Previous Response - To Yukigakure - Keisuke
After pulling an arrow out of her chest, Kimiko watched as Mamoru did the same before running to his fallen teammate. She just managed to see Keisuke before he got caught in the explosion. The pure determination on his face as he caught a live explosive between his teeth... she couldn't help but smile. Whatever Keisuke said to the contrary, he cared about Mamoru with all that he had. A few years apart wasn't going to change that.
As he soaked the snow around him in blood, Keisuke mumbled pitifully to the worried Mamoru, "Don't look at me, Mamoru... I'm hideous."
"For the hundredth time I don't care what you look like, baka!" Mamoru shouted back, his visible eye twitching with the anger and worry he felt for his friend.
"But... my face..." Keisuke continued in the same pathetic tone.
Mamoru couldn't contain himself anymore so he ended up slapping Keisuke on the arm. "Would you shut up!"
Then, without warning, Mamoru put one hand on either side of Keisuke's right shoulder and a distinct crack resounded through the snow covered forest. Kimiko winced a little and expected Keisuke to be howling in pain. Seems she had forgotten one crucial detail about the young Sarutobi. Keisuke had an extremely high tolerance for pain. Thanks to his training under Ibiki Morino he was a much better undercover operative. In the case of capture, it would be nearly impossible to make Keisuke talk.
Before Kimiko could even get over the twinge of sadness she felt for Keisuke, Mamoru had already patched him up and was pulling him to his feet. The small silver haired chunin looked at her over his shoulder and said kindly but urgently all the same, "We should get back to the village."
"Right, of course." Kimiko smiled. "Do you need help carrying this fatty?"
"OI. I AM NOT FAT." Keisuke hollered. Clearly well enough to not take any shit from his old lover, Kimiko chuckled to herself. She'd hate for him to have taken any substantial damage trying to protect the rest of them. But as they headed for home she reckoned that he'd get her vote for jōnin selection.
To Yukigakure - Mission Accomplished
Previous Response - To Yukigakure - Mamoru
Watching the two boys act like children was really refreshing for Kimiko. She knew how Keisuke truly was underneath everything he showed his childhood friend. The pain, the agony, the lies, it all affected him so. But as he wrapped his arms around Mamoru and teased the little silverette, she knew that was a part of him he kept secret, even from her. He didn't let anyone but the boy see.
Smiling to herself Kimiko led the rest of the squad to the entrance of a collapsed tunnel. There were few ways to get into the Land of Snow safely, too bad none of them were going to get them there in a timely manner. There wasn't a time limit but she wanted to get there and back before Christmas. She missed her son.
"Do you want me to clear the way or something?" Keisuke asked sarcastically.
She threw a disgruntled look over her shoulder before raising a hand and whispering, "Release."
What she "released" was a moderately complicated genjutsu. Suddenly the tunnel was cleared of all rubble, allowing the three leaf shinobi passage into Yukigakure via a particularly cold network of caves. Kimiko pulled a glowstick out of her back pouch and the boys did the same. Three distinct cracks rang out and the cave was illuminated... slightly. Unnerved, they continued on. To Yukigakure. In near complete darkness.
~*~
The boys let me in on their little mission since I'm actually here. Sorry for length!
