As a general rule, Kakashi didn’t take home trophies from missions. The line between sanctioned assassin and serial killer was already thin and blurred; he didn’t need to dance on it. But he’d also never helped bring down a demon queen before.

Intel was getting the whole head. They wouldn’t miss one tooth.

The slim, cold line of it sat in his pocket for the entire debriefing, pressing subtle guilt against his thigh. He gave his report to a soft-spoken Intel kunoichi with clean hands and clever eyes, who told him exactly nothing about why Konoha had triple the number of guards on the walls, and no Hokage around. Nothing seemed to be on fire, but the village was wire-tense with unexplained stress.

When he’d finished the debrief, he was sent back to Team Six’s office to write it down in triplicate. Raidou still was absent—his time with Intel’s personnel would doubtlessly be much, much longer—but Genma was bent over his desk, and Katsuko was dozing on hers. Likely in pacifist protest against paperwork. Ryouma was a long, dark stretch on the leather sofa, one arm flung over his face. Even after three days of sleeping and boat-riding, he was still shadow-eyed and exhausted. The four hour sprint back to Konoha from the trader-point drop off hadn’t helped him much, either.

Genma glanced up at Kakashi. “Done? How was it?”

“Detailed,” Kakashi rasped, and cleared his dry throat when it clicked. “Did they tell you anything?”

“Nothing. The captain might get an update. There’s water on your desk,” Genma said, flicking a pen towards the corner desk that had, somehow, been designated as Kakashi’s. A bottle of water and a ration bar sat neatly in the middle, the latest addition in Genma’s crusade to stay on top of Kakashi’s blood sugar.

There was an empty wrapper crumpled in Katsuko’s hand, and crumbs scattered across her desk. Next to the couch, two empty soda cans had tipped into their sides, resting next to Ryouma’s abandoned boots.

At least it wasn’t just Kakashi.

He sat, drank, and wrote. Time slipped away like water droplets sliding down a blade, caught up in the details of body count and tactics, and the decisions he’d made in the dark. He put everything on paper, right down to the exact number of executed civilians (eight; five by his hands), because you never knew what Intel would find crucial, and if you couldn’t report it then you shouldn’t have done it.

When he resurfaced, Raidou was back and the clock had jumped two hours. Katsuko was curled up beneath her desk with her head resting on a folded cloak—but someone must have nudged her, because there was a stack of completed paperwork on the crumbs. Genma was still writing. Ryouma had rolled over and buried himself in the couch, face hidden among the cushions.

For a man as attention-demanding as Ryouma, he really didn’t seem to like people watching him sleep.

Kakashi stretched, wincing as his back cracked and every ache and injury stacked up to complain at him. His mouth tasted like candied death; somewhere along the way he’d eaten Genma’s ration bar.

“Captain,” he said.

Raidou glanced around, weariness carved in every line of his face. “Welcome back,” he said, like Kakashi was the one who’d been absent. “Finished?”

“I think so,” Kakashi said.

“Medic checked you out?”

“While I was debriefed.” Which had involved some less than delightful shirtlessness, but at least his shoulders weren’t raw anymore. “Did you get any news?”

Katsuko’s eyes opened, and Genma turned in his chair. Raidou rubbed a hand over his mouth. After an entire mission of masks, it was almost strange to see the team bare-faced again. “A little,” said Raidou. “Someone want to give Tousaki a nudge?”

“Mine,” said Katsuko, scrambling up into her chair. She pushed away from the desk, rolled gently across the floor in a smooth, wheel-squeaking curve, and came to a rest against the couch, where Ryouma was blissfully unaware of his impending trauma. Katsuko studied the peaceful rise and fall of his shoulders. “Aww,” she said. Then she leaned over, poked him hard in the back of the head, and yelled, “WAKE UP PLEASE.”