The Garden, Monday Early Afternoon

[intraspective]

Ichigo owed her a date, and she’d reminded him of that not-so-little fact yesterday. Which was why they were out by her (even if anyone in the school could use it, Ino took care of it, and thus considered it totally hers) garden near the stables, and she was spreading a pale blue blanket on the ground—because, ew, red checkers were icky even if it was traditional for picnics—and humming to herself.

"You haven’t been down here before, have you?" she asked, sprawling on the blanket and grinning up and over at Ichigo. "Lazy."

[Ino is here for the boy (who was modded with permission), but the garden is open for all other garden~y needs!]

Comments

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

He hadn't, which he supposed really was lazy. "You hid it well," he lied with a grin.

[intraspective]

Ino snickered. "How do you hide a garden?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"I don't usually visit the stables?" he tried as he nudged her foot with his.

[intraspective]

She kicked lightly at him. "Don't you just walk 'round the ground though?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Away from the school," he replied, sitting up to grab another sandwich from the basket. "Want something?"

[intraspective]

"This is totally away from the school! Can I have one of the cookies?" she tried, seeing if he'd let her get away with that. Mmmm, sugar.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

He was either in a good mood or didn't see a problem with it as he pulled the package from the basket and handed it to her. "The dormitories then," he corrected. "I like the Preserve better."

[intraspective]

She was totally not complaining as she opened the package, and pulling out a cookie to nibble on. Mmm, chocolate chip. "I like the preserve too," Ino admitted, "it reminds me of home, though we don't have teal deer."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"I don't think anyone has teal deer," Ichigo said, scooting back a little so he could look at her as he sat up and ate. "What's it like Konoha?"

[intraspective]

"We're in the middle of a forest," she said, drawing a circle on the blanket as she talked so she had a point of reference. "We've got cliffs here, they house the evacuation routes--in the case of an invasion, the civilians, and the hospitalized get moved there, the Academy students too, depending on their age. There's paths out the other side of it, if it comes to that. So there's that, taking up... this much of around us, kinda like a cradle, see? And then we've got trees the rest of the way around. Nara Clan owns a lot of them, and you'd have to be an idiot to leave the footpaths if you're not a ninja. The woods are dangerous, if you don't know what you're doing."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

It all sounded very strategic and he leaned back on his elbow, considering the blanket as if he could still see the circle she'd drawn. "Does it have walls?"

[intraspective]

She nodded. "They're wood--two and a half stories high, or around that anyway, of course, it'd been too disruptive of our home to get that much stone through the forests, and it's generally considered a better move to have wooden walls, instead of giving Iwa the advantage on our home turf. Iwa, Rock Village, is way better at earth and rock based techniques. We're good at fire, and well, wood--though wood is pretty rare, even for use. Our first Hokage could grow forests over night though."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it still was odd hearing stuff like that even if it shouldn't be. Not with the things Rukia had told him and yet... "The environmentalists would have gotten a kick out of him," he teased.

[intraspective]

She stuck her tongue out at him, and nibbled on her cookie. "Maybe, maybe not. We cause a lot of damage too, but when he was 'round at least the land held the scars for less time. Now we've got to just let the earth fix itself and it takes longer. A war that ended before I was born still has part of our country, and a few others healing. It's a sad place."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

He frowned. "That sounds kind of depressing," he admitted.

[intraspective]

She shrugged a bit. "It's also where we won," Ino pointed out, "which takes the sting out of it for us. And year by year the grass and trees are coming back, though most of the bridges are still gone."

And Konoha wasn't much in a hurry to rebuild them, though the Fire Lord probably would in time.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"So how likely is it that there'd be another invasion?" he asked curiously.

[intraspective]

"Lack of bridges doesn't stop ninja," she reminded him. "Anyone out of the Academy for a few months knows how to walk on water, and most of the rivers are narrow enough that, honestly, we could leap over them if it wasn't for worry of getting cut down mid-air."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"So likely," he concluded.

[intraspective]

She poked him in the side. "We're ninja, we've got unfriendly villages on two sides. Yes, it's likely. It'll likely be a bad one too, we're due. It's been almost twenty years since Iwa got defeated, and Kumo signed a peace treaty with us when I was three."

Ino tugged at her hair. "We're not a peaceful world."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"It can change," he suggested, deciding she needed help with the hair tugging.

[intraspective]

"We'd have to want it to change," she said, rolling so she could lean against him properly. "And mostly, we don't want it to. We like our world. Wars and all."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"You'd still like it without wars too," he suggested, snagging a cookie from her.

[intraspective]

She made a half-hearted sound of protest at that, and shook her head. "I like fighting," Ino said. "Most ninja do to some extent, it's in our blood. If we stopped fighting, stopped having wars, we'd have no ninja--or not enough to support a village, at least."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

He let her words sink in for a moment and he forgot to eat the cookie he'd just stolen. "I don't like fighting." He still did it, but he didn't like it.