It was an office.

One large desk took up a corner, complete with a comfortable office chair and a locked cabinet. A second, slightly smaller desk rested up against the wall, placed kitty-corner, also with a chair and cabinet. Captain and lieutenant, clearly. Three smaller desks—not even desks, more like work-tables—made a loose L in the opposite corner. Their rolling chairs were wooden, and unpadded. There were no cabinets there, though someone had conscientiously placed three small trash cans down. A clean blackboard took up most of one wall. There were maps pinned to another. A battered reddish-brown leather couch looked like it had already done duty as a nap station; it was long enough that even Ryouma could probably lie down without his feet hanging off the end. In the final corner, a tall green plant bore one defiant white flower.

They were still on the first sub-basement level, so there were no windows. But if Kakashi had to guess, he would bet that second door led to a bathroom.

“No TV?” Ryouma said, disappointed.

Raidou shed his crescent moon mask, revealing evenly handsome features and a wry smile. “If you find yourself with time to watch movies, I better be in the hospital.”

“That’s not an invitation to mutiny, in case you were wondering,” Genma added, removing his tanuki—red panda? Tanuki—mask and hanging it on a peg by the door. His face was more delicate than Raidou’s, a touch younger, animated by light eyes and lazy amusement.

“I’ll do my best to remember,” Ryouma said, with mock gravity. He stepped further into the room, running curious fingers over the polished wood of one desk, then dropped carelessly down onto the couch. He pushed his mask up to one side, further dishevelling his hair, and looked like he wished there was a coffee table he could put his feet up on. His face was paler than Kakashi had expected, sweat-streaked. Not completely unaffected by Nanami after all, then. “Guess we’ll just have to amuse ourselves in the meantime. With pushups, I assume.”

Genma gave him a sidelong look. “One-handed pushups for you.”

Ryouma waved the fingers of his good hand. “I like showing off.”

No news there.

Katsuko sprawled down on the three-quarters of the sofa not taken up by Ryouma, tipping her head back against squashy couch cushions, and slid her mask off like an afterthought. Her face was sharper than Kakashi had expected, with an angular jawline cutting down to a pointed chin. Her nose was long and narrow, unbroken, and her mouth was thin. At a glance, he would have judged her as a delicate boy, rather than a handsome woman.

Trouble, Raidou had called her.

She caught Kakashi’s eye, and winked.

Kakashi took himself to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall, which had so far expressed no desire to get into his pants or under his skin.

Raidou raised an eyebrow at him. “Prefer to stay hidden?”

Hidden? He was completely visib— ANBU mask, right. Kakashi was almost tempted to say yes, just to see if Raidou would let him keep it on, but that wasn’t actually a fight he wanted to get into. He undid the strap and lifted the mask free; it was body-warm now, light in his hand. He clipped it to the special notch on his belt.

“Better?” he said.

Genma glanced over from where he was sit-leaning on the edge of his desk, and nodded once.

“Nine out of ten,” Katsuko said, sprawling further out on the couch. It edged her feet into Ryouma’s territory, but he didn’t seem to care. They both had the aura of touchy-feely people.

“I think I’ve just figured out why they assigned us together,” Ryouma said contemplatively, dark eyes glancing from face to face. “We’re the Hot Team now.”

Katsuko laughed. “I’m not complaining.”

They were going to high-five in a moment, and Kakashi was going to have to kill himself with that potted plant. This wasn't what he'd pictured at all. Minato had said there was no glory in ANBU, but there was still supposed to be nobility, or dignity, or something. The Hokage's most feared soldiers. This was the whetstone to sharpen himself against, but they were clowns.

Wait until you meet your team.

Why would Minato put him here?