The midday sun beat down mercilessly upon the barren, rocky canyons of the Land of River. The heat radiating off the jagged stone walls distorted the air, creating shimmering mirages over the dry riverbed.
Team 7 and Elder Chiyo stood before a massive, sheer cliff face. Embedded directly into the solid rock was a gigantic, perfectly circular boulder, easily weighing several tons. Slapped squarely in the center of the imposing rock was a single white paper tag bearing the kanji for *Seal*.
"We tracked the scent here," Kakashi stated, his visible eye narrowed as he surveyed the cliff. "The Akatsuki hideout is right behind that boulder."
Naruto stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. He didn't care about traps or seals. He cared about the friend he knew was suffering behind that rock. "Stand back. I'll blow it wide open with a Rasengan."
"Don't be a fool, Leaf brat," Chiyo rasped, leaning on her wooden cane. "That is a Five-Seal Barrier. Physical attacks and ninjutsu are completely useless against it. The central seal is linked to four other identical tags hidden in the surrounding area. Until all five are removed at the exact same instant, that boulder is indestructible."
Naruto gritted his teeth, his frustration mounting. "Then we find them and rip them off! Kakashi-sensei, tell me where to go!"
"That won't be necessary, Naruto!"
A booming, overly enthusiastic voice echoed through the canyon.
Naruto turned around. Standing on a rocky outcropping above them, striking a perfectly synchronized, ridiculously dramatic pose, was Team Guy. Might Guy flashed a blindingly bright smile, his teeth literally gleaming in the sunlight. Beside him stood Rock Lee, mirroring his mentor's pose perfectly, while Neji Hyuga and Tenten looked on with varying degrees of stoic resignation.
"The Green Beast of the Leaf has arrived to offer backup!" Guy declared, giving a massive thumbs-up. "Tsunade-sama sent us to intercept!"
Kakashi let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Perfect timing, Guy. We need Neji's eyes to locate the other four tags."
Neji stepped forward, dropping into his clan's signature stance. The veins around his temples bulged violently. "Byakugan!"
The world shifted into stark, monochromatic chakra networks for the Hyuga prodigy. He scanned the canyon, his vision piercing through solid rock and dense foliage. "I have them. One is half a mile north on a cliff. One is in the river basin. One in the forest to the east. The last is buried under a rock formation to the west."
"Excellent!" Guy shouted. "Lee, Neji, Tenten! We will split up and take one tag each. Kakashi, you take the center tag. We will use the wireless radios to coordinate the exact time of removal!"
Within minutes, Team Guy dispersed, moving at blinding speeds to reach their designated locations. Kakashi stepped up to the central tag on the boulder, his hand hovering over the paper. He pressed the earpiece in his ear.
"Is everyone in position?" Kakashi asked.
Confirmations echoed through the radio.
"Alright. On my mark," Kakashi said, his eye hardening. "Three. Two. One. Pull!"
Five tags were ripped from the earth simultaneously.
Instantly, the protective barrier of chakra surrounding the massive boulder evaporated with a low, humming hiss. However, miles away, Team Guy suddenly fell completely silent over the radio. The defensive countermeasure of the Five-Seal Barrier had activated, forcing each of them into a brutal, life-or-death battle against an exact, perfectly mirrored water-clone of themselves.
But at the cave entrance, the path was finally clear.
"The barrier is down," Kakashi said, stepping back from the boulder. "But the rock is still in the way."
Sakura Haruno stepped forward. She casually cracked her neck, pulling her dark gloves tighter over her knuckles. "Leave the remodeling to me."
Naruto and Kakashi immediately took several large steps backward, knowing exactly what was about to happen. Even Elder Chiyo watched with a skeptical squint, wondering what this slender teenage girl thought she was going to accomplish against a boulder the size of a small house.
Sakura closed her eyes. She drew a massive, concentrated well of chakra up from her core, channeling it perfectly into her right arm. The air around her fist began to waver and distort from the sheer density of the gathered energy. She opened her emerald eyes, glaring at the stone as if it had personally insulted her.
"CHAA!"
Sakura threw her fist forward. The punch connected with the dead center of the boulder.
For a fraction of a millisecond, nothing happened. Then, the entire canyon shook violently.
*KRRAAACK-BOOOM!*
The impact sounded like a detonating artillery shell. The massive boulder didn't just break; it completely disintegrated. Hundreds of tons of solid rock were violently pulverized into flying shrapnel and a suffocating cloud of dust, blowing the entrance to the Akatsuki lair completely wide open. The shockwave nearly knocked Chiyo off her feet.
As the dust began to settle, Sakura stood in the newly created cavern entrance, slowly exhaling a breath of steam, her fist still smoking. She looked utterly terrifying and undeniably magnificent.
Naruto stood behind her, his mouth hanging slightly open. He was absolutely mesmerized by the sheer, devastating destruction she had just caused. The raw, unfiltered teenage hormones completely bypassed his brain's survival instincts.
He walked up behind her, slipping his hands into his pockets, unable to stop the shameless, brazen smirk from spreading across his face.
"You know, Sakura," Naruto said smoothly, his voice echoing slightly in the mouth of the cavern. "With all that terrifying power packed into that big ass of yours... it genuinely makes me want to kiss it."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Sakura didn't even turn around. She simply pivoted on her heel, utilizing the momentum of her entire body, and drove a savage, lightning-fast backhand directly into Naruto's cheek.
*SMACK!*
The slap echoed through the canyon like a gunshot. Naruto was spun around a full 360 degrees, stumbling into the rock wall, a bright red handprint instantly blooming on his face.
"Focus on the mission, you absolute degenerate!" Sakura hissed, her face burning bright red, though the sheer volume of her anger was mostly to cover up how wildly flustered she was.
Elder Chiyo stood in the back, her wrinkled eyes widening as she watched the bizarre exchange. She looked at Naruto, who was currently rubbing his stinging cheek and grumbling to himself, completely unfazed by the rejection or the physical pain. He didn't cower, he didn't apologize, and he didn't lose his focus. A second later, his hand dropped, his eyes narrowed, and he stared into the dark abyss of the cave, his aura shifting back to the terrifying, predator-like intensity she had felt in the hospital.
Chiyo let out a soft, rattling hum. *I see,* the old woman thought, a newfound understanding dawning on her. *He uses his loud mouth and his foolishness as a shield. He plays the clown, but underneath it all, he isn't afraid of anything. And he trusts that girl's strength implicitly.* The dust finally cleared from the cave entrance, revealing the vast, dimly lit cavern inside.
Team 7 and Chiyo stepped into the gloom, their eyes adjusting to the low light. At the far end of the cavern, two figures waited for them.
The first was Sasori of the Red Sand, completely hidden inside the grotesque, hunched, mechanical shell of his Hiruko puppet. A heavy, poisoned metal tail swished idly behind him.
The second figure sat casually on the floor of the cave. Deidara of the Stone, his blonde hair falling over his scoped eye, casually tossing a piece of explosive clay in his hands.
But it wasn't the Akatsuki members that made Naruto's blood freeze in his veins.
It was what Deidara was sitting on.
Gaara of the Sand lay completely motionless on the cavern floor. His skin was pale, devoid of life. His eyes were closed. The massive gourd of sand he always carried was gone, and the heavy, terrifying chakra of the One-Tail was completely absent from the room.
He was dead.
Naruto stopped walking. The air in his lungs vanished.
"Well, well, well," Deidara sneered, a twisted, mocking smile pulling at his lips. He patted Gaara's lifeless cheek disrespectfully. "Look who finally showed up. And you brought the Leaf Village's loudmouth Jinchuriki right to our doorstep. This is going to save us a lot of travel time, hm."
Sakura covered her mouth, her eyes widening in horror. "Gaara..."
Naruto's hands began to tremble. Not from fear, but from a rage so absolute, so entirely consuming, that it felt as if his blood had turned to boiling acid. The shameless, perverted teenager was completely eradicated.
"Get off him," Naruto whispered. The voice didn't even sound human. It was a guttural, demonic growl that vibrated the stones beneath their feet.
"Oh? You want him back?" Deidara laughed, completely missing the absolute danger he was in. He stood up, placing a boot squarely onto Gaara's chest. "Too late, brat. We already extracted the beast. He's just a hollow piece of trash now. Not even worthy of being called art."
The temperature in the cave skyrocketed.
A suffocating, visibly red chakra violently exploded from Naruto's body. It roared upward like a pillar of fire, tearing the ground beneath his feet. His canine teeth elongated into fangs. The whisker marks on his cheeks thickened into feral, animalistic lines. His azure eyes vanished entirely, replaced by the burning, blood-red, slitted eyes of the Nine-Tails.
But despite the overwhelming, demonic rage, Naruto's mind was terrifyingly sharp. He looked at Deidara, his face a mask of pure, unfiltered hatred.
"You call yourself an artist?" Naruto snarled, his voice echoing with dual tones. "You think sitting on a corpse makes you strong? You're just a loudmouthed coward playing with explosive mud. Your 'art' is a cheap, pathetic parlor trick, and your hair looks like a dead sunflower. I'm going to rip your head off and shove your clay down your throat."
Deidara's mocking smirk vanished instantly. His one visible eye twitched violently. Of all the things to insult, calling his art a cheap parlor trick was the ultimate, unforgivable sin.
"You little brat!" Deidara roared, his pride wounded. He threw a lump of clay onto the ground. "I'll show you true art!"
The clay expanded instantly, forming a massive, grotesque bird. Deidara scooped Gaara's lifeless body into the bird's beak and leaped onto its back. "Sasori! I'm taking the Jinchuriki! The kid is mine, hm!"
The clay bird took off, soaring toward the shattered entrance of the cavern.
"HE'S MINE!" Naruto roared, launching himself after the bird with explosive speed, the red chakra trailing behind him like a comet.
"Naruto, wait! Don't engage him alone!" Kakashi yelled, instantly blurring out of the cavern to pursue his enraged student, leaving Sakura and Chiyo behind.
The cavern suddenly felt very empty, and very quiet.
Sakura stood frozen for a moment. She looked toward the entrance, her heart hammering in her chest. Naruto was out there, letting the Nine-Tails take over, fighting an S-rank criminal by himself. She took a step forward to follow them.
"Sakura."
The voice echoed in her mind, a memory from just seconds before he had launched himself out of the cave. Right before Naruto had engaged the Nine-Tails' chakra, he had looked back at her. His eyes, burning red, had locked onto hers.
*"Sakura,"* Naruto had told her, his voice absolute. *"You beat this creep, and I'll do one thing you ask. Anything."*
Sakura had looked at him, feeling the sheer weight of his trust. *"Just bring Gaara back, you idiot,"* she had whispered. *"Go."*
Sakura stopped. She planted her feet firmly on the stone floor of the cavern. Naruto believed in her strength. He had left her here because he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she could handle it.
She turned around, her emerald eyes hardening into chips of green ice. She cracked her knuckles, the sound echoing sharply in the gloom.
Elder Chiyo stepped up beside her, leaning heavily on her cane. The old woman looked at the hunched, terrifying form of Sasori of the Red Sand.
"So, it comes to this," Chiyo rasped, her voice laced with deep sorrow. "My own grandson."
The Hiruko puppet clicked and whirred, its mechanical joints grinding. The heavy, scorpion-like tail swayed menacingly, dripping with purple venom that sizzled as it hit the stone floor.
"You should have stayed in the village and died quietly, old hag," Sasori's muffled, raspy voice echoed from inside the shell. "Now, I'll have to add you to my collection. Both of you."
"Sakura," Chiyo said quietly, never taking her eyes off the puppet. "That tail is coated in a lethal poison. Even a scratch will paralyze you in seconds and kill you in three days. You cannot let him hit you."
"I know," Sakura replied, dropping into a low, defensive stance, chakra already gathering in her fists. "I extracted that exact poison from his brother. I know exactly how it works."
Sasori let out a dry, mocking chuckle. "You extracted it? Impressive for a little girl. But evading it is a completely different matter!"
The Hiruko puppet burst forward with terrifying speed. The heavy iron tail whipped out, extending far beyond its physical limits, a blur of lethal, poisoned metal aiming directly for Sakura's heart.
Sakura didn't flinch.
Instantly, she felt the subtle, nearly invisible pull of chakra threads attach to her limbs. Elder Chiyo, acting as the ultimate puppet master, was controlling her movements. With a sharp tug, Chiyo yanked Sakura backward, pulling her entirely out of the trajectory of the strike. The tail smashed into the cavern floor where Sakura had stood a millisecond prior, shattering the rock and splashing venom.
"Your reactions are too slow, girl!" Chiyo commanded, her fingers dancing in the air. "Let my threads guide you! Be the weapon!"
"Understood!" Sakura shouted.
Sasori unleashed a barrage of attacks. Hundreds of poisoned senbon needles fired from Hiruko's mechanical mouth in a deadly wave.
Controlled by Chiyo's masterful threads and her own flawless chakra control, Sakura moved like water. She flipped, twisted, and contorted her body through the hail of needles, the poisoned tips grazing millimeters from her skin. She was dancing on the razor's edge of death.
"Now, Sakura!" Chiyo roared, pulling the threads forward with all her might.
Sakura used the momentum, launching herself into the air directly above the Hiruko shell. She pulled her right fist back, funneling every ounce of her raw, devastating power into her knuckles.
"SHANNARO!"
Sakura drove her fist directly into the armored back of the Hiruko puppet.
The impact was cataclysmic. The supposedly impenetrable, heavy armor of the puppet caved in instantly. Wood splintered, metal shrieked, and the entire shell exploded outward in a violent shower of debris. The force of the punch drove the remains of the puppet deep into the cavern floor, creating a massive crater.
Sakura landed gracefully, breathing heavily, her eyes locked on the dust cloud.
As the smoke cleared, the true form of Sasori of the Red Sand was revealed.
Sakura and Chiyo both froze.
Standing amidst the wreckage of his armor was a young man with messy red hair and hollow, lifeless brown eyes. He didn't look a day over fifteen. He looked exactly as he had the day he left the Sand Village over two decades ago.
"Impossible," Chiyo breathed, her hands trembling. "Sasori... you haven't aged a single day."
Sasori stood up, dusting off his Akatsuki cloak. His movements were slightly rigid, accompanied by the faint, chilling click of wooden joints. "Aging is a flaw of the human body, grandmother. I have transcended such weaknesses. I have become true, eternal art."
He reached into his cloak, pulling out a sealed scroll. He bit his thumb, smearing blood across the parchment.
"You broke my favorite armor," Sasori said coldly. "So, I suppose I will have to use my favorite piece."
With a puff of smoke, a new puppet materialized in front of him. It had wild, dark hair and wore a tattered coat. But the chakra radiating from the dead, hollow piece of wood was suffocatingly dense.
Chiyo's breath caught in her throat. Absolute terror painted her wrinkled face.
"No..." Chiyo whispered. "That's... the Third Kazekage."
Sasori's fingers twitched, and the Third Kazekage puppet levitated into the air, its mouth opening to reveal a dark, terrifyingly dense cloud of Iron Sand.
"Let us see," Sasori mocked, "how long flesh and bone can survive against eternal perfection."