Demons and Puppets. A Brawl of Oddities (Zet vs Griffin)

Griffin had been off duty for the day and decided to for a fly with Fukurou, his summoned owl. Laying on her back, Griffin looked to the clouds, it was a nice day plenty of sun and white puffy clouds with a light blue sky. Looking down, he noticed they were above on of the many lakes around the Hidden Mist Village. "Hm...I kinda feel like some fish." Griffin spoke aloud "I'll be right back." With that, Griffin rolled off of Fukurou's back and plummeted to the water below. Breaking through the surface, he felt cool water rush through his clothes and body.

Resurfacing, he stood upon the water and shook like a dog, getting some of the water off. Walking across the lake he went in search of some fish.

Grinning to himself, Zetsumei watches the man as he drops down into the lake. Slowly, slooooowwwwllllyyyy, barely moving, he army-crawls through the grass towards Griffin. Finally, he is in range. Reaching into his jacket, he pulls out a taco and zooms in on his target. He then waits until the man turns away from him, jumps up, and hurls the taco.

Not sensing the taco, Griffin was hit directly in the head, taco innards spewed over his hair. "Hm?" He thought allowed placing his hand on the back of his head. Turning around, he looks in the direction the taco had come from. "What the hell? Whoever's out there come out now. Oh, and who throws a taco? I mean really." Dunking his head back into the lake, he let the water rinse out his hair. Now, with his head above the water, he walked over in the direction the taco had come from.

Sinking into the shadows the tall grass had creates, Zetsumei appears in a tree behind the man on the lake. Reaching into his jacket again, he very slowly pulls out another taco and takes aim. Once again, he throws the taco purposefully at the stranger.

Taking another taco to the head in the same place, Griffin angrily shouted, "Ok what the HELL?!?!?! Whoever you are come out and fight instead of being a coward and hiding, throwing your stupid...tacos." Washing his hair again, Griffin looked in the direction of where the last taco had come from and got into fighting stance.

Dropping from the tree, the leader of Sunagakure's ANBU Black Ops steps onto the lake, not making a single sound all the while. He slowly walks forward, then stops only a few feet away from Griffin. Tilting his head, Zetsumei silently observes the man. Though most of his face is obscured, his eyes are still visible. Why is this important? Because his eyes narrow as he reaches into his jacket, pulls out still another taco, and hurls it at the man's face from point blank range.

The taco yet again hit Griffin but, this time in the face. Also, this time unlike the last two, Griffin exploded into a puff of smoke. As the clone died, the real Griffin jumped from the back of Fukurou. After a string of handsigns, a chidori formed in his hand while in the middle of his dive. Shouting as he descended upon his target he said, "I don't know who you are, but I've been itching for a fight."

Watching the remains of his taco fall into the lake, Zetsumei pulls down the bandages around his mouth, takes his last taco out of his coat, and munches on it without a word. At the reflection of his opponent in the lake, he looks up to watch Griffin speed toward him and takes another bite of spicy, meaty, taco-y goodness. Wow, this man was stupid...

Taking a few steps to the left, very much out of the man's reach, Zetsumei watches Griffin plunge head-long, calculating that, because the man obviously had little means to change his trajectory or even his position, the laws of physics dictated that he would not be able to alter his direction enough to avoid hitting the lake face-first in a very painful manor. At the very most, he could manage to turn enough for a very entertaining belly-flop.

Griffin, just realizing now that if he didn't hit his opponent, he would merely smash into the lake, stopped his chidori and covered his face with his hands. Smashing into the water with a loud smack, he dropped several feet before kicking to the surface. Standing above the water now he said, "Hm...you look familiar but I can't quite figure out who you are..." He looked at Zetsumei.

"Heheh..." As the man rises from underwater, Zetsumei finishes his taco and pulls his bandages back up over his mouth. As the man speaks, the puppet master tilts his head. "Such a pointless question... Does it matter who I am? Do you think I care who you are?" Turning, he shakes his head walks further away from the strange man, to the edge of the lake. Still facing away, he pulls a scroll from his pocket and turns it over in his hands. "I am Shinobi. That is all you need to know."

With a devilish grin Griffin says, "Hm fair enough Mr. Shinobi. Shinobi's fight right? And since I'm a shinobi, and you're a shinobi I guess that means we fight." Drawing his twin sai from his belt he says, "I dunno what you're gonna use that scroll for, but a couple pieces of paper ain't gonna help you much in this fight."

Laughing to himself, Zetsumei removes the seal from the scroll and opens it before him, letting the end of the opened scroll touch the grass. "Your first comment was reasonable, more than I would have given someone like you credit for. Though, you sadly proved my assumptions about your intelligence correct with your second. Such a pity..." Dropping the other end of the scroll, he bites him thumb as the paper lays before him. "Perhaps you live under a rock and have never heard of summoning scrolls... Or you're just incredibly stupid."

Nodding, he decides it was probably the latter. "No, I'm not going to defend myself with the paper, you idiot. What kind of fool do you take me for?" Crouching, he wipes his thumb across the paper and is engulfed in a cloud of smoke.

As the smoke clears a little, the outlines of ten figures become clear. As the smoke disappears, the individual figures can be identified as Zetsumei and nine puppets- A dark-skinned woman with a thorned whip, a demon with four eyes, six arms and scimitars, an old man cloaked in black who carries a scythe, and orange-skinned giant with a hammer, a jackal-headed man, a huge scorpion, an oni samurai with a katana, a fish-man with a trident and a bow on its back, and a minotaur with several spears.

Turning to face Griffin, Zetsumei smiles beneath his bandages. As he raises his hands, fingers pointing to the ground, the puppets stand straight.

In reality Griffin wasn't that dumb, he didn't get to the head Anbu spot with the kind of intelligence he was showing. Of course he knew it was a summoning scroll, he couldn't be sure what it summoned but he knew what it was. Seeing the 9 puppets, all armed to the teeth in battle equipment he said, "A puppet user eh? Hate to break it to ya but those scraps of wood aren't going to stand up to my lightning and wind. So, good luck." He figured, it would be meaningless to go after each puppet individually but, if he took out Zetsumei, well then good bye puppets.

Creating 2 clones, he ran forward and they followed behind. Griffin then launched himself into the air, jumping over the puppets while the clones ran right into them. With his two sai out, he aimed for Zetsumei and landed just infront of him. Utilizing his expert taijutsu skills, he sent a right kick to the face, while he channeled chakra into his blades, causing them to grow and adapt wind and lightning capabilities. With his blades ready, and his kick going towards Zetsumei he sent his two sai on a direct course for the backs of two unlucky puppets.

Griffin's kick hits home, smashing right into Zetsumei's face. With a popping noise, his neck is bent backwards, and his head is bent fully behind his back. This attack also causes Zetsumei to fly backwards, a motion that causes his puppets to jump back as well due to the uncontrolled motion of their master's arms. On the bright side, this causes the two who were attacked to narrowly dodge their opponent's strikes.

The puppet master, however, collides into a tree and crumples into a heap. However, as his puppets lie limp and scattered, the seemingly-lifeless corpse rises to its feet. His head lifting to its normal position, Zetsumei leans forward and laughs madly as his arms drape towards the ground. "Looks like you what lack in intelligence, you compensate for with speed and power." Looking up at Griffin, he tilts his head and continues his laughing fit. "A typical meat-head- I should have known!"

Still laughing, Zetsumei stands upright and makes a few handsigns, and his puppets disappear in nine clouds of smoke. "Overwhelming you with sheer numbers is not the right course of action, then. Neither is fighting you head-on. I should instead proceed to..." Cutting off, he quickly disappears into the tree's shadow with another laugh.

Watching Zetusmei's neck and body fling back in a way that would break the necks of most, Griffin only smiled. He was too experienced for this job not to be ready for things like his opponent not dying when he should have. Knowing this wasn't your average shinobi, Griffin cracked his knuckles getting excited for the real fight ahead. Griffin chuckled at the man's comment, "Meat head, eh? We'll see."

As Zetsumei disappeared, Griffin finished his sentence, "You should instead run like a little girl from a fight you know you'll lose." Keeping his Sai in a defensive position, all Griffin could do was wait for his opponents next attack. "Hiding and striking from the shadows won't help you!" He called for Zetsumei, wherever he was, to hear.

Resisting the urge to laugh, Zetsumei silently zooms in to observe his opponent from his new hiding place. From a tree on the opposite side of the lake. His specialty was, in fact, striking from the shadows. However, he gave the words new meaning. If he played this out right, there was a good chance he wouldn't have to move from his position for the remainder of the fight. Though... He should do something first, before he sticks to one place...

Sinking into the leaves' shadow, Sunagakure's Head ANBU appears in an even more distant location, pulls out another scroll, and wipes his still-bleeding finger across it. In another explosion of smoke, two tall, six-winged figures appear, an angel and a demon- Joukai and Jigoku. "Using an entire hand for each puppet, instead of a single finger... I can move two much faster than I could move nine..." With this, he smiles to himself and disappears into another shadow, returning to his previous hiding place. Holding up his hands, he connects the invisible chakra strings to his puppets.

"Now... Let the show begin." Moving the two puppets much faster than he himself could move, Jigoku and Joukai fly to different parts of the forest- Jigoku emerges from a location somewhere in between Zetsumei and his opponent, while Joukai continues undetected through the forest. After hovering for a moment, Jigoku pulls its twin-bladed naginata off of its back and flies towards Griffin at an incredible speed.

Seeing the smoke rise above the tree tops in the forest, Griffin thought to himself, Gotcha he ran off after it. Then he realized it was most likely summoning smoke and that Zetsumei was about to launch an attack. The glint of sun off steel caught his eye as a blade comes in at his face. Pulling his sai up, he parries the attack, knocking it off course and away from his face. Damn this thing is quick, he thought figuring it moved at roughly the same speed as himself. Still, there was no way a piece of wood was a better taijutsu user than him.

Powering up Tatsu and Ikazuchi, the blades cackled and whirred as their wind and lightning blades formed. "C'mon you piece of junk, show me what you got." Using the sai as swords, he made a jab with Ikazuchi (the lightning one) towards the demon's cat like eye. He then attacked with Tatsu by making a slashing motion diagonally across the puppets chest. Even if the puppet put up it's weapon in defense, the naginata would be cut in two because of the sai's wind and lightning chakra infusion.

Instead of the puppet making a stupid attempt to simply block the weapon, it quickly backs up and spins its naginata. As it does so, the weapon is enveloped in black fire. This motion effectively knocks both of Griffin's attacks to the side. Shifting the weapon, Jigoku swiftly follows the action with an upward swing, using the centripetal force of the spinning blades.

Meanwhile, Joukai emerges from the forest to Griffin's left, both blades already unsheathed and enveloped in lightning. The angel flies forward just as quickly as Joukai did and slashes at its opponent with a scissor-like motion.

"Oh, there you are." Griffin says to himself as the second puppet emerges from the brush. Smiling to himself he says under his breath, "You two pieces of shit just fell right into my little trap. Clapping his hands, a column of blue lightning falls from the sky around Griffin, effectively protecting him from the puppet's attacks. "Don't be so surprised," he says not really expecting the puppets to respond, "this is only have of my technique." Spreading his arms out, the column extended itself outwards about 30 feet. If hit, the puppets would be rather burned and hurt. Even if they were to escape the attack or make a hole in the column, they would look to where Griffin was standing only to find a hole in the ground. Escaping under the earth, Griffin had come back up about 20 yards from the puppets and began running off towards Zetsumei.

OOC: If you have a problem with his little escaping thing because he isn't an earth user, check Leaf Ninja under other techniques.