“I’ve got one more thing to do to heal the skin,” Genma said, dropping the jutsu, “but first I need to see your pupils. Open your eyes as wide as you can without pain.”

Raidou cracked one eye cautiously open, then the other, blinked once, and then widened his eyes as instructed. “How’s this?” he asked.

“Perfect,” Genma said. He studied the dark centers of Raidou’s eyes, searching for any hint of cloudiness, but it looked like his captain really had escaped the worst. “They look great,” Genma told him. “No traumatic cataracts or corneal burns that I can see. You’re a lucky man. You can close ‘em again.”

“I feel lucky,” Raidou murmured with absolutely no conviction. He shut his eyes.

Closing the skin lesions was an easier jutsu than either of the other two, and didn’t take as long. When Genma was finished, Raidou looked more like someone with a bad case of hay fever than a victim of an acid attack. He sat back, pleased with himself. “You need to keep using that burn ointment Namura-san gave you. Every four hours would be ideal, but at least twice a day.” He yawned and flexed his fingers. “What else needs fixing?”

Raidou raised careful fingertips to touch the freshly healed burns, and half-smiled at the improvement. “Shoulders could use a look,” he said, “if you’ve got it in you.”

“I do,” Genma said. “Can you get your vest and shirt of yourself, or need help? I can undo the bandages.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re kind of a mother-hen?” Raidou asked as he stripped.

“Nope,” Genma said. “You’re the first.”

“Huh,” Raidou said. “You’re kind of a mother-hen.”

“Cluck cluck,” Genma said without inflection.

Raidou’s bandaged shoulder shook in a silent chuckle.

Under the bandages Raidou’s wounds were myriad: a mix of acid spatters everywhere his uniform had left skin exposed, shallow cuts, deep gouges, re-opened wounds from their first fight with the demons that Genma had already healed once, and angry-looking bruises everywhere. Genma frowned. “This is going to take more than one session, I think,” he said. “I’ll make sure everything’s closed so there’s no infection risk, clean up the burns, and take care of the deep bruising first, so your movement is less restricted, but you’re going to have to let me work on you again tonight or tomorrow.”

Raidou looked over his shoulder with a half-grin. “Yes, Ma.”

“I could punch you,” Genma said mildly. “There’s an excellent bruise I could use as a target right... Here.” He brushed a thumb ever so lightly against the injury.

“Not actually any less parental sounding,” Raidou informed him.

“Wasn’t it you who started calling our other teammates ‘the kids’?” Genma asked. He cast the first jutsu and settled into the slow pulse of chakra flowing between himself and Raidou, his own bright and activated; Raidou’s receptive, reaching up to connect. When the skin was repaired, he moved on to the deeper tissue healing. He drifted mentally, letting the unique structures and shapes of Raidou’s anatomy guide the energy flow as he coaxed bruises to heal. When his own coils started to ache and burn, he stopped, sitting back and catching a few quick breaths.

“That’s it for me for now,” he said. “Better?”

While Genma’d worked, Raidou had dropped into meditation, a trick many experienced ninja utilized—it made the medic’s work easier, facilitated the chakra connection, and helped deal with the discomfort that went hand-in-hand with having your flesh pieced back together. Somewhere along the way, as the healing had progressed, Raidou had crossed the line from zoned-out to drowsing. He jerked back to the waking world now with a startled “Eh?” then sat up, rolling his shoulders carefully. “Hey, they work again.”