It was an effort to crack one eye open. When Kakashi did, the world was filled with ice and agony and Genma’s new white mustache. Kakashi stared at that, confused, until he realized Genma had a bloody bandage taped beneath his nose.

Okay, Kakashi thought blurrily, and tried to achieve actual thought.

"S' c-cold," he managed.

“I know. You’re low on chakra,” Genma said gently, and glanced over to Katsuko. “Can you add any more heat?”

Katsuko shifted, tucking herself closer against Kakashi’s side. The blanket of her chakra rolled out across his bare, bandaged skin, wind and fire combining in a delicate balance that probably cost her significant effort. Slowly, carefully, the temperature ticked up by degrees. It just didn’t seem to sink in. Kakashi shivered, feeling iced to the bones, and made a low sound of complaint.

Genma glanced back over his shoulder. “Taichou, you didn’t find a stove we could set up in here anywhere, did you?”

“Tiny camping stove in the kitchen,” Raidou said. “Clone’s using it right now. I’ll see if there’s another.” He left, dogged by one of Katsuko’s copies. There... seemed to be a lot of them around.

“Wish I had your chakra,” Kakashi muttered to Katsuko. “d’never fall down.”

“No, you don’t,” she said, low and tired. He tipped his chin down to look at her, but could only see the wild, half-dried flurry of her hair and a slice of pale cheek. Then she lifted her face and smiled. “Besides, if you stopped falling down, we’d think you were an imposter.”

Kakashi knew that smile. On him, it came with curving, insincere eyes.

“C-could insult you more,” he said. “T-then you’d know it was me.”

“What a relief,” Katsuko said dryly, and then sobered up. “You warming up at all, or am I just throwing chakra into the void?”

“Void,” Kakashi said, after a moment of shivery self-reflection. “S-sorry.”

“Don’t stop,” Genma told Katsuko. “It’s helping even if he can’t feel it. His coils were damaged by that lightning strike, I think. Damaged coils can get leaky.” Light brown eyes landed on Kakashi again, framed by tiny creases as Genma smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry, it’s reversible.”

“I k-know,” Kakashi said. Bodies weren’t smart; just because it felt like hypothermia, didn’t mean it was.

“Just because you’re half-dead doesn’t mean you’re off the hook,” Katsuko muttered vengefully in his ear. “We’re going to have words when you’re coherent again.”

“You ‘an Rin,” Kakashi mumbled, resigned. “An’ sensei. Everyone always yells…” He opened his eye again, not quite sure when he’d closed it, and gave them a hazy, hidden smile. “But T-Tousaki’s alive, and so’s Shiranui, ‘an now I can make people explode. So it’s worth it.”

Genma glanced at Katsuko. “Morphine’s working,” he drawled.

Katsuko didn’t answer him; she was staring at Kakashi, slender eyebrows drawn down into a frown. “Explain,” she said.

“Explain later,” Genma said, before Kakashi could respond. “I need to work on you now.” He accepted his med-kit from an increasingly insubstantial-looking clone, and withdrew a syrette of morphine. The drug went straight into a vein, and Kakashi exhaled slowly at the fading burn. Genma added the spent syrette to Kakashi’s dog-tag collection and opened up a slim packet of hair-thin medical senbon.

“Haven’t had enough needles today, ‘tenant?” Kakashi said.

“Guess not,” Genma said. “I have to take the covers off you for a minute. I'm going to gate your chakra a little, try to slow the flow down. It'll make you feel weak, but it might help with the cold, and it will give me more to work with for healing you.”