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Dangerous Game [Jul. 6th, 2013|11:39 pm]
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[tousaki_ryouma]
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[User Picture]From: [info]hatake_kakashi
2013-07-07 05:51 am (UTC)

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The Hokage’s Palace always looked different at night.

Red and sprawling in the daylight, fringed with trees, it loomed dark and forbidding in the cool moonlight, dwarfed only by the Hokage’s monument which backed it. The repairs were holding up well, Kakashi judged, because he couldn’t help looking. Minato had only had the building three months before the Kyuubi attack. Half the right wing had been ripped away, and the remainder left smoke-blackened. Two-thirds of the offices had belonged to ninja who hadn’t survived.

Sandaime’s body had been recovered less than a hundred feet from the western wall.

There was a fountain built on the spot now, topped by a laughing monkey. Children liked to throw coins into the water.

“Shinobi,” said his ANBU escort.

Kakashi bestirred himself. “Sorry.”

He was taken to a side-room he recognized, set just off from the Hokage’s main office. Usually filled with comfortable chairs and tastefully arranged plants, now it stood empty except for a dark red rug and sleep-ruffled candidates. He recognized faces—the man with blue hair, Ayane the sword-dancer, a red-headed woman who looked like she’d run afoul of a barbed wire net.

Sixteen had finished out the second Trial, including Kakashi. There were ten here. Ryouma wasn’t one of them.

Had they failed him?

“Please wait a moment,” said the ANBU, and stepped out, closing the door behind him.

Ayane stepped forward. Her lower lip had a scabbed split running through it, and her right eye was blackened. She looked unhurt otherwise. “What happened in the second Trial?” she demanded.

Kakashi blinked. “Running, mostly."

“We heard you and Ryouma ran until trouble,” she said, with a flat, unfriendly stare.

She wasn’t the only one who looked less than pleased to see him. The tired expressions covered the spectrum from bored disinterest to active dislike, and Kakashi was acutely grateful he’d been allowed time to change into fresh clothes, mask included.

“We did,” he said. “We ran out of it again.”

Ayane made a sound like a threatened viper, drawing air sharply between her teeth. “How badly was he hurt?”

If Ryouma hadn’t gone to tell her himself, presumably there was a good reason. Or this was an extremely strange slant on a final test that was about to turn violent on him. She certainly looked like she wanted to wrap her hands around his throat.

Kakashi edged back a step, holding his hands up. “I’m sorry, I really don’t know.”

“Hatake—” Ayane began dangerously.

Behind Kakashi, the door clicked open and a bloom of orange-scented soap colored the air.

“Perfect timing,” Kakashi said with relief. He ducked behind Ryouma, shoving him forward. “Save me.”