Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

His massive tail springs forward at blinding speeds. It's heading straight for my chest. It never reached me, dozens upon dozens of my blades arced up and over my head. They quickly slammed down onto the top the his tail, buffeting it straight down to the ground as they pelt it over and over. One blade by itself would have no hope of causing the massive tail to move, but hundreds repeatedly hitting it? The tail didn't have a chance.

"Of course I want to use them against you." I address the puppet master. With nothing more than a thought - and multitudes of chakra strings - I will my blades to swarm his tail as it is fully extended. Most scrape against the tough metal exterior of the tail to no avail, but a few manage to find purchase in the joints that make the segmented blade up. "I want to see how I compare to a legend."

"You are an anomaly." Sasori says as he draws his tail back, but its stiff. It makes a horrible grinding noise as the joints scrape against the blades. "You speak with respect and as if I am your superior but still stand against me. You treated Kakuzu the same way. It's as if you idolize us."

"I do idolize you." I openly admit as I raise my left hand up, my fingers prepared to snap. "In fact, I idolize every member of your organization to some extent. You all have achieved my dream, but you all are blindly leading the world to damnation. I could attempt to sway you with words, I could attempt to get you to see the light and abandoned your self imposed mission, but I know it won't work. So instead I will stop you. It is unfortunate, since you and I are scarily similar despite my relation to Kakuzu, but today you die. And this is how it starts."

With a snap of my fingers roughly a dozen soft pops are heard. It's not a huge explosion, its barely enough to make a well seasoned chunin stutter step, but its not the size of the explosion that mattered. It's where.

Every blade that makes up my mantle is etched with an explosive seal. And I just detonated all the blades that were wedged in the joints of Sasori's tail.

The giant metal segmented blade - the only offensively formidable thing about Hiruko - is blown to useless chunks. They scatter around the large cave, clanging as they bounce across the stone before scraping to a rest.

"Why don't you two leave this to me?" I spare a fleeting glance over my shoulder. "It's about to get messy and I'm not good at avoiding others when I attack."

"Uh… sure?" Temari is staring gobsmacked at me and the ruins of the tail. Her fan is still resting on the ground but she has a firm hold on it. She's ready to react at the drop of a feather but is waiting. "We'll back you up if you need it."

"He uses poisons on all his weapons, not just the senbon from before." Chiyo is assessing me and my technique, slowly working out how I'm doing it. It's scary, how quickly she's reading my style. I shouldn't be surprised, after all she once lead Suna's Puppeteers and is renowned as a legend herself. She's an expert in chakra strings. "One touch and you're dead."

But both of them have respect on their faces. They were struggling with Sasori, no matter what they tried they just couldn't get past his tail. The only hope they had was for him to overextend the tail and for Temari to land a wind jutsu to sever it at one of the joints. But Sasori knew that too, so he never even gave them an opening. He also knew that he could outlast them both, his puppet body won't get tired while their flesh ones expire with each passing second.

I just casually removed a problem that they've been struggling to even get an attempt at removing, let alone actually removing it.

"Let me rephrase, perhaps you two should wait outside." I point towards the mouth of the cave where faint strips of sunlight shine through. "Things are about to get heated in here."

"You want us to leave?" Chiyo says as her beady black eyes narrow. "You have no idea who that is! You need us here!"

"Leave, Grandmother." Sasori commands. "You and I can have our reunion after I subdue him. You'll be at the only exit, I'm not going anywhere. I won't have him hold back because he's afraid to hurt a girl or a frail old woman. I'm going to crush him so thoroughly that he'll submit and never challenge us again. Then, and only then, will we face each other. Now leave us."

"Fine!" Chiyo whirls around, grabs Temari by the wrist, and stomps towards the exit. "If you two brats want to duke it out, then fine! Don't come crying to me when you die, because I tried to help!"

Once the two have left the cave, Sasori and I focus upon each other once more.

The Present

"It's not like it's that much of a secret, Temari knows exactly what went down." I scoff out in annoyance. "That's why I was taught to not leave witnesses, but I'm not some monster that kills just because it's convenient. Shit. Maybe I do that every once in awhile, but the people usually deserve it!"

"I can't help but notice that you only shared half of the fight." My interrogator clicks his pen. "Do I need to add it to the list as well?"

"What list are you on about?" I snap at him. "Put whatever you want on your damn list, I can't really stop you."

"The rest of the fight that Temari wasn't there for." He prods me gently with his words. "What happened after she and Chiyo left?"

"Isn't it obvious? I won, he lost." I snort out. "Simple as that."

"Yes, but how?" He prods again. "Going against an S-rank missing nin alone and coming out victorious is impressive. So impressive that only other S-rank nin could do it. You're only listed as A-rank. So how did a measly A-rank beat one of the best S-rank?"

"Because the stupid bingo book is wrong, I'm S-rank." I scoff and roll my eyes. He doesn't see it, stupid blindfold.

"Then prove it." He prods a third time. Or is it fourth? One looses count when they simply don't give a shit. "Tell me what happened and prove that you're worthy of being labeled as S-rank."

"You know what…"

Flashback

"Impressive." Sasori says in Hiruko's deep grating voice. He experimentally moves the little bit of the tail that's left on Hiruko, but its been crippled. "You've broken one of my toys."

"Will you show yourself now, or shall I break it some more?" My leaf blades swirl menacingly behind me, scraping together to make and eerie ringing noise that grates on the nerves.

"No need for that." A soft voice, one of a young adult, calls out from Hiruko. There's a sharp crack, as a fissure splits down the round back and opens up. Rising out of the inside of his puppet is Sasori himself. "It appears that you are someone I must take seriously. Shall I show you my masterpiece?"

"Please do, I'm interested to see how I'll hold up against it." I goad him just a little bit. "The Third Puppet, I can't wait."

"You're rather perceptive, aren't you?" Sasori says as he pulls out a large scroll from inside his Akatsuki cloak. "Without ever seeing me before, you recognized me as a puppet. So tell me, Nameless, what do you think of my art? Exquisite, isn't it?"

"I see the appeal." I casually respond while waiting for him to bring out the big guns. Or big puppet. Big Iron Dust puppet? Whatever, you know who I mean. What I mean? Wow I really gotta stop doing that. "Having a body that doesn't feel anything is very useful. You don't feel tired, you don't feel pain, you don't feel hunger, you don't feel any kind of physical sensation at all. It would make a ruthless pursuer and one hell of a shinobi. For instance, say someone breaks your arm. Just detach the broken limb and put on a new one."

"You understand!" Sasori gleefully exclaims. As much as a dude with a wooden face can at least. "My art, it's not some fleeting moment of beauty as a sun ray hits the wings of a butterfly perfectly for but a brief instant. It's not a landscape that's covered in snow once a generation. It's forever! Even if it's broken, even if it's snapped, it will be mended and last for the ages! Just because of that, I'll add you to my collection. It would be a shame to waste you."

"Whoa, back up there. I said I see the appeal, not that I want to embrace it. I rather like being alive, so much so I'm basically immortal. Do you really think someone like that wants what you have? I can still feel the world. I'm still… alive. You're just a bunch of walking wooden planks."

"No matter." Sasori finally unfurls the scroll he pulled out. It has the number three emblazoned on it. "Once you're subdued, I'll figure out a way to collect you. An immortal puppet, that should be interesting."

With a cloud of white smoke, the Third Kazekage graces the battlefield. He has a blank and dull wooden face with a thick lion's mane of black hair that comes to sharp points. He's wearing a dull brown cloak that hangs so low it hides his feet - knowing Sasori the puppet might not even have feet. It's a strange sight, to see something so human like yet so not human.

"Behold, my masterpiece." Sasori's puppet face twists into a smile as he looks longingly at his prized puppet. "He was very difficult to obtain, but it only makes me treasure him more."

"You really should have opened with that." I comment as my leaf blade mantle surges to life. Each and every blade detaches from one another to start swarming around me. It's like a localized twister with me at the epicenter. "While I understand not using your strongest skill right out of the gate, if you used it at the beginning Chiyo and Temari would have been destroyed."

"They were unable to beat me using something as simple as Hiruko." Sasori says as the Third lifts higher into the air. "Why waste revealing him if I have no need to?"

"Fair point." I slide lower into a more combat ready stance. The swirling leafs around me accelerate to new heights. "Shall I, or shall you?"

"I've never been one to refuse generosity." Sasori nearly giddily calls out - I think it's giddily, he's not the most monotone person I've spoken with but he's up there - and the Third's jaw drops open.

A fine iron dust pours out of the mouth. It moves like a swarm of insects, each grain is an individual but the lot of them stay close. The dust moves upwards, collecting into a massive shape. Then two, then three. I'm facing a giant pyramid, cube and cylinder made of the iron dust.

"You're blades were surprisingly good at handling my senbon." Sasori says as his lips curl into a smirk. "They even managed to push Hiruko's tail around, but I noticed that you didn't try to have them stop it. I think it's because they lack significant mass, the best they can do is buffet away a projectile. So, how do you plan on dealing with these?!"

With a sweep of his hand, the Third sends his massive iron shapes my way. They move surprisingly quickly for things as large as them, their smallest dimension has to be three meters but they're moments from slamming into me.

"I plan on using one of the oldest tricks in the book." My leafs swirl around me one final time before every single one is launched away from me at blinding speeds. They aren't heading to the prisms, instead they're heading at Sasori and the Third. "It's called dodging."

I quickly leap out of the way of the first prism - the cube - as it buries itself half way into the floor. My feet land on the second - the pyramid - and I push off of it before it squishes me against the cavern wall. I'm caught by the third - the cylinder - and hear the sounds of my arm being pulverized between iron and stone as I'm forced to a halt.

"Well shit." I'm suspended halfway up the cavern with my arm trapping me against the wall. "I thought they'd be slower. But it looks like an even trade, wouldn't you say?"

Sasori got out of the barrage of my leafs without a single scrape. So did the Third. His response to my attack was simple and effective; erect a wall of iron dust to intercept the blades. But what he didn't expect was his wall to suddenly have holes it it the size of basketballs. The once proud iron wall now looks like a wheel of iron cheese.

"You etched more than just explosive seals onto your blades." Sasori correctly observes. "Fascinating, I'll have to add something like that to my arsenal. Though your thin blades are most likely limited to two seals, one per surface. You simply channel chakra to the correct side via chakra strings to get the seal to activate. Very intelligent design, but so drastically limited in execution."

"You seem calm for someone who just had a part of his weapon removed." I calmly observe myself. If he can do it, then why can't I? "Iron, while a common metal for tools and while in cities, is actually very rare in the natural world. You have a finite supply of the iron dust, and I've taken away a portion of it."

"I'm calm because you're trapped. Though I commend you for not passing out from the pain, I have you pinned by the arm. You're no longer a threat and you've detonated all of your blades. You uselessly expended them against my wall."

There are two loud grating scrapes that momentarily drown out our conversation. Sasori has pulled the cube and pyramid out of the walls to hover menacingly above him and his prized puppet.

"And while it is true you've removed a portion of the Iron Dust, the vast majority still remains."

"It's astonishing, really. How similar you and I are." I smirk unabated beneath my mask. "I've always considered you to be one of if not the biggest threat in the Akatsuki. You take the time to actually think. You don't rely on brute force. Instead you select the best tool for the job, whoever the puppet may be. You wait before attacking, gathering intelligence first. Because of that you boast one of the best spy networks in the world. Even now you're hanging back, attacking me at range. You're studying me. Learning how I fight. You've picked the most versatile weapon at your disposal, the Third Kazekage who can make any weapon with his feared Iron Dust, to pick apart my moves. I have the utmost respect for you, Sasori of the Red Sands, and as such I emulated you. I learned from you."

"And what did you learn from me?" Sasori's wooden head tilts and lets out a sharp snap of wood clicking together. "Did you learn not to challenge those better than you? Did you learn that there's always a bigger dog? Perhaps you learned the value of choosing proper tools? Or maybe even that beginning the fight by holding back against a superior opponent is a grievous mistake?"

"Pfft please." I scoff out from my spot on the wall. I wish I could kick a pebble at him or something, but alas I'm pinned in the air. "Of course I'm holding back against you. If I went all out it would be over in moments. But I know that everyone can be overwhelmed with power already, but what happens when two individuals both with overwhelming power fight? The one with the better skills wins."

"Pompous brat." Sasori borderline snarls out as he causes the cylinder to rotate, grinding my arm against the stone and ruining it forever. "Claiming to be holding back against me? Me? Look where that got you. Arm annihilated and soon to be my next artwork."

"It got me exactly where I wanted to be." My smirk widens, unbeknownst to the puppet man. Not Kakashi, the actual puppet man. I can only handle one of those at a time. "Like I said, I learned from you. I know everything about you, and I know exactly how to pick apart your masterpiece. Oh, my apologies, It appears I misspoke. It didn't get me exactly where I wanted to be, it got you exactly where I wanted you to be."

Three things happen in quick succession of each other. First, I rip myself from beneath the massive cylinder - leaving my arm behind - and leap towards the walls of the cave. Second, three spheres surge out of the paper seals I placed on the metal prisms when dodging them and greedily devour their metallic meal. Third, four violet walls spring up from the ground around Sasori and the Third Kazekage.

"I guess there's no need for me to hide anymore." I chuckle to myself as hundreds of threads quickly snake their way out of the jagged severed wound from when I ripped my arm off. They wave through the air like worms being shocked before tightly wrapping around themselves to form an arm. It's a strange sight, borderline gruesome, but I know Sasori is unaffected by this. He turned himself into a puppet, compared to that this is nothing. "Good to see you again, Sasori."

"Muffins?" Sasori's wooden face contorts in shock. As much as it can at least. Seriously it's hard to read this guy. "Is that you?"

"Now it's fucking personal!" I shout at the once-man as I rip my mask off. "I'm sick and tired of that lame ass nickname! It's a goddamn pastry! A PASTRY! You just signed your death warrant."

"It really is you." Sasori says in disbelief as his wooden eyes take in my face. "We thought Nameless was an Uchiha that Itachi missed, or one in hiding. But it does make sense that you would know of Kakuzu's repertoire, after all you share the Jiongu."

"Yeah, but I'm not as short sighted as he is." My eyes narrow as I stalk towards the trapped shinobi and puppet. Oh wait, they're both puppets. "He never bothered to go in depth with mixing the elements. He stopped at fire and wind, you heard about my storm. He's never even considered doing anything close to that."

"True, in some aspects Kakuzu is limited." Sasori's head tilts to the side slightly. "But what do you think you've accomplished here? You're mistaken if you think that was all the Iron Dust I have access to. All I have to do is wait for this barrier to fall - and it will fall - then we resume. Except now you're out of chakra."

"You're correct." I calmly say from just outside the barrier. "I'm sure you still have more Iron Dust, I know I would, but it's all trapped inside with you. Shall I educate you on this barrier jutsu? This is the Four Violet Flames Formation. Nearly indestructible from both sides, it needs four shinobi to create it and is capable of standing up to abuse from Orochimaru, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the reanimated Hashirama and Tobirama all at the same time."

"I see, you have your monsters acting as the four shinobi to erect this barrier." Sasori accurately guesses. "I admit, I'm impressed. I figured this as a one man barrier, but it appears I'll be stuck here longer before taking your life. Brilliant use of the Jiongu, though ineffective. Tell me, how'd you set this up? Your minions are underground, I would have noticed an earth jutsu hollowing out the stone beneath the floor."

"I wasn't kidding when I said I am very similar to you." I stop just before the barrier as I answer a dead man's final questions. "I take the time to think. Did you know that there are twenty seven caves similar to this one on the border between the Land of Wind and Land of Rivers? It took me a full day to prep all of them for our confrontation. That's right Sasori, I knew where we would be fighting. I knew who I'd be fighting. I knew when. All I had to do was decide how I'd fight you. It was a devilishly simple plan I came up with too, though it's one I think I'll only ever use against you. It's fucking dark, even by my standards."

A devious grin envelops my face as I fly through hand seals. I stop on the last one, holding it and the chakra for one more jab at Sasori.

"As you know, I have five hearts. I took it a step further like Kakuzu and have one heart of each element. The four that are pinning you in are water, earth, wind and lightning. Which one does that leave me with?"

"Fire." Sasori would be narrowing his eyes if he could. But he's a puppet so he can't. "You have the fire heart."

"And with it comes fire jutsu." The grin turns into a full blown vicious smile. "Tell me, what temperature does wood ignite? No wait, I'll find out myself. Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"

The disastrous fire jutsu slams into the side of the barrier and wafts over it. It's nearly covering all of it, the only side left untouched is the far side of the cube. Even then the flames lick around the sharp corners of the barrier jutsu.

"I call this the Oven Formation." A dark and sadistic smile spreads across my face as I push more chakra into the jutsu. The lapping orange tongues of the fire slowly switch to a blue, then to a blazing white. "My only regret is that I won't be able to claim your bounty, there won't even be ash left."

The Present

"You know what… go fuck yourself." I growl at my interrogator. "I don't have shit to prove to anyone but myself, and I know damn well I'm worthy of the title. So go fuck yourself and add it to your fucking list, see if that changes anything."

"Consider it added." He nonchalantly says as I am forced to listen to that damn pen scratch on paper once more. "You're surprisingly easy to rile up, did you know that?"

"And you're a pancake." I snap back at him.

"I'm a what?" Accompanying his voice is the clattering of a pen falling to the ground. "I'm a pancake? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I just wanted to knock you out of your rhythm. I've been trying for hours to make it happen, but you're damn resilient." I softly chuckle to myself, but there's no other sound in my cell so I know he heard it. "I figured since I hate being called a pastry, why wouldn't you hate being called a pastry? Henceforth I title you Sir Pancake the Seventh!"

"Hm. Usually this kind of behavior only manifests after we begin torture to extract information, not before."

"I've never been one to follow the rules." I shrug lazily. It's really the only thing I can do in these chains. "Orochimaru hates and likes it at the same time."

"I am aware that you are a rule breaker, it comes with the title missing nin." He heaves out a soft sigh, finally bending down to pick up his pen. "But back to the story. After 'you won, he lost,' what happened next?"

"Simple. It was finally time for ice cream. But that went and got all fucked up."