Genma looked up at Kakashi, standing uncomfortably near the door, and a fresh realization came to him. “You came straight here from meeting with Yondaime-sama. You didn’t come to tell me the news on the captain’s orders, you came on your own initiative.”

For an instant, a guilty look fleeted across Kakashi’s face, but his expression wiped quickly blank again. “There isn't an announcement yet. I just thought— you'd want to know.”

“I did. I do. I—” Genma nodded, meeting Kakashi’s gaze. “Thank you, Kakashi.” He looked away before the moment got awkward. “Do you want a cup of tea? Or anything? They probably won’t let me see him tonight; maybe I can see Asuma in the morning when I go back to the hospital. I have to go anyway.”

Kakashi’s eye flicked down to Genma’s torso, and the covered scar. “For your stomach?”

“Yeah,” Genma said, nodding. “And the liver and kidney stuff. They let me out yesterday, but I got the impression Hyuuga-sensei would rather have kept me in. She wasn’t overly impressed with the results of my technique for metabolizing the demon poison. How are you doing, did you get some rest?”

“Yes, lieutenant,” Kakashi answered, with the world-weary dryness of one who's learned it's easier to just answer and avoid the inevitable chase. “I even took a nap today. Twice.”

Genma nodded sympathetically. “I did, too. Tomorrow’s practice, we’ll start with assessments of everyone’s fitness and recovery. I’ll—” He stopped, as the curve of Kakashi’s left cheek under the mask caught his eye. There was a hint of bruising in the gap between his mask and the hitai-ate pulled down to hide his Sharingan eye, too. “Is your cheekbone still swollen? I thought that was almost healed by the time we got back to Konoha, but it looks flared up again. Do you have a toothache?”

Kakashi blinked once, caught off guard by the question, then sighed. “It's fine, lieutenant. Just took a second knock in a spar last night.”

“In the same place.” Genma tried to gauge the seriousness of the injury from a distance, but with the mask hiding it, it was difficult. “Any concussion or loss of consciousness?”

“No, lieutenant.”

“What first aid have you applied?”

Kakashi gave him a look that suggested Genma was making mountains out of molehills. “It’s a bruise.”

“It’s a facial injury with what looks like fairly significant swelling, in the same location as a recent and incompletely healed injury, and we’re about to resume training tomorrow,” Genma said. “My question stands.”

Kakashi’s shoulders slumped as he gave up the fight. “Bruise balm.”