A muscle in her jaw jumped. "Pain meds don't work so well on Inuzuka. We'd have to knock him out," she murmured back, just as quietly.

"No." Kuromaru's growl wasn't as deep in his human skin, didn't have the same reverberation that it did coming from a wolfen throat.

"Easy, pup. We're not knocking you out," Tsume soothed. To Raidou she added, "Canines can cope with a lot more than humans can. He'll be all right." And he would be, even if the scent of pain radiating from him at the moment made her muscles lock up into knots. The worst was over; the rest would fade into a dull throb, something he could ignore with the stoicism of a ninja and the single-mindedness of a canine.

"Okay, cubs." She turned and knelt, one knee bent. "Who wants to ride piggyback and who wants to be carried?"

They both wanted to be carried. Tsume elected Aoi to take the first piggyback turn and tossed her up, instructing her to hold on tight, then picked up the boy and hugged him to her scarred chestplate. Getting home had suddenly become more important than simply being safe. Getting home meant fixing Kuromaru's back--even if it was his own pus-rotted fault it was hurt. Tsume set off through the forest at a fast clip, summoning a clone to run along ahead.