Chapter 24

Jiraiya left his few surviving jounin in a village fifteen kilometers from Hidden Leaf. Out of the platoon he took with him, only three had survived…and not even the strongest of the group, either.

Jiraiya stopped thinking about the dead…and thought about the future, which was almost as depressing. The Hokage proceeded to avoid all the patrols and sneak over the walls and into the village that had just tried to kill him.

He checked on Sarutobi. The man he'd left in charge in his stead was still alive, reading Icha Icha in the Hokage Tower, and beginning to look a bit nervous that he might have to reassume the Hokage title yet again. Jiraiya, after all, had been expected back four days earlier.

The day was turning to night.

It was time to see how far the rot known as Root had spread. Jiraiya found a quiet training ground, empty until the next morning, and did a mass summoning. Every small to medium size toad Jiraiya knew of appeared in a massive cloud.

Gamatatsu, now a medium size toad, looked around and then spotted Jiraiya. "Why do you need all of us, pops?"

"A mission dire and grave," Jiraiya said without a lick of humor in his voice. The confused toads quieted down.

"I will give each of you several seals. When it finally gets dark out, I need you to sneak…"

"I like to sneak," a young toad murmured.

"Thank you, Gamasuchi. But, the instructions aren't finished. You need to place one of these paper seals on the forehead of every ANBU…and jounin in the village." That last order pained Jiraiya, but he had no idea how long Root had been planting its fanatics in the regular ninja population – or if he needed to sequester the chuunin or even genin of the village, too.

"Why?" Jiraiya didn't see who asked the question.

"A faction of the Hidden Leaf tried to assassinate me while I was on a mission…and now I must determine who can be trusted and who are the traitors."

The toads were surprisingly quiet. More than one was confused.

"Yes, I will reward each one of you…if you complete this successfully."

"What about the Old Man, your sensei?" That was from Gamakichi.

"No, him I trust above all others."

"And Tsunade?"

"No, don't worry about her. I wouldn't want you guys getting in trouble with the slugs either."

"You got it, boss," Gamatatsu said. Jiraiya then handed out the seals written on paper. There were far fewer than the total number of ANBU and jounin registered in the village…but many of those high level folks would be on missions. There should only be a few dozen in the village right now.

"Thank you." Jiraiya leapt away. He was going to deal with Danzo personally.

Gamakichi opened his mouth to get everyone organized, but then closed it again. "Hey, we never asked what these things did, did we?"

"I hope it's nothing too bad, bro," Gamatatsu replied.

"Me, too."

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"It's just too much of a coincidence," Naruto said…for the fifth time.

He was in Tea Country…trying to find Sasori. Then he discovered, through one of his spy outposts, that Sasori was in Tea Country on some type of business.

It smelled like a well-baited trap…but it was so rich an opportunity Naruto knew he couldn't pass on it. He knew he was being paranoid. No one knew Naruto was in Tea Country right now…but it still felt a bit too convenient.

It wasn't something Naruto could pass up.

Naruto took an hour to select the items and tricks he would be taking with him into battle.

This would be his first time really battling a puppet master. Neutralizing the Third Kazekage hadn't really counted…now Sasori would probably know of Naruto's likely attack and would have had time to prepare.

But, for the sake of his dead student, Number Two, Naruto could do no less than avenge her death.

He began to move toward the exit…then he stopped. This really was too obvious. Sasori might really be on business here, but what if he were used by Pain or Madara to weaken and draw Naruto out. He was seeing plots in the shadows, he realized, but such vigilance had saved his life before.

"If it's Madara…yes, that might do very well." Poisons of the airborne variety apparently worked, but Naruto had stumbled upon an idea that might work even better.

It took a quick trip into River Country – a delay of several hours – before Naruto returned fully prepared to take on Sasori…and whoever else might be involved.

The tea warehouse manager – one of his oldest puppet identities – had been able to keep a watchful eye on Sasori as the man waited briefly on the docks from the river traffic. He lost track of the ninja for a few hours, but eventually Sasori returned to the docks.

When Sasori left, a Shadow Clone that helped to manage the tea warehouse manager dispelled itself and Naruto adjusted his course. He had not wanted to start something with Sasori inside a civilian village. That was beyond foolhardy…for the inevitable collateral damage it would cause.

Seven kilometers outside the largest trading village, Sasori stopped. That chakra…it was what the Nine Tail felt like.

The little ninja had spies of his own. How…quaint. The hunter – Sasori – was being hunted by another puppet master.

"What are you waiting for, little Uzumaki?"

"For the right moment." Naruto's voice came from nowhere in particular…a voice throwing technique pioneered by puppeteers in centuries past. Figures that a stupid little ninja like Uzumaki would learn such a trick.

Inside his battle puppet, Sasori began to prepare. He had all of his most offensive puppets with him. But…perhaps it was best to start with total devastation. The Dance of the 100 Puppets was his most powerful technique. Nothing that this Naruto possessed would be able to overwhelm it.

As soon as Naruto showed himself, Sasori would prove to Naruto that he was indestructible.

"I can spare you twenty minutes. A master class in puppeteering before you die," Sasori said.

A few hundred ninja, all with bright blonde hair, appeared circling Sasori. Clones of some type, obviously. None of them said anything. They just began casting jutsu. Some wind; some fire; some lightning. None used water or earth: the greater defensive elements.

Sasori had never seen clones work like this before. He dodged and weaved and used chakra strings to throw rocks and other debris in the path of the jutsu.

The battle puppet, while dancing and dodging, began revealing hidden compartments. Sealing scrolls fell out; chakra strings lashed out and opened them. Within a minute of the clone attacks, Sasori had his Hundred Man Army ready. Each of these puppets was of a conquered foe, their preserved human bodies now placed into his service.

Sasori had trained for a decade to be able to control all these puppets. It was the most devastating technique he – or any puppeteer – would ever create.

With all his mechanical constructions, he was able to control the hundred. His puppets pivoted and launched senbon, flame thrower attacks, and even some offensive jutsu against the clones arrayed around the field of battle.

Sasori prepared for his next moves – finding that damned Nine Tail – when he noticed something. Every one of the blonde haired clones, every one of them, was still there. A few had been hit…and none had turned into smoke or mud or water.

These weren't any type of clone that Sasori was familiar with.

That was when he noticed all of the clones smiling and making handseals. Sasori used his 100 Puppets to create an impervious shield around his battle puppets. Something strange was going on – was he trapped in genjutsu?

This wasn't real.

No, not real at all. No opponent could replicate himself like this. Clones always had a weakness. Some of these were hit and still moving. One of them had an arm burned off…and it was still smiling.

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For a man with grand political aspirations, Danzo lived a simple life. He had a small house tucked in among where the civilians lived. He had moved in here with his wife when he was a genin. As he climbed the ranks and had the means to move, he never did. His wife had died in childbirth in this house, it was said, and so Danzo never moved, as a memorial to his dead wife and daughter.

He never remarried, either. Instead of a new wife, he married into the ANBU Corps.

Jiraiya hoped that having all the civilian houses nearby wouldn't give Danzo some sort of leverage in this fight.

Danzo wouldn't care who died, so long as he won.

Jiraiya had long told Sarutobi to remove the rogue ANBU trainer. The Root division, disbanded but never truly disbanded, was an affront in a ninja division. The ANBU answered only to the Hokage, in theory, not to their disloyal trainer.

He'd almost convinced his student, the Yondaime Hokage, to kill Danzo. Then he'd worked on Sarutobi once he regained the position.

Of course, upon becoming Hokage, Jiraiya didn't follow his own advice. He had permitted Danzo to live. The man had seemed to have his uses…at the time.

It was a mistake, a nearly fatal one.

One should never become complacent around a deadly snake.

Jiraiya snuck inside the house through a window he unlocked from the outside. Civilian-made structures were ridiculously simple to penetrate; odd that Danzo had never retrofitted it for security reasons.

Jiraiya crawled inside as the sun finally set.

The upstairs was clean, but looked like a civilian house forty years ago did. Even the furniture was the same.

Was this just a decoy home? Did Danzo really live somewhere else? The search lasted ten minutes and turned up nothing.

It was pure luck he stumbled across a hidden doorway – obscure behind a wooden panel in a hall – that opened onto a stairwell leading to a basement.

He followed the steps, slowly, continuously checking for traps. Then when he thought to count the steps he'd followed…he realized he was long past arriving in a basement. He checked for genjutsu, but continued down the steps.

When he landed on solid stone, he wasn't in a basement. He was in a tunnel carved from solid stone at least fifty meters underground.

This was more Danzo's style. A bunker hidden underneath an innocuous home.

It was another thirty meters before Jiraiya arrived at something that looked and felt like it was ninja-designed. A solid steel door covered in arcane seals acid etched into the metal.

Very permanent, very strong.

But the door…was open. Had Danzo or one of his flunkies been waiting for Jiraiya? Was this a booby trap after all?

A voice drifted out from the room behind the open door. "I see that my operatives failed…. Come on in, Jiraiya. This…confrontation has been delayed for quite some time."

Now knowing it was a trap, Jiraiya did the foolish, gallant thing. He pulled the door open and stepped inside.

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Naruto had set up a 'base' three kilometers from where his modified puppet clones were ringing in around Sasori.

The ex-Suna puppeteer had just finally realized there was something odd about these clones. They didn't die easily. Indeed, unless Sasori destroyed the randomly placed heart stone inside a clone, it wouldn't die at all. Some of these puppet clones would have to be attacked in the neck, others in the foot. Others still in the wrist or the thigh or the lower gut. Each one, randomly, vulnerable in a different spot.

Naruto was able to watch what Sasori did, as he had a viewer set up to 'see' through the eyes of a puppet clone.

The concerted actions of a 100 Puppets working together was actually quite skilled. Naruto could achieve the same thing with his chakra cables…or by using Shadow Clones…or, well, there were several ways. Sasori had had to butcher his body to accomplish the same thing.

Perhaps this was the value of the Kyuubi in his gut. He couldn't use the red chakra without debilitating pain…but he was able to do things beyond normal human limits when it came to managing puppets. Was that the Kyuubi's unwilling gift?

Sasori danced and danced.

Naruto learned from the 'master's master class.'

The old Scorpion knew more than even the legends reported. But Naruto had developed his skills along different paths.

Sasori's master techniques relied upon stealing the power of others.

Naruto had developed sealing techniques to replicate chakra coils inside his puppets…without requiring a dead ninja's body.

Sasori could make as many puppets as ninja he killed.

Naruto, with his puppet clones, could make as many puppets…as there were bits of rock, metal, or glass nearby.

Sasori's mistakes – which would kill him this day – were fundamental. His puppets looked strong, but were hard to replace once destroyed. His skills, his butchery of his own body, were sacrifices made by an insane ninja attempting a form of immortality. Such a move always had more drawbacks than benefits.

Naruto watched and baited and learned…the limits of Sasori's power.

Naruto had spent years preparing for this day, fearing that Sasori might be stronger than him, his techniques more profound.

Now Naruto understood.

Fear had kept him from pushing the battle, fear over Sasori, Pain, and Madara's possible strengths and invulnerabilities. But he understood the vulnerabilities of two of them. All the studying he'd done…it had been a waste of time.

Learning was one thing…analysis of rumors another…but true experience, knowing the thing itself, was the truth.

Sasori was dead once Naruto had worn out the master and tired of his final performance, his greatest masterclass.

The more Sasori struggled, after all, the more Naruto learned.

It wasn't the big things that were incredible – like how to make a human puppet – but it was the small things. The fine techniques of how his puppets moved…of how he responded to an attack…the details that only a well experienced master could pass onto an apprentice.

Sasori would be the reigning master for a few more minutes.

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The old ninja sat behind a metal desk in his secure bunker. The cot was folded up into the wall. It was a fine space in which to have a conversation…and to have a final battle, if needed.

"I knew only of the one, Danzo. The operative who tried to kill me. Sarutobi should have struck you down once he learned of the suicide technique you created and trained…opening only the Eighth Heavenly Gate. Horrible."

Danzo smiled. "A ninja is a weapon; a technique is but a tool. A suicide technique is valid to win a battle. Sarutobi never understood that.

"Or you…I'm surprised you didn't suspect some of the others among your jounin team. Root rarely sends just one on such a mission. This time, I sent three. One to kill you. Two sent to report back on the success or failure of the operation. None of them knew about the others. It took many years, many, many years, to get so many of our operatives in positions where they were no longer suspected of ties to Root. It nearly worked."

"You and your secrets…."

Danzo shrugged. "And our long-term plans. I had been waiting a very long time for you to lead a mission out of the village, Jiraiya. Sarutobi hadn't done it in years, but you…I knew you would have to leave at some point. Too much wanderlust in your blood."

Jiraiya's posture hadn't relaxed a bit. He might be a clot-headed fool, but he was still a skilled ninja staring at an enemy. "I wonder why my student, the Fourth, didn't kill you. He suspected you of nefarious plots that even the Sandaime didn't. 'ANBU are the personal weapons of the Hokage,' it's said. But you've had your own little brainwashed cult for more than two decades. I shouldn't have let you live for corrupting the ANBU like this."

"Yes, Minato made his dislike clear. Sarutobi always dismissed me, thinking me neutralized because of my infirmity and because of his little laws stripping me of any authority in the ANBU. Feh! As if a law would stop the rebirth of Konoha. But Minato would have been a problem. I suspect I would have died in an accident had the Kyuubi not ended his life – all the better for me."

"You will never be Hokage, you infirm bastard."

That got Danzo to laugh. Jiraiya was just too damned earnest. "I don't need to be Hokage. One of my greatest students will be Hokage after your passing…and he will know the way to restore Konoha to its greatness, with my counsel for as long as I live."

"I guess your lifespan will be short then." Jiraiya began to prepare a technique.

"I'd hold up for a moment, Toad Sage. I hadn't been sure you'd survived, but I had my suspicion…so I prepared. How would my man become Hokage with another Sannin available? With Sarutobi still alive? With Kakashi… You see, you were but one problem in the field. By the end of next week, all problems will be gone."

"What the hell. None of your emotionless assholes could even touch Sarutobi or Tsunade."

"I'll agree about Sarutobi. He remains far stronger than his old age should permit. I think it's guilt keeping him alive now…guilt over the Kyuubi child's disappearance. But, with your death…and Tsunade's…he will be mentally broken. Kakashi is overrated…."

"How will you 'kill' Tsunade? She could crush anyone coming after her…."

"So long as no one sprays her with blood…as one of my operatives did yesterday at the hospital. She's been my guest for just over a day now."

Jiraiya went pale. Her hemophobia was legendary among certain circles. A med nin afraid of blood was more than a decent joke.

"Tell me where she is…now…and I'll give you a swift death."

"My operatives will take care of you."

"Right now, every jounin and ANBU in Hidden Leaf is unconscious. You have no operatives in Hidden Leaf…."

That had the ring of truth to it. For the first time since he'd started this deadly dance, Danzo felt fear. He had backups behind backups…but something like this, if true, rendered most of them moot.

There was still the main trap. That was still in effect.

Danzo took his life in his hand and made his decision.

"She's waiting for you to rescue her, Jiraiya of the Sannin. Her knight on a brilliant white stallion."

"Where?"

Danzo laughed. "Why should I give up my advantage in this discussion…."

Jiraiya moved faster than Danzo could see…and then the pain consumed his mind. One-Armed Danzo, a long-standing insult uttered by his opponents, now had no arms.

"My patience is gone, old man. Speak or I'll introduce you to the inside of a toad's intestines."