The Sandaime stared at the letter in his hand. He'd expected both more and less from the Yondaime Kazekage than this short message.

I will wish to meet the young ninja during the upcoming Chuunin Exams.

I am willing to discuss terms.

The seal at the bottom of the page was real, or at least real enough that Hiruzen couldn't spot anything off about it.

He put the letter aside and drew a long breath through his pipe. Very interesting.

The next day Naruto was grabbed by an Anbu on his way to school. Said Anbu smiled underneath her mask. It was rare for them to get a chance to torture the boy the way he did them, and when she finally set him down, his hair in disarray and facing the hokage with a shell shocked look on his face by the suddeness of it all.

"Wha, what just happened?"

Hiruzen laughed to himself. "It's called the Shunshin. It's a more advanced version of Kawarimi." Hiruzen stroked his chin as he took a puff on his pipe. "The Kazekage has answered me on your request. Nothing's set in stone yet, but he is willing to discuss you learning how to use puppets." Hiruzen put his hand up to stop the resulting outburst. "He will be here in two months time for the Chuunin Exam. In the mean time. I would like to show you something." Hiruzen got up and tugged the chattering child behind him. Stopping in front of a room marked "Archives" the third turned to Naruto. "This room is open to ninja chuunin and up for research purposes. It contains mission reports detailing techniques that have been seen since just before the second war." He opened the door. "We even have one of Suna's puppets that I captured before we made peace with them." He walked over to a glass case. (not the only one of it's kind in the room) and turned on the light. "The case is not to be opened, but you may look all you want. If the details can be worked out, you can take a much better look at it later." Hiruzen nodded to himself before noticing that Naruto was wandering around the case looking at the partially dissected puppet, his eyes taking in everything he could. He chuckled as he left the room, letting Naruto dream.

Hiruzen waited patiently for the Kazekage and his retainers to arrive. Through a few more letters they had agreed that he would come two days early to discuss Naruto's request. Speaking of the boy... "Naruto. Stop fidgeting. The Kazekage has kindly taken an extra two days out of his schedule to meet with you so that we can discuss your request. Make sure to be polite and thank him for his time."

Naruto calmed down. "Alright."

Naruto perked up as he noticed a group move through the gate.

Hiruzen nodded his head at the man in robes similar to his own. "Hello Kogane-san. I trust your trip went smoothly."

"For the most part. An Iwa nin took the opening to try and assassinate me. And you, how have you been?"

"Quite well. Allow me to introduce you to Naruto-san. The young man who wishes to learn Puppetry."

Naruto bowed slightly and remembering his manners. "Thank you Kazekage-sama for your time and this chance."

The Kazekage nodded his head. "You are welcome." He turned to the third and nodded. "In turn allow me to introduce you to my son, Kankuro. He's a fledgling puppeteer and I thought he might like to meet the audacious young man who wishes to learn our secret techniques." He pushed the young boy covered in black forwards.

"So this is the brat huh? Looks kind of dumb. I don't think he can learn." He was too busy nodding to himself that he didn't see the young blonde jump at him. It only deteriorated from there, both Kage covering their face in embarrassment at the childishness.

It took only a second longer for two tendrils of gold to grab the collars of both boys and hold them apart. "My apologies for my son's rudeness Sarutobi-san." He said even as Hiruzen offered his own apologies. "But are you sure the boy wishes to learn puppetry? He seems to prefer the direct route."

"Yes. I'm sure. I do not understand his reasons. He has kept his own counsel beyond the words. 'It's awesome.' He's become quite fascinated."

Kogane nodded to himself. "Very well then. Shall we adjourn to your office to discuss the details then?" The Hokage nodded and the group walked towards the tower, the two children bickering the whole way there.

As the four settled into the Hokage's office Kogane sipped at the tea that Hiruzen had brought for them. "Delicious as always. It's rare to get such fine tea in Suna. Now to business. I was quite perplexed when I got your letter, that you wanted us to willingly turn over one of our greatest techniques. I'm sure you can understand how, insane it seemed." The third nodded. "But after I thought about it, I realized, a new perspective, some fresh eyes, they could provide wonderful new avenues to my village. So to protect him from reprisals, our demands for my permission are this. He will turn all puppet designs of his over to us, Any technique he develops will also be given to us. He is not allowed to teach anyone but my shinobi his skills."

The Professor sipped at his tea. "Well Naruto, does that sound fair to you? I think we can do a bit better don't you agree.?" Naruto kept quiet and nodded, the old man had talked to him extensively about what the negotiations would probably be like. "I must decline your generous offer Kogane-san. The price is too much to pay. So I shall make my own offer. Naruto will be free to teach whomever he wants, can keep any and all techniques he creates to himself. He will receive one basic puppet and he will share his puppet designs in exchange for materials to be delivered from Suna. I will also send a small supply of the tea you seem to enjoy so much back with the courier." He took a sip of his tea and set it aside. "Is that acceptable to you?"

The negotiations between the adults started to move faster, neither boy able to keep up with the nuances of the agreements until finally, "Naruto." The boy perked up. "We have come to an agreement." The fourth Kazekage nodded. "It is of course, up to you Naruto. Kogane-san has no intention of allowing you access to the same materials they use, a young un-skilled wood carver would simply waste too much. He will give you scroll that will teach you how to build the basic components of a puppet, the types of joints and such you'll need and then have his son demonstrate for you the basics of the art. After that he will leave you to develop as you will. In return for these favors, he expects half of all the original techniques you come up with, and anything you give him above that will have their worth negotiated by Kogane-san and myself. They will be repaid in techniques, mechanisms, or materials that you may request. In additions, you may classify a set of techniques as clan jutsus that can be taught to your family."

Naruto looked at them, understanding that what they just said was important, but knowing that he'd just gotten his wish. "Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes!"

Kogane chuckled at the energetic boy, honestly he doubted the boy had the attention span to figure anything out, but one could never be too sure. "Then, Sarutobi-san, shall we sign the paperwork?"

Sarutobi groaned.

The sandaime Hokage stared at the pile of leaves, or more precisely, the figure of mulched leaves. "Naruto, is that you?" The figure very slowly nodded it's head, not surprising since the Hokage estimated that he'd gained a substantial amount of weight from the leaves sticking to him. He reached over and scraped leaves away from what he figured to be Naruto's mouth. "What did you do?"

The boy chuckled sheepishly. "Well, you know that exercise you showed me? With the leaf?" The third felt like groaning. "Well, it wasn't working, So I figured, if I stuck a whole bunch all over my body, I could train it like, a million times faster!"

"But it didn't work."

Naruto again laughed nervously. "Nope. I used that giant leaf pile that's collected every year when they start falling."

Sarutobi groaned. Again. He could guess what happened from there. "Naruto, formerly living matter like leaves, absorb chakra automatically. That's why they're good for training chakra control, once you actually get it to stick, you have to figure out how to unstick it."

"Um, help?" The walking leaf monster asked.

Sandaime shook his head, put his fingers into a seal, and slammed them into the boys chest disrupting his chakra. Even as the mulch dropped down next to him though, the old man began to laugh at the boy who's skin and hair had been dyed green from leftover chlorophyll. Chuckling to himself he plucked a leaf from a nearby tree and put it on Naruto's forehead. "Maybe just one at a time from now on, eh?"

He strode away, very happy that his ANBU had taken a photograph before alerting him to the situation.

Naruto sat under a tree at the academy, his chakra concentrated to hold the leaf to his forehead. His fingers slowly working through his lunch in an attempt not to lose the leaf. He'd quickly learned how to hold it, and how to let it go. But so far, the concentration to hold it on for a long period of time, or while doing other things eluded him and he softly cursed as the leaf fell. Sighing he was about to go back to eating his lunch when a hand smacked him in the back of the head.

"Watch your mouth before I give you detention."

Naruto looked up at the scarred man. "Meh, you don't even work here, nyah!"

The man glared back. "Actually, I am an assistant teacher starting today." The man flopped down next to him. "So watch your mouth. Anyhow, was that the leaf exercise you were doing?" The young boy looked at him. "No, not really. The old man showed me this so I could learn better control for my chakra."

The man smiled. "Well, sounds like this 'old man' of yours is kind of crafty. That's a basic exercise designed to increase your focus, sounds like he made it into a chakra control exercise too." He nodded. "Looks like you're having trouble with it, what's the problem?"

Naruto looked up to the new teacher. "Well, I can't do anything else while doing it, I can't hold it."

The man looked at him and laughed causing Naruto to frown. "I'm sorry, just, I think I know what your problem is. "

Naruto frowned and looked away. "Cause I'm dumb right, that's what they always say."

The man stopped laughing as he heard what the blonde said. "What, no!. Your problem is your trying too hard. It's like walking. You don't want to think about every single step you make, it has to become second nature to you so you can do other things. You need to relax a bit more. And once you do, I'm sure that leaf will be no match for you." He patted the blonde on the head. "I'll see you later, and remember, watch your mouth." Naruto watched the man walk into the building before realizing he'd never gotten the scarred chuunin's name.

Naruto drummed his fingers on the desk, a nervous habit he'd developed when he was thinking. A relentless tap tap tap tap, tap tap tap tap, was slowly driving his teacher to the point of eye twitches. Which when Naruto noticed it became the icing on cake. He'd spent over a year at this point on the first step of being a puppeteer, on those thrice damned chakra threads. It wasn't particularly hard, it was just that he couldn't seem to extend them any real distance. And as usual when Naruto was stuck at something, he tried to relax, most of which was actually spent examining the puppet in the archives and making various small scale puppets that weren't very good, Though he was getting better at carving the joints his frustrations still led to projectile puppets once in a while. One of which had been had been heavy enough to knock out some kid who's hair had all sprung up in the back.

Naruto wasn't especially sure why he'd felt a moment of satisfaction as it happened, but something had made the detention worth it. Applying a small bit of chakra to his fingers Naruto laughed as a pop pop pop pop joined the tap tap tap tap. Suddenly the teacher snapped and turned around tossing an eraser at Naruto. He reacted the way any ninja, (or troublesome child) would. He puts his arms up to block. It took him a minute to notice the teacher was yelling at him, not that it mattered, his eyes were on the desk where strings of chakra were still attached to the area he'd yanked his hand from, as his eyes traced them up to his fingers he smiled.