"Afraid? What a joke. Why would I be afraid?
Would I be afraid of a fight? Or would I be afraid of Konoha, afraid of that Konoha White Fang, Hatake Sakumo?
I'm not afraid of him!"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Sasori sat up straight and protested.
Mukai, sitting beside him, merely watched him calmly, his deep eyes seeming to see right through him.
Sasori stubbornly met Mukai's gaze, but it wasn't long before he gave in.
He kicked at the Iron Sand beneath his feet in frustration and said in a dejected voice:
"Mukai, I'm really not afraid of fighting. Really."
Mukai patted him on the shoulder before continuing:
"I know. I know you're not afraid of any fight.
You're Sasori, the greatest genius in Sunagakure. Even if you had to fight Hatake Sakumo right now, you wouldn't be afraid or back down.
I firmly believe that.
Besides, I'll fight alongside you, anytime!"
Sasori looked up at Mukai, who was serious, unsure why he had suddenly said that.
Mukai rested both hands behind his head and spoke firmly:
"But I know that, deep down, you're still afraid of going to Konoha.
You're afraid that Konoha's villagers live in the sunlight, that they, too, live and work in peace, love their village, and love their families.
You're afraid that the place you've hated for so long isn't a den of monstrous fiends,
that you'll no longer have anywhere to direct your hatred."
Sasori grabbed a handful of Iron Sand from beside him and clenched it tightly, but the fine grains still trickled through his fingers.
His silence showed that Mukai had put his innermost thoughts into words.
Mukai turned to look at Sasori's profile:
"Look me in the eyes before you answer, Sasori. Tell me, do you think Hatake Sakumo was born a demon?"
Sasori turned to Mukai, raising his voice considerably:
"He killed my parents!"
"Yes, he killed your parents.
But Sasori, that was during a war, a place where people fought to the death.
Both sides were enemy ninja.
So many ninja died in the Great Shinobi War. Whose parents were they?
And whose parents did they kill?"
As Mukai spoke, he sat up straight and looked down at his hands:
"Even the rogue ninja and Rain Ninja you and I killed on missions,
weren't they someone's sons? Or someone's parents?"
Mukai's questions left Sasori stumped.
He had never thought about it from that perspective.
In his world, this sorrow belonged to him alone.
If Mukai hadn't been guiding him all this time, he would have long since begun pursuing so-called eternity and making Human Puppets.
Mukai's voice was very calm, and every word seemed to be filled with power:
"Sasori, we're sitting here now, with the land of the Land of Wind beneath our feet.
To the east is the Land of Rain, where Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato live.
Farther east is the Land of Fire.
And north of the Land of Birds, which lies to our north, is the Land of Earth.
These countries, large and small, have been divided into different nations and villages by national borders and different ninja Forehead Protectors.
From the moment we were born inside those lines, we were taught to love the people inside them and hate those outside.
Whenever those daimyos and nobles thought it necessary, they would drive the ninja of their villages
across those lines to kill ninja who had likewise been taught to love their own villages and hate the others.
Do you think that's right?
With Hatake Sakumo and your parents who died, it was at least a confrontation between ninja.
But what about Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato?
They were just ordinary people forced into a war!
What did they do wrong?
To put it plainly, Hatake Sakumo is just like you and me, and the countless ninja who wear Forehead Protectors: a tool under those rules!
We're all victims of those rules!"
Sasori's voice was full of confusion and struggle:
"Are you saying...
Are you saying I shouldn't hate him?
Mukai, they were my parents!
Was their blood shed for nothing?"
Mukai shook his head firmly:
"No! You should hate him!
I feel the pain of losing both your parents, and no one can condemn your hatred or your pain.
Those are the purest feelings of being human, and proof that we live as people.
I would never try to make you forget that pain.
But Sasori, we can't remain trapped in it forever."
As Mukai spoke, he pointed toward the campfire in the distant oasis and the great pit dug out to build the deep water-storage well:
"Look at those places. They're full of ordinary people struggling to make a living, just like us.
They might toil all day and get only enough food to keep themselves fed.
These people are the silent majority of this world.
In Konoha, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and our Sunagakure, people like them are everywhere.
Your tragedy isn't the only one.
It's one of countless tragedies that keep repeating across this land.
Our true enemy has never been any particular tool,
not even Hatake Sakumo.
Our true enemy is the rule that forces parents to kill other people's parents!
It's the way of the world that makes all ninja hate and slaughter one another, creating one tragedy after another!
This world shouldn't be like this!"
This world shouldn't be like this!
Mukai's words seemed to carry a special power, even echoing through the air around them.
He rose from the ground, clenched his fist, and pounded it against his chest:
"These tragedies all come from the clash of those lofty wills!
They won't listen to ordinary people.
The rotten rules of this old era are what lie at the heart of every tragedy!
If we focus only on taking revenge on the tools that carry out their will, it'll be like searching for a mirage in a sea of sand!
We'll never find our way out of that blinding sea of sand!"
Mukai placed both hands on Sasori's shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes:
"Sasori, what we should do is change this desert!
Just like what we're doing now, diverting water from the Land of Rain to nourish the parched sea of sand.
And over in Moon Sake Town, which has suffered so much from the river's flooding, people can farm and brew sake in peace.
This is our first step toward changing the entire Shinobi World.
We'll use our mecha and our Ninjutsu to benefit this world, instead of being fixated on killing!
I once heard an ancient saying:
When poor, cultivate yourself; when successful, help the world.
We'll keep growing stronger, until we have the power to make a change and cut through these damn rules!
We must unite all those who share our beliefs, even if they come from countries that were once our enemies.
Sasori, let's work together to grow stronger, starting by changing the Land of Wind.
What we need to do isn't just build a waterway, but replace those rotten, outdated rules with the right ones.
This road will be very difficult, but I firmly believe we can do it!
We can make it so that everyone living in this world
has no distinction between high and low, and no meaningless internal strife.
From then on, they won't have to kill other people's parents or be killed by other people's parents.
We'll return this world to the way it was meant to be.
In my eyes, that is true art.
And it's something worth doing."