Finally had the time to write! So once more sorry for the massive cliffhanger! Hope the wait was worth it.

Enjoy!

The world around him stopped for a second and he could almost hear the clicks in his head as the pieces of the puzzle came together.

"Kugutsu Henshin." The name slipped out of Kakashi's mouth in a mere whisper.

A smile spread on all of their faces, crooked smile, almost identical on all of them. "It's nice to be recognized for once."

Bingo book entry number 25, Kugutsu Henshin, presumably male, age unknown, also known as the Human Puppeteer. No photo or description. No known affiliates. Wanted for stealing secrets, scrolls, unique treasures and multiple murders. S-class criminal, use extreme caution. Method/jutsu unknown.

Kakashi's mind went over every little piece and scrap of knowledge he had on this missing-nin. Problem was that nothing else then what is in the bingo book is known about this person. Not even rumors are spread about him as not many lived to tell the tale.

"The vault is still closed. I really hate repeating myself." Again everyone spoke up in chorus.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw Sakura bring her own hand up to her neck pressing a sharp kunai into the tender white flesh. How is this..? When did he get to her? He watched as drops of blood trickled down the blade and her pale hand and onto the ground from the wound that appeared on her neck.

"K-k-ka-kashi." Sakura's voice came out strangled, her eyes wide and looking straight at him and her mouth still open as if to say something but was abruptly shut as if someone shut it for her.

"She is a feisty one, isn't she. Do you know what the best part is when I find new play toys? The moment they break, and the more they fight the bigger the snap." The chorus spoke up. He could see Sakura's mouth move but no sound came out this time.

Kakashi moved closer to the vault, his mind trying to make contact with Ino while he tried to look busy with opening the damned thing.

"Are you here Ino? Can you hear me? Ino?"

"Stop shouting. I can hear you. What the hell is going on?" Came Ino's reply.

"It's Kugutsu Henshin, the human puppeteer."

"The what?"

"Ino, please concentrate. One of them is not who he seems. You need to find which one it is. Who is controlling the others."

Kakashi moved to the sealed door, examining it, trying to find a way how to stall time.

"Ino? Anything?"

"I don't know. I can't tell. They have the same thoughts, all of them. Maybe if you could make them talk? There should be some delay between his thoughts and the others if he is controlling them."

"How did you find out about the vault?" Asked Kakashi, hoping the bad-villain-explanation would come, helping Ino to pinpoint the puppeteer.

"You know, here and there. I knew there were some treasures hidden in this place but when I found out that you of all people are connected to this family? Well that was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Wouldn't you say? Kakashi Hatake, the great copy ninja and his hidden vault. We are going to have a lot of fun together once this shit place is behind us. I will really enjoy being the famous Copy ninja, I can just imagine how many secrets are stored in that head of yours and back at Konoha. And there are also some side perks, such as this lovely pinky here. We will have tons of fun."

Chills ran up and down Kakashi's spine as he watched Sakura's other hand move down her curves and back up to squeeze one of her breasts. The thought of his body being kidnapped by some creep was bad enough but to use it to… rape Sakura? He felt sick to his stomach. Was she under his influence even before? No, I have to stop thinking like this. This doesn't help anyone, least of all Sakura. But isn't that like having sex with himself..twice..in two bodies? Kakashi mentally slapped himself as this train of thought really didn't lead anywhere he would never ever want to go.

"Kakashi! I think I know who it is. The old hag!" Ino interrupted his train of thought.

"Can you use Shintenshin no Jutsu?"

"Hope it works, this is going to be disgusting. Old people are awful and-…"

"INO! Not now." Kakashi had to chastise her to stop her complaining and get her head in the game.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it."

Ino took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Old people just crept her out and being inside one's body was even worse. I will need to shower at least five times to get rid of the smell. Not that it helped but it made her feel less old and more herself. She was hiding in the shadows just outside the light the lanterns cast. She moved quietly to a better position so she would have a better view of the puppet master.

She made the needed hand sign and said in the merest whisper "Shintenshin no Jutsu." Her mind left her body and flew through the room and into the old lady's body. For a second she could not make sense of anything. She had more sets of eyes and hands and mouths and everyone was trying think and shout and move. It was overwhelming, the contact with the other people, their minds struggling against hers. She had to admire the mental strength of the puppet master, to be able to control so many people at once was just insanely hard. The amount of concentration one would have to have to do this was staggering.

On the outside all of the gathered people shook as if a cramp took over their muscles. Ino tried to shut out the other minds from hers, to somehow release them. She concentrated to sort them out and to shut them out one by one and one by one they dropped the knives to the ground released from her hold. The second she shut the last mind out she crumbled to the ground in the body of the old woman. She could not control it properly. It took her a few moments to realize what was happening. The body was degenerating for no better word to describe the feeling. It felt as an old person's body does, stiff, old and tired but there was something else. The body was almost dead, the smell of rot was not full-blown but she could smell it under the sweet perfume as if some parts of the body were rotting away.

While Ino was struggling to keep the body under control, the other's free of their evil keeper's commands left the knives lying on the ground and started scratching behind their ears as if trying to get rid of something.

At the same time Ino had to concentrate really hard just to keep breathing and to keep from throwing up. This was like nothing she experienced before and she knew there was probably no body worse she could enter in her life. She concentrated all her will on signaling Kakashi that she had the villain's body under control when suddenly her concentration was broken, just for a split second by one sentence.

"Mochi, what is going on here?" All heads turned to the middle aged person that entered the cave with a backpack on his back and dirt on his shoes from travel.

Ino's mind entered her own body almost painfully fast, she took a deep breath as if coming out from under the water. She felt as if a train had just hit her mind, throwing her back into her own body. The puppeteer used a millisecond of her weakened concentration to pull her out of the old body and back into hers. She had to take more than few deep breaths just to stop the vomit coming out of her. The world just kept spinning around and smelling of rot.

Kakashi was quick, but not quick enough for the Kugutsu who grabbed the fallen kunai and pressed it to Sakura's neck and backed away from the others.

"Everyone step back or she will be a tad bit shorter. Now open the vault and give me the treasures so I can get out of this dying meatsack and into the nice Hatake here."

"What treasures? What is going on here? Baa-chan?" demanded the new arrived man.

"Father? What are you doing here? Where have you been? We have been looking for you for more than a year. Mother is still looking for you. And please don't call me Mochi!" Asked the now free Sabaku.

"It's your name, Mochi. You should be proud of it. What else should I be calling you? And I got here as soon as I could. Do you know how many restaurants have Yakitori on their menu? I could not just pass that kind of research opportunity.."

"HEY! Stop ignoring my demands! I don't care about food or names! I want that vault opened and the gold and the scrolls in my hands NOW!" Screamed almost hysterical Kugutsu.

Mochi and apparently his father continued to ignore his demands as if he wasn't even there. "You were researching this whole time? What about your family? You could have sent a message at least to let us know you're alive!" Sabaku lashed out at his father.

"I was a bit confused the first few months, but I can tell you about that later. Why is Oba-chan holding a knife to the girl over there?" Continued the clueless visitor. "Oba-chan. You know well that there is no gold in there."

"Then what is there? Secret scrolls?" Henshin almost salivated at the idea of the secrets that the vault held. Finally there was someone who seemed to know about what is in the vault.

"Of course there are scrolls. The secret recipes and techniques of our clan. I just brought a new addition to the vault. We finally have it!" Beamed the newcomer, his eyes and teeth producing Gai-like glimmers. He fumbled a bit in his clothes and presented a scroll, holding it in his hands as with utmost delicacy. "The recipe for the perfect Traditional Miso Soup."

During all this the jaw of the S-class criminal was dropping lower and lower and it finally hit the ground upon the hearing of the name of the scroll. He brought it back up to the rest of his face and asked dumbfounded.

"You…the vault… recipes… no jutsu scrolls.. no gold. It's a gigantic COOK BOOK?" his voice was rising by each word and he was screaming when he got to the last sentence, forgetting all about his hostage and flapping his hands wildly from the newcomer to the vault, to himself and back. "The last six months in this dying old hag were for NOTHING?"

In his distraction the puppeteer didn't notice a hand coming out of the ground and grabbing him by the ankle. Kakashi jumped out of the ground, leaving Kugutsu Henshin buried neck deep into the ground using the Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu. Quickly trapping his mind into a nice genjutsu. Kakashi stood up and looked around to see if everyone was alright.

"What?" Asked confused Kakashi as he looked on the facepalms the majority of the people around him were sporting. In that moment his clone standing by the vault made a puffing sound and all the information about what has happened since he sent him off from Ino's room came to him.

"Oh." He almost felt sorry for the puppeteer. Almost.

Ino finally came to herself and with revenge in her eyes she set forth to pound the living daylights from the buried man, or Kakashi. She hasn't decided yet who was responsible more for this nightmare of an experience.

Seeing her approach and feeling the killing intent Kakashi moved out of the way to let her pound the villain rather than him. He moved to Sakura to make sure if she was alright but she wasn't moving, just standing there frozen to the spot. She seemed to be still under the influence of the puppeteer. Looking around he saw that everyone else was moving and talking and moving and seemed alright.

"Ino? Quit hitting the dead old lady and come here. Sakura is still out. "

Ino actually managed to give him only one slap before Kakashi stopped her.

"What? Oh yeah, there seems to be some kind of bug that is constantly pouring his chakra into the puppets to make them easier to control. Should be somewhere on the head." Ino managed to sort at least some of the information she gained access to while she was in that creeps head.

Kakashi remembered that the others were scratching behind their ears in the moment Ino took over the controlling body. Quickly checking he found a small red bug hiding behind Sakura's left ear. Safety first, he took out a kunai and removed the insect with its tip and squished it on the nearby stone wall.

"FUCKING BASTARD LET ME MOVE!" screamed Sakura as she finally moved from her frozen position with wild eyes and hatrered pouring out of every word. "Sorry. That just needed to go out."

Kakashi looked her in the eyes and knowing he was asking if she was alright she nodded her head and smiled a tired smile. A huge knot that was tied around his stomach loosened itself as he embraced her and placed a masked kiss on top of her head.

"Soooo.. " voice echoed in the now silent room "what is going on here exactly?" Asked once more the middle aged man.

Little explanation of names:

Mochi - is the real name of Sabaku. Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. It's really good so if you haven't tried it yet TRY it :D

Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu - English translation Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique.

Shintenshin no Jutsu - English translation Mind Body Switch Technique

Kugutsu - puppet

Henshin - transformation, metamorphosis (if the translations don't lie :D)

Hope you enjoyed! Will update soon hopefully! There are still some unexplained things but don't worry, all will be explained in the next chapter. It's still not the end and we will get back to Sakura and Kakashi goodness!

Let me know what you thought about the chapter and if you have any questions feel free to review or send me a note! I don't bite :)