The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

A Wall Too High!!

SNAP!

April, Naruto, and Sakura stared in shock along with Team 8, while Gaara frowned with disdain, and Temari and Neji furrowed their brows.

"..." Hayate also furrowed his brow and frowned. He had meant to stop it before it reached that point.

"...!" Lee said, frowning and furrowing his brow when he saw how Kankurō's head was hanging so limply from his neck and the unnatural angle it was bent at. A bead of sweat slid down the side of his face. At first, he had thought it was another bone being snapped, but that obviously wasn't the case. "His neck is broken..."

"Yeah..." April agreed grimly, furrowing her brow. She knew the signs, too.

"Huh?" Naruto gasped, startled.

"Hmph... Stupid..." Gaara scoffed impatiently.

Hayate sighed. Another pointless casualty.

"Damn... Idiot..." Misumi cursed. "You made me kill you..."

"Then is it my turn now?" Kankurō asked in a sickeningly sweet tone as his head suddenly did a full 360°.

"!!" April gasped, surprised by the Exorcist twist, but not nearly as surprised as Misumi.

"What?!!" he exclaimed, staring at Kankurō's face with wide eyes as the skin crumbled away to reveal a doll's eye. Before he had time to react, it was already breaking free from the rest of its false flesh and winding its jointed wooden limbs around his body, squeezing him so tightly that he couldn't move his arms or legs. "Ugh... This is... a puppet?!!"

'He disguised his puppet and substituted it for his real body...!?' April thought, impressed. 'Then, this whole time he was actually...' Her eyes wandered to the bundle on the floor, and her suspicions were confirmed when a human hand poked out between the bindings.

Kankurō yanked hard on part of the strip of fabric wrapped around him, unraveling it in an instant to reveal himself.

"!!" Misumi gasped, shocked. 'That's the real one? He's a puppeteer?'

Kankurō pulled on the invisible strings controlling his Karasu, tightening its inescapable grip on his opponent. "If I break your bones, you'll be even softer, right?" he taunted him, pulling them even tighter. "Though, I'll go easy on your neck."

"Give u... Ahhhhhh!!!!" Misumi screamed in pain as his joints began to crack and tendons reached their tearing point.

'Phew, I almost ended that one too early,' Hayate thought, coughing. "The battle cannot be continued. Winner, Kankurō!!"

Although April thought it was an interesting jutsu, Naruto didn't seem to share her opinion.

"Two on one is cheating!!!! That's allowed, Kakashi-sensei?!!!" he asked incredulously, pointing at the weird thing Kankurō was rewrapping. That seemed totally unfair!

"It's not cheating... That's just a doll," Kakashi replied with a sigh. Naruto sure was getting noisy.

"That's puppet jutsu. It's controlling a doll and using it as a weapon with your chakra," Sakura explained, furrowing her brow slightly in annoyance. Was he going to complain after every match now? "It's the same as a shuriken or any other tool."

"Geez, geez!!! There's a bunch of weirdos here," Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. What next, a flying pig?

"Like you're one to talk..." Kakashi remarked dryly.

"Haha, good one," Sakura laughed, making her annoyed teammate pout.

April smiled with wry amusement and tried to turn the conversation back to the topic of the jutsu they were just talking about, since she still had something she wanted to clear up. "Uh... This may be a stupid question, but... How is the puppet controlled with chakra?" she asked curiously. The way he had manipulated that puppet and made it mimic himself was pretty amazing. He even made it sweat!