Fifth Floor Common Room, Wednesday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino had everything she need to dye A.J.'s hair neatly laid out by the sinks. Even the bleach. He so deserved this, and wasn't she nice for picking out such a pretty shade when it could've been much, much worse?

"Got introduced to you by a friend," she sang, and tried not to dance too much, "you were cute and all that, baby you set the trend." Man, she was never going to be able to get this song out of her head.

[Ino's waiting for by137, yes yes. But it's also totally open!]

Comments

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Probably because they're wasting time teaching you to sew instead of...uh, whatever they teach to be a ninja..."

[intraspective]

"They're important skills," Ino told him frowning at the back of his head, "and not just for domestic things. With chakra wrapped around a bit of unassuming thread it'd be easy to kill someone without them being suspicious. Boys for power, girls for skill. As we get older the gap tends to shrink in the differences in what we can do."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Well, at the same time, shouldn't a boy learn it, too? If it's that helpful? I just think it's...well, silly to segregate who learns what based on sex."

[intraspective]

"It's shown the best results for keeping more ninja alive though," Ino pointed out, "I don't think that's silly. They train us at what we're good at and as we grow we expand into our specialties."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"So are there exceptions? Do they consider what you're good at before they pick whatever program you go through, and statistically it's divided like that?"

[intraspective]

"I guess there might be?" She concentrated on the bleaching for a moment, "My class wasn't like that though. And Sakura, Hinata, and I really are all better at control than power skills."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Then I shouldn't have to worry about you messing up, right." A.J. gave a small, undisturbing nod before a grin broke onto his face. "Although, for someone who's so apparently good at control skills, you sure weren't good at controlling yourself to prevent getting blue in your hair."

[intraspective]

... if she hadn't been bleaching his hair Ino so would've hit him for that.

"It's a different sort of control," she said instead, "about using our chakra effectively."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"And what's chakra? Completely un-ninja type here, so bear with me."

[intraspective]

"It's... spiritual energy." She explained, "All living things have it, but what makes a ninja special is that we can use it for techniques."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Do you think anyone can use it? Or are some just able and others aren't? Kind of like art, I guess, because not everyone can paint, some need lots of training, and others are just naturals."

[intraspective]

"It's easier for some people," Ino admitted, thinking of Sasuke and Neji, "but I don't really know. Most of the people in my class were from families with ninja in them - if it was a genetic thing then the results would be hopelessly skewed."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Probably a good thing," A.J. said, with a lopsided grin, "that I plan on sticking to just painting pretty pictures."

[intraspective]

"And playing with my hair," Ino added, "you can't forget about that. It's very important."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"So long as it stays blonde," A.J. said, his tone nodding since his head exactly couldn't because of the bleaching. Which, now realizing it was there, made his suck in a breath a little. "Stuff kind of stings..."

[intraspective]

"Sting bad, or just a little bit?" Ino asked, "Because it's a bit late to be changing your mind, so I hope it's just a little bit."

She put the finishing touches of bleach on his head then went and put the leftover bleach on the counter, "Now we've just got to wait a bit for it to finish working."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"No, it's not too bad," A.J. said. "I think it's supposed to do that? And now what? I should have brought some cards."

[intraspective]

"Distract me from the fact that I've got my Ethics final tomorrow." Ino said promptly, "Tell me some kind of silly story." ... "Please?"

She turned her own version of puppy-eyes on him.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Silly story?" A.J. asked, biting his lip. "Um, well, I'm sitting a common room with a head covered in bleach, that's pretty fucking silly right there..."

[intraspective]

"But I'm involved in that one," Ino pouted, "that's not exciting at all."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"I don't really have any silly stories," A.J. said, laughing with a bit of insistence. "Nothing interesting every happens to me. I'm boring as hell."

[intraspective]

Ino's eyes narrowed slightly, "I don't think you're boring, A.J." Her tone of voice a warning for him not to argue.

"Um... a Christmas story then?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. bit his lip, eyes rolled slightly up as he strained to think. "Um, well, you mean, like, a story about me that involves Christmas? Or just, like, a Christmas reason-for-the-season type story? 'Cause I don't have any interesting ones involving me, that's for sure for lack of canon material, omg."

[intraspective]

"The reasons then," Ino said, "that sounds pretty interesting to me."

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Well, how much do you know about Christianity? Because that's kind of where it all comes from."