever came. Sasori soon became frustrated as he realised the restrictions that were placed on him.

I can't use the poison on the old hag because she's too far away he thought and I can't kill the Jinchuriki so my cloud isn't going to be much help. I've got only one option then.

"You've surprised me" Sasori admitted, "but you can't win. It's not time for me to show you why the Third Kazekage is the strongest of them all."

The puppet's mouth creaked open to reveal a black substance inside. This substance then began to pour from the mouth and ominously surround the puppet.

"The Iron Sand" Chiyo said gravely, "this is very bad."

Deidera cackled wildly from atop his clay bird as he sent his explosives raining down towards his opponent. Kakashi, to his credit, was able to dodge all of the attacks that came his way.

"This must be strange for you" Deidera mocked, "to be in a fight where you can't just copy every jutsu in sight. I'm the Sharingan's perfect counter and you're going to die here."

At that moment, Kakashi was almost blindsided by a group of clay explosives but he was able to deflect them with more Shiruken.

"You know, they say that the one's who talk the most and mess around are the weakest links," Kakashi countered, echoing a speech he once gave Naruto. "Id say that you talk an awful lot, don't you?"

"Shut up!" Deidera responded, as he jumped off of his winged creature. The bird then flew down towards Kakashi, who knew he was in trouble.

There's no way that I can get out of the range of that explosive in time he thought, as he withdrew his sword. I hope this works.

Deidera landed on his new owl just before the bird reached its target. He savoured the moment before commanding his creation to annihilate his opponent. However, Deidera's moment of art never came and his bird was rendered lifeless.

"You've figured it out, haven't you?" Deidera asked through gritted teeth. He knew the risks of facing someone with lightning based techniques but he figured that no one would see through his jutsu so easily.

"What, that you're techniques are all earth based and thus vulnerable to lightning?" Kakashi said in a matter- of -fact way. "Yeah, you should probably avoid making hand seals in front of my eye. I can read you like a book."

Deidera shook with anger and he could even hear the sound of his teeth grinding together.

This is a bad situation. Sure, he can't hurt me up here but I can't hurt him either, now he's figured me out. Worse, he's got back up on the way so I can't hang around. I'll have to grab the two Jinchuriki and get out of here.

"That was just a fluke!" Deidera cried, as he created yet another bird. "Let's see you do it again!"

The events repeated themselves and Kakashi immobilised Deidera's attack again. Although, Kakashi didn't take his opponents mental breakdown at face value and had an attack prepared in case Deidera had laid any traps.

Come on he thought, where's the follow up explosive to take me by surprise? The one you hid in the shadow of this much larger creature? You must have sent another one, no one is that stupid.

Sure enough, a smaller explosive soon appeared from behind the first. Kakashi appeared to disintegrate it with his Lightning Blade but was stunned when the clay moved right past him and headed towards the cave. Kakashi watched in horror as it flew straight at Naruto who was oblivious to the danger.

"Naruto!" Kakashi shouted, "Look out!"

Naruto turned his head slightly just in time to see the explosive reach him.

"Too late!" Deidera yelled, before causing an explosion. Kakashi's heart sank as he saw the cave crumble and eventually fall apart. The sight of falling rocks and screams of terror brought back painful memories, which was made worse by the fact that he was once again left watching from the outside.

"Maybe I overdid it?" Deidera said, showing false concern. "Then again, as long as the Jinchuriki isn't dead everything is ok. If the rest of them have died, then that'll be a bonus."

"What about your partner?" Kakashi rasped, as he tried to contain the pure fury inside of him.

"Sasori would be, what's the phrase?" Deidera began, "Oh yeah, collateral damage. It can't be helped; he knew what he was getting in to. Besides, it's what he gets for mocking my art."

"I can't believe that you'd treat your comrades like that" Kakashi spat, as he clenched his fists tightly.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Deidera asked.

"I don't need to do anything" Kakashi replied, which confused Deidera. A second later, a hand covered in black lightning shot through the Akatsuki members' chest. Standing behind him was Sasuke in his Cursed Seal Second State.

"See you in hell" Sasuke snarled, while drawing his katana to finish the job.

Naruto sat up and surveyed the damage all around him. Giant boulders lay smashed on the ground and piled on top of each other. He couldn't remember what had happened after seeing a small, white bird flying towards him but his first thought was to check to see if anyone else had survived.

"Sakura" he called out, instincts taking over.

"I'm here Naruto," she replied from just behind him. "Lady Chiyo is over there in the middle, where there aren't any rocks. I think that Sasori is there as well."

"What happened?" Naruto asked, still confused over the sequence of events.

"There was an explosion" Sakura responded, "I was able to get you out of the way, although it wasn't easy.

Naruto could feel a gritty material beneath him and soon realised that it was sand. He deduced that the explosion must have torn up the ground and exposed the sand underneath.

"Wait a minute!" Naruto yelled, the sand reminding him of something. "Where's Gaara?"

"Right here Naruto" Sakura said, pointing to the unconscious boy next to her. "You didn't think I'd leave him did you? Anyway there's not much more I can do for him now."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, suddenly panicked.

"He's still ok" Sakura reassured him, while getting up. "His condition has stabilised but I can't treat him any further. You stay with him."

"No, Sakura" Naruto objected. "I'll-"

"You're too tired" Sakura insisted, "I'll go help Lady Chiyo and you can watch Gaara."

Sakura ran over to the two puppet masters and stood by Lady Chiyo's side. Sasori was stood in the middle of the cave, staring at the broken puppet on the ground that surrounded him.

"Damn you Deidera" Sasori said under his breath. "So reckless, you could have crushed me in here. I can't believe that he destroyed my favourite puppet. I'll get you for this. However, I'll have to deal with this mess first."

He looked up at his grandmother and smiled when he saw her puppets crushed on the ground.

"We could play around some more" Sasori began, while taking off his Akatsuki cloak. "But we both know how this will end so why don't we just skip the rest of it? No more holding back grandmother, you'll have to use your most powerful technique."

Sakura stared at Chiyo for a second, who reached into her backpack. She unveiled two more scrolls and through them summoned ten puppets. Sakura had never seen so many puppets being controlled at once and was impressed to say the least.

"They say that a puppet master is only as good as the amount of puppets they can control" Sasori continued, "and you are the only one to be able to manage this amount. However, I can do much better than that."

Sasori took his cloak off completely and revealed the wooden body beneath. Sakura was horrified by it but Lady Chiyo just sighed.

"So you did make yourself a puppet," she said, "Sakura be careful, I have a very bad feeling about this."

Sasori threw a very thick scroll into the air and a panel opened on his chest. A massive amount of puppets filled the sky and all were connected to their master through the chakra threads coming from his chest.

"You may have took down a castle with your jutsu" Sasori screamed, "but I took down an entire country with mine!"

Before either of the Kunoichi could react, Sasori's army of puppets attacked. Lady Chiyo's puppets clashed with the others and Sakura did likewise. She had become an expert in evasion thanks to her training and her insane strength was capable of destroying a puppet with one blow. However, the sheer number of puppets soon took its toll and Sakura began to pick up injuries. She could almost feel the poison begin to spread through her and she sank to her knees. Then, she grabbed the antidote she kept in her bag and injected herself, granting her three minutes of relief. Lady Chiyo moved her puppets to protect the young ninja but even she realised the hopelessness of the situation.

"We have to get to Sasori" Chiyo said, while she concentrated on the battle.

"How do we do that?" Sakura asked desperately.

However, she need not have asked as the battle was then taken out of there hands. The black sand, that had lay innocently at Sasori's feat for the entire battle, suddenly rose up and covered the puppet master.

"What?" he asked, looking to see what could have done this. He then noticed something at the back of the cave and instantly realised what had happened. "This is all your fault Deidera."

Sakura turned around and noticed Gaara, who was conscious, being held up by Naruto. Gaara's arm was extended and the open palm was pointed towards Sasori.

"You mixed the sand from the ground, didn't you?" Sasori asked, not sounding at all afraid about the possibility of death.

"I am Gaara of the desert" Gaara replied "and all sand does my bidding. You have shamed our village with your immoral actions and as Kazekage I will end your terror here."

Gaara made a fist and Sasori's body was crushed under the intense pressure of the sand. A small pile of wood was all that was left of the infamous puppeteer and his army of puppets fell to the ground lifeless and non-threatening. The silence that followed this victory was soon broken by a scream from outside the destroyed cave.

"That sounds like Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, as the whole team ran outside to join the remaining battle.

Sasuke tried to pull his arm out of the clay but couldn't. Deidera had just turned to clay in front of his eyes and he found that he was stuck in there. Deidera then appeared from within the bird and stood laughing at Sasuke.

"I guess your Sharingan doesn't notice everything" Deidera joked. "I'll take note, it'll help when I kill your brother."

Sasuke didn't have enough time to process this information before Deidera jumped from the bird and made a hand sign with his one remaining arm. On the ground, Kakashi was observing the entire scene and decided to take action.

No choice, I don't even have time to take the whole body. It'll just have to be his hand before he can complete this jutsu.

The space around Deidera's arm began to spin like a vortex. The force coming was overwhelming and Deidera found that he couldn't pull his arm away.

Where's this coming from? The Copy Ninja? How could he possibly use a jutsu like this?

Deidera's arm then broke at the elbow and was sucked into the space. With no way of manipulating his clay, the Akatsuki member fell into the forest behind him.

"I was wondering when you were going to use that," Sasuke said, teasing his teacher. He was then able to pull himself free and join Kakashi on the ground, just as the rest of the group joined them. Team Gai also arrived, looking battle worn and exhausted.

"He can't possibly take on all of us," Sasuke declared confidently.

"Really? We'll see about that," Deidera countered, as he stumbled out of the forest. He then walked over to the clay bird that had fallen to the ground and broke a piece off with his mouth. Within seconds, he expanded rapidly like a balloon. Kakashi then figured out what was about to happen and was quick to warn everyone else.

"He's going to explode!" he cried, as he pushed everyone back. However, it was obvious that the group wouldn't be able to outrun such an explosion. Kakashi had only one choice and warped away the explosion before it could do any damage. Although, using the technique for a second time in a matter of minutes took its toll and Kakashi fell to the ground.

"Kakashi Sensei!" Sakura cried, before Sasuke bent down to pick him up.

"He'll be fine" Sasuke said bluntly. "He's just overused his technique, the Mangekyo Sharingan's no joke you know."

A million questions ran through Naruto's head at that moment, but he decided not to ask them. It was obvious that both Kakashi and Gaara needed to be taken for treatment and that had to be the priority.

"Let's get back to the Sand Village then" Naruto said to the rest, as they set off to return to the Sand Village.

As the group disappeared into the distance, Deidera reappeared from the forest. He scowled in the direction of Kakashi, before another figure caught his eye.

"I thought you were dead," he said to the hooded figure. "You may as well be, being beaten by your grandmother must be embarrassing."

"Shut up Deidera," an annoyed Sasori responded. "There was far more to it than that. I was forced to hide among my puppets, as the power of two Jinchuriki, my grandmother and that medical Kunoichi were too much. Also, you got beat by only two Shinobi, which is far worse. I suppose you just used your clay clone again, didn't you?"

"Why change what works?" Deidera replied. "So, do we chase them down?"

"Given that you can't use your jutsu and the majority of my puppets were destroyed, following them now would be stupid," Sasori answered, looking to mock Deidera as much as possible. "Don't worry, we will get our chance to kill them all one day."