Chapter-28 : Things Happening Around

## Land of Rivers ##

In an Isolated location in the land of Rivers, the land that seperated land of wind and fire, a devastating clash was going on.

The Akatsuki were fighting against against the backup teams that Konoha had sent.

Old lady Chiyo, an elder of Sunagakure, was fighting against her own grandson with the help of puppets and Sakura.

Sasori, had revealed his true form.

He had given up the human body, turning even himself into a living puppet.

Altough Sakura destroyed his body multiple times, he just fixed himself as if he was made of Lego.

Using one deadly concoction of poison after another.

Seeing as their antidote supply was running thin, Chiyo, also known as the Puppet Master Chiya in her younger days, took out her final weapon.

[Chikamatsu's 10 Puppets]

It was her trump card.

Made from dead bodies of 10 Elite Jonins, they were her strongest 10 puppets, but it wasn't their just their strength that was scary, it was her ability to use them in such a synergy they they could easily overwhelm most S ranked ninjas, not to mention the strong mechanisms and deadly poison they had.

They were created by Monzaemon, the first shinobi puppeteer, and the first Puppet Master, these puppets were so developed that they were only limited by the one using them.

Using them she could bring down an enemy stronghold by herself in her Peak with these, as such, she had also been granted another name, the "Castle Master"

Seeing the old woman take out 10 puppets, Sasori smiled while covering his face with his mechanical arm.

He opened up a chamber on his chest as hundreds of thin chakra cables came out, simultaneously, dozens upon dozens of red cloaked puppets poured out of the seal that he was carrying.

[Secret Red Move - Performance of a Hundred Puppets]

A hundred red cloaked puppets hovered in the air, their weapons attached onto their bodies as chakra continues to flow through them.

Seeing the tough battle ahead, Chiyo bought her puppets in a circle as they too extended their weapons, creating a protective formation around her and Sakura.

"[The Final Act]" Sasori muttered as all the puppets started moving/flying ahead.

Countering the huge numerical disadvantage Chiyo was in, she sent out to area damage puppets as they started cutting down through the numbers.

Her other puppets didn't stay idle as they too started destroying any Puppet they could come accross.

Altough all of Sasori's puppets were made from jonin level ninjas, their quality was definitely not close to his body, and with the poor synergy between his puppets, they were being cut down like grass.

Even Sakura was able to destroy a dozen all by herself.

With her chakra running thin, Sakura knew that she won't be able to continue how she had been doing till now.

Her way smaller than average chakra reserves had always kept holding her back.

The injuries on her body were accumulating, while fatigue was building up fast.

Seeing that Chiya, was almost exhausted, Sakura formed a bold plan in her mind, she rushed through the puppets, ignoring them as she moved towards Sasori body.

But before she could attack him, a poison laced sword stabbed right through her stomach.

Chiyo, injected the last vial of antidote into Sakura's thigh, as she suddenly summoned the "Mom and Dad" Puppets, using them to stab through Sasori's 'core', without giving him a chance to dodge, suddenly, a large immobilization and isolation seal spread around Sasori as he was fixed in one place, without the ability to move or use chakra.

Chiyo performed life rejuvenation technique on Sakura as he seemingly fatal would disappeared as if it never existed.

As a result, Chiyo, who was already quite old, looked even older with her skin shrivelling up.

Ultimately, Sasori finally died as Chiyo lost the light in her eyes, looking at her hands and then at Sasori's dead body with still eyes as tears fell through them.

The battlefield remained still, with pieces of puppets scattered here and there, even her ten puppets fell down, getting their strings detached.

## Outside the Hideout ##

Not too far away from Chiyo's battle, another grueling fight was going on.

Team Guy was fighting against strong doppelgangers that mirrored their each and every move.

Normally, Guy and Lee would have destroyed these doppelgangers without much trouble, but because of their fight with Kisame just before, they had already used their 8 inner gates, and it was on cool down, if they tried to do activate them again, they would have to face serious repercussions, not to mention immense pain and bedrest for atleast a couple weeks.

As such, they fought them with conventional taijutsu techniques, using their skills instead of raw power, and hence it took them alot of time to get rid of them.

But they finally did that as they radioed their positions through their intercom and went ahead to provide backup to Team Kakashi.

Kakashi and Naruto on the other hand were fighting their own battle.

Kakashi used his newly acquired Mangekyo Sharingan to face off with Deidara as latter kept blasting him away.

Deidara, on the other hand kept provoking Naruto, rubbing insult over injury on top of defeat and dead body of Gaara.

He knew his taunts were working as Kyuubi's chakra had started leaking out of him.

Naruto's blue eyes had turned red as fox like slits formed in them, his teeth had started growing pointy as an invisible cloak of 2 tails had formed on him.

Deidara knew that if he just provokes the jinchuriki enough, they will go full rage mode, losing their sanity, and most likely, then losing their life's as the tailed beast would try it's best to escape, and once it escaped, it was fair game, they would easily be able to capture it.

Seeing the situation worsening, Kakashi took quick action, using thr seal provided to his by Jiraya to cancel out the dense malicious chakra of the kyuubi.

Naruto regained his bearings as he gasped fastly, calming down.

'Tch, those sealing masters...." Deidara cursed under in his mind and his hand continued to knead a tremendous amount of explosion chakra into the clay.

He hid in the ground, with his training as an Elite Iwa ninja, it was almost impossible to find him once he was hidden in the ground.

Keyword being "almost"

Sakura, Chiyo, Guy, Lee, Neji, TenTen, all had caught up with Kakashi and Naruto.

Neji used his Byakugan to find irregularities in the soil as he was able to point out where Deidara was hiding.

Years of not practicing the skill, Deidara had became complacent and had left out some signs in the soil that clearly indicated that someone was hiding in the general area.

That much input was enough for Sakura as she punches with all the strength and chakra she could gather as the earth cracked under the force, Deidara was launched into the air as everyone focused their attacks on him.

Deidara dodged their attacks as he ate the clay he had been kneading for such a long time.

[Art is and Explosion] Deidara muttered under his breath as his body started expanding rapidly.

'Don't tell me...' "EVERYBODY, GET BACK!!! HE'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!!!" Neji yelled as everyone started running away from Deidara who uttered a last word "Katsu"

A Huge Shockwave passed through them as their bodies were flunged into the air, but the expected ball of heat and Destruction did not come.

Kakashi had used 'Kamui' to transfer the explosion to the other dimension.

Kakashi looked at the crater, where Deidara exploded through his Mangekyo as a tear of blood slipped down his face.

He had already overused this new power by quite much.

But seeing as now everyone was safe, Kakashi gave one last 'eye smile' as he went unconscious.

Sakura grabbed his body as she provided first aid to him.

Chiyo, on the other hand lookat at Gaara's lifeless body as tears escaped her eyes.

For better or for worse, Gaara was the only leader capable to leading Suna through the troubled times ahead.

Her and her family had already sacrificed so much for the village, she did not want their sacrifices to go in vain.

[Life Rejuvenation : Reanimation]

A/N : Give more stones for more chapters. Extra chap for 1000 power stones.

I know this Arc is barely any different from Anime, but soon the butterfly effects will start taking place and the story will change, it is just starting rn.