In-Depth Toy Surgery
Some time back… (A/N: this is technically a memory; if it can be stuck anywhere, it's in the middle of Chapter 2, and technically the explanation for Little Gaara's being able to make actual sounds – new cloth vocal chords.)
Miyo
I spent a good hour carefully making a couple of tiny wooden skeletons and a couple sets of fabric internal organs, constantly referring back to an anatomy book to be sure I was doing things right. "Everyone's jutsu has improved, so I need to step up my game, too."
Finally, I'd gotten three little skeletons made and three sets of organs – two to stick into the Jinjuriki dolls first, and one for referring back so that I could make more.
"Okay…let's see…whenever I was going to test out something new, I always go with…" I glanced over at Little Naruto.
Little Naruto looked up at me, hopped down and ran to the other side of the room.
"Come on, Naruto, you're the one who can relay to me what works and what doesn't. Get back here." I knelt on the floor a respectable distance from where he was trying to hide. "Okay, I need you to signal me here, and be honest with me. Are you trying to avoid this change to your structure because it'll mess with the chakra you're getting from your original, or are you just scared? Tap a hand on the floor once for the first choice or twice for the second."
After a few seconds of figurative silence, Little Naruto reached out slowly and set his soft little ball-fist on the floor…once…twice.
"So, will this process interfere with the chakra reception you or Gaara have?"
He stuck his head around his hiding place, looked at me for a second, and then shook his head.
"That's a relief, because it means I won't have to worry about resetting Little Gaara. Now come over here."
Slowly, he approached.
"You'll be fine. Trust me here." Not for the first time, I felt a little crazy addressing a doll like it was intelligent. "Besides, here's something I'm sure you'll like." I held up the little skeleton and displayed its hands for Little Naruto.
Its hands…with actual, separate, mobile fingers.
Little Naruto stared for a second. Then he fell over, clearly pretending to be unconscious so that I could work.
That was a very slow, painstaking process. I'd made sure all the muscles and organs were secured on and in the skeleton, with threads and yarn representing networks. That had been extremely tedious, but if I was going to pull off any superb assistance, I needed this. All that was left was taking the 'skin' of the plush toys and pulling it over the new skeleton.
It wasn't a perfect setup. For one thing, I drew the line at making miniature eyes; I was going to stick to the embroidered eyes with tiny rhinestones or large-rhinestone eyes. For another, the dolls were still going to be gender-neutral – managing everything else at that scale had been tricky enough, and while I'm sure some people would disagree with me, at least the reproductive organs aren't so essential to an individual's survival that I'd need to add them to a voodoo doll to try to heal later. Everything else had been essential. Plus, even though the skeleton had a mobile jaw I had no plans to create slits in the doll's face for giving it a real mouth.
There were a few times when I had to do some snip-and-stitching that wasn't just slitting seams and re-stitching them together. The two definite points were the hands and feet. I had to outright replace the feet, because I'd just made them the same color as the sandals. The hands were simpler, as they were the correct color; I just had to carefully craft the fingers and thumbs like a sculptor.
I also had to shape Little Naruto's face just a bit. Before, his nose had just been embroidered onto his face. Now it was getting some actual dimension, and there was also a new seam to open in case I ever needed to get inside his face to mend the jawbone.
Finally I was done. I laid him down on the desk as Little Gaara joined me. "Okay, Naruto, how are you doing?"
Little Naruto laid there for a minute. Just about the point when I was beginning to worry, he lifted up his arm and looked at the palm of his hand. Then he closed and opened his fingers. He tilted his head to look at me, and then he made a true hand gesture.
He gave me a thumbs-up.
"Awesome, Naruto! Now go get dressed," I picked up the second skeleton set, "Gaara's next."
Little Gaara just nodded as Little Naruto jumped up and ran over to where his new clothes were folded on the corner of the desk.
As I worked on updating Gaara, I watched Little Naruto in amusement. Now he could get dressed all by himself, because he could actually grip his own clothing.
I was almost done with Little Gaara when Little Naruto walked into my peripheral vision and poked my wrist with a finger.
Someone's enjoying having proper fingers. I looked at the little doll, who was now fully dressed in new clothing. "What's up?"
For an answer, Little Naruto balanced on one foot and waved the other at me.
He was barefoot.
I laughed. "Don't worry: new sandals are on the agenda. You just be patient."
Once Little Gaara was done, I sighed and sat back, leaving him to get dressed by himself. "I'll make skeletons for the other dolls later. That's a little tricky, but now that I have the trick of it, it's mostly just tedious."
Little Naruto kicked my wrist.
"I know, I know. Two pair of sandals, coming right up."
Those also required intricate detail, but I finally finished them, and both dolls pulled them on happily. The needle-pricked fingers and slight headache were worth it, to see Little Naruto dancing around in his new sandals.
I didn't get around to making any more little skeletons until after the "rescue Gaara" mission, and I didn't really finish skeletonizing my voodoo dolls until I was between Chunin Exam stages. And at that point, there were only a few dolls that were still done up in the old style: those few people I knew who had died (what was the point?), Orochimaru (I wasn't about to unlock that box to get him out to do that, and besides, by now I didn't have the key), and Sasuke. Now, I could in theory do Sasuke, but because he does move on his own…and his movements have involved his trying to reach Orochimaru…
…No. I'm not going there. Little Sasuke's not getting any internal structure until he's been brought back to the Leaf Village or he stops moving under his own power.
Whatever that entails.
