Opening Notes

Personal comments: Sorry this was so late~ these fights weren't cooperating with my writing style too well. I tried to work story into this, similar to what I did with Matsuri VS Juvia, but it didn't work out too well. Though, I did manage to get the interactions between the combatants more fleshed out this time~

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Fairy Tail.

Chapter 5

Fairy Tail Auditions 3

Battle of the Bodyguards

The moment the fight started, Temari saw her opponent grip her glasses, ready to tear them off. She decided it best not to attack at this exact instant, and instead waved her fan at the ground, kicking up a lot of dust into the air. "Dust Storm!" With all of the dust and the strong wind, Evergreen had to leave her glasses on, and instead brought her arms up to defend against any stray rocks. A moment later, the wind died down, and she could see that Temari had disappeared from where she was standing. There was a hard tap on the back of her head, and she turned around angrily to see Temari standing there, looking very confident with her fan closed; apparently she had used that to hit Evergreen on the head. "Tag, you're it!"

The crowd was very pleased with the display, considering their laughter. Evergreen waved her own fan at her opponent, obviously not too pleased herself. "Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!" By the time her spell activated Temari had already disappeared, and the torrent of needles that resulted went straight towards the wall of the arena, though they disappeared before they hit the wall, seeming to have hit an invisible wall. Evergreen didn't pay it any mind; it was only natural that they defended the audience from possible attacks, and Fried's barriers were stronger than anyone else's that she had come across.

Evergreen looked around her to find her opponent, but didn't see her; a moment later, a blast of wind came from above, knocking her down. Temari landed on the other side of Evergreen, apparently having jumped over Evergreen's attack. "Oh? "Fairy" Machine Gun? How cute, unlike yourself, you old hag."

Evergreen was obviously not pleased with this attack on her pride; she would've preferred using her eyes to end the fight, but this Temari girl was too smart for that if her opening move was any indication. "Old hag?! I'll have you know I'm twenty, you ugly witch!" She activated her wings, and immediately started flying around Temari at a high speed. Temari was about to wave her fan again, but Evergreen was flying away before she could try. "Eat this! Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!"

Temari had already seen the dust that was coming from the older girl's wings, and had been in the middle of a bigger jutsu when Evergreen had flown away in order to send it away; that Evergreen would fly away only a few moments after starting her attack meant that it was dangerous, even to the user.. She used a strong swing, making sure to spin her body so her fan covered a full circle. "Whirlwind!" A strong wind blew in every direction from her, and the dust went with it; a moment later, the dust exploded, creating a ring of fire around Temari.

The crowd thought it was a rather beautiful display, and many of the men seemed to be falling in love with Temari. Max himself was getting rather excited. "Temari seems to have a counter for every move Evergreen can make! Will Evergreen go down without getting a single hit in, or does she have any more tricks up her sleeves to take down the graceful technique of Temari's fan?!"

Temari couldn't see outside of the ring of fire, but she could guess where Evergreen would attack from next. Sure enough, Evergreen flew over the ring of fire, fan at the ready. "Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!" Temari waved her fan again, though her technique seemed different this time. "Wind Scythe!" A more visible whirlwind emanated from Temari's fan, and rushed towards the needles coming from Evergreen's. Evergreen appeared confident for a moment, until the needles were sliced to shreds inside of the whirlwind, causing her to realize that Temari had more than just gusts at her disposal. She moved out of the way of the attack, but Temari had jumped into the air to get closer, though Evergreen was still quite a ways up in the air, and called out the same technique.

Evergreen placed her arms in front of her face, expecting to also get sliced to shreds; however, the only thing she felt, after a moment, was the sensation that she was falling. Max's voice boomed over the stadium as she fell. "And Evergreen's wings have been clipped! Such precise wind magic! Is this the end for the most fairy-like of Fairy Tail?" The mage grit her teeth as Temari dashed straight towards her, ready to attack the older girl as she fell; Evergreen realized that her fan had been sliced, as well. Knowing it was her last chance for victory, Evergreen removed her glasses, hoping to catch the other girl's eyes; as she had hoped, Temari had closed her eyes, but she was surprised that the girl kept moving, and actually jumped towards where Evergreen was falling.

"H-how can you still attack?!" Temari smirked as she prepared a basic wind jutsu in her fan- it would hit hard, but it wouldn't slice. "It's called I trained my brain instead of grooming my looks!" She waved the fan, and another burst of wind flew out from it. "Air bullet!" Evergreen was hit in midair, and pushed across the arena, eventually crashing into the far wall. Makarov was immediately by her side, using the same surprising agility that got him in and out of the arena. "... Winner: Temari!"

The crowd was certainly impressed by Temari's style if their cheers were anything to go by. Max was pretty impressed too, if his asking Temari out using the microphone was any indication. Temari strode confidently over to the Guild's side, waving her fan delicately at her adoring fans, leaving Kankuro by himself on the other side.

Erza was actually the first to compliment Temari, walking up to her. "That's pretty impressive magic coming from such a small fan."

Temari held it out to the sun, and shrugged. "It's just a regular fan you can buy at the store... you should see my custom one sometime. I can do some real damage with that baby."

Gaara was the only one on their side who realized how much damage Temari could honestly do. "...please keep that in reserve for when you actually need to level a town, Temari."

While the mages slowly crept away from Temari, Kankuro realized he needed to go into battle. His face revealed his anxiety, though no one picked up on it from this distance as he headed to the center of the devastated arena. Makarov was by his side pretty quickly to give the interview, and noticed his anxiety. Is he the 'true' weakest member? Or is there some other reason he's so hesitant? "Name?" "Kankuro. I'm Temari's younger brother." The Master noticed his wording, as well; he was 'Temari's younger brother', trying to indicate his lack of skill compared to her, rather than 'Gaara's older brother', which would instill some fear. "Combat specialty?" Kankuro, despite his anxiety, didn't even flinch. "Distance fighting."

Makarov saw no weapons on his person, but noticed the multiple scrolls he kept on his back; Temari had one of those scrolls, as well, and he thought it rather suspicious. Well, I guess we'll probably get to see what they do this match, then... He's been purposefully giving the impression that he's no good, but the opposite is probably just the case. He thought about who ought to fight, but he was interrupted again by a familiar voice. "Yo, master! Let me take him on!" He turned around, and saw a tall man in dark, poofy clothes and an iron eye-mask walking towards them, five little wooden figures floating in the air behind him. "I've got a bone to pick with him since his sister took out Evergreen... besides, there's something about him that just ticks me off!"

Kankuro didn't quite know what he had done to tick off this man, but he didn't speak; this man was creepy enough by clothes alone, but the little figures were repeating random words that he said. Makarov didn't seem to have much of a problem with it, though. "Kankuro VS Bixlow, then!" Kankuro took a rather basic fighting stance, not even bothering with the scrolls on his back. Bixlow, meanwhile, readied the figures in front of himself. "FIGHT!"

Kankuro dashed at the man, fist raised. Predictably, the figures blocked the punch, and repelled the puppeteer, sending him through the air quite a distance. Bixlow looked rather angry, though you could only see his mouth. "Isn't your specialty distance fighting?! Then why are you coming at me with your fists? Is it because that that isn't your real body? Cause if it really is, then it really pisses me off that you just parade around without a soul!"

The whisperings immediately broke out among all of the audience members, which weren't helped by Max's commentating. "B-Bixlow just openly declared that his opponent 'has no soul'! As a soul magician, he's certainly the one to go to on the matter, but some things just shouldn't be said!"

A frown formed on Kankuro's face; the man had apparently partially seen through his jutsu because he specialized in 'souls', which frankly creeped the puppeteer out. After a moment, he decided to show off a bit, and the frown turned into a sinister smile. "Oh? So you can see that? Well, let's up the ante, then!" Instead of merely dashing at the man, he flew straight towards him, his stomach parallel to the ground, apparently unaided. The figures were moving around quickly but efficiently, shooting beams of light at their opponent. 'Kankuro' lazily dodged them, getting grazed here and there, and it was only a few seconds before he was in front of Bixlow. One of the figures appeared in front of Kankuro, and a moment later the puppeteer's head exploded. There were gasps of horror as the body was blown clear from the blast area, smoke rising from the face. Max's voice boomed over the stadium, obviously quite worried. "D-don't you think blasting him in the face was a bit much?!"

Temari smirked as Kankuro lay there, unmoving, confusing the mages around her. "And now... the show starts."

The body's arm twitched for a moment, before rising to its feet, noticeably without trying to push itself up. His face aimed towards the ground, the smoke clearing as soon as the face was out of view. Even Makarov realized that there was something very much not right with the situation. "What kind of magic could he be using...? I haven't heard of body alteration magic quite like this..."

Suddenly, Kankuro lifted his face- only to reveal that his face was cracked and chipped, with one section entirely blown off, revealing an eye that Bixlow would say belonged to an expensive doll underneath the outer shell. Suddenly, the shell that was "Kankuro" slid off of Bixlow's opponent, turning into a pile of sand. In Kankuro's stead stood a figure with large, bushy hair, and a black cloak that covered its body, but not quite down to where the knees would be if it had any. Its legs were long tubes ending in feet, as were its four arms, each ending in slender hands. Three eyes, in a triangle, stared in random directions, not focusing on much of anything. Every movement it made made a loud 'clack' sound, which was very audible in the now otherwise silent arena. After a few moments, Max decided to say something. "Wh-what the hell is that?! Whatever it is, it isn't human!"

Temari sighed as none of the mages dared breath. "That Kankuro... always making a show out of every battle. If before was the 'opening scene', then this would be the 'introduction of conflict', wouldn't you say, Gaara?" Gaara merely nodded, not saying anything; as long as he had been around Kankuro, he didn't know too much about theatre.

The imposter again flew towards Bixlow, arms extended. Bixlow was rather irritated by its mere presence. "Where's my opponent?! If you don't talk, I'll destroy ya!" The beams were suddenly much faster and more intense, and the being had a much harder time avoiding them this time. After a few shots, the figures collected over it, apparently focusing their energies into one shot. Before they could fire, the being split into many pieces- the head, arms, and legs all flew off from the main body, each flying outward, away from the beam that was to come.

This was a move that stunned the mages, even Makarov. At the same time, Max was getting into the spirit of commentating on this battle. "A-and Kankuro has split into several pieces! What manner of creature has he transformed into?! Or, was this being merely posing as Kankuro?!"

Makarov seemed to notice something as Kankuro's pieces flew around. "What was... there! There's a glimmer by each of them... is that... string?"

They heard someone clicking their tongue, and all the mages turned their heads in unison towards the source- Temari. "Guess we couldn't hide it from a mage as experienced as yourself, huh? Kankuro's magic... I don't think you've actually seen him this entire time. He likes to fight without letting his opponent see him, instead using his dolls to fight his opponents indirectly. The doll you're seeing is called "Crow", and he's got a few more he can show off if you push him."

It was Lucy who realized that full implications of Kankuro's abilities first, and she rubbed her chin as she thought about it. "Wait... your brother uses soulless dolls to fight for him, right?"

Gaara didn't like the thinking pose she had taken. "...What of it?"

She seemed to have some kind of diagram in her head as she pointed at random. "Well, Bixlow's magic uses 'dolls with souls'... if his dolls get destroyed, he can just move the soul to a new doll. If Kankuro fights with 'soulless' dolls..."

The eldest of the Sand siblings slapped her forehead in annoyance. "So, you're saying Kankuro ticked off his natural enemy? Smooth move, drama dork..."

Meanwhile, Bixlow's dolls had tried to chase down the individual pieces, and managed to catch up quite quickly. However, the moment they tried to shoot them down, the pieces shot up, slashing through the aerial dolls with previously hidden blades. The dolls exploded unexpectedly, and all of the pieces of Kankuro's doll assembled back into one body. A small mound of dirt suddenly appeared next to Crow, rising to the height of a human being. The dirt subsided, and Kankuro now stood next to his puppet. "Heh! You surprised, soulsee-er? Your dolls take 'directions', but my puppets move according to my every whim, the moment I decide them!"

Bixlow was acting like he was frightened, though it was in such an exaggerated manner that everyone knew that he was acting. "Oh no~! My babies! Now I can't fight!" Crow's body shuddered for a moment, before its head turned to face Kankuro. Bixlow stuck his tongue out as part of his signature taunt. "No~t!"

The puppeteer barley had time to roll out of the way before a laser beam shot from Crow's mouth, and when he was on his feet again his shoulder was singed. Kankuro put his hand over the injury while glaring at Bixlow. "Damn... didn't think he could possess Crow. Well, then... let's try this!" He grabbed two of the scrolls on his back, and quickly rolled them out in front of himself. After a moment, they exploded into smoke, revealing the forms of two more puppets- one was a more inhuman and wider version of Crow, while the other one was completely beast-like, looking like a six-legged lizard. "These are Black Ant and Salamander. Say hello to Bixlow, guys!"

Predictably (for the mages, anyways), Natsu reacted to the title given to the beastly puppet. "Salamander?! That thing doesn't look anything like Igneel!"

Happy was too absorbed in the fight to take his attention from it, so he spoke without moving his head. "Maybe he hasn't seen a fire dragon before?" All of the shinobi took note of this- apparently some very different things had the names of creatures from their world. Naruto, ever curious, was the one who spoke up to ask about it. "Igneel? Fire dragon?"

The elder boy nodded. "Yep! Igneel was the dragon who raised me and taught me everything I know!"

Naruto wasn't the only one who was able to put two and two together and come up with a 'Wait, what?' reaction, though he and Sakura were the only ones willing to show it. "Everything? Even your magic?" The elder boy grinned and nodded, causing Naruto to turn his gaze away from the mage, lest he be caught up in his idiocy (not that Naruto was all that bright himself, though). "I... I see..." He felt a hand on his shoulder, and saw that it was Lucy, who had tears of understanding in her eyes. They then simultaneously bowed their heads in defeat to the oddity of Natsu.

Meanwhile, Erza seemed intrigued by the idea of the scrolls. "Those scrolls he carries... I guess they're an alternative to Requip magic, since 'puppets' don't count as weapons and armor."

Temari spoke before any of the lesser shinobi could blow their cover- that word, 'Requip'... to her, it sounded like a portmanteau of 're' and 'equip', implying that it was magic that allowed you to change your equipment. "Yeah, given enough time, a proper master of the technique can store pretty much anything that isn't a living creature. It's pretty useful for carrying large amounts of unconventional equipment, but at the same time it's rather obvious that you're carrying them, since it takes a whole lot of paper just to seal something like a knife, and then you have to start the whole process over if you unseal it."

The knight-like girl seemed to accept this explanation. "I see... so it's only really convenient to people who expect to have time to themselves afterwards to redo the seals, then."

The blond smirked behind her hand-fan. "I didn't say that... there are things that one does not expect to reseal, and other things that one does not expect to unseal." Naruto remembered the time that Jiraiya had stored Itachi's 'Amaterasu' jutsu inside of a scroll, and his mood turned sour- he still missed the old pervert, and few would dare tell the boy that he needed to get over it, let alone those who knew him.

Black Ant launched forward, its barrel like chest opening to reveal that it was entirely empty on the inside. Before it could capture Crow, however, the other puppet flew away, like a limp doll being held by its head. It was pretty high up in the air, far from where Kankuro could reach at the moment; but that was what the puppeteer was aiming for- Salamander charged Bixlow, its every step creating a loud thud that indicated its great weight. Bixlow, however, merely stood there, his tongue hanging out, taunting Kankuro's every finger twitch. Just as Salamander was about to slam into the mage, however, it too froze. It flew into the air, besides Crow, and hung there just like its partner. After a moment, Black Ant was in line with them, all three of them facing Kankuro.

Bixlow was very amused. "Ha! Now your puppets belong to me~ I've still got two more souls left, and you have what, the one puppet? You think you'll be able to stop me before I possess it? Not only are your dolls soulless, but so's your magic! Something as simple as this can't defeat a mage of my level, you need magic with some oomph to it!"

Kankuro growled as he removed his final scroll from its resting place. "You want 'oomph'? You've got it! I wasn't taking you seriously, but it looks like I'll have to!" He showed the scroll to his opponent- it was red, with a white scorpion emblem on it. "The most powerful of my puppets... the ones you've seen so far are called 'Black Machines', because their designated function is to take out people by surprise. This one, however, is the masterpiece of the 'Red Machines', and you'll find out why it's called that in a minute... come, Scorpion!" He rolled out the scroll in front of himself in one swift movement, and this scroll also turned into smoke. When it cleared, what stood before everyone... was a red-haired boy, wearing a cloak of similar material to Kankuro's puppets, but at the same time it covered him far more completely. The boy possessed an empty stare, simply looking at the space in front of him.

Before anyone could react, Max interrupted the fight with his desire to talk. "Kankuro seems to have brought out a far more human-like puppet! If the more beastly ones couldn't take him on, what makes him think that this smaller puppet can do it?!"

Makarov seemed to be examining Kankuro's latest summon with a narrowed gaze. "...is my vision getting bad? Or did he just summon a human being?"

The adult shinobi observed it carefully; Konan was the first to make a comment. "Scorpion... Sasori? So that's what his true form looks like..."

Yamato groaned as he slumped forward. "You're kidding me... Sasori looked like that?! Sakura refused to transform into him to show me what he looked like..."

On the other side of the arena, Sakura grit her teeth as memories of her fight with Sasori flooded her head- she knew it would've just been a waste to let Sasori's puppets rot, from a military perspective, but she still didn't like having to look at that face again. "That... thing... it's not human, but... it's not a puppet like you would call the others puppets, either."

As the mages whispered among themselves about the meaning of that, Bixlow seemed surprised. "Th-that... why does that puppet have a soul in it that matches its body?!"

Kankuro shifted his eyes to 'Scorpion', and then turned back to Bixlow. "Hell if I know... this is some other puppeteer's masterpiece. Whether this puppet has a soul or not doesn't matter to me..." A thought struck him, and a smirk formed on his painted face. "...but, if it has a soul, then that means that you can't possess it, can you?" His fingers twitched, and the puppet threw off its cloak, revealing its much more obviously puppet-like body. It had a storage compartment in its stomach for some kind of cable, and two large wings made of blades extended from its back. The chest was segmented, suggesting that they were more storage compartments. The right chest plate opened, and what appeared to be a mass of strings appeared from them, attaching themselves to the floating puppets in an instant, preventing them from moving. On its back was another scroll-storage rack, like Kankuro used. "Here's something unique about all of the 'Red Machines'... each and every one of them is capable of using magic, and in the hands of a skilled puppeteer, are actually stronger than a mage with the same spells. Scorpion here has the same magic as I do, in addition to being outfitted with plenty of weaponry. So, essentially, he's a 'puppeteer' puppet!"

Kankuro twitched his finger, and the other three puppets were torn apart. Each of the parts, however, remained in the air- each of Crow and Black Ant's fourteen limbs were revealed to have blades inside of them, in addition to their heads. Black Ant's body opened again, looking like some black abyss from Bixlow's perspective. Crow's body turned, pointing what was left of the hollow arms at Bixlow like guns. Salamander's limbs and tail merely hung in the air, while its main body opened its mouth to reveal what appeared to be a gun in its maw. Bixlow seemed rather irritated by the display. "A puppet that uses magic?! I don't believe it! Even my babies can only attack due to my own magic! What the hell is so special about this one?!"

Temari gave a yawn as she seemingly ignored what was going on in front of her, and went to sit down on a bench by the wall. "Wake me up when Kankuro gets done with the long-winded speech I'm sure he wrote just for this occasion... long-story short, Red Machines aren't named for what they do, but how they were made. Plug your ears if you're squeamish." She was glad to note that none of the mages moved to do as told- meaning they were either all not squeamish, or they were all just stupid. She could live with either.

The puppeteer, not seeing his torn-apart puppets making any moves aside from his own will, decided to go with the flow here and show off, and started making Sasori move along to his tale. "There once was a puppeteer named "Sasori". He loved puppets, ever since he was a toddler." Sasori placed his hand down low, to show how small he was back then. "He became obsessed with art and eternal beauty, and one day he realized that human beings didn't last forever." The puppet traced a line from its eye down its cheek, indicating tears. "So, he came up with a process- one that, thankfully, hasn't been passed down." At this point, Sasori turned to Kankuro and shook his head disapprovingly before turning back to Bixlow. "Through this process, he could convert 'humans' into 'puppets', while retaining the body's ability to use magic. These puppets, his trademark "Red Machines", were far more dangerous than any other puppets made before them and since."

Even Erza showed visible horror at the implications of such a thing, while Makarov looked like he was trying to hold himself back from throttling Kankuro for using one of those Red Machines. "Such a thing... is murder! And using the body, even if someone else committed the crime, is still wrong!" Meanwhile, Lucy was reminded of Bixlow's own 'Figure Eyes', and wondered how many of the members of Fairy Tail knew about that little trick of his.

"He created roughly three-hundred such puppets, earning himself the name "Scorpion of the Red Sand"." Sasori unwound the cable in his stomach, showing off a stinger on the end of it, wrapping it around himself tenderly while a liquid dripped from the metal. "The 'masterpiece' you see before you is Sasori himself, a puppet whose magic was able to render it self-sufficient. Eventually, the last remnant of his humanity died, and all that's left is this puppet shell, 'Scorpion'." Sasori traced his finger over his neck, indicating that he was killed rather than dying of natural processes. "All of his victims were cremated, to lay rest to their souls... But Sasori himself was kept in one piece, as a warning to all of those who would dare try the same thing."

As the rest of the mages sighed in relief, Bixlow seemed to get even angrier. "Don't you get it? To live on as a puppet is what this guy wanted! He's freaking HAPPY that he's being immortalized like that!"

Kankuro's face turned grim once more. "Don't you think that that's a reasonable price to pay... to make sure the world never sees another person like him?" Sasori pointed at himself while tilting his head, in a playful gesture that was, predictably, extremely disturbing due to his body.

Bixlow sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "Well... it's not like I care too much, I guess. After all... your little puppet show gave me enough time to set up another spell!" Suddenly, Sasori flew out of Kankuro's control, and was floating by himself in the air as the parts of the other puppets fell to the ground. A sinister sneer appeared on his face as he looked down on Kankuro, his eyes not quite as lifeless as before.

"Well, hello, Kankuro. Fancy meeting you here. Last time we talked, I was sure that you only had three days to live... and here it's been, a good several months since then, and I'm the one who's dead..."

There was not one person there who didn't realize the implications of such a thing. Temari was currently burying her face in her hands, hoping that their entire cover wasn't just blown because Sasori had apparently been resurrected. Mirajane looked like she was trying not to retch as she took a step backwards. "'Several months'...? He died as recently as that...? Why... haven't we heard anything about this? Even the Magic Council can't keep something like this quiet..."

Makarov nearly crushed the microphone in his hand- Kankuro hadn't lied to them, but he had made it sound like it was ancient history. But for a mage to have strayed that far from the light, why he had never heard of this 'Sasori' was beyond his understanding.

Meanwhile, Sasori continued speaking. "I've been getting rather angry with you, you know... Granny left two gifts with you when she died, didn't she? She sacrificed her life to give you your brother back... but she left me behind as well, didn't she? You should cherish the gift she gave you, you know..."

Now Sakura's face was looking very pale. "It's been several months since he interacted with anybody... it sounds like he's gone insane..."

Bixlow clicked his tongue, and waved his hand in irritation. "Yo! You're working for me, you can chat with him later!"

Whatever Bixlow was expecting to happen, apparently didn't; Sasori's head turned around, without twisting his body, and stared with a great hatred. "Shut up. This is between a puppet and his puppeteer... I won't let anyone else interfere." Whatever seemed to be holding Sasori up released its hold, and he fell to the ground, landing on his feet. He stood up, and slowly began walking towards Kankuro, his head twisting back to face his target. His stinger began floating in the air in front of himself, a drop of liquid forming on the tip; as he did so, a small cannonball launched at Bixlow, exploding into a purple gas right before it hit him. It cleared after a moment, revealing a coughing Bixlow on his knees, before he collapsed entirely; Sasori, however, was paying the man no attention. "Here's what I'll do, Kankuro... I'm going to kill you- nice, and slow. But I won't leave you for dead, oh no! That was quite a mistake, you know. That little error cost me my life, you see, and pretty soon... you'll be joining me!"

Ending notes

Personal comments: Temari VS Evergreen... I got the feeling that Temari would easily overwhelm Evergreen, so she kinda did. This part was kind of just lame, because she wasn't even really trying, and I couldn't quite get the reactions of the crowd and such down.

Kankuro VS Bixlow was really hard to plan out, because I could easily see it going either way. As I got towards the end, Bixlow ended up stealing control of Sasori, and then Sasori broke free (!). Thus, an actual conflict! And yes, I do have a sort of 'stream of consciousness' style of writing plots, before you ask :P I had no intention of making Sasori break free until I wrote that Bixlow snapped at him.

So now we have a bit of a conflict beyond just the ninja trying to prove themselves, which I think is a very good idea. This will have some consequences in the future, beyond just hurting the ninja's chances of getting into the guild; after all, this sort of incident kinda leaks to the press, which Makarov doesn't like too much.

Explanations: First off: Yes, Fried prevented spells from leaving his barrier, but not people. This is why Natsu hit the wall earlier but Evergreen's attacks bounce off now. 'Can a jutsu leave the barrier', you ask? I'll answer this one some other time~

As Sakura explained, Sasori has quite obviously gone insane. I noticed that his first line sounded kinda like rhyme, so I ran with it (I've been writing poetry lately and it's been showing in how I think now). You'll see the extent of his madness next chapter, because even as I write this I'm brainstorming ideas for his fight.

As for why I brought him back, it just felt right. Bixlow ended up stealing control of all of Kankuro's puppets, so then he brought out Sasori to take them apart; to prevent Bixlow from just winning the fight too easily, I made it so that Sasori's soul still haunted his body, but one of Bixlow's mentioned but unused spells was controlling human puppets using their own souls, so Bixlow stalled for time while he took control of Sasori. Sasori, being an S-Rank criminal ninja, broke free of Bixlow's control pretty quickly, and since he hasn't had anyone to talk to for months on end, he's gone kinda insane.

Preview:

Sasori's head revolved slowly, staring at each of the mages around him as he reached into the circular compartment where his heart ought to be. "You know, I think Deidara was right... I've finally seen the light! 'Art is eternal'? How lame! I see now, art is... A BANG!"