The change in Kakashi's demeanour was profound, and unexpected. It took Ginta a moment to understand that far from taking the information and running with it, Kakashi wanted Ginta with him. As for why...

Kakashi — who didn't have friends, who didn't want to care about anyone, or risk letting anyone get too close — admitting he couldn't bear to lose both Ginta and Ryouma... That was stunning all on its own.

And heartbreaking, because it meant Kakashi knew, and Ginta knew, that Ginta might not have been lying to Pakkun when he'd said he thought there was hope for Ryouma, but he certainly hadn't been telling the truth.

"I'll keep up," Ginta said quietly. "Maybe we can translocate, jump past the dogs, and let them track the spaces between. We'd cover more ground, and I've got chakra to spare. It'd save my leg a little."

Kakashi nodded, bringing his hands together in front of his chest, already shaping the seals for the jump. If not for the subtle shake of his shoulder when he moved, which Ginta couldn't be certain he'd really seen as twilight fell around them, Ginta would have thought there was nothing there but mission focus.

Ginta didn't touch. He wanted to. He wanted to reach out and put a hand on Kakashi's arm, just for an instant, but... But sympathy from a comrade could tear you apart inside, when you were trying desperately to keep yourself together. Instead he reached for the neck of his shirt, stretching the fabric to cover his lower face, just as Kakashi's was, under his wolf-painted ANBU mask.

"When I ran missions up here, I was always masked," he said, to answer the question Kakashi hadn't asked. "My alias was Seishi." He tipped his own ceramic ANBU mask back down. "If we go two clicks, there's a stream that comes down near the start of the bluffs. Maybe he stopped for water there." Setting his own fingers into the crook and curl of the Ram seal, he nodded once at Kakashi, and made the jump.