Outside the basement, Ryou had just cast Genjutsu on Ebizo to modify his suspicions about him.
Ebizo had just appeared by Ryou's side and directly stated Ryou's identity.
Although this fellow was not as powerful as Chiyo, he was once an intelligence officer, and his wisdom and strategy had not regressed with the passage of time.
Left with no choice, Ryou could only use Genjutsu to modify his suspicions.
When Ryou released the Genjutsu, Ebizo seemed to accept it voluntarily.
He even requested Ryou to continue playing the role of Sasori, hoping Ryou would play it more convincingly and not blow his cover again.
At least he wanted Chiyo to remain blissfully immersed in the dream of Sasori's return.
Ebizo didn't require much Genjutsu control, but for Chiyo, Ryou directly used an Dojutsu far exceeding that of a Jonin to modify her suspicion.
Kage-level Ninjas usually have high Genjutsu resistance, especially tough old-timers like Chiyo, who have extremely strong chakra control.
He only modified Chiyo's suspicion of him; if he were to modify her greater cognition, Chiyo would likely snap out of it.
"These old folks, how are they all so shrewd?"
Ryou sighed and created a clone to take Ebizo to rest.
Sasori crawled up from the basement and leaned against Ryou's feet, as quiet as a flowing shadow.
"Uchiha Ryou, as long as you don't hurt the old woman and Ebizo, I'll do whatever you want in the future!"
"Foolish!"
Ryou used chakra threads to control Sasori: "Sasori, even if I killed them, you would still be my puppet!"
"This despicable guy!"
Sasori swung his Poison Stinger with all his might, wanting to give Ryou a vicious strike.
Ryou grabbed Sasori's tail and lifted it up; at this moment, Sasori was a literal scorpion.
Before, when Ryou obtained Sasori's Red Tail Scorpion and was preparing to return to his room, he caught a glimpse of Chiyo weeping silently in the basement.
Ryou thought of Mikoto's parents, the people who had raised him.
His heart softened, and he let Sasori see the poor old woman.
But Sasori only had a regeneration core left; if he went down like that, he would scare Chiyo to death.
So Ryou used Yin-Yang Release to seal Sasori within the body of the Red Tail Scorpion, then used the Chimera Technique to fuse Sasori's body with the Red Tail Scorpion, injecting Yang Release chakra...
At this moment, Sasori had completely become a scorpion.
He was quite displeased; Sasori didn't want a body of flesh and blood, he wanted an immortal puppet body.
"By the way, Sasori, I haven't told you yet, this Red Tail Scorpion is female."
"One of these days, I'll find a group of male scorpions to give you some proper training."
Sasori shouted in anger: "Uchiha Ryou, you inherently evil Uchiha!"
Ryou felt a bit sleepy, so he grabbed Sasori and returned to his room, threw Sasori to the side, let the three Ninja Cats guard it, and then lay down.
He tapped on the adjacent wall: "Pakura, what are you eavesdropping for? Go to sleep already!"
Pakura's voice came from the other side of the wall: "Sasori, you dangerous guy, you're definitely planning to cause trouble for the Village after I fall into a deep sleep."
Ryou was speechless: "Think whatever you want."
Ryou then had Candy cast a Barrier, isolating Pakura's room from his own.
Immediately, Sasori on the floor moved and said, "Uchiha Ryou, Temari is looking for you!"
Now, Ryou's information center had been taken over by Sasori's regeneration core.
Because a person, after all, is not a machine and cannot receive information every second.
But Sasori's regeneration core was a literal supercomputing core; in the original work, by relying on the regeneration core, Sasori could perfectly control over a hundred puppets.
After learning about the powerful data processing function of Sasori's regeneration core, Candy handed over the task of processing information between the spore to Sasori.
Sasori refused to do it, so Ryou threatened him with his mother's puppet, and Sasori could only obediently work for Ryou.
Ryou nodded to Sasori and then connected to Temari's chakra wave transmission channel.
"Hello, Temari, is something the matter?"
On the other side of the chakra transmission channel, Temari was hiding in her room, buried under the covers doing spy work.
Temari replied: "Lord Sasori, I'm just testing the transmission function of this spore. I didn't expect it to be so magical, connecting to Lord Sasori all of a sudden."
"By the way, because of Lord Sasori's spore, I can now refine chakra, and I've refined quite a lot. I feel like I'm more powerful than the students at the Ninja Academy."
Ryou replied: "Temari, you are my spy now; you should be reporting major matters to me."
Temari quickly said: "Okay, Lord Sasori, my mom just kicked my dad out of the room, and my dad is sleeping on the sofa now."
"Lord Sasori, was it Father's plan to seal Shukaku in Mother's womb that angered her?"
Ryou nodded: "Yes, Temari. Continue to closely monitor your father and mother's every move. Now only you can save your mother."
"Understood!"
"Temari, think of a code name for yourself!"
"A code name... let me think. I can't think of one, why don't you think of one for me, Lord Sasori?"
Ryou thought for a moment: "Since you like the Kamaitachi, and the Kamaitachi is an animal that lives in the desert, from now on you'll be called — Sable!"
Temari quickly explained: "Lord Sasori, a Weasel and a Sable are not the same animal. Although they look similar, a Weasel is a Weasel, and a Sable is a Sable."
A Weasel is a yellow-throated weasel, with an extremely long and slender body and very short limbs.
While a Sable has a sturdier and more robust build, with thicker limbs than a Weasel and a slightly rounder head.
Although both belong to the Mustelidae family, they can still be distinguished when placed together.
But Ryou didn't care: "Temari, I don't care, from now on Sable is your code name."
Temari silently accepted: "Alright, Sable acknowledges. Sable will seriously monitor Father and Mother's every move."
Ryou nodded: "A student worth teaching!"
They chatted for a while longer until Temari started yawning, then Ryou cut the signal.
"Alright, Sable, let's stop here for today! Go to sleep!"
"Okay, Lord Sasori!"
After Ryou hung up Temari's signal, he grabbed Candy and Snowy in his arms and fell asleep holding them.
Early morning.
"Sasori—"
Chiyo woke up with a start, then she looked at where she was—in the puppet room, having spent the night covered by a blanket.
Chiyo pressed her hand to her head, her brain feeling a bit dazed, as if there was something important she couldn't remember.
But she still remembered that her grandson Sasori had returned to the Village.
Last night, she also had a beautiful dream, dreaming that the Second Great Ninja War had not broken out and Sasori's parents had not been killed by that god-forsaken White Fang.
Her son and daughter-in-law were still alive, Sasori had a happy childhood, and he had even married a wife and had a chubby little boy.
Before Chiyo woke up from the dream, she was still holding her great-grandson and laughing merrily.
The dream was too real, so much so that even Chiyo couldn't distinguish between the dream world and reality for a moment.
But there was one thing Chiyo could be sure of: she didn't want to wake up from that beautiful world.
After waking up, the huge gap between the dream and reality would sweep over her entire body.
She so wished the dream were real.
Only one thing was very strange: why was Sasori's wife that stupid woman Pakura?
In what way were she and Sasori a match?
Chiyo was full of confusion but eventually got out of bed slowly.
Because reality wasn't too much of a hell; at least Sasori was back, though sadly without her son and daughter-in-law.
Everyone dies, and the Sage of Six Paths was no exception; death is the end of life.
The direction Chiyo had to work toward now was to get Sasori to marry a wife as soon as possible, so she could hold a great-grandson in her lifetime.
Although Pakura was a bit older and a bit stupider, she was still one of the flowers of the Village.
Chiyo could still accept it.