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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[And here we are - a spot where the branches thicken like a maze on his side. Usually a bother, here it gives him a method to condition himself to running barefoot, and gain speed.]

[Meanwhile, on her side, the gaps between the trees broaden. Katara is required to take longer and longer jumps. But that's okay, because she uses each jump to build momentum until by the last one she's practically flying.

He might hear her laugh.

Because it just feels that good.]

[At least she's feeling better. That was the whole point of this.

So he won't feel bad at all when he reaches the end of the branch maze and takes a flying leap ahead, no longer hampered.]

I can't let a girl beat me, you know.

Who needs you to let me beat you.

[It's not going to be so easy. She didn't take this route just because she liked the scenery. There's a tree just up ahead with an over-arching branch which if she takes - just so - will land her directly in his path.]

That kind of victory is no win at all.

You're right.

[He trains here too! Expecting it, right as she jumps he drops down, to swing under her and back up in the lead.]

But it seemed like the nice thing to say.

Please.

[Zip, zig, zag, to the side.]

If that was you being nice, you'd never get sent on diplomacy missions.

[AND SO, it continued, with each of them stealing the lead from each other, until it ended in a breathless tie at the edge of the forest.]

[Timeskips are so tiring. He's going to flop down on his back in the grass now, arching his back automatic to protect the wings.]

[Katara has no problem following suit.]

It's been a long time since I just raced.

[A child's game.]

Not many people here know how to make it good like that.

[Running on the ground, gosh. What's up with that?]

Sucks to be them.

[To be her. Right?

Ha.

She just sighs lightly, tilts her head back and closes her eyes as her breathing slowly returns to normal.]

Eh. They have their own treasured traditions.

[Eh. She's not too fussed, really. The run felt good, and Katara is expert at living in the moment.]

True enough. But it's not the same as a good run.

[He smiles (again), definitely agreeing with that. Despite his lazy personality, he enjoys running.]

[She closes her eyes, tilts her face to the sun, and listens.

She's Katara of the hidden village of the Leaf. And she can hear a bug crawling on a blade of grass a few inches away, she can feel the beating of her heart, hear her breathing...

She's Katara of the hidden village of the leaf, and to her left approximately two and a half feet away, she can hear a comrade breathing, and the sound of a comrade's breath is as precious as one's own - it's the sound of life.

And she listens.]

Did you ever play Ninja, back in the Academy?

[A silly game, that naturally all the little boys loved. Like tag, with cardboard shuriken.]

[Heh.

She keeps her eyes shut as she speaks.]

I started playing with Teo when he began his first year. He would get annoyed, because two years is a big difference in terms of dexterity, but I insisted and going and playing anyway.

[Ha, it would figure.]

Bet all the other boys were thrilled.

[But if she wasn't in the same class, as he suspects, maybe she wasn't an annoying fangirl. Every year had them, but none quite as bad as his.]

[Her tone turns wry.]

They tried to lose me in the woods - it was terrible.

[...speaking of terrible.]

So one day I hid.

[He shifts his hand behind his head, arching his neck to look backwards at her.]

It was incredibly boring, but before long they all started looking for me. I could hear them, but I stayed hidden, so they eventually had to go back and tell our mom who freaked out. I was found by some chunin...

[She didn't really remember who.]

We got the beatings of our lives. But afterwards, everyone wanted me on their team because they learned I would be good for sneak attacks.

[So it was all worth it, clearly.]

Tch. I see kids were as dumb about as they were when Chouji and I used to play.

[Chouji's name causes her eyes to open.]

Kids are like that.

[He lays flat again, nodding. Acknowledging the statement as truth.]

We stopped playing before our second year because it was dumb. But before that, my favorite part of the game was when you got captured.

[Opposite point of the game, but whatever.]

[Heh.]

So you'd get to stop running?

That's half of it. [And can't help grinning.] The bigger half of it, yeah.

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