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

[puppy_fair]

"I don't have a problem with it at all," Zack replied, smiling and giving his shoulders a shrug. He wasn't painfully oblivious, no. But it was possibly a near thing. "If I'm going to be here for a few days, they might as well put me to work, right?"

Dooooomed.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Ino whimpered nearly inaudibly as her dad shoved her over to the stairs and Zack wrote his own death certificate.

"I'll take you up on that," Inoichi said, grinning a grin that looked real (and was, about half or so). "You know anything about flowers?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack chewed on his lip thoughtfully, and then he shrugged again.

"Not much," he confessed, feeling a little sheepish, then. "The plants are all pretty different, where I'm from. But I'm always willing to learn?"

For the record, Zack had a lot to learn.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Inoichi grabbed up a broom from where he'd laid it. "No time like the present to learn then," he said casually, leaping over the counter to go and lock the doors of the shop, and tossing the broom in Zack's general direction as he did so. "Sweeping first."

Zack could sweep, he could talk. It was totally a fair division of labour.

[puppy_fair]

Zack caught the broom, gave it a weird little look, and then brushed it off and got right to sweeping. There were totally worse things he could have been told to do, after all. And it kept him moving!

Which was a good thing. Because while Ino's father spoke, it probably would have been bad form for him to start doing anxious squats.

"Sweeping first," he agreed. "At least that, I don't need any kind of special knowledge for."

Sweep, Zack! Sweep like the oblivious puppy that you are!

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

"Most flowers you only need to care for them," Inoichi said, hopping over the counter again and pulling out the till to begin the cashing out. "Once you know the basics to care for their physical needs, it's a matter of treating them well."

"Flowers are a bit like people, that way. They know when they're cared for and respond to that."

[puppy_fair]

Zack bobbed his head agreeably as Inoichi spoke, still smiling brightly.

Still oblivious to any underlying hints happening, here.

"You know, that makes perfect sense, really. I wouldn't want to treat a person badly, and a flower is a living thing, too..." Suddenly, the notion of people talking to plants seemed a little less crazy. Huh.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Inoichi wondered, idly, just how long this boy, this stranger, was going to be oblivious. When Ino had said she was bringing a friend--a boy, even--home, Inoichi had been resigned to something like a slightly more grown up (and loyal) sort of guy like the Uchiha Ino had been into in the Academy.

So far... Zack was about as far from that as possible. It still didn't excuse him from playing around with Ino, but in that case, every boy ever was doomed.

So while it was disconcerting to know his daughter's tastes had changed... Well, making minor adjustments to the plan wasn't hard at all.

"Just so," Inoichi answered easily, eyes half on the boy and half on counting out the till. "And some plants do better in different environments, it's true as well."

Some plants, some daughters--Inoichi was still reserving judgment on if it had been a good idea to send Ino to that school of hers years ago. That wasn't, of course, what he wanted to hear about from Zack, mind.

[puppy_fair]

Zack was very dutifully sweeping the floor, now, and glancing up at Inoichi now and then while the man spoke. There was something behind those words, but if Ino's father wanted him to catch on to something and react to it outright, then wiggling in sideways wasn't the way to go about it.

Zack tended to give what he got.

"But people can adapt," he offered, in a tone that would be wary if he wasn't bent on keeping up that chipper, oblivious outer visage. "You can't take a lily from a rainforest, stick it someplace with dead soil, and then expect it to make the world around it work the way it needs to."

He was thinking of Midgar. Of Midgar, and of the people in it, just as much as the lack of plants, yes.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

That was an interesting answer. Inoichi idly raised his estimation of the boy's intelligence a few notches.

For the moment: "You don't think plants can adapt?"

He'd get there, in his own time.

[puppy_fair]

Zack offered Inoichi a wry smile, then.

"The city I live in when I'm not at school has no plants in it at all," he explained. "Not even weeds will grow in the soil, there, no matter what people try. But the city itself is thriving, full of people from all corners of The Planet. You can really get a feel for human potential in a place like that."

A pause.

"But not so much, for the potential of plants."

Sure, he'd grown up in Gongaga, which was surrounded by forest, but that didn't mean he'd necessarily been paying close attention.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

He laughed.

"Plants don't do so well when it's just either-or but they can withstand a great deal more punishment from the climate's variations and weather than people give them credit for."

Not all plants, of course, were equal but Inoichi was rather certain that the boy didn't know enough about them to bother going into the specifics of what a plant could and couldn't take and the whys of that.

"What sort of potential do you think your city brings out in people?"

[puppy_fair]

If Zack had known that there was going to be an exam, he might have studied before winter vacation. As it stood, he sort of hesitated before pressing on with more words, fairly certain that this was leading somewhere.

"Well, the city is... You'd have to see it. It's kind of more like nine cities that grew together, and then doubled in size, and then they added a top floor," he explained. "So you get people from all walks of life, from merchants to SOLDIERs to businessmen, all pushing as hard as they can to be the best. In a place like that, you have to be, or else you get left behind."

Zack Fair: Not a fan of being left behind.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Inoichi was being nice! In his opinion. His daughter and his wife would probably disagree.

Well, that was one question answered either way. Inoichi could leave that for the moment.

He gave an easy shrug, then switched topics entirely. "How'd you and Ino meet anyway, she goes on terrible tangents and misses giving the whole point in her letters."

And Inoichi loved those letters to death, no lie. He just wasn't going to mention that to Zack.

[puppy_fair]

There were a few stray petals that had found their way to the floor over there, and so Zack was going to put forth his best effort to sweep that corner without seeming rude.

"I think we've had a few classes together, but we didn't really start hanging out until a while after I stepped up to take a leading position in the island reserves group," Zack mused, thinking on it. Ino had seemed kind of... put off by him, for a while there. "Turns out, we share a lot of the same ideas about getting the job done, even if a lot of people on the island think it's weird that people our age are fighters."

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

"Mmm," he said, hiding a bit of a smile at that. "Ino's mentioned that it's different in that regard."

Long long ranting letters about this. Or phone calls.

He judged the conversation for a moment. "I'm not going to bite," Inoichi finally settled on.

[puppy_fair]

"What?" Zack blinked up at that, honestly a little stunned by the statement. Not many people managed to actually pick out Zack's more carefully-hidden awkward moments. He offered up a slightly hesitant smile at that, and then stopped sweeping. "Sorry. I guess I'm not really used to dealing with... parents."

He'd paused, there. He didn't mean to, but for a moment he could remember perfectly every last detail of Angeal's mother's place, her sitting at her kitchen table, trying to look so proud...

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

He'd been an ANBU member longer than Zack had been alive. If there was anything Inoichi knew, it was body language and how the mind worked.

Working for the Torture and Interrogation Branch made sure of that.

"Ain't going to bite over that either," he said, deliberately adopting a more casual sort of tone. And considered what he wanted to know.

And opted for blunt. (It ran in the family.)

"Ino likes you, boy. I'm her dad--it's my responsibility to make sure she doesn't like anyone who is bad for her." Which was a tougher job than usual what with her living at a boarding school... "So, since you seem like the sort that prefers honesty--what business do you have with her?"

It was less blunt than 'what are your intentions', but.

[puppy_fair]

"Business?" Oh.

Oh. Zack's ears were going to start to turn a shade of pink as he slowly started to piece together what Ino's father was getting at, here.

"We're just friends, honest. I mean, we're good friends, but I'm not going to, uh. Try to. Um." Zack's honestly was, alas, hindered terribly by his inability to just babble outright about sex, yes. But that on its own was probably reassuring, right?

Excuse Zack while he fidgets relentlessly and turns progressive shades of pink.

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

It was a little reassuring. Inoichi did know his daughter after all.

On the other hand...

"My daughter," he said dryly, "is able to make up her own mind when it comes to her body. It's her heart I'm more concerned about. Feelings, boy. Not your dick."

[puppy_fair]

Aaaand now Zack was contemplating the positives and negatives of crawling under a flower pot to die of absolute mortification.

"Feelings?" He was not blushing even more now, no, that was totally a trick of the light. "Friends. I mean, I wouldn't ever want to do anything to hurt her, though. She means more-"

He kind of tapered off, wide-eyed. And then pulled in a deep breath and shrugged while the blush faded away. "She's been an amazing friend to me, especially these past few months. I'd do anything to make sure that she doesn't get hurt. It's the least I can do."

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Inoichi gave him a long look.

Then eyed the stairs knowingly for a second. He knew his daughter was listening to this conversation. She was getting better at hiding her presence but...

"She means more?"

[puppy_fair]

Open mouth. Close mouth. Open it again, with words just on the tip of his tongue. Close it again. This talking thing was hard. Especially when the name of the game was 'answer Ino's father in full and complete honesty.'

"... She gets it," Zack settled on, shrugging a little. "I don't think many people do."

[yamanaka-dad.livejournal.com]

Not at the school, Inoichi had heard all about that.

Maybe not in Zack's world either.

"Good enough," he said, flicking his ponytail back over his shoulder. "Just remember--Ino is my daughter, and if you hurt her..."

Well. Inoichi was a very scary bastard when he wanted to be. Zack would likely, in pure power be able to take him--but Inoichi wouldn't attach head on.

Zack's mind on the other hand...

[puppy_fair]

That earned a bit of a lopsided smile, and Zack nodded, looking back toward the floor. More petals, over there. He ought to sweep those up.

"I wouldn't do anything to hurt her, even without the threats," he said, lightly. And then the lopsided smile went a little more sincere, and he looked up again, leaning on the broom handle. "She's lucky to have a dad who cares enough to say something, though."