Sago reared backwards, one hand jerking up to cover his mouth and nose. Weasel collapsed on the floor, writhing as his fingernails tore into his throat, black foam glistening on his lips. Green-eyes gaped and swore, still held in the medic's firm grip. The medic himself yanked them both backwards, away from the hovering cloud of fine powder dusting the air above Genma's head.

And Raidou, wrenching against his bonds, pulling hard enough to make the tendons in his shoulders creak, realized something very crucial: leg-irons were wider than wrist-manacles, and his hands were slipping through.

Thought became movement before that powder blew away. He slammed bare feet into the floor, threw himself sideways, and hauled...

Metal grated over the back of his wrist, smearing skin from flesh, slamming up against the base of his palm, stalled only by his thumb joint--which dislocated.

He snatched his hand free before the pain could register, adrenaline thundering in his veins, and clapped his palms together, twisting seals. The remaining cuff tried to tamp his chakra down, but without the other in place to complete the full loop, the chakra-restraining jutsu could only do so much. Raidou threw everything he had against it, beyond grateful the seals didn't need his right thumb to work, and summoned the strongest clone he could.

It burst into existence, fully armoured and carrying every fleck of anger he had to spare, and charged at the Mist-nin, unsheathing a long sword. Raidou didn't stop to watch it; he twisted yet more seals, gasping so hard his head spun, and almost sobbed with relief when the second cuff sprang open.

But there wasn't time for that. Sago was facing off against his clone, chakra sparking through that godawful hammer; the medic was dead on the ground, blood draining from a long slash across his throat; and Green-eyes was coming at Raidou, murder in his eyes.

Raidou staggered halfway to his feet, then dropped back onto his left hand and threw his whole body around in an arc that ended with his heel slamming through Green-eyes' guard, into his right knee. Skin tore across Raidou's chest, burns splitting open once again, but Green-eyes went down with a bellow like a wounded bull. Raidou kicked him hard in the temple and scrambled to his feet--

Chakra lurched. His clone vanished as Sago smashed its head apart.

But Genma was still breathing. Black froth lined his lips, streaked down his chin, smeared over the red-flecked wood; he lay sprawled across that flimsy table, blood splattering the concrete beneath his hanging left hand, skin smeared with sweat and grime, broken bones shining obscenely, but he was still breathing.

Don't let it be a suicide pill.

Raidou grabbed every last bit of chakra he had left, forced it to become strength, and bolted across the room, trying to reach him before Sago did.