[OP: "The Truth is a Cave"--The Oh Hellos]

Shine took Sasuke and Suigetsu to the last place you'd expect: the abandoned factory that Temari and Shikamaru had been told about.

As it turned out, plenty of people were there now, training. But the training seemed more like a  brawl.

Nearly all of the people were young, teens or twenty-something's, maybe a few were on the upward end of that. In Rain Village, most people older than that were too tired and blue to bother to fight if they didn't have to.

But with so much rain and so little resources, the young people got restless when they weren't sick and wanted to take it out on each other.

They also had been the only ones thus far to avoid any of the things that Team Zoe had done, save for maybe a couple who'd shown up, but those weren't the ones here.

When they saw three newcomers enter, they all stopped and shot them wary looks.

"This was not a good idea," Suigetsu told Sasuke. "And how did she think we'd help with this?"

Sasuke didn't bother to answer him.

"Hi, everybody," Shine said cheerfully, though she looked a little nervous. "I'm Shine. I'm with the Kazekage's team here. I'm sure you've heard of us."

"What of it?" one girl asked. She sounded annoyed.

"We're just here to make sure you all got our invitation to our celebration this week," Shine said. "We wanted to show Rain Village a good time before we have to go, and we hear that some people might be worried that they aren't actually invited, so we wanted to make sure you knew everyone was welcome."

The group stared at her skeptically.

A few of them did look a bit more intrigued, but most of them were suspicious.

"How did you know to find us here?" one boy asked, not very nicely.

"I heard that you meet here," Shine shrugged. "Am I not welcome?"

That took some gall to say. Clearly they weren't welcome.

"Hey, I know who that one is," one person said, pointing at Sasuke.

For a second, Sasuke thought he'd finally been recognized, and that was a much worse thought than he expected, but instead the boy started to chuckle in a kind of dry way. "That was one of the ones who scrapped for a bit outside the Village, by the lake. Him and one other guy--not the one with the sword, the idiot with the two-toned hair."

"Oh, that was them?" said one of the girls, as if she was mildly impressed. "Tore up the lakeside. You guys have some real jutsus, huh?"

Shine smiled as if this was exactly what she'd planned--but Sasuke didn't give her that much credit. He was starting to think Shine's main skill was playing off whatever happened, not always that she knew what each outcome would be before she started--though, in the end, it was nearly the same thing.

"Hey, that's no fair," Suigetsu said. "Why are they impressed by you doing something stupid? I have a big, legendary sword."

But that just got a laugh from the crowd. 

"Oh, don't feel so bad, shrimp," said one--who was thinner than either of them were, so it was ironic that he called him that. "You can have your turn. Want to go with one of us right now? We don't get new faces around here often."

More laughs because that was an understatement.

"Well, I would," Suigetsu said, "but I'm sure she won't let me." With a look at Shine.

Shine cast him a sideways glance. "Would it help anything if you did?"

"That's just another way of saying we can't have any fun," Suigetsu whined.

"You need her permission?" said a different boy, meanly. "What is she, your babysitter?"

"Try team leader." Shine looked that boy in the eye. "And I can whip your rear end easily enough, if you want to get fresh with me."

Sasuke couldn't believe she'd just said that.

Sure...Shine was good at making threats, but against some punks? Didn't seem like she'd bother.

The boy backed up a little, and then he made sounds of derision. "Ooh, she's talking a big game."

"I talk a big game so that the Lord will play it with me," Shine said, mystifying them. "A small game would be too boring for Him, don't you think?"

"Huh?" they said blankly.

"I'll tell you what--" Shine held up a hand. "--if these two can disarm all of you and knock you down without even using weapons, you'll all accept our invitations. Is that fair?"

"A gamble?" said the girl. "That sounds like fun. But isn't that a little steep? You're going to make them fight us without any protection?"

"I'm willing to bet that they can take you easily enough without using weapons," Shine said. "But if I see any fighting dirty, I won't hesitate to change that bet. That fair enough?"

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked Shine. "What happened to no fighting?"

"Oh, this isn't a real fight," Shine said. "Just a little test to earn respect. They know it as well as we do. It would be prudish not to join in. Wally and I have gotten in bar fights before because our insane friends started it, this is nothing. Just don't hurt them. I don't want to explain that to Sakura and Momo later."

"But why can't I use my sword? It's cooler," Suigetsu said.

"A: you don t need it, and B: it's less tempting to hurt them if you don't have your creepy, blood-eating sword to work with," Shine replied.

"Well, this is going to be boring." Suigetsu stretched his arms. "So, all of you want to fight us at once, or do we need to drag this out by taking it one at a time?"

"Look at this guy," the crowd said, in disbelief. "What an overconfident ass. We need to take him down."

"I'm not even interested in doing this," Sasuke said.

"Of course as soon as I say to, you don't want to," Shine said. "I guess you don't have to. Suigetsu can handle it. But if he wins alone, all of you have to not only come, but bring a friend, if you have one who's not here."

"Oh, sure, lady," they scoffed. "That'll be just fine."

"Sasuke, you could help," Suigetsu said. "You're going to force these guys to try to get a date or something--that's worse than getting beaten up."

"That's not my problem," Sasuke said. 

"If Sasuke could win alone," Shine said, "perhaps you'd have to get the date, Suigetsu."

"Either of us could win alone," Suigetsu said. "Doesn't have to be a stupid bet...unless he wants to take it also."

"I'm faster than you," Sasuke said.

"Yeah, but you're out of practice, and you lost to Todoroki," Suigetsu said.

"Shoto is quite fast also," Shine said.

"Fine, tell you what? I'll take 'em all out, and then you take 'em out, and whoever's fastest wins," Suigetsu said. "That'll make this interesting."

"So we have to fight twice?" said a boy.

"Oh, don't worry, you won't get a chance to fight,. Suigetsu put his sword down. "Likstar, guard this with your life."

"I think I can keep track of a sword." Shine held hers up, startling the crowd.

"If I knew PR was going to be this easy, I wouldn't have been worried," Suigetsu said, rotating his neck. "All right, kids, let's do this."

"Kids? I'm older than this guy," one of the ones in their 20s said.

Older or not, it went exactly as Suigetsu predicted. He slipped between people and under them and grabbed their weapons first and then knocked them off their feet.

He didn't hurt any of them by doing that, except for maybe a few bruises, and they'd had worse from their own Village mates.

They were stunned--some were humiliated.

Sasuke wasn't sure he'd ever actually agreed to do this, now that he thought about it, but everyone just looked at him.

Well, walking away now would look weak...but Shine letting him do it was the real shock.

She just looked at him and said in a low voice, "No Sharingan, remember?" before sitting back.

Sasuke didn't even bother to warm up.

It was easy for him. None of the Rain Village shinobi were very healthy or very well trained, as they had never had much chance. They fought street style, which did well enough against other people Iike that, and they might even each been good at it--but Sasuke was trained much better than them, despite how few fights he'd really won. Doing well against a large group of untrained people was basically all he'd done since leaving Leaf Village.

It took him maybe a minute, tops.

They were all amazed.

Shine had a watch out--she'd had it out before, actually, though they hadn't noticed.

"Regrettably, Suigetsu," she said, "Sasuke beat your time by a few seconds. It was close though. You should be proud. I hear that clan is hard to match for speed."

"What? Hey!" Suigetsu cried. "No fair. How the heck was he faster than me? I can turn into water!"

"Water moves slow," Sasuke rubbed it in. "I guess you should think twice next time about making foolish bets."

"I don't actually have to do it, right? That was just a joke," Suigetsu said.

"If you'd won, would you expect Sasuke to still do it?" Shine said.

"Willingly? No, but I thought you'd make him--" Suigetsu stopped. "Oh, crap...sensei, you aren't really going to make me embarrass myself like that?"

"What? Are you scared" the teens started to jeer at him. "Not so tough now. Make him do it, lady. He's acting like a weasel!"

"I guess you'll see if he does when you show up," Shine said, winking.

They went "ooooh" like they knew she had them but kind of respected her for it.

Shine nodded. "Well, it's been fun. Let's go, guys."

She headed out.

* * *

Suigetsu didn't stop whining about not wanting to go through with it once they were outside.

Shine at first found it annoying, but finally he began to draw on her sympathy.

"I suppose it's not necessary to take it seriously," she said. "It would be cruel--though why is it such a big problem? It wouldn't hurt you to make a friend."

"What are you, teaching pre-Genin school?" Suigetsu said. "I don't make friends."

"You're funny, loyal, and good with a sword. Isn't that prime friend material in this world?" 

"But you forgot unpleasant and annoying. And also ugly. So it's no good."

Shine raised an eyebrow at him. "Some people don't care about all that, even if it was true, but I doubt it is. Perhaps you just have a negative self image."

"You've got eyes and ears. I'm sure you've thought no different." Suigetsu pouted so that his pointy teeth stuck out like a dog's.

"To be fair, it's difficult for me to gauge how attractive any of you are by your own world's standards," Shine said. "I'm more into conventional-looking men--you know, not ones with animal-Iike body parts or blue or green skin or horns and tails. The hero girls aren't nearly as picky as that, I'm told, and I can't speak for the ninja. See, your taste tends to be more by the world you're in, so I can't be sure that here any of you might not be good looking. Maybe I'm ugly." She laughed. "I remember Sasuke didn't think I was at all normal-looking at first."

Sasuke had forgotten that rude remark of his.

Suigetsu framed Shine with his hands. "Eh...well, you don't look like us, at least, not most of us, but there's always a difference between clans. So I wouldn't guess you're alien. Besides, you're not like anyone else."

"How sweet of you."

"Not necessarily a compliment, but I doubt anyone could imitate your style." Suigetsu shrugged. "West is taller than most of us, but other than that, he might blend in...if no one listened to either of you talk. But that's different. I bet where you live you're not a freak."

"Suigetsu, this team is full of freaks, by your logic," Shine shrugged. "And in all the cursed and mutilated people of your society, I'm sure you can't possibly fall anywhere below average. Who knows? Might be above. Like I said, I can't tell, but, from my take on it, I don't think you're ugly. So cheer up."

"Well, but you're an alien." Suigetsu seemed to want to discredit her words. "So, like you say, you'd not know. And the Orochimaru thing isn't the best resume either. That's what I'm saying, you know--if it was just one thing, maybe I wouldn't bother about it. But all together, it's hard for me to get out there."

[This would seem like more of a stretch to me if canonically Suigetsu didn't stay with Orochimaru and Team Taka and never venture out anywhere, despite clearly not liking the work that much. He seems to lack confidence for someone who's the only one willing to sass Sasuke at all out of that assortment of characters.]

Sasuke noticed blandly that Suigetsu had never opened up to Shine before and wondered why he was now...but didn't really care.

"I think though that if people see you as a hero now, especially here in Rain, it won't matter," Shine said. "Even ugly people can get popular if they're cool enough. And surely you're cool, so it wouldn't matter if you were ugly or annoying. See, a lot of it depends on people's biases. If they think you're already a hero, they'll interpret what you do in that light, even if it's stupid. Humans like to act as a herd--it makes us feel safer. So really, you probably will find it's much easier to make friends if you stop thinking that way...not that I'm one to talk." She shook her head. "I've never had the easiest time making friends."

"Why? Too pushy?"

"Ha, only with people I'm comfortable with already," Shine scoffed. "Or for the job. But that's Iike an act; I love drama. But when we go to make friends, we can't use that. We have to just present ourselves as we are, with whatever social skills we've got. I have just as many doubts here as anyone else. Being good at my job doesn't mean I'm good at everything else. Usually people like me have blind spots that are personal things. I can play it up if it's for an assignment, but once it's just for me, I lose my nerve. We all have something."

She tugged her hair and shrugged. "But I do have some real friends. They accept me as I am, though I'm weird, and I know it. And don't you have friends like that already, Suigetsu?"

"Oh...no, no, they just keep me around for protection." Suigetsu shrugged. "Let's not kid ourselves."

"So you really think they wouldn't be upset if you weren't here?" Shine said.

"Not really, no...until there was a crisis, anyway."

"Hmm...I think you're wrong," Shine said. "But that would be quite sad. No wonder you feel so lonely."

"When did I say that?"

"All of us feel it, but the way you act says it all too." Shine shrugged, this time with more sass. "Crabby people are usually lonely. Loneliness does things to us. You just need to let go of your pride over it and admit it. Give them a chance. Maybe they do care about you. You know, Karin and Jugo just aren't very good at expressing themselves, but I'm sure they care, under it all. You're not the only one who's nervous about it."

"Hah, even if you were right, that just makes it more of a mess." Suigetsu tried to sound dismissive but didn't quite succeed. "If all of us were terrible at it, we'd never act friendly."

"Perhaps, but sometimes it just takes one person to give in to it and finally say something for the others to find courage... Shall I run a bet on which of you it will be first?" Shine said. "I think Karin might outdo you, but Jugo might outdo both of you. They've made some good progress...but you've always shut us out, as if you're afraid of what would happen if you accept this--and you give me hard time, not because you dislike me, as I really think you don't, but because you're afraid to trust us all and be disappointed."

Suigetsu gaped at her.

Sasuke, as usual, found it much more interesting to listen once Shine started to call people out. He kept real still so they wouldn't remember he was there--but Shine never actually forgot.

Shine smiled. "See? I can turn it on like that... But, in all seriousness, Suigetsu--I understand. I don't have the easiest time trusting people with my heart or my deeper self either, because many people mishandle it. Sadly, even the good ones can. It's deep water, that's what the Bible says. A wise person might search it out, but it's not easy. God can find it--if we'll listen to Him. And maybe all we ever show people are pieces of ourselves, no matter how hard we try, because that's all we can even understand at one time. But God knows our whole. That's good enough for me. Even the most commonplace of people can surprise you. You'd like them more if you trusted them more..."

She gestured. "I don't mean to just go telling everyone your dark secrets or anything like that. But it might be okay, not to have to get on their nerves all the time to make sure they don't like you. Just as an experiment. Who knows? Maybe it would work out."

"I see what you're doing." Suigetsu finally found his voice. "You're using your tricks on me to make me trust you, so I'll end up like all these other idiots. Even Sasuke, he's falling under your spell too. But that doesn't work on me."

Sasuke was offended.

But Shine never gave any outward sign that she was concerned. "People say that to me so often, I wonder when I got so charming without meaning to," she said dryly. "When I try, I don't think I succeed. Thanks for the compliment, but I have no magic, kid. My whole power is being sincere. I meant what I said. And if you feel drawn by it, then you're attracted by honesty the way most people are, if it's in their favor. Don't worry about me exposing you... I doubt Sasuke will tell anyone what he's heard."

"Oh, don't try to talk around me." Suigetsu sounded a little nervous. "You're still doing it, pretty words and all that. I've seen how it works on the others, but flattery doesn't mean anything to me at all, got it? And even if you were serious, it's no good. I'm not interested in all this mess. Seems to me it makes people act funny. I may be no picnic, but I don't want to change the way I am either."

"If that's true, you're right that I can't help you," Shine said. "All things change, Suigetsu. People change... If you try not to, you will change anyway. You'll become hard and untouchable. I don't think so ill of you now. I'm only trying to convince you to change for the better, but if you don't want that, by all means...live your way. I see how well it's worked out for you thus far."

"Hey, I never had much of a chance there," Suigetsu said. "You don't know what happened to me, lady, and you have no idea what it was like, no idea, so--"

"No? I don't know what it is like to be put into a tank and have some cracked-out scientist jeering at you through it?" Shine cut in. "I don't know what it's like to be taken hostage? I guess, I'll grant you, I haven't been separated from my family forever...though I didn't think you had much family before. And I don't know what it is to deal with psychopaths? To be attacked? Persecuted? Used?"

Suigetsu paused. Her tone had caught him off guard.

"Actually, I have had all those things happen to me," Shine said, though he already had figured as much. "And I will tell you something I rarely tell anyone, Suigetsu: It does leave a mark. I've never had what I'd call PTSD from it, but I do dislike being restrained in any way. I hate feeling that people are playing with me, and I loathe the insinuation that I would stoop to such methods. I'm more wary of stepping into any enclosed spaces than before, too--but other than that, I've learned to let those things slide off my back because I have more important things to focus on. But I think I do understand. Granted, not for a period of years and years, but I hope you won't hold that against me. Granted, your life was stolen--people have tried to do that to me too. Let me tell you what I did: I fought it. I fought, and I fight still. At times I thought I was wrong, but I couldn't rest with it... I can't claim to know exactly what you've been through, but I will tell you to fight it. Fight the labels people would put on you because of it. Don't just swallow it all."

She looked up at the sky--it had cleared briefly again--then back down at him.

"They can make your body into something new, and your powers...but they can't make you into something without your permission. Your mind and your soul, you can choose those things. Keep the thing that they can't take away, that's what I suggest. It's a tough road, if it's worth walking it."

She nodded at him. "I think perhaps I've said more than enough now... Excuse me."

She quickened her pace so that she left them behind.

Suigetsu was in shock.

But Sasuke wasn't about to talk to him. He followed Shine almost immediately. She'd just reminded him of when Dabi and Bakugo had told him the story she'd just referenced. And he was burning with curiosity.

"Shine," he said.

Shine slowed. "What? Was I too hard on him?"

"As if I'd care to notice," Sasuke scoffed. "I don't care about him, but you mentioned some things... Dabi and Bakugo mentioned them before. One of your missions...all that really happened?"

"Oh, I don't mean to make it sound like it was so bad." Shine held up her hands.

Sasuke just stared at her in disbelief.

"What I mean is, while it was awful at the time, one good thing about this job is that things fade from your mind when you're not in-world, so it's not nearly as bad to remember it. But I can think back to it if I try on purpose, that's all. I guess Suigetsu just reminded me of it. Of course, that doesn't undercut that he's been through a lot. I just think it's not an excuse. But...easy for me to say that."

"Easy?" Sasuke said, incredulously. "Who would have that happen to them and call it easy? I just don't understand it--how do you never want revenge?"

"Oh, Sasuke," Shine sighed. "I'm not that good. Of course I did, sometimes. Didn't I say so before?"

"You said it, but I've never seen you take it."

"I think...I think you have," Shine said oddly. "But should I mention that now? Probably not."

"If you mean regarding me, then I'm sure all of it was warranted." Sasuke had no problem saying this now.

"Not you..." Shine looked away. "Nevermind."

"Who have you even attacked?" He couldn't remember. "Except for the war... Madara?"

"I said nevermind."

"But why is it so small to you that these things happen--and if you didn't do anything to deserve them?" Returning to subject. "I could never..."

"No, you couldn't now, I guess." Shine looked up. "Oh, it does make me mad. Sasuke, listen to me, I still get angry. I still think it's not fair. Trust me, if you heard Wally and me talk you'd know just how human we are. I wish I was so angelic that I never felt it. But I do. The only key difference I see between us is that I don't act on it. I've wished I could. But it's a bad habit to feed that. It's deadly. Wally and I don't want to slide into that way of thinking, because once you do, the line gets thinner and thinner. Anyone can deserve revenge after a while. As for the times terrible things happen to me on the job...well...I consider it a sign that I was doing well. That awful scientist who put me in a tank, she just did it because she thought I was powerful. She was kind of a nut job, but I've met worse." She shrugged. "And I try to humanize the people who fight me...that helps. Once I could see her perspective, I felt less angry. I felt like she was wrong, naturally, and she was cruel, but I felt it wasn't going to affect me the same way. Same with others. That was an important skill, because if I hadn't kept doing that, when I faced their oldest evil--or so they thought--I couldn't have looked at her and seen a human being trapped inside the Grimm and demonic prison that she couldn't even see anymore."

She rubbed her arms. It was cold out there. 

https://youtu.be/7ck5Nm7D2oY

[Brandon Heath--"Give Me Your Eyes"]

"I truly think it's a gift. As a human, I find these things repulsive the same as everyone else does, but when I try to lean into the Spirit, into God's way of seeing people, and He opens my eyes to it...it changes. How you see someone really affects how they will respond to you. People aren't as stupid as we think; they know what we treat them like. I treated her human, and so she acted human. The one who captured me, it wasn't that different with her. And God punishes them in their own time, you know... I've seen it enough to be confident of it, so I worry about it less. That's all. I think you would find you'd feel the same if you were in my shoes."

"I doubt it," Sasuke said. "And how you can speak of it so casually is a mystery to me." He shrugged. "The only time you ever treated anyone Iike they were scum was with--" He stopped suddenly.

Shine's earlier remark had almost been forgotten by him, since she'd refused to explain, but now that he'd come back to it, suddenly it knocked into his head that the one time he'd seen Shine without a shred of mercy in her tone was during the war.

He remembered...when Itachi's reanimated person had been in the cave, and they had found him and Sasuke and Kabuto there, to intercept Kabuto's jutsu.

They had attacked relentlessly and without any kind of remorse, and he'd been so angry at them then that he could have killed them all.

But now that he knew Shine much better, he realized how strange her actions had been for her.

He remembered what she'd said to Itachi's reanimated self:

"You're already dead, so it's too late for me to pray that you ask for mercy. It's too late for you. I am somewhat sorry for you because you were once a human being, but I can feel no other kind of pity. I only hope that one day you will not haunt your brother with your ghost." [This is from chapter 25 of A New Way of Ninja.]

Then, after he'd been disintegrated into dust again, and she'd been asked about it, she'd said something that made Sasuke more angry at the time:

"I admit it was a bit personal. I wanted to end that psychopath's words for selfish reasons. I only wish I had gotten to tell him off more, but unfortunately, as he was a corpse, it's not like it would have been to any purpose." [Chapter 26]

And finally, worst of all, when she'd pinned him down finally--though, even then, she'd never hurt him more than a little--and she'd given one of her tirades that had cut him to the quick, though it had only pissed him off more still:

"Since I'm under no obligation to be nice to you, and you've also pissed me off, as well as everyone else, let me make one thing clear: I will talk about Itachi however I wish. He was a monster. If it's possible he actually believed what they told you--which I doubt, but if it's possible--then he was lying to himself. What he did was unjustifiable, and I'm sick of everyone trying to justify it." [Also Chapter 26]

Sasuke almost got angry now, remembering how that had felt, but perhaps Shine had softened him too much for it to last...because, after a moment, it faded back to confusion.

Shine seemed to know what he was thinking of. She'd gone quite somber.

The rain started to fall again, but it was light. It barely would have gotten someone wet even without an umbrella. It only made a very soft sound in the background, not enough to drown them out, even though they spoke in low voices.

"I remember," Sasuke said finally, in a strange voice even to himself, as it was between upset and resigned, "Itachi, other than Orochimaru, that's the only man I've ever seen you seem to loathe from the depths of your soul. I thought at the time that you were happy to end that jutsu and...well, not 'kill', as you said, but it felt like it was killing to me."

"I know." Shine didn't deny it. "You made that clear at the time."

Sasuke knew he'd spit venom at them, but, honestly, he barely remembered what he'd said. He'd said too many harsh things to them; one was the same as another...but he was sure it was enough to make them angry.

But Shine didn't seem angry now.

"I can't believe how long it's been since I remembered that," Sasuke thought aloud. "I was sure then I would never forget it, could have killed you all."

"I know that also." Simply.

Sasuke only now wondered how it was that 3 days later he'd agreed to join them--Shine had roasted him about that too, said he'd join anyone... She'd made good on her word.

But then, she'd thought perhaps that it would all come to nothing, and that he'd even get back at them, maybe if they began to anger him--and instead he'd done nothing but follow along.

He wondered if Shine had planned that would happen--sometimes he wondered if maybe it had been a game for her at the time. Maybe she wasn't quite as angry at him as she seemed.

Yet there was no doubt in his mind that, when she'd rammed her sword into Itachi, she'd meant it. No one could mistake that look, least of all him. He was an expert on hatred.

"I believe you hated Itachi," he said aloud. "Orochimaru also--but somehow, I think Itachi even more. Why? What did he do to you? Any of you? He never tried to kill anyone you cared about."

Unlike Sasuke, notably. And unlike Orochimaru.

Shine stared at him for a long moment.