Chapter 97: So Many "Accidents"
Pervert?
"No, Temari-sama, aren't you a bit too repressed? I just paused for a moment to think, and you immediately jumped to 'that' kind of place?"
Shiromo was at a loss over Temari's sudden insult.
"I…! If you can even understand what I'm implying, then you're not any better yourself!"
Temari's gaze had just shifted aside out of 'embarrassment', but then, driven by 'defiance', it snapped right back. She stared straight at Shiromo, putting on an attitude of being utterly unreasonable yet oddly confident.
"Oh."
"Oh what? You…wait a second!"
Seeing Shiromo turn around and start to leave, Temari hurriedly called out. Worried that he wouldn't stop, she quickly stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and took the envelope back from his hand.
"I 'accidentally' put a photo I 'accidentally' took of myself inside."
"..."
Shiromo hadn't expected Temari to actually remember the offhand remark he'd made back then, when he was trying to prove he didn't have a "soldier boy" fetish, about "then just add one of yours."
Now she was afraid that when Shiromo took Granny Chiyo's swimsuit photos to show someone else, he might hand over hers as well. So she hastily made up an excuse to retrieve it.
But still.
What kind of excuse was this?
She 'accidentally' took a photo, 'accidentally' put it into the envelope, and now 'accidentally' remembered it.
Shiromo suddenly felt a little scared that some future excuse might involve something "accidentally" slipping inside.
"Aren't you taking the photos to handle business? What are you standing there for? Hurry up and go! I'll wait ten minutes at most!"
Temari seemed to realize how ridiculous her excuse sounded. After pulling out her own swimsuit photo from the envelope, she quickly stuffed the envelope back into Shiromo's hand and urged him to leave.
Wow.
So the plan is to reset the scene and pretend nothing ever happened?
"Wait for me."
Shiromo tossed out those two words, and his figure vanished from the spot.
He arrived at a hidden underground base within the village and found Sasori, who was calibrating puppets there.
"Do you need something?"
Sasori didn't turn his head, nor did he stop what he was doing. He merely asked indifferently.
"Nothing much. I just came to give you a piece of advice."
"What advice?"
"Don't give up your emotions as a 'human.'"
"...Boring."
"Being free from emotional constraints and thinking with absolute rationality does indeed make many things easier to resolve."
"But absolute rationality doesn't mean absolute correctness. Let me give you an example, "
As Shiromo said this, Sasori still didn't turn around, but his hands stopped moving. He began listening seriously.
"There was a shinobi who received a blessing from a god, allowing him to strengthen two parts of his body."
"So he chose to strengthen the smaller head first, then the bigger head."
"Because he was afraid that once the bigger head was strengthened, it wouldn't let him strengthen the smaller head anymore."
"..."
Sasori was speechless.
Crude as it was, the logic wasn't wrong, but the wording was 'way' too crude.
"If that's all you wanted to say, you can leave. Don't disturb my work."
Sasori was long past the age of even having a "smaller head," and completely uninterested in what Shiromo was talking about.
"You see? You're telling me to leave and thinking my example is outrageous, that's precisely because you still have human emotions."
"If you were truly absolutely rational, you would patiently listen to everything I, the Akatsuki strategist, had to say."
"For example, let me change the scenario. If you were truly absolutely rational…"
Shiromo paused slightly.
"Suppose there were now a chance to resurrect your family. You would choose to give it up."
Crack.
The wooden puppet part in Sasori's hand was crushed directly.
Because this place was underground and extremely quiet, the rapid acceleration of Sasori's heartbeat was painfully obvious.
"Giving it up would be the correct choice."
"Even if they could be resurrected, so what?"
"In this ninja world full of slaughter, being revived would only mean waiting for the next death."
After steadying his emotions, Sasori spoke slowly.
"That scared me to death. I thought you were about to go 'puppet-mom-can't-be-hidden.'"
Shiromo patted his chest.
Sasori: "?"
"What I mean is, you're not wrong. This ninja world is still really dangerous, but isn't that exactly the direction we're working to change?"
"When the day comes that everyone can reunite with their families and happily make sushi together, are you still going to cling to your soft, cuddly cat-girl puppet?"
"I can tell you this, Sasori, there's no need to wait until the era after the Ōtsutsuki descend. Even now, resurrection from death isn't something particularly difficult."
"The 'suppose' I mentioned wasn't really a 'suppose.'"
"What exactly do you want me to do?"
After a moment of silence, Sasori's tone softened.
"Nothing much. Just keep your humanity. In other aspects, I don't think I need to give you any hints."
Shiromo shrugged slightly.
Sasori's talent in puppetry was beyond question.
As for the other "famous" puppet master, Kankurō, he never built a single puppet himself from start to finish, relying entirely on scavenging Sasori's dropped equipment.
Yet even so, in his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, Kankurō fantasized about creating Gundam-like puppets.
This showed that Kankurō wasn't lacking inspiration, he was just bad at creating. (crossed out.)
This showed that puppet masters don't lack ideas; what they need is refined technique.
After all, compared to the ninjutsu system, the puppet system was extremely underdeveloped and required pioneers to explore it themselves.
"Keep my humanity…"
"Let's do this. We'll make a bet. I'll show you something. If you can't control your emotions, then you'll listen to me."
"...Fine."
Sasori agreed.
"Here. Take a look yourself. I haven't actually seen what's inside."
Shiromo directly tossed the envelope over.
Crack-crack-crack.
Sasori suspiciously pulled the photo out of the envelope, glanced at it, and immediately turned his arm into a paper shredder, grinding the photo to bits.
In a world with chakra and souls, where only a heart remains, being able to have emotions without relying on hormones is perfectly reasonable.
"What 'is' this thing?!"
Sasori felt a mixture of emotions, anger, awkwardness, nostalgia, and a touch of disgust.
"You lost."
Shiromo glanced at the shredded paper on the ground.
Though he could use Crazy Diamond to restore it, there was really no need.
Who actually wants to see Granny Chiyo in a swimsuit anyway?
"This is a sacrifice a senior made for a misguided junior. As you can see, you still have a family member alive."
"So, I'll entrust you with a task, one that suits your status as a missing-nin and is also beneficial to Sunagakure."
Shiromo spoke calmly.
"Oh."
Sasori's emotions gradually settled: "Killing another daimyo?"
As Deidara's partner, Sasori had heard more than once Deidara brag about descending like a god and blowing the Land of Earth's daimyo's mansion into oblivion.
He didn't know much about the Land of Water's daimyo, but he doubted there was much difference.
"That's right."
Shiromo confirmed it.
The Land of Wind's daimyo really did need to be dealt with.
Among the Five Great Shinobi Nations, the most self-destructive one was the Land of Wind's daimyo. The fact that he only ranked third in dying was already letting him off easy.
"I'll take the job."
Sasori's face was expressionless, but inwardly he sighed in regret.
Such excellent puppet experiment material, yet it could only be killed outright, pointlessly, just like Deidara did.
Sasori knew that if he kept them as experimental material, it would only attract rescue attempts and trigger a chain of troubles.
It was truly a shame.
—
After Sasori accepted the mission, Shiromo returned to the entrance of Amegakure.
Seeing Temari, who had claimed she would only wait ten minutes, yet hadn't moved at all even after the time was up, he walked up to her.
"Let's go. Time to go home."
"Oh, okay, wait, no! What do you mean 'go home'? Whose home? What nonsense are you talking about?!"
"...Temari-sama, you're really hypersensitive."
(End of this chapter)