Katsuko paused, then looked sloooowwwwly over her shoulder at Ryouma. She stared at him for a few seconds.

"Well," she drawled at last. "It's good to know you're feeling better."

He grinned and winked.

Rolling her eyes, she turned away and kicked a corpse over. Its face had been rotted away and it stank of decay, but underneath it she found her kodachi. Impatiently rooting through the carnage, she located her katana a few feet from where she'd hit the wall and slid both her blades back into their sheathes.

People were shouting outside. Far away, she could hear the roar and hiss of a water-jutsu being applied to the fires her explosion tags had started. Armor clattered and echoed in the stairwell as reinforcements arrived.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something long, black, and narrow. Shoving another corpse out of the way, she found Ryouma's hacked-off, bloodied, but otherwise unharmed utility belt. Popping open the correct pouch, she dug out two painkillers and swallowed them dry before tossing the whole thing back to Ryouma.

Not even two floors below them, a door slammed open.

"Time to go," she told her partner, and slid her mask back into place. She took to the walls and he followed.

The guards in the corridor flinched as Katsuko and Ryouma blew past them like a strong wind, unable to react as the two ninja darted for the landing door. Ryouma lagged a few paces behind her, still struggling with the influx of foreign chakra into his system. Katsuko drew her blades and tugged on her chakra, calling on her clones.

The copies surrounded them as they burst out into the chaotic night, forming a protective ring around her and her partner. Cold evening air shocked lungs used to the staleness of the fortress corridor, and Katsuko coughed as they cleared the courtyard and reached the outer walls.

She looked back, just once. The fortress was in ruins; the whole side opposite Masahiko's chambers was little more than a smoking, blackened crater in the ground. Corpses littered the former barracks, twisted and smoking. Firefighting crews ran to and fro, frantically trying to put out the stubborn, chakra-fueled inferno.

Katsuko grinned savagely and followed Ryouma over the outer wall.