"No problem," Genma said. He was glad to see some of the tension drop away from his friend's neck and shoulders. "I got your back. I mean, we can always double team this kid or whatever, right? If you get a mission assigned with him or anything, tell me so I can pull strings or break noses or whatever and get on it, too. And if he's driving you nuts and we're both home, come grab me. We can always get him drunk or something. He's a rookie, right? Our prerogative as his seniors to haze him a little."

A visit to Intel seemed like it was the next order of business. Find out more about what exactly the hell they were thinking, hanging a lead weight like this around Raidou's neck. If he was tied up mentoring some kid, that meant more solo missions or missions with other ninja for Genma. And frankly, that was stupid. With a little work he could probably pull together enough mission stats to prove it was a dumb idea to break him and Raidou up.

He dug a thumbnail into thin orange peel and pulled, spraying himself in the face with a spurt of tangerine juice in the process. "Oi! They're trapped! Watch yourself," he advised Raidou, laughing and wiping at his eyes. Laughing made him cough again, and he grabbed for a tissue.