| [Apr. 8th, 2017|10:47 pm] |
The floor was clearing, opening space. Ryouma tucked into a front flip, far too showy for actual combat, and Kakashi outdid him with a spinning side kick combo that took him fully off the ground two times within three beats. Someone shouted in admiration. Ryouma took two dipping steps back, gauging the distance for a cartwheel flip, and Raidou's hand closed on his shoulder.
For just a moment, his heart stopped. He looked up into Raidou's glitter-stained, sweat-streaked face, and he thought, I fucked up again.
Raidou said, "Are you both drunk?" His voice was raw, rasping, out of breath. "You should be doing kazaguruma."
Silver and blue blurred, and Kakashi nearly swept Raidou's leg out from under him.
Raidou side-stepped and dropped back, catching himself on one hand and the balls of his feet. It might have been the precursor to another low ground-kick, but instead he flipped off his feet entirely, rotating on his hand and then his shoulders, legs wide as a windmill. A woman cheered. Raidou popped off his shoulder and spun seamlessly into an air flare with his body almost inverted and his hips sky-high. His loose t-shirt slid down to his armpits, revealing glistening abs and pectoral muscles cut out of stone.
Ryouma backed up quickly, to avoid accidental kicks to the head, and found Genma with Ginta and Kurenai on the edge of what had become a clearly defined circle. Ginta was cheering: "Take it off!" Someone wolf-whistled. Genma was laughing, still swaying to the music, shaking his head with transparently false modesty when Ginta thumped him on the shoulder and urged him out.
The DJ shouted, "Let's hear it for Konoha ninja!" and the crowd howled lust and pride and wild glee.
Raidou kipped up to his feet again, and Kakashi slid back in to copy him. He didn't have Raidou's upper-body strength but he had even greater flexibility, and he punctuated the flare with an airborne whole-body spin.
Then Genma was there, with a backflip that landed him on one hand for a strobe-lit freeze. Sweat and exertion etched the muscles in his arms, the tattoo on his bared shoulder. His loose hair fell away from his face, with a few wet strands glued to cheekbone and temple. He shook it back with an impatient jerk and spun into a one-and-a-half air flare that went from hand to shoulder and back up again.
Ginta bounced and called out gleefully, "Yeah, that's how you do sexy!" He added to Ryouma, only half as loud, "Can't decide which one to watch, can you?"
Or maybe he'd said want.
Ryouma swallowed, shook his head, and took a running start and an aerial cartwheel back onto the floor. |
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