“I got him. Get Kakashi.”
Tenzo turned away from their enemy and wood propelled from his arm into the water. It split into multiple branches that spread and twisted down through the area where Kakashi was struck. He was searching deep beneath the surface; Tenzo hadn’t expected him to be more than thirty feet down, but he’d gone more than double that distance.
Aoba finished him and stood beside Tenzo to look into the water. “You don’t have him yet?”
“I just got him. I don’t understand how it’s so deep here. I thought he was sitting at the bottom but he’s been falling.”
Finally Tenzo hauled him out of the water and rescinded the wood, dropping him on the bank. He’d turned an unpleasant bluish shade.
“Fuck.”
Tenzo knelt and pulled his mask down, pinched his nose and breathed into his mouth. He did it a second time, then a third and looked up, alarmed, at Aoba who knelt to check his pulse.
“Keep doing it. His heart’s beating.” He unzipped Kakashi’s vest to check for other injuries.
On the fifth breath Kakashi choked up water, coughed and sucked in a breath, then rolled onto his side to cough and gasp.
Aoba and Tenzo looked at each other in relief, then grinned because they’d seen him, and they watched him unapologetically as he struggled to recover.
Kakashi finally felt like he might be done coughing and could again take in decent breaths of air. “That was nice, Tenzo. Want to do it again?”
“You scared the shit out of us.”
“Your mask is off.”
“Yeah, well, give me a minute. Doesn’t matter now, does it?”
“You look like a fucking baby without it. Doesn’t he?”
Tenzo smiled. “Young for his age, I think.. and gentle for his temperament..”
“Like a pretty little girl.”
“You’ll regret saying that when I feel like I can stand up.”
“That was a hard hit. He just slammed you in the opposite direction. I bet you were out cold before you hit the water. Do you feel okay?”
“Yeah, I think I’m fine. We can’t stay here, I’m going to have to be...”