Chapter 24: Deidara & Sasori

"Naruto, slow down." Kakashi calls out to the blonde boy as we all run and chase after Deidara. Naruto comes back to us, his anger still right on the surface. I suddenly feel, one after another, my clones becoming forcibly released from where they were fighting against their own mirror.

"My clones just returned, there was a mirror trap of some sort on the seals, and exact clones of my clones appeared and destroyed them. I only gave the clones limited energy, so they weren't a match." I inform them all.

"Where are the mirrors now?" Guy Sensei asks me. I check quickly with my eyes and smirk.

"Gone. They faded after they took down their opponents. Glad we didn't send our whole team to deal with them." I say smugly.

"Good, but we don't have time to slow down like this. We gotta get this guy and get Gaara back." Naruto says urgently.

"And we will, but he's a long range fighter, and you are a close range one. There are only two ways to beat a long range guy like this. We either have to draw him into a short range fight..." He trails off, looking at me.

"Or beat him at a long range fight." I smirk back arrogantly, summoning my bow and seeking a higher vantage point. 

I'm getting a little tired from the clones I made, but I enjoyed the experience they came back with. I perch myself up on a tree top, take aim at Deidara, careful not to hit the bird's head at all, and let an arrow loose, one full of wind chakra. Deidara just barely manages to dodge a vital wound by flying the bird away at the last second, but it still caught his leg. I aim again, this time with one of my new spiral arrow I had the black smith craft for me. I was inspired from the Kidomaru fight years ago. 

I take aim and launch the next arrow, but also launch a second arrow, a green colored one, using a third layer of wind around it to make it silent. I watch as the first arrow blows one of the wings off the bird, just like I planned, while the second one flies silently and pierces Deidara right through his lung.

"A second arrow?!" I hear Deidara call out in shock as he fell from the sky. "I see... It's color blended in with the trees. How was it silent?! Why do anything silent!? Art is an explosion!" He throws several small spider creature clay bombs towards us, but Naruto's clones hit them with a Rasengan while a couple more of his clones catch the falling bird that's holding Gaara.

Kakashi used his Kamui attack with his Sharingan the moment Deidara hit the ground. He severed Deidara's arm, though he was aiming for his whole body. Guy Sensei swoops in on Deidara, and begins to mercilessly attack him with his strong taijutsu attacks, his speed and strength too much for Deidara, who has no arms and a pierced lung. Naruto was actively working to get Gaara out of the clay after he took the bird a safe distance away from the enemy. I catch up to Kakashi before joining Guy.

"Be ready, he'll self-destruct soon. Find his arm he got cut off and collect it." I warn him quietly, then take off to where Guy is. "Sensei!" I call out, taking out my fans and opening them both together. He turns and sees me, and quickly gets out of the way. I use my combined fans and create a large vortex of slicing winds that rip through Deidara's body, destroying and leveling the forest around him in the same motion. I activate my Byakugan, making sure he was hit by the attack. I see he made it out, though not without damage. "Sensei, 15 degree northwest!" I call out to him since I'm still in the air and recovering from using such a large attack. I'll let him finish this off, he's more than strong enough, even after opening the gates earlier.

Sensei runs to that location, and not seeing the enemy, he reacts quickly and punches into the ground, drawing out Deidara. "Bad luck trying to hide against one of the Genius Hyuga Twins. You'll lose every time." Guy Sensei brags proudly. "Now taste the youthful fury of Might Guy!" He starts to pummel Deidara into the ground while I keep my eyes peeled. I start to see after a few minutes that Deidara's chakra is all gathering in the middle of his body as he starts to swell.

"Sensei! Get back now!" I call out, and signal to Kakashi to get ready. Kakashi focuses his Kamui attack, and just when Guy is almost clear of the blast radius, Deidara uses his self-destruct. While Kakashi and I were out training for the last two years, I knew he would need to catch explosions with his Kamui, so I had him practice catching paper bomb explosions just as much as he made me practice on new techniques. Because of that practice, I had confidence that Kakashi could handle this now.

Kakashi manages to catch the explosion and send it to another dimension before it hit us all. I don't rest though, and look again with my eyes to find any trace of Deidara. When I don't see anything for 10 kilometers in any direction, I finally let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding while searching. I turn to Kakashi, who is exhausted and breathing hard from using the Kamui twice now, and he holds out Deidara's severed arm for me. I take it and seal it away in a scroll after I take the ring off it and put it in my pocket.

"Gaara!" I hear Naruto call out, and I turn and see he got Gaara out of the clay bird. I smile up at him kindly, then start to really feel the fatigue kicking in. I'm undamaged, just tired and need to breath for a moment. Being awake for three days and using too much chakra is exhausting. I go to sit next to Kakashi while Naruto brings Gaara over to us and Guy joins us as well.

"Ami!" I hear from behind me, and turn around with a smile as my twin rushes to my side. "I was worried about you." He whispers quietly to me, taking in my fatigued appearance.

"Neji! What happened to you?!" I ask, taking in his appearance. He has cuts all over his body.

~ Neji POV during Sasori fight ~

"Ami!" I call out to my sister before she leaves, "Don't miss." I smirk at her, knowing she won't.

"I never do." She says back to me with her arrogant smirk before she leaves. I turn around to face our new enemy and take up my fighting stance.

"Stand back, my beautiful Sakura blossom. I will protect you and defeat this villain." Lee says boldly to Sakura.

"Lee, Neji, you two be careful, we don't know much about this guy other than he uses poison and puppets. Lady Chiyo?" Sakura says to us then pauses when Chiyo steps forward.

"He is a deadly master of puppetry and has extreme speed and reflexes. Only those with master level of reflexes can evade his attacks, so you three think you are up to that?" Chiyo asks us skeptically.

"I can handle that easily." I say confidently to her over my shoulder.

"Do not underestimate the members of Team Guy. We are the fastest shinobi in the world, and our reflexes are superior to all." Lee says excitedly with pride to her.

"Enough of this. I hate being kept waiting." Sasori interrupts us and takes off his face mask and shoots needles out at us.

"Sakura, stay back with Lady Chiyo!" Lee calls out and she listens. He and I dodge the needles easily as they keep coming at us. Constant practice with Ami either throwing knives at us or shooting us with her bow gave both of us superior reflexes.

"Quick little brats, aren't you? Fine, dodge this." Sasori growls out as he sends out all of his puppet's limbs and they all aim at us, shooting thousands of needles.

"Rotation!" I call out, spiraling in a Rotation of my ultimate defense. I keep it going for the entire length of the attack, and notice Lee also escaped the needles using his speed. He listened to Ami and took his weights off, which right now, seems like the best advice he could have gotten. As Sasori changes his aim to Chiyo and Sakura, I rush to stand in front of them and perform the Air Wall Palm, sending all the needles back.

While I was defending the others, Lee moved in on Sasori's main body. He used the leaf hurricane, and launched the body up high, then went into primary lotus. Using the attack, he managed to create a crack on the hard shell body of the puppet, but not enough to destroy it.

"It needs a stronger hit." I mutter out in observation, but Sakura hears it.

"I can do it. I may not be fast enough to dodge the needles, but I'm strong enough to break his puppet." She says to me.

"I can get you to him. Allow me to make you my puppet, I can attach chakra strings to you and guide you through his attacks." Chiyo whispers back and they start to make a plan.

I move in on the attack, drawing the enemies attention to me and Lee while Sakura looks for an opening. I use my Air Wall Palm again when Sasori launches more needles towards me, and again send them flying back, only this time I also hit his body with the attack, sending him rolling. This gives the perfect opening for Sakura, and she advances in and uses her monster strength to completely shatter the puppet shell.

"Nicely done, Sakura!" Lee cheers out as something jumps out of the broken puppet shell.

"Is that his real body?" Sakura asks. I use my eyes to look at him and see only the chakra at the heart.

"That's not a real body at all. There's no chakra network." I say, glancing at Chiyo and noticing she also has a strange chakra network in her arm. I raise an eyebrow to her, but don't comment openly on it.

"It cannot be." Chiyo breathes out, looking at the young man whose face was just revealed to us. "Sasori, how can this be? You haven't aged a day."

"This is what a true master puppeteer can do." Sasori says, his voice also changing to that of a young mans. "Now, let me show you one of my greatest creations." He then summons a new puppet to control, and I can see immense chakra stored in the puppet.

"Watch out, that puppet has a large amount of chakra in it." I warn the others.

"How could you!?" Chiyo calls out in distress. "That's the Third Kazekage! He went missing years ago, just vanished without a trace. It was you!?"

"Yes, he became my greatest masterpiece. Now I have him as a puppet, and with it, his Iron Sand." Sasori says smugly, and suddenly black sand is rising all around.

"You've betrayed the Sand village and have gone after three Kazekage's now." Chiyo says, and Sakura asks for clarification. "It was Orochimaru who killed the Fourth, but it was Sasori who guided him."

"Hey, I had nothing to do with the Fourth. It was my subordinate who killed him, not me." Sasori says nonchalantly. "I was originally partnered with Orochimaru in the Akatsuki though."

"You..." Sakura suddenly says darkly at his words, "You know Orochimaru?!" She asks Sasori urgently. He ignores her and turns his attention to his new puppet, beginning to form the black sand into an attack.

"Neji, stay back and defend the others. Allow me to handle this. It is just like Gaara." Lee says seriously, taking up his position in front of me. I nod, allowing him to handle the fight first while I jump back to the women and take up a defensive stance.

I watch as Lee moves at blinding speeds, almost too fast for even my eyes to follow. He attacks and dodges effortlessly, either using his Leaf Hurricane to disrupt the iron sand or running around it and landing hits against the puppet of the Third itself. 

Suddenly, the black sand forms into hundreds of long rods, and they launch in every direction all around the cave. I use the Rotation to block them from hitting myself and the women, but I cannot save Lee as well with it.

"Lee!" Sakura call out to him. "Are you alright?!" I look at Lee, he has been cut lightly several times, but he manages to avoid the majority of the poles of sand. He nods, but then suddenly falls to his knees, struggling to breath. "What happened?!" Sakura calls out again in confusion.

"It's the sand, Sasori must have put the poison in it. It doesn't take any more than a small cut for the poison to enter his blood stream and take effect." Chiyo tells us urgently.

"Lee, come here!" Sakura calls out firmly, and he uses his remaining strength to move to her as I step forward. The sand all reformed around the Third Kazekage again.

An attack is incoming, and I again use my Rotation to keep all the sand from hitting us. Behind me, I notice Sakura injecting something into Lee discreetly as she patches him up. I read her lips as she tells him it will only be potent for three minutes.

"Neji, I am ready again." Lee tells me after a few seconds of waiting for the antidote to take effect.

"Keep an eye on the time. I'll step in if you go too far." I tell him firmly, and again we switch positions, putting me back next to Sakura. "Do you have more of that?" I ask her.

"Only one more. The ingredients were limited in the Sand, I could only make three in total, and one already went to Kankuro." She tells me sadly. Lee starts to attack again, this time Sasori uses the puppet to expand out and rapidly throw hundreds of arms at him. When he dodges them all, the puppet then releases a gas at him. We all step back further, not wanting to breathe in the poison.

"We cannot just sit here idly as the young man fights. We only have a three minute window only, we can attack Sasori's body in that time." Chiyo says, pulling out two scrolls. She summons two new puppets and attaches her chakra strings to them.

"You brought them? The mother and the father." Sasori says bitterly from the other side of the cave. "It is no matter, they are weak."

Chiyo sends the puppets Sasori's way while Lee begins to destroy the Third Kazekage's puppet body. While Sasori is getting overwhelmed from both sides, I use the Air Wall Palm towards the gas cloud and dissipate it, freeing up that area for us to breathe when we need to go over there.

"Why aren't your attacks working, Lady Chiyo?" Sakura asks the old woman. Her puppets have been hitting Sasori's body, but he seems unaffected by their impacts.

"His body has no network, he only has chakra at his heart. The marking on his chest, you need to aim for that. It will need a precise hit to destroy, but I think that is how he can be killed." I tell them both.

Once Lee fully destroys the Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori starts to brag as he pulls out his final scroll. "I used that one to destroy a village. But these," Sasori says, and opens the scroll, summoning countless more puppets. "These I used to destroy a nation." I look around and count 100 puppets flying in the air.

"There's too many." I tell them urgently. "Lee only has one minute left."

Lee begins to destroy as many as he can, but he is getting overwhelmed, and taking multiple hits from the puppets. None of the wounds are dangerous, but he is running out of time with the antidote, and he is getting tired.

"I'm not out yet!" Chiyo calls out proudly as she summons 10 more puppets to control. "Let's see how you handle these!"

Chiyo sends out her own puppets to aid Lee. Meanwhile, several of the puppets come towards us and I use Air Wall Palm and Rotation to keep them away, destroying a few myself. I see Chiyo trying to hit Sasori's chest, but she can't hit the small target.

"Lee, come back now." I tell him firmly when he has only five seconds left. He nods and returns to me, and I turn to Sakura. "Sakura, give me the last antidote. We need precision to hit his heart, and that is something only I can do. Stay here and heal Lee, I will break their threads and send the bodies to you to destroy." I tell her, and she nods hesitantly before handing me the last antidote. I put it in my pocket, and head on the attack myself.

I safely break my way through several of the puppets, severing the chakra threads that control them with the Gentle Fist. After I break the threads, I throw the puppet bodies over to Sakura for her to break with her strength. I use Rotation when they all try and launch needles at me, but when I stop the Rotation, a few of them get to me faster than I can react, and I receive several cuts. I instantly grab the antidote and inject it, starting my internal timer. 

I advance even more then, making my way to Sasori. As I am just about to use my Gentle Fist to strike his heart, he launches the heart cylinder into another puppets body. I follow it with my eyes, he sent it into a fallen puppet that is laying still. He is intending to trap me, but it will not work. I use my top speed and rush to the fallen body as it is getting up, and pierce the heart with my kunai.

"How?" Sasori asks in a gasp from his new body, falling back onto the ground.

"You cannot hide from one of the Genius Hyuga Twins. That was your mistake." Lee says boldly as I smirk down at the dying puppet. I relax my posture, assuming the battle done. Sasori however uses the last of his strength to send several nearby weapons at me. I only manage to dodge and divert half of them, the rest getting grazes along my body. Thankfully, the antidote is still active in my system. Chiyo sends the mother and father puppets to both stab and pierce into the heart cylinder some more as I try to recover from the injury. Sakura moves to me, and begins to assess my injuries.

"Well done, you brats." Sasori breaths out quietly, "You have defeated me. I will give you a reward. You mentioned Orochimaru earlier, so I will give you information. I have a spy in his ranks, and I was supposed to meet him in 10 days from now at noon on the Tenchi Bridge. Go there, and get your information." He then dies quietly. I use my eyes to make sure his chakra has run out.

"Tenchi Bridge..." Sakura mutters out to herself. "Neji, allow me to heal these wounds before we meet up with the others." She says and I nod. I watch as Chiyo watches Sakura with a look of wonder on her face, then she looks to me and Lee with the same look.

"Such selfless determination. Konoha shinobi fighting to avenge a Sand shinobi." Chiyo says quietly. She is exhausted from using her chakra on her puppets in the battle. Lee is walking around, looking at all the puppet pieces around. I see him reach to pick something up off the ground.

"Lee, don't touch anything." I scold him loudly and watch as he freezes.

"I only want to collect this ring. The other member of his group was also wearing it, it could be of importance." Lee says to us.

"That's not a bad idea. Maybe it's an access code or some type of communication. Good job Lee." Sakura says to him in surprise. I'm surprised too, he only randomly thinks ahead for things like this. He carefully picks up the arm piece and takes the ring off of it.

"Alright, we are healed enough, we need to head out and regroup with the others." I tell them firmly. I am worried that Ami is not back yet. Everyone nods, Chiyo sending a final glance back at her grandsons dead puppet body sadly. 

We run as a group to where I can see Ami fighting off in the distance. I watch a huge explosion happen that makes me temporarily close my eyes. I start to panic, running faster to get towards my twin, who was far too close to that explosion for my comfort. My mind can't even focus enough to reactivate my Byakugan, I just need to get to her and see her plainly to know she's ok after that. She just has to be ok.

"Ami!" I call out, finally seeing her for myself. I run right up to her, taking in her exhausted but somehow miraculously unharmed body. "I was so worried about you." I tell her in a relief filled whisper.

"Neji." She says cheerily to me, then she takes a look at me fully. "What happened to you?!" She shouts out in concern.