Sasori

Rank: S-rank, Missing Nin
Partners: Deidara, Orochimaru (previous)
Specialty: Puppet jutsu, Poisons
Affiliations: Akatsuki, Sunagakure (former)
Age: 35 (November 8th)
Height: 164.1cm
Weight: 47.3kg
Blood Type: AB

Sasori is a missing-nin from the Hidden Village in the Sand who joined Akatsuki. He is also known as Sasori of the Red Sand and one of his symbols is a red scorpion (‘Sasori’ means scorpion). Sasori’s parents died when he was very young, so his grandmother Chiyo cared for him. Chiyo taught Sasori puppetry jutsu, something Sasori became very adept at using. He was the craftsman behind many puppets used in Sand's puppet division even today, including Kankuro's Karasu, Sanshouo, and Kuroari. Two of Sasori's first creations were the puppet imitations of his dead parents, which he had tried to use to replace the affection of his real parents but failed because puppets can't imitate human emotions.

Sasori eventually became very skilled at converting human bodies into puppets. Twenty years ago before the start of Naruto part II, Sasori left the village of Sand. Before Sasori disappeared, he kidnapped and killed the Third Kazekage of Sand, eventually turning him into one of his human puppets. Human puppets are especially deadly because they retain the chakra nodes of the previously living individual. This allows Sasori to manipulate the chakra and use the special abilities of the previously living person through the human puppet. At some point during that period, Sasori also converted his own body into a puppet. Because puppets have no chakra nodes, Sasori persevered and encased his heart in a special capsule that allows him to manipulate chakra through a puppet body. Over the years, Sasori has accumulated a vast human puppet collection. Supposedly it contains 298 puppets, each of whom was an opponent he defeated. To add to their deadliness, Sasori coats the multitudes of traps and weaponry installed into his puppets with his potent poisons.

Sasori's Akatsuki ring has the character for 'Ball' and he wears it on his left thumb. After joining Akatsuki, Sasori was paired up with Orochimaru. The two supposedly accomplished many large scale operations together before Orochimaru left the organization. Sasori was then partnered with Deidara. Sasori considers his human puppetry a form of art whose beauty is eternal. Deidara, on the other hand, sees beauty only in the brief instant of an explosion. Even though the two often bicker about this, they do work well together and Deidara respects Sasori.

Along with controlling puppets, Sasori also uses mind control jutsu to force individuals to obey him and become his spies. Although Sasori likely has a large network of spies and subordinates working for him, the only two to be revealed so far are Kabuto Yakushi and Yuura.