| [Dec. 17th, 2017|03:06 am] |
Everyone removed their boots. Because that was polite.
Genma clambered up first, followed more gingerly by Raidou. They each offered a hand to Kurenai, who accepted and stepped lightly onto the platform, as if walking on a living rug of tanuki scrotum was perfectly ordinary.
Ryouma unslung his arm from Kakashi’s shoulders and went next. Kakashi hesitated. Pakkun, Saishou, and Yori pressed at his heels, attuned to his uncertainty and wary of the circle of predators around them.
Regular, unmagical tanuki were a cousin to dogs, a few hundred times removed. Like foxes. But it wasn’t like there was a family bond. In Kakashi’s world, dogs killed tanuki. And foxes.
Kin, young and eager, bounded up after Ryouma. Bared teeth and bristling fur met her. She skidded to a halt in front of a female tanuki wearing a shimmering orange kimono, who snapped, “He said humans, not you.”
Kin’s ears clamped to her skull. She backed up hurriedly.
Kakashi thought coldly, I have six knives. He stepped up and blocked Kin’s retreat with a knee before she fell off the edge. Ryouma had turned protectively, glowering. Genma, already seated, gave Kakashi a look that said, oh god, please don’t make things worse.
Kakashi looked at the silver grandfather and said through his teeth: “Is she unwelcome?”
Himself, apparently coming from a mold of gods Ginta might have prayed to, said, “Are they housebroken?”
“Are you?” Kakashi said.
Genma put a hand over his eyes.
The tanuki in the orange kimono bristled like a porcupine, but Himself broke into booming laughter. “There’s hope for you after all, pup-kit,” he said. “Alright, Fumi, let them up. I have questions I want answered, and that human needs his dog entourage with him to feel safe.” He turned his great head back to Kakashi. “Come explain how it is you have a back door to the mutt domain.”
Kin, starting to slink towards Ryouma, caught Kakashi’s eye. She raised her head, flicked her tail, and strode the last few steps, settling down regally at Ryouma’s side as if she’d meant to do that all along. Saishou leapt onto the platform and lay down next to Kin and licked one of her golden ears. Yori curled up with his back pressing against Kurenai’s spine like a grey bolster.
Pakkun scrambled up on Kakashi’s shoulder, grumbling softly. “Mutts. Like we’re supposed to care about bloodlines. Inbred stink-badgers.”
Kakashi pressed his lips together and sat down on Ryouma’s other side, between him and Kurenai, facing the silver tanuki. The undulating fur beneath them was disturbingly warm.
“My family has a contract with residents of the dog dimension,” he said, stressing dog. “That’s how we got in.”
Himself sucked on his pipe. “That’s not how those contracts work.” Silver-blue smoke trailed between his teeth. “I know about those contracts. They go to you in your world. You don’t go to them.”
“Huh,” said Kakashi. “Strange.”
In the corner of his good eye, he saw Ryouma glance over with a quick grin.
“Yes,” said Himself, in a similar tone of voice. “Very.”
Silence stretched between them. The giant tanuki puffed on his pipe and waited. Kakashi reached across Ryouma to scratch Kin’s ears.
One of the tanuki gathered around the edge of the stage whispered, “You really ought to answer him before he gets bored.”
There was a burr in Kin’s fur. Kakashi devoted himself to extracting it.
On his other side, Kurenai said calmly, “We reverse-engineered the summoning scroll. It likely won’t work without the dog’s unique pack-bond, so you needn’t worry about more shinobi visiting. After that, we… bargained with the wolf gods for passage.”
Kakashi stored a look of betrayal away for later, when they didn’t have an audience. |
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