| Three is a Crowd. Four is a Massacre. [Closed to Genma, Raidou, Tsume] | [Apr. 5th, 2008|09:08 pm] |
Backdated to before Thicker Than Water. Set after the It Takes... threads, and the morning after Stories We Tell. In response to this mission.
It seemed like a fairly easy mission, all in all. Oh, sure, the fighting was going to be a tin of bloodworms, but at least it didn't involve searching out missing scrolls or working undercover. Find the ball of cat turd who'd killed their ninja, kill him back, and come home.
These were the kinds of missions Tsume rather liked.
Her own personal mission was exactly the kind she didn't like. She had, of course, already memorized the dossiers she'd been given on the two men who'd be joining her for the hunt. Both seemed like good ninja, strong fighters. Fleabites, one of them she'd already met, and she knew more about his history now than she'd ever wanted to know.
The other was a taijutsu guy, good at what he did with a background as bleak as half the other ninja who made it to ANBU. Life was so much easier when you weren't aware of the kind of messes your teammates had been through.
Life was even easier still when you weren't expected to give a full report on said teammates. Not only was she walking into a mission with them aware that they'd somehow snapped teeth badly enough to get Arakaki's attention, but she was walking into it knowing her job was to assess whether or not they were going to continue to snap teeth. Crotchticks.
In general, Tsume wasn't thrilled with anything at the moment. She got to the debriefing purposefully late, tossing a broad smile and a jaunty wave at Genma and the other man and dropped into a chair, feet stretched out and crossed at the ankles. Kuromaru wagged once at the ninja they'd already met and sat down by her legs.
She knew most of what they were told. A missing Mist nin had killed two of theirs. He needed to be hunted down and killed right back, had a bloodline limit, possibly hunter nin on his trail. Last seen, thought to be, all those delightful words that basically came down to "good luck finding and killing him." Typical ANBU mission.
She breathed steadily through her nose the whole time, sorting scents until she could focus in on just Genma and Namiashi Raidou's. At least both her partners smelled healthy. That was always a plus.
When their intel guy was done talking Tsume tipped her head toward the other two hunters, smiling lazily. "Oi, Genma. You look better when I'm not puking." Actually, she could barely remember what he looked like--though his scent was burned into her brain. Tall, but not stupidly so. Lank brown hair mostly hidden by his hitai-ate, sleek with wiry muscle, half-lidded eyes that were nearly the same color as Kuromaru's yellow ones.
His companion was just a bit taller, tipping over that edge from "tall" to "hip problems." She mentally shook her head and checked the way he walked, but other than a slight stiffness in his shoulder--broad shoulders, guy had muscle--there were no signs of walking issues. That was good. He was young still, long as he took care and remembered vitamins... His hair was brown, short. His scent was familiar, a niggling in the back of her mind, like a bugbite itching to be scratched. She didn't recall it right off, and after a moment decided she'd probably met him casually before, maybe passed him on the streets more than a few times. The most distinguishing thing about him--other than the height and the muscle, which you expected on a taijutsu expert--were the scars spilled over half his face.
Tsume knew exactly where those had come from.
Everyone looked taller when you were sitting down. She'd sat far enough that they'd have to walk to get to her, purposefully putting distance between them until she'd had a chance to scent. Mostly for her own peace of mind; she still wasn't happy about watching the two of them. She smiled up--way, way up--at them, unconsciously flashing fangs. In a minute she was going to rise, and damned if she wasn't going to come to Namiashi's chin.
Hopefully she'd come to Namiashi's chin.
She liked to think she looked taller sitting down. |
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