High above the desert floor, the air was a battlefield of its own.
Jasper floated, swaying out of reach as the Narutos threw their Rasengans. But Jasper's Ōtsutsuki genetics gave him an undeniable edge in open airspace, allowing him to dodge all of the clones.
The last of Naruto's shadow clones finally lost its momentum and plummeted back to the earth. But the opening was a trap. William had already prepared his technique from a lower vantage point on the dunes.
"Wind style: pressure damage!"
He clapped his hands together, sending a compressed sphere of spiraling wind straight up at Jasper's blind spot.
"Learn your place, Male-Karin," Jasper said, pointing a single finger forward. "Purple sage lightning!"
A thick beam of violet electricity shot from his fingertip as the two techniques collided in the dead center of the airspace. The resulting explosion was massive, and the shockwave swept through the sky, carrying enough concussive force to sweep the remaining Narutos entirely off their feet.
William covered his face in the swirling sand. He was taken aback because he knew how Jasper fought. Since the latter used lightning style, wind style was the perfect countermeasure. So why had his technique, something he'd been training for years, not broken through?
Before the smoke could even begin to clear, Jasper swooped down to snatch William by his waste. No speed was lost as Jasper dragged him high into the night sky.
"Let go, ya bastard!" William cried.
"If you say so…" Jasper said, releasing his hold.
William plummeted as Naruto watched his cousin falling from high above.
"I gotcha, cuz!" he shouted, forming a hand sign. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!"
Dozens of Narutos popped into existence. They grabbed each other by the ankles and wrists, forming a descending ladder that stretched through the air.
Before William knew it, they had successfully caught him, cushioning his fall.
"Thanks, cuz," he breathed, steadying his feet in the sand.
"That's why we're family!"
"You two sure make a cute couple," Jasper mocked from above, looking down at them. "Let's see how you handle this one." He then pointed a finger toward the sky as a massive amount of chakra instantly built up around him. The static charge was so intense that his hair spiked. "Cry of the raijin…"
Ka-crash!
A cascade of purple lightning showered the desert below, causing the technique to tear the sand apart, leaving smoking glass and deep craters across the battlefield.
Jasper smirked, knowing he had them pinned.
His smug expression faded when a voice pierced his mind.
'Jasper!' It was Alice, utilizing her telepathic link. 'Are you trying to kill them?!'
Jasper snickered, keeping his mental tone casual. 'I'm supposed to make it believable, am I not?'
Down below, the wreckage of the Hiruko puppet shifted as the wooden shell split open. Sasori's real body climbed out of the debris and stood in the moonlight. His face was entirely unbothered by the damage his armour had sustained.
"It really has been a long time since someone's pushed me this far," he said, revealing his true form to the allied forces.
Now Chiyo saw it for herself; the intelligence given was correct. Sasori had indeed turned himself into a living puppet. Otherwise, he wouldn't have looked as young as he did after so long.
But it was alright. She had prepared herself for this exact moment. She was here to take responsibility for bringing him into this world.
"You don't seem that shocked to see me, grandmother," he noted.
"It doesn't matter!" Alice shouted, cutting off any familial banter. "Things end now!"
"We'll see about that," he threatened, reaching into his cloak to pull out a summoning scroll.
But he never unrolled it; he couldn't.
Before his fingers could even grasp the paper, Kakashi's ninja hounds burst from the ground and clamped their jaws onto Sasori's wooden limbs from every conceivable angle.
"Didn't expect us?" Pakkun grumbled, biting deep into his right forearm.
As an added layer of support, Gaara raised his hands, causing extremely dense sand tendrils to wrap around Sasori's legs and torso, binding his hold completely.
Sasori couldn't even lift a finger. He tried to force his joints to move, but he was entirely locked in place. He was shocked, completely unaware that it was Alice who had initially used her telekinesis to pin him in place.
He couldn't even see it. How could he when her technique was invisible?
Suddenly, he heard a piercing sound through the desert, a sound of a thousand birds chirping.
It was Jada, her hand coated in the light of her Lightning Blade. Her Sharingan locked onto her target, knowing where to strike at his only weakness: the core of flesh housed inside his chest.
Sasori's painted eyes widened as she raced across the sand, leaving a trail of displaced sand in her wake. Distance closed, she thrust her arm forward to deliver the killing blow.
Ka-crash!
Jada collided with a solid wall of purple lightning. The bolt struck the sand right in front of Sasori, blocking her path and forcing her to cancel the strike to avoid electrocution.
"Ya owe me one," Jasper said, landing softly next to Sasori. Then he pointed a finger at his partner. "Purple sage lightning!"
Jada quickly retreated back, only to see the dogs cry out in pain before completely dispersing. She then turned her head to see Naruto and William trying to regroup with the others.
From their wreckage, it looks as if Naruto or William had summoned toads to shield them in time.
They two wasted no time taking up defensive stances beside the Sand Siblings, Alice, and Kakashi.
"Thanks goodness they're safe," she reasoned before placing her attention back on the enemy.
"Quit runnin'!" Naruto cried.
"Oh shut up," Jasper countered, trying to free his partner.
Yet the bind they had him in was much stronger than he anticipated. Even if he could free Sasori, the truth of the situation was obvious: they were being completely overwhelmed.
Alice stood in the back, silently relaying mental tactics to the entire squad, preventing any friendly fire or miscommunication. Everyone else on the field was versatile in just about everything.
Plus, this was the Wind Country. This was Gaara's domain.
At any moment now, if Sasori or Jasper tried to push their limits, their enemies would do the same, and they had much higher ceilings.
And what if Jasper utilized his Sage Chakra reserves?
Naruto's and William's Toad Sage Modes would be perfect countermeasures. Then there was Margaret's Dual Sage Modes. Jada could also manifest her Susanoo at a moment's notice. Kakashi possessed Kamui, a technique that bypassed any physical defense. Chiyo even had decades of puppet training, while the Sand Siblings operated in perfect sync.
All of that was way too hard on any two-man cell of the Akatsuki. The odds were mathematically impossible.
"It's time to finish this," Gaara said, slowly raising his arms up.
This was bad. Jasper knew the Kazekage was going to use the desert to swallow them. That meant Jasper would have to leave his partner behind if he wanted to survive.
But then, Gaara stopped as his arms trembled and eyes widened in absolute horror. "Argh!" He fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
All eyes turned to him, panicking as they screamed his name and rushed to his side.
Jasper wasted no time to help his partner.
Sasori was only partly free now, shaking the dense sand from his joints as the allied forces focused entirely on what was happening with the Kazekage.
Jada and Kakashi used their Sharingan to check Gaara's chakra network. They were looking for a curse mark, a hidden poison, or an invisible trap. Yet they couldn't see anything. His chakra was spiraling out of control, reacting to something even their dōjutsu couldn't perceive.
"We have to regroup," Sasori demanded. "Fly us out of here while they're distracted."
Jasper just stood there; he didn't know what to do. His orders from the group were to fake the fight, but this wasn't part of the plan. Then he heard Alice's voice ring in his head.
'Do not go!'
That made him hesitate.
"Come on!" Sasori urged, attaching his chakra strings to his own broken puppet parts to salvage them. "What are you waiting for?!"
Then it happened. Everyone finally saw what was troubling Gaara.
A thin layer of smoke gradually seeped into the air right in the center of the battlefield. The mist grew thicker, unnaturally heavy against the desert wind, until it swirled and fully formed into a solid shape that softly landed on the sand.
The fighting stopped entirely, and the shouting died as crisp white coat gradually drifted down from the new arrival.
When the man slowly turned his head to face them, the allied forces went completely rigid.
Jada covered her mouth. Margaret's breath caught in her throat. Alice stared in pure disbelief. Sakura's eyes widened. Kakashi began to sweat. Naruto's teeth ground together. William furrowed his brows. Temari and Kankuro both froze. And lastly, Chiyo, she almost had a real heart attack.
It was him.
It was the same man whom they believed to be sealed away forever; the same man who had torn their timeline apart; the same man who promised destruction to the world no matter who got in his way.
Arthur Bennett.
"Looks like I'm right on time…"