Akasuna no Sasori was many things. He was intelligent, cool, and mechanically efficient; perhaps even more so than the army of puppets he commanded. In addition to being the most famous puppeteer in the entire world, he was also one of the most fearsome of engineers, be it mechanical or chemical. If you were bring a birthday cake to Sasori and say "please weaponize this" you could be damn sure that by the end of the week that cake would be able to fire senbon and poison gas six ways to Sunday. Incidentally, Sasori was also a man who didn't get invited to many parties.
He was a master of strategy, so much so that while still in the employ of Sunagakure he was dubbed as the youngest grandmaster of taikyoku shōgi in the history of the village. And after his defection, the number of pieces that he had on the playing field only grew larger. Shadow King Sasori; the man who ruled no fewer than 4 minor villages without ever showing his face, or even letting people realize that he ruled them for that matter. An army of sleeper agents and spies acted as his puppet strings, and knowledge was the treasure that this king horded. Only the Leader, and perhaps Jiraiya of the Sannin, could claim to have equal wealth.
But there was one thing that he most assuredly was not. Sasori was not a patient man.
Naruto was awakened roughly from his drug induced slumber by the man's sandal clad foot colliding with his ribs.
"On your feet, brat. If you're this easy to put down then the Leader made a serious error in judgment when he chose you as an apprentice."
Naruto groggily regained his footing only to pitch forward as he began to stand. "This stuff is potent. It attacks the nerves in the inner ear or the motor cortex correct? That would explain why I can't stand up."
Sasori leaned over and put his face just a few inches from Naruto's. "You tell me. What can you tell just by looking at my face?"
The boy stared hard into the puppet's glossy eyes and predictably found nothing. "Your puppet doesn't tell me anything, but your chakra flow and your operational background are what I'm currently examining." A small grin formed on the puppet's mouth and he motioned for the boy to proceed. "It's very faint, but I can feel your chakra fluctuate when you become interested in something. You find my question… intriguing?" The smiling puppet remained silent as he continued to watch his pupil. "No that's not it. You find the implications behind my question intriguing. You're curious to see just how good I am at reading an opponent."
Sasori's smile widened just a hair. "Perhaps. I have been known to prod at people to see what they'll do."
"With that poisoned tail of yours, am I right?" Again the puppet said nothing; he just smiled in his strangely vacant way. "From what little I know of toxins, I'd be willing to say that I'm right about the abilities of your poison. It's most likely derived from scorpion venom due to the paralytic effects I'm still feeling." The boy shook his tingling hand for effect. "And probably the venom of a coral snake, which I hear are common in Suna during the cooler winter months. Though I suspect it's been diluted seeing as how I'm still breathing."
"Well, aren't you the clever one?" Sasori tilted his head questioningly. "Anything else?"
Naruto stared at him for a few more seconds before understanding dawned on him. The boy formed a hand sign and, as he'd predicted, nothing to happened. "It wrecks its victim's chakra control. Even if I had wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have had the control to spark the air. I was in the palm of your hand the whole time."
Sasori scooped the boy up and flung him onto his shoulder like a sack of flour. "It's almost as if I had to work to become an S-rank ninja, isn't it? Welcome to Akatsuki, brat. Now let's see you earn those robes that you're wearing." The puppet master took a sweeping look at the sprawling timber remnants of his backup collection. "Let's start with you repairing all the damage that you've caused."
A smirk came to his face as he felt the Rinnegan wielder deflate.
XxXxX
In the days that followed his tussle with Sasori, Naruto learned much from the man. Everything he did was precise and surgical; no wasted effort would be exerted from the master craftsmen. And everything had a purpose. The tedious act of rebuilding upwards of 60 puppets taught the boy about engineering and machines. After his tenth time doing so, Naruto could successfully recreate a standard battle puppet from memory. By the time he was halfway done, the boy was coming up with new ways to modify the contraptions to serve purposes other than battle (mentally of course since Sasori would be furious if he fiddled with his collection). And by the end, his mind was full of ideas for new machines that could serve him in the future.
The senbon launchers were especially fascinating to him due to their inherent usefulness. Unless he absolutely had to, Naruto was against taking a life. Senbon tipped with nonlethal toxins were starting to look like a fine alternative when compared to single mindedness of his current skill set. Better still, Naruto was almost certain that with a little work he could use the Asura Path to create such weapons. All he had to do was get a better understanding of how to convert the mechanical parts into something chakra based, and he would be in business. Wind chakra or fire chakra seemed to be a good source of a propellant, but until Sasori's poison wore off he wouldn't be able to tell. And since the man seemed content to dose him every few hours to build up his natural immunity towards the stuff, it didn't seem like he would be able to test his theory anytime soon.
As it was, Naruto busied himself with repairs while Sasori restored and tinkered with Hiruko – the one puppet he refused to let his student examine. He was fine with teaching the boy how to think like a ninja, but it would be a cold day in Hell before Sasori let someone else paw at his art. Konan did what she was best at and watched after Akatsuki's youngest member, keeping his skills at nonverbal communication sharp since Sasori would likely go to work on them soon. True to her predictions, the puppet master caught on to their conversations and began to interject his own thoughts. It didn't come as too much of a shock since Sasori was the one who taught herself and the Leader how to communicate like this in the first place.
Apparently the man had been refining his skills, adding subtle chakra shifts and muscle movements to his repertoire, since Konan had last seen him. With her years of experience, she was able to pick up on the meanings of the gestures quickly. Naruto took quite a bit longer to grasp the nuances of this new silent language, but by the end of the month he was able to understand his teacher's messages.
After finishing the puppet repairs and having his work dubbed acceptable (or maybe it was avant garde; he wasn't able to tell due to his inexperience with the code) Sasori began to teach him how to work a new jutsu. It was a technique that allowed the user to spray poison gas from their mouth; undoubtedly useful, but not exactly a shock when your teacher is the Scorpion of Sunagakure. Normally, learning the new technique would've been as easy as feeling it with his Rinnegan, but his teacher was an avid proponent of learning under pressure. Being poisoned every other hour proved to be quite an adequate handicap in the eyes of the puppet master.
XxXxX
Naruto ran though the signs yet again, but the end result was the same as it had been all week. A small plume of violet smoke exited from his mouth and floated a few feet forward before vanishing. This was his chakra control nightmare all over again but multiplied tenfold. As a jinchuuriki and an Uzumaki, Naruto was gifted with an absurd amount of chakra. He could, and routinely did, throw Shinra Tensei's for hours without rest and had never once succumbed to chakra exhaustion. Frankly, he and the Leader had thought that such a thing was impossible for someone who could break 32 (now 34) diamonds on a Burst scroll. Apparently they had been wrong.
The blonde panted with exertion as once again formed the seals and was rewarded with nausea instead of a gout of purple fog. He looked to Sasori, who was fiddling with a large metal contraption packed with black powder inside of his makeshift workshop. The puppet master no doubt knew the boy's question and had already sent him a coded reply, but Naruto was barely able to stay standing let alone decipher Sasori's non-speech. For a few more seconds Naruto stared at his teacher's head. His gaze was broken when a senbon found its way into his navel courtesy of a detached puppet head. Shinra Tensei hadn't automatically activated as it normally would; he must've really been running on fumes for that to happen.
With a twinge of pain, Naruto plucked the needle from his stomach. He was just about to cast it aside when Sasori's message reached him. Now he wanted to bang his head against a wall over the obviousness of the solution.
'Kurama.'
No reply. The fox was troublesome like that; it enjoyed watching its host squirm for a bit before helping.
'Some assistance would be much appreciated, Kurama.'
The Kyuubi's voice rang out in his mind; deep and commanding. "I never part with something for nothing, boy. You should know that by now. What are you willing to give up in exchange for this 'assistance?'"
'The normal fee should be sufficient. Minor control of my emotions and access to my memories for the next 24 hours seems like a far trade.'
For awhile the fox was silent as it pretended to mull over its decision. It was like an annoying child that thoroughly enjoyed taking up the time of others. Perhaps he'd be able to get closer to the fox in the future. At the moment though, it still seemed a bit miffed that its jailor had 'stolen' the eyes of the Sage.
"The trade is acceptable. Don't spend it all in one place."
Crimson chakra surged through Naruto's body; flooding him with energy and strength as it burned away the toxins in his system. His vision ceased to blur and he couldn't help the feral grin that came to his face as he one again weaved the signs for the Poison Mist technique. As his hands came together in the final sign, a shrill whistle from Sasori was the only warning he had before things went wrong.
A roiling mass of scarlet fog exploded from his mouth like an ocean of blood. Naruto watched with no small amount of horror as his surroundings began to melt like wax and crumble to dust. All of the puppets that he'd spent so many painstaking days on restoring dissolved into mush under his jutsu. His thoughts immediately turned to Konan's safety and he activated the power of the Preta Path to stem the flow of the fog and clear the immediate vicinity of the lethal cloud. The rapid intake of bijuu chakra had him on the ground clutching his chest in anguish; he could almost hear his tenant laughing at the boy's lack of foresight.
He quickly searched for Konan, only to find her standing next to Sasori safe and sound in his workshop. The puppet master had taken it upon himself to set up an impressive array of seals around his building that seemed to be warding off the chakra. Against anything other than aerosol attacks, the seals would be useless, but right now it was the perfect tool for the job.
The puppet master watched a range of emotions flicker across the boy's face when he realized that they were safe. He also didn't miss the way that the boy's gaze softened and hovered on Konan an unusually long time before switching to him. He could feel the woman at his side begin to relax as well; most curious. He'd have to keep a close eye on these two.
Sasori quirked his eyebrow in a manner that silently asked 'are you kidding me?' His student seemed uncharacteristically bashful at the moment as he rubbed the back of his neck. "You're going to fix all of those puppets, brat." He pointed at the perimeter of slush that surrounded Naruto. "Again. And quickly this time."
The boy face faulted; finally collapsing from exhaustion as Kurama's chakra left him.
Sasori produced a jar of smelling salts from his robe. "Fainting doesn't help you 'cause I'm a chemist." The puppet master said in singsong voice as he walked towards the unconscious blond.
Konan sighed. Sasori really didn't like it when people kept him waiting.
XxXxX
After his little episode with the Kyuubi, Naruto's training became a far simpler task. Due to the intensity of the Leader's training, the boy was already well acquainted with the healing power granted by the bijuu's chakra. What he hadn't realized was that the chakra also worked to neutralize harmful foreign elements within his body; in this case poison. Not only that, but it also raised his tolerance to future doses of the toxin quite drastically. With Kurama's chakra, it only took a few seconds before the boy had been granted permanent immunity to poisons.
However, the seemingly simple act of using the fox's chakra came with its own set of problems.
For starters, it hurt… a lot. This is coming from a boy who broke his bones on a regular basis and had his eyes cut out while still conscious. Naruto was no stranger to pain, he knew it quite intimately in fact, but this feeling was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. It felt like his entire body, his very soul, was submerged beneath a vat of boiling acid. Every second that the chakra flowed through him was a second that the boy wished he was dead.
That fact puzzled Sasori. He'd heard through the grapevine that bijuu chakra was corrosive by nature and that it actively harmed anyone who was in contact with it, but he'd never heard of it causing this amount of pain. Most unusual. He'd be sure to have one of his contacts investigate the kinjutsu vaults in Konoha for an outline of the boy's seal. That old bandaged bastard still owed him a favor from his last sortie into Fire Country anyway. Until word got back to him, Naruto would just have to use his bijuu's power sparingly.
Which was fine because the Kyuubi wasn't overly eager to lend the boy his power to begin with. And it was especially unwilling to help after Naruto realized that he could use coax out a sliver of the beast's power with his Rinnegan. Since the boy had seen fit to shit all over their previously established deal, the fox had no problem with trying to take over Naruto's body whenever it was presented with the chance.
And if all this wasn't bad enough, it had serious physical drawbacks as well. The fox's chakra healed its host and filtered poisons from Naruto's body by essentially hijacking his existing biology and augmenting it to work hundreds of times faster than it did normally. This resulted in near immediate exhaustion for Naruto, and probably would've killed him if not for his Uzumaki heritage. As a child, he just didn't yet have the fat reserves to sustain such metabolic activity. This made him curious to see what extensive use of Gakidō would do if he used its power to absorb chakra from his surroundings. Theoretically it would work, but he wasn't looking forward to testing his hypothesis anytime soon.
So Sasori stopped poisoning him (the boy had blown through most of his prepared stock anyway) and began to teach him through more conventional methods like sparing and bookwork.
Naruto's initial experience with the puppet master gave him a small amount of insight as to how the man fought, but it soon became apparent how much his teacher had been holding back. It was like the man had a Sharingan on steroids! Not only could the nuke-nin predict every single attack that his student made, but he could also predict entire combinations of attacks; right down to the feints and counters that should have been random. And the scariest part was that Naruto was far more adept at taijutsu than his teacher. Sasori openly admitted to the boy that his taijutsu skills were steadily declining due to him lacking a physical body. His muscles were only as strong as the gears and pulleys that drove them, and his muscle memory was beginning to get foggy after 20 years of disuse. He was low jonin level and falling while Naruto was easily mid-jonin with the aid of the Asura Path and Human Path's one shot kill. Yet the boy could never even touch him; Sasori beat him in his mind long before he beat him on the training field.
That was where the books came in. They covered an assortment of topics from anatomy to psychology to strategy and even high level mathematics. Naruto guessed that some of these were the puppeteer's personal musings, as indicated by the similarities between the words in the book and the seals that he drew. It talked about Sasori's thought process as he approached a given situation and how he had the uncanny ability to notice things that were out of place. From there, his mind would form branching connections with everything else that he'd experienced, giving people the illusion that he could see the future. Honestly, it was pretty close to the truth. He called it weaponized inductive reasoning, and it gave him the ability to kill a man without ever needing to dirty his hands.
Through the help of his Paper Clones, and just a pinch of foxy chakra, Naruto's taijutsu was elevated to high-jonin level in just a few months. And as if the deal wasn't sweet enough, it would be something that would get stronger as he grew older, as opposed to his physical skills which would tank when he hit his first major growth spurt.
It was around this time that Sasori grew tired of theory and decided that the boy required some 'hands on' experience with his new abilities. They packed up their belongings, conjured up some new identities, and headed across the border into the proverbial lion's den with their paper shadow dutifully in tow. The Leader apparently had an interest in establishing a rapport between his weapon and the Kazekage's youngest child.
XxXxX
As the bar door swung open the stench of stale blood and alcohol slammed into her like a ton of bricks. Her dopey grin and bouncy demeanor didn't drop for a second as she and her grandfather entered the local watering hole. She quickly took in the sight of bar and, if possible, got even more spring in her step.
Tables full of howling drunken Sand-nin surrounded a giant iron cage at the center of the building which fenced off a partially sunken arena. Within the cage fought a pair of kunoichi. Well one was fighting; the other was doing a good job of eating her opponent's boot. This kind of situation was surprisingly normal for the desert dwellers. After all, when you're miles away from town with only sand and wind to keep you entertained, you had to invent your own fun. Blood sport was always viable option to get a few laughs and make some quick cash when trekking across the wastes of Wind Country.
That was why Naruko and her grandfather Teru were stopping at the bar anyway; the spunky little blonde loved a good scrap. And as long as she paid the cover fee, and didn't cry or kill anyone, the Sand-nin wouldn't care that she was a 10 year old girl. She had her Kusagakure hitai-ite, which meant that she was an adult who could do as she wished. If she wanted to throw her money away and get her teeth kicked down her throat by a man who outweighed her by 200 pounds, no one here was going to stop her. They would, however, laugh at her and rummage through her pockets for loose change after she was unconscious.
As the unlikely pair made their way the counter they managed to draw quite a few eyes from the Sand-nin. Even in a place as wild as Wind Country, it wasn't everyday that you saw a hyperactive blonde literally hop her way over to bar counter with a double fistful of ryo notes.
"I wanna fight the biggest guy you've got in here!" The barkeep raised an eyebrow as the she slammed the wad of cash on the counter, sending coins and bills scattering everywhere. "And I bet 5,000 ryo on myself!"
The bar went quiet as its occupants stared at the girl's outburst. A round of chuckles went around the room before dissolving into raucous laughter and wild cheering. Utterances of a man named 'Tombstone' popped up here and there as the drunken crowd hurled their bets at the nonplussed barkeeper who continued to clean his glassware.
"Are you sure about this? The biggest guy here is a chunin taijutsu specialist, and you can be damn sure that he's not gonna pull his punches for a little girl."
"You got that right." A man confirmed with a deep baritone drawl.
Naruko started bouncing on her heels as she found the owner of the voice. The man, Tombstone, was squat and dense just like his moniker would suggest. He stood at a little over six feet tall, but most likely weighed in at around 350 pounds. And even though his arms were thicker around than her entire torso but the girl didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"You better not pull your punches! If you try that shit on me I'll put my fist so far up your ass that they'll change your name from Tombstone to Sock Puppet!"
The intoxicated mob roared with laughter and smattering of oooh's and cries of "kick her ass, Tombstone!" floated around the room.
The man in question just barked a laugh before plowing through the crowd of drunks to stand in front of his pintsized opponent. "Hey Bato?" he called to the barkeep; his gaze still firmly locked on the girl who barely came up to his waist.
"What?"
"Eight Gates are still out, right?"
"Not unless you want to pay to fix my bar and tell Kusa that you turned one of their kunoichi into jelly."
"Aww come on! Let 'em use it! I'll still kick his teeth so far down his throat that he'll be eating shit for a week!"
Again the crowd began hooting. Tombstone's grin grew wider as he tossed a roll of ryo notes to Bato. "5,000 on myself. Little missy, I hope for your sake that you like the taste of iron, 'cause Imma put you straight though that fence."
"Hey I think I just found out why they call you Tombstone. Every time you open your mouth it smells like someone died!"
The mismatched pair squared off in the ring. Tombstone clenched his fists and the air around him began to distort with chakra. Naruko continued bouncing like a loon with her tongue cocked off to one side of her mouth. This was gonna be so awesome~!
Time slowed to a crawl as Naruto's disguised Rinnegan began to pick out the subtle tension and flow patterns of the man's chakra. A plan began to form in his head. The man was unsure of what stance to take when fighting a smaller opponent; he could exploit that easily.
'First point of attack; dodge his sweep and target the unguarded knee.' Naruto could see his blow connect and the look of shock on the larger man's face. 'Retaliatory strikes.' He brushed aside the blitz of punches and saw his opening. 'Obviously a heavy drinker; target liver with a palm strike.' His hand connected with the man's exposed midsection causing him to double over in pain. 'Reopen window of attack.' A vicious spear hand to the man's axillary nerve momentarily paralyzed his arm. Naruto batted it aside without resistance and struck again. 'Rupture liver.' The boy drove his elbow hard into the man's torso and felt the resistance give way. 'Dodge instinctive uppercut.' He bent backwards as the man's fist narrowly missed his head. 'Weaken ribs.' Naruto slammed his foot into the man's midsection before twisting around the next set of attacks. 'Then break ribs entirely.' A wet crunch met his ears as his spinning kick struck home. 'In shock and off balance; target injured knee and tear anterior cruciate ligament.' Naruto's foot came down on the man's knee, casing it to bend at an awkward angle as the man fell to the ground. His opponent tried to get back up only for Naruto to appear in front of him. 'Dropkick to neck.' His feet plowed into the man's throat causing his opponent's head to snap back in an unnatural manner. 'In summery; liver hemorrhaging, 3 cracked ribs, 2 ribs broken, leg unusable, windpipe crushed, hyoid broken, and severe trauma to the cervical spinal column. Recovery without aid; unlikely. Recovery with medical chakra; 3-4 weeks. Full psychological recovery; 3-4 months.'
The fight began and the pair shot towards each other. Nobody could believe their eyes when the little blonde girl began to surgically dismantle the toughest ninja that the bar had to offer. She danced around his blows with practiced ease, almost as if she knew that they were coming. The next second, Tombstone was doubled over in agony as she planted an elbow to his gut. Her opponent was beginning to panic and get sloppy. His blows caught nothing but air and the girl took advantage of the situation to great effect. A pair of well placed kicks sent him reeling; the follow up axe kick to his leg put Tombstone on the floor. The medic was already in motion as the girl broke the man's neck with her dropkick, and was over the cage by the time his head hit the ground.
"Oh hell yeah!" Naruko screamed as she began to do a victory dance and hurl insults at the slack jawed patrons who had the misfortune of betting against her. "Your sorry Suna asses are buying me a brand new pair of shoes. Right on time too, since I just lost my previous pair in your ass!" She yelled at the thoroughly unconscious Tombstone.
Needless to say, all eyes in the bar were on Naruko. No one ever noticed the conversation that took place between her grandfather and a shadowy figure in the corner of the bar. They also failed to see the hooded figure slip her grandfather a plain brown envelope that quickly disappeared into the old man's robes.
The wheels in Sasori's plan had begun to turn. With that, their objective was as good as done.
A little bit later than I would've liked, but an update none the less. Thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter (it seems like quite a few people like Tayuya as the love interest). Hopefully I don't come across as one of those authors who's trying to shoehorn in a pairing just for the hell of it. The plot is incredibly morphic at this point, and I'm really not sure which way the story is going to go. Reader input on character interaction opens up a lot of doors for me story-wise, so I encourage everyone to tell me what you think.
That being said; how does everyone feel about Risa? I haven't really given her much screen time partially due to the overall negative view that people seem to have towards OC's. Like her? Hate her? Nothing her? Too soon to tell?
Also this is entirely unrelated to the previous topic, but is Orochimaru really a pedophile or is that fan creation? I get that he's creepy (that's kind of the point) but I'm pretty sure a manga geared towards children would stay from issues like that. I'd like to get feel for his character now because I'm going to have to write for him pretty soon.
Life permitting, I'll try to update this next week. And yes, Naruko/Sasori's fighting style was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Hopefully it's not too farfetched for them to fight this way.
