Himself’s head snapped down. “If I’d attended to the offering? What did he leave me, then?”

“My canteen,” Raidou said levelly. Genma looked sharply at him, brows pulled tight together.

Himself’s dark eyes rested on Raidou, then Genma. He nodded. “An interesting offering. Was it full?”

“You’d know if you collected it,” Raidou said. His voice was still perfectly even, but the dripping water shone on the bunched muscles of his shoulders and back. “How many prayers do you really hear?”

For a moment the predator glared out of Himself’s eyes. His lips curled back, baring teeth just as white and sharp as in his canine form. “All of them.”

So why hadn’t he known about the abduction that occurred under his nose, the human hidden in his village? Kakashi had called the lie on Himself’s claim of omnipotence, before; how much was bluster now?

Kurenai wrung out her hair, considering the significant range between some and all.

Genma said carefully, “This whole incident would have been avoided if I’d been better at guarding my left. Raidou’s offering meant a lot to him, and I’m humbled he made it. I’m sure there’s no need to argue theology after the fact.”

They could leave that to the Intel analysts, who would find five years’ worth of lunchtime feuds and several never-to-be-published monographs in the contents of the forthcoming mission reports. Assuming Sagara, Oita, and the Hokage ever let the reports from this mission be declassified enough for common Intel pencil-pushers to debate, that is.

“Theology is boring,” Himself announced. “Let’s have sake instead.” He rinsed off one last time, set the bucket aside, and lowered himself with a pleasurable hiss into the steaming pool.

One of the attendant tanuki trotted up to the pool edge with a round wooden tray, brimming with ice. This time the sake cups were almost reasonably sized, and the carafe no larger than what Kurenai could purchase at any Konoha restaurant. The attendant poured for Himself, then set the ice-filled tray bobbing on the surface of the water, just within reach. Another attendant appeared with plates of chilled, sliced melon, which it arranged around the edges of the pool, only filching a few.

Himself leaned back against the smooth rocks lining the pool and sipped his sake. “So after you left your offering, you went to the fleabags’ world. What did you offer them?”

Kurenai coiled her clean hair and knotted it at the back of her head. “The opportunity to do a good deed, at first.”

The tanuki god sprayed his sake across the glimmering surface of the pool. “Oh, you didn’t,” he cried in delight, slapping his belly, sending a wave that almost submerged the floating sake tray. “How’d that work for you?”

“Almost fatally,” Kurenai admitted ruefully. She wrung out her washcloth, left it spread over her overturned bucket, and took all of one step toward the bath before her hair tumbled from its knot, heavy waves brushing her shoulder blades again. She sighed. Yamanaka Susuki made it look so easy.

“Here,” Genma murmured. Cold steel slipped between her fingers. He’d knotted his own wet hair up around another senbon. Sleek and straight, it gleamed the color of dark honey in the lantern light.

She shook her head. “If I had two, maybe…” There was a reason she didn’t often wear kanzashi. Her hair was far thicker than Genma’s, and much curlier.

“Let me.” He stooped for another senbon. She stood still, his hands deft in the wet mass of her hair. The back of her neck prickled in the cool breeze. His hands were warm, and he stood very near.

Genma said quietly, “Almost fatally?”

“Almost fatally,” Raidou said firmly, coming up beside them. “You may want an elastic instead.”

“I had one earlier…” Genma gave up on the slick senbon, stooped again, and came back with a simple elastic hair-tie.

Kurenai could have taken it from him. She tipped her head back, offering the wealth of her hair to him instead, and said, “The three Old Wolves met us in their den. They were...not pleased to have human visitors. Hatake’s summoning bond with dogs extends to the dogs’ gods, apparently, but not to the contract holder’s companions.”