Mission Stories

Title: Keeping Caged Birds Busy
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Yoshi Aoki, Ryouichi Aoki, Sumiko Aoki,
Pairing: N/A
Ratings: K+
Warnings: N/A
Author Notes: And something for arc 6.5

Yoshi narrowed his eyes at the clone in front of him. Manipura was out by his side and ready to attack, Yoshi's clone also readying himself for a fight. Yoshi flicked his wrists and twitched his fingers. Manipura shook and bolted at at the clone. Yoshi commanded his puppet to preform a furry of kicks and strikes, trying to knock the clone off-guard. He moved his hands in accordance to where he needed Manipura to go and, within a few moments, he flicked his wrists once more. This time, Manipura expelled an array of kunai from the compartments along its arms as he swung them wildly towards the clone. A few of the kunai had explosive tags. Yoshi groaned at the result. His clone was able to dodge the attack with relative ease -- simply jumping to the side and away from the blast radius of the explosive tags.

"Looks like Karasu-sensei was right..." He grumbled. "I'm a little too predictable with my movements."

Yoshi and his clone retrieved the stray kunai that decorated the trees and ground. Before he joined his clone, Yoshi draped Manipura over his back. He needed to reset the compartments anyways, so sealing him would be useless. Yoshi had been training for the past year to get better at using Manipura -- the constant stream of insults from his training... companion? He wasn't really sure what to call the flamboyant and highly energetic boy in all honesty. He just knew to try and stay on his good side. It was hard to get through the training sessions with him rambling on about how his puppets went to have tea parties with him.

Yoshi looked at Manipura, his head with hanging off his shoulder. He remembered Kaname calling him sketchy looking once -- something that kind of irked him. He couldn't blame him though. Manipura did look a little... off but it wasn't his fault the puppet was suspicious. It was in his name. He finished gathering the kunai and walked over to reset them in his puppet's arms. The clone disappeared as soon as soon as he sat down. About sometime later, Yoshi finished putting all the weapons and tags back onto his puppet.

"Hey, Yoshi!" He heard his brother say. Yoshi looked back and smiled at him. He then purposely waved his hand, which -- using chakra strings of course -- made Manipura wave at Ryouichi as well.

"You really have to make him wave too?" His brother asked, looking a little wary of the puppet.

"Huh?" Yoshi looked at Manipura and then laughed. "Sorry! I thought I wasn't using chakra strings. Gimme a moment and I'll put him away." Yoshi took out a sealing scroll and put away his puppet with a couple hands signs and a puff of smoke. "So, did you want to do anything?"

"I figured you could tell me all about your training!" Ryouichi said. "I mean it's been almost a year since you enrolled in the puppet brigade."

"Sure!" Yoshi smiled.

It had been a year since Tarou Kitsune, the Fourth Akarikage, died. The village was still in mourning but for the most part, everything was starting to feel somewhat normal. The Kitsune were back to their boisterous selves, the Asukai were being themselves too -- just trying to put a need to fill in the current power void -- and the village was either for the Kitsune or Asukai. Yoshi wasn't ready for another brawl to be dragged out in the streets, neither were the people. He was also pretty sure that Hideaki Takashi was severely annoyed with breaking up some of the brawls -- the ones that got out of hand really quick. It was good that the elders of the village -- and maybe the heads of the clans -- had organized a relief and construction group for anyone caught up in the destruction over a year ago. The progress was slow but it was making progress nonetheless.

Yoshi and his brother walked through the streets of the village. It had seen better days but everyone was trying their best. The villagers were going about their business, selling wares or talking to people. Everything seemed to slowly look better and better each day. The brothers said hello to many of the vendors they passed and then Yoshi had a somber look on his face. They passed by one of the restaurants effected by the attack; it was one of Yoshi's favorite places to go. They had the best food in the village... or so he claimed. Ryouichi put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"I know, brother." He said. "It'll be awhile better it'll open again though."

"I know..." Yoshi sighed. "I hope this place you mentioned has decent tea."

"If I didn't like this place, we wouldn't be going to it!" He scoffed. "Besides, tea is a vital part of any place we go to. Sumiko suggested it after all."

And here we go again. About sometime before the village was attacked, Ryouichi met a girl in their clan named Sumiko She was a civilian -- which met their mother's needs -- and he met her at one of the gatherings the monks had. Their mother introduced Ryouichi to her, who's parents also set up the idea of them meeting. Yoshi didn't mind her at all -- in fact he thought she was pretty nice and very pretty. However, his brother hadn't stopped talking about her for almost a year now. Whenever he got the chance, he'd mention her. It was always Sumiko did this or Sumiko did that.

"Lemma guess, she's also meeting us there?" Yoshi groaned.

"Yes!" Ryouichi grinned. He was too excited to see the look on Yoshi's face. He really wished he could take out Manipura. At least he'd have someone that had the same interests with him this time. He was always the third wheel in these situations.

"This time, try and include me in the conversations." Yoshi said. "Otherwise, if you ignore me, I'm going to pull out Maipura and start talking to him."

"Please don't..." Ryouichi frowned. "Pa still hasn't stopped doing that at home..."

"Well, include me in the conversation then." Yoshi laughed.

The brothers teased one another for a bit before arriving at the restaurant. The building was a quaint tea shop. He remembered helping rebuild parts of it a few months ago. He also remembered how much he liked their tea and smiled at the idea of drinking it again. Before he could reach for the door, Ryouichi stopped him. He looked around, almost suspiciously, before pulling out rather exquisite looking scarf from his robes. The scarf was a light blue and translucent. There were flecks of gems that glittered on the material. Yoshi's eyebrows nearly flew off his face and his jaw dropped.

"I'm gonna ask her to marry me." Ryouichi said, looking rather embarrassed but also excited. Yoshi just hugged him.

"You should've told me!" He laughed and he let go of his brother. "I didn't know you and Sumiko were this serious!"

"Well I asked her parents the other day at the temple and they were overjoyed about it!" Ryouichi explained. "Even mother was in tears."

"You're going to ask her today, right?" Yoshi asked, feeling super excited. "Oh, wait! You have it here. Of course you will! I'll try my best to not be too talkative or give it away!"

"Keep your cool, brother." Ryouichi laughed. "You're supposed to be the cool one out of the two of us!"

"Oh! This is so exciting!" Yoshi smiled.

The brothers walked into the shop. Yoshi was trying to rein in on his excitement for his brother but had a hard time doing so. Ryouichi was trying to calm his brother down, already regretting having told his brother what his plans were, as they approached Sumiko She was sitting down at a table and, like many of the monks in the clan, was wearing her meditation robes. Yoshi liked how serene and blue her robes were, it reminded him of the ones his mother tried to give to him on the first day of the Academy. He sat down across from her, letting his brother sit next to her.

"Hello, Sumiko." Yoshi smiled.

"Hey, Yoshi." She smiled. "Ryu's been telling me that you have a puppet now?"

"Yes!" Yoshi grinned. "Karasu-sensei is really hard to please but he did help me learn the basics of puppetry. Manipura can be a little difficult."

Manipura?" She asked. "As in the chakra technique with the Sohei?"

"Yeah, Yoshi said he wanted a resemblance to his heritage or something." Ryouichi said.

"Well, I'm sure you'll make your family proud." Sumiko smiled.

"I hope so!" Yoshi nodded.

The three ordered something to drink and something to snack on while they chatted. Yoshi listened to Sumiko talk about how her family, which were all monks, had started to make clothes and garments for the pandas around the temple. They didn't do much aside from eat and sleep but they did like being appreciated by the clan nevertheless. Yoshi made a comment on how Ryouichi bought a bracelet for Sei to wears a necklace one time. Ryouichi was actually more embarrassed about the story than he cared to admit but did agree that he tried it once.

"Aw! I'm sure Sei loved it!" Sumiko cooed.

"Actually, he spent the entire day trying to get it off." Yoshi laughed. "It's why we don't give him anything but food anymore."

"I did mention I was ten when I tried that." Ryouichi sighed.

"Still funny!" He laughed.

Yoshi picked up his cup and drank from it. He looked at his brother, who looked like he was about to have a nervous break down. So he quickly excused himself and his brother. He grabbed Ryouichi's arm and led him out of Sumiko's view. They passed a few customers, all the while Ryouichi muttering to himself about this and that. As they reached the bathrooms, Yoshi let go of Ryouichi's arm and looked at him.

"Ryu, you can do this." He said. "You have no reason to be nervous! I'm sure Sumiko will be overjoyed by you asking her to be with you."

"Y-you're right..." He nodded. He took out the scarf and looked at it, Yoshi knew he was still unconvinced.

"Ryu, you've done nothing but talk about her since you two first met." He started. "In fact, that's all you ever talk about. I know you love her with all your heart, so why not tell her the same? I know she probably feels the same."

"And how do you know that?" Ryouichi asked.

"Because of the little things she does when you're not looking." Yoshi said. "She's always looking at you the second you look away, she's usually more bubbly than any of the girls we talk to in the village, and you can hear it in her voice when she speaks as with the movements she makes. Sumiko does love you just as much as you love her."

"If you really think so..." His brother said. About a second later he nodded, putting the scarf back in his robe. "All right, let's go do this!"

"That's the spirit!" Yoshi smiled as he followed his brother. They sat down in their seats after they reached Sumiko.

"Are you all right?" She asked. "You two were gone for a while."

"I just wanted to ask Ryu what I should add to my puppet." Yoshi said. "He said I shouldn't pull out Manipura whenever I get the chance because he does look a little unnerving."

"Actually, he was trying to encourage me to do this." Ryouichi said, pulling our the scarf once more. He turned to look at Sumiko presenting her with the fabric. "Sumiko, will you be with me forever?"

Yoshi watched his brother look rather proud of himself as he waited for Sumiko's answer. Her face looked surprised, embarrassed, and excited all at the same time. After a moment of comprehending what he was asking her, a smile spread across her face and she hugged him. Ryouichi hugged her back and Yoshi just sat there, feeling awkward. They became quite enthralled with one another for a few minutes, leaving Yoshi to simply drink his tea and eat the biscuits on his plate. Eventually, they left and Ryouichi pulled his brother to the side for a moment.

"Thank you, Yoshi." He said. "If you hadn't told me that I dunno if I could've done it."

"Of course you could've." Yoshi smiled. "You didn't need me to give you an extra push. You could've done it without my help."

"Still," He continued, hugging him, "thank you."

"What's family for?" Yoshi said, hugging his brother back. "Now I'm sure Sumiko wants to spend the day with you."

"Probably!" He laughed. "I'll see you later then?"

Yoshi nodded and watched the two leave. He frowned for a moment and sighed. He hated to admit it but he was slightly envious of his brother. However, he also knew he'd one day find someone that meant a lot to him too. He was excited just thinking about it.