| [Apr. 20th, 2008|03:11 am] |
Nobuki had run? But he was a good ninja. A veteran ANBU with two years' service under the mask. He wouldn't have made a rookie-mistake like that. Any ninja could spring an unexpected trap, but they had known where the enemies were camped. They'd known they should be careful of traps. Nobuki was too good to have done what Kakashi said.
Although when the smoke had cleared and they'd had only the cooling bodies of the dead for company, Genma had found the three punctures that marked senbon strikes on Nobuki's neck. A tiny target on the big man, a tiny vulnerable spot, and three tiny needles had gotten in and delivered their poison. It had been why Nobuki's blood wouldn't clot. It wouldn't clot, and Genma had had his arms elbow-deep in Nobuki's chest, holding a quivering, dying heart, desperately channeling chakra into it, trying to start it back into something like a rhythm, even though every pulse it did manage just deepened the pool of blood Genma knelt in.
Even if Nobuki had taken a hit from a trap he'd triggered, though, Genma refused to believe the rest of Kakashi's lie.
"Nobuki was a fucking good ninja. He knew better than to lead pursuers to vulnerable teammates. He was hit and hurt, but he was still fighting. I saw him take out two of the enemy after Ayako went down. He was a good fucking ninja!"
Genma didn't realize he was shouting, didn't realize he was on his feet, towering over Kakashi and the interviewer until he felt hands on his shoulders. Sentries, pushing at him. Until he put his weight down on his injured ankle and felt a shock of pain travel straight up the bone and into his brain, sparking blackly in front of his eyes.
"... down, please, Shiranui-san," the woman was saying, in that same calm, soothing, understanding voice. "No-one is disputing the heroism of Agent Ishida. He served his Hokage with honor."
Genma sat. He had no choice. |
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