-Disclaimer-
I in no way own or proclaim to have created Naruto or any affiliated works by Masashi Kishimoto. The only original character I have created in regards to Naruto is the one featured in this story.
The Tales of Chikimatsu's Pupil
"Meeting with the Red-Headed Boy"
By: Wolfeluck
Sasori was dead. No doubt about it. The container that housed his human heart had been stabbed through by his first puppets. They lay in front of him, piled in a loving embrace. Emotion's stand against the sea of blank, wooden stares around them.
Saemon surveyed the battlefield, the red-robed puppets Sasori employed to take down the Land of Lakes in the west littering it, smashed and useless. Unsalvageable. Sasori's original body had been taken, and what was left were the remnants of his battle with Chiyo of the Sand and a Konoha ninja named "Sakura". Among the lumps of red cloth, freckles of white dotted the landscape. He recognized them as his master's creations, the puppets that Chiyo had inherited from Chikimatsu when he died.
One of Saemon's own puppets, Koumori, sat patiently near him, expertly controlled by his fingers. This puppet donned a black cloak, the anti-thesis to the cloaks Chikimatsu's puppets wore, its face covered in bandages, eyes covered by goggles.
The puppet had been a remarkable wind ninja, who used his talents to fly through the air on wings made of cloth.
Saemon flexed his fingers, and Koumori sprung to life on its invisible chakra strings. The wings on its back folded outward, producing a bat's shape under the noonday sun. The two of them leapt up into the air, Saemon on Koumori's back. A circular metal plate at the apex of the wings were now stuck to Saemon's feet by his chakra. A gale of wind moved several broken joints away from the radius of Koumori's flapping wings, the master and puppet hovering only a few feet from the ground. The ninja moved his hands at incredible speeds, the formations of his fingers a blur. The three surviving puppets his master had owned vanished in a puff of white smoke. Saemon thought they would make a nice memento, so he transported them to his mountain hideout, on the outskirts of the Land of Earth.
Saemon and Koumori headed away from the ruins of the Akatsuki cave. His personal mission was not yet over, so he headed toward Konohagakure Village. There, he would try and meet this medical ninja named "Sakura". He wanted to know just how Sasori had been defeated. After all, responsibility does not always lie in the pupil, but in the teacher as well. Regret flooded through Saemon as he remembered teaching Sasori how to create human puppets.
Saemon could not believe such a prodigy could have existed in the Land of Wind. The boy was no older than fifteen or sixteen. Twenty years had gone by, but remembering him was not a hard feat.
"My name is Sasori," the boy said, the distant sand storms of the Land of Wind a subtle backdrop to this red-headed child before him. "Sasori of the Red Sands, they call me."
"So you're a ninja? Are you from Sunagakure?" Saemon said.
"Yeah, I am. I'm looking for someone," he said.
"Who, exactly? I might be able to help, if only a little."
"Well, I'm looking for a legendary ninja. I heard he fought in the two Great Ninja Wars on the side of Sunagakure. He's supposed to be incredibly strong, and is a master of the Puppet Technique," Sasori said, looking out onto the desert flats below. "Have you ever heard of Kuromatsu Saemon?" Sasori's eyes narrowed in their concentration, eager for an answer from this stranger he had found, in an area rumored to be Kuromatsu's lair. The man before Sasori looked no older than thirty, and the simple outfit the man wore displayed no symbol of loyalty to Iwagakure or to Sunagakure.
"Never heard of this…Saemon person, but the legends around these parts talk of ogre demons roaming the mountain passes, where not even ninja from Iwagakure dare to tread," Saemon said, hoping to see the child leave.
"Are you sure? I could have sworn that Chiyo-sama said he lived around here."
"Perhaps your Chiyo-sama was wrong. After all, legends aren't always true."
"Some are. I know some of them are." Sasori looked pained, his hopes dashed with the words of this stranger. He wanted to follow the stranger more, but he knew that Chiyo-sama was waiting back in Sunagakure. She had only given him three days to search out the legend's merit.
"So, why are you looking for this Saemon guy? If he fought in both Ninja Wars, he must be quite old. He probably died."
"I want to learn from him. I want to learn why he was so strong, how his techniques work. I know he can't have died in the War. He mustn't have."
"Oh, I see. So you want to become his student, do you?" Saemon displayed a look of curiosity for this boy. How could he be so confident in Saemon's existence? He had moved to the mountain ranges after the Second Ninja War. Because the war was recent, there were rumors of his skills being brought up in conversation between the ninja he fought alongside with. He made it an effort not to show who he really was, but gossip always worms its way into the woodwork of society. He had even been said to be a "ghost" by some. "The Ghost of Sunagakure", they called him. Even the Third Kazekage had heard of the legend surrounding Kuromatsu, but it was only a fairy tale for children and old war heroes. It had surfaced, bubbled to the top of Sunagakure's social topics.
"Yes, I want to be his student. That's why I need to find him," Sasori said, his fists clenched. Sasori still did not know why he was saying such things to this stranger, who could be an earth ninja in disguise.
"I really can't help you. I'm sorry."
"That's alright. I'll just keep searching until I'm needed back." Sasori bowed, realizing he had probably kept the stranger waiting while he was doing errands. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you wait! Please, accept my apology."
"There's no need for that. I'm a bit lonely up here, so it's nice to talk to someone living once in awhile." Saemon put up his hand in a friendly manner.
"It's just…I hate to make people wait," Sasori said.
"Just don't let it get to you next time. Alright?"
"Sure." Sasori seemed unwilling to try it.
"Well, I must be going, and you probably have to go back now. It's a long way to Sunagakure."
"Ah, yes. Sorry." Sasori jumped from the cliff face, landing neatly on the rocks below. He ran off towards the sandstorms, and Saemon headed upwards toward the cave. He wondered if the red-headed boy was going to follow him.
Those suspicions turned out to be true. Saemon could barely sense the young ninja tracking his movements from the shadows of the cliff face. He thought this Sasori must be a very talented ninja, to be able to follow him so well through the mountains. He must also use the Puppet Technique, or else the young red-head wouldn't have come all this way towards enemy territory without just cause. The rumors about him that had spread in Sunagakure must have reached Sasori's ears.
Saemon walked nonchalantly to the cave where he lived. Inside, the tools of the puppet trade awaited, and would give him away instantly. He cared very little, because if he truly felt like doing so, he could easily kill the young Sasori without so much as a thought. Unfortunately, curiosity overcame the need for secrecy. He thought that he might as well teach this kid some tricks, even a few. He might even pass on his techniques to the next generation. Whimsical thoughts of a ninja who was once a student himself flowed freely.
Inside, the lantern illuminated the cave's interior with a red-orange glow. Saemon waited, seated at a small tea table. He hid a kunai up his sleeve, and poured tea for himself from a pot on the furnace top behind him.
Eventually, the young Sasori entered the cave.
He was in awe of the creations inside. Sasori had never seen such masterfully created puppets, inwardly admitting that the puppets he had created for the Sunagakure Puppet Squads were sub-par to these. Saemon knew that Sasori had been completely taken in by his genjutsu, making him lose the will to put up any struggle. Sasori didn't bother to try and disrupt his own chakra flow.
He reached Saemon, drinking tea without a care in the world. Sasori knew who this man was. Kuromatsu Saemon. Pupil of the first puppet master, Chikimatsu Monzaemon. He sat down and picked up a cup and saucer.
"Would you like some tea?" Saemon asked him.
"Yes. Please, Kuromatsu-sama," Sasori managed out. Kuromatsu poured tea into Sasori's cup, but he didn't drink it right away.
"Don't worry, boy, I didn't poison it," he said. Sasori put on a worried look.
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, and then Saemon put down his tea.
"So, you want to become my student, Sasori?" he said. Sasori became wide eyed and looked away, seemingly shy.
"Yes, I do. Please, will you teach me, Kuromatsu…sensei?" Sasori put on a faint smile.
"First of all, you don't need to call me sensei," he said.
"Well, I usually call the other jonin in my village sensei, even though I am a jonin myself."
"You're a jonin? You're so young!" Saemon looked honestly surprised by this truth.
"Well, I contributed a lot to the village back home. I'm one of the best puppet users in my village."
"But then…what could you learn from me if you're already as strong as you say you are?" Saemon said.
"I've had this idea for a long time now. My parents were killed in the War, so I tried to make puppets that looked like them. They couldn't replace them. So I got this idea that if you used human beings instead of just normal wood, then-"
"A puppet made of human flesh? What do you think you saw when you walked in here?"
Sasori's eyes grew their widest yet. He appeared excited, the topic now set on his goal. Human Puppets! The thought made Sasori almost giddy inside.
"So, you'll teach me how to make them?" Sasori asked.
"I don't know. There are rules I want to set down first." Saemon grew concerned that Sasori might take his new learning experience and abuse it. "For instance-"
Kuromatsu Saemon, riding atop Koumori's back, felt even more regret at this point in his memory. As he traveled towards Konohagakure, he tried to meditate. He needed to clear his thoughts for his meeting with the medical ninja, and what it might mean for him. He needed to be prepared, but hopefully, not for war.