“Even morphine can’t stop your crippling sarcasm,” Katsuko said, giving one of Kakashi’s pigtails an idle flick. “Truly, you are one of Konoha’s finest.”

"That's one truth," Kakashi said. "What's your next one?"

Genma sounded amused. "I sincerely doubt Ueno believes what she just said; that actually could be her lie."

“We haven’t started playing yet and already people question my integrity,” Katsuko lamented. “At least Tousaki’s on my side. He doesn’t impugn my character.”

Ryouma said cheerfully, "That's because neither of us have any character to impugn. We are roguish allies. Are you starting us off, then?"

Katsuko would have preferred the sake. Telling the truth made her itch. She shrugged her good shoulder and tried on a grin. “Sure. Whoever guesses right gets to help me finish Hatake’s hair makeover. Losers have to give me one of their rat bars.”

"Only one rat bar from the losers?” Genma asked. “You're going easy on us, Ueno."

“I am, occasionally, very nice,” she informed him.

"You just bartered my hair as a prize," Kakashi observed with mild interest.

Katsuko beamed at him. “Yes.”

Raidou jostled her knee with his. "Play the game first before you start auctioning off your tranquilized teammates."

“Yes, taichou,” she sighed, and tapped a finger against her lips in thought. “Okay. One: I’ve been drawing since I was five. Two: I know how to negotiate trade treaties. Three: I once dyed my jounin-sensei’s hair pink and convinced him that my teammates had done it.”

Ryouma squinted at her. "I saw your drawing of the demon queen. I'd believe the first one."

"I think I know the answer, so I'll sit this round out,” Raidou said. Katsuko pulled a face at him.

Genma looked at her thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure this is one of those situations where the truth sounds like a lie and the lie sounds true.” Katsuko gave him a face, too. That was the beauty of faces. They could mean anything.

“Who was your sensei?” Kakashi asked. The look in his eye was a bit too alert for a man on that much morphine.

“Miyamoto Hideki. He was a ninjutsu specialist.” She felt the smile tug at her mouth. “He used to string my genin team up in a net and leave when we annoyed him.”

Raidou murmured, “Smart man.”

“Did it work?” Genma asked, with genuine curiosity.

“Maybe,” Katsuko said. Hideki-sensei had been an inscrutable bastard. “I think he was trying to teach us a lesson about teamwork. Or he thought it was funny.”

“It’s good to enjoy your job,” Genma said, sage as a mountain hermit.

Ryouma had been listening with a slight frown. He finally decided, "So the one about dyeing his hair pink is a lie. No way you'd convince him you hadn't done it."

“But she can negotiate trade treaties instead?" Kakashi said.

Katsuko batted her lashes at Ryouma. “I might be a better liar than you think,” she said sweetly.

“Skilled lying is probably essential to trade treaties,” Genma allowed.

"Drawing and dyeing are the truth," Kakashi insisted. "Treaties is the lie."

"I'll take that bet,” Ryouma said. “I say the treaties are true, and your sensei was smarter than merchants."

“What about you, lieutenant?” Katsuko asked.

Genma mulled it over before saying, "Hair is plausible, and you might know how to negotiate a treaty the same way I know how to build a bridge. So I think it's the drawing. I've seen your art. I think you've been drawing since before you were five."

She grinned at him and surveyed the rest of her team, letting the silence draw out before doing a little fistpump of victory with her good hand. “Two rat bars for me! Tousaki, you’re my new hair assistant. Lieutenant, Hatake, pay your dues.”

“Argh,” Kakashi said, and actually fell over backwards, landing on the blankets with an annoyed flomph. Ryouma cheered and reached over his prone body to give Katsuko a high-five.

Genma’s eyebrow ticked a bare centimeter upwards. “Apricot-oat or ginger sesame?”

“Both,” Katsuko said. This game wasn’t so bad when other people gave her their food. “Because I am a winner, and winners deserve two flavors of rat bars.”