The Way Into Mist Village (Naruto)

48: The Name of the Game

[OP: "The Wishing Well"--The Oh Hellos]

"What's the hold up?" Dabi asked when they'd caught up again.

"Just a bit of discussing the plan going forward." Shine abridged it severely.

Sakura must have wondered if that plan was Sasuke quitting, but, to her surprise, he didn't make any effort to walk away.

If anything, he seemed to move faster than before.

Sakura herself wasn't as tired as many of the others were, thanks to her chakra reserves, and she was getting annoyed at how slow they had to move. But Sai had to take it easy anyway thanks to getting hit in the head.

Ino still felt miserable about that whole thing and was walking very slowly as if she had weights on.

Camie tried to cheer her up by bringing up the subject of naming the team again. She even applied to Gaara to ask what he'd want to call it.

Gaara didn't have any ideas. Creativity was not his strong point.

"Maybe we should just give it a number like the other teams," Naruto suggested. "Or we could call it Team Ramen."

"We're not calling it that," Shoto said. 

"We're not calling it Team Soba either," Camie said.

"That's a better name," Shoto replied.

"No way," Camie snorted. "I think it should be something snappy like 'Lit' or 'Champ'."

"No one would take those names seriously," Temari objected. "At this point I'm starting to think it's not worth it to come up with a name."

"I do like the idea of a unified name instead of just using one person's," Shine admitted, panting as they went up another steep incline. "Perhaps something symbolic would be better."

"Now we're talking," Wally said, helping her over a rise effortlessly. "You know a ton of symbols... I guess Team Lightning Bolt is out."

"If we make it to Cloud Village, that will seem cheeky," Temari, ever attentive to diplomacy, pointed out.

"Dang, you ninja and your elemental names," Wally sighed.

"Perhaps we could name it after what drives us," Gaara suggested.

"Love?" Mpmo asked. "Team Love? I...well..."

"No freaking way," Dabi and Bakugo said together.

"That sounds like some crappy summer camp's for preschoolers motto." Bakugo made a face.

"Over my charred remains would I be on a team call that," Dabi said.

"Well, your charred remains were on team that in English the acronym for spells L-O-V, which would be pronounced like Love," Shine pointed out, with a backwards glance at him slyly.

Camie cracked up at once and even some of the ninja who didn't even get what she meant about English at least got the joke on Dabi and so laughed also.

One thing the hero/Dj additions had done to the ninja. They never laughed on the job before. But already they'd started to get used to the jocular habits of their new allies.

[I've always thought one of MHA's strong points as an anime is that the writer knows when a good laugh would be the right thing for the characters. Not a lot of shonen actually use this emotional beat. Naruto doesn't. It makes them all seem much more human when they can laugh at something.]

Dabi was so put out at Shine catching him on that that he had nothing to say for a while.

"I admire the sentiments behind that name," Gaara spoke. Even he sounded vaguely amused, and Gaara did not usually find things funny. "But it simply wouldn't inspire any respect from the nations."