| Soldiers Don't Mourn |
[Feb. 26th, 2017|12:09 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | genma, ginta, kakashi, kurenai, kuroda, mission, raidou, ryouma, satomi, thread, usagi | ] |
[June 16, Yondaime Year 5, following Red Seas at Dawn]
Team Six picked their way down the densely vegetated slope, halting at the treeline on Raidou’s signal. At the surf’s edge, a knot of figures clustered around the husk-like bowls of a pair of ship’s boats. One or two cigarette tips flared in the darkness. Genma threaded a slip of chakra out, then nodded. “They’re civilians. Feels like the same crew who got us out here, but it’s harder to identify individuals with such low chakra reserves.”
Kakashi lifted his head and inhaled audibly. “They smell the same,” he pronounced. “More stressed than last time.”
The tone in Raidou’s voice shaded from skepticism to alarm. “You can smell stress?”
“From here?” demanded Ryouma.
“It’s a very distinctive smell,” Kakashi said with a shrug.
( Of course it was. ) |
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| Red Sky at Night |
[Dec. 31st, 2016|06:41 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | genma, ginta, kakashi, kurenai, kuroda, mission, raidou, ryouma, satomi, thread, usagi | ] |
[Afternoon of June 14, Yondaime Year 5, following Soldiers Take Warning]
The rest of the morning passed uneventfully, except for Kasumi kicking Usagi in her sleep, and Kuroda scaring them all — by looking dead — until Genma pointed out that the Vice-commander was known for sleeping with his eyes open.
As planned, they struck out for the surface just before midday. Raidou kept an eye on Genma, who kept an eye on Kuroda. Sleep had done them both good: there was color in Genma’s face again, and Kuroda moved with reasonable ease despite his sling.
As before, Fukuda took point. This time flanked by Kakashi and Satomi, with Kurenai close behind to buffer the three razor personalities as needed. It didn’t escape Raidou that Team Thirteen’s commanding officers were sticking a lot closer to their rookies. Or that Ryouma was shadowing Genma’s footsteps and carefully giving Kakashi space.
Raidou trusted that time and distraction would settle them all back down.
( The first breath of outside air was sticky, humid, and smelled like wet dirt. ) |
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| Soldiers Take Warning |
[Nov. 29th, 2016|06:05 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | genma, ginta, kakashi, kurenai, kuroda, mission, raidou, ryouma, satomi, thread, usagi | ] |
[Takes place June 12–14, Yondaime Year 5, two days following Red Sky at Morning]
The morning—if you could call breaking camp at 0300 morning—had been a hectic rush of getting two ANBU teams, two Intel agents, a one-armed prisoner, and an unsatisfiable and ill-tempered commander moving in time to make port by their departure window. The ship awaiting them had looked like any of a dozen others in the dark: a long, looming hulk riding high in the water, with a pair of masts jutting up into the dark sky like two lightning-struck pines. Viney ropes had draped from mast spars, but the dragon-wing sails had still been furled.
Now, though, the sails were open and straining with the brisk breeze blowing from the west. The water was mercifully calm, an artifact of an unexpectedly late start to the June rains, according to their captain. Despite their speed, the junk cut through the sparkling waves almost without a ripple.
Genma lounged back in a coil of rope near the ship’s prow, shielding his eyes as he squinted up at his counterpart lieutenant from Team Thirteen. Sakamoto Ginta had his knees hooked through the rungs of a rope ladder and was contentedly hanging upside down, with his blond hair, for once, obeying gravity.
“He’s not much for conversation, is he?” Ginta asked, pointing a bare toe at Kakashi, who was perched above them both on the topmost spar on the forward sail.
( “He grows on you,” Genma said. ) |
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| Red Sky at Morning |
[Nov. 16th, 2016|05:34 pm] |
[Takes place the morning of June 10, Yondaime Year 5, three weeks following Laws of Gravity and just over a month after Salt the Earth]
WARNING FOR ANIMAL DEATH in the first two tags]
Training field three looked, and smelled, like a battlefield. Genma nudged Ryouma with his shoulder, nodding at the blood-spattered grass. “So far it’s messier than your jutsu, but at least it reeks less.”
“I’m pretty sure I can do explosive rot if you want it, Lieutenant,” Ryouma offered mildly.
“I know. That’s why we started with sardines when you and I worked on wound sealing.”
Kakashi, dripping in blood from head to toe, took a few steps out of the blast radius while a pair of chuunin brought a fresh victim to the field and secured its lead to a stout iron post. The pig, staked well upwind of the carnage, didn’t seem to be bothered by the gory remains of its predecessor. It looked around with mild interest as one of the chuunin put a bucket of feed in front of it, then began contentedly munching away.
Otani Yaeko, an observer from the Jutsu Records Office, tapped her clipboard. “How close was that attempt to Iebara’s jutsu?”
“It looks a lot like what was left of Iebara after Hatake was finished with him,” Genma said, “but nothing like the stuff Iebara himself did.”
Otani nodded and jotted down a note before she called, “Hatake-san, are you ready to try it again?”
Kakashi flicked an acknowledging salute, then turned to focus intently on the pig with both eyes. At the distance from which they were observing it was impossible to make out the pinwheels in Kakashi’s transplanted Sharingan, but they were doubtless spinning fast. ( He nodded at one of the chuunin; black steel flashed in her hand. ) |
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| Down to the Bone |
[Mar. 24th, 2016|07:09 pm] |
[Begins the morning of May 18, Yondaime Year 5, two days after A Loser's Just a Learner on His Way to Better Things and one day after What You Don't Know (Will Kill You)]
Ryouma woke in the last hour before dawn, with the waxing moon painting a thin pale stripe over the foot of the bed and Ayane shuddering in a nightmare's grip beside him. His hand slipped on her bare shoulder when he tried to wake her. She was slick with sweat, and her breath came ragged as if she'd been fighting or running.
He could guess the dream that'd caught her. He shifted his grip to her elbow and shook her harder. "Ayane. Wake up."
She twitched, gasped, and lashed out with a blow that would have collapsed his windpipe if he hadn't shoved her elbow down. She wrenched away. Ryouma grabbed the kunai under his pillow before Ayane's flailing hand found it, and rolled off the bed.
He hit the threadbare rug with a hard thump. Something metallic dug cruelly into his hip—hopefully the belt-buckle on the jeans he'd discarded a few hours ago, and not one of the numerous knives Ayane kept tucked into her clothing. He struggled to his feet and found her sitting up with her back to the wall, sheets kicked free from her legs.
She said hoarsely, "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to wake a nightmare?"
"More dangerous than waking a ninja?" Ryouma dropped his kunai in the corner, where no one was likely to step on it. "You okay?"
( Ayane shook her head. ) |
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