A/N: This is a fic based on a series of ten prompts over at the 10_what_ifs community on livejournal. The theme set I'm using is Spaceship. So , if you've figured it out, this is going to be a AU fic. The particular prompt for this chapter is 10. Malfunctions.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

No Wonder He Got Shot

It had been several weeks on The Courtesan and Ino was finally settled into a routine. She was also well settled into living in the passengers' dorm with its constant foot traffic, most of which came from the family of three children. Ino had gotten used to the noise. She had even volunteered to watch the kids for a few hours once a week to give their haggard parents a bit of respite. In several more weeks, the family would depart after spending a month on the ship. Apparently they were relocating for the father's new job placement.

The Courtesan was currently orbiting around the planet Nanaja, a dry third-order planet. It was rough around the edges, and full of illegal commerce (it was the only kind of business that was lasting and made money). But it was also one of the best places to sell... whatever the Courtesan had to sell. Ino wasn't too sure what The Courtesan actually had for trade in its cargo bay. Every time she posed the question to Haku, all she got was a vague explanation. It was a little suspicious. It was also a little suspicious how sometimes Ino saw Sasuke and Kisame depart early in the morning in one of the smaller craft attached to the underside of The Courtesan.

On those days it seemed like the air on the ship was still and full of tension. Haku always seemed distracted on those days. Ino's questions about where the two men went were also answered vaguely. It all seemed a little... off. However, common sense and the prettily worded warning that she had gotten from the Captain weeks ago stopped her from getting too interested.

She was doing exactly what she had said she was going to do – give Kisame no reasons to complain about her. Which was harder than it sounded. Kisame was one of the most aggravating people Ino had ever met, and it seemed like he was doing it on purpose. Not only was he still rude to her, but he was also starting to get lecherous. He never laid a hand on her, never even brushed past her, but the way he would look at her sometimes... it really made her want to slap his smarmy smile off his shark face. But she couldn't, she just sighed and did her best to avoid him. It really sucked to hold her tongue.

Thankfully Haku seemed more than willing to listen to Ino's problems. The brunette had been more than helpful in assuaging her worries about being kicked off the ship. It was the closest to being angry that Ino had seen Haku for the short while that they had known each other. Meals in the mess hall had had a very cautious air, with Haku being cold to all the crew that showed up. It cleared up after a couple days, and it seemed everything was back to normal. Well, normal-ish. Ino was still pretending to be the demure female she appeared to be. It was way harder than it looked.

Ino sighed, flinging her pen down. She stared at several offending locks of hair that had escaped her ponytail. Snapping her elastic out of her hair, Ino aggressively ran her fingers through her blonde locks, fingernails scraping at her scalp. She had a nasty tension headache that was just making her hate everything, including the hair hanging in front of her face. Why the hell did I leave it long all these years?

Because in those masculine, boxy Coalition uniforms you wanted something to make you feminine, an inner voice supplied.

Oh yeah... Ino huffed. Cursing her vanity, Ino went back to her paperwork, leaving her long hair to hang freely.

With her headache making everything fuzzy and her concentration on her work it took her a while to figure out what was happening down the hall. A nasty verbal arguement was taking place and it was coming closer to her station. What the hell is going on? Lover's spat?

Ino wondered if she should page the bridge and report the disruption when Haku walked into her infirmary with Zabuza close behind.

"This isn't necessary, you can patch him up fine! We don't need her!" Zabuza growled.

Haku shot back, "You're so damn stubborn. This isn't somethingthat just needs a couple of stitches. We need a medic, for god's sake."

Zabuza looked like he was about say something else, and it wasn't going to be friendly, when Ino decided to disable the argument. "Did someone ask for a medic?"

Haku smiled at her, but it didn't reach her eyes. She answered with a yes the same time Zabuza shouted no. Both looked at each other Zabuza glaring and Haku pleading her with her eyes.

"I already told you-" Zabuza barked before Haku interrupted him.

"I know what you said, but I don't know what to do! Do you want to explain to Itachi why we didn't use a medic we have to save his brother?"

If the whole argument didn't already pique her interest that last bit of tidbit certainly did. This doesn't sound good, at all.

Ino was about to ask another question when Kisame came into the infirmary carrying a limp body.

The blonde woman felt rattled to her core. "Sasuke? What the hell happened?"

A grim expression was on Kisame's face. "He got hurt."

No shit, Ino wanted to say, but kept her mouth shut. It wasn't the time for petty squabbling. "Haku, drop a sterile paper sheet on top of the medical chair. Kisame, when that's done, put Sasuke in the chair, gently." Ino hit the button to make the window of the medical bay go from transparent to opaque with an elbow, and twisted her hair into a bun with practices motions. By that point, Sasuke was nestled into the chair. With a some more quick movements she had the levers on the chair set so that it was horizontal - more like a two foot by six gurney.

Ino pointed to Zabuza and Haku, "You and you, out." Ino wanted to take the words back as soon as she said them. Damn, why do I have to be so bossy in a crisis? Haku didn't seem affronted, but then Ino knew the brunette wouldn't. It took a lot to ruffle Haku's feathers. Zabuza, on the hand, looked he had bitten into something sour.

A growl from Kisame seemed to knock the fight out of him, and the engineer followed Haku out. Kisame made to do the same but Ino halted him with a word. "Uh-uh. Not you. Sit over there," she said gesturing to the recessed couch in the far wall

Ino bustled quickly to get all necessary sterile equipment and medicine and Sasuke hooked up to the machines before she put on a hair cap, face mask and sterile gloves.

All the rushing around and the earlier excitement of the argument made Ino's heart beat fast. This was technically her first ever emergency that she had to do solo. Just remember what they taught you – first off, diagnose the trauma.

Well that was easy enough. The machines indicated that Sasuke wasn't having problems with his breathing or his heart. There was a nasty wound on Sasuke's lower abdomen; there was also a bruise on his jaw. Through the tatters of Sasuke shirt it looked like a burn, if the shiny texture and the inflamed colour of his skin was any indication. There were also some burnt pieces fabric melted into the skin. That needed tending to first, the bruise could wait. She carefully but quickly cut away the fabric, mentally twinging when the full wound was revealed.

It reminded her of the pattern buckshot would make, if buckshot used thin little needles rather than little balls of metal. There were several dozen little puncture marks with little rods of metal sticking out and marring Sasuke's stomach. A burn ringed each little hole. This looks like he got hit by an Incinerary round. Incinerary rounds were nasty pieces of work. There were little needles of metal that were coated with alkali metals. When the needles entered the body, they would react violently with the moisture, causing severe burns even on the inside of the body, and a slow death of infection if untreated. In really bad cases the little fiery needles could make it to a vital organ. The Coalition had outlawed them for decades.

With a coldness creeping over her, Ino booted up the electronic diagnostics computer. She needed to find out, and quick, if any of the little needles had made into Sasuke's digestive tract or another organ. If there was Sasuke's chances of survival would drop by at least twenty percent depending on the damage. A bright emerald light crisscrossed over Sasuke's body before a hologram made of the same green light hovered above the man.

EDC's, as electronic diagnostics computers were called for short, were a revolutionary piece of tech for the medical world. They acted like a combination of an x-ray, MRI and a CT scan, without any risk of side-effects from radiation. They provided different levels of diagnoses that could be viewed via the hologram. The only negative thing about the things was they ate up a lot of energy in a powercell – which weren't cheap.

Ino sighed in relief when she couldn't see any tears in Sasuke's organs, and the EDC revealed that the Incinerary round had only embedded itself as deep as the boy's abdominal muscles. But it was still nasty, because she would have to remove each and every one, and treat the third degree burns. It seemed like a monumental task. There was a reason why freshly graduated were put on small space vessels – so they could get a chance to cut their teeth, but not get overwhelmed by serious medical cases like she was facing now. Come on, don't panic, it's just like lab homework. Just breathe. One thing at a time.

Ino double-checked Sasuke's vitals, which were still stable. The only thing that was bugging her was that despite the wound Sasuke should still have retained some consciousness, despite the shock. And then she remembered the fresh bruise on Sasuke's pretty face.

"Did you punch him?" Ino asked, incredulous, as she gave Sasuke a cocktail of painkillers and a light sedative. It wouldn't do have to him wake up whilst she was in the middle of the minor operation she needed to perform.

Kisame had a faraway look in his eyes that turned almost sheepish when he realized her question. "I might have. The kid was panicking, and moving around. He was only gonna hurt himself in that state, so I might have... persuaded him."

Ino snorted while dropping one needle into a metal tray. One down, a gazillion to go! "You persuaded him? I hope you don't ever have to persuade me for anything."

A nervous chuckle before silence came back. Except for the metallic plink as needles were dropped into the tray.

"Mind if I ask what happened? It'd help me as a medical officer," Ino asked, filling the void. Talking was helping her from feeling panicked. This was the most serious injury she had to ever deal with solo. She also had questions to ask Kisame; it was the whole point why she asked him to stay behind. He was the one with Sasuke, so Kisame ought to know what happened.

"He got shot," was the point blank answer.

Ino growled, "Yeah, by an Incinerary round. They happen to be illegal. Have been for years. Hell, I didn't know anyone would still carry them – they're useless unless you get someone at point-blank range or you're just sadistic." Oh great, now I'm rambling.

"Another thing," Ino said, making a little incision before fishing out another offending piece of metal, "Why would you come here. This is serious. He could have had organ damage while you trucked back up here. It would have made more sense to go to the hospital in Humm. That's where you went right? To Nanaja's capital?"

Kisame hesitated before answering. "We weren't in Humm, we were about three hours south-west. Three hours versus three minutes to the ship? Do the math. Besides you're doing fine."

Ino continued at her work, feeling aggravated, if a little elated. They told me it was just a simple trade down in the capital! What else have they been lying about? And did Kisame just give me a compliment? "What the hell were you doing out there? Nanaja is a third-order planet; there's nothing out there but rocks and desert. Oh, and criminals. Lots and lots of criminals. It's no wonder Sasuke got shot. But why be out that way unless you've got some illegal going on? Like, I dunno, you're some kind of space pirate."

It was a rhetorical question, but the way the silence spread made butterflies dance in Ino's stomach. She chanced a look up, and Kisame was looking at her, a challenge in his eyes. He was daring her to make a comment.

Well, fuck, this explains a lot, don't it? Was the revelation quickly followed by a panicked, Fuck, I'm on a ship full of space pirates?

"Out," Ino commanded, hoping Kisame hadn't noticed the shake in her voice.

"Why?" Kisame groused, a stubborn look on his face.

"Because I have work to do, and you're distracting me," was the curt answer. It was a lie, they both knew that, but Ino needed him out of the room.

He gave her a look before leaving, the doors swishing as they closed behind him.

Ino took a deep breath, trying to relax. I'm okay, I'm okay, everything is alright. I'm safe. Just focus on your job. It's gonna be okay.

Ino placed all her attention on the task at hand, ignoring the possibly dangerous situation she was in. She was a Coalition officer, a symbol of the law, on a ship whose crew was composed of pirates. God knew what was going happen now that she knew that. What was she going to do?

Don't worry about it. Just focus on Sasuke. He needs your help.

The swish of the infirmary door open snapped her out of sleep. Ino curled herself into a tighter ball trying to get back to sleep, but it didn't work. She was stuck in that groggy stage of waking up, and she was pissed off. I'm gonna friggin' kill whoever that is.

It had taken several exhausting hours to completely remove all the thin Incinerary rounds, and finish up with antibiotics and bandages. She hadn't wanted to leave Sasuke unsupervised in case his health took a sudden downturn. So she had slept on the little recessed couch in the medical bay's wall. It wasn't big enough to stretch out fully, and her knees were aching from being curled up for so long. It wasn't the greatest sleep, but she had gotten a couple hours.

A sharp nudge woke her up fully.

"What?" she half whined, half yawned.

Kisame was glaring down at her. "Get up, Itachi wants to see you."

Oh shit, Ino thought. Her earlier panic came back sevenfold. What's gonna happen to me?

Kisame gave her another glare, "Will you hurry up?" He muttered something else darkly that Ino didn't catch, but she suspected it had something to do with blondes.

Ino rolled out of her makeshift bed with a sigh. She wasn't really in any state to be presented to the captain. She had a serious case of bed head, and her clothes were all rumpled from sleeping in them.

"And what about Sasuke? Who's gonna watch him?" Ino asked as a last ditch effort.

"You'll only be gone a few minutes. I'm sure he'll survive."

That suggested she was coming back. So I'm not gonna get tossed off the ship and into the vacuum of space? Happy day!

Ino followed Kisame down the ship's hallways. It must have been late, because they didn't pass anyone. She had expected at least some signs of life in the mess hall, but it was also empty. Kisame punched a code into a keypad by one of the doors Ino had never been behind. Haku had just mentioned that beyond it were the observation deck and the crew's quarters. Ino had never questioned why it was locked – if a passenger had an ulterior agenda, at least they wouldn't be able to commandeer the ship or attack the crew while they slept. Coalition ships had a similar system. But knowing what she did now, Ino wondered if there was another reason behind cordoning off that part of the ship.

The door swished open and Ino followed Kisame through. Ino could see that the narrow passage opened up further on with door lining each side, and that she could see the giant black void of space through the observation deck. There was also a dark figure standing at attention, looking at the vastness of the scene before him. Ino absently wondered where Haku was, since she clearly wasn't driving.

Kisame made a motion for her to follow and they walked down to the deck, their feet making metallic clunking noises as they stepped on the metal grates that made up the floor. It was an eerie noise what with all the silence and the heavy seriousness in the air.

Kisame rapped his knuckles on the open door frame as they crossed over the threshold.

The dark figure turned a little, and Ino could see the curve of his cheek and the corner of a dark eye. "Close it, Kisame."

The door swished closed behind them and Ino realized how trapped she really was.