49 - The War Begins

The Fourth Shinobi World War.

Fuyuka found herself assigned to the Surprise Attack Division, led by Kankuro of Suna. The team consisted of Sai, Naku, Mitsuka, Terasu and a few unfamiliar faces from various villages.

Some part of her remembered the date. October 8th, one day before Terasu's death date.

But then again, Fuyuka forgets names sometimes, so she forgets small details quickly enough.

At the moment, the division was setting up camp in a forest. Zaji, the brown haired sensor from Konoha, tensed from his spot. "Something's disrupting my sensing, but I think something's getting closer!"

He gasped as a figure in sunglasses stumbled out of the dense trees, battered with injuries. "That's Muta Aburame!"

The sensor dashed forward despite Kankuro's cry of warning, only for Muta to stumble back. "No, get away from me! Run!"

"There's something... weird in his insect jar," Hoheto, the resident Hyuga, warned, disabling his Byakugan. "It's not Aburame insects."

Muta, with oddly clunky movements, grabbed Kaji and began to dash towards them.

"Something white, containing lots of chakra," Hoheto continued. "Something explosive."

Ittan, an Earth Style user from Iwagakure, cast a quick jutsu to lower the ground they were standing on as Kankuro shot out a series of chakra threads to drag Zaji back, just as an explosion rang out from the jar.

When it faded, Muta was gone.

"It's that kablooey guy from the Akatsuki, right?" Mitsuka asked.

"Kablooey-? Well, yeah," Kankuro replied, before glancing up and gesturing to the two figures jumping down from above. "Watch out!"

Omoi swings his sword towards the two, thankfully or not missing as the two are revealed to be Tokuma and Ranka, two more of their comrades, perhaps controlled like Muta.

At that moment, another figure appeared from above, only to be timely deflected by Sai returning from his scouting. Following close behind came Deidara himself, standing atop a large clay owl.

Kankuro narrowed his eyes. "Sasori, I know you're there too."

"Oh, hey, maybe I'll finally get to see the puppet guy's real face and I can stop holding a grudge against Sakura," Fuyuka remarked, far too lighthearted for the situation but we all know Fuyuka's brain works in weird ways.

From the rubble, a gray haired figure wearing a crop top emerged. In fact, the crop top was quite familiar.

Sai's breath hitched. "Shin nii-san."

Terasu raised an eyebrow. "That's your brother?"

From his bird, Deidara chuckled. "How emotional, hm."

It was clear the opponent was reincarnating people they knew to exploit their weaknesses. After all, it's not like the Akatsuki usually played fair. Some part of Fuyuka wondered who else had been revived, but now wasn't the time for that.

Shin dashed forward with his sword, which was countered by Sai. Meanwhile, Omoi jumped up at Deidara, swinging his sword. The blond artist didn't dodge, instead watching as Tokuma and Ranka leaped after him with kunai in hand.

Instead of attacking Deidara, Omoi swung his sword back, slicing through some invisible threads attached to them. The two began to fall, quickly caught by a Stellar Snare from Fuyuka and taken for healing by some of the others.

Taking advantage of the surprise, Kankuro's chakra threads shot out, tangling onto Sasori's threads and dragging the puppeteer down. Ittan disabled his jutsu, letting the piece of ground rise back up to catch Deidara by surprise.

As the smoke cleared, the two Akatsuki members stood up.

"That's the first time I've seen your real form," Kankuro commented, earning a mild frown from the red haired puppeteer. "You've improved your skills since the last time we fought, though I doubt it'll help you win. I'm surprised you're still alive from last time."

"He's kind of short. Never expected red hair either. Better than that other creepy puppet, though," Fuyuka offered.

"Now's not the time for your weird comments," Naku argued. Fuyuka silently flipped him off.

Meanwhile, Kankuro had retrieved a puppet summoning scroll. "But there is something I owe you for, Sasori."

In a puff of smoke, the original Sasori puppet appeared.

"You couldn't give the poor guy a shirt?"

"Now really isn't the time for your comments."

As the fight began, Fuyuka was slightly annoyed to be put on guard duty for the ones receiving healing, but she didn't complain (for now) since Naku and Mitsuka were subject to the same torture.

It didn't take long for Deidara and Sasori to get locked inside a few of Kankuro's puppets, while the rest fought Shin. Since Fuyuka had nothing to do, she decided to work on brainstorming offensive nicknames for Deidara since he died before she had come up with one.

"Dank? No, how about Deodorant..."

"With all due respect, which is none, shut up," Naku complained.

Eventually, Kankuro managed to defeat Sasori, who entrusted his parent puppets to him. However, Deidara remained complaining loudly inside the other puppet.

Having split up with Sai, Zaji, Omoi, Mitsuka and Terasu, the rest of the Surprise Attack Division travelled through the forest still carrying Deidara.

"Let me out of here already, un! Stop shaking me around!" Deidara shouted after a particularly bad bump.

"Shut it, don't make me seal your mouth shut too," Kankuro shot back.

"Kinky," Fuyuka remarked drily.

"I'm not into that kind of creepy stuff, hm!"

The group halted in their movements as another group of reincarnated blocked their path. Granny Chiyo, Fuyuka could recognize. There was also a white haired guy who looked like the bone guy who Naruto and the others encountered on the mission to retrieve Sasuke, a weird guy with what looked like goggles, another weird guy with an oxygen mask, and a lady with ridiculously long slate blue hair.

The blue haired lady glanced at the team, unimpressed, before setting her steel blue eyes on Fuyuka. "Is this what Hoshino kids are made of these days?"

"Do you know her?" Naku asked. Fuyuka shrugged in response. "Nah, she's weird."

The blue haired lady opened her mouth indignantly, but Granny Chiyo interrupted. "Don't get worked up now, Denra."

The old woman turned to Kankuro. "If you're here, that means you've defeated Sasori. Good job."

Deidara decided then was the best time to resume his complaining. "Can one of you get me out of here already? I can't breathe in here, hm! I'm about to explode!"

"Aren't you in there so you can't explode?" Fuyuka pointed out.

"That's not the point, un!"

Kankuro reached out an arm to grab the division's attention. "Be careful. When I give the signal, we retreat."

Yeah, 'retreat' isn't gonna do it.

One of their opponents, Hanzo, had covered the area they were in in powerful poison gas. Kankuro, who was resistant to poison, was losing it, and that's not counting the rest of them, who had little to no poison resistance.

Hanzo stood over the immobilized Kankuro, raising his sickle to attack.

At that timely moment, Mifune of the Land of Iron appeared out of nowhere (as customary for anime characters) to counter the blow.

Nearby, a gust of wind blew away the poison gas, revealing the samurai of the Fifth Division and Yozora Tsuyoku.

Mifune parried another blow from Hanzo. "Don't get in my why, get out of here before the others catch up."

Kankuro quickly stumbled up, gesturing to the rest of the division. "Come on, retreat!"