The Way Into Mist Village (Naruto)

10: Into the Mist

[OP: "In Memoriam"-- The Oh Hellos]

"I have put your evil doings out of my mind like a thick cloud, and your sins like a mist: come back to me; for I have taken up your cause." [Isaiah 44:2]

"And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark." [Isaiah 29:18]

Shine highlighted some verses in her bible. She was sitting below deck by a window. It was interesting to see such an old fashioned looking lower deck. She'd never been on a ship like this before.

"Hey." Wally poked his head in. "I wondered where you were? Needed some alone time?"

"I needed some 'away from Sasuke' time," Shine said, closing her book.

"Ah," Wally said knowingly. "He has been...interesting. Does he ever smile?"

"A real smile? Not very often," Shine replied. "But he got mad at me because I told the Prodigal Son story, and now he thinks I called him a Prodigal as a signal that I want him to convert."

"Huh..." Wally said. "But that would be cringe, as the kids say."

"Yeah, I'd like to think I'm not that cliché. I just thought it was a cool reference," Shine said.

"He deserves that title anyway," Wally said. "But it made him mad? He should be flattered that you think he could even return."

"Technically he did return, just not in spirit," Shine shrugged. "I don't know. It's been half a week and he doesn't seem to like us any better. I didn't think it would happen fast, but if he truly still thinks we're just as bad as the other people he's worked for, nothing is going to change."

"I don't see how he could possibly think that." Wally scratched his head. "What part of this is like Orochimaru or Obito? Or Madara?"

"I still think he only agreed to this because it was the road less traveled by, and he likes to defy people's wishes," Shine said. "At least Sakura's."

"Look, Shine, even if that's true, you still got him to come," Wally said. "And he's gone for 5 more days than some of us, not to name names, thought he would. And that's with the kids not even being that nice to him."

"I somehow doubt them being mean to him would influence it," Shine said. "Is it really that bad? I haven't caught everything they've said, hanging with Gaara, but I've got the impression they're arguing a lot."

"I haven't heard it all, but it sounds as if they're giving him a hard time. Like hazing," Wally said.

"They shouldn't be doing that." Shine frowned. "Whatever we think of his life choices, there's no reason to be cruel."

"I don't know, it seems like it goes deeper than that with Shoto, whatever happened to you guys that first time. He seems really jumpy to me," Wally mused. "He's normally a pretty confident kid."

"I was very stern with them," Shine said.

"It can't just be that. You didn't give them crap about it later. If it was that, they'd be over it." Wally shook his head. "Did Sasuke threaten you?"

"No, not yet," Shine said. Her tone implied "it's coming."

"Well, if he does, let me know. He can't get away with that kind of behavior," Wally said. "I don't care how powerful he is, he acts like a bratty teenager, which is what he is. I can't understand why the other teachers just take that from him. Are they too scared of him?"

"They took it because he was powerful enough to force them to," Shine objected. "They didn't care enough to stop him. No one has ever stood up to him. A kid with that kind of trauma, left to himself, no discipline, no one to show him how to approach life in a sane way, is bound to turn out kind of unstable. But even the little they did tell him, he ignored. And I don't see that he's listening to me. Or any adult. I know every adult has failed him, and that's not my fault, but what can I do about it?"