Puppets of the Leaf
AN: Wow thanks everyone. It's only been a few hours since i posted the first two chapters and it's got over two hundred hits. I know that last two chapters were short but this one is longer. Keep the reviews comming, they help.
Chapter 3
Naruto was, to put it lightly, beat. After finding his way back to their rooms, well after dark, he discovered that the Hokage was actually still in his meeting with the Kazekage. Naruto was relieved that he wasn't going to get into trouble for being late.
The boy immediately began to practice the technique he had been shown, determined to get it down. While he was pretty clueless about a lot of things, when it came to training, Naruto had the kind of determination most people only dreamed of. He had learned to channel his Chakra by listening in as a Leaf ninja taught his son in their yard. Naruto was hiding in a tree, and was chased off when he was caught, but had gone back and picked up enough to be able to figure it out. This was actually how he received most of his training, up to this point, and it was a little strange to have the old woman explaining it directly to him. He wondered briefly if that was what it would be like when he entered into the academy.
Naruto had worked tirelessly until the Hokage returned, then snuck out after the man had fallen asleep and practiced some more on the roof. His progress was slow, extremely slow, as he couldn't get the string to stretch more than an inch from his fingertip. As the night wore on and dawn was creeping over the horizon he made his way back inside until the Hokage left him alone again. The boy desperately wanted to ask him for help but remembered the warning she gave him about telling anyone.
He practiced again until about midday and headed back towards the warehouse. This time he had no trouble finding it since the lady was standing outside. As he approached she had him show her his progress. Naruto raised his hands, right forefinger extended, to begin focusing his chakra, when she held out a small piece of wood towards him. Naruto, confused by the gesture, took it then looked at her questioningly.
"Attach a string to it…if you can."
She hadn't mentioned this to him yesterday, and he hadn't even thought to attempt to connect the small string he was able to make to anything. Hesitantly, Naruto again raised his hands into the proper position, and focused the chakra into his finger, which, alone, had taken him hours to be able to do, and began to form it into the string. The finger was already touching the block of wood, and he felt the string, almost automatically, attach itself. All at once he could feel the block, through the chakra, as if it were a part of him.
The loudmouthed boy grinned at the old woman and dropped the wood, expecting it to hang off of the inches long string he had been capable of that morning. However the wood kept on falling until it sat suspended nearly two feet from his open hand. His eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open in complete shock.
The woman also was surprised by the boy's feat. In truth she'd expected the boy to give up after not being able to produce any results. Even if he had shown up she certainly hadn't expected him to make a string that long after only being showed it once. However she had made a deal with him and the Ninja of Suna are taught to honor their word.
She nodded her head and turned to go into the building, as the boy tried, experimentally flexing his finger as she had done during the demonstration the day before, causing the block to dance wildly through the air. She instantly knew that he was using too much chakra, much more than a boy of his age should have been capable of. 'Just who is this kid?'
"Alright Gaki, lets go. We have a lot of work to do."
At the sound of her voice, Naruto lost his mental grip on the chakra, letting the string dissolve and sending the wood flying across the street. The kid laughed sheepishly while scratching the back of his head and followed her inside
For the rest of the week, she gave him a crash course in the art of puppetry. She never went over things a second time, though she did allow him to ask questions during the lectures, and gave him supplemental reading materials that she let him keep. Each morning he left the room he shared with the Hokage, and met her at the warehouse, she would give him some new aspect to work on then he would leave before dusk, have dinner and go back to the room, often staying up most of the night practicing or reading the scrolls she gave him. By mid week he could sustain strings on all of his fingers and connect them to an object.
At the end of the week the Third announced that they would be returning to Konoha the following day and that if there was something that Naruto wanted to do, he should do it that day.
Naruto rushed out the door to meet his new teacher and told her it would be his last day. Instead of reacting, she handed him the small marionette he had been practicing with, and had him get to work.
Naruto sat on the ground making the small puppet move across the floor. He found it relatively easy to make it sail from one side of the room to the other and perform wild sloppy maneuvers, but was struggling with more simple detailed ones. The lady said that the precision and finesse required would come with time. As he practiced, she sat at the desk writing a series of scrolls. When he asked about them she said she was just catching up on some work.
Finally their time ended and Naruto said goodbye and thanked her before heading back to his room.
When he did get back it struck him as odd that the Hokage had never asked him what he was doing during their visit, but decided not to press his luck by mentioning it first.
The following morning, Naruto was anxious. He didn't want to leave, and he sure didn't want to go back to the whispers and hateful stares he received in the Leaf. At the very least he wanted to go find the old lady and thank her again. However, he realized, he didn't even know her name, having been too excited by what he was learning to ask.
As the two made their way towards the village gates, Naruto turned his thoughts to the problem of acquiring the necessary tools he would need to continue learning how to use puppets. As far as he knew, they didn't make puppets in Konoha.
They exited the village and began the long walk back towards their home.
When they were at least a mile outside the village, Naruto was about to confess everything to Sarutobi in the hopes that he could help him. As he looked up however he noticed a figure sitting on the sand before them. He instantly recognized her.
"B..Ba-chan?" The Hokage quirked an eyebrow at the familiarity between them; however he didn't seem all that surprised.
The woman ignored the boy and approached the Third directly.
"Hokage-samma…"
The old man nodded.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, madam."
"I am Elder Chyo."
The old man nodded again, the glint of recognition in his eyes.
"Ahh yes, it is an honor to at last meet Suna's finest Puppet Master."
Naruto snapped his head back around towards his teacher. He hadn't realized that she was that famous.
"Tell me to what do I owe the honor?"
For the briefest of moments her eyes shifted to the boy standing next to them.
"Please, don't trifle with me Sarutobi. We're both far too old and not getting any younger. I know you are aware of what your young charge was up too during this past week."
Naruto's shocked gaze shifted between the two. 'He knew!!'
The old man giggled. "Of course. I meant to thank you for all you have done for him. However, I was inquiring as to your reason for this little visit."
The woman reached into the bag strung at her hip and produced three large scrolls, along with and envelope and a wrapped package.
"These are for the Gaki. They contain some additional training instructions for him if he wants to continue to become a puppet user. The letter has a list of which to give him and when." She handed them to the old man and he placed them reverently into his pack.
"Again I thank you. I was curious just what he was learning here in Suna, and I'm glad that it was something that will be unique in our village."
The old woman, Chyo, narrowed her eyes at the man. "Why is that exactly, so you can exploit what he learns, and gain the art of puppetry for the Leaf?"
The Hokage was taken aback at her outburst. "Not at all. Naruto has always liked to stand out, and be noticed. Being the only one in the village to use a certain type of technique will accomplish that and make him happy." The old man lowered his voice so that only she would hear. "He has become something of a grandson to me, since he was orphaned at birth."
Her look softend as she was once again reminded of the similarities of the boy and her own estranged grandson. "I can understand that better than you know, Hokage-samma."
Before making her way back to the village, she tossed the package to Naruto, who watched after her until she was out of sight. Not once had she said a single word to him. He unwrapped the light fabric that covered the object in his hands to reveal the marionette he had been using to practice with. Pinned to its chest was a note that he was required to practice with it the entire trip.
Along the way the Hokage had confessed that the negotiations had been concluded within the first two days, however he wanted to allow Naruto the opportunity to continue his lessons for a while longer, after watching him train so hard that first night.
Upon their return the Hokage had presented the first in the long series of scrolls that had been sealed into the three Chyo Ba-sensei, as Naruto had begun calling her, had given to them. It contained much the same information he had already been taught, only in greater detail, as well as exercises intended to improve the control of the Marionette.
Naruto began training with the same single-minded intensity he had on the first night. When the time came to enter the Ninja Academy, Naruto had a much better understanding of what exactly it was that a puppet user did in battle. He had also increased the distance he could stretch his strings to about fifteen feet in all directions. As for his control of the Marionette, he could now control it almost flawlessly with both hands, and was now working on just one hand, though this was often just as clumsy as when he had first begun. All in all he had mastered around half the lessons in the first of the three scrolls. Though he was impatient, the Third had told him that he was instructed to give him the next lesson only after he had proven that he had mastered, and had sufficient practice with the previous ones. The Hokage had also said that Naruto wouldn't be able to start on the second of the three scrolls until he graduated from the academy, as per Elder Chyo's instructions.
Despite those conditions, Naruto was so focused on his lessons in puppetry that his grades in the academy had suffered, that combined with the fact that the instructors were not interested in teaching him anything left him as the 'dead last' for all three of the academy years.
By the start of his final year at the academy, Naruto had long finished the first scroll, and had managed to convince the hokage to give him the first lessons in the second, which turned out to be instructions on building his own puppets, as well as a couple of 'blank' puppets that had been sealed along with the scrolls. Naruto had immediately begun to practice using one of the new puppets, however, it was slow going, since the new ones were much larger, a little taller than him, and much more complicated in their mechanics, and it took him some time to get used to.
His first problem was that he didn't want to have to carry one around on his back, let alone two of them. He asked the Hokage about the three scrolls that had the items sealed into them. The Hokage agreed to make a storage scroll for Naruto, and would show him how to make them himself after he began the third scroll, which would likely have the method in it anyway.
On the day of his final exam, Naruto found himself sitting alone on a swing outside of the school, watching all of those who had passed getting their congratulations from their parents.
Shortly Naruto was joined by one of his teachers, who asked Naruto to go with him so they could talk. They sat on a roof overlooking the village and Mizuki told him that if he could steal a certain scroll and learn one Jutsu from it, it would count as extra credit, so Iruka would let him pass.
The boy leapt at the chance, and that night made his way towards the Hokage Tower. Inside he managed to avoid the guards, and found the giant scroll in a room behind the Hokage's personal chamber. As he picked it up he heard a shuffling of cloth behind him.
"Naruto? What are you doing?"
Naruto turned to face the ageing Hokage, holding not only the Forbidden Scroll of sealing, but also a smaller purple scroll, that he had taken off of a holder on his left thigh.
"Ehh… Sorry Old Man, but I need this." Before the Hokage could stop him, Naruto opened the small scroll and bit his thumb, after swiping the blood across the seal on the paper, the scene was filled with an explosion of smoke.
Naruto landed on the ground hard, panting and trying to catch his breath. He hadn't anticipated that much difficulty in learning a new Jutsu, but after hours of work he had finally managed to master the first technique.
He was so tired that he barely noticed the man standing behind him. After the person cleared his throat, Naruto turned to see his teacher Iruka.
"Aww man you found me already, I only had time to learn one technique, but now you have to let me pass right?"
Iruka was taken aback. "What? Is that why you took the scroll? Where did you get an idea like that?"
Quickly Naruto explained his conversation with Mizuki. Iruka went from confused to pissed almost instantly. Before he could say anything else a large shuriken came flying out of the trees towards them and impacted into Iruka's back, when the teacher pushed Naruto out of the way.
Events after that initial attack passed too quickly for Naruto to easily recall them. He now stood before his injured teacher, the only thing between Iruka and his potential killer. The boy tossed the large scroll to the fallen teacher, and pulled out a small white scroll from his thigh. Naruto threw it open biting his thumb and swiping it across the surface. In an explosion of smoke, Naruto has summoned one of his two puppets. It was still the 'blank', non detailed one it had been when he first got it, except that he had replaced it's hands with Kunai that were slightly longer than normal.
"Oh please," Mizuke scoffed "do you really expect to beat me with that doll of yours?"
"Bastard…I'll kick your ass!!" Naruto threw both hands forward and the puppet lunged towards the Chunin instructor.
Iruka was speechless. He had seen the boy playing with a small wooden puppet in class before, and knew from the Hokage that he was training to be a Puppeteer, but he had no idea that Naruto could use one the size of a fully grown man. Let alone with the degree of skill that he was witnessing before him as Mizuki was being chased around the clearing by the strange puppet. Iruka hoped it would keep the traitor busy until help arrived.
Naruto, meanwhile, was getting more and more frustrated. He had never had to use his puppets on a moving target like this before, and it showed. The teacher was dodging everything the boy threw at him with ease. Worse he seemed to be enjoying it.
Finally the Chunin seemed to tire of the game and stopped in the center of the clearing. As the puppet approached he leapt over it and stomped it into the ground crushing its head beneath his foot. He seared at Naruto as he kicked the remains away into the woods.
"Is that all you can offer me Demon?"
The comment enraged the boy to no end. The revalation had come as a shock, but was eased by the declaration that Iruka hadn't seen him as the demon fox contained within him.
The thought of his sensei, who was more like an older brother, and the injury he took for the boy pissed Naruto off even further.
"No," Naruto brought his finger up in a cross before him as he replied darkly, "I've got something else to show you…KAGEBUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!"
