The room in which Sai was located was very dark. Kankuro called out to Sakura and Jento and before long, all three shinobi were in the room, flashlights on, trying to free Sai from his bonds. He had been tied with very thick rope and had a blindfold over his eyes.
"What on earth happened to you?" Jento asked Sai.
"We should get out of this room," was the only thing Sai said in response. "I find it very strange that something was left behind that I could kick around and make noise to signal you with. We still don't know what he's up to."
Kankuro's flashlight moved around and eventually spotted a small metal tea kettle not far from Sai's foot.
"Then why did you have us come here?" Kankuro asked.
Sai paused. "I guess that's a good point, but it was my best strategy at the time. He casually mentioned he would be had to be in the village for an appointment at nine in the morning. He's a sly one, that's for sure. He didn't hold back when he told me what was going on and why he was doing this…"
"So he confessed?" Sakura interrupted.
"Or maybe it's just another trap. Damn this guy, you can't tell what true and what may be deception," added Jento.
Once the ropes that Sai was tied with had been cut, he got up off the floor and walked out the door. The others followed.
"Why don't you tell us everything that happened," said Kankuro.
"I will, but first, let's go this way," Sai stated and pointed down a long corridor. It was so long, they couldn't even see the end. "I think there is something down here. When he last left me, he went this way. Perhaps this is how he has been moving about freely."
"Fine," said Kankuro. "I trust you know something we don't at this point. We'll follow you."
Sai started walking slowly. It was better not to run too fast else not see something important. He didn't know what they would find at the end of the path they were on, but he knew they had to check it out.
"This is definitely the man we've been looking for," Sai said as he walked. "He must have timed my abduction perfectly because of the way we did things with me leaving first...there was no way you would know I was gone unless you became overly curious and came to check on me."
"I did, but waited for a bit in case your radio had malfunctioned or you turned it off for some reason. I noticed something was wrong pretty fast, though we were very cautious about proceeding," said Sakura.
"He definitely timed it all out. He also knew about the radio contact we kept. The radio got turned off, and then smashed almost immediately."
"How did he capture you?" Jento asked. "You are quite the shinobi I hear…it would take a lot to capture you in just a matter of minutes, wouldn't it?"
"It was more like just a few seconds. He had a puppet...one that is very much like the one Kankuro calls Black Ant. He approached me as usual…the next thing I know, he already had the radio and then something swooped down on me and swept me into a chamber. I found out later when he let me out that the chamber was actually the inside of puppet," explained Sai.
The hallway was now widening and turning into more of a corridor. It very much reminded Sai of when he first joined Team Kakashi and the hallways of Orochimaru's hideout on that first mission.
"So what else did you find out?" Sakura asked as they continued to walk.
"He told me everything. He's very cocky and self-assured. He might even have a screw or two loose," said Sai.
"Why do you say that?" Jento asked.
"Well, he wasn't really talking to me per se. It was more that he was pissed at me, but when he ranted, it was more like a speech he was giving to himself," explained Sai.
"Ok, so he talks to himself. What did he say?" asked Kankuro.
"Much of what Jento explained to us earlier was true. He blamed everyone who ever was associated with Akashi for his family's downfall. That includes his other family, the Sand and even the Leaf because they are allies," said Sai.
"Whoa, that's taking things a bit far," said Kankuro.
"Like I said…not all there upstairs," said Sai, pointing to his head to make the point. "He babbled that even though Sasori, Chiyo and even Akashi and Josei are dead, that someone still needed to pay for what they did to his grandmother Suri and his father Hitori. He thinks that both Suri and Hitori's deaths were a direct result of Akashi's family not supporting them properly. That and the fact that Akashi left Suri and ended up with Josei...that somehow Josei was acceptable and Suri was not."
"There's no way he could know that their deaths were due to the abandonment," said Sakura. "There are many stories of hardship out there and those people turned out alright. Hell, Naruto is the Hokage and you can't get a bigger sob story than his when he was a kid."
"The financial support stopped when Hitori was 15 forcing him to become a shinobi to make ends meet. He never got beyond genin. Apparently, Hitori made an effort to train Kanoshi in puppetry, but most of what Kanoshi is today is pretty much self-taught."
"Not everything," said a new voice in the mix. "I took this before I left the Sand when I was 18. I left the day after my father died."
"Holy….," Kankuro said aloud and jumped back. Kanoshi now stood in front of them holding up a book of some sort.
"That can't be….," said Jento. "I looked for that back when I was researching and it was gone. How did you get through all that security?"
"You would have thought someone would have noticed before you did," said Kanoshi. "I left the Sand over 10 years ago."
"What is it?" Sakura asked.
"That is all of Sasori's work before he left the Sand all those years ago. Even though he's been gone over 20 years, he did develop quite a few puppet jutsu before he left the Sand," said Jento.
"Correct!" Kanoshi shouted. "Now you'll get to see all that I've learned from my father, from these notes, and what I've taught myself over these last years of isolation." He laughed maniacally.
He pulled out a scroll and unfurled it. He held up two fingers and said something. Two poofs of smoke appeared followed by two puppets that looked very much like humans.
"Those aren't….human puppets are they?" Kankuro asked.
"Oh, have you seen puppets like these before?" Kanoshi asked.
Kankuro didn't answer his question with words. He grabbed a scroll from his back, unfurled it, and in a poof of smoke, the Sasori puppet appeared.
Kanoshi hissed. "So you are familiar with human puppets….and this one has red hair, too. Don't tell me this person was a relative of Sasori's," he said.
"Not quite," said Kankuro. "Today you'll be battling the master puppeteer himself. You may have all his notes from before he left the Sand over 20 years ago, but I have what he became after that. You see, this is one of Sasori's greatest puppets ever. His heart, his will….they were housed in this puppet until his death a handful of years ago," said Kankuro.
Kanoshi's face frowned. He thought that he had the upper hand. No, that wasn't it. He thought that it was natural that in battling whoever his enemy was that he would be the more skilled. Now, that assumption was put in doubt. He had attacked many over these last few months. During his attacks, he had collected the bodies of quite a few shinobi who he thought had decent enough abilities to be good human puppets. But this enemy across from him might not be so easily beaten after all. Perhaps he could target the other three shinobi…they would be the weakness to exploit. The one holding Sasori was definitely not be the weakest among them.
Kanoshi attacked Sakura with the human puppet connected to his right hand.
"Watch out, Sakura!" Kankuro shouted. They were standing in a square formation. Sakura and Kankuro were both in the lead with Sai and Jento behind them.
Most normal people would have thought that the sharp kunai that was affixed to the puppet's hand was the intended weapon of use. Sakura knew better. She side-stepped the kunai without issue, but then braced herself for what she knew was coming next – some sort of hidden mechanism was sure to activate.
Click! Whizz! Sakura was right. Small needle-like darts were launched from a just-opened hole in the upper thigh of the human puppet. It looked like there were enough of them so that jumping would not be an effective dodge. In the microseconds she had to think, she crouched down on the ground and punched it. The very precise punch caused a few boulders to fly up, but also left a nice 3ft or so deep hole for her to fall into.
After the darts flew over her head, she stuck her head back up again and saw Kanoshi recalling the puppet he had just used.
That's it? she thought to herself. That must have been a test to see what I'd do.
She looked at Kanoshi who was not only still frowning, but his brow was now furrowed as well.
"Tell me, miss. Have you battled those who use puppet jutsu before? You looked as if you were expecting the second attack," Kanoshi asked.
Sakura stepped up from the hole, again facing her attacker. She had to smile. This man was obviously quite oblivious. "Are you talking about the hidden mechanism? There was poison on those needles, wasn't there?"
"How would you know that if you hadn't seen it before?" he asked.
Sakura paused. "You think you are so elite because you can use puppet jutsu? You are good, but from what I can see, you are only about half-way to the level that Sasori achieved at the time of his death. The notes you stole from the Sand? They were old. You can't even imagine the jutsu he developed after he left Suna."
"Damn you," Kanoshi said.
Without hesitation, this time he sent both puppets he had out after Sakura.
"Kankuro, plan A!" Sakura shouted. She dodged the puppets and immediately ran the distance that lay between her and her teammate.
The puppets easily adjusted by following her trajectory and turning towards Kankuro.
Kankuro next pushed Sakura straight out in front of him where she could battle the puppets outright. They got into one hell of a fight with Sakura mainly dodging and using her fists while both puppets threw kunai and various other objects. To end the three minute stalemate, Kanoshi tried one final slash with a blade that had emerged from one of his puppets. Sakura fell back quickly as if being pulled.
Kanoshi noticed that something seemed off about what was going on. His attention had been on Sakura most of the time, but for a few seconds, he got a good look at Kankuro behind her. He looked to be using some sort of puppet justu except… there were no puppets being used. The only puppet he had out stood motionless off to the side.
"Don't tell me you were….," he started.
"…controlling her like a puppet?" Kankuro finished his sentence.
Sakura once again stood in front Kankuro. She faced Kanoshi strongly. "Did I happen to mention that I was part of the two-man team who took down Sasori a few years ago?"
Kanoshi gasped. "You killed Sasori?"
"Like I said, I was part of a two-man team. I learned a lot that day about battling puppet justu users. My teammate that day was none other than Lady Chiyo herself!" exclaimed Sakura.
"That bitch!" Kanoshi shouted. As they all knew by now, Chiyo was the start of all this animosity. She was the one who ultimately prevented Akashi and Suri from being together. She's the one who stopped the payments once Hitori reached 15, forcing him turn to the life of a low-level shinobi to pay his bills.
Again, the puppets started to approach. This time Sai rushed past, two of his ink lions taking the lead. Sai's attack wasn't very successful, but it did keep Kanoshi's puppets away while Kankuro and Sakura caught their breath.
Sakura continued to speak throughout Sai's attack. "That jutsu…the one where I was controlled by Kankuro's chakra strings? Lady Chiyo taught me that! Do you know how strong Sasori was? When I battled him, I had to go up against the third Kazekage and his iron sand! Sasori had taken down the man who was supposedly the strongest shinobi of his time! What chance do you have? If I could beat Sasori and his greatest human puppet, I can most certainly beat you!"
Kanoshi sat back and listened to Sakura scream at him. He didn't want to hear any of this. His doubts about winning this fight again rose to the surface and that was just unacceptable.
Kanoshi quickly looked around at the other two shinobi on the opposing side. He had just seen Sai's drawing come to life. But what about the other one? He hasn't done anything except hang back and watch. Yes, he should have seen it before...he must be the true weak link.