5 years later
It's been a long few years, I am now age ten and my plan to commission puppets was successful.
Over the last few years, I haven't done anything other than toiling away — making puppets and training.
My plan to commission puppets was a huge success, with my most sold model being the Tarantula puppet. The downside is that this has made it really difficult to progress my knowledge, since I need to make more and more complex puppets to fit the criteria. Although, I have still made a lot of progress, around 7.3 percent worth of knowledge. I feel as though I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough.
[Puppets (4/10) - Completed(5)
Puppet and Baryon fusion reactor knowledge (7.3%)]
Unfortunately, my Mantis puppet wasn't too popular due to the high price of the chakra metal, the maintenance and the precise chakra control needed to utilise the puppet to its upmost potential, so the commissions I received were mainly for the novelty of having a highly intricate puppet, almost as though it was a sophisticated mechanical watch or an art piece . So over the last few years I have been raking in a lot of money from high ranking rich nobles and even the Wind Daimyo's son once requested for one.
As good as that sounds, most of my money is reinvested in creating more complex puppet's for the sake of progressing further. To others, my obsession with puppets is just like Sasori but in reality, I'm only focused with the satisfaction of filling up the goal of building 10 puppets.
I also didn't realise it at the time but when I made the Mantis puppet, the amount of precision and skill needed to operate the puppet was so difficult, that even Granny Chiyo was surprised when she first tried operating it, of course I had acted incapable of operating in front of her, despite me being the craftsman responsible for creating it,
as I didn't want to be too high profile and put my full ability on display.
So now, I am hailed only as a puppet making genius, just like Sasori. In terms of puppeteering however, my presence isn't really known, in fact nasty rumours have been spreading about a certain kid who can makes puppets he can't even use .
I don't like to showcase myself using my most powerful puppets, I'd rather practice using standard puppets than my overpowered ones, just for the sake of not standing out and to avoid being sent directly to the frontlines of war in the distant future.
However, in terms of building puppets I have garnered quite a reputation as being one of the two genius puppet making brothers.
However, not all things have been good.
Sasori has begun to distance himself from me even more, he practically ignores me whenever I tried to interact with him and his workshop is always locked, likely with some sort of human puppet monstrosity he's working on.
I feel bad for Sasori, his closest friend was killed by his own poison and our parents died on the battlefield. He's been practically isolated from any paternal love. This is what has ultimately lead him down this path, although I do think there must be some sort of intrinsic psychopathy because no normal person would enjoy turning human corpses into puppets.
Granny Chiyo has also deduced how shady Sasori's been recently and can't help but distance herself further than she already has in hopes of not discovering something sinister.
In regards to how Chiyo treats me, it's the exact same and she often does help give referrals so others can purchase my puppets.
Athough there are pros attached with being known and hailed as a puppet making genius, it also has cons, recently tension between the 5 great villages have been rising, namely Konohagakure and Iwakgakure.
There have been multiple skirmishes involving Konoha ninjas and Iwa ninjas on the borders and even Kumogakure has gotten involved. There are heavy undercurrents of war amidst the ninja world.
So with the Land of Wind bordering near both Konoha and Iwa, we have been on high alert recently and even I, have been sent on border patrol a couple of times.
—-
I had just finished adjusting the Mantis' forearm joint when the desert wind outside shifted, carrying with it the faint tang of metal. My workshop was quiet except for the clink of tools, but lately even the silence felt tense.
I told myself I'd stay out of doing any work for that damn Kazekage , keep my head down, keep making puppets but deep down, I knew the Kazekage wouldn't let me hide forever.
Woosh!
Answering my fears, a sudden gust pressed against the circular window. In its centre, a man with his face covered wrapped in white cloth, appeared framed by the pale morning light.
"Sora, the Third Kazekage has sent a missive for you to go on a special mission at the border, report to him when you are finished.", the Anbu wearing a white linen mask reported to me through my window and promptly left afterwards.
"Sigh. I've been working day in and day out making puppets and now I'm being sent to the border again."
Since Sasori has become a jōnin at the age of 14 and having already completed multiple high A and even S-ranked missions alone, that sneaky Third kazekage is trying to gauge my talent and attempting to mold me into a powerful shinobi as well. With my connection to Chiyo, it's not a surprise to be receiving missions directly from the Third Kazekage himself, even Sasori wasn't spared and has to leave his workshop to report to him, however knowing the future that awaits the Kazekage, that situation doesn't bode well with me.
Even though I know his fate, I am unable to warn the Third Kazekage about Sasori's future plans because first and foremost, I am his brother and secondly, making a baseless claim about Sasori wouldn't work too well considering he is both a high profile shinobi and a capable puppet maker.
So I store 3 puppets into my scroll, a basic puppet model, which I will use to practice my skills if I come across a weak opponent, along with Tarantula and Mantis.
I will only use Mantis in a life threatening situation as it's power is too eye catching and powerful , also I'm not bothered to deal with the repairs and maintenance involved .
After reading the scroll, the mission states that I am to patrol the north eastern border as there has been signs of suspicious movements from Iwa shinobi there.
"I guess the third ninja war is coming soon", I mutter as I begin to use the body flicker technique to travel to my designated location.
—-
In the sandy dunes of the desert, Iwa shinobi sneak around, attempting to create a supply route in preparation for a future attack on the Land of Fire.
"Those damn Konoha shinobi won't see us coming hehe," a square headed man wearing a red bandana snickered to his team.
It was a small team of 3 and judging by their coordinated movements, they definitely weren't weak shinobi.
Spotting them, I quickly began to prone down and hide, camouflaging into the sand using my beige outfit.
"Did the 3rd Kazekage really send me to deal with these Iwa shinobi alone?!", I mumbled to myself.
I can't just sit here and let them do this however, this is still my homeland after all.
So summoning my Mantis and Tarantula puppets in front of me , I got up with my head up high in the most intimidating pose I could muster up and warned them.
"Hey! What are you idiots doing in the border of the Land of Wind , go back now or else!"
"What!? We've been noticed!"
After turning around and looking at Sora, his face which once showed a distraught expression, brightens up.
"Haha, you're just a little brat"
Upon revealing my presence the 3 men scoffed.
"If we kill you, no one will notice the disappearance of a mere child"
"Is Sunagakure really this impoverished, they can't afford to send skilled ninjas to patrol their…."
Swoosh
Using my chakra threads I launched a barrage of kunais and shuriken towards him, grazing his cheek.
His hand raises to his face, touching the warm blood trickling down .
"How dare you!!"
Earth release: Bedrock Coffin
Suddenly, the sand around me stiffens up and forms two hemispheres that begin to rapidly enclose me.
I flicker back, my chakra strings firmly attached to my puppets so they could follow me.
Using my right hand, I manipulate Mantis and with my other - I craftily bury Tarantula into the sand with the limbs pointing towards my opponent's.
Clack Clack Clack
In an instant, I send my puppet forward, closing the distance between it and the caster of the jutsu.
Crunch!
The claw of my puppet clamped close with monstrous velocity crushing his head brutally into two pieces.
In a gory display, blood splattered everywhere, with the gruesome sound of splurting blood creating an eerie tension.
"You bastard!"
The other Iwa shinobi in a fit of rage after seeing his teammate die, began sprinting towards my puppet, his hand coated in a layer of heavy stone.
Weaving the fingers of my other hand, I opened the hidden compartment of Tarantula's 8 arms.
As he loaded back his fist, my Tarantula puppet hidden in the sand, began shooting multiple poison coated senbon at him.
Earth release: Mud wall
The other Earth ninja noticed my sneak attack and countered by deploying an earth wall to block my barrage of darts.
Whilst they were still preoccupied with my attack, my mantis puppet shattered through the wall with brute strength.
Shing!
Manipulating the chakra metal, a blade popped out from the arm of the puppet, as it sliced through the chest of the man using the rock fist jutsu.
"You… how are you so strong", the man uttered as his final words while the rocks coating his arms crumbled to the floor.
Stab!
I pierced his head to finish the job.
Flickering the blood off the blade, a deep scarlet red in the form of an arc, lined the sand, shimmering in the sunlight.
"It's time to use my strongest move"
I recently modified this puppet to have a prototype of an amplification technique I created by using chakra metal as a psuedo capacitor of chakra, it still isn't perfected and hopefully as my knowledge increases I can improve the efficiency.
So with my chakra threads, I started to channel my chakra into the puppet, saturating the legs with a scintillating blue aura , in a sudden burst I released it all with a deafening thunderous boom, the resulting shockwaves sent ripples in the sand of the desert and the puppets blade flashed directly towards the final ninja.
Slice!
Directly after the impact, the Mantis puppet left him cleanly bisected before he even had a chance to react.
The two halves slowly separated with coagulating blood clinging between each half, falling to the ground with a damp thud.
"Wow! I knew my puppet was strong but I didn't think it would slice through humans like they were butter. The amplification seriously enhances the strength of my attacks. The downside is I'm almost out of chakra now, I should probably leave before reinforcements arrive"
Luckily no one saw my true strength, otherwise the Kazekage would be gleaming at the prospect of another puppeteering genius in the village and wouldn't hesitate to directly send me on a plethora of dangerous missions or even the front lines of the impending war .
Poof! Storing the puppets in my scroll I began devising a plan to explain this mess.
"I should probably get out of here first"
So leaving the crime scene, I headed towards the Kazekages building to report that I spotted Iwa ninja and Konoha ninja fighting in the border as my excuse.
—-
At the scene of the fight
"The hokage sent us here with intel of Earth shinobi forming a supply route but I guess Sunagakure dealt with them before we could." Said a tall man with red paint on his face and a headband that had the kanji for oil inscribed on it.
"It's strange… they left the bodies behind despite the possibility of crucial intel remaining at the scene. They might've been trying to send a message"
"Well whoever was capable of causing this much destruction must at least be at the level of an experienced jonin", a young man with a leaf headband and blonde hair surmised.
"Yes, this level of brute strength reminds me of when I peeked at Tsunade" , he said reminiscing with a grin.
"Sunagakure must've gained themselves quite a capable shinobi."
The student and mentor duo stored the bodies in a scroll and quickly left.
In Konohas intelligence department
"Inoichi, is there a chance you could read the memories of these bodies?"
Touching the corpse he grimaced.
"I don't think so, whoever killed them, caused to much blunt damage to their brains"
"Understood", he teleported away in an instant after storing the bodies.
…
"Lord Third, I have a report regarding the secret mission on the Sunagakure border."
"Yes, what is it?"
"It seems Sunagakure are more capable than our intel suggests. They quickly disposed of the Iwa ninjas in their land, I believe they left the bodies as a warning to stop foreign ninjas from encroaching their land in the future."
"Hmm, they are more territorial than I thought, I believe that Iwagakure will struggle to send troops through there in the future."
"It seems their plan to make this a battle of attrition won't be too easy and due to Sunagakure interference they may even hold a grudge against them for it. This potentially could be beneficial for us."
—-
Sunagakure: Kazekages Office
"Lord Third, I have completed your mission and have found both evidence that both leaf and earth ninjas were fighting on our land. We need to send backup to check what's going on", I falsely reported whilst on one knee bowing my head trying to hide my grin.
"Hmm, Sora you've done a good job, I didn't expect there'd actually be a skirmish on our border, I'll send a team
to investigate what occurred.
"You may leave now"
"Man this was a long day, I hope they find the bodies I left behind and blame Konoha"
"I should probably replace the poison darts and clean my puppets".
I hope nothing too serious comes from the aftermath of this battle.
———
Thanks for reading this far!