[attr="class","arubody"] His kept his smirk as she seemingly tested to see if she could get out before it turned into a scowl at her words. There were numerous people passing by some even crowding, whispering and mumbling to each other at the scene they caused.
He lifted himself off of her, Kishi retracting its blade. She was the one who wanted to go all out. He could tell a threat when he heard one no matter how sweetly she tried to mask it. He patted himself down, dusting himself off and looking around, for all he knew Azuma was lurking around the corner.
He offered his hand to help her up. Regardless of whether she took it or not he noticed the purple bruise where he had hit her. "We should get that checked out." He let out a hiss, the shock wearing off and his side burned, he reached over blood lightly smearing his hand but it was so damn itchy as he began to scratch it.
[attr="class","arubody"] He expected her to fall back, now a mess of limbs on the floor with him on top of her and the puppet on top of both. Knocking his breath out of him, though in this position, he could easily overpower her, his hands grasping at her wrists, holding them down into the dirt.
He clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth as the pain shot through him. However, the resulting feeling was an irritating burn. He didn't want to ruin the fabric since it was good quality. But maybe this was a lesson in how much of a hindrance it was in combat.
A faint click echoed as the dust settled from their crash, then the loud tearing of fabric as he used Kishi to cut itself out. This would be the first time she saw it now as its hand slid around him and pressed the gleaming blade against her throat, Higa giving her a confident smirk.
[attr="class","arubody"] She recovered, too quickly. Maybe he was the one being too cocky. However, he did catch the green flash as she darted towards him, although that didn't give him any information.
His hand swung down to catch onto her wrist, using his strength to either knock her hand back down or at least catch her swipe before it made contact. What came next was pretty crude.
He swung his fist at her face while one hand was occupied, whether she blocked or dodged wouldn't matter because all it was was a distraction as the bundle of fabric launched from the ground towards her. He didn't need to free his puppet to use it. Either way, her focus would be on him or the heavy mass that would crash into her.
[attr="class","arubody"] The sudden snap of the parasol, reflexively made him lift his hand, there was a dull thud as wood and metal hit flesh. It was an unexpected and unwelcome feeling. He grit his teeth in annoyance, her cocky attitude leaving a bit of a sour taste in his mouth since the whole point of this setup was to avoid Azuma coming down on them later if they injured a bystander. If worse came to worse, she swung at him first.
He shoved her to create some space between them; unlike her, his hand-to-hand prowess was in brute force. She would probably fall over if she didn't catch herself. "I don't normally speak much, but for the sake of trying to be amicable with you, I gave it a go.".
His following motion was tossing the kunai at her while she recovered. He was using the time to yank the cloth off of Kishi. The puppet quickly animated, rushing towards her, leaving dust in the air behind it. Higa's eyes focused on her, and he began to run to the left, another kunai in hand. Rather than answering the suggestion verbally, the towering puppet attempting to slam into her stomach would give her the response.
[attr="class","arubody"] He looked up from his spot as her shadow merged with that of the tree, his eyes adjusting for a moment to see her purple eyes looking down at him. Something about her eyes matching his hair made him smirk. It was an odd color and usually made him stand out, but he couldn't say he was familiar with anyone who had that hue in their eyes.
Matched with the black dress and parasol, she stood out; he seemed underdressed wearing a black outfit and the brown flak jacket typical of the Iwa military. "Yeah, that's me." He had his hair tied up in a ponytail so it wouldn't bother him. "This? It's natural. Father has it, and my children will probably have it if that ever comes about." He haphazardly shrugged; fashion was hardly something he thought about.
Standing over her now, she was a lot smaller than he thought she would be. His attention was drawn to the pebble she kicked, the kunai falling out of the air, into his hand as he strapped it back to his vest, dusting himself off from any dirt that hugged his uniform. Not that he had anything to base that on in the first place.
"We are going to be working closely under Azuma now, no? Wouldn't it be best to know how to work with each other? Test each other?" It seemed pretty basic to him. He wasn't too sure where the confusion came from, considering the location and all. That being said, he was clueless about how this was supposed to go. His hand stretched out, gesturing towards the entrance of the door. "It should be free right now."
[attr="class","arubody"] A light wind rustled the leaves of the nearby tree, blowing them off their branches where the stems clung to the brown bark. It was a nice day out, the burn of the sun hidden by the cool breeze that flowed through the village. Higa had been recently assigned to a squad led by the Jonin Shoichi Azuma. While he had already met the platoon leader, today's plans consisted of meeting his new partner Naoko.
He had never seen a need to socialize much during his days as a Genin. His time at the academy was lackluster, dealing with the pain of his parents' expectations and their constant meddling, but now he was free of them. This was a bit of a new process for him but a necessary one. At least, climbing the ranks alone was an almost ludicrous idea for him, plus the more he learned, the better his puppets.
He waited outside the exam center. It was free today and offered them some terrain for testing out their skills. If they were to work together, they'd need to know each other's strengths, and weaknesses were Higa's thought process.
He sat back in the shade of the tree, tossing up his Kunai into the air. His signature bundle of black fabric was placed beside him. To bystanders, at least those far enough away, it would look like a Kunai was doing backflips and whizzing through the air in front of him. The Chunin he was waiting for wasn't late yet by any means, but it seemed a waste to be cooped up indoors on a day like this.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa yanked at the chakra strings, when Tokoro yelled at them to brace. Kishi coming back to him as the ground shook and swarms of enraged rhinos spewed out from the new crevasse in the ground. There was no end to them as they charged in all directions trampling anything in their path: trees, rocks, it didn't matter. His eyes widened in shock, Azuma's words quickly cutting through the initial awe and fear. Tokoro was.. gone?
He wasn't about to be left sitting around. Quickly rushing through the hand seals, He flicked away from the group and then some rushing far back enough away from Azuma to stay from whatever he had planned. Rather than sit by and wait, Higa climbed up whatever nearby greenery he could find, a tall tree. He was trying to get some vantage on what was happening as he collected himself. Adrenaline helped him quickly move after the flicker, but he did need a moment to get over nausea.
After a couple of moments of panted breaths, a rough gust washed over him, almost wrenching him from his spot; even from this distance, it wasn't hard to see the smoke cloud that came off where they left Azuma. He sent off Kishi in the direction they came from, careful to keep the puppet off the ground, trying to provide some semblance of support to his Jonin.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa watched the exchange, curious as to what would happen next, between Tokoro's stammering and Sawako's encouragement. Something was about to happen; with a quick flick, Kishi came to life as Azuma stood up. Whatever it was, Higa wouldn't be caught off guard, and he stood straight, poised.
The Temple of Nirvana? Wasn't that area of effect? He quickly racked his brain, trying to recall the rules of dispelling genjutsu just in case. He would probably be fine with his control of Chakra, but you could never be too sure. Little did he know while he was stuck in his thoughts, Azuma was explaining that it should be localized to Sawako, but it mattered little at this point.
Most civilians probably wouldn't be able to get past the churning wall of wind. But orders were orders; Kishi guarded one side while he the other. He was keeping aware of their surroundings. It wouldn't matter who made it in. Straining himself as he attached chakra strings to the kunai, he pulled off Kishi. He could abandon it for the sake of control if worst came to worst, but the more practice, the better. Even this was just another training exercise.
He gave Azuma a curt nod of acknowledgment before watching, trying to listen through the wind, waiting for even the slightest change to its patterns.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa slid off the roof with a soft thud, displacing some dirt, not as graceful or quiet as he would've liked but whatever. He walked in through the door bringing in Kishi and relaxing it against the wall in a corner so no one would accidentally bump or push into it. He wasn't particularly hungry or thirsty either, sitting down among his peers before glaring at Sawako.
He heard pieces of their muffled speech and Sawako's boisterous call out. He still couldn't shake off the feeling that Azuma was making fun of him, but it was still leagues better than Sawako's prodding, especially since he respected the Jonin and his skills as opposed to her.
Now it was all four of them together in this small tea shop, an amused look sprouting on his face as Azuma ordered Tokoro to practice genjutsu on her. Higa's eyes met hers as he held back a wider smirk. "Least you could do since you are being lazy today is become someone else's training dummy, right? Help the team out."
He took out a kunai and attached his chakra strings to it, lightly tossing it up and trying to make it hover, practicing his control more idly, curious as to what Tokoro would do. Although, now that he was done sneering at Sawako, he realized Tokoro was a bit worse for wear. What did he miss while he was out with Kishi?
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa was going from rooftop to rooftop, walking silently while Kishi remained on the ground, he was training, practicing fluid and concise movement, training his chakra control and hand-eye coordination, doing his best to make the movements as human as possible.
He was passing by less crowded streets, and it was just easier that way because anyone who bumped into Kishi would quickly realize it wasn't real, and he wasn't trying to cause any panic. He could already hear the lecture Azuma would have for him.
Soon enough, he heard Tokoro's voice beneath him. With a flick of his wrist, the 7ft puppet would poke its head against the tea shop window, staring in as Higa continued to practice the ruse of his living puppet while he sat on the rooftop idly listening.
[attr="class","arubody"]Higa stretched out before leaning over the cliff edge, listening to Azuma's speech. It was more like background noise to him though. A small cloud of dust blew into the air as his backpack hit the ground, but before he could touch it, a new voice began yammering off in the distance. He looked up as his eyes stopped on the sound ninja droning on about 'lambs' weren't they hunting a rhinoceros?
He chalked it back up to background noise. Azuma could deal with that. His face turned towards Tokoro; the ever-shifting eyes intrigued him, although it was well beyond his capabilities to implement anything like that into Kishi. He mentally filed it away before turning back to the lump of wrapped tarp.
Higa's hands reached out, gingerly removing the tarp, unwrapping fold after careful fold as though it was his prized possession wrapped in silk. A jester was unveiled, dressed in violet and dark purple robe, shoes fashioned out of wood seamless with its body, long feathers sprouted from the crown wrapped around its face, a mannequin mask. There was the slight jingle of metal smacking against metal as it was finally freed and quickly stood up. A wide grin erupted on his face as to finally stress test Kishi. It quickly made its move, beginning to descend the cliff face.
While his strings were not at the level of being invisible yet, they would be hard to spot unless close by. Why not take the chance while everyone was distracted, including the rhino, of course. It was easy to stop if anything new happened.
Higa Toshio comes from a family of primarily Taijutsu users from the Hidden Stone Village. From a young age they tried to groom him to train his strength and learn their techniques but he was bored and uninterested, doing the bare minimum to meet their expectations. His passion was in puppetry, manipulating chakra to make his creations move, tinkering and messing with their bodies to foster their growth. His parents disapproved getting rid of his creations whenever they could. Once admitted into the academy he was able to truly begin delving into his passion.
Higa is very disciplined and hard working when it comes to anything that can even slightly improve his skills in puppeteering or the puppets themselves, but otherwise takes a lackadaisical approach to most other things. After being forced to do what other people want in his spare time he now pays little attention to others demands if it does not directly benefit him.
He is very possessive about his puppets and can be very openly hostile and aggressive if anyone touches them or attempts to mess with them, stemming from his parents constant attempts at destroying what he had made in the past. His dream is to leave a legacy, whether that be an ultimate puppet, a new technique, something that he could put his mark on proudly. His curiosity and thirst for knowledge to improve his puppets knows no bounds.
Proficiencies
Taijutsu [Apprentice] Higa learned Taijutsu at a young age at the behest of his parents, while he never really threw himself into it, his training has provided some fruitful results in Taijutsu combat and he can hold his own against most opponents at close range.
Kyujutsu [Apprentice] To further supplement his puppets (and minimize the damage they take during combat) Higa picked up archery during his years at the academy training his hand-eye coordination and chakra control.
Stealth [Apprentice] Higa learned stealth through the academy and some practice outside during his Genin years. While not his most sought skill it has proven useful in keeping himself hidden while using his puppets.
Puppetry [Apprentice] His true passion. Higa is obsessed with the assembly, disassembly and mechanisms of puppets. His knowledge is mainly self taught with some of the basics learned through the academy. He hopes to eventually create a legacy with his puppets, leaving his mark on the world. At his current level he is able to control either 1 puppet or up to 2 kunai or a hybrid of both at the cost of control.
Kishi (First Puppet):
One of Higa's first puppet designs, it's model was built centered around close combat and defense. Within its left arm is a mechanical light shield block, while it rapidly drains chakra in return it offers a robust defensive chakra shield. The puppet has an extended reach through a retractable chain and launch mechanism built into the joint between is right forearm and arm, a hidden blade in the right palm and long needle blade within its mouth. While the mechanisms are rudimentary it is a creation he is proud of. Within the puppets clothing are several kunai.
Enhanced Strength Through sand bucket training from a young age, Higa built his strength up through early development to achieve the enhanced strength he has today.
Jade Magatama [Unranked] A curved, coma shaped bead capable of storing a small reserve of chakra. (Once used it is removed from the character’s sheet. If a character dies while holding this, it can be converted into an upgrade or new proficiency on a new character).
