Genma knew how to do this. Knew the rules. He'd done it for Raidou; Raidou had done it for him countless times. Countless wakings from nightmares with only a vague grasp on the present. He'd watched Raidou's pupils ringed round with whites, while Raidou'd struggled not to feel long-ago acid eating into his skin. Raidou had held Genma's shoulders steady while Genma'd cradled his hands to his chest and shaken in a too-dark room. Stick with me. Stay with me. Breathe. Don't think too hard.

He let the rise and fall of Raidou's chest set the pace. In. Out. In. Out. Let the catch and wheeze in his own ground him. Broken ribs. Every ninja had broken ribs at some point or another. It was familiar. He'd talked a hundred injured shinobi through steadying their breaths so they got enough air into aching lungs. Breathe through your nose, you have oxygen on.

He licked dry lips. "Good. That's good. Someone went after them?" Four days. Someone must have gone after them. There had been more than just a skeleton crew at that temple waystation. They'd had hawks, must have sent for ANBU backup as soon as they had him and Raidou on stretchers. He remembered a gruff voice that had turned soft--Hang in there, soldier. You're safe here.--then commanding--Get another light over here! We've got two down.

"We already thought Sago was dead before we ran into him, Rai, and we were wrong. They have proof this time? I know he was wounded. He'd gotten some of my poison, he was coughing. You hit him hard, he was going down when I jumped us out of there. He couldn't have run far."

It had to be true. It had to. Backup from the temple had to have killed him. Sago had to be dead. All of them, dead.

"You have proof? We left two alive, Rai. We left two alive. At least two. Maybe there were more we never saw at all. Maybe they were on patrol." The words tumbled out fast and raw. It wasn't panic now, but it wasn't calm either. It was mission thinking, paranoid conjecture that the enemy had deceived you and still lurked. It was logic fitted to a ninja's violent life.

Don't think to hard. Okay? Raidou's hand on his wrist was a solid weight, his thumb a slow, steady pressure, moving back and forth in time with his breaths. In... Out... In... Out..

Genma's breathing slowed, his pulse steadied. He met Raidou's eyes. "God damn, Rai. Four days?"