Pulling the Strings

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or any other crossovers that appear in this fic.

Note: There will be various minor pseudo-xovers, via Puppets and Weapons. There will also be some gender-swapped characters.

"Hi" means talking

'Hi' means thinking

-Hi- mean location/timeskip

"Hi" means Jutsu

(Hi) means Jutsu translation

"Hi" means demonic/out worldly voices

'Hi' means demonic/out worldly thoughts

*Hi* means a sound; roar, cough, sigh, munch, etc.

(Hi1) means author's notes and translations. Notes with numbers are at the end of the chap, usually for a longer explanation or a link. Translations will be for terms that aren't used often in fics.

Chapter 1

-Konoha Ninja Academy-(8 years after Kyuubi's Attack)

Naruto was bored, his teacher, Iruka was going on about something boring again, from what he could understand through his bored daze, Iruka was going on about the importance of gathering information and understanding the target, to stand a better chance against them. Lucky for him though, class was nearly over for the day, then he could go to Ichiraku and get the food of the gods, Ramen. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard his name being called by Iruka.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

"I didn't do it!" responded Naruto instinctively, causing the majority of the class to laugh.

"You're not in trouble Naruto, this time. *Sigh* Just come up and get your assignment." said a deadpan-faced Iruka.

Blushing in embarrassment, Naruto quickly went and picked up the paper given to him by Iruka, gaining a slight blush at seeing the face of a cute girl with short red hair and greyish-brown eyes, next to her picture was various types of information, such as her name, Shiori(FemSasori1). After he finished admiring the cute girl, he turned to his friend Shikamaru.

"Oi, Shikamaru, what are we supposed to do?"

"Mendokusē, we're supposed to research these guys and put down how we would take them down. I got stuck with some guy from Kiri named Raiga, with some creepy obsession with funerals."

"Sugoi(Awesome/Cool/Amazing/Etc), I got this cute girl named Shiori who's a… puppeteer? How can someone be ninja by using dolls?" wondered a confused Naruto.

"It's one of Suna's most famous abilities, they can control giant puppets that are supposed to have a bunch of hidden weapons or something." explained the Nara. Just as he was about to go into further detail, the bell that ended the school day rang, followed by a quick gust of wind, which he knew from experience was a certain ramen-obsessed loudmouth. "*Sigh* Mendokusē…" moaned the lazy genius as he packed up his stuff to leave too.

-Ichiraku-

As Naruto finished slurping down the rest of his first miso ramen, he was wondering about the subject of his weekend homework, her profile lying on the counter in front of him, when heard a familiar kind elderly voice.

"What's that you have there, Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned to questioning voice and saw that it was indeed Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage.

"Jii-chan! It's for a report at school, we're supposed to find out how to take out these people by knowing them or something." Explained the blonde.

"Oh? May I see who you got Naruto-kun?" asked Hiruzen, who whistled when he saw whom it was.

"Akasuna no Shiori, an impressive kunoichi, Naruto-kun." Stated the Hokage.

"Eh, Akasuna no Shiori? You know her Jii-chan?" asked Naruto.

"Not personally, but she is quite famous and infamous for a variety of reasons." From there Hiruzen explained the reasons for Shiori's fame, along with what he knew of her skills. Once he had finished, Naruto gained a newfound respect for his research subject, along with her primary skill, Puppetry.

"Wow, imagine what you could do with those puppets." Said Naruto, thinking of the various pranks he could pull, placing the blame someone else, mainly people who were mean to him.

Laughing, having a good guess at what Naruto was insinuating, Hiruzen replied, "True, puppets have often been used for infiltration and framing certain targets, while being disguised as celebrities or nobles, some puppeteers can even wear their puppets. Unfortunately though, Suna-nin are very protective of the secrets of that particular skill set."

Naruto pouted at that, mourning at loss of the number of pranks lost to him. However, it turned around once Hiruzen continued, "However, that is only for the more unique skills and abilities, Puppetry as a whole however, while not very common, can be learned. Unfortunately, Konoha doesn't have any users of the art. But, when I get the time, I'll help you try and find some scrolls on the subject." Just as Naruto was about to yell in joy, Hiruzen dropped a bit of a shock on him. "However, the thing about Puppetry, is that it requires good chakra control." This caused him halt his shout.

"Kuso!" Cursed the jinchūriki, knowing that control was one of his biggest weak points.

"Just think of it as an incentive to train your control, Naruto-kun." said the aged ninja as he chuckled.

Grumbling about how boring the control exercises are, he starting eating his newest ramen.

Hiruzen, gaining a thoughtful look on his face. "There are other things you can do with good chakra control, such as walking on trees and water." As he finished explaining, he walked to the nearby wall and, to the shock of his charge, actually started walking up the wall. Hiruzen let out a laugh at Naruto's dumbfounded look. He then went back to his seat. Just as Naruto ran past him, he grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt for a moment before releasing it, causing his body to become parallel to the ground and causing him to fall on his butt.

"Itai! What was that for jiji?!" yelled Naruto, as he rubbed his backside.

"You don't want to damage Teuchi-san's shop do you?" at the confused look on the blonde's face he explained, "If you use too much chakra, you might accidentally break the wall." Seeing that the message got across as the boy gulped, doing so again at the stern looks the father/daughter duo were giving him.

"Another thing good control is good for, is that it also helps you perform certain jutsu easier, and if you become skilled enough, you can decrease the number of hand seals needed for jutsu with a larger number. An example of this was one of my sensei's, the Nidaime Hokage, signature jutsu, which normally requires forty-four hand seals, but his control was so great, he only needed one. Another trick is being able to use jutsu by creating seals with only one hand."

Naruto, once more gained a shocked look on his face, imagining himself performing some awesome jutsu with only one seal and other by making seals with only one hand.

Laughing lightly at Naruto's look, Hiruzen finished his bowl and payed for his ramen and left after saying his goodbyes to Naruto, Ayame, and Teuchi. A few minutes later, getting a bit worried, Ayame snapped her fingers in front of Naruto's face, bringing him back to reality. Looking around and asking where the Sandaime was, the two explained him leaving and that he had been having a daydream for a bit. Laughing awkwardly, Naruto finished his ramen and left after paying, to head to the library to look for more info on his research subject.

After arriving at the library, he found a few of his classmates; Shikamaru, Chōji, and Shino. After greeting them in his usual enthusiastic style, which resulted from a 'Shh!' from the librarian. After deciding to work together to help each other out with this project they spent the rest of the day trading around their subject papers and getting books on their particular skills.

-Suna, Four Weeks Later-

Naruto was quite proud of the progress he had made with Tree Climbing, especially with help from a clone of the Sandaime, he had even learned Water Walking. These had greatly increased his chakra control, and he was just starting to learn how to use Chakra Strings. However, Hiruzen had recently told him that he would be gone for about a week, to help reestablish the treaty with Suna, but Hiruzen offered to bring him along, which he accepted, wanting to see the home of his latest hero (and 'secret' crush).

Suna was a lot duller than he thought it was going to be, especially when comparing it to how colorful Konoha was. As he walked around, with his watcher, some pseudo-jōnin with sunglasses(Aoba) looking for anything that screamed 'puppeteer' until he got bored and decided to just look around. He soon stumbled upon a place that was called 'The Water Hole'. Upon entering he was greeted by a receptionist, after asking what the place was, he learned that it was apparently a place where, as the name said, a person could do various water based activities, such as swimming or fishing.

Deciding to take a break from his search, he decided to do some fishing to relax and get back some of his energy, while his watcher decided to go rest in a cool spring(a spring which is just a bit below lukewarm), after separating he had apparently got turned around. He entered one of the nearby rooms to ask for directions, to find an old lady that was being eerily still with a loose grip on her fishing rod.

"Oi, Baba(Granny), are you ok?" he asked as he slowly got near the woman. When he was only just a few feet from her, she let go of her fishing pole, making Naruto start to freak out. But just before it landed in the water, it was suddenly back in her hands, with her facing him with a smirk on her face. The sudden change caused him to back up too quickly and fall on his butt.

"Gotcha, I was playing dead!" The woman smiled with a wink before letting out a chortle as Naruto calmed down, before he started to release a laugh of his own.

"You got me good Baba."

"Thank you, now, what are you doing here youngin'?"

"Hehe, I'm kinda lost and couldn't find my room." Admitted Naruto sheepishly.

"Well that's not good, if you want you can use mine, I'm just waiting for my brother." The elderly lady offered.

"Thanks Baba! Oh, who you anyway?" asked the blonde.

"Oh, I'm just a humble old lady, my name though, is Chiyo. Now, what's a child like you doing here, instead of your home in Konoha?" asked Chiyo.

"How'd you know I was from Konoha? Oh, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage and Konoha's Puppeteer, ttebayo!" said Naruto.

"An Uzumaki, interesting." whispered Chiyo, before saying out loud, "Oh, Hokage? That's quite the claim, and a puppeteer on top of that? What makes someone not from Suna want to be a puppeteer?"

Naruto went on to explain how he found out about it and how neat it sounded to him, not noticing the look on Chiyo's face when he mentioned Shiori.

After he finished his tale, Chiyo got an inquisitive look in her eye.

"Hmph, I doubt a gaki like you could become a puppeteer, let alone one as skilled as Shiori."

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean you old hag?!"

"What do you think it means, you runt." She then suddenly moved to smack him in the head with her fishing pole, only for him to dodge and then yank it away with a chakra string.

"What the hell was that for you hag!?" shouted the blonde.

"Haha! Well done, not many as young as you can make chakra threads on instinct, especially when you learned how to just a few days ago."

"Huh?"

"Well, young man, I just happen to be a bit of a puppeteer myself. Now, how would you like some lessons?"

Shiori Appearance: Hikaru from Cross Ange.

crossange. wikia wiki/Hikaru