“More temper than judgement,” Genma said. “Seeing as he was trying to start something up with Kakashi. But that jutsu of his looks useful as hell, and I guess he’s got a tactical one he didn’t show off, too.” He turned to the remnants of bok choy and mushrooms on his plate, herding them into a pile and skewering several into a sort of kebab on his senbon. “Other than that, I was glad Ono drew him for hand-to-hand, and not me. He spars like a back-alley brawler. Ono’s gonna need some serious work on that knee. Although Tousaki did catch a blade in the shoulder, I noticed, so maybe he’s not as quick as he should be.”

“He's tall. Makes a big target,” Raidou said with the authority of a man who spoke from experience. “Should be done growing, but if he got it late, he might still be figuring out where his reach actually ends.”

“True enough,” Genma said. “Although it’s not his reach that worries me, it’s his peripheral awareness. But Ono’s no pushover. I have a souvenir from a sparring match with him a few weeks ago myself.” He turned his head and brushed his hair back to show Raidou the fresh scar behind his left ear where Ono’s kunai had nicked him, and shrugged.

“What did you think of him? He had chakra like a geyser, and I didn’t see a lot of votes against him. Seems like he’s kind of a natural as long as he doesn’t wash out in phase two or three.”

Raidou hesitated, his expression going carefully neutral. "I think he'll do great, but I'm a little biased in his favor. Ran into him last year—though I didn't realize he was the face-melting guy then."

Genma nodded. “On a mission, or just out and about?”

“Just in the village. Seemed like a decent guy.”

Well that could cover just about anything from someone giving up the last dryer at the laundry for you, to having your back in a bar brawl, to a casual hookup between missions... Not that it mattered. Favorable was favorable. If Raidou was feeling cagy about why, maybe it was just because he didn’t want his personal opinion coloring Genma’s judgment.

“Cool.” Genma sucked a mushroom from his senbon. “So who else is worth talking about? Butterfly boy we discussed. There was that sword woman, Ayane— she’ll be worth watching in the next phase. And on the ‘no’ side, there’s the Uchiha girl. No surprise she washed out already. With a dramatic flair like that, she ought to be doing pyrotechnics for a rock band, not trying for ANBU.”

Raidou snorted. “Because most ninja are so subtle with their jutsu. Remind me what our Hokage is famous for again?”

“Not leaving himself open like an idiot while he’s pulling off his shock and awe maneuvers?” Genma suggested with a chuckle. “But yeah, you have a point. Hajime and I ran into a chick from Suna last year that hauled out this freakin’ ten meter tall sand dragon. Lots of flair. Also about flayed the skin right off us. And talk about having sand where you don’t want it after a fight.”

Raidou gave him a long, level look. “Thank you for that mental image,” he said, dry as the desert that had spawned that Suna ninja.

Genma just nodded. “Anyway. What else? You’ve proctored before. Hajime told me we’ll get our sector assignments when we get to base. And we’re scrolling it out there. We spend the rest of today setting up and we get the candidates sometime after 0400.” He looked up at Raidou. “Any advice or orders for me?”