one_long_mission | Pretty Lights?

"Why don't you... pack me a little bento box of that... for later." he offered, in favor of choking down the usual assortment of medications with a little tea.

He was always slow and stiff in the mornings now, but he tried his best to hurry getting ready. He had been looking forward to spending more time with Sasuke and his team. And obviously, so was Sasuke!

"Right, I'll go do that!" and so, while his brother took care of things, Sasuke had his own going, making them a lunch. In retrospect, maybe he should have made a huge lunch for everyone. He was willing to bet Akemi would show up with one. She loved to do these types of things. If anything, Hiro showed up at her place early and they both made this.

Once everything was neatly packed, he rushed back to his brother's room. "There's a nice sun out today, and just enough clouds so it won't be too hot!"

It wasn't too long before Itachi was ready to go. He was dressed in some loose-fitting black pants and a thin shirt, perfect for getting a little exercise. Lee would be proud!

He glanced at the wheelchair, considering bringing it with him, but eventually decided that the oxygen would be enough. He'd been able to walk a fairly good distance without it once he was properly able to catch his breath. And surely, the other kids would be meeting them somewhere on this side of the village.

"I can't wait to see... what you guys have done... at the Academy."

"Yeah! It's awesome how much we learn since we all know our affinities." he gave a big grin, racing ahead and back as soon as they left the house, sometimes circling.. He truly -did- regain all of that energy he was known for.

Itachi just smiled, keeping a slow but steady pace. Sasuke was feeling much better. The day of rest did him good.

By the time he could spot their chakra, he wondered if Hiro had already noticed them.

The targets were out, and so were the weapons. But from the looks of things, they were still warming up. Perfect timing, as it were.

Hiro and Akemi were there... but no sign of Miki. He was probably was on his way. "Hey you two!" Sasuke waved from afar. "Niisan's gonna watch over our training today!"

There was a chorus of cheers, and Akemi gave a light giggle as Sasuke approached, Hiro elbowing her lightly.
As sasuke got closer, he gavea cry. The ground shifted and agve out, Miki bursting out and pouncing on him, pinning him to the ground after a roll. "WHOA!"
Miki gave a triumphant grin. "Heh! I win this time!"
"No fair! Akemi helped you!" he could totally call that out, since Miki had nothing earth-related.
"Huhuh! That's called teamwork! We had Hiro in it too, cause we needed him to stay silent."

"Sorry." Hiro gave a sheepish smile, adjusting his goggles.

Itachi laughed a little. That was a good example of teamwork. As long as nobody got stuck under that ground.

"I remember an ANBU that used to do... something like that. Except he'd wait until the enemy was right on top of him... before striking straight up. Or sometimes, pulling them down underground with him." Itachi added. "He was kind of like me, usually working alone... But it would be a good setup for a team attack. As soon as the opponent is in the air... They are helpless for a few seconds. Someone else could take advantage of that. A weapons specialist, perhaps..."

He glanced between Akemi and Mki.

"Weapons specialist?" Hiro and Akemi echoed, looking at each other, then back to Itachi.
"Why aren't you looking at me?" Miki snorted. "I'm good with weapons." he gave a pout. "Even dad started teachin me some of the stuff he knew!"

"Really, Miki?" Hiro seemed taken aback by this revelation. "Didn't he say he'd never teach you anythin ever?"
"Well, that was for jutsu... but since he started showing me how to handle my weapons better, I think he's starting to see my potential." he gave a big grin, a light blush upon his cheeks, almost swelling with pride.

"Yeah." Sasuke nodded. "I think people were still hesitant to see that Academy as anything that'd work.."
"Great to hear your dad's opening up, Miki!" Hiro gave the other a light punch on the shoulder.
"Right!" Akemi gave a nod. "And once we're done with training, mom made iced tea for all of us, with loooots of ice so it's kept cold!"

"So what're we waitin for already huh?" Miki gave a wide grin. "Let's start this!"
"Right! I gotta practice lightning, so how about I come at you, Akemi?" Sasuke pleaded. "You can practice your earth armor."
"Sure!" she nodded eagerly.

Itachi gave an approving nod to Mki. It was good that his father had noticed and appreciated his talent with weapons. He'd work with him on a little target practice while Sasuke and Akemi worked on lightning and earth jutsu.

"Hiro, be sure to watch everyone... in between your kata. Observe the way lightning feels and the way earth feels."

He pulled out a kunai, following Mki's lead.

While Sasuke and Akemi gleefuly went at each other, Hiro kept his senses aware to the chakra fluctuations of both members. At times, he had to give them a glance to see who was doing what, since he had to note the new techniques in Sasuke's arsenal, and how much chakra they expanded.
"Sasuke, you can only use this four times. Akemi, your earth shield capability increased to five if you keep it just like this!" he called out.

Miki, meanwhile, had taken out his kunai and shuriken, focusing on the targets laid out onto rocks and trees. Sasuke was having them do the similar exercise he had been doing while following in his brother's footsteps. Miki was having no trouble coordinating all his movements, and it may seem as if that shinobi parentage he had shone brighter by the days.

"Good." Itachi commented as Miki gathered his weapons back for another round. That first set was very important for Itachi. He could kind of see the targets, but not very well. The way Miki moved and the angles of his throws pinpointed the targets better than his eyes could.

Observation paid off. In the second round, Miki made a slight mistake on one of those angles. Itachi immediately threw a kunai toward Miki's, striking it and pushing it back in the right trajectory.

"Remember the fishing exercise from Shinobi Survival Weekend?" Itachi asked. "It was successful... because you studied how the fish moved. You could predict... where it would be. Weapons are no different..."

It was one of the things that made Itachi a genius as a shinobi. He understood timing perfectly, and could expend chakra and energy only at the right time. Granted, that kind of knowledge is gathered over years and years of experience. But there's never a bad time to start.

Miki stared at the kunai, now planted where it should have been. To think that Itachi had seen the slightly off angle -and- been swift enough and precise enough to correct it left him in awe.

"Predicting fish is doable, but... what do I gotta predict? i'm not even sure what I did wrong, or how the angle came off wrong..." he looked at his hand, frowning. "That's weird... I moved my wrist exactly the same, and spun just like I should have had.."
"Maybe your body's started to grow?" Hiro offered from where he was. His form with weapons was average, but it was a give since most of his time had been spent struggling with finding out his own affinity. He appeared to be getting somewhat better now.
"You think so?" Miki sounded excited, then thoughtful. "Can that really throw me off?"

"It might have looked the same to you, but it was different... Even if just a little bit. Every time will be different in some way... It's why repitition is so important. So the movement becomes natural..." Itachi explained. "Eventually, you'll see every part of the throw, even the path... the weapon takes, from the moment it leaves your hand... Or someone else's.

Unfortunately, it wasn't something that could be explained. There was no secret technique that made it possible. (Though the sharingan did help tremendously.) Time - that was what would aid Miki the most. Time, practice, repitition.

"It's something you'll gradually learn to see..."

"Oh, so it isn't growing up?" Hiro smirked. "Good, you're already taller than me anyway."

Miki rolled his eyes and focused on Itachi. "So it was different then... I guess I'm gonna have to look harder and focus then. I got it right the first time.." he dropped to the ground and frowned, shaking his wrist. "Maybe I didn't warm up as well as I thought..." these children were taking their shinobi careers with amazing seriousness, even if they were not even genin yet.

"Relax..." Itachi put a hand on Miki's shoulder. Then he repeated, "It's always going to be different. Which means you can... learn something every time."

And Hiro's voice pulled just such a lesson into Itachi's mind.

"For example..." he paused, then glanced over his shoulder. "Hiro... are you watching his chakra?"

He turned back to Miki, sharingan active as they always were. But when he caught the boy's eyes, he cast a very subtle genjutsu - one that would make the targets appear a little bit to the left of where they actually were. Accurate throws, no matter how accurate they were, would miss.

He wasn't sure whether Hiro would know what the change was, but he was interested in whether his sensory abilities could detect the change yet. If so, better to be exposed to it in safety than in a time of danger.

"Try the exercise again, Miki..."

Hiro immediately stiffened, since it was his first time seeing chakra that had undergone a genjutsu. He squinted, shuddered, then frowned, regaining his focus. He was sure Itachi would explain after the fact, because he was unable to detect the actual effect.

Miki gave a nod, eager to start again with the added knowledge. He threw the weapons, certain that they were headed to the targets... but then when a ressounding chorus of loud noises of weaponry embedding itself in wood, not targets, he gave a confused blink. "..what the..."
He rushed to the closest target and pulled out the kunai from its center, immensely confused when chips of bark fell along with it.

But something was different. Even if Hiro couldn't tell what happened, the physical effects of it were rather clear - Miki had missed every target!

That was certainly enough to attract everyone's attention.

"Every time... is different." Itachi followed him. "A change in the wind, a muscle that's tighter or looser than normal, a distraction in your mind... perhaps even a bit of foul play. But thankfully... that's why we have teammates."

Itachi broke the jutsu after that.

"Hiro, did you observe anything... strange?"

Miki stared in disbelief as suddenly the reality synched itself back, and quite suddenly. He couldn't believe he had missed them all. "..w-what the hell? How did that happen!?"

"It was something that affected you." Hiro explained. "Your chakra.. it became all wavy and weird. It wasn't normal." he shook his head. "Something made you think you were hitting the targets, but you weren't."
"How do I prevent something like that?" now the dark-haired boy was somewhat terrified.

"Well, I can warn you that something's wrong." Hiro gave a light, sheepish smile.
"That's right... Any other tricks to it?" he asked, looking towards Itachi.

The fact that Itachi's chakra likely had much of that wavy quality to it probably confused Hiro a bit, but that would be an explanation for another time.

He motioned the others over to join them, and carefully sat down on the grass.

"I don't know if... they've covered genjutsu in the Academy yet. It's not as common as other types of ninjutsu... since it doesn't really cause physical harm per se, and it's difficult to do. But it's something you'll undoubtedly come across... as shinobi."

He took a moment to explain what he'd done to Miki, how genjutsu worked, how it could be used in battle.

"You're lucky to have a sensor on your team. And Sasuke... with his sharingan. One day, those eyes will be capable of casting genjutsu, like mine do... and breaking someone out of it... But normal shinobi can break out of genjutsu. If one of your teammates sent a sudden surge of chakra through you, it should be enough... to break it. Others, if alone, use pain to break out... One of my old classmates... used a chili pepper bomb once, while sparring against me... Surprisingly, it did break the genjutsu."

It seemed genjutsu was far more difficult to predict than it was to recognize and deal with. And even then, it wasn't easy.

"Hiro, this is a big lesson for you. Knowing everyone's chakra... watching these kind of changes and being able to recognize them... And Miki, the more you practice, the more you'll be able to see and anticipate differences... in the situation, and learn to compensate for them."

Everyone listened, Akemi noting the information in her small book. Hiro glanced over to Sasuke as the sharingan was mentionned. If his brother was able to confuse Miki, this meant Sasuke could also use that ability to their advantage.

Hiro gave a nod to Itachi. "I know what their chakra is supposed to feel like, usually. Miki's felt... almost sickening." he was not exactly keen on looking at it. "That reminds me... Sasuke, your chakra... it looked like it was faded when we last saw you, some time before you got sick.."
"Really?" he blinked. "Niisan! an that even tell people are sick even when they don't know it?"

The fact that he hadn't thought about something so basic almost told too much about his own self-denial over the years.

"Chakra is a blend of mental and physical energy... So in a sense, that would be accurate." He answered simply. "Not something... I like to think about much."

What Hiro could sense when he looked at Itachi... Itachi could only guess.

"Isn't it about time we eat?" Akemi immediately piped up, not about to let thing deteriorate further. She was not fond of the expression she had seen on Hiro or Sasuke's faces. "I have a lot of ice balls, and mom even bakes some cookies yesterday."
"Awesome!" Miki cheered.

"...and before you ask, Miki, you don't get any until you've eaten real food." She was the one, apparently, who could keep any and all stomachs on a leash.

Itachi had given them more than enough serious things to think about for one morning. And perhaps an afternoon as well. A break was definitely in order.

"I think the medicine has kicked in by now... Sasuke, where did you put the... bento box you made?"

The boy proudly took out the two small bento boxes, handing one to his brother. "Here, niisan."
"I brought tea." Hiro took out a large container and cups. "Mom said that one tastes like apples. Smells like it too."

"Hey, you're right!" Akemi took the cup that was passed over. "Your mom always has the neatest teas! You should bring more of them over."
"Yeah." Miki gave a quick nod. "Every day!"

"She gets them over at some shop that sells flowers and oils."
"Ino-neesan's shop." Sasuke chirped. "She was the one who found me when I first ended up here, in all that snow."
"Really?" a chorus answered him. He had obviously never recounted his arrival.

"And I'm very glad she did..." Itachi smiled, brushing his hand over Sasuke's hair. "It was quite a storm that night... if I remember right. I couldn't make it home and had to stop in to... get out of the cold. And you were already there."

A lot of those memories were fuzzy. He remembered making omusubi and possibly falling down the stairs.

Itachi opened up the little bento box, containing the breakfast he still hadn't eaten.

"I'd like a little tea too, Hiro... I don't believe I've tried the one that... tastes like apples."

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