Just a Little Gravedigging (Open-ish)

Max walks slowly, making his way towards the outskirts of town. As he walks by, he notes that most of the citizens of Kumo were hard at work, doing various tasks that Raikage Mortarion had seen fit of them. Their lot in life wasn’t all that bad though. They were given food, shelter, security. And all for the mere price of obedience. Was that really too much to ask of ones subjects? No, it was not. Most of their time seemed to be spent on things that were important to the village, such as reinforcing its impressive defenses. That was something that made the boy happy, as nobody should be able to just waltz into Kumo now. If an enemy dared step foot into this village, it would be crushed under the boot of Lord Raikage Mortarion. That is, if it is even worth his effort to do such himself.


“Why are we wasting our time here, Max? You sit there idle and watch the peasantry work while the enemies of Kumo spend their time getting stronger and preparing for an attack.” The puppet sitting beside Max would pipe up, questioning the boy wasting his time. “I’ve already spent the whole morning and afternoon studying jutsu theory and battle stategy and tactics. I don’t think spending a few moments here watching the people of Kumo toil away will severely impact my day, Napa. We have plenty of time to get in some real training.” The boy says back to the puppet. Max seemed to treat the puppet as if it were a real person, and the sight would be odd to anyone watching. A few passersby would mutter some things to one another, but they dare not say anything to the boy directly. He doesn’t take kindly to when people ridicule or mock him. “Did you hear them, Max? I think they were whispering about us.” The puppet creaked out pointing directly at them, his bony finger stretched out. “You think so, Napa? No, they are likely pointing out how thin you are getting. You really should eat something. You’re all bones.” The boy would say back, but this seemed to upset the puppet. “Was that some kind of JOKE?! You think you are FUNNY, boy?!” Napa would shout, almost causing a scene. Max would begin to respond, “No, I mean-” before being cut off by Napa, “Just get on with some training or something. Quit wasting our time.” With that said, Max would just nod knowing that his pal was right. They had wasted far too much time sitting around.
 
Moving at a casual pace, the boy would make his way over to the cemetery. He would normally spend a great deal of time here, as it was where he would draw out inspiration and motivation from the dead. Each grave stood as a reminder of what exactly Max had to protect. He had to protect the lives of Kumo, no matter what it took. Grabbing the shovel he had regularly used, he would begin to dig at the soil of a grave off towards the edge of the cemetery. Breaking into a sweat before long, he would hand the shovel off to Napa. “What exactly do you want me to do with this? Manual labor? Sheesh, you’d think I was some sort of servant of yours.” The puppet would now dig at the ground, going at a much faster pace than Max had. Most of the dirt was now removed, Napa looking over and questioning the boy. “Why do I have to do all the hard work, hmm?” Napa would ask, and young Max had a simple response for the puppet without missing a beat “Because it won’t kill you to do some manual labor.” Napa didn’t seem to take kindly to his jokes though. “I swear, if you make one more dead joke, you’re gonna be dead kid. Do you understand?” Max nods, again stopping when his “friend” asks him to. Letting the puppet take a break, Max would finish the job. It didn’t take long before the child managed to dig up the coffin in which lied the corpse of a long dead Kumo citizen. Grabbing a Kunai from his weapon pouch, the boy pries open the coffin, a cloud of rotting stench pouring from it as soon as the seal cracks. Max doesn’t seem to mind though, almost as if he does this often.
 
“Hmm, a lot of deterioration, but the skeleton is mostly intact. Good, it will be of use to us. Napa, pick it up and let’s go.” The boy ordered the puppet. Making haste, they take the corpse to a nearby place where he would begin to work on making it more suitable for direct control from the young puppeteer. “Napa, hand me that tool.” The boy stuck his hand out, waiting for the tool. “Napa, I need that tool.” This time a little more command in his voice. “I’m trying to relax, sheesh. Leave me alone for five minutes and play with your new toy. Can’t a guy get any R&R around here?” the puppet would complain. “Fine, I’ll get it myself….” Max picks up something that looks like a drilling tool, slowly shaving his way through the bones in various spots as to not crack and damage the bone severely. Max is creating places for his Chakra threads to anchor into, and so a puppet has been nearly created. It takes him quite a while to finish each of the holes, but after an hour or so it is complete.
 

Without hesitation, Maximillian sends out his chakra threads to give this thing a “test drive”. It takes a little bit to adjust to the minor differences in the weight and height, but before long the Genin has the basic controls down. Moving on to more advanced maneuvers, he makes the puppet do wide ranges of motions to help simulate a combat scenario. The skeletal puppet zooms around, making parrying moves and ducks as if a mock sword were being swung at it. “Whoopdy do, boy. Now if you would stop playing with your new toy, we have more pressing things to do in town. You are a Genin now, so act like it.” Napa would shout from the sidelines. 

AP: 145 (150 - 5 for Puppet Art: Ventriloquism)

WC: 1049

Claiming:
2 Undead Puppets (T-94x puppet, but since it just says it is humanoid, a skeleton should work; also, only dug up one, but I needed to have the word count for Napa as well, since I could not start with a puppet.)

5 Stats

Exiting Unless Someone joins and stops him (Only Join-able when he decides to go back to town as to prevent time-lining him not gaining the puppets.)

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