Scarlet Justice: Full Blossom – ep. 10
"Con Anima"
[Kazekage Rescue Mission, Part 5]

Puppet users are a different sort of shinobi. Strange, theatrical, and in regards to attacking style, the antithesis of the modern, speedy soldier. They are shinobi, and no less worthy of respect, but they do have glaring weaknesses that they gain in exchange for remote, potentially devastating power. Brigades of puppeteers can crush enemy forces, with their modular, finely controlled weapons moving out into battle while the users remain strategically hidden. Without knowledge of the enemy, or the ability to find the strings that make the dolls dance, facing waves of these enemies is a tough thing to ask.

Sasori has eliminated the weaknesses of the puppet master, by deleting his existence as a human altogether.

The doll that was once the Third Kazekage reaches my position, and I step backwards to avoid a swipe of its now clawed hand. The next step comes with a twitch of the master's fingers. Loaded blades...Sasori follows up quickly, and I duck inside towards the puppet, then grab its arm to arrest its motion and block. The scent of poison, ever present, reaches my nose once again.

"Swift..." Sasori has his fingers twitch again to bring the other arm across, and I use my grip to flip over the doll and kick it in the back of the head. My hands quickly whip outwards as I flow chakra into them.

"Mobius, Type Three: Twin Epyon."

The split second blades of lightning shoot out from my fingers, severing the chakra threads easily before I charge at Sasori. He flicks his fingers and two tubes extend from his palms.

"!"

"Hope you like it hot."

"Flamethrowers? Don't fuck with me, puppet boy."

"Hmph!" He fires the jets of flame at me from distance, while manipulating his fingers yet again. Going to pinch me with the Kazekage doll, is he? Fat fucking chance.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet."

I snap my fingers and have two dragons coil around me before shooting in opposite directions, one towards Sasori's flames and the other towards the Kazekage. The sound of impact behind me says that the doll has been halted, while thick steam explodes from where my attack meets Sasori's. I shoot across the sand and around the veil of steam while Sasori pulls the doll back towards himself.

"Need to aim for that core to end it, but I know that it won't be an easy thing."

Sasori bursts through the steam cloud and jumps into the air, pulling himself tight before stretching outwards and firing the cable from his stomach at me. It misses wide as I move, lodging itself deep into the sand. He pulls himself towards me in an erratic pattern while the Kazekage doll dances around him. The blade appendages on his back whirl dangerously as he nears.

"Another pincer, then."

I take a running start and then jump towards him, which he apparently didn't expect. He has the cable pull him downwards so that he can pass below me, and then has the doll continue on with its attack. The mouth opens and it fires a wave of kunai at me, which have to be poisoned as a matter of principle. I tighten my core and flip forward before straightening out, allowing the kunai to pass harmlessly underneath me. The Kazekage whips by me and towards Sasori again as I twirl and float down towards the sand, landing lightly while facing my opponents squarely.

"Wow. I can see why Deidara ran into trouble now...I might have to consider giving him my condolences," Sasori says with a smile. "That is ridiculous body control you have there...I knew about your speed already, but this is definitely a surprise."

"Feeding my ego is appreciated, but it won't save you at this hour," I reply.

"I figured as much. Might as well speed things up one more time before I really have to escalate..." Sasori closes his right hand and layers his open left hand over it. I feel a shift in the chakra of the doll, and its mouth opens again to release what looks like black sand.

"..."

"So. Still feeling confident against this, Scarlet Viper? This is the most feared weapon in the history of the Hidden Sand...the weapon developed by the Third Kazekage himself in life. Have a good look, because it'll be your last."

"I know of it. This is the Iron Sand, is it not?"

"You weren't lying when you said you were a student of history."

It seems quite similar to Gaara's sand manipulation...perhaps it was based on what the previous hosts did once upon a time. Rather annoying to face it now, but nothing insurmountable. If it's iron powder, then it's subject to the same limitations as iron. That only makes sense. I can exploit that if need be. With Aiko and Suketsune's help, I could also force the iron sand offline by creating a blast furnace...but I can't subject them to this, even if they have access to the antidote. Keeping that knowledge from Sasori will help them survive in case he decides to suddenly ignore me and assault their position. Only a slight chance now that he's so invested in my death, but a chance nonetheless. I won't get caught sleeping.

"Stay where you are," I shout at Chiyo without looking back. "There's nothing you can do with that fossilized body of yours."

"And what do you think you can do against the Iron Sand?" she yells back from behind the earth wall. "It's a weapon that can take any form at any time. No matter what strategy you have, it will be defeated!"

"Yeah, right. I suppose your grandson is some invincible titan, then? Don't make me laugh. He turned himself into a doll to try and eliminate his limitations. Your precious Kazekage is more than beatable if he could do something like die at this boy's hands."

"Now you're just getting cocky," Sasori says as he pulls at the doll's strings. The flowing black sand transforms into many smaller projectiles spread out. "Try dodging this."

I place one hand on the ground and lick my lips. "Come, then. Entertain me."

He grunts and has the doll attack.

"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"

Very similar to Gaara's type of attack. So it won't be too much harder to dodge. The magnetism helps increase the speed, making it a sudden and deadly attack against most opponents. Unfortunately for this lout, I am not most opponents.

I focus in and observe the gaps as the world slows down in my sight. Converging to this point? Only makes sense...I just have to shoot through the first gap, since he didn't layer the attack enough. One strong push...that's all I need.

"Girl!"

I hear Chiyo's voice as I take off, surging towards the narrow hole with one hop and twisting my body sideways to evade the first wave. My feet touch the sand again and I slide on my knees under the close second wave, then flip forward with one hand and make sure my body is compact enough to shoot through the third wave while I spin.

"This is getting really annoying...nobody said that you would be this much trouble!" Sasori complains.

I touch the ground again and accelerate towards the Kazekage doll. It charges me before swooping away, the device on the left side of its body emitting chakra at a heavy rate. My head twists to see what's behind me, and it's somewhat as I expect. A surprise attack...but a rather big one. Some strange pyramid of iron powder that looks like it could be dangerous. It hurtles towards me, screeching through the air before suddenly changing shape and extending like a spear.

I hop backwards over the tip as it drives hard into the sand, then land and twist away from another edge that shoots out from the side. I suppose when it's packed that densely, the flexibility becomes limited in exchange for greatly improved hardness. The doll pulls the structure back towards itself as I reset my position, and uses its powder to create an identical structure next to it.

What is Sasori planning now?

"This...is tiresome. Truly tiresome. Reading my movements, and with that speed and athletic ability...not to mention you seem to have a lot more chakra than a little girl should. I hate to admit it, but...now you're forcing my hand."

"Seems to be a recurring theme for you," I shoot back.

"I don't plan to stand around here forever. Let's end this now. I have something that will get all of you at once."

Is he bluffing? Maybe he can stretch one of those structures far enough, or send more of those sand bullets out. It should be fine, as long as Aiko can use-

"What?"

I watch as the two prisms rise high into the air before slamming against each other. Their shapes distort until they start turning into a sphere of dark branches...

"!"

Bastard! He's using magnetic repulsion!

"All of you, move back as fast as you can! Aiko, Sharingan!" I yell.

"Got it!"

"Sorry, but it's game over for you. Magnet Release..."

I shift to the second stage and focus.

"Iron Sand World Method!"

The attack formed from opposing magnetic forces explodes outwards, sending the branches of iron sand across the area. I can see them, moving erratically in ways that aren't immediately predictable. And I have a feeling that this so called world method has a nasty surprise hidden away inside.

But every technique has a weakness. Well, aside from me, that is.

"Now you're done for!"

In this form, the branches aren't that fast moving. But I don't want to get too cocky...I want to get rid of this menace right away before he can have the iron sand spread too far. I can feel the chakra rippling through the air as the Kazekage doll pushes itself towards its limits, and the branches come down, slamming into the sand, ripping and raking through it towards me and the rest of my team.

"..."

My body shifts. I step forward and arch my back to dodge one branch, then raise my leg above another. I spin and twirl low to pass another extending branch, then cartwheel through several others as they whip by me. My muscles tense while I'm on my hands, and I come to a quick stop before splitting my legs to let another set of branches pass above me. I drop and spin on the ground past more branches, stop on my back, and contort my body to let more branches slam into the sand around me. A quick roll to one side, and I pop back onto my feet.

"This is meant to trap me no matter what, so that means...there."

I raise my right hand and form that familiar shape with it, aiming through the clear gap that leads right back to the Kazekage.

"Sorry, Sasori. But I don't want to play with your doll anymore. Lightning Release..."

I close one eye.

"Mobius: Double Barrel."

The searing beam of chakra, double strength, pierces the darkness and the chest compartment of the doll. The device explodes and tears apart the doll, scattering it into pieces and causing the iron sand to lose its integrity and fall apart.

Now there's nothing but poisoned black powder layered over the desert sands. Sasori seems like his expression hasn't changed at a glance, but his eyes say enough to me.

I've made a mockery of him one too many times, it seems.

"No more playing around. I'm killing all of you, no matter what it takes," he growls. "It will take me a while to rebuild my favourite puppet, but that will be a sweet thing to take my time with after erasing you."

"You're ready to throw away your chance at this body all of a sudden?" I mock.

"You bitch. I'm putting an end to that condescending fucking attitude of yours."

He has another scroll move from the compartment on his back, and unfurls it. The compartment on his right side opens up as the scroll contents are unsealed, and shoots a great deal of chakra threads into the air.

"So many..."

I can't help but be awed at the display before me.

Dressed in red cloaks with black collars, what has to be at least one hundred puppets float in the air around Sasori. They're all directly connected to him, or must be based on the position of those chakra threads. No human being could control that many at once.

"This is the pinnacle. Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets."

"I see."

"Granny Chiyo's legend was cemented with her ability to use one puppet for each finger of her hands. Something like that takes supreme skill, and thus can only be used by the most elite puppet technicians. White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets...with her collection, created by Monzaemon Chikamatsu himself, she crushed an entire fortress by herself."

He glares at me, or does what could be passed off as such with his artificial face.

"But my technique...allowed me to crush an entire country."

"..."

"I know it seems desperate, but after all the headaches you've given me, and the backup you have, I need to make sure you're good as dead. Even if this might be overkill. No time for last words, Lilith Kobayashi. Say good night, forever."

I summon Murakumo to my hands and focus my chakra further.

"I suppose it's time to dye the world crimson, then. You're right, Sasori. This is good night."

The wave of puppets comes towards me all at once, blocking my view of the sky. All of them have their poisoned weapons in hand.

An entire country? I see.

It must have been a tiny one, then.

"Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Third Stage...Full Boost."

I leave the sand and take a single step into the air. And then, I explode forward.

The first few puppets are torn apart in a single pass, red lightning chakra flowing through my knives. One more ahead serves as a foothold, and I use it to rise into the air, spinning and tearing apart more puppets within the cloud. A snap of my fingers and water sharks shoot through the air, blowing apart more puppets as I find another one to spring off of. My blades slice through strings, letting a few fall harmlessly for at least a moment before Sasori gains control of them again. I twist and turn around the swinging blades, spears, and axes as the puppets try to swarm my changing position.

"So that's how they win, then."

It's entirely a numbers game. Sasori rushes his opponents and overwhelms them with the sheer amount of incoming attacks, rather than the coordination with multiple puppets that people like Kankuro tend to employ. But there's no reason for someone who can control this many puppets at once to employ convoluted strategies in this sort of scenario. Judging on how thin the strings are and the amount of chakra it must take to move around so many at once...getting too fancy isn't a smart move, as far as I can tell.

I avoid a large sword and it smashes through the puppet behind me. I stab forward, surging lightning chakra through the attacker before spinning and tossing it into the crowd below. Blades cross beneath me as I float, and I spin to land on them before slicing off the heads of the puppets next to me. I fall forward and slash cleanly through another puppet in the air, splitting it in two and kicking the halves into more enemies.

"Ah. Another layer."

It's something I wasn't paying attention to before...the direct connection to Sasori means that he can have them react as quickly as possible. There's basically no delay between his commands and the puppets attacking, unlike with the Pakura and Kazekage dolls. It also means that reducing the amount of puppets he controls just allows him to shift his focus to coordinating the smaller numbers. While I have an immunity to the poison now, I don't want to get hit in case he has something else up his sleeve.

In any case, he's back to the same vulnerability as other puppeteers: a need to keep himself in one area so that he can properly control his minions.

"You're pretty good at dancing," Sasori says. "But this is where the music stops, little girl."

The puppets start to withdraw, leaving me alone to fall towards towards the sand.

"Game over!"

They form a sphere around me before shooting forward all at once, weapons extended. No way I can shoot the gap this time, then.

Fine.

"Mobius, Type Six...Artemis' Umbrella."

I cross my arms and have the spherical field of electricity burst from my body, knocking back all of the puppets at once and disrupting Sasori's control of them.

"It's always something...!"

My eyes focus in on his body as he works on reestablishing the connections to his puppets. Now is the time to put an end to everything.

"One more."

He moves a half dozen puppets to try and intercept me.

"Mobius, Type Two: Double Barrel Duo."

I fire from both hands, tearing through the puppets ahead and both sides of Sasori's chest. The remaining puppets all fall from the sky and land with their demolished counterparts, while Sasori's puppet body ends up with its face in the sand. The desert is suddenly quiet as I walk across the sand to where Sasori lies, and turn his body over. Murakumo disappears from my hands as I relax.

"I suppose that's it..."

I sigh and run a hand through my hair.

"All of the persistence in the world...can't stop the inevitable. It takes something divine to do that. As a child of the cosmos, this is where I stand in life. It means that..."

I quickly use my foot to flip the nearby sword on the ground into my hand. Dropping to my knees, I see the blade pass over my head as I bend back and stab at my attacker. The sound of the lightning charged blade tearing through flesh reaches my ears.

"...I won't lose to the likes of you."

"You...saw through it...?"

The blade drops into the sand beside me, and I let go of mine. I watch as the puppet shell drops into the sand with the poisoned sword stuck in its chest.

"There's...no way. Unless you...really are a snake after all...heh."

"..." I twirl to my feet and stand over Sasori as he lies helplessly in the sand. Not even his core of flesh could stand up to something like this, and I believe in my earlier assessment that he wouldn't be carrying an antidote anywhere on him for the poison. With an immunity to those conditions that would hamper most humans, there would be no point in creating such a thing.

"I guess you thought it ironic...maybe? To kill me with one of my own poisoned blades..."

"If it comforts you," I say, hand on my hip.

"You're a ruthless bitch...right to the end."

"Lili!"

Aiko and the others run towards us.

"Lili...I can't believe you went through all that and won. You don't even have a scratch on you," she says with awe.

Chiyo stares out at the mass of downed puppets, unsure of what to think. Her eyes finally rest on her grandson.

"What's the matter, old witch? Feeling sad for me all of a sudden?" Sasori taunts.

"Even now, you're mocking her. You might have done bad things, but she loves you," Aiko says to him. "She always has."

"I'm sure she does."

"You're about to go...if it wasn't the poison, it would be from having that core part of you bleed out..."

"Heh. Probably..."

"I have something to say, then."

"..."

"Thank you, Sasori. And...I forgive you."

"What...?"

"Thank you for showing me how awesome my mom was...for letting me know how her last moments went. Thank you for giving me that gift...knowing now that she was thinking of me, right until the end. Thank you for freeing me of my resentment towards Gaara, and for the chance to free him of those terrible chains. Thank you for allowing me to heal, once and for all. And I forgive you for taking away my mother, for driving my father away...for the pain you caused me all of these years. Please...rest peacefully from now on. And I hope that in the next world, you can finally find closure."

"You...are a fool, Aiko Mishoto."

She smiles and nods. "I know. I'm a really big dreamer...and kind of silly sometimes. I'm my mother's daughter."

"All of you women are the same...always doing completely pointless things. I don't feel anything for any of you...or from any of you. You're all so worthless as shinobi..."

"I will crush people like you, and have their blood wind through the lands as crimson rivers," I say calmly. "I will do it for the sole purpose of protecting foolish dreams...dreams like Aiko and Pakura have. And I will give them more than just those dreams in the future. I will give them the gift of possibility."

"..."

"I understand why you are this way. And your grandmother has her regrets for that. Your way of thinking and living has become twisted and warped. So too has your appreciation for art, and for the legacy it holds."

"Warped, huh." He chuckles weakly. "Wonder what you might mean by that, Scarlet Viper..."

"I have realized it through my study and meditation...that there are many ways to reach the vaunted immortality. A method, currently inaccessible by the masses, or any shinobi short of legendary, allows one to transcend the limitations of humanity, and truly live forever..."

"Hm..."

"But...that is not here or there. You have little time left, as said. So I will give you a simple understanding. You said that soul is useless, that it was nothing to be considered in the grand scheme of things. And yet...your view on art, on what is eternal. That comes from something inside of you. You know it well."

"..."

"The most sublime art, art that lives forever, is infused with the soul of its creators. Aiko and I are such beings."

"You two...?"

"The beauty and strength of our mothers was passed down to us, and those were gifts that came down from the heavens above. It allows us to do what is called impossible. Whether it's exhibiting extraordinary compassion, or extraordinary strength. Those fragments of soul rest within us, and allow us to do great things. And of course, you saw the fragments of your soul as well...didn't you?"

"..." He looks at me for a moment. "Kankuro. That boy...inspired to use the puppets I left behind. I didn't think anyone would use those things again...to live forever, huh."

"..."

"I didn't think of it that way...or maybe, I didn't want to think of it that way. It struck me that...Aiko would burn away her mother's shell so willingly. But I was lying to myself, because of the past. Because of the hollow person that I became. Heh. I never did become a real doll in the end. This stubborn piece of humanity was what I needed in order to continue to operate. But maybe that was a lie I told myself as well. Maybe...it was more than that. The strength...of the soul."

"Sasori..."

"Granny. You really are an old fool...but maybe you'll have a better end to your life than I did."

"..."

"Immortality...through creation, then. That was what I wanted...to live forever as the finest art."

The last wisps of chakra are swallowed up.

"I guess...I still can. Lilith Kobayashi..."

"Yes."

"From the other side of existence...I want to see the art that you will create."

"..."

And finally, with his eyes opened to the clear sky...Sasori goes quiet and still.