Attack on Puppet [EVENT MISSION]

Posts : 257

Objective:

Location:

NPCs:

“Hmmm… I think I’ve made my point!”

The puppeteer thought to himself as he forced his gigantic pride of a puppet off the mountain range it was “peeking” from. It was just supposed to make an effect on the ninja holed in the safe-house, to lure them out into either the yard or the mountain path. Obviously Kijin did not intend to use his greatest puppet – Tarunda no Kiyojin out of the blue, right from the start. He just wanted to make an impression and in his humble opinion the goal was achieved and then some!

The giant formed a gigantic rubber ball, the ball withdrew even further and further rolling into a smaller and smaller version of itself and then finally it all disappeared in Kijin’s backpack. The puppet could be accessed later, if he deems those guys sent after him worthy of the effort. For him to use his key weapon out of the blue, right from the start would be honoring them. Obviously Kijin should’ve just used his Hydra puppet – “Kyu to Hidora” to use his “Power Nuke” blast, the one he wanted to use to destroy Konoha. Before that little bitch intercepted it and burnt his precious puppet to the ground.

After being resurrected Kijin worked overtime to fix his puppets, apparently his presence cost his ally Yoitoko some chakra so Yoitoko couldn’t go himself, the first draft of the plan was to use Yoitoko’s and Tenma’s armies, the combined effort of the Meat Puppets and Yoitoko’s reanimated zombies would have laid quite the siege on this mountain range. Now Kijin had to prove his use for the organization once again, every piece of reputation he had was lost when that wench forced him to kill himself, even worse, she extracted some information from him. The leader was beyond furious…

Kijin started slowly making his way through the mountain path, using the jawless giant puppet he ascended to the peak of Inari mountains but he still had to see the reaction of the enemy before choosing his attack method. Most likely he’ll just proceed with the old strategy – place some strings on some younglings and force them to fight their “brothers”, that usually cripples their spirit, once the young ones are dealt with Kijin can use either of his more powerful puppets to stomp the higher ranking ninja, maybe they’ll be skilled enough to add them to his arsenal later, that’d be an ego booster after that defeat… Kijin was a confident fellow but recovering from something like that wasn’t going to be easy.

“You know what would’ve been neat? If I kicked the shit out of that mountain and caused a landslide or something… Shit… That would have been pretty neat but I don’t think even Tarunda can do that, if I failed to do anything I’d just make a fool out of myself… Just like with that wench… Damn it!”

The defeat and shame facing his allies after it made Kijin angry, not only angry, he was now less arrogant, less confident in his own abilities. Losing and having to look his comrades in the eyes when he was brought back by Yoitoko’s stupid Kinjutsu couldn’t have been any more embarrassing, it reminded Kijin of those times back in Kirigakure when he built a reputation and it all exploded in his face… The shame and rejection that the people forced on him was almost too much to bear, he used to be treated as a powerful member of the Parabrahma, perhaps not the most powerful but still… Now he’s less than nothing, his role is the same as those mindless Meat Puppets moving in as distraction in the South. He was just a surprise attack, not even the main plan!

Kijin needed to kill someone, he needed to feel strong and mighty and in control again. The man slowly made his way down the mountain range to the yard that lead right to the mansion where the Daimyo rested. Kijin progressed slowly, he stopped to hide behind a rock, to take careful peaks and observe the developments down there. Once the party of ninja are sent to intercept him he’s going to fight them, whether on the mountains or down there in the yard. He’ll decide once he sees the response team, most powerful ninja must’ve already been deployed to deal with Tenma and Niku. All he had to do was to kill the children and the trash deemed unworthy, it was just him and the runt from the litter. He could kill them, he could do this, he could be in control again!

Posts : 760

The ground shook with each step that the giant puppet made. Each step, Alayasha knew, seem to poke at a primal sense in the men around him. A sense that danger was coming about, and they were going to be in the midst of the storm. He wondered whether the hearts of the men and women around him were fluttering not just with fear, but dread. If that was the case, then they would be useless for this fight.

Alayasha, on the other hand, had his arms folded and listen to the giant thing move across the landscape. He could say that he wasn't impressed by the large thing coming at him. He was, to a certain extent. Not because of the size. There wasn't a damn thing on this earth that could make him of something so huge. The bigger they are, the harder Alayasha had to hit. It was the psychological factor that he liked about it. It was simply just those weapons that had the potential of towering over people. There was something primordial about that fear, something that activated the little part in a human mind that made them one to run like hell or fight like hell.

That made him chuckle. That chuckle then turned into a small burst of laughter that he couldn't help to release. He clapped his hands and began to bounce on his feet. He was far from nervous. Hell, he was excited and that was probably an understatement. He was giddy, like a child ready to go into a candy store and was getting high just by looking at the prospect. That was what Alayasha was feeling right now. He looked down at his hands and saw the excited set begin to come out of his pores. He balled it into a fist and tighten it. He would've drawn blood if his nails were longer. He opened them up and found his palm marked with deep indentations of what nails he had. There was an excitement with him that was simply waiting to come out. The warrior blood wanting to dance the dance of war.

"You're going to make people think you're crazy." he heard a soft but serious voice from behind said. There were few Kuro who could speak the language of the ancient language, and Alayasha only knew that his siblings were apt in said language.

He turned to find Lo-Ruhamah walking to him in a standard garb he was familiar with Kumogakure to wear. White vest, a blue long sleeved shirt. She didn't wear the Kumogakure band over her head like some typically did. She wore it on her left arm with the color of the cloth being red instead of blue. Funny how he also did the same when he was still active in Kumo. She came up on him soft and still, no doubt a part of the black op training she was attempting to accomplish later on in her shinobi career. She was getting better at it. If she could sneak up on him, then she could sneak up anyone.

"Many people right now are probably thinking they're crazy for coming to this battle." He answered back. He looked at her quizzically. "Are you a clone or..."

Lo-Ruhamah shook her head. "I'm living flesh, not an illusion. Although, I was tempted to send out one of my clones to scope out the puppet." she said, returning back to the universal language.

"Shoo, I can tell you right now that the puppet is pretty damn big just from the rumbling I'm feeling."

"I did some scouting and found that big puppet was moving toward this direction. " She shrugged. "We could wait for him to show up." She grabbed the grip of her blade and pulled it out. She swung it effortlessly, cutting the air around her. "Although, I'm not against the direct approach."

"That could be a possibility. This puppet is simply the front line. And if I'm guessing correctly, and I rarely guess wrong, the puppeteer is inside rather than on the outside." He felt an idea come to him. "Perhaps it would be wise to-how to say-bring forth fire and let thy enemy burn. To put it romantically."

He gave Lo-Ruhamah a second to comprehend what he was saying. When she understood what he meant, she raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were awful in ninjutsu."

He would've been insulted if it wasn't half true. He raised his hand and shook it in a so-so gesture. "I'm ok with ninjutsu. I do have one particular jutsu that I learned from my stay in Kumogakure. I do want to thank Yondaime Raikage one of these days." He began to move the chakra towards the seals on his hands. He felt the seal slowly rise on the palm of his hands and heard the air around his hands beginning to make a sizzle noise. "Fire will be the one to smoke this mutha fucka out."

"And the team?"

That's right. He did have a team that was just made up on the spot. Alayasha turned his head to view the squadron that stood in the front lines. They came from the two great villages, Konohagakure and Kumogakure and all were the fresh faces of graduation or boys who were recently promoted. To Alayasha they all look green. They all had looks of missions that involved solving missing cat cases and painting fences, but none of them looked like they took a life.

Still, he was sort of impressed with the roster. Two members were from Kumogakure (well technically three if he counted his little sister) and two were from Konogakure. From each, he had a medic from the Kousen clan, a Hyuuga, a Jinchuuriki, and - a Tai/Gen user? Hmm, that was new to him. But he was anything but a sucker for new combinations. He was Tai/Fuuin user so that made that combination odd as all hell. Regardless, he could make this work.

"We have about a few minutes before the giant reach to us. Make no mistake, we bring the battle to him. Gentlemen, I'm going to make sure none of you are gonna die. I know this may be your first major battle, and it looks pretty gotdamn heavy, but this can either a tragedy or a great victory. My sister, Lo-Ruhamah Kuro, will be aiding me today. Make no mistake, she will also make sure you don't die."

"Unless of course you decide you want to play the hero, then I might just let you get crushed..." she said, apathetically.

"Don't scare the kids, Got damn it. This is serious." he said through gritted teeth. Although, he wasn't against the notion.

He returned his gaze back to his team. "This will be an orchestrated offense, gentlemen. We will make sure it will be that case." He looked at Norio first. "I'm only guessing, but I'm assuming the puppet user is inside. Please confirm that while we move forward. You will certainly be the group's eyes. I understand you have puppets so let's have those out just in case." The next person turned was to the Kousen. "Naruku-san, keep yourself in a position where we'll need support. You probably already know this, but if shit hits the fan you don't jump. You stay calm and make sure we get that healing. Don't make too obvious otherwise he'll come after you."

Next, he looked at the Jinchuuriki and the Tai/gen user. From what he knew, the Jinchuuriki took on a more bushido way of living than a ninja and the tai user would use gen as a means to distract to get close. He prayed that the Jin didn't have some sort of 'die for a cause' sort of vibe, otherwise he'll leave him behind. He rather not have a dead kid plus a giant puppet PLUS a Bijuu roaming around. "Hmmm, I'm not exactly sure how I was going to position you guys. The majority of us are close range users. We can't waste too much energy on the appetizer when we haven't even seen the main course yet."

He shrugged. "We'll improvise. Use your hand to hand skills, Hitei, and cut through the flesh of the puppet, Chrono."

He looked at his sister. "I'll combine my strongest fire technique with your strongest wind technique. We need to make sure that this is in our advantage."

From their position, there was open field and then the mountains. He looked at the mountain ranges, and saw that they would have some general cover. He could theorize that if he went out first, the user would no doubt try to rid of him. If he send out his sister, it would be the same. He rather not send out the genin and chunin out right out the bat. They all had too much value for this plan, and Alayasha would be damned if he let one of them get severely hurt or killed.

He was tempted to put the weights on his legs, but he felt he would need his speed for this one. If he had a opportunity to strike at his opponent once he was out in the open, he would need every second to build the speed and rush him with one heavy ass attack.

"Keep your ear piece radio on at all times. I'll going to go in first. I rather have the thing target me. Chrono and Hitei, you make a wide ass curve to the left. Naruku and Norio, you flank right, but all you don't move until you confirm that the user is inside. Then, you move." Alayasha reached in his back pocket and pulled out two kunai. One the back were the tags that had the explosive note on it. However, it was no normal tag. This made him smile a bit. "Keep yourself hidden until then."

He was ready. More so now that he finally laid out some sort of plan. Her sister's chakra began to resonate with his. "Lo-Ruhamah, stay by me. We shall show them the way the Kuro engage in war. Are you read, sister of mine?"

"I'm quite excited. May our Father favor us." Lo-Ruhamah's hands began to make six hands seals finishing it off with the rat seal. Her body became invisible. When she was 'invisible' she began to move forward.

Alayasha reached in his back pocket and pulled out the ear-piece radio he had. He clipped the radio on his side and put the small ear piece in his right ear. "So be it." And he moved beside her.

They first began to walk into the field. It was slow and steady to see if the puppet user would spot them at their distance. When they saw no one arise their pace went to a jog, and then finally a sprint. Alayasha couldn't all out sprint with her sister only because she wasn't as fast as him. Either way, they were moving towards the mountain range.

"If he believes there is only one person coming after him, he'll try to change strategy, you."

"All right."

Alayasha then stopped. Lo-Ruhamah continued to move forward towards the mountain ranges in order to get close. She made a sharp left "Let's see how big you really are." Alayasha said. He took one of the Kunai, and with the massive strength he possessed he threw it up at the ranges. It went soaring and it moved with incredible speeds towards. It disappeared out of sight, but he had some idea as to where it landed He wasn't looking for accuracy. That wasn't the point of the kunai. He wanted to smoke this mutha out. He took the second one and threw it about five meters from the first kunai He heard the seals sing in his head wanting to be set free.

"My will be done." He raised two fingers and activated the seal.

The modified seals was a variation of the explosive note which normally did some small structural damage. However, with a bit of formula manipulation, he was able to compressed ten explosive notes into one. An explosion with twenty notes compressed all together would cause some major structural damage around the mountain ranges. Whether the explosion would hit him or not (he had no doubt it didn't hit him), he wanted to see how immense this thing was.

Lo-Ruhamah heard and felt the explosion from her distance. Fuck, she thought. She didn't think he was going to use heavy artillery so early. Either way, she would have to get closer to the thing whether it was hit or not. She moved silently now, moving at a pace under her top speed. This was fine. She would be observant and see where she would have to strike.

Alayasha cracked his fingers then twisted his neck cracking a bit of his spine. He was feeling fiesty right after the explosion. He thought, with a bit of pause, that a bit of taunting always made things interesting. "COME ON OUT, DOG!" He shouted, letting his voice travel through the mountains. "FIGHT ME IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS! OR ARE YOU A NEUTERED PUP WHO LOST THEM LONG AGO!?""

Alayasha's SC and Jutsu:

Lo-Ruhamah's SC and Jutsu:

OOC

OOC:

Posts : 33

Hitei glanced around the rapidly assembled group. He recognised another Konoha shinobi, as well as a couple of locals. There was also, of course, Alayasha, the leader of the group, who's imposing presence only became more dominating when he spoke. The other Konoha ninja seemed to be emulating the legendary samurai, going against the grain like that in a world of shinobi was an act that he respected greatly.

Hitei himself was almost shaking with excitement, it was all he could do to prevent an elated, almost maniacal grin from forming. This effort soon failed as Alayasha began bouncing up and down like a child. This was his first major mission, and he couldn't think of a more impressive debut. Hitei didn't even need to be assigned to this particular task, he practically volunteered to go after that giant puppet after it had reared its head. He cracked his knuckles and shook his arms in an effort to calm his nerves.

The idea of taking down a giant monster was the stuff of legends and fairy tales, it was the kind of thing that Hitei had dreamed of doing since he was a kid. Now that such a beast was before him, the excitement and anticipation only grew greater. The idea that such a giant could squash him in an instant, scatter his brains with a single flick, and take just about anything he could throw at it, caused no fear, no dread, but rather a swell of confidence. “I'm gonna kick your ass” Hitei muttered under his breath.

Alayasha finished speaking to his acquaintance and began addressing the squad, Hitei stared him straight in the eyes throughout his speech. Bring the battle to him, he was relieved, this tactic was exactly the kind that Hitei was hoping for. Don't play the hero, too bad, if his actions looked like that to his team then so be it. Use your hand to hand skills, possibly, though he was sure he could find a better method to take down that monster.

As soon as Hitei was given his orders he was off, giving a quick nod to Crono he began making his way towards a path that would have him circle around the left of the monstrous puppet. The massive explosion that he heard as he ran only amplified the adrenalin in his blood. Reaching a suitable vantage point to the left of the monster and on a higher elevation, Hitei took cover and began to survey the battlefield.

Age : 25 Posts : 175

Crono had reached the battlefield not a moment too soon it appeared they were already under siege. The young Aonisaibushi drew in a deep breath to steady himself, This was war, There were no games, no room for doubt. Their target was the massive object that suddenly disappeared over the mountian range. Within the small team consisted of another from Konoha, as well a few members from the land of lightning. He noticed his companion's shaking of anticipation only to realize, his hands were shaking as well.

"Calm your nerves Crono" The voice called to him from within. "You have nothing to prove here, Remain focused at all times" the voice warned, but the anticipation was unbearable. Taking a deep breath he remembered his code and recited it to himself. "Take control and responsibility for your actions. One cannot have honor without patience and true patience means to bear the unbearable. " His hands relaxed, shoulders slumped, his gaze became quite serious.

He continued to listen to the aforementioned "leader" s plan. If that was his duty, he would fulfill it. One of them seemed to disappear, he couldn't get an exact fix on their location, but he could get an wide approximation from their heat signature changing the air around them. Looking toward his Konoha ally, he nodded and dashed along side him.They began to circle around the target, however at the sound of the explosion Crono stopped dead in his tracks. He could feel the mountain crying out in pain. The feeling as intense as being stabbed in the shoulder. "h-he.... " he stammered.. as he realized what had just happened. Feelings of anger stirred within him. Feelings, the bijuu within him shared. "Crono!" the bijuu shouted. "Not now, Focus!". Kokuo was right, this was war, had he stopped like this in combat, he would be dead. With a quick thrust of his head, Crono shook off the pain and got back up, trying to close the distance between him and his Konoha ally.

On his hip he had 2 separate katana's sheathed. One a blade of restraint, the other designed to break those restraints. As the two neared their vantage point, Crono had a feeling that this battle would require both and test his resolve.

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Age : 29 Posts : 3145

OOC:

Norio looked incredulous when he was given his initial briefing. With his eye brows raised as high as they could go and his face expressing every ounce of skepticism it could muster, he listened as he was told of this huge threat that was facing the Lightning Country's Daiymo. Get out of here, he thought, uncertain if he was being pranked or if this was really something that was happening; who went to a genin for help in such a situation?! It was explained to him that there were puppeteers on the enemy side, so his expertise would be much needed in countering their efforts... riiiiight. What else? "Next, you will tell me they have a titan puppet that I will need to disarm" he had quipped, scoffing in the face of the older shinobi....

Well fuck.

The boy admired the giant wooden thing of beauty from afar with his weird-magical eyes that saw things from really far away. Around him was the most last-second, ragged ragtag team of them all assembled around who, Norio was certain, was neither a Kumo nor Konoha shinobi; if not from those villages, then just to whom did he owe allegiance? His curiosity demanded that he identify this mystery man, but even the clueless boy knew this was not the time for twenty one questions. Perhaps not even the time for just the one.

He looked around and saw five more unlucky bastards (not counting their mysterious leader) that had been picked for this suicide mission. If there were too many genin on the market, surely there was a better way to dump them all, as opposed to rushing them through this giant human-grinder? There had to be right? As much as Norio liked a challenge, he couldn't help but wear his skeptical hat today. There were obstacles to overcome and then were stone walls, that you couldn't crash through no matter how many times you tried to use your head as a battering ram.

Hell. It was too late for regrets or second thoughts.

He listened wearily to the directions their leader gave them. For some reason, the man's sister was there with him and her name was funky as fuc-

Play hero? You must be joking. There was heroism and foolery (which often went hand in hand) and then there was getting yourself killed. Maybe in a spectacular fashion, but dead meat was just dead meat.

Each member of the group got their seperate orders. It seemed like a lot would depend on him and that asshole-stalker-san shit from before. Great. Try not to gauge someone's eye out Naru-baku.

The brief was brief and with all said and done, they were off. Norio and Naruku - the N Team, N standing for not-being-a-hero - were send to the right, while the green-guys were send to the left. Though Norio's eyes were focused on the puppet, he was aware of where he was going and moved as fast as he could, with the medic nearby.

"I don't see anyone inside" he spoke hurriedly through the radio. His eyes were scouring inch by inch, but it didn't seem like the puppeteer was hiding within the puppet. As he reported this, their leader began his explosive attack.

Combat Log:

Posts : 257

Mod Post: Due to failing to post for well over 72 hours, Brett is skipped for one round. His posting turn is after Chris, IC his character is simply late to respond to the team meeting but he can join in later when his turn comes around later.

Kijin continued to hide, slowly descending the mountain, taking the time to observe the situation below. He didn’t want to run straight into danger which wasn’t really him. Usually Kijin was arrogant, taking everyone daring to oppose him head on. That should’ve been more so now, now that he was just a resurrected puppet taking orders himself. It’s quite ironic – a puppeteer becoming a puppet, puppet only in one way, he still controlled his own actions but… It wasn’t the same as being alive, there was always a thought in his head that he wasn’t himself, that he had been driven to having to kill himself…

“You’re much more durable now, you don’t need to worry about pain or those things, you can feel free to bombard anything you feel like it and don’t worry about blast ranges. If you get injured it’ll heal, if you lose limbs it’ll grow back but… Don’t push it overboard. I haven’t perfected the jutsu yet, using it at that range will be difficult too, if you take too much damage, if your regeneration and the jutsu is overloaded… You might die again.”

Kijin remembered the words of Yoitoko when he was briefed on how the man’s jutsu worked. He apparently was kind of immortal now which made it all the more reasonable for him to just charge in and kill those guys but… Kijin was hesitant. His hesitation was broken, some sort of object flew by, may have been a projectile, may have been a weapon or a jutsu. When the man had noticed it, it was too late already. It was quite the distance away from him but the direction was correct. A loud deafening explosion blasted the rocks off of the mountain causing a rockslide, were they all idiots down there? Had this thing packed more of a blast they may have buried their own people.

The puppet-master heard a loud yell below, the purpose of that wasn’t entirely clear to Kijin, one thing was for certain though – he was glad to have gone out of his giant puppet and having put it back to his backpack in a form of a rubber ball. While it was no longer made of human fat like it was during his clash with the Sorceress it was still quite vulnerable to fire, not to the completely crippling extent, more to being a bit more weak to it than to anything else. It could take stuff like blunt force, any amount of strength just as easily, lightning did little to no damage to the puppet, fire was the only weakness and if that bomb or whatever had hit him the puppet would’ve been really banged up.

“Fucking Sorceress, did she tell on my puppet to those bastards? Why the fuck is she even alive still, am I the only competent one in the whole damn organi… Well, I guess I can’t really brag too much, I kinda died…”

Kijin thought to himself scratching his head as he proceeded to descend down the mountain. He expected a scouting party, someone to roam the mountain range in search for him, someone to conquer while they were divided. These people should have been unskilled, unfit to command, Kijin expected whoever was in charge to simply command his underlings to run straight at the mountain, scaling it up in quest to find him, only to find their deaths… What were they all doing down there? Were they waiting for him? Surveying the mountain? By this time he’d have gotten pretty close to the yard, he almost descended down the mountain, have they spotted him yet? Kijin wasn’t too stealthy, he never had a need for it. He was only as stealthy as a ninja of his rank may have naturally been.

It was only then that he had noticed, he was passing through a rock formation – almost a wall of rock, at least eight meters wide, behind it - the man he was looking for, he could feel it! Someone was close, on the other side of the large stone formation in fact, they really WERE scaling up the mountain in the search for him. Judging from the direction where the shout came from earlier it must’ve been the man who yelled at him, the man who taunted him. Kijin wanted to show him, no, show himself that he still had it, that losing to a young girl didn’t take away his mojo. The man quickly took the scroll off his back still hiding behind the stone pillar and listening in on the man, he may have sensed him, if he was a sensor, he may have heard him move around and kick around dirt and small pebbles, none of that mattered.

Kijin went through the handseals, summoning a ten of his more “elite” puppets, they all used to be pretty good swordsmen when they were alive – Jounin and Black Ops, they were agile and strong naturally, they needed very little modifications to be perfected. Kijin called them his “General Squad”, always carrying them sealed inside his backpack, seal placed by the Leader so that Kijin didn’t have to drag a gigantic scroll around. It was the same seal that made a meter wide rubber ball easy as shit to carry around. This custom backpack made by the Leader of Parabrahma was a gift to him, something that was supposed to make the Leader sure that Kijin will finish his mission.

As the ten appeared in a puff of smoke, giving only several seconds of notice to the man behind the giant stone formation Kijin sent them forward, three to the side, three to the other, three over the rock and one to stand there and guard him. For the one who had taunted Kijin previously it must’ve appeared that all nine sent at him attacked at the same time, they were quick, they were agile and silent, just like they were all in life. There were some signs that they were coming but if Kijin’s attack was successful the arrogant idiot would’ve been attacked frontally, from the back and from above the stone formation. It took a remarkable ninja to respond to an attack from three fronts.

Even more, each of the puppets had a specific target, the three in the back targeted the man’s legs, one at his heel, one at the back of his knees and one at the thigh of his leg, ones attacking from the front would have aimed at the man’s chest, stomach area and his shoulder respectively, the ones attacking from above would’ve simply tried to skewer him. True, Kijin did not see his target so the aim of his puppets was a bit off but he had a so-so picture of the man behind the rock from where he was heard. If Kijin’s memory served it was the strong looking well tanned man who had taunted him before, remembering his build and supposed size helped Kijin with the angles. Each of the puppets wielded a katana so a direct injury from even a single one would’ve made it difficult for the man to fight back.

The only thing worrying Kijin now was if he set up his attack silently enough and if he spotted the man first at all, if the man was stealthy and slippy enough he may have noticed Kijin walking around, trying to conceal himself behind each rock long ago and may have been just taunting him. Even more, for him to just go in from the front he had to be the cream of this team, which only increased Kijin’s chances of failure upon his assault. Still, taking out this man now would only make attacking and taking out the others much easier in the future.

Posts : 760

Lo-Ruhamah body began to shimmer back into the light. She was hiding among the rocks now, keeping herself low and definitely out of sight. She had to keep her breathing steady, had to keep it so that even she couldn't even hear it. Damn Alayasha for running so fast. Despite his big size, her brother could certainly move and she had certainly forgotten that. She would have to control it.

Countdown from ten, she thought. Countdown and then assess. She did that, and, like her mother had promised, it had worked. It was mom that told her to count from ten. It was her that taught her how to move silently and to be unseen. Right now, that was her task. She listened to the environment.

She had wished her brother didn't make such a racket with the explosive tags. She felt the shockwave coming from that part of the mountains. He even had the audacity to scream out a challenge. Normally, she would be peeved only because she preferred the way of the shadow. But in this circumstance, she wasn't in charge. It was her brother that was, and whatever he did she couldn't particularly argue.

That was fine, she knew. Her breathing was back to normal and she could get a clear sense of where exactly this puppeteer. Silently, she began to move from her position and began to look among the rock formation.

She moved at a steady paced, watching carefully for any signs of movement. Her brother wasn't the perceptive type, looking for the fine movements of any-

In the distance, Lo-Ruhamah could hear footsteps. They weren't heavy ones like she thought. Or did she imagine that? She wasn't too sure. She was sure, however, about this particular movement. It was someone moving and it wasn't her brother or any of the genin that they were with. Could this be the opponent? Her mind seem to open up and took in the information transforming her next step.

She began to move that direction silently. The foosteps that began to move through the formations seem to only increase as she got closer. Had the enemy notice her? If they did, she would've been exposed by now and would've been met with opposition. No, she thought, not yet. I can get in a little closer. Control the movements, control the energy around you.

"I don't see anyone inside." Norio announced in his ear piece. Alayasha took a deep breath. The stage had been set. Whether the puppeteer would take the bait was another matter. He had no idea what the man's psychological state would be. He could simply ignore Alayasha's and scoff it off like a mark on his shoe. He was banking on the second option, and the guy simply sends out some puppets to tackle him. If that option was the one the opponent took, the team that he was assigned with should be skilled enough to tackle the main objective and take down the puppeteer. It didn't matter how skilled the puppeteer was, if his hands were occupied then he would be useless against someone who was close combat.

If he had the chance, he would've smiled then knowing that the majority of his team were close combat.

In a moment's notice, however, he could see men coming to strike at him. He had seen three individuals coming from the top of the formation down towards him, three individuals coming to strike in front of him. He had no doubt that there were enemies behind him. How many, he wasn't sure, but he wouldn't need to turn around to see if they were close or far as they only option these people or puppets had were forward. If he was attacking an enemy with puppets or clones, he would attack from all sides and the where the eyes couldn't see. His strategic mind would be screaming it, and he was grateful that it was.

Two fronts. If the person was smart, it would be three. Something that would normally be hard to dodge if the person wasn't aware. Alayasha's guard was watching for any sort of movement, he didn't simply keep his head in the dark when he threw the kunai outward.

If the puppeteer would've came from every side, then Alayasha's next action would've been hard to do. He didn't need to be extremely evasive to dodge the oncoming assault, but he couldn't be too rigid for his next action either. He reacted accordingly by diving to his right and rolling out of the way of the attackers. He was a large man, this was true, but he was a man who understood his own body. He tucked himself inward with his knees up to his chest as he rolled. He had to make sure his long legs wouldn't even get scratched from the blades.

The ground was hard, he Alayasha didn't even noticed. He would rolled away safely from the attackers. He was on his feet not a few seconds later with his hands in one of the back pouches. He turned, jumped to get more distance and threw the only two explosive kunai he had available where the men/puppets had intended to pierce him.

Again, he wasn't the most accurate of individuals, but explosions didn't need accuracy. It simply needed to explode. He had only guessed there were perhaps two people behind him, but apparently there were three people behind him. Nine in total he saw as the two kunai activated and exploded covering his former position with smoke. He had no idea if the puppets would survive the explosion, the two explosive kunai were a tad stronger than the explosive notes but weaker than his strongest explosive seal which was the Caliber 10.

He landed on the ground, but he didn't move in just yet. From his position, he had moved ten meters away from the explosion. He took out a blank seal and a pen. He then began to write on it. His eyes didn't look down on the paper, however. He knew the characters he needed to write. His hand moved effortlessly as his eyes scanned the sky for more enemies. "Move in." Alayasha said in the radio. He wasn't breathless, but he did say this with more alertness in his voice. "He's very close so be careful."

If the puppeteer had noticed Lo-Ruhamah, he would've acted differently. How much of a difference, Lo-Ruhamah wouldn't know. When she spotted him, she simply watched from afar. He could see the puppeteers backside but not the face. She could see He had taken out a scroll and summoned what appeared to be puppets of his creation. The puppets moved accordingly, as if they were going in for a combined assault. His attention was to whoever was on the other side of the formation. She had no doubt that it was Alayasha that got his attention. Any person to be called a dog would certainly be insulted, at the very least annoyed.

She estimated she was five or six meters away from the target. She had no doubt that she could sneak in and go for a kill. But was that the smart plan to do?

No, she thought. She had an idea. She was a fair distance away from the puppeteer. Even without stealth, she could see that his attention would be towards the puppets. Her hands began to form the handseals. She felt the energy beginning to form in the pits of her stomach as she took in a deep breath. she jumped in the air now so she could have a clear shot. With the air and energy came together, she let it out aiming it towards the puppeteer with its great speed ready to collide with him.

Alayasha

Spoiler:

Lo-Ruhamah

Spoiler:

Posts : 33

Hitei watched from atop his vantage point, catching the occasional glimpse of the puppeteer as he darted in-between rocks. He was somewhat disappointed that he had put away the giant puppet, he had looked forward to finding some way to take it down. Regardless, if the fight dragged on long enough, Hitei had little doubt that he would get his chance.

Hitei gritted his teeth together in anticipation as he waited for the order to move in. He dimly perceived the samurai nearby, and knew that on the other side of the puppeteer, likely in a similar vantage point, were the Kumo ninja. There was also, of course, the boisterous nukenin, and his almost polar opposite comrade. Hitei weighed up all the options, from any standpoint it would seem that they had the advantage, unless the puppeteer was careful it should have been easy to overwhelm him. Of course, he doubted that the opposing ninja had come in unprepared for such circumstances.

As the target approached Alayasha, Hitei narrowed his eyes and tensed his limbs, lowering into position in preparation to charge. From a logical viewpoint, he would have hoped that the puppeteer would accidentally end up in close combat with Alayasha, giving the group the chance to surround and overwhelm him before he even had a chance to really use his puppets. Of course, in reality Hitei hoped for something much different, something challenging.

From his viewpoint Hitei saw as the puppeteer came to a stop practically next to Alayasha, with the two being separated merely by a large rock. It was then that the opponent summoned his puppets, and, to Hitei's delight, sent all but one after Alayasha. Hitei grinned in elation, his mind working overtime to make sure he wasn't missing anything. The guy had only left one puppet to guard him, it was perfect, if they could just keep him separated from the rest and take care of the one guard, they could go on a powerful early offensive. Perhaps they could even force him to panic and go all out. Hitei eyed up the puppet, the sword would prove a problem if he attempted to engage it. “Hey, Crono, reckon you could distract the guy with the sword?” he asked hastily.

Hitei decided that he would engage the puppeteer himself, he had little doubt that he would be able to dodge his attacks this early in the fight. However, if he could distract him, tire him, and just take his attentions off the actions of his puppets ever so slightly, it could prove a huge advantage for the rest of the group. He put his hand up to his ear and listened keenly for the order to attack.

“Move in”

And there it was, Hitei charged at the puppeteer, at first leaping from rock to rock before ducking out of sight briefly.

“Bunshin no Jutsu”

When he re-emerged above the rocks again he had 5 clones in tow. As Hitei got close he ignored the puppet, trusting Crono to take care of it. As he focused on the puppeteer he almost didn't notice the incoming blast of wind. “The fuck?!” he said as he and his clones came to a halt to avoid getting hit by it. Hitei gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes in frustration as he briefly lost sight of his opponent through the dust and distortions in the air as the torrent of wind exploded in front of him.

Jutsu used:

CP: 49/50

Age : 25 Posts : 175

It wasn't soon before the red-haired samurai had regained the distance he had lost from the sudden shock of the massive destruction he had felt. Crono could still feel his hand trembling from the shock. Only one question filled his head. "Why?" Why would anyone do such wanton destruction. What purpose could he have possibly have had? The pain inside him had begun to dull, but his own residual anger remained, as did that of Kokuo. His trembling hand suddenly gripped the hilt of his tsuka to steady it. His anger had made him hot. Hot was good. But he needed to be sure that it was used properly. That heat could be used to temper his steel resolve, but if he let it turn into rage and let the flames burn too hot, he would become brittle and easily shattered.

Puppetmaster, It was normally a word with many connotations. However, the current situation used the two most common. Not only was this opponent a master of puppet weapons, but he, himself, was nothing but a tool attached to another's string. That sort of strength, required a particular amount of respect. This tool was nothing more then a required distraction. A distraction that would force our hand. One tool, to occupy this large amount of forces. Just like a kunai, thrown and then discarded. This Puppet master would be the same. He wouldn't stop until he was completely destroyed and his purpose served.

Crono would lift his hand up as the two reached a good vantage point. His gaze scanning the area, he easily spotted not only the puppets, attacking their leader head on, but even the puppet master himself. Only one puppet remained behind protecting what appeared to be it's master. If it was a decoy or not, Crono wasn't sure. The tailed beast inside warned caution. "Don't let the lack of numbers fool you, This opponent shouldn't be underestimated." The red-haired boy agreed. "Yeah.... It seems too simple. It has to be a decoy, one planted to lure us into a trap."

A sigh left his mouth. "That jutsu would have come in handy for springing this trap" he admitted to the bijuu. The jutsu to which he was referring was the Water Clone jutsu, He had almost had it down the night prior to his departure. It was it's training that ultimately caused him to oversleep and delayed his departure the following morning. "This is no time to have regrets, focus on the now." The tailed beast urged. The red-haired samurai nodded. “Hey, Crono, reckon you could distract the guy with the sword?” , The boy looked over at his ally. He would have preferred to attack the master himself, his blade possibly being able to cut through the chakra strings if he utilized the samurai's trademark technique, but he couldn't always lead the charge. He silently nodded.

"Move in" the words echoed through the small radio plugged into his ear. With a quick nod to Hitei he would head off. Leaping from tree branch to tree branch to close the distance. He wasn't a master at stealth, but he trusted that one of his allies was.

As he neared he could feel that ally, the wind chakra being molded within her, churning and rumbling. He had an idea, hopefully his ally would understand. Skillfully he would weave his seals. Crono was close now as he flanked from the puppet master's right. With a final leap his trajectory would be perfect. Aiming down he would be about 5 meters away from the puppet master. Lifting his hand to his face, he began to blow out the flaming chakra from his mouth, aiming at a spot, just 2 feet in front of the puppet master from the puppetmaster's point of view. 2 feet to the right of the puppet master from Crono's point of view.

Should he not move, the jutsu would encompass the puppet master's position as well as the puppet, Should he leap back to dodge, he instead would be pushed into his stealthed ally's attack, whose wind chakra would hopefully push him into Crono's own attack and allowing the two jutsu to combine into a raging inferno of power. As Crono landed he would continue channeling the flames until he saw a reason to stop. Hitei and his clones would be to his left and right, he would have to trust them to cover his blind spot for the moment.

Spoiler:

Age : 29 Posts : 3145

Norio's Byakguan afforded him a certain clarity and understanding of the battlefield, that none of them could share. As he and Naraku continued to move, he watched the events unfold as if he was there himself. His eyes traced the movements of Lo-Ruhamah, impressed by how dangerously close she was getting to the target without being discovered. Her brother on the other hand, moved with anything but stealth, loud and brazen to, as Norio assumed, focus all the attentions of the puppeteer on himself. Smart.

He then moved his gaze further, now seeing said puppeteer, hiding like a coward behind a rock formation that separated him by a few metres from the oncoming dangers - he was a physically unimpressive man, though the youth noted, that something about him didn't seem right. It bugged him. The man wasn't quite... a man. His chakra flow... it was different, odd and as he summoned the ten puppets around himself, Norio witnessed something incredible - his chakra replenished itself... or was it never depleted in the first place?

"I don't think he's human" he shared the observation through the radio. It was a vague comment at best, but the boy wasn't sure exactly what he was seeing. They had been told the man was supposedly killed, and yet there he was. If he did indeed die, then how had he been brought back to life? Just what powers had been granted to him through his resurrection...

From this distance, he and Naraku were a bit useless. The youth contemplated throwing in projectiles to aid the situation, but as he watched on, it was abundantly clear to him that already, his team seemed to have the whole situation under control. In fact, he felt like he was watching something of a one-sided battle. With three people attacking the puppeteer at once, Norio decided to not add to the overkill; the chances of him aiding to the confusion and maybe even hurting a teammate seemed too great.

So he just continued to move further and further to the right. The puppeteer would be aware of three of the five of them now, so if he somehow miraculously got out of this tri-attack alive, Norio and Naraku would be a necessary and useful element of surprise.

Combat Log:

Age : 30 Posts : 614

The night past few months had been particularly horrid for the young Kousen boy, with finding out his father was dying, of course. Each day was full of dread, and he hadn’t been privy to many missions either, since the wares merchant. Now—now they were going to war with the Paranrahma. From what he was aware, most of the shinobi they were out to protect were from Konohagakure. Nonetheless, the Raikage had found importance in insisting upon the Hidden Cloud’s participation. Of course there’s some type of political agenda. There always is in these type of things. There’s a reason the other villages haven’t stepped up to assist- well, that and almost everyone has some sort of disliking for the Leaf. Heh. Now, now, Naraku, let’s not forget we’re working along some of the most renown outlaws of our time, because, well that’s not crazy, right? OF COURSE IT’S CRAZY! What the hell was the Raikage thinking? Ugghh. All of his frustrations seemed to leave his body in relatively subtle sighs that he released as they made their way through the dense and lush canopy. He knew it was against his heritage to be disloyal and distrusting of the Raikage’s will. They were followers, some of the best.

His thoughts ran rampant as he followed in the young Hyuuga’s wake as they flanked to the right; the same Hyuuga he had had a brief encounter with on the training grounds not too long ago. At least now he knew the boy’s name, which would have seemed to explain a bit about his battle tactics that he had displayed in their short bout. Explosions went off at the peak of the mountain range in front of them, followed by a soulful expression of a challenge which came from Alayash, the Nukenin, accompanied by some sort of equally deranged family member.

As soon as he heard the sequence of events, the young Kousen began to retrieve one arrow with his left hand and one explosive tag into his right. One arrow at a time, he began to wrap the tags around the shafts of four of his arrows, his tactic devised from the outlaw’s technique. The four arrows were set in the rightmost portion of his quiver, his normal twenty-six arrows nestling almost perfectly atop of them. He knew that he needed to preserve his chakra as long as possible, and if he were to encounter enemies, he would need to do as much damage as he could. Luckily, he had honed his skills of precision, so aiming would not be horrible, but would also not be guaranteed, but the explosions might provide him the extra range his attacks needed- it was perfect.

Norio’s initial scanning of the area had provided that the puppeteer, a vile man by the name of Kijin, Ishi. By any measure, this man was known for his ruthlessness and grotesque persona. In Naraku’s mind, that was the only thing that set any outlaw apart from the rest of a village united force. The next thing he knew, they were receiving word of enemy interaction, which meant Naraku’s time for purpose was potentially upon him. He was ready to make his name known, and to bring a noble honor to his clan as well as his village. Even if he was ready for that, he acknowledged that he would need to be on his most calculated exchange for every bit of combat. Until his mission was over, he would not speak unless it was perilously necessary. His mind was being converting into an analyzing machine. Every bit of observational training the he had ever received was going to be used and counter-applied when implementing action.

His heart was beating slowly, as his eyes began to scan each and every bit of surrounding with such precision. It seemed his eyes had become slightly more fine-tuned since working on his precision with his bow. Every time his eyes crossed Norio’s face, he could see his eyes also scanning, but with a bit of different insight; Naraku could see the extremities of the boy’s optical veins bulging out from the side of his head. If he was right, it meant he was harboring his clan’s Kekkei Genkai, which was a rather famous doujutsu. When he made his announcement that he didn’t believe the puppet master to be of human origin, it came to him as a shock, as it might have to most of his comrades.

It got the young boy thinking about what he had learned. Other than techniques that were forbidden by the entire shinobi society, the only other thing that might be capable of bringing another being back from the dead, was a highly trained medical shinobi. ”If what Norio is saying is true, either he’s been brought back to life by some forbidden jutsu, or a highly trained eijutsu user has brought him back from death…” his words played into the headset, before he began to make conversation.

He knew that the two needed to get close enough to the combat to make further analyses and support the team if it was necessary, but they needed to avoid being seen if it was at all possible. ”Norio, normally I’d defer to your judgement, but if our allies or comrades get hurt because I’m not there to aide them, then I have failed- and I will not fail. We are moving in closer to the point of contact. We will stay high in the canopy, where we can both further observe the situation and help if it is essential. Also, if you have any long range skills to deploy, we may be able to use them as surprise distractions, so look for opportunities. he gave a curt nod, hoping his ally would move in behind him, before rapidly shifting his trajectory inward toward their allies. He withdrew his bow into his left hand, ready to reach for an arrow at any moment should it be necessary due to one of these puppets or the master. ”Keep a 15 meter distance between points of interaction unless we’re ready to proceed. Lets go!”

Relevant Character Components:

Spoiler:

Posts : 257

This person whom Kijin bumped into was rather agile and good. Kijin was not able to know in which manner exactly his attack was dodged but he knew the shock emitted through the threads when flesh is pierced, now it was different, a sound reminiscing that of swords colliding together – the puppets missed and hit each other’s blades. Without a doubt this man was not the measly genin – he must’ve been either the leader or one of the team’s elite. Killing him may have brought Kijin back his mojo which he desperately needed back after being so badly beaten before.

Needless to say Kijin would’ve moved out of his cover behind the rock right when the attack missed, previously when he had the element of surprise the obstructed visibility may have been acceptable but not now, not when he was known, he needed to know exactly what this man’s counter was and how to protect against it. Kijin also chose to move his puppets in closer to him, something he was very happy that he did since the man’s response was targeted towards the place he was attacked at. Had Kijin been the weak man he was before the Leader trained him his lag time would’ve prevented Kijin from moving his soldiers in time but now he was in the clear.

Kijin almost sighed, thinking to himself that the first exchange of blows was over with, he did not notice where his opponent went to due to him slipping away using smoke and destruction that his two explosive kunai caused, for all the puppeteer knew those tools may not have even been meant for damage but for giving him the needed condition to slip away from Kijin’s grasp. It was then that Kijin heard a loud whistle somewhere above him, for someone like him, with no sensory or perception abilities to sense the jutsu being readied it must’ve been powerful – Kijin effortlessly flicked his hand moving four of his soldiers behind him blocking the gust of wind with their blades, custom made by Niku – another Parabrahma member who was currently fighting elsewhere.

Kijin expected that to be that however even that attempt to completely block out the technique was not enough. A powerful concussive force of wind his his back blowing him and his puppets forward sending them crashing into a rock. This “blocked” technique must’ve cost him multiple ribs however such extent of damage was nothing for Yoitoko’s reanimation technique to quickly fix, within mere moments Kijin’s mangled and cracked ribs were back into position. The man looked over his soldiers, those puppets he sent to protect him from the blast were torn apart and useless however nearly instantly others took their place. He had 10 sets of 10 puppets making the total equal an ass-kicking 100 puppets, the downside was not being able to use them all at once. Now he was down to just 96. Still, these arrogant and slippery worms were ages away from killing off all of Kijin’s arsenal.

Kijin looked around, he spotted several youngsters on the rocks nearby, one was in a comfortable position to attack him with all of his genin might, without a doubt he was interrupted by the approach of that stealthy wind user whom Kijin still couldn’t see. He/She must’ve scurried back into a hole from which he/she came right after launching that wind jutsu. The other one looked like a character from a manga, he had weird spiky hair and had a sword or something you don’t see genin using every day. Kijin observed the spot where he was hit noticing some of his clothes flaring up.

“I see… One of those two brats must’ve launched a Katon technique that reacted violently with that high-rank wind technique exploding upon being blocked. Shit… Those guys are just jumping around and firing their useless jutsu, annoying the fuck out of me…” Kijin’s eyebrow ticked as the fact that he was injured ticked him off. It didn’t matter that the injuries were healed, all that mattered was that their stupid miniscule techniques hurt him, HIM! One of the Parabrahma’s best fighters. That he could not stand! Kijin forced himself out of the rock he was etched into, thrusting his hand forward forcing the two sets of three puppets attack each of the genin he noticed. Three attacking the manga guy, three attacking the martial artist looking fellow. Each of the sets of puppets chose different trajectories for their blades making it hard to dodge or block and would’ve persisted with their assault slashing continuously even if their initial assault was somehow avoided making it living hell for the two youngsters not to get cut up.

It was important for Kijin to keep the other four puppets for defense. Some defensive walls made all the difference as evidenced in him not getting evaporated completely by that previous combination technique. “Shit… Who thought those misfits could combine their attacks like that. Maybe I should stop giving them so much shit and start fighting, me underestimating people was what caused me my death in the first place…” Kijin thought for a moment keeping his concentration split: he knew that at any point more ninja will pop out from the rocks above him, maybe they will fire off more fireballs, maybe they’ll use projectiles because they were cowardly little shits. Either way, eventually they’ll tire and then Kijin will skewer them all!

Spoiler:

Posts : 760

The puppeteer had guessed right with Lo-Ruhamah’s position. She was out of the air and back into stealth before the puppeteer could even see where she had attacked from. Before she lost sight of him, she saw that he had used the puppets to shield from the initial blast. Dammit she cursed. When she landed, she heard a crashing sound echo out. She didn’t believe her attack would outright kill him-ok, that was a lie. A part of her thought that the wind would’ve outright obliterated him-but she could at least put a dent in the puppeteer. Whoever sent out the fireball had great timing because it simply enhanced the explosion. From the sound the explosion made, however, it wasn’t the fireball technique Alayasha had created.

It was probably a bad idea to get in close just now. She would be against a series of puppets that she would have no doubt have trouble with if this puppeteer was worth his salt. Judging by the info, he would be worth his salt and bread too. Close range with her physical self was simply a no go. However, she wasn’t against using one of the strategies that rarely failed her. A sudden idea came to the spur of the moment.

She still had an advantage of stealth, at least for the time being. She kept herself low and out of sight. She believed he didn’t even notice her presence when she did her first attack so she was safe for the time being, so it was safe to assume that the puppeteer was no sensor. How could you even concentrate when you’re constantly getting bombarded? She thought. Her hands began to form the seals. The energy swiftly focused starting from the stomach then to her chest. She gathered enough energy for this next jutsu. Her eyes shift to her right side as her clone appeared in a poof of smoke.

“Ready?” The true Lo-Ruhamah whispered.

The clone, an explosive one at that, gave the slightest of nods. She didn’t look particularly happy to be used as a simple explosion, but she was not the host in this case. Fucking hate being the explosive clone. Why can’t clone three be the one to do it it thought, but she stood up.

The real Lo-Ruhamah grabbed her clone’s wrist. “Take off the vest and pouch on your pants.”

The clone, despite being a clone, blushed. She had a disbelieving look on her face. If the clone was going to talk, it would’ve been a scream rather than a whisper.

“I don’t have my radio with me, so no one knows this is a clone. Just take it off so someone knows.”

The clone didn’t see the point. It would disappear anyway after she would do her job. Again, she wasn’t the host. The clone, hesitantly, took off her vest and dropped it on the ground then she unclipped the pouch.

Lo-Ruhamah pointed forward “Go.”

He heard the chitter chatter through the radio as Alayasha was finishing up the seals. “I don’t think he’s human.” Norio said. He sounded like he was making a general statement.

”If what Norio is saying is true, either he’s been brought back to life by some forbidden jutsu, or a highly trained eijutsu user has brought him back from death…” Naruku spoke then.

Naraku was bright to think that the puppeteer was either a makeshift Edo Tensei or a makeshift medical technique. If the information given was true, then he was simply an amplified zombie. He didn’t know if the puppeteer was in the classification of true reincarnation that Edo Tensei gave to the dead. If that was the case, then he would have to be the one to seal him away. That option he didn’t truly like only because he would have to take time to set up the sealing process. He trusted his team to be back up and distract him, but the set up would consume too much time and focus.

If not, if it was like the medical experimentations of the undead that Kirigakure had done, then he had a general idea of how to destroy a creature like this. Alayasha had set the ink and pen back into his pouch, which would inevitably leave a small black dot on the side of the pouch due to him not cleaning the pen. He had two seals. He had originally wanted to make one, but he it was better to have two than one. The blank seals both had the word “Explode” in the language of his people. It was another caliber 10 seal. He didn’t realize how much he used these seals, but they seem to be his favorite when it came to large area of effect jutsu. It’s what the doctor ordered he thought. He pulled out two kunai and wrapped the two papers around both handles.

The two kunai he threw before that had the caliber seals were suppose to draw out the attention of the puppeteer. It didn’t exactly do its job, but that was one of the random guesses he did. It was the plan that he had no doubt would fail, and it did its job to the T. Next was to taunt the user, perhaps play with the puppeteer’s current mindset and the upset with The Magician victory over him. That gave him a reaction, and with that reaction gave him an idea of his location. With the explosion he heard, he had a precise location thanks to the smoke overhead. He had no doubt it was one of the genin. Lo-Ruhamah didn’t have any fire based attacks, and he knew that the genin couldn’t have anything more powerful than a basic fireball jutsu. If it was collaborated then it was timed or just plain luck. Makeshift or not, it was a good attack. It would probably make the puppeteer more incline to be a focus killer now that we certainly pissed him off Alayasha thought.

As the puppeteer was getting his bearing and was initiating a counterattack, Alayasha threw the first kunai at the position where he was last before the puppets attacked him. The blade went into the earth and rested easy next to the rock formation. He then jumped on top of the rock formation and had crouched down keeping his sight on the puppeteer. He got a good glance of him. He saw that his attention was focus towards the two genin, the Konoha kids, with an attempt to run them through his puppets and four puppets were taking a defensive stance waiting for any sort of attack. Clever, but it wouldn't be enough to get blasted away from all sides. He was ten meters away and eight meter above him. He tried to be as quiet as he couldd, but he didn’t think he need to. Not when he was getting attack everywhere

Alayasha’s eyes caught a glimpse of someone moving up to the puppeteer. It was Lo-Ruhamah coming in bare fist and all to do, well something. Shit, this would put a damper in his plan. He didn’t want to hurt or kill her little sister. Was she crazy? Perhaps, she was his sister after all. It couldn’t be a last ditch attempt to protect the kids. No, that wasn’t her style to come outright and attack unless she was doing one of her suicide bomber type of attack. It would make sense because she didn’t have her blade out and when they moved into position she had that out. Not only that, she was just wearing her shirt and not her vest. If she had a radio, she would’ve no said in her annoyed voice she could mustered “It’s a clone, stupid.”

With the clone running head on at the puppeteer, he timed his throw. The clone was using the speed she was given so he had to time it perfectly. When he threw it, and he threw it with his great strength, his general aim was the puppets and not the puppeteer. When both the clone and the kunai were in range, Alayasha clasped his hands together and activated the seals.

Both seals and the explosive clone went off at the same time. Whether the clone saw the kunai or the clone simply just exploded because it thought it was a good time to explode, it didn’t matter because the combined explosion was something to behold. The one kunai that was stuck in the ground and around the general position where Alayasha was standing when the puppets attack created a blast that obliterated the ground and shatter the rock formation that the puppeteer was standing behind. It would certainly create a blast that could affect the undead due to him standing where he was, and if that didn’t get him then the rocks would be great as shrapnel. When the one that was aimed at the puppets exploded, it would create the energy blast of ten explosive notes which combined with the clone explosive energy

Even with the puppets, the energy of 30 explosive notes would certainly produce damage to the puppeteer and the puppets.

”Alayasha”:

”Lo-Ruhamah”:

Posts : 33

Hitei's ideal early offensive was in shambles, and he was pissed. He gritted his teeth together as the puppet master reformed his squad, this time with four guards. As the dust from the wind jutsu and the subsequent explosion settled, he observed as three puppets went for him and three went for Crono. Due to the other genin's flanking manoeuvre the puppets were running in almost opposite directions away from their master, a shame, as Hitei would have preferred to intercept them all at once.

As the three swordsmen approached him Hitei's mind worked relentlessly to devise a suitable tactic. As confident as he was, he was certain that taking on four puppets as well as their master all at once was a poor decision. However, the rest of the squad would soon descend on the puppeteer, so Hitei would just have to hold out till then.

Hitei's attention returned to the approaching swordsmen. His clones were still around him, unaffected by the explosion. He and his 5 clones all charged at the swordsmen head on. He knew that he had little in the way of defending against swords, bar his rather basic kunai, so Hitei decided on another tactic. As the two groups approached he threw out all 3 of his exploding pouches, as well as a single explosive note attached to a kunai, directly in front of the approaching group. Hitei formed a handseal, igniting the explosive note as well as the pouches as a consequence, creating a moderately impressive explosion in the midst of the puppets.

Of course, that explosion paled in comparison to the massive explosion that followed as Alayasha made his move.

Complete and utter chaos, Hitei mused to himself as he picked up his bearings. The air was thick with smoke and upset dust, limiting his vision. “Fuck this” he muttered before charging towards the epicentre of the explosion. Forming hand-seals and summoning a new set of five clones, Hitei left the rest behind to distract the remains of those three swordsmen as he charged towards the last place he saw the puppeteer.

Simply put, Hitei was tired of attempting to engage in combat before being knocked back by another explosion, he was ready to take his opportunity to get into the thick of it, regardless of how risky the manoeuvre was. As Hitei charged he made note of a large chunk of rock that had been knocked out by the destruction of the rock formation, a suitable target for a substitution jutsu if he got into a pinch.

Jutsu used:

CP: 47/50

Age : 25 Posts : 175

The plan had worked, somewhat. The puppeteer was slightly scorched, however any amount of damage was quickly repaired. upon the area of the collision of the two jutsu, Crono could just make out the darkened shapes of glass formed from the intense heat created. He was close, a direct hit might have ended it, if not, it would have made this fight significantly shorter. Ah well, be thankful for small victories. The small samurai shook his head and made a leap back and to the left. From this position he would be between the stealthy ninja's original position and hitei.

The puppeteer made his movements, instantly recalling multiple adult sized puppets back to his location. His fingers moved dexterously as he would flick and pull the multiple strings of chakra, each meticulously attached to a single puppet. The puppet's faces were lifeless unlike the rest of their body. Could they have been human? They didn't look like wood, yet, there was something odd about them. "If what Norio is saying is true, either he’s been brought back to life by some forbidden jutsu, or a highly trained eijutsu user has brought him back from death…" Back to life? So even this puppeteer, was himself someone else's puppet. However, unlike the puppets before him, the puppet-master strings were non existent.

Taking note of his surroundings the red-haired samurai noticed broken tree branches, fallen rocks and the smoldering remains of the aftermath from the original explosion, on the ground a bird lay with a broken wing struggling to move. The shattered and splintered remains of her nest laying next to her, two shattered eggs soaked the stitched wood with yolk. He was in the heart of the pain he had felt earlier, and it heated his blood. "They want destruction, I'll give them destruction"

The puppet master's fingers began to twitch, sending three puppets toward him, another three to Crono's right toward Hitei and leaving 4 to protect himself. If Crono was going to do it, now would be the time. Quickly Crono's fingers dexterously formed hand signs in front of his body before activating the jutsu. Above them a small black cloud would appear passing the puppets as they rush to Crono and stopping just above the puppet master before raining down black rain upon the location of the puppet master and his four guards. If Crono had learned anything from his allies... they liked their explosions, perhaps they would enjoy this.

However, before Crono could finish the combination, the puppets had already surrounded him and he was now out of time. hopefully, his allies would understand, if not, he would finish his attack after dealing with the puppets. He would reach for his blade, as they swung theirs. They may have held blades but that alone did not make them swordsmen. These weren't even men, but mere tools. They would stand no chance of defeating someone who had held a blade from the age of 4 with only wild swings, even as targeted as they may have been. With one swift motion the red-haired samurai would draw his specially designed blade swinging it outward in one fell strike. A wave of chakra quickly surrounding him and pulsating out knocking back those in close proximity. An attack like that wouldn't take out the puppets, but might disrupt their inner workings and compartments.

Crono's blade would then begin to emit a small trail of steam from it's spine, the edge of the blade almost glowing red from the heat that was captured inside, the glow visible only in the shade. Following up from his previous attack, the youth would charge toward the puppet ahead of him as it recovered from his previous attack, attempting to strike the puppet between it's right shoulder and head. The blade's spine suddenly releasing vast amounts of steam as he attacked, increasing the forward velocity of the blade while the edge was so intense that it would sear as it cut, possibly igniting the area cut in flame.

jutsu used:

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mod Post: Due to failing to put up a post within well over 72 hours Chris is skipped.

Posts : 257

Mod Post: Brett is skipped for failing to put up a post in well over the given time limit.

Some notes: To Chrono - these puppets are actually more of swordsmen than your character is, I will let the light reaction slide but these are not jobber puppets even if there are great numbers of them, please note in the anime when Sasori and Chiyo clashed Sakura failed to properly even track the movements of the puppets and Sasori was probably not even a Weaponry expert which Kijin is. For now I will let this one slide but please mind the opponent's skill, puppets were sent after you (S rank puppetry mind you) and your character not only performed a technique by the time they reached you with no hand seal enhancements but also intercepted them in time after using a technique while being 3 ranks lower than the opponent.

On an unrelated note I apologize for the slow progression of the topic and slow response times.

Post: Kijin was not a fan of the situation that was taking shape, this fight was now built to where his pesky opponents were well concealed and just switching turns at firing the worst they had to offer at him. Not that he cared too much because he already killed himself fighting a little girl… What a crazy world he lived in, one day he was feared and hailed as one of the Parabrahma’s best, the next one he got beaten and his puppets were destroyed only to be resurrected to fight some cowardly children and some slimy supervisor who was too fucking scared to face him. As much as Kijin hated that Sorceress bitch at least she stood in front of him and fought him head on. These pests were just annoying.

Kijin’s puppet squad that he sent after one of the genin got blocked by a wall of explosive pouches, the force was miniscule and didn’t destroy the puppets, maybe just damaged the joints a bit but it was nothing too scary, they were still quite capable of murder. These couple of moments of supposed lag wouldn’t have mattered, Kijin may not have specialized in hand to hand but what these ninja failed to remember was that he was an incredibly skilled weaponry expert. He had perfect control over the puppets as an S rank puppeteer and could perfectly relay his expertise of weapons to them. It would’ve been just like facing multiple S rank swordfighters and that was not something that the genin could do.

Strangely enough the redheaded genin seemed to be quite the prodigy, Kijin had underestimated his skill as in a feat of supergenin skill he not only performed a technique but also defended against multiple S rank puppets attacking him with a weaponry master controlling them. This must’ve been a fluke, Kijin’s own underestimation must’ve had much to do with it. Luckily enough the fact that he even tried engaging these puppets at close range showed how little he thought of Kijin’s own ability and this proved to be a rather interesting opening for the puppeteer. With a simple leap back he exhausted the range of the genin’s technique, as expected it barely reached the 5 m. range and the genin had misjudged the distance between them sending a mid-range attack at him.

It was then that Kijin’s body got split in pieces by an overwhelming force. The puppeteer being a reanimated corpse felt no pain, just the uncomfortable sensation of his arms and legs being torn off as he seemed to completely misjudge the silent attacker who sent quite the amazing feat of explosive and destructive power destroying not only the four puppets that were guarding him but also messing up Kijin’s own body. This would not go with the puppeteer, he would soon have his way with that dark skinned individual from before, right after he murders these children.

And it just seemed like these children were eager to die. Just as Kijin’s body reshaped with his arms and legs growing back from small paper notes back into limbs the Parabrahma saw one of the fools charging at him. With a quick swipe through his tattoos with his new and reshaped arm Kijin summoned four puppets that were blown to bits, he also sent those repelled previously from behind. No way a genin had enough skill to dodge two fronts of S rank puppets rushing at him without an aid of some sort of technique.

That still was not it, The red head samurai genin was still trying to strike down the puppets, Kijin’s mouth twisted at the side as halfway through the assault he sent two more puppets rushing at the redhead. This time he commanded the puppets to attack simultaneously surrounding the child, two slashing from above to the shoulder, one being ruined beyond use by the samurai fell down to the rocky ground below, the two others attacked with all Kijin’s mastery over weapons from below. The kid was a skilled swordsman but Kijin was more skilled and he had four embodiments of himself sent after the kid. If the samurai didn’t pull out of the troubled zone, he’d be cut up pretty badly.

Still, Kijin was properly annoyed by all of this, these genin seemed to have no idea who they were fighting with and then there were those cowardly supervisors hiding somewhere in the rocks. This pissed Kijin off, it was time that he summed up his assault. After the planned attacks towards the children ended: the four puppets surrounding the redhead finished their combination attack and the other genin got flanked from both front and behind by puppets, one of each would prove a significant challenge for someone his age to overcome. Kijin’s body would’ve wrapped in a tight rubber ball. This was it, he was sick of those games! He toyed with that girl and this is where it ended, with him dead. He would toy no longer.

The rubber ball expanded in size to where it reached about 50 ft. in radius and then it burst revealing a demonic giant shape behind it. A true titanic puppet that was able to devastate an entire settlement just from the sheer force of swinging its blade. Kijin would’ve shouted out loudly into the air with his voice being multiplied by the puppet and shaped to sound more grotesque and disgusting. The puppet was nothing more put pure human fat stuck together by couple of straps but now the fat formula was improved from the time he faced that magician, it wasn’t completely overtaken by fire, just damaged much more. No blunt force would even come close to hurting this thing and Kijin knew it.

The puppet took its sword and slammed it forward, anyone who was right in front of the puppet, no matter how far would’ve been either crushed by the blunt blade or consumed by the large fissure that the sword slamming into the ground caused. The fissure opening up would’ve also caused rubble and rocks fly off into every direction causing anyone who tried to nimble their way out to get a nasty and painful surprise of some blunt force traumas hitting their bodies. The puppet tried to aim at the kids but at this point he wasn’t that accurate. Kijin’s titanic puppet started walking forward, each step brought him 50 m. closer to his goal at least and his goal was the safe-house of the Daimyo. Once the puppet comes close to the safe-house it planned to swing its blade destroying it in the process as it demolished this battlefield.

At this point Kijin didn’t care too much if he killed the kids or not or if the stealthy supervisor would try to engage him, there was little they could do to stop his movement. If they didn’t act fast their Daimyo would soon be just a puddle of gore and blood together with his “guards”.

Spoiler:

Posts : 760

When the clone exploded just a few feet from the target, both Alayasha and Lo-Ruhamah made clear from the explosion. Alayasha turned and leapt ten meters away to the explosion and landed in a small clearing where he rolled and was onto his feet. He bent low and saw the smoke rise meters into the sky. He wasn't expecting the puppeteer to be dead, but he would at least be stunned, or at the very worst pissed off. Alayasha caught Lo-Ruhamah be dashing between the rock formations and moved towards Alayasha's position. She was swift, keeping herself low to the ground.

When she was near him, she bent down and took one knee. "I don't know if that'll stop him". She said. It was more of an analytical statement then a concern Alayasha noticed.

"Ah, it'll either momentarily pause him and we can go in to see how fast the regeneration process is or we can-"

More smoke rose from the blast site. The dust and the black color smoke seem to summon a gigantic creature of storytelling proportions. Was that the gigantic puppet the report said it would be. He remembered the report saying it had to be at least seventy-five to eight feet tall. That's still a tall thing, Alayasha knew, and it was something prepared his mind to encounter. He saw it now and his mind began to churn the height of the creature getting a better estimate. It was a little over 100 feet tall. He didn't know if that was error on the part of the person writing up the report or error on the original person who fucked up that little bit information. Either way, it did surprise Alayasha.

The thing had a smell to it from their distance. It reminded him of month old stew whenever his young brother at the time, Mashah, didn't clean out the refrigerator. It was a rancid smell, something that only meat could produce. His eyes did a quick double take to Lo-Ruhamah and back to the puppet. He turned to Lo-Ruhamah and saw her surprise as well. He wondered if she smelled it as well.

"I didn't think it was that big." she said.

He missed the opportunity to say a joke then. His eyes caught the thing reaching for the blade and pulling out a large claymore that was equal the size of the puppet. He yelled, both to her and into the radio "Get some distance from it!"

Alayasha had sprung himself out from the crouch and into the air. He didn't turn around, but he heard Lo-Ruhamah was behind him. The thing swung the blade into the earth. The weight of the blade plus the momentum of the swing cause the earth to shake.

"What are the odds of him being pissed?" Lo-Ruhamah said as they landed.

"I would be the worst gambler in the world if I said he was pretty calm and chill right about now." he was thinking also on the other genin who were probably attacked by the puppeteer. He hoped they got out of range. He promised no one was going to die and he would keep that oath even if it killed him. Alayasha saw the thing turn and move to the direction of the safehouse. He was making good progress despite its size and speed. They would have little time to make a thought out plan now that the thing was on the move. Alayasha's arms began to glow. Lo-Ruhamah looked down and saw the seals around his arms beginning to give off a red light.

"Is that-?" she began, but couldn't get it out as Alayasha was on the move. Lo-Ruhamah cursed some more and began to run after him hoping she wouldn't be left behind. "The puppet, it smells like two month old fat." she said as they were moving keeping up the pace with the creature.

Alayasha clapped his hands together. In-between his hand the light within began to brighten. There, in the middle of his hand, a small fire began to conjure in between his hands. "It probably is. It makes him oily probably giving us hand to hand users issue if we were to fight it directly."

His realized his radio was still on. He was remembering the skillset of the team. Most if not all of them were close range users. He knew that their attacks were limited to an extent. They had some sort of explosive tags, so perhaps that would be their best bet. He said "If any one of you has a heavy energy projectile, now is probably the time to use it. The puppeteer is desperate and wants to fulfill his objective. From the smell it gives off, it is surrounded with fat so anything with heat will damage it."

"More likely than not." Lo-Ruhamah murmured.

"He's focus on his objective so strike at him on my mark."

"That red-headed kid had a fire technique. Maybe if I did my wind bullet plus your tech, it'll be one hell of an explosion."

"That's what I am hoping." Alayasha said. He also hoped the kid had just as good timing as he did last time. His mind was estimating the distance between him and the puppet. Alayasha had lowered his speed to Lo-Ruhamah's speed but they were on the left side of the puppet and about ten meters away from its position. It's stride was long but it was slow moving. He was in range. The technique was complete now. All he would have to do is fire this explosive S.O.B of a technique at the puppet. The knockback on this technique is gonna be a bitch.

"On my mark, fire your technique at the same time."

Lo-Ruhamah began to do the seals. The chakra within did the same as before. It built up in her stomach then settled as if pulling the string on a bow before releasing the arrow. She was ready to release the bullet. She looked at Alayasha and saw that he was ready.

"Now!" he said

Here goes. she thought and jumped. Alayasha was in the air as well and had his hands opening up to reveal the condensed fire within. She opened her mouth and a large mass of wind shot out from her and at the puppet. Alayasha released his fireball shooting forward with Alayasha being shot back.

The win d bullet and the fireball moved at the same speed, which of course was fast. Unlike the fire technique that Crono had used which was weaker, the fire technique that Alayasha produced was one technique he had gotten from Sandaime Raikage. His understanding of fuuinjutsu was more or less the unique and crafty type. He was known for making seals that differed from any other type of fuuin produced in the shinobi world. This technique, the Hi Hira Suiryoku, was an example of that. Although it wasn't a giant fireball that most high ranking fireball techniques can produced, what it lacked in size it made up with extreme power. Combined with the wind bullet that Lo-Ruhamah technique made two A-rank technique one of the deadlist combinations devised. If Crono had his technique handy, he could combined his technique with theirs to make it even more powerful.

The attacks were aimed towards the center of the puppet. Both Alayasha and Lo-Ruhamah had guessed that was where he would be at but all the same, when the techniques would collided, it would do extreme damage to both the puppet and even the puppeteer.

Alayasha SC's:

Jutsu used:

Lo-Ruhamah Jutsu:

Posts : 33

As the smoke and dust from the explosion began to clear Hitei continued to charge at the puppeteer, practically itching with excitement. He couldn't imagine the opponent being in a position to use his puppets, which meant that he would instead have to take on Hitei himself in close combat. Of course, the logical part of him screamed that it was unlikely that he would be able to handle himself against an S rank, even one used to using puppets all the time. That shred of logic was drowned out with sheer adrenalin and excitement, as he was so used to doing.

To his dismay though, when Hitei finally laid eyes on his opponent, the man was already almost completely regenerated. His eyes opened wide as the man summoned a whole new group of puppets and, most unnervingly, these four puppets all closed in on the real Hitei, completely ignoring his five clones. Was this guy completely immune to genjutstu? He wandered, and then immediately realised the implication of the puppeteer seeing through his clones. Without even bothering to look back, he activated his substitution jutsu, anticipating that the puppets he had left behind would also be ignoring his clones.

In an instant, Hitei had swapped positions with the small boulder he had identified earlier. Gritting his teeth at the fact that, once again, his attack has been thwarted, he looked back at the puppets as their attack collided with the rock, chipping it, but not breaking it. As he began to plan out his next attack, he was distracted by a shroud of rubber covering the puppeteer, encasing him in a ball that began to rapidly expand. Hitei's heart skipped a beat, this is it. The ball burst to reveal a 100 ft tall monstrosity.

Hitei was ecstatic, his mouth turned into a wide grin of sheer elation as he stared at the giant. He hadn't expected to witness it in action this soon. That nagging shred of logic telling him he had no idea how to handle this thing was quickly silenced, I'll figure it out as I go along. The puppets sword swing was inconsequential to him due to his position directly to the right of it, though the damage it wrought made his grin grow just a little bit bigger.

There was the commotion over the radio as their leader discussed a plan, Hitei was already running towards the puppet, whatever plan they had he would simply attempt to work around. The puppet had already moved enough that he would be approaching from behind, which was good considering that the rest of the team would be hitting its front.

The puppet was surprisingly fast despite its almost sluggish movements, a quality of its sheer size and the distance each step carried it. Still, Hitei managed to catch up, his mind working in overtime to figure out how he could actually do damage. Above him was a tremendous explosion of fire and air, he had only barely managed to get close enough to the giant that its titanic legs sheltered him from the blast. I don't remember them saying anything about this guy being a sensor ninja, but he has to be able to get a grasp of his surroundings from in there somehow, which means... Hitei produced two Kunai from his kit. ... That I should start by taking out that things eyes. He leapt towards the monsters ankle, embedding his Kunai into the fat through sheer strength alone. Next, he began to pool chakra around his feet. It was a simple academy technique, but combined with the aid of his Kunai to get a hold into the monsters flesh, the Act of Tree Climbing jutsu would allow him to begin climbing the monster.

If all went according to plan, Hitei would scale the giant puppet, hopefully using the distraction made by the rest of his team to avoid being noticed. And, upon reaching the top of the puppet, he would destroy its eyes by ploughing through them with his Kunai.

Jutsu used:

SCs:

CP: 44/50

Age : 25 Posts : 175

ooc:

Crono's blade cut through the puppet quite easily, the blade searing and scorching the flesh of the puppet as it cut and igniting small pockets of gas as well as the clothing it contacted, completely destroying the puppet. Knowing the power of his previous attack against the puppets, he knew that they would be up. Looking ahead of him, Crono noticed more puppets heading toward him.

"You can't take them all on" The voice in his head spurred. Time seemingly freezing for the red-haired samurai. "They are nothing but tools." Crono quietly replied, his body suddenly standing among the island prison of his mind. A single lone tree stood as a ever watchful sentinel to the creature imprisoned underneath it's roots. "Even tools, can be dangerous in the right hands.". His hand gripped the astral projection that was his sword, tightly. He was right. As disciplined as he was, He was still quite inexperienced in a combat setting. "Swallow your pride, and use the one thing you have, that they don't" The dark eyes loomed out from beneath the tree's roots, and stared deeply into the young samurai's eyes. "your brain"

Crono nodded as he suddenly was thrust back into reality. His hand reaching into his bag, he quickly grabbed a smoke pellet and a explosive tag. Thrusting the smoke pellet and explosive tag down into the ground, A think white smoke covered his location, concealing his movements. With a quick movement, Crono quickly preformed a substitution jutsu, utilizing a boulder he a recently seen near the broken bird nest.

As the puppets attacked his previous location, Crono would listen for the clang of the puppet's weapons against the boulder before activating the explosive tag. It's location underneath the boulder would cause it to explode outward as shrapnel, hopefully taking out all the puppets that were attacking him.

Suddenly the ground began to tremble... "Now what?" Crono thought, His attention now returning to that of the puppetmaster. What was once a small man, had now grown up and out, large and very imposing. A blade the size of his entire clan's district in it's hand. From Crono's proximity to the puppetmaster, He would be underneath the large puppet once it had reached it's full size. "How..." was the only word he could mutter. The scope of this new opponent, had left him quite speechless. He couldn't even comprehend being able to take down a colossess of this scale.

"If any one of you has a heavy energy projectile, now is probably the time to use it. The puppeteer is desperate and wants to fulfill his objective. From the smell it gives off, it is surrounded with fat so anything with heat will damage it." The leader's voice suddenly snapped Crono back to reality just as the giant's blade slammed into the ground. Crono struggled to keep his footing from the sudden tremor. Objective, right.... "Focus Crono!" The voice shouted from within as the puppet began to lumber forward. "On my mark, fire your technique at the same time."

His fireball was too short to reach, and his black cloud would only put him in danger as it would cover, not only the puppet but would drip down upon himself, possibly catching himself aflame. Crono had lost track of Denial, but he hoped that he was still okay. Another reason, to not use the black cloud technique. He had only one technique that would work in this situation, but it was a good one.

Crono formed the seals as he ran to keep in range of the titan. "Now!" the voice rang in his ears. It was time. With a deep breath Crono began to exhale a violent stream of gas heading for the center of the construct. Combined with the other two jutsu, it would create quite a explosion indeed.

Jutsu/item used:

Age : 29 Posts : 3145

Spoiler:

Norio watched silently from his hiding spot. He wasn't sure just how much of the carnage and chaos Naraku could follow, but even if he could only partially witness the battle, he was surely just as shocked as Norio by everything he could see. The young puppeteer was seeing a battle that should have been over some time ago. Their enemy was surviving attacks he had no right to survive; his body re-attached itself with an eerie ease and at an unrealistic speed. Whenever his team finalized a four-part attack, the puppeteer would falter only to get back up and shrug it off.

This really was not his kind of battle. The boy's arsenal was embarrassingly unsuited for the situation and he could offer very little support. He was still fooling himself that he and Naraku could act as elements of surprise should the situation demand it, but the moment the puppeteer released another titan creation (or was it the original they had seen?), the youth knew this was no longer true.

"I don't know how to help them" he admitted solemnly to his fellow Kumo genin. He had not transmitted this to the team; helplessness was not something he wanted to project. His mind raced in hopes of finding some answers. He had some explosives on his person and that seemed more or less to be the answer to their problems their leader favoured. But with Hitei starting to climb the puppet, Norio would merely be a danger to him. Hyuuga arts would likely have no effect on the titan or its master, and his puppets were awfully inferior.

Still, he had to do something, right?

Rolling out two scrolls, the boy performed a quick set of hand seals, and with two poofs of smoke, the Warrior and the Bull were summoned on to the battlefield. With his Byakguan active, the boy had the great advantage of being able to retain his cover and element of surprise (more or less) - hiding from the puppeteer's vision - while being able to command his puppets with the regular precision. With Hitei climbing one leg, perhaps the boy could slow or harm the other?

The Bull raced on first, its hoofs pounding on the ground as it charged forward towards the limb. With its horns lowered, it would do its best to pierce the flesh and perhaps even challenge the titan's balance. The Warrior would follow closely behind, its sword out and ready. Following the Bull's charge, it would begin the process of hacking away at the limb.

It was rather impossible that the puppeteer would be able to see, from his vantage point, the razor-thin chakra strings that commanded these wooden creations. And even if he could, it was further unlikely he would be able to trace them to Norio.

Combat Log:

Age : 30 Posts : 614

Spoiler:

Everything was happening so rapidly, and it became hard for the young boy to focus. While he was good at observation and analysis, this had to be a lot of action for any one individual to synthesize into a stream of thoughts. Each combative situation demanded its own rigorous plan, and given the opponent to teammate ratios, attempting to simultaneous produce five different courses of action and third-party analyses was next to impossible.

Hearing several transmissions over the radio gave Naraku a slightly more insightful image of what was occurring on the battlefield. Since he and Norio had only just headed inward, not everything had been witnessed. What he did see, however, was the dense white plume of smoke that erupted into the air, effectively obscuring a large portion of the treeline for several moments. There was no doubt that this would mean some sort of conflict on the ground, but until he regained sight of his comrades, it was imperative that he stay hidden. Although he had to be hidden, he did not need to be a useless asset. As the smoke cleared, a monstrous sized ball of reeking and rotted flesh became visible- and detectable by olfactory senses. It was a putrid sight, one that could seriously scar a young mind.

To the average group of people, taking down such a demon would be a feat worthy of fear and cowardice, but each other member of his team had quickly risen to the Herculean task and adjusted themselves with the winds of battle. It brought him an odd sense of pleasure, but also helped swell courage within him. Beyond the fact that it was his ordained duty, as both a member of Kumogakure and the Kousen clan, sometimes even he needed additional motivation.

While he scanned the beast, he saw several inherent points of weakness in the anatomical structure of the puppet. Being that every bit of it's huge weight was focused on its legs, he figured that should be one of the team's priorities. After all, if it didn't have feet, not only could it no longer move, but it would produce minimal momentum and would be unable to swing its massive chunk of metal.

Naraku peered on as the leader of the group, and his sister, directed their concentrated attack was heading straight for the lower portion of the puppet's sternum which was further emboldened by the addition of Crono's technique. As their attack soared through the sky, Naraku watched Hitei ascend the beast's backside, which was initially odd to the Kousen, but then he realized there was only one place he could truly be heading- heh. There was no other point on the body that his feeble strikes might do any considerable damage, and plus, he seemed like he knew about structural weakness as well, perhaps because he was prodigious with his blade or sometime else entirely.

Having only just been out of range of the puppeteer's initial chop of his massive claymore, which sent debris flying through the surrounding area, Naraku decided to follow his companion's lead and follow their own directives for the moment. Since all of his comrades were in a viable line of sight, he would not hesitate to separate further. At this point, having the entire team condensed together could prove to be catastrophic to their success. He broke right, heading down the right of the monster, attempting to position himself behind the beast the best he could before the window of opportunity presented itself. Now. The beast began to pick its foot up to step forward as the team came together for one massive barrage of attacks.

If he couldn't help in any medical capacity, he was sure as hell about to find other ways to help out the situation. Taking a moment to breath, and focus of his two points of interest, the young boy calmed himself and brought his sight to a point of cognitive clarity. Each moment that was about to ensue seemed to defy time, or at least, to defy Naraku's sense of time. His arm shot rapidly to the right side of his quiver, grabbing three of his four arrows armed with explosive tags, one after another, as he launched them at the right foot of the giant blob as his body jumped a clearing between two trees. The arrows soared through the air with a gentle whistle. One found itself lodged near the lowest extension of its Achilles tendon, the other about another eight feet up, and the last one found itself equidistant and between the other two- a triangle of explosive force.

A tiger seal, accompanied by a low but assuring "Activate." just as his feet came into contact with the second branch allowed for the seals on the shafts to erupt upon execution, hopefully blasting several feet of the beast's support system to nothingness. In the meantime, Naraku's second point of interest needed to be targeted. In the midst of his proceeding two leaps across the canopy, Naraku withdrew one smoke grenade from his pouch and threw it upward at an angle that was parallel to the face of the giant after jumping upward through the canopy and pulling the pin with his teeth to gain maximum range with his shot. As his body fell back down to the ground, he placed an arrow and began to pull back to create a worthy amount of tension. By the time he had came back into contact with a tree branch, the canister had reached its apex and was beginning to spew its smoke into the surrounding air. One second after it began to lose height, Naraku let his arrow fly with as much precision as he could, hoping to tag the beast as close to the side of the beast's eye as possible to provide cover for his ally.

As it soared upward into the air, it pierce the canister directly in the center through and through. Although the arrow lost a slight amount of momentum from needing to carry the canister upward, it was still faster than average due to his technique. As it was pierced, the smoke began to pour out at a quicker rate and more erratically. All he could hope for was that his shot would land somewhere near his mark.

Relevant Character Components

Spoiler:

Remaining Equipment:
1/4 explosively tagged arrows
27/30 arrows total

Remaining Chakra:
57 (70-13)

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

It was evident the whole time just how different it was fighting all of those guys as compared with just fighting that brat from Konoha, these guys weren‘t as purely destructive and overpowering as she was but there were much more of them providing the same effect except much harder to keep notice of everything going on. Still, one of the team clearly surpassed the others, from what he had seen so far Kijin was able to tell that he was confronted by a higher ranking ninja and a bunch of kids.

The puppeteer no longer kept track or much care of his squad when his other puppets were defended against by the samurai guy using some trickery. Normally if this was a battle he could have been able to slowly exhaust them, make them use out all of their tools but this wasn‘t a battle. This was a mission. „Oy, Kijin... Hurry the fuck up you useless shithead, I knew I should‘ve resurrected someone from the Old Generation” Yoitoko’s voice echoed in the puppeteer’s mind, it was a side effect of being controlled by the bastard.

“What’s the rush? Why can’t I fight them and kill them?” Kijin wondered with a curious tone. He was right in his mind, where did he have to rush? He could’ve easily outlasted these guys with his longevity and Edo Tensei regeneration, Yoitoko was one of the greatest masters of that Kinjutsu that has ever lived. Why did that stupid necroman wish him to rush? “You fool, Tenma got his ass killed against a bunch of S ranks, the Sorceress and her squad beat and captured Niku ALIVE! We don’t know the specifics but Sorceress alone kicked your butt before, these guys are doing a fair job at it too, if she or one of those other S ranks join those guys you’re done for, I’m leaving you behind, you hear me?”

Kijin got a bit annoyed, if Yoitoko pulled out Kijin would’ve remained a dead body with nothing to control it, he wouldn’t even be his own corpse, just a stuffed figure. He couldn’t allow that, he needed to earn the Leader’s favor by killing the Daimyo. Kijin felt something tingle, it was one of the strings that were connected to his outfit when using the Tarunda – it was sort of a combination of nerves that reacted when the fat was rustled significantly and something happened, maybe some idiot genin decided to climb up the puppet? Either way, that wasn’t even the main threat, Kijin heard a loud whistle coming at him from behind. “I’ll put you on hold…” he replied to Yoitoko, obviously he was joking – Yoitoko controlled the mental link.

The Tarunda quickly jumped and turned back, it almost tore Kijin’s muscles to pull the strings that fast and strong, he was a pretty strong guy but it was almost like steering a ship. The Titan puppet turned around and placed his blade to block the incoming projectile – it was another wind – fire combo. “Shit, the brat must’ve briefed them about the fat…” Kijin cursed as he expected a tremendous force of the explosion to set some of the puppet on fire, either way, as long as he blocked the main force of impact with his sword he was supposed to be just fine. Also his quick turn would’ve shook the idiots trying to climb the puppet, the fat was slimy and greasy, if all they had to hold on to was a kunai or some climbing tools they’d slip right out sending the fools tumbling down.

Just before the impact Kijin felt a slight thump in his leg – one of the “nerve” strings twitched alerting him of damage, it wasn’t anything too much, probably just some genin trying something like explosive tags on ninja tools, it would have barely even gotten through the first layers of the fat – rubber combination. Any swords or blunt force swings were pretty much useless, Sorceress’ stupid rabbit almost got a concussion tackling Tarunda whole day and didn’t even phase him. The explosion however was MUCH more than Kijin had anticipated. Something was wrong, definitely wrong, the explosion surpassed any jutsu or explosion that Kijin had ever seen, it must’ve been enhanced even FURTHER by something, what was it: fire – wind – wind?

Those guys must’ve been suicidal, the explosion this large would’ve sent a shockwave for at least a rough 100 meters, sending debris and powerful shockwave busting the bones of anyone in its path, anyone in at least 50 meters to the puppet would have been incinerated. Kijin woke up from the blast about when the smoke and the debris would’ve settled down. He checked on the strings – the sword blocked the main impact as expected but the puppet had small fires all over the body – eventually they’d bring the puppet down, also the force of the explosion was so great that it had sent the claymore back lodging it right into the puppet’s own head splitting it open. It was just several meters away from where Kijin was based in. The head string had been torn apart from the shock.

The puppetmaster sighed, in his mind every stupid genin close to the puppet was down. The puppet itself was brought down to the ground causing it to rupture even more. The last time Kijin caused this much damage with the puppet the ground opened a fissure that ate half of the puppet up. This couldn’t happen again, the puppetmaster improved the fat formula so that it weighed less. The puppetmaster shouted as he pulled the strings to get the puppet back on its feet and out of the giant crater made by the explosion. The rank of such explosion was well beyond S, these brats were capable of such destruction when they put their shoulders to it…

Kijin started flipping out of the crater to continue his path to the safehouse that already saw the fireworks, it was just about half a kilometer away and such a distance could’ve been closed in several minutes by Titan’s speed. “Stop, Kijin, they know your weakness, summon the Hidora and blow the safehouse up, they’ll just use the same combo again and this time the puppet won’t hold.” Yoitoko’s voice reached Kijin as he started loudly cursing, then something happened – that idiot took over Kijin’s body, “NO, STOP, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING YOU RETARD!” Kijin shouted as his will was taken over.

The body reached for a small string on Kijin’s back and pulled it, the Titan closed up into the same rubber ball putting out all the fires by choking them out, The rubber ball then formed an odd shape of a limbless female body as “heads” erupted from various places on the puppet. The heads all aligned around one another and started charging up concentrated chakra beams, when colliding together they had the power to blow a small chunk of a village – the safehouse was going to be just a joke. The squad fighting against Kijin had no time to destroy the puppet, their only option was just to stop the blast. It would have taken a significant barrier or a technique of similar destructive strength and size to stop it. The blast was aimed right at the safehouse – Parabrahma’s goal was never closer to success than it was up to this moment.

OOC:

Posts : 760

The knockback had a surprising force Alayasha realized then as he was sent back by his own technique. He was soaring back looking behind to see where he was going to land. It was open field, sure, but he hadn’t regained any sort of control and the ground would still hurt even if he did get some control. He was going to have to roll to soak up most of the impact. Before he landed, A thought hit him then, a single thought that passed by. Fuckin Yondaime Raikage was insane.

He positioned his body to tuck and roll as he landed. He felt the shock soak up into his bones and outward as he rolled and rolled on the ground. Something pushed him even more making him roll even faster. He made severe curses, both in the understandable language and in his own language. Grass, dirt and pits of rock get stuck into his locs. He could feel that all poking into his scalp despite how thick his hair was. When this sudden momentum was gone, his uncontrollable rolling slowed and he was able to get control himself. He stopped rolling and was on the ground flat on his back. He was staring up at the sky. He saw that a lot of the clouds had moved on through and the sky was relatively clear. If he hadn’t known any better, he wouldn’t think he had taken a nap outside and was waking up just now. Pain reminded him that this was the reality. Ow he thought plainly.

“Ow…” he said plainly.

He didn’t know why he had continued rolling at first. He didn’t realize that the shockwave from the explosion of the jutsu and the sword had caused such a shockwave. He remembered the last thing before landing was his sister falling to the earth as she released her jutsu. The rolling discombobulated him so he had no idea where her little sister or anyone else was at the moment. He was about to say something in his radio when he hearing a scratching noise in his right ear. It was the mic radio. He took it off and saw that it had been crushed from his rolling. Pieces of metal and plastic were hanging off from the side as he pulled it out. He dug into his ear and felt some remnants still in. That made it easier to hear then. When he stood up slowly feeling every ache within his body, he saw that the puppet that was once there was burning up from afar. Well, at least we got he thought thinking it was over.

But it was moving. It was still. Fucking. Moving. It can regenerate a voice in his head said. The rational voice, the voice that kept a close eye on the objective, was reminding him of the simple and utter fact. “Fuck me…sideways…” He cursed as he began to run. “…with a battleaxe…” he continued moving picking up speed to reach to the puppet. He couldn’t worry about his sister now, even though that was in the back of his head, she could handle herself wherever she was. And the genin? Right now, he had to confirm whether he had regenerated or he was burning within the flames of the puppet. If the genin were alive then that was good, if not…

He would worry about that when this mission was over. All sense of teamwork was overridden with cold, hard solo work. He shouldn’t been teamed with these kids. He should’ve just had his sister with him and they could’ve handled it. Intuition was screaming at him saying that he was far from being dead, and another part of his mind was rationalizing that the puppeteer had something else stored if he wasn’t dead. He had his hands balled into fist moving with his surprising speed towards the puppet.

He was fifty, no forty meters away from him now. He was really sent rolling back, but his speed was picking up and he was about to reach max as he was closing the distance. Adrenaline had made the aches and pains go away, although he had the instinctive feeling that the pain would resurface later after this battle. He didn’t see Lo-Ruhamah who had recovered from her fall. She had blacked out for a few moments before waking and finding herself on the ground. The thick rock formation protected her from the majority of the explosion, but the knockback forced her back into a wall. Alayasha was moving with great speed.

“…and a scimitar…” he finished.

Alayasha jumped over the crater. The size of it alone impressed him. He knew the techniques would be powerful, but he didn’t think it would’ve been that powerful. If anyone was close range of that blast it would’ve sent them flying and surely damage them severely. He was going to shout in the radio to the medic to see to the wounded but remembered the status of his current mic. He needed a new one anyone he decided, and landed on the ground to rush off to the puppet. The puppeteer was still heading towards the safehouse where the Daimyo resided. Its objective was to obliterate. The blade was gone now so he wouldn’t have to worry about a large swing trying to crush the building so what was the next option in line? It’s fist? If that was the case then he would have to get inside the puppet and-

“NO, STOP, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING YOU RETARD!” It was the puppeteer’s voice screaming. Something about that scream had changed. It reminded him of how a teenager scolding a parent, something he was familiar with long ago. The large puppet began to shift. It’s large, disgusting shape of a head had altered into something else. Alayasha knew it was transforming. It what exactly? He could only guess something that could potentially destroy an area in an instant. It was doing just that. There were multiple heads coming out of the main puppet’s body. Their long necks shivering and pulsing as if it was living muscle brought shivers to Alayasha. The head’s all aligned and began to form a light in the middle.

Everything in Alayasha’s reality slowed. His mind was beginning to comprehend the situation. Within his mind he was thinking one question: What in the world could stop that technique? He was imagining a written list of seals he had in his possession. Some of which needed paper in order to be used the seal while others, like the fireball, didn’t need a medium. He had few that needed no physical medium, but they were all binding type jutsu.

Perhaps the answer wasn’t binding. Maybe the answer was not sealing or counteracting, but rather absorbing.

In that instant he knew what to do. His hands began to perform the handseals. The seals around his arms began to glow but it wasn’t in the same color as before. No, this particular color was far from red and orange but a light blue. The answer was a fuuinjutsu of his creation. He wasn’t planning on using another one of the formulas Yondaime Raikage had formed. He had enough of his shit for today. This was going to use a genuine, 100% Grade A Kuro, Alayasha seal. He clapped his hands together and opened it up. He couldn’t combat Ninjutsu with Ninjutsu, but he could combat it with fuuin.

He had made the seal as powerful as he could. The coding in his hand translated into the jutsu. As the energy from him disappeared and the reappeared in front of him in a white light, he realized he would have to get in front of this thing in order to stop it. He was confident it would stop, but a scientist always has their doubts.

I fucking hate the ninja he thought. This wasn’t the first thought he had about the subject and it wouldn’t be the last. He was a businessman, an investor, a scientist, an inventor; he was all these things but he was far from a shinobi. He never had any loyalty to any village, and he would be damned if he would have any loyalty. Today, he was doing a very shinobi thing by protecting the Daimyo. Today he was protecting a village he thought he would never return to. Today, he was going to protect these kids. “Fuck it!” he yelled.

He jumped high into the air. The target was the top of the puppet’s head. It didn’t matter which head, but he was aiming for the main one. He didn’t make it on the first leap, but he landed about ¾ the way to the top He didn’t slide back so he got another good footing and jumped again this time with precision. He landed on one of the puppet’s main head and slammed the seal down on it. The seal cried in its head, a sound that only Alayasha could hear, as the seal stamped itself onto the puppet. It was unseen by Alayasha and the puppeteer, but Norio would’ve been able to see an invisible bubble form around the heads. The ‘bubble’ did do its job, however, of surrounding the entire energy where the heads were focusing the chakra. When the puppet would release the chakra beam, the energy beam would then become inert turning into a stream of different color chakra. This was reminiscence of the House of Kuro’s infinite colored chakra, but that was not important. The chakra would then be sealed away. Alayasha hoped that this next attack by the young ones would be enough to stop the puppet’s in their place, if they were ok that is.

”Alayasha’s SC (active)”:

”Jutsu Used”:

Age : 25 Posts : 175

ooc:

The gas exited the young aonisaibushi's mouth, in a forceful stream. It's fluid nature bypassing the defenses of the puppet as it attempted to block the initial force of the combined attack from the two high ranking ninja that were on his current squad. All it would take, however, would be one sudden spark... and....

Suddenly a massive explosion surmounted from behind the titan's blade. The fuel sucking in and rapidly expanding the fire/wind combination jutsu. A massive roar expelled outward in a shock wave that would be felt for miles away. Crono, however, was stuck in time. His eyes staring out into that massive fireball whose size was rapidly growing to consume him. An inevitable creation of doom of his own making. The voice once again rang from the darkness. "Crono...." It's voice calling him back to a place hidden from time. A small reprieve that would allow him to reflect upon his life for a few moments more.

"It doesn't have to end like this" the voice called out. The red haired samurai found himself standing infront of the massive tree prison that kept the tailed beast at bay. Crono had grown to respect the creature within him, and in turn it had seemed that it also treated him with respect. However, in all of that time, had Crono heard this tone, this voice, that was now emanating from within. "I am not afraid, Kokuo" He replied. His Bushido mantra flowing through his head, in particular, The virtue of rectitude. "I will strike when the time to strike is right, and die when the time to die is right. Unwavering, Unflinching" In truth he was afraid, but he was willing to face his destiny knowing that he would die in service to his nation.

"I can save you" the voice called once again. "You have trusted my advice before, continue to trust in me now" Crono looked behind him and stared into the eyes of the beast, lurking between the rooted bars of his prison. "I-I cannot free you from your bonds, my friend." He said. "While I do respect you, it is that respect that cautions me. You have been a good friend to me, Thank you." the beast smiled slightly, respecting the young warrior's words and convictions. But, he was not done. "If you die, I will be reborn eventually, once again free from these bonds. If you somehow survive this, my seal will be weakened enough to allow my escape. Those you cannot prevent." Crono looked inquisitively. "Then, why offer your help?" the bijuu looked at him. "Because, I don't believe the time is right for you to die, besides. You don't have to release my seal"

Crono paused. If he refused the beast's help, he would die, and the beast would be freed. If his escape came now or in the future, was inconsequential. If he accepted it, He could survive and continue in service of his nation, but the beast could possibly take control of him and break his seal. What should he do? Kokuo whispered in his ear once more. "Rectitude is deciding upon a course and living with the choice. Its time to make that choice. There is no time to be afraid of the choice."

Kokuo was right, he couldn't wait to decide. He needed to make a choice and see it through. "Do it." he muttered. "Hmmmm?" the beast replied? "I said, Do it" he almost shouted, his renewed convictions emanating energy throughout his body. The beast disappeared down the dark hole of his prison as red chakra began to bubble out from under the tree. Crono stared the bubbling liquid energy down as it flowed past his feet and began slowly engulfing his body, His consciousness slowly falling aside, blacking out as it passed his eyes. He made his choice, hopefully he would learn to live with it.

As time continued once more, Crono's body suddenly became covered with a blood red aura of chakra as the fireball and shockwave engulfed him. The pushback of the Bijuu's chakra expeling from his body was counteracting that of the explosion. Crono's body roared out in anger and rage from within the inferno as the shockwave finally won out and flung him back, soaring across the ground before causing him to collide with a large boulder, his massive chakra aura causing him to pierce and shatter it instantly as if it were made of dirt before being flung across the ground like a rag doll. His eyes looked up, only to see the giant begin to shrink before his body went limp and all went black, the red chakra that surrounded him fading. Only the burn marks on the grass and scorch marks on his clothing would indicate anything out of the ordinary. Then again, he did just come out of a fireball.

His chakra expended all in one burst, the bijuu within smiled softly to himself. He had finally gotten Crono to taste his power. The boy would surely come back for more, but that wasn't all. For something within him felt some joy, in seeing his host still breathing. This boy was unique, and he didn't wish to see him die. There was something about him. Ever sense the child stood up to him at the age of four, stared him down and declared unflinchingly that he was not afraid of him, Kokuo knew something bright would be in store for him in the future. Kokuo wanted to see what that future held.

Used: Tailed beast berserker mode. Unconscious for 2 posting rounds.
CP remaining: 5/285