| Lightning Strikes Twice [Genma, Rina] | [Jul. 19th, 2010|09:09 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, immediately following Take a Breath.]
Lulled by the steady pounding cacophony outside, the reassuring safety of her own seal blocking the entrance, and the solid spring-green freshness of Genma's chakra presence resting beside her, sleep was easy to find.
Rina expected to be woken by a calm gloved hand on her shoulder for the change of shifts, or perhaps by the subtle shifting of sounds indicating that the storm was ending. Instead, what felt like barely moments after she'd curled up, she was jolted into adrenaline-pumping awareness by three system shocks in as many heartbeats:
One, the tearing reverberation of a kunai ripping straight through the center of her seal.
Two, Genma's shout, and the slice of a ricocheting shuriken as it carved a path across her thigh.
And three, the skin-pricking electric tingle that gave her an instant of warning--an instant before the entire might of the storm gathered and crashed down above them, splintering their stone hideout into a razor-edged cloud of deadly shrapnel and fountaining earth.
Safely cocooned underground by a flash of earth jutsu as instinctive as a flinch, Rina caught a breath, but her narrow cavern was filling up with the relentless seep of water. She couldn't stay.
A lightning press of seals brought her back to the surface, and she was drenched and frigid in an instant. "Genma!" she shouted, despairing of finding him. She could barely find herself. The storm had only intensified. Water dripped into her eyes, trickled in torrents down the back of her neck. She called again, her voice swallowed by the downpour. |
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