A Bridge Too Far

Yet another mission, yet another day. Kenji only lazily walked through path leading directly to the bridge that was supposedly important for transporting supplies. Officially there was peace between the villages but as Sojiro put it, the relationship was strained and both villages were trying to do their best to fix it. Probably why he wasn't given a partner for this one, right now he was going have to ensure the sun village wouldn't claim this bridge as their own while Kenji had to try and claim it for his village. If he was lucky, he wouldn't need to worry about fighting anyone and simply stand around for a few hours tops and then go home to a nice cup of golden flower tea.

However as he approached the bridge, he noticed a man with black hair, an eye patch and an affinity for black clothing at the opposite end, resting against the bridge. It was almost like looking at an older version of himself if he suddenly decided to become serious about this whole shinobi thing. "Well... This is awkward. I don't suppose you are resting on your way to do a mission that isn't to take this bridge, are you?" Kenji called out to the other man with a bit of a sheepish grin on his face.

Thankfully Kenji had a habit of keeping his hands in his pocket and he could feel the paper of holding the seal for Lingchi still in his right pocket where he left it. The lazy shinobi only held onto the paper as he walked onto the south side of the bridge, a good 20 meters away from the presumed sun shinobi. He was really thankful today he decided to bring his swords but he was still hopeful he didn't need to have to use them, especially since the man looked like he didn't have his own sword to use. Two blades against one was unfair, two blades against none was just mean.

Well, technically he held onto seven blades if one were to count the five kunai within his flak jacket, which as usual was worn underneath Kenji's black jacket. Still, it was best if his potential opponent only saw the two holsters for Kenji's Wakizashi and Tanto currently resting diagonally at the back of the moon shinobi's waist. Hopefully that doesn't just scare the poor guy into fighting him though, a fight right about now would probably suck.

---

Active Gear:

Tatsuya had a cigarette burned most of the way down by the time Kenji arrived. He took one last drag on it, put it out against the handrailing, and flicked it over the side of the bridge. He took a visual appraisal of the young shinobi as he approached, noting the two weapons on his waist. A back-up? Or was he a dual-wielder? Tatsuya didn't have any visible weapons and he took care to keep the palm of his sealed glove facing away from Kenji, so he wouldn't notice the mark on it. Tatsuya started calmly walking toward him, slowly closing 5 meters closer across the 20-meter bridge. "No such luck." He taps his own eye-patch with one finger and then gestures toward Kenji with his head, "Black market organ dealers, beat me up when I was around your age and took it. How 'bout chu?"

He didn't have anything untoward planned, at least not yet. There wasn't a Genjutsu laced into the words or anything like that, he was honestly just making small-talk with the young man. He was watching him closely of course, just because Tatsuya was being so casual didn't mean his opponent was going to be and he wanted to be on guard against any sudden strikes. He also wanted to watch him closely and see how he responded to being questioned, to being approached. People kill for information and any Tatsuya could glean about his opponent, his mannerisms, his personality, going into this could wind-up being valuable.

Kenji sighed as the man begun to approach him, Kenji doing the same as well, he already knew the answer even before the now confirmed sun shinobi revealed his mission was indeed for the bridge too. Still at least the man was trying to be somewhat friendly about this as he asked how Kenji lost his own eye and for a second, Kenji hesitated. The past wasn't something he liked to talk about but then again, the lost of his eye wasn't quite the biggest deal to Kenji either.

"Let's just leave it at bandits." Kenji simply shrugged his shoulders, his hands still in his pocket as he finished walking his 5 meters, leaving nothing more than 10 meters between the two. Would be ideal for a jutsu attack if he had any but guess that meant this older serious version of himself was currently at the advantage. Assuming of course the older copy had any ninjutsu to use, if Kenji was lucky the man was a taijutsu specialist and the battle was already decided when Kenji showed up with two swords.

"Name's Kenji Haruka by the way, normally I'd say pleasure to meet you but considering one of us going to be throwing the other off this bridge... Well, let's just say I'd rather us not have met at all." Kenji introduced himself before expressing his dislike at having to meet someone here in this manner, especially one that looked a bit like himself. Then again, it'd really suck if it was someone like Sojiro, that would probably be a very, very awkward fight.

Even as Kenji talked, he seemed to make no real change in his stance or posture, he was simply laid back and seemingly uncaring about the inevitable fight that was about to break out. He was prepared for a fight but he was already aware he was pretty outclassed by most of his fellow shinobi. While some were capable of digging burrows into the earth or punching craters, Kenji could produce strings. That's it. Just produce strings.

Haruka. The clan name didn't sound familiar to Tatsuya, so that didn't tell him anything. The young man was very nonchalant about everything, he had definitely seen combat before. It was possible the kid was just careless, but no reason for Tatsuya to get his hopes up like that.  

"Tatsuya. I feel ya." He wouldn't share his clan name since, unless the kid was twice as green as he appeared, that would definitely give him some information. Tatsuya would clap his hands together and then extend the one with the seal to the side of his body. There was a small *poof* of smoke and his puppet, Peiro, would appear beside him. The cloaked harlequin-esque figure hovered off the ground so as to be level with Tatsuya, and held a large scythe with both hands. Its long cloak made it so nothing else besides its arms and head could be seen. Chakra Strings extended from Tatsuya's left hand to the puppet, keeping it aloft.


"Show me what you got!" With a rapid movement of his fingers, the puppet would abruptly fly forward, closing the space between himself and Kenji. The puppet would attempt to fly straight at Kenji and, once it was in range, bring the scythe down at him in a powerful vertical slice. The weapon was heavy and had the reach advantage on Kenji's blades. It would certainly be possible for him to defend or parry such a simplistic attack but if that was all he did the long reach of the scythe would assure he was always out of range to strike back at the steel puppet.

Tatsuya himself would dash in with the puppet as well, although not as far. He'd move another 5 meters closer, keeping himself behind the puppet and to it's left, so he could still see Kenji. They were both missing an eye but the side was mirrored, Kenji's right and Tatsuya's left, if he was going to move he would be sure to always attempt to move around Kenji's right side, making it that much easier to slip into his blind spot if he was given the chance.

Chakra:

No sooner than the man introducing himself did he make his move, bringing forth a puppet of his own as Kenji brought out his piece of paper holding his own puppet. Before Kenji could even attempt to bring forth his puppet however, the older copy of himself moved in with his puppet, the puppet flying straight for Kenji with it's scythe ready to strike downward. Kenji quickly brought out his Tanto with his left hand and drawing it in such a way he was prepared to block the puppet's scythe, the swordsman only letting out a small grunt as he felt the heaviness of the scythe crash against his blade but before the puppet could do anything else, Kenji immediately jumped back 2 meters now.

"Well fancy finally meeting another puppet user." Kenji commented with a smirk as he threw his piece of paper down while placing his Tanto back in his holster and unsealed his own puppet, the puff of smoke popping out in front of Kenji as the cloaked form of Lingchi appeared in front of the moon puppeteer, it's face mask on and it's hands hidden underneath the cloak that reached down to the puppet's mid thigh.

"Meet Lingchi. He's going to kick your puppet's ass." Kenji taunted with a cocky smirk as he sent his puppet forward against his older copy's own puppet, the cloaked puppet only revealing it's clawed fingers once it was in range of the other puppeteer's puppet before taking a quick swipe with it's right set of claws, the attack flowed vertically from left to right aimed right at the center of where the enemy puppet's body should be judging by the cloak. Kenji needed to figure out just what exact material made up this puppet's body since it's arms seemed to suggest metal, in which case it'd be best to just go after the older version of himself rather than focus on taking down his puppet.

---

Free Actions:
- Moved back 2 meters
- Summoned Lingchi
- Connected Chara String Technique to Lingchi

Actions:
- Used Tanto to block Scythe attack from Peiro
- Used Claw Fingers [R] to strike at Peiro's "body" from right to left in a quick swipe.

As Lingchi slashed at Piero not only would the puppet not try to avoid the attack, it didn't have to. Lingchi's claws would rip through the cloak, and nothing else, because Piero had no body. The cloak was merely a ruse to make people assume there was something underneath it.


As Lingchi tore through the cloak Piero's face would light up, a bright light shining out from the eye and mouth holes in its mask. This was a high power spotlight, aimed at Kenji, and it was in fact so bright that it would completely blind him for a short while since he was within 5 meters of the light source. It was possible to avoid this if he could avert his eyes in time but Tatsuya figured it was unlikely he'd expect the puppet to suddenly do something like that to him. Especially since Tatsuya didn't need to take any action to defend himself from the light since it was pointed away from him, there was really nothing that could clue Kenji in before it happened.

Assuming this was successful and Kenji was blinded Piero would release one hand from its scythe, the only one that could release it, and from a small hole in its palm gouts of flaming napalm would spew out, aiming to coat Lingchi. The substance was superheated as well as adhesive, if it coated Lingchi he'd be unable to get it off and it couldn't be put out with water, only through completely smothering it. It would certainly burn a person to death and since Lingchi was a wooden puppet it should be capable of quickly rendering it nonfunctional as well.

Blind or not Kenji could try and move the puppet out of the way if he thought something was going to happen to it but the napalm launcher had a 10-meter range and Tatsuya would do his best to hose the puppet down even if it tried to move and at point-blank range, it would be hard to miss.

---

Free Actions:


Actions:
Piero activates Deadlights (2/3)
Piero fires its Hidden Napalm Launcher (2/3)

Chakra 90/100
Stamina 100/100
1 turn remaining on Chakra Threads

Almost as quick as Kenji realized he had hit nothing, did the enemy puppet make it's next move and that was to quickly blind Kenji with a sudden light source hidden in the face of the puppet. "Ah hell!" Kenji shouted as he rose his arms to cover his eye from the burning bright light. Kenji knew this would leave him wide open to any attack though and without any real solid defense in place, he did what he did best and that was to attack blindly.

Kenji quickly brought out his puppet's extendable tail blade and slashed in an upward motion aimed right at the joint connecting the puppet's left arm and it's body, hoping to disable the puppet's left arm if not completely remove it. As he did so, he'd also open the puppet's mouth to begin to fire the barrage of ten senbon through the cloak of the other puppet and at where he last seen the enemy puppeteer. Kenji was hopeful this random barrage of attacks would keep both the puppeteer and puppet away from him as he tries to soothe his burning eye.

However, Kenji could smell some smoke and the fact he wasn't feeling any burning sensations was very off putting to him. It wasn't until he felt his puppet fall to the ground that he realized just what had happened and Kenji gritted his teeth, snapping his candy stick in half and letting the exposed part to fall to the ground as he chewed the remains. With his left hand, he drew his wakizashi and held it in front of him as his eyes slowly begun to regain their sight, allowing him to draw his tanto with his right hand and putting both blades in front of him, crossing to create a "X" shape in front of the moon shinobi.

"Dick move destroying my puppet by the way." Kenji commented annoyed at the fact he'll have to recreate Lingchi once more. "Although if I lose and you throw me off this bridge, could you do me a favor and throw Lingchi down too?" Kenji decided to ask since he knew if his attacks were avoided, he'd have to deal with a puppet with superior range and a perfectly fine enemy shinobi afterwards too that could probably use ninjutsu. A fight that could only really go one way considering all he really had was his two short swords and a plan that was basically to rush in and slash until either himself or his enemy fell.

---

Free Actions:
- Chakra String Technique has been cut!
- Drew both wakizashi and tanto

Actions:
- Attempted to use Extendable Tail Blade in an upward slash aimed at the joint of Piero's left arm.
- Attempted to use Mouth Senbon Launcher to fire ten senbon at Tatsuya.

Tatsuya moved as soon as he noticed the senbon starting to fly, out of the way of the senbon but closing the distance between himself and his puppet. He rose his arms as he moved, guarding his face, and was quick enough that only one struck him, and lucky that the blindness prevented Kenji's aim from being more precise. His flak jacket took the hit but it wouldn't be good for anymore after that, so he removed it with a flourish.


Taking advantage of the last of the blindness Tatsuya would palm an exploding note, sticky side out, and make sure to keep that hand facing away from Kenji. Lingchi's bladed tail had hit a critical point and severed the cloaked scythe-wielding arm from Piero, which fell to the ground with a *klunk*. As Kenji's sight returned to him he would see Tatsuya standing next to Piero.

"I think you dropped this buddy." He said jokingly to the puppet as he reached down and grabbed the severed arm. He reached under the cloak and grabbed it by the arm itself, which is when he would sneakily attach the Exploding Note to it where it was out of sight. He'd hand it to the puppet which grabbed the scythe with its remaining hand, the severed arm still holding onto the weapon. Since that hand never releases from the scythe its wrist wasn't articulated and so it would just stick out into the air from the middle of the scythe. This was important at this moment since if it went limp the sleeve would have fallen off and revealed the Exploding Note. Kenji would be able to see the straps of his wakizashi sheath now that he was bare-chested so Tatsuya would draw the weapon, wakizashi in one hand and puppet strings in the other. He shrugged at Kenji,

"You attacked mine first if I recall. That was text-book puppet self-defense. And don't worry, I'll make sure you two stick together."

---

Free Actions:
Moved 5 meters forward toward Piero
Removed Flak Jacket
Drew Wakizashi

Action:
Hid Exploding Note on severed puppet arm

Puppet Strings has 0 turns remaining

As Kenji's eye sight returned, he was surprised to see the man had discarded his jacket and was standing right besides his puppet which was now missing an arm, meaning Kenji's blind strikes managed to do their job more effectively than he planned. Kenji could only grin in satisfaction, even as the sun shinobi simply placed his puppet's arm into the other's hand, it meant Kenji wouldn't need to be too concerned about removing the puppet's hidden weapon on the right, which judging by the burning substance that has covered Lingchi, it was napalm.

Tatsuya drew his blade and defended his action by pointing Kenji was the first to attack his puppet but there was quite the difference between a simple test attack and outright burning the puppet. "There's self defense and there's lighting a person on fire for what would've been a scratch if my attack even did anything, which you knew it wouldn't." Kenji pointed out with a small smirk on his face as he begun to close the gap between the him and the enemy shinobi, his blades down by his side as he left himself open. "If we were in court and Lingchi was a real person, you'd 100% be charged with manslaughter at the very least." Kenji told the enemy puppeteer with a bit of a chuckle, amused at the idea of being a lawyer and getting justice for his puppet.

As Kenji came within 1 meters of the man, he'd break out into a short sprint, swinging his wakizashi horizontally from left to right as he closed the gap between them, his blade aimed right for the man's right arm. While running toward the man however, he made sure to aim to right right between the puppeteer and the puppet and assuming neither moved, Kenji would swing his tanto downward at the strings, hoping to cut the connection in half and take his puppet out of play entirely. Well, at least until the puppeteer could reconnect his strings but hopefully Kenji's strategy could put enough pressure to make that impossible.

---

Free Actions:
- Moved 3 meters forward.

Actions:
- Attempted to slash horizontally, left to right aimed at Tatsuya's right arm using the Wakizashi in his left hand.
- Attempted to slash downward at Tatsuya's strings and cut them using the Tanto in his right hand.

Tatsuya would run forward to meet Kenji, his puppet following 1 meter behind him. He brandished his blade, making it seem like he intended to clash with Kenji but instead would throw himself to his knees, lean back, and slide forward across the ground, past Kenji's right side and just under the horizontal slash he had launched at his arms. Tatsuya would quickly roll back to his feet and continue to run until he had moved 5 meters forward and turned back to face his opponent.

Piero would thrust its scythe out like a spear, seeming to attempt to deflect the sword that aimed to cut its strings. The large scythe was too slow to intercept the blow though and Piero would fall lifeless to the ground when Kenji cut its strings. Which is when Tatsuya would use a hand sign to detonate the Exploding Note he had hidden on the severed arm.

The 5-meter blast would destroy Piero and hopefully damage Kenji enough to discourage him from continuing the fight. The note wasn't directly on him so he would probably survive, but being so close also meant he would take some severe burns and concussive damage if he didn't get out of the way. Of course, Tatsuya was hoping that waiting for the puppet to be disabled, when Kenji would have the least reason to believe it was dangerous, would prevent that from happening before it was too late. "There, we're even!"

---

Free action: Move 5 meters forward
Spend 10 chakra to refresh Puppet Strings Technique (80/100)

Actions: Puppet Attack
Detonate Exploding Note

Kenji could only grin as the man slide underneath his sword, leaving the puppet string wide open and as Kenji swung his blade he was even more happy to see the puppet's scythe being too slow to stop his strike and as soon as he cut the string, Kenji quickly turned around and begun sprinting toward the enemy puppeteer, knowing he'd have to maintain pressure on the man before he could even think to reattach his strings to the puppet. A fight against the scythe would prove too dangerous and right now Kenji had an advantage in his ability to strike with two weapons while he could only defend with one. This was simply too good of an advantage to waste in mocking his enemy or taunting, with Lingchi gone, he'd have to rely on his less than stellar sword skills.

The moon shinobi barely made it a meter away when he felt an intense wave of heat wash over his back and a strong force pushing him forward, which left him in an awkward position of falling forward with two blades in his hands so he did the only thing he could and act on instinct, which was to drop the blades and plant his hands on the ground. Taking just a moment, he'd glance back at the hole where the puppet once stood and Kenji was surprised the puppeteer would just blow up his puppet for an attempt at a sneak attack, which to be fair, would've worked if not for his flak jacket which now had a large scorch mark and what appeared to be some remains of the bridge embedded into it's back.

Suppose he should be thankful he had rushed in, the damage done had he been closer probably would've hurt more than just the warm feeling on his back and ruining his flak jacket but then again, he was now disarmed and kneeling before a man just a meter away from him. "Ssssooo... About being even, does that include disarming yourself to fistfight for the bridge?" Kenji asked with a bit of a sheepish grin as he moved himself to his knees, his hands raised in the air to show no harm and possible surrender. "Or should I just awkwardly throw myself off the bridge?" Kenji decided to joke a bit more than he already was, letting out some small laughter.

Regardless of the answer however, Kenji would quickly roll back and jump, giving himself 2 meters of space between him the sun shinobi before he'd perform a set of hand signs and as quick as he finished weaving the signs, he'd seemingly disappear, a small set of dust being left and blowing to the right of where the moon puppeteer once stood. Almost as quickly as he disappeared, he'd appear a meter behind the sun shinobi with a kunai at the ready and he'd throw it full force at the man's back, hoping to catch him off guard now that he was behind the sun puppet on his left side, the part where the man should have a bit of a blind spot.

---

Free Actions:
- Moved back 2 meters

Actions:
- Used Body Flicker to move to cover 5 meters and appear 1 meter behind Tatsuya.
- Threw a Kunai at Tatsuya's back from his back left.