no mine - no mine - STOP!

[¤ Tenkai ¤]

name; clearing mines
rank; c
description; During the war Kumogakure no Sato planted mines around various areas amongst the village so the enemies would be welcomed with a satisfactory treat. With those desolated times over it’s time we clear those mines before they backfire upon us. There are several areas with mines laying dormant waiting to be triggered. Remove them without triggering them, be cautious!
reward; 50 experience, 1,000 ryo
minimum shinobi; one
mission status; interminable

---

This time, I would not have to wait for my partner to arrive out our usual waiting spot since she had been with me from our previous mission. It was still a bit strange to me that I was being assigned to do missions with different shinobi recently; however I really enjoyed doing so. I liked meeting other ninja that I was not even aware existed in Kumogakure, and it also gave me the chance to learn something different each and every day.

I was still a bit rusty, finally becoming an active genin in Kumogakure, but I was ready to get back into the full swing of things. Miu seemed to have no problems to use what techniques she had to her best advantage, and that was something that I definitely needed to pick up on. Before we had even communicated about possible plans for the next mission, I had already begun to think about how I was going to complete the mission.

I did not want to get too ahead of myself, so I decided to stand at the usual corner before Miu and I departed. I rechecked my equipment that I had, and made sure that my hair was not beginning to frizz up due to our previous mission. I did not want to pull out a mirror in front of Miu, but it was bothering me not seeing my reflection for so long. Casually looking at the store behind us, I would then begin to fix my hair in plain view of the store’s window.

I decided to bring up a topic to Miu so we could begin to premeditate our mission goal. ”So…our mission is to deactivate these mines that have been planted in various places among Kumogakure…great.” I was not too thrilled about completing this mission, especially since we could potentially hurt ourselves and get severely injured from an accidental explosion. It was true that I did want some excitement in our missions, and this was technically the danger that I had been craving for…

But at the same time this was not exactly what I meant. This sort of mission is more or less—if you mess up once, you could end up dead. Though I was a bit worried initially, the more I began to prod on the mission specs, the more I began to really enjoy this mission. It seemed to be more active than the last few missions that I had done, and I loved a challenge. I had hoped that Miu was ready to get her hands dirty, because now the real fun was going to begin.

[irezumi]

Standing at the corner in the village’s center, and contemplating their next mission they were about to embark on, Miu watched as Hayline adjusted her hair in a store front window that wasn’t too far away from them. Miu found her mission partner to be engrossingly interesting. She studied the way that Hayline ensured each tress was in its place and there were no flyaways. Miu’s own hands absently ascended to her head, where she quickly worked a couple fingertips through her thick mane of bluish black and purple streaked hair. Even though her hair consisted of some extraordinary coloring, Miu always seemed to wear it pretty well.

Since they were back in the populated areas of the village, it didn’t take very long for eyes to start pulling her way. It must’ve been the myriad of tattoos coursing her flesh, and Miu knew that, because she didn’t think it was her hair color, or her heterochromatic eyes – one a sparkling emerald and the other a glittering amethyst - that attracted the attention of onlookers and passerby alike. Retreating into herself, Miu rubbed the palms of her hands gently along her forearms and gave a slight wiggle in place.

Wasn’t it time they be starting to head out for their mission?

Personally, Miu hadn’t been able to look over the plans for their next mission… but she did think she remembered it having something to do with mines. Her memory was proven correct when Hayline described the details of the mission, and after hearing it, Miu had an immediate question pouring through her lips.

“I get why they’d want them deactivated… so as to not explode anywhere and hurt anyone… but do they absolutely have to be deactivated? What if we detonated them, but inside a safe ink bubble or something?”

Then, looking around again as more eyes began to peer at Miu’s peculiar appearance, she fidgeted and gave a small wiggle again. “You think we can head out and figure out the finer details as we go?” Miu couldn’t wait to escape the prying eyes of the citizens as it made her uncomfortable and embarrassed.

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[¤ Tenkai ¤]

I was not one to prod into someone else’s business, but I could not help but to be dazzled by the different eye colors of Miu. It was definitely the strangest thing that I had ever seen. I was not sure if they were her actual eye color, or perhaps she had contacts in? I heard that more people were purchasing them recently to spark their appearance more. She was a truly colorful kunochi, and I wanted to know more about her. However, we currently had a mission to complete and I had to remain focus.

All of the villagers were staring at the both of us, but primarily Miu. I never really paid much attention to the eyes of those that stared, it did not bother me one bit. In fact, in a way I even liked the attention on me. I was used to people staring at me as I walked throughout the village anyways due to my grace, so it was pretty nice to have eyes in my general direction again, even if they weren’t necessarily on me. After I had checked to make sure I had all of my equipment, Miu then began to offer a game plan for the mission.

“I get why they’d want them deactivated… so as to not explode anywhere and hurt anyone… but do they absolutely have to be deactivated? What if we detonated them, but inside a safe ink bubble or something?”

It was a rather interesting plan of hers to utilize her skills once more to aid her in this mission. The mission was not very clearly written, but I would respond anyways and offer my interpretation, ”I think that if we do that, some of them might be placed in obscure places, so we might have to remove them manually. But we can use ink bubbles around all of those that we can.”

I began to signal for us to head out, the first place on our mission briefing paperwork would be another passageway once more. On the map, it appeared as though there were several mines planted along a small path that led into the forest and outside of Kumogaure. It was like a secret route into the village that enemies might have tried to use in order to sneak into our village—and the mines were planted underground. ”Hrm…”

Since we could not directly see the mines, but we knew they were there, I suppose we had to find a clever way to get rid of them without activating them. They were most likely weight sensitive, so if we stepped on the ground directly above them—boom! ”I suppose we have to…somehow get rid of them. How do you think we should approach this?” I already had an idea on how I would go about doing this, but I did not know the full extent of her abilities, and perhaps there was a better way than my own.

[irezumi]

”I think that if we do that, some of them might be placed in obscure places, so we might have to remove them manually. But we can use ink bubbles around all of those that we can.”

“Oh…, I see.” Miu gave a slight nod in response to Hayline’s explanation, and then set the tip of her tongue between her pearly whites again in thought. However, her contemplation didn’t last very long as Hayline signaled for them to head out.

Not being too much of a people person, and this area they were currently in being decently populated, Miu wasn’t adverse to being on their way and vanishing from prying eyes that sought to scrutinize and judge negatively. Feeling the small hairs on her upper arms rise, Miu set her palms to work; rubbing away the skittery feeling her flesh gave her and opted to instead follow after Hayline.

“How do you think we should approach this?”

Well, wasn’t that the question of the hour?

“Uh… well, I, uh--” At a loss for words, the shinobi blinked once, twice, three times and wrinkled the small ball of her nose in mild frustration of no immediate ideas for a solution. The further they ventured away from the village center and all the people, the better her clarity became for focusing, but the clarity wasn’t seeming like it was going to help give her any ideas.

“Not really, no… how about you?” She offered with a timid smile and a glint of hope in her eyes.

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[¤ Tenkai ¤]

I guess we were lucky that we were further away from the village in order to not accidently harm passing civilians. The only option I could think of was blowing them up. I mean, it would not be that big of an explosion, right? I still held the map open and began to show Miu where the mines should be positioned in front of us. There were several of them along this path, all hidden quite well. The only thing I could think of was just activating the mines now before anyone steps on them by accident. I did not have any jutsu that I could use repeatedly without fainting, so we were In quite the predicament.

I would begin to speak to Miu, informing her of our situation. ”The best that I can do, is crystallizing a small open cylinder around the targeted area to contain the explosion. Unless you have a better technique, that is. Otherwise, I’m just going to do that.” It was pretty weird but I could have sworn this exact moment had happened with her and I. Well, almost exact. I know I did not tell her of my abilities, but for some reason I was feeling so nostalgic right now, almost as if I were having Déjà vu.

Measuring the distance from the map that we were given to real life measurements, the first mine would be only three meters ahead of our position. We were seven meters away from the second mine that was located on our left. The last mine was on our right, and approximately ten meters away from us. So we had several mines to disable, and I believe we have a decent plan to do so. I had hoped that Miu would be okay with either my or her technique, or heck we can even both use our jutsu to create a barrier around the mines.

She could take a mine to disable and I do the same, but I do not know the specifics of her abilities, and I was able to manifest a crystallized cylinder with an open top to allow the pressure to safely rise up into the air—causing no destruction by the explosion. This was a very peculiar mission, but it was one that I would have to get used to quickly. At least we did not have to clean up bathrooms or pick up trash. I absolutely hated those missions.

On the map, there were also two more locations for us to go to. We had to go back around to the outskirts of the village to another hidden spot, and then likewise for the third area. It seems that Kumogakure had placed the mines in the forestry/rocky mountain areas in case that the enemy tried to sneak their way into the village. It was a smart idea for them to place them in unused paths, however I was surprised that the mines were still left here all of that time. That is beyond dangerous and someone could have gotten hurt, it was a good thing Miu and I was here.

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[[ Vasanti ]]

With neither of the female shinobi very sure as to how large the explosion would be, but also not very sure on the details on how to go about activating or de-activating the mines, meant they were in a bit of a pickle. Just what – exactly – were they supposed to do about these mines? And then –

Crystallized cylinder… whaaat? Hayline had abilities to work with crystallizing things and Miu was just now finding this out? Truly, her mission partner had more to tell her about than she originally thought and perhaps some surprises up her sleeve. Miu briefly wondered just what else Hayline was able to do; could she crystallize just about anything? Or could she create just about anything out of crystal? Or, or…?

“Ohh – that might be wonderful, Hayline.” Miu stated, and then began to glance about as they arrived at their first destination where a mine was only a few meters away from them. With Hayline holding the map and directing where to go and how far to stay away to be safe, Miu’s eyes wandered the immediate area in attempt to guesstimate just whereabout the mine was hidden.

“Where exactly is this first mine, anyway? I know we’re near it… but where?” She scoped out a bit more and then, once receiving Hayline’s answer, Miu would carry on – “I think we could really think up something good using both of our techniques, ya’know?” Pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts, Miu’s lips just about bubbled over with a giggle as she came up with an idea.

“You could create a crystallized cylinder like you wanted, to contain the blast made from the mines--” she started excitedly and clapped her hands together at her conclusion, “—and I could make some ink bubbles to sorta cover the open top of your cylinder and it’ll expand once the mine blows up so it contains the force that shoots up and if the bubble expands too much and pops, then just some ink will get splattered some places, but nothing bad will happen with the explosion!”

But what to be used to detonate the mines initially…?

“Oh! Oh, oh, ohh!!” Her lips fell open and her eyes widened, raising her brows. “I could make something to send… into the blast zone… to set the mine off?” Lips slacked from their previously open stance and was replaced with a blossoming grin of someone who had just figured it all out. She and Hayline could get this done and be outta here in no time and on to their next mission.

See? This mission stuff wasn’t really as hard as originally imagined. In fact, it was kinda fun in some aspects, especially when coming up with the solutions for challenges. Miu felt accomplished and successful; she stroked a few fingertips over the tapestry of inked art that covered one of her upper arms and shifted her gaze to Hayline for approval of her plan.

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[¤ Tenkai ¤]

I was more than pleased to hear that with our combined techniques, we would be able to easily deactivate the mines, by safely activating them. The main goal of the mission was to ensure that someone did not by accidently step on them and set them off, so with our new plan set into motion, we would contain the explosion that would have normally went off. Miu informed me that she would send some sort of creation to activate the explosion, and that she was going to create a top of the crystallized opened cylinder as well.

I nodded to her as I would begin our plan. I had the measurements stated in front of me on the map, so I placed the map in my pocket for now loosely as I would begin to conjure up chakra from within my body. My hands came together in front of my chest, completing a string of rapid handseals in order to use the basic technique that allows for me to use my other crystal abilities. I had a range of thirty meters on my technique, so I was not worried in the least bit in ensuring that I could use my technique on several different locations.

I started with the closest mine towards us, which happened to be approximately three meters in front of us. I would use my crystallization technique to create an open cylinder (that had no base either) around the small area. I did not make the cylinder have too big of an area, but just enough for the mine underneath. The open cylinder was more like a dome in fact because of the nature of the explosion, but it still served its purpose none the less. Then, once I was finished I would repeat this same process for the next two mines.

The crystallized dome would appear of the thin-air; almost as if I were a magician and I made it magically appear. That was my advanced release ability to manipulate the molecules in the air and manifest crystals from it. I loved to use my abilities because it was a rare release for most shinobi to have and it made me feel unique. Once I had created the several needed domes around the location of the underground mines, I would give Miu the signal to use her technique and activate the mines.

If everything went according to plan, the mines will go off, but instead of exploding all willy-nilly, they would be contained in the crystallized barrier that I had created for it. Because I had a higher ranking control of the root crystal technique, the explosion should not even cause a scratch to the harden materials I produced. I would eagerly watch to see how it all went anyways, just incase something did manage to go wrong.

[irezumi]

The spectacular crystallizing performance that Miu watched Hayline put on was simply amazing. Sure, Miu had the artistic talent of drawing, and yes; she could bring her creations to life. But to be able to manipulate the elements around you with chakra to such a degree so as to crystallize something? Or to even create something solid from nothing at all?

Simply impressive.

“That’s so cool, Hayline, I can’t believe you can do things like that!” Miu’s voice peeked a few octaves in her excitement.

Once Hayline’s crystallized cylinders were set in place, the Li shinobi knew what she had to do. Taking her scroll, ink, and brush out from her pocket again, Miu narrowed her eyes at the multiple cylinders Hayline had set up over top of the mines and thought for a moment. Afterward, while chewing on the corner of her lip, she stared down at her small scroll and – freshly inked brush in hand – began her scribbling.

Dots, lines, dashes, and a few connections later – and Miu had her small scroll almost full of blotchy, solid bubbles sketched as if about to float off the parchment, and a few medium-sized rock-looking creatures. Now, Miu had no idea what these rock creatures were – they certainly weren’t realistic and didn’t exist in the world – but she assumed fictitious creatures worked just as well as those encountered or learned about in reality. Actually, she briefly wondered if she’d come across these rock creatures in a book she’d once read—

The rock creatures literally looked like beings put together and made up of, well… rocks. Various sized rocks stacked atop one another and seemingly held together as limbs and connective tissue by some unseen connector. Either way, Miu was pleased with the results.

Setting the scroll onto the ground before her, she quickly performed the appropriate hand seal needed to breathe life into her art and announced, “Choju Giga!” Then, sprouting from the scroll much like Tiny Spike had before, now airy bubbles lazily took flight and her rock soldiers dangled with their weight from the bottoms of the inky bubbles by small strings Miu had drawn as attachments.

Like parachuting rock ninja, the stone soldiers floated off the scroll with the bubbles and drifted their way to their respective cylinder. As each rock creature’s bubble reached the opened top of the crystallized cylinder, the bubble descended until firmly cushioned over the top opening of Hayline’s cylinders and the rock men remained dangling from their strings. When Miu gave the order, they’d know what to do.

Things looked in order, so Miu peeked about once more and then: “Okay… now!”

Each rock man simultaneously severed the little strings that attached them to the ink bubbles and that had secured them in safety. Dropping from their bubbles, they would impact with the ground beneath them with just enough force to activate the mine they landed on and –although they would sacrifice their short rock lives – the mines would detonate safely within Hayline’s crystallized cylinders and the impact from the explosion would be swallowed and cushioned within the bloated ink bubbles that fit snuggly into the cylinders’ tops.

Plugging her ears for a bit of dramatic emphasis, Miu glanced over to Hayline in the aftermath of it all and stated simply: “I do believe we’ll have another successful mission to be handing in.”

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[¤ Tenkai ¤]

To my surprise, Miu summoned a rather interesting shaped creature. Unlike the last mission, Miu had decided to summon a rock-monster in place of the T-rex. She surely had an imaginative mind. I started to giggle at the newly ink blobs because I had originally thought that she was going to summon a bird-like creature or some smaller animal to detonate the mines, but she decided to give it her best shot. I was pleased with the results of our contraption and patiently waited to see how they would pan out.

The strokes and dashes of Miu’s brush were remarkable, and I had never knew that using ninjutsu could be such a beautiful form. Normally I associated ninjutsu with destruction and rage, but Miu had some sort of delicacy and calmness about her when she was prepping her techniques—it was something that I could definitely pick up on. I watched her creation once again come to life and sprout from the lifeless scroll into a living deity. It was still a weird concept to grasp how the Li-clan used their techniques, but it was definitely fun for me to watch.

All of the rock-monsters got into position above the three crystallized cylinders thanks to the ink bubble that Miu had created that would soon act as a cover for the explosion. Once she had given the signal, they would severe the string holding them up and land directly on the censor for the mines, activating them and causing an explosion immediately after. Luckily for us, our barricade that we had created was more than enough to contain the several explosions. I smiled at our combined efforts and was happily honored to have shown Miu my secret skill.

Even though I was celebrating a bit too early by cheering, we still had to go to two other locations and repeat the same thing. Gathering my map from my pocket, I located the next area and started to walk there. ”This way, Miu! We only have two more left, yes!” As I began to walk away, my chakra dissipated from my crystallized cylinder quickly. The walls came down and turned into dust, vanishing in the wind as if it had never been birthed to life in the first place. I had to recover my stamina in order to use my technique again for the next two spots.

Once we arrived at the location, I would set up the basic foundation again for Miu. The three cylinders would be in place for her to create her rock-monsters and ink bubble. I had hoped that it was not too much to ask of her, but since we were not maintaining our creations for long, I figured that we would both be fine with our chakra reserves. As long as everything went according to plan, we would then move to the last location and complete the same step. Luckily for us, our unique abilities when combined allowed for us to safely detonate the mines without much of a hassle. I was very happy that I was partnered up with a girl with those special traits. It was definitely a different experience for me, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

[irezumi]

It was a curious thing to use her artistic ability for a solution to a challenge… and not be ridiculed for it afterward. Hayline made Miu feel relatively comfortable in her skin, which was strange, since Miu spent much of her time being embarrassed, with a full blush in her cheeks, and a bit of a recluse. For once, Miu didn’t feel skittish and wasn’t reluctant to display her talents. Another thing she noticed?

She wasn’t constantly feeling like she was going to crawl out of her own skin, which sometimes seemed to happen… when she became overwhelmed with something.

A newfound outlook on some things, and a smile on her face, and Miu was following after Hayline to the next area where mines were hidden beneath the ground. Going by Hayline’s words, they only had a few more to take care of. Miu would’ve considered her chakra consumption and her reserves, but she wasn’t making very large creations and she wasn’t keeping them active very long. Considering back on things, after her rock soldiers sacrificed themselves to the mines and the ink bubbles absorbed the explosion, everything had dissipated to small ink droplets that had scattered the ground where the two females had been working previously.

Not only did they take care of the mines efficiently, but there was minimal to no clean up at all in the end.

Observing Hayline form crystallized cylinders around a few more buried mines in this area, Miu unfurled the scroll that he had plucked from the ground at their first location and quickly scribbled identical creations for this second location. With a roll of her shoulders, she set the scroll at her feet again and, performing the proper hand seal, called out her command to her ink creations once again.

Like before, the bubbles rose with the rock men attached to their bottoms and floated lazily to the tops of the cylinders and drooped until they were snuggly secure in the cylinders’ tops and then the sacrificial rock soldiers released from the bubbles again and…

…you guessed it; activated and detonated the mines with their weight, to which the explosion was confined by the cylinders and absorbed through the cushioning of Miu’s bubbles once more. “Next?” She questioned casually and chuckled at herself lightly.

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[¤ Tenkai ¤]

(OOC: Sorry for disappearing yesterday ~_~ I was totally not expecting that to happen but now I know what to anticipate for next time, heh.)

It would not take too long for us to judge the position of the mines underground thanks to our map. The measurements were really useful to us, so we were able to carefully detonate the mines without endangering any of the citizens. I was proud that our combination of techniques were able to easily complete this mission, it was almost as if it were fate for the two of us to be paired up together to complete missions. I was pleasantly impressed with her abilities, almost jealous as well.

I mean, sure, I was able to create crystallized objects out of thin-air, but there was not a real art or form to it. It was not as if I was actually crafting my creations like Miu did. She was able to paint a picture and have it come to life before my very own eyes, it was truly something else. I actually started to laugh a bit when I saw the rock monsters dangling from the string; it was just a weird sight to see.

I liked the fact that we were able to combine our two techniques together in order to conquer this mission. It was a bit saddening to know that she and I could not complete B-ranked missions together, but I suppose that C-ranked missions would have to do for us. They were not too difficult and it allowed for us to have a lot of freedom completing them. We basically decided on how we wanted to approach our missions and figure them out for ourselves.

B-ranked missions would force us to follow a certain formula to complete them, and perhaps Kumogakure wanted to keep the mines for future use? I was not sure, but since the mission that we did was more concerned about the accidental activated of the mines on our citizens, it was safe to assume that we were allowed to activate them ourselves. It was a safe creative method that we both had decided on, so I was sure that David would have no problems with that.

David was the assigned contracted to oversee our mission, and once we went back to the center of the village—we would meet up with this fine man and ask him to sign our paperwork. “David, we finished our mission! If you could sign these papers as proof of completion, it would be very much appreciated. Thanks dear!” I smiled to Miu knowing that we did a fast good job. “That was not too bad. Let’s see what our next mission is…” I had actually hoped that our next mission would be as easy as our last two. Even if it was not, I am sure that the combined powers of Miu and me would be able to tackle the mission down regardless. We were a pretty good team.

[ Exit, HayliNe ]

[irezumi]

( Hahaha, absolutely no problem :3 )

Once the last rock soldier had disintegrated back to its original form of drops of ink, and so had the bubbles that Miu had made through her drawing, she returned her scroll, brush, and ink back to her pocket like before. With all the mines they had needed to safely deal with having been safely dealt with, it was time to turn in their mission and be on their way to the next one. It didn’t seem like Hayline was a very big talker other than the short little bursts she did here and there, but—who knows; the silence could have been Miu’s doing.

She didn’t fancy herself much of a babble-mouth, and only really talked when she had something worthwhile to say. As such, she hoped Hayline didn’t take her silence as being rude or unfriendly, and would in turn make her weary to do missions with Miu ever again.

But, trying to brush the insecure feeling away, Miu followed after Hayline once more as she led the way back to the center of the village – and then to the man they were turning their mission in to. David, was it? Judging by Hayline’s verbal exchange with the man, Miu gathered his name was in fact David. Hayline seemed to converse with people so easily; she had such a charm – a charm that Miu didn’t think she never, or would ever, have. Miu envied Hayline of that gift, and hoped one day she might be able to work herself up to that same comfort level around other people.

It was just… other people never seemed to give the chance for that to be done.

Well, now she was feeling just a tad bit too sorry for herself. With quiet frustration at her ‘woe is me’ attitude, Miu wrinkled the top of her nose and forced a smile to be placed at her lips for David as they turned in their mission and then continued on their way.

“Off we goo…!” Miu joked as they set off.

[Exit; Miu]

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