Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 5: Another Jinchuuriki Appears!

It took quite a moment for Naruto and Shikamaru to finally soak in the fact that a kid who was seriously injured, thought to never become a shinobi again had just rushed in, swiftly saved their lives, and was now standing right in the middle of the battle field.

Kakuzu paused in the same way, but for the reason of trying to think of who the hell would come smack in with a Beatles haircut, thick eyebrows, completely circular eyes, wearing green pajamas with extremely tight pants…pants that are a little too extremely tight. What kind of self-respecting ninjas would wear this kind of stuff? Not that the bright orange jumpsuit wasn't enough.

"Wha-what are YOU doing here?!" Naruto asked in shrill surprise at the green figure standing tall in between them and the enemy. "Hey! Bushy Brow! You're already…!"

Rock Lee didn't respond for a moment. He instead kept his attentiveness on the opponent that he was currently facing. He and Kakuzu were glaring each other down in deathly intent, both remaining silent as they let their facial expressions do all the talking for them.

Rock Lee held his taijutsu pose to make sure the Akatsuki wouldn't rush him, before turning his head slightly to face Naruto with one eye shining with confidence to answer his question.

"I am fine! You did not seriously think that a near fatal injury and a critical condition could slow down the spirit of youth!"

Shikamaru was down on his knee from exhaustion as he struggled to get up to reason with the high-strong ninja.

"You shouldn't be down here, Lee. The Hokage's orders were that you stay in the hospital. You don't know how long your body's gonna hold out after being bedridden."

He cut himself off briefly as he and his teammates snapped their heads to Kakuzu, their eyes wide at what he was doing.

Kakuzu had shot his hand like a grappling hook towards the mask that Rock Lee had kicked away from him earlier. The only think that kept his hand connected with his upper arm was a thick, black wiring, similar to the inky substance that was seeping out of his broken weapon when he showed it off to Naruto and Shikamaru in anger.

As the hand made contact with the mask on the ground, he slowly reeled it back in like a fish on a rod, all the while he continued to face the chunin and two genin even as his arm resumed normal length and he had his mask back.

"How interesting." Rock Lee stated.

"This is your only chance going gone. Go back to the village now, Lee! Me and Naruto will hold him off so that you can escape."

But even at the start, Shikamaru knew that it was a fool's choice to talk Rock Lee into running away from a challenge. And even so, he wouldn't put in so much energy into reasoning with anyone. He already knew how this argument was going to end. He briefly wondered to himself why he even bothered in the first place.

"No. I am staying to help you with this threat. You know that this foe is far too powerful for you, alone." Rock Lee insisted. "You also should already know that there is no way that I would run from such a worthy looking opponent!"

"Forget it, Bushy Brow! You have to go back to the hospital!" Naruto cut in, being far too dense to know as well as Shikamaru of Rock Lee's fiery dedication to the fight.

"Naruto!" Rock Lee interrupted him.

Naruto looked up with surprise at his friend in front of him.

Rock Lee raised his arm up to one side as he continued to face Kakuzu, who raised his arm higher with his mask at hand.

Before anyone could respond, Rock Lee extended his thumb to Naruto as he continued facing towards his opponent. Kakuzu looked relatively confused at where this might go.

Rock Lee continued to hold his arm out to the side without facing his friends.

"The thumbs-up! Remember, Naruto? You gave it to Sakura when you promised that you would bring Sasuke back!"

Naruto's eyes shone bright at the remembrance of that promise to Sakura when the mission began.

Flashback-

"Sakura." Naruto's voice echoed to the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Huh…?" She raised her head to the owner of the voice, her eyes drenched with tears.

What greeted her vision was a thumbs-up that Naruto held out to her as he grinned with widely with a confident smile.

"I'll definitely bring Sasuke back!" He said to her without a hint of doubt. "…It's the promise of a lifetime!"

-End flashback

"I promise you…" Rock Lee started with sheer confidence and devoid of any doubt as well. "…with all the fire that burns in my soul…" Naruto's eyes gradually widened; his light blue pupils shone brightly. "…I will not lose this fight!"

Naruto was unable to answer. He was too astonished by his short speech to say anything. This guy…he was just as confident as he himself was about fulfilling his promise to Sakura. He hardly even knew Sasuke, except as a minor rival at the Chunin Exams, yet here he was, right now, laying his life on the line for that very same person.

Naruto cracked a grin. He had to respect that. This guy…was one of a kind. Even if there was another older shinobi back in the village that liked to dress in green spandex and keep his eyebrows unkept as well.

But the entire mood was cut clean off, as everyone; everyone in the field sensed something unusual. Naruto, Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Kakuzu, Itachi and Kimimaro who had been fighting all through the moment, all turned their heads one by one at the barrel that held Sasuke.

Something was happening to it. Dark steam seemed to course its way out of the creases. It started slowly, but everyone could barely see that the quantity and movements of the gas were both increasing.

And everyone could sense some new power twisted inside of it as well.

Soon a soft, rumbling noise started in the barrel, as if something was about to emerge. Kimimaro turned his head back to smile at Itachi.

"Now comes a new destiny…"

-BOOM!-

As if on cue, and as if explosives had been placed inside of it, the entire barrel exploded soundly, burning all of the grass within a ten-foot radius.

Naruto's eyes widened again, and he felt his mouth slowly drop open.

Rock Lee and a wincing Shikamaru glared on, as well as Kakuzu, who had his back turned to them. No one could see through the purplish smoke for a good moment, as it continued to leave the earth. But then they saw a strange figure that no one was even familiar with, not even Naruto or Itachi. They squinted to see that the shadowy image had abnormally long hair.

Everyone was silent for a moment to come. As the smoke cleared, the long-haired form seemed to burn away, and at that point, gave to a form that almost everyone was familiar with. All Itachi had to do to recognize him was look at the symbol of his clan on the back of his shirt. Damn vision-impairing property.

The entire group of fighters continued to stare at the newly emerged Sasuke. It was so incredibly silent that everyone could hear the wind blow through the field…the grass rustling so peacefully…crickets chirping at a nearby pond…the birds chirping- yeah, okay this is getting boring.

"HEY, ITACHI-SAAAAAN!!" Kakuzu and Itachi were snapped from their thoughts as they heard a familiar, painfully obnoxious voice come out from across another side of the field, yelling as hard as it possibly could.

Itachi responded by quickly dunking his head lower in annoyance of his name being called so immaturely in front of everyone, including his current opponent, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and his little brother.

He and Kakuzu turned their heads to glare over at their irritating teammate in response, not wanting to raise their voices to answer across the massive plains in words. They watched as he waved obnoxiously over at them from where he was at. Then he cuffed his hands over his masked mouth and yelled again.

"HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT'S GONNA TAKE YOUR BROTHER TO FIGURE OUT THAT HE'S FACING THE WRONG WAY??"

Itachi faced away, closing his eyes softly and zipping his neckband up over his mouth. He really wished he wasn't here right now.

"HEY, GUYS! DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SA-"

"Damn it, Tobi! All of the Fire Country heard you! Could you possibly be any louder?!" Kakuzu shouted back at him in response.

"HUH?! YOU SAID YOU WANT ME TO BE LOUDER??" Tobi replied, yet even 'louder' than he was before…which in turn annoyed the other two Akatsuki even more.

"NO!!" Kakuzu retorted in even more frustrated tone of voice. His echo rang out through the background, and the faint sound of birds flocking away could be heard.

He turned back to see Tobi scratching the top of his head as he stood planted atop the steep hill in the far-out distance.

Itachi grudgedly accepted a dare with himself to crack open one of his eyes to peer at everyone else's expressions. Kimimaro still held a calm face as he stood holding his two swords. His brother still faced the other way, which led Itachi to suggest that he was even blinder than himself.

He then slightly shifted his head and eyes to the tailed beast and the other non-important leaf genin. The browed one still held his taijutsu stance, put that he was as frozen as a statue. But his eyes were even wider than before. Scary.

Itachi shifted his eyes slightly more. The pony tailed one stood facing slightly the other direction with his arms crossed, and his eyes closed. Itachi saw that he was sighing and mumbling something lazily to himself. Itachi could barely read his lips from where he was at. 'Drug?' 'Drank?' 'Drag?' Whatever.

His last target showed something similar to what he thought that he would. The Nine-Tailed Fox had a comical expression as his eyes were the size of dinner plates. But as Itachi continued to watch, he shook it off, realizing that Sasuke was more important than the awkward moment going on right now.

"…Sasuke…?" He whispered, even though he knew that his best friend couldn't hear him. He slowly cracked a grin, which became a full smile, his teeth shone out as he called again with cheer.

"Sasuke!!" He shouted across the field, as loud as he could possibly be.

"I DON'T THINK HE CAN HEAR YOU, LEAF PERSON! TRY BEING LOUDER!!" Tobi suggested unnecessarily from the background.

"What is it with people and the…yelling…?" Shikamaru mumbled to himself quietly, with his finger in one of his ears to block out the obnoxiously loud rants. Rock Lee maintained his pose as he glared on across the field confidently.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto continued, happy as ever. "What are ya doin' with these idiots, huh?!" He waved over to him across the field, only to catch a non-responsive shoulder.

"Come on, everyone's waiting for you back at the village!"

"Sasuke! You do not want to let Sakura down, do you?" Rock Lee added. "She has been worried to tears because of you!"

Kakuzu and Itachi turned back to back with each other (which probably would have made a decent photograph, if you think about it). Their brightly colored uniforms drifted in the breeze as they faced opposite directions to different people. Kakuzu faced towards Naruto (who stood with Shikamaru and Rock Lee), while Itachi faced towards his brother (who faced away with Kimimaro standing close by). Itachi wondered if this was really the same foolish little brother that he knew before, as he didn't charge at him with killing intend when Tobi half-wittedly called out his name in front of everybody.

They decided to let this go on a bit longer, as they wanted to see how this would turn out. They remained silent as they held their positions and stared on to the genin.

"So…come on! Let's go, Sasuke! Let's…" Naruto's voice faded out. What is wrong with Sasuke? He's hardly acknowledging his friend. Not that he ever did that much before, but this…

The other Leaf ninjas and Itachi watched as Sasuke spread his arms out into a full arc without turning around, and grunted something. Was it…a laugh?

Everyone soon found out as Sasuke's insane chuckling gradually got quicker…louder… And finally, he had lost it completely, as his arms were still out open, and his shoulders moved wildly to match the rate of his laughter.

Itachi winced. Nope. The old Sasuke is pretty much shot. If this was Sasuke at all.

As he and Kakuzu continued facing back to back, Kakuzu turned his head back to Itachi's briefly and whispered "This is better than the soap opera that Zetsu watches."

Itachi didn't respond. He didn't have time to anyways, as his brother suddenly lunged away from the rest of the group at shocking speed. Everyone who knew Sasuke also knew that the speed that he used to go at was nothing compared to this. Something was not right… If it wasn't just the psychotic laughter that gave it away…

"Sasuke!!" Naruto shouted helplessly from where he was at as his best friend darted away.

"Right. This has gone on long enough." Kakuzu decided.

"I agree." Itachi responded from right behind him.

In a flash instant, Kimimaro appeared right in front of the two with his weapon drawn and prepared to slash. Both of them jumped separate ways. Kimimaro would now have to choose which person to go after, and the choice wasn't hard.

As Kimimaro dashed one direction for Itachi, Kakuzu got out another mask. This mask was grey. He held it to the three unsuspecting genin preparing to use a greater technique.

Shikamaru tried to be absolutely quick on briefing Rock Lee, while at the same time remaining aware for the coming attack.

"Watch yourself, Lee. This guy attacks with elemental jutsu of all sorts."

"All sorts? What strange power." Lee commented.

"Futon: Atsugai! (Wind Release: Pressure Damage!)"

A tunneling whirlwind slowly burrowed its way towards the leaf genin and chunin, somehow keeping itself contained in one big pressure hold spot. It easily leveled the grass and slopes in its way as it continued to approach.

Naruto gritted his teeth angrily as he stepped up to face the attack, but was stopped by an arm. He turned to look at Rock Lee, silently questioning what he was doing, as Lee gave him a serious look.

"Naruto, go ahead after Sasuke. I will cover you."

Shikamaru got up to amble towards the two.

"…I guess that goes for me as well…" He replied wearily as he approached the two with his hands in his pockets.

"But...you guys..." Naruto slowly started, wanting to protest, but dragged off.

"Naruto." Shikamaru continued, seeing that he wouldn't finish for himself. "We all knew the risks. Chouji knew the risks when he sent us ahead. Neji knew the risks when he stopped that strange six-armed shinobi from delaying us. Kiba knew the risks when he fought off that Siamese freak shinobi that would have probably killed us." He struggled to keep his voice audible over the vacuum-like noise generating from the wind-style attack approaching them. "…And me and Rock Lee…we know what we're doing, right here and now. We are all doing this…because…everything, everything…all those risks, all those chances we took to get this far…it will all be for nothing. So go on, Naruto…get Sasuke back! I've been trying to do what is right for my comrades as a squad leader, now…you have to do what's right for us."

Naruto was too busy to respond. He was debating his choices. Was getting Sasuke back really more important than the lives of two of his other friends? Even if he went after him, he didn't know if he would be strong enough by himself for it to mean something. He could, on the other hand, save his friends' lives if he stayed behind and helped him fight off the infidels, even though all of their chakra levels pretty much left Sasuke's in the dust.

Rock Lee must have known exactly what he was thinking.

He threw his thumb up again and smiled brightly as he spoke to Naruto with one of his eyes shut, presumably in a prolonged wink.

(Now here is what I want you to do. I want you to picture the actual episode where Naruto and Rock Lee were on the Moonlit Fields, except when Lee is giving the thumbs-up and speaking to Naruto, I want you to picture grey sky, and a great big ugly whirlwind slowly tearing towards them from the background, shredding through the land and trees on the way.)

"Do not worry about us!" Rock Lee stated enthusiastically. "I can assure you that Shikamaru and I have this covered! Remember your promise to Sakura!"

Naruto stared at him with an unsure face at first, but then it quickly shifted into an inspired smile.

"Right!" Naruto finished.

He dashed on towards the gigantic vortex that threatened to consume him, before turning back one last time to see Rock Lee stand up straight and give him a soldier's salute. Naruto smiled, and continued to dash towards the artificial storm jutsu. When he realized that he had gotten close enough, he drew out a shadow clone out from behind him. As he held his arm out, the shadow clone proceeded to shape a perfectly formed sphere in his palm as he held his hand out for it. When his clone disappeared, he took the light blue orb forward as he continued his dash to face the attack head-on.

With a jump start, he took towards it, his own attack held out before him, preparing to collide.

"What…the hell?" Kakuzu wondered as he continued to hold the mask up to the strange attack.

"Rasengan!"

It rammed into and through the head of Kakuzu's jutsu, and Naruto launched it out of his hand and forward through the vortex, tunneling all the way to Kakuzu.

Thinking quickly, Kakuzu dropped the jutsu, and ducked the lightly colored projectile. He looked behind himself to see it carry on through the air, and finally tunnel into the canyon beyond. A split rock sound was heard from everyone, and the entire rock formation came crumpling to the ground, as a colossal cloud of dust rose up below a great crater, the attack's evidential landing point.

Kakuzu snapped his head back to see Naruto dash at him with the others close by. He jumped back a ways on instinct.

"Now you'll really get it!!" Naruto shouted at him.

"Ohhh, you cheeky…" Kakuzu held his hand forward, and shot it out, directing it at the tailed beast that rushed him. It flew through the air on its inky ropes, only to be caught in mid air by Rock Lee, who dashed in front of Naruto at great speed to stop the attack.

Kakuzu didn't have time to recoil again before Naruto was up in his face, and then over it. Kakuzu's opaque eyes widened as Naruto landed on his feet behind him.

"Get it?" Naruto teased, as he saluted Kakuzu. "Mission accomplished!"

"Not yet it's not!" Kakuzu prepared to fire with his other arm, despite the other currently being pinned down by Lee. He swiftly aimed it at an unsuspecting Naruto and fired it off.

But something really bizarre happened. It wasn't working! Why wasn't it working?! In fact, his whole body wasn't working! He couldn't move! He was frozen in place!

…But by what…?

Kakuzu glared at the Bijuu that was now getting away, before straining his head at the effort to slowly turn it back to the other Leafs. What greeted his sight was Shikamaru, smirking up at him as he crouched down into shadow-user position.

"Shadow Imitation Technique: success." Shikamaru stated smugly.

Kakuzu's eyes followed the trace of Shikamaru's unnaturally black shadow, all the way up to the source: himself. Stitches of joy.

"No good! Itachi! Help!"

But it was futile, as Itachi was square in a battle of his own, remaining stationary, as he effortlessly dodged Kimimaro's Larch Dance sweeps.

"DON'T YOU WORRY, KAKUZU-SAN!! TOBI IS HERE!!" Tobi shouted to him from the top of the slope. "TOBI WILL HELP!! TOBI IS A GOOD- WHAAAAA!!" Tobi cut himself off as he tripped over his own feet and tumbled down the hill, away from the fight.

Kakuzu sweat-dropped as he had his head turned towards the clumsy ninja that continued to roll down the steep slope and make a big splash head-first into the pond below.

He struggled to turn his head back towards the other two shinobi just in time to see Shikamaru explain to Rock Lee about his masks while he held his jutsu stance.

"So you are saying that the masks are the sources of this man's powers?"

"Yeah. Why not go up there and smash em' up while I hold this guy down."

That was the second worst thing that Kakuzu wanted to hear. He struggled hard to break free from the bond, but abruptly stopped to slowly glare up as Rock Lee approached him with a sport look on his face.

"Now then…" Rock Lee started to him. "Let us have a look at those masks!"

"Oh like hell you will!!"

Meanwhile-

Sasori and Tayuya where still high at the peaks of the trees, stared each other down in their new forms, exploring them for possible new strengths and weaknesses.

This had almost seemed to turn into a game for the two, and though Tayuya was dead-serious about winning, Sasori had to admit that he was having…a small amount of fun dealing with her. After all, the goading to her entertained him all the more. But it seemed that after a while, this became just a bit more than a friendly contest, if friendly sounded cute and cuddly in the least. It seemed…that it was time to put child's play aside and get serious. If she was willing to do it, then hell, Sasori was all arms to entertain her, as well.

Unknown to Tayuya, Sasori was a lot faster without his garments on…so he could easily do THIS!

He disappeared from his place with a titanic burst of speed, and slid all the way over.

Tayuya grunted and proceeded to look around the area frantically, eyes wandering all through the treetops. 'Scurrying around the forest like a little rat…! I'll find you…'

Her eyes abruptly shot wide open as a gigantic shadow eclipsed her body. Not so little. Someone was right behind her; someone big. Two guesses as to who that would be, and Jiroubou doesn't apply. Her entire backside dropped ten degrees as a sick, cracking sound was heard, like rotting wood splitting. And the sound felt…hostile. Like it wanted her dead.

"So…" A coarse, creeping voice whispered from right over her shoulder. "…do you spot him yet?"

She could feel a cold shiver up her spine, as if that was right about where a knife was about to slip. Beads of sweat formed over her darkened forehead under her horns as she breathed heavier. She had to rely on precise timing.

Trying to seem as sudden as possible to him, she shot her whole body around as fast as she could, only to have been met by this:

"BOO!!" Sasori shouted right into her face as loud as possible, even going so far as to lunge forward a little for good effect. If it wasn't his scary, mangled lower face, or the fact that his whole body was standing upward on the tip of his tail to make him look much taller and more threatening that did the work for him, just pick from the list.

"Whoa!!" Tayuya shouted in sheer surprise and alarm. Even her Second State hadn't prepared her for that.

As anyone would expect, Tayuya lost her footing on her tree branch, struggling to keep back on. "Ah-" She was loosing her edge, and as she tipped back, she made the mistake of looking down. They were so high up, that the ground wasn't even visible! As her balance leaned her back and forth, the view that she was looking down from seemed to zoom in and out.

Finally, she lost her balance, completely. "Ahh!" She felt her feet slipped off the edge.

"AAAHHHHH!!" She screamed as she fell through the canopy. None of the branches reached out far enough to catch her, and her legs couldn't reach a surface to kick off on, and catch one. She was helpless as she plummeted down to the forest floor, rapidly picking up the speed. The fall was as forever while she continued her screaming all the way down.

The ground was closing in fast on her. It was all she could do to quickly close her eyes and have a second's brace for the inevitable.

Then, her vision went dark, and everything went silent.

"Am I…" She whispered timidly to herself, not wanting to finish the sentence. The dark continued to seep over, and it was even silent enough to hear herself echo. "…dead…?" She finally finished for herself.

"It's not the fall that kills you…" An eerily familiar voice corrected her, the deep, monotone sounds in his voice echoing just as much as her soft, quivering one.

She realized that she still had her eyes closed. She slowly opened one of them to see that the surface of the ground was nothing more than an inch away from her face. As her eyes both shot open, she felt around her body without looking away from her limited view to make sure that she hadn't really passed.

First, she worked her hands to feel her unnaturally tan neck, which was still smooth, yet wet from beads of sweat that had slide down from her face. Slowly, she moved her trembling hands down her chest, skimming the outer trimmings of her clothes.

But when she got to her waists, something didn't…feel right. Surely her outfit's purple-knot belt didn't feel that hard before, or let alone…cold. Or did she just never notice? But then she knew for absolute certainty that it wasn't her normal attire. Because she felt it slither its way around her waist and up around her torso to support her in more comfortable…or uncomfortable position, as it slightly slipped over her breasts, working its way all over her chest - mending over her, like living armor. Just what was she hanging from?

Afraid of what she might see, her eyes slowly worked their way down her body to meet up with her hands.

And, oh, what she saw confused her a great deal. For what was wrapped around her light frame, was the continuing mechanism that seemed to belong to a great, metallic…tail.

"Uh!" Her pupils shrank in sheer surprise as she soon after turned her head to slowly trace the steel vertebrae of the tail up to its source.

And sure enough, a familiar, armored man with a gauntlet on his left hand was crouched on all fours facing onward even as she hung right next to him, as he held the tail supporting her to the side of himself.

"It's the sudden stop." He finished, his jawbone and teeth clicked actively as he did so without his black cowl to cover them. Even as he spoke to her, his glare stretched onward in his own direction, as if…trying not to even look at her.

Her mouth opened slightly as her mind tried to compute with what her vision was telling her. How could this be happening? Her bastard enemy had...saved her?

She attempted to respond to him…but could not quite find the words. Since she was so close to him, she stared at his face for a brief moment, as this might very well be the last chance that she would ever have again. Since he was so statue still, the bastard didn't really look all that scary if she let her eyes take him in. Or maybe it was just because she felt safer in her Second State form?

"You…saved me…?" She questioned, her demon eyes wide.

Sasori's head instantly snapped to face her, making a sickly cracking sound as it did so.

As scary as his eyes were to look at from a distance, they're even scarier when your eyes were only a few inches away from his. She swallowed hard as his eyes narrowed in on her; the pupils seemed to shrink in like a camera lens, while she noticed thin, bloodshot veins surround it.

His mouth parts clicked softly as he spoke again.

"I'm not through…with you." As he emphasized on the last part, his tail gave off a few warning clicks, before catapulting her through the air as hard as it could. She flew far. At the speed that she was going at, if she hit had hit a tree the wrong way, the force of the impact would definitely finish her.

However, in mid air, she threw her upper body forward, flipping through the air to feet first position, and as she neared a tree trunk, she kicked off of it and backflipped gracefully onto her feet.

"What the fuck is your problem?" She spat, more of a terribly confused tone than an angry one. "You fight me for hours on end, when I'm about to die you save me, and then you go back into attack mode?!" She spread her arms out far to the sides to emphasize her point. "Make up your damn mind – do you want me dead, or don't you?" She finished, putting her hands on her hips to wait for an answer.

Sasori glanced her over silently, yet effectively while maintaining still position before answering her question cryptically.

"When I'm yet to have had my fun, I suppose you will not know."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She asked in alarmed response. "Does that even fucking answer my question??"

"Look, can't we just get on with this…?" Sasori asked wearily. He was tired of answering the redhead's annoying questions. Or do all women ask so many questions when someone that they were fighting to the death with just saved their life?

Tayuya leered at him sternly. As much as she would like to figure out who he actually is, she instead figured that she should resume teaching this guy a lesson. But...still...why?

"You think this is a game?" She asked, bewilderment in her voice. "Well, I'm gonna make you feel sorry for ever saving me in the first place. That was a pretty dumb thing to do." She pointed her flute towards him, as if lecturing him with it.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know we were still talking."

Right on cue after she heard this, the tail lunged out to her directly, intent on spearing her on end. It crashed through other tree trunks in the way, before meeting up with her.

She reacted quickly by jumping up the tree, and away onto the next one as she peered down at him from the enormous height difference, while he retracted his tail.

-T-tt-tt-tt-tt-tt-tt-

It clanked with a solid rhythm, as it slowly reeled in to its original length.

-ttt-ttt-CLANG-

A distinctively different sound signified that it had pulled in all the way. Sasori slowly turned his head up to look give the girl his signature glare, even though his puppet's lower face would be forever cracked into an endless, menacing grin.

Tayuya finally just shrugged her shoulders and raised her flute to her lips, and Sasori crouched low to the ground, anticipating a powerful attack. She played some entirely new tune from before. The notes screeched in play, and the sound waves generating from the instrument were so loud that Sasori could feel the notes pulsate through his structural body on the beat.

"Mateki: Mugen'onsa! (Demonic Flute: Dream Sound Chain!)"

As the bright purple waves passed over Sasori, he found that he wore slightly disoriented. The area all around seemed to ripple and melt down, and his rival's form seemed to spin and fade in and out, but Sasori could still see that she cracked an evil grin though her flute still pressed to her lips, before she too was washed away with everything else in vision.

Sasori, inside of his puppet body, with his scornful eyes shifting back and forth, scanned the area that he was now trapped in. It was a wasteland, but nothing like the Desert of Suna. Bones of humans and prehistoric creatures alike were strewn all over the sanded sea. Nice red sky, too. Where did the bitch send him?

As waves and waves of sand continued to brush in, the sharp grains of the storm were probably powerful enough to peel the skin back of a normal human. But to Sasori's chagrin, the storm's power was still strong enough, even for the density of his woodworks, to peel the wood back, making his body texture all coarse and splintery. Maintenance work for later. Yipee.

But there would be another time to fuss about that, because now, white, shining wires were coming in on him, and as some of them made contact with his thick shell, thin scratches were being made along the surface. Before Sasori could resort to using his tail, numerous wires came in from behind and seized it. Many held it in place, and many more were coming in through the flexibility creases of the metalwork, so now, it would be useless to him anyways.

Sasori aimed the gauntlet on his left hand out behind him in an attempt to release his backside, but that plan was wasted as soon as yet more wires came to the front end and seized his left arm and his right, shortly after. He was now tied up at all ends like a rodeo clown. Could the day get any better? Sasori grunted with the effort to release himself from his stringy imprisonment, but found that utterly useless, because combined with the power of the genjutsu he was in, and his lacking strength of a mid range fighter, he would have had better luck releasing himself from an entanglement of ramen noodles.

His body tipped, wood creaking as Sasori slowly and helplessly fell to the ground, landing face-first in a mound of sand.

"Well isn't this just…awkward." He mumbled irritably to himself as he struggled even more, but the position of the fall caused his right arm to interlope with the opposite side, as his left did the exact same thing, so now, he was strung up with his arms tangled in with his backside.

He was pretty sure that wherever that girl was, she was having herself a fucking ball watching him now.

Then he reminded himself. 'A genjutsu. That's all it is, is a genjutsu. She can't do any real damage to me, this way. She doesn't know my weak point, so she'll just aimlessly exercise excuses for pain around my dead body.' He smiled in the form of a horrific, extended mouth at what an ultimately useless attempt this was for her. 'Guess she's playing frisky. She doesn't seem to want to dirty her hands for herself.' He reckoned.

Then, the bones around the wasteland area began to melt right out of their spots, and it was getting so hot, that the sand even started to melt. As Sasori did his best to cover his heart from the rapidly rising heat, he watched as his body slowly peeled and melted like wax, and his metal tail corroding over in a thick brown rust.

'Right. This is a tad bit uncomfortable, but still – won't kill me.' He reasoned with himself as he tried his best to ignore the subtle notice of his body disintegrating completely.

He waited, and he waited, and he waited, and DAMN did he hate to wait. Nothing happened for several minutes as his body slowly dissolved more as it was all he could do to keep his face from planting right back into the rusty mound of sand he was facing. What could he do to pass the time? Dance? No, guess he couldn't do that, could he? So…what was she waiting for? Wouldn't any normal person be pretty much screwed, by now? He tried his best under given conditions to come up with a decent plan to release himself from this annoying genjutsu. After a few seconds of active brainstorming, he came up with the most logical one that he could think of. Since he couldn't use pain of his own to release himself from the genjutsu…

'I suppose I'll go with the indignant way and play dead...'

Sasori grudged. He hated playing possum, but annoying times call for annoying measures. As long as none of the other members see him doing the ridiculous stunt, he should be fine as far as self-decent moral goes.

He didn't bother holding his breath, because that'd be pretty much pointless and stupid, and let his face plop to the sand.

-plop-

Mmmmmm…salty.

He let his body dangle limp on the wires, and gave himself to the desert. For a while, nothing happened. The sand rustled on through as the black sun in the run sky continued to cast down harmful rays of heat to light up the boiling desert-Hell.

But then, the temperature seemed to decrease slightly, as his disintegration rate decreased itself. He couldn't tell by feeling, of course. The sky seemed to dim and fade as the bones and sand of the wasteland seemed to tear away from the ground and dissipate in the air. The whole room was spinning again, which made the Akatsuki pirate motion sick again, before the familiar floral green of trees spun back into view. But even as the illusion ceased, Sasori decided to be sneaky.

He continued to lay limp on the floor of the forest, his eyes remaining open, as he could never close them. The tail lay strewn long across the forest floor, reaching about twenty feet in length, since it was limp and not flexed.

It was silent as he lay there, a bird or two chirped from high in the canopy every once in a while, but nothing more. It sure was tranquil in the forest. How come he had never noticed that before? Guess it was all the loud smashing and bashing and loud noises from the fight that had averted his attention so. This might have actually been a decent place to continue his work on his human puppets, if it were darker and more solitary.

Suddenly, Sasori heard a tiny noise, like feet hitting the pavement from meters away, and felt something light in the earth, but distant, knowing that it was Tayuya landing on ground level. Since the side of his head was right along the ground, the vibrations in the earth could carry through his wooden vessel and to the only living part of his body, enabling him to feel if anything was approaching on the same ground that he stood on.

But he didn't feel anything else. Seemed that she was being a bit cautious, still. As long as he didn't show any sign of movements, she should fall for it…eventually. Then that would be it. He wasn't the close combat type, but she wasn't, either. He figures that he can handle one bratty little girl.

But minutes passed by, and Sasori was rapidly getting impatient with her. Not only did he hate waiting for someone in general, but on this loose-soiled ground, he was sure to be getting dirtier by the second. He hated getting dirty.

'Come on…you know you want to check and make sure that I'm really dead.'

His eyes glared, as that was the expression that his puppet was stuck with, but he was also fairly certain that he would be glaring, anyway. Did she really learn that quickly? She should be confident that her genjutsu finished him.

Then he felt extremely light vibrations in the earth, but could not hear a thing. She was sneaking up to him. Based on her hesitation from before, and the lengthy periods of time in between the small vibrations, it was easy to tell. She was still being careful about her approach on him; despite the fact that she would have guaranteed that her jutsu would have finished him, anyway.

What a smart little girl. She is, indeed, a shinobi.

The vibrations gradually became heavier, telling Sasori that she was getting closer to him. He waited anxiously for a perfect chance to lunge her. And he would have to continue waiting a bit longer.

His eyes shifted wildly around; it was safe to do that, since he was sure that he was facing the opposite way from his opponent. Really there was no need to do this, as he could easily kill her no matter what, but he figured to keep her alive and active as long as possible until he received news from the others that they had captured the Nine Tails.

He found that it was always fun toying with kunoichi before he resorted to kill them.

Finally, she was only yards away, as indicated by the heft of the vibrations. By this time, Sasori was so anxious, he felt like jumping right out of Hiruko to grab her, himself.

'Come on…closer…closer…' He spoke with his thoughts in extreme impatience.

He heard her stop abruptly.

'…NOW!'

Sasori's body shot up at Tayuya as swift as possible. This was a big mistake.

"NOW I have yo-"

"Cha!" Tayuya shouted vigorously.

Before he could respond with a 'what the hell?' or even a 'huh?', Tayuya clenched her hand into a fist, threw it back, and…

-CRUNCH!-

Next thing that he knew, Sasori was flying back at a hundred miles per hour into the base of a tree, feeling every artificial organ in his body rattle with the force, as well as the one that wasn't.

He struggled slowly to snap his head out of the gigantic imprint that he made in the wood to stare at her with his extremely rarely used surprise expression. Though his mouth could never shift, everything showed in Sasori's wide eyes, as he stared back at the demonic looking girl, who glared as she hadn't yet withdrawn from her fierce punch.

It was then that Sasori realized that he felt a bit lighter. As his head slowly hung over to examine his torso, he found the source of the dysfunction.

A gaping hole, about the width of Tayuya's slender fist, was incrested in the hollow of his chest. Deep cracks formed all around due to the terrifying amount of force exercised upon it. In a way, he found that he was looking into his own innards. Holy shit.

His eyes widened even more at the scary fact.

'That was almost it for me.' He thought, astounded that he had brushed with Death. 'If that blow was directed slightly to the right, she would have smashed in my main organ, and I would have been killed on the spot. Tough girl.'

Time for a mental note: she's stronger than she was before.

He tilted his head back up to look at her as she still held her fist position from the punch. He scowled as he stared at her from his strewn position.

'She was anticipating this...' He realized. He had let his guard down.

In response to the look, she didn't move, but smirked evilly, revealing teeth.

"Is that all you got?"

To the field-

"Don't touch the masks! Don't you even think about touching those masks!" Kakuzu struggled as it were to break from the shadow hold, but all he was good for was making empty threats. He guessed that he could say that he now knew how Hidan always feels.

Shikamaru was struggling with the shadow hold; beads of sweat shone on his forehead. This guy was hard to keep in place, and the effort was constantly draining his chakra.

"Do it already, Lee! I'm almost at my limit!" Shikamaru strained through gritting teeth. "Take him out quickly!"

"Please do not strain!" Rock Lee said, trying to get Kakuzu to hold still. "It will make it a lot more difficult!"

"Why do you think I'm doing it?!" He retorted.

He struggled to turn his head back just to see Itachi knock Kimimaro back with another Super Explosion, and disappear from plain view. Guess he used the attack to bide time.

And so it was, Itachi reappeared, kunai at hand, right behind Shikamaru, who was too distracted with his own technique to notice, until too late.

His eyes widened at the realization that there was another shadow cast over him, not the one he was currently using. Itachi peered menacingly down to him with blood red eyes as he held the kunai up over him. Well, all Shikamaru had time to say was:

"Ohhhhhhh troublesome-!"

-Thunk-

Without even batting an eye, Itachi effortlessly knocked him out using the back of the knife, letting Shikamaru's unconscious body drop to the ground as his shadow shrank to normal proportion.

Rock Lee was in the wrong place, at the wrong time when Kakuzu got his movement back: directly in front of him.

Kakuzu threw a strong kick at Rock Lee, who had barely seen it coming in time, barely blocking the full access force as it slammed into his arms. Lee was pushed meters back from the effort, and there was now one less friend to fight alongside.

Rock Lee winced in pain as he caught himself from slamming onto his backside. "Uh...how could anyone be so strong?"

"Thanks, Itachi." Kakuzu said to the silent shinobi as he cracked his neck into place. It upset him greatly, in a way. He was the one who was always telling his thick-headed partner to be careful, which he ultimately does not do, and then he was the one to laugh down at the head rolling across the floor while it cursed unintelligently up at him for laughing. Was karma just not him friend anymore?

Itachi nodded slightly, before teleporting back out to continue the fray with Kimimaro.

Kakuzu turned back to scowl down at Shikamaru, who lay limp on the ground. He readied his mask, preparing to destroy his body, before he could ever come back to the land of the conscious again. His only regret: it won't be painful.

He readied his Wind Mask to grind him up like a blender, the blank mask glowing notoriously down at the unconscious Leaf. As it swallowed wind like a vent, it homed in on Shikamaru's body, preparing to make a smoothie out of him.

"Good bye, hound of the Leaf." Kakuzu sneered with animosity.

"Futon…"

"No!" Rock Lee shouted as he ran up to help his friend. "I am not done with you yet!"

Kakuzu instinctively took out his Water Mask and quickly aimed it at him with his other hand. Ice spewed out of the mouth, crawling for Lee.

He used his speed to outrun the blast, dashing around the field; there was nothing he could do to help his friend without getting frozen on interference.

The other mask whistled loudly as it prepared to unleash all of its power on Shikamaru.

"...Atsugai!"

The mouth clicked open, and it fired.

It drilled deep into everything underneath it; Shikamaru, the ground that he was on, everything. Kakuzu shot high into the air from the pressure of the blast, as he continued to hold the mask downward, like an ethereal mining drill.

The wind screamed as it dug into the surface, with the power of three tornadoes, each taking turns carving up a section of land.

Kakuzu squinted through his eyes from the powerful breezes that came along with the attack; wanting to be sure that was it.

Itachi and Kimimaro hesitated with the fight to cover their faces from the strong winds, and gravel that rode in as debris. As if the fight wasn't trouble enough on its own. The sound was annoying, too.

As soon as Kakuzu realized that he was seriously overkilling, and that no one could have possibly survived this, his mask slowly ceased all of the air around the perimeter, and he gradually lowered to the land as the pressure faded away.

As he landed on his feet, he scanned the area. There was absolutely nothing standing. Shikamaru's body was gone, and so was all of the grass and soil around it. Nothing was left remaining was a whole bunch of brownish…

…sand.

Wait…sand? This is a floral forest, not a desert. In fact, the desert isn't supposed to be anywhere near here! This is not natural!

But then he saw something even stranger. This sand must have been there the whole time, right underneath his attack. Yet Kakuzu hardly saw a flicker of sand brush off of the surface, even though he had his eyes on what he was doing the whole time. He knew that it couldn't have been his old eyesight, this time.

'Is this field haunted, or something?' He wondered.

He turned his head gradually to look around for a probable source of the strange sand, and found one.

Standing there, arms crossed, with a stern expression on his face, was a red-haired ninja with a gourd on his back to match the color of the sand around him. Obviously, he was a Sand ninja…and it wasn't just the sand gourd pouring out sand on his back that gave it away.

Kakuzu turned his vision slightly to see Shikamaru, still unconscious, lying right next to him in a heap of sand. But there were bigger matters to focus on than that. Kakuzu turned his concealed face back to the new nin, his face deadpanned with concentration.

'That gourd…' Kakuzu scowled through his mask at the new ninja. '…could it honestly be…him?'

What was he doing way out here, in the middle of Leaf territory, so far away from his own village? Surely he hasn't gotten so lonely from being a Jinchuuriki that he resorted to moving way out here. Or did he just enjoy travel?

Whatever the reason for him being here was, Kakuzu cracked a twisted, laced smile from underneath his mask.

This was perfect.

The Akatsuki had originally come for one tailed beast…and yet stumble upon another! Life is a funny thing.

"Gaara of the Desert." Kakuzu whispered under his breath (or lack of breath.) "Home of the One-Tailed Raccoon demon…"

His eyes met Gaara's own as the two confronted each other with their own signature expression.

"…Christmas bonus, here I come."