"Your comedic timing is improving," Minato said, prying his fingers from their white-knuckle grip on the edge of the bath. "Also I'm wide awake now, thanks for the adrenaline rush. Ueno kept up well?"

Kakashi turned his head, displaying the left side of his face in cool, cut-marble profile. He hooked his fingers under the edge of the mask and tugged it down just low enough to display a vivid bruise sunrising up across his cheek. It was still raw and red, not yet purpling, though an older bruise showed green-yellow around the edges and bled down toward his jaw. "Pretty well," he said. He pulled the mask off entirely, triggering a brief cloud of dust from his hair, and turned his back to begin scrubbing.

He had a fresh cut across his upper arm, shallow and clean-edged, from a blade. The other injuries across his bare body looked older, mostly healed: pinkish scrapes and gouges across both shoulders, a nasty-looking bite dimpling on his right arm, jagged slashes red and angry on his lower legs. Those hadn't come from any blades, and the bite looked like it had involved fangs.

But they were all clean and healed, or healing; he'd seen a medic, though obviously not Rin. She didn't leave scars anymore, if she could help it. Minato eased himself down into the water, hissing at the heat on his own bruises, and leaned back against the warm wall of the tub. "You still haven't told me about your mission."

Kakashi paused, fingers buried in grey hair and brownish suds. "Might be a better discussion to have when you've slept."

"Because it'll give me nightmares?" Minato said, amused. "You've been spending too much time with Naruto. I pulverized the lord of Taishin Province's chest cavity five hours ago; you can't horrify me. Was it bandits with mutant guard dogs, or not bandits at all?"

"It was demons," Kakashi said.

The water bubbled around Minato's hands. He pulled his chakra back in. "Not a tailed beast."

"Giant scorpion-dog," Kakashi said, stripping lather out of his hair. "I only counted one tail, and I'm pretty sure Suna still has the Ichibi. So, regular monster. It was taking villagers to hatch eggs in them."

Intel would have reported if the One-Tails had managed to rip free of the Kazekage's son. Even if Suna had successfully concealed the boy's death and the bijuu's loss, the Ichibi could hardly have reincarnated so soon. And the Shodai Hokage's notes recorded the Ichibi's appearance as an immense tanuki, nothing like a scorpion. Minato let himself breathe again.

Kakashi would hardly have mentioned the appearance of a tailed beast so casually, anyway. And if it had been a bijuu—if it had been the Kyuubi, returned alone to the mortal world—Kakashi probably wouldn't have come back at all.

But—

Naruto wasn't the only one with nightmares.

Even a monster that didn't quite measure up to the stature of a demon-god of chakra could still wreak a devastation worthy of nightmares, though, and Kakashi's abraded shoulders were tight and tense. Minato said, "Did you seal it? Or could it be killed?"

"I did say we resolved things," Kakashi pointed out, shifting to pump more shampoo into his hand. The slight turn revealed a momentary slice of pale face, and the lifted corner of his scar-cut mouth. "I cracked it. Ueno blinded it. Namiashi bound it, and Tousaki punched through and melted it all over a mountain. We killed all the spawn we could. Sagara-san sent out a sealing team to clean up the aftermath. We did bring you back the head, though."

"I always appreciate presents," Minato said, fascinated. Was that pride in Kakashi's voice? No wonder he wasn't sure whether he still wanted the transfer he'd all but asked for, two weeks ago. "How big was it? Did you get a read on its chakra?"

"Obito got a look," Kakashi said, dropping his sudsy hands down to rest on his thighs. "Want a description, or want to see for yourself?"

If Kakashi had withstood it without flinching, Minato could do no less.