[OP: "Rounds" --The Oh Hellos--Lyrics start pretty far in.]

"That death bird didn't doing anything to her?" Karui was looking out the window nervously. "Why does it only hate me?"

"Did you want it to attack her?" Omoi asked.

"No...but it could...hiss or something, just so she doesn't think I'm crazy," Karui said.

"If she knows you at all, she probably already thinks that," Dabi said airily.

Karui turned to give him a deathly look. "What? What is your problem?!"

"The short list? Did you forget that yesterday you wanted to kill some of us?" Dabi said.

"'Wanted to'. Isn't the past tense presumptuous?" Sasuke didn't care at all if Karui could hear him.

"You don't seem very fazed by what happened," Omoi puzzled. "If I were you, I'd have left already."

"But we won," Shoto said.

"Only because we forfeited," Karui said. "Why can't you take a hint? The audacity of you to be here still..."

"Ah, Karui, don't be like that," Naruto said. "Don't you see? Sasuke is good now, so there's nothing to be upset about. Octopops is fine, and he's not even mad. He's a good guy, after all."

"That's not the point," Karui said.

"Well, what is your point?" Momo asked. "I don't understand it. Sasuke has done worse to his own Village than to yours, hasn't he? Bee wasn't even kidnapped."

"Did you forget that he started the War?" Omoi said.

"Whoa, in all this time we completely forgot that." Dabi was sarcastic. "Whoops. Guys, remember, he started the war?"

"Down, boy," Wally said. "I think his point is we've let a lot slide, but, that is what we do. Don't let Shine hear you talk them down again though, Karui. You won't want her angry at you."

"Is it true she thought of the whole plan on the spot?" Omoi asked. "How did she know Lord Bee would drop out of the fight?"

"I dunno, Shine knows a lot of stuff," Wally said. 

Sasuke frowned at Karui and Omoi. "If I had wanted to kill you, I would have," he said. "I could have. So stop talking about it."

Omoi flinched a little.

Karui eyed him uneasily, and then she said, "Whatever. Let's go."

Mabui came back in right then with Shine and Sai.

"I can ask, but I can't think of anything big enough to hold it," she was saying. "Sorry... Maybe a tent would be better."

"That's an idea," Sai agreed. "Or a hanging tent..."

"We're going," Karui called at Mabui. "I've seen enough."

"You didn't see that much," Shikamaru said.

Karui didn't answer him--she just stalked out of the room, and Omoi followed her.

"See? Told you about her," Shikamaru said to Choji.

Choji just took a bite of food. "You all make her nervous," he observed good-naturedly.

"That's a distinct possibly," Shine said.

"You made her the most nervous," Sasuke accused her--but it sounded like he thought it was impressive. 

"I did...but she was coming at my kids," Shine shrugged. "I suppose I wouldn't mind Karui that much if she'd just stop with this 'you should die' stuff."

"Oh, just a small thing like that," Karin said.

"Well, you're one to talk, Karin," Suigetsu said. 

Karin frowned at him. "Stop saying that... I've tried to get better."

"It's been one day," Gaara said. "I suppose we can't hope for it all to change in one day...but how will it change at all?"

Mabui felt she shouldn't be hearing this--which was ironic, since it was just what Lord Ay wanted her to hear.

And they were...saying it? Right in front of her?

Wait, why would they do that? Didn't they care if she heard this?

"Ahem." Dabi at least remembered. "Can we talk about this later?"

"I wanted to ask--" Shine turned to Mabui, as if she hadn't heard him. "--can we leave the house? I mean, two weeks crammed into this building is going to wear thin on these teenagers after so much time on the open road."

"No, you can leave the house, just not the Village," Mabui said. "But where would you go? Do you know anything about it? And it's easy to get lost if you don't know how to navigate the upper levels."

"I think we'll be fine," Hanabi said. "I want to explore."

"And we don't need an escort?" Shine said. "Even Rain gave us one."

"There's not really many places you would be out of sight..." Mabui mused. "I have other work to do. I can't follow you around all day."

"Small blessings," Dabi muttered, but she heard him.

She cast him another wary look but said nothing.

"So who can then?" Wally asked. "Ay isn't really leaving you to do all this alone, is he? Don't you have a lot of things to do?"

"I...do..." Mabui wasn't sure how she was able to do both.

"We could ask him what he wants," Shine suggested. "I've a feeling we shouldn't let Ay forget that we're here."

"You want to bother him with something so trivial?" Gaara asked.

"Of course. If they want to play this game with us, then we'll play it," Shine said. "Look, trust me, Gaara. This will work."

"You've been able to manage so far here, so I suppose," Gaara said.

"Back to the Kage house? Really?" Naruto sighed. "I wanted to find Octopops and train or something."

"You won't find him in the Village--he's gone again," Mabui said. "No idea when he'll be back. He doesn't stick to any schedule."

"I guess he'll be back for his next concert," Camie said. "We could have asked Omoi and Karui that, but they left. Oh well, I'm down for another trip over those cool bridges. This place is like a level in a video game."

"But we haven't tried to go out in public yet..." Ino said.

"Accommodating the Village? Who cares?" Tenten got up. "Let's go."

"Dishes first," Bakugo called.

"Crap, I forgot it's my turn on dish duty when Bakugo cooks," Camie said.

"I'll help. We'll be done in a jiffy," Wally said.

* * *

Mabui surprisingly did wait for them to finish getting ready before she left again--however much she doubted the wisdom of them bothering Ay.

No one treated her coldly other than Dabi and Team Taka. The others all acted as if she either wasn't there or was just a regular assistant. Did they not know?

Then they followed her to the Kage house and just talked the whole way about how interesting the Village layout was.

None of them really seemed that suspicious, and Mabui was wondering if she'd gather anything for Ay to use by the time they got through the trial period.

Ay didn't want to talk to them.

"How could there be a problem already?" he asked.

"They said they wanted to ask you something about their visit," Mabui said. "Should I tell them to leave?"

"And have them come again later? No, just send them in."

Mabui went back out. "He says you can come in."

"You all can wait out here," Shine said. "I'll handle this."

"Are you sure, Baby?" Wally asked.

"Yes, but if you hear screaming, come inside," Shine said.

"From who? You or Ay?" Dabi asked.

"Either." Shine went in the door.

Mabui winced. "If that's how she plans to talk to him, this won't go well."

"Don't worry, Shine knows how to handle guys like that," Wally said. "We've got a bunch of good friends who are Ay's type of man. Some of them are pretty scary, too, but, you know, good at heart."

"Ay-sama is not good at heart," Temari said. "Not if he's going to screw us over."

"Temari, please, not in front of his assistant," Gaara muttered.

Temari shrugged.

"If that's how you think of Lord Ay, I'm amazed you came." Mabui was cold. "He's a respected leader."

"But only by Cloud," Shikamaru said. "No offense, but we don't know anything about him other than he's attacked our Village a few times."

"In the past, but surely after the War--" Mabui began.

"He was a hothead in the War too," Kankuro said. "But he did fight well. That's just not all there is to this peace alliance thing...and we're not even to that part yet. Probation...it's just a waste of time. Either you trust us or you don't."

"Calm down, Gepetto," Dabi said. "We all know what's going on here, really."

Mabui frowned at him.

At this juncture, to her further annoyance, Shi and Darui appeared in the hallway.

Darui just nodded at them.

"Oh, hello, Mabui," Shi said, with his usual cheerful, professional smile. "Still escorting the Kazekage's Team around? I thought they were on probation after yesterday. What are they doing here? "

"Just speaking to Lord Ay," Mabui said, tersely almost, they thought.

Dabi perked up his ears.

What was going on here? He could see this secretary was acting like she didn't like Shi, but wasn't he a respected official of the Village and a medic...?

And he was kind of looking at her with...what was behind his fake smile?

Bakugo didn't miss it either; he knew a fake warm smile when he saw it. [See season 3 of MHA]

Shi then turned to Gaara.

"You must be relieved to have someone you can trust in charge of your visit here," he said, with the same smile.

Gaara didn't catch it--he wasn't as intuitive--but he did think it was odd that Shi was acting so friendly compared to the day before.

Temari didn't trust it.

"What's it to you?" she said hostilely.

"Temari," Kankuro muttered. "Cool it."

"Nothing," Shi said. "I was a little surprised it wasn't one of us, the top right hands of Lord Ay, but Mabui is capable enough to handle logistical things. And I suppose you won't be worried about being attacked here after yesterday."

"Shi," Darui called, "didn't you have a report for Lord Ay?"

"He's in a meeting right now," Mabui pointed out.

"He'll let me interrupt," Darui said. "It's important."

"Shine won't mind too much," Wally said. "But at least knock or something first."

Darui looked at him strangely, but he did so.

"So far, liking him better than the other guys," Tenten muttered to Sakura.

"Yeah, something about that Shi guy is a little too smooth," Sakura agreed. "I can't figure out how he really feels about us."

"Hadn't you better go?" Mabui said to Shi, pointedly.

"Did you just say he was in an important meeting?" Shi said. "With their leader, I assume. She certainly likes to take up his time."

"Do you have a problem with her?" Shoto asked.

"Shoto," Momo said.

Shi finally frowned. "Only with the company she keeps."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Shoto frowned. "Her company is none of your concern. We settled that yesterday. Is there something else you wish to talk about?"

Dabi had never been prouder of Shoto in his entire life.

The look on Shi's face was priceless. It wasn't that it was such a clever thing to say as that it was true that he really had no leg to stand on after the agreement.  He couldn't think of any retort.

"Not at the moment," was all he could think to say before waking toward the office.

Mabui almost looked amused for a moment before she mastered her expression again. "You shouldn't be rude to him. He's a renowned shinobi here."

"He seems like an ass," Camie said bluntly. "What's his deal?"

"Shi is not the most trusting of people," Mabui said, and there was a bitter note to her tone before she got it under control again. "He does not forgive slights against the Village easily. And he was there when Uchiha attacked the Summit. I was not. Perhaps he feels slighted by not being made part of your supervising ninjas."

"If they gave you that job because you were lower ranking and they needed them for other things, though," Momo said politely. "Which is reasonable, under the circumstances. We're not hostile."

"I remember Shi now," Sasuke said. "I almost killed him. I guess he still is holding a grudge. Ay cut off his arm after that, and I don't remember much else. I followed Danzo at that point."

Mabui looked a little green. "You can speak of it so casually?"

"Well, losing an arm is nothing Sasuke hasn't done," Naruto pointed out. "Me too. But they fixed mine up good."

"His too, I see," Mabui said.

Sasuke's new outfit didn't hide that he had two arms; they all dressed for the warm weather here in Cloud.

"That wasn't Leaf." Sasuke saw no reason to hide this. "Yaoyurozu healed it."

He paused. "Did I ever thank you for that?"

"I thought so," Momo said. "But I can't take credit for it anyway."

"He gets a new arm," Suigetsu said. "What do we get? Death matches."

"He got that too," Shoto pointed out.

"Yeah, but he got the arm also," Suigetsu whined.

"You got a sword," Karin said.

"Oh...well, that is true," he perked up.

"I had forgotten you were a healer." Mabui glanced at Momo. "But no, I remember, yes...on the battlefield. Only it didn't seem like normal healing. Hyuga, right?"

"Yes, we were fortunate that worked," Momo said. 

Mabui stared at her hard, like she thought she would explain more, but Momo didn't.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" she said instead. "What is your honest opinion of our approach so far?"

"Oh, here we go," Dabi muttered under his breath.

Mabui pursed her lips like she didn't like that question. "Not for me to say." Diplomatically.

This was her standard answer in Cloud, and usually it ended the conversation.

But not this time.

"No, really, it's fine," Momo said. "I'm just curious, one civilian to another, not how it represents your Village."

"It wouldn't be appropriate for someone in my position to give my opinion," Mabui said, more firmly.

"Translation: 'I'm not allowed to think for myself and express any sign of differing from Lord Ay,'" Dabi said, not very quietly.

"Is it just me or is he nastier to her than to me?" Sakura asked Ino.

"I can't tell," she said. "He does seem like he's going out of his way even more than usual to be a pill."

"Dabi, please." Momo turned to him and put a hand on her hip. "That was uncalled for. She might get in trouble if she answers. I understand that."

"Doesn't change the reason," Dabi said. "This Village is a mess."

Mabui flushed with anger--it was pretty obvious.

"How dare you--" she began, but just then the door to Ay's office opened. "Mabui, get in here," he called.

Mabui was forced to go.

"Something went wrong," Bakugo guessed. "Shine's diplomacy can be fickle."

"Might not have been her." Wally wasn't so sure about Darui and Shi.

* * *

What had happened in the meeting was this:

Shine had gone in, and Ay had looked up and glowered at her.

"What do you want?" he said, no attempt at politeness. "It's not even been one full day. You already have another problem?"

"I think you had the problem before, sir," Shine said, with her usual sass.

"You have 30 seconds to explain before I throw you out." Ay didn't care for it. "And it had better be important."

"It's about Mabui-san," Shine said, doing better at the honorific than she expected to.

Ay looked up again sharply. "Eh? What about her?"

"We were discussing the idea of looking around the Village a little and asking if we would have an escort, as the other Villages did provide guides for us," Shine said. "Just to avoid misunderstandings about us being intruders. She said she'd be too busy working to take us anywhere."

Ay expected a complaint about Mabui to follow this--she didn't usually get complained about, but now and then some persnickety person would embellish, and he'd usually blow it off.

But Shine didn't complain. Instead she went on, "I was wondering if anyone else was going to be assigned to us to fill in for her. As I understand it, she's the only one assigned to us."

Shine was no fool, of course. She knew that Ay had done that on purpose. She saw just as well as Dabi the reasons behind it... What she wasn't sure of was what Ay thought he'd get out of it.

Ay narrowed his eyes at her. He thought Shine was sharp enough to suspect why but didn't know if her acting innocent here was real or not.

"Do you want to replace her?" he asked.

"Oh, no, I'm sure she's doing a great job," Shine said. "Really, no one has done nearly so well in the past Villages at anticipating everything we would need. But it seems to me she's working double shifts, serving you after she checks in with us, and I worry it's too much for one person to handle. She doesn't seem to have your speed either, and walking back and forth like this isn't very efficient. So backup people for us to refer to would be good."

"I can't spare that many people for your convenience." Ay was rude yet again.

But Shine wasn't giving up that easily.

"Don't you think she'll get worn out?" She played on the one thing she knew Ay was vulnerable on--that he did actually care about the wellbeing of his colleagues.

And, sure enough, he did hesitate.

 He didn't trust what Shine was doing, but it wasn't an unfair point. He hadn't thought of it before, since he had no trouble taking on massive amounts of tasks, but he had the endurance and speed to do so. Mabui was not that type of ninja, and if she did exhaust herself, he would ...actually be in a very bad position.

But why did this impertinent woman concern herself with it?

"Just what is Mabui to you?" he said outright, not bothering with tact.

Mabui herself would never have just asked that in such a setting and would have cringed if she'd heard it.

Shine was amazed by him asking her personally already.

"I'm not sure what you mean," she replied simply.

"Why the interest in her?" Ay said.

"You see how many people are in my team?" Shine said. "We delegate a lot to avoid this problem. I wouldn't have assigned one person to this, I assure you. I'm concerned. Also, it hardly meets our needs best if she's not in top condition. Either we need more people, or she needs less to do. One or the other."

"And which do you prefer?" Ay probed.

"Why should that affect your decisions?" Shine replied.

It was not a normal thing to say, and Ay narrowed his eyes again. "What do you mean by that? You're the one asking for the change...which is bold after yesterday."

"We didn't get a chance to do any of this yesterday because you left us in a temper," Shine said bluntly. "Not because I didn't share the same concerns. Which, if you met with Gaara, like you should have, instead of the probation thing, you'd know."

Ay looked red with anger. All the Cloud really showed it on their faces. "How dare you speak to me that way?"

"Why did you dare say what you said?" Shine retorted firmly. "You picked a fight first. I was quite civil when I came in here."

"This is my office--I can act how I wish," Ay said. "You are a guest."

"If this is how you treat your guests, no wonder you never have visitors," Shine scoffed.

Ay seemed to lose his ability to speak for a moment, but at least he did not throw anything.

At that moment, Darui opened the door. "Lord Ay?"

"Come in." Ay seemed glad of a distraction.

Darui came in. "More reports of some vandalism and theft--oh."

He stopped when he saw Shine.

She smiled and nodded.

"Take care of it," Ay said. "You know what to do. Whatever you do, I'll support it."

"Yes, sir." Darui bowed. "Shi had the latest medical report. Normally we'd just give it to Mabui, but she appears to be busy."

Ay furrowed his brow. "Well, go on."

Darui moved to leave, but Shi came in then.

"Actually, stay." Ay changed his mind. "Shi, the reports."

"Here." Shi put on his desk. "The Kazekage's Team is still outside, sir..." He glanced at Shine.

"Hello." Shine waved.

[Shine's peace sign image designed by Onerose]

"Yes," Ay said. "It's come to my attention that perhaps Mabui is being overloaded between that project and the other things. Can both of you take over more secretarial work?"

"We all share the work already," Darui said. "I suppose a little more wouldn't hurt. Is she complaining?"

"No, but we need someone to focus on the diplomatic relations more full time, and she's already familiar with it," Ay said.

"You're giving her more authority in that area, sir?" Shi said.

Ay didn't seem to understand. "Who else?"

Shi looked away. "I suppose there is no one else. It's just so much responsibility for one person."

"That's why someone has to start taking over her duties," Ay said. "You can keep records all right, Shi. Do they need you at the hospital?"

"Actually, sir, one of her current projects is the hospital," Shi said. "Preparing for Lady Tsunade's visit." He glanced at Shine. "Is this classified?"

"From her?" Ay seemed to remember Shine was there. "She already knows Tsunade--don't you?"

"Yes, she told us she was going to visit. So she's arriving soon?" Shine said.

"Soon enough." Ay waved dismissively. "Shi, you can head it up instead. They'll just report to you, and then you report to me if there's any problem. That should be all we need to worry about."

He frowned at Shine. "Satisfied? If you need an escort, just have her show you. But why do you need to go places?"

"Sir, if you want us to prove ourselves, we can't just sit in a house," Shine said candidly. "Plus, the Village will suspect you're hiding us from them, or we're hiding something ourselves, if we never leave it. That's hardly the goal. If it helps, I never let the teens go anywhere alone. Safety precaution. They'll be in groups... We break them up differently than their usual teams."

Her implied meaning was that Sasuke and Team Taka would not be allowed to go around alone.

"See that you do," Ay said. "Is that all? I'm a very busy man."

"I suppose that's all for now. Thank you for your consideration, and for all the provisions in our lodgings," Shine said, with a saucy bow.

"Hold on." Ay suddenly called for Mabui.

She appeared shortly.

Ay told her in a few words what they'd just decided.

"Give Shi the paperwork for those preparations," he said. "There's more to do, and I want your main focus to be the Kazekage's party for now."

Mabui didn't look happy to hear this to Shine. But she bowed. "Yes, Lord Ay."

Shi was smirking. "It will be my honor to serve in any way I can."

Shine didn't like him, she decided. He was slick as hog fat. [Is that a little Rogue influence I see there?]

She already liked Mabui more than anyone else so far. She appreciated that the woman was at least trying to do her job with what didn't feel like a biased, targeted aim at undermining them... They'd gotten enough of that in Stone.

Mabui so far had shown none of the subtle signs of disrespect they'd had there. And Ay was anything but subtle. She could take open disrespect--she didn't like the sneaky kind.

But something about Shi rubbed her the wrong way. And she wondered if he was the only one, or just the only one they'd met so far, who was like this. Cloud could have just as many bureaucratic issues as Stone.

"You can go now," Ay told Shine, curtly.

"All right," Shine said easily. "Until next time."

She left the room.

"Go on," Ay told Mabui. "This is a chance to get a more thorough report. They're asking for you to guide them around more. That's an advantage."

"If they asked for it, there must be a reason," Shi said.

Mabui stiffened. "They mentioned it to me but only to ask who else could help them."

"Well, no one else can," Ay said. "So this was our compromise."

"Why do they need to even leave their house?" Darui said. "Granted, it might seem a little odd if they never do, but we don't need to worry about what a few people in the Village will think."

"More time for them to conspire if they're left alone in there," Ay said. "Best to have them distracted... Mabui, make sure you keep them occupied. There's plenty of Cloud they can see that's not military-relevant. But not the labs."

"if I may, sir, even if you didn't forbid them, I can't think they'd be that careless," Mabui said. "Asking to see labs could only sound suspicious... I think they are very aware of how we see them."

"And how do you see them?" Shi asked her.

Mabui went silent.

"Good question," Ay said. "Do they seem dangerous so far?"

"As much as they did yesterday," Mabui said. "But no more so."

She bowed. "I'll get paperwork for you, Shi-senpai."

"I'll walk there with you," Shi said. "I'm going that way anyway."

Ay didn't stop them from leaving. He had things to discuss with Darui.

Mabui knew what Shi was going to say to her before he said it, as they walked into a different hall.

"Day 2 and they're already asking you to serve them more," he said. "How convenient."

"How many times must I tell you those things are coincidences?" Mabui said.

"As if anyone could believe that now," Shi said. "It's clear they prefer you. You can deny it all you want, but it's no consequence... You kept saying it was a coincidence that it was you and not anyone else...but clearly it was deliberate. I trust that you're cooperating with it because you want to protect the Village."

With some sarcasm.

"I have no choice," Mabui said. "It is my duty to do as Lord Ay asked, same as you. I never petitioned for this...and I do not owe you an explanation."

Almost heated.

"No, you owe us all an explanation," Shi said, tone now dripping with disdain. "And if you won't give it yourself, then I can look for it also. You can't hide it with them here in the Village. Everything will come out in time, and if I were you, I would just own up to it before someone exposes it anyway."

"There is nothing to own up to," Mabui said. "I have nothing to do with them."

She picked up a file and put it on one of the rolling carts next to them. "Get to work in the hospital... Everything must be perfect for the legendary Tsunade."

"And I'll make sure it is," Shi said. "Good luck with your new charges."

Mabui left him as fast as she could.

But one of the record clerks passed her on the way to the record room (where she'd just been).

"Saw the visit upstairs," they said to her, with a frown. "Didn't take them long to get cozy visiting the Kage house. You should watch your step around them."

Mabui ignored that remake, and then, as she walked by, they stepped their foot forward enough to catch her off balance.

She stumbled for only half a step before she caught herself. A shinobi was hard to trip.

"Oops, I'm sorry, I'm so clumsy," the clerk said. But they were lying. They walked away with a satisfied smirk...also an angry shuffle.

Mabui brushed her clothes off and headed back for the hallway.

* * *

"So you got us stuck with her all the time now?" Dabi said. "What are you doing to us, Shine? That just doubles down on the spying."

"Would you rather one person spy or many?" Shine asked. "I think it went well. I thought he might just cut back her work rather than assign someone else. I'd rather have one person, myself, because then I only need to know one motive, one moral code, and one set of skills when I assess the danger. She seems far more level-headed than the others, also."

"We don't know her that well," Temari said. "Are we sure she's the one we want watching us?"

"She didn't seem like she wanted to," Shine said. "I suppose the spy who doesn't want to spy is better than one who would want to?"

"She doesn't seem to want to spend more time around us than she has to," Kankuro said. "Guess she hates us too."

"It really seems like she has an aversion based on efficiency, not dislike," Momo said.

"Who knows? Either way, perhaps she is better than anyone else," Shikamaru said. "At least she's not as aggressive. But I don't really like having a babysitter, no matter who it is."

"Which brings us to something we need to talk about, now," Temari said. "We were all a bit too shocked to yesterday, but I'm not waiting any longer--but not here. Outside."

Mabui walked back in right as she said that.

"Excuse us," Gaara said. "I'm not sure what your new duties are, but we need to have a private meeting."

Mabui made no attempt at all to insert herself into it.

"Then let me know if you need anything," she said. "I'll be here."

"Thanks," Shine said, sincerely.

Mabui raised an eyebrow at her. Maybe she suspected Shine was doing this on purpose.

Dabi shook his head.

* * *

Outside, once they could find a more secluded nook of the rocks to talk in, Temari laid out what they were mostly all thinking.

"I hate this Village already," she said. "One day and they're giving us the same treatment as Stone. And we've not even exposed ourselves yet--it's just over who we chose. And since Leaf pardoned Sasuke, it's pretty much just their arrogance."

"Leaf didn't pardon us," Suigetsu said, "just saying."

"They don't care about you either," Temari said. "If you're good enough for us, where does the Raikage get off treating us like we're criminals? I had enough of that in Stone Village. Why are we still here? I thought you said we should have just left sooner in Stone. What's stopping us now?"

"Temari, calm down," Gaara said. "I understand what you're saying...but, on the other hand, Stone and Cloud are two different places. Aren't we being a little quick to judge?"

"I don't see it that way," Kankuro said "I know we're always the negatives to your positive, but this time, haven't we been proven right before?"

"And they're not even as subtle as Stone," Shikamaru said. "At least they tried to hide that they were spying on us. But assigning us someone who works directly under Lord Ay himself? And now saying she has to follow us at all times if we dare to step out of doors? What I don't get is why you invited it, Shine."

"By now," Wally said, before Shine could answer, "all you kids should know that Shine has a reason for everything she does. Just like Batman."

"Can you go one day with bringing up Batman?" Dabi said.

"It's been several days," Wally said. "What? Dude is an icon."

"True," Shine said. "And the reason we're together at all, in some ways, so we're very grateful to him. But you're not the first to say we talk about him too much. That's beside the point right now. Do you all trust me?"

"Honestly, after what you did to us yesterday, I still don't know," Suigetsu said.

"I thought we were going to let that go," Jugo said.

"Well, it still hurt my feelings." Suigetsu was only half kidding. "I mean, gambling with our lives like that, just to get her own purposes by entering the Village."

"That's nothing that Sasuke hasn't done," Karin said.

Sasuke looked up at her suddenly.

Sakura crossed her arms. "Really, actually, that's better than what Sasuke's done to us all. I guess Shine gave you a dose of your own medicine, finally. Doesn't feel so nice to be used as a means to an end, does it?"

That Sakura of all people was the one who had the gall to say that to him shocked everybody.

But Dabi started to choke back laughter.

Bakugo smirked too.

"D--n," was all Camie could say.

Sasuke stared at Sakura like he wanted to argue but was realizing that he couldn't.

"I object," Shine said. "I had good reason to think it wouldn't be lethal, and we had every intention of stepping in if they started to cross the line."

"But you didn't tell him that, did you?" Sakura said. "You told us, but not them. You  wanted them to think it was real, didn't you?"

"Well..." Shine hesitated. "Not exactly because I wanted to scare them. I thought it would be more effective if I didn't tell them we could stop it."

Sakura almost laughed. "That's so coldly manipulative...but honestly, serves some of them right." With another glare.

"Someone has turned her into Dark Sakura 24/7," Dabi said. "And, not to point fingers, but I think it's Sasuke."

"Dark Sakura is, like, 50% better than Light Sakura anyway," Camie said. "She's spitting the straight facts right now."

A pause while the others tried to figure out what just happened.