raspberryturk | Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

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Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

Damn, it was good to be on the island.

Daaaaaaaamn, it was so good to be on the island. And sure, the room he'd grabbed at The Arms wasn't his dorm room, but he had a real, honest-to-gods bed here, instead of the lumpy couch Reno had been sleeping on for the past little while, and that alone made the whole trip worth it.

Well, the bed and the minibar. He was going to have to coordinate some kind of drinking outing with the guys before he took off again, maybe. In the meantime, he'd pick up his cellphone and leave some ~~handwavey~~ messages telling his buddies on the island where he could be found.

And then? Then he was going to flop backward on that amazing friggin' bed and just sprawl.

Oh, hell yeah.

[Door's open, and if you figure you'd get a call, you totally did. Mmmm, feels like home.]

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That look? That was Reno's, 'I'm going to make sense of that if you just give me a moment, honest,' look.

Honest.

"I'm plannin' on keepin' in touch," Reno noted, moving right along. "I can't be the only one, can I? Fandom's too much like home for too damn many people to really just go an' never look back."

He hoped. Maybe he was the weird one who couldn't let go.

Her lips twisted. "Most of my friends that left last year didn't keep in touch," Ino said. "Which puts you way up on the scale of friend-ness right there."

Yep. Reno was totally the weird one who couldn't let go.

... Actually, he was fine with that.

"Well, I ain't plannin' on cuttin' my ties with the people around here unless they decide they wanna go cuttin' 'em with me, first."

Considering some of the secrets he was keeping, he wouldn't be surprised if they did.

"Now why would I do that?" Ino asked, glancing sideways at him. "Cut ties with one of the few people who gets where I'm coming from?"

Reno gave a wry little grin.

"Because I'm a professional asshole, Ino. Get paid for it an' everything."

She smiled up at him. "Guess that makes me one in training then," Ino pointed out. "I can deal."

Well. She thought she could, anyway.

There was a difference between being a jerk and withholding truths. Certain truths. But that wouldn't really be an issue for anyone for a couple of years, at least.

Reno would keep right on withholding, and he'd face the backlash when it got to that point.

Yeah.

"You got a good head on your shoulders, Rookie," he decided. "You'll make a kickass asshole someday."

"One day," she said, feeling pleased at the compliment. And it was a compliment, the way she understood it. "Did I tell you? Sakura's talking 'bout us taking the Chuunin exam, and Dad sent me new things to study."

Because he totally knew what you were talking about, Ino.

"Chuunin exam is a rank advancement exam," Ino added.

"Oooh, promotion time!" Reno was grinning a little, again. This was a nice change of topic if ever he'd heard one. "What's the next step up, if you don't mind me askin'? Or is that one of them things that they tailor to what you're capable of, once they assess where you're sittin'?"

"Kinda both," she said, "all ninja are assigned depending on their skill set, of course, but the differences are roughly..."

Ino had to stop and think for a moment there.

"Pretty much, Genin level--my current rank--is the lowest you can be and be out on the field. It means you're expected to be able to follow orders, think innovatively if you've got to, have the basics down pat, and work within your cell to get the mission done. Chuunin, on the other hand, have got to be able to lead a Genin cell, be able to demonstrate the abilities that make a decent squad leader, to be able to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances, and to have a wide enough skill-set that they're useful in many situations."

She tugged at her hair. "Chuunin are the most common. You get a lot of career Chuunin, and once you hit that rank you can go into admin duties, or teaching at the Academy. They're the all purpose one. Genin are too inexperienced, and Special Jounin and Jounin are too heavy hitting to be wasted on paperwork and teaching kids in a building."

Reno attempted to pick through where he'd be on that list. Jounin, maybe? Or he would have been, before the Turks left ShinRa. Now it felt far more like he was the paperwork guy.

Damn, he hated being the paperwork guy.

"Sounds like it'd be a good place for you, yo. Lots of opportunity. You'll take that exam an' kick ass."

"And pass, if I'm lucky," she said, her lips twisting slightly. "I mean, I know I'm good, and Asuma-sensei said if my fight I tied on last time had been in the finals it would've been even-odds that I'd have been promoted then," two years ago, "but it wasn't, so I didn't, and then here. But the big problem will be the fact that if there's any really heavy hitters and I get put up against them, my options are fairly limited."

"You wanna take that spar on Sunday an' turn it into some training, instead?"

Hey, Reno had been trained by Ghanima. He could take a beating, and he could dish one out, and if there was anything in the middle that had to be done, he could probably figure that out, too.

"You can use whatever you want, if you think you gotta exercise it some, yo."

"I'll never say no to training," she said, beaming up at him.

She was totally one of his Rookies. She would totally deny it vehemently.

"Mostly it's a problem with my skill set," Ino admitted, "Dad had the same issue, but he was, you know, a boy and so bigger 'n stronger than me at my age. I've got the skill at taijutsu, but I'm not strong enough. My whole training is pretty much centered around being a distraction, or sneaking around. Unfortunately, the finals are one-on-one fights in front of an audience."

"So sneakin' and distractin' don't do no good. Unless you find a way to distract your opponent from yourself," Reno mused.

Now, there would be something interesting to try to puzzle out. Now he was going to have to challenge her to do just that. It was the least he could do for a rookie, dammit.

"And deal with the fact that there's a good chance that I'll be fighting someone who knows my skills inside and out," she added, making a face. "I can do smoke bombs, and illusions, but all shinobi can. Which means I've got to manage to distract them and then be quick enough to get close enough to do damage to them."

Ino contemplated that.

"I could use some of the explosives Rikku gave me. They wouldn't recognize that." Or even a potion, just for the confusion...

Hm.

"You could," Reno agreed, smirking. "Rikku's bombs are pretty kickass, that way. Or, hell, I could set you up with some status-affectin' items, too. Poison's handy. I can give you the remedy, too, so you don't go killin' nobody. Or, hell, I could probably hook you up with some armor, if you want. But that'd probably defeat the purpose of testin' you, instead of the equipment, huh?"

"No armour," she said, making a face at him. "Armour is so samurai." Ewwww.

Unless it was a flak jacket, and she didn't have the rank for that.

"And, no, I don't want to... cheat. If that makes sense." There was cheating, and then there was cheating.

"Samurai? You figure?" Reno raised an eyebrow, and then he rolled up his sleeve to reveal the armband that he wore. The one that Rikku had made for him. "That's samurai, huh? Damn. An' here I've been usin' the wrong weapon all along, yo."

Smirk. Shrug.

"But I get it. Distractions are one thing. Poisons are another. It ain't a battle of skill if you're throwin' status items at 'em. It's just a test to see whose toys are the prettiest."

"Poisons and stuff in moderation are okay," Ino admitted, as she glanced at the armband. "We're allowed any weapon we want. But if you win all your fights the exact same way, you actually hurt your odds of getting promoted 'cause you're not showing versatility. They're not looking for a bruiser, they're looking for people who can think and adapt. You can be promoted even if you lose so long as you impressed them with your attempt."

A beat.

"And that's... really not armour, as it's considered in my world." No.

Lopsided grin time.

"Rikku made this armband for me," he noted. "It's kinda pimped out. Gives me an extra boost of speed if I'm gettin' my ass kicked and I need somethin' last minute so I don't, you know... Die or some stupid shit, yo. Mostly, it kicks in when I'm in dire straits. But it protects me from thunder spells, too."

He could stick a finger in an electrical socket right now and fry the living crap out of himself, and he'd feel better for having done so.

Nice, nice armour that way.

"You ever sparred against a guy trained by a Fremen woman? You want a challenge, I can really give you one, yo. But you gotta be able to catch me, first."

"I'm fast for my rank," she said, with a sideways glance. "But you're so far above me it's a joke."

Not that it'd stop her from trying.

"Yeah, armour is more... substantial in my world."

Reno had a bit of a laugh, at that.

"Armor's whatever you wear that gives you a little extra edge in battle, where I'm from. Accessories, too. I ain't got the same access to that kinda crap that I used to, but SOLDIER boy can probably get his hands on some decent stuff. Earrings that boost your ability to tap into magic, rings for damn near anything. That sorta junk."

Edited 2009-06-27 03:47 (UTC)

"SOLDIER boy creeps me out," Ino said, shrugging a bit. "And he spends a lot of time with Dinah. I ain't that sunshine~y."

Dinah kind of grated on Ino's nerves.

"'sides," she said slowly, "while I wouldn't mind, I'd have to explain it to Hokage-sama and I know exactly how long I'd be allowed to keep it back home." Try oh maybe three seconds. "They'd want to take it apart and see if they can make it work and make more. When I go I'm not even taking my gun with me. Our world doesn't need that."

Hey, SOLDIER boy creeped Reno out, too. For totally different reasons, but still.

"Fair enough," Reno agreed. "Some things, some worlds just ain't ready for. Better to stick with them bombs, then. They blow up once, they're gone an' there ain't no more. Seems like a good bet for you, then."

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!