The rookie dorms had lights glowing at the windows. Raidou walked past without letting his head turn. Ryouma was the only one who might be there. Kakashi and Genma were still at the hospital. Katsuko could be anywhere.

Though if he had to guess, he’d bet she was at someone’s bedside.

Ryouma, too, for that matter. They wouldn’t just sit idle. Hell, if Kakashi could walk yet, he was probably making himself a nuisance in Genma’s room. Or crafting plans to break out of the hospital.

You haven’t asked me how your team is doing.

Shibata had flicked that out like a scalpel, but he’d missed the artery. Raidou was worried about his team. About Genma’s leg, Kakashi’s chakra, Ryouma’s spirit, Katsuko’s heart — but he wasn’t worried about them falling apart. After two missions, the bones were built; they’d stick together.

He’d be just as worried if he was right there, standing next to them. Perhaps that was a captain thing.

He changed gears from a walk to a jog, letting his muscles stretch on the uneven path down the Hokage’s mountain. The journey back from the safehouse had nearly run all of them into the ground, but he’d done nothing that qualified as real exercise since then. If he didn’t get back to it soon, he’d lose condition, and it'd be a damn sight harder to train the rookies if he couldn't even keep up with them.

Tomorrow, he decided, he’d get back to the training field. He'd slept through too many 5ams.

Today, a run through the village would do. He picked up the pace until the wind tugged at his shirt and ruffled his hair, and turned his mind to where it was supposed to be. Genma's leg was going to need rehab, and the man needed to work on his taijutsu anyway. Kakashi and Ryouma both needed to buff their chakra stamina; this falling-over-at-the-end-of-missions habit was already old. And Katsuko—

Needed to take them out to dinner, actually. Since she’d promised.

And maybe Raidou would get Shun to let him look over her textbooks again. She had a copy of Invisible Prisons: Inside the Art of Genjutsu that she’d stopped leaving in strategically obvious places around the house. He just needed to ask.

He sighed. Ask and pretend it wasn’t excrutiating. But if the only thing standing between him and his team was genjutsu training and some armchair time in a therapist’s office, he’d kick both in the ass and get it done.

—

“It’s on the bookshelf in the bedroom. Help yourself.”