Master Of Puppets

A/N: I wish to take a moment and just say DAAMMMNNNN…….. Only been four days and I’ve already gotten over 500 hits… Okay enough of being shell-shocked let’s get to the point of this note.

While I appreciate the support and suggestions a few of you have made regarding the Het pairings you would like to see in this story I think I need to clarify that while this is largely a porn site this is NOT a Het story. I did mention POSSIBLY adding a few lemons here and there in later chapters but for the time being I’m focusing solely on the storyline and character development. If I do add any lemons to the story using any of the Genin it definitely won't be until MUCH later since in my opinion they are still too young and emotionally immature at this point in the story. Naruto is the only one of the rookie nine that has any real idea of what the life of a shinobi is really like and even then he's only had a small taste. I do not and probably will never write PWP so any lemons I add to any of my stories will not only have to fit into the plot but also help to advance the storyline and character development or at the very least not interfere the flow of the story.

I’ll save replies for the A/N at the end of this chapter so for now on with the show.

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Naruto reclines against a strategically placed rock in the men’s side of a local hot springs, his tattoos clearly visible to anyone who happens by, including the new kanji for “Father” over his heart that contains the recently repaired body of his late Sensei and the kanji for Scorpion on the inside of his left arm were Hiruko now resides. While he lacks both the skill and desire to revive the fallen Puppet Master, who had become like a father to him, he had been able to repair the body itself to serve as one of his most powerful and beloved Puppets.

Reflecting on the events of the last month and a half with his team, he smiles as he remembers the look on their Sensei’s face when he had given them the standard bell test only to discover that his new team was more then up to the challenge.

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“Alright,” Asuma tells his Genin as he places an alarm clock on a stump and turns to face them. “Here are two bells,” he says holding them up for the three to see. “Your task is to take these from me before noon if you want to eat lunch today.” Asuma then points to three large stumps off to the side. “Those that fail to get a single bell will be tied to one of the stumps while me and anyone lucky enough to get a bell will eat our lunches right in front of you!”

Asuma is almost pleased with himself at the barely contained rage on Choji’s face as the young Akimichi heir contemplates the thought of others eating while he's forced to watch helplessly. Naruto’s face is an impassive blank mask as his analytical mind goes seemingly into overdrive calculating battle strategies while formulating a plan of attack. Kiba has a smug almost arrogant look on his face as if he has already won.

“You only need to get one bell and since there are only two, one of you will definitely be tied to a stump," he told them, "And the person who doesn’t get a bell fails, so at least one of you will be sent back to the Academy.” To his satisfaction this seemed to spark something in the boys as they now all wore looks of determination. “You can use your shurikens, kunai and any other weapons you may have,” at this all three of the boys just smirked causing Asuma to begin to worry slightly “You won’t win unless you come at me with intent to kill.”

After their new Sensei finished his little speech Naruto looked to his left to see that Choji had finished his snack and was giving him a knowing smile. Turning his head to the right showed that both Kiba and Akamaru were sharing their teammate’s smile and as he looked at the confused Jounin all three boys suddenly burst out laughing loudly.

Before the man could even think about asking them what was so funny Naruto signaled for the other three to attack, which they did instantly. As the two boys and one puppy attacked him Asuma dodged and weaved his way around the field until they suddenly pulled back, ceasing their onslaught. However before he could realize anything was up the area he was in was instantly clouded by purple gas. That was the last thing he realized before his world went dark.”

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Naruto laughs as he remembers how surprised and embarrassed Asuma-sensei had been when he woke up tied to the same stumps he had threatened them with while watching the three boys and one puppy eating the lunches he had left out as a diversion. Needless to say that they had all passed considering that they had subdued him so easily.

The next day they had begun their training and soon fell into an easy routine. In the morning they would work out a series of different signals to help coordinate their attacks and allow them to communicate without giving away their positions or battle plans to their enemies. In the afternoon they would practice different attack strategies and team formations. After that they would complete anywhere from two to four D-Rank Missions, thanks as much to Naruto’s clones and Puppets as their very solid teamwork, before calling it a day and going their separate ways for the evening.

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Kiba, Akamaru and Choji are busy dodging their enemies’ attacks while weaving through the forest while Naruto directed the seemingly endless onslaught from four of his Puppets. “Come one guys,” he calls out to them, “You should at least be trying to fight back.”

“Easy for you to say,” Kiba calls back as he dodges yet another fireball from the Human Puppet. “You’re not the one fighting a Hunter-nin.”

“How do you think I got them in the first place?” Naruto retorts as he sends the Suna Hunter-nin at the Inuzuka once again. “Of course they were going after Sasori-sensei at the time but still I was the one that finished them off so I got to keep them.” Naruto almost grimaces as he recalls his team’s reaction to seeing his collection for the first time, especially the four revered and even Legendary Kages turned into the Genin’s four strongest Puppets.

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During their first Official day as a Team Asuma had ask them all to show him what they could do and naturally Naruto had let the others go first since he knew that his demonstration would end up taking a good portion of the day. After the others had gone Naruto had given a quick demonstration of his limited yet highly effective Jutsu arsenal. At this point he was skilled enough with his Genjutsus (all low to mid-level), Teleportation, Transformation, Substitution and Clones so that he could perform them all without the need for hand seals and only the barest of whispers. His Taijutsu skills were limited to a style that he and Sasori had developed for him that was derived from the Hyuuga’s Gentle Fist style but instead of attacking the enemy’s chakra network it centered around striking his opponent’s pressure points and nerve clusters and was capable of causing various effects ranging from total paralysis (until reversed) to instant death.

After that he revealed to them ALL of his Puppets since he knew that concealing such information from his teammates could spell disaster in battle. This took some time considering that only a few of his Puppets were actually sealed on his body with the others being distributed evenly among different scrolls inside special pockets lining his trench coat. Both of his teammates and their Sensei were impressed with his collection even if they were slightly disturbed by the vast majority of them being made from the corpses of dead shinobi. That was until he came to the four sealed on his right arm.

“I can’t believe you Naruto,” Asuma had nearly yelled at his student. “How could you be so disrespectful as to turn them into Puppets?” Kiba and Choji could only look at their friend as if he were someone they didn’t know and began to doubt just how well they had really known him to begin with. “How were you even able to rob their graves and steal their bodies in the first place?”

“I didn’t steal them,” he tells them, “Sasori-sensei stole the Hokages from Orochimaru after he stole them for use in his experiments while the Kazekage passed to me after Sasori-sensei was murdered by that Snake-Teme.” He sighs as he returns the puppets to their seals before he addresses his team once again. “They were all among the greatest shinobi that the world has ever known. Each of the Hokages gave their lives to protect this village that we all love. I make no apologizes for what I’ve done nor do I regret making them Puppets so that they can once again be of service to Konoha. They are dead and their souls are gone, yet with this method their bodies and powers can still be used to once again protect and defend the village and the people they loved enough to give their lives for.”

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Naruto’s little speech, along with the conviction and sincerity in his voice had been enough to convince his teammates that he did truly respect the men he had sealed in his arm and after giving his sensei his word that they would only be used to defend Konoha itself he had reluctantly agreed that they were indeed very impressive. “That’s enough for now,” Asuma calls to his team as he enters the area they’d been training in. “It’s time to go see about getting our next mission.”

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As Team Ten stands before the Hokage they all share the same thought, ‘Please Kami, not ANOTHER D-Ranked Mission.’Yet it would seem that the deity was not as merciful as they would have liked. “Ah it is good to see you all again,” the Hokage smiles. “Now for your next Missions… there is doing some shopping for the local orphanage, babysitting an Elders grandson, picking weeds out of…”

“No more,” Naruto says interrupting the village leader. “With all do respect Hokage-sama,” he begins. “We’ve already completed almost twice as many D-Ranked Missions as the other Rookie Teams and nearly three times as many as any other Genin Team still in rotation. Hell, we’ve caught that damn cat five times this week alone,” he reminds the old man. “Don’t you think it’s time we were given a more challenging mission? There has to be at least one C-Ranked Mission in there somewhere we can do. Some bandits bothering a small village, a merchant caravan in need of guarding… ANYTHING?” he almost begs.

“Well…” the Hokage begins with an amused smile when he sees that the blonde’s teammates feel the same way. “There just so happens to be a certain individual that is in need of bodyguards for his return trip home.”

“We’ll take it,” Asuma says quickly earning another smile from his father. ‘You knew they’d eventually snap, he muses. ‘You’ve just been waiting for them to request a harder mission.’

The door slides open to reveal a thick set older man wearing a large backpack with a towel around his neck and a bottle of sake in his hand. Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru try covering their noses since the man reeks so strongly of sweat and alcohol that even Choji and Asuma can smell him from where they stand. “What’s this? They’re all a bunch of brats,” the man complains as he takes a sip from his bottle before leaning against the doorframe. “They all look like they’ll piss their pants at the sight of their own shadow,“ the man says showing his complete lack of respect for the three boys and one puppy. “Especially the stupid looking one with the tiny mutt on his head,” the man comments causing both Kiba and Akamaru to growl at him. “Are you really a ninja?” the guy demands.

The man drops his sake bottle and nearly pisses his own pants as he feels the tips of two kunai against his body. The first blade is poised to pierce the side of his neck to cut open his jugular while the second threatens to remove that, which defines his as being a male. “I would kindly ask you to please refrain from insulting either me or my teammates during the remainder of the mission,” Naruto whispers into the man’s ear. “While killing the client we are assigned to protect will not only instantly cause the mission to fail but is heavily frowned upon I am more then willing to scrub the mission if you make one more discouraging remark about my friends. Do I make myself clear?”

The man can only gulp before he gives a slow and careful nod in response to the boy’s question. “Good,” the blonde replies as he releases the Genjutsu to reveal that he had never even left from his position between his two teammates. Looking at his friends he offers them each a stick of Pocky before turning to their Sensei. “Front gate in one hour?” he asks the Jounin. After receiving a nod from the bearded man he looks at his teammates again. “Ramen or Barbeque?” he asks as the three of them leave the room to grab a quick lunch before they head out on their first C-Ranked Mission.

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A/N: Well I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. I had actually written several versions of the team’s introduction scene but in the end I just decided to scrap it all together and just do this chapter largely through flash backs so as to save time while showing how they developed as a team. There is of course more to their training as well as new skills that will be explained a little later in the story, most likely in the next few chapters but for now I think I’ve shown you all enough to so that you can see how they will be working together from now on. And don’t worry the other teams training will be covered when they are reintroduced during the Chunnin Exam Arch.

Now for Responses to Reader’s Reviews…

D - I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far and as for the Human Puppets, I hope you liked them. Just to let everyone know the Hunter-Nins weren’t actively searching for Sasori but had actually stumbled across him and Naruto while they were searching for another nuke-nin. Since they had no warrants or information on Naruto they left him along and attacked Sasori instead allowing Naruto to use Raven to bombard the area with poison gas and claim the bodies. Cheap I know but hey that’s his style. To him if they’re stupid enough to over look a potental threat then they were too stupid to live, but stupid doesn’t mean useless when it comes to a potental Puppet.

As for Sasuke's boasting, I decided to go with a different approach and made him even more of a broody bastard for the time being so he tended to avoid others and mostly kept to himself. Also Naruto pretty much down played what he could do since he found the whole thing pretty much a waste of time and only did the bare minimal to get by. In fact his little stunt during the Graduation Exam was the first time he demonstrated any real skill to anyone other then his friends.

I agree with most of your observations on the teams other people use when writing and I admit that it was tempting to use the same teams as in the series (which i did for Promises Kept) but I felt with this one something different was in order since almost everyone of the rookie nine will be different thanks, in someway, to Naruto's influence. As for Team seven... I'm going to make Sasuke a kind of pet project for his teammates and sensei, I didn't dub them Team Genius for nothing. Also I'm going to get rid of Kakashi's lazy carefree attitude since unlike the original Team Seven this one won't stand for such an attitude (even Shikamaru) and is clever enough to keep their sensei on his toes.

While any pairings are still a long ways away they're also still up in the air at this point so keep your eyes open as any possible pairings my begin to show themselves as the story progresses. Also I do like your Sarutobi idea and am seriously considering it but at this point it’s still too early to know if I’ll use it or not

Naruto's training is mostly focused around working with his team to develop their guerrilla tactics as well as team formations and attack patterns. As far as any additional Jutsus are concerned he'll probably end up learning a few concealment Jutsus and even develop another of his own special poison Jutsus. While he will admittedly have a rather small arsenal of personal Jutsus, mostly supplementary, remember that he will be able to perform all of them with very few to no seals and at least a few of them have the potental to be extremelly lethal to whole areas.

Now about Sasori's death... I hope you liked the explanations I gave in the chapter. Also Naruto will not need to return to the cave since Jiraiya was able to seal everything from the cave into several separate scrolls before sealing those into the scroll he gave to Naruto, unorthodox but possible.

Naye - Thanks for the correction and as I'm sure you may have observed I've already made the corrections. As for the pairings while I've got nothing against yaoi it's just not my style so sorry but any pairings I do have will be straight although the idea of threesomes does have its merits.

bonerboy - I covered this topic in the opening A/N and am sorry if this disappoints some of my readers but to me the story must come first.

Dynamo - I thank you for your support, especially on the lemon issue, and yes the story will follow the general storyline of the series to a certain extent. With the absence of Akatsuki I’m making Orochimaru the main Villain for the time being and while all of the key milestones of the original storyline will remain they will obviously be changed to fit my story better.

To everyone else I wish to once again thank you for your support of my writing. Even if you don’t review just the increased hit count lets me know that you’re at least reading the story. On that note please remember to keep Reading and Reviewing and I’ll see you all again next time.