Little did Haku and the others who had escaped Sasori and Orochimaru's initial attack realise that they would soon come face to face with Sasori of the red sand, the man who had slain the third Kazekage.
However, Sasori was still hidden away in the belly of his current puppet, Hiruko, a living puppet that he had created to take away the disadvantages of a puppet user by becoming one with the puppet and hiding inside of it.
However, the puppet had taken more damage than Sasori had anticipated. Having its scorpion-like tail broken so soon, and having already launched the projectile on its arm, ; leaving him low on ammo.
Still, the tail itself was useable, utilizing his chakra threads to simply re-attach it back to his body like new.
Ganryū didn't look impressed, coming up with the conclusion that this guy was a puppet. However, he was unsure of the location of the puppet master, knowing he must be close by being able to operate the thing so well.
Ganryū also knew that this puppet only had physical attacks to offer, with projectile weapons. Knowing that Kōgetsu and Chika would be able to deal with him using their hydrification technique.
"Kōgetsu, you and Chika attack from the front and take him by surprise with your water-style attacks. Leave the rest to me." Ganryū said quietly so that only his men could hear him.
"The rest of you, be ready to defend yourselves." Ganryū then said, tightening his grip around his sword.
"M-Me?" Chika asked not a moment later, looking at Kōgetsu.
"Get ready Chika, we will rush him together and trap him in a vortex of water," Kōgetsu said, taking a ready stance.
"Umm... I'm running a little dry at the moment." Chika said, looking nervous as she referred to her water bottle.
"Enough of your blabbering!" Sasori yelled before the puppet's mouth opened again, shooting out another barrage of senbon needles like a machine gun.
"Now!" Kōgetsu yelled, dashing dead ahead, followed closely by Chika who tried her best to keep up with him.
"Haku!" Ganryū yelled, getting him to create another ice wall to block the attack, protecting everyone with his jutsu while Kōgetsu and Chika rushed in head-on.
Sasori watched as the needles passed through both of their bodies allowing them to close the distance rather quickly, taking Sasori by surprise.
However, Sasori was quick to attack with his tail, slashing right through the two of them in an attempt to sever them in half.
But again to his surprise both of their bodies turned to water as the large metal tail passed right through them, allowing them to press on the counterattack now they were on top of him.
"Double water bullet jutsu!" Kōgetsu yelled, flipping above Sasori before he let loose two powerful water bullet blasts.
Chika dashed to the side of Sasori, trying to flank him before she allowed the lower part of her body to turn into water, covering the ground beneath his feet with water and trapping his legs.
Sasori couldn't move but quickly let the armour on the puppet's back fold over him, as well as using his tail to help protect himself from the blast of the water bullets, protecting him even from their high piercing power.
"Now Haku!" Ganryū shouted, seeing his chance.
Haku was already on it having created two ice mirrors. One for Ganryū to jump through and another for him to come out of, right behind Sasori.
"Take this!" Ganryū yelled, flying out of the ice mirror with his blast sword raised over his head, giving both Chika and Kōgetsu barely enough time to get clear, Chika still holding him in place with her water trap, using a lot of the water from her body to do so.
"But how!" Sasori yelled, watching in shock with eyes wide, unable to move or counter the attack.
"BOOM!"
Ganryū's Shibuki hit home and created a massive explosion, destroying the puppet and shattering it to pieces.
"He did it!" Rokuro and the others yelled, still watching from the sidelines after Haku's ice had melted.
"No... Over there!" Haku then said, being able to sense another chakra signal coming from the tree line.
"I thought I saw a shadow escape from the puppet at the last second." Hattori then said, having been paying close attention.
Ganryū had also recovered with both Kōgetsu and Chika too, although Chika was feeling the exhaustion from having recovered from the large explosion, feeling her body becoming dehydrated.
"Did we get him?" She asked, looking at the head of the puppet on the ground.
"No..." Kōgetsu said, having also seen the real body of Sasori escape at the last second.
"My, my... I have to say. No one has pushed me to this point in a long time." A voice said, alerting those who hadn't been aware of his presence.
"So this is his real form..." Ganryū said, taking in his appearance once he removed his cloak, revealing the red hair and young face, donning another Akatsuki cloak over his body.
"He looks so young," Kōgetsu said, noting how strong he was for his age.
"No... It's something else." Ganryū said, remembering who this guy was.
Sasori smiled while he crossed his arms over his chest, seeing that there was more to Ganryū than just a heavy sword-swinging buffoon.
"His name is Sasori... Sasori of the red sand." Ganryū said, saying it loud enough for everyone to hear him.
"Why the red sand?" Kujira asked, not getting it.
"Red sand, as in he turned the sand red with the blood of his enemies..." Rokuro said, having to explain it to him almost slapping him on the side of the head.
"It has been a long time since I was pushed this far. But I guess given the circumstances I will have to resort to that." Sasori said while he slowly took out a scroll from his sleeve.
"Everyone be ready. Whatever this is, it's going to be a whole lot worse than before." Ganryū said, regrouping with the others as they all waited.
Sasori opened the scroll and revealed his next puppet, holding it over his own body once he attached his chakra strings and let it take a menacing stance for all to see.
"Allow me to show you my ultimate creation," Sasori said with a menacing expressionless look on his face.
Every one of the surviving Mist ninja looked on in anticipation, wondering what horrors this puppet would hold in store for them.
With a small flicking of his fingers, Sasori's puppet started moving, opening its mouth first and allowing some sort of black-looking substance to run from its mouth before it floated into the air.
"What is that?" Hattori asked, unsure of what he was seeing.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, I'm sure it's not going to be pleasant," Rokuro said, trying to come up with a plan.
Ganryū also watched as the black stuff took form into the shape of a large spike, moulding together as if it was alive.
"How is he doing that... Its as if the puppet itself is using chakra." He said, knowing what was going to happen next.
"Look out!" Ganryū yelled, watching as Sasori threw the object toward them, aiming for Ganryū knowing he was the leader.
Meanwhile...
Orochimaru was still battling the monster known as Kimimaro, who had taken the full form of the three tails, not wasting any time in trying to defeat the Sannin.
Orochimaru had done his best to deal with the monster so far, however, his efforts had proved ineffective, being forced on the retreat after one of his strongest wind styles, capable of levelling a small forest had proved useless against Kimimaro's might.
Using his tongue to wrap around a tree, Orochimaru was able to avoid being crushed by one of the three tails while the other two crushed his summoning twin-headed snake into the ground.
"I have no choice." Orochimaru said, making the hand signs for another summoning.
"Summoning jutsu!" He said while slivering around the tree he landed on, creating a huge burst of white smoke and bringing another creature out, levelling the terrain where he had been standing.
Kimimaro watched from inside his inner world along with Isobu as the twin-headed snake beneath them burst into dust, revealing a new opponent before them.
"You really summoned me to fight this guy..." A deep and menacing voice said, revealing a huge purple snake with black rings running down intervals on his body, four large horns on its head and piercing green slits for eyes.
"You really are stupid, trying to mess around with one of these guys is suicide." The colossal serpent said, knowing that Isobu was one of the 9 tailed beasts.
"Now, now, Manda," Orochimaru said, already knowing that he was going to complain about the situation.
"Very well. But I want 100... No 200 human sacrifices for this!" The snake yelled as it made its demands.
"Done," Orochimaru said, not even batting an eyelid to its demands.
"What is that thing?" Kimimaro asked, never having seen something so large before, other than Isobu himself.
"That is Manda. The strongest serpent of the Ryūchi cave where the snake summons reside. To have tamed a creature like that is truly no small feat." Isobu said, impressing Kimimaro with his knowledge.
"I want him alive Manda." Orochimaru said while he took a kneeling position on the snake's head.
"Alive? Anything else!" The snake yelled before it burst into action, slivering across the ground at an alarming rate, changing the terrain with its humongous body while doing so before it reached Isobu and tried to coil its body around him to hold in place, squeezing as tight as it could.
"No way, it's even bigger than you Isobu!" Kimimaro said, seeing that the snake had been able to coil its body around Isobu in the blink of an eye, trying to crush him.
However, Isobu's armour was so thick that Manda was only hurting itself as he tried to squeeze even tighter, feeling the spikes around its body dig into him.
"Get off!" Isobu roared, using its tails to grab onto and smash against Manda's body, causing the snake to howl out in pain before it let go and pushed off of Isobu's body into the air.
"Its shell is too thick, it will take a huge amount of force for us to deal enough damage to that monster!" Manda yelled while flying into the air and flipping around before it was about to start falling.
"We will use that jutsu then," Orochimaru said, creating the shadow clone sign and making four clones that stood next to him side by side.
"Now Manda!" Orochimaru yelled, getting the large snake to start spinning in the air like a bullet aiming toward Isobu before Orochimaru and his shadow clones all made their own hand signs.
"This isn't good Kimimaro! They are coming at us with everything they have!" Isobu yelled, sounding more panicked than Kimimaro had ever seen him before.
"I will have to use that jutsu!" Isobu yelled, gathering as much chakra as he could and concentrating it into one point in front of his mouth.
No way... A full power-tailed beast bomb. Kimimaro thought, watching as Orochimaru and Manda were flying down toward them at full speed.
"Five-element giant bullet!" Orochimaru yelled, with himself and each of his clones unleashing one of the five elements from their mouths causing Manda to become encased in all of the elements making him look like a giant tornado with lightning, water, earth, fire and wind jutsu all surrounding them both.
"All five elements at once..." Kimimaro said, never having seen a battle like this one before, having to question whether or not Isobu's tailed beast blast would be enough to stop them.
"We can't lose here, go Isobu!" Kimimaro yelled, causing Isobu to finally launch the full-powered tailed beast bomb, never having made one so big before as he fired it straight up at Orochimaru and Manda.
"BOOM"
Both Orochimaru and the tailed beast bomb met in the sky, creating such a huge explosion that it could be seen for miles. The destructive force of the blast was enough to completely destroy the terrain around them, levelling the mountains and wiping out the forest as if a nuclear bomb had gone off.
The light that came off of the explosion was so bright that neither Kimimaro nor Isobu could see anything, blinding them to the outcome of their own attack.
However, despite the power and huge amount of chakra that Isobu had been able to pump into its attack, Orochimaru had managed to break through with Manda, surrounded by the five elements and overcoming the destructive power of the bijuu bomb before they smashed into Isobu's thick armour with all the destructive power that had been able to overcome his bijuu bomb.
Orochimaru's combined attack with Manda created another huge explosion, blasting both Isobu and himself back from the force of the attack, completely destroying the landscape with the incredible jutsu as Isobu hit the ground and bounced along it, rolling like a giant rag doll untill it crashed into a large cliff face.
"Did we get him!" Manda yelled, having felt the sting of the destructive force, even if it was their own combined attack, slowly slivering upright to get a better view.
Orochimaru was also feeling a little shaken from the raw power that they had dished out, being forced to squint his eyes to try and see the outcome of the titanic clash.
"He is ours for the taking." Orochimaru hissed in victory as the dust from their battle finally settled into the night.
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That's the end of this chapter I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for reading.