Here's the next chapter.


Sasori was relentless, as the third Kazekage puppet launched iron Sand all over the place, wrecking the cave they were in.

It was tough, but luckily it seemed to be far weaker than the original, and could be predicted by looking at Sasori's movements. He was gradually closing in. Just then, Sasori shifted it completely, and brought out a strange move. A gigantic sphere made up of spikes of iron sand was created and rose up in the air. The magnetic chakra suddenly spiked and seemed to be forced together, and suddenly it blew apart and launched massive iron spikes all over the place. He cursed as he desperately tried to dodge, and brought up an earth wall to help. He broke up the rest with a Chidori.

He couldn't risk another attack like that. He focused chakra to his Sharingan, turning it into the Mangekyo Sharingan. Flashes of Rin came back as he did. He focused on a spot in front of the puppet that was hidden from Sasori's view, and opened a portal. He opened the other connecting portal in front of him, and shoved his lightning charged hand straight through. His hand was instantaneously teleported to the other portal, and skewered straight through the puppet.

Kamui. The power allowed him to create portals to and from another dimension. It was incredibly draining, but he didn't have much of a choice here.

As the iron Sand structure fell apart around him, he walked out to rejoin Chiyo. Unlike Sasori, she could see what he did. As he stumbled towards her, she asked "Can you do that again ?"

He replied "Maybe once more, but I probably can't use it against Sasori directly yet, as it's still too slow." She nodded, as she pulled out a scroll. She could use puppets again more freely now that the Iron sand was not a problem.

As Sasori seemed to refocused himself, he looked at Kakashi and said "I suppose that was you wasn't it ? I doubt the old lady picked up a new trick that could do that. You really are a threat, Copy Ninja Kakashi."

Given Sasori's confidence, he seemed to have correctly surmised that Kakashi was responsible, but couldn't hurt him directly in the same way yet.

But the chances were good. Chiyo pulled out a collection of ten white puppets, upon which Sasori remarked "Ah, the ten Chikamatsu puppets. One for each finger, you truly are excellent among regular puppet users."

As Sasori pulled off his cloak, the secret to his youth was revealed. He'd made himself a puppet. Sasori released multiple scrolls in the air and opened a panel on his body. As the scrolls unfurled, puppets popped out one after the other, until there was practically an army of puppets, all connected to Sasori by chakra strings. Sasori continued speaking and said "But I have long since surpassed the limits of the human body. With these, I can take down a country."

He reevaluated his chances upon the sight. The last time he'd gone up against these kinds of numbers, it was wartime. But he steeled his nerves and charged straight at them, followed by the ten white puppets.

The rest was a blur of blades, senbon, poisonous gas, and the occasional flame that nearly seared his eyebrows off and set his hair on fire. He rarely had to rely purely on taijutsu like this, but his chakra reserves were too low to do anything else.

In the middle of the battle, Chiyo called out and said "Use this." As he turned, he caught the shell shaped tool launched in his direction, realized that it was a seal, and threw it at Sasori, who was distracted by puppets. As it pinned Sasori down, the battle seemed to be over, but something was off. As he reviewed what happened with his Sharingan, he realized the truth and called out a warning to Chiyo, who'd collapsed in relief.

She managed to get away from the first blow with just a scratch. Sasori had shifted the black core he'd seen to a new body before the shell struck. Before Sasori struck again, he got there and caught the blow with a kunai. Sasori detached his forearm to reveal another blade, but before he struck, the mother father puppets lunged out and stabbed him in the sides straight through the core.

Sasori collapsed as he scoffed and said "How pathetic. I lost to an old hag and a fake Uchiha."

He knelt next to Chiyo and checked the wound. It wasn't bad. Hopefully Hinata could cure the poison. When he tried to mend the wound, Chiyo batted him away and said, "Leave that be and carry me over to the Kazekage's body."

He frowned and replied "Lady Chiyo, the Kazekage is dead. You life is more important now."

She shook her head and said "I can give him mine. It's a jutsu I possess." She then looked sadly at Sasori and said "I made it for him. It can even give life to a puppet." Sasori said "How pathetic."

As they walked away, with him carrying Chiyo on his back, she muttered "He could have dodged."

He frowned and replied "I'm sorry?"

She said "That last blow, he saw it coming. He could have dodged."

He got her meaning. He was an orphan himself after all. No matter how much Sasori tried to change, he couldn't truly lose his core, his heart.


A/N

Hope you enjoyed that. I'm trying to finish this off by the end of this year, while I'm still motivated to do so.

Sasori

Attack: 9

Defense: 9

Support: 7

Speed: 9

Stamina: 9.5

Intelligence: 10

Chakra Control: 9

Total: 63.5

Chiyo

Attack: 8

Defense: 8

Support: 8

Speed: 8

Stamina: 5

Intelligence: 10

Chakra Control: 9

Total: 56

Kakashi

Attack: 8.5

Defense: 7

Support: 9

Speed: 9

Stamina: 6

Intelligence: 9

Chakra Control: 8

Total: 56.5