A splendid day [P/Saya]

It truly was a wonderful morning on the great island of Kirigakure! Prospective ninja of the village beat the snot out of each other in the training grounds, dodging and weaving between each other's attacks like the finest of choreography. The sun beat down on their necks, finally giving the notoriously pale citizens of Kirigakure a tan they could be proud of. Just kidding, the sun wasn't shining at all and it wasn't a wonderful day. In fact, it was actually a rather awful day, even considering the Island's famously bad weather. Rain fell from the heavens in droves, turning the ground to mud and making everyone miserable. Except for the aloof Senju herself, Dana.

Said Senju wouldn't be found among all the other training ninja on the ground, for she was sat on the roof of the training facility with her little legs dangling over the side. To any onlooker, it would be quite clear that the small Senju had been there for quite some time; she looked absolutely soaked. Her white hair, normally the colour of snow, had turned an almost dull grey after soaking in the multitudes of rainwater. One might even describe her as looking like a drowned puppy, except Dana looked completely at home in the soaking wet weather. She giggled when she saw a ninja in the training grounds below her slip up on the mud, not feeling the teensiest bit sorry for him.

She reached into her sopping cloak and pulled out an equally drenched croissant in some grease-proof paper. Without a care for how soggy it was, Dana began to munch on the delicious pastry. As she ate - drunk, more like, considering how wet it was - the croissant, Dana hummed a pleasant tune that went something like this. Unfortunately, just as she was getting into the tune and bouncing up and down to it, the croissant fell through her hands and all the way down to the ground, where it landed with a wet squelch in the mud.

"Feck." She sighed as she looked at its landing spot. No matter, at least she had two more in her cloak for later!

WC: 355

I will not be fooled twice, dear listeners. Unlike the previous day's folley, where I assumed that our young protagonist would be safely nestled in her bed well past noon, I have kept a close eye to ensure I could give you the most accurate account of her day to day actions and ponderings. With that in mind, our story today starts with everyone's favorite singing cosplayer...... Out of view. HOW DID SHE DO THIS TWICE?! This is fine. Panning out, shifting away from the house aaaannnnnd we start our story now with our dear heroine walking quickly down the streets of the village hidden in the mist. In true Saya fashion, she's found a totally normal and natural way for a person to keep herself dry in the torential rain that poured from the sky. If you think this mean't she grabbed an umbrella like a rational adult, you do not know our dear protagonist listeners. Shame on you. No, instead, We zoom in on the tiny terror walking directly beside the Freyja puppet. In the goddess' hands she held what would look to be an entire performance stage about five feet in any direction and about six inches tall. The wood caught the rain, wicking it off to the sides to protect team puppet from the rain. 

Now, that seems a silly thing to have done. Who would carry an entire performance stage with them just to dodge the rain right? Wrong. Her coach puppet, unfruled in his stage mode was providing them the protection, and as they walked his face beamed from the bottom of the stage with the joys of being able to be of use on this dreary day. To her left walked a girl who was in every way Saya's mirror. The only clear difference between the two came in Saya's blonde hair and Ai's deep black. Their outfits were reversed as well, each wearing an intricately cut and sewn garment with leggins underneath, but Saya's was predominantly white, and Ai's a slate grey, with accents of black for Saya and white for Ai. To her right, as always, was the small pinochio puppet. Pinochio, unlike the three girls hidden beneath the stage, would be very obviously a puppet. His skin was completely wood, and his long nose pointed well past what any living creature could possibly have. 

Team puppet moved as quickly as they were able through the winding streets leading towards the one place that seemed to be their perminent home away from home: the Advanced training facility. People shifted and gasped as the enormous wooden structure bumped into walls and people, threatening to knock a basket of fruit off one lady's head, and nearly getting caught as the street narrowed several times. It wasn't a pratical solution to the problem, but honestly listeners, is Saya a practical ninja? NO. the answer is absolutely not. 

As they approached the facility there was a soft thud against Coach's wood. THe slats opened and shifted to allow his head up to the top part, and as he glanced he noticed.... There was a croisant? That didn't make sense. Puppets can't see.

(TWC 527)

As Dana watched her croissant fall, she saw that instead of falling on the ground as she'd anticipated, it would land on a... Wooden stage? How had she not seen that thing before? From here at the top of the building, Dana could not see any of the ninjas beneath so it looked like a floating stage had just appeared out of nowhere. 'How peculiar... I must investigate!' Dana leapt up from her sitting position with all the grace one would expect from a ninja and began to skip down the side of the building. The people inside the building had to do a double-take as their view of the training ground was suddenly replaced with a tiny white-haired woman, whose skips threatened to shatter the glass.

Once she made her way close to the bottom, Dana leapt from the side of the building with an elegant flip and would land on top of the stage just as Coach's head shifted onto the top around to see the croissant. Those underneath the stage would hear two thuds as she landed, the first being her making contact with the stage, the second being all the loosened water from her cloak dropping down. She picked up the smushed croissant with a pleasant expression and continued eating it without any care for where it had been. As she took another bite, she crouched down in front of Coach's head and gave it a thankful pat and a quick stroke.

"Thank ye koind sir!" She said with a big toothy grin. Interested in the rest of the saviors of her delicious breakfast pastry, Dana unceremoniously shoved the rest of the croissant into her mouth and leaned over the side with the same grin she'd given Coach. Swallowing upside down was quite an uncomfortable sensation but Dana dealt with it like a champ and was soon, presumably, face-to-face with the rest of the gang beneath the stage. Her smiled widened and she offered an upside-down handshake to the blonde and black-haired girls each as was the polite thing to do.

"Greetings! Was real jammy that yer got 'ere when you did!" If the two accepted her handshake she would go on to say, "Moiy I interest ye in a foine breakfast pastry? Bought eet meself but ye all deserve one!". If the offer was met with a positive reaction, Dana would bring her hands back into her cloak, still upside-down, and bring out two soggy croissants that had definitely seen better days. One had been underneath Dana when she'd leaned down to greet the gang, so it wasn't just soggy, but flat as well. The travesty! No matter, Dana offered the two pastries with a serene smile that made it impossible to tell if the offer was serious or not.

WC: 469
TWC: 824

If it was an oddity to have a random soggy pastry land on Coach's stage mode body, it would be completely out of the norm for an entire girl to have landed there. The moment she touched down two things happened. Coach cocked his head to the side in confusion, and almost immediately the edges of the stage lifted up to close around the girl. Moving at a speed of ninety the snap trap activated, curling inward to create the body of the coach puppet around where the girl now stood. If she failed to move out of the area in time she'd find herself closed in the oval chest cavity that have her enough room to move about fairly well, with about four inches clearance on all sides. Then the fireworks launchers came out. If she failed to get off of the stage quick enough to avoid being closed up in the snap trap effect of the coach puppet, She would find herself trapped and staring down a very dangerous situation.  

Every six inches or so a small circlular lighting display shifted inwards towards the girl. The lense and light bulb display areas would simply slide to the side as if they were hinged at a single point, and within Dana could see quite a few masses of packed fireworks ready to be launched at the unsuspecting intruder. There was a sizzling of fire burning down rope before a voice broke the silence. 

"COACH! That is NOT how we treat potential new friends. " The reaction was obviously Sayas. She'd been a bit on edge since she and daiko had taken on two very intense hunter missions, and the moment she heard the feet touch down, with a twitch of her fingers she'd closed the coach puppet for fear that another assassin was trying to kill her. Still it was pretty easy to just blame coach. He couldn't like... Defend himself because of his inablility to talk. That's kind of the major downside to being a puppet she supposed. 


"We... We are sorry for Coach's rudeness. You will find a hatch at the top near the center of his shoulder blades. Please feel free to find your way out of the puppet that way if you'll wish. It will be a little bit before he can unfurl to release you. " Ai spoke up next. While it would seem that being trapped in a puppet would make it dificult to understand what was going around oneself, with coach it was less so. Dana would be easily able to see the world around her due to the slats that made up his puppet body having a several inch wide gap between specifically to grant sight to the target within. They weren't wide enough that someone could crawl out, of course, but it would be enough that she could see team puppet as they turned to speak with her. 

Saya let out a soft huff as she remembered the reason that Coach had been above them in the first place. The rain fell heavily on the group, soaking her hair and clothes, and seeping into PInochio's wooden body. Thankfully Coach's wood was fully finished. 
(TWC 1058)

The last thing Dana expected upon landing was for the sides of the stage itself to close in around her. Since the puppet was travelling at triple her maximum speed, and she was still recovering from the landing, Dana had absolutely no chance of getting out of the way in time. Not that she would have even tried to get out of the way in the first place, for Dana was a curious sort and liked to live dangerously. Her gut was telling her there was nothing to be scared of, but her gut had been wrong many times before. As her predicament inside the strange stage-prison-hybrid suddenly got a lot more dangerous with the sudden appearance of dozens of lit fireworks, Dana would tilt her head to the side. She'd scraped with death a few times, but perhaps this would be her final moments. Oh well, she'd had a fun life, she supposed.

Just as Dana had pretty much accepted her death, a voice sounded out from beyond the confines of her new prison. Through the slats that made up the body of the puppet she was in, Dana could see the source of the voice was a black-haired girl. Dana waved with a big grin before doing as instructed and crawled through the hatch - but not before grabbing the croissant - with the leisureliness of someone who wasn't currently being threatened with a painful death by a bunch of fireworks. Once out, the small Senju would try and manoeuvre herself so that she was sitting on Coach's shoulders, with her legs on either side of his head. She smiled widely at the eclectic group of people she'd found herself meeting, without a hint of malice at being trapped and threatened by a puppet.

"It's qoite alroight!" She waved the black-haired one's concerns with a laugh, "Oi've been in weirder situations."

Since she hadn't gotten the chance to do so when she'd landed, Dana now took the opportunity to pat Coach's head as a thank you for saving her croissant from the unfortunate fate of landing in mud. She then pirouetted from Coach's shoulders and landed on the ground in a move that was almost graceful. Unfortunately, the mud made it a little difficult to stick the landing and she had to employ the use of the Surface Walking Technique to prevent herself from slipping. In a practiced motion, Dana whipped her wet hair forward so that it was covering her face then lifted it back and over with her forearm.

"It's absolutely pissing it down, how 'bout we go inside?" She said cheerfullly. If they agreed then Dana would go and offer a handshake to the black-haired girl who had apologized to her earlier, "The name's Dana. Dana Senju."

WC: 462
TWC: 1286

Coach delt with the movement inside himself. He was fairly used to the way Saya shifted and fidgeted the few times she'd chosen to ride inside him for various reasons, but it was clear he wasn't a fan of having someone in his chest. As the girl climbed out and onto his shoulders he let out an inaduble sigh, his shoulders relaxing for a quick moment before he began to shift uncomfortably again. On his shoulders was coach's preferred riding method, were he to be able to choose. He could not, of course, he is an inanimate puppet. Still as she planted herself across his neck instead of just on one shoulder or the other the relaxation in his wooden anatomy disappeared as she shifted just enough to express disinterest, but not enough to actually make her fall off. 

Saya took note of the girl's movements. It reminded her of something but she couldn't quite place it. Was it similar to her own recent foray into free running? Sort of. There was definitely a level of body control necessary for the techniques she'd been practicing in her off time, but no. This was something different. As saya stood there pondering and getting soaked thoroughly, Pinochio let out a soft "huh". That was it. She'd seen little of pinochio's fighting style, but what she'd just done reminded her of the fight against travin. The way Pinochio refused to give ground when trying to get into taijutsu range. The way he'd shifted from his feet to his hands to try and continue to press an attack. They should really come up with a name for that. 

Each in turn took note of the girl's accent. was she really from around here? Maybe she was a transfer, or her family was from somewhere else origionally. She'd never heard someone use vowels in quite the way this new girl did, which made the entire trio curious about who exactly she was. Even freyja turned an eye to the girl as she spoke, though her thoughts were not so easily revealed to Saya yet. They were still calibrating her personality. The splitting of her focus into three separate characterizations had come naturally to saya, but this fourth split seemed impossible. It was too much for her to be able to do naturally, and the more she worked towards allowing Frey her own space within her head, the more she struggled to keep her own focus. 

"Wh. Pissing... Do you... Do you mean the rain?" Confusion shifted nearly immediately to excitement as this new girl gave her name. She'd never actually met someone like her. DId that mean she could finally reveal her true self?

"Senju? oh!!! I'm Sayatria S--" 

"NO." Pinochio and Ai spoke in unison, cutting the girl off in a way that would seem impossible for two puppets to do. It would seem equally impossible for a pupeteer and puppet to do in tandem, given the requirement of two separate voices. It was not though. You all heard them do it. 

"Uh. I'm Sayatria but you can call me Saya." With a nod the team would all rush in the door, allowing their clothes to drip heavily against the welcome mat inside. 
(TWC 1597)

Dana took note of the group's odd reaction to her name with a nonplussed expression, her constant wide smile turning confused for a few seconds. Their reaction made Dana think they were hiding something, but she hadn't the faintest idea what they could be hiding. The reaction had also drawn her attention to the small puppet who was hanging out with the rest of the group, which seemed to be operating completely independently. Now that she thought about it, the large puppet that had captured her seemed to have been operating independently as well. That meant one of these girls was somehow controlling both of them, while maintaining a conversation with her. The only one that hadn't spoken yet was the one with red hair, who also seemed to be behaving with less... Life than the others. She must be the puppet master, Dana decided.

As the team rushed through the door to the training facility, Dana answered the blonde one's question. "Roight, the rain. Nature's piss, and lots of it." The Senju laughed at the odd phrase before a memory prodded at her mind. The friend she'd made last time she'd been at the Training Grounds, Niko Kazan, had said he knew another Senju. Dana remembered his description of the event of sparring with her as 'Traumatic' with a small smile. Perhaps this team had suffered the same fate at the hands of the same Senju, and were embarrassed to admit it? Dana suddenly found herself wanting to meet this mysterious Senju even more. How had she not met this mysterious person just yet?

Once they cleared the threshold, Dana turned to the one who had the most vivid reaction to her name - the blonde one - and asked, "Ye wouldn't happen to know a fella boi the name Niko, would ye? Dark hair, voiolet eyes; about this tall?" She raised her hand above her hand to indicate Niko's height. If they'd both been a victim of the same Senju, then maybe they'd know each other. Dana would be happy if that was the case, she liked the idea of friends knowing each other!

WC: 360
TWC: 1648

"Ah. Right. Yea......" Pinochio commented to the first statement, giving the girls a bit of a wave to not question it. He got the immediate feeling that she was not going to be a good influence on the sisters. The last thing he needed was to have Saya walking around the house talking about piss all day. Still, there wasn't much he could do about it now, and as they gained strength without him it became more and more apparent that throwing him a great distance was an applicable strategy to interactions they weren't a fan of, so he had found it important to tone down his mothering. It was detrimental to his image as the group leader, and man in charge with training any new aplicants to team Kute on Sight that he be thrown either across the room or into coach puppet jail as rarely as possible. 

It was almost on instinct that team puppet moved across the foyer of the training area, and towards the right side of the facility. They had a room that they preffered, and as they'd been spending the bulk of their time within these walls anyway their room was generally always open to them. Then Saya remembered they had a guest who may have her own preferred place. If she were honest, she hated this place. The equipment and facilities were great, don't get her wrong, but something about being cooped up in a building all day just felt so.... wrong. There was no way within these walls that she could actually go all out and unleash her power, and what little she was forced to let out in spars or during training ended up with her having to spend more valuable chakra on a creation style technique to rebuild what she'd destroyed. As she turned back to Dana, her eyes glanced down at the obviously new and slightly off colored wood of the training ring in the central portion of the facility. She smiled for a moment remembering her fight with kiku. This was where her sister had completely torn up an entire section in order to compete against an aerial combatant. Just behind her had once held a giant wall that barred path. Ai decided to try and drop it on their friend to make a point. That was a good day. 

"Oh... Niko! Yea he has a puppet just like pinochio right?" Ai spoke up, but Pinochio was not far behind. While it was impossible for his face to actually turn red due to him being made of wood and not having blood to shift his skin color, the phrase is by far the best way to express the rage in his painted on ees. 

"STOP CALLING ME A PUPPET IM A WOOD BUILT PERSON." It was impossible for this convorsation not to end here. She needed to refference the pinochio puppet she'd helped niko build who was very much NOT a person, and that required refferencing the wood built person on their team. 

"Yea I've taught him some stuff and he did a spar against my sister until she accidentally broke his hand, why?" Completely ignoring Pinochio's outburst Saya joined in on her sister's thought, finishing the statement. 

(TWC 2137)

Dana followed the diverse group across the foyer of the training facility with a serene smile, almost appearing to glide across the ground. This was only the second time she'd been in this part of the village and she had no preference for where they ended up, so she deferred to the group. Once again, Dana found herself captivated by the interior of the facility; she hadn't seen many places like it in her, albeit short, life. What she could remember of it, anyway. Dana noticed Saya smile at the oddly placed section of wood on the floor with a small tilt of her head. There was a story there, an interesting one.

"Oi'm not sure, he only showed me this big red fella'. He made it dance." Dana giggled at the memory, responding to the black-haired woman's question about Niko's puppets, "Was real jammy oi met him too, he helped me figure out my bloodloine."

"Of course you are, little man," Dana said gently, leaning over to give the little wooden person a gentle pat on the head. She knew about weirder things than a person made of wood. If the youngfella wanted to be treated like a person, then Dana would respect his wishes. There was no patronization in her tone, only a faint undercurrent of amusement at Pinochio's outburst.

Dana smiled mysteriously at Saya's question, "He told me his mentor was another Senju who ended up traumatizing him in a spar. You had an interesting reaction to moi name so oi was wondering you'd had a similar experience." She did a little clap, "It's wonderful that you know each other though!" She spoke up, joy evident from her wide grin. It was always a happy moment when she met someone new, especially when they already had some sort of a connection.

The ashen-haired Senju suddenly realized that she hadn't been told the names of Saya's friends yet, which was an utmost travesty that she would have to fix right away! She knew Saya, Pinochio, and Coach, but the other's names eluded her. "Forgive me, but oi do not know the rest of yer names." She said with a small bow.

WC: 312
TWC: 2010

"Huh. Sounds like he's been working on the techniques you taught him Ai. I'll have to catch up with him later and see what he's crafted. I don't think he's seen frey either." She was grinning like a school girl at the idea that she could show off her new masterpiece. The puppet had taken an incredible ammount of work for herself and her friends. The idea that Niko had been crafting too was an incredibly exciting piece of news. Everything was going amazingly with this new friend they'd met right up to the point when she called pinochio little man. What's worse was that she decided to pat him on the head like a puppy. 

"WHY YOU LITTLE" Pinochio lept at the girl at a speed of ninety three.... and found himself quite off from his intended goal as the coach puppet simply stepped foward. Bending backwards the hatch on his back flipped open and Pinochio could only stare on in horror as he was now flying directly inside the prison like chest cavity of coach. "PULL ME BACK PULL ME BACK PULL. ME. BAAACCKKK" There was a loud thud as he hid the wood of coach's chest and slid inside. The hatch latched with an audible click. 

"Oh. That's probably my sister Ai. She taught him some crafting in poetry and did a bit of a spar with her. " It was completely matter of the fact the way Saya spoke of her sister, side stepping the fact that SHE was a senju, and even the suggestion that her sister, the puppet was a senju. This particular detail hadn't even occurred to her. While she was aware that she should hide her heritage, she often forgot, and the convorsation felt natural enough that without one of her teammates stopping her it just sort of came out. There was an audible sigh from the inside of the coach puppet as the muffled voice of pinochio did little to stop the girl from hinting that she was senju. 

The moment Dana pointed out that they'd not introduced themselves, Saya's palm flew into her face. 

"Alright team. ROLE CALL!!" With a nod each lined up horizontally in front of their new friend from least to most important and began to sound off. 

"I'm Ai, aya's twin sister. " Ai gave a bit of a bow as she spoke, though her head tilted so their eyes never left one another. 

"Frey-ja. " The tall regal woman struggled with her words, but was able to speak her name. As she did, Saya's eye twitched as she struggled to try and extend the courtesy of speech to her newest puppet. From within coach, there was a muffled and incoherent yelling of the small angry puppet, but it was hard to tell much of what he said. Finally, The coach puppet glanced up at the girl, and from the bag on his back pulled out two wooden signs. The first said simply "coach" and the second said "Pinochio is in time out. Please bare with us." 

(TWC 2645)