Frost threatened to crackle underfoot as Raidou jogged soundlessly along a frozen dirt path. He was much too good a ninja to let it, but the wintery promise kept him on his toes--just not quite literally. The ANBU ox mask covering his face kept his breath from steaming the air, instead it lay trapped against his skin, adding a layer of thin, damp warmth. Under his armour, the mission scroll a frazzled chuunin had pushed into his hands before sending him on his way pressed a reminder against his ribs.

A demon mission.

Raidou smiled, lips peeling back from teeth in a rictus grin any ninja would recognize; one that promised its wearer was about to get into a decent fight. Demons were always interesting, and there was never a morality play where the supernatural were involved. Some days it was nice to keep things simple.

And then there was the name on the scroll--one he'd been hoping to run into since their last mission had ended on its distinctive sour note. Inuzuka Tsume. He hadn't had the chance to see her after she'd shied away from him at Konoha's gates like a hunted creature. They'd all been rattled after Kimura had sunk his genjutsu claws into their minds and twisted up a nightmare--Raidou shook his head to clear it--but Tsume had seemed spooked on a whole new level, and Raidou hadn't had the chance to make sure she was really okay. He didn't like leaving loose threads like that, especially not when one of them tied around a teammate.

It took him just over a day to draw near to the hidden cabin Tsume's message had said she was holed up in. He followed the line of Fire Country's border, willing to move at a slower pace that would get him there in much better shape to fight, even if it wouldn't get him there quite as quick. At least the scenery was pretty.

He crossed a stream, found the right goat path, and followed it up to a forked crevice between two granite slopes. Wedged between rock and overhung by greenery lay the sign coded in ANBU cipher that announced a hidden bunker. Raidou flicked his fingers through the seals he'd been told, and made a faint satisfied noise when the complex illusion lifted, revealing a squat stone building.

He shoved his mask to one side, and scaled the last bite of land to the door. A sharp knock was the only warning he gave before he walked through.

And found Tsume half-naked.

"Uh," Raidou said, jerking his gaze away from a sweat-soaked sports bra. "I didn't--"

In the distance, a howl carved through the bitter air.

Tsume'd heard footsteps long before the man's shape darkened the doorway. She glanced up at him, unconcerned about her nakedness, and tensed. That was a scent she wasn't ready to deal with. Scars writhed across Raidou's face as Kuromaru's howl twisted through the cold day. Raidou went rigid, his gaze snapping back at her, a spike of adrenaline surging with the sudden dilation of his pupils.

Carefully, watching him, she reached out for her shirt and pulled it on over sports bra and dogtags. She left the cloth untucked, remembering the way he'd watched that night on the rooftop as she'd pulled off her clothes.

Like he was watching her now, but instead of arousal there was alarm. She palmed a kunai. The sound of steel across wood rang through the little cabin as the tip dragged over the bench. The blade was a promise of death against her skin. "Everything all right?" she asked warily.

No was the only word Raidou's brain could wrap around. The rest was filled with a sudden snapshot image of wolf and woman and things going very badly wrong after they'd gone so wonderfully right. There'd been alcohol, and Tsume, and a roof, and oh god he'd hurt her--

Raidou fell back a step, freezing when his heel slammed against the door lintel. The second crack of wood chased the first through the air. There was a kunai in Tsume's hand and he'd hurt her.

Roof. Rotgut. Sliding into a body built like skin over molded steel--

There'd been blood.

Raidou made a low, distressed noise in his throat. Had he raped her?

His hands jerked up, empty palms out in an open gesture to her closed fists. He couldn't think, but he could still move. Another step back and his spine hit the door jamb. Words scraped his throat like bile given sound.

"I'm sorry. I'm--I'm so sorry."

Her hackles rose, lifting off the nape of her neck. When she spoke, her voice raked over them sharply. "Do you want to start making some sense, pup?" She didn't like him like this. Didn't like anyone like this, but especially not him.

She'd had too much to drink the night she'd dragged him onto a rooftop. Too much, and not enough. Memories opened by genjutsu had refused to be sealed again, and every detail she'd spent years forgetting had come to the forefront of her mind, complete now with name and scent and face.

She didn't like anyone unpredictable, but she really didn't like him like this.

Another howl cut the air, sliding down through ranges that spoke of emotional pain and alarm. Her gaze flicked away and back, resting on the man trying to escape out the cabin door as if he'd seen a ghost.

There was no reason to believe anything was different than it had been two weeks before. Still, she shifted the kunai and slid backward a step, checking for her armor and weapons. That howl never heralded anything good. Attention split, worry for her familiar telling her to do one thing, and gut-churning alarm at seeing Raidou again telling her another, she did nothing except wait.

He wasn't attacking. That could only be good.

Some things went beyond reflex. "Pup?" echoed Raidou, shocked half-way out of his gathering panic. "Do I call you hag, oh venerable one?" The words died away as sharp memory ripped at his self-control, eating away well-worn mission composure.

There'd been alcohol, the roof, sex--rape, snarled an ugly voice that drenched his heart in ice--and... he'd hurt her. There'd been blood, as red as the tattoos on her face. A howl behind him that became a black wolf--

"What is wrong with you? She said stop!"

--that became Tsume running away. Then more alcohol, enough to drown a laughing man in whiskey-flavoured oblivion, and he'd lost the memory in the rush and crunch of war.

Until a sports bra and a howl had snatched it back.

Ninja Raidou told himself faintly. Ninja don't freak out. Not even when they may have raped their teammates.

He felt sick.

Far away, another howl tickled a frozen chill up his spine. It had to be Kuromaru.

Raidou tried to think. "That--what does that mean? Does he need you?"

She'd been edging toward her weapons cache, still, eyes narrowing briefly when irritation surged through his scent. Stress killed it. She preferred the irritation.

"It means we need to move." She snatched up her kit, wrapping a bandage around her thigh, using it to strap a pill case there. The armor came next; half a dozen quick movements and it snapped into place with the same sound as snapping bone. Her eyes never left the large man standing in the doorway. His scent filled the little bunker, choking off everything else.

She paused, not wanting to get any closer to him, trying to tell herself his sudden odd behavior had nothing to do with that night on the rooftop. Surely he'd remembered earlier. Things were fine.

She still had to go past him, out the door. And she didn't want to get that close. His hands were big, fingers broad and strong. Muscles swelled under skin, testament to hours spent training.

He hadn't moved so well, then. He hadn't been ANBU. He'd gotten better.

Tsume's head ducked. Hair spiked down in her face. "You gonna be able to hold it together?" It smelled like an uncertain proposition.

"Yes!" snapped Raidou automatically, offended, before realizing that he'd just admitted to feeling far more shaky than he ever wanted to be. He scowled, ignored the way the weight of old scars twisted the expression, and yanked his mask back into place.

It narrowed his vision slightly, edging everything he saw in black and shadows. Tsume herself looked the same, a slim figure cut out in ANBU armour. She'd already had the tattoo back then, he remembered with a jolt. How old had she been?

She didn't want to get anywhere near him. That much was clear from the way her steps had choked, jerking her to a halt in the neutral space just outside his reach. Nausea writhed like a hot snake in his gut.

Raidou dropped his kit inside the door and turned, showing his back, before he got out of her way. Three howls had been enough for him to work out a rough guess of where Kuromaru was. Probably somewhere near the demon. He side-stepped, clearing the way for Tsume, and glanced back over his shoulder. "You should lead."

His back was broad. He didn't try to protect it. She slipped out of the shadows and into the wintry sunlight. Sliding past him, she hit a patch of oak leaves, old and rotten from being buried under snow. One foot tried to skid; chakra burned through it to keep her in place. The energy reached beyond the black decay to the frozen ground below, and she moved away quickly.

Raidou's scent followed her. She broke into a jog, and a run. His steps kept up. Steady behind her; a thump-thump faster than her heartbeat. Her mask hung off her belt, banging against her hip. Head lifted, she followed the trail Kuromaru had left and didn't listen to the man running along.

Cold light struggled to get through the branches overhead. Mostly, it gave up. The patches that did make it through shifted and swayed, hazy with encroaching darkness. The shadows nibbled at the edges, backed away to give the light false hope, and returned once more.

Kuromaru howled again.

Tsume slowed, tipped her head back, and howled in return before picking up speed.

Raidou chased her, a faceless animal mask carried in her mind's eye. Her stomach knotted, and unable to stay silent she asked, "So what was your problem a second ago?"

Nothing. She prayed it was nothing.

Tsume ran fast, which didn't surprise him. But silent, which did. He was too used to following Genma. There was always conversation with Genma, even if it was only in hand signs.

Then she howled and chased it with a question.

Raidou missed the silence.

"No problem," he answered quietly, feeling the forest swallow his words. His gaze landed on her back, watching the play of solid muscles across her shoulders. With a buzz of shock he realized what he was doing and looked away. "I just..."

How did you say I just remembered raping you?

You didn't.

Raidou yanked a kunai from his belt and wrapped his fingers around the solid metal. It was something real to hang onto while the world skidded out from under his feet.

The mission was real, too. He refocused, trying to put everything else aside. "Did you send Kuromaru to track the demon? Or is he having problems with something else?"

Her next two steps shifted sideways, bringing him into view. The sound of a weapon drawn was crushed beneath their footsteps, but the scent of steel drove through her senses like an ice pick.

Her speed faltered, taken by the twist of her body to see what he was doing. A kunai spun, the wrapped handle swallowed by moving fingers, the devil-edge blackened by oil. It absorbed the light, like a bit of a darkness eating the life around it.

He hadn't answered her question. Tsume checked his breathing, his stride length, and sped up. "Kuromaru was hunting. But we've been keeping a close eye on the demon trail, it's in this direction, and he sounded alarmed. Probably has something to do with that."

The breeze created by their passage skimmed chilly over her skin, chapping her lips. The world was quiet; animals froze as the ninja ran by, or remained hidden from the warmth-draining clouds. Anything that could, slept.

Hunting? Wasn't the cabin stocked with dried food? Or did Kuromaru need to get out on a regular basis and crunch small furry creatures? Raidou frowned under his mask. Either way, it was never a good idea to split up teammates on a two-man mission. Especially if those two men happened to be one dog and one woman.

Not that he didn't thoroughly respect their separate abilities to kick ass. But he'd seen Tsume run, and he'd seen Kuromaru lose his cool, and--

Raidou blew out a breath, clearing his head. Worrying was for life's thinkers, he was a man better suited to moving. The kunai in his hand spun, ascribing a dull circle of humming steel as he flicked it, bleeding away tension into the metal.

"How far--" he began, and shut up as undergrowth crashed ahead. The kunai handle thunked into his palm as something huge and black erupted from the dense foliage.

Kuromauru, eyes wide, ears slicked flat, spotted them and locked all four legs, falling into a long skid that almost richocetted him off a large oak trunk. Leaves fountained up; small twigs rained down. His breath panted great clouds of steam into the air.

"...subtle," said Raidou finally, halting as the forest ate the echoes.

Tsume ignored the sour smell coming from the other ninja--no time to guess what he was annoyed about--and his comment as well. She set her weight back, stopping on her heels. "What's wrong?"

Kuromaru had already turned, prickle-edged oak leaves caught in his fur. Muscles bunched and extended as he started off again. Thick, blunt claws ravaged the ground as he pushed away. "The path to the demon smells like cubs."

Tsume shifted into a faster run. "Cubs or kids?" she barked.

"Kids!"

Her jaw tightened, and she sent a sharp look at Raidou to be sure he was keeping up. "Humans." Her gaze caught her familiar. "How many?" It wasn't like him to leave for back up. Not if he could take care of it. Surely if one or two brats had headed down the trail...

"Dunno. The scents were too mixed, adults and humans. At least five kids. Maybe eight."

The cold seeped through her armor. It lodged in her bones. Sinew shivered. They were a hard ten minute run from the mouth of the den.

"The demon," Tsume threw over her shoulder, "is in a warren of caves. Low level. Possibly humanoid. There's a path that runs right up to it. Doesn't smell like fire or poison or like anything much except old blood. There haven't been any scents leading in. We've got a ten minute run if we go fast."

"Cub scent was old by an hour," Kuromaru snarled.

Tsume absorbed that information. If they'd kept going, gone straight... They could be there. They could have been there for too long already. She leaped a pit that was only a shadow. "We need to go faster."

That there were children was alarming. A group that large, with adults, couldn't know what they were walking into.

Children, adults--that had to be parents or teachers--and a demon. In caves. Raidou felt alarm curl through his blood, hammered out by a faster heartbeat. Taking out a monster was one thing--one thing he was very good at--but non-combatants in the mix was something else entirely. This close to the border they probably weren't Fire Country inhabitants, but a civillian was a civillian.

Raidou sped up, drawing level with Tsume. He kept a few feet between them, enough for the illusion of personal space, and fastened his eyes on Kuromaru. The dog ran fast, clawed paws ripping up black gouts of damp soil and rotting leaves. Tsume herself ran like a shadow, flitting through dense undergrowth next to him with the silent skill of a long-term ANBU.

They poured on speed. Raidou kept pace.

He jumped a fallen trunk and ran up its length, using it to leap onto the high branch of a solid tree. He didn't pause, but a glance was long enough to get a look at the landscape. Ahead, carved out of a mountain face like the hollows in a skull, lay an open mouth in the rock. Caves.

Raidou threw himself down, hitting the ground with a muted crack of breaking twigs, and tried not to swear. "Hate caves," he muttered to his mask. The dull rattle-break of running footsteps was the only response.

The forest changed as they neared the creature's den. The only sign of animals were the dry bones of a rabbit, curled against the bole of a tree. Something had to have hunted it, had to have eaten it.

That something hadn't left any signs of its passage. No scent-residue. Perhaps the rain had washed it away.

Kuromaru streaked through the trees, darkness sliding in and out of shadow. The branches swayed, and light gave up the fight at getting through. Without animals to eat them, the plants grew into twisted, hulking shapes. Tsume took to the trees, trying not to get tangled in leaves and vines and brush that should have been muted during winter. The light didn't reach the ground. The cacophany of scents died, leaving only rot and mud and Raidou running alongside.

The demon's area smelled like dust and sterile air. It made Tsume's skin prickle. She slowed, listening for voices, inhaling deeply.

She smelled blood.

"We're late." The words were a snarl, and she flung herself forward, toward the treeline. Faintly, she heard someone sobbing.

"Shit," said Raidou, anger snapping his voice hard and hot. Kuromaru flashed ahead of them, low back slipping under heavy branches Raidou and Tsume had to leap. For a moment the forest closed in, clawing at them with bony fingers of twig. Raidou twitched, jerking as bare wood caught against his armour and slashed at his naked shoulders. He saw Tsume do the same, ducking low and twisting, then--

The forest ran out.

A clearing opened up around them, wide and empty under the cold sky. Raidou skidded to a halt, veering away to avoid crashing into either dog or woman. There was no one else, either demon or human. He snatched a breath, moving back to blend in with tree shadows, and looked around.

There were footprints marked into the bare dirt around the demon's cave. Small and large, they milled around with no effort made to hide them. Raidou was not a tracker, but he could read them well enough to see that the larger prints left, slipping back into the forest. The smaller prints didn't.

The children had stayed.

There were symbols etched around the mouth of the cave. Something red and wet had splashed the rock. It gleamed in the dull light.

"They left the kids," Raidou's voice was blank with something far too close to shock. "They didn't run, they just left."

A noise echoed out of the cave. A muffled cry. A thin, reedy voice. Half a scream.

Raidou's hand closed around another kunai. "Fuck that."

Kuromaru growled, staring down the path. His head swiveled and he skulked toward the open maw, belly fur brushing the ground.

Tsume could smell pain and fear. It smothered almost everything else; even the sickly sweet, copper edged reek that slid around the corners and lay thick and heavy across the ground. She pulled her mask on, breathing through her mouth. The dust of the demon-scent lurked in pockets of wind.

Her hands twisted into symbols. Claws grew, chakra shattering through her muscle, teeth elongating. "Do we actually need a plan?" She was already shifting toward the cave. Her plan was simple: get the kids. Kill the demon.

Raidou drew another kunai, filling both hands with metal. "Pointy end goes in the monster," he said, falling into step behind her. Kuromaru in front was enough to stop him needing to take point--teeth and nose made a better protection than Raidou could offer. He stayed behind, where he could see and watch their backs. "Don't stab the kids."

That was all the plan he needed.

The cave ceiling was low enough that Raidou had to duck his head. He hunched his shoulders, bending his knees to re-establish his centre of balance, and cursed faintly when the tunnel took a sharp turn, cutting off natural light. In the pitch black, he could see nothing. Not even the flash of bone armour that marked Tsume's back.

Ahead, the faint cries went suddenly silent.

Raidou tossed one kunai into his other hand, and snapped out a glo-stick. Sickly green light flared as he cracked it and stuck it in his belt, calling up broken shadows. The colour prevented it from eating his night vision. He hoped it wasn't enough to warn the demon.

Ahead of him, in front of Kuromaru and over Tsume's shoulder, he could see the tunnel branch into three.

Kuromaru lifted his muzzle, scenting the stale air. Blood washed everything, painting it all in sugar-coated slickness. Their breathing echoed. It was the only sound.

He growled against the odd not-light Raidou was shedding, struggling to see into shadows. Tsume shifted her weight. Dirt scratched under her foot.

"One," she said, pointing to the first tunnel. "Two. Three. Shout your number if you need help." And then she melted into the darkness of the first hole. For a moment she was nothing but a glow of armor. It hovered above the ground, detached from her black-clothed legs. The shape grew smaller. Then it disappeared entirely.

With a growl, Kuromaru slunk down the third tunnel. It stretched around him, as black as tar. The breeze crept past the mouth of the cave and down after him. It was enough to whisper the smell of decay over the edges of his coat. He twitched, shaking off fingers of air.

The smell of children grew stronger. He picked up his speed, head low, nose almost to the ground as if it might help him see. He hesitated as the air currents shifted. His steps slowed. A wall rose in front of him, and with small, wary movements he rounded a corner.

Light.

His stride lengthened. Shadows crept from cracks in the rock. Something black glistened and pooled on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a spider curl tight into a crevasse.

Around another corner, and he could see a room built from the cave. Someone cried softly inside, and another voice murmured, "Shh, shh, he'll hear you."

Kuromaru ran.

They screamed as he emerged from the darkness. The sounds rose, crescendoed, battering against the walls like birds too frightened to see the cage bars.

None of them moved. Hands rested against rock, fingers curled toward palms. Legs didn't thrash, didn't move them away. They lay like porcelain dolls, dressed neatly in their best clothes. Hair brushed until it shone, plaited or slicked down. Small feet with small shoes, bows tying the laces. One child sat against the wall, his arms relaxed against the stone. His bent knees pressed against new cloth. His head tipped, sliding as if he were half asleep. Wide eyes watched Kuromaru, brimming with terror.

The shadows slid closer as the lantern flickered. One of the children began to cry softly, barely breathing. Darkness caressed his face and touched his shoulders.

They all remained still.

"Guess that leaves me with two," Raidou muttered, a beat after the Inuzuka vanished into the gloom. He was already moving, slipping forward into splintered shadows. The glow from his belt was barely more than a nightlight, small and pale. It was enough to see the jut of rocks around him, the pools of darkness at his feet that warned of ankle-wrenching holes and dips to avoid. He stuck close to the wall, and tried not to crack his head on the ceiling.

It was claustrophobic, utterly silent. He could hear the rush of blood over his own eardrums.

Raidou forbid himself to think of the last mission that had ended up in a cave, or of his teammate from that selfsame mission. He could do that later, when there was light and, hopefully, alcohol.

There was no sign of the kids.

He moved quickly, keeping quiet, and followed the twists of branching stone.

Ahead of him, something ripped with a sound like tearing paper. A child's voice shrieked. Liquid splashed.

Raidou ducked and ran.

The darkness closed around her. Tsume paused when even the echoes of light had died away. She pulled out another of the green lights Raidou had used. It snapped like a dry branch, the glass edges inside the plastic tube crunching into smaller pieces as the liquids mixed and began to glow.

Green light eased outward. It didn't get very far before the black ate it. She prowled on. A single step. And then another.

Everything smelled like rot. The rot of stone, eaten away by time. The rot of plants, growing too fast in the forest, killed by winter and now thawing into sludge. The rot of decaying flesh; bits of creatures left unnoticed in the corners, when the predator was done ripping them apart.

The smell rose. Tsume gave silent thanks for her mask, muffling the worst of the putrefaction. She slid closer to a wall, footsteps going softer. The smell increased. Old blood, old fear. Her breath curled under her mask. It spread over her face, damp and sticky.

A room opened off the tunnel. The smell curled out of it. Tsume wrapped her hands around kunai, and twisted into the opening.

It was empty.

In the silence, the scream howled up until it buzzed through Raidou's skull. He couldn't trust his own sense of direction, everything echoed. He ran, eyes fastened on the bare rock in front of him, twisting when the tunnel twisted. Ducking when the ceiling lurched down. Silt shifted underfoot, making him scrabble for balance. Chakra flared under his skin.

In the dark, under the screams, something slurped.

Raidou threw himself around a sharp corner, accidentally cracking his hip against a spur of stone. The glo-stick flicked away, spinning back into the tunnel he'd just come from. Its light bled down to a fraction of itself, a bare gleam that left him just enough to see.

The tunnel widened out into a small cavern. Large enough that he couldn't see the edges in the dark. He wasn't looking for them, anyway.

In the middle, laid out on the blood-washed floor, was a child.

Half a child.

Where its legs should have been, there was nothing. From the ravaged stump of a torso, he could see the broken shards of hipbones slicing out from tattered flesh. Red muscle quivered. Sheared arteries pulsed blood like a swollen river onto the dusty floor.

It was still screaming.

Above it a shape moved, head jerking up as Raidou skidded to a shocked halt. He saw a gleam of eyes, a glint of bloodied teeth, and then the thing was gone.

Raidou snarled, hands lifting. Kunai blades flickered as he moved, fast and low, circling close to the wall. Putting his back against stone.

Air brushed over skin. Pain lanced through his bare shoulder.

Both kunai clattered to the floor.

It breathed against warm skin. The smell curled back, washing its face. On the floor, the meal screamed again. It bathed in that as well, flesh shivering.

The barest of thoughts, of intention, brought it back beside the meal. This would have to wait. The new thing was fascinating. It had a whole room full of little things to feed off of, but only one of this.

A tongue slid out. It licked the spurting blood. Just the biggest arteries. Just the ones that would bring stiffness and cold to the body too fast. Then it rose gracefully to its feet, and looked at the new one.

The new one was big. Bigger than it liked, but faster than it had seen before. More like shadow than prey. More like blood than water.

The creature's heart fluttered in its chest, too fast for a human, too light for a mortal. He slunk across the space between himself and the new meal, resting a long-fingered hand on a large torso. The heat from the body radiated out through the cool plating. It nearly burned.

It leaned in, brushing cheek against the hard bone of a mask. Its nails dragged as it found the edge and slowly skinned it away. Something else had already changed the new one. Something else had already peeled the flesh from its bones and twisted until it looked nothing like the way these prey were born.

It leaned close, flicking its tongue along the edge of the rigid flesh. Sweat. Fear. Anger. The meal sobbed behind them. Its lips pulled off its teeth, and it smiled.

When the new prey tried to strike, it only stepped away and returned. This one was too large, but it was beautifully marked. A deep breath into cool lungs, and it drew claws down the plating. The shell screeched and cracked. White, pupilless eyes fixed on the whirlpool of flesh writhing over a shoulder and down an arm. It was the most beautiful death-mark it had ever seen. With a small triumphant exhalation, it reached out and ran its tongue over the skin.

The meat jerked. Limbs tried to do something of use. It only slipped out of range, and prepared to circle back.

There had been no word from either Raidou or Kuromaru. Tsume continued down her tunnel.

It looped, twisting back on itself. She heard a scream, so faint it was almost gone. The echoes bounced it, shattered it, and she couldn't tell where it came from--not even ahead or behind.

And then her tunnel ran out.

As quickly as she could, she turned and started back.

Cold flooded through his veins, icing his blood with something completely unnatural. It felt like fear, but Raidou was far too angry to be afraid. There was no room for fear.

He couldn't move.

His body felt stiff, detached. A clumsy prison of flesh wrapped around him, holding him in place. His muscles quivered, cramping with the effort he forced through them. His fingers twitched. His head turned. It wasn't enough.

Somewhere in the dark, the demon breathed.

It moved too fast; he couldn't see it. Its saliva cooled on his bare face. On his shoulder. Licked over scars while its claws had played down his broken armour. His chest-plate dangled awkwardly from torn straps. His mask hung from the side of his face. The kunai lay by his feet.

Ninja, Raidou told himself, with a ragged breath, do not panic.

It had licked his scars. It had eaten the child.

He couldn't move.

"It'll--be--okay," he gasped out, forcing air from shaking lungs. His lips were numb. "Hang--on."

His words were too quiet. The boy was still screaming. It couldn't hear him.

The demon was coming back.

Tsume reached the main cave, where it had broken into three, and paused. A deep inhalation gave her information; fear skittered out of one tunnel like ants from a hive. She raced down it, guided by the sickly glow from her light.

Green splashed across the walls and the floor, lurching with every step she took. Ahead, someone screamed. She moved faster, a little less cautious in her hurry. There was light in front of her. She could smell blood.

She had a kunai in each hand when she rounded the corner.