"Hagane Kotetsu," Kotetsu said, finally getting his mouth to work properly. "I really thought you were a guy." Most girls wouldn't take that as a compliment - hell, he knew very few guys who'd take being mistaken for a girl as a compliment too! - but Ayumi seemed perfectly fine with it. "I... um. I guess..." Most girls didn't spar with guys too.


Except she had been fairly happy about doing it, and she had managed to pin him and...


He was confused. And wanted to hide in his room for the next few weeks because things like this kept happening to him. Maybe ANBU just hated him in general.

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She raised an eyebrow at the comment he kept saying over and over again. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head or something? 'Cause you keep telling me you thought I was a guy." Ayumi stepped closer and stood on her tiptoes to look at his head, narrowing her eyes to peer through his hair for a bruise or cut. "And I get it, I really do. It's not a big deal. It's happened a few times. And it's certainly not like I look much like a girl."

Ayumi scoffed and dared to lift a hand and push aside the hair above his right ear and peer closer. "I didn't even attend more than a fourth of a kunoichi class. Got myself booted on purpose. Never been happier."

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Kotetsu flinched back, catching her hand. "Oy," he said. An automatic reaction - most people didn't let others get deadly weapons near their faces, and a shinobi's hands definitely qualified. But it was a spar, a fellow ninja and Kotetsu dropped his hand, scowling like she was another kid who wanted to take his toys from the sandbox. And honestly, finding out that Oyate was Ayumi and was a girl didn't change things. Just that she'd gotten his head in a lock, but he'd managed to kick her one in the jaw.


Heh.


"I didn't hit my head," he said, almost huffily. "Just worried you were concerned, is all." If she wasn't going to take issue with it, then he wasn't going to.

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She flexed her jaw - it was going to bruise probably - and frowned at him. "Okay, if you're sure then." Ayumi dropped her hand and took a step back. She didn't know Kotetsu well enough to stay that close to him all the time. Besides, maybe he didn't like her being that close in times other than in spars. "And really, don't worry about me. I might as well be a guy, aside from the cookin' and stuff. Aoba always says that I should've been born a boy. Then again, he's usually picking on me then. So who knows what he means by that." She shrugged and did a slow back flip to stretch out the rest of her body, staying in a handstand for a moment before completing the flip and letting out a heavy sigh.

"Still up for more? Or are you done for now?"

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"Are you up for more?" Kotetsu said, fluffing his hair back into place. "I can always keep going." Far be it for him to let others think he got intimidated by a girl. 'Sides, lots of kunoichi he knew were as good at fighting as the next guy - just trickier. Only he had to be sure that he didn't go grabbing her by accident.


He shifted his weight to his left leg, keeping his stance easy and light. "Unless you don't want to."

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"Me? Not want to spar?" She scoffed and sank into an offensive crouch, both arms low and to her sides, hands at the ready. "That's like saying I hate sugar." Her lips erupted into an enormous grin. "Just gotta make sure we don't pummel each other bad enough to leave more than a bruise or two, right?"

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"Do you hate sugar?" Kotetsu asked, grin cheeky, not bothering with the crouch because she was going to lunge up and that just meant he was going to back flip and roll. Maybe. "Bruises are fun, I could totally boast to Ryuichi that these are not caused by him and his homicidal tendencies."

He shifted, his feet widening their stance for a little more stability, and beckoned. "C'mon then."

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"You were at the bake sale, that should've been answer enough," she said before taking a slow breath and pumping a surge of chakra into her legs as she charged forward. The way Kotetsu was positioned made it obvious that he thought she'd attack upwards, so that just meant she'd have to take an alternate route. Down it was.

She moved so fast that Kotetsu didn't have time to move fully out of the way and she dropped to the floor, swinging a leg out and catching one of his, effectively throwing him completely off balance. With him still teetering she hooked her leg around his and pulled hard. Once he was flat on his back she'd aim to pin him to the ground again.

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Kotetsu was trying to get a good retort up for the bake-sale comment when he was tipped, twisted, and shit she was gunning to pin him. "Hey!" he said, one hand immediately going to his throat in case she tried a choke-pin - it could easily be turned into movement to flip himself back and hopefully wing her in the chin or jaw with his heel. A twitch with his sandal'd... nah, he wasn't sparring Ryuichi, and he'd said he wasn't going to bring in live steel with the spar with Ayumi. Maybe next time.


But his legs were tangled and she was all but slamming her full weight on his thighs, immobilising his legs. Kotetsu didn't even bother to growl, just grab her collar with his other hand and shove hard, across her chest, yanking the fabric across so that she'd choke.

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As expected, choking began. Ayumi only let it come out as a cough and she still came down, hoping she hadn't lost much momentum as she had paused to struggle to breathe. She jammed an elbow into his gut and sputtered again, glaring down at him -- before freezing.

There were feet a few steps behind Kotetsu's head. And only one person had toes and sandals like those.

He was back. Shin was back.

It didn't matter if she was turning pale, or choking, or even that she was staring at what would be an empty space to Kotetsu. Goosebumps were prickling up everywhere and she could only choke out a gasp. Where was Yuuichi? He had to be somewhere if blood was dripping down onto Shin's toes.

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Kotetsu had shoved hard, expecting her to fight, like punch him in the gut or something, and she had, though she looked like she might need to tap out while she just wheezed. However, the freezing and just going plain still was off the chart for weird.


"Ayumi?" he gasped out, easing his hold so she could breathe - maybe she was really sensitive to that sort of thing. He'd make a note of it. "Ayumi, you shoulda tapped out..."

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She didn't hear Kotetsu. Ayumi was far too busy trying not to stare at Shin's bloody toes and was only becoming more and more focused on it. A creak behind her was an obvious sign of Yuuichi. So at least she knew where they both were. Unfortunately, it still wasn't a comforting thought.

Breathing was forgotten as she stared and slowly forced herself to look upwards. Perhaps Shin was bleeding, but still in a good mood. She could always hope.

The chill went down her spine as his eyes said differently. Shin was baring bloody teeth and letting the blood pour out of the wound in his abdomen. Ayumi knew that in real life he should be bleeding much faster than the slow drip that fell onto his sandals, but reality was a distant cry from her current thoughts.

What had she done wrong? She hadn't even killed anyone in a violent manner on her last mission. And this was her first spar -- her first! -- since coming back. And they'd agreed to keep it bloodless, too. Why were they here?

Her lungs complained and the shuddering breath she inhaled brought Kotetsu's spiky hair back into her peripheral vision. He was still very much there. And he was speaking. Oh no. Oh no. She couldn't be seeing Shin and Yuuichi right now. Not right now.

She jerked her eyes from Shin after forcing her body to listen to her again and failed miserably at the smile she put on her face. "I...I guess I don't feel so well." Yes, feigning illness would do the trick. Say she felt sick, maybe she ate something bad? That was plenty plausible with the reputation the ANBU cafeteria had. Sure, she'd never gotten sick off anything Morimoto-san made, but she could always pull on the rumors.

Yuuichi must have taken another step closer as the floor creaked and Shin let out a scoff. They were going to corner her. She had to get out. Now.

"T-think we could call it a draw and a day? I..." Puke, yes, that would get him moving. "I think I might hurl."

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She looked green, like she wasn't able to hold it in. Kotetsu scrambled away out of immediate line of fire, and hovered uselessly. She was pale and green, and he hadn't thought that he'd kicked her that hard, not hard enough to make her bring up her latest meal. "Sure," he said, unsure if he should try and help her to the infirmary or not. "You're sick?" He hadn't known people could get sick from a choke-hold.

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Sick. It was sad how well that description actually could work. Drip, drip. Shin's blood continued to eek out of his body and she swallowed hard, sitting back onto her calves and trying desperately to breathe in deeply through her nose. At least they didn't usually make things smell. Not when there was so little blood still. There was hope yet, right?

"Yeah," she said finally, daring to open her eyes and look at Kotetsu. There was a definite sheen on her skin from the spar and from the terror, but it could always be chalked up as part of being sick, too.
"S'not your fault," she said, setting her hands gingerly on the ground in preparation to standing. One step at a time and she'd be fine.

A creak behind her.

Too late. Yuuichi was closing in.

"J-just the food," she whispered and shot upright, her face anything but its natural color. "S-sorry to scare you. I...I'll see you later, kay?"

There wasn't time to let him escort her. Or explain. Definitely no time to explain.

She just made a beeline for the door and didn't dare to react to how Shin swiveled his head to look at her and how Yuuichi gave her a maniacal grin. They would find her again soon enough. Now she just had to wait out their next assault and hope that she could avoid them.

Hope was a glimmering thing in the distance, though.

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Kotetsu blinked as Ayumi all but fled the room, and left him feeling somewhat let down, all the earlier energy and enthusiasm for a fight coiling unused and slightly sickened in his limbs. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd missed something there - that somehow this was his fault. He couldn't see how it was, but she'd turned absolutely white when he'd choked her, so that had to be some cause, right?

She'd claimed it was food - food poisoning, perhaps? - before she'd bolted. Maybe it was. But obviously Kotetsu hadn't helped. Perhaps he should go see if she was alright, maybe she needed medical attention. He remembered vaguely that there were all sorts of conditions that could turn from 'mere' indigestion to something potentially lethal. He started out the door after her, but the corridor was empty.


And Kotetsu didn't know which was her room.


He'd just have to report it to the medic - Kanae-sensei, perhaps - and hope for the best.

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Before he'd even exited the room Ayumi was gone, long gone. Alone with her memories and a past that refused to let her be.

She closed her door behind her, but that would be nothing for Shin and Yuuichi. Cowering under the sheets, Ayumi could only hope that it would be over quickly. And that they would be merciful this time.

[Late Night Terrors directly follows this.]

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