Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sasori stared at the wall aimlessly. He glanced through the window briefly, but it was still the middle of the night, so there was not much to see, not that he particularly cared. He was sitting at the corner of his bed, his puppets wrapped in a bundle next to him, fully prepared for a mission. His grandmother would probably not be pleased if she knew he hadn’t been sleeping, but he barely got any to begin with, so it was hardly a difference to the usual.

Today was supposed to be different, however. He was to travel to Konoha with a team and participate in their chunin exams. The village seemed especially keen for him to get his promotion as soon as possible, he had noted, though he himself didn’t especially care. Still, he didn’t want to make them wait.

As time passed, he eventually heard the sound of someone calling his name. Light was starting to pierce through his windows, illuminating his neatly organised yet somewhat empty room. He had packed lightly for the trip, though he didn’t have much by way of possessions. He glanced at the family photo he kept on his bedside table. Konoha is where they went on their last mission…

The voice called him again and he turned away. Sasori picked up his sunagakure forehead protector and adjusted it. He hated wearing it, the way the metal plate dug into his skull, a reminder he belonged to and served a village he barely cared about and that barely cared about him. Then he fastened his puppet bundle to his back and walked out of the door, a blank expression on his face as he glanced back one final time.

“Ahhh, Sasori. I trust you are ready? Your team will meet you outside the village gates” His grandmother, Chiyo, greeted him, with an attempt at warmth in her voice.

“Understood. I will do my best.” Sasori walked past her and towards the village gate. Neither of them bothered with saying their goodbyes – Sasori didn’t especially care, and he didn’t imagine that his grandmother did either.

Sasori’s “team” were in position outside the gates of Suna, just as Chiyo had told him. Two shinobi he’d never seen before who seemed at least 10 years older than him, though doubtless far less skilled. They glanced at him apprehensively and nodded as a greeting. Their “sensei” was one of the village elders whom he only vaguely recognised from the council meetings his grandmother dragged him to. It was a team of convenience, to satisfy the entry requirement. Though it wasn’t as if Sasori had much experience working with others – most either feared him or envied him, or a mixture of both. Either way, he kept to himself, and others kept his distance from him. It was better that way.

“The journey to Konoha will take three days. Follow along.” the village elder stated matter-of-factly, gesturing down the path.

The three genin followed along behind them, and they continued to walk for several hours at a steady pace. The two Suna shinobi who were accompanying him were glancing around, seemingly mesmerised by the greenery which started to appear the further they got from Sunagakure. It was Sasori’s first time outside the village as well, but he wasn’t particularly interested in taking in the sights. He’d already seen these landscapes in the books on poisons and plant types the village had given him to study, so it was nothing new to him regardless.

The trek to Konoha was long and fairly dull, but Sasori kept himself distracted by thinking of ideas for new puppets he could build when he returned to the village. The rest of his team seemed to be enjoying the journey far more than him, talking excitedly about what the tests could entail, what Konoha might be like, the different shinobi they might meet while they were there. He found the continuous conversation irritating, as it disrupted his flow of concentration, so after a while he started to distance himself from the others. Nobody bothered him about this, of course – they all knew the team was made just to fill the spots so he could promote to chunin. He didn’t need a team at all, his puppets were the only teammates he required.

Eventually, the gates of Konoha came into view. It was certainly different to the sand village, more vibrant, full of life and color. It seemed much busier as well, though Sasori presumed much of this might be down to the influx of shinobi from other villages arriving for the chunin exam. A part of him still scanned the crowds looking for his parents – this was one of their last known locations, according to Chiyo. Though they had supposedly left for the Hidden Mist a few days prior, so he knew it was unlikely. There was no point wasting time on it.

The elder had already left them to sign in the team, and not a moment afterwards, his two teammates had run off to get some of Konoha’s signature ramen and meet some of the other chunin exam competitors. The exams were not to start until the following day, as teams were still arriving from the other villages. Sasori looked up and down watching the teams arrive, sizing up his competition. There were Hidden Mist shinobi, who brought with them new weaponry he had not seen in the Sand. He had read that Konoha’s own shinobi had fearsome visual jutsu, to which counters would need to be devised. He was of course still confident in his own skills, yet it was better to be careful. He silently hoped that the “teamwork” aspect would be kept to a minimum as well. It was easier to work alone.

Sasori stood by the gates for several hours, simply watching. He had gone almost entirely unnoticed during this time, with only the occasional quick glance as shinobi continued to pour through the gates. This was unsurprising, as he hardly looked like much of a threat, and Suna was already regarded as the weakest of the five great nations. His headband was the only indicator he was participating in the exams to begin with. As the sun started to set, the final teams arrived. It was probably time to head back and find the others, Sasori thought to himself.

“Argh, you dumbass! We nearly missed the whole thing because of you! Do you have any idea how much crap we’d have to deal with from Lord Tsuchikage for that!” a girl with short black hair wearing an Iwa forehead protector was yelling.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It’s much more artistic to arrive at sunset, un! How would we make an impression if we arrived at the same time as everyone else? This way, we’re sure to stand out!” The boy next to her was yelling just as loudly. Sasori couldn’t quite make out what he looked like behind the shadow of his teammates, so he stepped forward, craning his neck to try and get a view. He didn’t really know why he cared, but this team seemed to be somewhat different to the others he’d seen over the course of the day. Distracted, he inadvertently stepped on a pile of leaves which made a loud rustling noise.

“Oh! Someone must have been watching out entrance!” The boy in front exclaimed excitedly, rushing forwards before spinning around and running towards were Sasori stood. Sasori could hear the other two members of his team groan.

As the loud boy emerged from the shadows, Sasori could take a better look at him. He was wearing the same Iwa forehead protector and red and brown shinobi uniform as the other two, but what stood out was his long, bright golden hair, which was half tied back in a messy ponytail. His eyes – or rather, singular eye, as one was hidden behind a curtain of hair, were wild and felt somewhat chaotic. The trio all seemed to be a similar age to Sasori himself, which was unusual – most of the chunin exam hopefuls had been older. I wonder what their jutsus are, Sasori thought to himself. Nobody was entered in the exams at that young an age without good reason.

“Hey there! You must be taking the exam too, huh? Seen any cool, artistic jutsus yet, un?” the blonde boy grinned, voice full of excitement.

Sasori simply looked at him, puzzled. What was he supposed to do in these situations again? He barely bothered interacting with others outside of mission assignments and puppet commissions.

“My village has requested I take the exam in order to promote to chunin and better serve the village.” Sasori replied to him dully.

“Oh wow, you sound really enthusiastic about it, huh? Well, you’re in good company, un. I don’t really give a damn about my village either! I only agreed to come along to get more inspiration for my art!” His eyes seemed to flicker when he got to the last part, Sasori noted.

“...art?” Sasori was confused. He’d read widely – there wasn’t much else for him to do back in Suna – yet this wasn’t something he was familiar with. Perhaps a secret jutsu of the land of Earth.

“Urgh, not this again, Deidara! You know nobody is interested in your ‘art’, big bro, so please just give it up before you embarrass us further.” The Iwagakure girl had walked over to join them. She sighed and turned to Sasori. “I apologise for his behaviour, he’s always like this I’m afraid...”

“Just because you don’t have the brains to understand it, doesn’t mean no one does, Kurotsuchi!” The blonde boy – Deidara – loudly remarked back at her.

Their third teammate, a taller and more imposing yet more relaxed looking boy, now came to join them.

“Now, now, you two, please try not to fight before the exams even start! We’re supposed to be a team, remember? Team spirit and all that? Now come on, we should go and sign in before the arrivals desk closes for the day” He attempted to calm down the situation, but the other two didn’t seem to be paying much attention, Sasori noted.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Deidara rolled his eyes, then turned to Sasori.

He reached inside a bag fastened to his hip and took something out. Sasori recognised it as modelling clay – they had some small quantities of it in the puppet workshop back in Suna. He watched, confused, as Deidara swiftly moulded it between his hands. It only took him a few seconds, until it took the shape of a small white scorpion. He handed it over to Sasori, who simply looked in amazement.

“Hey, this is for you, yeah? Onoki told me these were native to the land of wind.” He grinned and held out his hand.

The clay scorpion was very neatly sculpted, albeit with a few minor differences which conveyed to Sasori that the boy had never actually seen one in person. It was probably his first time outside his village as well.

“Oh! Um. Thank you…?” Sasori replied awkwardly, then reached out and took the scorpion from him. This was certainly not what he expected when he had agreed to enter the chunin exams. He didn’t really understand Deidara’s intentions at all, but the small clay sculpture he had made… It looked quite nice. He wondered where he might display it in his workroom, though his grandmother and the village elders might not be happy with him receiving gifts from another village, he thought to himself sadly.

He held the scorpion in his hand for a moment and admired the details, but then to his dismay, it began to crack and crumble away, giving off a slight mysterious red shimmer as it crumbled into a glittery dust that dispersed into the air. Sasori looked at it and his expression dropped. Of course he had to go and break it. He called out to Deidara desperately, who had already started to walk off towards the centre of the village with his two teammates.

“It broke…” he looked down at the ground miserably, holding out his empty hands. Even the red dust had now fully disappeared from the air.

Deidara simply looked at him, puzzled for a second, then to Sasori’s surprise, he burst out laughing.

“Uh, it’s supposed to do that, un! For you see, my art – true art – is a fleeting flash of beauty that only lasts a second! It’s an explosion!” His eyes lit up again and he jumped into the air.

With that, Sasori watched he turned around once more and disappeared into the now darkness of the village of Konoha with the rest of his team.

Chapter Text

The night faded into day, and it was almost time for the chunin exams to begin. The entrants had all been told to gather in a large building in Konoha. Sasori had counted around three hundred overall when he watched the previous day, however at this point only a handful had shown up. He liked to be early whenever he could.

Looking at their headbands, Sasori recognised the insignias of Konoha, Amegakure and Takigakure, as well as a couple he did not recognise. None yet from Suna, which meant the rest of his team had not arrived yet. They were probably still asleep.

As more genin started to arrive, he remained unmoving in his place, simply observing. There were several Suna genin in the crowd now, but they all seemed to arrive in their groups, so he paid them no mind. In all honesty, he had forgotten what his teammates looked like – or their names, did he ever ask for them? Not that it mattered. But he knew that without that formality he would fail the exam, so had to pay at least a little bit of attention, he admitted.

Eventually he noticed a pair of Suna shinobi entering the building, deep in a lively conversation. Sasori wandered over to them silently. One of them briefly looked down in acknowledgement, but they continued their conversation as if he wasn’t there. Something about ramen toppings and the Konoha hot springs. Sasori had not missed the pointless chatter or the noise.

Around half an hour later, they closed the doors to the building, and a Konoha jonin came to the front to announce the first stage. Not long after this, there was a loud crash. Sasori looked around, trying to discern the source of the noise, which did not take long. The door had been hit by a small explosive and kicked down. The other entrants were all watching in shock – nobody seemed to be injured but a few were waving the smoke out of their faces. Emerging from the rubble were the Iwagakure team Sasori had met the day before.

“Argh! Why must you always do this?” Kurotsuchi was yelling at Deidara. She then stopped, realising that everyone had turned to look at them, and her demeanour shifted.

“Ah. Um, I hope we arrived on time? And uh. I apologise for our lateness. And the door.” She scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

“Hey there! I’m Deidara, and I’m going to be the greatest artist the shinobi world has ever seen, un! Oh, and future Tsuchikage. I guess.” Deidara addressed the crowd of genin, who looked slightly startled.

He spotted Sasori in the crowd and waved enthusiastically at him. “Sand boy! You made it here as well!”

Sasori looked down and quietly groaned, hoping nobody else had noticed. He really didn’t want to draw any attention to himself – that would mean having to interact with the others, and he did not want to waste any time on that. Unfortunately Deidara had both a very loud voice and an affinity for attracting a lot of attention. Sasori was small enough to be lost in the crowd, at least.

His teammates looked down at him in surprise, and brought their conversation to an abrupt halt. “You know the Tsuchikage’s grandson?”

Sasori looked back up, glancing at the Iwagakure team. Of course! He thought to himself. That would explain why they’re taking the chunin exam when they are so young. The Tsuchikage was making sure his potential successor was ready. He’d heard the Tsuchikage was quite some age now, so he was probably preparing to hand over the position as soon as he could. Though from what he had witnessed, he wasn’t quite sure if he could imagine Deidara in a position of authority.

“He was by the gates yesterday evening. We spoke briefly.” Sasori replied to them flatly.

“As expected of you! So, what’s his jutsu? And the rest of his team? They’re the grandchildren of the Third Tsuchikage, so they’ve gotta be really strong!” This had been the longest conversation between the three of them since they had become a team.

So they’re siblings, Sasori thought to himself. That would explain why they’re so close. Sasori had often wondered what it would have been like to have a sibling. The only family he had were Chiyo and Ebizo: the former only bothered interacting with him when it involved a mission or puppet commission, and the latter he barely even knew. He knew deep down that he worked better in solitude, so perhaps it was for the best.

“I don’t know.” Sasori tried to keep his responses as brief and emotionless as he could. He did not want to continue this conversation any longer than he had to, though admittedly he was interested in finding out more about the Iwagakure siblings.

This response must’ve come as a surprise to his teammates, as they both looked at each other in confusion and disappointment. Perhaps now they would finally drop the subject.

They were interrupted by the announcement yet again, now that the genin had settled down. Nobody seemed to mind Deidara’s interruption, aside from a few groans here and there. Probably because he was the Tsuchikage’s grandson, and nobody wanted to be the cause of relations breaking down between the five great nations.

“The first test… Is a written exam!” Sasori looked up in surprise. He certainly hadn’t expected a theory test, but this would work in his favor. He’d studied the books in the hidden sand extensively and had always received top marks on any test he was given back in Suna.

But the panicked noises behind him reminded him that this exam was sat in teams. He didn’t have much faith in his teammates ability to solve whatever test they were given. Sasori wracked his brain trying to think of a solution, which only took a moment. He glanced back at Deidara and his siblings out of curiosity, wondering how they would handle a written test – they didn’t strike him as the book smart types.

Sasori followed along as he and all the other chunin hopefuls were led into a Konoha classroom and handed the papers for the test. Opening the paper, he noted the questions to be a lot harder than he expected them to be. Not outside his ability level, but notably at a level above what would be handed to the average genin. Scanning the room, he could see a lot of the hopefuls had been struggling with the questions. But upon taking a closer look, he noticed several of the entrants had deployed cheating strategies. Some of the Konoha genin were using visual jutsus, and turning to Deidara’s team, he noticed a strange metal contraption attached to the eye hidden behind his hair that was likely helping him to copy the answers.

Sasori’s own teammates, however, looked entirely hopeless as they stared blankly at their papers. Must I do everything myself? Sasori thought to himself as he attached his chakra strings to their hands, controlling them to write out the correct answers. They both seemed surprised for a second, then relieved as they realised what he was doing. He had made the chakra threads extremely thin to ensure they would go undetected. To be fair, as far as “teamwork” meant, this was fairly minimal on his part. Still, this was only the first stage.

As the time passed, several of the genin teams were disqualified for cheating. Sasori had realised the test was more one of assessing one’s ability to gather intel than overall intelligence, though being able to solve the questions without cheating only made things easier for him. The Tsuchikage’s team looked confident as well, which made him feel oddly relieved. He did find them interesting to watch, admittedly.

After an hour, the exam ended. The majority of the teams had been disqualified, and the numbers had notably dwindled. There were now less than a hundred of them remaining, probably only around 60 or so. Sasori scanned the crowd, trying to discern who might be the biggest threats. The majority of the remaining genin were from Konoha, followed by Suna, though none of whom he recognized. Deidara, Kurotsuchi, and their their teammate – who he discovered was called Akatsuchi, had all made it through. This time, however, he made sure to stay well away from their line of sight, to avoid any more unnecessary attention.

And of course, his own “team” had made it through as well. They all stood together as they waited for the next stage to be announced. His teammates had returned to their constant stream of chatter, much to Sasori’s annoyance.

Once everyone had gathered, the next stage was announced. It was to take place in Konoha’s so-called “Forest of Death”, a competition of teams. Each team was handed one of a pair of scrolls, and they were given five days to acquire one of each and arrive safely at a building within the forest. They were told the test would be dangerous, with great risk of injury or death. Sasori simply nodded, disinterestedly. He was mostly concerned with having to watch his teammates. Perhaps the chakra string technique would work again? But keeping it up for five days continuously sounded both tedious and draining.

As they were led into to the forest, Sasori’s team was handed an earth scroll to look after. They were told not to look inside the scrolls, or else they would be instantly disqualified. He hoped his teammates would be able to follow this instruction.

Sasori had only seen a forest before in books, and though he had been prepared for it, the terrain was notably different to anything in the sand. More cover, places to hide. He could tell many of the genin around him were looking at him and the puppet bundle on his back with curiosity. Now that the numbers had dwindled so much, there was more of an element of trying to figure out who your competition was, especially now the next stage involved a combat element.

The teams waited to be released into the forest. Sasori’s teammates looked nervous – they obviously knew they were entirely reliant on him in order to proceed, or perhaps they were simply worried about the risks they’d been told about earlier. Scanning the crowd, Sasori noticed a mixture of those who were sizing up the competition like he was and those who looked apprehensive. And then he heard a loud, overly dramatic yawn.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I’m sure it’s very scary. Now please can we start already? It’s time I turned this forest into a work of art!” It was Deidara again, of course. Sasori wasn’t entirely sure what he was talking about, but he imagined they would find out soon.

The chunin exam proctor sighed. “Very well. Wait for your team’s number to be called, and then you may enter.” The gates to the forest creaked open.

The numbers were pulled out of a box one by one as they made their way in. Deidara’s team was one of the first to be called, which Sasori suspected was not a coincidence. His own team, on the other hand, was one of the last. This was not an advantageous position for them to be in at all, especially combined with the fact that they hardly looked threatening. They would look like easy targets.

One their number was finally called, he proceeded through the forest gates. His teammates were following close behind, watching his every move closely. They were still deep in conversation, infuriatingly.

“You’re giving away our location to the enemy.” Sasori kept the frustration out of his voice successfully, keeping his usual quiet, emotionless tone. Admittedly, Sasori himself already hardly blended in to the surroundings, with his large bundle of puppets strapped to his back and bright red hair clashing against the green and brown tones of the forest. But he could do without the constant background noise.

“Oh, my apologies!” They both fell silent. Finally.

Sasori quickly scouted the surrounding area, trying to figure out if there were any traps or shinobi lying in wait for them. It was seemingly clear – he had been careful to select an area of the forest he thought would be less populated, but not too out of the way that it would be undiscoverable. There was no point chasing scrolls on the first day, he’d thought. A five day test was one of endurance, and they had started at a disadvantage. No, his plan was something else: set up a base – with plenty of traps, of course – watch his team, and wait. They could use their scroll as bait if needed, but they already looked like a weak team, so it may not even be necessary. Besides, actively chasing other teams was risky when he had those two accompanying him.

He spent the next couple of hours setting up simple traps with his chakra threads. He took out a few poison vials he took with him from his workshop in Suna, and applied it to some of his kunai. Nothing especially deadly, but enough to keep someone from moving for several days. It might cause a fair amount of discomfort as well, he admitted, but there was no point devising an ineffective poison. His teammates were watching him in concern as he set up the traps around the nearby trees.

His puppets, however, he kept in their bundle. He did not want to give away all his cards this early in the game. Ideally, he intended to keep them until the final stage. Puppet masters were rare, even in the sand, and he didn’t think many had recognised him as the grandson of Chiyo of Sunagakure yet. He didn’t want anyone to start devising counters.

“It’s all set up. We can take turns keeping watch.” Sasori quietly turned to his two teammates. “Are you able to do that?” They both nodded and looked him with a serious expression. Sasori was only really giving this order to give them something to do, stop them from talking. He wasn’t intending to stop keeping watch at any time, both out of a lack of faith in his team’s ability and because he had no interest in resting or sleeping.

Sasori glanced over at the traps he had concealed within the trees, the darkness of the leaves and branches concealing the thin threads. He held their scroll in his hand and sat in position atop a large tree branch.

“And now, we wait.”

Chapter Text

They did not have to wait long for Sasori’s trap to be sprung. The light of the second day had not yet pierced through the trees – he estimated it must still be the early hours of the morning. A team of three shinobi had wandered into their area of the forest, evidently aiming to use the cover of night to sneak up on other teams. Likely they thought Sasori was an easy target; he had even feigned sleeping to lure them in. The minute they came in close – and they were stupid enough to go in for the attack all at once, Sasori’s chakra thread mechanism activated and they were hit by the poisoned kunai. It was a swift and straightforward trap.

The three shinobi were struck down instantly by the poison, and Sasori wasted no time in searching them for scrolls. He doubted the team was strong enough to acquire any more scrolls, but he hoped at least they had kept their own. Sasori noted the insignias on their headbands – they were from Suna. He didn’t think anyone from his own village was stupid enough to try and attack him head on, though admittedly there were many who disliked him.

While Sasori searched for the scroll, the three Suna shinobi had started to writhe and scream in pain as they lay on the forest floor. Sasori winced. The noise was piercing his ears. He’d used one of his weakest poisons – most of his would cause an instant death, or death within a few days at the very least. Even his other immobilising poisons would cause a great deal more pain than the one he’d just deployed. They’d be fine in a week. Still, Suna never had him prepare anything which was not effective. It was entirely pointless.

The screaming had woken up his two teammates with a shock. They looked over at the scene uncomfortably. Maybe they knew this team back from their time in Suna. Sasori found the scroll, and turned to them.

“We’re leaving. Let’s go.” he strapped his puppet bundle to his back and started to run through the forest. His teammates glanced back at the shinobi they’d left behind then continued after him.
Sasori was relieved to be out of earshot of the poisoned shinobi, though glancing at their scroll, it was the same as theirs – the Earth scroll. No matter, it would be simple enough to trap another team, or they could even trade if need be.

“Hey, um, Sasori? Are those guys back there going to be okay?” One of his teammates was looking at him worriedly, but unable to meet his eyes.

“They’ll be fine.” Sasori replied simply, no emotion in his voice. The response seemed to calm them down somewhat. “Now follow along. We’ll move to another region of the forest and rig more traps.” It wasn’t his preferred method of fighting – he didn’t like to sit around and wait – but it was effective and safer than any other option he could think of.

All of a sudden, there was a loud bang somewhere along the path. An explosion, probably someone setting off paper bombs. A lot of paper bombs, evidently, as the impact sent them flying backwards. Sasori steadied himself against a tree branch and used his chakra thread to catch the other two, keeping them concealed behind a large tree trunk. He glanced through the leaves to try and figure out what was going on, and was greeted by a storm of kunai. Sasori had been expecting this and ducked his head down into the leaves, however the kunai were not aimed towards him.

To his right, down the path they were headed, were the Iwagakure siblings. Kurotsuchi was leading an attack on another team who were following them right behind, using earth release to try and snipe them with spikes from underground. It was surprisingly advanced ninjutsu for a genin. Akatsuchi was next to her, blocking and deflecting the kunai which were thrown her way with a small earth release shield. He couldn’t see Deidara, but guessed he must have been the cause of the earlier explosion.

Their opponents were right ahead of them, a trio of weapons masters from the Mist. They were both agile and seemed to have no issue with fighting at range. One of their kunai had landed close to Sasori, and he had noticed that it was drenched in poison. The blades they wielded looked different to anything Sasori had seen back in the sand village, and they seemed well trained. The Mist shinobi slashed through Kurotsuchi’s earth spikes and she only just managed to jump back in time.

“Argh! Deidara! A little help would be appreciated, you know!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Deidara jumped down from a branch high up within the trees, outside of Sasori’s line of sight. As he flew through the air he made some hand signs, earth release just like Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi. Their opponents jumped up from the ground, clearly anticipating another ground spike attack like before. However, they were instead hit by a rain of explosives from the air, which knocked them back down to the ground with a bang. The hand signs had been a decoy. Clever, Sasori thought to himself.

“Well, that’s all done then, un.” Deidara pushed one of the Mist shinobi over nonchalantly. Probably looking for their scroll.

“Right. We just have to protect our scrolls until then. So we should be on the defensive, okay? No more reckless ambush attacks.” Kurotsuchi looked relieved as she dusted off her shinobi jacket. “We’ll find a nice and quiet area of the forest and avoid the other teams.”

Deidara, evidently finished with searching the first of the Mist shinobi, walked over to another and kicked him over. Kneeling down, he searched again for scrolls, and seemed to be successful this time.

“Hey! I got it! Looks to be the one we need as well, un!” he waved around an earth scroll in celebration.

Kurotsuchi looked over in concern. “Wait, Deidara…!” The Mist shinobi was somehow still conscious, and reached out his arm, jabbing Deidara in the arm with a small kunai, before collapsing yet again. Deidara pulled out the kunai casually and wandered off towards the rest of his team.

“Oh please, were you really worried about that desperate little attack?” Deidara didn’t even seem to register any pain. Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi both looked relieved. Despite their differences, the Iwa team seemed to genuinely care about each other. Probably because they’re family, Sasori thought to himself. It’s different.

Deidara threw the newly acquired scroll to Kurotsuchi. Sasori was eyeing the one that he was holding, the heaven scroll. The Iwa team was weakened and now would be a decent chance to catch them off guard. He might not even have had to reveal himself to them; he could simply swipe the scroll with his chakra threads. They weren’t exactly being careful with them. But he hesitated. It would’ve been easier if he were alone, without a burden of a team to look after.

At that moment, a powerful fire jutsu burst through the trees. Sasori leapt to find new cover at the tree that was shielding him was reduced to ashes. He hoped that he still managed to remain hidden within all the smoke and noise. He looked around for his two teammates, using his threads to pull them out of the way of a second blast just in time. One of them shot him a grateful look as he guided them deeper into the forest and away from the flames.

They were interrupted by a second jutsu, this time lightning. Perhaps from the same team, the lightning bolt tore through Sasori’s chakra threads. It was probably unintentional as was directed at the Iwa team beneath them, but it cut off his connection to his teammates as they disappeared further into the forest. The Iwagakure trio had managed to stick together up until this point, but a third burst of flame directed at them caused them to scatter in opposite directions.

The lightning user emerged from the tree cover and towards the Iwa siblings. They’d scattered in opposite directions by now, probably trying to split the enemy. Sasori noted his headband – a Konoha shinobi. Ignoring the other two, the Konoha genin pursued Deidara, who was circling through the forest. Deidara attempted to create distance between the pair, and fired off some of his small explosives to slow him down. Sasori noted that he seemed to be moving more slowly than before, however, and so the lightning user easily caught up to him.

The lightning attack should’ve been easy enough to evade – it wasn’t especially fast nor large, but for some reason Deidara seemed unable to move. He managed to twist to the side to avoid a serious impact, but the lightning struck his leg and he was frozen on the spot. Sasori could hear Kurotsuchi screaming out somewhere behind him, but another burst of flames forced her backwards. Akatsuchi caught up to her and followed – they had to leave their teammate behind. The heaven scroll was easily swiped and the konoha genin disappeared.

Sasori then emerged from his new hiding spot. He was entirely unscathed himself, minus losing his teammates, but he had time to find them again. They didn’t have any scrolls, so they were unlikely to be targeted, and hopefully they at least knew how to hide decently (though he did not count on it). He started to head in the direction he sent his teammates. Once he caught up with them, he would figure out their next step.

His trail of thought was interrupted by a quiet groan of pain from behind him. It was Deidara, who had not moved from the spot the lightning attack had hit him. The attack shouldn’t have been enough to cause serious damage, at least not on its own. Likely the kunai the Mist shinobi had struck him with earlier had also been poisoned. Instinctively, Sasori wandered over to him, keeping his footsteps quiet. This is pointless, he thought, I need to find my teammates.

By the time he reached Deidara, he had already fallen unconscious. He looked extremely pale, and both his leg wound and the mark on his arm from the kunai strike were bleeding, far more than they should have by this point. He’d be fine, eventually, but without treatment from a medical ninja, he would lose a lot of blood. Probably be out of commission for a while.

He should find his team before they got into trouble, but he couldn’t just leave this boy here, could he? After his grandmother (and some believed he had already surpassed her) Sasori was the most skilled medical ninja in Suna. From a glance, he already knew what poison the Mist shinobi had used on Deidara – it was a simple weakening one, easy to brew and even easier to create an antidote for, and he knew how to treat his wounds as well. It would be straightforward work for him.

Before he knew it, he had reached inside his bag for the antidotes he carried on him. He had a mixture which was close to what he needed. He then used a small amount of chakra to temporarily seal the wounds before he got to work. Scanning the nearby trees, he used his threads to move Deidara into a hollow tree trunk while he gathered the remaining herbs. Thankfully, the forest had the ones he needed in abundance, and he even gathered more to make some medicines which would help speed up the recovery process.

He spent the next couple of hours brewing the antidote and medicines for Deidara. What am I doing here? Sasori thought to himself in frustration. Deidara’s condition seemed to be getting worse, and there were still no signs of him waking up any time soon. Sasori brewed the antidote as swiftly as he could, applying some to his kunai wound and injecting the rest into his leg. After applying the antidote, Sasori tore one of the sleeves off his tunic and wrapped it tightly around Deidara’s leg as a makeshift bandage. Finally, he poured one vial of the medicine into his mouth, placing another two into one of Deidara’s bags. He’d done what he could now, and they were hidden from any other teams here, so he could safely leave Deidara here. He turned around and made his way back through the forest to find his teammates.

“Uhhh…” Sasori heard a faint mumble from the direction behind him. Startled, he picked up the pace. He wasn’t expecting him to wake up so quickly, but that would make things easier for him. No doubt he’d go off searching for his team sooner or later. And he should really have been finding his own before they got into any trouble.

Once he was a safe distance away, he took one final glance back before disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

Chapter Text

Deidara awoke to find himself lying within a hollow tree trunk. Strange, he thought, he didn’t remember falling asleep. He emerged from the shelter slowly. He could see the light of sunrise piercing through the trees. The last he remembered, it wasn’t even nightfall. Now he thought about it, what had happened the day before? He remembered fighting off another team, the ones who were throwing all the kunais – he grinned to himself when he remembered how he took out all three with his aerial explosions – but after that, his memory was hazy. Kurotsuchi and Akatsuki were nowhere to be seen, either. It was strange, but he also had an image in his mind of a flash of bright red hovering above him and vanishing.

Ah well, there was no use worrying about it now. He was probably just tired. He reached for his hip pouch and pulled out some clay, sculpting it between his hands. It had been a while since he’d done any sculpting – it had been hard to get any time to between Kurotsuchi’s constant complaining. She shared the view of all the others back in Iwagakure, that his art was a waste of time and took his attention away from his training as the next Tsuchikage. He knew Akatsuchi felt the same as well, he just didn’t have the temperament to pick a fight with him over it. Of course, none of them could do anything to deter him from creating his artwork. One day, they’d come to appreciate it.

He formed a small clay owl in his hands, admired it for a second, then threw it against a stone, watching it shatter beautifully into a hundreds of small pieces. The stone was like his home village: unwavering and unaffected by his art. One day, he would break it. When he was Tsuchikage, he’d reform the village to the point it would be unrecognisable. He grinned mischievously as he imagined it.

He sat atop a tree trunk for a while sculpting various clay animals, throwing them aside once completed. As much as he hated to admit it, art was better with an audience to appreciate it. Or at least someone to show his creations to. He should probably find Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi. There didn’t seem to be any sound of movement nearby, so he fired off a small explosive using his kekkai genkai. It was the most efficient method of alerting them of his location.

Not long after, Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi came running towards towards him. It had worked like a charm. They looked out of breath, so they’d either been in a fight or they’d been searching for him a while. Judging by the relieved looks on their faces, it was probably the latter.

“Big bro! You’re safe!” Kurotsuchi ran towards him and hugged him tightly. “You didn’t come back after that lightning attack, so we expected the worst and…” she turned and noticed the clay dust scattered all around him “oh, this is just typical of you! Don’t tell me you were just hanging around here making your art or whatever it is this whole time?” She pulled away again.

“Hey, calm down, Kurotsuchi. Deidara was probably taking some time to recover, that lightning jutsu looked pretty strong. Really, I’m just glad we’re still in the running. I thought we were done for after we got separated.” Akatsuchi was, as usual, trying to keep good relations between the team.

The mention of a lightning jutsu was causing Deidara to remember something. That’s right, they were attacked a second time. How did he escape from that one again? And he didn’t feel like he’d sustained an injury either. Strange.

“You should know by now that you don’t need to worry about me. There’s no opponent who can stand against my art, un!” Deidara stood up energetically. He was keen to get moving again.

But neither Kurotsuchi or Akatsuchi were paying attention to him. The former was rolling her eyes, but Akatsuchi’s gaze was focused on his leg.

“Wow, Deidara, I didn’t know you studied medical ninjutsu. You really healed that injury of yours well.” Akatsuchi was looking at him with admiration. This was new.
Deidara looked down in surprise to see a wound on his leg – once which had been very neatly wrapped in a black cloth he hadn’t seen before. He didn’t remember this, and it certainly was not his work. It smelled of an unfamiliar ointment, which he count detect over the scent of the forest and the lingering smoke from his recent explosion.

Kurotsuchi looked over with curiosity. “Deidara, treating an injury? I never thought I’d see the day! Wow, you’re really maturing, huh? Lord Tsuchikage’s gonna be so impressed!” She was smiling.

Well, this was just typical. A feeling of frustration rose within him. Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi liked to pretend and act as his siblings, and for the most part, they were raised as such, but they felt fundamentally different to him. To be honest, he didn’t really relate to anyone back in Iwa. The entire village – his two teammates included, was focused on strength, and capability as a shinobi. Nothing else mattered. He could make as many clay sculptures as he wanted, but they would all shatter against the stone without even making a dent.

When Deidara was very young, he had been personally selected and adopted by the Tsuchikage as his student and future successor, to be raised as his grandson alongside his two other grandchildren. He didn’t remember his parents – they had abandoned him when he was an infant once they’d found out he possessed a powerful kekkai genkai. They were probably afraid of him. But it was the same kekkai genkai which had granted him the attention of the old Tsuchikage, who desired to train him personally. Or, as much as he could between all the paperwork he had to sift through.

And so, he was given extensive shinobi training from Iwa’s strongest Jonin as well as on occasion, the Tsuchikage himself, who routinely checked in on and assessed his progress. There were also lessons on the history and politics of the five great nations to prepare him for when he’d take over the role, and his least favorite, the numerous lessons on the traditions and customs of Iwagakure itself (of which there were many). It was tedious, and though he did enjoy shinobi training somewhat, he wanted something more.

That was when he’d stumbled across a dusty old book in the Iwagakure library which spoke of “art” – creating something that was beautiful, to be admired. There were pictures drawn of the most beautiful ninjutsu’s the author had come across on his travels across the five great nations and smaller villages, with his personal views, ratings and notes on the sides of each one. Deidara was mesmerised. Creating jutsus to be beautiful as well as deadly, or even simply for the fun and beauty of the craft, was such a novel and exciting concept. And so, he had a goal of his own.

There wasn’t much by way of materials in Iwagakure – or at least, that he had access to. Access to workshops was restricted and only granted to those in kunai and other weapons production, and he had zero interest in using the stone which the village had in abundance (that stuff was ugly, and besides, he didn’t want to make anything which reminded him of the village).

Then one day, he came across a merchant who was travelling through the village. He sold a variety of different wares, but one in particular caught Deidara’s eye. A soft, white solid substance that was packaged in a small bag. Asking about it, he was told it was called “clay” and it was used to produce bowls, cups and other ceramic pieces. Without a second thought, Deidara spent his entire allowance (which was fairly generous as he was the Tsuchikage’s “grandson”) to buy the merchant’s entire stock.

He carried it all back to his room and spent many hours trying to sculpt it into shapes he’d seen in the picture books. Mostly animals, since he’d often seen them in the books and been fascinated by the variety in their features. Sculpting was far harder than he imagined, however, and his early works had all amounted to a misshapen, unrecognisable mess. He threw his latest creation against the wall and watched it smash into tiny pieces.

But as he watched pieces fall to the ground, he was surprised by how beautiful it was. They fell like a swift white snowfall over the floor, but the noise was different: loud and demanding attention. He grinned and threw another of his pieces at the wall, watching it shatter once more. This was definitely the most artistic thing he’d produced all day. He tried experimenting with the angle of his throws, the surface which the clay sculptures hit. He could produce different noises, different dispersions of clay shards. Moulding the clay into different shapes produced different results as well.

Before long, his whole room was covered in clay shards. He grinned as he sat in the centre, himself covered in clay pieces. The noise must have alerted the Tsuchikage, though, for he and a group of jonin had shortly afterwards stormed into his room. They thought he he’d been attacked, and were not please to discover the “mess” in his room. He tried to explain to them what he’d been doing, throwing a clay piece at the ceiling for a demonstration, but that seemed only to anger them. He was kicked out of his room and led to an Iwagakure customs lesson while they cleaned all traces of the clay from the room. They did not even try to understand or appreciate what they were missing. The only thing that mattered to them was the protecting the stupid village.

It was okay, though. Once he was the Tsuchikage, things would be different. The old village, with it’s pointless and outdated customs, would be long gone. And finally, people would recognise his talents. Besides, it was the ordeal of every artist to be misunderstood.

“Uhhh, hello? Deidara? You okay?” Kurotsuchi was waving in front of his eyes and poking the side of his head. He must have spaced out.

“Huh, yeah. Let’s go, un. Time to find more scrolls, yeah?”

Kurotsuchi was looking at him quizzically. “You sure you’re okay? You seem a little bit off. Is the pain affecting you?”

Deidara had forgotten about that entirely. He never had been especially responsive to pain, though lightning jutsus were the exception to this. But he hadn’t felt a thing. “No, no. It’s fine. Come on, the time is running out, and there’s no way I’m losing in this round!”

He didn’t really have any interest in becoming a chunin, but he’d heard that the final rounds were watched by an audience from across the five great nations, and there was no way he was missing out on an opportunity to show off his art to a crowd.

“Well, just don’t push yourself too hard, okay? We need to complete this task as a team if we are to proceed.” Akatsuchi followed them, concern in his voice.

“Yeah well I’m not a child and I can look after myself, un!” Deidara stormed ahead. This was starting to get annoying now.

Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi exchanged glances and then increased their pace to follow him. “We kept onto our Earth scroll that we took from that hidden Mist team we ran into earlier. But I’m guessing our heaven scroll was taken by that lightning style user who attacked you?”

Deidara looked inside his waist bags and groaned. Ugh. This was humiliating. “I was distracted, un. So we need to find a heaven scroll, then? That shouldn’t be hard, most of the teams here looked pretty weak.”

Kurotsuchi nodded. “Right. It’s still only the third day, but we should figure out some sort of plan.”

“Well that’s simple! Katsu!” Deidara grinned as he made the hand signs for his explosion release. The trees surrounding them were blown to smithereens, flattening the terrain and removing any potential tree or leaf cover that could be used to hide. “Lets’s go ambush some teams, un!”

Kurotsuchi shook her head, but she was smiling. She followed him into the newly created forest clearing “You never change, huh…”

“Well, that’s Deidara for you! To be fair to him, I think this strategy might just work in our favor.” Akatsuchi followed behind.

Deidara swept his hair away from his left eye, revealing the scope he wore underneath. He switched it on, and with the extended vision he was now granted, it didn’t take long for him to scout several teams. 3 from Konoha, 2 from Amegakure, 1 from Suna – or rather, two shinobi from Suna, he couldn’t make out the third teammate. They seemed to be running away to find new cover, probably spooked by his explosions. How pathetic.

The Suna headbands reminded him of the sand village boy he’d met when he arrived. Perhaps these were his teammates? He wondered how he had been getting on. If he wasn’t with his team, then perhaps something bad had happened to him. But he had got the feeling that the boy was stronger than he looked, so perhaps not.

“Who’s our target?” Kurotsuchi called out to him. Urgh, he was spacing out again.

He focused one more on scouting the area, trying to decide who would be the best (first) target. He used his scope to focus in on the teams, trying to read the designs on their scrolls. Then he noticed one of the Amegakure genin was twirling a heaven scroll in her hand. Heh, he smirked, running towards her team.

“Found one. This way!”

Chapter Text

Sasori hurried back through the trees, making as fast a pace as he could while also trying to keep himself silent and hidden. He’d rather not deal with another team at this point – while he could likely take on most opponents without any trouble, it would take up time.

As he was making his way through the trees, he heard a loud explosion fired off somewhere close to him. He’d avoided the blast, but he could see that many of the trees to his right had been obliterated or had started to collapse. Well, he thought, it would seem Deidara has made a good recovery. He veered to his left to avoid the newly created forest clearing while also making more of an effort to make his presence hidden.

He glanced over at the destroyed and collapsing trees with a twinge of sadness. He’d started to appreciate the beauty of the forest landscape – it was something they did not have back in Suna. The trees had been growing for decades, maybe even centuries, seen so many decades of shinobi. All for it to be gone in mere seconds. It was all rendered pointless in the end.

He snapped back to focus. Most likely the Iwa team would now be scouting for teams to pick off for scrolls, and he – travelling on his own – would be an easy target to pick. Why had he healed that boy again? It was completely against his best interests. Thankfully, a sound of distant explosions informed him that the Iwa team must have chosen a different target to pursue. With some luck, they hadn’t spotted him.

He turned his head to try and observe the distant battle while he ran through the forest, which was simpler to observe than most thanks to the abundance of explosions Deidara was firing off. More of the trees were collapsing in all directions as the Iwa trio seemed to be ambushing a trio who had set up a camp on the other side of the forest clearing. It appeared to be quite a one sided battle as the Iwa team had caught the other team – Sasori couldn’t quite make out the emblems on their headbands – completely off guard.

He turned his head more to focus on watching the outcome of the battle as he increased his pace, trying to figure out if the outcome of the battle was as he’d expected. But his view was disrupted as he collided head-first with another genin who was running towards him. He lost his balance and slipped off the tree branch and onto the forest floor, along with the other genin.

“Ugh…” Sasori rubbed his head and slowly got up. He was entirely unharmed, though the sound of explosions coming to an end informed him he’d missed watching the end of the Iwagakure trio’s fight.

“Wait, Sasori?” He looked up to find it was one of his two teammates he’d collided with. The other was standing nearby as well, looking similarly surprised. Well, this made things easier for him.

“Come, we need to get away from here and find a spot to set up traps. I have both of our scrolls, but we still require a heaven scroll to proceed.” Sasori did not want to waste any time on formalities, and now he had his team with him, it was time to get back on track before any more time was wasted. It was already well into the third day – half of their time had been used up. He headed back into the trees, away from the clearing.

“Well…” his teammates exchanged glances.

“What is it?” Sasori looked at them, slight frustration detectable in his tone.

To his surprise, one of his teammates was holding out a heaven scroll. Sasori looked at him in shock for a second before gesturing to him to keep it hidden. He was baffled. Had he underestimated his team? How could they possibly have defeated another team – without him, no less?

“Ah, you don’t need to look so surprised, you know. It really wasn’t anything special. You know that team of Mist shinobi that Iwa team defeated earlier? Well, they ran off without searching the third member of the group. After you got left behind, we ended up passing them again. Initially we just thought to search them to pick up some weapons or ninja tools to use to defend ourselves, and that’s when we found they’d had acquired a second heaven scroll. Just as well we went back, huh?”

Sasori simply looked dumbfounded. He hadn’t anticipated anything like this. He begun to reformulate a plan in his head. All they needed to do was survive the next two and a half days, defend their scrolls and reach the tower. It would still require some thought, but they were now in a much better position than before.

“How were things on your end? You were gone longer than we’d thought, so I imagine you must’ve been busy. Did you manage to acquire any more scrolls while we were separated?” His teammate glanced at the torn sleeve of Sasori’s tunic. “You fought with another team? Were you injured?”

“Of course not. I ran into a team on my way here, but they went down easily enough. I was merely slightly careless, that’s all. And no, they did not have any scrolls. Now let’s go before we attract the attention of any more teams.” Ugh, Sasori thought, he really did not want to explain himself to them. They seemed to buy into his bluff at the very least.

The three of them spent the rest of the daylight hours moving through the forest, never stopping for long. Sasori debated finding a new place to set up his traps – there wasn’t any need to seek out other teams at this stage, but he wanted to get far away from the new forest clearing and wherever the Iwa team were first. As night started to fall, he stopped them in a small, sheltered area on the edge of the forest where he hoped they were less likely to be disturbed. It was far from the building in the centre, but they had time to travel there when they needed to.

“We’ll stay here for the night. I’ll set up some traps in case anyone manages to find us. You two can rest if you want. But no fires.” Sasori reached into his bag and pulled out some kunai and poison vials.

His teammates looked exhausted, he thought. Probably because they had been moving all day without rest. He himself was slightly tired, admittedly. Ugh, he hated the feeling, of feeling – or showing – any kind of weakness. He reached inside his bag for a food pill then got to work.

It only took him a couple of hours to set up a complex web of traps around the area. They should be able to rest easy now. It had fully turned to night now, and his teammates were fast asleep. He climbed down from the trees and leaned against a tree stump, putting back unused vials of poison. He still had plenty left for whatever rounds lay ahead, more deadly and effective than the ones he’d used up until now.

Deep in focus, he almost didn’t notice one of his teammates quietly walk up and sit next next to him.

“Hey, uh, this is kinda awkward, but I needed to say it anyway. Thanks for helping us out back there, without you I’m not sure we would’ve walked away from that one, and definitely not unscathed.” Sasori looked at him blankly, not quite understanding the point to this conversation or where it was headed.

“We all know this team was only made to get you to promote to chunin, and I imagine it must be pretty irritating for you to have to watch out for us all the time. But I appreciate it.” His teammate smiled at him. It seemed to be warm and genuine.

“You know, I have a little brother around your age. His name is Komushi, though you probably haven’t seen him before. He’s always wanted to be a shinobi just like me and the rest of the family but well, he’s kinda hopeless, you know? Even moreso than me, if you can believe it.” He laughed.

“But well, he does his best, so look out for him where I can. Make sure he keeps out of trouble and any danger, since I don’t think anyone will be able to stop him from chasing his dream. I heard he finally managed to pass the academy exams recently, so he’ll be making his way up the ranks eventually. I realise this is a lot to ask, but do you think you could watch over him for me? I mean, if that’s okay. I’d do it myself, but well, I’m not sure I’d be of much use really…” He looked over at Sasori, probably expecting some sort of reaction from him, which he did not receive. “Ah, I’m so sorry! Ignore me, I’ll let you get back to what you were doing now.”

Sasori watched as he wandered off again. That was bizarre. But also, he felt a strange feeling of, was it anger? No, not quite. He was wondering, perhaps wishing, that he had someone to look out for him as well. But that was pointless, he thought, since he was more than strong enough to look after himself. So why did he feel like this?

It only took a moment for his teammate to fall back to sleep just like the other. Sasori found it surprising how quickly they could fall asleep, so carefree. They must have faith in his traps and probably knew that he was going to be keeping watch as well. Or perhaps they were simply tired. Either way, Sasori watched over disapprovingly. It had been several hours now. Were they on a real mission, a real team, they would have been woken up to take a guard shift by now.

It was a design flaw, being tired. It made you sloppy, less efficient, vulnerable to enemy attacks. It was something Sasori rarely felt, and whenever he did, he thought of how he would happily rid himself of the feeling entirely. Resting was pointless and inefficient, valuable time that could be dedicated to working on his puppets instead.

He rubbed his eyes then reached into his bag, continuing to reorganise and take stock of the remaining poisons. He should probably take his puppets out of the bundle and check if any maintenance was required, he thought. He hadn’t checked on them since he arrived.

But as he was sorting through his bag, he started blinking more rapidly. Had he been hit by an enemy poison? No, of course not, nobody had manage even to scratch him since the exams had started. He didn’t detect any jutsus either, or hear any sign of movement. He closed his eyes, just for second. It felt oddly calming.

He tried snapping his eyes open again, but he soon found himself closing them once more not long afterwards. He leaned against the tree stump. Fine, he thought to himself, I’ll close my eyes for a minute. The traps were all set up, a minute or two of “rest” wouldn’t hurt. He’d still have plenty of time to dedicate to maintaining his puppets. It wasn’t going to be for long, anyway. He thought about waking up his teammates, but he didn’t see the point in doing so for such a short time. Besides, it wasn’t like they’d be able to protect him if anything happened.

Sasori drowsily scanned the surrounding area once more before leaning backwards against the tree once more, drifting off almost instantly into a deep sleep.

Chapter Text

Sasori slowly opened his eyes, and shifted to his eyes. He felt something small press against him, and sat upright suddenly. That was close – he’d nearly crushed one of his poison vials which he’d left strewn around him.

It was then he noticed the daylight. Not even sunrise – or even the early morning hours, it was well into the day. Dammit, he thought to himself as he picked up his scattered poison vials, shoving them haphazardly into his bag. How long had he been out for?

He wandered over to find where he’d left his teammates – they were sat down on a log nearby and chatting together happily without a care in the world. They stared at him for a moment, exchanged glances and smiled.

“What is it?” He looked at them impatiently.

“Oh, erm, it’s nothing. Did you manage to get a good sleep? I mean, since this stage of the exam is drawing to the close, now is probably the best time to get some rest and recover your chakra, right?” Sasori detected a hint of amusement in his teammate’s voice.

“I’m ready to travel to the centre of the forest now, if that’s what you’re asking. We have only two days remaining now, it’s time we were on our way.” Sasori reached for his puppet bundle and strapped it to his back.

His teammates exchanged glances.

“Uhhh, we have a lot less than that now I think. Pretty sure it’s the early afternoon now.”

“Yeah, you were out for a while. We were debating whether to wake you up or not, but you seemed really exhausted, so we thought it better to leave you be.”

“Oh, um, by the way, you’ve uh, got some leaves in your hair.” his teammate gestured to him.

Sasori brushed the leaves away impassively and darted away into the forest. How did he manage to make that mistake? He should have been more careful, he couldn’t afford to sleep for so long. It was frustrating how much time he had lost. He wouldn’t have the chance to check on his puppets now until the end of the stage. Still, he couldn’t deny he felt a lot sharper than before. With some luck things would still work out.

They had less than a day and a half now to reach the central building and survive or avoid any skirmishes that might occur along the way. It shouldn’t be a problem, but it was still cutting it closer than Sasori would have liked. Especially when he had to look after the rest of his team, who were unsurprisingly lagging behind.

“Hurry up. Or I’ll have to control you with my chakra threads again, and I need to preserve my energy for dealing with enemy attacks.” Sasori turned back and called out to his team in his usual flat tone, albeit sounding slightly more snappy than he normally did.

His teammates picked up their pace, probably thinking it wasn’t wise to get on Sasori’s nerves at this moment. Ever since Sasori had reunited with them, he’d felt slightly… off. Or had it started before that? He tried to block out his concerns.

With the time running out in the second stage, all the teams who remained in fighting condition were likely to be making their way to the centre. It was an opportunity for those who had not gathered their scrolls to swipe them off other teams. They had to be careful.

Following Sasori’s instructions, the Suna team travelled through quieter parts of the forest, and successfully avoided any encounters at all during the first half of their journey. The route they were taking was longer than most, and so it was less popular with rival teams. Every so often they would come across a clearing, almost certainly created by Deidara from the Iwagakure team, which would force him to change routes.

With their time running out, the building in the centre grew closer. They’d nearly made it now. Sasori could sense teams all around them, some had already engaged in battle. A few teams had made it to the building already, including the Konoha team that had fought Deidara’s earlier. It was time they made their move.

“Wait for my signal.” Sasori whispered to his team. “And then we move.”

He was watching to pick a time when as many teams were distracted as possible before they made their way inside. With some luck, they’d have made it through the round without a proper fight. But just as they were about to reach the entrance to the building, a team of Konoha shinobi approached from above. In all the commotion of the fights surrounding them, Sasori had detected their presence too late. One attacked his teammates with a fire jutsu while another leapt forward, attempting to grab hold of the scrolls Sasori was guarding.

Sasori tried to think on his feet, but he struggled to both control his teammates to avoid the jutsu and avoid the shinobi targeting him simultaneously. He tried to decide which to prioritise, but without both his team and the scrolls, they would fail.

Just as the shinobi reached to grab the scrolls, Sasori used his threads to throw them to his teammates, controlling them away from the jutsu. The konoha shinobi team did not seem to have figured out what he was doing – probably unfamiliar with the puppet masters of Suna. Sasori prepared to attack.

They were disrupted, however, by a large blast directly behind them, the impact of which had sent Sasori and his two teammates flying towards the central building. Sasori quickly used his chakra threads to steady himself against the door.

“Ugh…” One of Sasori’s teammates was rubbing his head, having not had quite as comfortable a landing. Thankfully, he had still managed to hold onto the scrolls.

“We made it! We actually made it!” The other had got up now, and had pushed open the door to the central building. The three made their way inside.

Scanning the room, it looked like three teams had made it in thus far. Two were from Konoha, including the team which had swiped Deidara’s heaven scroll earlier. Actually, upon closer inspection, he only spotted two members of that team. One, the lightning user, was tapping his foot impatiently, while a second, a girl that Sasori did not recognise, was attempting to calm him down. Seems he wasn’t the only one who was losing patience with his team, Sasori thought to himself.

The third was from the Hidden Mist. And judging by the explosion which had propelled them here, Sasori suspected they might be joined by a fifth team before long. Sasori turned in anticipation as the door was pushed open once more, but once the fifth team came into view, he could see that they wore the headbands of Suna. He didn’t recognise the genin in the team, though he didn’t bother to remember the majority of the shinobi in his village. They were about the same age as his own teammates, Sasori noted, so perhaps they knew each other.

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud explosion that blasted down the door. It was, unsurprisingly, the Iwa team who emerged from the rubble, as well as a Konoha genin who ran to join one of the waiting teams. Sasori could make out the silhouette of Deidara standing amidst the smoke and rubble. He certainly did like to make an entrance, however impractical his stunts would be in actual combat.

“Hey there! Good to see you made it as well!” Deidara greeted Sasori cheerfully as he made his way towards where the other teams had gathered.

Hmph, you only made it here because of me, Sasori thought to himself. But at the same time he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret his decisions back in the forest. This boy, he made things a bit more interesting. His way of doing things was so different to that of those in Suna. And it had all worked out in the end, regardless.

Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi were following behind, apologising for the destroyed door to the exam proctors. They, along with all the other teams, showed their scrolls to the waiting jonin to be granted permission to advance to the next stage of the exam.

Before long the duration of the second stage had been called. All in all, six teams had made it through to the third stage. The numbers had now dwindled to a point to which everyone who remained was scanning the competition and assessing who might be the biggest threat.

“For the third stage, we will be moving into individual battles. Starting immediately.” One of the Konoha jonin announced, leading the genin into a small arena within the building.

Some of the remaining entrants looked surprised, perhaps not expecting another battle so soon. Sasori, however, was quite glad he wouldn’t have to wait any longer for the next stage. It wasn’t like he’d sustained any injuries in the forest, or even used up much stamina. So he would be at an advantage. Some of the remaining genin were looking at him and his puppet bundle with curiosity, but it was extremely unlikely any would be able to figure out what he was hiding, let alone come up with a counter to it.

He looked up and down the line of remaining entrants – only 18 remained in total now. Sasori was relieved he no longer had to worry about the “teamwork” element, and instead let his mind wander as to who he would most want to face in a fight. The sand genin are probably the easiest matchup for me, he decided. After all, it was common knowledge back in the sand that he was the strongest amongst the genin. They might even withdraw out of fear of facing him.

That being said, they wouldn’t make for the most interesting of opponents. And there was a part of Sasori that wanted an opponent who would give him a bit more of a challenge, a chance to show off the capabilities of the new puppets he’d been working on. He thought for a moment about who would best fit that description, and found his mind drawn to the Iwagakure boy, Deidara. How would his puppets fare against the explosions?

“Matches will be determined randomly. Please wait on the side for your number to be called.” The genin were directed to stands on the side of the arena, eyes glued to a large screen which was to announce the matchups.

It didn’t take long for the first match to be announced – it was between one of the Suna genin and a Mist genin. They were evenly matched, and the fight was rather slow and uninteresting, though Sasori watched closely nonetheless. His teammates had gone to join the other Suna team, cheering on their fellow Sunagakure shinobi from the sidelines. Sasori used the opportunity to slip away from them and find a space to sit on his own.

While Sasori watched, he felt something small hit him on the head – it was a small clay sculpture, a bird of sorts this time. The sculpture dissolved into dust as he picked it up, just as the first. He looked around to see Deidara running towards him, teammates in tow just behind.
“You finding this match really boring too, un?” Deidara yawned loudly. Kurotsuchi gave a loud “shhhhh!” from behind him

“It’s good to study the fighting styles of your potential opponents.” Sasori replied simply. Though admittedly, Deidara did have a point.

“Yeah, yeah. This fight had no sense of art to it whatsoever, un. I was hoping, getting to see shinobi from other villages fight, I might be able to find some new inspiration.” Deidara continued, disappointment in his voice.

Sasori looked puzzled. This was now the second time he’d brought up this “art”. And this fight did not have it? He found it strangely intriguing.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘art’?” Sasori decided to ask him directly, to satisfy his curiosity.

Kurotsuchi shook her head and sighed loudly from behind. “Oh, now you’ve done it…”

Deidara looked blankly at him for a moment, then looked disappointed, before finally his face lit up with enthusiasm. It was quite the cycle to witness.

“Well you see, art is transient beauty, Creating that which is admired for its own sake, not just because it protects the village or whatever. It’s the blossoms that last only a moment before withering away. Like the clay sculptures I made you, un! And to be an artist is to devote yourself to the pursuit of the beauty of the moment!” Deidara’s speech was loud and passionate. Clearly it meant a lot to him.

Sasori tried to wrap his head around Deidara’s words. To create something just because it was beautiful? That was not something which had crossed his mind, but… Was that what his parent puppets had been for him? It’s not like they served much of a function in protecting the village. He’d made those entirely for himself. His grandmother and the village elders didn’t seem to care for them especially, so they had shut them away.

Nevertheless, though some had perhaps resonated with him, there was still something which bothered him about Deidara’s words.

“What’s the point in something which is lost in a moment?”

Chapter Text

“That which lasts forever has no meaning. Where’s the fun in eternity, un?”

It was strange. Sasori had never really considered himself to be especially philosophical, or even to have any sort of view on such matters at all. He had always been a rather apathetic individual. But Deidara’s words seemed to draw out an argumentative side of him he did not know existed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. That which is gone in an instant is valueless. Forgotten just as quickly as it disappears.” Why did this bother him so? ...And why was this debate strangely enjoyable?

They held this back and forth continuously for another fifteen minutes, though it felt like a fraction of the time. It might have been the longest conversation Sasori had ever had with another person, he’d realised.

Kurotsuchi was simply staring at them with her mouth wide open. Akatsuchi also looked completely dumbfounded

“Oh my god… There’s another one!?”

They were interrupted suddenly by the match in the arena coming to a conclusion. After a long, drawn out match, it had ended rather anticlimactically in a double knockout.

“See! I told you it was a snooze fest, un! No need to worry about “potential future opponents” there!” Deidara grinned.

Sasori gave a sigh of defeat. “You were right. Still, it always pays to be careful.”

“Oh, and you were totally paying attention the whole time, sand boy.” Deidara added sarcastically, earning him a glare from Sasori.

They were cut off by the announcement of the next match – Deidara was to fight one of his teammates from the sand village. Well, Sasori thought, this should be an easy fight for him.

“Hah, it’s about time I made my entrance!” Deidara’s loud voice rung through the arena as he leapt energetically from the stands, waving to Sasori and his Iwagakure teammates. Sasori’s own teammate also gave him a nod as he made his way down, albeit looking far less enthusiastic about it than the Iwagakure boy did. The rest of the Suna genin came over to rejoin Sasori and comment on the new match.

“Man, I’m glad it wasn’t me who had to fight the explosions kid. That jutsu does not look fun to deal with.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t hold back nor does he know when to quit either. You know they said that team were responsible for wiping out two of the teams single handedly back in the forest? Yeah, the Mist shinobi told me. Some of their classmates had to be retrieved from the forest.” Sasori looked over with interest. So Deidara was already gaining a reputation as one of the stronger contenders.

“You seemed to be hitting it off with the kid earlier, huh, Sasori? Did you manage to pick up on what his weakness might be?” They all turned their attention to him now. It was mildly annoying.

“Hmm…” Sasori avoided the question. In truth, he already had a fair few ideas for how to defeat the Iwagakure boy. But he wanted to keep them closely guarded for when he got the chance to fight against Deidara himself. He certainly did not feel like sharing them with the others from Suna.

“Hey, the match is starting!” Kurotsuchi butted in. It would seem she too did not want Sasori sharing any potential weaknesses her teammate might have.

Sasori turned to focus on the match below. Deidara looked cheerful and relaxed, completely carefree. He reached into the bags on his waist and pulled out some clay, creating one of those sculptures again, much to Sasori’s confusion. Was he not even attempting to win the match?

Deidara’s opponent was the one who had thanked Sasori for saving him before – Sasori still had not bothered to catch his name, or any of the Suna shinobi for that matter. Perhaps he’d ask about it later. Either way, the Suna genin hesitantly threw a kunai towards Deidara, maybe hoping to catch him off guard. It was a surprisingly bold move for him, Sasori thought. To be honest, he was expecting his teammates to throw their matches as soon as they’d discovered the exam was no longer team-based.

The kunai was thrown weakly, and Deidara simply swiped it away with his hand mid-sculpture.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt an artist while he is at work, un?” He was continuing to sculpt, well, whatever he was making. Sasori didn’t really understand it, but it certainly made for an interesting match.

A few moments later, Deidara’s sculptures were finished. He’d made a flock of clay birds which he threw around him. They flew upwards into the air before dissolving into a shimmery dust.

“This is my art! A fleeting flash of beauty, there for a moment and gone in an instant!” He exclaimed to the crowd, who were watching in pure bafflement. Sasori could hear Kurotsuchi’s loud groans next to him.

The sand genin were trying to prod Sasori for information as to what exactly they were witnessing, as if they expected him to know. Sasori didn’t entirely get it himself, but still, there was something mesmerising about the show that he did not quite understand. His eyes were fixated on the arena as the match continued.

After the initial show, the match progressed swiftly. Deidara reached into his waist bags again, this time reaching for his explosives, which he scattered all around him. His opponent was quickly overwhelmed, though Deidara seemed to be purposefully missing him with his strikes. Interesting, Sasori thought. He had thought earlier that Deidara’s explosions were chaotic and imprecise, but it seemed he had more of a method, a pattern and control to it than he originally thought.

Deidara used the cover of the explosion smoke to make his way towards his opponent. It was probably entirely unnecessary – this was barely a fight – yet there was a certain finesse to it that Sasori appreciated. His movements were carefully calculated so he disappeared entirely within the smoke, and once he reappeared, he was clutching a kunai with an explosive rigged to it at his opponent’s throat. Deidara raised his other hand to form a hand sign.

“N-No! Please, stop! I surrender!” The Sunagakure genin was pleading fearfully as he looked at the kunai pressing against his throat.

Deidara’s reaction was swift – he pushed his opponent to the ground and threw the kunai upwards, where it exploded in a small, yet strangely beautiful firework. He flicked his hair backwards in satisfaction.

“Deidara is the winner of this match!”

Sasori watched as he left the arena confidently. It had certainly been a complete landslide of a match – a good showing of his skills as a shinobi. If he were to keep it up, he should make chunin easily.

As Deidara returned to the stands, the next match was called. It was to be between one of the konoha genin whom Sasori did not recognise, and one of the hidden Mist genin. Sasori watched with attention, and the match was considerably closer than the one prior, yet somehow, it was also less interesting to him. He glanced over at Deidara, who upon returning to the stands, had immediately started sculpting more of his clay animals. He’d already lost interest in the match, it would seem.

Before long, the match concluded – the Mist shinobi had taken the victory – and the arena was cleared. Next was a match between the last of his teammates and the boy with the fire jutsu who he’d seen in the forest – a straightforward win for the konoha shinobi, though Sasori was surprised by how long his teammate had lasted through sheer willpower. Taking a closer look, the Konoha boy seemed very young, perhaps around the same age as Sasori himself. This along with his jet black hair led Sasori to believe he might belong to Konoha’s Uchiha clan.

Next was a Suna genin against Akatsuchi, a match which Akatsuchi took with ease. His laid-back attitude disguised a capable fighter, though he seemed to prefer playing defence and fighting in a team. Suna had a reputation of being the weakest of the five great nations thanks to its lack of resources, so Sasori was surprised that any genin teams from his village besides his had managed to make it this far.

A match between two Konoha genin followed. Sasori was beginning to get impatient – though as the numbers were dwindling, the list of his potential opponents was getting smaller. The ongoing match was an intense one, between the boy with the lightning jutsu who had injured Deidara and another boy of a similar age who seemed to specialise in taijutsu. The former, a silver-haired boy with confident eyes (a mask concealed much of his face) maintained an edge, and Sasori noted him as one of the stronger opponents in the tournament thus far. Though his opponent was putting up a decent fight, the silver-haired boy was avoiding each attack with relative ease.

Before long, the decisive strike had landed, and the silver-haired boy was declared the victor. There were cheers from the stands – he seemed to be quite popular with the jonin from Konoha.

“Yeah, well that’s to be expected of the son of the Leaf’s White Fang. He was one to watch from the start.” Sasori heard one of the Mist genin comment.

“Right. Him and the Tsuchikage’s grandkids are who I’d place my bets on. Especially the one with the explosions – I heard he’s been selected as the next Tsuchikage already!”

Sasori stayed silent, ears pricked up with curiosity. He must’ve successfully flown beneath the radar. Interesting.

The next match was between a suna genin and a konoha genin, a surprisingly close match that ended up being taken by the konoha genin in the end. With that defeat, Sasori was now the only remaining Sunagakure genin in the competition.

When his number was finally called, there were only two matches left in the competition. His opponent was to be a Mist shinobi, another who seemed to prefer the use of weapons and ninja tools. It wasn’t dissimilar to how he equipped his puppets, Sasori thought to himself as he made his way down to the arena.

From the stands, he could hear his two teammates cheering him on, much to his surprise – most would simply presume his victory, or did not care either way. Perhaps a mixture of both. And yet, their cheers were drowned out by that of another – the Iwagakure boy, Deidara’s. Sasori did not understand why he seemed to care. Either way, he tried to block out the noise so he could focus on his match.

The Mist shinobi he faced was skilled, but not without weakness. Sasori contemplated taking out his puppets, but he decided to hold off for now. He had a plan.

He took a pair of kunai out from his pouch and threw them at the his opponent, who deflected them easily with his blade. Sasori was expecting this, however. He’d attached thin chakra threads to the kunai, which had now latched onto his opponent’s sword. And now, Sasori was in control of his movements.

Sasori moved his hands carefully so not to attract any attention from his opponent, and used his threads to take control of the sword. At first, he let the match continue as it had previously, and dodged the strikes in graceful, quick movements. But as his opponent readied himself for another charge, Sasori decided to make his move. Raising his hands to pull the chakra threads, he changed the direction of the blade, pushing it downwards to dig into his feet.

The Mist shinobi was pinned to the spot as he yelped with pain. This had been easier than Sasori had expected. Sasori leapt backwards and pulled out another kunai, this time coated in poison. His opponent was attempting to pull the blade out, and Sasori’s hold on the chakra threads was weakening – he would have to be quick. He threw the kunai at the Mist shinobi’s neck, and though he managed to swerve in time to avoid a critical hit, the blade had still grazed him. And for Sasori’s poisons, that was all that was required.

The colour was swiftly drained from the face of the Mist shinobi, and he collapsed backwards. Medical shinobi teams from Konoha were rushed in to carry him out of the arena, and Sasori was declared the winner.

Sasori returned to the stands in silence. He could sense the atmosphere around him had changed; people were starting to perceive him differently. Fear, admiration, hesitation – the usual feeling he would instil in people back in Sunagakure. And yet…

“Hey, sand boy! Congratulations! That was a pretty cool trick you used back there, I’d like to learn it for myself, un.” Deidara greeted him in the same way as had before, entirely unfazed by what he had just witnessed.

“I… I’m not sure that would work…” Sasori had been expecting Deidara’s demeanour to shift just like the others had. After all, he’d just near fatally wounded a genin in a tournament match – the poison he used would kill the Hidden Mist genin within a week if an antidote was not given. Even Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, and his sand village teammates were looking at him differently. And yet, Deidara barely seemed to register it at all. It felt oddly comforting.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I was thinking it would work really well alongside my art, un. I could use it to manipulate the trajectory of my explosives…”

“Well, if you make it to the final round, I’ll show you how it works. You will make it there, yes? I want you to be my final opponent.”

Deidara turned towards him in surprise. Sasori himself wasn’t sure where that had come from – but he genuinely meant it. This boy was the one he most wanted to face. Against him, he would use the puppets he’d been hiding throughout the exam. He wondered, would it be a fighting style which Deidara would find “artistic”?

“Of course, un. You won’t be disappointed!”