Land of Rain, Six Paths City.
In the morning, Sasori woke up on time, brushed his teeth and washed his face in the bathroom, then opened the door, ready to go to the Ninja Sect cafeteria for breakfast.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Nagato standing ten meters away under a big tree.
Nagato nodded to Sasori, and the two headed to the Ninja Sect cafeteria together.
"I say, you don't even live here, why come every day? I don't need your supervision to complete the tasks as usual; after all, I also want to regain my freedom sooner." Sasori complained as they walked.
Since that day he skipped breakfast and didn't go to work, Nagato waited at Sasori's door every morning to have breakfast together.
Before Sasori got his biological clock set, Nagato would knock on his door if he overslept.
This irked Sasori a bit; from childhood to adulthood, only his parents had been like this, not even his grandmother was this controlling.
Seeing Nagato was getting addicted to supervising him, Sasori became anxious, disregarding Nagato's authority over his freedom.
"It's not supervision," Nagato shook his head.
He wasn't there to be a supervisor but hoped Sasori would develop the habit of eating meals regularly and not be too lonely.
They were both children who lost their parents early, and Nagato saw a bit of himself in Sasori.
Before meeting Yahiko and Konan, Nagato wandered alone, often feeling that in such a vast Land of Rain, such a large Ninja World, there was no place for him, no one to rely on.
Though they might have faced different situations, Nagato could sense the loneliness in Sasori.
Nagato wanted to become Sasori's Yahiko, so he would no longer be alone.
"What is that? You really think of yourself as my brother, huh." Sasori couldn't help but mock.
Nagato showed a thoughtful expression, then asked, "When were you born?"
If he couldn't be Sasori's Yahiko, he could be his brother.
"November 8, xx year." Sasori replied instinctively.
"Then there's no problem with age. I was born on September 19, xx year, same year but earlier." Nagato nodded.
In terms of age or height, he was qualified to be Sasori's elder brother.
Sasori looked at Nagato with exasperation, thinking his sarcastic remark had been taken seriously.
Just because they have the same hair color and he's a bit taller, he thinks he can take advantage of Sasori.
"What do you mean 'no problem'? I haven't agreed." Sasori said helplessly.
"Let's go have breakfast," Nagato said calmly.
Watching Nagato's so composed expression, Sasori suddenly felt very annoyed.
Clearly they were the same age, yet Nagato always remained calm in the face of Sasori's provocative words, making it seem like Sasori was being unreasonable.
When Sasori thought it over carefully, Nagato really did resemble a good-natured brother treating his mischievous younger sibling gently.
"There's still Sosuke-sensei's class later, we should go earlier," Nagato said, noticing Sasori suddenly appeared annoyed and stood still, seemingly lost in thought.
Today was the fourth day of unrestricted lectures; they attended the courses in the previous two days. Due to the presence of many Hidden Sand attendees, Mokgetsu gave Sasori a small benefit—during lecture activities, the Fuinjutsu wasn't maintained, allowing Sasori to use the Transformation Jutsu for disguise.
Sasori actually had the idea of escaping during this opportunity.
He felt that with such a sudden influx of ninjas in Six Paths City, it would be difficult for Ninja Sect to manage, coupled with not being sealed for ten days, it was a perfect chance to escape.
But when he remembered Sosuke saying that if caught trying to escape, the sentence would triple, Sasori hesitated to take the risk.
Nagato's perception ability, which Sasori had witnessed, made him not too confident about escaping from Nagato, plus the mysterious Sosuke made Sasori reluctant to gamble.
If he lost this bet, then revenge would truly be hopeless.
Sasori didn't reply, just walked silently towards the cafeteria.
Although Sasori wasn't particularly fond of Sosuke, he had to admit, the title of Ninja Master was quite accurate.
Although Sasori specialized in Puppetry and wasn't interested in other ninjutsu, he could still listen to Sosuke's lessons.
After finishing breakfast, Sasori used the Transformation Jutsu and headed to the lecture training ground.
They didn't arrive too early or too late; many people were already standing in the training ground.
"Last time it was seven days, this time eight days; will the total teaching days for the third session become nine?"
"It's hardly likely; Sosuke-sensei's course quality is so high, it feels he has to prepare for a long time. It's uncertain when the next one will be."
Since Mokgetsu hadn't arrived yet, the waiting ninjas were all chatting with acquaintances.
Nagato and Sasori went to where they stood during the previous two lessons and waited quietly.
About twenty minutes later, Mokgetsu arrived at the training ground, greeted by a chorus of Sosuke-sensei's greetings, and walked to the podium.
The noisy training ground quickly quieted down, and the ninjas all looked at Sosuke.
Mokgetsu smiled slightly and answered a few lucky students' questions, then started the formal course when the time came.
Time flew by quickly, and before Sasori knew it, dusk had arrived.
After solving dinner with Nagato at the Ninja Sect cafeteria, Sasori went to the research room Mokgetsu had prepared for him to begin studying puppet prosthetics.
Sasori usually conducted research during the day, but since he had to attend the lectures during the day, he switched to night research.
Upon entering the research room, he occasionally thought about Kakashi and Nagato. After a while, Sasori focused entirely on researching puppet prosthetics.
The reason Sasori got into puppetry wasn't beautiful—Chiyo taught him puppetry to divert his pain from losing his parents.