In the days that followed, Shaye's life remained immersed in intense yet orderly training and research. Chunin-level chakra gave him wings; his mastery of Wind and Earth nature transformations grew increasingly profound, while his initial exploration of Magnet Release showed him limitless possibilities. Every night, he continued using the Body Refining Furnace without fail, steadily reinforcing his foundation.
However, the ninja world would never cease its turmoil simply because of an individual's focus. A sudden piece of news, like a biting cold wind, swiftly swept through the major ninja villages and naturally reached Sunagakure in the Land of Wind.
Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, had committed suicide.
The news did not arrive through an official announcement. Instead, it spread rapidly among Sunagakure's ninja through secret channels and the mouths of wandering ninja, accompanied by all manner of unbelievable speculation and sighs.
At first, Shaye did not pay it much attention. What he knew of Konoha's White Fang came only from the occasional fear his father revealed, the dread in the old craftsmen's voices at the Maintenance Unit, and the fact that he had directly caused Sasori's parents' deaths. The death of a powerful enemy did not seem like a bad thing for Sunagakure.
He had even heard some Sunagakure ninja privately applauding, saying that justice had been done and their fallen comrades had finally been avenged.
That was until his next visit to the Chiyo Clan to seek guidance on Puppet Technique.
The atmosphere that day was clearly different. Elder Chiyo was not home, so Shaye went straight to Sasori's workshop. The workshop door was slightly ajar. No familiar, rhythmic sounds of carving or assembly came from within; there was only dead silence.
Shaye knocked, but there was no response. After hesitating for a moment, he gently pushed the door open.
Sasori was not at his workbench. Instead, he stood silently before the window with his back to the door, looking out at the sky shrouded in windblown sand. His back was drawn taut, like a cold stone, and an even more piercing chill than usual radiated from him.
"Senior Sasori?" Shaye called softly.
Sasori slowly turned around. There was still little expression on his face, but deep within his dark purple eyes churned an emotion Shaye had never seen before—something immensely complicated. It was not the satisfaction of avenging a great wrong, but a darker, more frenzied... emptiness and rage.
"You're here." Sasori's voice was terribly hoarse, as though he had not spoken for a long time, or as though he were suppressing a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Shaye keenly sensed that something was wrong and asked carefully, "Are you... all right?"
Rather than answering directly, Sasori stared fixedly at Shaye and suddenly asked, seemingly out of nowhere, "You've heard, haven't you? That man... is dead."
Shaye immediately understood that he meant White Fang and nodded. "Yes, I heard."
"Dead... Hahaha..." Sasori let out a strange, brief laugh devoid of any mirth. "He actually died just like that... Suicide? Because of ridiculous rumors and so-called 'rules'? How... absurd!"
His tone suddenly became agitated, his voice rising with an indescribable indignation and distortion.
"How could he die like that?! He should have died by my hand! Beneath the masterpieces I painstakingly created for him! His blood and screams should have been an offering to... But he actually escaped in such a way! This is an insult to me! A desecration of my parents' deaths!"
Sasori's emotions were nearly out of control. His chakra fluctuated unstably, making the parts on the workbench tremble slightly. Shaye watched him in silence, understanding at once. For Sasori, personally killing his enemy had been one of the great obsessions and pillars sustaining him. White Fang's suicide had not brought him relief. Instead, it had completely deprived him of his target for revenge, causing the hatred he had accumulated for years to lose its direction in an instant and become a destructive emptiness with nowhere to vent.
At that moment, Sasori's emotions abruptly shifted. His overwhelming hatred seemed to find a new outlet. His gaze became incomparably sinister, and his voice was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
"It was all because of that incompetent man! If not for his wrong command... if not for sending my parents on that certain-death mission... they never would have encountered White Fang! It was all his fault! He killed my parents! And now, even my right to revenge has been taken from me... Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!"
Shaye's heart tightened. He knew exactly who the "incompetent man" Sasori spoke of was—the supreme leader of Sunagakure, the Third Kazekage!
Sasori had actually transferred all his hatred from the dead White Fang completely onto the Third Kazekage!
This extreme and dangerous thought sent a chill through Shaye. Yet he did not try to persuade or refute him. He knew that Sasori was completely consumed by hatred at this moment; any words would be futile.
He merely stood there quietly, like a silent witness, watching this genius puppet master sink ever deeper into the vortex of hatred and walk an increasingly obsessive and dark path.
After venting for a while, Sasori seemed to have exhausted all his strength and turned back into that cold stone. He no longer paid Shaye any attention, merely waving a hand to signal him to leave. His back was filled with suffocating solitude and madness.
Shaye silently withdrew from the workshop and gently closed the door.
As he walked home, the wind wailed. Shaye felt somewhat heavy-hearted. White Fang's death was like toppling a domino; the chain reaction it triggered was quietly changing many people's fates.
He knew Sasori's resentment was not without cause. The Third Kazekage's decisions during the Second Shinobi War had indeed been controversial. But he also knew that such twisted hatred would ultimately drag even the one consumed by it into the abyss.
"Looks like the village will face no shortage of storms in the future." Shaye raised his head and looked toward Kazekage Rock, sighing inwardly.
A suffocating sense of an impending storm quietly spread through the wind and sand.
(End of Chapter)
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