| [Dec. 1st, 2011|07:59 am] |
Genma stood alone in the darkened garden for five or six minutes, listening to the sounds of late-summer cicadas and the much-too-warm breeze stirring waxy-leaved desert foliage. He had half a breath’s warning — the sensation of chakra at the back of his neck — and then Tsuda was there with steel in one hand, cold against Genma’s throat, and a grip on Genma’s right arm, wrenching it up behind his back.
It took every bit of training Genma had in him not to defend himself.
“Who are you, really?” Tsuda whispered in Genma’s ear.
“Ge- Gen. Akane Gen. I’m with the Grass Country Grain—”
“You’re with Grass Country, alright,” Tsuda interrupted. “But not the Grain Traders. What are you? A chuunin?” He sounded sharp but not completely threatening. The kunai, Genma noticed, was pressed flat against his throat with no chance the blade would make an accidental cut.
There was one way out of this, maybe, that kept the mission intact, if Tsuda believed him. “Y— yes. How did you know?” Genma asked. He made his voice breathy and young-sounding. A chuunin far out of his depth.
“I thought so,” Tsuda said. He relaxed his grip on Genma’s arm just a little. The knife stayed where it was. “You’re too fit to be a grain merchant. Even a vain one who works out. And your hands have too many scars...”
Genma swallowed, feeling his Adam’s apple bob against the blade, projecting as much of his nervousness as he dared. He tried not to think too deeply about what Tsuda must have assumed from looking at his hands.
“What’s your mission, Gen?” Tsuda’s voice was low and oily, just shy of menacing.
“To escort Hajime-san.” Genma blew out a nervous breath. “I’m.. I just... I’m just supposed to protect him on the road, and he didn’t want to be seen with a ninja in uniform. He thought it might make him a target.”
Tsuda chuckled. The knife fell away. “Well, I guess we’ve all been there, haven’t we? Anxious clients making our jobs harder. You’re new at this, aren’t you?”
Genma nodded. “I got promoted in the spring.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll learn. Next time the thing you need to do is make sure your counterpart — that would be me, in this case — knows who you are and why you’re there. Then there won’t be any mixups like this.” Tsuda’s hold shifted from restraint to embrace. Genma heard the subtle clink as the other ninja dropped his kunai back into its holster.
“I- I will. Thank you. I’ll remember this.” Genma turned towards the other man, looking up from under lowered lids. Tsuda was smiling like a cat who’d licked the cream. “So... Do you still want to show me your garden, Tsuda-san?”
Tsuda’s answer was to claim Genma’s mouth in a hard-edged kiss and slide a hand down the curve of Genma’s ass. “I do,” he said. “I definitely do.” |
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