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[ sakura comes jogging over not a two minutes later, gauss sniper rifle strapped to her back. she's got no clue what's got garrus in a mood in which shooting the crap out of things would be a great thing, but she doesn't really have room to judge his coping methods. she beats the shit out of things when she gets upset. ]

Hey. Thanks for doing this.

Yeah.

[He shakes his head as he gets up, mandibles drawing close to his face.]

You're welcome, I mean. Sorry. You don't deserve me being short.

[Garrus takes a slow breath to focus himself and get a grip before nodding.]

So. First step. Understanding the weapon. You taken that apart yet?

[ he's got nothing to worry about. his snappishness has got nothing on her shishou's. ]

Yeah. [ she nods with a slightly sheepish look. ] I have no idea what most of the parts do, but I know where they all go.

[ she taps her cuff and a little hologram doodle of the insides of her rifle--labeled in her shorthand with a lot of question marks--show up. ]

I made diagrams.

[ what a nerd. ]

Damn. Nicely done.

[No one else who he's taught guns to has done that much work.]

Let's run through that quickly, then.

[He leans forward and starts slowly walking her through the question-marked parts, taking his time so that she can follow and not get lost.]

[ it seemed like a good idea to take it apart and see if she could figure it out instead of just attempting to use it and possibly blowing herself up. and garrus' explanations are super helpful. sakura nods along with him, scribbling half-words in katakana next to the bits he explains so she can reference it later. ]

So... [ tilting her head to look up at garrus ( he is seriously unfairly tall ) she smiles. ] What's next, sensei?

[ she may or may not be teasing him a little bit. ]

[The translator tells him that word is stronger than teacher, more personal, and he remembers Ino used it when talking about her team leader, the one who taught her shogi. He knows it's just teasing, but it gets a little flicker of his mandibles in appreciation.

When he speaks his voice is still quiet, subharmonics still stressed, but there's also some warmth there again.]

Now we teach you how to hold it.

[He takes his own off his back and demonstrates.]

You want it braced like this, because every gun has recoil, a kick back after you fire it, and this is gonna keep you from having a bruised or dislocated shoulder later.

[ sakura mimics his stance, lifting the rifle up with the stock resting about where it should be. this feels a lot like being small again and learning how to throw shuriken. ]

Is turian musculature similar to a human's or have you just taught someone else how to use one of these before?

[ since if their shoulders work differently, she's thinking she may need to hold things a little differently to avoid injury. and, y'know. she's hella curious about the differences between species. ]

I've taught and worked with humans. Turians aren't in danger of an injury there.

[He looks over, examining her stance, before nodding.]

You've felt how heavy I am. That's metal plating. The kickback of any gun short of a rocket launcher isn't gonna do something to us. Do me a favor, straighten your back a little more.

[It's probably hard to tell from his back, really, seeing as the shapes are different.]

We'd be more in danger of hands slipping and the butt of the gun hitting us in the eye. Speaking of eyes, you're gonna wanna be looking through the scope now, finding a target. There's a bright red flower over there, pretty big. I'd make that the first thing to find in your scope.

[ with a nod, she straightens. ] Lucky you.

[ no, really. all that armor is something she's partially a little jealous of. the other part of her wonders how the hell she'd move if she had all that on her.

she looks through the scope and scans the horizon until she finds the flower garrus is talking about. and then she can't help but smile. it seems kind of fitting that a friend of ino's is teaching her while using a bright red flower. ]

I see it.

Our planet's atmosphere is pretty thin. Meant a whole lot of problems before we evolved the armor.

[They'd needed the added protection. Every apex species evolved to suit their needs and their planets, and humanity hadn't had that threat. But that's not really the topic at hand.]

When you're ready, I want you to take a breath, focus, breathe out, and fire. You might miss. Actually, you probably will. Every gun pulls in its own way when you fire, and part of learning to shoot is learning your gun and learning to adjust to it. But take your time and be ready. There's gonna be a really loud noise and the gun'll have its kickback.

[ she shoots him a look when he talks about adjusting to the gun. ] That seems inefficient.

[ but she supposes it makes a strange sort of sense. not every blade is balanced the exact same way either, even if there's less discrepancy than it sounds like there is for guns.

as she looks back through the scope, sakura goes still. inhale, exhale. a breeze makes the flower sway. another breath, and on the exhale, sakura squeezes the trigger. she misses; the shot goes to the left a bit. but it's in the general vicinity of the flower, so she'll call this one a win. ]

That... is really pretty cool. Even if I missed.

Most guns are mass-produced. You put out five thousand parts an hour, there's gonna be things that are slightly off about each piece in a different way. Maybe the barrel has an irregular ground-out area. Maybe the scope's the teeniest bit flawed. Maybe it wasn't put together exactly right.

[Garrus shrugs.]

The more you learn about guns, the more you'll be able to compensate. To fix them to your preferences, and deal with the flaws. If you want. I know you've got plenty of weapons already. But that's a damn good shot for a beginner, and you could figure this out.

[It's probably because of her training, really. He's seen some of what Ino and Kakashi can do now, and it's clear they've worked hard at their craft. Which makes sense.]

Compensate for the pull, and try again.

[ the barrel of the rifle lowers so sakura can roll her shoulder. it doesn't hurt, but the kick back isn't exactly something she was expecting. ]

I actually don't have that many weapons. My tanto, [ she gestures at the blade holstered at the small of her back ] and three kunai someone gifted me. [ and only three of those are long-distance weapons of any kind.

she raises the gun again and, remembering how the shot veered, compensates. which is an odd thing to do when looking through a scope. she still misses. it's a nearer miss this time, though. the frown that tugs at her mouth isn't a frown of frustration, but of someone who has just discovered a new puzzle they're determined to figure out. ]

Alright, so what's it look like when someone can actually hit the target?

Like this. Purple flower, three trees to the left of the red one.

[Garrus finds it in his scope and fires, a quick, smooth action born of decades of practice. The flower bursts into petal fragments and he lowers his gun.]

Different sizes and types of rounds do different types of damage, though part of the gun's effect is in the head. Means if you're up against someone who knows what a gun is, you can shoot them anywhere and do more damage because they figure they're gonna get pretty badly hurt. When it's someone or something not familiar with a gun, you've gotta be more precise. Forehead, vital organs, throat. Those are the shots that'll take them out. Everything else just hurts.

[ the starry-eyed look she had back when garrus told her what his rifle could do is the same one that she wears as she watches that flower burst apart. ]

With the kind of precision you're talking about, hitting non-vital areas could also work to your advantage, depending on the situation.

[ her knowledge of anatomy when combined with a sniper rifle has the potential to be a truly terrifying thing. and this is why most of the ninja are on red team. ]

The kind of precision I'm talking about takes years and years to master.

[He slings the gun back on his back with a shrug.]

I'm a sniper. This is what I do. Most people aren't going to be able to use that sort of precision because they don't want to take the time to learn it. But I'll teach and work with anyone who does.

[ years and years... that's not unexpected but at the same time sakura can't help but wish it were easier to master things. but, on the other hand, then everyone would be doing it. ]

You sure you want to make an offer like that? I can get a little obsessive when I find something I want to learn.

[ which is to say she's going to put in however much time it takes for her to get really damn good at this. and will possibly be texting garrus questions about guns a hell of a lot. ]

I enjoy teaching. Especially when it's someone who wants to learn.

[There are plenty who think they want to learn but don't want to put much work into it. They just want to point and shoot and while sure, sometimes they'll hit things, it's going to be more wasteful than anything else.]

I'll teach you, Sakura.

Thanks. Really.

[ she grins and hefts the rifle up again, sighting the flower. ]

How long do you think it'll take for Ino to make a bouquet of some of these?

You're welcome.

[He steps back, watching her stance and how she's holding the gun as she takes aim.]

And I give her five, ten minutes once she finds them. And once she's sure they're not going to try to eat whomever she gives the bouquet to.

Sounds about right.

[ breath in, breath out... a few petals on the right side of the flower flutter as she misses again. ]

Ah, damn. Too much compensating that time. [ she shakes her head, still smiling. ] I feel like I'm back in the Academy.

You'll get it.

[He sounds confident because he is. She's smart and determined.]

You've got the pattern down, now you just need to know the gun. That was closer than the other shots, too. And I'm gonna bet none of your Academy instructors were as stylish as me.

[ if she was thinking of trying a fourth time, the short burst of laughter that escapes her derails that idea. ]

Since all my instructors wore the same uniform and flak jacket... Yeah, you're probably right.

[His mandibles flicker out a little. Making someone laugh makes him feel a little better, actually, and between the lesson and her sense of humor Garrus is successfully pushing back his heartache.]

So what Kakashi wears is what you're always subject to. Sorry to hear that. I'd try to give him advice, but nothing turian will fit him. At least it looks like the younger generation isn't gonna have to deal with that mishap.

Yeah, I don't usually wear sensei's kind of get up. I like my boots too much.

[ she misses her boots. ]

And not all of the jounin sensei wear that, just most of them. Ask Kakashi about what his best friend wears sometime.

action!!

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