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It was time to do a mission! Michiko was thrilled when the stupid bird hit her window and dropped a scroll. Poor bird. The pidgeon lay on the lower-level roof of the multi-tired traditional Japanese style home before it came to and flew away. Smiling like an excited toddler, wide eyes glittering with glee, the young Uchiha opened the scroll and was happy to receive her first ever real Genin mission! What was it?! Dark lines of gloom and disgust took over her face as she realized it was actually something seemingly stupid. Advertising by posting or handing out flyers for a new sweets shop. Wait what...sweets?! Michiko thought about strawberry pocky sticks and matcha and lemon flavored dongo. Yah....ok that was good. Maybe if she did this chore they'd let her take home some candy for free!

She hurriedly got dressed and left quickly out the window, not bothering to tell her folks where she was going. If anyone had a problem, it didn't matter. She was a ninjuh and she had to take missions. So, she would hurry to the meeting place, by a large water fountain in the center of the town square in the market district. Here, she was waiting for two other Genin who were going to help her. They all needed to spread the advertisements, and then the owner of the new sweets shop would surely pay them with yummy goodies.

[1]

Riku woke up with a loud groan, rubbing his eyes lazily as he rose from his bed before glancing towards his bedside table and noticing a distinct lack of enticing chemicals to play with today. He gave a drained sigh as he just took his deck of cards before walking off. The black-haired rogue would have to go get some more cash for a shopping trip it seems. Stumbling outward from the clanhouse, Riku checked for any missions he was getting signed up for, grinning in entertainment at the candy store advertisement mission. The fact that one of his friends was on the mission list just made the proposition juicier, though Riku didn’t recognise the other name on the list.

“Well, that seems awfully fitting,” He said with a wide grin, “Gonna go encourage candy!”

Suddenly more energetic, Riku moved to go grab his puppet for a trip before hesitating in realisation. He’d sold his last puppet a few days back for ingredients already. A nervous laugh left him as he made a mental note to go past the Aburame clans housing on his way to the mission spot, he might need to ask a friend to cover for him today …

The black-haired genin wandered towards the meeting spot with a casual grin on his face, his deck of playing cards being shuffled casually in his hands as he tried to spot out the genin that were on his team, heavens forbid he having been early for once. The grinning rogue wandered towards the large fountain before spotting only one person that could match the description. There was a distinct lack of a Yamanaka however …

“Did I get here before Inotsu?” Riku asked questioningly as he walked over to Michiko, his eyes alight with amusement, “He’s never living that one down … names Riku by the by, you get the fliers yet?”

Inotsu was a hunter by nature. Arrive early and await his prey, that was the way. While the two genin believed they had gotten the jump on Inotsu, this was in fact not the case as the genin had suppressed his presence after having scouted the meeting area in the morning before the sun rose. With the patience of a very patient thing, he breathed through a tube and entered a meditative resting state, nearly sleeping. Nearly.

When it was time, which Inotsu could tell by the sunlight breaking through the water, he awoke and sat up, rising up from the fountain which Riku and Michiko were waiting by. In his mouth was a bamboo straw he used to breathe, and by his side was a bow and quiver of arrows which were kept in a plastic bag to keep the water from damaging them. He looked at his fellows with an expressionless face, the blonde Yamanaka simply providing a thumbs up as a greeting.

"Start?" he asked, a one-word sentence to convey the array of complex emotions he must have been feeling. What could it mean? Was it code, or a cry for help? Or was he simply wondering if they should get on with the job? The world may never know.

Missions meant work, but it was paid work at least, so when Riku popped up at Shigeru's door, asking for help, the boy was happy to tag along. Of course, it was tough being a puppeteer in this economy, so he had a moral obligation to aid a friend...

“This means you owe me a favour then, huh?”
Well, there were other motives behind his actions as well. But who could blame him? Favours were a valuable commodity, if a little volatile. And if his friend was getting him to cover for his lack of puppet, then clearly he deserved some manner of reward.

In truth though, Shigeru could take or leave the favour; he was interested in how the mission would pan out. Surely Riku's great Nara mind would conjure up a way to while away the hours. And there were certainly duller businesses to advertise for; a candy store was pretty high on the list of interesting stores, after all. Perhaps they could worm their way into sampling some of the merchandise. Walking alongside the aforementioned Nara genin, Shigeru reaches the meeting place

“Hey... person I don't know. You can call me Shigeru,” The Aburame greets Michiko. “Huh, now that you mention it, h-” He begins, before abruptly being interrupted by Inotsu rising from the depths. The Yamanaka was a... unique individual. “Hey, Inotsu... do I want to ask why you were in a fountain? ...Yeah, I do. Why were you in a fountain?”

Boys. Three of them. Why was it always boys?! Well, she guessed more boys liked fighting than girls. There were more male ninja than females. Michiko huffed, looking at the others, especially at the weird boy who was in the fountain. She had the same question as Shigeru Aburame, which was "Why the hell are in the fountain?", but she didn't have to ask, because his friend already had asked him. Moreover, all of these guys seemed to know each other already. She seemed to be the one that was "new". Then again, yah....she didn't get to get away from her family very often, so that should be expected that they wouldn't know her.

Michiko spoke up, greeting all of them at once, "I'm Michiko. Nice to meet you Riku, Shigeru...and...umm Water Boy?", Michiko laughed. She couldn't help it. The blonde in the fountain who'd been hiding, breathing through a straw was hilarious, but she had to admit, "You're weird but clever. I like that.", and then, digging into her jacket, she pulled out a scroll, and she'd make a hand seal and channeling her chakra to her hand, unsealed from the scroll...a large stack of fliers.

"Here they are! I have a few more scrolls....each have like five hundred fliers. I dunno why they want us to post so many, but oh well!", she said, and she'd hand the others a scroll each.

"The place is called Sakura Dagashi. Even the name is sweet. I can just....taste the sugar. Hope we get some free candy for this! I'll demand it if we don't!", Michiko said cheerfully, and then added, "Wanna make it a race?"



[2]

[275 WC]

Spoiler:

Riku stared blank faced at the appearance of Inotsu from the fountain, before giving an audible sigh and drop of his head. When his head went back up, the standard wide smirk was returned to his face as he accepted the fact that he was the late one … again. Shuffling his deck of cards in thought as the Uchiha explained the absurdly horrendous amount of fliers, the black-haired rogue had to stop in visible confusion.

“What type of candy shop wants thousands of fliers?!” He asked in shock, glancing between the Uchiha and the fliers, stopping the shuffling of his cards for a moment, “This isn’t a mission, it’s slavery!”

The Nara placed two fingers to the top of his nose in frustration for a moment before his grin grew wider. He had a plan. Riku took the scroll from Michiko before casually tossing it behind himself for the Aburame to catch. His eyes glimmering in amusement as he took the chance to look between the crew he has for this idea.

“Well Michiko …” He said slowly at first, the idea still visualising, “As fun as racing would be. I’m not interested in competing against my fellow genin, the grudge here is on the person that gave us 2000 fliers to hang up everywhere! Let’s go help small business in a more enterprising route.”

The black-haired boy pointed outward … towards Hokage rock. The glimmer in his eyes still shining in amusement as he resumed the shuffling of his deck of cards.

“I’m a fan of candy, I like sweets and treats and I think everyone does,” He explained dramatically, already taking the chance to hop on top of the fountain side for a better speech giving spot, “People I think would be serviced for more by awareness of this lovely store then seeing some lame Hokage’s face. In the name of small business, in the name … of Sakura Dagashi. I say we go plaster these fliers all over those old geezers faces.”

"To prevent ambush, of course," Inotsu replied with a tilted head, as if confused by the question. The truth of the matter was that it was a joke to get a laugh out of others, and so far it seemed to be a success. That said, a stranger might think him completely serious due to his lack of expressiveness to indicate sarcasm or exaggeration. The seriousness, he thought, gave the humor an extra layer. And yet, he could still not keep up with Riku's pace, listening to the twisted plan the genin had come up with this time. This was, of course, the predictable result of getting involved with Riku. Inotsu didn't show it, but he was laughing on the inside so uncontrollably that a normal person might be rolling on the ground. Instead of doing that, however, the Yamanaka calmly took a share of fliers from Riku, shaking his head.

"Riku, feel free to go about it how you want, but I'm serious about this," Inotsu said with a deadpan face all the while he was taking out his arrows and beginning to tie a flier to each of them. "Rather than post the ads all in the same place, it would be more effective to distribute them directly to residencies over a wider area."

Of course, this was simply another absurd concoction to keep up with Riku, so to not be outdone. Maybe it was unhealthy to be so inspired by this charismatic delinquent of a genin, but at least it was fun.

So many flyers, such little time... truly, D-rank missions were the hardest of them all. And Michiko was right, they deserved candy after going through this mountain of advertising! Catching the scroll Riku tosses, Shigeru inspects it a little closer while listening in to the proposals being made.

“Hmm, two good proposals... Riku! The problem with your plan is that the posters are way too small! Even if we paste all of them on that rock, they're just gonna be a massive blob. Nobody's gonna be able to read the illustrious words 'Sakura Dagashi' from all the way down here, you know?

“Inotsu! First of all, bows and arrows are dumb, why not just fire a fireball at someone? But also, advertising is about getting to the right people! A scattershot approach is good and all, but you've gotta make sure you reach the proper demographic!” Indeed, there were many potential demographics they could target, but one stuck out in the Aburame's buzzing brain the most...

“Now, obviously kids'd love to go to sweets, so we'd better get some leaflets to them, but I feel like there's a group of people who'd love Sakura Dagashi even more... our very own masked ANBU! Is there any sight more iconic than seeing our grunts in grey enjoying some top of the line dango after a hard day's... killing, I guess? Yes, I think this will be a kind of race... a race to save these poor shinobi from a life of mediocre candy!

“Here's what I say then. Clearly we need something big enough to fit on the Hokage faces, and to deliver the regular posters to the starving ANBU and kids of the village.” With his brain momentum winding down, Shigeru ends his spiel to invite suggestions.