Naruto Another

At the edge of Amegakure stood a small toy shop situated near the Kaguya River.

Its owner, Endou Takizawa sat near a roaring flame that rested within his fireplace. The night was quiet as the only sound that could be heard was the cries of cicadas and the chatter of the nearby river. "The boy's been improving." Endou says to himself, staring into fire. "If you were here, you'd like him. His name's Ooyama, I know it's kind of weird, but I still think it's better than what you had in mind for our kid. Well, I know Ooyama's not our kid, but it's fun to imagine. It's been hard, since you left but with the boy around, I feel less lonely. But enough about me, what about you?" He says, staring at the fire.

Time passes as Endou sits silently at the fire, accompanied by the sound of its crackling. The silence is broken as the front door swung open, causing a bell to be rung. As Endou ran to see who it was, he was greeted by a girl of about 15 or 16 years of age. She had long purple hair like that of Ooyama and an eyepatch that covered her left eye. "I'm sorry," Endou began, "but we closed a few hours ago."

"This is an emergency sir!" the girl pleaded "My beloved brother's birthday is coming up and I haven't gotten him a thing!"

"I see, give me just a minute." Endou replied, reaching behind his counter and pulling out a small wooden box. "Not sure how your parents would feel about this, but these wood kunai are popular with young boys. They are really dull, so they won't cut or anything, but they usually find it pretty cool regardless."

"Oh, thank you!" the girl responded. "Will this be enough for payment?" she said, taking out a yellow envelope and putting it on the counter. Upon opening it, his eyes widened.

"W-what's the meaning of this." he asked, dropping the envelope. Pictures of his late wife as well as her family began to spill across the floor.

"You're Endou Takizawa, age 51," the girl started "You were one of the top of your squadron while enlisted in the Anbu Black Ops until you received a debilitating hand injury which caused you to retire, your wife was infertile and unable to bare children but that wouldn't have mattered anyways since she succumbed to a chronic illness three years ago."

"H-how do you know all of this... what do you want?" Endou asked, reaching for his scroll that sealed his multiple puppets that he kept behind the counter.

"My name is Kuda Kusakyu, you happen to have my brother, Ooyama. Hand him over."

"So, you're his sister." He says pulling out his scroll, summoning one of his puppets, Tengu. The puppet wore clown shoes, had an exceptionally large nose, and had spiky hair.

"Oh, this'll be fun." Kuda said observing the puppet that stood before her. "I've never killed a puppeteer before."

Endou's hands were shaking desperately, in his prime he could control ten puppets with each finger easily, but now he struggled to use two hands to control a single puppet. The two stood in silence, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

Endou had no information on Kuda whatsoever while Kuda knows of his entire history on this planet. At the very least, Ooyama was out of the way, he had been asleep upstairs for the past few hours.

The silence was immediately cut apart as Kuda delivered a powerful kicked that was boosted by an explosion. The kick cut through the counter and went upwards into the puppet's jaw. The puppet responded quickly by grabbing Kuda's foot and throwing her off balance. As she scrambled to get up, the puppet was able to land multiple light blows on her. The taijutsu this puppet displayed was impeccable as Kuda struggled to keep up with its quick and floaty movements.

Kuda attempted to counter using a Siege Shot, a technique where she points both her palms towards her opponent, introducing them to two spontaneous explosions that erupt from her palms. Once the smoke cleared, Kuda saw the puppet as well as Endou unscathed. Tengu's arms had opened to reveal a large chakra shield. The sound of Kuda's explosions rattled the old building, waking up Ooyama. As the boy made his way down the stairs with various scrolls in his hands, he slowly peaked out the corner of the stairway to see Endou fighting Kuda. Endou's eyes shot over towards Ooyama when he saw him out of the corner of his eye.

"Ooyama! Run!" Endou yelled, letting his guard down. Kuda grabbed Tengu with her bare hands and threw him across the room, using an explosion to propel it further. Endou with his guard down and strings still attached to it also goes flying into a wall.

"Give it up old man, those hands of yours just can't keep up," Kuda said confidently walking over to her fallen opponent.

"Hey Yams, don't watch this." She yells to Ooyama as she begins to step on Endou's hands. Unbeknownst to Kuda, Tengu had gotten up despite not being connected to any strings. From behind, Kuda felt an unexpected kick to the back of her head sending her into the ground.

"Ooyama!" Endou yelled, "get out of here! I'll be fine!"

Despite Endou's warnings, Ooyama couldn't find it in himself to move his legs. He was frozen with fear for what might happen to Endou and himself.

"That was a cheap shot y'know," Kuda said, getting up wiping her face, "I like that."

Tengu began to weave hand signs, successfully creating 3 shadow clones, "ohoho... this is interesting," Kuda said, "I don't see any strings attached, I know they broke off when I threw him, and now there's a puppet using ninjutsu."

The three Tengu all rushed Kuda, because of their increased numbers, Kuda had an easier time landing blows.

"I'll just have to use my own toys." Kuda said, pulling explosive clay from her pouch and molding it into a sheep and casually tossing it to Endou.

As it slowly fell towards him, the sheep was quickly intercepted by Ooyama who slapped it out of its intended path. Seeing her brother come so close to the explosive, Kuda delayed its detonation. As the sheep landed on the ground and bounced towards a wall, it let off a large explosion, taking out most of the wall and weakening the building's structure. The shrapnel from the sheep dispersed across the room, causing enough damage to eliminate Tengu's shadow clones.

Tengu and Kuda continued their one-on-one taijutsu bout, with Kuda being able to overpower the puppet. With his back against the wall, Endou decided to charge up Tengu's signature move, the Lion Turbine, as Tengu's arms opened to reveal two powerful rotary blades that began to pick up speed.

Seeing this, Kuda got excited for what she was going to see next as she got into a position to counter the attack with a powerful move of her own. The charging of the blades began to reach their peak speeds, causing the building to shake with tremendous force.

Ooyama could hear something crack, and splinter above him; he seized up, and remained still as wooden debris fell toward him. Endou immediately withdrew his attack forcing the rotary blades to a slow stop; then he connected chakra strings to the debris immediately tossing them aside. He looked at Ooyama with a twinge of anger, and relief.

"I told you to ru- "Ooyama heard metal piercing flesh as blood seeped out of Endou's mouth.

"Thank you," he heard his sister's voice as she gently brought Endou's body to the ground, "for protecting my little brother."

Ooyama's eyes widened in shock; he brought his hands to his head and swallowed his regret. He slowly backed up, and heeded Endou's last words- he ran. Ooyama leapt through the wall caused by Kuda's explosions earlier, and seemingly disappeared into the night.

Ooyama didn't know how long he ran, but images flashed into his mind as he did. How he wandered into Endou's shop all those years ago; how he was covered in dirt, and his own blood. How Endou gave him his own room. It was weird at first- the compassion of someone else, but it wasn't long before he grew to accept it. It was weird at first- how Endou would sometimes stay up at night, and talk into the fire, but he grew to accept it. It was weird at first- how Endou reminded him of his mom, but he grew to accept it. But his mom was dead, and now so was Endou.

There weren't many lights to guide his path, and he didn't have a destination in mind. He found a dark corner where he was alone and opened one of the scrolls he carried with him, and placed his hand on it. In a matter of moments, a wooden contraption appeared before him. "Saisei." He muttered as he quietly entered the puppet's wooden frame.

Saisei wore a large cloak that disguised its size, and on its head was a garb that covered everything except for slots for the eyes. Saisei had white hair like Ooyamas, and it fluttered in the wind, though it never blocked his view. Ooyama took a moment to look over the other scrolls before putting them away. The young Kusakyu continued to walk across a dimly lit path overlooking the Kaguya river trying to find a suitable place to sleep. He saw lights in various houses off to his left slowly begin to cut out as he wandered on. It began to rain, though it didn't bother him- he couldn't feel it, but he decided to find shelter anyway.

Soon he came across an old lighthouse situated on the Kaguya river; it was old, and dilapidated, but still functional, and likely abandoned. He opened the door, and the moon briefly shined a light inside revealing several things. A fire pit, a luxurious mirror situated on a rotting shelf; various beauty products were sprawled across the floor, and at least a dozen books detailing the history of the nation were as well. Ooyama hesitated to step inside before hearing a familiar voice.

"Oh, Yams!" It was Kuda.

"I know you're probably upset with me, but I brought you a really cool wooden kunai from the toy shop!"

Ooyama started to panic, and instinctively ran inside the lighthouse, closing the door behind him, shutting out the moonlight. The boy fumbled around in the dark before he found the stairs; he climbed them all the way up to try, and get away; but to his dismay, at the top of the steps was his older sister.

Ooyama was struck with fear, and sadness as he realized it was over; he was going back to Kusakyu castle. Saisei fell to its knees in despair, while Kuda fell to her knees bursting in laughter. She pointed at her younger brother and laughed harder.

"What is that thing?!" She yelled over the rain.

After a minute or so Kuda calmed herself and stood up. She walked over to the step Ooyama was on and sat next to him.

"It wasn't hard to find you. It was Miami that did all the work; she's good at this kind of thing."

She looked at her younger brother who was staring up at the rain.

"You'll never change. Will you Yams?" She asked sadly. "Anyway, I need you to do something for me. If you can do that then I'll let you leave the clan for good."

Ooyama finally turned toward his sister. She could not see it, but a slight sliver of hope, and anger coursed through his veins.

"What d-do you w-w-want?"

"There's an event coming up. If you participate it could do a lot of good for our clan."

"A-alright fine. But I'm not doing it for your sake."

Kuda reached her arm around Ooyama and pulled him in for a hug. "I know." Kuda said softly.

The girl stood up and began to leave,"and Ooyama,"Back when he was a lead shinobi... Endou never killed any Kusakyu, but he did arrest them. Those people are in Blood Prison now, and I'll never see them again."

She looked at Ooyama with compassion and sighed.

"Bonds that aren't formed by blood are weaker than those that are. Remember that Yams, before you learn it the hard way." Kuda reached up, and lightly tugged on her eyepatch.

"Because that's how I did." Kuda forced herself to smile and threw the wooden kunai to Ooyama before finally leaving.

Ooyama stayed inside Saisei and made his way down to the first floor. It was there he could sleep away his problems and welcome them back with a new day. Although no one could see it, Ooyama curled up into a ball inside his puppet and listened to the sound of the rain outside before eventually drifting to sleep.