Yamanaka Ino (Iris)

Ino was... back from her trip to Gaia. And Reno. Who was totally her favourite person ever right that second and was so getting a shipment of booze and soil once she'd figured out just how well she was really dealing with things enough to want to go out. And, augh, she had work the next two days. Lovely. It looked like she wasn't going to get a chance to brood. And maybe contemplate how much trouble she was likely to be in for getting back from a mission and fleeing again without so much as a by-your-leave. Whatever.

It was still rather up in the air as to whether or not being back was a good thing, but at least she wasn't freaking out about just being in Fandom anymore. Baby steps. Small improvements. She could live with that. Setting her bags on her bed, she'd deal with unpacking in a minute, Ino checked her voicemail messages and left a few of her own.

Then she stretched, ran her hands wearily through her hair, and got down to the business of checking over every single one of her plants. Shhh. They enjoyed it, and so did she.

[Door cracked open, post wide open.]

So, Ino was pretty sure she was a bit daft because she thought that Edge was pretty awesome. Really, okay, so it was mostly awesome because it wasn't Fandom and wasn't home but there was a certain excitement to getting to explore a completely different world just for the sake of being there.

There was no mission to do, no reason for being there (besides the fact that she was… weak and that was on the list of things she Wasn't Thinking About Right Now, Thanks), she was totally a tourist. With violent tendencies and a certain level of gleefully horrified trauma at the sight of some of the monsters around here. What the hell.

Seriously awesome.

"The ruins were more interesting in an 'I will try and do my best to kill you' sort of way," she said, cheerfully making a face at him. They were in the wastelands where, well, it was pretty much how it sounded. Wasteland~y. Ino was awesome at describing stuff, shut up. "This view is totally going to be worth it, right?"

If it wasn't, Ino was totally just going to pout until they went and found monsters. That would utterly make it worth it anyway. She didn't have to think while killing monsters.

Not thinking was good.

[NFB due to distance. For the red-haired Turk!]

Almost two days of running had done little but exhaust her and cover her with grit and dust and sweat. Her thoughts still spiraled around—what was up? what was down?—and it was almost with relief that Ino took to, in the little debriefing room (white walls, metal chairs, tired looking table, and feeling almost like an institution), writing her report.

( Still, her stomach complained... )

Can you do that? she asked herself silently.

She was going to have to. Even if it killed her.

[NFB, NFI, OOC a-okay.]

Normally, missions were given out by the desk Chuunin, who marked down which mission scrolls had gone out and which teams were capable of handling each level of missions.

( Warning: Dark/disturbing matters being discussed. )

"No further comments," she said, voice far more level than her stomach felt. "Mission accepted."

Reno's voice echoing in her head: You do the job.

[NFB, NFI, OOC a-okay. Warning: Dark/disturbing matters being discussed.]

Ino had made it through the day. Between getting back, going to class, and talking to Tyler-sensei, she’d figured that whatever Hinata-chan said that she’d totally done her quota of being around and putting her schedule back on normal sort of tracks.

Of course, that’s when she made it back to her room, showered and wriggled into her jammies that Ino realized, depressingly, that she wasn’t sleepy. Making a phone call killed all of thirty seconds, and then she pulled out several gardening magazines and tried to start planning for Tyler-sensei’s flowers. Maybe she would go the love note route, just to make him facepalm.

Her door was left open, as a matter of course.

[Door and post are open! ETA: Anything mission related, beyond it happening, is NFB please!]

"—right, so then—what?—yeah, whatever forehead girl, in your dreams. No, I don’t have a crush on him!" Ino wrinkled her nose, hopping slightly from foot to foot with impatience as she chattered into her phone, the loudest thing on the causeway by far at the moment. "No, don’t even think about it, what are you? Mental. Yes, that’s what I said. No, I’m not over-reacting. Geez, where’s Hinata?--no I don’t expect you to know, come on, grow up--"

Hinata was running slightly behind, Yei hadn’t wanted to let her leave, even though she’d purred happily enough when left with Amber, and her smile was a bit sheepish as she trotted up the causeway, from the town. "Good evening, Ino-san!"

( 'Ah, there she is--' )

"Nuh huh," Ino carolled. "No apologies! Keep up the good work and all of that! Hurrah for Hinata-chan and her newfound backbone! Hip hip hurrah!"

"Ino-san..."

And then they were gone.

[NFI, definitely for broadcast, and Ino and Hinata are out of town until the BDE is over, la!]

Konoha was a warm contrast to the lack of power and heat in the dorms. That wasn’t why she was shivering though, trying not to, as her thoughts spiraled around her head, over and over. She had to stop shivering, chin up, back straight, hands shaking a bit though she had them clasped behind her back so that they weren’t right there for everyone to see. Had to look professional, had to... be a ninja. All over again.

( Baby steps. )

Mission accomplished, then, in more ways than one.