| [Oct. 19th, 2013|04:10 am] |
Any jounin too slow to evade a shrieking child deserved bruised ribs. Certainly didn't deserve the rank of jounin, and probably wouldn't keep it long.
On the other hand, a jounin who refused to play with a laughing kid was a rat bastard.
Ryouma wedged the curry-bowl under his knee and let himself be tackled. Tiny forearm to the ribcage, blond head tucked down, miniature hand grappling for a hold at his side where the front plate of his armor ridged over the connecting side panel. He tipped over obligingly.
Naruto sat on his chest and cheered. Kakashi said, "Shirt, Naruto-kun! Shirt!" Laughter lurked at the back of his voice.
"He's all over armor," Naruto said, disappointed. "Wait!" He fisted a hand in the high turtle-collar of the reinforced ANBU shirt, bent double, and wiped his slimy face with relish across Ryouma's collarbones.
"Gross," Ryouma said. "You don't know where I've been!"
Naruto straightened, looking skeptical. "Kakashi says that. He says don't lick anything you find on the street because you don't know where it's been. But I got you yucky this time."
Ryouma huffed in amusement and sat up, tumbling the boy down over his knees. "Kid, you don't know how yucky I've been this week. By this point a little face-slime isn't gonna bother me."
He should probably take the reminder to get out of his armor, though. The others had sluiced off in river-water at some point on their three days' journey, but he'd spent most of his time too tired—or, on the second day, too weak and feverish—to move. This set of armor and underpinnings would probably escape the incinerator, but they were definitely bound for the laundry.
"Here," he said, flipping the catch on the strap over his right shoulder. "I'll make you a deal. You help me get out of this, you get the rest of my curry and the pocky I hid under the pillow when you weren't looking earlier. Where're you putting it all, anyway? The rate you eat, you ought to be as big as me already."
"Big enough for a longsword!" Naruto said hopefully, and scrambled up to wrestle with Ryouma's left shoulder.
"Try the strap, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said from the floor. He had his bowl of chicken donburi in hand again; half of it was gone. "You're not supposed to tear it off."
Naruto's tongue wedged between his teeth as he fiddled with the heavy, double-reinforced buckle. Ryouma loosened the flexible expanding panels at his sides and then stripped off arm-guards and bicep-length gloves. He'd drawn up a leg to begin unwrapping the complicated shin-bindings when Naruto gave a triumphant yell and the loose strap flapped against his collarbone.
There was a wriggly few moments, greatly hampered by Naruto's enthusiastic help, but Ryouma slipped out of the armor at last. Naruto immediately tried to crawl inside. "Heavy!" he gasped, as the full weight of the armored vest dragged his shoulders down.
"The weight-training's built right in," Kakashi said, sounding amused. He set his empty bowl aside and tugged at the line of the mask over the bridge of his nose, smoothing out a wrinkle. He must have pulled the mask down to eat at some point, but Ryouma'd missed every time. "Do you need rescuing yet?" he offered, glancing up at Ryouma. |
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