Chapter 590: Meeting Sosuke
Six Paths City, Land of Rain.
Sasori woke from sleep with a slight frown as he listened to the steady patter of rain outside.
The endless drizzle only worsened his already foul mood.
He moved on silent feet to the door, cracked it open slightly, and carefully observed the outside.
Only after confirming that there were no suspicious shinobi monitoring him did Sasori close the door, return to his bed, and once again try to refine Chakra in an attempt to break the seal inside his body.
Ten minutes later, Sasori opened his eyes, and the disappointment on his delicate face was impossible to hide.
"This Sealing Technique is actually this powerful. It not only has strong suppressive force, but it can also sustain itself continuously," Sasori muttered, his brow furrowing deeper.
Sosuke's Sealing Technique was far stronger than he had expected.
At first, Sasori had thought that with enough time, he would eventually be able to wear it down and break it.
But after more than two months had passed, he still had not made the slightest progress.
Sasori rubbed at his tightly knit brows and fell into deep thought.
If he could not break the seal in his body, then even if he escaped Six Paths City, he would still be unable to seek revenge. He might not even be able to protect himself.
A shinobi who could not use Chakra was no longer truly a shinobi.
And if he was no longer a shinobi, how was he supposed to kill Kakashi Hatake? Kakashi Hatake was not only a shinobi, but a genius among shinobi.
"Do I really have to wait until the Shinobi Sect releases me ten years from now?" Sasori clenched his fists, his face full of unwillingness.
If he could definitely succeed in taking revenge at the end of it all, Sasori could accept waiting ten years.
But the problem now was that once ten years passed, his chances of revenge would plummet.
Because during those ten years, he would be unable to train or continue researching Puppetry, while Kakashi Hatake would be free to grow stronger without restraint.
With that gap growing wider and wider, whether he could still succeed in getting revenge after being released in ten years was uncertain.
If success were guaranteed, then forget ten years. Even twenty years would be acceptable.
But the mere thought that his revenge might fail after all that waiting made Sasori feel even more irritable.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already 6:40. Breakfast would begin in ten minutes and end forty minutes after that.
Normally, Sasori would have gone to the cafeteria by now, because going early meant avoiding long lines, and he hated waiting in line more than anything.
But today he did not feel like moving at all. He had no appetite, and his mind was completely occupied with breaking the seal and taking revenge.
No matter how much he thought about it or how many methods he tried, he could do nothing to the seal inside him.
After countless failures, Sasori lay back on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Knock. Knock.
Some time later, someone knocked on the wooden door of his room.
Sasori ignored it and continued staring at the ceiling.
Bang.
When Sasori still did not respond, Nagato simply pushed the door open and entered.
The moment the door opened, Nagato's eyes swept through the room. Only after seeing that Sasori was merely lying on the bed, and that there was no suspicious red liquid anywhere, did he quietly relax.
"Why aren't you eating breakfast or going to work? Today isn't a day off," Nagato asked, looking at Sasori.
Six Paths City did not support idlers. Prisoners were expected to work.
Sasori did not answer. He continued staring at the ceiling as if Nagato were not there.
"You know this is meaningless. All it will do is prolong your sentence," Nagato said.
He knew exactly what Sasori wanted. Sasori wanted to leave the Shinobi Sect as soon as possible and complete his revenge.
Only then did Sasori move. He turned his head toward Nagato, then slowly sat up.
"I want to see Sosuke," Sasori said in a low voice, stating his demand outright.
Sasori was impatient, but he was not thoughtless. He knew resisting the Shinobi Sect would only worsen his situation.
The reason he had skipped breakfast and work was not only because of his bad mood, but also because he wanted to speak directly with the Shinobi Sect.
Even though his current status ensured he would be in a disadvantageous position, Sasori still possessed one thing no one else in the shinobi world had: the Human Puppet Technique.
At first, Sasori had believed he could break free on his own, which was why he had no interest in making deals with the Shinobi Sect.
But now that he had personally experienced how terrifying Sosuke's Sealing Technique was, he understood that refusing to negotiate would only ruin his revenge plan.
"Teacher Sosuke isn't someone you can meet whenever you want," Nagato replied.
He was the only one who knew Mugetsu's true identity. He also knew exactly how busy Mugetsu was, so he had no intention of creating unnecessary trouble for him.
"If you have something to say, you can tell me."
If Sasori truly had something important enough to warrant contacting Mugetsu, Nagato could pass it along.
"Can you restore my freedom? Or help me undo the Sealing Technique?" Sasori asked flatly.
"No," Nagato answered without hesitation.
He had neither the authority to release prisoners nor the ability to undo Mugetsu's seal.
Sasori let out a mocking laugh. "Then what's the point of telling you?"
He had not expected Nagato to agree. He had simply wanted to mock him.
Sasori hated Nagato.
If Nagato had not captured him and crushed his first attempt, Sasori might already have launched a second assassination and succeeded.
To Sasori, Nagato was the number one culprit who had ruined his grand revenge plan. How could he not hate him?
"If it really is something extremely important, I'll report it to Teacher Sosuke," Nagato said calmly, ignoring the mockery.
"Of course it's important. It concerns the single most important thing in my life. Revenge," Sasori emphasized.
That was another reason he disliked Nagato so much. Nagato wanted him to let go of his hatred.
Nagato did not keep lecturing him about it, but Sasori could tell.
Otherwise, what kind of person gave a prisoner books like The Importance of Living in the Present?
Nagato had never experienced his pain, so what right did he have to tell him to let go of hatred and embrace a new life?
"The most important thing in your life..." Nagato repeated, pausing.
"Not just important. It's the meaning of my life itself," Sasori said coldly.
Nagato opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he said nothing.
He had wanted to tell Sasori that living like that would only make life unbearable.
But Nagato had watched his own parents die before his eyes. He knew exactly what that kind of pain felt like.
Because he knew it, he could not so easily tell someone else to abandon their hatred.
"Since your parents were also killed by Konoha shinobi, why are you stopping me from taking revenge on Konoha shinobi?" Sasori asked in confusion.
Even if Nagato did not want to help him, Sasori could at least understand that. But why interfere?
"I hate the Konoha shinobi who killed my parents. I hate any shinobi who slaughters innocent civilians during war. But I do not hate every Konoha shinobi," Nagato answered.
Before he met Jiraiya, Nagato had hated Konoha shinobi.
Konoha shinobi had killed his parents and brought war to his homeland. Of course he had hated them.
But after becoming the disciple of Jiraiya and Mugetsu, Nagato came to understand a simple truth.
People were different.
He had encountered cruel Konoha shinobi. That did not mean every Konoha shinobi was the same.
"So what are you trying to say? That because Kakashi Hatake isn't the one who personally killed my parents, I have no right to hate him?" Sasori asked.
Nagato shook his head.
That was not what he meant.
The reason he had brought up his parents was not to earn sympathy. He only wanted Sasori to understand one thing. He had also experienced that kind of pain. He was not just someone preaching empty ideals from a distance.
"I can take you to see Teacher Sosuke, but only if you help me complete a mission," Nagato suddenly said.
It had nothing to do with the previous topic, but Sasori did not care about that at all.
"What mission? What do I have to do?" he asked immediately.
Sasori had refused to work for one reason only: he wanted to see Sosuke and negotiate with the Shinobi Sect.
In that sense, this was getting him exactly what he wanted.
"Help clear out the rogue shinobi in central Rain. Since your Chakra is sealed, you only need to do logistical work," Nagato explained.
The unstable factors in the south had mostly been dealt with. Next, the Shinobi Sect would begin clearing out the rest of the Land of Rain, targeting bandits, illegal organizations, and wandering rogue shinobi.
"Clearing out rogue shinobi? You?" Sasori could not help asking.
He was all too familiar with how terrifying Nagato's strength was. He had not only seen Nagato clash with Six Gates Might Guy, he had personally fought him as well.
If Sasori could be called a genius, then Nagato was a monster. Even with preparation, Sasori found it difficult to imagine defeating him.
So Sasori felt it was absurd that someone like Nagato would be sent to deal with rogue shinobi.
Unless the rogue shinobi in the Land of Rain were all on the level of Six Gates Might Guy.
Nagato nodded.
The Shinobi Sect did not actually have many shinobi. Some were needed in Six Paths City, while others had to maintain order in the southern region. So even if it felt like using a cannon to kill a mosquito, Nagato still had to personally handle this task.
"So, will you agree?" Nagato asked.
"Yes," Sasori replied after thinking it over.
Nagato clearly had no intention of killing him. If he had, Sasori would have died long ago under that Shinra Tensei.
And after more than two months in the Shinobi Sect, Sasori at least understood Nagato a little.
Nagato first went to inform the construction team of the situation, then took Sasori along to the central Land of Rain to begin the mission.
The mission turned out to be even more troublesome than Sasori had imagined.
The rogue shinobi themselves were nowhere near the level of Six Gates Might Guy and were easy enough to deal with in battle, but fully clearing them out meant traveling constantly between villages and towns.
More often than not, they spent one or two days tracking someone down, only for the fight itself to last less than a minute.
There was barely anything to say about the battles themselves.
Bansho Tenin.
Shinra Tensei.
Slammed into the ground.
Instant defeat.
"Don't you find this troublesome? With your strength, even if you refused to take this sort of mission, no one would say anything, right?" Sasori finally asked after yet another mission that had taken two days of searching and one second of actual combat.
For someone as impatient as he was, this kind of work was maddening.
"I have sensory abilities, so I'm more suitable than others," Nagato replied after lowering his hand and checking the rogue shinobi's condition.
If someone else had taken the mission, the efficiency would have been even lower.
"Monster like strength, yet such a strange personality. You're satisfied with just a few words of praise from civilians," Sasori thought to himself.
At that moment, a group of villagers approached and began thanking them.
"Thank you so much, two shinobi sama of the Shinobi Sect!"
"Yes, if not for you, who knows how much those bandits would have stolen from us."
They surrounded Nagato and Sasori, voicing their gratitude one after another.
Sasori felt nothing. He was not a shinobi of the Shinobi Sect, so none of that had anything to do with him.
But he noticed that Nagato, who usually wore a blank expression, had the faintest upward curve at the corner of his lips.
Nagato actually looked happy.
Then a little girl stepped forward, holding a bracelet woven from grass and flowers.
"Handsome big brother, this is for you," she said, handing it to Sasori.
Sasori paused.
He did not take it. Instead, he pointed at Nagato.
"That guy is the Shinobi Sect shinobi who actually helped you."
"I saw that," the little girl replied with a grin, then took out a flower crown several times larger from behind her back. "So the bigger flower crown is for that big brother."
"After all, that big brother did more."
"And fighting with your own big brother is bad. You shouldn't call him 'that guy,' either," she added seriously.
Sasori's face filled with question marks.
Since when had Nagato become his big brother?
Then, as he looked at Nagato's red hair, realization suddenly struck him.
Red hair was already uncommon in the shinobi world, and Nagato was also taller than him. To outsiders, they probably looked like relatives.
Sasori opened his mouth to explain, but the little girl was quicker.
"Handsome big brother, I hope you make up with your big brother soon."
With that, she shoved the bracelet into Sasori's hand and skipped over to Nagato to place the flower crown on him.
Sasori: "..."
After the villagers finally left, Nagato spoke first.
"I'll take you to see Teacher Sosuke later."
Sasori's expression returned to its usual cold indifference, and he gave a slight nod.
.....
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