Konohagakure no Sato -- Sunday Early Evening

[intraspective]

Ino was just glad, all things considered, that the rain wasn't sheeting down on them and the sky was a brilliant red overhead with the sunset--there'd been no way to check that out before coming and umbrella's weren't really used much by, well, ninja.

Or by SOLDIER members, she was pretty sure, considering Zack still... didn't seem to own coat. It was cold, geez.

The forest rustled with the wind and the hard-packed dirt road they were on was clearly well used. Ino grinned over her shoulder at him. "It's just a bit further, and we'll be to the gates. You've got your papers on you, yeah?"

Because if not, they were going to have a problem. And Ino would kick Zack in the shins.

[NFB due to distance, and for the SOLDIER with her!]

Comments

[intraspective]

"Well," she laughed, locking her arms behind her back. "Maybe you forgot with all the bouncing you were doing?"

[puppy_fair]

"I made a point," Zack sniffed, "to do all of my packing before any bouncing that there was to be done."

That included materia, potions, ethers, armor, his sword, and a change of underwear or two. The essentials!

[intraspective]

Ino's own pack job had been pretty light as it was all stuffed into a pack that was half the size of a regular backpack and included about the same: weapons, as many kunai as she could stuff into it, shuriken, wire, explosive tags, bandages, soldier pills, blood pills, pain pills (not that she mistrusted the potions, but it was habit to pack her world's solutions as well), what potions she had, underwear (though probably a few more pairs than Zack had, geez) and a change of clothing.

What? They'd be fighting all break. No point in ruining half her wardrobe.

"Just checking! There's going to be Chuunin at the gates," Ino said, "that you'll see--they're the ones you give your papers too. ANBU are on watch always, but you ain't going to see them, just know they're there. This time of day there might be a bit of a backlog getting into the village--everyone coming home for the night who was out of the village on day trips and such."

[puppy_fair]

It was fortunate that, being in SOLDIER, Zack was already pretty used to red tape and high security. It was a pretty rare occasion that he ever saw access to any floor higher than the SOLDIER floor of the ShinRa building, after all.

"Backlog is totally fine," he replied, lifting his shoulders dismissively. "It can't be anywhere as bad as some of the lineups I've seen in Midgar, at any rate."

[intraspective]

"Probably not," she admitted as they turned a bend in the trail and the walls of the village came into view, rising up and up more than five, nearly ten stories up. All of it wood, so put together tightly that not a single chink or crack showed. Metal pipes ran up the walls at points, and over, to disappear into the village.

Right down the road they were on was the gates--wide open, the kanji for fire painted in scarlet on them and overhead the name of the village written out. In the middle of the frame was a symbol that Ino was pretty sure that Zack would recognize--it was on her headband, after all, the one she wore all the time around her waist--the Konoha leaf.

"Welcome," Ino said, as they fell into line--not so bad, just a few ahead of them, "to Konohagakure no Sato."

[puppy_fair]

The 'oooooooooo' that Zack vocalized really didn't do his opinion of the gates much justice, really, did it?

But there it was, an 'oooooooo.' Plain as day, while Zack proceeded to look up, impressed, at the gates before him.

"It kinda reminds me of a Wutai fort," he added, after a moment. "At least, from the outside."

[intraspective]

"You've said before that I kinda dress like a Wutaian?" Ino asked, grinning a bit at the 'oooooo'. "Am I saying that right? So I guess it makes sense that there'd be other similarities?"

[puppy_fair]

"You're saying it right," Zack agreed, "unless I've been saying it wrong all along. Now I'm kind of curious what else is similar. Though I have to admit, I don't really know as much about Wutai culture as I could."

Something to look into!

[intraspective]

Lines were dull, geez. But at least the company was awesome!

"What do you know 'bout Wutai culture?" Ino asked curiously, sensing an opening and not above exploiting it. "I can tell you what's not like here, for sure."

[puppy_fair]

"Well, your writing looks pretty similar," Zack noted, gesturing up at the kanji on the door, "but we use bits and pieces of that in Midgar, too, so that's probably not the best example."

He leaned his head back, looking up at the sky in thought.

"Your names sound about the same, too. And the architecture seems similar, from what I can see from here. Beyond that... I don't really know much. They've got a guardian deity, Leviathan, who's this, like, giant water serpent?"

[intraspective]

"Giant water serpent, huuuh?" Ino considered that as she bounced idly on her feet. "Don't got nothing like that at all--Konoha doesn't really got a major religion or anything, just the Will of Fire."

[puppy_fair]

"And I've never heard of anything like that in Wutai," Zack replied, shrugging. "So I guess that's something that we can scratch off the list."

A pause, for more consideration.

"... I think there are ninjas in Wutai?"

Which he would never have guessed, if not for the fact that he'd met Yuffie.

[intraspective]

"Really? In your world?" Ino blinked up at him. "Seriously?"

[puppy_fair]

"Sure!" Zack nodded, smiling a little more broadly as he looked back down at her. "Why wouldn't there be? One of them went to our school, actually. Yuffie? She's the one who gave me my Mug materia."

He was fond of his Mug materia. Punch things in the face! Take their stuff! Yeah!

[intraspective]

Ino had talked to Yuffie maybe once?

"I think I remember her," Ino said, humming thoughtfully. "We didn't really cross paths much, you know? But that's totally cool, just a bit--weird? That they've got similar stuff to my world and they have ninja too."

[puppy_fair]

"We've got similar stuff to other worlds, too," Zack noted. "I mean, cars and stuff, like the mainland off of Fandom, but then magic, which the mainland doesn't really have, you know? Maybe all kinds of worlds have different bits and pieces of all of the same things? It'd explain why we know the same language, at least."

[intraspective]

"True!" she laughed. "Though I speak what passes as Japanese back at Fandom too--most of my writing, people say, look a lot like that. Wonder if Wutai sounds the same? Do they got their own language too?"

[puppy_fair]

"They do," Zack agreed, nodding merrily. "I don't know any of it, though I think... Um."

He rummaged through his pocket for his phone, which had the ShinRa logo printed on one side, in kanji.

"Maybe you can read that? That's in Wutaian."

Because ShinRa was the sort of company that started a war with a nation, conquered them, and continued to write their logo in that country's native language, yes.

[intraspective]

ShinRa was a very creepy sort of company, really.

"If you didn't have that on your logo," she teased him, glancing at it. "I'd say you'd been sneaking stuff from here 'cause that's easily readable to me."

[puppy_fair]

"Creeeeepy," Zack laughed, looking at his phone, shaking his head, and then pocketing it again. "I can't read it, myself. But I guess someone in ShinRa must be able to. Does ShinRa sound like a Wutaian... Konoha-ian? Does it sound like that kind of name?"

Zack had no idea, here!

[intraspective]

She shrugged a bit as they neared the gate Chuunin. "It's not off-sounding?" Ino offered. "But I don't think I've heard anything like it, honest, from here."

[puppy_fair]

"That's fair," Zack laughed, shaking his head and peering up (up! up!) to get a better look at the gate as they got closer. He was going to have to pull his papers out, soon. "The President and his son don't really look like folks from Wutai typically do, anyhow."

[intraspective]

"What do they look like?" Ino asked interestedly.

Shush. It was totally an important question.

(And it really actually was, funnily enough.)

[puppy_fair]

"Actually, kinda..." Zack blinked. "You mean the President, or Wutaians in general?"

The president looked fat. That probably wasn't the answer that Ino was hoping for.

[intraspective]

No, no it was not.

She laughed and shook her head. "Nevermind," Ino said, since it was their turn now, with the Chuunin, who shot a rapid-fire question at her in her own language, not the one she'd been using with Zack.

"Yamanaka Ino," she answered, crisply. "Genin. 012604. We're expected."

A nod from the other Chuunin had the first asking a second question.

"Zack," she said lightly, "hand the nice man your papers."