The Puppet of Cut Strings

Mission:

The gentle breeze that ran along the fairgrounds soon became coated with the sweet scent of cherry blossoms, their aroma mingling and drowning out to the aroma of the many foods the fairgrounds had to offer, as petals fell along the grounds of a road that led off the beaten path to the fairgrounds into a forest of wonder and sweetness. Moyasu, the man who had suddenly been put into this situation out of the blue, walked along the path in question as he was looking at the directions of the map he had been given by the man who he had given some cotton candy to. He took in some of the scent of the cherry blossoms, their smell growing as he moved closer towards the forest in question, as he looked around the entrance and at the map in order to get his directions straight as he was going to be expected to traverse this forest without getting lost. "I don't know what exactly it is I'm supposed to be looking for in here... But there's an X here..." He pointed to a big red X somewhere within the center of the overhead drawing of the forest on the map. "Maybe there's treasure of some sort here... or maybe there's even a way for me to go back home? Man this is just like last Halloween."

With a sigh and a scratch of his ashen hair in exhaustion he then continued to look at the map in order to get a general idea of the direction he was supposed to go in. He watched as the many petals of the trees fluttered along the air and past him onto the ground and he caught one in his hand before feeling it with his fingers as this was the first time he had ever actually seen a cherry blossom tree up close. "Feels soft... though not all that much softer from other flower petals I've felt. Though the smell is quite strong and quite nice." With that he let go of the petal and allowed it to continue fluttering away with the wind behind him as he watched it float away while folding the map up and putting it in his pocket. 'There is a very strong chance this could be a trap...' he thought to himself as he turned back to face the forest in question. 'In fact I'm willing to bet this is 100% a trap. The last time I had been brought under these circumstances there was always some very strong force at play... It was the case for Halloween and Christmas... But I'm a lot stronger now. This should be much easier for one of my capabilities.'

He reached into one of his pockets and felt around searching for his packet of cigarettes but he soon cursed himself as he was reminded that his current clothing was merely the result of transformation jutsu and he hadn't brought any of his essentials with him unfortunately. Which meant no smoking for him. "Damn. Well then... Here we go." He took off at a run through the entrance of the forest, his eyes looking all around him as he ran in order to find anything out of the ordinary, as he followed the path to the center of the forest that he had memorized from the map he had. After a while of running he directed a bit of chakra into his feet, flames soon overtaking the majority of his toes and soles, as he hopped up a bit and slammed his feet down as they soon were causing him to glide along the ground through the pathways due to the immense heat of the flames. He skated along the path with his fire chakra, trying out something he had been practicing to help him get around quicker, as he soon made it to the center of the forest and was shocked by what he had come across.

He saw that the biggest tree of the forest, a large in diameter cherry blossom he hadn't imagined could get so big, had purplish veins traveling all along the trunk as he stopped his skating and looked up and down the tree as he could see someone hanging around at the bottom of the tree's massive trunk. They were wearing a cloak and hoodie that covered a majority of their body, the hood drawn over their head so that he couldn't make out their face, as he could see that they had a hand upon the trunk and it looked as though the veins were all originating from the hand in question. The big tree seemed to be connected somehow to all the trees of the forest as Moyasu felt that this person was who was meant to be his target for this rather confusing adventure. "Hey! What are you doing?" he called out to the person as they ignored him causing him to step forth and get a closer look.

This would prove to be a mistake as his footstep wound up stepping over a wire and snapping it which caused a loud crack to erupt throughout the forest as he looked over and saw that a whole bunch of needles were flying rapidly in his direction. He quickly bent his back backwards in order to get out of the way of the needles and his senses were kicked into overdrive as he could see something dribbling off of the bodies of all the needles. It had all the similarities of poison coated all over the needles as they flew past harmlessly by him and stuck themselves into the trunk of a nearby tree. He stood back up straight and looked at the place they had struck as he could see them dripping with the stuff and he suddenly felt relieved and angry at himself that he fell for such an obvious trap. He looked around, pissed off now, at the person in question and found that they were suddenly nowhere to be seen.

With a sound of rushing air he ducked out of the way of a blade that was extending itself directly from the wrist of his attacker as he looked around to catch a glimpse of the face of the man that was attacking and was shocked to see that it was not the face of a human but rather that of a rather old and creepily dismembered puppet! The attack had caused the puppet to skid along the ground in order to stop himself but the puppet had multiple arms that suddenly tore themselves out from within it's cloak revealing that it had six arms all of which were armed with rather long, sharp, and equally poisonous looking blades! It's head shook, half of it missing due to wear revealing a purplish and dark aura from within as Moyasu had to jump back in order to dodge yet another swipe of a blade the puppet directed towards him. With a concentration of his fire chakra going through his hands he pointed the palm of his hand at the puppet and put his other hand over his palm in order to form a hole with his fingers. The result was that the fire that erupted from his palm was more pinpoint and rapid as it flew at the puppet. With a few of the shots of fire being well placed, the puppet being pushed back by the flames, it moved out of the way with a clacking of it's head and attacked once more.

As the puppet attacked Moyasu hopped off of the surrounding trees in order to dodge it's attacks all while directing his flame bullets at the puppet for as many times as he could. He managed to get in a few hits every now and then but ultimately he could tell that his attacks weren't doing what he was ultimately wanting to do which was damage the puppet to the point it couldn't attack anymore. The purple aura that he could see from within it's head was twitching and writhing as though in agony, however, whenever one of his attacks hit which gave him the idea to target the aura in question. This proved to be the right decision as his flame bullets would be actively blocked by the puppet every time he targeted his flames towards the aura in question yet never seemed to mind the bullets hitting it anywhere else. The puppets robes had soon burned off of it's body revealing the remainder of it's puppet form which was also very old and dilapidated revealing holes that shown the aura as well.

He was doing well avoiding all the attacks of the puppet in question but soon he ran into yet another trap, his foot grazing a wire that was connected in between two trees, as he looked behind him to see that he was flying directly towards another pair of poisonous needles! With a contortion of his flexible body, adrenaline taking control of his body, he managed to avoid all of the needles as one hit the puppet who was chasing him right in the purple stuff! The result was the puppet suddenly expressing a humanlike scream as it halted it's advances towards Moyasu causing him to flip around onto his feet and propel himself off the tree trunk directly towards the puppet in question. "This is my chance!" As soon as he reached the writhing puppet he reached his hand into the puppet and directed chakra into his palm in order to try and infiltrate the puppet's mind with his genjutsu prowess.

He could see memories of someone else within the puppet, someone who had passed away a long, long time ago who served as one of the heroes that took place within the fourth great ninja war and controlled this puppet with untold precision. Moyasu knew that there was more to this puppet the moment he had seen there was something other than a person directly controlling it as he directed his chakra into the aura and tried to purge it of the clearly malevolent will that controlled it within. "Don't worry... I will rid you of this evil that controls you so that you may defend your forest once more. As for who it is that has made you obey them I have this message for you since I know you're watching us: I'm coming for you." With his chakra purging the evil from the aura he smirked as he pulled out his hand as the aura turned from a dark purple to a clear and blue color. "This is the end... of this puppet show." The words of the previous puppet's owner rang out from his mind as the puppet clacked a bit along the ground before flying along the air and zooming all around the big tree that had purple veins travelling along it. With it's blades it cut the veins away as they disappeared into the wind and endangering the forest no more.

With it's duty fulfilled the puppet floated back down to the ground and hovered in front of the tree as Moyasu watched, still feeling a bit creeped out due to not really having that much of an affinity towards puppets, as he took his steps back to get away and turn in order to leave the forest the way he had came. He had managed to fulfill a grand purpose for the forest that laid outside of the fairgrounds but he had a much bigger target to pursue as he was now aware. He walked out of the forest and looked back towards the fairgrounds, the lights and the smells overtaking his senses once again, as he shook his hand off of the numbness that had crept up within it due to him plunging it into the evil aura earlier. It was time to have a talk with the one who was behind this... and he knew just where to find them.

WC 2,012

Claiming mission rewards: 10,000 ryo (beloved presence) and 25 AP

approved.