The Puppet Kid

His travel along the road was far more peaceful then last time as he traveled on the back of Nobu this time and not on foot. The horse was proving to to be a stalwart companion and he was grateful he had made him, as it was becoming a major resource to have. Taka was strapped to his back as the two senbon torpedo arms were facing forwards towards the direction he traveled in. He held the Mari blade aloft in his left hand as he gripped the reigns of Nobu allowing him to control the puppet horse with the puppet strings technique. He was humming a tune popular with children that was a bout a boy who learned taijutsu from an old man to help give him confidence and overcome his bullies. On his body he had his quiver and bow attached to his left hip and back respectively with the bow being clipped to Taka's side.

[Puppet strings technique]

CP: 140/150
SP: 150/150
Puppet strings: 1/3

Coming down the road from the opposite way was none other than Tatsuya Nara of Nikkousato. His smooth black hair was tied back in a tail that went down past his shoulders and he wore his usual attire a black suit jacket and dress pants over a white button-up shirt with the first few buttons undone, black leather gloves on his hands, the right one bearing the seal to store his puppets, steel-toed shoes, and a patch over his left eye. He was armed, of course, but preferred to keep such things hidden until they were needed. He approached until he was 10 meters away from Keiji and saw his puppet horse in more detail,

“A puppet huh? I’m something of a puppeteer myself.” He Willem Dafoe’d, “You must be a Moon shinobi, I know all the puppeteers in the Sun. We’re far from any prying eyes, what say you and I have a little intermural game huh? See which village has the best puppeteers.” He didn’t seem like he was giving Keiji an option to say no, however, as he immediately summoned his cloaked puppet, Piero, which seemed to stand alongside him, the heavy cloak covering everything but the clown’s long face, tall hat, and the hands that were currently holding a scythe.  




[Puppet strings technique]

CP: 165/175
SP: 180/180
Puppet strings: 1/3

Watching as his proposed opponent announced himself and spoke towards him so menacingly like some kind of cartoon villain it was actually amusing and made Keiji chuckle before he spoke to the man and sheathed his blade, using the puppet strings technique a second time to attach it to Taka now with his other hand, "We can play hoss, but why act like a clown? This is about to be a real man's fight!", and he would take off, moving 7 meters away from Tatsuya to the left as he used an action to cascade the area from above with a senbon torpedo shot from one of the now swiveling heads of Taka's torpedo arms. The Canister would cover the ten meter area that Tatsuya was in, with a multitude of Senbons that were quite destructive in nature. From their Keiji would observe his opponent from horse back.

CP: 130/150
SP: 150/150
Puppet strings: 2/3
Puppet strings: 1/3
B-rank senbons covering the ten meter area Tatsuya is in almost instantly in senbons.

Second puppet strings on Taka, Moved 7 Meters, Launched 1/3 Senbon torpedo's from left sided arm.

There would be a small puff of smoke as Tatsuya released his second puppet from his glove, which joined Piero on the strings of one hand. The black and white clown suit of Harlequin would flash through the air as the puppet spun and shot out a low-pressure blast of water from a pipe in its left leg, aimed into the air above Tatsuya and his cohort. The puppeteer ran 7 meters south-west with his puppets close to him. The firehose-like stream of water would blast into the air and cut a channel through the falling senbon needles, allowing Tatsuya and his puppets to escape unharmed. “Clown? I am the whole fucking circus.”

As he ran he’d weave the kata for an attack of his own and suddenly the ground under Keiji would collapse into a hungry swamp of sticky mud. The swamp would gladly swallow Keiji whole and leave him entirely at Tatsuya’s mercy if he couldn’t find a way to escape it, and given that it was 20 meters across, roughly centered on Keiji, that would be no simple feat.

~~~~~

Puppet Strings (2/3)
Water Jet Cutter: (1/5)
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld: 25 Chakra (1/3)

CP: 140/175
SP: 180/180

As the man made his joke and saved himself from the torrential hell rain of senbon Keiji actually smirked, this was going to be a good one, he could feel it. Repositioning himself almost immediately he would leap up into the air while leaving Nobu and Taka attached to his left hands strings and then form his arm bandages which were his clans threaded hair into the threaded whip technique resulting into undulating tendril like white whips of rope like appearances to dangle from his forearms as one of them attached itself to Nobu.

Unsaddled and airborne he would notice the ground begin to change some but that was irrelevant now as his plan had always been a frontal charging assault at the enemy as he willed Nobu forward with the puppet strings, unbound by a rider now. Launching forward in a westward fashion he would aim to slam into Tatsuya as he moved Nobu the sixteen meters forward to the close the gap faster then standard movement, nobu not sinking into the ground as when being controlled by the strings he didnt have to touch the actual ground to move.

Not wasting any time he would use the whip in his other hand to try and strike at tatsuya's neck making his true goal as he would flick the whip tip into a saw blade like motion when it was just close enough to instead slice the puppet strings holding up Tatsuyas puppets, while performing this more then likely "surprise" counter assault he would shot to his opponent with passion , "Nice try! But you face a real warrior now!", he wouldnt be defeated so easily and this man had another thing coming if he thought that Keiji was a push over. The force of the quick movement and sudden stop would cause Keiji to land into the saddle again as he stopped in front of Tatsuya and attacked.

[Koka-Ito: Threaded Whip C-rank technique but B-rank weapon.]

CP: 120/150
SP: 145/150
Puppet strings: 3/3
Puppet strings: 2/3
Threaded whips: 1/3

Moved 16 meters west to charge straight into Tatsuya while performing the aerial stunt of an actual circus member. Just saying! And slashed at his neck area with the whip but feinted and actually used the opportunity to try and break puppet strings on the two puppets.

Keiji had avoided the swamp with some fancy puppeteering and was now charging straight toward him! It seemed they had gone from the circus straight to the bullfighting ring. “Well add Matador to my resume, why the hell not?” he thought to himself. As the mount and rider approached at high speeds Tatsuya would wait for them to be within 5 meters of his puppet Piero before activating its Deadlights. Blinding light would flash out from the puppet’s eyes and mouth along with a mechanical grind of a short laugh track. Being that close the light would be bright enough to blind Keiji and once he was Tatsuya would leap up and over him, bringing his puppets along for the ride. He’d go 2 meters up and 5 meters east, eventually landing 4 meters east of Keiji, between him and the swamp. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, we still have some things to do before that.

First of all, it seemed that Keiji didn’t attack until he reached Tatsuya’s position, so if he still did that after the blinding light it goes without saying that it would miss, as Tatsuya was no longer at the position he had aimed at.

Secondly, while he was in the air above him he would have his puppet Harlequin hover between Keiji and him before reaching one foot out and shaking it all about while shooting a high-pressure water jet cutter toward Keiji. The stream of cutting water was already dangerous enough as is but it had a range of 25 meters and when Harlequin moved his limb while firing it the stream was basically a 25-meter long sword, without any of the unwieldinesses such a comically oversized weapon would normally have. The puppet erratically swung its “sword” at Keiji and as the stream descended on him from above it would cross up and down, forward and back, left and right, even if he had his puppet pull him 25 meters away he would be running blind and would eventually get hit by a swing, since they were covering every direction Keiji could move in, and the stream was more than strong enough to cut through Keiji and his puppets if it connected.

~~~~~

Actions:
Deadlights
High-Pressure Water Jet Cutter

Ammo & Such:
Puppet Strings (3/3)
Water Jet Cutter #1 (0/3) (1/5)
Water Jet Cutter #3 (1/3) (0/5)
Deadlights (1/3)
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld (2/3)

CP: 140/175
SP: 180/180

As he careened through the air it would seem Tatsuya had his own tricks up his sleeve as he blinded him with some type of flood light! How rude! This would cause him to lose concentration and the threaded whip to unlatch from Nobu's torso flailing wildly in the wind. Plummeting into the ground and rolling seven meters past but still in line with his intended landing spot, he must have hit a rock or something along the way as he felt like his endurance was lowered from the force of his landing. He would perform the needed handsigns to create the hidden mist jutsu and surround the area with a thick most that would be all but impossible le to see through out to 25 meters in front and behind of him, as it was centered on his space. Hiding in the mist now he would have almost no time to think about his next move as he panicked for the first time in his adult during combat.

Panicked and unsure of what to do as he was blinded he would grow out his hair and form the iron Jingasa technique while moving nobu 25 meters behind him almost immediately before the strings ended on him.Crouching low he would look like a black rock of hardened hair and steel as he hid under the wide brimmed Jingasa, sure that an attack was coming but unable to defend against it if he didn't do as he was now. He could feel something hard hit the Jingasa and it almost give so he would influx even more stamina and chakra into it as he bunkered down further, weathering the effects of the attack presented by Tatsuya.

Staying hunkered down his hair fell off and around him as he now sported a short hair cut essentially. Thinking about his next move he would walk aimlessly 2 meters eastward as he planned for his next series of actions, completely unsure of anything but that he had to get the drop on Tatsuya, even if it was the last thing he did!

[Koka-ito: Iron Jingasa B-rank plus extra block input and Hidden mist jutsu]

CP: 95/150
SP: 105/150
Puppet strings: 3/3
Threaded whips: 2/3
Jingasa double B block to counter 1 A rank attack.
Endurance point loss as a penalty for what is now a combat infraction from improper jutsu use.
Hidden mist jutsu centered on Keiji.

Keiji smartly used an omnidirectional defense to guard himself against the inevitable strike that would come after his blindness. Tatsuya’s swamp would dry up around this time, becoming just a large pit of the same dimensions. Tatsuya couldn’t see his attack connecting because of the mist that rolled in but he was fairly confident Keiji had defended himself since he was not currently shouting, “Oh god my blood, my blood is all outside my body now.” after being cut open by a water jet that could slice stone.

That was lucky for Keiji, but unluckily the mist he had created was going to do little but extend his blindness for even longer. Tatsuya would send an undetectable pulse of chakra out through the ground which would act as a sort of sonar. It would show him where Keiji was since he was standing on the ground, and he could see him just as well as if he was watching him with his eyes, or in this case, eye. He just had to be careful and watch his movements since the seismic sensing would not pick up the floating puppets or any airborne projectiles.

His puppets would continue to float in front and behind him and he would quickly form the single kata for the Shadow Possession Technique. His shadow would go forward, straight toward Keiji, and pass through the shadow of Harlequin for good measure, boosting its range to 20 meters.
The puppet would pick up a stone from the ground and toss it through the air, aiming it so it would land a few feet behind Keiji’s current position, just before Tatsuya’s shadow would breach the 1-meter range one can actually see through the mist. This would hopefully distract Keiji for the critical last second his shadow needed to connect. Of course, the seismic sense was ongoing so if Keiji did attempt a dodge, on purpose or incidentally, he could adjust the direction of the shadow to compensate for that.

Breakdown: