Rise, Son Of Rome
Ch12- Vnguibus aquilae
(The eagles talons)
It wasn't possible. How could someone survive something like that!?
These were the thoughts racing through the head of Shikamaru Nara as he stared into the eyes of a former opponent he believed to have fallen in battle. Tayuya of the North Gate stood before him, no signs of injury, dressed in modified Roman armor.
'But how can that be? Even if she managed to survive, why would Naruto allow her to serve under him; she can't be trusted!' The warrior thought to himself. But before he could think on it any further, a female voice to the right of him broke through the silence.
"Friends of yours Shikamaru?"
The young man turned, and was greeted by the curious stare of Kurenai Yuhi. Still floored by the sight of Tayuya, the Nara heir could only shake his head; his voice currently failing him. It looked like the ruby-eyed Jounin wanted to say more, but she was interrupted by a male voice.
"You there, ninja, what business do you have here!?"
The squad of Leaf ninja all turned their attention to the man that spoke. Shikamaru noticed right away that this man was also a Roman officer due to the similarities between his armor and Naruto's, but there were small differences; the mans shoulder lappets were brown, and were thicker and rounder than the ones Naruto wore. His pteruges around his waist were also brown, and these were thinner, and more numerous than Naruto's. The soldier also wore a cape pinned at both shoulders.
Anko, deciding she didn't like this guy's attitude, retorted with, "What's it to you what we're doing here, huh? And we don't have to tell you anything, because last I checked we didn't take orders from some guy in a skirt!"
Each member of the team could see the spark of anger that passed through each soldier's eye at the "skirt" comment; all but the woman, who just started to laugh.
"Hahahaha that's exactly what I said, but the big man on the hill just goes on about "tradition", and "pride in the Roman way." That guy's just lucky he's such a great leader, or else I don't think anyone would want to wear those things." The red-head finished her monologue and turned her eyes to the group of ninja, "Now, unfortunately, I do need you to tell me what you're doing here because you're interrupting our mission."
Kakashi chose this time to step forward, "Then I take it you are warriors for the Eagle?"
"Uh, yeah cyclops, can your one eye not see the big gold eagle that guy in the back is holding up?" The lone female soldier thumbed in the direction of the back of her group of men and, sure enough, there was a soldier holding a pole with a large golden eagle sitting on it.
"Then today has been very fortunate for both of us," Kakashi began, "we were hoping to find and speak with your commander about a possible alliance between the village of Konoha and the Eagle."
Before the woman could respond, her fellow officer called to her, "Tayuya, this is no time for idle chit-chat, we were sent by the Imperator to retrieve his friend; and right now I'd say we're doing a very poor job of it!"
The now identified Tayuya's eyes widened in realization before hardening with purpose, "You're right Cassius, that was foolish of me, let us continue with our mission." Tayuya held up her hand in a fist, and immediately all her men stood at attention. Next, she turned and shouted, " Once I've brought down the boulder be ready to engage the enemy!"
Her response was the sound of all her soldiers getting into battle stances; the front-line aiming their pilum at the giant rock.
The group from Konoha looked on as Tayuya pulled a flute out from the holster on her thigh and brought it too her lips. Shikamaru, having experienced first hand what she could do, called to his team-mate's, "Get out of the way, that woman's dangerous!"
After seeing her path cleared, Tayuya began to play. It was a high-pitched, shrieking sound that came from the holes of her flute, and while all the Roman soldiers seemed immune to it, the Leaf ninja were forced to cover their ears. Everyone watched as the boulder began to chip, then crack, and finally the giant rock began to crumble to pieces.
When the last bit of barricade was removed, all those standing on the outside of the cave were greeted by a strange sight. The Kazekage, Gaara, was floating in mid-air, surrounded by a strange blue glow; the blue, which must have been chakra, was being transferred to a giant statue. His eyes were wide open and shown bright-red, and his mouth was open and letting loose an almost animalistic groan. Gaara was floating above a stone table, which was surrounded by a circle of pillars, and on these pillars stood holograms of people; people that all wore cloaks decorated with clouds. When the group outside looked closer, they noticed that two of the men were actually there; a blonde and a hunched man with a tail.
With the destruction of the boulder all those inside stopped what their ritual out of shock, and looked at the large group outside. A man with silver, ringed eyes and spiky hair spoke in a deep voice, "Sasori, Deidara it seems you were followed. We have yet to fully extract the One-Tails from the Jinchuuriki, finish off these intruders quickly and alert us when you are finished, so that we may continue." With his instructions given, the leader and the rest of the holograms phased from existence.
Both men turned to the entrance to the cave, the man with the hunch-back turned to the blonde and said in a raspy voice, "Way to go Deidara, you've managed to botch another job. Now we have to clean up your mistake!"
The blonde, Deidara, went to retort but was cut-off because he and his partner had to dodge a series of spinning disks. When they landed both Akatsuki members looked in the direction the attack had come from, and saw Tayuya readying her flute for another assault. Before they could formulate a plan Cassius called out to his men.
"Legionaries, ready your pilum!" The front-line held their spears lined-up with their head, ready to fire at the command of their leader. "Fire!" The wave of spears headed in Deidara's direction.
The blonde man noticed this, but instead of panicking, he simply slammed his hand on the ground and was soon surrounded by a large plume of smoke; indicating he'd performed a summoning. When the smoke cleared, everyone's eyes were greeted by the sight of a giant, white clay bird carrying the rogue ninja on its back.
"Hahaha so much for your pathetic spears, now, it's my turn!" With that, the bird flapped its wings, and lifted off into the sky. Once he felt far enough away Deidara stopped the bird, and reached into the leather satchel he had hanging around his body.
Those down below were confused, until they saw him toss a series of smaller clay birds at them. While the Leaf ninja were confused, it seemed the soldiers knew something they didn't, because both commanders shouted to their men, "Legionaries, defensive maneuvers!" The front-line readied their shields, and those without them drew their swords and began to deflect the flying, white pieces of clay.
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Kakashi and the rest of his group were confused, but they didn't have long to think about it because they were soon forced to dodge the tip of Sasori's tail. Each member of the squad moved in a different direction, scattering their force so as too better keep an eye on their new opponent.
"I'm surprised all of you managed to evade my tail; most enemies aren't quick enough and are impaled immediately," came the same gravely voice as before, "Let's see if you can do it again." The tail dove into the ground, leaving each ninja to wonder which one he would target.
Shikamaru said nothing as he leaped from his spot, just managing to evade the pointed tip. When he landed, the Nara male was surprised when he had to perform a back-flip to once again avoid being skewered. 'That tail moves fast!' Mid-flip the young man unsheathed his dagger, so when he landed on his feet again he immediately sent it sailing towards his opponent.
Sasori saw the bade coming and silently applauded Shikamaru for the move. Using his tail to block the incoming attack, the rogue ninja was then forced to leap into the air to avoid another attack; a fireball courtesy of Anko. Once in the air, the puppet master sent out his tail again, this time at Kurenai; who was preparing a genjutsu. The woman barely managed to avoid the attack, but her footing was off, and so she soon had the tail wrapped around her throat and slamming her into the cliff-side.
Once she'd hit the wall of rock, Kurenai felt the tail let go and she was soon down on all fours catching her breath. When she realized that Sasori hadn't finished her off Kurenai turned her crimson gaze towards her comrades to see why; Kakashi had rushed up to engage the Akatsuki member in battle!
The legendary Copy-Ninja had decided he'd had enough of just standing around, and so when he saw that Sasori was busy with Kurenai he took his chance. However, he'd underestimated the speed at which the Akatsuki member could move his tail, and so his kunai was blocked by the razor-sharp point of the artificial attachment. Kakashi tried for a sweep kick, but his opponent just jumped backwards out of the way. And before the silver-haired Jounin could continue his attack, he had to narrowly dodge Sasori's tail again; only this time, Kakashi realized something...the tip was coated in poison!
Jumping back he yelled, "Don't let that thing cut you, it's coated with poison! There's no telling what kind of side-effects it could have, and I don't think any of you really want to find out."
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While the Leaf ninja dealt with Sasori and his poison-tipped tail, Tayuya and her legionaries were busy with Deidara and his flying, clay bird. After getting rid of all the miniature birds the red-headed woman brought her musical instrument to her lips and began to play. A smooth melody greeted the ears of all those around her, and soon, a giant phantom began to take shape; Tayuya was summoning one of her Doki.
Once the giant was finished, Tayuya began to play a different tune; this one much more fast paced. The Doki let out a roar, and began to rip trees from the earth and hurtle them towards the air-born Akatsuki member.
Deidara steadied himself and maneuvered his bird to avoid the large projectiles. After clearing all the trees, the blonde man reached back into his pouch, and created not only another flock of birds but also a small horde of snakes. "My last show wasn't enough huh? Then try this on for size!"
This time, the birds didn't wait to be swatted away, and began exploding once they were in range of a soldier. Those who were unprepared were knocked off their feet, but those that saw this were quick to roll out of the way. Unfortunately, some of these men rolled right over a snake, and were blown back from them exploding.
Tayuya looked around at her men in annoyance. This was not how they were supposed to behave, jumping and rolling around like animals, they were Romans damn it! Pulling her flute away from her lips, the red-headed soldier shouted to her fellow officer, "Damn it Cassius, stop standing there gawking and do something! My men aren't in any shape to be handling Deidara right now, so maybe you'd like to give us a hand here!?"
Cassius had been watching his partner struggle the entire time. Truth be told, the older man held distaste for the woman, he felt she had no place out on the battlefield and belonged in the followers camp with the slaves and whores. Unfortunately, by order of the Imperator, she outranked him and Cassius was left absent choice in following her commands. So, under duress, the older male turned to his men and gave the order, "Legionaries, ready the Kaminari yari!"
Every soldier flashed through three quick hand-signs before each was holding a pilum made entirely out of lightning in their hand. On the command of Cassius, the first line threw their spears.
Deidara saw this and swiftly moved his bird out of the way, knowing that if one of the spears hit, his bird would explode. While he moved his masterpiece, the blonde kept his eye on the red-headed woman with the flute; she was particularly dangerous. Deciding to go for speed, the rogue ninja created a swarm of small bees and sent them at the soldiers.
Tayuya saw this and once again prepared her flute; with the sound of a rushed melody, a force-field was erected around the lone female warrior and her men. Some of the bees were too fast to stop and exploded against the energy field, those that didn't turned to the remaining Century and continued their attack. However those men were well knowledgeable of Deidara and his deadly art, so the ones who'd already thrown their elecric spears went through another set of hand-signs and sent numerous amounts of baseball-sized fireballs at the flying bombs.
While those men were busy with the swarm of miniature bombs, the remainder of Cassius' forces sent more of their electric spears at the blonde Akatsuki member and his giant bird. When it seemed the soldiers were going to run out, and Deidara thought it'd be safe to go on the attack, his ears picked up the distinct sound of projectiles heading his way. Turning his head, the young rogue was greeted by the site of another wave of spears heading his way; courtesy of Tayuya and her recovered men. Although he tried his best to dodge them all, the blonde ninja was unsuccessful, and in a bright explosion followed by a thick cloud of smoke Deidara cried out in pain.
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Hearing his partner scream out in pain caused Sasori too look away from Anko, who he was currently entered into a dead-lock with, and over towards the other battle going on.
During his own battle Sasori had been hard-pressed against Shikamaru, who had shown off his years of intense training in a stunning display of swordsman-ship, and was forced to retreat to the inside of the cave where he used the darker atmosphere to perform hit-and-run tactics against the Nara heir. After a rather successful attack, the hunch-back was preparing to end the young Nara's life, but was stopped short when Anko attacked from behind; nearly skewering him. Afterwards, they entered into a close-ranged battle that resulted in the dead-lock.
Anko noticed her opponents distracted focus and chose to capitalize, "You shouldn't ever lose focus in a fight," she said with a smug smile before weaving passed the Akatsuki members guard and landing a headbutt. She quickly followed this with a knee to the gut, and finished it with a round-house kick that sent Sasori flying back. Anko performed a set of hand-signs before using her Hidden Shadow-snake hands technique to capture the rogue ninja.
"Ha," the Special-Jounin laughed, "you Akatsuki guys aren't so tough. Your partner's down, and you're captured, all that's left now is...Hey! What's so funny!?" Her gloating had been cut-off by Sasori's raspy laughter.
"Hahahahaha you are you stupid fool! Did you really think my partner and I could be bested so easily. We wouldn't be such high-ranked ninja if a couple of Jounin and a group of idiots in armor could defeat us," the puppet master said. Soon, the cavern was filled with a strange cracking sound. None of the ninja could tell what it was until Kakashi's sharingan saw the truth; Sasori's body was imploding!
"Anko, get away from him!"
But the warning came too late, and the former apprentice of Orochimaru was sent flying back as the Akatsuki member's body erupted. The purple-haired woman landed hard on her back, and was left winded while the rest of her team looked on at the result of the implosion.
Standing before them was a completely different figure than before. Where the previous body was hunched over and looked like an old man with a bandanna over his mouth, this new form was that of a lanky, red-headed boy with no shirt on. It was Shikamaru who realized what they were seeing.
"That body, it was one of your puppets; you used it to stash your real body so it wouldn't get damaged in battle."
The newly revealed Sasori laughed before responding, "Hahaha yes, it's true, I did use one of my puppets as a shield. But then, I couldn't let my greatest weapon out all the time right, after all, where would the fun be in that?"
Kurenai's ruby eyes widened with understanding, "You mean you turned yourself into a...a puppet!?"
"That's right!" Sasori's eyes held a crazed look as he responded, "Early in my years I lost both my parents to the disease known as death, I got the news while I was home tinkering with my first puppet. As I stood there in our living room, listening to the messenger give his condolences, my eyes wandered over to my puppet and I began to have an idea; what if I could stop death? So I spent the formative years of my life studying the human body, and mastering my art of puppetry, until finally I was able to create human puppets."
"That's crazy," Kurenai said, "why would you want to live that way?"
The S-ranked criminal just shrugged his shoulders and let a condescending smirk slide onto his face, "I wouldn't expect a non-artist to understand the belief in everlasting perfection, but, maybe when this is all over I can turn you into one of my puppets and I can show you the wonders of eternal life?"
Kurenai felt a cold shiver run down her spine at the rogue ninja's implication before drawing a kunai from her pouch and entering into a defensive stance, "I think I'll pass."
Sasori merely lifted an eyebrow before lifting his hands up and performing the 'ram' hand-sign, "Such a shame, a beautiful rose chooses to wither and die than be preserved. -Sigh- So be it." With that, a cloud of smoke appeared on either side of the Akatsuki member, and when they dissipated he was joined by a pair of puppets.
The puppets were human-shaped and dressed in a fur, full-length robe; one was red, the other was black. On one hand of each puppet was a set of razor-sharp blades, the other was a normal hand.
Looking at her enemies Kurenai tightened her stance in preparation for an attack. The raven-haired beauty had little experience dealing with puppet-users, but she understood that they were notorious for having secret weapons hidden away inside their frame.
Her readiness was well founded because when Sasori sent his puppets at her, she barely managed to evade the swift attack. While she was in the air Kurenai looked down and saw that only one of the puppets, the red one, followed her. Her ears picked up the sound of movement, and she twisted to avoid being skewered by the second puppets bladed hand.
As she landed, Kurenai was knocked off her feet by a third puppet,this one wearing yellow, and as she landed on her back Kurenai's ruby-eyes widened in fear as one of the first two puppets came down on her; arm raised ready to impale her. Closing her eyes Kurenai waited for the intense pain...but it never came. Opening her eyes the older kunoichi was met with the sight of Kakashi holding off the puppets with a kunai.
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While Kakashi was coming to Kurenai's rescue, outside the cave Tayuya and the Roman legionaries were busy dealing with Deidara. After the destruction of his giant bird the rogue ninja had been place severe disadvantage, the soldiers didn't give him time to summon another one.
Deidara was panting heavily as he ducked under a swipe made by Tayuya, the red-head had ordered her men to keep the Akatsuki member on the ground, but not to aid her in defeating the blonde. At first, Deidara had laughed and claimed that the battle wouldn't last more than five minutes; he was silently cursing himself now. Leaning back, the explosive expert avoided a rising slash, but was left unbalanced and vulnerable to the kick that hit him in the chest.
Tayuya hadn't expected her opponent to be so easy once she got him on the ground, but then remembered the blonde was a long-range fighter that relied heavily on his explosive clay. So when her foot connected with his chest, the red-headed soldier went to follow through with a stab to Deidara's head; he leaned to the side and she missed her target, but smirked when she still managed to land a blow to his shoulder.
She would have continued her assault, but Tayuya was forced to shield her face when the long-haired man threw small chunks of exploding clay at her. Coughing and cursing, Tayuya looked around and spotted her opponent now standing a considerable distance away; once again giving him range.
Instead of being upset the red-headed woman just sighed, sheathed her sword, and pulled out her flute. When she saw a small flock of birds come her way and start to circle around her, Tayuya began to play.
A soft melody echoed through the clearing and soon the birds started to explode. Deidara watched this in shock, never having encountered an enemy like Tayuya before he didn't know what was happening.
"H-How is this happening, what are you doing to my art!?"
Within moments all of Deidara's birds piles of ash and small lumps of clay. Tayuya, her job done, pulled her flute from her lips. She smirked but, before she could say anything, her blonde opponent started to laugh.
"What's so funny dumbass!? Can you not see that all your stupid birds are destroyed," Tayuya growled out in annoyance.
"Hahahaha yes," Deidara spoke through his laughter, " I admit that your technique is impressive but," he placed his hands in the 'tiger' symbol, "I have more tricks than just tossing bombs."
Before Tayuya had time to think about what he could mean all the clay that was scattered around her began to explode; the sheer amount being enough to cause an explosion that knocked the red-head off her feet.
Cassius had seen enough, the Imperator had sent them to do a job and here they were standing around while Tayuya played with some commoner! Turning to his men the Roman shouted, " Enough standing around, kill him!"
His response came in the form of a chorus of battle cry's as his men moved forward to engage the long-haired Akatsuki member. Before they got within attack range, Deidara hopped from where he stood so that he was now standing in the middle of the lake.
Looking to all the men on the shore he taunted, "You may be a large force, and you may even have some skill, but what good is all of that when you can't follow me on to the water?"
All the men standing on the shore looked at one another, then over to their conscious commander, when he gave them a nod they turned back to Deidara and smirked...before stepping onto the surface of the water.
Deidara's eyes widened as he said, "B-But how, you guys p-performed ninjutsu, and are w-walking on water, but y-you guys aren't ninja."
Cassius gave his surprised enemy a condescending smirk before he said, "No, you're right, we're not ninja. We're something much worse; Legionaries, show him the might of the Roman army!" Again, his response was the combined battle cry of 160 men as they all converged on the lone blonde.
Before they reached him Deidara regained his wits enough to perform another summoning; this time a clay dragon. The giant, winged piece of deadly art flapped its wings and the gust of wind knocked several soldiers off their feet. As the dragon flapped its way into the air several of the Roman soldiers attempted to bring it down with their Hono no yari, but were unsuccessful.
The Roman legionaries realized that their attempts weren't working, so they stopped and waited for Deidara to make a move; in hopes that they could counter and turn the battle back in their favor.
Up in the air, the explosives expert looked down at the assembly of men that were his opponents. While on ground they were formidable, with him in the air Deidara saw that he now held the advantage. Leaning down and placing his palm on the neck of his clay creation, the blonde activated what made this particular summons so dangerous.
The dragon opened his mouth and let out a giant breath of fire. The blazing, orange flames rained down on the Roman soldiers swiftly, and soon, the fire reached the front-line.
Deidara kept up his assault for another minute, just to be sure he'd gotten all of the men in the front, and then deactivated his dragons fire. When the steam of fire faded Deidara looked down at his opponents with a victorious smile.
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"You really should be more careful Kurenai; I really don't want to have to listen to Asuma chew me out for letting you die," Kakashi said looking at the woman in question with his patented 'eye smile'. Then, in an instant, his eyes opened and they were steeled in concentration. Tensing his muscles, the silver-haired Jounin performed a spin-kick and sent his wooden opponent flying.
Years of being an ANBU agent gave Kakashi the instinct to dodge the senbon needles that came hurtling towards him; courtesy of the puppet cloaked in black. Scouring the area with his sharingan Kakashi noticed that Shikamaru had recovered, and was coming up behind Sasori's prone form.
Once he was within range Shikamaru swung his gladius; his hope being to decapitate the red-headed Akatsuki member. Unfortunately, Sasori wasn't an S-ranked criminal for nothing, and he managed to duck under the attack before donkey-kicking the Nara male in the chest. Turning his head, Sasori addressed his opponent, "That was smart, wait for me to be busy with the others before trying to sneak up on me; but it was very amateurish."
Shikamaru just looked at Sasori and said, "Then it's a good thing that wasn't my plan."
Sasori creased his brow in confusion, until the sounds of splintering wood reached his ears. Turning sharply the red-head's eyes took in the sight of two out of his three puppets being destroyed; one by the renewed Anko, the other by Kakashi. Sasori realized that Shikamaru's plan was to distract him, so his puppets wouldn't be fighting at full strength.
Turning his eyes back on the Nara heir Sasori wore a scowl as he said, "I suppose congratulations are in order; the few opponents who get this far never manage to get past my Tripuru kyoi. However, I must warn you that your deaths are inevitable; my next attack will make sure of that!" As he finished speaking the bare-chested Akatsuki member rushed Shikamaru; long, scythe-like blades protruding from his forearms.
Shikamaru was ready for him, and parried his opponents first strike before ducking underneath a swipe at his head. However, when he tried to step inside Sasori's guard the young warrior was surprised when the red-head's chest opened up to reveal a canon. Before he could roll out of the way Shikamaru was blasted by an intense beam of energy. Landing on his back the young chunin allowed the momentum to carry him and he rolled to his feet; just in time to block a back-hand slash.
When Shikamaru blocked his attack, Sasori was prepared to use another one of his enhancements to regain the advantage, but before he could do anything he had to leap into the air to avoid Kakashi's attempt to drag him underground. While in the air the red-head was then forced to twist his body so Anko's Mud Bullets would miss their target. Once he landed, he aimed his right hand in the Special-Jounin's direction, and fired a torrent of water at her; it was unsuccessful however because she blocked it with an Earth Wall.
Before he could make any other attempt against Anko, Sasori's danger senses went off, and he ducked another attempt to decapitate him; this time by Kurenai. He tried to donkey-kick again, but Kurenai had quicker reaction time than Shikamaru, as well as more flexibility, and managed to twist to avoid it. Continuing with the movement, the raven-haired kunoichi turned her defensive maneuver into a spin-kick that landed squarely on Sasori's jaw.
With his head whipped around from her kick, Kurenai moved in and began an up-close assault. She buried her right fist into her opponents stomach, then followed up with a knee to the side of Sasori's head. As his body was turned from the force of the kick the ruby-eyed Jounin used her kunai to stab the red-head in his back. As the wood splintered Kurenai wrapped her remaining arm around Sasori's throat so he couldn't escape.
"Looks like you over estimated your own strength," she said. What she couldn't see, was Sasori's shocked look turn to a sinister smile...but she felt the pain from him slamming his head into her face.
Reeling back from the pain, and trying to blink the stars from her eyes, Kurenai was left unprepared for the kick that landed against her stomach and sent her rocketing into a series of stalagmites.
Sasori had no time to celebrate his victory over the beautiful kunoichi because he was almost immediately engaged in combat by Anko, who was furious about the state of her friend. The red-headed Akatsuki member ducked under a kick, and barely managed to avoid an uppercut, but used that second to swing his arm; aiming to force Anko to block his blade. It worked, and Sasori was given time to breath, before he continued his attack by trying to plunge his second blade into the purple-haired kunoichi's stomach.
Anko, seeing no time to dodge, used her bare hand to catch her opponent's weapon. While the laceration on her hand stung, Anko knew it was a huge step up from the alternative. However, this left her vulnerable to Sasori's chest-canon, and she watched as the panels opened up and the energy gathered to blast her. Thankfully, Kakashi came to the rescue again.
Kakashi came from the side this time with a stab aimed for Sasori's right flank. When the eternally young rogue moved to avoid the attack, the silver-haired Jounin exploded into a cloud of smoke; revealing himself to be a clone. With his vision clouded Sasori was unprepared for the attack that came from above, and was hit with a powerful hammer-fist, followed by a bicycle-kick. Before Kakashi could continue his assault however, Sasori's rage erupted.
"ENOUGH!" And he blasted the Copy-Ninja with an intense beam of energy that sent him sailing through the air.
The two conscious Jounin, and the lone chunin, looked on at their opponent with wary eyes; their muscles tensed and ready to move.
Sasori no longer looked like the calm, composed fighter from the begging of the battle. Now, his body was chipped and had cracks where he'd been hit, his hair was wild and disheveled, and his eyes were hard and blazing with anger.
"Who do you fools think you are!? I am Akasuna no Sasori, the world's greatest puppet master, who are you weaklings to think you can do this to me!?" The tirade ended...and then Sasori began to laugh. It was a low, cackling sound first before it blew into a full-out maniacal laughter.
"Oh, yes, you all are a very special lot. You're the first to ever push me to use this technique," he turned his crazed eyes to Shikamaru, "I told you my next attack would spell the death of you all; your deaths are inevitable, there will be no escape for you hahaha!"
Next Sasori proceeded to perform a series of hand-signs, and when he landed on 'rat', he called out his attack: "Sen ningyo no odori!"
The area was then covered in an enormous cloud of smoke, and when it cleared the Leaf ninja stared in horror at the sheer number of puppets that littered the inside of the cave. On instinct, each of them converged around Kurenai to protect the unconscious woman from being killed while she was defenseless, but each of them knew, it would take a miracle to make it out alive.
Sasori looked upon his opponents with a malicious grin, "Now, I think it's time we end this little game." He raised his arm, and directed his puppets to attack.
But, just as they all rose up to descend on the squad from Konoha, a hail of flaming spears came raining down upon them; piercing many of the puppets, and making them useless.
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Deidara's smile slipped from his face when he saw that none of the soldiers had been harmed by his attack. Taking a closer look, the blonde noticed that all the shields carried by the men in the front were giving off a faint, blue glow that dimmed until it was no longer visible. It didn't take long for Deidara to realize that those shields had absorbed his attack.
'But...where could they have gotten the technology for such a thing' He thought to himself. But he didn't get much time to think on it because he was soon dodging more electric spears. As he weaved his dragon through the onslaught he made another attempt to fry his enemies with his creations fire; no luck. The Romans shifted with him, making sure that the shield-bearers were always in front. Finally, fed up with playing cat and mouse, Deidara directed his dragon higher into the sky, and then had it blast a giant firestorm downwards at an angle the soldiers carrying shields couldn't protect from.
Cassius saw this and ordered his men to scramble. The soldiers broke off into smaller groups and did their best to avoid the scorching flames. Once they were clear, Cassius signaled quickly to a small platoon behind Deidara and another one to the side of the clay dragon, the men noticed their superiors motion, and readied their attacks.
However, before anybody could move, Deidara was knocked from his clay dragon by an invisible force. As he plummeted to the ground his summon tried to save him, but a platoon of soldiers took the opportunity to destroy it with their spears; without its rider, the dangerous piece of art was practically helpless.
When the bright flash from the dragons explosion faded everyone, including a soaking wet Deidara, looked to see what had caused him to fall. There, kneeling along the shore line, was a re-awakened Tayuya.
"-huff- You didn't think -huff- you'd get rid of me that easily -huff- did you?"
Deidara looked around at the area, assessing the situation. While he still had a decent amount of chakra left, it wasn't enough that he could hope to summon another bird or dragon, and then have chakra to spare. He could try to form a distraction and escape...but then he'd have to explain to Leader-sama why he'd returned without Sasori; just the thought sent an unpleasant chill shooting up his spine. The blonde explosives expert saw only one real way that he could take out the large force that surrounded him.
Leaping into the air Deidara tears away his cloak, revealing a stitched up mouth on his chest, and an open one on his side, "Hahahaha, you think you've beaten me? I'll show you all just how explosive my art really is!" With this the blonde Akatsuki member pulled a wad of clay from his pouch, un-stitched the mouth on his chest, and held it close to the new mouth; preparing to feed it the clay.
"You're all fini- guh!"
Deidara's eyes widened in shock and pain before they turned to look down for the source...a spear was protruding out of his stomach. Deidara looked around, until his eyes landed on Tayuya who had made her way over to where the original pilum were that had been thrown at the beginning of the battle; the pilum that Deidara had forgotten about.
His last thought as he fell back down to earth was, 'I-I didn't even go out with a bang.'
Once her enemy crashed into the lake Tayuya addressed her men, "Legionaries! Take note of what I just did, don't ever just sit and wait for your opponent to perform an attack. If he stops, you attack, because chances are their going to attempt something that will turn the battle in their favor; lucky for us, this dumb shit gave away his plan before it even started. Now, let's go see how those Leaf ninja are handling their opponent."
Her men all responded by slapping their fists over their chests and nodding before tightening their platoons; the cave mouth wasn't big enough to allow two Centuries to enter side-by-side. The legionaries formed into ten platoons of sixteen men each and marched forward.
When they arrived at the cave's mouth, the Romans saw that the other Akatsuki member, Sasori, had unleashed an army of puppets and had the ninja from Konoha surrounded. They also noticed that one of the groups members was unconscious and was in need of the others protection; which would hurt their already slim chances of surviving the deadly attack.
While Tayuya wasn't particularly fond of Leaf ninja, especially Shikamaru, her Imperator had given strict orders to bring the Nara heir to him if the young man was found. 'Damn him,' Tayuya thought to herself before she called to her men, "Alright, I want you guys to aim for as many puppets as possible with your Hono no kami."
The legionaries all saluted before doing as commanded, then, as Sasori began his assault, the soldiers threw their flaming spears in a hail of fiery death.
Once the attack finished Tayuya then ordered her men to stay alert as Sasori looked over I their direction.
"So," he began, "you managed to defeat Deidara hmm? You must either be very skilled, or he was foolish and let his guard down; how's about we find out?" And so he motioned for a swarm of puppets to attack the Roman soldiers.
"Men, form testudo!" The legionaries in the very front planted their shields in the ground and crouched behind them, while those behind held theirs up and over the front-line's. The puppets smashed into the blockade and attempted to break through, but when it became clear that wasn't an option the puppets were forced to try and attack around the shields.
Tayuya, who was in the center with Cassius, shouted to the legionaries, "Now, front-line, move forward! Those of you on the ends form a wall with your shields; we're going to force them to funnel through the top, where we can better defend against their greater numbers!"
The men did as they were instructed and soon the army was moving through the cave, defending against Sasori's puppet army to the best of their ability. The red-headed female warrior decided that if she wanted to end things quickly, she'd have to call on her Doki again. So, bringing her flute to her lips again, she began to play a haunting melody; this time not one, but three ghostly figures phased into existence.
Once each ogre was solidified, Tayuya's melody changed to a sharp, fast-paced song and the Doki began to attack. While some of the puppets managed to avoid being clobbered, there were others that were so focused on breaking through the Romans defenses that they were left wide open, and were smashed to splinters.
Sasori watched the destruction of part of his puppet army with increasing annoyance; who were these people, and why were they interfering!? The red-headed Akatsuki member decided that he'd focus more on eliminating the fools from the Leaf village first, and then he'd worry about those other pests. Turning to begin a new assault, Sasori had to jump out of the way to avoid being run through by Kakashi's Chidori.
As he landed he addressed the Copy-Ninja, "How rude, don't you know it's dishonorable to attack an opponent when he's not paying attention?" Kakashi just narrowed his eyes and leaped after him.
When they met Sasori blocked Kakashi's kunai strike with his right arm-blade before attempting to cut off the Jounin's legs with the other blade. Kakashi jumped over the attack and landed a solid kick to Sasori's head, the Akatsuki member allowed the momentum to carry him, and he retaliated with a swipe at the Copy-Ninja's chest. Kakashi wasn't able to avoid it fast enough and suffered a long, but not very deep cut across his his torso.
The puppet genius was about to re-engage Kakashi but he was forced to swivel out of the way of a spear that was aimed to impale him. Looking towards the direction of the throw he saw that the Romans were finished, and Sasori realized that again he'd lost focus and a part of his puppet army had been destroyed.
'Damn it all, I have to re-think my approach, this isn't getting me anywhere.' With that thought Sasori pulled on his chakra strings and encircled himself inside the remains of his puppet army.
"Lets see how well you all fare now."
The puppets all went flying, some in the direction of Tayuya and her army, and others towards the squad of Leaf ninja while the rest remained to protect Sasori.
Again Tayuya had her men form the testudo, but she was running low on chakra and was unable to summon her Doki; forcing her to fight with her sword. As she hacked and slashed at the army of wooden weapons the red-head couldn't help wishing that the 13th legion had been sent to fight alongside her own. Before she could think on the subject any further, the puppets pulled back...and just hung in the air.
'What the heck is going on,' Tayuya thought to herself. Her answer came when the puppets all opened their mouths and began to spew fire. "Shields up! Cover those inside the square!" Her command came a little late, and some men suffered burns, but soon the shields were up and absorbing the flames.
While that was going on Shikamaru was busy fighting off a number of the puppets aimed at him. After landing a crippling blow to a puppet in a brown, fur robe the Nara heir swiveled out of the way of another puppets hail of senbon fire, allowing it to fly towards another puppet; some of them lodging in its mouth and stopping whatever it had planned. Shikamaru decided not to take any chances and lopped off that puppets head before engaging another of the wooden soldiers.
Kakashi was faring much the same with the help of his sharingan. He ducked and weaved under slashes that would have cut a lesser ninja to ribbons while managing to land blows of his own; a testament to his skill as a former ANBU captain. Ducking under one particularly dangerous strike, the Copy-Ninja went through a short series of hand-signs before calling out his attack: "Asusupaiku". A series of stalagmites erupted from under the ground and skewered multiple enemies.
Like her two squad mates Anko was also fairing well, however, unlike them she had the added difficulty of protecting her unconscious friend as well. She'd summoned a few of her snakes to aid in defending Kurenai, but they could only do so much, and what was let over Anko herself had to deal with. Leaping aside she avoided a blast of concentrated energy that one puppet shot from its mouth, but she wasn't able to fully avoid a slash that was aimed at her unprotected back and was punished with a long, bloody streak across her trench-coat. Fueled by anger, Anko donkey-kicked her attacker before leaping into the air and using the Phoenix-Flower jutsu to incinerate many of the surrounding puppets.
With the combined efforts of the Leaf ninja and the Romans lead by Tayuya Sasori's puppet army was eventually brought down to just the handful that he'd kept back as personal protection. However the trade-off was that most of the rescue party was drained and tired, while some had even suffered several hindering injuries.
Sasori was impressed with his enemies strength and fortitude; he'd never encountered anyone who had pushed him to such a degree. Many armies had attempted to defeat him and they all failed, yet, the strange group before him had managed to destroy many of his puppet army; they were truly impressive.
"You all have done remarkably well, I am truly astonished by your strength, but it seems that in defeating my one-thousand puppets you've tired yourselves out; what a shame. I guess all that's left to do now is put you all out of your misery." To punctuate his meaning, Sasori lifted both hands, and set his remaining fifty puppets in a semi-circle around the group; then the final assault began.
The front-most wooden weapons jaws dropped open and shot forth blazing hot flames. While the Romans that were in range simply set up their shields, the Leaf ninja were forced to jump or dive to avoid the attack.
When Kakashi leaped to the side he was engaged by a handful of puppets that had been flanking the group. Exhausted from the continuous use of his sharingan in battle the former ANBU captain was beginning to feel sluggish. While he managed to avoid the life-threatening injuries, Kakashi often was caught off-guard and hit by the more shallow attacks; however this only slowed him down more, the silver-haired Jounin was beginning to wonder if he'd make it out of this battle alive.
Anko, who was already wounded from defending Kurenai, was fairing worse than her fellow Jounin. Even with her flexibility the Special-Jounin was still unable to dodge or avoid many of the sharp blades that came her way. Anko's trench-coat had been torn to shreds from the constant assault, and even her shin-guards were beginning to crack under the strain of so many attacks.
While the two Jounin's were fighting just to survive, Shikamaru had trained rigorously over the last three years to increase his stamina. With no use of jutsu so far, and no energy being wasted on a dojutsu, the Nara heir still had plenty of energy left to deal with the puppets that had followed him into the air. Shikamaru back-flipped to avoid a stab to his abdomen, and when he landed the young warrior swiftly rolled along the ground to avoid a hail of steel pellets. Once back on his feet Shikamaru engaged two of his enemies in close-ranged combat. After parrying a deadly side-swipe, the young Nara decked the puppet across its wooden jaw before his instincts kicked in and he ducked an attack from behind; to his relief the attack couldn't be stopped and ran through the puppet in front of him.
Tayuya and her men fared better than the ninja. Being a larger force aided them in being able to fend off their attackers easier, and much quicker. They took advantage of the wide birth of the cave's inside and were able to thin out the force that had been sent to deal with them. Once their battle was won Tayuya and her legionaries turned to face Sasori himself, while leaving the Leaf ninja to fend for themselves.
"Do you not think we should aid the Nara boy Tayuya? We have orders-" Cassius began, nut was cut-off by the red-head.
"I know, but look at him, he's doing fine. If he needs our help we'll send a handful of men over, but I'd rather get this guy out of the way first."
Begrudgingly, Cassius accepted his superiors words before turning back to their main target. Sasori stood alone, his body covered in evidence that the Leaf ninja had given him a hard time, and his cruel smile had slipped into an enraged scowl.
"Who are you people!? Why have you come and interfered with the Akatsuki's plan!?"
"We know an organization like yours has its own spy network," Tayuya answered, "so I'm sure you've heard of the 'Eagle' that's been whispered about; we are its talons, the legionaries. And we've come to rescue the Kazekage, as he is a close friend of our Imperator."
Sasori's eyes widened a small fraction a the mention of the 'Eagle', he had indeed heard of them, several of the Jinchuuriki had been picked up by the rival organization. Zetsu had been charged with finding out as much as he could on the; yet all he managed to discover was which Jinchuuriki they held, and that was only because of the damage reports done to those villages that were their former homes. The wheels in Sasori's mind turned as he thought up a plan to save himself.
"But wait, if your leader is gathering the Jinchuuriki as well, then we have a common goal do we not? Surely our two leaders can come to some sort of an agreement; if you'll allow me, I can return to him with the news and we can set up a meeting."
Cassius stepped forward to reply, "Unfortunately for you, the Imperator doesn't ally himself with scum like the Akatsuki. No his plans are far beyond the scope of any of your organizations feeble minds, and aligning with you would only slow him down, so I think we'll just take the Kazekage and be done with this."
Upon motioning from Cassius, a small clutch of soldiers began to make their way towards the prone form of Gaara; who had been almost forgotten about during the struggle. However before they reached him the men were forced to jump back to avoid being hit by a pressurized blast of water shot from Sasori's left palm.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that. You see, my leader has his own agenda for the Tailed-Beasts, and I'd be forfeiting my life if I didn't try to stop you." Sasori kept his left hand aimed in Gaara's direction while he opened his chest, revealing his energy canon, as well as setting his right hand facing the Romans.
Neither Tayuya nor Cassius knew quite what to do. With his one hand trained on Gaara's defenseless form Sasori had trapped them in a stalemate. All was still aside from the continued sounds of battle going on between the tired Leaf ninja and the remains of Sasori's puppet army.
Then, a third-party spoke out: "I heard you say something about 'honor'. How about we do this the right way then, and you can fight me one-on-one?"
All heads turned in the direction of the voice, and found Shikamaru standing proud as he waited for the Akatsuki member's answer.
Sasori stared at Shikamaru for a moment before grinning, and settling into a lax stance, "That is very brave of you my friend, to think you can take me on all by yourself, but I'm sure if you re-think your challenge you'll realize that you'll want some help. Might I suggest that small group of soldiers there?" Sasori pointed towards the men who had been sent to retrieve Gaara.
Shikamaru just unsheathed his sword and stood ready to defend himself, "Gratitude for the offer, but I'm sure I'll be more than enough of a challenge for you; having their aid would make it unfair, and the battle would end too soon."
"Hahaha very well then," the red-head replied, "then let us begin!" Sasori rushed Shikamaru at surprising speed and attempted to end the fight quickly by slicing him in half. The young Nara saw this coming and blocked the strike before ducking underneath a swipe meant to take off his head. Once clear of danger, Shikamaru delivered a powerful uppercut to Sasori's jaw and then made an attempt to plunge his sword into the puppet-users chest.
Sasori managed to regain enough focus that he managed to catch the sword with his hand; his puppet body saving him from any harm. Before he let go the red-head's chest cavity opened, and he fired a quick beam at his opponent. Shikamaru took the blast head-on and was sent rolling along the ground. Sasori quickly followed after and attempted to impale the young warrior with his arm-blade, but Shikamaru came to a stop and twisted out of the way. Tensing his muscles, Shikamaru brought his gladius down were the blade was closest to Sasori's arm; the piece of deadly metal cracked, then broke off.
Angered that one of his weapons had been destroyed, Sasori reached forward and grabbed a fistful of Shikamaru's hair, and followed it up with a knee to the face. While his opponent was down the puppet genius stomped his foot on top of the young Nara's chest; pinning him to the ground.
With his eyes opened wide, and an insane gleam passing trough them, Sasori spoke, "Hahahaha Finally! I have to say, this day has been most enjoyable; you all have given me such a work out." He raised his right arm and prepared to strike down Shikamaru, "However, I already told you boy that your death was inevita- huh! What trickery is this!?"
During his victory speech Sasori was surrounded by a giant tree; he was soon trapped inside the trunk. The Akatsuki member looked around wildly for what had caused this strange tree to suddenly appear, but found that nobody had moved or had their hands held in any symbol.
"You should be more aware of your surroundings, and don't ever just assume an enemy has been defeated because their unconscious." The feminine voice came from behind Sasori as a woman emerged from out of the tree trunk.
Kurenai had woken up.
"You stupid bitch, let go of me!" Sasori began to struggle, but soon realized he wasn't going anywhere and settled down. 'What do I have to fear,' he thought to himself, 'they can't hurt, nor kill me. Once this foolish woman's technique wears off I'll simply just kill her and then the rest of those fools.'
Kurenai just smirked triumphantly as she said, "For a supposed genius you made one fatal mistake; you turned your back to an enemy. I know what you hide from your opponent's...I know how to defeat you."
The woman placed her fingers into the gap she'd created before, when she's stabbed Sasori in the back, and began to pull. In moments the sound of splintering wood echoed throughout the cave as Kurenai broke of a piece of the red-head's back. Once the wood had been fully moved aside, Kurenai's ruby-red eyes immediately found a glowing cylinder being held in the center of Sasori's body; it was the man's life-force.
Sasori began to truly panic. He'd turned himself into a puppet to avoid the terrors of death, and yet it seemed somehow the horrid disease had found him anyway!
"NO! No, stay away from that!" The man cried out as he renewed his thrashing.
But it was no use, Kurenai's Deathly Tree Binding was her most famous attack; because once you were caught there was no escape. The raven-haired Jounin said nothing, feeling there was no last words Sasori needed to hear, and skewered the glowing cylinder with her kunai. Sasori's body jerked for a moment...and then just went limp.
Once she was sure the puppet-user was dead Kurenai released her technique and allowed the man to drop to the ground. Looking over to the others she said,"So, what happens now?"
Seeing that the battle was finally over Kakashi turned to Cassius and asked, "Is there any way that we could speak to your leader; our Hokage would greatly appreciate if he would at least hear our request out."
The Roman officer turned to his superior and raised an eyebrow. Tayuya was extremely reluctant to re-introduce her Imperator to anyone from Konoha after what he told her they had done to him. But, she did have strict orders involving Shikamaru, so it seemed she was left absent choice in the matter.
So, under duress, the foul-mouthed red-head replied, "Very well, you may return with us to camp; but only because you have the Nara with you, the Imperator wishes to greet him."
The aforementioned clan heir wasn't too surprised by this revelation; he already had a strong belief as to just who their Imperator was, and he was eager to reunite with his friend. While Shikamaru just nodded silently, picked up Gaara, and followed the tired Romans, the rest of the Konoha squad were curious as to what made Shikamaru so important that a man like this 'Imperator' would wish to meet him.
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It took the tired men and woman of the 'Gaara rescue party' to return to the camp that Tayuya had mentioned. When they arrived, the Konoha ninja were surprised at how the surrounding area was set up.
From what they could see from the guarded entrance, there were numerous tents set up inside a fortified, defensive wall. In order to get to the camp you had to cross a small bridge that took you over a deep pit that looked to be dug around the entire camp. Once they crossed over and into the camp, after a quick explanation to the guards about the added members of the party, the Leaf ninja noticed just how structured the camp was. They noticed that the tents weren't just set up randomly, but in rows of five, so they created large squares.
The ninja noticed soldiers walking throughout the camp and noticed one of the front-line men without their shield. They saw that he wore chain-mail armor over his torso; different from the plates or 'muscle' armor they'd seen that day.
Tayuya saw their quiet confusion and decided to answer them, "Those men, being the front-line, don't require much armor considering they carry shields. At least, that's the way I see it."
With their curiosity sated the ninja continued to follow Tayuya and Cassius while the rest of the legion separated to either tend to their wounds or just relax. It had been a good day; no comrades had fallen.
As they continued walking Kurenai took notice of something and became annoyed, "Why are their no women in the camp?"
Tayuya snickered before saying, "Gee, thanks for the boost to my self-esteem. If you really need to know, woman are forbidden within encampment and are placed in the followers camp. The only women you'll see here are Fu, you two, and myself and that's only because we're warriors; the Imperator despises a woman who's only talent is being 'pretty'."
Both Kurenai and Anko felt their respect for this man increase, it seemed he understood that women could be warriors too. This sparked Anko's curiosity.
"So," she began, trying to be non-nonchalant, "what's this guy like? I mean, I've heard some things here and there about him but I don't really know anything solid...can you clue me in?"
Cassius had gotten annoyed by the two women quickly and said, "Why don't you hold your tongues until after we get there, then, you can ask the Imperator himself all your silly question?" His response was a pair of rude glances sent his way by the two Leaf kunoichi.
Tayuya, in an effort to avoid having to break up an argument and save herself from a headache called out, "Hey, look, there's his tent up ahead."
Each Leaf ninja turned their attention to the direction Tayuya had motioned too and took in the sight of the tent. It was blood-red in color, and significantly larger than any of the other tents in the area. There was a flag flying on the top of it, the flag too was red in color, and had the image of a golden eagle printed on it. At the entrance of the tent stood two guards, with more stationed around the sides, and no doubt the back of the tent. These men were like the ones who the Konoha squad had seen at the cave; plated armor, with full helmets, and no shields. They had their hands placed over the pommel of their swords and stern, hard looks on their faces.
While three of the four ninja were looking at that tent, Shikamaru was looking around the rest of the camp. He noticed that there were a few more impressive tents in the camp; they weren't as grandiose as the one before him, but they looked to be the tents of high-ranked military personnel. A punch to his bare shoulder drew the Nara heirs attention back to the matter at hand. He looked over and saw Tayuya looking at him with an annoyed expression.
"Pay attention you dumb shit, we're going inside."
Shikamaru rubbed his aching shoulder and followed after the woman he thought he'd killed. When they got to the entrance they again had to wait for Tayuya and Cassius to report in and explain the unusual addition to their group. Once one of the guards returned from entering into the tent, he told them they were allowed inside, and opened the tent flap for them to walk through.
Once inside, the group saw that the tent didn't just look big from the outside; it was wide and spacious on the inside as well. They all took notice of the unlit lamps, and tables that held numerous papers and such; the squad of ninja also noticed a curtain that seemed to hide a bed chamber for sleeping. Over in another corner they saw a pole mannequin that held a helmet with red horse hair streaking vertically along the top and a blood-red cloak around the shoulders. Finally their eyes were drawn to the center of the tent, where a handful of people stood looking down at what was presumably a map.
One man had his back to them and his head down, so they couldn't really see his features, but he was tall, standing at what looked to be at least 6ft. He wore the 'muscle' armor that Cassius wore, but his was silver. He had the same leather strips covering his shoulders, but they were a dark-red; as was the leather-strip skirt he wore around his waist, although his were thicker than Cassius'. The man also wore brown, leather boots that reached mid-calf and from the looks of it, he also had shin-guards tied around his legs.
Looking to the others they noticed each wore a similar attire, except for another woman that stood to the right of the man with his head down. She had mint-green hair that had been done-up into a short crew cut that spiked near the front. Her ears were pierced with red beads, and she had a tan skin tone. The ninja could see one of her eyes and noticed she had a pair of solid, bright orange eyes. Her features were surprisingly feminine despite her rough looking appearance. She wore an outfit similar to Tayuya's except she wore a cloak over her shoulders and her helmet tucked underneath her arm. On her hips she had two short, wide blades.
"So it's settled then," the man who's back was to them spoke, his voice was deep and carried a tone of authority, "once Gaara is returned we'll send a small clutch of men north to speak with Roshi and Han, our next move will depend upon their response to our offer." The man's response was a series of firm nods from those that stood around him.
"Then you are all dismissed; I have another matter that requires my immediate attention."
All those around the table walked in the direction of the exit, forcing the group standing there to move aside to let them pass. As the mint-haired woman passed them she paused mid-step and turned to Tayuya. When she spoke, the Leaf ninja were once again surprised by the smooth flow of her voice.
"Looks like you managed to survive again Tayuya, I'm surprised you managed to handle such an assignment without the Imperator there to hold your hand."
The red-head gave an unrefined snort, "Feh, says the girl who had her legs spread open for him the other night; I'm surprised you manage to even make it your tent by yourself without him carrying you there on his-"
"Tayuya, that's enough. Fu, I've given command that you leave us, so why do you seem to be lingering while the rest of the men have already filed out?"
The now identified Fu turned and bowed in the man's direction, "Apologies Imperator, I did not mean to disobey you in front of your guests."
"That does not remove the deed now, leave us, we will discuss your punishment later."
Fu bowed again, and made a quick exit so as not to anger her leader any further than she already had. Once the room was quiet again, Kakashi spoke up.
"Excuse me, but, we of the Leaf village have come to ask for your assistance."
"...yes, I was wondering when this day would come. Ironic really, when you think about it." This confused the Jounin of the group.
"Um, what do you mean by that sir?" Was Kurenai's reply.
The man stood at full height, revealing that he was indeed 6ft, and also showing off a head of short, blonde hair. Next, he turned, and revealed himself to those that had yet to meet the man known as the 'Imperator'. The group from Konoha stood stunned by the transformation, but his cobalt-blue eyes were as steely as ever.
Standing before them was Naruto Uzumaki.
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A/N: Hey! I'm terribly sorry for the extremely long wait, know that it wasn't my intention to make you guys wait so long for these chapters. Now, I know the one before this didn't have much more added to it, but I just didn't feel right leaving it the way I did for the preview (which I should have only had them go up to the end of the bandit mission lol)
So, in case anyone is wondering: I didn't make the legionaries super O.P. Because that would be BORING! Also, the Akatsuki are all S-ranked criminals so of course they are going to be difficult to defeat. Speaking of Akatsuki, the reason Sasori's seemed more entertaining was because I always considered him better than Deidara; and he had more to work with besides throwing explosives, which is basically all Deidara really does in his fights.
Deidara's death was to point out something that bothers me a lot: when the hero or villain just LETS the other person perform their attack when they could just kill them! Another thing about the battle with Deidara was to pint out a major weakness in Naruto's army; they don't do so well against aerial combatants. Now, this is mostly because in the whole show their really aren't that many people who fight that way, nor did Caesar himself actually have to really face anything like that.
Well, there's the new chapters. I hope you like them, and I'll do my best to not make you wait so long again. As always, feel free to PM me or leave a review letting me know your thoughts, they are always welcome. Yes, even the few flames I've received lol.