Sasori having a Jounin sensei as a Genin was not strange.
But the same person now Jounin of Ren's team did surprise Kaiji.
His thoughts did not stay on this, though.
They moved to Sasori's future, how he would kill Satei and make him one of his puppets.
Kaiji knew he could not change this.
He was not strong enough to fight Sasori, let alone beat him.
Since he came to this world as Kaiji, he felt a sense of belonging in Sunagakure.
But still, that did not mean he would walk into his own grave.
If Satei was to die, then it was his fate.
Kaiji did not want to be a part of it.
Moreover, he did not even know when this would happen but just knew it would happen soon.
"Well, enough about that," Hiroshi said. "Tell me, will you two come to Kohaku's birthday party? It's next week."
"What? Kohaku's birthday is next week?" Ren sounded very surprised.
"Huh, she's your teammate, and you don't even know her birthday!" Kaiji said to Ren.
"Nah, she's not my girlfriend, so why would I care about her birthday?" Ren shrugged.
"Oh, so you're not coming?" Hiroshi asked at once.
"T-that's not what I mean, I'll definitely come," Ren stammered a bit.
He added, "Moreover, as orphan we don't get birthday party's, so if I get a chance to go on someone else's, then why would I even refuse!"
Kaiji, feeling that atmosphere was turning downcast, immediately try to divert it, with something light.
"Hey, Hiroshi, are you doing any training besides your missions and dates with Kohaku?" Kaiji asked.
"Of course I am! I even want to make my own secret technique, remember!" Hiroshi huffed.
"Really? Then why are you still so fat?" Kaiji asked, teasing him, pinched Hiroshi's stomach fat.
Hiroshi glared at Kaiji, who quickly took his hand away and looked to the side.
"Hey, Hiroshi, if you want to lose fat, there's a simple way. You just need to stop eating three things," Ren said, sounding serious.
"Really! What are they?" Hiroshi's eyes lit up.
Kaiji also looked at Ren.
He also gets curious to know what three things Ren meant.
"Simple; Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Just stop eating those, and you'll be thin like me in no time!"
Ren shrugged, as if this was the most obvious thing.
Hiroshi's eyes twitched.
He mumbled, "Then what would I eat?"
Kaiji first gave Ren a blank stare, then laughed loudly.
He understood Ren was only teasing Hiroshi.
"Stop teasing me, you two..." Hiroshi huffed, still grumbling, while Kaiji and Ren chuckled softly.
Ren then went to his house.
Hiroshi and Kaiji walked back to their rooms in the Genin Corps department.
Kaiji first changed into his regular ninja clothes.
He did not think much about Isago, the second Jinchuriki of Ichibi.
He was curious at first, but not anymore.
He focused on his own work.
He took out the Chakra Scalpel Jutsu scroll and started practicing.
He focused his chakra, bringing it together on two fingers of his right hand.
A blade of green glow of chakra formed around them.
Once formed, it start to flickered, like it would disappear.
Kaiji closed his eyes.
He tried to focus on keeping its shape right and perfect.
In a few minutes, it held its shape, though still flickering.
He tried to pass his chakra blade on his finger through a bowl of drinking water on the table, without disturbing the surface.
When his chakra blade got close to the water, it flickered and vanished.
"Damn..." Kaiji sighed, but kept practicing for a while.
Then he moved to his next technique, the Blood Coagulation Technique.
He took the desert cottontail he used for training from its hutch.
"Let's start practicing~!" Kaiji said, holding the desert cottontail carefully.
These rabbits can get scared easily, but keeping them was not too hard.
Kaiji decided to kept this one as a pet until he learned the Blood Coagulation Technique.
They were even easy to care for as pets.
They live in desert areas but rarely need to drink water directly.
They get most of their water from plants like cactus pads, shrub leaves, and twigs.
Kaiji took a kunai.
He carefully made a small scratch on the desert cottontail.
When it started to bleed, small drops of blood came out, desert cottontail started to groan in pain.
Kaiji used Blood Coagulation Jutsu, a green glow appeared around his hand.
This green glow was different from the Chakra Scalpel's, which looked like a blade.
He carefully moved his hand over the bleeding spot, putting his chakra close.
He watched as the bleeding slowly stopped, and desert cottontail, stop groaning.
"At least this Jutsu is going very smoothly," Kaiji said with relief.
Later, he had lunch with his friends, then went back to grind.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, in a room that looked like a workshop, Sasori, still in dark attire for funeral, worked with total focus on the limbs of a puppet.
From the doorway, Chiyo watched him, her eyes filled with worry.
"Sasori," she began, her voice a soft, tired whisper.
"You should try to learn other ninja arts too. Stop wasting time with puppetry alone."
"This is not wasting time. It's an art that even you can't understand, Grandmother." He grunted softly, a sound that meant nothing.
"This is not art," she gently said, stepping further into the room.
"The things you make now... they are not like the ones from your youth, and not what I taught you. There is no warmth in them."
A soft click sounded as a joint clicked into place.
Sasori finally lifted his head, looking right at her.
He said, "Warmth passes, Grandmother, it dies but my art... strives for what lasts... for what cannot be broken."
He continued, "They last and they are made perfect. Unlike the weak, human body that just breaks down."
His voice held no meanness, just a statement of his twisted idea.
"True beauty is in forever. In what escapes the ruin of time."
Chiyo's eyes fell on a partly put-together figure on a nearby table.
It's shape was strangely like a living thing, but it was completely still.
She said, "Was it my mistake to teach you puppetry arts?"
He ignored his grandmother and turned back to his work of art.
Chiyo had taught him puppetry to fill the emptiness in his heart after his parents died in the Second Great Shinobi War.
He became a genius at this ninja art.
He made puppets that looked like his parents.
But these creations could never truly take the place of the human connection he wanted.
This made him believe that true art was something that lasted forever and never changed, unlike short human life.
He even killed his childhood friend, Komushi, with poison and turned him into his first puppet for his personal collection.
Chiyo understood his ideas well, and that worried her greatly about her grandson.
•••