Raidou took a slow, deep breath. “How long ago?”

“Twenty minutes, give or take,” the clone said. “I’m still here, so he’s not dead yet.”

“How bad was the ambush?” Raidou said.

The clone was battered and blood-covered, streaked red across one arm and both legs, but it didn’t have anything inside to bleed with. It was easier on a caster to make an exact duplicate of himself, but most shinobi took the extra second to tweak appearances slightly, so as not to alarm their teammates. Kakashi must have only had the time, or the mental clarity, to make an identical carbon-copy before he’d gone flying after Genma.

“Tanuki was paralyzed, and I think bitten,” the clone said. “Demons broke down one of the tunnel walls and dragged him off. Hound couldn’t get to him in time; there were too many demons. He had to escape. He’s not badly injured.”

Raidou was about as likely to trust the clone’s opinion on that as he was to trust Kakashi’s, which was not at all.

“He did kill several demons, though,” the clone added. “And found the civilians.”

“And sent them out with you,” Raidou finished, cursing himself for sending their only medic down into the dark. What the hell had he been thinking? “Fine, okay. Rat, call up some clones. I want them to take these two back into the woods, out of harm’s way. We’re going down after Tanuki and Hound.”

He’d expected five clones. Katsuko made twenty. They circled around the two injured civilians, lifting them gently, and vanished into the woods like a phalanx of armed, viciously protective nurses. A moment later, all trace of them was gone.

Ryouma got to his feet, scrubbing his palms down the outsides of his thighs, and looked at the clone. “Can you lead us back?”

“Yes—” the clone began, and stopped, masked face jerking towards the mountain.

“What?” Raidou said.

Then he felt it.

Katsuko's chakra flared and twisted; she drew her unbroken katana and shoved crackling fire down the blade. Ryouma swore and flicked through rapid-fire seals, filling his palms with a deadly red glow. Raidou unsheathed his sword.

Beneath his feet, the ground trembled.

Something deep cracked, and a low rumbling filled the air, slowly getting louder. Trees began to shiver, then sway. Pebbles rattled across the ground. A cloud of earth exploded out of the tunnel, flying high into the air. The tunnel ceiling broke apart, coming down in chunks.

Rising like the wrath of gods, a chakra signature bigger than Katsuko’s could even hope to touch clawed its way to the surface.

A giant crack fissured across the side of the mountain.

“Move!” snapped Raidou.

They darted aside as a whole slab-section of rock and dirt sheared away from the mountainside, thundering down in a wet landslide. Immense black jaws pierced through, followed by an evil dart-shaped head. Long claws thrust out, caught ground, and the mountain birthed a monster.

“Guess I pissed something off,” the clone muttered, behind Raidou’s shoulder.

If that thing got loose, it wouldn’t stop at the village.

Katsuko was on his left; Ryouma was on the back right. Raidou turned to them, grabbing the first ideas that made sense. “Rat, fire. Distract it, blind it if you can. Ram, take another soldier pill. We’re going to need all the rot you can bring.” He sheathed his sword and funnelled chakra into his hands. “We’re going to crack this thing and kill it.”