If the time were stretched to five years and he could keep getting stronger, then Sasori was confident he could successfully get his revenge.
Mokgetsu suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind; he neither refused nor agreed, but instead asked Sasori:
"This Human Puppet Technique of yours—can you make it only for certain limbs? The kind that can be used just as normally as regular arms and legs."
Mokgetsu wasn't very interested in human puppets, but if they could successfully develop good prosthetics, that really would be a pretty nice thing.
For a normal ninja, hands and feet are indispensable: without hands, you can't form hand seals and use ninjutsu; without feet, you lose mobility. Lose even one, and it basically equals retirement.
If prosthetics can be attached, then that's a different story. Once you get used to them, they might even work better than normal arms.
Because puppet arms can be fitted with all kinds of mechanisms, they have an advantage over normal arms.
Not only ninjas could use them, they could even develop civilian prosthetics and benefit the public.
"Technically speaking, there's no problem, but it doesn't have much meaning." Sasori replied.
In his view, if you're going to modify, you might as well turn the whole body into a puppet. Just changing an arm or a leg—what's the point? Neither here nor there.
Just when Sasori thought he was about to succeed, Mokgetsu spoke.
"If you want to cooperate, that's possible, but forget about those conditions you mentioned. Listen to my terms: if you think they're acceptable, we cooperate; if not, then this ends here."
Sasori clenched his fists. He felt he had already lowered his demands as far as they could go, yet Sosuke still wouldn't agree.
At that moment, Sosuke's mild face looked especially hateful in Sasori's eyes.
"I don't need you to make a human puppet for me. If you perfect the technique and create limbs that ninjas and ordinary people can use normally, then I can reduce your sentence by five years." Mokgetsu continued.
"From now on, you don't have to act like a regular prison labor convict. Nagato will decide your tasks. If Nagato thinks your performance is excellent, then depending on your concrete performance, your sentence can be further reduced by one to four years."
Letting a technical talent like Sasori go sweep dust really is a bit of a waste, so Mokgetsu simply handed Sasori completely over to Nagato and let Nagato decide what Sasori would do.
After all, his initial idea was to use Sasori to train Nagato.
As Sasori listened to Sosuke's words, his clenched fists loosened, and his face was full of confusion and astonishment.
Because the terms Sosuke was giving were actually better than the ones he had just proposed himself. Even without the extra sentence reduction from Nagato's scoring, it was still five years; if the extra reduction was maxed out, he'd end up with only a one-year sentence.
Sasori realized he really couldn't see through this person Sosuke.
He was just too strange—throwing away a technique that could enhance strength and even grant immortality, and instead making him research limbs that ninjas and ordinary people could use. What good is that supposed to be?
"Well? Are you willing to accept these terms?" Mokgetsu asked with a faint smile.
He didn't care at all about when to let Sasori out.
Compared to Black Zetsu and Uchiha Madara in the shadows, Sasori was just a minor character. If he wanted to deal with him, it would be simple.
"When I research puppetry I need my seal undone." Sasori emphasized.
He noticed Mokgetsu hadn't mentioned the seal just now.
"We'll help you undo it when the time comes." Mokgetsu replied.
With Nagato keeping an eye on Sasori, even unsealing him wasn't much of a problem.
After all, with no puppets, Sasori facing Nagato truly had only the fate of being crushed with a flip of the hand.
"I'm willing." Sasori answered immediately.
The terms Sosuke was offering were much better than the ones he'd proposed himself; even if he didn't earn Nagato's praise, he wouldn't lose out.
After settling the cooperation, Nagato quickly took Sasori and left Mokgetsu's study, no longer disturbing him.
"You just finished a mission today. Take a day off; you don't need to go to the construction team, and you don't need to research puppetry." Nagato chose to give Sasori a day off.
Sasori looked at Nagato, utterly speechless. He had been hoping to have his seal undone today, but Nagato just gave him a vacation.
"I want to research puppetry." Sasori said.
"Researching in a fatigued state isn't beneficial." Nagato refused.
"I'm not tired."
"Do you want to lower your performance rating?"
Sasori fell silent instantly. He had to admit Nagato had grabbed him by the lifeline.
Sasori wanted to be released as early as possible and then go take revenge, so Nagato's performance evaluation was very important. It could reduce up to four years of his sentence.
If it were some random person, Sasori might have given up on that part of the reduction, because there was no way he'd spend his days buttering someone up just to get a shorter sentence.
But Sasori knew a bit about Nagato. He was a "good man" in the eyes of the public, and someone who spoke reason.
So if Sasori truly performed well, Nagato, in all likelihood, wouldn't deliberately give him a low score.
In the end, Sasori obediently returned to his small hut to rest.
Watching Sasori's departing back, Nagato nodded inwardly.
He wasn't someone who liked to threaten others using the things they cared about, but he had to admit this method really worked.
Next, Nagato also went back to his room and started looking through mission information and maps.
"We'll put the main focus in the north next." Nagato looked at that piece of land where the Land of Rain bordered the Land of Earth.
The problems in the central region were much smaller than those in the south and north, because the Rain Village was in the central part of the Land of Rain.
Before the Ninja Sect had straightened out the south, the central Land of Rain had been the safest area in the Land of Rain.
...
"Teacher Mokgetsu, I think I've already met the requirements. Could you watch over me for a bit?"
Resting while reviewing the Yang Seal, Kakashi felt he had met the requirements, so he walked up to Mokgetsu.
Mokgetsu used Identification Jutsu to glance at Kakashi's panel, felt that his Yang Seal proficiency was fine, then reached out to grab Kakashi's shoulder and performed Yang Attribute Chakra Nature Changes to adjust Kakashi's body to its peak state.
"You can start." Mokgetsu said after letting go of Kakashi's shoulder.
"Sorry to trouble you."
Kakashi thanked Mokgetsu, then sat on the ground and closed his eyes, focusing his breathing to the utmost and entering the Transparent World state, before beginning to arrange Fuinjutsu within his body.
Mokgetsu activated the Byakugan and watched Kakashi. As soon as Kakashi made a mistake, he would immediately use Medical Ninjutsu to treat him.
In Mokgetsu's sight, Kakashi solidly completed each step. Until at last, the seal was fully completed and the chakra flowed into the seal.
When Kakashi's Yang Seal had accumulated a certain amount of chakra, a lightning-shaped mark appeared on the forehead normally covered by his hitai-ate.
"Teacher Mokgetsu, did I succeed?" Kakashi opened his eyes and asked uncertainly.
"Mm. You can first refine as much chakra as possible and store more in the seal, then activate it once to test." Mokgetsu nodded.
Seeing Kakashi learn the Yang Seal in just over a month, Mokgetsu felt a bit emotional.
This ninjutsu had taken him and Tsunade more than two years to develop, but his disciple didn't even need one-tenth of that time to learn it.
He couldn't help feeling another surge of respect for Senju Tobirama. Whether Shadow Clone or Flying Thunder God, they were both extremely practical ninjutsu.
Kakashi also wanted to test the effects of the Yang Seal, so he closed his eyes and focused on refining chakra.
Right now Kakashi was extremely excited. In the past, it was Might Guy who came to him for fights; now it was Kakashi who wanted to go looking for Might Guy to fight.
With the Yang Seal, he was no longer that Kakashi who would collapse first after swinging a full-power sword strike.
The chakra saved on Breath of Thunder could be used to cast Earth Release to create openings, or on more high-powered Lighting Release attacks.
"Why is Kakashi resting for so long today? Has he finally reached his limit and decided to slack off?" Obito noticed Kakashi had stayed lying down for a long time instead of getting up to cultivate, and couldn't help grumbling inwardly.
Though he'd made this observation, Obito wasn't planning to go over and taunt him yet. He wanted to wait until cultivation was over today.
By then Kakashi would have failed to cultivate and still have to endure his mockery—he'd be losing hard.
PS:
Uh, I'm burned out. Right now I'm a dried-up little orange ()