A job (Shiro, Uchi)

Masuta sat on a tree in the outskirts of the desert. He was playing with the puppet master, Making it like a real puppet. Masuta giggled to himself, On the inside mad that his hireer hadnt arrived yet, He had hired her as a guide to find a master puppeteer, His goal was to make himself into a real puppet. Like the famed Sasori Of the red sand. He of course was a black snake puppeteer. Masuta looked up and smiled fakely as he saw the girl on the horizen

Mai was on time, as always. She knew that most clients expected her to be a little earlier, it was all about being polite, but it was like she had no life of her own, so she took her time, arriving directly on schedule. She was dressed in her usual leather fighting clothes, most of her upper body exposed. In addition to looking sexy and showing off her body, it was a show of self-assuredness. It practically screamed: 'I'm not afraid you could hurt me, I don't need any armour'. Of course, her scars disproved her invulnerability, but even them she wore with a certain sense of pride.
Approaching her client, Mai nodded in greeting, ready to go. Why he would wait so far outside the village, she would not know - but she did not care either. He probably had his reasons and as long as she was on duty for him, she would not ask about it. However, if it came to conflict with her duties as a shinobi, she would have to turn him in. Luckily for both of them, Mai was a discreet person and none of her seniors would know about this job in detail - or the client commissioning it.
"So, what is it I will be doing for you?", Mai asked, as she had not yet been given many details herself. She watched the guy play with his toys, second-guessing the age he had given her.

Masuta looked up at his guide and smiled "Masuta knows the proper politeness means i should entroduce myself, I am Masuta. And this is puppet master. He's rather angry at the moment." Masuta extended the hand that didnt have chakra string on it, Then The puppet masters hand "I want you to guide me to this cave" Masuta pulled out a map with asmall X on it. "There, you will guard me while i have an operation. You get half now and half later"

Mai suppressed a sigh, this guy was even more weird than he looked. "Mai Gashou", she replied after the boy had introduced himself. He should know her name, he hired her personally after all. But, oh well.
Ignoring the puppet, Mai took a look at the map. It would take them quite a while to get there, but at least she had a vague idea of where to search for it. "Operation, eh? Fine. Hope you got enough water with you? We'll be travelling a few days." Nudging her own travel-sack with her elbow she hoped he did not have to go shopping before they could leave.
Mai herself never left home without a certain amount of supplies. If it was too much she could still take it back home when she was done but usually she was given more of a heads-up of the purpose and duration of her trips.
As soon as she would receive the first half of her pay, Mai was ready to go.

Masuta summoned another puppet. Leech, this puppet looked like a teen age girl. Smiling her opened her chest, It had two canteens of water. "Masuta came prepared, Now came we go" Masuta threw her a lump of bills and started walking both the puppet master and Leech following Walking as it they were Real humans

Mai tucked the money away after roughly estimating if it was enough. She was still ignoring the puppets, even though they made her feel a little uneasy. She had never had a thing for dolls and the likes. "We should head east for a while. It's not the shortest way but I know a place to rest we can reach by the end of the day. The nights get rough out here", Mai mentioned but she would let him decide for now. Even though she was hired to guide him, she knew that clients always wanted to feel like they were in charge.
"Also, if there is any information you did not give me yet, I'd like to hear it. Are you expecting a fight?"

Masuta thought for a moment then nodded, she was after all a guide and he would listen to her when he came what direction to go. Masuta walked behind may silently. Yawning after awhile "no, Masuta doubts there will be a fight. Masuta is getting his soul transferred into a puppet. Like the great sasori puppet master" masuta tilted his head an chewed his lip "though, the white puppeteer might try to take masuta's body once he has his soul. Then you will be forced to save masuta"

(It's not May it's Mai Pronounced like "My" )

Mai nodded. It was pretty annoying to hear him talk of himself in third person, but she would not complain. Yet. Maybe, eventually, he would stop. He seemed very childish to her, then again, he probably was barely more than a child. She wondered where his family was. When the boy compared himself to Sasori, Mai could not help but slip a noise of amusement.
"And what do you want me to do with your body? You'll be inside a puppet. Your body will start to rot and smell, best I can do with it is eat it. And, in all comradeship and honesty, I don't want that. Also, you won't notice what that guy will do to your body anyways. You'll not be inside it anymore."
Not that she was going to talk him out of the idea in general, she could not care less about what that kid was doing with his soul. Still, this whole thing sounded way too much like a childish idea to approve of it. If this was her son - or even her younger brother - all these kinds of silly plans would gain him were a serious talk and a good spanking.

(It was auto correct from posting from my phone)


Masuta shook his head "Once masuta's soul is in the puppet, His body will be turned over to the white puppeteer" Masuta shrugged not really caring. "Do not underesitmate masuta please ma'am." To prove his point Masuta has the puppet master sneak up behind the girl a blade had come from his wrist dripping with posion he placed it on Mai's throat "Masuta is a chunnin." Masuta smiled and moved the puppet away

Oh. So he meant that kind of taking care. She would get to carry his soul around. That could prove to be fun. Before she could reply to his clarification though, he had moved one of his puppets to threaten her with a knife. Mai calmly waited until he removed it, knowing that he needed her and would not actually harm her. She then walked up to him and smacked him across the face. "Dare threatening me again for whatever reason and you'll regret it, brat", she snarled. "I don't care if you're chunin or jonin or a fucking god, as long as you don't show the proper respect towards other people you'll be nothing but a kid."
Mai caught herself considering him dangerous to a point - not because he was toying with puppets but because his mind seemed to work in strange ways, making it hard to anticipate his actions and reactions. If something like this incident occurred again, she would just leave him standing in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the desert.

Masuta nodded his eyes big, "Of course masuta respects you for helping him, But you under estimate him. He could kill you in a matter of seconds. Actually, Masuta's posion in fast acting, And hes immune to it!" Masuta laughed softly then turned slightly more serious "I will fight beside you and protect you if it comes to that. I dont abandon my team mates" Masuta smiled again and started walking, It was growing dark

Mai stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. It was a pubescent trait of character to think of oneself as more more powerful than anyone else. She did not doubt his abilities, but he seemed to be expecting her to be an inexperienced fool. However, there was no point in this argument, so she shrugged and returned to walking. "Fine. Protect me", she said. Losing her temper on her client was unprofessional and now that she had hopefully shown him who was in charge this thing should go down more smoothly.

Masuta smiled and followed, Pulling his cloak tighter around him. He looked down then up at the darkening skies "How much longer? Masuta is getting tired from the heat. Plus this wind isn't good for masuta's puppets" Masuta made a quick seal and the puppets dsaapered. Masuta felt slightly sad, But he knew it was better for his puppets. He follow beside mai, Falling over as a large gust of wind.

"Do you always talk like that?", Mai asked, ignoring his nagging questions. She was not even starting to feel tired and it just proved to her that Masuta was just a kid. "We'll reach an area safe for resting in about an hour. A half, if we hurry." She threw him a quick look, hoping he did not just collapse and have her carry him. That would be troublesome and annoying.

Masuta mearly nodded, Wiping off the sand he kept walking "Then, let us run." Masuta nodded and started running. He closed his eyes to the sand and looked over at mai, Waiting for her to tell them when to start. "Masuta would like to know why your so angry with him"

Mai nodded and they ran for a while. She did not mind, after all it just made them get there earlier and meant more time they could spend resting. "I'm not angry with you", she said while running, surprised that he would think so. "It's just a tad annoying when you... talk like that." Shrugging she kept moving. She did not think pointing it out would change anything.
After a while a group of larger rocks appeared in the distance. It was where Mai was headed, as the rocks would protect them against wind and sand and offered them protection. Of course she would make some more preparations herself and as soon as they reached the site, she created earth walls, surrounding the stones. The risk of someone finding and attacking them in the middle of the desert was rather small, nonetheless she also created seals on the inner side of each of the walls, after she and Masuta were safely inside, in case they were spotted against all odds. This way, nobody could break in through the walls, which were too tall and smooth for anyone to jump over them. The risk of rain in a desert was very low so Mai did not bother with a roof.

Masuta smiled at may and bowed "Mas-...Thank you, Mai." Masuta smiled and kicked at some sand trying to make some sort of bed. Masuta sighed and laid in the desert, Drifting off to a peaceful night of sleep. Trusting mai had them protected

Mai could not help but chuckle, at least he had noticed his weird and annoying speech pattern. Pulling a blanket from her travelsack, the young woman wrapped herself up and lay down herself. The sand was hot from the day but it would soon enough cool down and without a blanket of sort the night would be freezing cold.
Luckily, for Mai it was not. She slept well and awoke rested and refreshed, turning to wake her client. It was so early that behind the earth walls it was still dark. Only a faint hint of grey in the sky gave away that the sun had already started rising.
While Mai waited for Masuta to get up, she sat down and started eating bread and dried meat from her travelsack, as well as some water. Thanks to a preservation powder she had bought at the apothecary a while ago, the water was not going to get stale and she could carry enough of it with her, without having to stop at a well every few hours. After all, they were were hard to come by in a desert.
Finishing her breakfast, Mai removed the seals from the walls, then broke them down. Immediately it got lighter and the air started to slowly heat up with the rising sun.

Masuta got up alittle late, He rubbed his eyes and yawned. Eating breakfast quickly Masuta smiled "Mas..I am ready to go when you are. Mai" Masuta smiled and started walking again. Hoping they would get there soon. He was really tired of the desert

"Sure, let's leave then", she said and grabbed her travelsack, which she had packed while she had been waiting for Masuta to finish. "We'll have two more days to walk, so we should get moving, sleepy-head", she teased, grinned and started to walk. She was glad he had started to watch his speech, and hoped he did not start playing with his toys again. Of course Mai knew they were far more than toys, but still. A little boy like him playing with dolls? One day that kid would make his husband happy...

Masuta nodded and smiled at her teasing, They walked and rested on and off for two days. Masuta sighed and panted at the end of the two days. He had been tryig to fix his speach. Though his nights were plaiged with nightmares from the reality hes had to face recently he tried not to show it. "How far, Mai?"

"We should reach the place soon", Mai said. It was hard not to lose orientation in the desert but she was pretty sure they were right. Leading Masuta towards a cave she hoped it was the right place. "Is he expecting us?", she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Masuta nodded and made a quick hand sign. A new puppet mai had not seem appeared on masuta's back. This one was goul. Though it looked normal, It was his best attacking puppet, And much more. Masuta hadn't told mai but he was planning on exicuting the puppetter, In reality Masuta wanted his puppet, But eleminating compatition Never hurt.. Soon masuta saw what he wanted to see, A white mark on the rock he stopped suddenly. "We're here." Masuta smiled and knocked on the mark. Slowly it started to open, and elderly man of 80 Appeared behind the rock nodding and telling the boy to enter

Mai watched Masuta closely, not because she suspected anything but because it was her job to protect him. As she saw the old guy opening, she inwardly rolled her eyes. Protect the mouthy kid against an old, senile grandfather? Sure thing.

Soon, Mai had three different puppets with knifes at her kidneys liver and throat. Masuta smiled and nodded "She's with me, We shouldn't leave her in the heat. Puppet master" Masuta looked around. the three puppets disapeared. Masuta nodded at mai and looked around, Puppet and scrolls where everywhere. He smiled and talked to he old man for the next twenty minutes, Though it appeared his question were answered the puppeteer never spoke