“Good,” said Raidou. “Then let’s talk about our next move. Tousaki, you said two weeks until your knee heals?”

Ryouma licked his lips, a nervy gesture cracking through blank mask. “I can push it…”

“You won’t,” Raidou said. “Hatake, how long until your chakra is back to normal?”

“I’m good to go,” Kakashi said, like Raidou and Genma couldn’t tell an obvious lie if he said it in a flat enough monotone. Genma’s shoulder stiffened angrily under Raidou’s hand.

“Try again,” Raidou said.

Kakashi glanced between them, then at Ryouma, who was studying his hands with intense focus. No help there. Kakashi sighed. “Couple more days, maybe a week, depending on the mission.”

That sounded closer. And Genma needed a similar stretch for his bad leg to recover.

“Fine,” Raidou said, letting his hand drop. “What does Kuroda have you all doing?”

“So far nothing but paper pushing,” Genma said. “He had Ueno doing grunt work in his office until he got annoyed with her efficiency and shoved her off on T&I.” If Raidou wasn’t mistaken, there was a tinge of pride in Genma’s efficient report. “He’s taken me through a review of every single piece of paper that’s passed through our office since Team Six formed, and now he has me sorting declassified files with Tousaki. Hatake’s been left alone.”

“Well, that’s useless,” Raidou said. “What about Tousaki’s medic training?”

“I’m doing flashcards,” Ryouma said apprehensively, as if he thought Raidou might take them away.

Raidou nodded and dropped down into one of the abandoned chairs; he didn’t need to keep looming now the rookies were behaving.

“That’s good,” he said. To Genma: “Is that all you need? Aren’t there… classes, or something?”

“Kuroda demanded proof of Tousaki’s ability to handle written medical terminology, so now we’re working on that. I’m drilling him while I do file-sorting for now.” A senbon appeared neatly in the corner of Genma’s mouth; he flicked it to the other side with a little silver glint. “I’m still hoping he’ll be able to enroll in the next open class.”

Raidou frowned. “That’ll be designed for genin and chuunin, right? Tricky on an ANBU schedule.”

“Tricky, but not impossible. I’ll get the schedule from the instructor so I can fill in if he misses lessons.”

“We thought maybe the lieutenant could coach me through,” Ryouma said.

He’d be twice the age of his trainee peers, and far more field-experienced, but basics were basics. He had to start somewhere.

“All right,” Raidou said. “Survive Kuroda’s paperwork gauntlet, and we’ll make it work when I get back.” He glanced sidelong at Genma’s walking stick, then Ryouma’s knee-brace, and Kakashi’s… everything. “If you’ve got medical aptitude, Tousaki, I want it on this team. Gods know we’ll need it.”

Ryouma looked down at the picture still spread open on his thigh. “Maybe more, now,” he said quietly. He folded the picture and tucked it away.

The cold, sharp splinter in Raidou’s chest couldn’t hurt any more than it already did. He moved on to the next problem.

“Hatake, what about you?”