In a distant village in a distant country, there once lived a child. But he was no ordinary child. This is his story:
A seven-year-old boy walked down a pathway in a park, tossing a pair of large square goggles with a dark-blue tint up and down in his hand. He continued laughing and playing in this way until three bigger kids, around nine or ten years old, blocked his route.
"How's it going, Seiko?" said the one in the middle with a smirk across his face.
Seiko held his goggles tightly across his chest while he backed away from them slowly.
"What do you guys want?" Seiko asked with a scared tone.
Instead of answering, the older kids simply grinned and surrounded him.
"We just want to train with you," said one, while another cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah, we need to train our Taijutsu so that when we get into the academy we can become genin faster."
Seiko looked around in horror, knowing what was about to happen next.
An hour later Seiko lay alone on the ground as the other kids walked away, panting and laughing. A violent cough wracked his body. He looked down at the hand he had used to cover his mouth to see flecks of blood as he clutched his goggles tighter to his chest. He stood up and looked around, noticing that it was nighttime. He sighed and staggered home.
"I can't believe it," he said to himself angrily. "This is the third time I've been beaten senseless by them."
Seiko managed to stagger a couple more feet before suddenly hearing a distant scream. He looked in the direction it came from but couldn't see anything other than trees. He kept walking, the scream planted firmly in his memory, until he found himself in the village's nearly empty plaza.
Looking to his left, he saw an ominous male figure with red hair wearing a black cloak. The man was standing over a woman lying in a pool of blood. Seiko's eyes widened in horror as he realized the woman was dead, and the red-haired man was the reason she got that way. Seiko started to step back, trying to escape before the murderer noticed him, but he tripped and fell. This attracted the attention of the redheaded man, who looked over in time to see Seiko sprawled on the ground. Seiko stared back up at him, noting the smooth features across his face, and his eyes; eyes that showed no life, yet seemed to display eternal intelligence all at the same time.
"Well," said the man nonchalantly, "I guess I'll have to deal with you as well. Better yet, I'll just do what I came here to do."
With that, his cloak dropped to the ground, revealing almost wing-like blades surgically attached to his back. A coil protruded from his stomach, along with several scrolls also affixed to his back. But the thing about this man that really drew Seiko's attention was the cylinder embedded in his chest right where his heart should have been. Seiko scrambled to his feet and scanned the area for anyone who could help him but realized to his dismay that he was completely alone. He spun around and started to run, but found his path blocked by another man wearing a matching black cloak and a hood standing in his way.
"Now, just where do you think you're going, kid?" asked the red-haired murderer. "The fun hasn't even begun yet."
Seiko turned to face him and saw not only the redheaded man but also at least a hundred other men floating around him, dressed identically to the second man. Seiko viewed the vast number of them in terror as he suddenly found himself screaming for help at the top of his lungs. Through his fear, Seiko observed the red-haired man, noticing for the first time that there was an opening in his chest. A thousand blue strings extended from this crevice, attached on their other ends to various body parts of the men above him.
"Kid, I came here to invade and destroy your village. What makes you think yelling for someone is going to change anything?" the man asked with a smirk.
The hooded man behind Seiko raised his arm. Seiko glanced behind himself as a formidable blade sprung from the man's arm and swung down at him. Seiko extended his own arms upwards in a childishly hopeful attempt at saving himself as he waited for the sword to strike him. Thirty painfully slow seconds without being sliced in two later, he looked up. The hooded man's arm and sword had stopped mid-swing, and several blue, glowing strings now ran from his arm down to the tips of Seiko's fingers.
"Well, whaddaya know? He can make chakra strings at quite a young age, and pretty damn powerful ones, too, if he can stop my puppet," the red-haired man said with mild interest.
Hearing this, Seiko examined the hooded man in front of him and realized both that his joints were mechanical, and that there was no life behind his eyes.
"Is this… a puppet?" Seiko asked.
The puppet raised its other arm to create yet another sword, with which he immediately struck Seiko down.
A new man appeared from nowhere and kicked the puppet in the torso. The force of the kick was powerful enough to shatter the body of the puppet and send its limbs clattering to the ground. Seiko's chakra strings dissipated. He knew just from looking at how fast and how powerful this newcomer was that he must be a ninja from his country's ninja village. Leaving the ninja behind to fight the army of remaining puppets, Seiko took this opportunity to run for his life. The red-haired man chuckled, and the strings attached to his chest began to move and to send commands to his puppets. The puppets, in turn, collectively drew out swords of all shapes and sizes. They descended upon the town, killing and burning everything in their path. Soon one was right on Seiko's tail. As he looked back, Seiko felt himself speeding up as though an invisible force was pushing him forward. The puppet swung his sword at him, but Seiko ducked, almost losing his balance, but recovered to keep running. Seiko wasn't fast enough to outrun the puppet completely, and it was determined to cut him down. It slashed wildly at him, and Seiko barely avoided but one slice, which grazed his leg. In spite of this, Seiko kept running as fast as he could, going anywhere and everywhere.
After about ten minutes, he looked behind him to see the puppet had disappeared. Seiko started to feel weak, and seconds later he collapsed. He crawled over to the nearest wall and leaned up against it, looking out at the village. He couldn't see much because he had run to a suburban area and there were houses in the way; but he could see the faint orange glow of fires glimmering behind the houses of the village. He heard screams and calls for help in the distance, and he looked around to see deep gashes in the houses in front of him. So this neighborhood's already been attacked, Seiko concluded in his head. His energy seemed to be slipping away, even as he leaned against the wall. He knew for a fact the small amount of running he had done far from explained his current physical state.
"You've been poisoned."
Seiko looked up to see the red-haired man sitting on the wall that he was leaning against.
"Your body is reacting to the poison that my puppet's blade put into your system and very soon you will die."
The look in his eyes as he glared down at Seiko's broken state was something close to disdain.
"Wh-why?" Seiko stuttered, consciousness slipping from him.
"Why did I destroy your village, you ask? It's simple really. All of this madness was brought about in order to make a point to this damned country of yours."
Seiko shook his head and said, "Why, though? You don't seem like the kind of guy who cares enough to attack an entire country for the sole purpose of making a point."
The man's eyes narrowed in response to Seiko's statement.
"Hm, I guess on a regular day, you'd be right. I'm not really the type of guy who enjoys spilling innocent blood just for the sake of killing. That's a nice thought, there, kiddo."
"I may only be seven-years-old, but I'm smarter than you think," Seiko said with a grin.
"Is that a fact? What's your name, kid?"
After a moment, he answered, "Seiko. Seiko Ren. And you?"
The red-haired man kept staring at Seiko, but eventually answered, "My name is Sasori. Sasori of the Red Sand."
Seiko pondered this for a moment, and then asked, "Sasori of the Red Sand? I've heard of you."
"That's pretty impressive, considering this country is a little far off from the Five Great Nations," Sasori said with a smile.
Seiko felt woozy and was close to fainting at this point.
"Say kid, you seem kind of relaxed knowing that your entire village has been slaughtered. Why is that?" Sasori asked.
Seiko gave him a little grin, but kept silent.
"I don't like to be kept waiting," Sasori said, his voice filled with malice.
Seiko chuckled bitterly. "Because I'm just a human bulls-eye in this village," Seiko said. "Everyone bullies me. Even my parents think that I'm a freak, just because I'm a little bit smarter than a regular seven year old. And if even my own parents don't care about me, why should I care for anyone else here?" He chuckled again. "Isn't that an awful thing to say?"
As soon as his last word passed his lips, he keeled over and passed out.
Sasori studied him for a while. At last, he too laughed.
"What an interesting kid."
He jumped down and picked Seiko up.
"Maybe I can do more than just make you a part of my collection."
With this, Sasori started off towards the exit of the village, passing corpses and burning buildings while smiling in satisfaction over day's proceedings. His smile soon faded as Seiko's question echoed in his head, "Isn't that awful to say?"
As soon as he left the village his smile returned.
"Yes, it's an absolutely awful thing to say. But maybe that's the kind of thing that'll keep you alive. Only time will tell, I suppose."
As if in response to Sasori's words, Seiko clutched the blue goggles he carried with him even tighter.