“Keep it up and you get a sticker,” Raidou said, wry.

“By stickers he means bandages,” Katsuko said.

“Making a start on that, too,” Ryouma said, quick on his feet, making Katsuko chuckle. Raidou grinned behind his mask. Looks aside—which wasn’t easy; Ryouma had a lot of looks—he’d known she’d like rookie number two.

Rookie number one was still a silent question mark.

They reached the stairs. Raidou led them down into the labyrinth of hallways, moving at a brisk pace until they found ANBU’s hidden door.

“Sagara-sama showed you the seal, right?” he asked.

“Horse-dragon-horse,” Ryouma said, and twitched his bandaged fingers. “But don’t look at me.”

“How often does it change?” Kakashi asked.

“At random,” Raidou said, flicking through the correct seals. The door slid seamlessly open. “Usually every ten days to two weeks. Captains get the word and pass it down.”

Which was a very minor thing to add to his growing list of things to remember, but still, one more change. They kept cropping up in odd places.

The run-order changed as they went through the tunnels. Raidou kept point, with Katsuko dog-tagging like a bright shadow at his heels. Ryouma loped along just behind her, footsteps scuffing slightly as he shortened his stride to avoid overrunning them. Kakashi clearly wanted to be last, but Genma slipped back behind him, taking the lieutenant's customary rearguard position.

It wasn’t actually a bad line-up, Raidou thought. They’d front-loaded their heavy-hitters, but Genma was a strike-from-the-distance kinda guy and a medic they wanted protected, and everything Raidou knew about Kakashi’s lightning attacks said they required a run up. This would be a good field order.

He was viciously tempted by the training field, when they crossed it. But they had a prior engagement, and Ryouma’s hand really needed to finish healing before Raidou let someone whale on him. In theory, Kakashi was also getting over a recent poisoning, even if he didn’t much show it.

ANBU’s HQ was bustling.

Raidou wove his team (his team!) through the scattered crowd of curious onlookers, a mix of veterans and rookies who clearly had too much time on their hands if they could stand around and stare at newbies, and took them down to the third level sub-basement, where the hallways got distinctly colder. It had been a while since he’d crossed this particular patch of ANBU, but the electric lights still flickered above the right door.

“Front and center, new guys,” he said, and rapped the door just above the brass spiral symbol.

Ryouma came first, standing just to the right of Raidou’s shoulder. Under his breath, he muttered, “I thought we were done with T&I...”

The door opened before Kakashi moved, or Raidou responded.

“Perfect timing. I was just running out of victims,” said Sakai Nanami, one of ANBU’s two tattoo artists, brandishing a long silver needle. “Who’s ready to scream?”

“ANBU’s combining Torture and Interrogation with tattoo artistry these days?” said Ryouma, after a beat. “Efficient.”

Nanami looked at him, thoughtful. “You’ve had work done before,” she said, which Raidou knew to be true, but couldn’t tell how she knew. Ryouma was covered solidly from head to foot, with the exception of bare, unmarked shoulders. “Couple pieces, right? Probably at least one big one.”

“Three,” Ryouma said. “All done by Shisei Takumi, down on Water Street. He studied under Horimasa Rei.” Ryouma’s expression wasn’t visible, but the tilt of his head and the tone of his voice suggested he was watching Nanami keenly.

“I know Takumi,” she said calmly. “Does good work. You can go second, then. Now you—” She pointed the needle at Kakashi, who twitched. “You look like a virgin. Step up, kiddo.”