A huge, dark-furred head loomed over them. Kakashi scrambled to his feet. Ryouma jolted awake and lunged for weapons. Raidou swept Kurenai behind him. Smaller furry bodies began to pour in, heedless of thorns. Saishou and Kin met them head on with bared teeth. Yori snarled and leapt for the giant one, clamping his jaws down on its thickly-furred cheek.

Kakashi reached for his chakra. It wasn’t there.

He hadn’t felt anything—

Ryouma went down under a welter of bodies. Raidou grunted behind Kakashi. Kurenai screamed, cut short. Kakashi drew his kodachi and went for the first throat.

There was blood, and then there wasn’t. It melted away like an illusion. Hot, furry weights crashed into his back. Claws scrabbled at his clothes. He twisted, shedding bodies, and raked his eyepatch up.

Nothing changed. His Sharingan was blind.

Teeth snapped down on his wrist. Nerveless fingers dropped the kodachi. Kakashi snarled, breathless. Foam-flecked jaws snarled right back at him. Weight landed on his neck. His knee hit the ground.

A sharp-tipped claw touched the corner of his right eye. Kakashi froze. In that split-second, they crushed him to the dirt.

Somewhere distant, Saishou’s rising whine raked terror down his spine. He couldn’t hear his people. Now he could feel the tanuki, wild and overwhelming, drowning everything else out.

“Stop,” he gasped.

The claws cupped his chin, little pin-pricks biting through his mask, and turned his head just enough for him to see a mid-sized tanuki. “Why,” it demanded, “are you here?”

“How did you get here?” said another.

“They wanted hostages,” rumbled the big one. Yori dangled from one of its paws, held by the scruff. “To torture.”

Ryouma’s voice, half-strangled but breathing, got out, “You have our lieutenant!”

There was a little pause.

“What?” said the one holding Kakashi’s chin.