[Murahira Yoruki]

"No!”

growl

"I said no!”

That was how Yoruki’s time was usually spent whenever he was on Murahira territory: either being buried under a pile of their domesticated foxes, or being chased and bitten by one specific fox among them. As it turned out, it was both this time.

Yoruki was sitting just outside the gates of Hakuho Castle, watching the short road that led to Kumogakure proper with very specific purpose. Granny told him to get his ass back to gear and start to work for the village or at least for the clan, so he was signed up for a little castle-cleaning mission, if anyone would call it that. He barely glanced at the details and couldn’t remember the name of the person accompanying him, all he knew it was a girl about his age from another clan. That was a detail he could get later. But for now, he was shouting at the most wicked creature that the earth ever carried on its back.

Two almost fully grown fox kits were laying across his lap while a third, definitely-not-kit was clanking its teeth towards his ankle. That one, Grumpy, as Yoruki so endearingly called him, was the oldest of any of their foxes that he knew. His fur was graying already and had a few small scars on his maw and side from whatever fights he provoked during his life. He was aiming all his attacks at Yoruki’s leg who was trying to dodge the bites, but with two kits on his lap the best he could do was to rotate around on his butt while yelling at the offender. His training pants were already dusty from the dirt of the road, it will only get worse as time went on. There will come a time when even the cloud patterns on his sleeveless shirt would be unrecognizable from the amount of dirt he was eating because of this fox.

"No, you unholy sack of bones! Stop biting! Aren’t you supposed to be staying in the village anyway? What are you doing he—OW stop it!” One of the old fox’s attacks caught his shin and while it wasn’t strong enough to draw blood, it still stung. "I’m gonna kick you!” No, he wouldn’t he knew it, but yelling might relieve some of his energies at least.

It was late in the morning and they were tasked to clean the outskirts of the castle and the outmost wall of stray foxes and bring them back to the forest safely, but if Grumpy was there to make their work harder, Yoruki wasn’t looking forward to it.

shitai mitsuki || 1/10 || Word count: 438

[shitai mitsuki]

To say that Mitsuki was apprehensive about embarking on this mission to Hakuho Castle would be a massive understatement. It was no secret that there was bad blood between the Shitai and Murahira clans—thanks to the efforts of the traditionalists, Mitsuki suspected, and she doubted that many outside of the clan understood the distinction between her ancestors’ ideals and reputation and the more modernist philosophy that had carried the Shitai through the Great Plague and beyond. This was, as her grandmother expressed to her, a vitally important step in bridging the gap between their clans. A show of good faith; an earnest effort to lend aid without expectation of recompense. As an heiress to a prominent branch family, Mitsuki would be looked to as an example for all future dealings between Shitai and Murahira. Mitsuki privately thought that this was a rather extreme expectation to place on what amounted to a childish cat-catching mission; but she didn’t dare express as much to her grandmother. It did mean, however, that she was done up even more pristine than normal; her hair and makeup were perfect down to the pore, and she was clad in a richly woven kimono worn over mesh armor, melding aesthetics with functionality in a method reminiscent of the Murahira tradition. "Murahira-san?” Mitsuki queried as she approached… cautiously, uncertain of what exactly she was seeing and hearing. "If this is one of the foxes we’re to escort back to the forest, I’m afraid that kicking might not be our optimal strategy.” Though nervous, Mitsuki offered up a polite smile, and she bowed deeply in greeting, though still keeping a careful eye on the seemingly vicious fox attack. "Shitai Mitsuki. I believe I’m to be your partner for this mission. Thank you very much for having me.”

Murahira Yoruki -- 2/10 -- 298

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[Murahira Yoruki]

His ears perked up and the left one swiveled around when he heard steps approaching from the village. But he was too busy avoiding Grumpy’s teeth to really turn to the other and see her. He pushed himself away from the fox while still sitting on the ground and holding the two kits to his chest. They were yelping and purring from the attention much like how children were laughing and having fun seeing your turmoil.

"Kicking is always an optimal strategy when it comes to this one.” He growled towards the fox but intended his words at the girl arriving. Grumpy’s attention was finally diverted to the new person, so Yoruki managed to right his position and stand to turn towards his partner for the mission. His ears turned toward her completely, signaling that all his attention was on her this time. His tail swished to the side as a show of casual interest.

She is pretty, was his first thought. The second was that she dressed more Murahira than he ever will, which was a rather funny thought. Grumpy approached her and sniffed her feet from about a meter away cautiously. When she introduced herself, Yoruki's ears strained and his tail went rigid for a moment before swishing to the other side, as if swiping a lone thought away. Other than that, if there was any thought about Mitsuki’s family name rushing through his mind, he didn’t say it.

Grumpy growled at her this time, and Yoruki stomped his feet his way. "Stop it!” His voice was more commanding than it was when protecting himself from the wicked fox, one would even think it might be imbued with chakra. Grumpy leaped away but still watched them both cautiously, with no small amount of contempt in his cloudy, old eyes. Yoruki walked closer all the while carefully dropping the two fox kits on the ground and shooing them back towards the gates. They darted away with a sound that was somewhere between a bark and a laugh. "That one is from the village and we will never be able to relocate him, not even with force.” He said just to clear up that Grumpy is not one of their objectives. If he was, they would fail the mission by default.

"I’m Yoruki. You can drop that whole Murahira-san garbage.” He leaned down to reach for her right hand with his left – she was half a head shorter than him only though – to grab hold of it and pull her inside along the outermost wall so they could scout the outer perimeter of the castle for strays. "Come on, I’ll show you how to tell the pets and the strays apart.” He led them a few steps away to a clearing on the side of the mountain – still within castle bounds – where a few of said foxes were already busy playing among themselves. There were four, all of them the same size and there was no real way to tell them apart. Yoruki was purposefully loud with his steps so the animals would notice their approach for the sake of demonstration. Three of the foxes showed clear interest, their tails wagged with a tiny bit of excitement upon seeing the genins approach, one of them even ran up to the two and jumped around Yoruki’s legs with glee. The one that didn’t show any positive interest in them watched them with careful eyes, ears and tail rigid, legs bent and ready to jump away. "See, that one is a stray and need to be brought back to the forest. It’s their body language. They like to forage with the others, but watching them will make it obvious they don’t belong here. They might be friendly though, but they will always be very cautious and have a little wild spark in their eyes.” He scratched the ears of the one still prancing around his legs. "They are quite mischievous too.”

shitai mitsuki || 3/10 || word count: 659
note: yes, he might keep holding her hand if no one stops him, it's instinct

[shitai mitsuki]

"You’re the expert,” Mitsuki said, hiding a smile behind one pale, delicate hand. She was charmed despite her apprehension—her temporary teammate seemed a little coarser than she had expected, a little rough around the edges, but he was being much nicer than she had expected, too. She bowed politely in greeting to the old fox as well, feeling acutely silly for doing so, but if the grouchy creature was a frequent sight around the castle then she thought it would be best to try to make a good impression right away. Animals tended to not like her very much—too uncanny, to be a moving, living thing with so little warmth and such a slow heartbeat. She murmured a quiet assent to Yoruki’s assertion that she call him by his given name, which transformed into a bitten-off yelp of surprise as he took her by the hand and tugged her within the castle walls. His skin felt warm, almost feverish in such stark contrast to her own frigid body temperature—but she didn’t complain, allowing herself to be tugged along in his wake with wide eyes. Three of the four foxes they approached seemed quite friendly and playful, all vying for Yoruki’s attention with soft yips and wagging tails. "They’re so cute,” she said softly, crouching down—and realizing, as she did, that she was still holding Yoruki’s hand. She was too polite to acknowledge it verbally, and didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by extracting herself, so instead she just stood there watching the lone, apparently stray fox stare at them with obvious apprehension. "I can be quite fast,” she said hesitantly, "but I don’t want to startle the poor thing. How do you think we should try to catch it, Yoruki-kun?”

Murahira Yoruki -- 4/10 -- 290

LAIKA OF THQ