Rise and Shine [P]

Aki continues to nod silently like the hand of one of those cats you see in Chinese restaurants. All thought has left her head, but she nods anyways to avoid the crippling despair that with surety accompanies envy. Its probably been at least a day since she got out of the Academy, maybe more, and she really isn't anywhere near a third of the way done. Maybe a sixteenth if she's being generous? "Oh... that's good then, I guess I'll be able to pick it up soon if I'm on the same track. Maybe?"

"Nightmare village... are you sure you checked all the candy you ate? Some people give out the expired stuff and it makes you sleep all weird. Its one of the very few times candy doesn't lead to a fun time." There were actually several other occasions, but Aki had yet to experience them and hopefully never will.

"What about the other element though? Lightning to be specific. Also come to think of it I haven't really watched an Arena match yet. Might be educational." She entirely glosses over the brutality of the match as a fact of life, its something to be expected once two combatants agree to draw their blades.

Slightly unnerved by Saya undergoing what could best be described as a PTSD flashback, Aki nudges the older girl slightly to see if she can snap her out of it. "Heyyy, are you doing alright?" She flashes a concerned glance at the puppets, silently pleading for answers.

Spoiler:

"Oh I'm sure. It's really not that dificult if you just put your mind to it. See, I've found the trick to learning anything, no matter how complex, is to simply lock yourself in a room for several days, Not sleep, and only focus on the task at hand until you've perfected it while disregarding any other responsibilities you might have. It makes things like that super simple! " And it really was as simple as that for our dear protagonist. While most of the time she could be seen zipping to and fro, hiding in corners and dark alleyways to pop out and surprise unsuspecting villagers or visitors with a dramatic musical performance, She'd spent long periods of time over the past few months locking herself either in the mansion or in room 12 of the training room. There's always been a good reason of course.

The first time was simple. She needed to get better at fighting, having learned to wield powerful ninjutsu but having little experience actually using her techniques sucessfully. For two weeks she pounded the pavement quite literally, challenging the Goddess freyja's vissage over and over until she learned to gain the advantage.

Then she created a parkour park, spending weeks working on her technique and slipping seamlessly through the various obstacles, up the walls, and through spaces she barely fit at high speed. Grinding was always something that came natural to Saya. It was more 'can she get enough interest to care' than 'can she actually pull it off."

"Yanno. Maybe? I know that Freyja checked my candy very carefully. She insisted on double checking every single piece for my safety before I could eat any of it. Plus Ai and Pino--they're two of my teammates, Also had the same dreams over and over so like. I have to assume it wasn't just a candy halucinization. " She actually gave Aki a look of horror at the suggestion that candy could possibly not lead to fun times. PupAIt and Freyja however looked less surprised. While they both loved the small girl dearly, an overenergetic senju teen was a dificult thing to handle generally-- when she was hyped up on an ungodly ammount of sugar.... It was an unfortunate event.

"Oh. Uh. Well. Lightning is pretty cool but honestly I haven't practiced a whole lot of it yet. I can do this?" She took several steps back, keeping the girl at a distance of about eleven meters as she formed the seals for one of her favorite techniques. THere was a chirping sound likened to birds excitedly shifting about in the trees that let her new friend know something was going on, and then the power flowed. A torrent of lightning chakra flowed from her body. It stretched every direction until a ten meter radius circle around her flashed and flickered with the power of her ninjutsu. She didn't need to amplify it. For showing purposes the power was enough on it's own.

With Saya unattanable as she considered the comment about beavers, Freyja took a step forward.

"There was actually a great war between my children, THe otterbrook clan whose power Sayatria wields, and one of the great beaver clans. Sayatria has heard many stories of the horrors of the war, and she is not particularly a fan of war so it has had a bit of effect on her."


(TWC 5712)

"Huuh... that sounds extremely dangerous and inadvisable, but well I guess I'm in a room right now so I could give it a shot. No harm in trying - aside from I guess malnutrition." There was sleep deprivation too, but Aki didn't like sleeping much in the first place. It was a whole nine hours that completely vanished every day, she could miss a lot of things in those nine hours.

In any case, it might help catch up on lost time too; Aki had no clue how much time had passed, but it was probably enough to eat into her planned knife time. And so the only plausible solution was to lengthen knife time. She'd also read enough stories to know that pulling all nighters or being attacked in your bed were plausible enough occurrences, so really getting used to functioning on zero hours of sleep could only be a benefit.

"Don't give me that look! Its true, there's good candy and bad candy. Otherwise there'd be no point to having good candy if there was no bad candy to compare it against." While she'd picked up that point from overhearing someone arguing about the question of good and evil, putting bad things in candy likely counts as evil so the sentiment could apply anyways.

Aki clapped softly as she watched the lightning demonstration. She was tempted to ask Saya to run through the whole list just so she could watch the lightshow, but restraint stayed her hand. Unfortunately.

"I've heard many stories about war too, mostly around my own clan though. I hadn't known of the beavers til this afternoon... will she be alright? I can grab a bucket of cold water if it'd help.

WC: 286

"Was not fun. Can confirm." FInally she'd shaken the thoughts. "It wasn't a great time, but I kept waking up with bags of money and cool items so I guess it was all good in the end?" Without even thinking she formed the seals for the summoning technique. In a puff of smoke, An otter a little more than half Saya's height appeared, clutching a knife and fork with a small piece of salmon on the end. 

".......Always at dinner. Why. It was the aniversary of winning the great Beaver/Otter war. There was a whole feast Sayatria. Chosen by the gods doesn't mean you can be a menace..." Even as he complained, he set his foot in the strap of her backpack, climbing onto her back and stabalizing there. He began to focus, drawing nature chakra for no reason other than because that was what he was here for. 

"...I have never had a bad candy. Chocolate? Delicious. Candy corn? Phenomenal. Fireballs? Breathtaking." Her look of confusion only intensified when Aki suggested there were bad candy. Who did this girl think she was?! Saya was a candy conoseure. No one knew more about it than her, if by knows about candy one were to mean has eaten a fair bit when she was allowed and often dreams about it. Smae thing right?

As the Chidori current poured from her body she realized that showing her this wouldn't actually be helpful. Slapping her palm against her forhead, She released the technique, Taking the time to show Aki the seals for the origional chidori technique. 

"This tech actually has some prereqs. You have to know two other chidori techniques to be able to use the lightning chakra in this way so like. Heres how you do regular chidori first. Super easy, not really that helpful. Very short range so I wouldn't suggest actually trying it out, but heck. You can use cooler techs once you learn it so thats a plus. " She'd also offer the hand seals for CHidori Senbon, Taking the time to do them slowly and ensure that Aki was able to understand the intricacies of the lightning style techniques. When Aki showed worry for Saya's pause, Ai stepped forward to offer comfort. 

"Saya has seen more war than she would preffer, but she's strong. Also theres a technique she uses to split her consciousness, allowing her to focus on multiple tasks at the same time and share memories with her puppets.... She basically never stops using it, and the way it ends up, I get all the bad memories and she's left with a bright and positive interpretation of the things in her past." Saya gave Ai a look, Dissonance between the two clear as Ai broke the illusion of sentience. It lasted only a few moments before Saya shook her head, and any thought of her having explained that her big sister wasn't a real person slipped from her memory for another time. 

"But yea. Chidori has some neat techniques. I mostly specialize in Water like my sister though. " 

(TWC 6224)

The money appearing out of nowhere was kind of concerning. What could this mean for the economy? Probably bad things, if everyone was rich Aki would never become slightly richer than average, which was a depressing thought. To reach Fame and Fortune was her one true goal, and without the alliteration it just didn't work as well. "An otter! I've never seen one with tools before." Aki crouched down with her arms resting on her thighs to try and communicate with one of the rare few creatures shorter than her.

"Hiya! Can I have some salmon?" She wasn't especially hungry, but if she was gonna try to manifest money through the power of solitary confinement it was best to stock up on calories.

"Hmm, if that is your stance I will simply have to prove you wrong to usurp your title. I will scour the lands for the worst but still technically edible candy I can find, and I will prove once and for all that bad candy does exist!" Grand dreams of announcing her discovery to the scientific community filled her head. Maybe she'd get a prize, or a tenure. It was very important research after all.

The seals looked complex to an outside observer like Aki, she wondered if the technique needed you to visualize those shapes and swirls every time you activated it. Maybe she'd practice that instead of the knives... "Might be fun to learn anyways, and I'm always up for anything that gives me cooler techs!"

Oh. So that was how the puppets worked. Wisely, the Genin decides not to question the healthiness of the technique too deeply. It seemed to be working well so far, and it was undeniable that Saya was happier for it, so for all intents and purposes it was pretty alright. "Huh, is she the only one who uses it like that or..."

Meanwhile, in the place where narrators went to narrate - someone encountered their old foe: sentience being used instead of sapience. They wept.

WC: 335

"WH. These are not tools child. These are utensils. Yanno. Knife and fork? They're for eating. You use them to cut your food. Did you just assume that all otters were heathens who eat with their hands?! " He would pause, slipping the bite of salmon into his mouth after vigorously juggling it and the fork connected to it around with his arms for a moment. "We ARE heathens. Followers of the old gods, but we still have some decorum. Honestly. Sayatria sometimes I wonder about the company you keep. " With his salmon now in his mouth he continued to draw energy for her summoner. It would be important later. Saya felt the pulse of chakra as she entered sage mode, Black lines flashing across her body to emphasize her connection to nature.

She formed the seals with purpose, even as the group continued to converse. " You can try.... But I can assure you you'll fail. It is important to note that you can't just dip like. vegitables in sugar and call it candy. It has to be REAL candy. All of its great. never had a bad one." Even as she spoke, THe seal formed on her body. Her fingertips touched down against her collar bone, and power flowed into her body. She would set a seal of the Soldier pill with the Fuinjutsu amplifier cast just before in place, allowing it to draw in energy quickly. THe small black circle flashed once before dulling, her fuinjutsu ready.

"It's quite an effective technique. The chidori Variants I mean. Chidori is quite useless. There is another technique, but I cannot exactly show it here. Created it myself. I call it the whirling waters of wowness. Makes two huge orbs of suiton that rotate and grind up anything caught within. " In emphasis, she would form the seals slowly, allowing Aki to watch and memorize each before continuing. With the one stack of nature energy consumed and her seal set, she felt the strenght of sage mode leave her, the cooldown begining. She became visibly more fatigued as the energy ceased, taking a step back to brace her feet more firmly to hold her weight.

"Honestly? I'm not sure. I've not actually met anyone with the ability to split their mind in such a way. Aya was labeled a genius at a very young age. Theres things she can figure out that would take most a lifetime. She just kind of started doing it one day, and it seemed to make things much better so we let her keep it up?" Ai had considered extensively the dangers of the way Saya split her mind. It could end badly in so many different ways, but she trusted the girl to keep control of herself, and so far everything had gone well. How bad could it be really? It's not like she was going to have one of the splits become an evil super villian bent on world domination who goes about secretly doing bad stuff when Saya is asleep... Right?

(TWC 506

seal of the soldier pill set with power of 209)

Part of her dies inside as the sweet taste of salmon is denied to her. Memories and hopes built off years of a mostly fish-based diet all dashed in a single instant. She'd probably just buy some more seafood tomorrow, but it was the principle of the matter. She stared longingly at the salmon as it vanished.
"Not hands no! I assumed it was mostly just mouths and stuff, since that's the kind of stuff I mostly see."

"And we'll see about that! I'll journey as far as needed to find what I seek... expired candy won't count right? I just need to check before I spend any time trying to unearth a tomb." Aki sat back down to watch the seals form one last time. It'd probably be the last time for the day anyways, since she had
spent enough time avoiding training and now the guilt that came with procrastination was catching up with her.

"Hey, are you sure you're alright? That looked like it took a lot out of you." Worry flashes across her face as the onset of fatigue can be discerned on Saya's face.

"Anyways, I should probably get back to training soon! Not sure how close it is to dark but-" she flashes a look at her empty wrist. "-probably not too long. Maybe. At least twelve hours in range of nightfall"

WC: 236

"My girl. I will have you know the Otterbrook clan comes from a long line of ninja otters. We would never do something so beastly as to eat with just our hands...." As Ragnar finished speaking, All of team puppet gave him a look. His eyes pleaded for them to not call him on this. The pride of the clan was at stake after all, but nothing would stop Saya's natrual obliviousness from taking over.

"But. Just last week you ate an entire salmon with just your hands and mouth? You juggled it all about and dipped it in the river and then gobbled it up?!" Damn this girl. Of course she would bring up that story. It wasn't his best moment, but in his defense the salmon was delicious. "Oh. Yea. I mean it can't be expired. That would still be delicious probably but would mess with my tum. Can't have that yanno?" Ai was reeling at the sheer thought that this competition would end in Saya upping her candy consumption. The only thing that could be worse would be if she were to go to a magical land full of sweets and spend several weeks there while Ai was too busy with missions. This is forshadowing.

"Yea. Sorry uh. Sage mode takes alot out of me. SOmething about drawing on energy more powerful than what's in my body normally really drains me. I should probably head out and take a nap. I'll feel way better after that." It would seem that Aki had the same thought. Perfect! With a nod she and her team would head towards the door, out into the village and beeline immediately to the bed for nap time.

(TWC 7014 exit

Claims!

seal of the soldier pill set with 209 power(418 ap)

- 1 chakra bonding katana given to aki
putting 3750 towards seal of tsunade's determination and 3264 towards spellbinding seal (3264/3750) all with 25% discount

)

Approved

(TWC 4291 exit

Claims!

+1 Chakra bonding katana given from Saya

38 to speed + 15 to Vigor (20% discount from training facility)

Pureblood [+25 Speed] (2000/2000)
Whistle Trigger (2000/2000)
Putting 291 towards Chakra Infusion (291/2000) )