Still don't own Naruto
Chapter 91 The Puppet Master
"Hey wait up!" Naruto called as he chased after Sara.
"Why? Aren't you some big and strong ninja, I'm sure you can keep up with me" Sara yelled back not slowing down.
"Gah fine!" Naruto yelled back and moved to catch up to the queen of Rouran.
Much to the ire of Naruto this was the point that Sara began to slow down. It was at that point the three Konoha ninja showed themselves again. Naruto stopped, but Sara didn't.
'Aw man, this is going to be a pain' Naruto thought hanging his head.
"Heh sorry, looks like you are going to have to catch up to her again. But I wanted to give you something just in case you fine Mukada first. Here it's one of my special kunai I made" Minato said handing Naruto one of this three pronged kunai.
"Well, thanks I guess, hm well seeing as you already know I am from the future... take one of mine as well, you never know you might even need my help" Naruto said whipping out one of his own special kunai and presenting it to his father.
"Impossible! How did you do this... you completely re worked the seal matrix and redesigned the seal as well so it would work for you" Minato said analyzing the kunai Naruto just gave him.
"Well it certainly wasn't easy, it took me years studying fuinjutsu to even be able to begin to copy and rework your seal, you are a genius after all" Naruto said.
"But to do this, how old are you?" Minato said still in shock.
"Sixteen, but it probably took me about fifty years to develop the seal with all the protections you had put on it" Naruto said.
"fifty years? What are you talking about?" Minato asked.
"You see I have a near endless supply of chakra so I train like this" Naruto said and seallessly filled the room with hundreds of shadow clones. "The all train in ninjutsu or fuinjutsu as well so I gain their experience when they dispel. I have some help when dealing with the fatigue, senjutsu helps as well" Naruto admitted but then realized he had once again said more than he should have.
"Senjutsu? So you must be a sage like Jiraiya sensei then" Minato said.
"Well yeah but I am a little better at balancing my chakra levels than he is, he still gets a bulbous nose" Naruto laughed.
"What about the webbed feet?" Minato chuckled.
"Nah he managed to fix that, took him awhile though and Fukusaku and Shima sensei really beat him good" Naruto said causing both Namikaze's to laugh at the misfortune of their sensei. "Look, I would love to stay and chat but I gotta go catch up to Sara, there's no telling what kind of danger she is in" Naruto said.
"Right we should also stop talking about anything involving the future, so we will split up, you look after the queen, and we will continue our search for Mukada. And if you need me, well you know what to do" Minato said and the three ninja from Konoha disappeared once more.
"Damn now I need to catch up to Sara again!" Naruto sighed before taking off in the direction she had gone.
Naruto couldn't find her so he began to climb up the side of a tower to get a better look around. 'Oh kami where did she go. Great I go and promise to protect her to my father and then I loose her straight away. Well there is no way I am letting that happen' Naruto thought as he entered sage mode and began searching for Sara's chakra signature.
'There she is' Naruto thought and pushed off to catch up to the queen before she ended up in danger.
Naruto jumped across to the building that he had sensed Sara in and moved up to the correct level. Coming to a large corridor with long class windows looking out upon the village Naruto entered sage mode once more to pinpoint Sara's location.
'Her chakra is disturbed, she must be in trouble, there is a group of people with her. I have to hurry they could be who ever is trying to kill her' Naruto thought as he busted open the door, kunai in one hand rasengan fully charged in the other.
"Get away from her, I wont let any of you harm Sara" Naruto yelled moving to stand defensively in front of the queen.
"Ahhh, don't kill us" said one of the hooded men in the voice of a scared child.
"What the?" Naruto asked, he couldn't believe a child would want to kill the the queen.
The lights turned on and the hoard of what had appeared to be dangerous bandits began showing their faces. It turned out they were nothing more than women and children who looked more frightened than Sara did.
"I'm sorry, we needed to ask for something from the princess" the boy that had screamed in surrender said.
"Yes you said you wanted me to return something, but I don't know what it was I am supposed to have taken" Sara admitted.
"Very well, come with us and we will explain" a pretty woman with long brown hair said.
"I don't see any harm in it. Don't worry Sara, I will make sure no harm comes to you" Naruto said.
"Very well, but it is getting dark" Sara said.
"We will try to not take up much of your time, please follow me" the woman said and turned to lead the group through a hidden passageway in the corner of the room.
They traveled downward for what felt like an eternity before leveling out. Then after a small trip on a flat surface they came to what appeared to me a man hole cover.
"Up there" the woman said.
"Alright" Naruto said and pushed open the man hole and came out to what appeared to be the town square where the crowd that had been cheering for Sara ealier on in the day had once again returned.
"It's safe" Naruto said and pulled Sara out of the hole, along with the boy and what Naruto had guessed was his mother.
"Wow, this is beautiful. This parade was started by Anrokuzan. It was to cheer and the people up from my mother's sudden death" Sara said happily as she enjoyed the bright colors of the parade.
"That's funny. Everyone makes fun of Sara-sama, calling you the puppet princess" the boy said.
"Idiot! Watch your tongue. I'm sorry Sara-sama. But there is some truth in what Sarai said. They all believe w=you were tricked into signing the order to have the men taken away to work creating puppets for Anrokuzan" the woman said.
"Really?" Naruto asked.
"That's a lie! I never signed anything like that!" Sara said in her defense.
"But it's true. My father and big brother were taken away" Sarai replied.
"There are rumors that there are weapons being made in the country for war, and not just the ones that Suna requests. So we got everyone together to beg Sara-sama directly to return our families and stop creating these tools of war, we want peace" the woman added
"This is the same as what the man in the mask said" Naruto spoke up.
"That's a lie! Then why do so many of the people welcome me so passionately?" Sara retorted angrily.
"There is nobody that is happen in Rouran" Sarai replied.
"Then why are there so many people here enjoying themselves!" Sara said pointing to the large crowd of cheering people.
"They're not alive" Naruto said darkly.
"Huh what are you talking about!" Sara asked.
"I noticed something before when I saved you, none of these people have a chakra signature. They are puppets, controlled by chakra strings, here I will show you" Naruto said and took out a tiny shuriken and tossed it up into the air.
The blades of the mini shuriken expanded with Fuuton chakra and cut through some invisible strings causing several of the members in the crowd to collapse.
Naruto then ran over to the crowd and picked up one of the fallen participants before returning it to Sara. "There, now you can see for yourself, it's a puppet. They all are. I'm so sorry Sara. But you need to see this" Naruto said.
Bending down Naruto began channeling chakra through the puppet on the ground and one string still attached to it began to glow making the existence of the chakra strings clear as day. All of them began to glow with Naruto's chakra. "These chakra strings are coming out of that pipe there!" Naruto said pointing to a large pipeline that ran over the square.
"The Power of the Ryuumyaku that feeds the city is flowing through that pipe" Sara said.
Suddenly there was the sound of a couple of horn's and movement up on the very same balcony that Sara fell from earlier that day. Coming out into view right before Sara's eyes was a puppet. But not just any puppet, it was a puppet of her.
"What's... That?" Sara said clearly shaken at the sight.
"Mukada wants to make you a puppet, too!" Naruto said.
"No. That's a lie! Anrokuzan would never do that!" Sara yelled before running off.
'Kami, some people cant accept the truth even when they are slapped in the face by it' Naruto thought. "Hey Sara... Come back, it's not safe to run off like that" he said casing after the queen.
Naruto eventually found her when he heard singing. "That's the same song you were singing when I fist saw you" Naruto said as he walked down a set of steps to where Sara was sitting against a glass window holding onto her knees.
"It's a song that my mother always sang. It was Anrokuzan who persuaded my mother to use the power of the Ryuumyaki for the sake of the people. With my mothers control of the power of the ryuumyaku and Anrokuzan's technology, Rouran grew into a city with over a thousand towers in no time. But mother died in the middle of fulfilling her wish. Anrokuzan was the only one with me by my side when she died. There was no one else" Sara said, trying to explain why she ran.
"I have no parents either, well technically at the moment I do, but lets not get into that. What I do have back where I come from is a master who is like a father, and a very bossy old woman who is like my mother. Jiraiya and Tsunade became my family. I have learned many important things from both of them. Mostly don't gamble and drink too much or I will end up like Tsunade-Baachan. And don't perv on women or you will get beaten up all the time like Jiraiya sensei. But because of them I was able to grow strong. You inherited something important from your mother, right?" Naruto said.
"Yes" Sara replied.
"Then think ab out what your mother valued. You should then know what to do. When ever I have a difficult decision to make I always think about what Jiraiya sensei would do in my situation, that's what guides me. But I tend not to let him guide me while I am around bath houses" Naruto said, finishing with a chuckle.
"You are right! I must first find out the truth about this city. The queens of this city have the ability to sense the flow of the Ryuumyaku. If I can confirm where the Ryuumyaku of that pipe is connected to, then... I should be able to find the relay where the puppets are being controlled" Sara said.
"Well the, what are we waiting for, lets go get Sarai and his mother and head there right away" Naruto suggested.
It was not difficult to find the relay point that was transmitting the Ryuumyaku flow. It was a massive circular tower where all of the pipes joined together.
"This is it, this exhaust tower is where the Ryuumyaku flow is coming from?" Naruto asked to make sure they had the right location.
"Yes, this is right place, I'm positive" Sara replied.
"Alright, Maybe you two should stay here? If we find your family, we'll definitely rescue them. So please wait here with your friends" Naruto said talking to Sarai and his mother.
"Really you will? Honest!" Sarai said.
"I swear on my honor as Queen!" Sara said, reassuring the boy as best she could.
Naruto then removed a mess man hole cover and the pair climbed down into what appeared to be an air vent while Sarai and his mother left them to rejoin their friends.
Crawling through the air vent Naruto removed an opening to allow them entrance into the main area. Naruto had to catch Sara when she fell as it was a long drop after all.
The room they landed in was full of smoke and was terribly hot. While most of the city had been clean and majestic, this area looked like it had been continuously swept under the rug for the past hundred years. Pipes ran all over the place and visibility was understandably poor.
Naruto and Sara crawled over to a ledge to look down at the main floor, and Sara was shocked by what she saw. There was the men of Rouran, guarded by a large puppet forced to work pushing a large wheel, with handles. They were each shackled by the ankles and had one arm chained to the machine. It was to put it simply impossible to escape unless they were a ninja.
"Look at that, they turn the wheel to operate the conveyor belts that build the puppet soldiers" Naruto said.
"I can't believe it! Anrokuzan kidnapped the citizens to create these soldiers" Sara said with wide eyes trembling in anger.
"What should we do?" Naruto asked.
"We need to stop this immediately!" Sara replied.
"Then let's get to work" Naruto said and quickly picking up Sara bridal style he humped down into the main floor still hidden in the shadows.
"There is a small opening just near the wall about half way to the other side of the room from us, I need to get to that. The Ryuumyaki can be stopped from there" Sara said.
"Alright follow closely, we don't want to be caught down here, and I have already had my fill of those damn puppets" Naruto said. He moved along the wall keeping to the shadows making sure Sara didn't fall behind by holding her hand. They arrived at what looked like a smal version of the eye in the pillar from when Naruto was first brought into the past.
"Please stand back" Sara said and she walked down a few steps and knelt beside the eye. "This is an order from the Queen, stop and control the flow of the Ryuumyaku" she chanted something Naruto couldn't understand and placed her hands on either side of the eye, small ripples of purple energy like the puppets had been using to fire at Naruto expanded out from the center which made Naruto hopeful that she was successful.
Suddenly the seal and eye disappeared and the machines in the factory seemed to shut down.
"That should do it. I've completely stopped the flow of the Ryuumyaku directed to the factory" Sara said.
"Great work, lets get out of here before they discover something is wrong" Naruto said.
But he spoke too soon, purple energy began to flow through chakra wires and the puppets on the conveyor belt began to build themselves.
"What are you doing there, my Queen?" came the voice of a man who slowly approached the edge of a high balcony over looking the entire factory.
"Anrokuzan! I have stopped the flow of the Ryuumyaku. I will not allow you to use this power for war! I command you as Queen... Stop the production of the puppet weapons and release the people on the forced labor lines this instant!" Sara yelled.
"Oh, so you found out. Which means I can't let you live then. A puppet will be enough to replace you, since the puppet army is already finished. I no longer need you to control the Ryuumyaku. Although you would have made me a fitting wife once I ruled the world, but then again, I will be able to have my pick in the end" Anrokuzan replied.
"So you are the guy who brought me here. You have really gotten fat, I think Sara can do a whole lot better than you" Naruto said before turning to Sara as a large number of puppets began to close in. "Sara, take everyone and run!" Naruto ordered.
"Huh? But what about you? I can't leave you to fight alone, this is Rouran's problem, I should do something to help!" Sara said.
"You need to take care of your people, that is what a leader is supposed to do above all else. But Mukada, or Anrokuzan, or what ever this persons name really is, he is not one of your people! I'll capture him!" Naruto said.
"Mukada, I have long since forgotten that name, I am Anrokuzan-sama, the man who will soon rule the world!" Mukada said and raising his hand's he began to control the puppets all around the area.
Naruto wasted little time and began flashing himself around the area taking out puppet after puppet much to the frustration of Mukada.
"I've told you I have finished a puppet army, you will have no chance against them, over one hundred thousand puppets are at my disposal,you will not survive this" Mukada said arrogantly.
That was when Naruto noticed that Sara's path was blocked by a large group of approaching puppets.
"Sara, stand back I will clear you a path then I want you to run and free the prisoners as quickly as you can alright?" Naruto said.
"Okay, I can do that, I promise I wont let you down!" Sara said.
"Alright lets do this... Rasengan!" Naruto yelled out loud and charged forward smashing puppet after puppet that got in his way. "Sara now, run!" Naruto yelled and he created a shadow clone to cover her escape while he returned to destroying everything in his path.
"You are a pest aren't you! Well then how about this!" Mukada said and all around the floor the destroyed parts of the puppets were flying at Naruto and sticking to him stopping him from moving. The parts came together to form a massive puppet with Naruto at the center struggling to break free.
"Naruto!" Sara yelled clearly worried while Naruto struggled for his freedom.
"You cant escape, that puppet is draining your chakra as we speak, now Sara, I thank you for helping me fulfill my great ambitions... In place of your dead mother. But you like are of no use to me now. Just like she became no use to me when she found out what I was doing. Now... Die like your mother!"
"You killed my mother!" Sara yelled in anger.
"Yes. She saw through me and refused to assist in my plans. You were a great puppet, did exactly what I wanted you too. But now, it is time to replace you with a real puppet" Mukada said.
"Mukada! Your enemy is me! Sara you have to hang in there, think about your people" Naruto yelled. But it was no good Sara seemed to collapse unable to move from her knees.
'Damn it I need to get out of this so I can help her' Naruto thought as he struggled.
'Oh please don't act like you can't escape and get my hopes up like that. Just use my chakra and escape already' Kyuubi sighed as if bored.
'Maybe I don't want to ever thought of that possibility?' Naruto replied.
'You forgot all about it, didn't you!' Kyuubi accused.
'That's not true, I just didn't want to give away my full power, unless I had too' Naruto lied unconvincingly.
'Pathetic child! If you can't even beat a bunch of puppets, what chance do you have against Madara and six of the Bijuu?' Kyuubi said.
'I can beat this guy. Just you watch you over grown carnival prize. Oh and just in case you had forgotten I beat you didn't I?' Naruto replied angrily and activating his fox cloak and sending a claw to swipe away a blade that was just about to strike at Sara.
Mukada was shocked and looked at his puppet that was holding Naruto down. From the area that Naruto could see out of yellow flame like chakra was pouring from the opening.
"What is the tremendous amount of chakra?" Mukada said in shock.
"Sara!, you are not a puppet, you are strong, do not blame yourself for the things Mukada has caused" Naruto said no longer even bothering to struggle as he knew he could escape at any moment with ease.
"Enough out of you, become part of my puppet, you will be the crown jewel of my army" Mukada said and he closed the hole in the puppets chest stopping Naruto from seeing what Mukada had planned. "What can you do now that he is gone? You can do nothing!
"I fucking hate these PUPPETS!" Naruto yelled from inside the massive golem and with ease blew it apart with Kyuubi's chakra.
Naruto broke free and his first action was to send a chakra claw right at Mukada smashing him right through a wall.
"Are you dead yet or do you want some more?" Naruto said standing on one of Mukada's chakra strings. But then Naruto witnessed something that he didn't think would happen. Mukada appeared to be nothing more than a puppet, his face was completely busted. Naruto's shock didn't end there however as Mukada's face began to heal until it was perfect once more. "Oh great another fucking immortal, why is it that ever second person I have to fight wants to be immortal?" Naruto sighed.
"You will never beat me boy! Now have fun with my puppets" Mukada said as he sent a massive wave of his puppets directly toward Naruto.
"Sara we gotta get you out of here, come on lets go!" Naruto said and he picked up the queen and disappeared reappearing safely out of harms way but the puppets were approaching.
"Wait here, I will clean this mess up" Naruto said and without waiting for a response charged forwards and began ripping apart the puppets with practiced ease. "You may have a lot of these things, but if you think a lot of slow sub standard puppets is enough to take over the world I think you need to find a new hobby. Your good with your hands why don't you take up pottery or something" Naruto yelled not paying any attention to where Mukada actually was while he ripped apart puppet after puppet.
"What immense power... what is he!" Mukada asked himself but he still had an air of confidence about himself.
The power of Naruto's fox cloak could be felt throughout the city and most of the people who were not currently to tired or exhausted to all began to turn to the area Naruto's chakra was originating from. It was so powerful that even Minato and the other leaf ninja could only look in the direction of the Kyuubi's power in awe.
"Give, up Mukada, you can't win against me!" Naruto said.
"That's what you think. I am invincible! Now witness my new form" Mukada replied.
Mukada seemed to grow until he became a large wooden bug with massive blades for hands.
"Well you have certainly become a whole lot creepier, so congratulations on that one. But you are still quite a long way from defeating me, in fact I probably don't even need this cloak, sage mode should easily be enough to deal with you!" Naruto said and he let his fox cloak drop and activated a senjutsu seal.
Mukada took a swing at Naruto with it's blade and Naruto jumped over it quickly before snapping the blade like pincer with a senjutsu powered punch. But then Naruto was left cursing his misfortune as Mukada simple regenerated a new blade.
"Oh that is really going to get old fast" Naruto sighed back flipping away from another swing of Mukada's blades.
"Naruto! Help!" came the worried call of Sara.
Looking back Naruto saw several puppets all approaching the queen. Naruto wasted little time in returning to protect her by smashing the closest puppet, but now Naruto was in a rather difficult situation, he could fight but leave Sara open to another lapse in concentration on his part, of he could run and come back but he didn't know when he would get a chance like this to return home again.
Suddenly there were several explosions from the puppets and the three Konoha shinobi arrived. "Hey good timing" Naruto called out.
"No worry's, we felt a massive amount of chakra come from around here so we came to check it out, looks like we found the reason for it" Minato replied.
"Uh sure let's go with that" Naruto said.
"Are you guys alright?" Minato asked.
"Yeah we're fine, no need to worry about us" Naruto said.
"Idiot, we both almost died!" Sara said.
"I was fine, that stupid puppet was never going to hold me" Naruto said.
"Look this isn't the time for a discussion" Minato said as several explosions went off around the area.
"What the hell was that?" Sara asked slightly scared.
"The fourth member of there team. Kakashi Hatake" Naruto said with a smile as directed his eyes to a rather young Kakashi who still had both of his original eyes. "He still wears those damn masks!" Naruto said slightly upset.
"We need to get the queen to safety" Minato said.
"Right! Sara go free the prisoners and take them to safety" Naruto told Sara before turning back to face Mukada. "Alright jerk regenerate from this!... … Sage art: ChoOdamaRasengan!" Naruto yelled slamming the massive jutsu into the insect like Mukada.
"Would you look at that... the kids fucking amazing!" Choza said.
"Indeed he is, what was that!" Minato asked.
"Uh it was a variation on the rasengan... Uh you may want to forget you saw that" Naruto said sheepishly.
"Well looks like you got him at least" Minato said.
Suddenly there was a loud noise and the large puppet returned just like brand new.
"Are you fucking kidding me!" Naruto sighed.
"Do you think you can beat me like this" Mukada yelled and suddenly all of the chakra strings that attached to the puppets began to flash with power and they all moved to morph with Mukada's insect like body. He began to grow longer and more legs, his neck stretched out. In the end he resembled a massive cockroach.
"Choza!" Minato said urgently.
"Ninpou: Partial Expansion Jutsu!" Choza yelled and his fist grew to easily the same size as the bug form of Mukada a squashed him against a wall.
"Why you!" Mukada yelled.
"Shibi! Your up" Minato ordered.
"Ninpou: Beetle Sphere!" Shino's father yelled and sent a huge swarm of beetles to attack Mukada.
This attack seemed to work and Mukada fell to the floor greating a massive hole and crater below.
"Did we get him?" Naruto asked as the four ninja approached the edge of the crater.
No such luck as it appeared. More parts from various puppets flew without care of who or what they hit into the hole and Mukada began to change once more.
The new transformation was massive, it even compared with the size of Kyuubi, its eyes seemed to glow green.
"Oh man now what?" Naruto said.
But it appeared Mukada was no longer interested in Naruto and the three other Konoha shinobi. And it began climbing.
"Hey where the hell do you think you're going!" Naruto yelled.
"He is going after the queen, you need to go make sure she is safe, we will keep this thing busy for awhile" Minato said.
"Alright, just don't die" Naruto said and he took of for what seemed like the hundredth time that day in search of Sara.
End Chapter!