damned_institute | Nightshift 29: M31-M40 Hallway

Usopp had put on his outfit, because in all truth he'd really really wanted to, it was more comfortable, it was better suited for work or exploration, and he thought he looked pretty good in it. True, it was a pair of overalls with a wrap around the waist and boots, but the look worked for him.

Which was why he had absolutely no excuse for opening the door, seeing Sai in that outfit, letting out an extremely audible squeak and closing the door shut again.

The ninja looked visibly surprised at this (his eyes widened - they really did) and he stood staring at the closed door a few moments before knocking again. "Usopp?" he asked, trying to sound the least threatening he could. "It's all right, Usopp. I'm not going to attack you."

He thought of asking if the other man wanted him to change out of his current outfit but, truth be told, he didn't really want to.

Usopp might be meek, but at least he wasn't stupid. After a few seconds thought, he opened the door again, grinning a bit too wide as though that canceled out his previous panic attack.

"Hi! Sai! Nice night! Weird intercom message. I guess you got your outfit back too, huh? Ha ha, yeah, I did too, see?" He stepped out into the hallway, hands on his hips as though either showing off his outfit or his sheer manly lack of terror. "Listen, um, about tonight..." This might get awkward. "Some of my crewmates were going downstairs, or going to try to. I don't know if I'm going with them or not yet, but I need to talk to Luffy first."

The sight of Usopp smiling caused Sai to smile back in return. Truthfully, it was still very difficult to tell when someone else was smiling for real or not. "Yes," he replied. "It was hanging in my closet. That's yours?" If he remembered correctly, the pirate had been wearing pieces of it the night before. Somehow the look didn't really fit the way he'd always envisioned pirates to look.

When it came to Usopp's plans: "That's fine." Whatever the sniper planned on doing wouldn't bother Sai in the slightest. Any awkwardness with the ninja was rarely on his end.

Fortunately, Usopp was awkward enough for two. As he waited in the hallway for Luffy to hopefully show, he added, "I was trying to get out of it, though. I was thinking... I still need a slingshot, but that shouldn't take too long to put together, and then maybe we can go get some stuff. See, there's a room upstairs that I think would be really useful..."

He'd argued with Nami until the end of the shift and failed the chance at asking the Doctor where his room was, although if the man was like Usopp he'd hesitate at posting his room number on the boards anyway. It was like putting up a target, 'Hey people who want free stuff, I've been gathering and building it!' Even with his nakama here to defend him, there was no helping an empty room and no way to lock the doors. He could boobytrap the place, but that risked someone he knew or worse his roommate tripping the trap by accident.

"Your slingshot?" Sai asked, expression once more serious. "You still need to finish it?" He would have thought that some time at dinner might have been used for this task, but then dinner hadn't seemed too terribly long this evening, had it? "Underwear, yes? And something to support the item being shot." All things considered, it shouldn't take very long to construct to satisfactory standards. They might even be able to do it before the other pirate arrived.

"We should do that now."

"Yeah, I was just going to use some cloth from my outfits. I still have spares from the clothes I've shredded. But I don't want to do it until I've seen one of my nakama." Usopp shook his head. "If Nami or Sanji come along, they're smart enough to knock on the door, but Luffy or Zoro might just get lost or wander past or something. And I want to use... our treasure to help secure the elastic band. So I don't want to leave the door open for anyone to see, and it'll take a few minutes to cool."

He leaned against the wall. "Your ninja outfit is pretty neat. Does everyone dress like that where you're from?" True, the manly look was for Usopp, but sleek and black and dangerous wouldn't be a bad alternative. And it still showed off muscles, although Usopp wasn't sure how much use stomach muscles were in a battle. Maybe if you got punched there, and had firm enough stomach muscles, you could break somebody's hand or something insane like that...

"No," Sai answered simply as Usopp asked about his clothes. "I don't know of anyone else who dresses just like I do." Generally speaking, most ninja had their own styles. Though certain ranks had uniform restrictions. Even then he saw many variations. "This is simply what I choose to wear. The boots and headband are regulation, if that's what you mean." He gestured to the toe-less shoes and tapped the metal plate on his forehead protector.

Then he stepped past Usopp and into his room, taking a seat on one of the beds. If the pirate wished to wait here, then there was no point in standing out in the hallway.

As Sai stepped inside, Usopp felt as though he should follow to continue the conversation, but he also wanted to be sure he didn't miss his nakama so everyone would be clear on where everyone else was. He'd experienced first-hand how disconcerting it could be to not be sure someone was still around, and thought, even if Luffy said he could stay behind, they should know where he was and that he wasn't absent on account of being brainwashed or tortured or something nasty like that.

So he sort of leaned in the open doorway, talking into the room at Sai. "Really? I always figured ninja wore uniforms and stuff. Do they usually have their stomachs showing?" It was a pretty unusual style. But it worked for Sai! Just unusual... Then he blinked, noticing something new in the dim light, a piece of cloth in Landel's grey on Sai's arm. "What's your armband?"

"There are some uniforms. I have one I wear when I need to." The mask and cloak of ANBU flashed in his mind briefly. "Not everyone wears them all the time." The Chuunin and Jounin vests were pretty common sights, though. Sai had always thought them rather unflattering.

The ninja glanced down at his stomach, then up again, blinking. "No. Exposed midriffs aren't common either." Danzo had mentioned more than once that he should find an outfit that didn't leave him so exposed, but since Sai did his job well enough it wasn't too much of an issue.

Usopp's mention of his armband caused him to smile again, lifting the limb so that the pirate could see it better. "Oh, this? I thought you might be upset if I didn't keep the headband you made."

"Oh, I see," Usopp answered, although he was curious what the uniforms looked like. And really curious why Sai was showing his belly off. If it were Nami or Sanji, he'd assume fashion, or in Nami's case possibly an attempt at manipulation. If it were Zoro he'd assume his clothes shrunk for some reason or had been cut and he just hadn't noticed. Luffy, he'd assume his stomach had been hot for some reason. "Does your stomach get hot a lot?" That was the only one he could imagine Sai relating to--purely physical comfort but not outright cluelessness.

As he saw the headband better, he grinned, but slowly, not quite sure of himself. He'd been a bit sad to see his hand-made gift replaced, but had decided to brush it off (after all, he'd gone back to wearing his own headband at night.) "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to." Hadn't he said that before?

"If that was the case," Sai continued smiling, "I would have cut up the uniforms here also." Not that he hadn't been tempted. They were a little bland. "No, I simply find them comfortable. I have other clothes, but this is the only outfit of mine I found in the closet."

About the gray headband he said nothing, but reached over and tugged it straighter so that the symbol Usopp had designed was more visible.

"Oh." But if it was really about comfort, wouldn't it be the same argument for cutting the shirts? Maybe he just meant it was very slightly more comfortable, and not worth getting fussed at by nurses over. Usopp didn't know why he kept wondering about it--it was just an anomaly, he guessed, not something he'd expected from Sai. And he hadn't had time to contemplate it very much when Sai had been kicking all their asses last night.

As Sai adjusted the headband, now armband, Usopp realized his face was turning red and he wasn't sure why. After last night, it was obvious that he was nowhere in the league of Sai's skills, though Sai wouldn't know that having never met Usopp outside of Landel's. But Sai was wearing his symbol. Not the Usopp Pirates symbol, those were disbanded, but a symbol Usopp had designed. Something about the whole situation seemed wrong, as though he'd done something bad. Maybe it was lingering guilt over Sousuke, that could explain it.

It was just a gift, and Sai didn't want to seem ungrateful by throwing it away. That was all. Besides, it wasn't on his head the way Sai's real symbol was. Usopp was just thinking too much about it.

"Thanks." Why was he thanking Sai? But he did, and then looked out into the hallway, feeling a serious case of the fidgets coming on.

((From here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/272535.html?thread=21235863#t21235863) ))

Luffy ventured out of his room, prepared to launch into a full sprint until he realized -- oh, hey, he didn't know the exact direction he needed to be going in! He paused and blinked, looking around himself. Then, luckily enough, he caught sight of his sniper standing against his doorway, and his expression brightened.

"Yo, Usopp!" he called as he made his way over. Then as soon as he reached the doorway, he caught of Sai sitting inside. "Hey, Sai! How're you doing?" He could have been asking about the weather, with how casual he sounded, but it was good to see the ninja again. "Looks like they let you keep your outfit, huh? Lucky!"

As Luffy arrived, Sai rose from his seat. The pirate captain was smiling, so the ninja kept up his own in return. Usopp seemed to have been right in that Luffy wasn't upset with him, but he could never be sure. Starting the night off on the wrong foot would only make their tasks more difficult to achieve.

"Good evening," he greeted. "I hope you weren't injured too badly last night, and I apologize for my actions." He may not be angry, but common courtesy still deemed an apology necessary. It would also reassure the pirate that he wasn't on the side of the institute anymore, in the event that he'd had any doubts.

"Hey, Luffy!" Usopp's confusion lifted and he broke into a grin, waving back. "So, uh, what's going on? Nami seemed pretty insistent, but I don't have stuff, you know?" He shrugged haplessly. "And you've got Nami to lead you and Zoro and Sanji to fight with you. I can't really come along as a sniper if I can't snipe."

"No, I get it," Luffy told Sai with a grin. "You really got me last night, but I know you're not a bad guy or anything. You don't have to apologize, 'cause nobody's mad at you. But, boy, I sure hope they don't brainwash anymore ninjas!" He gave a sudden, deep laugh. "We'd all die for sure, huh?"

Luffy scratched his cheek when Usopp spoke. "I dunno, I think it sounds like it'll be fun!" But he could get wanting some actual weapons, and maybe he and Usopp would be able to have more of an adventure tomorrow night if he had stuff with him. "But, all right!" Then his eyebrows furrowed, and he gazed at Usopp intently. "You have to make some cool stuff, though, okay? Are you gonna use that soldering iron?"

Only Luffy could say 'we'd all die for sure' with a laugh like that.

"Um, okay. I mean, yes! I'll make really cool stuff!" A slingshot with elastic from underpants probably would not ordinarily count as 'cool' by any means, but Usopp still puffed himself up and took the same proud pose as before, when showing his outfit (or lack of terror) to Sai. "You tell the others that I'll join you some night after I have more things ready, okay? And don't jump in the hole in the floor if it is a meat grinder, okay? And don't let Zoro get lost!" Why did he feel the urge to tell Luffy all this stuff that Luffy either already knew or would forget moments after their conversation? The most important thing was that they knew where he was. The sensation that he was a parent sending his irresponsible child off on an adventure was about as inappropriate as it could be, but there it was anyway. "Good luck with the kitchen!"

The smile fell from Sai's face and he appeared somewhat thoughtful. Or disappointed, or possibly angry. It was very hard to tell. "You should be careful, heading to the kitchen again. Whatever I was guarding last night... they don't want to make it easy for you to get to it. I have no doubt that you'll meet with opposition again."

Monsters or more brainwashed patients. The sun room wouldn't be safe no matter what. But then, one went through so many rooms going around that who could say this would be safer.

Luffy nodded as Usopp listed off the things he ought to remember, but in truth he was only partially paying attention. He was mostly just excited to get to the kitchen, and rather curious about what kinds of crazy things Usopp would come up with while he was away.

"Thanks," he said brightly when he was done.

The expression on Sai's face wasn't lost to him, but the pirate only grinned. "We gotta check it out because they are hiding it," he explained. "I mean, it must be pretty important or interesting if they're going through so much trouble. Besides, now we know there's gonna be something in there, so no surprises, right?"

He stepped away, looking back towards his room. No one had come to get him yet, but he guessed it'd probably be best if he went back before anyone got too confused, or someone came to smack him across the head. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later. Bye!"

And with that, he headed back towards his room.

(( To here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/272535.html?thread=21393047#t21393047) ))

Usopp wasn't so sure of all that, even though it was partially the same reasoning he'd used to justify their run into the bathroom of deathslugs before. Maybe at least his nakama would meet with someone neat like Sai on their way in--er, or rather, maybe they would get to know someone totally unbrainwashed, but interesting. The more friends all of them had here, the better.

And the more weapons, in his case. Zoro needed real swords, Luffy didn't need much of anything (although heavy objects of any shape couldn't hurt), Nami already had a staff and there was no making a ClimaTact in here, and Sanji just needed shoes if anything. Maybe if I find something to reinforce the thin sandals...?

He turned back into the room, closing the door behind him this time and turning on his flashlight. The expression on Sai's face concerning the kitchen disturbed him, a little, but it was understandable, even if he couldn't pin down the emotion leaking out. Concern, anger, distress? All of them would fit for a guy who'd spent the previous evening in that kitchen, forced to fight to 'defend' its secrets.

"So! Let's get to work! I've been keeping the soldering iron under the bed instead of in the closet just in case, wrapped in a t-shirt," he explained, crawling under to reach it.

Something came to Sai's mind as he watched Usopp fumble around underneath his bed. (Sadly, he lacked the proper sense of humor to find it amusing.) Something he'd been discussing the night before, prior to being dragged off the bus too fast for him to even realize what was happening. He had been talking with Uchiha Sasuke...

"Usopp?" he addressed the pirate's backside. "I had," not a friend, really - not yet, "a fellow ninja, an acquaintance, that was interested in meeting with you." He hadn't met up with the other boy yet tonight. Perhaps he should have waited a bit outside his room first.

"If we're quick here, I may be able to find him."

"Oh, really?" Usopp answered from under the bed, before dragging the small soldering iron out and unwrapping it. "He wanted to meet with me?" What for? Maybe he had something he wanted attached to something else?

Because even if Usopp couldn't build communications devices out of the radio or create explosives (and he sure was going to try if they got some cleaning chemicals anyhow) he had the means to attach things together. He smiled at the iron for a moment with something nearing pride, before putting it down while the tip heated, and headed to the closet. "This should only take a few minutes. Do you think he'll still be around then? It's always better to travel in big groups anyway, just in case."

"Yes. He's interested in making alliances." As many as possible, it seemed, which didn't match with the Sasuke he remembered meeting back in Orochimaru's hideout. Then again, it was possible that the other ninja also had ulterior motives that Sai hadn't picked up on. It wouldn't surprise him if this was the case.

"I don't know how long he would remain near his hall, nor whether or not he has any other plans. But he's currently blind. He may strike out at a slower pace than he would have before." He stepped closer to Usopp as he spoke, ready to help the pirate with whatever needed to be done to get the slingshot put together.

"Really? I made an alliance today too. Some guy named Haseo, in exchange for a drawing." Usopp talked conversationally as he started to work. Cut up his underpants, double them over for extra strength, then the soldering. This was actually very simple, much easier than the sword-like objects. "But I don't know what he does, to be honest. He just came over and I felt like drawing something, and he wouldn't accept it for free, so now we're allies, even though I have no idea who he is. Funny, huh? Hold this end down for me while this part dries?"

Usopp did not think the least bit critical of Sai's friend for being a blind ninja. He'd read ninja adventure novels, well, a few, when he'd run out of pirate adventure novels. He knew darn well that if anything was more dangerous than a ninja, it'd be a blind ninja. Sort of in the same way that pirates who were missing body parts were a lot scarier than pirates who looked whole and healthy--well, such as himself.

That's not really reality, though, and from the way Sai talks, it sounds like he hasn't been blind long... But the alternative was horrible. Usopp decided to just not ask if the ninja had been blinded in the Institute.

Nightshift 29: M31-M40 Hallway

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