| [Jun. 10th, 2013|05:40 am] |
The rooftop run to the east side of Konoha’s great circular wall was fast and silent, and Raidou felt a little bad about it, but there’d be time to get friendly later, when Konoha wasn’t under direct threat.
They left the stairs to slower ninja and ran straight up the wall, vaulting over the edge with a warning chakra flare to avoid startling anyone. Edgy ninja tended to stab first and ask questions never.
“ANBU-san!” said a long-haired jounin Raidou didn’t recognize, bowing deep.
Raidou nodded. “Any news?”
“All quiet,” she said. “Yondaime-sama swept through about an hour ago.”
He looked down the wall. The usual skeleton crew had more than quadrupled, white-masked ANBU backed by uniformed jounin and chuunin. Even his senses could pick up the thrum of armed chakra.
“Runners in the field?” he asked.
“Reporting nothing,” she said. “Every checkpoint’s clear, and we’re seeing regular messenger hawks overhead—there goes one now.”
High above, a bird screamed. Raidou squinted up, barely able to see the backlit shadow against the rising morning sun.
“Hm,” he said. “Chuunin runner?”
“Gifu!” yelled the woman, making about thirteen heads snap around. Twelve turned back, and one skinny, shaved-bald boy detached himself from the crowd, trotting over.
He bowed. “Yes, Mie-san?”
“ANBU,” Mie introduced, gesturing at Raidou and Genma. “Gifu.” She gestured at the boy.
Gifu bowed again, jerky as a marionette. “How can I be of service, ANBU-san?”
“I need you to find someone for me,” said Raidou. He held a hand up at throat-level. “About yea high, short brown hair, skinny. Her mask looks like a rat, with a red spiral in the center of her forehead. She should be on the wall.” Katsuko had been on-call for the last few days, serving any ANBU role needed. She’d probably been posted for hours already.
Gifu nodded. “Any message?”
“Her captain’s home early,” said Raidou, twitching a hidden smile. “Tell her to find me.”
Gifu saluted, fingertips flicking up to his shiny head, and bolted away.
Raidou turned back to the jounin. “Mie-san, was it?”
“Mie Hikari,” she said, studying him and Genma with interest. Her eyes were pale green with a yellow ring at the center, light in a darkly tanned face. “Sensor specialist.”
“Noted. Jounin commander?”
“That’d be me, too,” she said, with a knife-like smile. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Raidou glanced sidelong at Genma, who was standing to easy attention, mask tilted towards the distant horizon. He didn’t look tired, but they’d been scheduled to run another full day of the second Trial today. Comparatively, wall duty was easy.
Still.
“Coffee?” Raidou asked.
“I thought ANBU ate living souls,” Mie said, desert-dry.
“And drink the blood of our enemies,” Raidou said. “But I’m not seeing any.”
She smirked. “Breakfast crew should be by in an hour. I’ll make sure to send them your way.”
Raidou tapped his tattoo. “Appreciate it.”
There was a thirty foot ANBU-free stretch a little further down. Raidou centered himself and Genma in the middle, and stepped up on the back edge of the wall, balancing easily on the thick stone lip. Genma stayed on the main throughway, leaning back against the wall at Raidou’s feet. In front of them, the forest stretched out for miles, gold-leafed in the morning light. Behind them, Konoha was still in sleepy shadow.
It was hard to imagine anyone laying siege to walls this thick, and a Village this defended, but the Fox had done it once.
At least they’d be better prepared this time. |
|