Til death and beyond

Release

Manipulated like a real puppet by Sasori and turned into a bomb by Deidara- How did I get reduced to something like this? I'm barely myself at the moment.

To add salt to the wound, Sasori made me fight with such exaggerated moves, I felt humiliated. Was this truly necessary or did he make all of his puppets fight this way? It almost felt like he was testing the flexibility of my limbs as if he was planning to make a puppet out of me.

My eyes shifted to Deidara before he made the sign that would blow me up. What went through his mind watching me burst into nonexistence, I wondered. Did it stir some guilt in him or did this excite him? I bet he enjoyed blowing me up. Asshole.

This was such a bizarre war, I thought as I fought alongside Shin who was fighting his own brother, a skilled swordsman eating a lollipop and this guy named Kankuro, as Sasori called him, with an actual Sasori puppet. Just who were all these people?

Deidara blew me up again and again and each time I reconstructed. I looked him in the eye but he always avoided my gaze as if I wasn't worthy being looked at, as if at this very moment I was nothing more than an undead bomb that he could blow up whenever he wanted. Did he even consider me an art piece? I had my doubts because I know this contradicted with his view on art, I was not something transient turning into a sublime state... no, I would be back and his art would become a repetitive process.

He grew more aggressive by the minute and started picking on Shin's brother. The latter snapped and drew a giant figure that came to life and punched the bird Deidara and Sasori were on and were caught in Kankuro's puppet, immobilizing them just as quickly. The puppet Sasori used his wires to entangle Deidara inside.

"Anjira! Get us out of here!" I heard Deidara yell.

Guess I have to save his ass this time.

I sighed and nodded at Shin, letting him hold the front as I jumped back, ready to cast genjutsu.

"Ittan! Enclose her!" The guy named Kankuro ordered and before I could start playing a single note, a husk of earth enclosed me, as if trying to drown me out. I kicked through the earth wall, only to be enclosed by another. I growled in irritation.

This wouldn't be a problem if I could fight in my own style, clone myself and play different songs at once to overthrow the opponent, but I just had to be resurrected and have my movement restricted, have someone else decide for me how to attack. Even though I was indestructible and had unlimited chakra, I was still at a disadvantage. How annoying.

As I managed to break through the earth walls, the swordsman with the lollipop attacked me while Shin was preoccupied fighting his brother.

The earth user kept trying to trap me as well and in agitation, I hurled a whirlwind in his direction, almost hitting Shin's brother and a picture book fell from his pocket, opening and showing a drawing of him and Shin holding hands.

Shin just stood looking at it and after a few moments, steam emitted from his body, his whole appearance turning white as he spoke to his brother but I couldn't really hear what he was saying. Snips of paper fell to the ground and soon enough all that was left of him was a heap of papers on top of a corpse of a complete stranger- the sacrificial victim I assume.

What just happened? Did the reanimation jutsu fail on him? Did he die? But we can't die... or did he somehow manage to get out of it? I tried to make the connection but I presumed it must have something to do with the drawing he saw of him, but what significance did it have to Shin? Was it so important to him that his soul was released? That was the most plausible theory I could come up with.