DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but my shoes.

Shitty effort+Shitty "plot"+Shitty English skills+Shitty writing skills themselves=Shitty chapters=Shitty story

Before the show (4): Assembling the pieces

"Auch!" His voice came out in a groan.

"Sorry…" The violet haired girl muttered while attaching a bandage on his cheek.

Naruto, realizing how her face had fell with sadness, tried to cheer her up. "Do-Do not worry! It didn't h-hurt so much!"

"No! It's not just that…" She said trying to not tear but failing when the feel of wetness crossed her face. "Be-Because of me, y-you- sh-she…" Ami's voice began to shatter as the only thing he did was smile.

"Yeah, don't worry!" Another voice said. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to see you cry." That voice was Ino who leaned her back at one of the infirmary beds.

The girl turned to see the smiling Ino. "B-But…"

Her stutter was cut when another body jumped over the bed where both Ami and Naruto were sitting. "I should suggest stop yer self-blaming." The boy with pineapple hair commented in the laziest way possible. "He's not gonna take it anyway."

"I-I agree with Nara, they weren't being nice to you." Hinata said sitting next to Ino.

Ami's eyes traveled stopping in each face looking for anger, blaming or something else, however, with the sight of nothing, the girl just lowered her head. "O-Okay…"

Seeing that Ami was still in self-blaming mood, Ino was going to try to help telling that they could hang out later, however…

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" The homeroom teacher who actually cared about teaching shouted. "ATTACKING YOUR CLASSMATES LIKE THAT AND USING CLANS' JUTSUES WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT PERMISSION!" The scar-face man stepped inside.

"But they attacked-!" Ino tried to defend they, nevertheless, the unexpected happened…

"I'm sorry, Iruka-Sensei." Naruto, quieter as the wind, stood and bowed to the ninja. "This is my fault, they got involved because of me." His voice was out of all kind of shyness or fear, just determination remained when he looked to Iruka in the eyes.

Different than the reaction most of them were expecting, Iruka just sighed before talking again. "It's great you can take the blame, however, I can't let this pass like that." He then took a (bunch) of papers out of apparently nowhere (maybe a teacher's jutsu thought Shikamaru) and place them on Naruto's hands. "This is your punishment."

The surroundings of the huge place were silent as ever. It wasn't a surprise that as the biggest clan on the village, they owned such a big place, however, with a simple look it could be said the bigger the place was, the deserter it was. At the time, the quietest place was the biggest building. Saying that the place was luxurious would be an insult to the look of the whole place. It was simple indeed, yet expensive as a fourth part of the village. All the materials that constituted the place were the finest ones the village could get its hands on. Even after all the tough hits the village took in so little time, because of their last goose that lays golden eggs, the place remained strong. And it did remain strong to the Hyuga clan, yet not to all of them. It was to expect that the lower branches of the family didn't tasted so much of that luck, nevertheless, they weren't the only ones who took less. Hinata Hyuga, even as the firstborn, wasn't very usual to the lux. To a little girl, to be left without the way she most lived, was everything but a good thing, however, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan took it well. She still lived in the higher branches' domains, however, to everything but training she was restricted to the low branches' life. So, it was understandable that being invited to the dining room exclusive to the clan head and fellows was weird to her. Even if her face remained with the serious Hyuga face, in the inside, she was frightened. As well was Nako who sat on her side and every so often cleaned Hinata's surroundings. Her slightly shivering hands made it obvious she wasn't comfortable with the other persons on the room.

"Your sensei informed me you had a fight." The sound of the strong voice made echo on the room. Both Nako and Hinata shuddered when the voided eyes focused on the later one.

To the time, the Hyuga princess had somehow managed to eat the food served to her. It was delicious with no place to doubt, yet the lump on her throat made it almost impossible to enjoy. Right now, that lump felt like nothing against the heaviness settled on her gut. "Yes… I had." Even if she managed to talk, the shudder on her voice was there. Was he mad? She didn't know. Was she going to be punished? She didn't know. Was he going to punish Nako yet again? She… didn't wanted to know. The fear and uncertainty got wider and wider by every second the man in front of her took to slurp his tea. Every eye focused on her. Her sister looked at her with those eyes that resemble so much yet so little of her mother, the elderly with those merciless eyes and every maid in the place. Her hands now white by the grip she had on her clothes were starting to hurt by the force she was using. Her throat was so tight that the air filling her lungs by every deep inspiration and breath was burning her body. Everything was going to end. Because of her actions, she was going down. Going to fall again but this time even deeper. Going to be worst. Going to-

[Clack]

Her mind stopped when the sound of a cup being placed in the fine table made echo on the place. The clan head looked at her. "You did it well."

[SMASH]

The sound of the door closing so hard it could broke snapped her from her nap. The look of the whole table full of scattered papers and half-finished drafts was enough to make her remember where she was. Since she arrived just yesterday, her whole attention focused on her next project. It was a big one indeed, however, with ginormous reward comes some big effort, hence, sleeping wasn't the main directive, hence, she was going back to work… or that's what she would do if the look of her daughter circuiting the house while moving lots of things wasn't there. "Emh… What you doin' Ami?" Said girl stopped her movement and looked at her. "Wh-What?"

The look on her face was terrifying, even if it was her own daughter's face. "You dare to ruin this and I am going to sell all yer underwear on the market." Her tone was so finite that the elder woman just could do nothing while the younger girl continued cleaning the place.

Life sucks. One day y're all fine doing your own thing, watching clouds and playing shogi with some naps in the middle, and the other ya're being chased by yer mom because of protecting yer best friend. Of course he did not regret that, however, he was reconsidering his decision of jumping that late. If he just jumped sooner, Naruto wouldn't had got knocked out, Ino wouldn't had broken that girl's nose and lip, Hinata wouldn't had to beat the shit out of that extra and none of them would had to risk that much. If he just used his Kagemane no Justu sooner, he could had stopped everything until the teacher arrived…

"YOU SON OF A BITCH COME HERE!" His mind-train was stopped by the (quite) loud scream.

"Y're my mom, what does that make ya…" He muttered to himself expecting her to not hear his words, yet…

"WHAT DID YA JUST SAY!?" She shouted out while incrementing her speed.

"Fuck." Indeed, life sucks, although, tomorrow was going to be a good day and he doubted his mom beating the shit out of him when they visited his place… probably.

Respect. That thing that made people look you different, that made them feel safe around you, or, on the other side, feel afraid of you even looking in their direction. In fact, he had a lot of it, even at international level. A clan head with great relationships with the others, the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force's best card and a renowned ninja. He was indeed a respected man, however… "Come on dad! Move those pots!" His daughter ordered while cleaning the garden herself. "They're coming tomorrow!"

The elder blonde whipped some sweat from his forehead before slightly hit his back. "Yes honey, but your geezer's back is aching…" Somehow, he was expecting his baby girl to look at him with a sympathetic face to then tell him it was okay, however…

"And?"

"Nothing sweetie, 'm getting back to work…"

The sound of his tool rasping the wood always made him forget about a bad day or the pains his body always had, yet this day, the action just brought more happiness to the little chest he has. Of course, he got beaten, his jaw hurt like hell and now he has to complete a work about civil wars related to what is happening on Kirigakure, but he has to complete said work with his friends! Hell yeah that that punch was worth of the reward! "Auch…" A pain coming from the smile he was letting out made him focus once more on the wood. Even if the punch wasn't even close to be a tough one, it stills both send him flying and knock him down. How was he brave enough to try to protect his friends if he couldn't even protect himself? There were no doubts inside his mind about the fact he would jump one and a thousand more times for them, however, no matter how much he jumped, there were no doubts he wasn't going to be able to help in any way. He wasn't tough, neither he had the strength of even a regular kid, heck, if he didn't run with the luck of learning about marionettes, he doubted a lot of himself being able to reach this point of the academy. Using the chakra threads to lead all his kunai and shuriken was a great idea! Also his constant use of techniques that required a great chakra control helped him with his own control which at the same time made him the best chakra controller on the academy. Dealing with a genjutsu? Easy-peasy. A clone? He can make whatever amount he wanted. Kawarimi? Just point the place and there he will appear… well, he will but also with some throw up in the middle. He had to thank a lot to God because of Konoha's need of new ninjas, because (in the physical way) he was even deeper than the roots of the tree front to the academy.

[Whistling kettle!]

"Oh, the tea!" He said at the time he let his tools aside to then start moving his hand and fingers while jogging to the table he had made a long ago. Side to it was a tall red haired woman with no expression on her face who seemed to move depending of the boy's hand-command. The marionette carefully took the kettle and pour the liquid on a cup. He took it and give it a long sniff. "I hope it's okay like this…" The smell of the tea confused him. Was this the smell of a great tea? The best tea (and one of the few) he could compare to was the one old man sometimes invited him, and he doubted a lot of himself being able to reach that kind of sweetness. He hoped the tea he served to Ami was good enough, because the one she served was a really good one. He sipped the tea… "Mmmh…" and it wasn't good enough. He always bought the cheapest tea, so the taste wasn't bad but neither the best. How was he going to serve a great tea when his turn of being the host comes!? He asked to be the last house to visit, so he had some time, however, how the hell was he going to get great tea if every place refused to sell him any quality stuff!? Shit, if he could just change his appearance… or have someone who said she would sell him things at a great prize! Damn, he was happy of having a store who didn't wanted to rip him off, but how the hell he didn't think about using henge before!? It was one of his best techniques and he ignored it like the scraps he ripped from the wood he was using! Iruka would be disappointed of him if he knew this embarrassing mistake. "A ninja's job is to do what they are said to with the resources it has…" He repeated while walking back to the work station. A look to the wood he was working with made a question cross his mind. "Should I draw the design first?" The dumb question almost made him want to punch himself. He moved his hand and the marionette handed him his sketch book with a black pencil. "Long night I guess…"

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Running. At the academy, he wasn't the fastest kid, for god's sake he was even slower than Sakura. And better to not talk about his stamina, because that was another whole world. So it was a whole miracle that he managed to get that further in the way of Ino's house. The first time he went there he was using his Carmine Flyer (still in work phase), so the trip was nothing but a minute and half of cold wind, however, right now, it was a different story. First, he woke up late, so he lost no time getting dressed with his usual orange jacket, a black shirt and dark blue shorts with the standard ninja footwear to then getting out of his workshop. It was indeed a bad decision to not sleep in his department, nevertheless, he felt a lot of inspiration by the work of Ami's father and he wanted to use it while he could. Now, since his workshop was literally on the forest, he had to run all the way to the village and then to the residential part of Konoha and just then to Ino's house. How the hell he had not died from that was a whole mystery itself. Now, standing in front of Ino's door, he inhaled deeply and exhaled. It was a long time since he knocked on someone's house, and the last time he did that… well, it didn't end well; so it was obvious he felt a little pressure. He knocked…

[Toc-Toc-Toc]

Oh, the pressure was incrementing.

The door opened and Shikamaru greeted him with a sleepy smile. "Hey Naruto…"

Damn, the pressure was incrementing a lot.

"Ya don't look so well." He commented while taking a whole look of Naruto.

It almost felt like it was… Oh no.

Shikamaru, oblivious to what was going to happen, stepped forward and placed a hand on his friend's back. "Come on, we have some-"

[Naruto throwing everything up over Shikamaru]

"NOT AGAIN!"

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The sound of a quiet laugh made his (or at least he hopes stills) friend's eyebrow twitch. "Don't laugh! It's not funny!" He yelled to the pair of girls laughing at him.

Said girls laughed a little more before the violet one stopped and used her hand to stop the blonde. "He's right, it's not funny…" Then she laughed again. "It's fucking hilarious!" Their laughs made a third girl join.

He looked at Hinata with betrayal.

"I'm sorry Shika…" Naruto muttered while lowering his head.

Shikamaru turned to see his friend and sighed. "Nah, it's okay, anyways it's kinda comfy." He said while lying on the ground.

The girls, on the other side, were chatting trying to not be heard. "Was that pink dress the only thing you had?" Ami asked without any attempt of hiding her amusement.

"What you think?" The answer made more laughs came out again.

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"So, correct me if I'm wrong…" Ami muttered to the group. "Kirigakure was once one of the most respected villages because of the small amount of ninja with great qualities and respect for the village, however, Yagura, the mizukage, began to take a lot of bad decisions that turned the almost the whole village against him." She looked to Shikamaru who was seemingly sleeping on the ground, however, he gave her an affirmative nod. "Correct, an example could be the way he began to let aside the economy in pro of the military power, however, still using the old model of exam that wasn't the best to create quantity but quality… Right?" She asked to Ino, who was sitting on the bed next to her, and she nodded. "Right now, the village is in the middle of a civil war. The side are Yagura with the government and the revolutionaries, led by an unknown person… Is that all?"

Before someone could nod, Shikamaru spoke. "Y're forgetting about the persecution against the people with bloodline limits." Shikamaru yawned. "The Mizukage hated them to death and because of that -yawn - the brat decided to genocide them. That really contributed to the civil war…" He commented while closing his eyes again. "Such a monster…" He muttered to himself before realizing how the mood on the room fell. "Shit…"

"What are you reading, Naruto?" Before Shikamaru could try to fix the mood, Hinata spoke with some curiosity following her voice. The three other kids looked to the named Naruto. Said boy was reading one of the history books Hinata brought from her clan's library. His face told everyone that he was pretty immersed on the lecture and the way he passed every page was kind of scary.

"Is everything okay?" Ino asked while moving next to the kid sitting on the carpet. She peeked a little to see what he was reading. "History of Sunagakure?" She read the title of the book all loudly to everyone. "What's so interesting in that?"

Naruto, for once in a while, raised his head from the book and looked to everyone. "This is where marionettes come from!" He shouted to everyone with excitement shining on his voice.

On the other side, most of them looked at him with deadpanned faces. "Ya kidding, right?" By the face of Naruto, Shikamaru could tell he wasn't playing stupid. "Did you really almost mastered the use and creation of dolls as a ninja and you didn't even stop for a second to think something like 'Hey, where does this shit come from?'" Again, his face told him he wasn't joking. "What a drag…" He sighed before trying to get some sleep.

"Wait, he knows?" Ino asked after getting over Naruto's tilted cute confused face.

"Is he not supposed to?" Ami asked tilting her head.

"You too!?" The blondie re-asked.

"Marionettes?" The Hyuga girl asked.

"SHE T- I mean, ri-right, you don't know…" She looked at Naruto who went back to the book. "Emh… Naruto?"

"Yes?"

"Emh… Hinata doesn't know."

"Oh, right." He said without getting his attention out of the book. He rolled his sleeve a little and poof, Carmine was there sitting next to him. What? Did ya expect some mysticism like before? Well, join to the club as Ino did.

"YOU KIDDING? YA ALMOST MADE ME INTERROGATE YOU TO SHOW IT TO ME!" She yelled before jumping from the bed.

The door slightly opened. "Honey, is everything ok-"

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Got it." The door shut again.

"So noisy…" Shikamaru complained while taking a pillow.

"I-Ino, calm dow-" The little kid was grabbed from the neck of his shirt.

"Ino!" Ami tried to separate them

"You little-!"

"So beautiful…" The Yamanaka girl was stopped by the voice of the Hyuga princess. Everyone in the room looked to the girl. "Naruto, did you made her?" She asked to the boy who nodded with confusion. "It's amazing! She looks so pretty! Can you move it?" To answer that, Naruto moved his hand a little making the marionette get up and then great the girl with a reverence. "Wait, you are the so renowned Dwarf Puppeteer? That's amazing!" She cheered oblivious to the little hit his nickname made.

"Dwarf puppeteer…" Naruto muttered with a little annoyance on his tone.

"Hinata, did you assisted to it?" Ami asked. "Wasn't it amazing when Carmine decided to get away from that village?"

"Can y'all make silence?"

Ignoring Shikamaru, Hinata answered a little nervous. "Emh… no, I couldn't." Hinata's face fell a little. "Bu-But I did hear a lot of it. I gue-guess you did, how it was?"

Next to them, Naruto breathed deeply after Ino let him go. The little boy, now a little aware of how Ino felt, tried to fix things. "He-Hey Ino, I… I'm sorry." He muttered loud enough to let her hear.

Ino, on the other side, just hold her legs close to her chest. She looked to Naruto and sighed. "I know I overreacted, it just… annoyed me." The girl hid her face between her knees. "It wasn't very easy to get you to tell me that and you just go and tell two persons in two days…" She knew it was a silly tantrum, yet it stills annoy her.

"Don't be." Naruto got near to the girl. "Because of you I can feel more free to be open to everyone." Those words seemed to affect Ino, because she turned to see him smiling with those shiny teeth. The beating of her heart made the blood warm her cheeks. He was very good at teasing her…

"You know I was the first one he showed that, right?"

"…"

"Thank you again for killing the mood… And what are you doing with my sheets and teddy bears?"

"My fortrace against noise." He said while lying on the bed made of multiple pillows inside of a bed-sheet-house with the teddy bears placed like knights to protect his building. "Now, shut up, it's nap time."

Another boring day was taking place to the dependent of Tamuras' tend. Since her team was banned for one week from doing missions because of the mess they made last time, her next week would be nothing but training at the morning and more training at the afternoon plus a little training at night. In her sensei's words, "THE YOUTH MAY STILL IN MOVEMENT!". Right now, most of her body ached. Her arms because of all the ninja-tools she threw, her legs from running (A HALF PART) of what Lee runs and all those squats all her (yet not visible) abs by all the abdominals she did. Not to talk about the new bruises she has, even if they weren't even a half part of what Lee had. Was he crazy for challenging Neji so many times? She had no doubt, however, she must give him the congratulations thumb by the effort.

[Door's bell]

The sound of the bell her father forged made she rise the head from the counter. In front of her was a blonde boy with whiskers over his cheeks. "Afternoon!" He greeted ignoring how her eyes were scanning him.

"Afternoon, little costumer, what are you looking for?" She asked with a trained smile. Does she know this kid? His whiskers, blue eyes and blonde hair were similar to that little girl's, however, he was… well, a he.

"Mmmmh… do you have any kind of tea?" He said taking a look of the wood-work tools.

"Yes! We have Konoha's specialty, green tea, another kind that comes from Sunagakure and…" She recited while thinking about that girl. Was he his brother? They looked a lot alike, so it wasn't to not expect. "Excuse me, little costumer" She asked as he thought about the teas she named. ", do you have any sister?" It couldn't hurt to be sure.

"Nope…" He answered tilting his head deep in his thoughts. "Well, I want one of each."

"Huh?" Was the only understandable thing she managed to say because of both his answer and request. "Wa- Yo-You sure? It would cost a lot!" If her father could hear her, he would be disappointed of her kindness. "More specifically…" She said while making numbers in her mind. "It would cost you like 12.500¥!"

"That little?" He asked before taking out his wallet. "Here." He said placing the money on the counter.

On her side, Tenten just could look at the money and sigh. Where did this kid got that money and why was he so reckless at spending it? She didn't know, nevertheless, he was the costumer and she wasn't the one to refuse a costumer's request… "I can't sell them to you." Yet, she was going to.

The blonde boy tilted his head before his face fell. "Wh-Why?" He asked a little too afraid.

The girl was oblivious of the why of his reaction and just keep talking. "This is too much money to spend, you can't be that reckless."

Her words seemed to calm him a lot, however, he still complained. "But I need them."

Tenten sighed. "Look, I'm going to sell you just one, okay?" She said with big-sister tone.

The boy seemed to think about it for a while before answering. "Okay…"

The female member of Guy's team smiled. "Aight, which one?"

DELETED SCENE

"G' MORNING TENTEN!" A cheerful voice made echo on the start of the day. "I SEE Y'RE DOIN' SOME CAMPING! THAT'S GREAT!" A tall man dressed with green spandex give the girl on the ground a shiny smile.

"ARGH! QUIET SENSEI!" Tenten shouted with annoyance. "And I'm not camping!" She explained while getting up from the cold ground.

A smaller copy of the spandex-man stepped in the scene. "And what you doing here then-then?"

Ignoring the (really) bad joke, the girl began to spread her muscles. "Being good doesn't always brought good karma…" Tenten muttered before shooting pointing her house. "RIGHT GEEZER!?"

"NEXT TIME DO NOT BE THAT KIND!"

DELETED SCENE +2

"Where's Shikamaru? It's dinner time."

"Don't know -yawn-, maybe he's sleeping in some random bench."

"Again?"

Meanwhile…

"CAN I NOW HAVE MY SHEETS AND PILLOWS BACK!?"

"Stills -yawn- nap time…"

Blah, blah and more blah. Ami feels bad because of Naruto getting a beat because of her. It looks like Ami and Hinata already knew each other because of their family, so… that. Some shit about Ami feeling superior to both Ino and Hinata because he had drawn her directly (and yeah, it's discovered that Naruto already drew Hinata), how-fucking-ever, Shikamaru comments that Naruto had drawn him SO many times he lost count.

Happy to see that a lot of people likes my shitty work. Sorry by all the time it took me writing this and I apologize by the shortness of the chapter. See ya next time and long live to nothing in specific. Also, 'm happy to tell y'all that I have a new friend! She's quite friendly and funny even if she's a little older than me. Oh, I'm fixing the other chapters so do not worry if ya see some extra notifications. Have a nice life.