Sasori of the Red Sand—a genius puppeteer.
Grandson of Chiyo.
When he was young, his parents were killed during a mission by Konoha's White Fang. That loss left him profoundly lonely. Later, under Chiyo's guidance, he learned the art of puppetry.
From childhood, that deep-seated loneliness drove him to develop an abnormal attachment to puppets. A prodigy among puppeteers, he had already begun tampering with forbidden techniques in his youth—eventually turning his only close friend into a puppet.
From that point on, his heart truly became a puppet as well.
When the truth about his human puppets was exposed, Sasori could no longer remain in Sunagakure. He fled the village and became a missing-nin.
In the past, Shiraishi had once clashed with Sasori's subordinates in the Quicksand River Valley. There was an old enmity between them.
Activating his circular pupils and psychic power at the same time, Shiraishi expanded his perception, attempting to locate the source of the chakra threads.
What he found was unexpected.
Outside the tent stood a Sunagakure chūnin with an utterly blank expression, as if his consciousness had been stripped away. He moved mechanically, manipulating the human puppet before him like a tool.
Latent Brain Sand Control…
Shiraishi was familiar with this sealing technique. A needle of microscopic size was inserted directly into the brain's memory center, sealing away the subject's memories. Once the technique was lifted, the needle vanished, and the memories would return intact.
In the past, Sunagakure's intelligence division had used this technique on operatives before sending them deep undercover, ensuring long-term infiltration with minimal risk.
Sasori's mastery of this technique was far beyond ordinary use.
He wasn't just sealing memories—he was directly controlling the body itself, using it as a medium to manipulate the human puppet and converse with Shiraishi.
Shiraishi was not surprised by Sasori's appearance.
He lightly rotated the silver blade in his hand, a strange glint flashing through his eyes.
"Kid," Sasori said coldly,
"Are you interested in becoming my subordinate?"
That single sentence instantly made the atmosphere awkward.
As a missing-nin, what right did Sasori have to recruit him?
Did he think Shiraishi was like Yamaji Ryōko—some brainless admirer?
Or did Sasori simply assume that all Sunagakure puppeteers were his devoted fans?
"Sorry," Shiraishi replied calmly.
"You should go ask Yamaji Ryōko."
"That woman is annoying."
Ignoring Shiraishi's jab, Sasori's gaze turned eerie.
"And I don't have patience."
The moment his words fell, the female human puppet moved.
Razor-sharp claws tore through the air.
A storm of rotating wind blades erupted around Shiraishi, forcing distance between them. But before the momentum could fade, Sasori launched a second assault.
Dense, specially refined poison mist burst from the puppet's mouth, flooding the tent—
Yet in that instant, the silver blade flashed.
With a single clean strike, Shiraishi severed the puppet's head.
The head fell—then abruptly stopped.
Chakra threads tightened, and the severed head rose back into the air, hovering unnaturally.
"Senior Sasori," Shiraishi said evenly,
"This place has long been covered by a special barrier. Ordinary poison mist or puppet tricks don't mean much to me."
Sasori's true body was not present. He was remotely controlling a subordinate and a human puppet from afar.
Because of that, Shiraishi felt no fear at all.
The poison mist was isolated by the barrier, while sand surged up around Shiraishi, blocking a barrage of senbon fired from the human puppet.
Growing increasingly irritated, Sasori spoke in a voice devoid of warmth.
"Kid… you expected me?"
Shiraishi answered directly, without hesitation.
"The Scarlet Control Mirror."
As a puppeteer, how could Sasori ignore the existence of the strongest support puppet ever created?
He had tried more than once to infiltrate Sunagakure and capture Shiraishi, but the village's upper echelon protected the boy too well. Direct infiltration was nearly impossible.
Exposing certain hidden pieces was also not an option—those pawns served far more important purposes.
Left with no other choice, Sasori used this method to appear before Shiraishi.
He hadn't expected his true objective to be exposed so bluntly.
Sneaking into the Sunagakure camp was no simple task. That was why Sasori had sent only a human puppet of average combat capability this time.
"I can give you the design blueprints for the Scarlet Control Mirror," Shiraishi said.
"But as a trade…"
After successfully assembling the Scarlet Control Mirror, Shiraishi had returned the official schematics to Chiyo—while secretly retaining his own copy.
Now, this core Sunagakure secret became his bargaining chip.
"So what do you want?"
The initiative had been reversed, and Sasori's irritation was obvious.
He hated prolonged negotiations, especially with a boy who spoke so methodically.
Ever since the Scarlet Control Mirror was completed, Shiraishi had been waiting for Sasori to reveal himself.
The fact that this impatient old fox had endured for so long before finally surfacing was, in itself, impressive.
"I want a regeneration core."
A chakra regeneration core was the heart of a human puppet. Without it, a puppet could not reproduce even a fraction of its original abilities in life.
What Shiraishi needed was a custom regeneration core—one compatible with the needle mechanism embedded in his gauntlet.
This was different from the regeneration core Sasori would later use to transform himself into a human puppet.
Chiyo had once mentioned that if Sasori personally designed a specialized regeneration core, it could perfectly resolve the structural flaws in Shiraishi's gauntlet.
"This scroll contains a portion of my chakra," Shiraishi continued.
"It can be used to create my regeneration core."
For Sasori, crafting a regeneration core was not difficult.
In the past, he had extracted chakra from countless corpses to create such cores. With Shiraishi's preparation, the process would be even faster.
Still—
Sasori's view of Shiraishi had changed completely.
He had already placed Shiraishi on his personal kill list.
In fact, he was even considering waiting until Shiraishi became the Fifth Kazekage—then killing him and turning him into a new human puppet.
Sasori departed.
The transaction benefited both sides.
Shiraishi needed the regeneration core to complete his weapon gauntlet. Sasori needed the Scarlet Control Mirror to strengthen his Red Secret Techniques.
Each got what they wanted.
Yet a trace of unease lingered in Shiraishi's heart.
If Sasori went mad and launched an outright assault on Sunagakure now, he might actually succeed.
The village's defenses were dangerously thin. Aside from Karura, a sand-control specialist, there were few truly powerful shinobi left behind.
When copying the Scarlet Control Mirror blueprints, Shiraishi had deliberately omitted critical material-processing techniques. What he provided was only a partial schematic.
With Sasori's abilities, fully reconstructing the Scarlet Control Mirror was possible—but it would take at least four or five years, assuming all materials could even be gathered.
After all, only two complete Scarlet Control Mirrors existed—one with Shiraishi, one with Chiyo. Several key materials were still located in the Land of Lightning, making acquisition both distant and difficult.
Additionally, the time required to manufacture the regeneration core would also indicate how far away Sasori actually was.
Three days later, Sasori's puppet appeared again.
During the exchange, Sasori gave the blueprints only a cursory glance before handing over the regeneration core.
Inside the sealed scroll, the regeneration core carried chakra identical in nature to Shiraishi's.
But Shiraishi knew very well—
Sasori had almost certainly tampered with it.
That was fine.
He had never intended to use the regeneration core directly.
Activating his glasses, Shiraishi unleashed a unique scanning red light, performing a full analysis and structural modeling of the unsealed regeneration core—
Preparing to rebuild it entirely on his own terms.
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