腰抜け.

Jiraiya could never pass a person in need of help. Especially if this person was injured. He cracked his fists. It will be fun.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of them.”

||  「 They’re really strong... one of them turned Chunin last week sir... 」

     “I see,” is her reply, giving him a glance and a quick smile from observing his wound. It’s worryingly close to his eye, but yes, there’s no damage to the eye itself. “Seems even simple tasks can land one in trouble, huh?”

     A palm lifts and summons some chakra, working to close up the worst of the scratches enough to stop any bleeding. Then some saline is spared to carefully clean them out before helping them form scabs to keep out infection while out and about. A bit of ointment and some gauze later, and he’s about as good as he’s going to get, for now. “There…I can do more later, okay?” Best to reserve any extra chakra in case something more severe comes up.

     She turns to watch the conversation. Traffickers…? Were they who attacked Kura? The notion brings a spark of temper to her chest, chakra agitating before she forces it to calm. Meeting the captain’s eyes, she nods. “He should be fine - I got the blood vessels all closed, and the wounds are clean and covered. He doesn’t seem to have any trauma beyond that, at least that I noticed.” And if anything else comes up, she’ll handle it.

||   「 My head is harder than it looks.」

  He smiled and stood up, ready to lead the way to the traffickers. The captain personally looked relieved that Kura was fit to travel but the other two from his team looked unenthusiastic. Given the known stubbornness of their leader though, they knew that they couldn’t protest.

  As Kura leaped through the trees, the captain finally asked what everyone was thinking.

    「 Kura-kun, this area is a category 3 danger zone.         You should at least have two others with you. Where are they? 」

  There was hesitation but Kura couldn’t deny a superior. He decided to go with the classic excuse every time this happened.

       「 They went to scout the surrounding area. A villager had another             request and I decided to stay behind while they went. They were             not present when the traffickers arrived. 」

||  Nevertheless, Kura would try to stand, the biting pain in their side making him curl like a shrimp. The taunting voices of the culprits could be heard in the distance, they were coming to continue the damage. 

he doesn’t try to shy away from the hold, but he does try to hold back an amused grin… amongst a few other things. what a sight, indeed. “Is that how you’d wake up if there was an emergency? That’s concerning.”

|| 「 Well then-- what’s the emergency? 」

||  He was awake ! Kura grabbed hold of the face that was attacking him, bleary eyes trying to focus on the culprit.  

Walking home after doing a small assignment - finally something small, comunity work can be so demanding sometimes - Obito decides to do a little detour just to pass by the trees. He did this to avoid people… He didn’t expect to meet Kura there.

“Who are you calling mister prune!?” The Uchiha scowls. “I’m going home- What time is it…? Shouldn’t you be at school or something?”

||「 School? I graduated a long time ago~ 」

   He tapped the band on his right shoulder, almost proudly. He would want to show off his new jacket too but-- he tended to avoid wearing it in case others saw it. There was a reason why Kura picked this place to lounge, the same as Obito’s. To avoid people.

   「 It’s almost lunchtime. I was going to go find some food        but... I forgot my wallet somewhere. 」

||  There have been many a time where his right hand served as a convenience and also a hinderance. Fortunately whenever it fell off, it wouldn’t be too much to sow it back on but when it was quite a distance away and also landed right in front of someone... well...

   「 Hey... could you... maybe... 」

   Give him a hand?

     Ryū brightens a bit in understanding as the team head explains. “Oh! Well, I think given how spur-of-the-moment this all seems, that’s understandable. But not to worry, I can handle any injuries.” She leaves it at that, deciding actions will be far more important than words.

     She’s a step above your typical medic, after all.

     Maintaining pace, she also lets her senses expand, keeping watch for any potentially hostile signatures as they travel. They only encounter a few others on the road, and none offer any trouble or malintent. But as they reach their destination, the atmosphere finds Ryū slightly tense in preparation of an altercation.

     Yet it’s then her eyes and her senses take in something familiar all at once, and she jolts in surprise.

     “…Kura?!” Letting her personal bias show for a moment, she hurries ahead to reach him, frowning at the blood on his face. So this is who the captain was talking about. Bobbing respectfully to the other healer, she nonetheless moves to take a look at the wound herself.

     “Nor did I know you’d be here! What happened…?”

||   「 I happened to be delivering something to the area !」

  He allowed her to look at the wound, his forehead all scratched up but thankfully his eyeball was still intact. The local medic who had been attending to him earlier looked a little surprised, if not worried something must have hit his head so hard that he suddenly was acting cheerful despite the attack from earlier. 

  When the rest of Ryu’s team caught up, he tried to control his smile and reverted back to mission mode. 

      「 Captain, there were a group of traffickers who attacked the village.           They were headed south-west of here. I can lead you to them if            needed? It was about 20 men through here. 」

||  Obedience was never really a problem for Kura. He had learned that bowing his head and acting passive was the quickest way out of a scolding or bullying. Rarely though, he’d find an adult where he didn’t have to fake his way out. It was an odd way of showing respect. Strange how he could dislike someone in the beginning and yet feel completely comfortable around. 

        「 Mr. Prune! Where are you going ?? 」

  He called from the treetops.

Suengri didn’t think he was tired. If anything, he felt completely fine in the morning. But perhaps, with the slow pace of the day, talking with Kura, and even getting to know some of his ticks and quirks, a part of him became extremely comfortable with the nin. So much so, that when it came time to relax and watch a movie, previous sleepless nights caught up with his body and drowsiness crept in. 

Straining to keep his eyes open, Suengri thinks that resting his eyes for a few seconds will help. He’s wrong, though. Completely wrong. In just a few seconds, his head lolls to the side, and his body follows soon after. Right, yeah. He’s not at home, or in his bed with warm blankets atop. He’s in Kura’s house, a person whose name he recently learned, and a missing nin. Yet despite this, it felt just as nice and comfortable to sleep here. In some weird way, perhaps his trained senses felt it was safe to do so, too.

||  Slowly, Kura guided Suen’s body to rest comfortably on his shoulder, pulled a blanket that was folded nearby to cover him. The movie had still ways to go before being finished so he turned down the volume for the other’s sake. 

  For a moment, the rogue thought this was enough, his arm paralyzed on the head of the couch and he did not move. Thank god he’s got training in sitting in the same spot for hours. Then-- at first with small, hesitant movements, first touched a strand, a tuff, then he was petting Suen’s head. It was now painfully obvious that he wasn’t concentrating on the movie but rather on not getting caught.

||  So-- the situation was as follows:

  The two decided to try this ‘friend’ and stayed over at Kura house t. Other than missions and tip-toeing around the law, they hadn’t really had time to interact with each other. Kura had previously slept in the same room as Suen before so why was this any different? 

  Jesus christ maybe he failed the academy first few times because his calculations were terrible. The amount of times he spilled water, tripped over nothing and burned his hand on the stove surely would’ve not gone unnoticed. Now they were comfortably watching a movie in the dark but Suen fell asleep.

  The big question. Kura pondered over it while hovering his hand over Suen’s shoulder.

       Yes or no... ?

Given that Kura's announcement of his graduation to chūnin had been rather spur-of-the-moment, Ryū hadn't been able to prepare anything for him beyond a very sincere congratulations. But since he told her, she's been working on something more. "I'm late, but this is for you!" is her offering, holding out a package. Within is a custom-sewn leg pack with his name embroidered along the front, filled with various poultices and medical supplies. "For when I'm not there to do it myself, ne?"

||  The flak jacket was nice, the extra pay too... but to receive his first present ever all because he graduated from an exam... he would go through that hell all over again if it meant he got another gift. 

  At first he was speechless, taking the neatly made leg pack in his hands. A warm smile began to spread across his face, pink coloring his cheeks then-- he started to laugh to hide the fact he wanted to tear up.