The temperature in the room abruptly dropped. Katsuko sidled away to lean against the doorframe, propping herself up for the impending clash of wills. Her newly-healed right leg still tingled a little; she shook it out surreptitiously and kept her eyes on the two combatants.

Toushiro-sensei’s eyebrows rose a bare fraction. She could almost see frost issuing from his mouth. "ANBU Agent Hatake, show me your face."

Without changing body-language, expression, or tone, Kakashi flipped a page and said, "No."

“You could give Hatake an ice pack,” Katsuko suggested. “You could tape it to his face.”

"How hard did you kick him?" Toushiro asked, without looking away from Kakashi.

She seesawed her hand. “Medium hard? Middling hard. Less than middling. I didn’t even break his nose.”

"Wasn't the nose I was thinking of," he said. "Hatake, I just want to check your cheekbone for fractures. You don't even have to take the mask all the way down."

Kakashi’s voice was flat. "It's not broken."

Toushiro narrowed his eyes and looked over at Katsuko. "Some assistance with your rookie, please?"

“I’m his senpai, not his mom,” Katsuko said. “C’mon, sensei, Hatake’s smart. He’ll be fine.”

Toushiro threw his hands up. "Fine, if his face falls off, on your head be it. And you can deal with that arm, too. Unless either one of you has any other middle-of-the-night disasters to throw at me, I release you back into the wild. Get out of my office."

Katsuko waited until she and Kakashi had made their escape to the elevator to say, “I was lying, you know. You’re the complete opposite of smart.”

"I'm you?" Kakashi asked.

“Please,” Katsuko said. “Like you could compete with all this.”