The Grounds near the Stables, Thursday Morning Before Classes

[intraspective]

Ino, almost sheepishly, made it down to her plants before dawn, and set to work. After yesterday, and the beach, it had occurred to her that she hadn’t been to her garden for a while. It was a good thing that plants didn’t always need careful watching over, because the time away, and in France, in Greece, and now in Bali Ha’i…

Well, her plants were flourishing. Ino grinned, kneeling down to inspect them closer, before setting to work on weeding and making sure that they really were all healthy.

She’d have to call Principal Washburn later, and see if she still wanted to see the garden.

[For one, but open as well.]

Comments

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata had been waiting, and watching, and worrying about what to say. Even moreso after hearing that Ino-san had skipped out of work yesterday.

She made her way out to the garden, footsteps silent in the early morning. "Ino-san?"

[intraspective]

Ino glanced up from her plants, having been well occupied in caring for them and not paying attention to her surroundings.

Asuma-sensei wouldn't be impressed.

A frown flitted over her face then was gone, quick as lightning. "Hinata-chan," Ino said, "have you been out training already?"

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata wondered at the frown, but said nothing about it. No doubt Ino-san would be frowning enough after she... figured out what to say.

"A b-bit," she conceded, mentally lumping Temari-san's orders as training of a sort, if she wanted to stretch the meaning. "I d-didn't know you had a garden, Ino-san."

[intraspective]

That got a grin. Ino did like talking about her garden.

"Yeah," she said cheerfully, "all mine. Principal Washburn let me have it, because she's totally awesome, and it's growing well."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra was walking the grounds, something she found herself doing with greater and greater regularity. It helped her think, and she seemed to be needing to do that a lot more recently.

Spotting Ino she offered a wave and half a smile.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata nodded. “Y-You’ve always been good with plants.”

Then she paused, trying to figure out what to say next. She didn’t particularly want Ino-san mad at her, but at the same time… Hinata wasn’t sure how to avoid it.

[intraspective]

Ino quirked her eyebrows at the silence. After a few moments of it, she shrugged and went back to dealing with her plants. Patience was something she could do when it came to her plants. Let Hinata speak in her own time.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

For her part, Hinata shifted, uncomfortable with the silence but not sure what to say—how to say anything, really—and not even really sure how to make more small talk to occupy the time while she thought.

So she said nothing, just watched Ino-san at work.

[intraspective]

The silence grew to annoy her, Ino never had been good at mysteries and Hinata, standing silently but not going away was definitely a mystery. You could, back home, generally count on Hinata to excuse herself fairly quickly if she thought that she’d out-lasted her welcome.

Had she?

Ino mulled that over; unsure. It really was hard to say. She didn’t really feel like company but Hinata wasn’t, like, hard to deal with or anything.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

If the silence was annoying Ino, then it was discomfiting Hinata.

She took a deep breath, trying to resist the urge to fiddle with her coat and said, “A-Ano…”

[intraspective]

“Yeah?” Ino glanced up, curious. So, was there a reason for this?

She wrinkled her nose remembering their last conversation. Ugh. Please tell her this wasn’t about that?

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

It was, sadly, about that.

Hinata flushed. “A-About… ano… the way you reacted…”

[intraspective]

Oh, this was going to go swimmingly. She just knew it.

“What? You expected me to be happy about that?”

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

“Y-You acted like it was p-personal.”

[intraspective]

Ino shrugged, lips firmly sealed on that matter. She wasn’t going to say anything about her, and Kabuto, and various degrees of togetherness.

Yeah, no.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

“I j-just…”

[intraspective]

“You can just forget about it,” Ino said brusquely, pulling her hands away from her plants before she did some damage to them. “He’s gone.”

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata studied her for a long moment, wishing she had the nerve to bring it up more.

“A-Ano… a-also…”

[intraspective]

“Yessss?” Ino said, drawling out the words when it became clear that Hinata wasn’t going to continue without some input.

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

“A-Ano, Sokka-san mentioned the Y-Yondaime Hokage as well…”

And that? Really needed confirmation.

[intraspective]

Ino snorted. At least that was a topic she was fine enough on. “Yeah, he’s here. It’s a bit complicated. But he taught something about countries last semester and something about ninja-ing before that? I think. I wasn’t around for that.”

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hinata nodded. “A-And you’re quite c-certain?”

[intraspective]

“Yeah,” Ino said, sounding suddenly tired. “Yeah. Dad confirmed it. They used to be friends, you know?”

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

“Hokage-sama—"

[intraspective]

“Hokage-sama knows too,” Ino said, “though it’s an even fifty-fifty if our Hokage-sama knows. But I do know that in at least one timeline Hokage-sama knows.”