Author notes: inspired by pictures by runescratch on tumblr (for the specific pictures, see my links on AO3 or tumblr since FFN won't work with links right now). They're all awesome. There's also limited elements of Naruto in this piece, but they're there in the background to be later used if I write more in this verse.

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This could have gone a lot better, Tadashi admitted to himself.

The massive blast of concussive force that came out of the exploding base behind him only emphasized that thought. It was incredibly obvious that at some point this evening mistakes had definitely been made. Pretty much any day that involved mass explosions was a bad one in Tadashi's experience, but this… well, this pretty much took the cake on stressful screwups even when he considered his entire career and-

"Aww, man, that's awesome!" Hiro exclaimed, wriggling around on Tadashi's shoulder in glee.

… Not that Hiro agreed with him about that.

Tadashi sighed and hiked the brat up further in place with one hand as he ran pell-mell through the forest, occasionally jumping with a twist so he could use his legs to bounce off a trunk and redirect momentum into a new direction without losing speed. Frankly speaking, it was a hell of a lot harder to do this when lugging around a short and scrawny pre-teen tokubetsu jounin on one shoulder who threw off his balance, but like hell was he dropping his brother for any reason short of fatal wounds.

At least that part of today had gone well, Tadashi thought, wincing as an ear-splitting howl shrieked unnaturally from behind him right before several consecutive booms snapped out rapidly. I'm practically unharmed and the little dunce wouldn't be so enthused if he was actually bleeding out so Wasabi isn't going to spend too long freaking out about running medical scans today.

He could feel his flak jacket shift as the crazy little brat grabbed the material around mid-back and shoved downwards to prop himself up to see better. While it was probably more comfortable than hanging down Tadashi's back like a sack of rice, he'd really appreciate it if his brother could just hold still for on-

"Leftleftleftleft!" Hiro cried, abruptly flattening himself against Tadashi's back and holding on right before the jounin practically threw them both forward and down into a shallow gully. A broken piece of stone about the size of Hiro's head and unfortunately shaped like a warped naginata blade propelled through the spot they were just in. It hit a thick trunk a fraction of a breath later and Tadashi barely had time to shift his back further away before he had to shield his eyes in the crook of his left arm and grit his teeth against the sting of shrapnel.

Hiro yelped and slapped his back, "Fuck! That stung! I think there's a piece stuck in the back of my knee!"

"Language!" The older male admonished absentmindedly as he hunkered down further into the protected recess of the ditch, curling around Hiro as much as he could. "And there wouldn't be anything stuck there if you'd just wear something other than shorts!"

"There's nothing wrong with my shorts, team mom, and strangely enough you don't blend well if you show up to yakuza areas wearing flak jackets and shinobi wraps on your legs!"

"I don't think the yakuza are impressed by shorts, Hiro!" Tadashi snapped back, tensing his calf as something flashed by and left a painful throbbing on the outside of his thigh.

Hiro's eyeroll was nearly audible even hidden as it was between Tadashi's body and the ground, "I don't mean to impress them, you nerd! I'm supposed to throw them off-guard and look like a harmless, little ci-"

"SHIT!"

Tadashi clenched his eyes shut briefly, hissing at the ricocheted stone that lodged itself into the exact wrong place on his elbow. It didn't hurt much compared to other things he'd experienced but it had set off the nerve there and spread a painful numbness to some of his fingers now.

"Ha!" Hiro retorted, laugh a bit shaky as he curled into Tadashi, fingers clenching into his brother's jacket, "not much high ground to talk about cursing now, huh, nii-san?"

"Shit does not count as the same sort of profanity as that word you're so fond of, and just because you're a shinobi doesn't mean you have to forgo manners," Tadashi countered, twisting his arm around despite the pins and needles to press at the tattooed seal on his right collarbone. A thread of chakra, a lightning spark at his first two fingers, and then Tadashi quickly sketched out a design in the air before clenching a fist and releasing it as he pulled backwards with nature energy winding around oscillating fingers.

"Balalalala," Hiro muttered under him with a snickering giggle.

Tadashi rolled his eyes as smoke dissipated in front of them leaving the familiar form of his favorite summons blinking at them with two solid black eyes.

"Hello, Tadashi. Hello, Hiro," the large manta ray greeted peaceably. A red-backed fin floated forward to casually block a thin tree from collapsing on top of them. "You appear to be in the middle of a very particle filled area. My recommendation would be to seek better shelter or to vacate the location immediately. How may I assist you?"

"Hey, Baymax," Tadashi greeted, taking time to gratefully pat the ray's white underside, "that sounds great. What do you say to getting us out of here?"

The ray hummed, "Given the number of small projectiles currently hitting my posterior skin, it may be wiser to affix yourself to my underside. Please take note not to fall until a more comfortable position can be obtained."

"You can just call it your back, Baymax, really," Hiro sighed. "Honestly, nerd, what kind of language did you use while raising him? None of the rest of your summons talk like- oh come on, Tadashi!" he complained when the jounin picked him right back up over his shoulder. "I'm perfectly capable of sticking to Baymax with chakra! We're not even going to be doing any fun tricks!"

"Course you are," Tadashi agree, ignoring him as he reached forward towards the white skin. Some quick but careful positioning let him get solidly attached with both legs and as much of his arms as he could. He'd have liked to have done this on Baymax's red side where the texture of the skin provided better traction for chakra but those rumbles still coming from the base behind him made that sound like a worse idea the longer they were here.

Baymax suddenly looked upwards towards the base.

"Oh no," it said calmly.

"MOVE!" both brothers immediately cried. Tadashi could feel chakra shift through Hiro as his little brother glued himself to both Baymax and Tadashi even as he curled up further. Baymax lifted both side fins nearly vertical, exposing the boys to a brief influx of debris, before thrusting them down and vaulting them all into the sky.

A few long, nauseating and light-headed moments passed as Baymax accelerated upwards as fast as possible, occasionally twisting or spinning to use the air and chakra currents to his best advantage. Tadashi resolutely refused to open his eyes and look down. Jounin were allowed to have all kinds of quirks and for all that flying was absolutely awesome, Tadashi's non-irrational fear of heights was only sated with either ground beneath his feet or a trustworthy summons against his chest.

Being crouched over Hiro on arms and legs while ascending vertically was not sufficient body contact to make this enjoyable.

"So, nii-san," Hiro said casually, practically talking into his knees but reaching up an arm so he could gently squeeze the back of Tadashi's neck. "Would now be a good time to mention that the explosions weren't really supposed to be that big?"

Tadashi laughed weakly, "Oh really?"

"Totally. Those were definitely not my seals going off at any point after the beginning volley. Sounds like our friendly neighborhood assholes must have some pretty interesting stuff back there to get that kind of reaction."

Tadashi hummed, stomach clenching as Baymax had to curl his fins inward and corkscrew in the air to avoid a few last high shot pieces of metal even as the sounds below finally either tapered off or became more muffled with distance.

"So what you're saying, little brother, is that we might have some pretty suspicious stuff developing in our border areas that the Uzukage would be interested in hearing about?"

"Sounds like it, doesn't it?" Hiro agreed with an excited grin upwards that Tadashi could hear in his voice.

The jounin sighed with a rueful smile edging onto his lips as finally got to relax into Baymax a bit as the aerial gymnastics died down and the Manta Ray switched to a leisurely upside down coast that let the boys relax on its stomach.

"Suspicious stuff," Tadashi considered out loud, "… suspicious stuff back there, right?"

"Yeaaaaah," Hiro drawled, an eyebrow shooting up with a flat look.

"…back there which you just blew up quite thoroughly?" Tadashi clarified, smiling down at his brother.

"…"

"…"

"…fuck."

"Language, Hiro."