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fallen_ginta (fallen_ginta) wrote in fallen_leaves,
@ 2009-05-14 21:09:00

Entry tags:

ginta, hiro

Dude, That Was YOU? [Hiro and Ginta]
[Takes place Monday, March 24, approximately five and a half years after Rescue Me, five days after Ask Me Another, and Don't Want to Fight This War]

The cryptography lecture was, it turned out, reasonably useful. Although the speaker--some woman from Intel who wore no makeup, little wire-rimmed glasses, and her hair in a tidy bun that just screamed nerd--wasn't really that great at fielding questions. As long as she stayed on topic and on her slides she was fine, but as soon as someone interrupted her she got flustered, lost her place, and then her temper.

After the first two times, Ginta asked questions just to see it happen. Hey, it wasn't that awesome of a lecture.

He was pretty sure she was at least as annoyed to be getting questions from a Hunter as anything else, but the lecture announcement hadn't said 'Intel Only' or anything like that. Knowing what changes to Konoha's code protocol were coming might keep a Hunter's body and soul together. Or at least mean if he got a coded delivery while he was in the field, he'd have a clue what the Intel person who'd encrypted it had meant but screwed up. Saved you showing up for a rendezvous at the wrong place, killing the wrong target, that sort of thing. Which saved paperwork.

More interesting than the lecture, though, was the little Hyuuga guy who sat near the front of the room and asked some fascinating questions of his own. Also flustering the speaker, but that was beside the point. There was something about him that pricked at Ginta's memory--he was sure he knew him from somewhere. Not the clubs. Not a mission. Not family. By the time the talk was over and the room was clearing, he'd made up his mind to just go ask the guy. And maybe see if he had any more ideas on how to handle getting a fresh encryption scheme mid-mission than the speaker had.

He hurried just a little to catch the Hyuuga before he could get out the door. "Hey!" His smile was broad and sparkling. "I thought you had some good questions. Want to get some coffee and talk about it? Also, do I know you? Because I'm pretty sure I know you. I'm Sakamoto Ginta."

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fallen_hiro
2009-05-14 11:27 pm UTC (link)

Hiashi-san? Sakamoto family or not, that kind of disrespect from anyone ruffled his fur. But Hiro buried discomfort with long practice, merely tagging along behind Sakamoto out the door, his eyes narrowing against the bright afternoon sunlight. "Lead the way," he motioned broadly, with a smile.

Ginta's last statement wasn't even worth dignifying with another remark--was he even in Intel at all? Either he was very good and was attempting to get through Hiro's defenses by playing clueless, or he actually was that clueless. Though really, it seemed impossible for any ANBU agent to be quite that oblivious--so probably it was the former. Hiro silently bumped up his private opinion of the man several notches, and resolved to watch closely.

In truth, there were two theories that Hiro had come up with for how he'd ended up as the second Hyuuga in ANBU. The first was that Sandaime-sama or one of his underlings had heard about Hiro's special techniques, and wished to recruit him; since that was the most flattering explanation, he thought that it was very unlikely to be true. The second option was that, during a political negotiation between Hiashi-sama and the Hokage--of which there were many--the Hyuuga head found himself needing to make a concession. As the most recently-promoted jounin, a specialist in the lower-prestige intelligence ops, and of a dubious genetic line to boot, Hiro knew he was the most likely target to be thrown to the wolves.

Sakamoto certainly had no need to hear about any of those speculations, though--however often he asked.

As they walked (or occasionally ran, in Hiro's case--the other ninja's legs weren't any longer than his own, so how did he manage to walk so ridiculously fast?), Hiro wondered if he had seen him before. It would have to have been a very long time ago, if so, probably while Hiro was still a genin; after his intelligence training, he rarely forgot a face.

"Do you remember anything else about when we might have met? I think I might remember, but... I admit I'm having trouble pulling the situation to mind." He lifted one shoulder, apologetic, and ran fingers nervously through long bangs, taking the opportunity to observe Ginta through his hair.

Slight and bubbly, ambling down the sidewalk with hardly a care in the world, Hiro thought that this man should have been difficult to forget.

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