The Invention Must Be Protected [P,NK]

Nero walked with pain down the streets of Kirigakure, a broken man. For so was his most cherished possession, perhaps only a close second to the Character Development, an heirloom from his family. But this, broken possession was dear to him for different reasons. It was his, after all; created by him after hours of design work, and even more hours of artistry. It was his beloved masterpiece, dubbed "the invention™", now tragically broken straight down the middle. "I trusted him..." Nero thought, he was barely able to hold his tears back, "My best friend, my closest friend! The one I could- the one I thought I could trust more than anyone else... Alas, I was betrayed. I only left that little dog with him for but a few hours. AND I THOUGHT THE DOG WAS MY FRIEND TOO! Shame. Shame on Kite, and shame on the dog... I still can't believe it. The dog. That little, cute puppy. How could he be such a powerful beast? One strong -and merciless- enough to destroy such a well-crafted masterpiece. Nay. A PIECE OF ART. How dare they? How dare the dog break it, and how dare Kite look me, his close friend, in the eyes and simply say 'Sorry'? They will pay. Yes. They will both pay. Those monsters...". He took a few deep breaths. "Either way..." he thought to himself, now a little bit calmer, "It should be okay. It can still be saved. In fact, this is not a day of tragedy. No. This is a day of opportunity. While I'm setting aside time to get the invention™ fixed, I can also be working on some improvements. Since I must admit, even though it IS a great invention, it's still nowhere near its potential in terms of usefulness.".

The invention™, in all its magnificence, was simply two buckets tied to a broomstick with short ropes. Now the broomstick was broken in half, with each part being tied to a single bucket. "It was elegant in its simplicity." Nero thought, tears once again forming on his eyes, "It was beautiful.". He rubbed his eyes with his hand and once again took a few deep breaths. It was a technique he was taught by one of his teachers in the academy, to be done every time Nero needed to control his emotions. "It will be alright, Nero." Nero said to Nero (he thought, but he couldn't really tell the difference between thinking and thinking out loud sometimes) "It'll all be alright.". He kept dragging the invention™ down the streets, looking for some shop that could help him. Though, he might have missed a few shops that could be useful, simply because he was busy with his monologuing and his dramatic looks at the broken broom. "I tried, friend." he thought, looking at the broom, perhaps hoping that they had some sort of magical telepathic link, "I really tried. Don't say I gave up on you easily. I first checked if you could be still used like before, but no. I couldn't hold you on my shoulders anymore, because it was impossible to balance you anymore. And then I thought, maybe it was a point of revelation, maybe it would be like if a great sword was split in two, and now they could be dual-swords. But that didn't really work out either... Wait.". Nero started looking around once again. An idea seemingly inspired him and so now he was more excited and more focused when looking around for the shop that could help him. "Maybe... Just maybe... You can become even stronger, friend... Even more useful than before... I promise you, you'll be the most useful ninja training tool known to man. One day...". After walking around for a little while longer, he saw a banner that sounded promising, written in red, "Seiteki Repairs". Nero went in through the wooden door, half a broom and a bucket in each hand.

*Jingle Jingle*


The bells on the door rattle their customary warning, and Mr. Seiteki looked up from his desk in the far corner.  He had some device under a magnifying glass, and the tweezer and soldering iron in his hands didn't move an inch as he raised his head.  Hayate should be home again soon.  He barely had time to talk to his exhausted son when the genin had arrived home last night, tired and just wanting to rest.  He had slept away most of the morning, and then had to head out to meet one of his ninja friends.  Maybe now they'd have a chance to catch up a bit more, see how his son was feeling after the exams.

Sat back against the patterned divider that split the room into a smaller hidden working area (on the left as you entered), with the larger selling area on the right, he looked all the way across the room to the entrance, over the plain wood tables against each wall laden with electronics and appliances ranging from rather new to definitely used, each with little pristine price tags stuck to them.

No, this was a .... Customer?  The rather tall young man wore the headband of the Kiri ninja, but held in his hands were some sort of broken pile of buckets, broomsticks, and rope.  He had entered with the urgency of someone with a sick child cradled in their arms though.

"Can I help you, son?"  Mr. Seiteki carefully put back the tools in their holders, turning off the iron.  He should really keep them behind the counter, but he couldn't help wanting to be in the store area AND working on a little something.  "I'm afraid we're mostly gadgets and appliances here.  I dont have much in the way of ... brooms and what not."  He gestured loosely at the pile in the mans hands.


"What'cha got there, anyway?"


If Nero was reluctant to say, Mr. S would shrug and say suit yourself, feel free to browse around.  If he explained, Mr. S would ask what he was looking for, and/or tell him to browse to see if there was anything he liked.


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Nero had a blank expression when he first walked in, trying to cloud the sadness that was fueling him. He was at least feeling a little bit inspired though, which helped him hide his emotions a bit better. As soon as he saw the person welcoming him though, his blank expression would leave its place to a kind smile "Hi." Nero answered, looking around a little bit, taking most things in before he would meet the person who Nero assumed was either the shop owner or the manager, judging by their age. "Umm... So, I want to leave my invention here to be improved a little bit,...". As soon as he said that, Nero realized that he had spent all of his money on ninja stuff, and didn't have any for repairs at the moment, so he had to go a mission to be able to pay for the job he was about to ask for. He needed and excuse, fast. He continued, "...and maybe I can pick it up a few days later? I won't have much time. I'm VERY BUSY nowadays. Missions left and right, all the missions in the world. So... It's not a problem if I leave it here now, and pay when I... Oh wait.". Nero then realized he didn't even tell the shopkeeper about the invention or what he wanted done with it. "I... I'm sorry,..." Nero said, putting the broken broom with a bucket on each broken half, towards the man so he could see clearly what it was, "I guess I should say what I want first. Ummm... You see, I'm trying to build the most useful ninja training tool in the world. And I know, it's already impressive - I mean it was - before it was broken. But, I'm trying to improve it and also I want to get it fixed of course...". 

Nero realized he had run out of breath to be able to talk so much. "I...". He took a deep breath. "Sorry, I was saying... Ummm... Yeah, I want it fixed in such a fashion that I'll be able to take the two parts apart whenever I want to. Sort of like a mechanical lock, maybe? That will click together and apart with ease, but not unintentionally? Also, maybe you can give it a better polish? I didn't really use the best material when designing it. That's the general thing I'm going for here. You think that'd be alright? Also, heheh" he laughed awkwardly, "I happened to forget all my money at my super secret training hideout, which happens to be in a land far away. Is it alright if I make all the payment when I come back to get it? Thanks.". Nero smiled, and was about to shut up so the man had time to answer, but he realized he had missed an important part. "Oh by the way," the Genin said, "All rights are reserved and belong to Nero Yuki©.". He would then smile and wait for an answer.

The owner of the shop would put his hand on his chin, staring intently at the pile of junk.  He knew all too well the tinkerer's mindset, and took it seriously.  What seemed like a pile of scrap parts to some was a fully functional vcr or tape player in the hands of someone right the right mindset.

"Hmm, well we could perhaps put a lock here"  He indicated the broken part "but it would be stronger than this wood.  We could use some steel bars of course, but that would be more expensive...."  He trailed off in thought for a second until the bells rang again.

*Jingle Jingle*


"Ahhhh Hayate!  C'mere, cmere."  He smiled and waved his son over.   "My boy here is a shinobi too, he just came back from showing those Konoha folk what for at the Chuunin exams." He beamed, explaining as Hayate weighed the tediousness of this engineering stuff vs the price of just exiting to the house section.  The teenage genin decided to finally join them, walking over.

Standing just under half a foot shorter than Nero, a mop of messy blonde hair spilled over Hayate's Kiri headband, parts of his bangs dangling in front of his brown eyes.  He still wore his dark combat pants, held up with a blue belt complete with kiri buckle, and brown ninja sandals, but as he was technically still recovering and not on active duty, his normal armor and compression shirt were replaced with a plain white t shirt, emblazoned with the symbol for "ACTION" in a stylized manner.

"Hayate!  Your fellow ninja here was working on some training tool, but obviously this wood wasn't strong enough for fellas like you, eh?  We were thinking maybe some steel, what do you think."  Hayates old man always naturally attempted to include him in stuff like this, despite him never really showing any true interest or aptitude.  It was just in his nature to get really into this stuff, and want to bring in those around him.

"... Sure dad, seems fine"   Hayate paid him the lip service without being disrespectful before turning to the new guy.  He made a short bow to his fellow ninja.  Nero seemed older, and very few ninja were newer than Hayate's almost four weeks now, so Hayate figured he must be addressing someone more experienced.  "I'm Hayate, by the way.  You get him going with this stuff and he'll even forget introductions."  Hayate shot a look to his dad, and the old man looked sheepish, but buried his face more into studying the device in front of him.  Hayate took a moment to look at the clearly improvised device.

"... so what exactly are you training for with that?"  He cocked a thumb over at The Invention.


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Nero smiled and listened carefully to every word the man said. "Yeah steel sounds nice." Nero answered "I mean I'm okay with spending a little bit more, since this will be for training, and I need the best material of course; but I think I'll need specific prices, so I can uhh..." Nero tried to recall what he made up to make up for the fact that he had no money at the time. "Umm...", he finally recalled correctly, "So I know exactly what to bring with me, when I go to the faraway land and pick my totally-existing money up.". Nero was kind of worried deep down that his tries to charm the man into letting him pay later weren't going to go so well. He was also kind of underwhelmed with the reaction he got from the invention. He thought any technician, repairman or craftsmen would have been impressed with the simple elegance of the invention, if not the genius ( or he thought so - he was less sure of himself now) design it had. Either way, Nero was determined to work on this until this training tool will be undeniably the best in the world. 

*Jingle Jingle*

A sound like that was of course enough to gain Nero's attention. It was in fact surprising how Nero hadn't noticed that sound when he entered the store himself. He chalked it up to have been really worried in the future of his invention, the invention . Even before the man introduced the kid, Nero's eyes were scouting Hayate, the name and the look kind of ringed a bell to Nero. "Did I maybe see him at the academy? Or around the village maybe, at some point?" he thought then he realized he was probably not looking like a nice person, watching the kid with a blank expression like that. He shook his head to distract himself from his thoughts, to try to focus on the present. He then smiled and bowed to Hayate. "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Nero". He offered his hand to Hayate, as he had the kindness to  "Wow." Nero thought, "So he represented Kiri in Konoha. That's sounds pretty great.". "Congratulations." he said to his fellow ninja, "How did the exams go for you? Was it ummm... A tournament? Was it like the Blood Games?". Nero was sincerely interested in hearing about the exams, and the kid's travel to Konoha. He had travelled to Konoha before, or the surrounding area; but that was years ago (close to a decade by now). And he was in love with the idea that he might one day be able to represent his village one day, in tournaments.

He kept looking around the store while talking to Hayate. "Oh you wonder... I... So... Let me give you the full representation." Nero said, going for his invention, until he remembered it was being worked on at the moment, and broken even if it was free for his personal use. "Uh right." he said, turning back to Hayate. "So you'll have to imagine a bit." Nero said, taking a position to show Hayate how useful the invention was. He started moving his hands up and down, mimicking raising the broom above his shoulders as if it was a weight at the gym "You can train your strength..." Nero said, then moving into a position where his arms reached as far above as he could, and he put his right foot on his left leg, right under his knee; practically balancing himself on one leg, "You can train your balance." Nero said, "And since if it rains all the time in Kiri, the raindrops start filling the buckets, and it gets heavier the longer you train.". He then went into a motion where he mimicked swinging two blades (one in each hand) in a circular motion, each on one side of Nero. "And soon... You'll be able to train weapon skillz.". He actually pronounced it with a "z". It was by mistake, but there was no going back now, so he pretended like it was his intention.

"Wait..." Nero then said, stopping all motion, "Did you ask what I was training for? Oh, sorry I kind of went off on a tangent there. Ugh... For the love of generally becoming stronger, I guess; or maybe more specifically to be useful on..." He then realized the story he had told and corrected himself, "I mean MORE useful on missions. And maybe for the next Chuunin exams or the Blood Games? Just maybe? How about you* Now that you're a chuunin, I assume - I don't really know how the exams work and how many people get promoted - What was I saying? Oh yeah, what are you training for, when you do?". "Did I sound like a dumb-ass?" Nero thought to himself, "I think I sounded like a dumbass... I hope I didn't sound like a dumbass... Or... God, hopefully that wasn't... Uncool...". 

Nero was feeling kind of awkward,. Not because of the store and the people at all though. No, the place had a homy, and friendly feeling to it; and both the man working on his invention and his son (as far as Nero could tell - he wasn't sure if the man meant it in a literal sense or not) were more than nice to him. More so in fact than most people he has met in his whole life. "I... Should I..." Nero was unsure... "I really want to train with this guy. Hayate, I think it was? A chuunin exam attendee, with obviously more experience than me and more than likely more general ability. It would be a great opportunity for me... But I think I should hold myself back. It sounds like it's been a short time since he came here. He must still be tired, from both the exams and all the travelling he had done. Maybe though... I should ask, just in case? I don't know, either way I can hold that question in a little bit longer. I'll try to pick up if he'd be okay with training in the meanwhile.".

A handshake.  Hayate paused for a second before reaching out to accept the young mans grasp as Nero continued to talk.  At the mention of the chuunin exams Hayate once again quickly turned his head to lay eyes on his farther, eyes narrowing, as his father shifted to examine a part of the device that he definitely found interesting and hadn't been over already despite the simplicity of the invention.  No sir, not avoid his son's gaze at all, just interested in the thing.

"Thanks", Hayate replied perfunctorily to Nero's congratulations and question, once more looking at him.  "The exams were ..." He searched for a word to encapsulate the whole experience, the fierce Kiri pride in the face of being treated as outsiders giving way to exhilarating yet tough fights, then to the blood, sweat, tears, and pain.  The hollow emptiness of sacrificing so much, putting winning ahead of near everything else, and still coming away with nothing to show.  It was too much to convey, yet it was still fresh. He settles on "... alright, I guess.", looking slightly down and away as the other ninja occupied himself looking at gadgets.

Nero's interest definitely perked up when he began to talk about his invention.  Great, thought Hayate, another one just like dad.  He could almost see their images superimposed, so similar was the way talk of that sort of thing completely took over their brains, like flipping a switch.

"I'm still genin" He correctly quickly, flatly, and definitely.  "I barely beat the Konoha ninjas, but my training partner Asami was the winner.  She's chuunin now."  Asami.  He hadn't seen her since their return, when they both mutely walked away.  And before that, the final round.   They had both been recovering in Konoha, and neither made it a point to search out the other.  And after returning, they didn't talk either.  He wondered just how different things would be from now on, and if it would be permanent.

Hayate shook his head slightly at the boys next question "I've got orders of at least one more day of recovery before I can resume training."

Just then his farther spied a good opportunity to jump back in.  "So I've been looking at it and I think we could do all the supports in decent steel for (material cost), so then we'd add in (labor cost) to get to (total cost)."  Hayate took this opportunity to walk a few feet to the desk his farther was at and sit down, stretching out his legs, watching the pair talk.  The soles of his feet were a bit sore where the stab wounds used to be, before being healed.   " Now if you really wanted, we could perhaps put in some light up touch sensors here" Mr. S pointed to a spot on the device " and here for about (cost) each, and maybe even suspension cable here and here, to provide more resistance?  Thats about (more cost) per foot."  The middle aged man kept rambling on.   "Of course you could leave it here if you wanted.  We start work when we get half as a down payment for materials, and the other half at the end.  Or you could take it back and think a bit."

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"Oh." Nero said, hearing Hayate was still a Genin, "That's cool. It's nice that you beat all Konoha ninja you matched against, that's worth something in my book.". He smiled at Hayate. Then he was overwhelmed by everything Mr. S told him, but he tried to listen to him as carefully as he could. "Ok. I'll consider all of those while I'm getting my gold back from the Lepri- I mean getting my ryo back from my Drago- hidden lair. I don't know about the touch sensors though. Maybe they'll take away the simplicity of the design? Either way, we'll talk when I get back. Thanks Mr. Seiteki - that's your name right? I guess I'll leave the invention with you, and you can start when I get you the payment. It's cool.". "Damn." Nero thought, "My genius tactics of trying to get Mr. Seiteki to start the work ahead of time didn't work. It's fine though, I'll just come back here as soon as I'm done with a mission. This shop looks like a place I'll be visiting occasionally. I'll come here with more of my genius inventions to get them engineered.". He looked around, took everything in; and pure joy could be seen in Nero's face. "This is a nice shop." he added, "I'm looking forward to come back already.".

It had been a long day for Nero. His one true love, his beloved creation was destroyed; and he didn't have a lot of courage that he would have been able to save it. It was lucky (or maybe even fate) that he had come across this place. And he was grateful for it. His heart was finally beating normal again, and his breathing wasn't playing a melody of anger and anguish, but one of calmness and comfort. He was sure that his invention was in safe hands. Now all he had to do was figure out what he wanted it to become, and work for it. And he was ready to do both. "I still have a lot to do..." he thought, "Before everything else comes the invention though. Once it's done, I'll be able to train even more effectively, and set further goals that I'll work on as soon as this one is finished.".

"So..." Nero thought, "It started off as a general training tool; but now it's turning into more of a weapon training tool, specifically. Maybe I'll end up requesting it to be turned into a weapon? Maybe? Anyway I'll have quite a bit of time to think about things. Maybe I'll go over the design once again while I'm at it.". He then turned back to Hayate, "So what are you doing right now? Do you have work or wanna hang out? I would love to hear more about the exams; if you want to talk about them of course. And if not, we can just spar or something, I don't know.". He opened the front door of the shop, and stood in the entrance, waiting for an answer from Hayate. "Wow." Nero thought, "That was surprisingly easy when it came out naturally. And here I was, worrying about whether or not I should've asked him for a spar or not. Let it go, Nero, go with the flow. It'll be alright. It'll all be alright.". He was happy that he came across a Genin that seemed to be around his age. Most ninja that Nero either knew or knew off, were either other Genin who were regularly as young as 12 years old. And anyone who seemed to be remotely close to Nero's age was either a Jounin... Or, as far as Nero had heard, even Mizukage... "That must be like a record or something..." Nero thought, "Kage at 20. Who can compete with that? How is that even possible by the way? When did you start training? When you were 4 years old? If it was the Hokage or something, I would have guessed it was just a weak person who either got put into that position because of political reasons, or found an opening to claim Kage since anyone stronger was not around. But the Mizukage? How? How's that guy that much stronger than me - in my imagination I mean, maybe the truth is not that scary... Or even scarier... - when we're at a similar age. Damn it Nero, you're doing it again. Don't work yourself up over this. It's okay, you just happened to start your ninja life a little bit late. You still have your whole life ahead of you.". A single tear went down Nero's face, that he managed to hide by pretending to adjust his headband, taking it out (and deceptively cleaning his eyes with it), and putting it on his right arm instead. "Whatever kind of life this is...".

Depending on Hayate's answer he would either bow to both of the people in the shop, thanking them both once again; or leave with Hayate, saying goodbye to Mr. S and waving at him.

Mr. Seiteki just smiled as Nero went on about this and that and the other thing.  He nodded when they boy said to hold onto it, it wouldn't take much space.  "Alright, I'll just put it back here, if you ever need to collect it, just bring this receipt".  He retrieved a pad from his pocket, tearing off half of the top sheet to hand to Nero, taking the other half to put with the device.  He'd disappear behind the divider, finding a place for it under one of the tables and getting it situated.

That left Nero and Hayate in the main area.  Hayate calmly watched the other genin scan the tables again, joy in his face, head clearly swimming with ideas.  Yup, clearly one of them.  After a bit the young man turned to Hayate again, asking more about the exams.

Hayate shrugged at the request to hear more about the exams.  "I guess I'm free.  Like I said, I'm not supposed to train or anything for another day or so."  He called back to his father he'd be out for a bit, then got his feet under him, stood up, and headed to the door where Nero was.  He had a brief rest, his feet would be ok walking a small bit.

If Nero didn't immediately lead to a place, Hayate would go take a seat against the front of the building, back leaning against the front wall.  "So... what do you want to know."  He'd ask, not sure exactly what to say now that they were on the subject.

If the other genin instead clearly had a place in mind, he'd ask where they were going.  If it was far he's suggest a small set of benches just a street over, a small cleared area which clearly used to be a lot a store was in.

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"Ah, sorry I must have missed that the first time." the Genin answered to Hayate saying he was in a day off. "Shame, anyway, another day then.". Nero didn't know many places in the town. He just knew the training grounds, his friend Kite's house, and his favorite rooftop. And he even got lost occasionally when he was walking between those 3. So, he followed Hayate to the set of benches a street over. "So..." Nero asked, "What were the leaf ninja like?". He said that in a semi-interested and semi-sarcastic voice. He knew what the general public in Kiri thought about the ninja (or even the people in general) from Konoha. "That sounded a bit sarcastic, sorry." Nero clarified, "I'm actually curious. Did they give you any challenge? What kind of bloodlines did they have? Any of them stood out? You must have a fair amount of understanding, you came in 2nd place after all. That's an accomplishment.".

This question was coming from Nero part out of pure interest in the subject, and part wanting info on possible future rivals. "In the next Chunin Exams, I might be fighting against the same foes Hayate has faced. Wait... I might even end up facing off against Hayate himself. Nah, I don't think so. He came in second place in the exams, he'll probably be promoted long before the next exams.". Nero wondered if he was ready for the Blood Games, if it happened to take place today. "I've progressed a whole lot." he thought, "I don't think I'm ready though... That's... I don't know how to feel about it. Maybe I need better weapons, maybe I need to be faster, stronger. I definitely need to learn a lot of new jutsu though. I guess that's the area I lack in the most. Yeah. I better visit Furui's shop more often. Wait. Oh right. I still have to take care of that... Happening...". Nero had kind of let go of his investigations the last few days, since he was sure that the people who attacked his old friend would show up in his doorstep, and that they would've been coming for Nero. They did not. Nero only ended up wasting time, doing nothing important the past week. He made his mind up that day that he was starting his investigations once again. It was time that the people who attacked the helpless old man were brought to justice.

Nero sat on one of the benches, "This is a nice place." he said, "I didn't even know a place like this existed in Kiri.". He then created a kunai out of ice, and started examining it, listening to Hayate if he answered his questions/statements. "It's still not perfect." he thought, "But they're getting better. Hell, this looks like an actual market-bought kunai, but out of ice.". "So... You're not really interested in your father's business, I assume? Engineering? Is it fair to call it that, even though the shop's name is 'Repairs' ?". Nero noticed that Hayate didn't seem to be as interested in the craft as his father was. "Maybe that's why he became a ninja?" Nero thought, "Maybe it's just to make money? Maybe he loves both? It's interesting still, that his father seems to be so in love with his craft. I really respect him for that. I hope Hayate loves being a ninja half as much.". 


[Mid-thread Claim; 3601 words;

18 stats, 3000/3000 words for Shadow Clone Jutsu
601 words towards Dynamic Entry ]

Approved