“I tried a bunch of bars and some of the smaller casinos and tea houses in the pleasure district, and finally I find someone there cleaning up the mess from the night before, who thinks they saw my tall friend go back to an inn with a visiting scholar from Wind Country.” He stretched and resettled, giving the tension in his story a moment to ripen. “That’s my first clue that this is going to be complicated.”

“Let me guess,” Ueno said, as her eyebrows slowly climbed up her forehead. “The scholar wasn’t a scholar.”

“He might have been,” Hakone said. “I didn’t really get a chance to ask.”

“He’d certainly studied something,” Ryouma murmured around a self-satisfied little smile.

“Well, he wasn’t just a scholar,” Hakone continued. “I go to the inn and do a chakra sweep, and yep, there’s Ryouma’s signature, bright as day, with probably thirty civilian signatures as background noise. And another chakra presence that’s either a really zen monk or a ninja. With Ryouma.” He raised an eyebrow for effect. “Smart man that I am, I’m guessing Ryouma’s not there for a few hours of serene meditation with an octogenarian.”

“You wound me,” Ryouma said gravely. “I've meditated.” He paused. “Once. For about ten minutes.”

“Did it hurt?” Ueno asked, obviously amused.

“My foot fell asleep,” Ryouma said. “Then I fell asleep. Then Hitomi-sensei hit me over the head, and we stopped.”

“So basically, yes,” Hakone interpreted.

“He did have amazingly smooth chakra though, didn't he?” Ryouma said, sounding just a little proud. He picked up one hand to rub his fingers together, like he was stroking a delicately textured fabric. “I think I've only met medics with chakra that well-ordered. Haven't run into any monks yet.”

“Yes, he had chakra like the first cream skimmed from a purebred Stone Country yak’s milk,” Hakone said. “I’m a hundred percent sure it’s his chakra you were so taken with.”

Ryouma’s reminiscent smile warmed. “Well. And other things.”

“Were his other things smooth, too?” Ueno asked, in purely academic tones.

Hakone sighed.

“Hakone’s telling the story,” Ryouma said primly.

“Thank you,” Hakone told him. Ueno’s boundaries seemed as permeable as rice paper, but Hakone was getting the idea they were more of a one-way mirror. An effective defense mechanism, although a fairly high energy one.

“Anyway, I’m outside the inn, they’re inside, and I’ve got a mission which doesn’t involve me explaining to our captain that Ryouma missed his check-in because he was playing blanket bamboo shoots with an unknown shinobi. I’ve got to go in and extract him. I’m hoping he’s with another Konoha ninja — we were still in Fire Country, so statistically that’s most likely — but I’m not a gambler.”

“Awkward,” Ueno said, with obvious delight.

Ryouma was still playing it cool; sitting with a deliberate slouch to his spine, and his legs slung out in front of him, but there was a telltale anticipatory flush at the edges of his ears. “Aren't you glad we've got the ANBU spark signalling, now?” he murmured.

“It would have saved us some stress, but think of the heroics we’d have missed out on.” Hakone grinned. The best part of the story was still on the horizon, and Ueno was completely engaged. If he won a genuine laugh from her, he’d count it a success. Given what Ryouma had told him about Team Six’s mission and its fallout, Ueno and Ryouma could both benefit from a little levity.

“I go in. Hotel is quiet, since it’s early morning, but I get up to the room Ryouma’s in, and I’m pretty sure no one inside is asleep. I do one more longer range sweep for chakra, because— Well, I’d like to say I had some kind of intuition, but really I was just being extra cautious.”

He could tell by the look on Ueno’s face that the hook was firmly set. She bobbed her head in an unconscious little gesture of impatience.

“There’s three strong signatures closing on our location. And I’m not getting a friendly intent.”

Now was usually the point, when he and Ryouma told this story to a group of off-duty shinobi over a pitcher of beers, that the questions and speculations started. But Ueno just looked at him, waiting for him to continue.