(Hi, guys. I got my next chapter all set and ready. Be amazed as they fight against the two artistic rogue shinobi.)
Sasori and Deidara stood on defense, as the rogue Iwa shinobi asked, "How the hell did you know we'd be here?"
"Let's just say like you have your own spy, I have some of my very own." Naruto answered smugly.
"Gives yourselves up now. You're surrounded." Gaara declared.
"Never!" Sasori growled.
"Come on, let's take these guys down, my man." Deidara said as he summoned a clay bird. And took it to the air.
"He's going up." Sasuke said.
"I'll follow him." Naruto said, as he got ready to grab his Airbending glider, until Oonoki stopped him.
"Wait, Naruto," Oonoki said, "Using your glider to fly will get in the way of your ability to strike Deidara head on.
"So what're you suggesting?" the Avatar inquired.
"Let me share with you the same technique I used to get here." Oonoki laid a hand on Naruto's back.
Naruto gasped suddenly feeling strange on the inside, "Whoa. It's like you've taken away all the gravity in my body."
"Yes. So use this chance wisely." Naruto nodded, as he flew up after Deidara.
Sasuke turned to Oonoki, "Tsuchikage-sama, use that technique on me as well."
"And on me too." Kakashi requested.
"As you both wish." the old man hovered over to them and used the same technique on them.
Sasuke and Kakashi flew up to stop Deidara, as Kakashi called down to Sakura, Chiyo, Naomi, Kurotsuchi, and Akatsuchi. The group nodded, as he went to catch up to Sasuke. Following the Jonin was Oonoki, Soreth, and Spitfire.
As Deidara stood on his clay bird, his opponents reached his level in the sky, "Give it up, Deidara. We have you surrounded and outmatched." Oonoki warned him.
"Don't think I'm that kid you could boss around back then, old timer." Deidara warned him, as he unleashed clay spiders.
"Look out!" Oonoki called, as Deidara formed a hand sign causing the clay spiders to detonate.
"It's a mine field in the sky!" Naruto called, as he flew around.
"Hard to maneuver." Sasuke said.
"Keep focused." Kakashi ordered, as his two students got themselves together.
Sasuke used his phoenix flower jutsu, while Naruto used Airbending to increase the size of the fireballs. Deiadara shifted his bird to avoid the blasts of fire, only to get shot at from the other side by the two dragons, "Great. I wasn't prepared to fight dragons. Guess I gotta make do." he ingested some more exploding clay from his hands. He released more clay birds that grew to bigger sizes and flew around.
"Be careful, boys." Oonoki warned them, as they avoided the birds flying at them.
"I got this." Sasuke drew both his swords and generated his Chidori through the blades. He crossed the swords and released a Chidori shockwave from the blades that sliced through the giant clay birds making them blow up.
Deidara seeing this started getting worried, "Crap. I gotta take her down." He glided his bird down to avoid the attacks and rethink his strategy. He landed on a building's roof as his enemies touched down, while the dragons continued flying around in the sky like hawks.
Oonoki spoke, "Still can't resist showing off your explosions in your pitiful fashion?"
"Hey! That's my art, old man! Jeez, you never appreciated fine works of art." Deidara grumbled.
"Take him down!" Naruto called, as he, Kakashi, Akatsuchi, and Sasuke went hand to hand against Deidara.
On the ground, Sakura, Chiyo, Naomi, and Kurotsuchi were staring down Sasori, "I'm going to enjoy this." from Sasori's backside emerged a metal pointed tail, "Where'd that come from?" Kurotsuchi asked.
Chiyo squinted her eyes, "From his puppet body."
"Puppet body?" Sakura asked.
"Yes. What we're facing isn't Sasori directly, but a ninja puppet."
"But if that's a puppet..." Naomi began, until Kankuro approached and spoke.
"The real Sasori must be close by to control it, or maybe even inside it."
"Inside?" Sakura asked, as they looked back at the puppet.
"Clever, but let's see how well your knowledge can save you from this!" the metal tail extended and attempted to strike at them.
"Move!" Sakura called, as they jumped aside before the tail could strike any of them. As Sakura dodged she saw at the tip of the tail was something dripping from it, "Everyone, avoid the tail! It's coated in something!"
Chiyo spoke, "It's poison."
"Poison?" Naomi asked.
"Yes. It's just like a scorpions."
"We gotta do something about that tail." Kurotsuchi frowned at Sasori.
"Leave that to me." Sakura stepped forward.
"Sakura?" Kankuro asked.
"Earthbending isn't my only ability." Sakura said, while making hand motioned in Sasori's direction.
"What're you trying to..." Sasori stopped when he saw his tail was moving on its own, "What the? The girl..."
"I may not be able to use Earthbending on your puppet body, but your tail is metal and that's wide opened to Metalbending!" she manipulated the tail to strike for the puppet body.
"Crap!" Sasori called, as the tail struck the body.
The puppet broke to pieces, but the group saw something jump from the wreckage and land before them. They saw it looked like a young man a bit older than Kurotsuchi with red hair and wore the Akatsuki robe.
"Hello, grandmother. Miss me?" the being asked.
"Sasori, you..." Chiyo was in shock.
"Granny Chiyo, what's wrong?" Naomi asked.
Kankuro spoke, "Sasori left the village over a decade ago. How could he look that young?"
"That is my little secret." Sasori answered, as he pulled out some scrolls and releasing from them were multiple human looking puppets armed with weapons.
"We gotta do something about those puppets." Sakura said.
"Leave this to me." Kankuro stepped in and summoned his puppets Crow, Salamander, and Black Ant.
"You think those mediocre puppets stand a chance against my arsenal?" Sasori asked.
"I do, because you yourself created them." Kankuro reminded him.
"Once upon a time, but I've moved onto much stronger puppets than them." Sasori said, as he sent his puppets on the attack.
Kankuro sent out his own puppets against a few of Sasori's. One went for Sakura who jumped back avoiding its sword swings. She threw a powerful punch and broke it. Naomi was dodging all around before using her Firebending on two puppets making them catch fire.
"My turn!" Kurotsuchi formed hand signs, "Lava Release: Ash Stone Seal Technique!" she spat out thick ash that wrapped around three puppets making them unable to move.
Chiyo despite her age was dodging very well, which was impressing the girls, "Wow, that old lady's got game." Naomi said in amaze.
Chiyo cackled, much to Sasori's annoyance, "It seems i'll have to bring out my greatest creation." he pulled out another scroll labeled three. Releasing from the scroll was a human puppet of a man with black hair.
The sight of the puppet had both Chiyo and Kankuro in shock, "No. That can't be." the young puppet boy gasped.
"Sasori, you didn't..." Chiyo feared.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asked.
"That puppet looks just like our former Third Kazkage." Kankuro noted.
"So what? He modeled a puppet to look like him." Kurotsuchi said thinking it wasn't so shocking.
"Don't be so sure," Chiyo spoke, "One of Sasori's greatest techniques which he stole from the village was the ability to turn living human bodies into puppets."
"Humans into puppets?" Sakura asked, as they looked down at the puppets they fought, "Then these were..."
"Yes. Former shinobi I collected over the years and remolded them into my puppet army." Sasori explained with a smirk.
"This is so many levels of wrong." Naomi said feeling sick.
"And if he has a puppet of the Third Kazekage..." Kurotsuchi realized.
Chiyo nodded, "Sasori, you killed our village leader!"
"I did. And I have no regrets. For the Third Kazekage was a very valuable shinobi, and would be better as a puppet."
"Anything about this Kazekage we should know about?" Naomi asked Chiyo.
"Why ask when I can show." Sasori replied, as black particles started gathering around the puppet and forming big black cone shaped spears.
"How did he make those?" Sakura asked.
Chiyo explained, "Our Third Kazekage was master and creator of the Iron Sand technique; the most feared weapon in Suna history."
"And now it's mine to command!" Sasori declared, as he sent his armed puppet on the attack.
The puppet was moving around using his cone weapons to strike. When the girls moved the puppets weapons ended up putting craters in the ground.
"Whoa. No we see why it's a feared weapon." Naomi said in shock.
"That's just a small sample. Allow me to show you more." Sasori made the puppet conjure move iron sand above them.
"What's he doing now?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"This is bad, everyone take cover!" Chiyo called.
"Iron Sand World order!" Sasori called, as spikes of iron sand started raining down.
"Everyone come here!" Sakura called, as they gathered by her. Sakura used her Earthbending to encase them inside a big earth dome.
"Are you sure we'll be safe in here?" Kankuro asked.
"Don't worry, my Earthbending's gotten stronger in the last three years." Sakura assured, until they saw some of the spikes poking through the dome but weren't going as deep.
"Not strong enough." Kurotsuchi noted.
"Just hold out until he runs out." Naomi said.
"I don't know if I can hold it forever." Sakura strained.
Outside the dome and in the air, Spitfire saw the spikes raining down on the dome and knew her partner was in trouble. She eyed Sasori and his puppet and frowned before flying off to help Naomi. As Spitfire got in close she started firing fireballs at the puppet.
Sasori jerked his puppet as he was thrown off balance, "Cursed dragon!"
Hearing this from inside the dome, Naomi spoke, "Sakura, Spifire's come to help us!"
Sakura opened up part of the dome giving them a peephole. They saw Spitfire shooting fireballs as the puppet and Sasori. This disruption ended the raining spikes, so Sakura brought down the earth dome.
"Come on, Spitfire!" Sakura called.
"You can do it!" Kurotsuchi called.
"Look deep inside yourself and really let it burn!" Naomi called.
Spitfire started building up fire inside her and once she was filled up unleashed a giant fire blast against the Third Kazekage puppet burning it up. The fire also caught onto Sasori's cloak, and he quickly got rid of it. This however revealed another shocking discovery to the girls and Kankuro.
They saw Sasori's body wasn't human flesh, but made of the same material used to make ninja puppets, "What the hell is this?" Kurotsuchi asked in more confusion.
"His body." Kankuro gasped.
"Now it all makes sense," Chiyo said, "Sasori, you turned yourself into a puppet?"
"Indeed, grandma."
"But why?" Sakura asked.
"My perception of art is something can last forever. And now that I've turned myself into a puppet I can truly live forever." the Rogue Suna shinobi explained.
"I didn't think that technique could be used on oneself." Kankuro said in confusion.
"Well, it can. And soon you'll know the feeling." Blades started popping out of Sasori's arms, as he stood ready to fight.
"This is going to be harder than before." Kurotsuchi said.
"Maybe not," Chiyo said, "Sakura, Naomi. Allow me to connect my chakra strings to your bodies."
"What?" Sakura asked.
"By doing so I can control your bodies like puppets. You may be strong and agile, but I can better guide you by manipulating your bodies."
"Sounds like a plan." Naomi admitted.
"If it'll help, then ok." Sakura agreed.
Chiyo nodded, and extended chakra strings from her fingers on both hands. The chakra strings connected to the joints of Sakura and Naomi, as they stood ready, "Ready for this, Sakura?" Naomi asked.
"You know it." Sakura agreed.
"You're using children to fight? You've really grown weak, Granny Chiyo." Sasori taunted.
"Don't be so sure, Sasori." Chiyo said, as both Sakura and Naomi went into battle against Sasori.
"I'll help too!" Kankuro used Crow to aid the girls.
Sakura was using her raw strength to attack Sasori, while he tried striking with the blades in his body. Sakura would dodge, but used her Metalbending to bend the blades making them useless. Naomi jumped in and used her Firebending skill against Sasori who was dodging her attacks.
"Your bending is impressive, but they will not keep you alive forever!" Sasori continued to attack.
As Chiyo was focusing on keeping Sakura and Naomi alive, Kurotsuchi formulated a plan, "Granny, see if you can get them to lure Sasori over to that spot and have Sakura use her Earthbending to trap Sasori's legs."
"You've got a plan?" she asked.
"Yeah. Can you do that?"
"Watch me." Chiyo smirked.
Chiyo started maneuvering Naomi and Sakura as they attacked Sasori. What Sasori didn't realize Chiyo was making the two forcing him to back into the spot Kurotsuchi wanted him in. When he reached the position, Kurotsuchi called, "Sakura, trap his legs!"
Sakura used Earthbending on the ground to ensnare Sasori's legs trapping him in place, "What is this?!" Sasori demanded.
"And for good measure!" Kurotsuchi used a water jutsu on the ground Sasori stood on followed by another jutsu, "Lava Style: Quicklime Jutsu!" she spat a large quantity of quicklime from her mouth. When mixed with the water she unleashed previously it started turning into cement which further made Sasori's legs immobile.
"I can't move my legs!" Sasori struggled.
"You'll never be breaking out of that restraint, puppet boy." Kurotsuchi smirked.
"You've lost, Sasori." Sakura stated.
"Not yet I haven't. I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve." he reached on his back pulling out multiple scrolls and tossed them up into the air releasing about a hundred puppets.
"So many puppets." Naomi gasped.
"And mine to control," A compartment on Sasori's chest opened up and extending from it was about a hundred chakra strings which connected him to all his puppets, "Behold my greatest technique, Secret Red Move: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
"This is bad." Kurotsuchi said in worry.
The hundred puppets went on the move, as the group spread out avoiding the strikes, "We gotta do something!" Sakura called.
"To take out these puppets, we must take out the user!" Chiyo stated.
"Then get me close!" Naomi called. Chiyo started manipulating Naomi forcing her through the onslaught of puppets before getting close enough to her target, "Hey, Sasori! Here's something that'll really put you in shock!" she used the lightning generation ability aiming it right at Sasori.
The lightning launched so fast it shocked Sasori as he screamed in pain. Sasori lost focus and his puppets fell to the ground, "Sakura, now!" Chiyo called.
Sakura was propelled forward and punched Sasori breaking his body into pieces. Sakura landed and panted. Naomi herself was tired, before giving them a thumb's up."
"We got him?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"Looks like it." Kankuro replied.
Sakura sighed in relief, as she and Naomi were about to head back over, until something in a cloak jumped out and tried to attack with a sword, "Sakura! Naomi! Look out!" Kurotsuchi shouted.
The two turned and saw the figure about to strike, until Spitfire launched a fireball at the stranger allowing the two to escape. The stranger landed and removed it's cloak to reveal Sasori, "Sasori?" Sakura asked in shock.
"But how?" Naomi asked in confusion.
"Sakura destroyed your body." Kurotsuchi recalled.
"My body maybe, but not my heart." Sasori replied.
"Heart?" Chiyo asked, until they saw a casket embedded into his body, "So that's it. Your body may be made of wood, but your heart still beats."
Sasori looked bitter, "Yes. Though I was able to change my body into a puppet, the only thing I could not change was my heart."
"In other words you're not a real puppet." Kurotsuchi mocked.
"No. And that's been my greatest flaw. Still, that won't stop me from piercing yours!" Sasori attacked the two again.
"There's just no stopping him." Kankuro said feeling hopeless.
"Not just yet. Now that we know Sasori does have a vulnerable spot. We can use that to our advantage." Chiyo explained.
"How?"
"Just leave that to me." Chiyo pulled out two scrolls.
Sasori fought Naomi and Sakura, until Kurotsuchi jumped in and joined her friends. Sasori spoke, while fighting, "You three will make fine additions to my collection. And then I'll be adding Naruto after we've ripped the nine tails from him.
"There's no way you're laying a hand on Naruto!" Sakura shouted, as she fought Sasori.
The three pushed Sasori back with their attacks. Sasori growled before launching at them, "This ends now!" suddenly he stopped feeling something pierce through his heart. The girls gasped, as they saw two puppets pierce swords through Sasori's heart casket. Sasori looked at the two puppets of a man and a woman. The woman had long brunette hair, while the man had red hair like Sasori's, "Mother? Father?" he gasped, and saw they were connected via chakra strings by Chiyo.
"Yes, Sasori. Your first two creations. You created them in memory of your parents, but left them after you went rogue. Ironic the puppets you made would be the ones to end you."
Sasori groaned, "I guess this is the end for me. Who would've thought the greatest puppet master would be taken down like this. Well, I guess in respect for you as worthy opponents I should commend you. But better I have information for you."
"Information?" Sakura asked.
Sasori nodded, "Go to the Tenchi Village in Kusa in ten days. I have an informant there with information on Orochimaru I'm supposed to meet up with."
"Orochimaru?" Naomi asked in surprise.
"Yes. Tell your Avatar that Orochimaru is just as much our enemy as he is his. Bring him down no matter what it takes..." Sasori fell limp indicating his death.
"We got him this time?" Naomi asked hopefully.
"Yeah. This time." Kankuro assured.
"We better go check on the others." Sakura suggested, as they hurried to the others.
They arrived on scene and saw Deidara was unleashing one explosive after another on Naruto and the others, "Yeah! Bare witness in my art, because it's a bang!" Deidara detonated another of his bombs knocking Naruto off his feet. The Avatar however managed to pick himself back up.
"Nice fireworks attempt, but it's not enough!" Naruto used Airbending to blow Deidara off the roof, only for him to fly up on his clay bird.
"Not this time!" Naruto and Sasuke jumped on Soreth and the dragon flew after the bomber.
Soreth flew after the bird determined to get Naruto and Sasuke as close as he could. When he was closing in, Naruto spoke to his teammate, "Get ready to jump, Sasuke... Now!" they jumped off Soreth and landed on the bird.
"Don't you two ever give up?" Deidara asked in annoyance.
"That's our biggest rule, never give up." Naruto answered, as he and Sasuke fought Deidara.
Sasuke started charging a Chidori, before jabbing it into Deidara's chest, "Yes! Huh?" he and Naruto noticed Deidara's body turning clay white, and emerging from the bird was the real one.
"You fell for my clay clone." Deidara mocked.
Sasuke tried pulling his arm out, but to no avail. He quickly grabbed his Meteor Sword and channeled Chidori through the blade allowing him to sever himself from the clay lone with his arm in tact.
"Boys move!" Oonoki called as he flew up to them.
Naruto and Sasuke quickly jumped back onto Soreth who flew to a safe distance. Oonoki was forming a sphere at the center of his body between the palms of his hands, "You've angered me enough already, Deidara. And you know how I terrifying I can be!"
"Oh crap, that jutsu!" Deidara paled.
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!" he shot a large cone shaped beam at Deidara and his bird, the result caused the two to disintegrate into dist particles, "There. I guess that'll teach him."
"Don't count on it, old man!" Came Deidara's voice. Oonoki spun to see another clay bird with Deidara on top launching bombs at the old man that detonated.
Oonoki lost concentration and began falling, "Gramps!" Kurotsuchi cried.
"Spitfire, go!" Naomi shouted, as Spitfire flew to the rescue and caught the old man.
Spitfire brought Oonoki back to the roof they were on, as the two Iwa shinobi checked on him, "Are you all right?" Akatsuchi asked in concern.
"Course I am. Just didn't see that coming. Clever brat had two clay clones on that one bird."
"He's coming back!" Naomi noted.
Dediara's bird flew right for them, "Now you're gonna get a bang out of this!"
"Not so fast!" Sasuke called.
Deidara looked to the side seeing Soreth flying at them carrying Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had just entered sage mode and started gathering chakra. Deidara smirked, "Well, guess I'll take you down first." he suddenly found himself surrounded by sand particles, "Hey!" he looked down seeing Gaara extending sand from his gourd to keep Deidara in place.
"Naruto, now!" Gaara called.
Naruto had conjured a giant Rasengan in his palm and jumped at Deidara with his jutsu aimed at him, "Here's a little bang of my own called Sage Art: Super Giant Rasengan!" he slammed it into Diedara's whole body as they flew across the village and crashed into the wall with the jutsu hammering into Deidara as he screamed.
When the jutsu died down, Deidara fell out of the crater in the wall and hit the ground. He was took weak to get away and didn't even have much time to live, "Dammit. I was suppose to go out with a bang, but not like that!" he looked up seeing everyone gathered around him.
"You lost, Deidara." Oonoki said.
"Maybe me, but you won't stand a chance against the other members. Count on it!" he said his last words before meeting his end.
Everyone sighed in relief, until Temari came by, "Good news. Yura has been apprehended. What should we do with him, Gaara?"
"Throw him in the dungeon for now. We'll deal with him later." Gaara ordered, as Temari nodded and went to inform the Anbu. Gaara turned to Squad Seven and the Iwa shinobi, "Thank you, everyone. If it weren't for you things might've gone a lot different. Even worse than this."
"That's what friends do, Gaara. We look out for each other." Naruto explained, as everyone agreed with him.
Sakura suddenly remembered, "Oh my gosh, that's right!"
"Is something wrong, Sakura?" Kakashi inquired.
"Sasori gave us some information you'll need to hear."
"We better go someplace quiet." Gaara suggested, as they went back to the administration building leaving Anbu to recover Deidara's body.
Inside the Kazekage's office, Sakura had finished telling them what Sasori told her and the others, "Are you sure about this?" Oonoki asked.
"That's exactly what he said, gramps." Kurotsuchi confirmed.
"What do you think, sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Hm. It could be a ploy to lure us into another Akatsuki trap." Kakashi theorized.
"I don't know, he didn't sound like he was lying." Naomi noted.
"And he did have a spy in Suna, so maybe he would have a spy in Orochimaru's camp." Sasuke believed.
"Either way, we'll have to inform the Hokage about this." Kakashi said.
"Agreed. Plus any lead on Orochimaru is good news for us." Naruto spoke.
"Might I suggest you all wait here and rest for a bit before returning home?" Gaara offered.
"Don't mind if I do." Oonoki said, as he took a seat to relax.
"All right, first we'll rest and then we'll head back." Kakashi ordered Squad Seven and Naomi who sighed in relief.
Meanwhile at the Akatsuki lair, the apparitions of the members were together, as Pain looked to Zetsu, "What?! Sasori and Deidara have been killed?"
"Yes. It's very unfortunate." the plant man answered.
Pain grunted, "This throws another wrench into our plans now that we've lost two members."
"Should we start looking for replacements?" Kisame asked
"There's no time for that. We need to move forward with our plan." Pain answered.
"But we need to seal the one tail first before the others." one reminded him.
"I know! First we'll capture the others and contain them, then we'll go back for the one tail." Pain explained.
"I am curious," Konan spoke up, "How did they know Sasori and Deidara would be infiltrating Suna?"
"I'm curious about that too," Pain said with suspicion, as he looked at the other members, "No matter. You're all dismissed for now." the apparitions vanished.
Out in a forest somewhere in the ninja land, Itachi and Kisame who were in meditating positions woke up, and stood up, "Well, that turned out to be unfortunate, didn't it?" Kisame asked Itachi.
"Indeed." Itachi agreed.
"Makes me wonder how those brats even knew about Sasori and Deidara at all." Kisame wondered, as he looked away.
Itachi saw popping up was a familiar spirit gopher. Before the spirit could speak to Itachi, the eldest Uchiha motioned him to be quiet and to make himself scarce. The spirit realizing he wasn't alone quickly left before Kisame looked back.
'What do you think, Itachi?" Kisame asked.
Itachi answered, "It doesn't matter now. Sasori and Deidara failed. And now it's up to us to pick up their slack. Come on, let's get going." he walked on.
"All right, I'm coming." Kisame followed him. Itachi walked while sighing in relief Kisame didn't catch sight of Gochi.
(And there's the chapter. The epic fight between Sasori and Deidara has come to pass. Don't miss next time where Squad Seven has a new mission in store involving Orochimaru. See you all then.)