Sasori couldn't help but recall the process of being recruited.
What was his original reason for joining the Akatsuki?
After thinking for a while, he remembered his reason for joining.
It was because he wanted to research Konan's unique body that could transform into countless pieces of paper.
As a researcher, Konan's unique body interested him greatly.
And after joining the Akatsuki, he came into contact with even more interesting bodies.
Kakuzu, who transformed his body using Earth Grudge Fear.
Hidan, with his immortal body.
And Deidara, who had mouths all over his body and could create high-intensity explosions.
Kisame, who could fuse with his sword to become a shark, etc.
And Black Zetsu, completely black, an unknown creature.
Everyone was so unique.
For a researcher like Sasori, the Akatsuki was a huge treasure trove.
But so much time had passed.
His original research interest had faded.
Perhaps it was due to age, or maybe experiencing too many things,
He gradually lost his desire to research.
Or rather, unable to obtain their corpses, he simply had no way to research them.
After all, he couldn't kill Akatsuki's members to research them.
If he did, he would die too.
After being in the Akatsuki, he realized how strong everyone in the Akatsuki was.
Although he wasn't the weakest, there were many stronger than him.
"Forget it, everything is in the past."
Sasori slowly closed his eyes, no longer thinking about the past.
"Let the past fade away with the wind."
"I should also enjoy a peaceful life."
…
The next morning.
Sasori was woken up by the commotion outside his door.
This was the first time in a long while he had slept so defenselessly.
Clearly in the heart of enemy territory, yet he was so relaxed.
If he were on a battlefield, he would have died countless times already.
The window glass broken by Naruto yesterday hadn't been repaired yet, so the noise directly reached the bedroom where he slept.
Impatiently, he picked up the alarm clock to check the time and found it was only eight in the morning.
Although as a puppet, he didn't necessarily need sleep to rest,
Being woken up so early in the morning annoyed even Sasori.
Takumi had told him before that work started at nine-thirty.
There was still an hour and a half until work.
He was still resting, yet he was woken up.
"Such a noisy bunch."
Sasori reluctantly got up, went to the door, and opened it,
Only to see a crowd of women pushing directly past him into the shop.
"Hurry! See if Takumi-kun is here!"
"I didn't get in line yesterday; today I have to let Takumi-kun cut my hair personally!"
"Don't be delusional! With so many people yesterday, only that lucky one was favored by Takumi-kun!!"
"Speaking of which, that woman suddenly disappeared. I saw many people trying to find her, but no matter how they searched, they couldn't find her."
"I don't see Takumi-kun! Hasn't Takumi-kun arrived yet?!"
After rushing in, the group of women kept searching everywhere, loudly calling out Takumi's name.
At the same time, they chatted loudly among themselves.
Sasori, pushed into a corner helplessly, heard they were looking for Takumi and said helplessly, "Takumi isn't coming today."
"What?"
The bizarre creature, one meter wide and one meter tall, closest to him, looked at Sasori. "Takumi-kun isn't coming?"
"That's right."
Sasori calmly looked at this creature that should be human but didn't look human at all. "He told me yesterday he wouldn't be coming."
"If you want to find him, come another day, or go find him directly."
His words immediately made the girls dejected.
"What? And here I was hoping Takumi-kun would do it himself."
"I got up at five to put on makeup, and I came all this way for nothing?"
"What are you! I got up at four to put on makeup!"
"I got up at three!"
"I put on my makeup yesterday and waited!"
"No wonder, the makeup on your face has solidified. Go change it quickly, or Takumi-kun will be scared to death when he sees you."
The women noisily walked out,
Leaving behind a messy shop and a silent red-haired boy.
Sasori silently tidied the hall that had been messed up, putting all the scissors and combs away separately, and neatly folding the towels before placing them in the cabinet.
As a top-tier puppeteer, Sasori had a bit of OCD.
Items had to be placed neatly and follow certain rules.
For example, combs of the same color had to be put together, and towels of different colors had to be folded separately.
With the help of puppet hands, cleaning up was also very fast.
What would take others an hour, he finished in just two minutes.
Being able to control dozens of puppet hands simultaneously meant Sasori had dozens of servants working at once.
Looking at those puppet hands at work, Sasori suddenly fell into deep thought.
As Sunagakure's strongest puppeteer, he had always pursued the power of puppets.
That was also why he developed human puppets.
But now, since he no longer needed to fight, was it still necessary to research human puppets?
Puppetry was originally developed to prevent Shinobi from using their weak bodies to confront enemies,
Instead, using the sturdy bodies of puppets for close combat,
And defeating enemies through various mechanisms designed on the puppets, creating unique attacks that caught enemies off guard.
Even if a puppet was destroyed, for a puppeteer, it was just a matter of changing puppets.
But human puppets didn't have this advantage.
If Takumi hadn't repaired the Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori would have completely lost this collectible.
Although he now looked down on the Third Kazekage puppet too.
After all, the Third Kazekage puppet was no longer a puppet he had made.
The puppet he made had been shattered by Takumi.
What he had now was just one repaired by Takumi, no longer completely belonging to him.
Although he accepted it, Sasori still had a grudge in his heart.
He wanted to create eternal art.
But his puppets hadn't achieved that.
All his puppets had been completely shattered into pieces by Takumi.
At that moment, his inner pride was also shattered.
"Perhaps I should change direction."
No longer focusing on the power of puppets, but paying more attention to their functionality.
No longer using puppets for war, but in daily life.
Puppets that even ordinary people could use.
At that moment, a new goal was born in Sasori's heart.
After all, without a goal, Sasori really didn't know what meaning his existence had.
Having obtained a kind of eternal life, time meant nothing to him.
He had a vast amount of time, but without a goal, this vast amount of time would turn into poison, gradually eroding his spirit until he destroyed himself.
Sasori didn't plan on dying now.
At least not yet.
He wanted to figure out Takumi's true purpose in keeping him here.
He still couldn't believe Takumi really only intended for him to be a barber in Konoha.
Ding ling.
Sasori's train of thought was interrupted. He looked up and saw Konoha's Jinchuriki standing at the door, surveying the room.
"It's not business hours yet."
Sasori immediately said.
"Huh? Isn't it 9:30?"
Naruto looked curiously at the clock on the wall. "That clock should be right, right?"
Sasori silently turned his head and found that the time was indeed 9:30.
He didn't realize that just by thinking casually, time had passed so quickly.
He hadn't felt the passage of time at all.
"Sit down."
Since it was time, he had no reason to drive away a customer.
And he was actually a bit curious about Konoha's Jinchuriki.
According to some intelligence he had, Konoha's attitude towards this Jinchuriki was somewhat ambiguous.
"Oh."
Naruto casually found a seat and sat down. "I heard from Takumi that haircuts are free here. You have to give me a hairstyle even cooler than Takumi's!"
"Then Sakura will notice how cool I am!"
He daydreamed, sitting in the chair fantasizing about his and Sakura's future.
"Don't be delusional."
Sasori mercilessly interrupted Naruto's daydream. "With your face, it's impossible. The gap between you and him can't be narrowed just by changing your hairstyle."
"Old man, you're too harsh."
Naruto squinted his eyes, feeling bored.
He knew that the red-haired youth behind him, though young-looking, was actually the same age as Kakashi and the others.
So calling him "old man" didn't bother him at all.
"What hairstyle do you want?"
Sasori asked quietly.
Without Takumi there to ask, he had to do it himself.
"Anything, as long as it shows off how cool I am."
Naruto made what he thought was a simple suggestion.
But to Sasori's ears, it made him feel very embarrassed.
Because Naruto had given him an extremely difficult problem.
Naruto exuded a comedic temperament from head to toe.
He had no idea how to make Naruto look cool.
He did know how to make Naruto look foolish.
"Huh? Why haven't you started?"
Naruto turned around curiously and saw Sasori's expressionless face.
"Change your request. The previous one is impossible."
Sasori said bluntly.
"Hey!"
Naruto shouted dissatisfiedly, "What do you mean by that? Are you saying I can never look cool no matter what? You underestimate people too much!"
"It is what it is."
Sasori said calmly, "If you have no ideas, I'll have to ask you to leave."
"Then whatever, just cut it like the cool people you've seen."
Naruto gave up caring.
How was he supposed to know what hairstyle would make him look cool?
He could only leave the choice to Sasori, the barber.
As for the result, he would only know when he saw it.
"The cool people I've seen?"
Sasori's heart stirred, thinking of a certain person carved on Konoha's Hokage Rock.
He immediately had an idea.
And cutting it that way, he would only need to make slight modifications.
No need for a big project that wasted time.
"Are you a Genin of Konoha?"
Sasori casually started a topic. "In that pit before, were you the weakest?"
"Of course not!"
Naruto immediately retorted loudly. "I was in the top three... top five among everyone present!"
He wanted to say top three, but considering Takumi, Kakashi, and Guy's strength,
He honestly moved himself down the ranking.
"So you're quite strong."
Sasori said blandly, like an ordinary barber making small talk when bored while cutting hair. "But I didn't see you fight."
"Because there was no need for me to fight!"
Naruto proudly puffed out his chest. "With Takumi around, nothing is difficult for him!"
"Is that so?"
Sasori's voice remained very calm. "Have you always relied on others' help to get through difficulties?"
"Of course not!"
Naruto retorted loudly, but without his previous confidence.
Naruto knew it best in his heart.
He had always thought he relied completely on himself.
But since becoming a Shinobi, after experiencing various things, he knew he had received help from many people.
Especially Takumi, who had stepped in several times to save him.
"What's wrong?"
Sasori noticed Naruto's mood drop slightly and said calmly, "From your tone, it's obvious you've received help from others, and more than once."
Naruto remained silent.
He thought of his lonely childhood.
Although he had many friends now,
Back then, he was constantly ostracized by his classmates, all because of something he didn't understand: the so-called demon fox.
Until now, Naruto didn't know his identity as a Jinchuriki.
No one told him, and he never thought about it.
Snip, snip, snip.
Only the sound of scissors filled the room.
Sasori didn't ask any more questions.
Naruto just silently bowed his head slightly.
After a long while.
"Finished."
Sasori said blandly, retracting the puppet hands.
Naruto looked up blankly.
At that moment, he had almost forgotten why he came here.
But when he saw his hair in the mirror, his random thoughts instantly vanished without a trace.
"What are you doing!?"
Naruto jumped up from the chair as if a steel needle was stuck in his butt, turning around and pointing at Sasori, shouting, "When did I ask for this kind of haircut?!"