Sai narrowed his eyes in annoyance as he saw even more birds coming their way, "Sumigasumi no Jutsu (Ink Mist Jutsu)." Sai shrouded his bird and a decent area around it in ink as it sped towards Deidara. The clay sculptures went inside the shroud and exploded, trying to take Sai out without sight. The bird emerged from the mist still in flight and still generally coming at Deidara.
Deidara smirked to himself as he watched Sai come closer, "Now why would I send so many of my beautiful figures into there with little to no hope of hitting you? Because they weren't supposed to hit you fool, they were just supposed to locate you, un!" Deidara made his hand-seal again, "Katsu!"
Little clay insects appeared all over the bodies of Sai, Hamako, and the clay bird, glowing and exploding on them before they could react, "I have to keep the jinchuuriki alive. There's no such restrictions about fighting you, un." Deidara smirked before he realized that he wasn't seeing flaming corpses falling from the sky. Instead he saw melting ink bodies drop, no bodies whatsoever. Danger senses went off for Deidara as he jumped over Sai's low slash. He had hung off of the legs of the bird and taken his shot at the explosives artist. Deidara hung off of the other side as well and kicked at Sai, who swung himself up on the top of Deidara's bird to take a more advantageous position. He kept himself in a position to defend from whatever side Deidara would end up coming up from.
"What are you looking at, un?"
Sai turned his head and saw Deidara sitting on another clay bird. This surprised Sai, as he had never even felt Deidara's weight leave the bird. He looked on the underside of the bird to see that it was holding a clay clone of Deidara in its talons. Sai looked up and saw Deidara's hand's moving towards his hand-seal, "Katsu."
Before he could finish the word, Sai jumped off of the bird. He freefell to the ground as the fiery explosion of the clay bird sounded out over him. The sound of a bird's cry let Sai know he was saved as he found himself scooped out of the air gently by his bird. The pale Root ninja sighed to himself and patted the inky construct on its head.
XxX
Hamako shook herself off as she stood up from where Sai's bird had dropped her for his gambit of an attack on Deidara. She watched Sai's bird save him from a screaming, flaming death and clutched her Komainu necklace tightly, "Sai-san and Naruto-sama are fighting so hard… And I can't help, again. I can never help, all I'm good for is making seals." Her eyes widened before a small smile came to her face, "And what's wrong with that? Seals are the backbone of this village! And I'm the best!"
She reached into her pocket and frowned, "Sai-san didn't have much ink to spare me, but it's better than nothing! I just have to make do with what I have here, it has to be enough." She looked up at Sai, still in mid-air combat with Deidara, "I won't be useless here Sai-san."
XxX
(Naruto vs. Sasori)
Naruto stepped out of his crater of hiding with a serious look on his face, and his sword drawn. Sasori noticed him, "I knew you would come out eventually. You look like the type that wouldn't retreat in the face of insurmountable odds."
Naruto let a chuckle escape him, "Insurmountable odds? Again with the S-ranked superiority complex. I swear, it's like none of you fools get it." Naruto's amused face slipped, "I could have tried to run. Even if I didn't get away I could have tried. I am your objective after all, right? But if I ran I would be leaving Sai-kouhai and Hamako-chan alone to fight, and I won't do that." Sasori gave the boy a cursory glance. Nothing had changed to give him such confidence, so why was he acting so braze? "Using them as a means for your escape would have been better. If any of Uzu's ninja had tried that then I might have spared one or two, but since they all had this need to rush to their deaths and fight me for their comrades I helped them out with that. It seems that trait passed down to you."
Naruto's face never changed, "Sai-kouhai is my comrade. Due to the way he was brought up and trained, much like myself he's something like a brother to me. Root may do anything to finish the mission, but we do not turn our backs on our comrades. He's fighting Deidara for me, for my safety, and I won't leave him to his death by running away from you. And Hamako-chan. I would never leave her either. I missed the opportunity to save someone like her before, I wasn't strong or smart enough to do so. But now I am, and I'll be damned if I'll let her be alone in this world just because one man is after my life." Naruto held up his sword in front of his face, blade facing directly up as it began to glow, "Sen'nenki no Ken, I am your master whether you accept it or not. Now help me take this bastard down for your nation." The wind around Naruto began to kick up as a smirk came to his face, "I don't know what this is supposed to look like. All Hamako-chan said was that I had to exert my will over the sword for me to use this. Oh well, let's try it. Sen'nen Hakkei: Ichijiaraware (Millennium Release: Primary Materialization)!"
The sword dematerialized and reformed as grey/silver metal gauntlets around Naruto's forearms and ankles. A wicked blade came from the sides of each of the outsides of Naruto's arms. On his legs, surrounding his sandals there was also a blade along the outsides of his legs.
The Kyuubi found itself amused by Naruto's new find, "Do make sure that you don't end up ripping yourself apart while you use these blades boy. As entertaining as that is, having your body be eradicated by a powered sword would be a massive slap to my face."
Naruto stretched himself out and tested the feeling of his new weapon before grinning and looking up at Sasori, "This really doesn't have a name. I guess I'll have to come up with one won't I? I think I'll have to call them… Sen'nen Kougake (Millenium Gauntlets)."
Sasori scoffed, "So you got some pieces of metal and you think you can fight me boy?"
Naruto shrugged, "It's worth a try. Now let's see what these things have got! Hyakunen Tsukkakaru (Century Rush)!" Naruto circulated his Kyuubi chakra around him while pushing wind chakra into his blades and rushed at Sasori directly. In response, Sasori thrusted his iron tail at Naruto who slashed at the man with his bladed arms.
Naruto moved his body into a rapid motion and took on the appearance of a red, edged buzzsaw. The two clashed and moved past one another. Naruto simply stood straight up and stared at his hands blankly after the attack. Sasori meanwhile, felt his puppet armor fall around him. Un-useable due to the damage it had taken. As Naruto felt and heard the body of Hiruko collapse, a grin came to his face.
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