Puppet Master of Konoha

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: See previous chapters. (Do I really have to repeat myself? '-_-)

It had been a week since Naruto's breakthrough regarding the Kugutsu no Jutsu, thanks in no small part to the book the Sandaime had given him, and everyone in the Shinobi Academy had noticed a change in the blonde troublemaker's behavior. He had become more focused on the lessons his instructors were teaching and even asked questions based on the subject matter, and, while it was true his attention span was still a bit short, resulting in instructors (typically Iruka) scolding him when he lost focus and began working on sketches in a notebook he had begun carrying around, they realized that he had not cut class a single time since Iruka had last caught him during his last prank, which the Uchiha clan's brooding heir had pointedly refused to talk about when the subject was brought up.

That's not to say that his pranks had ceased. No sir! Naruto still held the title of Konoha's top prankster, of whom the ANBU still had difficulties keeping up with, much to the amusement of the Sandaime, whom often cited said failed attempts as good training opportunities for his elite Shinobi…but that's a story for another time.

Regardless, there had been a change in Naruto's behavior, but it was still mostly a mystery to the village at large as to the cause.

You see, Naruto had come to the realization that his incredible breakthrough on his new path towards becoming a 'badass puppet master Hokage' was due in no small part to his agreeing to listen and pay attention during one of Iruka's lessons in the Academy. Because of this, Naruto had begun to do his best to continue listening and paying attention to hopefully find out about more cool techniques and shinobi he could learn about in order to build upon his growing path.

It was with this mindset that Naruto found himself on a field trip with his classmates, as the instructors took them to one of the village's Training Grounds for a practical lesson on Shinobi Techniques and Tactics.

"Alright everyone, settle down and pay attention," called out Iruka as he and his fellow instructor, Mizuki, tried to corral the group of young students, "we've brought all of you here to Training Ground 43 undergo a practical exercise on skills you'll need in the battlefield. As Shinobi, you may one day be tasked with defending your camp in enemy territory or eliminating a group of targets without being caught, and an essential skill in both those scenarios is the ability to prepare and lay traps for the enemy to fall into. Therefore, you will each be given a number and will then take turns rigging a designated path with as many traps as you can prepare in one minute. You will be graded on the effectiveness and creativity of said traps, as well as how well they are concealed from your targets."

"Um, Iruka-sensei?" asked one of the students, "What will our targets be for this exercise?"

"An excellent question," said Iruka, "for this exercise, your targets will be Mizuki and myself. We will have you draw lots and the class will be split into two groups, one group will take turns and trap a predetermined path that we'll walk through."

"Note, you won't be expected to effectively hinder us with your traps," put in Mizuki, "we are Chunin after all, and have been doing this a lot longer. Rather, our experience will allow us to judge and grade your traps as we set them off, usually on our own terms."

"Remember though," added Iruka, "this is still an Academy exercise, so keep the lethality of your traps at a minimal level. That means, no explosive tags or poisons of any kind, and only blunted weapons are to be used if any. Anyone who doesn't follow these restrictions will be severely punished. Understand?"

"Hai, Iruka-sensei!" the students chorused as one.

Iruka then unrolled a scroll with a storage seal drawn on it, and quickly unsealed a bowl with pieces of paper inside it, "Everyone step forward and take a paper from this bowl. No pushing, everyone will get a chance in due time."

With a bit of effort and scolding on Iruka's end, the students managed to form a semi-orderly line and pick out a slip from the bowl. Naruto looked at his slip and saw that he would be seventh to take his turn trapping the path, so he decided to use his time to plan how he was going to handle this exercise. He was definitely excited about the drill, now that he thought about it. He could take advantage of his pranking experience and really go all out setting things up. As he made plans though, he noticed one of his fellow students preparing a spool of ninja wire and an idea struck him.

Smiling to himself, Naruto began to mentally adjust his plan while, a few feet away, a chill shot up Iruka and Mizuki's spines.

xXsceneXx

As Iruka emerged from the training ground, a tad scuffed up, but ultimately none the worse for wear, Mizuki smirked to himself, as now was the time he had been waiting for. He had subtly rigged the lots so that Naruto would pick a number that would have his lesson be proctored by Mizuki himself, and while he knew he wouldn't be able to overtly able to sabotage the Jinchuriki's progress, nothing said he couldn't make the test a little stricter in terms of assessment.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Mizuki called out, causing the blond to run up, "You're up next. Remember, you have one minute to set up, and then I'll enter whether you're finished or not."

"Hai!" said Naruto before rushing into the forested area to prepare.

Mizuki chuckled to himself as he counted down mentally, eager to make this exercise as difficult for the Kyuubi brat as he could, without being too obvious of course. He would not be an effective agent for Orochimaru if his bias as an instructor came to light.

Soon enough, Naruto's prep-time came to an end and Mizuki casually entered the forested training area that Naruto had been in charge of trapping. As he walked, he stretched his senses to detect any indication of the blonde's location and any traps he had rigged up. He kept an eye out for tripwires and such that would trigger anything the blond set up. He was intent to find and disarm anything the Demon had rigged in order to ensure he failed this exercise. He noticed some movement in the treetops, causing him to smirk turn and prepare to throw a slightly blunted shuriken in that direction, but he was immediately forced to duck and roll as several kunai shot out from the opposite direction and narrowly avoided hitting him.

Scowling, he drew a kunai of his own and threw it into the treetops, but that only triggered a rain of shuriken from above followed by several more kunai from yet another angle. As he jumped back to avoid the blunted knives, several white objects landed around him and burst, covering him in white powder that Mizuki quickly identified as flour before the leaves overhead rustled and several more objects fell to the ground, releasing blasts of glitter and glue.

Ok, as much as it pained him to admit, the Gaki had skill. Doesn't mean he's going to make this any easier.

Quite the contrary.

Palming a blunted Kunai, Mizuki threw it with perhaps a bit more speed and accuracy than would be appropriate for this training exercise, and smirked to himself as he heard it impact with an object, causing something to fall from the trees, but when he got a closer look, he saw that it was only a simple wooden puppet that now had his Kunai sticking out of its torso.

Suddenly, his arm spasmed against his will and nearly punched him in the face before he was able to regain control. Glancing around, Mizuki saw several thin gold thread-like chains linked to his arm, and quickly flared his Chakra to repel them, forcing the chains to detach, but instead of dispelling, the chains latched onto the puppet, causing it to surprise the Chunin by sitting upright and wrenching the Kunai out of its torso. As Mizuki stumbled back in surprise, the Puppet leapt at the grey-haired Chunin brandishing the stolen Kunai.

"That's enough Naruto!" Mizuki called out, "I think I've seen enough."

As soon as he said that, the puppet went limp and dropped the Kunai and Naruto jumped down from where he had been hiding, "Do I pass, Mizuki-sensei?" he asked eagerly.

"Yes," said Mizuki as he pushed down his desire to murder the Demon Brat for this humiliation, "if this had been a real scenario, I'd daresay that I'd have been thoroughly incapacitated. Good work. Go and join your friends for the rest of this exercise."

Mizuki could barely hide a smirk as he saw the blonde's face fall as he was reminded that he had no friends his own age. It was the little things that counted. Still though, the brat's skill had been growing and his study habits were improving, meaning that he might just graduate this time around.

Hmm, the Civilian Council was still pushing for more leeway in the Shinobi Graduation exams so more of their children could pass, stating that in this tentative time of peace, it would be helpful for Konoha to grow its Shinobi forces to strengthen its influence in the eyes of its fellow Villages. Maybe he could offer some input to some of his allies in the Council and make some subtle pushes on the Shinobi side to make sure that these new revisions would make it impossible for the Demon Child to pass.

After all, if his long-term plan was to succeed, Naruto needed to fail.

Shorter chapter this time. I mostly wanted to show Naruto's Academy life, something I haven't seen much in other fics, and to help lay some foundations for some future stuff.