Puppeteer

The demon meets a demonic puppet

Shortly after the boys had hugged her, Sakura had managed to regain control over herself. But that control only lingered for a short while as she almost immediately passed out. Exhaustion had gotten the better of her. But she'd succeeded anyway, her threads managing to pull Zabuza away from Kakashi before they withdrew themselves within her body. After that, the fight ended quickly, Kakashi weakening Zabuza before the man got taken down by a hunter-nin.

Time skip

After the fight, team seven found themselves returning to mundane tasks. They spent about a week training in bettering themselves. The two boys competing in who could learn to climb a tree without hands fastest. Sakura, however, took part in challenging training, supervised by Kakashi, as she learnt to control her threads. By the end of the week, she was able to last a full 10 minutes before passing out from exhaustion, much better than her previous 8.

But this morning found the group, excluding Naruto, under attack from Zabuza once more. This time, however, Sakura found herself protecting Tazuna. After last time, they'd all decided it was best she stood back to help where needed. Of course, that would have been a great idea. Theoretically.

Only minutes after Naruto's arrival within Haku's ice dome, Kiba was felled. The dog-boy brought to his knees before falling face-first into the mud. Naruto was the first to snap, the demonic chakra breaking through his seal as he raged. The blonde boy swung a brutal punch at Haku, completely knocking him out of the ice dome.

It was the sight of Naruto being so distressed that began a chain reaction. The boy's chakra attracting her attention before she looked beside him to see Kiba. Excusing herself from Tazuna's side, she took seven long strides to join Naruto. Standing on his left, she withdrew a seal to absorb the nine-tails chakra before slapping it on the boy's back. Regardless of her loyalties, she was completing her tailed beast collection.

That was it! Her collection. Of course, she wouldn't risk damaging a stronger model, but the one-tails was not completed -she was yet to collect his chakra- but they'd never had a proper test-drive fight yet. Biting her thumb to pierce the skin as Naruto collapsed to the floor -his chakra reserves low but stable. She smirked at Haku before slamming her hands on the floor.

The plumes of smoke attracted the attention of all those who saw them. The sheer force of the powerful summoning had dispersed the fog. When the smoke finally disappeared, Kakashi was shocked to see a very real looking tailed beast. Of course, it was clearly fake due to the fact they were nowhere near the right size, but for anyone who'd never seen one before, they were rather intimidating. A singular blue beam connected to the model before fading from sight. The large two-tailed blue cat instantly coming to life, or as much as a puppet could. The joints creaking as it crouched low to the ground, the top of its head still at least waist-high. "Meet the Matatabi." was all she said before sending the puppet flying towards Haku. Its huge jaws clamping down on the boy before it flung him over its back. Wheeling around, using its hind legs as a pivot, the great cat opened its mouth and flamed. Blue fire emitting from its mouth as it tried to toast Haku alive.

At this moment, Naruto began to come to once more. This time, not possessed by the kyuubi, he raced towards Kiba, pulling the many senbon out his body. Of course, the sight of the tailed beast had shocked him, but he didn't recognise it one bit, so he took little interest. All he cared was that Kiba got the respect he deserved, gently stroking the distressed-looking Akamaru, he began to remove the needles from the boy's body.

The fight between Zabuza and Kakashi had halted when Sakura and Haku's began to get serious. While Zabuza held a lot of respect for the girl, he also found himself worrying for his own student's life. This was not a fight he could win, regardless of his strength. The fact she'd brought out the two-tails suggested that it wasn't her only one either. Kakashi, however, was not impressed. Well, he was, but he was rather irked by the fact Sakura had kept yet another thing secret. What else was she hiding?

It didn't take long for Sakura to bring Haku to his knees, the moment she did, she removed the Matatabi puppet from sight so she could kill him herself. Or at least, that was what she was going to do. Only seconds before she did, chaos ensued. Not only did Kiba wake up, but Gato arrived. Sakura, now that Kiba was alive, dropped Haku to the floor and raced over to the boy, fussing over him as she did so. Meanwhile, Zabuza and Gato began to get into quite the argument. One that turned from a verbal battle to a physical one.

The demon of the mist instantly racing at the group of thugs, Haku racing afterwards in order to protect the man. But Sakura took no interest, instead, she was found crying into Kiba's shoulder as he rubbed her back comfortingly. Whether the tears were of sadness, happiness or something completely different remained a mystery to them all, only knowing that she was emotional.

When Gato finally died, the thugs chose to turn against the village, the weakened and tired Zabuza and Haku falling to the ground as weapons were brandished in anger. Standing once more, Sakura rested her shaking hands to the floor, eyes watching as the threads appeared on her wrists and disappeared within the earth.

Villagers then arrived, each holding a 'weapon' in their hands. The sight frightening the thugs into fleeing, despite the lack of money gained in the failed mission. As the thugs began to walk away, the back couple suddenly found themselves being flung off of the bridge by... threads? Shrieks of terror erupted from the criminals as they pushed and shoved one another out of the way. But the villagers simply celebrated, good riddance!

Minutes after producing the many threads, Sakura noticed the edges of her vision begin to go black. She'd used up quite a bit of chakra already and this wasn't really helping. Naruto and Kiba let out surprised shouts as they felt Sakura collapse into their laps once more, relaxing only when they felt her warm breath against the backs of their hands.