Ryouma had played Hunter-tag before. Everyone did, in training as a genin or with comrades as a jounin. It was harder as ANBU—the need to clamp down chakra, to conceal the ANBU spark, meant forgoing even the most minor jutsu until the last moment before the hunter struck. Katsuko hadn't been much good as a hider, but she was very good as a hunter.

Kakashi would be better. Sharper, faster, hunting by scent and sight and chakra senses. Invisible himself, until the moment he tried to take your head off.

Standard rules kept them restricted to the plateau above the Hokage Monument. But the forest was thick here, beyond the cleared land around ANBU HQ, and Ryouma could lose his scent in the river above the falls.

Or earlier, if he dared translocating, but a sour tang still lurked in the back of his throat. Better not to risk it.

Kakashi knew about the river, of course. He'd head there, or send a clone, to head Ryouma off or track him down. But he also knew Ryouma felt like crap this morning, so he might assume Ryouma'd aim for the lazier bend upstream, where the sun warmed the shallows and the current was gentle.

Ryouma plunged into white-water rapids instead.

The cold and the current nearly smashed the breath out of his lungs. He bounced off a rock and tucked his limbs in tight, clenching his chakra down beneath his skin. Water dashed into foam around him. Nidaime had redirected the channel for this stretch of the river fifty years ago, away from the old bed over the Monument and the risk of spring flooding; now it raged between steep stone banks, lunging for the falls, and perhaps he could have thought a little more about this before he jumped.

His lungs ached. Sparks danced in front of his eyes. The thunder of the falls vibrated through his bones. He gave himself just a moment longer—two—

Water became air became water again, with punishing force. Ryouma opened his chakra for one brief skin-surface flare, and shoved himself out of the falls. He hit rock and clung, shivering, with water smashing down behind his back.

He looked up.

Kakashi wasn't waiting there, silhouetted against the sky. So far, at least, his plan had worked.

Ryouma grinned to himself, coughed up water, and started to climb.