[OP: "The Lament of Eustace Scrubb"--The Oh Hellos]

Sakura woke up lying somewhere along a strip of sand near a river.

Her head was fuzzy and pounding, but she put her hand to it and used chakra to ease the pressure.

Her mind cleared a little...but not enough.

What was she doing out here? Where was here? This wasn't Leaf--didn't look anything like the Land of Fire.

Who was she here with? Someone. She couldn't have been alone.

She ran through the same questions Dabi had, and she had no more answers.

Finally, she decided also to start looking around for any sign of anyone else.

Unlike Dabi, she knew to look for traces of people having gone through the woods, but she was not a tracker.

She saw some broken branches and footprints in dirt, but they looked like ordinary sandals, could have belonged to anyone.

She climbed up the trees. They weren't as strong-looking as the ones in Leaf, and she didn't know about hopping from branch to branch, but going on the ground made you an easy target.

She hopped from one to the next, and finally she saw some people.

Some dark-haired girl in a hoodie ran past. She had big, silver eyes.

Sakura knew that was the trademark of the Hyuga clan, but she had no idea who this was. She squinted at her.

But that meant Leaf.

"Hey!" she called.

The other girl looked up at her, but then she held up her hands and kept running.

"No, wait!" Sakura cried, trying to follow her. "I'm from Leaf also! Come back!"

But the girl didn't stop.

Sakura soon found that this person was a much better sensory type than she was because they lost her in only a minute or so.

"Crap." Sakura looked around helplessly. "Why didn't she believe me? Didn't I have--?" But then she felt her forehead and realized there was no headband there.

She felt all over her person and pulled it out of her pack. "Why did I have this off?"

A different person might have assumed that it was to be incognito, but Sakura decided it must be that whoever had knocked her out had hidden it so no one would identify her and help.

She put it back on resolutely.

"Now if I find that Hyuga again, I can prove it," she declared. 

She headed in that direction.

It took only a few minutes before she did hear someone else, but it was not the girl.

Someone landed behind her.

Sakura tensed and turned around and smacked the person into the nearest tree.

She was startled to see it was just another teenager. This whole set up seemed more of something an older group of skilled shinobi would have planned.

The person was also a boy. He was cute, but she didn't really care about that right now.

Sakura rubbed her fist. "No one sneaks up on me," she tried to say confidently, though it was only because he hadn't tried to hide his footsteps that she'd heard him at all. "What was that?"

The boy got up, looking displeased. He had a sword in one hand.

"I don't trust strangers," he said unpleasantly. "I guess we're even on that... You're from Leaf?"

"So?" Sakura put a hand to her headband. "You're not."

At least there was no sign of it.

"I was once," the boy replied, not as if he was proud of it. "It's been a while... I thought Leaf might be behind this...but a few girls don't exactly seem like a retrieval squad."

"First of all, that's sexist." Sakura made her hands into fists. "Second, why would Leaf be out here, in the middle of nowhere? This isn't the Land of Fire. I'm sure I was kidnapped by someone...but, if it's not you...then who the heck are you?"

"I'm surprised you don't already know," he replied.

"Why would I? I don't even remember how I got here." Sakura frowned.

"I don't either." He lowered the sword a little. "I thought it was some genjutsu."

"I bet it is--but no, that doesn't make sense. I'm resistant to genjutsu." Sakura rubbed her head. "I thought of that before, but it can't be that. I thought I just got hit in the head or something...but neither of us remembering seems Iike it was planned..."

"Someone with a grudge against Leaf shinobi then," the boy replied. "I don't want to be mixed up in this, but looks as if I have no choice. I was wondering if I should just kill any of you right away...but then I don't know anything."

"Why would you kill us if you're Leaf? Are you actually? How do I know you're not just pretending not to remember?"

"How would I prove that?" he retorted.

"I don't know, name something about Leaf that anyone would know who lives there. Who's the current Hokage?"

"Isn't it Kakashi Hatake?" he answered.

Sakura cursed mentally. That was too easy.

"Okay...uh...well, when was the last Chunin Exam?" she asked.

"That's not about only Leaf," he objected.

"Well, no, but if you're Leaf, you'd have been there," Sakura said. "We're about the same age, I think....and I was there."

"Well...wasn't it in Leaf?" he said uncertainly.

"Wrong. It was in Sand, so you are lying!" she said.

"Not exactly. I haven't been back to Leaf for more than a week in years," he said.

"A rogue?" Sakura said. "Now this make sense. You are behind this."

"Are you usually this illogical?" he said flatly. "Why would I admit that if I was?"

"Fine...what is your name then?" Sakura said.

"What's yours?"

"I asked you first."

"Why should I care?"

Sakura almost lost her cool right then, but she swallowed it down.

"Sakura Haruno," she said.

"I've never heard of a Haruno clan."

"It's not a clan... Who are you?"

He hesitated but then shrugged. "The name is Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura blanched. "Uchiha? No, that's impossible. They're all gone."

"All but one," he said. "How would you not know that? I've been told I'm infamous."

"I have no idea who you are," Sakura said.

But then her head hurt suddenly.

She put a hand to it. "Ow...what the heck?"

Sasuke showed no signs of concern for this, but he winced as if he also felt it.

Sakura knew enough about genjutsu to be suspicious now.

She straightened. "Maybe whoever cast this blocked out information about you specifically."

"Or you."

"Or both of us," Sakura said. "I mean, it makes no sense... How could you be infamous and I wouldn't know? I know everything about Leaf's enemies. My mentor is Lady Tsunade."

"The Sannin?" Sasuke was skeptical. "Sure."

"I'm serious!" Sakura said. "I'm a medic."

"Well, if you're a medic, can't you fix whatever drug they used to wipe our memories?" Sasuke said. "And it's not a genjutsu because I would also be resistant to it."

"Oh, right, the Uchiha are genjutsu casters," Sakura reflected. "But I thought only Itachi was that good at it, and he's dead."

Sasuke looked angry. "He is...but how do you know my brother and not me?"

"Your brother?" Sakura peered at him. "I do see a resemblance, actually... I didn't think he had any siblings..." Her head hurt again. "Ow...okay, I hate this!" She hit one of the trees and...knocked it over.

Oops.

Sasuke watched and then said, "That's going to attract attention. Unless you can fight better than you can remember, you shouldn't be doing that... I'm going to find who did this." He put the sword away.

"Wait just a minute," Sakura said. "What about me? I want to find them too."

"Have fun with it." Sasuke turned.

"Don't you dare!" Sakura bounded after him before he could even get into a tree. "Are you stupid or something? You don't just go off alone when someone who casts genjutsu this powerful is around. Or...drugs, if it's a drug."

"Unless you can reverse it, what use is a medic going to be in a fight?" Sasuke said, not very nicely.

"Did you miss what I just did to that tree?" Sakura pointed at it. "I can fight. Earth Style. And, you're outnumbered."

"That shouldn't be a problem for me." Sasuke's eyes turned red.

But then he suddenly put a hand to them and gasped.

He didn't know why, but he'd just had this sense of foreboding and a terrible burning sensation in his eyes.

Sakura wasn't impressed. "Doesn't seem like your power is working too well. Are you sure you're an Uchiha?"

"Are you sure you're a medic?" Sasuke snapped. "How about some theories, if you're so knowledgeable?"

"Offhandedly? I'd say someone is using a drug that suppresses the part of the brain that remembers events," Sakura said. "There are some forms of anesthesia that do that for a certain length of time, but we're far too alert for it to be that. My best guess is a drug that's mixed with genjutsu to contain it to one set of memories in particular...anything that they don't want us to know, so we can't fight them. Which is why we don't know who they are, why we're here, or who we were with. All that is useful information."

Sasuke stared at her in some astonishment.

He hadn't expected her to put anything that coherent together that quickly.

"Fine, maybe you do know," he said, very grudgingly. "So how do you reverse it?"

"If it's that kind of drug, it won't be permanent," Sakura said. She tapped her head. "Our memories can't be suppressed forever by force like that. Only severe head trauma would do that, and I don't sense any on me, and I assume not on you either, if you're walking and talking. I'd say once it wears off, we'll remember slowly on our own...but if it's genjutsu, it could last days or years before we remember. Memory suppression genjutsu is common to use on spies, so they can't give away what they're doing...but, the thing is, there's so much I can't remember that it wouldn't even be useful. So I can't be spying, I'd think. I mean, why would you dump a spy in the middle of the woods? That's why I don't think it's Leaf. I bet we found out some secret they didn't want us to know, and the enemies of Leaf dumped us here so we wouldn't tell them."

"And why wouldn't they just kill us then, genius?" Sasuke said, skeptically.

"I'm not sure... It could be this wouldn't leave evidence, and this only makes us look delayed. Or there's some other reason to just wipe our memories... They might need us. I don't know. Do I look like a criminal mastermind to you?"

"Considering how fast you put that together, I'm suspicious that you've done this before," Sasuke said.

"No, you idiot, I've just heard of it. I had to study all kinds of poison and stuff under Tsunade. We covered this too," Sakura snapped. "Are you always this rude to people trying to help?"

"I really couldn't answer that," Sasuke said carelessly. "But you could be useful, I suppose. For now, I'll allow you to  travel with me."

"You'll allow me? I'll allow you! So far you've been 100% useless in this, and you seem like you're a rogue ninja," Sakura shot back. "But it could be important to know what happened, so I need anyone who is involved to be with me. And if I do find a cure for this condition, better to have as much information as possible. It's logical to work together, but that doesn't mean I like you."

"Who said it did?" Sasuke cut his eyes at her. "But why did my Sharingan not work then? Is that part of your drug?"

"It's not my drug, moron... I don't know. Maybe it suppresses the part of your mind that calls on kekkei genkai? It's more complex jutsu than what I do..."  She tapped the ground thoughtfully. "Maybe it's just as well I don't rely on fancy attacks."

"Fine, we'll go with that explanation for now. Then I want to find the cure," Sasuke said, looking annoyed. "I can't track anyone properly without my Sharingan either. But I did see someone else out here. They looked like Hyuga."

"Was it a girl about our age? Wearing a hoodie?"

"It was."

"I saw her earlier," Sakura said. "But she ran away... I wasn't wearing my headband then. She didn't know I was Leaf. But Hyuga are all Leaf, so I knew she was."

"That was obvious. You didn't need to spell it out."

"How could I know what you know? I'm still not sure you're actually Leaf. Where is your headband?"

Sasuke felt around and pulled it out of his pack. 

"I don't wear this... I'm not even sure why I have it, actually..." He frowned.

Sakura didn't understand why he was surprised.

"Great...fine, fine, I guess I believe you." She rubbed her forehead. "Let's just find that girl. A Hyuga will be the best tracker we could find anyway. If anyone could find the culprits, it'd be her."

"Whatever." Sasuke put the headband back. "If it's true that Leaf did cause this, I'm not going to be pleased."

"Are you ever?" Sakura said snippily.

She was liking him less and less.

Even if he was good looking--but that didn't make up for a terrible personality. [Ha, where is that philosophy on the show?]

But since they agreed, sort of, they struck out to find the Hyuga girl before anyone else could find them.

* * *

After Dabi stopped freaking out about his lack of scars, he realized that he must be missing far more memory than he'd thought.

"It has to be someone's quirk," he decided. "Though...I feel as if I remember it happening now...but why...?" He rubbed his head. It was throbbing again.

"If you're finished panicking--" Mabui was not having it. "--I've been trying to think of a way to find civilization again... The only chance of finding someone to undo this jutsu is to find other ninjas. I'm not skilled with genjutsu, unfortunately."

"With magic? Who is?" Dabi had barely listened to what she'd said in the last several minutes while he was focused on his physical condition.

"It's not magic," she objected. "Look, clearly we're not from the same Village... I'd think I'd remember you anyway if we were. Your education seems to be lacking in the ninja arts. I can't spend all day explaining these things to you, so maybe you should just go with it for the time being."

"Sure," Dabi said. "Well, I could say the same thing about your total lack of knowledge of the outside world."

"Whatever that means, agree to simply not understand for now?" Mabui seemed anxious to move on.

Dabi was not really one to cooperate that well with anyone, even his..."friends" in the LOV, if he could call them friends.

But he was a little beyond being his usual salty self at the moment.

"Fine," he grumbled. He was just hoping she had a good plan.

But she didn't.

"We have two options." She held up her hand. "Either we attempt to capture and interrogate one of those rogues and get answers from them--which could be difficult without an interrogation based jutsu--or we just walk till we find something... I'm not a tracker. I'm guessing you're not either."

"Nope," Dabi muttered. "Unless I had a GPS."

"A what?"

"Nothing, won't find it out here. Unless it's in my backpack--" Dabi only realized he was wearing one as he said that.

Funny, the weight hadn't registered with him, which implied he was used to carrying it, but he never carried that much stuff...

"Backpack?" Mabui hadn't noticed it either. "What? Oh, what is wrong with me?" She suddenly bent down and opened a bag hidden in her clothes.

Dabi wished she'd given him some warning before doing that. Though he didn't see anything, it still took him off guard.

He looked away and took off the backpack. Maybe there was food in here...or...you know...tools for some kind for some special assignment.

"The drug seems to have dampened my mental faculties," Mabui was saying, half to herself. "How could I have not thought to check this...? Let's see..." She opened some papers. "A document designating me and...Karui...as being sent by the Raikage. Well, that confirms I was on a mission...and here is a map." She opened it. 

It was a small map, only a few lands were on it.

Dabi glanced up from his pack. "That's it?"

"There's food pills, kunai, shuriken, and this appears to be a file of names." She unfolded another stack of papers. "I have no memory of what any of this is for...but it says they're missing. If they are shinobi or not, it doesn't say."

"The map would be more helpful." Dabi was not good at reading maps; he was a city dweller after all [feel that], but he thought maybe it would at least give a clue as to where they were.

Mabui held it up for him to see. "This is the Land of Lightning, but, unfortunately, no one marked where we were. This is my Village." She pointed to one designated symbol. "The shoreline near it isn't this low-set in the terrain, so I'd say we're not there...but could be anywhere along the edge."

Dabi wasn't even listening. He was just realizing that the map was not Japan...or any continent he knew--granted, he didn't know that many. Geography wasn't the subject he'd focused on before he'd dropped out of school--but he was pretty sure it was nowhere on Earth.

Suddenly he had the strangest flash of memories about...another world...? A portal? Traveling through weird terrain?

But the flashes, since they had no people to match them to, made no sense to him. They just made him dizzy.

He wasn't sure he could even have put it into words what he remembered, just that something about it was familiar. He'd seen it before, but he didn't know where it was...or why he was here.

He felt kind of sick though.

Mabui saw him go pale and looked concerned. "What?"

Dabi shook his head. He didn't know what.

Mabui frowned but glanced at the map again. "Nothing... It seems this jutsu blocks out all memories of the assignment at least, because I have no idea...but if there was a landmark to find, we could get our bearings. Or, if we find someone and ask them." She folded the map back up. "It's useless for now. But all this may be important later... I was here with another Cloud, but I don't know any Karui...I think--" Then she winced. "Why did that...?"

"Did your head just hurt more?" Dabi said, still feeling sick.

"It did... Did yours also?"

"Not at that, but every time I try to remember something really specific, it starts throbbing." Dabi rubbed it. 

"Genjutsu would block memory that specific, not a drug. I think it's a combination. Very dangerous, used on spies sometimes to make sure they can't give themselves away--unless someone detects it, but that's rare. I don't know whether this is good or bad news. The memory must all still be there, just suppressed. But genjutsu can last months, even years, if it's never pinpointed..."

"Years?!" Dabi exploded.

He still didn't understand what a genjutsu was, but if it was the cause of this, he was going to panic again.

"Calm down. That wouldn't be very unusual for something we're this aware of." Mabui held up a hand. "Our minds will resist it more. It should give out in a matter of days."

"Oh, that's so much better." Tersely. "Days? We'll be dead by then."

"Not necessarily, and you really need to control yourself." She folded her arms. "This is no way to act. Whoever did this is still looking for us...for me, especially, it sounds like. Must be something to do with Cloud."

"Well, then it has nothing to do with me!" Dabi said angrily. "And I don't want any part of it. Maybe there's a highway somewhere around here that someone would be by... Hitchhiking isn't a great idea, but as long as I don't look like a burnt chicken, maybe I could manage it..."

"A highway?" she repeated. "What is that?"

"You know, a highway? With cars?"

Blank look.

"Well, it's beside the point. Usually there's something, even in remote places," Dabi said. "Can't be that far from the city, I think..."

"What are cars?" Mabui pressed.

Pause.

Dabi had a sinking sensation in his stomach.

"Vehicles?" he said nervously. "You know...with wheels."

"Wagons?" 

"No, I mean...some of them are called that, but, you know, motorized vehicles... You don't know what that is?"

She shook her head. "But it sounds more effective...but also, anything with a motor would be far too noisy to use out here. Any ninja would find you in minutes."

Dabi wasn't sure how she knew what a motor was but didn't know what a car was. [Yeah, logic, show.]

"I think I am gonna die out here," he said flatly.

"Do it on your own time then," she said sharply. "I can't afford to waste time on this. I suppose the only thing to do is find someone, maybe the other Cloud ninja out here... That would be the first priority. If you want to come, then stop complaining...or stay here. Your choice."

Dabi glared at her, but then he looked around. "Well, I guess it's as easy to look for a highway this way... Do you really think you'd survive alone?"

Pause.

"No," Mabui said. "But I have to try."

Dabi finally almost had to smirk. "Fine, you have grit, I'll give you that, lady."

"Stop calling me that. It's Mabui or Tsukura, not 'lady'."

"Whatever. They say two have a better chance than one to survive  in this situation, so splitting up seems like a bad idea. But I still think we're doomed."

"I hope that attitude won't translate to your fighting skills," Mabui shot back.

"I can fight. That's not the problem... It's the exposure."

This was true.

"Just have to work fast then." Mabui really wasn't nearly as sure as she wanted to sound that she could find her way out of here any more than he could, but ninja did not give up.

After they'd looked around for a while longer, though, they had only managed to evade more of the same guys as before, all dressed in camouflaged colors.

Dabi wanted to fight them, but Mabui said they were too outnumbered to risk it.

She then said they hadn't found anyone else because anyone who was smart would avoid these people too.

Dabi wasn't sure why the men didn't seem to see them. He wasn't that quiet, but they kept wandering away.

Mabui expressed surprise at it too.

"They chased me," she said. "Didn't they chase you?"

"Only after I followed them," he said. "They did say they didn't want me. I wonder why."

"You're powerful enough; I'd think they would want your jutsu," Mabui mused.

Dabi laughed bitterly. "Oh, sure."

"What?" She was surprised.

"No one would want to steal this." Dabi didn't have an issue believing someone would try, since he knew AFO was a thing.

"Fire strong enough to incinerate someone in minutes?" Mabui said as if he was stupid. 

"I mean, I guess if you could take it without getting the weakness with it. But the average person's not adapted to resisting heat to begin with. They wouldn't be much better off than I am."

"I don't understand."

Dabi sighed. "Elemental powers have to work with your body, all right? You have to have a tolerance for heat or for cold...or whatever you do. Some people have more than others... Don't you know any of this?"

"I...have heard it... My jutsu doesn't require that kind of immunity," Mabui said carefully. "And most users of elemental jutsu try to aim it away from their own bodies."

"If they can, but my fire sits close to me." Dabi flicked it into his fingers. "I could never control it well enough to shoot it that far away. All that heat stays close to my body. I get too hot really fast."

"I see." Mabui didn't sound as if this surprised her at all.

Dabi waited for her to ask more, and she didn't.

"Is that it?" he said. "No reaction?"

"I'm confused. Was I supposed to be surprised? Lack of control is a common issue," she said. "Though, you could train out of it."

That word triggered Dabi, though it wasn't that unusual a thing to say.

"Train? Right!" he said darkly. "Tried that. Tried that for years... Melted my own d--m skin off trying to train out of it."

Mabui was shocked. "It was that destructive?"

"The fire quirk is very strong...but I have cold resistance, not heat." Dabi came out with the truth. 

"What?" Now she was confused. "How?"

"It's really funny story." Dabi didn't say it like it was really funny. "My father has fire. My mother has ice. Genetics are crazy. I got her ice tolerance and his fire... Only the fire is stronger than his is, even. It's imbalanced. I can hold out for a few seconds at most before I start burning myself."

"You used it before." Mabui was stunned.

"For a few seconds, yeah... It can depend on how close I am to the flames once I start them, but I have to be careful. So now you know. In a real fight, in a place with a bunch of trees, I'd be more likely to kill myself and burn the entire place down than actually finish off anyone else."

"That is an unfortunate weakness," Mabui stated.

Funny, the way she said it was almost so impartial it didn't even sound like an insult. But Dabi still didn't like it.

"Yeah, I'm not lucky," he said bitterly.

"But I can't understand why you'd even use fire at all," she followed up. "There are other jutsus to learn, ones that would work more...and why not just learn water?"

"Just learn it?" Dabi now looked at her like she was crazy. "You can't learn more than one quirk...unless you're All For On--" He stopped. He wasn't supposed to talk about that...but then, it was all over the news. Everyone knew... Not this woman, but he supposed that didn't really matter.

"Quirk?" Mabui repeated. "You keep mentioning them... Don't you mean jutsu?"

"Whatever you call it, unless you're a one in a million statistic, most people only have one quirk... Well, my brother has two, sort of, but they're still the same principle." Dabi didn't ever mention his brother to anyone, but what was she going to do? She didn't even know who Endeavor was.

Also...weirdly, it hadn't felt that odd to say it. Like he was used to it, for some reason.

"You come from a very odd Village then." Mabui wasn't convinced. "You could learn more than one, I assure you. Besides, anyone with the control to even use that at all, if it's as bad as you're saying, could have enough control to learn other skills. Why stick with fire? Is it family tradition?"

"Well, you could say that..." Dabi said, not very nicely.

"Wouldn't they understand the reason to...change it?"

"Oh, no, not my family," Dabi scoffed. "My father is Mr. Fire Quirk Hero himself, if you know what I mean... Well, you don't, but most people would know it if I said his name."

"I can't think of anyone like that... Fire is a rare jutsu. I think I heard the Uchiha clan used it, but...they've all been wiped out."

"Wiped out? What, rival gang?"

"No, they were wiped out by one of their own, a very powerful one. I'm not sure why. Rumors vary on his reasons. Some say he didn't want competition. Others say he was told to on the sly by the elders of the Village."

"And he did it?" Dabi had the weirdest sense of deja vu , like he'd heard this before...but where? When?

"I guess he did... Horrifying, isn't it?" Mabui said in a low voice.

"Yeah, I'd say so..." Dabi scowled. "Nice village."

"Leaf is full of internal issues."

"And your village isn't, I'm guessing." Skeptically. Didn't all cults fight among themselves?

"Not like that." Mabui thought. "I've...had some...issues with it. But, overall, we don't kill each other. Case in point, I'm from a powerful clan... It's gone now, save for me, but it wasn't the Village, or even outsiders, like with the other 4 shinobi Villages. We died out on our own."

"Maybe they just thought you didn't need help then." Dabi said an insensitive thing.

She stopped short, turned, and gave him such a withering look, he regretted it--for some reaso,. He didn't usually feel guilty for stuff like that.

"Okay...that was in poor taste... Stop looking at me like that," he said.

"It wasn't funny." She was furious, obviously.

"Well, nothing you said was funny either. I mean, whatever your deal is with this gang, you all sound pretty cutthroat--massacring their own people? What was I supposed to say? You're the outlier?"

"I'm the only one left," Mabui said, still angry.

"I didn't know that," Dabi repeated, then paused. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Dabi didn't really know how to sound sympathetic, or if he even cared to do so. "That's..."

"Sad?" she suggested.

"I mean, I guess it's sad. I was more thinking weird. I mean a whole clan? Just...dying out? That seems weird. Are you sure it wasn't planned?"

For whatever reason, she calmed down at this.

It was because it was such an old idea to ninja, Mabui didn't think anything of him suggesting it.

"I've thought about it, but it was too unlikely to be so spread out." She sighed. "The clan has some kind of inherited disease. No one knows what it is. It spread through it over time, and in the last generation it suddenly just got much more prevalent. My own parents succumbed to it less than 20 years ago... Well, it was on the battlefield, but, I found out later, they already had symptoms. I suppose they wanted to go out fighting."

"That was a lot of info to just hit me with."

"And your problem with your jutsu was not?"

"I thought it might come up later, that was why," Dabi said. "I can't really fight."

"My clan's jutsu may also be the reason I'm being hunted, so it was relevant also."

"So what is your quir--or jutsu? It looked Iike you just teleported something out of the air."

She looked surprised. "Most people don't understand it right away."

"It's not that rare... I mean, it is a rare type, but that variation of it isn't as rare as warping people's is, so it's easier to guess. 'Course you could have just pulled them underground or something, but I wasn't sure where they'd have popped out of."

"You were right. I teleported them." Mabui almost looked impressed. "Small objects are easy, no need to use a lot of hand signs. Large ones, I have to. It's the clan jutsu... It was very useful. That was why I was made the Kage's assistant. A lot of my family have worked closely with Kages over the years or in Intelligence. We can convey messages that are untraceable and do it instantaneously."

"That does sound useful." Dabi didn't care that much. It was just the same quirk with different steps as he'd seen plenty of times.

"But all rare jutsus are hunted by others...usually. Cloud is so fortified that no one gets that far." Mabui glanced around. "Which is why I'm not sure why I'm out here, with only one other Cloud... To risk that, the jutsu being lost for good...I mean..." Dhe looked down. "I don't have children, so..."

"That sounds like a bad reason to not do work." Dabi was not a fan of this way of thinking--his family history showed why. 

"But the Village might prioritize it, especially in a woman," Mabui explained. "I've hardly ever left the Village, I think partly because of that."

"That is incredibly sexist." Dabi was disgusted. "Maybe you left for this mission as an act of rebellion."

That would be slightly more interesting than just being sent out of it, he thought.

"I doubt it. That doesn't sound like something I would do," she said, not sure if he was serious or not.

"Really? With that kind of attitude, you'd not want to ditch them?"

"We don't ditch our Village!" she said, sharply. "What a thing to say."

"It's just a tow. What's the big deal? If you don't like it, move. That's my motto," Dabi scoffed. "Some people are just too loyal for their own good. Just like my sister. She'll never leave that house, even though it's a nightmare."

Then he paused. Why did he feel as if he'd talked to Fuyumi not that long ago...? But how? Why?

He still felt like he knew her situation more personally than he should have after 14 years...but he felt distinctly as if it was true. He did know...but he didn't know how...

And his head hurt again.

[This jutsu is really the worst, isn't it?

Are you all enjoying this? We're going to catch up with the other team members, don't worry. I was trying to order this in a way that would be easier to follow.

Some of you may get the title's reference, but it's obscure. "Bereft" is the title for a Young Justice episode that had the same plot as this, almost. I was inspired by it when I came up with this arc.]