Raidou wasn't stupid. He caught the question in the look, unaltered even through pale blue irises and dilated slit-pupils. He glanced at his armour, feeling a painful twinge cut under his heart for a moment. He shook it away. The armour had been good, but it was ruined now. At least it could be useful.

He nodded, and used clumsy fingers to slide his mask back into place.

"I'll get him." He hadn't missed Tsume's stare, either. The way she couldn't tear her eyes from the tiny corpse. She'd done one small thing for the boy already. Now it was his turn.

He shoved himself away from the wall, scooped the wreckage of his armour from the floor, and walked as steadily as he could to the tiny scrap of humanity. Demon's blood smeared grey and cold over the still face. Raidou wiped away as much as he could with the clean underside of his glove, but the stain remained. Grit had clouded and settled, dusting closed lashes and the slightly open mouth.

Raidou grimaced and lifted the boy onto his chestplate. He weighed almost nothing at all.

Guilt ripped wounds the demon's claws hadn't touched. He didn't look back at Tsume. "Can you lead us out?"

She nodded once, trying not to look at the fresh blood that spilled when the tiny body was moved. The boy wouldn't need it now, anyway. It still made her sick, fanned the carefully hidden rage beneath her breastbone.

Raidou's discarded glo-stick lay a few feet down the tunnel. She picked it up, tucking it into her waistband. Shadows flickered and writhed as she moved, like living things crawling from the corners. She kept her steps slow, listening for the man following behind her.

It seemed a small eternity before the green glow gave way to white, and she realized she could see again. They stepped out of the cave, into the clearing around the overgrown forest. Tsume paused there, catching the scent-trail of cubs that led off in one direction, overlaid with Kuromaru's heavy musk. She turned to Raidou and the small, still shape held in the curve of his chest plate. "We should bury him before we get the rest of the kids." Her mouth thinned, jaw tensing. "They don't need to see this."

It was nice to have a teammate thinking straight. It left Raidou a little room to think mostly in rage. He nodded jerkily, seeing the small tracks leading to where Tsume's gaze had fallen. The long drag marks that were too little to be adult heels. The paw prints from Kuromaru.

There was no blood. He breathed a quiet exhale, and hoped the dog didn't get any more quick solution ideas. Killing Tsume's familiar would put a hell of a black spot in the final report.

To the right, away from the children, was a small grove of young trees. It wasn't perfect, but it was shaded and cool, and the earth looked soft. Raidou turned towards it. "There. I know an earth jutsu that'll work. Do you want to check on the other kids, or...?"

She didn't want to leave this one. Kuromaru had the others; she trusted him to keep them safe, regardless of his earlier kill. But just because she trusted him didn't mean anyone not-Inuzuka did. She tipped her head back and let out a long, lilting howl.

Another joined hers even before she finished, twining through her high, clear notes with a three-toned melody that spoke of mourning and safety all at once. She let the sounds trail off, lowering her chin and glancing at Raidou. "They're safe. I'd rather--" rather what? She couldn't help with an earth jutsu; it was rather a one-man thing. She looked away, glaring at the ground, and reached up to scratch rapidly at the back of her skull. "I'll wait."

Raidou startled when her howl ripped up, prickling the hairs on the back of his neck. It was a sound that shouldn't come from any human throat. His head twisted when another howl answered with a note deeper and darker than hers. Kuromaru. For a moment, the two cries blended. When they faded, the forest was utterly silent.

Under his mask, Raidou blinked. "...right," he said, after a second's pause. He hesitated, then walked carefully to the cluster of saplings. They were small, stunted things, but better than bare rock and dried earth. Raidou pivoted gently on one heel, masked face turning as he sought for one tree that would work as a marker. They all looked the same.

Finally he picked one at random, and turned back to his teammate. "Could you..." the words faded out. Mutely he handed the small body over in its broken carapace of armour, and pressed his palms together. Chakra gathered under his skin, slipping warmth through poison-cooled veins. He focused, trying to think clearly around slow-burning anger, and twisted his fingers into seals.

Chakra shivered through him and earthed itself beneath his feet. The ground cracked open, ripping apart in a trench big enough for one small body. Pale roots gleamed. He slid his mask back to one side, and turned to look at Tsume.

The armor was cool in her arms, rigid. The edge dug into her ribs, just under her breasts. The smell of blood covered everything. It crawled into her mouth and slicked her sinuses.

There were no animals among the little saplings. But the demon was dead: they would return. Life would edge back into the forest.

This little life was over. Pale skin had gone waxy. The child's lids were trying to rise up as muscles relaxed, the jaw opening. She couldn't close them without dropping the armor.

Tsume stepped to the edge of the trench, kneeling awkwardly. She hesitated, glancing at bone-white ANBU armor. "Do you want this back?" Her gaze flicked up only after the words were spoken.

Raidou shook his head silently. His face was almost ashen, lines carved heavily around his eyes, his mouth. The scars stood white against his skin.

Carefully, Tsume placed the bier into the ground. Then she reached out, picking up the other half of Raidou's armor and laying it carefully over the small body, shielding face and eyes from falling dirt. It didn't matter that the life was gone, that she could smell the death coming from the little form. She didn't want it crushed.

Tsume straightened and stepped back, hands clenching uselessly at her sides. People died. Civilians couldn't always be saved. Even children were caught in crossfire and shot down. But to die like this, slowly and horribly, given to this fate by the people you trusted, while those who could have rescued you did nothing--

She should have marked the mission urgent. Twenty minutes earlier...

Anger boiled through her chakra as she blinked rapidly, forcing the emotion back down. They had more children to take care of. This wasn't the time. Not yet.

The wind picked up, knifing through Raidou's ruined shirt. It hung in tatters from his right shoulder, the left side mostly torn away. Half of his chest lay open to the frozen air. The wrong half.

His lips tightened. A muscle flicked in his jaw. With a rusty jerk of cold bones he wrenched his hands up and snapped them through the final seals. With the rumble and crunch of moving stone, damp earth closed back in, burying the flash of white bone and red blood that was all Raidou could see. He looked away.

If he'd moved faster, dodged quicker, he could have done something. Anything. Gotten there a few moments sooner...

He folded his arms tightly across his chest, hiding shaky fingers, and looked up at the weak sun. "We should..." He wasn't a religious man. "Say... something."

"Yeah," Tsume agreed woodenly. What did you say about a child you didn't know, that you hadn't saved? I'm sorry? Hope you have better parents in the next life?

Silence stretched awkwardly. She glanced at Raidou, at the way goosebumps rose on his skin. At the patches where they didn't, the flesh too badly warped. "Do you have a change of clothes?"

"Moving," said Raidou, after a beat. "You should do public speaking." He looked down at his waist, where his belt still hung, and tried to remember what he'd packed for this mission. Weapons. Medi-kit. Ration bars. Scrolls. One book. Basic survival gear...

No clothes. He'd left them back at the cabin.

"I have blades with pointy edges." He looked down at Tsume, and tilted his head slightly to see her face. She looked worn, shadowed. Pale eyes were red-rimmed and bruised under the demon blood. "And we have a date with some villagers."

He stepped forward, drew a kunai, and slashed the kanji every ninja learned sooner or later into the bark. Unknown child.

"Before they decide to lose anyone else."

Tsume nodded once, slit pupils expanding rapidly. She took several deep breaths to try and calm herself; they also had a small group of still living children to check on, to protect. She knelt at the makeshift grave, brushing her fingertips over it. Her words were a murmur. "Good hunting." Then she stood, letting some of the rage creep out, just for a bit.

"This way." She could smell the children and Kuromaru's trail; could have smelled Kuromaru's trail even if she hadn't known to follow the cubs. He'd kept on a game path, winding through the trees in something far from a straight line. It took several minutes before she heard children's voices, and her pup's growl.

"I said don't do that. Stay here. Stay! Sit!"

Tsume felt the corner of her mouth tip up despite herself. The kids came into view; a quick count gave her the five children she'd seen before, tucked into the root system of a giant tree. Their faces were tear-streaked and pale, but unharmed. One of the kids was trying to crawl away. Kuromaru pinned it with a giant paw. "I said sit!" Then he reached down, jaws settling over the boy's shirt, picking him up and carrying him back to the others.

Tsume purposefully gentled her expression as she got closer, then slowed until she was abreast of Raidou. "They may prefer to see you first." Of the two of them, he looked less like the small, thin, white-eyed demon. She tucked her thumbs into her belt at the small of her spine, hiding her claws.

She had a point. Raidou snorted faintly at the sight of Kuromaru's attempt at... child herding, and said, "Sure. Just give me a second."

He lifted his hands again, calling on chakra to twist in a way that was very familiar, and let a henge slip over his skin. It didn't do a much for warmth, but it hid the torn shirt and the demon's blood, and wiped away his scars. Without them his face settled into different lines, warmer, friendlier.

It was an odd mental curve to wear his own face, and know that it was wrong

He knocked the thought away, refocusing, and slid through the low shadows of trees to crouch down by Kuromaru's vast hulk. "Hi," he said softly, as five small faces swung to stare at him. "I'm a ninja."

One of the boys burst into tears. Raidou settled down, crossing his legs, and reached out a hand to touch a thin shoulder. Fine cloth creased beneath his fingers. "It's okay. I know it was scary, but the demon's dead now." None of them could be more than nine. He let his chakra edge out, a reassuring brush that no civillian would register on a conscious level. "We killed it. It's not coming back."

Kuromaru huffed quietly. Raidou tried to look far steadier than he felt. "Nothing's going to hurt you now."

He didn't quite expect a five person tackle.

Tsume watched, relaxing a little as the giant hulk of a man proved himself to be gentle with small children. It was a relief; ANBU weren't known for their sensitive natures, nor for having families with children to practice on. She looked at him consideringly. He'd been adult--if young--that night on the roof. He couldn't be too much younger than she was, and it had been seven years. Plenty of time for children of his own, and he was certainly good enough with them.

Then she cast her own henge, changing her eyes to blue, ridding herself of the tribal tattoos, and cleared her throat to announce her presence.

One of the boys tore his face away from Raidou's neck to peer up at her. "You were in the cave before," he snuffled, straining back. He reeked of fear.

Tsume nodded, not bothering to deny the charge. Children were smart. She let her chakra expand, filling the little den area with alpha tempered with mother. "My dog said you needed help."

Kuromaru shot her a look of utter betrayal at the word. She ignored him.

"So," she continued, "while he got you out we killed the demon." She eased around the edge of the cluster of kids, not wanting to scare them further, and perched on a large root.

"What about Goro?"

"And Katsu?" a girl added.

Tsume shook her head quietly. "We couldn't help them." They'd only found half a boy. The demon had been eating the bones, too...

New tears started fresh. They huddled into Raidou. Tsume slid down off the root, landing in the dirt and folding her legs. "There were seven of you?"

"Eight," a boy hiccuped. "But it ate Ch-Cho--" the words stopped, collapsing into tears.

Eight children. Three dead. Tsume's stomach knotted. Kuromaru came closer, curling up next to her side and draping his head across her lap.

One of the children--a girl, her face pale but tearless, her pupils dilated unnaturally--leaned out and petted his head. "He's a very pretty dog."

Kuromaru gave Tsume another wounded look.

"Yes," Tsume agreed, petting him too. She sniffed subtly, catching the clear, cold scent of shock.

"I bet he eats lots of scraps. My dog begs."

Tsume nodded again. "He likes okonomiyaki best."

"My dog can't talk." The little girl moved, edging closer to run a plump hand over Kuromaru's ears where they flopped to either side of his head like great bat wings.

"Kuromaru is very special."

"Because he's a ninja?"

Tsume nodded and carefully reached up, running her palm--wary of her nails--over shiny golden locks. The girl shifted closer again, leaning against Tsume's ribs. The other children began to relax. One of them wrapped his arms around Raidou's neck in a deathgrip and held on. Tsume watched her partner, catching the rise of unripe cranberries in his scent, the sweet-sour odor that meant stress. She watched him carefully, but he did little more than stiffen as small faces pressed against his throat.

People really had to stop touching his scars, Raidou thought distantly. The echo of cold panic clawed up as tiny hands and hot breath scrabbled over twisted flesh. He smashed it back down. They were children.

Very, very carefully, he reached up and detached a small boy. He was thin and blond, dressed in a tiny mockery of a funeral suit. Mud crusted over the fine lace collar. Tears coated his white face, giving it a slick shine like wet pavement.

"It's okay," Raidou lied softly, and wrapped his right arm around the tiny body. His hand was big enough to spread across both sharp shoulderblades. Another girl pressed against his sternum, fine brown hair crusting with blood she couldn't see. A third was smashed against his side, face buried against his ribs. The fourth was standing, leaning awkwardly against his shoulder, crying hard enough to shake. In the end Raidou simply slipped both arms out and tried to steady them all.

"I w-want to go h-home." He couldn't even tell which one had said it.

Raidou traded a look with Tsume, over their heads. "I know." He dropped his chin. Three were dead. He wasn't planning to dig anymore graves. "Can you remember where you live?"

The girl with brown hair pulled back a little, and pointed vaguely to his left. She wasn't crying, just holding on. "That way."

Raidou nodded. "We can't take you back to your parents."

The little girl held out one hand. Carved into her palm was a symbol he couldn't read. Blood sleeved her fingers, staining them mottled brown. "You're a ninja?"

"Yes," said Raidou slowly, and breathed through a new burst of rage.

"You kill people."

"Yes."

The girl's pupils were blown, wiping out any trace of iris. She closed her bloody hand over his wrist and squeezed. "My daddy hurt me. He took a knife and hurt me." She swallowed hard. "I want to hurt him back."

He gave her a steady look, aware the other children were quieting. "My name's Raidou," he said carefully, "I can do that."

There was no smile left in her face. "I'm Aoi."

One of the boys began to wail. He pulled away from Raidou, stumbling backward across roots and falling hard on his rump. "I just want to go home," he sobbed. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Who are your parents?" Tsume asked quietly. The boy turned, scooting toward her.

"Miho is my mom and Riku is my dad."

Tsume nodded, filing the names away. "I'll find them, all right? If I can, we'll take you home." Home to other relatives, perhaps. His parents weren't going to survive, but he didn't need to know that. She wasn't going to turn him over so they could try to kill him again, and the marks on their palms would stay with them for life: anyone who ever cared to know would see that they'd been demon sacrifices.

The little girl was fumbling in her hair, pulling out pins decorated with pretty butterflies made out of multi-colored stones. Mostly colored glass, Tsume guessed, but cute.

She held one of the pins out to Raidou solemnly. "I have pins. You can have them. Is two enough? I have an allowance, too."

If Aoi had been brought up in Konoha, Raidou had no doubt she'd already be training to join their ranks. But she was a civillian, and there were rules for contracts.

Of course, sometimes there were rules you could break.

Raidou took one of the pins carefully from her hand, and tucked it under the hard ceramic of his arm-guard. "One for a life," he said, without looking at Tsume. Sometimes all you could do was go with the avalanche and pick up the pieces later. "What's your father's name?"

"Souta."

He marked the name, and ducked his head to look at the boy weeping against his breastbone. "And you, little man. Can you tell me who your parents are?"

The boy's eyes closed tighter, his face reddened as tears choked him. Raidou rubbed his back and didn't push further.

The girl leaning against his shoulder moved suddenly, flinging her arms around his neck. He stiffened. Tears splashed against hidden scarred skin. "My mommy loves me," she sobbed. "Takahiro made her do it. He hit her." He voice cracked into incoherence.

Raidou swallowed hard and tried to break her hold. Little arms squeezed tighter. He didn't want to break anything. The two others hampered his grip. "Takahiro?" he grunted, trying to keep control.

Aoi settled down in his lap. "He's in charge. He wears a big hat."

The thought that there might be more than just parents involved left Tsume with a sick sort of unsurprise. Parents didn't decide at whim to dress their children up and sacrifice them: this reeked of pack behavior. Killing a few for the good of the rest.

There were better ways to protect your village. She didn't want to know how long this had been going on.

But she had a more pressing concern, as Raidou's scent spiked and his voice picked up a choked quality. She caught Kuromaru's eye and nodded toward the girl doing her best to send Raidou into a panic attack. Kuromaru stood, nosing his way between the child's belly and the man's ribcage. The girl let go with one hand, burying her fingers in thick fur. Then, as if her strings had been cut, she released Raidou altogether and fell onto Kuromaru.

The canine grunted and tried to take a step to catch his balance. Muscle was in the way. He ended up leaning against Raidou for a moment before bolstering himself, planting his legs firmly, one furry side brushing the man but not leaning on him.

"Are there other people?" Tsume asked, looking at Aoi and holding an arm out to the boy sitting alone.

The boy looked at her fearfully, two fingers stuck in his mouth. She leaned forward, snagging his wrist and tugging gently, then harder when he didn't panic. After a hesitating moment he scrambled up into her lap, a knobby knee crushing her calf, the other hitting her thigh. Wincing, she circled an arm around his narrow shoulders, and he twisted to lean more comfortably against her chest, reaching up to play with her dogtags.

"The village is full of people. My dog doesn't carry me like that."

Tsume patted the girl with the still-glassy eyes. "I mean other people who were there when you were getting hurt. Other people who brought you here?"

Aoi looked at her solemnly and nodded. There was cold fire in those large eyes, a slow burning anger that would make her dangerous as she got older.

"Do you know how many people?" Tsume asked. Her voice was soft, like ragged claws sheathed in velvet.

Aoi shook her head. "There are lots of people in the village."

"My mommy didn't want to!" The words were almost muffled in Kuromaru's ruff. "I want to go home!"

Raidou took a subtle breath and collected himself. A rash of sweat prickled across his forehead, hidden by the henge. For the second time since Kuromaru had carried Genma home, he found himself grateful for the large dog's presence. The press of fur against his mostly naked side was oddly reassuring--the feeling was so far removed from teeth or claws or cold leathery flesh.

It was also nice not to be half-strangled by children you were attempting to save.

He shifted, moving the sobbing boy still laminated to his ribcage slightly to one side, where he could get a better hold on him, and pulling Aoi a little closer. She came willingly, and settled on his right knee. "We need to go soon." Her eyes moved to glance at the looming trees. "It's not safe here in the dark. Things eat you."

Raidou winced slightly as a wail went up from the less composed children. "You see the big dog?" He lifted his voice to speak over the noise, and pointed at Kuromaru. "He can crunch anything that tries. He's as smart as most people."

There was a distinctly unimpressed shade to the look the familiar gave him.

"And we're ninja," Raidou added. "We're sort of experts at not getting eaten. We'll keep you safe."

Aoi twisted to look at him. "You have to," she said quietly. "I paid you."

"That too," Raidou said, without missing a beat. He glanced up at Tsume, and freed one hand to flick her an ANBU sign. How do you want to do this?

It was a good question. Taking them back to the village wasn't an option. She lifted her hand off the shocky child's head, flicking out a response. Leave them here. Clones, Kuromaru? What might make them stay?

She hesitated, then added, Kuromaru can keep them safe. The demon was gone, and the forest empty... but children wandered off, got scared, and unless they were channeling a lot of chakra for clones to use at will, he was probably the best defense. He could smell any predator coming, stop any children from leaving, and had the wild-animal instinct to keep them all hidden.

Knock them out? Raidou suggested. That's pretty surefire. He wasn't too sure about leaving the children with Kuromaru. The crunch of breaking neckbones was still playing a dull chord in the back of his mind. But the dog's argument to kill the child had been rational...


He glanced left at the giant hound, and at the crying girl half buried in his fur. Kuromaru seemed tense, but they were all tense. He'd made no move to hurt anyone else, unless you counted standing on them.

Raidou nodded once, and flicked, Kuromaru. Then, making sure the dog could see, he added, Eat any of them and I'll skin you raw.

Aoi gave him a curious look. "What does that mean?" She pointed at his hand. "The sign thing?"

"I'm talking to my... friend," he said, only hesitating a moment. "We're deciding what to do."

Her eyes widened. "You know what to do! You promised!"

Raidou dropped his arm around her again. "Easy," he murmured. "I won't let you down."

She still looked suspicious. He glanced over her head at Tsume and raised an eyebrow. With both hands occupied by children, he simply said, "Awake or not?"

Tsume answered easily and attempted to reassure Raidou and the children all at once, simply by speaking to the cubs. "Did you know that Kuromaru has puppies?"

The girl in shock petted him again, stretching to do so. "Really?"

"Mm hm. Most of them are bigger than you. And when they were little, he'd put them in dens just like this and watch over all of them. He can fight off anything."

"Even a demon," the boy mumbled into her armor, his hand tangled in the chain of her tags.

"Especially a demon." She reached out, brushing his hair out of his face, tapping his nose.

"I eat demons for breakfast," Kuromaru agreed solemnly.

"Once, he had ten puppies all at the same time."

"That was a lot of puppies," he sighed.

Tsume smiled and kept talking. "And he's very good at protecting all of them."

Aoi was watching her, eyes too smart in her round face. "You're going to leave us here, aren't you?"

"We're going to let you guys have a nap while Kuromaru watches you." It had the ring of promise, and was completely true. "And when you wake up, we'll all talk about what we're going to do next."

"I don't need a nap," the girl in shock murmured. "I'm not tired."

"I know. But it's been a long day, and I need a nap." Tsume could smell the quiet, if disgruntled, acceptance of that. "So, what we're going to do is get you all to lay down in the den." She stood, lifting the boy in her lap and the girl in shock, one in front with her arm under his bottom and the girl braced on Tsume's canted hip.

"I'm not tired," the boy sniffled.

"I bet as soon as you lay down, you'll fall asleep." She knelt awkwardly, settling one down into the den Kuromaru had been using, then putting the other down as well. "Just close your eyes, and I'm going to tell you a story, and if you're still awake at the end of it then you don't have to take a nap."

"Promise?" Aoi asked, watching her sharply.

"Promise."

Kuromaru stood, walking gingerly with the last girl still clinging to him. When his bulk hid her hand, Tsume signed, Nerve pinch. They would wake up with headaches, but nothing as bad as the terror they'd been feeling. And if they all had their eyes closed, they wouldn't see their friends slipping into blackness.

Clever, thought Raidou, and the illusion of his face smiled without a twist. He recognized that tone in Tsume's voice; it cropped up often enough in his own. Either she had some interesting younger siblings, or she already had children of her own.

In the very back of his mind, where something watched all the time, a tiny horrified voice said, I raped a mom.

Raidou looked up at the pale sun and reflected on the liklihood of going to a very special hell.

Aoi reached up and touched his face, startling a flinch out of him. His hand caught hers before the frission of shock had finished registering. She didn't pull away. "You're going to sleep too?"

"Yes," Raidou said, and didn't say when. Sometimes the best kind of lie was a decent truth.

She nodded, apparently satisfied, and reached up her other hand in the universal signal of a child asking for a lift. Raidou gathered his legs carefully beneath him, and stood, scooping up both her and the boy who had yet to speak.

He settled them carefully down with the other two, leaning around Kuromaru to do so, and plucked the last child from the dog's back. When the five of them were laid together, already catching hold of each other's hands and clothes, he leaned back. "Close your eyes," he echoed, letting his voice settle down into a rumble.

Tsume watched the children curl up together, wary eyes staring at them for a long time. Only the girl in shock curled up and closed her eyes instantly, burrowing next to the boy Tsume had carried.

With a soft breath, Tsume began, her voice falling into the cadence reserved for fairy tales and old legends. "Many years ago, before there were Hokages or Hidden Villages or even ninja, there was a great warrior." She smoothed her hand down the boy's back, rubbed up, and gave a hard tap at the base of his skull. His muscles fell lax, tension and fear leaking away in blessed unconsciousness. She moved, sliding over to the next child, brushing soft hair out of her face. Shocky eyes opened to look up, and Tsume smiled reassuringly and let her fingers slide over lids until they closed. "This warrior was one of the best the world had seen, but she wanted to be stronger still."

She petted the little girl, rubbed her belly until she relaxed, wrapped her fingers around the slim neck, and pressed the nerve cluster again. The girl unwound into the cool, damp dirt under the tree roots. Tsume moved to the child Kuromaru had practically carried, and sat so close to Raidou that all she could smell beyond the remaining demon blood was him: oak and freshly turned earth, the lingering scent of fire. She ignored the way muscle brushed her arm, even as his very presence made her tense. She hoped he didn't notice. "Deciding that the way to strength lay through a summons, she went in search of a summons powerful enough to defeat all of her enemies." She brushed her knuckles over the girl's jaw, rubbed the side of her face, and hit the correct bit of exposed flesh. The child, eyes beginning to open, fell back.

Tsume couldn't reach the other children. She sat back on her heels and kept talking, voice calm and soothing like she might speak to Inuzuka cubs during a storm. "At long last, she came across a minor--" Tsume hesitated, and continued. "--god in the form of a great, black-faced wolf."

Kuromaru whined and nuzzled her ear, then carefully slunk in to tuck himself along the rows of tiny feet. Her great, black-faced demon would keep them safe until she and her partner returned from their death-mission.

Raidou watched and listened, fascinated by both the story and the deftness with which Tsume moved through the children, leaving only peace and slumber in her wake. Definitely a mother, he decided, and tried not to think about what he'd done.

Soon there were only two left awake: Aoi, and the boy Raidou had carried, still weeping softly into the palms of his dirty hands.

"Shhh," Raidou murmured gently, and pulled off one of his gloves, yanking it out from under his arm-guard. The underside was the only clean scrap of cloth he had left. He wadded it up and pulled the boy's hands carefully away from his face to wipe the worst streaks left by tears and running nose. Blood had smeared from the carved mark on his hand. "It'll be okay, little man." Raidou pitched his voice as low as he could manage, letting it be a backdrop to Tsume's clearer tones. "When you wake up, everything'll be fine."

For a moment, swimming brown eyes flickered open to look at him, then the boy shoved his face against his palm. "It'll be fine," Raidou whispered again, and flicked the right nerve cluster with a flare of chakra. The boy stilled.

Raidou shifted slightly, very aware of Tsume's body warmth against his side, and let his free hand settle over Aoi's back.

Her eyes were open, watching them both.

In the end, he said nothing to her. There was a moment, a meeting of level gazes, and then he pressed the soft spot at the base of her skull with two fingers. She'd already made her devil's pact.

Raidou settled back, and tucked his stained glove into his belt. "I think," he said slowly, as Tsume's story wound down into quiet, "that I want to find a river before we kill everyone they care about. I'd like to get clean."

Tsume wasn't sure that would ever happen again, after this. "There was a stream by the bunker," she said quietly. "It's cold, but it's water." She didn't quite trust any runoff nearby. Crouching for a moment, one hand in Kuromaru's ruff, she let the soothing assurance Raidou'd nearly radiated to the kids weave through her.

A father, then, or an uncle. A cousin from a close family; someone who'd dealt with children, and dealt with them often. She stood, stepping away from him. With a final glance toward the little nest of cubs guarded by one large, shadow-black canine, she headed through the forest toward the stream. When Raidou followed her this time, there was no chase about it.

The water was running clear and cold when they got there. She glanced back, still overly aware of the other ninja, and then stripped out of armor and blacks, down to sports bra and pants. She waded into the rush--too shallow, here, to jump--and ducked her head under. The blood washed away as if it had never been, bits of demon entrails floating off downstream. She scrubbed her fingers through her hair and kept half an ear open for Raidou, who'd tucked himself around a corner where a tree overhung the water and afforded some privacy.

Given that she'd already seen him naked, she found it vaguely amusing. Maybe he didn't remember.

Raidou kept his henge in place, keeping the illusion of clothes and whole skin as he stripped away ragged cloth and bared ruined flesh. A quick jutsu confirmed what his eyes were already telling him: that the water was fresh and mostly clean.

He glanced at Tsume just in time to catch her dragging her shirt off, and turned away so sharply he almost tripped over his own feet, stepping under cover of a spreading tree. Now he was looking for it, he could see what alcohol and denial had wiped away; the oddly familiar curve of her spine, the way her muscles shifted and flexed under scarred skin--

He ducked himself in the river and tried to drown the memory right out of his head. The fast-moving water was almost cold enough to make him gasp.

Raidou held himself down long enough to dance bright spots across his vision, and surfaced with a spluttering cough. Blood sloughed into the water, peeling away with granite-coloured shreds of demon flesh. He scrubbed himself roughly with handfuls of silty mud--a trick learned from his jounin sensei--and doused himself one last time. Then he picked his clothes off the bank and sluiced them thoroughly, preferring wet and clean over dry and demon-touched.

He dragged them back on, wincing when his shirt ripped further, and shook himself off. Another basic jutsu was enough to turn soaking rags to gently steaming almost-clothes.

"You done?" he called quietly, unwilling to head back to his teammate until he was sure she was fully armoured.

Tsume glanced toward his voice, his scent carried away by water and wind, and went back to sorting out her shirt. "Yeah. We ready to kill some people?" Her jaw flexed. Maybe they hadn't been hired for that, but it needed to happen. She'd consider it part of her job: making sure they didn't lure any more demons close.

Her shirt was wet as she tried to drag it on over her head. Cloth stuck and caught, refusing to pull down over her skin and sports bra. When it finally fell around her torso it stuck and clung, and Tsume peeled it away from her body.

She glanced up at movement. Raidou was staring upward, his back to her, broadening out into wide shoulders that she remembered all too well. Muscle strained against the torn remnants of his shirt. His dry shirt. Her eyes narrowed. "How in the face of a pock-marked buzzard did you get that dry?" He knew a drying jutsu, that crotch-rotted squirrel's tail, and he hadn't told her. She grabbed her shirt and held it away from her chest again. It stuck to her back, cold and soaking, and dripped to further drench her pants. A puddle was gathering around her bare feet.

It was hard to find a ceiling fire in the middle of an open mountainside, but Raidou was giving it a good shot. He was wondering vaguely if the sun counted--and trying to ignore any rustling clothes noises behind him--when Tsume dragged him back to Earth with one of life's more bizarre insults.

He blinked, and chanced looking over his shoulder. Very slowly, the corner of his mouth quirked up. "I listened in class?"

Tsume snerked, wringing out the bottom of her shirt, pulling it all out of shape. "Some of us were busy having lives." Doing anything but paying attention, really. "Do it again, would'jou?" She waved at her ensemble, not even bothering to suggest he teach it to her.


She wasn't the quickest study. There was a reason she'd never made full jounin.

Raidou startled himself by laughing quietly. "And some of us were learning the skills to keep ours," he shot back. "Pneumonia is no one's friend."

He turned finally, careful to keep his gaze at head-height (which was still fairly low, in her case), and flicked his fingers through a few seals, spinning chakra into shape. Heat licked at his palms. "I have to, um, touch..." he said uncomfortably. He offered a hand, fingers spread--as little threat as he could manage. "Just your fingers?"

Tsume would have been fine if he hadn't hesitated. Well, perhaps 'fine' was an overstatement: if he'd grabbed her, she wouldn't have been fine. But it wasn't until he paused that she became suddenly wary; a predator reacting to the signals of her pack, that something was wrong.

Her smile turned a little brittle, but it remained in place by force of will alone. "Inuzuka have great immune systems," she muttered uncomfortably. Then she shook herself, water flicking from her hair at the swift twist of her head. This was stupid. She wasn't afraid of anyone.

An image rose of him and Genma in the caves, stone pinning her ankle--

She growled at herself under her breath and reached out, clamping her hand around his. His knuckles were broad, and calluses rasped against her skin. Each finger was nearly twice the width of hers. Her scarred hand was half the size of his large one. She didn't think about it. "Great," she said firmly. "Do it."

"Might want to be careful who you say that to," Raidou said, before he could stop himself. A moment of silence settled. He slapped his free hand over his face, covering his eyes, and considered hari-kiri. "Ignore me. I have this disease where I say words."

Her hand was still in his, fingers clenched around his own almost hard enough to hurt. The jutsu was still stealing chakra. Raidou let the energy slip away with a thought, flooding from his skin to hers with a skin-tingling prickle. It was harder than he expected, pushing the jutsu through another person. Or he was a little more drained than he'd thought. His vision lurched for a moment, even in the dark behind closed lids.

He grunted. "How's that?"

The words stunned a silence out of her. And then she was dry. Dry was nice. Her brain still stalling over what he'd said wasn't.

You have a better idea of that than most, would admit to something she didn't want to remind him of, if he hadn't remembered. Should have told me earlier, had a similar problem.

By the time a neutral enough response occurred to her, the moment was gone. She bared her teeth in a smile and tightened her grip on his hand. Nails pricked at hard skin, but not deeply enough to draw blood. Her words, despite her grip, went with the change of topic. "Great. I'm dry. Now don't faint on me, pup." Granted, calling him pup after he'd reacted to it earlier was childish but... It sure made her feel better.

Tsume let go of his hand and stepped away, rolling her shoulders under her shirt. Much better. "Can we go kill people now?"

"Yes, madam hag, ma'am," muttered Raidou, and shoved his hands into his pockets. Her grip hadn't hurt, not really, but the warning had been more than clear. It was probably the equivalent of kicking him on the shin. Stop being stupid.

He wished it was that easy.

"And I don't faint. No one faints. We're in modern times now. People just collapse. Occasionally they black out. Royalty might swoon, but royalty's never modern..." He fell into step behind her.

Tsume took to the trees, speeding up and expecting him to follow. "Of course people faint. Especially men who're too dumb to realize that they've run out of chakra. Just--oops!--right over in a dead faint. The medics tell them otherwise to save their pride, but we all know." She grinned back over her shoulder. It was friendly, but still edged.

She took them right past the unconscious children, falling silent as they ran by. And then on, down the road, following the fresh trail of fearful adults. The town wasn't far. It wasn't very big, either. She didn't expect this to take long.

"People always rag on men," Raidou said very quietly, as something like a low dirt wall utterly failed to loom into view. It skulked instead. Creeping across the landscape as if afraid to show itself. "But I've met a few woman who take stubborn to an art form..."