Chapter 73: Value of Gold
When the report of two figures approaching the Sand came to Rasa, he already knew what to expect. When the dots of black in the distance grew closer as the Sun rose higher, gaining miniscule dots of red along the black, Rasa was already sending orders out. Maybe some would presume that because it wasn't directly his war, the Kazekage decided to not participate in the fighting he already sent his shinobi to initiate and that he was content letting the other Kage kill each other. To an extent, that was a reason that the man used to keep his presence in his home and around the people he led, but that was not the whole of it. If one truly wanted to know why the Fourth Kazekage had yet to leave the confines of the plateau center that the Sand resided within, it was because of the pair that dared to approach his village. It was because of the group that thought they could take what Rasa tried so hard to use as the Sand Village's prosperity. They dared to take away the most important asset the Sand has held on to for generations.
"Tell the people to take cover indoors and tell the garrison to stand guard, all of them. Do not approach directly." Rasa's voice was as calm and steady as it always was, not bothering to take his eyes off of the approaching figures to address the wizened shinobi at his side. The jounin had no less than fifteen years of seniority over Rasa, likely closer to twenty, and he was representative of what was left after he distributed the bulk of his forces to the war brewing east. Old men along with green and unblooded genin remained within the village along with the untested chunin that had nowhere else to be. The Sand Village couldn't be considered well-manned as it was, but it was still far from helpless. "Retrieve Gaara immediately."
The last command was indirectly meant for a bystanding young chunin that was still at his post, and with only a few seconds of delay, the boy was up on his feet and scrambling to fulfill his kazekage's orders. Only the strong breeze accompanied Rasa then, a breeze that he took the time to appreciate for a few final moments before he turned from the cliff edge he stood near and traveled downward to the singular path through the large cliffs of the plateau around his village. He stood still in front of the village exit for only a few minutes as his Jinchuuriki was retrieved, blood beginning to thrum within him for the first time in many years. There was no logical way to escape a battle with S-ranked threats that didn't require a battle or the sacrifice of his weapon. Long forgotten was his Kage attire, the Hat and robes being left in his office when he was first notified of the incoming guests, leaving him in a loose black hooded sweatshirt with matching sweats that both covered the light mail that hid underneath. Light, airy, and comfortable for what was to come.
Gaara appeared in a mass of accumulating sand particles and he did so without a word to the Kazekage, the boy merely crossing his arms as black-ringed light-green eyes bored into Rasa. The once crazed beast of a boy had made himself into a proper weapon in the years that had passed. He was quiet, he asked a few questions, and he no longer brought only terror to the village he was supposed to protect. He had grown into a body that could be used to fight with a strong stature, his blood red hair only longer and more intimidating to the average man, hair that matched the loose sweats that sat under the pale green flak jacket and gray harness that carried the large sand gourd on his back. Rasa did not feel warmth at the visage of the boy, he did not love the thing that killed his precious late wife, and he surely did not think of the boy with any faint fondness. What Rasa did feel, however, was that the Sand was well-defended so long as his Jinchuuriki stood guard for it.
"Come. Your hunters have come knocking." Those words were the only ones shared between Kazekage and Jinchuuriki before both set down the narrow path out of the village and into the blistering desert outside its confines. As his feet glided over the blowing, constantly shifting sand of the Land of Wind, Rasa's eyes never left the halted pair of shinobi that stood in the distance. One of the two figures was severely hunched with a back that almost arched over its head that fanned outward with rowed braids. As Rasa got closer to the pair, he realized that there was little more to be discerned from the hunched one as a bulky cloak blocked the rest of its body, a mask covered the face below dark sharp eyes, the wooden complexion that could be seen above the mask, and jointed scorpion's tail that escaped the rear of the cloak to come to a vicious point. The other Akatsuki was fairly unspectacular in comparison to the mysteriously hunched one, with the only notable feature being the bright yellow hair that was pulled into a high ponytail with a deliberate portion of the hair being left to shield the man's left eye while the right charcoal eye measured up both the Kazekage and Gaara in quick movements.
"Ah, Rasa of the Desert. You look as miserable as you always have." The hunched thing spoke in a rough, graveled voice before devolving into a hoarse laugh. The body shifted with accompanying clicks and snaps that sounded all too familiar to the Kazekage. It took no longer for the Kage to draw his precious mineral up from the depths of the ground below. Today would not be an easy one. "Have you come to give up your Jinchuuriki for the lives of your precious village?"
The scorpion tail at the rear of the hunched body shifted and danced until it sat only inches above the lowered head of the thing before him, the threat clear in the movements. Rasa was going to respond, vocalizing his clear denial swiftly to begin what they all knew was coming, but then the sand below him shifted and moved like it gained a mind of its own. His eyes cut to his right toward Gaara who stood a half-step behind him but the boy made no move to shift his gaze from the blonde boy with the slashed Stone headband on his forehead. Glancing back downward, Rasa saw white spider-like clay figures crushed in the grasp of small sand hands as smoke rose upward to fill his nose with a thick burnt smell.
"Hm. I had hoped that we could make this trip quick, this desert isn't a comfortable climate in creating my art." The blonde man groaned and spoke with exaggerated exasperation as his eyes fell glumly toward the dismantled clay that was dragged to a spot between the two pairs of men. Lips twitched downward as Rasa recognized the second man before him and another sentiment toward the chores of the day ran through his head.
"The Mad Bomber Deidara and Sasori of the Red Sand, you both have come to seek your judgment, then? Very well." The lustrous particles of gold he held at his command was settled just under the surface of the ground awaiting the order to swarm those that idly stood atop of it. He couldn't strike recklessly or with any haphazard movements. These men earned their reputations off S-ranked fugitives for a reason and there was a reason neither of their villages wished to hold such promising talents. They were strong and dangerous to any that stood before them.
"Deidara, remove the village while I catch up with Rasa." The gruff voice that Sasori's makeshift body spoke with left no room for the bomber to argue, earning a scoff from the blonde as he reached into his satchel before grasping a massive glob of clay that was thrown into the air. The glob of clay expanded, morphed, and reformed before Deidara leaped to take his seat atop a large bird that flew toward the village at Rasa's back. The Kazekage whipped his head to Gaara to give the order to follow, but the boy was already dissolving to catch up to the bird.
"If it is you or I, the village must have its Jinchuuriki." Those were the last words Rasa left with Gaara as the boy fully became a cloud of passing sand particles. Rasa's gaze lingers on the large shadow of the bird that flew high above them and the blowing cloud that hovered between bird and shadow as they raced to the cliff face at the entrance to his village. Even when looking away, Rasa had no troubles blocking the swift thrust of the scorpion tail that sunk into a wall of powdered gold. "No need to be hasty, Sasori. Your time will come soon."
The thin, impossible miniscule nerves of chakra that connected Rasa to the particles of gold that now sat just under the ground and directly in front of his body gave Rasa almost total understanding of the field that he was to battle on. It was like he had a blanket of senses constructed by his own chakra that felt the shifts around it. That blanket let Rasa know when Sasori tried to yank his tail from the wall of Gold Dust, a yank that only deepened the grasp he had on the tail. While the rear of the hunched body Sasori sat in was in his grasp, Rasa crossed his arms as he settled in to force the dust under Sasori's feet to rise and grasp the body he hid within. Tendrils of Gold Dust weighed heavily on the cloaked figure before, in an instant, those tendrils gripped and tightened to crush the shielding case around the man that escaped the Sand's grasp long ago. Rasa didn't have to see the result of his Gold Dust's grip on the Akatsuki member, not that he could with his own dust still blocking his view, as a symphony of snaps and cracks that racked Sasori's contraption.
The tail embedded in the dust wall slacked, allowing Rasa to lower his dust, only for a thread of shimmering gold to snap back up and halt the single blade that surged forward from a thin string of chakra that led from the inside of Sasori's bulky Akatsuki coat. It wasn't a massive coat that once sat atop the thing that sank under the sand, traveling under Rasa's layer of Gold Dust, but one that fit the form of a normal body. An oddly familiar body even after twenty years of not seeing the boy that turned on his own village. Rasa was just under ten years Sasori's senior, and yet the Akatsuki member still looked like he was at the end of his teens. A man notorious for his crimes against the Sand and the Land of Wind still looked as green as those that manned the village behind him.
Trapped in the stalemate of holding Sasori's stabbing blade in place and standing stunned at the sight of the man before him, Rasa made no moves to further his position against his enemy. He was sure that Sasori would be smiling cruelly at him, gloating at the stunned expression that undoubtedly overcame the Kage's face, but such expressions would be impossible for him now. Instead of a face of flesh and blood, Sasori boasted a body no different than the shell that had sunk out of his direct sight. He was as wooden as the puppets that he so laboriously slaved at to create, lightly tanned skin replaced with finely carved and treated wood, light brown eyes painted on top of porcelain orbs, and threads of fabric that matched the reddish-pink tint of his hair. It was surreal to see such an accurate replication of a human's form and aweing to see that replication move as a person would.
"Have I made Rasa speechless?" The breathy chuckle that came afterwards was unnatural from wooden lips and an unchanging face, and even with the comment, Rasa had yet to move. Only when the blade in his dust's grasp was roughly retracted before Sasori's opposite arm to fly up and dispatch a ball that was swarmed and thrown back at the puppet boy before it got anywhere close to rasa, dispelling a massive cloud of purple gas that fully enveloped Sasori within it.
"You forget where I hail from, Sasori. I know these tricks just as I know the Sand. You use arts of our village against a Kage that has only been dedicated to that village. Just another disappointment to add to your history of many." The cloud of poison gas was wide and expansive, but was quickly being blown away by the heavy gusts that pushed through the desert. Still, while Sasori was hidden by the purple curtain, another barrage of blades flew from many directions at the stationary spot where Rasa remained. It was useless, just as the others had, when the dense cloud of glittered dust caught the blades and redirected them around Rasa's form. If one of the two men were going to speak, any words were cut off by the echoes of a massive explosion from behind the Kage, making his head turn to see the thick cloud of sand that enveloped the village as a large bird swooped overhead.
"They've begun their fun, I do say it may be time for us to join them." Maybe Rasa just heard the undertone of annoyance for his own sake, but the vigor that the puppet discharged the thick scroll that fell into his hand was unmistakable. The long tail of the scroll flew outward as one of the many seals on its face was activated to release a tall figure that was introduced with a thick billow of smoke. A long, old, brown cloak gave a spector-like appearance to the summoned object as there were no feet or legs to be seen under the uneven edges that hovered inches off of the sandy ground. Jointed, wooden hands barely peeked out from the sleeves that were similarly long and torn while long, jagged navy hair sat atop a fur lined collar at the top of the cloak. Thin, sharp, soulless yellow eyes gazed into Rasa's eyes much like Sasori's did, and it wasn't hard for Rasa to recognize the wooden, expressionless face that stared back at him from over Sasori's shoulder. "Let me reintroduce to you my favorite creation and a personal pride and joy: the Third Kazekage."
There was a hum that rang with pleasure within Sasori's voice, one that couldn't be matched by the blank expression of the puppet as the Third danced eerily just behind him. It was bizarre seeing his predecessor in such a way, especially when the man simply vanished one day to leave the Sand leaderless and lost. Leaving Rasa to step forth and take the mantle that was so ungraciously dropped by the Sand's most impressive shinobi. For a moment, several of them in fact, Rasa played with the idea of the puppet being nothing more than a red herring. Perhaps it was nothing but a powdered up puppet that only looked the part, but when dark grains exploded from the ground, some swimming through the Gold Dust that flowed below them, and traveled under the hanging cloak only to flow idly from the puppet's mouth, Rasa understood that this was a much different battle to be fought. Gold Dust spun and flew around Rasa's legs, bracing itself for the onslaught that would come from the Iron Sand of his predecessor.
There were subtle movements of Sasori's fingers, imperceptible strings of chakra manipulating the shallow movements of the puppet behind him, that then turned drastic to show the start of their fight. Winds picked up, blowing harshly toward the Sand Village as sand fluttered into the air, explosions echoed out at a constant pace, and wooden fingers finally snapped decisively as the Third's swaying turned into an abrupt swathe of its arms. Black particles of iron danced from the puppet's mouth and loose sleeves and launched toward Rasa. An ear punishing scrape of iron on gold filled the Fourth's ears as gold shot from the ground to stop the swarm of iron particles. Lustrous gold and light-sucking black iron intertwined and danced from the slightly elevated meeting point upward into the sky, becoming a cloud of spinning dust that began to cast a haze around them. Rasa's eyes didn't leave Sasori's or the Third's forms as he willed his Gold Dust into the dangerous dance above them. He saw the purple haze that flowed from the puppet's mouth and the toxins that sat within the puppeteer's preferred weapon.
The cloud of spinning dust slammed downward into the ground, cut across the field, and rose once again to restart the spinning and crashing. Gold and iron trailed upward to accumulate back and add to the respective particle techniques, but nothing showed to skew the mad dance in either direction. That being said, it did not mean that the aerial attraction of the two techniques were useless, not even a little bit. Rasa could see the iron particles rising from many different places across the sand's surface. Lost and degraded portions of weapons of the past turned to a dust, perhaps the Third's particles from many years ago that still graced their sands, and miniscule accumulations of the natural resource conveniently at the Third's disposal all flew underneath the cloak before being ejected from one space or another in the puppet's cloak. Rasa could acknowledge the practiced ease Sasori controlled the Iron Sand, a feat that cannot be taken lightly. Finely controlling individual grains to work in synchronicity was not something that could be learned off of a whim and Sasori proved his well-noted genius by being able to be as proficient as he was with it. Rasa, however, was not merely a practitioner of his Gold Dust and neither was the Third Kazekage.
"An impressive display, Sasori, but amateurish when you compare these abilities to the greatness of Lord Third." Suddenly, like in reaction to his words, gold and iron slammed in between the still staring shinobi to clash like snakes locked in a deadly knotted stalemate. Somehow, even a wooden face could show its displeasure at the word "amateurish", displeasure matched by a scathing response.
"You dare call my art amateurish, Rasa? My art is immortal, forever standing, and shall be displayed far longer than your sorry face will." There was a twitch at Rasa's lips as he heard Sasori's objections, as he watched the Third's puppet move in front of the boyish puppet and curved scythe blades fell from its right sleeve that was matched by a spinning saw on the other the particles still clashed in a cloud above them, more particles and purple haze dances around the Third's body while it come forward in a charge.
"Golden Tsunami!" In a single flow of motion, the light brown of the sand that covered the ground between the Kazekage, the Akatsuki member, and the floating puppet in between was replaced by mass amounts of golden dust that rolled in a single, uniform wave. That wave seemed to unsettle the arrogant stance of Sasori, a wooden gaze focusing only on the glittered ground beneath him, but Rasa wouldn't allow the puppet any chance to scheme a way into a clean escape.
The Gold Dust just passed Rasa's feet rose and climbed toward the sky as all the dust surged toward him to gather into the wave that swiftly cut off Rasa's line of sight with the puppet. It was fundamental, occupying the bulk of the Third's iron in the sky as he used the expanse of gold at his feet to flood the battlefield. It was the Third that used such a tactic against his younger self before his disappearance. Magnet Release was an incredible resource but entirely useless without the proper resources at one's disposal, something only a known master of the techniques would understand. Even when Gaara was little more than a mindless beast, the boy knew to keep that gourd at his back. Sasori assumed himself superior because he has a cruel copy of a great shinobi, of a better shinobi, but the puppet seemed to have lost its humility along with its body.
Rasa felt the charging puppet of the Third retract as the wave of glittered dust rolled itself over Sasori, as tendrils lifted to try and latch onto wooden soles, and Iron Sand tried to pry itself from the swirled mix in the sky. Nothing could stop the wave of Gold Dust from slamming onto the form of Sasori, nor the second or third that followed as golden sheets continued to cascade upon the spot that Sasori once stood. The Fourth Kazekage had yet to take a step since he halted himself in front of the pair of Akatsuki, and he held his stance as gold slowly flowed from atop his opponent's temporary grave. Black particles fell uselessly back to the ground to taint the perfect visage of the ground Rasa created, showing the halting of the Third's Iron Sand.
First, it was the shaggy collar of the Third's cloak, but it lacked the dark hair that sat upon it as the head that once sat on the puppet's shoulders no longer sat in its place. That collar gave way to what was hidden under the draped cloak, metal cords banded around a skeletal frame that housed complex inner workings that Rasa couldn't make anything of outside of how beyond him it was. The bladed and sawed arms gave way through the glistening dust, but neither side still attached themselves to the body. Eventually, the body of Sasori finally showed itself, but the cloak that covered the beast underneath no longer remained in place. Rasa wasn't shocked to see the small movements of a still living Sasori as the Gold Dust removed itself, a puppet's body worried not over the pressure that came with being buried by golden sands, but he didn't expect to see what replaced what was once flesh.
Sasori creaked up into a stand, one that was shaky from the unbalanced dust at his feet, and the puppet's focus lingered on the toy that was left in pieces at his feet. Golden tendrils that lightly wrapped themselves around his ankles with little purpose but to pester were shaken off in exaggeratory movements and the cloak that hung from his waist still was ripped off violently. Wings of blades unfanned themselves from the tucked positions at Sasori's back to extend outwards behind his figure. A panel that was once Sasori's right pectoral opened to show a gaping hole, just like a panel that sat where his stomach would be but the stomach panel revealed a coiled cord that was fixed with a sharpened point at its end. Neither panel drew Rasa's attention away from the cylindrical box that sat within the cavity over Sasori's heart, likely poking out from the back of his puppet body as it did in the front, and the red characters for "Scorpion" showed brightly from it.
"Very well, Rasa. You want to be thrust into obscurity so swiftly, then I shall grant you your wish." From the puppet's forearms, uncountable scrolls were ejected and launched into the sky, all unfurling like a pouring of paper raining from the sky as the scrolls displayed the countless seals within them. Even the thick scroll that the Third Kazekage was ejected from flew into the sky by an unseen force from the depths of the golden powder. From the empty panel on Sasori's chest, a bundle of threads flew outward and connected themselves to the flying scrolls and a cacophony of pops and accompanying billows of smoke filled the sky above them.
Gold Dust retreated inward toward Rasa as the battlefield that once was bathed in the high Sun of the desert was overshadowed by the sheer number of puppets that hung in the sky and were linked to the endless strands of chakra that came from his chest panel. Ten. Ten puppets was the limit of the highest masters of puppetry. One puppet, a whole mechanism, being controlled by a single strand of chakra from a single finger was considered a near-impossible feat. Above Rasa, filling the sky, was hundreds of puppets that all held their own weapon that was raised and aimed to puncture holes into the Kazekage's body, and yet, there were still two hands of the puppet body of Sasori that opened at the palms to show metal nozzles that were likely another way for the boy to attack him.
"Red Secret Jutsu: Performance of a Hundred Puppets." The calm, reserved voice of Sasori boiled something fierce from deep within. Somehow, the unmoving orbs of the puppet man gained a glint of madness in the painted porcelain shouldn't hold anything but lifelessness. "You will die here, Rasa. Your village will be leveled." Another booming explosion echoed through the air, "And the Sand will be forgotten along with you and all the other Kazekage that came before you. All that will be remembered is that Sasori of the Red Sand, a god amongst the mortals, came from a place whose name is no longer recognized."
Sasori leaped into the air, one of his puppets swooping down to allow the puppet master to mount up on top of its shoulders. Wafting air that signaled the unanimous movement of countless airborne puppets moving at once was Rasa's only warning before the red cloaked puppets that hung above him came screaming down at him with their weapons thrusting forward. Gold Dust once again began moving once again, starting with a dome that arced itself outward to shield Rasa's face while various tendrils of gold reached upward to try and impede the charge. Three fingers lifted themselves to cover the left eye of the Kazekage as an orb of sand rose from the ground to accumulate at his head, an orb that matched the eye that was now being covered as it rose to see the battlefield above the golden shield that had erected itself in front of him.
It was no longer simple. It was no longer Rasa playing with an amateur Magnet Release user. Now it became a delicate balance of life and death.
His golden eye hung high above the battlefield, watching as the mass of puppets moved to collide with the barrier that rose in front of the Kazekage. As the red cloaked puppets drew closer, golden snares rose up and plucked the lowest ones from the sky, bursts of Gold Dust exploded and caught a few of the bodies within the flowing sea of glittered particles, and long, sharp spikes of refined and combat gold shot from the shield and skewered the puppets that fell head first on the barrier. However, despite these measures, the simple fact of the matter was that there were too many enemies for such simple and limited maneuvers. The wave of dancing wooden mannequins collapsed on the barrier and began to wrap around its now spined surface. The flanks of Rasa were now coming to life with large claws of gold that halted attacks, puppets that were pulled to the ground and splintered apart were reformed, and another way of puppets came back to charge forward again.
"Sasori will simply wait until his numbers can outmaneuver my Gold Dust." Rasa thought with no small amount of spite as his eye focused on the calmly hovering Akatsuki member that seemed content with watching the swarming of the Fourth Kazekage. For a moment, Rasa forfeited his eyesight of the battlefield to bring his hands together to form a set of seals before he let his body assimilate into the fine lustered powder he controlled, conceding the position that was now swarmed in clattering puppets and their savage weaponry. Rasa's dusted form dispersed when the scythe of a puppet that broke the left flank slashed forward in a desperate attempt to land a strike on the Kage.
The Kazekage reformed upon his own platform of Gold Dust not far back from his previous spot, only about a dozen yards back and half that above the ground, and from his lips came the jutsu that he escaped his previous spot to perform.
"Golden Tomb: Shimmering Eddies." Rasa spoke without heat, without power, and without any grandiose movements. He simply spoke the words to himself as he stared at the sea of Gold Dust that was overrun by Sasori's army, a sea that rippled in one, uniform motion before deep chasms were drilled into the soft sand of the desert with swirling golden particles only digging deeper. Puppets that found themselves trapped under, atop, or within the barrier of Gold Dust were dragged down into the spinning eddies that covered the battlefield. Puppets that followed Sasori's gaze of Rasa that stood close to the seas of gold were snapped down by strands of gripping glimmers and buried deep within Rasa's grasp unable to reform or construct at Sasori's behest.
Still, despite a large mass of puppets finding their resting place under the heavy weight of gold, Sasori still had a small army at his back that escaped the eddies that were slowing back to a dull flow of gold powder. The puppeteer was level across the field, sitting just barely removed from the amassed gold above the sand that slowly pulled back toward Rasa's position at the Kage's behest. The puppet's gaze shifted from the Gold Dust and back to Rasa before nozzles seemed to expand from wooden palms that faced the ground, fanned blades began to spin idly behind his back, and the puppets that were once again at his back shifted once again.
"He thinks to attack me before the Gold Dust finds itself under me again." Even with the number of puppets at Sasori's disposal approximately halved, there was still heed to be taken. Rasa waited until Sasori made his move, and when the puppets began screaming to Sasori's right, arcing a path to herd Rasa from his left side back, the Kazekage pulled at his Gold Dust more aggressively, making it crawl over itself toward the man as the golden platform he stood upon drifted through the air to meet it. The puppetmaster decided to take action rather than sitting back once again.
The puppet the Akatsuki member stood atop shot forward to cut off Rasa short of his golden particles with his palms lifting up to point themselves at the Kage. Rasa grit his teeth as he saw his opponent cover the shorter distance to his Gold Dust faster than he could, and he realized that the shallow embers that trickled out of the nozzles pointed at him would likely not stay as tame as they were. Stopping several yards short of the bulk of his Dust, the platform that Rasa rode disappeared from under his feet and formed a stiff wall that impeded the torrent of flames that exploded from the puppet's hands. Flames that did quick work to melt the fine particles into a solid mass that began to seep down from its rigid barricade. The Kazekage saw the wave of puppets collapsing in on his left side, he felt the heat of the flames die down, and he reached his left arm outward to call to the swarming mass of gold.
Like a perfectly timed melody, gold particles latched onto the Kazekage's arm and crawled up the man's arm and drifted across his chest to separate him from his opponent that was hidden behind molten gold. It separated them enough to narrowly block the thrusting cord that stabbed through the almost liquified barrier and sank deeply in the tendrils of dust that crawled across his chest. It accumulated enough to gather a counter for the tight wave of puppets that were closing in from the left, and it gave Rasa enough space to form more hand seals once he pulled his right hand back to his body.
"Shukaku's Tail." Came Rasa's tight voice, fatigue filtering into his mind and body as he willed the Gold Dust crawling across him to continue to the left to meet the charging puppets. Fashioned after the One-Tail itself, a thick, jagged, and massive amalgamation of gold pushed past Rasa's face and grew into a large copy of a Tailed-Beasts tail. A broad, club-like mound of gold that matched its sandy inspiration extended outward and into the air in massive proportions, splaying out the layered accumulations of particles that ruffled over each other like mild fur refusing to be clamped down to dwarf the wooden army. The thick tail swatted the mass of puppets down, rose up, and swiped down again. With large, earth shattering slams, the tail of Shukaku grounded the wave of puppets and confined them to a prison of gold as the tail collapsed on itself with every downward swipe. Loose golden powder weighing heavily on the puppets it grounded and removing them from the fight at hand.
Rasa danced backward across the sand as the remaining dust that lingered from the expansive ninjutsu, as well as the closest particles from the broken tail gathered beneath his feet once again. Sasori burst forward, now that a large mass of gold no longer separated them with his blades raised and surrounding his body like a peacock's audacious feathers. Flaring his own chakra, Rasa pulled as much Gold Dust toward him. Compared to the giant waves he conjured earlier, compared to the massive tail he just accumulated, what Rasa had snaking across the surface of the sand, what he had under his feet, there were no large chasms of Gold Dust at his immediate beck and call. He let the dust at his feet carry him away from Sasori's aggressive charge, a blade that sat over the puppet's shoulder shooting forward and dusting over the Kage's drifting head as he glided over the desert's surface. More gold gathered around him as Rasa crafted a spike from his feet that tried to punish Sasori's charge, but the spike was cut in half by the mechanism of blades from the puppet's back.
Rasa was backpedaling again as another charge of the spiked cord chased him atop the sand while Sasori reoriented himself for his next strike, but nothing was done to stop it. Pushing air heavily through his nose, aches riddling his body, and fatigue covering his mind, Rasa showed no other intention outside of fleeing away from the puppet before him.
"You have lost, Rasa, if you think that you can run from me forever. In my immortality, I lack the need for food, drink, and rest." There was no hidden pride from Sasori's words, all of it blatant and clear as unblinking eyes traveled with Rasa's movements. The Kage would narrowly dodge, relocate, have a hasty counterattack blocked or rendered useless, and start back at dodging again. Circles were drawn in brown sand and gold dust, and if anyone were to truly watch, it would seem like Sasori was simply prolonging a forgone conclusion.
Until Rasa's hands came together again.
It would be costly, as any technique would be at Rasa's level of wear from the large displays of Magnet Release, but it was necessary. Sasori surged forward with extra aggression as he saw the Kazekage preparing for another attack, but it was already too late. Rasa's hand met the ground and he knew the battle had reached its conclusion.
"Shukaku's Prison." Was all that needed to be said as slim streams of gold, streams that were gathered slowly, leftovers of the failed strikes he sent toward Sasori, and the accumulated gold that clung close to his feet the entire time all rose in thick bands that latched lecherously to the puppet's body as it tried to remove Rasa's lowered head from his body. The rising tendrils made quick work of slowing the puppet as gold climbed up its wooden body and weighing down the Akatsuki member. Gold Dust spread across his form, tendrils tightened and pulled Sasori into the sand. Before long, the entirety of Sasori was encased in a tightly wound pyramid that only allowed the puppet's head to peek from its top and blades cross every which way behind him. Years ago, when Shukaku needed to be tamed after Gaara's failed control of the beast as a boy, this was how Rasa was able to tame the beast until his sealers could bring the beast back to rights. The density of the Gold Dust tightly confining the body was too much for even the Tailed-Beast to overcome, given enough time to prepare, and the same could be said about the Puppet master before him.
"It appears you have lost, Sasori, not I." There was no pride. There was no triumph. The fatigue Rasa felt was one he hadn't experienced in a long time. The hazy, sand covered visage of the village as echoes of explosions continued to sound through the desert winds showed that his village was not yet saved. Parchedness, tiredness, and aches filled Rasa's body and yet he was far from done. Still, there was one issue handled. One enemy was eliminated. Perhaps the body Sasori made was the closest thing to immortality, but the cylinder that was marked over his heart was not impenetrable. Digging into the blanket of gold that wrapped around the puppet, it was that cylinder that he focused on until Sasori spoke again.
"Is that what you think? Then what is it that sticks through your chest, Rasa? Your trophy of victory?" Sasori spoke glibly, too much so for a wooden man trapped, but the explosion of sand behind him told Rasa all he needed to know. It was more reflex than anything else that forced Rasa to tighten his Gold Dust's grip on the puppet he had trapped. It was shock that saved Rasa from feeling the thick blade enter his back and carve out the center of his chest, showing a bloodied scorpion's tail just below the man's gaze.
It was worry that filled him as Rasa fell to the ground as he heard the large, percussive boom that blew sand passed his gaze as a white, untouched cylinder rolled in front of his face through the haze of sand and gold. It was peace that filled his soul when Rasa realized that his duties were over, that it wasn't his village or his men that awaited him now, but his beautiful Karura that would greet him in the next life.
It was darkness that took him seconds later.
I always know which chapters I like after I've written them when I read through the whole thing before posting. There's at least a gap of a week between writing and posting, so my mind is usually in an entirely different place already. Gotta say, I'm a fan of this one. I can't really say if that'll transfer over to you guys, but fuck it.
Speaking of other chapters, I realized I haven't directly addressed this. Just because someone says something, no matter the perspective, that doesn't make it true. It really shouldn't have to be said, but just in case, the whole untrustworthy narrator thing is kind of a given when you go into different perspectives. I though I'd bring that up after the chapter I just finished.
A lot of fighting lately on my side, expect a little more next time when we turn the focus eastward of the desert.