One Man's dead, is another man's swamp meet

Mission:

The mission report caused Kiyoshi's stomach to turn when he read it, people actually went around digging up the graves of the dead and took things they were wearing, it was disgusting. He almost wanted to turn the mission down but thought better of it, he knew that it wouldn't look good on his record to be turning assigned missions down, especially when the mission had a partner assigned to it. Kiyoshi didn't know who his partner for this mission was, but he had to hope that they would be willing to deal with the grime of the mission so that he didn't have to. Though even if he had to, he would likely use his puppets to do it, but he would have to severely clean them after this mission to get rid of the smell. It would be nearly sundown when Kiyoshi would arrive outside the Graveyard to await the arrival of his mission partner, considering the fact that the robberies were occurring at night it would make sense to arrive beforehand to stake the area out.

Wearing his mobility suit, Kiyoshi would lean up against the entry gate post for his mission partner to arrive. He had his other puppets sealed away within his rings ready to use whenever he needed them, though he would wait for the fun to start before he brought them out.

Suguru lay kneeling in his room, facing a shrine made up of statutes of the Hokage, with incense burning, as he muttered the words that made up the Will of Fire over and over, a ritual that had replaced the time he used to spend showering, since his battle against Big Water had started.

With his promotion to Chuunin, the number of missions he received had sharply declined. It made sense, of course, the Hokage would not send his son and hero of Konoha to chase some dog.

Yet today, the Great Hokage had chosen him for a mission. Someone has been desecrating the graves of the honourable fallen Konohagakure Shinobi. It would be up to him, and his partner, chosen surely so he could learn from the best, to find who is doing this treachery, and put a stop to it.

Clad in knee length black pants, standard shinobi boots and a button up shirt adorned with the sigil of Konoha under his flak vest, the cleanest item was his polished headband, tied around his forehead, as he had an auro that radiated the smell of cola and ramen.

He swaggered out in the Konohagakure streets for the first time in weeks, walking as if he was a holy man in a holy land, a cigarette in his mouth. People did move out of his way, not because of his perceived importance, but rather due to his now infamous bathing habits, or rather, lack of them.

Arriving at the City Gates, the lone figure that leaned against the wall was easily recognized as his companion for the mission due to the cool aura he emitted, a telltale sign one was a Konohagakure Shinobi. Albeit the top ranked shinobi where no more than a handful, Suguru could not remember any names. Of anyone who did not have a chest worth looking at, that was.

"Ready to put down some snakes in the grass, Shinobi?" Suguru asked, trying to emulate the cool aura of his great friend Drakon, and failing.

Kiyoshi stood leaned against the entrance of the cemetery, the black and red of his puppet armor in contrast to the white of the stone of the pillar and small wall that surrounded the cemetery. Though he was already wearing it, complete with the helmet which made him look like a warrior going into battle rather than simply dealing with some troublemakers. Had it not been for the helmet, Kiyoshi might have understood why the people of the village seemed to get out of the other man's way as he approached. However, as it stood now, Kiyoshi was one hundred percent certain that the man was of some importance through he didn't know what.

"Yes well, let us just hope they show up. We should probably start searching the graveyard, do you want to split up to search or should we stick to it together?" Kiyoshi would ask in mild curiosity, as he was interested in seeing what the other man might want to do about the situation before throwing his plan into the mix. Of course, his plan involves the other man dealing with the dirtiness of the criminals and the dirt of the cemetery, while he stayed back and used his puppets to assist the other man. Still, he did not know who the other man was or what his skills were and what he was capable of doing, though it could be assumed that he was at least the same ranking as Kiyoshi which would mean that he had to have skills of some kind. "How rude of me, allow me to introduce myself. I am The Puppet King, Kiyoshi. It is nice to meet you and I look forward to work with you on this mission." Kiyoshi would state with a slightly nervous chuckle at his words, hoping that the conversation might lead to more information about his partner. The sun was still setting, so they had some time to talk and make a plan before the criminals would make their move, at least in Kiyoshi's mind.

"That's the thing about evil. They cannot resist attacking the mighty and good, and there is nothing mightier and gooder than Konohagakure." Suguru would be prompt to answer. From Big Water creating a demon bijuu to them sending their agents to the gate, his experience was steadfast on this point.

"Us being split is exactly what these snake want. Thinking that they can take down one Konoha Shinobi easier when he is alone, not knowing they are no match to him." At the start of the sentence, he was planning to say they should not split up, yet by the end, he confused himself and somehow convinced himself they should be together. It was then he did an executive decision and let the mysterious shinobi decide what he meant.

It was then the shinobi introduced himself.

"Puppet King? Wow, now that is one useful skill, am I right or I am right?" Suguru chuckled lecherously, as he lit a cigarette with a match. "No need to chase the ladies, if you got one on string."

"I am Suguru-" He began, before realizing, unlike this man, he had no title, thus deciding to make up one on the spot. "Fist of The Leaf. I always am glad to meet my fellow comrades in arms." Although the former was a falsehood, the latter was actually the full truth. Few Shinobi, by virtue of being 'cool', were given respect while others were simply background fighters to the son of the Hokage and Bane of Big Water.

The Puppet Master was the latter, a man who oozed cool that rivalled Drakon.

His mission partner would seem to be against splitting up, or at least that is what it would seem to Kiyoshi based on the other man's words. Much to Kiyoshi's relief as he did not look forward to doing this on his own, having someone to back him up was always better in his opinion. "Well not so sure about the ladies' part, but yeah it is pretty useful. I am not much of a fighter on my own you see; I am a thinker and I like to build things. Weapons, Armor, and other useful tools. My skill with puppets is really the only thing that makes me a shinobi, I can use them as a way to make up for my lack of other skills." Kiyoshi replied as his partner began to smoke, he was not wrong if he didn't have puppetry, he would be like a normal civilian.

Though he did not recognize the title of fist of the leaf, Kiyoshi could not help but assume that it would mean that the man would not object to handling the dirty work as it were. "Right than Suguru let's get this started," Kiyoshi would reply as he began walking into the graveyard. Kiyoshi would keep his puppets sealed away for now, so long as there were no surprises, his puppet armor should be good enough to handle whatever they may encounter, though he was curious as to see what the fist of the leaf could do. As they would begin their patrol of the graveyard Kiyoshi would be looking for signs of movement in the area, but also looking for the fancier looking headstones as they were the most likely to have valuables the criminals would want to steal. With any luck they'll even be able to get a good position somewhere to stake the area out, if not then he would have to hope that they could handle it as Suguru believes that they could. "So Suguru, Fist of the Leaf. Have you dealt with criminals like these before?" Kiyoshi would ask as he scanned the area as they moved through the graveyard.

"I get it, I get it, you are not the kind of guy to talk about what goes under the sheets." Suguru replied, laughing between the drags of his cigarette. "No judgement my man, no judgement."

"Nah, don't put yourself with the common men. I've met more people who can throw a punch that they can build cool shit." Suguru admitted, rather strangely for a man of his build and hubris. Many a shinobi found themselves mocked for being unable to compete with his physique, which even his detractors admit was one of a specific value. Yet being cool meant that anything that would normally be a shortcoming is hand-weaved. "I tried building a chair for six hours and ended up with four sticks and a chopping board in the end."

With a nod of his head, the chunin began to follow the Puppet King, laid back in his walk, his fists in the pockets of his pants, while he smoked handlessly, one of the few skills he possessed.

"If I told you, you would not believe what I dealt with. I was on the Emporium when the Demon Bijuu showed up, you know. Was one of the guys who put a stop to it." If there was one thing Suguru liked talking about, it was his involvement in the legendary battle that had occurred on the falling Emperium, so much so, that many would be forced to listen to his rambling against their violation. " But I also dealt with the ryo a dozen type bandit too. Me and my best mate, Drakon." Despite his boasting and bravado, the mention of Drakon showed of sadness in his voice, visible to someone as perceptive and intelligent as the Puppet King.  

"We beat them like there was no tomorrow. Drakon even punched the soul of out one guy. Just straight-up died on the spot. Taught them better than to mess with the great Konohagakure." Suguru finished with pride.

As Kiyoshi would listen to Suguru explain that he was on the Emporium when everything had happened before and that he was one of the ones that put a stop to it, he was mildly impressed such a powerful shinobi would always make for a better ally than not. He was slightly surprised that someone that had such an impact in such an event would only be a chuunin, he wondered why the man did not get promoted higher if he had done as he claimed, though he supposed that would be a question for the leadership of the village.

It would not go unnoticed that the other man seemed to get saddened when he mentioned his friend, he wasn't sure if it was because something might have happened to the man's friend or if maybe it had just been a while since they had seen each other. Either way he wouldn't have the chance to ask just yet, just as Suguru finished, Kiyoshi would see something moving in the shadows off in the distance. It would be just dark enough that he couldn't make out any faces, but he would motion to Suguru either way to make the other man aware of it. It was entirely possible that what he saw was an animal or another shinobi, but it was also possible that it was the people that they were there looking for.

Kiyoshi would move forward slowly, it was dark enough that their presence as of yet might not have been noticed by the others, but they would likely need to be quiet as they got closer. "I am not sure what I saw, but we should check it out. At the very least it would eliminate whatever it is if it isn't what we are looking for." Kiyoshi would say softly as he continued moving, doing his best not to make a lot of noise. It was always best to scope out a situation before diving into it in his mind, and if it turned out to be the graverobbers that they were there to stop he would prefer being able to get the drop on them.

With his companion remaining silent, Suguru saw it as an opportunity to continue his boasts. After all, the only people who would usually listen to him were those forced to, such as the Ramen Stand Attendant, and they rarely spoke back to him. But with a cool guy such as the Puppet King, the sharing of their legendary stories would serve to strengthen their manly bond, and who knows, Kiyoshi might join him in his fight against Big Water.

"Drakon told me I am the only shinobi he knows who is immune to his secret soul-punching technique. And let me tell you mate, Darkon does not sugarcoat it." The shinobi continued, hitting his chest to signal his toughness, which sounded like metal hitting rock, before Suguru quietly rubbed his knuckles.

Despite the far-fetchedness and economic truths that were classic in every boast Suguru made, this one was wholly true. A lifetime of getting his shit beat out of by flustered women and homelessness had made Suguru toughen up at an unprecedented rate, and the voice in his head had surely played a part as it sunk itself in its geneology.

Suguru was too occupied with boasting and the ruminations of his great friend and comrade Drakon, to notice what the keen-eyed Kiyoshi saw in the folds of the dark graveyard. Yet the moment the Puppet King spoke, the boastful shinobi would shut his mouth and listen.

He would nod silently, rolling the cigarette into his mouth, a party trick he had learned to impress the ladies (which so far has not impressed anyone, male or female) before cracking his knuckles. Even if it was just a rat, Suguru would make sure to pound it out of the hollowed ground. And if was these infamous grave robbers; a pounding would be the least of their problems.

He didn't know anything about the soul punch Suguru talked about, but he was interested in knowing what would make someone immune to it. After the mission was over maybe he could get the other man to explain it a little more about it and his immunity to it, but for now he needed to focus on the task at hand. There was a noise up ahead of where they were now, he couldn't tell for certain what was causing the noise, but considering it was coming from the direction that he had seen the movement in the shadows it stood to reason that the two were connected.

Creeping ever closer to the movement and the noise Kiyoshi would look to Suguru, motioning for him to go off to the right and he would go to the left. "There are six that I can see, but there might be more so just keep an eye out for more of them. You go right and I'll go left, we can hit them from the sides but wait for my signal. Once you get the signal, you can give them the fist of the leaf." Kiyoshi would say softly as he began to move towards the left, he wouldn't say what the signal was, leaving to reason that Suguru would know it when he saw it. Unless Suguru objected and stopped him, the idea was to catch them off guard from multiple sides. Attacking them from multiple fronts divided the enemies focus, as well as limit the enemy's options on escape. He was sure that there were more advantages to attacking from both sides, but those two were the most important in his mind.

Once he was on his own way, Kiyoshi would activate his Hidden puppet technique on his puppet armor and would disappear from sight. At the same time, he would activate the Silent Veil on his puppet armor to make him and anything that was within 30 meters of him completely silent, this would be key to his plan and sneaking up on them. He could have kept Suguru close and been able to keep his movement silent as well, but he did not have a way to make the other man invisible and it would interfere with what he had in mind. As he moved around the left side, he would drop one of his gold rings upon the ground. The rings becoming visible once they left his hand, but with them so small and it was already getting dark. They would go unnoticed of that, he was sure.

He would attach a thin chakra string to each ring as he dropped them so that he could remain connected to the ring for when his plan was ready. Kiyoshi would make a half crescent around the group until he was on the opposite side of where him and Suguru were when they split up. Dropping a total of nine golden rings, each attached to him with a chakra string, before moving back to the halfway point in the middle of the arc. Hoping that Suguru now had enough time to get himself into position where they would be on opposite sides of the grave robbers. Kiyoshi could see now that there were eight robbers not six, but he wasn't concerned. As far as he could tell, his plan was going unnoticed which meant none of the grave robbers had any sort of sensory, this was good.

His Signal would come in a flash, within seconds 9 puppets would appear in the positions that he had dropped the golden rings his chakra strings attaching to the puppets as they appeared. This was sure to shock the 8 grave robbers, giving Suguru time to make his own move against them. Kiyoshi would finish the others off with his puppets. From the Troublesome trio to the wolf twins, to even his newest completion and largest of his puppets Goliath, Kiyoshi had pulled out all the stops with every single one of his puppets ready to strike.

Suguru raised a clenched fist in agreement. He tried to make a cool chakra aura appear around it but all it did was make his nails grow and dig into his skin. Luckily for him, his callused hands meant he felt nothing, and his cool moment was only diminished, not wholly ruined.

Hugging the ground like a snake was would be the act of backbiting lesser shinobi. Those of the leaf acted differently. Fist first, the gleam of the leaf symbol the last thing they see before meeting their ancestors with shame. Thus he hid behind a tombstone.

It was marked "Kenmaru, loyal companion to the Inzuka Clan", and the patriotic shinobi saluted the fallen as he hummed the anthem of Konohagakure. Who knows what great deeds this man buried had done, in the service of the divine Hokage? How much blood of the weak opposers had he spilt? What glorious death had he achieved? Great questions that brought a tear to the eye of Suguru, who reassured himself that they were manly cool tears.

His tears were brought to an end as the ground exploded with the appearance of the group of shinobi from thin air. Panic ran through the mind of Suguru, thinking that their ambush got ambushed, before that grating voice stabbed through his mind.

"That is the signal, Imbecile."

"Welcome to Konohagakure Motherfuckers!" Suguru would say as sailed through the air with newfound courage, fist headed towards the face of the closest foe. Normally this technique was a kick, yet he was instructed clearly to give the fist of the leaf, not the kick of the leaf. This ad-hoc change in such an important element of the technique meant that instead of landing on his feet, Suguru landed face first.

A rusty blade would descend towards the nape of the downed shinobi, yet before it could land, the chuunin would twist on the ground, face first towards it. His aim was to grab hold of it with his teeth, yet he was not fast enough, and it instead smashed into his forehead with a dull thud.

"Obviously not Konohagakure steel." Suguru would reply, before he jumped to his feet, and headbutted the swordsman in a single, unintended motion, hoping that the Puppet Master did not see him breaking the fist rule only.

"Now this, this is Konohagakure steel." He would say, as he pointed at his forehead.

Jutsu Used:

Time would slow down, or at least it seemed to from Kiyoshi's perspective. As his marionettes sprung forth, Kiyoshi would focus his chakra to activate his True Puppet Master technique as he began his Violet formation fighting style with his puppets. While he had never operated all of his puppets at the same time before now, he was more than confident in his skills that he would be able to manage them all in addition to his puppet armor. He wouldn't try to use any of the puppet's weaponry not with Suguru being so close to the targets, he couldn't risk hurting him by accident. Of course, that limited the options he had as far as what he could do with them, so it came down to one scenario in Kiyoshi's mind. Following in Suguru's example of rushing forward, he would blitz the graverobbers with four of the nine puppets. The speed of their movements near a blur to those without trained eyes, Kiyoshi could only keep up with it as it was due to his extensive training with them. The other five puppets would stay in their positions for now, a barrier to prevent any from escaping.

In his attacking force was Goliath, his largest puppet, over 7ft tall and almost half as wide would move forward snatching two of the graverobbers off the ground in its massive hands butting the two of them together to knock them out. Chitora, his four-armed puppet, moving just as quickly as Goliath would open its abdomen revealing an empty cavity and swallow one of the goons up as it closed just as fast. Chitora's four arms would then come into play as they moved to grab another of the graverobbers and restrain them. With its finger blades, Yami would do the most damage to the group, though Kiyoshi would ensure that there would be no serious damage to them. Using it to deliver small cuts to any that it could get its hands on, an attack of one hundred cuts. Kenro, being a puppet Kiyoshi based on Taijutsu users like Suguru is, would move forward in the same manner Kiyoshi watched Suguru enter into the fray. Fist first as it slammed into one of the graverobbers, before taking up position not far from where Suguru was should he need help with the two that remained.

The five Kiyoshi would keep back should any try to escape would be the wolf twins and the troublesome trio of Mini-mi, Bumi, and Knives would all be posed and ready to strike should any try to slip through the cracks. Kiyoshi's eyes were straining to focus on everything that was happening, but he was able to keep up with it from what he could tell. In a matter of two seconds the threats would drop from eight to two, Kiyoshi felt confident in the fact that this matter was settle and would leave those two for Suguru. Unless something happened in which Suguru needed help with them.

From the corner of his eye, Suguru saw a bandit charging to him, yet as he turned to face him, he was gone as a blur of the puppet rushed past him, the only real indication of its presence was the clacking of wood as it moved. Even the prideful martial artist had to admit that he could not do that. He always left a blood trail or a tooth or two, yet the cooly silent puppet master had made a man disappear, not even a dent in the dirt where the man had stood.

That was all Suguru could see of Kiyoshi's dance of death before he turned right into the oncoming fist of a rather corpulent bandit. Dull pain spread through his face, yet it was not much different than that one time he thought he saw a Big Water Assassin in his room and accidentally headbutt a shadow and a very real wall.

Suguru gave the man a slap with enough force to bounce the brain in his skull a couple of times, before he began a barrage to the bandit's stomach, as if he was kneading some great piece of mochi, the chuunin only stopping once the man began to vomit his meagre meal.

"You dropped something, fucko. Pick it up!" Suguru told the bent-over man, before he gave him a clubfisted slam into the back of his head, slamming him into his own vomit.

A wooden wack landed against the back of his head, a bandit having snuck up on the Konohagakure shinobi, hitting him with a massive club, with exploded in a shower of rotten timber. Thankfully for the shinobi, his thick skull was as literal as it was metaphorical.

"What are you made of?!"

"Two hundred per cent Konohagakure man meat!" Suguru would reply, before thumping the bandit on the head as if he was hammering a nail, sending him crumpling into the ground. Not satisfied with the fact that the man had a majority of his lower body bones broken, the chuunin went to stamp his further with a stomp, yet, catching himself that it would break the perceived 'Fist of Konoha' claim, his foot landed next to the head of his foe, before he started pummeling him with a series of twisting punches to the head, his full strength behind every strike.

After Suguru lost count of how many punches he gave, which was after the eighth punch, he grabbed the bandit by his bloody skull, and lifted him from the makeshift crater.

"Only heroes are buried in this ground. Maggots like you can go to where you belong!" He would say, channelling as much Chakra as he could, which resulted in a small shimming aura that did nothing but waste his energy and, most importantly, look cool, before throwing the poor and possibly dead man in the air, and hitting him with a punch that sent him flying. "-TO HOSHIGAKURE!"

An audible crack in the distance disqualified the truth of the statement, as it was obvious that the man landed in the forest of fire, yet Suguru missed this minor detail and stood with one leg over the bloody body of a slain bandit, that had been dispatched by Kiyoshi, so he could look triumphant and cool.

Jutsu Used:

With Suguru handling the last two of the graverobbers, Kiyoshi would use his puppet strings to tie up the ones that had been left alive. He was sure not to kill any of the ones that he had taken out with his puppets, but there were still some that were injured from the blades and the fight. One thing that was sure, they would think twice before attempting such a thing again. All that was left now was to turn these men over to the konoha police to take from there, Kiyoshi would bring his puppets back to him sealing them away one by one leaving only Mini-mi unsealed and using him to carry the restrained men. Despite the puppet's small size, it was more than strong enough to handle the load.

"It was a pleasure working with you Suguru, and I look forward to doing so again." Kiyoshi would begin before motioning to the unconscious men, "I will take them to the prison to be dealt with from here, thank you for your assistance in this mission." With those words Kiyoshi would move to walk away with Mini-mi directly behind him carrying the unconscious as they walked, going all the way to the prison unless Suguru stopped him. The man was quite an interesting fellow, the way that he had been able to take the blow from the club and shatter it as he had done impressed Kiyoshi. He made a mental note to himself to find Suguru later on and learn more about the other man.

Mission Complete
{Exit Thread}

Silence fell on the graveyard, the battle over and the great village of Konohagakure winning over evil once more.

"The Will of Fire will burn any evil that lurks in the shadows." Suguru said proudly as he stood over the groaning foe. It would be obvious to Kiyoshi's erudition that this was not the product of the chuunin's intelligence, but rather a quotation, slightly corrupted, of scripture written by a far greater mind.

With a haste that was barely human, the downed bandits were caught up in a tangle of barely visible strings, tied up from head to toe. Suguru stepped back and let this master do his work. While he and Drakon had beaten up hordes of bandits and enemies of Konohagakure, they usually just beat the hard enough so they would not be able to escape, broken bones and concussions being their manacles.

"Same can be said, Puppet King. Nothing better than working with a fellow professional." The chuunin would respond, taken aback by the kind words of his temporary companion. In his ascension to his current rank meant he had worked with partially every single shinobi in the village, yet rarely had a successful mission been finished with any form of pleasantries, and they were a one-time occasion.

Resting next to a grave, more a matter of habit than necessity, and smiled to himself, as he lit up a cigarette.

It was nice to make a new friend, especially when they were a cool man.

CP: