| [Jul. 25th, 2013|06:01 am] |
It would not be good teamwork to stab Ryouma in the brain, even if his giant air-bubble head made a tempting target. Kakashi settled for looking as disinterested as possible. Ryouma didn’t seem to care.
“One out of two,” Nanami said cheerfully, towelling her hands off. “I’ll take it.” She smiled at Kakashi. “And I can say that I dropped Sharingan Kakashi with one jutsu. That’s gotta be some kind of record, right?”
Tomorrow, he was dyeing his hair.
“There’s a club,” he said. “I’ll add you to the membership list.”
Her grin widened, flashing white teeth against dark skin. “Enjoy that ink,” she said. “And thanks for letting me be your first artist—I love popping cherries.”
Kakashi lifted a hand and slid out of the door before the conversation reached a higher plateau of excruciating. He lost his grip on the half-smothered spark in the process, and felt it flare to life again, marking him like a tiny beacon. That was—not something he liked.
A low alto chuckle followed him: Katsuko.
Genma followed him in person, while Ryouma stayed behind to thank Nanami. The hallway wasn’t empty: two masked, unmarked teams watched proceedings curiously, waiting to be attended. Kakashi recognised Ayane in one group, wearing a dark ferret mask, and the torturer’s son in the other group, wearing a mask of abstract blue and green slashes. Genma stepped close, broaching Kakashi’s personal bubble, and murmured, “Feeling steadier?”
“If I start to succumb to the vapors, you’ll be the first to know,” Kakashi said, rather than a more truthful no. He wasn’t about to pitch over again, but steady wasn’t today’s operable word. This was—ANBU was—
He’d expected something different.
Genma shrugged and moved back, ignoring the other teams to watch the door. After a moment, Ryouma stepped through, rubbing his shoulder thoughtfully. He spotted Ayane and Hakone, and nodded, but didn’t engage them. Hakone nodded back. Ayane just tilted her head slightly. Raidou and Katsuko came out a second later, with Katsuko calling back a cheerful farewell to Nanami and—asking her out for drinks?
“I’m married, Ueno,” Nanami said, laughing.
Katsuko’s voice warmed with a hidden grin. “Your husband can come, too.”
“Not an open relationship!”
Katsuko shrugged cheerfully, and found her place back in the team.
“Fall in, Hatake,” Raidou said, and set off down the hallway, with Ryouma and Katsuko on his heels.
Kakashi sighed. “Yes, captain.”
Genma fell into step behind him.
It was a short, twisting journey up two flights of stairs to Raidou’s undisclosed destination—a plain door with an uninformative ‘37-B4’ stamped into the wood. The door to the left said ‘14’. The door to the right said ‘WAQ-2’. Apparently you just had to know. Raidou tossed a key to Ryouma, who caught it reflexively with his good hand, and a second to Kakashi. The door had chakra seals embedded into it; Raidou released them with two quick hand-seals that Kakashi memorized, and unlocked the door.
“Welcome to Team Six’s homebase,” Raidou said, pushing the door open. |
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