Sasori

**Sasori** (サソリ), renowned as **Sasori of the Red Sand** (赤砂のサソリ, *Akasuna no Sasori*), is an S-rank missing-nin from Sunagakure's Puppet Brigade and a member of Akatsuki, where he was partnered with Orochimaru and later Deidara.

## Background

When Sasori was young, his father and mother were killed by Sakumo Hatake in battle, leaving him in the care of his grandmother, Chiyo. When Chiyo attempted to cheer him up by teaching him puppetry, Sasori's innate aptitude for the art became apparent, and he even began to devise masterful ways of eliminating a puppet master's weaknesses in battle. His skills even allowed him to create two puppets in the image of his parents in an attempt to discard the terrible loneliness he felt. However, as the puppets were unable to give him the real parental love that he desired, Sasori lost interest in them, and they later fell into Chiyo's possession. Sasori created many other ingenious puppets, including Kuroari, Karasu, and Sanshōuo.

During the Third Shinobi World War, the effectiveness of his puppets in spilling his enemies' blood on the sand gave rise to Sasori's moniker "*Sasori of the Red Sand*". However, motivated by his desire to make works that last forever, Sasori began experimenting to create puppets out of people. In the anime, his only friend, Komushi, lost his right arm during his border control duty, so Sasori gave him a new puppet arm as a prosthetic limb. After Komushi perished, having accidentally ingested some of Sasori's poison, Sasori proceeded to turn him into one of his first human puppets. Twenty years before his introduction in the series, Sasori left Sunagakure; it was around this time he converted his body into a puppet with his core of living flesh remaining as his only human part, thus appearing to maintain the youth of the time of his departure. Over ten years before his own death, Sasori secretly assassinated the Third Kazekage and made him into one of his human puppets. Despite this, Sasori noted the Third Kazekage did not die without giving Sasori a struggle.

Sometime after becoming a missing-nin, Sasori was confronted by Konan and recruited into Akatsuki. Initially declining, Konan opted to fight him, proposing if he lost he would join. Sasori complied and despite using his puppet body, he ultimately lost and joined the organisation, being partnered up with Orochimaru.

After joining the Akatsuki, he utilised his skills to create numerous spies like Yūra and Mukade from Suna as sleeper agents. Sasori was paired with Orochimaru, who shared his desire of an everlasting existence. Later, Sasori joined his group in recruiting Deidara into Akatsuki. After Orochimaru left the Akatsuki following his failed attempt to take Itachi Uchiha's body, Sasori bore a grudge towards his former partner and sent Kabuto Yakushi to be his spy in Otogakure. Nevertheless, Sasori was unaware that Kabuto was working for Orochimaru long before he posed as an Akatsuki spy, as he and the rest of the Akatsuki thought that Kabuto joined Orochimaru's side after being dispelled of Sasori's brainwashing. In the anime, Sasori later learned of Orochimaru's whereabouts and joined Deidara to find him. Once tracking him down in the Land of Wind, Sasori unleashed his Third Kazekage puppet. Orochimaru, however, surprised Sasori by countering with a reincarnation of the actual Kazekage. The two missing-nin then pitted their respective pawns against each other and eventually the Third Kazekage proved stronger than the puppet. However, the Kazekage soon regained control of himself and forced a release of the technique, prompting Orochimaru to retreat. Deidara then unleashed a series of bombs on Orochimaru's hideout, hoping to kill the Konoha-nin. Sasori was left very annoyed that despite a thorough search, they could not find a body.

## Personality

Sasori grew up in a sad and lonely environment due to the absence of parental love. When introduced to the art of puppetry by his grandmother, Chiyo, he grew a little happier. He eventually created puppets in the likeness of his parents, but when he realised that the puppets could not give him the actual love that he desired, he became cold, aloof and led to his general disregard for human life. Sasori even went so far as to state that he would feel nothing if Chiyo died, as he claimed that his heart had become like his puppet body: without any emotions. Neither did Sasori have any loyalty for his village, as he defected to pursue personal interests and even kidnapped the Third Kazekage, which caused severe damage for Sunagakure, and then attack the village again twenty years after leaving. Despite his cruel and nihilistic nature, Sasori was also known to possess a very down-to-earth outlook on life, rarely getting worked up over obstacles that impeded his way. He rarely gave way to any strong emotions, and such instances that happened were often short-lived.

Sasori was also known for his impatience, as he repeatedly noted that he did not wish to wait or keep others waiting. Despite this, he took his time in battling Kankurō when they first met due to his interest in fighting his old creations, which were handed down to a puppet master of the next generation.

Sasori and his second partner in Akatsuki, Deidara, both had conflicting views on art, and they frequently argued about their differing perspectives. Deidara maintained his belief that art was something transient that departs quickly, whereas Sasori believed that fine art was everlasting and remained far into the future. This reflected their individual natures; Deidara made clay sculptures which exploded, while Sasori created long-lasting puppets out of humans that never died. Nevertheless, although Deidara outwardly seemed to respect Sasori's beliefs, Sasori never respected Deidara's.

Sasori's ambition was to become an exquisite piece of art himself by turning his body into one of his own puppet works. Sasori adhered so strongly to his belief that true art was ever-lasting that he even went as far as to have his spy retrieve information on the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation and human experiments. Sasori abandoned this ambition after Kankurō told him that it was his creations that he put his heart and soul into that would last forever. After accepting Kankurō's view on eternal art, he entrusted his Mother and Father puppets to Kankurō and told him to pass them on to the next generation after he dies. In this moment, Sasori is shown to have an emotional side as well.

Sasori was also willing to accept the views of others on certain topics in contrast to Deidara, who stubbornly stood by his beliefs until the end. Sasori spared Kankurō during their first confrontation after the latter made a last attempt to attack him, but he notes that Kankurō's envenomed state would eventually lead to his death.

Possibly stemming from his lonely childhood, Sasori was entirely loyal to Akatsuki, so much that he vowed to kill his former partner, Orochimaru, for betraying the organisation.