The Way Into Mist Village (Naruto)

34: A New Plan

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

To be honest, skating along ice with two people was already pretty hard for Shoto to balance while doing, and having 3 others with him was enough to slow him down to a snail's pace, in his mind.

Bakugo at least could steady himself, but the girls really could only hang on.

Neji just ran along it using his chakra, so at least that wasn't a problem.

"A little to the left," he said.

They were probably at least 10 meters in the air.

They passed the base of the mountain easily doing that.

Neji looked down... He thought he saw the mist thickening down there... It was dark so it was hard to tell, but...did it seem like it was colored differently also?

It was suspicious, whatever it was, and they kept going.

However, just skating past it didn't solve their problem the way they hoped.

Camie suddenly tried to wiggle free from Momo's grip and jump off the ice.

"Camie, what are you doing?!" Momo cried, trying to keep a grip on her and nearly falling off.

"I don't know!" Camie sounded totally freaked out. "My body is moving on its own! I'm not trying to do this!"

"D--- it! what kind of spell did that wizard put us under!" Bakugo said, as he also started to lunge off the ice.

Shoto stopped him in time. "How could he control your body?"

"Ask him that!" Camie screamed. "Ahh! help, I can't stop!"

"The trap!" Neji said, grabbing Camie's arm also, trying to help Momo keep her in place. "It's as if they're getting told to go to that spot. As if they can't help it."

"Once we got past it...it must have unlocked something in them," Momo realized. "While we were going towards it it didn't have an effect. It has to be some kind of hypnosis. I've heard of this kind of thing before but never seen it."

"It's freaking terrifying!" Camie yelled. "Help!"

"You have to try to fight it. I can't hold--" Momo cried. "--Oh no! she's slipping!"

"Nothing to do but try to crash and restrain them on the ground," Shoto said, freezing ice downward from them.

Camie tumbled down the slide at once, and Momo went with her.

Then they all went down there--Bakugo nearly got away though, as he could blast through the air.

Shoto froze his foot quickly, and Neji grabbed him.

"Do you think if we knock him out...?" he asked, struggling. "Bakugo is a lot stronger than he looks for his size."

"I freaking heard that, you b-----d!" Bakugo sputtered.

The creepy part was that Shoto could tell it wasn't Bakugo: his movements were way too uncoordinated and frantic for Bakugo's fighting style. That made it worse.

It was almost enough to make Shoto freeze up from fear, but he tried to keep it at bay.

"What if he still moves while he's out? Then he wouldn't even have the reason to try to fight it," he said. "Maybe he can overcome it if he tries hard enough."

"I would--ugh--like that to be true," Neji said, struggling to hang on. "But if this jutsu isn't only in his body, I would say it's not his conscious mind that is the problem. It's gotten into his nervous system somehow, like a chakra channel, but you don't have those like we do, so I don't know how it's controlling him..."