He wouldn’t be able to kill her now.
Someone other than he did knew she existed, and no doubt would end up telling someone else—a piece of information that would only end up working its way up to the Kazekage. Having been heard by all those people, the idea of Sasori simply going ahead and killing her and turning her into a puppet was no longer one he would be able to carry out—that plan was utterly out the window. They’d want to know more about her, to try and help her…they’d definitely stop him from hurting her in anyway. The one thing he’d tried so hard to avoid, and it happened so easily; but there was nothing Sasori could do about it now, prompting him to sigh imperceptibly and reply bluntly,
“I found her wandering the streets. From the looks of her I guess she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in days or slept either. So I decided to help her out.”
It was now that the ninja took a closer look at her, seeing that Sasori was right; she didn’t look particularly well. She looked young, too—she had to have been through some rough times to have ended up like this. Immediately his gaze softened and he nodded along with Sasori's words. He wasn’t about to do anything to this girl; she didn’t deserve it. Clearly her circumstances were suspicious, but no doubt she had been with her family or at least her team and there had been a fight in the Land of Wind, leaving her the only survivor. With no one to help her and nowhere to go, she must have wandered about looking for food and shelter until she eventually came across Sunagakure. Accepting his theory, the ninja smiled at her, questioning sweetly,
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
Sasori narrowed his eyes as he realised he hadn’t actually asked her that the entire time she’d been here—then again, considering he’d been about to kill her, it hadn’t exactly mattered. But all he could do was watch as she looked coolly back at him; glad there was one thing she was able to remember and answer, and responded simply,
“Minarai. But people just call me Mina.”
After a short talk, Mina was taken to the Kazekage, Sasori by her side, having to explain her story once more. He hadn’t particularly wanted to; before she had had a purpose to him. Before she had been going to be a puppet in his collection. But now that she had been discovered and they had taken pity on her, he wouldn’t be allowed to do so anymore, so what did she matter to him anymore? Though still, he couldn’t deny that curiosity about her remained, resurfacing as they considered what would happen to her. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing in her direction, remembering the moment that had occurred back at his house, and Sasori couldn’t help but wonder if she did matter. Something about Mina was different, and he couldn’t get that out of his head.
It was what kept him quiet as the Kazekage allowed Mina to stay in Sunagakure, giving her a house, feeding her and clothing her. The image of the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice was what allowed him to accept everything that happened as she was accepted into the village as one of them, and eventually given a headband and allowed to do missions along with the rest of the ninjas. They had postponed the occasion to begin with, trying to figure out where she was from—who she really was—but she couldn’t remember much. What she had told Sasori had been true; she didn’t know where she was from—all she remembered was walking through the desert and arriving at Sunagakure.
But throughout all of this, in the same way Sasori didn’t forget Mina—
Mina never forgot him.
This was clear a couple of days after their first meeting; Sasori had attempted to go on as normal, focusing on how he was going to be leaving the village—on all he had been going to do before Mina had stumbled into his life. He’d been doing his usual routine, working on his puppets and the like, when he’d heard a knock on his door. Frowning in confusion, a part of him had wanted to brush it off; he was busy, he knew he didn’t have any missions right now, and he didn’t want to be disturbed if it was something pointless. For some reason people still felt the need to ask him questions about Mina—even when he didn’t know a thing about her either. Though knowing he couldn’t just ignore it, regardless of how much he wanted to, Sasori had sighed inwardly and retreated from his room to the front door, opening it swiftly—and narrowing his eyes in surprise upon finding Minarai standing outside.
And even more so when she abruptly told him she wanted to stay.
Just like before, her words had frozen Sasori, and to begin with, he wasn’t sure what to do, simply standing there silently as the seconds ticked by. He already knew he understood nothing about this girl, and yet she asked to stay? What possible reason could he come up with to allow that? He had only taken her there because he’d wanted to kill her, but since that had gone wrong, Sasori was free to wash his hands of her; especially considering how close he was to getting out of this place. But then the memory of what had happened before—of how he had been brought completely to a halt by what she did and said—resurfaced in Sasori's mind, and he couldn’t help but hesitate. Automatically he searched her eyes, looking for anything that might give something away…but there was nothing. Sasori was only reminded of his curiosity about her, of his fleeting thought that somehow, somewhere, they shared a connection—and it stopped him from being completely able to shut her out.
Minarai hadn’t said a thing the entire time, waiting for Sasori to figure things out for himself, knowing that trying to push the idea wouldn’t end well—but was surprised herself at her reaction as Sasori abruptly shifted slightly to allow her to come inside. Her body relaxed; she released a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding in the first place and fought a smirk that tried to appear on her face. Instead she slipped quietly inside, her heart beating a little faster at the idea of why she was reacting so strongly to this, but shaking it off, Mina faced Sasori. She could understand him; she knew she could. What he was going to be doing…it was all in his eyes. A lot in her life was blurry right now, being unable to remember what came before, but Sasori had cut through all that, and Mina knew he was special—and therefore she was going to keep him close. She didn’t want to be in Sunagakure either, and knew without doubt that Sasori could help her—she had to stay with him.
Sasori wasn’t exactly as enthusiastic about it as Mina was. Though he couldn’t force himself to simply shut the door on those intense brown eyes of hers, he wasn’t overly happy, either. There was no way he was going to change his whole life to suit her, and so he was going to go back to what he was doing before; he had things to be getting on with. He just didn’t know how Mina would react to that fact. Sasori didn’t want to have to babysit her; he wasn’t talkative, and didn’t want to have to deal with lots of questions when it came down to his work with her constantly fluttering around pointing things out and making things difficult. She wasn’t a puppeteer, so she wouldn’t understand what he was doing...but he wouldn’t get put off, and seemingly neither would Mina, as she followed on obediently just like before, getting another seat to put next to Sasori's desk as he got back to work when she saw what was going on. And taking a breath, Sasori rolled his shoulders and attempted to focus on what was in front of him, still wondering why the hell he had let her in in the first place.
