| [May. 22nd, 2017|12:43 am] |
Genma gave the smallest eyeroll and swung out of his pose to kneel on the grass. “Guess it was inevitable. Want me to do something for him, or are we still teaching him to overcome hardship?”
“Depends whether he splashed Hatake or not,” Raidou muttered, and got to his feet.
Ryouma was hanging over the opposite fence, managing to look miserable and hard-done-by even at this distance, while Kakashi awkwardly patted his back. They really had gotten closer in Katsuko’s absence, in their own way.
Raidou sighed. “Go fix him. And check Hatake’s not actually still drunk, would you?”
“He is being uncharacteristically compassionate.” Genma set out across the field, but Ryouma was already pushing back from the fence and waving Kakashi off. When Genma arrived, Ryouma shook his head stubbornly and took up running again.
There was the grit kicking in. Raidou watched, pleased, as Ryouma picked up the pace, finally catching his stride. Kakashi, meanwhile, was trying to slide away from Genma’s attention and having less success. Their conversation ended with Genma shoving a bottle of water into Kakashi’s hands, and performing some kind of small medical jutsu that required a hand on the back of Kakashi’s neck. Raidou took it as a sign of progress that Kakashi actually stood still long enough to allow that — that, or further evidence there was still some of last night’s flaming lemon-thing working its way out of Kakashi’s system.
When the little medical moment ended, Kakashi looked decidedly less chipper. He endured a few more minutes of lecturing — do not show up to training late, altered, and expecting to get away with it, Raidou guessed — until Ryouma’s next return provided enough distraction for him to get away.
They ran for the next hour. Genma and Raidou split their time between a set of taijutsu exercises that gave Genma trouble, and a branch of new earth ninjutsu that nearly ended with Raidou buried up to his neck.
There was color back in Ryouma’s face and the sober light of irritation in Kakashi’s eye when Raidou signalled for them to stop. Ryouma grabbed a bottle of water. Kakashi kept a wary watch on Genma.
“Okay,” Raidou said. “New game. Hunter-tag; Hatake’s it.”
Kakashi brightened up.
“No crippling injuries,” Raidou added.
Ryouma cast a longing look at the shady trees ringing the north side of the field. The sun was starting to beat down; all of them were sweat-damp. But he only asked, “Time limit?”
Raidou glanced up at the deep blue sky. “Noon. If Hatake hasn’t caught everyone by then, he can buy lunch.”
Genma vanished in a crack of chakra, gone so fast the air snapped back cold where he’d been.
Ryouma told Kakashi, “Have fun,” and bolted. He was loosened up and fast, a dark cut of movement that split abruptly into five clones. They scattered in different directions, vaulting fences.
Kakashi glanced at Raidou. The mask hid his smile, but his expression still looked wolfish. For all his slouch and sarcasm, his lateness and his insolence, there was something fundamentally predatory welded into Kakashi's core. It raised the hair on the back of Raidou's neck.
He stole a leaf from Genma's playbook, and translocated too. |
|