Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter Five, To Become Stronger
"We should try and be ready to leave any time." Tetsuko's suggestion was quiet, but it still shattered the silence that had encompassed the two of them for hours.
"What's the point?" Kentsu mumbled, curling in on himself.
Tetsuko could think of plenty of points - if they were attacked again they would almost certainly have to run. Mokuren hadn't given up her freedom so they could die that easily. If - when - Temari came for them, she would need to go after Mokuren immediately and they couldn't hold her up packing things. Also, if Mokuren managed to escape on her own they would need to hurry.
He knew Kentsu would just argue against all of that as he was now and Tetsuko didn't need any more negativity. He chose to say nothing and waited until his teammate was fast asleep to begin organizing their scant belongings and mend the tent floor. The wind started up, chilling the air as the horizon lightened.
As the sun began to gild the sand, Kentsu awoke with a start, confused. At first he thought he had overslept and felt sheepish for skipping out on his watch. Then he remembered, and a lead ball dropped into his stomach, weighing him down as he moved his bruised body to look in the tent.
Tetsuko stopped what he was doing and looked at him. "I..." Kentsu cleared his throat, uncertain what to say.
When it became obvious that he wouldn't be able to say anything, the other boy spoke up. "Here's for breakfast." His dark-haired teammate held out something vaguely nutritious.
With some hesitation, Kentsu took it. His stomach was too upset to want food but he had a feeling that it was more of a peace offering, a show of forgiveness, than it was anything else. He didn't deserve it, but he couldn't turn it away.
After the paralyzing element had worn off, Kentsu had freaked and said things he shouldn't have, upset as he was, and placed the blame on everyone other than himself, only stopping when he realized how much he was hurting his remaining teammate and shuffled off to sit alone.
He really hate how insensitive he could be at times, but hell - worrying about anyone else made him feel even more ill. Kentsu didn't know what to say to help Tetsuko, Mokuren was who-knows-where going through who-knows-what, and Temari could be dead for all they knew.
Shaking those thoughts away, Kentsu tried to work out where he could go from here.
"The paper..." Tetsuko started to say, but cut himself off.
"Eh?" Caught off guard, he tried to figure out if there was anything paper around, only coming up with toilet paper.
"Nothing." The dark-haired boy shook his head and frowned. "What should we do?"
"Wait?" Kentsu weakly suggested.
"...Okay." There wasn't a whole lot else to do.
They still took shifts to sleep and eat and Tetsuko caught himself trying to check on Mokuren's condition more than once, as if she was still half-dead and there. It didn't seem right that they weren't going after her - not that they stood much of a chance of succeeding, but he knew they should at least try.
Without actually discussing it, they began practicing again and sparred a few times. Neither mentioned it, but after two days of hopelessness neither could stand the idea of waiting. They would go mad if they didn't do something, try something. They had been left alone as promised and that meant Mokuren was probably alright, but for how long?
"We almost had it." Kentsu mumbled apropos of nothing after a sparring session. Tetsuko frowned at him, but understood immediately after the next sentence. "If we had paid more attention, we could have won."
"Mokuren was with us." Tetsuko reminded him.
"But if we were stronger and more careful..."
His teammate nodded, understanding exactly what Kentsu was getting at.
