Far from the village

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Far away from Konoha, at the south border of Kusa
Normal sky, lightly cloudy

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Echo, a special Chuunin from Konohagakure got a little bored sitting around in her village, and decided to travel out for a while. She managed to get past the guards of Konoha without them seeing her, so no one had known she left the village for a walk. And if they noticed she wasn't around, they would most likely think that she was just training somewhere again. After leaving the village, Echo turned the corner, heading north, and continued moving at a fast pace through the trees for about 2 hours. Making few rests every 30 minutes. The sky, and air outside of the village was much more fresh then it was inside of the stuffy village. Something she never payed much attention to.

(Sorry its a little short but i cant think of much yet)

Daedalus had been given temporary leave at this time, for once in his loyalty to Iwa he was released from Ryusaki's supervision, although just for a slight rest. Mind you, it wasn't as if he had no collar, Ryu would have the ability to summon him back at any moment, for whatever reason. Feeling this might be the first of few occasions, Daedalus took this chance to wander as far as possible from the stone village, eventually coming across the forest that so neatly lined itself up along the border of the Land of Fire. Pausing for a moment to examine the massive expanse of land the woods covered, Daedalus then continued on, taking a leisurely stroll between the trees.

Reaching a clearing a small clearing, he decided to rest. Well, as much rest as a human puppet could he really have, it wasn't as if he tired from anything. Sitting on a small stump he listened to the birds, watching their hectic movements. Amongst their singing came another sound though. It was light, almost inaudible, but to Daedalus' mechanical ears, it came through clear as a bell. A footstep, padded, on tree bark, very reminiscent of how a nin would move through the woods. Standing slowly, Daedalus moved to the edge of the clearing on a side closest to the noise.

There it was again! Reaching beneath his long cloak, the puppet king's index finger rested right above a seal painted right below his navel, if he would have to defend himself, so be it. As the footsteps came closer Daedalus could even make out the rustling of leaves, twenty yards, maybe closer. Each new sound became louder then the last, indicating the nin's approach, suddenly, and without much more warning then the initial sounds that Daedalus had picked up, a young woman came crashing into the clearing on a direct collision course with Daedalus.

Immediately noting the leaf headband, Daedalus side stepped, allowing the nin to pass by him, although it would be interesting to see how his appearance affected her. Raising an eyebrow, Daedalus stood still, waiting to see if she'd even stop.

As Echo ran quickly through the packs of trees in front of her, she heard the quiet noise of what could have been a lake, or river up ahead. She began moving even faster, tossing trees left and right at an incredible speed. Just as she thought she was about to reach it, she sensed something powerful up ahead. Most likely another ninja. Since she was out in the wilderness, and had no info on anyone from her own village leaving, it might be an enemy. A powerful one. Just as she avoided the last tree in her site of him, she quickly placed her hand on the back of it, and pressed a type of sticky note on it, that held one end of a ninja wire. As she came closer to the enemy, it seemed as if he already knew she was coming as he turned his head. Moving at a fast pace with a ninja wire feeding out of her weaponry bag, she was unable to come to a complete stop, causing her to fall back and slide across the dirt ground. As she slid, the wire continued to feed out, and out came a Kunai with the the middle attached to it. As she pushed herself off the ground, she stabbed it into the ground close to him, and lifted up into the air. While in the air, she spun towards him, and released another kunai with the other end of the wire, and threw into a tree somewhat behind him, to the right side.

Thinking he might be an enemy due to her not seeing any ninja village symbol on him. Echo payed more attention to looking for a headband, then actually paying attention to his cloak which held the symbol. As she landed on her feet on the ground, she very quickly revealed 3 shuriken held between her fingers of her left hand. "Don't move!" Echo yelled at him in case he was an enemy. And even if he wasn't, so he wouldn't walk into the trap set.

Daedalus' eyebrow seemed to only get higher up on his forehead as the complex ninja wire trap was laid out. While he could have prevented it, he had no reason to harm the girl. Although, being a puppet himself, he had a love for all things mechanical, this included. Shifting his gaze to admire her set up, he then slowly crouched in place, despite her warning not to move. Carefully, his hand ran along the wire, coming ever so close to triggering the trap. While he studied it, he decided to make small talk, seemingly forgetting she was potentially threatening him.

"Nice day out isn't it? I was taking a walk myself." Pausing, he twisted his head to lock his eyes on her.

"What's your name?"

He then plucked the ninja wire... hard.

The simple reaction to everything that had just happened confused Echo. She was trained, and taught that an enemy is an enemy, and needs to be executed. Her eyes widened as the man crouched down and began playing with the wire that she so quickly set up. Lowering her armed hand, she stared in confusion at why he would start playing with the trap. For all he could have known, it could have launched something, or even exploded. As she began to slowly walk towards him, his head suddenly turned in a way that was inhuman. The sudden look made her jump and fall back, though falling back could have been a good thing. The reflection in the kunai behind him became visible, and she noticed the Iwagakure symbol on the back of his cloak. So he's not an enemy....

"Um..E-Echo.." She said, replying to his question.

Daedalus grinned, his head snapping back to look at the wire again, his hand following it all the way up to the kunai attached to the tree, then back to the kunai attached to the ground. Chuckling, he plucked it a few more times.

"Echo.o.o.o......"

As Daedalus said her name, it physically echoed. Not from the trees surrounding them, but as if someone had played it from a speaker. Chuckling again Daedalus suddenly tugged one of the kunai out of the ground. Inspecting it, he brushed the dirt from it before a small slot opened in his forearm. The kunai disappeared into it before popping out from his palm a moment later.

"Well balanced."

If anything, ally or not, Echo would certainly be able to tell that the puppet king was slightly psychotic, but it was what would come next that would be a real shock.

"An interesting contraption, what do you call it?"

Surprised at what the man had just done, then how he yanked the kunai out of the ground, and inserted it into some kind of slot in his forearm, Echo continued to stare in confusion at him. He muse either have prostetic limbs..or is some type of puppet control.. Echo felt no other presence around. She knew that there couldn't be anyone controlling him, and saw no wires attached to him anywhere. The altered voice, as well as black scelera made her think that as well.

"It's a ninja wire and kunai.."

Daedalus appeared amazed. In all honesty, any contraption was interesting, any subtle variance from the last was enough to captivate him for hours. His mind constantly worked like this, no matter what it was, it was art, mobile, immortalized art. Then, a thought seemed to hit Daedalus as his eyes opened and he looked excited.

"Can I show you one of mine?!?"

Without waiting for a reply, Daedalus's reached under his cloak, his hand returning with a scroll. Laying it on the ground he did the simple object summoning technique by placing his hand down in it's center. At first, it seemed like nothing happened, only because whoever was watching would have been looking down at the scroll. However, if one wasn't paying too much attention to that, they may have noticed a cloud block out the sunlight from the clearing. Unfortunately, it wasn't a cloud, but Daedalus' puppet. The giant snake-like dragon currently hung it's head over the clearing, the rest of it's body resting along the top of the forest line.

Having not even acknowledged the puppet at this point, Daedalus stood back up, looking Echo right in the eyes.

"What do you think?"

Spoiler:

EDIT: Added puppet in spoiler.

"Can i show you one of mine!!?!"

What could he mean by that. Was he about to launch an attack, or activate something that could possibly attempt to harm Echo? Echo payed close attention to the scroll he had placed on the ground. Placing his hand in the center, and performing a weaponry summoning technique. Waiting for something to happen, Echo looked left, and right, but saw nothing. Just as she thought his summoning was a dud, she noticed the lighted areas around her getting darker. Echo looked up, and saw the figure of a dragon in the air, blocking the sun above them. She was amazed, but showed no signs of fear.

I know i could easily match that... She thought to herself, and almost began to form a single hand seal, but quickly stopped herself. It would be a better idea if she kept her abilities secret for the time being, and show no more then what she had already shown.

"It's cool. Something i have never seen before"

Daedalus did have a massive grin for a moment, but it seemed to fade into a frown.

"Well, it does stuff you know."

Until this point, the dragon had been immobile, statuesque. Big, but not going anywhere fast. Opening his cloak for a moment, chakra strings suddenly fired themselves out from Daedalus' stomach, attaching themselves to various points on the dragon's body. It was then that it seemed to become lifelike, rearing it's head down for Daedalus to pat gently.

"You know, leaf village is a ways a way. You want a ride?"

The goofy grin had returned.

By now, Echo had it figured out. He must somehow be a puppet himself. The weapons in his arms, the eyes, inhuman movements, and the chakra strings in his stomach. She didn't plan on going back to Konoha so early, though since he offered a ride, she didn't want him to feel bad by rejecting.

"Sure..on top of that?" Echo said, pointing up to the dragon.

Daedalus' grinned only seemed to get bigger.

"Well then ju-"

Mid sentence the puppet master's eyes glazed over, and a low inaudible voice could be heard coming from somewhere within his head. Snapping out of it, Daedalus' expression immediately changed, it was as if he was a new person.

"Sorry Echo, it'll have to be another time. The Stone and Leaf are now at war with the Sand, you may not want to return home so soon."

Having said his piece, Daedalus jumped as the dragon swung it's head beneath him, landing just behind it's horns. Without another word the mechanical beast took off, heading for Sunagakure.

After suddenly offering the ride, the man had to make a quick leave in head for Sunagakure. Echo, still standing on the ground in the woods watched as he hoped on the dragon and flew away. Going to Suna...i would like to go there She thought to herself. She wanted to help the assaults on Suna, but she had no way of getting there except by foot. If she traveled there by foot, she would probably be worn out by the time she got there.

After the man and the dragon flew out of sight, she lowered her head, and began walking back to Konoha.