| [Feb. 8th, 2017|04:15 am] |
Kakashi's good eye flickered open almost before Ryouma touched him. "Five more minutes," he said, and folded an arm over his head.
"I know you were listening," Ryouma said, crouching stiffly beside him. "You blink a lot more when you're just waking up."
"Unless you are a blanket or hot tea, go away," Kakashi said, without moving his arm.
"Kick him if you have to, Tousaki," Raidou advised.
There didn't seem to be any too-many-legged cave creatures around, at the one time they might have done any good. Though, knowing Kakashi, he'd probably just befriend it. Ryouma prodded him again. "Do I throw away all my chances?"
Kakashi's arm lowered just enough to reveal a puzzled grey sliver of eye. "What?"
"Nothing. You'll have to make the tea." Ryouma pushed himself up, and went to go wake Kimiko.
She'd cried in her sleep. Tear-tracks crusted her face when she woke, before she scrubbed them away. But she seemed a little steadier, quiet but less brittle; she even relinquished Sango to Ryouma's care briefly while she retired to the nearest dense shrubbery. By the time she returned, Genma had the rest of the blankets packed, and Kakashi'd pried himself up to begin making tea.
Twenty minutes later, they were on the move. Raidou carried Kimiko again, his abused shoulders unbending beneath her slight weight. Ryouma found himself promoted to babycarrier. He didn't see why a rot-handed man who'd never held a baby before was any better option than the shinobi who'd kept Sango safe from eight Mist Hunters, but he didn't argue.
Mist had thickened while they slept. Genma climbed a tree to take bearings, then directed them south-east in an angling skid down ridges and through ravines. Thick vegetation slowed them further. The pearl-grey mist muffled sound as well as light. When a drove of young wild boars stumbled into their path, Ryouma wasn't sure whether pigs or shinobi were more surprised.
The light faded as they made their slow way toward the coast. They halted once for Kimiko to feed Sango, and then again. Genma plied Kimiko with rat bars and kept a worried eye on her canteen. She ate and drank dutifully, and swallowed down any complaints.
Sango burped sour milk down Ryouma's shoulder, and then fell asleep in her sling.
A river cut through their path, hurtling downstream in whitewater too rough to chakra-walk. Kakashi vanished ahead to scout out a crossing, and came back reporting a narrowing canyon dotted with just enough boulders for a scattershot of chakra-assisted leaps. They tightened the knots on their carrying harnesses and took the risk.
Fog became drizzle, then rain. Kakashi's scouting trips ranged further ahead, until finally he returned with his faded brown hair plastered sleek to his skull. "Not far now," he said. "One more ridge."
They climbed, breath rasping harsh in their chests. Loose, rocky soil turned slippery under their feet, but the dark curtains of rain shredded away on a freshening breeze as they reached the skyline. A rising moon filtered through the clouds, silvering the world below.
Below them, thick mountain greenery plunged steeply to a narrow-mouthed, sheltered inlet. Black water, blacker trees, with waves cutting a glimmer of white at the shoreline.
"Satsujin-sha Cove," Genma said, in a voice like a prayer.
Low on the waves, dragon-wing sails furled, a familiar junk rode at anchor. |
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