[OP: "Constellations"--The Oh Hellos]

Shine and Wally went out to the water vein and found that it was being guarded by at least a dozen bandits.

Wally knew one of them was the one they'd fought before: Doro.

That was all the confirmation they needed that this was connected, but if they'd needed more, Suigetsu's note that Shine got about 2 minutes later while they were still observing the scene told her the rest.

"It's the water all right, Honey," she told Wally. "So now what?"

"This is all my fault!" Wally said. "I'm sure of it!"

"I'm sure it's not," Shine said.

"Oh, you're just saying that," Wally said.

"Wally, there's no way that's naturally what happens," Shine said. "Now get a grip, or so help me I'll hit you with my sword."

It was so unlike Shine to speak to him that way that it snapped Wally a bit out of his spiral.

"Right, right...focus on the problem," he said. "So...what do we do?"

"First we need to look at the water more closely and see what's going on there," Shine said. "Now, based on Suigetsu's note, my best guess is it's the chakra itself is what's being affected. And I have a theory about that. I need to ask him--not sure I can write well enough for it, but I have to try. If you could distract them all and get them to run farther off so I can get a closer look..."

"And it won't affect you?" Wally worried.

"No, it shouldn't if it's chakra based. We should be safe from everything that's like that."

"But we're changing."

"Our bodies may adapt to their ways a little, but we'll never have a chakra network the way they do--which is what I think is causing it, but I need to confirm... But even if I did get it, we can help it."

"Okay, I guess we're at risk anyway. I'll get them away."

He ran off and started to kick up a big circle of dust.

Of course the bandits thought it was a big group of people coming, since there weren't dust storms out here.

Most of them ran right away to check it out.

One stayed behind to watch the water.

That was fine with Shine. She picked up a rock and threw it at him.

He looked up at her, and her sword flashed blindingly in his eyes.

Before he could see again, she scrambled down to him and hit him in the head, and he tumbled over.

"Piece of cake," she said to herself. "Sometimes it's too easy with these fighters."

Stepping around him, she bent to look at the water.

Nothing about it looked unusual.

She stuck her sword into it, and her sword started to gleam in pure white light, though it was very faint.

A pretty sure sign that there was chakra in the water.

Then her eyes lit up (she could see it in reflection of the water, and, as she really hardly ever saw it herself, it gave her quite a start), and it was as if the chakra became visible under a blacklight-reader to her.

Whole clusters of it were barreling down the stream into the Village's water lines...and then pooling in the bottom of the river.

Not caring about if it was smart to do this or not, Shine jumped into it, ignoring how cold it was for once, and ducked under the water.

There, she saw the blade sticking out of the sandy gravel bottom, and she pried it up with her sword and flicked it up out of the water.

"Akaimichi [red road]." One of the other men came back suddenly. "I figured you would be the only one here. The others will handle it--" He stopped short.

"Doro?" Shine said, because Wally had pointed him out before.

"How did you know my name?" Doro said suspiciously. "I know you--you're the witch from the Kage's party. What are you doing back here?"

Shine frowned, but then she held out her sword. "Freeze."

Doro froze, though really he didn't have to.

"Now, listen to me, you idiot," Shine said crossly, "I'm not a witch, but you will probably wish I was anyone so easily paid off if you don't start talking. I found your little poisoned blade."

She chucked it at him, and he jumped back warily but didn't run.

"Nice idea," Shine said, with killing sarcasm. "A whole Village of innocent children and people who had nothing to do with you, and you poisoned them. Now, I'm sure that you know this was causing it, but I can tell that something that small wouldn't be able to infect all the water in the Village, not without help. So you better tell me right now, before I get impatient--how are you spreading it so far?"

Doro looked nervous. "Now, lady, I didn't mean to hurt you," he said, holding up his hands. "I didn't think you had any friends in this Village, and it wasn't even my plan, understand? It's just working for the boss."

Shine lunged at him and slammed him into one of the rocks. He seemed like he was too afraid of her to even try to run.

"I'm losing my patience," she said. 

"All right, all right," Doro finally squeaked. "I guess I can tell you. Thankfully you're no friend to Stone, so it's not going back to them... You're right about the blade--that's how it started, but it only infected a few people at first who were close to the water main before it got too diluted, like you said, to do much, but then the boss, he realized what caused it when he saw their symptoms. It only took him a few hours to figure it out. He's clever about that kind of thing--made the poison himself, you know. And he poisoned a bunch of rocks in the tunnels and put them along the water lines in the Village so it would spread all over, that's all. We didn't go in and poison anyone's drinking water in their homes."

"So doing it by extension is better?" 

Doro squirmed. "Maybe this got a little out of control, but, that's just how it is, you know? With takeovers... Anyway, the boss said he'll take all the rocks out once we secure the Village."

"Yes...once there's no one left worth securing," Shine said. "What kind of man are you to do such a thing? Taking them over with force is one thing, but this is despicable."

"Why are you one to talk?" Doro began to get annoyed. "You're supposed to be a radical."

Shine rolled her eyes at him, which wasn't what he expected.

"I know." sSe stepped back a little. "A crazy radical who sets people on fire for not obeying her God--that's what you think I am, isn't it? I guess I should be flattered anyone remembers me at all. All right, stop crying, I'm not going to hurt you. I just needed to scare you a little so you'd tell me how you did it."

She lowered her sword. "But now you'll warn them I'm here."

Doro stared at her. "You're not going to kill me?"

"I don't kill anyone, you foolish man," Shine said, sounding tired. "I told the Tsuchikage that, but he didn't seem to be satisfied with it. I suppose you won't be either."

"But aren't you supposed to be strong?" Doro said.

"Some of us don't exploit people because we can," Shine shot back savagely.

At least that seemed to bother him still, and he winced. "All right, no need to get testy... I thought you were supposed to be crazy, but you seem sane enough. Why did they ride you out of town?"

"Why did you take over the town?" Shine replied. "Isn't it all the same? Power."

"So why are you back?"

"Because we heard that the town was in trouble," Shine said, "and we came to help them. And help them we will, whatever you try to do to stop us. I will warn you one time, Doro, to get out of here. I don't really like people who use germ warfare on villages, and my friends will like it even less. And believe me, they probably won't hold back once they find the people behind this. You should run while you can. If you don't fight us, we won't harm you. Otherwise, you can suffer the same fate as your boss will when we find him--and where can I find him?"

"Lady, even if I would tell you, I can't," Doro said. "The boss moves around with only his most trusted bodyguards because he's worried that someone will pin him down and try to kill him. He'll check in here once or twice a day, but he won't stay long, and I wouldn't wait for him here if I were you anyway. Not that I should warn you at all, but too easy to use the terrain against someone here."

"How do I know you're not telling me that because it would be easier to catch him here?" Shine said.

Doro squinted. "But he'd known I was responsible for it, if you fought here."

That sounded more like the truth.

"So are you going to warn him?" Shine asked.

"I would warn him," Doro said, "but from all I heard about your group, and from what I saw of that carrot-topped guy who took us down before, I think my odds are about as bad of surviving your attacks. I'd better just keep mum and see who wins. The boss would kill me if he knew, but you might kill me if I did, so I can't win except by trying to avoid both of you."

"I won't kill you for it, but you may suffer the consequences of your actions if you're captured," Shine said. "Which will probably be death, so you're wise to realize that. What will you do?"

"I want to get out of here," Doro said. "But I have some friends in the bandit tribe--not so bad people, really. If possible, I want them to escape too. We can lie low and see which side wins. If you'll allow it."

"I can't do much about it. Go and warn them, if you're sincere about that. And if you're serious about staying out of it and you run into one of my team, simply tell them you surrender and they will spare you life. If you fight, I can't promise anything."

"I guess you're a different breed in the Kazekage's team," Doro said. "Are you even a ninja?"

"Are you?" Shine replied.

Pause.

"I see your point," Doro shrugged. "Uh...is the other guy around?"

"If you mean my partner, he will be if I call him. Shall I?" Shine said.

"No, ma'am, I'll just go now," Doro said.

He took off.

Shine didn't stop him. She thought he was being truthful, but if he wasn't, it wouldn't make much difference--she knew the boss of the bandits tribe would realize they were here soon enough after what they'd already done.

What mattered now was to act quickly before he could come up with a plan to capture them all.

* * *

While they were waiting for Shine and Wally to return, the others got Suigetsu's "note" forwarded to them by Shine (she did it before she fought, so they'd have time to understand it).

Momo read it out to them, and then she paused over the end:

"I would have told you all this in person, but unfortunately I've contracted the d--m thing by touching water, like a moron. Pretty sure I can't transfer it to anyone, but they won't let me leave here anyway. I can't bust out if I end up dropping half way out of town, so I'm going to wait for you geniuses to come up with a way to fix it. Don't take all day about it."

Momo didn't read that in the tone that Suigetsu meant it in, but they could hear him saying it.

"I'm confused," Jugo said. "Suigetsu got it from touching water? But he has his own water."

"Maybe he washed his hands?" Ino had a good guess. "Or went in a pipe?"

"Didn't we tell him not to do that?!" Karin said, sounding frenzied. "What a moron! You can't tell some people anything--they'll just do whatever they want!"

"Hey, calm down, sis," Camie said. "It's nothing we can't fix... We can fix it, right?" She looked at Momo.

"I hope so," Momo said. "But we'd need to see it, and he's there, and we're here. Shine should bring him to us."

"I hope that wouldn't be dangerous, if he's got something like that," Shoto said. "I wouldn't think so, but strange things can affect portals."

"Even so, after less than 2 hours?" Ino mused. "Doesn't it seem too fast, Sakura? How could he have something big enough to be noticeable in that amount of time?"

"If it took 3 days to kill most people," Sakura said, "then...but then wouldn't their regeneration speed up healing?" She rubbed her forehead. "Something doesn't add up."

"I think if we knew what happened to those people who got cut with the blade before..." Momo said. "They seemed to be in pain, but Shoto was fine."

"I was fine," Shoto said, "because I don't have a chakra network, maybe."

"I wish we knew what the names of the people who got cut were, then," Momo said. "If we knew..."

"If it was the same thing," Tenten said, "wouldn't they be the first victims of the plague on record?"

They looked at her in surprise.

"Whoa, that's so obvious," Momo said. "Why didn't I think of that right away? All we need to do is ask the medics who that was... Would they tell Suigetsu, though? He's not a medic."

"Maybe I should just go then," Sakura said. "I could get them to tell me, I'm sure of it."

"Aren't you not supposed to be here?" Dabi pointed out to her.

"Sure, but they're desperate," she said. "And if I tell them I have a lead on a way to fix it, they'll have to listen. It's simple. Doctors can always twist people's arms like that."

"That is really cool-sounding," Dabi said. "I almost respect that."

"Oh, shut up," Sakura said.

"But, Sakura, still, you could get infected," Ino said.

"I won't touch any water," Sakura said. "Simple. I'll just wash my hands in alcohol or something. It's better anyway... If Tsunade is around, they probably have some."

Dabi laughed at Sakura saying that so casually, and she glared at him.

"But how will you get there?" Naruto asked. "None of us can sneak in like that, and Wally and Shine still aren't back."

"What if I just walked in?" Sakura said. "Wouldn't they want more medical help? Even the bandits might."

"Are you crazy?" Ino said. "You can't do that! What if they just kill you on sight?"

"I could survive that," Sakura said.

"Oh, yeah, surviving death is so easy," Dabi said. [From the guy who faked his?]

"My invincibility seal, you moron!" Sakura snapped at him. "I think it's worth a shot."

"So you want to walk in there, alone," Kankuro said, "and just say, 'Hey, take me to your medical center,' and you think that will work?"

Sakura shrugged.

"That's so stupid it might actually work," Kankuro said. "What do you think, Gaara?"

"I think it's too risky for the potential reward," Gaara said. "And I can't believe Sakura, who is supposed to be a sensible person, would suggest it. No more talk about going off alone."

Gaara was on edge. Shine and Wally should have been back by now. He also thought Suigetsu getting infected already wasn't a great start to this rescue.

And no word of Tsunade to boot.

Sakura was sure her idea had more merit than that, and she caught Sasuke giving her a strange look.

"What?" she said.

Sasuke just looked away.

Karin was going to pieces.

"Suigetsu is going to die!" she said, as if on the verge of a meltdown. "And so are we, probably, if we can't find a cure in less than 3 days! And there's bandits all over the place waiting to stop us if we even try to get in there! Whose idea was it to come back here?"

"Why are you so upset?" Choji asked her.

"Yes, it's just Suigetsu," Tenten said rather rudely. "You hate him anyway."

Karin gave her a furious glare. "What kind of thing is that to say?"

"Sounds like what you would have said, months ago." Sasuke began to think Karin's hypocrisy was annoying. "Since when are you worried about him anyway? You always wished he'd die before."

"I don't remember telling you that," Karin said.

"I could tell," Sasuke said. "I have a kind of intuition when someone wants someone else to die."

"Was that supposed to sound edgy?" Dabi said. "She's not exactly a subtle person. Don't pat yourself on the back too hard there."

"Sasuke's so edgy he could cut himself by looking in the mirror," Camie said.

"You said that before," Sasuke said.

"And you remember?" Camie was surprised. "Wow, I didn't even remember that."

"Technically," Shoto said, "Sasuke could cut himself without having to look in the mirror, because his eyes would bleed if he used Amaterasu. Which is what proves it's a bad power."

"That and not the fact that it's black, demonic, and eternal?" Dabi said. "Maybe it's hellfire."

"Hellfire would be black," Camie said, "because then there'd be no light, and hell's probs dark, right?"

"Please stop," Momo pleaded. "I don't want to talk about hellfire."

"Then how about we talk about how doomed Suigetsu is?" Kankuro said cheerfully. "This whole plan is a mess already."

"Shut up," Temari told him.  "He'll be fine. We'll get him out and cure him."

"Oh, well, sure," Kankuro said. "Maybe we can, but we'd have to figure this out first. I don't like the look of this."

Karin just smacked her head into one of the rocks like it was a wall.

"I really don't understand what her problem is." Sasuke was still disgusted "She makes no sense to me."

"Sasuke--" Camie put a hand on his shoulder, making him flinch. "--girls are kind of weird like that, okay? It's called being a tsundere...or just unhinged and confused. The point is, Karin doesn't hate Suigetsu that bad, all right? And he's still one of us. And plus, he's kind of into her, lowkey, so she's gonna be a little sorry if he dies, 'cause girls are like that too. Just chill out."

"Get off me." Sasuke pushed her away. "And--wait, did you just say he's into her? What?"

"Why do you care?" Sakura asked blandly.

"That doesn't make any sense." Sasuke felt as if something had played him false here. "All they do is fight."

"Yeh, some guys like that," Camei said, like 'duh'.

"If you ain't fighting, it ain't real," Bakugo said.

"That's concerning for so many reasons," Temari muttered.

"You're one to talk," Kankuro said to her, and she pushed him away.

"But Suigetsu?" Sasuke for some reason couldn't wrap his head around it. "And her? No. You're crazy, Camie."

"I might be cray cray, but you're worse than me," Camie said. "And I ain't wrong 'bout it, trust me. Why else would he follow her around everywhere and make sure she's okay and let her punch him when she's upset when it doesn't hurt him at all?"

"He could just be a doormat," Sasuke said.

"Yeah, but still," Camie said. "And it's not like he couldn't stop her if he wanted to. And who else does he let do any of that?"

"So, what, he likes it? That's repulsive."

"Sasuke, doesn't this sound really ironic coming from you of all people?" Dabi said.

"Why?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Dabi just choked on a laugh. "Nevermind..."

"Shut up," Shoto said to him. "I hate those jokes."

Dabi just shrugged.

"If I'm wrong--" Camie wasn't letting it go. "--then why is Karin so worked up?"

"It's Karin--it could be any reason," Sasuke objected.

"Again, why does it matter?" Sakura said testily. "Unless your jealous."

"No," Sasuke said, with a disgusted look at her. "I just think it's disgusting. And I thought Suigetsu was supposed to be smarter than that. Doesn't he hate girls anyway?"

"What? Like you do?" Camie snorted.

"I never said that," Sasuke said.

"It has been a subject of debate, though," Camie said. "Do you like girls or not, Sasuke? Because you always act like you don't, but then you act like you don't like anyone, so are you just not into romance at all, or is it like a trauma thing and you are but you're scared of it?"

"What?" Sasuke said.

"Camie, you can't just ask someone if they're like that," Momo said. "That's not appropriate. And it's a sensitive question."

"But I'm curious," Camie said. "All us shippers in the 'dom' wanted to know what his deal was. I mean, I'd like to win that debate."

"By what? Telling them you met him in person?" Bakugo snorted.

"What is she talking about?" Lee asked Tenten.

"No clue," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, for my own edification then," Camie said.

"Just stunned you knew that word at all," Sakura muttered. "This conversation is stupid."

"I'd think you'd want to know, personally," Camie said.

"I don't need to know," Sakura said, "because it wouldn't make any difference."

For some reason, Sasuke felt like that was an insult of some kind, and it kind of pissed him off.

"To answer your question," he said to Camie, just to make Sakura mad, "if I was into that kind of thing, I would be like anyone else about it, but I've never really seen the point of it."

"That's just sad," Camie said. "But you're saying you like girls, then?"

"Camie!" Momo cried.

"I don't see why you need to know." Sasuke was getting a little tired of Camie's persistence now. "Didn't I already answer your question anyway? So stop scheming or whatever it is you're doing. Leave me out of this hobby of yours. I find it completely demeaning."

"Of course you do, you're Philophobic," Camie said. "But most of us happen to like being adored--if anyone adores us, that is--so we're interested in it."

"What did you just call him?" Sai asked.

"Philophobic," Camie said. "You know...afraid of love?"

Sai made a note.

Sasuke had gone from mildly irritated to actually upset as soon as Camie said "afraid of love", and now he turned away.

What did she know?

But really, his feeling was more "how did she know?"

Was it that obvious?

[I'm sure the way you mocked the idea of it and then cried like a baby later wouldn't tip anyone off, Sasuke. And that's from canon.]

Hinata suddenly looked up. "Did you guys hear something?"

"No..." Naruto said, and everyone fell quiet.

"Karin, did you sense anything?" Momo said in a whisper.

"No, but remember that I have a harder time sensing things if they're underground..." Karin said in a small voice.

Without any kind of warning, people came out of the ground all around the team then.

Some of them were half masked, like the thieves of the marketplace before, but not all of them had bothered.

There were at least 20 of them, so nearly evenly matched with the team for numbers.

However, the teens figured that they would be stronger than any bandits, and they all grabbed their weapons or readied their jutsus.

But the bandits didn't act as expected. Instead of moving to attack the team as individuals, they all made hand signs together before anyone could move to attack them instead.

"What are they doing?" Sakura wondered.

Sasuke's eyes turned red as his Sharingan began to take in their movements. He didn't know what jutsu it was, but any group jutsu was likely to be strong.

Shoto held up a hand, and ice began to form over it. 

Gaara's sand rose up.

However, the jutsu of the bandits wasn't anything like what thought; they'd been expecting it to try to swallow them up or shoot out spikes or turn to quicksand.

Instead the ground itself became like water, almost, similar to quicksand, but it was moving like a river. All of them lost their footing at once (except for Hanabi and Hinata, who'd jumped onto a pillar to get a better vantage of them all, but it took the bandits no time at all to notice that and move to attack them).

The others were all swept away by the rushing earth.

"Ah, help! I don't like this!" Camie cried, falling on her hands and knees and getting dirt all over her clothes while it moved.

"The h---!" Bakugo blasted himself out of it finally.

Shoto tried to freeze it over, and he got some of it, but it just moved under the ice and broke itself free so it just floated along.

Dabi cursed and then blasted out a ring of blue fire that was so hot, Temari, who was stuck near him, felt it on her skin and saw that it turned pink just from exposure.

The fire was so intense that the heat waves themselves forced some of the earth away from him, like an explosion would--but of course earth nullifies flame, so it wouldn't do much good to him, but he used the chance to try to scramble out of it... He wasn't fast enough--the ground grabbed him again.

Gaara used sand to propel himself out of the tide quickly enough, and he tried to reach for the others.

Surprising to him, though, he suddenly was doused with water from head to foot.

One of the bandits--and there seemed to be more of them now--had summoned water instead of earth.

Hanabi remembered Eichi's warning, as some of the others were moving towards her.

Hinata bit her lip and summoned her twin lions. "Run," she told Hanabi. "I'll hold them off. Try to find our senseis. Send them a message!"

Hanabi knew better than to argue at the moment. She used chakra to help herself spring off from that pillar to a different one and scramble along it like a mouse.

Hinata swun her fists at the bandits who were starting to close in on her. She dodged their attacks at least, aiming for their chakra points, and then jumped around them very fast.

Naruto made a dozen clones and finally got out of the earth slip-and-slide, and he tried to yank Sakura out, but Sakura was swept away too fast.

The slide was taking them all towards the Village like it was a playground slide going to the bottom of the jungle gym.

Bakugo chased after the others who were still stuck in it, trying to grab them out, but it was too fast for him to get a bead on them.

Choji finally got out of it by using his Expansion Jutsu to get too big to be carried.

The bandits stared at him like they were just now realizing that they might be outmatched.

"Choji!" Ino yelled.

Choji began to scoop up his friends.

He got Shikamaru and Tenten and Kankuro, who were all near each other, but Ino was taken a little too far past him.

Choji decided to just slam his fist into the slide, and it sent dirt spraying every direction.

But that didn't stop it from going on--it just got dust on top of their heads.

Gaara finally got his sand ahead of them enough to catch Temari and Dabi by it like a safety rope, but Camie and Ino went by too fast, and Jugo was helplessly stuck in this tide too.

Rock Lee was also stuck, though he tried frantically to use his taijutsu to propel outside of it, but it wasn't doing much against the sticky earth.

"Hold up," one of the bandits, who was some kind of leader, probably, said. "Nevermind the rest. We have enough, and we'll lose to that giant if we linger around here. Six is enough to question."

"Seven," said another, who had just grabbed Hinata by her hair when she'd missed an attack because the ground had jerked under her feet.

"Hey, let her go!" Naruto turned toward them, and his clones charged, holding out Rasengans.

"Forget her, then," said the leader bandit. "Duck and cover."

That must have been code to disappear into the ground, because all of them did, throwing Hinata into the rocks as a parting shot.

Naruto got to her and helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Hinata said, though she was a bit dizzy from the impact. "Hanabi..."

"She ran off," Gaara said. "But look, we're missing people. I wasn't able to catch them all."

"The b------ds got Camie," Bakugo said.

"And Ino and Jugo," Sai said.

"Sakura's gone too," Dabi said, brushing himself off. "And where's Sasuke?"

"Surely that didn't actually catch him?" Temari rubbed her head and knocked dust off of it. "He's too fast."

"I think they did," Momo said.

She'd been released when the bandits disappeared, and so had Shoto.

"And Rock Lee..." Tenten realized. "Uh oh..."

"They must have just taken them into the Village," Gaara said. "We could retrieve them if we caught up now... It's risky to go in there, but we can't let them take our team hostage. I have no idea what they would do to them."

"Gaara, wait," Temari said, shaking her fan out. "We've made mistakes before when we dashed in there without a plan. What if they want to lure the rest of us in? It stands to reason they never thought they'd take all of us with that stupid attack. It was just a distraction. They just want a few of us to use as bait. And how did they know we were here?"

"They must have known a lot to know to hit Gaara with water like that," Shoto said. "But you recovered."

"I had sand already in the ground," Gaara said. "Which is fortunate, or that might have worked. I don't like how many people seem to know that weakness now. I never told that many."

"Maybe they just figured it out..." Momo wondered. "I think Temari is right."

"Yeah, so do I," Shikamaru said. "No way we can just charge into the Village and them, but we're not safe out here now. If Shine and Wally learned anything helpful, I'd like to hear it...but if they took the others for bait, do you think they'll hurt them?"

"I think we might worry more about Sasuke killing them once he gets the chance to," Temari said. "The others will probably not do much to them--they'll follow the rules--but he can and will fight back, and he could kill them."

"Sakura could kill them too," Momo said. "Any of us could, but that doesn't mean they will. Sasuke surely will stick to the parameters of our team. He has so far."

"He's come close to snapping," Dabi said. "I don't know, if they push him... That's why he's not the hostage I would pick...but then, he likely won't be taken hostage."

"Maybe he'll come back here then and tell us what happened?" Naruto said hopefully. "Or he might help the others."

Kankuro snorted. "Sasuke? No. He won't. Forget him. What about the girls, Jugo, and Lee?"

"Camie can give them the slip, probably," Bakugo said. "We need to find a way to pick them up."

"I could have my Beast Scroll follow them," Sai offered. "Would that be inconspicuous enough?"

"Worth trying," Gaara said. "And we need to take cover and find Hanabi. She can't be far."

* * *

In fact, Hanabi had hidden in the crevices pretty effectively. The bandits hadn't come after her. Maybe they'd thought one girl was too small fry to try to risk showing themselves again.

But, using her Byakugan, she saw that they carried the 6 people away, and she kind of saw what followed, only just as chakra signatures.