Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Alright I recently went over the two chapters of this story. I didn't feel the story was bad, or particularly badly written. I just know it wasn't at it's best. Now that I have had a friend who was willing to beta the chapters of my stories, a lot of things have been corrected. So I am reposting, these chapters. As such, I must repost this brief intro to the story, that I try to do with all of my stories.

However in order not to spoil what happens in this chapter, I will be placing the AN at the bottom of the chapter. (Chapter ends at the bolded X's)

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The room was silent, the only sound around was that of the rolling pebbles and rocks coming off of the recently collapsed wall.

Naruto stood across from two obviously dangerous... men. The blonde one he questioned, he had more feminine features then he cared to count. Especially at a time like this, that was something he couldn't worry about. Hell, if he actually thought about it, he may even handicap himself. He disliked hitting women, could never bring himself to do it even if they were his enemies. Random girls had beaten him countless times, and he refused to defend himself from them. Of course after he got bruises from being beaten that badly, he wished he had defended himself. However that was beside the point.

He stood in a room, which in truth was just a large cave with two of his closest and most precious people. The first being his sensei who had been in his life since he was twelve. The other was his love interest, Sakura. She had bubblegum pink hair. A tingle shot through his body as he thought about her, of course that was before the pain came. She was infatuated with his former best friend. When he thought about it, it appeared many people were infatuated with his former best friend. Hell even his sensei went to the lengths of teaching him his original jutsu.

That thought made him frown and he quickly shook his head of his thoughts. If he got emotional he would surely loose focus. The steep price of losing focus in a battle more often then not was your life or someone else's. Naruto couldn't help it though. The thought trail bugged him to no end, he figured if he was going to split into groups he would rather stick with the old woman. He held no emotional attachments to her and at least if he... lost control again, he wouldn't have to worry about his friends being hurt.

Naruto peered across the cave to the two enemy shinobi and the unmoving object at their feet only to curse to himself.

'Son of a bitch... I tell myself to keep focus and then the moment I spot someone close to me dead on the ground and I want to smash their faces in and lose control...'

Naruto gritted his teeth at the sight of the Godaime Kazekage, the youngest Kage of his time, lying motionlessly behind the two shinobi at the back of the cave. With the silence he could make out clearly the blonde asking,

"Well... I wonder which one is the Jinchuuriki? Hmm."

Naruto wanted to burst out and just break loose right there. These shinobi, they hunted people like him. He could remember the times on his training trip with Jiraiya that they would need to redirect their path, or trail in order to throw off these shinobi. He could feel the whiskers on his cheeks get thicker, his chakra began to fly around, thankfully, still invisible. His hair got wilder and he growled out, "The Jinchuuriki is the boy behind you!" well he tried to growl it out. It had come out as a yell by the end of it.

Naruto calmly heard the wooden hunchback respond to his blonde accomplice, "Take a guess."

Naruto would of yelled for Gaara to get up, for him to fight back. However he knew it would be to no avail. His friend, the only person he knew that was like him was laying there dead. The most he could hope for would be bringing the body back in one piece.

He heard Kakashi speak to him from his left, "Naruto keep your emotions in check." Naruto nodded, but deep down he wondered why he didn't bother to tell Sakura. Did he really think he couldn't keep his emotions in check? What about Sakura, she was crying the day before in this retrieval mission.

The two missing nin shared a brief argument during his train of thought brought to him by Kakashi's statement.

The blonde Iwa missing ninja grinned at something and suddenly grinned before he had the giant clay bird grab the Kazekage then take to the skies. Naruto's eyes glared straight ahead at the puppet encased man.

Kakashi stared at Naruto for a moment rather surprised, he expected Naruto to jump up and head straight for Gaara. Chasing after the giant bird. Kakashi quickly shrugged, "Sakura with me!" before he ran off after Gaara. Sakura hesitated for a moment before handing Naruto two vials and whispering in his ear, "Antidotes, they will only work for three minutes so please be careful Naruto-kun."

The team split seemed like an easy choice for Kakashi. Sakura could easily heal any burns he or she may have received. Where he couldn't say he was an expert at taking down people from the air because he honestly couldn't say he battled many opponents in the air. He could say that he had a big enough jutsu arsenal to get the missing ninja grounded. Chiyo was an obvious choice, what was better than using a famed puppet master to predict the movements and attack patterns of another puppet master. Naruto was the hardest to place, he supposed Naruto could of gone with him. However with his mass shadow clones, he could likely just overrun Sasori with a larger force. That was far more then what he could say Naruto may have been able to do against air opponents.

Naruto glared at the ninja before him with a barely controlled rage. He wanted to burn that emotionless face of his. Naruto quickly injected the antidote into his body, he knew how his body worked. If he gained that antidote, his body would just continue to vaccinate it if it ever appeared in his system again. He learned that on his first C-Rank mission. He tossed the remaining vial to Chiyo whispering, "It will only stop poison for three minutes."

The wooden hunchback puppeteer shifted slightly in the back of the room. There is no way that antidote could possibly work? That would mean the girl would have found the remedy in around a day. That was highly doubtful.

Chiyo stepped forward, "Naruto, I'm here there is nothing for you to fear." She quickly sent a volley of Kunai in Sasori's direction. They impacted on his giant wooden body with the sound of sharp thuds sailing through the air of the near soundless cave.

A cold voice resonated from the suit as it shot a piercing gaze at the old woman and Jinchuuriki. If the puppet could show emotion, Naruto was sure it would be grinning when he said, "I always wondered how it would be having a Jinchuuriki in my collection."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, "What happened to needing us alive?"

The puppeteer gave a laugh that gave the two opposing quick chills, "You heard that did you? I suppose I am not supposed to kill you. However this opportunity is too good to pass up. Since you plan on fighting, and you made the first move. I believe it is time to show you my art." He said it smoothly, but his eyes under his outer puppet carapace had narrowed. They now knew that for at least one of them, he wasn't aiming to kill instantly.

The cloak covering him seemed to burst as his wooden body was revealed along with the giant face on the back sprouting it's serrated tongue.

Naruto heard Chiyo speak to him, "Be careful Naruto. This is Sasori's favorite puppet Hiruko. A puppeteer normally controls the puppet from behind it and leaves the puppeteer vulnerable to attacks. Sasori resides in that puppet. It is his shield and sword. This puppet is used to eliminate a puppeteer's main weakness. That armor has undergone various upgrades to be defensive while still keeping its offensive abilities such as that tail you see before you. Now I personally do not possess the destructive force needed to beat Hiruko, however that ability I saw you use on Itachi before will be more then enough." She tried to stay as hushed as possible when she spoke to Naruto.

Sasori had narrowed his eyes, the old bat talked far too loud for her own good. This boy had a technique strong enough to break through Hiruko? He remained unmoving, but the thought of losing one of his favorite puppets put him on edge.

Naruto eyed his opponent clenching his fists. Sasori was smart, and to think he was already going to have to use the Rasengan this early in a fight was rather serious. It was normally used as his make it or break it move. If an opponent survived one, he would power up another in which they would fall to. However, he was being forced to use it already. It was... not a good feeling.

"Make sure you avoid any traps he springs. Even so much as a scratch will leave you a good as dead on the ground boy!" Chiyo spat, Why couldn't she of been paired with that Sakura girl? At least that girl was a medic, she could have at least extracted the poison.

"The poison right?" Naruto concluded with a raised eyebrow. Chiyo could only nod, thus making Naruto grin.

"Yeah, I don't have to worry about that." he said quietly getting into a loose fighting stance kicking away several rocks in his way. Chiyo scowled slightly, what the hell did the kid mean he didn't have to worry about the poison? She was about to reprimand the boy for acting like an idiot in the heat of battle until she thought over the boy's circumstances. She had no idea how Gaara's body even operated as the one tailed Jinchuuriki, it was certainly stronger then the average human. If she couldn't understand the one tailed Jinchuuriki, there was no point in trying to question the boy who was the nine-tailed Jinchuuriki.

He felt strings suddenly latch onto him and Chiyo say quickly, "I will be guiding your movements Naruto to help you avoid the traps." Naruto quickly nodded and formed the most used seal in his arsenal.

Sasori growled out, "Are you done yet?" He was getting more frustrated by the second. He was a good shinobi, he would even call himself a skilled shinobi. Likely one of the best and most useful in his organization. The thing that was currently annoying him was how he fought. He fought using various traps, and surprises. Not to mention large-scale arrays of weapons flying at the opponent in no particular fashion. His organization called his partner's style destructive. They said that the bounty hunter's style was destructive? Ha, that was a joke. His weapons were coated in one of the deadliest poisons around, he didn't need to be precise with where he aimed his attacks. No more than point and shoot, every single senbon, kunai, sword, dagger, you name it that came out of his arsenal was deadly. Even if the weapon only pricked someone's toe.

Naruto grinned and his eyes opened wide with bits of Kyuubi's chakra pouring in, "First I will kill you, then I will kill your partner."

This seemed to get a rise out of the puppet master who shrugged shaking his entire puppet suit before lifting his head staring directly at Naruto, "Good luck." If this boy assumed that he could beat him with that old bat he was standing next to, he had another thing coming. He was an expert medic nin, puppeteer, seal master, he was well versed in genjutsu even though he didn't particularly need it. However his poisons were his true highlight, one silly prick and the boy would drop like a sack of potatoes.

Naruto charged forward with quick speeds, practically flying over the rocky ground below. He was dodging different stabs from Sasori's tail with the aid of Chiyo's expert knowledge from being a former puppeteer. Sasori didn't let Naruto's agility faze him. He was only dodging his attacks due to the help of the old woman, it was a good thing he had some surprises up his sleeve.

Sasori's mouth flew open and brought a straight on hail of kunai at the two of them when their running paths synchronized. This caused the two to jump apart once again, but not before two of Chiyo's strings attached to Naruto got cut.

As they closed in on Sasori, Chiyo yelled out "Boy! Be careful, some of the chakra strings were cut in that volley!" Naruto held back rolling his eyes. He knew that already, he felt that presence leave him the moment they were cut. Did she think he was mentally challenged or something? For a person that abused chakra as much as he did, you would think that people would give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to knowing when chakra was affecting him and when it wasn't. However to be a good teammate and just to get through the battle he gave a quick nod. He made his favorite seal and exploded into several clones.

Sasori under that giant puppet body of his cocked an eyebrow, 'I wonder how many of those he can make before he passes out.'

The clones rushed ahead with much sloppier movements then they previously had with Chiyo's guidance. It didn't take long for several of Naruto's clones to fall victim to Sasori's expert trap making skills. It was as if Sasori had years to prepare the traps for Naruto before he had even appeared in the cave.

The real Naruto landed from a jump only having to roll to the left in order to dodge a spray of fire from the mouth of the wooden scorpion.

Chiyo wanted to hiss in anger at the sight of how sloppy Naruto was. Simple traps like that should not of been able to catch him off guard, but they were able to. The boy most likely would run out of chakra by the time they even got to Sasori with the amount of chakra he is using... right?

Naruto was close and he was running out of things to use against Sasori. He didn't want to use the Rasengan as the first jutsu used offensively the entire battle. That was when it came to him.

Closing in on the wooden clad man he summoned five clones, one going head on, while the others attempted to flank him from all sides. However a puppet master of Sasori's skill had obviously had an attack such as this attempted on him in his years of combat. However instead of clones, his attackers had fallen victim to his poison and turned into puppets that now resided in his collection.

Sasori fought the urge to roll his eyes as this attack happened upon him. The clones got slaughtered quickly. Sasori's tail shot up from his back piercing the one trying to flank him from behind, then in a wide arc slashed at the ones coming at him from other sides spin around and prepare to pierce the one in mid air.

"Naruto! Get out of there! Sasori will destroy you!" Chiyo yelled frantically showing her old age.

Naruto's face split into a grin, causing a very rare thing to happen. Sasori's face of impassiveness slipped and he frowned, what was Naruto planning? Had he overlooked something?

Naruto in the air made three shadow clones and showed how honed his reflexes were. Sasori went in for the stab at the clone he assumed was the original only to realize the quick makings of a Kawarimi on Naruto's part. Naruto switched with the clone about to be attacked. The tail pierced through the substituted clone and allowed Naruto to push off the giant steel tail. He descended quickly to the ground only to bounce off and slide down under Sasori. It was impressive, the Puppet Master's reflexes weren't even able to do anything to an attack at this speed. His mouth opened just as Naruto slid under and nicked the body with several kunai.

Naruto then pulled one of his many surprises out of nowhere once again with a repeat of his fight with Gaara. He slapped several exploding notes on Sasori's under belly as he slid by. Once he was away from Sasori's underbelly he chanted one of his favorite, and most memorable plans he had in combat,

"Boom..." Suna ninja sure seemed to be rather unlucky when it came to fighting Uzumaki Naruto.

The puppets under body exploded and Sasori ejected himself to the right side of the cave. Chiyo stood by in awe at the quick planning on Naruto's part, and also in frustration knowing that he did that on his own. However that's when she noticed something off with Naruto's appearance... he was cut. She wasn't the only one to notice, Sasori did as well.

Sasori grinned, the boy was gutsy, he would give him that. However his poisons had affected him he would be dropping any moment now.

...

...

...

Sasori's eyes narrowed in recognition of a severe flaw in his battle strategy and it has a major weakness when employed against this Jinchuuriki - an over-reliance on poisons.

He had never found an opponent that could do such a thing, even if they were able to find an antidote to his entirely complex poison, the chances that they could produce it in an amount that would be useful was slim to none. However this boy could shrug off his poisons without a second thought. He never thought of it as much of a weakness till now. No one had ever survived his weapons coated with poison. They were designed to cause paralysis to create his human puppets, and at the very least kill them eventually. Even some of the Akatsuki's most prominent members wouldn't be able to do anything against his poisons. He would just shower the area with metal, rocks, crap particles if he really wanted to, coated in his poison would bring down the greatest of fighters. He could just shower areas full of kunai, senbon, and any other source of poison carrying material as much as possible because everything was a one shot kill as the poison made anything and everything lethal. The battle plan had always worked flawlessly, of course until he met Uzumaki Naruto. He could only hope that this didn't go and bite him in the ass.

Naruto slowly got onto his feet after being recoiled by being so close to the explosion. Any burns he may have gained from the explosion were already rapidly healing. He calmly examined Sasori from afar. He could hear Chiyo whisper to herself, "He hasn't aged since the day I last saw him."

Naruto however was able to pick up the sound of his movements. The wooden, hollow movements. He waved an arm over a seal on his wrist bringing forth a big puppet that hovered in mid air before him. The puppet looked human like, besides the lines on his face that clearly made it a point that he was a puppet with the casual lines used to open and close a mouth. He was covered in rags, his arms had various incisions as if they could open. While Naruto knew he had a good look at the puppet, he just wished he had a better one. Right now, all he could do was make assumptions about what the puppet could do.

'When you assume, you only make an ass out of you and me.' he thought dryly. Jiraiya had told him that when Naruto had caught him peeping in on a bathhouse. While Jiraiya tried to reason he was gathering information, Naruto knew it was complete crap. However the quote stuck with him.

Sasori looked at the remains of his puppet and frowned, it wasn't completely destroyed, just the bottom of it. He didn't really think anyone else would be crazy enough to slide under a deadly weapon that only laid a foot or so off the ground. It wasn't damaged beyond repair. While human puppets parts were hard to come by because... he was the only one who could make them. That on top of they were incredibly hard to repair, even for him. Still he had reason to repair him, and make him better. The boy had showed him that his battle strategy and one of his favorite puppets had a major weakness in them, When he got out of this battle he was definitely going to add some defense attachments to the belly of Hiruko. He did know one thing though: you can't escape the Iron Sand.

Chiyo gaped at the released puppet for a moment before recovering her composure, "The Third Kazekage..." she whispered to herself.

Oddly enough Naruto knew who that was. While he didn't like that Jiraiya spent the majority of his time spying in on women in the hot springs rather then training him. While they were on the road he gave him various information on the Kages. He found the Third Kazekage rather interesting since he was able to duplicate Gaara's sand however with metal, making it all the more effective and dangerous. The Third Kazekage was known for manipulating magnetic fields. The sheer thought of having that ability always wanted to send him into a fit of giggles. Of course, only during his alone time. He just couldn't get the image of fighting Lee in the Chuunin Exams, and raising his hand and throwing the bushy eye-browed boy around like a rag doll through the use of the ability and the weights the boy kept in his socks.

There were other Kages that interested him, such as the Sandaime Mizukage. Not so much because of the information that Jiraiya had on him, but more so because the lack of information on him. Jiraiya's spy network was vast, effective, and complete. He could gather all the Kages guilty pleasures if he wanted to but he couldn't even gather a single technique of the Third Mizukage. The only info that was publicly known about the Mizukage was that he was able to fend off the majority of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen. Several of them at the same time.

Chiyo shot a glance at Naruto who appeared as if he was examining the battlefield with the eyes of someone who had been fighting their entire life, Oh if only she knew. Chiyo quietly said to Naruto, "Be careful, I've never seen this puppet of his even if I know who it is. Be careful, the puppet is the Third Kazekage who is known for his Iron Sand that mimic's that of Gaara and Shukaku's sand."

Naruto shrugged, "Yeah I knew that. I'm not too worried, if it is not controlled as well as Gaara or Shukaku could control their sand then I'm not worried. I beat both of them." he finished as he narrowed his eyes at Sasori.

The glare he sent at the end of his statement made Chiyo fight down a shudder. She remembered that look. It was deja vu, the last time she saw that face it was on the Yondaime Hokage. The man was a genius, on and off the battlefield. He always had a calm and cheerful personality that was often showed when they would have the neutral Kage meetings. However she also recalled seeing him in the Kage meeting when he stopped smiling. Iwa had made a move to attack the man, the two best Iwa ninja were crushed, like annoying bugs. Just a test to his power, some ninja in the world considered some of the greatest were nothing to the Yondaime Hokage. The face she saw on this young blonde made her scared, weather it be the spitting image or the face of the blonde. For the first time in this entire fight, she no longer feared for Naruto... she feared for Sasori.

Sasori overheard Naruto's statement and frowned. He didn't completely like that prospect. He didn't expect to ever meet someone to face Shukaku and live, so he was able to count on them being surprised by the things he could do with the manipulation of Iron Sand. It was beginning to get frustrating fighting this Uzumaki. The things that normal people shouldn't have been able to shrug off, or shouldn't have any knowledge about. This boy seemed to always be one step ahead of everyone else.

Sasori decided to no longer waste time and the Kazekage flew forward, his wooden limbs crackling in the air. He usually preferred to use the unexpected against his enemies with the Kazekage. However if everything that was usually unexpected was already expected, then there was no real reason to be hesitant.

Chiyo reattached strings to Naruto as he launched an exploding note at the flying puppet with a short fuse forward.

The Kazekage glided to the right easily and extended his arm forward. Joints and incisions in his arm popped open revealing several series on intricate seals on flaps of his arms. The seals glowed for a moment before bursting forth with hundreds of hands.

Naruto made a dozen clones as he jumped back with one. Chiyo let go of the strings attached to the original Naruto and instead placed them along the 11 clones in front of the incoming hands.

Naruto held his hand behind him as he looked ahead at the hundred hands, this is what the Rasengan was for. To blow through things to his target. The clone behind him moved his hands rapidly over Naruto's forming a blue swirling sphere. Naruto proceeded to run forward with the Rasengan in hand, and shortly after Chiyo planned to follow.

Sasori noticed Chiyo's movements and glared, he decided to release his poison mist now. While the boy may not be affected, it would remove any visibility Chiyo had over the clones. She also wouldn't be able to go in and help, god knows that blasted woman could be troublesome if she needed to.

Naruto ran through the poison mist making a vacuum as he ran with his Rasengan held forward. The transition from purple mist to wooden hands was an easy one. He began to grind through the hands headed to the Kazekage until of course he felt it, pain. Pain shot through his limbs as several small senbon stabbed into his body from the hands. There was a two-part use for those hands. To trap them in the mist, or trap them in the hands themselves. Naruto walked right into the latter of the trap.

The clone running with him dispersed instantly, and his Rasengan died down. He had gotten close enough to the Kazekage where Sasori felt the need to detach the hands and let them fall on top of Naruto. No use attempting to utilize a broken tool.

Chiyo glared from where she was standing. She recognized the idea behind those hands, the idea was strikingly similar to one of her 10 legendary puppets. Upon seeing Naruto fall she was quick to move. She unsealed two puppets that Sasori immediately recognized as his mother and father.

Sasori began to release the Iron Sand from the Kazekage while releasing two puppets to fend off his parents. It wasn't hard, they didn't have any offensive surprises besides the blades he had attached onto them when he was younger.

Once all of the Iron Sand was released, the battle instantly turned into Sasori's favor. The ability to disable all puppets besides your own against a puppet user gave the wielder a ridiculous upper hand. However, this upper hand didn't last that long. A chakra spike burst forth from under the hundreds of broken hands.

Shooting out of the broken hands came something that resembled a flaming red porcupine. That was of course until all the senbon were pushed out by the red chakra revealing Naruto's form that was quickly becoming unscratched. Chiyo backed up a bit already having had a hard enough time keeping an eye out for Gaara to make sure he didn't kill any civilians. He was the one tailed Jinchuuriki, she decided that she was going to stand on the sidelines when the boy started to sprout three tails.

Naruto gave a feral groan as the Iron Sand began to shape spikes in the air. He squinted his eyes shut momentarily attempting to shut out the voices of the fox.

"Remember the last time you had that taste of my power? One more tail gave you enough power to beat that hermit into submission you insolent boy! Release one more tail and you shall become the victor!"

Naruto continued to grit his teeth and shake his head free of the thoughts until he could only hear a final whisper of the fox.

"One day... you will call upon my power in your time of need when no one else can help you. To help your village? Your loved ones? Or yourself? When that time comes that you need my help to save the petulant pink haired banshee you admire... you will be on your own."

Naruto tried to shake off the last part with the rage generating in his body. However he couldn't help but feel fear for a possible time he may not be able to protect the people he cared about, and having nothing to fall back on.

Iron rods shot down from the cave roof as Naruto darted forward. An Iron rod shot down right at his chest only to be batted away like a fly by one of his flailing red chakra tails. Iron rose out of the ground causing Naruto to leap and launch an arm forward with a roar. The arm extended and flew right at Sasori who side stepped with wide eyes. That was the first time he had heard of any chakra manipulation such as that. This was frustrating. He was skilled, he knew how to kill armies of shinobi. Yet here he was being pushed back by a single shinobi. A strong, over powered, Jinchuuriki of a shinobi, but a shinobi nonetheless. Why couldn't Hatake and that pink haired girl have stayed? He would have crippled their teamwork in seconds.

Naruto gave another leap causing the Kazekage to fall back to protect Sasori with a giant Iron shield that Naruto collided with.

Chiyo could only gape at the sidelines. She could see the power and speed behind the Jinchuuriki and could only thank the heavens that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha and got sealed in this boy instead of Gaara. Otherwise, she had no doubt in her mind that the sand village would be in ruins.

Sasori kept on having to fall back and cursed at the Jinchuuriki. This was the second time in his entire life he had ever felt this weak in combat. He honestly felt that this boy could re-grow a lung if he needed to in this state. The fact that the boy was batting away Iron rods annoyed him to no end, in addition to that any time he clawed at his wall of Iron any other human would be paralyzed. However this damn boy could claw, scratch, dry hump the wall for all he cared and would not be effected by the poisons of the wall made of his Iron Sand.

He idly wondered about attacking Chiyo, however at her current distance there was no point. She was nearly outside the cave she was so far away. To Sasori, it didn't really matter she could very well be in the Sand village right now for all he cared. He wouldn't be able to find the time to attack her with him constantly having to be on the defensive like this.

Sasori flicked explosive notes out onto the ceiling of the cave as well as several walls and tied them to chakra string. He jumped out into the center of the cave and formed an Iron dome around himself. Naruto attempted to follow suit after Sasori's sudden movement however moving at the speeds he was going it was too late. It would take too long to redirect his path in an instant and change his speed. The dome closed by filling in the last bits with Iron Sand effectively snipping the chakra strings Sasori tied to the explosive notes. The effect was instantaneous.

The cave now had a skylight. Rubble fell from the ceiling, hundreds of boulders that had to be dodged by the chakra enhanced shinobi. Chiyo had long stepped out of the cavern not wanting to be crushed by the boulders. She felt ashamed, with the way things were collapsing, the boy would likely die and she couldn't get to him. The entrance caved in, she contemplated running up the wall, but with Sasori placing explosive tags on them and detonating the walls. If one were to detonate while she was running up the wall she would be killed, or her limbs crushed at least. She rushed off to make her way around the battle on the outside of the cave, and would drop in from the skylight.

Sasori heard the rubble begin to stop falling and he let the Iron Sand dome fall around him only for his eyes to momentarily narrow. There was the boy, now more fox then before holding up a giant rock slab with one of his four tails. The black and red being with hollow eyes gave a large smile. Sasori retained his look of impassiveness, but prepared to unleash his prized technique.

Sasori sealed his Kazekage puppet and unsealed three large puppets, a snake, a toad, and a slug. He built them when he was younger inspired by Konoha's Sannin. The snake was by far the most advanced due to gaining excessive input from his former partner. That being said the slug and the toad both got their jobs done when they three worked together.

Sasori enjoyed using these puppets, however they were far easier to sacrifice and rebuild then others in his arsenal. The toad jumped forward, large blade ready.

Naruto shot his arm forward extending it at the leaping toad. He grabbed onto him in mid air and pulled himself towards the toad. He spun the toad around before it could get a stab at him, and the dagger was only able to slice at his arms. He launched the toad into the ground while still holding onto its body.

Sasori glared at Naruto, for once for a good reason. You can't change your trajectory in mid air, so he thought. He sent the large purple wooden snake at Naruto, attempting to bite him and pull him out of mid air. However his plan went south when a long arm shot forth out of Naruto's stomach and grasped the Manda puppet's face.

Sasori chose to just launch the slug at Naruto as a sacrifice for him to get a greater distance on the boy. He jumped back as Naruto effectively backhanded the slug into the ground, ooze seemed to seep out of the cracks of the puppet.

Sasori used a chakra string to quickly pull a scroll off his back and released it all the while opening his chest. Hundreds of puppets and strings shot out. He lost focus for a moment due to the release of all the chakra strings and their connections but was brought back by a loud scream.

Naruto was on his knees ripping at his head and gave a feral cry. It didn't take long for the boy to slowly return to his normal self, albeit with clothes being severely ripped. Sasori knew he could have taken that moment to kill the boy however... after this long it didn't seem fair and the boy intrigued him. He knew it was stupid, he knew he should have been looking for any advantage on a beast such as this. Yet... he couldn't bring himself for once in his life to take the advantage on his opponent.

Naruto soon stood up breathing heavily with Sasori standing a ways away staring at him blankly. Naruto panted out, "Why didn't you kill me?"

Sasori could only shrug at the statement, he honestly wasn't completely satisfied with his own answer, "You fascinate me," he said simply. Naruto frowned at that, he wasn't one to go along with most ninja codes however even he would of tried to capitalize on an opponent's disadvantage.

Naruto gazed up at the hundreds of puppets and calmly asked, "What is this." quickly regaining his composure and recovering from Kyuubi's forced withdrawal.

Sasori too gazed up, and while it didn't show the pride in his voice made it evident that he enjoyed this, "My secret, a performance of a hundred puppets."

Naruto glared at that and made his favorite seal, "While my ability is not a secret, it is the best thing I have." and with an explosion of smoke a good five hundred Naruto spawned forth in the open cave.

Sasori was impressed, he had never seen anything like that in his life time, and likely never would. He put his concentration on his strings of his puppets and prepared for the battle of his life, and his last battle of his life.

The battle rage on for what appeared hours was truly only minutes. Naruto's ability to continually replace dispelled clones eventually overwhelmed Sasori's puppets. None of the puppets were damaged beyond repair, except for a couple that were on the receiving end of two clones simultaneous fists.

The clones fought the battle to a point where Naruto could hold Sasori's limbs as he gazed down at the chest piece and head of the scorpion of the red sand. A stray kunai during battle had nicked Sasori's heart and it was only going to be a matter of time before he died. Chiyo was likely going to be here soon as well, she probably didn't expect the battle to be over so soon.

Sasori gazed up with an expressionless face, "So Uzumaki Naruto... you are an impressive fighter." he said. He didn't enjoy the fact that he had lost the battle, especially to a boy who had not even had four full years of battle experience. However, Sasori could deal with losing battles because he had yet to lose a war. When it came to wars, Sasori intended to die undefeated.

Naruto stared down at the man who looked as if he was trapped in a young boys body. "Hatake Kakashi must have taught you well, teaching you shadow clones and tactics such as these hasn't he?"

Naruto wanted to stay silent but scowled and couldn't help but slip out, "No, not really, he taught me tree climbing." annoyed with that idea seeing as how he taught Sasuke a jutsu that nearly got him killed.

Sasori continued, "A pity... Then Jiraiya of the Sannin must have done an excellent job? He must have told you the secret of the shadow clones and helped you advance your training correct? Don't look surprised, my spy network is far more advanced than your sensei's. I knew your every move Naruto, you just happened to surprise me."

Naruto hid his surprise well and thought back to what the shinobi had just said about the secret of shadow clones, "What secret?"

Sasori wanted to grin, "Oh you haven't heard? No one in Konoha has even told you? Didn't your senseis tell you that you could have been training year's worth of knowledge just by using your shadow clones? One such as you that can use them at this extent could have been using them to train and learn all sorts of things, especially ninja techniques."

Naruto clenched his fists but tried his best not to let his anger show, "It must have slipped their mind over the years, or thought I already knew. Tell me what is this secret." he finished through gritted teeth. If the puppet master was lying to him he would kill him now. Yet if he was being told the truth... he didn't know what he would do. The thought made him angry.

Sasori drawled out, "Oh you know, how the creator of the shadow clones is able to absorb and retain all knowledge that the shadow clones may gain. For example when you were learning tree climbing, you could have made a hundred clones to attempt to climb up a tree and when you dispelled them it would be as if you attempted to climb the tree a hundred times. A truly useful ability, it actually makes me wonder if they really wanted you to excel as a ninja due to them holding you back all this time. I mean my spy network was able to pick up easily that Kakashi had taught the young Uchiha all sorts of jutsu, especially his assassination technique the Chidori."

Naruto wanted to stomp the puppet master into the ground, however he couldn't. He couldn't because what he was saying was true. How could Konoha simply keep this information from him? They made him a Genin based on the fact that he could make these clones. The least they could do was tell him the full extent of the clones. Sure they could argue that he should have known the full extent of his own techniques... but really? They wouldn't have bothered to ask him why he wasn't at least training in that fashion when he obviously could abuse the training. Hell they hadn't taught him a damn thing, he had learned two jutsu since he had became a Genin. One was so situational that if he didn't want to flatten a small village, he couldn't even use it. Sure the summoning jutsu had other applications, but he wasn't able to learn those applications. Jiraiya didn't teach him. He spent his entire time with Jiraiya attempting to learn how to draw the fox's chakra when the fox was unwilling to part with it.

He growled to himself, it pissed him off to no end. They hadn't taught him a thing, and they didn't want to include him fully on the one useful thing he could do? He could have at least been reading books on things instead of just training his body.

True the training of his body did have some benefits, there was really only one other person he knew that was in better shape then him, which was Lee, and that was understandable. Lee was only able to be a ninja as long as he was in shape and could utilize taijutsu effectively.

Sasori stared blankly at Naruto and said, "By the expression on your face it would seem that you have not been told, or even received any decent training in your life. Your completely self taught?"

Naruto refused to give his enemy the satisfaction of knowing the for sure answer. However his face spoke louder then words as he stared down at the human puppet.

The puppet master gave out a raspy sigh and the seal over his heart glowed. Sasori gave a quick comment seeing Naruto get defensive, "Don't worry it is merely a gift to you, before that old hag comes." seals spread over Sasori's body, then collected in the side of his chest before pushing out a small metal box.

Naruto stared, "What is this?" he had a clone pick up the box and open it a good fifteen feet away from the two of them.

Sasori grinned, he was definitely winning the war, "I documented all my knowledge on puppeteering, even my secret techniques such as human puppetry. I documented how my puppets work, so if I were ever to be defeated my trade will forever continue. In truth it has far more than that, even some of my journals."

Naruto got handed the box by a clone and he rummaged through it, several scrolls inside. Sasori grinned inside allowing the emotion to show in his voice, "The remainder of my collection that is around 79 more puppets and The Third Kazekage got sealed into there as well when I sealed him when you were... acting interesting along with the knowledge."

Naruto fought back the urge to roll his eyes at the end of Sasori's sentence. Yes, a four tailed demon fox going ape-shit on your prized possessions, and you. Only he would find that interesting.

Sasori grinned, "If you can make storage seals, I would suggest you store everything in here that you can find, who knows what may be of use to you after I am gone. I do know that the old woman will likely take everything else back that she finds if you don't."

Naruto glanced around and ignored Sasori's side comment of "At least, that is if you were taught how to make storage seals." He produced thirty clones and then sent them off to seal everything they could within the next two minutes, and return to him.

Sasori felt his final seconds and gave a sigh, "Well it was interesting meeting a shinobi such as you Uzumaki Naruto. You should likely take my body as well, however kindly burry the heart." shortly after Sasori died. With one thought in mind, the legacy of the red sand would live on through Uzumaki Naruto... he had won the war.

Naruto frowned as he removed the heart from Sasori's body, and buried it. He sealed Sasori away and if anyone asks, Sasori's remains were deep inside the giant scorch mark from his earlier transformation. The clones came over and sealed the scrolls with random puppet parts in another scroll along with Sasori's box. Naruto then put the scroll in the absolute safest place, where no one from his team would feel they had a right to look... his underwear.

Naruto looked up when he saw shadows come into view from on the top of the cave's brand new skylight. He saw many Suna shinobi standing and in front of them all was a smiling Gaara with his arms crossed over his chest. At his sides were Naruto's own team and Gaara's siblings.

The people looking down into the cave could see the destruction that had been caused, and a giant scorch mark. They could only wonder what type of battle took place between Naruto and the famed Akasuna no Sasori.

Naruto did the only thing he could in his tired state, he waved at his friends before falling back to sit against the cave wall. It was a long way back to Konoha.

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Hello again, old readers, you will notice not a ton has changed. About 1-1.5k words have been added. It is merely more descriptive on the characters, and corrections have been made.

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This story was inspired by reading Scorpion's Disciple somewhat. I never expected to be inspired as I was when I read something like Puppetmaster Naruto by serpentsannin, however I just did.

I found that the author of Scorpion's Disciple brought Sasori's character to life, and to an extent that was not even seen before in the Manga and is likely one of the best works of fanfiction I have read in a long time so he has my respect.

However I figured I couldn't just blatantly copy what has happened before with Naruto getting taken away from the village with Sasori like in Serpentsannin's story. Or Sasori coming to Konoha and training Naruto like in Scorpion's Disciple. Or the various spin offs around those two ideas, wether it be Naruto setting up a base of opperations in a random apartment in Konoha. Or... Naruto stumbling on Sasori's former workshop while he is younger.

The thing I found with these stories is they all had one thing in common. They all happen while Naruto is young and before time skip, so I decided to make a story based off a small what if.

What if Naruto stayed and battled Sasori during the Gaara rescue ark?

A simple concept, however if Sasori were to pry at the end of the battle and give Naruto the honest truth about his shinobi career, weather it be the lies people have told him or the things they have kept from him, or simply the training of his they have neglected. Then Sasori offered him a helping hand with his own knowledge? I was curious on what would happen, so I began to write and liked what I came up with. "

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I wont press anymore seeing as how next chapter I will be reposting will have a bit more information. Right before I post the third chapter in the next hour.