Reno's (& Elena's) place, Edge, Gaia, Wednesday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino would be lying if she claimed that she hadn't told Reno the wrong time to expect her.

So she had absolutely no plans to actually let anyone know about that tiny insignificant fact. Especially not Reno. Fully armed and wearing leggings and a turtleneck rather than anything like she fought in at home, but that she'd found more comfy for dealing with Midgar's weather, and so had figured the same would apply roughly to Edge's weather, Ino's gaze when she stepped through the portal was scrutinizing. (You try staying warm in the middle of winter in what basically amounts to a short skirt with slits clean up the sides, a tank top, and a bunch of bandages wrapped around your torso and see how long it takes you to find something warmer to wear.)

She had a bit of time to kill. A few hours before Reno would even think to wonder where she was.

Plenty of time to explore Edge on her own. Reno would… probably not approve. He didn't need to know. Making sure she knew which direction his apartment was in, Ino darted off on silent feet.

Edge was, she determined a few hours later, making her careful way to his place, a lot worse off than Reno had told her. Despite the fact that some of the areas she'd snooped through had made her, well, violently ill (Ino had not been prepared for the number of starving people, of homeless people, of hopeless dying people she'd seen living on the streets in conditions she'd only vaguely grasped before), Ino was tentatively calling her snooping a good idea.

Also, mints were amazing things. Shut up. She was a ninja and a Rookie. He absolutely didn't need to know she'd gotten sick over some of what she'd seen. Ino had no intentions of telling him anything at all about that. Need to know basis said he totally didn't need to know. She found the building he lived in and headed up the stairs exuding an air that said she totally belonged here no really.

So, it was a pale (but for the colour quickly pinched into her cheeks) and rather wide-eyed Rookie that rapped smartly on his door at exactly the time she'd told him she'd be there.

[For the Turk expecting her, zoto! NFB due to distance!]

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[intraspective]

"Hey!"

Unfair! Unfair! Augh!

Ino flung herself after him, channelling chakra to her feet to bump her speed up faster than she could go without it (cheating, yes, but it was cheating for a good cause) and ran, hair streaming out behind her.

She wasn't as fast as him, but Ino was determined to prove she wasn't slow either.

[raspberryturk]

And that was good enough for Reno! All he really cared about was that his Rookies were putting forth their best effort, which was part of the reason that he challenged them this way, anyhow.

He dodged sideways to avoid tripping over some guy who was sleeping on a curb, and then he jumped to keep from bowling over some old lady, and, when he could have just as easily sidestepped to get around that building, there, he was going to have to scramble straight up the wall and over.

He wasn't showing off at all, honest.

[intraspective]

He seriously was.

Ino was, for the moment, less concerned with the showing off and more concerned with the keeping up as much as possible bit.

Which was, she supposed, darting around two men (talking? arguing? low voices anyway), it's own way of showing off.

See? See? She wasn't worthless!

And, well, it was fun.

[raspberryturk]

Of course it was fun! Reno wouldn't be racing her if he didn't think it would be fun!

Probably!

He pulled on ahead, putting on another burst of speed until he was veering quite out of sight.

About fifteen seconds later, Ino may or may not notice him casually propped up against that wall around that corner there, enjoying a smoke.

Now he was showing off.

[intraspective]

Ugh ugh ugh.

When Ino got there--not that long after! Maybe a minute or so!--she was bright-eyed and not breathing hard.

Please, like she'd be breathing hard after three minutes of running. Asuma-sensei would kill her if she got that badly out of shape.

"Smokin' kills your lungs," she said idly, wandering over to him. Trying not to sulk about her loss too obviously.

[raspberryturk]

Reno exhaled lazily, and then stubbed his cigarette out on the side of the building, pocketing the rest for later.

Yes, the butts were nasty when you lit them a second time. No, he didn't care. He was living on a budget, here.

"No Turk's ever lived long enough for that to be an issue, Rookie. I ain't about to start givin' a shit now, yo."

[intraspective]

She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Aren't sayin' you ought to stop or nothing," Ino pointed out. "Asuma-sensei smokes, in fact, and he's a lot older than you."

A beat.

"And more badass."

Braaat.

[raspberryturk]

"Well," Reno mused, seemingly unbothered by this revelation. "I guess someone's gotta be. Maybe he just ripened into it, yo. I'll catch up if I ever live past 25."

Which he couldn't see happening, but he didn't seem too terribly torn up about that.

"You ready to hunt down some worms, Rookie?"

[intraspective]

"Worms!" she said, way too perkily. Because, honestly, she didn't have much to say about expecting an early death thing.

Really, as far as her world was concerned, Ino was already more than half-way through her average life-expectancy as an active shinobi. Dying young was... well.

Was.

"And no dying," she added, "because then you'd have Rookies with no Renos and how would that work?"

There. Hmph. She could say that.

[raspberryturk]

"If you were a Turk, that'd just mean you'd be gettin' a promotion," Reno said, shrugging. He let his baton drop from his sleeve, catching it again in his hand before giving it a casual tap against his shoulder.

And then he was going to saunter along, looking around for signs of monsters.

"Ain't all that complicated with us, yo."

[intraspective]

"You're an idiot, Reno," Ino informed him blandly.

Because, well. Way to miss the point, much?

Her gaze was sharp and looking for monsters but Ino wasn't entirely sure what to look for with worms or nothing so...

Well, she could find Fly Eyes. And Hell Houses. And things like that.

Worms, though? Nope.

[raspberryturk]

Worms were easy to hunt down, really. Just look for slithery-looking tracks in the sand. Or people screaming and running the opposite direction. That was always useful.

"Yeah. But I'm a lovable idiot," Reno grinned. So far, there was a deficit of screaming, running people, and so he was looking downward to see if the dirt had been stirred up lately.

[intraspective]

"Mako's a lovable idiot," she retorted, copying him and looking at the ground, searching for, well, anything interesting. "Not you. For one, you're far less cuddly."

[raspberryturk]

"I can be cuddly when I wanna be!"

Cuddly like a porcupine, sure. Cuddly like a miniature Behemoth with less terrifying teeth, certainly. Cuddly like a--

"Worm!"

Up ahead. There were two of them, actually, just barely visible around the other side of a half-finished building project that would probably never see completion.

[intraspective]

Ino's nose wrinkled slightly as she took in the size of the suckers. Sigh, worms.

Giant freakin' worms.

For all of that, she bounced on the balls of her feet, tilting her head at him. She could go fight? Pleaaase?

Ignore the way she was already oh so sneakily going closer. Ew. They were uuugly.

[raspberryturk]

Well, it wasn't as though worms had been bred through the ages for their charming good looks, or anything.

Worms were worms, no matter how you cut it, really.

Reno gave her a grin and a shrug, and then waved a hand dismissively toward the monsters.

"Go on, Rookie. Have a ball, yo."

[intraspective]

She flashed him a sharp-edged grin and darted forward to initiate combat.

And started it off with a quick Thunder at them. What? Thunder was always a good way to start things off. Especially when she was going to have to deal with them without Zack around to hack at the things while she darted in and out of the fray.

The worms, of course, weren't defenceless and Ino danced backwards as one tried to bite her and the other spat silk-webbing at her. Hahaha, no, Ino was pretty sure that'd inflict something on her and had no intentions of getting hit. You know, not right away.

If only because Reno would laugh his ass off at her.

A pair of kunai, a quick barrel roll (shamelessly copied from Zack and Ino was keeping it forever because it rocked), and then?

Another Thunder!

... This could go on awhile.

[raspberryturk]

It really could. Reno was almost certain that the things would both be dead and looted by now if he'd been the one going up against them.

But he wasn't. And he was going to let the Rookie do her thing, arms crossed over his chest, eyebrow raised. He wanted to see how strong she was, what she knew.

The barrel roll was a pretty clear indicator of the fact that she'd been out and about with Zack on more than on occasion. But a slight twitch of his eyebrow was the only reaction that it was going to get out of him.

[intraspective]

Well, she knew enough to attack from behind too?

Which was why Ino was making sure that, when she wasn't shooting Thunder at them (trickier than she'd thought when they kept trying to nail her with that webbing), she was doing her best to keep behind them.

... Which would be easier if there weren't two of them. But she'd deal.

And slowly pick away at them. Eventually they'd die, right?

The kick she gave one of the Worms was particularly vicious after it managed to bite her. Which, because she'd gotten more interested in kicking the stupid thing meant the other Worm was free to nail her with the webbing.

Freakin' Stun.

When she got out of it? They were going down. Ino fought against the status effect, eyes narrowed at the Worms.

[raspberryturk]

And Reno... Yawned.

Yes, he was so very helpful. But he wasn't about to make any move to intervene until Ino actually seemed to be in some serious sort of trouble.

That, right there? Where that worm was moving in with its gaping maw en route to Ino's face? That seemed like a good time to step in. Not by attacking the worm, no. By tossing a Remedy at Ino. Let her get herself out of that mess.

Reno understood pride, after all.

[intraspective]

Oh. Well. She was oh so very sorry that she was boring him. It wasn't like she was anywhere near his level or nothing, right?

Totally a failing on her part. Absolutely.

The kick Ino gave the worm, once the Remedy kicked in, was fuelled by her irritation at the worm. At the Stun. At Reno who was yawning.

AUGH.

She put a bit of distance between her and the worms--carefully out of range of more Stun-inducing silk--and smashed Thunder at them. Once. Twice.

Well, that was one worm down.

The other one was getting close enough, though, that getting trapped again was a possibility (she was in range, oh no!) so Ino flung herself into another barrel roll and then darted behind the worm.

She could totally kick and stab it to death. Eventually. It would just not be as fast as using Thunder. ... In a way, however, immensely more satisfying.

[raspberryturk]

And now, Reno was leaning back against another nearby wall, arms crossed over his chest, an eyebrow arched critically as he watched.

So far as the local monsters typically went, these ones were fairly high-levelled. Ino was holding her own against what had, a moment ago, been a pair of them.

Somebody was lying when she said that she was just training with her materia around Fandom Island. Reno hadn't been able to make that much progress playing with his materia on Fandom Island. Because opportunities to play with materia on Fandom Island were few and very, very far between.

"One of these days," Reno mused once it looked like the worm was about to bite the dust, "I'm gonna have to take you out past Kalm. Introduce you to the Midgar Zolom, zoto."

[intraspective]

She was a lying liar who lied, yes.

Was he really surprised?

A few more kicks and the worm was toast. Ha.

Ino scooped up her loot and Gil as the worm faded from existence and glanced at him. "Midgar Zolom? Some kind a worm?"

[raspberryturk]

"With a reputation for killin' anyone and everyone who crosses its swamp on foot," Reno agreed, smirking faintly. "It's gotta be at least fifty meters long, maybe longer. Looks like someone let a cobra get into the steroids, yo."

Also, it had a reputation for eating people. And casting really, really, really nasty spells. Pleasant sucker, that Zolom.

[intraspective]

"How 'bout no way in hell?" Ino asked, staring at him. "I like living, keep up, geez."