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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[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?]

Yeah. Saw 'em by the river. Glad we're both rid of them, honestly. Reading thoughts is best left in the hands of a Yamanaka.

[That's his own info drop. He recognizes what she's doing - even if it's not her he's used to seeing it from - and decides he may as well go for a broke.

Talking about clan specialties isn't something he'd do with with anyone he's not comfortable with, especially those of his teammate's. He'd only do so with a close comrade.

He considers Katara one of those, shinobi or not.]

[Something in her posture subtly relaxes.]

Especially since they've got better control than that.

[But despite the relaxation in her stance remaining unchanged, the look Katara gives him is still mildly assessing. So they are on good terms, on a certain level of trust - that doesn't explain the shock he saw at her forehead protector.

Careful. How could she--ah.]

But it was interesting to see home from another perspective.

[...]

My memory is eidetic.

[...which means, of course, that what he chose to show her was accurate in its representation - but it didn't change her point, that she was still seeing it from his mind, from his perspective, whereas her own was colored with memories of her childhood and her own thoughts and feelings...

Mildly:]

I didn't know that, but I'm not that surprised. It makes sense, the way you were able to easily memorize just where gopher holes are in a field.

[He's oddly pleased that that still happened.]

What was that spar like, for you?

[And here they're at the heart of it.]

For me?

Yeah.

[No specifics. He's not sure what she'd refuse to offer him, so he'll let her set the boundaries.]

It was a good fight.

[He remembers it, obviously, since he referred to it as 'that spar' - but he's looking for her specific impressions? He was trying to align their experiences.]

You practically killed me with some of your explosive tags, but I nearly got you when I used a flash bomb. You laughed.

[Shikamaru would not have warned ninja!Katara about gopher holes, and Katara had seen his fight against Temari anyway. She flashed a grin.]

I think the most frustrating thing about that was I knew what you were doing and you got me anyway.

[He may be grinning again when she brings up that flash bomb.]

Very similarly, then.

[The smirk fades some.] Only I recall you not knowing. Surprise was part of the game plan.

Edited 2012-06-04 18:15 (UTC)

[...and there we have it.

Her brows come together.]

No one who saw you at the chunin exams could have missed what you were up to once they got the lay of the land.

[...she might be being too generous with 'no one,' but another similarity between Kataras is that she tends to assume high things of those around her.]

[No more beating around the bush. Friends deserve honesty. They can work this out from there.]

I didn't meet you until Luceti.

[Quietly. Hands in his pockets.]

[Katara offers him a small smile.]

I was afraid you were going to say something like that.

Always hated fulfilling expectations.

[His way of saying sorry.]

[She looks out over the trees.]

I guess I'll check the journals later. If it's like any of the other ones, and the way everything else is repeating is a good indication of that, nothing in there will have changed.

[Her tone is very factual, if soft. And - no offense - it's just that she'd prefer some independent collaboration to what you're saying. There is very little hint of her emotions on her face, or in her posture. She's not challenging him - he remembers Konoha, as she remembers Konoha; he remembers shared situations of their time in Luceti - it's more logical to assume that she was the one affected, though accepting that was not as smooth and clear cut as logic. She felt strangely adrift.]

[He nearly double-takes again. That is such a shinobi way of handling things. If it were the Katara he's used to, he'd be so proud... hell, even with this one, he is.

This conversation is so easy. He feels guilty, finding relief in that.]

Regardless of that, and whether or not I know you... [He steps closer now.] We're comrades now.

[That's... harder to take well. It's a bit like a hot hammer hitting metal, actually, sudden emotion of loyalty and loss smiting years of training and the desire to prove herself--

Her expression turns downwards, and when she speaks her words are hard, though the tone is soft - and if one listens very closely, thick with emotion.]

I appreciate the sentiment, but you can't be comrades with a delusion.

[She is steeling herself for what she will find... for the nature of who it is that she is.]

If you believe that, then you may as well hand over your forehead protector.

[Saying this, he even puts his hand out for it.]

[Her response is automatic, and it flares hot. Her head snaps up, her posture shifts, and she leans towards him.]

I'll hand it over when you pry it off my cold, dead body!

Edited 2012-06-05 05:25 (UTC)

Then we are comrades.

[He puts his hand down slowly.]

And nothing else anyone has to say will change that. Even you.

[She stared at him hard for a long moment.

That flare of rage, of fierce devotion and pride, has pushed her over the edge of her grief and enabled her to consider this from different angles.

What if it had been someone else, wearing this?

Her gaze narrowed, past experiences with 'other' selves flickering through her mind until she comes to a decision.

And she holds out her hand to him, her eyes still slightly narrowed, her gaze intent.]

Comrades.

[A reaffirmation, acknowledgement, and decision.]

Edited 2012-06-05 05:37 (UTC)

[He made the same promise to Luffy. There's no way he wouldn't with her.]

Comrades.

[He slaps her open palm, then holds his fist out for a fistbump.]

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