"Well, y'know, I'm, uh, workin' on it," Kaito lied, trying to act like it was no big deal. He was working on it as little as possible--or rather, he was working on never doing it, which was such a big failure that he preferred not to think about it at all.

He wondered how the fight was going, and how soon he'd be free to help. The lock picks were matte-black, but he could see a shine on them. Blood. Fuck.

"How bad?" he asked, nodding toward the other ninja's hands. That wasn't the injury of course, but he couldn't very well nod to the man's back.