[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

It was their first mission together post-Chuunin exam, and Itsuki hadn't actually seen Miroru in the proper Chuunin attire. He knew she'd gotten an immediate promotion, but he still had to go through a bunch of paperwork in order to get his worked out considering the fact that he had gone straight from the Academy into the Exams. There were apparently some people concerned with that, so he needed to show a few things before they would give him his promotion.

Even if he was already pretty much at Chuunin level in terms of skillset and strength. Oh well, he'd work it out soon enough.

Standing at the gate to the village with a backpack on, Itsuki whistled slightly to himself as he waited for his friend to show up, trying to think of the best possible way that he could tease her about her promotion, and also how to counter her inevitable sassy counter attacks. It would take quite a bit of mental fortitude to deal with the orange haired Uchiha in their epic battle of wits, but he was surely up to the task.

Honestly at this moment his mind definitely wasn't on the mission they were about to embark on, he was having far too much fun trying to figure out the best witty retorts to really claim victory over Mi-chi

Word Count: 224
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 1/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | 214 | notes

Miroru didn't look all that terribly different clothingwise! She'd added the Konoha-issue flak vest to her normal outfit, but the real change was the things she was bringing with her into battle.

She'd added a pair of fresh black leather gloves and a pair of similar boots to her outfit, and- in true Miroru fashion- showed them off in irrepressible fashion, sprinting not across the rooftops but above the village itself, weaving between the taller buildings as she made rapid time towards their meeting spot due to being able to rush as the crow flies! It took a little chakra to do, but MAN, did it feel amazing to sprint full-speed through the air!

On her back was the other addition- a broad-sided gunbai, in a soothing blue, accompanying her as she started her descent, pacing out her steps as if hopping down a series of invisible pillars to meet Itsuki on the ground with a flush in her face and that wild grin she got when she felt like she'd been particularly clever. "Hooooi! What's up, I-chi? Check out my new stuuuuuuuff!"

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

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MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

Itsuki stared slightly as he watched his friend run towards him... on the air. What the heck? Since when could she run on nothing? That was totally unfair! Cheating!  Unsportsmanlike! The moment she was in range he started jabbing at her torso, poking the vest in a mixture of curiousity and agitation. "You! How dare! Air walking? You've got to be breaking some sorta rules! You don't even have a wind affinity to explain it!" he complained good naturedly, "and that Gunbai! Copy cat! Mine's not finished yet so I can't use it, but I have one being made too. Argh, that's totally not fair!" 

His grin was enough to show that he wasn't being particularly serious, and his poking turned into nudging the pockets on her jacket to see if she had anything interesting in them. 

"So, so, whatcha got? I'm still in bureaucratic limbo for promotion, they're not happy with me going too quick to chuunin, and I wanna know what you can get your hands on with the new rank!" If he was testing to see her skill at noticing his pickpocketing... well, he had to make sure one of Konoha's chuunin weren't useless at not being robbed, didn't he?

Still, he was pretty proud of Miroru, even if he didn't say it right now. She always acted so uncertain of her own ability, and here she was as a Chuunin already. Next step, Jounin!

"...oh Kami, you can teach in the Academy now...." he gasped, horrified realisation spreading across his features, "the children will never recover..."

Word Count: 260
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 3/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | 218 | notes

"WhAAAA!" Miroru squawked as she was abruptly under assault! She slapped at Itsuki, deliberately ineffectively, only half-heartedly deflecting his jabs. "It's not wind! It's a barrier! It's a modification of the Stair jutsu! I feed the boots chakra and they activate a barrier the size of my foot for every step! A-AND WHADDYA MEAN COPYCAT?! Gunbai are totally my family thing, I gotta at least PRETEND to be an Uchiha!" She protested loudly!

"Weeeeeell. The super cool Air Keisuke's- that's what I decided to call'em- and my gloves can bolster barrier jutsus, and this big ol' clonker can take this one whopper of a suiton jutsu and make it NASTIER for MEGA BONKS. Buuuuut," she cautioned, "I think it's because I've got weapon and taijutsu training. I dunno if they give out as much gear to nerdy Genjutsu specialists such as yourself~" Miroru teased, smirking.

"I can what?

...

I CAN TEACH AT THE ACADEMY! I NEED TO REGISTER FOR GUEST LESSONS OR SOMETHING!" She hollered, before calming down and tilting her head. "What about you? What's your limbo deal? Is it gonna take a long time?"

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

Itsuki shook his head slightly, trust Miroru to consider barrier ninjutsu as a method of air walking. That was just her brand of slanted thinking that was equal parts genius and ridiculous. Listening to her explain her gear, he nodded along slightly, but continued to poke at her stuff just to keep up the momentum for a little longer. "Copycat, yes, coz I've been planning on one of those for aaaaaages now, since we found those training ones in the shrine. Even got a craftsman to make it for me, it's just not quite done yet..." he frowned slightly at Miroru and finished his poking off by aiming one directly at her snoot, just for emphasis.

"I'm more a ninjutsu specialist, genjutsu is secondary!" he protested before stepping back and crossing his arms in a fake huff. He chose not to entertain her crowing realisation about the academy, mentally apologising to whatever Kami were listening for bringing it up where she could hear because now it was going to happen, he could tell. He hoped that Dare-kun was a graduate before it did, because somehow he couldn't imagine how embarrassing it would be for them to have Miroru as a teacher.

"Basically, since I went straight from the Academy into the Chuunin exams, some people are trying to delay my promotion on grounds of not proving myself or something, I dunno. Even with Hatake-sama trying to press them for it it's taking some time. I figure I may as well get stronger and stronger while they fight, then they'll have less excuses to deny me the promotion." It was irritating, considering he had managed to make it to the top three, but Itsuki wasn't going to give up.

He couldn't let Miroru be the only one with the fancy vest after all!

"Somethin' I'm working on for that is using handseals with only one hand, it seems like a really useful trick, but it's pretty darn tricky..." he explained as he began to walk his way towards the gate, figuring they may as well get on the road. He didn't want anyone other than Miroru learning about his super awesome training plans.

He wouldn't hear the end of it if he'd kept that a secret from her after all.

Word Count: 379
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 5/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | ### | notes

Yes, trust Miroru indeed. Nothing like a tiny tweenager to think of relying on flimsy barriers to carry her high into the air and away from the safety of the ground. "Copycat, fine, fine, I'll take that lump. I still attest that it should be amended to 2nd Degree Copycat, due to the familial connection, should it please the court?"

"That's not better! That's still more chakra-focused stuff! It's dished out more frequently to those actually apt to hit the front lines with their gear. That's all I was saying," she clarified.

"Wait, really? Who are these cowardly scoundrels?! I'll find'em. I'll HOLLER at'em! I'll... remind them you came in like third! How's that NOT proving yourself?! Like SIX other people passed who did WORSE than you! Whaddya want, jokers?!"

The idea of one-handed seals made Miroru coo in appreciation. "Oooh. I could do to practice that, especially with my cool new gunbai! We could do all sorts of neat stuff if we could do one-handed seals!"

Then, though, she tapped her chin. "So this is all about breaking up a couple gangs without being directly implicated as Konoha shinobi, right?"

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

"It does not please the court" he sniffed haughtily as they walked, the grin on his face proving the statement a complete lie. "A few pearl clutching administrative ninja.... and maybe Tomomi-san, I think? Hard to get a read on them, but they didn't seem very happy with my application," he explained in regards to those who would deny him promotion just yet. It was certainly more than a little bit frustrating, but what could he do about it except prove himself further and make it impossible to deny him the rank. 

"Yeah, that's basically it," the Yamanaka confirmed as they headed out, tugging on a forelock as he thought about the mission brief, "we need to break up a pair of gangs that are starting to cause trouble in Kyoso without looking like we got involved. Since the city is sorta a blended population, these gangs are beginning to form rifts between the two different nationalities. If we do it as Konoha shinobi though, it'd probably just give the Noharans more of an excuse to drum up support, coz it looks like Hi no Kuni is picking a side." He wasn't too sure how much Miroru had paid attention to the briefing scroll, so he figured a 'cliff notes'* version would be good just in case.

"Pretty sure they're giving it to us because we're both sneaky, and you're tricksy enough to really cause some mayhem without giving ourselves away," he stated with a grin, poking at his friend once more just because he could. "Any ideas?"

*cliff notes: an abridged version of a story, named thusly due to the fact that the shortest path down a mountain is off a cliff. 
---

They would travel as far as they could over the course of the day before making camp. Itsuki settling down by the fire as some rabbits roasted over it on sticks, a look of concentration on his face as he once again tried to tackle the task of working his way from regular handseals to doing it with just one hand.

It was a mental stretch to get the dang things to work, trying to force his chakra to be melded in such a way that his entire training said wasn't how chakra generally worked. Still, he went through the various seals a number of times, first with both hands, slim fingers sliding easily through the signs as befitted a ninjutsu specialist. His handseals might not be as fast as Miroru's, but they were certainly more graceful... at least, that was his story and he was sticking to it.

After a few repetitions of the seals, feeling the way his chakra shifted in his body with each sign, he began going through the same order of seals using only his left hand, trying to match the movements of his chakra to the movements of his hand. It was a lot trickier than it looked, even doing the seals with only one hand felt wrong, incomplete.

He'd keep going at it until it was time to sleep.

Word Count: 510
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 7/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | ### | notes

"Well, the court should go get its... please... sensing... things checked! Cuz it should please the court, says I," Miroru insisted.

"If Tomomi-san was reluctant, I think they just worry about you cuz they care. I don't think they're mad you're doing well- maybe they just thought they'd have a lot longer before they had to worry about their cousin getting into serious danger in the field. At least, that'd be my guess." Miroru glanced up at the sky and scratched her temple. "No guarantees, though."

It sounded like Miroru had a solid summary of the mission, but Itsuki gave a brief run-down afterwards just to be sure, and that was well received, with plenty of nods and confirmatory noises. "Yeah we are! Sneaky and tricksy, both! And as far as ideas... lots!"

---

Miroru watched Itsuki fuss with his hand seals for a moment before realizing what he was doing. "Ohhhh, that's a smart idea. I should work on that, too. So I can use some while I have my fan in hand," she murmured, moving to sit with him and trying it out. She approached it a little differently, going facefirst into trying to mold her chakra one-handed outright, remembering each sensation and repeating the single seal over and over to see if it would work, focusing on Dragon and Bird first, as the seals that would perform the weaponized style of Chidori, one of two jutsu she specifically had picked out to pair with her gunbai!

She'd keep it up alongside Itsuki even after he went to sleep, right up until it was time to wake him up for his own watch.

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

"Well share them dork queen!" Itsuki complained as they sat there trying to work out the mysteries of using one hand to complete handseals. Surely if she had ideas she could tell him about them so they could start right away as soon as they reached the city. In terms of dastardly plans and thought processes, he bowed to Miroru's superior trickster-ness. There was a reason she was the leader of the Justice Scouts after all.

It was slow progress on the seals, he could feel his chakra tug and flow a bit with every attempt, but he was sure that any attempt to use any jutsu at all would fail miserably. It was going to take a lot of practice to get that right, that was for sure. Part of his attention was on Miroru as well, with the Chuunin's chakra moulding another example of how this might work. At the very least, he could learn what not to do by focusing on how his friend's chakra flowed.

"Kojirou-nii said to imagine a mirror to go with the seals," he said as they practiced together, "it seems a bit silly to me, but he was managing to make lava using one hand so..." he shrugged at this.

---

The trip to Kyoso was relatively uneventful, they weren't bothered when they stopped for the night to rest and continue practicing using just one hand to make handseals. Eventually the border town appeared on the horizon, spread out in front of them.

"So, how d'you wanna do this? We could try and plant evidence and get them to wipe each other out, or we could disguise ourselves and do something the same... or we could just wipe each gang out and then leave evidence like it was a gang fight between them," the Yamanaka suggested as they travelled, his voice low and senses alert just to be sure there was no one around to hear him.

He wasn't too sure what Miroru might have had in mind at this point in time, but they were getting close to the point of action, so a plan was needed.

Word Count: 356
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 9/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | 260 | notes

"Hmph! Insuboridnate and churlish! I don't think I SHALL share my wonderful and amazing ideas which I most certainly do have and did not make up on the spot to sound cool!" Miroru announced playfully, still fussing around with a sincere attempt to get the chakra to behave. That was dicey for her in the best of times, thanks to her chakra being HOME to something, but she couldn't quite get it to come together just now. She kept feeling like she was only really making half the progress she should towards chakra completion. In reality, as Itsuki could tell, she was doing a good job forming the chakra- but she just didn't have the experience to express it into being with a one handed seal, resulting in the shaping being wasted.

She completely forgot all that in a heartbeat, however. "He was making LAVA?! HOW?! I wanna make lava!"

---

Miroru rubbed at her chin as they thought over what they might do. "Well, actually. If we're leaving anybody alive, it's gonna be weird if we looked like anyone from one gang or the other, cuz eventually, the stories will get compared." She thought about it for a while, and then offered, "What if we lured them into the same place to spark an ACTUAL fight, and then helped them along to get so beat up they disband?"

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

Itsuki shrugged slightly as he contemplated the weirdness that was Kojirou-nii and his one handed seals, "I think lava is a kekkai genkai, like wood, or ice, or whatever," he said with an absent examination of his own hand. "I suppose if you got a really, really good fire jutsu or something you could make lava that way though? Would have to be hot enough to melt stone."

With that oddity out of the way he considered his friend's suggestion for their mssion, tugging on one of the locks of hair that hung beside his face. "How would we lure them? And making sure that they actually fight instead doin something else?" He asked, the tone of his voice clearly playing the role of questioner, not doubter. It was just another way of refining an idea to try and point out any potential issues that you heard. If at the end of the conversation they were satisfied with the plan, that was what mattered.

Honestly, it seemed a little fiddly unless they went the route of just outright killing all their enemeies. Though that wasn't a requirement in the mission specs, it would make things a little more neat and tidy if any loose threads were 'trimmed' before they left.

Word Count: 210
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 11/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki| 243 | notes

"Aw. You're probably right. Shoot." Miroru heaved a sigh and shrugged. "Worth a wonder, though. Chakra gets so weird and finicky. Like if I can control rocks, and I blast rocks to melt them into lava, you'd think I'd be able to move the lava but-" She shrugs. She doesn't know how it all works. Cool ideas that don't seem to pan out. "Yeah, I think you'd have trouble controlling it after it melted. Maybe it's a conceptual thing? Or maybe the kami have contracts that dictate what counts as rock and what doesn't?"

As for the question, it was a good one, and she harrumphed as she thought about it. "Well... well, maybe that won't work so well. Do you think-" She snapped her fingers. "What if we Transformed into a couple mooks from one gang and beat up someone looking like them? And then did the same thing, but backwards, the other way? And THEN, we each get "caught" by one gang looking like one of the guys that did the beat up, and run away to the same place to start a fight? If we disappear right before they run into each other, both gangs will see the perp in the other gang and go for it!"

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

Folding his arms over his chest he frowned at Miroru, "I just suggested we disguise ourselves! Stealin' my ideas, how shameful!" It didn't actually matter, not really, but it was certainly more amusing to call her out on it. "But yeah, that could probably work... heck, maybe we should have your clones disguise themselves and beat up the gang members, that way it's much easier and much more guaranteed to get away. After all, we don't wanna get caught out in this whole thing."

Really, it was fairly tricky trying to figure out a good angle of attack, but if they could do this right then it would be easy enough to set off a whole domino effect on the gangs.

"We'd need to make sure that they met up in a properly isolated area too, coz we don't want the guards to get involved, that'd break things up too early," he added, tugging at his hair as he thought about the situation. "What if we use your clones to start a fight, and while they're out we go and wipe out their bases? That way even if they don't fully kill one another, they don't have a safe place to return to? Also makes it waaaaay easier to not get caught."

Word Count: 212
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 13/15

[Uchiha Miroru]

Uchiha Miroru

Konohagakure No Sato

Genin

Yamanaka Itsuki | 212 | notes

"Hey, now, YOU said we should disguise ourselves and plant EVIDENCE! I said we should be BAIT and draw them together for a throwdown! There's a difference between planting evidence and being the evidence, doofus!" Miroru protested. The following ideas were super solid, and she nodded along, agreeing, "Yeah, that sounds really good. Get them chasing ghosts right into each other for a brawl, and then we lay waste to their home base so they can't just congregate or go to ground after the brawl."

She stretched and wriggled her fingers, already thinking over the details. "Think we'd better get into those bases and pick some stand-out individuals for me to copy. I could leave a clone behind in each location to wreck the place, too, for that matter. Once I pop the decoys, my chakra'll only be broke three ways, which leaves a lot of room for havoc!"

The redhead peered at Itsuki and thumbed over her shoulder. "What do you think? You ready to get this party started and start snooping for patsies to play as the decoys?"

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

Template by: Monkey

MISSIONS
D - 0 | C - 9c/3i | B - 0 | A - 0 | S - 0

[Yamanaka Itsuki]

Yamanaka Itsuki

Frowning exaggeratedly at Miroru's counterpoint, Itsuki briefly pouted at her to express his dissatisfaction with her trying to twist things her way. It was all part of the play of course, and they moved on rather quickly to plotting. "If you leave a clone behind to do the trashing, what're we going to actually be doing? Maybe we can gather any intel from the bases..." he pondered, gripping at the left lock of hair and tugging at it as he thought, "we gotta find them first too, might need to snag some people to interrogate. With my sensory abilities I can tell if they're lying, and it might help us pick things up."

---

It would take some time sleuthing around to find the locations of these 'bases', the duo needing to speak to a number of people with enough plausible deniability to avoid suspicions. Itsuki would use his Kagura Shingan technique to work out which people were best to query, letting Miroru take the actual conversation lead while leaning against her and tapping against her back in particular patterns to direct her based on what he could sense.

Some people weren't worth more than just trying to greet, and others were happy to talk their ears off. Between merchants, busy civilians, a couple of children and one granny that looked to be like, a bajillion years old who gave them odd candies that Itsuki was sure had couldn't be purchased anywhere in the city, they would have their two most likely locations for their targets.

They'd also end up scouting for a spot roughly equidistant from both bases that was out of the way but big enough for a gang brawl without doing too much damage to the surrounding buildings, a rather abandoned but still nice quadrangle with a dried out fountain in the middle. 

Plopping down at one of the street food stands at the end of the day to rest and re-energise with relatively unhealthy and super delicious food, it was time to work out a final course of action.

Word Count: 343
Tags: Uchiha Miroru
Mission: 15/15