She made it sound so simple.

That was a talent of Katsuko’s, though — taking complicated knots and cutting through them.

How do we solve this?

Have you considered explosives?

Or in this case, when asked why? she’d returned an answer that was, basically, ‘because’. Because mistakes could be learned from, leaders could improve, and Konoha could bury bodies deep enough to protect the ANBU who’d dropped them.

Because she’d bled alongside Raidou for a year, and considered that long enough to know him. Maybe she did. But Kakashi wondered what she’d really thought, in those first moments, standing in the wreckage of their mission. He doubted it was: I expected this.

But here she was now, a professionally paranoid killer, saying trust.

“A week ago, I would have said the captain was the most stable among us,” Kakashi said. “You’re unpredictable, Tousaki’s unsteady, the lieutenant’s implacable. I’m…” he made curt, expressive gesture that won a snort from Katsuko. “The captain’s like clockwork. Train at 5am, laugh at rookies, paperwork, boundaries, use your words. He handled the first mission, and the aftermath. He got us back alive from the second, and that enemy captain, too. But we’re only a month in with this team, and he cracked without warning. People died. We’re lucky you didn’t.”

Katsuko opened her mouth, but shut it again when he said, “I know you think I’m biased because of Sakumo.”

“Is that not the case?” she asked, bluntly curious.

“It’s a factor.” He pushed himself upright and braced his elbows on his knees, watching the river swirl. “But suspicion has saved my life a lot more than blind trust.”

“You’re talking as if I give my trust easily,” she said.

“You sat on Tousaki on the first day,” Kakashi said.

“And you wear a mask,” she said. “We all have ways of presenting ourselves to the world.”

Kakashi felt his mouth curve. Not quite a smile, but an acknowledgement of the hit. “We do,” he said quietly, and turned to look down at her. “Do you remember the girls under the floor?”