Traps, on the other hand, are Kotetsu's specialty. He was born into a smithy's family, he teethed on triggers and spent his childhood vaulting around the scrapyard.
When Kotetsu found out about shinobi who had traps as their specialty, he never looked back [It's more subtle than just straight-out weapons, Izu-chan. JHe had explained. Weapons are the closest that I'll be able to get to a smithy as a shinobi, but I don't wanna be a weapon's master-do you know how high the death rate for those people are?!].
It's a much less precise art than seals, but it's perfect for Kotetsu's quick fingers and tricky mind and raw power. More durable, just as malleable, and almost as varied.
Most trappers die before they turn fifteen. They lack speed and imagination and the ability to utilize their surroundings. Kotetsu wears weights like some of those taijutsu freaks. When they're off, he can go Maito Gai speeds. When Gai's desperate and opening the gates on soldier pill speed.
Yeah, really.
What, you don't believe me?
The imagination part of trapping Kotetsu has down to a fine art. He's hung out around Umino Iruka since the kid had shown up in Konoha, wet and shivering and reminding him of a wet kitten. And man, but that kid has style.
And as for being able to utilize his surroundings-that's what kept Kotetsu alive long enough to get promoted to chunin. How else would he've been able to set up that rigged hallway that blew up at least thirty shinobi? It was hidden well enough [using shit and dust as glue-he'd sworn that he would never use that particular mix again] to trick senior chunin in their own territory. Kotetsu's team was safely away [like, three whole miles away] when roughly fifty yards of stone cliff blew up in a massive explosion of hot air and dust and wind and shrapnel and noise.
That was some of his best work yet. Kotetsu still looks back on that incident with fondness for his own ingeniousness.
-----
Kotetsu takes on students every now and again.
Yes, he actually does.
Izumo? No, Sandaime doesn't really bother him with students. Only Kotetsu has that honor.
Kids, who the Sandaime told him 'had potential'. So he would try them out, see if they were up to scratch on his measuring stick.
They never are.
They're always kids who can do a fancy trick or two with wire, but have no real appreciation for the art.
...
They tie shitty knots, too.
What? Knots are important in Kotetsu's line of work, if the brats can't even tie a decent slipknot, how's he supposed to trust them with flammable items?
Stop looking at him like that, it'sa serious business he's in!
-----
Of course, traps are dangerous. They can make stuff go boom too, just like seals can. Sometimes their boom can go bigger than a sealed one-which Kotetsu is very proud of, and brings up in very fight that he and Izumohave over their respective specialties.
Traps need metal and string and wire and stuff that sometimes you just can't afford to carry around with you. Seals, on the other hand, just need something that you can write on. Izumo tells him.
But seals are more likely to blow up in your face, with greater backlash if you do it wrong, and a greater chance of death than traps have. Kotetsu argues right back.
In the end, they laugh at each other and chuck a few weapons at the other's head, and maybe they buy themselves a brand-new sex toy, but more often than not they don't.
-----
Like Izumo, Kotetsu has scrolls upon scrolls on traps. In his vest, he keeps summons for wire and rope and chakra activated glue and so many other things that he's needed to ask Izumo to make some summon scrolls for him. He has an entire room in his shared house devoted to his traps.
When Kotetsu's not on a mission, working at the Tower, eating, sleeping, hanging out with Izumo or having sex with Izumo, he's in the Trap Room. Izumo knows not to go in there, just like Kotetsu knows not to mess with his inks and papers.
The two of them have reached a silent agreement: You don't touch my stuff, I won't touch yours. They know better anyways, their skills are deadly, no matter your relationship with their maker.
The two of them are a great pair: Genma and Raidou [before Genma vanished and Raidou broke and Kotetsu looks at Izumo and Izumo looks back at Kotetsu and they make a silent promise to never let that happen to them], Izumo and Kotetsu.
-----
Making a trap is more of an art than you would think. That kid, what-was-his-name, Uzumaki, did good pranks, sure-but he didn't know what a *real* trap was.
See, not all traps are physical-and Kotetsu knows this. That's the only reason that he's alive today. During the War [where he learned most of his lessons, come to think of it] his unit experienced traps and seals and various weapons of all shapes and sizes-and more death than he ever thought that he could handle. And when Kotetsu was the only one who half stumbled half staggered out of this one trap that had stolen his teammate's lives, he told himsel grimply, vowed on the blood coating his hands and on the pain in his heart and on the dogtags and hiate-ate around his neck and in his pouch that he would learn everything that there was about trapping. Everything, so that he would be able to stop the same thing from happening to Izumo.
Kotetsu knows how to trap people in genjutsu-traps; a little ball of gas and chakra that forms a genjutsu, and how to catch people unguarded.
It's what he does best.
-----
Kotetsu is also the person who trapped the Tunnels. He's trapped parts of the Hokage Tower and helps with the Archives. He's the best Trapper in the Village.
And he was ready to blow Konohagakure in all it's beauty and history and thousands of lives to kingdom come when the Hokage's forms came to his apartment and Izumo vanished.
When he came back home sick and worried and angry, and saw his loverbestfriendbrotherpartner out cold on their bed, bleeding and blackened fingers touching the floor and chakra dangerously low, Kotetsu seethed and his fingers twitched towards the detonators that he always carried in his belt pouch and just as he was about to gather the chakra needed to activate them, Izumo cracked open one eye, and told him not to.
"Don't waste your life like this Ko'." He'd whispered, and Kotetsu dropped everything to rush to his partner.
The Sandaime never knew how close he had come to dying that day, Kotetsu liked to think.
The truth? Izumo told the Hokage that, no threat meant, but if he ever did that again, Kotetsu would probably [and he does have the ability] destroy Konoha.
You don't need to be a an S-class shinobi to be deadly.
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Author's Note:
...This one sort of got carried away from me. . .
Next one will either be Genma, Iruka, or Aoba. Review with your choice!
And as always, reviews are welcome, and I try to respond and fix any mistakes that I make. On another note, f you fix something on the document manager, does it transfer to the posted thing?
Please let me know if you know the answer to this! ^^
This chapter was a bit unrealistic, but I think it tied in nicely with Izumo's chapter.
~QuietInsomniac