An Uneventful Finale

Inside the cave, the final act.

The terrifying pressure of the Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets descended like tangible leaden clouds. The death legion of over a hundred puppets, controlled by Sasori's masterful chakra threads, became a torrent of metal and poisoned blades that came crashing down!

Sakura and Chiyo stood back to back, facing the despair-inducing assault. Chiyo's ten fingers trembled violently from overtaxing herself to control Father, Mother, and the defensive puppets, her chakra threads stretched taut enough to snap. Sakura's Superhuman Strength Fists smashed one charging puppet after another, but more came from every direction. Poisoned blades tore through her clothes, leaving bloody cuts. If not for a medical ninja's instinctive evasions and Chiyo's puppets desperately shielding her, she would have long since been overwhelmed.

The battle was brutal and brief. Absolute numbers and precise coordination soon compressed the women's defensive perimeter to its limit. After destroying dozens of enemies, the Father and Mother puppets were finally torn apart and dismantled by the swarming puppets, reduced to fragments scattered across the ground. Chiyo coughed up blood, her chakra nearly exhausted. Sakura panted heavily as well, wounded in several places and with barely any chakra left.

"It's over." Sasori's true body floated in midair as he delivered the cold verdict. The remaining dozens of puppets aimed their weapons at the two women below, who no longer had the strength to fight.

Yet at that final moment, a strange light flashed through Granny Chiyo's clouded eyes—a light mingling endless regret, relief, and final affection. She looked at Sakura and softly said, "Sakura... lend me your last bit of chakra."

Before Sakura could react, Chiyo used the last of her strength to pour what little chakra she had left into Sakura in a special way. It was not reinforcement, but guidance and resonance. At the same time, two specially made kunai quietly slipped into her hand.

Sasori seemed to sense something and moved to command his puppets into their final attack.

"Now!" Chiyo shouted, using the last strength of her life to fire the two kunai at seemingly empty spots on either side of Sasori's true body.

Sasori instinctively diverted his attention to command the puppets to knock the kunai away. In that flash of lightning, Sakura suddenly understood a faint piece of information Chiyo had conveyed through chakra—a weak chakra signature from an extremely hidden, nearly impossible-to-detect old-style core regeneration device on Sasori's puppet body!

Only Chiyo, its maker, knew of that final "flaw" left on her "grandson"—a weakness originally meant for repairs, but now their sole chance!

"Hyaaah—!!!" Sakura unleashed the last of her potential, completely abandoning defense. She condensed all her strength, conviction, and understanding of the battle's meaning into one straight punch aimed directly at the tiny spot above and to the left of Sasori's chest—the area Chiyo had "lit up" with her final chakra and feinting kunai!

For the first time, something close to "shock" appeared on Sasori's puppet face, but the puppet legion's counterattack was already too late.

Splat!

The fist, infused with every ounce of her superhuman strength and willpower, precisely pierced the regeneration device's casing and reached deeper, striking the hidden physical core that remained of Sasori's human body—the nucleus containing his regenerative cells!

Time seemed to stop. The puppet legion's assault abruptly ceased. The puppets froze in place, then fell.

Sasori lowered his head to look at the small hole in his chest, then raised it to look at Chiyo in the distance, slowly collapsing with a relieved smile despite her faint breathing, and Sakura, kneeling on the ground in exhaustion, tears filling her eyes but her gaze unwavering.

"...Granny... Chiyo..." A tiny crack seemed to appear in his cold voice. In the end, he chose neither to repair himself nor activate any other backup mechanisms. The puppet body he had modified with his own hands in pursuit of eternal art slowly fell backward. In the final instant before his consciousness faded, he seemed to see again the warm images of his childhood—when his parents were still alive, and Granny Chiyo had taught him Puppet Technique hand in hand.

Perhaps eternity had always been the most fleeting dream. The embrace of Father and Mother, completed through life itself, was the final destination.

The cave fell silent once more. Only the stench of blood and puppet wreckage bore witness to this tragic and heroic confrontation between grandmother and grandson.

High above the desert, a chasing storm.

At the same time, the fierce battle in the skies above the desert was in full swing. Deidara's giant clay bird climbed and dove, trying to shake Naruto, who pursued him relentlessly. Naruto was completely enveloped in a Three-Tails chakra cloak, his speed and strength greatly amplified as he continuously launched distant attacks with chakra claw projections. His violent will was on the verge of breaking through his reason.

Kakashi and Yamato followed close behind, their expressions grim.

"Yamato, keep that Sake occupied. I'll find an opening to recover Gaara and stop Naruto from completely losing control!" Kakashi swiftly laid out the plan, his Sharingan fixed tightly on the scroll on Deidara's back.

"Understood!" Yamato formed hand seals. "Wood Release: Great Wood Pillar Technique!" Several enormous wooden pillars suddenly rose from the desert, crossing to block the clay bird's flight path while trying to coil around Neji on its back.

Neji had been calmly observing the battle all along. When Yamato's Wood Release came at him, the Byakugan beneath his mask clearly discerned the chakra flow and structural weaknesses within it.

"Petrifying Touch: Disintegration." He spoke quietly, rapidly forming hand seals before pressing his palms toward the approaching pillars from afar. Wherever the pillars touched his invisible chakra, grayish-white stone patterns instantly emerged, spreading rapidly as the wood became brittle!

"What?!" Yamato was startled. He could feel his chakra connection to that portion of Wood Release being disrupted and "solidified" by some strange power. The petrified pillars became structurally fragile and shattered into falling rubble under the giant bird's impact and their own weight.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!" Yamato did not dare slack off and immediately used a more powerful Wood Release. A vast forest of massive trees erupted wildly from the desert, like living green pythons coiling toward the giant bird and Neji from every direction. The range was broad enough to trap them for the moment.

A trace of seriousness flashed through Neji's eyes. Yamato's Wood Release was indeed solid, with excellent area control. He could not expose Wood Release, nor could he use Gentle Fist or Sage Arts... then he would use this. He brought his hands together, instantly transforming the nature of his chakra. With his current fine control over chakra, combined with a derivative application of Petrifying Touch—

"Earth Release: Rock Dragon Earthflow!"

The desert below churned violently as several enormous stone dragons made entirely of hard rock burst from the sand. Rather than attacking Yamato himself, they precisely rammed into and coiled around the growing giant trees! Stone dragons and wooden dragons violently tangled and wrestled in the air, stone fragments and wood chips flying everywhere in a spectacular sight. Neji's stone dragons faintly suppressed Yamato's wooden dragons in power. More importantly, petrifying fields continuously spread across their surfaces, causing any wood they touched to rapidly lose vitality and become stiff and brittle.

Sweat beaded on Yamato's forehead. He discovered that his prized Wood Release was being restrained at every turn by this Sake. That strange petrifying ability seemed naturally capable of countering Wood Release, which relied on chakra vitality. Furthermore, the opponent's chakra reserves and precision in controlling ninjutsu were astonishingly high. "Who exactly is this guy...? How could Akatsuki have someone so skilled in Earth Release transformations and Kekkei Genkai?"

Just as Yamato was firmly held back by Neji and the two sides entered a brief stalemate, the battle elsewhere underwent a decisive change.

Deidara was becoming increasingly irritated by Naruto's frenzied pursuit and Kakashi's elusive Lightning Blade harassment. Sasori's "defeat and death," which he vaguely sensed through chakra, also left him restless. "Damn it! Nine-Tails brat, and you with the Sharingan! Let me show you true art! C3: Number Eighteen!" He threw out an enormous clay doll. It rapidly expanded in midair, radiating a heart-palpitating wave of destruction.

Kakashi's pupils sharply contracted. He could sense that the explosive's power was enough to seriously injure or even kill all of them. But Naruto ignored everything and was about to ram into it with his body.

He could not wait any longer!

The three tomoe in Kakashi's left Sharingan spun madly before abruptly distorting into a strange shuriken-like pattern! The Mangekyō Sharingan opened!

"Kamui!"

He stared intently at the spot beneath Deidara's right shoulder where chakra threads adhered to Gaara's scroll. Space began violently twisting and rotating around that point, forming a visible vortex!

"Huh?! What kind of jutsu is this?!" Deidara was horrified. He felt an irresistible tearing force involving space itself acting upon his right shoulder and the scroll. He tried to steer the clay bird away, but the spatial distortion seemed locked onto that location.

Splat!

A soft sound—not an explosion. Before the shocked eyes of Deidara and Yamato in the distance, who had just shattered a stone dragon, Deidara's entire right arm, along with the scroll tightly binding Gaara's corpse, vanished in an instant as if swallowed by an invisible giant mouth! The severed surface was smooth as a mirror, with no blood spraying out, because that portion of flesh and space had been "transferred" into another dimension!

"Arghhh! My arm! My art collection!" Deidara let out a heart-wrenching scream—more over his beloved collection and the bizarre terror he felt than the pain. The agony and loss of balance nearly sent him tumbling off the bird's back. The C3 bomb detonated prematurely high in the distance after losing control, becoming a dazzling but futile fireball.

Kakashi, meanwhile, grunted and dropped to one knee in the sand. Intense pain and burning seared through his left eye, blood trailing down his cheek. Using the Mangekyō's ocular technique for the first time imposed a burden far beyond imagination. His chakra was nearly drained, and his vision blurred. "It... worked..." He weakly looked toward the nearby sand, where Gaara's corpse scroll had appeared out of thin air, completely intact.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Seeing Kakashi's condition and the reappearing scroll, Naruto's raging emotions eased somewhat, and he rushed over to check on him.

Yamato wanted to go as well, but Neji's—Sake's—offensive suddenly intensified. Several stone dragons, together with rock spears abruptly stabbing up from the sand, firmly pinned him down. "Your opponent is me." Neji's voice came through his mask, calm but carrying unquestionable pressure.

Blood finally began gushing from Deidara's severed arm. His face was deathly pale, and his eyes toward Kakashi brimmed with alarm and hatred. "What kind of eye was that...? Damn Sharingan! Sake! Help me!"

Neji glanced at Kakashi's condition below and Naruto's temporarily subdued tailed-beast cloak, then at Deidara, who had lost an arm and suffered a drastic drop in combat strength, and finally at Yamato, who was suppressed by him but still tenacious and could support the others at any moment.

The time had come.

First, he used a swift Earth Release: Rock Prison Technique to temporarily trap Yamato. Then he guided the clay bird into a rapid dive, sweeping beneath Deidara. In that instant, his Byakugan locked onto the sand and precisely found the severed arm that had fallen nearby during Kamui's spatial transfer, half-buried in sand.

"Petrifying Touch: Solidification Seal!" He pointed from afar, and the blood and wound on the arm's surface were instantly sealed beneath a thin layer of stone, preventing further contamination and necrosis. At the same time, he flung out a chakra thread, wrapped it around the arm, and snatched it up as the giant bird passed.

"Go!" Neji shouted at Deidara, ruthlessly directing the giant bird away from the Konoha group at top speed. At the same time, he formed hand seals. "Earth Release: Sand-Dust Curtain!" A dense sandstorm was artificially stirred up, instantly obscuring most of the view behind them and any chance of pursuit.

Deidara gritted his teeth and used his remaining left hand to cling to the bird's back. He turned to stare fixedly in Kakashi's direction, as if engraving the appearance of those strange Mangekyō eyes into his heart. "Sharingan Kakashi... I'll remember this grudge! Hmm!"

Yamato broke out of the rock prison, only to see the sky in the distance filled with sand and dust. The giant bird had become a tiny black speck, swiftly vanishing beyond the horizon. He reached Kakashi and Naruto's side and looked at the unconscious Kakashi, Naruto silently crying as he held Gaara's corpse scroll, and the distant figures of Sakura supporting Granny Chiyo as they emerged from the cave. He let out a heavy sigh.

The mission to recover the Kazekage ended with Gaara's death, Sasori's defeat and death, Kakashi's ocular power exhausted, and Deidara retreating after losing an arm. Konoha and the Sand Village paid a tremendous price. Granny Chiyo ultimately chose to use Life Reincarnation to revive Gaara, bringing some light back to the failed operation, but her sacrifice also grieved everyone. But

Akatsuki's terror and unpredictability—especially the strength displayed by the mysterious member named Sake—as well as Kakashi's never-before-seen spatial ocular technique, deeply branded the aftermath of this battle into everyone's hearts.

Neji sped across the far reaches of the desert with the badly injured Deidara and the severed arm temporarily preserved by petrification sealing. Beneath his mask, his brow faintly furrowed. Kamui... so this is the ability of Obito's eye? It really is troublesome. Kakashi has finally reached this point as well... He glanced at Deidara, who was weakened by blood loss and pain. Saving him and that arm maintained Akatsuki's apparent combat strength and prevented an even greater deviation in the story that Deidara's premature death might have caused. Next... he needed to report to Pain and pass the intelligence back to Orochimaru and Konoha.

He was another small step closer to his goal. His eyes turned toward the direction of Akatsuki's base, deep and resolute.