Kakashi nodded once at Raidou and Genma. Raidou returned it. Genma looked immeasurably tired for a man who’d only taken over a shortened training session and swum a handful of laps. Kakashi grabbed his own kit and slipped out, cataloguing his mental list of things to do.

Before the door closed behind him, he heard Raidou say, “How’d it go?”

“Great,” Genma said. “Just don’t ask about goats.”

Kakashi snorted and ran.

He caught up with Ryouma just before the main entrance. Katsuko was already out of sight—despite the slouch, she could move like light when she wanted to.

“Tousaki.”

Ryouma startled and looked over his shoulder. “Kakashi.” His ears were still pink.

What was it with them and names? Katsuko had her inexplicable endearments, and Ryouma had gone right for Kakashi’s first name without even bothering to stick a ‘-san’ on the end of it. At least Genma and Raidou called him ‘Hatake’.

The river had washed the worst off, but there were still traces of dirt in Ryouma’s hair, and a fresh split in his lower lip. More than a few bruises elsewhere. Kakashi eyed them with, maybe, the faintest twinge of regret as he organized his thoughts.

“I appreciate the apology,” he said, and because he knew it would make the difference between formality and sincerity to Ryouma, offered his hand. “I look forward to running this mission together.”

Dark eyes studied him for a moment. Then Ryouma smiled, broad and even, bright with relief, and accepted Kakashi’s hand with a quick, firm grip. “Thanks,” he said. “Me, too. We’re gonna run this one right.”

“Tigers,” Kakashi agreed, with his own fleeting smile.

Ryouma laughed, letting him go. “We should do warpaint. No—we’ve got the masks. Well, we can practice tiger growls on the way there. Ten points to whoever can scare the lieutenant.”

Ryouma had a regular human throat; Kakashi had a little more canine flex in his vocal cords. He drew a breath, twitched his shoulders back, and let a low, deep snarl spill between his teeth.

Ryouma’s eyes widened. His dominant hand made a brief, aborted move towards the kunai holster he didn’t actually have, before he caught himself. He swallowed once and laughed again, just a little strangled. “Okay. That just—did really weird things to the animal part of my brain. Wow.”

Kakashi smiled smugly.

Ryouma shook his head once, and pinched the lobe of his right ear between thumb and forefinger, in a tic Kakashi didn’t recognize. Self-calming? “How do you even do that?”

“Family secret,” Kakashi said, and made a point of glancing up at the clock above the not-really-a-receptionist’s desk. “Aren’t you going to be late?”

Ryouma’s lip curled, a little wolf-like in its own right. He dropped his hand. “Probably. Another three points to you,” he said, deeply dry. “Make sure to tell the QM how much you love your kusarigama.” He shouldered through the door and was gone.

Kakashi paused.

What had he done with the quartermaster’s kusarigama?

“Crap,” he muttered, and re-routed all of his plans to involve two new steps: 1) find borrowed weapon, and 2) get yelled at for not using it.

He pushed through the door and headed for his room at a run.