Before she left to find Gaara, Shine helped the girls find Hinata and Neji.

They were holed up in a different hollow of the ground. 

They were both overjoyed to see their old friends--and surprised to see them still so young.

That explanation went quickly.

Shine asked Neji if anyone knew about his curse mark being gone yet.

"No," he said. "Amazing, for 3 years we've kept it hidden... Things are changing so fast these days, I wonder if the clan would be ready to hear it."

"We'll have to think of that later," Shine said. "Are you two willing to help us out?"

"We're assigned here," Hinata said. "But...we're on guard duty..."

"Oh, about that," Shine said, "I can help you with the clones. If you could manage to get all of your agents into a certain area of this camp, there's something I can do to keep the clones from coming in and out, with stopping the actual ninja."

"You can?" Hinata said, excitedly.

"Yes, but I have to do it fast." Shine glanced at Wally, who nodded.

"We'll surround this little dell we're in," Shine added. "Tell them that if you stay in this area, the clones will not come in, once you've killed the ones who are, no doubt, already here. Babe?"

"Any time." Wally took her by her waist. "We'll be back in a flash." He winked.

"Ugh..." Bakugo rubbed his neck in annoyance.

They vanished into thin air next to Temari.

"What is she going to do?" she asked.

"She calls it a barrier." Momo held up her hands. "A protective line marked by their authority, it keeps out enemies. It doesn't last forever though, if the attack it too hard... However, it will keep out any small threat for quite a while. I've seen it stop all kinds of attacks at home."

"Just like one of those DnD spells," Camie said.

[Contrary to what you might think, though, I came up with the idea long before I ever heard of DnD. It's based on the Christian idea of being surrounded by protection; all of Shine's powers are based on Christian teachings of some kind. Turns out that a lot of DnD is also based on those ideas, just tweaked to be magical.]

Temari's seeing that they already had so many ideas to help was enough to almost make her cry, but she would not have shamed herself by doing so at a time like this.

Hinata did look immensely relieved also. "That's good news... You're already helping us so much. But you always do that... Uh...who are your two new recruits?"

"Camie and Bakugo," Momo said. "Well, Bakugo is his last name, but he prefers to go by that. Camie prefers her first name."

"Camie Utsushimi." Camie bowed, though not very well since she wasn't used to it. She also tried to do the ninja hand shape...and she did it almost right.

Hinata returned the gesture, though with confusion.

"Katsuki Bakugo." Bakugo nodded. He didn't bow.

"Are they strong?" Neji asked.

"Stronger than anyone else here, punk," Bakugo said.

"He's also very humble," Dabi said. "But the little s--- can put up a good fight. I can testify to that personally."

"Camie is an illusion user," Momo supplied, "if you happen to have any enemies that would...you know...work on. And it won't be something they can break, like a Genjutsu."

"Wow...you seem to have learned a lot about our world since you were here before," Neji said. 

"Oh...they told you?" Momo said.

"Sorry, but we thought he was okay." Hinata held up her hands. "Since you helped him so much."

"I think it's fine." Momo recovered. "I just wasn't expecting it...but I'm sure we can trust you."

"It made a lot more make sense," Neji shrugged. "Our teammates are nearby too, most of them, if you want more help."

"I think we had best just get to the Intelligence Building," Momo said.

"I'll wait for Speedy to come back so we can blow up the clones," Bakugo said.

"I'll wait too," Shoto said. "I think I might be a little too conspicuously not one of the army." He pointed to his hair.

"Bro, you should've just worn a hat," Camie said.

"There's still the scar," Shoto said.

Though the scar was less unusual for ninja than two-toned hair would be.

"So that really is his natural color?" Temari asked as they walked away. "I half thought he'd come here with a real color and it was just a dye."

"No, Dabi's hair was dyed," Camie said. "But they won't let him use it, so now it's red. Before that it was white, but he got healed up, and his scars went away too, so now he's red and actually pretty hot, if you're into the bad guy part."

Temari didn't know if she was going to like Camie--she sounded like an airhead.

But Momo was as refreshingly sensible as before.

"I hope I can be of some help," she said.

Dabi caught up with them. "I don't know why I'm really here. All I can tell them about this is what they should already know--that, and Itachi is a dirty liar."

"What do you mean by that?" Temari said.

"Lowkey," Camie said, "I feel like most of this is Itachi's fault and Orochimaru's. But that's not really a hot take at this point."

Temari didn't understand her at all.

"What she means is," Momo said, "Itachi told Sasuke that he slaughtered his clan in order to protect Leaf Village. Sasuke is furious about that and is coming here to destroy Leaf, once he's...uh...gotten Itachi's eyes...implanted into his body."

"He's going to get Itachi's eyes...like his actual eyes?" Temari said.

"Gross, right?" Camie made a gagging face.

"Why?" Temari said blankly.

"Switching them around makes them more powerful, some family thing," Dabi said. "Sasuke's real pissed that Itachi chose Leaf over his own family... Well, he'd say he's salty that Leaf made Itachi do it, but get real--Leaf couldn't have made him do it if he didn't want to. Really, he's too powerful to get bossed around by them. Guy really never tries to think of a better solution to anything than murder."

"Leaf told him to do that?" Temari said. "I'm not that surprised that there's more to the story, but why would they want their own citizens dead?"

"Well, you know how Tobirama hated the Uchiha, right?" Camie said.

"I...have heard it, maybe."

"Welp, he set it up so that they'd be second class citizens in Leaf, always having to be the police," Camie said. "Which is, like, not the worst thing you could be, but people didn't like them, because literally no one likes the police, right? So they got pissed about it and were going to make a coup. So Danzo, right? He's like Itachi 'should just kill 'em all.' And Itachi is like, 'Sure, but not my brother,' and thine like, 'He's only 7, right? No big.' But that's stupid because it's, like, he could grow up and be just as powerful as Itachi, so not much insurance, right? And that's, like, Itachi's master plan...but then he lies to Sasuke about what happened and how to get his creepy eye justus, which is so not dope. So like, he's a really bad bother, but now Sasuke is all like, 'Leaf has to be exterminated.' So he's going to show up and, like...be nasty."

Temari frowned. "All I got out of that was that Itachi is an idiot for going along with Danzo? That crackpot who died not that long ago? He stole all the Uchiha eyeballs or something?"

"That's him," Dabi said. "Real nice guy. He's the one who had a whole room full of brainwashed kids who he made suppress their emotions (which is abuse)...and then made them all where crop tops and netting, and they're all boys, which is definitely suspicious, but the Third Hokage just let him do it because he had absolutely no--"

"Dabi!" Momo said.

"Spine," Dabi amended.

"That's the one Sai is from," Camie added.

"That weird guy who's part of Team 7 now?" Temari said. "Okay..."

"Your brother is kind of a weird guy too," Dabi said. "Maybe you shouldn't judge."

"I didn't say he was a bad guy, just a weird guy," Temari said. "I don't know him at all... I'm still lost. So it was Danzo's fault?"

"Mostly," Momo said. "Also the leaders of Leaf...but I think Sasuke wants to wipe out all of Leaf."

Temari slapped her forehead. Then she looked up. "Well, I guess you all called it, huh? You said he'd turn into a monster if he went away, and now he's turned out just like Orochimaru, wanting to destroy his own village... Naruto will finally have to give up on him."

"You'd be surprised, fahm," Camie said.

"I think he could actually blow up Leaf and Naruto would still not give up on him," Momo said in a tone that said this wasn't a compliment to Naruto. [I mean, Pain basically blew up Leaf, and Naruto still gave him the talk-no-jutsu, and he only just met the guy.]

"They're all fed up with the noodle boy," Dabi said. "But personally, I find his enduring optimism towards Sasuke to be quite moving. It moves me to want to slug him in the face."

"Well, when he joined the Akatsuki we all thought it was over, except for Naruto," Temari said. "Even Sakura did. But she failed to kill Sasuke."

"Well, she didn't really try," Camie said, without much concern about it. "If she'd used her full power, he'd have been stomped flat, with that invulnerability jutsu thing she's got."

"What?" Temari said.

"Eh, you'll see later," Camie said.

[I'm not the first one to point this out, but Sakura was literally way stronger than Sasuke when they met in Shippuden. If she'd used that jutsu she used in the war arc then, he'd have had no chance at all. That's why it's funny when people say she'd never have succeeded in killing him. If she wanted to, she could have easily killed him unless he ran--which, of course he would have since Sasuke ran from every fight he couldn't win in the show, which was every fight after a while.]

Temari was still confused, but it wasn't worth asking about.

"Will you stop Sasuke this time if you find him?" she asked.

"If he threatens us first, I guess we'll have to," Momo said. "But I don't know what he'll do when he actually sees what's happening. It seems the wrong time to attack Leaf Village."

"No, it's the perfect time. No one is there to defend it. The little weasel is just doing the coward's revenge thing, like he always does," Dabi said in disgust. "How can you still feel sorry for him?"

"Well, he must have been very wounded by what he was told," Momo said. "I don't pity him exactly, but I wouldn't want to be him. Isn't that something to pity him for?"

They reached the Intelligence Center right then.

"I don't know if any of that will help us," Temari said, "but anything you can tell us about the two men who are doing all the jutsu would probably be useful."

She went in.

"You're back." Shikaku looked up.

Camie glanced at Momo and made a knowing nod.

Momo shrugged at her nervously.

They knew what was coming and had no idea if they could stop it.

Dabi, not as fazed as they were by it, looked and saw Shikamaru was gaping at them.

"Hey, Shadow Boy," he nodded.

"Who are these people??" Shikaku asked. "Allies?"

"Yes," Temari said. "They were...assigned to the Intelligence area for now. They've been collecting intel on the enemy. They might be able to help, so I brought them here personally."

She gave Shikamaru a pretty smug smile.

He shook himself to clear his head.

"Hey." Camie waved at him.

Her lighthearted manners didn't sit well with the Intelligence ninja, who were very serious.

Mabui, the Cloud one, came up to them with a somber look. "Do they have authorization?" she asked. "Are you sure they're the real ones?"

"Dead sure," Temari said.

"If they really do have intelligence about the enemy, we can't afford not to listen," Shikaku said. "But how would we verify it?"

"Uh...sir...how would you verify it no matter what we said?" Momo said simply. "Isn't it all conjecture or research that we hope is reliable at this stage?"

"True enough," he acknowledged. "But do you know anything useful?"

"Well, you know this reincarnation jutsu thing?" Camie said. "Is it still going on?"

"Less than before, but it's not over yet," Temari supplied.

"I figured that was true," Camie said. "But, like, the only way to end it is if the user releases it, or if someone else with the 6 Paths thing does, or if you trick the caster into releasing it, or if you make people, like, break out of it on their own... Hey, Yao-Momo, I was thinking though--what if we could break peeps out of it? It's kinda like a dark power spell, right?"

Her carefree manner was raising the concerns of the ninja, who looked either puzzled or else annoyed.

Mabui, whom Temari read as a pretty serious-minded person, was looking at her like she was crazy.

"I really don't know if this is helpf--" she began primly.

"But I think she could be right," Momo said suddenly. "What if we did that? Shine could find Kabuto... We could stop this ourselves."

"Momo, you're a genius!" Camie said. "That would stop it all! Even the clones. Why not just beat the crap out of Kabuto?"

The intelligence shinobi gave them strange looks.

"We have no idea where he is," Shikaku said, flatly. "None of our tracking ninja have found him."

"We don't need that," Dabi said. "We have a way to find him no matter where he is... Oh crud though, I bet he's clouded... Do you think she could still find him?"

Momo tapped her chin. "I think if we could get the right search area, she could break through it. We know that much, don't we?"

"Well, there would be one way to figure it out," Dabi said. "All those freaky clone things are coming from somewhere, aren't they? He's bound to be that direction."

Finally, this got the attention of the shinobi. [Btw, why could none of them think of that on the show? All those sensory type ninja, and only Itachi was the only one to notice the chakra emissions from Kabuto. War could have been over in 1 hour if they just ganged up on him.]

"That's true," Inochi spoke. "And we've tracked some of them, but none of us can get past them--they're too many. We only know they're from the basic direction of the Land of Waterfalls."

"That's far too broad a search area," Mabui began to say. "It could take days to find him, and that with him having an army to protect himself--"

"I think we can narrow down that part," Dabi cut her off. "I think this idea could work."

"But wait, can we talk for a sec?" Camie said.

She tugged them aside.

"In the show," she hissed, "it's Itachi who stops Kabuto."

"But why would Itachi do that?" Momo said.

"I dunno.... Actually, other than to save Leaf, I have no idea," Camie said.

"Itachi is a lunatic," Dabi said. "We know he's not a rational person. How do you know in this real world he's going to do it? That could just be nonsense."

"I don't know," Momo said. "Even if he was to do it, it would probably be to mess with Sasuke, as that is the only reason he does anything in the War, isn't it? I think we shouldn't allow Sasuke to get so close to Kabuto. That is how Orochimaru comes back, isn't it?--But is this too much interference?"

"Let's look at it this way," Dabi said, "if we didn't know what the show said, would we do this?"

"Yes," Momo said. "But doesn't knowing what could happen give us some more responsibility to think of?"

"No, it doesn't," Dabi said. "Because, Princess, we're not sure that's true or not. And in time travel stories, it's always trying to stop things or trying to make them happen that messes everything up. I think it's better to just do what we'd do anyway. We're here now, that's already a huge difference from before. It's too late to be concerned about what is and is not meant to happen."

[And that will be my only excuse, other than I think it works better this way because it cuts out massive amounts of filler episodes. If you prefer the show's version, just watch the show. This is a fanfiction for a reason. If that will bother you, I suggest skipping to the part of this story that will not be based off canon, which will be part 3.]

"We should run it by Shine and Wally before we do anything," Momo said.

"We'd need them to do this, so that's a given," Dabi said. "But it would work. And it may even get Sasuke off our tail for a while. I want to avoid seeing him as long as possible."

"Good luck with that, bro, he's like a major character," Camie said.

"This isn't the show, Camie," Dabi said. "You don't know who is really important."

"Okay, but if you're gonna be around the people he's supposed to find, don't you think that he's still going to be a big deal?" Camie had a good retort.

"I just wonder if we could actually portal to Kabuto," Momo said. "Mr. West cannot run us all there at once. And ice skating would draw so much attention."

"I know who could get us around pretty fast," Camie said. "Sai. He has those flying bird drawings."

"Flying? I don't know about that..." Dabi didn't care for flying too much on big, paper objects.

"But it's not a bad idea," Momo said, "if we knew where Sai was...and if he'd help us, but he has never met us before."

"Ahem," Temari interrupted them. "You're making the others suspicious. Do you have a plan?"

"We have one that might work," Momo said. "We were saying that if we had Sai here, we could fly to the right spot. Then we could take these people down...at least one of them."

"One of them would be good," Temari said. "But you know they are much stronger than before."

"I think we can handle that," Dabi said.

"But you're the one who got seriously hurt last time," Temari said.

"I have backup," Dabi said saltily.

"I'm not the one who can authorize you to do it," Temari shrugged. "They think you're crazy, I think."

Shikaku was asking Shikamaru how he knew these people.

"Look--" Shikamaru was over his surprise more now. "--I know they seem strange, but I've seen them in action before, and they're actually very skilled. There's a good chance they could do what they're saying they could do."

His father looked skeptical.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shine and Wally were already back, and Wally had taken Bakugo and Shoto to look for clones.

Shoto was more nervous about engaging in a fight with these things when they didn't know much about them...but you could not say the same for Bakugo.

The first bunch they found that weren't in disguise he blew up in seconds.

Wally rubbed his ears. "I should have probably brought some plugs or something if we were going to use you like a cannon. Oh well...I could probably use lightning to zap some of the things too, if I get distance from the two of you."

"Do you think we could find Kabuto if we found the rest of these things?" Shoto had thought of the same thing Dabi had.

"I think there's a good chance we could if we had any way to know that," Wally said. "But there's thousands of them, and they're so spread out, we'd need to know where they started showing up from, and that was hours ago... Maybe the ninja would know. Should we check with them first?"

"You're the leader," Bakugo said saltily.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't ask them if they aren't going to trust us," Wally explained. "But they know Shoto, right?"

"Only a handful of them know me, and for them it's been years," Shoto said.

"I doubt they'd have any trouble recognizing you, Half N' Half," Bakugo said dryly.

"Can't one of them do mind melding?" Wally asked. "I forget who it was."

Shoto tried to remember what he'd been over... He didn't have Momo's impeccably thorough memory and skill to sort through things, but he was decent at keeping track of a timeline, he thought, from history class... Surely he could remember who did what in the war...

Then he realized that he already should have known.

"Ino Yamanaka," he said. "She and her father can do it... Other people can too, but she is the only one who would know me."

"Okay...that's the blonde chick ,right?" Wally asked.

"Yes, the only one," Shoto said. 

"The really annoying one?" Bakugo said.

"She's not as annoying as Sakura." Shoto had acquired a dislike for Sakura after doing more research--mainly because he thought she treated her friends poorly and always hesitated too much in battle.

Bakugo disliked her even more, however, because he thought she was a sniveling coward who was too obsessed with Sasuke. It was one of the few things they'd agreed upon.

"Not the time, guys." Wally wasn't going to bother calling anyone annoying or not when they  discussed the mission.

"I'm sure she can't be far from the intelligence building," Shoto said, "if she was still in contact with her father."

"I'll do a sweep of the area real quick. Don't move." Wally disappeared from sight.

About 5 minutes passed, and they knew in that time he'd be able to check most of the area at least once or twice.

Sure enough, he reappeared. "I think I found her."

He rushed them off to the left.

It was hard to see, but when he stopped, there was Choji, who they'd barely even seen the first time but knew by sight of course.

Shikamaru should have been with them, but he seemed to have moved, and they realized that Temari also wasn't supposed to be where she was. Must have been because of the crisis going on.

Ino was leaning on a rock as if she was standing watch, and she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw them.

"Oh!"

Choji stood up, ready to attack.

"Hi..." Wally said, pushing Shoto forward.

In the dark it was hard for them to really see him, but he moved more into the light of the moon, with them tensed to attack.

"That's close enough," Choji said warily.

Ino's eyes widened. "Wait...Shoto Todoroki?"

"Yes," Shoto said. "Ino, right?"

"I...yes." Ino blinked. "Wow...wait, you... How are you here?"

"Temari called us," Shoto said. "Said you needed help."

"Oh, do we ever," Ino said in a very unprofessional tone of strain before she snapped herself to attention. "Uh, that is, we could always use more help, of course...but I'm a little shocked that you came this time."

"It's lined up," Shoto said. "I apologize for startling you, but we thought we could use your help."

"We could have just run back there and asked them," Bakugo said to Wally.

"We could have, but I wanted to stay nearer the problem, and besides, if she asks, don't you think they'll answer her more than us?" Wally pointed out.

Bakugo had to concede that point reluctantly.

"With what?" Ino was surprised to be asked.

"We understand that you can telepathically connect with the Intelligence Base," Shoto said. "But maybe you can answer this without having to ask them. We're wondering where the Zetsu clones that are attacking them first came from."

"Oh, you mean...the direction?" Ino said.

"No, the origin story, hag," Bakugo said.

"Bakugo!" Wally said sharply.

Ino gave him a strange look.

"Ignore him, he's just like that," Wally said. "I think he might have Tourettes."

Bakugo gave him a look.

"I thought it was turrets, for his guns," Shoto said confused.

"Uh...nevermind," Wally said.

"Yes, where they came from," Shoto said wearily.

"I...uh...I'm not sure. We've been fighting them by the ocean," Ino said. "But they didn't come from there, I think. We think Kabuto is holed up somewhere, but who knows how far from here...? I could ask my father."

"Ino, who are they?" Choji said.

"You remember we told you about the people who tried to help us get Sasuke back 3 years ago and helped Gaara with his...you know," Ino said.

Choji suddenly understood. "Oh..."

"But I only remember one of you," Ino said.

"Oh, yes." Shoto nodded. "This is my mentor, Wally West--my other mentor. And this is Bakugo, my classmate."

"Oh, so you're the famous boyfriend?" Ino smiled at Wally. "Likstar-san had a lot to say about you, and so did Momo-san. All good things."

"Glad to hear it. I try to be impressive," Wally said good-naturedly.

"Ino," Choji said. "Your father."

"Right...hang on." She put a hand to her head and seemed to concentrate.

* * *

"You want us to call someone back here just so you can look for someone and maybe find them?" Shikaku was arguing with the other 3. "I don't think that's a very wise use of our resources. We don't have the manpower for turning this into a wild goose chase. Maybe if the Kages had thought it was a good use of our time, but they haven't."

"We can ask them," Momo said.

"If you think they'll listen to you, be our guest," Shikaku said. "But do it on your own time. We have a battle to monitor."

"I see stubbornness runs in the family," Temari said to Shikamaru.

"If I didn't know them, I would think the same as him," Shikamaru said. "It's not logical to try to do this. But they don't do things that are logical to me."

"If you could do what they did, you would break the rules of our warfare also," Temari said. "That's what's making me mad. I'm sure they can find that snake of a Kabuto, and all they need is a ride? Why not just give it to them?"

"I agree with Shikaku--hang on," Inochi suddenly said. "My daughter is contacting me... Yes?... What?!"

"I may not know much," Dabi said, "but I think the plot just called him, so to speak."

"I bet it's our friends," Camie said. "They probably found my girl Ino and asked her to radio in."

"I can't see why they would have done that instead of just contacting us directly," Momo said.

"They want to know what?" Inochi was glancing at the three of them suspiciously. "Would these happen to be some strange shinobi you've never seen before? Oh, you have?" Surprised. "Well...do they have orders from the Kage?... Friends of his? I've never heard him mention this before..."

He glanced at Temari.

Temari rolled her eyes. "Of course they are," she said. "Didn't I make that clear before? If you contacted Gaara, he would be sure to agree with them. In fact, you might as well say he sent them here to begin with."

That was a stretch, since it was really her, but she knew Gaara would back her up on this, and they were losing time.

Inochi sighed like he didn't quite believe her, but if he called her into question it would be an insult to her and Gaara both, and he wasn't in a position to risk that.

"Apparently they want to know where the Zetsus came from," he said aloud. "Should I give them the information we have?"

"It's not much," Shikaku said wryly. "But if they want it."

"What is the answer to that?" Momo asked, surprised that they'd asked this question before the rest of them had even got a chance.

"See this?" Shikamaru pointed to a map, and they all came to look at it. "We think they came from this direction...west of here. But that's all the rest of the world. We're pretty far east now. You've never been here, right?"

"No, but I'm familiar with the layout of the place," Momo said studiously. "I made sure to be..." She ran her finger over it. "Where were they first spotted?"

Shikamaru pointed to a spot not that far from them, respectively.

"How long would it take us to fly there?" Dabi asked.

"Maybe 20 or 30 minutes if you weren't spotted," Shikamaru said. "But you're sure you want to do this? I know you weren't afraid of Orochimaru much, but still..."

This was only 25% true. Shine had not been afraid of him--everyone else had.

However, Dabi thought Kabuto was far less of a threat and didn't have nearly as many qualms about taking him on.

Momo also felt he'd be weaker now, with all this jutsu, and easy to take down.

Camie didn't really think of it that way. She figured he was outnumbered, so what the heck?

"I say let's do it," she said enthusiastically. "Bakugo will be down."

"That kid would probably punch him square in the face," Dabi said. "And I'd envy him being able to explode while doing it."

Shikamaru didn't understand that.

"Hey, what if Baku met that Deidara guy?" Camie snorted. "ART IS EXPLOSIONS!" She made a blowing up gesture. "What would that even be like?"

"A recipe for disaster, it sounds like to me," Momo said. "And I'd not want to face any of those zombified shinobi."

"Well, good luck with that if you go out there. There's still some hanging around," Shikamaru said. "But Orochimaru is dead."

Camie snorted like she didn't believe it. "Maybe for now..."

Shikamaru winced. "Well, that's true... So are you doing this alone?"

"Do you want to come with us?" Dabi asked.

"Me? No, what good would I do? But there's more experienced fighters who could help."

"I don't know if we'll need them, but we need to contact Shine," Momo said.

* * *

Shine had nearly scared the living daylights out of Gaara when she popped out of nowhere.

Him and the other kages with him at the time.

Tsunade at least knew who she was but was shocked to see her after all this time.

Lord Ay and Lady Mei (the Mizukage), and Onoki (the Tsuchikage), all moved to surround her, but Gaara rose over them on sand and landed next to her.

"Likstar-sensei?" he said. At some point he'd adopted the title of sensei, like the hero students.

"Sensei?" Tsunade said oddly.

"Who is that?" Lord Ay asked.

Shine didn't pay them any mind.

"Hello, Gaara." She held out her arms. "I'm sorry we're late. Wow, you're so tall. I can't believe you were below my shoulder the last time I saw you."