Chapter 24:

While the Leaf ninja were ready to help take out Sasori, not only so that they can get in good gracious with the sand, but also because he is with their enemy, Chiyo decided to take on Sasori by herself. He is her grandson, and she feels responsible for everything he has done. As such, she wants to take him out.

Another reason she wanted to take on Sasori alone, is because she hopes to only defeat him and take him to the village as a prisoner. She is afraid that if all of the Leaf ninja take on him alone, they will eventually overpower him and kill him and Chiyo doesn't want Sasori dead, even after everything he has done. He is her grandson and as such, her family. Her only family left, not counting her brother.

The two puppet masters went at it for a while, with Sasori having an advantage most of the time, but with Chiyo keeping up thanks to her greater experience.

Sasori didn't get any big advantage during the fight, until he decided to pull out some bug guns, so to say, and revealed that his Third Kazekage puppet, can use the Iron Sand bloodline that the third had during his lifetime.

"This is bad," Chiyo said, drawing the attention at her.

"Why," Sakura asked? "What it that jutsu?"

"That is the most powerful jutsu in the history of the Sand Village," Chiyo said. "The Third Kazekage's, Iron Sand. It's because of that, that he was considered to be the strongest Kazekage to date."

While Kakashi knew about this, as he is old enough and knows about the legends and powers of the previous Kage from all the village, Sakura and Sasuke didn't know anything about the Third Kazekage and his powers, so they didn't know what to expect.

Sai learned during his training about the different powers from all over the EN, but even he didn't know everything about the Third Kazekage and how his Iron Sand can be used. His training under Danzo, didn't cover that much.

Now that Sasori has pulled out the Iron Sand, the battle went through the roof, so to say, as the roof and the outside walls of the cavern, were literally crumbling under the power of the Iron Sand, along with whatever jutsu the Leaf ninja and Chiyo used to fight back.

With Sakura's physical powers, Kakashi's and Sasuke's elemental ninjutsu as well as their Sharingan, and Sai's drawing type ninjutsu, combined with Chiyo using two of her puppets, they were all barely able to hold back Sasori and his Third Kazekage puppet, and barely keep themselves alive.

The four Leaf ninja and one Sand elder, stood at one side of the cavern, panting from exertion, while on the other side, Sasori was standing completely calm and with a smirk on his face.

'This is going to be a long battle.' Was the thought passing through the minds of four Leaf and one Sand Shinobi.

XXX

"No," Naruto suddenly said. "He didn't kill her."

Saeko and Fu looked at Naruto as if he was insane. "What do you mean? You saw Serafall disintegrate right there."

"Just watch." Naruto said with a smirk.

Saeko and Fu looked at each other, and then back at Deidara, who was, once again, back in the air flying on his C2 Dragon. He was looking down where Serafall used to be, with a grin on his face, thinking that his attack has worked and that he had won.

When the blizzard stopped, he was completely sure that it worked, but then.

"Celsius Cross Trigger!" Deidara recognized Serafall's voice and looked toward the ground, behind him. He was about to shout and ask, how she escaped, but then the temperature in the entire area dropped phenomenally, to the point that Deidara's C2 dragon was turned into an ice sculpture, and Deidara was starting to be covered in ice as well.

In fact, Serafall's technique is covering everything in a 10 kilometer radius into ice. The ground, the trees, that animals, there isn't a single thing left which wasn't covered in ice, mere 10 seconds after Serafall used her jutsu.

Well, that's a lie. Naruto's wasn't affected, and he was able to save Saeko and Fu from being permanently turned into ice sculptures.

But yes, not counting those three, everything was covered in ice, and the temperature on the surface of that land, must be 50 degrees below zero at that point.

"Well, I'll be damned," Naruto said with a wide smile on his face. "I thought that she was powerful but that jutsu was insane. If I wasn't here, you two would have been AT LEST, encased in ice, if not frozen to the bone."

"I have never seen something like that," Fu said while looking around with wide eyes. "I have seen and heard of a powerful jutsu, but that one is just too OP. I wonder if anyone but you would be unaffected, or at least escape from that jutsu."

Naruto shrugged. "There are people around who would be able to survive," he said while watching Deidara and his C2 dragon falling on the ice-covered ground, where the Dragon broke into ice particles, while Deidara was still alive, as he was only encased in ice, and wasn't completely frozen. Once he fell, the ice around him broke and released him, but he was shivering in cold right now. "Of course, they would have been encased in ice, but not completely frozen. Like the bomb-man, over there.

Saeko and Fu watched, as Deidara managed to stand up, while still shivering, as he was that cold after being almost killed by Serafall's jutsu.

"The d-devil was t-that," Deidara stuttered!? "How did you do t-that? "And how did you escape my jutsu? I saw you being disintegrated."

"That was Ice Clone you saw being disintegrated," Serafall said. "And the jutsu I use, is called, Celsius Cross Trigger, and is the most powerful jutsu I know. It is my signature technique, which converts the land itself into a frozen wonderland. I created it myself after a lot of training and years of trial and error.

"There is no escaping the jutsu. If you are caught in it, you are frozen. The only difference is, that those powerful enough would not be frozen to the bone and destroyed, but will only be covered in ice. You were lucky to be powerful and that you were in the air. If you were frozen while standing on the ground, you would have most likely survived, but you wouldn't have been able to release yourself on your own."

Deidara got angry at being screwed over by a clone and then almost killed like it was nothing. He hated when he was underestimated, and hates even more when he was so cleanly defeated, that he didn't even come close to winning. It reminded him too much of the first time he met Itachi Uchiha and how he was cleanly defeated by one simple genjutsu.

On top of that, while he has survived that thrice damned jutsu, he was barely able to stand from the sheer cold he was feeling after being completely frozen. Even worse, almost all of the clay he had was frozen as well, and it's a miracle that a small part of it, wasn't.

Then and there, Deidara has decided on what to do with that miracle. He will use his ultimate jutsu, and detonate himself. By doing that, he will make sure to destroy Serafall and make sure that she no longer poses a threat to the Akatsuki.

XXX

In the world of Shinobi, some people believe that in order for one to wake up alive in the morning, you need quite a bit of luck. They believe in this because people tend to die a lot when they are sleeping, especially if they are shinobi.

Now, while most shinobi believe in luck, there are some, like Sai, for example, who are completely emotionless, and don't believe in anything except their devotion to Danzo.

Other people, like Sasuke, only believe in power and they think that luck has no saying in anything when it involves powerful people. To him, powerful people don't need luck, they survive because they are strong, and that's that.

Kakashi actually does believe in luck. He knows that he was lucky that day during the Third Great Ninja War, where he only lost his eye, and not his entire head, or, where his teammate jumped and pushed him away from danger, sacrificing his own life to save Kakashi. To him, that was luck.

On the other hand, Kakashi also believes that only strong people have luck, and only strong people are favored by luck, while the weak die because they were both weak, and unlucky.

Sakura, just like Kakashi, believes in luck, and unlike him, she doesn't believe that only strong people are lucky, while the weak are unlucky. She believes this because she was always weak, and somehow, she was able to live as long as she did, and achieve some level of power, where she doesn't have to rely on luck to survive. She knows that when she was younger, and a part of a team with Sasuke and Naruto, she was so weak, that it was a miracle that she never died. Most of the time, she was saved by Naruto, and thought she will not say it out loud, she will admit it to herself. Sometimes, when even Naruto wasn't there to save her, she still survived, but in those cases, she knew it was pure luck, and nothing more. Because of those situations, she believed that everyone has some degree of luck, even weak people.

The one who believes the most in luck, is Chiyo. That probably has something to do with the fact that, she was so old, that every breath can be her last, and every morning she wakes up still alive, she believes that she was just lucky to still be alive, and doesn't believe that it was simply not her time to die.

Why is all this important.

Well, up until a minute ago, Chiyo along with Team 7 were pretty much defeated by Sasori.

They did some damage here and there to his Third Kazekage puppet, but were not able to do anything to his real body, nor were they able to completely take out the Third Kazekage.

For every single nick they would deal to the puppet, they would all be cut-up… badly. As such, they were all but done for… all five of them.

And then… a miracle happened. Though they won't call it miracle. They will call it luck, and four out of five of them, will consider themselves the luckiest people alive.

They were down… bleeding… defeated, and unable to do anything against Sasori, when all of the sudden, the entire cavern, along with all of them inside, ended up frozen solid.

It came out of nowhere. There was no warning… no indications that something like that is coming. It just happened. One moment they were all defeated, and just waiting to die, the next moment, all of them, plus Sasori and his Third Kazekage puppet, were frozen.

Of them all, five humans were simply encased in ice, while one human was dead and one puppet was destroyed.

There are several reasons why the ones who are still alive, are alive and not dead.

The reason Kakashi was alive, is because he was strong enough to be only encased in ice, and not turned into a Popsicle down to the bone.

Sasuke was simply lucky to be alive, as he was most definitely NOT strong enough to survive the full force of Serafall jutsu. Even Kakashi, who is quite-a-bit stronger then Sasuke, was barely strong enough to survive.

The reason Sakura and Chiyo are alive, is not because they were lucky or powerful enough. It was because Serafall has such control of her powers, that she willingly spared those two. Of course, the two of them don't know that, and until the end of their lives, they will think that they survived because they were simply lucky.

Sasori was simply powerful enough to survive Serafall's jutsu, just like Deidara. Unlike Deidara, Sasori was standing on the ground when he was encased in ice, which means that, while he is strong enough to survive, he is not strong enough to break himself out.

The puppet of the Third Kazekage was, unfortunately for Sasori, completely destroyed.

Sai was the unlucky one, and the weak one. He didn't have the power necessary to survive. He didn't have the luck to survive, and most of all, Serafall didn't want him to survive, and so he didn't survive, and have died on the spot. Frozen down to the bone and every cell in his body.

Now, while the five people were lucky to survive Serafall's jutsu, they weren't strong enough to break themselves out, which means that right now, there are five human turned into ice statues, standing in the middle of the frozen cavern, just waiting for someone to rescue them.

Unbeknownst to them, there was another person there in the cavern, though she was not seen by them, as she was watching the battle from the corner of the cavern, while in her liquid form.

That person was Juvia, who was watching the battle on Naruto's orders. She was also caught in Serafall's jutsu, but she was still alive, though also encased in ice just like the others. She survived because she was strong enough, and probably had some luck as well.

And so, the six people were waiting for someone to save them. Who that will be, will be decided in the battle between Serafall and Deidara.

XXX

Right in front of Serafall's eyes, Deidara ripped of his shirt, revealing a seal on his chest where heart is. The seal is surrounding a line with stiches indicating that it might be some sort of a scar, but it could also be anything. In this case… it was anything BUT a scar.

Deidara then used the mouth on his left hand and the mouth bit of the stiches on one side, before Deidara pulled the stiches, opening another set of mouth on his chest.

He then took from his pooch what little detonating clay he had left unfrozen, and fed it to the mouth on his chest, all the while, laughing at the shocked and confused look on Serafall's face.

Something like veins, or they might simply be cracks, appeared all over Deidara's body, while his skin tone darkened slightly.

"This is my ultimate art," Deidara said with an insane smile on his face. "I'm going to detonate myself."

Serafall stepped back a little bit in shock at what she has just heard. She thought that Deidara is insane, which she is right to a point.

"In death I shall become art itself," Deidara kept talking! "No one has ever seen an explosion like this! One that will leave behind the scar on the earth!

"Then, I will receive more admiration for my art then anyone has ever seen before!" Deidara then remembered about Sasori. 'Sorry, Sasori,' he though, as he knew that Sasori and the Akatsuki cavern were just in the blast radius, and that Sasori will die as well, along with everyone else.

By then, Deidara's body was becoming more and more transparent, and was shoving a black mass on his chest with a face on it. "Nothing will save you from this explosion, as it will cover 10 kilometer," Deidara shouted in insanity! "You can't escape from this, and you will not be able to stop the explosion by freezing me! This is the end of the line for you, Serafall Leviathan!"

All that was left of Deidara at that moment, was the outline of his body along with his hair intact, while veins inside of his body were all retracting inside of the mass on his chest.

"Tremble… be afraid… recoil in despair. COWER IN ALL… and cry your heart out!" Deidara shouted. "BECAUSE MY ART…" Deidara has completely vanished from sight, only leaving behind a black ball with a face which started to crack and the light started to burst out.

A second later, the ball burst in a beam of light which went toward the sky. Then there was a shockwave from the explosion, followed by the beam spreading around, destroying everything in its path.

Serafall was soon covered in light while watching with wide eyes at the destruction coming toward her. She heard Deidara's voice shouting. "IS AN EXPLOSION!" Thus, finishing the sentence he started just before the explosion.

With her last thought's being about her sister and Koyuki, and how sorry she is that she will not be there for them any longer, Serafall saw a bluish light for a moment, before she was surrounded by darkness.