Porcelain [Sasori]

Puppet #5

Porcelain

Puppet #5

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The following days were full of happiness for Eirin. Even though she knew that Granny Chiyo and Sasori had their own things to do, she still insisted that she go to Chiyo's puppet lab to play with the puppets. She wanted to finish off that puppet she had started, and show the finished product to her 'mentors' that she looked up to greatly.

Chiyo was an elder of the Sand village. She always made up little excuses or tried to play dead so that she could secretly sneak off to find Eirin and play with her and her puppets. She found Eirin much more interesting than the old hoots in the meetings she was always in.

Sasori was a Genin, but soon he became a Chunin. He was getting busier by the day, but surprisingly, that didn't stop him from checking on his own creations down in the lab. He wasn't ever surprised to see Eirin there. She was always tinkering with the tools and trying to make something when he returned from his missions. The red head shinobi found her presence almost normal.

It was evening when Sasori came down into the lab. He flicked on the lights, expecting to see it empty at this hour. His brows rose in surprise when he saw that Eirin was sleeping, about to slide off the table she was working on. He caught her before she fell and stared at the object she grasped tightly in her hand. She had finished off the puppet she had shown him days ago. He gently pried it out of her hands and stared at it.

He had to admit, the craftsmanship was alright for an amateur, but by no means good. Sasori raised a brow when he saw the face of the puppet. It had red hair and big but almost half lidded eyes.

He let a chuckle escape his mouth and shook his head, placing it on the counter.

Can't believe she tried to make a puppet of me. He thought with slight amusement. He stared at her sleeping face for a short moment, before flicking her on the forehead. It didn't even make her budge. His eye twitched.

The Chunin couldn't just let her stay in the puppet lab, so he picked her up and travelled to her home, where he left her in Hana's care.

Hana thanked the boy graciously before she tucked Eirin in. The food she had cooked for her child was cooling, so she just shoved it into the fridge.

She'll eat it later...Hana sighed. She collapsed onto the sofa, feeling utterly exhausted from her mission in the day. There was a lot of fighting involved this time. It was surprising as well, as the days before that, there was nothing that suggested a planned attack. But right when they just let their guard down, the enemy pounced.

"Geez..." She pressed a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, breathing steadily. One of the opposing ninja she had faced, but wasn't able to kill, had mentioned something of great importance to her.

"Oh? I'm surprised you're still alive. I heard you had died in that assassination."

It shocked Hana greatly that the other ninja knew about it. She shook her head.

No...I shouldn't think of that. I shouldn't think of that at all. No! No thinking about that...

Memories began to surface and Hana tried to suppress them, but to no avail. She pressed her hands to either side of her head and rested her elbows on her thighs, almost pulling at her hair. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as they clouded over with memories of the past. Cold sweat dripped down her chin and she faced forward, trying to calm her erratic breathing.

Calm down, Hana...calm down...

There was a knock on the door. Hana jumped in her seat, feeling dread. She breathed in and out deeply and quickly washed her face, before opening the door.