In which there is horribly bad timing and hiding in tree trunks

[gun_smoke_blue]

In return for some drawings of Katsuko, my Fallen Leaves character, I offered to write Suz some fic. Her prompts were "Katsuko and Hayate, mission, blood or chicken feathers, sneezing at a horribly bad moment."

 

In which there is horribly bad timing and hiding in tree trunks

 

Damn mission.

 

Damn drugs.

 

Katsuko shifted to alleviate the burn in her thighs. Unfortunately, as both she and Hayate were crammed in a hole in a tree trunk barely large enough to hold them both, that ended up with her jostling Hayate and his broken arm. She winced at his cut-off hiss off pain and signed sorry. The anti-chakra drugs she’d managed to inhale, however, made things lurch for a bit and her hand signals probably came out more like arghle fwargl gah.

 

She hated Mist-nin. So much. Especially this Mist-nin, who sprayed anti-chakra misty vapor drugs from his stupid wrist holster and wouldn’t stop following them.

 

“Come on out, little Leaf-nin!” The Mist-nin’s voice echoed in the silent forest, a cruel gleeful rasp that sent shivers up Katsuko’s spine. “I’m going tear you both apart and eat your insides.”

 

“Ew,” Katsuko said before she remembered she was supposed to be quiet, and Hayate jolted and slapped a hand over her mouth. She didn’t remember when she’d lost her mask, just knew that her voice came out clear and loud where it wasn’t  muffled by porcelain. Almost too loud. The gods were on their side for this one moment, at least, because the Mist-nin kept on traipsing around the forest calling out for their guts. They stayed like that for awhile, listening. Katsuko strained for her chakra but it slipped out of her grasp, slippery like an eel.

 

It was a while before she realized that the trickle of damp on her face was blood seeping from a cut on Hayate’s hand. She inhaled sharply in shock before she could stop herself and sneezed. Loudly.

 

Outside, the Mist-nin’s cat-calls stopped.

 

Oh. Oh shit. Katsuko looked at Hayate in horror, saw his eyes going equally round underneath his mask—

 

“I found you!” The Mist-nin howled triumphantly an instant before something splintered and the tree trunk they were hiding in exploded in a shower of chakra and wood chips.
 

"Jump!" Katsuko screamed at Hayate, and grabbed his wrist and launched out of the hollow like she'd been catapaulted. They hit the ground running, kicking up a flurry of dead leaves and dust.
 

The Mist-nin laughed gleefully behind them, his voice loud and ringing in the forest.