Kakashi sat up, put his book away, and traded a sidelong look with Ryouma. He said, very quietly, “I think we just got ‘not now, kiddo’d.”

“You’d think we interrupted something,” Ryouma said, but his heart wasn’t in the joke.  He raked a hand through his hair, scattering water. “Kiri. You think they’re ransoming Fukuda after all?”

Since he didn’t have the answer to that, Kakashi asked a better question. “Would you let her survive the trip?”

Ryouma scowled and grabbed another towel for his hair. “I didn’t kill her before, y’know.”

“She didn’t kill me.” Kakashi tipped his chin to look up at Ryouma. “You got there in time.”

“She doesn’t get points for failing to kill you just because I stopped her,” Ryouma snapped.

Behind him, Genma turned off Ryouma’s still-running shower and moved to the bench where he’d arranged clean clothes for himself. He’d already twisted his wet hair up and out of the way, stabbed into place with a senbon.

“It’s not about points.” Kakashi slid to his feet, resisting the urge to grab Ryouma’s head and shake it. “It’s about getting stuck on a grudge over a useless, crippled ninja and not looking for the next Kiri-nin who’ll try and kill us.”

Ryouma’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“She was doing her job,” Genma said, cutting the moment neatly apart before Ryouma could find a place he wanted to strike. “Just like we were doing ours. And she’s paid for it with the lives of her team, her arm, and her ability to function as a shinobi. There are plenty of shinobi who’d be thinking long and hard about how to provoke a jumpy Konoha ninja into putting them out of their misery, if they were in her position.”

“I know.” If Ryouma had fur, it would have been ridged down the back of his neck. He dragged the towel over his face and flung it down on the bench, hard. “Look, just ‘cause I’m not shrugging it off like you doesn’t mean I’m gonna break my leash and go on a Kiri-nin murder spree.” He snorted bitterly. “That’s what her team did.”

In the silence that followed, Genma gave the ceiling a brief glance, as if appealing for strength, and pulled his clothes on.

Kakashi gave up. Ryouma could collect his grudges until he dropped them or buried himself. Or until he found the one that eclipsed the rest. Kakashi had infinite room to despise Iwa.

“Okay,” he said. “Lieutenant, I don’t need team lunch. Permission to leave and get ready for the mission?”

“No,” Genma said curtly. “If you don’t want to eat, that’s up to you. Skipping a team briefing is not.”

Kakashi sighed, settled back down on his bench, and retrieved Icha Icha. The Fujiwara/Tachibana clan war didn’t hold quite the same interest, no matter how searing Kotori and Fumiko’s love was.

He wished Katsuko were here, to pull Ryouma back from his own edges. And Raidou, to brace Genma.

Instead they got Kuroda, and Kiri.

Well, maybe Ryouma would get lucky, and their mission would be a slaughter.