Extensive healing always made Katsuko a little giddy afterwards. Maybe it was because the pain was gone. That, or Ryouri-sensei had performed a narcotic jutsu without Katsuko noticing. Either way, she felt like jittering out of her skin. She loitered impatiently in the hallway, waiting for Raidou. He was walking slower than usual, the way he always did when injured or exhausted; better to keep Katsuko waiting for ages than show even a little pain.

He raised his eyebrows when he finally caught up. "Stalled out?"

"I’m showing respect to an elder, taichou," Katsuko said. "I know how much it hurts your joints to keep up with the kids these days."

"It'd help if the kids had needed less carrying," he said dryly, and rumpled her hair over her eyes as he passed. "C'mon, youngster."

She snickered and fell into pace with him, shoving her hands into her pockets. "Oh, hey. You totally owe me lunch for this mission."

"How so?"

"I didn’t die. And I kept the boys from fighting." Katsuko sighed. "I deserve so much free food for that last one."

"Not dying is the basic tenet of your job, for which you get a standard wage that you can use to buy food," Raidou said, almost by rote. "And I'm pretty sure you goaded Hatake and Tousaki as much as you pacified them. But nice try."

They found Genma in bed 16. Nakamura-sensei was healing his belly-wound, lecturing him even as flesh closed up under green-glowing hands. “... if your labs had come back just a little worse, I’d be keeping you inpatient for treatment.”

"So you're not keeping me inpatient?" Genma asked hopefully, tensing as his stomach muscles forcibly fused back together.

"I'm not saying that yet."

"I can take whatever meds you want to give me at home—"

"You should be treated here. You're lucky you didn't end up in acute kidney failure, and your liver is definitely showing signs of toxicity."

“A medic’s yelling at our medic,” Katsuko said, watching from a safe distance away. “Wanna rescue him?”

Next to her, Raidou frowned slightly and stepped forward. "I'm his captain. What's going on?"

Genma looked up, sheepish, and gave them a wave. Nakamura said, "I'm not sure if it's the effects of the jutsu he did to raise his temperature, the poison itself, or both, but there's some organ damage. Repairable damage."

Raidou pinned Genma with a look.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Genma said, unrepentant. “Well, I did have a choice, I guess. But the alternative was not surviving the mission.”

“He does have a point,” Katsuko said helpfully.

Raidou’s expression didn’t change. “His point can keep him in the hospital overnight.”

Nakamura nodded. "Surviving is an ongoing process." He looked at Genma. "I like your new captain. He's sensible."

Genma didn’t roll his eyes, but he seemed severely tempted to. "You didn't have to put it like that, sensei." He turned to Raidou. "I'm fine, taichou. It's just some minor abnormalities in my labs."

"I can translate 'organ damage' just fine, Shiranui," Raidou said. He glanced at Nakamura. "He'll stay overnight."

“But—!” Genma protested.

Raidou didn’t give him the chance. “That’s an order.”

Genma sighed and saluted. “Acknowledged. Nakamura-sensei, if all you want to do is medicate and monitor me, can you at least let me go check on Hisa-san when we're through here? I promised her and her family I'd be there for her."

"I’ll go find out where she is while Mari starts an IV on you," Nakamura-sensei said, ignoring Genma’s hangdog expression.

“Hisa’s safe, she has her parents, and Konoha’s best medic-nin are with her,” Katsuko said, clasping her hands behind her back. “I think all we’d do is bring bad memories in with us.”