Her expression didn’t flicker.

“ANBU takes the best, and demands the most. Too much, sometimes.” There was no particular sympathy in her voice. Kakashi didn’t feel any, either. You knew what you were volunteering for. “It’s not surprising that some agents crack under pressure. I hope Namiashi-taichou hasn’t. I hope T&I will clear him, and that he’ll be back with you soon. Konoha needs that kind of leader. ANBU needs him. And, clearly, you do too. Is there anything else I should know, Kakashi-kun?”

“Agent Hatake,” Kakashi said shortly. “And no, you’ve got everything.”

Her pen tapped against the rich, red curve of her lower lip, a gesture that raised a flag for Kakashi. Replace the pen with a finger, and it would be shhh. People liked to touch their mouths when they were swallowing the urge to say something. In Kurenai’s case, probably a lot of somethings.

She nodded, and acknowledged, “Agent Hatake.” And then, “When do you expect to be discharged?”

“A few days,” Kakashi said. Sooner, if he could steal a doctor’s coat. “Did another government body nearly get assassinated?” was there another mission they wanted to send half a team out on?

Her mouth twisted, unevenly wry. “Hikouto’s quieter than it’s been in years. I don’t believe there will be another round of purges; Director Oita seems fairly confident that we’ve rooted out the snake-heads of the conspiracy. Your team should be able to rest, for a time.”

Snake-heads, Kakashi reflected, was an interesting choice of phrase for an event that, theoretically, had nothing to do with Orochimaru. Was Intel having doubts?

Shibata says there’s no link, and Sagara says it’s not his style, Minato had said, but he’d sounded doubtful, too.

Then again, if Orochimaru had been behind the coup, it probably wouldn’t have failed. Akiyama had, though, at the Third Trial, but Intel had never proven a link between him and Orochimaru…

“Did you do any work on Akiyama Jiro’s case?” Kakashi asked, before he could think of a smart reason not to.

“The traitor at the ANBU trials?” She shook her head. “I wasn’t in the village when the investigation took place. Shiranui-fukuchou mentioned the incident at the Trials in my initial debriefing of him, though, and I looked up the report.”

“What was the final conclusion?”

Kurenai’s expression shuttered for a moment — rummaging through whatever system she used to keep her mental folders organized, deciding what she felt inclined to share — then she sharpened again. “There’s no evidence to prove that Akiyama didn’t act as a solo rogue agent. There are gaps in his record, though. He ran three solo missions in the two months before the Trials. We had multiple field agents investigating, but they found nothing suspicious before the coup forced a reallocation of resources.”

Nearly dead Daimyou trumped actually dead ninja, Kakashi thought darkly.