Hidden Cloud Village suffered severe damage due to the Eight-Tails' rampage and lost many Kumogakure Ninja during the sealing process.
With a fire in its backyard, Hidden Cloud Village could no longer confront the Konoha Ninja in the Land of Hot Springs and had to retreat its Kumogakure Ninja to the border.
At this time, Orochimaru had already returned to the Konoha Garrison.
After Orochimaru returned, Jiraiya immediately excitedly found Orochimaru and told him what had happened in Hidden Cloud Village.
As the instigator, Orochimaru, upon hearing this, only said, "That's good. The Kumogakure Ninja can be quiet for a while now. I'm going to return to Konoha to rest for a period. This place will temporarily be yours."
After saying this to Jiraiya, Orochimaru simply walked away, completely disregarding Jiraiya's stunned reaction.
...
Meanwhile, in Hidden Sand Village.
Sasori had completed his first Human Puppet, Hiruko, and was preparing to make his move on the Third Kazekage.
Sasori wrote a letter stating that he had developed a new puppet that could compensate for the weakness of puppet Ninja in close combat, being strong in both offense and defense. He claimed that if puppet Ninja used the puppets he developed, their strength would be greatly enhanced.
Sasori also emphasized that the Third Kazekage should meet him alone outside Hidden Sand Village tonight, and he would demonstrate the puppet's functions one by one to him.
After having a Ninja deliver the letter, Sasori sealed Hiruko in a scroll.
Then, Sasori sat in front of the puppets of his parents that he had made, staring fixedly at them.
Chiyo came to visit Sasori and found him staring blankly at his parents' puppets again, which made Chiyo feel a pang of heartache.
Chiyo was currently secretly developing a Reanimation Ninjutsu with a group of Medical Ninja. This Ninjutsu would use all of her Chakra as a medium to transfer life force to the deceased, converting the caster's Chakra into the deceased's soul until the caster died.
Chiyo's secret purpose in developing this Reanimation Ninjutsu was to revive the parents of her grandson, Sasori.
After all, seeing her grandson so sad every day, isolating himself at home, Chiyo was also very distressed.
Therefore, Chiyo wanted to use her own life to bring Sasori's parents back so they could accompany Sasori again.
After watching Sasori for a while, Chiyo left quietly without disturbing him.
After Chiyo left, Sasori turned his head and looked towards the door, a hint of complexity in his eyes.
But soon, this hint of complexity disappeared, replaced by intense killing intent.
The Third Kazekage received Sasori's letter, and after opening and reading it, his mouth was practically grinning to the back of his head.
The Third Kazekage exclaimed, "As expected of Chiyo Advisor's grandson, hailed as a genius puppet designer! He has developed even better puppets for our Hidden Sand Village. He truly is a pillar of our Hidden Sand Village!"
As time went on, the puppets developed by the Second Kazekage could no longer keep up with the times, as other Ninja had already figured them out, and there were many ways to counter puppets.
So, these outdated puppets definitely needed to be iterated.
The reason Sasori earned the title of genius puppet designer, besides his talent in making puppets, was also because he had iterated Hidden Sand Village's puppets several times.
Therefore, the Third Kazekage did not suspect Sasori at all and planned to meet him tonight to see what Sasori's newly developed puppets were all about.
As the Third Kazekage continued with his work, a thought inexplicably came to his mind—something Kannazuki had said to him earlier.
'Uncle Kaito, be careful of Sasori.'
The Third Kazekage shook his head.
Be careful of Sasori? If he had to be careful of Sasori, then who else in Hidden Sand Village could he trust?
"Kannazuki provided such important intelligence to Hidden Sand Village before. I should write a letter to commend him."
The Third Kazekage took out a blank sheet of paper and began to write.
Night fell.
The Third Kazekage stretched, looked at the moon outside the window, and stood up from his chair: "It's time to meet Sasori."
The Third Kazekage arrived outside Hidden Sand Village. Although the letter did not specify the exact location, he could easily see Sasori in the distance.
After all, it was a desert, so it was practically an open view; anything could be easily seen at a glance.
The Third Kazekage approached Sasori, smiling, "Sasori, have you been waiting long?"
The Third Kazekage was just being polite with Sasori, but Sasori replied, "Yes, I don't like waiting for people, nor do I like being waited for."
Third Kazekage:???
He was just being polite, and Sasori's reply put him in an awkward position.
Fortunately, no one else saw it.
The Third Kazekage cleared his throat and said, "By the way, Sasori, didn't you say in your letter that you developed a puppet that can compensate for the weakness of puppet Ninja in close combat, being strong in both offense and defense? Show it to me quickly."
Sasori took out a scroll, unrolled it, and summoned Hiruko.
Seeing Hiruko, the Third Kazekage's eyes lit up: "Sasori, your new puppet is truly lifelike, almost like a real person!"
This was the second time the Third Kazekage had seen such a lifelike puppet; the first was Kannazuki's Kannazuki.
However, Sasori's puppet seemed even more human-like than Kannazuki's Kannazuki.
Moreover, Sasori's puppet was so incredibly realistic that the Third Kazekage unconsciously believed the puppet before him was a real person, which made him feel strange.
Sasori ignored the Third Kazekage's praise. After all, how could this puppet not be lifelike? It was made from a real person.
Sasori demonstrated and explained to the Third Kazekage, "First, it compensates for the weakness of puppet Ninja in close combat. The body of this puppet is hollow, meaning the puppeteer can hide inside the puppet to control it."
Sasori opened Hiruko and then climbed inside.
The Third Kazekage's eyes lit up; this was indeed a very good idea.
Moreover, Sasori's puppet was so lifelike that the enemy would not think it was a puppet, nor would they think there was a person hidden inside.
Sasori continued to explain, "Poison needles can be shot from the mouth in the head."
Sasori manipulated Hiruko to open its mouth, but instead of firing directly at the Third Kazekage, it fired a large number of poison needles to the side.
"The left hand is a double-mechanism device, and the back is extremely sturdy; it's difficult to damage with Kunai shuriken..."
As Sasori demonstrated and explained, the Third Kazekage gradually became engrossed.
The new puppet Sasori had developed was even better than he had imagined, and by a significant margin.
The Third Kazekage began to fantasize: if all the puppet Ninja in his Village were equipped with such puppets, their strength would surely be greatly enhanced!
Inside Hiruko, Sasori saw the Third Kazekage's expression and a mocking, faint smile appeared on his face.
"Finally, a tail made of iron and resembling a scorpion can extend from the hole in its back. The tail has potent venom; even a slight scratch will cause poisoning... Just like this!"
From the hole in Hiruko's back, a tail suddenly extended and directly pierced the unsuspecting Third Kazekage's body.