A gentle breeze flew over the desert, which was about to become a battlefield. Currently, Goku was staring at Deidara and Sasori with a confident smirk on his face. Deidara smirked. "So… who are you? You don't seem to be a leaf ninja."

"My name is Goku, and I'm a Saiyan raised on Earth!" Goku said confidently.

"Saiyan? And what is that supposed to be?" Sasori questioned.

Goku shifted to his battle stance. "It means I'm not from around here. Now show me what you got!"

Deidara chuckled. "You must be either stupid or pretty strong to be confident enough to face both of us."

As Goku and the two members of the Akatsuki were having their conversation, Kakashi looked at Naruto and said, "Naruto… I think it's best we leave this to Goku. Although, while they are distracted, we will take this opportunity to grab Gaara while the enemy is distracted."

Naruto's eyes reverted back to normal, and he displayed a serious look on his face. "Alright, Kakashi-sensei."

"Hnn.." Deidara simply said, before looking at Goku's shoulder. "Would you look at that!"

"Huh?" Goku was baffled, and looked at his right shoulder, noticing a white explosive clay bird perched on his shoulder. Within the next moment, the bird exploded.

KABOOM!

Sand flew into the air, as a cloud of black smoke rose into the air, shocking Naruto and the others. Naruto reached his hand out and cried, "Uncle Goku!"

Sakura was extremely worried as she widened her eyes in shock. "Goku!"

"Too easy!" Deidara cackled.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the black smoke that was slowly disappearing and thought to himself, "Is it really over?"

That's when the puppet master noticed that Goku wasn't there at the original spot of the explosion anymore. Widening his eyes with caution, he warned his partner, "He escaped…"

That's when a voice behind Deidara said, "Not bad! Interesting technique you have there!"

Deidara widened his eyes in shock and quickly turned around, only to find himself facing a confident Goku. The Saiyan stared at Deidara with a smile and said, "I'm sure you can do more than just throw explosives, right?"

Seething with anger, Deidara gritted his teeth and launched a roundhouse kick. But before his leg could connect, Goku delivered a lightning-fast punch to Deidara's gut, causing him to double over and cough up blood. Deidara staggered back a few feet, clutching his stomach, his face contorted with pain, before collapsing face-first onto the sand, unconscious.

Naruto and the others were stunned as Kakashi exclaimed, "Unbelievable! He knocked him out with one blow!" Even Kakashi's Sharingan couldn't follow Goku's movements until the attack had already landed.

Sasori, momentarily taken aback by what had just transpired, quickly regained his composure and lashed out with his tail needle. But the Saiyan easily dodged the strike, reappearing in front of Sasori in an instant. With a powerful roundhouse kick, Goku shattered Sasori's armoured shell, sending fragments flying into the air.

As the pieces of armour scattered, a figure emerged, performing a series of backflips before landing nimbly on the sand. The red-haired man revealed beneath the disguise was Sasori's true form.

Naruto widened his eyes in shock. "W-Who's that" his eyes analysing the seemingly new person. He was quick to realize that the man he was seeing ahead was the Akatsuki member, only that his true form had been revealed. His eyes then darted towards the shattered fragments of the broken armour, before realization dawned on his face. "That's… his true form?" he was surprised as he began to wonder why had this member hidden himself in that armour in the first place.

But knowing the Akatsuki, they were known to be notorious people. So in hindsight, hiding their appearance was one way to stay unnoticed from the public eye, considering that they were wanted criminals.

The criminal organization responsible for kidnapping Gaara were a group of people Naruto firmly believed were rotten to the core. What made them go down this path? Was it selfish desire, or a sadistic pleasure of tormenting people?

For Naruto, he couldn't bring himself to forgive them. Even though Jiraiya had already earlier warned him to not unleash his rage, he had still used some of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox's chakra. It wasn't even intentional on his part since he didn't have the required control over the fox's chakra yet.

In other words, the chakra boost from the Nine Tails emerged only during intense eruptions of negative emotions, like anger or sadness. Seeing Gaara unconscious made his blood boil. His face contorted in anger once again. However, Kakashi eyed Naruto and shook his head.

"Naruto… You've got to calm down and use your energy to whisk Gaara from them." Kakashi reminded with a calm, but serious tone in his voice.

Naruto, his eyes still fixed at Gaara's unconscious body, decided that now was not the time to dilly dally. With a push from his feet, the blond ninja leaped ahead towards Gaara. He felt this was the only right move to do, considering that Goku had already taken down one of the S Rank criminals—Deidara.

Just as he soared through the air, Sasori calmly raised his arm, his palm aimed directly at the Uzumaki. "Not so fast…" he murmured, his tone cool and unbothered. With a flick of his fingers, a set of chakra strings emerged from his hands, stretching from his fingertips into the depths of the battlefield.

A sudden cloud of smoke erupted, and from its swirling haze, two deadly figures shot forward—Karasu and Kuroari. These weren't just any puppets; they were the very same ones he had crafted in his youth. With a flick of his wrist, the puppets moved with eerie precision, their hidden weapons primed to strike.

Karasu, with its spiky, sinister appearance, was already launching poisoned kunai from its mouth, while Kuroari, the capture-type puppet, spread open its six arms, prepared to ensnare its prey.

Naruto barely twisted his body in time, evading the rain of poisoned blades. His eyes widened—these weren't like the clones or jutsu he normally fought against. These were weapons designed to kill instantly.

But Sasori was just getting started.

With an almost bored expression, he raised his other hand, forming a single hand sign.

"You're underestimating me, boy."

From within the folds of his cloak, his chakra strings lashed outward like an unseen web, connecting to something unseen in the sky above. Suddenly, a massive explosion of smoke burst into the battlefield, momentarily shrouding everything in a white cloud of smoke.

As it cleared, a hundred gleaming eyes stared back at Naruto.

The Hundred Puppet Army had arrived.

A terrifying sea of puppets, each once a living, breathing shinobi, now reduced to lifeless yet deadly extensions of Sasori's will, floated ominously in the air. Their blades gleamed, their fingers primed with lethal poison, and their empty eyes locked onto Naruto and his allies.

"This is the technique that brought down an entire nation." Sasori's voice was calm, almost coldly amused, as he spread his arms. Each puppet moved in perfect synchronization, an extension of his mind, his mastery.

"Let's see if you can survive it."

Goku stared at the puppets with a surprised look on his face. "You're making those puppets do your dirty work?" The expression on his face then turned into a serious one, as he quickly leaped ahead towards Sasori. "You're opponent is me!"

As Naruto landed nimbly on the ground, Goku almost instantly appeared in front of Sasori with his immense speed. Sasori, noticing Goku in front of him, merely was about to flick his finger to control the chakra threads he was handling with the intent to direct one of his puppets to slash the Saiyan.

However, before that could even happen, Goku landed a swift right hook punch onto Sasori's left cheek, causing the Akatsuki member's head to snap to the right. A clean shot, and that had to do some damage.

Goku narrowed his eyes as he kept his fist pressed against Sasori's cheek, expecting some kind of reaction—pain, frustration, anything. But instead, Sasori merely turned his head back to face him, his expression disturbingly calm. It was as if the punch hadn't fazed him at all.

"Hmph," Sasori exhaled, his voice as cold and emotionless as the wooden body he inhabited. "Did you really think a mere punch would hurt me?"

Goku pulled his fist back, taking a step back as he observed Sasori more closely. That was a clean hit—he knew his own strength, and he had punched through mountains before. Yet, Sasori stood there, completely unfazed. No bruises. No broken bones. Nothing.

Sasori raised his right arm, flexing his fingers as chakra threads gleamed in the air around him. "I am no ordinary shinobi…" he continued. "Long ago, I discarded my weak, human flesh. I transcended mortality. My body is nothing more than a masterfully crafted puppet."

As if to prove his point, Sasori twisted his neck at an unnatural angle before letting his head rotate all the way around, facing backward for a moment before snapping back into place. The eerie creaking of joints echoed in the air.

Goku's brows furrowed. "So you're a walking puppet, huh?" he said, tightening his fists. "That explains a lot. But that also means…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sasori flicked his fingers, and chakra threads around him flared to life. The puppet he had stationed behind Goku lunged forward with bladed arms, aiming to slice at the Saiyan's exposed back.

Goku smirked. "Heh, thought so."

In a blur, he vanished just as the blade came down, reappearing mid-air above Sasori. He cocked his fist back, his aura flickering with golden color and energy while his hair and eyes still remained in its normal color. "Let's see how you handle this!"

With a sudden burst of force, Goku launched a downward punch, aiming to smash through Sasori's seemingly indestructible puppet body.

Before Sasori could react, the Saiyan's fist connected with the back of Sasori's neck, sending him crashing towards the sand below him as the criminal was sent deep into the sand. Due to the impact, a large hole was created in the sand from where Sasori had crashed into.

Kakashi widened his eyes with a surprised look on his face as he witnessed the battle. Goku had already seemingly defeated his opponent! Not only that, the warrior had already defeated Deidara earlier as well.

Has Sasori already been defeated?

To be continued…

A/N: New chapter will release on 16th March 2025