There were tricks to scouting new territory.

Ideally, when you weren’t randomly dropped into an unknown forest, you had time to plan ahead. Kakashi’s preferred method was to ghost between secluded view-points and get a long overview of the topography, while his dogs circled low and hunted for threats.

In this world, he and his team had spun out of a hole in the sky and crashed noisily through a grove of trees. He wanted somewhere to hide, and he wanted it now.

They needed a safe place that didn’t look like an obvious bolthole. Somewhere that wouldn’t trap them if locals descended. Caves were out. Trees were unprotected. He just needed a scrape, and thick enough vegetation.

There was one sun, high and yellow. If it had the same arc as their own sun, then that was west, and west smelled less like tanuki. Pakkun had already turned that way; Kakashi could feel the muted pulse of his chakra. Saishou had angled further north, but she was curving around. Yori, slow but thorough, lagged behind.

Kakashi would have given a lot for Tsuyoshi’s fast legs and keen nose right now, more for her lethal teeth. He would have given a lot for all of his pack, instead of a pregnant mama, an old man well past retirement, and an untested youngster. It was possible he could summon more here, but it was equally possible he’d do something regrettable to the structure between universes and paint them all over the landscape.

They were smart, and they weren’t human. They’d be safe in their own world.

Other thoughts about wolves could wait.

The air smelled like water — a stream, there, winding silver through the forest. Kakashi struck towards it and found what he was looking for. A deep grove surrounded by dense, unfamiliar bushes with long, nasty thorns. Dark purple berries hung in clusters, giving off a rich, perfume-y, and most importantly, loud scent. The riverbank was dotted with them.

He left the dogs to do a wider sweep, and went back to bring the others.

It was slower moving the whole team. Raidou wasn’t a sprinter. Kurenai, though fast, wasn’t as adept at speed and concealment woven together. Ryouma was faster than Raidou and stealthier than Kurenai, but he ran distracted. Kin stayed on his heels the whole way.

When they reached the grove, Pakkun guided them through the thorn thicket to a shallow, depressed bowl of nearly bare earth. Small tufts of grass sprouted here and there, but mostly it was a warren of gnarled roots spearing across the earth. Bushes curved up above them to meet like a low roof, turning the light an undersea green. There was a faint animal scent clinging to the den underneath the berry smell, but it was old, faded by a season, and not tanuki.

Ryouma sat. Kin clambered into his lap, pinning him. Kakashi elected not to do the same, but it was a close thing.

Raidou crouched stiffly and reached for the empty space at his belt, where a canteen should have hung. He laughed dryly. Kurenai pressed her canteen into his hand. “We’ll want to avoid the water here, if we can.”

Raidou drank a measured amount and handed the canteen back. “Afraid we’ll get trapped in fairy-land?”

Kurenai glanced aside, self-conscious and showing it, which told Kakashi her rope was starting to fray. “I know it sounds childish, but— Before today, tanuki and wolf gods only appeared in fairy stories, too.”

Raidou paused. “You have a point.”