| [Aug. 29th, 2017|03:40 am] |
When Ryouma’d gone in, sliding the wood and paper door shut with a soft snick, Genma took a deep breath. He rotated to face Raidou and put his back against the post. “That was good, I think.”
Raidou looked at the closed door, paper panes glowing orange from within. Then he turned to Genma, face creasing with amusement. “‘I’m happy in this moment’? Buddhist asshole.”
Lingering tension split and shattered; Genma cracked up. “Even the Buddha’s shit fertilizes the Pure Land,” he said. “Or something like that.”
Raidou pondered it for a moment, lips pursed. “It’s possible I may never get rid of that image.” A snort of laughter escaped despite his best efforts.
“Then we’ve all taken a step towards enlightenment.” Genma took another deep breath, and stretched his back and shoulders, feeling his ribcage expand. “It’s not a bad philosophy. Staying in the moment, I mean. Did the mom I met or your other mom teach you to meditate?”
“Other mom,” Raidou said. “Ninja mom. Ume — the one you met — likes working in chaos. Shun attempts inner peace. Sometimes I think she’s successful.”
Genma nodded. “That was my guess, based on my meeting with Ume-san.”
“What about your dad?” asked Raidou.
“He’s really more Shinto than Buddhist,” Genma said. “He tries for inner calm, but you’ve met him.” He shrugged fondly. “It was really Soho-boshi, the monk who taught me at the temple, who gave me the practice.”
“There aren’t too many religious soldiers in ANBU,” Raidou observed.
“That’s not surprising. I’m not a particularly good Buddhist,” Genma said. “I eat meat, and I kill people. The killing makes me ritually unpure for the Shinto priests, too.” He picked his senbon up from a crevice in the floorboards where he’d dropped it. “I don’t know if I really believe, but I guess I believe enough that I feel better if I meditate, and say a sutra or two, and make my shrine offerings. But I acknowledge it’s inconsistent with being in ANBU.”
Raidou nodded. “Ume doesn’t believe. Shun wants to, but I know she has doubts. Mostly, we just observe the festivals and the shrines. And I hope there’s some truth in reincarnation. My next life, I want to do something else.”
There was something worn and weary underlying that thought. Something deeply hidden. “I hope there is, too,” Genma said. “Especially for people like the kids we had to kill on the Tsuto mission, who died for someone else’s crimes. You and me and other ninja, though…” He nudged Raidou’s foot with his own. “Why not do something else in this life, if that’s what you want?”
Raidou grinned, wide and lopsided, the way he did when he was fully relaxed. “I didn’t say I wanted to do it now. I like this life. Just, y’know, next life I could be something else, like a, uh—” He fumbled for a minute, before he came up with, “Heron.”
That was certainly a right turn.
“A heron?”
Even in the dim lantern light, it looked like Raidou’s cheeks flushed. “They’re elegant,” he defended.
“Alright, I’ll give you that,” Genma said, laughing. “I was expecting something like, y’know, ‘rice farmer’ or ‘sculptor’ or something. But elegant is good. I can see you being elegant.”
“Liar,” Raidou said. But he was laughing. He stretched out on the porch, long and lean through the waist, chest and shoulders broad and powerful, with his arms pillowing his head. It wasn’t a lie. Raidou wasn’t much like a heron in this life: his elegance was more in the mold of a clouded leopard, but it was there.
“You think Kakashi’s drowned Ryouma by now,” he asked, interrupting Genma’s train of thought, “or do we have a shot at the bath?”
“If they’re still in there, we can oust them. Officer's prerogative.” Genma stuck his senbon back between his teeth and climbed to his feet, then offered a hand up to Raidou. “I won’t even mind the fact it’s a shared bath.”
“That’s because you were properly socialized,” Raidou said. He let Genma haul him to his feet.
“Thank the gods two of us are,” Genma said. He slid the door open and padded barefoot into the inn. “And Yuuhi. If we include her, we actually outnumber the ill-mannered for a change.”
Raidou’s step hesitated at the lintel for a fraction of a second, then he chuckled low and deep in his chest, and followed Genma inside.
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