| [Feb. 8th, 2017|03:52 am] |
Climbing without hands was easier, in a way — cliff-walking was a chuunin's trick, in Konoha. The baby threw Ryouma's balance off a little, though, and made him excruciatingly aware of his abdominal muscles. He glanced down once and saw Kakashi had followed Raidou's example, spidering up the cliff-face with chakra-limned hands and feet while Kimiko clung doggedly to his back. They were a little slower than Ryouma, but not by much.
Up, and up. The rock beneath Ryouma's bare feet turned jagged, as they passed the point where even storm-surge might pound. He tried not to limp. Steady, even chakra flow, and steady, even breathing. The wind snarled around him, tugging him away from the cliff, then shoving him against it. Sand chafed in the seams of his wet briefs. Sango hiccupped unhappily on his shoulder.
"Next time," he announced out loud, "I want a mission to an onsen in Tea Country. The mission can involve posing attractively for posters. We get paid in baths."
"Seconded," Kakashi said from below, sounding slightly throttled. "Minus the posing."
"Hot b-b-baths," Genma chimed in. His teeth-chattering was growing worse. "And hot t-t-tea."
"I could be persuaded to tea," Raidou said thoughtfully. He glanced down briefly, clocking Ryouma at his heel and Kakashi a little below. "Second person to the top gets to make it."
Thick vegetation clustered at the top of the cliff-face, only twenty meters away. A few running strides would do it. But the footing was bad, and Ryouma's chakra-control fuzzy with weariness. If he missed a step, he could catch himself—so long as Sango didn't try to squirm right out of his hands…
He bared his teeth at Raidou. "Yours comes with extra sugar. Katsuko-levels of sugar."
Raidou rasped a laugh. "Hear that, Shiranui? Your student wants to poison me."
Genma's head turned, long hair tangling wildly in the wind. "No p-p-poisoning the c-c-captain." He put his chin back down on Raidou's shoulder and added, after a moment, "I c-c'd work with you on s-s-sugar 'munity."
Raidou snorted, grabbed an overhanging vine at the top of the cliff, and hauled them both over. Ryouma was two steps behind, lurching with the abrupt transition from perpendicular to vertical. He crowded up a steep, lushly overgrown slope, trying to give Kakashi room to clear.
Inokosaka Island was one massive hill, a volcanic child rising in lumps and spikes from the sea. Ten meters from the cliff-edge, taller trees closed in; the green canopy rose mist-shrouded in the distance. Almost nine kilometers long, Ryouma remembered vaguely from the maps. There were said to be caves…
He was so sick of caves. But Genma and Kimiko were both shivering, and they needed shelter. |
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