The cavern opened up at its far end, revealing an enormous space converted into an underground workshop before the three of them. Faintly glowing ore overhead provided illumination. The surrounding walls were covered with tools, blueprints, and biological tissue samples submerged in unidentified liquids. At the center stood a massive metal platform covered in precision instruments and pipes.
On the platform, Sasori of the Red Sands was not concealed within Hiruko. Instead, his unique cylindrical regenerative core, which retained the flesh of his younger self, floated inside a transparent container filled with nutrient solution. Countless chakra conduits extended from the container, connecting him to the platform and an unfinished new puppet atop it-a grotesque creation that combined biological muscle with a metal skeleton. He was absorbed in adjusting its parameters and seemed unsurprised by the three intruders.
"You're a little slower than I expected, visitors from Konoha." Sasori's voice emerged through a special device beside the container, metallic and rasping. "Did the toys along the way hold you up?"
"Sasori, this ends here!" Kankuro stepped forward, his voice filled with anger and sorrow. "Look at what you've done! You've turned yourself into something neither human nor monster, toying with lives and souls. Is this the art you've been pursuing?"
"Art?" A sneer crept into Sasori's voice. "Kankuro, you're still so narrow-minded. All those old fossils in Sunagakure taught you were rigid dogmas. True art is eternal beauty that transcends the fleeting nature of life! And you will never understand it."
He turned to Ling, his words carrying a researcher's scrutiny and fervor. "Especially you, Ling Hatake. Your power... that pure chakra, as though it could cleanse everything... you're the perfect research subject. Perhaps turning you into a puppet while preserving your consciousness, letting you witness yourself becoming part of my