[OP: "This Will End"--The Oh Hellos]

"Are you going to meet with Mirai today?" Shine asked Gaara when they had all gathered outside, trying to avoid the puddles that were everywhere--for a village that was always in rain, it really didn't have a very good drainage system.

Gaara looked startled. "Alone?"

"That is how it's been done," Shine said.

"Clearly it didn't work very well," Gaara said, more dryly than he usually spoke. "Should you go with me?"

"But no one in Rain Village knows about us in the war," Shine said. "It hardly has the same effect. I don't think they were at all impressed when you told them we were your senseis...and, really, why should they be? Surely you can handle it."

Gaara didn't know if he could.

"There is no rush," he said. "We still haven't assessed the village's needs."

"What better way to do that than for you to ask Mirai about it, while we scope it out?" Shine pressed. "Come now, it might look rude if you don't do it. She'll feel slighted."

"Don't push him." Temari began to worry that Gaara would feel panicked. "It's up to him, isn't it?"

Shine game Temari a look like "are you questioning my authority?"

Or maybe it was "you're ruining this for me." With Shine it was hard to tell.

Wally thought Shine was right that Gaara should go but was not as sure pushing him to was going to work out for the best.

"Maybe he can do it later," he said. "No reason he can't go with us first."

Shine glanced at him.

"He might have more to say if he sees the village first," Wally added. Which was code for "give him time to think about it."

Shine at least understood it.

"Yeah, maybe." She shrugged. "Okay...well, Guren told me she has a kind of office of sorts in the front of her house here. We should look for it. She promised to help us tour around more."

"I can do that," Kosame spoke up, as if she wasn't liking that the job was being passed to someone not even selected by the Council.

"Of course you can," Shine said, not batting an eyelash. "But we and Guren go back a ways, and there are so many of us, that it seems unfair to ask you to do it all alone. Is it all right if she helps us out? Then you can focus on the official business, and she can give us a layman's perspective."

Perhaps Shine was smart to use those terms to imply that Kosame was higher ranking--it was obvious to at least half of the team who knew ninja politics that Kosame was recently promoted to her position and was probably not very confident in it yet, which was why she was sensitive about being overruled or passed up of in favor of someone else.

But of course she was also nervous about having to supervise them alone for the day, since Kyuu and Jakku were busy elsewhere now. They would only be guarding them at night, it seemed.

"I guess that's one way to do it," she said stiffly.

"You should have some kind of talk show," Dabi told Shine.

"Hush, Touya." Shine waved him off. "Let's just get a move on. I'm hoping it won't rain on us while we're out, but you clearly can't bank on that here."

"I can't believe how it's not raining right now," Kosame remarked. "You must all be good luck."

"Luck isn't real," Wally said. "But it's a good sign."

Kosame didn't seem to know the difference.

As they walked, Gaara fell in back of the group, surprisingly. Temari and Kankuro with him.

"So you decided not to visit Mirai fist thing," Temari observed, but it wasn't really a question.

Gaara nodded. "I made the mistake of telling the Tsuchikage too much about our beliefs in the last Village...and Rain Village is famously close-minded. I don't know that we should even mention it at all to them. Perhaps we can just help them and then move on."

"Sure, that's one way to go," Kankuro said. And certainly the safer way, the one he preferred...but he looked a little troubled.

"What?" Temari asked him finally.

"Oh, nothing." Kankuro shrugged.

"No, what?" Gaara echoed.

"It's just that playing it safe is what I would do," Kankuro said. "But it doesn't sound like what you would do. Somehow it doesn't feel right, but I figure you're probably correct."

"I'm not one to hold back," Temari said, "but shouldn't we learn from our mistakes?"

"Yeah...I know, " Kankuro said.

But he still thought it wasn't quite like Gaara.

But Gaara had his reasons.

He wouldn't have shown it outwardly, being a reserved person, but he'd been deeply disturbed but the Stone Village incident...not just for the failure of it, but for the anger toward his beloved teacher.

And perhaps that was almost the stronger fear of the two. He might have shaken off being disliked easily enough--he was used to that.

But being as alone and unguided as he had been most of his life, he had latched onto Shine and her quirky but effective methods when they first met, and through their correspondence back then and the war, he'd come to seek her advice on many things, and even more so now that they were in person.

Gaara had never much felt the loss of his father in the same way as his mother--to him, fathers were not the most involved people in your life, and he assumed it was that way in general. And currently the people in this team had few experiences to counter that, save for Shikamaru, Ino and Choji.

And his father has been the one to enslave him to that Tailed Beast. Whatever his father's misguided reason had been, Gaara couldn't feel grateful to him for anything in his life. He wasn't angry now, but he wasn't impressed.

On the other hand, he'd never had a mother, and while he knew perfectly well that Shine was not actually exactly like his own mother, he took her to be the image of what one might be like: someone who was kind to him, supportive, and guiding without being demanding.

At times, Shine, of course, did prove to be a little more heavy-handed than his actual mom likely ever would have been. Shine was not the easy-going type about these kinds of issues, but Gaara could respect that, and it had never bothered him, really--just that sometimes he didn't like when she as pushing him to do something, like this time.

But it wasn't like that changed that he looked up to her and had his attachment to her.

He also knew that Shine loved all of them, and him, in her way; that her teaching them was her way of showing love, often, as well as her other ways; and that she wanted the best for them.

That made it hard to disappoint her--but it also made him worry that, much like his uncle, she was going to end up doing something to help someone that would get her killed.

And he felt, in some strange way, that it was his own fault how close she'd come to getting hurt in Stone Village, that he had not handled the situation well enough to keep everyone from being in harm's way, and that he'd even failed to act fast enough right when it was happening, just out of fear that he'd make it worse...and that had not made it better.

Oh, she hadn't blamed him to his face, but...and even if she didn't, it didn't matter. Gaara had let himself down, he thought.

Being such an idealist, naturally he took it very hard when he didn't meet his own standards, and it shook his confidence to the core in a way that no amount of people's insults and attacks on him could have done.

But he never had been good at explaining his weaknesses, and his siblings never pushed him to do it, as they had never been shown how to talk about such subjects...so whatever they felt about his odd behavior, they didn't know what to say.

And he didn't know what to tell them. Most of it was something he wasn't thinking about consciously so much as he was feeling it deep down.

Actually, someone else was far closer to understanding it than they were--unexpectedly, it was Sasuke.

He hadn't missed Gaara's dodging of the matter, and he thought he knew exactly why.

When Temari and Kankuro had moved a little farther ahead in order to get a better look at where they were being led, he didn't bother to broach the subject first, as he didn't do things the way a normal person would have.

"You're avoiding confronting the leaders of this Village because the last time it went so poorly," he stated outright.

He could have had Dabi's or Shoto's trick of bluntness with the way he said it, though it wasn't Sasuke's way normally to be so direct.

Gaara, of course, didn't treat him like a nuisance, but he had little use for Sasuke's opinion either.

"Yes," he said. "I would think you would agree that it's better to tread cautiously."

"Because it will hurt Sand Village's reputation more?" Sasuke wasn't sure why he was asking him. Maybe he wanted to guess if Gaara's motives were pure or not.

"That is part of it," Gaara said. "I certainly have a responsibility to my Village. But I also don't want Shine-kasa to get hurt. It's selfish, but...I believe I've come to rely on her guidance greatly. I really don't know what we would do without her."

As he admitted it, he realized that was what had been going through his head...and he thought it really was kind of selfish. [Well, anime characters always say that when they actually need anyone, as if that's so unusual to need people.]

Sasuke didn't expect to find that so easy to understand...but the same thing had been haunting him and his nightmares ever since the incident.

He was more loathe to admit it than Gaara was, because not only did he hate to need anyone with a passion--but he was humiliated to think that Shine had somehow gotten past his armor enough to make him care what happened to her.

But after he'd done what he did, even he couldn't pretend like that wasn't a possibility. He'd fancied that he hadn't felt anything about the incident but disgust at Stone Village for being so base...but now that it had been a few days, disgust was fading and the other feelings under it were more apparent...and they had been fear--anger, yes--but also fear...

And realizing that, without Shine, he really had no plan for how he was going to learn to have any kind of better life...not just her, but all of her crew would surely not complete this mission without her...and this all would come to an end.

But even that wasn't all there was to it... He knew now that it was that he had begun to like her... No, he had begun to like her a while ago...

And realizing this had made him also start to feel depressed that she had thought so little of his actions that she didn't think he did them out of concern--granted, he would have been humiliated if she did, but that she didn't think he was capable of it... Well, he had the idea finally that Shine valued people who took risks out of genuine care than those who did it for ego.

(If he had known Shine better still, he would have probably realized that there was no way she didn't suspect his real reasons, but he was still blind to things like that.)

All this considered, Sasuke knew exactly what Gaara was thinking.

But not wanting to let on to him that he felt the same way, he instead tried to deflect it.

"She can't be that crucial," he said. And he was good at sounding cold and detached even if he was lying. "Surely someone like that is no one for you to hold in such esteem."

He didn't notice, but Shoto was close enough to hear this. Shoto was lagging behind the others, as he and Momo were still not finding it easy to talk, and he and Dabi were still fighting...if you could call stony silence fighting.

[I guess the back of the pack is where all the moody boys hang out.]

"All of them saved me from the Shukaku," Gaara said to Sasuke with a little more warmth. "That itself would be enough to bless them for the rest of my life, but they do so much more...but Shine does more than anyone. Surely you've seen how all her time is poured into our lives while she's here. And to hear that they've even left the other mission to spend time with us, well...I feel small when I think of the courage and determination it takes to do such things. You should appreciate it about them. There's not 100 people in the world, I think, who would do that, and we know 7 people who have."

"All of them do not have that kind of motivation. One of them is just avoiding his punishment for his crimes." Sasuke really didn't believe that about Dabi--fully--but he was trying to get Gaara mad because that's what he did. "And that ditsy one is just here because she's some kind of fan of certain people in this world. Yaoyurozu is just following them because she has no direction of her own, and Bakugo only likes the excitement."

He didn't say anything about Shoto. He really felt no need to.

"That is not fair to them," Gaara said. "And I don't know why you would choose to see the worst in people...but if it's what you wish to do, I can't persuade you. I've tried that already."

Gaara didn't say this with anger, just resignation.

Sasuke was not in the frame of mind where resignation was easy to bear.

"Even so," he said aloud, "if Shine-san had died, it might have solved your problem...though your mission wouldn't have gone on the same way."

He didn't mean this at all, obviously--he was testing Gaara.

Gaara hardly thought Sasuke could possibly mean it, just because it was too unbelievable even for him to say that--but Gaara didn't exaggerate Sasuke's bad points as much as the people who hated him did.

But he could never have imagined that Sasuke was saying it just to get a reaction out of him, as he lacked that kind of guile.

So he was just confused.

"I don't know why you would say that," he said in a puzzled voice. "Shine-san is not just a tool for us, you know. I know that we take advantage of her too much--she is too generous to tell us not to--but we do appreciate it in our way."

"But you're not doing anything for them in return." Sasuke suddenly felt angry about this for some reason. It was as if they were just exploiting these people. "You can say you're grateful, but you're just ignoring them."

Gaara was bothered because he wondered if Sasuke was right... Were they?

He looked down, ashamed. "I have never known how to repay them... Shine has always told me that their greatest reward is just seeing us happy and free, and that if we did anything in return, it would be less pure. So what is there to do?"

Sasuke couldn't have told him--he never did anything for anyone.

But Gaara wasn't willing to just let it drop. "Still...I wish there was something," he said. "Now I feel worse for refusing to talk to Mirai...but if I was to endanger us all again, I don't know if I could live with that. I'm not the same as I was before--people's lives matter to me now... Do they matter to you, Sasuke? Is that why you're asking?"

He might lack guile, but Gaara was no fool. His instincts were still on point.

Sasuke figured that Gaara wouldn't know if he lied anyway, though. 

"Not at all," he said coldly. "It's not that. It's that this all looked like it was going to come to nothing, and I only came on this to improve my chances. I hope you didn't think it was because I had some sense of obligation to them or you, or that I intended to transform myself, like Jugo. It was just to get more of the Village's approval."

"I know," Gaara said. "Which is not unworthy, I suppose... And you contributing to keep us safe, in that vein, makes sense. But I must confess, I really don't know how you can be callous toward Miss Likstar. I find all of them to be sincere people, but she's in a class by herself, at least to me."

"With all the stupid mother crap you keep saying--" Sasuke really would have sounded jealous to a person sharper about people's emotions than Gaara (or Shoto). "--you know that's ridiculous, and a Kage should be more dignified than to call someone that just because they've taught them."

"I don't know that it's any of your concern if I'm dignified." Gaara was not to be deterred by Sasuke of all people. "She said it was fine to call her that--she finds it flattering. And I call her that because I think that a mother should be that way...caring and kind and with courage to do what is right and to teach you to do the same. I like to think my own mother would have been the same way if she'd lived. I know, I cannot replace her, if that's what you mean. That's not what I'm trying to do...but it seems to me that we all need parents. And I think it's just a gift, to help me understand it when I could never have before. I would think my life would be incomplete without some kind of leadership like that. I think everyone needs that."

He forgot how much Sasuke's life had lacked that, much like his.

Or that Sasuke had also had his mother ripped away from him in a very tragic way--and worse, when he could remember it more clearly than Gaara could.

Sasuke resented the idea of replacing his family--though he might have understood that Gaara was not doing it, and that his explanation made sense--but it still made him feel a little sick to listen to.

"You're flippant then," he said. 

Gaara almost got angry there. "I don't think it's your place to say that about me," he said with more energy. "You do not know me so well, Uchiha. And as you have said yourself--we stopped seeing things the same way a long time ago."

But then he realized that Sasuke was probably not mature enough to know to control himself, and that he, Gaara, the leader, should be better than this.

Even so, he'd said nothing wrong, and Sasuke wasn't offended--only wary of making Gaara too angry. Without his Sharingan, he would never have been able to beat him in a fight.

Shoto, however, had heard enough to make him forget that it was rude to interrupt a conversation he hadn't been invited to.

"Don't talk to Gaara that way!" he said to Sasuke furiously. "He is at least trying to learn and use what he has. There is nothing wrong with him and Shine's relationship. I think she's very kind to mentor him like a mom would... She's like that with all of us. Gaara's mother would be fine with it also, I'm sure. She would want her son to be taken care of."

Gaara was surprised at Shoto, but he didn't really mind him saying this. The rude interruption didn't phase him.

Sasuke did resent Shoto inserting himself into this though...forgetting it was his fault for acting a way he didn't really mean just to spite Gaara, but spiting Gaara at least had been his goal, not getting Shoto involved.

"I didn't ask you," he said coldly. "Mind your own affairs."

"You should take your own advice," Shoto said, warningly. "Gaara has enough to deal with without you adding to it. You could try helping for once, but I know you won't. And what would you do? You have no idea how to help anything."

[Ironic, since Sasuke's name means "help" if I remember correctly.]

"Perhaps that's not quite just," Gaara said. "Though Sasuke has not done much for us, he did stop that rock."

Shoto had not given this much thought since it happened, nor did he want to.

"To save his own skin," he said. "You heard him yourself. That's no credit to him. And he nearly used his Sharingan on those people, after swearing he wouldn't...but Sasuke's word has never meant much."

Sasuke wanted so badly to punch him or worse when he said that--and he really might have, but with Gaara standing right there, he'd never have gone further than lunging at him, and he knew Gaara would not hesitate to call the DJs.

The fact that Sasuke managed to control himself based on these kinds of considerations was something in of itself.

Instead, he contented himself with saying, "If it wasn't for the restrictions of this mission, Todoroki, I would never allow you to speak to me that way."

"If it wasn't for this mission," Shoto said, "I would never speak to you at all."

With a dark look.

Sasuke kind of thought he'd gotten the worst of the exchange somehow, and he couldn't think of a better threat. Gaara would surely have reprimanded him if he made one anyway.

Shoto's words hadn't really been a threat...but his expression was one.

Sasuke resented it, and his eyes flickered red.

Shoto wasn't at all intimidated by that, but Gaara was alarmed.

"Enough," he said quickly. "We don't need to keep talking about this... I guess we know where we stand. Shoto-senpai, please, it's not worth it."

Shoto shook his head. "Yeah," he said, moving away. "You're right."

Sasuke had nothing else to say to Gaara either, so he moved away without even another glance at him. But he was frowning to himself.

[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Something's brewing here.]

https://youtu.be/bO1WYDrB1kE

[AMV for Sasuke to "Sometimes" Skillet--AMV by Дядя Вася, and no I have no idea what their name means in English.]

* * *

The tour of the village that day was very narrow, as planned. 

They found Guren with Kosamse's help.

Kosame did want to know how they knew Guren, but thankfully Naruto gave her a vague answer.

The house she was using was tiny--but clean at least. Yukimaru came out to join them, saying he was going to tag along.

He showed Naruto a crystalline flower. Apparently Guren had learned how to make even more delicate shapes with some practice.

Sakura was mulling over the new things she'd just learned while they were waiting for Guren to be ready.

The inside of the house was lined with some flowers that were frozen in crystal.

Hinata had to marvel at how something that had once seemed like a death trap now seemed so beautiful.

"Truly it's the most beautiful jutsu I've seen," she said. "So often...jutsu are ugly, as if we're doing ugly things with them, and they know it."

"You're as odd as Yukimaru is," Guren said. "I guess you're the one I encased in crystal before, the only one to ever survive it."

Hinata nodded.

"I would apologize for that," Guren said, "but it sounds more like something to boast about than anything else."

Hinata smiled faintly. "I wouldn't do it again."

Guren lightly chuckled at that.

Hanabi picked up one of the crystal flowers. "This is incredible," she said. "Do you solidify the air?"

"I've always thought that's what it was," Guren said. "But the truth is, air has dust particles in it. I think I fuse them together, with a twist...or other particles. When it's water, it turns blue."

"I remember that," Ino said. "It's truly beautiful...when it's not being used against us."

"There's a metaphor in that somewhere," Shine commented. "You could make jewelry with this."

"It wouldn't be much good," Guren said. "Once I pass on, it will all shatter. Who would want that jewelry?"

"Actually in a way that's the most rare kind," Shine said. "I guarantee you, people could market this. But I can see why it would feel a little flagrant to use your gift that way."

"I never thought of it as much of a gift, just my style," Guren said. "And if not for it, Orochimaru would never have recruited me, and I would never have..." She paused. "But then, I also would never have met Yukimaru. It's strange how things happen."

"Good and evil are opposite, but they exist in the same places," Shine said. "Like crops and weeds. We can't separate the events from each other. Only God could do that."

"If you mean that we can't help it if good or evil comes out of our actions, I would say that's partially true," Guren said. "But you sure do like to talk in strange metaphors. I like to speak plainly. You and Yukimaru would get along well."

"I've learned this from reading so much," Shine said. "But I'm told when I speak in slang, I'm even harder to understand, so perhaps this is for the best."

"You're an odd person," Guren said.

Shine tilted her head. "And you're not?"

Guren smiled. "I guess that's true...but are all of you still serious about trying to help? After everything I told you?"

"You let us worry about that part. We just want to see what we're working with," Shine said.

Sakura was pretending to examine one of the crystals, but she was really lost in thought.

"Uh, Sakura, I think we're leaving." Ino startled her.

Sakura glanced away from the rock she was holding, then she set it down. "Right..."

"You seem out of it," Ino noted. "What's wrong?"

Sakura frowned. "Just thinking about earlier... And how long did you know?"

"A couple months," Ino replied. "I only found out before they left after the war. They wanted to prepare us, I guess."

"They barely knew you," Sakura said. "But they trust you more than me... Heck, they trust Sasuke more than me!"

"But not Naruto," Ino said, as if that helped.

Sakura scoffed.

"Sakura, it's probably not nearly as personal as you think. Maybe they just didn't think you should be in more danger if you weren't fully committed," Ino said sensibly. "Why let it bother you?"

"You think Sasuke is fully committed?" Sakura insisted. "And Shikamaru? He's sure had a lot to say about not agreeing with them... They just hate me."

"Uh...but you don't like them either," Ino said.

"Yeah, well...still, if I'd known..." Sakura said.

"I don't know what that would have changed. Wouldn't you just have mistrusted them more?" Ino said. "What difference does it make? They're the same people."

"So doesn't knowing that they didn't tell you that at first bother you at all?" Sakura said.

"No...I didn't see any reason they would have told me," Ino said. "I wouldn't tell people that if I were them. People already think we're strange enough... What if you went to their world? Would you tell people?"

Sakura pictured it...

"So why now?" she said. "Just because of Stone...?"

"Well, you are still here," Ino said. "Even though you've never seen eye -to-eye. I guess they're respecting that, maybe? But why didn't you just go home?"

"Because I'm not that much of a wimp," Sakura said testily. "Whatever they think. I know that everyone expects me to do it, but my team is here, so here I am. Besides, I can't just keep running or staying out of it like I did before... What has it ever done?"

[Hmm...well, good point.]