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Diversionary Tactics [Mar. 4th, 2014|05:43 pm]
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[namiashi_raidou]
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[User Picture]From: [info]namiashi_raidou
2014-03-05 02:56 am (UTC)

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Katsuko nodded once, short and sharp. Raidou could already see fuses burning behind her focused attention. “Simultaneous hits, or consecutive?”

That was his blood-thirsty demolitions girl. Usagi was the true explosives expert in ANBU, but Katsuko came a close second for anything needing a blast radius.

He hadn’t been able to schedule a one-on-one meeting with the Yondaime. Right now, Raidou was pretty sure nothing short of actual political power would win anyone a crack in the Hokage’s frantic schedule, but it was at the top of Raidou’s priorities list. He wanted answers to Katsuko’s blacked-out file and blanked-out horrors.

In the meantime, she looked sane, grounded, and ready to crack skulls together.

“Simultaneous,” Raidou said. “We’re splitting this mission down the middle. Two teams, hitting each target at the same time.”

Ryouma nodded, unconcerned, exactly as expected from a recent jounin used to working solo or small-group missions. Katsuko knew how ANBU usually operated; her eyebrow twitched minutely upwards. Against the wall, Kakashi continued to stand still and say nothing, but there was a definite sense of deliberately not moving now.

Genma was too controlled to let his chakra flicker, but the back of Raidou’s neck felt the sudden press of a weighted glance. He was fairly certain he could guess the lieutenant's expression. It was probably identical to what his had been, standing to attention with five other captains in front of the Hokage’s desk: Are you crazy?

Brand new teams didn’t split. But most teams didn’t have the vicious, destructive power Team Six was capable of.

Genma took a restrained breath. “Is the split assigned, or is that up to our discretion?”

“Well, that depends,” Raidou said, reflecting on the pointed recommendations of Yondaime-sama and his advisors. He looked hard at Ryouma, who sat up straighter, and across at Kakashi, who met his eyes with unreadable blankness. “It’s been suggested that Tsuto Takayoshi, the father, has earned an immediate future filled with lightning and rot, but that depends upon your ability to work together like quasi-reasonable adults, and also to pay mind to the lieutenant. Because I’ll be backing Ueno.”

Tsuto Masaaki, the son, had small children.

Ryouma glanced apprehensively at Kakashi. Long, weapons-calloused fingers drummed against one knee, but stopped immediately when Ryouma realized he was doing it. Raidou glanced backwards; Genma looked very, very faintly pained for the skin of a second, then masked it over with professional blankness.

Raidou looked at Kakashi.

After a still, silent moment, Kakashi peeled himself away from the wall, crossed the room, and sat down on the armrest next to Ryouma’s shoulder. “If that coup had succeeded, they would have attacked Konoha next,” he said. He tipped his chin up a fraction, glancing at Genma, then met Raidou’s eyes levelly. “We’ll be fine.”

Raidou was starting to suspect he’d missed some context, but that was about standard. “Tousaki?”

Ryouma dragged his startled gaze away from the side of Kakashi’s face, and looked up. “We’ll make you proud, taichou.”

“Alright, then,” Raidou said.

When he looked at Genma again, the blankness was still there, like clean white wallpaper behind amber eyes—but unfurling beneath it was the slow-rising sharpness of a man with murder on the horizon. This one cut close for all of them, but Genma was the one who’d nearly lost a friend in the breach. In Raidou’s mind, that alone was reason enough to set him in charge of slicing through the purse strings responsible.

And reason to keep him away from the little ones. Let him have a clean revenge, instead of one he needed to twist over.

Genma gave him a shallow nod. “No one but Hatake is mission-fit at the moment. How long do we have with the medics to get buffed?”