Puppeteer

Descendents of a Kage

It wasn't long after team 7 returned from the Land of the Waves that things began to stir up within Konoha. They'd just finished up doing D-ranks for the day and the genin were all covered from head to toe in white-wash. All they wanted to do was go home and clean themselves up and sleep away the pain, but clearly, Lady Fortune was against them.

They hadn't even made it 5 minutes before they found their pathway being blocked by a square rock. The tall walls of the alleyway in which surrounded them blocked all exits but one in which they might be able to flee the moving, normally-inanimate object. The mere sight of it caused Kiba to let out a high pitched shriek as Naruto snorted in recognition. Rather than simply ignoring it, Naruto began running backwards and forwards along the path, probably to shake it off his trail. How that was going to work in an alleyway was beyond logic, but so was Naruto. Finally, Naruto stopped running, putting his hands on his hips as he declared, "A square rock with two holes on it doesn't exist! It's so obvious!"

"I should have expected that from the man who had high hopes for and is also my rival." The rock said before engulfing itself in bright light and exploding into three plumes of coloured smoke. The smoke faded to reveal three children, not much older than Inari, they were on all fours as they coughed and spluttered. "Hey, you used too much gunpowder!" the middle one complained before they all looked up at Naruto in perfect sync. "The one who possesses the sex appeal of an adult, and the female ninja from the senior group, Meogi!" the girl with two orange pigtails and bright red cheeks declared as she settled into a pose. "The one who loves dividing numbers, Udon." the brunette boy with glasses spoke up almost immediately after before he too performed a pose. "This village's number one genius ninja, Konohamaru." this time it was the brunette boy with a blue scarf who spoke as he moved into his own pose. "The three of us make the Konohamaru Corps." they all spoke up before changing the pose they were in to look cool.

Naruto, along with his team, remained rather unimpressed by the whole facade. However, it was Naruto who ended up confronting them about it. "Just as I thought, it was just the three of you." the blonde boy said rather half-heartedly before turning to look at his teammates, eyebrow raised at the sight in front of him. Sakura stood in front of him, a bored look on her face as she held a startled Kiba and Akamaru bridle style. "I-it spoke and then poofed and kids came out! I'm never stepping on rocks again!" the boy mumbled as he pointed frantically at the kids, almost as if his explanation would stop the judging looks he received. It's not like it didn't do anything though, it just didn't have the effect he wanted it to have. All eyes now resting on the Inuzuka as Sakura removed her arms from underneath him, "Oops." she said before stepping over the boy and walking over to the Naruto. Bending over, hands tucked neatly behind her back, she looked closely at the squad in front of her. Eyes widening in recognition, "Hey... Your that brat I see with Ebisu sometimes." She said before pulling away from the rather flustered little boy, "But how'd you know him, Naruto? What'd you do, teach him some stupid Jutsu and now he's obsessed with you?" she looked inquisitively at the boy who awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, "Maybe..." sighing, Sakura turned to look at Kiba who was brushing the dust off of his paint-covered outfit as he glares wearily at the floor. With a flick of her hand, she lifted Kiba off of the ground with a chakra string, "Right, now, Kiba stop glaring at the floor, I'm going to take the idiot home now, see you later Naruto." Naruto's eyes widened in shock before he turned to give the kids an apologetic look, only to see them scheming. Gulping nervously, the blonde began backing away from the group. 

"Hey, Naruto, was that your team? They look kinda..." Konohamaru said before his voice trailed off, his face giving Kiba and Sakura an unimpressed look. Nervously, Naruto instantly covered the boy's mouth, looking hesitantly at the pair. Kiba, in his anger forgetting his fear of the ground, sent out a bit of chakra to disarm the chakra string before racing at the small group. "Who's pathetic?!" he raged, Akamaru barking in emphasis. Whirling around, Sakura glared at Kiba before shouting, "Shut up Kiba!" she then picked up the pace as she chased after the boy, growls of anger turning to shrieks of terror as the pinkette chased after the group.

They'd just made it about halfway down the alleyway when everything went south. Konohamaru running straight into the chest of a foreign ninja clothed all in black. On his back rested something that vaguely resembled a human and had a tuft of dark brown hair on it, the boy's face covered in purple war paint. Beside him stood a girl, her blonde hair tied into 4 bunches, her dress a light purple colour and a large fan tied firmly to her back. "That hurt" Konohamaru said as he sat on the floor, rubbing his head gently.

"That hurt, brat" the boy in black growled out before lifting Konohamaru off of the ground using his scarf. "Stop it we're going to get scolded later." the girl scolded the boy, her attempts to stop him only half-hearted as her eyes look around nervously. "Hey! Let go of that hand!" Naruto shouted, his right hand raised as he angrily glared at the boy, "But I want to play around before some noisy people come" he said as he looked at Konohamaru.

"Let go!" the brunette shouted, a cold sweat forming on his forehead as he swung his legs in vain hope that his capturer might release him. "You're very energetic, kid" was the only response he received, a response he'd rather not be receiving. "Why you...!" Naruto growled animalistically causing Sakura to tense in fear of the Kyuubi appearing, this remaining unnoticed by all but the Suna shinobi.

Kankuro's spare hand began to move, his fingers appearing to tug at an invisible force before Naruto fell over backwards, "A chakra string? But I thought that was your thing Sakura?" the blonde boy turned to look at the pinkette, eyes following after him, "Idiot, chakra strings are able to be used by almost anyone. They are typically used by shinobi and kunoichi of the Sand but they are also normally used to control puppets." she said before picking the boy up by the back of his collar with ease and returning to her group. Her back remaining turned to the sand shinobi in blatant disrespect as she walked. Unbeknownst to everyone, she'd dropped one of her puppets on the floor as she picked up Naruto, a transparent chakra string quickly attaching as the small scorpion scuttled across the floor to Kankuro. The boy letting out a cry of surprise as he felt a stinging feeling on his wrist, dropping Konohamaru in the process. Looking down, his eyebrow raised at the sight of a wooden creature on his arm. The little boy wasted no time, racing back to where the rest of the Konoha ninjas were. "So you're a puppet user are you?" the boy said, eyes scanning for the so-called 'Sakura'. While he was pretty sure it was the pink-haired one, it could potentially be any of them for all he knew. Removing the puppet, he flung it towards the group, disregarding the way it remained stationary midair before suddenly dropping into Sakura's hand. His own hand was well on the way to finding his own puppet. "You're not really going to use Karasu are you Kankuro?" Sakura perked up at that name, she was pretty sure Sasori had mentioned it once or twice. It was quite a well-equipped puppet, there was no denying that fact, but how did this 'Kankuro' get his hands on it?

Before the boy could answer, a deep voice was emitted from the nearby tree, "Kankuro, stop." all eyes turned to look at the newest person, landing on a red-haired shinobi who hung upside-down from the nearby tree. "You're a disgrace to our village. Why do you think we came all this way here to Konoha?"

"Listen Gaara, these guys started it..." The puppeteer instantly trying to deflect the blame onto the Konoha ninjas. But the red-head in the tree was having none of it. "Shut up. I'll kill you." was all that was needed for Kankuro to go straight onto the defensive. "I was at fault. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." Sakura might have found the situation amusing if not for the powerful waves of KI that were practically stifling. "Excuse them, you guys." the red-head said politetly causing Sakura to nod her head in acceptance, her tense muscles relaxing slightly. Gaara then vanished in a swirl of sand, reappearing at the base of the tree. "Let's go. We didn't come here to fool around." was all he said as he began to walk away, his two fellow Sand shinobi hurrying after him. "I know."