Kakashi doubted it.

Raidou hesitated fractionally, then said, “Far as I can tell, no one’s actively dying, except maybe the civilians you sent out.”

At least they’d survived the trip to the surface.

“Civilians?” Genma rasped.

“Two,” said Raidou. “Rode one of Hound’s clones out. Rat’s clones are guarding them.”

“Only two?” Genma said.

“The rest were too far gone,” Kakashi said shortly, and hefted Genma into a better position. “We should get back to Rat and Ram.”

He wanted out of this mountain of perpetual rockslides.

Two of Katsuko’s clones slipped around Raidou, silent and sure-footed, and reached gloved hands out for Genma. Kakashi twitched reflexively back, unwilling to surrender an injured teammate, but then got a grip on himself. Clones didn’t tire, and they didn’t hurt. They’d jolt Genma less.

“Don’t worry, handsome,” said the first, easing Genma free.

“We’ve got the lieutenant,” said the second.

They went with the fore-and-aft carry, one taking Genma’s feet, the other looping her hands beneath his arms and locking them over his chest, so that he was sitting upright, with his back braced against her armored chestplate. He could see and breathe; they could move easily.

Without Genma’s weight on the back of his neck, Kakashi felt air-light.

Raidou gave him a hard look. “Planning to fall down again?”

“No,” said Kakashi. “You?”

The corner of Raidou’s mouth lifted. “Not yet.”

Genma’s maskless look was more doubtful. “Take a soldier pill,” he ordered.

Arguing would waste time, and he probably did need the energy, even if it would make the eventual crash harder. Kakashi hooked a second pill out of the silver steel tube, showed it to Genma, then made it vanish under his masks. It cracked bitterly between his teeth, but the flood of burning chakra made his shivering vision settle. He straightened his back.

“Now?” he asked.

Raidou nodded and stepped out into the rain, trailed by the burdened clones. Genma’s chakra signature was already flaring back up, burning hotter as he fought the paralysis. Kakashi followed them.

And paused once at the tunnel entrance as the renewed smell hit him, blossoming over the mountainside like a personal attack against the world’s gag reflex. The ground was black and oozing, a slow tide of slurry flowing gently downwards. And the mother-demon—

How had Ryouma done that?

It was like the civilians’ bare ribcages all over again, standing up from a gritty heap of collapsed rot. Except a thousand times bigger, and the queen had no actual bones, just an exploded outer shell fringed by the remains of someone’s rock jutsu. The head was the only thing still partially intact, but even the jaws were torn and three quarters of the eyes had been gouged out. Ryouma—with a little help—had managed to unzip her all over the landscape.

It was impressive, but also frustrating. Kakashi had been one hit away from bringing the mother down, before she’d numbed his arm. If he’d landed it…

Katsuko wouldn’t have broken bones, and Ryouma’s chakra wouldn’t be a pale shade of itself.

“Light a fire under it, Hound!” Raidou yelled back over one shoulder.

Kakashi shook himself, called up his chakra, and joined his team leaders in a slow, disgusting surf back down to level ground. Little pinpricks of light winked out on the edges of his ragged senses—lesser demons dying as Katsuko’s clones ran them down. Ten left, then five, then none.

Unless there was something bigger under that mountain, there was nothing left to deal with but the clean up.

Starting with Katsuko and Ryouma.

Kakashi came to a halt next to Genma and his carry-clones, and stared at the drenched, tent-wrapped, ghostly pale replacements of his teammates. The visible parts of Ryouma were grimed with a layer of reddish black, like he’d gone swimming in a lake of terrible choices. Katsuko’s maskless face was smeared with bloody streaks, the origin of which probably lay beneath the piece of gauze taped haphazardly to her forehead. The strap of a sling was just visible beneath the tent-blanket. They were both shivering fitfully.

And both grinning.

“Taichou, lieutenant,” Katsuko said, and looked at Kakashi. “Buttercup.”