(coughs) Don't ask. Don't flame. I don't want people saying that Sakura is a bitch and why the hell I put her with Sasori. It just happened. It clicked and I got hooked like a damn fish. Blame my brain and my love for crack pairings. So, those who are going to flame their asses off, I'll just smirk seeing how worked up you are by this whole pairing. It's really amusing though seeing it in all caps and your brain about to explode while foam coming from your mouth. At least...that's the picture I get while reading them...

Now, to clear some things before I start. I know I suck at details and have an odd writing style. I know my flaws and I have been getting better the past years. For those who surpass me, I envy you since I would love to write beautifully like that.

Also, a big thank you to my friend Roadkill2580 for beta reading this for me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor am I making any money off of this. If I did own Naruto, I would make all pairings possible 'cause I'm just that nice :P

Puppet Master of Life - Chapter One

Sakura held her breath from breathing in the poison that was flowing around her like smoke. Her emerald eyes squinted before she leaped off the ground, seeing two ninja crashing into each other below her. She finally got away from the cloud of poison, immediately opening her mouth, taking in huge breaths to fill her lungs.

"Sakura!" Naruto kicked the ninja beside him in the hip while punching one in the face with his knuckles. He watched her land on the ground before leaping toward him, hearing her taking in breaths. "Sakura? Are you alright?"

"Yes – this is nothing Na-"

"Ahhh!" The four ninjas that Naruto and Sakura had been fighting for a while charged towards them. Sakura clenched her first, feeling the chakra gather before she looked at Naruto, both of them nodding before they ran forward to meet the other ninjas.

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed while she made her signature move. A punch into the gut while roaring out, the ninja flying backwards and break through three trees. At the same time, Naruto had a clone help him make the Rasengan and send the ninjas spiraling back like the top of a helicopter. The four of them were knocked unconscious by the attacks.

The two friends looked at each other, catching their breaths while giving weak smiles. Another mission accomplished.

.:/-+-\:.

"We completed the mission," said Sakura while she and Naruto walked into the room of the Fifth Hokage, who was reading a scroll before looking up. "Ah. I see you passed-"

"Eh?!" Naruto blinked, "Another stupid test?!"

"Yes. The two of you don't train that much together so, I sent you both on a mission. Why did you think it said not to kill them?"

Naruto let out a groan while Sakura smiled, "So, do we have any other missions?"

"Yes and this one is real. There is havoc in Kusagakure, the hidden village in the Land of Grass. The medicine that they grow there is being affected mostly while people have to live in the ground underneath their homes while shutting all the holes because of a mysterious poison gas."

Naruto flashed his infamous smile, "Now that's a mission." Sakura took the scroll from Tsunade who looked at them, "Be careful you two and follow whatever they say." Both of them nodded before she dismissed them so they could gather whatever they needed before leaving towards the gate.

"Finally, a real mission after I finally became a Chunin."

"Interesting fight."

"Yeah...he reminded me of Sasuke though." Both of them fell silent until they reached the gate, the two guards there noticing them immediately. "Hey! We heard you two got a mission."

"Good luck!"

Naruto chuckled while waving, Sakura only smiling while they walked outside of the village. "Yeah, he did remind me of Sasuke too. But, let's not dwell on that Naruto. We can't be depressed about it the whole time."

"..."

Sakura blinked, "What?"

"I can't believe you said that. He's our frien-"

"I know that. But if we continue to be down about it, especially over at Kusagakure, we won't be able to help them."

"Aren't the people there unpleasant?"

"Even if they are," Sakura shot him a glare, watching him smile sheepishly, "We were asked to help them. They probably won't be rude to us. If they are..." Naruto watched the fury flare up in her emerald eyes like green fire. Naruto looked to the side and mumbled, "They'll be very sorry."

"Did you say something Naruto?"

"No. Not at all." He flashed her a grin while she looked at him suspiciously.

.:/-+-\:.

"My...my beautiful plants ruined! That's it, I'm leaving this village, this is just way too much!" The man was going hysterical but was stopped by one of his friends taking a fist hold of his shirt. "Stop acting like that! You remembered what happened to those that left. They disappeared without a trace!"

"I'd rather die then live through this!" His friend only sneered at him before letting him go. "Even with these glass boxes we made for our plants, the poison gas went through. Not to mention entered people's homes and they were poisoned. They died in three days because no one could fix up an antidote." He looked up at his fellow planters, who wore expressions like a child that broke his toy.

"Maybe if we get a fan to blow it out?"

"We tried that. More came in and we couldn't get it out. The plants immediately died."

"We need to find out who did this," said the one who grabbed his friend's shirt, his voice deep like a commander before he looked over the field. They had to wear masks that kept the poison gas out. Everyone wore these – even when sleeping – since they didn't want to take any chances. "It just can't come out of nowhere. The soil will soon be intoxicated by this and we'll have to make a new village."

"Good thing we sent for other ninjas to help us. But, did you really have to request from Konoha, Akira?"

Akira glared at the man who spoke, "Did you have a better village in mind?"

"Ah ha...no."

"Didn't think so." They started to take out the dead plants and turned over the soil, a breeze coming in while they worked with the sun shining down on them. It had been like this for a whole week and they at first thought it was just some dump someone made but they were proven wrong.

A woman started running toward them, taking huge breaths with the mask protecting her mouth. "There's more coming from that direction Akira!" She brought up her arm to point her finger to her left.

"What?! More?!" Akira turned to the women and then looked to the right, seeing the small cloud of poison coming their way. "Damn it. You three come with me." He turned his head back to the woman, "Go get the rest of the help squad." The woman nodded and immediately ran toward her destination while Akira and his group went toward the poison.

The poison started to come toward them but they weren't going to run away, they were going to go right through it to find out the source. The cloud of the harmful substance surrounded them like one being stuck in a bubble while they kept running. Even if they did have masks to cover their mouths, they had to be careful since the masks weren't the best quality.

The cloud was quite huge so they picked up their pace immediately, the thought of jumping out of it not even thought about. After it seemed like a minute of poison gas, they finally came out of it. "Finally. I was getting worried there." Akira turned to the one that spoke before looking ahead. "Let's pick up the pace one more notch – if you can that is."

"Ha. No problem."

"Tch, nothing to it."

"I ate breakfast, so, count me in."

Akira grinned before all four of them picked up their pace across the field, wisps of grass coming out from their feet. They were met with two more gas clouds but they were smaller than the one before and they were quite slow, so getting through them was a cinch.

"Hey...is that..."

"It's a person!"

"Eh, yeah. We can tell by their shape."

"I believe the saying is Captain Obvious."

The three of them chuckled while the one that was dubbed Captain Obvious, looked annoyed. "Yeah, you three just go straight to hell."

"We'll save a seat for you Kousuke."

"Look out!"

A huge shuriken whizzed toward them and they jumped away just in time. "The hell?!" They landed on the ground, separated into two now while the four of them looked at the figure that stood thirteen feet away from them. They squinted their eyes to see who it was but they had to jump away from another attack of the shuriken – two huge ones this time – to the two groups.

"Hey! We're not here to fight, we just want to know if-"

"Shit!" The two shuriken had a latch open to make four small shuriken come out of it before the latch closed. "What the...hell?"

"Apparently that person doesn't want to talk-"

"Well he's gonna!" One of them ran forward immediately, Akira, Kousuke and the other one looking at him at shock before blocking the weapons with kunai and their own shuriken. "Get back here Haruo you idiot!"

Haruo opened up his pouch and took out two kunai to block the offending weapons coming his way while his friends covered his back. He ran toward the figure, his sandals hitting the ground swiftly before he threw the two kunai toward them. Instead, the weapons embedded itself in wood. "What the..."

"You ruined my puppet...I guess I shall do the same toward you." The puppet's chest opened up and sent needles to Haruo but he jumped out the way, fear not latching upon on him. "Who are you?!" The figure didn't say a thing before the puppet's right arm came up, the wood popping up to send needles once more at Haruo. Cursing, he jumped but realized that wasn't such a good idea since one of the needles embedded itself on his right foot.

"Ahh!"

"Haruo!"

"You bastard!" Kousuke started to make signs with his hands but the shuriken that they had forgotten flew straight toward him and the others. "Ahh!" Kousuke hissed in pain when one of them was now on his right shoulder, blood oozing out from the wound. "Kousu-" Akira dodged the shuriken flying toward them, using his arms and legs to dodge them while using trees that were beside them as shields.

He jumped away from the tree when he saw the shuriken swiveling toward him before he pushed off the tree that was behind him into the air. Taking out three kunai, he threw them all at once to make it veer off course.

"Ahhh!-k!"

Kousuke was hit in the leg, the pain making him fall down immediately on the ground. Akira jumped out from behind the tree, the shuriken following him. He had to kunai and was hitting the weapons the figure guided toward him. "How is he doing this?"

SHING!

Akira clenched his teeth when he pushed against the shuriken but it didn't move away from him, he had to jump backwards to dodge the other one coming toward him. Kousuke let out a hiss when he pulled out the shuriken. "Damn it...hey-what are these chakra strings-ah-" His eyes followed the strings which lead him to the unknown figure. "He's a puppet master!"

"A what?!" Akira ducked in time before pushing himself forward before twisting his body.

"A puppet master! You know – someone who uses puppets!"

"Ohh – shit! My foot is going numb," cried out Haoko. "What?!" The figure chuckled darkly before he sent kunai straight toward Akira's legs while he moved the shuriken above him. "Tch." Akira pushed back the cloth that hid his katana, taking it out of it's sheath to jump while leveling the sword with the shuriken. "Where's Takeo?"

"You mean – he ran off!"

"That bas-"

The figure turned around, hearing ground breaking but didn't dodge in time. Takeo had snuck his way in the ground, waiting for the right moment. The figure wasn't affected by his punch and merely caught him with his puppet's arms. "What a pitiful attempt."

"The hell?! You aren't even bruis-oh...shit."

His friends turned to see what made their friend say that word, and when they saw what he saw, they were shocked. The cloak on the figure was black while red clouds with a silver outline was sewn onto it while a zipper was dead straight in the middle. But, that wasn't what scared them. What scared them was his face. Pale, flawless skin while his grey eyes made his red hair stand out.

"Sasori of the Red Sand."

"So you're the one that was sending-ahh!"

Sasori looked at Haoko who was being affected by the poison that he put on his needles. The shuriken didn't have any though. "You have three days to make an antidote if you wish to live."

"What?!"

"So it was you! You bastard," shouted Kousuke. Sasori only looked at him before guiding the shuriken toward him to stab him in his left shoulder. "Ah-!" Akira was still pushing the shuriken away while Sasori just stood there, his hands up with chakra strings coming from his finger tips.

"I heard that you killed without mercy."

Sasori smirked, "If you wish to die so much-"

"I wasn't asking for a damn death wish!" Kousuke took out the shuriken out of his left shoulder to throw it at one of the small ones coming toward him to make it veer away. Sasori was merely playing with them with his shuriken before he actually killed them. He rarely used these but they were easier to use than his puppets. Then again, his puppet collection had been destroyed by that damn brat and his grandmother.

"Such a mouth you have. You four are going to die anyway," he said with an evil grin while he moved his fingertips. All four of them widened their eyes in shock before Sasori made his puppet push Takeo toward his friends before the latch on it's side opened up, revealing blades.

All four of their eyes widened before they tried to get away. Sasori could only smirk more when he watched the friends help each other up, Takeo putting Haoko on his back while Akira did the same with Kousuke. "Such a pitiful attempt to try and run!" Sasori's eyes widened in a psychotic nature while his puppet sped toward them, the sickening sound of bodies being shredded sounding through the air again and again.

"To think a mere brat and my grandma defeat me while these four young men couldn't." The blades went back into the puppet while he guided it toward him before opening up the scroll to seal it in it. The other members assumed he was dead but he wasn't.

Right when he transferred his heart to one of the puppets, he used one of his puppets to go in his place that looked like him with a flask of red liquid that looked like blood inside the chest. He sent his voice through the chakra strings that he made so thin, that it could be passed as a part of a spider web. It was a very difficult technique to do since he had to concentrate hard.

It was also difficult to make it appear like he was dead and to guide the puppet down to make them believe he was dead. He let his grandmother and the girl live so they would think that he was dead. He wouldn't kill his grandmother but he will kill that girl.

That girl will become his puppet. She proved herself to have quality by using an exploding note to get out the cloud of poison, seeing through his attacks in a short amount of time, having incredible strength, and even made an antidote against his poison in a few days time.

Sasori looked at the bodies that he shredded. He was sending his poison to the village that was beside Konoha to bait that girl, knowing full well that they would send her. The other two with her, that he assumed, would only be played with.

He could just see the look of her face she would make when he took out her organs, flush away all the blood, soak her body in a liquid to keep it from rotting and then finally make her into a puppet. A small sadistic smirk appeared on his mouth while he looked ahead of him.

Sasori really hated waiting.

.:/-+-\:.

And that be it for this chapter. Next one shall be up soon! And by soon, I meant in one to four days. Who knows. This one has more spark than my Inuyasha related ones. Haha, whoops. Ah oh well. Reviews would be gladly appreciated. It's disheartening when I look at my Stats for my stories and one of them has over 800 hits and it only has 5 reviews. Now that's just sad.

Stop being lazy and review. I appreciate those who do review with a simple, "OMG I LUVED IT! KEEP GOING!!!!1" As much as I hate caps and the lovely number one at the end, send them to me. Show me your love for this pairing! Show it to me! Okay...need to stop listening to Phantom of the Opera soundtrack...