[video] February 10th, late afternoon

[heavenly_earth]

[The feed opens up to Neji staring at his communicator and looking mildly contemplative. After a few moments of silence though, he realizes that he's already switched it on and straightens as he pulls himself together. There's still a trace of uneasiness in his tone, tucked into halting words of surface confidence that ring strangely hollow]

..I apologize for my week of absence. [There are number of implied apologies in that simple statement, threaded into the overarching reason- from simply being held captive, to the people he's killed, and those he'd turned against during his detainment. But he doesn't have words to put to any of that, so he won't try]

Starting tomorrow, I will be returning to Morning Training as an instructor- as well as to my duties as a Zone Lead of the Watch. I appreciate the efforts of those that have covered for me and worked diligently in my absence. Please contact me with any neccessary information that I should be aware of.

Thank you.



[It's here he loses that edge of listlessness, and he half-bows to the feed; head down, words anxious]

Azusa-san, please teach me to master Clairvoyance.

Comments

[weaponry]

It's nice to have you back, Neji. [ She's happy she won't have to go through all of that red tape just to talk to you. ]

[heavenly_earth]

Yes. [He doesn't look or sound too sure of that, but moves past it]

How are you and Santana?

[weaponry]

Are you sure? [ She definitely didn't miss that lack of confidence! ]

We're just fine. We survived the attack and the mission without any injuries. [ Yaaaay. ]

[heavenly_earth]

I'll be fine. [Puts a little more effort into looking it this time]

..I didn't manage to come back you up, but I'm relieved the two of you managed well despite. I'll make it up to you.

[weaponry]

It's all right, Neji. I didn't manage to find Naruto or Lain, so we can just call it even. Besides, we aren't helpless. Sometimes things like these are necessary. They make you stronger, and we had Kakashi-sensei to help us too. [ SHE CAN DO BAD ALL BY HERSELF... with Kakashi's help. ]

[heavenly_earth]

I see. How fortunate.

In any case, however, once everything has settled down somewhat, I'm interested in taking an assignment with the two of you with Lain.

[weaponry]

I think that'd be a perfect way to bond with just the four of us! We work really well together, and I work somewhat well with Lain and Santana. I'm just worried about... [ An implicit Santana and Lain is audible on the other end. ]

[heavenly_earth]

Better to sort any potential difficulties about before a critical situation arises. Although I don't believe there will be too much of an issue.

[weaponry]

Santana's experiences with Lain are probably limited, but I do know she thinks Lain's really strange, and she's probably seen Bold's [ ...How does she phrase this.. ] possessiveness before.

[heavenly_earth]

It'll be an opportunity to learn professionalism, if nothing else. In any case, I don't see them with much opportunity to argue in Weapon forms.

[weaponry]

That's true. We've worked with similar weapons before, so it'd be incredibly easy for us to get the task done!