| Clearer Skies Ahead [Genma and Rina] |
[Dec. 23rd, 2010|10:34 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, two days after Lightning Strikes Twice.]
Stumbling out the door of Intelligence into the chill night air, Rina was surprised to see the sky still dark. There was something about those windowless debriefing rooms, the dark eyes and cold metal words picking you apart, that made it feel like nations would rise and fall while you were in there.
But no, it had only been a couple of hours. If she were lucky, none of her insomniac family would be awake, and she’d be able to sneak in and leave them a note without actually confronting anyone. Taking the coward’s route, she darted on aching feet through the winding side streets and back alleys of Konoha, fetching up behind a row of tumbledown shops and planting her palms against the smooth brick of one of the more solid buildings. With a twist of chakra that she didn’t really have to spare, she scampered painfully up the wall and through the darkened third story window, layers of intricate seals parting like the gauzy drapes to welcome her home.
The bed, with its plump pillows and softly flowered bedsheets, looked impossibly welcoming, but she still wasn’t quite ready to handle the well-meaning worry and stifling concern she was sure to encounter in the morning. So, with a pang of regret, she changed out of her disgusting and tattered uniform and turned instead towards the writing desk, penning her family a quick note for them to find when they woke.
Reluctantly bypassing the shower as well, since the noise would certainly wake them up, Rina crept down the two flights of creaky stairs, stepping with a careful lightness of foot shared only by ninja and chronically disobedient little girls. Glancing around the corner and seeing no lights in the main room of the bookshop, she finally released the nervous breath she’d been holding, and ventured through the lintel out into the open.
Only to meet the startled brown eyes of her little sister Mikari, hair looped up in pigtails and bent over a thick dusty book in the alcove under the stairs, where — of course — the light couldn’t escape to disturb their sleeping mother and brother. Twin guilty stares met, and then Mikari’s eyes widened further in pleased surprise, limbs tensing to run towards her battered, but obviously alive, older sister.
( Unable to help it, Rina flinched. ) |
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| Lightning Strikes Twice [Genma, Rina] |
[Jul. 19th, 2010|09:09 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, immediately following Take a Breath.]
Lulled by the steady pounding cacophony outside, the reassuring safety of her own seal blocking the entrance, and the solid spring-green freshness of Genma's chakra presence resting beside her, sleep was easy to find.
Rina expected to be woken by a calm gloved hand on her shoulder for the change of shifts, or perhaps by the subtle shifting of sounds indicating that the storm was ending. Instead, what felt like barely moments after she'd curled up, she was jolted into adrenaline-pumping awareness by three system shocks in as many heartbeats:
One, the tearing reverberation of a kunai ripping straight through the center of her seal.
Two, Genma's shout, and the slice of a ricocheting shuriken as it carved a path across her thigh.
And three, the skin-pricking electric tingle that gave her an instant of warning--an instant before the entire might of the storm gathered and crashed down above them, splintering their stone hideout into a razor-edged cloud of deadly shrapnel and fountaining earth.
Safely cocooned underground by a flash of earth jutsu as instinctive as a flinch, Rina caught a breath, but her narrow cavern was filling up with the relentless seep of water. ( She couldn't stay. ) |
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| Take a Breath [Genma, Rina] |
[May. 26th, 2010|09:59 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, immediately following Eye of the Storm.]
The shaft was long, winding, and pitch dark. The ANBU's glowstick lent its eerie light, but all Rina could see was Yushiro's white face and savaged chest cavity, his jounin vest shredded and black with blood. Shouji is still alive, she told herself as she climbed, he's still alive.
It helped, some.
The synthetic energy thrumming through her was starting to burn as it coursed through overused channels, and left a sour taste in the back of her throat. Her heart pounded as if it wanted to run away with her, charged with pharmaceuticals, but she tried to keep a lid on it. When they finally pulled themselves out of the ventilation shaft, Rina flinched away from her image momentarily reflected in Inari's mirror: skin too pale, eyes too bright.
( Spun back towards it, all senses wrenched into painful alertness, when the misty gray background in the mirror erupted into fiery red. ) |
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| Eye of the Storm [Genma, Rina] |
[Apr. 19th, 2010|09:27 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, about a year and eleven months after the Kyuubi attack, and six months after Genma's rescue from the Iwagakure prisons.]
It had been so straightforward, to start out.
Two chuunin and a jounin; one sacrificial Konoha bunker in the depths of Rai no Kuni. Half a day to weave trapping seals so tightly into its foundations that the floorboards quivered and it seemed to stagger beneath the weight.
It would be one more needle in Cloud's side, and yet another proof of Konoha's overwhelming martial superiority -- that was what Sandaime said. To prevent another all-out war, he said, during political briefings when the still-straggling upper ranks of Konoha ninja rattled about in a room meant for so many more.
Rina didn't quite understand, but she believed him when he said it.
The booby-trapping itself had been easy: after nearly two years in Konoha's seal division, with full access to its massive library, Rina knew more than enough official and unofficial nastiness to trap ten bunkers the same size without resorting to repeats. She'd never worked with her current teammates Shouji and Yushiro before, but they seemed like solid ninja, relaxed and easy in their competence; knowing they were standing guard outside, Rina had felt safe.
( A muffled thud and screech of metal echoed against cragged granite walls, and half a foot of solid stone no longer felt thick enough. ) |
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| Find Me Faithless [Kakashi & Rina] |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|11:46 pm] |
Takes place five years previously, four days after the Kyuubi attack.
Kakashi was late for Minato's funeral.
It was a village-wide affair, held at the smoke-charred base of the Hokages' monument, attended by anyone with the strength to stand. Or lean on a friend's shoulder. Or maneuver one of the wheelchairs that was suddenly a precious commodity. Several hundred shionobi, ordered by clan and rank and allegiance, clad in sober black and hitai-ate steel. More civillians, clustered into tight-knit family groups and marked by tears they felt free to shed. Masked ANBU, fringed around the edges and stiff with battle-weariness that still lingered. Dignitaries paying their respects from other villages still under treaty. Fire Country Daimyos.
The Sandaime. Jiraiya.
And Kakashi, slipping through the massed ranks like a pale wraith to stand between them, ignoring the ripple of sound that followed him. Mid-sentence, the Sandaime paused and laid a hand on his shoulder. Jiraiya slanted him a sideways look.
"Obito sends his regards, I'm guessing," he said, voice scraped deep and flat.
Tight-jawed, Kakashi jerked his shoulder. The Sandaime's hand fell away. Calm and dignified and utterly weary, the newly reinstated Hogake returned to his eulogy speech, delivering it with the measured skill of a man who'd recently had cause to practice.
( One week after the Kyuubi attack, Kakashi had lost count of funerals. ) |
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| Almost Not Alone [Genma, Rina] |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|10:40 pm] |
[Takes place on the 3rd of April, one day after After the Rain, five days after Meet You on the Other Side, and about five years after Got That Mountain to Climb.]
It was almost a rule, that Genma always had to screw up all of her hard work whenever she wasn't there to fix it. Turning up the water from 'hot' to 'scorching,' Rina poured another handful of shampoo and tried desperately to scrub all the branches out of her hair.
One week. One week she'd been gone, and this was the kind of thing he got up to. How did he manage it? She'd been looking forward to a nice, relaxing shower ever since she'd crossed back over the border, and instead here she was, frantically scrubbing her skin off along with the grime.
Ducking her head under the spray for the fifth time, she forcefully widened her eyes, not letting them close. When she closed them, all she could see was--
Don't think about it. The note said it wasn't as bad this time.
No sense worrying until she got there, anyway--right, as if thinking that ever helps--and they wouldn't let her into the hospital until she was clean. Dragging her fingers roughly through her hair again, searching for dirt and debris, she ended up with just a handful of pale, gleaming strands.
Finally.
The water ran clear now, instead of red-black with ink and unidentified blood. Rinsing her hair one more time, she shut it off gingerly, using her fingertips so the layer of grime she'd left on the knobs wouldn't transfer back to her hands again.
( Housekeeping could deal with the dirt; she didn't have time. ) |
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| Got That Mountain to Climb [Genma, Rina] |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place a little over four years ago, on March 19th, about a year and five months after the Kyuubi attack, and a week after Genma's rescue from the Iwagakure prisons.]
Rina tagged along behind Ito-sensei, her head spinning delightfully, clutching a spiral-bound notebook already a quarter-full with clipped notations, sprawling diagrams, and enthusiastic exclamation points. The just-completed burn-repair surgery had been absolutely fascinating to watch--seeing glowing blue chakra-channels spontaneously reform themselves within the carnage of twisted fingers and torn flesh--and she'd noticed that Ito-sensei had used one of the modified sterilization scrolls that had brought her to his attention in the first place.
See, and they'd complained that she hadn't followed the blueprints! Clearly Ito-sensei didn't mind. Rina had been in the Seal Division for more than a year now, and had been making seals for years before that--certainly she knew enough to substitute the more powerful tri-point pattern for a quad-point, even if it wasn't exactly what the design called for.
Actually, if the tri-point was good, what if she used the double-stabilized quint-pattern she'd seen downstairs, instead? ...Awesome. Fumbling through her notebook, she pulled her fountain pen out from behind her ear and drew herself a quick sketch, then had to half-run to catch up with Ito-sensei as he pushed through the door leading to their last patient of the day.
"Genma," she heard Ito-sensei call good-naturedly as she slid in behind him, "there's someone I'd like you to meet." |
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