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fallen_senbon ([info]fallen_senbon) wrote in [info]fallen_leaves,
@ 2008-12-29 22:42:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:genma, kaito

The Dogs Ate My Homework [closed to Genma and Kaito]
[Takes place two days after Hit the Bell Curve, three days after Ew, What's That Smell?, and five days after Empathy Is a Good Thing, Right?]

Genma's Sunday was proceeding along fairly typical lines for one without a mission. There had been getting up earlier than he would have liked, to go for a jog with Aoba. Actually before that there had been fumbling for clothes in the dark in an unfamiliar apartment, a hasty thank you and kiss goodbye, and tumbling into his own bed still smelling of--what was her name?--at a little after 0300. Getting up to run at 0730 had been, Aoba had informed him, his friend letting him sleep in.

Then there had been breakfast with a few of the guys. No Raidou, who had passed up this morning's activities because he was busy training with Kaito. Kaito, whom he'd rescued out of the civilian psych hospital two days before, he'd said. Which was not Genma's place to pass judgment on. There were as many ways to cope with stress as there were different ANBU masks, if not more. But he and Raidou had agreed that as coping mechanisms went, it was one of the odder ones.

It also reminded him that he'd given Kaito a homework assignment. He hoped that wasn't the cause of the stress. Observing rich bastards couldn't have set the kid off, could it? But suppose his weird bloodline limit had been activated and he'd ended up getting targeted by some masher while just thinking about how to seduce? If it worked that way, which the file said it didn't, really, but it wasn't like Intel had never been wrong before...

By the time he'd done a load of laundry, sharpened his katana, and painted two dozen senbon with a fresh coat of nerve agent, Genma had convinced himself he really ought to go find the kid and make sure things were going okay. Also there was that naggingly blank progress report form Arisa had dropped off for him, wanting to know how the Eros Ops training was going.

Damn her.

Raidou had come back from wherever he'd gone off to, showered, and disappeared again. It would have been nice to get a little out of him about what the hell was up with Kaito, but he supposed he could just figure it out from talking to the kid himself.

He skimmed his oil-stained sweatshirt off and pulled on a dark green long-sleeved t-shirt printed with the words Fear is a Legal Drug in a curling script, surrounded by stylized tropical flowers. Then he pocketed one of his fire-ant-venom-laced anti-Kaito's-jutsu senbon, and went to knock on the door across the hall. He was pretty sure Kaito was home, since the dulcet tones of some extremely sappy love ballad were playing behind the closed door.

If he tells you he's a loner, you've just got to prove him wrooooong...

"Yo, Kaito. S'Genma. Take off your drag queen outfit and open up."

(Post a new comment)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:21 am UTC (link)
Kaito lunged out of the bathroom so fast he nearly tripped over the edge of the carpet. Genma, however--unlike Raidou, who thought waking people suddenly was freakin' funny--had enough manners not to actually be in his apartment yet. He slapped at the broken casing of his stereo (he'd pulled it out of a dumpster six months earlier, and it still mostly worked!) until it turned off, feeling his skin warm across his jawline. "I'm not a drag queen," he protested, throwing himself against the closed door. "It just--a friend gave it to me!"

He yanked the door open and glared at Genma, then realized he was shirtless. He'd needed the shower after the spar with Raidou--not because he was sweaty, but because he smelled like swamp. That bastard. Getting dunked in the river every time his limit activated was not the best way to keep it turned off.

Leaving the door open, he twisted and grabbed a hoodie off the end of his bed, pulling it on swiftly and hoping he'd done so fast enough to avoid more comments about the hand-shaped bruises around his throat. Maybe Raidou had given him enough new ones to camouflage them...

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:23 am UTC (link)
Genma stood with his hands on his hips, giving Kaito a long, assessing look. "I recognize that red mark on your chest," he said, glancing at a torso now swamped by a too-large sweatshirt. "That's Raidou's left foot. It'll be a bruise tomorrow unless you put some arnica on it. And most of those other marks, too. But I'm pretty sure you didn't get that pretty necklace from Rai. It's not his style."

It was the sort of thing that made Genma just a little nervous. He'd dated a guy once who wanted to be choked as part of sex, but it was always him wanting to be in the stranglehold, not put it on his partner. Still, with Kaito's crazy jutsu, there was no telling what he might drive someone to do...

"So who'd you piss off? Did you give as good as you got?"

He really hoped the answer didn't involve a lot of blushing and stammering and shame-faced explanations about it having been consensual. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he liked the alternative much either.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:27 am UTC (link)
Kaito lifted one shoulder, not shrugging so much as attempting to lift the collar and folded hood of his shirt. Hoping the shadows might hide the marks and make Genma forget that they were there.

It didn't work.

"Didn't mean to piss anyone off," he muttered uncomfortably. He thought of the brief not-fight with Sharingan no Kakashi, and felt his skin go red. Lifting a hand, he grabbed the draw strings on the hood, tugging at them. "Besides, we weren't supposed to be fighting, so I just left. It, um, it seemed more mature." Yeah, right. He lifted his chin anyway, daring Genma to comment. "No big deal. Did you want something?" Distraction. The guy couldn't have come there to just tease him about getting pounded on, right? How would he even know?

Oh, man. What if Kakashi were telling people? He wilted a little.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:29 am UTC (link)
"Weren't supposed to be fighting," Genma echoed, deadpan. "As in, it wasn't a spar, and it wasn't with a peer so you couldn't get away with calling it an impromptu training exercise? If you could walk away without more than a bruised larynx, what was he, some buddy of yours who's not in ANBU? Or an ex-girlfriend?"

An ex would explain that guilty flush to Kaito's cheeks. Definitely explain it. And at least the words weren't supposed to be fighting made Genma pretty sure it wasn't about that sex-choking-fetish. Kaito just didn't seem to be a good enough liar to be hiding something like that.

"So can I come in, or are you gonna make me stand here in the hall and quiz you about who you've been provoking into throttling you?" Genma edged into the open doorway just a little. "Also, you had homework for me, remember?"

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:32 am UTC (link)
"I left the door open," Kaito pointed out, backing away as he tied the drawstrings in knots. Homework? He had--? Oh shit. He did have.

"Uh." That was eloquent. "I didn't really have a chance--there was, was this thing, see..." Getting throttled and going to psych counted as a thing, right? Right. "I mean--I did some, right? The first night? But--but, uh, I wasn't around after that..." Because he'd checked himself in, and then been out to dinner with Raidou. And, okay, last night he'd just forgotten.

Oh, man, if Raidou had told Genma...

"Besides," he tried desperately, "you didn't say it was due today!" He nearly garroted himself with the drawstrings. Kaito's eyes bugged out, and he hurriedly loosened them.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:34 am UTC (link)
Genma let the door shut behind him and found himself a seat amidst Kaito's detritus. Clothes, a couple of magazines with the covers missing, a box of assorted weapons in various states of repair. A box of... electronic parts? Maybe? A lot of it looked like things destined for the trash heap, but Genma was pretty sure they were things that had already been there and had been born again to a second life in Kaito's loving care.

Didn't know the kid was a Buddhist he thought to himself with a wry smile.

"So this thing of yours that kept you from doing your assignment. It involved a bar brawl? Getting arrested? Arrested might count as a reason for getting beaten up and not following through on a request from your superior." Genma stretched his legs out straight in front of him and leaned forward and back, cracking his spine like shuffling a deck of cards. "Not necessarily a good reason."

He could see Kaito was seriously unhappy, the way he kept tightening that hoodie string like he was clinging to some sort of lifeline. Interestingly, it wasn't making Genma want to scratch his own eyes out in sympathy. He wondered if Kaito was actually keeping a lid on his jutsu on purpose, or if it just wasn't working today for some reason. Maybe a little more pressure to see what happened?

"So we're not at the Academy anymore, Kaito-kun. You couldn't figure out when I said I'd see you about it in a few days that I meant I expected it done by then?"

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:35 am UTC (link)
His limit fluttered against his breastbone--he could actually feel it grabbing at his chakra--as he realized he might be in deep shit.

If he said he'd gotten arrested, would Genma believe him? Because that was probably a better excuse than checking himself into the loony bin. "I know we're not in the Academy," he mumbled, and tried to keep his features straight as his limit flickered again, running along pathways sore from his earlier spar with Raidou. It had run roughshod through their entire morning work out. His chakra fluttered, and for a moment it all caught.

He thought about getting thrown in the river. Again. That jackass.

It wasn't so much the idea of being cold and wet that put a clamp on his limit as--well, fatique, but also annoyance. He folded his arms over his chest and glowered at Genma. "You're right. We're not in the Academy, and something came up. If you wanna bust my balls for that, fine--but you can treat me like a freakin' adult."

His limit flickered again. He flinched and rubbed his chest--then flinched again when he hit the bootprint Raidou had left behind. Bastard.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:41 am UTC (link)
Ahhhh, there was the jutsu, Genma thought, as he started to feel like the world's worst asshole and a child abuser besides. And then just as he was grabbing for his senbon, it stopped. Kaito was glaring at him with a tense, almost panicky flare in his eyes, looking like he was struggling with himself...

It hit again, stronger this time, and Genma's eyes widened. He was a despicable bastard, scum of the earth, bullying the person he was supposed to be teaching. He should leave now, and consider taking a solo mission that would keep him far from other human beings.

His senbon was just ready to prick against his wrist, to send a current of fire up his arm...

And the jutsu was broken. No way! It was broken before he'd stabbed himself. Did the kid seriously manage to turn it off?

And miracle of the thousand suns liberating the afflicted from their suffering in the cesspits of hell, was Kaito actually standing up for himself? Genma grinned and sat up straighter, and felt the catch of emotion once more, a sharper, more biting hit this time, but again only a flash and then it was gone.

"If you're actually getting a handle on your jutsu, dude, that's a serious improvement. If that's what came up, even if it means you getting your neck wrung, it's for the good." Genma got to his feet and took a step towards Kaito.

"Want me to heal up those bruises a little? Raidou can be a serious ass kicker when he's sparring all out."

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:42 am UTC (link)
Getting ahold of his jutsu wasn't what had stopped him from doing his homework--and how juvenile did that sound?--but he wasn't about to tell Genma that. Genma looked... happy. About bruises and no homework? Freak. But Kaito looked at him hopefully as he stood.

"You can do that? Old ones too? I mean, not hugely old, but..." He only just managed to keep from reaching up and brushing his fingertips over his throat. What was he going to do, wear scarves all the time? Yeah, that wouldn't be obvious. Among ninja bruises were less noticeable, but still. These were a handprint.

Then something else occurred to him, and he yanked his sleeves up over his wrists. The marks from the cuffs were almost gone--just a little raw spot on the bony part of his arm. But if he could get rid of those, too...

Kaito held up his hands between them. "Can you do these, too?" He glanced at them, frowning slightly. "I mean, the medic didn't get to them before--" Before there was hugging. "And I heard ANBU had their own doc, right? But... I haven't, um..." It was true. He lived in fear of most medics. They wore their hearts right out there on their sleeves, even easier to manipulate than other people, and injuries were more likely to trigger his limit than almost anything--except maybe his own mother--and most of the time it was just less of a pain to heal slowly.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:45 am UTC (link)
"We have Haruichi and Kanae and a couple others," Genma said, tracing a careful finger along the edge of Kaito's wrist. "These are what, a week old?" He could heal them. They'd practically healed themselves already, but it wasn't hard to understand why Kaitou would like those scabby reminders of his capture eliminated.

"I'll do these first, then your throat, and then the other stuff, okay? Hold both hands out." Genma's fingers twisted into seals, hands held together, pulled apart, sliding fluidly from one form to another. Blue-green healing chakra glowed from the edges of his palms, blanching the color away from his skin and throwing every scar into sharp relief.

He felt the heat rising, directed it into Kaito's left wrist, then his right, keeping the penetration shallow. Knitting together the remaining edges, building layer after layer of new skin cells into place. It took only minutes. When he was finished, when he let his chakra cycle back into his own body instead of out into Kaito's, only two slightly pinkish ovals marked where the cuff marks had been.

"Didn't hurt, right? Tell me if it hurts. Ready for me to do your throat?"

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:47 am UTC (link)
It kinda... tingled. Being healed always tingled, though. Except when it burned, but these injuries weren't nearly bad enough to need that much power behind the healing. It was a relief to have the itching scabby stuff gone, even if it seemed a little foolish to expend power to fix them. But Genma hadn't said no, so...

"Yeah," he said, reaching up to the collar of his hoodie and pulling it down. He lifted his chin to expose his throat, the hairs on the nape of his neck rising. It was beyond weird to bare the vulnerable cartilage and jugular, the soft underside of his jaw. But Genma was his sensei--sort of--right? Trust was important. Even if it was a little bizarre.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:47 am UTC (link)
"This one you might feel a little more, since it's on the throat and it's a newer injury," Genma said. He eyed the bruises. A single hand-span with perfectly outlined fingers. It was almost the same size as his own palmprint. Working the seals the second time brought the glow to his hands faster. He held them up where Kaito could see them.

"I have to touch your throat now." Obviously. But it was a throat, and he'd been choked, and no matter how much he might be willing to let a medic heal it, there was an animal instinct to fight hands approaching your most vulnerable area.

Genma's fingers made contact, settling into the marks Kaito's assailant had left behind. Under the bruised skin he could feel subtle injuries to cartilage, strains of cervical tendons. He let the healing energy sink in, sent it flowing into channels that soaked it up eagerly, like a dry sponge placed in a pan of water.

"Whoever did this to you deserves to have his ass kicked," Genma said.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:50 am UTC (link)
Kaito swallowed against the warm heat in his throat, hearing the swallow in his bones as it echoed back from Genma's hand. Slim fingers wrapped around his neck just like Kakashi had, if far more gently.

"That's, um, that's kinda what Raidou said." He tried to smile, tried to laugh, but didn't quite manage it. "But, uh, I took care of it. No big deal." At least, he was pretty sure the Copy Ninja wasn't going to come near him again. He sure as flying shit wasn't going to get close, again. Definitely not within an arm's reach, and since he'd heard Hatake could run really fast, an arm's reach was like, half the village.

And why was he even thinking about the guy? Ugh. He turned his thoughts to the bruising, to the heat seeping into his throat, buzzing down the center of his body, linger--

Gods damn it! He yanked away from Genma, blushing furiously. "Uh--sorry. I, uh--" There just wasn't an excuse.

Sometimes healing jutsu just did that, okay!? It wasn't like it meant anything! Just that he needed to get laid sometime within the next decade!

And to make things even better, his limit sputtered back to life--embarrassed and vaguely horny.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 01:55 am UTC (link)
Sex! Genma's brain and body responded eagerly to the jutsu. He's cute! Look, he's all embarrassed. Damn, he's kinda hot! Kiss him. Go on, do it!

The difference between Kaito's eighteen-year-old nervous system and Genma's at twenty-two was not particularly pronounced, in terms of being hair trigger when it came to horniness. No, the real difference was training. Genma took a half step forward, then a full one back, and rammed his senbon into his forearm. Molten tendrils of pain raced up the nerves. The jutsu shattered, and Genma was relieved to find he didn't have an embarrassing bulge.

Kaito did, though.

It would be impolite to notice. On the other hand this was an ideal training opportunity.

"If that happens on a mission when it's not supposed to, it's better not to jump back and blush and call attention to it. Chances are they won't even notice unless you're tucked right up against them, and if they do notice, you just work it in to your plan."

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 01:57 am UTC (link)
His blush got worse. "No one on a mission's gonna be standing there healing me!" There was one nice thing about all the blood rushing to his head: it was rushing away from his junk. He reached up to his throat, trying to ignore the rest of his body, and prodded carefully around the skin.

"I'm gonna look," he mumbled, and fled to the bathroom. He left the door open--it wasn't like he was jerking off or something--and peered at his reflection in the mirror.

Think about old ladies. What was that joke? "Hey, Genma." He smirked. "Know what having sex with an old lady is like?" He didn't wait for the other man to respond before continuing. "Try pulling apart a grilled cheese sandwich!" Kaito cackled, his libido--and limit--both dropping like rocks.

The bruising had faded to almost nothing. Four little dots on one side, and a fifth on the other, where Kakashi's fingers had dug in. It wasn't recognizable as a hand. He breathed a sigh of relief and left the bathroom.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:00 am UTC (link)
"I'm guessing that's a no to me taking care of your other bruises, then?" Genma asked, and leaned against the wall with a lazy smile on his face. His arm throbbed, and that was a good thing. No being manipulated by Kaito's crazy jutsu and his own crazy hormones.

He should probably see if Ginta wanted to fool around. Go to a club. Hook up for the night. He'd been spending way too much time playing choir boy lately. And having dreams about Raidou that were just... not the sort of thing you really wanted on your mind first thing in the morning when you went to spar with your not interested and probably straight best friend.

Some little part of Genma's brain made a careful note of that probably for future reference.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:02 am UTC (link)
Other bruise--oh. Oh, yeah. He stared down at his hoodie, as if he could see through it to the bootprint on his chest. He eyed with suspicion the man slouched against the wall. Maybe, if he didn't take off his shirt...

Right. Just let Genma stick his hands up under the cloth. Because that wasn't gay. "I think they're probably fine," he mumbled. "I should meet the ANBU medics anyway, if I want that done." At least warn them about his jutsu, before they tried to strangle him, too. Geez.

"So... um..." Genma had come by to check on Kaito's homework, but since there wasn't any... Kaito smiled lopsidedly, chewing on his lower lip. "Do I get an extension?" Blue eyes flicked up under his eyelashes, his smile a little sheepish and a lot hopeful. "I mean, okay, that's a little Academy..." Chakra coiled in his chest. Consciously, he released it. It wasn't like Genma was really upset. He didn't know why he always got so stupidly nervous when he talked to people. It wasn't even like honestly nervous, just... funny feeling.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:04 am UTC (link)
For the first time since he'd met him, Genma got an understanding of why, just exactly, Arisa and the other eggheads in Intel thought Kaito belonged in the eros corps. He smirked and chuckled, looking Kaito up and down. "Well damn, yeah. I guess if you can manage to ask for it that nicely, I'll have to give it to you."

Straightening up, he pushed away from the wall. "Can you tell me what you just did that was so charming, or was that all instinct? I kind of hate to force you to analyze it, but if you can turn that kind of charisma on at will, you've got a real future ahead of you, Kaito. And I don't mean one where you have to take it up the ass from smelly geezers, either."

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:05 am UTC (link)
Kaito rolled his eyes at the up and down look, jamming his hands in the front pockets of his hoodie. He frowned, shoulders hunching slightly--not that he was self conscious or anything, he was just comfortable like that, was all--and tried to pull his mind away from the thought of taking it up the ass from smelly geezers, and focus on what he'd just done.

He'd asked nicely? He'd been hopeful? He dragged one hand out of the pocket and scratched at the base of his skull. "I smiled?" Somehow, though, he doubted that was all of it. Genma had said words like charming and charisma and Kaito was pretty sure he didn't have any of that. If he'd had any of those things, he'd have a lot more friends, too. "Are you sure it's not just 'cause you switch-hit?" He eyed Genma suspiciously again.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:06 am UTC (link)
"You smiled. Well, that's a start." Genma grinned. "OK, for one thing, you're about the same height as me, but just now you looked up at me. How did you do that? You ducked your head down at an angle a little to the right, like this." He demonstrated. "Then you smiled a little crookedly, higher on the left than on the right, so you made a dimple--your dimples are fantastic assets, by the way." Genma flashed him the smile.

"The real thing you did that clinched it, though, was the eyes. You looked up at me like this." Genma let his eyelids fall slightly lower. "Probably not exactly the same effect on me as it was on you, since I have different shaped eyes, but you see it?"

He straightened, then repeated the whole sequence for Kaito. "You'll let me squeeze by this time, won't you?" he said, using the same hopeful, sheepish tone of voice. Projecting a charming boyishness, and the idea that of course boys will be boys, and this one was really so cute and earnest, how could you not give him the trifle he was asking for.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:07 am UTC (link)
Kaito stared at Genma. He'd done that? His dimples were assets? They made him look twelve!

...oh. Oh, ew. He really hoped Genma didn't mean assets for that kind of person. He scratched at the back of his head again, tugging on a stray lock of hair. "Yeah, but when you do that you look all--all--" He waved a hand up and down, taking in Genma's appearance. He wasn't all arms and legs with hands and feet that were three sizes too big, and he had kinda nice hair. His long sleeved T-shirt snugged across his chest, showing the swell of hard muscle without outlining anything, and his jeans actually fit.

"And you're doing a hip thing!" Kaito accused, pointing. "I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything with my hips." Besides which, he didn't look like that!

One hand was still buried in the hair at the back of his skull. He dragged it down and shoved it in his pocket. Genma looked all innocent and shit when he'd smiled like that, and somehow not innocent at all, and it was like dealing with girls where he was suddenly expected to see body language and OH HOLY BUDDHA Genma was going to expect him to understand things, wasn't he?

Kaito panicked. "I mean--you look like you know what you're doing when you do that and that's not what I meant at all!" His mother would have killed him if he'd looked like he'd known what he was doing. That definitely wasn't how he'd looked.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:09 am UTC (link)
"What do you mean I look like I know what I'm doing? I guess since this is a demonstration, maybe I can't help it seeming too deliberate..." Genma frowned. He tried to remember what it had been like when he'd first worked with Amari-sensei. How she'd looked to him. He had to admit she'd looked like she knew what she was doing. Not in a way that would give away her gig, but she'd had confidence. She'd known exactly what kind of response every little nuance to her moves could bring.

"The hip thing... Yeah I probably did that," he admitted. "It's not required. I mean we don't want to make you a clone of me, you have to have your own style. My style includes hips. Yours doesn't have to."

Genma straightened up and tried again. "Maybe if I do a henge. My sensei used to do that, cause she was a woman and I was always telling her how I couldn't do what she was doing because she was a chick. So she'd henge as me to show me."

Hands in the air again, ending on the rat seal. Suddenly there were two Kaito's standing there. Same baggy clothes. Same worried frown.

"See?" Genma-as-Kaito did the same sequence of moves again, this time being conscious to keep his hips still.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:10 am UTC (link)
Kaito tugged at his hair, realized he was doing it, and shoved his hands back in his pockets. It was kind of embarrassing to see what he'd done--he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd done something wrong. It seemed manipulative, with Genma-as-him standing there doing it right back.

But that was the point, wasn't it? To manipulate people into doing what he wanted? Into thinking there'd be sex, like Genma kept saying the last time. And Genma wasn't mad at him and saying he had been manipulative. Just... pointing out how he could. Or how he'd looked. Or something.

Kaito chewed on one cuticle. "That's... charming, huh?" He wanted to pat not-him on the head and roll his eyes at the same time. Maybe it was different if you were queer. Or at least not looking at yourself. Man, he really hated looking at himself. It was so weird.

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:15 am UTC (link)
"It's close enough. You knew what to watch for, so probably didn't react to it the same way I did." Genma dropped the henge and straightened up. He could see the skepticism on Kaito's face. "Look, it's not like I think you're gonna get this in one lesson, right? But trust me, you were charming."

The skepticism and the thumb-chewing both continued.

"That's not charming," Genma said, looking pointedly at Kaito's hand. "And you're going to want your hands to be in better shape than they are. Softer skin. I can get away with having unpretty hands, because the scars are old and faded. But freshly-chewed, raw fingertips are a turn off, especially for women. And I'm pretty sure you want to get the jobs where your targets will have tits, right?"

(Reply to this)


[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:17 am UTC (link)
He stuck his thumb in his mouth with a wince as one cuticle tore, and spoke around the digit. "Right." He made a face and yanked his hand down, shoving it back in his pocket. "I need... soft hands?" Visions of lotion and gloves danced through his mind.

He had to figure out how to be charming all the time, and have soft hands. Charming. "I thought charming people were like--popular." He gestured. "Like you." He frowned, realizing that probably should have been a compliment and sounded more like... not. He flicked at the torn cuticle with one finger, the tiny flare of pain a distraction. His chakra was moving restlessly under his skin, shifting back and forth as if looking for a way to trigger his limit. Consciously, he soothed it back down under his pathways, knowing that the moment he stopped making the effort it would be right back to what it was doing now.

He definitely wasn't being charming now. He didn't want to be charming, really. Every time he started that someone accused him of manipulating and--

And he was supposed to, right? That was the whole point of being in eros missions? Heck, ANBU had picked him up because they wanted his limit to manipulate people.

Kaito sat down on the bed and rubbed his face with both hands. "Oh, man. This is so much more confusing than weapons training."

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:20 am UTC (link)
Sympathy, honest sympathy, was what Genma felt then. Not Kaito's jutsu manipulating his emotions, but his own memory of being fourteen years old and staring in disbelief at Amari-sensei when she told him he was going to be a great seducer.

He sat on the bed next to Kaito, carefully not close enough to touch, and stared not at his student, but at a poster on the wall. A movie poster for 'The Sword Sharpener's Mistress.' A gorgeous woman in clothing far too scanty to be protective crossed a bridge at night, trailed by a pair of men in masks with blank hitai-ate on their foreheads and overly-long katana strapped to their backs.

"It's like when you explain a joke. It loses its humor. But if you keep studying it, then you start to get it in a different way. Then it can go back to being natural again. Like when you learned to water walk. It felt insane when you first tried, right? And your chakra was all wrong and you fell in. And then you got it once when you weren't thinking too hard about it, and as soon as you started thinking about it, you fell in again. I did, anyway. But I bet now you water walk without even really noticing you've stepped off the ground. It's natural."

One corner of the poster curled away from the wall, exposing a crack in the plaster.

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:21 am UTC (link)
Kaito eyed the man sitting beside him. Chin propped in his hands, his eyes flicked sideways and up to peer at Genma's face. Straight nose, slim bones, a narrow, sharp-edged jaw. Kaito looked down at his own oversized feet, nearly hidden by the frayed hem of his jeans. He stretched to pluck at a stray thread, tugging it loose.

The analogy made sense. And eventually maybe he'd even get it. He wrapped the thread around his fingers and yanked, unraveling it further. This stuff probably came natural to the other man. He had that sleek feel some people just had. The feel that Kaito had never come close to having, that had sent him skidding away from the Uchiha girl in his graduating class because she always seemed so composed and together--and he'd had the worst crush on her, but every time he went near he acted like a doofus.

Genma felt like she had. Like the world was theirs for the taking, and all they had to do was wink right.

Except... someone had taught Genma how to do it. Or maybe partly how to do it. Kaito frowned, rolling the string into a little ball between thumb and index finger. If she'd done it naturally, and Genma was taught, and Genma said eventually it would come naturally like water walking...

"Genma? Can I ask you something?" He didn't look up. Instead, he wrapped the string around his other hand, too, twining it between his fingers and snapping it apart again.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:24 am UTC (link)
There was a change in Kaito's tone. Almost a vulnerability, or at least an openness that hadn't been there before. Genma turned his head away from the window a bit, enough to see Kaito breaking threads. He'd wrapped them so tightly that his fingers were purplish red, blanched where the string cut deeply in. The thread snapped, and Kaito's fingers sprang apart. Genma turned back to his poster-gazing.

The two ninja following the woman--they were probably dead, Genma thought. He hated that kind of movie. Sure, the hot chick was fun to watch, but she always did something stupid and got her bodyguards killed, before she was rescued by some samurai dipshit on a white horse. He'd rather see the story of the two shinobi, and see them kick some samurai ass.

"Sure. Ask me anything," he said. He heard the thread snap again.

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:26 am UTC (link)
He hesitated, not sure how to phrase things. Trying to sort it out in his own head. "Do people... I mean, 'cause everyone--everyone here--knows you're in eros, right? So don't they get... I dunno." He shrugged broad shoulders, feeling the hoodie slide. "I mean, you don't use that training all the time," probably, "but they can't know that. Don't people think maybe you are? 'Cause..."

The string was too short, now, to break anymore. He dropped the pieces on the floor and picked at his torn cuticle. "No one likes to be manipulated, y'know. And if they know you can, how do they know you aren't? I mean, they don't know." Blood began to well at the base of his nail. "So... so they gotta figure you are sometimes." His shoulders hunched, and he wiped his bleeding thumb off on his jeans. The single drop turned denim a brown-purple color. He watched blood bead again, and again let it soak into his pants. When it didn't bead a third time, he scratched at it until it spilled free. "Don't they get mad? Even if you're not? 'Cause they don't know you're not, and--" And if Genma hadn't figured out what he was trying to say, blathering wasn't going to help. His step-father's voice rattled around in his head: Say what you mean, or stop talking. He could at least do the latter.

His toes curled in his socks, vanishing under the wide leg of his jeans. He shrugged again, shoulders around his ears momentarily. "Just... I dunno." The last was barely a mumble.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:26 am UTC (link)
The question. The question. Genma took a breath and blew it out through pursed lips. He shifted a little, leaning back and crossing one ankle over the other knee. "Well..." he said, and stopped. Licked his lips. "Sometimes they do know, and sometimes you are, and sometimes they want you to be."

"Did I tell you about my eros sensei? Her name was Ohara Amari. She was a legend. It wasn't just the people who worked with her who knew she was a seductress; everyone knew. She wasn't all that pretty, really. I mean she was pretty, but she had a gap between her front teeth, and a crooked nose. Small tits. Not the kind of woman you usually think of running eros. But she was the best. The best."

He licked his lips. Wished he had a cigarette. The senbon he'd used to quell his response to Kaito's jutsu came out, twirled between bony fingers for a moment before he slipped its unpoisoned end into his mouth.

"She never lacked for dates. Ever. When they know you're in eros, they know you're damn good at what you do. And it's like all our other techniques, too. If we want to make sure a friend hears us coming, or a civilian, we walk extra loud, right? Otherwise you're just stealthy on automatic. But no ninja is bugged when another ninja is silent."

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:29 am UTC (link)
Kaito rubbed the break in his cuticle. He could feel the ragged edges underneath the smear of blood. He ran his finger over it again and again, something hypnotic in the little spark of pain. "But knowing you're a good lay or sneaking up on someone... I mean, it's a little different than making them like you, whether or not they really do." He flushed, thumb curling in toward his palm. With the nubby nails of his other hand, he tried to catch a torn edge of flesh and pull it off. Self-consciously, he mumbled, "I'm sure they really like you, but..."

Blood spilled, bright and fresh, as a section of cuticle ripped free, taking skin with it. Kaito cursed, more than a little pain making him suddenly aware of what he was doing. He stuck his thumb in his mouth again, wishing he hadn't said anything in the first place. Genma was one of those people. Those people who didn't have to manipulate others into liking them. He probably didn't have a clue as to what Kaito was talking about. He probably never had anyone accuse him of lying so they'd be his friend. He wouldn't have to.

Kaito should have just kept his stupid mouth shut. He stood, thumb still in his mouth, and headed for the bathroom. "Sorry," he muttered around his nail. "Jus' need a ban'aid." He grabbed a box of them, yanking one out and glancing up in the mirror.

He looked like a fucking whiner. His gaze slid sideways, to the senbon sticking out between Genma's lips. He looked like a whiner, and if he wasn't careful Genma was going to have to use that thing again. He stared down at his hands, summoning a small smile from somewhere and pasting it on. "Never mind. It's no big deal. I was just curious."

Buddha's balls, if everyone knew eros experts manipulated emotion, and his mother found out he was in that field, it wouldn't matter if he was good at it or not.

The stupid sticky stuff on the band-aid made it tangle, rapidly becoming a mess. Kaito tossed it in the trash, realized it was still stuck to his good thumb, and tried to shake it off. It didn't shake. For the love of--

He glared at it in defeat.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:31 am UTC (link)
"You can't make someone like you," Genma said. "It doesn't work that way. Not for real friends, anyway. You can make a target like you for a night or a week or whatever, but your real friends just like you because you're who you are when you aren't using your training. Like now. Before, the day I met you, I used my training to try to put you at ease. Today right now, I'm just being me."

It was the simple truth, simply stated. But he knew it wasn't enough. He could see in Kaito's quiet, unrelenting mutilation of his cuticles, that the issue was eating at him.

"Look, here's the thing. You know me and Raidou both are using tricks like these stupid senbon to keep from being affected by your limit too much, right? And you've hardly been working to make us like you, have you? Even if you have, it's totally untrained work. But he likes you, at least some. And I have to say, you're growing on me."

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:34 am UTC (link)
Maybe Genma couldn't make someone like him for more than a mission--though Kaito doubted it. Maybe for-real friends really did like you for who you were, not what you made them feel. Maybe he didn't actually have any for-real friends. Not even the one he thought he had.

He shoved the heel of his non-bleeding hand against his brow, pressing until he saw splashes of color behind his closed eyelids. Enough with the whining. It didn't really matter, anyway. And none of this had answered his question.

"Okay, but say you meet someone. And you're friends--or you think you are. And then they find out you're in eros. Don't they ever get mad that maybe you've manipulated them into--into doing whatever it is you've been doing?" He didn't look at Genma, too embarrassed. Too sure he'd see sudden understanding and revulsion.

Maybe Genma and Raidou knew he hadn't been manipulating them. Maybe that was why they liked him. But if they couldn't ever be sure... You couldn't trust someone like that.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:36 am UTC (link)
"I had one chick I hooked up with think that once. She got all pissy and told her friends I was a sleaze. But mostly no," Genma answered thoughtfully. "I mean, my friends are my friends. Some of them are a little squicked by the whole eros thing--my buddy Aoba, for example. But he's bugged by the fact I suck cock willingly, you know? Not like he thinks I'm trying to get into his pants, 'cause I'm not and he knows it. People know. If they're really worth having as friends, they just call you on it if they think you're pulling some kinda shit on them. And if you are you, you know, own up, buy the next round of beers as apology, whatever."

Genma couldn't stand to watch Kaito fumble with his useless bandaids and his depressed questions any longer. He shoved himself up from the bed and walked towards Kaito with an easy, gentle stride.

"Here, give me your hand," he said, and held his own up. "I'll fix it."

When Kaito pulled back warily, not meeting his eyes, Genma laughed.

"Dude, I'm not gonna hurt you, and it's only your fingertips. Just think about something really unsexy."

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:37 am UTC (link)
Self-consciously--Genma had just told him to stop chewing, and he'd promptly done it bad enough to need help, how lame--Kaito stretched his hand out. "Grilled cheese sandwiches," he mumbled with a half smile.

It was easier to watch what Genma was doing than to look at him. "What if you're not pulling shit on them, and they think you are, and they don't believe you?" He flushed, as if Genma could read memories in the words. "My mom's clan's suspicious." Suspicious of him, anyway. Genjutsu they got--his bastardized limit they hated.

She hated. They just didn't acknowledge him.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:42 am UTC (link)
"You ever have a friend you thought owed you money, and he said he didn't?" Genma asked. He sent tiny pulses of healing energy into Kaito's fingers, soothing raw nerves, knitting skin back together. It made his own fingertips burn, the way any healing jutsu could give you an echo in your own body in the part you were working on. Hands, Genma thought with an inner sigh. It had to be hands.

"You might argue about it, but if the guy's really your friend, you believe him. Or you at least let it go." Genma dropped the jutsu and took a step back, checking with a practiced eye for any... unexpected side effects from his healing. It didn't look like his pants were fitting any tighter.

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:46 am UTC (link)
His cuticle and the skin surrounding it felt oddly snug as Genma stepped away. His pants, however, didn't. That was a relief.

Kaito stared at his thumb, flexing and straightening it, thinking about what Genma had said. It made sense. It made perfect sense. But somehow, he just couldn't quite believe it applied. Maybe it applied to normal manipulation, but... What he did was different. He wasn't sure how, but it was. After all, his family loved him--even if they didn't always get along--and if they didn't believe him...

Maybe it was just something with him. Frowning, he ran his index nail over the nailbed of his thumb. It tingled, fresh and whole.

"Yeah, okay," he said at last. There wasn't anything else to say, really. He couldn't explain it all, and he had a feeling that even if he did, Genma would have some fancy way of looking at things that would get around everything he said, but wouldn't change anything.

Then he glanced up at the other man, only realizing a second later that he'd looked up through his lashes again. He blushed and jerked his chin higher. He wasn't trying to be charming!

But even if he was, Genma had said Raidou liked him anyway, and Genma was starting to. Maybe he should be charming. Because Genma had pointed it out, right? And wanted him to practice? But maybe he shouldn't, because he didn't want to manipulate. Besides, that was the only charming thing he knew, and it would get old, fast.

Kaito stood, torn as to what to do now. Finally, with half an uncertain smile, he lifted his hand. "Thanks."

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 02:56 am UTC (link)
"No problem. Now you gotta keep them nice. Lotion and stuff." Genma frowned. He wasn't sure what all the threads running under Kaito's surface were, but not a few of them seemed to be an utter lack of faith in anything Genma was telling him.

"You don't have to get a girly lotion. Get the stuff the medics use. Or I have some stuff that smells like sandalwood I get from that import place by Ichiraku. You know the place?"

It wasn't the lotion, he thought. Knew. It wasn't the lotion that was troubling Kaito.

"You know this eros stuff... It's really not a big deal. People don't really care about it. They don't assume you're being manipulative any more than they assume you're gonna kill them just because they know you're an assassin. I mean, it's like how, sure, some people are kinda weird about you if they know you're ANBU? You just stay away from them. Or capitalize on it, if they're total assholes. You gotta just know yourself and trust yourself, trust your comrades."

Trust me. Trust Raidou.

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 02:56 am UTC (link)
Kaito started to nod and hesitated, looking warily at Genma. He'd done something wrong. Genma was trying to reassure him. Which meant--

His gaze slipped to a green-clad forearm, where the man had stabbed himself with that senbon earlier. Was it still hurting? Still working? Or was Kaito about to get accosted and hugged? Sure, there were worse things--but not many, in his book. Damn the lack of bathroom windows. Not that he'd really jump, but--

But Genma wasn't getting any closer. Know yourself. Trust yourself. Trust your comrades. Yeah, sure. He couldn't even be positive he wasn't zapping Genma again, or that Genma wasn't reacting because of it. Suddenly, he really wanted out of the bathroom.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Okay. I just--just gotta get used to it. It's not a big deal. Like you said." He looked longingly over Genma's shoulder, into the room beyond. "Is it stuffy in here? We should--should--" He gestured to the room.

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 03:00 am UTC (link)
"Okay," Genma said, taking the hint. He took a full step backwards, and another, giving Kaito plenty of room to escape. Trust was something you had to earn, after all, Amari-sensei had said many times. You could earn a target's trust in an hour, but it was superficial trust. You could earn a deep-cover target's trust in a few weeks, if you really worked at it, but those kinds of missions tended to do a major job on the heads of the agents who took them.

Earning a comrade's trust was an entirely different matter. You might earn trust on a mission but not once you were safely home. A comrade would trust you to have his back in a fight, but that didn't mean he'd trust a single word you said to him that wasn't about the mission.

Real trust--the kind of trust he needed to work effectively with Kaito--the kind he and Raidou had in each other--was something you couldn't create in a day. But they'd made a start. A definite start.

"Tell you what..." He didn't follow Kaito back into his room, but continued to stand near the door. "You got three more days to do that following around and observing I asked you to. Try to see if you can catch anyone else being charming, and see if you can break it down--what they're doing that works. Like if you see some woman at the market get three fish for the price of two, see if you can figure out why. That work for you?"

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 03:00 am UTC (link)
With the room between them, he could relax again. Genma wasn't being affected. No forthcoming hugs. The iron band around Kaito's chest relaxed.

And he was being given another shot at this. Which caused him no end of confusion, when gratefulness at being given another chance warred with not wanting to do this at all. His life was getting weird.

"I can do that," he said. Three days was plenty of time. "Definitely." He fumbled a smile, reaching up with one hand to rub the back of his head. "Thanks."

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[info]fallen_senbon
2008-12-30 03:02 am UTC (link)
Genma didn't point out that that shy smile and hand-to-the-back-of-the-head gesture was also a pretty charming one. He figured Kaito'd had enough to think about for one day.

"OK, so if you don't come find me in three days to report, I'll come get you. And don't let Raidou kick you around too much. Check him right after he does a right flying kick. His guard's weak and you can probably tag him on the right shin." He grinned and opened the door. "If you get him good, you can tell him I said his guard sucks."

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[info]fallen_kaito
2008-12-30 03:02 am UTC (link)
His grin flashed, bright and brief, deep dimples bracketing either side of his mouth for a bare instant. "I'll remember that." He most certainly would. The bruise still on his sternum would see to it.

"Three days," he echoed in farewell, walking across the room to close the door as Genma left.

Three days. He could do a lot in three days. Now he'd see if he could do this in three days.

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