| [Sep. 27th, 2013|10:31 pm] |
In his five minutes of talking to Granny Kawase, Raidou had learned three things about the Blue Field Traders: 1) they were one huge family with several unfortunate, beleaguered inlaws, 2) they were fond of Konoha the way shepherds were fond of sheep-dogs, and 3) Granny Kawase was absolute overlord of all.
Raidou kind of liked her.
“So,” she said. “Was it tengu or kappa?”
“Eh?” said Raidou, distracted by the sight of Katsuko’s miniature legion of clones with their gift-wrapped trophy. A heavy, steel-shod cane thumped him on the shoulder, jolting a starburst of pain up the side of his neck. “Ow. Sorry, what?”
Four things: Granny Kawase didn’t like to be ignored.
“Tengu or kappa?” she said, waving at his bandages. “Because if it’s kappa, I have a powder that’ll burn the little bastards until they—”
“That’s not necessary,” Raidou said. “We’ve resolved the issue.”
“Mm,” she said doubtfully. “Looks like it nearly resolved you first. That one’s barely standing.” She pointed her stick at Ryouma, who was being herded up the gangplank towards them by Kakashi. Katsuko trailed behind, shouting at her clones.
Ryouma nodded to Raidou. “Taichou.” And then sketched a mostly-steady bow at Granny Kawase, wobbling only very slightly on the return back to vertical. “Ma’am, I’ve seldom been more grateful for a rescue. My last rescuer wasn’t nearly so...”
He paused, fumbling, and Granny Kawase tipped her greying head. “Old? Mean-looking? Spit it out, youngster.”
“In the way,” Kakashi said, from behind Ryouma. “Do you mind letting us through?”
Half a nanosecond of politeness was probably all they could expect, Raidou thought, around his rising desire to kick Kakashi into the river.
“Oh, he was plenty mean-looking,” Ryouma said, recovering smoothly. “I meant to say considerate. He forgot to bring a boat. Excuse me, I nearly died of exhaustion yesterday. Can you point me to a place where I can fall down?”
Granny Kawase lifted her stick again, pointing to a shady spot against the rear bulwark, where a stack of tanned sheepskins shared space with coils of heavy rope and three sleepy cats. “Make yourself at home.”
“You are a goddess on earth,” Ryouma said fervently, and reeled away.
“Who was his last rescuer?” Granny Kawase asked.
“Me, I think,” Raidou said. Unless Kakashi had upstaged him with a shower and a snack. “That was Ram. This is Hound, who you can ignore. The woman over there is Rat, and you’ve already met Tanuki.”
Granny Kawase fixed Kakashi with a gimlet look. “Aren’t you a little old to be a ninja?”
Behind the scratched lion-dog mask, one grey eye blinked. “No?”
“In my world, we treat our silver-haired with respect and don’t make them jump around like lunatics,” she said, eyeing Raidou like he’d personally dragged Kakashi out of a retirement home and forced him into a uniform.
“Hound is actually the youngest member of the team,” Raidou said. “His hair is deceptive.”
“Excuse me,” Kakashi said, slipping around Granny Kawase with the careful air of someone avoiding a blast radius. He went to the back of the boat, where Ryouma had collapsed face-down with a long, elegant sweep that involved no knee-bending. One of the cats had been disturbed, and was sniffing Ryouma’s hair. Kakashi picked it up, underhanded it gently out of the way, and sat down cross-legged next to Ryouma’s head.
“Aww,” said Katsuko, appearing at Raidou’s elbow. “Look. Male bonding time.”
Raidou gave it four seconds, maybe less, before Katsuko inserted herself in the middle.
Granny Kawase sniffed. “What is that?” |
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