𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍

The Puppet Master's Battle, Pt. 1

Last time:

Lady Chiyo used Sasori's shock to her advantage and forced Hanara to charge. Sasori's reaction was slow but sudden, forcing Hana to stop abruptly in order not to run into the poisoned tail.

"HANARA, NOW!" Lady Chiyo yelled.

Now:

Hanara jumped high, arms above her head, and landed upside down with the kunai in her fists almost completely inside Sasori's puppet armour. Mission accomplished, she swung off the puppeteer and landed behind him.

'Right, so now I need to tie my chakra threads through the holes of the kunai so that I can drag them all around and essentially cut up the 'body' to pieces...'

And then, there was another stream of senbon that she had to dodge. Luckily, she still had Lady Chiyo controlling her, so she could completely focus on dragging her kunai knives around. Hanara created eight chakra threads, wrapped each one around the hole of the kunais, and pulled, breaking Sasori's armour.

The real Sasori was covered by a black cloth, making him look all the more mysterious as he stood up from his crouched position.

"I should have expected no less from my own granny. No wonder even the girl could dodge my attacks. The witch who could read my moves was steering her with chakra threads," Sasori stated, "And moreover, you took control of Hiruko's tail while you were at it. I only noticed when the tail stalled on me. You did it when you threw those kunai knives, didn't you?"

"Very good," Lady Chiyo smiled, "I made it invisible, but you figured it out."

"Of course. Remember who taught me how to play with puppets? Who drilled the talent into me?" Sasori asked rhetorically, "It was you."

"Yes," Lady Chiyo agreed, "But now, playtime is over."

'So... I guessed right. This must be such a bittersweet moment for her...'

Sasori pulled off the black cloth covering him and smirked, "So you think this will be easy, Granny Chiyo?"

'He doesn't look a day older than me, and I'll be turning 16 in a month! It must be something to do with the fact that his body is literally a puppet.'

"Let me show you my favourite," Sasori continued, pulling out a scroll and unsealing it. "This one was hard for me to finish, but I suppose that's what makes me so fond of it."

And out came a puppet that looked exactly like the Third Kazekage.

"No... that's not..." Granny Chiyo murmured, dumbfounded.

"The Third Kazekage," Hanara muttered, "Master of the Magnet Release. So you're the one that kidnapped him... Wasn't the Sand Village your home? What could they have done, to make you betray them so? You turned the Third Kazekage to a puppet, quite possibly helped Orochimaru kill the Fourth and then attempt to murder the Fifth!"

"I wasn't involved with the Fourth, that was one of my agents. But yeah, Orochimaru and the Akatsuki go way back. We've done some work together."

'Psh, yeah, because one of your agents doing it makes it so much better. But really, how bad could the Sand have been to make Sasori betray them this much?'

"It's time to get started," Sasori smirked, sending his puppet at them.

'If only I had Earth Release. Then I could send soil into the puppet's joints, rendering it useless. I'll have to settle with cutting it up to pieces.'

The puppet's arm extended with a few pops revealing even more limbs with explosive tags on them, but Lady Chiyo let her dodge, until she couldn't. Hanara was essentially trapped with large, exploding, plastic limbs looming over her. But then, Lady Chiyo pulled her out.