Here We Go Again

Niko was having a wonderful albeit stressful day. Upon waking up this morning he had gone through his morning ritual, brushing his teeth showering the like, when suddenly a flier flew through the open slot in the front door of his apartment. Niko was confused he never gets mail. Though this is usually due to the fact that he does not know almost anyone in the village outside of a few of the genin and a missing ninja or two. though that did not mean that Niko was a social outcast. He simply was too busy working on his techniques puppets and training. Then the limited amount of missions he had been doing balancing his income with his rent was quite hard. Maybe he was finally getting evicted. God he really needed to get a house. or some form of permanent property it would give him more flexibility with his pay. Though taxes were reduced for shinobi in the village yet another boon giving by the honorable kage Aloide Terumi. Niko really needed to meet with the man he swore to serve. You would think as a shinobi of his village it would be a given that he would have met the man by now but honestly, Niko would be ashamed to meet him in this week state that he is in now. Niko could not even beat his fellow genin outside of managing to impress the mizukage.

Though back to the topic at hand Niko had just found the letter that had been sent to him on the floor of his apartment. Picking it up he looked to see who the sender is. Niko had never heard of a 'Department of Internal Entertainment Division' but Niko was interested to say the least what was this DIED and what did they want him to do star in a movie or something so Niko would open the letter. Upon opening the letter he would be surprised to find the mizukages seal of approval attached to the letter. Having this seal and being addressed to an active duty ninja meant business.

Looking over the contents of the letter Niko would finally find out about what the letter was addressed. Niko had learned that there was a tournament to be hosted in kiri between all participating genin. There below was a list full of the proctors and the participants noticing a few familiar names and a few less familiar names Niko was not surprised to see a few of the genin he had met before listed they all had very vibrant personalities per se but he was surprised at one name listed an, Ai Senju one of the cosplay queens puppets. Did Nomo get a promotion and try to sneak into the arena anyways something was not right here not at all. Or maybe Niko had himself been the insane one and the 'puppet' had actually been the young Senju's sibling. Putting that aside he would sign his name on the sign-in form and walk out of his apartment.

After getting outside he went towards his favorite place outside of Stan Lee's book store that of course being Johnson supply's store. Heading through the front door he was greeted by his good friend Johnson "Hey Niko heard there was some ninja tournament going on soon you joining in?" Niko would swivel his head to meet the owner of the store, opening his mouth he would begin to speak. "Yeah should be going down soon cant wait to test out my abilities." Niko would say enthusiastically, he truly was excited to test his might and strategy against a fellow ninja especially one that would probably have a different skill set, unlike his other spars. browsing through the supplies he would grab some different logs of wood and a couple of solid steel metal.
Checking he would leave the store but not without saying goodbye to the owner of the store. Next he would head towards the training area this was where he neaded to go to drop off the letter of acceptance. Navigating throughout the busy streets of kiri. He would finaly reach his destination that being the training facilities of Kiri. Upon arriving he would slip his form to the clerk and enter Area #12 to train 
(TWC 716)

While training Niko would think back on when he first entered the village. At the time he was just a fresh shinobi barely even knowing who or i what he really was. Did he want to follow in his parents footsteps, or join a civilian proffesion. Should he seek revenge or become some kind of peace loving fanatic? Niko truly had no idea what to believe or do. He was lost in almost every sense of the word so he went to the one place his parents loved the most. There homeland or village. That of course being the village hidden in the mist or kirigakure. Hoping that in his parents past he would find his future, and his destiny. To be honest at the time the plan was quite half assed. So half assed in fact that even now he wasnt sure what the hell he planned on doing just walking into a millitaristic village and asking to join there millitary with no prior training experience or citizenships it was quite insane.

Travelling throughout island country doing his best to scrounge up money he found out the best way to do so. Though when he found out about the method Niko was completely suprised you could say. He could remember the day vividly he could still see it in his dreams one moment stretched into a thousand and then once more into a million. Niko at the time was quite the youngin he was a mere 15 year old. So when he had come across what looked like a checkpoint along one of the minor roads in island country he was quite confused. He had never seen something like this before so he was gullible to say the least. He had simply walked into what he would soon find out was a trap. 

Walking towards the gates with his bag upon his back. He gullibly thought that this was some kind of daimo check point or such. Coming upon the gates he spotted a man in just shorts sitting upon the pallisade. Niko would open his mouth to shout up to the man in hopes that he would hear him and open the pallisade. "Hello sir, sir can you here me? Would you mind opening the gate for me to pass?" The man would hear Niko and chuckle nearly sinisterly. He had been waiting for some poor fool for the last 3 hours he was hoping for some kind of carravan but this kid would do fine. Opening the gates after signalling the kid he would await his entry.

Niko would walk into the checkpoint observing his surroundings he was offput this camp was very lazily put together mostly tents and logs to sit upon. This was weird if that was a legit outpost established they would have at least greeted him upon entering or something of the like. with many older men starting to surround Niko briefly. Surprised and confused it took Niko a split second longer for him to grab a weapon out of his backpack that split second was all the bandit behind him needed to knock him out. Two hours would pass before Niko awoke within the camp reaching for his bag he would realise the lack of weight upon his back his backpack was missing! that contained everything he cared about outside of his stashed puppets, that he held in various stashes ready to summon at any point. Looking around the room he realized that he was in some sort of a cage along with three other people. What had they planned for the people they had imprisoned? Niko had no idea.

Niko immediatly went into action mode by that he meant he went to do handseals to summon his puppets but was suprised when he realised that his hands which he had yet to look at were tied quite literaly. Niko had only one technique that he could use without handseals. he would notice the guard standing with his back to him. Sending chakra threads towards the mans katana Nico would slowly pull it out of its sheathe so as to not alert the guard. He would then direct the knife throught the bars being as sneaky as possible. If the guards were alerted that he had shinobi skills he was surely dead meat. Cutting the rope surrounding his wrist he would instantenously go through the seals for the summoning jutsu and one of Niko's oni puppets would pop out of the smoke behind the guard and slice his neck.  Though Niko would hesitate for a moment. Did he truly want to kill another life end it permanently just to save his own. This man may have loved ones a family while Niko while Niko had no one. Was it truly worth it.

Nico had made his decision the second he left his village though he did not know it. The blade slashed across the mans throat instantly killing him. He would then direct the puppet to grab the keys from the guards waist and open the cell. Then Niko would pick up the keys and open the cage. Though after looking at the others in the cages sleeping he decided against opening there cells if he was to fail he did not want them to get caught in the crossfire. His plan was simply to slowly but surely pick off the perimeter guard and work his way towards the core. Sneaking outside the tent he made his way above the palisade. Walking the perimeter wall and killing the guards he felt suprisingly little remorse. Meeting eyes with the cold dead body of the man that lured him into the trap stared at him. As if saying "you dont deserve it" cringing at the scene, Niko closed the eyes of the bandit with a quick swipe what he had to do didnt disgust him but the image of it did.

Slowly making his way inward Niko would find the final defense while Niko had hid the bodies they had noticed that over half of there comrades had disappeared so Niko had an idea slipping an explosive tag out of his retrieved bag he made it into an airplane and flew it over the group of clustered group of bandits and boom. The bandits were either instantly exploded or flung. Bodyparts flying everywhere painting the ground red. The scene while disgusting was quite beautiful to Niko. He had been indifferent to spars and fights before but this one was different from the spilling of blood the claiming of victory. The actual losses incurred besides one's ego were huge. it was delightful. Dancing his puppet throughout the fallen survivours Niko would quickly end their suffering and revel in the sight of the destruction. Niko would go back to the tent in which the holding area was staged. Unlocking all the cages he would leave the keys taken from the guards on the ground and leave the perimeter.

Walking towards his intended target he realized what he had just done. He had not only killed one person but he had killed over 20 people the thought made him gag. His parents had always said that if he was to join the shinobi doctrine that it was not a path for playing with weapons and looking cool that he would have to be serious in all aspects and that this life was a constant battle of life and death. While he had listened to his parent's words they just now made sense to the young Niko. This life would be a battle of wits vigor and will. Would he survive to retire like his parents or would he fade into the background like thousands before him? Nico had no idea but as he went towards the walls of Kiri he moved with renewed confidence.

Arriving at the gates of Kiri just mere hours later he moved into the village, walking inside under the guise of a merchant he made his way to the ninja recruitment center and began work on his induction into the village without a formal residence with nearly no cash besides what he had scavenged from the bandit camp that he had just survived though he was disappointed when he was not accepted into the shinobi forces due to his limited arsenal. Just because he did not know the hand seals to some of the most simple jutsu out there. That being the transformation technique the substitution technique and a minor technique that he did not even bother to learn the name of. The thought that just because he could not use an e-rank jutsu or two meant he was not fit for active duty was crazy though Niko guessed that there was more to disbarring him besides this probably due to his recent village entry. 

Disheartened Niko would train night and day and some day he would join the shinobi corps of kirigakure. During that time he paid no heed to shinobi politics only taking the time to hone his craft and his puppetry skills in order to become a better shinobi he had to train like there was no tomorrow. Finding a place to live and frequently leaving the village in order to practice his abilities and gather money from a new enemy that is the island country bandits.

Thinking back on his experiences years ago Niko could only laugh he was nearly a completely different person now a days but he could still remember his first kill all those years ago, just like it was yesterday. Getting back to his training he was calmed by the memory now he just needed to work out the kinks on this new technique he had been working on. This would be good.
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Claiming 25% discount on 1500/1500 for Zetsu Puppetry, then 842/1125 for Zetsu Thread Control and prepping both oni puppets and Sen'un puppets with Zetsu Puppetry

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