Today’s cave of choice was a smooth, black-walled volcanic afterthought. The opening was narrow, but once they were inside the ceiling stretched up enough to allow sufficient headroom. Even Ryouma didn’t have to crouch. It was really more of a tunnel than a cave, sloping deep into the mountain, bending around and out of sight. The dark, rippling walls put Kakashi in mind of a dead artery.

On the balance, that was still better than a landslide.

Also, he needed to stop using medical textbooks for bedtime reading. He cracked a light-stick and jogged reluctantly down to the end, investigating for enemy boltholes and creatures of either an edible or poisonous nature. The cave ended in a closed fissure, remnant of some long-ago lava episode. Kakashi touched a basalt edge and gently feathered his chakra through it.

Stone, stone, and more stone met his senses. It radiated a solid, patient air, as if it had sat here for hundreds of years and was content to sit for a hundred more, instead of, say, collapsing on someone’s head today.

On the way back, he scooped up a colorful, many-legged specimen with interesting jaws to befriend the first person he judged deserving. It spent the return journey trying to eviscerate his sleeve.

Near the mouth of the cave, Genma had selected a flat spot in a patch of sunlight to collapse on. Ryouma sat cross-legged next to him, stretching one shoulder and then the other in sequence, trying to fight an ocean’s worth of knots out of the muscles. Raidou knelt next to a brace of scrolls, extracting water canteens, instant meal pouches, and bedding supplies. Kimiko had retreated further into the cave, where she’d turned away from everyone to feed Sango. She didn’t acknowledge Kakashi when he jogged by, but her shoulder hitched higher, pouring more shadow over the baby.

“Nothing to report,” Kakashi said. “The end’s sealed.”

Raidou nodded acknowledgement. “Good. Get a fire started? Matches, not chakra.”

Since the cave contained a complete lack of burnable items, Kakashi headed back outside to source something. Genma opened one eye when Kakashi passed, but otherwise didn’t move. Ryouma yawned.

Sticks for kindling, moss for tinder, bigger branches for long-term burning. Surprisingly, for the Land of Endless Damp, he was able to find enough dry material to work with.

When he returned, Genma had a half-empty water canteen in his hand and a folded blanket under his head. Ryouma was chewing on a strip of dry jerky. Kimiko had re-wrapped her shirt and was holding Sango against her shoulder, gently thumping the baby’s back. Raidou was making a bedroll up near her, with an additional blanket laid out to make a new baby-sling.

Tinder, kindling, branches. Flame. Kakashi fiddled with the campfire until it burned smokelessly. Then he set up the captain’s iron tripod and kettle over it, dumped water in the kettle, and lay down on the smooth, preciously horizontal rock next to the fire in the hope that his entire body would stop feeling like an overplayed harp-string.

The ceiling was black and cracked with jagged fissures.

He got up again and moved to the entrance. There was a patch of springy grass near Genma and Ryouma. Kakashi sat down in it, leaned his back against the side of the cave’s mouth, and peeled the cave-bug off his sleeve. It clicked blue-sheened jaws at him, then clamped them on the peeled twig he offered. “Here, Tousaki, found a friend for you.”

“Mmm?” Ryouma, still chewing, glanced over and focused on the long, spiky legs skittering eight inches away from his nose. He choked on his jerky. “Fucking hell, get that thing away!”

Kakashi snickered and set the little creature down on the grass, where it continued to maul the twig. “You’re ruining your social reputation.”

Ryouma didn’t even try for a comeback. He leaned back, following the bug with wide eyes, and threatened: “If it touches me, I’m squashing it.”