Current mood:	chipper
Entry tags:	asuka, chiriku, kureno, november year 16, rp log

[log] Where'd you come from? [Chirku, Asuka, Kureno]


The primary reason why Asuka liked her rental so much was because of just how quiet it was. Well, provided that she was the only one there, or that her company was equally quiet. After all, she didn't have to share walls with anyone (it was really just a one room house, one of about twenty in this particular subdivision), the neighbors weren't noisy, there was a very nice park across the way that wasn't often filled with children, and it was just... quiet.

During the summer, when it was too warm to be anything but lazy, she'd throw open all the windows and sprawl on the couch during the hottest part of the day. The trees outside would cast leafy shadows on the floor and walls, moving with the breeze, and watching the dabbled movement was hypnotic and sent a person straight to sleep. During the spring and fall, she'd take a beer outside and fit herself on the porch steps, smoking and drinking and watching the sun set behind the park across the street. And during the winter, when it was too cold to leave the windows open like she did the rest of the year, she'd curl up with a blanket on her couch and take comfort in a mug of coffee of hot chocolate. There didn't need to be books or music or television; just silence and her own thoughts. It was her own form of meditation.

It was wintertime, so the blanket, the coffee, and the silence were all in place. There was also copious amounts of nicotine, which was present in all forms of meditation save the kind that involved sleeping; her ashtray on her coffee table needed to be dumped soon. It was just the way she liked it, including the not-thinking that she had mastered over the years.... perfect, at least, until someone knocked the door.

Asuka glared at the door. The knocking did not stop.

"Damnit," she muttered under her breath. She was tired of dealing with people. Couldn't they just leave her alone for a week or something? Ooooh, nooo, couldn't do that. Not when Asuka didn't have better things to do.

So, with a sigh, she shoved off the blanket, set down the coffee, and went to answer the door.

"What?" she asked, not bothering to pretend not to be exasperated, before even seeing who was on the other side.



The closed fist held up at eye-level probably was the last thing Asuka was expecting. "Well," began the female voice who also happened to be the owner of said fist, "seeing as I haven't heard from you in over a month and I distinctly recall how you would complain about the price of postage, I figured I ought to take pity on you and give you a roll of stamps (or three) to help tide you over." The fist opened and the roll dropped.

Chiriku then tucked her hands into her sleeves and hid the bemusement at the automatic reflex of Asuka to catch the roll. Ah, the benefits of having shinobi friends... Some reactions could be easily predicted. The trick was to not take advantage of that.

She studied her friend, noting the shadows of exhaustion that lingered in and around her eyes. She didn't appeared injured, which was a blessing in Chiriku's book, but chances were she had already been healed and was simply recuperating. The monk smiled, truly glad to see Asuka. "It's been a while, my friend."



The jounin flinched back reflexively, most definitely not expecting to almost walk right into a fist, and had to stop her jaw from dropping along with the roll of stamps.

... oh wait, stamps. Dropping. She snatched them out of the air somewhere around waist level when she remembered that they were falling.

But snatching the stamps out of the air did not make them any less real, nor did it make the orange and white wrapped monk in front of her disappear. No, that really was a monk, standing on her porch, hands folded in her sleeves and a superior expression on her face. Holy shit.

"Been a while?" Asuka said, when she finally got her mouth working again. "Talk about an understatement. What the hell are you doing here?"



"I haven't heard from you in over a month, so I decided to see how things were with you here. That, I felt I should have a bit of a vacation for myself, and since I've never been to Konoha, I decided why not?" Chiriku replied easily.

Despite being the head monk of Fire Country's largest temple, she was distinctly entourage-less. That was the point, actually. People attract attention, and Chiriku rather disliked undue attention. Easier to pass off as a simple monk by traveling by herself. She also wouldn't be much of a target, either, for she was a solitary monk. (The fact she was one of the Twelve was immaterial. Not many knew about that particular body.) At some point, though, she would need to check in with the local temple so as to not give the monks there heart attacks. She had given them little warning; writing only a quick note saying she was coming to Konoha for an as-yet undetermined amount of time and not to worry about accommodations for her before sending the missive ahead of her. No doubt they would be shocked to see her lack of an entourage. Eh, their problem.

Besides, Chiriku had found it was quite difficult to fulfill her primary calling - helping others in need - if she couldn't approach people on a one-to-one basis. Entourages were seriously more trouble than was worth the hassle.

Her smile grew a little. "May I come in?" she asked.



Hadn't heard from her in a month? Come on, she'd gone longer than that before without Chiriku deciding to descend on Konoha. It had been more like six months that one time, hadn't it been? But then there'd been the whole attack on Konoha thing to deal with, and missions and death and depression and all sorts of crap flying around all over the place, so maybe it wasn't so surprising that the monk didn't stop by. She'd had her own things to take care of at the time.

But still. Chiriku. Here. In Konoha. It made the mind boggle. And possibly want to go shutter the windows and lock the doors, just in case something bad was about to happen.

She blinked and stepped aside, pulling the door open wider to allow the older woman entrance. "How long are you staying?" she asked, and then, "Where? Does the temple know you're here? How come you're alone?"

Too many questions, not nearly enough time. Jeez, had it really been four years since she'd last seen the woman?



Chiriku adjusted the small, single-strapped pack on her back and walked in, taking a look around. The place reeked of cigarette smoke (sigh) but otherwise it felt like Asuka. A bit austere, but practical as well. She spotted the blanket on the sofa and the coffee on the table near it. Whoops, she hadn't meant to disturb Asuka, but nothing to be done about it now. She would need to make it up later.

"Two weeks probably, give or take a few days. No longer than a month," she answered the first question. "The temple doesn't know I'm here, yet, though they do know I'm coming. I just wanted to find you first. I don't suppose you might be willing to walk me there?"



The door was pushed shut and locked out of habit, the jounin resting one hand on it for support as she turned. Two weeks, maybe even as long as a month? That was an awful long time for the monk of the Fire Country temples to be out and about on vacation. And wandering around Konoha to boot - not that it was exactly dangerous (c'mon, who'd bother a monk except for the insane and the stupid?), but still. And she's managed to find her way around this big of a city just by using the postal address on an envelope?

Good thing Asuka hadn't decided on a postal box address, huh?

"Sure." The agreement was a little more automatic than well-thought-out. She was still a little dazed from the whole Chiriku in Konoha part of the conversation. "Later, though? I mean..."

For crying out loud, it had only been forever since the last time she'd laid eyes on the woman. Years and years of letters didn't hold up to the real thing. And to think she hadn't bothered to write her since she'd gotten back from the mission....



"As long as I get there sometime today," Chiriku answered, laughing quietly. She unshouldered her bag to put it on the chair before turning to face Asuka again. "So, how are you doing?"



Later today was fine, she could hack that. She at least needed to have some time with Chiriku before she got swallowed by temple duties. Just a few hours...

The jounin tucked away the loose strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail, smoothing it back, and dropped her hand away from the door. "I'm tired," she admitted. "I'm still on medical leave from a pretty nasty mission last month. Though it's going to be over soon. Just... doing a lot of sleeping right now. I'm okay otherwise."

Okay otherwise, except for the whole holy shit it's Chiriku thing going on.



The monk nodded. "Sleep is always good when you're recovering from something." She walked over to Asuka and hugged her. "I'm glad you're okay. I was worried about you."



The hug was not entirely unexpected. The monk was, after all, not nearly so constrained by instinct as Asuka was. When you spent all your time in a monastary, the last thing you worried about was if someone was going to come up and stab you in the back while you were sleeping. But she moved slowly, not throwing herself on the jounin like Inosuke would, so when she opened her arms, Asuka didn't flinch away.

She wrapped her arms around the other woman's waist in a full-bodied hug, inhaling the scent of travel and incense, exhaling stress. Chiriku was just a little taller, but not so tall she couldn't rest her chin on Chiriku's robed shoulder.

"I'm okay," she repeated, closing her eyes for that second in the hug. "It's good to see you again."



"Yeah." Chiriku rubbed the jounin's back firmly between the shoulderblades, smiling when she felt Asuka relax. She felt her own tension leave, too. The silence without warning had unnerved her greatly, and though she had been certain that if something drastic had happened, the news would've been heard throughout the country. Or at least throughout the Twelve. They didn't see each other often outside of serving their time with the Daimyou but they still kept a general awareness of each other. Chiriku and Asuka's friendship wasn't ordinary. Indeed, it probably never would have been in the first place if Chiriku hadn't pushed for it.

"And you'll be seeing me for a while, too," she added after a period of comfortable silence. She continued to hold on, giving Asuka someone to lean on as long as she wanted to. That's what friends were for. "Unless you'd rather I sleep at the local temple...?"



Asuka snorted against dusty cloth, pulling away slightly while still leaving her hands on the small of Chiriku's back. It was an intimate embrace, but she had known the older woman so well during their tour, and shared so much with her through letters, that it did not feel awkward in the least. Compared with her usual policy of don't-touch, it felt incredibly comfortable.

"You really think you want to sleep here?" she asked, voice dry. "If you can stand the smoking..."



Chiriku smirked and tugged on Asuka's ponytail. "I survived a year with you, didn't I? A few weeks will be piece of cake," she grinned. She would just make sure to wash her robes really well when she got home. Amazing how well the smell of Malboro clung to cotton. Yeesh. She moved her hands to hold Asuka's upper arms and give a friendly squeeze. Chiriku didn't have the personal space issues of Asuka, true, but even so she still wasn't wholly comfortable with any sort especially close contact. Monks bowed to greet each other. The most "intimate" of "embraces" they ever engaged in were the holds and locks of the monastary's fighting style. But Chiriku knew the simple power of a hug, and Asuka had definitely needed it. "Besides. If I go to the temple, they'd just be so honored to have me staying that they'd oh-so-politely ask me to oversee a few ceremonies and blessings and writings of a couple hundred protective fuda, et cetera." She let out a quiet sigh of exasperation, something she wouldn't have done in front of another monk. "I am, for the first time, on vacation. And so my timing's just happened to coincide with no major holidays."

But then, that turned out to be more luck than anything else. Had there actually been occasions she would be "needed" at the temple, for whatever reason barring an honest-to-God emergency, she would have probably pulled some rank to refuse. She was in Konoha to visit Asuka and that was it.

And meet some of the people in Asuka's life. But her friend was her primary objective.

"I saw you have coffee. Please tell me you have some tea?"



Well, that was a 'yes I want your couch' if she'd ever heard one before. And it wasn't like she didn't let people (typically her team) crash at her place on a regular basis, anyhow. Was it really so bad?

She just wished she had a little more energy. Hell, at least caffiene would help, and if she really needed she could always down a soldier pill...

"All the better we go to the temple later, then." Almost reluctantly, Asuka finished pulling away from the embrace, taking a step back and stuffing her hands into her jeans pockets. "And... no, I don't. But I keep getting bugged about needing to get groceries, so... we can get you some?"



"Sure," Chiriku replied. "I could make you some dinner tonight, too, so you wouldn't have to push yourself to stay awake afterwards." Tea was good for the body and soothed the mind, and it tasted great. All those many wonderful flavors without the acidic burn of coffee (which she had tried once and vowed to never have again).



"Or we could do take-out." After all, cooking anything with more than three or four ingredients usually proved dangerous for her, especially if it involved the oven rather than the stove top, so the menus of all the places that delivered were stuffed in a drawer near the phone. Why cook if someone else could do it for you? Especially since Chiriku had only just gotten here.



Chiriku considered, then nodded agreement. She grinned. "Take-out is acceptable. You're just trying to avoid my cooking, aren't you?" she teased. She was tired, truthfully, and not having to cook would be nice.



A grin graced her own face, though it wasn't particularly broad or energetic. She hadn't had enough coffee in a short enough period of time to perk up that much, Chiriku's presence or not.

"I'm not in the mood for cabbage," she replied... mostly truthful. If the monk really wanted it, she'd survive, but if she could avoid it, she would.

Moving back toward the couch, Asuka picked up her mug, intending to finish off the last of the coffee, as there wasn't much left. "I know you just got here, but would you want to go shopping now? There's a supermarket not far, we can get whatever you want. And then I can show you where the temple is later tonight."



Chiriku nodded, watching how Asuka moved and comparing it to the last two times they had actually seen each other in person. With the Daimyou, Asuka had never truly relaxed. Always listening and watching her surroundings even during shogi games and sleep. Always tense despite the outward protected calm. True, the sense of tension had been so faint another person might not have picked up it, but Chiriku wasn't another person. Protecting the Daimyou was not a cakewalk; quite a few things had happened during that year. And Asuka was constantly vigilant and always ready. Even when asleep Asuka didn't fully turn off. (Something Chiriku had found out the hard way.)

The temple visit had been less stressful for Asuka, but seeing her at home Chiriku could now pick out the differences. This place, austere as it was, was genuinely home to Asuka. Her easy (if tired) movements spoke volumes. The way she reached for the coffee mug, the way she stood, even the way she didn't object to the hug.

The monk couldn't suppress the grin. She was truly glad Asuka had her own refuge amidst the stressing life she lived. "Asuka-chan, if I can spend seven months traipsing around the whole of Fire Country and jump back into my normal duties the next day, then I can certainly go with you to market and make a stop by the temple. And maybe a few other things as well, eh?"



Oh. Here we go. No pause to bask in the fact that this was the first time they'd actually seen each other in four years. No pause to just enjoy the situation. No, five minutes in and there was already teasing. And Chiriku always said she was a normal monk.

Asuka rolled her eyes while finishing off the last of the coffee, then set the empty mug back down on the table. "I don't know, Chiriku-baachan, that was several years ago. Think your old bones can still handle it?"

Although the likelihood was far more likely that Chiriku would outlast her - a monk's life was not nearly so devastating to the body in the way that a ninja's life was. Not that she would ever admit it out loud, but she was already starting to feel it; last winter hadn't been so bad, but this winter her hands were particularly annoyed at the cold. Right now they weren't very bothersome, but as soon as they went outside they'd probably start aching again. It made her feel old.

Leaving the other woman to chew on that particular insult, Asuka left the living room to locate her wallet and throw a jacket on over her dark turtleneck. "What other things are you thinking of?"



Chiriku suppressed a smirk and the tick of her eye that was the near-habitual response to Asuka; she had been expecting the 'old lady' comment. She could have refrained from the impulse of calling Asuka 'dear' (the good monk was never impulsive; they always gave actions serious consideration) but in actuality the opportunity was really too much to ignore. That just meant she was ready for the 'grandma' retort. And besides, there wasn't anyone else Chiriku could banter with. And it simply wasn't the same trading smart remarks by letter.

She wasn't going to spend the whole time here teasing Asuka, that would be mean. No, the intent was to spend time with her. It would do them both some good. Even though she was a monk, she felt the times she could relax best were when she was around Sensei and Asuka. And Sensei was gone, now...

With a thought the light melancholy was pushed away. She was with her friend, and they were going to have some good times.

Items on Chiriku's list included but were not limited to: check in with temple, meet one Yuuhi Kureno, meet the members of Team Ten, possibly pop in the the Hokage to let him know she was there (and that was more formality; if, in the incredibly unlikely chance something happened to Chiriku in Konoha, chances were the Daimyou would be less than pleased the Hokage was unaware of Chiriku being there), and at least visit the yakinuki place Asuka raved about and constantly took her team to. Even if she didn't eat anything, at least she could say she had been there.

"Oh, a few things," Chiriku replied. "Not everything must be taken care of right now." She watched Asuka shrug on her jacket, and once again blessed her robes. Really, it was amazing how many layers of clothes one could wear underneath them. Monks had to be instantly identifiable to those who sought their aid and wearing a cloak or similar attire would negate that. So beneath the flowing orange and scraps of white she had on layered pants and sleeveless shirts. Enough to keep her warm but not enough so she would be overheating from physical exertion. Her arms, meanwhile...

It wasn't monkishness that she kept her hands tucked into the loose sleeves of her robe.

"I think as long as we make the temple stop and I let Hokage-sama know I'm here, we should be fine."



The jounin stuffed her wallet in a back pocket and then threw on her jacket, zipping it up halfway and tugging her ponytail out of the collar. A stop by the Hokage tower wouldn't be all that unfeasible; really, Chiriku didn't have to see the Hokage himself. A quick chat with Shizuya and a note would work well enough if he was busy... debatable, as the Hokage always should be busy, but one never knew if Tsurude'd be actually diligently bent over those papers in work... or just sleeping on them. Knowing him, though, he'd probably welcome the distraction.

Though... if she wanted to go to both the temple and the Hokage today, then it would be a waste of time and energy to go shopping, come back, then go out again later in the day. It would be more economical to take care of the Hokage and the temple first. Then they could hit the supermarket on the way back, phone up some delivery, and be lazy for the rest of the night.


"If you want to see Hokage-sama too, then why don't we take care of that and the temple first?" She snatch up the pack of cigarettes and lighter, pulling one out for the road. "We'll lose less time that way."




"Sounds like a plan," Chiriku nodded. Keeping an innocent expression on her face as they stepped out and Asuka locked the door behind her, Chiriku wondered aloud, "Think we'll run into your friend Kureno? I mean, he isn't on a mission, or anything is he? You've talked about him so much I feel like I practically know him already."




Immediate reaction while lighting her cigarette: Innocent look my ass.

Secondary reaction as she rolled her eyes and locked up the house after leaving it: Well, he probably is at his office...

Any other reactions after that were waved in favor of not having too strong a reaction. After all, it made sense that the monk would want to know who her other best friend was, and it made sense to introduce them. In fact, she kinda liked the idea.

But.

Chiriku hadn't teased her overly much in letters - there was only so much a person could pick up from words on a page, after all - but if she hung around long enough and picked up on how the rest of the village interpreted her and Kureno's 'relationship'...

It would be a very long two weeks to a month indeed.

Asuka shoved her hands in her pockets, exhale a cloud of smoke, and stepped down off the porch. "Let's just go, shall we?" she asked wryly, and led the way into the heart of the city.



[not finished! mwa ha ha]