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September 20th, 2013

When the Reckoning Arrives [Sep. 20th, 2013|06:25 pm]

anbu_legacy

[shiranui_genma]
[Tags|, , , , , , ]

[Takes place Yondaime Year 5, April 28, immediately following Teeth in the Dark]

Genma and Kakashi took up positions on the craggy wall above the auxiliary mine shaft, clinging to slippery rock in the driving rain with the barest threads of chakra. They flattened into crevices, black and gray shadows nearly invisible against the rough limestone. From their vantage point, they saw every feint and strike as Katsuko’s two dozen clones dodged and weaved amongst the roused demons, slapping smoldering chakra tags to glistening, black, armored bodies.

Tags detonated, staggering the demons. Clones slashed apart by flailing demon limbs and tails erupted in a frightening illusion of spurting blood, before they collapsed into vapor. And one by one, Ryouma’s jutsu struck home. Katsuko or her clones would disable a demon, and Ryouma would surge forward, hands glowing with putrid light to liquify it through whatever cracks the discharging tag had left in its shell.

Each time he ran in close it looked like certain death, but Katsuko and her clones were everywhere, providing enough distraction for Ryouma to get in and lay hands directly on the injured demons. Genma counted only three uses of Ryouma’s chakra-heavy version of the rot jutsu that could strike from a distance. Each one of those hits, though, was a spectacular victory, sending one of the larger soldier beasts careening to the ground with a sick slosh of decay.

The stench rising from the battlefield was overwhelming—acrid and acidic, sulfurous, bloody, and under it all, the reek of rotting flesh. Genma fought back a surge of bile in his throat, and at his side, Kakashi’s shoulders shuddered.

Eight of the demons lay dead near the mine shaft entrance. )
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Interlude [Sep. 20th, 2013|11:25 pm]

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[ueno_katsuko]
[Tags|, , , ]

[Takes place during When the Reckoning Arrives, while Raidou goes to look for Kakashi and Genma]

“Hey,” Katsuko said, after Raidou vanished up the mountain.

Ryouma was a warm presence at her side. The oilcloth tent wrapped around them rustled as he shifted. “Mm?”

Katsuko wiped rain out of her eyes and tugged their pseudo-blanket over her feet. Her toes felt like little, individual blocks of ice. “It’d probably really suck if the demon-queen had a demon-king, wouldn’t it?”

Ryouma considered this for a moment. “Yeah,” he decided. “We’d be dead. Good thing she was a single mom.”

Even Katsuko’s bones ached. Her collarbone flared up again, a high note of pain amidst the low-grade roar of all her other hurts. She gave up digging in her medkit for a moment and leaned her head against Ryouma’s arm, wadding up the oilcloth to serve as a makeshift barrier between them. He still smelled like all the corpses in the world, but the rain washed some of the stink away.

'I'm glad you're not dead', she said. )
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Take the Heartland [Sep. 20th, 2013|11:51 pm]

anbu_legacy

[sarutobi_asuma]
[Tags|, ]

[Takes place Yondaime year 5, April 28, in the Fire Country capital, Hikouto, at approximately the same time as When the Reckoning Arrives]

The Daimyo’s palace was on fire.

Sirens wailed on all sides of the city, warning of the battle that had spilled onto the streets. Bucket brigades struggled to form effective barriers against the flames sparked by fire and lightning jutsu, hoping to hold out just one second longer until more help could come. The elegant courtyard that led to the steps of the palace was now a shattered ruin, pock-marked and scarred. Great cliffs rose up through the curtain walls, and chasms drained the ponds and streams once stocked with koi. War had passed through here, and left fury in its wake.

Asuma tripped on a broken chunk of statuary and barely avoided catching himself on his face. His whole right arm was numb from the shoulder down, lacerated to the broken bones, oozing fluids from a charring burn he wasn’t looking at too closely. The rest of him was only marginally better. And underneath it all the bone-deep pain of chakra exhaustion, a serpent wound around his lungs and coiled behind his eyes that told him all he needed was sleep.

He wanted to sleep. He couldn’t sleep. He was already asleep and this was a vicious, unending nightmare. He coughed and spat out soot and dust, and kept his eyes away from the blood already clotting between his fingers.

He couldn't sense Chiriku’s chakra anymore. )
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