Chakra shifted like a layer of armour under skin, arctic blue and unthreatening, drawing Kakashi's attention down to the wrist he was about to crush. He released his grip instantly. Blood rushed back into white skin, making a livid red handprint around Ginta's wrist. Ginta shook his hand out.

Kakashi took a sharp step back.

The new shape of the universe made very little sense. Ryouma's mission had been on the thirteenth. Today was the--

Third. Today was the third of May. Which meant it had been exactly twenty days since Ryouma had gone out on his mission. Which meant he'd been missing for nearly three weeks, with three failed search-and-rescue attempts. No ransom demands, no diplomatic solutions, no one claiming responsibility, because Ryouma's name was still on the mission board...

Three weeks. And Kakashi hadn't noticed.

"Where?" he snapped, turning away from Ginta and seizing his mission-kit off the floor. It was half-packed, still missing scrolls and medical supplies he'd used and not replaced. His kunai pouch only had three kunai left; his shuriken holster was empty. His armour was in a heap on top of his weapons chest.

"Northeast," Ginta snapped back, sounding strung-tight between calm and fraught. "Sit down and look at this with me. I've been trying to figure it out for the last several days, but it's hard. I don't have a lot of solid data to go on, so I need you to double check this. If we do this half-assed we're not going to get anywhere."

Kakashi paused with a half-drawn sword in his hand, feeling the uneven lurch of breath in his chest.

"Bullshit. You're smarter than that." He sheathed the sword, braced it against the weapons chest, and reached for his chest-plate. He was already wearing the black underpinnings. "If you've got a report from one of the search teams, you know as much as they do already. Just give me a destination, let me get out of Konoha, then go tell Intel to take my mission back."