Sasori looked baffled, however, Naruto soon realised that the gaze he was showing wasn't directed at the flower whatsoever....
It was at him.
Sasori's gaze became sharp, and his hands reached into his robe silently. Naruto quickly dropped a small kunai to the ground before he teleported away before Sasori took action.
The place they are located in is currently very crowded, if Sasori took action now, many citizens would lose their lives.
'What bad luck, they happen to be in a public space when I arrived' He grumbled to himself
Meanwhile, Deidara didn't notice the subtle shifts in Sasori's gaze, and assumed he was stunned by his little trick, making his smile widen.
"So, what do you think?" He waved the clay rose in front of Sasori and asked
Sasori smacked the rose aside
"Nevermind that, the nine tails jinchuriki was here just now" He said
"Huh!?" Deidara was stunned, and the blonde boy with whiskers appeared in his mind.
"But I didn't even notice" He gasped
Sasori sneered
"Spend less time messing around, he hid his presence with some sort of seal, so most people won't notice" Sasori said
"Eh? Then how did you notice"Deidara asked
Sasori rolled his eyes and didn't bother to explain further. At this moment, he had numerous puppets stationed around the store, and searched for any traces of Naruto in case he didn't leave yet.
Only after he verified that Naruto was really gone, did he take a breather.
"He was able to locate us and teleport directly to our location...it seems he planted a flying raijin mark on one of us" Sasori said in a low voice
"That...could it be that it's on me???" Deidara exclaimed
Sasori grabbed Deidara, and his chakra swept past his body. He frowned, as a faint seal appeared on Deidara's skin, which he destroyed immediately. He scanned his own body just in case, and found nothing.
"It must've been the one he planted on you when you two battled, we overlooked it completely" He muttered
Deidara almost never sees Sasori this serious usually, though he wore a cold expression, it's not often his mood shifts to such seriousness.
"Sasori senpai, should we leave?" Deidara whispered
"It's for the best" Sasori left some coins on the table and left with Deidara
The moment the two of them left the building, they left the village without hesitation. The fact that Naruto appeared here meant he now knows where they are, and it's best of they leave before he calls for reinforcement to launch an assault on them.
Once they left, Sasori summoned a puppet that he crawled into, and encased himself within. The very same hunched back puppet that Naruto had destroyed.
"Sasori senpai, do you think you can win against that kid if you two fought?" Deidara asked with a rather naive look on his face, he was genuinely curious about how strong Naruto is compared to Sasori.
Sasori was silent for a while, but his response was confident
"I will win" He replied
"Really?"
"He's slippery, but not invincible" Sasori said calmly
He had heard of Naruto's antics from Itachi and Kisame, so he knew that Naruto's strength overall isn't as high as he makes it out to be. But Naruto is just always so confident that one would often misunderstand, including himself when they first met.
In reality, Naruto is simply too clever with his methods, resulting in him being one of the most difficult targets they have their eyes on.
-In the restaurant-
*Whoosh*
Naruto appeared once more, through the kunai he secretly dropped. He looked around, and when he realised that they had left, he began to move as well.
He had Kurama expand the search with his chakra, and thankfully, they hadn't escaped the range of his search yet. He stealthily followed in the direction they left, and left the village.
[Just a bit further ahead]
'Thanks, GPS'
[Don't compare me to that garbage] Kurama sneered, he has seen Naruto's memories, and knew what he was talking about.
'Heh, whatever you say'
[Tch, so why are you following them] Wanting to find a reason to change topics, he questioned Naruto's motive in teleporting here.
Naruto rubbed his chin as he grinned
"Cuz I'm bored" he replied
[....you can't be serious]
"Hah, got you, I have so many better things to do if I really were bored" Naruto laughed
[Grrr, you better spit it out now before I stop tracking them] Kurama sneered in a low voice
Naruto sighed
"You cannot take a joke, can you? Fine, fine, I came here because of the red haired guy, Sasori, I wanted to find him through the blonde kid, but I didn't expect he'd be right next to him" Naruto replied
When he teleported over, he wasn't expecting Sasori to actually be Deidara's partner, which caught him off guard.
"Sasori's knowledge of puppets is easily greater than whatever gibberish I have, so if I want to help Ino improve from now, I need to analyse Sasori" Naruto said calmly
[That's it? Why not go look for the sand kid who taught you puppets?]
"If you can tell me with a straight face that you think Kankuro is a better puppeteer than Sasori, I'll go to Sunagakure right now" Naruto responded with a dead serious face
[....] Kurama became silent, as he could not deny the truth
Naruto chuckled and gradually made his way towards where Sasori and Deidara were, catching up to them at a rapid pace. The two of them moved rather fast, but to make sure minimal traces were left, they weren't travelling at their fastest speed, which allowed Naruto to catch up quickly.
When they came into view, Naruto felt his heart shudder as he suddenly rolled to the side. It was mere moments before a sharp needle shot through the air, and stuck itself into a tree. Had he not moved, the needle would have shot through his head.
"My, your perception is crazy" Naruto said with a rather awestruck look
Sasori and Deidara started to move once more, but this time, it was towards Naruto.
"Nine tails kid" Sasori's voice was low and deep through the voice changer, unlike his youthful tone when he was in the restaurant.
"Yo" Naruto waved
The three stood there, neither side got too close as the tension between them grew. Naruto's appearance made them question his motive...perhaps it was an ambush.
"Sup Deidara, that rose trick you did was slick" Naruto gave Deidara a thumbs up and winked
"Uh, thanks...wait, no, I hate you" Deidara's eyes narrowed on Naruto as his killing intent soared.
Naruto laughed
"Come on, I liked it, in fact, mind if you teach me how to do it?" Naruto asked
"No" Deidara spat
"Well, worth a shot" Naruto laughed
He then opened up his arms
"Sasori, buddy, how're you doing! I know our last meeting wasn't the greatest, but let's put our differences aside and have a heart to heart" Naruto grinned
Sasori stared back indifferently, having no intentions of replying to Naruto whatsoever.
"Uh, come on, don't ignore me when I'm trying to have a small talk, how about this, I make a joke, and if you laugh, we talk" Naruto asked
"....." Sasori was ready to strike any moment if he notices anything off about Naruto, but until now, Naruto showed no signs of even getting closer, much less fight.
"Let's see....ah, what did the enemy shinobi say to the puppeteer" Naruto snapped his fingers and said as his eyes brightened.
Sasori remained silent, while Deidara seemed a little intrigued as he listened.
"Stop stringing me along" Naruto laughed as he slapped his leg
"...."
[That was sh*t] Kurama sneered
*Pfft*
Unexpectedly, Deidara looked aside and let out a faint snicker before hiding his expression, but he seemed to be having a hard time controlling his facial features, as his lips were curving upwards.
"Eh? No reaction from Sasori? Come on, that was a clever one" Naruto grumbled
He then snapped his fingers again
"Alright, how about this one, why can't the leader of all puppets control the other puppets?" Naruto asked again
Deidara had a look of anticipation as he awaited the answer, and Sasori honestly wished he could just go up and kill Naruto this instance....
His jokes were clearly targeted at him!
"Because he was a puppet king" Naruto said with a wide grin
Pfft
Once more, Deidara let out a faint snicker as his shoulders trembled. But Sasori remained unmoved, in fact, his desire to murder seems to have increased quite a bit.
"Are you done" He said in a low voice
"Ah? That didn't even make you smile? I knew it, Deidara, buddy, you must stand upfor me, you think my jokes are good, right?" Naruto cried out
"Why the hell are you asking me, we're enemies, don't act like we're close" Deidara growled at him
Kurama rolled his eyes, Naruto is probably the only person who will look for enemies that are after his life, and still crack jokes and act familiar with them...
Seriously, just what is going through his head for him to be acting this way? He's acting as if he isn't talking to the Akatsuki, a criminal organisation that is after his damn life, but a few old pals that he got to meet at a pub!
Even Sasori was left at a loss, and if Kurama could hear his thoughts, he would sympathise with him, for Naruto is simply too illogical.
"Am I done? Goodness no, I have plenty more jokes to tell" Naruto patted his chest and said with a upright smile
Sasori's hands trembled, he kept telling himself that attacking Naruto won't do anything as he's as slippery as an eel. But the urge to attack is unbelievably high!
"Since you're done, then I won't hold back any longer" Sasori said in a low voice, pretending he didn't hear what Naruto just said
"Eh? Come on, I actually came here with cooperation in mind~" Naruto said
!?!?!
Him? Cooperate with the Akatsuki!? That sounded more bullsh*t than his earlier jokes! In fact, is this the real joke? Because this has successfully gotten Sasori to let out a laugh, a mocking one, but it's still a laugh.
His deep chuckle echoed into their ears
"I guess you do have a knack for humour, even I had a small chuckle out of it" Sasori said with a mocking glare.
Naruto was a little stunned
"That's what got a chuckle out of you? Seriously? I worked really hard on those other two jokes, and when I speak honest words, it makes you chuckle?" Naruto couldn't believe, could it be that...
'Do I really have no sense of comedy?' He exclaimed in his heart
[Bingo] Kurama responded
"Honest words? Laughable" Sasori laughed
"....f**k, he's actually only laughing when I speak the truth, and it's starting to hurt my feelings" Naruto muttered indignantly
Kurama was laughing, even rolling around in the mindscape while Naruto kept complaining how his sense of humour is simply not made for these people, otherwise, how is it possible that he doesn't laugh!
"Deidara likes my jokes, right Deidara?" Naruto turned his eyes to Deidara, who was about to nod, but quickly shook his head and took up a fighting stance
"...."
Naruto sighed as he activated sage mode, along with three tails worth of Kurama's chakra.
"Fine, since we're doing this, I may as well indulge you"
*Bang*
The moment he activated nine tail's chakra, a puppet appeared behind him, but was immediately slapped into the ground with a tail. Naruto didn't look back, he simply stared at Sasori.
"You can see it?" Sasori asked
"Clear as day" Naruto replied calmly
What Sasori meant were the chakra strings that controlled the puppet just now. To the normal eye, it was spread so finely that one would not even see it. In fact, even many skilled Shinobis will struggle to see the chakra thread that Sasori creates.
However, to Naruto, he could see numerous, perhaps dozens of chakra strings that connected to him, spread out all around.
Once Naruto answered his question, Sasori's gaze sharpened, and dozens upon dozens of puppets emerged, surrounding Naruto from all direction. Be it from the side, back, or above, they were everywhere.
Naruto looked around in awe
"Fascinating" He muttered
*Bang*
A fireball was fired at him, appearing from amongst the mass of puppets.
Naruto's eyes lit up
"A jutsu from a puppet? But a puppet shouldn't have the capability without the proper chakra source" Naruto muttered as he stared at the puppets
*Whoosh*
As he was distracted by the fascinating puppets that Sasori had showed him, a the puppets all rained down on him, with one latching onto him.
Naruto looked down, and the puppet opened it's mouth, revealing a massive amount of white substance....
"Ah, I know, this is Deidara's clay, stuffed inside a puppet so it can latch onto me and blow up" Naruto said with bright eyes
[Why do you sound excited?]
"Because these are too fun, why didn't I think of having self destructing puppets?" Naruto laughed as the clay exploded.
*Bang*
The explosion rang out, but when the dust cleared, Naruto was unharmed. Well, he never got hit by the explosion in the first place, as he simply teleported away before teleporting back at the instance of the explosion.
*Whoosh*
Another fireball was shot at him. But aside from that, Naruto noticed that there was even lightning chakra emerging, as well as water.
A light sprinkle of water covered the field, and lightning struck towards him.
"Combination! This is fun!" Naruto pulled out two blades and stuck them into the ground. The lightning that shot at him suddenly diverted, despite the water leading it towards him, and struck the blade before dispersing into the ground.
He swung the Kiba blacdes around, and slashed at the puppets.
*Whoosh*
His blade slashed down, but missed the puppet. Yet, the puppet that he aimed at dropped to the ground even after he missed.
'His blade can cut through my chakra thread so easily...' Sasori frowned, not expecting his chakra strings to be cut so easily.
He narrowed his gaze on the blades, but he wasn't quite familiar with weapons, so he couldn't recognise it.
"Kiba?" Deidara muttered
"Ey, nice, you know these babies?" Naruto chuckled as he slashed the blades around, either cutting the chakra string, or the puppet itself.
Deidara scoffed as he sent dozens of clay birds towards Naruto.
"Even with those swords, you will die today" Deidara growled in a low voice
"Ah, too bad, but if I really die, Sasori and the others won't be happy" Naruto stuck out his tongue as he hung the blades onto his back before throwing a rasengan to intercept the birds.
He then pulled the swords back out, which he found quite bothersome.
'On that note....does the rasengan need to be formed on the hands?' Naruto thought
He tried to control his chakra to form it around him. Chakra began swirling behind him, and to hi shock, he could actually form them! Though the concentration required was multiple folds more taxing compared to forming it on the hand, resulting in only two normal rasengans forming.
Nonetheless, he was ecstatic, being able to do this means that he no longer needs to use a free hand to attack with rasengans! His versatility had just increased by a good scope.
The rasengans shot out like canons, striking puppets that are too far, while his blades slashed through the puppets with relative ease.
Deidara and Sasori frowned, the strange technique Naruto is currently using was something they had never seen before. They have heard of the rasengan, yet they have never heard of such a use for it.
Naruto laughed
"Sasori, you must tell me why the puppets you control can use jutsus, I am simply too curious!" Naruto laughed as he cut down another puppet.
Deidara formed a seal, and tiny spiders began crawling down from him. The spiders were naturally formed with clay, and the size were so small that it could easily avoid attention from most people.
However, Naruto had Kurama helping him heighten his senses, especially towards chakra. This allowed him to see Sasori's chakra threads, much less the spiders that had traces of Deidara's chakra.
"Why don't you guess why" Sasori replied calmly
Naruto smiled
"Now that's a tough one, I have no idea~" Naruto honestly didn't want to destroy too many of the puppets, which was why he chose to severe the chakra threads on most.
The reason being, he was too curious! He wanted to bring a few back for research, and understand how they can use various jutsus despite being simple puppets. He slid a few kunais into his hand as he reverse gripped the blades, allowing him to throw the kunais in different directions before spinning the sword back into a normal grip.
"It's not easy getting past all these puppets, if I need to get to you, guess I gotta 'thread' the needle, eh? What do you think of that one?"
"..." Sasori's killing intent became stronger exponentially as he sent even more puppets at Naruto
Deidara's spiders crept towards Naruto, but before they could even make it to him, Naruto threw rasengans in the direction, destroying the clay spiders.
His senses gave Deidara quite the headache, as any big explosions will risk damaging Sasori's puppets, while the smaller ones can't reach Naruto, or won't do much to him.
*Whoosh*
They suddenly saw a golden flash of light, and Naruto appeared behind Sasori with a grin.
"Game over" He chuckled
*Whoosh*
Two rasengans shot out at Sasori's back
*Bang*
The akatsuki cloak was shredded by the rasengans, however, Naruto furrowed his brows as the rasengans soon dispersed without even damaging the exterior puppet that Sasori resides in.
"Wow, did you get an upgrade?" Naruto gasped
Sasori sneered, the back of the puppet is now revealed, with a red oni like mask that covered the entire back of the puppet. The mouth of the mask opened up, and a scorpion tail like weapon shot out towards Naruto.
Naruto quickly swung the blades at it, and deflected the tail that shot at him.
"That would've been bad" He muttered
Sasori turned around, as dozens of puppets gathered in front of him to block Naruto's path once more.
"Last time we met, I was still completing this puppet, so what you destroyed was simply a replica that is vastly inferior to the real deal" He said with a cold chuckle
Naruto clicked his tongue
"Now this is annoying....well, time for me to dip then" He shrugged
"Huh?"
"Sorry, but I seriously don't like troublesome fights, and I won't fight them unless it means anything, in which, this fight quite literally means nothing to me" Naruto said
He took out a scroll, and threw a few undamaged puppets into it
"Thanks for the puppets, I'll be off now" Naruto waved as he vanished in a golden light
"...."
Truly, he comes as he goes, like the f**king wind, ain't he? His sudden appearance and disappearance left them baffled, and what made Sasori even more bothered was....
"That brat" He muttered as he separated almost a dozen puppets, in which he suddenly destroyed.
Deidara was confused by his actions
"Why did you destroy the puppets?" He asked
"The nine tails brat left trackers on them like he did with you, but this one was even more annoying, his mastery in seals has improved again" Sasori said in frustration.
He didn't want to destroy the puppets either, however, he didn't want to waste time staying here just to remove marks on the puppets. He was worried that Naruto would teleport back and end up planting more marks on his other puppets, or even worse, bring reinforcements!
So he was decisive, and destroyed the puppets so Naruto cannot teleport back.
"We're leaving, full speed" Sasori said in a low voice
"Yes, Sasori senpai" Deidara nodded
He created a massive clay bird that the two jumped on, and departed through the skies. The clay bird is very conspicuous, which was why he didn't ask Deidara to use it earlier when they left, but now that time was of essence, he wanted to leave as fast as he could.
Naruto on the other hand, he teleported to a certain snake man's lair, who was more than happy to greet him.
"Got another gift like the last one?" Orochimaru smiled
The boy Naruto brought in last time, Ranmaru, had a very interesting Kekkei genkai, and he was more than happy to experiment on him. So now, he was actually looking forward to Naruto bringing in more people.
"Not really, but came across one of your old co-workers" Naruto chuckled
"Oh? Which one?" Orochimaru asked, knowing he meant the Akatsuki
Naruto pulled out a few puppets that he snagged from Sasori
"The puppet guy, I stole a few of his puppets while we battled since they could use jutsus, so I came to you to see if you can find the reason" Naruto said
"Him? Ah, then it's quite easy to explain"
Orochimaru walked up to the puppets
"These things, they are created using real people as the material, so they were able to retain their ability to use chakra, in fact, I heard rumours that he has a puppet that even retained their former kekkei genkai"
"Real people?" Naruto frowned
He wanted to use these puppets as a base so he can gift them to Ino, but if they used real people, and it was found out, Ino could be in trouble...
"Thinking of gifting it to your little girlfriend?" Orochimaru asked
"Yeah" Naruto nodded
"Just give it to her then, it's actually quite hard to differentiate if it was made with a real person unless Sasori himself is there to identify it, after all, no one else has used puppets that is made with a human before" Orochimaru said calmly
"Hm....you're right, as long as it can keep her safe, what's the big deal, though I'll need to adjust them a bit, because as they are now, they're rather weak" Naruto muttered as he stared at the puppets on the ground, all of which he was able to easily destroy with a single swing
"Simple, leave them with me, I can make a stronger exterior for them, or if you want, I can even combine these five puppets so they can use different jutsus" He suggested
"You can do that?"
"If it was a normal puppet, no, but if it's made with a living being, then I can adjust it more easily" He chuckled
Naruto's eyes lit up
"Who knew being a lunatic mad scientist will have such good benefits" Naruto grinned
"Said lunatic is currently helping you, so you can keep blabbering if you want" Orochimaru narrowed his gaze on Naruto and said
"Uh, hahaha, what I'm meant to say is, your knowledge is vast and great, I am very impressed" Naruto gave him a thumbs up and grinned.
"Hm" Orochimaru rolled his eyes
Naruto looked around
"How's Ranmaru" He ask
"I've implanted my curse mark on him already, I've been thinking if I should extract his eyes, or if I should use him as a vessel" Orochimaru muttered
But he then shook his head
"However, the Sharingan is still too tempting, for now, I will hold off on it" He replied
"Do what you will, but if you end up not using him in the future, perhaps I should have you turn him into a puppet, if what you said about Sasori's puppet being able to use their kekkei genkai, then he will make a fine gift for Ino" Naruto chuckled coldly and said
Orochimaru stared at him quietly as he lifted a brow
"Kid....have you considered just becoming a missing nin with me? With how vicious you are, you may as well lead a bandit's den, or help me with my human experiments" Orochimaru said, finding Naruto's nature to be unfit of a Shinobi from Konoha.
"Nah, sounds like a pain, I'll just keep being an upright citizen that does good for the world, after all, I am as good as a person comes" Naruto patted his chest and said proudly
"You're as good as you are humble" Orochimaru said
"Aw, thanks" Naruto laughed as he scratched the back of his head
"...."
Kurama covered his eyes and ears inside the mindscape, he has no idea why his jinchuriki is like this, but he was tempted to request for a new one. Meanwhile, Orochimaru's lips twitched, unable to comprehend how shameless Naruto is....
Truly...he is unfit to be a proper Konoha shinobi....