Hello readers! First of all, I sincerely apologize for not updating this story in a REALLY long time. I got tied up with school, then moving, then writing other material and neglected this story. Second, the story will get better from here on due to more juicy details and plot. And third, I do not own any bit of Naruto nor do I own any of King Diamond's 'The Puppet Master'

Enjoy, and expect more frequent updates!


Chapter 2

A Night to Remember

When someone sees a puppet, they can usually tell that it's a puppet as soon as they see it move, even if the puppet is far away, but what I saw that night did not look like puppets walking across the stage. In fact, whatever was on the stage merely had the appearance of a puppet. Three wooden bodies slowly crept from beyond the curtain.

In the ninja world, battle puppets can move in ways traditional entertainment puppets cannot. Though puppet use is not a popular skill, it is widely known as a difficult talent to learn. This is why I was here in the first place after all; I wanted to learn how to use puppets more efficiently in battle, though I never would have imagined puppets could mimic human movement so accurately. Even the most skilled puppet masters in the ninja world couldn't make puppets move exactly like people. Whoever this puppet master was, I had to meet him or her. Instead, however, I should have left then and there for my own good and well being.

Once the puppets began to shamble onstage, some demented circus music started playing. Normally you would hear this kind of tune at a carnival and it would add to the fun atmosphere, but in this morbid setting it only made everyone uneasy in their seats.

The first puppet reminded me of someone that I saw at the chunin exams a few years back, someone who really gave me the creeps. His name was Kankyra or Kanketo or something like that. All I know was that he hailed from the Sand village and was a puppet user himself. Though I never got to fight him, I knew he wasn't a push over, and now I was seeing a puppet that looked almost like him, or so I thought at the time. This puppet wore a black body suit which exposed only face and hands, and even the hands were clad in black fingerless gloves. The top of the hooded part ended in two points that reminded me of bat ears which looked down right comical. I would have laughed, but the puppet's face prevented me from doing so; the puppet wore the same kind of purple face paint the Kank guy wore.

In my confusion, I was able to spot the pink-haired girl who was sitting in the same row I was, just six seats to my right. How I didn't notice her in my row was beyond me, but that wasn't really important at the moment. The most important thing on my mind was how the hell this puppet in this far away land looked exactly like a Sand ninja. Everyone around me was in shock of how disturbingly real the puppet looked.

The eyes are what got me. Though I wasn't too close to the stage I could see its eyes; real eyes.

Its face wore an emotionless smile, something that was obviously carved, but the haunting eyes looked real and tortured as bloodshot capillaries decorated their surfaces. The eyes seemed to move on their own and examine the crowd frantically, as if trying to desperately call out for help. I looked over at the pink-haired girl and she looked just as uneasy as I probably did; her mouth was agape and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. As a matter of fact, a decent amount of people in the crowd wore the same expression, as if the sorrowful eyes had transferred emotions over to the crowd. The puppet's head jerked slightly to one side as it moved to the center of the stage.

Immediately after the first puppet, another one followed suit. This one was a female and looked just as realistic as it gracefully walked across the stage. Once again, déjà vu took over as I made another horrible connection.

This puppet was Temari! Or at least it looked like her. The girl who kicked Tenten's ass in the chunin exams and sister of the Kank guy was now represented as a puppet and walked across the stage in front of me. It was no mistake, I only knew of one individual who wielded a giant fan like the one in the puppet's grasp. The puppet's head twitched to the side every so often with a wooden snap, sending chills up my spine.

The Temari puppet wore a long black robe with a red sash around the waist. It even had the same hair style as the original. Her blonde hair was divided up into four short pony tails on the back of her head. Once again, eyes which seemed to have a will of their own scouted the crowd and were punctuated with gruesome red capillaries. This puppet looked as if it was ready to cry blood as its head twitched and stared me down. A forced ear-to-ear grin was slashed and painted on her face.

Once the Temari puppet was in the center of the stage alongside the Kank puppet and both stared down the crowd, a light drum beat could be heard which quickly began to rise in volume. A third figure was on its way and once I saw it, I should have left my seat immediately.

With a snare drum strapped over its shoulders, the third life-like puppet emerged from the darkness as it played a simple beat. As soon as I laid eyes on it I felt my heart drop. The third puppet was none other than Gaara, the one tails Jinchuriki. Not only did the puppet have the signature hair and eyes of Gaara, but it even had the symbol branded on his forehead. Just what the fuck was going on here?

Once again, the eyes conveyed torture and grief onto all of us in the crowd as its body was at the mercy of the puppet master, wherever he or she was hidden.

For the next hour or so, though it only seemed like several minutes, the puppets danced and paraded around the stage as if they had no strings attached at all. I'm almost positive the puppets were doing more spectacular things than just dancing and jumping, but I could not focus on anything but their fluid movement. Though the slight glimmer of the strings was visible, it was hard to believe that they weren't moving on their own. The movements looked as if three people were dancing and leaping through the air. The fact that all three figures were nothing but wood was quite disturbing.

Suddenly I looked up and saw a dark figure with outstretched arms on a walkway high above the stage. The figure's hands and fingers were moving so quickly that I could not keep up with the movements. Whoever this was, they were truly a puppet master, and by the look of their shadow, they appeared to be quite odd looking as well. The puppet master appeared to be shorter than your average person, yet they looked like they were quite stocky. I would have been able to make out more if only it wasn't wearing some kind of cloak or robe. I was in for one hell of a surprise when I got to see them up close later that night.

I wasn't sure to whether the master was trying to be seen, or was just careless, but soon everyone took notice of its form.

Soon after realizing the crowd, the puppet master did something that I would never forget. With a few flicks of the master's fingers, the puppets simultaneously bowed their heads, raised one leg each and stood completely still as the puppet master severed the strings! The crowd gasped in shock as these puppets stood in front of them with no strings attached. To everyone's confusion, the puppets continued to waltz around the stage just as they did earlier, but with no strings! It was astonishing, but also very unsettling. Several older women in the crowd fainted from this disturbing trick. It didn't matter how the master was making the puppets do this, I had to find out.

As the life-size puppets continued to put on their show, the Gaara drummer boy glanced over and I could have sworn that it looked me dead in the eye. It almost felt as if the puppet wanted to utter the words 'help me' yet its carved smile prevented it from doing so. I dismissed it at the time; perhaps this puppet master had visited the ninja world and had based some puppets off some ninja he or she came into contact with. That had to be the reason why I was seeing Temari, Gaara, and Kank in puppet form. Or otherwise….

Before I could finish my thought at the moment, I saw something on Gaara's hand. At first I thought it was some kind of decoration but then I realized what it was. On the puppets hand, blood was flowing out of a small cut. At the time I thought it was some kind of trick, but something just didn't feel right. It was obvious by the way the puppets looked that they weren't human, but how could a pile of wood bleed? I would soon find the answer to that, at the cost of many other things…

The string-less puppets almost immediately stopped all movement as their master dropped down from to rafters and onto center stage. I was pretty sure the puppet master was male, though most of the face was covered up with a black bandana-like cloth. He lurched over, as if he had a giant hump on his back, and concealed both arms within a black cloak. The top half of his head, which was the only visible part of his surface, was tan and had five stripes of hair streaming along the top which each ended in a flip towards the rear. Though his eyes were not tortured like the puppet's eyes, the puppet master held a scornful look in his gaze as he examined the audience. The three puppets were gathered around the master the same way three loyal children would crowd around their father. With one outstretched hand, the puppet master rested his palm on Gaara and gave the puppet a pat on the head, something dog owners would do to reward their trusting canines. Whoever, or whatever it was, I needed to find out how the puppets functioned and how they were designed from the sand siblings.

"Thank you for attending the show tonight," Bellowed the puppet master in a thick and gruff tone, "but I now have important matters to attend to, so you all must leave immediately. Be quick about it, I am not a patient man."

Most of the audience was still in shock from the morbid puppet show, but after a few seconds everyone snapped back to reality and stood up. The audience proceeded to incite a round of applause loud enough to shake the entire theater. Despite his rude and creepy demeanor, the puppet master was basking in the limelight. Shortly after the uproar, the curtain fell and the puppet master and his creations were gone completely.

Exiting the theater was much easier than entering, seeing that I did not have to get hit on by some creepy old crone who was selling tickets at the cost of a hand and foot, and everyone seemed to exit the theater in an organized and calm manner. Maybe it was the shock of seeing such odd events, but it seemed like everyone in the crowd was in a trance, save for myself. I guess after you witness enough people summon giant animals and shoot fire balls out of their mouths on a regular basis you develop immunity towards abnormal occurrences.

Outside the theater was much more chaotic as everyone headed off in different directions. I wasn't going anywhere, however, as I still had to acquire some important information. Since the sky was now pitch black and the street lights around the area were fairly dim, I essentially had to blindly shove my way through the living sea to find a way to renter the theater, preferably through a side or back door.

Just as I caught a glimpse of a possible entrance though an alleyway, I crashed right into a form that was walking in the opposite direction that I was. I was about to whip my head up and give whoever this was hell, but then I realized that something about this figure seemed very familiar. With my vision fixed at the ground, I saw that this person was wearing knee-high black boots which looked quite attractive on their thin feminine legs. I'm sure there were plenty of other young women who wore black boots that night, but not many would be crazy enough to have nothing covering their toes. Even if boot-sandals existed over here, I'm sure no one would wear them in this cold weather, especially with shorts. By my knowledge, only those from the ninja world wore such shoes…

Whipping my head up, I came face to face with the pink-haired girl, her green eyes seemed to be glowing even in the semidarkness. Her youthful face looked slightly baffled, seeing that she wasn't the only one crazy enough to wear the toe-less ninja boots, signifying I was a ninja too. She had a plain brown cape draped over her shoulders, but I could easily see that she was wearing a light red and pink outfit, something that was more suited for warm climates.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry. I must have not been paying attention." I managed to say in a single breath.

The girl gave me a quick closed-eye smile, signifying that she accepted my apology.

"Well, I was going to bitch you out, but since you apologized, I think I can let it slide this time." Said the girl with a cheerful tone.

Almost immediately she spotted my forehead protector, which I always wore around my arm, making it more of an 'arm protector' than anything else.

"I see you're from the hidden leaf, huh?" Questioned the girl.

How I didn't notice her Konoha headband before was a question within itself, but I soon saw it brandished on her head, where such an item should be.

"I see that we could be neighbors." I said with a small smile.

The girl delivered another closed-eye smile and outstretched her hand as the living sea of people parted around the two of us.

"My name's Sakura Haruno, pleased to meet you."


Two Hidden Leaf ninja in a far away land where things are not always what they seem…what will happen next in this strange city?