Puppeteer

How to infiltrate a village 101

Sakura was 8 when she went on her very first long-term infiltration mission. Her job was to go deep undercover in Konoha to protect Naruto Uzumaki until he could have the nine-tails removed from him later on. Currently, Sakura was walking towards a small village on the outskirts of the Fire country alongside Kakuzu and his current partner. The plan was that they would massacre all the people in the village and burn it to the ground so there was no evidence. Sakura would then play the role of a little girl who was being killed as the shinobi arrived. There were more details involved, but that was the basic outline, she would then, hopefully, be taken to Konoha by ninjas and remain in the village until further notice.

Sakura quickly took out her kimono, it was a civilian-style one with a white base and red stitching as well as a red yukata to match. After changing, she tied her hair into a simple bun and slipped on a pair of sandals. When she stepped out from the shade of the trees, she matched the look of the people who lived in the village perfectly. In fact, if Kakuzu didn't know she was his daughter, he might even think she was a genuine civilian. He watched as Sakura muffled her chakra reserves down to the amount somebody her age should have before wandering off into the clearing near the village and waiting for the signal for her to get into the village without being spotted with the criminals.

The flames of the burning village was what drew Kakashi and Guy to the village. Neither had a genin team yet, but Guy was planning on placing a request in a couple of years. The sight in front of the was horrifying, nobody was running to them as everyone was either dead or dying. The only glimpse of the criminals was two huge men staring down at something. The mens' eyes widened as they noticed that the criminals were currently about to kill a little girl. The men raced forwards, immediately engaging in battle with the two murderers in the fight for the girl's life. They managed to kill one of them which caused the other to quickly flee leaving the two shinobi alone with little Sakura. The girl looked up at the men in terror, "Y-your not going to kill me too... are you?" she asked fearfully causing the men to cringe in horror. The little girl continued, "They killed Ma and Pa, your not here to kill me are you?" Kakashi felt something tug at his emotions causing him to crouch in front of the girl, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of you from now on, okay? My name is Kakashi and this here is Guy, we're going to take you back with us, okay. Your safe now." Kakashi carefully wrapped his arms around the girl covered in soot, lifting her up before returning to Guy's side and the pair departed.

-

When the group returned to Konoha, the gatekeepers were shocked to see Kakashi with a little girl. "I need to report back to the Hokage." the gatekeepers nodded before continuing with their conversation.

When Kakashi and Guy walked into the Hokage's office they found the Hokage sat with a 3-year-old toddler on his lap talking to a man in shades and dressed all in black. "Hello Hokage-sama, I have come to give the mission report." The Hokage nodded his head, signalling for Kakashi to continue as his eyes landing on the child that Kakashi had just placed on the floor, "The mission was a success and we defeated the escapee prisoners with little difficulty, they were tied up and returned to T&I by the other members of our squad. Upon Guy and my return, we came across a small village which had been destroyed by some criminals. That is where we found this little girl, she is the sole survivor of the attack. I shall go into greater detail in the official report, but for now she will need a guardian and a home." The Hokage nodded his head in agreement, "What's your name little girl?" He addressed the small child, "My name is Sakura Haruno Hokage-sama." The man then turned to the ninja beside him, "Ebisu, how would you like to raise Sakura?" unknown to the rest of the group, he'd chosen Ebisu for the reason that he was one of his most loyal ninja and if he liked Sakura, he would protect her with his life. That was something he wanted in the girl's guardian, somebody she could depend on, just like an actual parent. "Yes, Hokage-sama, I will gladly raise her." the Hokage nodded his head before turning to Sakura, "You may choose whether to join the shinobi academy or the civilian one, alert Ebisu after this and he will sign you up, alright. Dismissed."

"So, what do you want to be, a ninja or a civilian, we will need to get you some clean clothes either way." Ebisu spoke up first drawing Sakura's emerald eyes to meet his (not that she could really see, after all, he was wearing shades) "I want to continue my ninja training, I did some work on chakra strings in my old village." Ebisu nodded his head, slightly interested in the idea of having a leaf ninja using chakra strings, after all, that was typically a sand ninja trick. "Okay, I will fill out the paperwork and you will begin school on Monday, okay? Now, lets get you some ninja attire. I'm not sure you want to be running around in that kimono." Sakura giggled into her hand, yeah, this infiltration may not be so bad after all.

A few hours later, Ebisu and Sakura found themselves seated with a cup of green tea in front of them as they sat at Ebisu's table. Sakura's new outfits mainly consisted of long sleeved tops and full-length jogging bottoms which could be tucked into whatever boots she chose. She'd also bought herself a pair of black, fingerless gloves to wear. Ebisu's eyes every now and then watched curiously as Sakura's fingers worked away at a block of wood, shaving it into an unknown shape as he filled out her academic paperwork. The pair worked mostly in silence, Ebisu occasionally asking health questions and other ones he didn't know the answer to.

By the evening, Sakura had made the head of a wolf puppet, the wood being about the length of her wrist to elbow with a hinged jaw and eyes a threatening golden colour. Meanwhile, Ebisu had finished all the paper work and had turned to give Sakura a hand in making her wolf by carefully cutting out leather pieces for her. Sakura smiled as she walked up to her room, this was definitely not going to be the worst few years of her life.