| Paradigms of Professionalism [Closed to Haruichi & Raidou] | [Feb. 2nd, 2008|02:16 am] |
Raidou was, by all accounts, a reasonably smart man. He could speak in full sentences, conjugate a decent verb when the mood took him, and even add up columns of small numbers.
He certainly considered himself a logical man.
When he discovered that Shiranui Genma, his solid mission partner for the past six months, had been assigned to a reasonably complex mission requiring back up without him, Raidou suspected the higher-ups of non-logical thinking.
Being a logical man, he set out to correct that somewhat egregious error.
Being a decent shinobi, he considered the official channels first. Time, however, was against him. Genma's mission commenced first thing in the morning and that was not nearly enough time to request a transfer with the ninja partnering him.
Raidou's replacement.
Of course, there was always the more direct route...
"You should stay down," suggested Raidou cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of his feet a little. "The mat clearly likes you. Stay there and give it a full body hug."
Minamoto Touji ignored his helpful advice the way he'd ignored Raidou's suggestion to be the sensible man and back out gracefully, and vaulted once more to his feet. He was a solidly built man, almost of a height with Raidou, and certainly a lot more angry. His face -- now somewhat on the bruised side -- twisted in an expression that was probably rage, but could just have easily been constipation, and turned a distinct plum shade. It made his scars stand out pale.
"Colourful," said Raidou, still cheerfully, and readied himself for another bout. The fourth so far, unless he missed his count.
Minamoto, apparently not one for talk, expressed his displeasure with the current situation by launching himself into a flying tackle that crashed him head-first into Raidou's solar-plexus. Raidou hit the mat on his back with a loud smack and a whumph of lost breath, and slammed his knees up, adding more then a little force to Minamoto's speed and a slight change to his trajectory.
Minamoto sailed fifteen feet before he landed with a louder smack and a solid crack as his chin hit the floor.
Not bad, thought Raidou, as he got back to his feet.
A faint glimmer of white on the floor suggested that Minamoto had parted company with a tooth.
Really not bad, thought Raidou, impressed despite himself. He settled back into a guard and waited for the man to get back to his feet.
A minute later Raidou concluded that his opponent had not only parted company with an integral bit of dentistry, but also with consciousness.
"Y'see?" he told Minamoto, after nudging him over with a toe to check he wasn't playing possum. "This is why I couldn't let you play back up to my friend. You'd have gotten him killed and then I would've had to kill you and then Konoha would've had to execute me for treachery." He knelt down to check Minamoto's breathing, "And I have plans next month that involve me not being dead, so that just didn't work for me."
Definitely lacking in the way of a front tooth. Raidou picked up the incisor in question and slipped it into his pocket -- it was possible it could be reattached -- before he boosted Minamoto up and hauled him onto his back. "You need to work on your taijutsu, my glass-jawed friend. Also your break-falling. Man. I haven't seen someone get taken down that fast since the academy."
Minamoto replied by drooling a little blood onto the back of Raidou's neck.
Raidou wrinkled his nose, "I knew I didn't like you for a reason. And not just because you spent a whole week bitching in my ear during that mission in November. Ass."
Possibly there had been just a smidgen of payback motivating this little encounter. But only a smidgen.
Besides being a smart man and a logical man, Raidou was also occasionally prone to fits of being a nice man. "I'm going to drop you off with Kanae-sensei," he informed the insensate burden on his back, "try not to do anything more stupid before we get there? Good idiot veteran."
The journey down to the medic-bay in the basement was highlighted only by the lovely moment when Minamoto woke up and ignored Raidou's advice again and attempted to bite him on the back of the neck. The swift collision with the wall put a stop to that and undoubtedly added to Minamoto's woes by supplying him with a sturdy concussion to go along with his glass jaw.
"Idiot," Raidou muttered, pulling a face at the unpleasant sensation of saliva cooling as it oozed down the line of his spine. He completed the trip to the medic bay in grouchy silence, resisting the urge to accidentally knock Minamoto's irritating head into every hard object he passed.
The door, when he reached it, was closed. Raidou regarded it for a thoughtful moment. Lacking free hands he settled for kicking it instead. "Oi, Kanae-sensei, you in? Got someone dying to see you." He paused and reconsidered. "Okay, poor choice of words." |
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