Puppet Show [Open]

[Megumi Tanigawa]

Pushing a large wheeled stand through the clean halls of the hospital. Megumi was starting to regret offering to preform of the sick children of Konoha. Passing stretchers and staff members rapidly moving back and forth, she somehow made it to the main hall without incident.

The hall was nothing to write home about, luckily the play that she will be putting on today will only require a small amount of space. Unpacking the stage and setting up the backdrops and props for the play. A older women entered with her audience, seating them and lowering the blinds and turning off the lights.

Taking her position as she stringed her puppets that in turned stringed the puppets and stood by waiting to operate the props and stage effects. It has been awhiles since she had performed her puppet theater run by actual puppets.


With the certain raised, revealing the backdrop of a forest. Flicking one of her fingers and activating the ambient noise of birds and running water. “ The land of fire at a time before your mothers and fathers. A time before the the village hidden in the leaves”. Megumi’s tone was clear and grand as she played the narrator to the story. Moving her fingers once again, changing the backdrop to a burning forest with the sounds of fighting and war cries. Moving her fingers popping up paintings of groups of ninjas and shurikens and kunai moving to the opposite sides of the stage as to puppets dressed as a Uchiha and Senju battle amongst themselves over the warring groups and weapons in the background. “ Before we were the leaf, many powerful clans fought amongst themselves over land and over who was the strongest clan in the land of fire. Of the clan the ones who stood out the most were the Uchiha and their Sharingan and the Senju and their power over the forest”.

 

[Randamu Kyarakuta]

Sick children, they were a pretty tough sight to behold. Some kids here where in for things like the flu or dehydration, but others where in for more sinister things, from shinobi related injuries and illnesses. to things like leukemia and cancer. So what was she doing there? Was she a patient? Did she have some deep dark secret disease like sclerosis or being a uchiha? She was actually there to sit, she was a sitter. She kept kids too ill to leave their bed, entertained to prevent their minds from going wild and mad during the night. Sundowning, it was called. She may be rather random and intense at times, but she was benevolent at heart, hated to see sadness.

Tonight was a special night however, there was a puppet show! She took her current patient, helped them into a wheelchair and put their medical equipment on the attachments. As the lights dim, she would wheel the patient in. They were wrapped in gauze head to toe, a burn patient, a training exercise gone wrong. However tonight they would feel somewhat better as they were entertained by the puppet show. She stood behind her patient, holding the wheelchair and watched silently.

 

[Megumi Tanigawa]

The play would continue as the scene would change to Madara and Hashirama when they were children standing on the opposite sides of a stream. “ Even in this time of war, there were those that wished to end the fighting, even if it meant befriend those that have taken much from them. However”, the sounds of war and two members of each of their clans jumped to their side, one of them being the future second hokage. “ The rest of the world found the idea of change much more difficult than the two friends”.

The curtain would close and reopen showing a battlefield littered with the dead of the two clans. Among the bodies were Madara and Hashirama with their brothers locked in battle. “ Even though there were those among the clans that wished to end the chaos. Many lives were lost until the friends were no longer seen as children, but as the leaders of their clans”. The sounds of weapons clashing, fire razing the ground and wood snapping would echo through the room as the puppets fought among themselves. Even if the jutsu’s were simple pop ups and effects it still gave a glimpse into the ability of those legendary ninja.

As the fighting continued Madara’s little brother would fall to the fighting. The battle would pause then a puff of smoke blocked the stage. As the smoke cleared, the stage was almost overrun by the giant figure depicting a samurai towering over the first hokage. Inside of the massive warrior was Madara with glowing red eyes. “ With the loss of his brother, it seemed like any chance of realized the dream that the two once envisioned would never come to pass”.