| Throwing a Bone. [Closed to Raidou and Tsume] | [Jan. 21st, 2009|01:30 am] |
[Takes place two days after Equilibrium and Could You Bite the Hand.]
It was amazing, really, what ANBU could get away with. Raidou had punched a cop in the face, Genma had broken an Uchiha collarbone, and both of them had come away with nothing more than an official reprimand, three months of docked pay, and an amused look from Arisa, Genma's Intel friend, who'd come to bail them out.
Whatever complaints you could make about Intel, they sure managed to make criminal charges vanish fast. Raidou wasn't quite sure he wanted to know how--or why. Being grateful was about all he had the energy to manage, what with the hangover, and most of that was directed at Genma.
Sometime in the evening after their release, Raidou found his backbone, quenched his lingering desire to duck and run, and sat through three-quarters of a healing. The fact that Genma performed the honours with a quick smile, careful hands, and a whole lot of patience, made it more of a trial than actual torture. But Raidou still planned to stay far away from anymore damn claws.
Well, right after he found Tsume and sorted things out.
After three days of hunting, he came to the conclusion that it was a lot harder to track down ANBU's one resident Inuzuka than you'd think. It wasn't like she was subtle--hell, landslides were more subtle--but she seemed to have developed a sudden knack for being where he wasn't. The fifth time he walked into a room, or out onto a training field, and got told he'd just missed her, he figured she was using her scent thing as an early warning system. That or she'd become psychic overnight.
At first it was disheartening. Then it was frustrating. And now he wasn't sure if he wanted to apologize to her or crack her over the head with a lead-weighted newspaper. He'd messed up, sure, but everybody did. And you didn't throw away a decent teammate just because they pried a little...
Unless you were Tsume, apparently.
"Nii-san!" A small blond bullet shot out of the school building and tackled Raidou roughly at waist-height. He shoved aside thoughts of irritating vanishing teammates in favour of picking up his youngest brother and tossing him into the air.
"Hey, kid. Good day at school?"
Setsurou flailed gleefully, arms and legs flying everywhere, and yelped when Raidou caught him. Then he flipped himself upside down, hanging from Raidou's arms, and grinned. "Yes! Well, no. I got into trouble for fighting. But it definitely wasn't my fault this time. Inuzuka-bastard totally started it. What happened to your face?"
"Language," said Raidou, hauling him up to whack him almost-gently on the back of the head. "You're eight. Kiba's five. How could he have started anything?"
Satsurou turned red and mumbled something indistinct. Raidou lifted his eyebrows.
"Come again?"
This time the mumble was just a shade louder, but still indecipherable.
"Kid, seriously, don't make me hang you from a tre--"
"Namiashi-san!" Setsurou's chuunin-teacher waved from the doorway. He looked a little flustered, short black hair standing up in erratic spikes. "Setsurou-kun is still supposed to be in detention. And I need a word with you. I'm afraid he was caught fighting with an older girl today."
Older girl?
Hana.
Raidou glanced down. "Oh, you are in so much trouble."
Setsurou looked torn between jumping down and running, and sliding behind Raidou to hide from his teacher. "She said her mom was better'n you!"
Excellent. Apparently Namiashi's and Inuzuka's scrapping was a generational thing, even if Setsurou didn't actually carry the Namiashi name. Raidou resisted the urge to touch the scabbing scratches still scattered over his face and arms. Instead, he threw Setsurou over his shoulder and headed back for the school building.
The chuunin teacher greeted him with a relieved smile. "Fumiko-san said you were coming today. I was hoping you could help us out with Setsurou-kun. He seems to listen to you over his foster-mother--"
"Mother," Setsurou interrupted sharply. "She's my mother."
Raidou hid a tiny flinch, and whacked the back of Setsurou's head again. "Manners, brat."
"But she is--"
"Doesn't mean you get to be rude about it," Raidou interrupted. "Or pick fights with girls. Even if they started it."
Setsurou mumbled something unhappy into his shirt. The chuunin-teacher shifted and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Well--if you'd like to come with me, Namiashi-san? Hana-chan's guardian is waiting inside."
Raidou blinked.
Well, maybe it would be easy to find Tsume after all.
"Lead on," he said, and followed. |
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