one_long_mission | how did this even happen...

"Kakashi-sensei has..." She trails off, glancing toward Obito again and mentally picturing Kakashi's face. That's right, the side that was always covered with the mask was the same as...

This was definitely going to be a conversation for later.

He hummed softly and inclined his head toward Obito.

Obito turned to her smiled slowly, a little strangely. He lifted one hand and tapped the sharp tip of his finger beneath the missing eye. Yes.

She swallows hard, eyes studying his face, then she turns to keep walking. "I'm... sorry, I'm sorry."

Itachi hummed and tugged on Obito's sleeve as he moved to keep up with Tenten. "Basic combat illusions fine with you two? I'll admit they're a bit.. flashier than my personalized ones often are if you just want an example."

"It's nothing." Obito shrugged. Then, to Itachi. "Sounds good to me. I like flashy."

"I'd like to see both," she points out, casting another glance to that hand on Obito's sleeve but saying nothing. "Whatever you'd like to show me. I trust you not to put me in some kind of nightmare-genjutsu or something."

"Oh no I reserve those for when the various members of team seven absolutely -must- get me to spar with them." If he was joking or not was impossible to tell form how cheerfully he said that, looking around the field as they reached it and freeing his hands.

Obito smirked at that, suspecting that it probably wasn't a joke. At least not entirely. And he stood close by, just waiting. He had been through some true nightmare genjutsu, in the cave. Anything less than that wasn't going to be a problem.

She hums with more than a little amusement, certain that he's had to use something like that one Naruto at the very least. Before he can cast, she moves to seat herself easily on the ground, leaning her back against the trunk. No point wasting energy and forcing tight muscles from standing, after all. "Whenever you're ready, Itachi-sama~"

There was a soft laugh and Itachi spread his hands. "Area jutsu Tenten. They're usually not flashy if people are just sitting and watching them." The image of him dissolved into a murder of crows and dispersed, and the speaking continued behind them both.

"But I'm curious if you could tell me when I started the genjutsu. And if I dispersed it. No Telling Obito-nii. Though..."

He waved back forward. "I could try for really flashy."

He almost never had the opportunity to just... play with illusion outside combat. When he was a child, he'd been fascinated with the idea of fascinated by the idea of whimsical things, but the idea had never been put to use. So... he used it now, and he used the aversion of eyes as a way to go ahead and call out the illusion that came to mind as possibly suiting these two, and when they looked back, there was a smaller end dragon moving through the clearing toward them with iridescent red and black scales. "Not that I think this would be useful in battle, do you?"

Obito was watching it all happened--just thrilled. The seal in his own eye was turning, the mangekyou active but not in action. He was paying attention to the small details. The edges of the illusion. A craftsman's attention to craft. He noticed things like the feathers of the crows, the sound of their wings.

And the dragon made him laugh. Ohhh, yes. He liked that. "Flashy," he commented, obviously very pleased.

"Ah!" She lets out a delighted laugh, both hands clasping front of her chest so she's ready to try to dispel it if he wants her to try. "It must have been when I let go of your hand, right? That's the earliest opportunity."

She's not all that talented at genjutsu herself, preferring to just stab her target full of holes before they even know she's there. A blink as she glances around, trying to see where his true form was, then--

"Oh," it's almost a gasp at the sight of the dragon, her eyes shining as she leans forward. "Oh Itachi, that's amazing..."

He leaned forward, practically breathing the words into her ear. "You can touch it. Go on."

Then he straightened, the creature quiet, but making sounds in the moving grass as it moved over to them, watching them with a jade green eye as it got within arm's reach. "It's meant to be flashy."

"I'm very impressed. You do our clan name proud with this sort of skill."

He watched the creature, the light and shadow on it, the grass bending around the sinuous form. Excellent.

It's almost reflex to shiver from Itachi's voice so close to her ear, and with the permission, she reaches out to brush her fingers over its form, laughing again with an almost childish wonder at the rub of scales. "Careful, Itachi-sama," she cautions, rubbing her fingers over it like she might a cat. "I might like you this way better~"

"Ah, but where am I mm?" The dragon pressed into her hand in a flex of smooth warm scales, twisting around to breathe on her hands as it examined her more closely, a clawed leg brushing against her pant leg. "I'm not the dragon."

He looked to Obito and hummed. "I do more proud than just the clan." His tone was soft, but very firm. "I don't use my clan name for official matters, typically." He looked at him for a moment, then quirked his lips. "But thank you."

"Do you? Well." And maybe it was clear for a moment that Obito had just a smidgen more loyalty to the clan than he did to the village. Just--a smidgen. And he nodded at the thanks. "It's very good, anyway. Why a dragon?"

"Hmmm..." She hums and keeps trying to sneak pets to the dragon whenever she could, treating it just as she would any real animal she was trying to befriend. Even so, she focuses her Chakra, working to try to find him in the illusion he'd created. "Maybe... There!"

Immediately she spins, a senbon in her fingers as if by magic as she lets it fly toward Obito and over his shoulder. It was less sensing and more an educated guess; if Sharingan could see through illusion, then there was no reason for Itachi to bother hiding when he could just speak with his cousin from there.

The senbon was caught, winking out like it hadn't been there without 'Itachi' moving. "Tenten, while he might have been able to dodge, there are nicer ways." There was amusement in his words though.

"I do. I like to repay those who actually valued me." It was a low, firm murmur before he looked back to the dragon. "I thought a dragon would be pretty, and a unicorn wouldn't be to either of your tastes."

He didn't move or flinch as the senbon sailed past--though he phased out, losing solidity half on reflex. If there were going to be weapons flying about, he figured, might as well. He smiled crookedly at Tenten. "Good aim." A pause. "I hope."

And he looked at Itachi, smiling. "It's very pretty... though I wouldn't have minded a unicorn either."

"If I wanted to hit you, it wouldn't have gone over your shoulder," she lets him know with all confidence, though she only licks her lips, giving the clearing another glance. Was that another part of the genjutsu, that weird flicker? She'd frown, but right now, figuring out where Itachi was took precedence.

"In that case..." She lets her fingers run over the dragon one more time as she pushes herself to her feet. "Uchiha-san, don't move a centimeter."

With that, she focuses her Chakra in her feet to leap into the air, hands diving beneath the cut of fabric on her pants to draw two smaller scrolls and toss them into the air to unfurl around her. It's an easy, practiced motion to nick the edge of her thumb with her teeth and start summoning weapons, hands moving faster than sight as she twirls in midair. Kunai and a kodachi flit by on either side of Obito's head, the other weapons flying with seeming abandon to impale the ground every few inches, leaving no room to stand without getting hit or leaving an open space. Or that was the plan, anyway.

"Well, it wasn't your tastes I was heavily weighing for my choice Obito-nii." He then moved, unwilling to be still to get hit, and the visible him neatly set to deflecting the weapons, though not -at- Obito, of course. The dragon, on the other hand, immediately took to the air to avoid the hail of metal.

He stayed still during the hail of weaponry. Not that it mattered, he could have stepped into it and let it all ghost through him. But he was curious to see where the pointy things would fall, anyway. If any of it might knick through him accidentally, and if the little trick would work and flush Itachi out.

"Hmph." And he just watched his cousin and Tenten.

It wouldn't nick him at all, if he stayed still. One hundred needles, one hundred bullseyes. Avoiding something as large as a person was child's play for her. Still in the air, she twists a certain way to bring one particular seal into view, swiping her thumb across it without hesitation to unleash what almost looked like a Chinese dragon, almost like the one Itachi'd summoned himself, a fiery, roaring mass built of burning tags and wire frame.

With that unleashed as a distraction, she doesn't have to watch it, knowing it'll go exactly where she directed it. Instead, she redoubles the amount of metal flying through the air, landing for only a moment before drawing another scroll and leaping up again. Mostly kunai go through the air this time, flying over Obito's head and then each being hit by another kunai, sending them slamming into the only blind spot from earlier -- Obito's shadow.

"Maybe I like unicorns, Itachi-sama~" she teases as she comes back down to the ground, landing effortlessly in the two spaces she'd left for her own feet, flushed with exertion. Had it worked?

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