Another day, comes with another mission it seemed as Etsuo left the hospital at noon from visiting his father that was locked away within a coma. There was really nothing that he could do though to help him, but with all this time that he was spending it the hospital, he was debating if he should learn some medical stuff if he ever gets the time. This was not the time for training though as his current mission was of B rank and it should be taken seriously by most people. It seemed that a prisoner escaped from their prison, which made the Yukimura question why even have it in the first place if people can break out of it so easily. With that, his mission began by leaving the village walls to track down the escapee who still probably wore the prison uniform. He took off quickly as he knew where this person was probably heading, and that was to the boarder of this county to escape recapture by him.

This was where things got interesting as he began to keep track of a certain person moving through the mountains right ahead of him but at a more concealed and slower pace. It could only mean that it was his target trying to escape detection, but as a member of the tracking and security squad, this was simple to pursue from there.  Actually, Etsuo took a much shorter path around the same area and eventually meet the front of the escapee as he came around. This was where the person's appearance became much more clearer to him. This was also where troubles began as well, because the prisoner was a old woman, but she appeared to be wearing a prison uniform. Was this the right person, or was he getting confused by the info that he was given being false.

"So, Young one, do you plan on disrespecting your elders and bring me back in." She stated.

"You remind me so much of one that I hated years ago." she stated and revealed a scroll.

With the scroll, she summoned a puppet to his surprise and made chakra strings to control it. The very action broke his mind a bit, as he came to realize that there were many clans that used puppetry as a skill, but the main one in Kumo was his own, the Yukimura. With that he watched stunned as he puppet charged at him at most likely, max speed. With his reasons for continuing unknown, the young Yukimura came back to focus on those that wished to harm him and dodged at the last second as the puppet stabbed at him with a sword from it's arm. The puppet was very much shaped like a person, but he knew that it was no human puppet by any means.

"For a young one, your aren't very fast to act, or talk. You only remind me more of him!" She stated as anger showed on her old face.

Within time thing were getting tricky as he keep up with the puppet's sword attacks with kunai and his eyes became active to keep a step ahead of it in close combat. For some reason against this puppet, he didn't feel the fear that he had with fighting people close up. His eyes shined red as he slipped behind the puppet and rushed towards the old woman to take her down, so that the puppet would be disarmed. The question was though, would he or the puppet get to her first.

Word Count:  597/1,500

Chakra: 190/200

Spoiler:

As time moved forward, Etsuo zoomed forward to reach the puppeteer before the puppet with a single kunai in hand. Things were not in his favor though as he struck at the old woman with his kunai and believed it was successful until it revealed her substitution with her own puppet. This brought him back to his old situation of dealing with the puppet as the puppeteer was a distance away from him and safe. The two clashed crossing kunai with sword in this case, making this a battle that couldn't go into his favor as he performed his attempt again and aimed around the puppet once more, and was successful for the most part."Don't use the same trick twice, young one." She told him and before he could react, a cable with latch locked on to one of his legs and picked him off the ground.

With this place on him, the puppet swung him and turn building force to smash him into the ground further away from them and eventually released, it 's hold on him as he was left on the ground. He stayed there for a moment as he tried to get himself up, he wasn't quite sure what exactly got hurt or broken by the crash into the ground but he didn't have any cuts and only a few visible bruises. This was definitely not the time to be giving up as he was now realizing that he was against a veteran puppeteer. Etsuo could possibly even put her on level with his father's level of skill in some ways, but he feels that old age and not fitting in a long while has brought down her level of skill. He could underestimate her, with what she has done to him so far in this battle, and it was certain that she had the ability to break from a prison if she was given the chance through doubt. He quickly made hand signs to perform his doppelganger technique and rushed at the puppeteer and puppet as well. He hoped this would work as he made five clones and only a few were meant to distract the puppet and in a sense, the puppeteer.

With this chance, the puppet shot out it's latch to smash though one of the clones, and as the group approached, the puppet slashed though two more of the closes as they continued to push forward with the original on the outer edge of the group. They pushed forward in hopes to pressure her into giving up on her plans of escape, he had a feeling in his heart though that it would come down to him nearly taking her life though. Etsuo felt though that he had to ask this old lady a few things though before he took her in so he needed to time this just right.


Word Count: 1,082/1,500

Chakra: 175/200

Spoiler:

Etsuo approached with two of his clones, obviously the two back off and the original approached as he put his kunai to her throat. This was it and this was the checkmate of their little game, that they had been playing for awhile in the mountain area outside of the village. "Please release your control on the puppet?" He asked and she complied with the request. He finally had her just where he wanted, so that he could question her a bit before taking her in like he had wanted after he few comment. "Who are you?" He would ask. So he didn't know that how she would answer him eventually looking straight into his sharigan eyes.

"Young one, since you are so curious, I shall tell you. I'm Yukimura, Hanako, also the worst person to underestimate as a enemy." She told him and the punched him straight into the gut taking him to the ground for the moment.

"I trained in both, Puppeteer and Taijutsu under my father. They called me, the Puppeteer of Strenght, and they made me the head of the family. But then, my brother had to separate and in all of the fighting between us, I ended up in this dam prison!" She exclaimed and regained control of her puppet.

Etsuo knew way too well that this was now, his family indeed, as he realized how she was connected to him and she was the reason, his family, was so separated from the rest. If she ever returned, it would only be him and a few others to stand against the rest of the family. "So since, I answered yours, answers mine as your last words. Who are you, young one?"

"I am Yukimura, Etsuo, your Great Nephew." He told her and he could see the anger built up in her face as she commanded the puppet to strike him down to death. this was not going to be that easy though as he substituted himself with a nearby rock, with that he proceeded to perform hand signs and with the finishing touch, he blew out flames at her. She was still under shock and searching for him as the flames reached and caught both her and the puppet. After the flames died down, he knew that she was down for the count. she was definitely a agile fighter, but she was also fragile and weak in her age and untrained state. He could tell that this mission was finished and that he had another interesting story to tell his father after he awakened.

Word Count: 1,513/1,500