[OP: "Shots"--Imagine Dragons]

Shoto had no ideas for Gaara. In fact, all he thought was that this was the kind of thing he never paid attention to at home.

Was he wrong for that?

Shine had said they were oblivious to the world in many ways, and he wondered if this was what she meant.

"I think," Momo finally said, "that, if the villages really understood each other, and not just your leaders but all of them, they would be less likely to attack. And they've fought together now--won't it be different?"

"For a time," Gaara said, "I agree...but...I think it won't last. Not if we act the same. I want to start new ways of doing things...but I am the youngest kage. I believe the Mizukage would be in support of some changes, but the others are less willing to unlearn the old ways. I see why--it is how things have been done for years. But, after you all visited us the first time, I saw that there was even a new way to look at life. And, reading your books, I found that people do things very differently than we do. And I've wanted to make it more like that...but not many share my vision."

Shoto could imagine that.

"If there was a way to promote to keep having to work together," he spoke aloud, "that would be ideal. Heroes have to work together a lot, so we're trained to be cooperate. But shinobi only have to do that with people in their own village, except for this war... Do you think you'll share missions?"

"I doubt it," Gaara said. "Each village protects a certain region; they aren't likely to go to other villages for help that often. We may need to for a while, because of the war, but long term I don't know."

"Shine is better at this kind of thing than I am," Momo admitted. "I have studied politics a little, but, to make the kind of real changes you're thinking of, I've never had to do that. But do you think if you asked the other kage to they would consider collaborating with you on it?"

"I want to do just that," Gaara said. "All our meetings were about the war. We've talked a little on the field about how we've done things wrong. I thought we were making progress there...but I worry it will all be just talk, if it stops there. I wish I trusted human nature more...but our book also has a warning against that."

"I think you're right," Shoto said. "I don't trust human nature. I trust that humans who are trying to be godly will do the right thing, most of the time, but that they all have to stay on that track. And left to ourselves, humans will be selfish."

"Hmm." Gaara nodded. "And that is just it. Without this new faith of ours, what would inspire anyone to make changes? Tradition is safer. I had to change it, but even in my own village that view has not been well received by most of the older people. And of course they have grudges also... I wish they could all believe what we do. That there is forgiveness...and a new life."

He put his hands together. "When I realized that I could be clean from the guilt of bloodshed, I felt truly free and at peace with other men, because I didn't have to avoid their gaze anymore."

Momo found this quite touching.

Shoto wondered if Dabi felt like this.

"Yet, aside from my siblings, no one believed I was free from guilt," Gaara said. "I have wished to share that with others...not just for my own sake, but so those who have been haunted by their pasts, like me, might have peace. Now, it looks like all the nations need this, to move on. But would it be too much for them to accept? It's so much change all at once."

"I think you've thought it out very well," Momo mused. "Perhaps there's a gentler way to break it to them. If you called a meeting and told them all, it might get their attention, but it could also feel like an ultimatum. As if you were demanding that in return for their gratitude for helping to save the world."

Gaara got a strange look, as if he had forgotten that. Then he stood up. "You're right, Yaoyurozu-san, that is exactly what it would seem like. Actually, I believe Hashirama Senju tried that once... It didn't work. It only divided the nations further to have power but to be all asked to get along just for the sake of peace. If I did that, they would think I was arrogant. That will never work."

"But do you have to do it so officially?" Momo asked. "If it were me, I would prefer to just have a private conversation about it. Maybe they'd be open to it, but it could be embarrassing to make it a big meeting. And people need time to accept these ideas. I know Shoto, Bakugo, Camie, and I all took different amounts of time to accept things. Dabi too. Pressuring them would be unfair."

"Another excellent point," Gaara said. "It was one thing when our lives depended on it, as a whole, but without that it would seem presumptuous to demand they immediately accept anything. Or my vision for the future."

"But you've befriended them, in a way," Momo said. "Perhaps you could talk to them about it and just see if they'll listen, quietly, first. And if they will, then it could spread to the whole village in time."

Gaara considered. "One on one? I suppose..."

Gaara actually, for all he was a leader of large groups, was probably still weak on his one-on-one interactions. People always tend to be one or the other.

Momo, who was just the opposite, didn't quite understand why that idea wouldn't have presented itself to him first.

Shoto, much more like Gaara in this way, thought it was more intimidating to think of doing it personally than as a meeting, but he did think Momo had a point that it might be considered a threat to do it the same way as the war councils.

"Even so, in some ways it could be considered treason to turn our backs on our past entirely," Gaara said. "I haven't been accused about it so far, but they had a knife to their throats before. I think I might need a gentler approach. I...don't think this is my strongest point."

For he knew he was not good with this kind of thing and never had been.

"Temari might be a lot of help," Momo suggested. "She's good with people."

"Temari is good with people, but..." Gaara was aware that Temari could be a little rough for people to deal with, though he appreciated her talents greatly. He knew that she was called the Shrew of the Sand by quite a few of the other village ninja.

He put his hands together again. "This is actually where I would wish for your help. Your group excels at understanding people as individuals. Each of the kages is different, and each village is different. If Shine-Sensei could make even Sasuke understand her, I think she could understand them all. If she could teach us how to do this..."

"I'm sure she would have some idea. I can pass it on to her," Momo said. "She was thinking we might be able to stay longer here."

"Really?" Gaara brightened. "That would be wonderful."

Again he was almost sounding desperate. Momo wondered if he was more worried about this than he was showing them.

"Could you perhaps visit the other villages and talk to them about this? Or could they come here?" Momo asked.

"Asking them to come here might seem impertinent..." Gaara muttered. "Though more trusting, perhaps. I'm not sure which they would prefer...and they might not want to leave their villages after the war."

"You want to do this right away?" Shoto asked.

"Well, I would prefer not to wait for long," Gaara said. "Because the sooner we start changing things, the better. Even a year would be too long for people to fall back to old habits. Even 6 months might. Shinobi are very quick to change their minds..."

He was right about that.

"Well, that might be so," Momo agreed. "But if you were to go visit them, they wouldn't have to go to too much trouble. If they were willing."

Gaara nodded slowly. "The idea might be worth something. It's sort of what I was thinking before, but...I wanted to know if your team would consider joining me? Temari and Kankuro would insist on coming, of course, but I couldn't spare anyone else from Sand. And I don't know that Leaf will send help for this kind of thing, but it wouldn't be safe to travel alone. There are smaller villages that would like to take advantage of our weakness, as I said, and attacking a kage might give them power. So a guard would be necessary. All of you are also so much learned in these matters than we are."

"You want us to accompany you in visiting the kages?" Momo said. "I'm sure we couldn't do anything so official. We're nobodies here."

"That doesn't bother me," Gaara said. "And they have met you on the field. I think they would understand."

But then he paused. "Of course, it's asking a lot of you. I shouldn't expect that you would be willing to devote so much time to us, when you have you own lives."

"I...well, we'd like to spend more time here," Momo said. "I just...don't know how much this would be... We'd have to ask Shine... But how long would this take?"

"Total? A few weeks at least," Gaara said. "And that's at top speed. But if we were to stay in the villages at all, which would be a great privilege, but, if it were to happen, it might take longer. And then there is the possibility of delays... Though one of the benefits to you accompanying us would be Shine-Sensei's ability to take us anywhere quickly, if we needed her to."

Momo could see how that would be a huge benefit to their purposes.

"We can ask her," Shoto said. He thought Shine would be interested in the idea. "But it comes from Above too. So we're not sure. I don't see the harm in it, though."

"In either case, I should send word to the kage and ask them if they'd be willing," Gaara said. "No point in you deciding to stay if we can't even accomplish the first step."

"Oh, we should get back to Temari." Momo suddenly realized it had been a lot longer than they'd planned. "But I will pass all this on. We're going back to Leaf tomorrow. We have to...help them apprehend Orochimaru."

"Oh...right." Gaara frowned. "That man should be apprehended. I can send a letter to the Hokage if you want some help, in case they think it's negligible. If anyone was to try to spread the Akatsuki's ideas, it would be him. I don't want him to have the chance."

"I agree," Shoto said. "And that letter might help... We have reason to think they might ignore him without...persuasion"

Gaara couldn't understand how Leaf would be so careless, but then, he did know that they had ignored other criminals for similar reasons.

* * *

Shine and Dabi went to the jail in Leaf not long after her debriefing with the others.

Dabi had a book with him. 

The containment unit was a lot smaller than they expected. And partially sunk into the ground. They wondered if the Pain fight was the reason for that, or if it had been on purpose.

"This is a dump compared to the prison I was sent to," Dabi said.

"Let's not try to get locked in and compare for real," Shine said wryly.

"Didn't you say you've been in the slammer before?" Dabi asked, as they walked down the steps to the door.

Shine counted on her fingers as they went in, with a nod at the guards, who didn't stop them. 

"I've been in a dungeon at least twice, a holding cell several times, a jail, a lab containment room, a glass tank, a few lairs, and I've been tied up a lot too."

"Dang," Dabi said. "You get around."

"The fun part is breaking out."

"I bet. You're making me jealous."

"Don't be, the rest of it wasn't fun." Shine shrugged.

She found Sasuke's cell easily, but he appeared to be asleep.

"For a ninja, he's kind of a deep sleeper," Dabi said. "Didn't even notice Sai till he was right next to him."

"But I'd take it the drugs he was on would be part of the reason for that."

"Yugh," Dabi gagged. "Reminds me of Overhaul."

"Very like him, actually."

Shine decided to sit outside the cell to wait for Sasuke to acknowledge that they were there.

Dabi just opened his book.

Shine started to sing to herself in a low voice, to pass the time.

"When I am weak, you make me strong. When I'm poor, I know I'm rich. For in the power of Your name all things are possible..."

https://youtu.be/sPRffoJ9Bh0

["All Things Are Possible"--Hillsong feat. Darlene Zschech.]

"Shine, what's a eucatastrophe?" Daib interrupted her a second later.

"It's a good ending after all the terrible trials of a story," Shine replied. "I think Tolkien used the word to imply that good endings can be just as unexpected as catastrophes are. It's a real word, though."

"Why are all your go-to DJ writers so weird?"

"The subject is an odd enough one to attract odd people, probably. Do you think you're normal?"

"No..."

"'Real things are stranger than fiction, fiction is what makes sense'. G. K. Chesterton," Shine quoted.

"Do you mind?" Sasuke finally spoke.

He'd been listening to them this whole time, and though his eyes had a sealed blindfold over them so he couldn't see them, he knew it was Shine. No one else would have been singing outside his cell.

And only Dabi would have talked to Shine like that.

"Ah, I knew you were listening," Shine said simply. Sasuke heard her shift. "How are you today?"

"The same as yesterday," Sasuke said. "Why didn't you just speak to me? Why would you sit there?"

"It was more fun that way." Shine sounded like she was mocking him.

"You're really annoying," Sasuke said.

This line always worked on Sakura, but Shine just stepped across the stones, from the sound of it, and leaned on the prison bars.

"Great one-liner," she said, sardonically. "Like I haven't heard that a bajillion times. You'll have to do better than that, Pilgrim."

"Pilgrim?" Dabi said. "What does that mean?"

"It's a literary joke. Look up John Bunyan when we get home."

"The guy with blue ox?"

"That's Paul Bunyan--that's just a tall tale."

"What do you want?" Sasuke cut into their dialogue impatiently.

"You could give me a bit more of a challenge." Shine's tone was still mocking. "I'm used to a bit more clever pushback."

"If you're so bored, you can leave," Sasuke shot back.

"Gratitude for ya there," Dabi's voice said. "When I was in the slammer, I was so bored, I'd have taken any kind of entertainment. You really don't know how to make the most of things, brat."

"Perhaps we have fundamentally different ideas of what being in prison is supposed to be like," Sasuke said cuttingly. "It's not supposed to be entertaining."

"If he wasn't a villain," Dabi said, to Shine apparently, "he'd be one of those kids who carries around a calculator and corrects you on the use of random words."

"I feel very called out by that last part," Shine said.

Sasuke almost started to think that their intentional way of ignoring him and acting like he was insignificant was worse than the others begging him...then he checked that thought. Nothing could be worse than how pathetic they were.

At least these people didn't embarrass themselves. He could stand that. No reason to let them get to him.

His only real reason for allowing Shine to come here (and in his mind he still thought he'd made a huge concession to her) was to see if he could gauge how the others were going to handle the matter. 

At least that's what he had convinced himself of, though when he'd agreed to it, he'd more of just had nothing else to do with himself.

"What could people like you know about prison anyway?" he said, by way of getting their attention.

Shine only laughed. "You missed our conversation on the way in. We were just comparing how our prison experiences were."

"No one with your power could be held in prison," Sasuke scoffed. "You're lying."

"Charming of you to say that, and I would go into the many experiences I've has that would prove you incorrect, but, you're not really interested in talking about me. You want to talk about you," Shine said.

"Roasted," Dabi said. "I'm going to start keeping score of this."

"I've never noticed that my interest matters." Sasuke was irked. "You keep talking anyway."

"Hmm, Shine:2, Sasuke:1," Dabi muttered.

"Isn't that a compliment?" Shine objected.

"Shine:3," Dabi amended.

"Stop that!" Sasuke lost patience.

"Weak." Dabi didn't care.

"Well, shall we get to the point?" Shine said, shifting on the bars again from the sound of it. "I can't say I blame you for being in a bad mood though. You have no sense of humor to make this any more bearable."

"What's humorous about this?" Sasuke asked.

Of course, he'd just opened himself way up for more mockery, and Shine did not fail to deliver.

"Oh, I don't know, it's kind of funny. You ran away from home, turned the wrong way, joined a cult, turned again and started another cult, turned again and joined the Akatsuki (so a cult), and then turned yet again and ran all the way back home for the purpose of revenge. You strike out for the 3rd time, and now you're literally benched. That's kind of funny."

"I only got that was a baseball reference at that last part," Dabi said. "Nice."

"Thanks," Shine replied.

"It's just your merciless mockery of my life," Sasuke said resentfully. "What do you want? Why not leave me alone if this is what you think?"

"I'm sorry, do you expect me to pity you?" Shine suddenly went from mocking to annoyed. "I warned you what would happen to you, and you did it anyway. Should I feel sorry for you now, Sasuke?"

A pause.

Sasuke wished she'd leave. She was making his head hurt just by talking.

Or that could be the lack of fresh air.

"You think you're doing me some kind of favor by coming here?" Sasuke tried to find a way of making her unbalanced. "I couldn't care less if you leave or not--"

"Liar," Shine cut him off.

He broke off.

"Of course you care," Shine went on--smugly, he thought. "I have your attention now, don't I?"

"You're really overconfident," Sasuke said.

"I'm not the one who tried to take on every single dangerous enemy of Leaf there is," Shine shot back.

"Shine:4," Dabi remarked.

Sasuke couldn't think of an answer to that anyway--and wasn't even sure why he was trying to play her game. Maybe he'd like to see her stop being so cocky just for once.

"Why did you come?" he said, sullenly. "Before you said it would be to tell me more about your stupid idea of me becoming your student."

"Well, really off to a great start there, I must say," Shine said sarcastically. "But as for that idea, I'm still working on it. Frankly, I'm not sure you're ready to be my student."

"Ready?" Sasuke said. "Ready?" That got under his skin. "It would be hitting rock bottom for me to agree to it at all. Ready is not the point."

"You have no idea how hard it would be for you," Shine said. "You would not get any preferential treatment from me or my team, not like you're used to. I don't treat people like special little snowflakes because they have powerful jutsus in their eyeballs. In fact, you'd start at the bottom. Just as you say. Really, I feel like you'd be a pain for me to hang around, but it's not up to me."

"Not up to you?" Sasuke said. "Isn't that idiotic? Who else is it up to?"

"Our students are chosen by God," Shine said. "And you are pending right now."

Pause.

"I don't believe in God," Sasuke said.

"I don't remember asking you if you did," Shine replied. "But if you don't, you're a fool. No one could see what we saw and not think it was God. If anything, that demonic jutsu of Madara's was proof that there's other powers in this world besides humans, and the evil ones seem to be prevalent. But where there is evil, there has been good. Evil is never able to just exist on its own. But you don't care about that, I'm sure. Have you considered whether you would like to take my offer?"

"I really don't see what's in it for me," Sasuke said, by way of getting her to explain herself more.

"I told you, freedom," Shine said.

"But how could you give me that? Unless you would take me out of this cell right now," Sasuke said.

He actually thought this would work, not because it was that clever, but because she would never expect him to do something without them doing something in return, to earn his favor.

In fact it was idiotic of him to think that Shine ever did anything the way other people did. He hadn't known her long enough to realize that.

But to this Shine laughed. "What? Are you stupid? Or do you think I am? I wouldn't let you out of here for a million of whatever your currency is without the Village's permission. Do you think I want to harbor a fugitive? That's not my style."

"Yeah, dumba---, she'd be betraying the trust of all our allies here if she did that," Dabi said. "I know that doesn't matter to you at all, but we have honor in our little squad."

That actually did make Sasuke a little mad, though he wouldn't have let on, since even he knew it would be ridiculous for him to act as if he could take offense to that.

"No, you idiot," Shine said to Sasuke. "My offer was not on the condition that Leaf lets you go. Which they will certainly do, if Naruto has anything to say about it. But do you really want to spend your days here? With Team 7?"

"And you think I'd rather spend them with you?" Sasuke said, scornfully. 

"No, but I have one advantage: I'm not anyone you know that well," Shine said. "And the rest of us. At least it would be different. As I said, you've come full circle in your life. I think you should have listened when Shoto tried to warn you that if you take the path of hate, you become what you hate."

"That is where you're wrong," Sasuke said. "I have not become like the people I hate."

"How blind can one person be?" Dabi muttered.

"Oh, so you haven't threatened an entire group of people in the last year?" Shine replied, harshly. "And you certainly haven't used your sharingan to trap people until they do what you want? And let's not forget that you certainly never tried to kill your best friend."

Sasuke could have set her on fire if he'd not been tied up.

"That's not all the same thing," he said.

"Isn't it?" Shine said, relentlessly. "But what baffles me is how you don't see that you've done exactly as was expected of you the whole time. You've never chosen anything for yourself."

"I choose only myself. That's why I left Leaf," Sasuke said.

"Do you really still not see it?" Shine said. "Itachi is the one who put that idea into your head. He is the one who told you to kill Naruto, notably only after he met him. He also pitted Naruto against you. And Orochimaru is the one who told you to leave Leaf. You did everything they told you. But then you wanted to come back to Leaf, like your friends said, and wanted to take over that. You do whatever they tell you. Just as I said before. You have never made your own choice, if by your own you mean what people didn't expect of you."

Sasuke glared through the blindfold. "Just because they suggested those things, doesn't mean they made me do them. I embraced the darkness on my own."

"If you can be sure of that," Shine said carelessly. "Then fine. I fail to see your point. Why did you do only what the people you didn't want to please said?"

"Because that was the path that would get me what I wanted," Sasuke said.

"Has it?" Shine asked.

Pause.

Shine had him on that, she knew it. Dabi wondered if Sasuke would admit it.

Sasuke wanted so badly to be able to tell Shine that it had...that he'd gotten one thing he'd wanted.

But then why would he have given up except that he knew he hadn't...? And he knew she knew it. He'd already admitted as much.

He hated her right now. He would have set her on fire if he could have--

But since he had no way to attack her, he only sat in silence for a while until finally he spoke again. "You know already how you think."

"But has it?" Shine didn't let it drop. "Answer me."

"Why don't you leave?" Sasuke said angrily. "This conversation is pointless."

"I think that's basically a 'no'." Shine seemed to lean back on the bars a little. "I guess you're too proud to say it, but, I know you know it's true. So then, what have you really accomplished in all this time? You wanted one thing for 10 years, and you didn't get it. Now you have nothing else left."

"And what is your role in all this in doing except stroking your own ego?" Sasuke snapped at her. "If you want to do that, go ahead, but don't call it offering me anything."

"Oh please," Shine said, as if he was being dense. "Everything I've said to you you deserved and then some. Did you forget that we've been hurt by your actions as well? But, I won't bother to plead our case to you, since you don't care about it, and I really don't blame you. What have we ever done for you?"

Again that seemed odd.

Sasuke thought she'd say he should care because they took the time to warn him and help him, in their own way. But she didn't.

"In fact, I really can't say I don't understand your dislike of us," Shine went on. "I don't agree with it, but I understand it, and the feeling is mutual. Even so, I believe we're your best option. I have my duty to perform here, to help anyone who asks for it, whatever their reason is. As long as you understand that, we never tell anyone to do what is evil. And you can't use us for that. But assuming all that is acceptable to you, you can ask, and we're bound to help you."

"Obligation." Sasuke didn't like that word. "That's not very moving."

"I'm sorry, but the people who actually like you you already turned down," Shine said. "If you want it to be them, I can pass that message along. Shall I send them in here?"

"No!" Sasuke said sharply. She'd called his bluff. "That won't be necessary."

He paused.

He thought to himself there was no way she was offering this without wanting something in return, but she still hadn't told him what it was.

However...he had plenty of time to figure that out once he left here. Didn't he?

"What would you want from me, in return for letting me join you?" he asked.

"Nothing you can give me unwillingly," Shine said. "And  nothing you can give me without meaning it. I see that you think that you can just use this as way to get what you want, without having to really commit to it."

Sasuke froze.

How did she know that he was thinking that?

Shine then laughed. "You're very predictable, Sasuke. When have you ever done anything that wasn't 99% selfish? Not for a long time. But, I don't care that you're selfish."

"Huh?" Sasuke said. 

"I prefer it to self-effacing," Shine said. "That always pisses me off in people when it's overdone. I thought you might try to act like you were suddenly so humbled to me. That's not really how you feel, and that's fine with me. You want out of here. You might feel you've made a mistake, but your real thought is just that you can't stand the thought of sitting around here and being around these people, isn't it true?"

[If it's not true, why did he leave as soon as he was released? Come on, show, not even trying to hide it.]

Sasuke wasn't sure he should say yes and incriminate himself further.

"In fact," Shine said, "I will make you a deal. If you decide to accept my offer, you can be as selfish as you choose to be. You can be unpleasant and surly and spiteful, if you like. But on the condition that you will not object if we all act as we wish also. And you will still be subject to all the rules of our group, regardless of how you feel about it. That's just what's expected of us. But within that, you can do as you wish. Only, I and Wally will be in charge."

"But you don't even know if you're staying here," Sasuke argued. "So this might last a few days at most."

"And I will take a few days if that is all we have," Shine shot back. "Call it a test. I'm betting that you won't be able to do as I ask, even if it's really very little to ask, because you have no self control. Do you think that's wrong?"

"I could do as you ask if I want to." Sasuke shrugged further. "But I don't believe you're telling me the truth. There's another reason you want me to join you."

"Hmm." Shine seemed to move again. "You're right, there is one more reason...but I won't tell it to you now. I will promise you one thing... If you join us and stay with us until the end of our stay, however long that is, I will tell you the reason at the end of it, or sooner, if it seems like the right time. And I will further promise that if I ask you do anything that you feel is pushing the line of right or safe conduct, you can refuse to do it. And if I go back on this, you can leave us at any time. This means little to you, but I do not break my word. But you know that, since we didn't go back on our word to leave you alone. Clearly, we can control ourselves. The question is, can you live with that?"

"So...I agree to join you," Sasuke said, "but I can leave at any time, if I decide that you're asking too much?"

"That would be the gist of it."

Sasuke thought it sounded perfect--too perfect.

"I don't know," he said.

"Well, we'll give you time to think about it." Shine moved towards the bottom of the steps. "I'll come back tomorrow if I can. See what you say then. Come, Touya."

"Whatever you say, boss," Dabi said dryly. "Till next time, Cat Boy."