A New Way of Ninja, (Naruto)

25: The Cave

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

Shoto used ice to skate at an angle up the mountain, and Bakugo blasted himself up the other way, trying not to get too close.

"Hey," Shoto said, at an interval where Bakugo happened to be close enough to hear him, "are you worried about Sasuke showing up?"

"No," Bakugo said, scornfully. "That POS can show up anytime and I'll blast him to h---. He's a pansy anyway."

"That's not why I'm worried," Shoto said. "When I was here 3 weeks ago, I nearly blew the mission because I wanted to help Sasuke. Now that I know what's happened with him, I think I was an idiot to even try. Some people never want to change. If he attacks us again, I would want to just fight him, but I do not want to make a mistake again. Shine's warning to us was something I don't think I could forget."

"I don't want to hear about your issues," Bakugo said, unsympathetically. "If he's attacking us, we'll fight him--that's how it works, plain and simple. We're not gonna be morons. If he doesn't bother us, we don't bother him. As far I'm concerned, he's not worth the effort. The fricker will get himself killed anyway."

"Likely," Shoto acknowledged. "I didn't...reach the end of the record. Did you?"

"No, I prefer not to know the end, since we're gonna change it anyway," Bakugo said. "Useless."

"I thought it would make it seem too final to know," Shoto said. "But I'd feel better taking chances if I knew the end."

"They wouldn't be freaking chances if you knew," Bakugo said. "Like this. Focus on finding that d----d cave and stop babbling."

Shoto frowned. Bakugo was never a nice person to confide in...but Shoto did it because Bakugo at least would give you somewhat of an honest answer. And he was afraid that Momo would have just tried to make him feel better, and that would have been nice, normally, but he was worried that he'd mess up, and for that, he wanted the brutally honest truth.

Bakugo was probably right; they just had to do what they were trying to do, and if someone got in their way, they would have to fight.

Lower down, Shine had work for Momo.

"We can't bring Kabuto in if we find him," she said, "per our rules. We'll have to stop his jutsus and then incapacitate him and send the ninja to collect--and hope they don't mess that up as badly as they usually mess up capturing the bad guys of this world."

"I can restrain him," Momo said, "as long as he's truly incapacitated. But with him and Orochimaru, you never can be sure."

Dabi, following them, kept eyeing around and behind them, like he expected a ninja to be there. And they might have been.

On the ground, Camie was looking up using Momo's binoculars that she'd given her before they left.

"Well, I got nothing," she said.

Sai, who was circling on a bird, though trying to stay where the trees might obscure him partially from anyone coming, hadn't signaled that he'd seen anyone.

Ino was in a tree. There were more trees near this mountain.

"I still don't see anyone," she said. "They've been going up there for half an hour..."

"That's slow for Mr. West," Camie said. "He's being super careful, I guess. Uh, this is so bogus. I wish Shine could see through the dark stuff easier. I hate waiting."

Ino glanced down at her. "So...Utsushimi, was it?"

"Oh, please, girl, it's Camie. No one calls me that but my boring as frick classmates," Camie said.