| [Jun. 13th, 2009|06:11 pm] |
If Raidou had been younger, stupider, or anything other than entirely exhausted, he would have given into the surge of dull rage and slammed Hiro through the nearest wall, injuries be damned. But he wasn't and he was, and he was still functional enough to know that when a snotty little Intel flunky started pressing your buttons, there was usually a damn good reason for it.
He exhaled long and slow, and cracked his jaw until it stopped clenching. Then carefully, stiffly, ignoring the stretch and pull of bandages laid over warped flesh, he lifted his left hand and splayed out his fingers.
"Genjutsu, infiltration, revenge, sabotage--" Fingers folded down, one after another. "--general bat-shit craziness that comes with doing this for a living... Do you want me to keep going? Because I've got a hundred other reasons why it's in my best interest not to trust your scrawny ass half as far as I could throw it." He took another breath, coughing again, and cleared his throat roughly. "And I'm pretty damn certain that if I had decided to be sweet and grateful, you'd have marked me down as broken and useless. I've been in ANBU five years, Hyuuga Hiro-chan. The only way you're getting inside my head is with a mallet."
He dropped his hand, pressed his forearm hard into the mattress, and forced himself up three hard-won, nerve-screaming inches. Pinned Hiro's pale gaze with hot dark eyes, and glared.
"And you'd never get to hurt Genma. I'd snap you in half first."
Movement did what raised voices hadn't. Beneath his other hand--still held rock steady, even now--Genma's pulse jumped once, and ratcheted back to the land of the living. |
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