Chapter 3: The Last Straw
Over the next year, Sasori made several more puppets, each more sophisticated than the last. The three that he was most proud of were Kuroari ("Black Ant"), Karasu ("Crow"), and Sanshouuo ("Salamander"). He was eager to try them out, and his wish was granted when his jounin sensei told the team that they would be embarking on a mission to protect a diplomat who was traveling to the Hidden Cloud Village to negotiate a possible alliance between the Country of Wind and the Country of Lightning. This would be a dangerous mission, he warned them, because the Hidden Stone Village vehemently opposed an alliance between the powerful Sand and Cloud villages, and might attempt to kidnap or assassinate Sand's diplomat.
The team met the diplomat at the outskirts of the Sand Village and began traveling along the road that led to the northern border of the Country of Wind. Sasori reminded Kagaiya and Asana to keep an eye out for enemies. They didn't expect much resistance while still within their own country—hiding in the flat, barren terrain of the Wind Country was nearly impossible—but it was always a good idea to remain vigilant.
"Heh, I can't wait to see those new puppets of yours in action, Sasori-san," commented Asana.
"Yeah, what did you add to them?" inquired Kagaiya.
"Oh, lots of things. A few traps, a couple of weapons. I'm pretty proud of them."
"It's a useful way to keep enemies at a distance, isn't it?" said Kagaiya. "You can let your puppets do the fighting for you, so there's less risk to yourself. Pretty smart."
"What's even better," Sasori said, warming to his topic, "is that a puppet can be repaired and improved as much as you want. If an enemy breaks it, you can fix it easily. And you can constantly add to it and make it more effective. A puppet can outlast its master. And to create a truly unique puppet is almost like making a work of art."
"You really do like your puppets, don't you?" said Asana with a laugh. "You almost sound like you'd rather have one of those by your side in a fight than a real person."
The trip went smoothly until they had reached the mountain range that bisected the Country of Lightning. The Hidden Village of Cloud was high in this mountain range, at the end of a narrow pass. Climbing the foothills was a slow process, mainly because the diplomat was an older civilian who could not move as fast as the four shinobi. "This is where things will get dangerous," their sensei warned them. "There are many places to hide here—enemies could be concealed anywhere. Do not let your guard down, even for a moment."
The four shinobi formed up around the diplomat—one in front, one on either side, and one behind. Asana bit his thumb and summoned a small lizard that scuttled ahead of the group, scouting out the path they planned to take. Entering a narrow divide between two cliffs that towered above them on either side, Kagaiya held up a hand to indicate that the group should stop. "Something's not right," she whispered.
"My summon hasn't detected any traps," Asana reminded her.
"What is it? Genjutsu?" Sasori asked.
"I think so." Kagaiya concentrated for a moment, then moved towards the right wall of the pass and proceeded slowly, running her hand along the wall. A few yards ahead of the point where she had noticed something odd, her hand slid right through the wall.
"It is a genjutsu!" their sensei shouted. "Everyone, take up defensive positions!" Kagaiya's direct interaction with the genjutsu had broken the illusion, and a section of the rock wall melted away to reveal a passage that intersected with their own. Pressed against the sides of that passage were five Rock nins, all of whom had weapons drawn. One of them formed a series of seals with his hands, and spikes elongated out of the rock wall on either side of where Kagaiya stood. Quickly, she formed a seal progression of her own.
"Chakra Shield Technique!" she cried, and spread her hands out in opposite directions. Discs of chakra flowed around her hands, and though the rock spikes pushed against the shields, they could not break through.
Asana pulled his weapon from its sheath and sprang towards the Rock nins. He wielded an unusual weapon, a polearm with blades on both ends. He spun the weapon around, catching a Rock shinobi with each blade.
While his sensei moved back to protect the diplomat, Sasori pulled a scroll out of his backpack and used it to summon Sanshouuo. Quickly attaching chakra strings, Sasori yanked Sanshouuo's mouth open, and it spit forth several small darts, each one coated with poison. The three oncoming Rock ninja scattered, but one was hit in the leg with a dart. Crying out in pain, he fell to the ground, instantly immobilized.
The two remaining Rock shinobi rushed towards Sasori's sensei, hoping to defeat him quickly and kill the defenseless civilian behind him. Thinking quickly, Sasori detached a chakra string from Sanshouuo and flung it at one of the Rock ninja, wrapping it around his leg and tripping him. Then he sent Karasu flying towards the man. Unable to stand, the man fell prey to Karasu's poisoned blades.
Sasori's sensei had not been idle either. He executed a flurry of seals, and called, "Desert's Mouth Technique!" The ground under the final Rock ninja's feet softened and liquefied. Flailing hopelessly, the man was swallowed up by the quicksand-like morass, which smoothed out and solidified after he was gone. No trace was left to show that he had ever existed.
"Good job, everyone," their sensei said approvingly. "Is anyone…" He stopped speaking as a sixth Rock ninja emerged from the blank stone wall behind where Kagaiya was standing. Before anyone could say or do anything, he had reached around in front of her and cut her throat with a kunai.
"You bastard! I'll kill you for that!" screamed Asana, and leapt towards the shinobi.
"No, wait!" Sasori yelled. "There could be another one hidden!" Just as he said this, a second Rock ninja emerged from a nearby portion of the wall. Sasori launched Karasu towards him, but it was too late. The two Rock ninjas drew identical wakizashis and impaled Asana on them—one from in front, and one from behind.
With a cry of rage, Sasori summoned Kuroari and flung both Sanshouuo and Karasu at the Rock nins, positioning Kuroari behind them. Leaping backwards to escape the attacks of those two puppets, they stumbled into the open barrel that formed Kuroari's torso. The barrel closed around them, and with a savage grin, Sasori gestured to make Karasu's dagger-tipped limbs ram through the small slits in Kuroari's torso. The blades pierced the two ninja trapped inside Kuroari, ending their lives instantly.
The diplomat stood wide-eyed and trembling behind Sasori's sensei—who looked almost as surprised as the diplomat by the battle prowess Sasori had just displayed. Slowly, Sasori walked over to the bodies of his comrades, followed by his sensei and the diplomat. Kneeling beside them, Sasori felt for pulses and found that both were already dead. "Is there anything that can be done?" asked the diplomat, and Sasori shook his head silently.
Sasori's sensei put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sasori-kun," he said, and Sasori could tell that he was trying to keep a hold on his emotions—just as a good shinobi should. "You fought bravely, and avenged their deaths."
Sasori nodded, not feeling comforted at all. Asana could be brash and annoying at times, but there was no one Sasori would rather have watching his back. And Kagaiya—she had always been cheerful and upbeat, despite the difficult lives that shinobi led. She was eager to learn, was always confident about their ability to accomplish missions successfully, and could make Sasori laugh. She admired his strength, and he admired her optimistic spirit. For some reason, her loss was even more of a blow than Asana's death. Why did they die? Sensei had to stay with the diplomat to protect him—taking out the enemies before they got that far was our job. Asana-san and Kagaiya-chan did all they could—it was my weakness that led to their deaths. My simple human weakness.
A ninja's body carried many secrets that an enemy could not be allowed to discover. For that reason, cremation was the traditional method for disposing of a ninja's remains. Kagaiya's and Asana's bodies were burned there in the pass, their forehead protectors first having been removed so that they could be returned to the young shinobis' parents. The bodies of six of the Rock nins were similarly destroyed, but an examination of the seventh revealed that he carried a bloodline ability. Sasori injected the corpse with a chemical that would prevent it from rotting, then sealed it into a scroll so that he could turn it into a human puppet later. After some discussion, Sasori and his sensei decided to continue with their mission to bring the diplomat to the Cloud Village. This close to the village, they were unlikely to face any more attacks—from here on out there would be Cloud shinobi guarding the territory, and they were unlikely to allow the Rock to come so close to their village.
After a week of sometimes difficult negotiations, the Sand diplomat and his Cloud counterpart managed to hammer out an alliance treaty between their two villages. Sasori and his sensei escorted the diplomat back to the Sand, where news of the alliance was greeted with joy. Sasori and his sensei, however, had a difficult duty to perform. They brought the news of Kagaiya's and Asana's deaths to their clans, and presented their bereaved parents with their forehead protectors. Both families were greatly saddened, but seemed to take some comfort from the fact that their children's sacrifice had allowed the mission to be successfully completed.
Sasori had no such comfort. In his mind, he was to blame for his teammates' deaths. If he had only been a little stronger, a little faster, they would have lived. If he had not been limited by the weaknesses of his body—a body that was still closer to that of a child than to that of a man—the three of them would be celebrating their victory now. As he looked around his laboratory at the completed and in-progress puppets lining the walls, he could not help but feel a certain sense of envy. A puppet was not bound by the limits of the flesh—it did not tire, was not weakened by extreme heat or cold, was immune to poison. Any injury to a puppet could be easily repaired. Weapons could be built into its body that surpassed the pathetic power of fists and feet. And of course, a puppet could not die. Had he been as invulnerable as one of his puppets on that day, Sasori knew he would have been able to save his teammates.
As he labored to turn the Rock ninja's corpse into a serviceable puppet, Sasori was barely aware of the tears that streamed down his face, but he was acutely aware of the sorrow he felt. As he had when his parents died, he lamented his emotional vulnerability. Shinobi were expected to be emotionless warriors who bore any loss with stoicism. Even the Leaf, whose practices were less draconian than those of the other Hidden Villages, had a saying: "A shinobi must possess a heart that never shows tears." But how could any human ever live up to such a standard? Sasori wished, more than anything in the world, that he could. In that moment, he envied not only his puppets' lack of physical weakness, but their lack of emotional weakness as well.
Over the next few weeks, Sasori spent most of his time in the Sand's great library, where scrolls and books detailing ancient jutsus were kept. The use of battle-puppets had a long and noble history in the Sand, and there were many books on the subject. After many long hours of research, Sasori believed he was ready to attempt a feat that no previous puppeteer had ever managed. It would be dangerous, but the rewards if he succeeded were great. No pain, no fear, no sorrow. No need to fear injury or illness, or growing old. No more of this damnable human weakness.
Back in his laboratory, Sasori eyed the man-sized block of wood lying on a large workbench. Many different tools lay on a table to his left. On a smaller table to his right sat a bottle of liquid that he had mixed himself. That was the trickiest part of the whole operation, really. Sasori had years of experience making poison for his puppets, and he was used to the delicate measurements and precise procedures that were necessary to mix an effective poison. But this potion…if the proportions of the ingredients were off by even a tiny amount, he would die. Lifting a tool from the table on his left, Sasori began to carve the block of wood. As he worked, memories flitted through his mind—all the moments and events that had led up to this. First, he carved rough features into the block: general shapes of head, neck, torso, arms and legs, hands and feet. "It's made of wood and shaped into the form of a man, like an ordinary puppet, but it carries weapons and has traps hidden within it. Furthermore, it can be controlled by a shinobi to fight the enemies. Think of it as an artificial soldier."…
Taking up a smaller knife and using his chakra to shape the contour of the blade, Sasori began to carve finer details into the puppet. He gave the hands fingers with joints as supple as those in a real hand. The neck curved down from the chin to meet the shoulders, with a rounded knob in front to suggest an Adam's apple. The impression of pectoral muscles was carved into the chest. Arms and legs were turned on a lathe and pared down to the perfect shape and size. Still finer tools were used to create facial features—a small nose, perfectly shaped lips, bright and inquisitive eyes. "Is she right? Are shinobi really just tools…just puppets?"…
Sasori did not want this puppet to be a mere replica of a human body. He now began adding numerous improvements to make this puppet a deadlier weapon than any of his previous creations. He hollowed out the puppet's abdomen and installed a thick, strong cable with a short blade on the end. He concealed small jugs of flammable oil in the forearms, with pipes leading from the jugs and emerging from the palm of each hand. An igniter was placed inside of each thumb, turning both hands into flamethrowers. He attached poles to the back of each shoulder blade, with each pole carrying several blades that he had purchased from Sand's best swordsmith. The blades were as sharp and deadly as katanas, and the poles they were mounted on could be folded against the puppet's back and concealed under clothing. Finally—and most importantly—he carved out a small section on the upper left part of the puppet's chest, about where the heart would be in a human. "Why? Why can't I be like that—no suffering, no feelings, no pain? Why must I have this human heart that aches so much?"…
Next, Sasori added cosmetic touches to the puppet. He carefully attached thick, soft red threads to the skull to give the illusion of hair. The outer surfaces of the puppet were polished and painted the peachy-tan color of flesh. He gave the eyes the same vivid green color as his own. He covered the entire thing with a coat of shellac to keep the paint and polish from being scoured off by the swirling sand that was common in his village. "You really do like your puppets, don't you? You almost sound like you'd rather have one of those by your side in a fight than a real person."…
Now it was time for the most crucial part of this task. Picking up the vial of potion that he had made earlier, he drank half of it, then poured the rest into the mouth of the puppet. The concoction created a connection between his biological body and the puppet body lying on the workbench, splitting his mind and chakra between the two vessels. Sitting up within the puppet body, Sasori allowed his human body to slump to the floor. He formed a long and complicated series of seals, then placed his puppet hands on his human chest. The medical ninjutsu he was using would concentrate all of the chakra remaining in the human body into the heart, leaving the rest of the tissues to die. Working quickly, Sasori turned back to the table on which his tools sat. In addition to the woodworking tools that he had used to make the puppet, another set of tools sat untouched so far. These were surgical tools. It was my weakness that led to their deaths. My simple human weakness. My physical weakness led to their deaths, and my emotional weakness forces me to feel the pain of that failure every day. No more. It ends here and now. Selecting a scalpel, Sasori laid it against the chest of his human body, and began to cut.
