They found a second nesting chamber, but it wasn’t the one they were looking for. The chakra signatures—both human and demon—were still remote, coming from what felt like at least another thirty to thirty-five degrees lower in the tunnels, when Kakashi froze, flashing a halt sign. He eased cautiously forward, edging along the damp rock wall with Genma at his back, then dropped to one knee.

Genma followed suit. “What is it?” he hissed.

“Dead,” Kakashi said, sniffing.

The whole mine smelled of decay and sulfur, and the blood that still spattered them, but Genma was beginning to learn that Kakashi’s nose operated on a more sensitive scale. The fungus patches were sparser here, leaving the caverns nearly black ahead of them. Genma shifted his tamped down chakra, sending a flicker to his eyes. The gloom brightened into a grayscale horror scene.

Nine bodies lay in various stages of decay—all with their torsos exploded and eaten away Some still had flesh sloughing from their faces; others had nothing but hollow-eyed skulls grinning ghoulishly at the darkness.

Scuttling trails led away from the bodies, deeper into the mine. Evidently the larva, when they had finished consuming their hosts, were able to move.

Something caught Genma’s eye to the left. “Hound, look.”

Kakashi turned.

Wedged under an overhanging shelf of rock, a small, deformed demon lay unmoving. A sticky ooze flowed from one ruined eye in its dog-like face, and further down its body, its shell was split open, spilling a mass of entrails onto the dirt.

Had it died fighting its own kind? Or been used as food by the same larvae that consumed the humans?

Kakashi crouched next to the demon body, examining it curiously. It was impossible to know for certain, but if Genma had to guess, he’d have bet the killing blow had come from one of the larger demon’s razor-sharp legs.

Straightening, Kakashi went to each of the human bodies in turn, trying to find something identifying perhaps, but without dental analysis there was no hope of knowing more than basic sex based on pelvic bones. He looked at Genma and shook his head.

Genma nodded. Keep moving, he signed. Kakashi took point again as they pressed on.

They came to the junction with the main shaft. Cold, wet air moved through the corridor announcing the widening of the passage. There were signs of both the former miners here—hand carts, pick axes, and broken miners’ lamps—and the demons. An untidy pile of shed larval shells heaped up along one wall, pale and segmented like the thing that had pushed out of the man’s belly. There were eye coverings and the castings of mandibles on the cases, but the distinctive scorpion-like tail was evidently a feature only of the adults.

The shimmering sparks of three ANBU tattoos winked far above: Ryouma, Katsuko, and Raidou—weaving in and out of the angry tangle of chakra from the demons they were fighting. Another burst of static came over the headset as they managed to get in brief alignment with the outside world despite the thick rock overhead, but it was gone again before Genma could discern even a voice.

They went deeper, homing in on the humans in the mine. And the demons.

“Does that feel different to you?” Genma whispered, gesturing in the direction they were moving. “Heavier?”

“The ominous underground well of death and unnatural creatures?” Kakashi murmured back. “No, it feels lovely.”

Genma just looked at him. “That wasn’t what I was asking.”

There was a brief swell in the pressure of Kakashi’s chakra as he eased it open a fraction, extending his senses for a moment. “There's something,” he agreed. “I can't tell if it's more demons, hatchlings, or something else.” He turned his masked face towards Genma. “If these things were sealed, it could be what's left of the trap.”

Genma nodded and kept moving. There was no need to tell Kakashi to be careful.

They came to a fork in the tunnel where the path ran sharply downhill. An echoing sound of dripping water came from somewhere far below and to the right. It sounded like a deep shaft had opened up in the darkness.

They went left, towards the still-strong beacon of human chakra signatures.