| [Jan. 29th, 2012|12:38 am] |
Ibiki got back to the village in less than a quarter of the time it had taken them to reach the temple, by the simple expedient of jumping from one translocation straight into the next. He was dripping with sweat, his fingers and toes ice-cold, and his breath harsh and raw in his throat when he arrived in the sleeping mountain hamlet. Even the most dedicated drunks had turned in, and the inn was dark and silent, shrouded in a thick blanket of fresh snow.
His uniform would probably be unwelcome this far from Fire Country. He removed his mask, pulled his cape tight around himself, and henged away all traces of his ANBU armor, replacing it with the same rough-textured traveler’s clothes he and Asuma had cloaked themselves in on their first trip into the village.
It didn’t take much effort to find the innkeeper sleeping with her husband and a yellow-eyed cat in a room next to the kitchen. He knelt next to the bed and shook the woman awake.
Predictably, she gasped.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Inkeeper-san. Do you remember I was here before? Saiyuri-san sent me,” he said softly, as non-threatening as he could be. “She told me to find Imahara Yusuke and two dog sleds to transport two badly injured men from the ruins of the old temple near the summit. Can you help me?”
In the darkness he could see her eyes flicking over his body and scarred face. Thankfully there was too much shadow for her to see the purpling bruises on his throat. She rolled over and elbowed her sleeping husband. “Wake up. Saiyuri-sensei needs help,” she said. “Needs dogs and sleds.”
“And men to drive them,” Ibiki said.
The innkeeper’s husband yawned and pushed himself upright, giving Ibiki a much more forbidding look. “Yer a ninja. But yer not a Cloud ninja.”
“I’m from the lowlands,” Ibiki agreed cautiously.
“But not from Lightning Country,” the man persisted. He got to his feet and reached for a pair of pants hanging from a hook near the bed.
Ibiki stood up to his full height. “No.”
The man looked him up and down, and nodded. “Then I’ll help ya.”
Ibiki’s fingers fell away from the seals they’d begun to form.
“Follow me,” the man said. “You said the temple ruins? Saiyuri up there in this weather?”
“She is.”
“And the feller who was with ya when you came to get her? What about that panicked little dog?”
“Yes.”
“Well come on then, leggy. I’ll take ya to Imahara’s. We’ll take my team and his. Got the two fastest teams in Yukihana.”
Inuzuka and their canines came to mind when Ibiki saw the sled dogs. They were big, barrel-chested things, with wolfish-faces and thick fur, harnessed eight to a sled. Imahara was clearly more comfortable with his animals than the people, talking to them like they were his own flesh and blood. He and the innkeeper, Kawai, soon had the sleds packed with thick blankets and an assortment of bundles of things ‘Saiyuri-sensei might need.’
It had taken nearly five hours to get to the temple the first time. Now, with two expert sled-teams, a thick frosting of new snow, and no wind, they flew. Ibiki ran alongside them at first, but soon had to concede to fatigue and accept a ride in Imahara’s sled. The rising sun was just turning the snow a rosy mauve when the trees marking the site of the old shrine came into view.
Ibiki waited until they were almost at the site before he let the henge drop and broke his own cover.
Kawai noticed first. “Fire Country,” he said. “I might have known.”
Imahara laughed, calling his dogs to halt. “You should have said, stranger. Woulda given you a warmer robe to wrap up in.” He grinned and traced a spiral leaf on his forehead. “My grandpa was one.”
“So you’ll help?” Ibiki asked. For once, luck was on their side; Yukihana must have been on the receiving end of more than a few unpleasantries from Lightning Country’s forces during the war years, to still have Konoha allies in her.
“Course we’ll help. You said you had injured men, so we’d have helped even if you’d been a bunch of lying Cloud ninja. But now we’ll help and not regret it. Come on. Let’s find Saiyuri and your friends.” |
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