Puppet

are used as weapons by puppeteers, like Kankuro, Sasori and Chiyo. The three puppets that Kankuro uses were all originally designed by Sasori, and came into Kankuro's possession some time after the former left Sunagakure. The three have a red scorpion mark on them. In Part I Kankuro carries his puppets with him, though in Part II he starts keeping them in summoning scrolls. Each of these puppets is characterized for the excessive clicking noises they make when moving.

Karasu
is the first puppet to make an appearance in the series, being used by Kankuro. Karasu resembles a three-eyed, four-armed humanoid. In Part I, Kankuro typically keeps Karasu wrapped in bandages on his back, and he is able to switch places with it at will using a technique similar to the Body Replacement Technique. Because of Kankuro's enjoyment in installing mechanisms into his puppets, Karasu is very offensive, having numerous concealed weapons, including poison-tipped darts, kunai, blades and a huge poisoned needle concealed within its head. Karasu has also on occasion released smokescreens in order to blind its opponents. The smokescreens can be made up of poisonous gas to serve a secondary purpose. Karasu is also able to detach any of its body parts for separate attacks.

Kuroari
- The second of Kankuro's puppets to make an appearance, Kuroari has a much longer head than Karasu and sports two red devil-like horns and six arms. Kankuro can use the same type of Body Replacement Technique on Kuroari that he does Karasu. While Kuroari does not contain as many hidden weapons as Karasu, each of its arm segments contain a hidden saw-blade which can be used to inflict large slicing wounds to opponents. It also seems capable of conducting surprise attacks, especially in a dessert area as seen in Kankuro's fight with Sasori, where the former attempted several times to ambush the latter by having Kuroari tunnel underneath the sand. Kuroari has also been shown to conceal a large number of poisoned needles within its frame. Kuroari's primary function is to trap opponents within itself while weapons enter the slots along its body to puncture the opponent. Interestingly, Kuroari seems capable of confining targets much larger than itself as seen in the 2nd Naruto movie, where it hauled an entire hulking armored soldier right into its chest cavity and the trapping mechanism seems to be able to stretch at a considerable distance, allowing the puupet to ensnare targets several feet above or in front of it, as seen when it captured Hiruko after tossing it high into the air. Like Karasu, Kuroari is able to detach any of its body parts for separate attacks.

Sanshouo
is the third of Kankuro's puppets to make an appearance. Unlike Kankuro's other puppets, Sanshouo stays true to its name and resembles a salamander. Its abilities are unseen in the manga, but in the anime, Sanshouo is shown to have incredible defensive power. It has a frill that swings up to defend against attacks from the front, and a hollow body Kankuro and up to two other people can take cover in to defend against attacks coming from other directions. It can also spit fire in video games.

Hiruko
is one of Sasori's favorite puppet, which he adorned with the regular Akatsuki outfit and wore so often that others came to recognize him only while he was wearing it; in addition, he has a deeper and more gruff voice while wearing it. The reason for using this puppet so much was not just for its powerful offensive abilities, but also for its high defensive properties. Hiruko has a mechanical tail extending from the mouth of what appears to be a mask on his back, a recent addition to add extra defense to a weak point. The left arm is rigged with a projectile launcher capable of firing shrapnel, and the mouth serves as a similar projectile-firing device.

Third Kazekage
The Third Kazekage was Sasori's favorite puppet due to the difficult time he had acquiring it. Sometime before the start of the series, the Third Kazekage was kidnapped and killed by Sasori. Sasori then turned him into a human puppet. The Third Kazekage's right arm was equipped with multipl poison dipped blades, where his left arm was equipped with a special summoning jutsu that summoned a mass amount of puppet arms. Some of these puppet arms expelled poison, while others shot out kunai with ropes tied to them to tie up opponents.

Sasori
Although Sasori is in at least his thirties, he maintains the appearance of a teenage boy. Sasori's unnaturally young appearance is a product of his design: most of his body is actually a puppet. In place of his stomach is a thick cable coiled around a pole, allowing Sasori to use it as a stinger and retract it as necessary. Attached to his back is a scroll holder, which Sasori uses to store his human puppets. Sasori also added a pair of arms to his back, each equipped with five large claws, as well as flamethrowers to each of his hands. Installed in his right chest is a mechanism that can spin numerous chakra strings, allowing Sasori to control hundreds of puppets at once and giving him a drastic advantage over all other puppeteers. Sasori's left chest holds the only part of him still human and thus capable of controlling chakra, a cylinder-shaped device containing his heart. Written on the cylinder is the kanji for "scorpion".

Ten Puppet Collection of Chikamatsu
Ten puppets made of the first puppet master, Monzaemon Chikamatsu. Used by Chiyo.

Others

 * Mizuki uses a simple puppet in his appearance in the anime fillers.
 * In addition to being a master puppeteer, Sasori's regular puppets are unique in that they are made from the still-living bodies of humans. These human puppets are more versatile than regular puppets because, in addition to having many dangerous devices installed within them as is common with regular puppets, they are also able to use chakra and perform jutsu. Any kekkei genkai abilities possessed by the converted human are also passed on to the puppet. Sasori claims to have a collection of 298 Human Puppets, 103 of which he actually displayed. His favorite human puppet is the Third Kazekage, which retained its unique Iron Sand ability mixed with Sasori's poison, making it particularly lethal, this puppet also possesses numerous amounts of hidden blades in its right arm stronger enough to destroy Hiruko's tail and multiple summoning talismans in its left arm capable of summoning thousands upon thousands of mechanical arms that bind and throttle the opponent, the arms are also configured with poison fog launchers and hidden ropes to constrict the opponent, in disparate situations the left arm falls off to reveal a hidden buzzsaw.

Other media
In the game Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2, the Shirogane Clan is a puppet clan.

Game puppets:
 * Puppet Walker: A simple B-Rank puppet with razor-like claws. It has the 斬 Kanji in its chest, and 自 in its neck.
 * Kamikaze Puppet: A kamikaze A-Rank puppet that can self destruct. It has a 自 in its neck.
 * Mecha Puppet: A-Rank puppet that fires small electric orbs from its arms. It has the 射 (shoot) kanji in its chest, and 自 in its nose.
 * Insect Drones: Bee-like puppets that uses electrical attacks. It has the 雷 (thunder) kanji in both wings.
 * Elemental Puppets: Two puppets that uses elemental attacks. The Red Elemental Puppet uses fire attacks, and has a 炎 (flame) Kanji on its chest, and the Blue Elemental Puppet uses water attacks, with a 水 (water) Kanji on its left arm.
 * Lizzard Puppet: A S-Rank puppet.
 * Master Puppet: The most powerful puppet from the Shirogane Clan.
 * A unnamed puppet appears in Chapter 7, protecting Meno with a barrier.