The Great Shinobi Empires of Jihopan (Naruto Quest, AU Canon)

"I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn't want to intrude on your family time. All I ask is be swift about it," you said.

"Alright. I'll be there in a few, see you soon," Sozen said with a smile, closing the door. Sighing, you made your way to the entrance. It didn't take too long thanks to flying over there, but to your surprise you already saw someone other than the guards! It was an odd figure, like a crouched ball of a person. It was covered in a large tan cloak that lay on the ground and cloth mask covered the bottom half of its face, revealing eyes with pupils that were way too narrow to be natural.

But the most noticeable thing was the long, segmented, metal, and dangerous looking tail that emerged from the back of the figure. It wriggled in the air as you got closer, but it went limp as the figure turned to look at you. "You're late, Saito."

"S-Sasori?" you said with mild surprise.

"Of course it is. You're late. I hate wasting time," Sasori gruffly replied.

"I'm surprised you made it here before me-"

"Where is the other?" Sasori bluntly asked. "There was supposed to be a third, where is he?"

"...I don't particularly like being cut off like that, Sasori." you stated pointedly.

"I asked you a question, Saito," Sasori said, annoyance very clear in his voice. You rolled your eyes and told him that Sozen was eating dinner with his family, then he will be here soon enough. After hearing that Sasori said, "So I must wait even longer? How...irritating."

"Nothing we can do about it now," you shrugged. Sasori gave an annoyed grunt and moved away from you, apparently deciding to draw complicated looking schematics in the dirt with his tail. Curious, you moved over to him to look at what he was making, but it was extremely complicated. It looked like ancient runes to you!

"Why are you bothering me, Saito?" Sasori asked, not even turning to look at you as he continued to scribble on the ground.

"Curious as to what you were doing, but I can't understand a lick of it," you bluntly said. Sasori gave a small scoff and then said, "Of course you couldn't, Only my grandmother and her father could comprehend my designs."

"Oh? Then going by that, they must be plans for future puppets?" you said, knowing that puppetry was Shamon and Chiyo's greatest claim to fame. It did invent an entirely new fighting style within the Sand after all.

"I'm glad it finally got through your skull, Saito," Sasori arrogantly said, continuing to write. "Now are you going to continue jabbering, or shall you leave me to my devices?"

"I figured we could talk, get to know each other a bit before the mission officially starts," you stated, crossing your arms.

"Tch, an annoyance. Go away, do not push me, Saito." Sasori bluntly replied.

"Wow, what a jerk. Maybe I should have ate dinner with Sozen, couldn't be any more worse than trying to talk with this brat!" you thought. But you passed on your chance for that.

What will you do now?

[] Try to talk to Sasori. Despite his behavior, he is interesting...
-[] Talk to him about his lineage.
-[] Talk to him about puppetry.
-[] Talk to him about his life.
-[] Talk to him about past missions.
-[] Talk to him about the current mission.

[] Start messing with Sasori. You weren't going to take his shitty attitude laying down!

[] Leave Sasori alone and wait for Sozen to arrive. You got nothing better to do.

[] Write in.

"So Sasori..." you began, ignoring his warnings. He only gave an annoyed grunt so you continued on, "how did you get into puppetry?"

Sasori stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at you. His glare was still...inhuman, but when he talked, his voice was a bit more animated. "Chiyo is my grandmother, and Monzaemon is my great grandfather. They invented the puppet technique...you could say I was born into it."

"I figured, but that's still interesting. How many puppets have you made?" you asked.

"Currently eight hundred and seventy six puppets, although I'd say there's only one that is truly an expression of my art," Sasori robotically answered. "But these puppets...they are all made of material that wastes away. I need to find something...better."

"Well, nothing lasts forever," you calmly said.

"A foolish frame of mind. Art is about eternal beauty. These puppets are my life's work. Of course, you'd know nothing of art, would you Saito?" Sasori condescendingly said. Despite his face being covered by a cloth mask, you could feel the arrogant smirk radiating from him. However, you shrugged it off and gave your own smirk.

"Maybe more than you think, Sasori," you confidently replied. You made a hand seal and controlled the sand to form...

[] A perfect copy of Sasori.

[] A miniature sculpture of the Sand Village.

[] A large and ornate sword.

[] All four of the Kazekage.

[] A giant version of yourself.

[] Something else? (Write In)

You formed a miniature sculpture of the Sand Village, hundreds upon hundreds of buildings nestled inside the cliff walls. You smirked at Sasori as you presenting the sculpture. You had a good memory of the entire village from all your time flying above it, so you were sure Sasori would be impressed! He looked it over for a long while before speaking.

"Garbage," Sasori gruffly said.

"What? How dare you!" you growled.

"You merely made a copy of what you have seen. That is not art. It is photography. There is no uniqueness, scale does not matter before you try to spit out that excuse," Sasori quickly said. He then continued. "Also while an idiot might think this is impressive, your buildings, minus the landmarks such as the Administration Building, are highly under detailed. Most of them are just vague shapes. They do not even have doors or windows!"

"You expect me to put that much detail into something that nobody would ever notice?" you replied, calming yourself from your previous flare of anger.

"It doesn't matter what others see, Saito. This is about creating the perfect art, these details should be added for the artists sake. A critical eye could easily see what you made was nothing but garbage! And most offensively..." Sasori lowly said before sweeping his long tail against the miniature village, wiping it out and turning into a cloud of sand. "Sand is a poor material to use in art. It is weak and fleeting. It was only maintained by your chakra. Meanwhile my puppets are everlasting works of art, they will still be appreciated long after the winds reduce this empire to nothing but sand and ruin."

"Well, I thank you for your critique," you scoffed sarcastically.

"I do not need your thanks," Sasori pointedly said.

"Is...he being sincere?" you thought to yourself. Before you could continue your conversation, Sozen appeared, now wearing a standard Sand uniform and a Sand forehead protector wrapped around his forehead. He gave you and Sasori a smile and a wave.

"Sorry for being late-"

"And you were. Never waste my time like that again, fool!" Sasori angrily snapped, making Sozen flinch.

"S-Sorry! I was just having dinner with the family and-"

"That is no excuse. Force me to wait like that again and I will make sure you won't have a family," Sasori coldly threatened.

"What was that...?" Sozen replied, now looking deathly serious as he moved towards Sasori.

"Okay, okay, calm down you two!" you quickly said, holding the two men back with some sand. "Sasori, don't say things like that. Besides, we have a mission to go on."

Sozen grumbled under his breath and backed away while Sasori scoffed and turned around. "Let us go. I wish to return to my puppets as soon as possible."

You rolled your eyes and made a hand seal, creating three platforms of sand underneath you, Sozen and Sasori. Sozen and Sasori gave small gasps of surprise, but you had no more time for any more bickering. You began to fly across the desert, keeping yourself between Sozen and Sasori just in case they got into another spat.

As you were flying, Sozen turned to you and asked, "Mind telling me the full details of the mission?"

"Sure. A delegate of the Frost is going to the Rock Empire to negotiate an alliance. If that goes through, the Sand Empire could not handle the combined forces of the Frost and Rock. We are to assassinate the delegate, who is assumed to be protected by the Rock." you explained.

"The Frost? That's a little worrying," Sozen muttered.

"Why is that? Honestly I haven't heard much about they, I know they recently came into power but that's about it," you honestly said.

"I don't have much more than what you said, but I know for a long time they were a small empire. But they made a sudden power move, attacking and conquering both the Hot Springs protectorate and the Moon Empire and making it their land. Their power has gotten greater due to them gaining the clans the Hot Springs and Moon held," Sozen said.

"So it sounds like the Frost thinks its hot shit and wants to make ties with the Rock then?" you mused.

"Seems like it, but let's be careful. Never in the history of Jihopan has one empire gone and completely conquered another. That must be the reason why the Sand is so weary about this possible alliance," Sozen said. You nodded and went quiet. However, after a small bit, you realized you had some downtime before reaching your destination.

What will you do?

[] Talk to Sozen to pass the time. You've had more than your share of Sasori for now.

[] Talk to Sasori. You felt you managed to make a bit of progress with him, why not try for more?

[] Stay silent and focus on the mission. You can't afford to lose focus right now.

[] Something else? (Write In)