"Pervert?"
"No, Lady Temari, aren't you being a bit too repressed? I just paused for a moment in thought, and where did your mind wander to?"
Bai Mo was speechless at Temari's sudden insult.
"I... you understand what I'm saying, so you're no better off!"
Temari's gaze had just turned away in embarrassment, but immediately, due to her strong will, it snapped back. After meeting Bai Mo's eyes, she adopted an attitude of being in the wrong but still acting self-righteous.
"Oh."
"Oh what? You... wait a minute!"
Seeing Bai Mo about to turn and leave, Temari hurriedly called out to him. Fearing he wouldn't stop, she quickly stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and then retrieved the envelope from his hand.
"I accidentally put a photo of myself that I accidentally took inside."
"..."
Bai Mo hadn't expected Temari to actually take seriously his casual remark, "Then add one of yours," which he'd said to prove he didn't have a "Soldier Boy" fetish.
Now, she was worried that when Bai Mo took Grandmother Chiyo's swimsuit photo to show others, he might also hand over hers, so she quickly concocted an excuse to get it back.
Only...
What kind of ridiculous excuse was that?
She "accidentally" took a photo, then "accidentally" put it in an envelope, and now "accidentally" remembered it.
Bai Mo was suddenly a little afraid of what other "accidentally" slipped in excuses might appear later.
"Aren't you supposed to go take care of something with the photo? Why are you just standing there? Hurry up and go! I'll wait for you for ten minutes!"
Temari also seemed to find her excuse too absurd. After pulling her swimsuit photo out of the envelope, she quickly shoved the envelope back into Bai Mo's hand, urging him to leave quickly.
Good heavens, was she planning to pretend nothing happened once the scene changed?
"Wait for me."
After dropping these two words, Bai Mo's figure vanished from the spot.
Arriving at a hidden underground base within the village, Bai Mo found Sasori debugging puppets there.
"Something wrong?"
Sasori didn't turn his head, nor did he stop his work, merely asking indifferently.
"Nothing much, just here to give you some advice."
"What advice?"
"Don't give up your emotions as a 'human'."
"...Boring."
"Without the shackles of emotion, absolutely rational thinking can indeed make many things easier to solve.
But absolute rationality doesn't mean absolute correctness. Let me give you an example—"
When Bai Mo said this, although Sasori still didn't turn around, his hand movements stopped, and he began to listen to Bai Mo carefully.
"There was a Ninja who received a blessing from a god, allowing him to strengthen two organs of his body.
So, he chose to strengthen the 'small head' first, then the 'big head'.
Because he was afraid that after strengthening the 'big head', the 'big head' wouldn't let him strengthen the 'small head' anymore."
"..."
Sasori was speechless.
Although the words were crude, the principle was not, but the words were indeed too crude.
"If that's all you want to say, then you can leave. Don't disturb me."
Sasori was long past the age of having a "small head," and he completely didn't care about what Bai Mo was saying.
"You see, you're ordering me to leave, feeling that my example is outrageous, precisely because you still possess human emotions.
If you were truly absolutely rational, then you should patiently listen to everything I, the Akatsuki's strategist, have to say.
For example, to give another example, if you were truly absolutely rational..."
Bai Mo paused here, "If there was an opportunity to revive your family now, you would choose to give it up."
Crack.
The puppet wood in Sasori's hand was directly crushed by him.
And because this place was underground and very quiet, Sasori's heartbeat accelerated noticeably.
"Giving up is the correct choice.
Even if they could be revived, what then?
In this Ninja World full of slaughter, being revived would only mean waiting for the next death."
Sasori calmed his heart, then slowly spoke.
"You scared me to death. I thought you were going to 'puppet your mom' on me."
Bai Mo patted his chest.
Sasori: "?"
"My point is, you're right, this Ninja World is indeed still very dangerous, but isn't that the direction we're striving to change?
When everyone can truly reunite and make sushi together, will you continue to play with your tender catgirl puppet?
I can tell you, Sasori, you don't even have to wait until after the Ōtsutsuki arrival; even now, death and resurrection are not difficult matters.
That 'if' I mentioned, it's not truly an 'if'."
"What exactly do you want me to do?"
Sasori fell silent for a moment, then his tone softened slightly.
"Nothing much, just to keep your humanity. In other aspects, I don't think I need to give you any hints."
Bai Mo shrugged slightly.
Sasori's talent in puppetry was beyond doubt.
Another "famous" puppeteer, Kankurō, never made his own puppets from start to finish, relying entirely on scavenging equipment dropped by Sasori.
But even so, in his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, Kankurō fantasized about creating Gundam-type puppets.
This shows that Kankurō wasn't lacking inspiration, he was just simply incompetent. (Strikethrough)
This shows that puppeteers don't lack inspiration; what they need is skilled technique.
After all, compared to the Ninjutsu system, the puppeteer system is too incomplete and requires pioneers to explore it themselves.
"Maintain humanity..."
"How about this, let's make a bet. I'll show you something, and if you can't control your emotions, then you'll listen to me."
"...Alright."
Sasori agreed.
"Here, you look at it yourself. I haven't seen what exactly is inside."
Bai Mo directly threw the envelope over.
Clack clack clack.
Sasori suspiciously took out the photo from the envelope, glanced at it, and immediately his arm turned into a paper shredder, grinding the photo to dust.
In this world with Chakra and souls, it's perfectly reasonable for someone with only a heart remaining to have emotions without hormones.
"What is this thing!!!"
Sasori felt a mix of emotions: anger, awkwardness, nostalgia, and a touch of disgust.
"You lost."
Bai Mo glanced at the shredded paper on the ground.
Although he could fix it with Crazy Diamond, it was truly unnecessary.
Who really wants to see Grandmother Chiyo's swimsuit photo?
"This is a sacrifice made by an elder for a lost junior. As you can see, you still have family alive.
Here, I'll give you a mission, one that fits your status as a rogue Ninja and is also beneficial to Hidden Sand Village."
Bai Mo slowly began.
"Oh."
Sasori's emotions gradually stabilized: "Are we killing the Daimyo again?"
As Deidara's teammate, Sasori had heard Deidara boast more than once about his sudden arrival as a divine soldier, blowing up the Land of Earth's Daimyo's mansion, leaving nothing alive.
He didn't know the news from the Land of Water's Daimyo, but he guessed it wouldn't be any different.
"Exactly."
Bai Mo confirmed.
Indeed, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind needed to be dealt with.
Actually, among the Five Great Nations, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind was the most suicidal, he didn't expect him to die only third, which was a bargain for him.
"I accept this mission."
Sasori was expressionless, but inwardly he sighed with regret.
—What excellent puppet experiment material, yet he could only kill them directly like Deidara, meaninglessly.
Sasori knew that if he kept them as experiment material, it would only attract others to rescue them, causing a series of troubles.
It was truly a pity.
—
After Sasori accepted the mission, Bai Mo returned to the entrance of Hidden Rain Village.
He saw Temari, who had said she would only wait ten minutes but was still standing motionless despite the time being up, and walked up to her.
"Let's go, home."
"Oh, alright—no, wait! What home? Whose home? What nonsense are you talking about!"
"...Lady Temari, you really have super sensitive skin."
....
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