Chapter 17, Part 2: Art of Destruction
The air was thick with the acrid smell of burnt earth and Sasori's subtle poison. Deidara's face was a mask of indignant rage, while Sasori's Hiruko puppet remained unnervingly still, analyzing the boy who had effortlessly shrugged off their combined opening assault.
"Your first mistake," Naruto repeated, his voice a low growl that vibrated with power. "Is assuming you have a choice in the matter." He took a slow, deliberate step forward, the ground cracking under the sheer pressure of his rising Reiatsu. "Now then... it's my turn."
Before either Akatsuki member could react, Naruto vanished.
He didn't use a flicker technique; he simply moved, his raw acceleration tearing a trench in the dirt. He reappeared directly in front of Sasori, Nozarashi already descending in a brutal, two-handed overhead chop.
CLANG!
Sasori's poisoned iron tail shot up, intercepting the massive cleaver. The impact was deafening. The tail, sturdy enough to deflect a Fūma Shuriken with ease, bent violently under the strain, sparks flying as Hiruko's entire puppet body was driven halfway into the ground.
With a guttural roar, he pressed his attack, forcing Sasori to commit all his focus to defense. In that split second, Yachiru leaped from his shoulder, a tiny pink blur. She landed beside Gaara's body, and with a strength that defied her size, she hoisted the Kazekage over her shoulder and Shunpo'd to a safe distance, vanishing from the immediate battlefield.
"WHAT?!" Deidara shrieked, his eye widening at the girl's impossible speed. "Where did the freak go?!"
"Focus!" Sasori's voice rasped from within the half-buried puppet. He pushed back with the tail, sending Naruto skidding a few feet away. "The primary target is still here!"
Naruto smirked, settling into a low stance. "Good. I didn't want any distractions."
Deidara wasn't listening. "Don't ignore me, you freak!" He thrust his hands into his pouches, molding clay with furious speed. "Take this! C1!"
He launched a volley of small, scuttling clay spiders. They skittered across the ground, swarming towards Naruto from all angles. Simultaneously, Sasori's Hiruko puppet opened its mouth again.
"Prepared Puppet: Eight Waves of Needles!"
A fresh torrent of poisoned senbon shot forward, timed perfectly with the spiders' approach. It was a classic pincer attack, designed to force a target to choose between being shredded or blown up.
Naruto didn't choose.
He stomped his foot, and his Reiatsu erupted. It wasn't a flare; it was a physical shockwave of golden energy. The ground around him buckled. The incoming senbon were blasted off course, clattering harmlessly to the sides. The clay spiders were sent tumbling, their delicate forms cracking before they could detonate.
"My art!" Deidara howled in frustration.
Naruto ignored him, his eyes locked on Sasori. He charged again, Nozarashi held low. Sasori reacted, Hiruko's torpedo-shaped arm launching towards him.
"Puppet Technique: Prosthetic Arm Senbon!"
The arm rotated at high speed, preparing to unleash its 360-degree hail of needles. But it never got the chance. Naruto didn't dodge it. He swung Nozarashi in a clean, horizontal arc.
SHIING!
The attack was so fast, so clean, that for a moment, nothing happened. Then, the entire prosthetic arm, from the shoulder down, slid apart in two perfect halves, its internal mechanisms sparking uselessly before it crashed to the ground.
Sasori was silent. The speed, the power, the sheer, contemptuous ease with which his weapon had been dismantled was beyond anything he had calculated.
"That puppet armor is a nuisance," Naruto stated, pointing the tip of his cleaver at the stunned Hiruko. "Break it for me, Kenshō!"
He swung Nozarashi, and a wave of pure, compressed golden energy—a flying slash—shot forward. It didn't roar like a jutsu; it simply cut through the air.
Sasori reacted instantly, Hiruko's heavy back shell taking the brunt of the impact. The Kenshō struck, and the durable armor that had protected Sasori for years shattered like glass. The entire Hiruko puppet was blown apart, its wooden limbs and mechanisms scattering across the battlefield.
From the wreckage, the true Sasori emerged, his youthful, puppet body gleaming. A thick, coiled cable shot from his abdomen, its poisoned tip aimed directly at Naruto's heart.
Naruto simply tilted his head. He raised his free hand and caught the stinger, his grip like a vise. The potent poison coating the tip sizzled against his Reiatsu-infused skin, unable to penetrate.
"So that's you," Naruto said, his voice laced with a predator's curiosity. "You're just as pathetic up close."
With a single, effortless tug, he ripped the entire cable out of Sasori's abdomen, tossing it aside like garbage.
Sasori stumbled back, his usually impassive puppet face showing a flicker of disbelief. His ultimate surprise attack, a guaranteed kill against any normal shinobi, had been neutralized with casual disdain.
"You're not getting away!" Deidara screamed from above. He was now airborne on a massive clay dragon, its wings beating steadily. "C2! This will teach you to look down on my art!"
The dragon's mouth opened, spitting out a smaller, bird-shaped guided missile that homed in on Naruto.
Naruto didn't even look up. He kept his eyes locked on Sasori as he swung Nozarashi behind him in a lazy, backhanded arc. The cleaver met the clay bird mid-flight, slicing it neatly in two. The two halves exploded harmlessly to his sides.
"You're annoying," Naruto said, finally glancing up at Deidara. "I'll deal with you later." He turned his attention back to Sasori. "But first, I'm taking out the trash."
Sasori, having recovered his composure, raised his hand. "You may have destroyed Hiruko... but you are a fool to face my true masterpiece." A scroll unrolled from his back. "Witness the power that felled a nation! Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
The ground erupted as a hundred human puppets, each one a former warrior with their abilities grotesquely preserved, rose from the earth. They swarmed forward, a tidal wave of blades, chains, and poisoned weapons.
Naruto's smirk widened into a feral grin. "A hundred? That's it?"
He planted his feet, gripping Nozarashi with both hands, and began to spin. "Arashi no Ha!"
He became a vortex of destruction. Nozarashi's massive blade carved through the puppet army like a scythe through wheat. Wood splintered, metal shrieked, and limbs were sent flying. The coordinated attack of a hundred skilled warriors was reduced to a chaotic whirlwind of shredded parts. In seconds, the legendary army was nothing but a field of scrap.
Sasori stood frozen, his chakra threads slack. His ultimate technique, his pride, his art... dismantled in less than a minute.
"How...?" he whispered.
"I told you," Naruto said, his spinning coming to a halt as he pointed the tip of Nozarashi at the puppeteer. "You're just trash." He dashed forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
The poles on Sasori's hips flared to life, the five large blades on each spinning into a defensive buzzsaw. It was a monstrous close-range defense.
It didn't matter.
Naruto swung. Nozarashi met the spinning blades, and with a sound like tearing metal, it sheared through them as if they were made of paper. The cleaver continued its path, slicing deep into Sasori's puppet torso.
The impact sent the master puppeteer flying, his body crashing to the ground, chest cavity split open.
Deidara watched from above, his jaw slack with horror. Sasori... the master... was being completely, utterly dominated.
"Danna...!" he yelled, a mix of shock and fury in his voice.
Naruto stood over Sasori's broken form. "Still breathing? You're tougher than you look."
From the shattered chest cavity, Sasori's living core, the cylinder of flesh that was his only weak point, glowed faintly. With a final, desperate act, he transferred it, a streak of light shooting from his broken body into his last, hidden masterpiece.
The Third Kazekage puppet, which had been concealed nearby, sprang to life.
"You will not mock my art!" the Kazekage puppet roared, Sasori's voice echoing from it. Iron sand erupted from its mouth, forming into a massive, triangular spear. "Iron Sand Spear!"
The spear shot forward, spinning like a drill.
Naruto didn't even bother to block. He took one final, powerful step, gripping Nozarashi with both hands.
"It's over."
"Ryōdan."
He brought the cleaver down in a single, devastating overhead slash. There was no grand explosion, only a quiet, final shing.
The Iron Sand Spear, a weapon that could penetrate any defense, split perfectly in two.
The Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori's most prized creation, split perfectly in two.
Sasori's core, housed within the puppet, split perfectly in two.
The two halves of the Kazekage puppet clattered to the ground. Silence fell over the battlefield.
Naruto rested the massive Nozarashi on his shoulder, his breathing steady. He turned his cold, blue eyes upward, to the horrified face of Deidara, alone in the sky.
"Now... where were we?"
Tbc