Heading to the Land of Hot Water was mostly done inside of the Land of Fire, as their destination was on the coast where the Land of Whirlpools had officially controlled in the past. They took their time, arriving at the Land of Hot Water itself early in the morning two days later at a border station manned by a pair of Yugakure shinobi, both of whom seemed to be relieved that the team from Konoha was there.
"We don't know what set the defenses off," one of the shinobi said. "But whatever triggered them has caused problems for two nearby hot springs and we've not been able to get close."
"With any luck an Uzumaki will be able to get through without as much issue," the other added. "Or at least that's what our village's documentation on the places says. Only an Uzumaki can safely lead people in and out, but Hidan killed the last remnants of the clan that had settled in the country when he went missing-nin."
"Any other information you can give us?" Naruto asked. Despite there being two jounin with them, he was still officially the mission leader. Hayate and Yugao could pull rank if they wanted, but seemed content in letting him lead.
...which meant that this was just as much a test of his leadership skills as anything else, of course. But that was basically expected at this point.
"The location you're heading to uses puppet-like defenses," the first shinobi said. "Most are fixed in place, with only a few that normally patrol closest to the port, but new ones we've not seen before have started spreading much further out and the fixed ones have become far more active as well. We assume that someone tried to break into the central structure, which was used by Uzushiogakure for secure loading and unloading of cargo."
"Being descended from people that knew how to build to last can be annoying at times," Naruto quipped. Of course, the descriptions provided of the new roaming puppet-like defenses didn't match anything Konoha had on record for the place, which is where the 'likely a trap' came in. At the same time, the stationary defenses were active, and Naruto was one of the few people available that could likely approach those.
A quick recommendation on the best way to approach the port was sketched out on a map before the group continued on. Naruto had sent clones ahead of them, and by the time the group reached the outer defenses the clones had managed to calm them down and were examining how they worked. Each of the stationary defenses had what appeared to be an underground connection back to the port for overall command and control functionality, a suite of advanced sensors, and a slew of seals that made them incredibly tough.
The Tome had taken detailed scans of the whole thing, courtesy of being sent ahead with a clone, but didn't really understand how any of the mechanics worked beyond that it was definitely not a puppet by any normal definition. It had a much easier time with all of the seals that kept it in working condition, but the rest of it was quite a bit beyond anything they knew how to make...though Kushina and Shukaku admitted that they recognized a number of things in a general sense even if they had no clue what they did. Uzushiogakure had been fairly advanced before it had been destroyed but neither had been all that interested in how the technology worked.
Less obvious was that a small number of roaming units had cleared the path ahead of them. The Tome was just as interested in their construction, but the looks Naruto's clones had gotten at them indicated that they weren't puppets in any current sense of the word. These were all fully mechanical devices, and they weren't sure how they were being controlled. Possibly some form of radio, but the Tome wasn't currently able to work with that.
All of this made it far more interesting when the scouting clones ran into actual puppets, controlled by chakra strings.
"There's a puppeteer ahead," Naruto sent to the group with the communication technique. Hayate couldn't communicate back that way, but could hear it. And had sworn that he was going to work on being able to communicate with it. "Presumably they're part of why the defenses are on alert to begin with."
"Can your clones see the puppeteer yet?" Hinata asked.
"No, but all the strings feel the same so currently the assumption is a single source with possible clones to help control more puppets."
Everyone produced at least one chakra-metal blade, as those could cut through the strings controlling puppets even if you couldn't see them. Naruto and Hinata could use the byakugan to target them more precisely, of course. But when the scouting clones found the puppeteer...which appeared to be a small organic blob in another puppet, there was no obvious move to engage them. Be in the way on the path? Yes. Ambush them or attack them by surprise? Not really. The puppets weren't even moving to surround them.
"Two figures ahead," Naruto sent to the others. "Black cloaks with red clouds, one appears to be a puppet with another puppet inside of it, the inner puppet containing a living core. The outer puppet has a scratched-out Suna protector. Then the other individual has extra mouths in various places with a scratched-out Iwa protector. My best guess is Sasori for the puppet, and the other matches descriptions of Deidara, both members of Akatsuki according to the bounty listings."
"We should turn around now," Yugao sent.
"They're standing in the open on the path, and I'm positive that they know we're here. I think it would be better to see if there's a reason they aren't trying to ambush us instead of triggering a chase if we try to leave without talking to them, but sending a clone or two feels like a good compromise. Perhaps ones for Hinata and I, plus you two behind us, without revealing the genin at all?"
There was a pause before Yugao nodded. The four made their clones and sent them ahead.
"This is definitely weird," Hoshi offered. "Don't missing-nin types usually keep a lower profile?"
"As far as I know," Tenten answered. "But they also tend to get some of the weirder missions, and for all we know they got stuck and noticed that the defenses let Naruto pass."
Sakura was confused. Lady Tsunade had delayed their departure for a day after a significant training accident the night before, and Karin had decided that the extra free time was perfect for the two of them to get some time together. Just the two of them out of the entire class, despite half of the students having been hit by the beast-man formula by now. This wouldn't be too bad...if not for the fact that their destinations and Karin's behavior this morning made it feel like a date.
"Is this practice for interacting with Sasuke?" Sakura finally asked. Karin had been helpful in pointing out some of the stupid things any of them had been doing in relation to the boys they were interested in.
"Not really," Karin replied. "This is me expressing interest in you."
"...what?"
"I decided that I'm interested in Sasuke as well, and have a bit of an advantage there for a couple of reasons, but finding out that she can be quite cute led to me looking a little more...broadly."
That...wasn't helping the confusion. Inner was also silent on the subject, which was fairly normal ever since the Yamanaka had started keeping tabs on her over-dependence on it.
Karin obviously realized that there was confusion, sighing. "I think we can both manage to date Sasuke, and each other."
Sakura blinked a couple of times, trying to process that, before blushing heavily. Yes, the slightly older girl was attractive, smart, strong...but also a girl! "I'm not..."
"I doubt you'd be blushing that much if you didn't find some part of me appealing, and I get the feeling that if you have zero attraction to girls then you're going to find some aspects of Sasuke...less than appealing these days."
"Just because he's dressed as a kunoichi doesn't mean anything."
"...I wish I could explain, but his secrets are his own."
This was nothing like Sakura expected to be confronted with today, and she wasn't sure how to take it. Or the implications that there were major things about Sasuke that she didn't know.
"That said," Karin continued. "We have a couple of years before any dating is likely to turn serious, so getting him used to going on 'harmless' dates with both of us just makes it easier to get into a proper relationship when we're all a little older."
...now that sounded like proper long-term thinking, assuming Sakura could wrap her head around the rest and decide what she was actually comfortable with...
"Hello there," Naruto's clone called as they approached the pair of missing-nin.
"Are you at least a clone that can tell your creator what's going on here?" the puppet called.
"Yes."
"Ah, good! I'm Sasori, and this is Deidara. You would appear to be the last Uzumaki of Konoha, if our research is correct?"
"Most recent one that was born there, but there are technically a couple of others. Last current holder of the name that I know of though."
"Huh. As we understand it, you also received a set of my former puppets? A human, a cat, and a fox?"
Naruto shook his head. "I didn't get the cat."
"...are you willing to reveal who did? I hold an interest in my creations not being seen as a joke, as you might understand."
"An academy student interested in learning puppetry for their own reasons."
"Ah. So it'll be a while before I can test them at all. That still leaves wanting to ensure that you don't make the art or my creations look...useless."
"And how would you propose to do that?"
"By testing you, perhaps two of my current puppets against the two you were given to see where you stand? I'm...less than impressed with the direction Suna has been taking puppetry, and perhaps you'll be able to take it in a more impressive direction. Should you impress me with what you've accomplished on your own then I'll provide you with some additional information, as I'm told Suna didn't provide anything of use, and seek you out for a more significant test later."
"That would explain why you're here, but it doesn't explain Deidara."
"I'm his partner, hm," Deidara said. "But rumor also has it that you used explosion release during Konoha's chunin exams. That's my kind of art, and we've heard that you also make seals. That's an art of its own, even when not used for explosions. I appreciate all art and am curious about what you can do."
"He's big on art of all kinds," Sasori agreed.
"...so you two just want to see how I handle your own interests?"
"And maybe to offer you some tips to show up those in our former villages, hm," Deidara agreed.
The conversation had been relayed back to the actual group as it was happening, and some quick discussion had resulted in a general agreement that humoring them now was better than them taking offense later or attempting to chase them down. Provided, of course, that multiple people were ready to pull Naruto out with summoning should it prove to be needed.
"I'll need a minute for the real me to make it this far," Naruto's clone stated. "Would we be starting with puppets as the...less destructive option?"
"That does sound prudent," Sasori agreed. "Deidara's preferences do tend to be far more destructive."
It didn't take long for the actual Naruto to move forward. Hinata and a couple of his clones were ready to summon him out if needed, but he made sure to get the seal tag containing the two puppets out before he reached the duo. That wasn't in his normal field kit because he wasn't an expert in puppetry and preferred using clones. Luckily he had it with him and didn't need to have a clone fetch it back in Konoha.
"So here I am," Naruto said as the group of clones moved off to the sides to watch.
"You have the two puppets?" Sasori asked.
Unsealing the puppets and performing the paperwork clone technique to stick a clone into the seals in each of them only took a moment, and he hoped that it wasn't obvious that he'd done the latter. The fully functional seals let the clones operate the puppets and use their chakra, which would hopefully be a bit of a surprise.
"Impressive," Sasori said with a nod as the puppets stood up. "Most puppeteers have to keep their fingers pointed in the general direction of the puppets." Two of his own puppets came out of the trees and landed on the road, one looking like a wolf and the other being humanoid. "But let's see how you do in basic combat."
It was obvious that the missing-nin wasn't trying his hardest, especially at first. But as the four puppets fought the difficulty ramped up multiple times as Sasori realized that Naruto's skill was higher than expected. More obviously surprising was when the clones in the puppets started using techniques like the replacement technique, gentle fist style strikes to sever Sasori's chakra strings, basic elemental bullets, and even a Rasengan from the humanoid puppet.
None of it was enough to overcome the missing-nin's own skills, but it very obviously impressed him. After around an hour of back and forth he pulled his own puppets back, triggering Naruto's clones to halt and back off as well so as to not annoy the man.
"Definitely more impressive than the last three Suna idiots I tested," Sasori said, another puppet coming out of the forest with a set of scrolls. "You've passed my test today, and these scrolls contain some information on more advanced mechanisms than those found in Suna's current collection as well as a couple of later puppets of mine that I no longer use."
Naruto's clone collected the scrolls, and they'd be examining them in more detail out here instead of potentially bringing traps or tracking seals back to Konoha.
"My turn," Deidara said. "We should head to the water, hm, because the protections here are annoying when I blow things up in the trees."
Heading to the shore didn't take long, with Sasori grumbling that of course the defenses now didn't care about them. Deidara created a large bird out of explosive clay and sent it flying out over the water, a sizable explosion creating shockwaves when it detonated. He seemed quite happy with the result, and the Tome was interested in how his modified body worked to make the clay. Couldn't get a perfect look, but some initial scans were done and there was a suspicion that extra chakra net nodes were involved.
"So do you want to see seals or just me making an explosion?" Naruto asked.
"He's definitely going to want to see how big of an explosion you can manage on short notice," Sasori answered. "If that's with seals or not is going to be up to you."
"Yeah, hm," Deidara said. "Art is an Explosion, after all!"
Naruto nodded, popped the third and fourth gates open, and then pushed an insane amount of chakra into a single paperwork clone. He then had it run out onto the water while he formed a stone wall to serve as a quick bunker. Once the clone was far enough out it attempted an explosion release variant of Itachi's modified suicide technique. The result was much larger than expected, creating massive shockwaves and sizable waves coming right at them...and probably heading straight for every other section of land visible from the detonation point. A quick move up into the trees after the initial shockwave passed was enough to keep them dry, but Deidara seemed to be giddy as they did so.
"You definitely pass my test, hm," Deidara declared as the water started to recede under them. "That was awesome, Uzumaki, my man. A true demonstration of the Art of Explosions!" A scroll was pulled from a seal sewn into the inside of the man's cloak and thrown Naruto's way. "This is a copy of the forbidden technique from Iwa used to grant the ability to mold chakra into materials, hm. Most don't want to go to the final level like I did to get my extra mouths, but there are other levels."
Another scroll for the 'examine far away from Konoha with clones before considering bringing it back', and almost certainly something that the Tome was going to spend time examining first instead of Naruto making any attempt at using the technique to learn more about it that way.
"We'll seek you out again some other time to ensure that you aren't slacking," Sasori declared before another bird was created by Deidara for the two to climb onto. Said bird flew low over the trees long enough for Sasori to collect his other puppets, and then flew out over the water to leave.
"Well that was a thing," Naruto said, before turning to the obvious building only a little further down the shoreline. "I suppose that ensuring that the defenses are a little less active is all that's left of our mission."
"That would probably be a good idea," Hayate's clone commented. "Good luck explaining the explosion to the Hokage."
"S-Class missing-nin wanted to see who could make the bigger boom and left peacefully after the contest without attacking any of us."
"...okay, that does sound a little less likely to be complained about than I was thinking."
"I think he modified my puppets to be able to use any techniques he knows!" Sasori exclaimed as they flew away, throwing ideas around inside of his head. "They could use the replacement technique with each other and other objects, use body flicker to move more quickly, the obvious elemental techniques... I don't know how he did it, but I'm going to figure it out because doing that is a perfect complement to my human puppets."
"I thought you were playing with him, hm," Deidara commented.
"So did I! But he didn't even seem to be paying attention to the battle, and with more experience and better puppets he's got the potential to be the next legendary puppeteer. He makes Suna's current crop look like children playing with toys despite his obvious lack of practice in puppet tactics, but with the way he modified my puppets he may not need the traditional tactics."
"...you're going to be testing him for real, and not just because we want to flush out Uzu?"
"Oh, definitely. Nothing wrong with accomplishing multiple goals with the same actions, but I need to get some serious work done before we even think about confronting him again."
Now then, if the humanoid puppet was the one he thought it was, it had been his failed prototype for his current self. Which also meant that the boy had enough knowledge to strip out the old seals before making his own modifications to both puppets...and the modifications were likely seal-based as well, for that matter. Which made sense for an Uzumaki, but meant that duplicating things without a sample was going to be far more difficult. The Uzumaki gift for the sealing arts was well known...
Getting into the building hadn't been a problem, though finding the control center had been a little more difficult. Several Uzumaki-only doors had been involved, one that even required bleeding on it, before a room with monitors and clearly marked instructions was found. Naruto had used clones for everything but the door that required blood.
"I feel cheated out of a fight," Tenten grumbled as Naruto's clones worked to get the defenses to stand down from their heightened state. "You just played with puppets and made a single gigantic explosion."
"If it had come down to a fight then we might've been screwed," Hayate retorted. "Escape was our best option at that point because we weren't ready for that fight. We were lucky that they'd sought Naruto out for more personal reasons instead of looking to claim bounties on us."
"There isn't a bounty on me yet anyway," Naruto retorted. "At least not as of my clones checking the lists back in Konoha over the past twenty minutes."
"...really? After your showing at the exams I'd have thought that there would be one."
"And possibly piss off the resurgent Uzushiogakure?"
"That...is an aspect I hadn't considered. Anyone with a tailed beast affiliated with them is going to avoid that, and I think that covers everyone that might care enough about you to put out a bounty."
Half a day of checking the scrolls for traps and tracking seals had been followed by a couple of hours of stripping tracking seals from the puppets before they'd moved on to heading for Yugakure. That led to two days staying there while the defenses were checked by locals to ensure that they were in the 'stand down' state, and a bonus had been authorized for getting them into a lower level than they'd been a few months ago. The girls had appreciated the hot springs they had access to for the couple of days, but the animal features on everyone other than Kiba had drawn quite a bit of attention.
They'd then surprised basically everyone by returning openly, despite not having anyone to 'escort'. That Hayate and Yugao hadn't signed any summoning contracts was unknown and they'd not wanted to use the 'temporarily thrown into a prisoner transport scroll' plan to help keep the 'mysteriously returned to the village' dance going. Debriefing after running into S-Class missing nin was unfortunately not simple, at least for Naruto. The rest of the group got off lighter because they hadn't been in charge, but in the end his decisions were accepted as one of the better ways to have dealt with the situation.
Then there was the examination of what had been provided by the duo. Sasori's was basically a puppetry how-to guide, a puppet building and maintenance guide, and two puppets. Copies of the guides went into the village archives and to the Hyuga for Hanabi's use and the puppets were left with Naruto. One was a large and heavy bear puppet with an armored torso that could be ridden inside of. Possibly with another person or two if none of them were too large. The other was a humanoid puppet, but with four arms instead of two...and designed to be run with a single chakra string instead of multiple, increasing the complexity of learning to control it.
According to the puppetry instructions, the best normal puppeteers could handle ten puppets by controlling one with each finger. Sasori had added a note that he didn't expect others to figure out how he'd overcome that particular limitation for his hundred puppet army, but that at least one of his teachers had been able to get up to twenty by including their toes if they didn't mind being pinned down in place due to the focus needed. Being able to control multiple puppets at once practically demanded learning the one string per puppet trick though, and Naruto suspected that not being able to put on a show of controlling all the puppets he had so far at the same time would be a bad thing the next time he ran into the missing-nin.
Deidara's scroll was more of a potential issue, being a forbidden technique set. Naruto got to keep a copy, though the Tome had a full scan and was going over it, while the village was going to have others examine it for safety as well. It was the kind of thing that was incredibly dangerous to play around with, and that was assuming it was legitimate and not some kind of trap.
Four days of outfitting people with blood-locked chakra boosting seals, attending dinner with each of the genin's families to discuss how they were doing, and two more zombie seals being installed in training areas had followed. By comparison, dinner with the Hyuga after all of this was far more relaxing, even if Hanabi had heard of Ino's collar and wanted one for herself to make it easier to pretend to be a pet cat.
To Hanabi's dismay, her mother had convinced Naruto to sneak in a bonus for when the collar shrunk with her. One of several bows provided by Satomi would appear tied to the back of the collar, and there was no easy way for the girl to remove them. They also appeared when she turned herself into a plush toy, but apparently she'd attempted to just make herself smaller so her hands would still work and found that the knots were impossible to undo.
Which would be because they were less 'knots' and more 'stitched into place' because they'd needed to be part of the collar to make it all work properly.
Satomi was also the 'owner' on the back of the tag on the collar, despite Hanabi wanting Hinata or Neji to be the one listed. Ino had the justification of being out on missions with Naruto for her owner's information, and it was honestly quite intelligent of her to realize that having herself or her parents as the owner could create problems if she needed to be 'claimed' on a mission. Hanabi didn't have that justification, so she was stuck with her mother until she had reason to swap the tag out for one listing her sensei after making genin. Hiashi had a version of the collar itself that didn't include the bows to hand over then as well, since the bows were a little attention-getting.
Naruto had also been convinced to make a selection of collars in different styles at that point, including a set for Tenten to carry. Ino and Hanabi were the only ones in the shapeshifting group that were openly wearing them around the village, but having a selection of collars and tags would allow for more variety in pretending to be pets.
Amusingly, Ino's decision to wear a collar had seemingly started a fad, with a bunch of others that had gotten 'pet-like' animal features getting their own collars even before Hanabi had. The vast majority either didn't have a tag or had a tag with a nickname and no owner's information on the back though. Academy students made up the bulk of the exceptions there, ten of the eleven which were regularly wearing collars with tags having their parents' names on the backside of the tag.
"We were going to ask how you wanted to continue your training," Hinata said a couple of weeks into January after things had settled down. "But Naruto pointed out that it feels like you three might be ready for paperwork clones."
"If I'm right then we're probably working on getting you three acclimated to running a clone as often as possible for the next month or two," Naruto continued as he produced three of the paperwork clone scrolls. He'd honestly thought that Ino and Sasuke had been ready for a month, but had held off until Kiba felt ready.
It didn't take long for the three to grab a scroll each and find that he was right and they could all read them, so the day turned into ensuring that they were aware of a number of things. Some mentioned in the scroll, some not. The need to not overdo things because it could be harmful if you tried to make too many clones at once was mentioned in the scroll, but not that shapeshifting a clone could include anything created with the clone even if you weren't Naruto. As expected, Kiba could manage a single clone, but Ino and Sasuke managed two each.
Within a couple of days they'd managed to get all three taking small missions in the village or training their real bodies while clones took care of other duties. Kiba's only 'other duty' right now was running Tsukiko at the shrine, though his mother had made some kind of bet with him that had him running around as a female version of himself during training. Ino was running Natsumi at the shrine and swapping between herself and a new Jiro identity at her family's flower shop. Sasuke had Mariko at the shrine and no real consistent second clone, bouncing between various forms and identities apparently at the daily suggestion of his brother.
"I pulled strings to get Ino onto a team with Naruto just because of his shapeshifting trick," Inoichi grumbled. "Only for her to be pushed further than I ever expected."
"We were hoping for a bit of a failure of existing teams so that our kids could be shuffled together," Choza agreed. "But it obviously isn't happening."
Shikaku snorted. "Which is what I told you would be the case when you brought up the possibility. Shikamaru has continued to flourish under a trapmaster, and has even started spending time with his new teammate Ami as they've both worked to improve their skill in the art. To hear him talk, the Aburame are going to need to up their trap game to keep up with Shino's insect-triggered fare as well."
"Choji isn't exactly slacking now either, unlike the problems he had under Asuma. Kurenai is doing far better than expected on her own and is creating a far more balanced set of skills in her new three than I'd normally have hoped for. He's even over his shyness around girls, though I suspect that's mostly because the rest of the team is female and he had to get over that to function."
"Ino started using shadow clones to do her store work," Inoichi said, causing the other two to turn to stare at him. "Yeah. She's also using more and more small utility techniques without any hand seals or vocalizations, keeping a schedule as a shrine maiden when in the village, and doesn't need the normal clan infiltration techniques to blend into a crowd without being noticed."
"The last time I swung by your shop you had a new boy helping out," Shikaku pointed out. "Jiro, I believe he said his name was?"
"Yeah. Took me by surprise too. I got annoyed that Ino wasn't doing her shifts, angrily told her that I might have to have her spend a night or two in the dog house. She both retorted that she doesn't have a dog house and demonstrated that the boy is her practicing disguises."
"...I'm no expert sensor, but I'm fairly certain I'd have noticed if that was your daughter."
"Team Yurei's methods are apparently just that good, using some Anbu-sourced tricks."
Shikaku blinked at that, but nodded after a moment. It was an understandable oversight in thought processes given how infrequently non-Anbu learned those skills and the normal training periods required for them. Something that was probably going to be changing going forward given that the kids learning them were doing so fairly quickly while adults going into Anbu could take years. Sure, it would make catching missing-nin harder, but Konoha tended to have fewer of those than the other villages did for a number of reasons. Conversely, the ones they did have were generally far more dangerous on their own or due to the ones backing their defection.
"Is that why you were seen checking with Tsume about dog houses?" Choza asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes," Inoichi spat out.
"So you can follow up on the threat now if she actually slacks off, at least."
"...no." His two friends gave him a look, and he sighed. "She rightfully argued that we have no place for a dog house, so she stuck it in the Uzumaki compound where there's plenty of room."
The worst part of the snickering from the two was that it echoed his wife's reaction to finding that out. It was far more annoying than finding out about the dog collar, not that Ino was the only one with dog features in the village that had decided to play things up. She was one of the few with owner's information on the back of her tag though, at least as far as he knew. He might've preferred that she'd chosen him or her mother, but that was a knee-jerk reaction and it'd only taken a few seconds of consideration to decide that Naruto was honestly the best choice. It was a toss-up between him and Hinata, and the part-cat sensei having a pet dog would draw far more attention if it came up on missions.
Kid, regardless of timeline you have a bad habit of turning enemies into allies. Sort of.
