They would actually have to be companions. Kankuro can't just magically summon his puppet that he uses in battle using a jutsu, he actually has to carry the puppet upon his back and then perform jutsus along with the puppet, not using the puppet as a jutsu. So the puppets would have to be an item or a mount, something you have to carry around...
p.s Why do you keep saying "we", as if you are on some kind of team? o.O
Actually Kankuro does magically summon his puppets after...well, after some time. So do all of the high rank puppeteers.
As I said, there is no need to make this too complicated. Just another jutsu choice like the rest is enough. Why make Neji's life hard and have him program them as secondary mount, item, companion or whatever else? And our lives hard by trying to find them, buy them, whatever, when all the rest of the techniques are so simple?
We = Me and my sister.