Chapter 1

Amidst the sunken city of Sunagakure was one of the darkest nights in its history. Atop one of the walls that shielded the city from outsiders was a familiar face - that of Sasori Akasuna. The male stood in a crouched position, looking down at the city he had departed from a year prior. Unfortunately, it still looked the same. The street lights were dim and there weren't any signs of shinobi patrolling the city, but he had no doubt there were some lurking in the shadows.

This time was as perfect as it was going to get. The Third Great Shinobi War was ongoing and most of the Sunagakure shinobi had been enlisted to fight, including those who had just graduated from the Academy. He'd kept ties on his ex-village and found out that the Third Kazekage had returned to the village to address a crisis with the elders. Tonight was the night he was going to carry out his plan and kidnap the Sandaime to add to his collection. For all the work he had done, it was only fitting that Suna give him a going-away present. They could even tie it together as a birthday present too since he had recently turned sixteen.

Once the guards changed shifts, the redhead disappeared into the night. He still knew his way around the Kazekage's Quarters and successfully infiltrated the building. An hour had passed, then two, then three. From the outside, the hidden village looked quiet and peaceful as civilian families slept and various shinobi stood silently at their posts.

The door to the Kazekage's office burst open and the Kazekage's advisor stared at the empty desk before clenching his fist. "Damn it." The male hurried along the corridors, checking every door he ran past before approaching the guards at the entrance to the building. "Lord Kazekage has disappeared! Find him at all costs." He hissed, before looking back down the hallway. Now he had to alert the elders.

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Damn, defeating the Third really took a toll on his collection. Looking at the storage scroll attached to his side, he let a small, victorious smirk settle onto his face. No pain, no gain, he guessed. Now he had an exceptional addition to his collection - the strongest Kazekage his village had ever seen. Brushing off remnants of the iron sand off his flak jacket, he focused on his journey ahead. It had been almost an hour since he had assassinated the Sandaime, so he figured either the village was well into their search or they had just discovered that they failed their protector.

The male felt something dribble down the side of his face and he reached his hand up, discovering that he had a mild head injury. It must have been from the sand, he deduced. Seeing as he might also have a concussion, Sasori stopped for a moment, having reached an area with some trees, and focused on closing up his wound with a little bit of medical ninjutsu. Fighting the Third took a lot out of him, so he decided to heal enough to get by and keep moving.

A few days later, the male approached the border of the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Fire. He had been traveling non-stop as his goal for now was to avoid countries active in the Third Great Shinobi War and build his collection back up. His head injury was healing alright and he had already assessed that there were no other major injuries to tackle. The scratches and bruises he'd received from his previous battle would resolve themselves eventually.

"I heard your kid is doing well in the Academy." A voice spoke. Sasori's eyes narrowed as he jumped up into the trees and concealed his chakra even more than it already was. The voice wasn't too close and he had already tossed his hiate aside, however he was pretty sure his face was posted in every bingo book up and down the land.

Another voice interrupted his thoughts. "Yeah, he's doing alright. He's a really bright kid."

There were three shinobi walking down the dirt path under him. One had short, spiky brown hair and brown eyes, the second had short blond hair and brown eyes, and the third had long, silver hair in a ponytail and dark eyes. Apparently the silver haired male was the last to speak because the others were nodding in agreement.

"You must be pretty proud of him then, Sakumo-san." The blond answered back, causing 'Sakumo-san' to chuckle a bit.

Sakumo… Sasori had heard that name before. Oh right… Sakumo Hatake, the man responsible for killing his parents. He crouched down on the tree branch and watched as the trio carried on, most likely on a mission. When he was back in Suna, he had begged his grandmother to tell him what happened to his parents after his failure with Mother and Father, the replacement puppets. Reluctantly, his grandmother told him the name of their murderer. Fate was really funny by allowing him to see that man right now.

He had two choices in front of him - get his revenge and risk being exposed or continue on and let the man live. Since he had a kid at home, if he killed the man now, it would be fitting as his kid would feel the same as he was.Standing up, Sasori continued to watch the man before turning away and jumping to another tree limb, leaving the area. The risk wasn't worth it. The emotional attachment he had felt for his parents had faded considerably and he didn't feel the risk was worth taking. Quite frankly, he didn't care about getting revenge for them.

Another two days went by and Sasori had exhausted himself of his chakra as he had barely taken any breaks in his travel. It was worth it though as he had finally arrived at his destination - the Land of Rice Fields. This country did not contain a hidden village and he was far enough from Sunagakure where they wouldn't come looking for him any time soon.

Staying close to the border of the Land of Iron, Sasori set up shop. There was a gathering of trees where the branches and leaves hung low, a perfect place for him to make a little 'home', for lack of a better word. Once he completed his workshop, he arranged seals around the area to make it nearly impossible to find his hideout, even if someone were to walk right past it.

On his way to his destination, he remembered passing by a clearing in the forest back in the Land of Iron. It wasn't too far from here, probably thirty to forty-five minutes away. As he passed by, he had remembered seeing many flowers and herbs. If they were used correctly, they could potentially become complicated poisons. Of course, he would need to see exactly what species were out there, however they were most likely different from the herbs grown in Sunagakure, which would be used to his advantage.

Deciding he wanted to scope out the area for a couple minutes, Sasori set off across the border.to retrace his steps. His assumptions were correct as he made it to the clearing in thirty-five minutes. It was bigger than he had remembered and in the distance was the starting of mountain range. He would, no doubt, find more herbs there as well. This clearing was far enough from the main roads that the only way anyone would come across it was if they were purposely looking over here. As he started scanning over the clearing, he thought back to one of the texts he read when he was still enrolled in the academy. Maybe this was the Land of Medicines he was interested in.

The sun was shining down on the clearing and he could make out the heat wave distortions over top of the plant life. For the most part, he had been walking around the outskirts of the clearing, however his senses pointed for him to turn his attention to the part of the clearing that was by the mountains. Retreating to the trees, Sasori approached the mountains and shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked into the clearing.

Towards the center of the clearing was a female who was collecting herbs and placing them in a small wicker basket by her side. She looked a little younger than he was, maybe thirteen, with snow white hair that was tied into a bun on the top of her head, her bangs and loose side strands framing her face. Her attire was quite different from the normal shinobi wear he had on. She had on a beige kimono dress that reached the tops of her knees with a slit on her left side that stretched to her hip. There was no right sleeve on the top, however the left sleeve reached a little bit past her wrist. Underneath the kimono was black spandex shorts that also stopped at her knees. The kimono was secured with a purple rope belt that was tied in a huge inverted bow on her back, her left leg was fully bandaged from her waist to her ankle, and she had on black sandals that covered most of her feet much like his own. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any village insignia on her so he didn't know where she was from.

The female turned her head in his direction and Sasori disappeared, retreating further back into the forest. He could see the girl gather her, now full, basket and leave the clearing. Deciding he had done enough scoping, Sasori returned back to his hidden abode. The clearing had some herbs that would be useful to him, so he would go back another day to collect. The mysterious female he had seen didn't intrigue him; she was probably a local. Right now, he had another matter to attend to. Pulling out a scroll, he cleared the large table in the center of the workshop and rolled it out. Releasing the seal, the body of the Third Kazekage appeared on the table with a small cloud of smoke. It was time to get to work.