Ryo sighed as he moved through the sands of the village and headed towards the place that the Kazekage had instructed him to go. Apparently, there was some kind of man around who was supposed to be there to train him, or test him. Something of the sort. He was a Taijutsu master, and as Ryo well knew this would be a very trying day for him. He wasn’t very skilled in the art of Taijutsu, but he was a good puppet master. He would have to make sure that he came away from this in the lead, or at least gave as good as he got. He arrived at the location with a smile seeing that his opponent was already there waiting in a meditative stance. As the Genin neared the man smiled opening his eyes “Well, you must be the one that the Kazekage sent for me to test. I am glad to see that someone is taking me seriously.” He said as he slowly rose to his feet smiling as he went about stretching himself out flexing his muscles and making sure he was limber for the fight that he had ahead.

Ryo lifted a brow and shrugged his shoulders before he slowly unrolled the scroll at his hip “I suppose that is what I am here for. Still, I trust you won’t find me to be all that great of a foe considering your skills. Still I shall endeavor to do my best. The name is Ryo Knetegawa.” He said with a bow before he activated the seal on the scroll summoning up his puppet Kuro. Attaching his focused strings to it was his best plan of action. His thinking behind this was quite simple if the puppet could move as if it was a human, or rather alive then he could put up a much better fight than if he was trying to control multiple puppets. The real reason behind his focused strings however, was even more simple than that. He only had Kuro right now even though he had the design for his puppet’s brother already written down and painted in order to make sure he could expedite the process of making his next puppet. With his strings attached he gave Kuro a few more test movements and the results were exactly what he wanted them to be.

The man smiled as he looked over Kuro with a professional eye “hmmm, well that’s a fine looking puppet. The last time I saw a Wolf Puppet though was about a decade ago…maybe longer. It was a fine looking thing. The man who used it was quite something with his puppet skill.” The master had a sudden look on his face “And he had marks under his eyes just like you do. Any relation?”

This caught Ryo by surprise as he nodded his head slowly “Yes, he was my father…” he said slowly as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re telling me that you know my father!” he called out excited to hear such a prospect.

The man nodded his head with a smile “Yes, I knew him, and if you perform well then I shall be happy to tell you all about him.” With that he launched himself forward towards Ryo with a smirk. Ryo was not caught off guard by the sudden lunge instead he was slightly shocked by the information that the man could possibly give him. He flicked his wrists and arms before his puppet Kuro shot forward in order to intercept the attack that was coming towards him. The puppet’s mouth and claws went out first in order to attack the man. The man smirked as he stopped moving taking a defensive stance blocking the first claw swipe that came at him, but he wasn’t actually doing any physical damage to Kuro. He was only standing his ground and blocking the attacks that were coming at him. His left Pointer finger twitched and the blade that was inside of the tail shot forward in order to be used as it did come out it slapped the man in the shoulder with the loud slap of the flat of the blade ringing out and the man hissed in pain.

With a smirk he slapped the blade away and then slammed into the puppet sending it sprawling in the sand. Ryo was already moving himself even as the man started to move towards him. Getting Kuro back on his feet wasn’t hard, but it took precious seconds so he had to move otherwise he would be sent into lala land. The master closed in on him as fast as he could, Ryo just wasn’t fast enough and by the time Kuro had slammed into the master he had already sent Ryo flying with a powerful kick to the stomach. As Ryo flew one way Kuro flew the other. Ryo was sent sprawling in the dirt and Kuro crashed into the man in question both of them going down in a tangle of dirt, sand, wood, and flesh. The attack was tough and Ryo struggled to find his air, and get his body back onto his feet. He was far too slow no sooner had he gotten to his feet than he felt a powerful blow to his chest driving the air from his lungs.

Looking up at the man who was now standing above him he coughed violently trying to get his breath back. The man sat down next to him smiling “Yes, I knew your father. He sadly passed away shortly after I met him. His wolves were really amazing you couldn’t tell they were puppets at all. I had thought he was using Kuchiyose until I saw him break his puppet apart in order to try and encase me in it. He was spectacular and I was very impressed with him. You my friend are following, in his footsteps very well. He would be proud of you. You had no chance here, but you landed some blows and for that you have my respect.” He stood back up dusting himself off before nodding his head “Take a minute and rest boy. Once you are ready to walk and can breathe, properly then you can head on home and your reward will be there. I'll be around the village if you want to have a more indepth discussion about your father.”

With that he left Ryo alone on his back in the sand of the village looking up at the sky tears flowing down his cheeks as he heard that his father would be proud of him. He didn’t know his father and neither his mother nor his sister would talk much about him. So, to hear this about him from someone who clearly respected the man was touching in a way that was beyond words. Slowly, he rose to his feet sometime later and looked to Kuro walking over and kneeling down he picked up the puppet’s head kissing its snout gently “I will continue on this path and be an even better puppeteer than my father was. This I swear.” He said as he quickly went about sealing away Kuro back into his scroll. With his puppet in hand he rushed home his heart in his mouth, and his soul overflowing. He had a puppet to make and woe betide the creature who got in his way.


WC: 1260