Scroll Nine: Dance of the Karakuri

This was no longer a battle between humans, this was a puppet theater. Chiyo cursed herself at being such a good teacher to Sasori. The puppets in the guise of Sasori's parents were packed to the gills with weapons. She could no longer guide Sakura either, her full attention needing to be focused on dealing with the Third Kazekage.

It was sickening, turning a human into a puppet. She had heard of the dark, amoral art when in times of war. There was no better way to capitalize on an opponent's strengths by adding one to your roster. And if they didn't need to be alive to do so it was even better. Still, it filled her with disgust.

From the Kazekage's mouth poured a cloud of blackness, surrounding him and Sasori. The Iron Sand, the technique that made the Third Kazekage revered as the strongest shinobi the village ever knew. No doubt Sasori had made some modifications to this as well, never one to be satisfied with something that was fine even from the beginning.

"Sakura, you're on your own." She whispered. "But no matter what, don't get hit. All it'll take is one scratch for death to get you."

"Hey, I may not have fancy weapons, but I have my master's techniques and her utter contempt for losing."

"Watch out for the sand, my puppets are rigged properly to counteract such measures, but you can't use metal weapons with him due to magnetic forces."

"Perfect, I was taught to just pummel things anyway."

All it took was one punch, she assured herself. The black cloud Sasori's puppet conjured began to take a proper shape. Within seconds there were spears of black iron raining down on them. Chiyo dodged while simultaneously making her puppets go on the offensive. Allowing her to act like a one-woman team, she went to pincer Sasori with her puppets. No such luck, the Iron Sand forming a shield to repel the ceramic blades and projectiles that the puppets fired. Still Sakura was there.

With him devoting so much attention to Chiyo, he had let Sakura slip. He created another wall of iron sand to impede her, but all that made her do was strike it, sending it flying towards Sasori. Even he was astounded by just how much of a nuisance that girl was proving to be.

"Alright, enough!"

The Kazekage's full, undivided attention was now on Sakura. Once again the Iron Sand began to form, this time spreading and dividing, like a thorn bush.

Satetsu Kaihou!

It shredded the cave like paper, the ceiling collapsing. The Kazekage was one of his strongest puppets, able to take down entire squads of ANBU or Jounin. There was no way they were getting up after that.

The dust settled, Chiyo lying on her back. Her puppets were damaged, the Iron Sand having gotten into their joints. And the girl was bleeding. Just a scratch was enough, obvious from how she collapsed. It would be enough to leave her as she was, the poison having immobilized her and was working through her system. But Sasori had enough leaving things unfinished. The Kazekage flew, its bladed arms ready to shred her to pieces.

Just one punch.

The puppet shattered, Sasori's most prized possession now reduced to a useless heap of scrap from the force of Sakura's fist. The Iron Sand fell limply to the ground, covering the floor in a layer of black. He grit his teeth.

"You…you little bitch!" It had caused him nothing but grief taking down that man ten years ago in order to collect his corpse. And now his efforts were gone.

"Heh heh, not so scary now that its strings have been cut." She began tending to her wounds, the cuts from the Iron Sand closing.

"Sakura, you immunized yourself?"

"Yeah, but I've got a minute and a half tops. I have a shot for you, but I don't think he's gonna let me use another."

"You're right, I won't."

Sasori removed his robe, revealing just why he had aged so well. That was not a human body any longer. A torso made of reinforced ceramic emblazoned with the kanji for his name, a thick cable wrapped inside the cavity of his abdomen, extra arms on his back that were equipped with blades, and those were only the obvious ones. No doubt he had more tricks.

"It's been a long time since I used myself, and this. Be honored."

He took out a scroll and opened a cavity in his chest. From it flew a multitude of strings, each one of them connected to a separate puppet.

"To require me to use a technique that took out a country, I must be getting dull."

How many were there; thirty, maybe fifty? No two were the same, ranging in shapes from humanoid to bestial, some having multiple heads, no heads, strange, alien limbs, and some perfect recreations of people, others as strange as could be.

Chiyo did the same, summoning ten puppets, one for each finger. It wasn't the same as Sasori's numbers, but it was help. It was them versus an army; this was the final act. And they had to win.

XXXXX

Deidara had probably been screwing around too much, admittedly. It was actually a bit boring fighting brawlers who had no proper way to deal with him. He'd occasionally do a run, but he was always too high for them to counter. Did they really not have anything? He found it hard to believe that the famous Kakashi was lacking in long-range or didn't know how to do long-range attacks. In fact, he'd gotten nothing from either of them for the past minute. They couldn't have just given up already.

This was getting boring. Besides, he was running out of clay and there was a Jinchuuriki right in front of him. He was going to bag that boy by the end of the day.

He had enough to finish the job. At this range, with their lack of defenses against Deidara's fire power they were outclassed. And Master Sasori was even stronger than Deidara. The girl and the old woman were probably lying dead right now. As for Shuu, he could only imagine how badly his targets looked. Time to wrap this up.

However, something…well, Deidara didn't know what it was, but he felt something pull him. His bird went off course for a bit, stumbling through the air drunkenly.

"The hell, hm!?" He managed to regain control, righting himself.

Was there a third one he hadn't seen? He didn't have time to look, that bizarre sensation once again coming. And this time it was concentrated around his remaining arm.

"Son of a bitch!"

He couldn't get out of it. Space warped, drawing him in further and further in like a vacuum. He knew this sensation, it was doujutsu. Shit, that stupid bloodline irritating him again. This was gonna suck.

With a massive pull, Deidara managed to avoid getting sucked in, but now he was down another arm. He took back what he said to Master Sasori, now evaluating this as the worst injury in his entire life.

Kakashi winced, his Sharingan straining his chakra reserves along with a migraine on its way. He had meant to get Deidara right in the chest, but was miles off. He couldn't test this often, so he had no idea the full extent of its ins and outs. No matter though, the plan was already in motion.

Despite being disarmed, Deidara was far from helpless. He'd been through plenty of situations where he had been unable to use his hands. That Kakashi bastard and the Jinchuuriki were going to….wait, where was the kid?

Rasengan!

Just out of the corner of his eye, Deidara managed to catch a flash of orange. He leapt off his ride, letting the kid have his catch. There was no point in having that corpse anyway besides bait.

"Gaara, Gaara!"

Naruto peeled open the bird's head, revealing a prone Gaara. Oh god, he couldn't be, Naruto thought. Naruto checked his pulse. No, it was faint, but he was still there. Every inch of Naruto burned. Where was that bombing bastard? Naruto wanted to find him and pound him into gravy.

"Your ass is mine!" He declared, looking around for a shock of black or blonde in the tree cover.

Deidara knew better, having retreated into the bushes. The kid was strong, but he sure as hell wasn't observant. Deidara had to admit he lost this fight. There was no point in continuing this.

However, just as Deidara turned around, he saw four people Shuu should have taken care of. This was the worst day of Deidara's life. Ever.

Guy went for a hook, though the strain from the previous fight had worn him down. Deidara fled, avoiding a barrage of shuriken and kunai from Tenten and a Kuushou or two from Neji that tore out chunks of tree trunks. They gave chase, pincering him with the timely arrival of Kakashi.

"You're late, Guy!"

"But it came at the cost of winning the challenge!"

"I don't remember accepting that!"

Deidara went to his downed bird. Everybody was hesitant to move, knowing that a cornered animal was always one of the worst things to deal with. However, Deidara did something highly unexpected: he chomped down on his bird and swallowed the clay it was made of.

"Heh heh, you got front row seats! My art…IS A BLAST!"

"Run!" Neji yelled, having seen with his Byakugan just what in the world was going on. Chakra was concentrating at a single point in Deidara's body. It was mixing and convulsing, converging together in a violent crescendo.

However, just as soon as it started, it never came. Neji's group was trying to outrun the blast, but nobody was capable of that from that distance. But the blast never reached them, in fact imploding to its point of origin. Something sucked in gigatons of force, drawing it into a point in space. Neji managed to catch a glimpse of it, but wasn't sure what it was he saw.

"Gah…" Kakashi winced; firing that off three times in one day was pushing it.

"What was that?" Guy asked.

"Kamui, a new technique I whipped up. Get caught in it, you're getting sucked into another dimension."

"Truly spectacular." Guy grinned.

"Sensei!" Naruto yelled. "I'm headed back to Sakura-chan and Chiyo-baasan!"

"How's Gaara? You shouldn't be moving him!"

"Well I don't have much choice, he's fading fast! And Sakura-chan and Chiyo-baasan could use help!"

"Neji, you're the most qualified to administer emergency first-aid due to your Juuken." Guy ordered. "Tenten, Lee, stay behind to guard the Kazekage and Kakashi. Naruto, I'll go with you. If anything happens we can be backup."

Naruto really hoped Sakura and the old woman were finished.

XXXXX

Sakura had never witnessed a fight like this in her entire life. This was straight out of legend. Chiyo and Sasori weren't warriors, they were artists. Their puppets flew through the air, not battling but dancing. It was like the world's most visceral puppet show.

Sasori favored brute force, trying to overwhelm Sakura and Chiyo with numbers. Still they pushed forward. Chiyo, far more experienced, had fought against high numbers many times. The tactics were usually the same. She knew her puppets weren't coming out of here in one piece, so she put everything she had into all out offense. Blades shredded and pierced, implements smashed and ground, explosives fired, poisons bellowed in deadly clouds or seeped as liquids, and were it not for the victims being puppets, this would have been the most visceral massacre in the history of the Country of Wind.

Sakura kept the timer in her head going, sixty seconds until her antidote wore off. Like Chiyo, she concentrated on mitigating damage. She was already avoiding one of the medical-nin tenants. She didn't care, there was no choice. And besides, her trump card let her get away with breaking the rules anyway.

Another puppet burst like a melon under the force of Sakura's fists. Still, as soon as it shattered it pelted her with needles. They were a nuisance, always giving her a load of paper cuts that stung. Fifty seconds.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Sasori wasn't one to be a spectator or just the puppeteer, he was right in the middle. One of Chiyo's puppets fell, ripped limb from limb by Sasori's own creations before his bladed arms shredded it. Sakura went for a strike, hoping to put an end to him quickly, but Sasori flew apart and then reformed some distance from her. From his palms came a deluge of liquid fire, turning the stone she had stood on into goop. She had gained nothing. Forty seconds.

Black robes and limbs fell to the ground, piling on top of one another. Sakura had to get rid of Sasori. Or at least give Chiyo an opening. The old woman took a slash to her arm. Thirty seconds.

"Chiyo-baasama!"

"Don't worry about me, just get ready for the kill!"

One of Chiyo's puppets fired something from his mouth before being run though by five of Sasori's puppets and promptly self-destructing. Sakura caught the object and threw it as Sasori. With her enhanced strength there was no way he could dodge that. Twenty seconds

Sasori was pinned to a wall by the huge, sculpted face that the ball had become. Chiyo collapsed, her puppets wrecked and Sasori's equally decimated.

"He's going nowhere, that seal completely stops chakra. And a puppeteer who can't use their puppets has already lost."

Ten seconds, Sakura thought. She made it out with time to spare.

"Chiyo-baasama, take the-!"

A blade pierced Sakura through the chest. Just enough to touch her heart, cold steel ran her through. It was then that she noticed that "Sasori" was a shell. Zero seconds. But she wasn't going down gentle.

Sakura kept a hold on the sword, keeping Sasori from withdrawing it. She was getting dizzy, Sasori's venom having been coated onto the blade. Dammit, she never thought she'd have to use her trump card.

Byakugou no In, release!

The symbol on her head expanded, coiling down her face and spreading throughout her body. It was keeping him at bay, closing around the blade. Still, the poison was making chakra control difficult. She was fighting the poison just as quickly as it was gaining. But the chakra drain was enormous. She couldn't even muster a final punch due to having to concentrate on the wound in her chest. No wonder Master used it after a fight. Crap, she was passing…

Sakura felt a slight jab in her thigh. Chiyo had inoculated her again.

"Chiyo-baa…"

The pain was bad, forcing Sakura to her knees. Sasori let her fall, leaving behind his arm to reveal a hidden blade. He went in for the kill, but never landed. The first two puppets Sasori ever made, spitting images of his lost parents, embraced him as they ran him through. Sasori, despite being a puppet, bled.

"When did you…?" He asked his grandmother.

"I wondered why you had your name signed on your chest. I suppose it's a typical artist's vanity to mark everything, including themselves. Had you truly been a puppet you wouldn't have been able to move, so you had to use a core." Chiyo went to administer aid to Sakura, removing the blade from her chest.

"It's no use, she's lost too much blood."

"She's already taken care of the external wounds. I'm just giving her some of my own juice."

A life transfer technique, Sasori had heard of it. By transferring some of their own essence, miracles could be wrought. But the closer the patient was to death, the more the user had to transfer. Chiyo had lucked out, Sakura having lost a lot of blood but not enough for Chiyo's own life to be in danger.

"Originally, I had meant this for you." Chiyo said.

"Did you think…that you could bring back the dead?"

"I am sorry, Sasori. I am sorry that you were raised by a woman as wretched and pathetic as I."

"Then I guess me being born and becoming like this is your punishment."

"Uh…shut up, you freak…"

Sakura got up, clearly fine if she could insult Sasori who she promptly slugged in his plaster face. He merely chuckled.

"Go right ahead, there are no nerves in me. I can't even remember what pain was like."

"Is that why you did it? So you wouldn't have to feel sympathy, feel pain, feel love, what kind of human kills their heart!?"

"A shinobi." He grinned blankly, his eyes a pair of hollow pits. "If you think I'm a monster, then you don't know anything. You wanna know how many bodies my Grandma over there has walked over to survive? Next to her I'm a bodhisattva."

"…What the hell are you?"

"Just someone who thought they could become something else. I couldn't become a true puppet and I left behind too much of me to be human anymore. I guess you summed it up nicely already: I'm a freak."

He wasn't using it as a pejorative. This was a man who had long accepted his nature: as a monster, a murderer. He didn't lie, he didn't twist facts, and he knew what he was. And that was terrifying.

"Listen, girl, you know Itachi's little brother, don't you?" Sasori asked.

"What did you say?"

"Orochimaru was my old partner before Deidara and Shuu. He ran off with something of value and I was tasked to get it back so I kept my eyes on him. I think it was about…three months ago I finally got it back. Anyway, the last time I heard from an informant, she said this: 'watch out for ROOT' and 'keep an eye on Uzushiogakure.'"

"What does that mean?"

"Don't know. Sasuke is still fine. But he's not the same boy you knew."

"I don't care, I'll bring him back. You don't break a girl's heart and get away with it!"

"Heh heh, to think a lovestruck idiot beat me. Congratulations…"

Sasori fell to the ground at least, his strings cut. Chiyo looked at him, the last memory of her son and his family.

"Sakura-chan! Chiyo-baasan!"

XXXXX

They got to a field where Gaara was lying. Neji was doing everything he could, but his Juuken wasn't primarily a healing technique.

"I'm sorry." He apologized. "Maybe if we got to him sooner, but…dammit."

"Sakura-chan, can't you do anything?"

"I spent every drop I had in that fight back there. His heart's too weak."

"Shit, shit, shit, shit…." Naruto choked past hot tears.

Was this everything he was capable of? Three years and this was all he could do? Sasuke, and now Gaara. What the hell was the point of it all?

"Relax, Uzumaki…" Chiyo said.

"FUCK YOU! If you hadn't put that thing in him this wouldn't have happened! You were half-hoping we'd fail so you wouldn't have to deal with it anymore!"

"ENOUGH!" Kakashi spoke up. That was enough to make everyone stiffen. Kakashi sighed, looking like he put on a few years. "What's done is done."

"Not yet."

Chiyo had made too many mistakes. But she could correct one. Her palms glowed with chakra, more brilliant and beautiful than anyone had seen. There was no going back. But that was her price to pay.

"What the…?"

"Naruto, I might need your chakra since I don't got enough. Place your hands on top of mine."

Naruto was confused but complied. Uzumaki…now she remembered where she heard that name, she was thrown off because he was blond instead of a redhead. She remembered the tales of that name. And of a red-hot habanero.

XXXXX

Oh my, it looks like our time is cut short

Gaara felt those arms release him. What was going on? He thought he heard someone in the distance. But he didn't want to go. It was warm here, it felt good here. He wasn't hated, he wasn't feared, it was safe here. He wanted to stay.

"I-!"

A finger pressed to his lips. And he finally saw who the voice was, a woman with brown hair and the warmest cobalt eyes he had ever seen.

"No matter where you go or how many years may pass, I will always be with you. You are loved, not just by me."

"Are you…?"

She said nothing, giving him a kiss on the forehead to his tattoo.

"I love you, my little Gaara. Look, your friend is coming."

That was the first and last time he would ever see her. She faded, leaving him alone, but not for long as he felt a hand on his shoulder. And he saw another pair of blue eyes and a set of whisker marks.

XXXXX

He was in a field now, the stars out. He knew everyone's faces, whether it be the turtle-faced Lee, the milky-eyed Neji, or the foxily-grinning Naruto. They…they came for him?

"Welcome back." Naruto gave a thumbs up.

"I…I'm alive?"

"Yeah, and you have her to thank for it."

Naruto pointed to his pink-haired teammate. In her arms she was cradling an old woman. Gaara had heard all about her. For good and ill.

"Chiyo-baasama…"

"You should thank her when she wakes up."

"Naruto, she's never waking up." Sakura managed to say painfully. "She gave everything she had for Gaara."

He looked to the woman. He knew who she was. He heard all about her from his captain and the elder. Her past as a poison expert, as a soldier, as a puppeteer, everything was known to him. He knew she sealed Shuukaku inside him. She truly did have an infamous reputation. But she was also a doctor who saved many lives and her puppets did much the same to those who learned to wield them. She was a shinobi of Suna, one who served far longer than she needed to.

"Let us pray that she finds happiness in the next life." Gaara bowed his head.