Yashamaru's kick snapped into the training post hard enough to crack the wood.
He pulled back, moved from side to side, and kicked again. Same spot. The crack deepened. For an academy student, it was remarkable.
Karura watched from the courtyard wall, legs dangling, scarf draped over her knees.
"Don't stop moving even after you land a hit."
Yashamaru adjusted. Kicked again. This time he easily managed to follow-up his kick with another kick that followed almost immediately after.
"Yep! Constant motion is the foundation of the Dust Devil fighting style."
He'd long outgrown the academy curriculum. The clone jutsu, the substitution, the basic hand seals and shuriken/kunai accuracy, all of it brought up to a proficient level months ago. His instructors kept telling their mother that Yashamaru was "gifted" and "advancing rapidly." They didn't know the reason was sitting on a courtyard wall eating cactus fruit.
Now Karura was training him in the things that would keep him alive. Her personal taijutsu style meant for puppeteers despite Yashamaru choosing not to become a puppeteer. Chakra control exercises that built the foundation for everything ninjutsu. Basic genjutsu and the like.
"Take a break from Dust Devil. Let's see your binding cloth."
Karura unsealed a scroll. Five clouds of smoke popped across the courtyard.
Five small puppets stood in a loose semicircle around the training yard. Child-sized. Light frames, barely reaching Yashamaru's chest. Each one had a maniacal grin carved into its face like little imps.
Yashamaru stared at them. "When did you make these?"
"This week. They're called Bang." Karura hopped down from the wall.
"Bang?" Yashamaru looked at the grinning little puppets. At their child-sized frames. "They blow up?"
"I wonder..." Karura grinned.
"That's..." He tilted his head. "That's totally awesome, Nee-chan!"
"Don't underestimate them. They're fast, they're unpredictable, and they're super cute." She flexed her fingers. Five threads connected to five puppets. "Your job is to bind them before they reach you. Use your cloth. Treat them like five enemies rushing you from different angles."
Yashamaru pulled the rolls of cloth from his hip pouch and wound them around his forearms and legs with chakra, the ends hanging free at his wrists. His eyes tracked the five grinning puppets.
"Ready?" Karura asked.
"Ready."
The Bangs ran forward.
Each one took a different path. The first sprinted straight at Yashamaru, full speed, its grin looking at him. The second zigzagged left, cutting a serpentine path across the courtyard. The third leaped onto the courtyard wall and ran along the top, coming from above. The fourth curved wide to the right in a long arc. The fifth was hidden behind the first one for a brief second.
Yashamaru didn't have time to track the fifth one because the first one was already three meters away.
He flicked his right wrist. Cloth unspooled from his forearm, chakra-controlled, the fabric snaking through the air and catching the first Bang around the torso. He yanked. The cloth cinched and the puppet's legs left the ground, bound tight, its grin still aimed at him as it dangled from the binding.
The zigzagging second Bang was close. Yashamaru whipped cloth from his left arm at it, timing the throw to where it would be rather than where it was. The fabric caught its legs mid-zigzag and the puppet tumbled, wrapped from knee to ankle before it hit the dirt.
Two down. Three seconds.
The wall-runner leaped from above. Yashamaru spun, kicked the descending puppet in the face, and followed with a cloth wrap that extended from his leg. It caught it mid-tumble and pinned it to the ground.
Three down. Five seconds.
The wide-arcing fourth Bang was closing from the right. Yashamaru was already turning, cloth ready, when it suddenly changed direction and sprinted straight at him. He threw the binding. The cloth caught it across the chest and he pulled it tight, the puppet's grin disappearing under layers of white fabric.
Four down. Seven seconds. Yashamaru grinned.
"Where's the fif..."
Something latched onto his back.
Small wooden arms locked around his shoulders. A grinning face pressed against the back of his neck. He felt the vibration of the mechanism inside the puppet's chest activating.
Bang!
Grey smoke engulfed Yashamaru in a cloud that covered the entire courtyard. He stumbled out of it coughing, waving his arms, the dissipating puppet still clinging to his back with its arms locked and its grin aimed at the sky.
Karura was laughing with her hand on her stomach, nearly about to fall from the wall.
"That's not fair!" Yashamaru pouted, pulling the spent Bang off his back. "Where did it even come from?!"
[Tenfold has activated!]
[You have gained tenfold teaching results!]
He looked around the courtyard. His eyes found it: a small hole in the dirt near the courtyard's far corner. Fresh soil piled around the edges.
"It dug underground?!" He stared at the hole. At the puppet in his hands. At his sister, who was still laughing. "One of them DUG UNDERGROUND and came up BEHIND ME?!"
"I told you not to underestimate them." Karura wiped her eyes.
Yashamaru held the spent Bang at arm's length and stared into its grinning face. The smile looked a lot less funny from this angle.
"How did you even think of something like this, Nee-chan?" he asked. "It's so... devious."
Karura's laughter faded as she thought about Bang's creation. She took the puppet from him and turned it over in her hands, looking at the child-sized frame, the grinning face, the light build designed for speed.
"I needed something small and fast that could reach enemies before they could react," she said. "Small means faster. And..." She paused. "People hesitate when something small runs at them. Even shinobi."
"Are you saying that I could take out a grown-up just because I'm small?!" Yashamaru's eyes lit up like stars.
"It's possible." Karura nodded. Some ninjas hesitate when fighting kid ninjas, giving them an opportunity to land a killing blow when normally there wouldn't be.
Yashamaru beamed. "Can we do water training next? I almost made the stream split yesterday!"
"After lunch."
His water and wind affinities had been discovered two weeks ago when Karura brought home chakra paper from the supply depot. The paper had split and soaked simultaneously. Same affinities as two of her three. She'd started him on the basics immediately, sustaining the effect on natural materials, building the foundation that would take most shinobi half a year.
With Tenfold teaching, Yashamaru would get there faster. Every session she gave him counted as ten. The boy didn't know it. He just thought his sister was a really good teacher. Even better than his instructors at the academy.
"Wash up, Yasha. And tell Mama I'll be back before dinner."
"Where are you going?"
"Master Chiyo's place. Sasori needs help with his puppets."
"Can I come?"
"Not today. He's shy."
"I'm not scary!"
"You're very scary. Especially when you're stinky. Go wash up."
He groaned, unwound the cloth from the post with a flick of chakra, and trudged inside. Karura watched him go. Teaching Yashamaru was one of the simplest joy she had. Just a sister spending time with her brother.
…
The sound of wood cracking against wood led her to the training yard behind Chiyo's main house.
Sasori was five years old and already a hard worker.
He sat cross-legged in the dirt with a puppet laid out before him and a second shape beside it, half-assembled. Red hair fell across his face. His brown eyes were locked on his work.
The finished puppet was a three-eyed, four-armed humanoid with jagged teeth and spiky brown hair jutting from the top of its head. Karasu. Crow. Sasori's first combat puppet, bristling with concealed weapons that the regular five-year-old had no business knowing how to install.
The unfinished one beside it was something new. Squat, barrel-bodied, with a bucket-shaped face sporting two sharp red horns and six arms in various states of completion. Three had full joint articulation. Two had the skeletal framework but no outer housing. The sixth was just a mounting bracket with wires hanging from it. The barrel torso was open, exposing a grinding cavity mechanism that wasn't connected to anything yet.
"Karura-nee." Sasori looked up. His voice was flat for a child. "You're early."
"Finished with Yashamaru sooner than expected. Is that new?" She nodded at the unfinished puppet.
"Kuroari. Black Ant." Sasori's hand rested on the barrel frame with a possessiveness that said this was his, designed from nothing, not a copy of anyone's work. "It captures. The torso opens, pulls an enemy inside, grinds shut. The arms hold them still while it closes."
Karura knelt beside it. She studied the grinding mechanism, the arm mountings, the way the barrel's interior was lined with saw teeth that would interlock when the cavity shut. Scary design for a young child's mind to produce.
"What inspired this?" she asked.
"Crow can fight but sometimes killing is wasteful. Shinobi also need to capture enemies." He mentioned. "And Crow can push enemies into the trap. One puppet to pressure, one puppet to catch."
"Did they mention something about interrogation and capture in the academy?" Karura wondered.
"Yes. I got the idea then. Crow can't capture someone. Well, no, it isn't built to capture someone."
Karura looked at him. At the five-year-old planning a two-puppet combat system before he could even operate the second one. "Already planning to control two puppets at once? You don't think you're moving a little fast?"
He gave her a look.
"...Right, sorry. Grandson of Chiyo…" Karura had a small smile. "Show me what you changed on Crow."
Sasori opened a panel on Crow's left forearm. A spring-loaded senbon launcher, compact, fitted into a housing inspired by Million's extending arm design. Scaled down to fit the puppet's slimmer frame.
"The spring tension is right," Sasori said. "But the reload mechanism jams after the third volley. The housing is too tight for the spool."
Karura pointed to the spot. "Shave this down here. Two millimeters. The spool needs room to breathe when it cycles."
He nodded and picked up a rasp before getting to work.
Crow's right arm had a new concealed blade that folded out from the wrist joint, a shorter curved edge inspired by Reaper's scythe. The mechanism worked properly. The hinge was smooth. He'd gotten the engineering right on the first build.
"The blade is good," Karura said. "Really good. The hinge work is better than what I see from some chunin puppeteers."
He didn't react to the compliment. He was already pulling Crow's chest panel open to show her the smoke bomb launcher he'd installed behind the sternum.
"Ready to test?" Karura asked.
She could see the small light in his eyes that showed his eagerness, despite the lack of any curve on his lips. "Yes."
Karura unsealed Million. The four-armed puppet stood in the training yard, grinning its carved grin, its stocky frame towering over the five-year-old and his single puppet.
"I'm going to attack you with Million. Defend and counter with Crow."
Sasori connected his threads. Crow rose from the dirt, four arms spread, weapons primed. Its three eyes stared at Million's grinning face.
"Begin."
Million charged. Crow's senbon launcher fired three needles at the approaching puppet's legs. Million sidestepped. Crow's concealed blade extended from the right wrist and slashed at Million's midsection. Million caught the blade between two of its four hands and shoved Crow backward.
Sasori recovered the puppet instantly. Crow's smoke bomb fired from the chest cavity, a grey cloud that filled the space between the two puppets. Million pushed through the smoke and Crow was already behind it, blade aimed at the spine joint.
"Good," Karura called. "The smoke bought you two seconds and you used them well."
[Tenfold has activated!]
[You have gained tenfold teaching results!]
Sasori's thread work sharpened in real time. Every correction Karura gave him landed with ten times the weight it should have. His puppet's movements tightened, the gaps between attacks shrinking, the retreats becoming counters, the counters becoming traps. Crow fought Million for ten minutes and by the end the five-year-old was actually damaging Million.
He wasn't even close to winning against her, but certainly put up a respectable fight.
After enough time, Karura called for a stop.
"Your offensive timing is solid. The smoke-to-repositioning trick is smart and you should keep developing that. The blade needs to be faster on the extension. And consider coating the senbon with poison when you're old enough to handle the compounds."
"Grandmother said I'm too young." Sasori pouted without visibly pouting.
"She's right. When you're older, I'll teach you how to mix safer, less deadly compounds and toxins."
He didn't smile but Karura could tell he was on the inside.
Sasori looked at Crow, then at Kuroari lying half-built in the dirt beside him. His fingers twitched. He wanted to connect threads to both of them right now, Karura could see it in his hands.
"When Kuroari is finished," he said quietly. "Will you help me get better with him too?"
"Of course."
"I'm going to control them both at the same time."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Karura smiled.
"I'm also going to control ten puppets when I get older, just like you."
"That might be a bit difficult, but as long as you work hard, I don't see why you can't." Karura figured.
With her kekkei genkai, it should be possible to help him reach that level. After all, with enough chakra control, and observational awareness, technically any puppeteer could control ten puppets at once. It's not like there is some secret method to being able to control ten puppets at once. Just very very very difficult.
He looked at her like he was checking whether she meant it or was just being kind. Whatever he found in her face seemed to satisfy him.
Karura looked at Crow one more time. At the modifications. At the way Sasori had taken pieces of her designs and rebuilt them into something that fit his own puppet, his own style.
A five-year-old looking at their senpai's work and seeing not something to replicate but something to learn from and surpass.
"Thank you, Karura-nee."
"Same time next week?"
He nodded.
"I hope you continue to make beautiful works of art, Sasori." She gently rubbed his head.
Sasori stared up at her blankly for a moment. Then he turned back to Kuroari's open barrel frame and murmured, "...Art."
She sealed Million and left the house. The afternoon sun was warm on her shoulders.
She didn't get the hour she'd planned for.
The messenger hawk arrived before she reached home. Report to the Kazekage's office immediately.
The Third Kazekage was behind his desk. Sayo and Torune were already there, standing at attention. A fourth chunin stood beside them, a girl Karura didn't recognize. Fifteen, short dark hair, standard chunin gear. Blank expression.
"Karura. Good. Thank you for arriving promptly." The Third didn't waste time. "You four are being assigned a B-rank escort and protection mission. The client is Lord Soran of the Land of Dust."
Soran.
"As you know, the Land of Dust has undergone a significant transformation since the previous regime was removed. With the legitimate government restored and Iwagakure's economic exploitation ended, the country has experienced rapid recovery. The trade routes that were being redirected to benefit Stone have returned to their natural paths. The mining contracts that were being funneled through Iwa intermediaries have been renegotiated to benefit the Land of Dust directly. Foreign merchants and investors have returned now that a stable government is in place, and the reconstruction efforts following the regime change have generated substantial economic activity."
He folded his hands on the desk.
"The Land of Dust is now one of our most valuable economic partners in the Land of Wind. Suna has preferential trade agreements with Lord Soran's government, and maintaining that relationship is a strategic priority. Which brings us to this mission."
He picked up a scroll. "Lord Soran is traveling to the Land of Glass to formally meet his betrothed. The engagement is a political alliance intended to stabilize the Land of Dust's western trade relationships and cement its economic recovery. The Lord has requested Sunagakure's protection for the journey, and he requested you by name, Karura."
"I understand, Kazekage-sama."
"You will lead the team. Sayo and Torune will serve under your command, along with Chunin May." He gestured to the fourth girl, who bowed her head. "Escort the Lord to the Land of Glass, remain for the duration of the engagement ceremony, and return him to his capital without incident. Estimated duration: multiple weeks."
Karura took the mission scroll. "How soon should we depart?"
"Pack for multiple weeks and leave as soon as possible. Today."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama." She turned to her team. "Go home. Pack for a long journey. Meet at the village entrance in two hours."
"Yes, captain." the three of them said.
They filed out. Karura turned to follow.
"Karura."
She stopped.
The Third Kazekage gave her a gentle smile. "I have the highest expectations for you, Karura. Based on your growth so far, I see you reaching jonin before the year is even up. Keep up the good work."
Karura bowed. "I won't let you down, Kazekage-sama."
She left the office and stepped into the corridor. Two hours to pack, say goodbye to her family, and prepare for a mission that would take her back to the country where she'd gained the chakra reserves of monsters and the exclusive bloodline that previously belonged to Konoha.
She adjusted her scarf and started running.