| [May. 4th, 2009|05:14 pm] |
The halos were already clearing from Genma's sight. Dark purplish blotches flared in the center of his vision, but at the periphery he could make out details. A curving concrete hall, lit with flourescents. He was still shaking, heart still racing. Raidou was solid at his back, sucking in gasping lungfuls of air.
It was eerily quiet. Genma reached up with his right hand, touching the side of Raidou's neck with gently-questing fingertips. Raidou flinched, shying away from him, then relaxed, allowing the intimacy, and Genma felt for a pulse that hammered as hard as his own. Felt for a chakra as familiar as his own, coursing like a river of light under the skin--warm, rich green, a texture like a bed of woven pine needles.
The door behind them shuddered, bringing reality crashing back. Confused memories of Iwagakure scrabbled at the edges of Genma's thoughts, but the taste of the poison was still on his tongue, the slick choking sensation still in his windpipe. And Raidou was still at his back, breathing hard, groaning every third or fourth breath as if he was in unbearable pain.
The medic in Genma calculated probabilities. A bruised sternum, broken ribs, those burns on Raidou's chest. Maybe something worse. A head injury, a clot in the lungs... Kanon Bosatsu, don't save us from one death only to abandon us to another! Raidou's pulse was still strong. His breaths pained but regular. His chakra diminished, but flowing easily. Genma let himself cling to that hope.
He could feel himself shaking, looked down at the bloody, broken hand he cradled against his chest, and realized it was shock that was making it possible for him to be so detached from his own brutalized body.
The door shuddered again.
"Seals. Burn them--up. Need--seals," he said, voice a breathy, raw rasp. He took a deeper breath, struggled to lean forward. Pain flared from his right side, engulfing him like the exploding tags he wanted to use on the trapped enemy ninja. For a moment, he stopped breathing.
When he came to himself again, he was cradled against Raidou's bandaged chest, looking up into frantic brown eyes. |
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