| [Jul. 25th, 2013|05:19 am] |
Shiranui Genma was a deceptively smart cookie.
“Good questions,” Raidou said, turning his beer bottle gently between his hands. Condensation made his fingers squeak against the blue glass. “You have any tactics in mind?”
“Tactics for which problem?” Genma said steadily. “I just listed three.”
“Any of them. All of them,” Raidou said. “Tactics plural. What’ve you got?”
A faint wrinkle of annoyance barely creased Genma’s brow before it was gone again. He took a bite of banana, swallowed, and said, “Low-hanging fruit first, then. Keep Kakashi and Ryouma both on a short leash to start. Not so short it chafes, but not so long they can get into the weeds without one or both of us knowing.”
“Shock collars,” Raidou said dryly, before sobering up. “Training them into the dirt’ll help, too. Can’t bicker when you’re too tired to walk straight.”
And mutual trauma fostered bonding. Every military force knew that.
“Unless they rebel against the idea of training,” Genma said. “But I think Tousaki will take orders in a tight spot. He's cocky, but he's got a clear understanding of hierarchy, from what I’ve seen.”
Someday, Raidou’s hindbrain was going to stop offering up double entendres whenever Ryouma was mentioned in the context of taking orders, but it wasn’t today. He covered his grin with a long swallow of beer. “Tousaki’s got pretty clear levers, underneath it all. He is cocky, but he wants people to like him, and he won’t shy from a challenge. Keeping him from exhausting himself might actually be the trick. I don’t think there’ll be any issues getting him to train, especially if he wants to keep pace with Hatake.”
Genma nodded once. “Sounds about right.”
“As for Hatake. I don’t know his levers—” yet, “—but I can’t see someone of his level ducking training. Can you?”
“Ducking, no. But I'm pretty sure he'd rather take his own counsel about when and how he trains.” A smirk edged the corner of Genma’s mouth. “Not that he gets a choice, but I'll bet you a ten-spot he'll try.”
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