Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

The Orange Flash: Lost Chapters	By : Breath_of_the_Wiz Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 120669 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 16
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did, it wouldn't suck so hard. Also, I am not the owner of the fandom, nor am I doing this for any monetary gain or profit. Enjoy.

Chapter List
- 30
- 31
- 32
'So, how am I gonna be able to use Kitsune Kaminari this one time?"
'… I've just finished repairing your nervous system, but your chakra coils… I'll need more time for that.'
'What'm I supposed to do then?'
The Kyuubi abruptly dragged Naruto into the sewer-cage. Naruto stumbled a moment and glared at the sneering face on the other side of the bars.
"The one who defeated me your… 4th Hokage? I never bothered myself keeping track of your human leaders... He could use the ability with minimal chakra cost because he manually applied the seal to a given object before battle. Your version of the technique has more flexibility in combat because you can apply the seal to any inanimate object on the fly; however, the chakra costs are greatly exaggerated… You see where I'm going with this?"
"Yeah, I gotcha. I'll have to draw it somewhere."
"One more thing… Why is your mind a sewer?"
Mindscape Naruto paused and started looking around with an uncharacteristic blank expression.
"Holy crap. I never noticed how weird and/or stupid that was… How 'bout this? I'll change it when you figure out what's happening to my body."
The fox sneered at Naruto and rolled his eyes. "Alright then, I'll get back to you when I understand. Now get out."
Naruto was unceremoniously booted from his own mind and was once again back in the desert.
After muttering some hushed expletives concerning a certain Kitsune, he took a deep breath as he approached the cave network, alone. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins, as the shadowed entrance grew larger on his approach.
Naruto pressed the button on his Konoha communicator. "Alright… I'm approaching the cave, get ready you two."
He then pressed the Suna communicator in his other ear. "Post… Sigma? … Hey, this is Naruto Uzumaki."
There was a short pause, and then a familiar voice. "Naruto huh? Good to hear. This is Kankuro, I'm your liaison for the strike team, any orders you have go through me."
"Kankuro? … You're the puppet guy! I didn't expect to be hearing from you again so soon."
"Yeah, well, Gaara's my little sister."
Naruto nodded in understanding, despite the fact that Kankuro was hundreds of meters away.
"…That's all I needed to hear. Wait for my signal, I'll need your team to extract Gaara-chan while we deal with Sasori."
Naruto could feel Kankuro's trepidation on the other side of the comm link despite his even-toned delivery. Because of that, Naruto offered some reassurance. "I'll get your sister back, that's a promise dattebayo!"
Kankuro smirked and loaded a few extra grenades into Karasu while he was making. "You'd better, now more so than ever. Baki-sensei just told me Sasori is capable of taking control of enemy puppets, so I'm more of a liability than an asset here. It's a miracle he hasn't done it already… As much as it sucks, I'll be sitting this one out, I need you to deck'im one for me."
Naruto cracked his neck and grinned in anticipaion. "O' course!"
Naruto's smile slowly faded and then, he took a deep breath. After he uttered his final words of affirmation, he stopped and took a knee. Naruto reached into one of his flak jacket pouches and pulled out a blank scroll. He ripped a short stretch from the scroll and tore it into many small pieces. He pulled a miniature pen from the bracelet Gaara gave him and started copying seals down. After the ink dried, he ran a bit of chakra through the seals to prime the teleportation for use.
The seals glowed blue for a few short moments before turning black once more; Naruto hid two sheets of paper in his gloves and attached the rest to his kunai and shurikane. After a few stretches, Naruto tapped his communicator.
"I'm at the mouth of the cave, commencing radio silence."
It was here that a headless puppet slowly floated from the entrance and up to Naruto.
Naruto crossed his arms and glared at the puppet. "So, what're you waiting for?"
The headless puppet floated, completely still, but then it abruptly wrapped its limbs around Naruto's torso.
There was a short and awkward pause while Naruto stared at the featureless marionette. This pause was shortened primarily due to the increasingly loud clacking noise his attention slowly went from the puppets' crushing grip to the five additional puppets barreling toward him.
Naruto's heart sped up and he prepared himself for the incoming impact. The squad of puppets came crashing into the jinchuuriki, launching him off his feet, each one restrained one of Naruto's limbs so he couldn't make handsigns, with the fifth puppet appearing to examine Naruto for any sort of abnormalities.
It cocked its head to the side before slapping Naruto across the face, likely to check if he was a clone of some sort. Naruto made a point to spit on its eyeball in retaliation, but the puppet paid no mind.
The six puppets promptly floated Naruto into the air and whisked him deep into the cave network. They zoomed through the darkness, and over time, an unidentifiable sound became increasingly louder, it almost sounded like a powerful wind
Naruto anticipated the worst as he could feel his captors taking him to the central cavern… His nightmares were confirmed, he could see Gaara floating in the air, the spirit of the Shukaku fighting to stay attached to Gaara's seal. She appeared to be in serious pain as she fought to keep herself conscious.
Naruto would have unintentionally killed himself with his demonic chakra were it not for his confusion at what happened next. Sasuke and Kabuto came shooting out of the ground, Kabuto grabbed Gaara while Sasuke flashed through hand-seals and launched a fireball at Deidara, forcing the man to jump from his sealing position.
These actions shorted out the jutsu, causing the Shukaku's spirit to zoom back into Gaara's limp body. Naruto took the opportunity to activate the seals in his gloves, and in a flash of yellow light, Kakashi and Sakura were holding Naruto's hands. They let go of Naruto's hands, and in the blink of an eye, Kakashi had ripped the puppets to shreds.
Sasori swung his hand and a multitude of puppets stormed in and wrested Gaara from Kabuto's grip, the puppets tossed the Kazekage to Deidara, who gingerly caught her, as if trying not to break a precious vase.
Sasori snapped at Deidara in his raspy voice. "Get her back to base, I'll deal with our guests."
Deidara smirked and fired explosive birds at the group of intruders and created a larger one for the purpos of transportation. The bomber slung the Kazekage over his shoulder and jumped on his creation's back, it spread its wings and zoomed out the nearest hole in the wall.
Naruto started after Kabuto, but several puppets barred his path.
Kakashi charged and fired several lightning hounds from his chidori, instantly clearing a path for himself. "Naruto, Sakura! Deidara's a bad matchup for you. I'll get the Kazekage, just survive until I get back."
Kakashi chased after Deidara, with Kabuto following close behind, the sound jonin gave Sasuke a serious look before yelling one last reminder.
"Sasuke-san! Remember why we came here!"
Sasuke nodded and drew his sword, while Sakura looked at the Uchiha boy in horror, she wasn't at all ready to face him yet.
"S-Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke turned to Sakura and gave her a blank stare of indifference, as if expecting her to say something of value… that never happened. The pinkette just stared as years of repressed emotions flooded back to her, their moment on the bench, their battles in the forest of death, eeven the days they spent just hanging out as friends.
Naruto was of course slightly less amused to see his former teammate, they glared at each other, and if it weren't for Sasori's presence, they'd have likely destroyed the immediate area with their second reunion.
Naruto squeezed his fists tight enough for his knuckles to start cracking. "You're lucky you know, if Sakura weren't here…"
Sasuke glared at Naruto. "I'd crush you like everything else that's stood in my way... You look tired."
"Teme..."
Sakura could feel the air around her teammates drop in temperature, the amount of killing intent leaking off of them made it seem like their relationship was beyond salvaging.
Suddenly, a loud clacking sound snapped Team 7's attention to the puppet man in front of them.
Glaring at Sasori, Sasuke's sharingan spun in a menacing fashion as he addressed his former friends.
"Perhaps we should save this for some other time."
Sasori flicked his tail and a dozen puppets zipped into the cavern. "Yes, let's."
Suddenly, the hunchback ripped off his robe, revealing a distinctly inhuman body shape, there was more clacking and the mask on Sasori's back began to creak open. Team 7 stared in confusion as a young redhead arose from the scorpion-like puppet, he looked at Sasuke and smirked.
"An Uchiha? … It seems Itachi's still a novice when it comes genocide."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and readied his sword; Naruto drew his blade as well, and Sakura cracked her knuckles.
Naruto took a light-footed kenjutsu stance and started hopping back and forth, ready for anything. This particular stance was created for use against multiple opponents, and it also happened to be the first thing Kakashi showed Naruto about swordplay.
Naruto smirked at Sasuke and chirped.
"Oi teme! Still remember our old battle formations?"
"…Vaguely."
"Cool. Sakura-chan! We're taking defensive formation 3!"
Sakura nodded in a bewildered sort of astonishment and shuffled into position, the three ninja were standing in a circle, guarding each other's blind spots. Sasori hopped out of his scorpion puppet and smirked, flicking his fingers. The 12 puppets sprung into action, encircling Team 7, they began to fly around erratically, weaving up and down, left and right, in all sorts of directions.
Naruto's eyes slowly scanned the blurs above him; he was trying to figure out how the puppets would frame their points of attack. Naruto narrowed his eyes and noticed a simultaneous shift in the momentum of the 12 puppets. They all seemed to bend slightly, then, they accelerated forward.
Naruto formed a rasengan in one of his hands and thrust it into the torso of an incoming puppet there was a pause, and then, in a gust of wind, the puppet was sent spinning into the charging marionettes behind it, taking a handful of other would-be assailants with it. They were sent smashing into the ceiling; they then clattered to the ground in a heap, visibly damaged beyond repair.
Sasuke stretched his sword upward and ran the chidori through his blade, he diced a charging puppet into neat cubes before discharging the electricity within his sword, like a bug zapper, nearly all of the nearby puppets were burned to a crisp by the arcing energy... Save for one.
Sasuke's eyes zeroed in on an incoming wrist blade, likely poisoned. He paid it no mind when Sakura's hand stretched into his field of vision and grabbed the puppets wrist. She swiftly squeezed down and there was a sickening crack. The puppet's wrist had been pulverized into sawdust; and the metal housings for the retractable blades were now exposed, appearing as a mass of twisted metal protruding from the puppet's stump of an arm. Sakura proceeded to rip the pupped to shreds with her bare hands.
The puppets head flew in Sasuke's general direction, so he nonchalantly swatted it back to Sasori. Sasori's smirk grew slightly as he observed his puppet's head in mid air, Sasuke had attached an explosive tag to it. He twitched a finger and his scorpion puppet zoomed into the path of the flying head, but that singular movement wasn't the only thing Sasori mandated to his puppets. Dozens more puppets began to file into the cavern.
Sasori started to mock Team 7.
"I take it you don't like my art? … I'm sure I've got a piece somewhere in my repertoire that you'll enjoy."
Naruto spat and flung a shuriken at Sasori's open mouth, one of his puppets swatted it out of the air with an ankle blade. It appeared to taunt Naruto, cocking its head to the side as if it were amused.
Naruto frowned at the redhead and charged. "You talk too much."
Sakura sighed and followed suit, intending to make sure Naruto didn't get himself killed. Sasuke charged some more lightning chakra into his blade and charged forward as well. There was a flurry of orange blades, rasengan blasts, fists, and lightning strikes, each swipe taking one or more puppets with it.
Sasori sat in the rear, nonchalantly going through a large scroll he had previously hidden inside of Hiruko, his constant half-smile annoyed Naruto to no end, his demeanor showed almost no concern for the situation at hand.
Naruto could feel the Kyuubi's chakra begin to spill into his system, luckily, he noticed and was able to center himself once more. He dodged a swipe from a marionette and caught its wrist. He tightened his grip and delivered a solid kick to the puppet's torso, detaching the arm completely.
Naruto punted another incoming puppet into the ceiling before flipping the arm to Sakura, she caught it and squeezed the wrist. The casing splintered slightly under her grip, forcing the wrist blade to eject from the palm slot. Sakura spun around, impaling a charging enemy through the upper-chest with the said blade.
Sasuke came flipping back over to his former teammates; he skidded across the ground and came to a stop next to Naruto. He tapped the blonde on the shoulder and pointed to the cloud of incoming puppets. Naruto blazed through some handsigns and started to furiously swing his orange blade. Gusts of wind began to emanate from the sword's tip, causing the puppets to be slammed into each other. Naruto's attack was powerful enough to cause the entire cave network to shake, cracks began to shoot along the walls as well.
Sasuke glared at the jinchuuriki. "You're gonna get us killed you idiot! Mind your surroundings!"
Naruto twitched in annoyance and caught a pebble that fell from the ceiling after his attack shook the cavern. He pulverized it in annoyance and returned to the task at hand.
Naruto scoffed at the Uchiha boy and motioned for Sakura to deal with the pile of puppets. She took the opportunity to charge them; a thin aura of chakra surrounded her as she sped toward the slowly recovering pile.
Sakura leapt as high as her legs would allow and came crashing down into the pile of puppets, sending all 50 or so careening off in all directions. None of them appeared to be in one piece, as disembodied hands, feet, heads, and fingers were sent bouncing across the cave floor.
Sasori rolled his eyes and placed his hand on one of the seals in his opened scroll, Hiruko stood at the puppet master's side, it's menacingly blank stare made even more detailed by Sasuke's sharingan eyes... the young Uchiha shuddered slightly.
There was a gigantic cloud of smoke, and 100 red-cloaked puppets appeared, along with a singular one, it had a black cloak and black hair as well. They were all standing in a grid formation, just behind Sasori, who abruptly stopped thumbing through his scroll. He handed it to Hiruko, who placed it inside his stomach and gave Team 7 a dismissive stare.
"You know, I don't get to do this very often… not that you'll live long enough for it to matter… I suppose I'm just… savoring the moment."
The three shinobi shuffled closer together and anticipated another zerg rush; Sasori instead threw off his Akatsuki robe, and what those three young ninja saw that day, they'd never forget. From the neck down, Sasori appeared entirely mechanical. Springs, wooden joints, metal pins, and not a single trace of human tissue seemed to remain. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the cylindrical block that protruded slightly from Sasori's chest, it was likely the heart core Orochimaru was talking about. Sasuke's mind was set on acquiring the snake contract from his master.
Sasori's right chest compartment swung open and dozens of chakra strings sprung from the shaded hole. As each one connected to a puppet, it would twitch and spring to life, then, the string would disappear from view.
Sasori took a shallow bow. "Welcome to my Performance of a Hundred Puppets. I hope you find my art aesthetically pleasing."
The 100 puppets mirrored him and bowed as well before taking aggressive postures, team 7 glared at the rather chatty puppet master, who smirked back.
"I understand, talk is cheap… Well then, let's go right to the main event!"
Sasori swung his hand and a hundred streaks of red came screaming at Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Their eyes widened at the increased speed of the puppets. The red-clad monstrosities all simultaneously drew their respective wrist blades, ankle blades, poison dart guns, etc.
Naruto tackled both of his teammates and they all disappeared in a flash of yellow light. Team 7 appeared on the ceiling next to the shuriken that Naruto had chucked at Sasori earlier. They took what little time they had before the puppets figured out where they were hiding to survey the situation.
Hiruko and the black-clad puppet seemed to be standing guard on Sasori's flanks, while the reds were zooming around the cave. Sasori raised his voice, catching their attention.
"There's that jutsu again. The 4th Hokage would be proud to know that someone from his village was able to make use of such an advanced, and at such a young age too. Even so, it won't do you any good, I see what my puppets see, so your speed advantage means nothing to me…"
Sasori suddenly turned to look at the shadowed ceiling where Team 7 was hiding.
"The same trick won't work on me twice… How about I give you a sporting chance? …A morsel of pertinent information? In return, you have to come down from there."
Sakura cocked her head to the side and frowned in anticipation.
Sasori raised his hands off to the side in a taunting manner. "Every blade, every dart, every grappling cable. All of them are coated with my personally developed neurotoxin. You wouldn't believe the amount of prep time that goes into this technique… this… art. I'd be honored if I were in your position."
Naruto growled and his already slitted eyes shifted red. "This prick's just showing off now! He's just stalling us so his buddy can escape with Gaara-chan!"
Red chakra started to billow from Naruto's mouth as the rocks he was hanging on to began to crack and splinter beneath his grip.
Sakura placed a firm hand on his shoulder and glared at him. "Naruto. Calm down. Now."
Naruto had once again nearly forgotten the precarious nature of his chakra circulation system. The mild pain from Sakura's death grip on Naruto's clavicle made him take a deep breath, causing the red to fade from his eyes.
The three shinobi dropped from the shadows along the ceiling and were immediately surrounded by the red puppet army. Sasuke's eyes scanned the cave and they stopped on the stalactites along the ceiling he turned to Sakura and pointed upward.
"You two'll probably get poisoned before we can destroy all 100 of these damned puppets. Sakura… we'll find a way for you to cause a cave-in."
Naruto spun his ninjato in his hand and raised an eyebrow as he surveyed the slowly approaching red cloaks.
"I may not be the sharpest guy around, but I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea. Who's gonna keep us from gettin' crushed by boulders if Sakura-chan's way up in the air smashing the roof open?"
Sasuke waved his now chirping sword in front of Naruto. "That's what I'm here for, Dobe."
Naruto growled at his comrade. "I'm gonna stab you as soon as this is over."
"Take a number jackass."
Sakura smiled slightly, for a short moment, it was like they were a family once more, but the moment was interrupted by the sounds of clanging metal. Sasuke and Naruto were furiously parrying and dodging strikes and swings while Sakura simultaneously covered their backs.
The three ninja weaved in and out of formation, adjusting for the density of the attacking puppets and their attack speed as well. Suddenly, they pulled back and the largest of the red-cloaked marionettes attempted to either crush them with its giant fist or separate the defensive formation, likely a bit of both. Luckily, Sakura was with them, she stretched her hands up and caught the giant's fist before it could crush them. The ground beneath Sakura's feet began to give and she sunk into the stone floor slightly. Naruto and Sasuke became an orange and white blur respectively.
They zoomed above and dragged their blades along the armored giant's arm, both of them simultaneously flipped into their final strikes on the giant's shoulder joint. The momentum of Naruto and Sasuke's flip carried their blades through the giant steel ball bearing in the monstrous puppet's shoulder joint.
The right arm popped off with a quick yank from Sakura. She spun around and smacked the massive puppet square in the jaw with the shoulder bearing, it was sent flying into the far wall.
Sakura continued to wildly swing the arm, batting puppets left and right. Sasuke and Naruto nodded at Sakura and in a blur, they were next to her, Sakura tossed the giant arm at Sasori and his two bodyguards. The one in black zoomed forward and swung its arm, black dust billowed from the arm and quickly formed a gigantic blade. The disembodied arm was sliced in half and the two pieces slammed into the far wall, creating an explosion of pebbles and dust.
Naruto and Sasuke took the opening to place their hands together in a sort of boosting position. Sakura ran and hopped onto their hands, Naruto and Sasuke grunted and threw Sakura as hard as they could into the high ceiling.
The crimson dot that was her tank top became smaller and smaller until it faded into nothingness along the vast shadow of the ceiling. When she was no longer visible, there was a short pause, and then, an explosion. The ceiling crumbled into millions of pieces, and the rays of the desert sun immediately lit the gargantuan cavern.
However, not long after daylight pierced the shadows, falling boulders and other assortments of sharp rocks blotted out the sun once more.
Naruto sheathed his orange blade and formed a rasengan in each hand; he looked at Sasuke, who seemed to have done the same with his chidori. The two boys hopped closer together and covered the each other's backs.
Naruto pulverized boulder after boulder with his rasengan, by holding onto them as opposed to letting them go upon impact, he essentially had super powerful drills attached to his palms. His hands blasted through the stone as if it were brittle pottery.
Sasuke on the other hand was vaporizing the falling rock with his dual-chidori, a simple feat really, as apparently a bolt of lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun. Naruto and Sasuke were a sight to behold, they were a whirling death machine of orange, white, and blue flashes, pebbles flew about like a hail of bullets, creating thousands of tiny craters in the ground and walls nearby.
When the smoke cleared, Sakura came crashing down next to them, she rolled out of her fall and skidded right back to her spot between Naruto and Sasuke. The three climbed to the top of the rubble and scanned the area. It was littered with tattered pieces of red cloth and also with blades and other pieces that once belonged to Sasori's red puppets.
There was a rumbling sound near the east wall and a visibly annoyed Sasori dug himself from the rubble. Hiruko and the black one followed shortly after, he seemed amused and annoyed at the same time.
"You brats truly are impressive, the only way to counter this technique is to neutralize it before I get moving, and you've managed to do so on the fly… such potential within each of you. I'm surprised we haven't recruited more operatives from Konoha."
Sasori indelicately scraped a scuff mark off his eyeball with one of the poisoned blades he picked up from the ground, Team 7 gave him varied looks of disgust.
He pointed to his right. "You've already met Hiruko here, but this other one is my favorite."
Sasori turned to his black-cloaked puppet. "Children, this is the 3rd Kazekage… or what's left of him at least."
Sakura raised an eyebrow; the mysterious disappearance of the 3rd Kazekage was mentioned in passing in the academy's history books, but never elaborated on, likely because of the Akatsuki member in front of them. He was famous for his Magnet Release techniques, a fusion of the earth and electricity chakra natures.
Sakura tapped her communicator and whispered to Shikamaru while Sasori began his monologue on his efforts to capture the Sandaime Kazekage.
"Nara-kun. Did you ever take Shinobi Applied Physics in the academy?"
"Yeah… Haruno, weren't you there too?"
"Yes, I was, but I can't remember this one tiny bit of info. What do you remember about the magnetism unit? … More specifically, magnetic fields."
"Pretty much all of it. Shoot."
"Is it possible to disrupt or cancel one out?"
"From what we learned, you could theoretically use an electric charge to screw with the polarity of the field."
"Good… Now here's Sasuke-kun. Can you tell him how to do it?"
On the other end of the line, Shikamaru nearly choked to death, as he was chugging water from his canteen.
"… Wait what? You wanna run that by me one more time?"
"Nara-kun, I'll explain later."
"… Right then, whatever floats your boat."
Sakura discreetly slipped Sasuke the communicator and he made like he was brushing some of his hair out of his eyes in order to slip it onto his ear. He seemed to be absorbing the information quickly enough; Sakura brought her attention to Naruto, who for once, seemed to be paying attention to Sasori's story…
The keyword there was seemed. Sakura could see Naruto scribbling symbols onto the handles of his Kunai behind his back. He was doing it with a miniature pen, likely kept hidden beneath his bracelet. Sakura noticed a glint of red come off of said jewelry before turning her attention to Sasuke, who tossed Sakura's communicator back.
The Uchiha drew his sword again and stepped to the front of the group, he spun his tomoe in anticipation.
Sasori cut his monologue short and smirked at the young Uchiha. "I suppose the story loses its luster when you can sense the imminence of your death. Relax… I'll make it all better."
Ten blades sprung from Sasori's hips, and spring-loaded nozzles jumped out of his palms.
Naruto took his familiar light-footed stance and began to bounce around before taunting Sasori with an obscene gesture.
The team blasted off in different directions, the puppets followed suit. Sasori followed Naruto, while Sasuke fought the third Kazekage, this left Sakura to fight Hiruko.
Sasori's buzz saw blades zoomed furiously at Naruto's limbs, Naruto could tell that Sasori's aim was to immobilize him, not kill him. Naruto jumped and did a horizontal pirouette, parrying the buzz saw and throwing Sasori off balance. Naruto then grabbed Sasori's wrists and attempted to overpower him, Sasori's puppet body was freakishly strong, though not quite on the same level as Naruto's demonically enhanced musculature, or Sakura's strength technique. Naruto slowly, but surely, began to overpower the puppet master, his plan was to try and dismember Sasori piece by piece. Sasori could see the armor on his forearms begin to give under Naruto grip, and because Naruto was too close to ward off with the hip blades, Sasori did the next best thing. He headbutted Naruto, causing the jinchuuriki to lose his grip and stumble backward.
Sasori nonchalantly jammed one of his arm nozzles at Naruto and a jet of water erupted from it, Naruto sidestepped and watched as the jet sliced clean through the rocks behind him. The blonde slung a hail of his marked kunai over and around the torrent of water, and also at random spots in the room, he then teleported through the Sasori's line of attack. Now, Naruto was once again in close combat with the puppet-man.
Sasori blocked and parried Naruto's blade with his wrists and forearm, occasionally swinging one of his hip blades at openings in Naruto's line of attack. Naruto did a backwards handspring to gain some distance and began forming a rasengan.
Sasori pointed both his hands into the air and fired a torrent of water and a cloud of fire. The resulting steam made Naruto feel a little nervous; he squinted and used the Rasengan to clear a small circle of visibility around himself.
There was silence, save for the sound of crackling electricity and the crashing noises associated with Sakura's fighting style. Naruto narrowed his eyes and scanned the fog for a glint of metal or the slightest sign of movent.
For what seemed like an eternity, Naruto stood in wait for his opponent, suddenly, he heard a distant, high-pitched buzzing sound, almost like a winch coming undone. There was a sudden whistling noise and Naruto leaned backward slightly, a metallic cable with a pointed tip flew past Naruto's nose, had he not moved, it likely would have drilled through his jaw and out the other side of his cheek.
Naruto batted it away with the broad side of his sword and charged in the direction of the cable. The blur of orange came shooting out of the fog, only to find that it was some sort of detachable turret mechanism that fired the giant rope dart at him. Naruto's realization that he'd been fooled, shattered his concentration, this caused his rasengan to dissipate. The turret had then retracted the rope dart and seemed to be lining up another shot. The boy hastily lifted the mechanism above his head in order to make himself impossible to target. Naruto heard a whistling sound and instinctively spun around, he was just in the nick of time to block one of Sasori's buzz saws.
Sasori fired a poison dart from a hole in his pupil at Naruto, who retaliated by catching it between his teeth and attempting to stab Sasori through the heart core. Sasori back-stepped with a smirk on his face, Naruto spat the dart back at the puppet master, it weakly bounced off of his neck.
Sasori's smirk remained however, and the blonde's eyes widened as time slowed down for him. While blocking Sasori's blade with the turret, and also stopping the poison dart, Naruto had left himself open to attack. He could now see that the puppet master had been lining up his flamethrower during that split-second clash.
"You're tired. Aren't you, Uzumaki?"
Naruto didn't even hear Sasori's jab at his waning vitality. To dodge the wall of fire, Naruto instinctively drew on the fox's chakra and disappeared in a flash of orange light… something he would come to regret immediately.
Naruto reappeared on the wall next to an errant kunai, but before he could right himself along the wall, a wave of pain ricocheted through his spinal column and a cloud of blood exploded from Naruto's mouth. Both blood and chakra began to leak from Naruto's mouth, nose, and eyes, as well as his pores. Naruto yelped and went stiff, falling back to the ground. Sasori allowed the Jinchuuriki to come crashing down at his feet and raised his hip blades to dismember Naruto for ease of transport.
Before the blades came into contact with Naruto's skin, Hiruko's pulverized upper body came crashing into Sasori, sending the both of them careening into the walls. The impact caused a few more chunks of rock to fall from the sky-light Sakura had created earlier.
In a blur of red and pink, Sakura scooped a coughing Naruto into her arms and hid behind a rock formation. She worriedly looked at him struggle to even stay on all fours and began to heal his internal injuries.
He coughed up a bit of blood before squeezing Sakura's hand, Naruto's voice was barely a rasp.
"S-sorry. Had to dodge… fire…"
Naruto passed out then and there, Sakura figured she had about another thirty seconds to stabilize Naruto before Sasori dusted himself off. She went to work making sure he didn't damage himself too much with his stunt; healing his vital organs as much as possible. After she was done, Sakura wiped the blood from Naruto's mouth and sighed in relief when she checked his pulse. Just as strong as ever, she hugged the unconscious boy and cradled him in her arms.
"Baka... Always making me worry."
Sakura kicked a hole in the rocky wall and placed Naruto in it, she then lifted a boulder that was large enough to where she was the only one that could move it out of the way. The medic-nin dropped it in front of the hole and turned her attention to Sasuke, who seemed to be doing just fine against the 3rd Kazekage, his electricity and fire-based techniques barred the puppet from making full use of its iron sand, thus allowing Sasuke to keep the pressure on.
The cloud of dust on the far side of the room began to clear, and Sakura could see Sasori's figure begin to appear through it. He glared at Sakura as he dropped what was left of Hiruko onto the cave floor.
"I'll have you know, I don't take very kindly to those who vandalize my art."
Sasori's jaw went slack, and then, it opened far wider than any person could hope to do, the synthetic skin on his cheeks was ripped apart, creating a truly frightening visage. Another pair of nozzles slowly peered out of his mouth; he then grabbed some sort of metal contraption from the ground and placed it into the opening in his stomach, it looked like some sort of turret to Sakura.
A panel on the puppet master's back opened up and out sprouted eight metal legs, they were extremely long and spindly and also were very sharp at the ends. These extra protrusions also seemed to be covered in barbs, likely poisoned. The spider legs lifted Sasori into the air and now, his face seemed to have taken a distinctly inhuman expression of blankness as his monotone voice intimidated Sakura.
"I'm going mount you all on my wall as my new favorite trophies… You… You shall be my magnum opus, my greatest achievement."
Sasori's voice seemed to be coming from nowhere, as his mouth no longer moved when he spoke.
Sakura's hands began to shake slightly, never had it been so obvious that she was fighting out of her weight class, until now… Some part of her was starting to regret putting that boulder in Naruto's way, in hopes that he'd find the strength to come through for her in the end, but no, that wouldn't be happening any time soon. Naruto had done that far too many times already that day.
Sakura need a miracle, and fast… and that's what she got…
It had suddenly started to rain, and out of nowhere, a thunderstorm had rolled in. Sakura could feel a mass of chakra off to her left and so, took a look in that direction, Sasuke had one hand to the sky, and an occasional arc of electricity would jump from his arm.
He glared at the Sandaime Kazekage and pointed in a menacing fashion. "Begone with the roar of the thunder… KIRIN!"
The storm picked up intensely and Sakura could see a dragon made of lightning peering down at the black-cloaked puppet, it then disappeared above the cloud, there was a short pause as Sasori and his puppet stared in awe at Sasuke's technique.
Sasuke scoffed and then, the dragon came crashing down and hit the 3rd Kazekage right between the eyes, it tried futilely, to block the dragon with its iron sand, but the energy arced straight through the powdered metal. All the puppet succeeded in doing was prolonging its life for a few milliseconds. The Iron sand eventually had to discharge the massive quantities of energy, and the static went straight to the next highest object, in this case, it was the 3rd Kazekage's skull. The marionette was vaporized completely.
Sasuke looked at Sasori and crossed his arms before dressing him down.
"The biggest mistake you made was not running away when she destroyed the ceiling. That technique requires a lot of set up, and by pure chance, you've done most of it for me."
Sasuke's curse mark activated and Sakura shuddered at the familiar tattoos adorning Sasuke's body.
Sasori blankly stared at Sasuke and clacked his joints, obviously recognizing the curse seal technique.
Naruto, still half conscious could hear what was going on outside, struggled to tap his communicator. It took him nearly ten seconds, he took a deep breath and rasped and rasped.
"Hey… Kankuro… Now'd be a good time for you guys to lend a hand… I think I'm dying."
The other end of the comm link buzzed. "Will do. Hang on Naruto!"
Naruto sighed and passed out again, his spinal area was screaming at him right now, at this point, he'd have preferred taking Sasori's flamethrower to the face.
Sasuke cracked his knuckles and drew his sword. "Let's end this."
FIN
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The Orange Flash: Lost Chapters