Hey. NinjaFang1331, thanks for all your reviews man.

By the way, SEASON 3 IS AWESOME! Just 2 episodes in, and I'm hooked. I mean I read the light novels already, but man the anime really does the original novels justice. The graphics alone are awesome, better than the previous seasons. I'm really looking forward to the actual fight scenes.

On a side note, unless they do breaks after each subseason, this story probably won't reach the Underworld arc before the actual season 3 ends.

So yeah, let's start with the new chapter.

XXX

As the team of shinobi headed out of Sunagakure, meanwhile, in a cave, Deidara and Sasori threw Gaara's unconscious body onto the floor.

In an instant, a silhouette with the Rinnegan appeared, "Good job, Deidara, Sasori."

The man then turned and slammed his palms onto the ground, summoning the huge statue that they were standing on during their previous meeting.

As the statue rose from the ground, the man yelled, "Akatsuki! Assemble!"

Immediately, several more silhouettes appeared on the fingers of the statue as Deidara and Sasori leaped onto their platforms. The man spoke, "We will now begin the sealing ritual, a reminder, this will take three hours, Itachi, Kisame, use the dummies to hold the Konoha shinobi back."

The two nodded before the man clapped his arms together, "Fuinjutsu: Genryu Kyuufuujin!"

Immediately, nine dragon heads shot out from the statue's eyes and engulfed Gaara as the young Kazekage started to roar in pain.

(Now I know the jutsu actually takes 3 days, but here, it will only take 3 hours for the Ichibi, but the time will gradually increase by an hour for each of the other bijuu according the tails.)

Meanwhile, the two teams of Konoha shinobi along with Chiyo had just exited the desert and were moving into the forests.

As they were about to leap onto the trees, a figure caught their attention. The figure in a cocky tone, "Oi oi, where are you lot going?"

The two teams immediately got on guard seeing the tell tale cloak with red clouds. The man took off his straw hat and threw it away, revealing the face of one Hoshigaki Kisame.

The shark man grinned, "Its been a while, little Uchiha, Kyuubi."

Hikari glared at him, "Kisame."

Sakura asked, "Who is that?"

Sasuke answered, putting his hand on his chokuto, "Hoshigaki Kisame, an S-rank nuke nin from Kiri, he's Itachi's partner. If he's here..."

Kisame smirked, "Yeah, he's waiting for you ahead of me. Besides, I heard you have an all kunoichi plus sword user team, right?"

Yugao said, "Kakashi, you take your team and Chiyo-sama and go on ahead, we'll catch up later."

Kakashi nodded but Hikari wanted to protest, and before she could, he looked at her, "Hikari, we cannot waste time here, you know what happens when a Jinchurikii has their bijuu extracted, especially when they are not Uzumaki."

That stopped Hikari from saying whatever she was gonna say and her face morphed into one of determination. The last Namikaze nodded and stared at her sisters. The three swordswomen/archer nodded before they all drew their swords/bow and arrow.

Kisame just smirked as team Kakashi and Chiyo dashed past them. Yugao raised an eyebrow, "I thought you were gonna stop us?"

Kisame huffed, "Heh, I'm not as cocky as to think I can take on all of you at once. Besides, Itachi wants a little talk with his little brother."

The man's smirk vanished as he swung his Samehada, letting it crash into the ground, "Now, let us get started, shall we?"

Yugao and her team just took their stance as Kisame charged.

The blue skinned man swung the Samehada, deciding to take down Yugao first before he slowly picked off the three other girls.

The purple haired woman seemed to realize his intentions and decided to humor him. The woman slid past the massive shark sword and swung her katana from below.

The swordsman of the Akatsuki smirked as leaned back slightly, allowing the blade to pass by his face. But he didn't expect the next thing that happened. As fast as lightning, Asuna charged forward, using the Samehada that was lodged on the ground as a platform, she jumped up and spun, coming down with stabs.

Kisame instinctively tried to raise his sword to block, but his eyes widened as he couldn't move it. Then he realized as he caught sight of Suguha holding his sword down with her own sword.

He moved too late as Asuna's rapier stabbed through his heart, making him cough blood as he grunted in pain.

Just joking. The man smirked as his body melted into water, the Samehada that Suguha was holding down doing the same.

As the man seemingly vanished, Sinon caught something moving and she quickly shot an arrow at the direction, and as expected, something struck it down as she saw the arrow fall to the ground.

The girl tried to further sense his location, but Kisame's voice interrupted her, "Suiton: Umi no Jutsu!"

In an instant, water flooded the area. The four kunoichi couldn't help but be impressed by how much water Kisame drew out, considering there was no direct source of water in the area, and the man had managed to make a miniature lake that had ankle deep water.

But the four kunoichi didn't have the leisure to admire his work, not when Kisame was no where to be seen.

The four of them quickly placed their backs against one another, scanning the area for the shark man.

They all stood there for a while, waiting for the man to appear. Then their eyes widened at the same time as all of them realized it, the four women leaped away just as Kisame arose from the ground with the Samehada wide open.

The man chuckled as the four kunoichi surrounded him, "Not bad, not bad at all!"

However, Kisame knew he had put himself in a bad position. The man had half-expected the four kunoichi to be unable to dodge the attack, and now he was surrounded.

Regardless, winning or surviving wasn't too important, all he needed to do was stall them after all. Kisame smirked and threw his sword up, drawing the attention of the four kunoichi to look at the sword. Then he quickly went through a set of seals, "Suiton: Bakusuishoha!"

He spat out a huge amount of water, adding in the water on the ground, a huge tidal wave rose and raged towards the four kunoichi.

However, they weren't just gonna stand there and do nothing. Suguha quickly raised her sword, channeling wind chakra into it while Sinon did the same with her arrows. Yugao and Asuna, on the otherhand, both went through a set of seals.

Then right as the waves were about to slam into the four women, they let their attacks loose. Suguha sent a strong wind slash that completely separated the wave into two, letting the water pass by her harmlessly.

Sinon released a chakra charged arrow and destroyed the wave, letting water rain down, whereas Yugao unleashed a massive fireball that evaporated most of the water. As for Asuna, she summoned an orca that easily took in the water before it quickly vanished back to its realm.

As soon as they dealt with their waves, all four kunoichi dashed forward, weapons drawn, except Sinon had put away her bow and arrows in favor of her dagger. Kisame just smirked as four blades pierced through his body from all four sides, blood dropping to the water on the ground.

The man chuckled, "Not bad, not bad. I look forward to really fighting you next time."

His words confused the four kunoichi. Then they felt his chakra signature change and Kisame's skin returned to normal. More importantly, the Kiri nuke nin's face changed, revealing a face none of them knew.

The four kunoichi pulled out their blades as the dead body fell to the floor. Suguha asked, "What just happened?"

Yugao knelt down and inspected the body, Sinon also doing the same. The archer thought aloud, "Probably a transformation jutsu?"

Asuna stared at the corpse, "But, wouldn't a transformation jutsu just alter the characteristics of a person at most?"

Yugao nodded, "Exactly. But he had everything Kisame is known for. The Samehada certainly wasn't a fake, nor were his chakra levels."

Suguha frowned, "We can figure that out later, we need to catch up with the others."

No one disagreed and they quickly leaped away from the area following Sinon's cat, leaving the dead corpse of the supposed Hoshigaki Kisame.

Meanwhile, around the time Kisame and team Yugao started fighting, team Kakashi and Chiyo were leaping through the trees, with Pakkun leading them.

Then, Pakkun frowned and said, "Stop."

Everyone did so, looking at the dog in confusion. Kakashi asked, "What's wrong, Pakkun?"

The dog stared in front, "Come out, I can smell you, Uchiha."

That immediately set off alarms in Hikari and Sasuke's minds. There was only one other Uchiha, from what they knew, Uchiha Itachi.

As expected, the slayer of the Uchiha clan stepped out of the shadows, staring at Sasuke and Hikari specifically.

Sakura got nervous at the sight, she had heard of the man from Sasuke, and the girl knew that Itachi was far stronger than any of them.

Itachi spoke, "Its been a while, Sasuke, Uzumaki, no, Namikaze Hikari."

Sasuke glared at him, "Itachi..."

The younger Uchiha's reflex was to charged his brother, but Hikari held up her hand, pulling him back, "Wait, Sasuke."

The man nodded at the girl, realizing his mistake, "Thanks, Hikari."

Itachi had a barely noticeable smile, 'Hmm, so he's trying to get over his hate. Good, that will truly be the first step to ending the cycle.'

The Akatsuki member said, "Namikaze Hikari, I will have you come with me."

Hikari frowned and took a stance, "Like hell I'll just hand the Kyuubi to you, he's my friend."

Kakashi spoke up, "Hikari, wait a-"

He was cut off by the girl, "Kakashi-sensei, please, let me and Sasuke handle him."

Sasuke nodded as he stepped forward beside Hikari, "Yeah, he's our problem."

Kakashi looked at them before he nodded. To Sasuke, Itachi was the man who killed his clan, the young Uchiha needed to know why it happened and he needed closure to that event, and the only way for that was through Itachi.

To Hikari, Itachi was one of the Akatsuki, so it meant he was gonna hunt for her anyways, so she had to confront him for the safety of the people she loved and herself.

The scarecrow nodded, "Fine. But, if things get too far, I will step in."

Hikari and Sasuke both nodded as they faced the man, the blonde releasing her chains while Sasuke activated his Sharingan. Sakura just stood by with Kakashi and Chiyo, the medic knew in a fight like this, she was gonna be more of a hindrance, since Sakura knew she wasn't as strong as either of them. Her main job was to heal, not fight after all.

Itachi seemed to realize that his opponents were the two younger members of the group. He hmm'd before he spoke, "Come."

Immediately, the two sprang into action. Contrary to what Itachi expected, instead of charging forward with her chains, Hikari shot a dozen kunai at him with her chains.

The man easily dodged the projectiles, wondering why the girl would choose such an ineffective approach. If it were gennin fighting a team of gennin, or even chunnin, he could understand. Those weapons were the basics in fighting. But once you reached Jounin level or higher, unless it involved plans or due to low chakra levels, using kunai as throwing weapons was the not the first option.

Then Itachi's eyes landed on one of the kunai, and he realized why she had chosen that approach, and he cursed his idiocy for forgetting the possibility that she could use the Hiraishin.

Hikari and Sasuke also seemed to notice his expression as they both grinned/smirked. Then, the last thing Itachi saw was Hikari placing her hand on Sasuke's shoulder before the yellow flash blinded him.

For the next few moments, Itachi was bombarded with kicks, punches and slashes from the the two members of team Kakashi. Itachi didn't even have the time to substitute as they were simply too fast, it was as if they were everywhere at the same time.

But Itachi wouldn't be Itachi if he just let them beat him up just like that. Sasuke and Hikari appeared in front and behind Itachi respectively, both with a Chidori in their hands.

The two roared in unison as they thrust their lightning clad arms at Itachi, "Chidori!"

However, they were a tad bit too slow, as Itachi managed to disperse into a dozen crows, letting the two jutsu clash into each other before sending the two flying back from the recoil.

Itachi reappeared some distance away, "Not bad, but not good enough."

Sasuke and Hikari both got up and glared at the man. Then Hikari vanished in a yellow flash and appeared behind Itachi. The man's eyes widened in surprise as Hikari slammed a basketball sized Rasengan into his back and sent him flying towards Sasuke, the younger Uchiha already prepared for part.

Itachi cursed as Sasuke slammed a Chidori into his gut. Fortunately, he managed to substitute with a log before the attack could hit, making the Rasengan being the only attack to damage him, which, alone was saying a lot.

Itachi stood upright, a bit painfully. The Uchiha slayer was thankful for the reduced stimulation, since it wasn't his own body, plus he was moving according to the body's capacity, which was far below his real body.

Itachi continued staring at the two, while he wasn't going all out, or rather couldn't, he knew the two weren't fighting at their best either. But the bout just now told him a lot, so much that if Hikari and Sasuke were to both go all out, he probably wouldn't survive a direct encounter, especially not with his current state of health.

The former Anbu then decided to take it up a notch and closed his eyes. Then as he opened them, Sasuke narrowed his Sharingan as he noticed the Mangekyou Sharingan.

The young Uchiha spoke, "As I expected, you also have the Mangekyou."

Itachi stared at them passively, "You make it sound like you've obtained yours."

Sasuke glared at him as his Sharingan evolved into the Mangekyou Sharingan, "Yeah."

Itachi had a ghost of a smirk on his face before he said, "Then come at me, show me how good you are with those eyes."

On an unseen sign, the two brothers yelled, "Amateratsu!"

Black flames exploded between them, the two set of flames fighting each other for dominance. Sasuke briefly glanced at Hikari, but careful not to move the flames, and the girl nodded.

Immediately, Hikari appeared behind the man, with a Rasengan in her hand. But this Rasengan was different. Instead of the usual blue sphere of chakra, this Rasengan was lightning blue and had electricity in it, looking like a combination of the Chidori and the Rasengan, or rather, the Chidori contained in a Rasengan.

The last Namikaze roared, "Raiton: Rasengan!"

The girl slammed the sphere of lightning into the Uchiha's back and sent him flying towards into the black flames, ending him.

Sasuke started to feel his eyes pulse and he quickly deactivated the Mangekyou, reverting it to his normal eyes. The group quickly went to check if Itachi was really dead, even though Kakashi doubted it.

While Sasuke and Hikari were both incredibly strong, Itachi wasn't made an Anbu at a young age for no reason. Thus, they really needed to be careful.

The group turned Itachi's body over, and they were surprised. Instead of the face of Uchiha Itachi, it was the face of another man. Chiyo gasped, "Yura?!"

Hikari asked, "You know him?"

The old woman nodded, "He's one of our ninja, but, why is he here?"

Sasuke stared at the corpse, "Most likely, he's a spy for the Akatsuki, and he was used as a body for a transformation jutsu. He was too weak for someone like Itachi."

Sakura stared at the body, at Sasuke's words, she felt a bit scared. The medic had hoped that they would confront Itachi and the Akatsuki as a whole team, she had hoped that she could be strong enough to stand beside her two teammates. But after seeing the level the two fought on, Sakura felt a bit discouraged.

The girl narrowed her eyes and thought, 'No, I must train harder. I can't let them leave me behind.'

Then, Hikari spoke, "Come on, we have to hurry."

Chiyo nodded, "Yeah, I just hope they haven't extracted the Shukaku yet."

Sakura blinked, "Extract?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, extract. I suppose you wouldn't know, since even after Sandaime-sama died, we didn't really reveal anything about the bijuu. But you know about the Jinchurikii, the hosts for the sealed Bijuu, right?"

Sakura nodded, "Hikari and Gaara are these Jinchurikii, right?"

The blonde nodded, "Yes, as you know already, I have the Kyuubi in my seal. Back to extraction of a bijuu, when you extract a bijuu from the Jinchurikii, they die."

Sakura gaped in shock, "What? Why?!"

Sasuke stayed silent as Hikari shrugged, "No idea, all I know is we die if our Bijuu is taken out."

The girl turned, "Come on, we have to hurry."

The team quickly continued on their journey, but Sakura couldn't help but have her mind linger on the fact that Jinchurikii would die if the bijuu was extracted.

(Note, Hikari, as an Uzumaki, wouldn't die immediately from the extraction. I mean, if she doesn't get medical attention, then of course she can die, just not immediately like how the other Jinchurikii normally will.)

Meanwhile, back in the cave, the silhouettes of Itachi and Kisame frowned. The shark man spoke, "Well, they've defeated the dummies."

Itachi nodded but didn't say anything. The leader nodded, "I see, but nevermind. We're almost done anyways. Sasori, Deidara, once we're done, try to capture the Kyuubi. If things get bad, retreat, we won't need the Kyuubi immediately anyways."

The two artists just nodded as they continued the sealing jutsu. As they continued, the leader thought, 'I heard Jiraiya-sensei trained you, show me whether you are worthy, Uzumaki Hikari.'

A while later, the two teams were gathered in front of a cave, blocked by a massive boulder with a seal on it. Team Yugao had caught up with the others after a while, and they had headed for the direction where Gaara was.

Now, they were staring at the boulder. Hikari narrowed her eyes, "A seal. A badly done one but still better than a certain hag I know."

Chiyo sighed, Hikari was never gonna let that go. Kakashi spoke up, "Hikari."

The Uzumaki nodded, "I know. Normally you'd need to find all the other counterparts to the seal, but we don't have time. I'll forcefully burn the seal with the Kyuubi's chakra."

The others blinked, 'She can do that?'

The Kyuubi Jinchurikii quickly launched herself onto the boulder and took out her brush. She couldn't just let the bijuu chakra burn the seal, she didn't know if there were any traps there after all. The best way would be to cut the chakra off, then burn the seal away.

Hikari quickly drew several seals on the tag and thought, 'Kyuubi.'

The bijuu nodded, "Got it."

The last Namikaze quickly felt the familiar Bijuu chakra flow into her arm, making it take on an orange hue. The girl pulled her fist back, then adding in Tsunade's training in super strength, Hikari smashed right through the seal and the boulder, obliterating it to pieces as she jumped off a shard of the boulder and landed on the water safely.

As she landed, the girl noticed the group staring at her, jaws open. Hikari blinked, "What's wrong?"

Kakashi blinked before he realized who in the nine hells he was looking at, "Never mind. You just never stop surprising us."

Sakura nodded, "I mean, I know you learned Tsunade-sama's super strength technique, but this is just..."

Sasuke nodded, "Thank you for not killing me that time."

Hikari just sweatdropped and looked at her sisters and Yugao. While they weren't as surprised as her teammates, they weren't exactly indifferent either.

Hikari sighed, "Don't say anything, let's go."

The three girls just laughed before they all quickly entered the cave.

As they reached the end of the cave, they spotted Deidara and Sasori waiting for them, the dead body of Gaara laid at their feet.

Deidara smirked, "Hmph, took you long enough."

Sasuke glared at them, "Its time for you to return the Kazekage."

Deidara chuckled arrogantly, "I'd like to see you try. The Kazekage is barely holding on, you know? I wonder what would happen if we just left him like this, for I don't know, an hour?"

The mad bomber grinned madly. Sasori sighed, "Deidara, remember the plan."

The man sighed, "Fine fine. Spoil my fun. Whatever."

The man threw a clump of clay into the air and it turned into a huge bird that closed it's claws around Gaara. Deidara jumped onto the bird and looked at Sasori once more, "Well, I'm off then."

The puppet user nodded as Deidara shot out of the cave. Kakashi cursed, "Hikari, Sasuke, Sakura, let's go! Yugao, Sasori is yours!"

The three other members of team Kakashi didn't need another word as the four of them shot out of the cave, chasing after Deidara.

Sasori tilted his head, "So, the five of you are going to be my opponents?"

Chiyo nodded, "Yes, Sasori."

The puppet user let out a breath and spoke in his raspy voice, "Chiyo-baasama, its been a while you've gotten old."

The old lady huffed, "At least I can still fight."

Sasori chuckled, "We'll see."

Immediately, the hunched figure charged forward and swung his tail at the women. Suguha, who was the first in the line of fire, so to speak, quickly raised her Tempest and blocked the attack. The girl quickly charged wind chakra into her blade in hopes she could slice off the blade of the tail, but Sasori seemed to know what she was about to do and retracted his tail before she could do so.

Then at the same time, Asuna and Yugao charged at the man, the former Anbu raising her katana while Asuna prepared to stab through Sasori's head.

Sasori cursed and leaped away, barely dodging the attacks. Then all of a sudden, he found himself unable to move, most likely due to chakra strings from Chiyo. The man cursed, "Fucking old bitch."

But it was too late, as Sinon released five arrows, all with explosive seals on them. Then the arrows struck him, causing a massive explosion.

However, the five women knew better than to let their guard down just like that. Yes, explosive seals were a good way to kill someone, especially at point blank range like what they just did. But when going against someone like Sasori, someone with an S-rank in the Bingo book, they couldn't let their guard down, at least not until they saw his dead body.

True enough, the smoke cleared, revealing a broken pile of wood, and standing some distance behind that, was a young man with red hair.

Sinon blinked, "Eh? Who is that?"

Chiyo let out a breath, "That is Sasori's true form. The one we destroyed was just a puppet, the Hiruko, an armor puppet, so to speak."

The man smiled creepily, "As expected of Chiyo-baasama, you haven't changed."

The old lady huffed, "That's my line. How are you so young?"

The man chuckled, "Who knows? But enough talk, I don't like to keep people waiting."

He took out a small scroll and unsealed its contents, revealing a figure that shocked Chiyo to the core. In front of them, was a puppet, one that Chiyo was very familiar with.

The elder spoke in shock, "Sasori, the Sandaime Kazekage, it was you?!"

The man smirked, "Of course, Chiyo-baasama, a very beautiful piece of art, don't you think?"

Chiyo glared at her grandson, "You..."

The smirk on Sasori's face vanished, "Enough, let's continue."

Not giving time for the women to react, Sasori willed the puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage to conjure a massive drill that was several times the mass of the puppet, the drill connecting to the puppet's right arm.

Sasori grinned, "Giga Drill Break."

The drill started spinning and the puppet charged the five kunoichi. Yugao yelled, "Scatter!"

The five of them all leaped out of the way, allowing the drill to pass by them harmlessly. As soon as they regained their balance, Asuna, Yugao and Suguha charged Sasori, intending to end the puppet user.

But the man was having none of that, he quickly willed the iron sand of the Sandaime Kazekage to shoot at the three women.

Sinon cursed and shot several arrows enhanced with wind chakra, all with explosion tags, at the bullets of sand. The arrows exploded upon contact and dispersed the bullets.

The three swordswomen glanced back and nodded their thanks to the archer before they continued their onslaught.

Sasori cursed and tried to make his puppet fight the three women, but Suguha saw it coming and managed to cut off the chakra strings connected to Sandaime Kazekage puppet.

The puppeteer cursed as he lost control over the puppet. Normally, there wouldn't be a problem since Sasori could just reconnect to the puppets, but apparently the three swordswomen would not let him do so, nor would his grandmother or the archer.

The man cursed as he leaped away to dodge a slash from Yugao, but he was too late as Suguha and Asuna flanked him from both sides. Then they charged, Asuna with a stab and Suguha with a slash.

On reflex, Sasori tilted his body so that the blades only grazed him, but it also ripped his robes to shreds in the process.

The puppeteer cursed again and leaped away, "Fuck this shit, I kinda liked this robe..."

Sasori sighed and tore away the shredded robe and threw it to a side, revealing him in all his glory, with pants of course. However, the side shocked the kunoichi present.

Instead of muscles and flesh and whatnot, they saw the shiny synthetic material used for puppets, or at least, a similar material. And at places where there should be smooth skin, were lines or joints only seen in puppets.

Chiyo said in shock, "Sasori, you... You monster!"

Sasori laughed, "Monster? Not grandson anymore?"

Asuna asked, "What, what is that?"

Yugao stared at the man, "Asuna, that is what we call a human puppet, where the human body is turned into a puppet. It hasn't been done in ages."

The Suna nuke nin smirked, "Yes, I am a human puppet. I am the embodiment of perfection, the perfect masterpiece! The eternal form of art! Explosions have nothing on my art!"

The women didn't reply as Chiyo silently brought out a scroll, "I had hoped you'd at least retain a bit of humanity, but I guess not. Its time I ended you, my grandson."

Sasori chuckled and also took out a scroll, "I'd like to see you try."

The four kunoichi from Konoha all stood guard as the pair of puppeteers readied their strongest techniques.

"Shirohigi: Jikki Chikamatsu no Shū!"

"Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen!"

XXX

Done. So this is the 34th chapter. The next chapter will be the second part of the Sasori fight and the Deidara fight. After that will be the end of the Ichibi arc.

Then will be the Niibi arc, followed by the Sanbi. I'll skip four tails to six tails, so it will pick up at Nanabi.

Review please. Until the next chapter.