Sorry it took me so long to update this one. I had it written a while ago, but a friend of mine accidentally deleted it from my PC and I had to start all over again… then I got a huge author's block… ah, the horror. But I managed to finish it now and so I'm uploading. Hope you'll like it.
In reply to some reviews: as for Kengo you'll learn quite a bit about him in the right time, so just be patient about that. Mostly action in this one, but after the Suna mission you'll get to see a bit more romance. As for the characters being a bit OOC: well, I did warned about Hinata… as for the others I'm trying to keep them the way they were in the manga as much as I can (then again it's been three years so they should change at least a bit, you know).
Now, without further to do:
Chapter #7: Puppet Theater
Gaara walked towards the two, missing-nins slowly. None of them said anything, at least until the redhead stopped a meter or two away from the Akatsuki members. They stared at each other for a moment, before Sasori decided to speak up: "I didn't really think you'll come…" and with that he launched a kunai right at the sand-nin.
The Kazekage jumped to his left, dodging the incoming knife and instantly threw a handful of shurikens at the two. However, before the shinobi stars were able to reach the missing-nins, they were all deflected by clay bullets, which shoot out of Deidara's mouth-hand.
"I guess that was to be expected, yeah…" announced the girl with a smile appearing on her face. "But I can say that you guys did put a lot of effort into it, yeah… you even used another Jinchuuriki so we won't notice it's just henge too soon… however, we're not as stupid, as you think, yeah…" and with that another Deidara appeared on top of the pale, blocking Shikamaru and Ino, who were just reaching for Temari.
Instantly Sakura and Hinata jumped out of their hideout and stood right next to the redhead and Chouji along with Chiyo appeared on top of a nearby rock.
"No point in hiding, I guess…" announced Gaara and after performing a quick hand seal he turned into Naruto. "But with my Kyuubi chakra you should have it difficult that I'm a different Jinchuuriki, so how did you know?"
"I fought the one you transformed into…" replied Sasori calmly. "He was forced to use a bit of his demon power against me, therefore I'm aware of the difference… nothing can escape the eye of an artist… Seven against two… that won't do, Deidara…"
"Good thing we decided to prepare ourselves, yeah…" replied the girl that was still hanging above the two leaf-nins on the pale. "And at that rate, the odds are against you guys…" and with that a smirk started to appear on her face.
Before anyone knew it, two other, Deidara's replications appeared right behind Chiyo and Chouji and tens of hooded figures jumped out from under the sand, surrounding Naruto, Hinata and Sakura.
"Now, shall we begin?" asked Sasori with a smile appearing on his face.
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"Dammit, I can hardly keep up with my eyes, not to mention the rest of the body…" Asuma cursed in his mind as another attack with his hand knives missed the blonde's face. "And Kakashi doesn't seem to be doing much better… at that rate, we'll lose badly…"
Kengo jumped away and onto the nearby rock. He glanced down at the two Leaf jounins with a smirk. "Konoha's elite… is that really the best you can do?"
Kakashi slowed down and performed a quick set of hand seals. As he finished, his right hand got surrounded with chakra that made a weird sound. The missing-nin's smile just widen at the sight: "Honestly, Kakashi-san, do you really believe I'll fall for the same trick twice? You should figure that during those ten years I've invented a way to stop that damn Chidori of yours… just because you almost killed me with it once, doesn't mean you'll succeed once more… and it eats a lot of your chakra…"
"You never know unless you try…" replied Kakashi calmly as he charged at the blonde at an incredible speed.
"How dumb can you be?" wondered Kengo as his smile kept getting wider. "In order for that Raikiri to get me he'll need to jump up here and when he does he'll become an easy target… Kakashi-san, I'm disappointed…"
But to his surprise the silver-haired jounin came to a sliding stop right before the rock and hit it with the Chidori, breaking it into thousands of pieces. As the ground started to disappear from under his feet, Kengo lost his balance and started falling with the rocks.
"A diversion…" he noticed a little too late. "I felt for the oldest one in the scrolls…" he cursed as he propped his left hand on the ground in order to avoid falling on his head. But the moment his hand touched the sand, Asuma launched an attack in his stomach.
Acting on instinct, the blonde spun around, avoiding the hit and then, still 'standing' on his left hand only, kicked the smoker in the back of his head. His eyes widen a second later though as he saw that Asuma, instead of being send flying away, used his knives as breaks and remained in place.
The smoker turn around and aimed another attack in the blonde's stomach, surprisingly however the sand under Kengo's hand exploded, creating a huge crater and blowing the leaf-nin away, saving the missing-nin at the same time.
"Was that…?" began Asuma, but the answer was obvious to him. "So everything I heard about him was true, it seems… this only makes things more difficult then they already are…"
In the middle of the crater stood the blonde with a smile appearing on his face once more. He looked at Kakashi, who's face, even though it was mostly covered, revealed surprise. "What's with that look, Kakashi-san?" he asked confidently. "You should have expected this would come sooner or later… I did mastered it only recently, but I think I did a good job… wouldn't you agree? Of course I made some improvements to it, since that jutsu's power leaves plenty to wish for…"
"To master it on your own…" began Kakashi, shocked. "And when you only saw it once even… you have gotten stronger since the last time we fought…"
"It goes with the family…" smirked the blonde. "Now, as much as I enjoyed it, my time is valuable so I think I'll be finishing now… do forgive me Kakashi-san, Asuma-san…" and with that he charged at the two leaf-nins.
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Ino instantly jumped off the pale and landing safely on the ground she picked out few explosive tags. Meanwhile Shikamaru performed his standard technique, aiming at Deidara: "Kagemane no Jutsu!"
The missing-nins started to crawl up the pale, trying her best to run away from the shadow that was chasing her, but to no veil. Finally, having no, other alternative, she decided to follow the blonde Leaf kunoichi's track and jumped of the pale as well.
The lazy chuunin immediately reached trapped Temari and using his shadow to crawl under the clay chains, making them loosen their grip on the Sand kunoichi, thus freeing the girl. Just then the tags placed by Ino exploded and Shikamaru jumped down with unconscious Gaara's sister in his arms down, in order to avoid crushing hard to the ground.
"So that's why he used the Shadow Bind… to get me off the pale, yeah…" Deidara figured as a small smile began to appear on her face. "His goal from the very beginning was to free that girl first… I felt for a simple trick, yeah… oh well, it's more fun that way…" and with that she placed some clay in her hand mouth.
"Ninpou: Nendo Hitoya no Jutsu!" called out Deidara as clay shoot out of the hand mouth and started to circle around Chouji, making him almost completely immobile. The boy tried to break free, yet the bind turned out to be too strong.
"So she uses clay…" Chiyo announced to herself as she jumped back, throwing shurikens at another blonde's clone. "A unique ability… she might be hard to take down…" and that thought appeared in her mind all of the shinobi stars she threw got deflected by a clay kanata created by Deidara.
At the same moment a smirk appeared on Chouji's face and as his 'prison' started to widen, he called out: "Baika no Jutsu!" and before anyone knew it the chubby ninja became three times larger then he already was and with another technique he called out: "Nikudan Sensha!" and suddenly his head, legs and hands disappeared in his body, which started to spin at an incredible speed.
Instantly the clay blocking him got smashed into hundreds of pieces and the spinning ninja himself ran over the clone that imprison him, making it fall apart as well.
"Such hit power…" Chiyo's eyes widen at the sight. "Those kids are stronger then they look…" and with that she reached for a scroll in her bag.
Sakura smashed another one of Sasori's puppets with her fist, yet two more were coming right at her. As they came closer in order to cut her with the katanas they held in hands, Hinata appeared out of nowhere and as she began to spin, the blades hit the chakra sphere that surrounded her.
The moment the white-eyed girl called out: "Hakke Shou Kaiten!" the blades, as well as the puppets, got blown away and crashed against the rocks. Hinata finally came to a stop and as two, new dolls charged right at her, she hit both in the gut, using her gentle fist. It didn't seemed to have any effect on the attackers however.
"Right, they're puppet…" the Hyuuga heiress reminded herself as she jumped back, thus avoiding a hit from the katanas. "They don't have any chakra circulating system nor internal organs, so Jyuken won't do much damage to them… at this point my taijutsu is rather useless…" and with that she instantly picked out several throwing knives and tossed them right at the dolls. All hit their targets, yet that too didn't seem to make any effect either.
Meanwhile Naruto attacked Sasori from behind, making him jump away in order to avoid being hit directly. A second later three of the missing-nin's puppets were already attacking the blonde from every direction.
The loud mouth only smirked and after performing a quick set of hands seals he called out: "Doton: Ishi Enjin no Jutsu!" and in an instant stone spikes shoot from under the ground, creating a ring around him and piercing all the puppets that charged at him in the process.
"That's a high level jutsu from the Iwa…" noticed Sasori as he send more of his dolls to attack the boy. "How come a brat from Konoha learned it? Itachi and Kisame never mentioned that… oh well, a minor inconvenience…" but just then he felt someone grabbing his feet.
As he glanced down, he noticed two, Naruto clones coming out from the sand and grabbing his legs tight and a second later two, other clones grabbed his hands, making him unable to move. "That brat…" he thought as he looked at the whisker-marks. "This is quite unexpected… never thought I'll be forced to use me…" and with that thought spinning blades ripped his cloak and cutting all the bushins made them disappear in the cloud of white smoke.
"What the…?" was all Naruto could say at the sight as he smashed another puppet. "What's with that guy's body?" just then he noticed Chiyo landing right next to him, holding two scrolls, one in each hand.
"If you're wondering how he manage to perform that, I think I might be able to answer…" she announced. "As you figured out already, he's a puppeteer and as such he could also make himself into one…" and with that her face got a bit grim. "Yet I have never expected he'd go that far…"
"He… turned himself into a puppet?" the blonde eyes widen as he took another glare at his opponent and for the first time he saw how he real looked (or at least used to look): he had messy, red hair and hazel eyes. His face showed no emotions at all and all parts of his body seemed to be connected with one another by some sort of clips. In the place of his stomach there was a strange device that shoot a rope ended with a large blade. Naruto also noticed a plate with a strange symbol on the left chest. Also there was a hole in his right chest from which came tens of chakra strings.
"That also someone explains how you're able to control so many puppets at once…" said Chiyo, pointing at the hole. "To go this far…" and with that she unrolled the scrolls and performed few, quick hand seals. Instantly white smoke shoot out of the scrolls and before the loud mouth knew it two puppets in black robes stood between them and Sasori.
"Look at this, you even brought these…" for a moment Naruto thought the missing-nin was about to smirk, yet his expression stayed emotionless. "Mom and Dad… my first creations… Granny, you entertain me to no end…" and with that he picked out his own scroll and performing similar seals to the old kunoichi, he summoned his own puppet.
Naruto's eyes widen as he looked to the sky in order to see a doll about five meters tall, its hands way bigger then they should be. The puppet had a huge hammer attached to its back and no eyes or mouth.
"I call him Kyokanmaru…" announced Sasori, who now stood on top of the giant. "He had never failed me before and I do not think he'll now… so, shall we begin?"
As clay birds came closer, Shikamaru performed a quick chain of hand seals and with the last symbol he called out: "Kagekui!" Instantly his shadow extended itself and once it reached the incoming clay creatures, it transformed into spikes and piercing all the birds, it made them explode.
Ino wasted no time and charged at the missing-nin a second later. Before Deidara noticed she was right in front of her and jumping into the air, she aimed a kunai she held in her head at the Akatsuki member's head.
Deidara ducked under the attack and with a smirk grabbed the blonde kunoichi by the hand that held the kunai. Instantly the missing-nin placed some clay in the mouth hand and right before the leaf-nin's eyes a spike started to form, aimed right at her.
Deidara never got to use it though, as she was forced to jump back to avoid a gigantic fist that slammed the ground between her and Ino. As she glanced up, she noticed a certain, chubby ninja standing in front of her with an oversized arm.
"Oh, you got rid of my clones already?" the missing-nin seemed a bit surprised, yet a smirk was still present on her face. "Guess those brats will be more of a challenge then I first thought, yeah…"
"Chouji, done already?" Ino seemed impressed.
"Yeah…" replied the chubby shinobi, making his arm get back to its normal size. "Chiyo-baasama went to help Naruto and the others with Sasori, so we'll have to handle this freak on our own…"
"Well then, Smarty Pants…" with that Ino turned to Shikamaru. "Any ideas?"
"It'll be troublesome, but I think we can finish this in about five minutes…" responded the lazy chuunin. "I know just the thing…"
"Lets do it then!" the Leaf kunoichi threw her fist to the sky.
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Kankuro grabbed the scrolls with his puppets and headed towards the door. However, before he was able to open them, Gaara appeared before him with Baki standing right behind him.
"Going somewhere?" asked the Kazekage, emotionless as usual.
The puppeteer hesitated, but his sensei decided to answer for him: "You wanted to go to save Temari, didn't you?" the boy with make-up only nodded. "The Elders are against that. You already got beaten by the Akatsuki once and when Temari supported you… why do you believe you have any chances now that you're wounded and alone?"
"And just that is enough to abandon my teammate?" came a response. "Gaara, I know you have duties, but she's your sister… and more then that, she's also a Sand shinobi… as a Kazekage, shouldn't it be your responsibility to bring her back?"
"I wish I could…" replied the redhead, what seemed cold, but the puppeteer knew him too long to be fooled by that tone. "I real do, but since I'm their target…"
"This is bullshit!" yelled Kankuro. "You're doing this, because the Elders told you to! What happened to that Gaara that once said to me that he wish to become the Kazekage to protect his village? To protect his people? Are we really gonna let Konoha fight our own battles?"
Gaara just looked at him. The last time he saw his brother that determinate was during the Chuunin Exam when they were running away. He slowly turned around and heading towards the door, he said to his former sensei: "Baki, I'd like to make an announcement…"
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"He destroyed them both which such ease…" Chiyo stood with her mouth open and her eyes widen above the two puppets that now were smashed into bit. "He really became a monster…"
"Dammit!" curse Naruto, as he performed his standard technique: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" and instantly tens of him appeared before the huge doll.
"Even if there will be more fleas…" began Sasori, still emotionless. "They'll still be just fleas…"
"Listen up, redhead!" yelled the real Naruto, who stood behind his clones, pointing a finger at the missing-nin. "You attacked my friends, even wounded one of them, you kidnapped another and now you're looking down on us… I'll teach you not to mess with me nor any of my friends!" and with that all the clones charged at the giant.
"How sad…" sighed Sasori as Kyokanmaru raised his hammer at the clones.
The blonde's that ran in the further lines jumped into the air and using the backs of the clones out front spring into the air even higher just a second before the giant's hammer wiped the clones that stayed on the ground with a single swing.
Instantly the puppet raised its hammer a little and once more attacked the clones. Half of Narutos grabbed the other half and threw the higher into the air just before they disappeared in the clouds of white smoke as they got hit with the powerful weapon.
The giant once more swung his hammer and destroyed the rest of the clones, making them disappear in the cloud of white smoke. As the smoke cleared however, Sasori's eyes widen (A/N: if you can call that, since he's a puppet and all…) at the sight of two more Narutos that stayed behind in the air.
The clone grabbed the original by the hand and tossed him right at the giant with all the strength it had. The real blonde concentrated the chakra in his palm, creating a ball of spiral, blue chakra in it.
"That brat… I won't manage to make Kyokanmaru do another swing in time…" and the second this thought hit the missing-nin's mind, Naruto slammed the hand that held the chakra orb into the puppet. A second later the giant felt apart into thousands of piece.
"He actually manage to destroy Kyokanmaru…" Sasori said to himself as he landed safely on his feet. "It seems that this Jinchuuriki may be hard to obtain… I'll have to go all out now…"
A second later Sakura and Hinata joined the blonde and the surprised Sand kunoichi, who stood right before the missing-nin. Sasori just gave both of the new arrivals a bored look and asked: "So, you destroyed all my puppets already?"
"Of course…" replied Sakura with a smirk. "Did you really thought that you'll be able to defeat us with just them?"
"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" asked the white-eyed girl with concern in her voice.
"Yeah…" responded the blonde. "I was just worried about you two a bit, but I see that there was no need for doing that… lets just kick this guy's ass and head back already…"
"Such confidence…" Sasori shook his head. "You don't suppose I'm out of tricks, do you?" and with that he unrolled another scroll and after performing the right hand seals he summoned another puppet.
The moment it appear, Chiyo's eyes widen even more. Her hands started shaking a bit, yet she managed to stay calm: "This is…"
"So you noticed?" asked the missing-nin as a puppet in black robe and long, black hair stood behind him. "Hope you're impressed, because this one was a bit hard to obtain…"
"What is it, Chiyo-baasama?" asked Hinata, giving the sand-nin a questioning glare.
"The one who was thought to be the most powerful man that ever lived in the Suna…" replied the old kunoichi quietly. "The Third Kazekage…"
And so chapter seven ends. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave a review once you're done.
Just for the record (coz some of you might be asking that in reviews) I've decided to leave most of Sasori's background for you to discover for yourselves (by reading the manga or watching the anime) so that's why I didn't really show what were his thoughts when Chiyo used 'Mom' and 'Dad'. I think that's all I have to say in this matter.
As usually, time for the jutsu encyclopedia:
Chidori (Thousand Birds) - Kakashi's only sole original technique, originally formed for the use of assassination. The user, gathers such a large concentration of chakra in the hand, that it becomes visible. Pushing the limits of the body, the user charges forward, the chakra amount growing, as does the incredible speed. The chakra becomes so powerful, that it becomes similar to a blade, and is able to cut through near anything. The attack creates a constant 'chi' noise, sounding like a thousand birds advancing towards you. The jutsu gained its name from this sound. It gained a nickname 'Lightning Edge' or, Raikiri – coz it is said that the Sharingan user cut the bolt in half with it.
Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Bind Skill) – a technique that allows the user to control their own shadow, changing it to any shape they wish, and extending/shortening it inside a certain radius. When the shadow contacts the opponents shadow, it combines the two, making the opponent do anything the user does. The shadow can also latch onto multiple targets Yet, the jutsu has a time limit.
Ninpou: Nendo Hitoya no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Clay Prison Skill) – jutsu used by Deidara. Basically the user must first make the clay capable of changing shape (Deidara does it by putting it into her hand mouth) and then, with the use of the right hand seals, release it, creating a sort of cocoon that traps the opponent inside.
Baika no Jutsu (Multi-size Skill) – a skill known to the Akimichi clan. It allows the user to change the size of his entire body (or just a part of it) theoretically as much as he desires. However the bigger the change, the more chakra has to be used… not to mention the calories.
Nikudan Sensha (Meat Tank) – a technique used after Baika no Jutsu. Sends the enlarged body into a powerful roll, after the user hides his hands, legs and head in it. The power of such 'tank' is incredible, however it uses up a lot of calories.
Hakke Shou Kaiten (Heavenly Spin) – thought to be a 'perfect defense'. At the exact moment a blow is landed on the body, large amounts of chakra are expelled from the Chakra Holes around the body. With that force, the user's body spins like a top. The combined efforts of the chakra and the spin, first deflect the attack - then throw the opponent backwards.
Doton: Ishi Enjin no Jutsu (Earth Element: Stone Ring Skill) – a technique that Naruto learned during his three-year training. The user first sends his chakra into the ground and then, with the use of right hand seals, makes it pull up spiked stones around him. This jutsu is perfect for stopping taijutsu users charging on you.
Kagekui – one of Shikamaru's newest jutsus. I'm not that familiar with how it works, so in order not to spread false information or something I'm only mentioning it here. I'll give you more details the moment I'll find out more of it myself.
And with that this chapter truly ends. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll keep in mind to leave me a review. Until next time (hopefully).