Behind his mask, Raidou let out a slow breath.

“Watch your back,” he said. He carefully jostled Sato with the toe of his boot, making the man groan. “Nice dodging, Boar.”

“Bite me, Moon-face,” Sato managed.

“Maybe later,” said Raidou, and left them to it.

Ryouma’s trail was two minutes old and already cold—a scuff on a rock, a scrape against a tall mossy stone where a hasty hand might have grabbed too hard, then nothing. The inner valley was a rabbit-run of broken trails and criss-crossing paths. Ryouma could have picked any of them.

“Clever little bastard,” Raidou said quietly, and had to smile.

Two ANBU agents in a panic, one dropped bloodlessly, Base’s attention distracted, and a clean getaway. Screw that one night complication; if Raidou had the choice, he wanted Ryouma for his team.

Assuming Ryouma made it through.

He clicked the comm. “Heading true north, Tanuki. Try north-west when you get here. Left a mark for you.”

Static hissed. “Roger that,” said Genma.

Raidou scored an X on the stone next to the possible hand-mark, stowed his kunai, and picked the trail he would have chosen if he’d had ANBU on his tail. Steep, with sliding shale underfoot; the kind of thing that might slow a pursuit, or at least announce it coming. He left the path and chakra-ran from rock-to-rock instead, more interested in catching a glimpse of dark hair and a jounin vest than avoiding notice entirely.

A flicker of motion made him drop.

Through cracks between black rocks, he saw the tail end of a confrontation silvered in patchy moonlight. The pale guy with the glass-cut jaw—Raidou hunted for a moment, and turned up the name Akiyama—leading Ryouma into a crevasse, apparently willingly.

Did they know each other? He was pretty sure Akiyama had been in an entirely different section, but maybe pre-Trials...

Metal flashed and drove into Ryouma’s neck. Ryouma staggered, long legs collapsing beneath him, and Raidou startled up. A knife? No, a needle. Who the hell brought a needle to Trials?

Whatever it contained was strong and nasty. Ryouma went down like a tree, arms and legs shaking, fingers spasming. Akiyama hauled him into the cave like a successful desert scorpion dragging its catch home.

Raidou hit his comm hard. “Head’s up, Base, we’ve got some kid-on-kid violence. Akiyama just took Tousaki down with a needle. Don’t know his intentions, but I doubt they’re friendly.”

“Is Tousaki breathing?” Hajime asked.

“Twitching,” Raidou said.

“Boar’s taken care of,” Genma said, voice clipped between what had to be long jumps. “I’m on my way.”

“Roger that,” Raidou began. “I’ll—”

A second silver flash made him twitch, but this one wasn’t metal. Moonlight caught a lean figure running down the valley wall, briefly lighting up some very distinctive hair.

“Crescent Moon?” demanded Hajime.

“I’ll be damned,” Raidou said. “Hatake just showed up.”

“Helping or hurting?” Genma said.

“Too soon to tell,” Raidou said. “But he’s making for Akiyama’s cave.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Cave?” Hajime said.