"Nope," rasped Asuma, with a soot-grey grin. "I had a dizzy moment, if that helps."

Tsume snorted and coughed. "Asuma, you're always dizzy."

"Nah, darlin', that's just the rest of the world going weak-kneed over my good looks." He dropped stiffly back into the plastic chair by Tsume's gurney, picking up the mask she'd abandoned. "I can see how you'd get confused, though. Want to put the mask back on? The medics were pretty insistant about the whole breathing thing."

Tsume accepted the mask for about half a millesecond, taking one breath before she shoved it off and made to stand, grabbing the rails of her bed. "Where's Kuromaru?" she demanded sharply, hauling herself up.

Asuma grabbed her bare shoulders. "He's fine. Burned his paws up, but the medics are taking care of it. He's guarding the kids."

Tsume sat back slowly, wincing as Asuma's fingers left pale prints in her red-raw skin, then almost immediately got up again. "I should get back, then," she muttered.

"Hey, whoa," Asuma said. "Can we focus on you a minute, Ms. Two-headed Dog-lady? You just woke up. You're not gonna help anyone by keeling over on 'em."

"I'm not going to help them by being here, either," Tsume said instantly, sitting with great reluctance on the edge of her bed. "And Kanaye doesn't have the experience to deal with something like--" she waved a vague hand "--this."

Asuma raised an eyebrow. But before he could add anything, Tsume coughed out a black-lung laugh, croaky and thin, and eased back a little more. "I don't know if anyone has the experience to deal with this. This might be a first."

Her eyes wouldn't quite meet his.

"Yeah," Asuma agreed quietly. "Well, no. You guys made it through the Fox, right? This isn't nearly as bad as that."

Less of a body count, way less destruction, no beloved leaders signing up to make deals with death-gods.

"The Hokage's still helping out down there," Asuma said, and added reluctantly: "He knows what he's doing."

Apparently, those were the magic words. Tsume relaxed completely, boneless and relieved, and Asuma had to wonder if she didn't trust her own clan leaders or if she just liked his dad a whole lot more. After a minute, she said, "Thanks."

"Welcome," Asuma said with a shrug, watching as Tsume picked up the jar of salve in clawless hands and looked at it vaguely. "Want me to?" he asked, holding out a hand.

Wordlessly, Tsume passed it over.

"So, tell me something," he said, unscrewing the lid. "When did you get all kick-ass with jutsu? The last time I saw you, you could barely untangle your pathways." And he'd thought she was a chuunin, but those damn sure hadn't been chuunin-level jutsu today.

Tsume blinked, frowned, and looked at Asuma like he made no sense at all. "Well... they healed." She shrugged one shoulder, muscle flexing under the scorched dress strap. "That was just... upper chuunin level."

Asuma stared back. "You turned into a giant two-headed dog," he said slowly, in case Tsume had missed that key point. "With two heads."

"Well... yes," said Tsume, still looking at Asuma like he'd fallen off the edge of sanity and forgotten his parachute. "Kuromaru has a head and I have a head. Granted, we should have been closer together -- hurt like the Wolf's bite itself -- but..." Tsume's eyes focused suddenly, diamond-blue and sharp, coming back from whatever disconnected cloud she'd been floating in. "Pup, exactly who do you think I am?"

Someone who's about to laugh at me a lot, Asuma guessed.

"A chuunin?" he said. "Well, I did. But I'm thinking that's wrong."