Wall Watching Episode 2: Attack of the Bandits

Mission Details:

In the time he had been back in the village of Sunagakure, something interesting had happened to Kensai. He had consistently proven himself one of the most active individuals around, taking every mission that would come his way, and yet he was still constantly saddled with bullshit caravan guarding or wall guarding missions, unable to make any real money or gain any real field experience because of the fact that everyone else in the village was apparently slow and useless at their jobs. It seemed like the leadership of the village was against him at every turn, even when he was simply trying to be active and make some money, and he was about ready to jump ship somewhere else. If this hadn’t been his home when he was a child, and were many people he enjoyed working with or talking too not here, he would have been long gone by now, off to find greener pastures. As it stood, he was at the wall again...

The Samurai looked out past the wall where he could see...well a lot of sand realistically. His vision was good to a point where it legitimately didn’t make any sense, fine tuned to a point where the horizon line was the limit of his perception, and with his bow in hand he would trace the bandits who were currently far out of his range, estimating he had quite a bit of time before they would even come close to the walls. Their “hidden” village wasn’t overly well hidden, with a skyscraper in the works and two rivers running through it it would completely stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of the vast desert. You could see the skyscraper from miles and miles away, even if your vision wasn’t even close to being as fine tuned as Ken’s way, and it made the village easy prey for large groups of bandits...good thing they didn’t tend to be overly strong or all of the weak shinobi in this village would have been long dead and Ken would have had to abandon ship and kill his way into another “hidden” village.

He could sense several different chakra sources moving about the village, his sensory range encompassing the full thing at this point since it wasn’t an overly large village, and the familiar feeling of the odd but friendly Shiro could be felt making his way towards him (or somewhere nearby, wherever he would choose to place himself when the time came). Even though the last time they had gone on a mission together Shiro had clearly not been intended to come along with him, this time it seemed like he would legitimately be accompanying him and, as he watched across the sunlit desert, a white linen robe covering his dark armour to keep the heat down, he wondered if he would have found himself a weapon or learned more techniques in their time apart. He wasn’t expecting much, every person he had worked with thus far had been fairly useless, save for Ei and Azuma, but he didn’t mind...more blood to sate his own particular flavour of bloodlust.

The Samurai would frown as he thought of his stunted progress once more, imagining if he hadn’t been stuck here waiting for so long he could be retaking the Iron Country for his people once more, but as it stood that currently looked like it was a long time off and the Samurai would continue to live under the thumb of the pathetic shinobi for a while longer yet...

Chakra – 109.5/110 Sensory
(20 exp)

In the time he had been living in the village of Sunagakure no Sato, almost nothing interesting had happened to KShiro. He had consistently proven himself one the most careless individuals around, taking only the easiest of missions that would come his way, and so he was always perfectly happy with wall guarding missions, unable to make any real money or gain any real field experience but that's okay because he only really needed money for [s]dolls[/s] puppets. He was in fact very glad that everyone else in the village was apparently slow and useless at their dangerous jobs because it meant he didn't have to do those either. It seemed like the leadership of the village didn't give two shits about him, especially when he was trying to be as inactive and making some money at the same time. He didn't plan on going anywhere in a foreseeable future. If he had any worse luck, he would perhaps have been long gone by now, off to find greener pastures but only because he wouldn't be able to find his way home again.  As it stood, he was happily at the wall again!

Shiro and Kensai were two very different people. but that didn't mean the two of them couldn't work together! Oh no, not at all! In fact today fate had decided that the two of them would once again work together. But Shiro cwould have never guessed how. You see, Shiro liked guard duty. It was easy, simple, and it paid relatively well for someone with his level of expenses. But he liked it mostly because it was easy and it was one of the few jobs he rarely ever managed to fuck up at.

So Shiro would have never expected what was to happen in that afternoon. He was "meditating" in a complex yoga position called "Seat-agains-the-great-sand-wall", two hours into his four hours shift. His eyes were closed because this was obviously how he managed to achieve a better level of concentration during his mediation process. This time he had been placed upon a middle level of the wall. But due to the wall's construction nature, the shinobi on the lower level were unable to see him while the ones on the upper level were actually focused on their jobs and scanning the horizon for danger. So Shiro knew it was pretty safe to sleep. Or at least he so assumed, but at this point he was interrupted by one of his fellow colleagues.

"Oye, oye Shiro wake up."
"Huh, wa-what?" he would say, waking up suddenly and still feeling a bit drowsy. There was a a bit of hush hush going around. He would scrub his eyes for a moment before yawning and finally paying attention to his colleague who was looking at the horizon.
"There're a lot of people moving over the sands, towards the village. Isn't that a bit suspicious?."
"What? No, not at all. We're expecting an attack, according to the scouts report. Some bandits who got salty after we destroyed their hideout and hit a bunch of them in the face. It's fine, I was assigned to the team that's supposed to meet them in battle." He was still half asleep and unsure of what he was saying, but the look his comrade gave him was very suspicious, so Shiro stopped to think for a moment.

Then he looked at the clock on the wall that the guards used to change shifts. He felt like he was forgetting something... "Oh crap, gotta go!" He had completely forgot he was supposed to meet Kensai at the top of the walls!

Shiro raced up the massive stone buildings immediately, only to find Kensai already positioned and ready to roll as usual.

"Oh hey,sorry I'm late I... I got lost on the way here." he would say amidst tryin to catch his breath. "How many do you count?"

Ken listened to the scuffle of footfalls as the young Shiro approached him. He generally disliked spending his time with anyone below the age of eighteen, choosing to avoid the majority of ninja because for some reason they seemed to always be like fourteen or some ridiculous shit like that (bloody child soldiers), but this one was different. Ken felt like he was someone to be protected, someone who at first seemed like a weed, but turned out to be more like a fungus, attaching to you and growing on you. Kensai himself, being ten years the boy’s senior, felt almost a paternal instinct kick in with Shiro around, and it made him chuckle. He hated to admit it but he liked the goofy kid, even if he generally disliked most shinobi.

“Don’t worry about it kid, we’ve got a little bit of time. They move like shamblemen compared to most of the ninja I’ve encountered in your little village...I count at least fifty, but to be perfectly fair I can’t see through people so there could always be more...my vision is completely ridiculously good, but even I’m not Superman.” He wondered if he should mention the massive war machines that the bandits seemed to be toating with them, giant catapults that could rock the walls with relative ease. He wasn’t sure what the village had done to piss them off so much, but he was sure the hundreds of bandits he had killed over his past several missions may have had something to do with it. He was willing to take the blame for it if need be, and would enjoy cutting down a few more.

“They’re a couple k out, I’ll be able to shoot them pretty soon...but I really don’t want to waste arrows. They’re fucking expensive and I’m poor. Good thing they’re paying us for this shit.”



Chakra – 109/110 Sensory
(40 exp)

Shiro placed his palm over his forehead to cover the sun and try to see what Kensai was seeing. But he couldn't see much. I mean, he could see a few silhouettes in the distance but he could absolutely not distinguish between man, machine, animal or maybe even mirages. He glanced at Kensai and then back at the horizon in frustration. He'd asked how many the man had counted, but he wasn't expecting a serious answer. "How the hell are you managing to count anything? All I see is a bunch of ants!"

Little did Shiro know that those trained in the arts of kyujutsu were also known to possess tremendous eye sight, far better than that of an average shinobi. The fact that Shiro could see any movement at all at this point was only because the sunlight was just right in reflecting off the bandit's armor. It would take a while for them to get here tho, and Kensai seemed talkative so Shiro obviously took the opportunity.

"What do you mean you're poor? You're wearing all that fancy clothes and super cool armor. Your words do not match yer outfit, good sire!" This much was true. Kensai was ridiculously well armored for someone who claimed to be poor. But Shiro understood little of the samurai way of life. Shiro would sit down and cross his legs as well as his arms. "Look, I'm not one for pointing fingers but I think this one is on you mate. You were waaaaay too into killing them last time out on the field. You need to have a little fairplay with these guys, otherwise they get too emotional and overdo it, me thinks." He'd nod to himself, convinced he was right.

"Can't we just pick up the arrows after we're done? Wait, do you even have enough arrows?"

Shiro asked about how Kensai could count the “ants” in the distance which brought another chuckle from the Samurai. “I’m not going to lie, I don’t understand it myself. I’ve been training with a bow since I was a child, much younger than you are now, and I’ve always had ridiculously good vision...It honestly makes no sense to me but I just use it to my advantage.” When Shiro asked him about being poor and his outfit and whatnot he would shake his head. “All of my money went into this armour. It is stamped with my family crest. When I came back to the village my father, the Samurai who trained me, had been killed and his armour stolen. This is a step towards restoring my family’s honour. As for how I can be poor...” He would let out a sigh and move to pull out another cigarette, briefly thinking of offering one to the teenager, but deciding against it after last time.

“When I returned the war that had created this village had destroyed my home. I came back to literally nothing. I’ve spent the past year living in a pile of rubble that used to be my family home. All of the money I’ve made has gone into buying weapons and armour so I can properly take on work again. I want to be useful to the village, even if I don’t affiliate myself with it. The Samurai try to stay neutral in the affairs of ninja...but this is still my home.” He would laugh once more at the question about picking up the arrows after.

“We could try that for sure, though I have fifty arrows and it is definitely not enough to kill everyone. I’ll try to pick off the men who are steering and operating the catapults first, at least without those we will stand a better chance of actually surviving this battle.” He would knock an arrow, now that they were within his 1.5km range and fire, watching as one of the men at the catapult would fall dead in the sand, causing a small amount of panic in those around him. “I do so love watching the moment they begin to feel fear...I wish I was closer to really capitalize on it...By the way, have you picked up any more tricks?”



Chakra – 108.5/110 Sensory
(60 exp)

Shiro paid close attention to Kensai as the man told him his story. In a way, it made him feel jealous. Not that he wanted his family to be murdered or anything, but Kensai's life seemed to be filled with adventures and battles, the kind of life Shiro had once dreamed with when he first joined the ninja academy in Sunagakure no Sato. But of course, this was a very romanticized view of Kensai's life. Shiro had not gone through the emotional losses this man had experienced and so he didn't exactly know the extent to which he wanted to avoid it.

Shiro had a serious expression on his face. Those who didn't know him might have thought he was somehow reflecting on Kensai's hardships, but the man should know him better at this point. Shiro was worried for sure, and about Kensai too, but for all the wrong reasons. "Kensai-san, I think you might be poor because you smoke too much. Those things have to be expensive in a village who can't grow tobacco... But you can come live with me if you want to. I own an apartment of my own, you know? Not the nicest part of town sure, but there's plenty of robbers to kill... we really do have a problem with crime. But they're not so bad once you get to know them..."

Shiro would watch as Kensai knocked an arrow into place, drew the string and gracefully released it. He could barely keep track of the arrow as it flew rapidly through the air and Shiro's perception wasn't high enough to keep up with it. But he did see an ant fall, and although he did not shoot the arrow Shiro could sort of understand the joy of hitting a target from so far away. "Nice one! But you wont get much far that way... I have an idea. Try aiming at the catapult itself. But you have to let me know before you release the arrow! I wanna try something."

Shiro's coy smile would show up on his face. The same smile that made its appearance whenever he came up with a new devilish puppet design. He would make three hand-signs and focus his chakra on Kensai's arrow, waiting for the countdown.

After Kensai released the arrow, its size and weight would increase by a factor of ten, making it basically a very large and powerful harpoon considering its momentum and speed would not decrease at all. Shiro laughed like a maniac little child when he saw the effects of the jutsu. He had practiced it before to increase the size of his marionettes, but this was the first time he was seeing the jutsu in actual combat,

-----------------
Trained:
Ninja Art: Shuriken Giant Body Technique C-rank

This fucking kid man, too pure...

Kensai couldn’t help but smile when the young man had offered him a place to live, honestly not sure how anyone can be so kind when they lived the shit-show life that shinobi tended to have to deal with. He had officially turned around completely from their first meeting, becoming someone Ken would protect to the end...which was a bizarre thought. It wasn’t as though he wouldn’t do so for others, but this kid was a different kind of precious and innocent, and Kensai wanted to make sure that was preserved, as the world was clearly a better place for having him in it...even if he was a bit of a goof.

“I appreciate the offer Shiro, I really do. I live with my childhood friend, a woman who I protected when we were both wandering in caravans. She’s a medic and a merchant in town, maybe you’ve met her? Her name is Karasu, but she tends to go by Kara.”  He had honestly never really considered the hit that cigarettes had put on his wallet, rolling his own tobacco...which of course wasn’t the easiest thing to come by, but he always managed. He liked the act of smoking, and the release that the feeling of his head swimming would give him.

When the boy suggested that he would help Ken if he shot at the catapult, Ken simply took aim. He didn’t like the idea of losing an arrow to one of the machines, but at the same time he wanted to support the kid and his ideas, deciding to just go with it and loosing another arrow at the machine. He was impressed when the arrow grew, a technique he knew himself but honestly hadn’t thought of using for something like this. He generally didn’t like to rely on using his Ki, preferring to let his weapons speak for themselves and falling upon what the shinobi would call “chakra” in only the most dire of situations, but when he watched the massive arrow smash into the catapult and, with the considerable amount of force it had launched from the powerful longbow, destroy the construct, he nodded.

“Well, that was pretty damned impressive. You did learn some new tricks. I’m impressed kid...if you ever want learn from a master, feel free to let me know. I’d be happy to train you.”

I’ll protect him...I won’t let the shinobi destroy this precious flower child.

The panic in the bandits was increased tenfold, and Ken could basically taste their fear from here. They were just people after all, they weren’t necessarily equipped to deal with an assault from shinobi or Samurai, even if they did outnumber them by a significant amount.



Chakra – 108/110 Sensory
(80 exp)

Shiro's eyes widened when he heard miss Kara's name, and his gaze would shift from the horizon back to Kensai. It seemed that these connections between Sunagakure no Sato's ninja and "outsiders" went deeper than he realized! The last and only time Shiro had met Kara was when he had been picking up herbs at the wall and ended up interrupting Kai and Kara's meal. Well to be fair he hadn't really interrupted them, they still got to eat. And drink! Shiro just joined them because that's what mateys do. But from that meeting Shiro drew a perhaps too rushed conclusion.

"You live with Kai's girlfriend?! Does he know? " he let the question slip off his mouth but he regretted it almost immediately afterwards. Obviously not because he had realized how stupid it sounded, but mostly because he didn't think he was anyone to judge other people's choices! If they wanted to all live together like a happy family, it wasn't Shiro's place to comment on it! He pondered for a bit. This was going to be complicated...

"Well I guess she could move in too...it would be a bit crowded but I think I can move the puppet studio to the storage room. It's empty anyways!" The mental gymnastics on how he was going to fit all of those people in there was tiresome. But he didn't regret it- Kensai had said he appreciated the offer! So Shiro was truly considering it.

Shiro blinked at Kensai when he complimented him. He was not used to this kind of treatment and so he wasn't quite sure how to react. Shiro simply hadn't been socially trained to take a compliment because it happened ever so rarely. "Oh, erm, well. err." his gaze would shift towards the ground. Suddenly Kensai's presence was very imposing, even more so than usual. "I'm not sure I have the ability to learn any advanced stuff from you, Kensai-san. I'm really only decent with puppets you see, and currently I have none." hearing himself say that almost made him cry. But Shiro was a strong boi! Ninjas didn't cry, even the ninjas who always got stuck on guard duty!

"I did have a couple, but someone broke into the apartment and took them. That's okay tho, I'm saving up to make new and improved ones! Oh!" he suddenly remembered something. "I need to change the locks!"

The bandits were quite unsure of what to do at this point. Reluctantly they still advanced towards the gate leaving the remains of a catapult behind. With all of Shiro's talking, the two defender's attack patterns were very unpredictable because the timings seemed random, as well as the size of the projectiles.

Shiro’s question caused Ken to raise an eyebrow and shake his head, surprised at the comment. “Kai and Kara aren’t dating. Kara is too smart for that...and is a very picky person. I imagine there is a chance he would know, but I really am not sure. It’s not generally something I lead with in conversation.” He was curious as to what kind of interaction the young shinobi had wandered into between the two of them for him to think they were dating, but decided it wasn’t really worth pressing. He would let loose another arrow, killing yet another bandit as Shiro would talk about how she could move in too and Ken would smile once more, the young boy clearly not understanding that he meant he didn’t need a place to live, but he didn’t want to burst his bubble. This was a very kind and generous young man, and Kensai was happy to find someone like him in this harsh shinobi world.

“There is much you can learn from me Shiro. I am a warrior, and a survivor. I have lived by myself in the desert for two years and survived off the land. I can teach you how to protect yourself in other ways besides...did you say you work with puppets?” He could sense a shift in the young man’s tone as he spoke about them, and he felt terrible when he explained that someone had stolen him. He knew how that felt, having had that happen to his sword, his bow, and his family’s armour. It seemed they had a couple of things in common. “I’d like to see that some time. I’m somewhat ignorant to shinobi powers still, and have yet to see a puppet user. But there is still much you could learn from me.”

The bandits were within a kilometer now, much closer in fact. Kensai imagined that within the amount of time it would take for him to write about four hundred words or so, they would likely have reached him and Shiro. He was itching to pull out his swords anyway and truly get to work on removing their stain from the world, creating a shadow clone of himself and handing it the bow and arrows as he prepared to meet them head on. “I’ve still got the Kusurigama if you want to borrow it...”

(100 exp)
Trained: Shadow Clones

It was Shiro's turn to raise an eye brow when Kensai said that Kara and Kai weren't dating. But they sounded so perfect for each other! Both their names began with K!Shiro did in fact know very little about Kai and much less about Kara and could notin true honesty make this kind of judgement properly. But whether it was done properly or not mattered little to him. "Really? That's news to me.... but I know he finds her very pretty! He said so." He'd nod to himself as he spoke out loud. Man, people could be complicated sometimes.

He'd then suddenly remember yet another fact and bump his fist into the open palm of his other hand. "Oh I know! Your name starts with K too! Maybe you can date her!-Oh look, they're so close now." Shiro interrupted his train of thought as he looked upon the bandit lines coming up. He really did talk a lot, it seemed. "Well Kensai-san, if you say there's something a guy like me can learn from a guy like you, I'll believe it. Whatever it is you want to teach me, I'll do my best do learn. I promise."

He would then get up and begin stretching his arms and legs, getting ready for some exercise. Usually he'd be worried about the amount of bandits, but with Kensai by his side Shiro's worries seemed to vanish quite rapidly. The man was above all, reliable. Shiro would look upon Kensai as he made the clone and handed the arrows. A smile would instantly show up in the boy's face as Kensai mentioned the Kusarigama.

Like a child who had found a long lost toy, Shiro would speak. "Oh yeah, that was fun last time! Let me borrow it again, will you?" Assuming Kensai would, Shiro would grab the familiar tool and feel its weight once again upon his hands. He'd then look upon the horizon, and back at the bandits. He was totally getting ready to jump!

Ken would actually chuckle at the implication that he should date Kara, considering he had known her since she was younger than Shiro and he was not, in fact, interested in the opposite sex. He would nod when Shiro said he would learn whatever he would teach him, and Ken would keep that in mind for later. He could think of a few things he could teach Shiro for sure, and looked forward to his chance to undo some of the shinobi influence on him. When he mentioned the Kusurigama he watched Shiro’s eyes light up and he would hand it over. “Be careful with it...”

He would watch his clone pick off a couple more bandits from his position on the wall as Kensai would focus his Ki once more, moving it into his throat and inhaling deeply before spitting out seven focused balls of wind at the opponents, putting a few of them into the sand to kick up a small sandscreen as he would jump off the wall and the other four lighting up one of the bandits and piercing into him as Kensai would place his thumb on the Tsuba of his katana and popping it as he drew the blade through the suffering bandit to end his miserable existence. He would look a nearby bandit in the eyes, narrowing his vision as the demonic visage of the armour and the blade would cause the individual to quake with fear before his life was ended.

“You fools...you’ve come to the Devil’s playground, and now he has come for you. None of you will leave this place alive, the sands being your tomb as you fade into nothingness, just like your contribution to this world...die with some honour at least...” Two more would quickly fall as he could hear the sounds of blades being drawn around him, keeping track of where young Shiro was with his sensory technique.

(120 exp)

Trained - Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere

Shiro would diligently nod as he received the Kusarigama from Kensai. Truth to be told he was excited! "I'll be careful, I promise!" He would take yet another moment to appreciate the well crafted tool and perhaps even reminisce the memories he already had with it. Shiro held it close to his heart, and as Kensai focused his Ki and shot a wind jutsu Shiro would wrap his right hand's fingers around the weapon while his left hand held the chain.

From here on, this would be nothing but fun. For someone who hadn't ever killed a man up until a couple of days ago, Shiro was adapting rather quickly. But Kensai made it look to natural that Shiro couldn't help but get used to it, and the way the older man spoke about bandits removed any trace of humanity from them, so Shiro didn't feel bad at all. He would then proceed to "be careful".

"BANZAAAAAAI!" he would yell as he carelessly jumped off the wall, landing on his feet and then rolling on the sand for a bit to soften the fall before he got up a few meters away from Kensai. "Yu'rullakd bleh, BLEH!" he'd spit some sand that had gotten up on his mouth from the roll. Man, he had missed an excellent opportunity for a cool phrase! But Kensai had already gotten way ahead of him, "Yeah, what he said!"

At this point some blade were already out of their scabbards. One of the bandits would make a vertical downward swing attempt to slice Shiro, but the Genin casually stepped aside. He could have taken the opportunity to take out the bandit, but was insteadvery careful not to fall over as he stepped. Shiro tended to have some bad luck in these kinds of situations, so he was being extra careful.

"Like a fork!" He'd say out loud as he dodged yet another similar attempted slash with a sidestep and stabbed that bandit's back with the Kusarigama's blade. It really was like using a fork. He could have tried to block the katana, but Shiro's borrowed Kusarigama was too pretty to risk being scratched by someone bandit's weapon. He'd attempt to remove the blade from the man's man as he fell, but to success- "Oh my, it's stuck!" Stuck between ribs! Shiro would look around and then back at the blade, casually trying to pull it out as a few bandits surrounded the now weaponless Genin.

Ken would glance over towards where he had heard the young ninja say that it was stuck, using his impressive reflexes to dodge and parry a strike back into the chest of a bandit, cutting him wide opened before kicking him off of the blade and quickly dashing back towards the boy, popping out the wakazashi with his left hand and striking down two of the bandits who had come to surround him while the clone put an arrow into the back of the skull of the third. Ken prime would look up at the wall and nod as the clone would wink at him and knock another arrow, keeping his aim towards anyone who decided to come for Shiro while he was working on freeing the kusurigama while Ken went back to work.

He would hold the two blades at his sides, drawing an imaginary line in the sand that no bandit would pass as he would be prepared to slice any of them down. Nothing would harm Shiro, and no bandit would make their way into the village as Kensai would notice there were far more than he had originally thought. He would play defensively for a few passes, letting a couple of bandits move in to face him before smirking and focusing that Ki into his leg. He would perform a spinning heel kick, taking the heads off of any bandits idiotic enough to be within his range as he unleashed the powerful attack, before looking back towards the hoard as other guards from the village joined in and began to fight with them. He was disappointed as he saw one or two of them fall, unimpressed in general by the seemingly weak guards, almost as if they were disposable side characters in his story...

(140 exp)
Trained – Nadeshiko-Style Hardliner Revolving Cut

Shiro would keep on trying to pull the Kusarigama out of the man's body, completely oblivious to the kind of tactical situation he was in or the protection Kensai was giving to him. He would shift his grip on the weapon and try to pull froma few different directions, until it finally came free. He had been pulling as hard as he could however, and as he pulled the weapon free and it stopped giving resistance to his pull Shiro would fall on his butt. The weight at the end of the chain would also be pulled and make an arc above his head, landing straight on an approaching bandit whi was coming from one of Kensai's flanks.

Quickly, the boy would get up and look around in search of a new target. There were a few other Sunagakure no Sato shinobi joining the fight. Shiro couldn't help but be impressed by these individuals' sense of duty. The fight between Suna's guards and the NPCs was pretty even, with men falling on both sides. Shiro widened his eyes as he saw a bandit making a large gash on one of the guard's legs. He's immediately run towards the scene as he simply could not allow that man to die. "Oye, leave that one alone you bastard! He can't die, he owes me money!"

Not wishing to make the same mistake he did the first time, Shiro would swing the weight at the end of the chain instead of the blade and would smash yet another bandit's skull. It had been a sort of sneaky attack, from behind. But Shiro didn't mind playing dirty at all. One of the bandits who was coming at him would suddenly look at Kensai instead. This one was brave, clearly. The bandit had noticed its fellow criminals struggling against the samurai and decided they'd do better if they ganged up on him. "Oh no you won't!" Shiro would say, extending chakra strings towards the man's legs as he changed direction and began running towards Kensai.

The strings would land on the man's waist and Shiro would pull as hard as he could...Only to be made painfully aware of the poor quality clothing these bandits wore, as he ripped off the man's lower clothing and was left with a bandit's pants in his hands. The bandit didn't seem to notice it tho, and kept his enraged and now pantless run towards Kensai.

The clone would continue to drop bandit after bandit with precision shots, no arrow wasted as Ken would keep track of where each of them had fallen, wanting to get every one of them back by the end of this if possible. He would glance around him, Shiro having gotten up and moved towards some of the guards and leaving Ken to deal with the bandits at this side of the wall. He was okay with this, and without having to worry about the boy he could let loose a little bit more. His clone would ensure that no harm befell young Shiro anyway, and Ken would loosen up and begin to have a little bit of fun, stepping in on a bandit and opening his throat with one fell slash and smiling as he felt the warm blood coating him before the bandit fell to the ground, two more seemingly instantly taking his place.

One of the bandits who was approaching him, for some reason, wasn’t wearing pants. Ken wasn’t sure if this was an intentional thing to confuse him or if the man had simply forgotten to put them on and was now living out one of those terrible dreams people would always claim to have, but he didn’t really care. He would end the bandit’s suffering soon enough, for now giving him a swift kick to the sternum that would crack a couple of ribs in the process and cause him to clutch his chest and fall to the ground, a sharp pain able to be felt as a blade knicked his back. Ken would spin around and dispatch his assailant, unhappy that he had managed to be cut, though at the same time understanding that there was no way he would be able to get out to get out of this fight unscathed. It was just an unreasonable expectation and hope. He would turn around to the pantsless bandit once more and bring his blade down to remove his head from his shoulders, kicking the head away and showering the bandits behind him as he tried to tune out the very obvious smell of the fear that they felt at the sight of the man so easily dispatching their friends...

“You should have never come here...”

(160 exp)

Shiro watched as Kensai completely and utterly destroyed the pantless man. Was there no compassion for someone who seemingly forgot to wear pants? That could have easily happened to Shiro, you know... Alas, in his distraction Shiro let a young man approach him and had to make a real effort to dodge the edge of a spear with an awkward side-step. He'd look at his opponent- still a mere child very much like him. But this bandit appeared to be even younger, since the kid was shorter and skinnier than Shiro. Either he was younger, or very hungry. Perhaps both but Shiro didn't have a lot of time to feel compassion as the kid yelled and attempted to stab Shiro a few more times. Still with someone's pants in his hands, Shiro dodged each and every stab. He wasn't very strong, nor very fast, but he could easily see the child's attacks and Shiro's natural puppet master fighting style made his moves very efficient. He didn't need to be fast if he only moved as much as he needed to.

He ended up wrapping the man's pants arond the edge of the spear, pull it and approach the boy hitting him on the foreheard with the handle of the Kusarigama. The boy didn't die but was immediately rendered unconscious. "Oh hey look Kensai, I got threeee now!" He'd glance at the samurai waving the Kusarigama's blade in the air. But Shiro quickly noticed how rapidly, efficiently and ruthlessly Kensai was dispatching men and suddenly felt bad. He was underperforming! "Oops, seems I need to up my game!"

Glancing back at the kid, Shiro got an idea. He extended chakra strings from his left hand's fingers and took control of the unconscious body making it pick up the spear. From that moment on, the battlefield was as much his playground as it was Kensai's. He'd make the child charge his enemies and with lightning fast stabs it would take down four enemies within a few seconds by stabbing them in the eyes, neck or stomach. Controlling the child was a bit awkward for Shiro as the kid wasn't exactly a puppet, but it was close enough!

In his right hand, he still held the Kusarigama and would swing the height at the end of the chain to take down enemies who got too close for comfort. Oddly enough, it seemed that anyone who got that close tended to fall to arrows.

Kensai would smirk as the kid would proudly tell him he had defeated three bandits, taking a glance over and seeing him pick up a dead body with his chakra and using him as though he was a puppet.

He really is full of surprises...

It was fun to watch the kid work as Ken would simply play defensively for a little while, reacting instinctively to each attack that came his way as he took a minute to watch young Shiro work. “Good job Shiro, keep it up.” His tone was kind as he would encourage the youngster who was now supporting some of the fairly useless guards and doing a fairly impressive job at it. Ken took pride in his ability to dispatch his enemies efficiently, and it seemed as though Shiro was taking the same kind of pride in his work.

Kensai would begin to dispatch the men who had began to pile in around him, several swift strikes taking them down. He would feel a spear plunge into his left shoulder and it would enrage him, causing him to drop his wakazashi for a second, which he would catch with the top of his foot while grabbing hold of the spear and pulling it free before yanking it so the bandit would go flying above him. He would kick the Wakazashi up and plunge it into the spearman’s chest, letting go of the spear and grabbing the handle of the Wakazashi once more as he allowed the man’s momentum to do the rest. It was a somewhat disturbing display, but Kensai had taken a few wounds this fight and didn’t want it to eventually become an issue...

(180 exp)

Ah, the joys of "sort of" having a puppet! Shiro had almost forgotten what it felt like to be able to send something or someone into battle with complete disregard for safety or worries about being stabbed in the face. He did like to keep his distance! The boy kept manipulating his victim into a frenzied rage of stabs. At first most bandits were confused by this and hesitant in harming a comrade, but after seeing such a comrade put down five men twice as tall as he was, their minds changed quickly.

Shiro would soon find out that while the kid was light and easy to manipulate, he wasn't very durable. Soon his victim's clothes would be tainted with red and his legs would stop responding as they should. It was a bit disappointing since Shiro had been missing puppets so much he was actually starting to consider finding a way to turn this dude into a permanent puppet. Alas, that sort of technique would need to be left to a different time as this guy had run its usefulness course. He would glance at Kensai to see how he was doing, only to watch him getting stabbed. Clearly getting stabbed was part of Kensai's plan tho! Because as soon as it happened, Kensai grabbed hold of the spear and sent a man flying over his head. What happened next was one of the coolest stabbings ever, as Kensai kicked the Wakizashi up and Shiro watched it go into the man's chest. The ending was also pretty cool, since he grabbed the Wakizashi back just as the men fell while letting go of the spear.

"Okay I'll admit that was pretty cool, but we don't get extra points for style!" If they did, Shiro could never hope to win this competition. He would pull on the chakra strings and use his victim as a throwing weapon against a bunch of bandits who had the poor judgement of standing too close together. "But I should definitely get points for the lack of new holes in my body! This is new...I must be improving!"

Little did Shiro know that the only reason why he hadn't taken a spear to his own body was because anyone who got dangerously close to him would end up mysteriously dropping to ground with an arrow sticking out of somewhere in their body. Shiro didn't notice this, but he did notice the bandit's newfound hesitation in attacking him. They'd all keep their distance due to the previous arrow deaths. "Look, they're afraid of me! Bwahahahaha!"

He considered calling his clone off of protecting the boy to show him a little bit of humility, but at the same time he really didn’t want any harm to befall him. Young Shiro was simply enjoying himself, and Kensai didn’t want to punish him for that. He was a good kid after all. Ken himself had already been stabbed a few times, and he wanted to make sure that wasn’t going to happen again, sharpening in his focus and moving to try to get to the back of this line of villains. That itself was a funny thought, not that he was trying to get behind them, but that they were villains, as I’m sure currently they thought the same of him. He would begin to run to the back, moving quickly and dropping bodies left and right as he carved a path towards the most important looking bandit. When he finally made it to the more powerful feeling bandit he would stand in front of him and speak.

“Call your men off and I won’t kill all of you...you have my word.” The bandit would simply laugh at this as Kensai simply frowned.

“That’s a good joke friend. Since when did Shinobi start dressing like Samurai? You should be begging for your life right now. You’re outnumbered a hundred to one, and you stand no chance.” Ken’s eyes narrowed as he was likened to one of those dishonourable shits the Shinobi, and his voice turned to venom as he responded to the bandit leader’s taunt.

“I am Samurai you piece of filth. And you may not have noticed, but I’ve singlehandedly removed a quarter of your numbers. Cutting you down would make you a statistic, simply one more pathetic bastard sacrificed to Kensai’s blade.” The bandit would continue to laugh as he drew his sword.

“Very well Samurai, you want me to call off my men? Beat me right here and now...”

(200 exp)

"Ooh?! They're trash talking! Hell yeah!" Shiro would cheer Kensai on as he noticed the man making a path towards an important looking dude. Man Kensai was smart, Shiro would have never thought of taking the boss first. To be fair, he was just too focused on surviving with the tools he had and although he had been doing well so far this didn't mean he would be able to keep himself healthy for the whole fight. "You tell him Kensai! Cut off his he-Oops," Shiro would step aside dodging a katana aimed at him. Now that Kensai had stepped forward to face the bandit leader the rest of the group had found space to converge on Shiro. The boy barely had any time to dodge, even less to counter-attack.

But weirdly he seemed to be successful in awkwardly dodging spear thrusts and katana slices. He wasn't graceful at all in his movements tho, not being used to close combat fighting. "Oye oye, let's be reasonable here fellows! I'm a ninja you know, I can do scary magic chakra tricks! YAH!" He'd take a couple of steps back and extend his hands towards the men. They seemed to hesitate a little, giving Shiro a little time to breathe.

Unfortunately. ninjutsu wasn't really the puppet boy's strong suit and there was really no technique he could apple here. So all he ended up doing was buy himself an awkward moment where the bandits looked at him in anticipation and he did absolutely nothing. After a moment, the glow of fear in their eyes began to change to one of anger. "Hey, no judging. I'm still in-training mmkay? I didn't tell you guys you all suck at properly using weapons!"

*Whoooooooooooooooooooooooosh* a dagger thrown from somewhere in the crowd would make its way towards Shiro incredibly fast, and its blade hit him right in his forehead. Shiro would have been dead at this point if not for the headband with Sunagakure no Sato's symbol, the metal protecting him from the sharp blade.

"Well geesh, I stand corrected! Right back at ye!" He would quickly pick up the dagger before it fell to the ground, and throw it with one hand while making three handsigns with the other. He was repeating himself, sure, but if the trick worked... The dagger would increase ten times in size and cut a path through the circle around around him.