35 Grieving

[AN: Double chapter coming right up!]

"You've become even more skilled with puppetry since the last time I saw you," Chiyo remarked, breaking the peaceful silence. She observed him from a nearby log as he was doing some upgrades on one of his golden spider legs.

"I've learned from the best after all. You and Ishito Sensei are pretty good teachers."

Chiyo chuckled softly. "I'm glad to see my knowledge being put to such good use. But remember, puppetry is not just about the mechanics; it's about understanding the art of surprise and manipulation. Simply creating powerful puppets is not enough, you have to have the mind to use it too."

Souei nodded, while slightly rolling his eyes. It wasn't the first time that the older woman imparted the lesson. "Yes yes, I know Aunt Chiyo. That was the first lesson you taught me, apart from creating chakra strings of course."

He didn't know how long he sat there. Hugging her body close, feeling the heat slowly cooling off and her blood drenching his entire body. This was the first time he had ever witnessed the death of a loved one.

"Come now, Souei, don't be so upset. After all, I have many years on you in the art of warfare." the old woman said, dodging a ball of sand. It was a tradition of the people of Suna to play  sandball fight, a compromise made by villagers when snow very rarely hits their village.

"Shut up! I won't lose to you again, Aunt Chiyo! Now take this!", his arms began to blur as he threw sandball after sandball at the older woman hiding behind her sand fort. He began to pant, getting tired at the activity, when he suddenly felt an impact from behind and grains of sand run down his back. 

"AH!" He turned around, glaring at his grinning aunt who began to run away. "Damn it, get back here!" Chiyo turned her head around, berating the young boy as she continued to grin.

"Language, Souei!"

He looked at her face, a small smile gracing her bloodied face. She looked peaceful, and at the very least, he could find solace in the fact that she died with no regrets.

At first, he felt intense rage more than anything else. But as she breathed her last, all he could feel was a sense of hollowness and emptiness.

He tried so hard. So hard to try to prevent this. But in the end, all his efforts were for naught.

"You remind me so much of your father." She said with a voice tinged with nostalgia. "He had a unique talent for puppetry as well."

Souei looked at her curiously, "Can you tell me more about him? I've heard a few stories from some older ninja and the elders of the clan. But I'd rather hear them from you."

Chiyo's face took on a warm expression as she began to recount tales of her brother, Souei's father.

"Like you, your father was very creative with puppet design. He created the most unconventional puppets and would use the weirdest and wildest ideas and implement them into his creation." She then told him of his unwavering dedication to the village, and his kindness to those in need. As she spoke, Souei listened with rapt attention, hanging on to every word.

"He would have been proud of the shinobi you've become," Chiyo concluded. "You carry his legacy with honor."

Tears threatened to spill from Souei's eyes as he heard those words, he was quiet for a moment before he replied with gratitude. "Thank you, Aunt Chiyo."

After a few minutes that felt like hours, Souei snapped himself out of his funk.

'Snap out of it. You can mourn later. Remember your training.'

He immediately secured the two scrolls that she told him about. A small percent of him was curious about the scroll that had the forbidden jutsu, but he held himself back due to Chiyo's wishes.

He put both inside his weapon pouches before he laid her body on the ground. Offering one last prayer to the woman who had raised him all his life, Souei took a deep breath before breathing out intense flames that burned her body till there was nothing left.

But he made sure to keep the bracelet that she always wore as a keepsake. To have something to remember her by.

Now then, it was time to move. With his emotions temporarily locked away in a box at the very depths of his mind, he started to plan his next step.

When he escaped with Aunt Chiyo from the fight, he was forced to run towards the direction of the lands of Amegakure. He had gone back to the surface when he noticed that it was clear and to his surprise, they were within the borders of the hidden village itself.

He found an abandoned house that they could use for shelter and that was where he took Aunt Chiyo to attempt to heal her injuries.

Right now, he's still running low on chakra. He had used too much in the past twenty four hours trying to futilely nurse her to health. He knows he'll feel the side effects of his soldier pill overdose pretty soon, which means he needs to decide on how to get back to camp alive as soon as possible.

That was when he remembered one bit of information from his talk with Rasa a few days ago. Or was it a week? He honestly couldn't tell. His sense of time had been skewered after spending a long time underground.

Rasa had mentioned that the Kazekage had led an excursion towards Amegakure. But he didn't know if they're still in the area or if they had returned back to camp. But it seems they're the only chance he has if he's to survive this.

Souei let out a sigh of exhaustion. He felt drained, he knows he probably looks disheveled as hell right now. His clothes were torn and covered in ash and soot, his hair dirtied with mud and he had lost his forehead protector sometime ago when he fought Roshi.

With him being way behind enemy lines, severely depleted supplies, and a body that could drop in exhaustion quite literally any second now, it's not like he has any other choice.

So with a steeled heart and determination, he left the house and ran forth.

.

.

To Sasori, the war so far had been pretty underwhelming.

On one hand, he did get his first kill a few weeks ago when his team had been sent to subjugate a group of bandits that had been harassing a small town. The bandits have believed that with the war currently happening, the Sand Village would have its hands full and now is the time for them to run amok.

What idiots.

Sasori and his team had been doing a pretty good job, all things considered. And he admits that the team he was put in wasn't that bad. Yashamaru was kind, he wasn't shy to smile at people and was a genuinely good person to be around. It helped that he was also really skilled.

Yashamaru was not only a medical ninja in training, but also had chakra control so polished that he could manipulate chakra blades and guide them.

Komushi stayed as determined as ever. Despite being relatively unskilled in most of the shinobi arts, he was a good ally to have watching your back.

No, his real problem came in the form of his sensei. Jonin Yura definitely had skills equal to station. But that was just it, he was painfully ordinary. There was nothing about him that made him unique or special at all.

But at the very least, he's learning plenty of new stuff from his sensei. Just around a month ago, he had learned how to walk on vertical surfaces. But then again, that was just it. Yura was only capable of teaching them the most basic stuff a shinobi could learn. There were no unique jutsu's that he could pass down onto his students.

So instead, Sasori just dove deep into puppet creation. It was the prized shinobi art of his clan after all. He had already even created a few puppets of his own. Kuroari and Karasu. They were humanoid like puppets, each with its own unique set of abilities. They paled in comparison to what Grandma Chiyo or Brother Souei could create, but it was a start.

Ideally he'd have either of them to help him out, but he hasn't seen them since the start of the war.

Still, it's fine. He can figure it out himself. He's a genius after all.

He and his team had just returned to the village a few days ago. They had just finished another mission of sending supplies to an operating base pretty close to the borders of the Land of Wind.

It was the closest he had ever been to the war, and considering how everything is going, most likely the closest he'll ever get to it.

Yura-sensei told them that they were gonna stay in the village for a while to take a break before going to another mission.

So here he was, in one of the training fields of Sunagakure, working on fine-tuning one of his puppets, using a large flat rock as a table.

"So Sasori, do you think we'll be going to the frontlines any time soon?" Komushi asked while going through different katas of his taijutsu style.

It was Yashamaru, who was throwing kunai at a nearby target, who answered. "I doubt it, Komushi. Even if it's been a few months since the war started, we're still just fresh graduates. Besides, my sister told me we were lucky since the Kazekage didn't like the idea of using inexperienced genin as meat shields. Unlike some of the other ninja villages."

"Oh that's right! You have a sister don't you, Yashamaru? Is she fighting in the war?"

The sandy haired genin replied. "Yep! My sister Karura is a chunin now, working under Chiyo-sama in her platoon. Last I heard she was in the Land of Rain."

"Man…It must be nice being out there, fighting the good fight, kicking ass and taking names. I can't wait till I get stronger so I can show them all who's boss!" Komushi said as he pumped his fist high in the sky.

Sasori nearly smiled hearing the other boy's ambitions. "I agree with Yashamaru. My grandma told me that our batch of genin will stick close to the village and handle everything on this side of the border. Didn't you remember what Yura-sensei said? Our job is equally as important because if we aren't here, then the ones fighting in the frontlines will always worry about what's going on in the village. This way, us genin gain the experience needed as ninja, and the ones in the frontlines can fight with nothing burdening their minds."

"Yea yea, I know I know. Sheesh always with the lecture, I'm not that dumb y'know!" Komushi remarked with a raised voice.

"Could've fooled me." Sasori said quietly.

"Hey!"

Yashamaru was simply laughing at the interaction before they were interrupted by a large booming sound.

A sudden explosion rocked the entire village as a marketplace at the village center burst into flames. Another explosion came in the direction of the village park, and even the guard station near the village gates wasn't spared.

Screams could be heard by the citizens of the village as they immediately ran for cover. Their previous banter forgotten, the trio of Genin immediately moved to help as they all ran towards the location of the explosion.

"What's going on?!" He could barely hear Komushi's voice through the loud ringing of the flames and the panic of the people.

"Is the village under attack?" Yashamaru asked as they ran towards the marketplace as it was the closest to their location.

Sasori remained quiet as they finally arrived, and it looked like a bloody nightmare. The people who were caught off guard died instantly, as Sasori could see the charred up bodies of the people who had been in the area when the explosion had hit.

He could already see a bunch of other Sand ninja already helping the people who were injured, getting them out of the burning buildings.

He followed their example as he raised both arms, Kuroari and Karasu moving forth, connected to his hands by chakra strings as they helped out a man who was trapped beneath rubble.

Komushi and Yashamaru also doing their best to pull out the injured from the wreckage of nearby buildings, Sasori even saw from the corner of his eye a bunch of Anbu move through the rooftops, no doubt to ascertain the reasons of the sudden attack.

They continued to help out, and after what felt like five minutes, they finally managed to evacuate all citizens in the area. Now that only left the still burning buildings.

"Hey! You three!" A nearby Suna Jonin called out to him and his team. "We have everything here handled now! Get to the rest of the places that were attacked and help them out! They need more manpower!"

Sasori nodded before jumping over the rooftops, followed by Yashamaru and Komushi. They were halfway through their journey towards the park when the sound of combat filled the air.

"What's that?!" Komushi's cry was ignored as they all went to investigate. On the streets, Suna Anbu was engaging in combat with blank masked ninja as they battle furiously below the building they were on.

"Is that enemy ninja? How the hell did they get into the village?"

"Doesn't matter. We fight and we fight to kill." Sasori said with a cold voice as he sent both puppets forwards.

He sent Kuroari, who had a barrel-like body sporting a bucket-shaped face with two sharp red horns and six arms, towards a masked shinobi with a cloak covering his body. Two scythes then appeared out of its torso as it pierced the shinobi in the back, surprising the combatants in the fight.

Recognizing the puppet as a Suna make, the anbu who was fighting the cloaked ninja didn't hesitate and immediately decapitated his enemy with his tanto.

Komushi and Yashamaru didn't stay idle too, as they expertly threw shuriken and kunai towards the masked ninja, aiding their allies. Yashamaru, who was much more versed in shurikenjutsu, proved his prowess as every projectile he threw met its mark.

"You three! Below you!" The anbu that Sasori had helped, who was apparently a sensor, cried out in warning towards them.

However, the genin trio on the rooftop were a little too late as the ground beneath them exploded and forced them to scatter.

"Oof!" Sasori landed unceremoniously on the ground, the sand luckily cushioning his fall. His two puppets landed beside him, cluttering and slightly singed from the force of the explosion.

Sasori was too disoriented to notice when another of the masked ninja flickered a few feet in front of him and ran towards with a sword raised in the air.

"Sasori! Watch out!" He felt arms pushing him to the side as he looked back to see Komushi, with his face scrunched up in pain as the arm that he used to push Sasori out of the way was cut off directly beneath the elbow.

Sasori's eyes widened in shock at the sight of his best friend, injured because of him. "Komushi!"

He didn't have time to do anything as he felt a kick connect to his abdomen, courtesy of the same masked ninja. His back hit a wall as the air was ejected out of his lungs. "Ack!"

Yashamaru immediately dashed in, his eyes eyed in anger as five metal kunai floated in the air beside him as he engaged the ninja in combat.

Sasori knew he had to help his teammate, so he sent both puppets forward. The scythes coming out of Kuroari's chest as Karasu shot forwards a barrage of senbon needles.

Seeing Sasori's attack, Yashamaru disengaged as he dodged back, the barrage of senbon peppering the ninja in the back. The poison within them slowing him down enough for Kuroari to pierce the ninja in the heart with his scythes.

As the battle between the Anbu and masked ninja raged on around them, Sasori and Yashamaru immediately ran towards Komushi who had passed out from the pain, his right arm still bleeding profusely.

_________________________________________

AN: Souei sure can't catch a break, could he? I hoped you liked that small section where Souei remembered the moments he shared with Chiyo.

We also get to see what Sasori's been up to since the war started. But yet again, not everything seems to be going well. Wonder who that is that attacked the village...(This is a rhetorical question)

I also wonder what Sasori's reaction would be when he finds out about Chiyo. Hmmmmm

Kuroari and Karasu were Kankuro's puppets back in canon. But it was stated that Sasori was the person who created them.

Anyways, advanced chapters on my pat_reon page! Make sure to check it out! Chapter 39 should be available by the time this chapter was posted! Chapter 40 is finished and currently being edited.

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