Chapter 20: The Battle Continues!
I'm really sorry it took me a month for this chapter but I had exams :/. I kept putting it off and I just finished exams last week, so I started this chapter. Please enjoy! Reviews appreciated.
The five Leaf Shinobi stood across from the hunched over Akatsuki member. A clay bird was circling them in the sky, watching them on the ground below.
"I'll say it once more, hand over the nine tail kid and we won't have to kill you." Sasori grumbled in his ragged voice.
"That's not an option." Itachi stared back at Sasori. "Everyone, get ready to fight."
In the back of Itachi's mind, he could feel more Akatsuki members trailing them. He knew it wouldn't be long before they showed up.
"I know all about your eyes Itachi, they won't work on me. After all they can't effect a puppet." Sasori pulled out his puppet he would use for battle.
"Kakashi and Sakura, I need you two to hold off Deidara while Naruto, Hinata and I take care of Sasori." Itachi motioned to them.
"On it." Kakashi grabbed some Kunai out of his bag and started to think up a plan in his head. Sakura followed as they tailed Deidara.
"Naruto, Hinata, just a warning for you two. Sasori is a puppet user, and is especially dangerous in the desert. We can't do anything to him unless we get close, so his puppets protect him." Itachi was on guard waiting for Sasori to make the first move.
"So we need to get around his puppet somehow?" Naruto glanced over at Sasori.
"Yes, but the thing is, he has way more puppets than you would think." Just as Itachi finished his sentence, Sasori's puppet shot out at the three of them. It burst into the sand and the three jumped out of the way.
"Naruto watch out!" Itachi shouted.
The puppet shot out razor sharp needles directly at Naruto. He quickly jumped out of the way, only being hit by a few.
"Ow dammit!" Naruto pulled the needle from his arm.
Hinata activated her Byakugan and stared at Sasori. She saw tiny blue threads leading to the puppet from his finger tips.
'So he controls the puppet by using chakra threads...' Hinata thought to herself. 'Maybe if I can get to his chakra points I can disable him from using his puppets'
Sasori shot some needles at Hinata, which she quickly dodged.
"It looks like I need more than just one puppet for the three of them..." Sasori grumbled as he summoned another puppet, controlling one with each hand.
In the mean time, Naruto created a shadow clone which started storing Sage chakra nearby.
"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto created multiple shadow clones which charged head on at Sasori.
"Idiot kid, that won't work." Sasori aimed one of the puppets in their path and fired a barrage of needles, taking down all of them.
'We just need to distract Sasori somehow. Then Hinata can get in close and do some damage.' Itachi started thinking of a plan.
Hinata started firing air palms at the puppets, but were having little effect. The puppets were being easily maneuvered away.
"Naruto!" Itachi called for him. Naruto jumped right beside him.
"I need you to create several shadow clones again. Distract one puppet even if it's only for a moment." Itachi explained.
"Got it." Naruto nodded. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto created several more shadow clones running in Sasori's direction.
"Rasengan!" They all yelled as the ran directly towards a puppet.
"Fireball jutsu!" Itachi did the hand motions and set a huge flame in Sasori's direction. The wind from the desert storm was fierce, and made the fire larger and more powerful.
"You have to try harder than that Itachi!" Sasori yelled. His puppet levitated the sand around it and hurled it towards the giant firball, extinguishing it immediately.
"Now Hinata!" Itachi yelled.
"Gentle fist!" With her Byakugan activated, Hinata emerged from the smoke a few feet away from Sasori. She could see the Chakra points in his arm.
'Dammit!' Sasori flung a puppet at high speed in Hinata's direction.
"Watch out Hinata!" Naruto yelled.
Hinata struck Sasori's left arm, disabling his chakra from one of his hands.
The puppet flying in her direction smashed into her side, knocking her into the ground. The puppet wasn't letting her get up. Sand started forming around her and held her down.
"You brat! I'll kill you!" Sasori aimed his other puppet directly at Hinata.
"Iron Sand Prison!" Sasori's puppet gathered a large amount of sand and started forming a large box in the sky.
"Hinata!" Naruto yelled. He sprinted full speed towards her.
"Get out of the way." The puppet pushed a large mound of sand at Naruto, knocking him to the ground.
'This is bad, I need to do something!' Itachi looked around.
Hinata struggled to get the puppet off of her, but it was no use.
"Naruto!" Hinata yelled. The sand from the ground already had a tight grip on her, preventing her from getting up.
"Now suffer!" The large sand prison collapsed over Hinata, encasing her whole body inside the box.
Itachi appeared right behind Sasori.
"Chidori!" Itachi's hand went straight through Sasori's body. His body smashed to bits like a puppet.
No words came out of Sasori's mouth. His broken body just collapsed on the ground. The sand around Naruto loosened and Naruto got up right away.
"Hinata! Hinata are you in there?!" Naruto ran towards the sand prison. He couldn't hear anything from inside. He began hitting the sand and striking it with his Rasengan but I didn't make a dent. Tears began to dwell in Naruto's eyes.
Itachi looked at the prison with his Sharingan.
"Naruto relax. She's not dead." Itachi said.
"S-she isn't?" Naruto stuttered.
"I can sense chakra inside. She's still there, probably unconscious. We should hurry to find a way to break the jutsu, it could be absorbing her chakra by the minute." Itachi said calmly.
Suddenly the pieces of Sasori's puppet like body began rattling.
"What's going on?" Naruto turned his head to Sasori's shattered body.
The other puppet Sasori used stood up on its own, and opened its chest large compartment. A red headed medium sized, young looking man stepped out. He wore an Akatsuki coat, but his chest and legs were that of a puppet. His face was the only normal part about him.
"Who- who are you?" Naruto looked confused and scared.
"Oh, you don't realize? Well I guess you haven't seen the real me before." The man stated. His voice was smooth and light.
"I don't remember anyone like you in the Akatsuki." Itachi's eyes narrowed.
"Itachi, you don't recognize me? It's me, Sasori." He smirked.
"But.. that's impossible! He just killed Sasori!" Naruto pointed at the broken pieces of Sasori's body.
"Oh thanks for reminding me." Sasori controlled his puppet and quickly grabbed the pieces and put them inside the chest.
A few moment later a brand new puppet emerged from the compartment. Sasori took control of that one too.
"So this is the real you, Sasori. I always wondered what you were like underneath that puppet shell. I thought for sure I killed you too." Itachi stared back at him with his Sharingan.
"I'm an Akatsuki member. I'm not that easy to take down. Plus, you think that was all I had? Now that I'm full of Chakra again thanks to that girl I can finally pull out my favourite moves!" Sasori started laughing hysterically.
"So it is absorbing her Chakra... Naruto we need to do something fast." Itachi tried his Genjutsu on Sasori.
"Oh no. Not Genjutsu!" Sasori sarcastically yelled. "As long as I have my puppets on me I won't need to look at you. So try that all you want, Uchiha." Sasori smirked again. "You guys really are annoying, so I'll finish you off quickly."
Sasori pulled out a scroll from his chest. He rolled it out on the sand and began making hand signs.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Thousand Puppets!" Suddenly, one thousand puppets flew into the sky, all being controlled by Sasori himself.
"Well how do you like that? Pretty cool right!" Sasori let out a chuckle.
The sky was filled with different kinds of puppets, forming an army of black in the sky.
"This looks bad Itachi... how will we save Hinata at this rate?" He glanced over his shoulder at the sand prison, thinking how much time he had before Hinata was gone.
"Naruto, focus. If I can get close enough to Sasori to look him in the eyes, I can control him with my Genjutsu to undo the sand prison." Itachi explained. "It'll take some doing, but give it all you've got."
"I understand." Naruto nodded, as he faced the thousands of puppets in the sky.
...
Kakashi and Sakura we're tailing Deidara's clay bird for what seemed like hours now. In reality, it's only been around ten minutes.
"I hope the three of them are doing okay back there." Sakura had a worried look on her face.
"I'm sure they're fine Sakura." Kakashi reassured. "I just don't understand why this guy isn't doing anything. He knows we're following him." He looked up into the sky.
"It's possible he did this to separate us, but why isn't he attacking?"
"I don't know either, it seems suspicious." Sakura agreed.
They were practically almost out of the desert at this point, although they hadn't travelled far through the desert in the first place.
They reached some grass and trees just before the desert started.
"I have a bad feeling of where we're at right now." Kakashi activated his Sharingan.
"Do you think he led us here for a reason?" Sakura looked around.
"I see them! More Akatsuki members!" Kakashi sensed two more waiting shortly up ahead for an ambush.
"Lets turn back!" Sakura suggested.
Just then Deidara swooped down.
"Uh, where do you think you're going?" He hopped off his clay bird and it went back up into the sky. "Hidan, Kakuzu!" He yelled out for
his fellow Akatsuki members.
They emerged from the trees just up ahead.
"Take care of these two. My work is done here, I need get back to Sasori." Deidara hopped back on his clay bird as it swooped down and he flew back off in the direction of the other three.
"Well well, it looks like it's time to have some fun!" Hidan sounded excited.
"Take this seriously or I'll kill you myself." Kakuzu argued.
"Oh come on Kakuzu stop being so mean!" Hidan slapped him on the back.
"Do it again and I'll kill you." Kakuzu stared right at him.
"Jeez! Alright alright let's get this over with." Hidan faced the two Leaf ninja.
"Sakura get ready." Kakashi stared back at them.
"It's do or die."