Apartment Above the Boards, Tuesday Morning

[intraspective]

Like Zack, Ino hadn't slept much after they'd sent Kueng home. There was a lot to think about and--in her case--a lot to read, look at, and watch. Tseng, Kueng's Tseng, had come through for her with every little bit of information he could scrape up that might change the future.

She'd wanted to go through it herself, first, before sending off copies to both the Tseng in her timeline (even in her head, she wasn't sure about calling him 'her' Tseng) and to Reno, with an email explaining what this information was and how she'd gotten it.

Then she settled in to review the information again.

Maybe it was morbid to watch herself die, but the fact she went out laughing, made her smile.

[Late post is late, but open, sure~]

Comments

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng was beginning to get the feeling that this smaller version of Iris was going to find him distinctly disappointing.

"I cannot." Hell, he wasn't entirely certain the Reno that did belong here could. That other one... that strange, older, more petulant one... could do things that didn't entirely make sense. "I can, however, use a door. Follow me."

[intraspective]

When she wasn't tiny, Ino could run up buildings too.

She followed him obediently, while asking, "Does that mean you're a civilian? Ninja can all run up walls."

Reno was a ninja, as far as Ino was concerned. He did ninja things.

[ponytailedturk]

Well, Ino wasn't from this planet. She could read minds, too. Tseng tended to exclude her from most of his ideas of 'normal.'

"I'm no ninja, but I'm no civilian," he replied, opening the door and gesturing for her to head inside. "I'm a Turk. Here, that's a job to take pride in."

Or to fear.

[intraspective]

She wandered inside, looking curiously at the walls, and crouching for a moment to pat the floor, since she could and Tseng wasn't being very entertaining.

"What's a Turk? Is it like a ninja? Civilians aren't as important, Daddy says."

So she was going to judge a lot of he was a civilian.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng watched her idly as he shut the door behind them. What was so interesting about the floor?

"Turks do what needs to be done, regardless of whether civilians believe it's the right thing to do."

[intraspective]

It, like almost everything else around here, was made of things they didn't use in Konoha.

It felt funny. She patted it again, then patted the wall to see if it felt the same.

"What's that mean?"

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng watched her quietly for a moment.

"We fight. We kill. We kidnap. We sabotage," he said, simply. And then he began to walk down the hallway, assuming she would follow once he passed her by.

[intraspective]

She didn't, right at first, absorbed in the wall, but after a few moments, the patter of feet behind him said that yes, yes she was following.

"How are you not a ninja, then?"

Yeah, none of any of that bothered her one whit.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng paused, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"What do ninja do?"

It was occurring to him that 'ninja,' where Iris came from, might have had different implications than it had in Wutai. If only slightly.

[intraspective]

He'd paused and she took the chance to scurry forward until she was level with him. Ino contemplated his pant leg, before reaching out for it, since he hadn't offered her his hand like Reno had.

"Ninja do lotsa things," she said, staring up at him. Did he want a list? He looked like a list sort of teacher. "They protect the village and go on the missions that the Hokage sends them on and they kill and spy and defend and scout and capture and fight and intr--intera--question people and torture, which Daddy says means to hurt 'em bad so they tell things."

[ponytailedturk]

"Interrogate."

Tseng glanced down at the little hand that was now holding on to the fabric of his slacks.

.... Right.

"It would seem we have a different word for somebody who does very much the same thing."

[intraspective]

"So you are a ninja!" Ino said triumphantly, beaming up at him.

Her hand, like the rest of her, wasn't particularly clean at this point.

Sorry not sorry, Tseng.

[ponytailedturk]

Yeah, that was blood in his pants, then. Reno's blood, most likely. Tseng stared at her hand, and then sighed faintly.

"I suppose I am."

Maybe he could get Rosalind to give her a bath. She was her rookie, after all. And Rosalind seemed to have some experience with children.

[intraspective]

Honestly it had about a fifty percent chance of being Ino's own blood, from before she'd gone wee.

She beamed. "Are we going to get food now?"

[ponytailedturk]

"Once we get you slightly cleaner," Tseng replied, "I'll take you to the cafeteria on the Turks' floor."

Maybe if he was lucky, somebody would be there eating who knew how the hell to handle kids.

[intraspective]

"I'm not that dirty," Ino protested. This was a lie. "Reno didn't care."

And she was hungry!

[ponytailedturk]

"You're filthy and Reno is a slob."

Tseng told it how he saw it.

"It will only take a few minutes to wash your hands and face. A negligible amount of time."

[intraspective]

She giggled, leaning into his pant leg.

"What's a neg-li thing?"

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng was going to have to change his clothing just as soon as he got Iris into something clean, apparently. He sighed.

"Small. Very small."

[intraspective]

That was generally the price of having small children around, yes.

"Smaller than me?" she checked, tugging on his pant leg. "Where do we go to get clean?"

The hallway didn't offer many clues.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng had nobody else to blame for this situation. Except Reno.

He was choosing to blame Reno.

"Down the hall, there's a locker room with a shower and a sink. This way."

He continued walking, leading her to the room in question.

[intraspective]

It was Reno's fault Ino was even on Gaia at this time...

"Do I gotta shower too?" she asked, dismayed.

[ponytailedturk]

If you asked Reno, Ino certainly didn't have to come here!

"You're filthy," Tseng pointed out reasonably. "But for now, making certain your arms and face are clean will suffice."

There would definitely be a shower in your future, kid.

[intraspective]

"Baths are more fun," Ino grumbled as she followed at his heels. "Can't I do that instead?"

Children liked fun, Tseng.

[ponytailedturk]

Tseng was never going to get this child cleaned and fed.

"... I'll see what we can do."

This was going to come down to sucking up to Reno again to get this done, wasn't it?