Looking For The Puppetmaster (Invite Only)

[Takaei Heishiro]

While the curse seal twirled, and the chuunin standing in front of him said nothing, the annoying blond headed girl came from the forest and had thrown some shuriken at him. Defenseless, with now kunai or shuriken to defend himself with, Heishiro turned to look at her while she said something about letting the genin mature, and a slight wave of hatred rolled through him and a small amount of the raging black flames escaped the seal and travelled to the edge of his shoulder. Almost twitching, he raised his left hand and placed it in front of the shuriken's paths, letting the series of blades cut into his palm. Smiling, he pulled the shurikens out of his hand and looked them over, the tips covered in blood.

"That wasn't very nice... I was having a conversation."

While kicking the scroll beneath him open to its full length, he hurled the shurikens back towards the annoying blond girl just as three white puffs of smoke appeared right above the scroll, three puppets appearing in their place. Having leapt away when the smoke was still their, Heishiro hid in a tree, chakra strings connected to his puppets. The two puppets on the left and right looked exactly the same, crafted to have four arms while the rest of their body was covered in a cloth shirt like thing. Their heads were simple, but they looked like Heishiro. The one in the middle was hunched over, and it couldn't be clearly seen with the shroud that was covering it.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Ino simply nodded, smirking with confidence at Shikamaru. Together, although Shikamaru would doubt it sometimes, she thought they were a force to reckon with.

His tangible killing intent only made more adrenaline course through her body- not make her throat go dry. Ino was a Kunoichi, not like some of the other girls there were and she'd proven that long before even Sasuke could. Afterall, he became more deadly after the massacre (though he was still top).

Blood was beaded onto his fingers, drawing a smile onto his face just like Anko-Sensei's smile. That creepy grin that made your face look less attractive than enhancing it.

"That wasn't very nice... I was having a conversation."

"Well, maybe you should've thought about that when you decided to follow us," Ino shot back, her fingers itching to just walk all over his mind. Instead, she simply deflected both her shurikens with a kunai.

However, her mouth did drop a little when she saw the huge puppets-- her confidence wavered a little, a puppet had no mind to walk into, it had no vital points to shoot at with kunai. It was definately just a machine. Her lip curled a little, but she knew she'd think of something, afterall, she had tolerated a lazy genius for the better part of her years.

"To take out the puppets... we need to find the master." Ino narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows drawing downwards as she realised he'd hidden himself.

"Lovely dolls you have here," Ino commented sarcastically. She smirked to Shikamaru, knowing that if they could find his voice, then one could deal with the puppets and the other could deal with their master.

[Nara Shikamaru]

Shikamaru smirked back at Ino, thinking the same thing, and watched as she deflected the thrown shuriken. They find Heishiro, they can easily stop the puppets. Problem was that they didn't know where he was. He thought for a bit, but no immediately coming up with anything, looks up at Ino from the trees. 'And I thought this wouldn't be any fun.' Shikamaru thought with a slight smirk on his face. He then faced the puppets, and slowly took out a tag of some kind, wrapping it around the kunai.

'Looks like I have to deal with these things.' He thought sourly, then yelled up to Ino. "You know what to do." He then slowly walked forward, and threw the kunai directly at the middle one. Despite the fact he figured it wouldn't hit, it would give him an idea on what to do. Besides, he didn't plan on showing off his jutsu unless he absolutely had to.

[Takaei Heishiro]

The puppet in the middle immediately leapt over the kunai that was coming after him, launching into the air with a seemingly unnatural quickness. After the kunai passed, it clunked into a tree behind the puppets. Hidden somewhere in the trees, Heishiro grinned, the middle puppet was his secret weapon, and whatever happened it would be able to stop most things that happened. That is, of course, if nothing happened to it in the mean time. Fortunately, that would be pretty hard, because over time Heishiro had constructed it with his own flesh to make it capable of using Heshiro's jutsu. Something he knew his enemies wouldn't be expecting.

The puppet on the left looked up towards the girl that was in the tree, raising its two left arms to point at her as he did. With a slight clicking sound, its arms popped open and a flurry of kunai launched out of it, the second arm sending a blaze of shurikens as well. The other two puppets turned their attention to the chuunin still on the ground. The puppet on the left did something similar to the puppet on the right, instead it pointed its four arms at Shikamaru and a similar clicking noise could be heard. Popping its arms open, the puppet launched a series of kunais and shurikens at the chuunin, the kunais wrapped in an explosive seal. The puppet aimed both at the chuunin and at the ground around him.

The center puppet simply stood there with the shroud continuing to cover it, and then it did something no puppet should ever be able to do, it spoke.

"Kill. . ."

[Yamanaka Ino]

"You know what to do."

She offered the young man a confident smile. "Leave it to me, Shikamaru!"

She swung up in the trees, jetting from branch to branch to find the source of those strings, unfortunately they were nearly impossible to see. It was almost now that Ino wished for the wise, all-seeing eyes of the Hyuuga, but she knew that wishing wouldn't do any good at this point. Ino never dreamed of success, she stayed awake to achieve damn it. With a pause, she assessed how Shikamaru was doing, silently thanking him for his chauvinistic nature- he'd always felt too protective of kunoichi, even though time and time again, she'd told him that she was better than him.

She gasped a little, there was a flurry of black wasps coming at her and she had just about made the seal in time to make a kawarimi and flee the onslaught of projectile weapons coming her way.

"He may have the fancy mechanisms-- but I've got the speed!" Ino nodded to herself, often giving herself these messages- these little motivators that made her go as far as she often did.

It was not always strength alone that Ino would often win at, but her incredible will-power. Which did drive her in trouble sometimes, but it was saving her now.

"Kill. . ."

"Aha-" Ino stopped, her laughter dying on her face as she thought that she'd caught the puppetmaster... but, the puppet spoke? She shook her head, thinking he was simply trying to freak them out.

A puppet speaking? Well, so what-- she'd seen much more impossible things. Like Shikamaru becoming Chuunin first. She smirked.

"No wonder you were spying on us, it seems like the only women you know are wooden!" Ino tried again, injuring his pride as well as lightly leaping over branches and trying to find the source where all these strings were coming from.

[Nara Shikamaru]

Shikamaru had glanced, slight worried when a flurry of kunai and shuriken had came Ino's way. But his being worried was proven wrong when she had speedily dodged the attack. 'Well at least she doesn't need help yet...' He thought with a frown. He then glanced forward, and was slightly surprised to see one of the puppets shoot kunai and shuriken at him as well. But his eyes quickly spotted the explosive tags, and he sighed deeply.

"Man, now I got to do something..." Shikamaru mumbled as he swiftly scanned the surroundings. There weren't anything substitutable around, and nothing he could hide behind would protect him from the explosions, so the only thing left to do was the Body Flicker. He waited till they got moderately close, then he swiftly disappeared, the ninja weapons flying to the ground in which Shikamaru had been standing upon, the chuunin appearing on a rooftop nearby.

"Is that all you got?" Shikamaru was also trying to tease and insult the missing-nin, now taking out two more kunai, wrapping one in an explosive tag again. He then threw the one with the tag, then just as quickly threw the one without it. The kunai hit the base of the one with the explosive tag, making it move faster towards the puppets. It was also the time when he realized the puppet spoke. The only thing that ran through his head was. 'Weird...'

[Tsunade-chan]

Tsunade was walking through her lovely Village when she heard a noise and ran to what she saw 3 ninja's fighting she remembered two of them but the last one she didn't "What is going on here!"She said loudly.

[Takaei Heishiro]

The puppet in the middle jumped over the kunai that came towards them, and then the one on the left and right turned in towards the person who had just shown up, the Hokage. She was strong enough, and with the help of the two chuunin, this battle was definately too much for Heishiro, even if he unleashed level two of his heaven seal. The last time he did it, he knew he had the power to destroy a village, but it wouldn't be enough. . . Nodding, barely, Heishiro sent the two puppets on the left and right to dash towards the hokage, all eight arms shooting kunai as they ran.

The puppet in the middle then moved its arms for the first time, the most human looking arms that any puppet has had, and the pulled close together. Unlike any puppet before it, it began to make hand seals, slower than Heishiro but still quick enough, and when it finished, a huge blanket of mist began to cover the entire area. When he had completed the jutsu through the puppet, Heishiro unhooked himself from all three with a certain irritation, and then turned and ran out of Konoha, disappearing into the forest.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Ino's heart soared as she heard that stern, demanding voice- just a little lower than her own voice demanding from (probably Shikamaru, as he always seemed to be stuck with these sort of things) an answer.

In her hurry to greet the Hokage, she found that she slipped when her eyes were clouded by mist. "Shimatta!" Ino swore, but not out loud (not in front of Tsunade).

Her light eyes tried to find the puppet master, but found that her legs grazed over a metal structure. She leaned down and silently screamed as she came face to face with a puppet.

"That's... real skin..." she said, wide-eyed.

[Tsunade-chan]

Tsunade moved Ino out of the way quickly and moved swiftly out of the way of his attack. "What is the meaning of this."She said still not even caring in the world of his stupid attack. "There better be a good reason for this fight!"She said and ran swiftly towards the puppets and punched the ones on the left completly destroying them.

[Nara Shikamaru]

Shikamaru watched as Tsunade was about to destroy one of the puppets. He then managed to drag the puppets out of the way before she could do anything, even after the hokage had dragged Ino off the flesh puppet. "Don't destroy them, we could use these." He told Tsunade calmly as he looked closely at the contraptions. The reason he said he could use them was because either they could have their own village's puppetmaster to operate these, or Shikamaru could study these himself and get an idea on what the missing-nin might use next.

He then glanced over at Ino, and asked. "Ino, you okay?" He asked while looking at the one with the flesh. It spooked him out a little. 'Man...who would use their own flesh for a puppet? And...how could it use ninjutsu? What a drag, looks like the next time we fight this guy, he could be trouble...' Shikamaru thought with a frown.

[Tsunade-chan]

Tsunade stoped before she did any damge and nodded. "These puppets smell of flesh and blood..."She said coldly. "I want you to see why, take as many puppets and then report to me of what you found out." She said her voice still at a normal lvl.

[Nara Shikamaru]

(OOC: You realize Heishiro left the thread already.)

[Tsunade-chan]

ooc: I will change it