Chapter 27

The two groups faced each other down for a few moments sizing each other up. This was going to be a hard battle for both sides. While Deidara and Sasori were masters of their craft, and S-rank missing ninja. They were facing down three of the nine holders of the tailed beasts, plus an unknown, putting Naruto's side with the more favorable odds currently.

"What do you think," Naruto asked.

"Well chances are they will run or retreat till the odds or more favorable," Hinata said.

"Yes then we will have to chase and kill them, remember we have a mission," Naruto said.

"In which case it might be better to face them right here and now," Hinata said.

"Seeing as how they were able to travel I am in agreement, plus we don't know enough about their skills to allow them a chance to set up some sort of trap," Yugito said.

"So it is settled then, you have the Mad Bomber, and I get the Sand Guy," Naruto said.

"Hay why do you get to pick our targets," Yugito asked.

"Same reason I am in charge of the restaurant while you cook," Naruto said lightly.

"That is only because you cannot cook a meal to save your life," Yugito said.

"Ramen is a meal," Naruto pointed out.

"That is besides the pointing currently," Yugito said.

"Hay are you fools done fighting over there," Deidara asked.

"No why?" Naruto answered, "Are you wanting to be beaten that badly?"

"Like you could beat me kid," Deidara said.

"Now who ever said I had to beat you, it could be one of them," Naruto said gesturing to Yugito and Hinata.

"Calm down Deidara, we are out of our depth. We cannot beat three tailed beasts, if they go all out and use their tailed beast forms," Sasori said.

"Even their demon forms are not good against my art," Deidara said with a smirk.

Naruto sighed, "Well at least we know what these people are like. So can I fight the sand guy now?"

"Sure, but there is one problem," Yugito said.

"What," Naruto asked.

"They just vanished," Yugito said, pointing.

Naruto blinked and saw it was indeed true, as Gaara spoke, "Drop Pit, Massive Sand Funeral."

A shock wave shook the area a few moment later as Gaara closed the pit that had formed under their enemy. Naruto grinned after a few minutes of the sand remaining still, their first two enemies were now dead from the Akatsuki. Gaara looked over at the others now, and glared at them.

"They are dead. Now leave," Gaara said.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, he was not about to doubt being buried deep in sand but it was better to be safe.

"Yes, I used some of my special diamond sand to crush them both flat," Gaara said, his tone still as flat as ever.

Naruto nodded, "then we shall be going, we have someone else to check up on."

Gaara nodded before disappearing in a swirl of sand. Naruto looked at the others before walking off a few feet as he got ready to summon another Pokémon to take them to Annabel when the sand behind him exploded outwards. Naruto uttered a small cursed as they jumped clean of the area, and looked to see just who or what had caused the explosion.

It was Sasori, though he looked a great deal different than before. Rather than being a short, and rather round looking man, now he was tall and skinny, and weirdly enough wooden as well. His body was jointed and designed just like a puppets, while where his heart would be was a small round container.

"You survived," Naruto stated semi surprised.

"Yes," Sasori said before turning and running.

"After him," Naruto shouted out to the others before giving chase himself.

Yugito and Hinata took off sending burst of sand out behind them, as they moved over Sasori. The used chakra and leapt from sand dune to sand dune, rapidly gaining ground on the puppet. Naruto was only a little behind them as they shot across the sand. Sasori was not about to be over taken that easily though as he threw kunai, and throwing stars back at them. Naruto and the group dodged them with ease before they finally surrounded him.

"Surrender and we will make sure you death is quick and painless," Naruto said.

"I took steps to make sure I would never die, fools now I shall defeat you and escape," Sasori said.

Suddenly a long spear shot out from his belly surprising the group, and Naruto was just a little too slow to dodge it completely getting a long cut along his side. At once he could feeling a toxin beginning to run through his body. Kyuubi set to work and began fighting the poison, but his chakra finding it hard to destroy or change it to be less than lethal.

Sasori grinned and turned his focus on to the other two and began attacking them, aiming to disable at least one of them. But he had forgotten Naruto was not to be counted out by any means. Naruto's mind raced as Kyuubi let him know just how bad the poisoning was getting, which meant Naruto had once choice left.

Naruto threw his hands through the transformation seals, and then with much smaller flash his body morphed. But in its place was a creature that no one had seen before, mostly because Naruto rarely took the form, for it was very dangerous just to be around, let alone actually touch it.

"Muk," Naruto said, as he shifted moving forward rapidly the poison that had been affected his body, was now added to his own toxic sludge.

Sasori heard the sound and jumped out of the way just in time, before sending a large dagger down at the creature. But something was wrong, he could sense it through the wire that kept the dagger connected to his body. The creature had stopped moving upon impact with the blade, it did not seem dead at all. Then without warning it reached out and grabbed the wire and began pulling on it.

Sasori quickly broke the wire, and retreated to as safe a distance as he could manage for now, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Now I know what you can do puppet man," the creature said, "You use puppets with powerful poison to disable your enemies, or am I wrong in guessing that?"

"Yes, but how are you still even able to move," Sasori asked.

"Because my body is made of toxic slime and acid. To even touch my slimy skin is to risk death itself," the creature said coughing and ejecting a powerful mist towards Sasori.

Sasori grinned, "Poison have no affect against me and my puppet body."

The creature kept spraying out the mist though, and then Sasori soon realized why. The mist was not a poison, but an acid. His puppet body was dissolving rapidly. He reached to grab a scroll out of a seal, as to escape, but before he could even activate it, a kunai flew and knocked it out of his hand. Sasori shot a chakra string towards it, he needed to escape and now. But it was already too late, as the creature unleashed another attack at the scroll.

The affects were near instant as the scroll dissolved into a pile of goop, which was useless to Sasori. Sasori glared at the creature but now it was too late, the mist had started destroying the container that held his heart. As the container broke open his heart slid out, and his body fell lifeless to the ground.

Naruto, the creature, let the mist finish its job before finally changing back to his human form, "Two down. Now let's see what Annabel has found."