| [Oct. 22nd, 2017|09:35 pm] |
Kakashi formed the Bird seal. A spark of lightning chakra lanced through the black mesh patch stretched over the left eye of his ANBU mask. His red eye met hers for half a heartbeat, before he turned and looked up.
Every muscle tensed. He stood so exquisitely still that he almost faded from view against the rough grey and black of the rocks. After a breath-searing moment he murmured, "Pakkun?"
"I warned you," Pakkun said.
Kakashi exhaled. "They're what we're here for." He shaped himself again out of stillness, and kept climbing.
Shale cracked and slid beneath their feet. They balanced themselves with chakra, as on moving water. The dogs climbed just as easily, hackles raised, heads hanging low. Even Kin's ever-waving tail clamped between her legs as they climbed higher. The grey-muzzled cur shoved his shoulders under Kurenai's hand, and she felt the stiff ruff prickling.
Above them on the hilltop, the chakra presences moved. Pacing. Waiting for them.
Just below the crest of the hill, Raidou tugged Kabe to a halt. He slid down from her back, wavering on the unsteady shale before he caught himself on Ryouma's ready shoulder.
"Ground rules: no one gets killed." Raidou straightened, painfully, keeping one hand clamped on Ryouma's shoulder. "Hatake, these are your people; take point and we'll follow your lead. If things go sideways, everyone scatters. We'll meet back up at the dog camp." His voice lowered, granite firm. "If anyone falls behind, they get left."
Of all the reckless, self-sacrificing, senseless idiots—
"I hope you don't mean me," Kurenai said, sweetly venomous. "I've tried not to hold you up."
Raidou's head swung back to her, startled.
Kakashi drawled, "The morphine apologizes for making Taichou stupid. It didn't mean to." He tilted his head back to gaze up at the curving stone spires above them and the incandescent chakra presences within. "If they can't sense us already, they can smell us. There's no point sneaking."
"Take your masks off," Pakkun said.
Kakashi looked down at him, lion-dog mask tilted in question.
"ANBU masks," Pakkun amended.
Ryouma lifted a hand to his curving-horned ram, then hesitated. "How come?"
"How would you feel about a lamb wearing a human face?"
"Creeped out. I'm plenty creeped out already." But he pulled the mask off and clipped it to the side of his belt. His skin was cinnamon-brown in this otherworldly light, his face sharp-cut and tense. His lips drew thin over his teeth as he looked at Raidou's grey, sweaty features. "I'll walk with you, Taichou."
"It's just a couple of cracked ribs," Raidou said, exasperated, but he didn't refuse the help as they scrambled up the last few meters of slope.
Kakashi gestured for Kurenai to join him at the vanguard, flanked by the pregnant female and the grey-muzzled elder. The rest of the pack spread out behind them in a broad fan. Pakkun leapt up to ride hunched on Kakashi's shoulder, as Kakashi led them into the wolf gods' den. |
|