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31_days2005-10-18 11:52 pm
swollenfoot.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-10-18 11:52 pm
[October 18] [Naruto] Pooh Bear On Happiness
Title: Pooh Bear On Happiness
Day/Theme: October 18 / Tao
Series: Naruto
Character/Pairing: Sasuke, Sakura
Rating: PG
21:12
Dark, quiet, and cool as the underground, what else was the library for but to nap in after late lunches? Dozing outside, whether under a midday sun or an icy drizzle was his usual daily fare, but there was just too much noise out there right now. The university grounds was teeming with both current and prospective students, many of which who were sunning themselves on the sprawling lawns, enjoying the beginnings of spring, that sort of sentimental shit. Too much stimuli and the impatience would materialize into a leaden knot in his chest and he would be imbalanced the rest of the day, simmering with a dull rage that throbbed in time with his breathing.
Light footsteps roused him from his light sleep. He blinked up at the girl with her strange hair—in the dim corner of the 3rd floor, she was all hair, the ghosting luminescence of a pink-dyed duck. She sat down without waiting for the invitation he wasn’t going to offer.
“Hey there.” Hushed. Like the voices in his nightmares.
He straightened, removing his head from the musty volume lying open on the table.
“How’ve you been, Sasuke?”
Petty pleasantries. The usual. “Fine,” he said.
“That’s good.” She finished lining her books across his stack, neatly setting up her laptop in front of her. “Naruto can’t come. He’s at the eastern gunnery. Some competition. I forget.”
“Aa.” He handed her his share of work.
A murmured thanks, then there was nothing but the clack of the keyboard and her light breathing. He closed his eyes.
He floated in between sleep and wakefulness. He couldn’t quite reach the oblivion of the former, for there was a sensation of unguardedness he could feel at the base of his skull. She was there, he could feel her, a palpable weakness in his well-controlled world. An aneurysm, yes. She had been raving about aneurysm the last meeting they had. She had defined it as a weakness in the wall of a blood vessel, if bad enough a ticking time bomb, instantly deadly when it ruptured like an overstretched balloon. She had seen a man turn white as rice in the course of a few seconds, as his aorta burst and dumped blood into his belly. Her teacher had saved the patient, of course—that’s why she was raving.
Sakura usually talked about her teacher. Or patients. Or cadavers. Or dreams.
Sakura was strange. Eccentric.
“Ah, Sasuke?”
His chin lodged in the groove of the book’s binding, he peered at her disinterestedly from under his brows.
“The semester’s almost over and all. After this project, I don’t think we three’ll see much of each other again.”
That was true. Obviously, the ANBU Academy had things planned in advance for Haruno Sakura. She was going to be a lab rat. Uzumaki Naruto was slated for more training on international diplomacy (also called espionage in some circles) under the famous Jiraiya. Uchiha Sasuke... he wasn’t going anywhere special. He was headed for field work, and he was satisfied with that. He’d learn to hunt men with practice. Practice and actual experience, not sitting around bullshitting professors about text-book criminal cases. He would hunt that man. He would catch him.
“I wanted to give you something. Call it a remembrance of sorts.”
“...Aa.”
She handed him a pocketbook, a slender thing that would be a relief to read after the highfalutin junk he’d been putting up with the last few years. It had cartoons on the cover, a child's book. He recognized the honey-colored creature traipsing about a forest scene.
“Winnie-the-Pooh?” Incredulity manifested itself in his cool appraisal of her gift.
She nodded earnestly. “A.A. Milne. I thought it might help you with your impatience issues.”
He frowned. Impatience issues? He never told her anything about ‘impatience issues.’ In fact, he never told her much of anything, though of course they went to Konoha High together and had known each other a long time; there were about nine from their graduating class who went into ANBU Academy. He never showed impatience either. People often complained he was too cold-blooded, too aloof, too bland. Even to his face sometimes.
“It’s a very good read,” she said sagely. “Going with the flow. Appreciating life. Finding the way. A sort of Tao Te Ching-ish manual.”
Tao Te Ching? So she was lobbying for Taoism now? Slightly bewildered, Sasuke tucked the book into his backpack. “You’re giving Naruto one of these?”
“Nah. I got him those Dragonball DVDs he’s been bugging people for.”
"I see.”
“Well... That’s it then,” she said. “I will email you two the copies of the draft. See you in class?”
“Aa.”
“Take care then.” She looked at him.
“Yes,” he finally said.
Satisfied, she started to gather her things.
Sakura was a strange girl, he thought as he watched her leave. More precisely, he watched the rhythmic movement of her ass as she left. So what?
Belatedly, he remembered the manners his late mother had inculcated in him as a child. He called his thanks after her.
She turned to beam a smile at him. "I'll get you the 'Tao of Pooh' when you finish with that one!" Then, she disappeared.
He went back to napping.
~23:01
- Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh." Googled this nice web page summing up the relationship between Taoism and Pooh bear.
Day/Theme: October 18 / Tao
Series: Naruto
Character/Pairing: Sasuke, Sakura
Rating: PG
21:12
Dark, quiet, and cool as the underground, what else was the library for but to nap in after late lunches? Dozing outside, whether under a midday sun or an icy drizzle was his usual daily fare, but there was just too much noise out there right now. The university grounds was teeming with both current and prospective students, many of which who were sunning themselves on the sprawling lawns, enjoying the beginnings of spring, that sort of sentimental shit. Too much stimuli and the impatience would materialize into a leaden knot in his chest and he would be imbalanced the rest of the day, simmering with a dull rage that throbbed in time with his breathing.
Light footsteps roused him from his light sleep. He blinked up at the girl with her strange hair—in the dim corner of the 3rd floor, she was all hair, the ghosting luminescence of a pink-dyed duck. She sat down without waiting for the invitation he wasn’t going to offer.
“Hey there.” Hushed. Like the voices in his nightmares.
He straightened, removing his head from the musty volume lying open on the table.
“How’ve you been, Sasuke?”
Petty pleasantries. The usual. “Fine,” he said.
“That’s good.” She finished lining her books across his stack, neatly setting up her laptop in front of her. “Naruto can’t come. He’s at the eastern gunnery. Some competition. I forget.”
“Aa.” He handed her his share of work.
A murmured thanks, then there was nothing but the clack of the keyboard and her light breathing. He closed his eyes.
He floated in between sleep and wakefulness. He couldn’t quite reach the oblivion of the former, for there was a sensation of unguardedness he could feel at the base of his skull. She was there, he could feel her, a palpable weakness in his well-controlled world. An aneurysm, yes. She had been raving about aneurysm the last meeting they had. She had defined it as a weakness in the wall of a blood vessel, if bad enough a ticking time bomb, instantly deadly when it ruptured like an overstretched balloon. She had seen a man turn white as rice in the course of a few seconds, as his aorta burst and dumped blood into his belly. Her teacher had saved the patient, of course—that’s why she was raving.
Sakura usually talked about her teacher. Or patients. Or cadavers. Or dreams.
Sakura was strange. Eccentric.
“Ah, Sasuke?”
His chin lodged in the groove of the book’s binding, he peered at her disinterestedly from under his brows.
“The semester’s almost over and all. After this project, I don’t think we three’ll see much of each other again.”
That was true. Obviously, the ANBU Academy had things planned in advance for Haruno Sakura. She was going to be a lab rat. Uzumaki Naruto was slated for more training on international diplomacy (also called espionage in some circles) under the famous Jiraiya. Uchiha Sasuke... he wasn’t going anywhere special. He was headed for field work, and he was satisfied with that. He’d learn to hunt men with practice. Practice and actual experience, not sitting around bullshitting professors about text-book criminal cases. He would hunt that man. He would catch him.
“I wanted to give you something. Call it a remembrance of sorts.”
“...Aa.”
She handed him a pocketbook, a slender thing that would be a relief to read after the highfalutin junk he’d been putting up with the last few years. It had cartoons on the cover, a child's book. He recognized the honey-colored creature traipsing about a forest scene.
“Winnie-the-Pooh?” Incredulity manifested itself in his cool appraisal of her gift.
She nodded earnestly. “A.A. Milne. I thought it might help you with your impatience issues.”
He frowned. Impatience issues? He never told her anything about ‘impatience issues.’ In fact, he never told her much of anything, though of course they went to Konoha High together and had known each other a long time; there were about nine from their graduating class who went into ANBU Academy. He never showed impatience either. People often complained he was too cold-blooded, too aloof, too bland. Even to his face sometimes.
“It’s a very good read,” she said sagely. “Going with the flow. Appreciating life. Finding the way. A sort of Tao Te Ching-ish manual.”
Tao Te Ching? So she was lobbying for Taoism now? Slightly bewildered, Sasuke tucked the book into his backpack. “You’re giving Naruto one of these?”
“Nah. I got him those Dragonball DVDs he’s been bugging people for.”
"I see.”
“Well... That’s it then,” she said. “I will email you two the copies of the draft. See you in class?”
“Aa.”
“Take care then.” She looked at him.
“Yes,” he finally said.
Satisfied, she started to gather her things.
Sakura was a strange girl, he thought as he watched her leave. More precisely, he watched the rhythmic movement of her ass as she left. So what?
Belatedly, he remembered the manners his late mother had inculcated in him as a child. He called his thanks after her.
She turned to beam a smile at him. "I'll get you the 'Tao of Pooh' when you finish with that one!" Then, she disappeared.
He went back to napping.
~23:01
- Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh." Googled this nice web page summing up the relationship between Taoism and Pooh bear.