"Click, click, click..."
"Click, click, click..."
The sound of joints turning rang out without pause.
Yet Sasori held the puppet in an enraptured embrace.
This was the first masterpiece Sasori had painstakingly created under Yanbai, a vessel for all his devotion and fantasies.
Originally, Sasori had regarded it as his child, his most beloved child.
Sasori had lacked both a father's and a mother's love since childhood.
His parents existed only in his imagination.
Once, Sasori had even fantasized about staying with Yanbai, loving and caring for each other, quietly living out their days together.
Not as spouses, nor as mother and son, but as family without any particular label.
Attending Yanbai's family dinners, eating the delicious food Yanbai made, having nothing to worry about each day beyond eating and sleeping, with none of the village's irritating missions, only the work he loved, and no need to socialize with anyone...
To Sasori, wasn't that happiness?
Compared with his grandmother Chiyo, who devoted herself to struggles for power and advantage, Yanbai seemed to make up for the parental love Sasori had lacked since childhood, and even the family affection that had long since dried up.
Sasori knew his contract with Yanbai would expire sooner or later.
What would he do if Yanbai no longer needed him then?
So, during that time, Sasori always carefully set aside a few materials as he worked each day.
He hoped to make another puppet before the one-year term was up, a puppet with Yanbai's face.
However, Konoha's division of labor was far too meticulous.
Exactly how much material went into each part was clearly recorded, and Shikaku Nara was even more sensitive to numbers.
It was too dangerous to pull something like that right under Yanbai's nose.
Even though the workshop was enclosed so tightly