[OP: "Pale White Horse"--The Oh Hellos]

Hinata and Suigetsu told the team what they'd seen.

"I could go check it out. No one would see me," Wally said to Shine.

Shine tapped her chin. "Maybe...but I feel like we need more than that."

"I can't sense anything other than people," Karin said. "I mean...no special energy."

"How many people can you sense?" Temari asked.

"I don't know...a few thousand at least," Karin said. "I mean,  standard for a town this size. I don't know if any of them are prisoners."

"They'd never mistake such a large group of us for normal travelers." Momo tugged her hair. "So what do we do?"

"I would have said we Cloud could go in," Mabui said. "But, considering how well we were received before, I wonder if they would only be suspicious of us."

"They might know immediately that you're looking for them," Gaara said. "But Leaf and Sand would raise even more alarm than Cloud."

Pause.

"Then it's the obvious answer that only us heroes can go?" Shoto asked. "We're not identifiable from any Village."

"No, but you don't exactly blend in," Dabi said.

"Neither are you, Dabi," Tenten said. "Not with that hair."

"Red is a normal hair color," Sai said.

"Yeah, but he's tall and doesn't look like a Cloud shinobi or a Leaf," Tenten said. "That's hard to miss for anyone."

"Eh, with that glow up he got, too," Camie said to Dabi. "Him and Shoto are too pretty to be inconspicuous."

Some of the girls giggled at that statement, while Dabi and Shoto both looked embarrassed.

"But is that really the priority?" Mabui said. "That's not suspicious, even if, as you say, it's not inconspicuous."

"Does it matter if anyone notices me anyway?" Shoto said. "We won't be staying long."

"Granted," Shine said. "And Wally and I look different from everyone else here anyway...so I guess we can't worry about that."

"I'm too good looking, I get it." Wally flexed his arm. "Hey, being an Adonis is a curse sometimes."

Hanabi snickered.

"I don't know a lot," Eichi said, "but, uh...I was just thinking...I mean, I know I have zero experience with rescuing anyone, and I'm not a ninja yet--"

"Go ahead, Eichi. Everyone gets a voice." Shine nodded encouragingly.

Karui was surprised to hear her say this. While it was true, technically, most ninja teams ignored their younger and less experienced members when making a decision.

Mabui expected no less by now.

Eichi rubbed his neck. "I think you guys would probably raise the least alarm, but, anyone new is going to make them suspicious. When I was in the bandit...incident in Stone, I noticed that the bandits monitored anyone new who came near the Village. No one usually tried to come in... They caught a few merchants, though. If something bad is going on here, you're going to be watched as soon as you go in...and if you want them to panic enough to give themselves away...a big group would scare them more... I mean, a few of you, they might just try to distract...at least, that's what I think...would normally happen." He didn't sound very sure of himself.

But Shine weighed it in her mind.

"Perhaps he's right," she said after a pause. "Subtlety has been out for us since we arrived in Cloud; perhaps it's best to stay consistent. They were going to put a halt to this already, according to that recording. Once anyone sniffs about, it is likely they'd just run, isn't it? If we rush in and hurry, we may surprise them enough for them to be sloppy."

"I guess acting afraid of them would be foolish," Gaara said, "if you consider how we outclass almost any ninja or rogue group in the world...and we easily routed the bandits, and there had to be more of them than these rogues."

"Well, that's true." Temari patted her fan. "What group have we really had trouble taking down once we got in an actual fight? I guess we don't need to sneak around."

"Benefits of doing something with a small army, I suppose," Shikamaru said. "Instead of 4 people. It does leave more possibilities, but I still think having an ace up our sleeves would be smarter. Some people should stay out here to see if anyone tries to escape."

"Hanabi and Eichi will remain out here," Shine said. "With Zoe."

Zoe was with them, naturally, though she had done little but forage for most of the day.

"We have to wait with the bird?" Hanabi whined at once.

But Shine gave her a fierce look. "Yes. She can take you out of here if anyone comes near you. I'm sure they'd never have an attack plan for a giant bird. And you of all people cannot be near these rapscallions."

"You've let us do other dangerous things," Hanabi said. "Why is this where you draw the line?"

"This is different," Shine said. "I won't explain myself to you. Normally I would, but sometimes you just have to trust me. And your sister."

Hinata nodded. "She's right, Hanabi. I think you should stay here with Zoe."

"Staying here is one thing, but the bird babysitting us is another," Eichi said. "Besides...what if something else goes wrong?"

"I'll stay with them," Kankuro said. "I'm not super interested in seeing this for myself, and I'm pretty noticeable with the paint and all that."

"Can't you just take it off?" Tenten said.

"No," Kankuro said. "Anyway, I have range. If anyone does come this way, I might capture them."

"Reasonable," Shine said. "That works for me. Gaara?"

"Yes, he's right," Gaara said.

"Babe?" Shine asked.

"Good with me," Wally said. "Anyone else have anything to add?"

Pause.

"No, not really," Ino said.

"Yeah, I think it's better to just get moving," Jugo said. " And I will ask the seagulls to keep an eye on things for us too. There's more of them than us. They can warn Zoe if there is trouble."

"Oh, sure," Karui said oddly. "Seagulls... Can you talk to all animals?"

"Yes, but birds are the easiest," Jugo said. "They're honest and pure souls. I think that's why."

"Right..." Karui was confused.

"I've never heard of this gift," Mabui said. "Only summoned animals can speak with humans, I thought."

"I just always could," Jugo said, with some wonder. "I don't know why... I thought it was merely the nature chakra I had, but even since it has been regulated, or removed, I can still speak to animals. They only understand simple commands, aside from Zoe, who seems to be unusually intelligent, but she is not an ordinary bird."

"Even some ordinary birds can be quite intelligent," Momo said. "Parrots are very smart."

"Maybe Zoe is just a white parrot," Dabi said. "Would explain a few things."

Zoe chirped.

"She didn't like that," Jugo said.

"The bird is easily offended," Karui said. "Figures..." She leaned away from Zoe.

"Let's at least not make this too easy for them," Shine said. "Hide your headbands again."

"We told you that's considered dishonorable," Sakura said.

"On your Village missions, you can do what you like." Shine folded her arms. "But you are on  our mission now. And really, wearing things to signal your separate origins is rather against our ways to begin with, but I don't like to push our boundaries. For a covert op, though, I don't see why you can't oblige me."

"We did it before. Why does it matter?" Shikamaru slipped his in his pocket.

"It does feel wrong," Tenten said, taking hers off.

"Just the same," Sasuke commented, "it's true they are not exactly subtle. For people who are supposed to be covert in all our mission to begin with, it's odd we signal our identities."

"Do we have to do this also?" Mabui asked.

"I'm not doing it," Karui rushed to declare.

"Then stay out here." Shine didn't bother to argue with her.

Karui frowned but then realized she was serious.

Mabui resolutely took her headband and hid it.

"You're doing it?" Karui asked.

"After hearing that, it does seem wise," Mabui said. "Why does it matter? We will only need to show our identities when we apprehend them."

Karui scowled, but then, slowly, she slid hers off and put it out of sight.

"I'm taking it out as soon as we get what we need," she said.

No one answered her.

After this, they all (minus the three staying with Zoe) headed towards the fishing town.

* * *

They tailed the same person they'd been following as before to the far end of town, which was right by the water.

Not all of them followed him that far. They drew so many stares from the townspeople, and not very friendly ones, that Wally took Hinata and Karin and ran ahead.

The others remained as a distraction.

The town was dirty, and the smell of fish was everywhere. They were right by the market for it, too, where the fish got cut and prepared.

Some of them who liked fish more weren't bothered by this, but others found it pretty nauseating.

Suigetsu saw one fish get cut up and turned a little green.

Karui was fine, even would have been more interested in it if they hadn't been working.

"Fishing is a difficult job and doesn't get enough credit," she said.

"What do you know about it?" Sakura asked her moodily.

"My mother's family were fishermen," Karui said. 

"Do you know how to cook a lot of fish then?" Choji asked.

"I can cook more kinds of fish than you can shake a stick at," Karui said staunchly.

Choji smirked.

"Choji, focus," Shikamaru reminded him. "We need to be looking for anything unusual."

"Can we help you?" A few people came up to them then.

It was odd to just stand in the middle of the street the way they were doing.

"We're here on our way to the Land of Snow," Temari lied smoothly. It was the only land north of Lightning and Earth that would possibly be one you'd sail to from here. "Just looking to restock our food supplies."

While this was plausible for such a large party to need to do, it was far from not suspicious.

"I see," said one-man. "Well, you're in the right place. We have the best merchandise in the land."

Dabi frowned.

"That was code," he said in a low voice.

"Code?" Ino asked him.

"The LOV used to use words a lot like those when we had contraband," Dabi said. "Weapons...new recruits. It didn't sound natural, did it?"

"Come to think of it, no." Momo tapped her fingers to her sides pensively. "But why would he use code on us?"

"Do I have to spell out everything? He's testing to see if we're part of this little operation," Dabi said.

Momo blanched at the very idea.

Shine glanced at Dabi. Maybe she'd heard, though he'd been speaking low so the townspeople wouldn't hear him.

"So we've heard," she said. "But we'll have to see it for ourselves first."

The man nodded.

"No way that was the correct answer," Dabi muttered. "Unless she had one of her hunches."

"This may sound like a foolish question," Mabui said in a low voice, "but wouldn't her being a woman already make this seem...unusual?"

"Not necessarily. Women are part of most crime operations," Dabi said offhandedly. "People don't suspect them of it, that's why. Toga used to go pretty much anywhere and not get caught till they slapped her face over the news more. Even then--but she did have an advantage there."

"Yes, how would she get caught anyway?" Momo said.

"Ew, don't talk about her," Camie gagged.

"Dabi, how do you know so much about this?" Choji asked. "I know very little about your past."

"Le'ts keep it that way," Dabi said. "No offense, but it's not anything to talk about in mixed company."

Mabui frowned.

"I knew he had a past," Karui said. "You can tell by the way he acts."

Dabi still arguably had less of a past than the average Jonin in any Village did, but they didn't think of it that way, so of course they didn't act the same.

Shoto wondered why Dabi was worried about them knowing his past so much. He'd never cared if anyone else in this world did. What would it possibly do to him if they knew? They couldn't contact his parole officers, and the part where he was a killer and an outcast would only seem like any other of the challenging members of the team. Hardly impressive next to Sasuke, since Dabi had no official Village to betray anyway.

"Come this way," the man who'd been talking to them said. "We'll show you our best."

He led them towards the fish market.

Maybe it was another test, but they followed, cautiously.

* * *

Wally, Karin, and Hinata followed the one man, who they were finally close enough to see, and saw him step into one of the fishing stores... It had huge barrels of them outside it, and it reeked of brine, slat water, and blood.

"Hmm, I hate to say it, but if they were going to hide a bunch of captives, that's the only place big enough and that would mask it pretty well," Wally pinched his nose.

"I sense people in there," Karin said. " A lot... They could be workers, but..."

"Is it enough to be the kidnapped ones?" Hinata asked. "I see several, but not that many."

"I don't think it's that many either," Karin said.

"They couldn't fit that many into one spot," Wally said. "They could be hidden all over town if they are all here at all... But enough to be suspicious?"

"Enough for that." Karin nodded. "Do we get them out now?"

"I'd like to do it now, but that could go wrong if we rush it," Wally said. "We need to find out more about this place. I think we've learned not to rush in anyway where shinobi are involved. They have tricks. Any sign of any traps?"

"Nothing unusual that I can see," Hinata said. "But I can't be sure. Those tags masked their traces in the other towns."

"Yeah, we need to get closer," Karin said.

Wally zipped them closer, to the side of one wall. There were some sealed barrels here.

"Wait, that man," Karin said. "He's right on the other side of this wall... There's two of them there."

Hinata's eyes gleamed, and she pushed one of the barrels aside a little, revealing a ventilation grate in the side of the wall, one like some garages have to let out musty air.

She bent down.

The other two did too.

They could hear voices now.

"A huge party of them." That voice likely belonged to the rat they'd been following. He had seemed like a small, weaselly man when they'd seen him, though they'd never gotten a good look at his face from a distance.

"Did they follow you here?" a harsh voice replied.

"I don't think so, I don't think they ever noticed me at all. I had to wait till they left. They were heading back to Cloud Village, probably to get information. There were 30 of them, almost, but only a couple were Cloud. The others were from all over Leaf, Sand, even Earth... Some didn't wear headbands."

"And what would all of those Villages even be doing this far northeast?" snapped a different voice--this was a woman's but still harsh.

"I don't know," said the Rat. "They said they were assigned Cloud."

"Cloud is no friend to the other Villages," the harsh man said. "It makes no sense... Unless they all heard of us... They could be on us in days, then."

"We don't know that they really know yet," the woman said. "We can still salvage this. Take the cargo, and go to the Land of Cones until this blows over." [That's a real land... Don't remember what arc it was in, though it sounds kind of familiar. It's also nearer to Lightning than most of the other small lands, save for Frost.]

"The large fighting force might be because the war has left all the Villages so desolate that they banded together to address the problem," the rat said. "Did you not prepare for this?"

"We did," the harsh man said. "We will deal with them if they show up. The Village will forget about us, soon enough. And you have served us well. Unfortunately, our business is concluded now."

"What? You're cutting me out?" the rat said.

There was suddenly an odd sound, and Hinata, with her special vision, saw one of the figures move towards the one who'd been speaking, and they moved so aggressively that she was sure they'd just stabbed him with something.

That was followed by a sickening thud of a body hitting the ground.

"Sorry," the woman's voice said coldly, "but we can't have whoever it is finding you on the chance they'd remember you."

Hinata covered her mouth to keep from gasping too loud.

Karin paled.

Wally looked stunned. He'd at least heard the thump.

"A pity, but it had to be done," the man said. "Dump him in the ocean. No one would ever be able to find him there."

"As with all the rest, I am aware," the woman said. "But what will we do?"

"I doubt they'd ever think to check this town. They'll look further west," the man said. "But, can't take any chances..."

Then they heard footsteps, and Hinata saw a fourth person in the room.

"Boss, there's--oh..."  They stopped

"We had a little problem," the woman said. "What?"

"Right...there're strangers in the town," the person said. "A lot of them--over 20."

"Strangers?" The man seemed to step forward slightly. "Do they wear headbands?"

"No, but a couple looked like Cloud. Other shinobi didn't look local, if you know what I mean...but not like they were all in one place either, based on their clothes."

"They're here already!" the woman said. "This d--ned rat was followed after all. Why am I even surprised? The fool didn't know how to be stealthy any more than he knew how to be wary."

"If they followed him, then they already are onto us," the man said. "Take the cargo in the basement outside the town. Dump them in the river that leads fastest to the ocean. The ones in the ships, we'll leave with directly. They will take a while to search the town. Meet me there when you've lost them. We'll swing towards the point for you."

"Or you'll leave us to be caught," the woman said. She sounded terse. "Remember that if you abandon us, I won't hesitate to tell them where to find you."

"And it's because I know that that I won't abandon you," the man said, with thinly veiled hatred, it sounded like. "Don't be late."

"You don't be late yourself," the woman said. "Come on, Skipper."

Skipper must have been the new voice.

"Aye, ma'am," he said, sounding unnerved by their callous way of speaking of the matter--or perhaps he just thought he'd be the next kill if he didn't fall into line quickly.

They all left the room.

Karin drew a breath. "They're going to run," she said. "Now. We have to do something."

"Yeah, we gotta get the others, now," Wally said. "They'll see us here otherwise...but we can't just run up and tell them this stuff--the town will see us..."

"Ino can connect us with her mind," Hinata said, standing shakily. "We can at least warn the other ninja. Your team will catch up, Wally-sensei."

"Oh, good idea," Wally said.

He dashed them to a corner farther away for it to be less suspicious.

Karin headed toward the market.

Hinata followed, but she looked troubled. "They just killed that man..." she said slowly. "I know he was an evil person, and they're rogues, but, it...surprised me."

"He knew too much," Wally said. "That's what people like this do... But I know--it's messed up. Even with bad guys, you'd think there'd be some loyalty, but not all of them have it."

"They're awful," Hinata said. "I hope...we're in time to save those people..."

"We'll save them." Wally patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. That's what we do. We've always succeeded before. We have to have faith. Plus, this team is awesome."

Hinata nodded, but she still felt nervous.

Karin had snuck back into the group, who were following the other townspeople around still, and they all thought they were getting led on a wild goose chase.

Karin slipped over to Ino and whispered to her.

Ino nodded and then put her hand to her temple.

She couldn't connect with everyone in such a big group, not for a long time, but she patched Karin thoughts to Temari and Gaara, and then Shikamaru, Sakura, Mabui, and Karui, and Kankuro, though he was farther off and harder to do.

She connected Karin to them also.

Karin thought-spoke rapidly to explain what they'd just heard.

"We don't have long then," Temari said. "I would like more time to make a plan than this, but it can't be helped."

"We can't ask Shine what to do," Gaara said. "Not in front of everyone, but...if I know her, she'd say we should go after the ones they intend to throw into the river. It sounds as if they are just disposing of them. We can save the ones they have on ships after that."

"Might even be easier that way,"  Shikamaru said. "The other prisoners might have an idea what they did with the ships...if they heard anything."

"That does seem smarter," Temari said. "We have to follow them though. And they'll be keeping us here, then... They're taking them away, but they'll know we'll know that, unless they have a way to mask their chakra."

"They might," Gaara thought into their minds. "They masked them in those other towns. They would only need more of those tags, and they'd be both silent and muted from even Karin's sense."

"Not if we were really close, but yes, from this far away," Karin said. "It won't do us much good then...but if we knew where they would go, it wouldn't matter."

"There can't be many rivers out here," Temari said-thought. "Someone should get a high vantage point and look for one. Or West could find it, maybe. We'll try to look as if we're going to leave... I suppose we'll have to buy fish to make it more convincing."

"They aren't buying it anyway," Karin said. "Why even bother?"

"Let them think we're still fooled," Gaara said. "Do you concur, Mabui-san? Karui-san?"

Mabui nodded. "I have nothing to add. We need to contact Lord Ay, but we do not have the time to before they dispose of these people. You are convinced you can take them for now?"

"There might have been a few dozen," Karin said. "They weren't all fighters, I'm sure, so we should have no problem."

"This is so weird," Karui thought. "I know in the war they did this, but I wasn't a field commander, and it's really unsettling having you in my head."

"Not the time," Shikamaru said. "If we all agree, we need to let the others know somehow."

"You might want to know,-" Karin made eye contact with Mabui. "--they already recognized that you and Karui were from Cloud... Face it, you're hard to mistake. They'll expect you to alert them."

"Nothing to do about it," Mabui said.

"I'd like them to know. Then they'll know it's us while we bust them!" Karui made a fist.

"Look more neutral." Shikamaru sounded sharp, even in his thoughts. 

Karui lowered her fist.

"We'll watch from up here," Kankuro thought. "I could fly this bird up if I knew...but it seems to understand all of us--maybe it would do it. Hanabi is eagle-eyed; she'd see anyone leaving."

"Then let us know once you find something. Ino, can you stay connected with him as long as it's only him?" Gaara asked.

"One person, yes, I could for a while," Ino replied.

"Then disconnect the rest of us. We'll find some way to tell the others what to do,"  Gaara said.

Ino nodded, and they felt her presence leave their minds.

Karui was only too glad for that.

* * *

Kankuro told Hanabi and Eichi what he'd just learned. Then he asked Zoe if she could give them a ride.

He felt weird saying it to a bird, but Zoe knelt down at once and seemed to understand perfectly.

"She's so cool!" Hanabi scrambled on.

Eichi was still less enthusiastic about flying, but he didn't complain.

Kankuro got on behind them. He figured they should be in the more secure spot, since they were the weaker ninjas.

Zoe took off and flew high enough not to be easily identified from the ground, though a closely observant person would still have realized she was huge.

They circled the town a few times before they saw any sign of the scoundrels taking out their "cargo".

Kankuro also saw the team, still delayed in the market area, though they were trying to edge out of it.

"There." Hanabi pointed. "See...? There's people leaving the town...and there's a lower part of ground. The river is probably there."

"That's still kilometers away from the town. That's a long way to walk then," Kankuro said, puzzled.

But then as they got a little lower, he saw what only Hanabi had good enough eyes to see before, which was that they had people in wagons pulled by horses.

A rare sight in the ninja world. Though they did exist, they were considered to be too noisy to be often used by ninja.

[But they are seen in the Naruto movie The Will of Fire, so they do exist there. Sand were even the ones using them.]

"Do you see bindings on the prisoners?" Kankuro asked Hanabi.

She peered down again. "No...they're just staring straight ahead... Their chakra is normal, too...not restrained... What does that mean?"

"Either they're too scared to run, or it means genjutsu of some kind that you can't see," Kankuro said. "But I guess not all genjutsu is that obvious in the chakra network. The subtle kind isn't even noticeable."

"That's why it's so dangerous," Eichi said, as if quoting something he'd heard.

"Yeah, I hate it," Kankuro shuddered. None of his family ever used genjutsu, and there was good reason for that.

[No one in Sand ever seems to, barring the Akatsuki member's ringer in Gaara's kidnapping arc.]

"But how do they get out of the town without them seeing them on those big wagons?" Eichi asked.

"Maybe they concealed the road behind them with genjutsu also," Kankuro said. "Put a false image on the end of town... It's a bit far, but if they were ready to do it already...I don't know... Whatever they did, they knew to do it fast. We need to say on them..." 

"Ino?" he thought.

"Yeah, I'm here," she answered.

"We've got them. They're moving fast. They have wagons. The river is a few km away at least, though. But they'll get there faster than we will if we don't use our chakra speed to catch up."

"If we do that, the town will know it," Ino said. "If we have to loop around, could we head them off?"

"They're moving pretty quickly... Those wagons seemed to be designed for speed more than I'd expect... Once they see us, they'll pick up the pace, too. I can keep an eye on them, but they'll dump the victims before we ever get there if we don't do something now."

"We're still stuck here," Ino said. "The townspeople are blocking the main path. They're not outright saying we can't leave, but their body language is implying it..."

"You guys might just have to fight your way out then," Kankuro said. "We can't waste time."

"Kankuro-senpai," Hanabi said, sitting up, "the kidnappers are breaking apart. Some of them are heading off to the left, see?" She pointed.

They looked about the size of cockroaches to Kankuro, but he saw them moving.

"What are they doing?" he asked.

"I don't know--keeping watch, maybe? They're slowing down." Hanabi squinted. "I see one just stopped by a rock... He attached one of those tags to it."

"To cover their tracks," Kankuro said.

He told Ino what she'd said.

"That tag could have evidence," he said. "We should retrieve it."

"I'll tell Gaara," Ino said. "Keep watching them..."

Her voice disappeared for the moment.

* * *

Once Gaara heard the update, he frowned.

"We have to signal the others to make a break for it," he said to Temari in a low voice. "But how?"

Temari thought. "I've been pondering it."

She glanced back at them. "Or we could just yell 'attack'. Your call."

"I'd rather not get violent. It will slow us down," Gaara said. "But Shine and Wally are the only other option, if they could take us out of here."

"Then we need a visual distraction," Temari said.

She tapped Momo. "Do you have any of those little dolls left to sell?" she said in a louder voice.

Momo looked at her oddly, then suddenly her eyes widened. "I think I still have a few."

She discreetly pulled a couple out of her sleeve.

"What could we get for these?" Temari asked one of the townspeople, tossing one at them.

Not everyone on the team recognized it, but most of them did.

"Close your eyes." Shine turned to warn Choji.

The townsperson had caught the doll. "It's design," he said, not suspicious yet, "unique. What's inside it?"

"They're a set," Momo said. "There's a bunch of them all inside each other."

"How clever," said another townsperson, a woman.

She honestly seemed to think it was. 

Mabui and Karui didn't know what was going on.

The townsperson opened it.

The flash bomb inside clicked open, and blindingly bright light exploded into everyone's vision.

The townspeople yelled.

Shine uncovered her eyes.

Temari ducked between the faltering townspeople and took Shine's shoulder. "We need to get out of here now," she said in a low voice. "While they can't see us."

Shine nodded.

A portal opened under some of them, and they fell through.

There were many of them left, but Wally speed pushed them all in.

Shine jumped last of all, and she saw the townspeople were rubbing their eyes. They'd still be seeing dark spots for a few minutes, but they'd realized they were tricked now.

She swiftly used her sword to knock the ones nearest to her out.

The others were blindly running into each other.

Shine tumbled into the portal right before it shut.

* * *

The portal dropped them all at the same spot they'd left the other three at, though they were not long there.

"That was fast thinking." Wally high-fived Temari and Momo. "Nice."

"I'm confused though. Why did we do that? We just gave ourselves away," Momo said.

"Too late, and no time to finish explaining," Temari said. 

"Yeah, guys, we found stuff out, but we couldn't tell you with the town listening like that," Wally said. "But we gotta get out there fast. I can run ahead and find the river. Maybe I can get the people before they dump them. I'll drop them somewhere safe farther away, okay, Shine?"

"Okay, that's good. We'll catch up--what river?" Shine paused.

"I can't see anything." Karui rubbed her eyes. "What was that thing? It was like a thousand fire bombs."

Mabui also was looking around, though she had the sense to try to at least slow herself down and feel her way forward.

"Careful, lady!" Bakugo said as she nearly hit him in the face.

"I'm sorry. Everyone else knew what it was," Momo said.

"I didn't see you take it out." Suigetsu was rubbing his eyes too. "That thing is painful."

"The charlatans are going to dump their victims into the river to get rid of the evidence," Gaara informed everyone. "Kankuro already has a bead on the location, thanks to Hanabi. We have to find them."

"When did you learn this?" Shoto asked.

"No time," Ino said. "We'll tell you later. We were mind melding... You guys can't do it, or I'd have let you too."

"Why can't they do it?" Karui asked.

"Not now," Shikamaru said. "We have to hurry."

Wally was gone already.

Shine's eyes lit up. "It looks too far for us to just run. Shoto, freeze us an ice slide."

Shoto nodded. He stepped away from all the others and froze a huge wall of ice, using two hands, and then a walkway of ice in front of them.

"We'll catch up to Wally," Bakugo said, backing off. "No time for subtly now."

"I can take a few of you," Shoto said. "It's hard to control it past that point."

"I'll make more birds." Sai took out his scrolls and made several.

"Meet us there then." Shine took Shoto's arm, and Momo held onto his shoulders.

Gaara used sand to raise himself up and took Dabi and Mabui with him again.

Mabui still couldn't really see that well. Everything was in green and black patches.

"Someone will need to tell me if I need to duck," she said flatly.

"Yeah, I really still can't see anything either," Karui said.

"Here." Choji took her arm gently enough. "I can help, if you don't mind it."

"No time for me to mind it," Karui said, which was her closest to being accepting of it. "Just go."

Temari hopped onto her fan, and an air current carried her up and away. "Follow me," she called. "I see Zoe already."

Hinata climbed onto one of Sai's creations that was ready, and Naruto got on behind her.

They took off.

The others rushed to follow suit.