Night 51: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[ai_no_minako]

[from here]

The only problem with being punctual was that it left her all alone (hopefully all alone, at least) in a large, echoing hallway with nothing but her imagination. Considering that Minako's imagination was pretty good, especially given the last few years, that wasn't exactly a good thing. She gave the area a careful investigation, making

Comments

[buryyourdemons]

[from here--and for the smooth loving group--I mean. Hearts. And candy. All hardcore. =D]

Exiting through that door had led back into the main hall as he thought, with only a few others around for the time that had passed. There was an irritation grinding in the back of his mind, something that set warnings he had placed off. Control was a perfected thing. Allow too much to affect, and then things would spiral from a finely tuned grasp. But nervousness had crept up his spine, tightening his hold on the pillow-case he held, half-heavy.

Yes. He would find his sister or Naruto if he could. And discuss the strange limitations he now held. The fact that his control remained was a relief; that there was little to control fed only into his emotions. And this was the best he could manage here? He paused near the wall, head tilting down and eyes sliding out. He couldn't just accept it so easily.

[blood_and_pocky]

[from here]

It was then that the noble actively took the lead. The stink had been faint before, but the closer they came, the stronger it grew in the back of his throat and in his mind’s eye, rivaling in presence what was already in front of him in the hallway. He cast the Sun Room a frosty look.

He’d come across similar blood before, too often, really. It didn’t make him happy.

Once he was a handful of steps away from the Sun Room doors, he turned around and addressed Sasuke again. "One of Landel’s monsters shed a lot of blood in there," he said, a warning disguised as an idle comment to the untrained ear. Could the boy smell it himself? It was easy to forget the limits of a normal human, and someone like Sasuke was an abnormal human at best. For Aidou, though, it was another instance of untangling the numerous blood scents that hung in the air like different ribbons of color and giving it a name

[sasuke_of_sound]

[[GUYS I'M SORRY I FAIL SO BADLY AAAHHHH.]]

It hit the senses a moment after Aidou spoke: unmistakable stench of blood, with that attendant undercurrent of rot that Sasuke had learned to associate with the monsters of this place. Not human blood, then, unlike other times they had walked this same route.

The frequency of it begged the question of why the beasts here seemed to operate without any real awareness of their surroundings -- most flesh-eating animals (as many of the creatures seemed to be) should have been drawn to blood. That a scent strong enough for human senses, albeit trained ones, to detect marked a clear path rather than a risk would have been strange in a natural environment, unless their adversaries were released in deliberately destructible numbers.

Conjecture. Sasuke nodded to acknowledge that he'd heard, pausing by the door.

"I assume we'll wait for Zack to return?" What person had required such sudden urgency, anyway? At least it hadn't seemed like the man was headed anywhere far.

[zack_fair]

[From here.]All in all, his chat with Tifa had been pretty fast. Zack was glad for that; while he would have liked to take some more time to make sure she was taken care of, there were a number of reasons that that was a bad idea. For one thing, he needed to make sure that Sasuke and Aidou didn't have to wait too long. And on top of that, he didn't want to condescend to Tifa like that. If she was injured, then he had to tell himself that she would use her best judgment

[buryyourdemons]

Movement was faulty at best, but it was provided, and perhaps he would have crossed paths without knowledge of another had not the other spoken. Quietly and feet away, and yet Gaara would not forget that voice so easily. One who had spoken echoes of a past self, and then went on to move further from it. That one had stopped nearby, watching the door to the main room with another. The Suna-nin's steps shifted, bringing him closer quietly. The cloth hung unobtrusively from his tightened fist. Naruto. Temari. And this one. The meaning of bringing all of them together was not known. And were there more?

Another joined them, greeting warmly, but Gaara only stared at the other shinobi, tone even when he spoke. "Uchiha Sasuke." The one who had fled only recently. Yet, as with Naruto, the Uchiha had grown within the months after the Chuunin exams by a substantial amount. Gaara's eyes narrowed fractionally.

[blood_and_pocky]

“He should be quick.” ‘Should’ not in the sense that he knew Zack was a timely guy, but that they couldn’t be caught standing around for too long. Time was wasting and he knew it well.

Fortunately, Zack seemed to know it too, because he didn’t stop long with the woman. Good, then. They were all set.

Except this was Landel’s, and things went smoothly only on the rarest of nights.

Locking on to the movement, he watched the small figure start toward them from the corner of his eye. Of course he remembered that face. How could he not? But as he’d noted before, this was not the same little eyebrow-less redhead; it added a whole different layer of complication that Aidou neither wanted or needed, and he had no interest in focussing on it. They had somewhere to be--Sasuke included, even if the two were acquainted from home. After all, Sasuke hadn’t said he’d invited anyone else along or had other business along the way

[sasuke_of_sound]

And speak of the devil: Zack arrived right as Aidou claimed he would, sounding decidedly too cheerful and excited to spend a night groping around in Landel's basement. Was it an effect of being relatively new, or was it just a factor of the man's personality?

Before Sasuke could either make a conclusion or let the subject drop from mind, it was sharply interrupted by a voice that was difficult to forget. He stiffened, a frown cutting into his expression. Someone else who had been here briefly and left. At this rate, Sasuke could expect Lee to reappear any time.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he acknowledged, even as Aidou made his impatient demand. Their voices overlapped, but he continued speaking despite it： "You are new here." It was statement and not question; there was a quality to Gaara's tone that made it clear he hadn't seen Sasuke recently. "We have little time to stand around and talk. If you wish to speak with me, you will have to follow us."

[zack_fair]

Before Zack could say much more - heck, before they could even get into the Sun Room - they were interrupted by yet another person. It seemed like tonight was a night of running into familiar faces, or vice versa. With the way the redheaded kid was saying Sasuke's name, it was pretty clear that the two knew each other

[buryyourdemons]

The blond was ignored without a glance in his direction. The shinobi continued watching the other, as the Uchiha made clear his intentions. Did Gaara have any want to converse with this one? No, nothing so simple. But from the looks of his team, Sasuke had been here for some time at least. Had he came straight here while they had been fighting the Sound ninjas?

Here, again, were too many questions with no answers. The dark haired man that had approached gestured to the doors that they were standing by, and Gaara's mouth twisted slightly, before giving the smallest of nods--passing the group to push open the doors.

[to here]