Seeing Yuzuru merely smile without answering, Chiyo and Sasori did not press the matter further.
Chiyo looked at Sasori without blinking.
There were far too many questions in her heart about this grandson of hers.
After a long silence, she finally could not hold back any longer. "Sasori, why did you choose to become a rogue ninja back then?"
As if he had long expected the question, Sasori answered calmly, "To research my puppets."
"Research puppets?"
Chiyo frowned. "You didn't need to defect from the village just to study puppetry."
"In the village, you had access to vast materials for reference. I could have answered your questions as well."
"How could you abandon the village for something like that?"
A faint smile appeared on Sasori's face. "I had already mastered Sunagakure's puppet techniques. Staying in the village would only have hindered me."
"What do you mean?" Chiyo grew even more confused. "Even if you were the most gifted puppet master in history, even if the village and I could no longer help you, we wouldn't have stood in your way."
"We would have," Sasori replied evenly, though a trace of madness flickered in his eyes.
"Because what I wanted to research…"
"Was Human Puppet technology."
Chiyo's pupils contracted sharply. "Human Puppets?"
Sasori's smile deepened slightly. "It's a technique that uses the human body as a template and transforms it into a puppet."
Hearing this, shock spread across Chiyo's face.
Though the grandson before her looked almost identical to the one in her memories, she realized she could no longer connect this person to the quiet, withdrawn child he once was.
Unable to bear it, she asked, "Sasori, why would you study something like that?"
Sasori smiled faintly. "Grandmother, don't you think humans are far too fragile?"
"Illness, injury, lifespan—countless factors threaten our lives."
"Sometimes, a single careless fall can cost a life."
"And even without sickness or disaster, a human life lasts no more than a mere hundred years."
"But Human Puppets are different."
His voice grew increasingly fervent. "Once I transform them, they can exist in this world forever."
"They won't decay. Eternal art!"
Chiyo's heart sank.
"So… the way you are now… is because…"
"That's right. I've already transformed myself into a Human Puppet."
"I am no longer bound by the weaknesses of the flesh, nor constrained by lifespan. I have become an eternal, undying work of art!"
Chiyo let out a long sigh, sorrow filling her face. "You still haven't escaped the shadow of your parents' deaths."
"Sasori, I neglected you too much. That's why you've become like this."
Sasori gave a soft snort. "This was my own choice. You don't need to make that face."
Chiyo took a deep breath, forcing herself to steady her emotions before asking the question that had weighed on her heart.
"The disappearance of the Third Kazekage… did it have anything to do with you?"
Now that Sasori had chosen to follow Yuzuru, there was no need to hide it any longer.
"I killed him before I left the village," he admitted plainly. "I turned his body into a Human Puppet."
"So it really was you…"
With his confession, Chiyo's final shred of hope vanished.
Back then, the timing of the Third Kazekage's disappearance and Sasori's departure had been too coincidental. She had long suspected the truth.
But once an investigation began, whether Sasori was guilty or not, Sunagakure would have pursued him with all its strength.
To protect her grandson, she had buried her suspicions deep in her heart.
She had never imagined her guess would prove correct.
It was Sasori who had killed the Third Kazekage.
"Grandmother, why are you making that face? The Third Kazekage became my greatest masterpiece. You should be happy for him."
Seeing the faintly crazed smile on Sasori's face, Chiyo forced a thin smile in return.
"I developed a forbidden technique," she said softly. "It's called One's Own Life Reincarnation."
"It's a powerful jutsu. I can use it to turn you back into a human."
Sasori's smile faded as he frowned. "Grandmother, I only came to catch up with you. Why are you trying to harm me?"
That single sentence stunned Chiyo into silence.
"Harm you? Do you intend to live like this forever? Neither human nor ghost?"
"Even if you no longer age or die like ordinary people, what meaning is there in that?"
"I'm doing this for your own good!"
Sasori snorted. "That's what I dislike most about you. You always claim it's for my sake, giving me things I never asked for."
"In the end, it's just your own self-satisfaction. And it only troubles me."
"I live with my parents every day now, researching puppet techniques. I couldn't be happier."
Chiyo had never imagined he would say such words.
Bitterness filled her heart. "Your parents… you mean those two puppets you made back then?"
Sasori shook his head. "Of course not. Puppets are puppets. My parents are my parents."
Seeing her confusion deepen, Sasori clapped his hands.
From beneath the desert sands, two coffins rose slowly into view.
When her son and daughter-in-law stepped out from within, Chiyo's eyes immediately filled with tears.
"You two… This is the Impure World Reincarnation!"
When Yuzuru attacked Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen had used that forbidden technique.
As one of Sunagakure's senior figures, Chiyo knew it well.
"Mother!"
Seeing the two people she had longed for reappear before her, tears streamed down her wrinkled face.
She trembled as she stepped forward and embraced them both.
"Mother, we already understand what happened. Dying from wounds on the battlefield is nothing unusual. We don't hate anyone. It's time for you to let go as well."
Chiyo let out a broken sob. "I was wrong. I was wrong. Because of the hatred in my heart, I caused so many people in the village to die…"
As she wept uncontrollably, Sasori's parents could only hold her silently, letting her release her emotions.
After a while, the sobbing gradually ceased. Chiyo's body no longer moved.
Sasori stepped forward and saw that she was gripping a kunai tightly in her hand. The blade had already pierced her heart.
"Grandmother…"
He sighed, bowed once toward Yuzuru, then departed with Chiyo and his parents.
Watching the somewhat dramatic scene, Yuzuru could not help but sigh.
In the original story, Sasori had died in the embrace of his parents' puppets.
Now… Chiyo had likewise died in the embrace of her son and daughter-in-law.
At the very least, this family of four had been reunited for a brief moment.