sunshineverse | [open; 01/19-01/23]

Sasuke had grown to appreciate the culture of T&I a great deal over the past few weeks. The team Obito assigned him had proved stunningly efficient, the disparate team of specialists falling into place like gears in a well-oiled machine. The two information specialists had set to work immediately on debrief, playing bait into their carefully-maintained networks until leads had started twitching up out of the murky information Sasuke had had available, and field ops had slipped smoothly into action as soon as he'd been able to confirm some of the more promising ones while out on his mission with Sakura.

Waiting for their first report to arrive left him, strangely, with very little to do in the interim. He'd wound up getting a pass into the archives in the morning, ignoring the eyerolls that his information specialists had delivered when he'd told them. Keener, they'd said, not unkindly, but otherwise left him to it.

The best thing about the team, really, was the way that none of them asked more questions than they could help.

By afternoon he'd already forced his way through some of the driest scrolls he'd read in a lifetime of dry scrolls, blinking himself out of a doze more than once; it was glaringly obvious that he needed to do something to wake himself back up before trying to resume. Anyone else wandering into the archives after lunch would find him with his collar pulled high over his mouth and nose, hair lightly covered with dust, reorganizing a shelf of scrolls that likely hadn't been read in a decade.

Mhm, the daily grind coupled with old dust really wore down the spirit. That's why coffee existed. Mika had always found it soothing and she made a habit of sneaking a thermos in if she was working in the archives. Today she'd brewed it extra strong for an extra long dive into the scrolls. A familiar face greeted her, looked like the young Uchiha had gotten stuff doing some kind of grunt work.

"Sasuke-kun?" Mika edged over and covered her nose and mouth. Good gods he was picking up a lot of dust.

There had been a few people in and out of the archives already, mostly seasoned veterans who knew exactly where to go for the information they wanted and were in and out quickly. Sasuke gave only a cursory glance to the next person in, not quite registering that it was a familiar face until he'd looked back down at the scrolls in his hands and heard Mika's voice.

... this was probably not a state a son of the Uchiha clan head should have been in when greeting anyone, much less a recent mission partner. Sasuke set the scrolls in the appropriate order, giving his hands a largely-ineffective dusting-off before nodding to acknowledge Mika's presence.

"Mika-san. How are you?"

She smiled a little, Sasuke was one of the last people she expected to meet today and the dust wasn't very becoming. "I'm doing pretty well Sasuke-kun, just needed to come in and locate some papers. Looks like you're doing the same then?" Her eyes looked over the shelves, curious why the teen was there.

"It gets kind of lonely in here, did you need any help?" Judging from all the dust he'd been there a while. It couldn't hurt to help Sasuke in some menial task for a few minutes.

Some papers was not, strictly speaking, an entirely accurate description of w hat Sasuke was looking for, but to have an answer given to him rather than demanded of him was a pleasant change. He nodded instead of answering directly, reaching for another pair of out-of-order scrolls to illustrate:

"I got distracted by the mess this part of the shelves was in," he said, not untruthfully. "There's no need for you to waste your time doing the same."

Oh god, a neat freak? He'd be here forever if no one stopped him. "Oh boy, you might not want to do that for too long. Then you'll start noticing everything that's wrong." She laughed at that but was actually worried he might just try and organize even more. Then the regulars would freak out because their ordering system would be messed up and they'd be doing what Sasuke was attempting now. Even if no one else would actually care because these scrolls were likely useless to most people.

"You came in here something else then?" Maybe she could steer him away from this task.

"I've already noticed more than a few," he admitted, tone dry. He didn't miss the easy familiarity Mika had in the space: clearly she'd spent plenty of time here before. One of few who did, if the dust was any indication.

The question of what he was supposed to be here for returned, however, probably inevitably. Sasuke hesitated a moment before he gestured at the single measly scroll he'd found on chakra invasion so far. "I was looking for more information along those lines, originally. But it's not an urgent thing."

Very few in fact. Most people tried to avoid coming into the archives. Mika was one of the oddballs that actually got some enjoyment out of it. There was lots of interesting tidbits just laying around.

She looked to the scroll, then back at Sasuke. He must have a lot of downtime right now or something. He'd acted a little hesitant in replying which piqued Mika's interest. "Oh? Mind if I look?" Perhaps she might know where similar scrolls were, seeing as she was a more frequent visitor. "We may as well get you squared away, it'd suck to make another trip ne?"

His first instinct was to reject the assistance, but his second -- the one that had started to feel more like himself, or whatever himself had been before the start of this year -- reasoned that anyone even in this room had at least the amount of clearance required to know the contents of it. And he could just as easily have been doing his own research unrelated to any developments in his life.

Still, there was a hesitation before he nodded. "I'm looking into control. Of the body and the mind."

Mika was getting more curious, Sasuke obviously seemed uncomfortable or unwilling to disclose anything right away. Was it something that embarrassed him? If it were really meant to be a secret then Sasuke would have just told them to leave him alone.

As he told Mika what he was looking for though, they went "oh" and gave a nod. Was this for personal use? They decided not to ask. Yet.

"I'll have to double check but I think such scrolls on self discipline and such are a shelf down. Let me look." He could put the other scrolls away as they did so. This was interesting to say the least.

[open; 01/19-01/23]

[01/19; open to anyone with Archives clearance]

[[the true reason mika drinks coffee all the time]]

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