Within the grounds dedicated to the Arashigakure’s testing grounds for new and innovative technology, mostly weapons and tracking tech. It is a classic forested area with massive trees, two rivers, small artificial mountain with a cave system that even runs under some of the forested area. At the base of the artificial mountain is a ramshackle fake village, with buildings that vary in design but are mostly one to two story builds, with a larger four story building in the centre and a warehouse looking building that is actually built strong, used for actual storage and very secure. Surrounding the entire grounds is a massive fence with a large set of gates, that normally locked and shut, are now open to allow entry.
What could normally have been and likely did seem like a normal day to three little genin of the Arashigakure, did something of a more strange nature would be found inserting itself into these young graduate shinobi’s day. Despite what each of them were up to of where they were, a little visitor would make itself known to each of them, about as tall as the length of a forearm, in the shape of a person and made of paper with little inscriptions upon it. Floating through the air the little paper person would produce a scroll labelled “orders,” pulling off a string that had been locking the scroll shut, to then push the scroll into each of the genins hands so they may read its contents. The paper figure would float back and hang about in the air near each of the genin, seeming to observe them and await their reading of the handed contents, the letter within reading as such. ”Dear (Character name here), you are instructed to head down to the third test site of the R & D division for assignment, instructions and information will be provided at the site location and permissions and preparations for your arrival have been cleared, the paper person will lead the way for you. I look forward to your attendance, from Lilou Laflamme, Jonin.”
The little paper folk would wait around for a little bit, then when it appeared that each of the genin had finished reading the note it would beckon at the shinobi until they allowed it to lead the way, though would follow if the person they were with knew where they were going. The journey they would be brought to would be one of the villages island segments that few could say they actually visited, only a small part of it accessible to people who didn’t explicitly work or were sent there for one reason or another, it was the private testing grounds of the village and where a lot of its unique technology originates from. Each of them would would be eyed upon arrival and their approach to the entryway, though unlike the hassle most would get from the guards here it would appear these ones knew the genin were coming and after a simple look would wave them on into the grounds, through the large mechanical doors that could be shut on the drop of a hat. Finally after a good twenty minutes of walking from the entrance the three genin were finally presented with another large set of doors clearly meant to prevent entry into the test sites grounds, a large sign acknowledging it as test site three, complete with a series of warnings about potential dangers and potential live weapons/traps in areas off of and within non designated paths and a map showing the inner layout with coloured lines to designate safe and potential live test zones.
Through the partially opened entryway the group was led down the main safe pathway until the were met by a few sights, one of which indicated they were likely in the right place. What looked like a small town you would find off of the floating islands territory, more wooden and less modern, something akin to a mining town in appearance with only one building off in the distance that looked like it might belong. What would be more noticeable however would be the group of ten colourful and fur covered things, each with fake eyes and noticeably inhuman mouth on generally anthropomorphic forms that seemed to animate upon the groups arrival. These colourful muppets of various shapes and sizes wold wave at, hop, cheer and holler at the group to grab attention and draw them in closer. ”Hallooooo young shinobi, we am glad you got here with no problems!!!” A large blue entity with strange eyes that were obviously artificial with pupils that seemed to move with the jerk of its own head while it talked, seemingly the head of this strange group. ”I am in the knowing that the.. uhhhh, one…, two…, three.. THREE of you went to da academy together so me thinks you need no introduce yourselves to each other, however we am not knowing you…. SOOOoooo me would like each of you to tell me who you am and something about yourself, like this. Me am Nomster, Me am considered cool and know for GREAAATT wisdom, mmmhh yes!!!! Now you go!” He declared with large inconsistent animation in his volume and physical movements with the small, disproportionately stumpy arms it had, pointing a fat, blue fluffy finger at Neptune as the first of the three meant to introduce them self.
No human had made them-self obvious to the trio in the immediate, though silently and with no presence reveal Lilou had stepped out from the tree line and strolled up behind the younger ones while the Nomster talked. One of her hands was raised with fingers twitching to manipulate each of the present puppets, the blue chakra strings too thin for someone lacking chakra or vastly augmented sight to notice. Lilou had her usual gentle and more passive smile spread across her face, making sure to be standing just far back to escape any peripheral vision noticing herself, the Sun at the wrong angle to expose her shadow and as such no one would notice her frowning at Nomster and his declaration of being the wise one. If either of the students did turn back they would see a young, tall a** woman who carried a friendly yet thoughtful expression, definitely friendly but a hint of mischievous playfulness in her eyes, this nature likely betrayed by her approach. The only thing that gave away her shinobi identity despite being there was a headband sewn into her scarf and the three and a half foot tall scroll she hand slung across her back, if any of the genin were aware enough they would be able to identify that this was likely a contract scroll, being to large, old and detailed to have been made recently and not matching the style or make of most scroll produced in the Arashigakure. Lilou would give an acknowledging look and closed her eyes to blink a greeting as she would give a short wave before even a startled reaction of her reveal could happen and in time enough that if someone did reacted in a startled way, Lilou would simultaneously mimic the full physical reaction down to the expression, save for any vocalizations or noise.
Sakiko hadn’t expected to be bothered so early in the day. But there she was, sitting at her keyboard, when some… paper… thing slid through her window. It was propped in front of her, keeping the girl from looking at the music she’d placed in the stand. The red haired teen looked at the creature with an expression that was a mix of disinterest and irritation, watching it dance around on her piano. “Get lost.” She said, taking a swipe at it with her hand. The paper dancer dodged easily, which annoyed Sakiko further. As the paper construct rose into the air, she jumped to her feet and tried to clap her hands onto it to catch it. Sakiko peeked into her hands to see if she’d gotten it, but it started to slip out between the crack in her palms and float away. Sakiko let out a quiet growl and began to chase after the thing in order to imprison it, causing a commotion inside her lone apartment.
A few minutes and one bruised eye later, Sakiko was following the paper doll through Arashi. She followed behind with her hands stuffed into her pockets, pointedly staring away from the creature. But she kept it in the corner of her eye, and would occasionally flit her gaze to her leader. Just who was Lilou Laflamme anyway? And why did she want Sakiko? None of these questions would be answered as the pair arrived at one of Arashi’s technology testing sites. Apparently the paper doll was enough verification for the guards to let Sakiko in. Having been the last one to arrive, soon Sakiko would be met with familiar faces once inside: Nep and Hinata, from the Academy. Sakiko remembered that they’d taken their graduation exam recently, but afterwards she’d skipped so she didn’t know her scores… or got her headband. She silently approached the three of them, but said nothing, opting to keep her gaze locked firmly to the side like she was examining the nearby tech.
By doing that, she was suddenly met face to face with an army of puppets. “Ah!” She jumped back, holding her hands up like she was ready to fight. They seemed energetic, but not unfriendly, and quickly Sakiko relaxed back to her moody self. They were still weird, however. One in particular, a blue one with shaking eyes, began to speak to the group. The young girl’s eyebrow rose as she winced, unsure of just how to respond to this fluffy monster before them. It pointed at Nep to introduce themselves and Sakiko rolled her eyes. “Pass.” She said simply once it was her turn. She didn’t want to play games. She wanted to get this over with so she could go back home.
Hinata was standing in his room, deep in concentration. His hands held the signature seal of the nara clan’s shadow-possession technique’s, and he was pouring as much chakra as he could directly into his shadow. It had been over an hour at this point. He was exhausted from the effort he had been expending on this peculiar method of training he was in the middle of. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and began trickling down, dripping off of his chin and down into his shadow. Behind him, the door that allowed for entrance into this room had been taped shut. Every slight crack in its structure was covered. From outside, he could hear his mom calling for him.
”Hinata, what’s this paper thing?…… Hinata?” A few moments waiting for his response before she continued her calls, each one growing louder and angrier the more he ignored her. Eventually, she decided to break through his taped shut door and hurled a book at the back of his head. ”Don’t ignore your mother!”
Hinata released the control over his shadow and held the back of his head, groaning in pain. ”Mom!”Don’t ‘mom’ me, what’s this little paper man doing outside your door? Why is there so much tape?” Hinata turned and flashed an annoyed look to the little figure she was referring to. ”I think I’m being summoned. I taped the door up because it kept slipping through the cracks.”Well if you’re being summoned, then you have to go.””But it sounds like work.” His mom’s eye twitched and she held a fist up as a thinly veiled threat. ”Get your a** up and get out of here.”
Hinata quickly got himself ready and darted out of his home before she had a chance to show him exactly what she was hinting at. ”Jeez, she’s so pushy,” he mused at the thin paper man that was now leading him around. ”This is going to suck.”
After they arrived at their destination, Hinata being the second to arrive, he offered a brief ”Hey” to Nep, then a glance over the shoulder as Sakiko arrived. ”You two were summoned too, huh?” After they were led through the area and were greeted by a cavalcade of strange puppets, Hinata’s eye twitched in annoyance. Something he got from his mother, no doubt. ”Seriously?” When it was his turn to speak, he gave his name, but was clearly reluctant to do so.
Nep was in the hospital when the strange little paper man came to them. Honestly, Nep found the thing to be entirely as fascinating as it was cute. It was a much needed distraction from the horrors that often the hospital could have on a day to day basis. They would reach down for the paper man and rest it gently on their shoulder. "Come now little paper man. Show me what it is that you want me to see." Nep would say almost with a sense of wonderment. They would use the tiny dolls movements to guide them all the way through most of the village until the journey ended at some gates that seemed to guard a warehouse of sorts. The little paper man would jump off at this point and lead Nep further into the compound, Nep not really paying attention to what they were walking into.
Eventually Nep would find themselves upon several colorful creatures in the middle of everything. "What in the world?" Before they could really say much, Hinata would arrive. "O-Oh hi Hinata." Nep would smile a bit only to see Sakiko coming in not long after. It seemed the village had brought the youngsters back together. Though it seemed Nep was the only one that hadn't changed much physically. Something that didn't bother Nep one bit given they were able to change their body any which way they wanted. Nep would go to talk to her old academy mates before one of the puppets would spring to life, eventually introducing itself as Nomster. Nep only found this to be another thing to be fascinated by. "I'm Nep." They would say back to nomster. "I work in the hospital helping out all of the refugees." Though Nep didn't mind answering the puppet, it seemed Hinata and Sakiko were too cool for school on that one. It surprised them that they were perhaps the most enthusiastic of the group when really Nep was only responding out of courtesy. It made them laugh a little on the inside.
Well it was clear things we up to an excellent start her, Sakiko had chosen to totally pass introductions, Hinata gave a name but with the opposite of enthusiasm and then there was Nep who offered up information without resistance, though was totally straightforward. No real colourful answers here not unlike a disinterested crowd refusing to or offering bare minimum audience participation when called upon, something she was very familiar with. It seemed like their records proceeded them but through her little paper men she was able to glean a little more information about them, not feeling any regrets about her decision in selecting them to form a team so far. Not to leave her own introduction short The young Jonin strode through the group, turning about so as she completely passed them she would turn to face them, shooting them a bright smile while waving with both hands, her foot expertly and with hidden intention landing on a small rock wrong, flinging her foot up and the brown haired woman down onto her back and into a backwards roll, with two complete revolutions and leaving her sprawled on her back.
The medley of present puppets all watched as this happened, their gazes following Lilou’s path and the Nomster that had been speaking looking as thoughtful as one could while the woman began to sit up and then clearly deciding something, mouth beginning to flap ”Introducing my sidekick who called you here, LILOU!!” He yelled as several puppets produced party poppers and set them off around the recovering woman now waving a hand at them to not do something and then stopping and momentarily hanging her head as she was showered in streamers and confetti, now waving her hand to ward the colourful projectile out of her face and off of her self. Lilou brushed herself off after standing up to her full and sort of impressive height, holding a finger up to the group of students to indicate she needed a second then rounded on Nomster. Limbs moving and body language expression in a rather exaggerated form it would become apparent that she wasn’t actually saying anything but trying to present frustration and a sort of telling off at the lead Nomster who hands clutched together nervously as it lent back as if shrinking away with the occasional wince, finally the woman’s hands both positioned on her hips followed by a meek nod from fluffy blue puppet.
”Sooo it am possible me fibbed a little, this here is Lilou, she be a Jonin of the village and a Muppeteer, she says hello and that it’s great to meet you!” He explained with a little less hamming of the english language, Lilou having returned to facing the students and began to noticeably move her hands when Nomster stated that she was greeting them, using her sign language to feed them the idea she didn’t talk. Pointing to herself and then at the herself before continuing to sign at them the Nomster continued ”She am saying, “I would like to congratulate you all for your hard work toward geninhood of the Arashigakure, with such a title comes responsibilities and opportunities that every shinobi of the village are given and you all have been carefully considered and presented with the opportunity to step into the next level, that is to form a squad with myself.” Or it be something like that, me thinks…..Isn’t it great!!!!?” The words were expressed to inform these young shinobi of the fact they’d been assigned to Lilou, who was curious about though had her suspicions on how they might feel about this news.
It wasn’t like she was as silly as her self portrayal and she had read all of their files, they were capable but one might say if they were to sum a lot of things into a mundane two word description, they were a group of academic slackers. They skipped class, got into the occasional tiff, some worse than others, held a fair deal of reluctance and attitude, each never seeming to settle with a clique of their own friends so to speak, not loners but not more removed from the majority. With this their talents and abilities though developed were sorely in need of some polishing and the records could only offer her so much, as such she had dragged them here. Lilou let the Nomsters words hang in the air for a few seconds with a pause to let what was being said sink in before continuing he own hand motions setting him into more speech. ”We am decided that you all, um, should come here to meet and great, getin to know-um one another, mmm yeeesss!!! Ohhh and we not be forgetting, to see what you am capable of, mmmmm of course, yes! Does Nep, Hinata and Sakiko understand, this am making sense, yes? Be there any questions for Nomster and Lilou now maybe?” He finished with a shifted expression of puzzlement that Lilou also followed along doing a more quizzical look at the students, shifting herself into a very open posture to show that she was now all ears if they had anything to say. She wasn’t sure if what they had been told was enough, it was a little more than her old squad leader gave herself and at least she allowed them the time for questions, where by this point in her experience she was on the ground with a ringing head.
Sakiko cocked an eyebrow at the newcomer’s performance. Was this how they were supposed to be wasting their time now? The red haired shinobi shifted her glance to Hinata and Nep, as if she was expecting them to have an answer. The googly eyed puppet proceeded to explain the entire situation. This was actually the first that Sakiko had heard about having graduated her Academy test. She could have sworn that she’d failed it. Not that she cared, but she would’ve bet her life on it. So the Genin crossed her arms and looked at the Nomster, almost completely ignoring Lilou as the Jonin stood there, presumably controlling the doll. Were all Jonin this weird? Even for Arashi this was bizarre.
“Yeah yeah we get it.” She answered irritably, waving her hand at the Nomster. Sakiko shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and continued. “Wow. That sounds interesting. Super cool. Super fun. Et cetera, et cetera.” She said dryly. Then the Genin turned back to Nep and Hinata and gave them a small wave. “Have fun you two. I’m out. Deuces.” Sakiko turned and walked away, giving a lazy, two finger wave before putting her hands into her pockets.
Sakiko opted out of giving an introduction and Hinata gave one containing the bare minimum information, which meant that Nep's response was the most impressive by default. However, he have a bit more respect for her now. Hinata had spent his free time doing what he normally does, but working at the hospital and helping with the refugees there… That definitely earned her arbitrary points in his metaphorical book. He wondered what Sakiko might have gotten into since they last saw each other. Asking her was out of the question, however, as he valued his face being intact.
As Lilou, as the Nomster called her, passed the three and turned to greet them, he became increasingly curious about the furry puppets they had met upon their arrival. Why didn't she just greet them herself? Before he could form the words to voice his query, she tumbled backwards. Hinata's eye twitched again. 'The hell is this? It has to be some kind of a joke, right?' This little meeting had barely even begun and he was already questioning if it would have been better to stay home with his mom, even knowing what the consequences would have been.
The Muppets and their Muppeteer seemed to have a silent, yet clearly frustration fueled discussion. The Jonin didn't seem to appreciate the streamers and confetti she had been showered with. This display confirmed something for Hinata, but also raised more questions that he would hold back for now. After their little hurdle broke and Lilou was facing the group again, Nomster relayed a message of congratulations. Hinata grimaced slightly at the mention of added responsibilities, but kept listening regardless.
The fuzzy creature continued even further after a moment. It seemed like this meeting of a squad-to-be was going to turn into a game or competition most likely, as a way to measure their individual levels of skill and how well they work together. Hinata was already trying to devise plans to avoid exerting himself too much without failing whatever test was coming. Sakiko broke his train of thought when she turned to let him and Nep know that she was leaving. He gave her one of those half-hearted send off salutes. "Right. See ya 'round then."
Hinata assumed it wasn't going to be that simple. Surely this Jonin had done some research into the three genin that she would oversee, which meant she had to know that Sakiko wasn't the type that would stick around for a squad assignment without making that decision herself. He kept his head turned enough that he could watch her walk away, mostly to observe whatever would happen when she tried to leave. Without looking at Lilou or Nomster, he posed the first question he wanted to have answered. "I do have a question, and I hope this isn't too much to ask so soon. You can't talk, right?"
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