Who would ever want to be a village ninja?

Saya rushed out of the costume shop. It was easy for her to take an outfit from her dimensional storage and slip in on in the back dressing room. Even easier to just turn the corner and do it right in the shop since a) it was empty b) she'd paid the owner a pretty penny for its use when she needed and c) quick changing was a skill she'd learned early. As she walked out to strike a pose and surprise her teammate things didn't go quite as planned. Her fists were nearly planted on her hips before she looked up and saw that Daiko had also changed.... and he was now wearing her flag as a sleeveless t-shirt.

"I. Wh. Um. I... Don...." she was utterly speechless, but yanno who wasn't? You guessed it dear listeners. As soon as saya stopped stuttering to stand with her mouth agape, Pinochio erupted in a fit of laughter. He fell to the ground, rolling left and right as his tiny puppet hands clutched his wooden belly.

"oh. HAHAHAHAA this. This is too good. You've broken her. For years i've tried to figure out how to make her silent for a moment and you ACTUALLY DID IT! Yes. Perfect. This is a day I will cherish for the rest of my life." The other two were less enthusiastic. They each gave him a smile and thumbs up for his outfit, but Ai kicked Pinochio in the ribs for his comments and Coach just shook his head. He scooped the small girl up, sliding her over his shoulder and into the hatch between his shoulder blades before grabbing pinochio by his left food and holding him upside down for the entire ride to the ship.

The size of her ship was dificult to tell from the distance she'd dropped anchor on their first mission. As team puppet led Daiko down the pier towards the vessel however, it would become clear exactly what she'd procured. THe hull was massive, rising well past the floor they were standing on, and the length dwarfed the edge of the pier where they'd parked it. This was no sloop. It was a full sized gallion equipped with twelve cannons above deck and eight below in port holes.

"right. Everyone knows their positions. Daiko stick with me, If you haven't sailed a ship then I'll have to run you through exactly what is needed to keep the thing moving effectively. " She stepped up to the foksol, and before climbing the stairs gave a knock on the door to the captains chambers. From behind the door a thin lithe girl poked out her head. Her once blonde hair was now a vibrant sea green.

"Yagi, We have to set sail quickly. Pull anchor and rig the sails for us please?" The assassin turned best friend gave a nod. It wasn't terribly clear if she realized she was talking to a puppet or thought it was her friend, but inevitably it wouldn't matter.
"Now. I guess since Saya is incapacitated I'll have to steer the ship. Coach can you hand me her hat?" The moment she'd said something there was a rumbling from inside the coach puppet. His body shifted left and right for several moments before the tiny terror burst out from the hatch, landing on his shoulders with one hand outstretched in an almost disco esque motion.

"Hoist up the thing. Band down the what's it. What's that thing spinning somebody should stop it! turn hard to port. Now i've got it. Trust me IM in control." She got to work giving orders to set the ship out towards the far islands, and as they were heading out at full speed, a slight chuckle could be heard from Ai.

"Works every time..."

(TWC3878 wc1152)

Daiko followed along with every instruction that Saya gave to him, doing all of the necessary things to keep the boat headed in the right direction. As they had been sailing, Daiko noticed something odd about one of the islands. It wasn't as obvious as bananas would be, but he noticed that there seemed to be an abnormal rustling in the trees. Pointing this out to his companion, he decides that it would be best that they head in the direction of that particular island. Along with this, would come the actual stopping of the ship and them getting off. This wouldn't take too long in itself, and it would leave the pair to actually focus on what was going on with these monkeys. Walking slowly, Daiko looks around. Looking over at Saya, he motions for her to follow him. 

Where there was much rustling in the trees, there was activity. Slowly closing into where all of the monkeys were likely to be, Daiko's eyes widen as he actually sees them in the distance. They weren't exactly like animals, because they were doing civilized things, such as having debates and throwing dice with each other. What was strange was, it was more of a planet-of-the-apes style tribe system, as there was one particular monkey that was adorned in cool clothing. Daiko was wondering if Saya would ever end up getting future outfit ideas from this critter.

Anyways, They had found what they had been sent here to find. There was a grouping of monkeys, and they recalled where it was. Looking over at Saya, Daiko motions for her to back away so that he would be able to talk to her about what they had just witnessed.  Once they got back far enough, Daiko would tell her. "So, it looks like these are the monkeys that we were sent here to find. The missions instructed us specifically not to engage, so I'm assuming that this is all that we had to do in order for the mission to be complete. We have basically found out the reason that they're out there... It seems they're..." Daiko would leave this explanation to Saya. He wasn't exactly sure what the hell was going on, but he was sure of one thing. It was about time for them to get started on their next mission. After all was said and done and they had pulled away, Daiko would show Saya the next scroll.

Revealing the last and final scroll, Daiko first took a moment to look at it himself. He frowned slightly and then handed it to Saya. "So, our last mission for the day looks like it requires us to do something involving hunting down this organization." Stretching out, Daiko yawns a bit. "I'm getting a bit tired from all this work, so let's try to brush this one out of the way as quickly as we can." Nodding his head, he looks down again at his outfit, and chuckles slightly to himself. He was beginning to really enjoy this partnership.

[509]
{3110}

[1000/1000] Monkey Buisness

With all the hard work they'd been dodging actually having to do using their particular ninja skills to find much easier ways to do it this trip on the high seas was exactly what she needed. The scent of salt assaulted her senses, bringing focus to her otherwise addled mind. Her eyes darted about checking on each of her crew mates. Daiko was actually getting the hang of things and listening well when she told him to handle something, which impressed her. In the vicinity at all times was pinochio, glancing back and forth between Saya and the boy. Had he been giving Daiko pointers on what she meant? It probably would have been easier just to explain what she wanted him to do, but this worked. As they came on the first island Saya saw it immediately. Absolutely. Nothing. There was nothing. No bananas, no monkeys swinging about, it was like they weren't even there. With her masterful skills in deduction that told her one thing: this was not the island they were looking for.

She was already turning the wheel to shift their path towards the next island when she heard daiko call out. Apparently he'd seen some movement in the tree line. Her feet took her quickly to the edge of the ship where she glanced out at what Daiko had seen. In the back of a large settlement of monkeys who were gathered doing various tasks she could see a wooden floor made of banana trees. Atop it two of the sentient monkeys shifted back and forth in some sort of ritual... NO. It wasn't a ritual... Were they dancing?! They were. The first monkey dropped low, placing a hand against the ground and started windmilling around. Almost immediately the tiny terror decided to try what she saw and was windmilling in perfect sync across the foksol.

"Saya. We should.. I mean we finished the mission but we should get back. Remember theres still things you have to do today before you can take a break." Pinochio intervened thankfully. Had he not said something it was a garantee that she would have continued to copy their dance moves right up to the point where the ship hit a sand bar, or land itself. Then she would have to get her enormous ship back to the sea and use more chakra repairing it with foo dogs. That would be decidedly unfun.

"Ok. So to recap, its clear that they go to this other island to blow off steam and hang out. It also looks like they've been working on language and have evolved to a greecian societal model based on the signage and archetecture that you can see in the background. That's actually really interesting. I think this is exactly what we needed, now what is the last mission on our docket?"

She gave him a nod as he explained their last task. This one sounded a bit fun. Finally she'd get to have some combat practice and with luck she'd be able to see what Daiko had learned in their time away. That meant this was not just a chance to streach her legs, but she could study his attack style to figure out the way they would best work together.

"Excelent. Then lead the way, where do we have to go?"

( TWC:4434 Wc 556)

Daiko nods his head, deciding to take charge of this mission. He wasn't entirely sure the best route to actually plan his attack, but he assumed that they would be able to take things one step at a time. Stretching his legs out once they got back to the boat, Daiko looks towards Saya and begins to explain the plan that he had come up with in his head. "Alright, so here's what I'm thinking. First things first, we have to find the people that we have to deal with. I'm assuming that they want us just to take out the group that they have at the moment, and not worry about digging any deeper." Looking back at the scroll, Daiko thinks for a moment before speaking again. "Judging by this intel, they're going to be shacked up in a grouping of thatch buildings outside of the main town." Daiko nodded his head. "Thanks to this, it's likely that we'll be able to take them out in a somewhat easy fashion." Daiko thinks about the best way that they might be able to take out this threat. Judging by the difficulty of this mission, he didn't assume that there would be any shinobi amongst them, and if there were, they likely wouldn't have to deal with them just yet. 

Pointing the boat for a course to the island, Daiko helps dock the ship once more before turning to Saya again. "Alright. So they're rumored to be somewhere around this area. What I want us to do first is to sneak and find out what huts belong to them, and what huts are peaceful." Daiko nods his head, trying to think of the next thing to say. Instead of wasting his breath, he decided that it would be best to actually get a layout of what was going on before doing much else. 

Taking his time, Daiko creeps closer and closer to the outlet in which the criminal organization was said to be held. He noticed that there was an array of 4 huts, all somewhat close to each other, in a square shape with a hut at each corner. In the center, there was a fire pit that had people making merry and drinking away the spoils of criminal deeds. Daiko nodded his head towards Saya, and pointed to the left. Quieter than a whisper, he relays to her "Alright... Here's the deal. There's a good chance there are some people that are inside of these huts. I'm going to come around the right side, and I want you to come around the left side. When we're both in a good position, I want us both to try and attack towards the center. You remember the earth spears jutsu you taught me? We could probably manage to use that to trap them in a make-shift-like prison so that they can't move, and we can knock them out to take them in." Daiko nodded his head, liking the non-lethality of his plan. Though he had no problem using lethal force, Daiko thought that this surprise attack would be just what he needed to get a good reputation in the village.

[530]
{3640}

[530/1000] Eviction Notice

They sailed quickly toward their destination. While the SS glitterbomb wasn't the fastest ship, it was much quicker then swimming, and as the only ship Saya had actually ever been on, it seemed to move at light speed. As they came to dock daiko began planning the mission. She listened... Well, she half listened. She was in a position to be able to listen, but it sounded like a whole lot of planning stuff and planning was pinochio's thing. True to purpose Pinochio nodded his head in time to what Daiko was saying and considered every aspect of what they needed to do with the intel they had already gathered.

"We could probably get brownie points for eradicating the weeds from the source, but until we're sure of their power I assume just dealing with those on the outside will be our best bet. " He followed Daiko's eyeline, searching the area for signs of criminal misdeads. There were huts, mostly darkened from misuse, and a group of rough looking people sitting around a bonfire drinking after their evil villany, and of course a stray chicken. Nothing out of the ordi-waaaiiiiitttt. That was their target. As he realized, Daiko confirmed verbally. Now that they knew exactly who to target the question was what is the best way to actually approach the situation. He wasn't sure what daiko could do. That was a problem Pinoch hoped to solve very quickly. Saya wasn't really the silent espionage type, but if he had those abilities that could open many doors. Almost perfectly timed with his thinking the word door, Pinochio heard a door open. There was no question what had just happened.

"Um. Daiko. Daiko. I really do hate to interupt your planning. It's going really well seriously. I luv the idea so far but uh. We seem to have a small problem?" He pointed over to where he'd heard the sound, and standing directly in front of the first hut in the set of four, Saya had opened the doorway and was peering inside. Somehow the thugs sitting around the campfire hadn't seen her just waltz right up to the hut, but when the door opened, she nonchalantly stepped in, and then knocked over a frying pan that was inconveniently set directly by the door for plot purposes..... they got the picture pretty quickly.

"OY. Who the 'ell is that. Jimmy one eye. Go check that out. " A rough looking man with an eye patch grumbled and then stood up to go see who was looking into what they had to assume was his house.

"This....This will not be good. " Shifting his body to aim towards the campfire Pinochio activated his main attacking force. THe doors in his chest opened up and twenty Senbon shot out towards the main group, easily piercing a couple of the fighters.

"TRIA OUT NOW. ITS FIGHTING TIME." There was no sound for a moment when Jimmy entered the house. There was decidedly more sound when he was washed out of the house by a huge volume of water.

( TWC 4945 WC 1067)

Daiko blinked a couple of times, having noticed too late that Saya had already walked down into the grouping of the different criminals. Taking a moment to actually realize what had just happened, Daiko shakes his head for a second. It seemed like there were a few targets closing in on Saya, while the rest were continuing to chew their cud at the campfire. It would be no matter... Moving in on the grouping of ninja, Daiko gets about 10 meters away from them before he starts forming a variety of hand seals. Placing his hand on the ground, two things had happened. First, there were 14 spears that started to rise out of the ground, before Daiko had sent 2 per cronies around the fire, with the spears shooting away at a speed of 85. They were targeted so that whether they stayed in their spots or if they moved, they would either be trapped within two spears, or they would be pierced and held in place by the rock.

The second thing that happened, would be a poof of smoke near Daiko, in which a grey-furred creature with hellish razor claws would come out. Ahh, Yes. The Shambler. The creature let out a slow and low vibration from it's chest that Daiko could only assume was supposed to be a growl, and the creature surveyed the area as the spears began to shoot out. The creature then turns its skeletal frame towards Daiko, and cuts the act for a second. "...Daiko... Why the hell are you wasting my time. These things look weak as hell. Deal with it yourself." With that, the eldritch creature smacked Daiko in the back of the head, before poofing back into a cloud of smoke. Man. What a jackass. 

Continuing the assault, Daiko moves in closer, watching to make sure the spears had struck true. If they did, he would move on to helping Saya with what she was dealing with. The most he could offer right now is support from the back, as he was tending to the people that he had taken down. He walked down the line and did his best to start knocking out all the ones that he had constrained, as well as making sure the ones that had a spear through them were somewhat okay. Looking over towards Saya, he looks to see what she is up to, and is impressed when he sees what she's capable of under these circumstances. 

After everything was said and done, Daiko would help with the cleanup of the bodies, as well as taking them wherever it was that they needed to be. For the moment, it seemed like everything was going to be alright. Taking all of the scrolls, Daiko happily turns in the missions with Saya, and his eyes widen when he sees the rewards for all of his deeds. Man, that's a lot of ryo! In celebration, Daiko considered to himself what kind of places he should go to eat, or what worthless knickknacks he should end up buying.

[Exit]

-40 AP Shambler
-40 AP Rock Pillar Spears A
[890/100] AP

[510]
{4150}

Missions Complete --
[500/500] Help The Fishermen
[1000/1000] Monkey Business
[1000/1000] Tour Guide
[1000/1000] Eviction Notice

Mission Rewards -- 
D-Rank - 10 AP, 2000 Ryo
C-Rank - 20 AP, 4000 Ryo
C-Rank - 20 AP, 4000 Ryo
C-Rank - 20 AP, 4000 Ryo
Total -- [+70 AP, +14,000 Ryo]

Jutsu Learned -- 
[1000/1000] Mass Pull C
[2500/2500] Devouring Sphere A
{120}[1000/1000] Hiding Like a Mole C {Previous Training [880]} 
[500/2000] Chakra Infusion
30 Words Discarded

[4000/4000] +20 Trained AP

Lucky for Saya, She'd been in the hut when Daiko summoned a creepy terrifying all together icky creature in order to more effectively deal with these thugs. As he had a convorsation with his summons, the guard who'd entered the hut to check on some tiny intruder who'd simply waltzed in was blasted back by a powerful jet of suiton. Water poured from the doorway as the tiny terror flew out the other side. Thankfully the huts were made of straw. With the power of her ninjutsu it was like a hot knife through butter and she floated upwards propelled by exploding water colliding wave to a height of about twenty meters. What comes up must come down though. With the damage sustained by Saya's very existence the hut collapsed nearly immediately. The walls folded inward leaving the circular roof sitting atop a pile of wet straw.

Pinochio's mechanism was great for one specific thing. A torrent of weaponry poured from his chest, filling three of the enemies bodies with sharp spikes. They fell to the ground even as large protruding spikes flowed from the earth itself to end this fight.

The coach puppet rushed foward. While he'd been with Saya for some time there had not really been a chance for him to show what he's got. With an incredible speed of eighty two he pushed towards one of the thugs. He'd turned tail almost immediately after the combination of suiton and doton, but was nowhere near fast enough to get out of range of the powerful coach puppet. With one hand he scooped up the short bald man. Ine arm bowled his legs out from under him, but as he fell to the earth, something happened. The hatch on the back of coach, located between his shoulder blades, opened up, and the man fell in, hitting his shoulder and head on the wood before pouring like a drain into the central cavity of the puppet. His gaze turned to daiko, meeting his focus with a bright smile and thumbs up. The spotlights hidden inside of coach's chest shifted to the internal position. The caps of each slid open on a swivel and a bright light could be seen through the slats of his body. A torrent of fireworks lit into the grunt for a solid ten seconds. When his attack was done, He tipped himself over, one hand touching down on the ground as he did a one handed hand stand, and the unfortunate enemy toppled out of the hatch once more. He was decidedly worse for wear, and very very unconscious.

Ai watched. She had a number of abilities that would help the fight, but instead of joining in on the fun her eyes stayed trained on Daiko. Of course they didnt "really" stay on him. They didn't work. But through Saya's split focus she took note of the way he attacked their enemies. There was no sign of hesitation as he conjured powerful spears of doton. The ending result was exactly as her partner had said. They finished the enemies pretty easily, and those who daiko hadn't killed were gathered up and tied together with wire. Team puppet dragged them to the ship, locking them in the captains quarters. It seems she'd found a crew after all.

(TWC: 5506 wc1618 all missions finished. Claiming 10ap 2250 ryo for help the fisherman and 20 ap 4250 ryoX3 for monkey buisiness,tour guide and eviction notice(500,1k,1k,and 1k respectively) total: 70 ap, 15k ryo.

retraining 8 chakra(800 to remove, 800 to train into speed) and 5 str(500 to drop, 500 to train into speed)

Putting 764 towards great forrest(2500/2500), 4742 towards great pacifist seeking shelter(4742/5k exit topic closed)

Approved

Updating AP claims -- 

70 (missions) + 80 [4000/4000] == 150 AP

Approved