Sasori of the Red Sand

Sasori of the Red Sand is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Sasori (Japanese: サソリ, Hepburn: Sasori) was a male human who was an inhabitant of Sunagakure in the Ninja World. He was the grandchild of Lady Chiyo and was cared deeply by his parents. When he was young, his parents were killed on a mission where they were slain by the White Fang Sakumo Hatake of Konohagakure. This left Sasori an orphan though he was never informed of his parents death and instead his grandmother claimed that they were on an extended mission. Thus, he kept waiting for his parents and was unaware of the fact that he had been made an orphan. In this time, his grandmother took Sasori under his care where she was immensely saddened at her child's death and it pained her in seeing the sadness in her grandson. To make him happy, she came to teach him the art of puppetry that was a jutsu whereby a shinobi was able to manipulate a puppet remotely using strings made of chakra. He was allowed use of any of the puppets stored at the sand village where he secretly came to make his first puppets based on his parents. Using his chakra, he controlled them and had them embrace him as well as kept them in his bed as he missed his parents. The talent he had in making these puppets showcase his skill as a puppeteer where he came to refine this skill over the years. During the Third Shinobi World War, the effectiveness of his puppets in spilling his enemies' blood on the sand gave rise to Sasori's moniker Sasori of the Red Sand. However, motivated by his desire to make works that last forever, Sasori began experimenting to create puppets out of people. Around 20 years ago, he was noted to had left Sunagakure and it was around this time he converted his body into a puppet with his core of living flesh remaining as his only human part, thus appearing to maintain the youth of the time of his departure. Over 10 years ago, Sasori secretly assassinated the Third Kazekage and made him into one of his human puppets. Despite this, Sasori noted the Third Kazekage did not die without giving Sasori a struggle. After becoming a missing-nin, he was confronted in his travels by Konan who looked to recruit him into the ranks of the Akatsuki. He came to refuse her offer but she challenged him to a fight where she said that if he lost then he would join her organization. Despite his skill, Sasori was defeated and decided to join the ranks of the Akatsuki. After joining the Akatsuki, he utilised his skills to create numerous spies like Yūra and Mukade from Suna as sleeper agents. Sasori was paired with Orochimaru, who shared his desire of an everlasting existence. Later, Sasori joined his group in recruiting Deidara into Akatsuki. Later on, Orochimaru left the Akatsuki following a failed attempt to trying to take over Itachi Uchiha's body. At some point, he recruited Kabuto Yakushi who became one of his subordinates and was used as a spy on Orochimaru's operations at Otogakure. Unknown to him, Kabuto was working for Orochimaru long before he posed as an Akatsuki spy, as he and the rest of the Akatsuki thought that Kabuto joined Orochimaru's side after being dispelled of Sasori's brainwashing. He was among the Akatsuki who gathered for the meeting to discuss Orochimaru's capture of Sasuke Uchiha and them resolving to capture the Nine-Tails to further their plans.

Two years later, he along with Deidara were dispatched with the mission of securing the the One-Tail Jinchūriki Gaara who had become the Kazekage of Sunagakure. Sasori had no desire to return back to his homeland but he had to accomplish his mission. He activated the sealing jutsu on his subordinate Yura so that he would resume his old loyalties where he helped eliminate the guards standing watch at the village. This came in time as his master Sasori and Deidara arrived at Sunagakure. Deidara expressed the desire to acquire the Jinchūriki himself and scouted the village using a construct animated as a bird. In this time, he had to stand watch outside the village where he was keen to leave Sunagakure with him planting traps at the entrance to stall any pursuit after the completion of their mission. Sasori waited for sometime as Deidara ended up in a battle with Gaara himself and managed to defeat the Kazekage who he took hostage. Meeting up with Sasori at the entrance, the two began to make their way back to their hidden Akatsuki base but were chased by Kankurō who wanted to rescue his brother Gaara. Sasori who wanted a fight to entertain him told Deidara to continue forward whilst he dealt with he pursuing sand ninja where he was impressed that Kankurō had managed to track them. Sending Deidara ahead, Sasori came to fight his pursuer where he succeeded in poisoning and nearly killing Kankurō, and easily destroying his puppets, as he had pre-existing knowledge of their secrets with him leaving his foe for dead.

Returning to their nearby hideourt, Sasori and Deidara called upon their fellow Akatsuki who remotely helped in the extraction and sealing the One-Tailed Shukaku from Gaara. Sasori and Deidara were then left in charge by their leader of defeating the pursuing Team 7 and Sasori's grandmother, Chiyo. As Deidara led Naruto Uzumaki and Kakashi Hatake away using Gaara's dead body as bait, Sasori was left to face Sakura Haruno and his grandmother Chiyo. Soon after the battle began, with Chiyo controlling her as a puppet, Sakura was able to destroy Sasori's puppet, Hiruko. As Sasori emerged from Hiruko's remains and revealed his true self, Chiyo and Sakura were shocked to see his youthful face, considering that he had left Sunagakure over twenty years ago, yet looked so young. Not wasting any time, however, Sasori brought out his Third Kazekage puppet, who he revealed to be his favourite, as the Third was the hardest to kill and add to his collection. Since the Third Kazekage was a human puppet, Sasori was able use its various Iron Sand abilities to attack and overwhelm Chiyo and Sakura. To try and combat the Kazekage, Chiyo brought out the first puppets Sasori ever created Mother and Father. Although Chiyo had since equipped them with extra weapons and defences, the Kazekage's puppet's Iron Sand quickly disabled the two puppets, and Chiyo's arm as well. Acting on her own, Sakura demolished the Kazekage puppet after picking up on its movements and using herself as bait to lower Sasori's guard. With the loss of the Kazekage puppet, Sasori revealed the reason behind his young look: his own human puppet body, which itself was fitted with numerous weapons and traps laced with poison. Sakura eventually managed to break apart his puppet body, but missed his core, allowing him to reassemble himself. Chiyo then brought out her own ten puppets in an attempt to level the playing field. Sasori used his Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets, allowing him to control ten times as many puppets as Chiyo.

Since Chiyo's puppets were designed to work together, a trait lacking with all of Sasori's puppets, her puppets fared far better than his, although they were eventually overwhelmed by Sasori's sheer numbers. During the battle, Chiyo attempted to seal Sasori's chakra with a special orb from one of her puppets, but missed his core — the only living part of his body and the source of his chakra — and only trapped his puppet body. As Chiyo and Sakura were distracted by his summoned puppets, Sasori was revealed to have transferred the cylindrical container housing his core, into another one of his own puppets, possessing his face's likeness, before the seal nailed his original body to a wall. Using the seal as a distraction, Sasori, in his new puppet body, attempted a sneak attack on Chiyo. However, Sakura took the sword's attack from Sasori for Chiyo. Sasori's katana pierced Sakura's abdomen, and since the blade itself was coated in poison, Sasori stated that she would either succumb to the poison or bleed to death. As Sasori prepared to attack again, it gave Chiyo a chance to use Mother and Father to stab him through his core in the form of an embrace. As Chiyo ran to Sakura's almost lifeless body, she began to try and heal her, to which Sasori, even in his dying state, laughed in amusement at her seemingly senile attempt to save Sakura, stating that it was far too late for any form of medical ninjutsu. When Chiyo revealed the true nature of her technique, Sasori believed it impossible until Sakura awoke. Sasori then decided to reward his killers for their victory and told them that he was set to meet his spy at the Tenchi Bridge in Kusagakure. It was then he died but the information he imparted was used by the leaf shinobi to stage an ambush with Captain Yamato taking on the guise of Sasori in a meeting with Kabuto.

It was shown that his human puppet remains were later taken and used as a puppet for Kankuro. Despite his death, he came to be resurrected through the reanimation jutsu that had been mastered by Kabuto Yakushi. He had managed to bring back many of the slain Akatsuki along with others which he then presented to Tobi for use in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Sasori joined Deidara along with several others as they were deployed as part of a commando force that intercepted scouts of the Allied Shinobi Forces. After dispatching the scouts, they moved to confront the commando unit of the enemy with this group being led by Kankuro. Irritated by the adversaries scurrying about as they attempt to evade them, the group was eventually taken captive nonetheless. Sasori then forcefully manipulated the booby-trapped Muta Aburame, so as to attack the opposing Surprise Attack Division without their knowledge, while taking Zaji hostage. However, the enemy uncovered the trap and evaded the blast, forcing him to engage them using the controlled Tokuma Hyūga and Ranka, but Omoi soon managed to free them both. After Kankurō connected his own chakra threads to those of Sasori's, which had just been severed, the latter is pulled downwards, and Ittan raised the terrain he had just lowered, causing him to collide with Deidara. Recuperating, he complimented Kankurō's improvement and later remarked that he had obtained the immortal body he had always desired, upon seeing the former reveal his old body. Sasori then manipulated Shin in avoiding Omoi and Kankurō's attacks, before Deidara detonated the clay placed inside of Shin.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Sasori had wide greyish brown eyes that he inherited from his mother whilst possessing short, mousy red hair which he inherited from his father. By the current day, his appearance had seemingly not changed as he remained youthful but in reality this was because he had converted his body into a human puppet. A compartment in his right chest had the words 'core of living flesh' (生身の核, namami no kaku) whilst on the left side which had the kanji for "scorpion" (蠍, sasori) painted on it. He came to be renowned as Sasori of the Red Sand (赤砂のサソリ, Akasuna no Sasori) and as the Genius Modelling Specialist of the Puppet Brigade (傀儡部隊の天才造形師, Kugutsu Butai no Tensai Zōkeishi, English TV: The Legendary Master Craftsman of the Puppet Corps).

Sasori said that he hated being kept waiting and similarly hated forcing others to wait for a long time. In his true state, his eyes would also be wide open in a maniacal way, as opposed to his normal calm looking eyes.

The sand ninja was said to see his work as an expression of art. He believed that art was something that stood eternally and was for all to see. This put him at odds with Deidara who believed that art was only for a brief instance. It was for this reason that he could agree with Orochimaru's attempt at remaining young as he believed that being eternally youth was a thing of beauty.

He was famed puppeteer genius who had designed many of the puppets used by the Puppeteer Brigade. His talents allowed him to create Human Puppets where he used the bodies of existing people to form a puppet.

According to Sasori, he had no remorse for the deaths and murders he committed in his life. He stated that he did shed any tears for the deaths he caused even if they were his relatives. His grandmother Chiyo attributed blame to the teachings of the sand ninja that had turned Sasori into a killer. He despised the weakness of showing emotion in combat and felt that there should be no issue with murdering another person. Despite his views, it was claimed by Chiyo that Sasori had lowered his defences in his battle against Sakura that allowed his grandmother to kill him.

It was said that he had always been perceptive with him quickly learning that his parents had died even though this knowledge had been kept from him. Ultimately, it was said that Sasori had worked long to remove his heart from his body and become emotionless. It was this ideal that made him admire the Root who tried to instil such feelings amongst their recruits. This was what saw him place his essence in a puppet but even then he found that his heart was with him.

He was noted for being the grandson of the famed puppeteer Chiyo (チヨ, Chiyo) who also served as a counselor to their village.

Powers and abilities

Sasori was once a male human wo came to be trained in the art of the shinobi. Such was his talent that he was labelled as an S-rank (Sランク, Esu ranku) ninja. Such was his strength that he was noted to had been responsible for the death of the Kazekage.

He came to be trained in the art of puppetry by his grandmother Chiyo who was a powerful user of the jutsu. In addition, he was a master poisoner and claimed to had the most medical knowledge in the entire sand village. This allowed him to develop a variety of potent poisons that he used in his weapons.

It was said that he was the only person capable of making Human Puppets. The process of making a puppet involved draining a corpse of its blood and then removing the organs whereupon the skin was preserved. It was then turned into a human puppet where it became outfitted with various hidden weapons of his creation. An additional element of a Human Puppet was the fact that it retained the abilities of the person it was based on. Thus, Sasori was able to make use of their specialised jutsu as part of the puppet's arsenal of abilities. The ultimate expression of this ability was turning himself into a human puppet. This meant that there was no aspect of his body that was living except for a core that could emit chakra threads to manipulate his puppets. So long as this core was undamaged, Sasori could not be killed and could reform his broken puppet body.

Among the puppets he had created included:

• Kuroari (黒蟻­, Kuroari) : the Black Ant was a multi-armed barrelled body puppet created by Sasori who later left it within Sungakure. Its primary function is to capture opponents and thus it does not contained as many hidden weapons. On each of its arm segments was also a saw blade.
• Karasu (烏­, Karasu) : the Crow was a three-eyed multi-armed puppet created by Sasori who later left it within Sunagakure. It contained a variety of bladed weapons and projectiles that were coated with poisons whilst also made use of smoke bombs.
• Sanshōuo (山椒魚­, Sanshōuo) : the Salamander resembled its namesake where it was a puppet made by Sasori originally but he came to abandon it in Sunagakure. It could defend against attacks from the front as well as the tail being able to tuck up to reach the frill and guard the rear, followed by an iron cloak immediately covering all sides. The puppets interior was able to house two people and capable of protecting them from dangerous attacks.
• Hiruko (ヒルコ­, Hiruko) : originally a shinobi of a nearby village that Sasori had killed and turned into a human puppet. He was his eleventh puppet and his most favourite with Sasori often residing within the armoured shell to the point that most people thought it was his actual body.
• Third Kazekage (三代目風影­, Sandaime Kazekage) : the former leader of Sunagakure and said to be the strongest of all the Kage's of the sand village. He was murdered by Sasori around 10 years ago in order to claim his body and use his iron sand jutsu technique.
• Sasori (蠍­, Sasori) : the final puppet at his disposal was himself after he had converted his own body into a Human Puppet. This body when used in combat was shown to possess a number of hidden armaments within its frame that included flamethrowers in the hands. According to Sasori, he had not used himself in combat since he first joined the ranks of the Akatsuki.

Sasori had stated that he had nearly 300 puppets within his collection that consisted of many people he had killed and turned into human puppets. He was often fond of coating their weapons with poison that he used to defeat his enemies.

The techniques known to him included:

• Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique (潜脳操砂の術­, Sennō Sōsa no Jutsu) :
• Prepared Puppet: Eight Waves of Needles (仕込み傀儡・針々八波­, Shikomi Kugutsu: Shinshin Happa) :
• Iron Sand Drizzle (砂鉄時雨­, Satetsu Shigure) :
• Iron Sand Gathering Assault (砂鉄結襲­, Satetsu Kesshū) :
• Iron Sand World Method (砂鉄界法­, Satetsu Kaihō) :
• Iron Sand Black Iron Wings (砂鉄・黒鉄乃翼­, Satetsu: Kurogane no Tsubasa) :

Among his greatest techniques was the Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets (赤秘技・百機の操演­, Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen) whereby he could call forth a hundred puppets that he could control in the field simultaneously. Sasori would call them forth from a summoning scroll that he kept on his back and emitted hundreds of chakra threads from a compartment that opened on the right side of his chest. It was said to be a greater version of his grandmother's technique whereby she could control 10 puppets at a moment which she famously used to take a fortress. According to Sasori, he had used this army of puppets to once slaughter the people of an entire nation. His sense of control was more limited when directing all 100 puppets but improved as their numbers were reduced in combat. Sasori could move his mind from his main body and shift to one of his puppets if this was needed.

Notes

• Sasori of the Red Sand was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the setting of Naruto.
• The name "Sasori" (蠍) meant "scorpion" and had the same birth date as his creator Masashi Kishimoto..

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, Sasori appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Takahiro Sakurai and English actor Johnny Yong Bosch in the dub. The anime revealed that in his childhood he had a friend named Komushi who lost his right arm during his border control duty. This led to Sasori giving him a new puppet arm as a prosthetic limb until Komushi perished after accidentally ingesting some of Sasori's poison. After dying Sasori proceeded to turn him into one of his first human puppets much to the horror of his grandmother Chiyo.

Appearances

• Naruto:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.