Shota looked at the true figure of Sasori and felt genuinely surprised. Even though he already knew from the anime that Sasori had turned himself into a puppet, seeing it in person was still shocking.
The puppet master looked exactly like a young man in his early twenties. His skin was smooth, his red hair was perfectly neat, and there was not a single wrinkle or sign of aging on his face.
"You look younger than me? Do you have a secret to your beauty? Is it some specific skin cream? What would you recommend me?" Shota asked with wide eyes.
Shota imagined what the village ladies would say if they saw Sasori right now. They would probably forget all about his crimes and start asking for beauty tips instead.
Shota continued in a half-serious, half-joking tone. "I mean, come on, Sasori nii-san. I train every day, eat healthy, and still get sand in my hair and dark circles from missions. You just sit inside a puppet and look like you woke up from a perfect nap. Is it the lack of sunlight? Do you have a special oil? Teach me your ways, senior. I have a reputation to maintain as the cool Eraserhead of Suna. If the girls in the village see you looking like this, they will never look at me again."
The desert wind blew between them as Shota kept talking, trying to buy time as he thought of a plan."Seriously though, if this is what becoming a puppet does for your skin, maybe I should take notes. But only for the beauty part. Not the whole 'remove my heart and become emotionless' thing. And also you know turning that part into a wooden thing. That part sounds terrible for dating."
"How about I make you myself, annoying brat. A puppet. You would be immortal just like me," Sasori said coldly.
Shota's expression became serious for a moment. He looked straight at Sasori and replied in a calm, steady voice. "You asked me the same thing before you left the village and my answer is still the same. Nope."
He continued with sincerity. "Without a physical body, I would not be able to feel lazy and sleepy and then enjoy sleeping on the bed. That is one of the few things that make life worth living after tough missions. Feeling the softness of a real pillow, stretching under a warm blanket, and taking long naps when no one is watching. Those simple human pleasures would be gone forever if I became a puppet."
Shota then shifted to a lighter, funnier tone as he kept speaking. "And not to sound rude but I want to have a love life unlike you. I still dream about holding someone's hand, going on dates, and maybe even getting married one day. I cannot do any of that properly if I am made of wood and metal. Imagine trying to hug someone with these stiff puppet arms. It would be awkward and probably scare them away. Plus, I am a proud member of the Pakura fan club. How can I admire her properly if I do not even have a real heart that can race when I see her?"
He added, "I will stay human, feel tired, eat good food, sleep like a log, and chase my crush like a normal person. Immortality sounds nice on paper, but not if it means giving up afternoon naps. I would rather die old and wrinkly than live forever as a fancy doll."
"Well then, you can die," Sasori said without any emotion.
Two holes opened in the middle of Sasori's palms. Flames shot out like flamethrowers, burning everything in their path. Shota quickly used his binding cloth to create a strong shield in front of him. The intense heat still pushed him back. When the flames did not stop coming, he had no choice but to body flicker away to a safer distance. The sand where he had been standing turned into glass from the extreme temperature.
Shota looked at the four scrolls on Sasori's back and realized one of them was responsible for the flames. He knew what three of the scrolls were used for from the anime.
The scroll Sasori had used was the fire scroll. It was essentially a storage scroll filled with flames that Sasori could release at high pressure from his palms almost endlessly without any hand signs or much chakra expenditure. The second scroll contained water and worked the same way. The third scroll stored numerous puppets for the Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets.
'I do not know about the fourth scroll. It could be just lightning or wind but my bet is on some other puppet that Sasori nii-san treasures too much to bring it out,' Shota thought.
If there was one thing Shota was sure of, it was that he might be a genius, but compared to Sasori, he might as well be a lake compared to Sasori's ocean.
People thought that the Fourth Hokage was the most talented shinobi out there. But if it were up to Shota, he would say Sasori was more talented than him. While people saw him only as a master of puppetry, they forgot that he was also a master of fuinjutsu.
If Shota was being honest, he would say that Sasori's fuinjutsu was at the level of Jiraiya or Minato if not better. He could create human puppets with their kekkei genkai using his fuinjutsu. The scrolls were another proof of this. Endless fire and water could be used without any chakra expenditure or hand signs. If that was not genius, then what was?
Shota knew that in the anime Sasori had not even gone all out. He had seen what the man was truly capable of. And he knew that despite all that, Sasori would not go all out against his Chiyo baa-san.
'And that is why whatever is in the fourth scroll, it is his trump card,' Shota thought. 'Let us hope he does not use it against me. This is already a bad match up for me.'
Shota had again tried to use Erasure on Sasori after destroying the puppet that was covering him. He had thought that by destroying Hiruko his Erasure would start working but it seemed that Sasori was even prepared for that eventuality.
The only living part of him, the one that contained his heart, was sealed in a special container and thus his Erasure was not working. With the rest of his body being not a living thing, Erasure had no effect at all.
'He is already going easy against me as he had just used two of his crappy puppets. I know that he is still that softy despite how he is behaving. Now I must ensure that I continue to keep him on his toes because if he gets bored, he might just go for the kill,' Shota thought.
--------Author Notes---------
I have decided to increase the number of extra chapters on patreon from 15 to 20. Thankyou.
Y'all can now read the next 20 chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon.
https://pat*reon.com/Charizard6
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