Geting me some puppet skills

Maku walked out into the blizzard.  It had been a rough couple days getting everything in Yukigakure situated for the new regime.  Paperwork after file, had been handed to him, sorted and filed.  Not much it felt like had been accomplished, though Maku knew it had been.  Wading through the administrative and bureaucratic bull shit was not a fun task, but it was the one that was in his lap.  Alas, it was all for the greater good though.  For Maku and Youka to become as powerful as they both knew they were destined for, villages must fall and be brought up again.  Today’s mission was to get out into the wilderness and explore his new stomping grounds.  He hadn’t had a chance to really get out and see his new realm yet, and he figured he might as well gain some training while he was at it.  Bundled up in the latest furs, he found in the local shops, he exited the gates, pulling his collar up over his ears.  Already they were burning and felt like they were ready to fall off.  Walking towards the trees, he wondered what the harsh landscape had in store for him, and what mysteries he would uncover this evening.
               
                The trees surrounded him.  In a way it was reminiscent of his time in Takigakure.  Only it was opposite.  Instead of oppressing heat, and rain, the cold was unstoppable, and the snow fell faster than rain ever could have.  Walking through the woods, nothing much could be seen.  The howling wind covered any sound that the beasts would make walking nearby in the woods.  His cloak being whipped back and forth as he walked.  Finding a clearing, Maku took a seat on a log, and began contemplating what his next step would be.  He had wanted to develop his ninjutsu skills while he was out.  It was one of his weak points.  He had developed genjutsu, and was starting to bend space and time, but had yet to really take a go at manipulating the elements on this planet, and forcing them to bend to his will.  However, today would change that, and begin making it into a part of her wheel house.  After all, after learning his other abilities, how hard could it be, working to get the most basic of ninja specialties as a part of his skill set.  Looking around, he contemplated what his best way to do this would be.
 
                As he walked out, he ran into an old man.  He seemed to be walking with a young boy, and Maku was concerned that he might be in trouble.  Walking up to him Maku made a discussion.  “Excuse me sir, do you need assistance?”  The old man looked up, and the little boy attacked him.  Maku defended himself, ducking and dodging before striking out with his hand, knocking the head off the child.  Horrified from shock he looked, but saw no blood or anything to show he had killed this boy, the body was even still moving around.  Looking closer, he could tell it was a puppet of some kind.  Looking towards the man, he could even see the chakra threads extending from his fingers.  He had heard of puppetry as for but he had never seen it in person before.  Looking at the man, he no longer had qualms about the little boy puppet, so when it came closer, he unleashed a quasar blast and blew it to pieces.  Looking down at the man, he saw someone at an advanced age, probably at the last few straws of power left to him.  “Who are you, and why did you attack me?”
 
                The old man started coughing, and fell over, picking him up Maku returned to his home with the old man until he awoke.  Once he was awakened he posed the same question, and the man answered.  “I am Gora, a puppet master of Yukigakure, though I did not agree with the last leader so I became an outcast.    Who are you?”  The man was a little impudent, but that’s fine, he wasn’t offended by someone weaker than himself.  “My name is Maku Jemuzu, and I had planned on learning ninjutsu with my time in the wilds, but those puppets I find them intriguing, so I think we can have something in common.  I am the new leader and I watched as Demetrie Kori was slayed at my feat.  Now, teach me this skill and I will do my best to reward you.”  Maku had been a bit forceful, but he liked the idea of puppets.  It might be a fun trick to have, and use in battle, if not just a novelty trick he could use.  The old man looked at him, and spoke “I require no reward, but I will help you, my life is not long, and I want my skills to be passed on.”
 
Setting the man up in his home, Maku would begin his training with the man.  The first part was learning to make the chakra threads.  This was much more difficult than Maku had imagined.  He had great chakra control and ability, so he had assumed this basic tech would be a cinch, unfortunately he was wrong.  It took many hours to get the threads to take a continuous shape, and even longer to get them to attach to anything and stay.  The old man only watched, and didn’t do much of anything to help besides teaching him the initial way to do it.  From there it was up to Maku to develop his skills in the technique.  Over time, several days, he was able to get them to extend and even to attack to things, and move them around him.  He started with small objects like kunai and paper from across the room, and eventually moved up to even moving chairs, and even a table as his strength increased over the technique.  His threads were also very durable and he was able to move objects at blinding speed.
 
The next part of the training would be learning how to build  a puppet.  This would probably be a difficult task, as Maku wasn’t exactly mechanically inclined.  However his teacher taught him that that didn’t have to be the case.  While some ninja used puppets to have a huge amount of hidden caches and tools, some of the best puppets were simple ones, and used strategically instead of using a bunch of gimmicks all the time , but instead advanced strategy and thorough control was enough to win most fights.  And that was what the man tried to teach Maku as he worked and tinkered with the puppets.  Putting them together wasn’t easy, the trick was determining the proper shape, and tools that it would use.  Maku was not as strict with puppets having to look humanoid, instead he used it differently, and just wanted weapons to use.  Being of human shape was kind of silly in his mind as it tipped them off to what they were using, a and what the ninjas skill was.  So instead, Maku created smaller constructs including balls with spikes on them and other nonplus items that a normal person probably wouldn’t even think of as puppets.
 
After he had a few crude and ugly constructs created, he moved onto the next task, and that was controlling them with some kind of accuracy.  Walking back intot he wilderness, Maku used the threads to pick up the crude balls, and throw them around the battle field.  It was interesting work, and at first they just sore through the air without a true destination.  After a few attempts, he could make them make some crude maneuvers.  Like flying a kite in a bad windstorm.  All the same, it slowly came together, and Maku could control both balls well enough to resemble accuracy and precision.  He also found that he could move them with some decent strength behind them, using them to smash into trees, and attack invisible objects.  It all worked very well, and Maku was proud of himself.  This was a very different kind of skill compared to his other two, so it was fresh and exciting to learn.  That was important, as he had felt himself being a little stale lately, and with this he hoped to rejuvenate some of his skills to be more unique and versatile.
 
The next few days passed much the same way despite the deteriorating health of his mentor.  The man had not been in steller condition when they had first met, and he had only gotten worse.  It was as if the more he taught Maku the closer he got to the end of his life.  Maku had picked it all up fairyl quickly, even though he was only grasping the very asics of the technique and specialty.  It would be a long time before he had mastered the craft, if he ever was able to.  However the point was that he learned tricks and tips, and would be able to institute them in battle.  The rest like everything would come in time and after a lot more hard work.  After a couple more days, the old man passed away in his sleep.  It was odd, Maku didn’t have much feeling for the man, but he was grateful for what he had taught him.  He would not let the man’s instructions go to waste and he vowed to continue using what he taught him to better the village, and himself.  His task was set, he needed to come up with a proper puppet schematic and strategy to use in battle.
 
Over the next few weeks a couple ideas were thrown around but nothing concrete was ever able to take shape for Maku.  Instead he donated the majority of his time to practice with the chakra threads, and using make shift puppets until he got into the mood to properly make a weapon.  This seemed like it could take a while, but in the mean time he was more than happy to just practice with chairs and tables.  He had a good idea with chairs, taking them apart, and using a thread on each piece.  Keeping them together, and then breaking them apart to use as a cool attack that would be unexpected.  Perhaps his puppet should be developed in that way, so that seemed like a good idea.  At least to him.  Maku the final idea was a puppet that would resemble a beach ball covered in spikes, with multiple explosive tags hidden inside of it.  Along with this the ball could be broken apart to be multiple smaller objects that each had an explosive tag on it as well, so the explosions could happen from a multitude of different places all at once, leaving great chances for openings.
 
Overall Maku still had a lot to think about.  Like how these puppets could be instituted into his fighting style as a whole.  He felt like he was a ninja with many powerful techniques, but no real theme to link them all together.  Perhaps intime he could use these puppets for that purpose.  It would be useful if he could combine his own existing jutsu into the puppets but that sounded like a pretty advanced technique, so he wasn’t ready to attempt anything like that just yet, at least not until he had some more practice.  Another thought was what could he do to improve them with seals, after all Youka knew all about seals so maybe he could apply some to his puppets giving them additional powers.  On that Note Maku left the confines of his office and headed out to find his friend to run the idea passed him.  Youka was the best he knew at battle, so it only made sense to seek his council.  The snow buffeted him as he walked, but Maku had long since grown used to it, and he even enjoyed the snow now.


(WC = 2,000.  20jp, 10stats X 50= 500ryo, adding puppet spec)

Approved