71 On the Way Back Home!
Sasori controlled his 100 puppet jutsu to fly down and attack Esumi with their very diverse set of tools and skills. With a look of pure joy and excitement, Esumi went wild. She charged at the flying puppets and cut the first puppet in half who tried to claw her with a claw gauntlet. Immediately after getting rid of the first puppet out of a hundred, 3 puppets armed with poisoned weapons struck towards her back. Esumi smirked as she sliced through their weapons with her sword and eventually through the three puppets. From above her 5 puppets hovered together. They held their hands in strange hand seals and created a bright pink light. Esumi watched all around her with her Byakugan and noticed in two other directions 5 other group of puppets doing something similar. As she sliced, slashed, and pierced through the unstopping wave of puppets. She started to get overwhelmed slightly.
'Seriously? Every single weapon in coated in that fucking poison! How the fuck did this guy get his hand on so much poison? He could drown a god damn city with all this bullshit.' Esumi thought slightly irritated.
Sasori watched as his puppets got closer and closer to ending the life of the annoyingly talented young shinobi. 'Finally. This has taken too much time, and I've nearly exhausted my entire collection. Soon she will fall.'
Unfortunately for Sasori, Esumi still had plenty more fight in her. Esumi noticed the three groups of puppets who were charging some big jutsu as she continued to slaughter more and more red cloaked puppets. The pink light in the shape of a crystal, the light blue light that was as chilly as snow, and a yellow light that was blazing hot fired towards her. The three jutsus zoomed towards the suddenly alone Esumi.
"You dirty handsome bastard.. You're really trying to excite me aren't you?" Esumi said with a suggestive smile.
"Release."
Esumi released her gravity seal and disappeared from her previous location as the combination jutsu crashed where she was last seen. In a beautiful display of ice, crystals, and scorching hot balls of fire erupted upwards. Affecting the nearby sand at the attack site. Freezing it, crystalizing it, and causing it to turn into glass. Sasori extended his view to all of his flying puppets and tried to find Esumi. Esumi however was in a state of ecstasy and freedom. She sliced and slashed all the remaining puppets, except the puppet with the sharingan in just a few seconds.
'I don't get it. How could she be so strong..? It makes no sense.. A little girl like her shouldn't be able to possess such strength.' Sasori thought to himself.
Suddenly Esumi appeared in front of Sasori and with a few quick slashes, tore his puppet body apart and grabbed his core.
"Oh you had another scroll left huh? I guess I can give this to Khael. All these beautiful weapons left behind. Since you gave me such a fun time, I guess I can spare your life. Your doll skills would be appreciated in the village." Esumi said as she attached a Crown of Servitude to Sasori's core and shoved it into a random puppet.
"Sasori of the Red Sand, you are now owned by Yada Esumi and Nine Sho. You will follow our orders without hesitation. Every order we give you, you will accomplish to the greatest of your abilities. You will never have thoughts of betrayal or thoughts of going against anyone allied with the Battle Empire. You will never attempt to ally yourself secretly with anyone without first telling me, Amai Jabie, or Aomatsuna Hakuseki. And you will never attempt to betray me or anyone allied with the Battle Empire. My first order for you is to follow me."
Esumi grabbed the perfectly unharmed sharingan puppet. She disappeared and swept up the battlefield to collect all the unbroken weapons from Sasori's destroyed puppets. With a greedy grin on her face, she reattached her gravity seal and started to walk away with Sasori lifelessly walking behind her.
'I truly have become a puppet now.. No free will of my own. Controlled by the will of this little girl. But isn't this what I've always wanted? To become a true piece of beautiful art? Will Yada Esumi be able to transform me into the type of piece that I've always dreamed of..? Everlasting and remaining far into the future?' Sasori thought to himself as he walked behind Esumi and an even smaller girl who appeared from under the sand suddenly draped in a black cloak. She had the look of a disinterest. As if she was a higher than all and had no interest in anyone below her. He was thinking about killing her until suddenly he didn't feel like it at all. He felt like this person was someone he absolutely couldn't go against or even think about going against. 'It must be that strange device she put in my core..'
"Say hello to your puppet sensei Khael-chan. He's going to be teaching you all he knows about puppetry and after that he will become a soldier for our empire. Jabie will pick what he's going to do after that though." Esumi said as she stuck her fingers inside the puppet's eye socket and removed them.
The eyes returned back into normal eyes with black pupils. She put them away for later when she met up with Jabie. He should figure out something better than her just stuffing one of these eyes down her socket.
"Thank you Esumi." Khael said with a bored voice while also looking downward towards the sand.
Esumi suddenly hugged Khael and surprised her. All of a sudden a bone shot out from under her cloak and pierced Esumi through the stomach. Esumi however didn't react how Khael thought she would react. Instead of immediately letting her go and staring at her like a monster, like what she was used to, Esumi laughed while continuing to hug her. Khael quickly returned the bone back inside her and felt immensely guilty for stabbing Esumi. Esumi saw that Khael was nearly about to cry from her mistake.
"It's okay little Khael. I know you didn't mean to and look at this." Esumi said without a change in her voice.
The previous hole inside Esumi was slowly regenerating until soon it was as if the injury never happened. Esumi gave Khael a thumbs up and a smile. Khael wiped the tears that almost dropped from her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I still.. I still don't have control over it yet.." Khael said sadly.
"It's fine. Take your time, and next time make sure to use that on your enemies." Esumi giggled
"Yada Esumi." Sasori suddenly said.
Esumi and Khael turned to look at Sasori.
"I wouldn't normally do this. But as respect for you as a fighter, I will tell you something. Go to Tenchi Bridge in the Hidden Grass Village ten days from now at noon. One of Orochimaru's henchmen is a spy of mine. I was suppose to meet up with him there." Sasori explained.
"What makes you think I care about Orochimaru Sasori-chan?" Esumi said with hidden interest.
"I don't think that. I am simply telling you this incase you wish to act on it." Sasori replied.
"Hmm.. I see. Well don't worry I'll be finding out more info from you Sasori-chan."
A little bit farther away Esumi saw a large round figure with a figure slung over his shoulder and a young boy walking on his side drawing on some scroll. Esumi waved excitedly while the plump figure facepalmed. Eventually Esumi, Khael, and Sasori met up with the three people.
"So my device could work on his "core". That's great news." Jabie stated as he stared Sasori all over before returning his eyes back to Esumi.
"Hehe. I have no idea it would work either. I just shoved it on the core, and it worked. If it didn't I would've had to kill him since torture wouldn't work on someone who doesn't feel pain. He also doesn't look like the squealing type." Esumi said.
"I suppose we are quite lucky. We captured two members of the Akatsuki and allied them with us. Increasing our village's power even more. I'll create a clone that will take these two back to our village. Once I analyze all their capabilities and possible future capabilities, I will decide best where they are needed for the village." Jabie stated as he created a water clone.
The water clone created a ridable tidal wave that floated in the air and had the unconscious Deidara and the somewhat curious and angry Sasori hop on before taking off in the sky towards their village. The gang then saw Broly and Fu appear in the sky above them.
"Come on." Broly said.
Jabie, Esumi, Khael, and Sho all jumped onto Broly's earth cloud jutsu and flew towards Konoha. But elsewhere 7 mysterious figures were discussing about our little gang after 2 days of their victory against Sasori and Deidara.
*AT A MYSTERIOUS HIDEOUT*
"Deidara and Sasori are missing. After they were sent to capture the first Jinchūriki, they were intercepted by someone else and either died or were captured. I doubt either of them would betray us." A voice said.
"After inspecting numerous areas around the Hidden Sand Village, I found two areas of interest. One area was littered in explosions and frozen sand. The other one was covered in Sasori's puppets cut into pieces. They were both engaged in combat with two unknown combatants or a group of similar ninja. But after searching for a clue, I managed to see a group of shinobi that has gotten in our way before in the past." Another voice said.
"Is it "them"?" The first voice asked.
"Yes. Them."
"Those little brats? I wonder how have they been since the last time we've seen them.." A sadistic type of voice said.
"Probably become even more monstrous." A handsome attractive voice said.
"Regardless. They are interfering with my plans. If any hint of them or anyone associated with their group affects our plans we will take them out. For now. Continue capturing the Jinchūriki. The one-tailed and nine-tailed are on hold for now."
"I knew we should've invited those little monsters Itachi." The sadistic voice said before the group of 7 ninja faded out.
*IN KONOHA PRIOR TO BROLY'S GROUP ARRIVAL*
Leaves were gently floating through the air of a training ground. The wind softly blew. A lone butterfly was fluttering through the training ground until suddenly.
*BOOOOOOM*
*CRASH*
5 shinobi appeared in the once peaceful and serene training ground. One ninja wore a green jumpsuit, orange leg warmers, and a bowl-cut hairstyle. A somewhat familiar plump figure landed a few feet away from the green ninja and the copies of the plump child.
"Lee. They're just clones, quit holding back and use them to train to your full potential. I haven't spent all these years training you, just so you could disappoint me. Decimate your enemies and prove that I haven't wasted my time teaching you." The fat child said in a childish intellectual manner.
"I won't let you down Amai Sensei!" Lee shouted determinedly.
Lee dashed into the middle of his sensei's water clones which had only 1/10 of his sensei's power. Lee did a straight punch that almost punched a hole through the first clone. The first clone dodged Lee's attack and grabbed his wrist. He was about to break it, but Lee managed to headbutt the water clone and dispel it. The other clones took advantage of Lee's brief moment of capture and attacked together. Lee sensed the incoming clones and shouted.
"Leaf Tornado!"
After headbutting the first water clone, Lee moved forward with the momentum of it and got into a handstand. He then spun around quickly kicking the water clones away. None of them were dispelled though. The 3 remaining water clones started to weave through 3 different hand signs.
"Water Style: Water Gauntlet Jutsu." One of the Jabie clones said as water turned into a large gauntlet around his fists.
"Water Style: Ranged Configuration." The second water clone said as he created a bow and arrow out of water chakra.
"Aphotic Zone." The last Jabie clone said as he casted Lee into a genjutsu that rendered him effectively blind.
Despite all these odds, Lee just smiled before suddenly hearing a sound behind him. He swayed in the opposite direction of the attack and swiftly kicked.
*WATER FALLING TO THE GROUND*
Another sound was heard. Lee quickly jumped away before hearing the sound of something penetrating through the ground where he just was. He heard more and more projectiles being fired towards him. He quickly dashed towards the origin of the sound while dodging the incoming fired projectiles. He attacked with an uppercut from below, but quickly realized one of the clones managed to block his attack and grab his fist before he could reach the ranged opponent. Lee realized he was in quite a predicament as he heard another projectile being prepared.
It was as if everything was in slow motion for Lee. His thoughts were moving a mile a minute.
'Got it.' Lee made up his next plan of action.
Lee punched the wrist of the water clone and forced him to release his hand. The clone grabbed his wrist in pain. He angrily started charging towards Lee to grab him. With a hidden grin, Lee reappeared under the clone and grabbed him around the waist. Although he could barely reach all the way around the clone, he suddenly hopped in the air and with a destructive landing smashed the water clone into pieces of water. The ranged water clone was the only thing that was left, and it fired attacks after attacks at the now unblinded Lee. Lee took out some nunchakus and either deflected the arrows or smashed them into droplets. He dashed towards the bow user and with a flick of his weapon smashed the clone's chin upward and into flying water.
"You didn't take damage, so that's good enough for a warm up. Follow me for your true test. The other two will be coming along as well." The 12-year-old looking Jabie said as he started to walk towards the village's entrance.
"What's going on sensei?" Lee asked.
"Do you know why I've been training you and the other two for these past three years specifically? Not including the academy students." Jabie asked.
"You said that you made a promise to the Hokage to train the genin and academy students." Lee said.
"That's true. But why did I take a specific interest in you and those other two? As in why did I train you three personally but only gave instructions and information for the others?"
"Well.. I don't know Amai sensei! The three of us are very different and I don't think there is anything special about us."
"The truth is Lee, the reason why I chose you three is because there was something about you three that sparked my interest."
"What do you mean?"
Sadly for Lee, the young Jabie did not answer his question as they continued to walk towards the village entrance.
*IN THE HOKAGE TOWER*
"That tailed brat wasn't wrong.. Our genin and academy students have had an increase in power ever since Jabie took part in their training." Tsunade said.
"It was hard getting the jonin to agree letting a chunin take part in training of their students. The academy teachers didn't mind so much thanks to Jabie holding teaching classes after their class and not interrupting during it." Shizune spoke.
"Either our jonin were really slacking on their student's training or Jabie is a far better teacher than most of our trained ninjas. How could a 12-year-old boy know how to teach well enough to surpass the teachings of combat veterans who have a greater experience than he could ever have?"
"I.. I don't know Lady Tsunade.. I'm just as confused as you are."
"Well enough about the kid. Aomatsuna stood true to his promise three years ago and that's all that matters. Jiraiya and Naruto should be returning soon. Bring Sakura to my office. Let's go welcome them." Tsunade said with a smile.
*IN A SECRET LOCATION IN KONOHA*
"It seems those three weren't a threat to Konoha after all.." A mysterious elderly voice spoke to his kneeling henchmen.
"The child known as Jabie has continued to strengthen Konoha's forces despite having no allies of his own to rely upon." A henchman stated.
"How has the experiment turned out?" The elderly man asked.
"Many have failed upon taking in the blood of the child. Even more have died after trying to implant the dna of the boy inside the test subjects. Only five out of the hundreds managed to successfully merge with the blood."
"I knew that child was no simple boy. The agents I sent after him always never returned or came back in critical conditions. When will he be sending the child? I need to begin their training immediately."
"Orochimaru said an associate of his will deliver the child 200 miles away from Konoha in this location today." The henchman stated as he pulled out a map to show to his lord.
"Good. Make sure this information doesn't leave here and collect the experiment without any difficulties. If anyone manages to spot you all during the operation, silence them." The elderly man said with a pressuring killing intent.
"Understood my Lord." The henchman disappeared to gather reinforcements.
"That child's strange kekkei genkai will be mine to protect Konoha in the right way.."