| [May. 22nd, 2014|05:22 am] |
“So long as she didn’t get you with it,” Raidou said, dismissing guilt they didn’t need. “Can’t be helped; I wouldn’t linger on it. You said everything else was a success?”
“Complete success.” Genma looked up again. “All family members in the house are dead, and the corpses identifiable. Tsuto went last—the rookies both hit him with their special jutsu. We emptied his treasury and found documents that look like financial records of the coup plot. Intel should be delighted." He took a breath and picked up his abandoned cup of massacred matcha, cradling it between long-fingered hands. “Killed twelve guards, left the rest of the house staff alive, torched the interior but made sure the structure stayed upright and the bodies weren't touched. And I burned Konoha's mark into the front door.”
“Good,” Raidou said, and meant it.
It wasn’t hard to picture what the aftermath looked like. He’d seen Kakashi’s jutsu in action; Ryouma’s, too. Lightning and rot targeted at one body, with slaughtered teenagers stacked into the equation—that was a rough day for a veteran, let alone a rookie on his second mission out.
Kakashi, at least, was too unconscious to care. It was even odds whether he did anyway.
Raidou rubbed a hand over his mouth and tried to bludgeon his brain into better working order. “You think he’s a break risk, or just struggling a little? He seemed together enough with Hatake and Ueno.”
Though Ryouma’s clone had certainly been intent on staring Fukuda down, and clones were always a good mirror for the mind that had created them.
Genma’s eyes closed briefly. “I don't know. I don't know him well enough to know. He sharpened up and dealt with the fight with the Kiri ninja well, but he also almost got killed during it.” He paused again. “I should probably tell you that part, too, huh?”
“...yes.”
“Iebara took blood from me and Tousaki to attack Hatake." Genma touched a ragged red scar on his right shoulder, which bore all the rough hallmarks of a field-healing. “Tousaki and I regrouped while Hatake kept Iebara engaged. We managed a coordinated attack on Iebara, but he was just a better fighter. He almost snapped my neck, and he tried to drown Tousaki with blood he'd stolen from me. Nearly succeeded. I had to use a medical jutsu to pull the blood back out of his lungs.”
By the end of that little speech, Genma was breathing hard. Since he hadn’t mentioned pulling blood out of his own lungs, that was probably normal blood-loss working against him—it was hard to get enough oxygen when you were low on the red cells needed to carry it.
Raidou took a slow, deliberate breath, feeling healed ribs flex with a lingering ache, and then another. Genma’s eyes flickered, something wry lighting up the odd gold of his irises, but he copied Raidou without needing a more obvious nudge, slowing and settling his breathing.
“This’ll be the second mission Tousaki’s lungs have taken a knock,” Raidou said. “We need to watch him for infection again?”
Genma tipped his head neutrally, neither a yes or a no. “I got the blood out less than five minutes after he inhaled it, and it wasn’t putrid like the slime from his jutsu, but there’s always some risk. When I checked him, he sounded clear. He’ll probably be alright, but I’ll keep a close eye on him.”
When they were done here, Raidou suspected Genma had about enough energy left to get back to the bunkroom and collapse, but he admired the man’s dedication. And at least pneumonia wasn’t something Ryouma could hide.
“Tell me how you won,” Raidou said.
“With effort,” Genma said, dry. “It took a couple of high level jutsu from Tousaki and me just to give Hatake an opening with Iebera, but the rest of the Kiri team got involved when it looked like we were actually getting the upper hand. If they’d stayed out of it, I’m pretty sure Hatake’d be in better shape.”
“Since he’s got a Bingo Book kill under his belt, I doubt he’ll care.” Assuming he wakes back up. “Did Iebara bleed him, too?”
“I don’t think so, but I didn’t see the end of the fight,” Genma said, sounding frustrated. “He certainly had a lot of cuts—looked like senbon—but his vitals didn’t reflect a significant blood loss. When Iebara yanked blood, he yanked a lot.” |
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