A pirate lives free [Saya]

It was a glorious day on the islands of Kirigakure, and this time Dana wasn't kidding! The sun was shining, albeit in a somewhat subdued manner because of the omnipresent fog that covered the islands, and it was for this reason that Dana had decided to actually dress a little nicer than normal. In place of the oversized grey cloak that she usually garbed herself in, the Senju was wearing a light-blue summer dress and had tied her white hair into a ponytail. When she'd seen her reflection, Dana thought she looked like a completely different person. It wasn't a new feeling, looking into the mirror and seeing a stranger. Such a feeling was a common occurrence back when she'd gained consciousness on a random shoreline 7-or-so years ago without any memories of who she was.

Dana sighed and stopped dwelling on the depressing memories, bringing her focus to more present matters like how she was going to enjoy the sunshine while it lasted. Her stroll took her to one of the many pebble beaches of Kirigakure, which seemed to be conveniently empty. Dana called upon the jutsu Saya had recently taught her and several logs rose from the ground. The logs twisted and intertwined and came together to form a wooden deck chair with a small table beside it. Perfect!

Dana plonked herself down on the side of the deck chair and applied a small amount of sunscreen to ensure her pale skin didn't get burned at all. Once fully set up, Dana brought a few ingredients she'd 'borrowed' from the tavern underneath her room from her handbag. Like a professional, the Senju then mixed up, what she liked to call, a "Cuddles on the Beach" cocktail. A non-alcoholic drink that consisted of cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and peach nectar.

She took a sip, nodded her head in approval, and laid down on the deck chair with a content smile. She could do with more days of relaxation like this, Dana decided. She put the drink on the table she'd made beside the deck chair, and settled into that glorious half-asleep state where one just stopped thinking about anything.

WC: 360

Today was a perfect day to just sit back, relax and do nothing, and any of my long time listeners will immediately recognize this statement as forshadowing. There was a very particular beach that Saya was aware of. It was generally very secluded, was a long distance from the actual hustle and bustle of the village, and impressively had no annoying sand bars to block traffic. It was perfect for her plans. Team puppet trudged down the beach just as Dana took her first sip on a delicious mocktail. Unfortunately it would be a bit dificult to tell that it was team puppet. What could be seen was a large wooden structure , easily twenty meters long, being carried by two figures whose bodies fit almost fully inside of the structure. Standing on each end, Freyja and coach had hefted the oversized flotation device the entire way here--well. Freyja and coach had done the heavy lifting the entire way here. The legs of the smaller pinochio puppet could be seen at about the center point, flailing wildly as the boat bounced up and down in their hands. He was too short to touch the ground, but he tried so hard.

They had tried this plan one other time. The whole of team puppet had pitched in to carry the boat down to the docks when they were stopped by daiko, who brought them to do a mission instead. Unfortunately with all the excitement of their mission they'd forgotten and simply left the boat in an alley. The ramen shop owner was less than enthused to find his back door blocked. STILL, now they could finally take their maiden voyage on Saya's new longboat, and nothing and no one could possibly intervene to stop them. This is once again foreshadowing.

Standing beside the boat, walking with one hand resting against the hull were the twins. Ai was dressed in a long purple dress, accented in white at the top, and a black corsette that sinched her waist tightly. Saya looked like something you'd see on the history chanel. She wore a blue skirt that disappeared behind a woven leather chest piece that looked thick enough to be armor but for creation reasons was not. A cloak sat across her neck and shoulders with wolves fur along the back. It's shoulder pads were adorned with what looked to be wolves skulls. They were not real wolves skulls. Her hair was long and braided with beads with odd symbols every few inches.

She'd been learning for weeks about the freyja puppet and her summons religion. This gave her ideas for new outfits, and when she heard that they were a sailing community who created boats that could sail across the seas as easily as down rivers, she had to try her hand. Now it was just another thirty feet or so before they would get to see just how well Ragnar's description of the way to build this ship corelated to Saya's understanding of wood style.

(TWC 502)

"Umm..." Dana sat up and blinked as she heard something right on the edges of her perception, it sounded like... Heavy footsteps? She turned her head and squinted to make out the source of the noise - was that a boat?! The small girl was now presented with a choice: ignore it and carry on relaxing, or go and see why there seemed to be a boat with legs walking along this secluded beach. Anyone who knew Dana, which was a depressingly short list, knew that she wasn't the type to let such an interesting thing pass her by. Relaxation wasn't really her thing anyway.

The Senju committed blasphemy and downed the delicious cocktail in one short gulp. It tasted amazing and it brought great despair to Dana that she wouldn't get to taste any more of it. But no matter! It seemed there was adventure afoot! She jumped off the deck chair with great vigor and did a small stretch. The extra height granted by standing up allowed Dana to see more of the boat, and, even at this distance, she managed to spot someone she recognized standing to the side of the boat. She laughed gently, of course it was Saya. Dana hadn't known the other Senju long, but in the short time they had spent together the chaos they caused had far outstripped anything she had done beforehand. She was just the type to haul an entire boat onto a beach.

She grinned mischievously and did a few hand seals. Anyone watching would see the white-haired girl simply sink beneath the ground at a speed of 70 and, upon becoming fully submerged, leave the ground above completely untouched. About 10-meters underneath the surface, Dana swam through the ground towards where she's seen Saya before she'd gone underneath the surface. Once she got within 20m of the boat, Dana found that she could actually feel where the gang where simply through the vibrations in the dirt above her. It felt strange being given a completely new way of sensing the world. Regardless, Dana swam through the earth until she was about 10-meters ahead of Saya and to the side of the boat, then would suddenly pop out of the ground with a big smile.

"Surprise! Dana cackled, just her head was currently visible from the ground. As the rest of her body rose, Dana waved at Ai and dusted the dirt off her only nice set of clothes. She had a big grin on her face. "Fancy seeing ye here!"

Once fully out of the ground, Dana would shake the dirt out of her ponytail and give Saya and Ai a proper once-over. "Oi love yer outfits! What's the special occasion?"

WC: 455
TWC: 815

Saya was excited to finally be able to test out what could be her second greatest accomplishment to date. The first was, of course the creation of a 20 story mansion that was nearly entirely underground. Well, it was twenty two stories, twenty three if she counted the top floor, but honestly that was more a placeholder to make it less obvious that there was just an elevator going down seemingly to helheim itself. STILL she was beaming smiles as she walked slowly beside her team. She would have rushed to the clear waters in front of them if she thought her puppets could follow suit carrying their bulky load. Unfortunately they could not. As Dana approached, just as she was able to make out that it was in fact her friend making this rediculous trip to the sea, it would become clear that she wasn't actually walking quietly at all. Just before she decided to go under the ground she would be in range to hear, while faintly, what had kept saya's attention strongly enough that she hadn't rushed off ahead.

"Well me father often told me when i wa just a lad
a sailor's life is very hard, the food is always bad
but now i've joined the navy, im aboard a man o war
and now i've found a sailor aint a sailer any more

don't haul on the ropes, don't climb up the mast
if you see a sailing ship it might be your last
just get your civvies ready for another run- ashore
a sailor ain't a sailor ain't a sailor anymore"

This will come as an incredible surprise to any who might follow our dear protagonist, but she was singing! It's not actually a surprise. This is generally how she begins any endeavor. In fact, it was confirmed in her time training under the Anbu member Kieta that she had quite a reputation for causing trouble in the village. This is knowlege we, the listeners have that she was not privy to though. No one tell her.

She paused, finishing the line of her song that she was singing before looking around for who exactly had just yelled out. It was dana! She was a big fan of dana. They shared a bloodline, and overall she seemed to have the same zest for life as our dear heroine. Beaming she'd give a little wave. Ai would wave, two hands would slip out from beneath the edge of the boat to wave(causing it to shift to and fro as it became undstable) and finally a tiny hand would barelly peek out from the center of the boat before there was a yell of surprise and the pinochio puppet fell from his position.

"Alright. Hello Dana, DOWN!!!" The two puppets bent low at the knees, allowing pinochio to scramble back up to his spot. Once again fully attached to his "carrying holds" he would call out "UP" and they rose back up, continuing their movement.

"We're taking the Longship out for it's maiden voyage! My galleon is great and all, but this thing is like. Way more maneuverable. Did you know viking longships were made so that they could travel both sea AND rivers?! I can take this baby out, find a nice line inland and take her practically all the way to my house!" She could not, of course, take it that far. There were no rivers directly inside the village, but the metaphor stood anyway.


(TWC 1083)

"What a grand little tune," Dana said to herself just before going underground. It was incredibly catchy and even after being distorted by the distance, Dana knew it was going to be stuck in her head for weeks; she was already humming along to the tune as she sunk into the ground. Where did Saya get this stuff from? The girl lived in her own world, much like Dana herself did. Maybe that was why she was so fond of her.

After popping up out of the ground, Dana made sure to wave back at the people underneath the boat, not wanting to have them feel left out. Interestingly enough, Pinochio also pitched in and even had the whole boat lowered so he could say hello to her. Dana was glad; she'd been a little worried that he wouldn't like her after her little faux-pas last time they'd met. He had seemed quite upset with her so it was nice to see that he was the kind of person to let things go really easily. She gave him an easy smile and ducked down to give him a proper wave when he got right back to 'helping' the carrying efforts. "Heya Pinochio! How's the form?"

Dana stood back up and skipped closer to the twins so they could speak easier; 10-meters was actually quite a long distance when trying to talk to someone without having to shout. "Maiden voyage, ay? May oi join ye?" She asked hopefully. She felt a little underdressed next to Saya and Ai, who had both dressed up in clothes that were probably more expensive than Dana's entire wardrobe put together, but this feeling was offset by the fact that the two were probably going to get really warm in the current weather. She also felt underdressed for a different reason: if Saya allowed her to board the ship, she would be without a swimming costume and a suitable hat! How could she possibly enjoy the ocean without either of these things?

WC: 339
TWC: 1154

From beneath the boat there was silence for several minutes. Pinochio had the best memory of team puppet, but he wasn't exactly sure what that meant? Maybe this was one of those dialectic things where she meant something completely different but the way she was used to saying it was different form the norm? He would need to take some time to really analyze her accent, track it to the dialect it is used from and then study the slang of that particular group or area. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that a week ago he would have just ignored all of this and continued "helping" carry the boat. Whether it was because of Saya's mood increasing or because they were on the cusp of what would be Saya's greatest creation to date, he wasn't sure, but he was feeling much better than his usual self. "Uh. Form is... Good. Great form. Excelent I would even say?" He tried his best to answer the question he wasn't sure about. Maybe this was something from their past training that he had forgotten.

"Natrurally! We meant to take her out for a spin and test everything out weeks ago but there was a mission and daiko picked us up to come help so we just left the ship in an alley and whoo buddy. Do not leave full sized longships in alleys. THe owners get REAL mad if they can't take their trash out of the side doors and they end up chopping your creations up and just using them for firewood. Very much not fun." Saya looked the girl over. Really took in the outfit she was wearing, overexagerating a motion of her thumb and forfinger stroking her chin in consideration before answering.

"Unfortunately.... You cannot join us on our maiden voyage dressed like that. " Even as she spoke, Ai formed two hand seals. Saya's empty hand mimicked the motion, and a swirling black void formed beside the black haired sister. Reaching in, she'd pull two medium sized boxes. The first was green with a blue ribbon wrapped around it, and the second red with a black ribbon. She tossed the boxes to dana without even considering that she should warn her that they would need to be caught. Now listeners, I have said over and over again that our dear protagonist is a genius, but what she has done here defies even her past exploits. From just memory, she'd calculated the aproximate size of her new friend, basing what she'd seen on their first training with both herself and the larger Freyja's form to figure out as close as she was able, what dana's measurements were. Then, she spent several hours planning outfits in the off chance she'd meet with her during one of her exertions that required specific outfit changes.

"I suppose you'll just have to put that on." Even as the box was in midair, Saya pulled from her bag a small set of metal bars that quickly began to expand. In seconds she'd unleashed her invention: a circular changing screen that folded up to be the length of a kunai and about twice the width. With the screen wrapped around Dana team puppet would wait for her to test out her new outfit, complete with hat box.

(TWC 1638)

"That's splendid to hear!" Dana giggled back at Pinochio after his response to her question. He seemed a little confused but overall understood the gist of what she was saying, judging from his answer. Truth be told, even Dana didn't really know what she was saying sometimes. Expressions would just tumble out of her mouth whenever she wasn't wholly focussed on what she was trying to say. She would try and work all her weird idioms out of her speech, but seeing people struggle to understand what she meant was always a good laugh.

Daiko... She didn't recognize that name yet, was he another Kiri ninja too? She'd love to make new friends and if he was a friend of Saya's he had to be awesome as well! Saya's point about firewood made Dana think, would burning wood created by a Senju's jutsu do damage to the environment like burning a normal tree would? How alive exactly were the trees and branches she created; did they photosynthesize? Where they created from scratch? Was her chakra somehow turning into entire ecosystems? These questions demanded answers!

Unfortunately, as deep in thought as she was, Dana missed what Saya had said completely. Something about being dressed? "Wha-" Dana started to speak to ask Saya what she had said but was interrupted when a ribboned box came hurtling at her face. She managed to catch them both, but almost slipped doing so. She looked at it curiously, and this confusion only heightened when Saya said she had to put it on. Put what on? Was there something in the box? Had... Had Saya made an outfit for her? She must have been a mind reader because Dana had been worrying about that exact thing several seconds prior. "Thank ye so much." Dana bowed to Saya's group with a look of gratitude on her face.

Dana quickly hurried behind the circular changing screen and deftly started getting dressed into her new outfit. She wished she had a mirror to see herself but just looking down would have to suffice. The outfit consisted of black high-waisted trousers, brown leather boots that went up to her knees and were folded at the top, and a leather belt. On her top half was a poet blouse with a frilly front and shoulders, a dark blue overcoat with sleeves that hung about a foot away from her wrists, and finally a black tricorn hat with a plume of rainbow feathers sticking out of the top. While getting changed, Dana wouldn't be silent and would be gently singing a song that came to mind. She had no idea where it had come from but it seemed appropriate.

Gráinne Mhaol
Queen of the pirates
She set sail
On the raging sea
Gráinne Mhaol
The gleam of the Irish
Spun her tales
On the ocean free

A normal person would probably just walk out from behind the changing screen to show her outfit, but Dana felt the reveal deserved a little more pizaz. It was incredibly made and Dana could only imagine how Saya had managed to so accurately get her measurements, it was the comfiest thing she'd ever worn. She proceeded to do three hand seals: Hare, Ram, Snake, and suddenly a small 1x1 meter collum of earth would rise a few meters from behind the screen, and on the top was Dana, striking a pose.

"Oi love it!" She thanked the team. She didn't know which of them had made the outfit so she just settled for thanking all of them at once.

Dana's outfit, with a slight colour pallet swap:

WC: 600
TWC: 1754

Jutsu used:
Moving Earth Core

Both of the twins watched with wide eyed expression as they realized simultaneously that Dana seemed to be zoned out. It was something they probably should have predicted, given that Saya had a tendency towards the same, but all the same they realized as the boxes left Ai's hands that she wasn't exactly watching their motions. This posed quite a few problems. 1. The cloth used for that clothing was EXTREMELY expensive. we're talking designer quality. 2. Those boxes weren't exactly cheap either. The general rule when dealing with Saya was nothing but the best, and this was no exception. 3. She very much did not want to hurt her friend. 4. She VERY much did not want to hurt her friend WITH a gift. Saya shifted quickly, summoning chakra to stop the collision with her great grasping vines, but just before she released the pulse of powerful ninja magic she saw Dana move to intercept.

The scene was a bit comical as Dana attempted to juggle the two boxes she wasn't ready to interact with, nearly slipping in the process, but she brought it back, and thankfully Saya was able to calm the flow of her Mokuton. 

"Shortly after my little sister met you, she decided she needed to craft a few things just in case. I do hope that the sizing is right. We didn't get a chance to get your exact measurements, but With an eidetic memory and quite a bit of experience Saya assured us that it should be at least close. If the fit is off we can tailor it once we've gotten a bit out to sea." With the changing screen up, team puppet stood patiently--well. Most of team puppet stood patiently. Saya rocked back and forth between her heels and toes, thumbs twiddling as she tried to deal with what was her absolute most hated part. One day she'd find a way to make changing clothes instantaneous so that she could immediately just see how her creations looked without having to wait for multiple layers to be figured out and then put on. 

Surprisingly Dana had started a song when she began to change. More surprisingly it was a song that Saya hadn't heard before. Still, she hummed along as best she could, providing a harmonic accompaniment that was mostly good. There were a couple of sour notes. Then the frantic movement stopped. Had she finished? Was something wrong? THe suspense was killing her!

All at once a platform of stone rose up from within the pop up changing screen she'd brought with her. Atop it was a now pirate version of Dana. It seemed fitting. While they'd been wearing a more viking themed garb to match the boat, it was more likely that they'd do adventures on the galleon than her longship generally, so she thought it made sense to set this outfit up instead. Plus she didn't want to bring new people into the culture she was just learning about without her summons permission, and last she'd checked he was off on a vacation or something? 

"Woah!!! It looks AMAZING on you!!!"

(TWC 2159)

"Thank ye, thank ye!" Dana did a bow which consisted of taking off her hat with her right hand, folding it across the front of her torso, and raising her left hand in the air. The movement looked like it had been practiced; she did it so incredibly smoothly. The only unelegant thing with the entire maneuver was that all her white ponytail decided to flip over her head and cover her face. In another maneuver that looked practiced, Dana used her hat to push her hair back and placed the hat on top of her head. The whole outfit fit perfectly but the hat was especially comfortable. Tight enough that it'd probably never come flying off, but not so tight that it squeezed her brain.

Instead of jumping down, Dana decided she wanted to get down from the platform she had created with style. Her hands came together and formed five different hand seals: Tiger, Dragon, Rabbit, Monkey, and finally Snake. Upon completion of the hand seals, Dana would start to step off the pillar. For a second, it looked like she was simply about to step off and plummet to the ground. However, just as her weight was beginning to shift, a branch of wood would shoot from the side of the pillar at a speed of 80 and end up underneath her foot. She fully stepped onto the branch, holding the Snake seal, and allowed the branch to fully extend out and bring her to the ground just in front of Saya and Ai. She grinned happily; that had been the first time using that technique and she'd successfully done it without a hitch!

Dana stepped onto the ground and made the branch rewind and curl into itself towards its base on the earth collum. She dusted her hands and switched the focus of her gaze from Saya and Ai towards the boat. "Need any help getting that boat into the water? Oi'm pretty strong." Dana said in a joking tone, punctuating the statement by flexing her arm. This was perhaps the most unbelievable thing the white-haired Senju had said so far, considering just how waifish she actually was.

WC: 364
TWC: 2118

She would continue to clap as she allowed Dana the time to really show off her outfit and she "checked the fit" as the kids say. She was a kid, so it would make sense for her to say something like that, and it wasn't just a ploy for I, your humble third person narrator to try and reach a younger fanbase with the story of our dear, beloved, protagonist. stop staring at me. Look at the screen or you'll miss something. When she started forming seals, A bit of worry flowed across her features. Thankfully it was unfounded. She watched the mokuton branch pour from the side of whatever jutsu had been used to raise her up, and thankfully not from within the very expensive pop up changing screen. 

"Looks like you're getting a real feel for Mokuton release huh? Figured out anything really cool and new since last we spoke?" She thought back to the day they'd spent training--well. The day she'd spent teaching Dana techs. She'd benefitted from it also of course. She could focus on several things at one time, and had worked through the final details of some jutsu she was hoping to add to her list for some time that involved a brand new element to her. Also she'd figured out the final steps in what Ragnar had called "the mode of sage' or something? She wasn't sure what spices had to do with ninjutsu, but was certain that it must be important. That was a discussion for another time tho. 

Now that she thought about it, She could totally summon ragnar here. He'd not had great experiences with boats recently, what with the rediculous storm circle surrounding the village causing him to half drown as he took a comercial ship into the village, but this was a bit different. They had the means to get through the storm circle if needed for one, and they weren't planning on going that far out anyway for two. With everything set up she'd fold her changing screen back up, slipping it into the bag at her side for later use, and turn her attention fully back to her friend. 

"Boat.... THE BOAT!!!" Glancing back, she'd realize one very important aspect. While her main focus was on her new friend and the exciting gift she'd made for her, She'd still been controling her team. This meant that they hadn't actually stopped carrying the longship down the beach while they were preoccupied. Turning back she'd see that Coach and freyja had just tossed it far too roughly into the sea, flinging the small pinochio puppet out of his hand holds and several meters into the drink. 

"I HATE YOU AAAALLLLLL" Pinochio's screams seemed to get quieter as he flew. They would need to retrieve him eventually, but he was 'probably' ok for now. 

"They uh. They seem to have taken care of everything without us actually. Good ole team work and its making of dreams and work or what not. Shall we?"

(TWC 2663)