Not a moment too soon, the allied forces were situated inside the confines of the Kazekage's manor.
There, the Leaf shinobi laid out the situation: the Akatsuki were currently marching toward the Wind Country with the objective of capturing Gaara and extracting the One-Tail. They also delivered the probability regarding the recent disappearance of Fū in the Waterfall Village.
Gaara was now deeply troubled by the scale of the enemy's movements.
"How do you know all this?" Temari probed.
She was more than right to ask since the Sand Village's own perimeter patrols and sensory nets had picked up absolutely nothing.
Kakashi exchanged a brief look with Jada before he explained that the information came courtesy of highly classified intel gathered by the Leaf's black-ops division.
Truly it was thanks to the group's foreknowledge, and because Jasper was now an active agent within the Akatsuki.
"Last time we fought the Akatsuki," Alice added, "they fled because we knew they were coming."
"Who were they?" Gaara asked.
"Hidan and Kakuzu," Margaret answered.
"You two seem to be capable if you can handle the likes of those two," Chiyo praised.
Surviving a clash with the immortal duo was no small feat.
"Right," Jada exclaimed, bringing the focus back to the immediate threat. "And the two that are coming here are Sasori and Jasper."
The room went silent as the Sand ninjas were all visibly shocked to hear that name spoken aloud again.
Sasori of the Red Sand was both a traitor and a prodigy who had vanished decades ago after leaving a trail of blood across his own village.
While hearing that he was coming was indeed troubling, the Sand were also impressed by the depth of the Leaf's intelligence network to uncover those facts.
"I see that your village is a force not to be trifled with," Chiyo praised again. Her resolve then settled into her wrinkled face. "How long until my grandson comes?"
"Tomorrow night," William answered. "At least that's what we expect based on their travel vectors."
"My senses are top notch," Alice revealed, "so I'll stand guard twenty-four-seven until I spot them crossing the outer dunes."
The Sand elders murmured among themselves, now grateful to be allied with such a capable and proactive village.
For the rest of the evening, the combined forces engaged in tactical deliberation.
They possessed both the exact information and the overwhelming manpower required to dismantle Jasper and Sasori. Strategically, they could have marched out into the badlands now and hunted the duo down.
But the Leaf shinobi advised against an offensive sweep. Striking this early in the open desert might cause Sasori and Jasper to create an escape route.
What the allied forces needed was the element of surprise to shatter any hope of their escape.
Furthermore, there was an unspoken objective between William, Alice, Margaret, and Jada. Should Jasper be captured in the crossfire, the Leaf would secure him, process his intelligence, and do what they could to extract information regarding Pain and Obito.
Should this succeed, releasing Jasper back into the wild would ultimately be the safest long-term option, allowing them to maintain an unwitting inside source within the Akatsuki's ranks.
As for Sasori, the verdict was unanimous: he had to be taken out at all costs.
"Then it's settled," Gaara finally exclaimed. "We'll wait for them to walk into our territory."
"Agreed," Naruto said.
After finalizing the perimeter assignments, the trap was officially set. Everyone in the room (except Ebizo and Baki) would participate in the ambush: the Sand Siblings, Chiyo, Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, Margaret, William, Alice, and Jada.
It would be an absolute overkill.
While it was somewhat contradictory to bring Gaara—the enemy's primary target—directly into the vanguard, the logic was undeniable: having numbers and the Kazekage's environmental control in the desert would grant them an insurmountable advantage.
The otherworldly ninjas also knew exactly how Sasori fought, and that Jasper's main objective during the clash would be to fake his half of the fight. Surely the latter would put on a show to maintain his cover with the Akatsuki, but no one on the allied side would get truly hurt by his hands.
The true objective was to ensure Sasori either surrendered or died in the sand.
✟
The following day bled into a wind-swept night.
Deep in the outer desert, miles from the Sand Village walls, Jasper walked casually across the dunes. Beside him scuttled the form of the Hiruko puppet, carrying Sasori inside its belly as the tail dragged through the sand.
"Ya know, Sasori, I never imagined myself doing this."
"Shut it…! We'll be there in a few hours."
Suddenly, the puppet came to an abrupt halt.
"What's up?" Jasper asked, stopping a few paces ahead.
"Someone's here…"
Jasper turned his head toward the ridge. Standing atop the crest of a dune, silhouetted against the moonlight, was the entire allied coalition.
The Sand Siblings, Chiyo, Team 7, Margaret, William, Alice, and Jada were looking down at them.
"Holy moly!" Jasper screamed. "You guys brought the whole gang!"
"Good to see you, too," Kakashi said, locking on the former Leaf resident.
Chiyo couldn't help but take the moment to see what her grandson had become. Like the reports said, he turned himself into a puppet and used more puppets to operate now.
She was going to say something until she saw Naruto clench his fist tighter. It was only his second time seeing the infamous black cloak with red clouds, and the sight filled him with a quiet anger.
"We heard you guys were after Gaara," he called out, "so we're here to put an end to that!"
Sasori grumbled in irritation from underneath his puppet armor; he hadn't expected an intelligence leak.
A combined ambush of the Copy Ninja Kakashi, his own grandmother, the Sand Siblings, and Leaf shinobi strong enough to take on a Sannin? How did they know the exact path and the exact hour?
When he turned his head toward his partner, he whispered a command.
"Are ya sure?" Jasper asked.
"Yes…" Sasori hissed.
The battle commenced instantly as Jasper flew straight up into the air. Below him, two giant barrels protruded from the sand on each side of Sasori. The barrels then clicked open to reveal hundreds of mini holes inside.
William recognized the mechanism immediately. "Margaret!"
"Way ahead of ya!" she yelled back while slamming both her palms against the floor. "Earth style: mud wall!"
The timing for their slab of wall to form was flawless as a plethora of poisoned kunai shot forth in rapid succession.
Klang-klang-klang-klang!
While his attack rained against the barricade, Sasori looked up past the wall, only to see Naruto and William vaulting over it. Naruto then planted his boot squarely on William's shoulder, kicked off, and propelled himself higher into the night sky to throw a punch at Jasper's jaw.
But the attack missed.
Jasper simply swayed backward in the air, letting the knuckles graze past his cloak.
"Man, you're much slower than I remember," he taunted.
But Naruto had anticipated the evasion. The moment he reached the pique of his upward trajectory, he twisted his body and crossed his fingers into a hand sign.
"Multi-shadow clone jutsu!"
Several identical Narutos erupted into the sky around the original. They didn't just appear empty-handed; each clone had already formed a Rasengan in their palms.
"Dang, you're annoying!" Jasper snickered, flying lower to dodge the incoming spheres.
Back on the desert floor, the barrage of kunai finally came to a halt. The barrels clicked empty, but Sasori was far from finished. The two barrels rotated over, revealing a secondary layer of hidden containers. Each container then shot wooden capsules outward over the mud wall.
As they reached the apex of their flight, the containers snapped open in the air, unleashing a secondary wave of kunai. This time, multiple explosive paper tags were bound to the hilts of the blades.
Ka-boom!
A chain of deafening explosions ripped through the desert.
Sasori watched through Hiruko's narrow slits as the massive mud wall completely crumbled under the concussive force, turning into a cloud of falling dust and debris.
But when the smoke settled and the shockwaves faded, there was no one standing behind the rubble.
"Over here!" a voice shouted from Sasori's blind side.
He pivoted the puppet just in time to see Margaret closing the distance with a chakra-enhanced punch.
Swoosh!
Sand pilfered back after Sasori's tail caught Margaret's wrist.
"Ugh-oh!" she smirked. "Didn't think ya'd be fast enough!"
The scorpion tail uncoiled instantly before snapping forward to pierce her chest. But before the sting could connect, Kakashi burst upward from underground and pulled Margaret forward just in the nick of time.
The two then slid safely out of the tail's reach.
"Gee, thanks, Kakashi-sensei."
"Don't mention it," he replied, keeping his eye locked on the enemy.
Furious at the evasion, Sasori extended the puppet's left prosthetic arm toward them. The wooden limb clicked, preparing to fire a barrage of senbon needles. But before the attack could trigger, the sand beneath Hiruko rose up like a tidal wave and slammed shut over the puppet, trapping Sasori entirely inside a spherical sand dome forged by Gaara.
"Fire style: fire ball jutsu!" Jada shouted.
"Wind style: wind scythe jutsu!" Temari yelled.
The two elements merged perfectly in the air as the gale-force wind fed the flames, turning the fireball into a swirling inferno that hurled its way toward the trapped puppet.
Ka-bang!
"Great work, you two!" Kankuro praised after the explosion.
The flames soon died down, leaving the blackened, smoking ruins of the sand dome.
But Chiyo's ears picked up a sound of gear clicking and wood snapping. "It's not over yet!"