[Closed, Incomplete]
Who: Cloud Strife (mirageof_deceit), & Uzumaki Naruto (couragetodare)
When: December 13 - Morning
Where: The Flooded Ruins
Format: Paragraph, Past tense
What: Cloud dealing with issues, namely people coming back from the dead. Then he heads for the mist.
Warnings: N/A
( I want to strangle the stars for all they have promised me )
When: December 13 - Morning
Where: The Flooded Ruins
Format: Paragraph, Past tense
What: Cloud dealing with issues, namely people coming back from the dead. Then he heads for the mist.
Warnings: N/A
( I want to strangle the stars for all they have promised me )
He paused in his hopping when Naruto proceeded to follow after him, setting a hand on his hip as he regarded the other blond. He glanced towards the thicker areas of mist in the distance as if considering what it would do to him. Aside from nightmares - not uncommon - and confusion - also not uncommon - he had been relatively untouched by this so called mist. What was this kid's problem?
"Do you know the extent of what the mist does," he asked simply. Really, he wanted to go there to be able to know what it was all about even if it seemed mildly suisidal based on Naruto's adamance. An answer of previous experiences might help. "I didn't ask you to follow me, and I don't need anyone's help." Helping him usually got people killed after all.
He stiffed across the shoulders at the mention of Zack and simply went to looking towards the mist again. "He saw me once," he drawled as if mentioning that didn't hurt. It did, but he knew it was best they stay parted. Zack seemed pretty attached to Reno anyway. "He just needs to find his happiness, that's all."
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"I've got a list," Naruto offered, voice near deadpan. "You wanna hear it?" Free of charge if it would stop Cloud from wandering into the stuff. But he didn't think it would. Neither did he think it was right to withhold information on the mist. Being aware of what could be coming was part of the battle. Or at the lest it never hurt to be prepared.
"I could tell you while we eat breakfast," he added wistfully and with no expectation whatsoever that breakfast would be happening any time soon. And he was still hungry, too.
With a sigh he settled a little more comfortably on the broken down wall he was perched atop and eyed up Cloud's stance, moving his eyes over that massive sword. He wondered if he could just sweep down and grab it. Cloud might follow right? ... this was assuming he could even carry the thing. With Senjutsu that wouldn't be a problem he knew but he wasn't using Senjutsu now and calling up the technique would take a few minutes and-
And Cloud sounded a bit like Sasuke.
I don't need your help.
Naruto's initial response sounded suspiciously like a 'pfft!'
"You don't have to ask." Just to clarify. Asking had nothing to do with it. Being a person did. Having an idea of what the mist could do, did. "And you don't want anyone's help, you mean."
There was a difference between want and need. And Cloud wasn't in the mist yet.
"It'd be better if you held off, y'know, or took someone else with you when you go." Trying yet again. "Y'know, someone like Zack."
Your friend. Who you've only seen once. "He was lookin' for you. When he got here. Mentioned your name. Cloud. Cloud Strife."
Though how Naruto could fit the name to the face was another matter entirely. It should not really have been possible unless he had seen Cloud before. He was not about to mention this. He had learned that people often found it weird when they learned that he had known them elsewhere.
The happiness comment had Naruto slightly confused then. He titled his head at Cloud. It was an odd thing to say he thought. But it told him something about Cloud. Actually it probably told him more than one thing if he stopped to think about it, but he didn't and so what he said was:
"I think Zack's happiness is in his friends."
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"I'll listen as long as the list is viable," he replied simply. He didn't see the point of wasting words. "I'm not hungry," he added when the issue of 'breakfast' was brought up.
This Naruto fellow seemed to be thinking about turning into a pest and following him. He didn't know why, since he tended to live in this area and hadn't had too many issues. Certainly there were monsters in the water below, and he seen a few that hopped from pillar to pillar like they were but nothing too hard to handle. There couldn't be stories of survival if people went missing and never came back.
He suddenly leapt to an outcroping of stone next to where Naruto was standing, raising an eyebrow at the kid. There was something odd about the blond like the kid was recognizing him. The ease at with Naruto placed a name to him was eerie, and he narrowed his glowing blue eyes at the other male. "You haven't given me reason to hold off. Also, if it's not safe to be alone in the mist, why are you alone?"
He didn't know why this guy was so bent on Zack, but then again, his old friend had been a crowd favourite. It was the charms of Zack Fair. "Zack has his own concerns, I'm sure. He isn't looking for me now, so there's no problem. Why are you so hung up on a friendship you're not involved in?" He shook his head and turned his back on the other male, waving a hand in the air. "You know him so well, do you? Or are you just poking your nose into Zack's business? He sent you?"
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"Well, what've you heard so far?" Might as well narrow down what he'd have to say. No sense in repeating things after all. It didn't seem like Cloud had heard all that much though. This was slightly disconcerting. It was one thing for the natives to be tight-lipped, another thing entirely for the Scorched themselves to withhold information. They were all stuck here, together, it made no sense to remain so separate. Not to Naruto at least.
But when he tried to recall if anything had come up on the Forge network about the effects of the mist, he realised that he could not remember if the topic had ever really been broached. Which meant that maybe it had not been.
Which was a bit ridiculous when he considered it further.
He shook his head, stiffened and then stared as Cloud landed near him. He remained where he was though, crouched but looking up now. What?
"Well, I am," he said, just to be a bit contrary. A blink. "Hungry I mean." Never turn away a free meal, I'd even buy if it kept you out of trouble. "Couldn't you eat breakfast anyway?"
His tone wasn't pleading. Not much at least.
And now Cloud was looking at him suspiciously when really, he hadn't done anything! Wrong at least. Those unnaturally bright eyes were narrowed. Naruto narrowed his own in return. Two could play at the eye-narrowing game. "Is dying a good enough reason? How about having to drag your sorry carcass back outta the mist when you end up half dead?" A brief pause then. He flinched, internally. Glanced away. He was here to escape. To train. He had a list of excuses to throw out.
Although...
"Who says I'm alone?" A glib response and with it a flash of teeth. Possibly a smile, possibly something more vulpine. Technically Naruto was never alone. How could anyone be with a nine-tailed fox demon thing living inside them?
He fell silent then, watching Cloud. Watching Cloud talk, until he turned his back at least. Then Naruto found himself frowning once more.
"Nope." To most of that. He wasn't about to elaborate on why he was so hung up on a friendship he wasn't involved in. He wasn't hung up. But friendships were important. Maybe just on principle. "He didn't send me, an' I don't know him all that well, but I think he cares about his friends a whole hell of a lot and I think he sees you as a friend." So. Really. That Zack's happiness involved his friends was an obvious conclusion. "Enough to worry about you anyway."
A pause. Quietly then. "He doesn't know you're here." Speculation. A guess and half a question. What would he do if he knew Cloud was out here, heading for the mist? He'd probably come down himself.
Naruto sighed suddenly. And maybe that was why Cloud had not told Zack he was here. To keep him out of trouble too.
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He made a soft 'hmm' noise before shrugging his shoulders. "I've heard that I shouldn't go near it. That's all." He had checked messages here and there and everyone seemed concerned but hadn't give him reason to leave. "I choose to find out why I shouldn't."
Hunger had never been a problem for him. SOLDIERs were tougher then normal humans, so they could get by on less food. Hell, back in the lab, he didn't eat for five years. It had to have been the mako, but he wasn't about to tell the kid anything like that. He doubted that there would be much understanding on the subject.
"Then go and get something to eat," he replied dryly. "I'm not stopping you, and I'm not hungry. There's no point in eating if I don't need it."
Snorting, he was pretty certain that the other blond was just being dramatic now. The risk of death was present in anything that someone did, and it had never stopped him before now. "Dramatization isn't that convincing." Palmer had been dramatic... and a coward. This kid didn't seem like a coward though.
So, this guy didn't know Zack enough to be sent to find him, which meant that there was no proof that Zack was concerned for him. He knew his friend might be, but Zack had said that he had grown stronger. Wasn't that good enough? "For someone who doesn't know him well, you sure talk like you do. You have no proof for the words you speak. You're guessing at Zack's thinking and motivations." It wasn't hard; Zack was pretty easy to read.
He walked towards the edge of the outcropping and looked out over the tops of ruins that poked above the thicker mist. "He has his own life; I don't need a baby-sitter." He offered Naruto a pointed look of dismissal.
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Naruto knew he sure as hell wouldn't.
"Hallucinations," he murmured, because he did have a list. "Depends on the mist. Sometimes it makes you weak, makes you tired, tired enough that you can hardly walk, so that all you wanna do is sleep, if you run into one of the creatures that lives in the mist when that happens-"
He trailed off. Blinked slowly. "Some of the hallucinations aren't of people, they're of... places. You think you're somewhere else."
Once not too long ago, Naruto had spent several hours in the mist. In his head, in his mind, it had only been a few minutes. And then he had crawled from the ruins on hands and knees, semi-delirious, and he had not and would not ever tell anyone about that experience. "It can kill your chakra." A small nod. "Or, uh, magic. Some people call it magic. And if you get far enough, it burns you. Not ... bad. Just like there's somethin' crawling under your skin, y'know?" He stopped here, reluctant to go on just in case someday it got back to Sakura somehow. She'd kill him if she knew what he had done. Or at the least she'd give him a severe concussion.
"It changes," he added then, blinking at Cloud. "What happens. Sometimes you don't get tired, sometimes the weird dreams don't happen, sometimes your chakra goes nuts, sometimes it doesn't." But the danger remained. It was always there. Naruto turned his head to stare at the mist sweeping over the horizon, eyes hard. "Could be makin' a bad choice there," was all he said finally.
But he could understand why Cloud would make it. Still, the frown returned at Cloud's suggestion he eat and so did the glare. At least for a heartbeat or two. Naruto looked faintly indignant.
"I can't! I told you already." Eating required that he leave. He could not- would not- do that. "And I'm not dramatizing anything! If you're asleep and one of the things in the mist runs into you, what'd you think'll happen?"
Apart from the potential maiming that is.
Cloud was being difficult Naruto concluded. Not all that difficult, but a little bit. Naruto watched him walk to the edge of the outcropping, silent for a little while. Then he rose to his feet, scratching his nose and feeling slightly awkward.
"Do I?" He didn't think he talked like that. He did not know Zack, but he could guess. Zack seemed like that kind of person. "I think it's stupid for anyone to say they know someone," he murmured. "You can't really know anyone, but I think Zack's a kind person, and that he cares about people. I've seen him help people here. And his friends..."
They counted most of all, surely.
He was watching Cloud though, gaze unwavering. He ignored the baby-sitting comment completely and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You think he's not worried about you?" Because the comment that Zack had his own life was odd, it implied things. Or... it implied that Zack was better off without Cloud. Again, to Naruto it was a strange thing to say.
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Hallucinations? Well, he had had his share of those; they were no different from being back on Gaea, except... well, he hadn't been riddled with them in a little while. He hated to feel weak, so that was definitely bad. He didn't consider tired that big of a deal; everyone needed sleep after all. The creatures weren't much of a concern for him as well, since he had single-handedly taken on Ruby WEAPON; it was the only way to defeat that beast.
"I don't have innate magic," he said simply before lifting his mystile to show off the two softly glowing orbs set into it. However, not using magic or materia restricted him very little; he was strong enough to not have to rely on the use of materia, though... he didn't like the empty slots, that was for certain. "Burns?"
Tilting his head to the side, he already knew what would happen if a creature came out of the mist. "I'll wake up and dispose of it," he replied simply. He was trained enough to be able to sleep lightly, and he hadn't had a problem so far. "And the hallucinations aren't new either."
He paused from moving on at the comment about not knowing someone; he knew Zack, better then he wanted to. He had become a bastardized version of his best friend. "Zack could always make friends easily," he murmured and shrugged his shoulders. "He hasn't tried to contact me, so he's not worried. If he was, he would try for contact. Don't you think? Leave him be."
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He couldn't help but liken the glow of the orbs to the odd light in Cloud's eyes , glancing from one to the other, narrowing his own eyes into a bit of a squint as he did.
"Burns," he repeated absently. "Like a chidori goin' all under your skin." But Cloud might not know that technique and Naruto feel silent, struggling to find a comparison. It was difficult though and really, a chidori was the only thing he could liken the sensation too. The burns weren't really physical, but there was still a discomfort. It still hurt, though Naruto had his skin flayed off on more than one occasion so maybe he built up a slight tolerance for the experience. "I can't really explain it but, I guess you'll find out for yourself if it happens to you," he added then. The frown on his face clearly said he did not like this idea though.
Cloud didn't get it then, he realised, what he meant by 'tired' and his frown deepened. Once again he wondered how to explain. Exhaustion wasn't something he was accustomed to either, though he had trained until he could hardly move so maybe that was the closest thing to it. "Ever have a fight that's so long and hard, you can hardly life your sword after? Or you can't lift your sword after? S'that kind of tired." With a small nod at Cloud's sword. In other words, it was a physical thing. Enough to slow someone's reaction time. Enough even to stop them from reacting at all. Waking up...
... wouldn't be enough.
Naruto shook his head. Made no comment on the hallucinations, but wanted to say 'ditto'. This never seemed to lessen their impact on him though.
Eyes on Cloud, he was silent for a time as he ran over Cloud's words. And then again. He was frowning once more when he spoke.
"You think he's the type to give up on the friends he has? To not-worry? To walk away?" Did Cloud really think that? That Zack could make new friends and so this would make discarding the ones he had an acceptable thing.
"Do you really know him," he murmured then, very quietly. Not a question, but more of a rhetorical statement. Because Naruto had not known Zack all that long, but already he could see, clear as day, that Zack did not walk away from his friends. That he did worry. That he stuck by them. Though why Zack had not contacted Cloud was a mystery to him. If Zack knew Cloud was here- but Cloud said he had, that he had seen him and-
It was none of his business, technically, but Cloud had offered to help Naruto once, somewhere else and if anything Naruto did not -had not- forgotten that.
Leave him be-
Not possible.
The real question was why Cloud thought those things. Naruto didn't have an answer to that. And Cloud probably wouldn't be eager to offer one up either.
"You're pretty headstrong."
Another rhetorical statement and not a resentful one. Naruto rocked on his heels where he stood and raising his arms, folded them to cushion his head against interlocked fingers.
"So. What'cha gonna do? I still say breakfast's a better idea and I kinda wanna know about that magic you use but-- Well, if you're goin' into the mist, I'm comin' too."
On that, he threw Cloud a grin.
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Of course, the conversation revolving around Zack was both painful, uncomfortable and seemed to be moving around in circles with this Naruto insisting on his friend's motivations. It was tiresome and wholly bothersome, since he didn't want to think about it right now... or ever. He knew Zack; he knew the guy's way of doing things. Zack had defended Reno and taken his punch. He knew what that sort of partnership meant regardless of what else was going on between himself and Zack.
He wanted Zack to live a happy life doing whatever it was that his friend chose to do here. There was a mercenary sign up, so he assumed that Zack was following the dream of doing everything and anything. That was the life that his friend deserved, free of worry or obligation to anything but freedom. There was nothing wrong with his wish, even if his avoidance of town might have been considered unhealthy. He hadn't been convinced to re-enter it.
"If you know Zack so well, you be his best friend," he replied coldly. This conversation touched a nerve he wasn't yet willing to deal with. Aerith and Zack together was hard to deal with; his first instinct was to beg forgiveness after all. How pitiful. "Leave me alone."
In some ways, heading in the mist to see if he could lose the kid was sounding pretty nice. "I am going to kill something to eat, just to shut you up. Then, while you're busy having breakfast, I am going into the Mist by myself to explore around and you are going to stay out of my way."
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"Okay, now you're annoyed," he pointed out. A needless observation if ever there was one because that Cloud was annoyed was pretty obvious and it only made the differences all the more stark, between the man that stood before him now and the Cloud he had semi-known in another place. But annoyed he could work with, annoyed he knew, annoyed was what Sasuke threw his way on a daily basis.
Annoyed meant: there is a problem.
Naruto just had no idea what, so for a little while he simply squinted in Cloud's direction, lips tight, fingers still interlocked.
You be his best friend. An arctic statement if ever there was one. A cutting one too though Naruto knew there was no way Cloud could have known how close to the mark that hit was. "I think he's got a best friend already," was all he would say to that. Reno, perhaps. At least they seemed close. Judging from how Zack had talked of Cloud before Cloud's arrival- and how intent he seemed to be on finding him- Naruto had assumed Cloud was Zack's best friend too. Now though...
Things just weren't adding up, but Cloud's response to all of this was vaguely familiar too. It was shades of Sasuke. Even shades of Itachi. And all Naruto had to go on was a vague comparison, speculation and the tiny clues Cloud offered him which really, weren't much to go on at all, even when added up.
He fought a scowl, a reflexive thing and rolled his eyes at Cloud then.
"That wouldn't work." The grin remained, though slightly forced now. "It really won't work now that you've told me that." He shook his head, insistent, but steadily so. "If you're goin' into the mist, then I'm goin' too. It helps to have someone watch your back in that place, that's what I'll do."
It wasn't an offer. It wasn't a request either. If it came down to a choice between breakfast and making sure someone didn't get hurt then really, the option wasn't even questionable to Naruto. He would just rather have breakfast.
Anyway, changin' your mind would shut me up way better," he offered then, by way of a cheeky suggestion. His grin was a little more real on the admission. "Or at least, planning and finding out a little more about it before you go diving in there alone."
Alone. ... and maybe that was the crux of this.
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He released a heavy sigh and waved his hand dismissively. He didn't want to talk about Zack's best friend, mostly because he was uncertain of whom Naruto was talking about. He had an idea that it wasn't him, and considering how open Zack was, he didn't think that the kid was wrong either. "Whatever. No one cares."
There was a tactic that usually worked on his persistent annoying friends. He simply went about ignoring the party in question. He wasn't so certain that it would work on someone who was apparently as persistent as Naruto, but he could certainly try. It might be successful.
Huffing, he simply leapt off of the stone outcropping and started to head for the deeper sections of Mist. He only stayed on a piece of pillar long enough to run across it to leap to the next. In his mind, their conversation was over, and he wasn't being lectured about his own friends.
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That popped out... kind of by accident. But he had said it and wasn't about to take it back. Jaw set stubbornly Naruto squared his shoulders, dropping his arms and with it all pretence of a smile. "You care. You care enough to get annoyed!"
And that meant he cared. Even if it wasn't the positive sort of caring. "And- and Zack cares! An' if I didn't give a shit I wouldn't be here so- ... so that's bullshit. All of it."
Though what each of them cared about was a question that could go up for debate. At present Naruto wasn't sure what Cloud cared about; not his friends it seemed, or their concern for him - even if, apparently Zack had been lax with this- and not even his own life, though again that part was up for debate. Naruto had a tendency to head into the mist alone too but Naruto cared about his own life. He just cared about getting out of this place more.
With a growl he shoved off after Cloud, easily keeping pace. The small rest had helped with his energy levels, though if he was going to do this he would still rather use Senjutsu. Well. Nothing to say he couldn't-
"So, that's your plan? Just head on in and swing at stuff with your sword until you come out the other side? 'Cause y'know, that plan sucks! It's not even really a plan!"
He wasn't exactly the best person to be lecturing anyone on plans, but still. The problem with Naruto was that he was very hard to shut up once he got going. Like a dog with a bone, he had the irritating ability to be persistent about pretty much anything. So though he was scowling, he wasn't turning around either. He shouted the words to Cloud from the distance that separated them as he moved parallel to the other man, using his chakra to keep his footing with the pillars he encountered, and to push off too.
The only way to shut Naruto up outside of giving him a concussion really, would be to gag him.
On that note-
"Do you even believe that? The 'no one cares' thing? Or are you just sayin' it? What'd be a good enough reason to get you to hold off? That your friends could be worried isn't good enough."
But he could understand that. What Cloud's friends did not know would not hurt them, perhaps the entire point behind why he had (probably) not said a thing to Zack about this venture in the first place. Still. It gave Naruto another reason to scowl. He moved his hands though a series of seals, quick, effortless and a heartbeat later a single clone burst into life beyond the blonde.
"Stay here," he told it tersely. "Gather chakra."
And then he was off again, scowling at Cloud again. And... talking again.
"What about watching your own sorry ass? Your own life? S'that a good enough reason?"
No one cares-
Somehow Naruto didn't think that was a good enough reason either.
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"T'ch," he sounded as he continued to move across the pillared ruins, and he wanted to desperately up his speed to increase the distance between them. He was not looking to be constantly lectured about his decisions in life and why he made them the way that he did. This kid knew nothing about how he lived his life or what he had lost before coming here.
He suddenly skidded to a halt and drew the Ultima Weapon, pointing in threateningly at the quick-footed blond. "Stop with the questions," he ordered firmly. "Zip the motor mouth before you get us both killed. Go back or go silently. I won't answer your questions, so cut them out."
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