Chapter 25

Sasori brought his Dance of 100 Puppets to a halt. With his puppets in full, flowing motion, he had managed to wound a great number of the blonde clones…but it seemed only three or four had been dispelled.

While each of his 100 puppets had taken damage, most severe amounts.

Most of the damage was repairable; a few of his human puppets would likely never function correctly again. One poor former Rain ninja was in five pieces and only held together because of chakra strings: he was dogmeat.

There was no rhyme or reason to why those particular clones were fatally wounded, either. No rhyme or reason to how they attacked. Few ninja could damage the reinforced human puppets Sasori created. They moved too quickly, flowing over and around their targets. But…not in this case.

Sasori knew of no technique, puppet or otherwise, that provided these results. And over many long days of discussions with his former Akatsuki partner, Orochimaru, Sasori knew and could recognize thousands of jutsu, even if the Snake Sannin hadn't been quite so forthcoming with the details of how to perform the techniques.

His technique for destroying an army of samurai or a platoon of jounin…had ground to a standstill against a single opponent with an unknown technique. That sent chills through the few parts of the humanity still residing within Sasori.

Had overconfidence done this to him?

He had feared…and continued to fear Chiyo, his grandmother, for her skill. She was as good with her puppets as Sasori was. But an unknown puppeteer with students so weak they could be captured and killed…he had not feared that.

Either the Nine Tails had gotten infinitely better in the years since their confrontation – or this ninja had never shown his students his true skill level. Hence, they'd never revealed it under torture.

Such a conclusion had never occurred to Sasori before now.

Doubt and fear were rather unpleasant…side effects of the human condition. As he still possessed an all-too-human heart, Sasori found himself capable of feeling these emotions. It was…unpleasant.

"Is the class over, master puppeteer?" one of the clones mocked.

"I'm just improvising an appropriate conclusion. Something truly artistic."

With that the clones, en masse, dispelled. The Nine Tail seemed to have given up.

It wasn't possible, though. The Nine Tail would want revenge. Sasori had found and killed the female student years ago…and the hunter nin student just a few months earlier. Pity the bastard had refused to talk before dying…but Sasori expected more than this.

Still, Sasori didn't look askance at a gift.

He began to run, to run for his life. This opponent was too strange, too strong for even Sasori's most prized technique.

He didn't even think of fleeing back to the village, even though that might have saved him. He ran toward the north, on the shortest path back to Rain Country.

That was his mistake.

His failure.

There was someone waiting to the north preparing to show Sasori his version of a 'master class.'

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A broken Danzo finally revealed where Tsunade was hidden. "Root has a front company called Akira Importing. The basement of its warehouse…that's where she is."

Forgetting himself for a moment – not remembering to keep his interrogation subject alive for further questioning – Jiraiya summoned a medium sized toad.

The hungry toad – an odd one who had developed a taste for human flesh – slurped up Danzo when Jiraiya offered up the armless ninja.

"Sit here until your chakra runs out, Gamarantu, or until your gut stops shrieking."

As he bounded from Danzo's underground bunker, he heard shrieks of pain and anger. Toad stomachs digested very slowly, after all. Danzo would feel pain for hours before he died.

It took Jiraiya less than three minutes to find the correct warehouse. It was silent, as all the buildings in this part of town were at this time of night.

"I always hoped to die in a brothel from an over-stressed heart…but it seems I will be dying, with all my clothes on, as a shinobi. Damn Tsunade. Fifteen years to get over a fear of blood and she just can't do it…."

He took a moment to test the air around him, seeking out chakra signatures for anyone above a civilian. Fruitless. There were no ninja close by…he couldn't even feel Tsunade's chakra signature.

If Danzo had lied…he might still be alive in that toad to be reinterrogated. But Jiraiya should this warehouse check to be sure. The sly Danzo might have several tricks up his sleeves.

In a day filled with summonings, he performed one more: the Great Toad Spy. He was quite small – by choice – but he never failed a mission.

When the toad appeared he didn't greet the Toad Sage or demand to know why he'd been summoned, he just looked ready to take on a task.

Jiraiya pointed at the warehouse. "Tsunade may be in that building…in a hidden basement. Find out if she's there."

"A pleasure, Jiraiya-sama. I will locate the Slug Mistress."

The Great Toad Spy moved with such discretion that Jiraiya's eyes noticed his absence, but did not see where the small creature had gone.

The minutes ticked by. Danzo had not said what precautions were in place – just getting the location had taken almost an hour. Now, Jiraiya was frantic but trying not to show any physical signs of his fear.

"She is present, Jiraiya-sama."

The Toad Sannin hadn't even felt or noticed the spy's return. That was an incredible skill. The news made him happy…and grateful. Getting Tsuande out, that was a different story.

"Where?"

"The entrance to a set of stairs is in the northwest corner of the building. The tunnel goes down fairly far and deep – and I think it winds its way underneath the Hokage Monument. She is in a room I couldn't enter."

"Why couldn't you enter it?"

"The entrance was wrapped in seals of a type I'm not familiar with. There was no door, just a force of some type keeping me out. There were no other entrances I could detect."

"A trap then?"

"Most assuredly, Jiraiya-sama."

"Thank you for your excellent service. Please inform Gamabunta of what has happened here. If…if I succumb to this trap, then he must know why."

The Great Toad Spy looked less impassive than usual…signaling the great alarm he must have felt. The toad was normally a model of emotional restraint. "You intend to walk into a trap?"

"I have been walking into traps all my life. This one I am just less sure about returning from. Tsunade is important to me…and I have the means to give her back her freedom."

"I do not recommend this course of action, Jiraiya-sama. I can return to the Great Toad Mountain and find one of our Seal Masters to aid in this endeavor."

"Thank you, friend. Please tell Gamabunta…."

"Why? Why do you risk yourself this way?"

"I have been saving Tsunade-hime since a week after we were put on a team together. I yanked her back as a horse was going to put a hoof through her chest. Nothing's changed during the years since. I pay off her gambling debts when I can – some refuse to sell them to me, thinking it better to have a Sannin in their debt – and try to keep her safe from her more self-destructive tendencies. I guess it's one of my main roles in life."

The Great Toad Spy nodded and disappeared. There was no arguing with that type of love, that strength of devotion.

"God dammnit, Senju Tsunade. If I'm getting blown to the afterlife because of this, we're going to have angelic sex together until my ghostly appendage falls off from overuse." Jiraiya continued muttering nonsensical things to himself as he carefully broke into the warehouse.

Even now, he didn't know how the Great Toad Spy had gotten in. There were no broken windows or tracks in the dust. That ancient, tiny toad knew more about sneaking and peeping on targets than Jiraiya would ever be able to master. He was a role model to all spymasters and perverts.

The Toad Sannin couldn't sense chakra of any sort as he moved deeper into another of Root's hidden facilities. How Sarutobi hadn't noticed all this building – what had his sensei been doing while Hokage? Sleeping? Mourning?

An entire army loyal to someone other than Hidden Leaf and the Hokage had been formed up, officially dispelled, and unofficially multiplied like cockroaches.

If he surived…if…Jiraiya would be having words with his sensei.

The Toad Sannin arrived at the room where Tsunade was restrained. The sealing array around the door…was impressive. But hardly a nuisance to someone of Jiraiya's experience.

Three minutes later, he cautiously walked inside the room, looking and feeling for more booby traps.

Tsunade was still unconscious.

The room seemed clear…which made Jiraiya all the more suspicious. Danzo would have known of Jiraiya's skill…those seals wouldn't have been a challenge for him.

…But they would have for anyone but Jiraiya.

Those seals ensured that the Toad Sannin had to come into this room.

Brilliant! Always a brilliant deduction, but always a few moments too late. Jiraiya scooped up Tsunade from her chair and prepared to shunshin away.

But he wasn't fast enough.

A seal array written on the seat of Tsunade's chair flickered briefly once her weight was removed…and then the entire room was covered in black seals which now revealed themselves.

"God damnit! Someone painted this room yellow…and used a yellow ink to craft the fucking seals. Slippery enough to be one of Orochimaru's little games. I must be slipping…."

Jiraiya bent down to set Tsunade on the floor to begin removing the seals – a lot of them – when he heard a laugh from the corridor.

"You are slipping, Hokage-sama."

The voice was…familiar. But, Jiraiya couldn't place it until a form came closer to the blocked entrance.

It was Sarutobi…Asuma, the Sandaime Hokage's estranged son. He was dressed all in black…like an ANBU doing an overnight mission. Asuma had never been in the ANBU, to Jiriaya's knowledge.

"What the hell? Jounin Asuma, get me and the Lady Tsunade out of here."

A shaking head was his answer. "That's quite impossible. Any disruption of these seals causes the exploding tags buried in the Hokage Monument above us to detonate."

Jiraiya felt his guts tighten. He didn't even think to question the veracity of the statement. It made too much sense from a bastard like Danzo. "Then why are you here, Asuma?"

The laidback jonin was gone. The zealot, like Danzo, was all that remained. "To say goodbye to my predecessor. I will be Hokage after you're dead."

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Sasori expected to be ambushed any moment. He'd been running for twenty minutes when it finally came…and he was still surprised.

He felt seals triggering as he jumped over a tiny stream.

Powerful earthen walls erupted in every direction. A moment or two later, Sasori was trapped in a makeshift arena with high walls and no seating capacity.

"You promised me a master class, puppeteer of the Sand. I would have my lesson."

Sasori ran to one of the walls. It was still filled with chakra, somehow. He checked to see if he was under a genjutsu…but this structure was real.

How could his intelligence not have learned these things about the Nine Tails? The money he poured into his spies; the missions to collect the boy's students and extract needed intelligence; all this work for a horribly inaccurate portrayal.

Even if the boy had temporarily wrecked the Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori thought it a gimmick, a fluke.

But the boy had skills…in sealing as in puppetry.

Sasori had learned enough sealing to make his human puppets possible…but he had not made a general study of the field. That was obviously a mistake.

The voice, generalized before like a mimicry technique, now came from directly behind him.

Sasori twisted, his puppet's scorpion tail aiming for where he heard the voice. He'd expected to see nothing, but the stinger was impaling a smiling, blonde ninja…a ninja who wasn't dying.

This wasn't a clone…this was a puppet. Or some type of hybrid. This was very bad.

The puppet or clone or whatever it was continued talking, even as he was impaled. "I was a little child when I learned to control chakra strings, Master Puppeteer. A few years later, I took a trip to Hidden Sand hiding out inside a puppet I built…and that's when I first heard of you and your terrifying techniques. But, I have to say…I am not impressed so far."

The puppet dissolved…and a bit of stone or metal fell to the ground.

Sasori twisted when he felt three kunai fly at him. He dodged more adroitly than his bulk would indicate.

Three smiling, blonde clones…puppets were now in front of him. They hadn't been there before…and it wouldn't be easy to sneak inside this makeshift arena.

Unless there was a hidden passage.

Was that all this was? A trick? Something to throw Sasori off his game?

He pulled out the Third Kazekage once more. Within a moment, the metallic sands had destroyed these three.

Then the five who appeared behind Sasori.

Then the seven.

Sasori got so into his rhythm that he didn't see the attack. He didn't even know how much fire struck his battle puppet and the Third Kazekage. He hadn't seen the fireballs eminate from any source.

As he began to feel the heat inside his wood and metal puppet, he decided he had to flee. Many, many sealing scrolls would be destroyed; many of his human puppets lost.

But…

But…he had to survive.

He could still win.

"It took me a few moments to prepare those Hellfire Seals, inspired by one of the more interesting techniques known to the Uchiha. My increasing cascade of clones kept you occupied…so you didn't notice. A pity about your metallic sand using puppet…it was quite a technique. I myself have only managed to use elemental wind to move sand around…my efforts in experimenting with magnetism have all failed. That Sand ninja was a genius…." The professorial dissertation came from everywhere and nowhere. It was unnerving to say the least.

The monologue changed. The voice was single again, identifiable. It was behind Sasori, a good deal away.

"I suppose you know why I have been preparing for this day for three years, Scorpion? You took one of my students from me…."

Sasori needed to reverse this. He needed the Nine Tails to make a mistake. He needed an angry, foolish opponent. "One? I have taken two! As soon as I can find the other one, he will die as well. The Nine Tails is too important to be allowed companions and allies, not when I can milk them for intelligence."

The blonde ninja no longer smiled.

"I thank you for the notification, however cruel your intention for telling me. I had been trying to find him for some time. Now, let me show you what a true puppet master can do."

The speaker disappeared. And eight red blurs erupted from the ground and swung with kunai. Sasori avoided three of the strikes. The others hit non-lethal areas.

Sasori leapt as those clones…or blurs…disappeared. It was like they knew precisely where he would be…did the Nine Tail have a precognitive ability?

When he landed he didn't even have a second before more red blurs erupted and swung.

Sasori's wooden arm, his right one, hit the earth. Sasori jumped as soon as he could, but when he landed a deep nick in his leg fractured upon his landing. Sasori tumbled to the ground.

Another blur of red figures erupted from the ground. Sasori lost his remaining arm and leg. He was now a self-made puppet without means to move.

"You survived that better than Kisame did, Sasori. That was my masterwork, the Flowing Red Death, made from my puppet clones by means of seals. With these weapons I can never really be disarmed, unlike you. Your human puppets went up in smoke. It's for the best that your type of abomination is ended."

Sasori knew it was over. "Kill me, then. Kill me. End this."

"I have questions first, Akasuna no Sasori. Why antagonize me – kill my students, taunt me – did you so little value your life?"

It was a good question. "I did not think anyone this powerful."

"Arrogance, then. More great ninja fall to their own arrogance than to any other cause."

That put a bit of fire back into Sasori. "I am bested, but I am not the strongest of my organization. You will not be able to beat them."

"Why did you follow Akatsuki? This is my final question. I have not been able to understand why someone as powerful as yourself would abandon a village but then join up with a bunch of other criminals. You didn't need protection from the hunters. I'd suspect many of your human puppets are the bodies of oinin. Well…why?"

Sasori's puppet face couldn't move very well. The final bits of humanity were starting to fail. However, this was a question he wanted to answer.

"I will tell you…if you promise to aid me. It is a minor favor, only a slight bending of your rather pedestrian moral code."

"I have no need to find out this answer then." The blonde ninja – was this one the real one? – drew a sword from his back.

"Hold. Hold up. I have something to say. Each of the original ten contracted with Akatsuki, to a set of goals, in exchange for a single favor to be repaid later by the Akatsuki at large. Kisame wished for the Water daimyo to be slaughtered. I sold my services for the right to end the existence of the Hatake clan – the monsters who killed my parents."

Sasori hated to document his own weakness in his younger years…but it was the truth.

"You weren't strong enough to do this on your own?"

"When I joined…no. I could not have infiltrated the largest of the Hidden Villages and struck down one particular ANBU. I killed the Third Kazekage with poison during a scheduled meeting…it isn't a story I've told often, not very impressive. An S-rank does not mean we're gods. But, in the intervening years, I have become powerful enough …with the help of the Akatsuki…too bad the contract is enforced by our rings. Betrayal is death, not that any but our Leader know this…."

"Orochimaru betrayed you…and it didn't kill him."

"He stayed with us until he knew his immortality technique would work…and then he went his own way. The ring…it destroyed his original body."

"I did not know that. My spy didn't seem to, either."

Sasori laughed, bitterly. "So much of the world consumed with spying…and no one knows anything. Will you do this for me, a favor granted by the strong to the weak? Will you kill the Hatake clan of Konoha?"

The blonde ninja looked disgusted, but then shrugged. "You deserve nothing…but I am not a cruel person. Hatake Kakashi, the last of that clan, was killed less than a week ago…in the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt against the Hokage."

"Thank you. I wish I could have killed you, but I die happy with that knowledge."

The world dimmed as Sasori's will to survive diminished. With his failing sight, he saw a sword penetrate the sealed container holding his human heart.

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"You of all people threw in with Danzo?" Jiraiya asked the sole remaining son of the Third Hokage.

"My father's peacenik actions have stripped us of the power we should have, Jiraiya. Had we followed the Path of War…the Great Five Shinobi Powers would be only Two or One now. We could have destroyed Kumo all those years ago when they mucked around with the Hyuuga; Hidden Mist had been weakened by their continuous civil strife and would have been an easy target; the Fourth Hokage brought Iwa to its knees and then stopped. He and my father negotiated a peace treaty when we should have annexed them. And…Suna…our traitorous partner. After their betrayal, we could have ended them. But we did not. We did nothing."

"You will destroy the Hidden Leaf!"

"You are not the village. You are a weak fool. Your student, the Namikaze, would have been a powerful foe, but he was too self-sacrificing to do the truly hard things. No, I and my allies will restore Hidden Leaf to the greatness we had under the Nidaime. We were born of war and will return to it."

None of this made any sense. "How? How did you become this warped…."

"I have always felt this way, ever since I studied the shinobi wars in the academy. When I fought with my dad about these things, I learned to be less public in my views…but I found compatriots. Even my time in the Fire Guard was mostly spent training the Root – with a Shadow Clone refreshed every day or two dealing with the ceremonial bodyguard duties – now we're ready. You're a breathing dead man; my father I can deal with after your funeral…."

"Danzo and your compatriots in the village are all neutralized…."

Asuma shrugged. He looked like he didn't actually care. "Danzo was too shrill, too obvious. And I can always find new compatriots, the Root methods do work wonders…."

"You are a monster, Jounin Asuma."

"I am a true ninja, you worthless bastard." The seemingly lazy ninja, relaxed to a fault normally, began to shrink back in the shadows. He had an image to maintain, to grow and twist into the leadership of the village.

As soon as Asuma was at a safe distance, Jiraiya knew the mountain would fallm detonated remotely somehow…leaving Asuma a logical, 'safe' choice to become a Hokage. He wasn't the strongest jounin in the village, not by a longshot, but the old lie about the Hokage being the strongest ninja wasn't the actual truth. The Hokage was a strong ninja…but in Hidden Leaf there were other, unofficial qualifications.

A Hokage was always connected somehow to a previous Hokage. The First was brother to the Second. Both were sensei to the Third. The Third's student became the Fifth; and Jiraiya's student had been the Fourth. It was like an odd type of dynastic lineage…and it wouldn't be disrupted by Jiraiya's death.

The son of a Hokage would qualify as part of this careful extended dynasty.

If Jiraiya did nothing, he would die. If he did something, he would die. But…he could disrupt the seals and bring down the mountain early. Jiraiya had always mourned and envied his student, Namikaze Minato, for his self-sacrifice.

For saving the village from a monster.

"I apologize, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya whispered. "I cannot protect you this time."

"A great pervert's last words," Asuma's mocking voice carried back. "Now just die!"

Jiraiya stood up, formed a brilliant Rasengan in his hand, and pushed his hand into one of the seals. The exploding seals above did their jobs.

Asuma barely heard the explosions before he realized what had happened. He tried to shunshin away…but the rocks crushed him long before he finished the first hand seal.

In the Hokage Tower, Sarutobi was on his feet the moment he felt the explosion. The normally illuminated faces of the First and Second disappeared. Half of Sarutobi's own image slid off the mountain, crushing the businesses and houses underneath. Although he wouldn't discover it until nearly sunset the next day, Sarutobi Hiruzen had become, for the third time in his life, the presiding Hokage in Hidden Leaf.

All of his students were dead. All of his children were dead. He wouldn't have any time to mourn.

A quarter of his village was in ruins.

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Naruto, the real Naruto, stepped out from the cavern he'd used as a temporary base. As he gathered his belongings, he felt a wisp of a particularly memorable – and vile – chakra.

Madara.

Uchiha Madara was nearby. He'd been the one to set up Sasori as bait.

Naruto sealed away his belongings, brought out another sealing scroll, and then set off. He was ready for Madara.