"Hey, even the best pirates had to pretend sometimes," said Raidou, breaking neatly into the conversation with a wide grin. "It's how they get good."

He'd been leaning against the main counter, tucked neatly to one side, and engaging in a long-winded argument with the desk-clerk about one Inuzuka Tsume when her entire clan--or at least a decent chunk of them--had descended on the hospital with two kids in tow. He'd caught the name 'Kiba', guessed the little girl was probably Hana, and figured he'd only needed to wait...

And there, right on cue, was Tsume. Admittedly in a wheelchair and clearly unhappy about it. But apparently alive and possessing all four limbs, so that was a good start. And far better than the rumours flying around HQ had led him to believe.

For starters, she was still breathing.

Raidou hitched his backpack onto one shoulder and raked a glance over her face, noting the signs of a Mission Gone Wrong. There was the bandage to start with, wrapped over her forehead, bulging at her temple where a pad was probably fixed, and slipping down to cover one ear. Then there was the pale skin; the shadows under her eyes; the wide pupils that suggested heavy painkillers...

But she was breathing, and if a head wound was her only issue, then there was really nothing to worry about.

Though her chakra did feel damn funny.

He shook his head, aware he'd zoned out with the kids still babbling, and unslung his backpack. "Hey, little boss. Heard you took one on the chin, so I figured I'd drop by and help you harass the nurses." His grin turned crooked as several sets of nostrils flared. "I brought steak."

Suddenly, her mouth was watering.

"You can't bring steak in here," the desk clerk squawked, coming around the side. He stopped short when faced with three fang-filled snarls, along with two canine familiars circling around the little group.

"You should know better than to take food from canines," Kiba chided. "You'll get bit!"

Tori smirked, one hand on her rounded stomach, the other at the small of her back, and let her lips fall back down over her teeth. "Relax, pup," she said to the desk clerk. "He obviously brought it for me."

"Over my dead body," Tsume muttered darkly.

"That," Tori said with great loftiness, "would not be hard to arrange right now. Taro, could you push your aunt to the visiting room? And--" she glanced at the scarred ninja, assessing his place in the shifting confines of their pack, "shinobi-san, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on Tsume's monsters... I'm just not up to running after them."

"I'm not a monster, Tori-obasan!" Hana protested instantly. "I'm 'most a genin!"

Tsume growled quietly, twisting to try and keep everyone in sight as Taro began pushing. Everyone was following, though, and she settled down, Kiba in her lap and the world swirling softly at the edges.

Steak. Raidou may have just become her very favorite person.

Raidou waved cheerfully the desk-clerk, now ensconced safely behind his desk once more, and followed the odd little family as they headed out of the lobby towards one of the hospital's less depressing rooms. Judging by his sudden ascension to baby-sitting-nin, he'd done something to gain approval.

Probably the steak.

He fell into place behind Hana, flanking Tsume's chair, and tried to guess who everyone was. Hana and Kiba were obvious, and the honorific gave away the pregnant lady--Tori--as Tsume's sister. The disgruntled looking teenager--Taro--had to be Tori's son.

Tsume, Tori, and Taro. Apparently Hana and Kiba were trend-breakers, or their middle names had double the amount of T's.

Raidou glanced absently at the circling dogs, not bothering to guess their names, and realized what was missing. Or rather, who; there was no sign of Kuromaru.

That was strange. He hoped the big dog hadn't been hurt--not for Kuromaru's sake, exactly, because as far as Raidou was concerned that was one wolfhound overdue for a good kick, but because Tsume would take the loss of her companion far worse than a mangled limb.

They reached the visiting room before Raidou had a chance to ask. He fell back and held the door open, keeping it there for both Tsume in her chair, the kids on foot, the dogs, and finally Tori bringing up the rear.

He nodded politely at her as she passed. "I'm sorry, I didn't say; I'm Namiashi Raidou. Pleasure." He drew a line down beneath one eye, indicating the tracks of tattoos with a wry smile. "You're Inuzuka Tori." He lowered his voice very slightly. "How badly is she hurt?"

"I can hear you from over here," Tsume grumbled.

"I can hear you, too!" Kiba chimed in happily. "Can I have some steak too, Namiashi-san?"

Tori gave Raidou a disgruntled smile. "Sadly, it's nothing she won't recover from."

"You are so funny," Tsume growled back.

Tori's smile broadened, though she didn't look away from the ninja holding the door. She slid inside the room, turning so her back was to the group at large, and flicked ninja code across her rounded stomach. Mostly chakra damage. They're hopeful. It was really all she had time for before the cubs wanted to know what she was secretly saying, and were coming around to find out.

"I was saying," Tori said, ushering Kiba away, "that you're both pests and we're here to get you all chickenpox vaccines!"

Both kids squealed and scurried away, hiding behind their wheelchair-bound mother.

Taro looked bored and pulled out a chair, then vacated it quickly when Tori glared at him. She sat, and he pulled out another. "So," he asked, watching Raidou curiously, "are you ANBU, too?"

Tsume glared around the room, hoping against hope there were plates. Or at least a kunai. "Yes, he lives on my floor. Crotchticks, I'm starving. If you're going to smell like meat you could at least come closer."

"Taro--" Tori began.

"Yeah, okay, plates." He dragged himself to his feet, still eyeing Raidou curiously. "Do I need to get anything else? What have you got in that pack?"

"Evidence of my psychic ability," said Raidou, perfectly straightfaced. There was a bare wooden table pushed against one wall. He headed for it and set the rucksack down, ferreting in the pack to withdraw a large tupperware container filled with sliced steak and several sets of chopsticks. "No plates, sorry. But I figured knowing Tsume she wouldn't be the only one in trouble. Or hungry."

There was a definite starving edge to the air when he popped the plastic lid off; Tsume's pupils weren't the only ones suddenly dilated. Raidou concealed a grin, went to toss her a pair of chopsticks, and hesitated. He handed them carefully over instead, rolling the words chakra damage around in his head, and offered the remaining sets to her family.

"Go nuts," he said to the room at large, and dropped himself into a chair. "And then I want to hear all about whoever tried to put their initials on your skull," he added to Tsume. "I hope you killed them good and dead."

Tsume grabbed the container and pulled it down into her lap, deciding suddenly that maybe it wasn't so bad being in a wheelchair, armed with chopsticks. She jabbed Taro once and he pulled back, looking injured. She glared at him, snarfed the first bite, growled at Kiba when he tried to horn in, then relented and gave her cub a quick smile.

Both her children took the softening for what it was and dove into the food, though Tsume gave Taro another hard look when he tried.

With a glower he settled back, leaning on the table near his mother, who hadn't bothered to even reach for a pair of chopsticks.

"Did you kill 'em good and dead, Ma?" Kiba asked around a mouthful.

"Dedder'n zombies," Tsume assured him, and popped another bite of steak into her mouth. She ate three more before chewing became more effort than it was worth, and she slid the tupperware back onto the table.

With an annoyed look, Taro stabbed a piece of steak and stuffed it determinedly into his mouth, glaring at her as if he'd won the battle--even though they both knew he hadn't.

Hana looked at her doubtfully. "Did they carve initials on your skull?"

"Of course not. Raidou is just being a goof."

Hana stuck the chopsticks in her mouth and sucked on them, regarding Raidou thoughtfully. Then she turned back to the steak.

Tsume pulled a bit of something seed-like out of her teeth, crunching it. "That was really good. Remind me to hit you up for food when the cafeteria's closed." She flashed a grin, feeling tape and skin pull but too drugged for any of it to hurt. Her smile eased, and she regarded him thoughtfully.

She wouldn't have expected a hospital visit from a friendship formed in a rotten mission and a drunken night, but then, there had been extenuating circumstances. She couldn't quite decide how comfortable she was with him now, aware that he was still in peak condition and she... wasn't.

"How bad are the rumors?" she asked instead, remembering sending her clone back. Remembering Kakashi's reaction, and knowing it had talked to more people.

Raidou played with the last set of chopsticks Tori hadn't taken, spinning them absently through his fingers. "Pretty much what you'd expect," he said finally, glancing at Hana. He wouldn't have minded speaking openly in front of Kiba, or any the other relatives scattered around, but Hana had the look of a sensitive kid. He didn't want to give her nightmares. "You're going to have some very surprised people tripping over themselves when you get back."

Assuming she did. Hopeful didn't mean healed.

He leaned his chin on one hand, careful not to poke an eye out with a chopstick, and returned her thoughtful look. He wondered vaguely if she was surprised to see him, and figured she could join the club. He was a little surprised to find himself here, considering everything.

But still, she was almost a friend. And she was definitely a teammate. It was just what you did.

Besides, emotional uncertainty was no reason to deprive anyone of decent food, and the hospital sure couldn't cook. Unless you counted jell-o as a nourishing substance.

"Next time you send a message," he added a shade more cryptically, "I'd make sure it doesn't splash all over the floor. You gave the poor desk lady a hell of a scare."

And everyone else, he didn't say.

Tsume flinched, gaze flicking away. "It got that bad, huh?" She resisted the urge to reach up and touch the bandages hiding her face, to make sure she was still whole. Suddenly, she didn't know. She'd woken in such a frenzy to find Kuromaru and then Ryouma, and she'd passed out again as soon as that was done...

There was a dull sort of throbbing ache despite the painkillers, but when she focused on it, it spread across half her face. Surely not that much was missing. She twitched a cheek muscle and felt tape pull, marginally reassured that it didn't tug clear down on her chin.

She could still see out of both eyes. That was something.

"What got that bad, Ma?" Kiba asked after a beat of silence.

She glanced at him, her eyes widening dramatically. "My message. It fell apart. All gooey and gross."

Kiba grinned.

Hana shook her head in disappointment. "You're supposed to make messages strong enough to last."

Tsume sobered, nodding. "I'll practice."

If her clone had been rotting away, though... it explained why Kakashi had been so worried. She'd felt the chakra roil through her, channeled it into the doppleganger to keep it from rooting in her own body. It could have stayed.

Suddenly, the steak wasn't sitting very well.

"Do you need to go back to your room?" Tori asked, eyeing her.

"No, I don't need to go back to my flea-infested room," Tsume snapped. She glanced sharply at Raidou, and gave him an edged smile. "At least I've just made my reputation as an unkillable ANBU, huh? Someone should have taken pictures. We could have hiked our prices."

Nostrils were flaring again. Raidou watched as the adults shifted uneasily and the kids looked confused--until Tsume distracted them. How much did those noses really tell them, he wondered.

Well, he had eyes that worked just as well. And it wasn't exactly hard to notice that new green tint rising on Tsume's cheeks, clashing nastily with her tattoos. Perhaps it had been too soon for steak. Or for bad news.

He flicked his chopsticks into his other hand, the one he wasn't leaning on, and spun them again. "You start hiking your prices, little boss," he said with a smile much softer than hers, "and they really will kill you. There's nothing harder toseparate than a nobleman and his money, after all."

He eyed the kids, watching them fidget a little. Tsume looked about as happy.

"You want to head outside for a bit?" Raidou asked on impulse. "Get some fresh air, let your brats run around like mad things where people won't care. The weather's nice. And there's a legend that the hospital have got gardens somewhere, though I've never seen them."

"Yeah," Tsume said, before she could give it too much thought. "You guys want to see if we could find the gardens?" She didn't look at Tori, already feeling the glare her sister was giving her. "And Tori and Taro can stay to make sure someone's around when Yasuo shows up?"

"I don't think--" Tori began.

"Good. Don't think," Tsume barked.

Tori bristled, drawing herself up straight in her chair. "Tsume--"

She winced. "Okay, okay, sorry, that was rude. Just give me a minute, all right? We'll be fine. He's a teammate." That, she could say with utter honesty. He'd brought food. How predatory could he be if he'd brought food? She couldn't make out the way his scent varied under hospital smells and steak and whatever they'd put on her face, but she didn't think he was dangerous.

If he were, she'd have known it after their rotten mission.

Tori looked over Tsume's head, regarding Raidou. "She's not to leave the hospital grounds. And if she starts looking tired, bring her back--no matter what she says."

"I'm not a cub," Tsume yelped, but Tori just kept talking over her.

"And don't let her get out of that wheelchair. The nurses weren't even happy letting her out of her room..."

"Everyone is so overprotective," she muttered darkly. "Can we go?"

Kiba said something, but it was mangled around steak.

"What about my puppies?" Hana asked finally.

"They can stay here with Tori and Taro." Lugging them around wouldn't last long, and Tsume didn't want to argue with hospital staff.

"I can sniff out the gardens, Ma!" Kiba announced, finally swallowing.

Hana reached down to overturn her backpack, letting the cubs tumble out. "You can not. All you can smell is medicine."

"Can to!"

"Be careful," Tori murmured, but she remained in her seat as puppies tumbled under her. It was as close to an okay as Tsume expected, and more than she thought she needed. She looked away, hands settling on the bars of the wheels as if, should she not start moving soon, she'd do it herself.

Raidou chuckled, amused by the sheer... domesticity of the scene. He rose to his feet before Tsume hurt herself and got him executed by a vengeful sister, and saluted at Tori. "Don't worry, we'll treat her like glass. All delicate and fragile..."

He grinned at Tsume's disgruntled glare and grabbed the wheelchair, steering it carefully towards the door. Kiba and Hana followed, staying behind his back. He glanced over his shoulder. "You guys want to go upfront and lead the way? We're heading back the way you came in."

Kiba scampered forwards eagerly. Hana seemed a little more hesitant.

"Or you can stick by your mom," Raidou suggested. "Just don't get whacked by a wheel. I'd hate to have to push around two of you."

That earned him a bright little giggle. He grinned as Hana looked at little shocked at herself and waited until she settled herself next to Tsume, then resumed pushing. The wheelchair was an ungainly monstrosity that insisted on pulling left; he wrestled it around the corner and back into the lobby, keeping a sharp eye on Kiba's quick-moving figure.

The sun shone brightly through the wide lobby doors, illuminating grey carpet and greyer wallpaper. Raidou glanced through a broad window and saw distant trees shaking in a heavy breeze.

"Hmm," he said. "Hang on one sec..."

It was the work of a stealthy moment to steal a neatly folded hospital blanket from a nearby nurse's cart. He draped it over Tsume's lap before she could protest, laughing as Kiba fairly danced with impatience.

"Like glass, remember?" he said, regarding the renewed blue-eyed glare thrown his way. "I might get decapitated if I brought you back with a cold. Lead on, brat!" he added for Kiba's benefit, and resumed pushing.

"But I'm not glass," she muttered, slouching ever lower in the wheelchair. And crotchfleas, she could barely see out of one eye. She reached up to tear at the bandaging again, as carefully as possible. Gauze shredded under her slightly pointed fingernails.

She tried not to notice how warily Hana was keeping beside them, and how her daughter hadn't actually touched her. Kiba's leap she'd expected; Hana's distance, she hadn't.

"Do you actually know the way to the gardens?" she asked, glowering at a nurse who frowned at Kiba. "Or are we really exploring?"

The nurse glowered back. Raidou counted off three mental seconds and hid a smile when she noticed the scarlet swirl not quite hidden by the rucked-up sleeve of Tsume's hospital gown. She made a flustered exit.

"Both, actually," he answered, steering Tsume out of the door. "Back when I was about... oh, fourteen or so, there used to be some fairly nice bits of landscaping around the back. But I haven't looked since then. There was a pond if I remember right."

It had made a nice retreat for a shell-shocked chuunin trying to come to terms with the wreck of his face; just as long as he'd remembered not to look at himself in the water's reflection.

"Kiba," he called, getting the boy's attention. "There's a path that way." He pointed to a thin trail of light-coloured paving stones disappearing around the corner of the building. "Wanna see where it leads?"

The boy hooted and charged off.

"Nice kid," said Raidou, and wondered if he'd need to summon up a baby-sitting clone in a minute.

"He's a brat," Hana said pertly. "Ma, he stole my sports bra that Tori-obasan got me for school and hid it in a tree trunk."

Tsume gave her daughter a wry glance. "Hana, why are you wearing a sports bra?" At ten, it wasn't like she needed one.

"Ma," she hissed, with an overly dramatic look at Raidou, crossing her arms high over her chest and sticking her hands in her armpits. It effectively covered her non-existent breasts.

"Oh, okay, sorry," Tsume snorted.

Hana blushed and glared at them both.

Now what was wrong? Girls would forever be a mystery to her. "Why don't you go check on your brother?"

With one final disappointed look and a little head shake, Hana lengthened her stride and trotted after Kiba. "Kiii-ba! Don't eat that!"

Tsume's nose wrinkled. She didn't want to know. The breeze danced around them, washing away the scents of the hospital. Though she'd never admit it, she was glad for the blanket. Hospital pajamas weren't exactly heavy material.

She needed to ask how bad she looked--how far the damage extended. Instead she found herself asking, "So, the clone didn't pull through very well, huh?"

"Depends on your definition," said Raidou slowly, wishing he was in a position to read Tsume's expression. The back of her head didn't tell him much. "I just got the rumours, but it sounded like it pretty much... dissolved."

From some sort of decomposing attack. On a mission Tousaki had been involved in. It didn't take a genius to work that out. For their sakes, Raidou hoped it hadn't been as bad as the rumours suggested; it'd be a shame to see his new neighbour get executed for turning on his comrades.

"But you look pretty much in one piece," he continued, keeping half an ear on the kid's yells. "Disregarding the new head-decoration, anyway. So what really happened? People're saying the rookie tried to take you out, but his neck isn't exactly on the chopping block--" and would hopefully stay that way, "--so I figure that's not even half the full story."

Hatake was involved, too, Raidou knew. He wondered where the genius fit in, or if the whole thing had been a straight up rescue. There were more rumours about that--something about him and the rookie getting spotted together on a riverbank. And yet more about Tsume and Tousaki in the showers...

The whole thing was a budding soap opera, he thought, slightly amused under his concern.

Tsume opened her mouth to defend Ryouma--hotly--and then paused. They hadn't been debriefed, and she didn't know how much would be kept under wraps. She rattled her fingers over the wheelchair arms, scratching her nails across plastic and feeling the vibration up into her knuckles.

"They saw how his jutsu worked," she said finally. "Decided the perfect way to stop him was to fling me at him." She paused again, playing through what had really happened--Kuromaru's leap, the rot spreading anyway, Ryouma's torture.

"Kuromaru," she said slowly, choosing her words with care and finding it difficult to do so past the drug haze, "tried to catch me. He's..." listening to him scream as Ryouma cut off his ear and cauterized it "...worse." She didn't explain about the chakra lines. It was too much information for someone who didn't need to know, who wasn't Inuzuka.

This was why they kept the lines under wraps. If people knew how to use them--

Not too far away, there was a splash. Tsume winced.

The torture wasn't hers to tell. Whether or not Ryouma chose to was for him to decide. Her nails scratched against plastic again. "From there it just got worse." Her smile was humorless. "You know how teeth snapping missions go. One thing leads to another... leads to another... leads to a rescue..."

"And a hospital visit for a coda," Raidou finished, amusement vanishing. "Damn, I'm sorry. Sounds like you really got dragged over the coals."

Tousaki, too. Raidou winced. He'd met the kid a few times; enough to get a basic read on his personality. Wasn't hard to guess what kind of state he'd be in, with a teammate's blood on his hands. And that didn't even count injuries.

Then there was Tsume's dog. Damn, what a mess.

Raidou almost dropped an automatic hand on her fine-boned shoulder before he remembered himself and scratched the back of his neck instead. In the distance it sounded like the kids had discovered the pond. Judging by the screams, they were exploring it enthusiastically.

"So what about the bastards that got you?" he asked finally, settling on a response not flavoured with sympathy. "Definitely deader'n dead, or are we looking at some interesting upcoming missions?"

If there was a retaliatory strike, he wanted to be in it.

She relaxed as the sympathy didn't continue, mind churning. What had happened to the ninja? "Killed most of 'em," she said, frowning as she remembered calling the Wolf, watching Him tear apart the bunker and the people, relieved when He brought Ryouma back. There had been another. She remembered running...

It was all hazy. Unfocused. Her mind felt sluggish. She reached up to rub her eyes, and cursed as she pressed against the bandage and pain spiked through her temple. It dragging unwanted tears free.

She blinked rapidly, and remembered coming out of a genjutsu, the smell of seared flesh assaulting her. Oh yeah.

"Last I remember, Kakashi had the survivor. He was missing an arm. I assume, since Kakashi's in our room, that he's been turned over to Intel." She probably should have found out before she left. She probably should have gotten any details before she left. She probably shouldn't have left until someone had debriefed them...

Oh well.

She leaned back, letting her head rest against the sagging material. "I've actually only been awake a few hours. 'Fraid I'm a bit low on information." Her mouth quirked. "Except that we made it home." Her gaze flicked up, her head tipped a bit more, and she could see Raidou. Upside down. Heh.

"Things must be slow at headquarters, though, if you're checking on returned ANBU. Or the rumors were really interesting." Or she'd been out longer than she thought.

Her chakra wasn't moving right. She couldn't feel Kuromaru. Her energy levels were so low she doubted she'd be able to stand. She wondered how long she'd been out, after all.

And how bad she looked.

"How long's it been?"

"Since you got back? About two days, give or take. There was a hell of a parade when Hatake dragged the lot of you in on his bloody huge dogs." With Haruichi, too. Not to mention a half-dead enemy nin. By that point half of ANBU--Raidou included--had been standing on red alert, waiting to see if the half-understood betrayal Tsume's clone had reported was going to spin into something much worse.

Which it hadn't, fortunately. And wouldn't if Tsume's story was accurate.

He glanced down at her, finally able to see her face now she was looking up, and caught the gleam of tears in drug-glassy eyes. A reaction to pain, hopefully, he caught himself thinking, and wondered when that had become the preferable alternative.

This time he didn't stop himself putting a brief hand on her shoulder; she could see it coming now, at least, so the gesture wouldn't startle.

"So," he said, settling the chair in a sunny spot and adopting a bright tone, "what's all this 'we' business? You and the rookie and Hatake? In the same room, no less! If I'm pushing your doped-up self around and watching your kids, I think I deserve to get the real gossip."

There was a low wall next to them. He sat on it, glancing briefly at the kids in question. They were trying to drown each other in the nearby pond, with varying success.

"And don't leave anything out," he added. "I know for a fact that won't be classified."

Tsume eyed her children and was briefly glad they were going home with Tori. Tsume didn't have to worry about how muddy they got. When she was sure they weren't really going to kill each other, she let her head roll to look at Raidou.

"Yeah, all three of us," she said, unconcerned. "There's not much to tell, really. They were already together when I got out of surgery." She smiled, teasing. "All three of us in the same bed was a little crowded, but Ryouma has a broad chest..."

Then she shrugged, still amused. "You know how it is. You get back off a rotten mission, you stick together. I don't know what Kakashi did to get there, but he's looped, now. Didn't even wake when I left." She thought about it, trying to remember. "I'm kinda surprised we didn't crush Ryouma, actually..."

Raidou briefly recalled Tousaki showing up at Genma's place to find both himself and Genma in the bed together--and completely drawing the wrong conclusion. With a small spark of glee, he allowed himself to do exactly the same thing. If nothing else, it would make him King of Gossip for a week.

"You are terrifyingly heavy," he agreed, perfectly deadpan. "We'll be amazed if the poor lad can still breathe." For a half-second he paused, considering the unintentional double-meaning of his words, then ignored it. If every minor slip of the tongue came with a flinch, ninja would never manage a decent conversation.

He leaned forward and cupped his chin in one hand, pleased to see Tsume smile. If she could grin, and Tousaki, Hatake, and herself had ended up in one bed, things couldn't be too bad.

Or they were a whole lot worse; sometimes grabbing hold of a teammate was the only thing left to do.

Raidou shoved that thought aside.

"So let me get this right," he said, teasing right back. "You had not one, but two perfectly attractive men all to yourself in close quarters--disregarding the fact that at least one of them was unconscious--and the only gossip you're giving me is Tousaki has a broad chest? For shame, little boss."

Her grin widened at the name that was, apparently, sticking around. She chuckled. "I can tell you... Ryouma has some very interesting tattoos." One was half gone--she didn't think about that, but drew a line over the blanket, low along her hip, where the dagger rested. She didn't have to mention she only knew about that because she'd seen him naked in the shower one day. "And, uh..." Her eyes unfocused. "Kakashi growls." At least, she thought she remembered a growl in there somewhere. It could have come from her. It could have come from a dog. But it could have come from the genius...

Kiba bellowed. It was cut off as Hana shoved him under water, and he came up coughing. Tsume watched for half a second, long enough to see her son lunge at her daughter. If he was lunging, he wasn't dying.

She frowned as scent-memory drifted to her consciousness. Something about Kakashi and Ryouma and... and... She straightened a little, pulling the blanket up as it slipped down. "Is he gay?"

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"Uh huh," said Raidou finally. "That whole 'not that it matters' qualifier would be much more convincing if you didn't look like your teeth were about to break off." It felt a little cheap to point out Tsume's poor lying skills when she was obviously injured and drugged, but there was gossip at stake! And he was fairly convinced that if the situation had been reversed, she'd do exactly the same thing.

Besides, he was interested. Hatake possibly walking the other side of the street was old news, but Tousaki was brand shiny new. And Raidou knew a few kunoichi who'd definitely want the scoop on that. Probably a few men, too.

Oh yes, gossip king.

"So what makes you think one likes the other? Or vice versa." He considered. "Actually, what makes you think Hatake likes anyone? I think that's been proven a logical impossibility."

Tsume glowered. "My teeth are only about to break off because my face hurts," she lied further, refusing to meet his gaze. She lifted a hand, feeling for the edges of the gauze, and tugged carefully at a loose corner.

Her cubs squealed, drawing her focus. She let go quickly, realizing that if it looked half as bad as it could under the bandages...

She angled a look up at the man next to her, where he relaxed on the low wall. Sunshine gave his hair a coppery tint, and warmed the hard planes of his face. "The pup might be a bastard, but he's also young and hormonal." She tapped her nose, mouth twisting wryly. "He likes people." Then she straightened out, blinking for a moment until the world stopped spinning. "But I could be wrong." A frown creased the skin between her brows. "I can't quite remember... but I'm sure I smelled it..." Nails scratched along her arm, then she reached down and tucked the blanket up over one shoulder.

Should have grabbed a second. That would have been great.

Raidou lifted an eyebrow. Apparently scent said much more than he'd guessed. He glanced at Tsume, opening his mouth to tease again, and caught the dizzy flash that slipped over her bandaged face for a moment. Did she look paler?

The way she hitched the blanket up answered that question. He frowned slightly, hoping that slur was just drugs and not something worse, and stripped his sweater off.

"Hey, lady," he said, catching her attention. "No crashing on me. If you start to feel worse, you tell me. I've got no plans on letting your sister gnaw my head off."

He draped the sweater over her, arranging it matter-of-factly to cover her upper body and bare arms, grateful she was small enough that it almost worked like a second blanket.

"And don't give me that look. Recovery's all part of the job, same as any other part. No point getting twitchy about it." He grinned wryly, hiding a flash of worry as he studied hazy blue eyes. "So Hatake smells hormonal and Tousaki smells gay, huh? Do I want to know how much more your nose tells you?"