So, a lot of you really want the NaruHina that I promised. But as I said earlier, you are gonna have to WAIT. This story WILL be NaruHina, it will NOT be NaruHarem or a threesome, it WILL be NaruHina and you guys will just have to be patient! Patience is a virtue.
Btw, yes, there is a large amount of Bleach influence in this fic now. Basically the swords are Bleach's "zanpakutos". So far, all we've seen is the released versions, not the "bankai", for those of you who are familiar with the terminology. Frankly, all I watch is the anime, so if there are other things going on in the Bleach universe now, I'm completely oblivious to them.
Chapter 17
"Hm. The pursuers have defeated your clones already," muttered the holographic form of the leader.
"Dammit! I can't believe we got beat so quickly!" Kisame yelled in outrage and shock. For a clone at half strength to be defeated so quickly and easily…the pursuers were a strong bunch.
Silence reigned again for a while in the massive stone room, as Gaara lay on his back, red chakra leaking out of his eyes and mouth. The chakra flowed from his body to the massive statue before him, around which the Akatsuki members were stationed.
"Deidara, Sasori. Take care of the pests when they get here. Do not hold back. Or we may have to go on another recruiting drive."
"Don't worry about it yeah! Me and Sasori-danna will show them what REAL art is!"
Sasori looked over at Deidara, a dangerous glint in his eye. "Deidara…don't lump my art in with that crap that you use that you call art. My art is worlds apart from yours."
"Ahhh, but Sasori-danna! My art is just as artistic as yours, if not more-so! It's a true testament to the fleeting…"
"Quiet. Both of you. Focus on the task at hand or the task that will soon be here. Zetsu, when will they be arriving?"
"They will be here within the next hour," came the simple reply.
"Deidara. Sasori. Go and meet them outside. We cannot have them disrupt our sealing process."
"Hai," they both replied simultaneously, moving from their previous positions and flickering away.
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The squad of eight Kousou had been running nonstop for the past two days and it was beginning to take its toll on their bodies. Everyone but Naruto was out of breath, and jumped at Shikamaru's order to take a break.
"Ok guys, take a break. We're thirty minutes away, so be ready to fight." As Shikamaru flopped down on his back to watch clouds, his vision was obstructed by something black and blonde.
"We're taking a break?! Why! Gaara is waiting for us! We have to go save him now!"
Shikamaru sighed. "Naruto, we are about to go up against S-class missing nin. We have to be at full strength or we'll never be able to defeat them."
Naruto growled, his feral instincts taking over for a second before he realized the logic in Shikamaru's words. He sighed heavily and lay down next to Shikamaru. "Alright. Fine, but lets not waste too much time watching clouds."
Shikamaru smiled. "Waste time watching clouds? That's impossible."
After fifteen minutes, Shikamaru stood up lazily. "Alright, let's get going." And with that, they were off again.
Kiba was in the lead, as usual, his acute nose sniffing every trace of the Akatsuki. They were close. Really close. Hell, he could hear those bastards. Talking about art and how only their art was true art. Kiba smirked. "Hey guys…we're here."
The Kousou stopped on a cliff overlooking a deep ravine, where there was a massive boulder with a seal on it. But what was perhaps more attention grabbing was the fact that two Akatsuki were just sitting outside, waiting for the team to arrive.
"What a welcome party," muttered Ino, drawing her sword immediately. Hinata and Sasuke activated their bloodlines, and Shikamaru began muttering orders into his wireless communicator.
"Alright people. Same squads, I want us split up, same distance as before. Sasuke's group, I want you to take the blonde. We'll take Sasori."
"Hey, Sasori-dono. They're here."
"Already? Zetsu said it would take an hour…"
"Whatever whatever. Lets just kill them and finish up the sealing yeah?"
"Hm. I DO hate making people wait…"
"Hey, Konoha brats! We've got that jinchuuriki in this cave, and the only way in is through us!" yelled Deidara confidently, his thumb jabbing into his chest. All the while, he had his second hand deep into one of his bags of clay, silently sculpting his weapon of choice."
"Hey…I want the jinchuuriki yeah."
"Deidara…now is no time to get greedy. We all have a jinchuuriki assigned to us. And you already captured yours."
"Hm. Fine fine. I guess I'll take the Uchiha brat and his bunch."
As they were conversing, Naruto continued to get more and more angry. These two nin…they were talking as if Gaara's life wasn't on the line…as if they were merely gambling the life of a pawn. Well, Gaara was more than a pawn. He was more than a jinchuuriki. He was HIS friend!
"Hey! Bastards! Try this on for size! Ryusa Bakuryu (Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall)!" As Naruto finished his hand seals, a giant wave of sand appeared on the horizon over the trees behind the Kousou team. Sasori smirked at the large scale attack while Deidara just took to the air with his large clay bird.
"Hey, follow me yeah!" he yelled over his shoulder, as Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba and Shino followed quickly behind, avoiding the sand wave that crashed onto the remaining combatants, covering the field in sand.
Naruto and his companions quickly rose to the surface of the sand. Naruto glanced around and didn't see Sasori, so he instead went through another set of hand seals.
"Sabaku Taiso (Desert Imperial Funeral)!" he yelled, slamming his palms down into the sand, compressing the sand beneath their feet. Anything caught beneath them was crushed instantaneously. Except for the one thing Naruto had been trying to crush, Sasori. His hard shell had protected him from the great pressure that had been created by Naruto's jutsu.
Sasori slowly rose to the surface of the sand, emerging with his deadly tail whipping around menacingly. Sand slowly sifted off of his smooth shell, and his eyes remained fixed on the four enemies in front of him.
"You…you defeated the clones of Itachi and Kisame…And in record time, may I add. Who are you?"
Shikamaru tilted his head slowly. "We are the Kousou," he drawled calmly. "And we are here to kill you…and save Gaara." Sasori's eyes narrowed. This young man's disposition…It pissed him off. Sasori hated to wait and hated equally making others wait. This black haired shinobi seemed to crawl in everything he did. And that was unacceptable.
"You…you will be the first to die," promised Sasori. Sasori brought his scorpion like tail up next to his face, poison visibly dripping off the tip. "I swear on this tail that I will kill you."
Naruto smirked and nudged Shikamaru. "Yo, Shika, I think you pissed him off."
Shikamaru sighed, his shoulders slumping. "This is way too troublesome…Let's try that maneuver we've been practicing."
"Which one?"
"Let's try…The pull I suppose…"
Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Yosh! Let's do this! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Twenty clones popped into existence around the four Kousou members, completely obstructing Sasori's view of them. With a great battle cry, the clones ran towards Sasori, who stood stark still, as if waiting for something. As the clones neared, Sasori finally struck. His tail whipped out, swinging horizontally, eliminated a couple clones. The rest were able to jump to avoid the swipe, but they too were met with a second attack. Opening his mouth, Sasori began to shower the clones with a rain of needles, each one glistening in the sun with poison. Over half of the clones were dispelled with this attack, forcing the clones to scatter. A second tail swing eliminated four more clones suspended in the air and a small compartment in Sasori's shell opened to fire a few kunai, destroying the few that had survived.
Sasori looked back at the Kousou members, quickly noticing that one was missing. Checking the fringes of his peripheral vision, Sasori was annoyed to find that the blonde haired one had seemingly disappeared. Sasori's head then swiveled one-hundred and eighty degrees, searching his rear. As he began to swivel his head back towards the Kousou, he felt chakra flare above him.
Naruto fell towards the ground, Rasengan in hand, holding it near his right ear ready to plunge it down into Sasori's shell. Sasori jumped forward, dodging Naruto's diving attack, but by moving forward, he found himself in the range of Shikamaru's shadow.
The Pull was a simple technique that Naruto and Shikamaru had discussed. It was quite simple, yet destructively effective. It would start out with a distraction, either Naruto's shadow clones or a feint attack with Shikamaru's shadow. Then, Naruto would attack from behind, forcing the opponent towards Shikamaru, who would disable, and then…
"Rasengan!" Naruto yelled, drilling the destructive orb into Sasori's hard shell.
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Flashback
"Well Naruto, let's move on to chakra control," Jiraiya said, stopping Naruto from his attempt at the Sabaku Sousou. Naruto obediently dropped his technique and hopped over to where his sensei stood.
"Ok, now usually at this time I would have you climb a tree or walk on water, but not only have you mastered those, but it's also impossible in the desert."
Naruto looked around, smirking at the sea of sand as far as the eye could see. "Ero-sennin, what do I do then?"
"Well, I have a few ideas, both of which I will eventually teach you. But for now, the chakra control exercise I want you to use is the Rasengan."
"Eh? That's not a chakra control exercise!"
Jiraiya sighed. "Can you do it with one hand yet?"
Naruto looked down, his golden locks covering his eyes as he halfheartedly kicked at the sand at his feet. "No."
"Well, that's chakra control. You see, you may think that the Rasengan is one of your most powerful attacks. Which it is. But the thing is Naruto, you haven't even begun to scratch the surface of its potential. The Rasengan is not only an incomplete jutsu, but it also is a jutsu that become more and more destructive as you add more and more chakra. But as you add more and more chakra into the technique, you have to have more and more chakra control. If you just pump a ton of chakra into it, it's just going to blow up in your face if you don't have the control it takes to maintain its shape, understand?"
Naruto tapped the side of his face thoughtfully. "So…I can make the Rasengan even more powerful by adding more chakra into it? But to make it more powerful, I also have to have better chakra control?"
Jiraiya nodded. "Right. And right now, you don't even have enough control to do the technique correctly. While using a clone to help you gives you the control you need to perform it, not only is that a liability in a fight, but it also shows that your control is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to pump up the chakra input."
Naruto scowled at this. "Well, what do I have to do to get that chakra control?"
"Practice. Keep forming the Rasengan, every day, and without a clone. It doesn't matter how long it takes, just keep doing it. Swirl the chakra around, and slowly amp up the power in the technique. This will force you to strain your chakra control, keeping the Rasengan in its form while the power increases. By the end of the month, I expect you to do it with one hand." Jiraiya lifted up his right hand, forming a Rasengan without even using his second hand to swirl or gather the chakra.
"Yosh! I'll get it in two weeks Jiraiya! You just watch!"
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Sasori's eyes widened in shock as Naruto's trump card exploded in a flash of destructive chakra, completely obliterating the puppet's shield and revealing the true Sasori.
The cloaked figure jumped out of the remnants of the puppet, and the four Kousou looked on in mild interest. A young boy, no older than 14, now stood before them.
"Impressive Naruto-kun. But now this battle get's more interesting." Sasori pulled out a scroll, forming rapid seals the whole time, before he was covered in a veil of smoke.
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Deidara checked over his shoulder to make sure his prey was still following. The occasional kunai whistled over his head, as Deidara maneuvered his clay mount with incredible ease. Finally, when they had reached a clearing, Deidara stopped and turned, awaiting the arrival of his opponents. Within seconds, the four appeared before him, Sasuke's sharingan still active, making Deidara shudder involuntarily. He remembered those eyes. Those demonic eyes. How could he forget? When the Akatsuki had come to him trying to recruit him, he had felt those eyes. He had experienced how powerful those eyes were. But never again. Today, he would redeem himself for what had happened years ago.
Sasuke glared at the blonde, intrigued by Deidara's hatred towards him rolling off in waves. He had never seen this man before, what could cause him such anguish? His thoughts were cut off, however, when Deidara decided to make the first move.
Deidara's clay mount flapped its wings mightily, lifting off of the ground, ascending into the air. Deidara then threw two small figurines at the group, attacking from a range. Right as the two clay birds exploded, the four figures which had been standing there moments ago disappeared. Deidara looked below him for any sign of the four, his mechanical eye making small whirring noises as it searched for his targets. As he watched the ground below him, Deidara was oblivious to the air around him.
However, a soft flapping noise caught his attention. Looking up from his search in confusion, Deidara barely had time to throw his body flat on his mount and force it to descend as fast as possible. Shino, atop a giant moth, flew past him harmlessly, missing by mere inches. Deidara glanced back at the summon that the Kousou had used. It looked like a regular moth…just bigger. And one more small detail was changed. Coming out of its mouth were two long, curved tusks, hanging down so that it could impale people as it flew over them. He had barely dodged those tusks. In fact, his cloak had gotten a small cut in it. This would not do.
Flinging three more clay figurines into the air, they emerged as more small birds. Flapping vigorously towards their target, they began to change their previous formation. One of the birds flew straight at Shino, while the others flew to the sides to flank any possible retreat. Shino turned around, facing the three flying explosives coming towards him. He calmly threw a single kunai, eliminating one of the three birds. As the two others approached, Deidara salivated as he prepared to detonate them. Before the figures came close enough to Shino to damage him, twin bolts of lightning struck the figures, shocking them and causing them to fall harmlessly to the ground.
"Raiton: Gian!"
Deidara followed the path of the lightning bolts and the sound of the voice to one member on the ground, both of his hands held out, still slightly smoking from the technique he has used. Deidara growled in anger, dropping a single clay figurine subtly down to the ground. As it plummeted towards the earth, smoke enveloped it. A spider emerged from the smoke and fell towards Kiba, who was caught unaware. It latched itself onto Kiba's face, causing Deidara to grin maniacally. "Katsu!" he yelled.
But nothing happened. Instead, the spider fell to the ground, unmoving. As Deidara's left eye began whirring to scope in on the Kousou, he noticed that his hands were in a hand seal. It must have been some kind of defensive jutsu.
Below him, Kiba sighed in relief. That was close. He had barely been able to use his jutsu, the "Raiton: Juude". It covered his body in an electrical charge. He had noticed earlier that when Shino had hit the clay bird with a kunai, it exploded. However, when he hit them with a lightning technique, they had instead been neutralized. And a same thing had happened when he used his Juude. Whispering his findings over the wireless communicator, Kiba looked back up at the fight in the sky.
Deidara pulled his mount into a quick barrel roll, dodging Shino's dive bomb attack successfully yet again. Deidara was beginning to get pissed. Not only was he on the defensive, none of his attacks were even fazing the two shinobi he was engaged in. And the worst part was that the other two nin hadn't even entered the fray. He was going to have to pick it up a notch. He had been using primarily C1 so far, explosive figurines that would explode upon contact or on his command. Now however…
Shino flew forward yet again, the sharp tusks on his flying mount dripping with poison and yearning to tear flesh. This time, however, Deidara didn't dodge. Instead, he began flying straight towards Shino. His face showed only insanity, as Deidara flew recklessly and without fear towards certain death. Shino's eyebrows raised slightly, but regained his composure after that outburst. He commanded his moth summon to speed up. Just as the two flying beasts met in the air, Deidara jumped off, allowing his flying bird to be impaled and destroyed. As Deidara leapt into the air, he began to mold the clay in his hands and infused chakra into it. A large cloud of smoke enveloped him, hiding him from view, before a large clay dragon emerged.
"Hahaha! Meet my C2!" he yelled. It was at this point that Sasuke and Sakura decided to make themselves known. To be honest, Sakura was a little afraid. She was a close range fighter in a long range battle. When confronted with a long range fighter, she knew that she had a couple options. First, she could try to lure him into a place where his long range attacks weren't effective. Her other option was to use attacks with even greater range. But there was one other option that she decided to use. She could rely on her teammates, and play the support role, taking action only when she deemed it necessary.
The dragon that Deidara rode had a fearsome size, but one thing strange about it was its tail. It was segmented into pieces, 8 total. "Take this!" he yelled as his mount swelled up, blasting a projectile from its mouth at high speeds.
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The smoke cleared, revealing Sasori standing behind a strange looking puppet. Its jaw clacked unnaturally, sending shivers down the Kousou members' spines.
Shikamaru's eyes widened, recalling a book he once skimmed. "That's…that's the Third Kazekage!"
"Oh? So you've recognized him. This is my prize puppet…and your demise." Swinging his arms in long arcing motions, the Third Kazekage shot forward. His arm opened up, revealing three blades which began to spin, creating a deadly slicing weapon. As he neared, Hinata and Ino ran forward to greet the opponent, their blades already unsheathed. Hinata's sword clanged against the buzzing weapon, halting the blades completely. Ino then slid under Hinata's guard, swinging her sword in an upward slice, removing the arm completely from the puppet.
Sasori swung his arms again, calling his puppet back to him, a slight furrow in his brow marking his irritation. Hinata and Ino leapt back to the male members of their squad, awaiting Sasori's next move. Naruto smiled over at them, giving them a double thumbs up. "Thanks guys! We owe you one!"
Ino smirked at Naruto. "Well, you can take the next one. I'm still a little tired from using the second stage of my sword."
Sasori frowned. These opponents talked amongst each other as if he weren't even there. What bad manners. He would have to fix that. Again, Sasori began to swing his arms, his fingers moving too quickly for the eye to see. The Sandaime Kazekage dashed forward, this time his remaining arm opening up, splitting into many wooden arms. The mass of arms shot towards the team, causing three of the four to jump off to the side. Naruto, however, stood his ground, forming seals. "Iwa no Yoroi (Armor of Stone)!" he yelled, slamming his hands into the ground. While his hands remained on the ground, dirt and rock crawled up his hands, arms, shoulders, and eventually covered a majority of his body. As they covered his body, the earth hardened into stone, giving Naruto protection from physical attacks, as well as increasing his body mass exponentially. The arms collided with Naruto, but he remained unmoving, the rock on his body allowing him to sustain the barrage of hits.
Sasori watched as his puppet made solid contact with the boy. For a few moments, nothing happened. Time stood still as Sasori waited to see if the boy had been crushed or if he had somehow avoided the attack. His answer came as Naruto blasted the arms into small fragments, forming a Rasengan and destroying a path through the arms. He calmly stepped out, the rock armor crumbling as he released his jutsu.
Sasori let out a growl. These… "Kousou" were an annoyance. It was time to bring out the big guns. "Satetsu!" he yelled as his fingers danced. The puppet's jaw opened unnaturally wide, spewing out a waterfall of a strange gray substance.
Shikamaru's eyes widened. "Satetsu? But…but he's just a puppet! How can he use that?"
Sasori grinned, reveling in the shock of the black haired boy. "My puppets are human puppets. I remove their entrails first, preserving them. Then I add my own touches to them, but for this puppet, his greatest weapon is one that he came with."
Shikamaru began to whisper furiously into his communicator, causing Sasori to wonder what they were planning. Whatever it was, he would not let them execute their plan.
The Iron Sand that had spilled out of the Kazekage formed into small spikes. With a simple wave of the hand, the needles shot towards the Kousou, forcing them into evasive maneuvers. Ino and Hinata weaved their way through the needles, blocking the ones they couldn't dodge with their swords.
Shikamaru instead chose to melt into the shadow of a nearby tree, allowing him to emerge from another shadow. Sasori glanced around, not able to find the shadow user after he had submerged into the shadows. Naruto chose to form a great wall of sand, blocking the needles. Soon, the barrage ended, allowing the Kousou to take a breath of relief. As Sasori called the Satetsu back to his puppet, he noticed the three visible Kousou nod their heads as they listened to their communicators. So they had a plan. He would just have to spoil it.
"Time to stop conserving my chakra! Satetsu Kaiho (Sand World Order)!" The Iron Sand that had been collected began to grow, creating an expanding sphere of spikes. As if on cue, Naruto let out an enormous pulse of chakra. Sasori smirked a bit. They think that a pulse of chakra will stop my attack? No matter how large of a pulse that might have been, there's nothing that can stop my Satetsu Kaiho…
However, the sphere of spikes that had previously been growing at an alarming rate instead began to dissolve, the Iron Sand falling to the ground harmlessly. Immediately after the Iron Sand dissolved, Shikamaru emerged out of Sasori's shadow. "Kage Koutai.!" Shikamaru quickly finished a second set of handseals. "Kage Nui (Shadow Sewing)!"
Tendrils made of shadow began to latch onto Sasori's body, making movement impossible. Shikamaru targeted the hands first, completely binding Sasori's ability to control his puppets. As the thin threads of shadow continued to connect, Sasori's face contorted into a look of pure rage.
"How? How did you defeat my ultimate puppet?"
Shikamaru looked at him, boredom evident in his eyes. "I guess you just got unlucky. Naruto happens to have a bloodline limit. You see, it negates other bloodline limits in the area."
Sasori glanced over Shikamaru's shoulder, seeing the blonde jinchuuriki. If that was true, then the Akatsuki would have a bigger problem than they knew. His thoughts were interrupted as Ino and Hinata appeared before him, their hands blurs as they ran through handseals.
"Katon: Karyu Endan!"
"Suiton: Suiryudan!"
Both pointed their swords straight at Sasori as their two dragon attacks emerged from them. The water dragon and fire dragon streaked towards their target, twisting around each other in midair several times before the finally struck, creating a shockwave that forced Shikamaru to retreat from his position near Sasori.
Steam covered the field after the fiery attack evaporated the water. "Did that do it?" asked Ino quietly, silently hoping that the battle was over. Naruto shrugged as he did a few hand seals.
"Futon: Daitoppa!" Wind swiftly blew away the mist, revealing the battlefield and their opponent. Sasori remained, as calm as ever. However, three rods had emerged from his stomach, right shoulder, and left shoulder, creating a triangular shape. The three rods seemed to be using some sort of chakra barrier to protect Sasori.
Shikamaru landed silently next to the rest of his teammates. "Damn. He had chakra shields hidden in his puppet the whole time."
"Chakra shields?" asked Ino, puzzled.
"Puppet users sometimes utilize chakra shields to defend themselves, as they don't have very good defensive capabilities if their puppets are immobilized or they are separated from them. They use chakra as a medium to create a shield that protects them from even the most powerful attacks. But the amount of damage that the shields absorb is directly proportional to the amount of chakra necessary."
Naruto tilted his head a little. "So…he must have used a lot of chakra to block that combo attack…"
Shikamaru nodded. "Yes. I doubt he can block an attack like that again, but from here on out, he's going to be more wary. We won't be able to catch him by surprise like that again."
Sasori trembled in rage. He was low on chakra; he had lost his favorite puppet, Hiruko; and his strongest puppet, the Third Kazekage, was in ruins, never to be used again.
Sasori reached for a scroll on his back. He hadn't had to use that in a while…Sasori unrolled the scroll and began to make seals. "You have forced my hand. Aka Higi: Hyakki no Soen (Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets)!"
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"Kuso…" cursed Deidara, for what seemed like the millionth time that day. It had certainly been a troublesome time for Deidara. First, he hadn't gotten to fight the jinchuuriki, then he had been attacked by a killer moth, and some idiot with a lightning affinity, and THEN his attacks were nullified with ease! Who were these people?
A streak of lightning flew by his face, singing his clay bird's wing. "Kuso kuso kuso!" Deidara was a missing nin from Iwa, and his clay attacks were doton based, making those two lightning users a hassle that he was having problems defeating. The other two he could make short work of, but with the Uchiha and the Inuzuka hounding him, no pun intended, he had very little room to work with.
His only shot was to hope that they ran out of chakra soon. He didn't have much more clay left and he was just about out of options. Maybe he could go back to master Sasori and…no, he wouldn't make his opponents Sasori's problem. While the Akatsuki were all S-class rogue ninja, they had a certain understanding and respect for each other. Thus, Deidara's insistence on calling his teammate Sasori-danna (Master Sasori).
A kunai crackling with lightning chakra whizzed by as Deidara continued to fly around in circles, thinking about what he could do.
"Haha, this guy's a pansy, huh Sasuke?" yelled Kiba over the sound of their jutsu filling the air.
Sasuke just glanced over at the other lightning user. Kiba was the best lightning user in Konoha…even better than himself. Sasuke's main chakra affinity was for fire, but he was still quite adept at lightning. Seeing Kiba's mastery over lightning, Sasuke could not help but feel a bit of envy at Kiba's prowess. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't even the best in Konoha with fire techniques either…
Sasuke fought back the feelings of self doubt, flinging yet another lightning attack at the circling Akatsuki.
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Deidara dodged another attack, skillfully angling his clay mount so that the attackers could not see him for a moment. In that moment of concealment, Deidara created a clay bunshin with the last of his clay and dropped into a tree as he passed. To the Kousou, it looked as if he had just dodged an attack, but in reality, Deidara had made a strategic retreat. As Deidara sat in the tree, watching the Kousou with interest, he suddenly felt a light tap on his shoulder.
Deidara spun around, swinging his fist in pure instinct. The person behind him ducked swiftly, allowing Deidara's fist to sail harmlessly over his head.
Deidara jumped back swiftly into another tree to separate himself from the unexpected newcomer. "Who are you? Are you with those Kousou?" Already, Deidara had his remaining hand in his pouch, scrounging around for any tiny bit of explosive clay.
The masked assailant only tilted his head for a response.
"Seriously, who are you? Tell me or I'll blow your fucking head off!"
"Tobi's a good boy!"
"…" Deidara sweat dropped, scolding himself for being caught off guard by such a strange individual. "Tobi eh?"
"Tobi's a good boy!"
"Uh-HUH…Well Tobi, how would you like to help me out? I'm kind of in a bind and I need a place to stay for a while."
"Tobi's a good boy!"
"Oook, I'll take that for a 'Yes Deidara, you CAN stay with me'." Deidara glanced behind him, checking on his bunshin, who continued to dodge attack after attack. "Lead the way Tobi!" he said cheerfully. Thankfully, Tobi got the message and began jumping through the tree branches, leading a very tired and hurt Deidara away from the danger area. While he followed the orange and black clad man, Deidara pondered his next moves.
This guy seems decent enough, even if he seems a little slow. I can hang around him for a while, heal my arm with that elixir that Pein's little bitch gave me, refuel on my clay, and then I can come back to the Akatsuki good as new. Hopefully Sasori-danna will be alright for a while without me…what am I saying? Sasori-danna is heads above me! There's no way those four punks could even touch him, even with the jinchuuriki!
Smiling, Deidara continued through the forest and pulled up next to Tobi.
"So Tobi, you like art?"
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Sasori sent a new batch of puppets at the four man cell. They were back to back, creating a small ring with little to no blindside. Littered at their feet were the remains of Sasori's four previous failed attacks. However, this time, instead of sending puppets from all sides like his last attack, he would send only a few to the blonde jinchuuriki, the shadow user, and the Hyuuga. The rest of the group would be sent at the blonde haired kunoichi in an effort to overload one side. Sasori's one hundred puppets had been reduced to seventy five, and he was using ten in this one blitz.
The puppets flew forward unnaturally at the four Kousou, and each Kousou member took their side, protecting each other's backside. Naruto finished his side quickly, using his sand to lock up the puppets joints, rendering it useless. Glancing over at his sides, he noticed Ino struggling with seven of her own puppets. Watching as she blasted a fire jutsu into the fray, torching one of the puppets, Naruto decided to join the battle.
Sasori smirked. The jinchuuriki had abandoned his post. Now was the opportune time to strike at their blind spot. Sasori sent another ten puppets at the spot Naruto was once occupying. However, as they reached the area where Naruto had been, multiple shadow clones dropped out of the tree branches above them, each smashing a Rasengan into the puppets, completely and utterly destroying them. At the same time, Ino and Naruto finished their battle and Naruto returned to his position.
So they were prepared for such tactics. It seems that the black haired one is their strategist…so I should take him out first. That, and he annoys me…
Sasori's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden commotion behind him. Whipping around to assess the danger, Sasori's eyes widened, seeing Naruto dashing at him from behind holding a glowing blue orb in his right hand. Sasori quickly controlled two of his puppets to catch him, and each one grabbed on of his arms. The Rasengan quickly evaporated, as Naruto's concentration had been broken. However, Naruto began to smile. "Bunshin Daibakuha!" A blast rocked the area, decimating the two puppets holding the clone, as well as damaging several others in the area. Sasori shook in uncontrollable rage. Turning back towards the Kousou, Sasori was shocked to see yet another Naruto before him, Rasengan already nearing. On sheer instinct, a poisoned kunai shot out of Sasori's right shoulder. The kunai embedded itself into Naruto's shoulder, causing him to pop into ninja smoke.
Again, Sasori began to shake, but instead of rage, Sasori felt…fear. Sasori leapt back several feet, bringing his remaining puppets into a defensive formation around him. He began to think about what were his remaining options and the abilities of his opponents. So far, he had two kenjutsu masters, a brilliant strategist, and a never ending supply of dangerous clones that could kill him easily. The odds were NOT stacked in his favor.
One thing that he had to avoid was the shadow user. If he could immobilize him like he had before with the Shadow Sewing technique…it was over. Sasori looked over at the strategist. Something strange was happening.
"Ok guys. I'm going to finish this. Stand back," Shikamaru commanded. Chakra slowly began to swirl around him. His blue chakra became a visible aura around him and slowly changed tint to a jet black. His eyes clouded over, becoming completely black. Sasori shuddered at the sight. Perhaps…perhaps this was truly the end of his art. Shikamaru pulled out his trench knives and his black chakra began to flow around them as well. "Hanzatsu…release." At that same moment, Shikamaru slammed the two hilts of the trench knives together, creating a momentary flash of light. After the flash of light, Shikamaru held a long, black katana. "Sigh…troublesome."
Shikamaru disappeared in a burst of speed. As he ran, Shikamaru dragged his sword tip along the ground, leaving a bit of black chakra in his wake. Sasori watched with caution as the shadow user continued on his way, not getting close enough to cause concern to him. Shikamaru continued on his way, until he returned to his original spot. He had run a complete circle around Sasori and had left a ring of shadow chakra around him. "Hanzatsu!" he cried, stabbing it into the earth. As he did, a dome of black chakra covered Sasori and his clones. Shikamaru sighed in relief and slowly stepped into the dome.
Naruto, Hinata, and Ino watched in fascination as the laziest ninja in Konoha executed such a strenuous technique.
"Ano…will he be alright by himself?" Hinata asked with concern in her voice.
Naruto laughed, waving off her fears. "Ahhh, Shikamaru will be alright. He knows what he's doing!" However, right after he said that, he looked at the black dome in front of him. They could not see Shikamaru, Sasori, or anything that was happening inside. Don't die Shikamaru…
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Shikamaru opened his eyes once he had completely entered his Shadow Sphere. He yawned deeply, making Sasori narrow his eyes in frustration and anger. What was this technique?
As if reading his mind, Shikamaru began talking. "This is my Shadow Sphere. What happens here is in MY control. Think of it as…a smaller version of Tsukuyomi." With a wave of his hand, several blobs of shadow emerged from the ground around Shikamaru. They began to form themselves into humanoid figures, eventually becoming exact replicas of Shikamaru. "Kage Bunshin. But not like Naruto's. These shadow clones are many times more potent. But don't tell him I said that."
"You arrogant prick! You seriously think you can take me on one on one? Even with your special shadow clones, one of you pitiful Kousou members are no match for a true Akatsuki!"
"True, if you were at full strength, and if I had not unleashed Hanzatsu, I would not have even tried to fight you one on one. But at this point, this is the most logical way to proceed. It allows me to eliminate you without you having the opportunity to escape, as well as the benefit of making it impossible for you to injure the rest of my team."
Sasori's only response was to hold his hands out, palms forward, and shoot two jets of flame at Shikamaru. Shikamaru and his clones lazily dodged and scattered, making Sasori sweep his flames in long arcs in an attempt to eliminate multiple clones at once.
The real Shikamaru continued running at a leisurely pace around in circles, allowing his clones to provide the distraction he needed. Forming a single seal, he put his hand down on the ground for a moment before continuing on his way. After every few moments, he repeated the process, until he came back to the first kanji he had placed. Glancing up at the battle, he noticed that Sasori had switched to water attacks, and had apparently been quite successful, destroying over fifty percent of Shikamaru's shadow clones.
"But they served their purpose…" he muttered. "Kage Ninpo: Hayameni (Ahead of Time)!" All at once, thick, black beams from the kanji surrounding Sasori connected with each other. Sasori looked in suspicion at the large black circle with glowing kanji around him. Shikamaru took Hanzatsu and began channeling chakra into it. As he channeled chakra into it, the circle began to glow. The kanji around Sasori began to slowly rotate around the central focus, Sasori. They began to move slowly at first, but soon picked up speed until they were nothing but bright blurs to the puppet master.
Soon, Sasori was trapped in a glowing ring of light. Shikamaru yelled in exertion as he reached the chakra levels he needed to pull off the technique. As he released his chakra, the ring around Sasori emitted light straight up into the air, creating a cylinder of chakra and light around him.
Shikamaru panted heavily, leaning on his sword hilt with the point embedded in the ground. "This is the end. This is my shadow power to the extreme. You are trapped in a seal that effectively slows down time. You cannot escape. You cannot win. You can however…die." As he finished his monologue, Shikamaru went through a long series of handseals. As he did so, Sasori attempted to escape, but instead of running towards the edge of the cylinder, Sasori found that his legs were moving extremely slowly. It was as if he were running through molasses. Instead of running, Sasori then tried to use his hidden weapons to escape. He tried to use the metallic cable to pull him out, but the compartment wouldn't even open fast enough. He tried to eject his own heart, but his own fingers couldn't manipulate the chakra strings fast enough.
"Shadow Razing!" Shikamaru slammed his hands down on the ground, and the once bright cylinder of light was completely filled with black spikes coming from the ground. Shikamaru sighed in relief. He could feel Sasori's broken body in his shadow tendrils. The last technique he had used created a veritable forest of shadow tendrils, each with a tip as sharp as a kunai. They then shot out of the ground, penetrating everything in an area. This technique was best used after he used the Hayameni technique to slow down time in the area so that they could not escape.
Shikamaru released his jutsu, allowing the forest of blades to sink into the earth and the glowing cylinder of light to dim. Then, pulled Hanzatsu out of the ground and sealed it once again, putting the two trench knives back into their hidden holsters on his arms.
Naruto, Hinata, and Ino watched in awe as the black dome before them slowly melted away, revealing a very tired Shikamaru and a very, very dead Sasori.
Shikamaru looked at the three before him. "That was really troublesome."
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Ok, for the next few chapters, I'm going to do short little descriptions of the swords that the Kousou use. First off will be Shikamaru's since it's so fresh in everyone's mind.
Hanzatsu: Literally translated as "Troublesome", this sword takes Shikamaru's personality to the extreme, allowing him to slow down time and take all the time he wants to watch clouds and finish off any opponents later. In its initial form, Hanzatsu is actually two trench knives, but the sword is released when the user slams the two hilts together. Hanzatsu in its released form is a long black katana, capable of leaving shadow chakra in its trail and capable of creating Shikamaru's "Shadow Spheres". Any other powers are unknown.
Well, this update took a while. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with the battles, and what kind of ability Hanzatsu should have. Hopefully you guys think that it's a decent power and whatnot, and that Sasori wasn't underpowered. It WAS four vs. one.
Spoiler Alert!
On another note, I will be diverging from canon very soon. Tobi will NOT be Uchiha Madara. I don't like that at all, so Tobi will be something of my own creation. He actually plays a large role in this story, so be sure to pay attention!
Spoiler Alert End!
Well, review now! Seriously though, the reviews I got for my last chapter were as many as I got for my fifth chapter…a pretty big drop off. Keep me motivated! Send me those big juicy reviews!