| [Mar. 5th, 2014|02:33 am] |
Ryouma twitched reflexively away. "No," he said shortly, and almost immediately regretted it. The lieutenant's eyebrows had come up again. He could feel the other three staring at him.
"I'm fine. It's not that cold." He still wasn't quite managing to keep the bite of resentment out of his voice. No wonder Genma felt comfortable treating him like a kid, if he was going to act like one. It was just —
The hand at his arm, so ready to grab without warning or permission. The needling reminder that he couldn't manage a simple drying jutsu by himself, wasn't allowed to do it.
But Genma'd warned, instead of just touching; hadn't grabbed, when Ryouma pulled away. He hadn't pushed the jutsu on Ryouma, either; he'd only offered. Ryouma exhaled slowly, through his nose, and stooped to retie his wet, straggling shoelaces. "Thanks anyway." He straightened, and tried to meet the lieutenant's eyes.
Genma shrugged and stepped back. His clone had returned, obediently bearing a slightly muddy sweatshirt and shoes. Genma slipped into the shoes and paused with the sweatshirt in his hands. "Time to get changed? Or shall we just come as we are?"
"As you are," Raidou said. "I want everyone in the office in two minutes or less. We're on the clock." His narrowed gaze prickled for an instant longer on Ryouma's face, and then he was gone in a swirl of leaves and chakra.
It'd taken them ten minutes to sprint from the training field to the river. Two minutes wasn't time enough for anything but a translocation to ANBU's front door and a mad rush through the halls. And even if Ryouma'd been cleared for jutsu use, he was shit at translocation, and Raidou knew it.
He bit his tongue on three separate swear words and looked up, finally, to find the one person he hadn't insulted today. "Katsuko, can you give me a ride-along?"
"Yeah, no problem," she said, gratifyingly quickly. She stepped up to loop her arm through his and set her hands together for the seals. "See you there, lieutenant," she said, and then winked at Kakashi. "And you, loverboy."
Chakra rose like a firestorm around them, and yanked them somewhere else. |
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