Only the sound of wind remained in the cave.
Sasori sat alone in the deepest shadows, completely still.
The information about Sunagakure that had come as a bonus from an intelligence broker was pinched between his fingers. The edges of the paper had curled slightly from repeated rubbing.
All his attention was fixed on that single line.
"Granny Chiyo's health has been steadily deteriorating recently..."
Her health was steadily deteriorating.
Those few words seemed to possess some strange magic. They pierced the hard shell he had built with "eternity" and touched something long buried within.
His memories began rewinding beyond his control.
He remembered his childhood.
His grandmother, who always wore a stern expression and scolded him in a harsh tone.
Those callused, rough yet exceptionally warm hands had held his small fingers again and again, teaching him how to pour chakra into threads, how to give cold wooden puppets life.
"Sasori, keep the chakra even. Don't rush."
"Here, at the joint connections, you need the most flexible material to create the finest movements."
He also remembered the day the news came that his parents had died in battle.
Granny Chiyo had not cried. She had merely held him in silence and raised him alone.
She had always been so strict, stingy with every word of praise.
Yet whenever he was injured while practicing Puppet Technique, the flicker of heartache in her clouded eyes had never been successfully concealed.
All the details he had failed to understand as a child were now filled in by his memories.
Sasori slowly rose to his feet and walked over to the workbench scattered with parts.
He ignored the Energy Core fragments that represented the "future" and instead took out an exquisite black-lacquered wooden box from the bottom layer.
Opening the lid, he found