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Yuzuki craned her head to the side and tried to pick out any sounds that where going to give away Kori’s location, though the exact position of Kori was lost in the echo, Yuzuki launched a few more shuriken in the direction that she heard her friend before body flickering closer to the area that Kori had disappeared to. Because she was trying to track her friend using sound alone, she needed to stay fairly close to her, at least for now. Once Umbra was better at the blind fighting technique she should be able to use even the tiniest sounds to her advantage, but right now that was out of her reach. Yuzuki’s eyes remained close as she scanned the area for a sound. She didn’t know if Kori would need any more time to get this technique down or not, but she would play cat and mouse until she was confident in her ability.

There she was.
Yuzuki made a few hand signs before body flickering behind Kori, her eyes were still closed tight as she made that final jump to behind her friend and willing to show her just out well her new technique would be an asset to them. ”Night terror Paralysis Jutsu.” Yuzuki said, reaching into the young girls mind and starting to weave her deadly jutsu

Yuzuki’s new binding jutsu was going to come in handy, and she knew it, it was probably going to be the best thing that she thought up or was going to think up in a long time. Well, now was hardly the time to pat herself on the back. Now that Yuzuki had her immobile, she pulled back her hands and lashed out…
…to grab Kori’s sides and start tickling! Oh yes there would be some interesting combos that they could use Kori’s new jutsu for, and now that Kori could do this, there was no excuse for Yuzuki to fall behind on her blind fighting nor her silent kill technique. They would be a deadly pair, the two of them, Yuzuki could feel it in her bones.
Speaking of which… does tickling break a genjutsu?

Yuzuki continued her tickling onslaught until tears were rolling down her friends face, seeing Kori laugh so hard was a little contagious and she started to succumb to the giggles herself and finally backed off to join her friend. So, it looked as though Kori had learned her new technique, Yuzuki retreated to the bank of the lake that they were practicing in and sat on a larger rock, bringing her right leg up and wrapping her arms around her raised leg to make her sitting position a little more comfortable. She watched and waited for her friend to calm down patiently. It had been a long time sense she had people that she was this close to, sure she and the rest of her family got along… spare Izumi… but this was her family, when was the last time that she had a friend her age and outside of her family? It had been years, she was sure. She wasn’t really sure how to feel or if she was supposed to feeling anything at all. She knew that team mates were supposed to build these bonds with each other during their time together and it was supposed to make the individual stronger. Yuzuki wasn’t totally sure how that was supposed to work, how did bonds make them stronger as compared to hard work and diligence? Part of her was a little worried to get close to Kori and Yuichi… the other part of her was looking forwards to not being alone anymore.

But… what if this all changed after they found out that she was a Jinchuriki…?

The slight smile that Yuzuki had under her mask softly died at the thought, she wasn’t sure if this was something that she was going to be able to hide or not… but not wanting to risk losing this friendship she was determined to keep this away from the others, and try and make sure that the tailed beast inside of her was suppressed as much as possible so that it wouldn’t come out and possibly ruin what friendships she was able to get from her team mates. She didn’t know much about the Jinchuriki, but she got the impression from Tsuchia-sensei that it might be something that was going to break some friendships if it ever got out that she had something like this inside of her. It was scary and a little worrisome that something that was out of her control could possibly shatter everything that gave her stability in her life… it could take away the few friends she had, and it could possibly cause her family to shun her. Yuzuki’s eyes became distant for a moment before she pulled herself out of these thoughts and looked to Kori. ”Hey, want to go and see if Tsuchia-sensei has a mission for us to do or something? It might do us some good to get some real life practice under our belts.

Yuzuki grinned up at her from under her mask. ”Pfft! Just take it off and then fight without a shirt, there’s no need to be ashamed of your body.” Oh dear, hopefully Kori would forgive her after a while for that, but the best way for her to learn would be through actual combat situations… that and Yuzuki did love her petty torments. Yuzuki tossed a glance over her shoulder at the rocks where Kori had motioned, the hidden resting place of their illusive teacher. She twisted her body a little bit so that she was half facing Kori and half looking where her teacher was. ”She’s quite the little stalker, isn’t she? Well, I can wait for you here while you go and get changed, if Tsuchia-sensei isn’t here by the time you get back we’ll go and hunt her down and make a nuisance of ourselves till we get that mission. I suspect that the Raikage will have a whole bunch of them now that our village needs repair work… doubly so if the jonin are to remain here in case there are more attacks.” Yuzuki looked over at her friend and a large, toothy smile was under her mask when she looked over at her friend again. Guess that means that we’ll be climbing some ladders pretty quick with all the missions we’ll be going on in the future!” With the attack on the village, Yuzuki wasn’t sure if there would be chuunin exams any time soon, so maybe if they did enough work they would be recognized and then promoted accordingly. Man… it would be good to earn some ranks around here, maybe then people would stop thinking of her as a complete failure. Granted, she also hoped that they would also get some down time in between missions as well. She had heard of some of the other groups who just get loaded with work without much, if any breaks for them.

Alright then, I’ll see you later. I’ll try not to keep you waiting if I need to come and find you.” Yuzuki called after her friend who slowly made her way to back to her house, she looked over her shoulder again and waited a few moments while staring at the rock formation where her sensei was hiding herself away. She expected her to come popping out of the bushes but it appeared that this wasn’t going to be the case this time. ”Guess I actually gotta get up and walk, huh? Boo!” Yuzuki gave an exasperated sigh and pushed herself up and started to make her way towards the rock. Geez, how unprofessional it was for Tsuchia to make a lady walk instead of being at her beck and call whenever she needed her! She needed to train her Jonin better, it appeared. Yuzuki brought her hands to the back of her head as she walked forwards, interlacing her fingers behind her head as she did so. Her gaze drifted upwards towards the clouds as she walked to get Tsuchia, she tried to think of nothing at all, though honestly she was thinking back to that encounter with the giant blue flaming cat that she faced yesterday… was that really… a tailed beast? Or was it just an illusion that was conjured up while she was being prepared to receive it into her body? It was hard for her to believe that something so real seaming was an illusion, especially from someone like her who made a career choice out of messing with people’s minds. Not to mention, why was she even given one in the first place, she was probably one of the worst people who could have something like a tailed beast in her possession… aside from just plain abuse of power, she was more likely to not be able to keep control of it. She wasn’t branded a failure for nothing…
Still, she thought it was perhaps something that she could try and work with, granted she had no idea what a Tailed beast really was or what it truly meant to have one for yourself. All she really knew about it was that she was now a living weapon for the village. The thought actually made her pale a little bit. She was certainly one useless weapon if that was the case. She wondered what her grandpa would think of her ending up like this… would he have thought of her as a weapon too, or would he still think of her as his granddaughter? From what she understood, he didn’t have a good track record of the tailed beasts, with him smashing the eight tails in to a mountain and all. Hopefully the two tails wasn’t one of his past grudges… she would imagine that the two tails would not be too terribly fond of having the granddaughter of the one they hated hosting her… if it was truly the two tails in her at all…
Eventually Yuzuki got to the rock where Tsuchia was supposedly hiding away from her. She dropped her hands and pulled herself out of her daydream, hoping for some good news on a mission or something… hell she would settle for some training right now, though she was running out of idea as to what to train for. When she got to the rock, she hopped on top and looked down for her sensei. She doubted that she needed to say anything to her, she would likely know why she was there.

Yuzuki closed her eyes and smirked a little bit. ”Well, unlike most girls, I’m not ashamed of my body, so I have little problem flaunting what I have and showing off when I want… but you kind of surprise me, you’re just as big a pervert as your brother.” Ouch… looks like Yuzuki could get some quips in when she wanted to. Yuzuki opened her eyes again and looked down with more amusement glistening in her eyes. ”And yes, I only ever wear the best. A girls strength is her confidence.” It was hard to tell if Yuzuki was being arrogant or if she was just joking around, granted, if it was Yuichi who had said that and was looking up her skirt, the chances of them finding his remains would be slim to none. Yuzuki paused and looked up at the sky for a few moments before lowering herself and crossing her legs, more out of comfort than modesty. Leaning back on her arms she gazed ahead at the mountains and landscape that made up her home.
”So… do we have a mission yet?” Yuzuki asked, the joking tone had gone and she had taken on a rather distant tone to her voice. Her mind was half elsewhere while she waited her answer. ”Honestly, I may have taken some more time to myself to train, but I’m not really sure what I would like to learn, to be honest. I wish I could summon, but that requires a lot of chakra and control that I probably don’t have just yet… not to mention that I need to have someone who already has a summons to help me with the contract itself.”
Yuzuki pulled her gaze downwards to her teacher. ”I suppose that I could always ask my mom… or sister… or anyone in my family, really. Everyone summons but me.” Yuzuki paused for a moment in thought. That might not be a bad idea, actually, she could always go and find them if they didn’t get a mission. She knew where her mom was, and maybe Nori would be returning from her mission tonight. It was something to keep in mind for later.

Yuzuki watched as he teacher disappeared in a puff of smoke and visibly relaxed, so they were going on a mission huh? Hopefully this time there would be no interruptions like the last one and they could actually complete said mission. Yuzuki’s lips dropped slightly though, there was one thing that she had to do before she went and got Kori… Kori would probably need more time to get home and get changed anyway, so she supposed that it was all right for her to go and visit her Paw-paw’s grave. She turned her back and slowly walked over to his memorial, higher up the mountains and overlooking the village. It was always their favorite spot, and when the time came it was where evidence of his memory was to be placed and his life immortalized with that simple monument.
It took a while for Yuzuki to arrive there, the stillness of the place was only disrupted by the birds that sang softly in the distance. It always did Yuzuki good to come here and spend time at the place that they both treasured, honestly it was the place that Yuzuki used to go so that she could cry for whatever reason, either out of frustration or perhaps just because she was having a bad day and needed to vent. Those tears seemed to have long dried up though, Yuzuki was young when she realized that tears did nothing to help a person. They didn’t bring back the person who was most precious to her, nor did it help her become a better shinobi and eventually she just learned to turn off the tears and keep things inside. Perhaps it was this reason that the wound of losing her grandfather was still such a painful scar and that she felt so emotionally drained despite the comfort of being here. Yuzuki walked up to the white marble stone and gently and lovingly place her hand on its fine point. The stone was warmed by the sun and gave the impression that it was alive in some way, perhaps it was… perhaps it was her grandfather reaching out and letting her know that he was still there, and the stubborn old goat that he was hadn’t left despite his physical shell giving up. Yuzuki softly graced the stone with her hands before sliding her fingers over and around its top as she moved to sit down beside it, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the cliff that it rested before. She watched the semi-distant Village as it went about its day, oblivious to its invisible guardian that watched over it. Yuzuki sat in silence, for a while in the spot that she always sat, it was almost like nothing changed, spare the seven foot tall hulk of a man usually sitting beside her. It was going to be her first mission, well, second mission really, though this time she wanted to spend some time with her grandfather before she went. She would have done so last time, but they seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, right now though… things seemed to be a little less rushed. She still needed to fetch Kori, though she would probably appreciate some more time. Yuzuki was happy to oblige her. After a few minutes, Yuzuki’s eyes softened a little bit. ”I miss you.”

It was strange how something that brought you inner peace could make you feel such hurt, then afterwards, give you a center of inner strength as well. When Yuzuki left the memorial site, she wasn’t sure what to think. But that warm and comforting presence seemed to be with her, wrapping itself around her as to tell her that things were going to be fine despite that harsh and rough road that was going to be ahead of her, that comfort that would present itself when everything else was dark and cold. Yuzuki paused and took one last look at the stone that stood defiantly against nature and all the odds that tried to beat it down over the years. She took solace in the thought of that stone monument and what it too had been though and what it would continue to go through as it continued to live on, in memory of a great man and the legend that he became. Yuzuki turned once more and moved to go to Kori’s house where she would pick up her friend so that they could go on their mission. She wasn’t sure if Yuichi was going to join them or not, but she was confident that they would at least have Tsuchia with them on this task.