marionette || sasori

00 :: Prologue

And God knows how overjoyed he was when he found out that the woman returned his feelings. But the act wasn't that easily accepted around the village. They were nice people and all, exactly why they had worried about Karina being together with an S-Class criminal who took a whole nation down armed with only a single puppet. No, that girl who might as well be the kindest of the kindest was someone they treasure too much to just let her fall into the hands of a man who might not be able to preserve her being.

But as time went by, not one of them had noticed that they had gotten used to the two's peculiar relationship.

Sasori was still as sassy as ever. His side which he refused to show before was now his dominant demeanor. Though if the situation calls for it, the blood devil will still make its way into his behavior. And Karina, the nice girl she was, actually decided to sometimes play along with her partner's antics. And thus sass battles begin.

Soon enough, they were the village's favorite couple. Their relationship was like a light to an already bright and shining world. They weren't too keen on PDAs. But it was the little things that everyone loved the most. Small pecks on the nose from the female to the male. Stares that will be accompanied by warm smiles directed at each. They were so sweet that even ants were going to get diabetes.

It was something Sasori never imagined to have.

Him. A man who had done more bad than good. A man who didn't bat a single eyelash as he mutilated his victims.

He was experiencing happiness.

And it was a happiness that he was unconsciously longing for and has now achieved.

But it didn't last. Just like how happiness was for a criminal who had committed sins beyond human redemption. Everything good was fleeting for a mass murderer, and a criminal of the highest degree.

He didn't know why he even expected that he would get another shot at life. He didn't know why he thought that after everything he's done, he'll be able to change and then that's it. But no, he knew it was impossible. He wouldn't forget that fact that he had killed hundreds, even thousands, inevitably including innocent souls. But he didn't expect someone else to suffer just to make him feel twice the pain.

Kaguya Karina. The woman who was the light of his pitch black world. The sunshine on his endless nights. The existence that had given him more hope than anything else could. The smiles that allowed him to smile back.

The woman who changed him, the man who can't be changed.

Was dying.

Hypercalcemia, close enough to calcium poisoning. Karina not being too proficient in using the kekkei genkai that she was granted was suffering from having too much calcium in her body.

Sasori could remember how she would suddenly be confused about the simplest things. And the disconcerting lethargy that replaced her bubbly and cheerful demeanor. It was like his already dark world had lost the dimmest of lights and had sunk further into the abyss. The ray of hope that was the woman he loved was slowly losing hope herself.

And it wretched Sasori's heart each and everyday that passes to see his beloved become weaker and weaker. More and more helpless each passing day.

But what had might as well killed him was when she completely left him.

When she was no longer breathing. When she was so pale that it was as if she was frozen in ice. When she was unmoving. When she died.

But Sasori noticed one thing. From the start, there were two things that never changed.

One, the strange love that the two shared.

The relationship that shocked everyone. The relationship that also led everyone to accept peculiarity. The relationship that was supposed to be Sasoro's last chance at starting over.

And two, the smile on her lips that Sasori had always treasured.

The smile that made him who he temporarily was. The smile that was as bright as the sun, maybe even brighter.

And that gave him the determination, the resolve to go through his plans.

He left the organization, much to everyone's surprise. And it wasn't a harmless decision. He was now a missing-nin with comepletely nothing. And even his old comrades are now after him as he knows of sensitive information that might jeopardize, compromise the organization.

He searched every where. He searched through highs and lows, warm or cold, he wasn't stopping.

He needed a suitable heart.

He needed a perfect inhabitant.

He needed someone to be inside the wooden artwork that he had produced.

To make it alive.

With the help of a kinjutsu that he was saving for himself, he made a puppet body. A perfect copy of the woman she loved. There were no traces of where the wood's joints connected. It was layered with factored flesh. It was a human. Almost. But it didn't have a heart. It's center was empty. And so the puppet remained dead.

Not until he came across Konohagakure one day.

That village reminded him of the overly nice place where his beloved lived in, came from, and died in. The pleasant air that surrounded the hidden village was strangely nostalgic. And he knew why.

The village was almost empty. It was a given as most of the inhabitants were shinobi, and they were currently far away, thrust into the raging war that happened when he had already left the organization that started it. There were only a few civilians roaming around. Those who were fortunately alive. And despite the mess that littered around the hidden village, the people remained optimistic.

But he didn't really care about the stupid village all that much until he came across a girl.

About 18 years old. Had pink hair. A hair color that was three shades away from his beloved's own. And those bright emerald eyes that were just the same as the eyes that the only woman he loved sported. But there was one thing that differentiated their eyes. While Karina's was full of vigor, hope, and cheerfulness. Sasori failed to notice that the eyes that this girl carried were blank, empty, sad.

But he chose her. And he chose wrong.

The heart that was Haruno Sakura's was broken.