She didn't want to go with them. Not anywhere. She braced against a fight, halfway ready for Raidou to snarl and tell her she had to, but--

Kuromaru brushed up against her, nosing her once. Hot breath steamed over her hand and she lifted it, scrubbing her fingers along his muzzle. "No." The word was choked. She cleared her throat. She wanted away from them. "No. We're going home." Home to the Inuzuka compound, where no matter what condition she was in right now they'd take her in and let her rest, guard her sleep.

As long as they didn't know what had happened. Did Raidou know? She couldn't think about that. Her hand tightened in Kuromaru's fur, and she felt him brace against her, supporting her. She looked down. He watched her, eyes wide and jaw open to pant desperately, yet still prepared for another run, another skirmish if she called on him. She took a breath. And another. If Raidou knew, it couldn't matter now. If he tried to stop her, she'd take him down. She just wanted to go home. Home, to sleep in safety, where no one--teammate or foe--could get her.

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Genma's feet hit the ground but his knees buckled and the torn muscles of his injured thigh spasmed in useless twitching. Raidou's strength kept him upright, but he could hear how close to the end of that strength his friend was. And Tsume... Something was so wrong with Tsume he couldn't begin to understand it, but he could guess it had something to do with the residual effects of the genjutsu that had snared them all. Kuromaru was bristling protectively against her, and surely close to falling himself with weariness after having carried Genma for so many miles.

Genma was mission leader, whether he could stand on his own or not. His team needed sleep. Needed to be done with their mission. Needed to not be in the clutches of people who wanted questions answered. Hospitals would lead to midnight debriefings, and in the state he was in--the state they were all in--that would just lead to confusion and unnecessary intervention by medics and Intel agents.

"We're fine. They're fine," he told the sentries, squaring his shoulders, pulling on chakra that almost wasn't there, ignoring the crushing pain in his core the effort engendered. "We're fine. Make a report in the morning. I'm agent 010203. Mark us in, all team present and only minor injuries."

He looked at Tsume and Kuromaru, and flashed a handful of scout signs at them. Go now. Regroup in twelve hours. Without waiting to see his order acknowledged he tugged against Raidou's arm, trusting his partner to know his intentions, and translocated away. He got all the way to ANBU HQ's front door before the last of his chakra gave out and he fell.

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"...I hate when he does that," Raidou said to no one in particular, too tired to be appropriately angry. He watched the sentries flap for another minute, squawking about procedure and ANBU and injuries, and turned his back on them. They were chuunin, maybe genin, they weren't ANBU. They didn't know.

He looked at Tsume, exhausted to the core of himself, and tapped two fingers against the spiral mark tattooed into his scarred shoulder. A salute. "Be safe," he rasped, with the barest curve of a smile. He nodded at Kuromaru, and translocated back to HQ.

Genma was sprawled by the front door. He was still breathing, still conscious. Raidou crouched next to him, shaking away the head-swimming vestiges of translocation-dizziness, and did what he always did when Genma fell over--picked him up.

It hurt. Raidou didn't waver.

"C'mon, idiot. Home's upstairs." He staggered towards the doors. "Think you're crashing at mine tonight."

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"My bed's bigger," Genma slurred, barely able to manage the muscular effort to form words. Any other motion besides the involuntary functions of respiration and circulation were lost to him, in a body shutting down with chakra depletion. His bed was bigger, and maybe Raidou would agree to that. "Don' leave m' 'lone," he added, as much afraid for Raidou as himself. If he was this depleted, how much worse must Raidou be after that run? You didn't leave a man alone when he was down. "No medics," he added. "Sleep."

He wondered if any of his instructions were even making it through to Raidou, who carried him over his shoulder, past the mission desk where Raidou signed the two of them back in, and up in the elevator to the quiet halls of the third floor. Raidou staggered and nearly fell against the wall, stopping in front of a pair of doors Genma knew were their own.

"My bed," he said again, in a voice no more than a whisper. "Bigger. Sleep."

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Raidou often took pride in being a logical man, but right now logic was hard. He gasped, failing to catch his breath once again, and looked at the two doors. Right--his own. Left--Genma's. His room was his, and he wanted to be home, but Genma was right.

Genma was always right, damn him.

Raidou grunted and forced himself to stand upright. "'kay," he gritted, forcing the words past teeth that ached from grinding them, and stepped towards Genma's door.

In the end he had to set the man down to get Genma's key and shape his own hands the right way to cancel the seals Genma had laid--that every ninja laid--to protect his home. It stole the last flecks of chakra he had left to spare, spinning the world grey. He didn't have the energy to pick Genma up again, even when he finally got the door open.

In the end it took everything Raidou had to catch his friend under the arms, drag him through into his apartment, kick the door closed, slap a paper seal over it, strip the armour from both of them, and crash down on double bed.

By the time he was done, Genma was already asleep. Raidou wrapped an arm around him, tugging the man close, and shut his eyes. He could breathe. He didn't have to run. No one could snatch Genma away without taking Raidou with him.

Finally he could sleep.

"Hope you have clean sheets," he mumbled, and fell away from the world.

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Tsume stood in the clouds dispersing from the translocation and looked at the two sentries who were still babbling and stuttering about reports and injuries and ANBU. Raidou was gone. Genma was gone. All the scents that had been triggering the memories had vanished. She pulled her mask off and hung it on her belt, breathing deeply of the fresh air.

Exhaustion set in. She lowered her chin, staring at the ninja from under her eyebrows, and walked straight forward. Translocating was too tiring. Her chakra pill had long since worn off, and she was beginning to tremble.

"Wait," one of the sentries said, and both moved to block her path. "Who's going to fill out reports?"

Their only answer was a lip-lifted snarl from Tsume and the snap of bone-white teeth from Kuromaru. Both sentries backed off in a rush, and the two ANBU walked through the gates unmolested.

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