askerian: Serious Karkat in a red long-sleeved shirt (Sasuke_Haha funny-you're still gonna die)
askerian ([personal profile] askerian) wrote2009-07-17 09:58 pm

Teamwork 3, chapter 7, tidbit 1

1) The Grass Country OCs are Maneki: huge tank-like medic-nin, rather patient, summons cats. Kon : fox summoner, brown skin and pale green hair, bit of an asshole, injured. Zenko: girl, wolf summoner, katana specialist, long black hair, suspicious and antisocial.

2) I don't know if Sasuke's reasoning makes sense at the end, or if it comes across as if he takes that decision because I wub my OCs and I'm forcing him to respect that. Might need more description... maybe more blood flowing to prompt him, or something. But I can't manage to figure it out on my own, so I'm posting it with the hope that you guys will tell me if it's problematic and perhaps suggest stuff. It's the kind of scene that was perfectly clear and self-evident eight months ago when I thought it up, and that I cannot feel my way through now. ~__~


The old three-tailed fox was sliding in his grasp, fur slick with blood. Sasuke shifted it back up against his chest as he ran; it didn't complain, even though he'd been a little rough. The animal wasn't heavy, mostly made of skin and bones, but tall enough to be awkward to carry.

Sasuke slanted a wary look at the girl with the katana. She was the only one with her arms free; he didn't like that. If the fox hadn't needed all its concentration to keep holding the genjutsu that hid their escape, Sasuke was sure she would have attacked him already. He knew the type.

He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, sharingan cutting through the haze of the kitsune illusion. Still no sign of pursuit. Still no sign of Sakura either. He really hated this.

Fucking Kyuubi.

"Left," he snapped, pointing at a rising cliff-side that would provide a better overview on the ground, and more relief to hide behind. The big healer nodded and veered in silence, his green-haired comrade's head lolling as he bounced up. Trees hid them until they were at the top, and then there were enough holes and bushes to take cover. On the other side of the cliff edge the ground sloped gently toward the rest of the island.

More than a mile away and he could still feel Kyuubi's chakra prickling his skin. Sasuke didn't want to go any farther; having no idea of where Kyuubi was seemed a really stupid idea. He stalked up to the girl, sidestepped the tip of the sword, and pushed the fox in her arms.

She stiffened, forced to juggle the katana and the animal. The fox smothered a little pained grunt.

Sasuke took a step back out of her personal space before she decided to just dump the beast and run him through. The healer was watching, eyebrows furrowed.

"That's far enough," Sasuke said.

He took them in. One exhausted and rather slow-moving medic-nin, one half-dead guy, two summons -- one of them an arthritic thing with a crushed front paw and the other one, the draft-horse-sized wolf, still trembling on the edge of white-eyed panic. It wouldn't be hard to punch the girl unconscious and force their tokens out of them. And then, of course, the healer would have to juggle two KOed teammates as Kyuubi no Youko hunted them down, which made helping them get away in the first place rather pointless.

He was tempted to just turn around and leave. Negotiating would take time he could use to get back to Sakura.

He wished he hadn't let it bother him, when she asked what he'd do if Naruto was the one standing with him on the battlefield instead. He wished he'd stayed.

Of course then Kyuubi would have just trapped him under another tree with admonitions to get some rest already because he wasn't entertaining that furry asshole enough when he was so tired, and the Grass team would be dead and Sakura would have ended up alone in front of him anyway. Sasuke tugged a leaf out of his hair, freeing a clump of dirt. Maybe he still had enough time to extort compensation out of them before he went back to his teammates.

They kept staring at him, the slim girl and the giant, waiting for his demands. Exhausted and beaten and hating every single second of it.

Sasuke's upper lip curled and he turned on his heel to leave.

"Wait," the healer said.

Sasuke frowned. He wasn't forcing their tokens out of them. What the hell more did they want?

The young man was a little pale, now that Sasuke was looking closer. Especially around the lips, bloodless and pinched. No doubt he'd wasted a lot of chakra on his companion. He wasn't really that old, actually -- just large and big-boned. Sixteen maybe, though at first glance you'd have given him at least twenty.

"We won't go far alone."

"Not my problem," Sasuke countered. "You attacked us first, count yourself lucky I even bothered getting you that far."

The healer shifted his teammate's weight on his back; brown-skinned fingers clenched weakly on his shirt as the injured teenager woke halfway.

"...Escort us. I'll pay you."

The girl sneered, and she put the fox down on the mossy ground a little fast to free her arms. "Maneki, stop right here. We will not be indebted to him." She glared at Sasuke, almond eyes narrowed to black slits. "Leave. We didn't ask for your help and we aren't going to."

"Zenko!" the healer protested.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and turned away again. From the start he'd done it for Naruto, not for them. This time he stepped over the edge of the plateau without anyone calling him back.

The stranger creeping up on their tracks must have been as startled to see Sasuke as Sasuke was to see him.

Shit. Kicking out, Sasuke caught the guy in the jaw, sending him flying. The guy's yell seemed to serve as a signal, though. Behind him he heard the wolf howling in pain and the sound of kunai whizzing through the air. A couple of them flew past the edge of the plateau to clang harmlessly on the rocks at the bottom.

Ambush. Should have expected it. He didn't wonder where they were coming from; the impact of the landslide must have been felt for miles and there was still dust floating in the air like a flag. No doubt it had made quite a few teams curious.

He should have just left at this point -- with this one stranger down there was a hole in the middle of their flanking maneuver he could have walked right through. He should have left and left the Grass team to manage the rest of them. It wasn't his problem anymore. It really wasn't.

When he pushed his awareness past the constant haze of Kyuubi's presence, he found more enemies than a single team could account for. He gathered chakra to his legs and kicked his way back up.

A glance was enough to take in the situation. The green-haired one on the ground, the old fox crouched over his prone body and snapping with yellowed teeth; his two mobile teammates trying to fend off two enemies each. He counted four of them, plus the fifth he'd kicked -- might have been a sixth somewhere in the area, but he couldn't find him. They all seemed to be from the same village. No doubt they had teamed up.

... Well. Those tokens would be a lot more gratifying to win.

[identity profile] ellenel13.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think Sasuke would stay either. Wouldn't it be simpler if he ran into those attackers when he was further away from the injured team so the team was only attacking him and then he would *have* to fight them off?

[identity profile] ellenel13.livejournal.com 2009-07-17 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Make it so that Sasuke wants the medic alive in case Sakura can't wake up Naruto?

[identity profile] trishalynn.livejournal.com 2009-07-18 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I like this option. The sooner Naruto can get back to normal, the better off the Team will be.