Naruto was finally showing some progress, which made Fuu happy.
In an entirely different part of the city, Sasuke was practicing throwing kunai on a dart target. His hits were precise, everyone hitting the center of the target, to the point of kunais beginning to cut each other. As the kunais destroyed themselves, Sasuke began to think of the reasoning behind Tobi's rape of Karin. Was it fruit of sudden passion, a sudden desire to possess the body of a woman? Did she damage him in some way, awakening a desire for vengeance who turned into lust? Or was simply a way of breaking its target before he executed her, and for some unknown reason she had eluded such sad fate? Either way, Sasuke had to consider sexual desire. A soft dick can't cum inside a pussy.
And he did that entirely using boxers inside a hotel room. He was completely unconcerned with Naruto's training and sought to not follow it in anyway. He found Naruto's quest to be entirely pointless. The Akatsuki represented little danger. If they could have snatched Naruto, they would have done it before. Sasuke was sure of it. His mind couldn't conceive the idea that Akatsuki could be more than a symbolic danger. And that is why if their supposed leader couldn't even get rid of a lowly informant as Karin, what hope did they have against fully-trained shinobi, of the most advanced levels, including some who had survived through the hardships of war, war who was fought against the mighty Hanzou?
Hinata was at the kitchen, making the best chocolate cake she knew, and by that we mean a receipt Shino taught her. Her father had a belief nobles were nobles and even noblewomen were unworthy of cooking and cleaning, even ones who have been disinherited like Hinata. Her insect friend otherwise believed Hinata was incredibly incompetent in the path of the shinobi, and had taught her how to cook solely because he believed sooner or later Hinata would quit their dangerous profession, and if any beginning was good for a woman on the path of cooking, a cake was the best for all the measures that needed to be taken for a proper cake to emerge. And also that was, from everything that he had ingested from his mother, the most delicious delicacy.
And she was doing it all while wearing a naked apron. She had the vain but colossal hope her beloved would come to sexually harass her while she was mixing the ingredients. Maybe possibly spreading them through her skin, even to the dirtiest parts of her body, while kissing her mouth, culminating in an intense mating act to be committed against the hard floor of the kitchen. She imagined Sasuke, with his intense appetite for unusual kinds of sex, would spread butter around her anal orifice, before penetrating her with the passion of a small dog humping on a bigger female. She became incredibly anxious about Sasuke not materializing through the door of the kitchen, so she took the path of ignoring her false hope in favor of the cold reality of cake.
Sasuke's thoughts were in true far away from Hinata. In fact, she was entirely absent of his mind. His mind intensely cocentrated on Karin, and what could possibly led her to the path of rape, but the more he thought the more puzzling the pieces became inside his thoughts, until he reached the concluson his investigation was pointless without more data to be acquired and interpreted. In fact, he should move away from the current location and interrogate Karin again, seeking exact details about the horrible events that befell upon her body, culminating on her body being thrown in front of his body. Then, suddenly remembering this small detail that led him and Karin's words to collide, Sasuke began to speculate: "Was it really a coincidence?"
Outside in the window, outside Sasuke's thoughts despite being pretty inside his vision field, there was a little doll. She was 40 centimetres tall at best. She was wearing only a ragged coat and it was bald, but she had pretty blue eyes. Her hands and feet were pretty life-like, and she could easily pass off as a human-child. And, of course, that was her purpose. A diminutive trap, designed to lure those who would pity a small child dressed in trashy clothes. They would carelessly approach the small doll and be mercilessly attacked. Killed. Assassinated. Her creator found beauty on his creation, because the beauty of a small doll child don't would be undone by things like puberty or disease. Seeker of perpetuity, that was Sasori.
Invisible chakra lines connected the doll to the window of the neighbour building, where Sasori sat on his hotel bed manipulating the strings of his tool of murder. Low-distance radio transmission was still cutting edge technology, but what was even more younger was low-distance video transmission. He had a camera installed behind the doll's eyes that broadcast her vision field to a small monitor who he put right in front of him in the hotel bed. It was all black and white but with a surprisingly high definition. He remembered Kakuzu complaining about how costly the thing is, but if there was a thing both valued was hardness and endurance. The only reason they weren't partners was Kakuzu's tendency to randomly go in murderous rampages if his partner committed some minor errors.
Sasori calculated what was necessary to capture his target. First, he needed to pass through Sasuke Uchiha. From his intel, he was a pretty skilled genin, far beyond the normal level of ability of his rank, but who wasn't promoted for discipline issues. Profiles showed proficiency in the manipulation of fire and lightning, but minimal dominance over other elemental jutsus. Best marksmanship of the class, but rumors were that Shikamaru Nara had intentionally committed several errors to be stuck in easier missions. What also meant Sasuke had the second best analytical capabilities. And a Curse Mark, given by Orochimaru in an attempt to turn him into his vessel. Naruto had miraculously aborted such possibility.
The target, Hinata Hyuuga. Second lowest notes of the graduate genins. All-in-all, pretty mediocre abilities who were boosted by the Byakugan. Regardless,she proved to be much better in the field than in class, though she wasn't considered dumb, only weak. Those physical problems have been exacerbated by an cardiac injury inflicted upon her by a fellow member of the Hyuuga Clan, Neji. Compared to Sasori, she would be an easy target, but Sasuke posed a real problem. With the limited number of puppets at his disposal, and a necessity of an stealth exit, Sasori needed to be quick and find a place to hide her quickly. Also, Pain ordered her to bring her alive, because he wanted to study her body with all body functions active.
He studied the village's organization. The village's structure revolved around the waterfalls around, and a lot of care was taken so the water of the bathrooms only connected itself to the water of the river after it left the village. All bathrooms leaded to a big underground pool which then led to the river, already outside the village. Though Sasori had lost its sense of smell a long time ago, getting his puppets dirty with human excrement wasn't a option he would accept. His best plan was to by jumping with Hinata in the river, attaching a breathing mask to her and escape underwater using rocket boosters of one of his puppets. All a good plan, but the hotel was pretty far away from the part of the river deep enough to be useful.
Most of the time, kidnapping missions involved using Deidara's clay bird to escape by air, but the seven tails host was naturally a risk to such mission, specially with Hinata giving the bird extra weight. He then proposed to Deidara a plan where he would put mines underground and detonated them after Sasori and Hinata passed through them. Deidara complained how much work it would take and surprising Sasori said he was putting too much himself at risk of friendly fire and, if not killed accidentally by Deidara, to be captured, all over a simple Byakugan. But Sasori shrugged his shoulders. He said he was the third oldest member of the Akatsuki and there was mutual trust between him, Pain and Konan.
What it meant he outranked Deidara in taking decisions, and he was more likely to survive than the other guy, and because of that both should go with his plan. Deidara scoffed his partner but went with it, secretly hoping Sasori would get himself killed.
Sasori didn't expect Sasuke to be in the living room, in fact, he expected him to be far away as possible from Hinata, helping Naruto. With this kind of obstacle, the usual procedure would be to abort the current plan and try to plan things around it. Sasori, however, hated to waste time. Instead, his small doll punched the window open. Some glass fell on the doll, but thanks to her strong external structure of wood, it just fell forward, backwards, or side-wards. Sasuke immediately heard the loud crack, but his reaction time was too slow compared to Sasori. The doll raised her left arm and flew in the air, sustained by the string connecting her to her master. Three retractable blades sprout from her hand and cut Sasuke in the lower part of his face.
His screaming alerted Hinata. She was looking at oven, just waiting to turn off the the gas, but jumped over the table to try to get as quick as possible in the living room, only to meet the enemy, on all fours, just ahead of her, a second set of claws already deployed on the other hand.
She stopped for a moment, and while she tried to think of a way of attacking the small invader, Sasori confidently called Deidara by radio. "The Uchiha was easy to eliminate. Prepare yourself to detonate the land mines".