Pakura stood near the edge of the sand wall encompassing Sunagakure, waiting for the guest of honor to appear. She enjoyed her current situation. Maybe a bit too much. After all...
"Goddamned Kazekage. Freaking Scorch User. Is she made of heat? How the heck can she just stand there with such an unbothered cocky expression..." Chiyo, who was next to her, quietly cursed up a storm as she tried to pull her hood to cover more of her head and provide more shade for herself. She was sweating like a pig. As someone who lived in Suna her entire life, the heat was not something that bothered her overly much but Pakura, for some reason, made her come to the meeting place entire two hours before the agreed time despite her protests that Sasori never arrives early or late. "Why is it so damned hot today?" She mumbled.
Chiyo had no idea that Pakura was using her bloodline to subtly warm up the air around them, increasing the discomfort of her companion.
In the past few years, Chiyo was a big help to Pakura but the old hag never made it easy to manipulate her. Pakura knew Chiyo was not 'on her side'. She was more of a fence-sitter who just waited for a good chance to pounce. That was the biggest reason why Pakura only now asked Chiyo to call Sasori back. In recent years, Chiyo became a bit more loyal to Pakura herself, rather than Sunagakure.
It wasn't by much and Pakura doubted Chiyo even realized her small shift in demeanor but... thanks to that, Pakura could finally put a minuscule amount of trust into the old hag.
"Finally." Pakura suddenly said, causing Chiyo to raise her head and notice the hunched-over form of Hiruko clad in the Akatsuki cloak, standing on the very edge of the sand wall.
'Smart. He is in a good position for both attacking and running away, depending on what would be needed.' Chiyo inwardly praised while Pakura just raised her eyebrow at the man.
"Exactly on time." Pakura amusedly noted. "You even hid for the last half an hour in that little crevice in the sand wall in order to appear here on time. I must admit, I am as impressed as I am exasperated."
To give Sasori credit, his puppet body only showed his surprise by halting for a second before he was back in his normal and indifferent manner.
"I should have expected to be discovered." Sasori muttered for himself before looking at Pakura, "You do have some skill."
Both Pakura and Chiyo noted he did not say she was a good Kazekage, rather, he just agreed Pakura was a good kunoichi. Then again, 'some skill', in Sasori's dictionary meant he acknowledged her as a threat. That, in itself, was tremendous praise from the perpetually grumpy wooden doll.
"I see that you did not leave Akatsuki yet." Pakura offhandedly mentioned, looking at the black cloak with red clouds on his body, causing Sasori to let out a grumbling growl.
"As if I would leave my safety net without even knowing your offer. Chiyo may be my grandmother but I am not an idiot. If this 'deal' is not satisfactory, then staying in Akatsuki is the most logical option."
"Yeah. You do not possess even one-tenth of Chiyo's care about Sunagakure." Pakura smirked.
That much she knew. The man cared only about one thing. His puppets.
Pakura just rolled her eyes at Sasori. "Let's cut to the chase. Neither you nor I have time to waste."
Sasori appreciatively hn'd while Chiyo glared at Pakura with unveiled distaste, 'No time, my ass! If so, why did I have to wait two hours here with you!?'
"Fine. Tell me your offer, then." Sasori said.
"There is not much to it." Pakura shrugged, "I want you to be the head of our Puppetry Department and work on enhancing the puppets of our village while training some apprentices."
So far, the offer sounded as if Pakura was inviting Sasori to serve Sunagakure again. Now that irritated the man to no end. Before Sasori could reject, Pakura threw a scroll at him.
Sensing no chakra from it, Sasori caught it, cautious of any would-be trap. He looked at Pakura and saw that she beckoned him to open it.
Sighing to himself, Sasori opened the scroll and...
Chiyo could only furrow her eyebrows when she saw her grandson entered his 'interested' mode after reading the scroll briefly. She couldn't help but wonder what was in the scroll.
Finally, Sasori finished with reading and turned to Pakura, "Is this true?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
Before the meeting, he tried to scout the village a bit... which failed. That impressed Sasori, so he got into contact with his informants and got the gist of what was happening in Sunagakure these past few years.
He was flabbergasted when they informed him the new Kazekage decided to invest in agriculture and that fields were created on the top of the enormous sand wall surrounding the village.
More shocking, however, was the fact it was the Puppetry Department that was responsible for the field. Who would have thought growing crops could be good training for novice puppeteers?
Then again, Sasori had to begrudgingly admit, it was a good idea. Taking care of fields took a lot of effort and repetitive movements. Novice puppeteers would indeed learn how to manipulate their puppets and polish their chakra control over the chakra strings if they used the puppets to grow crops.
Not to mention, it was not a waste of time since this made Sunagakure completely independent and self-sustaining as far as food was concerned.
Pakura put her left hand on her hip, "You are not the only prodigy in the art Sunagakure produced." She taunted, "You are also not the most clever one... considering what you did to your body." Sasori stiffened while Chiyo's eyes slightly widened and her head snapped towards Sasori's form, "I bet you silently regret it every single day."
Sasori stayed silent, waiting for Pakura to continue.
"It's a pity, you know? If you applied yourself, you might have surpassed Tsunade in the medical field, considering what you managed to do to yourself." Pakura said, 'Well, I mean Tsunade as she was before she met Rei.' She mentally added. "But because of your fixation on human puppetry, your creativity in making puppets plummeted."
Sasori looked at the scroll he had in his hands. It was true. He focused on human puppets and the kekkei genkai. He focused on perfecting himself. And yet...
'The scroll has so many incredible upgrades that would make puppets into literal art...' Sasori thought, remembering his earlier years when puppetry was not about organs and muscles but about wood and screws.
He did regret making himself into a puppet. While it made him more efficient, it also robbed him of most of his 'human' creativity and perspective. He could control a hundred puppets at once, yet, it was nothing special because neither of these hundred was special. Since he became a puppet himself, he did not create anything but human puppets. He was aware that limited his combat potential immensely. Human puppets were powerful... but there were not many strong useful bloodline ninjas that could be made into human puppets.
"And who knows? Maybe... if you are a good boy, you might even deserve re-humanization." Pakura threw him a bone.
Sure, her tone and wording pissed Sasori off but her words... now that would make his breath hitch if he still needed to breathe.
"Lucky for you, I know the perfect person to undo the... damage you caused to your body."
And with that, Pakura knew she had him. Sasori was not a complicated man. He loved puppetry. Offering him a chance to develop the art and create more powerful puppets was a good bait to poach him from Akatsuki despite the threat of death. The offer to make him a human again, to make him regain his own creativity again... that was just the finishing move.
After all, even if he became a puppet himself, his living core was still made of a normal unenhanced organic matter, hence, it aged. It was not like he gained immortality when he became a puppet. Pakura did not need to be a genius to know the man regretted it.
Naturally, Sasori only gave an affirmative answer after ten minutes of consideration.
Turning to the bewildered Chiyo, Pakura gave her a wink. "Take him to the Kazekage office, would you?" She ordered, getting Chiyo out of her reverie.
Chiyo was about to answer when Pakura burst into smoke, causing her to owlishly blink and realize that the person with whom she waited two whole hours under the scorching sun was just a... clone.
The entire Sunagakure heard Chiyo's reaction to that realization.
"That... bitch!"