Chapter 28: Black Ant

"You're right—but that was already his limit. Of course he wanted to win against Konoha, to free our village from the harsh winds and sand of the desert."

"Then who should be blamed for all those who died in the village?"

Though he didn't say it outright, Shimizu knew what Sasori really meant:

Who should be blamed for the death of my parents?

Logically speaking, this wasn't something a lowly genin like him should know.

Elder Chiyo had always kept the truth from Sasori, telling the young boy only that his parents had gone far away and would be gone for a long time.

But as Sasori grew older, his precocious mind was no longer so easily fooled.

Shimizu paused for a while, carefully weighing his words to avoid saying anything inappropriate. Finally, he squeezed out an answer that was technically correct—but ultimately empty:

"Whoever did the killing is the one to blame. If Konoha killed them, then blame Konoha."

"But it was the Third Kazekage who started the war. If he hadn't, those people wouldn't have died."

Why is this kid so stubborn!?

"No—they would've still died. In fact, even more people would have died."

Sasori tilted his head, confused.

"Because we're poor. The village is not wealthy.

We're surrounded by vast deserts. Over 70% of the Land of Wind is desert and wasteland.

More than 85% of the land is unfarmable.

Yet most of the country's resources and wealth are hoarded by the Daimyō and nobles, who live in luxury—

even cutting the village's funding to do so."

"Sunagakure receives the smallest budget out of all five great ninja villages.

Without funding, we can't grow. We regress.

And while other villages develop, we fall behind.

In the end, we'd become a minor village that others can trample over, leading to our destruction.

And once the village is gone, the Land of Wind will fall too."

"When that happens, many more people will die—

Ten times more than anyone you've ever met in your life.

To prevent that, the Third Kazekage had no choice but to lead us into war,

to seize more resources and better land, to support more people."

Explaining the relationship between war, economics, and survival to a child—especially one raised under the semi-literate, violence-driven ninja education system—was no easy task.

Shimizu tried to frame it in terms a ninja might understand.

"Then why not take back the resources from the Daimyō and the nobles?"

Sasori asked again.

"Because all the Daimyō and nobles across the ninja world are united.

If we openly rebel and kill our Daimyō, the others will declare us a threat to their class.

They'd order their ninja villages to attack Sunagakure.

We'd be fighting the entire ninja world.

But if we attack the Land of Fire, we only need to deal with Konoha."

Sasori fell silent. He needed to process all of this.

For someone who'd barely studied, whose education mostly revolved around killing, these concepts were completely foreign.

Ninjas only needed to know two things:

Kill. Complete the mission.

After a few seconds, Sasori decided to drop the topic and return to what mattered right now.

"We'll talk about that stuff later.

Today I want to spar with you.

That puppet you made—the one that hides a person inside—is different from the mainstream designs in our village.

I want to test its power."

Shimizu stared deeply into Sasori's eyes and said earnestly:

"Alright.

But after the fight, I hope you'll reflect on what I said.

If you're confused about anything, you can come talk to me."

If he wanted to avoid being turned into a puppet someday, Shimizu figured it was best to start guiding Sasori's thoughts now.

At the very least, he needed to teach him how to think rationally, instead of relying on warped "genius" solutions to problems.

The two walked out of the room and entered the puppet corps' training ground, releasing their respective puppets.

Shimizu fired out chakra threads, connecting his Fatty Puppet to himself and wrapping it over his body. He controlled it with his right hand, while his left hand's chakra thread emerged from a seam in the Fatty Puppet's glove and connected to the Little Boy Puppet.

Controlling puppets with chakra threads didn't always require matching your body movements exactly.

Sasori, at 35 years old in the future, could manipulate hundreds of puppets with just a single chunk of flesh producing chakra threads.

The key to puppet mastery lay in precise chakra thread control.

Of course, posture and finger movement still helped improve accuracy and maximize a puppet's combat potential.

Shimizu couldn't reach Sasori's future level yet. Normally, puppet users only used their fingers to shoot out chakra threads.

That was enough for him. He just needed to multi-task—dividing his focus in two with his Black Secret Technique—and control the Fatty Puppet in combat while manipulating the Little Boy Puppet with the hidden fingers under the Fatty Puppet's glove.

One hand controlled the Little Boy, the other the Fatty. Each used five chakra threads, and his body supported them with physical movement.

Sasori also sent chakra threads to Black Ant and Salamander.

One hand controlled Salamander for defense, while the other commanded Black Ant to launch an attack.

"Black Secret Technique: Hand-Puppet Dance!"

It was the same move Sasori had used on their last mission.

Black Ant's six arms suddenly extended, longer than White Ant's had been, and their ends—now fitted with metallic tubes—transformed into collapsible spear-like weapons.

"Black Secret Technique: Swift Performance Method!"

The Little Boy Puppet responded with spinning saws and mechanical claws, clashing fiercely with Black Ant.

The Little Boy was clearly faster, but Black Ant had more arms and more hidden weapons.

The two puppets were evenly matched. Soon, the tempo of the fight shifted—

Cut the opponent's chakra threads to disrupt their control.

Shimizu raised an eyebrow and shot Sasori a surprised look.

"Black Ant… Salamander… In the future, there's probably also a 'Crow.'

And with Sasori's abilities, these puppets will only be upgraded."

In the future, Kankuro used Black Ant and Crow during the Chūnin Exams, and after becoming a Jōnin in Shippuden, he added Salamander.

The fact that these puppets remained effective even at the Jōnin level meant they had great potential.

By Shimizu's estimate, Black Ant alone already qualified as a B-rank puppet.

Though both were using Black Secret Techniques, and Shimizu's puppet skills had improved significantly, there was still a clear gap between him and Sasori.

(End of Chapter)