Training for the Exams

[Flux_Blade]

Ichigo had been asking more for a warning about the puppet...
"We have a Hyuuga in there, even if they don't hear us, I assume sensei's girlfriend has enough situational awareness to notice that we're doing something and warn them." Ichigo pauses as he frowns, "what exactly are you planning?

[spudman]

oog: Thread "reaching" toward the storage scrolls...d'oh. For some reason I interpreted that as the thread already being connected to the scrolls.

I'm confused from Itsuki's actions, I thought there would be at least one more round before Team 2 arrived.

[Tempest Kitsune]

Sorry, wasn't sure how we're tracking time in here.

[JamestheFox]

oog: If the threads had already reached the scroll before your attack, the puppetmaster would have already been on the run by now, making this an underground chase.

Don't worry, I forgot how many rounds had passed for a second there, too. The whole "explosion imminent" situation stuck a bit more in the forefront of my mind. With that said, I'll wait for Team Tsukiko's moves for this round before posting the further actions of the Puppetmaster and his puppets.

ig:

*The Abandoned Building-Rooftop*

Sho tilts his head, having not noticed Tsukiko and Nishiyori's interactions. "Girlfriend, what girlfr-Oooh. When did that happen? Nevermind." He shakes his head, snapping back to reality. "Anyway, remember how I've been working on my puppets? I built this offensive/defensive puppet. My dad calls it uninspired, a 'giant spiked hamster-ball.' Really dense, durable wood and metal on the outside, fairly soft cushioning on the inside, really heavy once removed from the scroll. If I fly high enough, and drop it from there... considering how old this building looks... the quality of the wood... The momentum could smash right through several floors, if not all of them at once. We just need to be careful not to hit anyone on our side."

[spudman]

oog: ah, okay. Thanks Tempy.

Is Tsukiko still blinded?

[JamestheFox]

oog: She'll need to get the sand out of her eyes, but then she should be fine. She'll have to be quick though because shuriken are already in mid flight towards her, as fired last turn, and if Sho starts up his puppet variation of Bring Down the House Jutsu, your team won't be able to react in time.

Enviromental Effects currently active in the room: A dust storm that impedes vision and irritates eyes, and a haze of gas that, if in contact with fire, will blow the whole room up, potentially setting fire to the entire wooden building with a low chance of escape. Avoiding use or preventing enemy use of explosive tags or fire jutsu is recommended by your common-sense-jutsu. Water Jutsu should be able to bring down the dust.

[spudman]

Blinded, Tsukiko instinctively ducks down and darts to the side, away from a likely attack. She rubs her eyes as she lands to get the sand out and looks around.

"Toshizo, restrict the puppetmaster with earth techniques or your hair jutsu." The obvious fact, that the latter can only be used if the puppeteer is forced aboveground, is not mentioned (being obvious and all).

"Ushio, cover me." Tsukiko rushes toward the mole puppet and will cut any threads moving toward it along the way. As she approaches, two spiraling orbs of chakra form in palms. She'll slam the rasengans into the 'arms' of the puppet to tear off the claws, first one and then the other in quick succession.

oog: Sho hasn't actually done anything yet, right?

[JamestheFox]

oog: Not yet. His scheme will probably take about 3 rounds, if he starts it this round. 1 round to pick up running speed and take flight, 1 to circle back and get above the building in question, and 1 more to summon and drop the heavy load.

[serbii]

Ushio tosses a wind element tag into the room and it detonates, blowing back some of the sand and projectiles. "Right!" acknowledging Tsukiko.

[Phht]

[To be fair, human puppets don't necessarily mean they're dead. Sakura served as a human puppet of sorts during parts of the fight with Sasori, IIRC.]

Eight KMP officers -- including the Inspector and Officer from before -- appear making their way to where the puppets rest. The Inspector's gaze moves along until spotting the Kage Bunshin waiting nearby. "Tendo! Have your team start cordoning the area and call in what teams you need to process and clean up the scene."

She makes her way over to the Nishiyori clone with three of the KMP. "As Inspector of the Konoha Military Police's Public Security Bureau, I'm pacing this crime scene under PSB jurisdiction. As the ninja that were hanging around no longer are like they should've if they helped deal with this mess, I'm guessing this is larger than three puppet-like humans. Situation, short-version."

[Just to clarify, she didn't necessarily see any of the group. She's a sensor and picked up on the chakra signatures.]

[Flux_Blade]

Ichigo shakes his head, "I guess we can tell sensei he was 25% successful at hiding information from a group of genin and chunnin." Turning back to the sound of fighting, "you're going to try the maneuver even if I say your crazy, aren't you?" Once he gets the probable affirmative, he'll follow, at the very least, he might be able to help get Tsukiko's attention when Sho does his crazy scheme.

[spudman]

oog: I assume Shiro is with one of the teams.

She makes her way over to the Nishiyori clone with three of the KMP. "As Inspector of the Konoha Military Police's Public Security Bureau, I'm placing this crime scene under PSB jurisdiction. As the ninja that were hanging around no longer are like they should've if they helped deal with this mess, I'm guessing this is larger than three puppet-like humans. Situation, short-version."

"Human puppets." the Nishi-clone confirms. "Disconnected and disabled. My original and the others are following the rest of the team, on the trail of the puppeteer. They might have found the target already. You have a team here now so Shiro and I can lead you to them."

The Nish-clone will answer further questions as asked. Who is in charge of the mission, who's on the team, what they know/what's happened so far, etc.

[Phht]

"I thought it'd be something like that, but couldn't be entirely sure. Give me the background on how the group got involved in the situation as we move to catch up to them." She turns to the rest of the group. "Team! We're heading out to catch up with a group looking for the controller. Tendo, you're in charge of this scene."

She turns back to the clone. "Let's go."

[And so we can skip recapping the hot springs escapade to this point. Four KMP are staying behind to deal with the current crime scene, the remaining four going with Nishi-clone.]

[JamestheFox]

oog: Do we know if Bookworm is still playing? I'm waiting on his move for Toshizo before continuing with the Puppetmaster.

ig:

*The Abandoned Building-Rooftop*

Sho smiles widely, looking like his birthday came early. "I've been waiting for a chance to test Harinezumi, and now I get to!"

[spudman]

oog: well, I sent him a pm to poke him and gamebrain. If he doesn't post we could pick a decent earth jutsu from leafninja or narutopedia for Toshizo to do. Or his signature hair binding technique if the puppeteer (should be in his profile) is above ground.

Edit: the first pm may not have been clear so I just sent another one, just in case.

[gamebrain89]

Taru has found a good spot to observe the building exits and roof, and extracted his quiver from the scroll he had it stored in, is settled into a stable shooting position, an arrow with a small seal covered bulb right behind a short barbed head and yellow fletching nocked and ready to fire at the first sign of a runner.

OOG: Not sure what you want from me exactly, as far as I can tell I'm outside watching the building and nothing else I can really do. Fell behind due to other stuff. And Book's net access has been cut down pretty severely, so he probably hasn't gotten the PM's.

[spudman]

oog: yeah, the ball is in bookworm's court right now. But I didn't want you to feel left out, I guess. Anyway, I did just get in touch with bookworm by skype so hopefully he'll be able to post soon.

[bookworm702]

Toshizo has to hold back retching when he enters the basement. This kind of desecration of a man's body...disgusting. He felt sorry that Ushio had to see it.

When the sand blows, Toshizo manages to get his arm across his eyes, protecting them from the scouring. When he gets the orders, he responds with a firm "Understood!" and kneels down on one knee, grabbing a kunai in one hand and his ponytail with the other.

It wasn't uncommon, especially with those with a chakra disposition towards the element, to attempt to escape using earth based jutsus to travel underground. After experimentation in his genin days, he had come accross a workable solution for such pursuits.

Cutting off about four inches of hair, he jams the tuft to the ground and properly molds the chakra.

'Binding Root Jutsu.'

The hairs took off into the ground like frantic moles, the earth chakra they had been permeated with allowing them to glide through the ground with ease and speed. He could direct them to seek out the same type of energy, shooting directly towards the jutsu, and thus its inhabitant, where they would then encapsulate and immobilize them. Then, the chakra flowing through the hair can flood the chakra system of the target, both immobilizing them and disrupting their ability to mold and direct chakra.

[JamestheFox]

The Wind Tags blow cause the artificial sandstorm to worsen for a few seconds, but then quickly removes it from the battlefield.

In a rush towards the Mole Puppet, which has become active, Tsukiko cuts the threads of the Suna Kunoichi, causing it to fall limply. As she comes close to the Mole, its arms move wide, so much so that instead of hitting its arms like she wished to, she has hit the Mole's chest, splintering the wooden exterior and doing massive damage to the weapons secreted inside of the Puppet. It closes its arms around Tsukiko and crashes upwards and outwards via Doton Jutsu, the puppetmaster seemingly content to take a Hyuuga as a future puppet. The Earth Civilian follows through the hole.

Likewise, the Leaf Civilian puppet has removed her outer layer of clothing, revealing a fair number of active explosive tags. She falls limp, having outlived her usefulness.

The Puppetmaster himself is already leaving, more than willing to accept his current losses if it means the prize he's collected, when the Binding Root Jutsu hits him, and he substitutes with the Earth Civilian, entombing it with his hair. He looks at Tsukiko, a wry leer on his face. He seems to be sweating. He's likely running low on Chakra from his hijinks with the Mitsubachi and the battle so far.

"I've heard The Hyuuga were beauties unrivaled, but my oh my... These are quite the materials I've collected, completely worth coming here..." He unfurls a scroll, much more ornate than the previous one. "Not quite as pretty as my Sabarou (Third Son), though."

He summons another Human Puppet, younger than the others. Despite the name, the puppet is a girl, and bears a Suna Headband. She carries two small fans with blades on the edges.

[Tempest Kitsune]

Itsuki freezes for a moment. He recognizes this puppet. (His ex-girlfriend was Gaara's granddaughter, he made many trips to Suna either on official business or at the bequest of his own grandfather, so made many friends within the Suna Ninja Corps.) Then, he gets angry.

"DIE YOU &*^$%*%^*%#&%^#^*!!!"

Preforming a Summoner Slam, he yells out, "Kaminari Blitz!". The smoke cloud is blasted apart by a pair of living lightning bolts as Urgit and Kheldar attempt to put holes through the man's shoulders. Itsuki is popping another soldier pill, and then begins to spin up a Kienzan.

[JamestheFox]

ig: Sho, about to begin his scheme, freezes at a flash of killer intent radiating through the area, accompanied by Itsuki's extreme swearing.

"Wha... What was that?"

oog: Whelp, let's start a betting pool: who's gonna kill the Puppetmaster first? Nishiyori for kidnapping and threatening Tsukiko? Tsukiko for messing with her? Or Itsuki for killing his friend?

I'll treat Itsuki as having just arrived this round, as mentioned a couple rounds ago.

[serbii]

[Ahahahaha, ahhh genin. So outclassed. Woo, assumptions about how techniques work!]
[Eh, I dunno if I should use the twins as they were made to be hax and annoying as all hell, I'd rather other people did the fighting. They saw something shiny and wandered off?]

Ushio hears the cavalry and gives a tight smile. She's marks the civilian puppet's position and is out of the room and on to the roof top in a thrice. Water tank, water tank, come on these were every wh- oh there it is. She slams through the roof with a chakra enhanced kick and substitutes as she hits the water. Kawarimi no Jutsu. The leaf civilian vanishes, dropping into the tank, the water ruining the tags. Ushio takes her place in the room.

Hotaru rushes to the building, struggling to keep up with the older ninja, she takes a moment to take in the scene, seeing straight through the walls, before reporting to Nishiyori, "He has Tsukiko-onee-sama."
She feels he'd like to know.

[spudman]

"Alive." Nishiyori says in a mostly even tone, though there is a bitten down growl to it, as he stares foward. Kyoko and Kagami should hear him clearly. It is now their job to make sure nobody tries to kill a beaten opponent. (*cough* Itsuki w/Kienzan, *cough*)

With that, Nishiyori opens the first gate, the Gate of Opening, becoming a blur of speed. Instead of going for the puppeteer, however, he kicks aside (with intent to smash) the Sabarou puppet.

While not entirely necessary, this action is a useful distraction and makes for one less complication as Tsukiko was already expelling chakra in a forceful burst from her body, which should move the arms of the mole puppet apart enough to give her room to slip out. She'll then rush toward the puppeteer as Nishiyori deals with the puppets (will probably involve breaking and/or removing parts) and should reach him as he is still feeling the lightning weasels' attack. Tsukiko aims to execute the Eight Trigram Sixty-Four Palms to completely shut off the puppeteer's chakra flow and leave him unable to move.

"You are going to answer for every life you have stolen, every loved one you have hurt."

oog: How's this? Too much?

[Tempest Kitsune]

OOG: He's going to need to beat Urgit and Kheldar, who are literally living lightning bolts at the moment. They're not planning on killing the puppeteer, only disabling him in a horrifically painful manner. (It's really hard to control anything when you have no shoulder joints.) Itsuki is actually focused on the mole puppet, planning on cutting off its lower half in order to make it impossible for it to move.

[spudman]

oog: there's still a chance of the puppets moving, though, at least until Tsukiko pulls off the sixty-four palms. If Itsuki aims the kienzan for the mole puppet, then I'm sure the twins won't stop him.\

As for order of action:

Weasels' attack reaches first (lightning)
Nishiyori reaches Sabarou (very quickly thanks to first gate) and attacks as Tsukiko tries to escape.
The rest (see my post)

If she doesn't slip out, Nishi will help break the mole puppet's arms and get her free.