- episode 262 -

The Special Attack Division had just finished setting up traps outside of their encampment

within enemy territory when Zaji sensed something coming towards their group.

"Can you tell who it is?" Kankuro asked urgently.

Zaji responded with a confused face that looked as though he was trying to solve math in his head. "I can't tell...there's something jamming the signal."

Suddenly, Muta stumbled out of the woods near the camp and collapsed on the group.

"It's Muta!" Zaji responded, leaping over a branch and bounding towards him. "I can tell from his chakra energy. I'll go get him."

"Zaji, wait!" Kankuro commanded, but Zaji had already reached Muta. Kankuro paused indecisively, feeling anxious for some reason. "Something is wrong here," he murmured, scanning the perimeter.

As Zaji helped Muta up, Muta muttered something.

"Huh?" Zaji asked, leaning in a little closer and putting an arm around Muta's shoulder to help him up.

"Run away," Muta repeated, his voice coming out weird as he struggled to control himself, but then he suddenly grabbed Zaji, holding him hostage.

As some of the Special Attack Division began to realize that something had changed drastically for the worse in mere moments, Sasori came out of the woods, followed by the rest of the Surprise Attack and Diversion Platoon.

"Ittan, now!" Kankuro shouted, and Ittan nodded.

"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"

Immediately, the area that the Special Attack Division had set up sank into the ground as Kankuro used his chakra threads to bring Zaji back down with them. Up above on the normal ground level, the Surprise Attack and Diversion Platoon paused.

"Are they dead?"

"Probably."

"Check, just in case."

He paused, checking for signals of life. "Still there."

Sai, noticing the large explosion, began to head back.

While the Special Attack Division steadied themselves, Kiri tended to Zaji. Nobody had a minute to recover as two bodies came hurtling towards them. Omoi began to engage, but then the group realized who they were fighting.

"Tokuma! Ronka!"

"Damn it," Omoi muttered, struggling to deal with war and all of its newly experienced hardships. "They're using our own friends against us?"

Out of nowhere came another person, only someone intercepted him midway. The two crashed into the ground and one of them jumped out of reach. It was Sai, looking completely serious (as usual), void of emotion (also as usual), and ready to use his tipless tanto or scroll as soon as the moment presented itself.

Deidara also descended to join in the action, probably just because he's evil and was bored.
"Why are you here?" Kankuro asked furiously, his voice unwavering even as the rest of his team (except for Sai) was trying to figure out how to save their possessed comrades.  "Our units rarely meet so early in a war."

"Yeah, well, we figured we'd take care of you guys early on and kick start this whole thing," Deidara responded, grinning. "And don't even think of beating us."

"Why not?" Kankuro asked, his voice holding traces of defiance and confidence.

"Because you can't beat us," he said just as a figure rose from the ground.

"Shin?" Sai asked, turning paler than normal. Shin had been something of an older brother to him, back when they were in the Roots...but... "But you're dead."

"Sorry," Shin responded, swaying slightly as he regained his balance, his eyes as black as pitch. "You can't beat me, little brother, so run away."

"Brother," Sai reponded, having regained his calm and instead observing Shin.

Brother? Omoi thought, more than slightly horrified. Is this what war does to us? Forces us to fight not just our friends, but our family, too? "This is unforgivable," he said, finally feeling utterly compelled to take part. "We will show you no mercy!"

"It's war," Deidara said, laughing. "There's no room for mercy."

All at once, everyone started fighting, with Sasori matched against Kankuro and Sai against Shin. Chakra threads ran through the air, and the clash of tanto against tanto reverberated off of the walls of the pit.

Omoi, fired up, slashed the chakra threads that Sasori had been using to control his comrades, and Kankuro pressed his advantage, forcibly pulling Sasori closer with his very own threads.

Meanwhile, Sai and Shin were fighting, neither one of them ever gaining much of an advantage or losing much of one. They seemed to be perfectly evenly matched, going blow for blow and never letting up.

"You've gotten stronger," Shin commented softly, but Sai had no problem hearing him despite their movements as they jumped and flipped.

"You've been dead," he replied coolly, deflecting an attack and slashing from the side, which was similarly deflected. They had, after all, learned from the same teacher. "Doesn't leave much time for practice."

If one was an outside observer, they couldn't have possibly told whether or not the two of them were sparring for practice or fighting to the death. Any mistake meant the end for either of them, or rather, only for Sai, as Shin was something beyond "alive" right now. Still, neither showed any emotion as they cut through the air, their blades twirling and reaching for the other.

They were perfectly matched...

...until Kankuro gave the signal for Ittan to raise the ground.

Sai had never dealt with much emotion, but Shin had been the closest thing to family he'd had. As much as he could try to deny it, he felt something. Maybe that's why he was off just a bit. Bit "just a bit" was all it took. The ground moved suddenly, something neither Sai nor Shin had been expecting, and they were thrown off of sync as the ground rushed up at them.

When the earth was once more level, neither of them moved, for Sai had his tanto staked in the place where Shin's heart was, where it was supposed to be.

However, Shin, kneeling over Sai, had his blade was similarly staked in Sai's heart, which was still beating and still prone to stop bleeding on the occasion that it was pierced as such.

"I told you, little brother," Shin said, "I am indestructible. You cannot defeat me." As Sai's grip on the blade loosened slightly, Shin slid his own blade out of Sai's chest. "I am sorry, little brother."

"Why are you sorry?" Sai asked. He should have been gasping, struggling for what he knew where his last breaths, but sheer willpower prevent him from doing so. Instead of giving in, he pushed Shin with a sudden burst of energy so that he fell back onto the ground, and Sai drove his tanto in deeper, staking Shin to the earth. "Now, at least, you're stuck here until they can destroy you."

Shin moved to removed the blade, but Sai had thrust it at such and angle that he was unable to maximize his strength. "This does nothing to stop me," he said, completely detached of emotion. "I can't be killed."

Sai had accelerated his blood loss by driving Shin into the earth, and it showed as he fell over, landing in a sprawled position next to Shin. "They will find a way. Goodbye, Brother Shin."

Shin watched as Sai's life quickly left him. Even though he was dead, even though Sai's tanto was still lodged in his chest, and even though he'd grown up with Root training, he felt a flicker of emotion. As his emotionless dead eyes traced first Sai's pale face and then the clear sky, he could have sworn that his dead heart beat once in sync with Sai's last heartbeat.

And then Sai joined Shin as one of the dead.