[thread] Speak to me [Nejiko, Hinaji]
[ooc: I forget when exactly we wanted to have this take place (aside from after Kureno's sentencing, so, ah, I'm open to suggestions, Squeak. :D ]
Finding a nice, quiet place within the Hyuuga compound wasn't difficult. As a rule the inhabitants therein preferred to keep to themselves and to give each other space for private thoughts. Nejiko took advantage of this in the darkening evening. She had already seen to Mika and Bloodfang and she wasn't tired yet.
At least she could say her time for being a gate-guard was drawing to a close. She was grateful for that. She doubted she had had an assignment that boring in years.
On the flipside, the village was seeing more excitement in the past month than it had in a long time. The Sound mission, the mess centering around Kureno and Asuka, and Tsurude-sama's return with the jounin examinees. Tentsuke wasn't among them. She knew he was staying in Iwa for some extra instruction, but she had checked regardless.
That Kureno had abandoned the mission was still a shock. The man had been punished for his transgression, but on one level Nejiko was still trying to understand the why behind it. It was so unlike what she knew of him to be alien. Doubly so given how she had been raised. Duty always came first. Always. To so blithely ignore it... Well, she doubted he had done it blithely, but the fact he had disregarded his duty couldn't be ignored.
She idly brushed some hairs from her face before she spotted a figure on a small bridge in the distance. Hinaji. If this was affecting her (and it certainly was - she had been part of the mission Kureno abandoned), then it affected him even more.
Hinaji was Kureno's student, after all.
She debated on whether or not to approach him. She hadn't spoken with Kureno yet (though the ANBU grapevine was that Yuugao had). Later, perhaps. And were she in Hinaji's shoes, she would have despised having someone come bother her over something so personal.
But Hinaji wasn't Nejiko, which quite a few people probably felt grateful for. He was quiet and sensitive to others, and was better able to express his feelings. And he might... appreciate having to someone to talk to. Nejiko wasn't a member of his team, but she was Hyuuga, and in some ways that allowed her to understand things her teammates might not.
She shifted her course to head towards him while keeping her pace casual. She would make it his choice: he could either acknowledge her and she would take it as an invitation to talk, or he could ignore her and she would just keep going. This sort of maneuver needed no explanation, not when she could take any number of routes that didn't require her passing him. He would understand and decide accordingly.
Finding a nice, quiet place within the Hyuuga compound wasn't difficult. As a rule the inhabitants therein preferred to keep to themselves and to give each other space for private thoughts. Nejiko took advantage of this in the darkening evening. She had already seen to Mika and Bloodfang and she wasn't tired yet.
At least she could say her time for being a gate-guard was drawing to a close. She was grateful for that. She doubted she had had an assignment that boring in years.
On the flipside, the village was seeing more excitement in the past month than it had in a long time. The Sound mission, the mess centering around Kureno and Asuka, and Tsurude-sama's return with the jounin examinees. Tentsuke wasn't among them. She knew he was staying in Iwa for some extra instruction, but she had checked regardless.
That Kureno had abandoned the mission was still a shock. The man had been punished for his transgression, but on one level Nejiko was still trying to understand the why behind it. It was so unlike what she knew of him to be alien. Doubly so given how she had been raised. Duty always came first. Always. To so blithely ignore it... Well, she doubted he had done it blithely, but the fact he had disregarded his duty couldn't be ignored.
She idly brushed some hairs from her face before she spotted a figure on a small bridge in the distance. Hinaji. If this was affecting her (and it certainly was - she had been part of the mission Kureno abandoned), then it affected him even more.
Hinaji was Kureno's student, after all.
She debated on whether or not to approach him. She hadn't spoken with Kureno yet (though the ANBU grapevine was that Yuugao had). Later, perhaps. And were she in Hinaji's shoes, she would have despised having someone come bother her over something so personal.
But Hinaji wasn't Nejiko, which quite a few people probably felt grateful for. He was quiet and sensitive to others, and was better able to express his feelings. And he might... appreciate having to someone to talk to. Nejiko wasn't a member of his team, but she was Hyuuga, and in some ways that allowed her to understand things her teammates might not.
She shifted her course to head towards him while keeping her pace casual. She would make it his choice: he could either acknowledge her and she would take it as an invitation to talk, or he could ignore her and she would just keep going. This sort of maneuver needed no explanation, not when she could take any number of routes that didn't require her passing him. He would understand and decide accordingly.