Striking at Success [Saya]

“I...well, yeah. Honestly, there’s a part of me that’s confused as to how Saya is still a Genin. If I’m a chunin, she should be one by default, you know? That’s how I feel. Heck, she could even make a serious argument for a Jonin if she applied herself in that direction. It’s just how she is, you know?”

Humming gently to herself, she would note with a twinge of happiness that Ai had figured it out by the gentle stirring of power within her. But how to really put that to the test? Well, she did know a way...but it was a little devious. Still, sometimes good training called for unconventional methods. Why not try something a little out of pocket?

Forming several hand seals with one hand, to Ai’s vision about ten clones of Kikuko would rise from the floor as they continued to talk, sluggishly getting up before proceeding to pose ridiculously- to such a degree that it would be obvious that something was wrong. Kikuko would continue to listen and act as though nothing was wrong, smiling along. Hopefully this would be a good ‘test’ to see how Ai handling the breaking of an actual genjutsu- albeit not from a specialist in the arts.

“Mokuton is...honestly scary.” She would admit. “The Senju clan is amazing, you know? With their whole ability to manipulate wood, it makes them both creator and destroyer. I guess, in a weird way, I’m jealous?” She would shrug. It wasn’t the sort of thing to mull over too much. She was born a certain way, and there was no changing that. At least, as far as she knew.

“Alright! Assuming we’re done with that last one, let’s move on. The Summoning Technique! Have you contracted with the otters, by the way? Just out of curiosity. That aside, this is something of a two parter. Do you know the mark seal? And more importantly, do you have any objects marked by one?”

[2085]

"At least. That's kind of saya's thing though. She could easily hit jounin or higher if she actually wanted to. She wants the strength to protect people, but She doesn't care about being higher in the system. She's always been the type where she doesn't want to be given respect. She refuses too. Instead, she plans to cease it. Grasp it in between her fingertips and hold it out for the world to see. Thats why she does so many performances. She needs everyone to know who she is and what she's about. To brighten the world with music and action, but also to make sure that everyone knows her name. Knows that she's skilled in so many different ways. I kind of feel like it's a blessing and a curse. She's made sure she's well known for everything a ninja shouldn't be so she stays under the radar. Only a few have actually seen how hard she works... The power her chakra holds. She likes it like that."

It was odd to psychoanalyze her sister with other people. Sure She did it literally all of the time, but it was more of a private affair. She studied and searched the inner workings of our dear beloved protagonist in her down time to understand how to better help her figure out and achieve her goals, but it felt different saying them out loud. Too clinical. Too judgemental almost. Even with Kiku, who she knew full well would never see this convorsation as a judgement passed on the small girl, felt an odd addition to what thad been a solitary action for so long.

"Yea. The sheer force of will Mokuton requires is rediculous. And you haven't even really seen what it can do yet. The jutsu I used to protect myself from your summons gets significantly stronger and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean for every jutsu that can make me, theres one that will tear down an entire field of combatants. Like great pacifist. She only actually pulled that jutsu out once, and unfortunately she failed to hit her target with it, but it creates an entire dome of mokuton that when she used it for the first time literally consumed an entire bar. It was like twenty meters worth of space just crushed and absorbed into a great oak tree, and she was seriously holding back to not harm bystandards. Her control though... I've seen her create a dome that crushes everything in a huge radius, but control the individual pieces so precisely that she made a tunnel for the innocent to escape. "

The teaching moment was a welcome break from her analysis. As a senju, even she was terrified at what their clan could do if they actually put focus on destruction instead of protection.

"Right. Yes. We still have training to do. Theres so much I want to figure out before the tournament. It just feels like I can never fully be ready. " Shed not even thought about her sister's otter summons. WHile the Ap cost to keep Ragnar around and fighting for her was incredible, the ability to wield his strength was terrifying. That honestly would be a huge boon in combat. Maybe she should give him a ring at some point.

"Uh. I'm aware of the mark seal but I haven't actually used it. Saya has. I need to learn it at some point so that I can summon puppets when needed, but That's far in the future. Mark seal won't help me in combat tomorow and I really really need to focus on the first step yanno?" [b]

(TWC 2336)

Saya’s personal accomplishments put aside, Kikuko resolved to put more of her focus upon Ai in the here and now. After all, wasn’t that the point? Still, it was important to somewhat resolve the manner.

“She’s an interesting girl. She works so hard...and yet in an odd way, I’m not sure if it’ll ever be enough for her. She still feels the shadows of people that she’s long since outrun. Sure, she’s growing, but part of me wonders if she’ll fully outpace the fears that plague her.”

Moving on to the summoning technique, she would nod. “Really, it’s about reaching out and bringing forth things that are close to you. The Mark seal is important for living creatures, but for inanimate stuff...well, it’s a lot easier. You need to focus upon it while forming the hand seals and then ‘pull’, if that makes sense? I’ll demonstrate.”

Forming the requisite hand seals, she would clap her hands together- matrix forming out between the two- eventually causing a poof of smoke to reveal a bento box held delicately between her hands.

“Tada! I promise, it’s simpler than it looks. Try and focus on an object that’s close to you spiritually, and then do as I just did.”

[2293]

"Yea, but i mean. Thats kind of the joy of the way things are set up. She doesn't have to run away from the shadows of anything. With her ability to split consciousness, the shadows that would cause her fear or pain are passed to one of us--well, one of them. Technically I still get them but its less of an inate gift of understanding nowadays. Puppait and I sit down every night over tea to discuss what each has done so that our knowlege bases are always synced. It sounds alot more strange than it actually is. " She had a lot of time to think about this. The puppet portion of team puppet always knew that what they were doing was a high brow version of Saya running away form her problems, facilitated by her intense intelect allowing her to literally place them somewhere else, but the repercussions always scared Ai. Pinochio figured she would grow out of it. Figured that she would no longer need them one day, and everything would combine back together, but Ai was the empathic core of the trio.

With pinochio gone, It was up to Ai and Freyja to keep a hold on Saya's issues. That wasn't exactly an easy feat, but the Freyja was a brick wall in ways pinochio couldn't understand. At the end of the day he made the choice to facilitate exactly what he'd feared. He chose to step away from the team and do his own thing. There was no judgement in the action though. He had alot of growing up to do on his own, and being the earliest puppet creation of the puppeteer herself, He needed to find his own place before he could truely be much help. With his own power realized and actualized, His anger, she hoped, would cease and he'd be able to be a productive member of both the village and the team.

"Right. It's about pulling things from somewhere to where I am using space time ninjutsu. Yanno. It's wierd that we can do this, and a few other things even when we aren't skilled in that particular craft. It's also a bit wierd that a focus on ninjutsu prime is so different from space time or medical ninjutsu. " She stopped for a moment as she finished her statement, to take inventory of herself. For whatever reason, she was losing focus. She really wanted to learn the summoning technique, but there was something in the back of her head that was stopping her from doing so. It was like a small whisper in her ear trying so desperately to tell her the one fact she just needed to know in a crowded subway. That sent her mind spiraling. She envied Saya's ability to focus, even if it was becaus of their conection. So many different throughts flooded her as she tried her best to focus on the task at hand. It was no Use. The same thing kept replaying over and over.

"The apparition of these faces in the cloud.
Petals on a wet, black, bough."

WHere had she heard that? Right. It was one of the arts lessons they'd taken in childhood--well, That Saya had taken in childhood. Pound. It was a poem? What did it mean? Maybe it wasn't in the meaning itself, as the style generally fought actively against the understanding of true meaning, and instead in the dissonance. The juxtaposition of two different phrases in order decode them together? or not decode them at all and sit in the dissonance?

"I don't think I can learn this technique right now. Something in my head is screaming that I need to focus on more important things. Do you have anything that you know of that could be helpful in my combat tomorow?"

(TWC 2970)

There was something curious about Ai today- she was flightier than usual, even if it wasn’t readily apparent. But the body language she exhibited, the way that her eyes seemed to travel far away every few moments or so, spoke to a certain truth- that while she was present and listening to their little impromptu lesson, she was also a million miles away. What was it that had caught her up in such a mental fugue? Perhaps it was her sibling? Kikuko knew that Ai cared for Saya deeply, and yet in some ways would never be able to comprehend it- as she herself was in fact an only child. Still, she would do her best to be as understanding as possible regardless of her own circumstances.

“You care about her a lot.” She would state, before smiling simply. There was really nothing more she could add that Ai didn’t already know herself. “I’m glad that you two have each other.”

“Still, like all things, they would eventually need to move on. Focused by Ai’s sudden and somewhat unexpected reversal on her request, Kikuko would be sent temporarily reeling. Most of her techniques were based in the more advanced arts of Space/Time Ninjutsu or Fuinjutsu, leaving it difficult for her to teach Ninjutsu despite having studied it for quite some time. Still, she had a few.

“I suppose I could teach you a few Ninjutsu, if you’re looking for pure offensive technique? I know Hiding in Water, Mizu Senbon, Snake’s Mouth...there’s a lot! Really, just try and name a ‘type’ of technique you’re trying to learn and I’ll do my best to come up with something.”

[2572]

The apparition of these faces in the crowd.

Petals on a wet

                   black

  Bough.

Why did it stick in her head so? Why now, in a time of such great intensity, did her mind wander back to these words? What was it meant to tell her? Saya would know. Saya always knew. The girl had a propensity for knowlege that honestly Ai found scary most of the time. Well. She could break it down in theory. Apparition. What did that mean. A spectre? Was it suggesting the deaths of those in the crowd? Maybe she felt a great fear? Maybe it was premonition. Was there going to be death in the arena? No that didn't seem right. The higher ups in the village would never let that happen. But why would a spectre be something she needed to think about right now? Maybe it was her not so subtle reminder that her place was in her sisters shadow. In lieu of Saya entering the tournament she'd been chosen. Not Pinochio. Was this a suggestion that she was an extension of Saya's might, and garanteed to succeed, or a suggestion that the store brand version of the tiny senju terror could never compete? Well she didn't much like either of those. Then she thought on another phrase that vexed her.

"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. " Ah. Carroll. It was wierd that she would focus on this particular topic, but it calmed her. Saya hadn't really focused on literature at any point, but she always found it intriguing. In truth Saya couldn't focus enough to actually sit down and read anything, but through their connection, Saya would spend evenings fidgetting with this or that as a doll she'd placed Ai's personification into read from the books scattered across her bedroom alloud. That was the first time she'd learned of ventrilloquism, but wouldn't be the last time she'd used it.

"Sorry. My mind is a bit uh. Dodgy today? I suppose I've lost a bit of my focus. I'm not quite sure what I need. Maybe Mizu senbon, but I have so many techniques like that. maybe its just in the setup that i'm using. Did you have both an enhancement technique and an amplifier when you fought the fire ninja? I mean like. Just before you ranked up yourself? I can't be sure if I need to learn more strong techniques, or trust my weaker ones with the boosting effects i've already learned. How would you go about it?" Curiouser and curiouser she seemed to get in the topic. While combat was something she preffered to shy away from, strategy was right in her wheel house.

Perhaps the key to this tournament wasn't in focusing on her fighting skill? Perhaps they were all chess pieces sliding swiftly to their doom, and the only way to persevere was to take adventageous position. She knew a bit about the grand arena. There were a bunch of different setups to it. Saya dreamed over and over again of selling it out as a concert hall, and as such they'd spent quite a bit of time measuring and studying the way it worked to determine the best possible way for her to use the space. Right. Yes.

"I'm worried Kiku. I don't know if I have the resolve to actually compete like my sister did. I'm worried that she means me to be her proxy, but i am simply a spectre of her own ambition. What if I do everything in my power, and Fall short? Do you think it would be uncouth of me to find failure in my sisters stead?"

(TWC 3582

Mid topic claims!!!!! putting 500 towards double mastering genjutsu release (500/500) 2500 towards tobirama's rage (2500/2500) and 582 towards water trumpet (1153/1500) finally using the advanced training facility to gain 105 Ap)

@Cosplay Queen Saya
Approving mid-thread claims.
Make sure to re-state them at the end.

"Oh. Hm." Words flowed through her mind as she considerd this and a hundred other things. She couldn't quite place the lines that were constantly playing in the back of her head, but she knew it was something important to her history--to their history.

"I guess i didn't think about that. I learned to enhance techniques from my blood and study... And to amplify them from my little sister. Honestly most of what I learned was from Saya, though I've picked up a few interesting new tricks. I had to. She almost solely uses wood style but I still can't quite figure it out yet. I wonder if there are prominent senju who didn't use wood style. " She was so focused on the constant stream of consciousness that she almost missed Kiku's next comment. It made sense though. If she could lead with power, she could end the fight much more quickly. That was kind of Sayas way of doing things, but was it hers? Probably not. She favored subtlty over gradneoso. But what does that make her style? SHe supposed if she had to define it, she would need to look back on her spar with dana. There she tried to be agressive, but honestly she was more reactive. Any attempt to gain ground failed impressively, but when she found danger hurtling towards her, it was effortless to get out of the way.

"Hm. I dunno if i'm the throw a big boom in the begining of combat type, but that is helpful. Maybe I could wait for the right moment and then spring something like that on my opponents. Be on the defensive and then BAM Hurl something really big directly into their face. " Yea. That felt more right. I mean the hurling things into peoples faces part didn't quite work, but she could get there. She needed to get there. If Saya was in trouble, She needed to be ready and able to sling something powerful into the face of the enemy to give her little sister the time to get out, or eliminate the threat all together.

"I know. I see myself as an extension of her, but saya, bless her heart, can't see past the joy that her big sister is real. She's excited about us being around even if we aren't strong. She's excited for pinochio even though he won't have anything to do with her. That's just kind of the person she is i suppose?" She watched for a moment as Kiku came in for another hug. Was she still super sweaty? she'd made that mistake only moments before. Would she do so again? Before she could get past the consideration phase, she felt the girl's arms wrap around her, and instintively she followed suite. Out of all the things she didn't realize she would love so much more as a living person, hugging was absolutely on the list. Hugging as a puppet was.... I mean it existed, but hugging people as a person was warm and welcoming.


(TWC 4087 wc 505)