The rain was still coming down on them, plastering Ryouma’s hair flat and washing thin ribbons of red down Katsuko’s bone-china face. They’d be blue-lipped soon. Raidou fumbled a scroll out of his belt, broke it open, and found that he’d actually managed to grab a tent instead of the cloak he’d intended, but the tough oiled canvas might actually work better. He wrapped it around them, pressed his water canteen into Ryouma’s hand, and pulled Katsuko’s med-kit off her belt, dropping it pointedly into her lap.

“Drink and keep each other warm,” he ordered. “Ueno, staunch your forehead. Tousaki, when you’re steadier, help her get a sling on her arm, or have one of her clones do it. I’m going after Hatake and Shiranui.”

Five clones with yellow-soaked blades darted down from the mountain, making a pointed, wordless phalanx around him. The remaining seven were still hunting demon signatures.

“We’re going after Hatake and Shiranui,” Raidou corrected dryly.

“Tell ‘em off f’r lollygagging,” Ryouma mumbled.

“I’ll gag your lolly,” Katsuko said, digging into her med-kit.

If they still had their terrible senses of humor, they’d survive for ten minutes. Raidou jerked his head at the miniature clone army and went back up the mountain, extending his limited senses as far as they’d go. He wasn’t a sensor by nature; his chakra liked to stay close to his body, where he could use it to punch things. Small demons caught his attention, energy signatures like crushed tin-foil against his mental teeth, but as fast as he noticed them, Katsuko’s clones killed them.

The third entrance was completely collapsed, blocked in with tumbled rock and unstable earth, and the hole the demon-queen had crawled out of was choked with slab-stones and smothered in rotten black intestines. But it still might give the easiest access to the inside tunnels, if he could crack it open again.

Raidou was trying to decide the best path across, when a sudden, violently familiar sensation erupted beneath the skin of the mountain, inspiring the reflex to dodge like hell.

He threw himself aside as Kakashi’s blue lightning burst out in a scream of angry birds and crackling ozone, and immediately fried part of the demon-queen corpse, which made the smell a thousand times worse. The Raikiri cut out with a fading sizzle, and—yep, there was the sound of someone throwing up.

Raidou’s nose would probably never work again. He couldn’t imagine what Kakashi’s was doing to him.

Still, at least Kakashi was alive to throw up. Raidou let out a relieved breath, staggered back upright with a clone’s help, and went to see if Genma was with him.