"Depends," Ginta said seriously. "Did you know Ambassador Koga? Or a scumbag arms dealer everyone called Blue Jay?" Or Lightning Country's minister for defense, or the assistant to the Raikage's chief lieutenant, or any Kumo ninja...

He could feel Asuma's eyes on him, assessing, judging. It was an unfair advantage Ginta had, and he knew it, knowing what Asuma had been up to, at least in broad strokes, while he remained a total cipher. "I like to think I was one of the forces that made the right dominoes fall, but you know as well as I do how much discretion I had about my targets. Or how much I'm at liberty to tell even a fellow agent about it after the fact."

He watched Asuma's hand fingering that sash like a religious relic. He supposed it was one. Touchstone and identity and a tie back to a tragedy. Interesting that he chose to continue to wear it, but then he'd been on the virtuous and victorious side. It was an emblem of pride, a sign of where, when the irons were in the fire, Asuma's loyalties had lain.

You had to like a guy who had the fortitude to wear that badge still, after everything that had happened to him.