On Puppetry

Tenten was not a lucky person. Not when she sparred against Neji, not when she fought Temari during her first chuunin exams, not when she was fighting against a seasoned Akatsuki.

Sasori of the Red Sands.

And now, as she summoned a heavy ball, surrounded by iron blades and with two exploding tags attached to it, and hurled it straight at him, she was frustrated even further. Yes, the spikes of the ball dug into the protective shield of the outer puppet of Sasori. The detonation of the exploding tags had managed to crack it in two, making the defensive shell pointless. But she had only hit a puppet, not the master.

Tenten scowled. "Damn. I missed." She shifted with the scroll, running her fingers of the inked summoning seals. She froze up slightly as a figure emerged from the ruined wood.

"You broke Haruko." Blue-green eyes, contrasting with his flaming red hair, examined her again, flicking over her stature and weighty scrolls.

She growled, kneeling and slamming two lighter scrolls down onto the ground on either side of her, quickly going through a succession of seals. "Soushouryu!" Her favorite technique since her genin year when she first acquired it, passed down in her family for several generations. In a burst of white smoke, the two scrolls rose, like their namesake, spiraling together into a helix high into the air. She tensed in her crouch, and jumped up, suspended inside the spiral created by the unfurled paper. Tenten started swiping her hands over the various symbols, summoning and hurling all the projectiles at Sasori in even greater numbers.

He summoned a puppet, only slightly bigger than himself. Its arms and legs spread out into an X shape, and chakra emerged between the limbs to form an enlarged chakra shield. "One of my favored puppets- specializes in defense," he said lightly, glancing at Tenten as she landed on the ground. The projectiles had bounced off the shield and embedded in the ground. "You won't live long enough to admire it, kunoichi."

"I'm not done yet!" She jumped again, flipping in the air so that she faced Sasori. Holding out her arms, she pulled on her chakra strings so that all her weapons rose and were again suspended in the air. Furiously, she met his golden eyes which flickered with a bit of emotion. Was it surprise? She sneered, dramatically sweeping her arms towards him. The sun glanced off the metal racing towards him.

And with only a bit of chakra, he summoned several more puppets to protect him. After the barrage ended, Tenten was forced to leap backwards, nimbly dodging the wooden creatures as they attacked her.

But she didn't expect Haruko's tail to come from behind her and run her through.

She winced, staggering a little and hunching over protectively. Her blood was flowing freely from the hole in her abdomen, past the hand that was held against the wound. Tenten examined her hand, covered in thick crimson liquid tinted maroon with a purple substance.

"You won't live long. A day at most, if you don't die of blood loss." Sasori watched her impassively.

Poison.

"Don't play with puppets, kunoichi."

She growled, summoning up a scythe-like kusarigama. "I refuse to let you treat me like some sub-standard ninja!" Tenten brandished it, lips pressed together tightly, gritting her teeth as she struggled to hold herself up. "I am the only weapon's mistress of Konoha!"

He didn't say anything, only giving her a cool look. As he languidly took several steps closer to her, she tried to force her arms to lift the weapon, thrust it against his throat and rip his head off. It only took a moment for her muscles to start to seize up, spasmodically twitching from the pain. She was forced to release the handle and drop the kusarigama.

She grunted as Sasori grabbed her, and slammed his lips against hers. His lips were cold, alien and impersonal, and she couldn't restrain her gag reflex as poison flowed off his lips and down her throat. He continued to violate her even though she tried to recoil, and his tongue plundering her mouth, the bolts of pleasure slowly being numbed. Eventually, he broke away when she could make no response at all.

"You will make a fine puppet, Tenten."

Tenten was officially declared MIA when Team Gai encountered the Akatsuki duo, Deidara and Sasori.

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I started this a while ago, and actually finished it recently. Yes, a crack pairing, but that's what fanfiction is for. Indulge your fantasies?

I'll get to my other fics… eventually… I haven't been on FF much, or writing any stories.