Colors of Life and Death series

Truth in Dreams
by Songbird21

Chapter 6

I know the chapter is a little shorter than normal (Especially after taking so long) but I need to post something after all this time. I didn't want you guys to think I had quit on this (Which I NEVER will). Plus this gives me time to make chap 7 a better length. I've had a LOT going on the past 2 months, which is why this chapter took so long.

Enjoy all. :)

Please read and review. I love reviews! Thanks!

Several small birds suddenly flew from the mouths on Deidara's hands toward Kankuro who, having no time to react, braced himself for the oncoming pain. The birds hit and Deidara smiled. His smile dropped quickly, however, when he noticed the thin wall of sand becoming visible as the smoke dissipated. He looked to his right to see a very angry Gaara flanked by two jounin and several lower ranked ninja, including a certain spiky blonde that he recognized from the Akatsuki's target photos. "The niji chakra kid. This could get tough—hmm."

Sasori's voice sounded from behind Deidara. "A Jinchuuriki and the science experiment. Should be interesting," he said.

Deidara looked at Sasori. "What should we do Sasori no Danna?"

Sasori took a step forward. "We fight."

The Kazekage waited impatiently for the rest of his troops to emerge from the sprawling village. Several chuunin jumped up to the tops of the group of buildings near the cliff. He scanned them. There were only twenty. "What a time to be short-handed" He let out a large breath. "Alright! Let's go!"

A resounding affirmative shout sounded throughout the ranks just before they all jumped onto the cliff and began to run.

Deidara smirked. "Hmm." He took his hand out of the clay pouch he carried and released a small bird onto the rocky ground. He used a seal and the bird grew large enough that he could ride it. He jumped on and took off into the sky.

Gaara looked to his elder brother. "Kankuro—are you alright?"

Kankuro nodded. "Nhm."

"Good." Gaara set his jaw. "Then I'm going bird hunting." With that, sand roared upwards. He leapt onto it as it flashed past and set off in pursuit of Deidara.

Sasori saw the Kazekage and roughly twenty more troops join Gaara's. "Well now—that makes things almost even," he said with a smile in his voice. He reached into the folds of his cloak, pulled out a scroll and unrolled it with a fluid flick of his wrist. His hand formed a seal and several popping noises were heard, followed by a large cloud of smoke, which dissipated to reveal ten humanoid puppets. His opponents drew their weapons and fell into battle stances. "Now then, let's dance, shall we?"

Gaara floated on his carpet of sand, arms folded—glaring at Deidara as if daring him to move. "What's he waiting for?" he thought.

Deidara kept a wary eye on Gaara as his hand mouths finished their work. "Damn. I didn't bring much clay to begin with and that puppet guy made me use almost a quarter of it." He looked down as the mouths spit out their finished products. "It's time. I'll have to take him down fast—hmm." He shot forward, throwing the birds he had made as he went. One after another, Gaara's sand crushed them into pulp.

"Hmpf. Is that it?" Gaara said with a small smirk. His guard sand shot forward again and again, barely missing the clay user. He raised his hands and a wall of sand came rising from the desert terrain that blasted towards Deidara in the shape of Shukaku's claws.

"Shit." Deidara thought as he narrowly escaped the attacks aimed at him. He pulled an aerial u-turn and shot out several larger birds as soon as he was facing the right direction again.

Gaara frowned as he blocked the explosives. "They're getting faster."

Sasori's tail shot forward in an attempt to impale Naruto. Naruto dodged with a back flip and landed fifteen feet from his previous position. The Kazekage didn't like the looks of the stinger on the end of the tail. "Everyone—watch yourselves—that tail is most likely poisoned!" he shouted. "Use ranged attacks as much as possible!"

Kakashi looked at the puppets and noticed they all had similar 'stingers' in various places. "Shit. Looks like they're all poisoned. This is bad." He turned to his right. "Sakura, we may need your medical techniques more than originally planned—Are you up to it?"

Sakura nodded sharply. "Umh!"

Hinata jumped on top of a large rock in order to dodge the needle-like claws of one of the puppets. "What should I do? All of my attacks are close range and jyuken won't work on puppets." She back flipped off the rock as Sasori's tail smashed the top of it to rubble.

The Kazekage was suddenly in front of Sasori, blocking Hinata from view. "I will be your opponent!"

"It really doesn't make a difference. All of you are going to die," Sasori calmly stated.

A Suna chuunin screamed as one of Sasori's puppets ripped a chunk out of his side with its razor sharp, metal teeth. The Kazekage's eyes momentarily flickered in that direction and he nearly paid for it with his life. Sasori's stinger came within an inch of his leg as he hopped backwards out of its reach.

In his side vision, Naruto noticed the Kazekage pull a pair of twin katana from the scabbards on his back. As the Kazekage slid into a taijutsu form Naruto's eyes widened. "That stance!" An image of the girl he had killed in Ganshou flashed in his mind.

"Danshingu kaze no jutsu!" A swirl of wind embedded with chakra pushed the Kazekage about two feet into the air. He pointed his feet and the chakra began to spin him.

In his minds eye, Naruto saw an image of the girl moving in synch with the man in front of him as though the two were one person. "She was from the sand?!"

As the swords spun Sasori tried to use his stinger, but the swords were pulsing with chakra and made deep gouges in the tail as they knocked it away. "Hmm. Seems I need to change tactics." He jabbed his tail into the soft sand. It emerged underneath his opponent, aiming for his leg.

The Kazekage had noticed Sasori's tail go down and by the time it had come back up he had used the wind as a springboard to launch himself fifteen feet in the air. He landed artfully eight feet away. "That tail is a serious problem. I need to take it out of commission."

Baki opened up the large, heavy door that was the entrance to an old building that sat upon the high cliff. After a short walk through a hallway he arrived at another door, which he stared at for a moment. "I hope they're still alive."

A very ancient looking old man watched with indifference as his equally ancient sister fished the small pool of water in the middle of the dome shaped room in vain. "You'll never catch anything, you know."

The sister didn't move. "True enough. But if you know of something better to do, then please enlighten me," she replied.

The old man sighed. "Point taken." He suddenly cocked his head to one side. "Well I'll be damned..."

"Too late," the sister interrupted.

The old man glared at his sister. "As I was a-bout to say...we have a guest."

The sister opened her eyes more than the slits they had been previously and looked to the door. "Indeed."

The door creaked open and in stepped Baki. He walked toward them. "Honored siblings, I have come to seek your aid."

"I have no wish to leave this room. Please be on your way," the sister said as she jiggled the line of her fishing pole a bit in order to entice fish that didn't exist.

Baki bowed low. "Onegai, Chiyo-sama. We are under attack. It's Sasori..." he said with emphasis.

Chiyo cocked an eyebrow and looked at her brother. "Well, it looks like I may be able to see my grandson again after all." She slowly rose to her feet and turned to Baki. "Let's go then."

Bug swarms exploded forward out of Shino's sleeves and surrounded the puppet facing himself and two sand nins. They landed on the puppet and worked themselves into the joints. After a moment, the puppet was unable to move. "Now!" Shino commanded.

The sand jounin put their hands into a seal. "Kaze no Yaiba!" they shouted in chorus. Blades of wind sliced through the puppet, thoroughly turning it into kindling.

Sasuke tried to make his Chidori hit, but he hadn't worked much on his speed since the chuunin exam finals and the puppet was fast. "Damn you! Hold still!" he said angrily as he went in for a second shot. He grazed the puppet's side—taking off an arm—but his second shot had still been wasted.

Kiba managed to roll backwards just in time to avoid losing his manhood to the end of the sharp sword that protruded from the ground where he had been moments ago. "That was way too close." He looked to his fighting companion. "Let's go, Akamaru!" The small white dog, who's size had nearly increased by one half in the last six months, jumped onto his friend's back. "Juujuin Bunshin!" Kiba called out. Both he and Akamaru were transformed into the more beastly version of himself. "Gatsuuga!" He and Akamaru spun at lighting speed, diving at the puppet again and again.

A Suna gennin saw Kiba and she ran towards him to help. Boar, rat, snake. "Kuikkusando no jutsu!" The sand under the puppet became quicksand and it sank in just enough to give Kiba and Akamaru time to strike together. The puppet shattered from the impact.

Kiba dispelled his jutsu. "Nice trick. Thanks," he said with a smile.

The chuunin grinned. "No problem!" Suddenly, she heard a rumbling sound behind her. One of the puppets burst out of the sand and stabbed her through the chest from behind. She looked at the blood covered blade in horror. "No...I haven't even made...chuunin. I c-can't die...y...y..." She slumped forward and all life left her body.

Kiba watched in horror as the puppet removed its blade and dropped the mid-teenaged girl's corpse to the ground. "You bastard!" he yelled angrily, prepared to attack.

Just at that moment Kakashi's Raikiri split the offending puppet in two. He looked down at the dead girl and sighed. "I'm sorry I was too late."

"She helped me take one of them down," Kiba said sadly.

Kakashi clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Let's make sure her death wasn't in vain then."

Kiba nodded. "Hnm!" He and Kakashi took off in different directions.

An explosion rocked the battlefield and Sakura looked at the carnage in confusion. "How did this happen?" She immediately began looking for survivors to heal.

Gaara stared with gritted teeth at the spot where Deidara's bomb had hit. He'd been dodging a barrage that had been sent his way when Deidara took the opportunity to throw a bomb down on a group of eight Suna nins who had regrouped in the same spot. As a precautionary measure, Gaara erected a sand barrier between them and the group fighting below.

Deidara frowned. "You took away some of my canvas." He sighed. "No matter. They're not my target anyway—hmm." he dodged another barrage of sand and retaliated with a flock of seven small birds.

Gaara blocked the birds and used his gourd sand to chase Deidara again. He managed to close the sand around the other man's arm. "Sabaku Kyuu!" The sand tightened its grip. "Sabaku SouSou!" The sand crushed Deidara's arm—ripping it off as he tried to get away.

"AHHHGH!" Deidara screamed. After a moment he regained his composure as he used a small fire bomb to cauterize the wound. "Looks like I have to use 'that'—hmm." From the folds of his cloak he produced a much larger version of the bombs he'd been using earlier. "This is my special—C3! Your village will be the ultimate canvas—hmm." He let the bomb slip from his hand. It rocketed toward the village, increasing in size on the way down.

...TO BE CONTINUED

Yes yes, I know I stole a bit from part 2 of the manga and pulled stuff in WAY early, but I'd written myself into a corner and needed a way out. At least the battle isn't going exactly like the manga.

New art on the COLAD fanart page. Check it out!

I know Deidara screaming is OOC, but I honestly think his reaction to having his arm ripped off was a bit too calm in the manga. I mean, the guy didn't even flinch.

Please review!

Ja na,
Song