Ryou looked at Sasori and smiled. "Sasori, although you always talk about eternity, what you've wanted from the very beginning is your parents!"
"..."
Sasori shuddered violently.
Although Sasori often spoke of eternal art, within the Akatsuki, he represented childhood.
Sasori's childhood was devoid of love; because the White Fang killed his parents during the Second Great Ninja War, he lost his parents at a very young age.
After learning the Puppet Technique, Sasori created puppets of his parents to fill the void of familial affection.
But how could puppets possibly mend the hole in his heart?
He claimed he transformed himself into a puppet because he saw through the fragility of life.
But if he truly had, he wouldn't have ultimately sought suicide, dying in the embrace of the puppets named 'Father' and 'Mother'.
A person who commits suicide—would you say they've seen through it all, or that they haven't?
Ryou spoke again, "Sasori, you're pursuing the Eye of the Moon Plan because you want to enter a world of Genjutsu—a world where your parents exist, right?"
The moment he finished speaking, Sasori directed a cold killing intent toward Ryou. "Uchiha Ryou, I'll kill you!"
"Touchy, aren't we!"
Ryou simply responded with a smile.
Sasori's killing intent surged even further; it was as if Ryou had torn away his fig leaf, exposing all his ugliness.
The moment he heard about the Eye of the Moon Plan in the black market, the first thing Sasori thought of was his parents; he wanted to go to a world where they still existed.
Ever since he defected after assassinating the Third Kazekage, Sasori had been killing aimlessly in the world of rogue ninjas.
Searching for powerful Ninjas, killing, making puppets... this cycle repeated, yet a massive void remained in his heart.
And that void was loneliness.
It was a loneliness that had accompanied him since childhood.
While others only experience loneliness in their old age, Sasori's began in his childhood.
Sasori used the Puppet Technique to freeze his youth in eternity, thinking that by becoming a puppet, he could discard those bothersome emotions.
But he was wrong; he was still lonely.
What is loneliness?
If you break down the two characters for 'loneliness', you find a child, melons and fruit, a small dog, and mosquitoes and flies—enough to fill an alleyway on a midsummer evening with the warmth of human life.
But none of it has anything to do with you; that is what loneliness is.
Sasori took out a scroll with the character for 'Three' written on it. He slowly opened it, flashing a cruel smile at Ryou.
"Uchiha Ryou, do you know how the Third Kazekage died?"
"You poisoned him to death."
Ryou didn't give Sasori a chance to show off.
Sasori was shocked, and his hand opening the puppet scroll suddenly stopped.
"Uchiha Ryou, how do you know that?"
From just now until now, Sasori felt as if he were standing naked before Ryou, seen through completely.
He didn't even know Ryou.
Ryou was from the same era as the Sannin, while Sasori's age was closer to Nagato and Konan's. If he hadn't turned himself into a puppet,
he would probably be a handsome young man of seventeen or eighteen now.
Before Ryou defected, he was just a nobody; Sasori had never even heard of him.
They should have been like parallel lines, never crossing paths.
Why did this guy know his history so clearly?
Sasori believed he had handled the matter of the Third Kazekage very discreetly; no one should have known.
But how did Ryou know?
This guy had even seen through the deepest loneliness in his heart.
Sasori stared directly into Ryou's wicked Sharingan and suddenly froze. "Your Sharingan can see into people's hearts!"
Sasori dared to look directly into Ryou's Sharingan?
Didn't he know the cardinal rule of fighting an Uchiha is to never make eye contact with their Sharingan?
Sasori knew, but he wasn't afraid of the Sharingan.
Because Sasori was already a human puppet, and his entire core resided within his regeneration core.
The principle of Sharingan Genjutsu is to interfere with the brain through eye contact, disrupting the target's Chakra flow to create illusions and control the opponent mentally.
Sasori had no brain, so Genjutsu couldn't control him.
In the original work, within the artist duo of Sasori and Deidara, Deidara always held a deep grudge against Itachi, having been completely suppressed by him.
If he had just offered Sasori a couple of cigarettes and said a few nice words, Sasori could have helped him deal with Itachi.
Aside from Susanoo and Amaterasu, Itachi really didn't have many good ways to deal with Sasori; moreover, he was riddled with illness and couldn't even exert himself.
If Sasori fought him, Sasori might not win, but Itachi would definitely suffer greatly.
"..."
Ryou was also taken aback; Sasori really had quite the imagination.
When in doubt, quantum mechanics.
If you can't figure out an Uchiha, just attribute it to the Sharingan.
No matter what you attribute to it, just go with it!
Ryou nodded. "Right, exactly. My Sharingan can see through people's hearts."
"Sasori, before me, you are like an open book that can be flipped through at will; you have no secrets."
"I've already seen it—you used to sell cups."
"One time, you put poison in a cup and directly poisoned the Third Kazekage to death."
Sasori cursed furiously, "Bullshit!"
Sasori was an artist who usually did things elegantly, even staying covered when he killed.
Now, in front of Ryou, his blood pressure was skyrocketing and he was swearing; one could only imagine how obnoxious Ryou's personality was.
In a fit of rage, Sasori opened the scroll containing the Third Kazekage's human puppet. With a bang, the puppet's figure appeared where Sasori stood.
The human puppet made from the Third Kazekage's corpse had a dark blue spiky hairstyle with a small topknot, yellowish sclera, sharp pupils, and markings on its face.
It wore a tattered dark gray robe with a jagged, fur-trimmed collar.
Shockingly, there were puppet joint carvings on its face, every contour exuding a mechanical coldness.
The one hailed by Sunagakure as the "Strongest Kazekage in History" was now a puppet, a tool to be manipulated at will by another.
Candy, perched on Ryou's shoulder, was shocked. "You turned the Third Kazekage into a puppet? You were the one who killed him?"
The fuse for the Third Great Ninja War was the disappearance of the Third Kazekage. With Sunagakure leaderless, a large number of Ninja searched for him across various countries.
With their internal defenses weakened, Kumogakure and Iwagakure took every opportunity to exploit them.
"That's right, I killed the Third Kazekage."
Sasori reached out, using Chakra Threads to make the Third Kazekage rise, proudly showing off his masterpiece to Candy.
Sasori's parents were killed by the White Fang during the Second Great Ninja War; Sasori had practiced Ninjutsu desperately, wanting to seek revenge on the White Fang.
But the White Fang later committed suicide due to Konoha's public outcry. Unable to find his enemy, Sasori took out his anger on the Third Kazekage.
If it hadn't been for the Third Kazekage's poor command, his parents wouldn't have died.
Sasori found an opportunity and poisoned the Third Kazekage to death while he was off-guard.
Sasori said, "After killing the Third Kazekage, I left Sunagakure. Since then, I've turned him into a human puppet."
"My Human Puppet Technique can retain the techniques the deceased possessed while they were alive."
"Uchiha Ryou, no matter how powerful you are, you cannot defeat Sunagakure's strongest Kazekage."
Ryou crossed his arms and looked down at Sasori. "Under the power of the Uchiha, all other power is useless."
"Arrogant!"
Sasori shouted, controlling the Third Kazekage to attack Ryou's position.
Ryou said to Candy and Snowy, "Candy, Snowy, guard the perimeter and keep everyone else away. I'll capture Sasori."
"Okay!"
Candy and Snowy nodded, jumping off Ryou's body to watch the battle from a distance along with Nekomata.