The River of Thoughts

[David]

Haru was deep in thought. On the outside he was some shallow closet perve. But inside he was very complex. Always thinking of the past. His flaws, mistakes, rights, and wrongs. This was his place to think. It always had been. He usually thought of his father. But now he was thinking of his personality. Why was he a pervert? It gained him nothing but bruises and rejection. Maybe a laugh or two. I guess it wasn't as fun as he used to think. The river broke through his thoughts. The flow of water was stronger than usual.

[Tenko]

“Hatsuyu-san,” Greeted a girl with Cheshire eyes, examining the face of a saddened woman with lank hair. “You ordered these –“

A voice like a whisper escaped the other, cutting her off, and the blonde allowed her to speak with patience, having gone through such things before. “I’m afraid I didn’t, Ino-chan, but thank you.”

Shaking her head, the kunoichi bent down and left them on the door-mat, in front of the woman’s eyes. “Papa says the first to a house are always the hardest; I won’t want a cent.” Leaning forward to kiss the hollow-eyed baa-chan’s cheeks, the Yamanaka girl shouldered the rest of her exquisitely-arranged flowers, hearing the door shut gently a few beats after her back had turned.

“It’s always the most difficult,” mused one Yamanaka Ino, “To take in the first bouquet you owe to the dead.”

~*~

There were two more bundles of flowers in her arms when she finally reached the river; four deliveries in total had to be made that day, and one of the remaining bouquets still sought its owner – a set of bodies four foot under at the cemetery, for an teenager orphaned young and yet still paying for his parents’ flowers. The last one was on a happier note; Ino had been inclined to meet the foreign Sand Kunoichi who’d transferred to Konoha for the Chuunin Exams, despite Temari being older (or so she’d been told). It was common courtesy, she believed, but courtesy could wait; instead of wandering passed the training grounds, Ino found herself at the river, willing to take a morning break before she finished that portion of work.

Well. She hadn’t counted on Hiyashi Haru being there.

“So, contrary to popular belief, Hiyashi-kun doesn’t waste all his time trying to hit on girls.” The words were light and bemused, and there was a vague feeling of ‘hello’ about them, but Ino didn’t say it outright. Instead, neglecting to approach him really but instead carefully leaning her flowers down absently approaching the bank, she seemed more interested in the swiftly racing water than the boy; she wasn’t really familiar with this one, but she knew he was on the list of Rookie Genin this year – not to mention, he was an infamous closet pervert.

“Good to know.”

[David]

Yet again something broke his train of thought. But this time it wasn't the water. It was footsteps that broke his thought. Nobody usually comes this way. It's in the middle of the forest.

-Well I guess I don't mind as long as it's not some stuck up kid.-

He didn't look at her he just sat looking at the water. The flow seemed to calm him down. By the river he just wasn't the pervert he was everywhere else.

" Who's there? " He said very quiet and soft.

[Tenko]

"Nobody important," was the tired reply, as though its owner neither wished to deal with him or disturb him, though that was obviously not the girl's nature. Bright turquoise eyes contemplated him a moment, wondering why he was so sullen.

Ino supposed he had some sort of a reason, considering she'd came along with one, too.

With a mild sigh, she pushed back her bangs and corrected herself, not sitting amongst the soil but opting to stand instead. "Yamanaka Ino. How are you, Hiyashi-kun?" Once again, she was incredibly unfamiliar with him, but still - she knew his name at least, which was more than most others got.

[David]

Ino? He had barely known her. He might have seen her somewhere in the academy. Maybe even flirted with her before. He didn't remember.

" Oh. Hi Ino-san. I'm fine today. How are you doing? "

He wondered why she was here. He had never seen her by here before. Maybe she was like him. She had came to think, relax, and listen to the soothing flow of the river.

[Tenko]

"Terrible," came the blithe reply, a wry smile on the kunoichi's face. "Tired, between training and profession - but really, it doesn't matter, right?"

With a light yawn, she covered her mouth in a southern belle imitation but was sure to keep quiet. While Ino certainly doubted that Haru even recognized her name (not even vaguely), she did possess an adept enough level of perception to recognize that the boy's focus was elsewhere. Kneeling down, though not quite beside him, she examined the flow of the water just as he did, noting - like the ninja beside her - how much faster the water streamed forth that day. Smiling absently in that sure method of hers - it seemed to be her base expression for company, perhaps perfected for her shopkeeper duties - she stated, almost fondly for the place she kept at the riverbank, "It's just nice to calm down after a beat."

Glancing towards him curiously, the question that Ino couldn't help but ask lingered in the air, completely rhetorical. "But I guess you know that, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't look so depressing sitting there." It was merely a mild tease and the kunoichi steadily turned her turquoise eyes back on the shallow current, as though trying to pick out something that wasn't there.

[David]

The flow of the water began to slowly steady. Haru took his eyes off the river and onto Ino. He didn't remember her at all. Haru almost always remembered every girl. But this one escaped his pervish wrath. He obviously would not tell her this but it was the truth. But he wouldn't flirt with her. Not here.

" Well, Ino-san I guess your right. You seem deeper than you look. Much like me I guess. "

That would probably be the only thing they had in common.

[Tenko]

She gave a small laugh at that, not allowing it to ring too loudly; it seemed they were both a bit too stressed for the usual obnoxious idiocies the people like them fell prone to. Besides, there was nothing to shriek about at that point. For once, Hiyashi Haru didn't seem like someone you'd avoid like the plague (in a sense), nor someone who would ruin the given mood or try the hour. Privately thankful for this, Ino shook her head without really thinking about it, only distantly concerned with their conversation - if it could even be considered as such.

"You'd have a hard time proving that, but I suppose we all have our good days - or perhaps, they're our bad ones. I couldn't say."

Yeah. It probably was.

Sneaking another quick look at him, Ino shrugged at his inscrutable expression, noting aloud, "I suppose there are places like this, though. Little catches where you just... stop being how they see you, because things like this - the river - they don't ever seem to change. They grow with you, not with your... actions, I guess. Right?"

There was nothing in her tone to suggest that Ino was awaiting an answer; it was just the general fact of the matter and silence was wholly acceptable. It was doubtful that either of them really wanted to talk, or that they were really putting their heart into the conversation anyway.

[David]

He didn't know her and she didn't know him but she was reading him like a book. She was much deeper than he thought. For once in his life a girl wasn't just some maniac or a childish girl. She was actually making sence. He made a face like he was thinking about what she said. His eyes trailed back to the river and so did his thoughts on the topic.

" I go here everyday. It truly is a beautiful place. "

He wasn't trying to impress her or anything. He meant what he said. He admired this place for everything it was.

" It's a peaceful place to think and relax. "

He didn't expect her to really care but he said it anyway.

[Tenko]

Nodding mildly in response to his words, the kunoichi tilted her head back to examine their surroundings; the river's hiss was marred by the clicks and choruses that were usual in Konoha, and Ino's thoughts hardly registered upon them to make any according remarks. Meanwhile, the part of her still speaking to Haru, not yet occupied with other ideas, found some material to respond with. The kunoichi herself was too lax to guard her speech at that point, not caring enough to keep up her usual 'plastic' attitude.

"I don't come here often," she admitted, almost meek in the quiet tone of her voice. It was a sharp contrast from the usual, air-headed Ino - seeing the Yamanaka girl compared almost to Hyuuga Hinata for her soft-spoken disposition. "There's a field just full of flowers, a garden they used to take the Academy kunoichi to; usually, its there. It's easier to remember yourself somewhere familiar, right? But I thought... you know, I'd come some place I hadn't been to for a while, just to see how different I might feel." Somewhere, Ino decided that she must've found it with Sakura, dragging the girl along behind her and insisting they explore. "You know what the stories say, right? Water reflects the nature of the observer, but the image always changes to screen the falsehoods out."

There was a story, Ino remembered, about a foreign place; there was a river-goddess at sea, by the name of Ino, who saved a man cursed by her father. Unconciously, the corners of her lips twitched upwards; fairy-tales and epic fantasies. She couldn't help but like them. "But I can see why you'd come here; it's like a balm, but... it isn't as direct as other things. It doesn't feel like a comfort so much as... a reality, right?" She barely understood what she was saying, but in some distinct part of her it had to make sense - unguarded words were like that, and the river did that to people, it seemed; it put down their guard.

[David]

This girl...she is impressive. She knew all the right words and the phrases. You couldn't help but agree with her. But was she always like this? Not likely. In reality she was probably as shallow as a tide pool. But he didn't mind as long as she was nice to him now. But after this she would probably avoid me and talk rumors of him. It was a sort of custom among girls he always thought. To speak bad about others in private. He didn't respond to her. He had nothing to say. He just looked at her and nodded in agreement.

[Tenko]

Meeting Haru's gaze directly for once, Ino gave him a genuine smile; it was the sort she gave out to customers and her hopeful tag-along kunoichi, automatic, impressionable, and rather lasting to the memory. "But yeah, I guess I'm just being disruptive now, right? Wasting my breath as usual; I should probably get back to being my air-headed self and finish up at the cemetary..." Pausing, she gave a small chuckle and dipped a hand into the river-water, lifting it and flicking a tiny spray into her face as though to wake herself up. "It isn't as though I'm helping anything along here, and I suppose kunoichi shouldn't get attached to moments like these."

Still, Ino was rather reluctant to leave; the shallow river was peacefully alluring, the nature of its intent hard-pressed to die. Things like this naturally fascinated seasoned ninja, though for Ino - raised with a shinobi father, though not old enough to really see man-slaughter - it was a simple, dulled delight. "Still, though, Hiyashi-kun - I have to wonder, is something the matter?" Doubtless, he would say 'no' and wave her off, but for someone to visit a place like this every day - usually, there would be a reason for it, something behind it. She didn't mean to intrude, but she couldn't help herself asking; it was like a courtesy. "... It's all right, I suppose. You don't have to say, anyway - I mean, well... I should go, then; I doubt I'm giving you much to think about." With a slightly apologetic laugh she was arubptly reminded of her meeting with Seryou, almost bemused by the thought.

[David]

Again her questions and statements sent him into thought. There was something the matter. There were many things the matter. He wouldn't tell her something that was truly bothering him. Just something he was curious about.

" Well, Why do you think the current of this river is stronger than normal? "

He didn't expect her to answer. It was possible she was wondering this too.

" I don't mind if you stay. It's always nice having company. Someone to talk with. But if you insist you can go. I could see why someone like you would never want to be seen with someone like me. "

He knew he was right. If someone found out that she was in the forest with Haru all types of rumors would spread. Just like the saying 'Rumors spread like wildfire.'

[Tenko]

"Someone like you, and someone like I," she repeated blankly, as though not quite comprehending what he meant by that; pausing a moment to quirk a brow in question, Ino examined his face with blunt curiousity. "It's these parts of conversation that really make you think about the way you seem to people." Shrugging indifferently, there was an almost bothered note in those bright eyes of hers as Ino shoved her bangs briskly out of her eyes, examining Haru with care this time around. "If I keep good company, that doesn't offend me, and can tolerate my mood - is that necessarily a bad thing?" True, the girls would stop short to see cocky Yamanaka Ino with the condemned closet-pervert Haru, but it wasn't as though he was molesting her or anything insane like that. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to consider it anything but serious conversation, shocking as that may be. Serious conversation wasn't something to be ashamed about.

"It's arrogant, only," Ino amended quietly. "To say degrading things like that."

Gaze traveling up and down the river as though to prove to Haru that his words didn't bother her - or maybe, in a sense, they did - Ino bit her lip as she studied the current, for once thoughtful at the active question. Yes, the current had softened a bit, but that didn't make it any less irregular. Pondering a spell, she decided on a semi-plausible explanation, and offered it tentively. "The water's caught too long," Ino stated, glancing upstream. "The nature of the element is to keep moving, run harder, get faster - go closer to the root of things, deeper underground, to become part of something. The river's route keeps checking it back but its been with-held too long now... and so it pushes on stronger to break its channel and reach a point of... freedom, I suppose. The force behind the current is getting stronger - that's all."

[David]

Haru had just remembered who she was. The cocky blond girl who worked at the flower shop. He had seen her before. She was yet another girl drooling over Sasuke. That jerk. He wouldn't reply to her just stray to another subject.

" Ah. I remember you now. You're one of the girls who's in love with that fool Sasuke. "

So she wasn't as smart as he thought. This girl was another one of them. The foolish girls chasing crushes. Haru wasn't the type to go chase one person. He chased them all. Much better odds. He was a real scumbag. Anyone could tell that.