Room 504, Friday Evening

[intraspective]

After talking to Hurley, Ino was glad to wander back to the room she shared with Zack—that was still weird to her, that she couldn’t say it was just her room anymore—and collapse on her bed.

Yay. A week gone by and she hadn’t—been weird and issuey at people other than... well, Bod had gotten a bit, but he hadn’t seemed to care and Ino just... wasn’t going to push that. All right, fine, and so on. She was fine.

Repression was probably bad, yes. Ino closed her eyes briefly, then sat up and stared at the open door. She should shut it. But that seemed like far too much work and instead she fumbled for one of her notebooks. A pen.

If she was thinking, she didn’t have to think.

It made sense to her.

[Open door, open post.]

Comments

[intraspective]

"I did." Ino looked up at Triela. "I'd do it again if it meant that. But it's still--it--they called me traitor."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"And are you?" Somehow Triela doubted that Ino could even contemplate treachery. It just... well, it wasn't Ino.

[intraspective]

"My sensei's last order was for me to look after them. I did."

She shook her head.

"I'm--not a traitor. Not by my village. But by them..."

Maybe she was.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela lifted an eyebrow. "Would going over the details help, or..."

She rather suspected that Ino's teammates, well, former teammates, were just being idiots about whatever was going on. Ino didn't betray people she cared about.

At least not without an extremely compelling reason like orders from higher-up.

[intraspective]

"We were sent out after two extremely dangerous targets," she recited. "Asuma-sensei was on one squad, with one of my teammates, I and another were on a different squad. Asuma-sensei's team found the targets, called for back up and engaged. We got there too late. I--I couldn't heal him."

"They wanted revenge. I said I was in." Ino's eyes were steady. "And then I took the whole plan to Hokage-sama and ratted them out to keep them alive."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Did the plan have any chance of success?" Triela asked. Not that that would justify things, she knew. If they got shut down, it was almost certainly because the people in charge didn't think that whatever might be gained was worth risking three operatives.

[intraspective]

"A slim chance," she admitted. "But much like... like a snowball's chance in hell."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"And chances of surviving the attempt?"

[intraspective]

"Worse than that, in my estimation," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Not impossible but not really--possible, either."

Two Chuunin and one Genin? Against two S-Class criminals?

... Yeah.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Well, then." Triela nodded as she went over that information in her head.

"You kept them alive," she repeated herself. But this time there was no mistaking the approval in her tone. Triela, at least, thought Ino had done precisely the right thing.

[intraspective]

Her lips twisted.

"Have you ever felt like doing the right thing was a betrayal anyway?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela considered that, then shook her head.

"No. Sorry. The Conditioning..." Well, it made a lot of things easier. At least... it did when it came time to live with the decisions you made. Even if the consequences of those decisions were less than optimal.

[intraspective]

Ino nodded, holding back a sigh.

"I know," she said. "But that's what I feel like. There's no solution."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Emotions are difficult to deal with." Triela remembered that week where her hormones had been running rampant and suppressed a shudder. "The Conditioning makes things so much easier."

Freedom was such a small price to pay for clear purpose and peace of mind, wasn't it?

[intraspective]

Ino kept her shudder carefully masked at that.

"I just... I don't know what I'm going to do, you know?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Do?" Triela asked. "What you always do." Right?

"Live. Train." She smiled a bit. "Remember that people here care about you, too. One person in particular." She shot a pointed glance at the closet full of Zack's things.

[intraspective]

A smile touched her lips but not her eyes.

"I destabilize without...," she trailed, figuring Triela would get it.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela nodded. It was another one of the ways they were so alike.

"You'll manage." What choice did she have, right?

[intraspective]

Ino tried another smile.

"You think so, huh?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Don't you always?" Triela asked with a slight smile of her own. She reached out toward Ino's shoulder for what she hoped was an encouraging touch. "Don't we both always?"

So far, at least.

[intraspective]

"We're tough, right?" She leaned into the touch. "We can do anything."

She didn't really sound like she believed it, not right that second, but Ino was trying.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Well," Triela allowed with a chuckle, "maybe not anything. Like, I still can't wear a dress without feeling weird." Much less a bikini.

[intraspective]

"But dresses are cute," Ino said, seizing the lighter topic gratefully. "And fun!"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"They're..." Triela trailed off. "I prefer suits."

Which was habit as much as anything. Triela hated changes to her routine.

[intraspective]

"Suits can be cute too," she said thoughtfully. "We could get you a girl-suit, all pretty colours and with funky bows."