Ryou's smile widened as Kii thanked him. "I... didn't do anything." Because he honestly hadn't anything really spectacular. Ryou would have expected nothing less from Kii or Shira. They had to be able to vocalize their disagreement with each other or even snap each other into focus. That was a vital part of being friends; being able to state their opinions without fear of retaliation. They had to rely on each other to sense hidden cues, and Ryou enjoyed being able to notice a subtle movement of his friends and just... know. Ryou was pretty sure that the friendship he shared with his teammates couldn't be rivaled.
"I trusted him...I really did..."
Ryou frowned, absolutely heartbroken. "I know, I know." He gently squeezed Kii's upperarm. He didn't blame Kii; there was no way he could even bring himself to think that way. If Ryou hadn't been so gullible, but... Blame was senseless. There was really nothing putting the blame on anyone could solve- even if they put the blame on Taiho. Taiho had found a home and a purpose in Konoha, but Ryou would never forgive him for betraying Kii. Kii had looked up to him, respected him, and Taiho spit in his face. Ryou's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to place the nagging emotion. "I've never hated anyone before," Ryou stated, astonished. But there was no other way Ryou could look towards Taiho's betrayal. He could have dealt with Taiho drugging them and ruining fried fish for Ryou, but betraying Kii wasn't something he could easily let go.
An alleyway..? This never turned out well in any zombie movie, but those bugs were definitely Shira's so... So... Ryou looked towards Kii, trying to see if Kii noticed anything suspicious about the situation. "This never ends very well in-" Before Ryou could express his fears that their brains were about to be consumed by the Zombie Hokage, a ninja appeared. He went to snatch Kii's wrist, ready to turn around and force their way out of the alley. However, the ninja caused enough destruction to keep them in. And... and... was that a metal wire..? And was the air turning purple..? "No..."
As his skin started to go numb, Ryou's body returned to its liquidified state. He hoped that this would be enough to keep most of the poisonous smoke out of his system. He looked around, searching for an exit. Ryou would be a little tougher to actually capture due to the fact that Hozuki's tended to turn into water puddles when they lost consciousnesses. Kii was a different matter, but Ryou hoped some miracle would turn him into a pile of lava and the Konoha ninja would be at a lost of what to actually do with the elemental puddles. Except, Kii proved to have an actual plan and exploded the piled rubble. Ryou sprinted after Kii with how much energy a thirteen year old could that had been drugged twice in such a short time. His body turned back into flesh as he reached out to grab Kii. He doubted he had enough strength to carry Kii, but he could definitely drag him! So, deciding he'd apologize later, Ryou started to drag Kii away from the ninja before he had time to recover. He wasn't really sure where he was going; he just knew they needed to get as far away from the explosion and ninja as they possibly could.