Today, he would aim to remedy that. He had already sent a call out to a couple of his friends, the Soul genma host Junpei and his organization leader Rika. And of course, though he sat alone right now, Makoto was only a stone's toss away, watching the boy while leaning against a palm tree. She didn't like to get directly involved during the boy's training, unless he asked for her as a training dummy or something of the like. No, Takuma was free to develop just as he saw fit, she was only there to ensure his safety and the safety of those around him.
And develop he would, starting off with his puppetry techniques. "So let's see... The basics of puppetry. Poor Tokage over there does nothing until I put my strings on him and bring him to life, but the strings themselves are chakra." As he spoke, Takuma was suddenly surrounded by his space - like Chakra, mostly black with white specks throughout as if looking at the night sky. This chakra would then flow through his body into his fingertips before slowly falling from his fingers in the form of strings of chakra. As he manifested his puppetry jutsu, the black and white strings would quickly surge towards his basilisk puppet Tokage as he flicked his hand towards the wooden creation. And once the strings connected with the mechanisms within the large weapon, Tokage suddenly sprang to life, floating towards Takuma as he pulled in his middle finger towards himself.
"I don't think I'll ever get tired of the feeling I get when I bring you out to play, buddy." The young jinchuuriki pat his puppet on the head with his other hand as he spoke to it, as if the thing was a living, breathing creature. "Let's see if I can teach the old puppet new tricks though... I've had a couple ideas brewing in my head lately." As the boy spoke, he'd thrust his hand outwards towards a nearby tree, surging Tokage towards the tree until it reached the tree, some 15 meters away from him. It was actually rather close to Makoto's position, but she didn't fuss over it - She knew that the boy wasn't currently using her for practice or anything. When he got like this though, he just seemed to lose track of where everyone else was. His thoughts were elsewhere, working out the details of some new technique... She'd simply move a few steps away towards a rock and lean against that instead.
"Alrighty, I've got some distance now. I can make Tokage do a bunch of stuff, but I'm still limited to what the puppet can do. I'm sure I can use these strings for more than just controlling you, buddy... I'll bet I can send a jutsu through you." It was an idea that had puzzled him for a very long time - he could cast jutsu from himself, creating numerous crystals to use for different purposes, but could he send the jutsu to his puppet instead? It'd be an immense tactical advantage if he could cast a jutsu from his puppet, perhaps catching an enemy off guard as it emerged from a different point. But truth be told, he had never tried it... What better time then now?
Gathering chakra throughout his body, Takuma once more began to glow with power as he prepared to release a crystal wave from himself. Normally, the jutsu would extend out from his position, following the thrust of his hand as they surged forward to impale whatever was in front of him. However, instead of sending this chakra out through his hand into the earth like normal, he'd funnel the chakra gathered through his fingertips and into his strings. With a keen eye, Makoto would watch as purple chakra would rush from Takuma's fingertips along the strings connected to his tenketsu. "Oh... you clever little bastard..." Makoto muttered to himself as the chakra surged towards Tokage, a satisfied grin on Takuma's face as his jutsu seemed to work.
A moment later, Tokage himself was glowing with chakra. Takuma would flick a finger and shift his hand, causing the puppet to raise one of it's front limbs and slam it down on the ground in front of itself, releasing the chakra from the strings into the ground at the puppet's feet. As it did so, the blue goldstone Takuma was known for would burst from the earth and rush forward in a straight line... towards Takuma. He was so pleased with the results of his jutsu, that he had forgotten that the puppet was facing him "Get out of there you idiot!" Makoto called out, and Takuma yelped with fright as he literally jumped out of the way of his rushing crystals, tumbling along the ground with a huff as they surged past where he was standing.
Tokage fell limp as Takuma ceased focus on his strings, and the boy simply grinned and laughed at his own blunder "Heh... At least the jutsu works..."
973/900 words for the following jutsu:
JutsuShow
[Puppetry Style • Elemental Jutsu Transfer]
C-Ranked Ninjutsu
The puppeteer will prepare an elemental jutsu, then channel the chakra for this jutsu through their puppet strings and into their puppet. In doing so, this allows the puppeteer to cast the selected jutsu from their puppet instead of from themselves. Doing so costs no additional chakra, but the puppetry strings will glow a certain color depending on the element being channeled through the strings, and the channeled chakra travels through the strings at a speed equal to the speed of the selected jutsu.
C-Ranked Ninjutsu
The puppeteer will prepare an elemental jutsu, then channel the chakra for this jutsu through their puppet strings and into their puppet. In doing so, this allows the puppeteer to cast the selected jutsu from their puppet instead of from themselves. Doing so costs no additional chakra, but the puppetry strings will glow a certain color depending on the element being channeled through the strings, and the channeled chakra travels through the strings at a speed equal to the speed of the selected jutsu.
