Master Of Puppets

A/N: WOW over 155 hits and 2 reviews in just the first day. Okay I’d say it’s official and I’m defiantly improving as a writer. Yeah me…hehe. Before I begin I’d like to respond to the two reviews I’ve received thus far incase anyone else was thinking the same thing.

KilrathSluzath - I admit the thought of an Itachi Puppet does sound like fun and is still an option though at this point I still haven’t figured out exactly what role he’s going to play in the story other then the standard driving force behind Sasuke’s lust for power. And you’re right it would piss Sasuke off to no end but honestly this Naruto wouldn’t even care although I admit that the thought of doing it just to piss Sasuke off then scaring the shit out of him by threatening to do the same thing to him is rather appealing.

Naye - Sorry to disappoint you but this isn’t a Het Fic although there may be a few lemons later on down the road. While I haven’t actually considered pairing anyone up with anyone in this story I am always open to suggestions and will keep that one in mind. After all that is one of my favorite pairings if done right. Of course then again almost any pairing can be enjoyable if done write which is why I tend to avoid deciding these things at the beginning of any of my stories unless I’ve already got the entire story mapped out, which sad to say hasn’t happened in a long time.

Okay enough talk let’s get back to the story.

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Naruto did in fact get some valuable experience during his final three months with Sasori-sensei and while it might not have been as much as either of them would have liked it was enough for Naruto to begin to form his own “unique” style.

One of the things he did, that both irritated his enemies and amused Sasori, was that he’d pull out a stick of Pocky and begin to eating it before the battle even began. This served two purposes with the first being to settle his own nerves, allowing him to focus his mind more easily for the task at hand. The second being to irritate, if not enrage, his enemies by showing a seeming lack of concern for their abilities.

To add insult to insult Naruto would often talk down to his enemies enraging them even further, often to the point were even the seasoned shinobi were reduced to little more then stupid brawlers. Together these little pre-battle “rituals” allowed him to defeat his enemies more easily and allowed him to still conceal most of his skills due to his opponents being thrown so far off their game enough as to require very little effort to actually defeat them.

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Naruto and Jiraiya are walking down the road towards Konoha when the Main gates come into view. A faint smile crosses, the now eleven year old, boy’s face as he sets his impossibly blues eyes upon his home village for the first time in seven years. “Doesn’t look like things have changed all that much,” he comments to the Toad Sannin as they check in with the guards at the gate. Going their separate ways Naruto is head back to his apartment when he hears the heated whispers and feels the death glares. ‘No, things haven’t changed that much at ALL…’ he thinks darkly to himself.

Shrugging off the villager’s reaction to his return he allows himself an evil grin as he remembers the four new puppets he acquired just before Jiraiya picked him up so they could return to the village. ‘I should probably get started on them as soon as I get home,’ he thinks to himself. ‘After all I only have a week till the start of the Academy and I want to have them ready by then.’ His eyes seem to glow with an almost sinister gleam at the thought of the reactions his fellow students will have to his own version of Show And Tell.

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Naruto wakes up early on his first day at the Academy and begins to get ready. After showering and getting dressed he takes a moment to look over his new appearance in the mirror. He is dressed in a simple yet functional shinobi outfit consisting of a short-sleeved mesh shirt under a sleeveless open necked black shirt with black pants that end just above his black two-toed shoes. A kunai holster is strapped to each of his thighs though only the one on the right actually contains kunai while the one on the left holds his supply of Pocky for the day. Around his waist his a special multi-pouched utility pouch that he made to hold not only his shuriken and senbon but also his special poison filled smoke bombs, sealing scrolls, various poisons and antidotes.

While his gear and outfit made him appear to be a formidable shinobi it was actually what was covering his arms that would eventualy lead to him being both respected by his friends and feared by his enemies. His arms were tattooed with special seals that allowed him to seal his most prized and most useful Puppets so that they were always with him. His right arm had only three simple kanji for first, second and fourth, though it was these that held his most powerful Puppets. His left arm contained the rest of his current collection with his three original Puppets being sealed on the inside of his arm while the other four were sealed on the back of his arm.

Following a quick glance at the clock he makes his way towards the door, stopping just long enough to grab his black trench coat before heading off towards the Academy for his first day.

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As Naruto enters the room he notices just how early he actually is. Looking around he can see only four people there already. The first person he notices, the only girl in the room, has short bluish-black hair with lavender pupil-less eyes. The second person he notices is almost entirely hidden beneath his gray trench coat while his sunglasses conceal his eyes. The third person is actually sleeping while the fourth is happily munching away on a bag of chips.

‘Hmmm… a Hyuuga, an Aburame, a Nara and an Akimichi,’ he thinks to himself checking each of the others off in the order he had noticed them. Deciding to be at least semi-social Naruto walks over and takes a seat between the Hyuuga girl and the Aburame boy both of who are seated in the row in front of sleeping Nara and snacking Akimichi.

“He…hello,” the girl stutters as he sits down beside her. “I…I’m…I’m Hin… Hinata… Hyu… Hyuuga…”

“Pleased to meet you Hinata-san I’m Naruto Uzumaki,” Naruto replies while reaching into his left holster causing the others to stiffen for a moment before he pulls out a Pocky. “Pocky?” he asks offering the treat to her.

“Thank…thank you Naru…Naruto-san,” she replies accepting the treat with a slight blush.

“You’re welcome Hinata-san,” he tells her before pulling out three more sticks and offering two of them to the other non-sleeping boys in the room. “So what are the teachers like?” he asks with a smile figuring that he might as well gather as much information as he could before the teachers arrive.

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Naruto’s lessons proved to be far more boring then he could have ever thought possible and while he liked his teacher, Iruka-sensei, everything the man taught them were things that he had learned years ago. Naruto only continued to attend class since attendance was required in order to complete the course and it allowed him to spend some time with his friends. To pass the time he would pull out one of books and read until h was called upon to participate.

Naruto had quickly become friends with Hinata, Shino, Choji and Shikamaru and by the end of the first week had added Kiba and Akamaru to the list. They all enjoyed hearing about his training over the last several years and were amazed at his level of skill and control. They especially enjoyed watching him practice with his puppets after school although he refrained for showing them his Human Puppets and he had even begun teaching them a few of the chakra control exercises he used. They were amazed at the improvement in their own skills once they had mastered the exercises.

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The morning of the graduation exam finds the six friends sitting in class happily talking about some random topic when Ino and Sakura race down the hall only to wind up stick in the doorway. “Welcome and thank you for joining us once again for another exciting addition of Fangirls Gone Baka,” Naruto says loud enough to get the entire class’s attention. He is using his Pocky like a microphone while sitting on his desk facing Sasuke’s two craziest fangirls.

“I’m your host Naruto Uzumaki,” he continues, “And joining me today for color commentary are Kiba Inuzuka and Choji Akimichi.” Choji and Kiba both quickly move to join Naruto on top of the desk facing the girls using their own Pocky sticks as they join their friend in their commentary of the girls’ behavior. They entire class cracks up at the three boys’ antics while their friends silently laugh along with them.

By the time Iruka enters the classroom the scene has already played itself out and everyone is once again seated and talking quietly amongst themselves. The test itself is fairly simple and Naruto finds the whole thing quite boring. He actually requested to go last as he didn’t feel the need to embarrass the others so when his time came he stood in front of the class with a smirk on his face.

“Now Naruto,” Iruka begins, “Create three Clones, a Transformation and Substitution.” Naruto just nods before disappearing in a puff of smoke. As the smoke clears three Narutos and one rather confused Iruka stand in front of the class while the Iruka giving the test leans back in his chair with a smirk. Naruto dispels the clones and drops the Transformation while picking up a Leaf Hitai-ate and putting it on before making his way back to his seat passing the wide eyed looks of everyone he passes before rejoining his friends. ‘I didn't see him perform a single seal or even sense him use any chakra,’ the still stunned Chunnin thinks to himself.

After the test Naruto and the others make their way to Ichiraku Ramen to celebrate their graduation with Naruto offering to pay. As they are talk Naruto senses a familiar chakra signature approaching from behind them. “Hey Ero-Sennin,” he says turning around to greet Jiraiya.

“Hey kid,” the Sannin replies in a subdued tone. “Can I see you for a moment… alone?”

Jiraiya’s tone and body language have Naruto worried. He’s study human nature long enough to be able to tell when someone is hiding something and if the normally loud mouth boisterous Sannin is this subdued then it must be serious. “Sure,” he replies before getting up to join the man outside. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he tells the others before following the Toad Sannin outside.

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Naruto never rejoined his friends after speaking with Jiraiya but had sent a clone with the money to pay the bill and let them know that he would see them at the Academy the next day for their team assignments. Now sitting atop the head of the Fourth Hokage Naruto stares out across the village holding the scroll that Jiraiya gave to him after delivering the news of his sensei’s murder. Naruto was only willing to allow himself this time to mourn for the man that had become like a father to him during their training.

Jiraiya told Naruto how Orochimaru had murdered Sasori and that his last wish was for Naruto to have all of his belongings and to carry on his work. Jiraiya was sure to inform the young shinobi that he was not to seek out the Snake Sannin for revenge under any circumstance, but that if he found himself in a position to take the snake-teme out once and for all he was more then welcome to. After a few more minutes Naruto stood up and made his way back to his apartment so that he could add the Sandaime Kazekage to his “special” collection.

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The next morning Naruto sits with his friends and talks comfortably with them after assuring them that he was fine and just needed the night alone but was done with his mourning and wouldn’t disgrace his sensei’s memory by dwelling on his loss but would honor the man’s wishes by striving to fulfill his own dreams. A few minutes later Iruka enters the room and begins assigning everyone to their teams.

Naruto really wasn’t interested in what the man was saying until he got to the seventh team. “Team Seven, lead by Kakashi Hatake, will be Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame and Sasuke Uchiha.” Naruto cringed at Sakura’s banshee scream at having lost her chance to be teamed with her Sasuke-kun while Ino loudly wails her own misfortune.

“Team Eight, lead by Kurenai Yuuhi, will be Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuuga,” the Chunnin says after rubbing his head to try and stave off the headache the cries of Sasuke’s Fangirls are threatening to cause him. “Since Team Nine is still in rotation from last year Team Ten, lead by Asuma Sarutobi, will be Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki. Your Sensei’s will be here after lunch to meet with you before you begin your lives as Shinobi. You’re dismissed until then.”

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Naruto and his friends had decided to eat lunch under one of the trees in the Academy’s training grounds. Being as this would be the last time they would all bee together for awhile Naruto had decided to make a picnic of it and had actually prepared a rather large meal, considering both his and Choji’s appetites, for them to all share. Unrolling the storage scroll Naruto unsealed the mini-banquette and they all helped themselves to the meal he had prepared.

“So what do you all think of the teams?” Kiba asks as he feeds a piece of sausage to Akamaru.

“Given they line-ups I’d say we’re going to be either very formidable or royally humped,” Naruto replies, “And not in a way any of us would like.”

“Troublesome,” Shikamaru says adding his thoughts, “Our team could be considered a team of geniuses if it weren’t for the Uchiha’s ego and lust for power. Hinata’s team could either be the weakest or on par with ours depending on how Ino and Sakura get alone. Your team however is obviously a gorilla unit that can either become very deadly or very dead.”

“Like Naruto said,” Shino comments, “Formidable or Humped.” The others can’t help but laugh, even Shino gives a short chuckle as they talk over what they know they each need to work on to help their teams become stronger and the boys all agree to work with Hinata when they can should her teammates prove to be useless. Before returning to the classroom they all agreed to meet up later that day at Ichiraku Ramen for dinner before their training officially began.

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A/N: And thus ends the second chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it and I know it was much shorter then the last but honestly the first chapter was only that long because I wanted to get everything regarding Naruto’s time with Sasori over with before the story officially began. The rest of the chapters will be about this length or a bit longer depending on how things go. Oh and if anyone is wondering about Naruto’s new Puppets… they’ll be revealed in a chapter or two. You’ll just have to wait until then to find out “who” they are. Hehe…

I had a bit of trouble figuring out the Teams since I wanted to try something different and going by all the different line-ups I’ve read I honestly don’t recall seeing this one ever used so I thought I’d give it a try. As stated during Shikamaru’s assessment of the teams they were designed to work out like this:

Team Seven aka Team Genius is an espionage and reconnaissance unit specializing in stealth, strategy and tactics as well as possible assassination operations.

Team Eight aka Team Kunoichi is an infiltration and reconnaissance unit specializing in information gather, Genjutsu as well as possible seduction and assassination operations.

Team Ten aka Team Enma is an assault unit specializing in gorilla warfare and urban combat as well as seek and destroy operations.

All in all I think these new teams will make things far more interesting then the other formations especially since I’m planning some very special surprises for later in the story. Well that’s it for no so once again please remember to Read and Review.