Hitomi sat beside him and gently took his left arm. Her right hand glowed blue again, and Kenshin felt warmth. Gradually, under her chakra's influence, his bone regrew, but the process was so slow that by Hitomi's estimate, he'd need sessions for at least two weeks.
Throughout the session, Kenshin just stared into the beautiful white eyes of the lovely woman and chatted on abstract topics. Hitomi nearly lost herself in the depth of his eyes but, with vast iryeninjutsu experience, maintained focus even in such a trying situation.
After the session, Kenshin headed out, bidding Hitomi farewell and promising to return tomorrow. She walked him to the exit, and the iryonin assistant at the desk nearly dropped his tea mug seeing this fearsome woman chatting sweetly with an utterly unremarkable youth.
As soon as Kenshin left, Hitomi turned her gaze to the frozen guy, her warm, tender look instantly becoming the ice queen's glare.
"Still slacking? Patient in six has intestinal obstruction. Handle it," she commanded authoritatively, and turning, headed to her office.
"What the hell is going on?!" he thought in shock, and at the thought of the patient in six, all desire to finish his tea vanished.
"What happened to you?" Yamada Setoru asked, raising his right eyebrow.
"A thunder wolf charged at full speed and sent me flying..." Kenshin sighed in reply, while Ichiro placed a pile of fangs on the table.
"Never occurred to you that a regular human without chakra control has no business near thunder wolves?" Setoru said with a smirk. The situation openly amused him, and having seen far worse injuries in his time, he didn't consider bilateral arm fractures noteworthy.
"You're right. On this mission, I was frankly superfluous. The group will handle the next ones without me," Kenshin assured him to get certification.
"With those injuries, missions are definitely off-limits," Setoru said with a smile, clearing his throat before continuing. "Fine, mission accomplished, no reason to deny your team certification. You chose yourself as commander?" He glanced at Ichiro, who silently nodded.
"You can only induct new members yourself, but you must register each one. Here's the certificate—head to registration and have every team member leave chakra prints for ID," Setoru said, and Ichiro silently left the office.
"Hm, truly not talkative," Setoru noted with a laugh, confirming the truth of Kenshin's legend.
Half an hour later, Kenshin and his sons finally left the building and headed to a local diner. After hearing Kenshin was out of danger, his sons were in high spirits, and their team's certification lifted it even higher. Everyone ate with gusto, while Kenshin just sat waiting for them to finish.
Ichiro offered to feed his father, but he flatly refused, and eating via telekinesis in public wasn't an option. So they ate quickly, took some food to go for Kenshin to snack on the road.
Three hours later, they reached home territory, confirmed no tail, and Kenshin headed straight to their familiar mountain and entered the cave.
As the large entrance door opened, three beauties with anxious faces stood before Kenshin. Seeing the splints on his arms, all the girls' expressions changed instantly. Kasumi was first to regain composure and stepped toward him.
"You bastard!" she said angrily, slapping him, then turning and storming off, leaving a trail of tears.
Natsumi also burst into tears and silently buried her face in his broad chest. Aya was shocked and started sobbing seconds later. The sons quietly retreated, and Kenshin stood letting his wives vent their emotions.
A minute later, Kasumi returned and silently pressed into his chest.
"You're a real bastard, Nakayama Kenshin... How could you put yourself in danger?!" the Nara clan daughter growled through tears.
"Sorry, girls," Kenshin said tenderly, kissing Kasumi on the lips.
After lengthy explanations to the girls, Kenshin could finally breathe easy. Their first mission hadn't gone to plan but ended far better than it could have. After debriefing, he went to rest and slept till evening, until Kasumi slipped into his bed and began tenderly kissing his face.
"Sorry I hit you..." she whispered, pressing her cheek to his. She feared lying close, not wanting to hurt his arm, so showed care as best she could.
"No big deal. I brought it all on myself," Kenshin whispered, turning to kiss her lips.
"Why'd you even go on the mission with them? You could've waited at the outpost..." the black-haired beauty asked reproachfully.
"You know I can't do that... I can't just sit and wait while one of them comes back in a coffin, when I can influence the battle. And broken arms are much better than losing one of them."
"You risk yourself but won't let me..."
"And I won't. You girls' safety comes first."
"You're so stubborn sometimes..." Kasumi sighed, kissing him on the lips.