It took seven hours to cross Coal Country and move deep into the unforgiving mountains of Snow Country. In seven hours they’d had nothing to go on but a gut sense of what track any smart ninja would choose, Kakashi’s belief that Ryouma would have taken the most direct path that conditions allowed, and Ginta’s recollection of trails he’d used when running missions in this part of the world. Trails that Ryouma would have been intimately familiar with, from his long sojourns in Snow Country.

Seven hard-run hours, with no translocations lest they miss some tiny but critical clue. And no breaks, because though there was no sign of pursuit yet, it had to be coming.

Keeping his balance on the loose-skinned back of the huge dog was tiring in an entirely different way from running, especially after a couple of near-falls had Ginta continuously channelling chakra to his legs, wrapped around the dog’s wide-sprung rib cage, to keep his seat.

Baiji was panting, chest heaving, footfalls slipping on the icy trail. Pakkun had given up trying to run once they reached deep snow: he rode with Ginta. Kakashi was starting to waver, pushing himself beyond his limits in a way that set Ginta’s teeth on edge. And Ginta was starting to feel the strain as he burned chakra to keep himself on the dog, to sense for any hint of others around them, and to hide their passage through unfriendly territory.

Seven hours and the only thing they had to show for it, finally, was exhaustion and a funeral bell confirmation of the previous search teams’ findings: it was as if Ryouma had simply vanished from the earth.

“Kakashi, stop,” Ginta said at last.

Kakashi twitched a glance up at him, shook his head, and kept running.

“Stop,” Ginta demanded again. He flickered through a translocation, abandoning his mount and putting himself in Kakashi’s path, forcing the other man to halt or run him over.

Kakashi slid to a stop, trembling in snow up to his knees, and glowered murder at Ginta.

“Stop and eat something. Take a break. Take a soldier pill.” Tightening his jaw against a pain he didn’t know how to name, Ginta stared Kakashi down. “If you run yourself into the ground like this, he’d never forgive you.”