Hello, everyone, I present you the newest chapter of "Konoha's young sage" story!

* Review response:
fanficreader71, warriorx559, King of the Kiln, karthik9, Elemental Dragon Swordman, jarediz13, blasterdog, Lord Kolos, hehe123, thank you for your reviews, folks!
787neohedgehod, no, this story (obviously) isn't abandoned. I'm just not updating it as often as I used to.

* Jutsu list:
Onipou: katon: akai jun - (unranked demonic jutsu) demonic arts: fire style: red shield – user creates a semi-spherical shield of yoki in front of him/her. The shield can withstandalmost any non-demonic fire attacks, as well as most of wind, earth and lightning jutsus, but is rather weak against water-based attacks.
Fuuton: kaze no yaiba - (unknown rank) Wind style: wind blade - an arc of cutting wind
Onipou: katon: atsui kanazuchi - (unranked demonic jutsu) demonic arts: fire style: fiery hammer – user draws a circle in the air, before placing a hand in the center of the said circle. This results in a powerful beam of energy being released.
Kibaku Nendo - (no set rank) Exploding clay - Earth-related technique that allows Deidara to model clay into animal figures that he can control. These figures can either be used to attack his targets (by making the figures explode; the power of the explosion is not set and depends on how much chakra was put into his particular figure) or as a means to transport himself and others around.
Onipou: youton: entsuchi - (unranked demonic jutsu) demonic arts: lava style: land of fires - creates a shielding half-sphere of lava under the caster.
Fuuton: daitoppa - (C-rank) Wind style: great breakthrough - This jutsu creates a large blast of wind capable of leveling almost anything in its way.
Onipou: katon: ranendan - (unranked demonic jutsu) demonic arts: fire style: storm of fireballs - creates many fireballs flying in mostly random directions from the caster.
Onipou: katon: ranenkiri - (unranked demonic jutsu) demonic arts: fire style: storm of fire blades - pretty much the same as the one above, but with fire blades instead of fireballs.
Imari - (demonic jutsu) Menacing ball - A ball of yoki that turns into an energy beam that disintegrates everything on its way.
Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu - (C-rank) Fire style: great fireball - user exhales a fireball from his mouth.
Katon: Housenka no jutsu - (C-rank) Fire style: Mystical fire phoenix technique - user exhales many small fireballs form his/her mouth.
Kawarimi - (E-rank) Substitution - jutsu user quickly replaces him/her-self with a nearby object.
Doton: ganchuusou - (unknown rank) Earth style: rock pillar spear - creates a rock spear rising form the ground.
Doton: iwate - (B-rank) Earth style: stone hands - ninjutsu I created. After performing needed handseals user will place his hands on the ground or concrete and it will form hard-to-destroy gauntlets around user's hands. Unfortunately, this jutsu constanty drains user's chakra, while it is active.
Ookuya - (D-rank) Multiple arrows - one more jutsu I created. Shoots several spears from the gauntlet, formed by Doton: iwate jutsu.
Doton: keisei - (B-rank) Earth style: formation - jutsu of my own creation. Allows user to modify earth in a small area at his will. User need to stand on the ground to do this jutsu.

Disclaimer: still don't own 'Naruto' or any of it's characters...

"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using Kyuubi's power or Gaara while using Shukaku's / jutsus / Cursed seal second level users"
'thinking of higher beings / Kyuubi talking to Naruto through mental link / mentally activated jutsus'

chapter 25: The great fights

While Deidara didn't know about Naruto's sage mode, common sense dictated that your opponent concentrating on something during the fight usually mean some really powerful attack coming. So, the 'mad bomber' from the Hidden Stone found himself in need of stopping the Kyuubi jinchuuriki from completing his technique, which meant that a second later several clay birds were speeding towards the demon container.

"Onipou: katon: akai jin!" Seeing the incoming attack, the demoness raised a fiery shield to protect her container: she knew that he couldn't move at all while gathering natural energy for the sage mode of his. Thankfully, the bombs that Deidara used weren't anything really powerful, nor did they come from multiple angles, so her shield did what she needed from it perfectly... Meanwhile, the Iwa missing-nin was already sending the next barrage of flying bombs towards them. And this time, he was a bit more creative about their trajectories. Still, Kurama smirked to herself, it was nothing that her mighty self couldn't handle...

And by the time the third flock of clay birds started homing onto Naruto, the said blond was already opening his eyes, golden-yellow with horizontal pupils, signifying that he had successfully entered his sage mode. And, seeing this, the demoness canceled her shield to allow her partner to counterattack... Quickly drawing his kunai from the holster on his leg, the blond demon container made a slashing movement towards Deidara.

"Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!" Too bad, the Iwa missing-nin managed to maneuver his bird out of the wind sword's way. Naruto, though, didn't seem to be too disappointed by this – it was kind of expected: his opponent was an S-rank ninja after all... Flashing through another set of handseals, the young sage unleashed his next attack: "Fuuton: daitoppa!"

"Onipou: katon: atsui kanazuchi!" The nine-tailed demoness fired her own attack a moment later. Her beam of orange fire connected with Naruto's wind technique and, drawing power from it, became a raging torrent of flames so great that Deidara had no choice but to abandon the bird he was riding to escape with his life. Thankfully, he didn't put any explosive chakra into it... Still in midair, the 'mad bomber' finished creating his next piece of art.

"Kibaku nendo: C2: doragon!" A small clay figurine expanded into a fifty meters long dragon with a long tail formed by multitude of spheres. And now knowing how dangerous his opponents' jutsu can be to his art, the Iwa missing-nin had the dragon gain some altitude.

Now that he was sure that his rather slow and bulky clay beast was relatively safe from the attacks the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and his summon could unleash, Deidara thought about what to do next. He needed to keep these two away from his partner's fight with the Nibi jinchuuriki, but now it was also shown to him that he needed to be very careful in dealing with the Kyuubi container: Zetsu might be a great spy, but the plant-like man could not be everywhere at once, and so it looked like he hadn't seen the entire set of nine-tails' container's abilities. Oh well, even it was like this, Deidara mused, his art still was superior. And so now it was time for some mines...

"Something is coming." Naruto said aloud as he saw a ball from the dragon's tail disappear. And when the clay beast looked like it was about to eruct something, he quickly did the handseals for one of the most powerful earth element shields he knew. But when instead of homing flying bombs, a myriad of volleyball-sized bedbugs appeared out of the dragon's mouth, the young sage let the chakra for his earth technique dissipate: there were better ways to deal with these, it seemed. "Fuuton: renkuudan!" Naruto breathed out a large ball of compressed air, which then exploded some thirty meters off the ground, sending Deidara's bombs flying away from his position in all directions. The Iwa missing-nin didn't seem to be too disappointed by this, and a second later the Kyuubi jinchuuriki understood why: the bedbug bombs just burrowed into the ground where they landed, effectively creating a mine field. But that was not all: with the sensor abilities of his sage mode, Naruto could feel that these bombs were also moving under the ground towards his position... Apparently, Kurama could sense that too as his single nod to her was enough to let her know what he wanted her to do. The redhead knelt, pressing her both palms to the ground.

"Onipou: youton: entsuchi!" A second later she and her container were standing on a circular 'island' of about fifteen meters in diameter that swam in a small lava lake. And explosions coming from all sides were a clear indication that the clay bombs couldn't bypass this fiery barrier... Unfortunately for the duo, though, Deidara didn't wait for all of his bedbug bombs to explode before he initiated his next attack – a group of very fast bird bombs.

"Doton: keisei!" Naruto manipulated the earth around him and his demoness into a protective cocoon, which kept them safe from the birds' explosions. Also, this cocoon provided the blond sage with a cover he needed to prepare for his next attack: summoning a single shadow clone, he gave it the repaired and improved puppet-shuriken. Then the clone shunshin'ed away into the forest: it will be attacking Deidara from a covered position...

It was a little more than a second since the clone left, when a powerful explosion from the outside destroyed the cocoon. Looking up at his opponent, Naruto could see that the clay dragon's tail was another ball shorted. Apparently, this beast could make only so many attacks, before it became nothing more that a big and slow transport for the Iwa missing-nin...

Seeing that Deidara was preparing some attack, as was his dragon, the young jinchuuriki decided that it was the high time for him to counterattack. And the Kyuubi, who didn't need to keep the lava lake active at the moment, was going to help him there.

"Onipou: katon: ranendan!" A ring of fire surrounded the red-haired demoness and a moment later it started shooting balls of fire in such a way that dodging those was pretty much impossible for something as slow as Deidara's dragon.

"Fuuton: daitoppa!" Naruto breathed out a gust of wind that further increased the power of his demoness' fireballs. The 'mad bomber' from the Hidden Stone didn't expect an attack with such a wide area of effect, and so he was forced to abandon the dragon in order to escape with the minimal damage to himself. And quickly changing the bomb he was preparing into a bird to carry him, he didn't even had to spend any time in the free fall. Plus, the smoke form the dragon's explosion that covered a significant part of the sky also provided him with enough cover to create several clay clones with their own birds...

Understandably, Naruto was quite frustrated when his and Kurama's combined attack not only didn't hurt Deidara, but also allowed the Akatsuki member to multiply himself with clones. And even worse, because of how high those were in the air, even with his sage mode it was really hard to read chakra levels in hopes of determining which was the real one.

Thankfully, it was when the puppet-shuriken controlled by the blond sage's hidden clone entered the stage. And since there was a liberal amounts of wind chakra extending the weapon's blades as well as amplifying its speed and maneuverability, the bombers in the air all had to be quite careful if they didn't want their existence ended, which meant that they couldn't just carpet bomb their target to end this fight quickly...

"Onipou: katon: ranenkiri!" The dissipating ring of fire that was surrounding the Kyuubi was back to its full power and was now spitting out curved blades made entirely out of flames into the skies. Naruto didn't even feel the need to amplify those with his wind techniques as he didn't want to spoil his demoness' fun: she sure seemed to enjoy this little 'game'.

Deidara, on the other hand, didn't like the predicament he found himself in. Not at all. And if the flying buzz saw was not enough, the techniques that the Kyuubi's container's summoned ally was using were not something that the 'mad bomber' associated with human. And not just because of their names. Still, it looked like that energy construct was actually the nine-tailed demon in its human form. The Iwa missing-nin, despite being quite familiar with the jinchuuriki – after all, the Hidden Stone village had two – he had never heard about a demon container having an ability to create an independently acting avatar of the beast. This was not in Zetsu's report on the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, and Deidara intended to fix that defect as soon as he and Sasori were back to the safe headquarters of the Akatsuki organization. Preferably both alive and with the Nibi jinchuuriki captured. Right now, though, he had other things to worry about...

To his right, one of hit clones got hit by the puppet-shuriken and ended up being cut into two at its waist. Still, as the damage was not enough to destroy the clay clone – it was just a cut, plain and simple, even if wind chakra was involved – so it reformed alright. But unlike his clones, Deidara himself was not made from clay, and so being cut into two would be rather fatal to him. So, he needed to do his best to avoid this troublesome remotely-controlled shuriken. As well as those demonic techniques the Kyuubi's avatar was throwing around: those were fatal even for his clones as fire made them detonate.

Oh well, this fight was most definitely not going the way the Akatsuki duo had planned, and for all his supposed S-rank, Deidara was forced on the defensive as the team of a jinchuuriki and his bijuu was doing their best to blast him off the sky. And considering that out of the four clones only one was still alive, their best was quite damn good... Thankfully, he didn't need to win against these two: just keep them occupied for long enough for Sasori to deal with the jinchuuriki of the two-tails, but that was a weak consolation...

His thinking about how things in this fight went wrong and about his inability to do much to change that – he couldn't even use C3 or C4 as Leader-sama would have his head if he accidentally killed the Kyuubi jinchuuriki – was interrupted by that damned puppet-shuriken flying towards him. He himself, of course, managed to dodge the blades, but, unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about his bird, which now was missing its right wing. Plus, he wasn't high enough to be able to create a new one from the clay in his pouches before he would reach the ground...

'Note to self: always carry several spare carrier-birds on my person.' Deidara thought, as he skillfully used tree branches to slow down his fall. Of course, he could just disappear now, but then his opponents would rejoin the Nibi jinchuuriki, and the Iwa missing-nin was quite sure that Sasori won't survive the three on one fight then... He could also try to get back into the air, but it was already proven to him that he wasn't as untouchable there as he thought he was. Finally, he could try to continue attacking the Kyuubi jinchuuriki while remaining on the ground and hope that the forest will provide him with enough cover: of course, he wasn't too weak in close-ranged combat, but he was sure that he wasn't strong enough to take on a jinchuuriki of the nine-tails and his damn bijuu like that.

Deidara once again had this musing interrupted when he sensed a great build-up of demonic energy coming roughly from the same place where he saw the avatar of the Kyuubi last. And considering that he wasn't a sensor, this meant that nothing good was about to happen. Really, there was only one attack that he knew of that could require so much power; he had never seen Imari before and he really hoped to avoid seeing it now, but... He needed to run and fast as Zetsu had reported that Naruto Uzumaki was a sensor, and so, likely, could help the Kyuubi with its aim.

The idea to run was proved to be a life-saving one as not three seconds later a good portion of a forest he was hiding in just now was turned into ashes by the fiery blast. And before he could even recover from being almost vaporized, the flying buzz saw of a puppet-shuriken made its return. Damn, today was most definitely not his day, the 'mad bomber' of the Akatsuki organization thought...

~/ *** \~

While his partner was busy with keeping the Kyuubi jinchuuriki occupied, Sasori had his own fight with the container of the two-tails. Not exactly a perfect opponent for him as his puppets had a glaring weakness against fire, but the Suna missing-nin was positive that he could overcome the Kumo kunoichi without losing anything valuable from his puppet collection.

He had opened their fight with his almost standard move of launching a hailstorm of poisoned senbon needles at the container of the Nibi no Nekomata. Not entirely unexpectedly, the blond kunoichi evaded the attack by jumping over the mass of the projectiles... And while she was still in the mid-air, the puppet-master tried to hit her with several kunai – those too were poisoned – but those only hit a log that Yugito had substituted herself with...

As soon as she regained her balance, the Nibi jinchuuriki threw several kunai with explosive tags attached, but Sasori deflected those with his mechanical tail, and the explosions did nothing more that trifle his Akatsuki cloak. Of course, the Kumo kunoichi wasn't standing still during this, and she was preparing her next attack.

"Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!" She breathed out of big fireball about the same time the tags on kunai she threw exploded. The puppeteer just jumped out of the way, though with his 'body' it wasn't as easy to do as he would have liked: Hiruko, while a good protection, was slow and hulking... Seeing that her opponent wasn't counterattacking just yet, Yugito pressed her advantage and unleashed her next attack: "Katon: housenka no jutsu!" This time Sasori had to dodge a multitude of small fireballs, and he did that with a quick kawarimi, disappearing into the woods. For several seconds the Nibi jinchuuriki was looking around, trying to locate the puppet master, but even with her heightened senses she couldn't detect him.

Suddenly, the man revealed himself by sending another hailstorm of senbon at her, but this had Yugito too busy with dodging to answer him with a technique of her own. Plus, for all she knew, he could have changed his position already... Another second later that assumption was proven correct as a second barrage of poisoned needles came from a different direction. And this time, one of the needles actually scratched her shoulder. The amount of poison that got into her blood, though, wasn't fatal. It wouldn't even knock her unconscious, but Yugito was no fool and she knew that she had all but lost her fight now: the poison will undoubtedly slow her down, and Sasori will have no problems with capturing her. And where the hell was Fuu?

A moment later, though, the Nibi jinchuuriki was fully concentrating on her opponent again as he emerged from the trees with a pretty basic puppet flying on each side. The strange thing was that the chakra-threads used to control the puppets were coming nor from Sasori's hands, but somewhere from his chest, but at the moment Yugito paid little attention to that as she was watching the puppets and their master for their next attack, which she absolutely needed to dodge.

"Doton: ganchuusou!" Before the Suna missing-nin could react, a stone spear rose from the ground, tearing the puppet on his left into the useless splinters. A moment later Fuu jumped out of the trees with rock gauntlets surrounding her hands, and attempted to punch the puppeteer. Of course, being an S-rank ninja, Sasori dodged this attack, but it still almost got him, leaving a sizable crater where he stood moments ago. The teal-haired kunoichi didn't stop there and once again used rock spears to try and screw the Akatsuki agent, but she was quite unsuccessful with this. It didn't stop the girl, though, and she continued attacking: "Ookuya!" Fuu said, pointing her hands at the puppeteer, who now found himself under the barrage of heavy rock darts. Still, those were nothing that his mechanical tail couldn't deflect...

Overcoming his shock at seeing another demon container here, and his anger at Zetsu and his own spies for not informing him about this extra threat, Sasori went on offensive again, using his remaining summoned puppet and Hiruko's left hand to launch a mass of poisoned senbon at the two kunoichi in front of him... Fuu responded by raising a stone wall that blocked all of the projectiles with ease. And using the time she won by this to her advantage, the teal-haired kunoichi swiftly moved to her fellow demon container and, placed her hand over the Yugito's wound.

"This should help you." She said as a pale-green glow surrounded her hand. A moment later the Kumo kunoichi felt the effects of the poisoning slowly disappearing.

"You can do this?" The Nibi jinchuuriki asked: she never expected Fuu – or any other demon container for that matter – to be able to use medical ninjutsu.

"While my bijuu is almost completely an Earth elemental, Choumei also has some poison-related abilities, which is why I can isolate poison in your body and remove it from your system." The container of the seven-tails explained. Yugito nodded.

"Thank you." She said, before adding after a short pause: "Now, let's deal with the Akatsuki." Not two seconds after she said that, the stone wall erected by Fuu was destroyed by a group of puppets that held humongous bladed weapons in their hands. While the blond kunoichi was still thinking about the way to deal with these, the other girl already had a possible solution in her mind.

"Doton: keisei!" Stone spikes rose from the ground, forming huge cages around the puppets. Sure, Sasori managed to get four of his creations away, but the other two still got trapped. For a few seconds, as there was no doubt that their blades could cut through this rock just as well as they did through the stone wall earlier... Understanding her partner's plan, Yugito wasted no time and flashed through some handseals:

"Katon: housenka no jutsu!" Being trapped in the stone cages, even if those were quite huge, the puppets had no real way to dodge this shower of fireballs, and soon both were burning brightly as the oils their creator used were more than quite inflammable... While the Nibi jinchuuriki was playing with fire, Fuu found herself under the assault of the other three puppets that had weapons in their hands. But she defended herself well against those with her gauntlets, and she even managed to damage of the puppets rather badly with a well-placed punch to its 'chest'. "Fuu!" Seeing her partner and fellow jinchuuriki preparing an attack, the teal-haired kunoichi jumped aside. And a moment later a stream of fire ignited the puppets she had been fighting moments ago.

"Watch out!" The container of the seven-tail shouted as she saw Sasori's last puppet ready to fire something at Yugito. But it looked like the Kumo kunoichi didn't need this warning as she dodged the stream of needles with cat-like grace, while continuing to breathe out more flames to turn those three armed puppets into nothing more than ashes...

"Thanks." The Nibi jinchuuriki said as she finally stopped powering her fire technique. Looking to the right, she saw Sasori himself preparing some really powerful attack. Fuu could see that two, so the two girls just exchanged nods, before the Taki kunoichi raised a stone wall. Just in time to block all seven packs of senbon needles and another pack of kunai that the Akatsuki puppeteer fired at them. A moment later, though, the wall got blown into pieces as, apparently, the blades had explosive tags attached to them. And tags with some obscure poisons too as the smoke from the explosion was of an unnatural purplish color. Not wanting to test what the Suna missing-nin had put in this poison, both girls quickly got as far away from the dangerous cloud as they could. And Fuu also used the cover it provided to summon a group of shadow clones: it was time to counterattack the puppet master for real!

Sasori was a bit surprised, when a group of clones broke through the poisonous cloud, but he was back to his full-alert long before they were ready rain their attacks on him or the puppet he still had by his side. And when the clones were close enough, he had the puppet start spinning around like a little bladed tornado, ripping the clones into the wisps of white smoke... For a moment, the Akatsuki puppeteer was wondering what was the purpose of this attack as sending shadow clones against something with blades usually was just a waste of chakra.

Then he got his answer, when the ground under his feet exploded, turning into a forest of thick and sharp rock spikes... His lightning-fast reflexes allowed Sasori himself to escape at the very last moment, but, unfortunately, Hiruko got destroyed. Same with the heavily modified standard puppet he had by his side at that moment, but it was nothing special, so he wasn't going to cry (even if he was able to) over its loss.

"Interesting... You used shadow clones to get my position without having to see me yourself, and you confused me into believing that the clones were the real attack with their number." The puppeteer said as he took one of the scrolls from his cloak and opened it. A moment later a large and imposing human puppet was floating in front of him. And had the girls been better versed in Suna history, they'd recognize this puppet to be made from Sandaime Kazekage himself. "But you broke my Hiruko, so, I'm afraid, I'll have to break you in turn." The Akatsuki agent said as he made his puppet fire several poison bombs to where he thought his targets were hiding.

His aim proved to be quite right as both kunoichi jumped out of the new poisonous cloud moment later. Judging by the effects he could see, neither jinchuuriki got as much of his poison as he hoped, but no matter... That was just a preparatory attack after all. Now, a hundred or so of iron sand balls hovering in front of his puppet were the real attack...

But before he could unleash it, Sasori froze. Actually, he wasn't the only one: both his opponents too seemed to be frozen where they stood. And a moment later all three of them understood what caused this when, following a release of a huge build-up of energy, a wave of reddish smoke rose above the trees: Naruto – or the Kyuubi – had just used Imari. Neither of the three thought that it was possible to use that without entering full-bijuu state, and they all were quite sure that they would have seen the nine-tails, had Naruto transformed into it.

Sasori was the first one to get out of this sudden stupor, and he didn't waste a single moment before sending the shrapnel of iron sand balls at the two kunoichi. Fuu was the first one to react as she both hardened her skin with doton: domu technique and raised a stone wall to protect both herself and Yugito... Unfortunately, the wall proved to be of little use there, as the metallic projectiles broke through it without any great troubles. Still, the wall slowed those iron sand balls down enough for Fuu's stone skin to protect the girl completely. The Nibi jinchuuriki wasn't as lucky...

Without any personal protection active, the shrapnel left several deep wounds on her stomach and upper legs, and even if it wasn't poisoned – and knowing Sasori it was – this fight for Yugito was over: one just couldn't fight well with such wounds...

It took Fuu a second or so to recover from the puppet master's attack: even if it didn't hurt her much it still knocked her on her ass. And once the teal-haired kunoichi was back to her feet and ready to continue fighting, she summoned a single shadow clone to take care of her comrade. She might not be any good at healing, but extracting poisons from Yugito's wounds and getting her the hell outta the battlefield was well within Fuu's abilities. And, of course, now she also had to beat the Akatsuki agent on her own...

Of course, Sasori wasn't about to let his primary target slip away from him just that easily, so he had the puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage send a huge block of iron sand at the Nibi jinchuuriki and the clone that was carrying her away. But the real teal-haired kunoichi was prepared for this, and redirected this attack away from them with several thick stone walls... And before the block finally stopped moving, she already was attacking Sasori, closing in in hopes that the puppet was not as strong in close combat as it was in ranged.

She was swiftly proven wrong in that assumption as a good hundred of puppet arms slammed her into the ground as soon as she got into the trap's range. Damn, now she will be all sore and blue tomorrow because of this. At least her stone skin had protected her from the worst... Drawing some of her bijuu's powers, Fuu pushed herself off the ground and using her now more than just superhuman strength, broke all those hundred arms that had her pinned down previously as she rolled to the side. Just in time to avoid losing her right arm to an oversized guillotine knife...

Quickly getting back on her feet, the Taki kunoichi resumed her attack, using a multitude of stone spikes to make Sasori start dodging. She actually managed to harm his puppet with this attack as well, but, unfortunately, it was nothing to make it less useful to the Suna missing-nin... Continuing to press her momentary advantage, the teal-haired girl once again aimed her gauntlets at her opponent.

"Ookuya!" Because there was little space between them, Sasori had no time to dodge, and several stone bolts were now sticking both through his puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage and his own head. Good thing that his body was just another puppet, or such a wound most definitely would have been fatal... That, and it was quite amusing to see the faces when he pulled his head off his shoulders and removed the offending pieces of rock from it. "Hey! You're a puppet!" Fuu pointed out the obvious. Sasori didn't reply and, instead, un-summoned the puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage: it was getting quite too risky to continue using it if he didn't want to completely sacrifice it, and it already required some long and expensive repairs...

Right now, he was going to bring the damned jinchuuriki of seven-tails down with his best puppet: his own body. So, he removed his Akatsuki cloak, revealing his artificial body to still shocked Fuu. The girl barely had any time to react when he raised his arms at her and started firing jets of white-hot flames. Still, with the powers of her bijuu circulating through her body and now forming a single-tailed cloak of yoki around her being, the teal-haired kunoichi was able to escape the scorching flames, even if barely...

As she continued running in circle around the red-haired puppet master, she tried to close in and hit him from behind, but as she quickly learned, the blades on Sasori's back were quite functional and almost took her hand off when she made a mistake of getting too close to him.

Still, the fire the Akatsuki agent was using was not something of his own creation and, instead, came from one of the many scrolls was carrying on his person. So, sooner or later it would be all used up. And that was exactly what Fuu was waiting for: once the flames stopped coming from Sasori's hands, she charged at him, ready to destroy his artificial body with one mighty punch... Too bad, she didn't really think about the hose that resided in puppet master's gut. Thus, she was quite surprised when she found herself tightly bound by the said hose, stopped dead in her track when her fist was just several inches away from her opponent's chest.

Raising the teal-haired annoyance on the hose, the Suna missing-nin though about what he should do with her. Killing her was out of question as then Leader-sama would be quite angry. And having Leader-sama angry at you was never a good thing: the man was so powerful that he likely could take the rest of Akatsuki on by himself and be the only one to walk away alive. Capturing this jinchuuriki now too wasn't a great idea as it was far too early for the sealing of seven-tails, that and Sasori had no desire to listed to Kakuzu's complains about his precious money being wasted on feeding a prisoner. Maybe he should take a page from Kisame's book and cut the girl's legs, the redhead thought. This will definitely make her so much easier to capture later on...

The puppet master's musings were cut short, though, when he felt Fuu drawing more of her bijuu's powers. And before he could throw her away or something, the Taki kunoichi shifted into a three-tailed version of her demonic cloak, which also created a shock wave so powerful that ripped the hose into pieces and threw Sasori across the clearing and into a large tree, where his puppet body fell apart from the force of the hit. Still, at the very last moment he managed to make a deep cut on the left side of her stomach with one of his blades.

Quickly reverting back to a single-tail mode – she still had great troubles controlling herself when she was using more – Fuu as quickly as her wound allowed her approached the downed missing-nin, who was trying to reassemble his puppet body. Making a educated guess that since the chakra threads were coming from 'man's' midsection, it was also where mind and the source of chakra were, the jinchuuriki of seven-tails raised two slabs of rock and squashed that part of the puppet. Well, almost, as a single cylinder that clearly contained some biological materials 'jumped' out of the body just before it was crashed. But before this cylinder could do anything, the teal-haired girl caught it with her rock gauntlet.

"So, this is what real Sasori is, huh?" She asked no one in particular, while the cylinder was trying to escape from her grip in vain. Then she crashed it too, thus killing the once greatest puppeteer of the Hidden Sand... Taking a deep breath, Fuu dispelled the demonic cloak around herself and headed to where her clone – it got canceled when she entered three-tailed mode – left Yugito...

"You killed him?" Yugito, who was lying in a comfortable gap between tree roots, whispered in an almost disbelieving tone when a beaten up Fuu limped into her field of view. The teal-haired girl just nodded tiredly, before almost dropping onto the soft moss next to her fellow jinchuuriki. Forcing herself to keep going, Fuu did a scan on the blonde next to her, and was quite happy to find out that her clone managed to get most of the poison out of Yugito's bloodstream before it got dispelled. Still, it'd be better if she finishes the job...

Half an hour later, after the both girls had patched themselves to the best of their abilities – mostly this meant that the poisons were removed from their bodies, and that their wounds were properly bandaged now – they decided that it was about time they rejoined the final member of their little group. They knew that Naruto too had won his fight, even if they weren't there to see that themselves. But what other outcome could have been there if there was no mad bombers trying to blow them up? That and they still could feel the powerful presence of the Kyuubi nearby...
So, using each other for support, the two kunoichi started walking towards their group's third member's location. It wasn't actually that far from where they were, but with with their wounds, it still took them at least ten minutes to get there.

The two female jinchuuriki were already entering the clearing where their Naruto was, when they sensed – and actually saw, even if they didn't caught its original form – the Kyuubi disappearing in the red mist of yoki... For some reason, to the girls it looked like the supposedly fearsome nine-tailed demon had been in a human-like form and had been putty sitting between blond sage's legs... Shaking their heads to clear the unwanted and unneeded images from them, the girls surveyed the clearing.

Naruto was sitting against a fallen and mostly destroyed tree, looking quite better than his fellow two jinchuuriki. Sure, his clothes too were damaged and he himself was covered with bruises and small cuts, but at least he had no serious wounds. What was more important, though, was an unconscious captured missing-nin that was laid against the same fallen tree, bound with ropes and with his chakra sealed away. The said missing-nin, of course, was no one other than Deidara...

"You... You captured him, Naruto-kun?" Fuu asked in surprise. The young sage nodded in response.

"Well..." He began.

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Lemon warning. If you do not wish to read it, skip to the next paragraph, you won't lose anything plot-wise

Naruto was not at all surprised to find himself in the tropical forest that was the representation of his subconscious as soon as he fell asleep in the real world. The Kyuubi had helped him greatly in his fight today, and now she wanted her reward. Not that he will ever mind 'paying' the passionate redhead for her services... Shaking his head, the blond sage started walking through the tropical forest, much like the one at the Mt. Myoboku, that represented his mind. Passing through the blue-ish semi-transparent barrier that existed between two warrior toad statues and showed where the 'seal' began without any hesitations, he headed deeper into the 'forest' to where he knew the vixen's most favorite spot was.

And indeed the said red-haired seductress was there, lying on a huge leaf of some tropical plant completely naked, with her left hand playing with her delicious breasts while her right one was quite busy between the her legs making her moan softly in pleasure... Sensing her lover's approach, the demoness stopped playing with herself. Opening her blood-red and slitted eyes, she smiled seductively at him, before bringing her right hand to her mouth and sucking her fingers clean from her juices one by one in the most erotic and arousing fashion possible. Then she smiled at him again, beckoning him to join her on the leaf.

Naruto just nodded and a moment later, having wished his clothes to disappear, was as naked as the lovely vixen in front of him was. Not wanting to keep his lover waiting any longer, he moved into standing on all fours on top of her, and the Kyuubi wrapped her hands around his shoulders and raised her head to claim his lips for a long and heated kiss, while also not-so-secretly enjoying his rock-hard erection against her lower stomach.

"And now, fuck me good with that fat cock of yours." The demoness told him once they broke their kiss. Her container kept looking into her eyes for several long moments, but seeing that this was indeed what she wanted nodded. Giving him a reassuring smile the red-haired vixen spread her legs wider and, unwrapping her hand from around his neck, she snaked it down there to guide his fully-erect member into her wet and wanting pussy.

"Mm-a-ah!" The Kyuubi moaned from the great feeling of being complemented by her lover so very nicely. It was the feeling she could never get tired from. Naruto was in full agreement with her, though he wasn't as vocal about that.

After several seconds of being still, the young sage started moving, slowly thrusting in and out of his red-haired lover's tight snatch, earning himself more moans full of pleasure from the vixen, who now had her long and shapely legs wrapped tightly around his waist... For a couple of minutes the two were quite content with their rather slow love-making, but then the Kyuubi started thrusting her hips back, reminding Naruto that she wanted nothing less than good thorough fuck from him. Smirking, he claimed her lips for another steaming-hot kiss, while increasing the speed and depth of his thrusts and adding more power to them, something that the redhead wholeheartedly approved. ...Breaking the kiss, the demoness raised her head to her lover's ear and whispered hotly:

"You can play with my ass too, you know." This was followed by her moan of pleasure as Naruto made an especially deep and powerful thrust into her delicious pussy.

"As my crimson princess wants." The blonde replied as he moved his hand south to where the action was going on and, covering his fingers with the juices that had escaped from his lover's incredible pussy, rubbed them against her pretty rosebud, getting a moan of approval form her. Deciding that his demoness knew what she wanted, he pushed his middle finger past her ring and found it surrounded by her hot, soft and really tight dark tunnel; and after a couple of seconds later he started fingering his lover's asshole in the rhythm with his trusts into her pussy. A loud moan of pleasure from the Kyuubi told him that she loved what he was doing...

With so much stimulation, it didn't take the red-haired demoness too much time to reach her orgasm, and she came with a silent cry of ecstasy, her pussy tightening around Naruto's cock, trying to milk his seed from it, while her ass seemingly was trying to do the same with his finger... And this new-found tightness of her snatch brought the young sage close to his own orgasm.

"I'm gonna... A-ah... cum, Kyuu-chan!" He moaned out as he kept thrusting into her pussy. The response he got was a full of passion kiss from the demoness as her legs brought him as deep into her as possible.

"Then cum!" The red-haired vixen told him once their lips parted. "Fill me with your cream, I want it all inside!" These words were enough to send Naruto over the edge and he exploded into his lover's delightful pussy with his huge load of hot thick cum, earning a content moan from her. Rolling them over and finally pulling his finger out of the her pretty butt, he wrapped his arms around his lovely demoness' waist pulling her in a tight embrace...

Several minutes later the young sage felt his vixen move and, opening his eyes, saw that now she was sitting on top of him with her hands planted firmly against his chest, as she worked her inner muscles to bring his cock back to its full mast. Something that wasn't hard at all for the red-haired hottie.

"Did you really think that one time would be enough to satisfy me? Oh no, Naruto-koi, our night ins't over yet." The Kyuubi said with a playful smirk as she raised herself on his dick, before fully impaling herself on it again, making them both let out a moan of pleasure.

"Then why don't I give you a ride to the cloud nine?" The blond sage asked with a smirk of his own. The nine-tailed vixen seemed to love this idea and so she began bouncing on his cock, her beautiful breast jiggling most erotically with her every movement... Naruto wasn't about to lay still while his lover rode him, so he began meeting her every descent with an upwards thrust of his own, giving them both even more pleasure and making the redhead atop of him moan louder. The blond shinobi then moved his hands on his demoness' hips, helping her keep the rhythm she wanted and allowing her to 'sit' up straight as she continued bouncing on his cock. In turn, the Kyuubi began playing with her breasts with his hands, giving him one hell of a show that made him fuck her even harder...

This time, Naruto was the first one to reach his orgasm and with a howl-like cry of pleasure he shot his second load right into his red-haired lover's willing pussy. And the feeling of his hot cum filling her womb sent the sexy vixen over the edge as well. Falling on top of her container, the Kyuubi captured his lips for a hot and passionate kiss as they both rode the waves of their pleasure...

"That was... a-ah... fantastic." The young sage said breathlessly as their lips parted. His beloved demoness just smiled back at him mirthfully and laid her head on his chest while her arms snaked around his shoulders. Sure, she would love to have another round of a passionate love-making with him, but she knew that he needed rest, so she decided that they had had enough fun for tonight. They could always continue tomorrow in the morning, after all. With this pleasant thought, the red-haired beauty allowed herself to follow her container into the land of dreams...

Lemon end

~/ *** \~

Deidara slowly regained his conscious, and the first thing he noticed was the fact that he had been beaten up quite badly in his last fight. And, apparently, his puppet-loving partner was as well, as otherwise he wouldn't be all tied up and his chakra wouldn't be sealed away. Opening his eyes, he saw it was morning already, meaning that he was unconscious for quite a while. Though, that at the moment wasn't as important as the three of his captors standing in front of him. And it didn't take him more than a moment to recognize the trio as the demon containers. Damn, this wasn't good, not at all.

"Welcome back to the world of living." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said in a fake-cheerful tone. "Now, we have some questions that you better answer." Considering that there was nothing that he could do escape – hell, he couldn't even blow himself up – Deidara had but one option here.

"Why Akatsuki are collecting bijuu?" The Kumo kunoichi asked as she made a step closer to the captured missing-nin, making him realize that not only she had a kunai in her hand, but that the said blade was now right above his knee. Should she ...accidentally... release it from her grip, the 'mad bomber' of the Hidden Stone had no doubts that he'd be in a world of pain. Well, not really, as he lived through worse, but he still didn't fancy any damage to his knee-caps. Maybe he should answer this one truthfully? Not like this answer is going to help the demon containers...

"Leader-sama wants to create some ultimate jutsu of destruction using them. Um." Deidara said after what felt like ages of silence. And now there was another, though much shorter, silence as three jinchuuriki were processing what they had just heard: this wasn't exactly what they thought Akatsuki's goal was.

"Alright, next question." Naruto said. There was one thing he really wanted to ask the man. "Since one of my... associates is quite... well informed about what is going on in the Elemental Nations..." What a nice way to say that your godfather is a spy master. "I've heard about your fight with Tsuchikage that resulted in you becoming a missing-nin. And I've also heard about you working on your own for some time following that event. Than you suddenly drop from the face of the Earth for several month and when you reappear, you're a part of the Akatsuki. Care to explain, how you became one of them?" This was definitely the question Deidara wasn't expecting. And having three jinchuuriki glaring at him, there was little he could do to escape answering it. Of course, he could try deceive them, but with one of them knowing some spy master, the chances were, they'd know if he lied. Should he tell them the truth? Did he even have an option of withholding information from them? Likely, not.

"Um..." The Iwa missing-nin began his tale. "As you know, after it blew up between me and the old bastard, I kept working on my own for some time. Um... But then that red-eyed man, Itachi, came with a proposition from Akatsuki. I, of course, declined as it would limit my abilities to show the world what the true art is, but, um... he then made a bet: if he can win in a fight, I'll have to join the organization..."

"And you lost." Fuu said, interrupting the man. He glared at the teal-haired girl for several long seconds before Naruto decided to intervene:

"I see... But couldn't you, you know, run away or something?" He asked. Deidara's face changed.

"You don't understand." He said absolutely seriously. "You can't just escape from the Akatsuki. Leader-sama would not allow that." This didn't sound as convincing to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki as the Iwa missing-nin wanted.

"But Orochimaru had left the organization quite alright, hadn't he?" The young sage asked.

"Um... When that happened, the snake had his own village. Leader-sama just doesn't want to spread the members of the organization too thin. Once all of the bijuu are sealed, though, the traitor will be the first one to fall, that much Leader-sama said himself. Um." This was when Yugito spoke again:

"So, he is safe for now because going after him requires too much resources from the organization. You know, if you really wanted to escape, you could have done the same." The Kumo kunoichi said, looking pointedly at he captured missing-nin. The said missing-nin was glaring back, though, considering the state he was in, it wasn't as intimidating.

"And where do you expect me to find enough shinobi to be around me to deter Leader-sama from hunting me down?" He asked, actually sounding a bit amused. The three jinchuuriki looked at each other, before Yugito exploded:

"Naruto!" She hissed. "Don't tell me you think it will be a good idea to have him join our little group!"

"OK, I won't tell you." The young sage replied with a chuckle, the blonde girl to growl angrily at him. "Don't worry, I'm not stupid." He tried reassuring her. "I'm a seal master. If he tries anything against us, he'll become a piece of his art." Deidara redirected his glare at him: chakra-suppression was understandable, given that he was their prison, but to also add a bomb on him? This went a little too far in his opinion. Naruto, though, paid this no mind. "And I don't really insist on him joining us, though having an S-ranked ninja on our side won't be bad, I think." Yugito sighed, before turning to Fuu, who was being quiet for some time now, in hopes of getting some support from her. Unfortunately for her, the teal-haired kunoichi was of the mind that, indeed, Deidara might be not a bad addition to their little group, even if it meant that from now on they would have to be far more discrete when they wanted some of their naughty fun...

"So, um..." The Iwa missing-nin said slowly. "You want me to switch my allegiance from one group I had been forced into to another I'm being forced into?" There was a pause, before the man added: "Do I get to show the world the true might of my at, um?" Three jinchuuriki just stared at him.

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