fandomhighdorms | The Dorm Lawn, Saturday Early Evening

Why wait to get started, right? Cassandra climbed out her window and made a long circle around to approach Ino from behind. She had even decided to get the old suit out since it the black cloth blended in with the evening. She wasn't in full-on sneak mode yet, and she was curious to see if Ino would pick up on her approach before she could get close enough to tap her opponent on the shoulder.

Ino might not have noticed if she hadn't been waiting for Cassandra, but as it was, her senses were already in high alert and she twisted around to grin at the other girl.

"Nice to know black is in tonight, yeah?" Ino said with a toss of her head. It was weird not to be wearing purple. Just a bit.

"Good color," Cassandra's grin was betrayed only by a slight shift of the mask over her face. "Ready?"

"Whenever you are," Ino said, shifting slightly and ready to go.

"Need some rules first," Cassandra laughs.

She'd known that! Really. "Shouldn't have asked if I was ready then," Ino said cheerfully, "But yes, I suppose rules might be a good idea. So. How do we want to work this?"

Cassandra considered for a moment. "Take turns?" she suggested. "Pick a goal, and then one of us tries to sneak past the other. After that switch?"

That sounded reasonable. Ino nodded. "Call out when we've noticed? Or 'attack'?" Just to make sure.

"Just sneaking, so I think just calling works," Cassandra answered after a moment.

She stretched, arms reaching for the sky, and grinned, "You wanna go first then? Or shall I?"

Cassandra considered, then picked the one she thought would give her the best chance to win. "Show me what you've got. Where are we sneaking to?"

Ino wasn't going to make it easy for her. No way. "Hmm. How 'bout the picnic tables?"

"Sounds good." Cassandra looked over at the tables, "We start when you get out of sight." She took a relaxed stance and simply watched Ino, waiting.

Ino took a moment to study the area, planning her path, before grinning at Cassandra, "Should you have your eyes closed, for oh, say ten seconds? It's not fair if you know what direction I disappear to."

Cassandra's smirk was invisible under the mask, but then again, so were her eyes. Still she nodded and closed her eyes, "Starting now."

The mask made it impossible to tell, but wouldn't this game be kinda pathetic if there was cheating before the game had already started?

Ino, taking Cassandra at her word, dampened down her chakra signature (though who knew if it'd do her any good here?) and on, swift but silent feet headed for cover. There wasn't that much to be found, but a few handseals and a very quietly murmured 'Henge no Jutsu' let her blend in well enough with the dorm wall.

Before she opened her eyes Cassandra called out, "Time's up. Eyes open."

The first thing she did was analyze the terrain. Part of her attention was constantly looking for movement, but that was an old habit and an easy one. The rest of her attention was spent plotting approach paths: where could Ino possibly come from? Where was it likely she would come from? What approaches were impossible?

And somewhere, in the back of Cassandra's mind, she was already plotting her own approach for when it was her turn.

Chakra was the best thing ever, seriously. Ino was slowly moving up the wall, and then heading towards the tables. Carefully. Slowly, but not too slowly. It was hard keeping her Henge exact, so Ino didn't bother to try - the growing dark should the finer details as long as she kept up with the basic design.

Ino kept her attention on what she was doing. No need for other thoughts.

It was always easier to anticipate people you knew, and Cassandra didn't know Ino especially well. Still, the wall-walking trick from that time on the roof had stuck with her. It was an advantage Ino had that few others did, and that meant the other girl was likely to press it.

The walls were getting careful attention, but Cassandra hadn't seen all of the tricks in Ino's bag, and she was still looking for a shape that was basically human-shaped shadow.

Too bad she was currently wall coloured then, yes? Ino had no intentions of showing all her tricks, but this one was fairly basic all things considered.

The hard part would come when getting down from the wall and over to the picnic tables. It'd be quite a bit harder to pretend to be a bit of open scenery. The wall, at least, did not move.

Ino winced when the sole of her shoe scuffed against the wall and darted a look at Cassandra to see if the other girl had noticed the tiny sound.

Cassandra's life had depended on hearing quieter things more than once, and her head jerked around at the scuff. The problem was that the sound was short enough that she didn't have time to really lock in on it.

The wall, she'd been right about that part. But no dark shadows seemed to stand out. It was always possible the sound had been a distraction, so she went back to scanning all the approaches, just in case.

Ino remained still for a very long moment, watching just in case Cassandra looked again before taking a deep breath and refocusing her concentration and inching herself along the wall.

Finally, she was as close to the tables as she could get without touching down. Ino grit her teeth and very carefully slipped off the wall.

The distance to the tables wasn't far, all things considered. Ino mentally calculated the amount of effort it would take to hold a Henge and keep altering it to match the scenery.

She wrinkled her nose. Not very viable.

There were a lot of tools which Cassandra had at her disposal. Training and patience were certainly useful, but so was surprise. She guessed that by now Ino was fully focused on sneaking, eyes locked on her target and the terrain.

So Cassandra simply moved. Smoothly, quietly, and into the shadows under one of the tables. It was always possible that Ino would spot her there, but if she didn't then she would be keeping cover between herself and the wrong place as she approached.

There wasn't much cover to be had at all really from where Ino was standing. Just a fairly smooth expanse of field between her and the target. Which really made this far harder than it could've been. Why couldn't there be more trees around?

Ino hadn't noticed Cassandra's movement, but when she glanced at the tables again she frowned. Something was different, though Ino wasn't sure what. Dangerous that.

She dropped the Henge, sinking low against the wall, and narrowed her eyes. Then, guessing she might as well give it a shot, Ino carefully went even lower, so that her stomach was nearly brushing the grass and began smoothly, but steadily, no sudden jerks and stops, inching her way over the grass. Ino could only hope the darkness would help hide her.

Cassandra was good at what she did, and waiting had always been part of that. But a small part. She preferred to be active: moving, fighting, being in control. She could wait, and she was good at it, but she wasn't a natural.

Which was why as Ino snuck closer Cassandra's eyes missed her. She didn't usually wait for other people to come to her, she went to them, and was enough to give Ino an edge.

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