[attr="class","arubody"] Higa was not so naive as to simply hook onto the beast without a plan. His puppet was precious to him after all.
As soon as the chain began to wrap around the rampaging rhinoceros, Higa's fingers began their furious movements, releasing his hold on both legs of his puppet and combining the length of his strings. Sacrificing his control for distance. The slack would allow the rhino to rampage while Higa kept control of the key areas he needed: arms and head.
Even with this tactic, he kept lengthening the strings, he was starting to feel the strain from his chakra now expelling it in a quick but controlled panic. There was another whirr coming from the puppet, the chain pulling the puppet back in. This way with the rhino chained there was no chance of a direct escape.
Kishi would slam into the rhino's back from the force of the chains pull, although that was just a bonus, its arms wrapping around it in a mock hug, which would stop the rhino from bucking it off. Placing the puppet's head on top of the rhino's skull.
Kishi's jaw parted, the built-in steel needle blade shot out from its mouth down into the skull of the rhino. The weapon itself designed for this exact scenario, contain and kill.
If worst came to worst he would cut the strings if his plan seemed hopeless.
[attr="class","arubody"] There was a loud whirr as the chain withdrew back, then a loud click as it settled back in position, the puppet's arm back inside its socket. Higa let out a sigh. Azuma just kept on berating him, honestly who thought he would do well teaching new ninja?
One hand was quite the crutch, although that doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't still use ninjutsu. He never did get the chance to try himself out against a jonin, especially one as eccentric and Azuma. It would be great practice.
It was a simple move really, Ishikawa made the first move and Higa quickly follow, tossing his kunai out with his strings attached swinging it in an arc aimed at Azuma's right side, Kishi's arm was aimed for his back.
He waited, timing the launch for just before the kunai would hit. While he couldn't exactly match Ishikawa's timings he could ensure he was close. Using his strings to guide both the kunai and arm to its target.
[attr="class","arubody"] There was a click as the sculpted groove returned to its socket, Kishi armed and ready once more. From his vantage point, Higa watched the chaos of the battlefield.
It was a mess.
On one side was what Higa made out to be Azuma and what could have been mistaken for a bear. While he did not have the clearest view, watching one of the rhino clones lifted into the air was a very obvious thing to see no matter the distance, planted down like a spear in the ground. The manifestation of air into weapon that was pelting the rhino was an impressive addition.
On the other there were 3 distinct bodies before it was obscured, smoke bombs went off, hiding their bodies, the rhino charging in only to disappear into the thicket.
Back at the quarry, where he had the clearest view and which Kishi stationed above, it was practically pelted with smoke bombs. The three nearest to the rhino now hidden from his view. Two people that seemed to look exactly the same went into the fray. Higa could only surmise it was either oddly dressed twins or clones.
The smoke could only last so long, all he had to do was wait it out. Higa waited it out, all he needed was for the smoke to dissipate enough to become translucent.. or the rhino charge out the other side. Higa had thought of his options and came to an adroit conclusion, his chakra string split to latch onto the arm itself. Kishi would aim at the beast again, whenever the shot would be most accurate, a loud crack resounded in the air from the piston firing, once again blade out ready to impaled flesh.
Unlike the last time, there was a backup plan in place. should he miss he would switch to control the arm, using it as a whip to slam heavy chain around the head of the rhino, using precise control through his chakra stings it would wrap around the throat, twirling in the air like a deadly weapon as it progressively wrapped more and more till several coils squeezed the beast.
As the coil tightened so too would Higa's pull on his strings, trying to both restrain the rhino's movements, jerking it around to a different direction should it try to charge, doing his best to steer it with the chain like a bridle to the rhino.
TLDR: Waited for smoke around Inuzukas to dissipate, fired blade cannon arm at the rhino, should that be deflected or miss it would wrap around its neck in an effort to restrain and redirect it.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa stretched out, his arms letting out a crack noise from his joints. He was chewed out, but honestly that notebook was probably entirely blank. He couldn't tell if Azuma just enjoyed fucking with his subordinates or if he was serious about the comments, but he'd find out in due time. Right now, he'd probably chalk it up to.. whatever mood Azuma was in.
The disposition of Ishikawa's background was oddly detailed, maybe some weird history there? While most people would consider his words considerate, Higa quickly learned to doubt the authenticity of anything Azuma said. The narrative itself had little meaning to Higa: clan names, titles, and history weren't very interesting. It was the person that mattered, although he cared very little for people as well.
While he was sure Ishikawa was trying to defend him with good intention, it might be her downfall long-term. Standing up to Azuma has had... very varied results. She certainly seemed to realize as much as her apology followed quickly after.
"Now now. I came here to train, so unless you two have some urgent business to discuss outside the training arena...?" With a quick flick, his puppet came to life, aiming its arm at a nearby wooden target, after a short moment, there was a resounding crack, its chain firing off to slam the Kishi's fist into it. The force cracking and splitting it.
[attr="class","arubody"] The second, Higa watched him take out the marker. Instincts screamed no. His hand jolted down to cover Kishi's face. He watched in horror as the Jounin scribbled over Ishikawa's puppet. He'd sooner break his puppet than let Azuma draw all over it. When he moved near Kishi, Higa's hand would block it.
It was.. unfortunate that Ishikawa's puppet was a casualty of their Azuma's eccentricity, but there was no way in hell he would standby as his was defaced. "We can train together without our puppets being altered." There was malice in those words. While he really couldn't care less how Azuma acted around him, the puppet was very much off limits.
How far would Azuma push? Ishikawa already seemed to be ready to attack, this would probably end up as a one-sided massacre, but it was a hill he was willing to die on.
[attr="class","arubody"] There really wasn't much Higa could do. The veil fell. Before a word could come out, Azuma had essentially broken the perfectly good bench and flung Higa onto his back in the dirt. Instead of helping train his Chunin and Genin, Azuma seemed to opt for being a creep and attacking them, or Higa at least.
He kind of just laid there looking up at the sky Of course it's Azuma. Why wouldn't it be Azuma? Who else would do something like that? Obedience or loyalty didn't seem to matter to him. Higa really couldn't get a read on what the guy wanted.
Higa learned an invaluable lesson if he's going to check something, he might as well stab it. At least he wouldn't be flat on his ass for doing something as harmless as tossing a twig on the ground.
He stood back up, dusting himself off, making sure he wasn't missing anything loose because of the gust. He wasn't ready to take on Azuma yet. It wasn't worth testing Azuma's patience or essentially wrecking his puppet.
Once he was all set, he turned back towards them."Don't mind him. He is always like that.” He sighed. ”This is the platoon leader Shoichi Azuma. You’ll be under his care from now on.”
[attr="class","arubody"] "Higa Toshio. I'm your Chunin. Just call me Toshio."
He gave her a nod as he watched her attempt to apply the techniques to her mannequin. It was definitely better than it just crashing down. His eyes wandered away for a moment taking in the training grounds.
He noticed some sort of.. distortion in the back. Almost a light flicker. As his eyes focused on it, whatever it was, didn't look right. Sort of wavy compared to everything else around it. Mayhap he was just tired.
He brought the last levitating kunai from its spot back into his hand before withdrawing another. Now two in his hand, he then waited for a moment staring at it. His curiosity got the better of him as he attached his chakra strings to a nearby twig, landing it in front of the weird blur. Kicking up some dust that would catch onto whatever it was. Chances were it wasn't friendly.
"Ishikawa was it. You might want to get away from that." He said while tearing off the Kishi's cloth, stepping back behind it.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa gave her a half shrug. Apparently, he was missing some key concepts to this, and she was pretty on the spot. He didn't have the time nor patience to dedicate years on end to learn medical ninjutsu. His mind wandered to other things.
Puppets.
He let out a somewhat dejected sigh as he shuffled over towards Kishi, wrapping it lightly and pulling it onto his back.
"Yeah, it's nothing important now. You can probably help me down the line." He stood there, in deep reflection for a moment, as though evaluating his options. "I'll get back to you on that. There are still other working parts to my ideas that I haven't figured out yet."
He hesitated. Honestly not sure where to go from here. She acknowledged him as her partner now, which was a good feeling, but beyond that, he was stumped and now carrying a heavy puppet. He leaned in for a half hug, an arm wrapping around her and giving her back a good pat.
"It was a good fight, sorry again about your... face. I'll uh... see you around then, lots the think about." He took a step back, fixing up the straps a little bit. Before walking away.
[attr="class","arubody"] Rather than up late, Higa was up early. Kishi strapped to his back as he went on his early jog. Sound body, sound mind. Even now, he couldn't break those routines drilled into him, not that he lost out because of it. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, a cloud of dust and sand and debris being kicked up as he trod down the dry path. It was his roundabout way of getting to the training center early in the morning, working up a sweat with the weight of his puppet.
He placed the clothed puppet down beside him, panting lightly, dripping sweat in his uniform. The usual black outfit and brown flak jacket did well to hide it, besides his glistening forehead, purple hair tied up behind him. He leaned back against the wall beside the entrance of the training center, taking a breather, the pounding slowly fading away. A sort of clacking sound came through. It was unusual to find someone else here this early.
With a sigh, he picked himself back up, muscles lightly sore and aching, lifting his puppet behind his back, and walking in. He was careful not to make too much noise. Finding a comfortable spot somewhere behind the Genin, watching her try and fail. He kept up his practice for the time being. She wasn't at the stage where her chakra threads were hidden to his eye. He began idly controlling a couple of his kunai, spinning them in small circles above him as though they were levitating.
There would be a dull thud near Ishikawa, one of the two kunai embedded in the dirt, the other continuing with its path. "Try controlling that." He hummed, leaning forward and resting his chin against his fist. He recognized the Iwa nin from his roster but hadn't had the chance to meet her, puppeteers were few and far between to his knowledge. A bit of guidance never hurt.
He kept watch of her regardless of whether she listened or ignored him, just analyzing what she was doing. His bundle of cloth sitting on the ground next to him.
[attr="class","arubody"] There didn't seem like much left for Higa as he led his spasming puppet out of the tea shop. He gave them both an elaborate half-bow. It did seem like a Naoko move to just openly lay claim on a genin. He wasn't too bothered, though.
Unlike Azuma, he did not have some flashy technique to leave the tea shop, Kurotori was busy healing people now, and Tokoro seemed spent.
"Well, that was fun. We should do that again sometime."
Opting to walk out back onto the street. He would jump back onto to roof while leaving Kishi walking on the ground. He was no longer toying with his chakra control of the puppet, instead practicing its movements and realism again as he stealthily traveled across the top of the village buildings.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa rushed up towards higher ground, trying to get a vantage point, close enough, so he wasn't looking at a grey blob and a bunch of specks, but far enough to give him some decent reaction time should some other crazy justu happen. While he was searching, he still had some attention on Kishi traveling back towards the quarry itself.
Since the forest near the quarry wasn't just fallen trees, stumps, and trampled flora, he could surmise that something was amiss with the droves of rhinoceroses he saw earlier. What could that be? Maybe they were clones or fake, or they just vanished into thin air.
Now that he had his view. He settled on a nearby cliff, one that overlooked the quarry but was still some ways away. Kishi stood at the quarry's edge, arm outstretched under the guidance of Higa. A blade would spring out from its palm with a click.
There was a burst of pressure, the bladed weapon shooting out, arm attached to a chain that whirred as the mechanism released, firing it like a canon at the main Rhino's body. Whether it hit or not, the arm would retract back to safety quickly after hitting anything or anyone, assuming its path was uninterrupted.
[attr="class","arubody"] His efforts were for naught, which honestly he expected. It was a tea shop in the middle of the village after all. Once can give the air of loyalty to their superiors without actually killing anyone, if a civilian were to somehow get past the wall of wind, the most Higa would've done is usher them to leave.
He only half-watched what Tokoro was doing, curious enough to see how far he'd push himself but otherwise uninterested. There was little helpful knowledge stemming from genjutsu or dojutsu that would aid him at his current stage. Instead, he used this opportunity as a glorified training session to push the limits of his chakra control.
By the sounds of it, there were some semblances of success, Kurotori praising Tokoro, obsessing over his eyes and training. She seemed pretty excited about it. Azuma stepped in and seemed to make it formal, giving her charge the first genin. "Congrats on your new protégé." he hummed to Kurotori. While Azuma motioned for him to stand down, he kept his puppet up, making small precise motions and movements while straining the flying kunai above them.
After a hysterical laugh echoed in the small tea shop, he disappeared along with the wind wall, exposing them to bewildered customers. While the other two probably looked normal, whereas Higa would look manic, moving his fingers over and over with a flying kunai and a puppet that could be mistaken for a person that seemed like it was spasming.
[attr="class","arubody"] He let out another hiss as he inhaled. Atleast the crowd dissipated as she crouched beside him, people returning to their own business. He listened to her carefully. It made sense; drawing chakra and applying was probably the easy part thanks to the chakra manipulation he was used to, but the concepts?
He spent most of his time studying how to carve out of solid materials: rock, metal, wood, how parts work together to create his puppets. Human cell proliferation was not on his list of strong points. While he got the core concepts off her, the specifics of how much chakra or the instructions, the things he wanted to know she glossed over... although she did mention looking for an apprenticeship. But that would take his time away from what was important; he gave her a nod encouraging her to continue teaching him.
His eyes focused down onto her hands, mimicking the seals in his own, both helping distract him from that itch and memorize. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as she finally began. It may seem like he was bitching about a simple irritation, but it was because he was trying to be more sociable that he was so expressive. The green mist washed over his wounds. Flesh sewing itself together and finally shut.
He turned his head, looking at the ripped shirt, unfortunate but fixable. He stretched out lightly. "Much better now. Neat trick." He quickly pulled his fingers back, sliding the arm of the puppet back into the torn fabric using his chakra, wrapping the makeshift straps around it.
Higa pulled out the kunai he had strapped onto his flak jacket from earlier, flicking it down. The blade would graze her arm before he yanked on it with his chakra, returning it to his hand like a yoyo. "My turn." He sat down, legs crossed in the dirt, hands moving together to form the hand seals.
Ox, Tiger, then moving his chakra to his palms and hovering the right palm over her cut. He would try it for himself, trickling out chakra, slowly increasing it to find that sweet spot for a cut of this size, this shallow. Urging the cells to replicate, heal, close.
He grit his teeth, giving her somewhat of an annoyed look since this was clearly her doing. Light wells of drying blood were underneath his fingertips now, his wound lightly swollen from the itching, a deep red on his pale skin. He dug his right foot into the ground, just making motions to try to get his mind off of it.
He knew rationally that touching it was making it worse, but like a bug bite, the need to itch kept growing. He released it, more out of necessity at first until she made her offer.
"Fix it and show me how you do it too." he hissed, inhaling through his teeth. The longer this went on, the itchier it got.
Despite that, he did his best to focus on Naoko and any hand signs or movements she made. The opportunity and want to learn something useful to him and his puppets far exceeded his need to itch the wound, even if it was making him pretty impatient.
