Sage's Resurrection

Chapter 45

Naruto woke up, entangled with Sayuri. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, shaking Sayuri lightly to rouse her from her sleep.

"No... not yet... I don't want to get out..."

"Come on... we've gotta go get that spy, remember?"

She murmured into his chest. "Five more minutes..."

He picked her up, and she still clung to him. "Please... Let's just lie back down..."

He sighed. "We can't."

She pouted and let go, waking up fully. "Fine... let's go."

Naruto turned around, looking straight at Kakashi and Hinata. "Oh... hi. You two are going?"

Kakashi nodded. "We should get going right away. We don't know when our 'guests' will arrive."

—

Hinata narrowed her eyes, looking ahead. "They're coming. A few hundred metres away."

One of Naruto's clones grimaced while looking at the tight shell.

"Just to make sure, do I have to be the one that goes in here?"

Kakashi nodded, looking back from the grey sky. "Sasuke's coming, so we can't just have two different chakra signatures for 'Sasori'. That'd be too obvious."

He shrugged and clambered into the back hatch.

"Do you remember your lines?" Sayuri asked.

He nodded. "If you hear anything that isn't the spy greeting me or exchanging information, get 'em."

They nodded, and waited in the treetops.

'Sasori' lumbered onto the bridge, and began to wait.

Orochimaru and Sasuke walked onto the bridge, with Kabuto bound and gagged.

"You know, when you come over, you're not supposed to leave your trash behind, right?" Orochimaru teased, throwing him to Naruto.

Not good, not good, has he already busted me?

Naruto clicked his tongue. "... No wonder Kabuto was so late. So, you finally found out?"

"Oh, of course. You know, I heard reports of your death-"

"My death was greatly exaggerated. Now, tell me what you're here for. If you make me wait more, I really will kill you."

The man scoffed. "As if you could. We both remember how that Suna encounter went, right?"

The puppet began to twitch. "That was before my collection matured. Do you think I came here without expecting a fight?"

"But you would, wouldn't you? You wouldn't dare waste your art on someone like me."

"I've recently taken a liking to non-humanoid puppets. A serpent like you is perfect."

Orochimaru grinned. "You're a marvellous actor, Naruto. If I didn't know for sure that Sasori was dead, I would've thought that you were him."

Naruto said nothing, instead opting to open the escape hatch.

"Still in character, huh? That's fine."

Kabuto broke his binds and slashed through the puppet with a nasty chakra blade, dragging a long scratch across his chest before turning tail and running.

It was a shame that Naruto disappeared with a pop.

They all flickered onto the bridge.

"It's so good to see you again, Sasuke." Kakashi stretched his hand, sparks crackling in his palm.