Author's Notes: Alright, I know it's been forever since I last updated. I really can't explain beyond that I was uninspired after jury duty. For those of you who are wondering, serving on a Grand Jury is mentally and emotionally draining.

Chapter 7

Hermione let out a sigh as she looked at the group of letters. They'd arrived within several hours of each other and Hermione still hadn't managed to convince herself to open them. From what she'd seen, it took roughly six to seven days for Hedwig to deliver a message from England to Konoha and vice versa. That it had taken seventeen days for these letters to arrive meant that the people who'd sent them had taken at least three days to think about what to write.

She wouldn't have been so jumpy, but it had been eight and a half days since Tenzou had retrieved Kakashi. Gai had come by several hours after Kakashi had left and explained that Kakashi and his team had been sent to hunt down Itachi. Hermione was more worried about Kakashi than she was willing to admit. No matter how competent he and his team were, they were hunting down a boy who'd single handedly killed over two hundred people without it being discovered until after the fact.

Since then Gai had checked on her every other day, but he'd been too busy to hang around for long. Hermione had run into Anko once, but the woman had looked so put upon that she hadn't had the heart to delay her for long. She'd visited Natsumi twice, but had spent more time helping the woman wrangle her children than anything else. Most of Hermione's time was spent in the apartment safely behind the wards with only Crookshanks, Bisuke, and Urushi for company.

Hermione had filled her days with knitting and playing her instruments to ward off nervous energy while potions brewed on the stove. She'd finally finished all the potions two days prior and had found herself debating whether or not to make more before she'd decided against doing so.

When she could stand it no longer, she moved the furniture out of the way so she could practice wandless magic. It would have been easier to use a training field, as then she wouldn't have to worry about the effects of her spells too much, but the living room was passable. Hermione had gone through her repertoire of spells, practicing until she could do the first three year levels of spells wandlessly, and silently and motionlessly with her wand. She'd also been sure to practice the spells Harry had had everybody practice during the DA meetings as well. Hermione had found it easier to make a patronus wandlessly than silently and motionlessly with a wand, contrary to what she'd expected with her experience. Gai had taken an entire day, three days prior and taught Hermione how to apparate, as he'd considered it an essentially survival skill, particularly for a civilian, before teaching her both the spell and the rune array for portkeys.

Hermione hadn't spent much time out in the village, but it was obvious that it was in an uproar. She could feel the nervousness and the fear, like an oppressive veil each time she went out. There were at least double the normal amount of shinobi out and about at any given time. But the worst was the whispers she'd heard in the market place about Uchiha Sasuke while she was shopping. They spoke of the poor boy like wizards in England spoke of Harry Potter. It was just disturbing.

Hesitantly, Hermione opened the letter from Professor McGonagall first. Although Hermione knew that there were no rules which penalized married students and that she could not be expelled, it was still nerve wracking. Nonetheless, Hermione knew that this would be the easiest of letters to read. Considering how long it had taken Harry-and apparently Ron, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley-to write, they might well have been informed.

Mrs. Hatake,

Congratulations upon your nuptials, Mrs. Hatake. Please relay my well wishes to your husband.

I was greatly surprised to receive your letter informing me of your marriage. I was unaware you were being courted by anyone.

As your husband is not a student at Hogwarts, you will receive a private room in Gryffindor Tower. Mr. Hatake may visit you in the castle or the village on Hogsmeade weekends and during Christmas and Easter breaks, although he must check in with me before going to Gryffindor Tower.

Sincerely,

Prof. Minerva McGonagall

Hermione bit her lip nervously. McGonagall's letter was too stiff and far too formal. Either she was angry, or she was stunned. Or maybe just disappointed. She let out a sigh. It was likely as good as she could have hoped for.

For a moment, Hermione's hand hovered over Penny's letter before she changed her mind, opening Harry's instead. Urushi whined, pressing closer to her side.

"Why're you scared?" asked the dog.

"I-I'm worried about what my friends and family think of me. Eloping with a man I barely know is something Harry would do, not me."

She blinked, feeling relieved when she read the first page of the letter. It was about Harry, Ron, and Ginny's trip to Diagon Alley and how Harry thought that Draco had gotten the dark mark and was up to something and how grateful Harry was for the gift she'd sent. Except it cut off in mid sentence on the back side of the paper. The next sheet was more what she was expecting.

You got married? Why would you do something like that? Did that man force you to marry him? If he did, I'll kill him for you...

She breathed a sigh of relief. The letter went on in that vein for over a page and a half. At least Harry was still treating her as a friend. Hermione didn't know what she would have done if he'd reacted as he had during the Firebolt incident. It seemed that Professor McGonagall had inquired during an Order meeting if any of them knew who Hatake Kakashi was, which had led to everybody finding out.

Ginny's letter was next. She found herself resisting the urge to bang her head against a wall. All Ginny wanted to know about was what Kakashi looked like and how he was in bed. Although did add a post script offering to make her poison-or a love potion-if she wanted and suggested methods of training her husband. She knew there was a reason why she liked that girl so much.

Mrs. Weasley's letter was simply grating. There was all that concern she was used to from the woman, along with the prying, and the attempt at babying Hermione. The woman had all but suggested that Kakashi was a pedophile and taking advantage of her naïve, caring nature. There was a veiled offer of rescue by the Order, which Hermione thought would fail spectacularly. The Order could count its combat capable members on one hand and of them, only Mad-Eye or Shacklebolt might-and that was a big might-stand a chance against her husband. Hermione resisted the urge to laugh or set the letter on fire. She'd forgotten how much she disliked the way Mrs. Wealey treated her.

Next was the letter from Ron. There was an offer to kill Kakashi for her, as was apparently the custom, combined with rather petulant whining. It was a little disconcerting. While Ron was attractive, she'd only thought of him that way once, when he'd thrown that temper tantrum at the Yule Ball. Even then, she hadn't been able to convince herself that she liked him in that way.

Finally she forced herself to pick up Penny's letter. Hermione didn't bother to lie to herself. She wasn't sure what she'd do if the only family she had left rejected her as well.

Hermione,

What on Earth were you thinking? Are you alright? Did he hurt you? He didn't make you do anything you didn't want to, did he?

I can do math. I know you married the day after and I know you like to get drunk on the anniversary of that. Was marrying him his idea or your idea? Was he drunk as well? I know you don't like talking about it, but please answer me.

I worry so much when you do crazy things like this. I know you can take care of yourself and you're more than capable of dealing with this Kakashi person if you want to, but you're my baby cousin and I want to protect you.

I know you don't go looking for trouble. Most of the time, anyway. But please try to be careful. This situation is far different from the trouble you normally get yourself into. He can hurt you in ways that the people you usually deal with can't.

I want to meet this man before you go back to him from Hogwarts. Whether that's in a couple weeks or next summer, I don't care…

The letter rambled for several more paragraphs, but Hermione could barely bring herself to care. She was so relieved. Penny had treated her the same as always.

Much relieved, Hermione took her time writing out her replies. It took her a couple hours, but she managed to send the letters off with various owls before nightfall.

"Do you think Kakashi-kun is alright?" she asked, cuddling with the dogs and Crookshanks in bed that evening.

"Oh yeah. He's fine," said Bisuke.

Urushi gave a playful growl. "No upstart puppy's gonna hurt Kakashi."

"Hey, do you have the time to get some dango?" asked Hermione.

"Sure, Hermione-san," said Anko. The woman might like to be outrageous and scandalize civilians and shinobi alike, but she didn't use the act all that much with her.

The duo headed to the same dango stand as the last time. They ordered their treats and a cup of tea each before settling in. Urushi and Bisuke were trailing along beside her. Neither had been happy with her getting out from under the protection of the apartment's wards, but understood her need to get out and do something.

"So how's married life?"

Hermione shrugged. "Kakashi-kun and I get along well enough, I guess. He's on a mission right now." She bit her lip, then admitted, "I'm worried."

Anko nodded. "How long he been gone?"

"Eleven days. Since the night of the massacre. He and his team were sent out to… I guess you can figure out what." She shook her head. "Some ANBU in a Neko mask came to get him because the Hokage had summoned him. He summoned a second dog to protect me and I haven't seen him since."

"You been alone save the dogs since?"

She nodded. "Luna was supposed to come to the village in two days, but her father ordered her to stay in the Daimyo's castle. Said it was safer. He offered to hire some shinobi to escort me to the castle but I… I want to wait it out here as long as possible. I'm leaving for school in nine days anyway."

"So I heard there were some owls carrying letters…"

Hermione let out a little laugh, understanding that Anko was changing the subject. "My friends and my cousin wrote to me about my recent marriage. It seems I've caused quite the uproar."

"Do tell."

"Well, it is their collective opinion that Kakashi-kun must have coerced me into marriage during a moment of weakness." She shook her head, ignoring the look on Anko's face. "I'm considering directing their ire in Gai-san's direction. That jackass orchestrated my marriage to Kakashi-kun." She shrugged. "Although he did let me use him for target practice and listened to my entire rant without complaint."

Anko laughed. "No wonder Kakashi-kun went along with the marriage."

"Yeah."

"So other than that…"

"Let's see… Harry and Ron offered to kill Kakashi-kun for me. Although I could have done without figuring out that Ron likes me… you know, really likes me. Ginny offered to make me poison to use on Kakashi-kun-or a love potion if I want my husband to fall madly in love with me. The twins-two of Ginny's brothers-didn't write, but according to Ginny, they offered to prank him until he wished for death. Ah, and Weasley-san-Ron and Ginny's mother-has decided that I'm some poor, naïve little girl and that my husband is taking advantage of me. She implied that people would be ready and willing to rescue me from that terrible fiend's clutches. My cousin Penny said that she knows that if I really wanted to, I could off my husband myself, but was willing to do the deed for me if I didn't have the stomach to. And then she posed the question of if I searched for people who get into the strangest situations to spend time with because I enjoyed the danger or if it was entirely accidental or if I was the one with… unusual luck and they were caught in my web of iniquity."

Her companion let out a surprised snort of laughter and then fell into helpless giggles. When she calmed, she asked, "How serious were they?"

"Probably the only ones who would go through with their threats were Ginny, her mother Weasley-san, and Penny. Harry… he's a scholar like I am. He killed someone in self defense a couple years back, but he's in such denial. It's like he's blocked it out. And Ron's just a little boy pretending to be a man." She shook her head. "It's… I've found that women are far more ruthless than men. Back home at least."

"I have to head to work in a couple minutes."

Hermione let out a sigh and nodded. "Please feel free to stop by. Kakashi-kun has me practically under house arrest. I know he's just worried, but…"

Anko nodded. "Next time I have a couple hours."

"Thanks. Be careful."

"I will. Let the dogs do their job."

Hermione woke with a start. It took her a moment to realize that somebody was knocking on the door. She glanced at the dogs. Since they weren't growling, she grabbed the dressing gown she used at school and tied it on over her nightgown before leaving the bedroom and walking over to the front door. The dogs paced along beside her.

She blinked, realizing that she recognized the chakra signature, although she wasn't sure who it was. It was male and moderately powerful, with a tinge of earth to it. Oh, it must be Kakashi's friend, Raidou.

She opened the door, allowing the dogs to stand between her and the open doorway. "May I help you, Namiashi-san?"

And then she took in his appearance. He was in an ANBU uniform with a chinchilla mask. Chinchilla? Eh, who was she to judge.

"How?" Although Raidou's hand rested on the hilt of his sword, he didn't withdraw it from its sheath. Bisuke and Urushi's growling might have had something to do with that.

"My apologies. I'm what Gai-san calls a chakra sensor. I felt your chakra signature. I usually remember not to call people by name when they're wearing a mask." She blushed a bit. "I'm not at my best when I've just woken up."

He gave a quick nod and let go of the hilt. "Kakashi-taichou's in the hospital."

Hermione didn't realize her knees had given out until Raidou gripped her elbow, keeping her upright. "I-how bad? How bad is it?"

"Chakra exhaustion, three broken ribs, dislocated shoulder, second degree burns along his arm, pierced lung."

"Can't the iryo-nin treat that?" she said. Madam Pomfrey could have healed all of that in a snap. Even as inexperienced as Hermione was, she could deal with all but the pierced lung and she was only a half trained field medic.

"No. They're iryo-nin, not miracle wor-"

"Come in here right this second," she ordered, even as she reviewed what potions and reference materials she had with her and what she'd need.

"What are you doing?" he asked even as he did as she said.

Once she closed the door, she explained, "I can heal the burns and his bones if they're set. If I have to, I might be able to set his bones. I'd rather somebody more experienced dealt with his lung, but if I need to, I might be able to take care of it as well."

"Healing that many bones-"

"Clan techniques. Ask Gai-san if you don't believe I can do it."

She went into the bedroom and pulled out her text book. She read quickly to confirm what she needed and then went to gather the appropriate potions. Hermione put the potions into a cardboard box along with the text before sealing them up. She went into the bathroom and tossed on a chemise, skirt, and bodice laced up the front without bothering with a bra. Once the scroll was tucked into the bodice, she gave her hair a quick comb and braided it before she walked back out into the living room.

"I have everything."

They left the apartment, Hermione closing and locking the door. "Get on."

Somewhat hesitantly, Hermione scrambled onto Raidou's back piggyback style and allowed him to carry her. They moved at speeds similar to what a car could reach, Raidou climbing up to the roof and the hopping from building to building to the hospital. Raidou let her down and led her through the busy hospital.

"Hermione-"

"Hey Gai. Do you know any competent healers around here?" she asked, pulling out her scroll. "Really. Unable to heal a couple broken ribs or a few burns."

"I'd forgotten that you have training as a field medic," he said. Gai turned to Yugao who was curled up in a seat. "Hermione-chan can treat most of Kakashi's injuries."

"I just need somebody to make sure his shoulder is popped back in and his bones are set properly so I can heal them and who can take care of his lung. I'd rather have somebody more experienced take care of those injuries."

Yugao looked at Gai, who nodded, before turning back to Hermione. "Alright. How?"

"Clan techniques mostly. Unfortunately most of the ijutsu I know uses our kekkei genkai and the medicines I know are made for people with the same kekkei genkai. I don't think they'd work for people without it. We… we rarely treat somebody who isn't a member of one of the Dragon Clans."

Yugao nodded. "This way."

She pulled Hermione out of the waiting room and down two hallways. A nurse looked like she wanted to stop them before Yugao made a couple fierce hand motions.

A moment later they entered a private room. Hermione paused, taking in the sight of Kakashi. He was bandaged and hooked up to several machines. Hermione pulled out her wand and cast a diagnosis spell before nodding.

"Just double checking what Chinchilla-san told me," she explained. Hermione unsealed the box and put it on a chair. "Two of the ribs are positioned wrong. If you could put them back into place I can heal them."

Yugao nodded and went to work. Once the ribs were set, Hermione healed them before reinforcing the healing on his shoulder. Hermione washed her hands and then unbandanged the burn. She fought the urge to wince at the sight of the burns. Hermione carefully removed the salve the iryo-nin had put on it and applied the cream she'd made. It both treated the burn and dulled the pain, thankfully. Once the cream was on, she carefully rewrapped the arm and then washed her hands again.

"Alright, the dressing will need to be changed every four hours. It should be healed in ten to sixteen hours depending upon how deep the burn is in his tissue. He shouldn't use the arm for anything strenuous for a further two to three hours after that."

"Step back. I'm going to finish healing his lung."

Hermione nodded and grabbed the chart so she could check what treatment and medications Kakashi had already been given as she didn't want him to have an adverse reaction because of drug interaction. She used a piece of mostly clean paper from the chart to work out dosages for the medications she intended to use in English.

When Yugao was done, Hermione said, "We'll need to take him off the morphine and the antibiotic immediately and I'll have to purge both from his system before I can administer any medications. The rest of it should be fine."

Yugao gave her a long, searching look before nodding. She disconnected a couple of the bags and then stepped back.

Hermione stood again and pulled her wand back out. She closed her eyes for a moment and then began the complicated spell. She vanished the morphine and antibiotic from his system and then began to measure out potions using measuring spoons she'd bought specifically for this purpose two weeks prior.

"What are you giving him?"

"A light sedative and a mild pain killer to make sure he doesn't wake up early and try to escape the hospital. This treats chakra exhaustion. I wouldn't recommend it for anybody without our kekkei genkai. One of the side effects of chakra exhaustion for us is hypoglycemia or extreme low blood sugar and having this much sugar put into the body of somebody who doesn't need it could be catastrophic. This is an antibiotic that won't interfere with the medications he's on. Finally a nutritional supplement that should give him back what his body uses while it heals."

"What sort of recovery time is he looking at?"

"He'll need a day and a half to recover his chakra completely, but his injuries should be completely healed within twenty hours. I'd say give him eighteen hours before letting him out of the hospital and two days before allowing him to have some sort of desk duty for… four to six days. Then let him out in the field again."

Yugao gave a nod in reply. "I don't want to leave you alone-the other doctors and nurses might try to remove you, but I need to inform the team."

"I can send a message to Gai-san," she offered.

Yugao told her what to say and Hermione created a messenger patronus. The little otter ran off as Yugao blinked.

"What was that? Some sort of positive intent?"

"Sort of. Same theory as killing intent. It's the best defense against a dementor. That's a type of demon that eats people's souls and feeds on emotions that's native to my country. They guard our prison. Anyway, the only way to drive one off is a concentration of happy emotions. I'm not sure who, but somebody figured out the creature created by the jutsu makes a good messenger as well."

Hermione sealed the medicines away and checked the chair before pulling appropriate levels so that it reclined. Yugao handed her a pillow and she curled up in the chair so she could get some rest. "Please make sure nobody touches his medications and somebody wakes me in two hours."

"Sure."

Sarutobi Hiruzen walked into the hospital room, still thinking about what had happened. He'd had to send ANBU after Itachi, had to make sure that it was real in every way that mattered. Not to mention that Itachi had far exceeded the bounds of his mission, not only killing the members of the clan involved with the plot, but also every man, woman, and child save his baby brother. It was unfortunate that Kakashi had been so injured, but at least Itachi had not killed the man.

His eyes ran over the room naturally. Sarutobi took in Uzuki Yugao, who was sleeping in the chair next to the window and Maito Gai, who leaned against a wall. It was when his eyes fell upon the soft feminine figure curled up in the second chair that he paused. There was a large ginger tabby dozing at her side, curled up in the space between her body and the arm rest. The tabby glanced at Sarutobi with too intelligent eyes before yawning and closing its eyes again. Not a summons, but possibly some sort of nin cat. Two of Kakashi's ninken lay upon the ground next to her, implying that the woman had a right to be here with their summoner.

The woman stirred and Sarutobi felt the gentle brush of her chakra, so faint that he'd not have noticed if he were any less skilled. Gai bent down and ran a hand through her hair saying, "Shh, go back to sleep. You're in no danger."

"'kay. Night," she mumbled before curling in on herself and going back to sleep.

"Hokage-sama," said Gai, nodding the ANBU guards.

"How is he?"

"According to Yugao-chan and Hermione-chan, he'll recover completely within a week and have no permanent injuries."

"Ha-maiani?" he said, stumbling slightly over the foreign name.

Gai nodded at the sleeping woman. "Kakashi's wife. They married a little less than two and a half weeks ago."

Sarutobi found himself blinking. There was no reason such news would be brought to his attention, but he was a little shocked he hadn't heard of it.

"He actually married her?" He'd thought Kakashi would be a bachelor for life like Jiraiya. At least he wouldn't have to encourage the man to reproduce.

"Without any prodding he'd never marry. So I arranged it." Gai wasn't bothering with his usual act at all, likely because he didn't want to wake any of the sleeping figures and the seriousness of the situation. "She's a civilian member of one of the Dragon Clans, very skilled with our kekkei genkai, and has training as a civilian field medic. She is a natural chakra sensor and completely self taught. Hermione-chan was brought to the village with her cousin, Lovegood-sama. She's good friends with his daughter."

Gai was probably right. Kakashi would never have put himself out there, would never have found himself a wife unless he'd no other choice in the matter. He didn't like the idea of one of his ANBU captains being married to a foreign woman, but she was related to a fuinjutsu master that was above reproach. And chakra sensors were incredibly rare. If even one child inherited that ability, it would be a boon for the village. At least, he supposed, he could trust Gai to pick somebody who would not be a danger to the village. Both he and his cousin were infallibly loyal to Konoha.

"Who officiated the ceremony?"

"They used one of our people's clan ceremonies, with me as witness. Koharu-sama registered everything."

He gave a short nod. His old teammate had doubtless ensured everything was above board. Sarutobi took the time to look at the woman.

She was young, probably in her mid to late teens. Old enough to safely bear children, but young enough that she was at the beginning of her fertile years. Hermione was pretty, but not stunning. She was tall and big boned and a good sixty pounds too heavy by kunoichi standards although her face was delicate in appearance. By civilian standards she would be considered a little overweight, but not too much so, particularly given her large skeletal structure and relatively hourglass figure with wide hips and a large bust. Hermione's bust might actually be able to compete with Tsunade's, something he hadn't thought possible. Perhaps her ancestors were from the west like those Slavic clans who on rare occasion came this far to trade. They had similar facial structures and body types. She had long delicate fingers well suited to forming hand seals and were calloused in such a way as to suggest she played a stringed instrument regularly. Hermione was pale with a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and her long brown hair was probably naturally curly, given its thickness and frizzy nature.

"I'll visit again when he's awake."

"You can heal broken bones if the person has a difference kekkei genkai than yours, right? It's only the medicines that don't work well."

Hermione nodded at Yugao. "Yeah. Why?"

"Tenzou-kun was on the mission too. Most of the bones in his hands and his femur were broken."

"Of course. You had to stabilize his leg. You wouldn't have had enough chakra to heal Kakashi-kun completely," said Hermione. A broken femur was easily as life threatening as a pierced lung. The rest of Kakashi's injuries were nothing in comparison. "Urushi, could you stay with Kakashi-kun? I'm going to go help Tenzou-san."

At the dog's affirmative reply, Hermione and Bisuke followed Yugao out of the room and across the hall. "So, you had all those medicines on hand…"

Hermione snorted. "Normally I don't. But I've been setting up a proper set of first aid supplies so that Kakashi-kun and Gai-san have access to what they might need while I'm up in Scotland. I know it's a little more than what most civilians have on hand, but Anko-san told me that the men would escape the hospital given half a chance so I just wanted to be sure they'd have everything they needed."

"Scotland?"

"I have responsibilities to the clan. I'll be back in Konoha next summer. The men knew about it before Kakashi-kun and I married."

"Here he is. Let me double check all the bones are set and you can get to it." Yugao checked the unconscious teen over before nodding and stepping back. As Hermione pulled out her wand and began to heal the bones, she asked, "So where'd you learn all this, anyway?"

"I've been studying under Pomfrey-sensei. She's the medi-witch responsible for the care of the people who attend the school all members of a Dragon Clan in the country go to. She was a field medic on the front lines of the last two big wars and worked for the… I guess I'd compare hitwizards to the military, so worked with the military in between. I swear, she may be completely civilian, but she's the scariest woman you'll ever meet." She withdrew the wand from the boy's thigh and moved on to his bandaged hands. "Anyway, she runs a three year program that trains people to be qualified to take care of most illnesses and injuries. I just finished that. If you take the full five years, which is what I intend, then you're considered a fully trained field medic like Pomfrey-sensei."

After a couple questions, she explained how it worked in the UK, using the same story as she had with Anko. Healing the hands were far more difficult than Tenzou's leg. Simply put, more bones in his hands were broken than not. Whoever had done this had meant to ensure that Tenzou was incapable of using hand seals for months.

"Right, that should do it. Make sure he takes some calcium supplements for the next three weeks at least and have somebody check his range of motion out before letting him train or go into the field again."

"Of course. You head back to your husband. I'll stay here."

"Alright."

Hermione walked back out into the hall and stopped short. "Morning, Anko-san."

"Hermione-san. Is that-"

"Tenzou-san's room. Yugao-san roped me in to help heal him. Kakashi-kun's is that room there. I don't know who else is in the hospital."

"How long you been here?" she asked, falling into step beside Hermione.

"Since Chinchilla-san came to tell me Kakashi-kun was here. I think it was around three in the morning, but I'm not sure." Hermione opened the door to the room only to stop short. "Don't even think about it! Get your ass back in that bed right this instant!"

"Now now, koneko-chan-" Kakashi said from his place half out of a window.

"Don't you kitten me!" she snapped, not even noticing that this was the first time he'd used a pet name for her. "Step away from that window and get back in bed right now!"

"I'll see you-"

"It's too bad," she said, deciding to switch tactics. Lecturing obviously wouldn't work on him.

At least Kakashi's mission had given her a chance to think things over and she'd already made her decision on several important matters. Not that Kakashi knew that yet. She twirled a stray curl that had escaped her braid and arched her back slightly so that her chest was more obvious before licking her lips. He'd probably seen better acts, but this was the best she could do on such short notice.

"What's too bad?" he asked.

"I was feeling so much better, but now it seems that my headache is returning."

"Headache?"

"I've had nothing better to do than read the next two books in the Icha Icha series while you were gone. They've made me so curious. So curious. But if you leave the hospital before you're supposed to, that will only make me worry. And worrying gives me a headache."

"But wouldn't you like to play nurse back home?" he suggested.

"Oh no. I couldn't. Even if I was taking care of you I'd still be so very, very worried."

Next to her, Anko bit her lip to stop herself from laughing even as her shoulders shook. At least somebody was getting a kick out of this. Although she did hope that Anko would eventually let her live this down-she wasn't foolish enough to believe that the woman wouldn't tease her about this at all.

Kakashi pulled his leg back in. "Give us a minute, would you?"

"Sure," said Anko, walking back out of the hospital room and closing the door.

"What, may I ask, have you decided while I was gone?" Kakashi was more serious than she'd ever seen him before. He didn't play as many of his mind games with Hermione like being hours late as he did with others, but he was never this serious either.

"There's no point in living my life unless I'm actually living it," she said. It had taken days of soul searching to come to that conclusion. "I'm not going to go out of my way to try to conceive, but if I were to get pregnant, I wouldn't be upset. You never did say how you felt on the subject of children-or sex for that matter."

"How long do I have to stay in the hospital?"

"Somewhere between nightfall and midnight today."

He sat back down on the bed. "Do you know how Raidou, Yugao, or Tenzou are?"

"Namiashi-san and Yugao-san are both fine. Yugao-san had me heal Tenzou-san's broken bones. It's where I was just now. She's decided to sit with him for a bit."

He nodded, swinging his legs up onto the bed. "You do this?"

"Yugao-san made sure your bones were set and healed your lung. I treated the rest of your injuries. And I need something to call magic, because I can't just keep calling it out kekkei genkai. It'll get repetitive eventually."

"White Chakra. It's what they call it in us Hatakes. Why don't you let Anko-chan back in now."

Hermione's eyes narrowed-Kakashi still hadn't said how he felt about children-but went to do as he'd suggested.

1) I think that a medic of Tsunade's skills would have been able to fix all of Kakashi's injuries in an instant. Yugao is a field medic and a highly competent kunoichi. She'd been chasing a former ANBU captain with her team for the better part of two weeks and probably a little low on chakra. She had to stabilize both Kakashi and Tenzo and both of them had serious injuries.

2) Hermione's… seduction attempt was a little desperate and immature. However she's sixteen, almost seventeen and she was trying to keep a very injured Kakashi from escaping the hospital.