[OP:  "Eurus"--The Oh Hellos]

"What?" Temari was sitting on the wall.

"There's trouble in the village--Naruto. We need to go as a group," Gaara said.

Temari's eyes widened. "Right. Hey--" She looked up at the roof. "--Uchiha, your buddy's in trouble. Want to do something useful for once?"

Sasuke glared down at her. "I don't think I should be involved in whatever it is you're talking about."

"Suit yourself, but Likstar and us are going," Temari said.

That was more effective than she expected: Sasuke frowned, but he jumped to the ground.

Kankuro had already come running and heard the same thing. And Shine was already sending Wally a note.

But Wally's answer was that he had to get Bakugo right now and would be there as soon as he was finished, but that he couldn't risk letting him fight thieves by himself.

Shine took a second to realize that two of her blonde, short-tempered students were currently in trouble, before putting the letter in her pocket and running out into the yard.

Tenten, Jugo, and the Hyuga sisters, with Dabi, were waiting there.

Almost everyone else had gone with Wally or was in the village center already. Momo and Shoto had both thought they could help Wally with scouting, and Suigetsu had gone with Karin, despite her still being angry at him--or because of it. He was hard to figure out.

Shikamaru came out last but in more of a hurry than he usually did.

"What's going on?" he said.

"Your idiot friend is in trouble." Temari had her fan ready now. "Let's go."

"I can take us closer to it, even if I can't take us to the crowd," Shine said. "I just sent a note to Sai asking him to get into a bigger space when no one is looking. I hope it works."

"Hey, what's going on?" Sakura appeared finally. No one had actually called her, but she'd heard the commotion.

"Naruto is in trouble," Shikamaru informed her.

"Oh, so it's a normal day," Sakura said. "Wait, what kind of trouble?"

"The kind where he might get hurt," Temari said.

"Oh...that kind." At least Sakura did look worried.

"You can come if you want," Shine said. "But if you do anything stupid, you're going right back."

"It's Naruto who's in trouble," Sakura said. "You really think I'm gonna do something stupid?"

Shine rolled her eyes. "I think it's been long enough. Everyone get ready."

She opened a portal.

They all ran through it.

* * *

On the other side, Sai had gone out of the alley. This street was very empty. Most people must have been watching the 'demonstration'.

In fact, more people had arrived while they were waiting. It was now 50 people at least.

"Hey, look," Ino said to Camie. "Do you see those kids there at the edge...? Ryuji, Lin, and...some others. Those are the ones we helped."

"Are you kidding me?" Camie asked. "They're participating in this? What little rats."

"I don't know if they're watching this because they're horrified or because they're supporting it," Ino said. "I can't tell... Either way, I feel horrible. But where is Naruto?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't really jump on the stage," Camie said.

Well, as if on cue, Naruto jumped on the stage right then.

The only reason he hadn't done it sooner was that he himself had noticed that some of the people there were ones they'd seen in the village while they were working on helping them, and that had made him very angry.

He had left the compound to find Onoki, just as they'd guessed. But Onoki had not been at the Kage house. Naruto had decided to look for him in the village, but then his clones had reported to him that they'd found something else going on, and the real Naruto had rushed to this area to see what it was.

It took him a while to figure out why the people were doing it, since Leaf had never had this, in his memory, unless you counted him spray-painting the Kages' mountain...but finally he got it.

And on top of that, some of the crowd were hurling insults while they were throwing, calling Gaara a "b-----d" for bringing a witch and her coven into the village.

The rumor itself was so ridiculous that even Naruto found it unbelievable that anyone would...believe it. [Haha.]

But the crowd didn't seem to see the issue.

Naruto thought it was so stupid--if he just told them so, it would clear everything up. [Remember when we were all that naive about our political disagreements?--Don't comment examples. This is a general statement.]

So he got up on stage.

"Hey!" he said loudly.

The crowd went silent real fast.

"That's Naruto Uzumaki," some people muttered. "He's a hero from the war."

"I heard he's powerful."

"I heard he's a jinchuriki."

"No, he's not now," someone else argued. "In the war he lost it."

"So he's not powerful now?"

"I don't know. Maybe he is..."

"He's in the Kazekage's party."

"All of you, shut up!" Naruto held up his fist. "What are you all doing? How can you treat Gaara this way? He came here to help you! And there's no witches or anything else like that in our team! We're all really nice people. Some of you know us, come on."

When he said that, the kids who did know him stepped way back, as if they were afraid he'd call on them.

"Hey, you guys!" Naruto didn't read the room. "Come on, tell them."

Many eyes turned toward Ryuji, Lin, and the other couple of boys with them.

They looked a little wan.

"No, we don't know what he's talking about," Ryuji said. 

"He's got us confused with other kids," Lin said.

"Didn't you try to steal something in the marketplace, and they helped you?" one adult said. 

"No," Ryuji lied.

"Yes, it was them. These people abet thieves!" someone said. "Those two boys are ruffians... And the rest of you too? A whole pack."

The boys took off right then.

No one bothered to help them--they were too focused on Naruto.

"Oh, come on..." Naruto apparently didn't realize that he would have just gotten those kids beaten up. But then, he didn't realize that he could be about to get beaten up if he wasn't careful.

About this point, the others arrived via portal.

"Oh, thank goodness." Ino looked back. "Hurry, Naruto's making a speech!"

"Oh no." Sakura ran to peer around the corner. "How could he be so stupid!? I'll clobber him for this."

"You may not have to." Sasuke sprang onto the wall so he could see over the heroes' heads. "I think they're going to do it for you."

"Naruto can handle these people...right?" Hinata asked.

"Not if he's not ready for it..." Shine peered around the corner. "Okay...this is not going to get any better. I'm going to go get him. I can portal once I'm up there. I don't love the idea of showing all these people my power, but I have no choice."

"Why not just do it now?" Camie asked.

"I would, but if he fights it he could get hurt." Shine pursed her lips. "I'd rather just get his attention myself."

"If you go out there, they could get angry at you," Gaara said. "But we can't risk attacking those people. That will incite them more."

"Agreed," Shine said. "But if necessary, you'd better run for it... Wally might be here soon if he gets Bakugo, but I can't pretend to know how long that fight could last...so don't count on it."

She swallowed. "Here goes nothing."

She put her hand up so she could pull out her sword and went into the street.

"She's not exactly inconspicuous," Sakura said. "Why not just risk bringing Naruto here?"

"You know that if he tries to fight it, he could lose a limb?" Gaara said.

"Not his first time," Dabi said. "But I think he'd like to keep the other ones."

Sakura bit her lip. "Well, she'd better hurry."

Ino put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure Naruto will be fine."

"I think I should got out there," Gaara said. "Perhaps I can distract them while she gets Naruto."

"And if they decide to take it out on you?" Temari said.

"They won't dare," Gaara said. "I'm still the Kazekage."

"Gaara, did you see who those images were of?" Kankuro asked nervously.

Gaara had not exactly looked at them before, but now he did. His eyes widened.

"Wait, is that you guys?" Tenten looked. "Why would they do that?"

"Public disgrace," Sai said. 

"That's horrible!" Hanabi cried. "What jerks! We should go out there and knock some sense into them."

"Kid, what are you on?" Dabi asked. "You go out there and you'll get laid out faster than an old set of clothes."

"Shine can talk her way out of almost anything," Temari mused. "Maybe she can talk her way out of this... Gaara, you can't go out there. I count at least 70 or so we can see, but there could be ones we can't. We did not live this long for you to get sniped by someone in Stone Village over something like this."

"I can't abandon my team," Gaara said.

"Shh," Kankuro said. "Someone is going to hear us arguing."

Some people had started to look around as if they heard voices.

The group went silent.

Shine hadn't been noticed yet. Everyone's eyes were on Naruto.

"Listen to this kid," some of them had said. "He thinks he's big enough to tell us that our Kage is wrong."

"What do you mean?" Naruto said. "Gramps wouldn't say any of what you're saying."

"Well, I heard it was his own aides that first said it," said another person.

"I heard it from the staff at the hospital," a different person spoke. "All of you believe in something sinister, and you try to control people's minds."

"That's stupid!" Naruto said. "None of that is true."

"Oh, and you'd admit it if it was?" Someone made almost a valid point.

"Well, I wouldn't admit it if it wasn't." Naruto shot back almost a good retort.

"Oh, that kid is so dead," Dabi said. "Unless Shine has a smoke bomb... Where's Princess when we need her?"

"A shame none of us have those," Shikamaru said.

"I might," Tenten said. "Let me check..." She opened her bag to look through her scrolls.

"You ever just think that carrying the objects themselves would save time?" Dabi asked lazily.

"Shut up!" Tenten hissed.

"All of you must not try to fight them," Gaara insisted. "We'll whip them into a frenzy. One thing I know is people's fear."

"That sounds so boss when you say it like that, but I'm too freaked out to care," Camie whimpered.

Shine finally got to the edge of the crowd, and now some began to notice her. She was too tall and too unlike a ninja in appearance not to stand out.

"Hey, isn't that one of them?" they said.

"Naruto," Shine called, "get over here."

"Miss Likstar!" Naruto said.

Temari hit her head on the edge of her fan. "Why is he so stupid...?"

"I think he's just too innocent to understand what they're doing," Hinata offered. "Oh, Naruto, please get out of there." She put her hands together.

Hanabi seized her arm...whether it was to comfort her or to be comforted by her was unclear.

Shine frowned at Naruto.

"Well, here's one of them now!" said one of the men who seemed to have been the head of this gathering. "I think this is the one they're talking about. The witch."

People backed up from Shine.

"I'm not a witch," Shine said, while knowing it was useless to deny it. "I just want to get my student and go, peacefully." She held up her hands.

"Peacefully?" someone spat, literally, at her, though it missed.

"You disrespected our Kage!" someone said.

"I heard that you tried to put a spell on him, but he was too powerful for you," someone else said.

"Heard from whom?" Shine couldn't help but say sassily. "The Bullcrap News Network?"

"Ooh, nice," Dabi said.

"Uh, not nice. Is she crazy?" Temari asked.

"Naruto," Shine hissed up at him, "I'm going to get us out of here. Come close and do not to try to get out of it."

"What? Miss Likstar, I'm trying to explain to them that they're wrong," Naruto said. "I can do it, trust me."

"Naruto, get over here now!" Shine snapped in a stern tone.

Naruto hesitated, but the crowd had heard her that time.

"Oh, why don't you go to him?" they said.

Someone made a sign, and the rock under Shine's feet surged upwards and propelled her onto the stage with a hard landing.

She wasn't durable enough for that not to rattle her.

"Miss Likstar!" Naruto yelped. He took her arm. "Are you okay?"

"Ow." Shine frowned. "Not really. But let's go--" She held out her hand, ready to portal.

But before she could focus enough to do so, the men jumped onto the stage and yanked Naruto away from her.

Now she couldn't portal without taking them with him.

"Hey, let me go!" Naruto tried to get his hands loose so he could make clones, but these people were smart enough not to let him do that.

"Stupid ninja and your stupid hand signs," Dabi said. "If you could do what we could, he'd be free. Now do we fight?"

"This situation is turning dark quickly," Gaara said. "But we'll only incite them to attack if we attack. I'm going to try to get their attention. Shine might be able to slip Naruto away from them if we do that."

He went out before Temari or Kankuro could protest again.

"Ugh, I hate diplomacy!" Temari said. 

"I knew you'd say that, sooner or later," Dabi said.

"Shut up!" She kicked him before she followed Gaara.

Kankuro did also, wordlessly.

"I feel like we should be running, not going out there," Ino said. "But we can't leave them like this."

"I could get Naruto if Gaara would let me fight those people," Sakura said. "But I can't really do anything with that."

"Perhaps if I made some drawings, they could get to him," Sai said.

"No, that will panic them for sure." Shikamaru said. "But I might be able to use Shadow Possession on the group....or will that also make them panic? I don't like our odds if this turns into a huge mob. Unless Gaara is willing to use his power to stop them...but an attack like that could only hurt our reputation further... Diplomacy is a double-edged sword after all."

Hanabi was looking around with her Byakugan, and suddenly she noticed that the boys of before had hidden in the alleys.

She realized that Eichi was with them.

Suddenly she wondered if he'd heard something about all this, and that had been why he'd spoken to her so oddly before... If they all had heard this...how long had these rumors really been circulating? Were they sure it was only a couple days?

"People of Stone Village," Gaara said loudly, raising himself up on sand.

The crowd turned toward him, surprised. Some of them backed up.

"Please stop this," Gaara said. "We mean you no harm. We only want peace."

"Peace?!" people yelled at him. "Did you attack our Tsuchikage for peace?"

"I never attacked him." Gaara was shocked. "How could I do that in your own village?"

"It happens all the time," they shot back.

"Attacked him?" Temari said.

Kankuro frowned. "What if they heard that we insulted him...? Insult, attack, that can sound like the same thing to people."

"But these fools sound like they're taking it literally," Temari said.

"Maybe they didn't know it was figurative," Kankuro said. "Either that or they're stupid and want an excuse to do this..."

Gaara looked up. "Perhaps there was a misunderstanding," he said. "Onoki and I have had some discussion of our differences, but we have never raised our fists against each other in battle. I would not do that."

"Then why are you here right now?" someone hurled at him. "The Terror of The Sand, here to wreak havoc on us all?"

"No, I--" Gaara blinked.

"Gaara!" Shine yelled. "Just get out of here!"

"Yeah, Gaara, get out of here!" Naruto agreed.

"We'll handle this," Shine added.

"But Miss Likstar--" Gaara protest.

"You heard her." Temari didn't like the way this was going. She grabbed Gaara by his wrist, since he was above her head. "Come on, move."

"We have to find Onoki," Gaara said, lowering himself. "He can talk some sense into these people. Tell them it wasn't like that."

"Yeah, maybe," Kankuro said. "If we're sure he didn't start this to begin with."

"He would never do anything so underhanded as this," Gaara said.

Temari privately thought that the guy who'd tried to undermine the Summit, and other villages many times in the past, might not really be so far from his M.O. here as Gaara though.

But she hoped he was right. Onoki would have been honorable with them, right? After they'd agreed to think about his offer...

Unless...(suddenly she went cold) unless the offer was a trap in of itself...which they'd considered, but what if this was the reason? They'd worried about an attack on them directly by Onoki... Was it possible it simply was this itself? The people were turning on them...and it would only get worse the longer this altercation went on.

Her thoughts were interrupted by more people coming to watch this, drawn by the yelling and seeing Team Zoe on the street.

The crowd was swelling to 100 people now, maybe more.

Shine moved toward Naruto slowly, hoping no one was looking, but someone said, "She's moving! Stop her!"

Someone made hand signs, and stone rose up to grab Shine's feet.

She reached for her sword--but the Stone ninja moved faster than she could and grabbed her arms.

Shine couldn't do much more than they could without her hands...at least as far as anyone knew.

"None of your jutsu," they said to her, "witch."

"This is too far!" Gaara turned back.

"Don't come any closer!" One of them held up a kunai. "Or we'll kill them now."

"Hey, let me go!" Naruto squirmed. "Stop it!" He tried to kick.

"Naruto!" Shine's tone was scary--but also afraid. "Stop. Moving."

Naruto froze, startled by her voice.

"Anyone have an idea now?" Sakura said in a small voice.

"If they do anything else, we'll have to fight them, no choice," Dabi said. "But the problem is if we move out, they could kill them anyway. None of us are that fast."

"Wally could save her," Camie said. "But he's not here!" She hugged her sides.

"Shoto might be able to break it up there," Dabi said. "But Gaara can't do it without them freaking out. He's too visible. Dang it! He shouldn't have gone out there."

"Now, you say that," Tenten griped. "I haven't found any smoke bombs either... I really need to restock on supplies."

"I could try to get them to let go," Ino said. 

"No, if you do that, they could attack you," Camie said. 

"Well, someone has to do something!" Ino was getting more and more stressed.

Hinata wasn't sure what to do either.

"Is it true you know incantations?" one of the shinobi asked Shine.

Shine was silent.

"Answer us!" He gave her arm a shake. "Or we'll waste the kid right now."

Shine's eyes looked dangerous, despite her vulnerable position.

"Fine," she said in a very cold voice that did not show the fear they knew she must feel. "The answer that is no, to your great disappointment, I'm sure."

"What?" the man said.

"Clearly, you want to believe that I'm a witch," Shine said. "So no amount of my saying I'm not one will convince you. If I was a witch, I might already have broken free, but you won't think of that. Small-minded, ignorant, rebellious fools."

"Well," Dabi said in the voice of someone who knew they were all screwed, "leave it to Shine to insult someone while she's in trouble."

"Oh really?" The man was mad now. "How's this for a fool?" He slapped her.

Shine seemed to be ready for it and moved slightly, but couldn't exactly dodge right now.

"Hey!" Naruto protested.

Shine recovered. "You're not the first person who's hit me for my beliefs," she said. "And you probably won't be the last. I hope it was worth it for you."

Now, something about that answer did seem to give the man pause, like he was wondering what she meant by that.

But even if there was a glimmer of doubt in his mind, the crowd would not let him stay that way.

"She's not doing anything to you!" they called. "She must be weak to physical attacks, just like any genjutsu user. Now is our chance! We can send a message to this cult!"

"Yeah, we don't need any of your profane practices here!" someone else yelled.

"Name one of those practices," Shine called loudly. "I dare you!"

"You know what you do," they retorted.

"As expected," Shine said, with a look of annoyance at the man who'd hit her. "You have no idea what we do, but you're all certain that it's evil. You people are never original."

"What is she doing?" Shikamaru asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Dabi asked. "She's keeping their focus on her, so Naruto can break free. They didn't pin his feet down. If he just gets away from them, she can probably get out of there, or at least he can. That's what she's worried about. Shine's been attacked too many times by people like this for it to bother her anymore."

"I'm sure it still bothers her," Ino said.

She was probably right.

"Guys," Sakura suddenly said, "Sasuke is not here."

"So he ran off again?" Dabi said. "Why am I even surprised? Of course he did."

"Wouldn't think he'd want to miss this," Shikamaru said. "He loathes all of you so much."

"Not as much as you might think," Sakura muttered, too low for them to hear.

That's why she was surprised that Sasuke had just run for it. Unless he thought he'd make this worse if he stayed, but it wasn't like him to be that considerate.

No one was sure what to do, and the uncertainty was unlike them. They all felt horribly useless. Still, they weren't sure if moving out there would only seal the fate of their two friends.

Gaara didn't dare move now.

But Shine's provoking the people had gotten her one thing: the person with the kunai had moved because they were letting the other guy hit her.

Shine noticed it and looked at them. Her eyes flashed gold without her knowing it.

They yelped in fear.

The kunai vanished out of their hands.

No one knew where it went.

"Witch!" they cried and jumped off of the stage.

The man who hit her drew back too.

Shine glanced at him. "I can do worse than that," she said. "But I will hold back if you get away from me and let Naruto go. No reason for there to be bloodshed today."

"Brilliant," Dabi said. "Never mind, she's got this handled."

And that sad thing was--it might have worked.

But one terrible thing happened right at that moment.

Gaara didn't understand it when people suddenly turned and gasped, "It's the Kage."

But then he looked.

And it was.

Onoki had appeared at the end of this street.

Kurotsuchi and Kitsuchi were with him.

Not many of Team Zoe looked that hard at Kurotsuchi, but Ino, always attentive to people's body language, noticed that she at least looked very surprised by the scene she was witnessing.

But her father did not, and neither did Onoki or any of his guards.

Everyone in Team Zoe thought the violence would stop immediately.

And possibly most of the crowd did too.

But Onoki didn't even seem to notice them... Actually, that wasn't true--Dabi was sure his eyes darted that direction, because he turned sharply down a different street.

The others followed him, though his granddaughter seemed puzzled by it.

That silent sanctioning was the only encouragement the mob needed to get riled up again.

Shine was almost as stunned as the others--almost, but she'd been betrayed enough times to not be so completely floored that she froze up.

When the man who hit her turned back to face her, with new vigor, she focused, and a door opened beneath him and dropped him into the middle of the crowd.

The purple light scared everyone, and they backed up from her again.

"Hold on," someone said. "I've heard of this before... In the war, there was someone who could do this... It's just a teleportation jutsu with limits."

"Why do they only have to be smart at the wrong moments?" Dabi griped.

"If you're sure," Shine said loudly and defiantly, "then by all means, test that theory."

Now, everyone was still more afraid of her than they were letting on, because no one came closer. The people holding her arms in place didn't seem to want to be there, and they let go and backed up.

Shine now might have been able to defend herself. But before she could do this, someone threw a glass bottle at her.

It went right past her and hit the posters, but the crowd realized at once that she hadn't stopped it.

"Maybe she's weaker to long range attacks," they reasoned.

This was the one thing Shine hadn't wanted them to figure out, and now she looked worried. Maybe if she'd yelled at them again, she could have cowed them--but unfortunately her concern for Naruto made her look around him to see what would happen.

Naruto was still being held in place, and he'd almost forgotten about trying to break free, he was so focused on what was going on. [If anyone wants to say Naruto wouldn't do that, I point them to half of his major fights in the show, including his one with Gaara and with Pain. Actually, Naruto being affected by fear is one of his more humanizing qualities that I appreciate.]

Several people began to pick up more objects to throw: fruit, tin cans, plastic bottles--and stones.

Now, the first three were not likely to do any real damage even if they landed, but the rocks were another story.

A flurry of projectiles came hurtling through the air.

Shine pulled out her sword finally--and seeing it appear out of the air scared the people also.

She was able to block most of the objects or knock them aside--but one well-aimed glass bottle hit her in the wrist.

She dropped her sword in pain.

"Now we've got her," said a man who was either the bravest or stupid out of the group if. After seeing all that, he assumed that Shine had no more tricks.

But in this case he was closer to the truth.

Sai suddenly tried to bolt forward.

"No!" Ino grabbed his arm before he could do it, and Dabi grabbed him by his collar.

"It's too late," Ino said, feeling sick with fear. "They'll only throw things at you... No one can dodge so many."

"I must intervene now." Gaara had been distracted by Onoki leaving, but now he turned back to the scene and saw what was happening.

"Gaara, that's going to be you if you intervene," Temari said. "You can't... Let me do it."

"Yeah, you can't risk this." Kankuro gripped him. "I'm concerned about Shine, but she can handle herself. If you attack them, this is all over."

"One of you do something then!" Gaara never asked them to do this, and it scared them to hear him so haggard.

But this few seconds of arguing had cost them.

More people were throwing things.

Shine ducked a few and tried to summon her sword into her other hand, but it was kind of hard to focus on it at the moment.

Naruto got hit a few times, but he was more used to it, and still no one was letting him go. They knew Shine was the main threat.

Then a rock that was too big to be a pebble came flying at Shine's face, and she knew she wasn't going to dodge it fast enough even before she had time to think of the consequences.

She closed her eyes.

Everyone else wanted to rush forward, but it was too late for them to stop it.

But...then the rock stopped in mid air.

Or, to put it more accurately, someone caught it.

No one believed their eyes.

The person was Sasuke.

* * *

Sakura gasped.

Shine opened her eyes.

Sasuke had stolen away from the others a while ago and started sneaking towards the stage, without any real plan of what he would do if he got there, but that was like him.

It was easy for him to camouflage himself. Even though he didn't usually use that trick, he could do it. Most ninjas could.

And though he wasn't perfect at it, no one had watched the back of the stage closely enough to notice him.

He'd dodged the other projectiles easily, and leapt onto the stage before discarding the camouflage. No one had even noticed him by the posters. They were focused on Shine.

And with his Uchiha reflexes, he was probably the only one who could have been fast enough to move to the front of the stage and catch the rock without even having to step in front of her.

The sight of him, to those in the crowd who knew who he was, was enough to make them stop and lower their hands.

"What? Who's that?" others asked, and then people started to tell them.

"It's the Uchiha..."

"The one who was in that Akatsuki."

"He started the war."

"He was in their party!"

"Careful, he can do Sharingan. Don't look in his eyes."

Sasuke's eyes had turned blood red.

You could see, if you knew him--or if you didn't--that he was already thinking about setting them all on fire or worse. His pupils were spinning.

Even Team Zoe didn't dare move right now. Sasuke might just as easily attack them if he had tunnel vision, and no one wanted to be set on fire.

Naturally, Shine was the only one not afraid of him. But her reaction still was surprising.

"What are you doing?" She grabbed his hand and made him drop the rock.

Sasuke looked away from the crowd long enough to give her a confused stare...which was the most human look on his face you were likely to see.

Shine finally had her sword again, and she broke the rocks at her feet in one swift motion--or cut clean through them, it was hard to tell. No one could hear anything over the crowd's murmuring.

"Get out of here," Shine said to Sasuke, as if it was the logical thing to say. "Now!"

"What--?" Sasuke began.

"Just go!" Shine said, so savagely that he flinched.

Then suddenly he began to see what she was afraid of... His eyes must have been spinning, though he couldn't tell when they were any more than Shine could tell when hers glowed.

But he could feel the dark anger inside him, moving...

Shine must think he wanted to kill all these people or put them in the Eternal Nightmare.

Which he very much wanted to do, so she was on point.

But...she would never allow it--or, even if she couldn't stop him, apparently she still didn't want this. Even when they were clearly trying to kill her.

That was how abhorrent his powers were.

Now, it's not certain that Sasuke entirely had Shine's reason right on this, but likely it was close enough.

His eyes went back to normal quickly, since he went to being more afraid than angry.

No one in the mob dared to attack him even so. Some of them had seen Madara's attack, and they figured Sasuke would be nearly as fast. He might destroy them all in minutes.

"I said to get out of here!" Shine lowered her voice, but she was still fierce. "Are you deaf? Move it."

Temari had had enough.

"Screw it," she said, summoning a gust of wind.

She knocked most of the people back, either on their rear ends or into each other.

The people holding Naruto had been standing there, too petrified to move, or had forgotten they were hanging onto him, and Sasuke looked toward them and they flinched.

Sasuke didn't move, but Shine sprang forward and knocked them both aside. "Naruto, we're going," she said. "Sasuke, do not make me tell you again."

Sasuke remembered, in the small part of his mind that was rational at this moment, that Shine couldn't easily portal him because of his powers--and since he'd almost just used them, likely that could be worse than before.

Somehow, he didn't feel as if he could move, but fortunately, the others didn't wait for him to.

Now that Temari had cleared them away, the Stone Village people weren't anxious to attack again.

Kankuro rushed up to the platform and took hold of Sasuke, which was brave, since he thought he might get attacked--but Sasuke acted like a doll, not moving his own limbs.

Sakura decided to help, figuring that Sasuke would...maybe not attack her...or at least she was used to it.

Gaara lifted Shine and Naruto off the stage with his sand now.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have done something, but I thought they would--"

"No, no, you were right," Shine cut him off. "Out of here, now, while they're still afraid."

She kept a hold on Naruto like she thought he might run for it, but even he was too spooked now to resist.

Gaara carried them, and everyone else followed as fast as they could.