| [May. 22nd, 2014|05:06 am] |
The IV, however necessary, was proving to be enough trouble Genma wasn’t sure it was worth it. He looped the hanger over the belt hook that usually held his mask when it wasn’t on his face. Quartermaster Morita would be unimpressed with the smashed remains of Genma’s custom-painted tanuki mask, but the empty hook was convenient. Of course the IV wouldn’t work hung from his waist, but he should have had Raidou hold off placing it until he was ready to lie down and call this day over.
Treading the fine line of being the medic and being a patient was always a challenge. ‘Treat the medic first’ was sacrosanct, especially in a unit with only one, but—
Raidou interrupted his train of thought with a pointed look at the blood flowing backwards in the IV tubing from Genma’s arm, now that gravity was working against him.
“I know,” Genma said. “We’ll hang it up when I sit down again. If Iebara hadn’t managed to bleed me quite so much, this wouldn’t even be necessary. Not that we knew he could do that, but still.”
“Now might be a good time for the full story on that,” Raidou said. “You mentioned it was a medical jutsu? I'm guessing that accounts for your leg. And Kakashi copied it—which, I didn't think he could do medical jutsu?”
“He can’t, as far as I know,” Genma said. “He might have copied that jutsu, but his execution got radically different results from Iebara.”
“How?”
“Tousaki and I are still mostly in one piece: I think the biggest piece of Iebara left would have fit in one hand.”
Raidou paused for the edge of a second, taking in Genma’s words. "That'd do it."
Genma snorted, but a misstep and an abrupt jolt of pain killed his laugh. Raidou steadied him with a quick grab and a tighter hold on Genma’s waist, making Genma acutely conscious of the bandages and abrasions covering the captain’s shoulders.
They passed the cells, one occupied, one empty. The Mist captain was huddled on the floor, wrapped in a blanket. She needed medical treatment, but Raidou came first. And Genma himself. If he’d been her prisoner, he had no doubt her priorities would have put him last, too.
Raidou helped Genma limp into the tiny kitchen, where Katsuko’s clones were making merry havoc with tea. Two clones were encouraging a third, who was spooning sugar into a pot steaming over a kerosene burner. The contents were a murky green—an open canister of powdered matcha suggested the reason. They snapped to attention when Genma and Raidou entered. One of them grabbed a wooden crate and shoved it at them while another produced a folding chair with a triumphant look.
Raidou thanked them both and helped Genma sit, but it still took a moment for Genma’s heart rate to slow and his visual field to widen back to normal. Which was why he needed that IV. Dammit.
While he caught his breath, Raidou reached across, gently freed the IV bag from Genma’s belt, and stood up to tack it into the wall with a kunai, where gravity would actually help it work. The thin swirl of crimson flushed out of the line, washed back into Genma’s veins. Ringer’s wasn’t a substitute for real blood, but it was a good bandaid.
When Raidou sat back down, Katsuko’s third clone offered Genma a battered mug of swampy-looking tea.
“Why would a safehouse bunker have matcha?” Genma asked, staring at it. “No, never mind, It’s good. Tea is tea, and caffeine is caffeine.” He took a cautious sip. Sweet enough to make his teeth ache. “That’s probably enough sugar,” he told the cooking clone.
Raidou leaned past the clones to give the ‘tea’ a dubious look. His eyes lifted to a cluster of mismatched cups and mugs stacked upside down on top of another crate, and visibly made the decision to inflict the concoction on other people. “Take a mug each through for Tousaki and Ueno—she's probably not asleep yet.”
Two clones immediately started ladling tea.
“Fukuda can have one, too,” Raidou added.
All three clones turned puzzled faces towards him.
“Kiri-nin,” explained Raidou.
One of the clones offered a mug of tea to Raidou, but he shook his head at it, earning a glowering look of reproach from the rejected clone. He shooed it away with the other clone that had gone to deliver Katsuko and Ryouma’s tea. |
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