The Land of Wind's coastline.
The setting sun slowly sank toward the horizon, its lingering glow still undimmed.
Orange-yellow light bathed the entire beach.
To be safe, Sasori of the Red Sands flew a little farther before gradually slowing down.
Sitting behind him, Deidara finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sasori, my man, who was that old woman back there? She was incredible."
Sasori did not answer. He simply stared out at the sea, lost in a daze.
He had thought losing his Performance of a Hundred Puppets would hurt terribly.
But now, he felt nothing at all.
Instead, the Father and Mother puppets Chiyo had used kept flashing through his mind.
Memories of the past surfaced one after another.
In the end, you never came back.
Sasori's eyes dimmed, then filled with hatred as he stared at the Third Kazekage Puppet beneath his feet.
It was all your fault. You had to start a war. Otherwise, my father and mother would have come home.
That old woman refused to tell me you were dead.
She just kept me waiting and waiting.
He remembered how his father had crouched down and patted his head before leaving on his last mission, saying, "When I come back, I'll bring you some fine steel from the Land of Iron so you can make the best puppet ever."
He had never finished that puppet.
"Sasori...?" It was the first time Deidara had ever seen Sasori remain in a daze for so long.
Worry crept onto his face.
"Ah..." Sasori's chakra briefly went haywire, and his body trembled, jolting him out of his memories.
Still a little slow to react, he said, "That was my grandmother, Chiyo."
"Your grandmother?"
Deidara had not noticed the conversation on that side of the battlefield earlier. Hearing this now