Master Of Puppets

A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter finished by I had some computer difficulties and the new one didn’t arrive until the other day. Okay enough about my problems… On with the show…

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They have been walking for a few hours when they pass by a descent size puddle in the road. Choji, who was walking in the lead position, continues to munch on his chips seemingly oblivious to the puddle but his teammates instantly pick up on the slightly hurried manner in which he finishes his current bag before reaching for another.

Kiba and Akamaru begin laughing and running around the group as if they are all out for a normal walk, passing just close enough to catch a whiff of the two distinct scents coming from the puddle. Once that is completed Akamaru gives two quick yaps before hoping on top of Kiba’s head as they move, rather loudly, to walk beside Choji while he continues to munch on his snacks at a slightly quicker pace then before.

As Naruto passes the puddle he stops and kneels down to adjust his footwear telling Asuma to go on ahead of him and that he’ll catch up in a minute. After Asuma is a few feet ahead of his student Naruto stands up seemingly finished with his adjustments and casually walks towards the others.

As he draws near the others, a pair of shinobi leap out of the puddle and charge towards Naruto who turns around to face them as his team takes up a prearranged formation. Asuma moves towards the back of the group standing between his team and their client while Choji steps in front of them facing the attackers while Kiba, steps in front of him as he assumes a crouching position with Akamaru now on his back.

The Demon Brothers move so quickly that it seems that Naruto has no time to respond and in an instant he is surrounded by their chain. With a quick yank the chain saws through Naruto only to cause the Genin to explode in a thick purple cloud. As the poison gas spreads out from the point of the blast it begins to eat away at the poisoned blades on the chain as well as the poisoned claws of their Gauntlets.

The Kiri Chunnin quickly release their chain and begin to frantically remove their half eaten gauntlets oblivious to the twin tornados heading straight for them until it is almost too late. Leaping into the air in an attempt to avoid being hit they leap into Choji’s waiting massive palms. After smashing their heads together he pulls them towards the rest of the group as Kiba and Akamaru quickly rejoin the others.

Naruto drops down from the tree branch he used for cover during the quick skirmish with a syringe filled with some dark red colored liquid. He injects it into the Demon Brothers before he pulls out a blank scroll from inside his coat. He unrolls the scroll on the ground before retrieving a brush and ink bottle from one of his pouches. As the Demon Brothers groan in pain he begins drawing a few seals on the scroll. A minute later he is done with his task and begins cleaning up while leaving the scroll open.

“You can let them go now Choji,” Naruto tells his teammate. As the other boy releases their attackers they fall to the ground going into convolutions before finally laying there dead. Naruto goes through a quick series of hand seals before the bodies of the demon Brothers vanish in a puff of smoke. Rolling up the scroll he puts it away before joining his team, all of whom are currently glaring daggers at their client.

“Now then,” Asuma says addressing Tazuna. “Do you mind telling us why you’re being targeted or do I let Naruto use you as a test subject for his poisons?”

“I vote for test subject,” Naruto interjects taking out a stick of pocky before he began to munch on it. His mischievous grin had the bridge builder about ready to piss his pants.

“I’ll talk,” Tazuna nearly squeaks causing Naruto to pout at losing his new test subject. Tazuna proceeds to tell them about Gatou and his men and about the poor condition that his country was in. To their credit, Team Enma made their sensei proud by agreeing to continue with the mission.

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They continue to walk down the path to Tazuna’s village when Asuma suddenly yells “Everyone down, now!” Naruto tackles Tazuna forcing him down while Choji and Kiba both drop to the ground. A large sword spins through the air where their necks would have been and slams into a nearby tree. As Asuma spins to face the sword, a shinobi appears standing on the handle of the giant weapon.

“Well if it isn’t Kiri’s nuke-nin Zabuza Momochi,” Asuma exclaims.

“You appear to be Asuma Sarutobi,” Zabuza says calmly, “Former leader of the Twelve Guardians. Sorry but the old man is mine!”

“Everybody get back, Asuma says, "This one’s on a whole other level.” Asuma reaches behind his back and draws his trench knives. “Surround and protect Tazuna-san,” Asuma tells them, “Do not enter the fight that’s the battle plan here.” Asuma never once takes his focus off Zabuza. “Zabuza first you must fight me.”

“Now let’s end all the talking I have to kill that old man,” Zabuza says as he glares at Tazuna. Naruto, Choji, and Kiba along with Akamaru quickly form a triangle putting themselves between the nuke-nin and his target. Zabuza smirks and shifts his gaze to Asuma. “But, it seems I have to kill you first Sarutobi,” he says before he pulls his sword from the tree and disappears from sight, only to reappear on the nearby water. Mist starts to arise as Zabuza raises one arm straight up and positioned his other hand with his extended middle and index finger in front of his mouth. “Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu,” Zabuza says, before he disappears from sight.

While the mist concealed Zabuza from them it was not so thick that Naruto and his friends couldn’t see each other. “He’ll come after me first,” Asuma tells them as Naruto relays hand signals to his teammates, “Zabuza Momochi, as a member of the Kiri ANBU Assassination Unit, he was known as an expert in silent killing. You don’t even notice until you’re already dead.” The Jounin pauses for a second before adding, “You guys be ready!”

Zabuza’s voice suddenly echoes through out the mist, “Eight Choices: liver, lungs, spine, clavical vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys and heart. Which one should I go after?” He suddenly appears in between the Genin and Tazuna, preparing to slice all of them in half at the waist. “It’s over,” the nuke-nin declares. A second later the entire forest is rocked by a series of explosions.

As the smoke from the blasts begins to settle Naruto hops down from the tree he was hiding in before setting Tazuna down beside him. “Well that was rather anti-climatic,” he comments as the still smoking nuke-nin came into view. “Think I might have overdone it with the Exploding Clones,” he tells his teammates as they enter the clearing from their own hiding places.

“Just a little,” Choji replies as he takes out another bag of chips. Kiba nods his agreement as he puts Akamaru down on the ground.

“Oh well,” Naruto replies as they move over to examine the nuke-nin’s condition with their Sensei. As they stand behind the Jounin Naruto turns towards their left as another person enters the clearing escorted by another of Naruto’s clones. “Judging by your clothes and mask I take it that you’re a Kiri Hunter-Nin,” he says.

“Impressive,” the Hunter-Nin replies, “You are correct.”

“A Hunter-nin?” Tazuna asks.

“Yes my duty is to hunt down nuke-nins. I’m a member of Kiri’s Hunter-nin squad,” the stranger tells them.

‘From her voice and height she’s probably not much older then the others and yet she’s a Hunter-nin,’ Asuma thinks to himself, ‘She’s not a normal kid.’

The Hunter-nin kneels beside Zabuza’s body and prepares to take it away. “Your battle is over,” she tells them. “And now I must dispose of this body since it seems to be a body with many secrets.”

“Of course,” Naruto says picking up Zabuza’s sword and walking over to join her. “I’ll remove the head and you can incinerate the body.”

“That won’t be necessary,” the Hunter-Nin comments, “I can do that myself.” ‘Damn it this kid’s on to me already,’ she thinks to herself.

“Gomen,” Naruto replies offering her the sword. Asuma notices what’s going on and moves his team into position should Naruto’s suspicion prove correct.

“Kiba, Choji,” he says to the others, “Watch carefully as this is the proper way to dispose of a body in the field. Remember, you only need the head for identification when either collecting the bounty or as part of an official mission.” The Hunter-Nin accepts the sword and prepares to deliver the final blow only to drop a smoke bomb at Team Enma before Teleporting away with Zabuza.

“She’s in for one hell of a surprise,” Naruto comments as the smoke begins to clear. At that moment two of Naruto’s clones enter the clearing carrying Zabuza’s body. “Oh well I’ll pay her a visit later.” He injects Zabuza with the same poison that he had used on the Demon Brothers before sealing him away in the same scroll.

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Once they arrive at Tazuna’s house Naruto has him draw up a map of the surrounding area. After nearly an hour of questioning the bridge builder and his daughter Team Enma sits around the dinning table looking over the map trying to devise a battle strategy. “For right now Gatou has got to believe that Zabuza is out of action for at least a week,” Naruto tells them. “Since my clone hasn’t been destroyed that can only mean that Zabuza’s partner isn’t a medic or else she would have seen through the Genjutsus I placed on it already.”

“So with Zabuza and the Demon Brothers out of the way and that false Hunter-Nin occupied all that’s left is to take out Gatou,” Asuma tells his team.

“I say we go with Strike Plan Delta-Four,” Kiba replies. “Akamaru and I through the front door Choji through the back and Naruto’s Puppets from above.”

“Iie,” Choji says, “I think Beta-Six would work better. Naruto does his Harem Jutsu using his Poison Clones, sends them in then after they gas the place we go in and clean up.”

“You just like looking at my ass,” Naruto accuses him.

“Yeah so what’s your point” Choji asks before all three boys bust out laughing. Naruto had first come up with the idea for his Sexy and Harem Jutsus during one of their simulated planning sessions as a means for gaining access to an enemy hide-out when a kunoichi was unavailable to serve as a decoy for some of their more creative Strike Plans.

“Both plans have merit,” Asuma tells them. “But I don’t want to go rushing into anything just yet. Let’s do a little recon before we plan our assault. In the mean time Naruto will have some of his Clones control a few Puppets to serve as Tazuna-san’s guards while we run surveillance on Gatou and his men.”

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Later that evening, after the others had gone to bed, Naruto slips out into the darkness and makes his way towards a small shack in a nearby swamp. Moving silently he enters the shack and finds the Hunter-Nin sleeping in a chair beside the fake Zabuza’s bed. Naruto puts on a special mask he created for when his team went into areas filled with his poison gas before releasing the clone. He processes the information the clone gathered as sleeping gas fills the room causing the kunoichi to fall even deeper asleep.

A couple of hours later the girl awakens only to find herself tied up with chakra suppression rope in nothing but her bra and panties. “I was beginning to wonder when you’d wake up,” a voice says to her. Looking around quickly she finds a blonde boy sitting across from her with what appears to be parts of some kind of large wooden toy in his lap and various tools and parts scattered on the floor around him.

“Who are you and what have you done with Zabuza-sama?” she demands as she suddenly realizes that they’re in a room she doesn’t recognize.

“Zabuza is dead,” he answers putting the piece down. “I replaced him with one of my Clones while you were talking with my team and that's how I was able to find you.”

The girl’s eyes begin to fill with tears as she hears his words. Though she wanted to scream that it’s not true and that he’s lying to her somehow she knows he speaks the truth. ‘He replaced himself and the others with Exploding Clones without Zabuza-sama noticing the switch,’ she thinks to herself. ‘If he could do that then he could easily swap out the fake Zabuza for the real without my knowing.’

“So what are you going to do now, rape me?” she asks reminding him of her current lack of clothing.

“That thought never entered my mind,” he answers as he covers her with a blanket he had placed behind her earlier. “Tell me what you know about Gatou’s base, entrances, exits, security system, patrols anything you can think of and I’d be more then willing to let you go.”

“And if I refuse,” she asks giving no hints of defiance, "Then what? Will you kill me?"

“No,” he replies, “I have no reason to kill you. I can always obtain the information I require elsewhere. If you don't tell me then I'll just drop you off in Kiri.”

“I can not tell what I don’t know," the girl tells him. "As I am of no further use to anyone please just kill me,” the girl says looking at the floor.

Naruto moves closer to her and lifts her chin so that he can look into her eyes and what he sees shocks him. Her dark eyes hold the same loneliness and loss as his cerulean eyes. “When did he find you?” he asks her softly. He sees the surprise and confusion in her face so he decides to tell her a little of his past. “I was four when Sasori-sensei took me in,” he tells her.

“Six years ago,” she says so softly he barely heard her. “After my parents died he took me in and gave me a reason to live He trained me to be his weapon and I was his to use as he wished.” Naruto continued to just talk with her rather then interrogate her as Asuma had requested and through this he learned that she really didn’t know any more about Gatou’s defenses then they did.

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Five days later Naruto was sitting in a tree looking down at the girl practicing moving ten kunai with chakra strings beside the lake below him. He wasn’t entirely sure when it had happened but sometime during their conversations over the last few days he had agreed to teach her how to be a Puppeteer like him and even offered to give her Zabuza once he thought she was ready.

With Gatou and his men now dead the girl, who said was her name was Haku, was no longer considered a threat and had been let go. Haku, having no one left and nowhere to go, had decided to join them and return with them to Konoha so that she could ask the Hokage if she join Konoha’s forces.

The raid on Gatou’s base had taken place two days ago and had gone off without a hitch. The had gone with Kiba’s idea and after only five minutes of fighting Kiba, Akamaru and Choji had all killed for the first time. It had been hard for all of them and they were still now coming to terms with the fact that their lives would never be the same again. Naruto closes his eyes as he remembers how he and Asuma had tried to comfort their teammates.

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They return to Tazuna’s home covered in blood that is not their own and almost instantly Kiba and Choji plop down at the dinning table. “How can you live with it?” he asks Naruto. “I always thought that it would be easy you know. I never imagined it would feel so horrible.”

“I try not to think about it,” the blonde answers honestly. “Thinking about it leads to remembering and remembering leads to nightmares.” He sits down and takes of his blood soaked coat before continuing. “I know that’s not the answer that you were looking for but that’s the only one I have. It’s not easy for me either but I just try and try and push to the back of my mind and not let it consume me.”

“The taking of a life is something that should never be easy,” Asuma tells his students. “Unfortunately the hard reality of is that as shinobi the taking of a life is often a necessary part of most missions.” He takes a drag of his cigarette and lets out a puff of smoke before continuing. “I had hoped to spare you all from having to deal with this for awhile longer but that wasn’t meant to be.”

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“Come on you two,” Kiba calls to them from the tree line, “Tsunami’s got dinner ready.” Naruto comes out of his musing and finds Haku already standing beside Kiba waiting for him.

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A/N: There you go and I hope you all enjoyed it. I know that I veered from the series big time on this one but I wanted to do something different since their strength comes from functioning as a unit rather then fighting in individual battles.

I took Zabuza out of the equation early since he didn’t really have that big a part to play in this story and Naruto capturing Haku was the easiest way I could think of for him to talk to her without having to actually fight her. I chose to have them attack Gatou and his men at their base rather then fighting them on the bridge because after all they are an urban assault unit, although I skipped the whole battle scene because 1) the chapter was already getting a little long for my taste and 2) it would have just been too much of a pain in the ass to write something that complicated.

Well let me know what you all thought and I’ll get working on the next chapter as soon as I can.