Puppeteer

The child who walks in her father's footsteps

Sakura was one and a half when she first returned to the Akatsuki base, her small hand clutching desperately onto her fathers. As a ninja, she developed extremely early and now she was able to say enough words to perform jutsus properly. Today, he was going to be teaching her the forbidden jutsu which had made him famous. He'd figured it would be a good place to start, after all, it would increase her chances of surviving in this cruel and unforgiving world. Of course, shed have to improve her chakra control before then, but that was why he'd started so early. She had her mothers chakra reserves within her so the amount of chakra within her was already above Sage level, but there is no point in it if she couldn't use it. This was exactly the reason he'd decided to seek out Sasori. Since the boy was a legendary puppeteer, he must have good control else he would not last as long as he did in battle.

Kakuzu discovered Sasori inside his workshop working away on his most recent puppet. The red-haired boy instantly reacted when he heard somebody entering, not even relaxing when he saw who it was. "Sasori, I have come to request something of you." the boy nodded, indicating to Kakuzu to go on, "I would like you to train Sakura here in puppetry, I hope that in doing so, you are able to improve her chakra control." Sasori hummed as he glanced at Sakura who was currently holding the intimidating mans hand as her green eyes looked around the room in curiosity, "What's in it for me?" Kakuzu shrugged, Anything you ask, I shall do all that is in my power to help you with. Sasori smirked before looking properly at the little girl in front of him, a certain look of intelligence that shone through her young eyes made him become more and more intrigued by the young girl. He wanted answers, why did Pain do what he did? What was the true reason behind Kakuzu bringing her here? The list of questions went on. "You have yourself a deal, in return, I want Sakura to become my protege if shes good enough and I want my questions answered one day." Kakuzu thought it over, it sounded okay, "Fine, however, some questions are best left unanswered." The man left the room after that cryptic message, ruffling his daughters pink hair as he went, Ill be back later. he stated as the door slammed shut shortly afterwards leaving the puppeteer with the little girl. She grinned up at him as he thought about what he should do first, he certainly wasnt going to give him one of his works of art! "Alright Sakura, you can use one of my old models until you are good enough to make your own one, understood?" The little girl nodded her head in curiosity before following the redhead outside.

-

Sakura continued taking lessons from Sasori, developing her chakra strings at an incredible rate, almost as fast as Sasori himself had done, but he was older than her by quite a bit when he learnt. She was two and a half when she was fully able to use chakra strings to almost perfectly control something that was not alive. When she completed the training her father had assigned her to Sasori for, the redhead had announced he would like to keep her on as a student because she had a lot of potential. That was when she began her training with her father.

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"Alright Squirt, today we will be working on a special jutsu. One that you will have for the rest of your life, okay? Its called Earth Grudge Fear and it will turn your body into something similar to mine." The little girls eyes widened in awe, she had great respect for her father and now she would be strong like him! "I'm gunna be like Papa?" her voice was slightly slurred, but she was still new to speaking so that was to be expected, it would disappear in the future hopefully. The man smiled down at his daughter, nodding his head. "COOL!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.

-

Over the next few months, Sakuras body began to take on many new developments as black threads appearing across her body, mostly over and around her joints. The threads were much thinner than Kakuzus but nobody was really sure as to why that was. Whilst this was happening, she continued with her training with Sasori, developing her abilities until she could not only control the inanimate, but the animate too. Her curious nature was also beneficial to her mind as she constantly inquired about different things. For her third birthday she received her very first Bingo book from her father and she treasured it. She would spend many a night listening to her parents read it out to her, finding great amusement when her father told her stories about how he defeated people in the book - he was so cool. As they read, she looked at the confusing characters on the page and began to put two and two together, those shapes meant things! Slowly but surely, she was beginning to pick it up. Reading wasnt the only thing though, her father also taught her things like counting money, bargain hunting, money per weight and another useful things like that.

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Sakura skipped down the Akatsuki corridors before knocking twice on the Sasoris door and waiting for him to let her in. She was in such a good mood today, she had just turned four and was excited to see what Sasori had gotten her this year, he gave such cool gifts - not as cool as Papa though - last year shed received a book on puppet designs and had begun to sketch out her own ones. When she walked into the room, she was greeted by Sasori sitting at his desk, a huge blue man next to him. She eyed the man wearily before brushing him off and bouncing over to Sasori, pink hair bouncing behind her. "Happy Birthday Sakura! Heres your gift." The puppetmaster passed the little girl a box-like object wrapped up in blue paper. Sakura quickly said "Thank you" before ripping open the paper to reveal an assortment of tools in a wooden tool kit box. "I figured it was about time we made your first puppet." Sakura beamed at the man, carefully placing the box down before there was a flash of pink. Sakura latched her arms around Sasoris neck tightly, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." She said quickly, a massive grin on her face. Suddenly, the smile dropped and she swung her head back at the blue man, "Now tell me, why is Kisame Hoshigaki here?" Kisame choked on his own spit, just who is this girl? Sasori, meanwhile, patted Sakuras head affectionately, "He is part of the Akatsuki, you just havent met him yet because his sword will drain you of your chakra if your not careful enough. Don't you remember?" Sakura nodded her head in answer to his question, that reasoning did seem fair enough. "Anyway, when can we make my puppet, Sasori-sensei?" The man smirked down at the girl, wondering what her childish mind had come up with. "Right now."