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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. If I did, Deidara, Sasori, Itachi, and Pein would not die and I would be a millionaire by now.

Sasori, who was now in Hiruko's body (I forgot to mention that in the other chapter; my bad), wasted no time. He slammed his tail down where Emiri was standing. She dodged it easily and fired three kunai at him. He flung them back at her with his tail but she dodged mid-air and landed on all four.

She quickly performed some seals. "Multiple Shadow Clone no Jutsu," she said quietly. Nearly two hundred Emiri's appeared.

"Impressive…," Pein muttered.

"Why's she using that now?" Natsuki asked.

"That's a lot of shadow clones," Kisame said. "But it doesn't affect her as much as it does to a normal human. She has a Dragon inside of her, doesn't she?"

Two hundred clones still won't stand a chance against Sasori. Gotta think of a plan, she thought, watching the redhead defeating at least fifty already. And fast.

She seated on a large branch and watched the fight. An idea stuck her.

Got it.

Meanwhile, Sasori swiped the clones with his tail, clearing a good thirty of them. Hiruko's mouth opened and out rapidly came Senbon- needles coated in poison. A clone- or at least he thought it was a clone- jumped into the air out of nowhere and landed on the puppet's back. He didn't know what she did, but he pried her off quickly.

What he didn't know was that it was the real Emiri, and she had just placed an explosion tag on him.

The next thing they knew, there was an explosion and wooden pieces were flying everywhere.

Good, but I'm pretty sure Sasori would lose with such an easy trick, Pein and Misaki thought.

Sasori was nowhere in sight, but his puppet sure was. Somehow, the redhead had escaped in time. The shinobi was hiding in the trees.

Good thing I noticed the seal before it exploded, he thought. He scanned the scene before him. He knew Emiri was somewhere in the trees, and that she had just figured out a plan. He smirked. Maybe she isn't entirely useless after all.

He heard leaves rustle on his right, and a kunai flew out of nowhere. Luckily, with his quick reflexes, Sasori dodged. He ended up in the middle of the battlefield.

"Emiri, stop stalling," he said aloud.

"I'm not stalling!" a voice sang from underground. Emiri no longer hid her chakra. She broke through the surface and her fist collided with Sasori face. And I thought his face was beautiful, Emiri thought. I guess it's not going to be so perfect after this battle.

The punch was strong, but it didn't do much damage. Sasori landed on both feet and threw five shuriken at her. One scratched her cheek, but the others missed. A smirk suddenly appeared.

As if there was no care in the world, she stopped attacking and stood there. Emiri took her time. She reached into her pouch and took out two gloves. Sasori watched as she put them on slowly.

In the audience, Misaki smirked audibly. Sasori's in for a treat.

Out of nowhere, she slammed her fist into the ground. The impact was so strong that it caused an even larger hole- one that was nearly eight times larger than the one Natsuki made.

The S-Ranked criminals were caught off guard. Even the audience had to move. Trees were knocked down.

Deidara and Kisame gaped. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" Deidara yelled.

"Her strength drastically increased," Kakuzu stated. "The gloves added an extra forty percent to her strength. She's more than one third more powerful than she was before.

Hikari nodded. "Those gloves are her signature weapon."

"It's been a long time since I've seen Sasori-no-danna fight without his puppets," Deidara said.

Kakuzu nodded. "That's because that girl's challenging him. She wants to see how he fights without his puppets, and he accepts."

Natsuki stared at him.

"What do you want, brat?" he asked, obviously annoyed.

"That was the longest thing you have said since I've been here."

"Shut up, stupid."

Natsuki just grinned.

She heard him mumbled some colorful things under his breath, but she averted her attention towards the battle scene. Good luck, Emiri.

Meanwhile, Sasori had just thought of a plan himself. Just one simple trick, he said to himself, and she'll lose.

Sasori reached into his bag under his Akatsuki cloak and pulled out three smoke bombs before tossing them onto the field. It activated and smoke completely covered every inch of Emiri's vision, making it impossible to see anything.

Suddenly she couldn't move. Sasori smirked. And that's that.

The smoke fog cleared, revealing a stiff blonde girl kneeling on the ground.

"Why's she so still?" Natsuki asked.

Pein's eyes caught sight of something. "Chakra strings," he said. Everyone looked at him questionably.

"Chakra strings?" the 20 year old asked.

Pein nodded. "Sasori has almost complete control of Emiri now that he attached his strings to her."

The Akatsuki leader was right. Dang it, Sasori. I fell for your trick! Emiri yelled inside her head. Got to get free!

She felt herself stand up straight. "Sorry to keep you waiting," the redhead smirked. He moved his index finger and Emiri felt her right arm rising into the air. Then with a flick of his left pink, thumb, and ring finger, Emiri said," I forfeit."

Dang it! The blonde shrieked in her head. I lost!

She regained control of her body once again and shot a glare at the puppeteer that revealed himself. "I win," he said with a cocky smile.

"Winner: Akasuna no Sasori," Pein declared.

Twenty Minutes Later

The matches were over and pretty much everyone returned to their normal tasks. Kaminari was walking back to the lair when she noticed Itachi standing at the entrance, as if waiting for her.

When she passed him, he lifted his head. "Why did you forfeit the match?" he asked in his usual monotone voice.

"None of your business," she said without stopping.

"Hn…."

There you go! The matches are FINALLY over! There's a little Kaminari x Itachi scene at the end for you XD It's not much, but at least it's something! Anyways, stay tune, subscribe, and comment please! I HIGHLY appreciate it ^_^

Updated: August 4, 2010