Kyo was feeling antsy and half-way bored out of her mind.
She tried not to hold it against her new team, because they'd just graduated from the Academy so this was perfectly natural, but that didn't change the fact that Jiraiya's lessons with them were extremely basic.
Things she could pretty much do in her sleep-basic. Literally.
They hadn't even started on tree-walking yet and Kyo was silently despairing.
It was a relief to be able to don her ANBU uniform and slip off to headquarters in her time off to bleed off some energy.
Hyena was almost always willing to spar with her when he was available, and if not him, then there was usually someone around in either the training halls or training grounds who wouldn't say no to some sparring.
It was just her luck that she couldn't seem to find any of her usual training partners today!
Team 23, minus Kyo, obviously, were on mission. Sparrow wasn't anywhere to be found and everyone was busy.
Huffing unhappily to herself, Kyo considered just… going home. That felt like it would be a better way to spend her time right now than just loitering around here.
She'd swing by the training grounds one more time, and if she didn't see any potential training partners, then she'd go home, she decided, feeling dejected.
One training ground was out straight off, because the security seals were activated and trying to disrupt that was just stupid.
One of the other ones were occupied, though.
Kyo took one look at the mask and very nearly turned around and left.
…she really needed to work off all this energy, though.
Frowning at the other ANBU for a moment, Kyo decided to… try. See how this went.
"Hi, wanna spar?" she asked, jumping down to land next to the teen.
Crow turned to take one look at her and said, "Fuck no."
Kyo blinked, tilted her head and felt a spark of annoyance. "Oh, give me a break. You owe me!" she hissed.
She could feel the glower Crow fixed her with, all but searing her skin. "Sparring with someone like you would be a complete and utter waste of time," he scoffed.
"If that's the case, then why are you so reluctant to try?" she challenged.
"Didn't you hear a word I just said, midget? It'd be a waste of time!" Crow huffed irritably.
"That just sounds like you're saying I won't be much of a challenge, and if that's true, then you should have an easy time winning," Kyo snapped, temper fraying thin.
She should really leave, because right now, she was just picking a fight with this idiot.
"I don't wanna hear that from you," Crow sneered.
Kyo wasn't sure who actually escalated things from a semi-hostile argument to throwing the first punch, but she wasn't exactly complaining.
This was what she had been angling for.
Someone executed a ninjutsu -Kyo thought it might have been her- and things got a little bit out of hand after that.
"You're a fucking menace," Crow huffed where he was crouched.
Kyo, sitting in puddle of sticky mud, glowered at him. "Shut up," she bit back. As if he had any room to talk!
Both of them were panting with fatigue and Kyo had a plethora of new bruises, but she'd like to think she'd given Crow at least some back.
The training field was a mess, though.
Scooping up a handful of the thick mud she was sitting in, Kyo flung it at Crow, who either didn't notice, or was too tired to react in time.
The sight of it splattered all over his mask was incredibly satisfying.
"Oh, that's really mature," Crow growled, reaching for a handful of mud himself.
"Since I'm an immature brat, I figure it was just appropriate," Kyo sniffed condescendingly back, scooping up more mud and scrambling to get to her feet.
It was Crow's fault the training ground had been turned into a mud field, anyway!
…Kyo might have helped, but it was his fault!
A heavy, wet clump of mud hit the back of her head and Kyo made a displeased noise, going after Crow with renewed determination.
Ten minutes later, Crow was busy trying to stop her from rubbing mud into the eye-holes of his mask, because she figured if she smothered him in the stuff, that might just make her feel better.
A mud-smeared hand smacked into her mask and pushed her away from him.
"Will you fucking stop that!?" Crow snarled, reaching up to try and rub away the worst of the mud, only to just succeeding in smearing it out and probably making it worse.
Kyo felt zero regrets.
Only for more mud to smack into her own mask a second later, somehow ending up in her mouth.
"Urgh, that's disgusting," she muttered, trying not to move her tongue. Or accidentally swallow the mud.
Crow laughed at her.
Kyo scowled, ripped her mask off and tossed it aside, bent down to scoop up more mud in the same motion and went after the older boy again.
He could eat mud!
Half an hour later, they were both sprawled out on the soggy ground, entirely covered in filth and it clearly didn't matter if they rolled around in the stuff now, because it wouldn't make much of a difference.
"You're insufferable," Kyo told him, panting harshly in an attempt to sooth her burning lungs.
"Like you can talk," Crow muttered sourly, though his voice was muffled and near-inaudible due to all the mud Kyo had crammed into his mask.
She sent him smug smirk.
Crow growled something offensive under his breath and reluctantly raised a hand to his face to take off his mask.
He scraped a hand down his face and spat out a mouthful of mud and then leveled her with an impressive glare.
Kyo sat up, stuck her tongue out at him and leaned out of the way of the mud he flicked her way in response.
"'S gonna take fucking forever to get all of this out of my gear," Crow muttered, and his voice sounded different now.
Kyo scoffed. "Same. You're not special," she informed him snootily.
He growled at her, looking like he was contemplating continuing their… spar/mud war.
In the end, he just huffed, turning back to trying to clean the mud off of his mask with sullen determination.
When he was no longer scowling like he wanted to kill her, Kyo took a moment to study his face.
He was very clearly an Uchiha.
"Hey, are you related to Ryota?" she couldn't help but ask, because there was something about the structure of his face that was unnervingly similar.
Crow sneered. "I'm an Uchiha. I'm related to all other Uchiha, moron."
Kyo gave him an unimpressed look. "I didn't know you were dumb enough I had to spell it out for you," she said coolly.
Crow grunted sourly, fixing her with a narrow-eyed look. "He's my uncle," he eventually huffed reluctantly.
"Wow," Kyo couldn't help but say, feeling unimaginably unimpressed. "No wonder Ryota hangs out with tou-san so much." And that was definitely a very mean thing to say, but she didn't care.
"Shut the hell up!" Crow snarled, looking incensed. He threw another clump of mud in her direction.
It missed by a long shot, because both of them were exhausted.
They descended into an awkward silence after that, and Kyo couldn't think of anything to say.
She'd poured all of her frustrations into this… fight. And she was completely spent.
She had mud in her hair, in her mouth, she might even have a bit of mud in her eyes… she needed a shower.
"Thanks for the spar," she muttered, rolling to her feet with a grimace.
Urgh, she had mud in places she didn't even want to think about.
She'd have to scrub everything she was currently wearing in an attempt to clean it, too.
"Fuck you," Crow snapped, looking like he was heading home, too.
With one last dismissive look, Kyo located her mask, picked it up and left.
If she happened to keep half an eye out for Crow after that, when things got bad enough she felt like she might just tear her hair out, then that was entirely coincidental.