“You saw it,” Ryouma said, quietly. “First day, at the Trials.”

Ryouma had rotted a pig carcass to black sludge, and a proctor had buried the remains. So, an unmarked grave near a sewer culvert, without even bones to fill it. Kirigakure would never know where they could go to spit.

Kakashi said, “If we’d stayed in the tunnels, not split up…”

“Or if I’d killed that bastard before he got her,” Ryouma said. “If we’d taken the street instead of the sewers. If Raidou’d convinced Kuroda to delay his ‘diversion’. If we’d killed Fukuda at Ibaragashi…” He looked up, finally, and caught Kakashi’s eye. “We can keep each other up all night with what ifs, if you want.”

Kakashi felt the corner of his mouth twitch faintly. “We’ve spent enough nights awake already.” He dropped back on his elbows, balanced a moment, then lay all the way back down. Grass stems tickled the side of his neck. The sky was blue and silver-clouded and not raining on them. Kakashi folded an arm behind his head and said, “You should try it down here. I think it’s the one comfortable spot on any of these islands.”

“You’re probably allergic to it,” Ryouma said grimly, but he finished taping his bandages, tugged his shirt back on, and slipped down off his rock to lie in the grass. After a moment, he let out a low, soft sigh.

“Wherever she is...” Cynicism, or common sense, tried to throttle the words, but Kakashi was tired enough to let them slip through. “Whatever she is— if there’s anywhere or anything to be, even if it’s nothing… It’s got to be better than Kiri.”

“She told me, in the bunker after Ibaragashi, at least Kiri didn’t kill their own. Wonder what changed.” Ryouma tipped his head back, staring at the sky. “If Konoha’d ever go that way. Not killing all the bloodline clans, maybe, but— Well, no, Uchiha an’ Hyuuga’d probably wipe us out first.”

“Only if they saw it coming.” Kakashi rubbed a thumb over his eyepatch. “But Minato-sensei would never support it. We’d lose so much military power.” He was quiet a moment, before adding, “And it’s evil.”

Ryouma propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at Kakashi. “So would you refuse the order? Or do you just believe Hokage-sama wouldn’t give it?”

Unbidden, Kakashi’s thoughts went back to his ANBU interview. If Konoha ordered it, I’d kill every innocent between here and Iwagakure.

They hadn’t asked him what he’d do afterwards, though.

“I haven’t turned down an order yet,” he said. “If Minato-sensei thought Konoha needed the Uchihas’ lives, I’d take them. But… he wouldn’t.”

Ryouma was still staring at him, frowning now. “Even with that Uchiha eye in your head? You’d kill his family, too?” The frown deepened. “Is there anyone you’d break ranks for?”

“Obito’s parents petitioned Konoha to take his eye back,” Kakashi said. “There’s no love lost between us.” He looked up at the line carved down between Ryouma’s eyebrows and searched for a way to put old, bone-bred loyalty into words. He sighed. “Do you know the White Fang story?”

Ryouma hesitated. “Your dad? Not much of it. He was a jounin commander when I was a kid, I’d heard of him then. But we didn’t get much news after I left Konoha. I mean, I heard… he, uh, killed himself. But not much beyond that. He wasn’t the only one, back then.”