Another day of work at home, or the shop depending on your bend. Kisei was manning the clerk station while Shouto walked around, pretending to browse items and adult comics while actually watching out for thieves. The Ushinatta is tiredly leaning over the desk while eyeing some of his ‘special merchandise’ hanging up proudly on the wall. For this week’s ‘special merchandise’ advertisement there was two golden gauntlets pointed downward and a sign saying, “ammunition not included with purchase of gauntlet, see clerk for more details.”

Kisei really shouldn’t be selling highly advanced and dangerous futuristic artifacts from a different time, but one had to make a living one way or another. At least he had the sense of mind to not sell off his more powerful creations. His mind thought to his umbrella and pinwheel, as well as that one. Those were for Kisei’s personal use only, and he wasn’t going to be giving them away. Thankfully no ninja from the village seemed to have all the details that he actually made these weapons, may by good for business by not for Kisei’s heart. Especially when there a ton of things that he simply wasn’t able to build with chakra tech yet. Too much pressure to succeed, plenty of room to fail.

Great.

The familiar bells of a customer leaving were stopped mid way through their third ring, the door was being kept open probably. Kisei glanced up to find a new face to the neighbor walk in. As long as they weren’t going to cause too much trouble, this shouldn’t be too hard. Kisei's eyes moved to the gauntlets on sale, maybe this would be the time they parted ways? A depressing thought, but he had gotten used to having it around. He was attached to it like how would would treasure an old toy they didn't have the heart tho through out. It was, important. The lingering feeling of anxiety on how it could be improved and made into a terrifying weapon was in the back of its head, but eh, there were more powerful ones than an unorthodox weapon like those.


367

Kisei was moderately fazed when a rather interesting man came walking towards the clerk station. They wore some dark shades, indoors for some reason, but other than that apparent oddity Kisei didn’t have any other complaints. So far. To his.. distaste.. They seemed to be interested in the gauntlets on display. Well, this was going to happen sooner or later. Kisei stood up straight from his slouched position, hand reaching for the umbrella leaning on the counter and twirling it to lean on his left shoulder with a light creak of the steel. “I suppose I could try, those gauntlets are a special creation of mine. Although it may be a bit flashy for a ninja, like you are, I’m presuming, we can always get a new paint job.” The Ushinatta shrugged. “As for exactly what those gauntlets are: Think about them as mechanical mix as a blowgun, a high pressure projectile launcher, and rather bulky gauntlets. Simpler description: Big gauntlets that can shoot things when you punch. Essentially.”

The engineer reached under the station without breaking eye contact, placing a small box on the top of the wooden station. Gently he opened it up and pulled out two single pieces of ammunition. “As for what it fires, you have a two options right now. It’s a work in progress weapon you see. The main type you'll be working with is this one right here.” He said as he picked up the small red crystal, promptly throwing it directly at his technical guardian as he turned around the corner on his patrol. The last thing he saw was a brief loud explosion engulfing the top half of his body before knocking him off his feet. Numerous small products like gum and water canteens where knocked around and fell on top of Shouto who cursed out Kisei to no end. “As you can see, work in progress. The real thing should have a much more noticeable impact than that.” Kisei shrugged. Ignoring the profanities of the prone Sumiko on the floor.

“Now this second one I can't demonstrate without the gauntlets, however the idea is that it can propel you swiftly around when shot. Again, I can make a stronger version of this one if you want, though expect a bit of delay. Chemistry is a much more subtle art than straight blacksmithing.”



397 WC

The enginner contemplated his customer’s question carefully. Not that it wouldn’t be impossible for a different type of cartrige to be be made for it, but the main limitation was exactly what this guy was thinking of firing- Oh dear god and all that’s holy in this world, there was a bug inside of his shop. His mind circled through a dozen different options of how to quickly exterminate the pest, regardless of his customer’s affinity of them. A nanosecond passed as Kisei reached for his umbrella to blast the bug away until some of his local clan study on konoha came back to the front of his mind. Wasn’t there a clan that handled these kind of bugs? Something like Abur- or Aka something. But yeah, in that case Kisei couldn’t just blast the thing.. It’s you’re lucky day, beetle. He glared at the beetle, slowly returning something more neutral before looking back up to the insect tamer’s eyes. The crystals Kisei had displayed earlier were designed to fit inside of the cartridges that are then spring fired out of the gauntlet, however given the size of the… things… he was planning on using to fill that cartridge, and that the method of fire is a spring based system there shouldn’t be any issues. He would just need to be careful not to clog up the inner mechanisms with too many bugs, or else they might get crushed and render the launching systems moot.

Kisei shivered at the thought. It physically hurt to think of those gauntlets like that. Having spent days gathering the materials, (stealing from Alpha’s scrap pile), creating the blueprints, and making it by hand. It was almost like a child to him, and the thought of hundreds of bugs crawling around inside of it almost made him sick. Though he couldn’t find a logical reason to say no to this customer’s interest in buying it. Heh… “Its completely possible, seems pretty cost manageable too. Though if you want me to make it you’ll have to send me details on what exactly you’re planning on using it for or how you want to use it. Inanimate things are easy, but for tiny living things like little Joe you got there-” He nodded to the beetle in his hand. “-It’s a bit more difficult. The measurements will need to be precise depending on what you’re asking for, to avoid inadvertently crushing your allies. On the other side, you’ll also want to make sure they your friends are able to break free of the container once it’s no longer needed. As you can see, details.” Kisei shrugged. “Feel free to put in a request in with our Custom Orders Department manager, the hot Sumiko guy I blew up earlier, if you want me to handle it. Though if you’re confident you can try and make it yourself, I can just send you blueprints on how to build it. If you’d rather go with that just leave me an address to drop it off by.” Kisei regarded this one with a bit of anticipation, and a bit of anxiety, that bug (‘Little Joe’) in his hand was getting a bit too comfortable in his shop for the Ushinatta’ comfort. “Anyways, what do ya think? Considering buying?”

572

As he waited for the clerk to respond to his question, he watched as the clerk's eyes widen a bit at the sight of insects prompting him to grab his umbrella seemingly to squash the tiny beetles. An effort would likely be incredibly foolish as just a touch would likely spell certain devastation for him should he attempt such a thing. After a slight hesitation the words began to flow from the clerk's mouth, “Its completely possible, seems pretty cost manageable too. Though if you want me to make it you’ll have to send me details on what exactly you’re planning on using it for or how you want to use it. Inanimate things are easy, but for tiny living things like little Joe you got there," he said before pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts. “It’s a bit more difficult. The measurements will need to be precise depending on what you’re asking for, to avoid inadvertently crushing your allies. On the other side, you’ll also want to make sure they your friends are able to break free of the container once it’s no longer needed. As you can see, details.”

N'Jobu contemplated just what he needed to make his plan work. All he would need is a relatively weak shell which would burst on impact but strong enough to survive being launched from the gauntlets. In theory, it would be too difficult based on what he had seen and he was sure he could likely figure it out. His nano-insects would be able to traverse the inner workings of the device to reverse engineer something so he figured he could just take the blueprints the clerk was talking about and make the weapon into his own. “Anyways, what do ya think? Considering buying?” the clerk asked him as he shrugged once again, a consistent theme with the young fellow. He was sold on the idea of the gauntlets and was ready to pull the trigger after just catching a glimpse of what they were capable of. "Yeah, I'll take the gauntlets and all the ammo you currently have, although would it be possible for you to paint the gauntlets something less bright like a black? I think I can handle making a new type of ammunition, but the blueprints or schematics would be quite helpful in the process so I can make some interesting pieces with the help of my beetles. How much do I owe ya?"

WC: 421

N'Jobu wondered just how much the gauntlets would turn out to be. Money wasn't really an issue for him as he had been doing missions pretty much non-stop for the past few months so he had a large reserve of ryo to burn. Even if he hadn't done so however, the Aburame were one of the wealthiest clans in all of Konoha so finding the money would not be a difficult exercise at all. After a few moments of contemplation, the clerk finally spoke up with price as he shrugged and rested his umbrella against the counter. “Two thousand three hundred, and fifty, one," he said with the same nonchalance he maintained throughout the entire conversation. "Wow, that's a little more than I thought it would be but not entirely unfair. I wonder how low I could get him to go though. No reason to pay full asking price if I don't actually need to," he mused to himself. He thought for a few moments with a price to haggle with before negotiating further with the clerk. After a few rounds of back and forth, the two men settled upon a price that N'Jobu was willing to pay for those interesting gauntlets.

He pulled the ryo from his pants pocket and handed it over to the clerk who took it and counted it to ensure the full amount was all there. After confirming with the clerk he was good to go, N'Jobu turned and grabbed the gauntlets from the display and placed them onto his wrists. "I don't need them boxed up. I'll wear them on the way out". He turned back and grabbed the box of ammunition from the counter where it rested and tucked it under his arm along with the schematics for ammunition the clerk had given him during negotiations. "Thanks for the gauntlets. Look forward to using them!" he quipped at the clerk as he walked out the door. The gauntlets were lighter than he expected which gave him great pleasure as he wasn't too fond of lugging heavy things around. "Lemme try and test these things out a bit," he contemplated to himself as he walked through the market towards the training grounds. He had a bit of pep in his step as he was excited to try out his new toy and see just what they could really do.

It wouldn't take long before he had reached the training grounds which was surprisingly empty, although whether it was empty or full made no real difference to him. Before he put any real ammunition in the gauntlets, he figured he would allow his nano-sized beetles to explore the internals of the gauntlets and report back what they found. Given their size, he could send a few inside without worry of them gunking up the internal mechanisms. After about a minute or so of scouring the inside of the gauntlets, his beetles had returned from their adventure with exciting details of the inner workings of his new weapons. "Interesting...I'll have to tinker a bit with these to suite my needs in the future, but for now lets test these things out".  He slipped back the ammunition covers to reveal the chambers where the ammunition would be stored prior to being fired. Not wanting to waste too much ammunition, he only placed 1 of each type into each gauntlet to test them out. He placed the two red crystals to try out first hand the capabilities of their explosive powers he had seen a taste of in the store. He slipped the ammunition covers back into place and prepared himself to fire upon a dummy target set up in front of him. As a test, he punched forward with very slight movement to see the level of sensitivity required to cause the gauntlets to fire. Unsurprisingly, they did not fire with the little force behind the punch. Trying to be as scientific as he could, he tried different strengths of punches until the gauntlets fired off the red crystal which exploded upon impact with the dummy, leaving it singed and slightly burning in his wake. "Interesting. I'll need to make a mental note of just home much force it takes to fire these off". To ensure he could reproduce the result, he punched with his other hand at the same level of strength and as expected, the round fired off and smacked into the same target, this time causing a bit more damage to the already burning heap of wood.

Now that he understood just what he needed to do to fire off the gauntlets, he moved on to the more interesting orange crystals which the clerk had described. He hadn't seen just what they were capable of yet so this was the test that interested him the most. He cracked his neck a bit as he prepared himself for whatever was about to happen with the "launch" crystal as he had envisioned it in his head. Not wanting to overdo things, he figured he would only do one at a time to feel the effects and adjust to the recoil. In one swift motion, he threw his right arm forward ejecting the orange crystal which exploded immediately and sent him barreling backwards about 10m. He steaded himself mid-air and landed upon his feet with a smirk on his face. It was much more exciting than he could have ever imagined. Understanding just how far it would send him horizontally, he wanted to see just how far they gauntlets would launch him vertically. A bit more daring this time in his experimentation, he jumped into the air and punched downward leading to a loud bang which launched him into their several meters. He stabilized himself in the air after flipping himself around and fell to the ground gracefully before landing.

He was thoroughly pleased with his purchase and couldn't wait to get back to him room so that he could tinker around with his gauntlets and engineer a projectile for his beetles. He grabbed the box of ammunition from the floor where he had left it during his little "tests" and tucked it under his arm to carry back to the Aburame complex. He set off back home with a large smile across his face which anyone could see from a mile away. In his excitement, his walk turned into a light sprint as he wanted to get back to the house and begin tinkering as soon as he possibly could. He hadn't been this excited about a weapon since his father had given him his prized bow.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 1121
TWC: 438 + 553 + 421 + 1121 = 2533

N'Jobu Training:
Medical Ninjutsu: C -> B rank (2000/2000)

S'Yan Training(30% Reduction):
Water Release: Water Trumpet (水遁・水喇叭 ~ Suiton: Mizurappa) 750 * 30% reduction = (525/525)

Remaining WC: 2533 - 2000 - 525 = 8 WC

OOC Note: Buying Gorenox Vanities, 12 Flare Feed, and 12 Blank feed Ammunition for total of 500 Ryo from Kisei.

Gauntlets and Ammo:

Surprised somewhat. Though he shouldn’t have been. These custom orders often required a bit more price haggling than mass production, sadly. Considering the hard work, and the potiential legality issues of selling otherworldly tech, something more sizeable was expected. Though some how, some way, they managed to talk him down. Little ‘Jimmy’ Joe probably had some weird barganing experience and was helping their master out. Smart cookie insect, thing. The ninja would pull out the agreed upon ryo amount before claiming the ammunition, and the gauntlets right from the display. Usually he was against such displayed but a particularly nihilistic mood seemed to catch him today so he didn’t say anything and shrugged it off with a half assed smile. They waved him down with smile and a few sweet words. It didn’t completely break his mood but he appreciated the excitement in his voice. As the door closed a loneliness settled into his heart, a glance to the empty display reminding him of what he had just done. 


“Hey, its alright. They’re in a better place now Kisei.” Shouto said comfortingly. Patting Kisei on the back as he cleaned the floor. “You mean, sold?” He shrugged. Shouto looked at him suspiciously before asking, “Was that meant to be a joke?” Kisei just shrugged again. “Nah, you’ll know my jokes when you ear it.” The blacksmith said, smiling as he produced a corn ear from under the shelf. Shouto just gave him a black look that screamed, “Why do you exist?” before blowing a burst of Scorch at the corn ear, popping a good portion of them instantly and causing them to make a mess on the floor.

"Hey, stop messing around. We got corn to cook." Kisei punned again. 

--- 

"Ouch." The young blacksmith winced. "Shouto really didn't hold back when it comes to bad jokes. Heh." As he finished bandaging his, honestly mild wounds, he would head down to his laboratory. He had other duties to attend to, and so left the hot headed Sumiko in charge of the shop while he was downstairs working on projects. 

The Workshop was a kind of sacred place for Kisei. It reminded him of his brother's workshop and was his own weird connection to them. After all this time he hadn't received any sign of him, even when he went to for missionary work in the Sunagakure. The only clue that he had was lying right in front of him. And he couldn't get it to work


Alone on a steel work table was a massive computer cube. Light spilling out from the top, a "Enter password" screen was pulled up right now and a lock down counter down was approaching the one minute mark. Kisei has tried dozens of times before to try and hack the password out of it but this is his first time dealing with a real relic of that world, and not some remake. It didn't help the sophistication that was built into it was on a whole different level that what he himself has designed or seen before. Instead of having a pass 'code', this was a puzzle cube. When you pressed the start button a number of glowing lines around the cube would appear, you had to find a way to connect all the lines without crossing over a path you've already made or remove the finger you're tracing with, doing that would reset the puzzle and put you on a cool down period. Not to mention that the closer you got to finishing the puzzle the more difficult the puzzle got. One time the cube began to deconstruct itself, rectangles slowly sliding out from the side in the middle of my path. Suddenly the puzzle became three dimensional! There was only one line left to do, but a sliding cube piece hit my arm and forced my finger to lift off the cube surface. A game over message appeared on the top of the screen and the cube slid back into it's normal state faster than my sinking hopes and dreams. 

As the timer hit zero the bright background light darkened, leaving only a neon red 'Start' button on screen. "Perhaps, this could be the time I complete this puzzle." Kisei took a deep breath, and slammed his hand on the start button. Then, then... The most idiotic thing happen. "Welcome back, 𐤀." A male a.i called from the cube. 

"What. The. Absolute. @#$/?!" Kisei screamed with all the frustration a young eighteen year old could muster. "You mean after all this time, all I had to do was hit the start button harder?!" 

"You aren't 𐤀, but yes. That was the real puzzle for this model." The voice responded. "This is actually the first, third, time I've been opened. What would you like me to do master?" It asked inquisitively. Kisei groaned, he'd deal with the ridiculous design flaws later, right now he had something he needed to be looked at. 

Kisei mumbled quietly. "Bring me to your recordings library." The screen flickered to a list of.. one recording? Checking the length it was about, two days?! "Um, play from beginning. Skipping parts which have minimal change." Immedietly the screen played a scene that he recognized. Those sandy dunes that he called home were unforgettable. A kumogakure missionary camp was in the background, and there were two people standing in front of the Computer Frame's camera view. 

He couldn't tell who the other one was but the other one was easier to figure out. The wielder of the sharpest sword known to ninja kind: "Alpha..." Kisei whispered in a low voice. "Oh, so you know Master 𐤀?" The a.i asked interested. "Yeah, he's my brother." The machine paused for a moment. "You are Master 𐤀's little brother, Kisei, aren't you?" Something was different about their voice this time. He had to compliment the creator of this a.i it was rather well designed. Though a bit wary of the question he nodded his head. "I-I am sorry Master Kisei, I cannot allow you to see the rest of this video then." And suddenly it closed out of the video to the home screen before proceeding to shut down. "No. No you don't!" He struggled, but it was too late. The computer cube had fully powered off, not a hint of life flowed through it anymore. "Damnit! Please! Open up, I need to know what happened!" Kisei pounded on the cube. "My brother is in danger!" He needed something quick, his only connection to his brother was this dumb machine. He wasn't going to let this one and only chance slip through his fingers. Alpha was in the Sunagakure hunting for the person who destroyed the village and murdered the villagers. He wouldn't waste any time on anyone other than this explicit target. The snake woman was killed by Takao, so the other man couldn't be her in a disguise. Syekren... He tried not to think about that. "Please. We've lost everything. Again, and again. I can't lose my brother.. I can't.." A tear streaked down Kisei's cheek and another. They poured out in a river, all the sorrow and pain he had been holding in for this last year just seemed to break out all at once. Falling to his knees because he just couldn't stand it any longer. Everyone seems to know the answer but no one will tell him or do anything about it. 

Then, the voice said. "Please.. Master Kisei. Understand, that I can't be the one to hurt you." He looked up at the cube. "However, you are my master now. I cannot refuse an order from you. That is how important you are, so please. Take care when watching.." the screen flashed with a light and the recording was back on. 

It took a moment for me to realize what they said, but when I did I wiped my tears away and tried to hold back the sobbing. Using the table to support me I pulled myself back onto my feet. And pressed play
"Thank you."

"I'm sorry." Was all they said. Little did I know just how sorry I'd be.



[Exit]
1395 + 1669 = 3064 WC Total

Using 2600 words to train C-1 Reaction Time and and Speed to C-3, discarding the rest.