The parade is chaotic: a mass of moving bodies clad in colorfully patterned fabric, rhythmic music in the air, children darting around longer legs to wedge in closer to the street for a better view. Sasuke isn't there with keen interest in seeing or participating in the parade as its audience โ it's simply impossible to escape. He'd taken one road to navigate out of Mirth in the deepening night, only to find his way obstructed by streamers and volunteers blocking the path of the procession. So he had turned and doubled back and found himself further enmeshed in gathering crowds, somewhere closer to the heart of the district.
He considers, in a state of heightening agitation, the feasibility of leaping to the tops of the buildings to take a more direct exit. In readiness, he even gathers chakra into the soles of his feet and begins looking for an accessible route.
Then he catches sight of a head of pink hair in the crowd, accompanied by that familiarly crisp, cool chakra signature, and Sasuke hesitates too long. They're close โ it would only take a few steps to reach her. He wonders why she's here. For the parade, or some other aspect of the festival? It's the first he's seen her outside the docks up to her elbows in medical work. He remembers their last conversation, sharp as it had lingered in his mind. So when a child rams into his legs from behind, Sasuke is off-guard enough to stumble, right hand out to catch her shoulderโ]
Sakura, waitโ
[... only, as his stomach swoops with the tilted nausea of sudden disorientation, he finds himself looking up at... himself? Looking up?
๐ฌ๐๐ค๐ฎ๐ซ๐ | parade
The parade is chaotic: a mass of moving bodies clad in colorfully patterned fabric, rhythmic music in the air, children darting around longer legs to wedge in closer to the street for a better view. Sasuke isn't there with keen interest in seeing or participating in the parade as its audience โ it's simply impossible to escape. He'd taken one road to navigate out of Mirth in the deepening night, only to find his way obstructed by streamers and volunteers blocking the path of the procession. So he had turned and doubled back and found himself further enmeshed in gathering crowds, somewhere closer to the heart of the district.
He considers, in a state of heightening agitation, the feasibility of leaping to the tops of the buildings to take a more direct exit. In readiness, he even gathers chakra into the soles of his feet and begins looking for an accessible route.
Then he catches sight of a head of pink hair in the crowd, accompanied by that familiarly crisp, cool chakra signature, and Sasuke hesitates too long. They're close โ it would only take a few steps to reach her. He wonders why she's here. For the parade, or some other aspect of the festival? It's the first he's seen her outside the docks up to her elbows in medical work. He remembers their last conversation, sharp as it had lingered in his mind. So when a child rams into his legs from behind, Sasuke is off-guard enough to stumble, right hand out to catch her shoulderโ]
Sakura, waitโ
[... only, as his stomach swoops with the tilted nausea of sudden disorientation, he finds himself looking up at... himself? Looking up?
At himself?]
What...