| [Mar. 5th, 2014|01:52 am] |
“If it’s another demon queen, he can keep it,” Kakashi said.
He looked at Ryouma’s hand.
After a moment, Ryouma’s fingers twitched, curling into his palm. He began to pull away. Kakashi reached out and grabbed his wrist. Ryouma’s hand closed reflexively around Kakashi’s wrist, lock-grip, and he hauled Kakashi to his feet in a casual shift of muscle. And then winced, letting go.
Kakashi’s mouth curled behind his mask. “You deserve that,” he echoed.
“Ten points for you, minus ten for me, and we’re even?” Ryouma’s voice was light, but there was something just faintly hopeful under the mud and bruises.
Ryouma hadn’t even remembered the other night until just now, or at least thought it anything important. But Kakashi had seen that little oh of realization—backed, presumably, by the understanding that Ryouma was bleeding for a reason, not just Kakashi’s random whim.
What had he thought Kakashi was hitting him for?
“We’re not even,” Kakashi said. Ryouma’s mouth tilted down, and Kakashi added, “You needed Ueno’s help to pin me. You still have work to do.”
He stepped around Ryouma, shoving his hands into his pockets, and made for the fence.
“Next time,” Ryouma said cheerfully, stretching his long-legged stride to catch up. He absently scrubbed the back of his hand across his bloody upper lip.
At the fence, the captain was reading an unfurled message while Katsuko jigged from foot to foot and Genma watched. The hawk still balanced on Raidou’s arm, preening gleaming brown feathers with a killer’s beak. Raidou frowned.
“Mission?” Genma prompted quietly, when Raidou didn’t say anything.
“Meeting,” Raidou said. A small flame burst across his palm, incinerating the message. He tossed the hawk back into the air—apparently a return message wasn’t needed—and stuffed the ripped, arm-protecting towel back into his kit bag. “Can you take over?”
Genma barely blinked. He nodded once, light brown eyes lifting to track the soaring flight of the vanishing hawk—already nearly invisible in the hazy dawn light. “Assessments and some light training?”
“You could do something moderate to Hatake, since he’s so raring to go,” Raidou said, tossing a brief, sharp look in Kakashi’s direction. Kakashi met it blandly. “Focus on assessments—I want to know what’s still healing, what needs work. Tousaki, no jutsu yet, I know the medics haven’t signed you off. Ueno, baby that collarbone. Hatake…”
Kakashi lifted an eyebrow.
“Be pleasant,” Raidou said at last. “And no one break the lieutenant.”
He clapped Genma once on the shoulder and vanished in a swirl of morning dew and rippling chakra. Translocation.
Urgent meeting, then.
Minato’s list of traitors must have come through, which meant there were S-ranks on the horizon. Katsuko would get her wish; Team Six would see blood soon.
Kakashi rolled his shoulders, controlling the shiver of eagerness. This first.
“Lieutenant?” he said. |
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