| [Jan. 5th, 2012|08:15 am] |
There was still something unsettled in Ryouma’s eyes, an edge of tension in the set of his shoulders, but he was a big boy and Asuma didn’t plan to hot-step all over the issues of a man who’d only been home for two days.
“Mostly what it sounds like. Classified weapon got stolen from Konoha, ended up in getting second-hand stolen by a bunch of floating jackasses. Konoha freaked the hell out an’ sent me an’ Tsume after it.”
That caught Ryouma’s attention.
“She get hurt, too?”
“Beaten, same as me,” Asuma said, a little more quietly. He thumbed a coffee stain on the table, remembering Tsume’s bare skin in the sun. Her arms yanked high and her feet off the ground, red lines cracking across her back. Her terror at being naked, surrounded by dangerous men. “It was the weapon they’d stolen—some kind of jutsu-artifact that made you blind and deaf if you got too close. We caught up with them on open water, attacked their ship, and ran right into the teeth of it. They took us down in about five minutes flat.”
A faint, muted shiver twitched Ryouma’s shoulders, as if he’d had a thought he didn’t much like. "What about Tsume's nose? 'F it's good enough to smell emotions, does it help in fighting? Not if you're surrounded, I guess..."
Asuma shrugged. “Helped her about as much as my chakra sense helped me. Information’s too vague to work with, an’ things happened too fast. They knocked us out, sank our ship—lost of a lot of civilians to that, poor bastards—and threw us down in their hold. Naked, if you can believe. They were plannin’ to use us for practice, I guess. And for barter later, when they sold the thing. But Tsume scratched their seals apart when we were both in any kind of shape to move again, an’ we escaped.”
Not one of his better translocations.
“Took ‘em about ten minutes to catch us again, then they flogged us half to death. Tsume bitched the whole time. Mange-bald, ball-licking pus-eaters.” His mouth quirked. “Brave as anythin’, that one, even when she’s scared out of her mind.” They’d held a knife to her throat to shut her up, and made him count the lash strokes. “Knocked us both out again. I’d gotten my skull cracked pretty good, so I don’t remember the next bit real well, but Tsume bartered some time with a healer for me. Agreed to let ‘em tie her to the mast while I got pieced back together, and get their kicks from lookin’. Promised to play nice.”
Ryouma’s jaw clenched, a muscle jumping in his cheek. “I hope the bit where you ripped ‘em all apart is coming up soon.”
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