“Tousaki did,” Kakashi said, recalling the roaring spear of flame hurled at Iebara’s head. “The blood ate it and kept coming, but it did cook a bit. A hotter standard jutsu might have worked, not even necessarily a bloodline.”

He tapped his fingers on the rumpled sheet, feeling the memory of chakra heat pouring through bone and flesh, sparking into white flame and charred blood.

“Then again, my bloodline is raw chakra, and his jutsu was raw biomass wrapped around chakra, so maybe you need one to cut the other.”

Kurenai’s mouth quirked, framed by a faint line like an archer’s bow. “Difficult to test, unless you’ve mastered simultaneous dual jutsu. In which case many people far more important than me are going to be falling over themselves to question you.”

Which was a very compelling reason not to pick up that particular skill.

Kakashi said, “Or I could teach the jutsu to someone else, once I get out of here. If I can replicate it. And then we can line people up to attack them with fire.”

“At least you won’t find a shortage of fire jutsu specialists in Konoha.” She paused. “Assuming Yondaime-sama authorizes the distribution of Iebara’s jutsu. It’s an effective weapon, certainly, but if its effects are that corrosive to the user’s chakra… Well. Pure speculation, at this point.” She flipped back to an earlier page in her notebook, frowned, closed it, and to accommodate for a lack of knee-space, laid it aside on his bed and checked a page in her manila file folder. “You've got a query from the Bounty Office. Usually they demand some sort of evidence of the kill. I understand from Shiranui that, aside from the stolen jutsu, there was no evidence to bring back?”

“Two corroborating witnesses and a one-armed captain prisoner,” Kakashi suggested. “The lieutenant and Tousaki didn’t have the chance to search for Iebara’s dogtags, but there might still be some scraps left behind.” Probably much picked-over by scavengers at this point. “Or you can test the blood on my uniform.” Wherever that had ended up.

Kurenai made a small moue of distaste. “I’ll pass that on, but I doubt they’ll take you up on it. Too much work to establish a profile when you do have a prisoner.” She glanced at the page again, smoothing it with one white hand. Her nails matched her lips. “The official bounty is currently posted at 40 million ryou. Perhaps they’ll contest the payout after all…”

The Bounty Office was a quasi-neutral operation that maintained itself with the tacit cooperation of several allied villages. At last count, Fire Country, Grass Country, Wind Country, and Frost Country all paid dues, with the understanding that their own people wouldn’t end up on wanted posters. Unallied villages had their own systems. In Mist, you probably got a slap on the back and the option of keeping your enemy’s teeth if you brought a notable head home.

Getting the Bounty Office to pay up hadn’t been anywhere on Kakashi’s radar, but the thought that they wouldn’t was an irritating scratch.

“Maybe I’ll send them a note,” he said.