Against a dull yellow and brown backdrop, walked a hunched figure draped in a black robe filled with crimson clouds. The figure moved unnaturally as if drifting, moving with an uncanny cadence.
In the air glided a white bird, where a blonde youth stood upon its back.
Sasori of the Red Sand traversed across the barren desert, leaving a long, straight trail behind him. Meanwhile, Deidara scanned the vast golden emptiness.
The winds were calm.
Eerily calm.
Refusing to erase the traces he left behind.
'Something's wrong,' Sasori thought to himself, glancing at the white snake on his shoulder and the distant clay bird in the sky.
"Oi, Deidara." Sasori's hoarse, grating voice called out, "Speak up if you find something weird."
—Hiss,
The white snake on Sasori's shoulder flicked its forked tongue, seemingly agreeing with his sentiments.
However, all the puppet-snake pair got in reply was a distinctive sign of annoyance.
"Tsk,"
Hearing the faint sound, Sasori glared at Deidara from below.
"If you're just gonna keep flying in circles, why don't you just come down so we can talk? Having to crane my neck just to look at you is annoying."
"Tsk."
Another click of the tongue. Hearing this twice in a row from someone like Deidara made Sasori recognize the peculiarity of the situation.
'If this is related to my spies disappearing..."
Perhaps they were going to get answers soon.
—Flap.
The flutter of wings summoned a cloud of dust to rise. Having been standing upon his clay bird for hours, Deidara finally leaped onto the sand. His irritation, apparent in his gaze, was an odd sight.
"What's wrong?" Sasori asked.
"You'll see in a bit... Hm."
A sense of foreboding washed over Sasori just then. Had his body been the organic form he had shed long ago, goosebumps would've already spread.
The warm desert wind somehow felt chilly.
"..."
All Sasori could do for now was direct his gaze toward the rock formations of Sunagakure.
It was then.
—Swish.
The instincts of rogue S-rank shinobi weren't weak in the slightest. Deidara instantly scattered a swarm of clay spiders. From beneath Sasori's robes, a long clackering tail spewed out in a venomous whip.
One targeted the general area, and the other went straight for the kill.
All avenues of escape would be rendered null and void.
—Ssuk! Ssuk!
—Boom!
An eruption of white goo poured out of the earth like a disgusting spring of pale-white innards. A white lizard that had been tunneling underground, found itself skewered and ravaged by bombs and poison.
Even its cries were drowned out by the collective explosion of a swarm of spiders.
What it thought was an easy target turned out to be a deadly trap. What should have been a significant threat was silenced in an instant.
"Hm," Deidara hummed. The sight before him wasn't unexpected.
Sasori recognized that.
"They look like yours, no?" He said to Deidara, "...Though it has more attention to detail."
"Tsk," Yet again, Deidara clicked his tongue. "They are nothing like my art."
Sasori cackled and his eyes scanned the white goo with intrigue. His knowledge of the human body did not extend to artificial beings such as the one he had just slain.
"These are living cells," He remarked, in awe, "However, I've never seen anything like them. Except..."
Sasori and Deidara's gaze both shifted to the white snake on the former's shoulder.
"Orochimaru. Is this your doing?"
—Hiss.
The snake, slithering down to the hot sands, swiftly gulped a piece of white goo. Then, it vanished with a puff of smoke.
"Ho? For that damn snake to have unsummoned itself... Clearly, Orochimaru has an inkling already." Deidara smiled, and his eyes flashed, catching sight of something intriguing.
What he saw from his vantage point in the sky was an uncanny sight, after all.
Furthermore...
There was movement erupting from all around his vision, surrounding them in an instant. The beast, which was a probing scout, had long served its purpose.
Shinobi, wearing pure white masks with minimalistic ink-black markings, had positioned themselves in a loose encirclement. The markings ranged from simple triangular dots to parallel lines and crosses.
Moreover, each set of markings only encompassed a small part of the forehead. Like another kind of headband.
"State your affiliation." Their first words were laced with hostility.
Like speaking to invaders who stepped on home soil.
Deidara's smirk almost grew into a grin when he heard their voices.
"No, it is you lot who should state your affiliation. Hm."
With a hand in his pouch, Deidara had already begun preparing a few explosive arachnids. The mouths on his hands ravenously devoured the clay, forming them into insects that pack more than just a punch.
—Swish!
Swinging his hand in a wide arc, another swarm of spiders was flung into the air.
"Hm?"
The encircling shinobi flinched — especially those who were within range.
"?!"
All it took was a single breath of the unexpected.
Needles pierced into exposed skin. Poison seeped in.
Taking effect in an instant and paralyzing upon contact.
It happened so suddenly that the encircling white-masked shinobi could not react. The swarm of spiders floated in the air — seemingly too light to fall to the ground. They lingered like a blade against one's throat.
However, in truth, suppressed chakra threads had attached themselves to each spider, suspending them in space.
Nearly invisible and numerous beyond mere human capabilities.
"Keheuk! This... It's Deidara of the Explosion Corps and Sasori of the Red Sand!"
One of the shinboi with a greater resistance to poison was able to cry out in desperation. However, they had long fallen into the Akatsuki duo's grasp.
Every single one of them began to struggle. They writhed and convulsed, trying to force their muscles to contract and relax.
The numbing pain of Sasori's poison, however, was not something they could ever deal with.
"Hmmm, I think I can use you all." Sasori's bloodshot gaze burrowed into every shinobi, realizing that they would prove to be decent materials.
A scroll was thus unfurled.
A dozen puppets wrapped in red robes spewed out of the scroll, injecting another type of poison into their bloodstream.
"Sleep now," Sasori said, "You will soon be reborn as eternal works of art."
***
"What do you mean by that?" Tatsuya asked Shikaku, truly confused by the notion that an entire shinobi village had perished.
Shikaku chuckled. "Not literally. I mean that the former unified village has been shattered into an unrecognizable state. There's a reason why we succeeded with our mission back then — the Fifth Hokage had prepared well."
"...I see..?"
Tatsuya was still confused.
"To put it simply, several factions are now vying for control over the Land of Wind." Shikaku pulled out a map. "Three shinobi organizations, a group of Fuinjutsu masters, and a mysterious organization of white-masked individuals."
Drifting from oasis after oasis, the political landscape appeared in Tatsuya's mind.
"Sunagakure, at the center of all conflict, and standing only because of the Kazekage's influential Kekkei Genkai, has turned itself into an economic hub."
"...What?" Tatsuya's mouth hung open. "Is it like Yugakure now?"
Once a militarized shinobi village was now a hub for relaxing hotsprings. Such was Yugakure's existence.
For Sunagakure, a major village, to do the same...
Tatsuya found it odd.
"Yes," Shikaku nodded, "To compare it to Yugakure is correct. Rasa's power to control gold dust is an excellent economic tool. However, I can't begin to guess why he had chosen to de-militarize Suna."
"So, why is Gaara's stay here for his own sake?" Tatsuya finally got to the question he was most curious about.
Hearing it, Shikaku smiled.
"Guess,"
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