The path leveled out into a wide space of packed earth beneath the overhanging trees. There was a wooden shrine, a roof and three walls hung with heavy straw ropes and paper charms. And there was the wooden tanuki statue, the deity of these mountains, even larger than the stone replica carved down in the village, and far older.

Its carved features were blurred with years and weather, until the barest suggestion of a sharp snout and masked eyes remained. One of the paws had broken off and been replaced by a new carving of paw-and-jug, but even that was cracked and dark with exposure. Only the massive round testicles were smooth, polished with rubbing, and heaped around with the soft white shapes of thrown buns.

Something prickled down Kurenai's spine. The barest suggestion, a shinobi's instinctive recognition of someone watching from the shadows.

She looked at Kakashi.

He had gone as inhumanly still as the carved statue. An edge of wintry chakra flickered out like a knife against Kurenai's senses. Genma's chakra followed in a broad sweep. But neither of them dropped the henge, or went for a kunai. Genma glanced at Ryouma, brows raised. Kakashi looked puzzled, and tugged Raidou's sleeve until he leaned over to let Ka-chan whisper in Rie's ear.

Kurenai asked Genma, very quietly, "What was it?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Whatever it was, it's gone already." He didn't look relieved.

"Okay," Rie murmured. Kurenai lifted her head just in time to see Ka-chan slip away. She returned a moment later, slightly fuzzy around the edges. Kakashi's chakra was wearing too thin for a substantial clone.

"I should go," Ryouma whispered harshly. "If something gets him alone—"

"If something's out there," Kurenai said, "these people will need your help more than he will." She lifted her chin, trying to see over too many taller shoulders. The priest seemed to be giving another blessing, or perhaps finishing the first one. Several young women came forward, blushing, to rub the tanuki's testicles. The wind sighed in the trees overhead.

Kakashi slipped back again. Between one breath and the next, the clone at Rie's side faded away. Kakashi shook his head.

Raidou met Kurenai's eyes. She nodded, and lifted her hands for the silencing jutsu.

The priest's words cut off, along with the crackling of the torches and the whispering wind and the soft sounds of the crowd. Kakashi said quietly, "There was something. But I don't recognize the smell, and the trail breaks off a short way out."

"Demon?" Ryouma demanded.

Kakashi hesitated, and Kurenai's stomach cramped.

"I don't think so," he said. "At least, nothing like the Hayama demons." He paused again. "Or the Kyuubi."

"Good." Genma put a hand on Ryouma's shoulder, strong and steady against the boy's slight frame. "Which direction? Could the smell have been chemical?"

"Not chemical. More...musky, I'd say, but it wasn't quite." Kakashi growled in soft frustration, as if the lack of proper words was as bad as the absence of a trail, and lifted his hands.

Genjutsu swirled and caught. Kurenai blinked hard, resisting the urge to drop her henge, to look through the layers of chakra with Meikougan eyes. She forced herself to experience instead.

Tree-shrub-fox-not fox, a strange odor almost like chakra burn, there and then gone—

The sense-memory cut away. She blinked again. Beside her Genma stumbled, his hand closing tight on Ryouma's shoulder; the boy barely kept him up. Neither of them had expected the genjutsu. Raidou, primed by his month of training with Benihime, hadn't even flinched, but Rie's soft mouth was white around the edges.

"North," Kurenai said. "Towards Tanigawa."

Raidou said, "Perhaps we should rethink spending the night."