Chapter Thirty Four: Art is an Explosion

There weren't many people in her life that could catch her off guard. There were even less people who could catch off guard multiple times. And then there was one, who managed to surprise her every time, like that was his life goal.

Kakashi Hatake.

First, it had been his lame ass confession that she had been waiting for the better part of her life, yet she found herself not wanting it any other way.

Second, it was the way that he warmed up to his three brats and she found it surprising that such an emotionally stunted man was actually decent with kids.

Third, it was his compulsive need to see with his own eyes that she was safe every time they were separated from battle. It was cute and annoying at the same time, like he didn't trust her to be fine by herself, but on the other hand, it was because he cared.

This time was no exception. Kakashi had found her barely two minutes after she finished her fight with Shisui. She had expected him to go after his team, especially with the opponents that they were facing, but he came to her first.

"You were supposed to go after your brats," Rin whispered as Kakashi fell into step beside her as they took off through the trees.

"They have Team Gai as backup. It's only logical that I come find you first since you were fighting alone. Who did you have to fight?"

Rin was ninety percent certain that Kakashi already had his guesses, and his guesses were rarely wrong, but she answered anyway. "Shisui."

"I see. Did they pay you a visit?"

"In Konoha," Rin replied. "They gave me an updated version of all of the members' abilities. And to warn me that the plan has started. They know I have the Sanbi."

"We won't let them get you."

"That's not what I'm worried about. It's just...well I can't feel Gaara's chakra anymore and I'm scared of how Naruto will react."

In truth, that wasn't what Rin was concerned about, not when she knew that Naruto had already seen Gaara's dead body. Not when she could feel Sakura and Chiyo's chakra facing off against Sasori while Sasuke and Naruto went after Deidara. Each member of Team Gai seemed to be fighting against an unfamiliar chakra source. They were fine. They were holding their own.

Just...Rin hated that Shisui's Dream Landscape gave her hope that she didn't want to have. A dream was called a dream after all. It wasn't real. It wouldn't ever be real.

"We should get going."

At the caves, Kakashi and Rin split. Kakashi followed after Naruto and Sasuke, while Rin slipped into the caves just in time to free Chiyo from underneath the rubble and pull her out of harm's way. The Third Kazekage puppet charged towards Sakura, weaving in and out of its own iron spikes. Its broken blade was raised, ready to slash down at the pink haired girl when Sakura stood up, smashing the puppet into pieces. As the iron sand softened and fell, Sakura leapt back to join Chiyo and Rin, the latter having already fixed up Chiyo's arm.

"Sensei!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Report the enemy's abilities." Sakura did, recounting the two puppets she had destroyed thus far and the abilities that each possessed. To make a living human being turn into a puppet and keep its abilities...how interesting.

"I have one vial of antidote left," Sakura said, holding out the injection in the palm of her hand. Chiyo took it, tucking it in her robes as she pushed herself to her feet.

"Two or three, won't make a difference," Sasori said. "I will still kill you and add you to my puppet collection."

His real body...a puppet.

Sasori moved his head to both sides, cracking his neck before he held out two arms. The arms twisted at an unnatural angle. The two faucets aimed straight at them. A streak of fire came from it, the scorching heat making the air around them suffocating. While Chiyo and Sakura rolled from rock to rock, hopping away as the rock cracked under the heat, Rin performed the hand seals to a water jutsu.

It wasn't enough to counter such a strong fire jutsu, but the evaporation mist was all that Rin needed to obscure his vision. At this point, Sasori began to aim wildly. Sakura slammed her palms to the ground, forming a mud wall. The two of them took cover behind that as Rin crouched behind a rock a good ways away from them, wondering how she could get close enough to take him out.

Her only real long range attack in her arsenal was genjutsu, but that wasn't an option since Sasori was a puppet.

Sasori ran out of fire, burning through his next scroll to shoot high pressured water. The water cut through the rocks and Rin found herself rolling out of the way to narrowly avoid being whacked with the stream of water.

When the stream of water stopped, Rin tossed five senbons in his direction. Craning his neck at an awkward angle, Sasori's brown eyes bore into hers as he easily dodged them all. But that was all Rin needed to teleport right in front of him, knocking his metal coil off course with a kick. Her chakra scalpel sliced his head off, sending it flying across the cave.

Channelling chakra to her fist, Rin smashed the rest of his body into pieces. Not her favorite form of combat style - that was more of Sakura's speciality - but it did the job. Close combat...a puppet user's demise.

She rejoined Sakura and Chiyo, ready to make their way out of the cave and rejoin the rest of their team when a noise stopped them in their tracks. Turning her head around, Rin's eyes widened as the random pieces of puppets formed back together. The "heart" jammed itself right in the hole of the body, bringing Sasori back to life.

"We need to destroy the heart," Rin whispered to her two companions. Sasori raised a hand, opening one of the panels in his chest. Shadows after shadows escaped from there, attached to chakra strings.

Besides her, Chiyo unraveled a scroll, performing a few hand signs. Ten puppets dressed in white emerged, each of them attached to one of Chiyo's fingers.

Ten...versus a hundred.

"You may have used that technique to bring down a castle," Sasori commented lightly. "But my technique can bring down an entire nation. Die!"

All ten puppets darted into the fray to meet the onslaught of the hundred puppets. Sakura and Rin both jumped in, destroying puppets left and right. Sakura with her monstrous strength broke through the puppets at a rapid rate. Rin with her chakra scalpels simply sliced through the puppets.

Ducking as one of the blades swung at her, Rin's hands formed the seals for a wind jutsu. A large blast of wind knocked back the army of puppets that came at her, clearing the way to Sasori's real body. Launching three senbons in his direction, Sasori dodged but more puppets came to block her way. Sakura appeared beside her, bulldozing her way through the puppets with Chiyo's puppets covering her.

Nodding to Sakura, Rin hopped on top of a puppet, twisting its head off with her legs before continuing forward. Flashing in front of Sasori once more, her arm raised to jam a kunai into his heart when the corner of her eye spotted a puppet coming at her from the side, sword ready to pierce her stomach. Leaping backwards, Rin removed herself from the range of the attack as five more puppets closed in on her.

Elbowing one of the puppets into pieces, Rin grabbed its head and tossed it at another puppet, momentarily stunning it from moving. She jumped as a group of blades attempted to stab her, landing on the metal. Darting forward, she hacked off the head of another puppet. Diving to the ground, Rin raced towards Sasori once more with the puppets on her tail.

Chiyo's puppet sliced through them.

At the same time that Rin was heading for Sasori, Sakura was too. Two of Chiyo's puppets snuck up on Sasori, pinning him against the wall. Sakura tossed a kunai at Sasori's heart. Breaking free of the hold of Chiyo's puppets, Sasori moved to dodge it and would have dodged it if Rin didn't teleport to her fallen senbons, driving the kunai into his heart with the sole of her foot while her hand formed a chakra scalpel to cut off all of his chakra strings.

All around her, the rest of his puppet army fell as a dribble of blood escaped from his lips.

"Che. To think that I was beaten by a bunch of girls…"

By the time she saw the miniscule movement of his finger, it was too late. The sword of one of the fallen puppets had pierced straight through Sakura's back. Another finger and another puppet moved behind Chiyo. Her fingers moved, yanking one of her puppets back to deflect it, but she was too slow. The sword nicked her arm.

Nothing life threatening, but she was poisoned. Both of them were and there was only one antidote.

Fueled by anger, Rin drove another kunai into his heart as a shadow covered her. Teleporting away to safety, Rin watched as the puppet swung its blade at where she had been moments before, only to lob off Sasori's head. The puppet fell to the ground, crashing into pieces.

It was done. He was dead. But her two comrades would soon be too, if they weren't given medical treatment.

Running to Sakura's side, Rin knelt down next to her to see that her student had started medical treatment, but her control was waning as the poison took hold. With the last dredges of strength Chiyo crawled to their side as Rin began to give Sakura medical treatment, slowly yanking out the blade.

Sakura groaned in pain, her legs shifting to curl up closer to her body as she laid on her side.

"The antidote. Give it to her," Chiyo instructed, holding out the vial in the palm of her hand.

Rin wasn't about to argue; instead, it was Sakura who protested weakly. Snatching the vial from Chiyo's hands, Rin interjected it into Sakura's leg, letting the liquid seep into her system. Pulling out the vial and tossing it to the side, Rin pressed two hands against Sakura's side. Activating her strength of hundred seals, she allowed the black marks to criss cross all over the younger girl's torso, pouring an immense amount of healing chakra to close up the artery before Sakura inevitably bled out.

Once she was sure that Sakura wasn't going to die, the black marks receded and Rin continued to close up the flesh wound with one hand, while her other reached to heal the wound on Chiyo's arm.

"We still have time to go back to the village to get you treated," Rin told her. "Or I can forcibly extract the poison from your body here."

"No," Chiyo protested weakly. "Take me to Gaara. There's something that I must do…"

Understanding dawned on her as Rin hauled both of them to their feet. "It might be a bit disorientating, so please bear with me."

With one hand wrapped around both of them, Rin teleported all three of them to Kakashi's side.

Catching up with Naruto and Sasuke wasn't hard, not when they didn't make it very far. From his vantage point, Kakashi watched as Deidara toyed with his students, sending clay explosions down at them. From above, Deidara seemed to lazily fly around in circles with the Kazekage's body in the mouth of his clay bird. Sasuke negated its explosive nature with Chidori needles while Naruto continued to run after Deidara.

Following his two students, Kakashi managed to catch up with Naruto and slapped a seal to his forehead, pushing back the Kyuubi's chakra that had begun to seep out. Naruto blinked for a moment, before recognition flickered in his eyes.

"Sensei."

"Don't let your anger get the best of you," Kakashi instructed. "We're going to get Gaara back, but in order to do that, I need your mind to be clear. Sasuke, report on the enemy's abilities."

Sasuke did, revealing everything that Rin had already told them, but confirmed that the clay was weak against lightning nature. So far, Deidara was doing nothing but toying with them, flying just out of their reach, but not close enough for them to utilize their deadliest attacks. A combination of wind and fire jutsu wasn't enough, as Deidara simply flew away from their attack.

But Kakashi had a plan.

"Sasuke, activate your Sharingan and come here." Sasuke did as he was told. Kakashi placed a hand on his back, marking him.

"I'm going to send you to him," Kakashi told him. "Place him in a genjutsu then attack. Naruto, you go get Gaara once he's down, alright?"

Both of his students nodded.

Pulling out two of his special kunais, Kakashi channelled lightning natured chakra through it. He flung the first one. As predicted, Deidara moved his clay bird aside to let the kunai sail besides him. Pushing chakra into Sasuke, Kakashi teleported him to that kunai just as it sailed above Deidara's head.

Sasuke flashed behind Deidara, Sharingan already spinning. The moment that Deidara turned around, he was caught in Sasuke's genjutsu. From below, Kakashi flung the second kunai, embedding it in the underside of the clay bird.

Paralyzed, Sasuke moved to ram his sword through Deidara, but Deidara broke free of the genjutsu, shifting just in time for Sasuke to miss his heart. Instead, the lightning charged sword pierced through his shoulder.

"Tsk. Did you think I was going to fall for the Sharingan again? Like I said, I don't fall for the same tricks twice!"

Kakashi teleported himself to the second kunai, Chidori in the palm of his hand as he jammed it through the clay bird. Sasuke was quick to leap in the air, having seen Kakashi's movement with his Sharingan, but Deidara wasn't so fortunate. He had barely enough time to shift his feet, when the Chidori rammed into his arm, tearing it off completely. All three of them toppled towards land as the clay bird fell apart into mush.

Below, Naruto was already racing to catch Gaara's fallen body.

Deidara stumbled backwards, his remaining arm clutching his bleeding stump as Sasuke's sword was still stuck in his shoulder. Unsheathing his own sword, Kakashi wordlessly handed it to Sasuke, who took it with his left hand.

Deidara reached into his pocket, the mouth on his hand chewing the last bit of clay that he had left. Sasuke's Sharingan caught the movement. A Chidori stream severed his hand from the rest of his body. The hand fell onto the grass; the mouth still half opened. Sasuke stabbed through the hand, negating all of its explosive properties.

As Kakashi inched forward, Deidara took two steps back, buying time as he contemplated his next move. He barely had three seconds to do that when Gai entered the fray, with a loud dynamic entry. The forceful kick to Deidara's head had sent him flying back several meters, but he managed to twist his body into mid air so that he could land on his feet.

Feinting to the left, Deidara managed to avoid another kick to the face by Lee. Rounding the tree, Deidara avoided Tenten's attack, allowing her shurikens to bury itself into the trunk of the tree. On the other side, Deidara kicked at Gai, parrying his own kick before he hopped to the next tree. Propelling himself off of the tree, Deidara landed on the grass as Neji's attack hit the trunk of the tree instead.

Running across the clearing, Deidara ducked and rolled before getting back onto his feet. Tenten's weapons whizzed over his head, almost hitting Naruto instead if Kakashi hadn't gotten in the way, deflecting all of it. Right as Deidara made it to the pile of mush, Sasuke intercepted him, swinging his sword on him.

Jerking his body to the left, Deidara landed on the pile of mush, his mouth tearing a piece of it away and he began to chew. The effect was instantaneous; his body began to bulge, tearing through the Akatsuki cloak. Upon Neji's shout, all members of Team Gai and Team Kakashi began to retreat, while Kakashi stayed still on the branch, focusing his Kamui on Deidara's body.

Right as he exploded, Kakashi felt a hand on his back, healing chakra and raw chakra surging through his body as he Kamui'ed the explosion into the other dimension, saving all of his comrades' backsides from being scorched. His Sharingan faded to his normal pattern. Kakashi yanked down his forehead protector to cover his eye as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Ah I still had enough chakra, you know."

"I was trying to prevent blindness," Rin retorted. "Unless you want to go blind…"

"Hai, hai." Rin's attention wasn't focused on Kakashi anymore; instead, her head jerked so sharply to the left that it startled Kakashi, Sakura, and Chiyo, who were the nearest.

"Neji, use your Byakugan. I still feel his chakra."

Neji did as he was told, the veins bulging from either side of his head. "Underground, in your one o'clock direction."

Kakashi hopped down from the tree, slipping underground with his earth jutsu. Like Neji said, Kakashi found a tattered Deidara working his way through the ground. His eyes widened as he saw Kakashi, but it didn't last long as a Chidori to the chest finished him. Dragging his body out with him, Kakashi popped back up to the surface, laying Deidara's bloody body at his feet.

"Sakura, seal his body away. We'll be taking him back to Konoha. Naruto, move aside and let Chiyo san save Gaara." The weeping blonde boy hesitantly moved aside to let Chiyo kneel down next to Gaara. Her hands glowed blue.

"I thought that he was dead, how-"

"Hush boy," Chiyo scolded. "Let me concentrate."

Naruto fell silent as the rest of the Konoha nins gathered around to silently pay their respects. It seemed that Naruto was the only one who was oblivious to what was going on. When Chiyo asked Naruto to lend her chakra, he did so readily, placing his hands over hers. The blue hue became even stronger.

Less than a minute later, Gaara's eyes snapped open as Chiyo's body fell limp. Sakura was by her side, pulling her body away from Gaara. Moving her hand over Chiyo's eyelids, Sakura closed them.

Everyone saw the smile that graced Chiyo's lips.

Naruto threw his arms around Gaara, muttering incoherent words while Gaara just stared blankly at Naruto, then at everyone else, before his jade eyes fell onto Chiyo's prone body. He shut his eyes for a moment of silence.

"Thank you for saving my life."

In the village of the Hidden Rain, Pein sat cross legged on one of the pipes as he listened to the sound of the rain pattering incessantly against the rooftop. He didn't move as he felt a chakra emerge from the ground beside him.

There were only two people in the world who could move like that. One was the masked man by the name of Madara Uchiha, but it had been over a decade since he last paid him a visit. The other was Zetsu, who had the ability to move underground and appear out of nowhere, which made him perfect to serve as Akatsuki's eyes and ears.

"Deidara and Sasori are dead," Black Zetsu reported. "The Konoha shinobis were able to kill them."

"I see. And what of their abilities?"

"The only two that we need to watch for are Itachi and Shisui's old teammates, the Copy ninja and the Sanbi. It appears that they have mastered the Yondaime's technique for teleportation; it will not be easy to fight them, much less capture the Sanbi."

"Can Itachi and Shisui beat them?"

"That, I do not know. They were easily able to beat the decoys, but the decoys are not at their full strength. The last that the Sanbi fought against Itachi was many years ago, when the Uchiha first defected from Konoha. Their skills have changed since then…"

"Hmm. Genjutsu is not easy to counter," Pein mused, his mind running through all of the members in the Akatsuki. Besides the Uchiha duo, no one else in Akatsuki was really equipped to deal with genjutsu. Sending the immortal duo might catch them off guard at first, but if they had backup - and Konoha always seemed to have backup - then it wouldn't be an easy win either. As far as he knew about Kisame's abilities, he was a ninjutsu type.

It had to be him. It could only be him.

"Tell Kakuzu and Hidan to retrieve the two tails," Pein ordered Zetsu. "When the time comes, we will launch an invasion to retrieve the Sanbi."

Zetsu sank back underground.

As Pein stood up to leave, the rain poured even harder.

A/N: Hey again!

Honestly when I first wrote this arc, I forgot about Sasuke lol. Not defecting certainly changes a lot of things, including making canon shorter haha. I tried to incorporate a bit of Sasuke's fight against Deidara (from canon) into this but I can't see the fight lasting too long since there's so many Konoha nins. I tried to make Rin intervene a bit later so Sakura can still have some spotlight like in canon (this was one of my favorite moments for her). Sorry if the fight seems dull (and future fights with the Akatsuki).

When writing these fights, I realized how hard it is to counter the Hiraishin since most people won't be able to react in time so it feels like they're bound to win most fights. Maybe that's why they made Minato die so early in canon haha otherwise he would have been too OP.

Anyways, next chapter is fun! It's called Unmasked(or not) and it's my recreation of Team 7 trying to see underneath Kakashi's mask haha. A little bit of filler/transition and fluff before we start diving into the ending. Believe it or not, we're getting near the end. The last scene with Pein kind of alluded to that...haha. :) Let me know your predictions!

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

-MM