headcanons.

A compilation of headcanons I have for Sasori, because why not? I may add more in the future. Please keep in mind that I am not forcing anyone to believe these headcanons! You can interpret Sasori's character however you want. Warning that some headcanons here may contain mentions of themes such as death, self-harm, etc. Please read with caution!

gender + sexuality.

• My biggest headcanon for Sasori is that she is transfem / a trans woman with she/they pronouns (I originally got this from @silbaria 's Tumblr sideblog dedicated to Sasori RP. Please go check their commissions out!). Part of it is because of personal reasons, but another part is that her story (as well as all of the Akatsuki members, and generally just Naruto characters in general apparently) is extremely queer when you think about it. Growing up, she wasn't comfortable with being a human. Her emotions became nothing more than mental obstacles when she was brainwashed by Suna, and her body was nothing more than a prison that contradicted her obsession with eternal beauty. She went through extreme lengths to fix the dysphoria she had and ended up with a puppet body as a result. Even when her body was extremely detached from humanity, she still sought to get rid of her soul to turn into a full doll.
• And come on the line "I am a man / human who could not become a complete puppet" like ooookay the closet is disintegrating
• I believe that Sasori turning into a puppet is, funny enough, a reclamation / affirmation of her identity. When she was a human, she was controlled by Suna. Nothing more than a puppet to be used by the government. But after the transition erm I mean transformation? She is still a puppet. Not Suna's, though. The only one who can pull her strings is herself. Unfortunately, this is also a reflection of the fact that Sasori can only view life from a standpoint of control and manipulation.
• Why transfem specifically? Because why not! I feel like transfem HCs are often looked in fandom. Plus, doll is also a term used for the transfem community. It's a cute nod to that.
• I also HC Sasori to be aroace!

human life.

• When she was a human, her favorite food was anything spicy or crunchy. Growing up in Suna, she had lots of spice tolerance and was used to foods with extreme seasoning. Well...before her parents' death. When she was living with Chiyo, her relationship with food became a little wonky. Chiyo used food as a way to distract Sasori from the truth of her parents' death. Sasori grew to view food as just that - a distraction - and a symbol of how her relationship with her grandma was slowly deteriorating. She would often go days while refusing to eat, especially when lost in her latest art project. After turning into a puppet, she finds food to be a disgusting and useless need for humans that she has risen above. She doesn't remember how anything tastes.
• As a young child, Sasori's mother used to hum her sweet lullabies before going to bed, and her dad knew how to play a few Suna instruments. Sasori often recreated the music growing up and still did when she became a teenager. The notes would come to her in fleeting memories before she slept...and it hurt. Since memories are often associated with emotions, I think she may have tried to associate her mother's songs (and really, anything from her past) with pain so that it would be easier to forget. Not necessarily self-harm, but the death of other shinobi, too.
• The way I see it, a lot of Sasori's pain as a human was connected to her senses (as you can see from the previous headcanons). I think she also had a lot of sensory issues, and these two reasons played a big role in why she wanted to get rid of her humanity so badly.
• Part of why Sasori is so obsessed with eternal beauty is because of not puppets, but photos! What is a photo if not a fleeting, forgetable memory made tangible and forever lasting as long as you take good care of it? That's why Sasori had lots of photos of her family in her room. < 3

post transformation.

• Sasori didn't keep the no-no bits after turning into a puppet. I find it weird that a lot of people who say otherwise said that "it would feel weird if she didn't keep it" and it's like *stares at her puppet joints* *stares at her core, the only living part of her body left* *stares at the bajillion weapons trapped inside her body* I think that there are weirder things happening with her than not having any private parts
• Sasori has her own workshop she frequently visits to work on her art. Be warned, though, she does NOT like strangers coming in. You can tell from how messy everything is...well, to *you* first coming in. Sasori keeps it smelling like rotting corpses in there and has the floor littered with medical equipment to act as a deterrent for any nosy snoops coming to check her hide out. But deeper in her lair, everything is much more organized. Each tool has its place, and she has memorized all of them.
• She doesn't view humans as beautiful. She only sees them with the potential to be beautiful if she works on their bodies.
• Building off this, she is extremely vain. She gets that there are some people who are considered aesthetically pleasing to the eye. However, she genuinely thinks she is the most beautiful thing on earth and that people should be falling over when they get a glimpse of her. (I mean, is she wrong?!) She considers it a side reason to hide in Hiruko all the time. If she walks outside with her real body she will attract too much attention.
• Her love for photography has blended in with her work on human puppets. She can't help but preserve the information she's gathered on all her victims and take photos of her artistic process, making sure to store everything away in neat little files somewhere deep in her lab. You know. For reference.