"New plan. You two, stay next to us. Anneia, extend your wards so this doesn't happen again."

They'll pull in.

And the girls extend a glowing protection, and they start moving forward again.

They're not disturbed for the next while, though the hallways are increasingly maze-like and there's more barriers and genjutsu traps - which Itachi gets through - 

And then there's a heavy feeling in the air. Something is very, very angry. Something old and big.

"Barriers up," says Tasara, extending hers.

"That'd be the Nine Tails," Kakashi says, perhaps unnecessarily. "It doesn't feel fully out, not yet."

"Then let's hurry."

He nods. "We'll hang back, continue breaking illusions?"

"As long as your strength holds."

"It's not strenuous - but we'll retreat if we feel overwhelmed."

"And you?" she asks Anneia.

"I'm good, I'm good. Let's keep going."

"Right," both Kakashi and Itachi say.

There's more barriers before their destination - but they can be gotten through, with varying amounts of effort.

They're met, after one barrier, by a rapidly expanding cloud of gas, visible only as a faint visual distortion and smelling barely of acrid smoke - 

The wards should stop poisons-

The gas billows around them - and then turns opaque and clingy, like heavy fog. Everything feels muffled within it.

Anneia attempts to blast the fog back.

It's sticky, more than any gas has a right to be, and gloops back in.

There's an awful lot of it, and visibility's getting worse.

Maybe she can, like, tunnel through it.

"Thoughts?"

"Probably is veering towards our chakra," Kakashi says. "Otherwise the way it's moving is odd. It's interfering with my senses, too."

"Is there a way to mask chakra?"

"With training you can suppress your own." And, in fact, Itachi seems to be doing that, feeling suddenly less there.

Is it working?

It seems to be reducing the amount the mist seeps in, but while it's slowed it's not gone entirely.

Time to try hitting it again!