| [Feb. 7th, 2015|05:57 am] |
“What about gaps further back?” he asked. “A year or more. Any solos then?”
“All higher-ranked shinobi take solos. You more than most, I’ve heard.” She tapped her pen on the page, brow furrowing. “His percentage of solos was nearly as high as yours, I think.”
And Kakashi was a stable, personable, village-loving ninja with excellent teamwork skills, as everyone knew.
Solo missions were a different skill set. You had to watch your back, your front, and all cardinal points of the compass at the same time. You needed a personality carved mostly from hollow bastard cynicism: doubt in everything, including yourself, but not so much it kept you from coming home. It was easy to get bitter, alone in the dark.
A solo agent was a tempting target, for the right kind of predator.
It was one of the reasons Kakashi had stopped. Well, that and ANBU was a place to get sharper teeth.
He said, “Interesting.”
Kurenai’s brow winged up, curved like a question, but a sudden rap of knuckles against the door interrupted her before she could ask it. She and Kakashi both stiffened, surprised, as the door slid back and a dark, ruffled head poked through.
“Rise and sober up,” a familiar rough voice said. “I come bearing paperwo—”
Ryouma broke off halfway across the threshold, staring at Kurenai, who gave him a calm and only slightly ironic look in return. Ryouma was recently showered, hair still shiny-damp and rumpled from a towelling; his clothes were clean and civilian, torn jeans that showed the sharp bones of his knees, a dark t-shirt with a colorful design. There was a battered folder jammed underneath one arm, with paperwork already starting to spill out.
He looked significantly less dead than the last time Kakashi remembered seeing him. There was color in his skin again and life in his eyes, and, beneath the citrusy edge of soap, something that smelled a lot like sex.
That was one way to get over a mission.
Kakashi frowned, trying to pin down the faint, almost washed-away scent of someone female and quasi-familiar, before he realized it was better not to know. It wasn't Katsuko.
“I retract my statement. Tousaki’s fine,” he drawled, and said to Ryouma, “If that’s my homework from the lieutenant, you can give it to Yuuhi. She’s better at paperwork.” |
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