Sakura and Chiyo vs. Sasori

Deep within the cave, battle erupted simultaneously in another direction.

Sasori fired a poison needle from Hiruko's tail, its shriek through the air sharp and piercing. Chiyo's body drifted up like a dead leaf. The needle swept beneath her feet and struck the rock wall behind her, instantly corroding a fist-sized hole into the stone.

"Sakura, get back!" Chiyo's voice was not loud, but it was urgent.

Sakura did not retreat. Her fists were already clenched, green medical chakra flowing over them—Super Strength. If she could get close, one punch would smash that ugly scorpion shell to pieces.

But after taking only two steps forward, Hiruko's mouth opened and fired three poison needles in a fan-shaped spread, sealing off every route ahead. Sakura rolled to the side. The needles skimmed past her hair, one of them cutting off several strands.

Chiyo's fingers moved.

Chakra threads shot from her fingertips, connecting to Sakura's limbs and waist.

"Don't move around. I'll control you." Chiyo's voice steadied. "I know Sasori's mechanisms better than anyone."

Hiruko was the mobile fortress Sasori had built for himself. Its shell was hard, its tail carried poison needles, its mouth fired poison needles, its back launched needles, and its entire body was filled with hidden weapon mechanisms. Chiyo had taught Sasori the basics of puppet techniques when he was young, including how to design a puppet's weaknesses. She knew every mechanism in Hiruko like the back of her hand.

With a light flick of Chiyo's fingers, Sakura's body was tugged by the chakra threads and twisted at an unbelievable angle, evading Hiruko's next barrage of poison needles. Her feet moved swiftly across the ground, darting left and right, forward and back. Every step landed in Hiruko's blind spots.

Sasori's brow creased slightly. He controlled Hiruko's tail in a horizontal sweep. Sakura ducked, and the tail swept over her head. Chiyo's fingers flicked in rapid succession, drawing Sakura's right fist along with chakra threads. She struck Hiruko's side—not with Super Strength, but with the force of Chiyo's Manipulating Attack Blades—tearing a crack through Hiruko's shell.

"Now!" Chiyo shouted.

Sakura did not hesitate. She gathered strength in her right fist, green chakra bursting over its surface as she drove it into Hiruko's crack.

"Crack—"

Hiruko's shell shattered like an eggshell, fragments scattering in every direction. Sasori emerged from the broken shell—or rather, he had not emerged at all. Sasori's true body had been sitting inside Hiruko all along.

Red hair, the face of a boy, amber eyes, and a black bodysuit. But his body was not made of flesh and blood. A round cover sat on his chest, bearing the character "Scorpion." His limbs and torso had all been turned into puppet joints and wooden components.

Chiyo's hands stopped.

She looked at the red-haired boy before her. Her lips parted slightly, and little by little, her eyes reddened.

"Sasori..." Her voice was soft, as though she feared disturbing something. "You still turned yourself into a puppet."

Sasori rose from Hiruko's wreckage, his expression calm and his amber eyes completely still.

"This is the eternal art I seek." Sasori's voice was low but clear. "It will not rot, will not age, and will not die. Unlike you living people, who grow old, die, and leave behind loneliness."

Chiyo's hand trembled. Not from fear, but because too many memories had surfaced.

"Sakura." Chiyo's voice was hoarse, but she took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Let me tell you why Sasori became like this."

Standing beside Chiyo, Sakura shifted her gaze from Sasori to Chiyo's face.

"Sasori's parents died in the Second Shinobi World War." Chiyo spoke slowly, but every word seemed to tear open an old wound. "He was only a few years old then. He could barely remember what his parents looked like."

Chiyo's fingers tightened slightly.

"I taught him puppet techniques. Using them, he made two puppets—without attack mechanisms, without weapons, capable only of the simplest movements. One was his father, and one was his mother."

Sasori's expression did not change, but his gaze shifted slightly.

"Every day, he made those two puppets hold him," Chiyo said, her voice finally beginning to shake. "Pretending his parents were still alive."

Sakura's eyes reddened.

"What happened after that?" Sakura asked.

"Later, he grew up and became Sand Village's strongest puppeteer... then he turned himself into a puppet." Chiyo looked at Sasori. "Because he believed living people's hearts could change, betray him, and die. Only puppets would never leave him."

Sasori was silent for several seconds.

"Finished?" he asked flatly.

"Finished." Chiyo gathered herself and formed chakra threads around her fingers once more.

Sasori said nothing further. He took a scroll from behind him and unfurled it. As the smoke cleared, a figure appeared within it—wearing the robes of the Third Kazekage, with a stiff face and obvious puppet seams at the joints of its fingers.

"The Third Kazekage... you killed him." Chiyo's gaze darkened.

"I killed him. I also modified him." Sasori's fingers moved. The Third Kazekage puppet spread its hand, and black iron sand poured from its palm, gathering into countless tiny needles in the air.

Magnet Release: Iron Sand.

The iron sand scattered through the air, turning into a dense cloud of iron needles that hovered overhead like a black mist of death. Sasori gave his fingers a light twitch, and the iron sand needles poured down like torrential rain.

Chiyo's hands moved like afterimages. All ten fingers controlled chakra threads at once, pulling both Sakura and herself aside. Iron sand needles embedded themselves in the ground, each plunging several inches into the rock. Their tips gleamed purple—they had been coated in deadly poison.

Chiyo evaded the first wave, but the iron sand did not stop. Sasori's fingers danced continuously, reshaping it in midair. Iron needles became iron awls, iron spears, and iron hammers, crashing down upon the two from different angles.

Chiyo controlled Sakura's evasions while retreating herself. An iron awl stabbed in from the side. Chiyo twisted away, but it grazed her left arm and sliced it open. Blood seeped from the wound, not red but dark purple—the poison had already entered her bloodstream.

Without hesitation, Chiyo gripped her left arm with her right hand and tore the entire poisoned arm off at the shoulder. Blood sprayed out. She sealed the wound with chakra, and her face instantly turned pale.

"Granny Chiyo!" Sakura's voice changed.

"I won't die." Chiyo gritted her teeth, gathering chakra threads around the fingers of her right hand again. "A puppeteer losing an arm is nothing unusual."

Sasori watched Chiyo's fingers remain steady despite her severed arm, and a complicated glimmer flashed through his eyes.

Sakura took a deep breath and turned to face Sasori.

"Granny Chiyo," Sakura said steadily, "control me as a living puppet. I trust you."

Chiyo looked at Sakura's back and fell silent for a second. Then her fingers moved, chakra threads connecting to Sakura's limbs and torso.

Sakura charged out. Under Chiyo's control, her speed rose to another level. Her steps were strange and ever-changing, every turn slipping through gaps in the iron sand's attacks. Sasori's fingers danced, condensing the iron sand into an iron whip that swept across her. Sakura ducked, and it passed over her head. She sprang up and punched at the Third Kazekage puppet's face.

The Third Kazekage puppet raised a hand, and iron sand gathered into a shield before it. Sakura's fist slammed into the shield, Super Strength exploding forth and shattering it. Sasori's fingers twisted sharply, and countless spikes burst from behind the broken shield.

Chiyo tugged her fingers, forcibly yanking Sakura back. The spikes sliced past only centimeters in front of her.

"His fingers," Chiyo's voice sounded beside Sakura's ear. "Watch his hands. Every gesture corresponds to a change in the iron sand's form. You can predict his attacks."

Sakura watched Sasori's hands. His ten fingers bounced rapidly as though playing an instrument. She began to understand—when his index finger bent slightly, it meant iron awls; when his thumb curled inward, iron needles; when all five fingers spread, an iron wall.

Sasori unleashed his killing technique.

"Iron Sand World Method."

The Third Kazekage puppet spread both arms. Iron sand surged from its palms, splitting, spreading, and hardening in the air to form countless thick iron pillars that stabbed at Sakura and Chiyo from every direction. The pillars crossed one another, weaving an airtight iron net with no blind spots and no gaps.

Sakura's arm was cut by one iron pillar, while another grazed her calf. Blood seeped from both wounds, and the skin around them began to turn purple—the poison had entered her body.

Sakura did not panic. With her left hand, she pulled two syringes from the ninja tool pouch at her waist. She stabbed the needles into her arm and pushed the antidote into her veins.

Three minutes. Within three minutes, the poison in her body would be completely neutralized. Sakura had prepared the antidote in advance when treating Kankuro's poison.

Sasori's pupils contracted slightly.

"An antidote?"

Sakura did not answer. She rushed toward the Third Kazekage puppet. The iron pillars of Iron Sand World Method continued to grow, but Sakura's taijutsu combined with Chiyo's control let her weave through their gaps like a fish. Super Strength chakra gathered in her fist. One punch smashed an iron pillar apart. Another struck the Third Kazekage puppet in the chest.

The Third Kazekage puppet's body cracked. It did not simply shatter—the cracks began at its chest and spread to its limbs. Iron sand poured from the fractures, then scattered limply across the ground. The Third Kazekage puppet was completely destroyed.

Sasori looked at the fragments on the ground and fell silent for a moment.

"You're stronger than I expected, Konoha brat."

He removed the ring from his hand and put it away, then took another scroll from behind him.

"Performance of a Hundred Puppets."

The scroll unfurled, and smoke filled the entire cave. More than a hundred figures emerged from the smoke—not living people, but human puppets. The corpses of elite Sand Village shinobi who had died throughout the generations had been transformed into puppets by Sasori, each retaining a portion of the combat ability and ninjutsu they possessed in life.

More than a hundred puppets emerged from the smoke, surrounding Sakura and Chiyo on all sides.

Chiyo took a deep breath and pulled a scroll from behind her.

"The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu."

Ten puppets emerged from the smoke—Chiyo's proudest collection from her youth, masterpieces crafted by Monzaemon, the first puppeteer. They were legendary puppets said to have conquered an entire city with their creator's strength alone.

Ten against a hundred.

Chiyo's ten fingers controlled ten puppets, each fighting independently. Some wielded blades, some used spears, some used Fire Release, and some used Water Release. Sasori's hundred puppets swarmed forward, but The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu stood like a wall, firmly shielding Sakura and Chiyo.

Puppets shattered. One after another, the puppets of the Performance of a Hundred Puppets were dismantled by The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu, while The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu were damaged by the Performance of a Hundred Puppets. Puppet debris covered the ground—severed arms, broken heads, scattered gears, and springs carpeted the floor.

Chiyo's breathing grew heavier and heavier. She had only one hand left, and her chakra consumption far exceeded her limits. Only four of The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu could still move, while fewer than twenty of Sasori's Performance of a Hundred Puppets remained.

Under the cover of the Performance of a Hundred Puppets, Sasori's true body circled behind Sakura. The cover on his chest opened, and his heart core extended from his chest, attached to a sharp poisoned stinger.

The stinger pierced Sakura's abdomen.

Sakura's body stiffened. Blood surged from her abdomen and dripped down her clothes. She lowered her head to look at the wound, gritted her teeth, and did not fall.

Chiyo's eyes turned red.

"Sakura—!"

Sakura turned and punched at Sasori's heart core. Sasori dodged to the side. Her fist grazed his chest, and Super Strength blasted a massive crater into the rock wall behind him. Sasori retreated several steps. The cover on his chest closed again, drawing the heart core back inside.

"Your poison doesn't work on me." Sakura pulled out her last syringe with her left hand, stabbed it into her thigh, and pushed the antidote into her veins.

Sasori watched her in silence for a moment.

"You are the first opponent to push me this far."

Chiyo stood opposite Sasori. From her waist, she drew out her last two puppets.

Father and Mother, Sasori's childhood creations.

Sasori looked at those two puppets, and at last, emotion stirred in his amber eyes.

Chiyo's fingers moved. The Father and Mother puppets stretched out their arms and embraced Sasori's chest. With Sasori's speed and combat experience, he could easily have dodged to the side—he could see clearly that the puppets' arms were too short and their movements too slow. All he needed was to shift his body ten centimeters to the right.

But he did not dodge.

The Father and Mother puppets closed their arms, holding Sasori's body. At the same time, the blades hidden in their palms pierced the cover on his chest and stabbed through his heart core.

Sasori looked down at the two blades piercing his chest. There was no pain on his face, no fear, only an indescribable—relief.

Chiyo's hand fell, and the chakra threads snapped. She looked at Sasori, and at last, tears fell.

The corners of Sasori's lips moved slightly, as though he were smiling.

"Grandma..." Sasori's voice had become very faint. "Thank you..."

Chiyo fell to her knees, her lips trembling.

Sasori leaned within the embrace of the Father and Mother puppets, his breathing growing slower and slower. He did not look at Chiyo. He looked at the puppets' faces—the faces of his father and mother. After waiting all these years, he had finally returned to that embrace.

Sasori's lips moved several times.

"Akatsuki... has ten members in total, operating in pairs. Their objective is to gather the nine tailed beasts and create an ultimate weapon. The One-Tail has already been extracted."

Chiyo wiped away her tears and leaned close to Sasori's mouth.

"The One-Tail has already been captured... their remaining targets are the Two-Tails through the Nine-Tails. Orochimaru was once a member of Akatsuki, but later left. Ten days from now... noon... Grass Village, Tenchi Bridge... Orochimaru will appear with his subordinates... I planted a spy there... through that spy, you can find Orochimaru..."

Sasori's voice grew weaker and more distant.

He did not finish. His eyes closed, his breathing stopped, and the cracks in his heart core spread across the entire character "Scorpion" before it shattered.

The red-haired boy rested in the embrace of the Father and Mother puppets, like a sleeping infant.

Chiyo reached out and gently stroked Sasori's hair.

Her hand trembled, but her voice remained steady.

Naruto returned at that moment as well, carrying Gaara's body in his arms, lost in thought.

The group returned to Sand Hidden Village together.

Chiyo motioned for Naruto to put Gaara down. Naruto immediately did so, though he did not know what Chiyo intended to do.

"Forbidden Technique: One's Own Life Reincarnation."

"Take my chakra." Chiyo pressed her fingers to Gaara's chest. "Use my life in exchange for his."

Sakura's tears immediately poured out.

"No—Granny Chiyo, there must be another way—"

Chiyo smiled.

"I've lived too long. It's time I went to see Sasori's parents."

One's Own Life Reincarnation. The chakra within Chiyo's body transformed into green light and flowed into Gaara's body. Color began to return to Gaara's pale skin, his purple lips turning pink as a faint rise and fall returned to his chest.

Chiyo's body gradually lost its color within the light. Her hair shifted from white to gray, and her aged skin withered away.

She looked at Sasori, a faint smile on her lips.

"Sasori... Grandma is coming to keep you company..."

The light faded. Chiyo closed her eyes, and her hand slid down from Gaara's chest.

Sakura knelt on the ground, tears streaming down her face.

Gaara's eyelashes trembled. He opened his eyes and woke in Naruto's arms. Naruto looked at him with reddened eyes, smiling in excitement.

He saw Sakura's tear-streaked face and Granny Chiyo lying on the ground.

He did not know where he was or what had happened.

Gaara knew that he must have died once, then been brought back by Chiyo. His heart felt unbearably heavy.

Gaara's body was weak when he woke. He nearly fell when he stood, but Naruto immediately reached out to support him.

Neither spoke, but their movements came naturally. Naruto supported him as they walked together to Chiyo's side.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing."

Gaara said to everyone present, "Everyone, pray for Granny Chiyo."

Outside the cave, wind and sand howled.

Some wept for the dead, while others wept for the living.

It was time to part. Naruto looked at Gaara's face. His lips opened and closed, closed and opened again, until he finally forced out, "Um... get plenty of rest and recover properly."

Gaara looked at him.

Naruto thought that sounded stupid, so he added, "As for Sand Village's affairs, I'll go back and tell Granny Tsunade. I'll have her send a medical team over to help."

Gaara continued looking at him.

Naruto grew anxious. "Say something already!"

The corner of Gaara's mouth moved slightly—not a smile, but a faint curve so subtle it was almost impossible to notice.

"Naruto."

"Huh?"

"Thank you."

Naruto froze. Not because the words "thank you" carried such weight, but because Gaara was the one who had said them. Gaara, who had wanted to kill everyone in the Forest of Death, who had nearly beaten Rock Lee to death during the preliminaries, whom everyone had regarded as a monster—he had said, "Thank you."

Naruto's eyes reddened again, but he bit his lip and refused to let the tears fall.

"Don't talk like that. It feels weird."

The two were silent for several seconds.

Gaara held out his hand. The sand at his feet moved first. It was not an attack, but a very faint thread of sand that rose from the ground, supported Naruto's right wrist, and lifted his hand. The sand was gentle, not wild and violent as it had been in battle. Like a hand, it guided him softly and steadily. Drawn by the sand's force, Naruto's hand reached toward Gaara.

Gaara grasped it.

It was not a polite handshake, but the kind where one gripped tightly. Gaara's hand was cool, his fingers long and his joints distinct, his grip on Naruto's hand firm and steady. Naruto looked down at their clasped hands and suddenly felt his nose sting.

Naruto gave his hand a firm squeeze in return.

"Next time we meet, I'll treat you to Ichiraku Ramen."

"Alright."

In the end, everyone left. Only afterward did Naruto remember that Gaara was already the Kazekage while he was still a genin, and his face instantly fell.

The sight amused the whole group.