[OP: "Rio Grande"--The Oh Hellos]

"It was so weird," Ino was telling Temari and Tenten when they had finally made it back to the house. "How did he know I liked lemon and honeydew of all things? He said it's because I could handle both the sweetness and sour stuff in life."

"It all sounds hokey to me," Temari said.

"I hate to agree with Temari, but yeah." Tenten wrinkled her nose. "I mean, who does that? And with ice cream?"

"I just want to know how he knew I wanted to try the rainbow sherbet." Sai was puzzled. "Just because it was colorful. All of you said I would want vanilla."

"No, that makes sense to me," Camie said. "Like you are trying the rainbow sherbet of life, but everyone else thinks you're only vanilla. That makes sense."

"Maybe to you..." Sakura had been weirded out when he got that she liked cherry flavored stuff before she'd even opened her mouth. "I think he was just going off the colors we were wearing."

"What I can't believe is you're so basic you like the same flavor as your name," Bakugo said. "Wait...no, that makes sense."

"Oh, sure, Pineapple Pepper Boy!" Sakura shot back. "That's not even natural...and why do you like pineapple so much?"

"Because it digests you while you eat it," Bakugo said.

"That's not really true," Momo said. "It helps you digest."

"Whatever, Ponytail, it's still a bada-- fruit," Bakugo said.

"I would have thought that would be coconut," Shoto said.

"And your half coconut-vanilla and strawberry mix was gross," Sakura said.

"You didn't eat it," Shoto said. "It tasted fine, actually. Sweet and tangy. At home my favorite is Neapolitan, so it was pretty close. But I think it was fine without the chocolate."

"I'm amazed that he knew I liked vanilla with everything on it," Momo said.

"Oh, like your quirk," Camie said. "I just got that."

"But he didn't know her quirk," Shoto said.

"I feel there is a story behind why all of you like your flavor," Shine laughed. "Was anyone a mint chocolate chip person like I am?"

"Oh my gosh, ew! You Iike that stuff?" Camie said.

"I like things being a little hot and cold at the same time," Shine said. "It wakes you up while you eat it."

"No, that fits," Dabi said. 

"I could see it though," Shine said. "Momo, your choice makes sense because you were always experimenting with making new things as a kid, and somehow that spread to you dessert choices. Our taste in food can reflect our personality."

"And Shoto likes boring soba," Bakugo said. "Just like his boring personality."

"Oh please," Momo sighed.

"And Bakugo likes stuff that has a fighting chance to bite back." Camie patted his head. "And is spicy."

"So, what? I'm basic and just like cherries?" Sakura said. "You know, it's pretty normal to like them."

"Sakura, I think you're the only one who's interpreting it as you being basic," Shine said. "You could say that you're pragmatic and like what's available and plentiful to have. Which is smart, I suppose...or because they're pretty resilient tees, from what I hear. Maybe it's that. Or you just grew up eating it, so it's a comfort food. Any of those reasons make sense."

"Somehow none of those sounded that good except the second one," Sakura said.

"Well, it's your taste--why are you ashamed of it?" Bakugo said. "Oh...right...that makes sense too."

"Shut up!" Sakura cried.

"So what was everyone else's favorite? I wanna try this myself," Wally said.

"Choji's was a scoop of everything," Hanabi said. "Which made sense to me, anyway. And mine was lime, sweet but tangy. Eichi's was chocolate with marshmallows..."

"It's called Rocky Road where we live," Camie said.

"Oh, I get it--Earth shinobi," Shine said.

"I think it was a metaphor." Eichi was still puzzled by it. "He said I was the type to take on hardships willingly... What does that have to do with ice cream?"

"Maybe he just saw you interacting with Firecracker," Dabi joked.

Hanabi tossed her trash at him, making Hinata reprimand her.

"Hinata just had vanilla with those long tube-shaped cookies," Camie said. 

"Pirouettes?" Shine said. "I could see that. She's not very pretentious, but those are the best toppings in ice cream, hands down."

"I disagree," Shoto said.

"What was Karui's favorite?" Wally asked.

"Caramel and coffee," Choji said. "I didn't even know they made coffee ice cream."

"Honestly, all that sounds good," Shine said. "That's my go-to with chocolate and vanilla... I mix ice cream a lot, come to think of it. I want to try this guy too. I wonder how he does it."

"He said he had 'Ice Cream Jutsu'," Naruto said. 

"Wait, what's yours, Naruto?" Wally said. "Orange flavored?"

"Just 'cause I wear orange doesn't mean I like the flavor," Naruto said.

"Well, did you?" Shine asked.

"Uh...well, that's beside the point," Naruto said.

"I always liked orange." Shine shrugged. "The fruit, not the color. Hate the color."

"You do?" Naruto said.

"Sorry, just not a fan of really warm colors," Shine said. 

"I try not to take that personally," Wally said, pointing at his hair. "I wear red all the time."

"Opposites attract," Shine said, patting his hair.

"Ugh," Dabi said. "Please tell me you kids have news. They've been like that all day, and it's really getting on my nerves."

"Sakura did well in training," Momo said.

"Don't patronize me," Sakura said. "I didn't do that well."

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say when someone compliments you," Camie said. "You do have issues."

"Bakugo didn't really tell her she did well. That's probably part of it," Shoto said. "I've heard Kirishima say he's not big on positive reinforcement when he's tutoring either."

"Not hitting him in the head is positive reinforcement," Bakugo said.

"You did blast her a lot," Momo said.

"And she's still alive?" Sasuke appeared without much warning.

"Whoa, where did you come from?" Camie said. "And where have you been all day, dude?"

"Here," Sasuke said flatly. "So it didn't go well?"

"She's a sloppy fighter," Bakugo said. "But maybe with some intensive work..."

"Intensive work? I'm sure I'm sore all over," Sakura said. "And I scraped my skin when you blasted me. You're the worst teacher I've ever seen."

"At least I'm teaching you instead of only training with Sasuke before the Chunin Exams," Bakugo shot back.

Sakura frowned.

"I mean, maybe Sakura was just smart to find a new teacher, huh?" Camie said. "But Tsunade didn't really do combat training, did she?"

"Not much..." Sakura said. "But that's not why I asked her to help."

"That old bag is as sloppy as you are," Bakugo said. "I've seen her fight. I could have hit off of her when I was in 3rd grade."

"I think maybe he's right, actually," Shine said. "While you and Tsunade are both powerful enough, you waste a lot of energy being angry and throwing pot shots and using brute force where precision would work better. If you could put all that power into a precision shot, you'd probably win a fight in one hit."

"One Punch Woman? Eh?" Camie said.

"You all keep saying that," Sakura said, "but I don't know what that even means. And how was blindfolding me supposed to help?"

"I told you we do train that way in the Hyuga clan," Hinata said.

"I'm not a Hyuga!" Sakura said.

"At least the Hyugas have a better attitude," Dabi said. "But they also have family curses, so there's that."

"No one's perfect," Shoto said dryly.

"Well, if you're all done ragging on Sakura," Shine said, "we do have some news for you. Especially Sakura, actually."

Sakura looked at her weirdly.

But when she heard that Tsunade was expected soon and they wanted her to help, she was relieved.

"Don't think you're getting out of training just 'cause you get a few days off," Bakugo said.

She rolled her eyes.

"Are you going to keep letting him train you?" Sasuke was incredulous that this was even happening.

"What's it to you?" Sakura bristled. "You think I can't handle it? I can!"

Sasuke had thought that if someone talked to him that way, he'd have quit ages ago, but he didn't want to say this after her reaction. He was sure she'd say he was a wimp.

Which bothered him for some reason...

"Well, Sakura is tough," Naruto said. "But Granny Tsunade being here? That's cool. I almost forgot she was coming."

"I hope it goes better than last time," Temari said.

"You mean the time where we fought a bandit tribe? Or the time she got asked to spy on us in Stone Village?" Dabi said.

"Can I say both?" Temari sniffed. "Doing nothing is driving me crazy here. I can't believe it's been nearly a week and we've made no progress."

"About that, there's other news," Shine said.

She then told them what Dabi had learned about Mabui's situation.

This sobered everyone up.

"So...we're causing her trouble," Momo said.

"That's your takeaway?" Kankuro said. "Mine was this Village sucks, even for its own people."

"It's troubling--" Gaara had already heard it from Shine and Wally before they came back, but thinking about it hadn't made it better. "--that they suspect her simply because we saved her by accident, almost. Not even us, but...and I can't see that we did anything wrong."

"It's not wrong," Shine insisted.

"I do feel responsible though," Wally said. "But why couldn't they just ask her what happened?"

"Because ninja always tell the truth?" Dabi scoffed.

"He's right--they wouldn't believe her if she said it was a coincidence. It looks too suspicious," Temari said. "I tried to warn you...but I didn't think it would be this bad for her--enough to lose her job just because of their accusations."

"Yeah, what is this, cancel culture?" Camie snorted. "Ay knows she's innocent, right?"

"Maybe he does, but if no one wanted to work with her, what could he do about it?" Bakugo said.

"They wouldn't say that to him outright, would they?" Momo said.

"I can't see many people daring to say that to Ay," Shine said. "Unfortunately there are a thousand little ways to make someone's life miserable without getting caught. You can write it off as coincidences or accidents till it gets out of control. Her reaction is what made us think maybe there's more to it than just Shi's opinion being out there."

"Who would dare to touch her when she's so close to Ay?" Kankuro said. "We wouldn't, for sure, and we're not from the Village."

"But assistants really don't have that much power," Shikamaru mused, putting his hands under his chin. "If someone had eliminated Shizune, she'd just have been replaced in Leaf... Sure, Tsunade would have been upset, but no one would consider it a major loss for the Village. Which sounds bad, saying it aloud, I realize, but shinobi think strategically at all times. We have to."

"Ay is not like that," Shine said. "But that doesn't mean that the others aren't."

"So much for the most loyal Village," Dabi said.

"But how did you find all this out?" Shoto asked him. "She didn't tell you this, did she? She doesn't like you."

"Wow, Shoto, tell him what you really think," Camie snorted.

"He's not wrong," Dabi said. "I caught her at a bad moment, and she blurted it out. I guess everyone has their breaking point... Also I heard Shi spout all this off, like I said. He wanted me to hear it, I'm sure. He knew if we told Ay, something would have to be done."

"But is it right to do nothing about it?" Temari said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems like we should help somehow... What have you all done to me? I can't just ignore this kind of thing anymore."

"There might be something we could do," Shine said. "But if we rush into it, we could make it worse for her, not better. I do feel responsible for this because we were the cause of it indirectly, even if we never did anything wrong...but since we did nothing wrong, we have nothing we can apologize for or explain away. Just saying we picked her by accident won't convince them."

"Why not? Why is that so hard to believe?" Naruto squinted. "It's just the truth. Why do people always doubt us?"

"How often does anyone tell the truth?" Sasuke said darkly. "Honestly, if I was Cloud Village, I wouldn't believe it for a second either. The way she's the only one who made it out, I would have thought the same thing."

"Wow, thanks," Wally said.

"But, uh...even if she'd arranged to be rescued," Momo said, " I mean, I understand that you all have ideas about honor, but surely, just to save your life isn't a crime."

They glanced at her somberly.

"No, for us that would be," Temari said. "I mean, it's not law, per se, but no one would forgive her for that if it was true. Only we know it's not though."

"It's tantamount to betraying your Village to save only yourself," Shikamaru said.

"That makes me wonder," Hinata, ever the thoughtful one, spoke up, "if perhaps she feels weak for it, even if it's not her fault. Sometimes that doesn't help... Sometimes you feel bad someone had to die instead of you, even if you didn't choose it."

They all knew exactly what she was talking about.

Hanabi pursed her lips moodily.

"I insist at least," Gaara said, "that if we see any sign that she's being attacked physically, we tell Ay. If I were in his place, and I wasn't informed, I would be furious."

"That's fair enough," Shine said. "But we're not sure yet it's gone that far."

"If we could prove it was," Karin said, "I mean, Ay would have to at least acknowledge that we're trying to help his Village, because we'd be looking out for one of his own--and one we know is spying on us. I mean, it might make her look worse, but it would make us look better. Maybe we should monitor her when she's not around us too."

"If anyone did anything to her, that's when it would happen," Wally said. "Let's be real, if they did think she's colluding with us, they'd never dare to attack her if so many strong people were around... But can't she fight too?"

"Depends on how many people we're talking about," Dabi said. "A few jackasses here and there, probably nothing for someone who works for Ay...but there could be more. We have no idea. She wouldn't say anymore."

"She didn't want help, that's the problem," Momo said. "If she did, she'd ask for it. Or tell Ay."

"I'd feel bad if we transgress on her privacy," Shine said. "But, Babe, isn't there that thing about probable cause?"

"Yeah, it's okay if you have probable cause," Wally said. "We're not the police, but...I don't think the police here will do anything anyway."

"Do you want us to watch her?" Suigetsu asked.

Shine thought. "Gaara, it seems like this is all we can do, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I see nothing else we can do without proof," Gaara said. "Even if Ay believed us, he would only go around arresting random people, and if she refused to identify anyone, we'd just be accusing Shi, and we don't know who else might be involved."

"Though, I can't see Shi physically attacking anyone," Shine mused. "He strikes me more as the smarmy type who'd just undermine you verbally but wouldn't resort to violence. He is a medic."

"I don't think he would," Sakura said. "It'd be too likely to get him in trouble, and he's an official here, and he'd be caught if he did something like that. If anyone did bother her, it would be a person no one would think about, right?"

She got some odd looks.

"What?" She frowned.

"No, that's what I think," Shine said. "I was just surprised."

"Why does everyone think I'm stupid?" Sakura said.

"Oh, don't take it personally," Dabi said. "It's just based on how you talk most of the time, that's all."

Sakura picked up a slipper and tossed it at his head.

"Sakura!" Shine warned.

"I didn't hit him..." she whined.

It had hit the wall--but loud.

"Who can watch her without getting caught doing it?" Wally wondered.

Everyone now looked at Karin.

"Me?" she said. "The Village hates me!"

"We're just thinking that you can hide yourself the best," Shine said. "And can sense the most people far off. Surely it makes the most sense for you to watch her."

"We need to find out where she lives too," Suigetsu said. "Because if the Village was going to do anything to her, it would be at her house, not at work where Ay could see it or with us where we could."

"True," Temari said. "Well, our assassination attempts usually happened at home too."

They flinched.

"Why do you say that so casually?" Shikamaru said.

She just looked at him funny like she didn't see the problem.

"One more thing," Dabi said. "I haven't told you this part, but, according to her, she's helping us more by spying only in a certain way. Not sure what that meant. "

"Easy enough," Shine said. "She hasn't gone through our stuff, she always shows up here at the same time so we know when she'll be here, and she never asks us more than a few personal questions. That's what I call the bare minimum for spying."

"Yeah," Temari said. "Didn't you think of that before, Fire Boy?"

Dabi scowled.

"It's been incredibly easy to avoid her learning anything about us," Gaara said. "Other than the few things that have been...let slip."

He didn't look at Shoto, but Shoto flushed anyway.

"Are you really about to say that she's subtly doing a bad job on purpose?" Dabi said.

"Well, she's doing a good job if her goal is to make sure we don't come off as suspicious," Wally said. "But I always doubted her goal was to make sure we did."

"But why would she risk failing at doing what the Village clearly wants, just to help us stay afloat?" Momo asked. "I see that it might benefit her if we're innocent...but wouldn't it benefit her faster to burn us down if she looks like she's just spying for Cloud the whole time?"

"Nine out of 10 ninjas would just do that," Temari said. "They'd find something about us and use it to get themselves out of hot water. I've seen it before."

"Maybe she's grateful to you all for saving her," Choji suggested.

"Nothing about her reaction suggests that," Dabi said.

"Is it not possible," Shine said, leaning on her hand, "that not everyone is as willing to be as dishonest and backstabb-y as we assume? We do think the worst of them in general. Even you other ninjas think the worst of each other, often enough, but once in a while you're bound to meet a decent person, no matter where you are."

"She doesn't stand out as that exceptional," Temari said. "She's boring enough... But if that was true, she would be very unusual for a ninja, especially a Cloud Ninja. I mean, it's 'Cloud above all', right?"

"I hope that's it though," Wally said. "I think she's seemed nice enough. Maybe she's being fair to us."

"It's more like it's a fighting chance," Shine said. "I'm sure she's told Ay something, or he'd have done more to get to us than he has...but if we knew when she'd be here, and she's not spying in anything other way than what we show her, then technically, we control what she tells him. She wouldn't tell that to us outsiders because that would all be considered treason on her part, but that she even alluded to spying on us right away tells me it was on purpose. I knew I liked her."

"That's nothing to like her for," Sasuke said. "It's no more than she should do after what you did for her."

"Would it really be, in their eyes?" Shine said. "I hesitate to say this, but, if she hated you and Team Taka as much as Ay does, she could have just decided to bring us down, whether she liked the 7 of us or not. Guilt by association happens a lot to you ninja also. Bad company and all that. She could conclude that we couldn't be trustworthy. We haven't explained ourselves to her that much, so she's probably speculating as it is. I'd say that she could hurt us badly if she wanted to."

"Dabi gave her plenty of reason to want to." Shoto didn't scruple to throw him under the bus. "So she must be a patient sort."

"I hate to think she's being tormented on our account," Momo said. "I wish there was something else we could do for her."

"It just doesn't make sense." Dabi sat back. "Logically, why not just screw us over? Heck, half of you wouldn't even blame her for doing it. Uchiha and Taka being here is enough reason, like you said. And we've not done Cloud any big favors, really. Most people would do it, you're right...and it's not just gratitude, I'm sure of it."

"Not to be dismissive, but her reason is not really our concern," Gaara said. "I'm saying she minds own business, and honestly, I don't care as much about that as I do that everyone is safe and we're not harming them."

"He's right, you know," Wally said. "We're not gonna get every reason for doing what they do, but if they're not doing us any harm, we have a responsibility to make sure we're not doing them any either. That's how I see it. So, Karin, are you up for it?"

"I'll need help," Karin said. 

"We can help," Hanabi said. She frowned. "I guess she's just one Cloud who might be a victim as much as us, right? So it's fine."

Tho others weren't sure what she meant by that, since only Eichi knew about her mixed feelings about the Village on a personal level.

"We can try," Hinata said. "But we can't just follow her home without a good cover, can we?"

"Find out where she lives," Shine said thoughtfully. "We don't need to stake it out or anything, but I want to know. The next time she's late, if it happens again, we have to assume it could be something gone wrong, and her house is one place it's likely to go wrong, as you said, Suigetsu... but also any remote corner of the Village. We've seen more of it, and we still haven't seen the places you could hide."

"Finding out her route to and from here would be good," Temari said. "The one advantage for us monitoring her is there's more of us."

"At least we're doing it for a good cause," Karin said.

"We just established that she may be doing it for a good cause too," Temari said. "Though...I have my doubts that it's that simple."

* * *

Day 90:

Mabui had no idea they'd discussed any of this, but she did deeply regret her outburst when she had more time to think about it.

She hoped it worked out that she'd explained herself at the end...but it was too close. And had she just played it off as nothing to begin with, maybe she wouldn't have needed to explain that.

It was unforgivable to have a melt down like that doing her kind of work.

She didn't want to go back the next day, but of course she had no choice. No one bothered her on the way this time.

When she arrived, they were all already getting ready to go.

Sakura said she was going to the hospital to help them prepare for Tsunade, as requested.

No one said anything to her about what happened, so she wasn't sure they even all knew.

Momo did ask her if she wanted tea, but this girl always appeared to be polite, so many that was all.

Mabui didn't evaluate if she liked anyone in the team, but if she had to pick who was the easiest to be around, Momo was at the top of her list. She was one of the most quiet and reserved of them all.

She saw that the Kazekage's sister was eyeing her warily, however... She wondered if she knew something after all.

Temari was looking at Mabui the same way she looked at other people who thought she might have a reason to fight them.

Plus, she had a reputation for being a shrew.

"Good morning." Shine said hello to Mabui when she came into the room herself. 

Mabui noticed that her accent changed slightly on those words... It became emphasized in the wrong places a little.

The reason for this, that the others knew, was that Shine knew how to say "good morning" in their language without their special gift of translation, and often said it deliberately, so her accent would change on those words.

Though they hardly noticed it themselves now.

"So most of us are going to go with Sakura," Shine told Mabui. "Figure we might as well do something helpful. Maybe they could help move stuff. We did that in Stone at their medical center. Which was much smaller than yours, so I'm sure there'll be more work... That's fine, right?"

"I see no problem." Mabui didn't think Ay would care if they helped.

"Shi might not like it," Dabi said, not glancing up from his book.

Funny, for someone who didn't seem like the studious type, he appeared to always be reading, she noted to herself.

"Shi can just deal with it," Temari said firmly. "Tsunade is still our ally. She'll want to see us anyway when she arrives."

"Do we all have to do that?" Kankuro groaned. "I'm so tired of seeing syringes and test tubes."

"What else do you have to do?" Tenten asked him roughly.

"Keep working on my puppets," Kankuro said.

"You can stay and do that if you want," Shine offered.

"You're spoiling him," Temari said. 

"But it really can't hurt, and I know how you introverts need time alone," Shine said. "Anyway that face paint is going to scare the kids if there are any at the hospital."

"I'm afraid I might have to stop wearing it again, though," Kankuro grumbled. "I never perspired this much in Sand, but it's so humid here, it's enough to make it peel right off."

"Dude, you need some water proof paint," Camie said. 

"I'd be glad to do anything helpful here," Ino spoke up. "It's been nearly a week and we've done nothing."

"Today is our anniversary," Wally said.

"Oh, it is? Congratulations," Momo said.

"No, no, our team's anniversary," Wally said. "Three months in. You know, that's 3 months longer than some people thought we'd ever last, a team this size."

"Oh, right, it's the 90th day." Momo checked her calendar. "It feels like we should celebrate making it this far."

"If Tsunade arrives, she'll celebrate it with getting smashed," Dabi said. "Which sounds awful."

"I saw a karaoke place in the Village while we were clothes shopping," Camie said. "Shine would be into that."

"You know, it's shocking I haven't gone to one since I've lived in your guys' country," Shine said. "I'm sure it would be fun...but I don't know any of the songs..."

"Oh, we'll just freestyle it," Camie said. "Rock their little worlds. And there's other stuff to do there too, I bet."

"There was an arcade right next door," Bakugo said.

"There're arcades here?" Wally said.

"They're expensive," Shikamaru said. "Takes a lot of power, but yeah, a few. "

"Probably the old fashioned kind," Shine mused. "Not a lot of video games, I bet, just the physical ones."

"But if there's a dance revolution game, I'm gonna crush it," Camie said.

"So it's settled. After we're done working, we'll celebrate?" Wally said. "That's cool. We've never had a private party with just us before. That's way better than the whole village-sized ones."

"At least it's less people," Shoto, the introvert, said.

"We'd better work fast if we're gonna have time to party." Sakura had her doubts. "I want everything to be in order. Tsunade will ask me about it."

"She really doesn't seem to have figured out if you're working for her or working for us," Temari said. "I'd complain more if I were you."

"Uh...you don't complain to Tsunade," Sakura said.

"I would," Dabi said.

"She'd kill you," Sakura said. "Not that she needs much more reason to do that."

* * *

"It's funny though," Temari was musing, once they were heading through the Village to the hospital.

"What is?" Shikamaru was yawning. It was still earlier than he wanted to be up and doing anything.

"What we were talking about earlier," Temari said, "last night... For all we're supposed to be the ones who take care of others now, I'm not sure I've ever really had the first instinct to do it. Gaara is different..." She tapped the side of her face. "The heroes, too. It's so simple--if you see someone needs help, you help them, nevermind who they are. Doesn't matter if they're part of a Village that's trying to reject you...or already did. In 3 months, I think the DJs have adjusted my entire idea of what normal behavior is. This is normal to them."

"I don't know, I think they put in an effort." Shikamaru could detect it, since he certainly would have had to. "I'm not sure it's their first thought, really, just the first one they act on."

"What does it matter? Even that is unusual or unheard of," Temari said. "You know, anyone can say to do the right thing. And when they told us to do it, we tried to follow what they said, while they wrote letters and encouraged us. That was one thing. But, being around them 24/7, I've come to see just how much they devote their time to it. It's another level when you see people live by what they say."

"Does anyone live by what they say all the time?" Shikamaru wondered. "Even us, with our talk about supporting the Village, I'm sure we don't do it all the time. The funny thing is, most of us just do it out of laziness anyway. The Village expects us to do what's best for it--it's easy to fall into with that. It's more work to challenge what that really means. I know I never thought about it before. I was never one to think about serious subjects anyway. I can't seem to get away from it here."

"Maybe you wonder what we'll do once they finally leave. They've pushed us to do things we never would do alone, but do we maintain that, or do we fall back into old habits? Being a shinobi, and all that comes with it, it's ingrained in us just as much as everyone else."

"It's not all bad," Shikamaru said.

"Not all...but the habit of mistrusting everyone and minding your own business, that's part of us all," Temari said. She frowned. "When Gaara used to terrorize other people, as a kid, and he didn't mean to do it, the Shukaku would just...lash out... He hated it, but it happened, and we never did much about it then. Our uncle did a little. Same thing later. It just didn't matter."

"I think having to deal with the Shukaku would explain why you had no time to dabble in anything else," Shikamaru said. "Stop beating yourself up. You Sand have embraced this way of life way more than the rest of us have."

That caught her off guard.

"Really, it's the Leaf who should feel bad," Shikamaru sighed. "We've caused half of the problems that have popped up just by neglecting our own people. Sasuke was alone, Naruto was alone... I never saw before what a vicious cycle it was.  I remember sometimes there were people in the Village when we were younger, and the Village just turned them away or killed them, for being strangers. That could have been us with the DJs. Maybe it would have been. Maybe that's why they went to Sand first. It's not that most of the mistakes haven't also been ours, yet they went to you. But, the Divine Overseer of all this probably knew better than to send them to Leaf."

"That might be a little harsh..." Temari said. "What happened to defending Leaf?"

"I would defend it still, but I'm not blind," Shikamaru said. "I was blind... I preferred to be blind, but my eyes have been forced open, and I don't like it, but I can't just stop seeing it, either. It's no fun this way. I guess Cloud isn't that much worse than us, huh? Just seems that way."

"Maybe not," Temari said. "Maybe I'm angry at their treatment, but I shouldn't be, because once we were the exact same way. Who am I to judge? I just wish every single Village wasn't as stupid as every other one. That's why we never get any better. One person gets an idea, and the others shove it down."

"Well, 4 out of 5 so far isn't bad," Shikamaru said.

"Three point 5 out of 5. Stone is only half on our side."

"Still."

[This is interesting to me. You can really see how they have changed over the course of this saga this far, because I really can't see them jumping to help Mabui with her situation at the end of the Mist Village story. They hadn't learned to take those kinds of risks at the time. I'm the author, and I don't really plan this out in this kind of detail, but it fascinates me to see how it happens with the flow of the story.

https://youtu.be/BVPrBg03SHE

["How Did You Love"--Shinedown]