“He’s not feeling much through this paralysis,” the doctor said, distracted. “He’s already had one dose from your captain, he said.”

“Three hours ago,” Kakashi said sharply.

The assistant swallowed. “We don’t carry much heavy-duty stuff. I could measure out—”

“I’ve got it,” Kakashi said, digging into his med-kit. “Full dose, lieutenant, or half-dose?”

Genma drew a slow breath. “Five cc's, but I'll probably need another ten when I get more feeling back. Dose up Rat and yourself, too.”

“Not Ram?”

“Unless he wakes up in pain, he’s better without it,” Genma said. “Have you eaten?”

Not since—

When had they last eaten?

“Breakfast,” Kakashi said, feeling slightly foolish. But none of the rest of the team had done any better, except for Katsuko, who’d grazed on snacks the entire way to the mountain. “It’s next on my list.”

He found a pre-loaded morphine syrette and sank it into Genma’s thigh, then crossed to Katsuko and did the same for her, with a stronger dose. She swatted absently at him, but settled again when he left her alone. Ryouma still didn’t move, breathing deep and even. Which was good; he needed the sleep.

Kakashi swallowed a handful of aspirin, dug a ration bar out of his belt, and went back to Genma. “Orders, lieutenant? Or can I go check on the captain?”

“Ah hah,” the doctor said, before Genma could answer, and drew a finger-length piece of stinger tip out of his shoulder. She dropped it into a metal dish, where it clattered and oozed three beads of clear venom. She peered at it. “The hell is that?”

“The reason I can’t move,” Genma said tersely, which was much better than Kakashi’s thought about really big bees. “Show me—No wait. Hound, go find the captain and make him eat something, too. Tell him I need to talk to him about… about what we're doing next.”

“Sir,” Kakashi said, and made a point to touch his shoulder before he left. It could only help if the doctor took Genma as seriously as possible.

Halfway out of the door, Kakashi paused.

In front of him, a sea of silent villagers shifted back, leaving a widening circle of cautious space around him. Several of them had tear-streaked faces. None of them said a word.

Slowly, Kakashi shut the door behind him. He reached for his chakra to summon an insubstantial clone—not much of a guardian, but better than nothing—then paused. They’d left clones in the village at the start of this mission, and he’d never gotten the memory-drop that followed banishment. If things had been quiet here, maybe the chakra had lasted this long.

He rippled his chakra. Two seconds later, his own mirror-image and Genma’s doppelganger dropped out of the air, making the front villagers jolt back. The clones, which looked a lot cleaner and more sprightly than any original member of Team Six, took up stations either side of the door. Kakashi wove his way into the crowd.

It was a little like being a shark in a shoal of minnows; the villagers drew away from him, even though he was half-armored and dripping from Katsuko’s shower.

Well, maybe that helped.

Raidou’s spark was a nearby glimmer, surrounded by civilian signatures in one of the village’s few stone buildings. Kakashi headed towards it. A low-slung wooden sign announced ‘Town Hall’, but the building seemed to be a mix of storage house, radio hub, and record’s office. Kakashi slipped through the door, bypassed a knot of people who tried to question him, and followed the banked sunglow of Raidou’s chakra upstairs, into a small room stuffed with radio equipment.

“—that should do it,” Raidou finished saying to a radio controller, just as Kakashi stepped inside. He turned. “Hound. Everything okay?”

Kakashi tossed him a second rat-bar, which Raidou caught with automatic grace. “Tanuki says to eat that. And he wants to talk to you.”