Kankuro and Ito find themselves betrothed by their villages. Neither of them want this marriage but their duty to their village compelled them to comply. However when Ito is bound to him she is more desperate than ever to find a way out of her obligations while Kankuro slowly finds himself falling for her. Their sense of distrust could keep them from a bond of love, a tread of fate that only a puppet master can bind with.

Miko is a hidden leaf ninja of Chunin level who has seen very little of her life in her village. She has spent most of her young childhood and early teen years traveling with her parents under the third Hokage's orders. Now Miko is traveling back to the hidden leaf alone to live with her eccentric Aunt. She hasn't been back to the village since the first week of the ninja academy. The only friend who seems to remember Miko immediately is her true childhood friend Hinata and shortly after a strange boy who she can't seem to keep your eyes off of. Miko rekindles her friendship with him as she try to reintegrate back into her home Konaha. Will Miko's friendship grow into something more? What is the pain she is harboring? Can Shino help heal Miko's pain or will he lose her to a forbidden jutsu? Completed Jan 2, 2017