A puppet's flying. But a puppet flying is nothing new. They're attached to chakra threads, keeping them dangling in the air. But this time, something is different; this one is flying using wings. Up, right, left, up, down, right, left, left again, up down, left right, quick successions, up right diagonal, forward dash, backwards, small sidesteps.
"Good. It's ready to wear." Sasori separates the wings from the puppet's hand strings, and the puppet's string from his own. He then attaches chakra threads to the wings to test out flying on his main body; or rather, the current puppet in his image that holds his core.
"Alright. Let's take off." Similarily, the flying session goes flawlessly. Sasori glides around with ease.
"Perfect. Now for the real test." Sasori throws a stone on a wooden target, which tilts it down like a level and engages the trap. This throws a few projectiles in Sasori's way. Up, down left, right, turnaround. He dodged it all midair effortlessly.
"Good. Next." A second stone is thrown at a second target-lever for a second trap. This time, the projectiles are faster and more numerous. He picks up the pace and dodges around in while staying afloat, occasionally parrying one or two every hundred, with either a sword out of his palm, or one of his wing's blades.
"Not bad. Now for the last step." A third trap is triggered. This time, at least 30 times more projectiles are thrown his way, with significantly more speed than the previous two times. Sasori sets two out of his four wings slightly around him - blades protruding from them - and starts spinning them at a high rate, while the other two keep him afloat and steering while airborne, all while parrying everything that comes his way. The hail of projectiles eventually wears off, the spinning gradually wears off and puppet master slowly lands in the middle of a sea of deadly weapons, unscathed.
"Art... is Everlasting."
"Art... is an explosion." Boom. Deidara makes it a contest of Art - in his own way - as he saw Sasori shine in action and felt challenged as a fellow artist. He readies his new weapon, a semi-prosthetic finger linked to the mouth in his palm. From the latter, he kneads clay in its hollow cylindrical shape, sucks it in and forms a spear in his hand. With this, he unlocks a deadly projectile - an explosive spear - and is currently training shooting them accurately. A fast learner as he is, it won't take long for him to be proficient.
As both finished their stuns, they exchange gazes; questioning each other's definition of art - for the thousandth time - but nonetheless feeling good about it, they both mutually contributed to their partner's art : Sasori with Deidara's wing guidance, and Deidara with his new weapon.
"Now that the wings are done, time for the main dish." Sasori loses no time and gets ready to start his next puppet; until he hears a messenger hawk's sound.
"Eh, what a bad timing. " Sasori grumble until he notices something odd.
"Hold on... this sound... a hawk ... from the Hidden Sand village ?"
The hawk lands on top of Hiruko's open shell.
"One of your spies ?" asks Deidara.
"Most likely. But this is unusual." Sasori opens the little scroll and reads it. Surprised and wary at first, his expression slowly changes to stern, then neutral, then start lightly smiling and gradually it turns into a fit of laughter.
"Hahahaha. I see, I see. Well, this is certainly interesting. The Shinobi world is a sea and a giant wave is about to crash. " Sasori declares, very amused by the little scroll's content.
"Hoh ? I'm intrigued now. Hm."
As fate would have it, an Akatsuki meeting is notified.
"Eh, what a good timing."
One by one the silhouettes appear in front of the lantern. Most the members are present.
"Any news about Itachi ?" Pain starts things.
"He said he needs sometime alone." Kisame replies.
"I see. That's very unlike him."
"Leave it to me! I'll fetch him." Tobi asks pain to entrust that mission to him.
"Very well. And Hidan ?"
"Oh." Sasori forgot about him.
"Oh oh." So did Deidara.
"Oh oh oh. Sashimi-san is gonna be pissed." Tobi playfully adds.
"Just keep that fool scattered until we need him." Kakuzu insists on the blessing of his absence.
"Patch him up, Kakuzu; we need him now. We're received some news that two more homicidal maniacs worshipping the same 'Jashin' god have appeared. You'll go with him and Kisame."
"Roger." Kisame accepts the mission with his usual shark smile.
"The Hidden Leaf placed the Nine-tails' host under high protection, so we'll have to force our way through later on. Sasori, Deidara : You'll try to subdue the Eight-tails host. Konan will assist you."
"Before that, I have something important to announce." Sasori breaks the monotony with an unusual statement.
"What is it ?"
"One of my spies contacted me from the Hidden Sand. There is an ongoing conflict to abolish nepotism and get a strong representative, no matter what. And it seems from Anti-Kazekage factions are opting for an extreme solution. In short... some people want me to be the acting Kazekage."
"That is pretty extreme. But will it even work ? You killed the Third and are part of Akatsuki that killed the fifth." Pain argues the idea, but doesn't seem against it.
"Who knows? It was no secret that the Hidden Sand had extreme training measures, one of which seemed to push the One-tails' Jinchuuriki to the brink of madness for a time. And with the Anti-Kazekage faction rising, the discontent with incompetent heads is growing."
"Orochimaru seems to be aware of that and wants to secure that position for himself as well. With the current demand of a powerful head of the village, I think we can try forcing Sasori for the position of Kazekage. " Black Zetsu adds.
"Besides, their economy is weak, their shinobi are subpar, and I can easily take over the village by myself and crush any opposition. Wouldn't that benefit your goal of making a mercenary army ? With the harsh desert conditions, it's going to prove quite effective against invasions."
"We'll think it through. Meanwhile, Kakuzu, take Hidan and seek to recruit his fellow Jashin evangelists. The rest, keep on standby. Dismissed."