| [Jan. 1st, 2011|07:35 pm] |
Kakashi couldn't help his faint lip-quirk when he heard Pakkun's eager, rusty-throated yelp: "Coconut's mine!"
Peach and mango was Ginta's favourite flavour, he remembered. He'd given Ginta one in the middle of their last mission, when they'd been trapped in the tree-house and trying not to rip open old wounds.
He probably shouldn't think about that too hard.
The tent was an easy thing to set up: any ninja could do it in their sleep. Kakashi finished making sure the ground-sheet was firmly staked out, checked the outer pegs one last time to make sure they wouldn't rip out if the wind blew hard, and pulled a handful of scrolls from his armour. The ration bar Ginta had already given him was tucked in his belt: he'd eat it in a minute.
Blankets and the big med-kit were the first things he unsealed. He pulled off his ANBU mask, hooked it onto his belt, and headed back to his teammates.
Ginta offered him the blueberry ration-bar as soon as he was in reach.
"You'll make a great housewife some day," Kakashi informed him dryly, dropping a chakra-warmed blanket around Ginta's shoulders. Then he crouched, raised an eyebrow at Pakkun curled up in the other ninja's lap, but decided not to comment. "Show me your leg."
"It's fine," Ginta said instantly. He started to lift it -- presumably to demonstrate how fine a recently-shattered limb could be after sixteen straight hours of running -- and froze, turning the colour of old ice. Carefully, he lowered his leg, breathing out through his nose. "I can just see myself in curlers and a frock. Grandmother will be so pleased."
Even Pakkun's eyebrows arched. "Wow, fairy-bug, that was awful. Worst distraction ever."
"Yeah," Ginta agreed, with shaky laugh. "I should be demoted to genin for--"
His words cut off in a shallow, pained hiss as Kakashi worked his way briskly through the straps holding Ginta's shin guard in place.
"--that," Ginta finished weakly. "Ow."
"Hold still," Kakashi told him. Under his hands, Ginta was tense as steel -- hard-breathing, shaky, exhausted steel, but still as dangerous as any ninja who had someone interfering in their personal space.
"It's really fine," Ginta insisted. "I took something for it."
"Painkillers?"
"Anti-inflammatories," Pakkun put in, around a jaw-locking yawn. "I recognized the bottle."
"I was going to elevate it," Ginta said, sounding peeved. "I'll keep stabilizing it when we run. It's fine."
"It's swollen," Kakashi said.
"Well, yeah, but--"
"And red. And hot to the touch."
"Okay, fine--"
"And you're an idiot. Shut up and drink your tea already." Kakashi opened the over-sized med-kit, already thankful he'd brought it, and went hunting. Near the bottom, tucked into one of the neatly organized compartments, he found what he was looking for. He extracted the labeled tube, fished out a long roll of compression bandage to go with it, and grabbed a flat pack as an afterthought.
Over his cup of steaming tea, Ginta regarded him with wary eyes.
"Pain-killing gel," Kakashi said, holding up the tube. "Helps the ache, won't cloud your mind -- well, not too much, anyway. And you'll be better off for it. The bandage is obvious." He laid both to one side, holding onto the flat pack. A quick set of seals filled the empty plastic bladder with water; in his hands, it became a slim oblong, about the length of a man's hand from wrist to fingertips. A second set of seals and a burst of chakra chilled the water to a still-malleable ice-slurry.
"Cold pack," Kakashi concluded. "Just as good as any canine warming device."
"Hey," said Pakkun sleepily. He'd tucked himself into tight donut-shape, curled up against Ginta's armoured stomach.
"You can keep the canine as a freebie." Kakashi tossed all three bits of medical kit into Ginta's hands. "Here. Have fun."
Both teammates cared for, he closed the kit, re-sealed it, and dragged himself to his feet. Picked up the remaining blanket, which was still warm to the touch, wrapped it around his bare shoulders, and went to collapse on the other side of the fire. |
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