| [Feb. 8th, 2017|03:51 am] |
Raidou was the kind of person who would rally the troops as he lay on the battlefield with his legs cut off. Just one more push, boys, and we'll have 'em running…
And what did it say about Team Six, that they listened?
Ryouma shoved himself to his knees and hung there, swaying. Sodden hair dripped down his face. Sand crusted his skin. He drew a breath that seared in his lungs, and made it the rest of the way to his feet.
He was never going to be able to use his shoulders again.
Most of his soldier-pill chakra had burned away in the sea, molded into strength and endurance. He dredged up what little remained and stretched out his senses. Two hundred meters, three hundred. Nothing but scraps of life lit in his chakra-sense, sea-birds probably; he'd never been able to sense anything much smaller than that.
"Don't seem to be any locals with fishing spears or Kiri kunai. Also no locals with hot drinks and warm blankets…"
He blinked. Refocused sight, instead of chakra-senses.
And stared, disbelieving, at the jagged stretch of cliff erupting out of the thin beach before them.
"Screw you, Kirigakure."
Genma mumbled indistinctly, "S'the baby okay?"
He sounded like he had a mouthful of sand. Possibly it was just a mouthful of Raidou's chest. Ryouma'd have been jealous, if he weren't so tired.
Kakashi staggered to his feet in a shower of salt and sand, and dragged himself over to squint down at Kimiko and the baby. "Yep."
The baby was crying again, thin and angry, but at least Kimiko wasn't. Maybe she was too cold for it.
Kakashi looped back, only a little unsteady, and poked his knife at Ryouma's chest. Ryouma stared at it. Kakashi made a frustrated, snarling sound, grabbed Ryouma by the shoulder, and began cutting the water-swollen rope harness off him.
Ryouma's shoulders discovered a new level of pain. His skin was raw and bleeding where the rope had chafed, and cold-numbed nerves woke shrieking as Kakashi peeled the salt-soaked fibers away. Red-tinged water dripped in their wake. Kakashi scowled, and dropped the sawed rope lengths in the sand.
"You killed a shark," Ryouma told him. "You killed, like, three sharks."
"And you're the one who's bleeding," Kakashi said, still glowering. He was probably recalculating Ryouma's points at permanent negative 50. |
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