| [Feb. 8th, 2010|10:04 pm] |
That look, right there, was the first time she'd looked like a ninja. Looked like his version of a ninja, with her hands hidden and her weight canted and a pale echo of blades and death reflected in the sharp bones of her face. The tight set of her jaw.
Kakashi didn't know precisely what Ryouma had done to make her feel unwanted, but he suspected there would be some substantial regret about it in the very near future.
Not his problem.
Well, mostly not his problem. Unless she planned to do something fatal about it, but he doubted that.
He tipped his head in silent acknowledgment and wondered, just for a moment, what she'd be like on a mission. Her chakra was a beacon, a source of blatant, scar-twisted wrongness, but there was so much of it. A broad, half-restrained forest fire. And he could see precisely how to use that: a weapon, a distraction. A useful diversion. And she had none of the romantic softness that seemed so common with kunoichi--at least, insofar as he could tell from one conversation.
Unless you counted that comment about what he meant to Ryouma, which was none of her business and dead-wrong besides. He'd meant just enough to be worth running from. To be left behind while Ryouma had taken a midnight mission, and gotten himself laid, and come back without a word.
It was the first time in living memory Kakashi had been abandoned by someone still breathing. By someone who'd meant something to him.
Katsuko had gotten that bit right. Kakashi just wished she hadn't.
He cut the thought away with a jerk of his jaw, reaching for a lifetime's practice of not-caring, and yanked up his half-recovered chakra. The not-caring wouldn't come, but he had anger enough to take its place, and a plan to do something about it. Ryouma's room would be a damn good place to start.
He had no goodbye's for Katsuko, but something else occurred.
"If you want a stereo, there's one going free at the hospital. The ANBU ward."
She blinked at him. Kakashi translocated away. |
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