The Cheshire Cat pt.1 [mission]

would someone care to classify

Inori had received a notice early that morning that she would be going out on a D-Rank mission - so, business as usual, really. To be honest, she had been half-asleep and hadn't paid any attention to the rest of the notice, namely the part about working with another genin that wasn't from her team. Now, being that the Yamanaka was generally a friendly person, she usually wouldn't mind working with others. It was the simple fact of who it was that would irk her, if she ever bothered to read the rest of the note and figure it out.

She had spent most of her day lounging around the house and trying to get her older brother to do something other than mope. Inori had even chucked an apple at his head - which he had managed to catch even though he hadn't been paying much attention to her, something that frustrated the fourteen year old to no end. She'd get over it eventually. Well, probably. Or she'd just chuck various fruit at him until she did manage to hit him, the more likely option.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, Inori retrieved the notice of the mission from where she had left it in the kitchen, and scanned it over again just to make sure that four was the right time. And this time, she noticed one very important detail that she had not noticed before: she had another genin as a partner, and his name was Uchiha Ichiro.

Now, Inori had never met this Ichiro, and she wasn't really sure she wanted to, either; most of the Uchihas she knew were smarmy, smartass little pretty boys whose heads were so far up their asses they hadn't seen sunlight in years. Perhaps that was a rude thought, but hell if it didn't ring true. Man, all the other girls her age had been kind of obsessed with the Uchiha boy in their class. The Yamanaka just didn't get it.

Tossing the note in the trash, and making sure she had all of her supplies, Inori headed out the door and nearly bumped into a younger, white-haired boy. "Sorry, didn't see you there. Ichiro, right?"

our broken hearts and twisted minds

would someone care to classify

"Nice to meet you, too." Inori offered him a small, but friendly smile. She didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the boy, even if he was probably just going to end up pissing her off anyway. He didn't really look like the typical Uchiha boy - not exactly, anyway, due to the silvery white hair. The rest of his appearance, however, was Uchiha pretty boy through and through. Now if only he had somehow managed to replace said pretty boy personality with one that wasn't annoying as all hell... He wasn't bad-looking at all, but a douchebag personality could ruin even the most attractive guy. Not that she was thinking of him like that or anything. He was, what, probably twelve? She did not think about twelve year olds that way.

"Yup, let's go." She moved past him, ruffling his hair as she did so, and headed for the exit of the compound. "You going to stand there and glare at things all day or are you going to come with me?" She kept her tone light, almost playful, so he didn't think she was trying to offend him with her words. Damnable Uchihas got offended by everything... Most of them had the bloody Forest of Death stuck up their asses. Pfft. Although, that could be said for a lot of other people as well.

It didn't take long to walk to the incredibly smelly fish market. Gross. Hell, she would prefer being choked by the ridiculously thick floral scents from the Yamanaka compound - which she still hadn't gotten used to even though she had lived there for all her fourteen years - over the pungent odor of fish. Now they just had to find Utada's store in this mess of a market.

our broken hearts and twisted minds

would someone care to classify

"And what would that be?" Inroi asked, not being sarcastic in the least, although it might have seemed that way to the younger Uchiha. Surely whatever he had to say would be important, seeing as he was supposedly her 'superior' for this mission despite her having a couple of years of experience on him. Eh, whatever. Uchihas generally thought they were superior even if they weren't, so she probably would have ended up following his lead regardless just to prevent an argument so they could get the mission done as quickly as possible.

"Alright, sounds good." If he thought she was going to have any questions or anything, he was wrong. The plan was good - if their quarry really was some sort of shape-shifter, there was no guarantee that he wasn't hanging around the shop waiting for an opportunity. If he knew shinobi would be around, it was likely that he would avoid the place until they were gone.

It probably wouldn't please Utada if they refused to stay, but hey; that might piss him off a little, but he would surely be grateful if Ichiro's tactic led to the culprit getting caught. He really was a deceptive little guy, to have come up with something like that, which she knew a lot of genin wouldn't even dream of. So maybe he had an attitude problem, but at least he was smart. That was something, wasn't it?

Not that Inori ever really planned on interacting with the boy after this mission was over unless they were sent out on another one together, something that was out of her control. He wasn't that bad so far, quite the accomplishment for an Uchiha, but that didn't mean she wanted to hang out with him.

our broken hearts and twisted minds

would someone care to classify

Bells jingled as Inori pushed open the door to the shop, and a wave of putrescence washed over her, covering both genin in a layer of that horrid smell. The Yamanaka swore she would kill someone if she smelled like dead fish after they left the shop. Though she might not have been the most girly person in the world, she certainly cared about how she smelled, and gross fish perfume was so not the way to go.

How could a person do this for a living? The deeper into the shop they went, the worse it smelled, and to be honest, it was making the girl a little nauseous. Not that she would admit that, or say anything about the fishy smells, aloud. Offending Utada was certainly not the way to go, after all - and even if he didn't think that this was the greatest smell in the world, he had to like it or at least be indifferent to it, and he probably couldn't take too kindly to her saying anything about it.

Searching for the man in the store proved to be fruitless soon enough, and Inori was ready to just call it quits and freaking leave. The smell was really getting to her. But she couldn't let herself look bad in front of a younger genin, so... "Do you think we should go find him, or should we wait for him out here?" Inori asked quietly, leaving the decision to the Uchiha. He was supposed to be in charge, after all; she might as well act like she believed he deserved the authority... Until he screwed something up, anyway. Which, in her mind, was inevitable - if an Uchiha appeared to not suck right off the bat, chances are they would show their true colors soon after. Prejudiced? Absolutely. Did she particularly care? No.

our broken hearts and twisted minds

Before Ichiro could respond to Inori, Utada had already made it to the front desk. Boisterous, was the immediate word Ichiro thought of to describe the tall man. He noticed the metal harpoon in Utada's hand and wondered if he was going to use that to try and scare them off.

Ichiro slowly placed a hand onto his short katana incase things were to get ugly. Utada wouldn't be able to notice this from where he was standing. Ichiro kept his eyes glued onto the fish seller, not uttering a word.

Right now, Inori would have to be the one to do the talking since Ichiro seemed a bit eager for combat.

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