Disclaimer: I do not own either Bleach or Naruto, they all belong to their respective owners and I am in no way trying to make a profit from this.
Now with something I forgot the last few chapters out of the way, on with the story and continuation of Ryujin Jakka vs. Sasori!
The smoke surrounding Sasori faded to show a blank hunched over mannequin in front of him and Ryujin Jakka only tightened his grip on his Zanpakuto.
"What the hell is that, it's not even a puppet?" Ryujin Jakka demanded only for Sasori to chuckle as Chakra Threads attached to the puppet and it instantly shot to it's full height and the sound of wood striking wood reached the clone's ears as Sasori ran a quick check of the puppet.
"That's the beauty of it, this is my greatest creation in the Art of Puppetry. It is no ordinary puppet that is defined by limitations or being purely offensive or defensive, it is so much more than a mind like you could ever even hope to understand or to even survive in a battle against such a work of art." Sasori answered with his eyes taking on a maniacal glint." And I'm going to use it to rip you to pieces!"
The puppet shot forward and Ryujin Jakka rolled out of the way of it before making to cut it in half with a single slash, flames dancing along the length of his sword and roaring forth as he swung.
The puppet actually separated, as if it was cut in half, to avoid the strike and Ryujin Jakka noticed the inside was hollow but it was filled with seals.
'A little bit of everything just in that little glance I managed to get before it closed back up, and they're layered so a Fuinjutsu master must have worked on this. Even Jiraiya-san had trouble layering seals with dad's help.'
Ryujin Jakka grinned as he jumped back to get some distance.
'Looks like I brought myself a challenge, if I can keep it intact when I kill Sasori then boss has a pet project to work on but if I destroy it than I'll have to bring Sasori in alive to see who worked on the thing.'
Sasori's fingers seemed to be dancing as the puppet shot towards Ryujin Jakka who dodged it's blows, its arms forming into wicked looking curved blades aimed to tear chunks out of him.
"Taimatsu!" Ryujin Jakka roared as an inferno roared forth from his sword, racings towards the puppet.
Sasori had the puppet shoot into the air to avoid the flames before a seal appeared on each palm and bullets of condensed water shot down on the flames, erupting into small lakes on impact.
"Do you think water will stop the flames of Ryujin Jakka!" Ryujin Jakka demanded in a fury at such a thought and the blade responded in kind as it was engulfed in a blazing inferno as the clone slashed forward, flames roaring forth and evaporating the water and a pulse of Chakra threw away the mist.
Sasori's grin only widened as he saw this before he pulled the puppet down.
"Detonate!" Sasori shouted and the puppet seemed to flash before Sasori quickly used an Earth Release technique to bury himself a few meter underground.
Ryujin Jakka covered himself in a sphere of flames that cut into the ground as the puppet exploded, the prison of flames the two were contained in threatening to be extinguished by the shockwave.
A surge of Chakra fixed that and the flames surrounding the clone broke down as Sasori emerged from the ground.
"It was a bomb the entire time?" Ryujin Jakka asked Sasori who only pointed above him as his finger made a clawing motion as he ripped his hands down.
"Red Secret Technique: Iron Maiden!" Sasori called out as the shattered pieces of the puppet seemed to grow into blades as long as a katana and shot down as streaks towards Ryujin Jakka.
"You damn brat!" Ryujin Jakka roared as he let loose a wave of superhot flames, turning the blades to nothing more than ash in his fury." You dare think a cheap attack like that will defeat the flames of Ryujin Jakka!"
Sasori only chuckled as his fingers still danced in the air as Ryujin Jakka cursed when he noticed the ash swirling around him, slowly taking a solid shape before gaining color.
'Damn, that puppet really is powerful.' Ryujin Jakka thought as he saw the puppet reform from ash right in front of his eyes.' I'm going to need something extra for this."
A second katana appeared in his hands with a guard in the shape of a cat head with the two triangle on top half curving into ear points and the bottom point tapering down into a single point with a dark red handle.
"Growl, Haineko!" Ryujin Jakka commanded and the blade burst into a storm of ash that swirled around him before taking the shape of a massive jungle cat and roaring, spewing super hot ash everywhere before racing forward.
It burst into several streams of ash as it did so and attacked Sasori from all side as a few streams shot into the air to bombard him while others went around to attack from the sides or behind and all gained superhot sharpened points.
"You just keep getting better and better!" Sasori called out as the puppet glowed again before seemingly bursting into a dozen duplicates and half raced forward to attack Ryuji Jakka while the others appeared around Sasori as with a twitch of his fingers he summoned them to him, seals built into the puppet to allow him to do so.
They shot their arms out to the side and ropes of Chakra from their palms shot out and connected to the palms of other puppets and with a burst of Chakra from Sasori they formed shields of Chakra around him that combined into a dome to stop the ash as those attacking Ryujin Jakka gained a burst of speed.
One completely opened their torso to reveal dozens of seals glowing as others appeared on their arms and legs before a hail of weapons shot forward that Ryujin Jakka either melted into molten slag with flames or shredded to dust with ash.
Another changed their arms into buzzsaws that slashed wildly in an attempt to bisect the clone only for Ryujin Jakka to shatter it into wood chips with a single punch the moment it reached his range.
Two others broke apart and changed into a multitude of blades that aimed to attack the clone from all sides only for a dome of ash to appear at the last second to stop them before skewering them on a multitude of spikes erupting from it the instant they were trapped in it, the ash compacting around the blades stabbed in it.
The last two made an attempt to attack head on, using streams of water to deal with the ash and fire.
They were stopped in their tracks by spears of flames ripping through them, filled with ash that shot through them moments later before retracting and the puppets fell in pieces on the ground.
"This is getting annoying." Sasori commented, safe within his dome of Chakra as he reformed the defeated duplicates and merged them into one puppet, the same blank mannequin as before.
A seal appeared on the blank face of the puppet and it opened up to show a Chakra laser weapon charging.
"You damn fool." Ryujin Jakka muttered as Haineko's ash had already filled the puppet and was blocking the barrel as he sent a wave of flames to hammer against Sasori's Chakra shield.
The shield held and Ryujin Jakka cursed as he was forced to roll out of the way of the beam of Chakra as the puppet allowed itself to be destroyed to fire the weapon.
Ryujin Jakka formed a wall of solid tightly compacted ash a meter thick to stop the beam from piercing the wall of flames before slamming a hand on the ground.
"Die already you impudent brat!" Ryujin Jakka shouted as a massive wave of ash roared towards Sasori as a seal formula spread out from his hand.
"You first!" Sasori shouted back as the puppet reformed and shattered into a multitude of pieces that formed into three dozen more puppets that all rushed towards Ryujin Jakka who growled before waves of ash surged out from the ground around him and crushed the puppets as they crashed down on them, compacting around them and keeping them there.
'This kid is strong, he's managed to counter my greatest puppet yet at every turn with his fire and ash and I can't get rid of either. But where is all that ash coming from, the amount he started with was small and my puppets aren't being turned to ash with the flame resistant seals I placed on the wood?' Sasori asked himself even as he detonated several pieces of the trapped puppets to open up the ash so some of them could move again.' And I've just lost half of the duplicates with that gambit, if he keeps up that strategy I'll be down to one soon enough and won't be able to keep up my shield if it comes to that.'
Sasori sent a Chakra Thread to a scroll on his back and tossed it out onto the field.
'But maybe I can give him a handicap now.' Sasori thought as he flashed through hand signs.
The scroll exploded into a mass of sand and Ryujin Jakka cursed.
'He's trying to bury the ash and smother the fires, I don't have enough Chakra to summon Haineko again so I'll have to get the ash out of the way.' Ryujin Jakka thought as he raised one hand and the ash shot up as a cloud before he layered the battlefield in the cloud.' But I can also keep him from seeing if his plan works.'
The ash cloud was densest around Sasori and his Chakra shield as Ryujin Jakka sent out a surge of flames from the blade in his hand.
Flames rushed forward and Ryujin Jakka shaped them into a solid spear that seemed modeled after a bird.
"Try this one you brat, Hooken (Phoenix Blade)!" Ryujin Jakka roared.
"No choice, I've got to use it!" Sasori yelled in a panic as he rapidly formed several hand signs before slamming a hand on the ground." Forbidden Art: Summoning Jutsu: Puppet Workshop!"
Everything within the wall of flames was engulfed in a light before it faded to show the landscape drastically changed.
It was as if the two fought in a massive workshop, filled with puppets and their parts with weapons and seal tags littering the tables and Sasori now sitting cross legged on a table, Chakra Threads shooting out of his hands and connecting to everything before fading.
"I really hate using this technique." Sasori spoke up as Ryujin Jakka called Haineko back to him and formed a vortex of ash and flames around himself as he eyed his surroundings warily, ready to consume any attack in fire and ash.
"Yeah, why's that?" Ryujin Jakka asked, his body tense and he himself on edge in a place Sasori could summon.
"I end up killing people far too quickly for my taste." Sasori answered back as ash shot forward to shred several dozen kunai flung at Ryujin Jakka as his face turned maniacal and he screamed his next sentence." I prefer to play with them a while but I just can't control myself sometimes in this place!"
Launchers lowered from the ceiling and fired a hail of arrows that were incinerated by Ryujin Jakka's flames as the clone cursed as weapons flew at him from all angles and he quickly pulled Haineko into action with Ryujin Jakka as he sent fire and ash to intercept.
Fire lashed out to incinerate and ash shot forward to consume and shred but it was slowly closing in on the clone, forced to hold a smaller and smaller area as he felt his Chakra slowly being used up.
'Dammit, I should have used something besides Hooken. It drained nearly all of my Chakra.' Ryujin Jakka cursed before he sighed.' I'll have to use Bankai then and hope I take him down with me.'
The many flames around the workshop suddenly were all absorbed by Ryujin Jakka as the clone held the blade in the air with both hands as the ash swirled around him, forming a protective shredding vortex.
"Bankai…"
A massive explosion of fire and Chakra consumed the clone and threw away the ash vortex as well as consume all of the weapons launched at him by Sasori as the heat within the workshop rose and rose higher and higher as the orange-red flames changed to a dark foreboding blue.
"…Zanka no Tachi!"
Ryujin Jakka had changed into a nodachi with the inner side of the blade jagged and lined with teeth, looking as if it was made to be a saw while the other side was smooth and made to cleanly cut through opponents with the guard nonexistent and a black hilt wrapped in golden cloth.
"So, you've taken me this serious?" Sasori asked as his hands shot out and called countless weapons out." But do you really think a longer sword will help you defeat me, when I still have so many weapons to use against you?"
"You fool." Ryujin Jakka growled as he held Zanka no Tachi in both hands." This isn't just a longer sword, look at the flames around you."
Sasori did so and simply rose an artificial eyebrow at the dark blue flames casting a dark light across the room.
"So you've changed the color of them to blue, I can still kill you." Sasori answered as the clone only smirked as he shifted the nodachi to one side and began walking forward." But I must admit, I like the feeling the lighting brings to the room, it really fits the theme of 'I'm about to turn you into a pincushion'!"
"Go ahead and try." Ryujin Jakka roared before blitzing forward.
Sasori did so and wave after wave of weapon shot forward but all of them turned to nothing a few centimeters from the clone.
Sasori was shocked by this but soon added Chakra cannons emerging from the ceiling and walls to the onslaught and cursed when they too faded from existence once they reached a certain distance from the clone.
"What the hell!" Sasori screamed as Chakra Threads shot from his fingertips and he sent puppet after puppet towards the clone.
"Die, die, die!" Sasori screamed in a panic as he resorted to throwing the tables around the workshop eventually at the clone who charged through them, ash rapidly building up around them as everything around him was turned to nothingness, even the floor he walked on turned to ash as he ran.
"Haineko." the clone called out and the ash around the room all flowed to the blade and it glowed before bursting into flames and fusing to the blade and cracking as more as piled on and with a though it all compacted to being barely a millimeter thick, giving Zanka no Tachi a look of magma flowing beneath cracked plates of obsidian.
"This ends now!" Ryujin Jakka shouted as with the last bits of his Chakra he performed a Shunsin to appear right in front of Sasori and the blade cleaved him in half.
'Am I being…defeated?'
Sasori's final thoughts were those as he seemed to remember his life in his last few moments.
'Was I wrong, doing what I did?'
'Was it even worth it, knowing immortality was and will always be a fool's dream.'
'I always just wanted friends but no one liked me, I was the orphan that rose to be great but still no one ever cared.'
'Maybe things could have been different if I had stayed in the village…maybe…everythi….'
The blade of Zanka no Tachi did what it was born to do, turn everything in the universe to nothingness.
Not to burn.
Not to incinerate.
What it cut no longer existed, not even ash would remain.
The workshop around the two broke down and a normal Zanpakuto replaced the nodachi moments after Sasori was gone from existence.
The flames formerly caging the two exploded outwards, the great power of Ryujin Jakka roaming wild for a moment before flickering and dying in moments with its source of power gone.
"Did he win?" a voice asked as the clone stumbled out of the smoke.
"Yeah, I beat the brat."
With those his last words the clone dispelled, all of its Chakra gone and its memories returning to the original Naruto who stood with his force of a fee dozen clones around the battlefield, holding the perimeter and keeping Sasori's many puppets from entering or leaving the village.
Naruto sealed his sword moments later and with a thought all of his clones dispelled, all of their memories returning to him.
Even though he used such a technique thousands of times before he was never fully ready for the onslaught of memories he would always receive.
In the end each clone was a person with their own thoughts and all of them bombarding his mind gave him a headache for a split second before he brought it under control and rolled his shoulders as he sheathed his sword at his side.
"I've got to go talk to Gaara."
With that Naruto vanished in a Shunsin lacking the normal added feature of smoke of elements and appeared at the Kazekage Tower's balcony.
"Yo Gaara, we need to talk now!" Naruto shouted as he pushed open the doors and thought of what he would say to the Kage, he had to word what he said carefully or he would be running through an entire desert, with a pissed off redhead able to manipulate it.
Gaara never did take damage to his village remotely well and from the memories he received the repairs we're going to take a chunk out of the village's funds.
'Why did they have to use those Zanpakuto, why not something like…Actually when I think about, all of my Zanpakuto are pretty destructive.'
"NARUTO!" the infuriated voice of the Kazekage suddenly yelled and said Uzumaki paled.
"Dammit Taka, you could have waited to tell him." Naruto muttered as he leapt over the tendrils of sand and rushed into the office, dodging the sand most likely sent to crush him." Sometimes I think he's trying to kill me when he does that."
AN: So Ryujin Jakka won but barely, I thought of having Sasori switch bodies at the last second but found it a cheap ending and when I thought about it kind of impossible with how I made Zanka no Tachi having instant annihilation from existence so Sasori's dead and Deidara's captured, for now at least. So the usual read and reviews on how I can make the story better and give suggestions for pairings.