| [Feb. 27th, 2016|03:58 am] |
Rage still howled like a wolf pack in the corners of Katsuko’s mind, but it quieted and slunk away to hide when she snarled back at it. There was no place for her bloodlust here— not when the closest person who could give her a fight was a teammate. Her recovering teammate, who’d stared down her killing intent and quite happily answered her idle challenge by proposing an all-out fistfight.
One of the two of them had to act with at least a modicum of common sense, and it obviously wasn’t going to be Hatake ‘Ripped Out His Own Chakra System’ Kakashi. Katsuko huffed and motioned with her head towards another, less charred practice field in the distance.
“Change of scenery,” she said, voice still clipped despite her best efforts. “Walk with me.”
Kakashi hiked his swords over his shoulder and fell into step with her. She noted he kept her on his sighted side, watching her from the corner of his eye. There was wariness in the cant of his shoulders and the measured pace of his stride— wariness that had never been aimed at her before. Until now.
That killed her anger as quick as a bucket of ice water over her head. A shinobi who lost her team’s trust wasn’t worthy of her rank. Kakashi had done nothing to deserve her ire, but he’d been caught in the wake of her fury at Kuroda. Even when he wasn’t nearby, the Vice-Commander still found ways to sink his barbs in her skin.
“I found my copy of Hyoho Niten’s manifesto— the Scroll of Five Rings. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.” Katsuko kept her gaze straight ahead as she spoke, trusting that Kakashi would recognize the apology implicit in her statement. “For now, we’ll go over basic stances and strikes. Your main blades are your tanto and kunai, right?”
His intent focus on her didn’t waver, but something eased in the air between them. A tight band of pressure around her ribs loosened. It had taken so long to earn Kakashi’s trust. To lose it now, she realized, would have been crushing.
Kakashi nodded. “I’m proficient with a katana, but I don’t keep one in my usual rotation.”
‘Proficient’ in his vernacular probably meant ‘excellent’ by a normal jounin’s standards. Katsuko hummed in thought and tapped her fingers restlessly against her sword grip. “Shinmen Takezo created Hyoho Niten because he considered the traditional, single-blade kenjutsu schools too hidebound. He argued that a samurai on the battlefield must constantly adapt to opponents with different weapon reaches, and that using two hands for one sword interrupted the natural fluidity of movement during combat. He was not very popular with the older samurai clans.”
She wasn’t sure, but she thought Kakashi’s mouth might have moved in an approving smile underneath his mask. “Did he outlast the clans?”
“Most of them. The man was stubborn. The Scroll of Five Rings details the duels he had with firstborn samurai clan heirs, and breaks down how to pick their kenjutsu apart. I think you’ll like him.”
Kakashi was definitely smiling underneath his mask now. There was even an excited gleam in his eye. Katsuko hadn’t seen him this happy about new reading material that wasn’t Icha Icha since, well... never. |
|