Puppeteer

Contrary to popular belief, the sharingan user IS human

Eventually, Sakura did get better, but their return to the Akatsuki base was delayed by a couple of weeks. It was risky remaining behind, but they could not leave the hospital with Sakura as sick as she was. When they left the village, they moved quickly for the first couple of day, so fast in fact, they got more than double the distance they'd moved when they were coming to the village. At night, Sakura began to develop her new puppets, she would work hard cutting and shaping the wood into seemingly perfect replicas of the tailed beasts they represented. They were big too, whilst her first puppet was no larger than an arm, these puppets stood easily at 7ft tall. Much smaller than actual tailed beasts, but their size was nothing to laugh at.

By the time they had returned to the base, a lot had changed for both parties. For Sakura's group, they had gained an incredibly powerful puppet to protect them (not that Kisame and Kakuzu knew). But for the rest of the Akatsuki, they'd gained a new member who went by the name of Itachi Uchiha.

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When Sakura, Kakuzu and Kisame returned to the Akatsuki base, they were surprised by the silence of the corridors. Brushing it off, Sakura turned to her father "I'll report back to Leader-sama, he'll probably wish to see the first puppet anyway." Kakuzu and Kisame nodded their heads, although they were shocked by the fact she had one completed, they knew better than to show it, after all, little Sakura was a prodigy. Instead, the two men walked off to the living room where, unbeknownst to them, the new member was. When Kakuzu and Kisame met Itachi, there was a lot of shouting on Kisame's part. Kakuzu and Itachi, however, remained rather neutral throughout the entire situation.

While they got acquainted, Sakura was seated in Pain's office, as it would happen, he did take an interest in the puppets and had asked Sakura to show him them. Jumping up from her seat, the little girl removed one of the scrolls from her pocket, "Summoning technique" her hands flicking through the seals before biting her thumb and summoning the puppet. Pain watched in a vague interest at the large puppet in front of him, it stood a good foot and a few inches above him and the attention to detail was incredible. "Just like the actual Yonbi, this one can use lava release and some other chakra-infused attacks. It can also absorb opponents chakra to improve its own chakra reserves." Pain was, to put it lightly, glad he'd allowed Sakura to collect the tailed beast chakra. It was one of the best things he'd done in fact and he'd definitely let her do it again. Imagine if he was able to have an entire set of Tailed beast puppets, they'd be unstoppable. Of course, Sasori was a powerful puppeteer as well, but this was on a level of its own. "Congratulations Sakura, you have clearance to collect more chakra whenever you need it, but for now, you're dismissed." Sakura nodded her head, sealing the puppet away before heading off to find her father.

When Itachi first saw Sakura, he felt incredibly unnerved. That little girl was no older than his younger brother and yet she'd, by the looks of it, been here much longer than him. "Hey Papa, we have gained permission to collect chakra whenever we like. My next one will be finished in a few weeks." Kakuzu nodded his head as Itachi couldn't help but feel curious as to what they were talking about. It was then that Sasori entered the room, "Welcome back Sakura. I heard you finished the Yonbi puppet, may I see it?" Sakura turned to look at her teacher, smiling happily as she nodded her head, "But it is quite large so we should probably go outside for it." Sasori nodded his head before walking outside with the little girl. The people who remained in the room looked at each other before following the pair outside. On the way, they'd run into Orochimaru who became curious as well and joined them.

When the group stood out on the training field, they moved back to make room for Sakura and her puppet. Watching as she began to perform the summoning technique hand signs before adding blood and drawing out her newest addition to her collection. They couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by the massive puppet which practically oozed malicious chakra. They watched as the little girl hooked up a chakra string before moving the oversized ape around the area before it opened it mouth, coughing out lava. The lava spat out by the ape instantly burnt through the ground beneath the behemoth as it slowly began to cool off. The monster then began to build up a ball of solid chakra in front of its mouth. In comparison to the actual tailed beasts, the ball was rather small, but they had to be careful not to over use the chakra.

Sakura sealed the beast back up in a scroll before turning to look at the shell-shocked criminals. Most of them, when told they were collecting tailed beasts, believed that they would be fine and stand a fighting chance against it, but now they were having second thoughts. Little Sakura over there was in control of a scaled down replica of one of the beasts and yet it was still terrifying so imagine what the real ones must look like. But Sakura was not interested in the shocked criminals, instead turning to look at Itachi. "You're awfully young to be a criminal, who are you and what did you do?" she asked, her eyes cold and untrusting. For somebody so young to be s-ranked, they must have done something very wrong, the thing she did wrong was just being born! But he must be a different case. "I massacred my entire clan in a single night." The boy didn't brag or gloat about it, nor try to hide it. He was a tough one to gauge so Sakura simply decided not to. Nodding her head, she turned away in disinterest, looking at Sasori, "So, how was that Sensei?"