Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

[selfrescuer.livejournal.com]

Somehow, after their talk in the chapel, Elaine felt simultaneously more accepting of and more irritated by her future husband. On the one hand, seven years had clearly been good to him. He seemed more sincere and thoughtful than he had been before his disappearance, and he had a more mature (dare she say, handsome?) look to him. On the other hand, there were clearly some things that made even time throw up its hands in vain and say, "To hell with this!" Guybrush was still inexorably prone to disastrous accidents if the story about the Pox of LeChuck was anything to go by, and he was so obviously keeping something important from her that any passing dolt in the Institute would have been able to tell. In the end, that eternal underlying sweetness of his that won out, keeping her from punching him again, at least. That was only by a hairs width, though. Her snugglecakes was going to have to stay on his best behaviour if he knew what was good for him.

She left the Mighty Pirate™ alone for the time being when the announcement of the next shift went off. He would want some time to catch up with Morgan next, presumably. As much as the woman's attitude bothered her, she was a friend of Guybrush's, as she had claimed. Elaine could be strict, but she wasn't the kind of shrewish future wife/past fiancé who would keep her man from seeing his friends. Besides, she needed some more time to catch up on the goings-on of the Institute. Patients filled the building to the brim, now, it seemed; there would be a lot to investigate.

After a few quick trips back and forth to the bulletin and a few new leads to follow up on, the governor gave in to her nurse's persistent nagging and headed to the cafeteria for brunch. After the relatively light fare of the day before, Elaine took advantage of the Institute's admittedly scrumptious offerings and loaded up a full, balanced brunchfast of eggs, sausage links, waffles, and vegetable soup. As expected, the selection of drinks did not offer either root beer or grog. Grog she could live without, at least, she thought while making a face. Eugh. For now, she settled for a tall glass of water.

Elaine settled into a seat in the cafeteria and tucked into her meal. Her eyes didn't stay on her food, though, instead gazing around restlessly; she hadn't seen LeChuck so far this morning, and god forbid he wanted to invite himself to brunch with her if he chose now to show up. A certain horribly unpleasant dinner on Mêlée Island came to mind. She was prepared to either move at the first sign of the dread pirate or signal a random stranger to sit with her before he could.

[For Dean]

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[livesbyinstinct.livejournal.com]

If there was one thing to positively be said about Landel's, it was that the food was actually decent. Better than decent, really, though Kiba hated to admit it. He resented it, in a childish sort of way. He resented the fact that the bastards who were responsible for this mess could serve honestly good food and yet hold hundreds of people here against their will. It was like shoving flowers in someone's face after you had just purposefully pushed them down a flight of stairs, and were miles away from regretting it.

He also hated the fact that he was hungry. He didn't want to touch a single thing the institute offered him, but he was starving, and there was nothing wrong with the food. Dammit all to hell. And if he didn't take something in the next five minutes, he was sure his nurse would probably shove something down his throat herself. His mother had done it, and considering how large this particular woman was, he doubted she would have any qualms following in his mother's footsteps. He hadn't even bothered to pick up a tray. All he had in his hands were a few tightly wadded napkins. Kiba was too busy scanning the cafeteria for Sakura to bother.

It didn't take long, of course. It was hard to miss a head of violently pink hair. Kiba frowned once he had spotted her, eyebrows furrowing before he grabbed a burger and a small handful of sausage links, shoving them into his collection of napkins before darting off, completely tuning out the surprised cry of his nurse.

Thankfully, she didn't follow him. Perhaps she had finally taken the hint that he neither enjoyed nor appreciated her company, or perhaps taking some food had satisfied her, or maybe she had dealt with so many patients like him during her lifetime that she knew when it was better to use force and when it was better to just leave things be.

Not that Kiba particularly cared, she could use whatever reason or excuse she liked, so long as it got her off his back.

He navigated his way through the cafeteria, sliding his way into empty spot just in front of Sakura, setting down his food in front of him. His initial frown had deepened into an annoyed grimace. He recalled what Sai had told him--that not everyone would remember the same events like he would, like they were taken from a different point in time, with the world just carrying on without them. He really didn't take much stock into the time thing, but he could buy into memories being tampered with.

Which brought Kiba to his main problem: just how much did Sakura remember? A full day might have passed and significantly cooled his initial anger at being knocked unconscious, but Kiba was still sour enough about it that he was more than eager to tell her off--to let her know that her little stunt wasn't funny, and that he and Akamaru sure as hell didn't appreciate it. But if she didn't remember anything about it? That complicated things. Had today been yesterday, perhaps nothing Sai could have told him would have stopped Kiba from giving her a piece of his mind.

He stared at Sakura for a few more seconds, expression unchanged. He might as well get straight to the point. He didn't care how bitter he sounded. "Look, what's the last thing you remember?"

[Sorry for the wait!]

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Sakura hadn't worked a lot with team 8, but she knew at least a little bit about Kiba, being in the same class at the academy and all(when he bothered to show up at least). But he'd been helpful and decent at doing his job when assigned missions, so when he sat across from her looking and sounding as if she'd done something to offend him, she could only raise an eyebrow and regard him just a little strangely. Seriously, what was his problem?

"The last thing I remember?" she repeated, trying not to sound as bitter as he did. It was possible he had some information about what had happened since their time in Konoha. Though Shikamaru's warning still hung heavily on her. Did she really want to know? She'd said before that it was important, that maybe they could change things, but now? After finding out that Kakashi had been taken away, would he meet the same fate?

"Intelligence was working on deciphering a message from Jiraiya and analyzing the other corpse they found. Naruto just left to do some training with
Fukasaku and the sages. I've been helping Tsunade-sama with the usual chores since Shizune is busy studying that body," she tried to leave things vague enough that it would give a good approximation of her time, without mentioning the deaths of any of their teammates in case she was actually ahead of him or something.

[No prob! :D]

[livesbyinstinct.livejournal.com]

So, she didn't remember anything then. Great. Wonderful. Just what Kiba had wanted. Her not remembering her own damn mission was just fantastic.

Kiba sighed in response. Sakura didn't seem to be lying about anything either, so all Kiba could do to express his frustration was hunch over the cafeteria table and glower at her like a child. He had been prepared for her not remembering, kind of, he supposed, given that Sai had actually said something about the possibility. The pale-faced bastard had actually been useful for once, though Kiba was sure Sai still had more than his share of secrets.

But just because Sai had talked to him about it, didn't mean he knew how to respond when it was proven true, that he remembered more than she did. Sai had acted like he hadn't wanted to know what the future held for him, that he would prefer to find it out for himself, and Kiba was more than happy to oblige his unspoken request. If he didn't want to know, fine. No skin off his knows. But he didn't know what Sakura wanted, though he was tempted to push her feelings aside and just tell her everything that had happened--every morbid last detail. Maybe wrestle an apology out of her while he was at it, even if she technically didn't remember executing her brilliant little plan yet.

"Yeah, well, I'm way ahead of you then," he said, biting off half of a sausage link, more to give him something to chew on than anything. It was her business, he told himself again. And if she didn't want to know, that was her problem.

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

For some reason, that seemed to irk Kiba. What was with the sighs and the attitude?! Brat.

But way ahead? So he was really far in their future? He didn't look that much older than the last time she'd seen him, so it couldn't have been a matter of years or anything like that. But with how tense the situation had been between other villages and with Sasuke and Akatsuki before she left, maybe a lot had happened between her time and his. She already knew things were dangerous enough because of what Kakashi had told them, but Kiba was still alive, (at least she assumed so) and well, not freaking out or anything, so it couldn't be that bad!

"I already heard about what happened to Kakashi-sensei," she admitted, looking down at her tray, "but what about the rest of Konoha? Is everyone alright?" It was a difficult question to ask, knowing full well that she might not like the answer. Knowing that it might mean hearing about even more deaths and destruction, but it was better to know, she told herself, so she could be prepared, so maybe she could change things.

[livesbyinstinct.livejournal.com]

"The rest?" he said, narrowing his eyes as he watched Sakura look down at her tray. He wasn't sure how to interpret that. He grunted once, tone evening out some. "Mostly. Tsunade's unconscious and Konoha's leveled after what that Pain-bastard did. His resurrection jutsu (or whatever kind of jutsu it was--hell if I know) didn't fix that part of Konoha. Good news is that he dead. Snuffed himself out, and good riddance."

He wasn't sorry that he was gone either, even if Pain had apparently tried to make up for what he he had done to Konoha. The guy had just about killed Hinata, the son of a bitch. There was no forgiving him for that. He would've liked to have beat the crap out of the guy himself, had he been able to.

"You also remember Danzo, right? That creepy bastard that Sai reports to?" And that was another reason why he didn't trust Sai. He seemed to follow the orders of a certified nutcase. "He's hokage now. Still is, as far as I know."

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

Leave it to Kiba to just blurt everything out. The feeling, she realized, must've been oddly similar to what'd happened when she'd spilled about Jiraiya to Shikamaru. She had to take it in pieces, just to make sure she understood. Tsunade was unconscious? Pain was the guy from Akatsuki, but...

"Would you slow down a little?!" she shook her head. "So Akatsuki attacked Konoha? But why the hell would he use a resurrection jutsu?" And more importantly, on who? She'd seen what that sort of jutsu looked like, what it could do, but it still didn't explain why Pain would've used it on anyone in Konoha. Having one of the most powerful enemies they'd ever faced just off himself like that seemed way too convenient.

But when she heard that Danzo- DANZO?! was the new hokage, she couldn't hold her temper in check any longer. Her fists slammed down on either side of her tray, rattling the dishes and almost overturning her plastic cup of water.

"WHAT!?"