| [Sep. 14th, 2013|01:34 am] |
“Tired yet?” Raidou said, grinning.
Kakashi’s answer was to kick him hard enough that Raidou felt his ribs bend. He narrowly avoided crashing through a grove of saplings, which would have woken the group, instead grabbing a last-minute chakra hold against a mossy boulder and using it as a springboard to vault back to his feet. Kakashi was there to press the advantage before Raidou fully caught his balance, anvil-blows bruising Raidou’s forearms to the bone. Kakashi wasn’t built like Raidou, but precisely wielded chakra made every hit count, and his form was close to perfect.
But then, so was Raidou’s.
Kakashi left an opening that Raidou didn’t take, because he knew the kid was just laying rabbit trails for him. But Kakashi figured everyone wasn’t as smart as he was, and that Raidou definitely wasn’t as smart as he was, so when Raidou left an opening, twenty seconds later, Kakashi went for it like a falcon stooping down on something small and crunchy.
Raidou was delighted to meet him with an unexpected cliff-face.
The tussle that followed was silent, vicious, and Raidou was pretty sure Kakashi yanked some of his hair out, but it ended with Kakashi face-down in the grass, Raidou’s knee planted solidly in the small of his back, and both of Kakashi’s hands crossed behind his shoulderblades and pinned.
“Surrender?” Raidou panted.
The lean muscles of Kakashi’s back stood out in sharp relief. His shoulders tensed, testing the hold, but that numb hand couldn’t break it. Raidou waited him out.
Kakashi sighed. “Best two out of three?”
“How many bruises d’you reckon we can pick up before Shiranui gives us the judgemental eyebrows?”
“Less than one,” Kakashi said, dry. He worked his jaw beneath the mask, as if it ached. “So we’re already in trouble.”
“My fault. I’ll take responsibility,” Raidou said. “If I let you go, are you going to get devious?”
Kakashi turned his head slightly, until Raidou could see a sliver of grey eye beneath the tangle of sweaty hair. “Do you have another option?”
“Pop your shoulders out of joint. Except, again, medic. We could sit here until your arms are good and numb,” Raidou said cheerfully. “Or we could make an adult agreement with words where I promise to let you go, and you promise not to try and yank my throat out.”
Kakashi was silent for a moment. “Third option.”
“Excellent choice,” Raidou said, and let go.
He was entirely unsurprised when Kakashi kicked his thigh nearly hard enough to crater it. The second fight was shorter, nastier, and ended in something like a mutual headlock that rolled them almost into the spring. They wrestled to a halt on the sloping bank, where the ground was softer and wetter. The clones walked down to stare at them thoughtfully.
“Wish I had popcorn,” one of them commented.
“Wish we had the ability to eat,” said the other one.
Kakashi’s breath rasped in Raidou’s ear. “I can break your neck from this angle.”
“I can drown you in mud,” Raidou said. “Draw.”
He was pretty sure they’d woken at least Genma up, judging by the dull flicker of one sleepy chakra signature, but the wrath of disturbed lieutenants had yet to descend on them, so perhaps Raidou’s credit was still good. Or Genma was planning to get pointed with him in the morning.
“You let go, I let go,” Kakashi said.
“We let go together,” Raidou said. “On three. No, screw it, on one. Okay? One.”
No one let go.
“I’m detecting a dearth of trust in this working relationship,” Raidou said, after a second. “It concerns me.”
“You didn’t let go either.”
“I had concern for my neck.”
“Do you need a crowbar?” asked the first clone brightly.
“We don’t have one, or the ability to get one, but it would totally be helpful right now,” the second clone said. “Just a thought.”
“Stop helping,” Raidou said. |
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