| [Jul. 25th, 2013|05:56 am] |
Ryouma set his jaw as the scalpel sliced its curving lines, but he didn't twitch. It was at least quicker than the standard tattoo, though he missed the adrenaline buzz bleeding into the endorphin high. He'd stick with Takumi for his next tattoo, he decided. Maybe on his hip. Nanami was probably right about the advisability of a flaming dagger but a bloody knife wouldn't be bad...
The tattooist traded her scalpel out for the blood-staunching jutsu, then for astringent and ink. It was the dark red color of venous blood, and it stung like salt in raw flesh. Kakashi hadn't flinched; he didn't, either. He nodded short and sharp when Nanami glanced up at him, and then he clenched his hands on the arm-rests and gritted his teeth tight.
Kakashi hadn't cried out. He clung to that, as fire lit up his arm and his chakra system. Kakashi'd fainted but he hadn't made a sound, and this was one challenge Ryouma wasn't going to lose.
He nearly yelped, all the same, when his chakra sense rerouted. There were live embers smouldering around the edges of the tiny room, within the normal clouds of their chakra-presences: two behind his left shoulder, one nearly within reach by his side, another lurking near the table. Nanami was chakra without an ember, smaller, softer—chuunin level maybe, he thought, though it was clear she'd chosen in-house work instead of a career in the field. Tiny, muted flickers like star-glimmers wandered somewhere above his head. Other ANBU, in the upper storeys?
His head felt damp, when he rocked it against the leather headrest. Sweat stuck his shirt to his back and shone on his arm, around the dark red ink of the new tattoo. He said hoarsely, "Guess that's the end of lying about getting a quickie in the bathroom. Can you turn it off?"
Two of the chakra presences instantly winked out, dampening the smouldering new embers down to the barest glow. Ryouma had to look over his shoulder to be sure they were still there. Genma was slouching against the wall near the door, just within reach of Kakashi, who was leaning against the doorframe itself. Kakashi's chakra-ember—ANBU-ember?—was still alight, though flickering, as if he were trying to copy Genma's trick. Nearer, by the table against the wall, Katsuko in her chakra storm wasn't even trying.
Raidou stood in the center of the room, almost close enough to reach out and touch. "Takes a little practice," he said. "But it's not impossible." His ember compressed further, down to a hard nugget of ash, and then was gone.
Looking at him was like staring at Ryouma's own hand, and not being able to feel it. Ryouma swallowed, queasy, and thumped his head back against the back of the chair. "Useful in a fight," he said, half at random. "No more getting distracted looking for each other."
Genma's tattoo-ember flared hot again, though his chakra aura stayed clamped down. "You can do this, too," he said. "So another ANBU can 'see' you, without giving your presence away to the enemy."
"Makes it a pain when you're trying to sneak up on another ANBU, though," Katsuko said cheerfully. |
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