Konohagakure no Sato, Saturday Afternoon (Fandom Time) / Feb. 15th (Konoha Time)

[intraspective]

Really, it had been a month and a half now and Ino had to admit that she was—feeling better. Between her father teaching Zack (and water walking had proved to be quite a hilarious thing to watch) and her father teaching her, she was feeling useful and busy without it being anything too taxing.

She hadn’t seen either of her previous teammates, which stung, but Ino stomped down firmly on that as she disentangled her mind from her father’s and ignored his look. It wasn’t the first time she’d avoided… whatever it was he’d wanted to talk about.

And she doubted it would be the last.

“That’s enough for now,” he said, after a moment. “How about you go and get some air?”

It was phrased as a suggestion, but Ino was well used to her father’s orders. With a quick kiss to his cheek, she left the room, went down the long, dark hall and out into the sunshine. It was a lovely day—February, already, which made her head hurt if she thought too hard about the days and how they related to Fandom—but, Ino thought, as she leaned against the balcony and pulled out her phone, hitting speed dial, maybe all that time had been what she’d needed.

And, across universes, her phone call reached…

[For ze raspberried one. Mwahaha. NFB.]

Comments

[thought-seeker.livejournal.com]

"Get the building off her first," Mui said, distractedly as the two children had latched on to her and she fell into a rapid-fire conversation in the same language as they were babbling in.

It was... possibly for the best that Zack couldn't understand her, here.

[puppy_fair]

Zack didn't need to be told twice. The rubble was deep, but nothing for SOLDIER. His sword was heavier than the broken pieces of the section of wall that had landed on her, and it was barely any effort at all to push it off of her, grab her body under the arms, and pull it out the rest of the way.

He was pointedly not looking at the sick way her head was lolling as he moved her. Couldn't handle that, on top of the rest.

One Phoenix Down. Just to get her pulse back. Just to give her a fighting chance. His hands were shaking as he pulled it from his pocket, prayed to any god that would listen for this to work here, as it did in Gaia. And then, Curaga.

... This was a very well lit corner of the street, between the fire, the feathers, and the healing spell that Zack had cast.

But it wasn't nothing.

Zack didn't think he could handle doing nothing anymore.

[thought-seeker.livejournal.com]

Mui ignored his movements, his lights, all her attention focused on the children and sorting out their story, what had happened, why hadn't been in school--sick, she decided, feeling the fever in their skins--and reassuring them, in her own way.

"You are children of Konoha," Mui told them, her voice low and, perhaps, unexpectedly gentle. Silk over steel. "Stop crying and hold your heads up. Konoha looks after her own."

As, behind them, their mother stirred...

[puppy_fair]

Zack loosed a thankful breath, and then rummaged through his pockets again, pulling out a Potion.

"Easy," he murmured, not knowing for the life of him if the woman would even understand what he was saying. "Slow breaths. Try to drink this?"

It tasted like ass. But it would take care of the last bits of stiffness and bruising that his Curaga hadn't quite taken care of.

"We need to get out of here, quickly. Drink."

[thought-seeker.livejournal.com]

Mui smiled faintly as the children stared with big, hopeful eyes as their mother drank the offered--thing.

Another explosion rocked the ground around them, and Mui reached to steady one of the children.

"We have to move," she said, studying the woman before repeating it once more, in their first language. The woman nodded and began, moving carefully and as if she couldn't believe it, getting up.

[puppy_fair]

Zack was smiling. Holding his hand out to help the woman to her feet, making certain that she was steady on them, and then nodded toward the monument. That much, he knew. Get that far, figure things out from there.

Try to ignore the horrors around him. He wasn't doing so well at that part.

But once he was certain that nobody in their little party was in the process of falling over, at least he was moving forward again.

His smile was short-lived as the horrors going on around him sank in again. Even Zack couldn't smile through this.