Chapter 7: Prelude to the Final Battle

In response to Orochimaru's betrayal and the near-death of Tobi and Akisane, Sasori pushed his remaining emotions into an even deeper and darker part of his psyche. He became so dispassionate that Tobi and Akisane joked (always out of his hearing, of course) that even Itachi was practically warm and fuzzy compared to him. As Tobi had predicted, Orochimaru did not die, but no one was terribly concerned about that. What could he do with one hand, after all?

The most pressing issue at hand was the designation of a new partner for Sasori. After some discussion, Deidara was chosen for that position. This was partly because Deidara had such overwhelming respect for Sasori, which pretty much guaranteed that they would be able to work well together. It also seemed fitting to place the two artists on the same team. Sasori took his puppet-making very seriously, and considered additions to his collection with the same deliberation as a museum curator. Each piece had to fit seamlessly into the whole, contributing something unique. Deidara was much the same way. Every sculpture he created had to be perfect, and his sculptures were all exquisitely detailed. The birds and spiders he made truly looked as though they were alive, and moved with the same grace as the animals they were modeled after.

Although Sasori and Deidara both considered themselves artists, they disagreed over what gave a work artistic merit. They discussed the subject on their first mission together, as they traveled through the dense forests of the Water Country. "Why is it," Sasori asked, "that you make works of art that are destined to be destroyed soon after they are completed? Why put in the effort to make them so beautiful when that beauty will not last?"

"But Sasori-danna, that is the nature of art, yeah," replied Deidara in a tone of surprise, as though he couldn't believe Sasori hadn't thought of this before. "The destruction of my creations is the source of their beauty, yeah. That one brief moment of light and sound, that instant of annihilation, is when my art achieves its perfection, yeah."

"But for something to be truly considered art, should it not endure through the ages? Art is meant to be admired by generation after generation. It is a way for the artist to achieve immortality, for it will continue to exist long after he himself has died. Living beings depart this life, but the art they create is eternal."

The big disadvantage of Deidara's "art" was that the "one brief moment of light and sound" tended to attract a lot of attention. Later on during that same mission, Sasori and Deidara were ambushed by a Mist ANBU squad. Sasori killed two members of the five-man squad with his puppets, but Deidara decided to take out the remaining three with a particularly violent explosion—he was apparently testing a new formulation for his clay. Needless to say, this brought two more squads down upon their heads. Defeating ANBU wasn't really a challenge for two Akatsuki members, but being constantly attacked did get rather annoying after a while. "Deidara-san," Sasori said as he easily dodged the kunai being thrown by one of the Mist ANBU, "is it really necessary to attract this much attention?"

"Hmph, they just don't appreciate good art, yeah," Deidara retorted as he killed another one of their attackers. "Besides, it means we get to fight more, yeah." He grinned mischievously.

It was at that moment that Sasori realized why Deidara was never sent on missions that required extreme stealth.


Despite the occasional disagreement, Sasori and Deidara successfully completed many missions over the next few years. The Akatsuki organization as a whole was growing in power as well. Two of the jinchuuriki were located and captured, and their demons were extracted for the benefit of the Akatsuki. During this time, the Akatsuki members scattered across the world, seeking news of the remaining seven jinchuuriki. Although their founder always remained at the base in the Mountain Country, the others rarely returned in person. When it was necessary for the group to convene, they used yet another of the jutsus that Sasori and Orochimaru had developed together to do so. This jutsu was similar to Kage Bunshin, except that the clone could be projected at a distance away from the real person, and the real person could speak and use jutsus through his clone. On one rare occasion, the group did have a true meeting in the cavern where Sasori had first encountered the other members. It was at this time that they learned that Orochimaru had gained a powerful weapon: Itachi's younger brother, a Konoha shinobi who had awakened the legendary Sharingan. Although Itachi seemed unaffected by this news, Sasori was concerned: being a puppet, he was immune to the fearsome hypnotic abilities of the Sharingan, but no one else could stand against it. He was not comfortable with Orochimaru possessing such a potent weapon. Furthermore, Orochimaru had switched bodies, allowing him to regain the use of his jutsus despite the crippling wound given to him by Itachi (and later, an even worse injury administered by the Third Hokage). He was not as powerless as they had thought he would be, and might well turn his power against them one day. Even before Orochimaru had enticed Sasuke to join him, Sasori had been apprehensive about the ex-Akatsuki's growing strength, and had assigned one of his subordinates, a medical ninja named Kabuto, to infiltrate Orochimaru's Hidden Sound Village. Sasori had conscripted Kabuto after Orochimaru left the Akatsuki, which meant that Orochimaru would not recognize him as an Akatsuki minion.

Deidara seemed to sense Sasori's worry over Orochimaru's recent actions, and reassured him, "In time, Orochimaru will be dead, yeah".

Their founder agreed. "We will obtain the Kyuubi, and then everything will be in our hands."

Sasori remained quiet. He personally thought the other Akatsuki were underestimating the danger posed by Orochimaru, and made a mental note to set up a meeting with Kabuto. He wanted to know exactly how Orochimaru was switching bodies, and when he would be able to transfer into Sasuke's body. They needed to make sure that he did not make that transition—even if it meant killing the boy. He glanced at Itachi, and hoped that the older Uchiha would understand the necessity of preventing Orochimaru from taking his brother's body at any cost. If he objected, things could become very troublesome.

As the meeting broke up, Sasori wandered over to where Itachi and Kisame stood in a shadowy corner, discussing something in soft voices. "Itachi-san, may I speak with you?" he asked.

"Of course, Sasori-san," Itachi said with his characteristic politeness. He nodded slightly to Kisame, who sauntered off to chat with Deidara. "What did you wish to speak about?"

"Are you not concerned about Orochimaru's apparent intention to possess your brother's body and acquire the Sharingan?" Contrary to what one might expect from someone who was theoretically immortal, Sasori hated to be kept waiting. As such, he rarely beat around the bush when speaking, preferring to come straight to the point.

"Sasuke-kun is still weak, and he lacks the strength of will to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan. It does not matter how strong Orochimaru's mind is, as long as the body he inhabits is weak."

"Still, if Orochimaru gains possession of as powerful a weapon as the Sharingan…"

Itachi cut him off. "If Sasuke becomes powerful, I will deal with him—regardless of whether it is his soul or Orochimaru's in his body."

Sasori considered for a moment. He and Itachi were similar in their cold, impassive temperament, but many among the Akatsuki believed that Itachi still harbored some fraternal feelings for his younger brother. Sasori suspected that Itachi simply wanted to fight someone who had better than a snowball's chance in hell of beating him. Itachi seemed to be trying to goad his brother into gaining power by any means necessary, in the hope that he would one day be strong enough to fight Itachi on equal footing. Whatever the true motivation for these actions, it was clear that he had plans for his brother, and would not take kindly to anyone interfering with them. Antagonizing Itachi was generally a good way to end up dead (or wishing that you were dead). In addition, any conflict between Sasori and Itachi could divide the Akatsuki and put their future plans in danger. For these reasons, Sasori decided to wait for Kabuto's report before embarking on a course of action that he wouldn't be able to back down from. If Orochimaru couldn't switch bodies for a while, there might not be a need to do anything immediately. With luck, there would be enough time for Konoha to mount a rescue mission and bring Sasuke back, so that Sasori wouldn't have to do anything at all.


Two and a half more years passed. Kabuto had confirmed that Orochimaru would not be able to switch bodies for three years, which meant that Konoha had six more months to retrieve Sasuke. If they were unable to do so, Sasori might have to take action, which he was not looking forward to.

He and Deidara were currently waiting in a café in a small town on the outskirts of the Wind Country. Tobi and Akisane had been on a reconnaissance mission to gather information about the current Bearer of Shukaku. Sasori vividly remembered his encounter with the previous bearer as a young boy, but it appeared that the demon had been transferred to a new host, and there was no telling how strong the new Bearer was likely to be. "Being implanted with Shukaku changes a person. They become…almost bloodthirsty. For that reason, people used to be afraid of the first Bearer, and they fear Miyoshi too. He doesn't have friends…I don't think anyone wants to be around him." Sasori shook his head, pushing away the memory.

"We're going to meet with Kabuto-kun after we extract the Shukaku, right, Sasori-danna?" Deidara was looking at him curiously, not used to seeing him lost in thought.

"We are, yeah."

"Heh, now you sound like me, yeah." Deidara gave another one of his mischievous grins. "I'm looking forward to this, yeah."

At that moment, Sasori saw Tobi and Akisane approaching. They sat down at the table, and Sasori noticed how much they had changed over the past few years. Tobi was broad-shouldered and as tall as Deidara, and Akisane now possessed the curved figure of a woman. Sasori felt a slight pang as he contemplated the fact that his body would never age into adulthood as theirs were now doing. He would always appear to be the sixteen-year-old boy he had been when he left the Sand. Sasori blinked, unaccustomed to so much unproductive reminiscence. Being back in his home country must be affecting him more than he wanted to admit. "What have you learned about the jinchuuriki who carries Shukaku?" he asked.

Tobi had replaced his usual swirl-patterned mask with a Sand ANBU mask to avoid attracting attention. "Yuura-kun was right about Shukaku having been transferred to a new host. He's a young man, with dark red hair and blue-green eyes. Pretty short, with a slender build. He's easy to recognize because of that gourd he carries around. His name's Sabaku no Gaara."

Sasori nodded. "What do you know about his strength and his ability to control the power of Shukaku?"

Tobi and Akisane glanced at each other, and Akisane fidgeted nervously with the long gloves she wore to conceal her puppet arm. "He seems to have superb control over Shukaku's abilities. He can control the sand perfectly, and…he's the Kazekage."

"WHAT!" Typically, this outburst came from Deidara. "They made a jinchuuriki their Kage?!" His surprise was understandable. Jinchuurikis were usually hated by the rest of the population. In fact, when Akatsuki had fought and captured the two previous jinchuurikis, the jinchuurikis' comrades had quickly abandoned them and allowed the Akatsuki teams to leave unhindered with their captives. Some of the Mist ninjas had even been heard to express gratitude towards "Kisame and that red-eyed kid" for taking their jinchuuriki off their hands. For a village to name a jinchuuriki as its leader was unheard of.

Tobi nodded. "It's true. Sabaku no Gaara, third Bearer of Shukaku, is the Sand's Godaime Kazekage."

"Will the people of Sunagakure protect him from us?" Sasori asked. He remembered how everyone had seemed to fear Miyoshi, the previous Bearer of Shukaku, and how Kagaiya had said that no one wanted to associate with him. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that this new jinchuuriki was accepted—even admired—by the Sand's citizens.

Akisane responded, "Many of the people we talked to spoke of Gaara with admiration—they say he has changed a great deal and now truly wishes to protect his village. They are generally happy with his leadership so far, although a few still have misgivings. I think most of them will aid him if necessary."

Tobi swallowed hard, and Sasori was sure that if his face was visible, a shadow of fear would have passed across it. "Deidara-sama…we've heard people speak of the things this Gaara has done in past battles. He can generate huge waves of sand, and he has an impenetrable defense called the Shield of Shukaku. He can use minerals within the ground to augment the sand he carries in his gourd. We even heard…that he defeated Kimimaro with the help of a Leaf nin." This seemed to be the only thing the young shinobi had heard that made them happy—they had never forgiven Kimimaro for siding with Orochimaru against the Akatuski and nearly killing Tobi. "I know the Akatsuki have usually fought one-on-one against their assigned jinchuuriki, but perhaps in this case it would be prudent for you to have Sasori-sama's assistance?"

That alone told Sasori how worried Tobi and Akisane were about the intelligence they had gathered. Having been essentially raised by the Akatsuki, they were both of the opinion that their superiors were invincible. Gaara must be one hell of a shinobi if Tobi had any doubts about Deidara being able to bring him down on his own.

Deidara, on the other hand, did not appear to be worried at all. He favored the two Akatsuki subordinates with one of his trademark cocky grins. "Don't worry about me, yeah. I've been improving my artistic skills, and I've got a way to keep those Sand weaklings from interfering, yeah." Having been present for the initial tests of Deidara's Special #18, Sasori knew exactly what Deidara was talking about.

"There is something else we can do," he said. "I have a subordinate within the Sand—he can neutralize the guards so that you can sneak into the village without an alarm being sounded."

Deidara had no problems with this plan, as long as he could engage Gaara alone. Sasori sent Tobi and Akisane off to meet with Zetsu, who was busy gathering information on the Cloud jinchuuriki. He and Deidara then set off across the expanse of desert that separated the border town from the Sand village. When the walls of the village came into view, Sasori concentrated for a moment, releasing the memory suppression on a Sand jounin named Yuura. Yuura had had the bad fortune to encounter Sasori on a mission some years ago, and Sasori had placed the man under his mental control. Sasori had met with him a few times since then, but the most recent of these meetings had been a few months ago. He knew, therefore, that Shukaku had been transferred to another host, but not that the new host was the recently chosen Godaime. Within the Sand, Yuura headed for the main gate, arriving just as the guards sighted the slowly approaching Akatsuki members. They were understandably alarmed, but Yuura told them, "Don't worry, it'll be over soon." In a manner of speaking, this was true—Yuura had killed all of the guards silently in the time it took Sasori and Deidara to reach the gate.

Deidara created a bird large enough to ride on and took off over the Sand village, while Sasori and Yuura watched from below. They watched as Deidara took out the guards who were watching the sky, landed on the roof of a building near the center of the village, and encountered Gaara. When Gaara followed Deidara up into the air, Yuura gasped and grabbed the sleeve of Sasori's Akatsuki robe. "Sasori-sama, I recognize what he's doing. He's going to call up the sand from the desert ground, and bury your partner in a wave of sand!"

Sasori glared at Yuura, who quickly let go of Sasori's sleeve. "Deidara-san won't be caught that easily," he said calmly. "Watch."

Indeed, Deidara managed to dodge the sand for a while, but was eventually caught by Gaara's Desert Prison. When Deidara fell from the sphere of sand, his left arm crushed and bleeding, Sasori began to hurry forward. Was he going to have to interfere after all? He and Deidara had their disagreements, but they had become somewhat close over their years of working together. Once again, troublesome emotions stirred. As much as he had tried to eliminate those human feelings that still remained after Orochimaru's betrayal, he found that he did not want Deidara to die.

As it turned out, there was no reason for him to worry. Deidara conjured another bird to catch him, and brought out the Special #18, his ultimate weapon. Sasori looked at Yuura, hoping that his servant hadn't seen his sigh of relief. There was no reason to worry about that, either—Yuura's gaze was riveted on the battle occurring high above them.

When the #18 went off, the light was so bright that Yuura had to raise a hand to shield his eyes. The sound of the blast was almost deafening, and the shock waves that reverberated through the air knocked Yuura off his feet. Out in the desert, Tobi and Akisane saw the massive explosion, and Akisane began racing towards the Sand. "Akisane-san! It's okay! Deidara-sama's got a trick up his sleeve. He put some of his clay into Gaara's sand, it's going to go off and knock Gaara out." Tobi pulled her back, and they continued on their way to the rendezvous with Zetsu.

Meanwhile, Deidara had done exactly as Tobi predicted. Gaara had used the last of his strength to protect the Sand from the #18, and had been unable to avoid the explosion of the two smaller sculptures that Deidara had hidden within his protective sand shell. He fell out of the sky, directly onto the back of Deidara's bird. The bird wheeled around, descended, and came to rest beside Sasori and Yuura.


"You're late," Sasori said, hiding his relief at Deidara's survival behind a mask of irritation. He and his partner began their trek across the desert, only to hear a shout from behind them. They turned to see who was foolish enough to confront them. It was a young man in a hooded outfit, with designs traced across his face in purple paint. Sasori sighed inwardly. Deidara was gravely injured, and his supply of clay had been depleted. He was in no condition to fight. It looked like Sasori would have to deal with this kid. Not that it should take very long.

Sasori sent Deidara on ahead, and watched the kid curiously. What could possibly make him think he could take on an Akatsuki member alone? When the boy pulled out three scrolls and laid them on the ground, Sasori realized that he was also a puppetmaster. When he saw the names written on the scrolls—Kuroari, Karasu, and Sanshouuo—he realized that the kid was using his old puppets. Sure enough, his old familiar playthings materialized, and the kid (whose name was apparently Kankurou) sent Karasu flying after Deidara. Sasori promptly extended Hiruko's tail and caught Karasu in midair.

Kankurou's fingers moved as delicately as those of a master pianist, and Sanshouuo scuttled forward, opening its mouth and spewing out a flurry of poisoned darts. Kuroari, meanwhile, moved in a wide arc, its torso opening as it positioned itself behind Sasori. Sasori moved Hiruko's tail in front of him, blocking Sanshouuo's darts. At the same time, he released Karasu and attached his own chakra strings to it. Sweeping Karasu down in front of him, he slapped an explosive tag onto its back and used it to tackle Kuroari. When he set off the explosive tag, both puppets were blown to pieces.

Now only Sanshouuo remained. Panels on its back slid open, and a multitude of shuriken flew out. Sasori dodged some, blocked others, and attached chakra strings to a few. These he directed not at Sanshouuo, but at Kankurou. Kankurou was able to dodge, but while he was distracted, Sasori darted forward, planted an explosive tag on Sanshuoou, and sliced Kankuro's torso with the tip of Hiruko's tail. Using the tail to shield himself from the blast, he detonated Sanshouuo as Kankurou dropped to the ground.

Hiruko's tail, like most of Sasori's weapons, was laced with poison, and Kankurou soon found himself immobile. He sent one of Karasu's arms flying towards Sasori, and actually managed to tear off a piece of the cloth that covered the lower half of Sasori's face. Sasori moved forward to kill him, but the fierce determination he saw in the boy's eyes brought back another flood of memories.

Asana, running forward to fight the Rock shinobi who had just killed Kagaiya, the chakra pouring off him in waves. Akisane and Tobi, hurrying to Itachi's aid even though it meant going toe-to-toe with Orochimaru. Tobi, holding Akisane's body in his arms, more concerned with her wounds than with his own. And now, Kankurou, refusing to die while his Kazekage was still in danger. How long had it been since Sasori himself had felt that passion to protect a precious person? How long had it been since he had even had someone that important? "If you want to live so much, I won't kill you now," he told Kankurou. "But that poison will kill you in three days." Leaving the young puppetmaster lying among his broken weapons, Sasori hastened to catch up to Deidara.


The ceremony necessary to extract Shukaku from Gaara was being held in one of the Akatsuki's backup bases. Being an organization of hunted missing-nins, the Akatsuki had set up several hideouts besides the main headquarters in the Mountain Country. This particular hideout was set into a cliff that rose out of a lake in the no-man's-land between the Fire and Wind Countries. It was the closest of the bases to the Sand Village, and hence the one to which Sasori and Deidara brought Gaara. They were greeted there by the founder of the Akatsuki, who quickly summoned the vessel that would hold the essences of the nine bijuu until it was time to transfer them into their new hosts. Their comrades shimmered into being atop the fingers of the huge statue, and Deidara and Sasori took their places. Zetsu was assigned to keep a lookout, and the ceremony began.

If Sasori had a body that was capable of breathing, the sheer power of the jutsu used to extract Shukaku would have taken his breath away. The chakra was so immense that it seemed to impart an electric charge to the air in the dank cave. It surrounded Gaara's body, ripping Shukaku's chakra away from his own. All of the Akatsuki stood stock-still, and would remain that way for three days and three nights.

On the third day, Zetsu spotted two groups of Konoha shinobi headed towards the base, clearly tracking Gaara. Sasori offered the bodies of Yuura and another of his subordinates for the Shouten no Jutsu, and Itachi and Kisame possessed the bodies in order to defeat or delay the intruders. Sasori was mildly annoyed at having to give up two of his minions, but supposed it was a better option than allowing the shinobi to reach the base.


"So, what is this game called again?"

"Chess. It's like shougi, but with different pieces."

"And why are we playing it?"

"Because I'm bored to tears. Zetsu-sama is off spying on some Leaf-nins, and the ceremony won't be over for another 12 hours."

Akisane sighed. She and Tobi were sitting under a cherry tree on a hill outside the Hidden Cloud Village. Zetsu had gone off to watch a couple of Leaf-nin teams that were trying to interfere with the extraction of Shukaku. They had been told to wait here for his return. Tobi had decided to pass the time by trying out some new strategy game that Itachi had brought back from one of his missions to a far-off country.

"Okay, so the piece that you try to capture is the Daimyo, right?"

"No, it's called the King."

"Okay. And this one here is a…Bishop? What the hell is a 'Bishop', anyway?"

No response. Akisane looked up and saw that Tobi was staring off into space. Given that he wore a mask over his whole face, no one else would have been able to determine this by looking at him. But Akisane had been working with him long enough to know when he was staring off into space, and he was definitely doing that now. It usually happened when he had one of his precognitive visions.

"Tobi-san? Are you having a premonition? What do you see?"

Suddenly, Tobi jumped up and grabbed Akisane's shoulders, knocking over the chessboard and scattering the pieces across the grass. "What the hell did you do that for!" exclaimed Akisane.

"We have to find Zetsu-sama, now! Sasori-sama and Deidara-sama are going to die tomorrow!"

Although Akisane knew that Tobi's visions were nearly always accurate, this struck her as ridiculous. "Tobi-san, Sasori-sama is immortal. He can't die. And Deidara-sama's pretty much impossible to catch with that bird of his."

Tobi shook his head, and his hands on her shoulders felt cold and clammy. Akisane hadn't seen him this upset since he had foretold Orochimaru's betrayal minutes before it happened. "Sasori-sama has one vulnerability, some part of his body that's still biological. One of the Leaf-nins knows about it. There's…a girl with pink hair, and an old woman. And Deidara-sama…he's going to sacrifice himself to stop the other team. We have to find Zetsu-sama and warn him! We have to get to them in time!"

As impossible as the scenario sounded, Akisane knew better than to second-guess one of Tobi's predictions, especially when the stakes were so high. "Okay, but we don't know which group of Leaf-nins Zetsu-sama is with now. One was coming from the south and one from the northwest. If we split up, we'll have a better chance of finding him in time. Whichever one of us finds him can send a message to the other."

Tobi nodded his agreement. "You go south, I'll go northwest." The two shinobi sprinted off in different directions.

Tobi had never prayed before. As a general rule, the Akatsuki didn't believe in beseeching higher powers for help. If you wanted something done, you did it yourself. But now…Please, let us get to them in time. Don't let Sasori-sama and Deidara-sama die…


A/N: OK, so you know how I said this would be the last chapter? Well, like all the previous chapters, this ended up being longer than I had expected, so it's going to be the second-to-last chapter instead. THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed so far!

Also: A "daimyo" is a feudal lord, and a "jinchuuriki" is a person who's had one of the bijuu (demons) sealed into him.