Rewriting Naruto Shippuden

Chapter 6

Sasori looked at the six Konoha ninja surrounding him. Naruto charged at the redhead, Shikamaru preparing a jutsu to back him up. Naruto went to punch him, but Sasori easily dodged. Sasori followed up by tripping Naruto and elbowing him in the back. Shikamaru then caught him with the shadow possession jutsu. Sasori then disappeared in a cloud of smoke revealing a puppet base. After a few seconds of confusion, Ino threw a kunai into the nearby forest. Sasori dodged, revealing himself. Prepared, Choji and Sakura attacked. Sasori jumped into the air to dodge. Sakura jumped back next to Sai as he drew something on his scroll. As soon as Sasori landed, Naruto attacked him. As soon as Naruto had Sasori on the ground, Sai released a black snake made of ink in his direction. The snake tied around the two, trapping them both. Naruto, of course, started yelling, "Hey! Why'd you trap me too?! Hey, Sai! Do something about this!" Sasori got annoyed as he thought to himself, 'And here I thought Deidara was loud!' Sai then turned around and ran off. "H-Hey! Where are you going, Sai?!" Sasori then dispersed into another puppet and Ino started sensing everything in the area. She then reopened her eyes and said, "I found him," before running in the same direction as Sai. Choji and Shikamaru followed and Sakura stayed to help Naruto.

Sai came down from the air, sword in hand to attack the puppet master who was tinkering with a puppet. Without showing any signs that he knew of Sai's presence, he used the puppet to parry the attack. Sasori, without looking up, commented, "I wasn't expecting one of you to be competent enough to see through my clone. At least the team has one thing going for it," he looked at Sai with a mockingly fake smile, "besides me of course." His smile disappeared and Sai was thrown back by the extra force Sasori added. Sai caught himself and landed on his feet before resheathing his sword. Sasori put his puppet back into its scroll while thinking, 'They should be just about here by now.' Sasori stood up just as the Ino-Shika-Cho combo appeared, "Practice over, I've seen enough."

The split-off group rejoined the others to see that Yamato and Asuma had joined the two and Sakura had broken Naruto and the puppet out of Sai's binding. Sai had a short moment of shock on his face before he thought, 'I see. She has incredible strength to be able to tear that snake. I don't want to get hit by her again.'  The only one to notice was Sasori, 'So the binding was that strong, huh? Not that surprising considering she broke through the hideout's barrier, but Haruno Sakura might actually be a name to remember.' Sasori refocused on the leaf ninja and Shikamaru was complaining, "That drill was such a drag." 'Does this guy only complain?' Naruto walked up to Sai and grabbed his collar, "Why you!" Sai asked, "Do you need something?" He asked in response, "Don't you know what the word comrade is?" Sai then proceeded to pull out a scroll and write out the word comrade. He showed it to Naruto and said, "Of course I do. What of it?" Yamato and Shikamaru both made a mental note of his response. Ino thought to herself, 'What a weirdo,' and Sasori mused, 'This kid's definitely from Anbu.' His response only made Naruto angrier, "That's not what I'm trying to say!" Choji awkwardly tried to intervene, "H-Hey, Naruto." Sai ignored the intervention and said, just loud enough for them to hear, "I wonder, would Sasuke have carried you during the entire mission. You know, since he's your 'comrade.' That is, if you consider someone who deserts the village and hurts you a comrade." Naruto yelled, "What did you say?!" Sasori looked at the sky as he interrupted, "I'm not sorry to interrupt your childish fight, but we have half an hour." Naruto looked over at him, "So?!" Sasori, now annoyed, snapped his head towards Naruto as he responded, "SO! Quit your whining and start moving before I make you!" Being intimidated, Naruto flinched back and let go of Sai. After a few moments, Naruto looked over to Sai and clenched his teeth before, surprisingly, calming down a bit. He said, "To save Sasuke, my comrade, I would do anything. Even consider a guy like you my comrade." The group started walking towards Tenchi Bridge and as Sasori passed Sai he coldly said, "A word of warning, you better stop starting fights, even if that means keeping your mouth shut for the rest of the mission. Don't they teach you in Anbu to do what's best to successfully complete the mission?" Everyone was startled to a stop, staring at Sasori for different reasons as he continued walking towards Tenchi Bridge but no one was brave enough to say anything.

Everyone else was getting into their positions at Tenchi Bridge when Sakura noticed Sai staring and Naruto. Since the two were finished preparing, Sakura decided to start a conversation to pass the last few minutes. Sakura asked, "Is something wrong?" Sai asked in return, "Why does Naruto care about Sasuke so much?" Although she wasn't certain herself, Sakura answered to the best of her ability, "It's because Naruto thinks of Sasuke like a brother. You said that you have a brother too, you must understand a little, right?" Sai turned away from Naruto, "No, not a little." Sakura made an awkward but empathetic look, 'How doesn't he understand?' Sai continued, "I told you about the titles of my drawings, haven't I? I have no such thing as emotion." The two then stared in silence at one another, Sai with a fake smile and Sakura with a serious expression. Eventually, Sakura asked, "What do you mean by you can't feel any emotion?" Sai answered, "I mean just what I said." At first, Sakura didn't know what to think, but the more she thought about Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, how devastated she and Naruto was when he left... She felt anger bubble up inside her. "Still, you have a brother! Surely you can imagine what it would be like to lose him!" Sai was unbothered, "Hm? Well, you could say that. My brother's dead after all." Sakura felt very regretful towards her choice of words after her teammate said that. She said, "Then even more so-" Sai interrupted, "I wonder if I should have looked like that. How Naruto did when I insulted Sasuke." Sakura asked, "What? What're you trying to say?" Sai looked as if he was remembering something, "Well, I didn't know what face to make when my brother died..." At his sociopathic comment Sakura's anger return. She couldn't imagine acting this way about Sasuke's desertion. 'This guy...!'  "You know, Sai, I usually would have beaten you to a pulp earlier. I told you that I wouldn't hold back if you spoke ill of Sasuke again, right? The only reason I didn't, was because I understand that to save Sasuke, I can't hurt you." Sai thought for a moment then commented, "Sakura, in regards to Naruto... yeah, I guess I'd say you're nice to him. I once read about this in a book, although I'm still not sure why such feelings arise." Sai stopped when Sasori gave the signal that told them all to hide and stay silent.

A figure dressed in a purple robe walked towards Sasori, who was currently leaning against the bridge's railing while putting his Akatsuki ring back on. No one could get a look at the identity of the spy due to a purple hood that covered most of their face. They greeted Sasori, "It's been a long time, Sasori-sama." They pulled down their hood to reveal someone the leaf ninja weren't expecting, Yakushi Kabuto. Sasori narrowed his eyes, "Were you followed?" Kabuto answered, "No, it's safe."

Naruto commented, "Him again?!" Shikamaru said to himself, "So, Kabuto was the spy all along."

Sasori ordered, "Relay the information gathered." Kabuto replied, "We have many bases. To keep from being discovered, we change bases on a weekly basis. There are, of course, bases outside of the sound. Orochimaru's spies enter those countries and guide us. But we have various movement methods, which can be cumbersome. Our current base is hidden on a small island in a lake to the north. We will move from there in three days. Uchiha Sasuke is also there."