Touch against his side. Kakashi flinched back, a tiny muscle clench more then a real jerk.

Despite that he woke slowly, coming back from the black by degrees. His bones felt melted; brittle, aching, and threaded through weak muscles. Sharingan overuse, then. He shivered, dragged a sharp breath through his nose and cracked one eye open. For a second all he saw was grey, then he shifted and his hair flopped away from his face.

Ginta was the second thing he saw, which was fairly welcome. Much better then a cell or shackles or a bright light. The warmth was also good. Kakashi shivered again, the waking up kind rather then the cold kind. That was nice. Oh, he could feel all his toes. He dragged a hand up to shove through his hair and found plastic.

Kakashi blinked and woke up properly. Mission. Jutsu. Ribs. Ginta. Pakkun. Cave. Fever. Snow. Farm house. Black. He coughed and winced slightly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. Felt more like a nasty chest infection then a ruptured lung. No blood. "Jackass," his voice was still a wreck, worn down past a rasp to a dry croak, faintly surprised. He swallowed and kept talking. "We're not dead."

"No," grumbled a voice from the floor that startled them both. "Though not from lack of trying, you idiots."

Pakkun. Kakashi relaxed. That meant he'd brought back help. Explained the medical equipment and the lack of being dead. Or something close to it anyway.

The pug leapt up onto the end of the bed and walked up the covers until he could sit next to Kakashi's shoulder. He licked it with a quick tongue flick and grumbled, "I should bite your nose off, you bastard. You could've at least've left a trail sign or something. You any idea how hard it is to track through a blizzard?"

Kakashi was too busy looking at his own shoulder to answer. His naked shoulder. The hand touching his face couldn't feel anything like a mask. He went very still.

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"Did we... Um wait," Ginta stared at the dog. Pakkun was there. That explained a few things. Sort of. "Didn't that guy want to kill us? I thought..." He interrupted himself coughing, tight and hard and dry. At least he wasn't bleeding anymore. And it hurt less. Actually he felt kind of floaty. Probably drugs. Must be drugs. Maybe this was all a hallucination?

"I thought I was a goner..." Blood. There had been a lot of blood. And no air. And a screaming, bloodied little girl, and a big farmer guy and his son who were going to kill them, he was absolutely sure of that. So how was it they were in a soft, fluffy bed, and naked?

Maybe it would be best to go back to basics. "Where are we? What day is it?"

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"Tuesday," said a deepish-voice, slightly muffled. For a second there wasn't any other sounds, then a pile of clothing walked in, topped with a wild dark mop. "Man, it sure as hell wasn't fun watching the IVs drip." The laundry pile paused in the centre of the small room, then dumped itself on the tiny corner of the table not occupied with various medical paraphernalia. It was obvious the table'd been dragged in from outside of the room - it dominated the space and made it nearly awkward to get around.

The voice turned out to belong to a kid. Young-looking, short, messy-haired, mask hanging off his belt as he sorted messily through the laundry. "And now that you're both awake it makes it awkward to change y'clothes."

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Kakashi sucked in a startled breath through his teeth and ducked his head down, hair flopping forward. It covered his eyes, nose, a decent swathe of face. It wasn't his mask. Later he'd be annoyed about that reaction, but right now all he cared about was being naked in front of an ANBU he didn't know and Ginta who... Ginta who he'd only known for a day. Or three days, if this was Tuesday now.

He coughed tightly, lungs crackling, and tried to think. Only two days. He'd need another three at least of solid sleep before he felt human. Maybe more if the pneumonia hung around.

Pakkun gave him a knowing look and stood up, stretched, and moved over to sit right next to Kakashi's face, hiding him. "Hey, brat. Don't go back to sleep, we need to get you both home first."

Kakashi coughed again, and shifted a little until his forehead--now much cooler, thank gods--rested against Pakkun's flank. Familiar smell. "Yeah, mutt."

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"Took forever to get used to hearing a talking dog," Kotetsu said, giving up on folding - it looked more like he was wadding material - and pulled free a shirt. This was so strange - he'd expected to be impressed with the older shinobi. It really didn't help that he'd found them half dead, after a grueling couple of hours attempting to track them through heavy, slushy snow. "I'm guessing you wanna get dressed then? Kanae-sensei said you can move around, just a little bit, if you promise not to go breaking yet more stuff." He gave them both a severe look, especially Kakashi. "I totally think she's being too optimistic." He fluffed the shirt and started for the copy-nin.


"AND you're lucky that it's my shift." He yawned, hard enough to crack his jaw. "Kanae-sensei was ALL for helping you dress. Medic-hands, she said. Hah. Like mine are any worse? I thought you'd like it better'n hers, cause she's a girl."

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Ginta could see. That was a very good thing, he needed to be able to watch. Kakashi couldn't watch right now, his eyes kept closing. "Don't think I've ever had this much bad luck at once on a mission," he rasped, it was a lie, "You must've done something."

Don't kill the rookie. Loud little snot.

He pulled back from Pakkun a little, moving his hand from his face to rest it on the dog's flank a moment, and tried to gather his thoughts. The mission had been successfully completed at least, and neither of them had died. His mouth twitched in a flicker smile for a fraction of a second. That was the thing that mattered really, the rest he could get around.

He reached out--hand was shaking still, bastard thing--and pulled the shirt out of Ginta's grip. Pushed himself up a little with the other arm, it trembled with the weight but he forced it to hold. The blanket slipped down past his chest, pooling against his hip, revealing pale skin and silvery scars. Kakashi gritted his teeth and yanked the shirt on as quickly as he could, pulling his head out the top and one arm through the sleeve. His IV caught, tubing tangled. Kakashi scowled and then ripped the needle from his arm, leaving the IV in place. It came away with tape and, ouch, hair. Small sting, nothing compared to the rest. He was awake now anyway, probably didn't need it anymore.

The next part was slightly trickier, he dropped back down onto the bed and forced himself to roll sideways, freeing his other arm. He worked that through the sleeve and then lifted his hips up enough to give himself the space to pull the thing down.

Triumph of the day; putting on a shirt. Well done, copy-nin.

Then he started to cough again, the effort of moving making his head spin. He dragged his arm up and covered his face, coughing into the sleeve.

Pakkun rolled his eyes and moved closer, lifting a paw to touch Kakashi's ribs. "Smart, brat, well done." It was amazing the level of sarcasm you could get into a growl.

Kakashi flipped him off and carried on coughing. Fucking pneumonia.

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"Hagane Kotetsu," Kotetsu said, resisting the urge to snap off an insolent salute. They were injured, they were cranky. Think of them as little kids who had the flu and wanted nothing more than to go to bed rather than get fed sugar solution and everything should be sweet. He could cope with cranky kids.

"And you were so calling me a... fuckity. Why'd you yank it off?" He caught the needle, and gave Kakashi an evil look. Not only did he have a googly eyed pug, he also appeared to have no brains. "Shit, now am I supposed to stick it back or something?" That was probably not a good idea - it looked long and thin, but thicker than the thick guage wire he worked with, and it was flexible.

Great. Great great great - Kakashi was worse than Tensai with projectile vomiting. At least Tensai sat tight and didn't move unless he said!

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"Great. Would you go find your buddy the medic, Kotetsu? That'd be great." Ginta gave him a tight smile. "And don't touch Kakashi." Then he pushed himself up and reached for the oxygen tubing Kakashi had discarded in his haste to get his shirt on.

"I'm gonna kick your fucking ass in, genius," he said, pushing the hosing not particularly gently back into place on Kakashi's face. "Breathe, and quit doing dumb shit." Sitting up was a lot of work. Also made him rather dizzy. Whoah. Yes, seeing stars.

"We're lying down now." Ginta tugged at Kakashi, shoved him down, then toppled against his shoulder, gasping like a fish on a riverbank. "No more dumb shit... 'Kay?" He closed his eyes and rested. He'd shift over again in a minute. Soon as he caught his breath.

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The oxygen helped. Pakkun against his neck helped. Ginta, despite his insults, helped. The shirt definitely helped. Kakashi took a deep crackling breath and let it out, followed by another. His chest ached, but that was nothing new. "It's--not dumb--if--you--have a--good reason, jackass." he muttered. Ginta's weight pressed against his shoulder, heavy and warm. Kakashi couldn't summon up the energy to shove him off, or shift back.

His eyes closed, he yanked them back open. Couldn't sleep yet. Other things to do, to get, like pants for one thing. And his mask. He also had to piss, legacy of the IV no doubt. That would be fun with his current inability to stand up.

Look on the bright side; mission was completed, he wasn't dead, Ginta wasn't dead, he had a shirt.

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"Fuckit," Kotetsu growled, and twiddled with the valve on the IV so it wouldn't spray saline solution everywhere. "Fine. Don't move, don't do anything, don't drop dead. If you do, I'm gonna find a way to kick your asses, senior ANBU or not."

He left the room, and it was only because the place didn't actually have a door that it wasn't slammed in their faces.

"Kanae-sensei!" they could hear him call out. "They're very much awake and acting like brats."

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Ginta tried not to think about how completely humiliating it was to be slung around like a child. No ninja made it to jounin without some experience of being helpless and in the hands of medics, after all. And he was feeling pretty damn helpless. Perhaps it was better to focus on the departed chuunin. That had been hilarious. Seemed like the kid could be baited pretty easily, which was something Ginta decided he'd have to look into more, just as soon as he was feeling well. Day or two at most, right?

He continued to cough, wheezing and sore, until the medic did her magic painting and no coughing jutsu. Now that was a good trick. Medics really did some fascinating things. And she seemed to be fairly unflappable. Undoubtedly had been working as a field medic for a few years, especially given her remarks about idiots and ANBU.

"Yes," he tried to answer. There was no voice. Hrmm. "Yes, I need to. That's why I was..." It was a pathetic, wheezing whisper. Great. Was that a side effect from the cough or the jutsu? He frowned and gave it one more shot. "Yes, I need to piss. It's why I was up. Figured it was better than wetting the bed." Well, it wasn't much more than a croak, but at least he could make himself understood.

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Medic. She was a medic, and the attacker was gone. Kakashi took a couple of rasping breaths and tried to make sense of everything. Ginta was once again on his left and Pakkun was sitting against his right side, growling. There had been two other dogs. Hoshika and... Baiji. Where were-? No. Wait. That had been in a cave, with cold and snow and... hail, something about gods.

Farmhouse. Focus, idiot. It had been two days. He was in a farmhouse with Ginta and a rookie--

Oh, damn. That must have been the attacker. Kakashi winced faintly, he'd warned the kid. No. Pakkun had warned the kid, and Ginta. It was just dumb to touch a ninja -- especially an ANBU - unexpectedly anyway. Stupid rookie.

He dragged his attention back to the room just as the medic replaced his IV. Ouch. He appreciated whatever she'd painted on his throat at least--it was marginally easier to breathe. Then he caught her question.

Kakashi swallowed painfully and dragged an arm up to cover his face. "Yeah," he admitted, feeling ridiculous. Like he'd copped to some sort of weakness. He hoped she wasn't going to drag him half naked out of the bed, he didn't think he could stand anyway. Gods, this was going to be wretched. Fucking mission.

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Kanae gave Ginta something of a wry look. "Better to wet the bed then rip a hole in your newly healed lung," she informed him, moving back once more to her kit. "Or better yet, ask the nice medic lady who's here to look after your butts. Just don't ask the rookie, he seems to lack a decent bedside manner." She dug out two bottles and handed one to each ninja. "Here, go nuts. Just hang onto them so I can keep an eye on your fluid intake and output." It wasn't hard to miss the expression of relief on Kakashi's face, even half hidden by his arm. Well, not hard for a ninja anyway, a civilian wouldn't have caught it.

Speaking of fluids. She pulled out two larger bottles of water and handed them over as well, with a dry warning not to get the two mixed up. Then she placed the pile of clothes Kotetsu had semi-folded between them. "If you want to get dressed, feel free. Just don't mess up your IV's again. I'm going to go take care of Kotetsu. Both of you remain on the bed please and don't do anything that will require me to sedate you. If you need me, don't yell, send Pakkun."

Oh. Painkillers. She gave them each a strong dose, and then picked up her kit to go deal with the rookie before he pissed someone else off and got his head removed.

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"Uh..." Ginta took the two bottles and frowned. He set the full one down, held the empty one unhappily, and gave Kakashi a look. "Just so you know, pissing in bed isn't my kink."

It also wasn't comfortable. Standing up would be so much easier, and the medic had gone. "Look, I'm just gonna get up long enough to take care of business here," he said, and pushed the covers off himself. Next would be getting up. He braced himself for the motion, and made a halfhearted start.

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It still to hurt to move, despite the new dose of painkillers. Kakashi grabbed hold of Ginta's shoulder anyway, with a little hiss between his teeth. "Were your parents siblings?" he growled, voice raw, "Or did you just eat paint chips as a kid?" He clenched his jaw and fought to pull the man flat, something like a groan echoing in his throat.

Pakkun helped out by walking over and closing his teeth delicately over Ginta's forearm. "You wanna be sedated, brat? 'Cos that medic don't make idle threats. She'll nail your ass to the bed if she finds you kissing the floor again." He didn't bite down, but there was a heavy amount of suggestion in his voice that he would, given a reason.

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Kakashi snorted, "I find your crazy just crazy," he muttered dryly. "And worry it's contagious." He coughed once and the seal on his neck flared blue. The copy-nin blinked as something that felt like cool water trickled down his throat and into his lungs, soothing the ragged edge away. "Huh," he said after a moment, voice newly raspy.

The medic lady got a tick at least. She was the one nice thing on this mission so far...

He gave Ginta a flickering look. Okay, maybe the second nice thing. It made a change to have a decent mission partner. Even if they'd both gotten hammered.

His fault. He shoved that thought away. "Genius," he reminded Ginta again. "It's not my issue that you poor unaccomplished shinobi can't keep up with me." Actually, even with the jutsu he'd taken to the face--his fault, hadn't gotten their quick enough, Kakashi shook his head again--Ginta had kept up and kept them moving and done Kakashi's job for him. Kept them alive.

The copy-nin felt a slight, odd flicker of disappointment that the man probably wouldn't want to run a mission with him again. He pushed that aside too.

Pants. He wanted his pants on. Kakashi gathered himself and forced a body that wanted to do nothing but sleep into motion, twisting down and bringing his feet up a little to drag the bloody awkward things on. He did it like ripping off a band-aid, quick and painful. Shoved each foot into the right pant's leg--he hoped--straightened his legs and yanking the waistband up, arching his hips up at the last moment before collapsing with a hacking cough.

Pakkun touched the seal with his nose as it glowed blue again and licked Kakashi's straining throat. "Will you stop flailing around, Hatake-brat, and just drink some of the damn water the nice medic left for you?"

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"Yeah, what your dog said," Ginta rasped, and resumed his own struggle with his pants. He was more successful than Kakashi had been, but only because he had better muscle control, since his chakra hadn't been quite so diminished as his partner's. He might be small, but he had a lot of stamina. It was kind of sorely tested at the moment, though. When he'd finally gotten the pants on and was about to do up the fly, Ginta started to cough again. The seal flared to life, just as it had with Kakashi, but he was tired and out of breath, and cursing the ninja who had broken his ribs by the time he stopped coughing.

So tired. Also hot, too hot. Hadn't he been cold before?

He lay panting, sucking in cool oxygen from the cannula, with his pants undone and his eyes closed.

"You... should listen... to your dog."

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Pakkun gave Ginta a sharp look and pulled away from Kakashi, moving over to the smaller ANBU. He touched his cold nose to Ginta's sweaty forehead and pulled back sharply. "You're burning up, kid." He frowned, heavy eyebrows twitching together. "Get some water into him Hatake-brat, I'm going to get Kanae." The pug leapt off the bed without waiting for an answer and trotted out of the door.

Kakashi rolled painfully onto his side and gave Ginta a worried look. "Think you should be listening to my dog," he muttered, and stretched out a hand, laying it carefully on the smaller man's forehead. Fire burned less. "Didn't you take your own damn advice, jackass?"

Mission gods--something Jutsu related. Fucking fuck. Kakashi pulled his hand back and located one of the bottles of water. Then it got tricky. He braced himself, gritted his teeth, and hauled himself up. It made the whole room spin, but he kept at it until he could sit up and brace his back against the headboard. He coughed, the jutsu flared, and he breathed again in gasping little breaths. "Fuck," he groaned quietly. "That hurt."

Ginta. Deal with pain later. Kakashi balanced himself as much as he could manage, and slid his hand under Ginta's arm, pulling the man towards him as carefully as he could, until Ginta's head rested against his leg. Breathed again and coughed until the seal glowed bright blue. He picked up the bottle once more, wrestled with the cap for so long he was tempted just to bite the top off, and then held it to Ginta's mouth. "Take a drink and try not to choke, okay?"

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"I'm not dying, genius," Ginta protested, as Kakashi hauled him around. "Just a little... tired. Chest hurts." The cold water sloshed against his lips and a trickle ran down the side of Ginta's neck. It was somehow both pleasant and annoying at the same time. Mostly annoying.

And Kakashi was making himself worse for no good reason. That was definitely annoying. "You're s'posed to be... resting."

Why was it harder to breathe now? Maybe because it was so hot. It was always hard to breathe when it was really hot. Like that time he'd had a mission that involved getting inside a smelting works. It had been so hot there, and hard to breathe then.

"F'r a genius... you sure do some... stupid shit." Ginta coughed. The jutsu'd seal glowed, and the cold of the activating jutsu made him shiver. Really shiver. Shaking hard, like they were still out in the snow. Strange to be so hot and cold at the same time.

"Jus' let me sleep... little while," he said, through chattering teeth. "Lie down and sleep. We'll go home in... little bit."

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Kanae was in for a bit of a shock when she walked into the room, led by Pakkun. No blood, no crying or screaming or vomiting. Instead she was confronted with two sleeping ninja who were half dressed and frankly cuddling.

"Cute," she said softly to the pug, who gave her an unamused look.

Her seals had been getting a workout. The one on Kakashi's neck was dim, the colour a steady deep blue. That was good. The one on Ginta's neck flickered fitfully, the colour faded. That was less good.

Kanae stepped over to the bed and gave them a careful look over. Kakashi was much as she'd left him, with the addition of his hiati-ate. He looked a little more worn now, the bruising around his eyes deep and pronounced. His colouring was far too pale to be healthy, but his temperature was good, and his breathing steady, if crackly. He didn't so much as twitch when she rolled him gently away from Ginta, carefully pulling his arm out from under the smaller ninja's head. Pakkun leapt up to settle by his shoulder.

The other ANBU looked worse, a whole lot worse. Skin waxy and grey-tinted, sheened with sweat, flushed with a nasty fever. His breathing was just as bad, laboured and catching. Short breaths and painful sounding. "Sakamoto-san?" she asked quietly, laying a glowing blue hand on his forehead, careful of the burns. Just a basic diagnostic to start with.

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There was something cold on Ginta's face. He flinched away, tensing up, eyes flying open. His hands came up defensively as he shied away from the touch. Color and sound hit him next. A faint blue light. A woman's voice saying his name.

Where was he? Mission. Mission and his partner was down. He stared at the woman, managing to get his vision focused enough to recognize the insignia on her hitai-ate. She must be one of the reinforcements.

"We took a lot of casualties," he told her, in a rasping voice that sounded utterly unlike his usual light tenor. "Lot of wounded." It was hard to breathe. Right, the Fox. He'd been leading an assault on its flank when a tail had struck his whole squadron broadside. "My commander took... a head injury. I got hit.... Chest."

He stared at the woman. Imploring her to get it right. Get Ichiro evacuated to base, so someone could deal with it before the bleeding in his brain killed him. "You take Ichiro-sensei first." He gestured at Kakashi, who lay unresponsive beside him. "Get him... help."

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Kanae stilled momentarily. That was a name she hadn't heard in five years. Nice guy, shame the way he'd died. She pulled carefully away from Ginta and rolled Kakashi over so the ninja could see his face. Lifted the hitai-ate up with gentle fingers to show the clear distinguishing scar.

"The Fox was five years ago, Sakamoto-san, this is Hatake Kakashi. A stunningly stupid genius who rips his IV out in favour of putting a shirt on. You were both on a mission together, you were injured and he drained his chakra down to nothing." Attempting healing jutsu he had no business playing with. They drank chakra like water unless you knew how to guide them properly.

"You're in a small farm close to Konoha's border, recovering until we can move you. You have a fever, it's making you delirious." She didn't know if he could track this all that well, but better to speak in a nice soothing tone -- slightly wry because she could never help that -- and see if he could gather himself. "My name is Takana Kanae, ANBU level medic-nin. I need you to stay still so I can get this fever down and sort out your breathing a little, alright?" Or she would sedate him, either one worked.

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"Kakashi..." Ginta blinked. Kakashi. That looked like Kakashi. But Ichiro needed help. Or maybe Kakashi needed help? And this woman was a medic. That was good. The mission and his hallucination started to run together at the edges. Kakashi lying helpless, and Ginta unable to see. Ichiro lying helpless, and Ginta unable to breathe. "The Fox took out.... about .... there were twenty of us...." No that wasn't right. This was Kakashi.

"Can't breathe right," he complained. If he could breathe then he'd be able to think. "Hot." Fire. There had been fires blazing in the wake of the Fox's destructive path. "Fires in... northwest. Forest." But they'd left the fire to someone else, so why was it so hot here?

The woman had her hands on him again, cool and soothing. Taking the burn away.

Burn. Oh. Kakashi. The lightning jutsu. Copying the jutsu from the missing nin, and the fireball hitting Ginta's face.

"I..." He blinked at Kanae. "Help." It was simple, succinct, and surprisingly eloquent, as far as requests went.

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The pug was curled between them, tucked into the curve of Kakashi's throat, head resting once more on the side of the copy-nin's neck. Ginta was close enough to them for his breath to ruffle Pakkun's fur. He lifted his head and uncurled enough to face the other ninja.

"He's fine, kid, he does this all the time." The dog didn't sound particularly happy about that. "Give him a couple more days and he'll be... well, he'll still be feeling lousy, but he'll be walking and talking."

Pakkun uncurled a little more and nosed Ginta's hair for a moment, pain smells, sleepy smells, sick smells. "Sleep, brat, and maybe you'll be up when he is."

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"'Kay," Ginta agreed, closing his eyes and shifting ever so slightly under the covers. Sleep would be good. Better than chocolate or sex, even. It was harder and harder to stay awake. And Pakkun would stand watch, of that Ginta was sure. He was going to tell the dog to wake him if there was trouble, but the words came out an inarticulate mumble as he settled into a deep, healing slumber.


Continues in Lazing Around in Bed

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