| [Oct. 22nd, 2017|09:32 pm] |
It took a while for Kakashi and Pakkun to reverse-engineer the summoning scroll into something that wouldn’t turn them all inside out. Kurenai and Ryouma spent the time crouched right next to them, offering suggestions: the first of which was for Kakashi to stop arguing and take a soldier pill already.
While they worked, Raidou went to the shrine. It was ridiculous — this whole thing was ridiculous — but he had to try. Kakashi’s wolf-dogs trailed after him.
The shrine wasn’t much of anything. Just a dingy, abandoned shell left to rot in the forest. Raidou braced an arm around his ribcage and looked at the faceless statue.
“I’m a soldier from Konoha,” he said tightly. “We’re here to help the village. You’ve taken my lieutenant, and I’m asking for him back. Please.”
The morning was so still, not even wind answered him.
That probably hadn’t been supplication enough. Harubi had brought flowers and warehouses with her, and children in danger. Raidou had a fist that ached faintly with the imprint of Genma’s mask.
Stiffly, he lowered himself to one knee and tried to feel humble instead of blackly furious.
“He’s in no danger from me. We were sparring — training. It wasn’t a real fight. He’s my second-in-command and our medic. I trust him with my life. He trusts me with his.” Raidou ground his back teeth together. Humble. “We need him. If you want sake, I can get it for you. Or— whatever you want for him.”
He placed his full canteen at the statue’s feet, next to the wilted flowers and empty sake cup. It was one of his most important pieces of gear, and water was a feature in half a dozen legends.
Nothing happened.
Nothing continued to happen.
Smashing the shrine to kindling and dust would not help his cause. Nor would threatening it.
He pushed back up to his feet, turned, and walked away.
In his absence, Kakashi had drawn a large and complex set of seals in the dirt, and was directing Ryouma and Kurenai to bleed on them. They’d each sliced the back of one forearm with a kunai, and were holding their arms outstretched. Thin red trickles poured onto the design, which swallowed them like something living. Kakashi gave Raidou a significant look. Raidou dug out a kunai and put the clean, sharp blade to use.
When they were done and bandaged — something Kakashi insisted on, before they went into a world where scent dominated vision — Pakkun sat down in the center of the circle and said, “Brace yourselves.”
Kakashi took Ryouma’s hand, then Kurenai’s. Raidou hastily mirrored him, linking all four of them together. Kurenai’s fingers were cold; Ryouma’s gloved. Pakkun closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they glowed the electric blue-white of Kakashi’s chakra.
The world lurched, then twisted sideways and folded like an envelope.
Bursting lights, like stars exploding. A rush of impossible speed. Kurenai’s hand clenched hard enough to make Raidou’s bones creak. Ryouma’s startled yell streamed into the void. Kakashi’s chakra twisted around them, mixed with something old and strong and definitely not human. They careened off the edge of the universe and slammed to a stop that would have driven the breath from Raidou’s lungs, except he wasn’t sure he had lungs anymore. For an agonized moment they were stuck, grinding against an infinitesimal gap and not fitting.
Then, like skinned rabbits, they popped through. Sudden sky freewheeled above them, and here was the ground rushing up to meet them.
They hit. They splashed. They sank.
Not ground, then. |
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