A Senju gets schooled [Private/Nomo]

It was time for Dana to learn more about combat again! Sure, she'd med with Travin the other day for that exact purpose, but she required more practice! Dana still didn't feel confident in her ability to lay down destruction on her enemies just yet. So, she went to the place where she always went when she needed a bizarre coincidental meeting with someone who could help her with her exact problem: the Military Training area! The first time she'd needed Earth Release and had met Niko. The seconds she needed help with Wood Release and had met Saya. The third she'd needed some help with learning combat and had bumped into Travin. Who knew who she'd bump into this time? Oooh, Dana was just so excited!

Dana skipped through the entrance of the Training Grounds and smiled when her outfit drew the eye of nearly everyone in the compound. It wasn't because she looked good, even though she totally did, it was because the colours were just so displeasing to the eye. She was wearing a layered dress that was primarily a garish red in colour. The skirt portion of the dress was partitioned into all the different colours of the rainbow in different layers. At the bottom of her sleeves around the wrists were large fluffy bracelets made of rainbow coloured feathers. To complete the look Dana was wearing some ballerina shoes. In fact, the whole look looked completely homemade and that was because it was! Dana often got bored on some nights and this outfit was the unfortunate consequence of that boredom.

Right! Back on track. What Dana needed was a sparring partner of sorts. She'd worn this outfit to attract attention to herself precisely so she could find a sparring partner in record time. Just in case, though, Dana made a small raised platform with Humble Carpenter and got onto it. "Hello! Oi'm looking for a sparring partner! Please apply here!" She shouted out with her hands cupped to her mouth. She silently lamented the fact that she hadn't made a chair for herself - these shoes were really uncomfy - before settling in to wait for someone to arrive.

WC: 364

today was a busy day. While team puppet had been split for the most part up to now, with Ai and pinochio being both living and puppet, today was a special day. Saya set up an extra extravagant performance requiring both Ai and PuppAIt. It wen't about how you'd expected. There was a huge hubub, many enjoyed and many booed, and for a moment the small girl got a chance to really enjoy being with her little sister again. It came with some downsides though.

Ai had been in the training facility for a couple hours before her friend entered. She was surprised at the girl's clothing choice initially, not because it was out of the ordinary for Dana to be wearing something that looked strait out of Saya's closet, but because of the commonality between her own and danas.

Ai didn't have time to go back and change after the grand performance in time square. This left her in a rediculous getup that mirrored her sisters, though the colors were inverted. This left her in a rainbow body suit that seemed to be made completely of faux feathers. attached to her back was a large fanned out bit of plumage taht resembled a peacock in reverse, dark blue in color and shimmering with iridescense. How much had they even paid for these outfits?! It looked cute, but it wasn't the easiest thing to fight in. Unfortunately she had intended to find a sparring partner today.

she sat at one of the tables in the juice bar area of the training facility, watching her friend walk in. She thought to herself, 'yanno what would be really fortunate? if someone came in looking to train, and just asked about a sparring partner. It would never happen, of course, because who just randomly walks into a building and asks people to fight them? Thats when she noticed her friend.

Had she been in the performance and Ai just didn't notice? No. She'd helped with the coreography. That meant that she just happened to decide to put on an over the top outfit that somehow matched with the ones set out this morning by saya. That's impressive. What is more impressive, however was what happened next. Almost like her mind was being read, dana just.... yelled out for everyone to hear that she was looking to spar. Huh. Looking back, it was kind of impressive how often things just happened to go Ai's way.

"Dana! " She gave a wave, shifting in her seat so she wasn't sitting on the contraption that held the feathered back piece. it was dificult to find a sitting spot that was actually comfortable. If the girl walked over, she'd give her the time to actually be in earshot, not wanting to yell a second time, and then continue.

"I was actually looking to do a bit of sparring myself! Think you can take on a fellow senju in combat?!" She would need to take off the larger pieces of her outfit, but she was excited to actually see how her skills worked compared to saya's. Maybe she should summon THAT.

(TWC 522)

"Ai!" Dana, of course, spotted her friend the moment she decided to speak up. She jumped off the small stage she'd created and landed like a ballerina, allowing the small crowd that had formed around her to slit and let her through. She didn't understand why everyone was giving her weird stares as she walked towards her friend, was creating a stage and shouting for a sparring partner not the normal way to go about finding one? How else was she supposed to go about someone to train with, if not the most efficient method? Dana really didn't understand what went through the minds of most people. Then again, they could very easily be staring at her because of her strange state of dress.

Her fellow Senju continued speaking once Dana got within a much more normal speaking range, which was important since Dana highly doubted that Ai would want to strain her singing voice by having to shout across the grounds to speak to her. Wait, Ai was sitting in a juice bar? How had Dana only just noticed this? It brought up the question of why a ninja training facility even had one, but that question was easily answered with another question: who didn't like some juice after a stressful day of training? Exactly, so take that all you silly naysayers.

"That's grand to hear! Funny how things loike that always work out." She beamed positively once Ai had finished speaking, "Oi'm not feeling confident but oi guess we'll see how it goes." She shrugged, answering truthfully. Combat was one of the few things that Dana could easily admit to being unsure whereabouts she was on the totem pole. Though this was mainly due to her complete lack of practice. Ai seemed pretty confident which led Dana to wonder what kind of practice Ai had gotten. She probably had daily practice sessions with Saya.

"So, where do ye wanna do this?" She also wondered the how but that would come later. Dana really didn't want to hurt Ai in any way but she wasn't sure if she had the right amount of control over her techniques to keep them as non-lethal as possible. Dana had the ability to heal herself but she didn't think Ai could do the same. "Also, don't worry about hurting me! oi can heal meself just foine."

WC: 397
TWC: 761

"I know! it's almost like this whole interaction was preordained and we're just following a path set in stone far before we even realize its an option." At this, Ai looked directly into the camera, startling the narrator and the entire audience. It was happenstance, of course. There's no way she could have actually known that we were viewing the events through a portal. The whole statement was so rediculous that she followed the suggestion with a hearty laugh before shrugging it off but...


we know.

Anyway, she began to stretch. She wouldn't actually need to ensure her muscles were primed for the style of fighting she did, but it was always good to prepare. Forming three hand seals she'd perform the summoning technique, and absolutely nothing would happen. First she'd not actually practiced to learn the technique yet. Second she hadn't actually mark sealed the Ai puppet that her sister had given her. Well this is quite the problem. Just as she was about to message Saya to ask if she could send someone with the puppet, A small delivery girl zoomed into the training center, never leaving the back of her bicycle as she rode through the building. A large box on the back slid off right as she passed the pair. With a wave she shouted out 'have a nice day' as she rode deeper into the facility without consideration for the people she was going to literally ride through. Well that was just wierd as hell.

"Well... I have to assume that's my puppet. Uh. I mean we can grab the VR equipment and do the fight in VR if you want, or we can pick one of the training rooms with a sparring circle? We usually use room thirteen for everything, but I know Saya isn't in there right now." She wouldn't say that she knew this because it would be inconvenient to the plot, and I won't either. There's only so much stretching the fourth wall can take in one post and I fear the repercussions of testing those limits, even if it will get a grand response from the readers who find this style of narration to be humorous and delightful.

She wasted no time sliding one hand into the slats of the box. She didn't need to pry the lid open, and probably coudn't if she'd tried. She was not very strong at all. Instead, she allowed her chakra threads to wrap around the Saya puppet, and with one swipe of her sharpened nails the wooden box burst into shards of broken lumber to reveal a puppet that looked exactly like her master, but with blonde hair.

"Sorry! Saya gave me this forever ago but I haven't been bringing it round because I only actually need it if i'm in some serious combat, and honestly I haven't really even been leaving the village, so it seemed a waste. Saya must have known I was looking to get some sparring done today and sent it with a messenger so that I would have all my tools.

(TWC 1035)

Dana nodded sagely when Ai expertly skirted the line of causing total universe annihilation, proceeding to then stare off into a completely random direction and chuckle. People had a tendency to think Dana weird, but they clearly had never met Ai before. Saya's sister had always seemed the more calm reasonable one of the pair, but both times Dana had been alone with the girl then her inner weirdness seemed to surface. It wasn't much of a stretch to say that Ai may even be the odder of the pair, imagine that? Dana was by no means complaining, however. It was nice to meet a kindred weird soul in a village that was so serious all the time. They were so alike that they'd also managed to end up in very similar outfits! Dana hadn't commented on it yet but she definitely approved of Ai's fashion choice for the day.

She smiled and also said hello to the random plot-convenient delivery girl. She approved of the girl's transportation methods; that is, riding her bike through heavily crowded areas without a care in the world for anyone else. If Dana had a bike then she'd definitely do the same. Running through crowds didn't have the same effect when you were as tiny and weak as Dana was. She waved goodbye to the girl, who unfortunately wouldn't get to see it since her back was turned. Though, now Dana's intense attention was on the package that Ai had just arrived. What was in it? Oooh, this is so exciting!

The box exploded into tonnes of shards of wood to reveal a person who looked remarkably similar to the other Senju from Kirigakure that Dana had gotten to know. "Oh, hey Saya!" She said excitedly with a small wave. "What were ye doing in the box?" She tilted her head. Though, to be fair, hiding in a box sounded exactly like the kind of thing Saya would do. Wait, were those chakra threads? Was this... Not Saya? Was this a puppet that was built to look exactly like Saya or something? That was a bit weird but, once again, Dana was all about weird. She shrugged her shoulders, accepting the situation instantly, and turned to answer Ai's previous question about where they should do the spar.

"Hmm, the VR is a bit meh, been there done that." She snorted, "Room thirteen it is!" She started marching off in a random direction of where she thought it was, before turning back to Ai. "Wait, Room thirteen is where we trained last toime we were here, roight?" Stupid Dana and her stupid short-term memory! If Ai answered in the positive, Dana would lead the way to the room. Otherwise, she'd follow Ai to where they were actually supposed to go.

WC: 470
TWC: 1231

The puppet turned it's head in confusion at Dana's greeting. It looked exactly like Saya, it's realistic skin and well built facial shifting capability making it dificult to recognize it wasn't actually the senju girl, but her face sat motionless at Ai's control. She had gotten some practice with puppetry with her little sister, but without the intense mental control that had origionally personified Ai as a puppet, The wood and silicone creation seemed lifeless.

"Oh. Uh, actually that's just a puppet. I've inherited my sister's ability to manipulate wooden constructs, but i'm nowhere near her skill, so she's going to be kind of flat. I could practice a bit to be able to better bring her to life, but honestly, I don't see a reason to. Saya needed personified puppets in order to deal with her past. I don't have the same problem." While the content of her message was emotionally charged, the way she explained was.... not that. Her tone was matter of the fact, followed by a shrug. She headed down the hallway, past the numbered rooms until they got to the place where she'd spent so much time. They'd spent weeks in this room, fighting and learning, training and pushing Saya to her limits.

"Yea. thirteen is kind of our training room. I mean we don't actually own it, but we spent enough time in there training that everyone steers clear. There's also the small fact that nearly everything in the room has been destroyed and rebuilt so often tha--oh. Right." As she opened the door, she remembered why they hadn't been in the room to train in a while. The entire area was filled with large metal structures and long bars at various different heights. Saya had decided on a whim to turn the room into a parkor park and then completely forgotten that she'd created it. "Uh... .Room fourteen? We can't really fight effectively in there. Too much random crap we'd have to fight around. " When she got home, she would need to remind her little sister of this. She'd taken to running across rooftops and training in a random part towards the outter edge of the village, which made sense unless there was a perfectly constructed parkour specific park in the training center for her to use. There were even pads spread across the floor in case of falling, giving the entire surface a soft plush feel.

She took a few steps to the right, opening the door to the room where she'd first met Niko. A smile crossed her lips at the memory of the puppet boy literally bumping into Pinochio. In a moment, they'd gone from unknown ninja to friends who had shared their understanding of poetry and even tested their steel against one another.... Until Pinochio accidentally broke Nikos hand.

"So I assume you can rebuild anything we destroy, but this room should be more than large enough that we shouldn't do too much harm. Sorry I can't test your wood style with wood style. I haven't been able to figure out Mokuton yet. "

(TWC 1549)

Personified puppets? Dana wracked her mind for all her previous times she'd met Saya for any things that may fit that description. Pinichio would be her first choice, but he was obviously independent from Saya and a wood-built person so there was no way he was a puppet. Maybe Ai was talking about Coach? He was the only from Saya's group who didn't speak but, then again, he also seemed to act independently from Saya as well. Dana recalled being trapped in Coach's chest cavity and Saya having to ask him to let her go instead of just willing it so as a Puppetry user would normally. A most curious puzzle!

She followed Ai to the other training room after accepting the reason why they should do so with a small gracious nod. "Oi... Think oi can?" She said, not at all confident in fixing damages as Ai had said. She really hadn't gotten much practice in doing so ever since she and Saya had torn up the other room, and wasn't sure if it was something that she'd be able to do by her lonesome. Once again, Dana cursed her laziness when it came to practicing with all the Jutsu under her belt. She had trouble remembering everything she had a lot of the time, to be completely honest.

"Roight... Time to spar..." Dana trailed off when she had absolutely no idea how to even start. She'd gone all-in from the start during her fight with Travin, but she obviously couldn't do that here. The last thing Dana wanted was to injure her fellow Senju and friend accidentally, not when she couldn't heal the girl. "Don't worry about holding back! Oi can heal moiself!" She gave a thumbs-up to Ai. She needed practice healing herself, and she would also want to see what kind of crazy stuff the girl could output when not holding back.

"Ready?" She asked Ai. If everything was alright, Dana would step back to the point where there were 10-Meters between them. A good starting point for a spar, in Dana's opinion. To test the waters a little bit first, Dana decided to start small. She simply raised her right hand up towards Ai with her palm facing the same direction. A black seal formula covered her hand for a split second before a dark-colored orb of chakra with a 1-meter diameter shot straight towards the girl at a speed of 70. Since she really didn't want to injure her friend, Dana had made sure to limit the power to a measly 10.

WC: 432
TWC: 1663

AP: 1506 - 20 = 1486

"Wh. What.... " What did she mean do you think I can?! Ai knew that Dana had learned the same technique Saya had invented that allowed her to create structures out of mokuton. She HAD learned it right? Like she casted it when they were training it. Now she was starting to wonder if this was really a good idea. Thankfully, she didn't have too many jutsu that could actually cause damage to the area around them. Unlike their bloodline's wood release, most of her techniques were created either from the body or from other techniques. it would be fine, she assured herself. This was probably one of those times when Dana was messing with her just to get a response. Screwing with her, as the saying goes.

"Yes. The jutsu Saya taught you should be sufficient to fix anything we destroy I think?" THe thoughts were dispelled when dana focused on the task at hand. They were here to spar. Ai was nervous. She'd not actually fought before, and she had half the tools her sister had when she took her first fight. Well, she had about the same realistically, but the power of mokuton had carried her. Ai had no such crutch. She would need to focus up and fight harder to prove herself. Dana set up, putting a ten meter distance between the pair, and Ai simply nodded.

'Right. I won't hold back in the slightest. " She allowed Dana to take the first move, and was entirely disappointed at the decision as she fired a ball of something or the other her way. Thankfully it was small enough to be dodgable. Unfortunately it moved real freaking fast. Ai shifted forward and to the left, closing the distance as one hand flashed through four seals. Ox. Snake. Ram. Tiger. The air around the pair seemed to stiffen and fill with dense chakra infused mist as her hidden mist technique filled the battlefield. The Saya puppet followed her controlers motions in reverse, shifting forward and to the right to create a pinsir attack that would be dificult to deal with. At the four meter mark Ai would glance to the side, seeing the technique three meters from herself and her puppet, directly between the two. It would be the perfect opportunity to spring an attack if the jutsu could explode. Thankfully it could not within this close proximity of the caster. The mist pouring from her mouth stole vision from both ninja well before she'd moved two meters, making it dificult for either to track. Thankfully Ai had a plan. She stopped at the half way point, focusing on listening for any movement, and five chakra threads poured out from her fingertips at a speed of fifty eight.

The Ai puppet continued. She didn't need to see to move through the mist, and until she reached the three meter range it would be impossible for the girl to see her coming as she floated just off the ground soundlessly. The chakra threads crawled across the ground matching The Saya puppet's speed, and Ai formed two separate sets of hand seals.

Hare. Monkey. Dragon. Tiger.
Tiger. Boar. Dog. Dragon. clap.

She held the last two, waiting until the last moment, and then released the power of her techniques. The Ninjutsu amplification technique poured power into her body as she prepared to mount her strike, and a film of chakra surrounded her body. Then she began what she hoped would finish the fight once and for all.

Tiger. Ram. Hare. Monkey. Tiger.

At the three meter mark, the Ai puppet would come into view, but not for the reasons one would think. Sure the mist allowed vision within three meters, but right as she came into vision, the mist seemed to draw away, revealing the whole of the battlefield as the suiton formed into a ball in the Saya puppet's hand. Water dragon whip would strike at Dana, Pushing towards her right side with three tendrils that moved at a speed of one hundred and twenty five, matching the same power. THe first struck towards her head, seeking to bore into her ear and through her skull, and the second and third struck towards center mass, one going towards the front of her body and one towards the back.

Terrifying tendrils threatened to slice through her friend's body just as Ai's form was revealed from the dissipating mist. She stood at the center point from their starting location, three meters to the left of where she'd started, and the threads met Ai's position fully to Dana's left side, if she'd not moved until now.

(TWC 2321)

'That's cool!' Dana thought when Ai did a few handseals and mist began to pour from her mouth to obscure the training room. It looked like Water Jutsu, which meant that it would be something that Dana could learn at a later date. It was useful, however, it also completely blocked the user's view of the battlefield. This was all conjecture, of course, but Dana was pretty confident her plan would work even in the event of Ai being able to see everything she was doing. Her first Jutsu had just been a small probing attack, a test if you will. One facet was Dana checking if she could hold back on the destructive power of her techniques, which had been successful. The other was to see just how fast Ai could move; which was only slightly slower than Dana's own maximum speed.

That was why Dana was pretty confident that Ai wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time of Dana's next attack. The moment Ai reached the 2-meter mark and was obscured from Dana's sight, and thus Dana being obscured from Ai's own, Dana activated Trifle of the Senju as her left hand started doing several seals from its place by her side: Tiger, Boar, Dog, Dragon, and then a one-handed clap (Which just meant Dana holding her hand flat for the duration it would usually take to do so) to prepare the Ninjutsu Amplifier technique. With herself completely prepped, Dana continued on to do more handseals with her left hand:  Boar, Ox, Serpent, Snake, and Horse. She then slammed her right hand on the ground to activate the Tearing Earth Turning Palm technique. Since Dana moved slightly faster than Ai and her puppet and her fingers were only moving a couple of centimeters for each seal, Dana's opponent and her puppet would have only made it about 4-meters by the time Dana activated the Jutsu.

From the impact of Dana's palm, a small shockwave would travel a meter forward before turning into a big shockwave. From the starting point 1-Meter in front of Dana, the ground would start to tear up with the shockwave which extended out to fill the huge 30x30 meter square at a whopping speed of 160 and a measly power of 20 since the white-haired Senju still had no desire to harm her friend in any serious way. Since the mist was still up Dana had no way to know if the Jutsu had connected, so she decided to do one more technique. Still bent over and facing towards Ai's last position, Dana's two hands came together quickly to form the Hare, Monkey, Ram, and Dog handseals. Upon completion of her handseals, water would shoot out of her mouth and hit the floor at a speed of 100 before spreading out and forming huge 10-meter tall waves that expanded and swallowed up everything in a 15-meter radius area of herself at a speed of 100. Since she still had no desire to kill her friend, Dana limited the power to a smaller but still-considerable power of 70.

WC: 515
TWC: 2178

She reached the four meter mark. Ai saw the first attack pass by as she pushed foward, and then the rumbling started. Whatever was going on was fast. Almost too fast for her to deal with, but Ai had a bit of knowlege about what was going on. Saya had taught the girl this technique. She lept backwards, sliding on her heels before pushing off. With her current speed she had a jump distance of thirty one, just enough to clear the attack that would pass harmlessly beneath her, though she couldn't actually tell the range it had. She remembered her sister trying this technique out against the man at the bar, remembered it confined to the ten meter area Saya had needed it to be. Heres the problem. Ignoring the suiton technique she couldn't see, she couldn't be sure that her jump distance was sufficient for the range of this technique. It was, but she wasn't sure, and Ai wasn't a fan of not being sure.She released the Hidden mist technique the moment she heard the sound of earth breaking. Even as her feet left the ground, the earth technique overtaking the space where she was standing before she'd gotten a meter away, her hands formed the two sets of seals with one minor caveat. Bringing one hand to her chest as it poured through the hare seal, the threads that had been moving towards dana severed, new threads attaching to her body. Five new threads.

She felt the two jutsu take hold of her, soul expulsion wrapping around her body as the metaphorical smoke cleared. Then she saw the suiton. With a powerful yank she pulled herself, using skillful achievement with a human body to increase her own movement speed to one hundred and three, and as she floated in the air backwards she watched the wall of water following. towards her at nearly the same speed she flew. She'd dodged a bullet, and thankfully didn't need to waste valuable resources dealing with it. Unless stopped she would now land about fourty meters back, with a solid twenty extra behind her before she hit the wall.

The Ai puppet, which had continued to push the attack, found a wall of water also moving towards it as exploding water colloding wave created a fifteen meter field of danger. The earthstyle jutsu would easily overtake the puppet, but nothing seemed to happen due to it's ability to float. It had already been off the ground to hide the sound of it's movements, and as the earth raised and lowered it's feet simply raised off the ground higher. AI pulled the puppet back at a speed of one hundred and three, just barelly fast enough to ensure she could float just out of the range of the jutsu, waiting for a moment to close distance again.

"Shit. Well that's my enhancer, but I pulled two techniques from my opponent. How is she even so powerful?! " Ai knew that she behind the curve compared to those Saya had been training with, but this felt different. Either this girl was far out of her league, or she'd done something to amplify her techniques also. She would need to find out sooner than later, and chose keep herself and her puppet standing in preparation for what came next, Ai at 40 meters from Dana 3m to the right and the puppet at 16m from dana, 3m to the right.

(TWC 2896)