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Scenes before the Final Chapter

a.k.a. Bonus Chapter#3

~The Gallant Youth of Konoha~

"Gatsūga!"

Kiba and Akamaru's combined attack spirals through the air and tear at the army of living corpses that have invaded Konoha's territory. The Anbu and several other shinobi are engaged in the same kind of battle all over.

Dozens of the undead began to crop up just a couple of hours after Konoha was reduced to a vast gorge. Sealing teams have been dispatched but they are few in number. Many of them were killed with Shizune within the Cypher Division.

""They're not that many but we can't seem to kill them," Tokuma laments. "We're wasting our chakra like this!"

Kiba and Akamaru both gasp for air as they witness the zombiefied ninjas get up after getting knocked down by the duo's fastest attack.

"The last data we gathered from Karin indicates this is Kabuto's doing. We must find him in order to stop this," Shino says as his insects make its way back to his body.

"Go," An Anbu says to them. "We'll handle this."

"We don't deserve to be called the best tracking team in Konoha if we can't find that bastard. Let's go!" Kiba says.

"Watch out!" a voice from behind yells. The team jump out of the way as a clay bomb explodes right in the middle of where they were. They look up and see Deidara from high above but only the clay bird and his yellow hair make him identifiable from such a distance. He swoops down fast.

"That's just a sample, yeah! Now for a real work of art!" He says with amusement, though no one can hear him so high up. He takes out a batch of clay from the bags under his cloak and proceeds to mold his creation with both hands.

Kiba brushes off the grime that accumulated on his shoulders as a result of the explosion. He gratefully faces the person who warned them. "Hey, thanks!" But then he makes a double take as he realizes the person isn't a shinobi. "Hey! Villagers aren't supposed to be here. Get yourself to the shelter now!" he commands.

"I can fight," Rock Lee shouts back his eyes glued to the descending Deidara from above. He runs forward with amazing speed and then shoots upward like a bullet.

"Whoa!" Tokuma gapes as he gauges the speed and distance of the leap.

Lee meets Deidara halfway and tackles him by the chest which sends both of them flying off higher than the clay bird. As soon as their momentum halts, Lee proceeds to attack in mid-air demonstrating his proficiency in taijutsu.

"Who is that?" Tokuma asks, marveling at the sight.

"He must be a ninja after all," Shino notes.

After a moment of contact, both Lee and the battered Deidara fall straight down as gravity takes hold.

"Guess we can't leave just yet. C'mon!" Kiba says.

Shino sends his insects flying through outstretched arms toward Lee. The swarm forms a kind of basket that cushions his fall just a few inches off the ground.

Tokuma rushes toward Deidara and with his byakugan activated, he identifies the Akatsuki's chakra flow and attacks with the Hyūga Clan's trademark gentle fist. Deidara can't find time to react.

"Let's not take chances with this one, Akamaru", Kiba says. "It's been a while so it should be fun." The pair then transform into the Inuzuka Clan's special combination.

"Double-headed wolf!"

Deidara lies defeated. Anbu take their turn to finish the job.

"That was amazing!" Lee says after Kiba and Akamaru return to normal. "You changed to a giant two-headed dog, didn't you? What an amazing ninjutsu."

"That's wolf! Two-headed wolf." Kiba corrects.

"It still looks like a dog," Shino says.

"Anyway, ninjas are really amazing!" Lee says with enthusiasm.

"You were pretty amazing yourself. You mean you're not a ninja?" Kiba says in surprise.

"No, I'm not."

"Could've fooled us."

Shino pats Kiba on the shoulder. "It's time, Kiba. Kabuto –"

"Ah right! Well then."

Just as the tracking team is about to take off and leave Lee and the others to battle their remaining foes that are in the form of the undead, they all stop and stare at a distance. Something's coming!

"Tenten, hang in there!" Sakura pleads trying desperately to exert as much chakra into the healing jutsu Tsunade-san taught her. Her mind races as she tries to recall every detail from three straight days of training.

Tsunade-shishio said she was a fast learner. But not fast enough. A few more days. No, just a few more hours. Just a few more hours and she would've gotten the hang of it. Why does it have to be now?

"Tenten!"

"It's okay, Sakura," Tenten says weakly. "I just need to rest." She closes her eyes and manages a smile. "I did good, didn't I?"

Sakura's tears stream down her cheeks. Her effort only sealed the wound but the hemorrhaging won't stop internally. The iron sand needles have penetrated her system beyond repair. The poison that lines the needles is spreading fast. "You did good, Ten. You were really good."

"I was, wasn't I?" Tenten coughs and blood trickles from the side of her mouth. "Who knew I had such a knack for weapons, eh?" she says in halted speech.

Sasori's salamander puppet was destroyed when Tenten hit its only vulnerable spot at the side joint of its frill. Her kunai dislodged its seemingly impenetrable iron shield and rendered it defenseless afterwards.

"You were the only one who could do it, Tenten. You were amazing," Sakura said softly.

"It all f-felt s-so n-natural. I-I have to th-thank N-Naru-to some t-time."

"Yeah, you should do that."

"Sakura, watch out!" Ino yells as the wall where Sakura pulled the wounded Tenten melts as if it's merely wax. Sasori's Scorpion puppet shoots a second blast from its flamethrower toward the exposed pair. Sakura grabs Tenten's limp body and leaps out of the way.

Sasori is not pleased. He's feeling vulnerable but not defeated. He's been forced to expose his puppet body when a combination attack these brats called Ino-Shika-Chou formation was launched on him and destroyed his puppet armor Hiruko. The stretched shadow came unexpectedly from a distance when the ninja in a pony tail arrived as he was battling the three young kunoichi and the fat one.

"Shikamaru!" Ino said with relief when their team leader arrived at the crucial moment.

"Now Chouji!" Shikamaru shouted as he exerted all his strength into his shadow bind.

"Grahhhhh! Spiked Bullet Tank!" Chouji wrapped himself with ropes of kunais, expanded into a ball and then rolled with great speed. Hiruko stuggled but the shadow bind was too strong. The midday sun exposed everything and everything, whether it was a wooden plank or a rock, cast a shadow that provided Shikamaru with extra leverage even from a distance.

Chouji's Bullet Tank crashed into Hiruko like a spiked bowling ball and blasted its metal composition into pieces. The impact was so strong that it completely exposed Scorpion, Sasori's final puppet that looked like his younger self.

Shikamaru directed his shadow bind on Scorpion but then a miscalculation took place soon after. Ino performed her mind-transfer jutsu concentrating on Sasori's head. Shikamaru released the bind afterwards trusting that Sasori was under Ino's control. But then Sasori began to move and was keener on his defense. He wouldn't be caught by the moving shadow a second time.

"Nothing's there!" Ino declared when she transferred back to her own body.

"What?" Shikamaru tried to recall the info Itachi provided on Sasori. Did he miss something? Was the puppet being controlled by somebody else?

That's when Sasori stretched out his hand and released the metal melting fire through the tube that ran through his arm.

Sakura lays Tenten's still body on the ground then takes a defensive stance facing Sasori. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji join her.

They witness Sasori take out a scroll from his back, and from a compartment on his right chest more than a hundred chakra strings come out and reach into the scroll. Each of the strings pulls out a puppet wearing a red cloak.

The young ones marvel at the sight of more than a hundred puppets, all moving through a single puppeteer's will. It is a whole company of machines, incapable of feeling pain, against four embattled ninjas.

"You should be proud of yourselves young ones," Sasori begins. "I have brought down an entire nation with these puppets. To make me use them against you now means you have fought well. But unfortunately, this is the end."

"Shikamaru…" Chouji waits for instructions but his best friend remains silent.

Ino and Sakura look at each other and hold hands.

All four of them look on and await their fate.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sasori screams as his puppets get engulfed by something that came from behind - the black flames from the Uchiha Clan's Amaterasu.

Next: The Conclusion