Hello all, I'm back with a new chapter, Hope you like it.
gohan90- thank you for pointing out the mistake, I have gone back and corrected it. Also remember Naruto at the beginning was a child who had never had a friend before, and if given the chance would take any friends he could get, even if he didn't play with them long. As to them keeping in touch, Naruto could use Sarutobi's monkey's to send a message. That will play significance later on in the story. As to pairing, I'm not sure who Naruto will be paired with, but as to your suggestion to use a person who matches Naruto darker nature, remember that Naruto is only MILDLY dark in this fic and as such there will be times when he is somewhat his usual self, less hyper, stronger, and smarter of course. But thanks for the review and the suggestion, I appreciate any and all feedback.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 2- The Puppeteer Strikes
It's been two weeks since his return from Suna and Naruto had hardly left his apartment in that time. Currently he was smiling at what he had created, ever since his return he had thrown himself into his puppeteer training. He had learned much in the short amount of time, he had managed to make many of the poisons that Sasori's scrolls mentioned, and his chakra control was through the roof even if he didn't have anything to compare it by, if any trained and experienced shinobi were to see it they would think he had been trained by Tsunade Senju herself! In his second week of training with the scrolls he had started on how to create your own puppet, and lying in front of him was the fruits of his labor.
Naruto had designed him in honor of the Anbu he had seen save him multiple times. It was tall, about six feet, it was dressed in the standard Anbu attire, black pants and sandals, and a black skin tight sleeveless shirt with a grey chest plate along with arm and leg bracers. Naruto had wanted honor the Anbu but put his own little twist in to the puppet, so Naruto had given it blonde spiky hair like his own and had chosen an Anbu style Fox mask for the puppet to wear. On its back were two ninjato's and it also had kunai holsters on both its thighs as well as two packs on its back hip. Since this was his first puppet, Naruto decided only to go with some basic traps in the body. From its right wrist it could fire a barrage of poisoned senbon, and in its left wrist were smoke grenades.
Attaching his chakra strings Naruto made the puppet stand up; the sight of his first successful puppet standing in front of him was so exciting for Naruto that he immediately ran to the show the old man. When he arrived the Hokage's first thought on seeing the Anbu figure, was Naruto had pulled another prank. But when Naruto showed him it was puppet, Sarutobi almost had a heart attack from the surprise. The puppet looked so life like that it had fooled a kage level shinobi; Sarutobi knew only a puppet master would be able to tell the difference from one glance. He was curious though, as to where Naruto had gotten the clothes for the puppet. He could tell they weren't the average shinobi store remake; they were official Anbu grade clothes and armor. Apparently, Naruto didn't think one heart attack for Sarutobi was enough because when he explained how he acquired them from Anbu headquarters, the old kage almost went into cardiac arrest.
It was a week later, on the eve of Naruto's birthday; Sarutobi got word of a group of thirty or more civilians heading towards the blondes apartment to apparently, 'finish what the fourth started.' So now the Hokage and about ten Anbu were standing on the roof of a building waiting for the crowd to show up. Ten minutes later when the crowd came into view the Anbu braced themselves to strike, only to be stopped by the Hokage. Surprised and slightly concerned, a dog masked Anbu approached the Hokage.
"Hokage-sama, aren't we going to stop those villagers from attacking Naruto?" asked the Anbu, worry clear in his voice.
"Not yet Dog, as you know Naruto has started training in the art of puppetry and I wish to see how far he has come. But if things don't go the way I think they will, we move to kill all the attackers, understood?" said the Hokage in a voice that left no room for argument.
"Yes Hokage-sama," Dog replied with nod. Even he didn't show it, he was still very worried about his sensei's son and a person he saw as his own little brother, and so if there was a chance Naruto would get hurt, he would be the first one there to protect him. But if what the Hokage said was right, Naruto would be fine physically, but Dog was worried how this would affect him mentally it he was required to kill at such a young age.
Naruto meanwhile was sitting next to his window and watching the village below him. When he first caught sight of the crowd of people heading towards his apartment, he smirked, 'Time to put Fox through his last test,' he thought while connecting chakra strings to Fox and moving to hide in his closet. It wasn't two minutes later that he heard pounding on his door accompanied by the shouts of the villagers.
"Time to die demon!"
"It's time we finished what the Fourth started!"
The pounding on his door got harder until the door was kicked in and ripped off its hinges. The civilians looked around, not seeing their target they made their way to his bedroom only to find it empty as well. What they failed to notice though was Fox hidden in the shadows behind the door. When none were looking at him Fox pulled a kunai and began the slaughter.
Screams of terror could be heard coming from the apartment, concerned the Hokage signaled for the Anbu to move only to find Dog already moving to the apartment. Moving to the front door they were worried when it was broken off its hinges, moving towards the bedroom the group of shinobi was shocked to see Naruto standing with Fox by his side in middle of what could only be described as a blood bath. Bodies littered the floor soaking in pools of blood and entrails, even most experienced shinobi would have a hard time stomaching the sight in the room, but to their surprise Naruto was wearing his famous fox grin.
"That should get the message across, maybe now people will think twice before attacking me," said Naruto as he turned to look at the Hokage. "Hey old man, can I ask a favor?" Still shocked that a four year old could kill over thirty civilians, but relieved that said boy was unharmed Sarutobi turned to look at the blonde as he spoke.
"And what would that be, Naruto?" the aged kage asked.
"Can you have someone clean up the blood, but leave the bodies and organs?" Naruto asked with a serious face. Seeing the look on the blondes face Sarutobi knew this was important.
"Why just the blood and not the bodies or organs?" he asked although he had an idea because of what he heard about Sasori of the Red Sand. Knowing that he would have to explain at some point, Naruto decided to tell the Hokage about Human Puppets. Though he was slightly surprised by the blonde's knowledge on human puppets, Sarutobi had guessed that was the reason behind the unusual request. Contemplating on what to do, the Hokage decided to buy a little more time for his thought process to finish.
"Naruto come with me, we'll discuss this in my office. Anbu clean this mess up, seal the bodies and organs and bring them to my office when you're done," ordered the Hokage. With a chorus of 'Hai Hokage-sama' from everyone, even Naruto, the Anbu set to work while Naruto left with the Hokage and a dog masked Anbu, Fox at his side.
Ten minutes later found, Naruto sitting in front of the Hokage. Dog was standing by the door with Fox mimicking his actions. Sarutobi looked at Naruto, knowing that the decision he was about to make would forever change the young boy in front of him. And possibly reduce the village's population to triple digits if Naruto decided he wanted revenge. Glancing to Dog, the Hokage decided to begin with something simple.
"Naruto, first off I'd like to introduce you to someone you are very familiar with. You may recognize Dog as one of the Anbu that has watched over you in the past."
"Yeah I remember him, he was the only one of the Anbu watching me to ever come play with me," said Naruto as he smiled slightly at the memory of Dog giving him a piggy back ride while jumping across the roofs of buildings. Laughing nervously at the look the Hokage gave him, Dog stepped forward and removed his mask revealing another mask underneath; only this one covered everything from his nose down. He also had his left eye closed with a vertical scar running through it.
"Hello Naruto, my name is Kakashi Hatake. It's nice to finally meet you properly," said Kakashi with, what Naruto would soon learn, was his famous eye smile.
"It's nice to meet you too, Kakashi," said Naruto as he turned to face the newly revealed Anbu. Clearing his throat to bring the attention back to him, Hiruzen picked up from where he left off.
"Now that introductions have been taken care of, I have a few things I would like to say. First off Naruto, I will allow you to keep the bodies of the villagers to turn into puppets on the condition that you only turn those who attack you into puppets, I don't need you going around and killing people just make them puppets," said the Hokage as Naruto nodded in acceptance. "Also, as the Hokage I am giving you express permission to kill anyone who tries to attack you, what you do with the bodies afterwards is up to you," again nodding his agreement Naruto prepared to leave when a cat masked Anbu appeared and placed a scroll on the Hokage's desk. "It seems your apartment is cleaned Naruto, the bodies are in the scroll, you are free to go." Using a chakra string, Naruto grabbed the scroll and made his way out of the tower. After he arrived at his apartment, Naruto locked himself inside, not to seen by the village for years.
It was during the first two months that Naruto began trying to make human puppets, it took him a couple of tries to get the skill down and of the original 37 civilians that he had killed, 25 were puppets. Even though he knew how to make them Naruto knew he was far from mastering the art of making human puppets. He had not only worked on human puppets but he also managed to create two more regular ones. When he had shown them to Kakashi and Sarutobi, when they came by to visit every now and then, both of them were impressed and scared at the same time. Each of the puppets looked strong and intimidating on its own, but after Naruto told them that he made them to be used as a tandem; they resolved to never anger the blonde lest he attack with those two puppets.
The first one looked like a demon in human form, which was accurate somewhat as Naruto had based it on and named it after the Shinigami himself. Shinigami had sickly grey skin that Naruto said was a material he designed to make his puppets more lifelike, it had a spiky mane of white hair that reached its back; it was dressed in black jounin style pants and sleeveless shirt with a short sleeved black cloak with white flames licking the bottom. It had two horns jutting out from its forehead, piercing black eyes and razor sharp teeth in a segmented mouth that opened up and fire poisoned kunai, shuriken, or senbon at an opponent. On its back are six demonic wings that have hidden blades that extend out of them. On its right side it carries a ninjato with a white clothed hilt; it also has a tanto on its left side with a white clothed hilt as well. Its left arm had a white arm bracer and a hidden blade in the side of the arm. It could shoot poison gas out of its right elbow joint and it right hand was connected to the body by a chain that could be used to drag an opponent in for the kill.
The Brother puppet, which Naruto had named Kami, was very similar to its brother Shinigami. It had straight black hair tied in a ponytail that reached its back, its bright blue eyes shown with the same intensity as Naruto's own. It wore white jounin style pants and sleeveless shirt with a white cloak with black flames licking the bottom. On its back it had six angelic wings instead of demonic ones; these wings were loaded with poisoned senbon that could launch at an opponent with a simple flap of the wings. Like its brother, Kami had a ninjato only his was on the left side with a tanto on the right; each blade had a black clothed hilt. Its right arm had a black arm bracer and a hidden blade in the side of the arm. Its left elbow could be used to fire smoke grenades while its left wrist could fire senbon. These puppets were complete opposites of each other, but when Naruto used them together in a fight against Kakashi's and Sarutobi's clones they proved to be quite the team covering the others blind spots and launching one combo attack after another.
It was with these two puppets that Naruto managed to defeat four chuunin who were helping a crowd of twenty civilians to attack the 'demon brat.' Needless to say, Naruto added twenty new civilian puppets to his collection, but only three ninja puppets, he had lost one when he messed up the chakra network, but it would be safe to say that Naruto now had the art of making human puppets mastered after three months. Thanks to his three new chuunin puppets, Naruto learned the basics of fire, earth, and lightning jutsu and even some genjutsu.
Now one year later, Naruto stood atop his apartment building dressed in all black. Making his way across the roofs of the village, he made his way to his destination, the Hokage tower. Arriving at the tower, he watched as the patrols made their rounds, studying them for an opening. When the opening presented itself, he made his move. Entering though an open window, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage's office. Sneaking out of the office, he made his way towards the Hokage's personal library. Once he arrived he searched the room for anything of interest to him, he found multiple scrolls on every type of jutsu imaginable, from destructive ninjutsu, to terrifying genjutsu, to complex taijutsu, and almost impossible sealing. Smirking Naruto took out a bunch of blank scrolls, as well as some sealing scrolls.
Taking one of the blank scrolls, he removed one the larger, older looking scrolls and set it beside the blank one. Over the course of his training so far, Naruto had created a jutsu similar to the transformation, only you didn't transform yourself, you transformed something else. He had created this jutsu using some of the information he got from his three chuunin puppets about basic genjutsu and the transformation, unlike a genjutsu when this jutsu was applied it wasn't an illusion but a physical transformation. Running through the hand signs for the jutsu Naruto transformed the blank scroll into a copy of the large scroll, at least on the outside; he knew no one ever used the scroll in this room to train as they were all forbidden, so no one would be opening them anytime soon. Repeating the process with the reminder of the scrolls in the room, which took him a good three hours to from how many scrolls there were, he sealed away the originals into the storage scrolls and made his way out of the building the same way he came in.
Two years had passed after Naruto's adventure in the Hokage's forbidden library, and in that time Naruto had nearly mastered everything the scrolls had to teach him. How did he accomplish this? The answer is simple, Shadow Clones. Before he began his training with the scrolls, Naruto had read through them to see what he should start with. When he came across the Shadow Clone Jutsu and read about its secret ability, he set to work on mastering it. It was almost as if the jutsu was made specifically for him with how easily it came to him, but what he didn't expect when he first used the clones for training was the massive headache that came when he released the jutsu due to the rush of knowledge he received from his clones.
It was because this that Naruto had first met his tenant, Kyuubi no Kitsune. When he and the fox first met they couldn't stop arguing with each other and they couldn't get along to save their lives. But when Naruto had let slip about one of his secret projects, the Kyuubi or as he later introduced himself, Kurama offered to help him with it.
Naruto may have been a bit colder since his first kills, but he had a since of honor, and he felt he should do something for the fox if he was willing to help with his project. This brought about the idea of Naruto finding a way to summon the Kyuubi into the real world every now and then, when he told the fox his idea, he immediately threw the Fox Summoning contract at Naruto and almost begged him to sign it.
With the help of Kurama and his Shadow Clones, Naruto had managed to master everything the scrolls had to offer. Even if he didn't have anything to compare it to, Naruto felt his skills as a shinobi could rival that of a jounin's. His genjutsu was that of an average jounin, despite puppeteers usually having little to no close combat skills, Naruto's taijutsu was that of an elite jounin, his skills in sealing had gone through the roof. Like the Shadow Clone, the art of sealing almost seemed like second nature to him. Thanks to the scrolls the Fourth Hokage left behind on sealing, he was probably a master of the art. But the one thing he knew no one could ever match him at, was ninjutsu. His naturally large chakra reserves, even without the fox's chakra, made him a perfect match for ninjutsu, and with all the jutsu he had learned from the Hokage's scrolls he knew he could rival even the old man in that department.
It was near his seventh birthday that the Hokage had come to tell him that he would be starting at the academy soon.
Despite protests from the civilian council about having the 'demon' trained as a ninja and instead calling for his death using the basis of him killing innocent civilians and then turning them into abominations, the Hokage had reminded them that his law about the Kyuubi was still active and that he had given Naruto permission to defend himself. The shinobi council however was pleased to see that Naruto could defend himself, and were interested in his skills with the art of puppetry. This didn't sit well with the civilian council as they continued to go on and on about killing the 'demon.' It wasn't until after Sarutobi threatened them with public execution for treason did they stop ranting.
Excited that he could finally be a ninja, officially, he decided to go to the festival despite the Hokage's protests. That was how his collection of human puppets went from 48 to 81, even with Fox by his side throughout the whole time he was at the festival; people still had thoughts that they could attack him without consequences.
When he received the report of what occurred during the festival, the Hokage hoped that people learned not to mess with Naruto soon, or the village populace would drop dramatically in the coming years.
There it is, let me know what you think. Also I still need ideas for more puppets and people you think should be turned into puppets.
BSW
