Friends -- the only thing Sasuke could think of that qualified were the birds still hunkered down on the man's shoulders. So somehow, woodland animals could tell when this 'it' was likely to occur, or at least when it was about to. That made sense, he supposed, given how sensitive most wild animals were to human chakra.

And this was -- with the man's back to him, Sasuke let the Sharingan flood freely into his eyes, barely holding back an exclamation at the size of it as much as the feel. It didn't seem to fit properly into the stranger's body, as tall and broad as he was, and tendrils still lifted up and away from the main mass as if it was under no control whatsoever. No: more than that, as if they had never been trained to focus or be formed into usable shapes.

No village marker, this chakra, and the insistence that he be away from people; if this didn't mark him out to be on the run, Sasuke wasn't sure what did. Still, now was no time to investigate, even if he still didn't know what they were avoiding with such urgency.

The cave was fortunately close, the mouth of it half-obscured by vines dangling to screen most of it from view. Hoori soared directly into it once they were only a few paces away, executing a trim mid-arc spin before flapping out of he cave and Sasuke's waiting arm.

"Does this It try to travel places?" He ventured, checking to see if the man were still coherent. "I can seal off your legs if that is the case."