Master of Puppets, Demolition Chief
Chapter Two: Grave-Robbing and the Return
A.N.: Sorry it took so long to update peeps, but I was starting a new story and updating my other ones. But finally, here is the long awaited chapter 2 of Master of Puppets, Demolition Chief!!
After the two nukenin had infiltrated Konoha and stolen a couple of jutsu scrolls, they immediately fled Fire Country and headed for the hideout that they had set up on an uninhabited island south of Kirigakure. Once the two missing-nin and their cute little apprentice had arrived, they got to learning from the Katon scroll and training Naruto. Figuring that he didn't know too much about chakra and jutsus, Deidara and Sasori started training his stamina and endurance. They were both extremely surprised that he could tackle anything that they threw at him, whether it be running three laps around the island, or climbing the small mountain in the centre.
Once Naruto had built up his stamina over the course of a year and a half, Deidara started to teach him a taijutsu style called the Tōrōken (Praying Mantis Fist). This fighting style relied primarily on fluid, circular motions to deflect attacks, which was followed by lightning fast strikes to the vital points of the opponent. Deidara said that the Tōrōken was more effective when a sharp weapon like knuckle knives or katars were used to go with it. When Naruto asked Deidara why he was a little rusty, Deidara sheepishly admitted that he had been practicing it less ever since he started using his bombs. In the light of knowing weapons would be more useful with the style, Sasori began to teach Naruto about weapons and how to use them effectively. Naruto listened and watched with rapt attention as Sasori activated all of his weapon extensions and demonstrated their uses. But what really threw him for a loop was when Sasori asked him which three he would like the most. Naruto began to jitter excitedly before Sasori gave him a warning.
"Don't just choose a weapon because you think its cool Naruto. You have to think it over and decide whether it would be useful or not." The puppet master explained. Naruto screwed his face up in concentration. After about ten seconds, he decided on using a katar for his right arm. Another minute passed before he picked a saw for his left. It was about two minutes before Naruto finally asked for a pair of flamethrowers on both of his wrists. When Deidara asked why he wanted two, he said "I may need some extra firepower... literally." Sasori snickered at Naruto's bad pun, and immediately went to the 'secret lab' to start making the weapons.
It was about five days later that Sasori finished the weapons, and started to teach Naruto how to use them. This usually meant that Sasori beat the crap out of Naruto who tried to defend himself. After six months, Naruto could hold his own against Sasori for about three minutes when Sasori was using a quarter of his strength. That alone was enough to impress the Nigakou. In turn for impressing them so, both of them began to teach Naruto about chakra. The small blonde had a little bit of trouble remembering everything about chakra and its properties, as he would occasionally fall asleep during the boring lectures. He abandoned this later because Sasori started to whack him on the head every time he fell asleep. They moved onto seals after the lectures were over. Naruto had trouble with the seals at first, but could perform them satisfactorily. Deidara and Sasori helped him perfect the seals by randomly shouting out the name of one of them for him to make. After he had gotten the seals down, they taught him a chakra control exercise; Naruto had to keep a kunai stuck to his head. After about three days of practice, Naruto progressed to keeping two kunai stuck to him. Then four. Then eight. Once he had decent control over his chakra, both of them taught him a low rank jutsu from their respective countries.
From Deidara, Naruto was taught a C-rank Doton jutsu, the Tsuchi Bunshin no jutsu (Earth Clone Technique). He managed to get the Bunshin to look exactly like him on his eighth try, impressing Deidara. Sasori taught him a D-rank Fūton jutsu, the Sōsenpu no jutsu (Twin Whirlwind Technique). This jutsu created two small tornadoes that flew in a circle around him at a moderate pace. It was not a very effective jutsu, as the tornadoes were not very strong and easy to dodge. Naruto managed to get this down with two tries. Sasori suspected that Naruto had an affinity for Fūton jutsu, and reminded himself to teach him some more powerful ones.
It was Naruto's eighth birthday, and the two nukenin had decided to start teaching him their individual arts, along with some more ninjutsu. Naruto was currently outside on his run around the island. How the kid would do it, Deidara would never know. They had baked him a huge surprise birthday cake for his eighth birthday. The cake almost took up the whole table. Naruto ate a freakish amount of food, and his two masters weren't exactly light eaters either. They would occasionally start food fights at random times, and Sasori had a sneaking suspicion that there would be one this time. The two of them were hiding, waiting to surprise the kid. Sure enough, the huge stone gate opened to reveal the now eight year old blonde. Said child looked confused that the lights were off, and flicked them on, not noticing the string attached to the switch. Immediately, streamers and confetti fell from the ceiling. A couple of fireworks went off, and a large banner fell from the ceiling that read 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARUTO' in large red kanji. Naruto looked back down to find his two senseis dressed in party attire. Deidara had a huge, polka dotted hat on his head that made him look ridiculous. Sasori was decked out in streamers, making him look like an anemone. Naruto giggled, but started to cry after a moment. Deidara and Sasori were immediately concerned.
"What's wrong Naruto?" Sasori asked, crouching down beside the blonde. Naruto wiped his tears and looked at the redhead.
"N-nobody's ever th-thrown me a b-birthday party before, S-Sasori-niisan. P-people would u-usually beat me u-up on my b-birthday." Naruto choked out, continuing to cry. Sasori just held the little kid in a tight, brotherly hug. Deidara joined in after a moment. Both of them vowed to train this kid enough to teach the Konoha pigs a lesson.
"Well Naruto, this cake is for you, and I don't want to let it go to waste, yeah." Deidara said casually. Naruto tensed up before he looked at the enormous cake and started salivating. The three quickly dug into the delicious treat. About halfway through the pig out, Sasori held up a piece of his cake and looked at Deidara slyly. Deidara eyes the redhead warily, and cried out in shock when Sasori slammed the cake into his face. Naruto began to laugh until a slice was sent flying into his own face. Deidara gave a war cry as he slung another piece of the cake at Sasori.
After about ten minutes of fighting with the cake, the three stopped and laughed it off. After they had cleaned up, the two nukenin mentioned the presents that they were going to give Naruto.
"What are they? What are they? What are they? Tellmetellmetellmetellme!" Naruto babbled.
"Well Naruto, seeing as you are our apprentice, we will teach you our respective arts. I will be teaching you the art of Puppetry." Sasori explained, summoning one of his puppets.
"And I will be teaching you how to use clay bombs, yeah." Deidara added, showing him a small bird. Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head.
"YATTA!!" He shouted, jumping for joy.
It was early the next morning and the two nukenin and their cute apprentice were standing outside the nondescript looking hideout.
"Okay Naruto, listen up. In order to perform the Kugutsu no jutsu (Puppet Technique), you must learn how to make chakra strings. In order to do this, you must release a constant stream of chakra from the tip of your finger, like so." Sasori held his hands out towards one of his smaller, eight-limbed puppets that wasn't made from a corpse. It had two black eyes, six arms, and two legs. Five thin blue strings shot out of his right hand, and three from his left. The strings attached to the puppet, and Sasori made it move around. After making the puppet reveal some of its hidden weapons such as senbon packets, shuriken launchers, and a tail, Sasori turned to Naruto.
"In order to make the puppet use specific motions such as extending a poison needle or shooting kunai, a specific finger motion needs to be used. But for now Naruto, I just want you to try and produce a single chakra string and maintain it. Once you have done that, progress to two and so on." Sasori instructed. Naruto nodded and began to mould some chakra. After a moment, he extended his right index finger and a short string of chakra shot out of it. It was a little bit thicker than Sasori's and flickered out of existence a moment later. Frowning, Naruto kept trying. After about half an hour, he managed to get the chakra string perfected. Three days later, he was able to produce and maintain four of them. Another day, two more strings. And on the sixth day, Naruto was able to produce ten full chakra strings. He called Sasori out and asked him to summon that eight-limbed puppet. Sasori did so, and his jaw dropped when Naruto attached eight chakra strings to the puppet and made it charge at him.
"Good job Naruto! You mastered the chakra strings a lot faster than I did! As a reward, you get to have this puppet." Sasori handed Naruto the puppet, and the new puppeteer grinned thoughtfully as he looked the puppet over.
"I'll name you Sasoriza (Scorpion (Constellation))." Naruto said more to himself. Sasori began to teach Naruto the finger movements required to make the puppet perform attacks. Naruto would mess up every now and then, but he quickly corrected his mistakes. Very soon he could control Sasoriza effectively enough that he could probably take out an experienced Genin if he went all out.
Seeing that Naruto was progressing well in the field of puppetry, Deidara started to teach Naruto how to make explosives.
"Creating the explosive clay is a very delicate process, yeah. How much chakra you use in moulding it will determine how powerful the explosion is, yeah. I myself grade them like this; C-1 being the weakest, having the power of a couple explosive notes. C-2 has the power of a Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion) yeah. C-3 is an enormous bomb that could level a large village, yeah. And finally, C-4 is a bomb that creates tiny bombs that get inside your enemy, and blow him up from the inside, yeah." Deidara explained. He then pulled a small amount of clay from one of his pouches. He let his palm mouths swallow and start to chew it, while imbuing it with a little bit of chakra. After about ten seconds, the mouth spat out a mass of significantly lighter-coloured clay. Deidara closed his palm and began to squeeze the clay. He opened his palm to reveal a canary-like bird. He threw it up into the air, and it began to flap its little wings rapidly. Once it had ascended a short distance, Deidara formed a ram seal and commanded "Katsu!" The clay bird gave off a small explosion. Deidara looked at Naruto and handed him a small handful of clay.
"Now you try, yeah. And remember, just a little chakra." Deidara warned. Naruto nodded while rolling his eyes. He let the palm in his hand swallow the clay, and it started to chew. Twenty or so seconds later, the mouth spat out a blob of clay which Naruto began to mould into a bird shape. A few seconds passed, and Naruto looked at his finished masterpiece.
The bird wasn't half bad looking. Its body was thin and it had a wide tail for greater manoeuvrability. The flaws were that the right wing was shorter and broader than the left, and the face and beak were curved to the side. Naruto tossed it up in the air, where it attempted to fly. Unfortunately, due to the difference in the wing size, it fell to the ground and began to smoke. Deidara gasped.
"GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, YEAH! IT'S GONNA BLOW!" he screamed before sprinting away as fast as he could. Naruto followed quickly.
But neither of the two pyromaniacs was fast enough. The small bird sparked before letting off a spectacular, flaming explosion.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" the two pyromaniacs cried as the shockwave threw them from their feet and simultaneously entered Dreamland.
Sasori shook his head as he used his Sandaime Kazekage puppet's Satetsu (Iron Sand) ability to carry the two blondes back into the hideout. He could sometimes be amazed at the stupidity that his blonde buddy had. Once he set the two down on their beds, he retreated to the lab. He had just gotten back from Suna and Kumo with a couple of corpses and lots of metal. Once he had shut the door, he laid the corpse of a Suna Jounin named Hiruko on the table. He pulled out his scalpels, drills and needles and began to work...
Naruto felt like the entire populace of Konoha had been using his head as a ball for kicking around. Groaning, he sat up and surveyed his surroundings. He was on his bed and Deidara was lying soundly on his own. Naruto looked at the clock and became confused. They had started training at 8:30 AM... so why was it 7:42AM? Naruto didn't have time to dwell on this thought; Deidara had awoken from his sleep. He rubbed his head and turned to his younger blonde.
"Well, that was a decent attempt Naruto, yeah. I didn't expect you to do so well on your first try." Deidara appraised. Naruto looked proud of himself before looking around.
"I wonder where Sasori-niisan got to." Naruto murmured quietly.
"Looking for me?" whispered a deep, husky voice that made Naruto's hair stand on end. He looked to the left to see an unfamiliar looking man crouching near the door of the lab. He had a dark, tanned face with five or six braids running along his head and flaring up at the back. The lower half of his face was covered by a mask. While his right arm looked normal, his left arm was metallic and had a huge cylinder on the lower arm. On his back was a large reddish-orange shell in the shape of a face. Protruding from the open mouth was a long metal scorpion tail that was waving gently about. Only three people knew about the hideout, and two of them were lying on beds. That meant...
"Sasori? Is that you?" Deidara gasped, raising his visible eyebrow. Sasori let out a dark chuckle.
"Yes, it's me Deidara. And before you ask, you were out for the rest of the day. I suppose you're wondering why I look like this?" Sasori received two nods. "Well, puppet masters are often left vulnerable, as they're usually not good at close range combat. What this 'new look' is, is a Hitokugutsu called Hiruko that serves as armour. Installed in the mouth and left arm are poisoned senbon and kunai launchers. The cylinder on my right arm is a sort of missile that launches senbon in random directions. The tail is for swatting or stabbing opponents who get too close. Sweet, right?" Sasori finished. Deidara was simply looking dumbstruck.
"I want one of those." Naruto said quietly. Sasori heard him and snickered.
"Well Naruto, I could probably teach you how to make a Hitokugutsu now, seeing as you're a natural at puppetry. Follow me." Sasori beckoned Naruto to follow him. Deidara accompanied him as well; he wanted to see how Sasori made his toys. That curiosity was decreased when the stench of the lab hit his nostrils. It reeked of blood, decay, and preservatives. If not for his incredibly strong stomach, Naruto was sure that he would've thrown up by now. Deidara had a faint green tinge on his face.
The process of making a Hitokugutsu was not pretty at all. The first stage was to cut the body open and remove the organs. The next thing Sasori did was drain out the rest of the blood and add preservatives so the body wouldn't decay. Once he had let the preservatives settle in, Sasori detached several parts of the body and added a few nasty looking weapons to it.
"Even though it is dead, a Hitokugutsu can still produce chakra and use jutsus. The other extremely beneficial attribute to these puppets is that if the original person had a Kekkei Genkai, they retain the ability to use it. Take my Sandaime Kazekage puppet for example; he had the ability to use the Satetsu, which is sand with magnetic properties." Sasori explained. He hefted the puppet that he had just created and handed it to Naruto. The weapons that Sasori had put into it were a bomb launcher, an extendable blade in the arms, and a large holding chamber in the chest that could have electricity channeled into it to cook a captured foe.
"You can use Gijo as your first Hitokugutsu Naruto. I saw him use several Fūton jutsu that I'm fairly sure you could learn easily. Think of it as a belated birthday present." Said Sasori as Naruto accepted Gijo. A thoughtful look was on Naruto's face.
"You said that Hitokugutsu retain any Kekkei Genkai that they originally had, right Sasori-niisan?" Naruto asked the changed puppet master, who nodded slowly. A sly smile made its way onto Naruto's face.
"Okay then. Deidara-niisan, Sasori-niisan, grab your shovels; we're going grave-robbing."
It was dark, gloomy, and creepy in the graveyard of Kirigakure. Grey clouds drifted across the black night sky. A faint mist hovered around the ground, making Naruto feel uncharacteristically like an actor from a horror movie. He shook his head to clear it as he saw Deidara darting from gravestone to gravestone, looking around warily and running in a crouching position. Sasori just shook his head and chuckled at his blonde friend's antics.
"Remind me again why we're here, Naruto." Sasori whispered to his blonde apprentice.
"I just read in The Kiri Reporter that the Kaguya clan had just gone on a killing rampage. Pretty much all of them are dead now, so the corpses should still be fresh. Think about it niisan; puppets with the Shikotsumyaku (Dead Bone Pulse) Kekkei Genkai." Naruto whispered to Sasori, whose eyes widened at the possibilities. He looked up at Deidara who was beckoning them to come to where he was. Naruto crept towards him slowly, while Sasori slouched forward. Looking around as an extra precaution, Naruto pulled out a small scroll, bit his thumb, and wiped it across the scroll. Two shovels appeared out of the scroll, and Naruto handed Deidara one. The two blondes began to dig up the graves of two recently deceased Kaguya while Sasori kept watch.
After about two minutes and a lot of sweat later, Deidara and Naruto managed to reach the coffins. Using Sasori's puppets, they were able to dig up the two coffins and extract the bodies of Kaguyas Katemaro and Kukodoku. Sasori quickly sealed the bodies into a scroll, and was about to bolt.
"Chotto matte Sasori-niisan! This section of the graveyard is where all of the ninja with bloodlines are! Maybe we should try and dig up a few of them." Naruto suggested. Sasori quickly agreed and went to search for graves that had been dug recently.
After an hour and a ninjutsu investigation, Sasori and Naruto had each dug up a member of the Hozuki clan, who could turn themselves into water at will (A.N.: Suigetsu's clan), and a member of an unnamed clan that could manipulate water at will and use Hyoton jutsu. Naruto was likin' his puppet collection already. Deidara was starting to look anxious for some reason.
"What's wrong Deidara?" Sasori asked, Hiruko's beady eyes showing concern.
"Oh, nothing you need to worry about Sasori, yeah. I just don't like graveyards very much, that's all. I keep thinking that zombies will just burst out of the ground and eat our brains out for disturbing their slumber, yeah." Deidara responded in an unusually high voice. Naruto raised one of his eyebrows as a nasty idea for a prank entered his head.
As they were walking stealthily out of the graveyard, Naruto discreetly sent a couple chakra strings into a nondescript, but old grave. As Deidara and Sasori were walking by, Naruto jerked the string, making a decayed arm shoot out of the grave. Deidara and Sasori jumped a mile high and paled in the face (Yeah, Hiruko did that). Ducking behind a grave, Naruto manipulated the chakra strings further, making the dirty, bloody, decaying corpse of a man work his way out of the grave. Deidara's hair was standing straight up, and Sasori was clanking about. Naruto snickered before he used his best zombie voice to scare his senseis.
"Ku ku ku ku, what hhhaavve wweee hhherree? Ssoomme tasssty mmmorssselllsss!" Naruto whispered in his best zombie voice as he manipulated the corpse to raise its arms and stagger forward.
Both Deidara and Sasori let loose high pitched screams and fell to the ground as they tripped over a set of gravestones in an effort to get away. Naruto made the corpse advance for another couple of metres, and released the chakra strings. The corpse fell to the ground, and Naruto heard Deidara yell "HOLY SHIT!" Naruto couldn't take it anymore; he stood up from behind the gravestone and laughed. Deidara and Sasori looked at their howling apprentice in shock before screaming at him.
"YOU LITTLE SHIT! THAT WAS NOT FUNNY, YEAH! I DAMN NEAR SOILED MYSELF; I WAS SO SCARED THERE, YEAH!" Deidara screamed at him.
"NARUTO, YOU LITTLE BASTARD! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE SO I CAN STICK MY FUCKING TAIL UP IT!" Sasori bellowed. Naruto continued to laugh as he ran for his life. With tears of mirth blinding him, he didn't see the crowd of people that had gathered at the graveyard to find the cause of the commotion. Naruto only recognized that a crowd was there when he slammed into them. His laughter immediately stopped when he saw the huge horde of villagers and shinobi. Deidara and Sasori skidded to a halt just behind Naruto. Their eyes almost popped out of their heads when the robe-clad Mizukage himself stepped out from the crowd.
"What in the nine levels of burning Hell were you three doing in the graveyard?" he asked in barely more than a whisper. But that whisper alone carried in it so much murderous intent that Sasori felt like facing all of the combined Kazekages of Suna without his Kazekage puppet, rather than this middle aged man. Deidara gulped nervously and pulled at the black neck of his sweater.
"Eh, heh, heh, heh, heh, oh nothing Mizukage-sama, yeah. J-just touring the l-lovely sights of Kiri is all, yeah." Deidara stammered. Naruto and Sasori sweatdropped.
"Deidara," Sasori sighed, smacking his puppet-masked head. "You're an asshole."
"I agree." Naruto seconded. The crowd now looked apprehensive; they knew that Deidara was an S-rank nukenin... so who were the hunchback with the tail and the kid?
"Well Deidara, seeing as you're standing right here, I guess we'll just have to kill you. I'm sure Tsuchikage-sama will be pleased to have your head on a plaque." Said the Mizukage as he discarded his robes. Underneath them was a deep blue set of armour with the kanji for 'Water' on the chest plate. He hefted a double-bladed broadsword that appeared to be made of some sort of glittering blue metal. On his left was a small, circular shield. Naruto jumped back and stood in between his niisans. He quickly whipped out a small scroll that he had been carrying and summoned his two puppets Sasoriza and Gijo. Deidara had already moulded some clay in his hands, and had a clay dragon ready. Sasori had pulled down his mask and his mouth was open.
"Naruto, you try and deal with the civilians. We'll take on the Mizukage and shinobi. Got it?" Sasori hissed to Naruto who nodded. For a moment, all was still.
Then the Mizukage charged.
The fifty or so followers ran straight after him. Naruto made Sasoriza open its mouth and four of its six hands to shoot poisoned kunai and senbon needles into the crowd at a high velocity. Some of the shinobi managed to evade them, while the civilians couldn't. Naruto watched with satisfaction as about eight or nine civilians and shinobi fall as they succumbed to the pain and poison of the kunai and senbon needles. He redirected Gijo to use its blade attachments to slash several civilians. They went down easily, but one of them got through. Leaving both of his puppets standing by a single string, Naruto began to fend off his attackers with his katar and now active saw. He could activate his saw by transferring a small amount of chakra into it. The input was so small, Sasori had told him, that if a five-year-old knew how to use chakra, they could keep the saw going for hours without significant drain.
Back to Naruto, he was feeling sickened at what he was doing. He never thought that killing would make him feel like this, but he knew that it was for survival. He quickly moulded a clay bird hastily and threw it into the crowd. Jumping back with his puppets in tow, Naruto formed a ram seal and yelled "KATSU!" The result was a large explosion that only took out three or four enemies. Shrugging, Naruto fired up his flamethrowers and blasted an approaching civilian before moving on to the next batch.
Sasori jumped back and fired another salvo of senbon from Hiruko's mouth. The ninja and Mizukage blocked the attack.
"Suiton: Suishōha!" (Water Release: Water Shockwave) the Mizukage shouted. A large wave of water seemed to seep up from the ground and hurl at Sasori. The puppet nin jumped out of the way just in time. He quickly discarded Hiruko, unraveled one of his scrolls, and wiped his blood on one of the 150 seal markings. There was a blast of smoke, and a large figure in a heavy black cloak with a ponytail appeared. The puppet's mouth opened, and a greyish substance started to float out of it.
"Sandaime Kazekage Kugutsu no jutsu: Satetsu Shigure!" (Third Wind Shadow Puppet Technique: Iron Sand Drizzle) Sasori cried. The puppet held out its arms and the grayish-black sand flew forwards in the shape of raindrops. The drops of poisonous sand flew at the attackers... and tore straight through them. Smirking, Sasori used the large tail-like wire in his midsection to attack the Mizukage. The kage dodged the attack and jumped towards Sasori, thrusting his sword at him. Sasori blocked the strike with his tail, but the segment that deflected the blade seemed to just freeze over with a thin sheen of ice.
'If he touches me, I'm gonna be a human fucking ICICLE!' Sasori mentally screamed. The Mizukage smirked.
"I see you figured out Hyoken's (Ice Blade) power; it freezes whatever it comes in contact with." The kage explained. Sasori gulped as he summoned a few more puppets out of precaution.
Deidara threw another six birds into the crowd and detonated them. Only four civilians were killed, and the shinobi dodged around the explosion. Deidara started to use what he could of the Tōrōken, and was able to hold off a couple of his foes for a few minutes. But eventually, a sword-wielding nin managed to give him a cut across his hip. Deidara quickly took to the air and started attacking from long range.
The fight seemed to be going well for the Nigako and their apprentice. Sasori and Deidara had either incapacitated or killed most of the shinobi and civilians. Naruto had taken out most of the civilians, and even a couple of shinobi. Now, it was only the Mizukage standing against a pair of S-class nukenin and their apprentice.
"Pretty good you two. And to you kid, I'm impressed that you could take out a couple of Chuunin and Jounin level ninja." The Mizukage complimented as he began to fly through hand seals faster than any of the three had seen before.
"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!" (Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave) he called, spraying a tremendous torrent of water from his mouth and turning the graveyard into a huge, dirty, bloody swimming pool. Deidara flew up on a bird, and Sasori was standing on the water. Naruto, not knowing how to stand on the water or knowing how to make a large clay bird or swim, began to sink.
"NARUTO!" Sasori shouted as his blonde apprentice sank into the water. He started to sink in, but the Mizukage charged in and punched Sasori in the jaw. The heavy puppet master flew back a couple of feet and skidded along the water.
"Your fight is with me, Sasori. You don't have time to watch that little brat die." The Mizukage reprimanded him. Sasori growled. He reached onto his back and pulled a large scroll out. It unraveled and floated in the air above the puppeteer.
"You will pay for killing Naruto, you tyrant! Aka Higi: Hyakki no Sōen!" (Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets) Sasori bellowed, as chakra strings flew out of his right chest. A hundred red-robed Hitokugutsu shot out of the scroll and surrounded the blue-armoured kage. Deidara had also moulded a larger clay statue that looked somewhat like a Buddhist monk. The Mizukage looked impressed.
"Interesting abilities you two. But can you-" he stopped as the water near him began to boil. He looked at the centre of the boiling water, and his eyes widened when a whirlpool started to spin. After a moment of the water rotating faster and faster, a figure rose out of it on a small pillar of water. Sasori, Deidara, and the Mizukage gasped at what they saw:
It was Naruto... but with a couple of new features. From what Deidara and Sasori could see from behind him, his hair was more wild and animalistic looking and his nails had become claws. From the front, the Mizukage was paralyzed; he thought he was looking into the face of a demon. The blonde boy's whisker marks had become more defined, his canines had elongated, and his blue eyes had become red with slitted pupils. What all three of them could see was a veil of blood red chakra that was covering the boy in the shape of a three-tailed fox. Seeing that red aura made something in Deidara's memory come together like the pieces of a puzzle.
'Wait a second... what did Naruto say that the villagers called him...? Monster, demon, fox... and that red chakra... of course! Only one demon had red chakra, and that was the Kyuubi no Kitsune! But if I remember correctly, the Kyuubi was sealed away by the Yondaime. Then that must mean... Naruto's a Jinchuriki!' Deidara concluded. Naruto chuckled, but his real voice was overlaid by a voice far more sinister.
"You will pay for trying to drown me... no, make that 'us' you mortal fool!" said the overlapping voices of Naruto/Kyuubi before they blinked out of existence. The Mizukage tried to force himself to calm down, but it wouldn't come. He continued looking around for the boy, but saw nothing except for the two nukenin and a hundred puppets. A sudden popping noise caused him to look downwards. There were several flashes in the water, and the Mizukage jumped away as the explosions reached the surface. Huge geysers of water shot into the air, and Naruto/Kyuubi rode out on a small pillar of water.
"Suiton: Suigadan no jutsu!" (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet Technique) the Mizukage shouted. Five spiraling pillars of water shot up from the surface. The tips formed into sharp spikes and made a beeline for Naruto. The little blonde flipped and twisted out of the way, and even sliced one of the Suigadan with his claws.
"Maninpo: Taiatari Bunshin no jutsu!" (Demonic Ninja Art: Suicidal Bombing Replication Technique) Naruto/Kyuubi countered. A Bunshin appeared out of midair, and flew straight towards the Mizukage. It had its arms tucked into its sides and was flying headfirst, making it looked like a demon chakra-covered missile. The Mizukage managed to evade the speeding clone which blew up when it hit the water, sending out huge shockwaves. The Mizukage was momentarily stunned, but was forced back into reality when a chakra claw sank into his side. He screamed as the claw burned him, but did not cut him. His scream was silenced when Naruto hit him in the solar plexus. Naruto slugged him in the gut a few more times until he kicked the kage away. The two locked in a furious taijutsu match that was damn near impossible for Sasori and Deidara to follow. For a couple of minutes, neither kage nor Jinchuriki seemed to be gaining the upper hand. But Naruto jumped away from the Mizukage a moment later, and shot a large clay octopus at him. The kage tried to pry the clay octopus off of his chest, but Naruto placed his hand on the octopus' head and shouted "Dendōse!" (Electric current) The Mizukage screamed as the electricity coursed through his body. The octopus disappeared, and Naruto/Kyuubi shoved the kage's head under the water. The red chakra covering his arms wrapped around the kage's arms and legs, restraining him. The kage struggled for a moment, but became still and Naruto pulled the dead kage out of the water. Sasori and Deidara were looking horrified; a kid who wasn't even a Genin just took out a kage level ninja. The aura around Naruto began to recede, and the blonde boy fell unconscious.
Naruto awoke to the sight of his niisans staring at him. He groaned and rubbed his temples as he sat up.
"Ugh, who's been using me as a shoe mat?" Naruto groaned, blinking his eyes hard.
"Uh, Naruto, do you remember what happened back in the graveyard?" Sasori asked. Naruto noted that he wasn't wearing Hiruko, and there was concern in his eyes.
"Yeah... we were grave-robbing for Hitokugutsu, and we ran into a bunch of gatecrashers. We managed to defeat them, and were about to attack the Mizukage, but he used some technique to turn the graveyard into a lake. The last thing I remember clearly is sinking. I had a couple of hazy visions where I was attacking the Mizukage but wasn't making my body move." Naruto recited. Deidara and Sasori looked at each other.
"Naruto... was there ever a demon that attacked your village?" Deidara asked.
"Of course! The Kyuubi attacked Konoha eight years ago, but the Yondaime fought and killed it at the cost of his life! Why do you ask?" Naruto finished, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head to the side. Sasori sighed.
"We think that that's a lie Naruto. No, we're not denying that your Yondaime was strong; we're just saying that a Bijuu is too strong to be killed. They can, however, be sealed away. But the only way that they can be properly contained is by sealing them in a child whose chakra coils had not developed yet. What day did the Kyuubi attack Konoha?" the puppet master asked, eyeing Naruto critically.
"October tenth, but how does... oh, Kami-sama." Naruto gasped as all of the pieces fell into place: the glares, the beatings, the names, the hate, and the assassination attempts.
"You see Naruto; you're what people would call a 'Jinchuriki', yeah. Jinchuriki are people with demon spirits sealed inside them. However, that DOES NOT make you a demon, yeah. You are what you choose to be. And as you barely remember, Jinchuriki possess ungodly power as you demonstrated when you murdered the Mizukage, yeah." Deidara explained. At the final statement, Naruto's eyes became as wide as dinner plates.
"I killed the Mizukage while the Kyuubi was taking over?" Naruto asked incredulously. Sasori smirked and held up the dead body of the ex-tyrannical ruler. A smirk made its way onto Naruto's face that matched his niisans'.
"Heh, this is kind of ironic. Sasori-niisan murdered the Sandaime Kazekage, and I murdered the Sandaime Mizukage." Naruto said with a small snicker.
"Hey, don't forget me, yeah. I killed a Tsuchikage!" Deidara piped in. All three of the 'Kage Killers' laughed.
Time skip: 4 years later
A young blonde sighed in contentment as the wind whipped at his face. He sighed again and looked back on his six years of training. In those six years, he had gained enough stamina to run from Konoha to Suna within two days. His chakra control was good enough so that he could form a small amount of healing chakra. Not a lot, but enough to stop internal bleeding should it happen. He had also invented a new form of the Kugutsu no jutsu; branching chakra strings. What this modified style did was shoot a simple chakra string from his finger... which expanded into five. He could control a whole puppet with a single string, and with five on each finger, he could control fifty at a time.
Naruto had originally developed this modified jutsu in order to create his ultimate puppet move: Kīroi Higi: Hakki no Sōen (Yellow Secret Technique: Performance of Fifty Puppets). This move was exactly like Sasori's Hyakki, but with half the puppets. With this jutsu, Naruto had brought down a small village of ninja mercenaries and bounty hunters. But Naruto's favourite puppet (Next to his Sandaime Mizukage puppet, that is) was Yon. Yon was modeled after Sasori's Hiruko, but altered. Yon, as the name implied, had four thinner tails instead of one that Naruto could control. And instead of a scorpion's tail, Yon's tails were modeled after fox tails. And instead of completely covering Naruto's body, it only served as body armour. On his left arm was a senbon barrel. This device launched packets of poisoned senbon needles, and revolved to the next slug with a tiny push of chakra. On his right arm was a vibro-katar. This katar was like a normal one, but it vibrated rapidly when chakra was pushed into it, giving it the ability to slice through almost anything.
Naruto had also learned how to infuse Kyuubi's chakra with his clay bombs. The fox's chakra made the bombs take on the features of whatever they were moulded to look like. For example: if he moulded a clay falcon with Kyuubi's chakra, the falcon would become coloured to the likeness of a falcon. Kyuubi's chakra also made his clay bombs go much faster; so fast that even Naruto had trouble keeping up with them. They also left a blood red trail behind them. Naruto's Kyuubi powered bombs were also much more deadly than Deidara's bombs. One of Naruto's C-1 bombs with Kyuubi's chakra was equivalent to about five of Deidara's C-1 bombs. One of Naruto's Kyuubi C-2s was about as powerful as Deidara's C-3 bombs. And Naruto had only used his Kyuubi C-3 once. What was once an enormous industrial city that spanned for almost twenty kilometres was now a huge crater hundreds of feet deep. But despite him using both arts, the only art he recognized as true art were the culinary arts. Deidara and Sasori had, of course, been comically traumatized when Naruto had admitted that.
But Naruto had not grown arrogant or overconfident as he mastered puppetry, pyrotechnics, and all of the jutsu scrolls (Including the forbidden ones) that the newly named 'Sangako' (Three Artists) had acquired. Naruto was actually quite humble about his abilities, often opting to improve himself.
Not only had his mind grown so had he. He now stood about 5'2'' and was not buff, nor skinny; just a little bigger than being slender. He had grown his hair to his shoulders in an almost mullet style, but not. The hairdo, along with not always wearing that goofy fake smile all the time, earned him lustful looks from girls wherever he went. His wardrobe consisted of a dark red shirt and a black velvet jacket. He also wore fancy black pants and a set of ninja zori. Of course, most of his clothing was covered by Yon, but that didn't matter, the puppet would be off of him soon anyways.
Why? Because it was Naruto's twelfth birthday; and his niisans were taking him to Otogakure to do a little partying. Oto was a village that used sound-based attacks, and they also excelled in modern technology. This naturally led them to having quite a few dance clubs that were for ninja only. Naruto could see one or two of the clubs' lights as the Sangakou descended towards Oto.
The three ninja had landed and were walking through the streets of the village with all of their weapons sealed away. It was a relatively small village, and there weren't a lot of civilians. But the ninja forces were mostly made up of nukenin from other countries. Not wanting to be recognized, Deidara and Sasori had placed Henges on themselves to avoid being recognized. After walking for a while, they found a club that was admitting all ages. Releasing the Henge, the Sangakou walked into the lively club.
Lights flashed everywhere and the music was blaring. Sasori grinned as he went off to do some 'babe watching'. Deidara giggled perversely as he weaved his way through the hordes of people. Naruto began to get his groove on as he wove through the crowd. The girls, upon seeing a handsome blonde-haired blue-eyed boy, naturally flocked to him. If Naruto had to guess, he would assume that the age range was between eleven and nineteen. Naruto grinned at all the attention he was getting and returned the favour by dancing with as many of them as he could. It was only after a while that he noticed that it was only the more skanky girls that were dancing with him. Naruto began to detach himself from the horde of women after a little bit. He began observing the club for any particular girl that caught his eye.
And find one he did. She looked to be a year or two older than him, and was standing off by herself a little bit. Why a beauty like her was alone, Naruto knew not. She was wearing a white shirt that let her dark bra show through, accentuating her bust quite nicely. She was wearing a black skirt with a loose belt that fell to just above her knees, showing off her shapely legs. She had a thin, angular face with slanted eyes and long lashes that were bereft of copious amounts of makeup. She had twinkling black eyes and full lips to which were uncovered by her waist length hair that was tied back in a purple ribbon. Naruto couldn't help but stare for a second before he made his way over to her. He grew a little concerned when he saw that she was crying.
"Why are you standing all alone over here?" he asked her softly. She jumped a little before she turned to him and wiped a tear from her eye.
"M-my b-boyfriend d-dumped me for some h-hussy in here, b-but why do you care?" she asked softly, her puffy red eyes curious.
"Well I just noticed you standing over here all alone, and I have an irresistible need to help people whenever I can." Naruto retorted. "Can I help you at all?" he added. She had now turned to face him completely, and was drawing closer.
"You can b-be my shoulder to cry on." She whispered before she buried her face into his chest and clung to him, crying softly. Completely shocked at first, Naruto didn't know what to do. After a second, he wrapped his arms gently around her and stroked her back and hair softly. While he was comforting her, he saw Sasori surrounded by a horde of girls who were all squealing as he shook his (literal) buns of steel. Looking a little further, Deidara was laying in a chair with a couple of girls pampering the odd blonde. Deidara looked at Naruto for a second, noted his situation, and gave him a cheesy smile and a double thumbs-up.
Another couple of minutes passed before the girl stopped crying and let go of Naruto. Sniffling, she looked into Naruto's eyes. He smiled gently as he wiped her tears away.
"Better?" he asked her softly. She managed to form a wet, weak smile.
"Yes, thank you… I never got your name. I'm Tsuchi Kin." Kin introduced herself, still in his embrace.
"Uzumaki Naruto." He returned, taking her hand and kissing it. Naturally, she blushed.
"Well Naruto… uh… do you want to dance with me?" Kin's voice became quieter as she finished her sentence. Naruto looked surprised for a second before he agreed. Smiling happily, Kin took Naruto's hand and led him onto the dance floor. A slow, funky sounding song had begun to play, and the couples were grinding left and right. Kin turned around and gently pressed herself against Naruto. As she began to sway to the beat, Naruto gently wrapped his arms around her. Several people were shocked: Tsuchi Kin, Oto's Ice Princess was grinding with a complete stranger. Some people gawked, while others let out wolf-whistles.
Naruto could care less at the moment. Right now, the only people who existed were Kin and he. He gently traced his hands over her stomach and hips, getting a little shiver from the girl. They danced for three songs before they went over to a small lounge area and got to know each other a little bit. Kin enjoyed music and horticulture. She disliked fangirl kunoichi and people who judged. Her hobbies were writing music for her friend Tayuya and training to become a great kunoichi. She was quite intrigued when she learned that Naruto was an art lover. When she asked what painter he liked, he laughed loudly and explained to her that he was a puppeteer and a pyromaniac ninja. She was comically shocked when he explained that to her. He told her of his love for ramen that he had sorely missed on his six year 'training trip', and his love for training. He told her of his dislike of those with Kekkei Genkai who acted superior to everyone else, and judgmental idiots. Kin was awed at his dream to become a Kage and asked why he wanted to become one.
"Well first is for people to acknowledge and respect me, something nobody did back home because of something I had no control over. The second reason is because I want to prove it can be done to those who thought I was a loser." He explained. Kin nodded and agreed that she would have wanted to do something like that to rub it in peoples' faces.
They spent the rest of the night talking, laughing and dancing with each other. At around midnight, Naruto bade Kin goodnight, hoping to see her again one day.
Once the Sangako were back up in the air, Deidara and Sasori began to bombard Naruto with questions about Kin. To which he replied 'I don't kiss and tell.'
Later that night, Deidara awoke to a horrified scream. It turned out that all of Sasori's puppets had been put in frilly pink dresses with bows, lace and makeup. Sasori stopped crying and burst out laughing when he saw Deidara's face had been scribbled all over with markers and makeup. From his bed, Naruto smirked as his niisans' screams reached his ears.
It was a few days later, and the Sangako were hiding in the trees near the north gate of Konoha. Naruto glowered at the towering gates of his own personal hell. Sighing, he turned to his niisans.
"Well you two, I guess this is goodbye." Naruto admonished. He was startled when Deidara and Sasori enveloped him in a one-armed hug each.
"For now anyways, yeah." Deidara replied. "But we will see you again Naruto, yeah."
"We have taught you well kid; don't disappoint us by not whooping the ass of everyone in your village." Sasori instructed Naruto who snapped to a mock salute.
"YES SIR!" Naruto said forcefully, eliciting a small chuckle from Deidara. Naruto sighed as he put on his straw hat and walked over to the tree's main body.
"Hiru Banshō: Bōka no jutsu!" (Leech All Creation: Attack Prevention Technique (The jutsu Zetsu uses to get around)) Naruto announced as he merged with the tree and vanished.
Naruto stumbled out of a tree in the less populated area of Konoha, and promptly fell to his knees.
'Ugh, I hate using that, but I love it too. It gets you around quickly, but it makes you feel sick.' Naruto mentally grumbled. He straightened his straw hat and began to walk sedately through Konoha. Many curious glances were sent his way, but it was probably because of his cloak. The cloak had a high collar that reached his nose, and was decorated with golden yellow foxes (Same as an Akatsuki cloak). On the back of it was the kanji for 'Three'. This was the garb of the Sangako. Deidara's cloak had sky blue birds on his, and Sasori's was decorated by red scorpions. Naruto simply ignored the villagers' gazes as he strolled through his old home.
Naruto stopped at the Ninja Academy as he walked past it. When he had been taken in by Deidara and Sasori, he had just been in the Academy for a week. As he pondered on his memories, he heard sounds of combat coming from the back of the Academy. Curiosity piqued, Naruto slunk sedately towards the back of the Academy.
What greeted his eyes was a group of students that looked about his age in a ring watching a fight. The two combatants were a boy with raven black hair that was in a style similar to a chicken's ass. He wore a dark blue jacket with an uchiwa fan on the back of it, and a set of white shorts with bandages on his shins. He had a perpetually angsty look about him that screamed 'Piss off'.
His opponent was a boy in a large grey jacket with black lining, and dark brown pants. He had a feral, animalistic look on his face, along with two red fang-like markings on his cheeks. This boy looked to be losing when Chicken Ass kicked him in the face, decking him, and slamming his heel into his stomach. The sensei, a man with a ponytail and a scar across the bridge of his nose called the match, and most of the girls began to squeal 'Sasuke-kun'. Naruto walked slowly and stealthily into the yard while rolling his eyes.
"Okay, good match you two. Kiba, you left yourself open after that slash, but other than that, you did well. Sasuke, your taijutsu was flawless, and good demonstration of the Kawarimi and Bunshin no jutsu." The Chuunin praised. Kiba retreated back into the crowd, and the teacher looked at the students.
"Okay, who else would like to spar with Sasuke today?" he asked. Before too many hands went up, Naruto spoke up.
"I do!" he called. Everyone turned to look at the boy in the straw hat and cloak.
"And you are…?" the Chuunin asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"My name is of no importance at this point. All you need to know is that I'm really good." Naruto stated as he walked into the ring to face Sasuke. The angst king narrowed his eyes.
"Why will you not tell us your name? Are you scared to be facing an Uchiha?" he asked mockingly. Several girls shouted their agreements, while Naruto just narrowed his eyes and gave a stare so cold that Snow ninja would freeze.
"Now I know why Itachi left you alive; so he could laugh his murderous ass off when that big mouth o' yours gets you killed someday." Naruto shot back. True to his statement, Naruto had met Uchiha Itachi on his travels. The Uchiha had stumbled into a clearing that he, Deidaera, and Sasori had been camping in, exhausted. When he had camped with them for the night, Naruto had asked him why he had fled, and Itachi had told him. When Naruto asked why he didn't kill Sasuke, he responded with the exact words Naruto had said. Saying this naturally made the crowd gasp and Sasuke bristle in anger.
"SHUT UP!" Sasuke screamed as he got into a fighting stance. Naruto grinned as he spread his legs a little bit. Many of Sasuke's fangirls were screaming things like 'Go, Sasuke-kun!' and 'Kick his ass!' There was silence for a moment until the scarred Chuunin called 'Hajime!' Sasuke immediately charged in and aimed a kick at Naruto who simply stood there and took it. Sasuke smirked when the cloaked boy keeled over, but frowned when he turned to mud.
"Is that really the best you can do?" Naruto's voice came from behind Sasuke. He whipped around to see Naruto standing there with his arms crossed.
"How the hell did you get away from me? You didn't even use hand seals!" Sasuke exclaimed. The Chuunin was looking shocked; he had not seen Naruto move either.
"When you've been using that jutsu since you were eight years old, you don't need hand seals for it." Naruto responded simply.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) Sasuke cried, exhaling a huge fireball from his mouth. He smirked again when Naruto was nowhere to be found. But he was unexpectedly hit in the back by something sharp which pierced his skin. He turned around to see Naruto with some sort of six-armed metal, and wood monster in a dark yellow cloak standing next to him.
"Wh-what the hell is that?" Sasuke asked as he rubbed the cut spot on his back.
"Oh, this is Sasoriza, one of my toys. But you shouldn't be worried about Sasoriza, Sasuke." Naruto said simply as he pulled a small vial filled with a clear liquid out of his pocket.
"And what is that?" the Chuunin asked as he eyed the vial.
"The antidote." Naruto replied simply. Before they could ask what it was for, Sasuke began to spasm and fell to the ground, twitching and screaming in pain. Many of the fangirls rushed to their beloved Sasuke-kun's side.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO SASUKE-KUN?!" a pink-haired girl in a red dress screamed at him. Naruto winced as he rubbed his ears.
"Yare, yare, so loud and annoying." He drawled softly. "What I injected into the Uchiha here is a special poison that I developed myself. It hasn't been recorded in the medical books, so only I have a cure for it. What it's made of is multiple corrosive acids and a couple pinches of poison with a side of methamphetamine. Why the meth? Well, meth is a stimulant that gets the heart pumping faster, thereby making the blood move faster through the body and circulating the poison much faster. Once the poison starts to take effect, poor Sasuke's arterial and venial walls will start to be eaten away and distribute the poison through his flesh. In short, Sasuke's body will be eaten away by my poison." Naruto explained. The Chuunin and students looked horrified; that was a nasty poison… but an effective one too. Naruto walked sedately up to the thrashing Uchiha, wrenched his mouth open, poured the antidote down his throat, and pinched his nose. Sasuke swallowed the antidote, and his thrashing lessened a little bit. After about ten minutes, he was simply lying on the ground, panting. Naruto stood up and smacked his hands together.
"Well, my work here is done. And it only took two moves and my weakest puppet to defeat an Uchiha, heralded as the greatest of ninja." Naruto boasted as he walked away, cloak flapping in the breeze. By that time, Sasuke had gotten up and began to lurch towards Naruto's retreating form. This lurch turned into a charge. Naruto sighed as he flung something that the rest of the students could not see. Naruto formed a ram seal and yelled "Katsu!" The bomb detonated a short distance from Sasuke, and the avenger was thrown from his feet. He rolled back to his fangirls and the rest of the class, clothes and skin singed and cooked.
"Sheesh, he's an idiot too." Naruto remarked. The fangirls were too shocked to say anything else. Naruto began to covertly form hand seals behind his back.
"Well kiddies, I have some other matters to attend to right now. So train hard, and I'll see ya in Hell!" Naruto shouted as he began to sink into the ground, courtesy of the Hiru Banshō: Bōka no jutsu. Just before he was completely submerged, he did his best evil cackle to enhance the effect. Needless to say, everyone was more than a little creeped. Who was that kid?
"Okay, all Jounin. Today we are gathered to observe the Genin who will be taking the graduation exam, and to pick out teams, assuming all graduates pass." The Sandaime addressed the nine Jounin in the room. The three notables were Hatake Kakashi, revered as the Copy Ninja. Yuhi Kurenai, the gorgeous genjutsu mistress. And Sarutobi Asuma, son of the Sandaime.
"I will choose Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Kuroki Jin." Kakashi said lazily from behind his orange book.
"I shall take Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino." Kurenai added, looking at Kakashi's book disdainfully.
"I choose Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino." Asuma said while pulling out a smoke. The rest of the Jounin took their pick of the litter as Sarutobi wrote it down. Once all of the names had been called, Sarutobi looked at Kakashi.
"If I may ask; why Sasuke, Kakashi? Obviously you two are the only two people left in Konoha with the Sharingan, but why else?" the old man asked the cyclops with a critical eye.
"I can see that Sasuke is strong, but his mind is weak. I chose him because he needs to learn that he cannot rely only on himself to avenge what has been done to him and his clan. Plus… I feel that it is necessary after the incident." Kakashi quieted near the ending of his sentence.
"Well, get ready for some wrinkles dude; Sasuke's an asshole." came a voice. Startled, the assembled ninja looked for the source of the voice.
"I'm up here." It said again. A dozen heads looked up, and many more eyes widened when they saw a figure coming out of the ceiling, face first. He dropped out of the ceiling and landed with all the grace of a cat. Many of the Jounin tensed and reached for weapons.
"And who are you?" Sarutobi asked, extinguishing his pipe and looking intently at the cloaked boy. Said boy gave a "Hn." before he removed his straw hat. The Hokage gasped as he looked into the grown face of Uzumaki Naruto.
"Hisashiburi dana, ne Ojiisan?"
And there we go! End o' chapter 2!
In that light, I would like all readers to rise for a moment of silence in loving memory of everybody's favourite pyromaniac Deidara, who just recently passed away in the manga. :(