Raidou glanced around. Except for Satomi’s hands, which Ginta had bandaged, and the empty hole in the middle of Team Thirteen, they were barely scratched.

“No, sir,” Usagi said flatly.

“Can you continue, Vice-commander?” Raidou asked.

“Yes,” Kuroda said. Genma’s head came up, worry scrawling over exhaustion. At his side, Abe just looked faintly nauseous. Before an objection could be voiced, Kuroda continued, “We’ll rest for half an hour. Sakamoto, tend the healers. Namiashi, I want to see the map. Usagi—” he hesitated for just a moment. “Have the rest cleaned up and fed.”

“Sir,” Usagi said.

Raidou eyed her with concern, but there was nothing but competent efficiency when Usagi collared the two nearest rookies — Ryouma and Kasumi — and herded them to a rockpool where they could scrub the cold grease and shock off. Ginta followed in short order with Genma and Abe, supporting them each by an elbow.

Kurenai touched Satomi lightly on the shoulder, and handed her one of the steaming canteens Kakashi had prepared over a circle of heated rocks. Only Fukuda stood alone, single hand loosely open at her side, eyes averted. She looked less pleased at the death of a Leaf-nin than Raidou might have expected.

He collected his maps and crouched to unfold them at Kuroda’s side, spreading them out over dark rocks. The oiled parchment glowed faintly green under the lights, but the inked lines stood out clear enough.

“Kiri,” Kuroda said.

Fukuda came over and hunkered down on his other side. Unprompted, she tapped a section of the map: a marked cavern at the edge of the first island. “We’re here.”

Raidou unclipped a small, waterproof pen attached to the corner of the map, and drew a tiny character where Eizo had died. Fukuda’s finger skated further inland. “Nagazame caverns are here, where it’s safer to rest. There’s access to the surface there. We can travel overland to Isonade Cove, through the Sugizawa marsh, and cross Sagami-wan Strait to Aoshima after dark.”

“The likelihood of traps between here and Nagazame caverns?” Kuroda asked.

“Significant,” Fukuda said. “The caverns are abandoned, but only recently.”

Kuroda nodded, winced faintly, and leaned back against the damp stone wall. He hadn’t accepted any painkillers, but Raidou wasn’t going to be the sacrificial lamb who pointed that out. “Send Sakamoto, Hatake, and the Uchiha ahead to scout the terrain. They can disable anything still functioning and report back.”

That… was not Raidou’s ideal choice of team-members, but medics aside, they would be the most chakra-sensitive. “You think it’s wise to split up, sir?”

Kuroda skewered him with a look. “Yes, captain. That’s why I said it.”

“Yes, sir,” Raidou said, swallowing a few black thoughts about the fanged eel’s choice of targets.

Kuroda dismissed them shortly after, and Raidou went to take his place at the rockpool. Usagi, Ryouma, and Kasumi were drying up. Ginta was gently bullying Genma and Abe through the mechanical process of getting clean, sharing around a bar of soap and handfuls of pumice sand for scrubbing.

In another context, Raidou might have enjoyed the sight of so much wet skin. Usagi’s curves, Ryouma’s careful hands, the defined muscles of Genma’s back — but a) that was a train of thought that was going to land him in trouble, and b) this context had Genma’s cold shivers, the tight hunch in Abe’s shoulders, and Usagi’s flat, unhappy mouth.