Yes, I finally manage to write this one! Sorry for the long wait… I know it took me like forever to update, but even though I had it mostly planned, I still get a major author's block on it… I just couldn't write it the way I'd be pleased with it. But now I have and I'm quite satisfied with the result… still it could be a bit better, but overall I think it turned out okay.
Thank you for all the encouraging reviews for the last chapter… it really keeps me going and I hope you'll be at least just as pleased with this one as you were with the last (especially since you had to wait so long).
There was hope for this one being beta-lized, however that backfired a bit (it's no-one's fault, it just happened) so I'm afraid you'll have to face my sucky gramma once more… sorry.
For most of the questions they were about "What's Gaara plan on doing?"… Well, you'll find out in this chapter… I guess the only thing left for me to do is stop babbling and get on with it, so here goes:
Chapter #8: Suffering of an Artist
"The Sandaime Kazekage?" Sakura repeated surprised. "What do you mean?"
"So what if that looks like the Third?" asked Naruto with confidence. "That's still just a puppet with strings and all… it's not different from those that we already destroyed…"
"I guess you never heard of hitokugutsu then…" assumed Sasori, looking at the blonde.
"Hito-what-su?" the loud mouth was completely dumb fooled.
"Hitokugutsu…" repeated Chiyo. "One of the most gruesome puppet arts in the Hidden Sand… performed correctly it transforms a human body into a puppet, thus making the chakra that was inside of the body to stay there… moreover, the puppet can also use any jutsu known to it while it was still alive… of course that sort of thing is only possible if the puppet is made out of the right body and since that is so… Sasori was the one that killed the Sandaime Kazekage…"
"He… was able to defeat the Kazekage?" Hinata got scared. "And the one that was thought to be the strongest among the Hidden Sand leaders… this man… he's a monster!"
"Indeed I have…" nodded the missing-nin. "But I just couldn't help myself really… it'd be a shame to waste Sandaime-sama's talent… after all, he did invented the jutsu that is most feared in the village…" and with that he made a quick motion. The puppet opened it's mouth instantly and strange, black cloud started to escape it's body.
"So, even Satetsu…" Chiyo eyes narrowed.
"Yes, the jutsu for which Sandaime was thought to be the strongest to ever live in Suna…" replied Sasori. "Of course my puppet's strength isn't as great as the Third's, but still it should be enough to take all of you out… but to think that a bunch of brats and an old hag who's one foot in the grave would push me that far as to use this… how embarrassing… I guess the only way for me to wipe that shame is to… kill you…" and before anyone knew it spikes shoot out of the black cloud right at the surprised leaf-nins and the Sand kunoichi.
Both Chiyo and Sakura manages to jump back far enough to avoid the spikes, Naruto and Hinata on the other hand weren't so lucky. The blonde was jumping in every direction, the moment his feet touched the ground, they left it again.
Hinata decided to avoid the attack differently. She began to release chakra from her body and once the spikes were close enough, she began spinning around, in hope to blow them away. To her surprise though, the spikes went right through her 'shield' and cut her side. The Hyuuga heiress jumped back just in time to avoid certain death.
"They're filled with chakra…" she figured. "Kaiten won't do…" and with that pain shoot through her body. She glanced at her side, which was cut and covered the wound with her hand. In the meantime Naruto jumped out of the spike forest and landed right next to her.
"Though luck…" announced Sasori coldly. "Those spikes were filled with my venom, so eventually this girl will die in an hour or so…"
"Bastard" was all Naruto said as he threw the missing-nin a death glare. "Hinata-chan, how are you feeling?"
"I've been better, to be honest…" replied the white-eyed girl, smiling slightly.
"Sakura-chan, you're the medic-nin, take care of her…" said the blonde in an ordering tone. "I'll just kick that bastard's ass and help you out in a moment…" and with that he walked forward to Chiyo. "Hey, you old bat, what'd you say if we finish this? With Hinata-chan wounded I don't feel like playing around anymore…"
"If you real want to…" sighed the Sand kunoichi as she unwrapped ten scrolls.
Deidara jumped back in order to avoid the shadow spikes that were coming right at her. She instantly placed some more clay in her hand-mouth and after performing a quick set of hand seals, she called out: "Ninpou: Gosunkugi Arashi!"
In a fracture of a second hundreds of small, clay spikes shoot came flying at the young chuunins. "Too many…" noticed Shikamaru as the bullets kept closing in.
Just then Chouji stood between the incoming spikes and his friends and slammed his hands to the ground, thus lifting up a huge, stone wall. "A little trick I learned from an old enemy… how do you like it?"
"That fat-ass used the rocks to block my bullets…" cursed Deidara as she performed some more seals. "Seems I'll have to use my thumb card then, yeah…" but as she decided that, Shikamaru ran at her from behind the wall lifted up by Chouji and prepared kunais to throw them at the clay user. "He's attacking? Wasn't that round guy the striker of their team?"
At that moment the lazy chuunin threw all the knives right at the missing-nin and performed a quick set of hand seals. As Deidara dodged all of the incoming weapons, she noticed that Shikamaru's shadow, that was falling on the stone wall, started to change shape and once more she had to avoid shadow spikes that shoot right at her.
"Now Chouji!" yelled the shadow user as his teammate smashed from under the ground in the form of the Meat Tank, coming right at the surprised missing-nin, who was unable to avoid both the spikes and the incoming cannonball.
"This is bad, yeah…" figured Deidara as she observed Chouji coming closer and closer. "But if he'll smash me, he'll get pierced by those spikes as well… that can't be their true plan, yeah… guess I'll just have to reach for more lower tricks…" and with that she slammed her hands to the ground.
A second later she was already hidden underground and Chouji was coming right at the shadow spikes controlled by Shikamaru. The chubby ninja instantly stopped spinning and watched as his friend commanded the spikes to stop just inches from his face.
"She's good…" announced Ino, who just joined her teammate as she carried still unconscious Temari. "So, when do we put your plan into motion?"
"The moment she'll use what we're pushing her to…" replied Shikamaru simply.
"Your famous skill, eh Granny?" asked Sasori, his face still emotionless. "One puppet for every finger… and they also say that a puppeteers strength is measured by how many dolls he or she can control at one time… it's said you once took a fortress with those… first puppets ever made in the Suna…"
Chiyo was now operating ten dolls in white robes, all her fingers surrounded by chakra strings: "Sasori, I will defeat you… and then bring you back to your old self…"
"You're still using that idiotic reason to chase me?" for a moment it seemed that the missing-nin is going to laugh, however nothing happened. "Those dolls of yours are good, but you cannot expect them to compare to the Sandaime… let me show you that puppeteer's strength is not just about the number of puppets, but also their quality… Satetsu…" and with that the black sand started to come out of his puppet's mouth once more.
The Sand kunoichi instantly moved her dolls so that they'd charge at the missing-nin, to her surprise however Sasori made a wide wall out of the black cloud and placed it between himself and the charging puppets. Before anyone noticed, spikes shoot out of the wall, destroying two of the dolls used by Chiyo, which didn't manage to escape in time.
"Dammit, he's playing with us!" cursed Naruto as he ran right through the spikes, avoid any direct hit and gathering chakra in his right palm. The moment he reached the black sand wall, he held out his hand, that carried a large, blue spinning chakra and the second it connected with the obstacle, he called out: "Rasengan!".
The wall broke into thousands of pieces and instantly Chiyo puppets jumped over the blonde in the attempt to attack the missing-nin, but to both Naruto's and the kunoichi's surprise, Sasori was not there.
The whisker-marks looked into the sky and only then noticed the Akatsuki member, carrying his puppet on his shoulder, with black wings on his back. "He can even make that sand carry him? Does this skill has limits?" his eyes widen a bit as the black cloud formed itself into hundreds of shurikens and shoot right at the leaf-nin.
"Shit!" cursed the blonde as he performed a quick set of hand seals: "Fuuton: Kaze Teikiatsu!" and instantly the air around his started to speed up, creating a large cyclone with Naruto standing in the eye of it.
All of the black shurikens got carried by the wind and were blown away. "So the brat did master techniques from around the world…" Sasori almost smirked at the sight. "He may be a hard one to get…I really should stop playing around then…" and with that his doll let out more black sand.
In an instant more black spikes came raining from the sky right at Naruto and Chiyo. The leaf-nin started to dodge as much spikes as he could, but there were simply too many.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata whispered weakly as Sakura was finishing treating her. Dust lifted up from hundreds of spikes hitting the sand, thus covering the whole area. When it disappeared, both Leaf kunoichis saw Naruto and Chiyo defended by the sand-nin's dolls, which taken most of the spikes on them.
"I see I manage to block it in time…" noticed Chiyo, breathing a bit heavier then usual. Then she tried to move her puppets and only then did she realized that they won't listen. After taking a closer look at them, she understood why: "The Iron Sand… it's getting into their joints…":
"Surprise, you old hag…" announced Sasori as he and his doll finally landed on the ground. "Your puppets have just became useless… and with that, this fight is as good as done…" and so the Sandaime released even more black sand that started to circle above him and the missing-nin.
"Dammit…" Naruto cursed in his mind as he clenched his teeth. "With all that sand I can't reach him with Rasengan… and with the ability to create those spikes Kage Bushin isn't more then a waste of chakra… what to do?"
"I… I can disable his puppet…" announced Hinata as she joined the fighting two along with Sakura. "All I need is a way to get close to him…"
"What are you talking about?" asked Sakura. "Even if you really had a way to do it, there's no hope for us to make you an opening… Chiyo-baasama's puppets are immobile and neither me nor Naruto are long range fighters…"
"I can still operate two of my dolls…" announced the Sand kunoichi. "That's enough to allow you guys to get close, however I doubt that with just two I'll be able to hold Sandaime long enough for you to attack…"
"Just clear the way Wrinkles…" asked Naruto. "And leave the rest to us…"
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The Sand shinobies gathered outside the Kazekage Tower as Gaara slowly walked onto the balcony along with Kankuro and one of the elders. Baki stood below, observing his students "Gaara, don't do anything stupid…"
The redhead looked around and seeing that most of the jounins arrived already, decided to speak: "Shinobies of the Sand! I asked you to come here today, because there's something that I need to say… something that all of you should hear…" he pause to allow the whispers got through the crowd. As the noises stopped, he continued: "Before I go any further, I must confess: I am weak…"
"What are you talking about, Kazekage-sama?" yelled on of the female jounins. "You're the strongest in the Sand! No-one can match you!"
"Strength isn't just physical…" replied Gaara, lowering his head a bit. "The reason why I wanted to become the Kazekage was simple: to protect this village and ever, single life in it… for that I was prepared to give my life… and yet I failed… I didn't even manage to protect my own sister…"
"It wasn't your fault, Kazekage-sama!" yelled another kunoichi. "There's nothing you could have done…"
"There was…" interrupted the redhead. "I was just too afraid to make the decision… but now I understand that above everything I'm still just a human… that is why I made a choice… the moment this meeting is over, I'm going into the desert to the place Temari was taken…"
Kankuro only smiled under his nose as the elder that stood with them on the balcony yelled: "What did you just say, Kazekage-sama? We already told you that keeping you safe is the top priority right now! The Akatsuki is after you!"
"If they are after me, they're most likely after Uzumaki Naruto as well…" replied Gaara calmly. "Yet that didn't stop him to go after them in order to save Temari…"
"Gaara-sama, please reconsider!" the elder didn't give up. "As a Kazekage you cannot allow your personal feelings to cover your vision on what's best for the village… You cannot risk the future of the Hidden Sand just to safe your sibling!"
"I'm not going JUST to safe my sister!" for the first time Kankuro, as well as everyone gathered, heard Gaara yelling. "I'm going to do what I excepted to do when I became the Kazekage: I'm going to save a shinobi of the Sand! It is my duty as protector of this village… you may do to me whatever you desire when I get back, however my decision will not change… I'll head to the main gate… who goes with me?"
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The sun was high and the shadows of the three chuunins gotten longer as they observed Deidara standing on a giant, clay bird that stood on top of a nearby rock. "You're beginning to be really annoying, yeah…" announced the missing-nin. "I'll be merciful and allow you to surrender before I'll finish you off, yeah…"
"Sorry, but we don't really have a choice but to turn your offer down…" replied Chouji with a smirk. "But to return your kindness, we give you a chance to surrender too…"
"Guess there's no helping it then, yeah…" sighed Deidara and with that few, smaller clay birds appeared around her. A second later all of them flew right at the trio at an incredible speed.
Shikamaru and Ino jumped back at the last second, thanks to which some of the birds crushed against the ground, exploding. Those that survived however kept chasing the two chuunins. Chouji one the other hand acted differently: he jumped into the air and the moment he located himself above the missing-nin, he surrounded himself with kunais and once more using Baika no Jutsu, he performed the Meat Tank.
"Oh my…" smirked Deidara as she ordered her bird to go into the air, thus avoiding being hit.
As Chouji crushed hard into the ground where she was standing just a moment ago, she placed more clay into her hand-mouth and after performing a short set of hand seals, she called out: "Ninpou: Nendo Musubu no Jutsu".
Instantly clay ropes shoot out of her hand straight at Chouji and circling around his legs and hands, trapped the chubby chuunin. "This is different from the Clay Prison…" announced Deidara calmly as her smirk widen. "With your hands immobile you cannot perform any seals, thus you won't be able to use that stupid tank skill or whatever it was that freed you last time…"
"Yeah well… you're forgetting one thing…" reminded Chouji. "To keep those ropes, you need to stay connected with them… and that's all we need to bring you down" and the moment he said so Ino jumped onto the ropes and ran straight at the clay user.
Deidara's eyes widen as she performed another set of hand seals single-handedly, called out: "Ninpou: Nendo Kasui no Jutsu!" and in a fracture of a second a huge, clay spike shoot out of her hand, hitting the Leaf kunoichi in the stomach.
"Ino!" Chouji yelled in anger as he now tried to free himself from his opponent jutsu.
"One down, yeah…" the clay user smiled, but then the shadow Ino was making changed it shape and shadow spikes shoot right at her. Having no, other way out, the missing-nin jumped off the bird and landed between Chouji, who was now free from the bind, Shikamaru who still was holding a seal after performing his Kagekui and Temari, who was still unconscious laying behind her.
"You sick hag…" the chubby chuunin gave Deidara a death glare as he looked at Ino laying motionless on the ground just few meters away.
"This is war, in case you haven't noticed…" replied the missing-nin with a smirk. "Victims are unavoidable, yeah… sorry that this girl was the first one to fall, but fear not, both of you will join her soon enough…"
"Is that so?" she heard a voice coming from behind and as she turned around, she noticed Temari hitting her with her fan and sending her flying against a nearby rock.
Deidara's eyes widen at the sight as both leaf-nins smirked and Ino's body that was still laying motionless on the ground turned into a shadow. Only then did she noticed that both Ino's and Shikamaru's shadows were bond together. "So that was it… that girl charging at me, creating an opening… that fat-ass getting trapped so easily… they all did that so I get careless!"
"Just as we planned…" announced Shikamaru with a smirk as he performed another set of hand seals and in an instant his shadow merged with Deidara's, trapping her.
Blades appeared on the Sandaime's hands as the doll blocked the attacks of both Chiyo's puppets aiming their swords to destroy it. A moment later the Sand kunoichi herself appeared behind Sasori and held out her left hand.
To all the Leaf shinobies surprise, a small bullet shoot out of her hand and headed straight at the missing-nin, who jumped back in order to avoid it. "You're getting old, Granny…" he announced coldly and the black sand pierced both puppets that were fighting his doll and came right at the defenseless kunoichi. "Because you attacked me, you stopped paying attention to your dolls… how careless of you…" and the moment he said so a black spike cut through Chiyo's side, making her yell in pain.
"Chiyo-baasama!" Sakura instantly found herself next to the old puppeteer, treating her with her antidote and medical skills.
"He got distracted!" noticed Naruto as he charged right at the Sandaime's doll. "This is our chance!" and with that thought he performed his standard technique: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" but just then Sasori realized what was going on and pulled his puppet out of Naruto's reach, making it release more of the black sand.
"Stupid brat, do you actually believe I'd lose track of what's going on?" asked the former sand-nin with a little irritation in his voice. "Get this: never will a damn pipsqueak like you have a chance to defeat me… and now you're going to pay for your stupidity… Satetsu!"
Instantly spike shoot from the black cloud yet again and headed right at Naruto and his clones. The one that was leading the attack merely manage to dodge all the spikes that came at him, his clones weren't so lucky on the other hand.
Naruto was now trapped between the spike, having very limited area to move. "Will all those spike around you, you can't hope to dodge my next attack…" announced Sasori coldly as he looked at the blonde gennin.
"So what?" replied the whisker-marks with a smirk. "Because of the same spikes, you can fire anything at me… it won't penetrate the forest you created around me…"
"You are right…" nodded the missing-nin, creating a face that could be seen as surprise. But soon it turned back into his typical, emotionless one. "Unless of course, my Iron Sand can go underground…" and at that moment a single, black spike shoot from under the ground and went right through Naruto's body, making him cough out blood.
Sasori's eyes widen a second later though, when Naruto disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
"Well, what do you know…" he heard a voice coming from behind and as he turned around, he saw Naruto standing with his arms cross just few meters away. "The one who got careless was you after all…"
Just then the missing-nin turned around again and noticed Hinata standing in her battle stance between him and his puppet: "This is it…" she announced with her Byakugan activated. A moment later Sasori lost connection with his doll, which got thrown by the white-eyed girl right at the pink-haired kunoichi "Sakura, now!"
"Dammit, I won't manage to reattach my chakra strings!" the former sand-nin cursed in his mind as he observed Sakura standing up and smashing his puppet into hundreds of pieces with a single punch. "That brat… how did she cut through the strings?"
"Look at this, Sasori…" said Naruto as he joined Hinata. "You're puppet is no more… what will you do now?" and with that his smile widen.
Unaware to anyone, someone was observing the whole fight from a nearby mountain. As the blonde with dreadlocks looked down on the battlefield, a smirk appeared on his face: "To think those brats were actually able to push Sasori that far… oh well, this fight is about to over anyway… guess it's time for me to enter the stage…"
And that's all of it this time. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll bless me with a review once you're done.
As usual, he's another part of jutsu encyclopedia:
Satetsu (Iron Sand) a technique invented by the Third Kazekage, based on a jutsu used by the previous Shukaku host. The user first releases his chakra from his mouth in the form of iron sand and then, by using his chakra as magnetic wave, shape it as he desires. This technique allows the user to form a weapon in any situation and is also the one that helped the Sandaime Kazekage become the strongest in the Suna.
Ninpou: Gosunkugi Arashi (Ninja Art: Spike Storm) – a technique used by Deidara. The user must first prepare the special clay and then, with the use of right hand seals, form it into hundreds of small spikes, which can be send towards the enemy. Simple as that.
Fuuton: Kaze Teikiatsu (Wind Element: Wind Cyclone) – a jutsu Naruto learned during his travel with Jiraiya. In order to perform it, the user must first release his chakra into the air and then, with the use of the right hand seals, make it circle around him. That way the chakra he or she released into the air creates a powerful cyclone with the user safe in the middle of it.
Ninpou: Nendo Musubu no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Clay Bind Skill) – a technique used by Deidara. This time, with the use of her clay and the correct set of hand seals, she creates strong, clay ropes, that trap the opponent. The weakness of this skill is the fact that the user must stay connected with the ropes, otherwise the opponent he or she trapped will be set free.
Ninpou: Nendo Kasui no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Clay Spike Skill) – another jutsu used by Deidara. The usage is pretty much the same like in the case of Spike Storm, the only difference is that in stead of many spikes, one is created.
And that's that for now…
Best wishes and till next time… hopefully.