**Summary for the Chapter:**

-Anko has some unusual first aid tips. Kakashi is surprisingly a game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

-Don't try this at home kids!


Kakashi had no recollection of the journey back to the original coordinates, where they had stowed their things. He stood and watched the fire engulfing the building, smoke rising up like a black pillar, as fire engines battled to master the blaze.

"For fuck sake," Anko grumbled. "Stupid tree."

Missing the tree trunk she had been aiming for, Anko slumped against it for support instead. Hair was plastered to head with sweat, the dust, debris colouring it so it looked closer to Kakashi's than her own deep purple. Blood poured from both ears, violent streaks of blood contrasting under a cloud of grey. Grabbing water from his pack, Kakashi drank deeply then he knelt beside her, shaking her gently.

"Mmmm."

"Hey, look at me." Kakashi tipped her face up, She winced.

"Anko, you need to open your eyes to do that." She snorted, but submitted to the request. Satisfied, he offered her some water. She took the container and winced.

"Are you hurt Kakashi?"

"I'll live," he said, with a grim smile. "Come on, we need to move." Shouldering his own bag first before he reached for hers, Anko shot him a dirty look and pulled it away.

"Fine," he said, as he held his hands up. Anko stood up, pulling the strap over her shoulders before she leapt into the trees, leaving a trail of leaves for Kakashi to follow.

Anko had been right about the security detail. Far too occupied trying to contain the damage and salvage the research they would not have the resources to pursue them. That hardly had an effect on Anko's speed - determined as she was to put as much distance between them and the lab as quickly as possible at whatever cost. Silently, Kakashi kept pace with her, his feet and hands barely making contact with the landscape as they flew towards the border of the fire nation.

Finally, she stopped at a stream. The colour of the late afternoon sky finally giving way to pink and orange. Filling her bottle she turned away from him, taking small sips and cradling it in her good arm like a child would hold a toy.

"Anko," she turned, and he tossed her a ration bar.

"Eat something," he said gently. "It'll make you feel better."

"I don't deserve to feel better," she muttered, bitterly.

God, was that tone and look all too familiar. She attacked the bar with gusto clearly regretting the comment that hung between them which couldn't be unsaid.

"Hey kid, you might want to try chewing that," he said, with a sly grin. "I would hate to fail a mission on a technicality - just think of all the paperwork."

Freezing, just for a second before her face relaxed and he knew that he had pitched it exactly right. Slowly, she exaggerated her chewing and swallowing, before she stuck her tongue out and pulled her eye down, which made him laugh.

"Come on pops."

They journeyed on in silence but the pace had slowed considerably until finally they were there and had arrived at dusk. Dumping his bag in the cave, he had offered to find firewood but now he stood at the mouth of the cave, daring himself to enter but she had already spotted him, as the length of the shadow he cast fell over her.

"Hey."

"Hey" he busied himself making a fire.

"Should I take first watch?" She asked.

"My ninken are working a perimeter," he said, simply." We'll be fine until morning."

**Fine...and alone. Had she already realised that?**

There was a reason they were despatched in 3-4 man squads and never 2, and never shinobi that were known to be in a relationship -that dynamic was dangerous. Training encouraged you to have your team mates in your mind during a mission, you are intuiting their moves and thoughts and it was so easy to confuse it for something more meaningful. How many missions had been compromised in the heat of the moment. A sense of shame as he thought about his past self - his worst self and what he would be doing in his place right now.

"Kakashi-", she called, as she threw a couple of ration bars at him. "Mmmm, your favourite."

Holding one she had unwrapped, she inspected it with trepidation.

"You think they could make these taste better." She bit it, her wide mouth turned down.

"A bar contains all the nutrients and sustenance you need for 6 hours'. The flavour's immaterial."

Anko threw her head back and roared with laughter, then a hand flew to her neck to brace it and another round her ribs.

"Ow..ow. Are you being sponsored by Nin-kitchenor something?"

"Alright chuckles," he said as he tilted his head. " I'll just have yours then."

Her mouth hung open in mock outrage she put her ration bar behind her, and cocked her fingers as though challenging him. He turned away from her to find his water bottle. Pulling his mask down, as he ate his ration bar back facing her.

"Have you done an eval'?" Anko asked.

**I did half-consider it when taking a leak earlier.**

"No," he admitted. Scratching his head with the back of his hand, slightly embarrassed.

She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know rookie mistake."

"C minus," she mock-scolded, waggling her finger. "Must try harder."

Standing up, Anko brushed the debris off her uniform with her uninjured hand.

"I'll give you some time."

It was protocol to carry out an assessment and catalogue any injuries sustained in the field. Full awareness of any physical shortcomings meant that you could make quick adjustments to a journey or a battle and how immediately medical intervention was required. It was a safeguarding practice, a cornerstone of training and not something to be disregarded.

Starting first at the bottom, he found the bandages around his lower legs were stiff with grime, dirt and sweat.

**Nice**

Kakashi alternated standing on each foot and flexed his feet, ankle and calves allowing the blood to circulate. Stretching his legs and thighs, taking note of the pain and areas of numbness but no real cause for concern. He flicked his eyes at the entrance of the cave but there was no sign of Anko.

**If Tiger was anything to go by she's not going to give a shit about your ass, pal.**

Grabbing the med pack out of his bag, he dropped his trousers, quickly running his hands up his legs and backs of his thighs, the firm, broad strokes returned nothing.

Fingers pressed the raised edges of the puncture mark created by the syringe dart. Perversely relishing the prickle of pain as he checked the blood that oozed reassure to find it was a good colour with no trace of infection. He growled at the sting from the saline solution, swabbed it dry and applied a sterile dressing, smoothing it over the silver hairs that dusted his thighs.

**That's going to be a bitch coming off.**

Hearing Anko come in, he yanked his trousers up but with the bandages he managed to get them to mid-thigh was nothing but a jockstrap protecting his cock and balls, his cheeks were bare as the day he was born. But if she had seen him with his ass out she was pretending she hadn't.

"I found berries," she said brightly, "I've washed them in the stream. Uh...have you finished?"

"Not yet - are you sure they are alright?"

She had already started eating them.

"Yeah, 'course," she said with her mouth full. "They are fine!"

**Sure...**

Carefully removing his top and he knew this is where he sustained the most damage. The flak jacket provides so much protection, it had been a wrench to be without it at the lab. The jumper caught and snagged on sharp edges as it was coming off his back, not a good sign. Stiff with blood, the smell pooled in his nostrils. Starting with his hands and arms he was satisfied that there he had only bruises, welts and cuts but otherwise fine.

Then breathing deeply, he could feel his chest constricting as if a band was across it, he fingered the edge of his rib cage

**Bruised ribs? I would know if I cracked one.**

Stroking the grooves of his stomach, chest. He stretched and rotated his arms, shoulders and head. Pain seared in the left shoulder, as he rotated it and lifted above his head.

**Man, that hurts.**

But it was oddly satisfying to feel bones clicking and creaking back into place all the same.

"It's your back -Kakashi- that's kind of fucked," Anko said matter-of-factly, between berries. "Glass mostly."

"You have such a delicate way of speaking Anko," he deadpanned. "I can't tell you how much I admire it."

"What do you want me to say princess?" Anko laughed." It's like someone tried to force you in to a wood chipper."

Grunting, he knelt down to look through his med kit.

**What idiot packed this?**

"Do you have tweezers, Anko? I haven't brought any."

Rummaging through her own med kit, she pulled out a pair of violently pink ones and walked over to him.

"Let me."

He looked at them dubiously but sat down anyway, crossed-legged and facing away from her. Kneeling beside him, she cleaned her hand and the tweezers, then laid a square of sterile gauze over his hand. The pace of preparation was slow and methodical.

"Relax..." She urged, gently. "Or try to relax you massive control freak."

He chuckled but took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"There are...16... no 17 lesions. I'm going to remove then clean each one, working down. Ready?"

**Go!**He gestured.

"Soooo cute," she murmured." Really."

As Anko worked, she described what she was doing as the debris slowly emerged from his skin. The force of the blast had driven some deep and the scratch and pinching of the tweezers unpleasant.

**Why didn't you take painkillers idiot?**

Grunting, he recoiled from her touch for perhaps the third time so she laid her injured arm on his shoulder to still him, he could feel the heat emanating from the inflammation.

Feeling a flicker of shame then, he had forgotten how injured and the pain she would be too. Kakashi didn't move again, she took out the twisted shrapnel and laid it on the gauze with the tweezers.

"Wait a sec'," Anko said as she stood, and yawned with a little stretch. He looked at the gauze with detached interest.

"You know, there's a better way of doing this..." she said, as she knelt beside him again.

"I'm all ears."

"Lie down," she urged. "It might feel weird at first."

Twisting round to look at her with alarm and instantly regretting it. He straightened up again.

"What is it?" She didn't answer him, but he felt her hands on his shoulder. A thumb massaged the place where the neck joined back with her and he relaxed into her touch waiting. Below his shoulder blade he felt it, moist, warm, softer and gentler than the tweezers.

**Okay, weird was an understatement.**

Feeling her lips on his skin, and then gentle suction as she sucked the shard of glass out of the wound. And then the sudden bite of the saline solution, a punishing contrast from her mouth. So grateful the sound was muffled in his mask. It was easier to use suction to coax and tease, letting it find the easiest way out with his blood. But Kakashi was suffering...He was tempted to crack a joke about hygiene, or insist that she use the tweezers - anything to stop the air of intimacy fostering further.

**Don't. Think. About. It. Hatake.**

He winced.

"Sorry, that's the final one...I think I've got enough chakra for the worst ones. It should be fine once the dressing is on."

"Thanks." He said,gruffly. Slowly she applied her chakra, it felt like a snake undulating on the surface, insinuating itself into the wound, bringing the edges together like a coil tightening.

**Your chakra pal? It would be like a dog's.**

"Sit up for me," she murmured. " Your dressings will adhere better."

Without complaint, he did as he was told. Anko arranged the dressings, then began to wrap the bandage him, ensuring they were secure and tight but allowing him enough room to breathe. Carefully she passed the bandage under his arms, then looped them back, she tucked the end in and pinned it. Slowly, she pulled her arms back but then she stopped.

**What the hell?!**

Burying her face into his back, she had whispered something now lost in the bandage. Her arms had tightened around him, desperately making his ribs ache. It was so unexpected, he hadn't known what to do so he held his arms up partly in shock.

"I don't deserve to feel better," she had said.

Though awkwardly positioned and his chest protesting violently, he turned to return the hug. Arms falling around her, and he rested his face on her head breathing in the faintest scent of something he had smelt at the club. She would be feeling it too, reliving the guilt, the trauma and elation of a successful mission. Cycling through a storm of emotions as it raged with no sign of breaking.

**What are you doing? Wake the fuck up, Hatake.**

Opening his eyes, he took a hold of her shoulders and pushed her away, it hadn't been meant cruelty but he knew that it had cut as deep as a knife. A hand was still on her arm, he could pull her back...but then a stupid voice that hardly sounded like him had interceded.

"Anko." he said in a whisper but then louder, as a hand continued to linger on her arm.

"We should get some sleep now. We've got a long way to go." His voice rang loudly in the silence.

**Who the fuck are you convincing Hatake?**

But Anko was already up, shrugging off his hand, as she turned away from him as she fussed about with her med kit. Finally, it was slung unceremoniously into her rucksack before Anko sat heavily on her sleeping bag.

"Kakashi?" She murmured, zipping herself in.

"Yeah?"

"I really hope you're not a snorer."