PUPPET (n): A person, party, or state under the control of another person, group, or power.

1. Still Waters

Konoha, part of a region that is known as the Fire Country because of a moment in history that Sakura couldn't recall off the top of her head, was known for its sweltering heat. July was the worst month of the summer, where the air was muggy, dense like butter and made it difficult to breathe. It was almost as if Mother Nature wanted to asphyxiate the entire population of Konohagakure. July was the month where everyone suffered from humidity all hours of the day, constant sun beaming relentlessly on everyone's backs due to cloudless days and what made these days worse was that the village was in the middle of a drought. Frankly, despite everything sucking to the upmost degree of suckage, Sakura hated nothing more than the sweat that poured out of places that she'd rather not name.

There were times during the month when the heat became so unbearable the radio broadcasters, television newscasters, and the Hokage herself would advise villagers to stay indoors. Stores closed, school was canceled, and Sakura still had to work. Why? Because—and these were words from the Hokage, her mentor, boss, guardian and everything else in between—she need to take care of the poor souls that would get heatstroke or other horrible ailments while they basked in the sun—possibly a third degree burn to their eyes from looking up at the sun?

One, if there is an advisory to stay indoors for the day, why was the hypothetical, pompous person doing outside in the first place? Two, what if Sakura had heatstroke or gained a third degree burn when walking to work? No one would be out to help her, and if there was anyone who did help her, there's potential they'll melt! This village conspired against her….

Main Street felt deserted as Sakura trudged forward, hurrying to the hospital. However, each step felt like she was dragging her feet through thick mud. By the time Sakura reached the hospital, dark sweat stains foiled her beige uniform, but god did that AC feel great….

"Good morning, Sakura!" the receptionist—Sakura could never remember her name because it was so elaborate and foreign…ish, or maybe it was just Sakura and her inability to remember names—greeted with such cheerfulness that Sakura momentarily forgot the glorious sun decided to defecate hell on the village. She had to be as miserable as Sakura; she's just a better actress.

With a smile, Sakura nodded at the receptionist who smiled back and continued to file through patients' records. Trudging down the hall, Sakura rolled her her sleeves up to mid bicep and tied her lengthy, pink hair into a bun. Everyone she walked past seemed to be modifying their uniforms for maximum coolness as well.

"You're finally here!" Shizune huffed as she rushed to catch up to Sakura, out of breath and spewing more sweat than the fountain in front of the hospital emitted water. Her coworker handed her files and a clipboard with a list of men and women along with times. "You have physicals today."

Sakura scanned the list for anyone she knew. She even flipped the paper on its back. "Kakashi's name isn't hidden on this paper is it?"

Shizune looked down at the clipboard briefly. "No, at least I don't think so. He never comes anyway, so why worry?"

"The last time he decided to come, I was the one to give him his physical. Have you ever had that awkward moment when you see your ex-sensei with his pants down?"

"No."

"Keep it that way."

Shizune merely smiled and preceded to hand Sakura a pen for the forms. "Oh and Naruto is waiting in our office. Apparently, he has news to tell you."

"Oh, yeah?" Sakura raised a brow. "Did he tell you what kind of news?'

"Sorry, no idea but I sent him to your office about ten minutes ago. I told him you'd be there shortly."

"Thank you." Sakura bowed her head and dismissed herself, hustling towards her office while trying to organize the newly obtained information clipped to her clipboard. As she marched down the hall, she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse.

Sakura used her elbow to turn the door knob as she shuffled the paper into a neat stack using her mouth and somewhat free hand. "Hey, Sakura," her usual rambunctious friend welcomed as Sakura squeezed into her office and kicked the door shut with more aggression than needed.

"This heat is going to be the death of me. Do you mind if I…?" Sakura pointed to her blouse and gave Naruto a questioning look. Naruto grinned and waved her off just as Sakura practically ripped her blouse off and flopped into a chair in just her white camisole and uniform skirt. "It's so hot." That's when she noticed Naruto sat there with his jacket open, showing his flawless skin and slightly ripped abs.

"Why are you awake at eight—um, you look like crap." Naruto rolled his eyes and spun her swivel chair in several circles. "You're making me dizzy," Sakura scoffed. "Are you doing all right?" He suddenly stopped and looked at her with his hitae-ate hanging over the top of his eyes. Oceanic blues peeked from underneath. He looked like he spent a full night awake.

"I've been thinking for a while now…." Oh, dear Lord, Sakura thought, bracing herself for some idiotic misfortune Naruto brought upon himself. Quickly, she raced through her brain for past lectures she gave him that could fit this pending news. "Hinata is really cute, huh?"

Huh? Sakura blinked once, twice, three times. "Eh?"

"You sound confused."

"Where on Earth did you get that idea?" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Are you telling me you're gonna ask her out or what?" Sakura leaned forward and rested a cheek on a propped hand. "You'd make Hinata incredibly happy," she mumbled, thinking back to those years Hinata waited for Naruto to say the words that just came out of his mouth.

"I don't know how," Naruto sighed, tipped his chair back and raised his arms above his head, wincing as he stretched. "Oh, now I remember why I came here. I just came back from a mission; can you look at my shoulder? Kakashi thinks I dislocated it during a fight with Cloud."

Naruto stood up and slipped his jacket off. Sakura frowned at the sight of his unblemished skin. Despite the number of missions he's gone on, the number of attacks that pierced his skin and through him, the demon inside him always healed him, leaving absolutely nothing. If only she had that ability then maybe she wouldn't scare civilian men off with the look of the many faint scars plaguing her skin but that ability wasn't worth sealing a demon inside her just for the luxury of having pretty skin.

"You got into a fight with Cloud?" Sakura inquired, frowning as she probed her friend's shoulder with a finger. "They're supposed to be our allies."

Naruto shrugged his left shoulder. "They went rogue I guess. They're in the bingo book and the Raikage even sent Grandma a picture of the two."

"Right," Sakura hummed. "Does it hurt to move it?"

"I don't want to move it."

Sakura sighed and stepped back from Naruto. How was she going to pop this sucker into place?

Oh…

"Naruto," Sakura whispered, putting her hands into place. "Look, they're opening another ramen shop!"

"What—AHHH!"

Sakura stepped back and admired her handy work. Naruto wasn't all that appreciated since he sniffed and cried about it—he'd get over it in a few hours. "I'll just put you in a sling and I'm sure the Kyuubi will gladly do the rest."

"Shit, thanks I guess." He winced and wiped the tears of pain from his eyes. "I really wish you were there. It hasn't been the same since Tsunade put you on lock down."

"Naruto…"

"Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura, please report to Room 100. You are needed immediately," the intercom blared.

"Take it easy, Naruto. I'll see you later." With that, Sakura grabbed her discarded blouse and left the room.

"I'll talk to Lady Tsunade about letting you go on the next mission!"

Sakura spun around on her heel and yelled, "Naruto, you won't be on any missions until that shoulder heals! Do you understand me?" The door closed on her before Sakura could finish and Naruto probably bounced out the open window as soon as she turned to yell at him.

Sakura prayed for an assignment to a new village, but she knew those wouldn't come any time soon. Because majority of the nations were at peace, villages didn't feud and war wasn't brewing along the horizon to pump up her and her fellow shinobi—Sakura never wanted war but she really missed action….

Nowadays A-ranked missions consisted of helping old people cross a busy road or protect someone crossing a sketchy bridge, so Tsunade kept Sakura at the hospital on endless shifts just to keep Sakura busy and keep her medical skills top notch. On a daily basis, Sakura performed physicals. Sometimes people privileged her with surgery, maybe a handful of exploded appendixes, a few torn ligaments, and busted ACLs, which were usual for a shinobi.

Sakura dreamed to be on the field with her old team again. Sakura just turned sixteen when Team Seven reunited with Sai as a replacement for Sasuke, and it definitely took a while to accept Sai's Sasuke-resembling looks and his astonishing way with words. After all formalities and threats flew out the window and the cards were laid on the table, they've been a great team until Tsunade decided to put Sakura under village arrest until trouble stirs.

Working at the hospital wasn't bad. Sakura didn't resent it but running, jumping and flying through the trees seemed better than treating a bunch of whining people. Missions were becoming amusing considering that Kakashi was a year shy from thirty and it seemed like women weren't the only beings that go through menopause…. It was great watching Naruto constantly poking fun at their sensei's age. It was even funnier watching Kakashi avenge his age with a prank while Naruto slept. Nothing was better than spending time with her boys and a menopausal grandpa.

A worried nurse paced in front of Room 100, fiddling with her chipped nail polish and mumbling absurdities. "Hi," Sakura greeted brightly with a smile because a blast of cold air gusted onto Sakura's sweaty face. "What can I do?"

"Uh," she sputtered, nervously glancing at the door, "well, there's a young boy in there with a, uh, broken arm."

"That's why I'm here," Sakura sighed and stepped around the anxious nurse who followed her into the room. "What's his name," the rosette whispered as she eyed the pale boy on the examination table. The nurse stepped back and pressed herself against the door as if Sakura was going to pounce on her.

"Ryoichi, ma'am, five-years-old," she whispered back.

The boy's head snapped up and glared at the two women crouched in the corner. Sakura waved. "Hi," she beamed, grinning at the young child, but he returned the smile with a cold glower, causing Sakura's eyebrow to twitch in frustration. He was going to be one of those kids, huh?

The five-year-old sat on the examination table, small legs kicking back and forth as he waited for Sakura to make the first move. His charcoal eyes glared at the limp arm that rested in his lap—as if glaring at it would make it better. Sakura only wished it worked that way. He was tall for his age and his spiked hair probably made up for most of his height. Sakura noticed he was bare foot with dirt caked to the soles of his feet. On the ground, there was a mound of dirt as he swished his feet back and forth in the air.

"So, I hear that you broke your arm. How exactly did you do that?"

"Who are you?" he grumbling, glaring at Sakura.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," she quickly said to him. "So how did you break your arm, Child?"

"I was playing and fell out a tree. That's how all people break their arms."

"Who told you that?" Sakura laughed and the child raised his eyebrows at her. She cleared her throat. "Can I see your arm?"

Sakura leaned forward, holding her hand out for his arm. He reluctantly placed his limp arm in her hand, wincing at the slight pressure from placing his arm on Sakura's hand. Sakura pressed her index finger against his ulna, sending one single strand of chakra through her fingertips to find where the break was.

"This might—"

The boy's foot connected with Sakura's left eye, sending her to the ground in shock. "What was that for?" the boy cried, jumping off the table and punching Sakura in the gut.

"Is that how you want to play, Little Man?" Sakura bellowed, balling her hand into a fist.

"Sakura, ma'am, he's only a little boy," the nurse intervened, stepping in front of the boy. Sakura glared at the woman who pinched her eyes shut and waited for the fatal blow but Sakura just wiggled her nose and left the room, leaving the boy to cry and yell at the nurse.

"Damn," Shizune whistled, appearing behind Sakura, who leaned against the bathroom sink and examined the injury to her face. A dark purple circled under her left eye and a pinkish tint around her cornia, a damned black eye. Above her right eyebrow, she noticed a thin abrasion that started from the middle of her eyebrow and stretched to her temple.

"That kid's toenail scratched me," Sakura mumbled to herself as she took a wet paper towel and dabbed the dried blood from her eyebrow and temple.

"Ai told me about it, so I brought this." Shizune revealed a bag of frozen carrots. "Thanks to you storming out, I was the one who had to patch him up," she told Sakura with a distasteful frown.

"I freaking hate kids…a lot." Sakura babied her swollen eye with the carrots. "Ow," she whined with a sniff.

"I've never seen a child so ill behaved. I want to meet the parents of that child so I can teach them a thing or two about raising children!"

"You've never had kids, Shizune."

"I sure as hell know I can raise a child better behaved than Ryoichi!"

"I don't doubt it."

"Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura please report to Lady Hokage's office," the intercom announced. Sakura could hear the howls of "OH, what she do this time?" and a handful of tsk, tsks. When Sakura thought her day couldn't get any worse, she was called down to her boss's office which she knew sported no good news for her.

"Lady Tsunade," Sakura utter in monotonous tone, "you called for me?" Yeah, Sakura imagined Tsunade saying, you have a 92 hour shift ahead of you consisting of tedious physicals and patient check-ups; here is a coupon for all you can eat energy balls of disgustingness. Please enjoy.

"It's come to my attention that you have been working too much, sometimes even overtime," Tsunade said with her swivel chair turned away from Sakura. It reminded Sakura of a movie where the bad guy was sitting in his swivel chair and before he reveals his evil plan, he spins his chair around to face the protagonist.

On the subject of work, damn straight Sakura worked too much. Even as one of the top medics in the village, her status as a Chunin didn't help her pay. Sakura needed to pay for rent and food somehow. If only Tsunade gave her a few B-ranked missions, then Sakura wouldn't have financial worries.

"I can explain…"

"Starting today you're on a week leave, paid."

"Uh, pardon?"

"You're on leave, Sakura but before you go home to take a 72 hour nap, can you check on Ino at the falls? I hear she's doing something totally suicidal. Also, if she's not dead, thank her. She's the one that got you out of work. Oh, and Naruto."

Sakura bowed. "Thank you."

"Oh, Sakura."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"What happened to your face?"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "Nothing of importance. I'll go rescue Ino now."

"You're high," Sakura interjected, cutting off Ino's spiel on fantasy logic of aerodynamics. The rosette peered down the menacing waterfall below. She glanced back at her best friend who stripped down to her bra and underwear, carefully folding her clothes and placing them on the highest ledge of the rock they stood on. Sakura clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes. Ino should be worrying about her sanity instead of her stupid clothes.

"I am not high, Forehead. I'm being experimental."

"Half the things Kakashi says is complete bull. What makes you think he's being serious? He's just asking you to kill yourself in an inconspicuous way, but you're totally oblivious to the fact and you're not going to realize that until your brains are splattered on the rocks at the bottom of this thing." Sakura peeked over the ledge but quickly looked away, shivering at the frightening height of the waterfall. She could feel her stomach flipping nervously and she wasn't the one that decided to jump off it with a poorly made paper Mache hang glider.

It was an obvious fact that Ino was, in fact, going to die in… T-minus: ten minutes.

"His explanation made sense," Ino countered as she lifted the homemade hang glider. "You'll be in complete awe when you see me gliding in the air."

"You'll be in complete awe when you're dead. I'm giving you one last warning, so when you do die, you can't haunt me for not warning you about your impending death. Ino, you are going to die."

Ino rolled her eyes and scoffed at her best friend, "Don't you have people to save from a slow and painful death or broken bones to fix?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I'll have to do full body reconstruction if you jump."

"You sound like I'm about to commit suicide."

"You are."

Sakura not only blamed Kakashi for this, but she blamed peace among the nations. Now that there is peace, there's no need for assassination missions or guarding missions. Guarding missions are more like tourist guide missions and assassinations don't even exist anymore! To Sakura, it seemed like A-ranked missions consist of tasks meant for D ranked missions, and D ranked missions are now an imaginary letter that comes after Z. So, due to lack of missions and action, things like unintentional suicide (i.e., Ino) happen or shit just happens (i.e. Ino again).

It was a vicious circle. First, there are no good missions, so people like Kakashi have loads of time to let their minds wander, and they tell people like Ino one of their wanderings, and then people like Sakura are at the scene of a potential suicide/murder. Those people like Sakura are then locked up in chains because they are wrongly convicted of homicide. Then those like Kakashi continue to spread their horrible ideas and those like Sakura who are in their right mind can't stop it because they're behind bars. And people like Ino continue to die because they listen to people like Kakashi's theories.

"Ino, I refuse to save your life if you jump."

"That's a bit selfish don't you think?" Ino asked with a playful smirk. She stood at the edge of the waterfall and glanced down at her impending doom—she just didn't know at the time. Taking a deep breath, she lifted a foot off the rock but after taking another glance, Ino looked back at Sakura and grinned. "You know what I changed my—" Her foot slipped and Ino tumbled along the waterfall with her shitty hang glider wrapped around her waist and a huge hole already in the gliders.

Sakura leaned over the edge and reached for Ino's foot but missed her by a hair. "Damn it, Ino," Sakura hissed, ready to jump in for her when an unsuspected weight crushed Sakura into the rock for a quick second. The black clad figure disappeared into the rushing water and before Sakura could blink, Ino hung in the trees with her crappy glider still in her grasp.

"I flew, Sakura, I flew!" Ino wailed.

Sakura eyes flew in the direction of the person in black. He stared back at Sakura from the opening of the forest, leaning against a tree. Noticing Sakura's gaze, he vanished into the trees.

"Sa-ku-ra!" Ino sang.

"No, you didn't. Someone saved your ass from certain death…. I could've done that," she scoffed. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, there are a few bruises here and there, but I think I'll be all right."

"Internal bleeding?"

"Hopefully not."

"Check in at the hospital and have them run tests. I have to go yell at someone."

Sakura stormed through the town, thinking of all the places the bastard would be but despite checking all his hiding places, he was nowhere to be found. Sakura noticed Bridal's Boutique, a bridal store full of wedding dress, yukatas, kimonos and a range of beautiful bridesmaid dresses. There was a rise in marriages that summer, even among the shinobi who were told it was better to not marry due to the uncertainty of their occupation. Were the shinobi wedding because war was no longer a talk amongst the town and they could live in happiness and matrimony?

"Hey, Sakura." Sakura grinned; just the person she wanted to beat.

"Ino almost killed herself because of you."

Kakashi waved a hand and chuckled. "There's no reason to commit suicide over me, but I take it as flattery. Ino could always just come over to my place and share her thoughts of undying love for me."

"She took the hang glider idea into consideration."

"Everyone knows you'll just drop."

"Yeah?" Sakura socked her ex-sensei in the chest. "Tell that to Ino."

"Nah, but you are more than welcome to tell me about your adventure over a drink?"

Sakura punched Kakashi again, earning an oof from him. "You only want someone to dump the check on, you low life!" She knew this silver haired man's antics and tricks like the back of her hand. "You can tell me how that mission went, though."

Kakashi glanced over his shoulder, his eyes creasing. Sighing, he placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and guided her down the street. "Let's walk and talk?"

"All right." Sakura peered over her shoulder, wondering why the man kept peeking over his shoulder every so often. "What's this I hear about Cloud?"

"No clue. They were rogue shinobi. Intel says they were members of the group that attempted to kidnap Hinata fourteen years ago, but no one thinks that piece of information is relevant. Naruto, Sai and I caught them on the border of the Fire Nation."

"They couldn't be after the Byakugan."

Kakashi shrugged. "If they were, it'll be their fault Konoha would cut ties with Kumo. They're in interrogation with Ibiki, so we'll have answers very soon."

"Huh. Was all this classified?"

"Yep, don't tell anyone."

Then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Sakura stomped her foot. "Kakashi!"