Crimson Sand Sasori

"Scrape... scrape... scrape..."

Late at night, on a beach along the coast of the Land of Fire, a dark mass slowly rose from the water. Accompanied by faint yet unpleasant sounds, it dragged itself onto the sand.

"The Land of Fire... truly is a hateful place."

The dark mass suddenly let out a long sigh. It was actually a person. Though its vague outline made it difficult to associate it with anything human, it was, in fact, a human being.

He had graduated from the Ninja Academy at seven, become a chunin at eight, and reached the level of an elite jonin by around fifteen. He then left the Sunagakure ninja village that had raised him. Several years ago, under conditions of utmost secrecy, he had killed the Third Kazekage, directly triggering the Third Shinobi World War.

That was right. This thing that could only be described with the unit "a lump" was Sunagakure's rogue ninja, the strongest puppeteer of the age—Sasori of the Red Sand.

Sasori and the Leaf had quite a history, too. His parents had died at the hands of the White Fang of the Leaf, and that incident had greatly influenced his growth.

At the very least, the moment Sasori set foot on the soil of the Land of Fire, a deep loathing welled up within him.

There were many things Sasori hated. He hated waiting, hated death, and naturally hated aging as well. For that reason, he had not hesitated to turn even his own body into a puppet. It was precisely because of this that he had successfully killed the Third Kazekage.

The Third Kazekage, hailed as the strongest Kazekage in history, had developed the peerless Iron Sand Technique based on Magnet Release. Yet in the end, he had still fallen to Sasori's immortal