Moons: School back. Don't be too surprised by lack of update. Thank you for your support ^^
Lair, Lair,
Pants on fire,
Hanging from a
Telephone wire
~William Blake
Sora's eyes were now closed, pendent dangling close to his face as he prayed. Natsuki and Kenpatchi just stared ahead.
Kenpatchi's eyes widened when he saw the incoming figures. "They're from my clan!"
"That's good. Then you know their jutsu." Natsuki said. Kenpatchi's eyes shook, but he didn't say anything. The blonde ignored him and bit down on her fingers. Drops of blood appeared and she smeared it onto her scroll. A poof of gray smoke raised and two puppets appeared.
One was entirely made of metal and looked like it had been scrapped together. It resembled a canine, landing in front of her on all fours with a metal hook of a tail swinging behind it and head arched forward almost like a snarling wolf or husky.
The other one was maybe roughly nine or ten feet tall and was wooden. It was a human figurine and looked very simple, like the miniature ones that puppet masters used when they first started training.
The team of chunin got closer and Sora took a battle stance. Kenpatchi hesitated and grabbed the umbrellas on his back.
They got close enough to see details. There was a girl and two boys. They looks so much alike, it was obvious they were siblings. They even had matching chunin vests with the Tokage clan symbol. Their hair color varied from dark green to blue, but they had matching
The girl's hair was pulled back into a pony tail, headband on her forehead. Quite a few scrolls were attached to her leg. The other two didn't have any weapons except an average kunai pouch. One of them wore a hat that hid most of his hair. His headband was at his waist while his brothers was sew on the front of the chunin vest.
"God, Kenpatchi that bastard! He killed Uncle-"
"His own dad..."
"That's why we got to get him." The sister told them.
The girl moved first, whipping out one of her scrolls. A countless number of kunai and shurikin shut out.
"Let me." Natsuki said, but Kenpatchi panicked and flung out his umbrella. A gust of wind flew out and deflected about half the knifes. The others continued on their path.
Natsuki groaned and twitched her fingers. Her wooden puppet moved and held out its arms. The weapons coming at them instantly stopped in midair. Both guys on her side looked at the puppet, then her, awestruck.
"This puppet is special." Natsuki mover her hand again and the kunai turned around and faced the siblings.
"It's a...magnet...!" The sister mumbled.
Natsuki's arm thrust out and the kunai followed the motion. The brothers dodged, but the girl in the center had to struggle to defect those her direction. She focused chakra into her kunai, her kekki genki activated, and swung it around at an extreme speed. Not a cut on her. Light green chakra glowed in her hand and swirled around the kunai.
Natsuki swung her hands rapidly. Her canine puppet separated into individual pieces. Something in her mind called her stupid for pulling out her best technique so soon, but she continued anyway. The metal puppet pieces attached themselves to the wooden figure, until the head was put on the very top like a helmet.
In the end, it reminded Natsuki of an armored werewolf. Her ultimate puppet. She moved her arms and made it attack the girl.
"Kenpatchi."
Kenpatchi just stared at the kid in the hat. He recognized him as his cousin. He was the youngest of his siblings at fifteen and had trained with Kenpatchi since they were little kids. He remembered he used fire ninjustu.
"Kenpatchi-san, we don't have to fight." He said softly and calmly. "You can just walk back home with us. We can talk it out."
"Y-you won't hurt me!"
The kid shook his head no. "Of course not."
Sora looked left, right, left again. The third sibling was no where in sight. Above? He looked up. No one.
"Dammit where is h- ack!" A hand shot up and grabbed Sora at the ankle. Sora gave the hand a sharp kick and jumped back.
The entire body shot up, fist first. Sora tilted his head back to avoid being punched. He looked again at his opponent. His arm was completely covered in rock from nin-jutsu.
'What's stronger? Rock or metal?' He shot his hand out to punch, the shinobi's hand blocking it easily.
Flames flew at Kenpatch, causing him to throw his arms up in defense. With no sleeves to protect him, dark burn marks covered his arms quickly.
"Wh-what the hell!" He yelled, panting.
His little cousin was emotionless. "You fall for tricks too easily." He made more hand signs.
"It's a good thing grandpa caught you. You would have failed as clan leader." At the last hand sign, the kid held his fingers close to his mouth and flames erupted.
Battling back and forth against Sora was getting the earth master pissed off. Nothing seemed to break his defense. He made the hand signs. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A yellow lizard about five feet long shot out of his palms and flew at Sora. It landed on his face, blinding him. Sora cussed and yelled, but was unable to get it off.
The chunin smirked and gave him a forceful punch, sending him flying. The lizard jumped off and landed safely next to its master.
Sora landed hard on his back. There was fire licking the ground next to him. He opened his eyes slowly. He saw the flames next to him and thought. There had to be a way to beat him.
He pushed himself up. His eyes darted to Kenpatchi's battle, watching the next attack come at him. He smirked and charged at the Tokage in front of him. The teenager smirked back. "Come and get it."
Sora reached out his hand and lowered it down. It reached into the flames burning away the grass. The yellow lizard appeared to not had noticed this and charged at Sora. An insane smile grew on Sora's face.
The lizard's master called out its name, but it was too late The lizard had jumped up to tackle, but Sora's hand was outstretched. The glove had burned off into ash and the metal arm was fully exposed. It was still on fire!
The glowing hand then grabbed the lizard and burned it alive! It let a high pitched squeal as the fire began to peel its skin off! It's insides felt like they were melting!
The dead lizard was tossed to the ground, small flames still eating at the half gone body. It's owner blinked back tears. Before he could do anything else, Sora was in front of him. The metal was still bright red and extremely hot.
"Got'cha!"
"GGGGGAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the scream.
Sora was on top of his opponent. His hand was pressed against his face. The teen below him was screaming his lungs out, tears falling out of his eye. All the skin on the left side of his face melted away, his left eye burning up in the heat. The right side of his face burned and cracked from heat.
Sora's eyes grew bloodshot and he let out a small, creepy laugh. He pressed his hand down harder, causing the screams to grow louder and louder until the one on the ground began sobbing softly.
His sister was the first to move. She pulled out a concealed weapon, Natsuki recognized as a TantÅ. The knife-like weapon slashed at Sora. The Jashinist got taken by surprise and knocked away. The youngest of the trio got between Sora and his siblings quickly.
"I-it's so..hot..."
"C-calm down." The girl's fingers glowed with pale green chakra. She gently reached down and ran her hand over the wounded face. He groaned when they first touched, but calmed down after a while. The medical-ninjutsu, however, could only do so much.
'It's no good. He needs a hospital.'
She gave a signal to her brother, who managed to nod back even while a crazed Sora was trying to get past him.
All three of them disappeared.
Natsuki sighed. Kenpatchi blinked, trying to figure out what had happened. Sora threw his katana down and screamed. "FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
Natsuki groaned more. "Oh shut up, bonehead. That's a victory. Be happy."
More blood rushed to Sora's eyes and the blonde thought for a moment he was going to attack her and mentally took back her words.
Instead, he dropped down to his knees, grabbed his rosary, and prayed.
"What's he doing?" Kenpatchi asked.
"Praying."
"Why?"
"Because," Sora stopped for a second. "I sinned." He instantly went back to praying at a fast pace.
"Just let him." Natsuki said, putting her puppet back into its scroll. "Oh and congratulations. You passed."
Kenpatchi blinked again. "Passed?"
"You did an decent job, good considering that they were family of yours and of a higher rank." Her look grew hard. "You're not a danger traveling with us. You've proven that. Fall behind however, and we won't save you from whatever shinobi catches you. Understood?"
"Y-yeah, ma'am." He forced a smile
She didn't smile back. "Do you have anything to disguise yourself?"
"Disguise?"
Natsuki rolled her eyes. "You'll be recognized and targeted easily the way you are now." She tossed him a kunai. "At the very least, cut your hair."
Sora opened his eyes and got up to his feet again.
Kenpatchi stood in front of him, hair now cut short and combed to appear spiky. His outfit had changed to a dark outfit of black and green. The top was a keikogi with his clan symbol near the heart. "Use this for night training." He explained, when Sora gave him the odd look. "I'm gonna make it my permanent clothes. Harder to recognize me then."
"Whatever." Sora shrugged.
"So, how'd you sin?" Kenpatchi asked. "I don't get your religion at all."
"Jashin-sama demands I kill." Sora mumbled, thinking back at his mistake. "All my fights should be to the death. I can't injure without killing the injured off."
"...so you sinned by..."
"By letting that bastard remain alive after I burned him." Sora said darkly.
"Oh..." Kenpatchi ran his fingers though his hair and looked back at Natsuki, silently hoping for someone less insane.
Natsuki at the moment was looking through Kenpatchi's bag. "You packed okay." She told him, sensing he was watching. "You need to bring as much money as you can next time. And better food. About half of this will spoil if you don't eat it."
"I grabbed what I could!"
"Plan ahead next time you grab." She pulled out a toothbrush, looked at it for a second, then put it back in. "You'll have to find your own toothpaste. I use only use mouthwash."
Dawn rose. All three were walking and dead tired.
"Where are we headed again?"
"Hayashigakure..." Sora growled.
"Okay, cranky, just wondering."
"I'm not cranky!"
"You are and it's cause you're tired. We're all 'cranky'." Natsuki said in a flat tone.
"You're always cranky, ice bitch."
"Shut up!" Natsuki snapped.
"Are we there yet?"
"No!"
'It's a looooong way to Hayashigakure.' Natsuki hung her head. "Kenpatchi. Get out the money you took with you and count it. Nicest inn we can afford in the next town."
"Finally, thank sweet Jashin-sama!"
Kenpatchi pulled some ryo out of his pocket. Before he started to count, he spoke up. "You know what's kinda sad. You guys are the closest I've had to friends in ages and now my only chance of an alley. Now I say that my best friends are a psychopathic, killer for god and creepy girl who never smile-"
He shut up when he felt the death glares burning into his skin. "Uh... 100 ryo, 200 ryo, 300 ryo..."
I'm sorry for not giving the cousins names. I just didn't want to. -fails-