Puppeteer

Collecting tailed beast chakra

On her 5th birthday, Sakura came up with a new puppet idea. What if she could collect tailed beast chakra to make puppets? She quickly grabbed a sheet of design paper, shed received her own workshop when Pain declared she was a good enough puppet master, how he knew about her puppet was beyond her, somebody must have told him. But who was she to complain? She figured the best way to do it, was to just make the puppets look identical to their original counterparts. She would have to set up tenketsu points rather than just the artificial chakra networks shed used in the previous puppet, but that was okay. Wandering down to the living room, she looked at her father, giving him an innocent smile before saying "Hey, Papa, can we go do something, its really important for my next puppet. I need some of the tailed beasts' chakra, you wouldn't happen to know how to get any would you?" Kakuzu stiffened, why was she needing tailed beast chakra? "Why?" Kisame had just entered the room and was curious, "Oh, to make a puppet." Kisame grinned, that sounded like fun and Samehada was always happy to have chakra, something tailed beasts were notorious for, "Sounds like fun," I'll take you. Sakura practically glowed, thanking him repetitively, "Wait just a minute Squirt, you do know what your getting yourself into, correct?" Sakura sobered up, nodding her head seriously, taking on Jinchuriki was dangerous, she could die doing this, "I know the severity, but if I manage this, I hope to create the impossible." Kakuzu couldn't help but feel proud of how his daughter was improving, "Fine, but I'm coming with you as well, okay?" Sakura nodded her head, that sounded fair enough. "Go pack your bags, I'll go discuss this with leader-sama, understood?" Sakura ran off to her family's quarters, racing straight past her mother and up to her room to get some bags packed. When she was done, she found her mother and father talking, her mother turned to her daughter, "I'm going to miss you Saku, gosh, your growing up so fast." Her mother instantly covered her eyes, sobs coming from her mouth, "Stop it Mama! Ill miss you too." Sakura giggled at her mothers silliness before turning to look at her father, "Are we going then?" Her father nodded his head, giving Hikaru a kiss before going causing Sakura to gag. "Shut up Saku, one day your going to fall in love--" her mother started before getting cut off by her husband, "Oh no she's not, not on my watch. When she gets of that age, I will lock her up in her workshop until she's all old and wrinkly." Hikaru gasped and smacked her husbands shoulder causing him to flinch, "I'm not dying without grandchildren, don't listen to your father Saku, he's just an idiot. If she was a boy you would be encouraging her to have a girlfriend so don't say no just because she's a girl." Kakuzu thought for a moment, "Fine, but no boyfriends until your 16 okay, deal?" Hikaru nodded her head in acceptance, there was almost no bargaining with him normally and Hikaru knew how to pick her battles. There was a knock on the door and Sakura opened it to reveal Kisame "Ready to go then, Shrimp?" Sakura nodded, running back to give her mother a hug before herself and her father joined Kisame on the hike to Iwagakure.

-

It took the trio several weeks to reach Iwagakure and by the time they did, Sakura was exhausted. It was the first time she'd ever really left Amegakure and so she was not used to this sort of long distance travel. Of course, she didn't regret coming, this was going to be revolutionary in the development of puppetry, just, why did it have to take so long? Either way, the group of criminals were currently resting inside their hotel's onsen, Sakura, however, had been split up from her companions due to her being female. The little pink-haired girl felt all her previously cramped up muscles relaxing as she sank into the water, a hot towel balanced precariously on the top of her head. As she sat in the water, she began to plan more of her puppets. It was all well and good giving them their genuine counter part's chakra, but that wouldn't last forever. So what if she could use the seal she'd used on her dragon, on these puppets. That way, by fighting with them more, her puppets, by default, got stronger as well.

An hour had passed by when Sakura finally heaved her exhausted body out of the water. The sky was beginning to get dark and she was starting to feel a little bit peckish. Drying off her body, she climbed back into her loose green trousers with a multitude of pockets before putting on a white bandeau top. On top of her top she wore her vest with pockets filled with yet more puppetry tools. Then she strapped on her ninja shoes before walking out of the changing rooms.

-

The criminals woke up at sunrise the next morning feeling refreshed. After getting dressed and scarfing down a breakfast of white rice and a meat they didn't recognise, they left the hotel. The first Jinchuriki they were going to take on was Roshi, holder of the Yonbi. They'd chosen him as word around the street was he was considering leaving Iwa and if he left before they got his chakra, it would be annoying.

They found the Jinchuriki just outside the village, he was returning from what would be his last mission. Kisame was the first to reveal himself, drawing Samehada from behind his back and holding it in front of him. Kakuzu sighed before joining the impulsive man in front of Roshi who smirked confidently. Or at least, he was confident before he felt something draining the Yonbi's chakra, it left his alone though, completely disregarding it as if they thought he was weak or something. But before he could do anything he heard a... little girl's voice? "Roshi of Iwagakure, holder to the Yonbi tailed beast. He stands at 149cm tall and weighing a total of 55.5kg. He uses fire and earth release and thanks to the tailed beast within him, he developed the ability to use lava release as well. Current status: alive" Roshi tensed up, what was it about this situation that was so absolutely terrifying. That was when he recognised the two men in front of him, they were Kisame Hoshigaki and Kakuzu. Both were s-ranked criminals and extremely dangerous. But who was the girl? Turning to look at whoever dared to steal his chakra, he was shocked to see it was a little girl with bright pink hair. He stared at her in shock for a moment, she looked so innocent, but why was she so intimidating? Suddenly, she moved, there was a flash of pink before he felt the draining of chakra disappear as the Sakura removed the tag and sealed it in an envelope labelled 'Yonbi'. She smirked at the man, "Thank you for your contribution." was all he heard before he felt something scratch his arm and his vision go dark.

Kisame watched as little Sakura took down the Jinchuriki that people had such a difficulty, "What poison did you use?" he asked her curiously, then again, did he really want to know? "One me and Sasori made, it targets the seal on a Jinchuriki and in doing so, knocks them out. Of course, it only lasts about 5 minutes as the chakra of a tailed beast is very corrosive, so we should probably go now." Kisame and Kakuzu nodded their heads in agreement before the group moved on.

-

Compared to the Yonbi, the collection of the Gobi's chakra was rather challenging. Sakura had caught a very bad sickness soon after their first battle and so she was bedridden until further notice. In fact, Kisame and Kakuzu were considering waiting out the Gobi fight until she was better, but she'd sent them on their way with a reinforced chakra storage seal anyway. It took them a couple of hours of solid fighting Han in his tailed beast cloak until he finally was exhausted enough for them to actually be approached. He had to be exhausted as whilst Sakura was only little and very hard to sense, the two men who accompanied her were 6ft upwards. When the two criminal's returned, they found Sakura asleep on her bed, determined no to wake the sleeping girl, the quietly placed down the chakra seal before going down to soak their aching muscles.

After being held up in Iwagakure for a few weeks, they began to travel to the next village. Slowly but surely, they were collecting more and more tailed beast chakra until there were was only one which they didn't have, the nine-tails kyuubi. The nine-tails was a different case, the beast had been split in half and so the only chakra source it had could respond differently than expected so it was decided she would take that one later on.