Chapter 46.2- Gamer of the Desert

Sasori watched the next clash between the two of them carefully as the tailed beast exerted itself in its combat with the smaller human. On an ordinary day, with things being equal, he wouldn’t expect even a tailed beast as weak as the two tails to lose out to poison, but he hoped that with the exertion from engaging in combat with someone on relatively the same level of power would sway things in his favour even more. Besides, he’d read thew briefings on Nii Yugito cover to cover, multiple times. She wasn’t a perfect jinchuriki like Killer Bee. She had a time limit to the transformation, and was limited in what she could do. According to Kumo’s own intelligence, even, this wasn’t a true transformation where the body of the human was replaced with that of the tailed beast, but her body was in there somewhere.

They clashed again, except this time, the Nibi’s tails overpowered her human opponent and slammed him right into the wall. The giant cat scoffed audibly and rested on its haunches, waiting for its opponent to reveal itself again. Sasori almost smiled as he saw what it was doing. When Noel flew right out of the wall like a bat from hell and slammed into another tail that tossed him into the ground, it was all he could do to prevent himself from bursting into laughter at the sight. The Nibi seemed keen on humiliating the human before her.

He rose again, but it was only for the Nibi to rear back and unleash a roar that Sasori smartly prevented from affecting him by disabling his auditory function the moment the first hint of the sound got to him. With a lowly human body of flesh and bone, his partner didn’t have such an ability and was sent right to his knees, head clutched right in his hands. Sasori couldn’t hear, but from what he could see, the sound was torture of some sort. Noel, normally the stoic sort, was on his knees screaming, with blood leaking from his hands as it escaped his eardrums. Fascinating. The pain on his face was something of legend. In all his years of testing pain causing poisons, not a single one had managed to get that kind of effect from a jounin-level ninja with the training to match.

Noel was finished. Sasori knew it. Even the poison hadn’t been enough to make the man a match for the beast. It was a saddening fact, but there was simply nothing the puppet master could do about it. Instead, he decided to honour his partner’s last words by allowing him to fall in combat with his pride intact. His puppets began to spread into the floor as he prepared himself to do battle against the mighty Nibi. His body dropped into the ground with the subterranean voyage technique as he continued to see through Hiruko’s eyes. A puppet body came with hundreds of advantages over a purely human one. One aspect of that was that he could turn off vision in his main body completely and focus on seeing through Hiruko’s eyes. The files had said that the Nibi would be incapable of calling upon the mighty bijuudama as an imperfect jinchuriki, but he was not going to test it with his life on the line. He was well aware of how incomplete information could mean the difference between life and death.

He watched as the beast reached down. Not with its claws or tails, but with its mouth. It intended to eat the man, Sasori thought with a mixture of revulsion and intrigue. Fascinating. He wondered if he should poison Noel’s body now to see if it would have deeper effects on the tailed beast than the airborne poison that seemed to be doing a good amount of nothing.
When it was about to snap its teeth around his body, Noel lifted his head suddenly, and there was a strange feeling in the air. Not something he could perceive through Hiruko, but even underground he could feel it. He watched as Noel’s armour, previously a calm blue cloak, began to spark and sizzle. “Finally” He shouted, probably much louder than he’d intended to, considering the busted eardrums. He caught the Nibi’s teeth right in his hands, using his strength and that alone to prevent said teeth from turning him into dinner. He fought against the strength of the beast’s jaws for a second or two before the jaws clamped down on thin air. He’d escaped, faster than he’d previously been moving.

“Storm Release Armour: Complete” He said, with an audibly smug tone.

“Hahaha. He said it was impossible. They all said it was impossible. Of course it was. Impossible for them. Never me. I’m better. This proves it” He said, going on about the seeming achievement endlessly. If Sasori’s suspicions were correct, then the pride would be understandable. Nay, even expected. This was a new form of the lightning armour that matched nothing he’d read about the Raikage. First of all, he could not a single thing about the man’s body within the cloak. It was like the lightning cloak had become his body. In the same deep blue colour that marked his storm release jutsu, this new form of the lightning cloak had a distinctively inhuman feeling to it. This time, when the man moved, the tailed beast was too slow to react. It was not even a blink to Sasori’s eyes. All he knew was that in one instant, Noel had been standing at least a hundred metres away, and in the next, his fist was buried in the Nibi’s flame cloaked face. The Nibi did not move, beast too strong to be shaken by the strength of the human, but it did feel the attack. At the very least, the speed had surprised the creature.

When its tails swept out, trying to smash the one who dared lay hands on it, Noel was gone. He dodged the barrage of attacks with ease. With movements that Sasori’s eyes failed to track. All while weaving seals and humming to himself. It was disrespectful. And if it was designed to irritate the jinchuriki, then it accomplished its goal. Every swipe of the the twin tails tore through the ground now. Tearing deep rents as the beast put all its strength into it. Nothing changed for Noel as he dodged the attacks with ease. Eventually, the Jinchuriki gave up and lifted its head up. Balls of red and black chakra began to gather, and Sasori needed no other hint to know just what Noel had foolishly unleashed on them all. The tailed beast was going to destroy the entire castle. Nay, the whole mountain. Just to take them out. He’d have been flattered if it wouldn’t have meant his death. Always one with a backup on top of a backup, Sasori kept watching the fight through Hiruko’s eyes while his real body swam deeper and deeper into the ground at an angle. He was certain that by the time the attack landed, he would be well out of its radius. The puppets he’d already spread were of little consequence. Each one had a copy on his person already, and more back at the base. Nothing of value would be lost, and he knew the beast would be exhausted after the attack, so he’d have an even easier time taking out Nii Yugito. It was just a shame that his partner had to perish in the attempt.

Through Hiruko’s eyes and ears, he heard Noel burst into laughter. A laughter his cloak converted into barely intelligible static. He disappeared from his previous position before appearing right in front of the forming tailed beast bomb. “Take this bitch” He screamed as he completed whatever seals he’d been forming and threw forth his hands.

“Hidden Jutsu: Storm Release: Roar of the Storm God” He screamed to the heavens as he executed an impossibly impressive jutsu. Hiruko’s eyes had been carefully calibrated to function in all forms of lighting, but this jutsu managed to blind said eyes for a second. The entire jutsu was a flash, as a veritable pillar of light slammed into the half formed tailed beast bomb before destabilising it and pushing it right into its creator.

Sasori’s retreat proved to be the right move as the entire castle’s foundation shook from the impact as it began to collapse. Hiruko’s feed ended as the puppet perished from the jutsu’s blast radius. “He’d better get that woman’s body with him” Sasori said to himself in irritation as he kept swimming through the ground. That escapade had taken his number of Hiruko bodies down to five. He’d have to make at least two more to replenish his supply and ensure he didn’t run out any time soon. He could already imagine the griping he’d get from that cheapskate Kakuzu when he’d send him the bill for the supplies and the new Akatsuki cloak custom made to fit Hiruko’s form.

A/N; I am experimenting with something a bit. Expect an announcement in a few days . But let’s just say the way I approach stories is going to see a massive change