Akane had fought members of the Puppet Brigade before, and she wasn't thrilled at the prospect of doing it again. She was a short range combat specialist and infiltrator, she had trained with the assassination's ANBU commander for over three years, this was not a fight that suited her. Naruto was a medic and a short range combat expert with basic knowledge of Fuinjutsu. The only one that was in their element here was Lady Chiyo, and they would need all of her expertise in the coming fight.

It started simple enough: chakra threads on kunai and pincer attacks on Sasori's incredibly ugly carcass of a puppet. Dodging became the forefront of all their thoughts and they were only getting started. Outflanking Sasori was much harder than anticipated. Predicting the moves of a puppet whose puppeteer's fingers they couldn't see was the main reason for that. Thankfully, due to a well concealed chakra thread from Lady Chiyo, an explosive kunai on Akane's part and Naruto's monstrous strength he'd inherited from Tsunade, they managed to get rid of Akasuna No Sasori's first puppet.

The hooded figure of the puppet master leaped out of the crushed carcass that had once been his puppet and stood across from them on the other end of the cave. But however ready they all thought they were to face this man, it wasn't enough. Akasuna No Sasori, who had left his village twenty years prior now stood every bit as young, unchanged, unaffected by the passage of time.

A genjutsu maybe? No, there was no Chakra disturbances around him, Akane would have seen them. Then what? According to their intel, the man should have been in his late thirties or early forties. Why on earth did he look Naruto's age, then? It didn't matter, not really figured Akane. If he wasn't using a jutsu that could be detrimental to their mission then she didn't really care if the man had a seventy step skin care routine.

She seemed to be the first to come out of the shocked state they all shared. And it was a good thing too, because they would have been pierced by Sasori's last volley of senbon. Akane tackled both Naruto and Lady Chiyo out of the way before resuming her defensive stance. She hadn't lost Naruto yet, and she wasn't planning to any time soon.

"Lady Chiyo, I understand this must be a shock to you, but now is not the time to let our guard down," Said Akane, trying very hard not to sound like she was scolding the woman. "Naruto, you should know better than to freeze up like that."

"Not what you were expecting, eh Grandma?" Taunted their enemy with a sick grin on his face.

Sasori was enjoying himself. And the three of them shuddered in the face of the man who had killed a Kage.

…

"You used to be the cautious one, Sakura-chan. What kind of training did Jiraiya-san put you through?"

Kakashi could not believe he was even considering Sakura's plan, but it definitely was the lesser of two evils. His own plan was full of holes, an unmastered jutsu and a lot of luck. Sakura's plan actually felt like a plan and not just a succession of "hope for the best" scenarios.

"The kind that forces you to adapt, Kakashi-sensei." She said as she leaped from one fallen tree to the next. "Besides, it will give us a better chance at taking him in close quarters."

"I have never done something like this before, and doing so for the first time while putting my precious little student's life on the line isn't my idea of fun, Sakura."

Kakashi tried really hard to pretend he didn't see her roll her eyes at him. He knew it, damn it. He knew he was being a worrywart of an old man. He knew he was underestimating Sakura, but a part of him felt responsible. He felt responsible for all that time he spent neglecting her training and concentrating solely on Sasuke. He knew nothing about this new Sakura, and he felt guilty because of it. She had grown and he hadn't played his part as her teacher.

"Believe me when I say that there isn't much you can throw at me that I haven't been through already, Sensei."

Kakashi sighed one last time before looking up at the sky. Deidara wasn't that far ahead, he was pretty confident that even if Sakura's plan didn't work as planned, they would be able to catch up at the very least.

"Alright, Kid. Show your old man of a Sensei what you're made of."

Sakura's grin was almost feral when she turned to look back at him.

"Hai."

…

Naruto decided that if he ever saw another puppet in the next few lifetimes it would be a million years too soon. He promised himself he would nag Kankuro about it if only to annoy the Suna shinobi as much as Sasori was annoying him right then. They were lucky, he supposed -having a medic who was trained to dodge by the most fearsome woman in Fire Country, a sharingan user whose brother had practically perfected the shunshin no jutsu, and the founder of Suna's puppet brigade. He wanted to laugh with how bitter that made him, luck, that was all it was.

It was sheer luck that was keeping them all alive and no amount of skill or training would have changed that. Sasori was scary, and he was barely getting started. The shower of iron bullets had been bad enough, but now as gigant iron formations spun in the air and threw themselves at them with neck breaking speed, Naruto was starting to think of the man as more of a menace than the furball inside him.

You don't want me to prove you wrong, Kid, trust me.

Naruto's relationship with Kurama was going a lot better than he had anticipated when he started. He had been dealing with a completely unknown force back then, and even if Kurama's power was still a big incognita, he at least knew the fox was nothing more than a being whose freedom had been taken from them. He understood that much.

No, but having mastered that first cloak transformation would have been really helpful, ttebayo.

Splitting his awareness and being able to both speak with Kurama and remain focused on the battles ahead of him had been incredibly difficult back when Tsunade first took him in. Now, as he punched yet another iron formation into the cave's ceiling, it came as second nature to him. He had to admit Akane-nee's meditation tips had helped him a lot, and having someone who could actually see Kurama made him feel a little less crazy.

Kurama had been incredibly skittish around her at first. The sharingan seemed to trigger something deep within him, so Akane had made it a point to ask for permission to enter the mindscape every time. Even when Kurama had allowed her in, she had made sure not to look him in the eyes -she really couldn't turn her sharingan off after all.

Naruto knew he was incredibly lucky to have all of his friends in his life, but sometimes, he was especially thankful to some of them, and Akane was the first on that list. Watching her fight Sasori made his respect for her skyrocket. Her scarlet eyes moved from one place to the next, taking in all the information she needed, assessing patterns and coming up with countermeasures. The fact that her body was able to keep up with ease was even more terrifying to him. Akane was, in Naruto's eyes, on par with Kakashi-sensei in the shinobi scale, and that was no easy feat in his eyes.

Well, I am actually getting a little tired of this pesky human. Want me to interfere, Kid?

Naruto considered it for a second, and then put the idea out of his mind.

No, Akane-nee, Lady Chiyo and I can do this. Just give us a lil' more time.

Naruto felt the inside of his mindscape rumble with Kurama's growl.

Fine, but hurry it up. I want to see that insect of a human crushed.

Naruto grinned, knowing what that meant to the tailed beast.

"It will be my pleasure."

…

If anyone asked Deidara what had happened in those last few seconds, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell. One moment, he was riding his clay figure into the distance, luring the konoha shinobi away from Sasori, and the next there was a blur of pink, red and green on top of him. After considering all the details he hadn't been able to put together right away he realized what was going on.

Hatake Kakashi had used a wind style jutsu to jettison his student into the air and right at him, and now, Deidara was too busy dodging gloved fists that looked like they had some sort of seal design sewn on them. He realized too late that the airborne combat was simply a distraction from the hand signs the girl was making. Before he knew it, all three of them were trapped inside a four corner barrier, and there was no escape.

He tried his best to mold more clay into something small enough to get her off him, but he hadn't resupplied after his battle with the one tail and was now out of clay. If both he and Sasori made it out of this one, he would never hear the end of it. But he had more urgent things to worry about right then, like the fact that the kunoichi had struck his flying creation and they were now crash landing into the forest.

Deidara tried to suppress a sigh. This job was turning out to be more than he'd signed up for.

…

Akane was really fucking tired of Akasuna no Sasori. One defense puppet? Yeah sure, why not? A puppet made with the body of his previous Kage? Creepy, but she had already tagged Sasori-san for the type. Turning his own body into a puppet? Obsessive behavior, clearly mentally ill, would be hard to fight against but doable. Now, one hundred puppets? If she ever saw another puppet master in her lifetime it would be a million years too soon.

And then there was the poison. Both Akane and Naruto had been poisoned once. Thankfully, Naruto had been able to concoct an antidote, even if he didn't need it himself. Jinchuuriki metabolism was useful like that.

Lady Chiyo was tired, but she was enduring well for someone her age. Naruto -Kami bless Kurama-san- was as ready as he had been at the very beginning of the fight, only that his focus was now razor sharp. And Akane? Well, she would be lying if she said she wasn't thankful to her heritage right then.

The Sharingan and the Shunshin no Jutsu were the only reasons she was still alive. But even if the jutsu Shisui had perfected wasn't exactly chakra intensive, the fight was stretching out too much for comfort, and she was starting to feel. She could feel how every single one of her muscles was on the very brink of exhaustion, how they screamed every time she made them move with the speed and precision they always did. She refused to let her training go to waste, she refused to slow down now, she refused to lose.

Because losing meant losing Naruto, and that was not something she was willing to let happen.

As she smashed one puppet after the other, Uchiha Akane reflected on her past. She reflected on every single decision -hers or otherwise- that had led her to that very moment. She remembered, and she fought, and she struggled to prolong it all a second more, a minute more, an hour more. Dying now would be an unbelievable waste of effort. A waste of Shisui's effort, of Itachi's sacrifices, of her own Hardships. Uchiha Akane refused to let all of her suffering be for naught.

And finally, it was quiet.

They had done it.

Or so they had thought. The unmistakable sound of puppet pieces fitting together once again was hard to miss, and so was the figure of Akasuna no Sasori flying towards Naruto with a katana in his hand.

Uchiha Akane had faught, and she refused to let it all be for nothing.

…

Kurama braced himself for the pull he knew was coming. When felt the Uchiha move at the edge of his senses, he knew what would come next. He pulled all his power towards himself, denying Naruto of anything he didn't need to survive. He knew what was coming, so when Akane jumped in front of them and right in Sasori's path, he braced himself for what was to come.

He didn't like Uchihas, but he would not let the sacrifice this one had made go to waste.

The Nine Tailed Fox would not go on a rampage that day.