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Izuna lifted his upper half into the boat with his arms, but getting his tail over the side was another matter. In the end, he had to resort to a very inelegant wiggle and flip which landed him in the bottom with a thump.
"This is undignified," he complained. "Surely there's a better way to do this."
"Well, I could get you your own e-reader and a waterproof casing," Tobirama returned absently as he dug into the picnic basket for a couple of mugs, "but you'd have to trust it underwater."
"You must be joking." Izuna scoffed at the idea. "I'll take the photos and collect the samples, but I'm not trusting your data analysis until I review it for myself. We're co-authoring this paper, and I'm not putting my name to anything I haven't read throughly!"
"Which is exactly why I'm going to sit here drinking coffee while you work on my laptop." Tobirama suited actions to his words, passing the thing over. "Mark it up as you please, but use the track changes function if you will. I don't want to miss anything."
"Of course I will!" Izuna flipped it open and started scrolling through the report. "I'm not an unlettered savage!"
"You'll be lettered when you get you PhD and not a moment before," Tobirama smirked at his own joke, covering it poorly with his raised cup. "So get to it and you may one day be Dr Uchiha, professor of coral biology."
Izuna gave him the middle finger - such a useful gesture, these land dwellers had! - but nothing more, already delving deep into the data.
After a few hours though, he needed a different kind of dive.
"All done," he announced, snapping the computer shut. "And I can't believe how you can sit in front of one of these things all day."
"One of us has got to do it," Tobirama reasoned, "and it's obviously not going to be you, so it's a good thing I can. Just as it's a good thing you can swim."
"Going for a doctorate in marine biology and can't swim," Izuna grabbed the thermos and poured himself some of the coffee before swallowing it in hasty gulps. "You're one of a kind."
"As are you," Tobirama held out the camera, obviously reading his desire to be back in the water. "Photos of any bleaching, if you please. We need this to be convincing if we want funding for our coral rehabilitation program."
"You don't have to tell me," Izuna ignored the camera in favour of heaving himself over the side. "This is my home we're trying to save."
"It's my planet too," Tobirama called after him, and Izuna could hear the yell as he went under, as well as the splash as the camera was slung overboard. "So let's save it, okay!"
Izuna swiped it with clawed fingers and pushed himself down towards the worst hit areas.
Tobirama didn't need to worry.
He wasn't about to give up on this without a fight.