Sasori of the Red Sand

Pain placed the corpse of Two-Tails Jinchūriki, Yugito Nii the ground.

"Alright, let's begin..."

He coldly swept his gaze over the Akatsuki members present and said indifferently.

"Why so slow?" Sasori of the Red Sand, standing on the index finger of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, said impatiently, "I still have new puppets to complete! Wasn't the Two-Tails Jinchūriki captured a long time ago?"

Sasori did not appear as the Hiruko —after the old one was shattered by Sakura Haruno's punch, he simply showed himself in his true form.

That is, that cute little boy look.

Because he had turned himself into a puppet, Scorpion's facial expression and eyes no longer changed, always maintaining a calm and composed demeanor, but his tone revealed his impatience.

Sasori of the Red Sand hates waiting for people the most.

"Because the Kumogakure Ninja sealed off the border and conducted a large-scale search, it took Kakuzu quite a while to bring back the Jinchūriki's body," Pain replied calmly, glancing at Sasori.

"Hmph," Hidan snorted coldly from the side, "It's all because of that Kakuzu guy, who insisted on using this corpse to claim the bounty for assassinating the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, which caused us to expose our whereabouts and almost get discovered by the Kumogakure Ninja!"

"Shut up, you idiot!"

Kakuzu glared at his partner with his murky eyes.

"Because of the recent frequent operations, Akatsuki's expenses have been huge, and there are already signs that their income is insufficient to cover their expenditures! As the member in charge of Akatsuki's finances, I must increase revenue and reduce expenditures, and not let any income slip by... Besides, the bounty for the Two-Tails Jinchūriki is a huge sum of money!"

"Is it because of such a stupid reason that you made me wait all this time for nothing?" Scorpion's eyes narrowed slightly.

A murderous aura quietly filled the enclosed space.

Scorpion's relationships with Kakuzu are quite bad, and one of the main reasons is that such things happen so frequently.

The more important reason is --

"I haven't settled the score with you for stealing Deidara's corpse from me last time..." Sasori said coldly, slowly raising his hand Chakra dangerously gathered. "Let's settle it all at once!"

Kakuzu turned his head, his yellowish eyes narrowed, and his gaze became cold and sinister.

"You only took Deidara's heart, how petty of you!" He sneered, mockingly adding, "Or are you tired of being an immortal puppet, fed up with living like this? If you want to die, then come and attack, you cowardly coward!"

Despite being an old ninja who had lived for over ninety years, Kakuzu still had a rather bad temper and could not tolerate provocation. He didn't care about the nominal camaraderie between Sasori and the rising star, and quietly lowered his hands, already gathering Chakra in preparation for battle.

They even planned to kill Scorpion on the spot.

--He's been coveting Sasori's heart, which can generate massive amounts of Chakra, for a long time.

This greedy gaze is the root cause of their irreconcilable conflict.

A civil war that has shaken the region is on the verge of breaking out.

The other members of Akatsuki stood silently to the side, watching the two fight indifferently, without making any attempt to stop them.

In the eyes of most members of Akatsuki, the people present probably didn't even qualify as "comrades," so they had no intention of stopping it. The fight between two scumbags with blood on their hands and countless murders was nothing more than a dog-eat-dog show, and it didn't matter who died.

At least in the hearts of Pain, Nan, and even Obito Uchiha, Hidan, or Uchiha Itachi, they all had clear goals, acting for a future, righteousness, or faith that were either false, ethereal, empty, foolish, or beautiful and dreamlike.

Killing and cruelty were merely their means, not killing for the sake of killing.

In this sense, their level and magnanimity are far superior to those two ninjas who only sought immortality for themselves.

The only person who considered the Akatsuki members as comrades died not long ago at the hands of Sakura Haruno.

"Enough!" Pain finally spoke up, stopping the fight between the two. "You're still members of the same organization, after all. Even if you don't consider each other comrades, don't behave so foolishly in front of me..."

The leader's reprimand made the two reluctantly stop their Ninjutsu they were preparing to unleash at any moment.

"Alright, I'll spare your life for now..." Kakuzu suppressed his anger and said with a stern face.

"Hmph!" Scorpion snorted coldly and withdrew his hands, which had been silently Hand Seals.

Even though he was almost indifferent to everything else, he still couldn't ignore Pain's will.

In recent years Sasori of the Red Sand has gradually come to realize the problem with turning himself into a puppet. The puppet's body is cold, so his mind has slowly become colder and colder, losing more and more of his humanity.

It is also increasingly losing its vitality.

Becoming a puppet may, to some extent, bring one closer to eternal life, but if a stone can live for millions or tens of millions of years, is such immortality meaningful?

No wonder the ancients forbade puppeteers from completely transforming themselves into puppets—he once thought this was foolish, but now Scorpion understands that it contained wisdom.

Scorpion gradually realized that his thinking was becoming more and more like that of a stone: he was not interested in anything, he no longer cared about anything, and his heart was like a dry, hard rock, without any ripples. Only fighting, fierce fighting, only things involving puppets, only recalling the scenes when he was a human, especially the scenes when his parents were alive, could stir up waves in his heart and make him feel like he was living as a human being.

Just like the fight with that girl before.

"What a pity."

Scorpion withdrew his hostile gaze.

He knew that this battle was impossible to fight no matter what.

This also means that an event that would have made him feel alive has been canceled.

Since his battle with that girl, Sasori had never encountered a suitable opponent who could excite him, nor had he felt the thrill of fighting on the edge of life and death, his heart pounding, for a long time. Kakuzu would have been a suitable opponent, but unfortunately, the circumstances were not right.

Pain's emotionless Rinnegan gazed at Sasori.

He vaguely sensed that Scorpion's emotions were off.

Sasori's Chakra remains vast and pure, but its texture changes year by year, becoming increasingly dry, cold, and lifeless.

Kakuzu right about one thing: Sasori's thinking was flawed—he wanted to die.

It's not suicide, the kind of suicide that leads to death; rather, it's that Scorpion gradually loses the meaning of life.

After the death of his noisy junior and partner, Sasori's life became much quieter, but also more desolate and lonely. Deidara used to shout that "Art is an Explosion," which Sasori had only found annoying and completely contrary to his eternal ideals. Now, however, Sasori was slowly beginning to understand him.

Like fireworks, after a violent explosion, it shatters into pieces, transforming into a dazzling and brilliant burst of light—isn't that incredibly beautiful?

He turned Deidara into a puppet and kept it by his side.

Deidara's fighting strength is an excellent supplement to Sasori, who suffered heavy losses after his battle with that girl.

However, on a deeper level, Sasori might have also wanted Deidara to witness him transform into a burst of fireworks during a fierce battle, leaving the world in a brilliant display.

Art, too, may not be eternal.

Rather, it is a fleeting beauty, like cherry blossoms in full bloom.

Pain, of course, could never have imagined that Sasori's inner world held such a complex and unpredictable nature. Even with the most powerful Eye of Reflection, one cannot see into a person's heart. He only discovered Sasori's problem through his keen intuition.

Pain did nothing, silently watching the two regain their composure and restraint.

"Before we begin, I have some terrible news to share..." He finally spoke after a long silence.

"Kisame Hoshigaki tragically sacrificed himself in the previous battle to seize the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki."

[First update.]