Raidou sighed. "Maybe these will help." He dug two folded sheets of paper out of his pocket, checked the characters inked on the backs, and passed them over. One to Kakashi, one to Ryouma.

Ryouma's fingers didn't fumble, opening the paper. It felt like they should have. He spread it out on his thighs and gazed blankly down.

It was an ink-wash drawing, all simple lines and delicate shading. A wild ram with curling horns stood on the shore of a marshy lake, fringed with the brush-stroke suggestion of rushes and iris. A tiny rat sat on his head. Both of them gazed, heads lifted, at the full moon above.

Something tickled at the back of Ryouma's throat. He opened his mouth, and found it was anger.

"What the hell sort of goodbye is this?" Was he supposed to pin it on his wall, or above his desk, and stare at it every time he turned around to make a joke and found her gone? They'd barely lasted through one turn of the moon: was that single-stroke circle supposed to mean something?

"A rushed one," Raidou said. "She barely got the chance to see the lieutenant before she left; I didn't get to see her at all. I think this was the best she could manage."

If she'd seen Genma, it must have been after the funeral. Which meant that if Ryouma hadn't dragged Kakashi out fifty kilometers away from Konoha in a bullshit attempt to outrun his fears, they'd have been here when she came to say goodbye…

He dug his fingers into his thigh, instead of the paper. "Sorry we missed her."

"She was sorry not to get to say goodbye, too," Genma said. "I only got a little time with her, to take care of administrative details, but I know she wasn't any happier about her short turn-out time than the rest of us are."

How long had she had? If that was her father, at the funeral — if she was already gone —

Five hours, maybe. Plenty of time to kit up for a three-day or weeklong mission. Not quite such a generous turn-out time for a relocation halfway across the continent, with an apartment to pack, a security detail to arrange, and an estranged family to face.

But she'd sat down, somewhere in there, to draw him a farewell.

He cleared his throat. "What'd she leave you, Kakashi?"