[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 230 | notes

"Hey, does anyone know where all the kickballs went? There's just a note that says "I'll bring them back."
"Yeah, same thing with the benches out back, too."
"Oh, well. Let's just go home, they'll probably be back tomorrow."

---

On a hill near the school, an undertaking of truly impressive magnitude had just been completed. The missing balls and benches had been used by the ever industrious Uchiha Miroru to set up a training course for herself! Or- perhaps not so much a course, as a machine.

Up the hill ran the benches, toppled onto their sides to create an alley down the hill. At the top, a broomstick was tied to a pulley dangling from a branch, with the other end of the rope at the bottom of the hill- and the missing kickballs were corralled into the alley behind the broomstick. And Miroru? She was holding the rope. "Okay. Reflex training course... GO!"

She yanked the rope, and the broomstick popped up out of the slot between two benches, letting the kickballs rush down the hill in a bouncy cascade!

The redhead dropped the rope and adopted a fighting stance, eyes dancing across the bouncing balls, hopping on her heels as they charged her way!

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 267 | notes

The balls were in absolute chaos as they shot down the hill, and Miroru blanched a little. She knew- KNEW- this was the sort of thing a real shinobi would have no trouble with. So it was up to her to figure out the way to make it work.

The frontrunner hit a rock and launched towards her faster than expected, and Miroru whipped her head to the side, squeaking in surprise, turning her attention back in time to smack the second ball to the side, yank a foot up out of the way of the third-

-and promptly get bowled over by the half-dozen kickballs remaining.

She hit the ground with a "WHOOMPH!" and grumbled wordlessly to herself as she got up and dusted herself off. "Hrmph. Thought I'd at LEAST get past half..."

It was a bit of a chore to reset the machine, but on her own, it wasn't like it was EASY to train her own reflexes. That demanded something she couldn't fully predict, with a clear yes/no success or fail metric. In this case, if she didn't dodge one of the balls, she got bonked. That was pretty clear pass/fail, and the balls bounced like crazy so that wasn't easy to predict either.

"Yeah. This'll work! I'll do better next time!" She proclaimed, running up the hill to replace the broomstick before starting the relay to get all the balls back up the hill for round two!

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 240 | notes

It took a few minutes to run up and down the hill. She realized partway through she could make it easier by carrying three balls at once, and cutting her trips nearly in half, and she promised herself next time she'd do that- three trips sounded a lot less frustrating than five per try.

Once she had the balls up the hill all over again, though, she flopped sideways on the hill and rolled herself back down to the foot once more, giggling as she came to a stop and clambered to wobbly feet while her balance recovered from the tumble. Then, though, it was time to grab the rope and try again. She'd already decided she'd be trying to dodge them all this round, with no swats, to see if that worked any better than before.

It did- and it didn't.

The first ball made her duck, and the second one left her diving to the side, and she didn't get hit by a single ball!

Because she was sitting to the side watching them bounce past where she was, after her dodges took her out of the path of the balls completely.

"... oooookay. I guess we're not just gonna dodge, then." She looked at the balls. Looked up the hill.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighed.

And got to work.

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 237 | notes

Three more trips up and down the hill- she saved the trip of having to go up just to reset the broom by pushing it into place with her foot with her arms full of kickballs- and she was ready to try again after a much less exciting trot back down the hill. Rolling had been fun, but it took time to recover and she wasn't up for sitting around all that much.

YANK!

The balls came rolling down the hill, and Miroru braced herself for the assault.

Much like the first time, she smacked three balls before the rest bopped right into her, one after another, leaving her sitting at the bottom in a pile of kickballs, huffing and trying to figure out what she was doing wrong.

She could see the balls fine. She could hit them, individually, fine. If they were coming one at a time, it'd be easy. But this was anything but. Why? What wasn't she seeing?

By the time she'd figured out the right trajectory and started to swing for one ball, the one behind it was already coming her way. She didn't have time to figure out each ball, there were too many too fast.

... maybe that was the problem and the solution all at once, though.

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 260 | notes

Another reset, and she was back at the bottom of the hill, musing things over. She didn't have time to figure out how to hit every single ball. She just didn't. There wasn't time for that. But there WAS time to HIT them all. She knew that. It didn't take much force to slap a ball out of the way. The trick was in figuring out the right pattern of swings and strikes to remove the balls without getting hit.

But how was she supposed to do that with a constant stream of balls that didn't give her time to figure that out?

She thought about how she'd trained to make her handseals. She didn't have time to think about each particular seal, either. She just followed the patterns she'd learned and let her body do the rest. Could she do something similar here?

She thought she could!



Another yank, and the balls rushed towards her again! This time, she wasn't trying to think about it at all. She just let herself see each ball in order. HighLowLowLowHighHighLowHighHigh. She didn't stop to try to figure out how to deal with each one, she just focused on recognizing each one, and then just tried to smack them all out of the air as best she could.

This time? She got five.

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 230 | notes

Sitting up in the pile of dodgeballs, Miroru huffed and puffed her hair out of her eyes with a grin! That HAD been more successful. Not perfect, but she was definitely more effective the less she let herself get in the way of her own progress. The less she thought specifically about HOW to do things and more on WHAT needed to be done, her body's training could take over and handle the specifics while her brain sent generalized commands. It was WAY more effective!

Another trio of runs up the hill saw everything reset again, and she came to the bottom, taking a few moments to think.

Where had things gotten difficult?

Hm. The first time a ball came from an unusual angle. It had hit a rock and sprung up from the side, which she hadn't been ready for. That had demanded her attention, which removed it from the series of incoming balls, and as soon as she had to aim instead of strategizing, it all collapsed. So. Practice? That seemed like the obvious course of action. More practice, more familiarity, less chances for failed responses. Yeah! That all seemed to track. Just had to go again!

She pulled the rope and did exactly that.

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | ### | notes

The dodgeballs came rushing down the hill all over again, and Miroru did her best to unfocus and take them all in at once. Stop trying to identify them and decipher the right moves, just take in the incoming trajectories and leave it to her reflexes to respond appropriately.

High on the right.

Low center.

Mid right.

Low left.

Extra high coming down the middle.

Mid center, right under the last.

High left.

Low righ-

PANG

The sharp, resonant sound of a kickball to the head tossed Miroru back onto her butt with a yelp, ducking and covering as the last went over her head. That one stung! She rubbed at her cheek as she stood up and reviewed how she'd done.

She'd gotten beaned, but there was only one ball after that.

Wait, had she nailed SEVEN?

Her face lit up, the delicate hashmarks imprinted on her cheek completely forgotten!

Okay, she thought. That definitely worked. The more she focused, the less she TRIED, the better flow she got. Was this the same Mushin thing that Shigure talked about when she was learning her seals? It felt a lot like that, a lot like she was just rolling with a flowing current directing her actions!

"Again!" She panted to herself as she started what she hoped would be her last triple-run to the top of the hill!

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | ### | notes

She took her time walking back to the bottom of the hill, trying her best to clear her mind, to- could she force herself into the mindset that Shigure called Mushin? Or was it like. Naturally resistant to force? Did she need to just chill out, relax, and let the flow go as it would? If she relaxed, wouldn't she instead find herself unprepared entirely?

Was there some sweet spot between being unfocused and too alert?

Miroru chewed her lip as she took her spot at the bottom of the hill. So maybe that was the key. Try to stay alert without ending up hyperfocused. Register rather than outright respond. Calculating responses takes time. Register the threats and the reactions can just occur.

She pulled the rope.

Dead center.

Low right.
Mid right.

Low left.

Low center.

High left.

Low right.

Dead center.

Low left!

Miroru slammed her foot into the last dodgeball and punted it back up the hill to roll down lazily afterwards, whooping and hollering as she managed to nail all nine balls in the same run! She felt like she'd accomplished something fantastic, conquered some monumental feat all by herself!

For a few moments, at least, she indulged and dashed in a victory lap, cheering herself on!

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Academy Student Extraordinaire!

@name | 261 | notes

Once that was done, though, the reality set in as she looked around. Nine kickballs. In fine shape but scattered. A broomstick she was definitely going to need to return. The rope was hers, but needed spooled back up. And then... the benches. Aw, man, those benches.

She turned and looked back towards the school. It hadn't felt like such a big deal hauling it all out here in the first place, but now she was tired. Now she had what she wanted, and putting it all back would be... a lot of work. A lot of tiring, exhausting work.

The temptation to just not was strong. Very, very strong... but that wasn't the sort of person Miroru was.

So, sighing, she gathered up a triple-armful of dodgeballs and headed back towards the school. Those turned out to be the easy part. Even if it did take three trips to get them all back on the playground.

The benches were the real pain.

She was creative enough to tie two at a time together and wrap the rope around the broomstick to drag them simultaneously. It'd take four more trips to get them all back even with that trick. Still... she did it. She didn't stop until every last bench was back at the school.

And then she just took a nap on a couple of shoved together benches with the broomstick in her hand.

She'd earned it.

"Just don't give up on me! We can figure this out!"

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