MEETING THE TINY MAN [NOMO]

"Oh. Oi see, oi see," Dana nodded sagely when Pinochio explained how Saya had managed the whole... Making a mansion underground thing. It was honestly really impressive and the young Senju was having trouble wrapping her head around just how it had been accomplished. It was almost like physics became mere suggestions in the face of Saya's chaotic aura. It had apparently been done with Humble Carpenter, which was absolutely grand. That had been the first Jutsu that Saya had taught her, hadn't it? Or had it been that other one that Dana basically never used? No matter, Dana really should either try and make her own house or ask to move in here. However, she was lazy and also didn't want to ask her friends for anything like that. Dana was independent and totally self-sufficient!

"Daiko was so chill! He, loike, didn't even care when oi stabbed meself to get one of moi organs for him! Oi tried to prank Niko boi doing that and oi almost lost a good friend, can ye imagine!" Dana said, slightly exasperated. She was still confused why Niko had gotten all angry at her, but at least she had apologized so it was totally all good now. As a thought experiment, she'd try to imagine how all her friends would react to Dana pranking them like that. Daiko, well, he wouldn't care and would probably appreciate her humor. Niko would probably be mad at her for trying the same prank twice in a row. Saya and Ai were tough to imagine, though. They were both chaotic like Dana was but, like, not really in the same way. They'd probably just be mad - or concerned, more likely. Dana couldn't imagine either of them getting angry at her.

At his question about why she had bought so much, she merely shrugged with a teasing smile.

"Oi was a little bit peckish," She explained, holding her index finger and thumb a little bit apart to showcase just how peckish she was. Was she aware of how ridiculous that explanation was? A little bit. Was teasing Pinochio fun? To that question, Dana merely answered it with another question: when wasn't teasing Pinochio fun?

"So! Tattoos!" Dana said suddenly and reached into her cloak to pull out the sketchbook that she hadn't actually shown anyone before. She flipped through the pages carefully, trying to hide the contents from Pinochio. She didn't do a very good job, though, and if he cared enough to look he'd see various pages full of Dana's various sketches. They were all done incredibly well as if a professional had done them. The standout, though, was a two-page spread of Saya, Ai, Pinochio, Freya, and Coach all standing in front of a large galleon ship. It was the gift Dana had been working on to repay Saya for gifting her the pirate outfit all that time ago.

She finally got to an empty page and began sketching. It would start out as various rough blobs on the page as Dana worked on the rudimentary sketches first. As she added more detail, however, things began to take shape and eventually became a page full of various different fairy wing designs. She flipped the sketchbook around so Pinochio could properly see it, then lifted her head up so she could see over the top.

"Oi've been thinking about getting one of these on moi back, any input?" She asked happily.

WC: 574
TWC: 4772

This was actually turning out to be a pretty good day. WHile he'd already eaten quite a bit, He wasn't about to turn down good food, especially if it would go to waste otherwise, and he needed to really pack in the calories if he was going to take the time he intended for training later. As he grabbed the spare set of chopsticks(well. one of the twenty pairs considering the woman didn't actually believe Dana was getting all this just for hersef) Things changed drastically. While She spoke on her opinions of daiko, a whirlwind poured across the table. A metaphorical whirlwind of course. Using his incredibly one hundred and thirty five speed his chopsticks were a blur of brown across marble backdrop. He was half way through the huge order before she even finished with her question. 

"HRr. Yrr. Mm knn Mmggnnn" He took a moment, realizing that his comment was completely impossible to udnerstand given the full cup of rice that bluged his cheeks out. There really was alot of rice on the table. It made sense. Rice was the premier side dish, he supposed. With a loud gulp, he's push the food down, clearing his mouth to continue. 

"Yanno. I've stabbed myself so many times. Never intentional though. I can't help but feel like I've said this. Have I said this..." He shrugged, taking several more large bites before continuing. "Probably shouldn't use cutting parts of yourself as a means of pranking people though. Pretty sure Tria would be very distraught. " With this, he'd take the time given while she was considering the food and her own hunger to finish the entire meal that sat in front of him. Comically his stomach stretched outward, bulging his armor from the sheer volume taken in. Plus side: opperation carbo load was a raging success. Down side: Now he just wanted to sleep. 

"Yes. Tatoos. I've got a few already. I got a wood grain tatoo across my arms and shoulders to give me that still a puppet look cuz I thought it would look cool and you've seen my cool armadillo tatoo. Dunno what it means, but I saw it in the shop and couldn't leave without it. I've got a cool idea for what to get next too. Imagine right. A giant sword, but it looks like a shark. I had this dream where I was fighting with this super cool ninja who used a sword that was like a shark. Can't remember anything about her or like. much about the sword but I feel like with my base thought and the artistic genius of my artist trevor we could figure something out." He glaned at the images she'd offered. He was immediately surprised just how good at art Dana was. These were beautiful. 

"Huh. Wings are hecka cool. Can you imagine actually having wings. YOu could like. fly around and stuff. What kind of wings even are these? I can't say i've seen something like this before " 

(TWC 5689)

"Dawww, but it's funny though," Dana pouted after Pinochio told her that stabbing herself to prank people was a bad idea. He was right, though. Now that she thought about it a little harder, Saya probably wouldn't be the kind of person to really vibe with that sort of prank. Daiko definitely would though. Man, Daiko was so great, why hadn't she gone to hang out with him again? Oh, yeah, the whole him being a criminal thing. Had he been caught yet? Or was he still on the run? Would it be improper of her as a Chuunin of Kirigakure to go chill with a criminal? Maybe, who knew. Dana wasn't very smart.

A cheeky smile wormed its way onto her face after Pinochio finished all the food on the table, though she quickly suppressed it. Fast enough that one could be excused for believing it a figment of their imagination. "Oi'm feeling rather peckish again, how about we go get some more food?" She said, with only a small teasing quirk to her lips to her Pinochio know she was messing around. In case he somehow came under the conclusion that she was actually being completely serious, Dana would laugh and continue to say, "Oi'm just acting the maggot, don't worry about it."

She shrugged noncommittally to his question about the origins of the wings. She herself didn't really know where the designs had come from. They sort of looked like... Butterfly wings, maybe? Or dragonfly wings. Either way, they were very cool and Dana couldn't wait to get a tattoo of one. Technically, she'd only been thinking about getting a tattoo for about five minutes since Pinochio had shown her his. She couldn't help but think that Pinochio would disapprove of her impulsive decision, so she kept it quiet.

"Oi dunno, tey just look fecking cool," She finally answered his question verbally instead of going off on random thought tangents. "Tey moight be bird wings or something, but tey don't really look loike it."

"Anyway!" She clapped her hands and stood on the chair she was previously sat on, bringing one foot up to rest on the table like she was at the front of a boat, "To the tattoo... Shop? Parlour? What are tey even called?" She looked down at Pinochio, still in the weird front-of-the-boat pose. At some point, she'd even raised a hand up to her forehead as if she was looking out to sea. Huh, she missed being a pirate. How long had it been since she last set sail on a boat? It felt like months. Wait, when was the last time she'd even seen Saya? Dana wracked her mind for an answer momentarily; it had been that one mission with the shark guy, hadn't it? That was ages ago! She should totally go try to say hello to Saya today.

WC: 483
TWC: 5255

"I uh.I don't think Tria would find it that funny if i'm being honest. She gets really worried about her friends if they're in danger. It's made a bit more difficult with the fact that she found that she couldn't learn medical ninjutsu. SHe spent like. three days doing her best to study medical ninjutsu but it didn't agree with her chakra or there was some something that just wouldn't let her figure it out? She was pretty bummed. She really wanted to master it in order to help save the world and protect the people she cares about or whatever." The topic he'd brought in was pretty heavy. It was devastating when Saya found her own inability to do something. It was a first, which made it feel all the more sour, but Medical arts were something she'd dreamed of for years only to realize it wasn't something she could figure out.

Thinking about it, the more he studied up on how to become his own unique ninja, the more he leaned towards med himself. It was almost certainly influenced by Saya's inability, but he would never admit it. THere was something about being able to do three things that she was unable to that made his tiny ninja heart smile. When she commented about food, he glanced back and forth between the empty containers and his distended, aching belly for several moments. He tried his best to find the words, to yell at her or freak out, but he was so beside himself in disbelief that he couldn't. Then, just as he felt like he had a solid base to start the rant about how she could have said something literally moments before, his concentration was taken to something else.

"wh. But. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?! WHY WOULD YOU ACT LIKE A MAGOTT--WHAT DO MAGGOTS EVEN ACT LIKE?!" In his defense he wasn't quite as used to the oddities of Dana's speech as the rest of the team. As a puppet he'd spent the bulk of the time they were around Dana trying his best to completely ignore her. Honestly he'd spent the time doing his best to completely ignore everyone and everything due to his seething anger. If she explained he would probably comment further, otherwise they would move on.

"Yea they don't really look like bird wings... Or any wings i've ever seen honestly. They're kind of neat though I suppose." He cringed visibly as she put her dirty boots on his clean table. He would need to wipe it down good once he was back from the tatoo parlor for sure. Great.

"Right. Yes. Theres a place down in the shopping district across from my favorite bar: the proud and Prawns. It's called.... " What was it even called. For as many times as he'd been to the place for this or that, usually so that he could talk with his artist or just sit in the waiting area and dream about his next cool creation, it never occurred to him that the name had been left out due to some great force elsewhere not having thought of it yet.

"Yanno. I don't know the name, but it's got the word tatoos all over the windows."


(TWC 6230)

"Hmm, oi understand... Oi think." Dana hummed faux-sagely when Pinochio explained that Saya probably wouldn't find that prank funny. Okay, time for another thing to be added to her mental catalogue of 'things not to do in normal company', right next to shouting about doing organ transplants in the middle of the street  Somehow, Dana thought, that section would soon be conveniently forgotten when it became time for her to begin her businesswoman arc. Because of the timeline shenanigans, this hadn't fully begun, but it soon would. Right after she somehow spent all 140k of her Ryo on random food supplies that she couldn't even cook because she didn't have access to a stove or oven.

She giggled lightly at his reaction to her teasing statement, her giggle transforming into a full-on laugh after he asked her what acting the maggot meant. She wouldn't explain it to him, of course. Dana liked to keep her secrets, as meaningless as they may be. Her laugh quickly subsided, and in its place took a mysterious if slightly teasing smile as she watched Pinochio continue to seeth. She couldn't help but feel like he was thinking mean thoughts about ignoring her or something. That was totally illegal! No one was allowed to have mean thoughts about Dana.

"Yeah, well, have ye seen many birds? Oi bet some have wings like these," She said with the same teasing grin, boots on the table. That reminded her: she really needed to get out of this damnable dress before she died from dehydration or something. She didn't know why he was cringing, though. Wasn't he, like, super-rich to be living in a place like this? What was a little dirt on the table to a man of his wealth? If he wanted, Dana could probably even make a new table for him if needs be.

"The word tattoo all over the windows, right, got it." She nodded, using her foot already on the table to leverage herself up onto it fully. She began to pace on it, first away from Pinochio and then, one she reached the end, back towards him. Whilst pacing, she spoke, "Actually, ye wouldn't happen to have any spare clothes would ye? Something loike what oi'm wearing now, but, less... Uh, big?" She didn't know why she expected Pinochio to have anything, but it was worth a shot. Saya and her friends always seemed to have the most convenient access to the weirdest items.

WC: 415
TWC: 5670

"Ok good. Yea Tria would have a very bad time if she found out you hurt yourself. She might only fume for a few minutes after she found out it was a joke though. Honestly i'm not sure. She kind of changed after she did that mission with Nasu." He was still looking over the picture, studying the oddity in the wings. He'd seen something like this somewhere, but where. The easy answer would be fairies, or pixies, but that wouldn't be the conclusion that Pinochio came to. He'd never seen the Fae, a wierd oddity for the narrator who at one point controled a faewild summoner. That was another life though.

He wanted more than anything to never move again. It had become all too apparent about the fourth or fifth package that he was quite literally eating his body weight in food, but his committment doesn't waver. At this point, as much as he wanted to get cool new tatoos, he dreaded even the idea of putting feet to the cool wooden floor to try and head to the door way. It needed to be done though.

"No. I uh. I can't say that I have seen many birds. Yanno. I didn't really have eyes until fairly recently because of the whole being a puppet thing so that hindered things a bit. " The next question nearly caused Pino to place his face firmly in his palm. Of course he knew where she could get more clothes. He knew someone who literally carried around a garment rack full of clothing in a size that would fit the small Senju girl, but that meant doing something he absolutely hated. It meant contacting Saya. As he mulled through the best way to place the convincing lie on his pallete to not give it away, a thought stuck him. He didn't need to lie. He needed to be sneaky.

"Actually. Yes. Fifth floor. " SHooting up he forgot about the bulge in his belly for exactly three steps. Then discomfort shot thorugh him. Thankfully he was used to dealing with uncomfortable situations. It took him three steps to fix his posture after he doubled over in pain at the sensation of far too much food sloshing around in his belly, then finally he stood strait, heading directly towards the elevator.

They would go down for several minutes. The mansions elevator was extremely nice, but it wasn't exactly the fastest thing. FInally, the Kanji above the door read six and the room opened up to them. Inwardly he chanted to himself hopes that Saya wouldn't have just happened to be on this floor. He was pretty sure she was off training, but one could never be too sure with Saya.

"Ok. So uh. This is the tertiary closet. It houses things that Saya doesn't wear that often, projects, and stuff for other people. I believe you'll find a section devoted to things in your size belive it or not. " The closet was huge. Literally the size of pinochio's entire appartment. Off to the left was a wall labeled "Dana" and on it were clothing of various styles and colors that Saya thought would fit her friends style.

(TWC 6763)

"She changed? When? And Who's Nasu?" Dana asked, holding out her hands perpendicular to her body to balance herself as she walked along the table. Could it be that there was some MORE friends she'd need to meet in Kiri? She felt like she'd already met everyone but that wasn't true. How many people had she met? She held out her hands and counted her fingers one by one until she got to 10, at which point she gave up. It was more than 10. That was... Good. Yup, definitely good. But in a village of like, a bajillion people she was slacking! She'd need to get out more, make more friends! The time for action was NOWWW!

Well, not right now since she was currently hanging out with Pinochio for the day, since she very much enjoyed his company. He was less cool than Daiko, though. Then again, most people were. She nodded when he mentioned not having eyes until recently, fighting back the initial suprise. He'd already told her that he used to be a puppet - much to her surprise - so there was no reason for her to be all shocked now. She still couldn't get over the fact that she'd someone not figured it all out. Was she too trusting? Maybe cynical Dana would have to come out more often.

"Oi've got something for that!" She said, noticing his pain at his distended stomach. Quickly, she skipped across the top of the table and crouched down in front of Pinochio, "Just hold still a second..."

She stuck out her tongue as she concentrated, and did a few handseals for the Chakra Anaestheia Jutsu. Once it was done, she quickly poked his stomach with a glowing finger and deactivated the technique. From the point of contact, should Pinochio have allowed it to happen, the small man would feel a dull sense of numbness slowly spread. It'd come to encompass his entire torso, and then stop. Relieving him of all the pain he had previously. Whilst it was super hilarious to watch Pinochio struggle, she wasn't a fan of seeing her friends in pain. Hopefully, her technique would help him a bit.

"Oh, yay!" She celebrated when he revealed that he did, in fact, have some spare clothing for her. Wait, of course, Saya had the insane ability to somehow judge sizes from just her eyesight alone - it was how she'd made that really cool pirate outfit for Dana that one time. Of course Saya would have made a bunch more outfits for Dana. They went down the elevator, and Dana quickly searched through following Pinochio's instructions she managed to find the closet he'd talked about. "Whoa!" She said, amazed. She really should stop being so awed at the sheer scale of everything Saya did - the girl didn't do things in halves, that was for sure -  but she couldn't help herself sometimes.

Quickly, Dana shuffled through the closet for things she could potentially wear. She quickly picked an outfit and got changed, before stepping out to greet Pinochio. Instead of the victorian dress, Dana had ended up wearing a black t-shirt, an odd pair of white-and-black striped trousers, and some massive boots. On the t-shirt, oddly enough, were the letters "MCR". Dana had no clue what they meant, but she definitly felt it was appropriate.

"Well, how do oi look?" She asked, doing a little spin and a dance.

WC: 575
TWC: 6245

"yanno. I don't actually know. I guess he's a genin of the village? Saya did her first mission with him I believe. They went out to the battlefield where the war against Konoha happened a long time ago, or at least thats how she understood it. There was alot of death. Like. Mass graves, Fallen bodies long since turned into skeletons, The field was perminently stained red, Honestly, thinking about it now." He paused for a moment, really thinking back to a time when all they had to worry about was if the Anbu black ops would stop one of their performances. He'd hated those days. She was so dificult to motivate. Bright eyed and defiant the tiny terror really made a name for herself in the early times. Looking at it now, he was impressed with how things changed. "I feel like she might have exaggerated a bit. It would be pretty wierd if the fields were still red this far after the battle. Blood turns brown when it oxydizes I think?"

He actually took a tentative step backwards initially at her sugestion that she could help. It was her decision that got him into this place, after all. He didn't disbelieve her interest in helping. That wasn't the problem. THe problem was that Dana, like Saya, Wasn't exactly the best at recognizing when something doesn't need to be turned up to eleven. Even as he formed her hand seals, his eyes closed in fear of what she might do.As he felt her touch, the memory of her comment about having stabbed herself ran through his mind, and then.... Nothing happened? His body still felt far too heavy and stetched, but the pain was actually eased. With the initial fear of imminent death through accident or overenthusiastic attempt at help, he simply gave a nod, leading her to the elevator.

"Yea.... I know it's a bit over the top but yanno. Saya. She was insistent that she needed at least three closet floors. I tried to tell her a hundred times that we didn't need something this large. Hell, at the time it was just her and some puppets so we absolutely didn't need to build twenty one floors of mansion but she wouldn't listen. I will admit though, that she did end up filling far more of the space than I'd expected. At this rate, we might have to expand again." He turned his back as she went to work. While there was an entire dressing room section in the floor because why wouldn't she have thought that far, He wasn't sure she'd recognize the need for modesty in her interest and excitement, and well. He wanted to give her the time to enjoy whatever she wished without just standing staring at her as she picked out clothes. He realized quickly that there was a downside to his plan. He'd turned his back on the living tsunami that Saya called a friend, and that could end badly in more ways than it could end well. Thankfully this was not one of the many times when it would.

Finally turning around he'd study her outfit. What did that even mean?! "Uh. I duno what an mcr is but it looks very casual. I actually can't believe she made something like that. "

(TWC 7315)

"Umm, yeah, oi think so," She hedged at Pinochio's pondering about blood oxidization. He probably hadn't meant it as the kind of question that Dana was supposed to answer, but she had done so anyway. Anyway, Dana - the absolute best medical professional in the village that she was - was definitely supposed to know these things. The fact that she didn't was perhaps more than a little worrying, considering that she had done multiple surgerties in the past month or two. She'd even done a surgery for the Mizukage herself! Dana was kind of becoming a bit of a big deal.

Dana noticed that Pinochio turn his back, but elected to not pill any pranks on him. This time. She'd definitly get him with something next time. As she got changed into the mcr t-shirt, the cheeky Senju began to think of all the different ways she could prank him in the future. Patting his head, whilst immensely fun and guaranteed to get an amusing reaction, was becoming too obvious. She'd need to either do something else, or step up her game. But how? If only she could somehow boost her strength to be able to contend with Pinochio's prosdigious own. An oppotunity to prank him would likely come up soon. After all, he had just eaten enough food to the point where it was actually painful for him. What came next, at least for Dana, was a solid food coma. When Pinochio inevitabley got sleepy - or not quite inevitabley, they were ninja after all. Also people around Saya tented to treat the laws of nature like mere suggestions than hard and fast rules - that was when she'd strike.

Pinoichio liked her outfit! Yayy, however, he was right about it being suprising that something like this was in Saya's closet. Dana's Senju friend was many things, but casual wasn't one of them. Dana would've expected there to be more rainbow stuff in the wardrobe. Had Dana ever seen Saya in just regular plain clothes? She couldn't actually think of anytime where that was the case. Regardless, Dana did need a little bit more colour in her outfit she thought. So, she quickly spun on the balls of her feet and descended back into the thick of the wardrobe. She shuffled through various viking-themed dresses and armors, before eventually arriving on the exact thing she was looking for: a striped rainbow beanie with a cool little bobble on the top.

"Perfect!" She muttered to herself, and put it on. She walked back to Pinochio, her whole outfit giving off a rather confusing vibe. From her massive boots to her eyes that still had really dark makeup on, Dana looked quite serious and scary. Then you got above her eyes, where the rainbow beanie was sitting, and it was like she wasn't scary but actually really friendly and approachable. She did another spin, "There we go, much better!"

"To the tattoo shop!" Dana declared, deciding she was ready. Impatiently, Dana decided to just start skipping across the room without any input from Pinochio. She arrived at the elevator and then realised: how did she even use this thing?

WC: 529
TWC: 6774

"That's what I thought. I wouldn't consider myself a medical expert... Or a medical novice... Or knowlegable about anything involing the human body asside from a definite confirmation that one can stab oneself quite a few times with a kama without doing much damage if extended over a long enough length of time, but I feel like her 'blood still we on the battle field, writhing moaning corpses' explaination was hyperobole. I suppose generally I assume everything from her mouth to be hyperbole until proven otherwise though" What he didn't add into his explaination was that he often also assumed things proven not hyperbole to be hyperbole if said by the tiny terror herself. It was a side effect of being desensitized to her particular brand of wierd.

Even after she'd decided on and changed into her outfit it would seem that something wasn't right. Had his glance said something about the clothing she'd chosen that his voice didn't? Did he speak his thoughts without realizing it again? He watched in wary confusion as she dug through the items again, pulling out a rainbow beanie. Yea that made sense.

"That does look a bit better. Wierd that Saya has t-shirts though. I honestly can't say i've ever seen her wear one, even to bed." Her next statement brought a bit of excitement to the tiny taijutsu user. Could he really call himself a taijutsu user though? Sure, at current he was practicing the spec pretty heavily, but the more he learned about the ways of the ninja, the more he was drawn to other things. He pondered his existence for several minutes, debating if it was truely defined by his interest in punching stuff really really hard or if there was something deeper. Could he be the guy who heals stuff really really hard? Could he be the one who....Uh. Spaces and times really....Hard.... IN the end he decided that stabbing stuff was close enough to punching stuff that it could work in either case, and he had little plan of giving up his favored weapon, so that was what he would go with. He was so focused on redefining his existence in a way that made sense that he actually didn't even notice he'd left the mansion, assumably with Dana in tow, until he was standing in front of a large glass fronted building with the word tattoos written all across the front.

"Ah. Uh. We're here!" He would lead the way inside the shop where three tough looking women stood on the other side of a long counter. Immediately he beelined to the one in the center, giving a bright smile.

"Eyyyy!!! Belle! My favorite artist! Are you ready to slap some more ink in this technically human flesh?!" The statement came off quite a bit less funny than he'd meant, and THe tall black haired woman cringed for a moment before her smile returned. It was clear this was a back and forth they'd had a few times before.

(TWC 7817)