This may have been the longest I've gone without updating this fanfiction since its genesis, and for that, I'm sincerely sorry. This fic now has over 100 followers, the first and only of any of my works to have reached this milestone, so I am sincerely grateful for all the support. I will do my best to finish things off properly and not let my legion of supporters down. And now…without further ado, Revamped is officially off hiatus!

Chapter 21: Cut Strings

Sasuke vs. Kankurō

The crowd roared delightedly as Shino Aburame was rushed from the arena and Neji Hyūga nonchalantly returned to the upper level. Stepping past Gaara, the two shinobis' eyes met briefly.

"You're next," Neji muttered in passing. Gaara's lips spread into a malicious grin, teeth clamping together harshly as he watched his rival's back hungrily. Kankurō and Baki traded a worried glance as the demonic genin began chuckling under his breath.

"Shit…what are we supposed to do?" Kankurō asked his sensei in an undertone. "Doesn't the assault begin soon…Gaara is getting pretty worked up…"

"There's been a change of plans," Baki whispered. "Somehow, the Leaf learned of our plan to invade…their countermeasures are far too heavy for us to penetrate right now, so we are putting that off for now."

"What are you saying?" Kankurō asked surprised.

"I'm telling you that you have a new objective right now," Baki gripped his subordinate's shoulders seriously. "You are to do everything in your power to buy us time for our forces to prepare fully. Take every fight seriously, but drag it out as long as possible."

Kankurō raised an eyebrow as he shrugged his shoulders, causing the bundle strapped around his back to conspicuously rise. "That would mean exposing many of Karasu's hidden mechanisms…"

"I'm aware," Baki closed his eyes tiredly, "but we need this invasion to happen, and we can't count on Gaara to drag things out for the sake of our mission, so I'm asking you."

"I've got it," Kankurō replied, "but that might be beyond my control if Uchiha doesn't show up."

The crowd had begun booing loudly and Genma's call for contestants had gone completely unheeded. Kankurō jumped into the fray and the discord eased up slightly, but spectators were still largely agitated. Naruto turned to Shikamaru impatiently.

"What's keeping Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei?!"

"Hell if I know," Shikamaru yawned. "They're probably just stalling to make a badass entrance."

Naruto squinted at Shikamaru irritably. "You really think they would go through that much trouble just to look cool?!"

A sudden tempo of wind halted their conversation as a dust devil spun directly in front of Genma, leaves cloaking two figures and drawing the collective awed silence of combatants and spectators alike.

"Sorry we're late," came a familiar drawl from the leafy center. Naruto perked up as the winds settled down and he recognized the spiky silver hair.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Genma grinned as he observed the duo amused. "Your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Well, that was the most badass thing I've seen all day!"

"Okay, okay," Genma raised his hands into the air. "Both opponents are here, so let's get this match underway. The fight between Sasuke and Kankurō will now commence!"

The stadium was now roaring delightedly as the confrontation between the Leaf and Sand drew closer. In spite of himself, Kankurō grinned arrogantly.

"I didn't think I'd have a chance to face you seriously," he slowly circled around Sasuke. The Uchiha didn't budge an inch.

"You really think you'll be able to beat me with your puppet?"

"Kick his ass, Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed from above.

"Humph, so noisy," Sasuke snorted. "Acting like a big shot when you haven't even won your match yet…"

"Like you're one to talk," Kankurō retorted. "Though I will admit that your Sharingan is going to make you rather tricky to deal with…" Especially since the landscape isn't particularly ideal for a puppet master…the Clone Jutsu would have been a good tactic, but it's completely useless against ninja with dōjutsu.

"If you aren't coming to me, then I'm just gonna come to you!" Sasuke yelled as he charged towards Kankurō. The puppet master hopped back as the bandages around his marionette unraveled. Karasu burst forth on a beeline towards Sasuke, its chest opening up to reveal a scythe blade.

"Be my guest!" Kankurō yelled as Karasu flung forth. Sasuke dove to the side, but as Karasu skimmed the ground next to him, both of its arms dislocated at the elbow to reveal grenade launchers.

"Shit!"

Time seemed to come to a standstill to the crowd as several poison gas bombs were shot towards Sasuke. He closed his eyes, and for a moment, they seemed sure to hit.

"What the?!"

Kankurō blinked panicked as the poison bombs connected only with Sasuke's afterimage, exploding harmlessly inside a pothole Gaara's sand had created earlier. "Where did he go?!"

"Right here!"

Kankurō felt a heavy impact as a blow from Sasuke's arm sent him flying, Karasu tugged along for the ride. The Sand shinobi tried to focus his puppet on Sasuke even as he was airborne, but the wily Uchiha had disappeared once again, the painful brunt of his elbow slamming into Kankurō's stomach.

"Ugh!" He felt bile rise to his throat as he landed on his back painfully.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. "He's as fast as Bushy Brows!"

"Yes, well," Kakashi scratched his head, "our training was primarily physical conditioning. The Sand Siblings seem to be the primary contenders, so I wanted Sasuke well-equipped to face them."

"Ridiculous," Kankurō struggled to his feet. "Let's see how you like this!"

Karasu appeared to wail as its mouth dropped open, a series of senbon shooting out towards Sasuke, but he avoided the nasty poisonous attacks easily once again.

"Is that all you've got?" Sasuke sighed shaking his head. "I thought the Sand were more capable than this…"

"Humph!" Karasu was flung directly above Sasuke before coming down with its poisonous needles erect. As before, Sasuke easily moved out of the line of fire, but to his surprise, Karasu's head shot off after him, nicking him across the arm before he could retaliate.

"Hahaha! You're done for now!" Kankurō gleefully shouted. "That's poison in your body!"

"So in the end, this was all you had?" Sasuke shook his head, a cold sweat kicking in, although he was still greatly unconcerned. "How embarrassing for me to get scratched by the likes of you…"

"What are you gonna do about it?" Kankurō taunted.

Sasuke sighed deeply. "I have a secret technique that I would just love to use to shut that annoying mouth of yours, but unfortunately, it has a limit and I would rather reserve it for a more worthy opponent…so I'll just have to beat you before the poison kicks in so the medics have less to extract."

"You underestimate me…" Kankurō eyed his prey. There was a collective intake of breaths as Karasu completely disassembled, each and every piece a poison-coated instrument of torture hovering in the air to be put to an ugly cause. Sasuke looked up at the body pieces before looking back at Kankurō with a grin.

"Nice try…but attacking me will only spell certain defeat for you."

"You talk big!" Kankurō howled, "but let's see action!" With the flick of his index finger, the weapons came flying down, impaling Sasuke's torso.

Sakura's scream echoed hauntingly from the stands and, for one brief moment, the match seemed quite over. "I did it!" Kankurō cheered triumphantly. "I defeated Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Guess again."

Kankurō wheeled around to find Sasuke standing behind him with his arms crossed smugly. "But…I killed you!"

"Not quite…I escaped your attack with a Substitution Jutsu at the last moment."

Kankurō shook his head furiously. "That's impossible! There's nothing around here for you to substitute with!"

"That's not quite true…"

As Kankurō turned back toward the Sasuke he had stabbed, he realized that his attacks had gone right through Karasu's chest.

"You used one of my puppet's body parts to substitute?!" Kankurō asked horrified.

"I did," Sasuke replied. "With my speed, your attacks were never really an issue, but that poisonous scratch weakened me, so I wanted to finish you off quickly. As you said, there are no logs or rocks to substitute with, so I had to improvise."

Kankurō stared at Sasuke blankly for a long moment until Sasuke's voice brought him back to reality. "I'd be careful if I was you…with all of your puppet's hidden mechanisms and technology, who knows what sort of trouble a mechanical failure might cause…"

"Huh?" Kankurō turned back to his puppet to find that the torso was sputtering dangerously, sparks crackling around it. A wave of realization swept over Kankurō and he immediately attempted to sever his connection to Karasu, but it was too late. The impaled mechanism exploded, sending a shockwave down Kankurō's chakra threads. The Sand shinobi screamed as he was electrocuted by his puppet. Sasuke stuffed his hands into his pockets and sighed before walking away as Kankurō's charred body collapsed to the ground behind him.

"Sasuke is the winner!" Genma exclaimed. Sasuke ignored the whooping crowd and frantic medics as he headed straight for Kakashi.

"Well done, Sasuke," Kakashi complimented his student. "That was an excellent strategy, and you were able to preserve your Chidori."

"There wasn't any point in wasting it on the likes of him," Sasuke scoffed. Kakashi's eyes reflected a degree of exasperation at this proclamation as he pulled out his copy of Make-Out Paradise.

"Well, you got lucky this time. Now go see the medics and get that poison out of your system." Sasuke nodded and headed back to the floor arena.

"Oh, and Sasuke?" Sasuke turned back to Kakashi to see that his teacher was clearly grinning. "Try to make sure they do it somewhere that you can watch Naruto's fight. I have a feeling you won't want to miss it."

Winner: Sasuke

Author's Note: It somewhat hurt to go through with this chapter; Kankurō is actually one of my favorite characters, but there just isn't a realistic way to make him win against Sasuke in a fair fight, so this was the fate he was given. Try to drop me a review for this if you enjoyed it; also, if you enjoy any of my work, it might be a good idea to follow me so you can see when future stories are released. I've got some big plans for a few One Piece, Pokemon, and Shin Megami Tensei fanfics, and they will be much darker and more psychological than this. They are in the works and I won't be releasing anything until I have at least finished one of my other series, but this is the sneak preview of future works to expect from me. Great to be back working on this story; I'll update again soon!

Crow