"It seems our guests have arrived." Jabie stated with his Byakugan activated as he stared at the entrance of the Sand Village near the stronghold.

"Oh its that famous missing-nin from the sand village along with the terrorist guy." Esumi said as she looked as well. "Wait! Why the hell is he hunched like that?"

"He's inside that puppet. He's a puppet user that has taken over a country with his numerous puppets." Broly said.

Khael's ears perked up at the mention of a famous puppet user and she tried to see as well. This prompted Sho and Fu to try and see as well, except Fu hanging her head sadly after remembering she doesn't have any special eyes and can only see the village entrance as the group stood on a rooftop inside the sand village. Sho patted her back.

"Whoa. There are a lot of sharp and dangerous items in that ugly puppet he has." Esumi said in wonder.

"The further you look, the more you see. It seems Sasori-san has turned himself into a puppet and is keeping himself alive with that interesting cylinder-shaped device that says Core.. Or at least I'd hypothesize. That is the only part of his body producing chakra or really anything at all." Jabie said.

"The handsome guy also modified his body. He has a mouth in his hands and chest. Hehe I wonder what kind of play he's into. Could you imagine all the things he could do?" Esumi giggled.

Sho, Khael, and Fu's faces turned red at this.

"Unless you're into art I don't think he's your type." Jabie said.

"I am a connoisseur of the culinary arts. My cooking skills are unparallel and the ultimate food is within my sights. He will be wowed by my art." Esumi boasted elegantly.

"You haven't cooked a real meal in your life. I cook all the meals."

"Details. Metails. Letails. I'm the best kunoichi in the world. If I can't conquer something silly and meaningless like art, then what kind of person would I be?"

"My master is such an eccentric person.. I don't know why I accepted her offer back then.." Sho said while face palming.

"You two can handle them. They don't seem that interesting to me. I was hoping Itachi Uchiha would be coming." Broly said as he looked at the two incoming Akatsuki members.

"So you want the pretty boy terrorist Esumi.. or the handsome killer red-head..?" Jabie said sarcastically.

"They're both so good looking! I don't know.. Jabie you choose first!" Esumi said while acting like an indecisive school girl.

"I'll take Deidara. I'm more interested in those strange mouth hands of his than Sasori's puppet body." Jabie answered.

"Yummy. All those sharp toys he has might be able to satisfy me if he knows how to use em!" Esumi said with a giggle.

Jabie and Sho sighed. Khael and Fu's faces were red at the comment. Khael's face didn't change from her usual deadpan expression though.

"Khael. Go watch Esumi's battle against an experienced puppet user. I won't be able to teach you as much as her battle could. Esumi make sure to pull out his full power. I want her to learn as much as possible." Broly said.

"Easy peasy Suna. Come on ya little wild-haired cutie. Watch the world's greatest kunoichi show her stuff." Esumi said while ruffling Khael's hair. Khael bent her head down to get more pets in before walking off with Esumi.

"Sho-kun. Go and watch fatty's battle. Maybe you'll get some more ideas in that little art picture book of yours and get stronger." Esumi said before she took off with Khael behind.

"Throwing me away at the first sign of battle.. As usual.." Sho said before slowly making a smile towards her.

"Let's go. We'll have to separate the two to make it more interesting.." Jabie said with a small evil grin.

"I thought you were different Jabie-san.. Why is fighting so fun for you three? I'll never get it.." Sho said as he left with Jabie.

"Fu. I'll stay near the Kazekage. You can go off and enjoy yourself in the village or stay here and train along side me." Broly said before getting into a meditative pose and closing his visible eye.

"I'll go find some more friends! Having friends all over the nations is my dream! My goal!" Fu stated before hopping off the roof and exploring through the sand village.

Broly was left alone on the roof. The sounds of the city bustling through his ears.

'I wonder how Mom has been doing since I've been gone.. After Jabie and Esumi deals with these two, we get to head back to Konoha. I should bring her a gift. I did miss three of her birthdays so I should give her three gifts. What does Mother like though? I only know of her love for weak children and infants. I don't have any offspring on this planet yet, and I wouldn't want to gift her them anyway. I'll ask Jabie and Esumi when they come back.'

*WITH JABIE, SHO, ESUMI, AND KHAEL*

They have reached the stronghold outside the village and met up with the two Akatsuki members in the red clouds and black cloaked outfits. Sho and Khael stayed a far bit away and watched with their Byakugan as Esumi stood across from Sasori with a promiscuous smile and Jabie across from Deidara with a gaze that resembled a mad scientist looking at his new testing subject.

"No one said anything about a welcoming party Sasori my man. What's going on?" Deidara asked his partner.

"I don't know. The Kazekage might have hired bodyguards." Sasori responded in a gruff voice.

"Bodyguards eh? I'll show you two the true meaning of art!" Deidara shouted before reaching into his bag.

"A bag full of clay? How strange.." Jabie muttered to himself.

Jabie saw as Deidara's mouth hands ate and chewed the clay before kneading it into two hand-sized clay birds filled with explosive chakra!?

'That's the same type of chakra Suna uses. I guess that's why he's known as a terrorist bomber. But I wonder.. Could I use those strange mouth hands for my steel release and just shape it into whatever I want..?'

While Jabie was in his thoughts Deidara threw the birds and they started to fly towards Jabie and Esumi.

"They're explosive. Be careful." Jabie warned Esumi before hopping away.

Esumi smiled before jumping into the air and avoiding the birds just before Deidara said "Katsu!" and causing the two birds to explode. At the same time Sasori removed his puppet's mouth mask and fired a high-speed volley of poisoned senbon at Esumi and Jabie. Jabie and Esumi easily twirled and dodged the rapid-fire barrage of poisoned needles before standing next to each other.

"These two aren't so easy Deidara. We might need to work together." Sasori said in his gruff voice.

"I'm surprised those words came out of your mouth Sasori! But that sounds like a lot more fun." Deidara agreed.

"Hold on handsome and handsomer. Let's not make this a foursome. I was hoping to get some one on one time with Mr. Hunched over tailed ninja. How about you and me meet up some place that isn't near these two?" Esumi said.

"Hmp. Are you a fool?" Sasori asked, rejecting Esumi's crazy proposal.

"Are you scared your little puppets won't be strong enough to defeat such a cute girl like me? Aren't you the big bad puppet master that took over a nation by himself? Come on I'll be gentle." Esumi taunted.

"Sasori my man, I think that crazy chick has the hots for you or really wants to be done in by you. I can't tell." Deidara whispered to Sasori.

"Insulting my art is inexcusable. No matter who you are, you will die now because of that. Deidara deal with the other one while I deal with this one alone." Sasori said.

"You got it my man. Hey, are you ready to witness true art? Follow me." Deidara said before creating a ridable bird made of clay and explosive chakra and flying away.

Jabie smirked before coating his feet in water and sliding away at high speeds, easily keeping up with Deidara across the sandy desert. Deidara showed an appreciative look before finally deciding on their battle location. A wide-open area in the desert. Nothing but the blowing wind, sand, and dust around them.

"I'll ask this ahead of time just incase you die for some reason in our battle. But why is the Akatsuki gathering the Jinchūriki? I mean Its obvious you're after their power, but what are you planning to do with it? Take over the world? Hold them for safe keeping? Give them to yourselves?" Jabie asked politely.

"Like I'd be willing to share that with a dead man whose about to experience the art show of a life time. Make sure to etch this brief final moment of art into your eyeballs." Deidara said as he flew above Jabie and rained clay figures upon him.

Jabie formed small water pellets around his fingers and shot them towards the falling spiders with impeccable aim. The water droplets he formed pierced through the clay figures. Surprisingly though, they didn't explode. Jabie guessed that Deidara chose when the clay figures explode or simply not. The clay spiders fell all around Jabie and surrounded him.

"Art is an Explosion!" Deidara shouted as he formed a hand sign and caused the spiders to explode in a series of explosions.

*BOOOOOOM X20*

"Hahaha! That's true art! Now it's time to bag me a Jinchūriki." Deidara said before attempting to race off with his bird creation.

"Excuse me. We're not quite finished yet. Your "art" was quite brief and I don't believe I managed to fully appreciate it. Could you show me some more?" Jabie asked after appearing from the smoke unharmed.

"How did you..?"

"Your little bombs there. Despite how small they are could definite blow a person's head off or a large chunk of flesh if you managed to attach them to someone. I wonder why you aren't sneakier and assassin like. It would increase your uses as a mercenary much more than just wanton bombing places. But then again you could go either route. I guess it doesn't really matter at this point. You will ---"

"Shut up! Katsu!" Deidara interrupted before spiders clawed from the sand under Jabie and exploded.

But once again Jabie appeared unharmed from the explosion and looked the exact same as he did when they first met a couple minutes ago.

"I don't know what little trick you're using, but let's see if you can handle this!" Deidara yelled.

Deidara was about to create some more clay constructs, but Jabie threw a single senbon at Deidara and forced him to dodge with his bird.

"I believe it's my turn." Jabie said before forming some hand signs and causing water to burst from his feet before suddenly rising into a huge wave that matched Deidara's flying bird's height.

"Now this is getting interesting.. I knew it was a good choice bring my full supply of clay." Deidara stated before shoving both of his mouth hands in his clay bags and firing speeding clay birds at the incoming Jabie.

"Summoning Jutsu." Jabie said before cutting his finger and placing his palm on his water wave.

*MULTIPLE POOFS RANG OUT*

Dolphins and different types of whales appeared inside his wave. A strange whale with a large spiral horn coming from above it's mouth shot out a beam and froze all clay birds and forced them to drop from the sky and break into pieces after making contact with the ground. After Deidara saw this he changed the flight patterns of the birds and made them attack in different patterns. Some of the clay birds were faster than the others, some were slower and had larger explosion radius, and some were complete duds. Jabie started to notice his summons weren't able to completely handle the birds as well as he thought they were. He forced his wave to roll forward towards Deidara.

Deidara continued to bombard Jabie's summonings and himself before rising higher and higher in the sky. Jabie swiftly reduced his wave's height and got rid of it after finding out it's a huge waste of chakra against a faster opponent. His summons returned back to their origin place and the two combatants were back at step one. Jabie started to weave through hand signs and mouth the words, "Water Style: Water Disc."

Suddenly from underneath Jabie's feet a disc-shaped water platform appeared and started to spin. Jabie was lifted into the air and dashed towards the flying Deidara on his new ride. Deidara clicked his tongue after noticing it was about as fast as his current ride. In response to Jabie's new method of attack, Deidara created more hand sized clay birds and had them spin around himself. Jabie raised his eyebrow at this before palming towards Deidara. The birds spinning around Deidara quickly homed in towards Jabie and exploded. The blast enveloped both fighters and sent them both towards the ground.

Jabie landed on his feet and dusted off the dust on his outfit before looking towards Deidara who seemed to have taken some damage, but nothing big. He then held out his palms before suddenly spewing out a mass of clay from his mouth hands. Jabie was very interested in what his opponent was planning to do as he watched in excited curiosity. The mass of clay that Deidara shot onto the desert ground started to move and form into three strange humanoid figures.

"Let's see how you will handle against this! Although I'm not too pleased about their design, they will be just as brilliant as my other pieces." Deidara said as the clay figures ran towards Jabie in a clumsy manner.

The clay figures reached Jabie and began to attack him in strange ways. Sometimes using their heads to attack along with their other limbs. They had no sort of attack pattern and were just attacking in any manner they could. They attacked somewhat coordinately though. Jabie dodged all of their attacks before poking them with his index finger once and causing them to suddenly fall apart. The clay connecting from Deidara's mouth hands to the previous clay figures reconnected and the humanoid clay figures formed once again and tried to attack Jabie again. Jabie poked them as he dodged their wild attacks even more, but this time injected his gentle fist chakra in the clay connected to Deidara through the clay figures. When it reached Deidara's mouth hands he suddenly spat out blood.

"What did.. What did you do to me..." Deidara asked as he disconnected his clay from the humanoid figures.

"I've just injected you with a poison that will soon cause you to suffer through a plethora of different effects and eventually kill you. If you manage to stay awake during it, you get to see your final moments as a member of the Akatsuki. If you have any special attacks you want to use before its all over please go ahead." Jabie said nicely.

"Impossible! How could----- Guh!" Deidara spat out even more blood as his body started to shake. His vision started deteriorating.

"I can't go out like this.. Not so easily... Not without.. A final bang..." He ripped off his shirt and tried to tear off some stitches attached to his chest, but didn't have enough strength and couldn't focus due to the poisoned gentle fist chakra running amok through his body. He soon fell over shirtless and unconscious.

"I'm surprised he didn't have some sort of plan for poison despite working with a puppet user. I thought most puppet users used poison along with their puppets. Maybe he was just arrogant. Who knows? I guess it's a good thing I lied about the poison being fatal." Jabie said to himself before collecting Deidara's body and placing his Crown of Servitude on Deidara's head and stitching it to his scalp with chakra sutures.

"I wonder if Esumi finished up yet.. I want to see how Konoha turned out with my clone's help.. Maybe one of our old classmates has become strong enough to face Sho, Khael, or Fu. They are nearly as strong as Jonin individually. Together they should give an elite jonin some difficult trouble if not win if they are lucky enough. Hehe.. I'll be interesting to see indeed.." Jabie muttered to himself with a devious smile before suddenly calling out to Sho.

Sho appeared in front of Jabie carrying an unconscious Deidara over his shoulder.

"Did you learn anything?" Jabie asked nicely and with a change of expression to that of a tutor or wise sage.

"Jabie-san.. aren't you going to finish him off.. or something?" Sho asked as he looked at the S-rank missing nin shirtless and wearing a crown.

"Why would I do something as foolish as that?! What a waste! Listen Sho, never kill your enemies if you can help it. The reason for this is because you can always learn something from your enemies. Knowledge is absolute power in the shinobi world. The more knowledge you have, the more powerful you can become. I captured Deidara because of the strange mouths he has on his palms and chest. If he didn't have that, then I would have still captured him. He has knowledge on the Akatsuki and we're currently interested in their group. Once I gain information from him about the Akatsuki, then I would have even more knowledge and power. Even if he wasn't a member of the Akatsuki or had the strange mouths on his body, I would have still captured him due to his strength and bounty as a missing nin. There is no reason why I should have killed him. But enough about that. Did you learn any new ways of using your current techniques?" Jabie finished his rant.

"Well.... I got a few ideas.. I suppose Jabie-san." Sho said as he was walking along with Jabie and their new companion?

"Well you'll be able to test them soon. Don't worry. Let's go check up on your sensei. Maybe Sasori is a smarter fighter than our new ally." Jabie said.

'I don't know how I feel about the whole enslaving people who go against us thing.. At first when I found out about it, I was horrified. I thought my new master would try and enslave me just like those in her village, so I tried to escape during the night. But she easily caught me. I was forced to explain why I tried to escape from her and she only laughed loudly at me before punching me on the top of my head. She then gave me a serious talk about winners and losers of the shinobi world and how the winners decide what is right and the losers follow the will of the winner.

"If you want to protect your will to live life peacefully, you better be strong enough to do that you cute little brat. Or else someone will definitely ruin your dream. Even if they don't know anything about you or just don't like how you look. But with enough strength, you can do whatever you want."

'I didn't know the shinobi world was so terrible and heartless.. But after exploring around with my master, I witnessed a lot of things. Some even wavered my heart more and some that surprised me and softened it. At this point I still don't know if I truly just want a peaceful life.. And if becoming a ninja was even the right choice to start with..' Sho reflected as he walked along with Jabie.