Building Aragog

Chiba looked at his list of "pivotal mission supplies," and sighed. Reading it again, it took up three columns across a page and a half of his journal. A frown crossed his face. There was no way he could carry all of it. He simply was not strong enough. 

Sighing, Chiba started to gather it all together to see what he could do without. As he rummaged through his apartment, a small flyer fell from where it had been set aside ages ago, and drifted to the floor. 

"Vilcri's puppet Emporium" it read "puppets sold at sale prices. Purchase existing designs or mail on your own. Order one today!"

Chiba looked closer at the flyer, noticing how old it looked. It may have been a part of what had driven him to learn puppetry in the first place. The puppet designs on the cover sure looked great, but none of them looked like anything that would suit Chiba's fighting style or his needs.

 What he needed was a puppet that had massive storage utility to store a plethora of ninja tools, and the human shape of the typical puppet just didn't have that type of versatility. 

Using an invisible chakra thread, Chiba directed the flyer across the room to the trash bin, and droped it in. As the thread expired, he remembered how he'd come to learn how to make his chakra threads invisible. He'd seen a large spider building a nest in the sands. The spider had used his silk as a tunnel, inspiring Chiba to try the same with his chakra threads. 

Suddenly, Chiba knew both how he'd carry all his supplies and start using a puppet. Dashing to his desk, he knocked everything hastily onto the floor except for his pencil and a large roll of paper on which to draw. 

He began sketching furiously. Drawing an egg shape first, then a pair of smaller circles. Next, he drew eight long lines radiating from the middle circle, four on each side. Slowly, Chiba added more and more detail to the sketch until it resembled the spider that had inadvertently taught him. 

Once the preliminary sketch was completed, Chiba started detailing and outlining the varied parts that needed to be included. First, of course was the abdomen. With the size of the puppet he was making, he thought a compartment for him to ride in would be a fun way to confuse opponents, and started there, measuring himself, and seeing how small a space he could comfortably sit in  making the person compartment slightly larger, Chiba thought he might be able to perform capture missions this way as well. 

Continuing with the abdomen and it's hidden compartments, Chiba drew up twelve more boxes of differing shapes and sizes to take up the remaining space. These could carry scrolls, weapons ranging from senbon to swords, supplies, or whatever else Chiba might be able to fit in them. To save space, Chiba didn't build in any launch mechanisms to the compartments. With his chakra threads, he'd or able to pluck out what he needed anyways. 

The next items that needed to be detailed were the legs. They would be, after all, what carries the thing. Chiba drafted them as long and sturdy. He considered hinge joints, but immediately reconsidered in lieu of socket joints to be both more versatile and more reliable. He also thought that it would allow the spider to grab hold of its "prey." With that thought, Chiba paused a moment. The legs were too smooth to get a very strong grip, things and people would easily slip loose. Chiba carefully added small "hairs" to the legs designed to help it grasp whatever might fall into its clutches. Chiba knew that some spiders could launch their hairs in order to deter potential predators. Reworking the legs slightly, he added that function in as well to round out the legs' capability. 

The joint where the legs would meet was too complex to add any special functions to it, so Chiba moved on to the head. Compared to the abdomen, the head would take little space. Chiba did, however want a pair of powerful mandibles on it. As he finished the jaws designed to dig into its victim, Chiba recalled that many spiders are poisonous. The heads' space was fairly empty when compared to the other parts of Chiba's creation. It took a few attempts to design properly, but Chiba finally added in a pair of mechanical glands in the head that would act as a syringe, using the mandibles as needles to pierce the skin and administer the poison. 

Looking over the days work, Chiba felt that something was missing. Looking over the designs for a while, he finally noticed a compartment in the very back of the abdomen. His mind immediately lept to how spiders make their silk webs, and wanted to add that as the last piece to his giant spider. Eagerly, Chiba drew in a reel that could unravel ninja wire. Somehow, that didn't seem to be enough, however. There was no real way Chiba could think of to use wire on an impromptu basis. His mind drifted again to how a spider would capture its prey for later consumption, which brought back to mind the huge capture chamber in the abdomen. Chiba finally was able to draw in the final element: a net for capturing opponents that need to be incapacitated and were too dangerous to approach by other means. Chiba designed the newly and the launcher, adding them to the spinneret at the base if the abdomen before setting aside his work for the day. 

His designing had taken him all day to complete. Chiba looked up out his window to the full moon that had risen far past the horizon. Suddenly aware of how tired he was, Chiba climbed into bed, excited to start building his masterpiece in the morning. 

The morning came, and Chiba had barely slept. Visions of how his completed work would look and behave had echoed in his mind all through the night, blending dream and waking thought into one confusing mess in his head. Despite the lack of rest, Chiba lept out of bed and threw on his clothes, not bothering to even get dressed. He sat down at his desk, and calculated how much of different materials he would need. He measured lengths, widths, amount, surface area, and even more. It was all written down in his journal before he pocketed the journal and the blueprint. There would not be enough space in his tiny apartment, after all, for all the things he would need plus the space to put it all together. 

He raced to the market stalls, eager to start purchasing the specialty items he would need from the traders. As an academy student picking a specialty, Chiba had been taken to Suna's workshop and shown the basics of making puppets. He'd been told that, should he wish to build his own instead of purchasing one flat out, the supplies were granted free of charge. 

Arriving there now, Chiba opened up the doors to the wide space. Tools and parts littered the side walls almost seamlessly. The back wall held lengths of metals, woods, and leathers that would act as a skeleton for the puppets on the upper half of the walls, with the lower half containing buckets of hinges, balls, and sockets meant to act as joints. 

Chiba marveled at the sight briefly before closing the door behind himself and setting to work. Pinning his blueprints to the door and setting his journal down, opened to the right page, Chiba started gathering the supplies that he had listed. He gathered them near the workbench in the center of the room, organizing them according to where on the puppets body they would go. 

Eight piles for legs. One for the head. One for the main part of the abdomen. One pile for where the head, abdomen, and legs meet. one for the spinarret. Finally, one pile containing the rudimentary chakra network and musculature that would be what helped Chiba control the puppet once his chakra threads were attached. 

Chiba looked at the thirteen piles feeling suddenly overwhelmed. Now that it was laid out before him, the project seemed so much more daunting. The multitude of bolts and nuts. The gears. The joints. The plates and rods. Everything suddenly added up before him in a way they never could have on paper. 

Chiba fell onto the lone stool in shock. He looked at all of the pieces in front if him with apprehension. He couldn't help but to feel the task at hand was far too large. 

Streaking himself to push on, Chiba took in a deep breath. There was no point in backing down now. If he did, the last two days would have been wasted. He had too few memories for some of them to have been pointless. Even if he didn't know where to start, Chiba knew that working up the will simply to start was half the battle. 

Chiba looked at the  thirteen piles gathered throughout the room. Should he start at the head and work back? Or get the repetition of the eight legs our of the way? Perhaps the abdomen was the place to start, since that was his basis for the design. Chiba just didn't know. 

Chiba stepped onto the workbench, surveying the piled littered through the room. Closing his eyes, he spun three times, then pointed at random. He'd start with where he was pointing, then work his way arround the circle. 

Opening his eyes to see what he'd chosen, Chiba found himself to be pointing at a bang space between the faux chakra network and one of the legs. Since the network had to be done last, Chiba's choice was simple. Gathering up the pieces, Chiba set them upon the workbench, he slowly began the arduous and lengthily task of building the eight legs. 

Chiba set about his task by first, laying out the rods that would serve as the segments of the leg before him. Next, he lay out the ball joints that were to serve as the six knees for the leg before him. After those were aligned, Chiba was done with doing that, he lay out the complex apparatus that would fire the hairs. The final piece would be the thick toughened leathers that would encase the legs. 

Once it was all laid out before him, Chiba began putting the pieces together. He first attached the joints to the structural rods, carefully checking to make sure that they worked properly. Next was positioning the hair apparatus on the proper leg segment, followed by sliding the leather casing down the entirety of the nearly meter and a half long limb, carefully making sure that nothing was dislodged in the process. 

Chiba looked at his handiwork in the first leg. It looked far too smooth except for where the fired hairs stuck out, giving them away. Chiba eagerly searched through the room for something that would be useful. Finding metal shavings, Chiba dilligently sewed them into the leather using chakra threads to protect his hands. He could work them a half inch into the leather, bend them into a V, then work them out so each piece had two sharp exposed pieces. He repeated this process down the leg. When he was done, the launch able hairs would easily blend in with a bit of laquer. Finally satisfied, Chiba carefully inserted the chakra webbing that would assist in his control over the puppet. He had to thread it all the way down the leg from the inside. Then he had to attach it at each of the vital places on each side of all six joints. 

Chiba had already engineered the firing mechanism for the hairs to be located in the cephalothorax where all eight legs would converge. This would give him a fine tuned control over them all firing simultaneously instead of allowing for operator error. 

Chiba carefully attached a chakra thread to the completed leg. It jumped and twitched as the chakra net surged to life, the slightest change in flow causing contractions that resulted in spasms throughout the leg. Chiba carefully calmed his chakra, and experimented with how to control each of the joints in the leg. 

Once he was satisfied with the work he'd done, Chiba moved on to the second leg. Once again, Chiba gathered the materials he'd piled together for the leg. The pile was identical to the first, so Chiba could align and build the leg with a bit more speed. Once the second leg was built, fine tuned, tested, and deemed complete, Chiba gathered together the components for the third leg. 

Chiba gained speed and confidence as each of the legs was completed. Once the eighth leg was finished, Chiba let out eight threads of chakra and attached one to each of the legs. His control was still shaky, but Chiba was able to stand the eight legs up in roughly their final positions. The drafts and sketches Chiba had made hadn't quite prepared him to see the scope of the puppet before him. The Three meter span from the tip of the rear right leg to the tip of the front left was almost twice his height. Chiba shivered with excitement at what he was creating, and he returned to the five remaining piles eagerly. 

The next segment was the head. It would be easy, being made from only a handful of major pieces. There were the two pieces for the jaws, Hollowed out carefully for the poison injection mechanism. Then the poison syringe itself, a medium sized basin with two flexible tubes that would run to the mandibles, and a stopper that could be moved in and out. The head itself was a piece of hollowed out wood, properly shaped, and with an access panel allowing for repairs to be made should anything break inside. 

Chiba attached the jaws first, enjoying how much of them was hidden within the skull to give them greater crushing power. A single screw bolt held them in place while allowing them the ability to open and close at will. Next, Chiba installed the poison basin, taking care that the seals were as air tight as they could be. Finally was the musculature and the chakra net that would make it all work. This required great care working in such a small space to connect everything properly, but with time and care, Chiba accomplished it. 

The workshop was small, roughly lit, and had no windows. Chiba had no idea how much time he'd been in the room working on his puppet, but his anticipation kept him moving forward determinedly. Barely suppressing a yawn, Chiba pushed on, grabbing the next pile: the abdomen. 

Chiba had ordered it as one large piece of solid wood. This way he knew that he could cut it perfectly, and keep the trap doors for the secret compartments as flush and indistinguishable as possible. Pausing a moment to review his schematics, Chiba decided first to hollow out the largest space. Gathering the tools he'd need from their respective spaces on the walls, Chiba began his work. 

Carefully, Chiba made the first cut, ensuring that it was as thin a line as possible as he outlined the door to the compartment. Once the outline was complete, Chiba paused a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow before continuing with the same tool and outlining all of the compartments he'd planned out. Finishing the last compartment, Chiba blew the sawdust clear with a burst of wind chakra, and surveyed his work. For the moment, at least, even he had a tough time distinguishing the different compartments from the grain in the wood. 

Smiling, Chiba picked up the next tool that he would need, and pushed onwards. The tool he'd chosen would help him get behind the bricks of wood that he was intending to cut out. Now that he'd cut the compartments' outlines to the depth he needed, this tool allowed him to slide a length of wire down behind the blocks he was cutting out. Once the wire was down that far, Chiba would use his chakra threads to manipulate it just right so it would saw through the back side that was otherwise inaccessible to Chiba. Then, the blocks would pop free. 

For the largest compartment, Chiba had cut two large flat pieces that would act as doors. Once those came off, he set them aside to be put back on later. The rest of the pieces would come out as bricks, which Chiba would then have to hollow out before placing them back where they belonged. It was long, tedious work, and Chiba was becoming more fatigued as it progressed. 

Soon, the twelve secret storage compartments had been finished, and all that was left to be done on the abdomen was the largest compartment. Chiba hollowed out enough space with the tools on hand to allow him to crawl inside and do some of the finer detail by hand. 

Sanding away inches of wood had Chiba starting to yawn. Shaking his head to rouse himself, Chiba tried to focus on the task at hand. Soon, though, he caught himself in another yawn. He tried pinching himself as he worked, hoping the pain would keep him roused, but he soon grew numb to the pain. As diligently as he fought, Chiba knew he was fighting a loosing battle. 

Darkness surrounded Chiba. He couldn't tell where he was, but he felt an overwhelming urge to stay put. He knew he had something else he should be doing, however, and forced himself to stand. What was it he should be doing?
He couldn't remember, but there was a rumbling beneath his feet. They moved forward as if on their own. His curiosity over the rumbling taking hold over their movements. 

His hand reached out and found a doorknob. Pushing against the door, he found it had a slight give to it. Chiba built up his strength, and pushed. The door fell open, and smoke rushed into the room. As if they were a part if the smoke itself, screams and crys of pain and terror suddenly flooded Chiba's ears. Explosions of fire and lightning flashed through the dark smoke as if a macabre fantasy. 

Suddenly overwhelmed by the onslaught to his senses, Chiba tried to take a step back, but tripped over something in the darkness, and fell. He expected to hit the ground, but he kept falling further and further, picking up speed. All the while, he was stalked by smoke, screams, and flashes of light. 

Abruptly, Chiba felt solid matter around him, and tried to leap to his feet only to hit his head. Scrambling for freedom, it took Chiba a fee moments to remember where he was. The dream had come again as he had aparently fallen asleep while still inside the body of his puppet. 

Climbing out of the abdomen, Chiba stretched and got a drink of some cold water before splashing some of it on his face to help wake him up. 

Once he was a bit more aware, Chiba inspected the work he'd done before falling asleep. He'd aparently been able to finish the interior before passing out. 

Using the slide hinges he'd set aside, Chiba attached the doors to cover the major compartment, and admired how smoothly it blended in with the rest of the body. 

His next step was the latches for each of the compartments. Doing so would require a fair amount of fine motor control, so Chiba was a little glad that he'd fallen asleep for a while. Cutting the spaces for the fine latches at the base of each of the compartments went more quickly than Chiba had expected, but not by a large margin. There were several mishaps with the spring mechanisms requiring Chiba to act faster than he thought himself capable of, but he eventually was able to rig each compartment. 

The final step at this point was for Chiba to thread the chakra musculature throughout the entire abdomen. This, in turn, required Chiba to drill fine tunnels throughout the carapace leading to each mechanism within the four cubic meter volume. 

When he'd finally completed that task, Chiba was able to step away from the abdomen and back to the workbench and the stool beside it. Before he sat, though, Chiba gathered the few items for the spinarret. 

It was a simple task to put the pieces together. It was only the bet, the launch mechanism, a spring powered spool  for which Chiba didn't have any wire, and a simple wire cutter. Rigging them loosely together, he brought them back to the abdomen. Inserting them in their place, Chiba double checked that the net could fire properly before moving on to the last piece. 

The last piece was the one that would hold the entire puppet together; the second half Of the cephalothorax. Chiba was able to mount the joints for the legs easily. Attaching the neck fissure was his second task, and the joint for the abdomen was last. Once those were all completed, Chiba attached the pieces together from front to back, taking care with the legs to ensure they would fire their weapon ized hairs forwards instead of at him. 

Lastly, Chiba connected the twelve pieces if the chakra netting to one another so he could potentially control his puppet with only a single strung, instead of needing to attach strings to each individual part. 

Finally satisfied, it was time for Chiba to conduct the ultimate test. Unleashing ten threads of chakra, Chiba attached them to the puppet before him. It lept and jumped as it experienced it's first flow if chakra. Experimenting with the chakra flow patters, Chiba learned how to move various pieces if the puppet individually. Soon, he could isolate each leg, the abdominal joint, and jaws. 

After some more playing around, Chiba figured out the poison syringe, having the spider "drink" out if a bowl on the floor, then inject the water into a defeated balloon. 

Eventually, the only things to test were the hairs and the spinarret. Altering the chakra flow for one of the triggers, Chiba flinched only to hear the whirring if the empty wire spool. Next came the *fawoosh* of the bet being fired upon a pile of trash. It warped itself so cleanly around them, that it took Chiba fifteen minutes to unwind it. 

Lastly, Chiba cleared a blank space on the wall, and aligned the puppet so it was straight ahead. Pulling the last trigger, Chiba watched as the hairs imbedded themselves in the wood. Almost impressed with himself, Chiba looked over the spider puppet he'd created. It still required some finishing touches like more hairs, laquer, and paint, but that was the easy part compared to design and construction. 

With a great deal of cheer, Chiba coated the puppet with fresh coats of hardening laquer that would help protect it from taking too much damage. The brown coloring of the laquer also helped to disguise the metal hairs meant to enhance the appearance and grip of the spider as well as the launch able hairs. Chiba also added some glossy black paint on the head and abdomen. The paint on the head was done in order to give the puppet eyes and a more realistic appearance. The abdomen was to draw a design that would help to further disguise the hidden compartments. 

Chiba sealed away the puppet on the inside of his sleeve using a simple seal, and was about to pass through the door exiting the puppet workshop when he realized it needed a name. Thinking to when it first jitters to life under the influence of his chakra threads, Chiba had heard a groan come from it that sounded almost like "Aragog". That seemed suitable, so Chiba decided to use that as it's name. 

[wc>4000, jp 40, stats 20, add Aragog to items]

Approved