Chapter 58: Infinite
~~~
Naruto in front of the real body of Sasori. He had previously destroyed his puppet body that his real body was residing.
"It seems you now know." Naruto took notice the change of voice that Sasori had. It was smooth and was definitely not grim like the voice he had while inside the puppet.
"You managed to get through Hiruko, but will you be able to get through this?" Asked Sasori, taking out a scroll that he had hidden.
Throwing it on the ground, a puff of smoke appeared and clouded the air. Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly as the smoke cleared and revealed a puppet.
"This is the Third Kazekage -- my favorite puppet!" Sasori had a dangerous glint in his eyes. Naruto readied himself, seeing Sasori send the Third Kazekage towards him.
"Interesting," Naruto whispered to himself. As the Third Kazekage puppet closed in on him, his right arm started to change, revealing numerous blades that were hidden beneath his arm.
There's poison laced on them. He thought, catching sight of the purple liquid on the blades. Moving his upper-torso back, he swung his blade with his right arm, causing Sasori to make the Third Kazekage puppet falter back.
Avoiding a potentially fatal injury, Naruto diligently looked at Sasori, keenly holding his blade with such intensity. He stood still in a silent manner. Calmly, Naruto leaped towards Sasori, letting his gleaming blade trail behind him.
Responding to this action, Sasori maneuvered his arms, letting numerous small components in the Third Kazekage's left arm, revealing multiple seals inside the compartments.
"Thousand Hands Manipulation Force!" A bouquet of puppet arms sprouted from the seals, being aimed at Naruto's whole body. Without a single hint of fear, Naruto went to the sides of these flexible arms and scaled through them all.
Landing softly on the dirt ground, Naruto jumped back, letting himself to weave a set of hand seals with just one hand in a blink of an eye.
"Wind Release: Rupturing Vacuum!" Naruto brought his arm out, letting his hand and fingertips to convulse and shudder, letting a concentrated amount of untamed wind chakra be shot out from the palm of his hand.
A multitude of the puppet arms were crushed and shattered in endless and limitless amounts of pieces.
His mask unclipping, Naruto decided to seal it within his improved work of art of a seal that he managed to create through much effort and training.
Due to the amount of chakra that he poured into the Jutsu, Naruto was pushed away because of the power. Channeling chakra to the bores of his feet, Naruto attached himself to the side of a tree so that he wouldn't get hurt.
Looking back, seeing just a few dozen of the arms left, Naruto sighed -- he should've added more power to the Jutsu. Motioning himself to the ground, Naruto saw the arms get manipulated after him.
Ushering himself towards them once more, Naruto injected lightning chakra to his shining and gleaming blade, giving it tendrils of sparking lightning that was tamed.
Naruto gripped his blade tightly, taking just a swing or two to effortlessly sever the puppet arms. He had increased the output of his lightning chakra by a considerable percent to create much more damage.
The arms fell from the sky, surrounding both Naruto and Sasori as the former made his way towards the latter.
"It's been only the beginning. I have many more tricks." Sasori motioned his arms up, attempting to do his next plan. Naruto analyzed carefully, immediately noticing that some of the severed arms were releasing shuriken from within.
Crafty. Naruto thought to himself, dodging the shuriken with much precision. Although he did manage to obtain a graze from one of the shuriken that he tried to dodge.
Once dodging, Naruto heard a continuous rigid noise getting closer to him. Looking towards the direction of Sasori, he saw the Third Kazekage puppet wield a deadly saw blade that was continuously spinning with such ferocity.
Leaving a trail dust as he moved to the side, Naruto lifted his blade up, blocking the attack the saw blade. Feeling the pressure, Naruto brought his other hand up, making a hand seal to create a Shadow Clone that jumped right above them.
The clone hovered his hands on Naruto's shoulder, throwing him up to the air. And with this, the clone took Naruto's place and kicked the puppet just a few meters back, getting dispersed due to the Third Kazekage puppet managed to deal a blow to him.
Safely landing back on the ground, Naruto leaped to the side, attempting to go directly towards Sasori. But it seemed as though Sasori had different ideas.
"Now, behold the power of the Iron Sand!" Yelled Sasori. Naruto slightly widened his eyes as he saw the pitch-black sand slowly ooze from the mouth of the Third Kazekage.
I think it's time for me to take this seriously. Naruto thought, inhaling and exhaling as he looked from one end point to the other. Sasori felt the immense pressure that Naruto was currently emitting.
As Naruto walked slowly, the Iron sand began to split apart, creating dangerous bullets of Iron sand that could instantly kill an opponent if they were not careful.
"Iron Sand Drizzle!"
In that split moment, Naruto jumped back, weaving a numerous amounts of hand seals with his two hands.
"Wind Release: Stream!" Naruto widened his mouth slightly, ushering out a gust of wind from the depths of his mouth. Aiming it at the ground, the wind caused the dirt to rise and create clouds of dust that hindered Sasori's vision.
The bullets of iron sand were launched and went inside the valleys of dust that illuminated everyone's vision. Narrowing his eyes, Sasori wondered if the bullets had hit.
Even though he had heard no screams of pain, Naruto was a very silent fellow and there was no doubt that if he had felt pain he would stay as quiet as possible to raise no suspicion at all cost.
Suddenly, the dust quickly separated due to a a very rigid and sharp shard of a tree branch. His eyes still narrowed, Sasori convulsed his arm, letting his puppet to dodge the attack.
He moved to the side, dodging the sharp shard of a branch as well. Thinking that he was safe, he let his guard down just slightly.
This was his first mistake.
Sasori heard a loud pop noise from behind him. Looking back, he felt an immediate and sharp pain starting to spread across in his body.
"AGHH!" Yelped Sasori, getting knocked back a few feet away. His Third Kazekage puppet was knocked away alongside him. Fortunately, Sasori managed to regain his footing almost immediately.
He looked back, seeing two Naruto's standing alongside each other. Naruto had used the wind Jutsu to create dust so he could block Sasori's vision.
He then timed himself by summoning a Shadow Clone while Sasori sent the bullets of iron sand his way. This is to prevent the making of the clone be overshadowed by the noise of the bullets.
He then transformed the clone into a branch shard. Once sending the branch towards Sasori, he had predicted the double dodge, using it as a way to damage Sasori and his puppet.
Naruto's clone dispersed, leaving only the real Naruto to his devices. He made a sprint to Sasori, having the motive to defeat him.
Seeing this, Sasori reacted quickly, hardening a very large amount of Iron sand into high-density shapes. In one single motion, the shapes of iron sand were hurled towards Naruto.
Slightly gritting his teeth, Naruto activated his Susano'o, the familiar gray enveloping his entire body. Concentrating his chakra into the arms of the Susano'o, flesh immediately formed.
With quick thinking, Naruto aimed one of the arms towards the ground, rupturing the ground with his Susano'o hand. The ground rising up, Naruto jumped onto it.
Leaping off of it, Naruto caught sight of the Iron sand just right in front of him. Replicating what he had just done with the ground. With just his Susano'o, Naruto launched the shaped iron sands away in just a single punch.
Naruto pushed his hand into his pouch, pulling out a few kunai and throwing it towards Sasori. As Naruto was falling down, he saw Sasori just narrowly dodging the kunai by shifting his body to the side.
Landing back on the ground, Naruto rushed towards Sasori, deciding to deactivate his Susano'o so he wouldn't overexert his eyes.
He ignored the the dense iron sand that trailed behind him and continued to move forwards without faltering whatsoever. Out of instinct, Naruto leaped slightly off the ground, and ducking to the side, getting a slight graze on the lower part of his leg.
Naruto regained his balance by extending his arm and used it as leverage to flip him and regain his balance.
He's strong without a doubt. Is it to the point where I'll lose? No. Naruto mused, jumping in the air, thoughts illuminating within his mind. Even to this day, there still is this hunger to conquer and win that will never be satisfied.
But over time, Naruto learned to accept his losses, even if he berates himself for it. It was inevitable for him to lose.
After all, both winning and losing were part of the game.
The game called life.
~~~
Kakashi followed Deidara, his Sharingan being revealed. He jumped, dodging numerous amounts of clay spider bombs that could explode through the will of Deidara.
"Give up, will ya?" They were way out of the battle that was occurring with both Naruto and Sasori. They knew this because they were soon entering a large crevice in the earth that had a valley of water running through, with large wooden supports that ran across from each side of towering crust.
Kakashi stayed silent, preferring to not answer. He needed to stay level-headed. Jumping onto the platforms of wood, Kakashi caught sight of Deidara rigging the platforms by throwing in some of his clay bombs.
Gotta move! Kakashi yelled at himself, seeing was to late to even make a move due to him jumping as Deidara planted a set of clay spiders on the platform that he was about to land on next.
With quick thinking, Kakashi managed to wrap around the platform, just barely being able to avert his direction and move right under the long through his own accord.
Sustaining only a bit of damage, Kakashi moved along, relentlessly trailing Deidara. Pushing his hand into his holster, he brought out a pair of shuriken that he soon used as way to stop Deidara from continuously planting his classic clay bombs.
Deidara was forced to move his his large clay bird that was carrying Gaara on its tail. Kakashi attached himself to the towering wall that shadowed over him and the valley of water underneath.
Scaling through the rigid areas of the wall of earthly junk, Kakashi jumped from the side, attempting attain Gaara and free him from the abductor's that needed the power of the Ichibi that laid dormant.
"Not good enough," commented Deidara, an arrogant and condescending tone washing over his voice. Kakashi gritted his teeth, resorting to having to land on a trapped platform.
Thinking quickly, Kakashi pulled out another kunai and deflected the clay spiders that jumped his way. Moving onto the next wooden platform, Kakashi replicated the same tactic that he had done a couple moments before.
Going underneath the platform secured him his spot. Seeing as he was going to be falling behind Deidara, Kakashi decided to do something quite risky.
His regular Sharingan start to morph into a Mangekyou. The previous 3-tomoes quickly turned into a Mangekyou that looked like shuriken with very exaggerated sharpness. The exaggerated tips were connecting due to the tips being quite long and lengthy. ;)
His eyes directly focused on Deidara as he continued to dodge the numerous amounts of clay insects and arachnids that were being created to kill him in seconds.
Suddenly, Deidara's other arm started to distort, the twirling spin focused at his whole arm. He widened his eyes, feeling his arm being pulled away.
Come on! Focus! Though Kakashi, concentrated even more than before, not letting his eyes leave Deidara whatsoever.
In that split moment, Deidara's arm snapped. A portion of his arm was destroyed - forever destroyed. It was odd really - it was almost as if part of the arm was transported somewhere else.
"GAH," winced Deidara, blood sputtering out of his arm. He didn't know what Kakashi did, but he did know what he did was certainly very dangerous to him.
But it seemed as though the technique was costing for Kakashi, seeing as he was covering his eyes that contained his Sharingan. Gritting his teeth, Deidara knew that he had to go.
He has been flaunting for far too long and this was the result of it. Making his clay bird go faster, he was about to retreat so he could recuperate, but was soon stopped.
"Hey!" Sakura came to the battle, standing on the cliff of the earth walls. Channeling a perfect amount of chakra to her fist and aimed it towards the ground.
With his blood leaking at a constant rate, Deidara saw the walls crumble, Sakura throwing the crumbling walls towards him. Kakashi took this time as Deidara was completely distracted free Gaara from the clutches of the bird.
"Chidori!" Kakashi ran up the wall, soon jumping and aiming it at the very tail of the bird that contained Gaara. For Deidara, it was almost as if time stopped, doom impending as he saw Kakashi pierce through the clay bird's tail, catching Gaara in the process.
Deidara was quickly being cornered. He couldn't just explode the pierced part - potentially killing Gaara for good. He wished he could clench his fist.
"I'm your opponent now!" His attention turned back towards Sakura, whom was using the debris that was falling towards the the water as way for her to get closer to Deidara.
Her fist still powered by chakra, she pulled her arm back and launched a fist towards him. Having no time to dodge, he took a direct hit, being pushed back and off of the clay bird.
However, Sakura was yet to be done. The clay bird was still floating in the air. With a tight grasp, Sakura took the bird and threw it violently at Deidara, whom was sliding down a tree.
Being pushed back even more than before, blood sputtered from his mouth. He was now laying on a grassy area, trees blocking the sunlight from hitting his face.
Kakashi and Sakura appeared a few meters away from him.
"You're done," they said in unison.
~~~
Naruto and Sasori saw a large ruckus being caused from far away. As the wind brushed passed their faces, they faced each other - with Sasori using his puppet and Naruto using his blade.
"It seems we'll have to end this," said Naruto appearing right in front of the Third Kazekage puppet in a blink of an eye. He rose his hand up, attaching his hand onto his neck.
Without remorse, Naruto crushed the throat, then the head. Making sure there were no more hidden weapons, Naruto struck the body with his blade, extending with lightning.
Sasori tried pulling his puppet back, but Naruto maintained a strong, fearless grip as he completely obliterated the puppet.
"What an annoyance," scoffed Sasori, detaching the strings of chakra from the puppet. Sighing, a slight smirk soon appearing on his face.
"To think I'd have to use this," stated Sasori, slowly taking off his Akatsuki cloak. Naruto narrowed his eyes.
He made his own body into that of a puppet. Naruto thought to himself, now realizing how Sasori managed to look so young - almost a young as him perhaps.
Sasori has two claws on his back that seemed to be highly deadly, a holder that contained 4 scrolls with different uses and a stomach that contained a poisonous stinger.
It reminded Naruto of a scorpion. He saw Sasori elevate himself off the ground through the use of his stinger that he was manipulating.
"It's been awhile since I've had to use myself." Sasori extending his arms, a funnel appearing at the palm of his hands.
Naruto activated his Susano'o as fire blasted out of the funnel. Naruto made the ground shake, creating boulders that blocked the fire with his Susano'o.
Hiding behind the boulder, Naruto felt the smoldering heat slowly get pass the boulder - no - it was not the flames getting passed, but the boulder heating up due to the flames.
Soon enough, Sasori gave up on using flames and decided to do something else.
"With this, you'll stop hiding." Sasori used a scroll from behind, now being able to use pure water. Naruto widened his eyes, seeing him blast water from the water now and absolutely demolishing the boulder.
I have to be careful. Naruto thought, flipping in the air to dodge water. Deactivating his Susano'o, he felt the pain burning through his body.
Sasori's wrist began to spin, making the water become even more deadly by making it more concentrated. Naruto saw the water slice through boulders effortlessly and cleanly.
Naruto jumped backed Sasori navigated the water towards him, just giving a large graze on his cheek. Once the water passed him, it was aimed at the sky out of pure coincidence and the clouds tore apart due to the sheer power.
Naruto threw a kunai towards Sasori that he had pulled out of his own pouch. Testing it out, Naruto saw the kunai become complete fodder in a few seconds. The water stopped the momentum in a single second.
I'll just have to stall for him to run out. Mused Naruto, continuously dodging the water. And soon enough, Naruto managed to stall just enough time for Sasori to run out of water. Without missing a beat, Sasori continued by using up another scroll behind his back.
Instantly, Sasori launched his stinger that was residing inside his hollow and empty stomach. The poisonous substance that was laced onto the stinger dripping off of the weapon of choice. Naruto jumped to the side, attempting to dodge the stinger, but soon saw the stinger change it's direction with such flexibility.
Its movement is good. Naruto dodged to the side again, the stinger quickly closing behind him. From observation, Naruto knew that here was a limited range that depended upon the user's location.
It's a weakness, but it's a weakness that can easily be overcome by moving constantly. Analyzed Naruto, seeing Sasori now starting to move. Although there was also another weakness to the stinger that Naruto could see.
Naruto activated his Susano'o once again, attempting to cover his tracks by throwing a newly-created boulder that he had created. Sasori countered this by turning on his claws, making them spin violently.
Cutting through the boulder with his spinning claws, he caught sight of Naruto attempting to move away. Sasori retracted his stinger, letting it shoot out of his stomach once again and home itself towards Naruto again.
Responding to this action, Naruto extending his arms, catching the stinger that Sasori sent towards him. He yanked the stinger, his gloves
Getting stained by the poisonous substance.
Sasori was brought towards him. Naruto pulled back his arm, giving Sasori merciless punch. Sasori's body split apart, all of his body parts now disconnected and in a pile of rubbish.
That's it? Naruto had doubt placed into his mind, seeing how easy it was. It gave Naruto a very unsettling feeling inside his body and mind. His thinking being correct, it was yet to be Sasori's end.
His body began to reconstruct itself and once again becoming a human organism. Naruto was impressed With Sasori's skills as a puppeteer. There was no doubt that Sasori was essentially a pseudo immortal in a sense.
Sasori took out his very last scroll. Throwing it up into the air, Naruto saw the scroll open up and unleash a massive amount of puppets clad in dark-red clothing.
Sasori opened up an compartment on the right side of his chest. Revealing it, the compartment contained a dozens upon dozens of chakra strings that attached themselves onto each puppet.
"This is the end!" Yelled Sasori, sending the puppets towards Naruto all at the same time. Naruto had a stern and serious look on his face. Naruto saw Sasori manipulate the puppets in such a methodical way. Picking up his blade, Naruto engaged in a kenjutsu battle.
Naruto jumped, using his foot to launch his lightning-embedded blade. From all sides, Naruto was being bombarded by attacks. He took down numerous amounts of puppets with a combination of kenjutsu and taijutsu.
Hearing a spinning blade, Naruto looked back and saw Sasori jumped towards him while wielding the puppets. Naruto sighed internally, seeing that he was about to get ambushed by all angles. The grinding noise of the claws that were attached onto the back of Sasori became closer and closer as seconds went by.
As they were just under a meter away, Naruto disappeared. Then, in the next second, the puppets were severed, absolutely destroyed by Naruto in an instant. He then appeared behind Sasori, stopping both of the spinning claws with his gleaming blade.
Sasori widened his eyes, seeing Naruto looking down on him as the sun was shining down. But he noticed one thing about Naruto that shook him to the very core.
Naruto's eyes looked down on him as there were sparks of lightning that appeared around his pupil. To Sasori, he saw a devil as he looked at those eyes. Naruto embedded his blade inside Sasori's leg and pulling out his whole stinger.
"The Fourth Raikage has a technique that allows him to wrap lightning round his entire body. It allows him to strengthen his body, speed and his reaction time. I created something similar." Naruto was able to talk to him man-to-man because he had incapacitated Sasori.
"While the effects are similar - I don't boost my bodies durability and speed. I boost my mind. My perception, thinking, reaction time, everything that you can think of - I boost it all." Of course, if your brain can't handle it, then you'd be frying your brain, ultimately killing you in the process.
"Then, I had a theory - what would happen if someone like myself try and constantly do this without stopping? The constant input of lightning chakra coursing through my brain - What would happen? The answer is simple." Sasori was frozen, feeling the immense pressure that Naruto was emitting.
"The effects of the technique would be permanent. This might be true for the Fourth Raikage also, but would he take that chance? Who knows. But I do know one thing." The lightning around his pupil began to enlarge.
"That the potential of this technique is. . . Infinite." Naruto pulled out the blade from Sasori's leg. He walked passed Sasori, deciding to not end Sasori's life here and then.
"Why. . . why spare me?" Questioned Sasori, eyes widened while Naruto stood right behind him with an apathetic expression on his face. Naruto looked back, his mouth turning into a smirk.
"Who knows," responded Naruto, an amused expression appearing on his face as he disappeared from the battle.
~~~