Tinker tinker toy soldiers

[CDF]

While there was quite a lot to get used to in this new... existence, it was currently the corporeal part that was most disorienting. Hito could feel every squeak and creak of his body as it lumbered forwards. To any onlookers, he'd probably look like a fairly normal if not slightly awkward Suna resident going about their day, bundled up against the sun on their way into center. In reality, they'd be looking at a bundled up mass of earth posessed by a friendly kazekage's spirit.

Smiling at the self-narration, and not for the first time wondering if he'll always be able to smile and feel such simple pleasures, he reoriented his position and continued forward based on the mental map he perfectly visualized in his sight. Surprisingly, he wasn't finding that part difficult at all. He could project images onto his vision, he could manage inputs from multiple sources and he had even figured out how to pay attention simultaneously without losing control. But... the body made it so difficult.

The drones were much easier. They were already perched on the workshop's roof, waiting and watching his approach, showing the angle of his body from their point of view into his awareness. They were a lso simple earth constructs he had created and posessed with his own spirit, more of him just looking at him. Mentally shaking away the continued weirdness of that, he pushed open the door to the workshop and hoped it was empty.

He needed to make some makeshift puppets to house his spirit for all his plans, these earthen constructs were just not enough.

[Tsedas]

Shrouded in shadows cast by the warm light of lanterns, a figure sat hunched over a work bench. The room around him a large storage space converted into a workshop as a several humanoid figures hung in a macabre fashion that would make one's mind quickly think of a slaughterhouse. However, despite the grim shapes in the shadows, the light of day would show the truth when it flooded the space but for now the person seated upon the stool needed focus. To dim the world he had shut the large sliding bay door and closed the shutters on the windows. Garbed in a dark poncho of sorts, his fingers held small pieces and parts before a large magnifying glass as he performed delicate and intricate tasks for repairing and maintaining the mechanisms of his livelihood.

Ryousei Genkaku paid no heed to the world around him, the lantern on his desk providing the illumination of the only space that mattered to him in that moment. As his fingers worked a spring in place, his other hand shifted small gear mechanisms in time, winding the spring through the gaps of the gears with a practiced fluidity that made the task almost appear easy to perform. Working diligently he spun the final ring of the spring in place, slipping it past the gears before taking hold of the device and folding it back into it's retracted position.

Focusing his chakra, Genkaku made a visible string weave from his fingertip to the device, attaching to it before he manipulated the inner workings and released the latch holding the device shut. With a sliding noise, it whirred and clicked as the device extended out before a blade spring forth. Giving a satisifed smile, Genkaku reversed the mechanism and the blade retracted before he set about slipping it back into the wooden arm resting upon his work bench.

The Kugutsu user had been diligently tuning and repairing his puppet, Sabimaru, as the desert environment tended to play havoc on puppet components when sand got into the inner workings where most of the finer machine pieces were typical given a coating of oil to increase their longevity. This oil acted as a double edged sword as it made the machine work but it also acted like a glue trap for sand to stick to and do the exact opposite.

"Last hidden blade finished, now to reassemble." He stated to himself, turning up the light of his lantern before standing from his work bench. Reaching out to his sides, he gave a big stretch and a groan as he'd been almost monastic in the way he had stayed focused on his work.

[CDF]

Hito froze in place as his hand moved towards the door, he could hear activity behind it. He had to aggressively brush off the mental urge to gawk at how the hearing within this puppet was as exception as his real hearing. Brush it off as he try, it was just so interesting, just like the fact he could feel the sand whipping across his exposed "flesh". Simultaneously, he could feel his real flesh that he could not help but reach up and touch both with his earthen body and his real one that was far away in suna, pausing momentarily while multitasking this instance to feel the sensation of his skin.

Deep within him a bored sigh reverberated through his soul, reminding him what he was here for. Was it his imagination or was this relationship with his own spirit starting off a little.... parental?

Hearing the satisfied self-announcement of completion, Hito felt no further hesitation in slowly opening the door and inching his way in.

He didn't currently look like himself in this construct, he had instead taken the more incognito form of a food vendor he had seen on the way. He was nowhere close to revealing to the general public that he had returned and his plans could get quite hindered by that happening too soon. Given that, he felt no hesitation in bumping into people so long as they didn't start asking too many questions.

Giving a smile that he hoped seemed friendly, Hito continued walking in as if he owned the place. It was dark, but he immediately manipulated his vision to see clearly and decided not to question how this worked while he was in a puppet. That's a lie, a program was immediately created and was off considering the question and formulating some follow-up tests.

Spotting an empty work table, he focused first on creating a spot for himself and making it clear he knew what he was doing and had no plans to impose on the strangers work. As he did all this, he spoke calmly. "Hello there, don't let me interrupt you. Got some work that needs doing." Use the typical fake-strained tone of a person that likes to work but pretend he doesnt, Hito finally looked up at the stranger and his work station.

"Ah! A puppeteer, eh? Good man, not enough puppeteers these days." Hito parroted some of the things he'd always heard from older craftsmen in his youth, but did find the statement to be true.

[Tsedas]

The bright light of daytime was a stark contrast to the dull warm glow of lantern light that had illuminated the space. The silhouette that entered had Genkaku shift a hand behind his body as he connected a chakra wire from his fingertips to the blade he just reinserted back into the arm of his puppet that rested on the workbench. The figure was revealed as the door closed behind them and the lantern shown rays upon their features. The figure looked like a food vendor from down the way but something was off. He could have swore that man never smiled... or walked as upright as this person. Then the voice that left him wasn't the same as the original. Who was this man? Or Woman? Maybe it was a henge and a voice changing taijutsu but they didn't know the sound of the food vendor.

Genkaku was on edge and when that person walked up to his spare work bench, he almost flicked his fingers to send that arm hurtling toward them. Instead however he listened to their words before raising his chakra infused hand, the arm levitating as the hidden blade slipped out and exposed itself. "Identify yourself, you've walked into a private workshop. Not that I don't mind visitors, but you definitely aren't Asahi-san from the yakitori stand... Not that I wouldn't mind some free yakitori either." Genkaku watched the other man, chakra strings strung out to the other half complete puppets and they dropped off their hooks and collapsed to the ground before rising up like haunted spirits. "Don't take this as a knee jerk reaction, but given how the world is getting a little crazy these days I don't plan to let my little haven get invaded by a mysterious stranger eager to just use my tools for.... What even are you doing over there?"

[CDF]

Hito's transformed appearance did not even blink and instead just raised a quizzical eyebrow. It was a reflexive response, immediately pivoting to the easiest way to maintain the deception before remembering he didn't need to. The only pressing and truly concerning thing here was the thought process that led Hito to think this would have worked out well.

The ninja's response was entirely appropriate and even commendable. If Hito wanted to use a workshop without any issues, he should have left the moment he realized it was occupied or come up with a better scouted story. Considering he was in no danger and this was his very own village, however, it didn't matter all that much beyond the additional bit of evidence he still had much work to do on his own mind before he was back to full working-order.

Smiling at the cautious Jounin, Hito raised his hands to show there was nothing there as he began to speak. "You have great instincts, young man." Staying entirely still while undoing the transformation jutsu on him self, Hito would reveal the doton golem beneath. A crudely humanoid-shaped mass of earth with sand-filled joints. As he spoke again, he also began unfurling his own chakra strings but he made them invisible for now, letting them slowly inch forwards. he calculated their movement speed and trajectory perfectly to cause no disturbances, not even any irregular patterns in the air around them.

If undetected, they would reach out to every object that genkaku's chakra strings had touched and would hover there, centimeters away. "I'm in need of a new puppet, but I can't yet let it be known to all that I've returned home, only a few in Kazekage-sama's office are aware, hence the secrecy. I apologize for my clumsiness, but I can assure you, I am your comrade."While he could ont physically smile, one could be heard in his voice as Hito removed the invisibility from his strings. The goal was to show not only that he was a kugutsu user, and thus at least at one point a shinobi nin, but also that he was able of escalating this conflict had he wanted to. But he didn't want to. Just as quickly as they were made visible, the majority of the strings spooled back to his fingers and disappeared, while some others suddenly flitted about the room collecting supplies and dropping them at Hito's work table. "It's been quite a while since I've brought a creation to life and this puppet's going to be a rather tall order. I need it to look exactly like me. Help me build it and you'll figure out who I am."

Hito practically winked at the end of the sentence, though he had no eyes to do so. A throng of sensations and questioning voices resounded within his mind, all echoing the general feeling that this was not the right tactic. Nothing about this ninja's serious demeanor indicated he'd respond well to this tactic, and this wasn't exactly a representation of Hito's normal personality and mentality.

What is this? Am I acting on an impulse from my spirit within me? Or am I just malfunctioning and dont yet realize it, like when I chose to come in here in the first place?

The stakes were low so he wasn't in danger or panicking, but it was certainly concerning and strange. He'd have to backburner it in his mind and monitor for now. Another part of his brain had already begun calculating percentage chances and formulating backup plans with the full expectation this was about to go sour

[Tsedas]

Genkaku's eyes watched the facade fade and a puppet show itself. Made from stone and sand, this elemental golem moved and it gave Genkaku a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was either that or he really wished for that free yakitori... Whatever the case, the thing finished speaking and revealed chakra strings that it had extended. This didn't improve it's standing as Genkaku watched it pluck pieces and parts from his workshop as he lowered his hand and crossed his arms. "Excellent, you're a human puppet and you're 'recently' returned. So former missing-ninja? I doubt that. Human puppet users don't exactly have a track record of survival and I have never heard of one being let back into the village."

The offer to help him build a puppet made the Kugutsu user lower his arms as he plucked up a tool and gripped it tightly. "I would need proof of your being a comrade before I can even begin to take what you say with a grain of salt. I'm not some gullible youth nor some happy go lucky tart who will fawn over an elemental golem as a puppet. You have done nothing but raise red flags since coming in here so don't expect blind faith or unerring trust in someone who does nothing but raise the hair on the back of my neck." Genkaku stated sternly as he approached the Golem. His eyes scanned across the creation and knew that normal weak points don't work in this scenario. Breaking the golem apart would do little as puppet parts can be manipulated just as well as individual pieces.

Looking at the pile of things that were taken, Genkaku knew that probably wasn't much of a chance of stopping this... man. "The only reason I'm helping you is because you just said you're clumsy and I'm not letting you waste my shit. Get out of the way and tell me what you're trying to do." Genkaku said, approaching the work bench as he pondered ways to figure this man out. For all he knew, once he knew he they were then this missing nin person would kill him to hide it. His best chance of survival for now was to cooperate and find the right opening to come up with a plan. Plus he really didn't want this free loader just helping himself to anything he wanted and making a bunch of waste. He didn't like people messing with his tools anyway.

[CDF]

Internally, some gears began shifting as a small fallacy dislodged itself and allowed rationality to work properly. Genkaku's response was a bit of an alarming wake-up call that brought back flashes of every interaction he'd had since beginning his moves towards the grand plan. In almost every scenario, he'd come across a similar reaction where Hito had come in way too strong and way too strangely. He had thought it was all calculated, but now it was all clicking that perhaps he was just justifying an error because it felt easy and right.

It was easier to just wrecking-ball his way into every interaction. By nature he wasn't the biggest fan of dialogue when he could be doing something tangible instead, and now that his mind was constantly active with near infinite-thoughts, memories and senses; he really was doing whatever he could to avoid meaningful conversation. But doing so could result in damage to The Plan as well as ultimately resulting in even more interaction because he'd have to do things like he was doing here, fixing the error of his approach.

Noted.

Simultaneously, his mind searched for any data he could find that matched up with the shinobi before him. He had a unique appearance, but that wasn't something often relayed in reports that weren't direct-hand accounts from incidents like battles. In the meantime, his deductions would have to do and they told him this man was interesting and potentially useful.

His reactions were spot-on, though admittedly he probably should be more aggressive than he was currently being, considering his very logical assumptions. That in-and-of-itself was attractive to the former Kazekage that had many potential plans that required a calm and cautious, but brutal and suspicious mind like this one was indicating itself to be.

Deep within him, a pulse of amusement echoed as the puppeteer brushed him aside to help after making very reasonable threats. It was a smart move, he'd been honest about his suspicious enough that a smart intruder would know better than to act recklessly, while simultaneously leaving the door open as a potentially rube and ally with the hopes Hito would make some revelatory mistake, at which point the Jounin would be within striking range. He seemed to also be considering that this wasn't the user's real body he was dealing with, and thus mindless aggression would be fruitless. Another point for this one.

Oh, this was Ryousei Genkaku! Finally, having not found any relevant identifiers in his records, Hito instead ran a mental program to imagine what Genkaku would have looked like before Hito disappeared, and then it all clicked into place and the recorded bits of the Jounin's history came flooding in from all the village data Hito had consumed.

"There's nothing really I can say to all that, except, of course, the obvious." He could not smile, and yet, he was certain he was managing to give off the air of a pile of rocks with a smile. "Were I an enemy, I would have either attacked or disappeared by now. I certainly wouldn't have entered an occupied workshop and continued this interaction once you saw through my disguise. Tell you what," His featureless golem face turned back to the workstation that Genkaku now commanded. "Help me make a basic frame to operate with, with 0 offensive or defensive capabilities, and I'll clue you in to exactly who I am. If it makes you feel any better, I can tell you that my real body is within the Kazekage's tower and it'd be rather late to care about this little old construct here if I were able to infiltrate so far while also being an enemy.

As for the puppet, I need something that feels human. I'm imagining a puppet that wil be possessed by another entity as opposed to being fully controlled by chakra strings, so it needs to be capable of perfect, human-like movement once it gains its own autonomy. All my attempts so far using jutsu have resulted in puppets that either make too much noise and are cumbersome, or puppets that adhere too much to the model I have in my mind, which depends heavily on chakra string manipulation.

He spoke without moving, and in fact hadn't done more than move his head ever since Genkaku brushed him aside.