Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He was in a room that seemed literally split. It seemed friendly at first, it was clean, the colors were bright and the straw he was laying on was better than some of the other things he had used as beds, especially the one in the orphanage with all the springs that Naruto had noticed were regularly sharpened sticking out. The dark part of the room was the far end, since instead of a wall with a door, all there was were bars that seemed to glow. He was in a prison.

"How do you feel?" A voice asked. Naruto turned his head and saw two people sitting on chairs. One was a girl roughly his age with glasses and long red hair, the other one was that Kabuto that had knocked him out. How long had he been out? A few hours, a day, or more? If he only knew.

Another weird thing was that both were surrounded by a weird haze. The girl's haze seemed to be sizzling, while Kabuto's was somewhat strained. He looked at them. "Where am I? Why are there glowing bars on the wall? And what is that stuff around you?"

The two looked at each other with raised brows. Then Kabuto spoke. "I'll answer your first and second question later, although I might add that the bars are not glowing. As for your third question, it's called air. We breathe it. Aside from that, there's nothing there. Do you see something else?"

Naruto looked at them as if they had lost their minds, though it was hard to tell with the emotionless eyes of the Rinnegan. "Um, only the weird mist-thing surrounding you two. How can you not see it, it's right in front of you. A second ago, yours seemed kinda strained while hers," He pointed at the girl "was sizzling or boiling or something like that. Now both of yours are just going in swirls."

The two looked at each other again, another unseen conversation going between them. Then Karin spoke. "Since I'm a sensor, I can tell that there's chakra in the bars from the seals, and that we are surrounded by our chakra. Maybe that's what you're seeing?"

Naruto looked at her. "I could never see chakra, so why now? And who are you? Why am I here?"

Karin blinked. "That's right, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Karin, you already know Kabuto. We're working for someone, I doubt you've heard of him, his name is Orochimaru."

Naruto frowned. "No, doesn't ring a bell. Again, why am I here?" He tried to jump up, but he misjudged the length of his legs and fell to the floor.

Karin looked at Kabuto. They'd have to teach him how to walk as well? Then again, the boy had grown with the nutrients he received, and he hadn't moved for over a year. It was no wonder that his brain hadn't adjusted to the longer limbs yet. Hell, it was amazing that his muscles still functioned this well after a year in a tank.

Kabuto sighed. "You shouldn't try to move that much, you've been out for a while and your mind needs to adjust to your body. As for why you're here, it's kinda complicated. For now, all you need to know is that you have to stay here a while, and that Karin and I are going to teach you a few things, reading amongst them."

Karin looked at Kabuto. "You're forgetting medicine and anatomy. He'll learn the basics of that, as he'll need it later."

Kabuto shrugged, bored. "I know, I know. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. First he has to learn to read, and how to form chakra-strings."

Naruto looked at the two people. "So, you plan on teaching me? Why?"

The two shared a look, and a sweatdrop. Kabuto cleared his throat. "Let's just say we're under orders to turn you into a shinobi, and you'll gain the ability of a puppeteer, a rare but very useful talent."

Naruto raised a brow. "Puppets? How is that supposed to help?" He had concluded that in his current situation, there was no way out for him. If he wanted to get out, he'd have to go along with their plans and look for a good chance to escape. He didn't know it, but Sasori's solution had done more than just improve his chakra-control. It had also raised his IQ a good seventy points, and it had already been above average. Naruto now had the mental resources of a genius in the making.

Karin shrugged. "There are special combat-puppets. The size of a human, and usually stuffed with all sorts of nasty surprises. Okay, now that that's cleared, let's start with the chakra-strings first, reading later, and learning how to move without falling over your own feet could probably be helpful as well."

She and Kabuto had already clearly outlined the does and don'ts of Naruto's training. Puppeteering yes, that was why they were here. Medicine and anatomy yes, as they needed him to be able to make human puppets, and he had to understand enough from the scroll to not royally screw up.

Usage of the mouths yes, as it was not only interesting, but it was also the part Naruto was bound to notice in a short amount of time.

Learning how to turn his body into strings and control his bone-structure, maybe later, it gave ideas for dark cold nights.

Teaching him how to transform into sheets of paper no, they didn't need that yet and the seals on the bars hadn't been modified to create a barrier yet. If the boy escaped through the bars, Orochimaru would play bowling with their heads.

The Rinnegan hell no! They really didn't need Naruto taking the place apart, or fling them through the air like leaves in a storm.

And as if on cue, Naruto looked at his hands, probably wondering how he'd make the strings. He gasped in shock. "WHY ARE THERE MOUTHS ON MY HANDS?!" He shouted.

Kabuto sighed. "I was hoping you'd take a little longer to notice them. Those mouths are a kekkei genkai, a ability unique to clans. They are something only people with DNA like yours can use. You can't eat food with them, as they're not connected to your stomach, and you can't talk with them, as they have no vocal chords, or connections with the lung."

Naruto stared at his hands. "What do they do?"

Karin coughed. "We're not entirely sure yet. What we do know for certain is that you can animate clay into moving figures that explode with a great force by letting your hands chew it. What we don't know is if you're restricted to clay or can use anything of the nature, like mud."

Naruto looked at his hands. "So one of my parents had these two?"

Kabuto and Karin glanced at each other. "Maybe. We honestly have no idea, but it's possible." It was. They just didn't say how likely it was.

Naruto nodded. "Okay. Since I seem to have little choice either way, let's start."

Karin nodded, waved him closer to the table with the scrolls, and they started.

The next weeks passed quickly for Kabuto and Karin. Naruto was a amazing student if you could answer his questions. He only needed something explained once to memorize it, and his imagination was almost scary. Not only could he come up with ingenious and crazy plans, but he could picture things to a mind-baffling degree, as he only needed to look at the pieces for a minute to put a thousand-piece puzzle together, without making a single mistake or a moment's hesitation. Teaching Naruto kanji had also been much easier than Karin had feared, and from the way they were going through the scrolls, he'd probably knew enough to become a mediocre doctor in a few weeks. Forming chakra-strings had taken a week, but now the boy could instantly summon them.

They had also found time to test out Deidara's bloodline. It turned out that Naruto could use any type of earth in a at least semi-liquid state as explosives, even wet sand worked. But it couldn't be dry dirt, and there was some sort of order for the effectiveness of the explosives. Deidara's clay worked best, seeing that it was of a high quality. Clay in general seemed to be the most effective material for the bombs, while mud and wet dirt were not as good.

Orochimaru had been patient, understanding that rushing the puppeteering without Naruto being able to understand what he was supposed to do would be a waste of time and effort. Also, the room where Naruto would train puppetry had to be prepared, and the corpses of mid-class shinobi that had been gathered for human-puppets had been sealed into scrolls, then organized according to their elemental-affinity. They couldn't gather corpses of high ranking, as the villages might have thrown a fit if high-class shinobi vanished.

Now it was time to teach Naruto puppeteering, before he would receive Itachi's sample. Who knew, the Sharingan might actually make it easier for the boy. They had prepared a training-room for Naruto, and already used the trusted narcotics to knock him out. Now all they had to do was wait.

Naruto woke up with a small headache. He looked around to find himself in a new room. He was laying in a new pile of hay, but beside that, the room was different. It seemed colder, and instead of a table where Kabuto and Karin were waiting for him, he saw a large workbench filled with parts of puppets and other materials. On the other side, there seemed to be a table for operations including scalpels and other medical instruments. There were a few medical-scrolls and one that said human-puppetry. The opposite wall was another set of bars, but there was an opening. Not big enough to slip through, but his arms would fit through. Behind the bars, there was a man-sized puppet laying on the floor, while to the far wall Naruto could see a table with food and a jug on a stone basin filled with water, everything far beyond his reach. He immediately understood that if he wanted to eat and drink, he had to make the puppet get it for him.

He immediately extended chakra-strings to the puppet, only to see them bounce off an invisible barrier inside the opening. "What the hell?" he muttered. Had he been wrong? No, it made sense. Perhaps the barrier had been made to prevent Naruto from cheating, like assembling a long straw for water or something like that. He approached the opening and reached for it. Nothing happened, so Naruto stuck his arms in the opening and tried again. This time, the strings connected to the puppet without a problem.

The problem came afterwords, when Naruto suddenly realized that he didn't know how to control the puppet! But there was only one way he'd get it, and that was trial and error. Naruto already felt that his throat was dry. He head probably been unconscious for hours before he woke up here. He needed water. He moved each finger to see what it did, then he tried different combinations. The puppet twitched like mad, but there was no control whatsoever. This would take a while.

Kabuto and Karin looked into one of Orochimaru's observation-monitors. It had almost been two days, but Naruto had succeeded in moving the puppet to supply himself with food and water. And to their satisfaction, after he had eaten and drunk, Naruto continued to tinker with the puppet. They would inject Itachi's sample into him soon, and the better the boy was with the puppets, the better he'd get in the future. Right now, the puppet was almost as agile as a normal civilian, just a little stiff. They'd also need the downtime to redecorate the training chamber for puppeteering. They had developed a clever schedule that would turn Naruto into a puppeteer that even Sasori would respect. Right now they were working with him on multiple levels. The room where they taught him to read and the room where he worked with puppets were connected through a tunnel, so that Naruto could work on reading with them, and on puppets in the other room. Soon Naruto would build his first human-puppet.

Naruto's next awakening was less pleasant than the former ones. He had an itch in his eyes, and his vision seemed to have changed again. He could still see the weird haze around himself, but now he also saw things much clearer than before, especially movement. Unknown to him, three tomoe were around his pupil, and a few shadows seemed to be in some rings. He saw that he was in the puppet-room again, but this time, there was a note. He opened it.

You will build your own puppet this time. The materials are on the workbench, together with instructions. The difficulty of your task has been upped. You will also repair any damages to the puppet.

That was it. No introduction, no signature, just these instructions. But Naruto knew that he had little choice, and turned to the workbench. The instructions were clear and easy to read, but it was still a exhausting and strenuous job, and Naruto often scraped his skin, cut himself, pulled splinters out of his skin and squashed a finger. And the wood he was working on already had the basic shape of a puppet, only requiring few modifications.

When Naruto finally succeeded, he decided to test the puppet in here before sending it into a situation where it might get destroyed. He was slowly getting the hang of it, and after a few hours, he could move it fluently, so that without the wooden clacking, a onlooker would have sworn that it was not a puppet, but a good genin that was moving around. Naruto had also noticed that he could get the puppets to float, and tried to improve on that, although it could still use a lot of work. But by now, he was hungry and with working and training, he had sweat out precious liquid.

The bars now had another opening through which Naruto could push the puppet, but this one seemed to be the opposite of the one he stuck his hands trough. When he touched the empty space, the barrier had come to life and burned his fingertips. It had healed after a few seconds, but it still hurt. Naruto learned from it and pushed the puppet as far as it went without risking contact with the invisible barrier, then he stuck his hands through the the upper opening and used chakra-strings to pull the puppet completely to the other side before making it stand up.

Now he looked at the room and noticed that it was now much larger. Also, there seemed to be a number of dark corners out of which traps could shoot. Naruto carefully moved the puppet towards the desperately needed water, waiting for a ambush, but it seemed that whoever was controlling the traps was willing to give him one free shot to get at least some of the needed nourishment before they got serious. Naruto made the puppet grab water and a slice of bread before making it go back. Again it got to him without a scratch and handed him water and food. But when Naruto sent the puppet for more, the traps sprang into action.

A guillotine-like blade dropped from the ceiling and Naruto only barely managed to get the puppet back in time to save it being chopped in half. As soon as he tried to use the opportunity that the blade was down, spikes shot out of the floor, grazing the puppet.

Naruto's brow twitched. A single thought was going through his head. 'After all the blood, sweat and tears I put in that puppet, you are so not going to just TRASH IT!'

His hand's motions became furious as the puppet started to dance around the numerous traps that sprung. In his furious focus he didn't even consciously notice when he took one chakra-string off his puppet and glued it to a bladed boomerang that was headed for the puppet to make it veer off course with a twitch.

Kabuto and Karin on the other hand didn't miss it. Karin looked at Kabuto. "Should we start with multiple puppets?"

Kabuto frowned. He would have liked to get the entire puppeteering-thing over with quickly, since Orochimaru had finally agreed to let Naruto train his other bloodlines once that was mastered, but he had also made it clear that he felt no need to go deeply into normal puppeteering, as human-puppets were all he was really interested in. "No. Orochimaru-sama has little interest in normal puppetry, so we'll allow him to improve on using a puppet, and since he started writing down ideas for stuff to hide in puppets, we'll let him improve on that was well. Then we'll have him create human-puppets, learn to use them and their affinities. Once that's done, he'll learn how to control more than one of them at the same time. Two at first, with identical traps, then with individual traps that will force Naruto to split his attention. Once that's done, we'll increase the number of puppets until he can control ten at the same time. Then, as Orochimaru-sama instructed, he'll learn how to move while controlling his puppets."

Karin looked. "Let me guess. He'll learn the hard way?"

Kabuto shrugged. "Unless you have a better idea."

Karin sighed. "No, not really."

Naruto looked around. He was in the room for puppeteering, but things had changed. The connection to the other room was blocked, and his puppet was missing. There were materials for a puppet, but something was off. The operating-table seemed to be polished, the medical instruments more numerous and a number of of other devices of unknown function standing around it. On the workbench, there was a small stack of scrolls, and another note. He opened it.

Again, you have what you need. To understand what you're supposed to do, read the scroll labeled 'Human-puppets.' The traps have been deactivated while you get used to the new puppet. Also, you have one gallon of water, a small loaf of bread and three fruits as provisions for the time during the making of the puppet.

Naruto frowned. What the hell was this supposed to mean? He knew about sealed objects, Kabuto had told and even showed him, but what could be in those scrolls that was different from what had been on the workbench beforehand?

He decided to go for the scroll with the instructions first. He grabbed it, opened it and began to read.

His eyes wandered down the lines, his face growing paler the further he read. After ten minutes, he was pale as a ghost, but he had read the entire scroll. He grabbed one of the scrolls on the workbench, unrolled it on the operating-table and unsealed what it held. He was not surprised to see a human body laying on the table before him, although he was shocked to see that the body looked to have been barely sixteen. Dark skin and long black hair was spread around his head like a black halo. Naruto resealed the corpse, tears in his eyes. All the strange devices suddenly gained function for Naruto.

That one drained the body of blood and other liquids. That one made skinning the body easier. That thing was a special bone-saw for the skull. The scalpels were so that he could remove the innards and replace it with the materials for a puppet. Everything made perfect sense in a very sick way, even why he learned reading with medical texts. Thanks to the scroll and his lessons, he knew exactly what to do to make a human-puppet. The only thing he was lacking was practice, which was probably the reason there were so many scrolls. In case he didn't get it right, he would have more to work on.

Naruto slumped together next to the operating-table, leaning against the wall for support while he buried his face in his hands. What was he supposed to do now? They wanted him to cut up this boy, who he had never seen before, to gore him, to desecrate the corpse by skinning it, bleeding it dry and removing what had given this human life, and make him a tool. Everything inside of Naruto refused to do it, but he knew that he would eventually have no choice if he wanted to live. Still, right now, Naruto just didn't have the strength.

"How's he doing?" Kabuto asked without looking up from his book. He was studying some plans for the near future.

Karin looked up from her medical texts to glance at the screen. "Still no change. He's just sitting next to the table, staring into blank space. He should get started soon, he ran out of provisions a day ago."

Naruto had been in there for almost four days now. On occasions, he had stood up, ate, looked at the instructions for making a human-puppet, taken some instruments into his hands or stared at the scrolls with the bodies. But he had not done anything. Yet.

But they knew it wouldn't be long until the boy caved into thirst. The fact that water flowed into the chalice making soft noise that would be maddening in the silence of the chamber was wearing the thirsty boy down quickly.

And indeed, Karin saw that Naruto had grabbed a scroll and placed the corpse on the operating-table. He checked the instructions again, before moving to attach the dehydrator to the body. Then he grabbed a scalping-knife and some other gimmicks for removing skin they had supplied him with.

Naruto gulped. He didn't want to do it, but the thirst was killing him. And the corpse wouldn't care what happened with it, since Naruto doubted whoever was pulling the strings in the background would just bury them if he refused to do it and died. That was the main reason he moved to turn the corpse into a puppet, he simply didn't want to die.

It was the same boy he had unsealed before. When he touched the dead boy's head, he blinked in shock. He had just flashed through a number of images, gaining knowledge about this poor soul. This boy, his name was Kira, he was, or had been, a low-chunin of Kumo. His dream had been to become the strongest and best Raiton-user in the world. He knew a few Raiton and chakra-control-exercises, but besides that, Naruto didn't get much else. Only that the boy had died from a senbon, probably poisoned, to the neck, dying alone without even getting close to fulfilling his dream. 'What the hell was that?' He mentally asked himself.

Now that Naruto knew something about who he was going to gut it was much harder to do this, but after a moment's hesitation, Naruto gulped and started peeling off the skin. He felt sick and knew that a part of him had just died.

Kabuto whistled, impressed with the boy. He had managed to keep his stomach's content, albeit barely, and was making pretty good progress. Of course Kabuto couldn't see all the details of what was happening, but what he saw made him believe that Naruto seemed determined to get it right on his first try. Probably for some sense of duty to ensure the boy didn't die in vain or something, but if it motivated Naruto, who was he to complain?

After another hour, Naruto was done. The first human-puppet the boy had ever made was laying before him. In a fit of inspiration, Naruto had done some things that weren't written in the scroll, just to see if it worked. He extended the strings and Kira moved. It was a bit different than a normal puppet, but Naruto could move him and would probably quickly learn to master using him. He gently pushed it through the lower opening and made it get him food and water. Then the puppet returned to him, and Naruto fell asleep, dead tired.

The further training had gone extremely well, Naruto mastering making the puppet use elemental and non-elemental jutsu quicker than Kabuto would have dreamed.

Of course he didn't know that was mainly due to the fact that Naruto had seen how to create and use elemental-chakra and jutsu, although he never showed any jutsu, since he knew he was being watched.

They had given him orders to make more puppets, until he had ten, two of each element. His second Lightning-puppet was a woman who could have been Kira's sister, although they weren't related. Her body had begun to change, puberty finally taking hold on her when her life had ended, giving her a curvier body with B-C-cup breasts. Naruto had been embarrassed to look at her naked body, but it was not like she could mind. The girl, whose name happened to be Akira, had been stronger than Kira, though not by much.

His Earth-puppets were both male. One was a redhead in his late thirties named Heiji while the other one, Domon, looked to be at least eighty, with gray hair and a long beard. The old one was actually a former hunter-nin from Iwa that had retired and left the village, so he was particularly strong.

His Fire-puppets, a man and a woman, both in their late twenties, were from an unknown village that was equal to the Uchiha when it came to Katon and known for the green hair of its inhabitants. Since they were both nuke-nin, there was little risk that someone would look for Kaira and Homura.

Kazemaru and Fuuka, his Wind-puppets, had been twins, and the only way to tell them apart if you didn't see their figures would be that the brown hair on Fuuka's head was longer than Kazemaru's.

His first water-puppet, a roughly twenty-five year old woman with long blue hair, was nothing special, a ordinary chunin from Kiri, although she was as strong as a low-ranking jonin. Her name had been Suiumi. But the second one was out of the ordinary. It was the first bloodline-puppet Naruto had ever made. It was also one of the hardest things he had ever done, since the boy was even younger than him, only seven.

Suiyoukito had been born with the Futton-kekkei genkai, also known as Boil-release. As a result, he had been born by parents who had fled from the bloodline-purges and went into hiding. Eventually, the father and his innocent, bloodlineless wife had been found and beaten to death, giving their last gesture of love by not saying a word of Suiyoukito's hiding-place. A pale man that had called himself Orochimaru had approached the boy, asking him to join, but Suiyouki had refused. The man, obviously angered, had poisoned him and tried to force him to join. Suiyouki had refused to the end and died of the poisoning.

For the first time, Naruto saw who was holding him captive. This pale man with the creepy laugh and very short patience. He had never believed that he was just being trained for charity's sake, but now he started to worry what these people had planned for him. He was also starting to doubt that his shifts in vision and other irregularities he had noticed were of a natural cause. But for now, he could only play along.

And play along he did. He had managed to retain Suiyoukito's kekkei genkai, and had been forced to learn how to operate multiple puppets at the same time. At first, he had to control two puppets, one with each hand. The traps had been identical in the beginning, but had changed quickly, forcing Naruto to split his attention on multiple things. Then he had been ordered to control the puppet with less strings, and with time, he had been forced to operate ten puppets independent from each other, and all at the same time. It had taken a week until he had somewhat mastered that, and then they increased the difficulty again. Now he not only had to control ten puppets, which was no longer possible through the wall, leading to him standing in a chakra-construct hanging from the ceiling, but he also had to make sure that he stayed okay. Spikes and rocks shot out of the ceiling at random intervals, weapons shot at his puppets were actually aimed at him, pointy objects targeted him from his blind-spots... it was hell.

The short breaks were better, Karin gave him a scroll in which he could seal all ten puppets, while Kabuto had tattooed a number of blank seals on his arms and chest, saying he would probably soon need them.

And indeed, not even a week later, there was another set with instructions. These simply stated that sealed inside of three scrolls were corpses he was supposed to turn into puppets, and that he should make them his masterpieces.

Naruto noticed that the materials he was given were of a very high quality, and decided to see who was worth all the effort. He unsealed the first scroll, revealing an unknown corpse of a man wearing a gas-mask of sorts. Naruto touched the man's forehead, something that had become a ritual of sorts, and nearly screamed in surprise as the images made their way into Naruto' head.

He received a flood of information. He saw a country, hidden beneath a near-permanent rain. He saw strategies, jutsu, and lizard-like creatures that were called by a few handsigns and a small offering in blood. He saw three people, one of them a younger Orochimaru, fighting him and getting beaten badly. He saw a man with is right eye bandaged, and how they shook hands. The man was wearing a Konoha-insigna, and another one Naruto had noticed on some of the masks of people tailing him. Then there were images of looking down on a small group, but three people seemed in focus. One of them, a woman named Konan, was captured, and if one of the two boys didn't die, the girl would. The spiky-headed one, Yahiku jumped at his friend Nagato and was killed, just as the he had planned. Then the other one tried to attack, but explosive-tags rose from the ground, stuck to his legs and detonated. Those legs would be useless. Just as the troops were about to finish the boy off, something strange happened. A snake-like chakra-construct with a dragon's head shot out and killed the troops. The bandaged man and the man with the gas-mask retreated, and the last image received from that scene were the boy's eyes. They were of a metallic gray, and had many ripples. A few unimportant scenes flashed by, then he saw the boy that had been killed, together with five others. All had those rippled eyes, and they fought as one. Each one had special abilities, and eventually they overwhelmed the man. The woman that had once been a prisoner watched from above, with angel-wings made of what looked like paper. The girl seemed to be made of paper. Then there was a black skewer, a sharp pain, then nothing. Only one sentence still echoed.

"Hanzo, you have suffered the fate of all mortals. Pein, the god of Ame has judged you and found you unworthy of redemption. Take this pain to your next life, so that you may grow from it."

Naruto looked at the body. This man had been a amazing shinobi, and he had had some pretty big enemies as well. He wondered how Orochimaru had gotten the body, as the man, Hanzo, was obviously stronger than him. Then again, he wouldn't get an answer, but he would go hungry or be punished. Punishment was a system that had recently been added. Essentially, when he tried to break out, or just destroy stuff so that he couldn't do it, he was hit by lightning, which usually left him on the floor, twitching and in agony for ten minutes before he managed to get up, or other nasty ways of inflicting pain on him. So Naruto turned Hanzo into a puppet, then discreetly using the puppet to unseal a scroll that had been hidden in the man's skin, only to seal it into one of the seals Kabuto had put on him. The Hanzo-puppet was also sealed away in his body, and Naruto turned to the second scroll and unsealed it.

He jumped back, tripped and landed on his back when he saw who was laying on the table. Either the Shodaime had a lookalike, or he was laying on Naruto's table. Naruto was hyperventilating. Why the hell was the Shodaime laying on the table?! Naruto resealed him and grabbed the last scroll, just to see if his suspicion was correct. It was. In front of him laid the Nidaime. Naruto resealed him and collapsed sobbing. Making human-puppets out of strangers had torn him apart, and now they wanted him to desecrate two of the people he had admired. Why him? Why did they do this to him? Hadn't he suffered enough already?

He grabbed a clean scalpel and played around with it, then cutting his wrist. To his shock, instead of blood, he saw brownish gray flesh, that suddenly grew black strings and mended his skin together. As soon as the skin was reconnected, a section of Naruto's arm turned into a sheet of paper, covered the stitch and returned to normal skin. Not a trace of the cut had remained, and Naruto was sure that he had seen the brown flesh mend together by itself. He stared at his arm, then at the still-clean scalpel. That was when he noticed another irregularity.

He was holding the small blade so that its wide side was facing him, and he saw his reflection. The face was still the same, although a bit thinner with slightly colder features. But what shocked him were his eyes. They were rippled, just like Nagato's and later Yahiko's. Did that mean they were related? His skin had turned to paper, just like that woman's, so perhaps those people were his parents? But then, why did he have mouths on his hands, as they were in Ame, while the people who had mouths like him lived in Iwa, according to Kabuto. Well, the nations were bordering on each other, so it wasn't impossible for a crossbreed to exist, but none of the people he saw had anything unusual on his hands. So they weren't his parents. Then Naruto noticed that his eyes were different from Nagato's. There were three tomoe around his pupil, something that neither Nagato nor Yahiko, if it really was him, had possessed. It reminded him of what the people in that walled section of Konoha had, when their eyes turned red.

He knew because he had once landed there by accident, and was brutally beaten, then left to die while anyone who passed him would give him another kick. He probably would have died there, if not for one woman and her two children, a boy and a girl, who had smuggled him out of the compound. He had never learned his saviors' names.

What was going on? Naruto's mind finally provided him the answer. He was an experiment. He had been one before, when a group of people had kidnapped him and operated on him, giving him shots and forcing him to eat things that were clearly not good for him, so he was no stranger to the feeling of being experimented on. The gray flesh, the mouths, the eyes, the strings and the paper, none of that was his. It was something they had done to him. And now that Naruto realized it, he suddenly ghost-pain of maddening intensity. He was physically remembering what his body had went through, and it was hell.

They had probably given him something from a genius in puppetry as well, but Naruto could still call it his achievement, since those skills were earned, not inherited. Everything he had believed, all his hopes of having a family somewhere, it was all crushed. And as pathetic as it was, he couldn't even end his misery. He slowly rose, gave a short prayer to the Hokage for what he was about to do. If he wanted to talk to Kabuto and Karin, he had to finish the given task.

Chapter 3 is complete. It took a while, but it's done. Not that much to say, but the workload for school is steadily increasing, which leaves me grateful that I still have any time to write.

Not much I have to say right now, I made Naruto learn quickly in order to not drag the parts that will make one loose interest if stretched too long. Also, Sasori's DNA had to have some effects, which turned out to be increased mental capabilities, increased dexterity and a great talent for puppeteering. He will receive the last samples next chapter, and by then I'll have decided if and how he makes his escape. And Naruto will not receive any elemental-kekkei genkai, Orochimaru thinks it'll be more efficient to just allow Naruto to turn them into puppets.

One thing I forgot to mention, while I have not decided on any pairings, I don't do yaoi. Ever. Issue closed. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against homosexuality, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Oh yeah, and what do you think of the puppets?

I usually don't do this stuff, but I'll go into the Naruto-canon story just this once. WHAT THE FUCK?! Danzo's entire arm is covered in Sharingans? I know they're useful, but that's just too much! And while I admit that would have been the last thing I suspected the arm to be, I already guessed that there was something off about Shisui's Sharingan, or to be more precise, its location on Danzo's head. It just seemed a little too high, and the placement of the eye-socket would have to be more to the side of the head than normal for humans to be able to have iris and pupil in the middle of the eye, not in the corner where is should be. I thought that was an optical illusion, my imagination or a mistake in the picture, but now I'm starting to wonder if those bandages really only hide one eye.

Now onto the reviews.

To Gallantmon the Hazard: Indeed, the interaction between the council and Naruto will be memorable. As for Kyuubi, I have some plans, but that's a story for another time.

To Disciple-of-Godric: As I wrote, at first no. however, Naruto's mutation/evolution has yet to reach its end.

To crazymexican: I said it before, I'll say it again, I have made no decision regarding pairings yet, although harems can be fun to read, so it's possible.

To RavenNightwish: Karin's sensory skills are not a bloodline, and Naruto will gain that skill, from Zetsu. He has to have it, how else is he able to appear at just the places he wants to with the people he's looking for. And Naruto already has better healing than Kabuto, it's even better than Juugo's, who I'd like to remind survived the Raikage's hit to the heart and was feeling good enough to laugh madly and attempt a counterattack. I publicly answered your question about the Shodaime, as I don't want to tell it three times since most people don't read the replies not addressed to them. As for pairings, read the reply above.

To c im a dragon: Immortal is a very relative term, let me put it this way, he can't be killed by ordinary means. As for agelessness, I haven't decided yet.

To JNottle: It's possible, we'll see when they meet, won't we?

To noshadowone: Naruto won't have Guren's bloodline, as I stated above, Orochimaru intends to make puppets out of people with abilities like those, as he himself isn't sure just how much manipulation his body can take, Kyuubi or no Kyuubi. And about pairings, I have made no decision whatsoever, so it is completely possible that the pairing will end up to be one or more of the girls you mentioned. And who said that it was immortal love at first sight with Hinata, personally I see it as a crush, which can or can not be exploited and turn into a real relationship.

To Hakkyo no Yami: He will be cheery at times, dark at others, and react very violently to... certain things. As for Konoha, he'll hold it in some disdain, that's all I decided on by now. Ask me next chapter, I'll have the answers by then.

To ^ ^: First of all, yes there will be a few abilities influencing each other, and as for the end or your review, yes I can, the first thing that comes to mind is still the Hachibi.

To Kazua: I know it seems a little rushed, but if there is no progress, it gets boring. As for teaching Naruto to write, why bother? Orochimaru knows how to write, and its not like Naruto has anyone to write letters to.

To Darksnider05: Even if I decide to start canon the next few chapters, I really don't see the problem. I personally see the entire series before Shippuuden as shaping a personality, and with Zetsu's powers, it's not that hard to travel to distant places quickly even if I'd start canon.

For now that's all, so

Please Review