[OP: "Boreas"--The Oh Hellos.]

["Flood"--Jars of Clay]

https://youtu.be/Nc_taopAOPg

The rain didn't stop, though everyone was mostly on the ground now.

Dabi finally landed the bird he, Sai, and Ino were on. To Ino's great relief.

She almost fell off, she was so shaky after that.

"Well, I think I got the hang of it," Dabi said.

Sai just glared at him. "You crashed it into the mountain."

"But, we survived," Dabi said. "And they say any crash you walk away from is a good crash. I get motion sick, you know. It's impressive that I didn't throw up."

"I thought I would." Ino covered her mouth.

"If you're so afraid of heights, why didn't you ever say so?" Dabi asked her.

"I'm not that afraid of heights!" Ino snapped, way too defensively. "But flying around in thunderstorms over a flood zone is a little nerve wracking."

"Okay, okay, chill." Dabi held up his hands.

"I hope everyone else landed," Sai said. "I can't see very far at all in this weather."

Dabi shivered. "It's sure cold..." He sneezed suddenly.

"Uh oh," Ino said. "You get chills easily, right? Like in Rain Village."

"Oh, from a short little storm like this? Probably not." Dabi was wry.

"Maybe I should make an umbrella," Sai said. "A big one..."

"Too late now." Dabi lifted up his hand, and the fire's heat could be felt even from where they were standing.

"I thought you couldn't tolerate your power for very long," Ino said.

"Do you want me to warm us up or not?" Dabi said.

"But you know, going from hot to cold quickly can actually be worse if you do it too many times in a row than just one extreme," Ino warned.

"You sound like Princess," Dabi complained. "Just focus on finding someone else."

"Choji has moved," Sai said.

Ino peered over the edge. "Oh no...did he shrink?"

"No, I think he just became unstuck," Sai said. "Maybe the rock gave away. Some of these walls are more dirt than stone, too. I think they might crumble."

"Is where we're standing more dirt than stone?" Ino looked down.

"No, I think this is solid." Sai tapped it. "But some of the other pillars don't seem to be very strong. They're turning into mudslides."

"This is one h--- of a storm, isn't it?" Dabi said. "Just our luck. Hey, do you think Cloud will understand if we're later because half of us nearly drowned?"

"I can't think it would slow us down more than half a day," Sai said.

"I wish it wasn't dark," Ino shivered.

It had been dusk when they'd gotten here, and it was nighttime now. That wasn't helping anyone find anything.

While they were relatively safe, not all the others were on such sold ground.

As Sai had noticed, there were mudslides along the canyon. It was as if it hadn't had this big of a storm in it for so long, the dirt was all dry and loose.

Kankuro had pulled Tenten up toward Bakugo, Camie, Shoto, and Momo, who were all on one wall, trying to brace themselves.

"You got her?" Shoto asked. He couldn't see anything of what happened.

"I got Tenten." Kankuro opened the puppet. "But not Ino. But Sai and Dabi caught her."

"Barely." Temari landed next to him. "That was too close. I don't like floods. You know, at least the desert is predictable."

"Sandstorms?" Tenten said, climbing out of the puppet. "And that's the second time you've put me in that thing."

"You're welcome," Kankuro said.

"I was okay," Tenten said.

"Wow, grateful much?" Camie said.

Tenten frowned at her, but then she said, "Fine...thanks." Very reluctantly.

"I miss people actually being glad when we helped them," Kankuro told Temari. "Remember that?"

"No, not really." Temari was in no mood. "I hope Gaara is all right in this rain..."

"Last I saw him, he was with Ami, Yui, and Shikamaru," Momo said. "I'm sure they're fine."

"This ground is not stable," Bakugo said loudly. "We need to move."

"To where?" Momo asked.

"Somewhere else," Bakugo said "Can't you feel it slipping?"

Tenten pulled out her rope with a weighted end again so she could use it to climb with more ease.

They started to try to climb up the slope to a more rocky spot.

Momo's hands were not made for hanging onto friction-less rock, though, and she slipped more than once.

Temari grabbed her to hold her on.

"You all really should learn how to stick to the ground," she said.

"I don't think that's possible," Momo said.

"You don't know that for sure," Temari said. "Try."

"How could I try?" Momo objected.

"Just think of pushing your chakra outward through your hand, just like you do when you heal."

"But I don't have to think of doing that."

"Just do it!" Temari gave her a sharp jerk.

Momo was startled enough to just do as she said.

To her surprise, she did send some faintly glowing energy from in her hands.

Their bodies had adjusted to this world somewhat, Shine had already said, when they had realized they were getting faster and better at walking and moving and jumping. It was that their bodies were starting to harness their chakra energy the way the ninja did, because that was how it worked here.

But Shine had said they wouldn't adapt enough to use jutsu...

However, using chakra to stick to things was not jutsu, it was simply a matter of self control. Temari might have been right to think it was possible for them to learn it.

But it took months of practice for most people to master it, and Momo didn't have months, or even minutes, to try.

She put her hand on the rock again to steady herself. She felt as if her hand was like a magnet on the surface.

"Hey, I think it worked," she said.

But then she broke focus and slipped again.

Temari pulled her back up. "Yeah, it's not going to be that easy... It's something to work on, if we survive this."

If they survived it... Temari wasn't the most cheerful person in an emergency.

Camie and Bakugo were a little ahead of them. They were lighter than Shoto and Momo were, and it was easier for them to climb.

But then Bakugo put his hand on one rock, and it abruptly gave way into a mudslide.

"Ah!" Camie yelped as they both slipped towards the edge of the rocks.

"Bakugo, use your d--m explosions!" Kankuro said.

"I freaking can't!" Bakugo had no time to explain that he couldn't do it because it was too cold and wet for him to be sweating...any sweat he would have had was being washed away by the water. (This kind of weather was Bakugo's real weakness as a fighter.)

[Should I call down the wrath of the fandom by pointing out Bakugo should never have been able to use his quirk the way he did in his match with Todoroki? Even a tiny bit of sweat is hard when it's freezing enough to see your breath, let alone enough to use his huge blasts he was throwing around. He should have lost.]

Camie had nothing, period.

"Help!" she screamed as she scrambled for more footing.

Tenten actually stuck herself in place and tossed her weighted rope around Camie's waist just as Camie fell off the rocks and dangled precariously over the ravine.

Tenten used her feet to brace herself and pulled at the rope.

She was strong enough to do that; ninjas were stronger than other people anyway, and Camie wasn't that heavy. (Not that the wet clothes were helping.)

Kankuro shot out his puppet and caught Bakugo.

"He'll be pissed later, but, better than dying," he huffed. "This is so hard to do in the rain... My puppets are going to need to be sanded after this."

"Will you focus?" Tenten said. "I can't hold her forever. Temari, where are you?"

"Coming, your highness," Temari said testily, hopping over them and nearly into the wall. Even she almost slipped off it before she could stick.

She took the rope. "Camie, stop screaming!" she yelled.

Camie couldn't really hear her over the rain.

"I don't wanna die!" she was saying over and over again.

Shoto and Momo just did their best not to fall, since they knew the ninjas couldn't catch all of them.

Somehow, Kankuro got Bakugo up over the edge, and the girls got Camie back onto solid ground.

Camie was kind of a mess at the moment. She was crying.

"I saw my life flash before my eyes," she was saying. "And, like ,it was short, but, you know, happy...but I didn't want it to be over. I for real thought I was gonna plummet to my death there..."

"Shut up." Temari had no patience for people who cried in the middle of a crisis, as Shikamaru could have told them. She strained to pull Momo the rest of the way onto the more solid piece of ground they were on now.

Kankuro got Shoto and hauled him up too.

"I guess there are some things that you all are better at than us," Shoto said.

"I guess we're trading off," Kankuro said. "You're immune to plagues, we're able to avoid floods. You know...balances out."

"Camie, Camie, it's okay." Momo patted her shoulder. "We're all right now. This is rock, see?"

"I'm fine." Camie's teeth were chattering. She was cold before, but the fear had made it worse. "See? T-totally f-fine."

Bakugo awkwardly put his arms around her shoulders. "Calm down..."

"Look," Shoto said. "The rain is stopping."

He was right. Just as swiftly as it had begun pouring, it suddenly turned into a drizzle and then a sprinkling, and then it stopped, just in a few minutes.

The damage was done, but, at least it was quiet.

Too quiet, almost.

But Shoto took advantage of it.

He lit his hand up.

"I guess we can't make a fire right now, but here." He held it toward Camie. "We can dry off a little."

"T-thanks," Camie said.

Temari wrung water out of her clothes. "I never thought I would miss heat and dry air so much."

"I guess it does put it into perspective," Kankuro said. "Should we try to go get the others?"

"I say we wait till the morning comes at least." Temari looked at the sky. "The storm will blow farther south in another hour or so."

"How can you tell?" Tenten asked.

"I just can--I was right about the storm, wasn't I?" Temari said.

Tenten nodded.

"You saved us," Momo said. "All of us. Thank you."

"At this point, who's counting?" Kankuro shrugged. "Don't we all save each other all the time?"

"Tenten, that was pretty quick thinking," Bakugo said, as if he didn't want to give her any praise but had to when it was due. "Maybe you're not as useless as I thought."

"Shut up!" Tenten kicked mud at him.

"I think that was a compliment from him," Temari said.

"Oh..." Tenten said. "Right..."

* * *

[Giant white cartoon bird]

The rain stopping at least made Shine's time a little easier. 

It happened right after she'd landed.

The bird was still kind of struggling to get up.

Shine felt sorry for it...though it wasn't a sentient being, but she supposed it was an extension of Sai's concern and his wish to keep them all safe.

That it hadn't broken into pieces yet was really remarkable.

She wondered if she could maybe straighten it out and help it get up.

If it was still flyable, they could find the others more easily than if she tried to portal in this light and on this terrain (if she could at all).

"Hang on a second, sweetie," she told Emiko.

Then she pulled out her sword.

Emiko's eyes got huge, but Shine didn't move toward her--she just began to lift up the wing of the bird to use the sword like a file to straighten it out.

She wasn't sure if that would just tear it to pieces, but either way, might as well know.

"There we go," she said to the bird coaxingly. "Let's at least try this... Try to get up."

The bird started to move, and then, surprisingly, it gave a sound like a coo and a squawk combined.

Shine hadn't heard any of them make a real bird sound before, and it caught her off guard so much she dropped her sword.

"What?" she said. "That was weird--"

The bird then got up and fluffed its wings, as birds do when they're cold and wet. 

Wings that had...feathers on them.

It looked at Shine, and its eyes were black and shiny like marbles, not like ink. [I avoid the usual fan fic word for eyes. I find it cringe.]

Shine gaped at it.

This bird was alive.

As if to prove it, the bird suddenly began to preen itself the way ducks and sparrows do.

Shine looked at Emiko, who was also staring in astonishment.

She was too little to be as shocked, though. She just thought it was cool.

"The birdy is alive," she said.

"Yeah..." Shine glanced at the sword. "Huh...oops..."

She glanced at the water. "Well, we've got a sea down there, and an ink drawing just came to life... Am I concussed?"

Shine was too used to many weird events to be as put off as other people would be by this happening. After a few seconds she just shook it off.

"I guess it makes it a little easier to fly this way," she figured. "If it still will let us."

The bird eyed her. Then it bent its legs a bit, as if saying she could climb up.

"Perhaps it also is smarter..." Shine muttered. "Well, Sai will love this..."

[Surprised? 

This idea was a gag originally when I wrote the first draft of this story, but we liked it so much we brought it back.]

* * *

[Mountain Rainstorm photo from istock photo.]

Sakura hoped the rain stopping would mean they could easily find the others, but it was still dark and cold.

She decided to wait till the moon came out.... After nearly slipping before, she wasn't trusting her luck, walking on this ground in the dark.

Sasuke made no move to go anywhere either.

The silence was real, as Camie would have said.

Sakura felt it was past the point where she could have brought up the fact that he'd kind of just...saved her?

And that it was...weird...

Then again...

"So, uh...earlier that was..." she stated.

"Don't." Sasuke didn't want to talk about it.

"But why--?" 

"It's part of the rules." Sasuke must have been thinking of how he would answer this for the past several minutes, based on how fast he'd said that. "Likstar would have been furious if I let anyone die. So that's all."

Of course.

Sakura rolled her eyes to herself.

She used to find this hurtful, but the longer Sasuke kept it up, the more it was just getting irritating.

And since she was already in a bad mood from the storm, she didn't really care if she pushed his buttons.

"Well, at least she's been a good influence in one way," she said

"Don't start." Sasuke must have known she was trying to irritate him.

"Well, what else does it mean?"

"I said not to start."

"Why should I do what you say?" Sakura retorted.

She got stony silence.

Real mature.

Sakura cast a look at him.

Sasuke was just staring at the horizon.

She shrugged.

Finally, after a long pause, even Sasuke found the silence awkward.

"You shouldn't have done something that risky anyway."

"You're one to talk."

"If someone hadn't followed you, you would have probably drowned."

"I'm sure you'd be real upset about that." Sakura was nasty.

But Sasuke made no response.

Sakura expected at least a smart aleck response to that or at least an eye roll... Nothing.

Come to think of it, Sasuke wasn't putting much effort into being mean right now...

She peered at him more closely, and he looked away from her.

But Sakura was sure of it now.

"I knew it," she said. "Something is different."

"What?" Sasuke was so surprised he wasn't discrete.

Sakura pointed at him, kind of rudely. "Something is off about you... I've been thinking this for the last couple days, but I'm sure of it now... Something is...almost..." she trailed off.

Almost what? Softer?

That didn't seem quite right.

Kinder?

No, she didn't think so.

Quieter? Sasuke was always quiet.

But if it was quiet on the inside, maybe.

Sakura thought it over, and suddenly she had a sneaking suspicion what it was.

"I know," she said, almost angrily now. "You joined them. For real, I mean--not just...the team."

Sasuke's reaction was all the proof she needed. He was so clearly shocked that she'd figured it out that easily that he nearly sprang to his feet, but just caught himself.

But Sakura had had enough.

She stood up and crossed her arms. "I knew that would happen."

She stalked to the edge.

Well...it was all over now, wasn't it?

She suppose it was inevitable.

Sasuke wasn't going to ask her for details, but then he found he couldn't sit with not knowing how she knew.

He got up. "How did you guess that?"

"I don't know, I just knew." Sakura wasn't interested in reviewing her process. "Something about you isn't the same... I don't know if I like it, though."

"I've acted completely the same." Sasuke really thought he had.

"No," Sakura scoffed with a sort of laugh. "No, you haven't."

"Just because I saved you--"

"No, it's not that," Sakura cut him off. "You might have done that just to avoid trouble... No, it's just...something on the inside, I can tell. Something about the way you're looking around now... I don't know what it is..." She thought. "It's like the anger isn't there."

Sasuke was shocked.

So shocked that he didn't try to weigh his response carefully.

"I didn't think it was so easy to know that... It's only been a couple days."

"Couple days..." Sakura thought. "In Stone?"

"Yes...Stone."

"When they were in your room?"

"Yeah--how do you keep doing that?" Sasuke would have been impressed if he wasn't so annoyed.

"Duh. I knew that was odd, that morning...and they've...and you..." she sputtered. Then she stopped and shook her head. And then she said, "Why? I mean, what was the breaking point?"

"I don't really want to tell you that. In fact, no one was supposed to find out till more time passed... They wanted to see if it would stick."

"Is it?" almost dully.

"So far the only thing that's any different is I don't feel as...unsettled as before," Sasuke finally calmed enough to explain rationally.

"You did before?"

She was making him regret owning up to it.

But then Sakura finally turned around. "I knew you would sooner or later, but, this isn't how I thought I would find out."

"What do you mean you knew? The odds were never in favor of it." Sasuke was almost offended.

"Sure they were," Sakura said. "You wanting a new, unconventional way of doing things? That's like...what you always do. Should I be happy that this time they're not terrorists? Though they might as well be, to Stone..."

"That's not funny."

"I wasn't joking." Sakura frowned. "Well, there's no use warning you about it. But, you know, you're never going to be like other people now...not with them. This could be worse than before."

"I don't care about being like anyone else," Sasuke said. "And, for once, Sakura, you could actually--" but then he broke off.

What was he saying? He didn't care if she approved of this or not.

But Sakura knew what he'd been about to say.

"What? Support it?" she said. "I've been keeping my concerns to myself, haven't I?"

"To yourself?"

"Well, more than before... It's no use anyway," Sakura huffed. "I know that Leaf was never good enough for you... None of us were... They're special, right? They have that going for them... I just don't know, though--what's the good of it when they're not going to stay?"

"It's not really about that. You don't understand anything about it."

"Oh, stop acting like you're so high and mighty!" Sakura's temper flared. "You know, you're not the only one they're trying to convince... I am too... They want me to go for this. They think I won't."

"Will you?" Curious.

"I don't know!" Sakura burst out. "I know I don't like it. I know it's weird...and creepy...or something like creepy anyway. I know it drives me crazy when they go off about it...but it's Iike everyone falls into line sooner or later, so who knows? Not because you did, that's for sure. That should be a bad sign, actually."

"Hey!" Sasuke almost got offended. "Just because I've only chosen evil in the past doesn't mean I can't finally make the right choice. And it's not for the group... I just realized something about... It's probably not worth it to tell you."

"If you're going to say that you think their faith is real, I might really lose it," Sakura said.

"And what if I am?"

"That's worse." Sakura gestured around frantically. "Because where has it been all this time? A lot of good it does now... That would just make me angrier. I don't understand it. Some God doesn't care about this world for centuries and then sends some crazy people to say, 'Hey, I'm real,' and we're all supposed to be grateful? It doesn't stop the wars. It doesn't stop anything bad from happening. So what good is it?"

Sasuke was more bothered that Sakura sounded exactly like he had a few weeks ago than he was by her reasoning.

"What if that's not the point?" he asked.

"Then what is? What's the use?" Sakura was still mad. "But whatever. I don't want to talk about it anymore." She turned her back in a huff. 

Sasuke was mad at her again then.

"You know, whether you like this or not, it seems it helps some people, and you're just bitter because you don't understand it, so you don't want them to be helped even if they could be."

"Shut up."

"No, why does it have to be about you all the time?" Sasuke insisted.

"I said shut up!" Sakura turned back around and stomped her foot.

The ground cracked under it, and she saw that wasn't the smartest thing to do.

She moved away from the edge again.

"Where do you get off?" she went on as if nothing had happened. "About me all the time? Really? And what, you've been acting altruistically this whole time? You're not any different. If something doesn't help you personally, why would you care about it anyway?"

That was a good question, actually.

"But it's not helping you because you don't want it to," Sasuke replied.

"Oh my gosh, you sound just like them already!" Sakura was just getting more angry. "It took only a few days! That's all I ever hear from them--'you have to want to change,' 'you have to let it,' 'you have to try to improve'. Well, what if I didn't want to do this this way? Is that such a crime!? What if some of us just wish people liked us the way we were...and this...God person, He could too. I don't think we're so bad..."

"Really?" Here Sasuke's frustration was getting the better of him. "You think that ninjas aren't so bad?"

"You know--" Sakura finally got mad enough to really say something hurtful to him. "--you can say that, and they say that too, but at least I'll give them this: they don't try to hurt anyone over it. Just not liking ninjas doesn't make you better than them. If you don't act any different, then you're worse."

Sasuke stared at her.

Sakura knew she really had just hurt his feelings--which in itself was shocking--but she didn't care enough to apologize for what she'd said. If it even was really an insult.

The problem was that she didn't mean any of what she was saying as much as she was trying to. She was frustrated, but she knew she didn't really think that poorly of the DJ team or even that Sasuke had made a mistake.

Her anger was all internal, and she was taking it out on him and anyone else she could.

But even if she knew that deep down, it didn't make her more meek, only more annoyed.

Sasuke only thought Sakura was taking this about as well as she had taken anything else about this journey. 

One thing he couldn't figure out was why she was still here. At first, he'd assumed it was to make sure he, and maybe Naruto, didn't get carried away by it.

But it sounded as if this was a lot more personal for her now than it had been before. When had that happened?

She was still being a jerk about it though.

Honestly, that wasn't for him to judge...and he only was thinking of that now because he remembered that it didn't really matter.

So, calming down a lot, he straightened. "Don't tell anyone else. I don't want them to know till I'm sure."

"Sure of what?" Sakura said, testily.

Sure that it would work, Sasuke thought.

Though if she could tell something was different...

Funny, he'd always assumed Sakura didn't really pay that close attention to what he actually acted like, given how she'd never seemed to take any notice of his clear hostility in the past, but she must be better at this than he thought if she knew already. Naruto certainly had no clue.

Something else she'd said bothered him--that she'd known he would do this. Just because he was drawn to things that were...different.

As if he was incapable of doing it for any other reason.

"You said now that you knew I would do this because it was different," he said aloud. "But not because it's the right decision?"

Sakura didn't know why he was asking this.

"The right decision?" she repeated. "When has that ever mattered?"

Well, that did hurt, actually.

Sasuke's eyes darkened, but they did not turn red, notably.

"You really think that's not something I've ever thought about?"

"I guess in your way. What you think of as right, but it never mattered what anyone else thought was right, so...isn't that just the same as before?"

"You don't get it," Sasuke said.

"Maybe I don't," Sakura said. "You're not explaining it either. You expect people to just understand why you do what you do, but you don't talk. So how are we supposed to understand? I'm not a mind reader..." She huffed. "Even Ino would want to...so..."

"What if it was just the right thing, period?" Sasuke pressed.

"Then why do you want to hide it?" Sakura had him on that.

Sasuke stepped back.

He wanted to hide that he didn't trust himself yet to know if he was going to stick to this, or if it was just going to be another thing he gave up on after enough time passed.

But was that a bad sign?

Shine had wanted him to keep it quiet for a few days. Was that why?

He had not been so full of doubt the past few days, but now he wondered.

Sakura seemed to have this effect on him a lot lately...

"Do you not want me to improve?" he asked finally.

Sakura blinked like that was a strange question.

Then she sighed. "Improve...I mean, I guess that's what everyone says, right?"

She looked at the horizon. "I wanted you to be happy. It would just be nice if the same thing made you happy that makes other people happy. But maybe they're right, and you're right--you're not like us."

"So what does that mean?"

"Like I said, this was never enough for you," Sakura said. "But you know, enthusiasm for things fades with time, Sasuke. I just wonder if this is really what you want, or if they just convinced you to try it because you're in that place right now where anything sounds better than before."

"You must know that Shine would never say that to anyone," Sasuke said. "That's not how she thinks of her faith. Has it made thing easy for her here?"

"She is not the same as you," Sakura said.

"What does that mean?" Sasuke knew that had to be an insult now.

Sakura thought. "Shine is...sure of herself, you know?  Maybe it's her faith. Maybe it's just how she is. She never changes her mind about anything. But you change your mind so often about what side you're on and who you support. No one believes you really know what you want. You keep coming back to the same thing over and over again. So if this works for Shine, it could just be that she can commit to something."

"And about the others it works for?" 

"All of them are more that way than you are."

"It's nice to know what you really think of me," Sasuke said.

"Well, you asked," Sakura said.

He had asked.

"If that's really what you think, then why did you ever try to convince me to leave?" Sasuke said.

"I guess I thought that home is the place you go back to when you don't know what else to do," Sakura said. "But to you, it's the one place you won't ever go back to. So I can't really do anything about it now. But how is this new thing any different from the other things?"

"It's not evil," Sasuke said, like she was slow.

"But is that really the reason? Or is it just because you want something out of it?"

"I..." Sasuke wasn't sure now. "I don't know... It could be both."

"Well, for their sakes, I hope it's something more than that." Sakura frowned. "Like I said before, they don't deserve to be hurt by you...even if they're weird."

"I find it interesting that the time you take their side is now," Sasuke said. "But you're really still not taking their side. Do you think they would like you saying it?"

"I'll say it to their face," Sakura said. "Watch me."

"Well, go ahead and do it, but they won't listen," Sasuke shot back.

"If you really bought into this," Sakura said, "wouldn't you care more what their God thinks anyway?"

Sasuke paused. "Well, that part is still very new...so I don't know what to assume about that. But do you care about that?"

"No, but if you're following them, then isn't that part of it?" Sakura said. "Honestly, I mean, it's still better than terrorists, but still...I just don't know. If you didn't want my opinion though, why did you ask?"

Sasuke didn't know.

But he was bothered still.

https://youtu.be/wF_XsqEWmzo

["Be Concerned"--21 Pilots]

"You know, I think you don't really have much faith in me," he said.

Sakura shook her head at him. "Should I?" she said pretty bitterly.

No, she shouldn't.

All this time Sasuke had tried to get her to drop that...and now that she had, he didn't like it.

Because this was her reason? He was finally trying to do the right thing...he assumed...and this was when she lost all her faith in him?

He wondered if Naruto was the same. Were they both like this?

Sakura knew she was being kind of mean, but she wasn't sure what to say. All her anger at Sasuke that she'd kept bottled up for years had started to finally come out because he'd stopped ignoring her, and now it was as if she couldn't stop herself from saying cruel things.

[Though some of you may think, like I do, that some of those things were valid concerns...maybe not to this excess, but at least a little.]

Before they could even speak again, suddenly they were distracted by a large bird flying up.

Sasuke thought it was Sai's, but then he saw it was real.

Then he saw that Shine was on it, with one of the bandit woman's children with her.

She landed it...or it landed itself.

"Hey," she said. "Are you two still talking? I have a ride now... How did you end up this far downstream?"

"What is that?" Sakura asked.

"It's...hard to explain..." Shine said.

[Yeah, that'll be a fun conversation.]