Connection Between Puppets and Plants

Haruka yawned loudly, her mind barely registering what the Kazekage was currently saying to her and her teammates inside his office. She had taken hours scrubbing herself in the bathroom just to get rid of the stench that was glued on her body. She even used some of her grandmother's flower petals in the garden to make sure that the dog foul odor got off her for good. It was already 7 o'clock when she finished bathing. She didn't have time for a rest and was fighting hard to stay awake.

"It seems that there's no more D-rank mission available for today," the Kazekage's voice brought Haruka back from her tired reverie.

"Does that mean we don't have to do our first mission today?" the girl asked, hoping for the mission to be cancelled so she could rest at her house instead.

"Not precisely."

"Eh?"

"There are still a lot of C-ranked missions left unsettled," the kazekage continued. "Do you think you and your team and ready to take on this mission, Hotoka?"

"Erm... I don't know, this is their first mission, after a-"

"WE'LL TAKE IT, SIR!"

"Eh, Kimi-kun?" Haruka looked at her blonde friend in disbelief.

"What's the mission?"

"S-Sasori? Not you too!"

"Alright then," the kazekage smiled. "Your mission is to guard the cemetery in the island of haze for 3 days."

Haruka's eyes widened at this. She could not even respond after she had heard the word 'cemetery' and 'the island of haze'. "C-C-Cemetery...?"

"Huh? Why would we need to guard the cemetery? Isn't that the place for dead people? Why would we need to protect dead people?"

Haruka could feel the goosebumps rising on her skin when she heard Kimi's words.

"Oh, forgive me, did I just say cemetery?" the kazekage laughed at his mistake, making Haruka sigh in relief before she heard him correcting himself, "I mean 'mortuary', not cemetery."

The poor girl's blood had gotten entirely drained from her face.

"Apparently some people have considered stealing the dead bodies and vandalizing the mortuary as their hobby. You'll need to guard the place from them and retrieve all the missing bodies that were stolen from there."

"Ooh... so all we have to do is to get the corpses back and beat up all those bad people?"

"To put it simply, yes."

Haruka stared at both Kimi and the kazekage as if they both had grown extra heads. She could not believe that she was going to protect a mortuary and collect corpses on her very first mission.

"Since when does that idiot start talking in an original point of view instead of his usual Kimi Raikkichi's one?" Sasori whispered to his childhood friend who only shrugged her shoulders as a response. He looked at her face and noticed that it had gotten a lot paler than usual. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? What? Oh, of course I am! Why wouldn't I be? Ahaha..."

Sasori knew she wasn't telling the truth but decided to drop the subject and focused his attention on the kazekage instead.

"Can we leave now? Can we? Can we?" the blond boy asked enthusiastically.

"Of course. Take care of them, Hotoka."

"Don't worry; these kids know how to take care of themselves. Right?"

"Right!" Kimi Raikkichi answered for his teammates.

The four of them bowed to the Kazekage before leaving his office and headed to the entrance gate of Suna. They would have to go through a long walk before they could reach their destination.



Hotoka led his pupils through the desert ground, heading toward the harbor located at the east end of the desert.

Haruka had no clue on exactly which way they were heading to. She only followed her teammates from behind, her steps hesitant and feeble. She had never thought she would have to go to her worst nightmare on her very first mission. It was so unnerving that she even thought of running away from this task and head back to her village to beg the kazekage to give her another mission. Realizing how pathetic her thoughts had sounded, she shook her head frantically. She could never ditch her own teams just because she was scared of facing the dead bodies in the mortuary. No matter how scared she was, she's still going to carry on this mission.

'At least I'm not alone', she thought.

After passing through the desert for so long, the team finally arrived at the harbor. There was no one visible there, only some wooden boats with no owners. Haruka wondered if the people who rode the boats to the island of haze never came back to the harbor. She shuddered at her own thoughts and - for a second - reconsidered on riding the boat with her teammates.

"Are you guys sure that thing is safe to ride on?"

Her teammates looked at her in confusion. "Of course, why wouldn't it be?" Sasori answered for her.

In truth, Haruka was just making excuses to prevent herself from going to the island of death. She quickly shook her head again. Her fear was getting the better of her and she needed to get rid of it fast.

The four of them proceeded on riding the boat, with Hotoka and Sasori paddling while Kimi Raikkichi and Haruka sat in the middle.

It wasn't long until they found themselves inside the mist near the island. Haruka gulped when she saw the island was already in view. It didn't look like haunted island of death or anything but she knew better than to judge something by its cover.

Hotoka and Sasori stopped the boat at the harbor of the island. The four of them walked out of the boat and went to the central office of the village. It wasn't difficult to find it since there were only a few buildings on the island with no inhabitants in them.

'What kind of village that has zero population? Oh right, this kind of village,' Haruka thought, eyes scanning her surroundings warily.

They finally arrived inside the office building where the man who gave the mission had been waiting for them. He was quite old, probably in his mid 50s.

"Welcome to the Island of Haze," the man smiled warmly. "Thank you very much for coming here to help us. "

"It's our job," Hotoka smiled back.

"I believe the kazekage has already told you about our crisis here?"

"Yes, he has and we'll be glad if you can take us on a short tour around the area."

"Of course, of course. Follow me," the old man said as he began to lead them out of the office, but stopped just before he reached the door. "Oh, where is my manner... I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Bukchoy Nigiri but you can just call me Bukchoy."

Hearing the old man's name, Haruka and Kimi glanced at each other for a moment before snorting in unison and quickly covering their laughter with a cough. Even the red-head was biting the inside of his cheek to refrain himself from laughing.

"My name is Hotoka and these are my pupils, Sasori, Kimi and-"

"KIMI RAIKKICHI!"

"...yes, Kimi Raikkichi... and Haruka."

"Ah, I see. It's a pleasure to meet you all," the man said warmly at the 4 of them. "You know, my grandson has the same name as you, Hatori."

"...sir, it's Hotoka."

"Yes, yes, that's what I said, Hisoka. Well anyway, I can tell you more about him later, we'd better move on with the tour now."

The team sweatdropped at the old man in front of them, following behind him in silence.

They walked past many old buildings on their way to the mortuary. Haruka took notice at how eerie the place was. She did not see any living beings during their walk. Everything around them looked dull and desolated. She wondered how the old man was able to live by himself on this island.

"Sir, how can you live on this isolated island on your own?" Haruka decided to voice her thought out.

"Live?" Bukchoy slowed his pace and glanced back at Haruka. "Ohoho, young girl, I don't live on this island. Nobody does."

"Eh?"

"I only came here today to give you a tour around the mortuary. I will return to my home island after finishing my job."

"S-so... the only people here on the island... is us?"

"Indeed. Oh, don't forget about the thieves. They might be here as well."

Haruka chose to end their conversation there and remained silent throughout the journey. She couldn't help but keep wondering about the worse things that could happen to them during their stay here. Before she knew it, they had already arrived in front of their destination.

"Here we are," the old man's voice brought Haruka out of her reverie.

Haruka felt a shiver running down her spine as she looked at the building in front of her. Sure, the whole town seemed dead and lifeless, but this building topped it all. If it weren't for the gargoyles on the top of the building, it would seem like a normal house for her.

Okay, it was a lie. Even without the gargoyles, it would still look like a mortuary to her paranoid eyes.

Bukchoy unlocked the entrance door before sliding the steel door open, revealing a long hallway inside. "Let's get in."

Hotoka and the boys followed after him but Haruka stayed at where she was. The group soon noticed her absence as they walked further into the building. They turned around and looked at her shaking form in front of the main door.

"...Haruka?" Hotoka called out unsurely.

The girl had her arms around herself, eyes glued onto the long hallway before her. Her lips were quivering as she stared at the dark scene in front of her. "Please... please not here... anywhere but here..."

"Haruka, it's alright..." Hotoka said, walking toward the poor girl.

"No... no, please, I can't go in there..."

"Don't worry, nothing will happen to you. We're here, remember?"

"No, no, I still can't..."

"Haruka-chan, it's alright. Kimi Raikkichi is here with you!" the blond boy added reassuringly.

"B-but I... I-" Haruka was about to continue when she felt her feet suddenly walked on their own. She looked down at her body and her eyes widened when she saw blue chakra strings had attached themselves on her. "NO! LET ME GO!"

"Stop whining and just get inside. The faster you do it, the faster this mission will end." Sasori replied nonchalantly, moving Haruka's body until she had walked past the door.

"NO! LET ME OUT OF HERE! STOP CONTROLLING MY BODY!"

"Aka-no-baka, stop it! Haruka-chan's freaking out!" Kimi Raikkichi yelled.

"Do you want to get this mission done or what?"

"Well..."

"Ah, younglings these days... they are so full of spirits!" Bukchoy exclaimed happily, still walking deeper into the mortuary.

Hotoka could only sweatdrop at the comment.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"

"Quit... struggling.. so much!"

"Aka-no-baka, don't be too hard on Haruka-chan!"

Hotoka sighed inwardly, 'This is going to be a long mission.. I can tell...'



After many futile attempts of freeing herself from Sasori's grasp, Haruka finally gave up and let herself get dragged across the room by the puppeteer. It was no use fighting him for he was stronger than her. She could only hope to come out of the building alive after this smothering tour.

She looked at her surroundings to avert her mind from thinking about the dead bodies. The building looked even worse inside than outside: peeling paint on some walls, disorganized wood paneling on the ceiling, filthy cobwebs on every paneling, rickety floor board that seemed to always creak everytime it was being stepped on. In short, the place was a mess.

"Here we are," Bukchoy announced their arrival and opened another large steel door, leading them into a pitch black room.

"It's so dark! Kimi Raikkichi can't see a thing!"

"That's because I haven't turned on the light," the old man chuckled. "Now, where is that light switch... Ah! Here it is!" with a single flick of his finger, the lamp was on, illuminating the room below it.

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight inside the room. There were numerous of frozen glass tubes on the wall, filled with corpses which varied from male to female, young to old.

"Wow..." Kimi Raikkichi breathed out, taking a closer look at one of the glass tubes.

"Yes, wow indeed," Bukchoy replied.

"See, Haruka-chan? They're not so scary at all! In fact, they are kinda coo- Haruka-chan?"

Unfortunately, they were all too occupied on the canned corpses; they didn't realize that Sasori had loosen his chakra strings on Haruka's body and that the girl had successfully escaped from his wrath and disappeared from their view.



She ran out of the mortuary, not once looking back for she was afraid that Sasori might be on her track. Quickening her pace, Haruka finally arrived at the entrance door and pushed it open with all her might. She continued running outside and stopped a few feet ahead of the building, trying to regain her breath. Once her breathing had gotten back to normal, she sighed in relief, opening her eyes and took a look at the isolated town before her.

'Well, at least it's better than being inside that room,' she thought. She took a walk toward the town to clear her mind from the haunting images of the corpses she had seen in the mortuary. She didn't know where she was heading but going back wasn't an option, so she kept on walking. Soon, she found herself standing in front of the forest which is located at the east side of the small island.

Haruka smiled at her new discovery and decided to explore it to kill time. The forest had always been her favorite place to hang out. Being around the trees and plants could really put her mind in peace.

When she was walking inside the woods, she saw a little white creature leaping not far in front of her. It didn't take her long to realize that it was a rabbit.

"Hello there, little guy," she smiled at the animal. When it heard Haruka approaching, it turned around and leaped away further into the woods. "Hey, wait!"

Haruka hastily chased after the furry creature. She didn't know why but she was really eager to touch the rabbit and hold it in her arms. She had always been fond of animals, but the animals never seemed to like her much. She once petted a stray cat on the head and got scratched badly on the arm. She never petted anything else after that.

Okay, maybe not. She had infact tried to pet numerous of animals in her neighborhood, but always ended up getting hissed/barked/growled at and chased around by them. She had zero animal pheromone.

Haruka started to pant and her pace was slowing. She had no idea how a rabbit could leap faster than a speed of a running human girl. But she didn't give up. She had her eyes fixed on the animal and still tried to catch up to it in vain, that is, until she tripped on something hard on the ground and fell flat on her face.

"OUCH!" Haruka yelped as she rubbed her face in pain. She slowly stood up and turned around to see what had made her fell, but regretted it as soon as she saw what was lying before her: a dead body.

The brunette's eyes widened as big as 2 tennis balls. She could not find her voice for she was too horrified to speak. Ever so slowly, she took a step back until she felt something beneath her right foot. Taking a glance around her shoulder, her eyes widened even more when she saw another corpse lying on the ground behind her. She turned around and backed away abruptly until her back hit the tree hard. The impact caused the tree to shake a bit and suddenly, something heavy fell on top of her, sending her crashing back on the ground, face-first.

Haruka groaned, pushing the heavy thing off her body and rolled over to her side, only to come face to face with another corpse beside her. She felt her heart stop for a moment, as a wave of nausea took over, and before she knew it, she found herself enveloped with darkness and blacked out.