[OP: "Hieroglyphs"--The Oh Hellos]

Hinata saw her run.

She was just leaving?

What? Now what would they do?

She couldn't take all of these guys at once, could she?

Soft Hand Style wasn't much of a match for lightning. Her father had been able to fight them off before when he'd had the element of surprise, but she didn't have that going for her, and she was weaker than her father...

Still, she had to try. She summoned her Twin Lions Fist.

At least that got their attention.

"She's got a trick or two, looks like," said Zhi. "But you can't take us all, girl."

"You--you shouldn't attack us," Hinata stammered and hated that she was doing it.

She needed to signal Shine and Wally, but she couldn't exactly write a note while they were all watching her, and Hanabi wasn't getting up... She should be doing it while Hinata had their attention.

Hinata thought a prayer upwards, but nothing changed.

"We shouldn't, huh?" one of the unidentified ones scoffed. "Seems to me you entered our Village. Yeah, I see some invaders. We don't like invaders here."

"The...the Raikage won't...like it," Hinata sputtered.

But they seemed to be too intoxicated to care about consequences...or they were too hotheaded. How did you know with this Village?

One of them took a swing at her anyway.

Hinata dodged. She wished Hanabi would just get up and run already. Maybe she could hold them off long enough for that.

She jumped over one of their heads and hit him into the rock.

But that small victory didn't do her much good.

Then Li grabbed Hanabi by her shoulder and pulled her up like she was no heavier than a doll.

"Da-- little foreign vermin," he said, voice sharp with hatred. "Always causing problems for us, and here we've got a chance to finally give you some back."

"Maybe don't break her neck though," the least drunk out of them said. "She's just a child, after all. Might not look good."

"You soft or something, Ahn?" Li jeered. [This name is meant to be like "o" but spelled a little different, softer O.]  "They're outsiders. They're trash."

"I'mma just saying, Li, that if the shinobi hear that you snapped the neck of a little girl, you might have a hard time getting a job," Ahn insisted, sullenly. "The older one is one thing. She's clearly a shinobi, but that kid might not be."

"She wouldn't be here if she wasn't," said the other guy, who was still not named. 

Hanabi began to regain her body's power to move as they spoke.

Glaring at them, she suddenly Soft-Handed her fist into Li's stomach.

He gasped in surprise and dropped her back onto the street.

"See? Told ya," said the unnamed guy.

"Leave my sister alone!" Hanabi ran at the guys around Hinata and tried to hit one of them.

"Hanabi, no!" Hinata cried. "Don't!"

Hanabi got as far as shoving Zhi back a little--and she was stronger than he expected her to be--but then Li, recovering from her blow, grabbed her by her hair and yanked her back, hard.

Hanabi gasped and struggled, but she couldn't hit him when he had her at arms' length; his reach was too much longer than hers.

"A feisty little brat, but still a brat," Li said. "I hate Leaf. They all think they should just do as they please because  of their Tailed Beasts and their special clans. The Hyugas are the worst of the lot."

"Didn't we kill one of their head members anyway?" said Zhi, rubbing his side. "Seems like they didn't learn much humility from that... Maybe we should teach her."

"My un--father's blood is on your head then," Hanabi cried, angrily. Tears were in her eyes from how badly he was hurting her right now. "You all are scum!"

"Hanabi, stop!" Hinata worried she'd make them angrier...and she did.

"Oh, listen to that." Li tossed Hanabi into the rock, and she nearly blacked out. "Insolent little b---h. Talking to us that way. Who does she think she is?"

"They all think they're royalty in the Hyuga clan," said Ahn. He pointed a sword at Hinata. "Well, I guess it can't be helped. Now you're in our Village."

Hinata swallowed. "I won't let you hurt her. She's not your problem anyway--I am." She blocked and then ducked under his sword and hit him in the shoulder, nearly knocking him over.

But then Li shot another Lightning Style at her.

His aim was off right now because he was drunk, so it didn't hit her right in the torso (which would have been a lot worse), but it did hit her feet.

Hinata felt them turn into putty for a moment, and then she fell over, writhing.

Somehow she still had the self control to push herself out of the way when one of them tried to kick her while she was down.

"These Hyugas really don't go down easy." The same one was almost impressed. "But they go down."

* * *

While this had been happening, Karin had picked up on some other chakra signatures. "I think someone just attacked the Hyugas."

"What?" Dabi said, now alarmed. "Where's Noodle Boy?"

"Naruto separated from them a while ago," Karin said. "He didn't follow them... If I had to guess, I'd say he's in some building with...Lord Bee, I think. Yes, that's definitely Lord Bee. He's so strong, it has to be the 8-Tails..."

"Well, Naruto is fine then," Dabi declared. "Bee's an idiot, but he's pals with Naruto. Why aren't the girls with him?"

"I wasn't there, Dabi. I don't know," Karin said. "Some much weaker people have followed them, but there's...4...maybe 5...and...Mabui was there...but she's not there now... She's moving away quickly. She must have run."

"Isn't that just typical," Dabi said. "I shouldn't be surprised she's a coward."

"In all fairness, what would she do against 4 people?" Karin said nervously. "What will they do?"

"How far away are they now?" Dabi asked.

"From here? It's lower down...not that far," Karin said. "But we haven't been in that area of town before... I think it's the bad area."

"West will get there faster than we will," Dabi said. "Send a message right now. I'm gonna go get a closer look."

He took off.

"Wait!" Karin cried, following him. "You don't know where to go...follow me..." She pointed. "That way."

"Just get West," Dabi said. "It could take several minutes to find the right spot, but if you help, he'll know where they are, or Shine will."

"It's down that hill." Karin pointed. "I'll try to get them here, but don't try to fight or anything, Dabi."

"Who me? I just want to see what's going on."

Karin didn't believe him.

* * *

Dabi didn't think he was fast enough to find the girls in time, but it turned out they weren't that far away after all.

Somehow the girls had run back towards the main Village when they'd taken off, and the pillar they'd been trying to climb was one that led to a bridge that wasn't that far from the teams' path to their own lodgings. Dabi and Karin had been literally under that bridge while they talked.

So Dabi almost was on top of the fight before he knew it was there.

He wasn't close enough to do anything yet; his power was too dangerous to use at long range, even if he had the self control to be able to aim it.

But he saw Hanabi was lying next to the rocks like she'd been hit into them, and Hinata was trying frantically to keep away from the bunch of drunken goons.

Dabi hated guys like this. A fair fight was one thing, and most creeps on the streets had it coming, but two innocent little girls was another. He'd never done anything like that, even in his worst days. He considered it beneath him.

But some b-----ds just liked to feel powerful, and these guys looked like the type to be constantly out of work and to take out their failure on anyone smaller than themselves.

To think Mabui had really just run once she saw this.

But just as he was finally close enough to take a shot, he was stunned to see Mabui reappear.

She actually hopped down from the bridge itself.

"Excuse me," she addressed the brawlers.

The men all paused for a second to look at her.

One jackass just picked Hanabi up again while she was struggling to get away, but her movements were slow and pained.

Hinata was trying to get to her and avoid the others, who looked ready to fry her as soon as they could charge up again.

The all stared at Mabui in confusion.

"I should warn you just once," Mabui said, "to drop them and run."

The guys stared at her, and then they laughed.

"Aren't you the Kage's assistant?" said one. "I hear you lost your job for helping these people."

Mabui looked a little annoyed. "That's not what happened--" she began indignantly.

"That means you're useless then," said the other. "Don't look down your nose at us, b---h. Get out of here."

"What did you just call me?" Mabui looked angry. "May I remind you that I'm--"

Before she could finish her statement, one of them lunged at her.

Mabui ducked, easily enough, and tripped him, and he hit the ground.

Dabi almost had to laugh at that. She was tiny, but she was quick.

"I mean it. You have one warning," Mabui said coldly. "You had 30 seconds to stop. I suggest you take the remaining 15 seconds you have and run."

"If you like helping these outsiders so much, why don't you join the fight?" said Li. He shoved Hanabi at Mabui suddenly.

Mabui couldn't properly defend herself, since she had to move as Hanabi rammed into her, and they both went down..

"Ow..." Hanabi muttered.

"No!" Hinata said--because one of the guys was raising his sword.

But they couldn't dodge anyway--and Dabi was moving, but he was not closer than they were--

Someone rammed into the guy without warning and sent him sprawling across the ground.

Mabui smiled in a strange way.

"I warned them...." she muttered.

"What was that?" Hanabi gaped. "All I saw was a blur...ah..." She put her hands to her face. "My eyes hurt... My head hurts..."

"Can you get off me, please?" Mabui said. "We shouldn't be here when this gets ugly."

"I can't get up," Hanabi moaned.

"Hanabi!" Hinata tried to get her again.

The other guys grabbed her by her arms once she was distracted.

"So you have backup?" they said. "So what?--"

"Hey! Let her go!" That was Naruto. He came charging at one of the guys and Rasengan-ed them into the ground.

Naruto then took Hinata by her arms while she was stunned and pulled her out of the fight.

"Naruto? You followed us?" Hinata sounded relieved.

"Well, not exactly," Naruto said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine..." Hinata said weakly.

Suddenly, Hanabi felt herself being pulled upward. It was Dabi.

"All right, kid, stop lying around," he said.

"Dabi? How did you find us?" Hanabi gaped. "Ow! Hey, that hurts."

"Sorry," Dabi said. "What did they do to you? I should flame those b-----ds."

Mabui got up. "Actually, you should run before they--"

"Bi--h!" Zhi, who was still standing, cried, turning to her and backhanding her across the face.

Mabui hadn't expected him to attack and didn't have time to dodge.

She hit the ground hard, surprised.

"Hey!" Naruto said.

Dabi's eyes turned a more brilliant blue like they did when he was about to use his quirk. "You're a real piece of work, aren't you? S--thead."

"What did you just call me, you foreign son of a--" began Zhi, but then he was smacked aside.

It was Ay who was there. He was so fast none of them had see it was him till he stopped moving.

The other drunkards started to run once they saw it was him.

"Those scoundrels," Ay said testily, "are nothing but troublemakers. Understand? Not Cloud shinobi."

"They fought like Shinobi," Hinata said, a bit testily herself, for her.

"They used to be shinobi." Mabui was rubbing her face, which had a nice bruise on it now. She stood up shakily. "They got kicked out for their behavior. We've gotten complaints about them from just about every establishment since then. You remember them, Lord Ay?"

"I do, I do," Ay grumbled. "I thought we'd finally dealt with them."

"They got out of jail just two weeks ago," Mabui said. "I guess this was how they were celebrating."

She eyed the scorch marks in the ground. "Perhaps a restraining order was necessary."

"Ya fools." Bee was there too, suddenly. "Attacking little girls in the middle of the night. What kind of ninjas do that? Not cool."

"You'll explain this to Lord Gaara," Ay said to Dabi, since he was the least banged up, "of course?"

"Oh, sure, I have plenty to say to Gaara," Dabi said meanly.

"I think what he's trying to say is that they weren't acting on Cloud's behalf," Hinata said. "But, Lord Kage, with all due respect...they almost killed my sister."

"Well, what was she doing in this part of town at this time of night?" Ay demanded.

Mabui looked uncomfortable suddenly.

Dabi realized that she had led them here deliberately. Of course...to lose them.

Well, she should be ashamed of herself then. What did she think would happen?

However, if she owned up to it, Ay would know they had followed her.

Unexpectedly, Naruto was the one who bailed them out.

"It was my fault," he said. "I saw Lord Bee in one of the bars, and I went to talk to him. I've been trying to find him for days."

This was so like Naruto that Ay didn't question it.

"Well, you're an idiot," he said. "This part of town is where all the reprobates hang out."

"And yet you were here," Dabi said.

"Bee and I had things to discuss," Ay said sharply. "And we're powerful enough to take care of ourselves. Is it your team's habit to to let your weakest or most idiotic members go off alone?"

"Well, they didn't think they'd end up here," was all Dabi would say about it, since he didn't want to out them.

"Yes, it was a mistake," Hinata said. "I swear, we were going to turn back once we realized it, but...uh...they came out and chased us..."

"It's my fault," Naruto insisted. "I left them outside when I saw Lord Bee. I'm sorry." He looked upset. "Really, Lord Ay."

Ay scowled at him. "I should drag you all back to the Kazekage myself and tell him to keep you on a leash. What kind of man is he if he's not going to keep track of his own--?"

"Lord Ay," Mabui interrupted.

Ay paused.

"Perhaps there's a better place to discuss this," Mabui suggested carefully.

Sure enough, they were starting to draw a crowd. Already, more Cloud shinobi had come to inspect the noise. Hopefully, they hadn't heard what had been said thus far.

"Well, we'll talk about it later," Ay said sullenly. "Bee?"

"I've gotta go, yo," Bee said.

"Bee?!" Ay shouted angry.

"We'll catch up another time, Naruto-fool," Bee told Naruto hastily. "Come to my show. That'll be a real experience for ya."

He vanished from sight, and Ay took off after him, but it seemed likely that Bee would give him the slip again.

"Get out of here before anyone else notices you," Mabui ordered them all at once.

"I can't walk," Hanabi wailed piteously. "That horrible guy almost broke my back...and they zapped me, too..." She sniffled. "I hate this Village!"

"Hanabi," Hinata said. 

"No! I don't care anymore!" Hanabi said.

Dabi frowned. "Kid, zip it."

"What happened?" Wally suddenly was there, so fast that Mabui jumped.

"Took you long enough, West," Dabi said.

"I took a wrong turn around one of the bridges..." Wally said helplessly. "Sorry...is everyone okay?"

"Hanabi is hurt," Hinata said. "They hit her a lot... I'm okay."

"They were ruffians," Mabui rushed to make excuses for the Village. "Not our official shinobi, you have to understand, Mr. West. Even we have a hard time controlling them."

"Oh...I see," Wally said. "So they were lowlifes?"

"Yes," Mabui said.

"Then I guess it's not a big deal diplomatically," Wally said.  "But it's still terrible for them to attack some little girls... We'll have to talk about this."

Dabi handed Hanabi to him. "Get her back to the house so they can look at her."

"Okay. Hinata, are you okay walking?" Wally asked.

"I'll help her," Naruto said.

"Okay," Wally said. "Dabi?"

"I can walk," Dabi said. "Karin?"

"Karin's fine. She's not too close," Wally said.

"Karin?" Mabui repeated. "I see."

She turned. "I should go."

"Just a minute," Dabi said. "We need to have a little talk."

"Go easy on her, Dabi," Wally warned. "She looks like she's had a bad day. I can come back for you if you want."

"It's not that far, just go," Dabi said tersely. "And don't worry, I won't say anything classified."

"Not what I was worried about," Wally muttered.

He took off.

"Come on, Hinata," Naruto said, helping her.

Hinata was shaking.

"I don't mean to be cross," she said, "but you should not have left us outside, Naruto."

Naruto was crushed. "I...I'm sorry. I forgot. Well, Bee was saying all this stuff, and then it got loud, and Ay was there, and I thought you'd come in after me."

"I know I shouldn't blame you," Hinata said. "It's just that Hanabi is...and I'm supposed to take care of her, and they don't like us because we're Hyugas." She sniffled. "I'm sorry. It's not your fault."

She was punishing him a lot worse by this than he would have been by her smacking him around like Sakura no doubt would be doing.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said.

They walked out of earshot.

"That will bother him for a while," Dabi said. "Serves him right, the moron. Leaving girls outside a bar, who does that?"

"How did you...?" Mabui said. "Nevermind. What did you want?"

"I think you know," Dabi said. "But I'll save you the time. Mind explaining why you led them here to begin with?"

"Would you mind explaining why they were following me?" Mabui snapped back at him, surprisingly.

"I think you can figure that part out," Dabi said.

"So now you're going to monitor me?"

Pause.

What was there to say?

And was she really going to say that was unfair?

She seemed to see it at the same time.

She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "I can't have you follow me around. The Village will notice. And also you don't know anything about stealth, not in Cloud. And if I could see them...probably someone else did. I wouldn't be surprised if we get reports about it tomorrow."

"That aside, you still did it on purpose," Dabi said. "Not that I'm telling you how to avoid tracking, but not your brightest idea, leading teenagers to a bad part of town."

"I thought they would give up." Mabui didn't deny it. "Not keep looking around. I came back to see if they had gone home, and I found those misbegotten fools trying to start trouble with them. They're not the type to care about compromising the Village's peace with Sand or Leaf."

"Is anyone around here actually the type to care?" Dabi scoffed. "You nearly got them killed. I hope you're happy about it."

"They shouldn't have been here at all!" Mabui shot back.

She sounded a little guilty though. Maybe she did care about it.

"None of us should be, according to your Village." Dabi was still mad. "And neither should you, apparently."

That came out a lot harsher than he meant it to. He meant that the Village was acting against her as much as them, but she didn't take it that way.

"It's not my choice," she said in a frustrated tone, but then she looked around. "And someone is going to hear this foolishness. Good night." She turned.

"They didn't hesitate to hit you back there," Dabi called after her, and she paused. "Think they'll do it again?"

"Ay and Bee will make sure they get arrested for that," Mabui said, tightly. "They already have a record here. They'll get a few months in jail for that stunt, I'm sure of it. So no. They would have attacked anyone anyway."

"I guess you better hope that's true," Dabi said flatly. "For the record, the girls didn't follow you to do anything. Just curiosity."

"That's the kind of thing that gets you killed in a strange village," Mabui said icily.

She walked away.

Dabi would have had a retort, but he decided to save it for later. 

She did have a point, unfortunately. Apparently, they needed to be more careful. 

The group following people around had worked before, but in Stone there had been few people able to attack them at all, and Hanabi had still been helped by Eichi when she did get in trouble. Cloud was not the same.

In fact, they were lucky Mabui came back at all, and clearly she'd gone to get Ay and Bee after she'd seen what was going on.

Dabi figured she knew she couldn't take those guys alone, and Ay must have told her to warn them before he attacked to see if they'd be reasonable. No doubt he just wanted to make sure his own people weren't caught doing anything bad.

But that hadn't worked.

Well, one comforting thought--no way Shine wouldn't be able to use this to get Ay to agree to some more security measures in the future, if necessary. He couldn't deny it if he, his brother, and his assistant all saw the same thing.

Cold comfort at a time like this, but it was something.

* * *

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you!?" Shine was distraught when she saw the state Hanabi was in.

"Those horrid Cloud attacked us!" Hanabi was still in a temper and upset. She was on the point of tears.

Sometimes everyone remembered that she was still mostly a child.

"It wasn't the ninja," Hinata said. "Some...well, they might have been ninjas. They were drunk, and they noticed we were strangers...but we were careless."

"It was my fault," Naruto hastened to say.

"Better take a look at her," Sakura said, taking Hanabi into her room.

Hinata had to sit down.

"I'm okay, really," she said. "I only got zapped a few times."

"Zapped?" Shikamaru said. "As in, with lightning?"

"Let me see." Ino pulled up her pant leg. "You have burns...small ones. I guess your chakra protected you a bit."

"I generated it to shield me," Hinata said. "After the first time, they were tired, so it wasn't so bad..."

"This is serious." Gaara was somber. "They dared to lay a hand on ours... This is becoming much more like Stone."

"The difference is that Ay did something, at least," Wally said. "Unlike Onoki..."

"How did Ay know it was happening? I'm confused," Tenten said.

"Mabui came in and got us," Naruto explained. "I was talking to Bee ,and Ay came over and asked me why I was there, and I tried to explain, but it was so loud he couldn't make it out, so we were going to go into a private booth to sort it out, but then she showed up and said there was an emergency. Ay made her promise to warn them first so they had a chance to run without a fight."

"Which means he wanted a chance to not pin the blame on them," Dabi spoke up sullenly.

"That seems likely," Shine admitted. "They didn't take it, I assume."

"Nope, so he and Bee just smacked them around, and I attacked them with clones and Rasengan," Naruto said. "Not that it makes up for leaving the girls outside."

"I don't mean to be harsh," Shine said, "but it doesn't make up for it--you're right. I suppose you've learned your lesson now, and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but that was inexcusable. You were not supposed to separate just in case something like this happened. Those punks could not have taken them if you were there to back them up."

Both her acknowledgment that Naruto would have been a match for the goons, and that he'd failed in the same speech crushed Naruto more than just a scolding would have.

"You really shouldn't abandon your teammates," Sai made it worse by adding.

"That's enough, Sai." Ino looked up.

Sai took her saying that seriously and went silent.

"Well, it's not really Naruto's fault." Hinata had calmed a little. "We shouldn't have run away from the bar, now that I think about it. It would have been better to go in and get their attention. We panicked."

"You're right," Shine said. "But, since it's over now, there's nothing we can do about it. Fortunately, you had help. I like Mabui more and more."

"Yeah, she's cool," Wally said. "That's twice now she's bailed us out of a tight spot. I knew she was secretly on our side."

"It still serves her if we're okay," Dabi said.

"Really, Touya? You're going to grudge her that?" Shine said.

"One of them hit her," Hinata said quietly. "They dared to do that to Lord Ay's aide when he was right there."

"Then he has more reason to arrest them," Temari huffed. "I doubt he'd care as much about us, but disrespecting her is more of a problem."

"We don't know that for a fact," Gaara said.

"This is the man who blamed Leaf for an assault that his own people started," Temari said. "I think we do know it."

"Unless he's realized that was a mistake," Shikamaru said. "It's unlikely, but in the light of trying to make peace, he may want to correct that idea we have of him."

"We have to discuss it," Gaara said. "I can't pretend this did not happen. It's not like with Stone or the tour--or the sharks, even. All of them were minor incidents that we could have just walked away from. This was different."

"I agree you have to discuss it," Shine said. "And we must find some way to resolve it. But we must not assume it's like Stone. I know what you're all thinking, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't in my head also, but it's a mistake to jump to conclusions. The people here do not like us, but that has been true in every Village, even Mist. Mei didn't back up the insubordinate people in her Village, and Mirai did not back them up in Rain. We must give Ay a fair chance to show his disapproval of their actions before we assume he's going to enable them."

"Maybe Hanabi should go home," Hinata said. "She hates it here, she said so...and maybe it's too dangerous for her. The Cloud has threatened my family enough times." She sounded angry for her.

"I understand how you feel," Shine said. "And if she insists, yes, she can go...but at the same time, if she runs from this, that may affect her. Running becomes a habit once you start doing it."

Sasuke glanced at her moodily and then back at the wall.

"Maybe, also, we shouldn't have let just three of you try to track Mabui," Shine said.

"If it helps, it might have worked if she hadn't caught on," Dabi said. "She led them there on purpose."

"She did that?" Wally said.

"She didn't deny it," Dabi said. "I know she must have. She came back to find them; she knew they were following her then, and she knew the area, clearly. She thought she'd shake them off there. A stupid risk to take."

"Other than direct conversation, I suppose she saw no other way to discourage us," Shine said. "Well, she's clever. I shouldn't have underestimated her ability to detect us. I suppose she'll be angry about that now. Should we just tell her it was out of concern?"

"Is it wise to show our hand like that after this?" Gaara said. "We're worried about her, but after today, I'm more worried about our own safety."

"At least if Ay does arrest them, they won't bother us," Temari said. "Unless he releases them on the sly, like Stone did."

"We'll have to talk about that tomorrow," Shine said. "I'm sorry. I suppose I made a bad call here. We've asked you to do so many dangerous things because of your training and experience, but, first and foremost, we are supposed to protect you, and you are still children, in some ways, to us. We should have just done this ourselves. I can track her; I just can't hide myself like you can. I thought it was less wise...but it would have been even better for me to deal with this, I think."

Hinata nodded, not certain whether to disagree with her or not.

"You couldn't have known," Wally said. "I feel bad for being too late, again. I'm supposed to be fast."

"Perhaps it was just as well Lord Ay dealt with it," Gaara said. "If you had, he couldn't have seen it for himself."

This was true enough.

They decided to call it a night after that.

Sasuke was not in a good mood though.

"Why are you scowling?" Sakura asked him, a bit irately herself.

Sasuke didn't extend the effort to brush her off.

"I just keep thinking that, if I was not here, none of this would have happened."

Sakura was stunned.

"So you...care about that now?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke said sourly.

Sakura sighed. "It's been a long time since you've acted concerned about any of us--in Leaf, anyway."

It was true.

Sasuke knew he'd stopped caring about them... He'd wanted to, anyway.

He wondered if he had cared deep down or if he really had stopped. [A question that splits the fandom in its opinion of his character, you notice.]

He hadn't thought that he really felt anything about this now, but, if Sakura was interpreting it that way, was she right?

Was his constant thinking that he was making this worse actually concern?

Shine hadn't said it to him outright, since she didn't want to push him too fast, but Sakura was more tactless and had caught him off guard.

"I don't know that I care," he said aloud. "I just find it annoying."

"You say that about everything." Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's getting pretty irritating. Why would you think about it if you didn't care?"

"Maybe I just find Cloud's hypocrisy to be distasteful."

"Sure..." Sakura said. "Hanabi is going to be fine, by the way. Not that you care." Saltily. "They bruised her, but nothing was broken. She'll be sore, but maybe we can speed up her healing too... Tsunade-sama will love this."

There was no way she wouldn't hear about it, it was true. She probably wouldn't like it.

"Well, I was starting to miss the drama anyway," Suigetsu said. "I mean, we'd gone almost 5 days with only minor rudeness and one fight with a mega shark. That's way too much time for us not to have a problem."

"Not funny," Karin said. "What if they come here and attack us again?"

"Then I guess we'll leave," Suigetsu said. "Just poof through a doorway and be gone. Not making that mistake twice."

"If they had killed Hanabi," Hinata said, ghostly, "I could never have faced my father... What if he thought I wanted it to happen?"

"Been there," Dabi said. "You shouldn't worry about it. He's not going to change his opinion about you."

The others stared at him in horror.

"Dabi, how can you say that?" Ino said.

"It's true," Dabi said. "You spend so much time worrying about your dad, and he doesn't care in the least about you."

Hinata gasped.

"The point is that Hanabi knows, and so does anyone whose opinion matters," Dabi added. "So who cares about your dad?"

"Very like you to say that," Shoto said. "But, as harshly as he put it, I can't see the problem with thinking that. Your father certainly doesn't deserve an opinion on your life after discarding you."

Hinata was shocked...but it was...kind of nice to hear it, despite how much it hurt her more Shinobi sensibility of not disrespecting your parents.

"I don't know that we need to say it like that," Momo said. "But, I know you're worried about Hanabi. Both of you are important to our team, and we'll protect you."

Naruto felt more guilty than ever.

"We need some way to make this not keep happening," Temari said to Gaara and Kankuro. "But how? Ay won't listen to us."

"I guess we'll find that out." Gaara was not in the mood to be laid back about it.

They decided to sleep on it after that.