Water is wet(Shikuki P/IO)

Saya was in a bit of a slump. She was excited to be able to Step out after such a harsh week of training that had culminated in seemingly impossible missions, but here she was again, stepping into the training facility to work on gathering more strength.

"yanno. We could just take a day off. Maybe work on some music.... I could craft some puppets, We could have like. So much fun!" She didn't glance backwards. She knew exactly what the small puppet would say, and in her head she copied his tone as she heard it from his lips.

"You know that we can't do that. Now that you've had a taste of danger, it's important that we do everything in our power to ensure we can defend ourselves. " He held the door for her, motioning for her to walk in. Dear liteners you know its going to be a bad day when our heroine doesn't even have her makeshift performance stage on her back. Pinochio was all buisiness and she was all about not having any of this. Still in her bag she'd carried a few of the pieces she needed to carge for her new puppets. The moment she had the stock enter her home she'd sent for her friend the doll maker. Half of the product was brought to her home, and together they'd been planning and working on exactly how to make what she considered her greatest creations: a sister. She longed for something more then the dificult puppet who pushed her hard towards giving up everything she loved in order to actualize her potential and make a name for herself in the village. Sure she wanted to be strong, and was generally good at everything she touches, but she really hated the idea of putting this much focus on things that she found mostly uninteresting.

"Yea yea, but on my breaks I'm working on ai. "

(321)

Shikuki had just returned from her first three missions back to back. She was a little rough about it. It was rather boring after all, having to gather Taxes and than hunt down a group of monkeys. Oh well, she would go and train, however she did like to read, and she would take a book with her to read on a break. The woman wore her black spandex outfit, which was revealing at the chest location. However she would not let such bouncy things get in her way. they were kept nice and snug in place for the most part. Shikuki would head to the training field and begin to use the dummies in a variety of ways, With Shuriken and her hands and feet. She had yet to learn any practical jutsu since her time at the academy, however to be fair, since her time at the academy what she did have, she knew how to work. And that was what she did to get by in life. Shikuki would stop upon the arrival of someone who seemed to be talking to her ....puppets? What was this?

Shikuki would approach her and look her up and down and nod once "So whats with the puppets? are you a ninja or a Preformer?" Shikuki would place the back of her hand near her mouth and laugh as she made the joke. It could be taken as cruel, but Shikuki cared not at the point in time how it could be taken, she was just out to make herself feel better after a ardous mission length like that one she was just on.

"Ninja."

"Performer!!"

The two responded only moments after the other, the two words slurred together as Saya struggled to get the timing as close together as possible. She would need to find an alternative to just using ventrilloquism. There were points when the two would need to talk in synch and that just couldn't be done due to her only having one singular voice. Her eyes lit up as she considered all the possibilities. There were so many ways she could make the dual speech easier, and she was determined to consider the pros and cons of each and everyone, her task completely forgotten.

"I'm pinochio and this is my student Tria--only you call me that. Sorry. This is my student Saya. Uh. Technically we are both performers and ninja, though I have been TRYING to push her more towards that path that would keep her safe. Young ones, what can you... do..." He looked her up and down with eyes that didn't work, and then Saya turned to glance. Right. Neither were particularly... what's the word.. Adult? It was fine. It just meant Saya would have new friends to train with. Oh no. Saya would have new friends to train with.

"I'm going to be the cosplay QUEEN of the village hidden in the rain someday and people will cross from every land to see my amazing performances! And also i guess like i'll do missions and learn stuff to protect myself but MOSTLY I'm going to be a great performer one day." As she spoke THAT look began to glisten in her eyes. Pinochio hated that look. That look meant that she had some sort of plan which usually involved various outfits she'd snuck into her bag while he was in the other room and took time from important tasks like learning new jutsu or weapon training.

(630)

Shikuki would look rather bewildered at this person, this was defintatly one due to be in the coo coo house sooner rather than later. But to each their own she supposed. At that Shikuki would nervously smile and nod "Very well, did not expect an answer of both...So Uhmm, Are you here to train today, or to Perform today? or are you doing a little bit of both?" Shikuki would ask as she noted the girl digging in her bag for something and kept looking back and forth between the obvious puppets and the puppeteer. "Maybe there is an easier way to do a ....Costume...Change? Seeing as I too like fasion, I prefer to look a certain way, its not hard to change relativly fast if you know what to do and already have in mind the outfit you are going to put on next." Shikuki would notate to the girl digging in her bag.

The Eighteen year old, who was obviously open about certain aspects of her life would turn around and begin to go back to using her hands and feet with a mixture of the occasionaly Kunai or shuriken , one could tell she had barely any training more then what one picked up in the academy, but Repition creates Muscle memory.

"Nope." Saya immediately began to respond, only to be corrected by Pinochio. Apparently she'd brought an outfit, but performance was not on the menu for today and they both knew it. Saya pouted for a moment, but seemed to recognize the truth in the statement, continuing to search for whatever she was getting. "We are here to train. it's important for my young student to become stronger in order to protect herself on the dangerous missions--" he was cut off as Saya caught what Shikuki had said.


She had a fist full of red satin halfway out the bag when the small girl froze." Did... Did she just say fashion? I. WH. you like fashion?! I make clothes in my spare time! I mean clothes, dolls, puppets, do a bit of art, create props scenery and other things I need for performance, but I make clothes! thats fashion!!" She was vibrating with excitement. She'd met so many interesting people recently. She had a doll maker friend who'd been an invaluable resource in making her puppets, and the photographer who called her here and there to do shoots, and now she had a fashion friend. This was just the best thing. With a flourish she pulled the red cloak the rest of the way from her bag, spinning to wrap it around her shoulders.

"I made this! It's very soft. Its for a little red riding hood performance I've been working on."

(871)

Shikuki would raise an eyebrow as she looked at the girl who seemed way to upbeat for a ninja, but worked perfectly for a performer "Well sweety that is a very nice cloak, but you see, I am here to train today as well" she would hold up a book, "And read a bit when I decide to take a bit of a break. So if you do not mind..." She would turn away and begin once more with the training without the use of any techniques, it was almost obvious she could not use anything at this point in time. But Shikuki hoped that she would find a teacher one day to help further her along, little did she know what fate had in store for her.

"O...OH. Okay! Well then i'll just train too. Ready pinochio?!" She didn't give him time to answer. Forming the seals she would call out to the suiton that flooded her solar point, molding chakra and in a moment water would pour from her lips.

"Riargmmmmmrmmmm" His response started the moment the water finished flowing from her lips, and was cut off just as abruptly. She remembered the technique he'd had her work on weeks ago. What did he call it? Water shackles? No. Water.... bubble holdy thing? No no. water prison. Right. The circle of suiton formed around him, holding him in place as her arm held the technique together. Her free arm shifted and twitched to move the puppet, who tried his best to tread water for several seconds before holding his throat like he couldn't breathe. He could not, in fact breathe, but that was more because he was a bit of wood carved to look unconvincingly like a person and personified by the mind of his puppet master. It wasn't exactly a danger to him.

She pulled her arm free and the floor filled with water. She'd considered using the OTHER technique, but decided the safety of her new potential best friend would be at stake if she tried to control that volume of suiton in this space.

"That was not very kind of you Tria. You know my body gets water logged..." white gloves attempted futilely to wipe the water soaking into his wood away. Then he realized why she'd done that. "No. No Don't. You've got that one down. You don't need to.. I hate this part."

She formed five hand seals. snake. bird. monkey. ox. dragon. Her hands were brought together, the lighthearted kindness lost in her eyes as she poured resolve into her creation, and she touched her fingertips against the water. The mass that had once held him rose up with razor sharp teeth. Pinochio held himself in the sharks jaws as it seemed to fly from the floor upwards and downwards, his tiny arms and legs holding the sharks teeth open until it crashed into the ground and dismantled itself. Three more times the water rose and fell holding the puppet in various positions as he screeched or cried out, but her control over suiton was enough that she never actually used the sharpened teeth to cause the puppet harm. This was a refresher in the basics of her technique control.

(1281)

Shikuki happened to catch the operations out of the corner of her eye and she would turn to watch and walked up to the Puppeteer "You use Water as well? Im not very good with Ninjutsu, but I know Water is my Proficency, when I took the paper test, it came out soggy. Can you teach me those techniques you just did?" Shikuki had inquired of the pink haired girl and her puppets. Shikuki bit her lower lip when she asked as she was a little shy about her incompetency , but she had to be honest else no one would ever train her right? They would think she was working on things she needed to, not just because that was all she had at her disposal.

Shikuki took a deep breath in as she prepared herself for the rejection she felt was bound to happen. Yet her heart held out hope for the generosity of others. It was not very ninja like, let alone like her, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and if she felt like she needed to train for more dangerous missions, she knew the power of her eyes, to an extent, but kept them hidden for the time being.

"You want me to take time out of my training to spend it teaching you techniques i've already proved proficiency in? even though there's really not much reason for me to even think about these techniques again unless I need to use them to protect myself in battle and theres way better things i could be doing to push my own skills?! Honestly that sounds like a way better plan then any of what I had lets do it." Saya spoke with her hands still placed against the puddle of water beneath her. She wondered how her team was doing at home. While Pinochio had made her promise to keep her crafting to a minimum today so they could work on training, he'd never said anything about asking the doll maker and her new assasin friend to work on things while she was gone. When she'd left she remembered seeing the better part of her first puppet finished. They just needed the head in her bag and the final touches in order to add the realism aspects and her new sister would be brought to life.

"Let's do this. Ok. So I guess I should start with the easier one. Its uh. Five shark frenzy, or no wait. was it feeding time in five shark.... dance... " Comically, the puppet still crested like waves in front of her, shifting and contorting as he rose and fell within the mouth of the five sharks. She hadn't considered that she could cancel the technique, much to his chagrin.

"Five AAAHHH. FeedingAAACCKKKK. Shaarrrkkkss crap crap crap that one broke skin!!! Tria Stop this!" In a moment the puppet fell to the ground as the water simply lost its form.

"Right. Five feeding sharks. Ok so its five seals, and then you clap and then..." She was cut off. She glanced over at pinochio, waterlogged and looking quite frusterated with the past minutes actions.

"Start.... WIth... Water prison. It's a B rank. You'll need a suiton source for five feeding sharks. This provides one that is not quite so.... Volitile as your other technique. I appologize miss. I've only been able to get her to sit still long enough to learn three jutsu of the suiton element and a couple from doton. The first will require the snake, ram, horse, and hare seals. "

(1669)

Shikuki would not help but to look sideways at the entire event that was before her, it was like a performance and training all in one, maybe this girl was onto something? She would shrug and listen to...the puppet master through the puppet. So it was four hand seals. Shikuki would first walk over to a training dummy, not wanting to further damage the girls puppet. and would Than form the four hand seals. Snake, Ram, Horse, Hare and there it was, as Shikuki extended her arm over the training dummy, the water would form from her hand in a sphere and extend down, encasing the training dummy half way down its stick it stood on. Shikuki would smile, she did it, she was getting better at the ninjutsu aspect of being a ninja that was one of those things that was for certain. Only certain level of techniques could she perform at this time, however she did  not realize that what her eyes could do for her was of much higher degree. for the time being She would break the Prison free, and watching the water fall.

Than she would look over at Saya and remembered the seals for the second technique she watched her use. and Shikuki would begin to form them slowly as she tried hard to remember each seal seperately. First was Snake, followed by Bird, that was easy enough to remember, a Bird Eats the snake. Next came up was Monkey. Well Birds and Monkeys live in trees together. next was Ox, followed lastly by Dragon.... Shikuki had no way of trying to remember those other then sheer force of will. And With the final seal she would clap as she watched only a single shark struggle to form from the water she made from water prison come to life. It jumped around for a moment but would quickly dive straight into the ground and break apart. She needed more Water before she could fully make all five sharks.

Shikuki would nod and take in a deep breath, She would than form the first four hand seals again, Snake, Ram, Horse, Hare. And She would form another Water Prison over the training dummy in front of her. And She would release it with a heafty release of her breath, this was more exerting than the activities she was generally used to that would drain her rather quickly. However she kept that to herself and formed another set of the hand seals. Once again the Water Prison formed and was released almost immedately after reaching peak size, giving plenty of water for Shikuki to work with this time.

Shikuki would than form her hand signs once more, the five and than the clap after the Dragon seal was made, And this time five sharks sprouted from the water around her and danced up and down in the air around her in a circle, before they would each dive into the training dummy, biting it as it crashed into it and becoming useless water puddles once again, Shikuki would smile and spin around with a slight trimph in her attitude  now, almost more like Saya as she went skipping back to the girl "Is there anythign else? Anythign we can work on together?" Shikuki would ask Excitedly almost vibrating as she did.

1365 twc