Learning Proper Control [Open]

[Saotome Asami]

One wouldn’t have to venture far outside Kurosawa’s walls before the greens of the countryside were all they could see. Compared to the hustle and bustle of a packed city, the relatively peaceful plains were a breath of fresh air for some. They certainly were for Asami. She had thought that living in a shinobi village had made her used to all the noise, but Kurosawa offered no real escape from it. At least Kumogakure had safe zones; dense forests and small stretches of mountains too treacherous to settle on. By comparison, Tea’s capital was one large mass of people and noise and oh so many distractions. For what she had in mind, she didn’t need distractions.

The girl sat cross-legged in front of the only tree in sight – anybody that entered the area would have few options for hiding. Just the way she liked it. If one looked from afar, the scene was almost picturesque. A lone girl admiring a tree, her long flowing hair barely disappearing into the grass and her face both young and at ease. At a glance, she could pass off as an ordinary child. Her body lacked the scars that came with shinobi training, and as always, she had taken great care to maintain the appearance of a well-off little lady. A day’s worth of provisions had been sealed into scrolls and stowed within her pockets, and most of her small weapons were similarly hidden. The odd one out was the kunai in her hand, which she used to stab the tree. It made contact, but she wasn’t content with a slight etching; with visible effort on her part, the blade dug deep into the trunk, until her fist on the handle was lightly touching the poor thing. A few jerks pulled it back out, giving her a ‘wound’ to work with.

She put the blade down to one side and began forming handseals. If the gestures were meant to have an effect, nobody would see it. She hadn’t come so far out expecting instant success – she was trying to replicate a jutsu she had seen exactly once, of course. Never mind that medical ninjutsu were supposedly one of the more complex fields to learn, or that her senses had dulled at the time, or that the reason she saw the jutsu was because she was the injured one, and not in the best state for paying attention, or that she didn't even know if the jutsu worked on plants…

She still had to try. Ideally, she would have had somebody to tutor her, but… she didn’t know any medics to ask. Well, she knew two – a Sennin that couldn’t afford to waste time on one girl’s problems, and a ‘counsellor’ with questionable morals that she didn’t want to be left alone with. Given her success rate the last time she’d made an open call to meet shinobi (a genin and an academy student made for lovely friends, but they couldn’t offer what she was looking for), she figured she may have had better odds teaching herself.

The odds were slim, and the day would be long.

 

[Hak]

A small squirrel looked down from the lone tree in the area, happily snacking on what seemed to be a foreign nut, not native to this country. Noticing the strange girl sitting in front of the tree staring at it, she wondered if perhaps the Human girl was hungry. The small furry animal contemplated on sharing her nuts with the human girl, but instead stuffed it into her greedy little mouth. It was her snack after all, the human would have to ask if Aoi was to share her beloved treasure with another. She looked around the area, wondering what her two ‘dog’ companions were up to, probably something mischievous or perhaps making her food? She was a truly greedy little thing although her adorableness truly made it difficult for one not to give in to her diva like demands.

Aoi crawled down the tree branch, being now within the lone females view as she went to a seemingly random spot in the field and began digging out another nut. She cautiously made her way in front of the female and dropped the nut as a gesture of kindness before scurrying back up the tree. At the top of the tree on a rather large branch there was a black furry little creature seemingly doing something on top of the tree, only his little black tail visible with an occasional ear or two appearing for a moment before disappearing seemingly inside the branches once again. He was most definitely up to something as Aoi crawled up near the little black creature, realizing it was Kuro as she looked to see what her little friend was up to, wondering how the little dog got up so high to begin with.

Aoi tilted her head and crawled up Kuro’s back, seemingly pointing down to the girl to let him know someone else had come into the area. Kuro tensed and cautiously looked down to the female girl, his orange hue eyes studying her carefully. Kuro was definitely a ladies man…well wolf. He enjoyed being pampered and cuddled and worshipped by animal loving girls but he seemingly had a more important task on hand as he chose to ignore the girl and ruffle his head into the branches once more, a small rope seemingly in his mouth if the girl was paying any attention to the sight above her head.

Kuro finally stopped ruffling around and made his way on the branch, a rope firmly in his canine jaws as he looked down with a mischievous look in his puppy dog eyes. He began to study the height carefully as if contemplating on jumping, Aoi the squirrel comfortably resting on the wolves back as he did this. She knew to expect a jump as she grabbed onto Kuro’s fur, bracing herself for the fall as Kuro jumped down, rope still in jaw as he plummeted down to the ground, careful not to be in ‘Asami’s’ way. The rope stopped his fall close to the ground, tightening as a boy fell down from the branch, tied up in a cocoon of the rope, seemingly trapped by his own partner. The boy dangled off the rope, unable to escape as a skull like mask covered half his face, only his jaw and golden wolf eyes visible to anyone who looked. He had his mouth bound as Kuro finished his descent to the ground and tied the rope around the trunk of the tree. Barking up at his partner, Akira struggled against the rope desperately trying to escape as Kuro pranced around quite happy to his partner in distress. All in all, it was a strange way to meet a stranger in the middle of nowhere.

Aoi would climb up to Akira, beginning to bite at the ropes to free the boy in time.

 

[Sato Yuji]

“Come to Tea with us.” her family had said. “It will be fun,” they said. Thus, against Saki’s wishes, she had been dragged to Tea, brought along like excess baggage. Well, they had lied, this was not fun. The city was too much of everything; too loud, too noisy, too smelly with too many people. It didn’t help that as soon as they had reached the city her family disappeared. Some had mentioned that they were going to watch the matches while other had said something about shopping. But all of them had left her standing in the street like a forgotten piece of luggage. This left Saki in an awkward situation, she had been effectively stranded in an unknown city in an unknown land. With no clear instruction on what to so she decided to treat the situation as if it was a training mission. The first thing she had to do was get the lay of the land. So doing what any good shinobi would do -- she picked a direction and started walking. The path she had taken wound through the city, pass the arena and out to the farmlands. Walking through the city proper made her extremely uncomfortable. She was unused to the loudness that the so many people produced when packed together. Back home she had known the streets well enough to avoid the busiest areas -- here she was stuck walking right through them. Unconsciously her pace sped as her chosen path led her into Kurosawa and then out again.

When she reached the walls of the city she paused momentarily to think about how wise it was to leave the city proper without telling her family. It took all of five seconds for her to decide that she truly did not care. They should not have left her alone, it was not as if they were helpless as shinobi they should be able to find her if they needed to. Leaving the city the terrain changed greatly. The buildings turned into fields interspersed with small houses and the road became dirt. The lack of noise was a relief but she could have done without the lack of cover. At least in the city, it would be easy to disappear but out here the task would be much more difficult. Deciding she didn’t like that at all she turned towards the nearest tree and started towards it.

As Saki approached the tree she noticed that it was already occupied by two strange characters. The most noticeable was the boy hanging from ropes struggling, while a small dog pranced around him. The boy was dressed oddly with what appeared to be a skull mask perched precariously on top of his head. With all his struggling she had to wonder how the mask stayed on. The other occupant looked to be about her age if her clothing allowed her to look any age. The other was quite beautiful if she had been less observant she would think the girl a civilian. Saki had to admire the girl for capitalizing on her looks. Saki had been told she looked quite beautiful but Uncle had told her to hide her looks until she could weaponize them successfully that and her eyes were too unique. So she hid her looks under layers of dark clothing that made her appear both genderless, shapeless, and faceless. As she got closer to the odd pair she had to wonder if approaching them was a good idea. But alas, it was too late she was already in their line of sight.

 

[Midori Futotta]

It was a warm day with clear skies, this beautiful countryside field with smiling farmers who greeted you had been well known for being peaceful. The shinobi of the sound kept the peace of this farmland, however that peace came with a heavy price but this thought kept some people at ease. Epically since there had been a person at large in the City Of Kurosawa. Rumor had it that a unknown traveler, who originally came to this village to gamble on who would win the big fight they had been hosting, had committed numerous crimes. Crimes ranging from looting, kidnapping, arson, disturbing the peace, and even attempted murder! Most people had believed that this person was an out of control missing nin, some thought it was probably one of the savages in the sand village. However, who had been running around the village causing all this trouble had been a KONOHA ANBU! One who just got promoted to the rank that had been entrusted with mission to gather information and under no circumstances should he draw attention to himself or let people know what branch was he from.

Needless to say, the numerous crimes he committed had been drawn attention to him, some may even recognize his face. But what they didn't count on was that the man had been able to switch bodies to whatever he chose. Maru had never been caught by the village police, nor was his name brought up. They had been looking for a 17-year-old with black hair, glasses, and who stood about 5’7 feet tall. But they would never suspect that the man they had been looking for had switched bodies with a innocent looking, white haired boy doll… one of the benefits of being a human puppet… you don't have to stick to one body.

--

Walking along the dirt road, a woman had cradled a small silver haired boy puppet within her arms. People would have greeted the woman if it wasn't for that blank expression on the woman's face that looked a bit unnerving. The silver haired ventriloquist puppets glassy eyes sparkled, looking from left to right. Finally the small doll like boy raised a wooden hand up, the woman stopped… slowly twisting her neck to look at three bodies gathered by a tree. “Well, well I guess there's no school for the little kiddies today.” The wooden demon said, a plastic smile coming to his cheeks. "Might as well say hi to my new friends.” He threw his head back and laughed, before pointing at the group with his small wooden hand. The woman twisting her neck to look forward before heading over to where the group of academy students had been…

As the two came, single step by single step, a clicking noises could be heard from the distance.. Like numerous crabs snapping their claws as they came closer and closer. Halting a few meters are away the woman's features were clear. She wasn't a real person at all, she was also a wooden doll but unlike the puppets she had in her hands, she didn't have a soul. Maru raised his wooden hand to wave at the group. "Well hello there kiddies,” he said, his wooden mouth clicked each time he spoke. His glasses eyes passed over to the dog that the boy had and his eyebrows arched to form a angry expression. “And what are you looking at you filthy mutt!” The mean puppet yelled, the puppet had this sinister aura about him that let you know he was bad news. No one knew why the strange wooden doll had approached them nor why was he even there in the first place. He wanted one of them to ask him why.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

With free time growing scarce with the passing of time Yukio find it to be a rare luxury one to make the most of taking time to leave the main city to wander out in the countryside. It was a nice day clear and calm the feeling of peace and relaxation being on the forefront of his senses for a split second the Hyuuga forgot he wandered a foreign land closing his eyes the smell in the air the feeling of the breeze grazing against smooth skin it could almost be mistaken for home.

Though there would have been a preference to take the trip out sooner, however, chasing after Maru and keeping Kuji in check had all but dwindled the short moment of reprieve he may have had even now the thought of future missions, tutors and classes began to creep into the back of his mind if anything the most he could hope for was a brief distraction from such things. His hope would be answered with the best life could offer him his eyes catching glimpse of a Chakra all too familiar to him a heavy sigh parting the lips of the Captain as the looming sense of dread grew stronger.

"Of course out of anyone I could have run into out here it had to be you Maru, then again some company is better than nothing hopefully being sent to Takeshi taught you a lesson or two." Turning to take steps towards the ANBU, though his body was different Chakra never lied without influence and even then it was a difficult thing to achieve. It was times like this he wished the Hakumei were more lenient with details had they been Byakugan he could have moved on oblivious of events occurring around him, unfortunately, this would never be the case.

As he walked closer more detail came into view the scene before him being one that for the first time in a long time made the Hyuuga raise an eyebrow three new individuals surrounding a tree one seeming to be wrapped up like a cacoon, a prank? An accident? whatever the circumstances it was certainly worth a look. He should have expected Maru's reaction even from his approach the boy's aura was prevalent making a scene in his own special way some things never changed and Maru's rather unique personality was certainly one of them.

Coming to a stop just behind the boy coughing to inform the ANBU of his presence. "Apologies for the interruption though seems like something rather interesting is going on here, For one" Tilting his head to Maru "I know i said we would make some changes but this is a tad extreme don't you think?" A second sigh escaped him shaking his head in a slow and steady motion before addressing the rest. "My manners escape me Hyuuga Yukio a pleasure to meet you all."

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The Chronicles of Kyo-Moon

Related Information

The sound of a large wolf's howl pierced through the wind as it picked up on the scent of a small animal; one animal that the massive direwolf would eat. The nearly pure-white direwolf's mouth watered with saliva at smelling the possibility of game, finding (not only) the hunt of small prey exhilarating, but also found eating the creature to be quite the delectable treat. Following behind the massive wolf was a man smoking and sweating profusely from this heat. This man was named Ryong Kyo-Moon. He was shirtless, showing off all of the scars upon his body, having his usual top in one hand and a half-finished cigarette in the other. A Cloud headband adorned his forehead, growing heavy with sweat. "What is all that racket about, Dakota?" the man said in a rather whiny manner before stopping for a second to feel the brisk wind upon his sweat-soaked body. The cool breeze tickled at the relief-center of his brain, pumping him full of serotonin. The relief couldn't have come at a better time. [lb2][/lb2] The man spent the majority of his life living in the frigid tundra known as the Spine of the World and to return to this country, on yet another mission, wasn't something he was prepared for in mind and body. The last time he came here, he was intoxicated by an airborne-poison by the name of Beloved. If only he was able to bottle it up, he could use it for himself; it would make for a wonderful interrogation poison. Non-lethal and it would work phenomenally on those who were already quite sexually-charged to begin with. It was difficult for those, who were in love, to keep things secret for one another. It was at this moment that he continued his trek towards the capital city -- again. Not that he enjoyed the trip out here with the seasickness and vague memory of what happened last time he was here.[lb2][/lb2] Dakota raised her head to smell the wind. The smell of her prey grew closer and closer with every step towards the city. It was here that Kyo noticed a person with long flowing hair sitting before a solitary tree. This did seem like a good place to take a break, even if the dynamic duo of Kyo and Dakota, were so close to the town. He preferred the calm and gentle shade of a tree than the cool effects of a fan or other environmental controls. As he continued towards the tree, he noticed several other people gathering nearby; all appearing to be children. Rats. Even the cute female he thought was a spring-time beauty happened to actually be someone he knew from one of her previous classes. It was the clumsy girl.[lb2][/lb2] He approached, noticing a woman carrying a strange marionette in her hands with the puppet being just downright annoying, obnoxious, and quite loud. It's laugh started to grate on Kyo and Dakota, whispering to the wolf. "Eyes up. Adult female and strange... thing... suspicious," Kyo said silently to the wolf. This caused the wolf to abandon it's desired search of, what it believed to be, a squirrel and kept her wits about her, eyeballing the grown woman. "How about you insult a bigger dog?" Kyo asked as he grew within earshot of everyone in the tree. He kept his eyes on the woman carrying the silver marionette and walked around, noticing the people gathered by the tree. After closer inspection, he noticed that they were all from Kumogakure. Then the puppet yelled and Kyo rubbed the front of his face. "Do me a favor and shut the hell up. Take all that noise into that filthy city. Can't you see people are trying to relax here?" he said as he turned his head to look towards each of the children that were in attendance before turning to look towards the woman holding the puppet. [lb2][/lb2] Kyo took the final puff of his cigarette and flicked it towards the puppet before pulling out another cigarette and lighting a new one. He took a long drag before blowing the thick, white smoke in the direction of the woman and the doll. He squatted in front of the woman, looking her up-and-down for a moment. He took another drag of his cigarette before leaving the cancer-stick in his mouth and exhaled. "Now why's a pretty looking girl being such a bitch to these children? Especially children who run with my pack?" [lb2][/lb2] It was at that moment that another man approached the scene, one with silver hair. What's with these foreigners and having silvery or white hair. He stood up and took another puff of his cigarette and listened to the other man. He eventually introduced himself as Hyuuga Yukio. "Well then, Hyuuga Yukio. Maybe you can explain why this guy is yelling at children?" he asked. Dakota, the white wolf started to surround the ones known as Maru and Yukio, taking up a position around them. He didn't know these people, thus, he couldn't trust them. Even if the one known as Yukio was rather well-mannered, it could always be a facade. "You can call me, Kyo-Moon." WC this post: 857[lb][/lb] WC Total: [lb][/lb] [MFT][lb2][/lb2] OOC Notes: Edited. Yukio ninja-posted.​

Name: Ryong Kyo-Moon[lb][/lb] Age: 18[lb][/lb] Hair Color: Red[lb][/lb] Eye Color: Yellow[lb][/lb] Height: 5'7"/67cm[lb][/lb] Weight: 147 lbs/66.67kg[lb][/lb] Special Characteristics: Scar over left eye Cloud Headband upon forehead Canine-like fangs [lb][/lb] Usual Gear Gourd of Soju Pouch on side Bow and Arrow strapped to back Spoiler: Demon Form Spoiler: Dakota Name: Dakota[lb][/lb] Age: 12[lb][/lb] Breed: Dire Wolf[lb][/lb] Hair Color: White[lb][/lb] Eyes Color: Left yellow, Right blue[lb][/lb] Height: (Paw to Head) 6'2"[lb][/lb] Length: (Nose to Rear) 10'3"[lb][/lb] Special Characteristics: Red lines going over the body Burning disk magically floating on top of torso Human-like intelligence (infantile) Spoiler: NPC Information Nothing Here

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[Saotome Asami]

Had Asami been paying a little more attention, she might have saved herself a spot of trouble. A squirrel couldn’t have been the sole cause of all the rustling above her! She might have realised that, if it wasn’t for every young girl’s weakness: an adorable animal. Granted, a squirrel didn’t need to try hard to seem cute, but its peace offering helped to melt the girl’s heart. It was almost like the start of one of her cartoon princess movies, until the critter ran back up into the tree.

She took a closer look and saw… black? Black didn’t belong in a tree, she thought. It only took a few seconds from there for trouble to reveal itself, in the form of a wolf pup and its captive. “Woah, hey!” The startled child went for her kunai, scooching a few feet away once she had a weapon. Thankfully, once the initial scare passed she realised there wasn’t much to fear. The pup could have been wild, but it seemed too preoccupied with its human companion to even acknowledge her. It was hard to imagine a small wolf had managed to tie anything up deliberately, so… What the heck was she looking at? Was she being pranked? Was somebody waiting nearby with a hidden camera?

She looked around and immediately found herself feeling very conflicted about her choice for training. Yes, the plains meant she could see everybody coming, but they also meant everybody in the area saw her – a seemingly lone, defenceless little foreigner. Already, she could see several people homing in on her and her apparent hostage. A girl that couldn’t have been much older than herself, if she had to guess from height. Most of her features were hidden under long hair and a surprising amount of clothes. Probably a native, Asami thought; coming from Kumogakure, pretty much any other climate called for her summer wardrobe. “Ah, er… This isn’t what it looks like!” Just in case the stranger wasn’t in on the joke, it would be too easy to see a girl next to a small child dangling from a tree and assume the worst.

She turned halfway to the pup and his pal, only to be distracted again by an odd click-clack. She turned her attention towards… Something. Something that wouldn’t be out of place in a circus freakshow. Her expression became stuck halfway between confusion and a pleasant surprise. A boy in some rope could reasonably be mistaken for shenanigans, but a wooden contraption, poorly masquerading as a human duo… That could only be the work of chakra, which meant shinobi, which meant a fair chance of a bad time.

That might have been why she felt a wave of caution washing over her, but the surprises weren’t done yet! Another stranger arrived, implying that the thing had to be punished before. Unlike the one he was scolding, he was unmistakably human, but beyond that, there was nothing that raised an alarm about him. His words and his disapproving behaviour suggested that he meant to keep the wooden dummy in check, and Asami wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, it meant they were probably safe. On the other, what was it doing that meant it needed to be watched over? She quickly decided that she didn’t want to find out.

One of the first lessons the academy had taught her was not to show weakness. Weakness made oneself a target, and targets tended to be easy marks for the scum of the world. Confusion was fine, but if any of them hoped to arouse fear or discomfort through their sheer presence, they wouldn’t find it on her face. Instead, she held a gentle smile as she regarded the strangers; it was her way of steeling herself for what was sure to be an interesting encounter.

And then there was Hell’s Teacher and his hellhound. Of all the familiar faces she could have hoped to see at that point, Kyo was fairly low on the list. It showed, too – his hair had changed, but as soon as she recognised the man, her smile gave way to a grimace. It wouldn’t last, but she’d made her feelings clear nonetheless. It didn’t help that the man seemed set on antagonizing half the group. Perhaps he meant well – he did refer to the younglings as his ‘pack’, after all – but he was also oddly aggressive towards a (admittedly off-putting and rather rude) stranger. If there was going to be trouble, it would come from one of them…
Or the wolf apparently holding a boy hostage…
Or the strange child observing from afar…
She mentally sighed. This was just going to be one of those days.

While the other redhead turned his sights on Yukio, she pushed herself into a crouched position and approached the rope-kid. Her movements were both slow and deliberate as she approached what might have been a wild pup. Assuming the little beast didn’t bear his fangs at her, she got onto her feet and approached the poor boy. A gentle hand moved to poke the squirrel, and then gesture to the blade in her other hand. If the critter got the message, she would take its place as Chief Rope Cutter; failing that, she would simply find another spot along the rope to help free the boy. The bindings stopping him from speaking would have to go too. Without interruptions, she’d have the boy free before long.

“What on earth have you been getting up to…?” The girl tried not to sound as mildly amused as she felt, but hints of a giggle snuck into her tone. “I can’t say I’ve ever found a boy defeated by a little wolf, a squirrel and a lot of rope. Then again, I also haven’t seen a whole group of people stand by without even trying to help said boy.” She spoke with a mother’s scolding tone, but it was quick to fade.

“…Saotome Asami.” She spoke up once the boy was able to move his limbs again, turning to face the group at large. “I hope you’re all having a good day. This… isn’t what I had in mind when I started mine, but life is full of little surprises. I’d thought this would be a quiet place to try and practice, but it’s attracted quite a few people anyway. Why?”

Spoiler: OOC

In the interests of keeping this thread moving at a decent speed with so many people, I propose a soft turn order! Everybody gets in a post whenever they’re free (as opposed to sticking strictly to the established order), but just the one until most people have had a chance to post again.

[MFT]

 

[Hak]

Kuro the wolf seemed rather triumphant in his little prank. No one would believe or even understand how a canine was capable of human level traps, the blame was never on him for these kinds of situations. As people began gathering around the area, Kuro even began feigning ignorance at the situation by acting very doglike, licking his paws and nibbling on his tail, all an act to rub the blame off himself. As the strangers approached the situation, Asami began to look quite guilty in the situation as Kuro tilted his head adorable acting completely ignorant to the situation. Success!

The first to arrive was a seemingly genderless individual. They didn’t say anything at all, simply watching Asami and the situation at hand without uttering a word it seemed. Stalker-san would be this person’s nickname to the bound boy, as she approached the area and stared creepily at the group. Shortly after her arrival, a walking tree branch approached the group. At least that was Akira’s first thoughts, apparently it was a duo of puppets masquerading as humans but for some odd reason the bound boy and the wolf pup both thought the same thing. Thus, Tree Branch-San was now firmly ingrained on the young boy and pups minds. With the continued introductions, a man with white hair arrived to the scene, seemingly an acquaintance of Tree Branch-San. He actually seemed to introduce himself, thus Manners-san was born, albeit it would be easier to call him by his given name, though Akira was on a roll in his strange little mind. Last but not least was Kyo he walked over to them, seemingly protecting his pack from Tree Branch-San as he nodded in his bound position, Papa-san!

Asami seemed to be the only one to come to the boy’s aid, besides Aoi the squirrel that was. After being poked, Aoi looked at the elegant lady and crawled up her extended hand, resting comfortably on the kind strangers shoulder, rubbing her puffed little cheeks against Asami’s face as if thanking the girl for helping her friend. However the large wolf Dakota seemed to strike a bit of fear in the tiny animal’s body as she seemed to cower on Asami as if asking for protection from the rather large predator before them. Kuro was the only canine who didn’t try to devour the little creature after all, so she far less trusting with other canines though Kuro and Akira always protected her regardless as she was part of their little pack herself.

After being released from his confinements by the kind lady, Akira stretched his limbs as she introduced herself. Super Kind Helpful Lady Who Saved Me-san was probably a mouthful compared to Saotome-san after all, so he ignored the lame nickname, apparently he was no longer on a roll. Now being unbounded, his strange attire was made even more visible. His face was still somehow covered by the half horned skull mask as he wore a black robe with white fur trimming over a blue turtleneck shirt, with two seemingly expensive looking decorative necklaces hanging around his neck. On his hands were fingerless gloves with cloth wrappings across his forearms that reached up to his elbows. The mask barely covered his eyes, though this did not last as he removed the mask from his face and looked over at his savior. His eyes were a beautiful golden color, resembling more of a wolves eyes than human eyes, many claiming that they were easy to get lost in. His skin was a pale white, seemingly translucent as if covered in snow giving him a rather exotic appearance. On his head, his winter blue hair seemed to add to his otherworldly appearance with little red markings across his face, signaling he was a descendant of those who were one with beasts.

”Thank you Saotome-san! My name is Inugami Akira, I got caught in one of Kuro’s little traps again. Don’t let the little pup fool you…he has Human level intelligence.” he said coldly, his eyes looking over at the wolf pup as the wolf seemed to be rather amused at his triumphant pranking skills, having succeeded many times in capturing his Human partner. With a nonchalant nature that apparently misread the situation, he waved happily at all the strangers, completely ignoring the building tension between Kyo and Maru as he happily introduced himself to them too ”Hello all!”. It was hard to believe such a happy go-lucky child was a shinobi in training himself, nothing ever seemed to faze him and he seemed to never quite read the mood, in these situations. But behind his rather clueless exterior, he was quite aware of the situation, he was happy go-lucky in nature, but not ignorant after all as he often came off.

He looked back over at Asami as she questioned them, noting that Aoi had yet again made herself comfortable on another person’s shoulders as Kuro pranced around Akira and Asami, opting to avoid the seemingly more cautious characters feeling more comfortable with the nicer lady than the others. Though unbeknownst to everyone but Akira, Kuro was always more comfortable around female individuals than man anyway, though Saki’s seemingly genderless nature made it difficult for him to get comfortable around her for now. ”I just happened to be hanging around the area before everyone arrived.” he chuckled to himself at his answer to Asami’s question, finding himself quite funny. Kuro seemed to put his head down in depression at Akira’s terrible joke as if apologizing on behalf of his Human partners failed humor.

 

[Sato Yuji]

When Saki had approached the tree she had not expected the people around it to multiply. Deciding she could handle the two kids who were already under the tree she had gone to stand next to the other girl when the other had spoken to her. ‘This is not what it looked like’ was a good way for people to assume it was exactly what it looked like. Though she was having a hard time figuring out what it was supposed to look like. She was about to ask what the purple haired girl what she thought they looked like when Saki got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. A duo had approached the group though she wouldn’t necessarily them a duo. They were obviously puppets, puppets the size of humans. That was not a good sign the only people who had puppets like that were shinobi and since she hadn’t heard of a person like this around her village she had to assume they were from another. Her instincts were screaming danger and all seemed to come from the pair in front of her.

Thankfully before anything untold could happen an ally appeared. She had never met the smoker before but he was definitely Cloud and seemed to be ready to defend them. Hoping the rude comments the two exchanged would not result in a violent clash. She prepared for the worst.

Before Saki could figure how to gracefully extract herself and the other kids from the area without it looking like they were running away the third person showed up. This person pinged her instincts even worse than the weird puppet things. What he said wasn’t very comforting either, it was obvious the other stranger had done something that he disapproved of and considering what shinobi did on a regular basis -- well it wasn’t looking good. That and he was too polite, at least the first one had been straightforward with their dangerousness. It was at this point she considered a strategic retreat. There was only two thing stopping her, the first being it could be viewed as running away. Now running away wasn’t a bad thing but in this situation it could be viewed as weakness and she had a feeling that being viewed as weak in front of one of these two would be a very bad thing. The second thing was that she couldn’t really abandon the other two. Before she had entered the academy her family had sat her down to have a ‘talk.’ Instead of getting the normal one about how ‘not to ruin the family name’ she had gotten the ‘why you shouldn’t abandon teammates’ and ‘loyalty what it is and why you should have it’ ones. It had been an awkward few hours, to say the least. Now that she thought about it, leaving the other boy hanging wasn’t very teammatey but it seemed that the other girl had thought of it before her.

The other girl had chutzpah. Saku didn’t know if she would have scolded a group of shinobi above her skill level. She actually had a theory why so many people were gathered around the tree. It was the self-named theory of Shinobi Problem Attraction a.k.a. Why Shinobi Should Not Be Allowed to Gather in Large Groups. The theory went like this, shinobi attracted other shinobi. A group of weak shinobi attracted a strong shinobi who attracted another strong person so on and so forth. It was natures way of creating as much trouble as possible for everyone involved. She was pulled out of plans to prove her theory when the grounded boy began talking. She would have thought he was clueless about the atmosphere but something was off about him. She blinked, he was playing it that way through his pun did make her wince internally. Acting dumb was one of the oldest tricks in the book. With this group the chance of success with that ruse was probably low. Sighing mentally, she decided it was time for her to introduce herself. “My name is Abe Saki,” she said sounding more like a puppet then the puppet pair looked “I was looking for a place to rest when I saw this tree.” That was a blatant lie but it was not like she could say empty open spaces made her nervous. Nodding politely to the group, bowing would obscure leave her defenseless for a second and that was the last thing she wanted. She just hoped they would all be able to go their separate ways without causing a scene.

 

[Akechi]

Clear skies with a dash of sunlight illuminated this ‘little’ corner of the countryside where several children and a couple of shinobi gathered. Hideyoshi hadn’t been around long. In fact, he had just arrived in the country a short time ago and decided to take a detour to the country lands of the Tea Country. After all, nothing in this world made a more natural training ground than a ‘quiet’ corner of the country, equipped with an axe used to chop down trees and make some lumber. Part of him wanted to simply pass on by with the mountain of wood that he had ‘sawed’ into a carriable stack, but the gods of the farmlands had a different idea as a light current of air carried Yoshi a rather agitated message. Seemed like somebody a bit older wanted to have some ‘fun’ with children… trouble indeed. Then again, there normally was trouble when too many shinobi gathered in one area – ego trippin’ and what not.

“I guess I’ll drop in and check the temperature,” he said to himself, casually strolling up to the unusual group of individuals that had gathered near nature’s best tree in the area. As he neared the group of people, he took notice of the rather sinister looking puppeteer and his ‘buddies.’ He was dubbed, ‘problem number 1’ with his passive aggressive vernacular and ominous undertones. Either he was trying his hardest to seem dangerous or he was pretty mentally disturbed. Either way, Hideyoshi took special note of the guy.

Quickly scanning the rest of the group, he realized that he had seen some of these kids from around the village. Their names eluded him, but he was fairly certain that they were among Kumo’s ‘best and brightest.’ An elder shinobi wore the very same headband that Hideyoshi had hooked onto one of his belt loops. They were around the same height, but Yoshi could tell that he was a lot younger. Call it a “grown man’s intuition,” but his mention of ‘his pack’ seemed to insinuate that he stepped in as a deterrent to any unforeseen mischief in the makings. I guess that made him somewhat of an ally… for now. The last guy seemed a bit older and a bit stronger than everyone else. Yoshi couldn’t be certain because looks can be quite deceiving, but his eyes seemed to invoke an air of maturity – then again, that could’ve just been the dojutsu that he had been blessed with.

Casually thrusting the ‘rack’ of lumber into the ground, Hideyoshi took a deep breath of country air before slipping a ‘black and mild’ from his shirt pocket. Taking a long drag of his slim cigar, he exhaled with a curious look on his face. “I guess there aren’t many of these types of trees where ‘we’ are from so the kids are off sightseeing,” he commented, leaning back on the wall of lumber that he had created as he wiped the wooden debris from his black on black ensemble. “Name’s Hideyoshi of Kumogakure. Baddest bunch of shinobi you’ve ever seen,” he quipped, half-joking with a clear motive to provoke a certain type of response that he could judge.

[Topic Entered / MFT: 537 / I’m a bit rusty so forgive me. It’s been awhile.]

 

[Midori Futotta]

"Mmn?” The white haired dummy looked over to see his sensei coming towards him, seemingly not pleased to see that his favorite pupil had been here which was only natural considering the trouble he's caused while he was here. “Well I'm happy to see you too steroid eyes, don't act like you aren't happy to see your favorite students.” He said in a shrill voice, his mouth clicked. It wasn't a surprise that his sensei would notice his chakra right off the bat, all he needed to do was look in his hollow core and see demonic chakra. Demonic chakra plus puppet equals Maru. So he knew he couldn't fool Yukio by merely switching his body into another wooden doll. Maru's eyebrows arched to show that he was angry. “You should know by now I take everything literally! I listened did I?!” The wooden boy said when suddenly he met with a man, a man who was smoking with an annoying talking dog bigger than the one he shouted at. God how he HATES dogs.

Maru took on the challenge and insulted the bigger dog. “Alright mutt don't you have toilets to drink from, I can smell the piss on your breath from up here!” The rude dummy said, tilting his head back and began laughing a shrill ugly laugh before the man began to size him… no he was staring straight at the puppet who carried him as though it was the one pulling the strings. Now that he realized it, the two were talking to THE WOMAN. Not to him! What the man thought was an actual woman, he would notice that she had short black hair with bangs that covers her left eye, ruby colored lips, and very pale features that almost looked human. The woman with the white haired puppet was wearing a navy blue dress trimmed with white. Her face plastic face had gentle appearance… Her glassy eyes stared out with a look that seemed sad and gloomy. Maru looked up at the man have a conversation with his doll. All in a while squatting in front of her to get some kind of a reaction which made Maru gaze down to see how this would play out.

‘Now why's a pretty looking girl being such a bitch to these children? Especially children who run with my pack?’

‘........’ the woman's small mouth was seemingly puckered timidity to give her a feeling of her wanting to speak. Maru hopped out of his dolls hands, and like a marionette with its strings cut the doll crumbled all the way down seemingly without life anymore. Maru pulled out a weapons scroll to seal the puppet inside of it before placing it back where he got his scroll from. Now starring the man down, Maru decided to insult him. “Yikes, you're sweating bullets there. I feel sorry for y'all if you are running with this guy! He smells pretty musty!” Maru said nastily. "Hey Buddy, do you need some yen to buy some deodorant or maybe go hit the showers! Because you're smelling pretty funky, meat sack.” He said before turning twisting his neck towards all of the academy students, way taller than him because he was only three feet tall in this body.

Maru used kinetic chakra to make his body float off the ground, then thrusted himself in the air before landing among the academy students. Leaving Yukio to deal with the man and his dog. "So why am I here? Good question! You see, I was bored and saw y'all gathered around here so I figured why not meet some new friends from other villages.” probably a lie, but it was something to kill his boredom. Plus he finally got a chance to wear his small puppet body in public. The wooden dummy leaned in, hunching his back a little as he looked up at the girl with a evil looking smiling on his face. “So Saki is it?..” The wooden dummy asked, seemingly interested in the girl. "Wanna see my head come off?” Before the girl could object to the strange request, Maru reached both hands to his head and popped his head from its neck sockets! Holding his head at his side as if it was a basketball. "Neat huh?" he reattached his head.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

It seemed as more time passed the more people would join this rather unexpected gathering the Captains head tilting back to view the newest addition to the group a question directed his way quickly giving way to a sigh. "I'm assuming saying it's just how he is wouldn't be an adequate answer, well guess I can do some explaining." walking over to Maru before giving him a rather swift punch to the top of his head to give a moments peace before giving explanation. "This rather boisterous individual would be Maru one I wish I could let wander without issue but it appears this is not the case."

Though he looked towards the man a portion of his attention was drawn to the wolf walking around them though such a thing was not something to make him nervous or tense up more viewed as little more than distraction from the overly cautious. "Now that we have introductions out of the way perhaps you can stop this display towards those of leaf village I would appreciate not having your companion circling us like the predator hunting the pray." His tone became blunt and straightforward not interested with playing these games with the man. "Being the adoptive son of the fourth hokage I would not wish for this to escalate further on the basis of mistrust between us. I come here as a friend not to bring harm to the youngsters here."

With that his tone returned to normal a much more friendly and well mannered once more hoping to have cleared the air between the two after returning his attention to the group of students. "Well apologies for not providing assistance upon my arrival safe to say attempting to process how a boy gets himself stuck in a tree like this was one that took longer than expected." With a smile and a nod a relaxed sigh escaped him at the pun shaking his head slightly at the whole ordeal.

There was a moment to acknowledge Saki who for all purposes seemed to be an innocent bystander caught up in the whole ordeal his mind being drawn back into his time in the city pondering for a brief moment. "Well if that would be the case I would suggest maybe finding a place within the city to relax though it would be a shame if you had to leave the peace of a place like this, apologies my rather obnoxious student has disturbed you all at this moment in time."

It seemed this series of events would only continue yet another arriving to join the little band that had now formed by the tree though there wasn't much in the way to say to this newcomer in greeting before Maru decided to open his mouth again causing Yukio to give a slight twitch head slowly turning to the boy. "Maru I understand you are socially inept but some manners towards our current company would be recommended if you wish to be allowed to keep roaming around this country with some freedom." There as suppressed agitation in his voice patience for him growing ever thinner.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The Chronicles of Kyo-Moon

Related Information

The toy-boy spoke to him causing Kyo to let out a sigh. He snapped his fingers, causing the animal to retreat from it's defensive position and back behind Kyo. "Water the plants for me, would you, Dakota? The toy seems thirsty," Kyo said in a rather annoyed manner before he held his hand out to stop the wolf from proceeding any more. it was then that the one who seemed to own this walking set of toys spoke up to him. Kyo simply shook his head at Yukio's proper assumption that 'that is just how he is' would be an inadequate answer to Maru's rude attitude towards the children of Kumogakure.[lb2][/lb2] "Only because your little toy decided to run his mouth. And I don't know who any of you are. Obvious reason to be alert. Besides, that toy... thing you have there. Dakota," Kyo said as he pointed to the wolf. "would have indigestion for weeks. Now if you would kindly keep better control of your toys instead of it making a threatening posture. That'd be greaaaaaaat," he said, running his fingers through his wiry red hair. Kyo had no problems posturing on Leaf Ninja if they pose a threat to shinobi of Kumogakure. Any more strange movements from the puppet would cause Kyo to send the wolf back out into a pincer formation; but time for that to happen again, has yet to occur.[lb2][/lb2] Another person arrived to the scene. One that he had never seen before, but judging from the way he spoke, he was most definitely a shinobi of Kumogakure. Hideyoshi was what he named himself, hm? Kyo pulled out another smoke and placed it into his mouth, lighting it with a cheap lighter. He took a big drag from the cigarette and blew it straight into the air. "Oi, adopted son of the fourth hokage," he stated. He didn't give a damn about titles or lineage; that didn't make the man. It was merely something people throw around to get oooh's and awwww's from. Nothing that seemed too awe-inspiring or something to illicit fear from Kyo. It was posturing with words and renown, but it meant very little to the red-head. [lb2][/lb2] "What do you know about a man named Izura?" WC this post: 371[lb][/lb] WC Total: [lb][/lb] [MFT][lb2][/lb2] OOC Notes: Edited. Yukio ninja-posted.​

[thead] [/thead][tbody]

[td=null,1]Name: Ryong Kyo-Moon[lb][/lb]
Age: 18[lb][/lb]
Hair Color: Red[lb][/lb]
Eye Color: Yellow[lb][/lb]
Height: 5'7"/67cm[lb][/lb]
Weight: 147 lbs/66.67kg[lb][/lb]
Special Characteristics:

• Scar over left eye
• Cloud Headband upon forehead
• Canine-like fangs

[lb][/lb]
Usual Gear

• Gourd of Soju
• Pouch on side
• Bow and Arrow strapped to back

Spoiler: Demon Form

Spoiler: Dakota

Name: Dakota[lb][/lb]
Age: 12[lb][/lb]
Breed: Dire Wolf[lb][/lb]
Hair Color: White[lb][/lb]
Eyes Color: Left yellow, Right blue[lb][/lb]
Height: (Paw to Head) 6'2"[lb][/lb]
Length: (Nose to Rear) 10'3"[lb][/lb]
Special Characteristics:

• Red lines going over the body
• Burning disk magically floating on top of torso
• Human-like intelligence (infantile)

Spoiler: NPC Information

Nothing Here

[/td]​

[/tbody]​

​

 

[Saotome Asami]

Fortunately for her, nobody was painting her as a potential kidnapper – except the pup, but he couldn’t speak and try to frame her. For her efforts, she earned the gratitude of a peculiar young boy and an animal companion. She’d have to work on her singing voice to become a true princess, but a lot of progress had been made in the span of a few minutes. She pocketed her kunai, realising she wouldn’t be able to train any time soon. “It’s no problem. I’m a frayed knot helping wasn’t what my mother taught me to do.” Seemingly unfazed by a pun that would make her dad proud, she returned fire with a straight face.

It was hard to miss his strange features, but then, everybody around her had something strange about them. Him and her former teacher shared golden eyes that looked closer to a beast’s than a man’s, each with their own canine companion to boot. They didn’t seem to have any special relationship with each other, but she doubted it was a mere coincidence. The girl- Well, she hadn’t said much, but her struggles to ascertain her gender said enough about her distinctive look. The puppeteer needed no explanation. His apparent babysitter had LED eyes, and wasn’t nearly old enough for his hair to whiten under normal circumstances.

The exception came in the form of yet another Cloud-nin. A lumberjack, from the looks of it, but besides that and his eccentric goatee, there wasn’t much out of the ordinary that she could see. She might have been bias, but she thought she appeared to be the most normal one in the area… Not that she thought that was a problem. If anything, they kept the attention off her. She gave the man a mildly confused expression as he proclaimed his village to be the best, but she didn’t have much reference to compare Kumogakure’s forces to. “Nice to meet you, Hideyoshi-san.” Her welcoming smile showed itself again as she reached to scratch the rodent’s head. “I’m Saotome Asami. I was looking for a place to practice, but instead I found… a lot of new friends.”

Friends was a very loose term, she realised as she turned to the puppet. She never thought she’d come to agree with Kyo, but she found herself wishing it would be quiet very quickly. Still, it didn’t appear to be the most rational being, and any person that could disguise wood as a living being was far more skilled than she was. Did she feel like making her thoughts known to a creature that everybody around them had silently, unanimously accepted as bad news? No. Some things didn’t need to be said.

It kept yapping at her elders, snapped its attention back to the little ones, and performed a ‘trick’ that nobody asked for. Asami quirked her brow. If the puppet looked closer to a human, that would have been a terrifying display. Being a pint-sized doll made the act much less frightening. Surprising, yes, but nothing too out of the ordinary for a shinobi, even if it did add to her analysis. At best, he was an attention-seeking manchild. At worst, he had some sort of mental illness. She had thought that problem was unique to Cloud-nin, but it made sense for it to be a general shinobi issue, considering what was asked of them. He seemed to be seeking their approval, or dismay, or any words at all; she wouldn’t dignify his actions with that. Instead, she stared, showing the same unimpressed disdain that a mother would give a child rolling through mud.

She turned her attention to the more reasonable Leaf-nin, allowing her expression to relax… for a few seconds. Some of his words had rubbed her the wrong way. Perhaps she was feeling brave with the numbers on her side, or maybe she felt he was the least likely to stab her for speaking out, but she found herself scolding him yet again. “What does that have to do with it?” She paused for a moment, trying to find her words. Between him, Kyo and the dummy, they were on their way to causing an international incident, and she’d hate for her words to make things any worse. “’Adopted son of the Hokage’. With all due respect-“ Those words were always a great indication of disrespect. “I don’t like Kyo-san, but at least he was forward with his threats, and made it clear he’d act on them himself. Yours are thinly-veiled, and rely on calling your father for backup. Never mind that you… really didn’t need to mention it, and doesn’t have much to do with anything. Why?” She turned to her younger peers, and the squirrel on her shoulder. “You don’t have to look hard to assume half the people here couldn’t hurt you if we tried. One of us apparently lost to a little wolf pup.” She wasn’t sure how much she bought that story, but going with it worked for her argument. “Kyo-san has… a way with words, but he isn’t wrong about your tree friend trying to get all eyes on him. I don’t want trouble. We-“ She gestured to the little trio. “don’t want trouble, I hope… But we also don’t want to be made uncomfortable just because we were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She stopped short of complimenting Kyo – it’d take more than ordering his pet around for her to forget his class, and for that he would have to fight to get any kind words out of her.

“So… How about we all be nice to each other instead?” With her final word, she expelled a small portion of chakra into the air around her, harmlessly dissipating. Whatever she had caused didn’t appear to be an attack, but it was a jutsu nonetheless… So what did she have in mind?

[MFT]​

 

[Hak]

The young wolf boy rubbed some dirt off his eyes as his golden orbs studied the apparently large gathering of shinobi that began surrounding them. Perhaps due to being oblivious to the situation or maybe feigning ignorance, he didn’t seem at all perplexed by the situation at hand. Apparently among them, one of the shinobi was the son of the fourth Hokage, though being nomadic in nature and rather oblivious to the rules of society, he didn’t seem to hold the particular shinobi in any higher regard than the others, though by all means he should have.

To add to the mix, another shinobi from Cloud made his way to the group, one he did not recognize at all but he looked cool, at least in his eyes. He gave a childish thumbs up to the Jounin as he grinned at Hideyoshi, showing his lack of mannerisms to someone clearly ranked above him. He dubbed thee, Cool Kumo-nin-Sama.

His eyes changed back to the puppeteer and then Hyuuga Yukio as he spoke, seemingly towards his sensei as he tilted his head with a confused look on his face. ”I’m slightly confused.” he stated towards the man as he scratched his head and placed both hands behind his head. ”What you are saying is…that basically you have this walking tree branch here…” he stated gazing over to the puppet before returning his gaze back over the self-proclaimed adoptive son of the Fourth Hokage ”Call my partner Kuro a filthy mutt, insult our senior’s partner Dakota in front of you, and insult our senior once again after he defends his village students from such an obviously disrespectful individual who insults even his own sensei.” he stated as his young predatory eyes seemed to hold a glint of anger at the man’s response towards one of his own village men. ”But instead of apologizing on behalf of your village for your village’s display against Cloud you instead ask my instructor to stop his cautious actions as if it’s his fault?” he stated rather bluntly, his young mind lacking maturity in handling the subject in a more diplomatic manner.

Kuro the wolf dog, walked slowly towards Akira’s leg, standing next to his Human partner as if saying that he too disagreed with the rather shallow act of someone who was supposed to be more mature and diplomatic in his mannerisms, seemingly disregarding responsibility for the actions of someone he was in charge of.

He looked over to Kyo as if agreeing to his senior’s response to the situation. ”I may just a wee pup in the litter Hyuuga-san, but even I have enough common sense to understand that our sensei acted correctly to an unknown situation. Next time apologize for your villages display towards those of cloud village before responding so arrogantly to a man who cared enough to protect children from what seems to be a rude and possibly violent puppet who can’t even respect his own sensei. Maybe that will prevent this ‘escalation’ you stated.” He stated perhaps a bit more annoyed then he should, still being too young to properly control his emotions.

His tone suddenly changed from an aggressive one to a calm and cheery one as he smiled warmly towards the man he seemingly just scolded “Because in Cloud, we protect our pack no matter the situation. Everyone from Cloud is my family, and I would slaughter anyone who threatens my family no matter who it is, or die trying.” he stated happily, his tone betraying his words.

Asami’s words of him losing to Kuro broke his little heart as he slunk into a depression seemingly instantly, randomly poking the dirt with a stick. ”Kuro is a lot sneaker…smarter…and stronger then he looks.” he muttered to himself, a figurative cloud of depression seemingly taking over his character, the rapid change in demeanor rather surprising given the situation at hand.

During this entire situation, the squirrel that rested on Asami seemed completely oblivious to the situation, apparently playing with strands of the young girl’s hair in her tiny little squirrelly hands. Aoi would then stare at Asami’s hand after the expelled chakra as she seemingly wagged her furry tail as if expecting something amazing to happen. Kuro on the other hand, went towards Saki, cautiously sniffing her feet as if trying to figure out who she was, his tail wagging happily from side to side as if growing excited at the unknown and rather quiet kunoichi.

 

[Akechi]

Coming up with a word for his current predicament was rather difficult. Interesting? Well, not really. The people that gathered around the tree were more “eccentric” than interesting. There was the “leader” of the group of students who seemed like the “mom” of the group. She was pretty confident and uncharacteristically mature for someone that age. Perhaps, she was the only “interesting” one out of the group because how normal she seemed despite the amount of “weirdness” going on around her. Maru, the puppet man, and Kyo, the dog whisperer, seemed to be having themselves a good ol’ measuring contest – with the Hokage’s son making an appearance. That was the gist of it anyways. Could that be referred to as interesting? Well, maybe.

“Pleasure to meet you, Asami-chan. I guess great minds think alike,” he replied with a wink, slightly nodding in her direction as he leaned back on the wall of lumber he set up for himself. With a stroke of the chin, his eyes began to circle between the three testosterone titans and the burgeoning tension between them. Would this escalate further? Hopefully not because a skirmish in a foreign country, against a foreign nation with children present wasn’t a very good look. “Sometimes, it’s just better to get your muscles engaged by doing some manual labor. There was a little lady over there that said she needed turn some trees into lumber, so I helped her out. I told her I didn’t need anything in return, but she insisted I take some of the leftover lumber. If I’m being honest, I’m still wondering what to do with it all.” Yeah, old ladies are always so damn generous. I guess living out the rest of your days comfortably – while surrounded by this lush, moderately luxurious background – provided a sort of buoyancy that most shinobi would never find. In a way, knowing that he could help create that sort of future for Kumogakure motivated him. However, the duality of creating this future would be forcing these children through unforeseen hardships to accomplish that goal – and that thought was rather sobering.

Perhaps that sobering feeling was evident on his face as he glanced over toward Asami-chan. “Well, you should probably keep better company if these are your friends,” he giggled, overhearing the conversation about unwieldly toys, titles of Grandeur, and snatching heads…? Yeah, weird stuff. Puppet users always did the weirdest shit though, didn’t they? “These gu—” Well, I’m sure Yoshi had a clever innuendo prepared about how much these guys were “overcompensating” for “something,” but the girl surprisingly lost her composure for a second. Well, perhaps “losing her composure” was a bit strong for a child. Academy Students were still Academy Students, after all.

She went off too. Insulted the Hokage’s son’s pride as a man and Kyo’s general “Kyo-ness” in fell swoop. It was hilarious and also a diplomatic nightmare. The tension between the three was bad enough without a newly lit flame, but at least she made this little gathering a bit more entertaining with her tongue-lashing. Hopefully, no one took too much offense to what she said. Honestly, Hideyoshi came here to watch people fight… not participate in one.

And then Akira followed suit. “Really guys? They do know that I’m the one that has to back up all of this tough talk, right?” Hideyoshi said to himself, taking a deep breath as Akira finished his “shot into the abyss.” That’s the thing about leaders. The rest of the group always seemed to follow suit, and Asami was no different. Well, this was a teachable moment… at least for Hideyoshi. Though he was a bit old for a shinobi, he always seemed to find something new to learn.

The elder shinobi simply listened, waiting to hear how each person responded before he attempted to de-escalate the situation. After all, no point in starting a fight unnecessarily.

“Ah! What a wonderful idea?! Nice to one another. Hear that fellas?” Hideyoshi spoke, pushing himself away from the standing lumber and moving closer to the group by the tree. “Nice. To. One. Another,” he clapped, rhythmically to the syllable of each word. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Do it for little Miss Saki, little pup Akira and Asami-chan's infinite wisdom.”

Was that enough? Probably not. At least things were getting interesting.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Saki almost flinched at the threats and insults that were being thrown around. If a fight broke out she would probably be caught in the crossfire, something that would end with her injured or dead. At least the threats had been interspersed with some actual information. The puppeteer's name was Maru and Yukio was the adopted son of the fourth Hokage. That just made the situation worse in her eyes. A fight between shinobi of different villages could be considered a personal grudge if the villages did not want to take issue with each other. The second you put people close to important people into the equation the outcomes got much worse. She honestly didn't think he had any room to complain about threatening actions. Maru was being much more threatening than the wolf and it was clear Yukio couldn't control Maru. It made sense to be more cautious when young shinobi were involved, she would have been more concerned if Kyo had done nothing. Saki decided not to say anything about Yukio's views. It would be bad to increase the tension. Kyo spoke up for himself anyway.

Saki was unsurprised when yet another person joined the group. She was just happy it was another person from Kumogakure. That made the teams even of a fight did happen. It would also make her survival more likely. Another person meant another person she could use as protection. She held no illusions about how she would fair against shinobi of the level the two appeared to be.

That was when Maru approached her. Looking at the puppet in front of her Saki sighed to herself. If she had known speaking up would attract the attention of a crazy person she would have kept her mouth shut. Looking at the separated body in front of her she decided to humor the crazy shinobi. She brought up her hands and did a slow clap for the 'trick' before strolling over to Hideyoshi and standing next to him."Would you please put out your smoke?" she asked politely "You too Kyo-san." She didn't actually care if they put them out, though she did believe smoking to be a disgusting habit. It also made her cough horribly when she breathed it in. The smoke tended to get stuck in her throat and noise when she wasn't coughing she was feeling nauseous. She also needed to make her move away from the puppet to look less like she was running away and more like she had an actual purpose. She was regretting her choice when she heard his story about the old lady.

Saki would have slapped the other two young shinobi. Asami had at least been polite about what she had to in defense of Kyo, something Saki felt was unnecessary, but the boy had been blunt to the point of being rude. The thing that made to hit the other girl was the expulsion of her chakra. That could seem like preparation for an attack. Though she didn't agree with the other man's request she could understand where he came from. He was, after all, a shinobi and from what she had seen most shinobi were paranoid. It was a necessity of the profession. Yukio seemed rational enough to not hold the words of a young boy against said boy, but one could never be sure. Shinobi were are known for their instability after all. Deciding to try and play peacemaker Saki spoke up. "I am sure Hyuuga-san was not trying to be rude. It is reasonable to assume that he was simply being cautious. As long as Hyuuga-san is not planning on causing any trouble and can control his student the request was understandable." she said calmly putting emphasis on the controlling part. "We don't want any trouble and I'm sure that you feel the same way." Hideyoshi seemed to feel the same way as her. As he walked forward she moved to his other side so that she had a person between her and the living puppet. That person really creeped her out.

She almost jumped when she felt something near her feet, too caught up in the atmosphere. At her feet was the puppy she thought the boy had called Kuro. Not wanting to bend down and pet it thereby having her head down. She quickly bent down and picked him up. She made sure to keep her arms loose so that Kuro could jump out, it wouldn't do to keep him from his human partner in case of a fight but. Absentmindedly petting the puppy she mentally planned and prepared for a fight she hoped wouldn't happen.

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru arches his eyebrows, then glared up at the man who called him a toy. “Toy, Huh? That a lotta tough talk for a Skin Puppet who–” Crack! Maru was hit over the head before he could finish his insult, his tiny hands reached up to hold his head and his face turned sour. He gave Yukio a mean look, remaining silent as the man began to explain himself to these people. When he addressed him directly, the boy doll dropped his hands to his hips then began to speak. "Yukio, have you ever heard me ask you for your option? Nope!” the mean boy doll shouted. “Honestly there's no point in bringing up the manners bullshit to me. I already ignored you when you first talked to me about it.” With his smart remarks finished, Maru looked at the reaction for these people who just watched him take his head off. The cute one gave him a look of not being too impressed with his little trick. The other one, who avoided speaking to him merely nodded.

Now it looked like all the cloudies seemingly had some words you say to his sensei. The cute one basically calling him a coward for not making his threats more effective and the other one seemingly took a one sided approach in talking about how he was rude towards his filthy mutt. Yukio was pretty much getting eaten alive right now, so Maru decided to step in and come to his masters defense. “Oh! He doesn't need help from his adoptive parents. Hell this man took on the hokage and his wife all by himself! And won! He took out like 5 zombies, a huge skeleton thing, and a soul of a Nara with one punch! Not to mention one was a Uchiha and the wife being a Haku he dodged every attack perfectly!” The puppet boasted about his teacher, continuing. "Not to mention he took on a class of B Rank students when he was merely a Chunin! And he stopped a missing nin at the gate, showed off his aura, and sent that sorry criminal running to sand! He doesn't need help from anyone, he's like a one man bomb on his own. I would say, he's a famous in the leaf for being the strongest in all the leaf so best show the man some respect before he starts cracking skulls!” Maru actually thought that this would HELP Yukio, clearly if they thought you were the strongest no one would even mess with you thus gaining their respect. This was Maru's logic of the situation, of course he wasn't sure if Yukio would appreciate this much.

Regardless he allowed the adults to continue talking while he waddles off to go find that girl who was trying to duck him. The puppet halted in front of he, tilting his head to one side he stared up at her with glittery eyes. "So Saki that is?” The puppet came closer, a plastic smile stretching across his face as he pulled from the pocket of his, a small wooden ball with a red button… reaching his wooden hand up, he began to politely asked. “Hey, do ya wanna play a game of catch. I'm bored with all this adult talk, let's get silly" He sounded innocent enough to say the least, whether or not the girl would decline or accept was up to her. After all, he did love games and its more fun to play his games with people rather than wooden dolls.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

From the looks of things the message was not received as intended their responses being taken into consideration the Hyuuga slowly shaking his head somewhat disappointed in the majority before taking a moment to gesture towards Saki and Hideyoshi. "Seems that out of those here two understood the meaning behind my words, I do not call upon my father in times of need situations like this are not worth his attention. Had you all taken a moment longer to think on the matter you would realize i am veering this away from what could become an incident that would require the Kage's attention and I'm pretty sure that's the last thing we want on our hands." His tone was blunt and direct not really in the mood to beat around the bush anymore given the series of events occurring.

The others who became the center of his attention shortly after would have a look of disapproval cast their way, coming to settle on his features. "You speak of my student and his blunt, harsh and honestly out of order words yet rather than look past them and think on what is to come you throw insults and criticisms rather than work with those attempting to improve the situation. The word Hypocrite come to mind wouldn't you agree? You seek to belittle yet lower yourselves to the very same standard you wish to accuse. Speaking of slaughter at a time and event that seeks to bring our villages closer." Taking a deep breath there was a moment of pause the Captain feeling his energy being drained at having to deal with a situation like this on what was meant to be a rather pleasant walk.

"Do not misunderstand non of this excuses young Maru here however is it not the duty of those who see themselves as mature to rise above childish taunts rather than snap back acting like spoiled children." Taking a few steps towards the Kyo coming to a stop a few feet away the look in his eye told of a man who had dealt with the young boys behavior for some time. "So how about rather than continue these senseless threats and one ups and instead see eye to eye, lest this escalate as i predict it might?" There was no sign of the Hyuuga backing down determination in his words hoping the man would see some kind of sense rather than seek to bring this to a fight.

It was in this moment he heard Maru speak up a slight twitch in the Captains neck explaining his annoyance towards him more than words ever could. "Though words cannot express how much I can apologize for his nature on the bright side you don't deal with him on an almost daily basis, though his intentions are in the right place for a change think its the first time he's stood up for me as a fellow leaf Shinobi so guess that's some form of progress if needing a bit more a shove in the right direction." Tilting his head back this wasn't the end of what he had to say. "However from this point onward however remain silent, whether you realize the gravity of the situation or not doesn't matter now. Instead think on what you must say before speaking again."

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The Chronicles of Kyo-Moon

Related Information

Asami let out a vicious tongue-lashing only for Kyo to look at her with a dead-pan expression. "Gee, thanks, Princess," he stated with a calm, yet annoyed inflection in his voice. At least it was good to know that, even the easy-to-traumatize child had his back against these foreign ne'er-do-wells, using titles and 'look at me, I'm evil, ain't that funny' theatrics. It was then that the younger Inuzuka chimed in and spoke on his behalf. As much as he appreciated all of this back-up, he didn't need children speaking on his behalf; though it was still much appreciated even if Kyo doesn't outwardly show it.[lb2][/lb2] It was then that the eldest, yet mentally most-inept of the group chimed in. He made flirtatious advances on Asami (at least that's how Kyo perceived it) and then tried to get people to agree with what Asami said. Certainly, what Asami said about 'getting along' was what was needed right now as an international incident between two treaty-holding countries was a bad idea, Kyo did what he felt was right. Unlike the mentally-inept man that entered the stage, Kyo actually (kinda) cared about the young of the village. What Hideyoshi was doing wasn't helping diffuse the situation and his childish antics may cause the Leaf-Ninja to see a strange crony-ism between the shinobi of Cloud. His words from when he arrived had betrayed his actions, thus causing Kyo to have absolutely no respect for the childish, idealistic man.[lb2][/lb2] As much as he'd like to be stuck in his thoughts about the man named Hideyoshi, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Kyo took another puff of his cigarette, blowing the smoke upwards into the air. Showing the usual disrespect he normally would by blowing the smoke in their faces may cause an already volatile moment to become disastrous. He had other things to be doing in Tea without adding a fight with Leaf-Egos onto it. These two, who were obviously in the wrong, with the puppet being outwardly threatening while the sensei not correcting his actions gave Kyo a bad taste in his mouth about Leaf shinobi. Perhaps this was because of the Hyuuga's affluent upbringing that made him callous to the wrong-doings of his aggressive subordinate. [lb2][/lb2] Before he was going to say something to the Leaf shinobi, another child asked the two to put out their smokes. Without saying a word, he turned and flicked the still-burning cigarette into a random direction. The cigarette was aimed to an empty space and if anyone got hit by it, it was their own damn fault. The feelings of regret of not taking a final puff before doing that sank-in for a moment before he re-focused on what was more important here. [lb2][/lb2] As soon as the toy started to talk, he began to hear static in his ears. There was nothing productive to what the Pinocchio-clone had to say so his brain shunted his words until something of value or something worth his interest was spoken. He jammed a single finger into his own ear to try to claw out the buzzing noise. He had this feeling once before with a missing nin who tried to make his way into the village and rambled on about his history and blah blah blah, Kyo didn't care. He had a similar feeling when the puppet-boy started to talk again. Maru then went on the defense of Yukio and what started off as something that'd pique his interest, hearing his words clearly, eventually decayed to static. The ruler just got shorter and shorter the more Maru tried to hype him up. As Maru continued to hype his accomplishments, the less and less Kyo felt compelled to get to know these people. Did he run into childish thugs or did he run into foreign shinobi? The answer to that question still eludes him.[lb2][/lb2] As the puppet grew closer and closer to Saki, Kyo cleared his throat and put himself before the puppet and Saki. A look of annoyance easily written upon his face. Yukio then spoke again and more static. The smug words that spewed out of his mouth just caused static to flow into his ears. 'If you all had' and 'you all misunderstood' were words spoken by those with an over-inflated ego. His eyes didn't leave Maru, as if shielding Saki from the puppet. Oh, how his demeanor quickly changed the moment people arrive that could contest him. And then Yukio called the children hypocrites. Kyo opened his mouth as if to say something to Yukio. He thought otherwise. He continued to spew out pompous words. "Or how about you control that little sprout? If you can't control him, how about you get him out of here before he causes an international incident. You don't have to apologize if you clear him out so my subordinates can play, hm? And do me a favor -- don't tell them what to do. They don't answer to you," Kyo stated with a level voice. [lb2][/lb2] What made him more annoyed is that the man had his head so far up his own rear with his pride and pompous attitude that his words, childish insults, and demands -- the man never answered Kyo's question. Even if the man is a pompous douchebag, Kyo can't forgive the fact that he didn't answer his question. Kyo had other things to do. Instead of teaching people who suffer from affluenza how to act like a proper human being, he is stuck acting like a shield between the goofy cartoon of a puppet and the brainwashed buffoon that it brought with it. ​ WC this post: 932[lb][/lb] WC Total: [lb][/lb] [MFT][lb2][/lb2] OOC Notes: Just RP, nothing personal guys.​

Name: Ryong Kyo-Moon[lb][/lb] Age: 18[lb][/lb] Hair Color: Red[lb][/lb] Eye Color: Yellow[lb][/lb] Height: 5'7"/67cm[lb][/lb] Weight: 147 lbs/66.67kg[lb][/lb] Special Characteristics: Scar over left eye Cloud Headband upon forehead Canine-like fangs [lb][/lb] Usual Gear Gourd of Soju Pouch on side Bow and Arrow strapped to back Spoiler: Demon Form Spoiler: Dakota Name: Dakota[lb][/lb] Age: 12[lb][/lb] Breed: Dire Wolf[lb][/lb] Hair Color: White[lb][/lb] Eyes Color: Left yellow, Right blue[lb][/lb] Height: (Paw to Head) 6'2"[lb][/lb] Length: (Nose to Rear) 10'3"[lb][/lb] Special Characteristics: Red lines going over the body Burning disk magically floating on top of torso Human-like intelligence (infantile) Spoiler: NPC Information Nothing Here

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