Spoiler:

Pests. Eradicating pests. He was good at that. His sister was even better. Hence, a tag-team. They'd go deal with a bunch of moles that where screwing with one of the bigger family farms waaaaaay out on the edge of the protected farming zone inside the city walls; work up a good sweat, have a bit of fun, then go home with their pockets noticeably heavier from the ryo payment. Not that either of them cared about ryo, it was all just going into the communal jar in the kitchen anyway, but they could both use some new weapons, so maybe their own personal savings spots would get a little bigger. He knew his jar was getting a bit lite, but that was fine. He didn't ever want or need for much, so he only saved what he had too. He had enough in the bank from his other means of income; mission payments where nothing but chunk change to go buy weapons with, or things of a more... personal, nature.

Hmmm... Maybe it was time to go do that again.

Thoughts for another time. For the moment, he was focusing on getting ready for their mission. Nothing that he had much to grab, he'd never been one for weapons, so he had nothing but his own claws to take. That being said, he wasn't stupid. Bottles of water, a small first aide kit. A book on native wildlife that his father had given him years and year and year ago, when he was just a little baby with fat hands and chubby cheeks; before he'd vanished and left them all hurting for way to long and then come back to make the family happy and whole again.

He still cherished that children's book. It had served him well for a loooong time, and he intended to hang onto it until he had kids of his own. If that ever happened. Which given who his aunt was... well, it had long since stopped mattering what the personal preferences where in his pack. Kids where going to happen when you settled down with your mate; so long as Amaya had any say in the matter. Not that the idea bothered him; he just hadn't shared that with... well, Hisaki wasn't... but he sort of was... and complicated. More thoughts for another time. Soon, but not now.

His usual 'uniform' was found; long shorts over wrapped calves and no shoes, short sleeve mesh shirt with a flack jacket borrowed from his father over top, his headband tied over his right bicep much as his father used to do. Simple. Easy. You'd think he was Kent if not for him having both fang marks, and Michizuka's eyes. And the lack of cold chakra. His chakra was far more... warm, maybe not inviting, but warm. More like a normal Inuzuka, or a Kamizuki; but he lacked his Dad's fire chakra, instead getting the Lightning that made Michi a headache for anyone fighting him.

His supply gathering was done, so he made his way from his bedroom and into the hall, slipping the all of ten feet to his sister's door without ever seeming to move his feet [he was attempting to learn how to use QuickStep, but hadn't been fully successful, if the nearly impacting the wall bit was any indication], using his body more than hi fist to knock on the door for her attention. "Sister! Time to go. We gotta get moving before it gets too hot."

600/1000

Pests. Pests were causing trouble for one of the farms and they got to eliminate them! Temaki had been rather excited about this since she had been told: she was good at eradicating things, and the fact that it took away from the normal boring stuff like moving boxes back and forth, or delivering mail? Yes, please! Thank you so very much! This was definitely going to be fun, more so because she was teaming up with her brother. Easy work, too, considering they had the advantages others didn’t because Inuzuka awesomeness.

Despite how she normally slept until way past noon today she had made an exception, and she actually wasn’t all that grumpy about the early hour. She had set an alarm to go off early enough to give her time to get properly prepared: even her blond hair which was a normal massive mess of tangles had been brushed out to where it actually was straight instead of looking like some kind of curly mass. She had gotten properly dressed, too: black ‘artfully’ torn leggings, a red plaid skirt that went down only halfway down her thighs, a white t-shirt with a smiley face on it which was torn much like her leggings around the bottom hem so that a hint of her belly button just peaked out, a dark gray jacket with the sleeves momentarily pulled up to her elbows and which was left unbuttoned up the front, a long dark green scarf, and a pair of googles she had taken to wearing which hung from around her neck. Shoes, as per usual, were an option she chose not to go with; barefoot was preferred so that was what she stuck with. Her village headband was added to her attire last, wrapped around her head in such a way as to keep her bangs back and out of her face since she never truly bothered with pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

She had gathered up what little supplies she bothered with; the few kunai and shuriken she had in her possession, and deposited them into the pouch she wore around her right leg which was mostly hidden beneath her skirt: she would have just bothered depositing them into various pockets of her jacket, but depending on how hot the day got the jacket was going to end up coming off sooner rather than later.

She was just looking around to see if there was anything else she needed – she preferred to go light, but she wasn’t stupid about it – when her brother’s arrival outside of her door caused her to look over. ”Okay! I’m coming.”, she would respond, grabbing her bottle of water off of her bed where the rest of her supplies had been moments ago. She practically leaped across the room in her usual hyperness, throwing the door open with a grin. ”I’m ready, let’s go!” With a grin in place she’d reach over, grabbing her brother by hand and in typical fashion, gently tugging him toward the front door in her usual fast excitement. ”This is going to be fun!”

Word Count: 521 / 1,000

Oh, there it was; that grin that defined the joy his sister always felt. He wished he could bottle it up and use it as a medicine against the dark moods that took him away sometimes; maybe not to take him to that same exuberance, but more to something like the gentler stoicism of their sister. Yuki always was the better balanced of the three, and he kind of wanted to be like that too. Sometimes. Right now, he was happy enough; hence the actually working, so he could tolerate her extremes without it grating his nerves down; not to say that his disliked his sister, he absolutely adored them both, but the contrast in their personalities could make for... interesting problems sometimes. His lack of resistance to her pulling was normal; she was usually the one leading them all along, whether she knew where and what to do or not. That was just Temaki, and they loved her for it.

Easy talk was made on the walk over; nothing fancy or super meaningful, the kind of light banter that friends and family made to fill the air when they didn't feel like comfortable silence. Or, rather, in their own heads. Everyone else would just see twins walking along quietly, one seemingly dragging the other, with the odd bursts of laughter or snorts or other noises that had no context to said observers, as they didn't live in the telepathic world of anyone born into the Kamizuki clan. They made good enough time, it was a fair distance for them to walk, but that meant little to a couple of ninja. Buildings, trees, rivers... they weren't obstacles to them.

The farm itself wasn't anything super special. It was old style, just a farmhouse with a barn type structure to store machinery and tools, and a few pens for dogs and other various animals that either worked the land or where raised for extra food. Acreage was small enough, maybe 5 acres total. Barely enough to be viable inside the city, but the family running it where a sort of pseudo-ninja clan. Civilians in general, but they had some control of chakra and a little bit of talent for using it in regards to farming, so even with such a small space they had a prodigious yield that let them compete with the larger batch farms surrounding them. Hiroyuki began taking the lead here, he was the point of contact between the siblings and the farm owners, so he knew who and what to look for. Spotting them off in the distance clustered around a rather large hole in the otherwise immaculately plowed field, he tugged his sister in that direction and began to trot over. Reaching the group, "They weren't kidding about these moles being overly large. That's ridiculous."

"You the genin they sent out?"

"Aye. I'm Hiroyuki. This is my sister Temaki. We'll clear these out pretty quick."

"Yer dog tamers, yeah?"

"Inuzuka, yes."

"Hnn. Better'n nothing. Least ye understand beasties. Go, clear'm out 'fore I gotta flood ma field an' lose out 'n a year's harvest."

"Yessir."

He gave his sister a chance to speak, if she wanted, before heading off into the field on his own. They could coordinate at any sort of distances they needed to, and he wanted to do some investigating before they started ripping up the place, if they had too. He had a hunch they'd be able to chase the moles out without having to do too much damage to the grounds, but he needed to look around a bit to be sure.

614.

1214/1000

The trip to where ever it was they were going didn’t take too long – the distance meaning absolutely nothing. Temaki was active and bubbly and full of energy, always on the go, and more often than not ended up going from one side of the village to the other and then off through the forests on a daily basis. So this? This wasn’t all that much of an issue. If anything it gave her and her brother a chance to properly talk – not that anyone could hear them save for the giggles or snorts that came at random. Silent conversation for the wind – or rather, a mental one anyway. Either way Temaki cared little for the perception of others; the people around them could think them all a bunch of silly lunatics and she just wouldn’t be able to bring herself to care at this point.

As they reached the farm Temaki slowed a bit, taking a moment to look around. It seemed a typical enough place, though she could definitely see the damage the moles were beginning to cause: definitely larger than normal. Allowing her brother to lead the way now, tugging her over instead of the other way around, she simply nodded to his observation. She remained quiet, having to refrain from rolling her eyes at the mention of ‘dog tamers’, and simply let her brother do the talking – probably better that way, so she didn’t ‘accidentally’ stick her foot into her mouth so to speak.

While Hiroyuki headed off on his own Temaki did the same, though she pulled up short before even properly getting into the field as the sight of a tiny orange and red ball of fur that was darting straight toward her caused her to pause. Little tiny Blast had apparently woken up and followed after them; and with the look on the pups face she had every intention of helping with what they were doing. Temaki leaned down and in a perfectly coordinated move they had done a hundred times over again Blast jumped up and right into Temaki’s arms. Temaki caught the pup, bringing her up to her chest and giving her a hug before before licked soundly on the face and neck. ”Looks like we’ve got some extra help!”, Temaki would say with a giggle, walking into the field as she did so with the pup still in her arms – though not for long before Blast began to growl at something. Temaki giggled but shook her head. ”Hold on… gotta be calm a second. I know you wanna chase ‘em, but we gotta do this right or it’ll turn into a mess. You’ll get your fun...”, strange words coming from Temaki, but she knew when it was time to play and when it was time to work. Thankfully, Blast calmed enough to at least stop trying to wiggle her way out of Temaki’s arms – but she was definitely all for wanting to chase something. ”Any suggestions on how we should go about this?”, words directed this time toward her brother as she looked around, remaining in one spot and simply watching and listening for anything moving around that shouldn’t be there.

Word Count: 533 | 1,054 / 1,000

"Simple enough. Moles dig tunnels. These seem to be... smarter than normal. But I have ways around that. I just need to get an idea of how the tunnels are connected, and where the moles are in relation to each other. After that, you and Blast can follow behind them and chase them clean up and out. I can stun them up here, and we've got them captured for relocation." He had the skills to detect and capture; not to chase and harass. That was his sister's area of expertise. His lack of a pup and any usable Inuzuka skills, not to mention a complete lack of Earth jutsu, made him better as the brains, on top of just being the bigger brain anyway. He shifted his weight a bit, basically pushing his body through gentle limbering and stretching motions, cracking knuckles and all that before focusing on his chakra itself.

He needed lightning, not water. Lightning he was good with, but it was never as easy as his water chakra to gather and control. He needed more practice, he knew that; but this was a simple enough skill. While this was normally used as a directional tracking jutsu, he knew of... other uses, that would be perfect here. By focusing his lightning chakra to his hand and passing a small current between two fingers, he could lock onto the magnetic field of the planet itself, using it to give himself an accurate reading of the direction he was moving in at the time. Beyond that, if he was to 'push' the current outward, he would 'sense' the relative position, in three dimensions, of any creature or object with a nervous or related electrical system. By moving around the field and pressing his charged hand downward, he was able to create a relatively accurate mental map of the entire area; right up to the overall positions of all the beasts in their little chambers and hiding holes.

He moved back to his sister, smirking that tiny little ghost of a smile of his, "Six. Easy pickings. Once you're in the tunnels you can track with your noses. I can direct from above. It won't be the most accurate, but between us we can make it work. The tunnels are interconnected, but their also rather large. You could Tsuuga through them without much effort, and they can only dig so fast. You move faster, even when impacting dirt. If we can get them up without making more tunnels, awesome; but if we need to, I can flood the tunnels and we risk turning the area into a mud pit for a few days."

That was his cue to stop for a bit, let her think about it and offer any counter arguments, secondary ideas or plans, etc; he valued her opinion far more than most's, and she was a damn fine tactician when she wanted to be. Given his backup was to drown the region [how very Kenta of him], he was up for any alternatives she could come up with.

515.

1729 total.

jutsu and chakra:

"Simple enough. Moles dig tunnels. These seem to be... smarter than normal. But I have ways around that. I just need to get an idea of how the tunnels are connected, and where the moles are in relation to each other. After that, you and Blast can follow behind them and chase them clean up and out. I can stun them up here, and we've got them captured for relocation. Six. Easy pickings. Once you're in the tunnels you can track with your noses. I can direct from above. It won't be the most accurate, but between us we can make it work. The tunnels are interconnected, but their also rather large. You could Tsuuga through them without much effort, and they can only dig so fast. You move faster, even when impacting dirt. If we can get them up without making more tunnels, awesome; but if we need to, I can flood the tunnels and we risk turning the area into a mud pit for a few days."

This… worked perfectly for her. Though she wasn’t sure how the farmers would feel about them having to flood the fields. Still, it was better a plan than anything she could come up with – most of her ideas involved even more destruction than what there already was – if given enough time she could come up with something that would work, but there was no point in waiting around. No, if she and Blast could get the moles up and out of their holes so that Hiroyuki could properly stun them so that they could move them to a better home? She was for it, definitely.

”That sounds good to me. Shouldn’t be an issue for Blast and I to push them out and up for you to stun. I’d rather avoid flooding the field if we can help it, and anything else I can think of right now would probably cause more destruction – and I'd rather not see our pay docked, I’m saving up for stuff.”, at least she was being honest about her destructive behavior! Blast was all for the plan as well, tail wagging excitedly, his nose already down by the hole closest to him. Temaki took the time to glance around, knowing that Blast wouldn’t begin until they were both ready no matter how excited she got. She made note of all of the holes as she looked around, but didn’t rule out the possibility of the moles digging new ones in their effort to escape her or blast. “Blast… try and push them to the already dug holes, ‘kay? It’ll be easier that way, and less damage to the field. I’m sure they’ll seek out the easiest method of escape, but I’d rather not push my luck if these guys are smarter than the average mole is.” Blast barked in agreement and Temaki, nodding more to herself than anything, positioned herself in nearby a hole on the opposite end of where Blast was; giving them plenty of room to work together without ending up in each others way.

“Ready, Blast? Three, two, one….” Temaki threw herself forward, rotating as she did so, and throwing herself into the exact jutsu she had in mind. Spinning rapidly she went directly into the hole, the dank smell of earth doing nothing to hide the fresh scent of the moles, nor the little glimpses of air she got from off to her right that indicated yet another opening in the earth. Blast followed after, heading into her own hole and doing much the same as the pair sped off in different directions in search of the moles; following the freshest and stronger of trails as they went. The first of the six moles was located with relative ease; both being chased along the tunnels and out pre-made holds with ease; both popping of around the same time. Temaki and Blast didn’t stop, though. While leaving those two for Hiroyuki to handle they moved on, following other trails that would lead them to two more; Temaki’s popping up first followed nearly ten seconds later by the one Blast had chased and cornered. The last ones proved a bit trickery, however, one attempting to escape Blast by digging another hole, but alas at the last moment before forced to the nearby one from which it tried to escape out into the open. Temaki chased her own, cornering him just seconds later and forcing it up and out. Figuring Hiroyuki was using some kind of jutsu to stun them Temaki and Blast both turned, heading back to their original starting points instead of up and out after the moles, popping up one after the other.

Word Count: 784 | 1,838

Jutsu and Chakra:

See, there were reason to come prepared. One of them being, he had little by way of offensive ability that could handle even basic beasts like moles. However, that didn't stop him from being smart about what he could do. While his sister was working to get them above ground, he was making himself a lasso out of some basic hemp rope that had been laying around the house for a while. There was easily a few dozen meters of it; more than enough to work with; and he was a deft hand at making slip knots used in roping, as they where the same used in many spring traps.

Leaving the mass of the rope coiled behind him, he began to swing the now looped lasso around above his head using his right arm; he would need his left to use a mix of jutsu here that would let him actually catch the beasts. The first being a nice, bright, Solar Flare. Nearly blind moles may be; but Solar Flare was just that ridiculously powerful. It would have the two moles she'd shoved above ground for him squealing in confusion and mild pain; allowing him the moment needed to aim a few Shock Bullets their way. One or two hits would do little to no damage, they hurt, but they didn't have much behind them. However, 6 shots each would be enough to leave a pretty nasty burn and some significant pain; a distraction that would allow him to catch both of them in a single throw of the lasso loop. A good hard yang and he had them roped and dragged back to where he was standing; a fairly large cloth bag used to contain them while he waited for Temaki to bring her catch over.

"Simple enough, when you can spin; eh Sister?"

311. 2032 total.

Jutsu and Chakra: