| [Oct. 22nd, 2017|10:03 pm] |
Kakashi covered his aching sharingan. Then drew a scroll from his belt, teased a fragment of chakra into it, and unfolded the contents into the world with as little energy-bleed as he could manage. He pulled Raidou and Kurenai’s backpacks free; unfolded blankets, rations that could be eaten cold, a spare set of canteens, and a medic kit.
Raidou’s pack went to him first. “Shirt,” Kakashi told him. “And armor.”
Raidou looked wearily amused at being ordered around, but he stripped to the waist and dug out his spare clothes. Kakashi handed everything else to Kurenai — “Eat first” — except one blanket and the med-kit. Those he took to Ryouma.
There was color in Ryouma’s skin, but not much of it. His hands were buried in Kin’s golden fur, clutching hard. Not shaking, but — Kakashi touched the back of his wrist with careful fingertips — not warm.
There were so many rules, all of them designed to forge strength. Kakashi had scratched them onto his heart after Sakumo, and tried to scratch them out after Obito. They were still his roadmap, and none of them allowed space for this. Ninja weren’t supposed to be coddled.
But Ryouma had offered his hand to a monster — a monster Kakashi had taken him to — and he’d stood still when it had bitten down.
There could be space, Kakashi was learning, for care.
He draped the blanket around Ryouma’s shoulders, sat down next to him, and drew Ryouma’s arm into his lap. Deep scratches framed either side of Ryouma’s wrist, centered between the tendons. The half-moon scar from Akiyama’s scalpel still shone pink on the inside of Ryouma’s wrist. It was the same hand he’d nearly lost in the Second Trial. The same hand he’d taken from Fukuda. Of course he’d offered this one.
Blood had already clotted. Except for wolf teeth being filthy, there was really no justification to do anything further. Kakashi opened the med-kit, laid out his supplies, and carefully, thoroughly, cleaned the marks, applied Genma’s favorite ointment, and bandaged Ryouma’s arm. When he was done, he closed the kit and folded Ryouma’s fingers around a ration bar.
He made his voice gentle. “Eat. You complete lunatic.”
Ryouma had been watching Kakashi’s work with a kind of hypnotized calm. It took him a moment to blink back to himself. And another, looking at Kakashi, to say, “Sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”
In his place, Kakashi would have tried to slam a raikiri through the white wolf’s eye, and given how fast she could move, gotten them all killed.
Kin’s tongue swiped over his knuckles. He rubbed the soft fur between her ears and tried to think of any way to say: I’m grateful your gamble worked, but don’t consider this approval for future suicidal self-sacrificing plans.
He said, “I shouldn’t have put you in front of murderous wolves.”
Ryouma had started to open the ration bar with his teeth. He paused. “Did you have another option?”
“Probably,” Kakashi said. “I just have no idea what it was.”
Ryouma sighed. “Yeah.” He made a loose fist with his bandaged hand. “I really thought she was going to. That they’d kill everyone if I refused. But she didn’t.” |
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