Chapter 23:
"It's been a while, hasn't it… granny Chiyo," Sasori said to his grandmother after Serafall run after Deidara, and left the others behind. "I heard you retired."
"I've suddenly got the desire to see my grandson's face again," Chiyo said.
Sasori glared at Chiyo and the others, making Sakura gulp a little, and gained some sweat on her face.
"Let's just finish this guy off," Sasuke sad, not bothered by the look on Sasori's face.
"Leave him to me, for now," Chiyo said as she stepped forward, drawing the looks of the others at her. "He is my adorable grandson, and as such, it is my job to give him the spanking he deserves for what he has done."
"And why should I listen to you," Sasuke scowled at Chiyo? "I'm an elite, and I don't follow orders from old woman who are one leg in their graves."
Chiyo looked at Sasuke with a look of loathing on her face. She knew that Leaf has fallen a lot in the recent decades, especially since the death of the Fourth Hokage, but to fall so much as to let a brat like Sasuke do what he wants and on top of that, kill their own faithful shinobi… well, they are the lowest of the low right now.
"In my eyes, you are nothing but an empty-headed pest, Uchiha," Chiyo insulted Sasuke like almost no one before, causing him to get angry at her and almost go to attack her right then and there. "Serafall was right when she said that you do not deserve any respect, and that you are not an elite. And still, you keep calling yourself that, even after the ass whooping delivered to you by the fake Itachi and Kisame, who weren't even close to the level of the real ones." Chiyo kept insulting Sasuke with a look of hatred on her face, which was mirrored by Sasuke's face.
Chiyo then looked back at Sasori, and decided to start the battle, while choosing to ignore Sasuke for now. Of course, she will make sure to have eyes on her back. She would be really surprised if Sasuke doesn't end up stabbing her in the back while she was in the middle of the battle.
Chiyo pushed her hands inside of her sleeves, before she pulled them back up, but now, she was manipulating several kunai with the chakra threads. She then threw all the kunai at Sasori, who deflected them with his tail, unfortunately for him, Chiyo was prepared for that, and she used her strings to manipulate the kunai while in mid-air, and sent them again at Sasori, this time, ripping his Akatsuki robe into shreds, revealing his body to everyone there.
"If you insist on defying me and standing in my way, you leave me no choice" Sasori said. "How would you and those brats like to be a part of my collection… granny Chiyo?"
Sasori was now standing on all four, and there was some kind of a face on his back, from which mouth, a tail was coming out, and dangling above him.
"W-What is t-that thing," Sakura asked with a gulp, while looking at Sasori's bizarre body?
"That over there, is not Sasori's real body," Chiyo said, making Sasuke scowl.
"If you didn't tell us, we wouldn't have known," Sasuke irritably threw back with a scowl on her face. "We can see that ourselves, woman! The question is, what is it if it's not his real body?"
This time, Chiyo didn't even bother to scowl or get angry at Sasuke. This time, she only found him an annoying ant, and is not worthy of making her angry. "That's merely a puppet." She said.
"Hm, so if that's a puppet, that means that the real Sasori is most likely inside, as he would have to control it from somewhere." Kakashi guessed.
He was correct. "Yes," Chiyo confirmed. "Puppet masters aren't so good at close combat. Manipulating their puppets during battle, leaves them wide open to attack. Sasori created this puppet to overcome that weakness. It is his armor and weapon at the same time. Its name… is Hiruko and is Sasori's specialty."
"You seem to know a lot about it, Lady Chiyo?" Sakura asked politely.
"Yes," Chiyo said. "I know everything about that puppet."
"But do you know how I prepare specimen for my collection," Sasori asked, drawing all eyes on himself. "First, I drain all the blood. Then I remove all the organs, before I wash it inside and out. After I preserved the body from decay, the final step is to fill it with hidden weapon.
"As the hag said. This puppet is called Hiruko. It's just one of the specimen in my collection. Once I've added the five of you... I will be having 303 puppets.
"THIS… IS MY ART!"
XXX
Naruto, Saeko, Fu and Juvia were watching from the distance, the battle between Serafall and Deidara. Actually, it would be better said, that Deidara is dragging away the battle, while on top of that clay bird of his, while Serafall was chasing after him, and evading the bombs which Deidara was raining down at her.
Unlike the battle between those two, Naruto and the others can't watch the battle between Sasori and the Leaf ninja along with Chiyo, as they were inside of the cavern and thus, away from the sight.
"Juvia," Naruto looked at the Water Release user and told her once he had her attention. "I want you to go and observe the battle in the cavern. Pay attention on everything and listen to everything, as we might get some use of whatever they say and do."
"Of course, my darling Naruto," Juvia said with a wide smile on her face. "Juvia will do her best to please you."
"I'm sure you will, Juvia." Naruto's smile as he said this, made Juvia flush in the face, before she run of to do her job.
"Why are you giving her compliments but never to the rest of us?" Saeko suddenly asked, making Naruto look away from the battle, and at her.
He raised his eyebrows at her in confusion. "I never have her compliments, as I don't think there is a need to give compliments to any of you, that includes Juvia," his response confused Saeko and Fu.
"What do you mean?" Fu asked.
Naruto smile. "All of you are insanely beautiful and hot girls," Fu and Saeko flushed at this, though Fu's flush was not sees as he face is covered by her hollow mask. "As such, I don't see the reason to compliment you, and tell you that you are beautiful or anything of a sort. It's obvious."
Saeko and Fu were pleased by the answer. "But what about Juvia."
"Ah, but you see, she is so easily flustered and wants to please me much more than the rest of you" Naruto said. "I just can't help myself and every time I get a chance, I praise her or simply smile at her, as I know she will flush and get embarrassed, and that amuses me to no end."
Saeko and Fu nodded, and then went back to watching the battle, which by then, has gotten more serious, as Serafall was able to bring Deidara down from the sky, by causing a massive blizzard.
"That girl is truly skilled and powerful," Naruto said as he watched Serafall form ice spears out of the blizzard, and then send them after Deidara, who countered the spears with his clay bombs, which exploded on the contact with Serafall attacks. "I wonder if I can make her join me and my cause."
"I don't know," Saeko said. "I guess that would depend on her current employee, and how well Serafall respects her."
"Koyuki is really nice person," Naruto said, knowing that Serafall works for Koyuki Kazahana. "As such, I seriously doubt that there is any problem between the two, and Serafall is probably pleased to work for her."
"Oh well, you don't have to have every beautiful girl in the EN at your side," Saeko said with a sigh.
Naruto looked at her with a smirk on his face. "Are you jealous?" He asked Saeko, making her flush like never before, but also made Naruto's smirk widen.
Recently, Naruto has really started to enjoy messing with and teasing the girls around him. That is something that until a little while ago, was something that he would never do, and didn't have interest in it, but in the recent months, he caught himself several times doing that. Not only that, but he has caught himself looking at the girls around him more then he used to before.
As he was a hollow for so long, Naruto had no interest in woman or anything of a sort. Even after he was revived, and when he knew that he will eventually need to revive his clan with a woman or two, he still thought of that as a job and not something to bring him pleasure.
But after three years as an adult human, he started getting feeling he never had before, and sometimes wished to just send it all to hell and get one or two girls, take them to his room, bend them over the desk and have his way with them until he can't move any longer… which will be a while.
He decided then and there, that he will do something about these new feelings of his as soon as possible, as he is not sure how they will affect him in the long run.
"W-What," Saeko almost shrieked!? "O-Of course I'm n-not jealous!"
Naruto smirked even more. "Are you sure about that," he asked? "Because it looks to me that you are jealous, and not just because of Juvia, but apparently of Serafall as well, even though there is no need, as I have never even met Serafall in person."
"I don't know what you are talking about." Saeko said, while looking away. She refused to look Naruto in the eyes, because she was lying through her teeth, and if she looked at him, she wouldn't have been able to lie. Of course, it didn't matter that she wasn't looking at him, because Naruto knew that she was lying to him. He did decide to let it go, for now anyway.
Naruto decided to pay more attention on the battle between Serafall and Deidara. After a while, he had to admit to himself that, for a regular humans, who were 19 or 20 years old, Serafall and Deidara were really good in battling using their unique battle styles and bloodlines.
In Naruto's eyes, Serafall proved to be destructive with her bloodline, but also has finesse, which many shinobi with powerful bloodline's lack.
Deidara on the other hand, is even more destructive, but he has no finesse. He is sneaky, though and has many ways of using his clay bombs, even attack from two different directions. From above with guided missile attack, and from below, by placing land mines underground.
The battle between the two has caused a lot of damage on the surrounding land, mostly because of Deidara's bombs, but a lot of the land has been frozen solid few feet deep, by Serafall, so that she can counter Deidara's land mines, while the blizzard is causing him trouble in flying on his clay creation.
Deidara's jutsu went really weird when he ate and spit out a large amount of detonating clay, which took a form of a giant Deidara.
This jutsu is called C4, and according to Deidara's blabbing, is one of his more powerful jutsu. It truly did prove to be powerful when the giant Deidara inflated and then exploded, but unlike the normal explosions, there was no destruction at all.
What C4 does, is that upon the explosion, it releases a cloud of microscopic bombs that enter the bloodstream of anyone who inhales them, in this case, Serafall. On Deidara's command, the micro-bombs' detonate and cause the victims' bodies to disintegrate at the cellular level; literally turning them into dust, which is what happened to Serafall right in front of the eyes of Naruto, Saeko and Fu.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sight.
"Damn it," Fu swore! "He got her."
XXX
Chiyo spent a while, trying to get close enough to Sasori so that she can try and do some damage, but she was unsuccessful. Fortunately for her, she was good at her feet and has speed, so she was able to avoid all the attacks sent at her by Sasori.
While in the middle of the battle, Sakura noticed that Chiyo, as much as she would want to, would be unable to defeat Sasori by herself, so she decided to do something about it.
Sakura patiently watched the battle between Chiyo and her grandson, until she saw an opportunity to attack. And attack she did.
Sakura run at Sasori, and when she was close enough, she infused her right fist with chakra, and struck at the surprised Sasori from behind, right on the shell on his back, destroying it, and the entire puppet in the process.
Now, while Sakura doesn't have the same monstrous strength Tsunade did, as she was never really trained by her, she did learn the theory behind it from Shizune, and was able to learn it by herself by trial and error. It took her a while and she isn't at the level where she would be if Tsunade trained her, both in combat and medical jutsu and knowledge, but her power was just enough to destroy Hiruko puppet, and cause the real Sasori to come out from inside of it.
"What are you doing, Sakura," Kakashi asked once he saw what Sakura did. He was not really happy with her right now, because not only she saved Kankuro back in the Sand, but now she decided to save Chiyo as well.
While Sasori is the common enemy of both Sand and Leaf, ever since Chiyo decided to fight Sasori by herself, he decided to let her, thinking she will die in the process, but will be able to fight Sasori long enough for him to reveal all of his fighting secrets, and after, Kakashi and the others will be able to take him out easily, and take the corpse back to the leaf, so that they can discover its secrets, as well as the secrets behind puppetry.
Then, Sakura interfered in the battle, and most likely saved Chiyo from being killed.
Kakashi knows that Chiyo is at this point in time, retired, but she is old, and has knowledge, skill and experience, which the Sand can learn from. If she was to die, all of her skills and experience will go with her, and that would severely weaken the Sand Village.
Sakura is in a lot of trouble when they get back to the Leaf.
"I had to do something, sensei," Sakura said, without looking at Kakashi, instead, keeping an eye on the Sasori, who was still standing far from them all, covered in a black coat, completely shielding him from sight. "Lady Chiyo can't do this alone, and since Sasori is our enemy as well, we should help her out."
Kakashi didn't like Sakura's response, but now that she went and said it, he will have to fight as well, because in the event that Chiyo survives, she will say something unnecessary to her villagers, and that might make them hate the Leaf even more. That is something that Leaf doesn't need at this point, especially since Gaara is dead, which means that failed their mission, but it also means that since he is dead, a new Kazekage will be elected, and the new Kazekage, might be willing to sign a new alliance with Leaf, provided of course, that the new Kazekage is not Kankuro or Temari, as that would leave the things as they are right now.
By helping Chiyo and maybe keeping her alive, Kakashi realized that she might in the end put some good word to Suna council, and that can work in Leaf's favor.
Realizing this, Kakashi decided to help Chiyo and Sakura, but he also decided to keep an eye on Sasuke, because he knew the boy very well, and as such, knew that he was not happy with Chiyo and her insults from earlier. Kakashi knows that Sasuke is most likely to kill Chiyo from behind at the first chance he gets, and unfortunately, at this point he can't let that happen. He will have to give Sasuke something else though, as he will be impossible if he doesn't get his way.
Kakashi watched as Chiyo taunted Sasori to take of the robe, and show her his face, which she wishes to see after all these years.
"Come, my dear grandchild," Chiyo spoke. "I've come all this way to see you, so the least you can do is show me your face."
A full minute of silence later, and Sasori finally spoke, his vice much softer then the gruff voice he had while under the Hiruko. "Even though you've gotten old, you can still move, I'll give you that… granny Chiyo," Sasori said while still covered by the black cloak. "But even so, you still couldn't do anything against me. If that girl didn't interfere, you would have died by now.
"Tell me, how does it fell to be saved by someone from another village? The same village you hate for housing a shinobi who killed my parents. The same village who sent a son of that shinobi to take me down."
Sasori turned his head, and while still under the robe, looked toward Kakashi.
Kakashi noticed a brown set of eyes looking at him with hate, and suddenly got a bad feeling.
"No one called them to assist, Sasori," Chiyo said. "They came because you and the rest of the Akatsuki are a threat to them, just as much as to our village. I cannot stop them from wanting to take you and your partner out.
"As for me hating the Leaf. You are right. I hate them. But again, it is not up to me to decide what they do and don't do. Do you understand that, Sasori?"
"Hm, I guess you are right, granny Chiyo," Sasori said. "Ok then. Since you are incapable of doing anything to avenge my parent's death. I will!" Sasori then removed the cloak, and revealed him face, while the rest of his body was covered in the Akatsuki cloak from the neck down, only revealing his face hands and lover legs and feet.
Everyone was shocked the moment they saw Sasori's face, but none as much as Chiyo, who couldn't believe that this is her grandson.
"Wait a minute," Sasuke suddenly said. "You said that this guy left the Sand Village, 20 years ago. So how can he look like he's the same age as I am?"
"I… I…" Chiyo tried to say something, but couldn't as she was shell-shocked by Sasori's appearance.
"What's the matter, Granny Chiyo," Sasori asked with a smile on his face. "Are you so filled with emotion that you can't speak?
"I can't say I'm surprised though. It has been 20 years since we've seen each other."
'Sasori… what have you done?' Chiyo wondered in disbelief.
"Let me show you something, Granny," Sasori said as he pulled out a scroll, and unrolled it, showing #3 on it. "It was particularly difficult to acquire it, but that's way I'm so fond of him."
Sasori then released the seal on the scroll, and in a puff of smoke, a puppet came out.
Once Chiyo saw who it was, she was in disbelief and started sweating. "No… that can't be… impossible." Chiyo said, drawing the attention of the others, who looked at her face, and were immediately worried. Well, Kakashi was already worried from before, since he, just like Chiyo, recognized the puppet.
"What is," Sakura asked? "What's impossible?"
"This can't be possible," Chiyo said. "It's him. It's the Third Kazekage."
Everyone now looked at the puppet in disbelief, as none of them could believe that Sasori has turned a Kage into a puppet.
Kakashi almost fell on his ass, as he realized that Sasori is much stronger then he originally though, and the fact that he has third Kazekage as a puppet, makes the situation much worse than it already was.
"Lady Chiyo, what does this mean?" Sakura asked.
"So this is what happened to him," Chiyo said. "It has been over 10 years since the Third Kazekage disappeared from the village. We have searched everywhere for him but we never found him. He was the strongest Kazekage ever and he simply vanished one day.
"Sasori. It was you who did this to him?"
"What if it was me," Sasori asked, losing the smile on his face? "What can you do about it? You are a retired old woman with one foot in her grave. You can't even touch me, and yet you have come here to search for revenge against me, while never bothered to have revenge for the death of my parents, for your own son and daughter in law. Pathetic."
"I may be old and with one foot in the grave, as you say, but I had to come here and face you, otherwise, I would have died with far too many regrets," Chiyo said. "And I did want to kill the White Fang for killing my son and daughter in law. Unfortunately, he died before that could happen."
"His son is still alive." Sasori said back.
"That may be, but as much as I would want to, I cannot blame children for what their parents did." Chiyo said. "Even if I killed Kakashi, it wouldn't have brought your parents back, nor would it have quelled my hatred for the White Fang."
"Is that so," Sasori frowned? "Well then, if you are not capable of exacting revenge… I am. And I don't have problem to kill Kakashi for the deeds done by his father."
Sasori looked at Kakashi, and said. "Well then. Shell we?"
And so, the battle started to get really intense and even more destructive.