It was pamphlet. And a hand-mirror.

Raidou caught them both by reflex, uncomprehending, and gave Genma a look that should have been fondly exasperated, but was just rage-wracked and confused. His chest was burning, inside and out, like someone had strapped a belt around it and added flame. Panic and pain and what--

Pamphlet. It was just a block of dense text, headed by Konoha's hospital insignia. The mirror was wooden-edged, stained dark and polished to a glossy sheen. Raidou turned it, caught a glimpse of himself: pale skin, one dark eye, a red warped river of melted...

He slapped the mirror face-down on the bed. Swallowed an empty breath.

Breathe. Think. He'd woken up with sloughing bandages; that had never happened before. He'd felt flesh run down the side of his neck; he knew what that meant. Genma had knocked him out, taken the last rags of bandages, done something that hurt, not called a medic, not rebandaged anything, screwed about with paper and platitudes and godsdamned mirrors...

Your burns are healing.

They couldn't have; it was too soon. Absent gods, they were open to the raw air and it felt like Genma had scoured them bloody. He'd catch something flesh-eating and it'd rot into his skin and his eyes and his brain. He had three younger brothers relying on him, just old enough to understand exactly what would happen. Had Genma to look out for, the man he'd just slept with (just punched), because Genma would do something suicidal-stupid without Raidou to keep a leash on him, but Genma had just ripped his scars off.

Raidou choked down bile, paper crackling as his hand clenched. He couldn't read the words, they were shaking too hard.

Genma was uncurling, sitting back up, unwounded hand falling slowly away from his chest. Finding stillness again. Raidou glanced sideways at him, seeing naked skin and old scars, gleaming evil metal and bed-mussed hair. Over-bright eyes, like soft gold. They'd walked through hell together, more than once. He'd carried Genma back to Konoha, let Genma shove numbing senbon through his chest, brought him off twice and felt nothing but brilliant about it...

Genma looked back at him, and Raidou's eyes burned.

"Trusted you," he forced out, through nausea and embers. He exhaled hard. "Still trust you. I can't -- I haven't looked at a mirror in ten years."