catching up(IO/NK daiko)

It had been several days since they'd kind of parted ways in silence after a very dificult string of missions. The two were tested, and while their reactions to the dificulty placed before them was quite different, it would seem that the result was the same. Neither Daiko nor Saya had said anything when they left the bar where they'd suffered their first technical defeat. The information got into the hands of the higher ups, and inevitably a stronger team would have been dispatched to take care of the final portion they hadn't managed to handle. it was frusterating. For saya, the weight of having taken a life, even if through the actions of her sister, and then finding a task that she couldn't complete had weighed too heavily for her to just shrug it off. And so she'd left to deal with the situation. She had puppets just for this kind of crap. Why did it have to be so heavy?!

Team puppet had woken up early. Far earlier then was usual. Saya had found herself sliding from bed just before the sun came up since their last set of missions. She poured her frustrations into the training equipment, into the terrain despite having to fix it afterwards, and even into her stronger puppets, just trying to ignore the wall of feelings that spilled form her mental split into her own being. THen she'd met with Kiku. That had helped. On the bench that daiko somehow always found his friend at, She'd left a note simply saying "house". Across the street, just to the left of the Mappo tofu shop where they'd enjoyed lunch so many times, stood a small wood home in the footprint of the two story house that she'd lived in until it crumbled. The entire building couldn't be more than twenty meters across, but the build was obviously new. She'd taken daiko by this space a handful of times. She'd told him it was a gift from her mother for not saying anything, and had even refferenced needing to repair it. Now it stood in seemingly smaller stature.

If he understood the note, he would find the front door unlocked. Within the single room home would be nothing but two kitchen table chairs and a handfull of boxes--well. Nothing would be in there but these things and a small otter holding a sign that pointed to the singular closet at the very back of the room.

It was an elevator. Behind the small wooden door would be a set of buttons with fuinjutsu seals that would take him to various levels of her new underground abode, and on the floor marked "sixteen" in kanji, there would be a sticky note with "push me"

She was feeling better, but the last task in getting back to her one hundred percent was to actually show off the work she'd put in. This was her chance to finally allow daiko to see her true power of Mokuton. This was the chance for her to share her vision once more.

(TWC 511)

Daiko stumbles out of some sort of mildly savory establishment, coughing a bit. Cracking his neck even though he doesn't have any bones, he finds a comfortable spot over by a bench and falls face first on it. Sighing for a minute, he feels something papery sticking to his face. Sitting up, he grabs at it and finally pulls it off. It looked to be a note left by some sort of secret admire-- oh. It just said House. Daiko had been fearing this day. Well, not particularly any fear was in his heart, however he wasn't exactly excited to talk to his young friend about the kind of antics they had been getting into. It's not that he didn't think she would be able to handle the truth to being a shinobi, it was moreso the fact that he had no idea how he was going to comfort her. Daiko remembered fondly when they had first met and she had told him ways to cope with the way others had perceived him, and he decided that he may as well head out there.

Standing up, Daiko stumbled a bit, barely catching himself on a trashcan nearby. Straightening out his posture, he spits a loogie in the note, and crumples it up while he puts it in his pocket. Daiko wasn't exactly dressed to impress, though he did have on a casual outfit that consisted of a grey hoodie and black sweatpants. The perfect clothes for a bender. Daiko wasn't entirely sure what that was, but it was no matter. As he headed to where he believed Saya to be, he thought for a moment on the past events. They had been doing a lot of missions that didn't require a lot of lethal force. For the most part, they were really just running around and doing errands for the village. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but it didn't provide any sort of moral challenges. The last two things they did... Well.... It had started with them being at the beginning of where they first met... Where someone had come to try and attack Saya. Daiko, though aware that other ninja should only be trusted if they prove themselves to not show any harm, was still surprised by this. It was seemingly out of nowhere, and neither Daiko nor Saya had wronged this person in any way. Daiko wondered if this trend was common among ninja. He'd have to find out.

Finally making it to Saya's place, Daiko blinks for a second looking at everything that the building had to offer. On the surface it didn't look too crazy, though when he walked in, it seemed just like a normal place. That was until he saw the random otter pointing at a closet. Daiko wondered if Saya would be coming out of the closet any time soon. Either way, he decides to check it out. When he opened it, it seemed like some sort of elevator. Crazy. Opening his eyes wide for a second, he pressed the button with the sticky note on it, and felt his weight shifting as the elevator dropped. This was definitely a strange experience.

When he would finally arrive to see Saya, he would give an awkward smile-esc grimace, saying his classic phrase. "Hey, how's life treatin' ya?"


[556]

What greeted daiko would be a stark contrast from the tiny room that facaded as a building on the ground floor. While it shouldn't be too surprising if he made the connection between all of the numbers and the elevator that this was in fact a home with an excessive ammount of floors, The size of the family room that greeted him was still massive. It stretched out at least a hundred feet, holding four different furniture sets positioned around full wall height flat screen tvs. In the first chair, was everyones favorite cosplayer, sayatria. SHe looked a bit different. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and she was also wearing leisure attire. Oddly enough, her leisure attire was exactly the same as her friends. What a wierd coincidence. Across her sweat shirt was a bright red logo that marked it as a high end fashion company, but the pants were plain loose fitting black sweatpants.

"Daiko!! It's been some time huh? Hey. I'm really sorry about just disappearing after that mission. Those two back to back were uh. Well. they were something. " She shifted in her seat, turning towards the door so she could take a good look at her friend. Two silver bangles slid up her arms as she moved, each clearly bearing the seal of the senju clan. "So uh. I talked to Kiku and she apparently had some pretty tough missions herself. She didn't get attacked like I did but we both kinda worked through the realization that sometimes we might be forced to do something against our nature for the sake of protecting our values. I just really wanted to take some time and let you know I wasn't upset with you. Honestly if it werent for your wierd string jutsu I dunno if I would have survived that girl in the boarders. "

Was that true? The entire fight felt like a dream. She'd turned off her mind from the moment she saw the quick strike that threatened her life. On sheer reaction, she'd called her sister to her aid and helped her friend extinguish the flame of a cruel existence. THen she'd decided not to think about it for days that had turned too easily into weeks.

As she spoke there was a ding behind daiko, assuming he'd left the elevator. The small otter walked out calmly, crossing the distance to hop up on the back of the couch, lounging out on the soft cushion.

"Please, come in! This is one of the things i've been keeping up with to try and not think about everything. I may or may not have broken a few building codes building a mansion that was completely underground, BUT I think its really cool, and it was the most eficient way I could think of to use the space I was actually alloted after I'd destroyed my last house. Theres a training center and three closet floors, a full kitchen and several bedroom floors. If you'd like you can move out of the galleon, and take up one of the empty bedroom floors!"

(TWC 1029)

Man. For whatever reason, the elevator ride that Daiko was on felt like it had taken forrreeeevvveerrrr. It was almost like it took a full week to the day in order for him to actually get out of that elevator and into the speaking distance of Saya. It didn't, of course, but Daiko wondered if Saya had to suffer the same sort of time dilation that he had experienced. Oh well. He hoped that other simple actions that he had to do didn't take that long. That would definitely be a headache, and he could imagine Saya punching him in the face if he tried to do some sort of time slow-down jutsu. Either way, it was time to get down to business. 

Daiko nodded his head. "Yeah.. it has been a while..." Daiko honestly hadn't thought much about the few ninja that they had actually engaged in combat with, other than the fact that he was pissed off that he didn't get to kill the second one. He had given it some thought and figured that he may decide to go on a mission all alone at some point. Daiko noticed that she had some clan markings, likely indicating something about her lineage, and maybe explaining the badass jutsu she was able to do with wood. Those dog heads were sick as fuck, and he was silently hoping that she might be able to teach him those. "Oh, you know Kiku as well? She seemed pretty tough. I taught her a few neat tricks with Space-Time if I recall correctly." Daiko nodded his head and continued to listen. Blinking a few times, Daiko noticed that she had brought up his 'weird stringy jutsu'. He took a moment to deeply sigh and decided that it may have well been the time that he told her the truth about that. 

Daiko blinked a single time, and then pulled out a chair for Saya. "So... That weird stringy jutsu. You know how like... People have bloodlines? For some people it gives them special eyes, and others it lets them do badass things?" Daiko points at the tassels she had on her arm. "Like yours for example, is that how you do all that badass stuff with wood?" He assumed the answer was yes, though he would wait for her to respond before continuing. "Well. I was born with... A weird jutsu. To be honest with you, I had never actually used it until recently..." 

Daiko trails off for a second, taking a moment to gulp down whatever sort of worry he had about this revealing. "But basically. I don't have bones like normal people do. That's why when that one dude ripped my arm off... It didn't really hurt that much, it was more of an annoyance. It's really cool, don't get me wrong, and comes with a lot of power but..." Daiko sighed deeply for a final time, before pulling his hoodie off from over his head, revealing in full the top side of his body. At this moment, hopefully, seated, Saya would understand the reason why Daiko always wore long clothes even though they were in an island village. Each of Daiko's arms had what looked to be huge gashes in a mess all around, with black threads essentially keeping them 'stitched' closed to an extent. What was even worse... When he turned around slightly, his back looked like it had been shredded open, different parts of his body essentially being gashes and vacant pockets where the flesh had been torn open, to make way for some of the techniques that he had performed. "Yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........"

Daiko wasn't quite sure what she would make of this, though he assumed that she was enough of a trusted ally to understand why he wasn't actually part of any village, and why he was chased around most of his life. He didn't think this would change anything and hopefully wouldn't scar the girl for life. Either way, he wanted to tell SOMEONE about this, because eventually, he wanted to try and fix his body so that it didn't look so fucked up. 

[688]
{1244}

"omigosh i luv kiku so much! She's so much like me!!!!! We made a promise to change the world together and stop all this mindless and cruel killing! It's gonna be so awesome. " Her mind shifted back to the first time she'd met the butterfly summoner. Even with less experience she'd found means to compete on par with her sister, and had almost gotten a solid hit or two in. Subconsciously her head lifted as she thought about the giant rashomon wall she'd put between herself and Ai in the battle, and the effort it had taken to remove the issue. 

"Yea! I wasn't supposed to talk about it before because like. Apparently my clan is really old and something about cutting me up for parts if people knew or something? Pinochio always just said 'it's dangerous to go speaking of your clan cuz there are people who would benefit from your death' or some stuff. " In emphasis to her point, she'd raise her arms to show off the bracelets she was wearing. Spinning the silvered metal around she'd allow Daiko a good look at the clan symbol before shifting back to active listener mode so she could understand what he was saying. She sat in silence right up to the point when he finished. 

"Huh....." Her head turned to the side. She took in the unique way his body was stitched together without making a sound for several minutes. THe tension was building up to a boiling point as Daiko's secret hung in the air. Will she freak out? Will this be the end of Kute on sight because Saya thinks his bloodline is wierd or icky? 

Find out next time on dragon ball--

I'm kidding dear listeners. One, that is a copy written like that the studio could get into serious trouble if i'd actually finished. Two, Of course, it's my job to tell the story of everyones favorite protagonist, and what kind of a narrator would I be if I left it on a cliff  hanger right at the climax of their tale together?! Not a very good one I'd wager. 

"That. That's kinda neat. It's like you're a tailor but like. For your own body! I sew clothes pretty often, and here you are being able to sew everything else and you didn't tell me?! We coulda shared tips!!! WAIT! If you don't have bones does that mean you can never break a leg? What would a theater troup tell you before a show for good luck? Can you just not do theater cuz they can't tell you to break a leg? What if you tried and the show had perpetually horible luck because of that. That would be tragic!!! However. You could jump off a building and not hurt yourself I bet. OH EM GEE. YOU'D BE SO GOOD AT PARKOUR!!!!!!! I've been learning parkour recently but I have to be careful cuz pinochio says i'm gonna fall off a roof one of these days and break my arm and then not be able to use ninja magic and the whole village will be destroyed cuz I wasn't there to help it, but like. That's not even a worry you'd ever have to have cuz you have no bones! I'm so jelly." 

(TWC 1476)

Daiko nods. "Oh yeah. Kiku is great. I haven't seen her for quite a while... When I met her, she definitely was one of those bright-eyed genin that was looking to 'change the world'..." Daiko scratches his head for a second, giving a cheeky grin to Saya, as well as raising his eyebrows. Daiko stopped for a second and blinked. "Wait, cut you up? What good would that do them? Is there some way to get special abilities from implanting people's DNA?" Daiko looked down at his chest for a second, thinking about that inner voice that had called him to take the heart of the one girl whom they had defeated. That part of them had given him power... Is she saying that there are ways to get greater power than just basic elements? Daiko would think on this at a later time... But... He had a feeling that there was a lot more to the way his body functioned than just being able to incorporate heart elements into them. 

Then, Daiko continued with taking his shirt off and such. After having it off for a moment and letting Saya get a good look at him, he returns it back to his body and adjusts himself so it looked completely normal. Blinking for a second, he was somewhat silenced by her response. He had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so he was silent for a moment. As the last syllable of her sentence had hung in the air for about thirty seconds, he continues "Well. I never thought about it like that, haha. But yeah. It's pretty crazy, I guess. There's a handful of cool things I can do with it, y'know... Considering, yeah, I can't break bones. And I can detach my limbs and stuff. Kinda nutty...." Daiko shrugs and finishes well before taking a seat once again. 

Daiko stretches out, before a ding happens at the elevator, causing him to sit up slightly. When this happens, he notices that there's a small otter who comes in, and hops up on the couch next to him. Silent for a second, Daiko leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, taking a second to think about everything that had been going on. Though he didn't take too much time at the moment, he still had a lot of things to think about. Though it seemed like Saya wasn't doing too worse for wear after the past couple of missions, he still didn't have the heart to tell her that he actually enjoyed the killing. It wasn't as if it was something that he craved, it was more something that, at the moment, gave him a rush. The feeling of life or death behind any circumstance was amusing to him. He silently wondered to himself for a moment if there were more powerful ninja around the world, ones who would truly strike fear in his heart. But more than anything... He wondered if there were people out there who would be stricken with fear at the sight of him someday. 

[513]
{1757}

"Yep! We totally have a whole plan. First we'll keep getting stronger and work together as a team and then we change the world!" It wasn't a great plan, but in their defense they were bright eyed genin, and it had taken them all of five minutes to get that far. Saya just assumed that the rest would kind of fall into place as it needed to. Saya take a moment to consider the next question. If she were being honest, either it wasn't actually explained to her past just 'be careful' or she couldn't remember. 

"If i'm being honest, either It wasn't explained past that or i don't remember. I just know my teacher said to keep the secret close to my chest cuz people would want to harm me if they found out. " I have once again failed at the simple task of narration. It is a cardinal sin to not anticipate your character's speach, causing you to narrate exactly what they're about to say. For this I am truely sorry. " It would be really crazy if they could though right? You could like. Get a pinky toe and put it in a glass vial with some chemicals and just concoct the ability to sew yourself up like clothes! I should really like. Study science or something, I have great idea--well. That would mean taking someones pinky toe though. Eh. Maybe I should stick with the arts. " 

The small otter shifted to and fro, trying to find the perfect spot on the cushions on the back of the couch to lay out. In response to his pressure in place, a small red lamp lit up in the ceiling, giving him a bit of artifical sun and warming his furry body. He noticed the odd boy with no shirt watching him walk in, and once he was finally comfortable, His head turned to the side in confusion. Why was he staring? It's like he's never seen an otter walk into a mansion on two feet wearing leather armor with an eye patch before. Humans were wierd. He'd simply give the boy a wave before laying back in his spot, paws clasped together as be begin a combination of sun bathing and meditation. 

"I can imagine in our field having detatchable body parts is really good! Don't have to worry about getting an arm cut off if you can just sew it back later. I suppose the whole magically having a second set of arms inside of you that can just shoot out of your back helps with that a good bit also.... Is that part of your bloodline too?" She remembered vaguely a handful of times when her friend had created wierd tendril hands that formed hand seals for him. She always meant to ask about it, but then there was tofu, or she had to pack up all of her stuff after a combination performance and mission, and with her memory it was impossible to actually keep focus on something like that. 

(TWC 1980 ragnar 1 stack nature energy)

Daiko smiled upon hearing Saya's plans to change the world. It was pretty wholesome, though he didn't exactly know how they would plan to do it. After sitting for a moment and asking his question about her bloodline and how it worked, he laughed at her response. Taking someone's pinky toe and putting it in a vial? Maybe that could work. Daiko knew from experience that taking someone's heart gave him some abilities, maybe using his black threads to replace other organs he had would lead to more power on that front as well. One thing he knew for sure though, given his recent state of mind, was he would need to replace his liver sooner or later. Either way, he would continue to sit there, thinking for a second while he watches the small creature take a seat, having a sun-lamp for him to bask in. It seemed pretty handy, and Daiko was a bit jealous. Either way, he continued to think about what he might need to learn in order to discover what power lies not only within his own blood but also the blood of others. He wouldn't take it by force, probably, but he wondered if there were others that knew about this kind of nature. Maybe he could find someone who specialized in medical ninjutsu to teach him.

Daiko looked up at Saya when she had begun to speak again. "Yeah, haha. I guess you're right. It is pretty useful, especially when I act like a fool when we're on a mission." Daiko smiled slightly. "Oh, the weird little hand things? Yeah, I came up with that pretty early on in my training. It's kinda nice, it makes it so I can do hand-seals without people seeing and whatnot. Plus, I mean, it opens up a handful of options for me if I have my hands full." Daiko nods his head, slouching down in his seat and looking at Saya. He wasn't entirely sure what else there was that he had to say, though he didn't want to find a reason to leave yet. Maybe he would bring up his living situation. "Oh, so. Saya." Daiko pauses for a second. "I actually live in a small apartment that the Mizukage is letting me use while I'm in the village. Did you build this house yourself? I know for a fact I can't even paint the walls in my own place..." Daiko scratches his head.

Daiko didn't have a small living space at all, but there wasn't too much for him to do with it. It basically consisted of a bed and a dresser, as well as a mirror and shower in the bathroom. It was a lot more than he had had basically his whole life, though he wished that he could have a place to truly make his own. Maybe he could make a rift in space and time that he would be able to do things in... Nah, that's impossible. There's no way that there would be foreshadowing like that.

[506]
{2263}

The small creatures body was still as he basked, drawing in the energy from around his form. It wouldn't be noticeable to Daiko, but Saya glanced back the moment she noticed the sensation prickling at the back of her neck. That meant he wanted her to like. Do stuff and stuff. Heck.

"Heck yea!!! Omg. So like. I always keep a sewing machine and various other things in my dimensional storage but if you need I could totally keep a regular ole needle and thread! That way if something bad happens I could just sew yah right up and you'll be good as new... Wait. Do you. Maybe you can just do that. I think I've seen you do that?" She considered the past interactions with her friend, and the way he could shift and change his body. it was remarkable if she were being honest, and might actually even outshine her power over wood style.

"Can you make your entire body hands? Imagine how many jutsu you could cast at one time if you just had like fifty hands coming all out of differen tparts on your body! THINK OF HOW MANY JUTSU I COULD CAST IF I COULD DO THAT!!!! Do you think you could teach me that? Or ai? Or both. That would be so incredibly useful. " As she was lost in the thoughts of how useful this extra ability could be, dreaing of a world where she could just cast her entire jutsu list at the smae time, Daiko continued his convorsation.

"Oh. Yea. I mean I had a crew do some of the non wood stuff, and they dug out the area as I made supports to ensure that nothing like fell down or anything BUT I did all the wood work with my wood style jutsu. I have a new one that can make all sorts of things. I also have a viking longship that I take out on occasions cuz it allows me to go through like rivers and stuff way better than trying to fit an entire galleon.!" The talk of his appartment made her a little sad, but she was at least glad that he had a safe place to sleep. SHe rememebered in the early days when he'd just gotten here that he wasn't really in a place to call his own. There was a long time when they both just had a hammock in the galleon as he searched for somewhere to stay and she figured out what the heck to do with a broken down house.

"Well. I can defintely make you a house if you want. Or Like I have an extra floor or seven in the mansion if you ever need. Theres like so much more space than I actually need. I just need each of my teams floors, the living room, the kitchen, and the five floors that are just extended closets so theres a mutlitude of unused space. OH and also my sewing and crafts room. "

(TWC 2482 2 stacks nature chakra for ragnar)

Daiko blinks, taken aback for a moment at all of the information that he was being given at once. He had never really considered his ability similar to sewing, though he definitely saw how. He was quite literally able to sew his body together, as well as do other funky things to that degree. It was a lot to take in at once, especially since he only recently mastered being able to use it to the degree that would be needed in real combat. He was able to perfectly manipulate all parts of his body, and do so pretty fast as well. There were other things that he knew he had to pick up eventually, though for the moment he wasn't entirely sure what to do with himself. He would figure it out eventually, at least. Stretching out on the couch, Daiko looks over at the little dude basking right next to him. He was inside of Daiko's chakra sensory radius, and Daiko could tell that he was absorbing nature chakra... He had done a bit of studying into that as well. Thinking about it for a second, Daiko sits up quickly and opens his eyes wide. "WAIT, SAYA!!!"

Daiko stands up really quickly and gets a bit hyper. Good lord. The queen of cosplay was rubbing off on him. He wondered if there were any Tau or Yuki in the world that would call him names for this. He wasn't sure what either of those things were, but anyways. It was no matter. "Yo! I saw this little dude before. Have you been learning new jutsu? I'm doing all sorts of new stuff, after the missions that we had. I can use lightning now! I can do like. Shocking stuff and all that. It's pretty cool. I'm not gonna show you here, cuz like... I don't want to mess up any electronics you have or mess up everyone's hair but. It's pretty sick. I'm not gonna lie."

Daiko nods his head, and then sits back down, resuming his usual casual self. "Either way though, I'm pretty happy with the living space I have. I wouldn't mind having a little place here to call home as well, I'm hardly ever at my own place anyways." Daiko shrugged, leaning back. Though it was nice being in a cookie-cutter apartment allotted to him by the Mizukage, he always had the feeling that people were watching him when he was there. It was a strange sensation... Though probably warranted. Daiko wasn't born and raised in this village-like some were, nor did he don the headband of Kirigakure ninja. This wasn't because he didn't like the village, because-- believe me, he did... It was just the fact that he felt the need to be free, and travel anywhere that he wanted to go without any kind of red tape or restrictions. It was a tough choice, though for the moment he was likely going to remain a vagrant. Life was sometimes funny like that.

[500]
{2763}