Retrying for the Kugutsu

Soukutsu Gin retrieved his D rank mission and had set out after picking up a bowl of ramen to eat. This mission was easy enough; just to pick up a package in a small town outside of Sunagakure and bring it back to the village. Originally it was to be an E rank mission, but because Gin chose to do it solo, the rank had gone up to D. The young ninja didn’t think much of this delivery mission, knowing because it was such a low rank, then the package shouldn’t be important enough to attract other ninjas.

It was a bit after noon when Gin had left the village with the name of the town in memory. Of course the heat was amazing, but the young ninja was use to it, and as long as he didn’t stay too long out in the desert, then he will be ok. Compass in hand, the young ninja was heading in the right direction without any problems until he accidentally stepped into a sand ditch which turned out to cave in. Gin tried his best to escape, but the sand gave him no footing and no friction; he was soon sucked in.

Gin found himself in a dark corridor; walls, ceilings and floors of stone. He took a look up and down the corridor; only two ways, behind him the corridor increased in darkness, but in front of him, there was light. Of course he chose to go towards the light, but he took precautious steps by hugging against the wall as he went; he soon came to a large room with numerous pillars in every direction.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” a voice echoed throughout the large room. Gin readied himself by drawing three senbons, “Those won’t work on me, boy” said the voice. Upon looking around, Gin sighted a figure in a mantle and hood and immediately flung the senbons at it, but there was no reaction from the figure.

“What are you?” Gin asked while drawing three more senbons and taking a step back.

“Guess” the voice echoed as the figure lifted it’s dark arms and as it did, the sound of metal clanking was heard; immediately with such speed, the arms shot forward, too fast for Gin to react.

* * *

Gin awoke in a different room; the walls were the same as in the corridor but the light from a torch in the corner was blue; most of the room hid in shadow. The young ninja slowly lifted himself halfway from laying down to standing up, careful not to get anyone or anything’s attention.

“You’re awake, good” the same voice from before came from behind him. Gin whirled around to find an old man in a rocking chair; he had a book in his hand. He wanted to ask the old man questions, but didn’t know where to start, “My name is none of importance, you can just call me the puppeteer” the old man answered a question Gin had yet to ask.

“Puppeteer?” he repeated what he heard; he took a look around the room to find a number of metallic looking puppets in the corner, the size of humans each of them were. He looked back at the old man.

“Why are you here, boy?” the puppeteer asked.

“I’m here on a mission that I need to get back to” Gin quickly answered. At first there was silence, the old man didn’t say another word until Gin took another glance at the puppets in the corner.

“May I ask, would you take an interest in puppetry?” the old man asked. Gin shot his look back at the man with a questioning look, “I’m close to the end of my life as you can see, and I don’t have any successor to teach my Kugutsu jutsus” the old man slowly stood up with the support of his cane.

“Why me?” Gin asked feeling a bit suspicious.

“Well I know by your headband that you are a Suna ninja; puppetry has been born into the ninja world because of Sunagakure, so it’s only right I teach this to a suna ninja like you” the old man walked over to the boy who didn’t hesitate.

Gin thought for a second about being able to use puppets as a way of ninjutsu; no one he knew learned this, which means it was special in a way, and if he learned this, then maybe he can be someone, “I accept” he simply said. With a smile, the old man began teaching his student by showing him how he releases his chakra into strands that connected to the metallic puppets; he made them move and swing around blades that extracted from it’s body. While teaching his ways, the old man had coughed harshly several times; clearly Gin saw that this man’s lifespan was coming to an end soon.

After some time, Gin got the hang of connecting his chakra to a puppet and to several small items around the room, such as books, but controlling them was still a bit tough.

“I’m sorry, boy, but I must take my leave earlier than I thought” the old man had said as he formed several hand signs. Gin wanted to stop him, but he knew he couldn’t ask this man to stay any longer, this young boy was lucky enough to even get a chance to learn this jutsu. With a sudden gust of sand, the old man was gone along with all his metallic puppets. However one wooden puppet was still left; Gin knew that his teacher had left that one for him.

“Thank you, sensei” he said as he picked up the puppet and placed it on his back; then he turned around and left through the doorway he saw. Soon Gin reached the surface of the desert through a secret passage he was lucky to find to see the night sky waiting for him.

Gin looked towards the west where Sunagakure was; he yawned big and as he walked back home, he knew he couldn’t finish his original finish, but he gained something knew.

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