As White as Blood
Chapter Seven
Sasori vs. Karura
Karura abruptly pulled her red headed best friend into a hug at the first sight of him, "SASORI! I WAS SO WORRIED! No one has seen you or Daichi, and I was hell worried!" She laughed and continued to squeeze her best friend for a while longer; Sasori just let her, but he did not bother to hug the girl back. Eventually she pulled away and smiled up at him, "So where's Daichi?" Sasori simply gave her a cold gaze, keeping his mouth shut and his eyes unblinking. Karura noticed the five scratches on the red head's face, and she suddenly froze in horror. "…You…" The blonde couldn't finish the sentence.
"He attacked me first." Sasori finally blinked his muddy eyes in what could be a mix of boredom and irritation, "I had no choice…" He lifted up his arm, revealing the scorpion bracelet on his wrist.
"Well, well, well," both eight year olds turned around to see their Sensei standing behind them, "such a shame~" Misaki gave a sarcastic sigh, "And Daichi was my favourite of the three of you as well…" She shot Sasori a loathing look, smirking at the expressionless red head. "A wimp like you managed to kill him? Oh well, I guess beggars can't be choosers~" She straightened up and gave an ever so slight shrug, "So then, I wonder which one of you two will become a Chunin, and which one will die."
"I won't kill Sasori!" Karura looked to the quiet red head, "And he won't kill me." The blonde waited for an approval from the eight year old, a confirmation that what she said was true, but Sasori simply remained silent, staring bitterly at Misaki.
"See?" The woman gave a loud, somewhat insane, laugh, clapping her hands together; "Just accept it! He will kill you the moment you turn your back!"
"…Fine then." Karura straightened up rather fiercely, a determined expression taking control of her countenance. She pivoted on her heels to face her best friend, "You." A sinister grin broke out on her lips; "We're going to have a fight to the death~" There was no insanity present in the blonde girl's eyes, just the same old enthusiastic glint, and Sasori gave a slow nod in agreement.
-x-
Sasori and Karura stood in the middle of the desert, a long way away from not only their village but civilisation in general. The hot wind whipped their hair as they had a stand off, both calculating their battle strategies before the fight even began. Sasori was mentally going over his puppet arsenal; Turquoise had some spikes missing and Sasori had not had a chance to repair the puppet after the bout with Daichi, but it was operational. Spit had a bit of sand stuck in its left arm and right knee joints, but was still perfectly useable aside from those limbs. Cephalo was in good condition, as was Tyke, but the small child puppet wouldn't work on Karura since she already knew of Tyke's deception.
The real problem was that Karura knew all of his puppets, while the red head did not know what exactly the blonde's fan was capable of. But then again there was Sasori's trump card…The red head's latest addition to his collection which he had yet to use in combat…It wasn't completely finished, but Karura had not seen the marionette yet, giving him an advantage…
"I won't bother going easy on you, Sasori." Karura flicked her fan open to reveal two of the three full purple paper moons while giving a smirk, "So I'm not going to give you the first move." She immediately waved the weapon, powerful gusts of slicing wind launching at the red head with only half murderous intent.
Sasori quickly summoned Turquoise, receding into the puppet's inner shell in order to avoid the attack. The wind hit the outer shell, causing it to roll for a few metres, but it did not affect the inside where the red head lurked. Sasori placed his hands against the wooden shell and pushed chakra stings into the puppet, rolling it against the fierce winds and towards Karura. The blonde waved her fan two more times but the outer shell was buffeted only slightly and the inner core even less. As soon as the wind stopped coming, Sasori stopped the puppet and opened the outer shell in order to watch what Karura's next move would be through the eyehole.
"Hmph, you are going easy on me Sasori!" She flicked her fan to reveal the last purple moon for the first time, "Fine then; I'll use my new technique!" The blonde brought her right hand to her mouth and bit her thumb hard. Blood dribbled leisurely down her lip, gleaming red and sun stricken in the scorching light. She moved her thumb to the open fan, sliding a long blood trail down the open material of her weapon, "Don't you know, Sasori?" Karura gave the red head a sharp toothed grin, a look of almost lunacy on her face. "You should sharpen your sickle at sunset! Summoning: Blade Dance!"
A weasel appeared at Karura's feet, its mouth currently occupied with an enormous sickle which was almost larger than its body. The weasel had light grey fur and it wore a traditional shirt which hugged its body. The shirt was black and red, tied together down the back with golden thread. Both of its eyes had black, concentrated pupils, and slight whiskers protruded from the weasel's snout.
"Go, Kamatari!" The creature gave a snarling noise at the back of its throat and Karura waved her fan with all her strength. Kamatari leapt into the air, riding the wind towards Sasori. He quickly shut the outer shell of Turquoise, guiding the puppet to try and avoid the attack. Unfortunately, there was no escape. Numeral objects clanked damagingly at Turquoise's shell, before a tornado suddenly formed around them. Sasori was trapped inside a twister for the second time within the past two days. He was about to summon Spit in order to reverse the effects of it, as he had done when Daichi had tried the same move, but suddenly stopped. He could sense the summoning creature as it landed on Karura's Giant Folding Fan, "Finish him off!"
She swung the fan once more and Kamatari became airborne again, beginning to do midair front flips towards the tornado. Sasori cursed and braced himself for the awe-inspiring move he knew would come, pressing himself tightly against the right side of the puppet. Kamatari reached the tornado, and then did one last frontal flip, slicing the hurricane clean in two before jumping once again in front of Karura. A few seconds passed, and then Turquoise abruptly revealed the serious degree of the move. The puppet had been cleanly sliced in half, as Sasori would have been had he not taken the initiative and moved to the side. The four free parts fell away, and Sasori began to fall towards the earth with them. He would hit the ground in a few seconds, so he had to act quickly; Sasori swiftly summoned his drilling puppet, Spit, with its weapons pressed securely against its body. He used chakra stings to pull it close to him, and he wrapped his arms around it as tightly as possible. Sasori took in a bulky breath, as he began to spin the drill, almost making himself nauseous with the spinning motion. A few seconds later, the red head and his puppet went plummeting deep into the sand.
Karura looked around, only seeing the four broken sections of Sasori's puppet, Turquoise. Everything was quiet; a bit too quiet… Something massive suddenly lashed out of the sand in front of Karura and Kamatari. Whatever it was, it jabbed into the weasel's left eye, causing the creature to give a painful cry, dropping the scythe's handle from its jaws. Before Karura could react, Kamatari already disappeared in a puff of smoke to its own world once more, now with a broken left eye. The thing slipped back beneath the sand, and Karura quickly began looking around for her unseen enemy. She gave a sharp intake of breath and acted quickly once the idea struck her. The blonde waved her fan down at the sand at her feet and she went flying up into the air - but not erratically – with the sand parting to reveal her enemy.
Within the series of parted grains was a giant scorpion, probably twice the size of a kitchen table; it had been painted the same colour as the sand, and along it's back ran a line of spines. The tail of it - which had stabbed Kamatari in the eye prior - waved threateningly as it waited for Karura to fall into its clutches. Its two giant front claws clicked open and shut ominously, the puppet's burning amber eyes staring up forebodingly at its prey.
Karura gave a growl, frustrated by the on going battle; "Wind Release: Twirling Lilly." She waved her fan, and instead of wind falling down, it steadily brought the girl upwards. Karura had the nerve to stick her tongue out at the red head who sat within the shut scorpion puppet. He raised an eyebrow at her, and actually gave a smirk; Sasori was beginning to enjoy this battle. It was just the thing to save him from his traumatised state. "Can't catch me, can you?" Karura gave a loud laugh as she rose ever higher.
"We'll see about that…" Sasori bent the puppet's legs and sent chakra through his strings; after a few seconds, the red head released the building pressure and the scorpion went flying up into the air. Karura quickly tried to evade the marionette, but it was too late for her. Sasori's puppet's tail wrapped around the girl, and they all went crashing back down to the ground. Karura groaned of pain as her head hit the heavy sand and Sasori opened the hatch of his puppet. The red head stepped out of the marionette, and he walked along the tail to where Karura was still clutched within it, "Looks like I won the game."
The blonde girl gave a slight laugh and actually smiled up at him, "Cool new puppet," Karura had a look of slight psychosis in her eyes, mixed with the ever present enthusiasm, "what's it called?" Sasori sat down on the tail cross-legged, giving both a slight hum and a shrug in thought.
"I haven't thought of a name yet…" The red head smirked and gave yet another shrug, drawing a kunai knife from his weapons pouch. "What do you think I should call him? I feel that 'Scorpion' is too cliché."
"Absolutely," She gave a thoughtful expression as she sought for a name, "what about Scorpio?" Sasori shrugged again and twirled the kunai on one finger, obviously with ultimate hostile intent, "Hmmm, I guess that is also pretty expected…What about 'Roan'?"
The red head caught the handle of the knife in his palm, giving a thoughtful expression as he pondered the name, "…I like it…Fine then; I'll call him Roan." Sasori smirked once again at nothing in particular, "Yeah, I like it a lot…" He slowly put his hands into his lap and gazed downwards at the body of the large puppet reminiscently. "I started making him after you and Daichi complained about Turquoise being too cramped…" Sasori looked over to the remains of his capture puppet, frowning slightly at the quarters, "…"
"Sorry about recking Turquoise, Sasori, I haven't ever used Kamatari in battle before…" Karura blinked in what could be surprise, "I hope that you'll be able to fix him."
"It'll take some time, and I'll need some new parts, but I should be able to fix the damage. He's just been sliced; if he had been smashed to bits, then that would be a different story…" He shrugged and waved his fingers, making Roan's scorpion tail let go of Karura. Sasori just could not bring himself to kill her. She stood up off of the sand, dusting her clothes lightly before sitting down on the puppet next to Sasori.
"So how are we going to become Chunin?" The blonde girl sighed with slight frustration, leaning her head against her best friend's shoulder.
"We're looking at this the wrong way…" Sasori frowned in thought, leaning his head against Karura's blonde hair, "They want to create the strongest teams by making the strongest Genin kill the weakest…But what if we are both stronger than the Chunin they wish to pair us with…"
"Yeah…" Karura gave a frown, "That's the flaw in setting team-mate against team-mate. They get the strongest Genin of each team, but over all they don't get the best Genin possible."
"So…" Sasori gave yet another smirk and a small flash of insanity appeared in both the eight year old's eyes as the red head spoke their plan aloud, "We slaughter the competition."
-o-
I just couldn't kill my best friend back then, but now I wish that I had. It would have been better to give her a swift, humane death, rather than the torture that she must have endured when she was older. I wonder which choice Karura would have preferred; to be killed by her best friend at the age of eight, or by her own newborn son at the age of twenty…
-o-
Eleven Years of Age
Sasori and Karura had both become Chunin at the age of eight years old by following their plan. Misaki Sensei had been particularly irked off by the fact that Sasori had survived, but the redhead only found satisfaction in the act of pissing off the woman he hated. He had long since repaired his collection of puppets, and he had made a few additions.
Sasori had been focusing a lot on the human anatomy and on medical ninjutsu. He had also begun to… 'Borrow' secret scrolls from the Third Kazekage's library using small puppets he had created called 'Rats'. They were perfect for slipping past the imperfect defences unspotted. He could control five at a time, two fingers per puppet and they looked like small, tailless rats, even going as far as to be covered in coats of real rat fur. Sasori had skinned the creatures himself in an experiment of trying to turn rats into puppets; he had succeeded.
His team was still led by Misaki Sensei, and was compiled of Sasori, Karura, and oddly her twin brother, Yashamaru. The blond was not as strong or as good at Jutsu as his sister was, but he was smarter than her…Not as intelligent as Sasori, of course, but he was probably a four out of five for brains.
It was an odd story, as he had only just become a Genin when Sasori and Karura were eleven. No matter who had been placed into the team of Sasori and Karura, the red head had had a habit of killing new members due to an almost fear of becoming close to them. He did not want a repetition of the mental breakdown which had occurred when he had killed Daichi. So after four unnecessary deaths over a course of three years, the village made an actual smart decision and assigned Yashamaru to the group, not even bothering to let him go through the same process which Sasori and Karura had had to go through in order to become Chunin. So that meant technically, he was still a Genin.
That was how Team Three had died, and Team Blooming Storm was born.
Sasori still wore the same face paint that he had worn before, except he had added a dark red horizontal and vertical line across his face. His sleeveless vest had been replaced by the official beige Sunagakure Flak Jacket which had added leather shoulder guards, padding and also a neck guard. There were more pockets as well which were used to hold summoning scrolls for his puppets. The two large scrolls he had once worn on his lower back had been replaced by a large light brown medical pouch. The eleven year old still wore black pants, Sunagakure shoes, a fishnet shirt beneath his flak jacket, his weapons pouch on his right leg and he also still wore his Sunagakure headband on his forehead. He didn't smile that much any more, choosing to wear either a stoic expression or a sly smirk.
Karura also now wore the official beige Sunagakure Flak Jacket, a pair of white pants and the regular Sunagakure sandals. She still wore a fishnet shirt, her weapons pouch, and her closed fan was still attached to her back. The blonde's hair was slightly longer, almost reaching her shoulders, but the length was still acceptable by Sunagakure standards. She had moved her Shinobi headband to her upper right shoulder and her dark teal eyes still shone with the same enthusiasm, with an added slight lunacy.
Yashamaru wore a jacket similar to the one which Sasori had worn as a Genin with black pants and a long sleeved black shirt. The eleven year old wore his Sunagakure headband on his forehead and Yashamaru had the same dark teal eyes as his twin sister, except lacking the same enthusiasm and the touch of madness. His hair was only slightly shorter, and he appeared rather effeminate, usually smiling contently, even if half the time his smile was false. Sasori was particularly neutral with the blond male; he didn't like him and at the same time he no longer hated him. Yashamaru was extremely loyal to his sister, and probably would not even hesitate to give up his life in order to save Karura.
Generally, they worked well as a team. The Second Shinobi World War had finished when they were nine and a half and Sunagakure was currently experiencing an irritating peace.
-x-
Sasori sat at his workbench, reading with the help of the lamp light. He had taken the scroll two days ago, and it was about failed experiments of Sunagakure's past, wherein they tried to retain one's Jutsu even after death. The methods tested were interesting, such as one experiment which had been led by Sunagakure's Puppet Brigade. Sasori read with interest at the attempt which was particularly similar to the idea he had thought up when he had seen Daichi's body lying on his workbench. The Puppet Brigade had firstly taken out the subject's entrails and drained the body of all their blood. At first the puppets had been successful, but over time they had decayed; before they were able to redo the experiment, the research was scrapped as unethical.
Apparently it had 'devalued' the worth of human life.
Sasori gave a gentle hum and moved his hand over to his beloved plant, Asuko. She had grown somewhat; the bulb of her head now reached the size of a fist. Her leaf stems had grown significantly as well, and she was now able to reach bugs which were as far away as in the middle of the Den. Asuko's poison had also developed, but Sasori had created an antidote for it which was long lasting. Hopefully he would only need to have one shot in his entire life in order to be safe from his plant.
She possessed three large green leaves which were covered in poisonous spores that took about twenty seconds to kill an insect, and an unknown amount of time to kill a human. Sasori gently stroked the plant's head as he ideated lightly. Asuko's bulb was pure red with a black splodge on one side. Her mouth was full of sharp, yellow teeth which could give a very bad bite if she ever wanted to.
As the red head caressed his pet, the deadly plant gave a content purring noise, nuzzling her bulb into her master's palm. "So they were successful, except over time the puppets began to decay…Maybe some preservatives could fix that…Probably a preservative with a copper, chromium, petroleum or borate based chemical compound…Or even an arsenic based preservative…" Asuko continued to pur as he continued to pet her, "Maybe…But do I really want to turn people into Human Puppets…?" Sasori looked to his plant, raising an eyebrow at her, "What do you think, Asuko?" The flytrap twitched its lip and gave an almost intelligent squeak, "I should?" The red head gave a slight hum, remembering the reason why he had wanted to turn Daichi into a puppet only three years ago. He looked around the Den, gazing at the blood stain which represented the spot where he had lain when he had had a break down; "Humans are fleeting, but puppets live for an Eternity…An Eternity is the definition of True Art…" Sasori gave an almost sadistic smirk, "And I'm an Artist."
