| [May. 22nd, 2014|05:14 am] |
Those were the three Genma would have named, too. Everything else was too far to be worth the run.
“Tell 'em—” Raidou started.
The clone rattled off the distress code immediately, sharp edged with Katsuko’s professional focus: Code Smoldering Branch. ANBU Team Six. All injured, three seriously. Enemy ninja engaged; no escapees. One prisoner. Evac needed. Mission successful.
“Might want to lead with that last bit,” Raidou advised. “Perfect otherwise. Kill yourselves if you hit trouble or deliver the message, so Ueno knows.”
The clone saluted and turned just as its twin arrived with the IV bag. Genma took the bag, and the first clone took its clone twin. “Code Smouldering Branch,” it said, and the second clone nodded and swung into step with it.
When they had the kitchen to themselves again, Genma picked up where he’d left off. Clear-headed, or bull-headed, he wasn’t sure which, but right now he was Raidou’s medic more than his lieutenant. “No one gets in a fight so bad they end up with the other guy’s bones embedded in the wounds without a really good reason. Let me at least numb them up with a local.”
“I don't want it,” Raidou said flatly.
Genma didn’t say anything, but he didn’t move to start cleaning the wounds, either.
“I earned 'em,” Raidou gritted out at last. “And I was stupid about doing it. Next time, I want a good reason to think twice.”
There it was. The edge of whatever had gone so wrong on Raidou and Katsuko’s half of the mission. Or maybe the edge of the things that had gone right.
“Alright,” Genma said gently. “But if you’re in a lot of pain when I finish, you won’t be focused. And I think you’re going to want some focus, taichou.”
“If I couldn't focus around a little pain, I wouldn't be doing this job,” Raidou said. Still flat, like he meant what he said and he was done arguing. He held his hands up for Genma.
Trying one more time would be pushing it too far. But not trying felt like a betrayal of Genma’s responsibility as a medic. “I could giv—”
“Just get on with it, Shiranui,” Raidou snapped.
“Captain,” Genma said. Over the line, Shiranui. You should listen to your instincts sometime.
He sterilized a pair of tweezers with a swipe of an alcohol pad, opened the valve on the IV tubing, and let the Ringer’s solution sluice the wounds. Raidou held his hands under the flow with an iron will and not even a flinch. Not until Genma started digging out the deeply embedded debris. Then Raidou’s breath hitched a little.
Genma glanced up to find Raidou’s face tense and pale, eyes fixed in grim determination.
So much for being the captain’s favorite person. |
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