It was a regular day in Sunakagure and the wind blew sand from the desert throughout the streets. Everybody went about their daily routines and just outside the city, inside an underground cave; Sasori was practicing his puppet control. It was the same regular stuff he always did, firstly doing some simple movements to a variety and then practicing multiple puppets at the one time. Sasori was sick of training by himself as it got boring. Nevertheless he definitely was improving and he was starting to think outside the box like a true shinobi should. He was beginning to understand that puppet users had a fair share of weaknesses and vulnerabilities in combat, Sasori had thought of some new and original solutions that even his grandma would not have considered. These ideas would have been good to practice now, but he needed the right materials first. He felt it was almost time to leave as his grandmother would ask him what he practiced today and make him demonstrate some of it. She would look at his manoeuvrability, his chakra control and some combat skills-but he didn’t show her what he was truly capable of. It gave him satisfaction to think that he was indeed the greatest puppet user in the known ninja world and his naive granny believed him to be the next best to her. She had no idea what he could do and could never hope to accomplish some of the things he could. There were all kinds of weapons concealed within his creations and he found that he could use many of them-but after he naturally grew tired and fatigued, he became less efficient and therefore his puppets who didn’t get tired where much better at using. He could use distant attacks with kunai or shuriken, or get in close with a dagger, at worst he could release poisonous gas hidden within and cloud the area with a deadly toxin. This gave him numerous advantages in combat as he only had to adjust to his opponent each time rather than the environment around him, but he hadn’t been in a proper fight in a long time.
As if answering a wish, Sasori smiled, it seemed circumstances had arisen, which would end his training session for the day. Without warning, a ninja was behind Sasori with a kunai held at his back. He was quite short, but very large and he had Sasori in a sticky situation. “Who are you and what business do you have here?” Sasori didn’t answer and tried to turn around to engage the attacker. He was nowhere quick enough though and the ninja cut through Sasori, but showing that it wasn’t really Sasori, but a puppet replacement.
The intruding ninja backed away immediately, but was caught off guard from behind. Sasori had kept one of his creations Karasu in wait and he got in behind the ninja and wrapped him up tightly with the arm extensions it had. Sasori hadn’t had a chance to apply the blades to the insides of the arms which would have almost ended the fight right then and there; he also hadn’t counted on Karasu’s arms not being long enough to fit around this rather wide ninja. Sasori tried to find the angle but didn’t get it right first go and the large ninja was able to dodge this attack. Sasori didn’t want to but he had to show himself to not be beaten in this fight and in a flash was behind the ninja with his kunai at his back just as this ninja had done to him before.
The large ninja couldn’t see him, but he had guessed from the techniques used who it was. “Sasori, I had no idea-I have been asked to check around here for any enemy spies.”
“No-no spies, just my training.” Sasori recognised who it was; it was one of the ANBU members of the Hidden Sand Village, a deceptively strong ninja by the name of Hiruko. “How did you know I was here in the first place?” asked Hiruko, curious of how Sasori was able to plan his trap under the surprise circumstances. “This is my training sanctuary, I have rigged this whole place to silently tell me if someone has entered, the second you opened that door, a string broke-sending down a white flag from the roof telling me somebody was here-just like you I had no idea who it was.” Hiruko forced out a laugh, his voice was really deep and gruff sounding. “A misunderstanding Sasori.” Sasori let Hiruko go and watched as he walked towards the exit. Before he left, he turned back to Sasori, “One more thing, have you seen any ANBU around here lately? There have been a couple disappearances, which is why I have been sent to look into it-it seems that in the past month there has been at least five ANBU ninjas gone missing.” Sasori shook his head, and looked carefully at Hiruko. Some light which came in was shining on him and Sasori noticed something very interesting. “Suppose I did know though, what would happen?”
“What do you mean Sasori?”
“Supposing he was right here with us now, what would happen?” Hiruko didn’t say anything, but got a little suspicious of Sasori. A smile came up on Sasori’s face, which was too dark for Hiruko to notice, “Why don’t you look behind you?” Sasori asked. When Hiruko turned, his face went pale. A lifeless and hollow looking puppet stood by the exit and it beared a great resemblance to the most recent ninja that had gone missing. He looked back at Sasori in horror, “Sasori, is this…?”
“You shouldn’t be taking your eyes off my puppets Hiruko.” Hiruko quickly turned back to see that the puppet that was just behind him was gone. Sasori was messing with Hiruko now and he knew from that second he was in a bad situation. He had never fought Sasori before but he had heard many of his skills from Elder Chiyo. His only option at that time was to reason with Sasori and stall until he thought of a plan, “Why would you do this to someone of your own village?”
“I need a test Hiruko, I need you to give me that.” Hiruko charged in at Sasori and got his sword out off his back to plunge it straight into Sasori’s chest. Sasori gasped and gripped his hands around Hiruko who realised he had stabbed a puppet replacement and was unable to move. One of Sasori’s manmade puppets now sprang out of hiding with its long kitana blade and swiped at Hiruko cutting straight through his body.
Sasori didn’t expose his whereabouts yet; he was controlling his puppets from a safe place but had seen something interesting. Hiruko’s body he had just cut through didn’t show any blood, instead his whole body turned yellow and broke away showing Hiruko had used a sand clone. This is what Sasori had wanted-not just a good fight, but he wanted Hiruko-he was just the right tool he needed to help him improve and raise him another level in combat. As much as he was enjoying this, he did want to end it as there could be more ANBU coming anytime now. “I am sorry Hiruko I wished to battle longer, but I am afraid that we must end this.” He heard Hiruko’s voice answer back at him, but he couldn’t distinguish where it came from. “Why do you do this Sasori? And where did you get these skills from? You would be more useful fighting others rather than your own.”
“No Hiruko, I fight for me and I am afraid you will fight for me as the others do now.” Hiruko knew what Sasori meant by this and had no response. Sasori made one of his puppets spit poisonous fumes into the air, which almost filled up the cave immediately. It wasn’t any kind of special poison, but it was lethal in this dosage. Sasori was in a position that the fumes couldn’t reach and only had to wait until Hiruko couldn’t hold his breath and jump up above the gas cloud to act. He twiddled his fingers and made a puppet come out of hiding behind Hiruko and tie him up, but it was another sand clone. The real one was heading for the exit to the cave. As he opened the trap door Sasori had made, he was met by five puppets waiting outside for him and they all tied him up and immediately pricked him with poisoned blades. “You can control puppets outside the door.”
“Yes, my chakra strings can slide very nicely through the gaps.” Hiruko could do nothing but admit defeat from this ninja he had greatly underestimated and now it was his life that he payed the price with. The poison would soon kill him and Sasori would make his body into one of his greatest puppets.
As Sasori cleared the poison fumes from the area and tidied up, he felt a presence. It was a different kind of presence this time, a very strong ninja who was very evil was watching him. He readied a puppet replacement, but had no idea where this adversary was going to come from. A man came out, in a long black cloak with red clouds on it and long jet black hair. The thing Sasori noticed most was the eyes, they were that of a snake. “Sasori the puppet master. I have a proposition for you…”
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Story notes: I love Sasori, so this was my tribute story to him