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"Yo," Genma said, pulling a chair around to sit backwards, facing Tsume and Kuromaru. "Feeling better then? Last time I checked you were sound asleep and looking like death, but that was a couple days ago." He looked up at Raidou with a grin. "This is the Inuzuka chick I told you I found puking in an empty apartment the other day. Kind of ironic we got a mission together so soon after." He turned back to Tsume with a slightly more serious expression. "You are alright now, right?"
She looked alright. Color in her cheeks, an alertness in her posture and eyes. And her dog looked better too, now that he didn't have that worried half-snarl marring his features.
"Never did get your companion's name til today," he added, and turned his grin towards the dog. "So now the briefings over, hey, Kuromaru."
The dog still had a feral wariness that matched the woman's. Still seemed distrustful. Well that was an Inuzuka for you. Undoubtedly assigned for their tracking abilities. So long as they could work well together, Genma thought. That's all that counted.
Raidou stayed on his feet, content to lean against the wall while Genma played the social charmer. He studied the Inuzuka and her dog with thoughtful eyes, noting the little cues that backed up her claim as a returned veteran rather then a newly inducted rookie. The age was one thing, and the few visible scars were another--though ninja of any age had scars, it came with the turf--but it was the calm that really marked her out. No rookie was ever that calm, not all the way through. There was a difference between pretence and actually having solid cornerstone to base your composed mission-head on that only came through real experience.
Of course, if she also spent her spare time throwing up in empty apartments, he wasn't about to leap up on a rooftop and sing her praises just yet.
She also looked vaguely familiar, but he wasn't sure why. He didn't tend to work with Inuzuka. Raidou offered a simple nod for a greeting--adding another one for the pony-sized dog--and said, "I've heard of kunoichi using some damn weird tactics to grab Genma's attention, but up-chucking is a new one. Next time just go with the traditional flowers routine, it's much less hassle."
It was always a good idea to start a mission with a new partner on the right note.
She might have answered that she was feeling much better, thanks, but the flower comment just needed a reply. She flashed a broad grin at Namiashi, almost a baring of teeth except it was friendly, and said, "Flowers are over-done. I thought hurling was a nice change of pace. Wait'll we get out in the thick of things and I start again. That'll really get his attention."
Kuromaru dropped his pretense of being semi-serious and heaved a great sigh, rolling his eyes up toward Tsume as if begging her to stop now.
"Kunai coming for the head and--whammy--projectile vomiting. Works better'n anything. He'll be carrying me home in no time," Tsume continued gleefully, only encouraged by Kuromaru's look.
"She's feeling much better, thanks," the canine growled. "Our bathroom is vomit-free." Then he turned to give his human familiar a dark look. "You're the oldest here, you know."
She snorted. "He started it."
Kuromaru looked at Tsume. He glared at Raidou. Then he moved the few feet he needed to so he sat next to Genma and lowered his muzzle down onto the man's thigh.
Dog head in lap was something you couldn't fail to notice and respond to, especially giant black wolf-dog. Genma dropped a hand to pat a little awkwardly through the brushy fur. "Don't worry, Kuromaru, Raidou's really rock solid," he told him. He looked up at Tsume next, still smiling. "Truth is, vomit isn't really my fetish. You could try just asking nicely..."
Actually she was pretty good looking, if you liked the wild type. She was a little on the small side, and a little on the savage side, but that might mean she was feisty in bed too. He wasn't exactly looking, and really if he had a choice here... A quick glance at Raidou, and a tiny smile... But yeah, he'd give her a ride, if she asked.
She probably wouldn't, which was fine with him. And this was mission prep, not a time to be thinking that way anyway.
"So what do we need before we muster out?" he asked, and shifted a little, adjusting his posture to one that spoke a little more of mission readiness and a little less of carnal desire.
Raidou's attention flicked from Tsume to Kuromaru when her dog decided Genma's lap was apparently a good resting place. Inuzuka dogs tended not to go for Konoha-nin without a damn good reason, but very sharp teeth placed within easy reach of his friend did not exactly grant Raidou peace of mind. Genma could more then take care of himself, but Raidou wouldn't consider himself the backup material he did unless he took into account every threat, no matter how small.
Rock solid. Damn right he was.
Which meant he was looking right at Genma when the man turned to flick him a small but puzzling smile. Raidou blinked, but Genma turned away before he had the chance to give one back. Simple reassurance maybe? I'm fine with the giant black lapwarmer... Probably.
"Just the basics for this one, I think," he said finally, "Unless you need any special gear?" He lifted an enquiring eyebrow at Tsume without looking away from her dog.
Kuromaru had caught scent of the missing ninja after they'd found his camp. Maybe 'camp' was a strong word; the place where he'd rested, almost impossible to see. Tsume would have passed it by if Kuromaru hadn't slammed to a halt, claws and chakra sending him scaling a cliff face, raining dirt and pebbles down onto them, to a small den recently emptied of its animal occupants. There were still traces of blood, and mingled with that, human scent.
After that, finding his trail wasn't too hard. He was good; barely touching down from leap to leap, and if it had been only Kuromaru or only Tsume after him, it would have taken a lot longer. But working together they could course his most likely path, searching out wherever he'd touched down and flinging themselves along after.
Kuromaru sank into the hunt with the single-mindedness of his wolf ancestors, and it was only with difficulty that Tsume remembered to stop and check, make sure the rest of their temporary pack was keeping up.
Then they were off, pushing forward at breakneck speeds that really weren't meant for long distances. The predator mentality was difficult to shake. Tsume snarled at Kuromaru more than a few times, calling him back, calling him slower, trying to impose human reason on the animal desire and not let them run themselves into the ground.
Her blood sang to chase; they could smell him. It was difficult not to listen.
When your trackers had the scent and could follow it, that was always a good thing. But when the tracking became their sole focus, and they lost sight of the fact that they needed to do more than track, that was when you needed to step in and remind them. Genma glanced back at Raidou, sweat-soaked and determined, taking rear guard and keeping up, and at Tsume and Kuromaru, running ahead with an almost frightening sort of single-minded purpose. He signed back to Raidou, "Time to halt" and signaled his intention to break off the hunt. Raidou must have worked with Inuzuka before, as Genma had. He'd know it might be a team effort to curtail the chase.
He put on a burst of speed and caught up to Tsume, reaching out to touch her shoulder with one gloved hand. "Time to rest," he said, loud enough she had to hear him over the wind in her ears. She shook him off and kept running. He repeated the arm touch, this time a bit more of a grab, with a little muscle in it. "Time to stop." he repeated, and leapt ahead to get in front of Kuromaru, spreading out arms and legs and facing the bounding wolf-dog with a fearlessness only a few could match.
"We are stopping now," he called to the dog. He trusted Raidou was on top of his end of calling off the dogs.
Occasionally Genma wasn't the sharpest kunai in the holster. Raidou agreed with the halting idea--he could keep going, as could they all, but there was no point running yourself ragged to reach a target and get cut down because you were too tired to fight properly--he was less enamoured with his friend deciding to play chicken with 200lbs of charging canine hot on a scent.
In an out and out speed contest, Genma could beat him hands down. Endurance-wise, however, Raidou had the advantage. He was granted about half a second of beautifully distorted time to realize what Genma was up to, and another half second to see that while Tsume was slowing, Kuromaru was definitely not. There was no way to reach Genma and knock him aside before the dog did it for him, but there was just enough time for Raidou to put on a burst of speed and drive his shoulder low into the Kuromaru's heavy ribcage, throwing him off course.
The fact that they were both mid-leap when he did that really made the resultant tumble all the more impressive.
Tsume's hands were already coming up, more instinct than anything, as she watched Raidou slam shoulder-first into Kuromaru. It wasn't so much that she was worried they might hurt each other. It was more that, in Kuromaru's current bloodlust state, she was worried he might take care of those scars on Raidou's face. Permanently.
Who needed a face anyway, right?
Her hands flew through seals as she watched the males smash through the air, Kuromaru's jaw open, lips drawing back off visciously pointed canines as he twisted, body writhing in a way a human couldn't, bringing his claws up--
"Juujin bunshin!" Tsume snarled out as she completed the last seal, and felt chakra twist between her and her familiar as the two ninja vanished behind a slight rise.
A moment passed. Tsume sped toward where they'd crashed.
Kuromaru's twist had taken him halfway under Raidou, as dangerous a position for Raidou as it could have been for Kuromaru. Claws, after all, protected belly, and fangs could sink into Raidou's flesh as easily from beneath as anywhere else.
In fact, Kuromaru was doing his very best to gnaw off Raidou's shoulder. Given his teeth were now fairly blunt, and his jaw significantly smaller, it wasn't working so well. He stopped, yeowling a snarl, and twisted.
"Kuromaru!" Tsume bellowed with fairly impressive lungs.
He stopped writhing and looked at her, brown hair falling in pale blue eyes that were a nearly perfect mirroring of her own. Except, of course, male.
"What are you doing?" The change should have snapped him back to his senses, halted him a bit faster than it apparently had. He was angry. He didn't often get angry.
Kuromaru wriggled again, shoving at Raidou and snapping at the air between them once more as they broke apart. "He attacked me!" Kuromaru shoved up to his feet, narrow shoulders back, hands like claws at his sides. He stood a precious inch taller than Tsume, his features just a hair harder, but for all intents and purposes he looked like her. If she'd been a man.
Lips curled up off human canines.
"He did not," Tsume snapped, then looked at both Genma and Raidou, her gaze sweeping between them, incredulously. "Are you both stupid?" It was important to start a mission with new partners on the right note.
Raidou had enough time in mid-air to really appreciate the fact that tackling and pinning a four-legged furred beast was entirely different to doing the same thing to a person. For one thing, Kuromaru's limbs were all in the wrong places, and his fur was slick enough that Raidou's hands simply slid through it, rather then snagging and gripping as they would on clothes. For another, his head had whipped around like a striking cobra and sunk fangs into Raidou's shoulder just as his back hit the dirt. Except they weren't fangs, they were teeth. Human teeth.
Raidou personally didn't give much of a damn what size and shape they were. He was too busy being occupied with the sensation of canines tearing into the thick webbing of scars that networked over his bare left shoulder, the skin left exposed by the cut of his ANBU turtleneck. It wasn't a flashback that smacked him over the skull, so much as a full body memory. His head was perfectly clear; it was his skin that was on fire. Raidou wrenched away from the dog-man-enemy scrabbling underneath him and twisted up into a crouch, left hand flying up to cover the left side of his face. His mask was already doing the job, Raidou's palm cracked against the porcelain with a small sharp sound that echoed right through his head. It sounded like the snick of claws.
Three shuriken bristled between the fingers of Raidou's right hand as he knelt like an animal at bay, blood trickling slowly down his arm to smear the crisp line of his tattoo.
His shoulder hurt. It would only get worse.
The smell of pain was almost gone, replaced by a lighter, happier, near elation smell. Tsume was going to take that as a good sign. "You guys have a specific spot in mind for a camp?" she asked, gaze still split between the two men and the not-canine behind her. The happy-smell was drifting, dispersing, but Kuromaru's anger was not. It pulsed, hot and cloying, disproportionate to what had happened. He needed an outlet, and the one he'd like to choose--his perceived attacker--just wasn't going to work. "Because if we're not going much farther--" she turned and looked directly at Kuromaru. "You can go hunt up some food."
His lip curled off sharp canines. "No."
She glared.
He snarled. "He attacked us."
Sometimes, she wished the familiars were really as human as people seemed to think. Tsume glanced toward the men, then turned and stalked toward Kuromaru. "He didn't attack you," she muttered in an undertone. "He didn't attack me." He growled. She ignored it. "You weren't listening. It's not going to happen again."
Eyes so pale a blue they were almost white flashed. He tossed his head, dark hair flipping back. His shoulders rose slightly in place of hackles, his chin dipping in. "You didn't stop him."
All packs came down to power. Who had it, who could keep it. Who was the strongest, the most fit to protect and lead. Each Inuzuka was given the familiar they could handle; most were betas and omegas, in turn paired with betas and omega humans. The more rare alphas were placed with other alphas, or turned out to breed.
Sometimes Tsume wished they'd take size into account, because fighting with an alpha dog who could overwhelm practically everyone got exhausting. The fact that he wanted to fight in times of stress--times when he thought she couldn't care for them both--only added to her troubles. On the other hand, she supposed it made her that much more certain to stay in fighting shape.
She stalked toward Kuromaru, pulling her own shoulders up, summoning chakra to sizzle along her arms and back, dipping her chin to protect her jugular. "That's my pack," she growled. "You're my pack. I will handle this."
For a moment, she didn't think he was going to listen. Not until she stepped within striking range did he back down, the anger draining out of him with the keening whine that escaped. He rolled his head to the side, baring his throat for just an instant before he turned and slunk farther away, shoulders hunched around his ears and head hanging.
Tsume lifted her lip in a snarl and turned to stalk back toward the men, only remembering more than halfway there to calm her chakra and bank the fight.
"Are we camping nearby? He's going to go hunt." She jerked her head toward Kuromaru, who was padding slowly closer with a frustrated, but not angry, air.
"Don't wanna hunt," he growled.
"Don't care," she shot back without looking at him.
Kuromaru whuffled and cracked his knuckles. "Don't wanna leave."
She glanced at him, glared until he stopped glowering at Raidou and looked at her. "Also don't care," Tsume told him flatly.
He bared his teeth and whined, scruffing one hand up through his messy brown hair, letting it fall forward to hide his eyes. He moved, shoulders and spine sinuously, and kicked at the grass and mud with one foot.
"We'll camp here. Or near here," Genma said. It was obviously the right answer, the one Tsume wanted, the one Raidou needed, even if he was really past the worst of it. They didn't have a lot of shelter other than the trees, but the woods became thicker off to their right, as the hills rose up under them. In the crenelations of the landscape there were some relatively well-hidden hollows where a group of ninja could make camp and never be seen.
Still squatting where he'd faced Raidou, Genma pulled out his maps. There was the new one from Intel with the fugitive's last known path traced over it, along with a projected heading. And there was Genma's map, old and battered, printed on heavy plastic-impregnated cloth, and marked all over with cryptic annotations in Genma's own hand. There were symbols and numbers and some notes that it would take a cryptographer to understand. He flipped open a compass next, sighting north and orienting his map. There was the stream they'd crossed. There were the start of the hills they'd reached, There was their woods...
"There's a sort of a bunker where there's a firepit, well hidden, and maybe a cache of non-perishables. About a kilometer to the north-northeast," he said pointing. "We'll camp there."
Raidou's attention was more on the interplay between Tsume and her suddenly human side-kick then it was on Genma. He didn't miss the glare directed his way, nor the bloodlust chakra tang that went with it. The way Tsume squared herself up and out-alpha'd Kuromaru didn't escape his attention, either. Clearly he had been right to turn a wary eye on the dog earlier. Inuzuka hounds didn't attack Leaf-nin unless they had a good reason. Apparently he'd provided one.
Raidou cleaned his shoulder quickly with the antiseptic that burned like acid--and oh how he knew that for a damn fact--and slapped a square of gauze over the top, hiding the new mark. He clenched his back teeth hard against the self-inflicted hurt, sweating it out until it receded, and pushed himself back onto his feet. The shuriken were back in their holster.
"Good plan," he said to Genma, eyes flickering once more to Tsume and her doppelganger. "Lead on, oh fearless."
Tsume glanced at Kuromaru, at herself if she'd been born a man--and she thought she was short as a woman!--and debated releasing the jutsu. He'd shoved his hands into his pockets, shoulders arcing up to his ears. He kicked at a clump of dead grass and peered at her from between strands of brown hair.
Definitely time to turn him back into a pup. She never looked that... that... little, and it was unnerving to see a doppleganger that did. She'd risk Raidou's skin with canine teeth rather than watch that. With another warp of chakra she started the shift back, feeling their energy whistle between them as his tendons popped and snapped, bones melting down with a crunch and twist of joints. Fingers withdrew into hands, claws raking out where nails had been, clothes turning into fur.
The ANBU mask laying to one side vanished in a tiny puff of mist.
"Find us a click that way?" she asked Kuromaru.
He nodded once, and took off through the grass at an easy lope in a different direction.
Tsume watched him go for a long moment, waiting until he was out of earshot. Then she turned to look at her human companions. "You," she said to Genma, "seemed to have worked with Inuzuka familiars. You," she looked at Raidou, "probably wouldn't body-slam a human companion. The same courtesy would be appreciated extended to Kuromaru. Whether or not your friend there is dumb enough to put himself in Kuromaru's running path."
Raidou skidded through a mental curve that would've put Genma to shame even on one of his best days; skipping from the thread-end of relief through the remainder of his pain and landing squarely in the lead-flavoured wasteland of anger. His jaw flexed, muscle flickering an entirely different beat as he gave his new teammate a narrow-eyed glare, looking down at her angular face. "You," he said, echoing the tempo of Tsume's words, "do not know me. Your familiar got exactly the same treatment I would give any person in the same situation, minus the kunai through the skull. Humans tend not to bite."
Picking a fight was not the best way to begin a mission, but neither was standing back to watch your partner get flattened because a hunter couldn't tear his nose from the trail long enough to think.
"You're a veteran. You should know better then to try and run us all into the ground. Use your head, Inuzuka."
Tsume hunched her shoulders against the rain as the scents around her began to go dead. She scooped hair out of her face, pulling the ANBU mask off to try and allow as many smells in as possible, and frowned slightly at Raidou's sign.
A glance at the sky told her the rain wasn't going to stop any time soon, if her sense of smell hadn't been enough information. At this rate, it'd be an hour if she was very lucky before that trail was totally wiped out; fifteen minutes if the deluge got any worse. Fifteen minutes could make the difference between finding the missing nin tomorrow or not.
She wiped her forearm across her face, clearing it of droplets, and caught the men's attention with a flick of her wrist. I can track him, still. Her clothes were already soaking through. Let me run ahead, get as far as I can. Be gone a few hours, at the most. They might not know it, but asking permission--rather than informing of intent--was more than apology. If she'd still been angry, it would have galled.
Genma looked up at the rain and frowned under his mask. Go, he signed, and Get back in three hours or we're coming after you. Three hours ought to give her more than enough time to follow what would be left of the evaporating trail. Then he looked at Raidou and signed, You so dumb you don't know to get out of the rain? and pointed to a cleft in the wall of the little bowl-shaped depression the were in. Behind a tangle of tree roots and under a slab of broken slate, he knew from the last time he'd been through here, there was an orderly little excavation. A room, carved out of the native rock, just big enough for a roaming squadron of ANBU to bunk down in for the night. There were even rough 'beds' carved into the interior walls.
Genma stepped back and let Raidou lead the way in. He knew his friend's comfort zone. He liked to take rear guard or flank, unless they were entering a possibly trapped, confined space. Then he wanted point. Demanded it. He had something like logic for insisting on it--he was bigger, more robust, could take a harder hit, and was there to guard. And if he got captured, he'd want Genma on the outside, figuring out how to spring him. It was something Genma'd learned to just not argue about.
Raidou let his chakra lose as he walked silently into the rough-hewn room, releasing it to flash out for a lightning second, searching for other people, ninja, summons, small animals, anything with a pulse... it brought back nothing but dust and dead leaves, laced with the living beat of Genma behind his shoulder. Raidou didn't relax until he'd had a thorough cast about for traps and other nasty surprises, treading carefully over the solid rock floor. When that revealed nothing he pushed his mask aside, shook himself off with a spray of water droplets, and summoned a minute clone to clear the blocked flue that would serve as a chimney--long enough and angled to take any smoke, dissipate it, and release it a long way away. Far enough that the presence of a small fire wouldn't alert anyone to their exact location.
Thunder prowled overhead as Raidou located a stack of desiccated wood, checked it for inhalant poisons that would release with the application of flame, and built up a small fire. It would take a while for that to heat their cave, and both he and Genma were approaching the teeth-chattering phase that went with a thorough skin-drenching. A change of clothes and a hot drink each was probably in order. Raidou spared a moment to hope Tsume's immune system was the kind you could bounce rocks off of.
Tsume's head dropped between her shoulders at the snarl of thunder, lightning turning the world blue and black for an instant. She needed to hurry. But first--
She stepped into the cave, ducking past Genma and peeling off the ANBU mask, then her sandals. She could move faster without them. The rest of the armor she paused over; on the one hand, it would keep the rain off longer, create insulation. On the other, it would slow her down that much more. She stared out the opening for a long while before finally stripping off the belt and emptying her pouches of all but a very few weapons. She left everything on her torso for heat, stripped one long glove off, and bit through the base of her thumb, too-sharp eyeteeth meeting briefly through flesh. A moment's focus gathered her chakra and she spilled intention into it, snapping up a bit of bandaging and letting chakra-steeped blood soak in. She dropped it beside her mask and the bits of armor she was leaving behind.
"Give this to Kuromaru when he returns," she said quietly, pulling her glove back on. It wouldn't tell him specifics, but they knew each other well enough that he'd pick up the generalizations--he needed to stay here so she could find her way back being the most important. She didn't bother to mention to the men that there'd be no way for her to scent her way here, again; her trail would be wiped out soon, too. In heavy rain she'd probably be able to come back by sight and instinct alone, as most ninja could. It was a stupid chance to take, when Kuromaru could remain here and help guide her home.
Tsume hesitated at the opening, peering out at the rapidly darkening sky. It might as well have been full night already. The wind was bitterly cold, the rain icing wherever it hit rock. This was not going to be a fun hunt. Her lips pulled up off her teeth in distaste. She debated a moment, then finally decided the chakra drain was worth the added scent boost and speed, not to mention the heat it'd provide. She could always start with the basic version, and work her way up through wolf forms if she had to. "Shikyaku no Jutsu," she murmured with the appropriate hand signs, and felt power sizzle through her, chakra forming into claws and longer teeth, more an impression than anything. Not-fur bristled along her arms and shoulders, seen with the chakra if not with the eye. Hopefully it'd deflect the worst of the rain.
"Three hours," she said, flashing a feral smile at Genma and Raidou. "Then you can come and find me." She ducked her head and headed out into the rain, flying back along the path they'd been on, to where the trail had last been scented.
Now she didn't have to focus on anything but the hunt.
Genma looked in dismay at the small pile of armour and equipment Tsume left behind. It wasn't as if the mask or arm and shin guards were particularly heavy. The abandonment of shoes and weapons seemed especially risky. But she obviously had method to her madness, and he knew as well as she did that that scent trail was dying steadily faster with every second of rain.
"Inuzuka. They're nuts," he told Raidou, who had stared with him in silent fascination at Tsume's preparations. Genma took off his mask and combed a gloved, aching hand through lank, dripping hair. Cold and wet. Winter always had to be cold and wet. "Hey Rai, how come we can't get the shitty weather like this when we have someplace nice and warm to bunk down with beds and quilts and shit? We had gorgeous weather on that last mission." Not that it had done them a bit of good. Well maybe. It certainly would have been an even more miserable journey back to Konoha, sick and injured and poisoned, if they'd also been getting shat upon by the skies, as they were now.
He sighed heavily and sat down as close to the little hearth as he could, with his back against the damp clay wall, and started unbuckling arm guards and stripping off his sodden gloves. While he doubted the wisdom of Tsume heading out on the trail without armor, he knew very well how poor an idea it would be to sit around with his hands in cold, wet gloves.
"You have to sit on her," Kuromaru grumbled from inside folds of blanket, "before she'll listen." Then he slid free of the cloth, glancing back at Raidou. He sniffed, caught nothing of fear and something of a peace offering. Reluctantly, his ears tipped sideways and his tail wagged briefly. "I'm fine. Trust me." He was going to be panting in no time, and he didn't want to sit next to the opening. He'd have to bring Tsume in, after all, and it would be better if he were warm.
Then he turned to Genma, giving a quick lick to the air between them but not actually touching. "Thanks." He checked the watch, checked the clothes, and turned to check his hares. They were skinny winter hares, but still decently sized. Hares always were. He felt a little sheepish, actually, having only brought those back--he was a much better hunter than that--but most animals had denned down for the storm.
"That trail won't last half of three hours." His voice was deep and rough. "She oughta come back before then." She was already burning through chakra--he could feel it as the drain grew, feel it when she used animal energy. He circled in place once, twice, then finally settled by the fire, propped so he could keep an ear on the opening.
"You should eat those." He glanced meaningfully toward the hares. "Long as you leave one for Tsume." His gaze snapped around to the creatures, then up at Genma and Raidou, ears flattening back briefly. "Not the little one." His lady, indeed, and she got the best of the food. Alphas always did. Besides, he'd brought the little one for Raidou. Raidou should be glad to get any.
Genma regarded the dead animals thoughtfully. Not a lot there to feed three cold hungry shinobi and an enormous dog. "Did you eat one already?" he asked, hoping against hope that Kuromaru had indeed simply sated his own hunger while still on the hunt. He picked up one of the hares and a kunai, slicing off the head and paws, then slitting the skin down the back and carefully peeling it off the carcass.
"There ought to be some rice stored in that recess next to the hearth," he said with a jerk of the head towards the niche in question. Several cylindrical metal containers stood there, unlabeled and dusted with cobwebs. "They have a chakra seal on 'em to keep the stuff inside fresh. There's probably sugar and rice, and if we're lucky some dried veggies or some pickles. Think you can make a stew or something, Rai?"
He dropped the rabbit skin on the floor at his feet and slit the belly next, scooping out entrails with a few quick swipes of the hand and offering them to Kuromaru. It wasn't like they were so desperate for food they had to stoop to eating rabbit lungs and liver, and he seriously doubted the dog would find them as unappetizing as the humans would.
Kuromaru tried to keep his eyes on the entrance, rather than staring at the rabbit skin dropped onto the stone floor to join the head and the paws.
Genma wasn't using them. Kuromaru slipped forward and snatched them up, skulls crunching in his jaws with two chomps before he swallowed them down. "I ate the other babies," he grumbled, laying back down again, only to sit up and reach forward for the entrails. He started to lap them up before they'd quite left the man's fingers, but yanked back short when the ninja snapped his hands back and his scent went from cold and tired to the bitter-sweet of fear, spiking upward alarmingly. Sour apple taste hit the back of Kuromaru's throat, the smell of pain unchecked, and his eyes flickered, catching the sudden pulse-pounding heat of terror and the dilation of pupils in Genma's light eyes. Predator attention marked weakness, blind panic, while the not-wolf parts of him measured, watching, making certain the ninja had it under control.
After a moment the scent wasn't quite so bitter, more sweet, fear but not horror, pain but not agony. Kuromaru slid to his belly, offering as little threat as possible to soothe the strange pup, and lapped entrails up off the ground without showing his teeth. Sometimes, people reacted badly to his teeth. They didn't normally react that badly. It was a little disheartening.
Then he heard mention of veggies and rice, and his ears slicked back against his skull. They were going to make stew out of his rabbits. He pushed up into a sitting position. "You think, if you're just going to boil them anyway, that I could have the little one? It wouldn't make that much difference, right?" And he really hadn't had very much to eat, just three little babies, even if he could go days without food when needed.
Raidou had his head in the rice container and his mind busy debating the benefits of stew versus soup--bigger chunks and less effort for one--when a scuffling noise and a nasty surge of panicked chakra snapped his attention back to Genma. There was an enemy attacking or the damn roof was about to fall in--
Or the stupid dog had licked his hands.
Before the little tableau had time to register fully, Raidou had the baby hare in one hand and was back across the cave with a flicker of his own chakra. He dropped the leveret corpse in front of Kuromaru to distract him with a muttered "sure" and crouched in front Genma, blocking his view of the dog. Raidou set himself square, ready to grab or dodge, and met his friend's wide eyes with his own steady ones. "Still with me?" please, please, please...
"Fine. I'm fine," Genma said, maybe just a little too fast. His hands, still slick and foul with hare blood, were curled up close to his chest and shaking; the kunai he'd been using to dress the carcasses lay on the ground at his feet. He was furious with himself, with his racing heart and the ache grown suddenly to screaming pain in the hand Kuromaru had licked. You're an idiot. Get a grip, he told himself, finally managing to focus on Raidou's eyes.
"It's.... I'm fine," he said again, more deliberately, less reflexively. "I'll be fine. Just gonna wash up..." He glanced at his hands, covered in gore, throbbing with pain, and for a split second it was his blood, not the hares', with the skin split and bruised purple-black, and white bone shards glistening... He made a rough choked sound and shut his eyes. Opened them.
Rabbit blood. It's just rabbit blood.
"Just gonna wash up." | |
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