Sasori Of The Red Sand

Sato and Anko were standing on top of a rock; from here, they could see a hidden cave entrance.

Bang

"There are explosions happening in the cave; it's probably Akatsuki who are fighting with Konoha ninjas."

Anko informed her boss about the situation. She got this information using a spy snake, which had sneaked into the cave silently.

Sato nodded softly. It was best to detect some intelligence before approaching a strange place.

"Let's go in. I can smell human blood in there."

Sato jumped down and walked towards the cave; his hands were in his pockets, and his bare chest showed courage. Anko followed behind him too.

Step

The duo stepped into the large cave. It was a bit dark, but neither of them had any trouble seeing.

"That's Akatsuki? There are almost a hundred men in this place."

Anko was taken aback after looking inside. Did Akatsuki send a hundred men to fight against Konoha and them?

This place was filled with people.

"That's not a hundred men, Anko. Those are puppets!"

"That's just one man called Sasori. He is the puppet master who is controlling them."

Sato smiled a bit.

Sasori was a rebel from hidden sand who's title was Sasori of the red sand, he was the strongest puppet master in history. Controlling a hundred puppets at once needed amazing skill.

Anko's mouth was wide open as well; she couldn't believe Sasori was this talented. Those Konoha and Sand ninja fighting him were doomed.

"Should we help them now? They are losing against Sasori."

"That pink-haired kunoichi seems to be in danger. Isn't that Sakura from Konoha?"

"The Kazekage's daughter Temari called her a dead weight, I think."

Anko watched with concern.

Three people were fighting against Sasori. One was elder Chiyo from hidden sand; next was Sasuke Uchiha of hidden cloud, who was currently representing hidden leaf due to politics; and the last one was Sakura, also from hidden leaf.

Everyone was fighting desperately for their lives, except for Sakura. She was busy getting tossed around.

"Sasuke kun, save me!"

Anko heard Sakura yell mid-air, but this just made Anko scratch her head.

"Why isn't she saving herself? She is mid air so she can escape using substitution jutsu; even a genin knows how to do that."

Anko had a weird look on her face. But Sato just twitched his lips.

Sakura was neither strong, nor smart enough to fight Sasori by herself. Without Chiyo's help she would be dead many times even in the original, much less now.

'Unlike the original timeline, Chiyo isn't protecting Sakura this time.'

'Tsuande didn't forcibly teach Sakura super strength; Chiyo has no reason to protect her or use her as a human puppet.'

Sato sighed; the butterfly effect was real. His actions with Tsuande had consequences for Sakura.

"Sasuke kun heeeeeelp!"

Sakura yelled once again, which made Sasuke finally look and roar back.

"You idiot, I am barely holding on to myself! Escape using the scroll Kakashi sensei gave you."

Sasuke somehow managed to speak without getting killed, but Sakura yelled once again.

"But I want you to save me Sasuke kun! It will be so romantic-"

Sasuke almost died when he heard this. Anko was also shocked out of her mind.

"That girl is crazy. She will die and get Sasuke killed."

"She should escape before talking nonsense. The puppets are about to toss her like a baseball."

Anko couldn't hold back the cringe. She asked Sato for permission then yelled a warning. Which alerted everyone.

"Oye leaf Ninja Sakura! Get out of there. You are in danger."

"Use substitution jutsu!"

Sakura heard Anko's warning, but the first thing she did wasn't escaping quickly or thanking Anko. She looked at Sasuke instead.

Riiiiip

And that's when she lost the chance to escape completely.

Her left hand received too much force, and got ripped out of it's socket. Which finally seemed to wake her up.

"Aaaaagh! Naruto help!"

Sakura yelled like a pig. But at this point everyone was too busy to care. Including Sato and Anko

Due to Anko's warning, Sasori knew the Raikage was here. Both Sato and Anko were now surrounded by puppets.

Sato didn't care much about the poisonous puppets around him; his hands were still in his pocket, and he had a smile on his face.

"Sasori of the red sand. Where is Gaara?"

Sato asked calmly. One of the puppets opened its mouth and spoke in Sasori's voice.

"We have extracted one tail from Kazekage's body. He is no longer here; you have failed Raikage."

Sato nodded. So Sasori's partner took Gaara away. This was why he couldn't smell Gaara around here.

Sato had gotten his answer, but didn't immediately attack Sasori; he first turned towards Sasuke and threw a kunai.

Boom

This kunai was a mini-railgun. It exploded on contact and destroyed the puppets attacking Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke, tell me the mission details."

Sato asked casually. Sasuke caught his breath and spoke respectfully.

"Thank you, Raikage Sama!"

"Akatsuki's Deidara took Kazekage and left. Naruto and Kakashi sensei are following him."

"But the Kazekage isn't dead yet. He was unconscious when we got here and he has lost his tailed beast."

Finally, Sasuke got some time to breathe and swiftly gave Sato all the information he had.

Sasuke knew from childhood that he was a hidden cloud ninja. Not only him, but all the Uchiha were spying on Konoha for a hidden cloud.

Sasuke didn't waste any time in giving all mission details to his real boss.

"Oh? The Kazekage isn't dead, but the one tail is gone."

"How intriguing."

Sato laughed happily. Something had changed. Gaara should have been dead, but somehow he was still alive.

"Are you done talking, Raikage? If you are still here, then that guy probably failed to capture you."

"I am curious; how did you survive against our leader?"

Sasori looked at Sato and asked him in a mechanical voice. But his question made Sato frown.

"Your leader? Do you mean Tobi or Hidan? Which one of them was Akatsuki's leader?"

After hearing Sato's response Sasori also frowned. He seemed a bit confused about something.

"You only met Tobi and Hidan? You should have met that guy as well."

"Something has happened; the plan must have changed. The leader didn't attack you."

Sasori mumbled under his breath, although Sato heard him loud and clear; his cat ears were very sharp.

He felt a bit cold. Sato knew Akatsuki's leader was Nagato. If Nagato wanted to attack him, he would have done so.

'Did something stop Nagato?'

Sato could only guess this was the case. Nagato was probably busy with something.

"I will find the reason later. My priority is to murder this guy first."

Sato shook his head, then looked around the battlefield calmly.

Sasori was standing in the center with his Akatsuki robes; there were a hundred poisonous puppets around them; Chiyo was using her ten legendary Chikamatsu puppets; Sasuke had opened his three tomoe Sharingan; and Sakura was screaming like an animal.

This was a jam-packed environment with enemies everywhere. Sato had to take this a bit seriously.

"Akatsuki's Sasori, you guys wanted my tailed beast didn't you?"

"You can have it! I have everything you want, all in this place."

Sato grinned and bent down. Sasori's eyes shrank. He violently took back his puppets, but almost instantly, Sato's surroundings were filled with blue fire.

From a tornado of blue flames, a massive, two-tailed beast emerged.

"Raikage."

Sasori clenched his fist. Even after he tried to save his puppets, a lot of them were burned to ash by Sato's fire.

Sasori knew his regular puppets could not defeat Sato. He hesitated a bit before he pulled out a scroll.

This scroll was big, and it had two words written on it.

"Third kazekage."