markofthebrave | [ Action ] .061

[ Action ] .061

[Days 1-2]
[The experiment catches up with Katara slowly - first through teleportation, then through the advent of (thought bubbles)]

[Day 3]
Meet the bitty:

[She's been in Luceti for two years now, along with her much older brother Sokka. She's totally adapted and probably playing hide-and-seek. Warning: She's also still teleporting.]

[Days 4-6]
[More thought bubbles. More transportation. Katara is starting to get very tired and frustrated at this point due to lack of sleep and various emotional issues. She keeps popping up in the most inconvenient places! Sorry about that...]

[Days 7-8]
[Today, Katara woke up a bit different: she has been AU'd to another world, that of the Konoha ninja (complete with forehead protector!). She chalks waking up in a strange bedroom to the experiment that's been going on the past couple of days and ninja!vanishes into the dawn - she'll apologize later. She'll do her best to move back in to her regular apartment and keep to her regular schedule - a few classes at school (despite having told Raine she would not be in attendance that week - and depending on if school is in session) - practice in the forest, climbing on some trees; and making dinner on Floor 8 of Community Building 1, where she has claimed the sole empty apartment.

The next day, she decides to take a break from her regular training to practice an art more specific to kunoichi: Ikebana. At around six in the evening, Katara heads down to the flower shop. After gathering her materials, and dressing for the occasion, Katara heads out behind her apartment complex to make the best use of the natural light to form her arrangements.]

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[Meanwhile, Katara's sneaking her way upstairs - or well, not sneaking anymore. She does live here, after all. Despite the whole pants-and-shirt combination, she's also sporting a distinctly different hair accessory.]

[He almost doesn't recognize. That he doesn't is what makes him look twice, actually - he memorizes the faces of the regular people who come through here, so a new one warrants attention.

This is him nearly passing her on the stairs, and then this is him double-taking.]

[Come on, man, just because regular!Katara hasn't been there to visit in months doesn't mean you shouldn't recognize her! Or is the outfit really that big of a change? If it is... this should be even better.

Katara can't help but notice the double-take, however she chooses to go the casual route, greeting Shikamaru as she normally would - with a two-fingered 'victory' sign and a signal word:] Yo.

...yo.

[Okay, working on not looking so stunned. Weird as it is, it's not the outfit that has his attention but her head.]

You have a forehead protector.

[...all right, that makes her stop.]

And you normally wouldn't feel the need to point that out.

[She doesn't like where this is heading.]

[This is like that time with Luffy, isn't it?

Have an exaggerated groan.] Normal is never normal enough around here.

[Sorry, she's of the Leaf. She's not about to let this go.

...although you technically have seniority, so... she's got to do this nicely.]

No, I guess not.

[Not like he was going to let it go - doing this nicely was his idea too.]

What's on your mind?

Right now I'm thinking about why you looked so surprised to see me - you know who I am, right?

It'd take a lobotomy for me to forget you, Katara.

[But this isn't you.]

I'm not Masaomi either. We should probably take this conversation out of the stairwell.

[She gives him a weird look. What does Masaomi have to do with stairwells, besides the fact that he's careless enough to talk in them?]

This is place is good with lobotomies.

[She tilted her head up to indicate the place they usually talked if they didn't need to be heard here.

...and then she realizes he might not remember it.]

Roof?

[That confused look was all he needed. So that didn't happen, huh?

He wonders what else didn't happen.]

Roof works.

[And being ninja, sometimes it's more fun to take the walls than the stairs, jumping off one to the other.]

[You do that, Shikamaru. Katara has some things to think about, so she'll just be taking the stairs.]

[Hmmm. He wonders if she realizes that was a test too.

In any case, he'll be waiting up here, hands in his pockets and leaning against an awning near the door. And there he thinks.]

[She did, in fact, realize that it was a test. And she didn't feel like playing. Katara glances at him and moves further towards the roof's edge - better wind coverage there.

She's going to wait for him to make the opening move.]

[He's too lazy, Katara, gosh.

Actually, it's more like his first move is using the silence against her. He knows there's probably a lot of questions on her mind, and this tactic would usually work...

How alike are they? This Katara and the one he knows. He thinks he can proceed better, knowing that.]

[...7...6...5...4...3...2...]

You wanted to talk about something?

[He breathes out. There's that, at least.]

Yes and no. [Still barefoot, he scratches an ankle with his toes before looking over at her.] How have the last few days gone for you?

[...ugh.]

What happened to your shoes?

[If you're going to beat around the bush, she can too.]

[Actually it was serious. He wants to know her version of events! But he can get them back to that.]

No idea. [He runs a hand through the back of his hair, unimpressed.] Got stuck without 'em for a few days, and now they're missing in action. It's troublesome.

[And she doesn't feel like disclosing that information when, for all she knows, she's talking to a perfect stranger. D8]

What were you doing without shoes?

[Good girl. That's the ninja way.]

Following irritating people while they made up their minds.

[She glances out over the treetops.]

Sounds troublesome.

Like you wouldn't believe.

[People kept mistaking him for a stripper. DX]

Any better luck?

Teleporting's been pretty common. It's annoying, but it's not too hard to ground myself and get back.

[You know. She's not sure how much more dancing around she can do with him. She doesn't play these games with comrades, but finding out... wasn't something she particularly wanted to do. But what she did want to find out was... who she was talking to.

So it might be worth the risk of an information drop.

Heck, she'll take it.]

It's not much worse than a transportation jutsu, except I don't know when it'll happen. I had the thought bubbles for a little while too - but you knew that.

[Right?]

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