Kankurou is the son of the Kazekage. In the third preliminary matches of the Chuunin Exam, Kankurou is placed against Sound spy Tsurugu Misumi. Utilizing his puppet Karasu, Kankurou is able to surprise Misumi by having Karasu wrap his arms around the Sound spy and crush him. In the third test Kankurou is placed against Aburame Shino. When it was time for his match, Kankurou gave up before the match even started. He became paranoid and was unsure what to do because Gaara-s match was delayed. The Sand Genin were under orders to start their plan for the invasion of Leaf by Sand and Sound after Gaara-s match. After the invasion began Kankurou helped Gaara escape from the arena to an area where he could rest so he could begin his transformation into the Shukaku demon. Along the way he was stopped by Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino. Shino directed Sasuke to continue after Gaara as he wanted to finally have his match with Kankurou. Kankurou and Shino exchanged blows but Shino was able to overcome Kankurou with his destruction bugs. Later Temari was able to find her injured brother and help him to safety. With the defeat of Gaara by Uzumaki Naruto, Kankurou and his siblings retreated from Leaf.

Months after the invasion and the surrender of Sand, both Leaf and Sand became allies again. After Uchiha Sasuke left Leaf to seek out Orochimaru, Shikamaru and a Genin team left to retrieve him. When Shikamaru and the Genin were in a dire position facing the Four Sounds, Kankurou and his siblings arrived out of nowhere to lend support. They had arrived under the direction of the Fifth Hokage Tsunade who had requested assistance from Sand. Kankurou lended assistance to Kiba and defeated the tiring Sakon and Ukon with ease. Kankurou and his siblings then returned to Konoha with the injured Leaf ninja.

After the time skip, Kankurou advanced in rank to Jounin. When Akatsuki invaded Hidden Sand to capture Gaara, Kankurou tried in vain to fight Akatsuki member Sasori and get him back. Unfortunately, Sasori was the legendary puppet master of Hidden Sand who fled years earlier. Knowing all of Kankurou-s tricks, he easily avoided injury and poisoned Kankurou. Kankurou had only three days to live, but the medical skills of Sakura managed to save him in time. He then remained in the village to recover as Naruto and his team attempted to track down Gaara-s abductors.

Click Sasori-s bio image to reveal his true appearance.

Sasori, whose name means scorpion, was a former highly ranking ninja within Hidden Sand who fled 20 years earlier. He was master of puppet making who was responsible for the design of the puppets Kankurou uses today. One of his underlings was a Sand ninja named Yuura. When Sasori fled Sand to join Akatsuki, he placed a jutsu on his underling Yuura to cause him to unknowingly gather information and serve as a sleeper agent. When the time came, Yuura would be activated to do his masters bidding. This same jutsu was used on a young Yakushi Kabuto, who was to gather information on Sasori-s former partner Orochimaru and his Fuushi Tensei technique. Orochimaru removed the memory block though and Kabuto chose to willingly side with Orochimaru.

After the time skip, Sasori and his partner Deidara came to Hidden Sand to capture the one-tail demon Shukaku. Waiting outside Hidden Sand, Sasori activated Yuura. Yuura then wiped out some of the Sand-s defenses, allowing Deidara to infiltrate and attack Gaara. After Gaara was captured, Kankurou chased after his brothers captor and met up with Sasori. When Kankurou tried to stop Deidara, Sasori revealed his true origin for the first time and fought Kankurou. Kankurou was outmatched by the master of puppets and he was defeated and poisoned by him. In the battle it was revealed the tail and other portions of Sasori-s body were puppet pieces.

Sasori and Deidara returned to the Akatsuki cave base and participated in the extraction of the Shukaku demon from Gaara. Naruto and fellow teammates arrived in an attempt to stop the process but they did not make it in time. Sasori was faced by his grandmother Chiyo and Sakura. Chiyo-s battle smarts and Sakura-s power were enough to destroy Sasori-s current form, that of the puppet Hiruko.

Sasori revealed he kills his opponents and turns them into puppets. This process was done 298 times in the past and his two female opponents would make 300. With Hiruko destroyed, Sasori revealed his greatest triumph, the puppet form of a man who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Hidden Sands own Sandaime Kazekage. Another surprise waiting for the two kunoichi, was Sasori-s "real" form, a young man unaffected by time, appearing in the same form he was 20 years previously.

Sasori would use Sandaime-s Satetsu abilities against the two kunoichi. His ability to make humans into "hitokugutsu" (literally human puppets) would allow him to use their abilities at life even in puppet form. Chiyo revealed her hand as well, summoning Sasori-s very parents who were made into puppets as well when he was younger. Sasori used Sandaime to form the iron sand into spikes, and weapons. The puppets exchanged blows, eventually disabling the parent puppets. Chiyo and Sakura tried to avoid damage, but Sakura got scratched, forcing her to use one of their two poison antidotes. This gave Sakura the surprise opportunity though to destroy the Sandaime puppet. Sasori was then forced to remove his cloak and show his true abilities.

Sasori revealed he had made himself into a puppet, adding deadly weapons to his frame. Sakura managed to strike his body but it only managed to reform around a cylinder marked with the "Scorpion" kanji. Chiyo was forced to summon her ten Chikamatsu puppets, and Sasori in turn summoned his special hundred. The huge puppet fight began and Sakura managed to pin Sasori-s body to the cave wall with the help of one of Chiyo-s chakra sealing puppet parts. Missing though was Sasori-s chest container, where his human essence lived. One of his broken puppets rose to reveal the container implanted inside. Weapon in hand it rushed for Chiyo but Sakura jumped in the way to take the lethal strike. Using her remaining strength, Chiyo secretly moved the parent puppets from either side to pierce Sasori-s chest container, striking an apparently fatal blow.

The dying Sasori mocked the kunoichi and their reliance on physical forms. He told the two how he had escaped emotion and physical death with his transference to the container form. He then decided to offer the two kunoichi some information as a reward for beating him. He told them he was to meet with an underling of his who is acting as a spy in Orochimaru-s camp. In ten days, on a bridge in the Grass Country they were to meet. With that, Sasori fell to the ground alongside his parents, dead. Sakura congratulated Chiyo for defeating Sasori, but Chiyo made a sad revelation. Sasori recognized the parents were going to strike, but he hesitated and did not move to avoid the attack. Sasori was not yet beyond emotion as he so claimed, he seemingly desired one final embrace from his parents.

The Leaf would use the information Sasori provided and travel to the Grass Country. When they arrived at the bridge, Leaf ninja Yamato would transform and impersonate Sasori in his Hiruko puppet. The Leaf watched in surprise as the spy was revealed as Kabuto. They received another surprise when he moved to kill Sasori, revealing his new allegiance to Orochimaru.