In a dark cavern in the Land of Rivers, nine figures could be seen standing on the fingers of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. 7 of them were holograms while two were actual people. Currently they are extracting the Ichibi from Gaara.
Gaara is unconscious, suspended in the air by the massive blue swarm of chakra from the Nine Phantom Dragons sealing jutsu. Red bijuu chakra was coming out of his eyes and mouth. It's only been a day and a half since the extraction began, meaning only about half of the Ichibi is sealed into the statue.
"An enemy is nearing this hideout." Zetsu informed the group.
"An enemy you said?" Deidara questioned.
"I'm not sure they are exactly, what I do know is that they are Konoha shinobi. It's only two of them." Zetsu replied.
"We'll use that jutsu." Pain announced.
"Ah in that case, I'll go. I was getting irritated with having no luck finding a jinchuuriki." Hidan stated.
"No, I'll go." Kisame voiced.
"Among the Akatsuki, you are the most heavily loaded with chakra, Kisame." Pain said.
"Yes." Kisame agreed.
Hidan grunted.
"Even so, I'll take 30% of your chakra. Zetsu did say that they were two of them. So Itachi, you will also engage the enemy with Kisame."
"Yes, Pain-sama." Itachi nodded.
With Naruto and Kushina
The Uzumaki couple were traveling at high speeds throughout a forest. They left the sand village a few hours ago, once they crossed the borders to this country, they were finally able to pick up a weak signature of Shukaku's chakra. It was a bit difficult to keep a lock on since it was getting weaker at a fast rate.
"Naruto-kun." Kushina spoke as she hopped off another branch.
"I know." Naruto responded. They can sense two people up ahead with very high levels of chakra, one of them is comparable to a jinchuuriki's chakra levels to a certain degree. Both are giving off waves of negative intentions, though one is significantly less negative than the other.
Traveling further ahead, they eventually stopped their tracks as they encountered the ones who they sensed.
Both Uzumakis immediately recognized the pair, Itachi and Kisame.
"Well I'll be, it's been three years since I last saw you two." Naruto commented.
Itachi and Kisame on the other hand were very shocked by just who their enemies were. They had every reason to be, especially Kisame. Itachi quickly schooled his shocked expression with his usual stoic expression.
Kisame spoke first out of the two. "Y-Y-You..i-it's impossible...you're supposed to be dead." He stuttered in fear as his attention was focused solely on Kushina.
Said redhead smirked at the scared former mist swordsman. "Well, well look who we have here, if it isn't good old shark face. Haven't seen you since I kicked you and your buddies asses back during the war."
"YOU FUCKING DEVIL IN HUMAN SKIN! ANSWER ME! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU ALIVE?!" Kisame roared in anger, this woman is someone he never wanted to come across again under any circumstances.
During the Third Shinobi War, by pure chance the whole Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist group encountered Kushina while she was in Kiri. She had been on her way back to Konoha from completing a solo mission. Seeing as it was only one person, the mist swordsman group assumed she would be an easy kill so they surrounded her.
They never stood a chance, she destroyed each and every one of them easily with her blade and chakra chains. That was the only time Kisame had ever been so close to death, the only reason they survived is because Kushina got bored with them. She decided to let them live but swore if she ever saw any of them again. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist would be no more, they would all die painfully by her blade.
Kisame fears Kushina even more than he does 'Madara', and that's saying something.
"No need to get your panties in a twist shark face, here's your answer I never died in the first place. The Third Hokage lied about my death, I've been traveling the world for the last two decades." Kushina told Kisame.
'Damn it! This means all this time this woman was always alive! I can only hope she didn't get any stronger since then…' Kisame said to himself mentally, it went without saying that the clone he's using will be utterly defeated. Still they needed to stall for more time for the extraction, they still needed at least another full day before the extraction was completed, according to Pain.
Unfortunately because he was too into his thoughts, he was too late to react to Kushina's sudden appearance in his guard.
Kushina gave a strong right hook to Kisame's face that sent him off into the distance, she looked at Naruto. "I'll handle Kisame, you deal with Itachi." With that she took off into the direction she sent Kisame towards.
'If what she say is true...capturing Naruto will become a much more difficult task. That doesn't even factor into how much Naruto might've improved over the years.' Itachi mused.
"It's been some time, Naruto." The rogue Uchiha voiced.
"Yeah three whole years since you and your group started targeting me. Tell me Itachi, just how fucked up are your eyes now? You must be half blind by now." Naruto wondered out of curiosity.
Itachi's eyes briefly widened in surprise. 'How could he know about my eyes? Did Kakashi inform him?' He thought.
"I see you're very informed, did Kakashi tell you?" Itachi questioned.
"Neither Kakashi or Jiraiya told me, let's just say I had a lot of time to study all about the sharingan." Naruto answered.
Itachi said nothing for a moment, out of nowhere he slowly raised his hand then pointed his index finger at the blond. "It's about time you come with me, Naruto."
Suddenly he realized something was off, his genjutsu failed. Judging by the smirk on Naruto's face, it seems he knows the reason why his genjutsu attempt failed.
"How did you negate my genjutsu?" He genuinely wanted to know.
"Sage chakra can negate all genjutsu including sharingan genjutsu. But you used that ring of yours as a catalyst for the illusion, not that it worked." Naruto replied with a smirk. Fukusaku had been the one who told him this fact about sage chakra, however you have to be very skilled in the usage of natural energy to perform such a feat. Naruto and Kushina are skilled to the point where they don't need to enter Sage Mode to use nature energy to some degree.
"I see." Itachi has heard the term 'natural energy' once before though he doesn't know anything about it.
Holding up a single hand seal he performed the Great Fireball jutsu, firing a huge fireball towards Naruto. Said blond instantly countered it with his own giant fireball, resulting in both attacks canceling out each other.
'He's certainly grown.' Itachi noted.
He was caught off guard for a brief second when Naruto suddenly appeared before him in a quick burst of speed. Itachi quickly dodged a high kick to his head then threw a punch only for it to be caught by Naruto. As the two engaged in a brief taijutsu bout, Itachi didn't know that Naruto already won the fight.
Jumping back to create room, both shinobi stared at each other with blank expressions.
"Sorry Itachi, I hate to cut this reunion short but I don't have time to waste." Naruto nonchalantly stated to his opponent as he made a single hand seal.
Itachi raised an eyebrow, he was going to comment until he felt his body stiffened. Trying to move he immediately realized he had been paralyzed.
"What did you do?" Itachi questioned in confusion.
"I placed a paralysis seal on you during our brief fight in taijutsu." Naruto answered.
'A paralysis seal? But how when I didn't see him pull out one?' Itachi was shocked.
"If you're wondering how I placed it on you, I can mould my chakra to use a good portion of my seals. By the way, that's not the only seal I placed on you."
The Uchiha kinslayer became even more stunned when he witnessed Naruto vanish in a red flash. Said blond reappeared directly in front of him with an orange lightning-covered fist.
He had no time to react as the orange lightning charged fist tore straight through his chest. Next the blond ripped his hand out of Itachi's torso to slam a chakra enhanced fist dead in Itachi's face. Slamming the black-haired Uchiha down into the ground, forming a decent size crater.
When the dust cleared, Naruto saw that the person he was fighting wasn't Itachi. It's some random guy he's never seen before. Too bad he's dead.
"I wondered why Itachi felt so weak fighting against him, it never was the guy in the first place. Must be some kind of clone or possession technique…" Naruto mused out loud.
He shrugged. "Eh, who cares, I should go meet up with Kushina-chan. She'll likely either be done with her fight or is about to finish it." He made his way to his wife.
Over with Kushina and Kisame, they were engaged in a stalemate as they tried to overpower one another with their physical strength by using their blades. With Kisame's reputation, it's understandable to assume that he would be overpowering his opponent. It's also not a surprise that he's not considering Kushina's own reputation.
Truthfully, she was annoyed by this fight.
"What the hell, why are you so weak? Hell I don't even think you were this bad when we fought all those years ago. I expected you to be better than this shark-face." Kushina said to her opponent.
Kisame grit his teeth in anger, he didn't take being called weak too well. What pisses him off even more is that even if he had 100% of his power, he knows that he will still lose to the redhead Uzumaki. "Tch, I'm just testing the waters, this is nowhere near my full power." There's no way he's going to admit that he's a clone, he needs to buy as much time as possible so that the extraction can be finished.
Kushina rolled her eyes, she wasn't fooled by his words for a second. For starters for a chakra monster he's being ways too conservative with his chakra. Not once in their entire fight has he resorted to ninjutsu.
After another clash between his Samehada and her Benihime, both jumped back to gain distance.
Kisame threw his sword into the air before clapping his hands, taking a deep breath. 'Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave!' He voiced mentally.
He spat out a great volume of water from his mouth to the ground creating a huge wave. The former Kiri shinobi caught Samehada in his right hand then rode the wave down in order to attack Kushina.
'What an amateur.' Kushina berated him as she jumped in the air to avoid the wave. Flipping through the air she swung her Benihime which released a red energy wave.
Benihime is a sword Kushina discovered during her years of training after Minato's death, it's a blade that came from her soul, literally. It's a soul-sword/sentient sword, the correct term for it being a Zanpakutō. The spirit residing with her blade is a female obviously, while Benihime isn't nice she and Kushina get along really well with each other. According to Benihime, Kushina is the only one in this world who has ever had a Zanpakuto, it's a strong possibility since she has one, Naruto may have a Zanpakutō that's dormant. There are three states to a Zanpakuto, the state Benihime is in is Shikai.
The red wave of energy cut through the water, some of the water evaporated due to the extreme heat rolling off Kushina's attack.
Landing on the ground, another wave rose up in her direction, she jumped in the air again, this time Kisame appeared out of the wave in an attempt to attack her. Evading his slow attempt, Kushina sliced through his body revealing him to be a water clone. Another Kisame came out of the water, swinging Samehada at her. Not being one to back down, the red head also swung Benihime, their blades met in a fierce clash releasing a huge shockwave.
The shockwave forced both back several meters from each other to the flat surface of the water.
Kisame threw Samehada in the air, quickly going through hand seals before slamming her left hand on the water. "Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" A cyclone of water launched into the air, coming out of it was a large blue shark made out of water and chakra.
Kushina stood her ground, holding her left palm out as the water jutsu exploded on her palm.
The Tailless Tailed Beast grit his teeth, he caught his falling Samehada in his grip and jumped, bringing his blade down on Kushina. Said woman easily pared the attack with her blade causing a huge amount of water to rise from their clash. There was a stalemate between them.
'Huh, well he's definitely not weak, his strength is immense, still he's holding back a lot of his true power. I'm not even trying, if I had to guess either he's just a special clone with 30-40% of his actual power while the original isn't even here or the original is right here buying time.' Kushina thought to herself, she broke the stalemate by booting Kisame dead in his gut, forcing the man to cough up blood and get sent flying into a boulder.
Kisame didn't even get the chance to gather himself as a golden chakra chain wrapped around his chest tightly, absorbing all of his chakra. He was suddenly yanked towards Kushina, who swiped her Benihime to cleanly decapitate his head from his body.
The water submerging the land quickly went away, Kushina noted something off, while she was kinda right about not really fighting Kisame himself, she didn't expect to be fighting another man entirely.
"So there's a jutsu that allows you to change and use actual people as your own clone? Isn't that interesting." Kushina sealed away Benihime.
Naruto teleported to her side, he looked around to see Kushina had done the job. "I take it your opponent was weird too?"
Kushina nodded. "Yeah, but nothing to worry about, we should just use Instant Transmission from here to get to Gaara. I don't know about you but I've got a better steady lock on his chakra to teleport us to him now."
"Great because I'm still not able to get a good grasp on their signature." Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder.
Kushina then teleported them to Gaara's location.
With Kisame and Itachi
"Well that was a failure." Kisame commented.
"Unfortunately, we must warn Pain-sama about the incoming enemy." Itachi said.
"He's going to be pissed without a doubt." Kisame replied.
Land of Rivers, Akatsuki Base
"So it was a failure." Pain voiced, he was displeased.
"Yes, the enemy were strong enough to take out our clones faster than expected." Itachi responded through his hologram.
"Who are they exactly?" Kakuzu questioned.
"The Kyuubi jinchuuriki and the Red Whirlpool Princess, Kushina Uzumaki." Itachi said.
"I thought she was dead?" Sasori commented.
"Apparently not, damned woman took my clone out without even trying." Kisame grumbled angrily about his clone's easy defeat.
"The jinchuriki has improved a lot, Jiraiya wasn't the only one training him it seems." Itachi added.
"Well isn't this something? Looks like the enemy isn't as weak as I thought." Hidan said
"Shut up Hidan." Kakuzu stated.
"I agree with your partner." Deidara voiced.
"What the hell Kakuzu?! And nobody asked for your opinion, clay face! Hidan retorted.
"Enough." Pain ordered, everyone became silent. "While we might have failed to delay them, we need to focus on extracting as much of the Ichibi out of the jinchuriki as possible before the enemy arrives."
"Kinda too late for that since we are already here." Naruto's voice cut in.
The Akatsuki members were stunned to see golden chakra chains pierced the sealing jutsu, the chains wrapped around Gaara's body and pulled out of the swarm of blue chakra. Looking down they all saw Naruto and Kushina on the ground smirking up at them. Naruto was the one who used his chakra chains to free Gaara, through his chain he imprinted a Hiraishin sealing formula onto Gaara's body and teleported him away to a safe location. Kushina has a clone on standby to heal Gaara back to proper health.
"Well there goes the jinchuuriki." Kisame said.
Pain was not happy at all, he didn't understand how they were able to get in here without anybody noticing. "We have about 60% of the Ichibi, that should be more than enough for now. We will focus on capturing the other jinchuriki then the Ichibi at a later date, for now Sasori, Deidara, handle the intruders." He reversed-summoned the Demonic Statue back to his location before Naruto or Kushina tried anything with it. All of the holograms of the other Akatsuki members disappeared, leaving only Sasori and Deidara to face off against the Uzumaki couple.
"So which one of you is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Deidara asked the couple.
Sasori looked over at Deidara.
"Hm, what is it, Sasori no danna?" The clay bomber asked.
"Stop asking stupid questions, Deidara, we already know who the jinchuuriki is and i'll be the one to take him." Sasori retorted.
Deidara smirked. "Sasori, you'll probably get mad if I say this but I'll take care of that jinchuuriki." He gazed at Naruto.
Sasori narrowed his eyes towards his partner. "Our mission is one jinchuuriki each, don't be getting all full of yourself Deidara…"
"An artist's passion starts to dull unless they seek greater stimulation, Sasori no danna. The rumor is that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki is quite powerful, he's an opponent suitable for my art." Deidara replied.
"What? You're calling those explosions of yours art? Art is something that beautifully remains extensively into the distant future. Eternal beauty is art!" Sasori retorted.
"Eternal beauty…is art? I do respect you as a fellow artist Sasori, but art is a fleeting moment of beauty that vanishes gloriously." Deidara responded.
"What did you say…? Deidara, it seems you don't understand what true art is…" Sasori voiced his disappointment.
"You're the one who doesn't understand." Deidara said.
"No! Eternal beauty is true art." Sasori said.
"Don't be a fool, art is an instant of beauty." The blond bomber chastised.
"Do you want to make me angry?" Sasori asked.
"I just told you it would probably make you angry, didn't I?" Deidara retorted.
"You know what happens when I get angry don't you? How about it, Deidara?" Sasori revealed his metal tail with poison on the sharp edge.
"How about we ask him which one of us he wants to kill him?" Deidara suggested then looked back at Naruto. "Well who do you want to die by, Kyuubi jinchuuriki?" He smirked as he produced a small portion of white explosive clay from the mouth of his hand.
Naruto just rolled his eyes, these guys were way too arrogant especially Deidara, they had no idea who they were dealing with. He isn't the one they should be worried about however, his wife on the other hand…..
Kushina's eyes were being shadowed over by her hair, her hair rose in the air into nine separate parts. She's producing powerful crimson red chakra that's swirling around her body, the ground below her feet cracking apart, intense wind being generated that it caused Sasori and Deidara to get on guard. The red-haired Uzumaki felt intense anger boiling in her veins, these two weak assholes think they can just carelessly talk about which one of them is going to kill her husband as if Naruto's life was a game to them. Just who the hell did they think they are? She has half the mind to wipe their asses out of existence with a Tailed Beast Bomb.
"Hmmm it seems we've upsetted that red head, not gonna lie she's very scary with that powerful chakra she's releasing." Deidara commented.
"Deidara, you can take the jinchuuriki, I'll take on this woman, she'll make a fine addition to my collection." Sasori said.
"I knew you'd see it my way Sasori no danna." Deidara smirked.
"Naruto-kun, I'm tired of seeing these two alive, let's not waste any time I'll take Sasori." Kushina said to her husband, her chakra was replaced by thin red aura outlining her body, this form of energy is called spirit energy that she received once she awakened her zanpakuto. The only people who know about her spirit energy and zanpakuto are her husband, Wendy, Kurama and Miya. She wanted to keep them under wraps until she felt it was time to really cut loose, though if it hadn't been the fact she discovered her zanpakuto after she separated from Tsunade and Shizune, she would have informed them as well. Maybe she'll do so when she gets the chance.
"Alright, I'll handle the other guy then." Cracking his neck, a smirk appeared on his face as his body was engulfed in his orange lightning chakra cloak.
Deidara and Sasori's eyes widened seeing Naruto covering himself in orange lightning, the blond 18 year old disappeared from their sight. Unfortunately for Deidara, his opponent gripped a hand around his neck, forcing the explosive bomber straight through the rocky wall to outside. Completely destroying the giant entrance boulder.
Kushina allowed her aura to dissipate, she was going to defeat Sasori using her chakra only, nothing more was needed.
'Hmmm that jinchuuriki has the ability to utilize lightning similarly to how the Fourth Raikage does, Deidara must be somewhat injured from being taken off guard like that. I better hurry up and deal with this woman, we can't afford to him to kill Deidara and get away.' Sasori noted to himself, turning his attention to Kushina.
"So how long do you plan on hiding in that puppet of yours, Sasori?" Kushina questioned.
"And how do you know this body is a puppet and not my real form?" Sasori wondered, how could she know about Hiruko?
"I have my own ways of finding out information, plus I remember hearing about you during the Third Great Shinobi War, you're really a redhead like myself. It also helps that Granny Chiyo is basically my grandmother, making us related…sorta. I saw pictures." The red-haired Uzumaki shrugged.
Now this certainly took Sasori by surprise, since when the hell did that old woman have another grandkid aside from him? He would've known about them by now, meaning Kushina must've came into the picture some time after he deserted Sunagakure. "I see…that's certainly a name I haven't heard in awhile. I'm honestly surprised the old bat is still alive and kicking."
"Yep she's alive alright, she wanted to come here herself to take you out but I told you to let me handle it. There's no need to put her through that kind of emotional pain. I hope you're prepared to die, Sasori, I won't take it easy on you just because we have the same grandmother." Kushina stated with narrowed eyes.
"Hmph, you'd be a fool to do so." Sasori attacked her using his metal tail to poison her.
Said woman effortlessly caught the side of his tail with her hand, lightly crushing it in her hands using her physical strength. She released it from her grasp when Sasori tried pulling it back.
Sasori bent down to his hands and feet as the back of his robe tore open revealing a large back shell, on his left arm is some kind of torpedo-shaped weapon. Opening his mouth, the puppeteer master spat out a rapid fire of poisonous senbon in his opponent's direction.
Kushina smirked then to Sasori's disbelief disappeared in a red flash,
The woman appeared above him with a rasengan already powered up in her hand, in an instant Sasori's Hiruko puppet was destroyed by Kushina's rasengan, luckily for Sasori he was able to avoid being caught by her attack just barely. If not for Hiruko being in the way buying him one extra second, Sasori knows he surely would have been in deep trouble.
"So now that one of your toys is gone, ready to stop hiding Sasori?" Kushina stood over the pieces of the destroyed Hiruko puppet, she's gazing in the direction of Sasori, she saw him disengage himself from Hiruko the second her rasengan made contact. He's lucky the Uzumaki woman used nowhere near the true speed of her hiraishin.
Sasori looked at his destroyed Hiruko puppet then to Kushina with an expression full of aloofness. "I must admit I am quite lucky to have escaped that unscathed, you won't get another chance like that again."
Kushina rolled her eyes before they actually widened in surprise. "Wait, something is off, how do you look that young? You should be in your late 30s!" She exclaimed.
"How rude, shouldn't that be a question I should be asking you considering you're the older one out of us?" Sasori retorted.
"And how the hell would you know that? For your information I'll have you know I'm an Uzumaki, we have much longer lifespans than normal allowing us to age a lot slower. What's your excuse?" Kushina responded, even though Mito died early by Uzumaki standards, by regular standards she lasted a lot longer than expected.
"I guess there's no harm in telling you, my body is that of a puppet." Sasori said.
"…so you turned yourself into a human puppet…why? I mean I guess I can understand somewhat but why give up so much of your humanity?" Kushina questioned.
"Hmmm you can say that I wanted to be a part of everlasting art, unlike my idiot of a partner I know what true art is." Sasori commented.
"Somehow I doubt either of you know the true meaning, not that I care." The Uzumaki replied.
'As much as I hate to admit it, the Third Kazekage puppet will be useless against her if I use it alone, the Iron Sand is useful however against speed like she's capable of it's essentially useless. All she will do is keep avoiding whatever Iron Sand attacks I throw at her no matter what sort of attack pattern I go with, I'm still not sure whether she teleported or was that her natural speed, I'll need to see her move one more time to be sure. I guess this means I'll have to get serious from the start.' Sasori concluded mentally, he undid his akatsuki robe revealing his puppet body. "I haven't used this since I joined the Akatsui, I can't remember when that was…"
The human puppet body of Sasori showed his intestines were replaced by a thick cable coiled around a pole, seemingly allowing him to use it as a stinger and retract it. Attached on his back is a scroll holder holding four red scrolls, Kushina only had information on what one of those scrolls contained. A pair of poles attached to the back of his hips, each equipped with five large blades. The coil and blades were covered I deadly poison, the stinger of the coil pierced the ground as Sasori stood on it with both feet, the coil lifting him up off the ground a bit. His eyes became wide open giving him an insane look, on the left side of his chest was a cylinder-shaped device with a red kanji symbol standing for 'scorpion' on it. That is Sasori's core, the last of his human remains.
"It's been a long time since I last used myself in battle." Sasori voiced.
'Hmmm all I need to do is take off his core and it's over, still how exactly do I want to end this? If I'm going to kill him I at least want to bring his body back in decent condition so outright eradicating Sasori to ashes is out of the question. As long as he's dead, my anger from earlier will be satisfied.' Kushina noted to herself, watching Sasori make his move.
Sasori lifted up both of his arms, aiming his palms towards his crimson-haired opponent. "I hope you're prepared to become a part of my collection, your last attack was the last chance you'll get!" The former member of the Puppet Brigade expelled powerful streams of fire.
Kushina easily evaded the streams, she saw more powerful, intense streams of fire heading her way at high-speeds. She smirked, forming the horse hand seal.
"You really don't want to try this fire shit with me motherfucker!" She exclaimed. 'Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame!' A sea of flames spewed from her mouth, effortlessly overpowering Sasori's flames.
Taken off guard by his fire being engulfed, he quickly used the fourth scroll of his back to shoot out pressurized streams of water from the pipes in his hands to counter the incoming sea of flames. While their attacks met, Sasori grew annoyed realizing Kushina's flames were way stronger than he assumed, his jets of water unfortunately did nothing to her attack. In order to prevent himself from being incinerated.
Having no choice, Sasori launched his coil to his left, pulling and using his propeller blades to propel himself to where his stinger landed to avoid the fire. While propelling himself through the air, he quickly made his way to get behind Kushina.
Said Uzumaki saw him coming at a snail's pace from her perspective, just as Sasori was getting in real close. Lifting up her right palm, the red-haired woman utilized her wind chakra nature to unleash a powerful shockwave of wind that sent Sasori flying like a bullet, he crashed hard into a wall.
"Not bad, a master puppeteer who can also be deadly in close combat, now that's talent if I ever saw it. Sasori, I'll admit you are very powerful, it's just a shame you have to have me as your enemy." Kushina said.
The red-haired Akatsuki member had been able to get himself out of the wall, he's lucky no part of his body cracked from the impact. "Don't get cocky, you're not bad but this is only the beginning, I'll have to go all out in order to put you down for good."
Truthfully he did not like the situation he was in, his first and fourth scrolls were already gone this early in the fight due to him having to use them. Now he has no choice but to use his second scroll and ace to defeat Kushina, his third scroll is useless for this kind of battle.
He took out the second scroll from his scroll holder using a chakra thread, the scroll unraveled in the air as Sasori opened up his right chest compartment to emit more than a hundred chakra strings. Puppets were coming out of the scroll, once all of them were free the chakra threads attached to all 100 of Sasori's puppets.
"I…used this to bring down a nation! I'm appalled at myself, never would I have thought of having to bring out my final device against a single woman. Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen (Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets)." Sasori smirked a bit.
Kushina was shocked, in pure awe at what she was witnessing before her. She knew quite a lot about the puppet technique and its capabilities, not once did she ever believe that it was possible to do what Sasori currently is doing. 'Y-You've gotta be kidding me…he can control more than 100 puppets simultaneously?! Talk about being the ultimate puppeteer, what the hell? I knew he had puppets stored in one of those scrolls but not this many! I thought the most a puppeteer could control at a time was 10 and the only one I thought capable of that feat was Chiyo-baachan. Damn, Sasori is really more powerful than I credited him earlier for being. He's called Akasuna no Sasori for a good reason it seems.'
Yin Kurama scoffed from inside her mindscape. 'Please this little puppet show is nothing but a cheap gimmick, you can easily obliterate them all including him within a single second if you chose to, stop overhyping it.' The fox said.
Kushina rolled her eyes mentally. 'That's not the point and you know it baka! It's an amazing feat alone that he can even produce that many chakra threads let alone use them to control his puppets. That type of skill is truly rare to come by, imagine if he would've stayed loyal to Suna instead of becoming a missing-nin. Suna's forces would be vastly more elite than they are today and it would be solely due to him and possibly Chiyo-baachan.'
'Regardless, just finish this weakling already Kushina, I'm getting bored of this fight.' Kurama responded.
'Ugh, fine, fine.' She cut the link then prepared herself as she saw Sasori sending his puppets out to attack her, the red haired Uzumaki summoned two golden chakra chains from her back to assist her in taking down these puppets. If she was going to end this quickly she at least wants to have some enjoyment out of it instead of ending it in one move.
The puppets were armed with various weapons, Kushina used one of his chains to block a group of puppets' weapons prior to coating the chakra chain in red wind chakra to unleash a huge blade of red wind that sliced through the puppets. Then she swung her other chakra chain to smash five more puppets to pieces.
Kushina also had been dodging numerous of puppets while destroying them with her physical strength alone by either punching, kicking or elbowing every puppet one by one with little effort on her part.
The more puppets she destroyed, she noticed much faster the remaining puppets were moving in attempts to land a blow on her. Her chains were coated in red wind-natured and red water-natured chakra unleashing sharp and powerful red wind and water blades that easily cut through or destroyed any puppet in their paths.
Yes, she can manipulate her chakra affinities to such a degree that she can channel any element in her arsenal through her chakra chains. Of course it goes without saying she taught Naruto how to do this as well.
Sasori didn't like how this was turning out, this woman, Kushina Uzumaki has supremely high capabilities in close, mid and long-range combat, she's taking out his army of puppets too fast for his liking. He concentrated more of the remaining puppets, he at least wanted to get a scratch on her to infect her with his poison.
'KUSHINA!' Kurama roared inside of her mind, scaring the living shit out of her to the point where she slipped up and received a small cut on her cheek by a blade coated in poison, much to Sasori's delight.
'KURAMA! WHAT THE FUCK WHY WOULD YOU SCREAM SO LOUDLY SO SUDDENLY LIKE THAT YOU BAKA-KITSUNE?!' Kushina raged at her nine-tailed partner.
'Sorry but I noticed something that I think will catch your attention, I'm sensing two sets of Sharingan eyes in two of these puppets.' Kurama informed her.
'I'm not surprised, that's the benefits of using human puppets, they retain their use of chakra and bloodlines that the human host once had.' Kushina replied while she punched another puppet to pieces.
'That's not why I brought it up, listen Kushina, as much as I despise the Sharingan and the Uchiha Clan. Even I, myself have to admit it is a powerful and useful tool to have access to.' Yin Kurama stated.
'Your point being?' The red-haired woman wondered where her furry friend was going with this?
'My point being is I want you to take those Sharingan for you and Naruto to implant into your eyes.' Kurama stated.
Kushina couldn't believe what she just heard. 'Huh? But why? I don't need them, I'm powerful enough without them and so is Naruto.'
'I know that, however, since you and Naruto plan to restart your clan together. It makes sense to make sure the next generation of Uzumaki is more powerful than the previous generation was. I can alter a couple of things to make the Sharingan a genetic trait that can be passed down to your children and future descendants. This way it'll also be naturally attuned to your body to where you can turn it on and off nor will it drain you of more than necessary due to your lack of Uchiha blood. Now, Kushina you do know of the Rinnegan, correct?'
'Yes.'
'The Sharingan is capable of evolving into the Rinnegan if certain requirements are met. You're lucky that you and your husband are one of the only ones who can meet these requirements. Due to both yours and his chakra being extremely potent and powerful by Uzumaki standards, over time this will cause a transformation to take place with the Sharingan if Sharingan is infused with this type of chakra. It is possible with powerful Senju chakra as well. The result of the transformation is the Rinnegan, seeing that Pain ningen told me that he most likely won't be the last one we encounter with the Rinnegan in the future. I'm not saying you couldn't handle the Rinnegan, but what better way to fight against one than having a pair of your own?'
'I see your point, however that kind of progression will take time to happen, it could take decades before the Sharingan changes into the Rinnegan.'
Kurama scoffed. 'Not with me speeding to the process, it'll take a couple months at most. I will say that you won't have to worry about having the same downsides to a Mangekyo Sharingan since I'll alter it to automatically evolve into an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. It shouldn't be too hard to awaken the Mangekyo state if it isn't already unlocked within the eyes.'
Kushina finished off every puppet then speed blitzed Sasori to where she couldn't see her move a single step. She impaled his core with a blade of red lightning encasing her forearm.
Sasori was in pure disbelief, she actually pierced him without him registering her movements in the slightest, she defeated him.
Coughing up blood, "I see…so I was defeated in the end…tell me…do you know Orochimaru the Snake Sannin?" Sasori asked her.
Kushina raised an eyebrow. "Well duh, of course I do."
Sasori smirked. "At midday in ten days, go to the Tenchi Bridge located in the Village Hidden in the Grass! I've got a spy working as one of Orochimaru's subordinates. I was supposed to rendezvous…with him there…he has gray hair and glasses…name is…Kabuto…" The eyes of Akasuna no Sasori completely closed and shadowed over, he died on his feet.
Kushina thought about Sasori's last message. "Kabuto? I know about the guy's history as a spy but his loyalty to Orochimaru is too obsessive for him to even consider betraying the snake. Hmmm my intuition is telling me that Sasori was being played by Kabuto, this rendezvous is most likely a set up to ambush Sasori and he was going to fall for it. Still the information is useful, this could lead Naruto-kun to obtaining some information on Sasuke even if it is minimal. If we're lucky enough Sasuke himself will be there too or at least nearby in the area.
Kushina separated Sasori's core from his body the sealed both inside a storage scroll, she put that away and used a different storage scroll to collect all of the remains of the puppets she destroyed. It took only a couple minutes thanks to her shadow clones.
Hence is why she's staring down at the only two parts that are sealed, the heads of the puppets with the Sharingan in their eyes. Sure enough both heads had a pair of Sharingan eyes. Unsealing a container filled with clear fluid, Kushina carefully removed both sets of eyes out of the two puppet's heads then placed each pair in one container each. After closing the containers, she sealed them away.
"Well I guess me and Naruto are getting some upgrades, well that's if he accepts it though I don't see why wouldn't he?" She shrugged before leaving the hideout to catch up to her blond husband.
Naruto could be seen having fun frustrating the hell out of Deidara,
"Damn you! Katsu!" Deidara blew up multiple clay land mines he planted, he never wanted to kill someone as badly as he did Naruto.
This is all because Naruto keeps brushing off all of his explosions as if they were nothing! Growls of frustration escaped his throat watching a lightning encased Naruto walk out the explosions without a single scratch on him.
"What's wrong Deidara? Not going to try to attack me from the air again on your little clay creatures? Did you finally realize how useless your efforts are?" Naruto asked his fellow blond, enjoying the amount of frustration he's causing to the guy who personally said he wanted to kill Naruto himself. Naruto's lightning manipulation skills has far surpassed Ay's to the point where he can become the lightning element itself and fly as long as his orange lightning chakra mode is active. He's still working on his manipulation to achieve a level where he doesn't need to use his lightning chakra mode to transform any part of his body into lightning or fly.
'Shit! As much as I hate to admit it, I made a mistake thinking I can easily take out this jinchuuriki like the last one back in Sunagakure. Literally this jackass is my worst possible match up! His lightning negates all of my clay jutsus along with providing him protection from my explosions, then his wind is strong enough to cut through my clay creatures. Seriously how can he be so proficient in wind release to where he can randomly create sharp wind attacks anywhere on the damned battlefield! Can't forget he's a sensor on top of all of that. Luckily I still have my ultimate art as a last resort.' Deidara thought to himself.
Glaring angrily at Naruto. "I'll admit you're a lot more powerful than I thought, Kyuubi jinchuuriki. However if you think I'm finished then guess again asshole!" Deidara declared loudly as he ripped out his shirt, revealing the mouth on his chest that's stitched up.
Naruto looked at the mouth on his chest, noticing how it's directly in the area where his heart is located, meaning the mouth has a direct connection to his heart for some reason. "Ok I'm not gonna lie, that's pretty cool dude, pretty weird too."
"It's nice to see someone with a similar taste in art around here-" Deidara was cut off by Naruto.
"No, I didn't say shit about your art, I was only referring to the mouth on your chest, I could care less about your clay art to be honest." Naruto voiced in a deadpanned tone, his eyes showed his disinterest clear as day.
"How dare you disrespect my art in such a way! You're no better than that bastard Itach! Thinking he so damn cool all the time! You might not have a Sharingan, but those eyes…those damn overconfident eyes irritate me! As if they deny my art! It's unforgivable! You have those same eyes who show absolutely no respect for my art…those eyes that ignore my art…are unforgivable!" Deidara finished spewing her angry rant panting heavily.
Naruto stared at him with the same disinterested expression. "Like I said before you started ranting about nothing, I could care less about such nonsense, never mind that just get on with your final technique so I can end this boring fight already."
Deidara stared in disbelief at the pure disregard Naruto had for his art and him, he gritted his teeth and undid the stitching holding the mouth on his chest closed. Then he reached down in his clay pouch to grab a chunk of explosive clay in his hand. "You bastard! Don't take me so lightly!" Deidara fed the clay to the now opened mouth on his chest.
The blond Uzumaki watched Deidara's body start to become transparent with multiple cracks forming around his body, he had a good idea what Deidara was planning if the large amount chakra he's sensing building up in the Akatsuki member's heart means anything.
"This is my ultimate art! Now I will detonate myself, with death, I'll become one with art! This never-before-seen explosion will leave a never-before-seen scar on this land! And..! My art will win never-before-seen admiration! In the midst of my admiration, you will definitely die! An explosion that will cause a ten kilometer radius, you won't be able to get away! Now, tremble in fear! Be in awe! Despair! Scream! My art is…" Deidara trailed.
Sadly for him, right before the sphere in his chest was about to crack, a golden chakra chain could be seen wrapping tightly around his body. Deidara felt shock and fear when he felt his chakra being suppressed, instantly canceling his detonation.
"Yeah, I hope you didn't honestly think I sat here listening to you just to really let you pull off your final technique did you? I'll admit a suicide bombing jutsu isn't a bad idea, but I'm not an idiot. There's no way you made this jutsu without having an assured way to survive if you wanted to, otherwise I'd let you blow yourself up." Naruto told his now captured opponent.
"D-Damn you!" Deidara exclaimed, he couldn't move a muscle in these chains.
"Uzumaki fuinjutsu: Chakra Suppression Seal Level 6." Naruto through his chakra chain applied the seal onto Deidara, with his ability to access his chakra completely cut off he passed out.
"Hmm he definitely had an unique skill set." Naruto walked up and removed the ring off of Deidara's finger.
Kushina appeared right behind him via instant transmission while he's inspecting the ring. She grinned and hugged her husband from behind. "Hey."
"Hey." Naruto smiled.
"Deidara's still alive?" Kushina could sense the explosive user's chakra.
"Yeah, I know you said to kill him but I figured if we turn him in alive, we'll get more money than if he was dead from his bounty." Naruto answered.
"We don't need the money though, we are pretty loaded, Naruto-kun." Kushina replied.
"True, it still wouldn't hurt to have his mind checked, I can just have him killed in prison once that's done. That way we'll still get the full reward and he'll be dead." Naruto said, through his chain he sealed Deidara's body away then allowed his chakra chain to retreat back inside of him.
He turned around to hug Kushina back and give his wife a deep kiss, Kushina eagerly returned his kiss with passion, it lasted a few minutes before they pulled away.
"Ok I think it's time we met up with Gaara and get him back to Sunagakure since we succeeded in retrieving him. Oh! Sasori gave me information on Orochimaru that I need to tell you about." The red haired Uzumaki woman mentioned her husband.
"Alright, tell me after we get Gaara back." Naruto replied.
A second later, the Uzumaki couple teleported to the location where Naruto teleported Gaara to earlier, it wasn't too far away from the Akatsuki's hideout.