70
It Is Nice At Home With You
"Don't move, Kankuro-sama!" The medic that was sweating over Kankuro's wound ordered. "You don't want the thread to break and to get more stitches, right?"
"I am trying to not move, but to be honest, it hurts without sedatives, damn it!" The man growled angrily, wincing.
Just a minute ago Matsury had told her Kankuro's team had come home and he was wounded. She never said how serious the damage was, of course, but Tenten couldn't wait to hear. Only a hint to a thought he may be in the same state as Temari, made her chest so tense, she choked. She had simply dropped the notes she was reading and rushed to the hospital in panic.
She wanted to see him now. She wanted to make sure he was all right.
Tenten rushed into the hospital's room. The first thing she saw was his face, wincing in pain, clearly seen even through the layers of paint. He was half naked, seated on a stool, facing the door. There was a medic with a really irritated facial expression, leaning on his back. Kankuro's chest was covered with blood and mud and there was a little fresh-blood pool under the stool. She took a sharp breath.
"Tenten?" He asked, surprised.
She only smiled, she couldn't have done anything else even if she wanted. A wave of relief washed over her, causing tears to form in her eyes. Kankuro looked at her eyes and his shoulders relaxed. His face expression changed but the paint was covering the details.
"Hey…" He said carefully. "I am here, I am alive."
The girl succeeded only to nod, still fighting back her tears. She had never been so emotional… What was happening to her now?
Kankuro stretched his right arm to her and made an inviting gesture to her. She didn't realise how exactly that happened, but in the next moment she was pressed to him, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back tenderly only with his right arm - the left one was hanging down near his body because the wound was on the left side of his back and moving his left hand cost too much.
The medic had moved away with a frown on his face.
"Kankuro-sama, I understand you can't wait to see your wife, but I have other things to do." He nagged.
Tenten wiped out her tears with her sleeve and peeked on his back - there was about a 20 cm wound gaped ugly and very bloody.
"Ouch…" she said and her face distorted sympathetically.
"Agreed…" Kankuro said.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked, looking at the frowning medic.
"If you can just make him lay down the bed over there, so I can stitch that thing faster and prettier. We can all be on our way then." He replied, trying hard to smile at her.
"Come on, I will help you lay down there." She said to Kankuro, glancing at his face. "No, no arguments allowed, please." She added, sabotaging the intentions for protesting. "You are not in a good position to complain at the moment."
"I am in the perfect position to complain…" He mumbled.
She put her hands on her waist and looked him straight in the eye. Then she grabbed him under the right shoulder and forced him to stand. The medic's expression was priceless. Kankuro growled with pain, clenching his jaw. Tenten was surprisingly tough support for his unstable body. She helped him reach the bed and lay down on it, while the medic approached carefully as he was afraid the other man would jump up and do something unreasonable.
"First I will clean the wound, then I will stitch it." He said seriously. "Could you just hold him down to not move too much?" He asked Tenten, determined to use her presence for his advantage to the maximum.
"I could try at least." She nodded. Then she grabbed one little three-legged stool and set it up near Kankuro's head. Taking a deep breath, she seeked for his right hand. She took it in a strong grip with both her hands and looked at his face. "Ok, take it out on me now, not on the person trying to help you, right?"
Kankuro growled:
"He just looks like he want to help, Kamari just loves to torture me… It gives him twisted pleasure!" The last sentence he said loud enough so the medic could hear it.
"Stop getting hurt then and don't show your ugly face to my ward!" He hissed annoyed.
Tenten chuckled. Obviously those two had their background story and knew each other well enough. In that moment Kankuro hissed - the medic has started to clean up his wound. Her heart clenched. She was well aware this was not his first wound since there were a fair number of scars over his body. But seeing the pain in its pure form over his face, into his eyes… She kind of hardly could handle that…
The girl leaned ahead and placed her forehead in his unruly sweaty hair. He suddenly went quiet, closing his eyes. His hand periodically tightened his grip when the needle pierced his tissues. Kankuro's whole strength of will was focused on not crushing her hands, keeping silent. And Tenten was sensing his body's flinches, hearing the quiet hisses from the sharp takings of breaths while clenching his jaw. His sweaty hair was wetting her face but she didn't care.
"Done," announced the medic while placing sticky bandages around the wound to ease the pulling of the tissues so that Kankuro could still move minimally without tearing the stitches. "No pushing yourself until we remove the threads. A week sleeping flat on your belly, at least. Try to just lay down for the first 24 hours, ok?" His tone was way softer now, so the girl could actually see he was really concerned about Kankuro.
"Yes, Torturer!" The shinobi said, chuckling.
The medic actually smiled and patted the other man's leg.
"And, please, don't do any… extra efforts in those first 24 hours, if you know what I mean." He added, glancing at Tenten.
She blushed and looked away.
"I always know what you mean, Kamari."
"Right. I don't want to see you here again before your next mission." The medic crossed his hands in front of his chest. "And I even prefer to not see you even then."
"You want me straight dead, don't you?" Kankuro smiled.
"Yeah, right, that's exactly what I meant." Kamari said, rolling his eyes.
"Thank you, Kamari." He said, smiling with genuine gratitude.
The other man approached him and gently placed his hand on Kankuro's shoulder.
"Be more careful, pal."
Kankuro nodded and sent him off with eyes.
Tenten let him hand just then. Her both hands felt numb because even if he tried to be careful, he was squeezing quite hard. She helped him get up.
"I guess I should send you off to get some rest."
"Yeah, you should…" He sighed.
She smiled slightly and went to the door with him. He continued for a few more steps, then he stopped when sensed she was not coming after him. Turning slowly to her, he hissed quietly.
"Are you not coming with me?"
"Do you want me to come with you?" She whispered really quietly.
"More than you think…" He whispered back.
She blushed slightly and caught up to him. Then they both headed to the room slowly, at his pace..
…
When they reached the room, Kankuro tried to undress, but his movements were really limited. He could bend more, though he was seriously risking the stitches to break. The farest he could succeed in reaching was the zipper of his pants… And he really, really needed a shower. He sighed and turned to Tenten:
"Could I count on your help?"
"What do you want me to do?" She approached and looked at him questionably.
"I want you to pull down my pan…" A strong slap forced his face to slightly turn away, preventing him from finishing the sentence. He froze…
Tenten was frowning.
Kankuro took as deep breath as his stitches allowed him and warningly calmly tried again:
"Now, before you slap me again, which by the way I advise you to not do anymore, hear me out. I got a 20 cm freshly stitched wound on my back, damn it. I am not able to do any advances on you, so that was not a hint, or anything similar. I simply need help to get rid of those dirty, sticky, stinky clothes." He paused. "And I need help washing the rest out of my skin."
Tenten stepped back, sensing the hidden danger. Then relaxed her hands near her body.
"All right… Point taken. Apologies are in order, I guess." She smiled at him apologetically.
"If you can't handle this, you can call one of the civilian men to help me out."
"I can handle that, all right." She said, nodding seriously.
She approached him carefully as if she expected him to pounce. First she bent down and untied his sandals. Then she got up and looked at him. Hesitantly she reached for his already unzipped pants and pulled them down. She tried really hard to not think of how intimate this action could be.
"Tenten…" He said really softly. "I can see how uneasy you are. You really can just call out for one of the civilians. If this is hard for you, what about the shower itself? I need to keep that thing over there from getting wet." He nodded slightly back.
She looked into his eyes with determination, even if she was really flushed.
"And when I call out for someone to say what exactly? Something like "Would you come to undress and bathe the man, who I am currently married to and supposingly I have seen naked because, again supposingly, I have done sex with?" Wouldn't that be a bit weird?"
Kankuro sighed, realising what she just said was too correct. He could have called for Kamari as well, but again, he should have revealed the secret they were trying to keep. Another option would be to just do it himself, but then he was going straight to the hospital again, which he really didn't want to do.
"Ok… How do you want to do this, so you don't die out of shame?" He tried to include some humour in order to enlighten the situation.
"I am just not going to put in meaning that doesn't exist." She shrugged and gestured to him to move out of the sandals and the pants. "At the end, this is exactly what it is, right? I am helping you because you need help."
"Exactly, no more no less," he confirmed.
She then held her breath without realising she did and stuck her fingers under the last piece of his clothing. Looking away while sliding it down his legs, she never peeked, even if she was very curious. After the last cloth was removed, she got up, facing his back. Then carefully poked his right shoulder…
"Come on, we have more work to do."
Kankuro chuckled at her efforts to keep his intimate parts out of her sight. It really was funny since he was in so much pain, that arousing right now was nearly impossible. But the truth to be told, he wasn't feeling quite comfortable being like that in front of her either…
He went to the bathroom and turned the water running.
Tenten entered after him, stubbornly looking at the floor.
"I still need help." He quietly reminded.
"Yeah, I just… need some time…"
"Well, theoretically there is nothing so unusual right now." Kankuro was sure a conversation would put her at ease, maybe just enough. "You probably won't see a man in more neutral shape than you will now."
She looked up directly in his eyes, doubtful expression on her face.
"Let's put some context in that." He smiled a bit embarrassedly. "When a man feels pain, especially physical pain, an arousal is mostly impossible to appear." He explained, even if Tenten could clearly see he also was uneasy on the matter. "Well, of course, there are exceptions that find the pain itself arousing." He added. "But don't worry, I am not an exception."
"I strongly hope so…" She smiled slightly.
"And if I must be blunt about it… No man would like to be seen by a woman in that neutral shaping, if the woman is not a medic. I don't really have a healthy choice right now, though." He slightly lowered his head. "This is a serious blow to one's ego…" His smile was apologetical.
Tenten couldn't help but remembered the approximate size and hardness of the bulge that pressed against her stomach before the official dinner. If she was about to trust her memory, he should have nothing to be ashamed of… Gathering boldness, she looked at him whole body - and he was right, those parts were just like in the anatomy textbooks in school. In the next moment she succeeded to suppress her uneasiness and get to clean carefully his skin, keeping the fresh wound dry.
Innerly she kept repeating to herself that the whole situation was maybe not so absurd…
…
Kankuro was sleeping for a good few hours already. Tenten had preferred to go out and read her notes in the garden. When the light started to fade, she decided it was time for dinner.
She went to the little dining hall, where the Kazekage and the others living in the big domain were having their meals. While they were having dinner, Gaara thoughtfully asked her about his big brother. She had described the wound in detail. Then the Kazekage had said he was going to send the food to their room the next 3 days, until Kankuro started to move more freely. Also he asked her to check his brother for fever in case the wound was infected.
When she came back to the room, the man was still sleeping flat on his belly. Tenten moved gracefully to put the papers on the dresser without making any sound. Then she changed into her sleeveless top in the bathroom and went to the bed. No matter how careful she was, she still couldn't lay down without moving the mattress at all.
Kankuro's eyes opened right away.
"Easy…" She said and got her legs on the bed. "You can keep resting, everything is fine."
"Well, maybe in a bit…" He smiled warmly.
She reached out and touched his forehead.
"You don't have a fever," she announced.
"That I could tell you as well."
She stuck out her tongue, showing him what she thought about his bitter remark. He chuckled quietly. The sound on his chuckles sounded like a bubbling water and she really came to like it.
"So you want to catch me up on the events I missed?" He sighed, wanting to hear her voice more, to communicate with her.
Tenten sat up and leaned on the wall to support her back,
"Let's see… I got permission from Gaara to train and I already went to three training sessions," she laughed. "My whole body hurts."
The man laughed and his laughter quickly became a growl because of the sharp pain he had awakened.
"I agreed to teach classes in the school."
"All right, that's bold." He intervened.
"What do you mean by that? That's just children."
"You have no idea what you have agreed to." He just smiled. "That's not just children, those are little monsters."
"You doubt my ability to handle monsters?" She laughed.
"Oh, I really don't know. Temari was dealing with them. But she is really… Tough, if I may say it like that."
Tenten thought about that, quickly filling with concern. If Kankuro was right, she would fail on her first task in Suna… But she was way more determined and stubborn to let that possibly happen.
"All right… What else?"
"I got Temari's notes about the chuunin's exams." She sighed.
"It seems like Gaara has filled your time really well." He grinned.
"I couldn't refuse the classes…"
"Yes, he can be really persuasive if he wants to, that's true." He agreed. And then he looked at her eyes, turning as far as he was allowed by the stitches and the swollen tissues. There was a strange shadow into her usually glowing eyes. "Right, what are you not telling me?"
She looked at him with the angles of her eyes.
"I didn't think it would be so hard to send off my team home."
"I understand."
"There is something else as well…" She sighed. She was thinking about Neji's confession, but Kankuro definitely wasn't the to go person for discussing that matter. It was wrong to share this with him. He wasn't close enough to pour something like that on him.
"But you are not ready to talk about it?" The man guessed and she nodded. "When and if you feel ready, you will tell me." He stated.
"Yes." She smiled with relief. "And now…" She slid, laid down on her stomach like the man, and brought her face a span away from his face. "Three questions?"
"Three questions it is." He nodded, smiling.
…
"I hope you won't take advantage of me right now." He said seriously.
"You have the full right to hope." She replied equally seriously, shooting a little mean smile at him, which painfully reminded him of his sister's smiles.
"If you try to escape or you break the rules we agreed to, the deal will be off." He said calmly.
"I don't intend to break anything." She put a hand under her cheek.
"Then it should be fine. You can start.
"Have you ever… felt ashamed in front of a woman?"
"You mean before today?" He specified.
"Well, yeah…"
"Let's say I have felt moderate discomfort a few times and I was deeply ashamed about two times until now." He said slowly after a few seconds of silence.
"When? What happened?" Tenten asked enthusiastically.
"You do realise those are another two questions?" He smiled at her sudden curiosity to stick her nose so deep in his very personal matters.
She nodded, slightly blushing.
"And you are certain you want to know exactly that?"
"Yes."
"I will answer you." He sighed. "But now it is my turn. And since I have my ego talking, I need to know what you thought when you saw me naked under the shower? Be honest."
"You really want to know that?" She smiled mischievously, which he found surprisingly cute and turning on…
"Now I am not so sure I want to…" He said honestly.
"Well, I am going to tell you anyway. I thought the pictures in the anatomy books were quite accurate."
He chuckled, thinking this is something actually quite straight forward and true. He never viewed it just by the anatomical point. But as a shinobi, it was one of those things one sometimes sees - what it is in front of the eyes, not what it could eventually be…
"Sooo… When?" Her voice forced his mind to focus.
"One of my deeply asheming cases was when I was fifteen years old and was about to have sex for very first time. And the second one was when I got caught masturbating. I suppose this is what you want to know."
"I want to know about the other not-so-deeply shameful cases." Impish smile appeared on her lips. Obviously she felt good to make him feel ashamed and younger again. That made him feel a really strong desire to touch her…
"Well, for one of them you already know - it was today. The other few cases are related to untimely cumming and several times when women were not entirely satisfied."
Tenten looked at his face - she couldn't' believe a man can be so blunt about his sexual failures that made him ashamed. She may be wrong because of the almost absent light, but she thought his cheeks flushed while he was talking.
"Don't you feel worried telling me all of this? Those things are the essentials of the personal…" She asked quietly.
"I do worry." He said slowly. "But in order to get something, I have to give something in advance…" The little mischievous flame, starting to burn in his eyes, made her shiver and blush. As much as she wanted the room to be lighter so she could have seen his eventual blush, she also was very glad there was no light, so her blush would stay unnoticed. "Did you miss me at least a bit when I was away on a mission?"
She didn't answer right away. Instead she thought she should use her right to keep silent. But what happens if the third question was even more uncomfortable? She didn't want to break the deal like that… The girl seeked his eyes - there was no mockery, there was just anticipation, quiet, tense anticipation.
Her teacher had told her some time ago that you can get to know a person by the questions he asks better rather than the answers he was giving. Judging by his question, he was unsure of himself, or he was testing her… She had to be honest, right?
"Yeh, I did." She whispered almost only with her lips. His smile radiated relief, which deeply moved her soul. "Would you handle talking more about shame?" She asked him, whispering still.
"I can handle it." He said. "That was the main idea of the whole question-answer, right. To ask questions you usually wouldn't ask and to answer honestly to something you usually wouldn't. If I stuck only to my comfort zone, you wouldn't have known even a little part of all the things you already know." He was whispering, his eyes were closed.
"All right… What happened?
Kankuro opened his eyes and chuckled softly.
"The first girl I thought I am going to have sex with… She was older and more experienced. I cummed in her hands the moment she touched me. Believe it or not, that can seriously hurt a young boy's self-esteem."
"I believe you."
"Temari caught me masturbaing when I was 13…" He shook his head. "I hid really fast and I don't think she understood what I was doing at the time. Probably she did realise later on, when she was older and probably she laughed really hard, but well… I did feel like I wanted the earth to open and swallow me whole then."
Tenten was laughing, imagining the incident.
"Anyway I came up with two important conclusions out of those incidents."
"And they are?" She was trying to stop laughing.
"If I haven't done sex for a long time, to make the time masturbating before I actually go to a woman, if I want to last long enough and have control." He explained. "And to always lock the freaking door when I intend to masturbate."
The girl started to laugh again and he let himself to only smile, the laugher caused him too much pain.
"These are the wisdoms of life." She said cheerfully and pushed herself on elbows. "So what's your third question?"
"Have you ever been caught while masturbating?"
She was silent. She hasn't been masturbating at all… When she came to feel some kind of excitement, she was always going to train it out. Also the difference between the women and the men was that women, if not sexually stimulated, felt sexual hunger during a certain moment of their cicle. The men felt horny most of the time… So she was dealing with that when training hard during the 2-3 days when she had increased sexual longing. She was not telling him that. But she could tell him the truth by not telling him the whole truth…
"No." She said at the end.
He looked at her face for some time, but he didn't say anything more. She got the feeling he doesn't really believe her…
"Good night." He wished quietly.
"Good night." She replied whispering.
While Kankuro was drifting away in his sleep, he couldn't help but remember the hug she gave him in the hospital. He was thinking how good it was being home, when someone is waiting for you…"
