The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

8: Marketplace Thieves And A Difficult Conversation

[OP: "Hieroglyphs--The Oh Hellos.]

Temari thought she should do something, but she also had Ino in front of her, and she'd just gone limp.

Ino tried her Mind Transfer jutsu on the other kid, taking over to make them come back out.

It was working, but something seemed off to her. Normally the Mind Transfer just completely took over someone's will--which seemed questionable enough with the DJ's code, but they hadn't forbidden it yet--but this time Ino felt as if she got more than just the will.

It was as if her consciousness went deeper and she began to feel what the thief boy was feeling.

Panic, despair...a feeling of failure because his family was starving.

Ino's own emotions tugged at her consciousness, and she started to lose her grip.

She had just made him step out of the hole, but the feeling of fear got so intense that Ino let go abruptly.

She snapped awake in her own body so quickly that Temari jumped.

"Oh my!" Ino put a hand on her chest. "Don't hurt me!"

The boy looked at her strangely.

"Hurt you? What's wrong with you?" Temari demanded. "Get up."

The boy tried to run, and Temari grabbed him by his shirt collar before he could. "Not so fast, thief."

"What did you do to me?" he yelped. "You're magic!"

Ino stumbled to her feet, but she seemed disoriented. "Leave me alone," she said to Temari.

Temari slapped her. "Get a grip! What's going on ? Did you addle your brain doing that jutsu?"

Ino finally did snap out of it and rubbed her face. "I...huh? What was I saying?"

"I don't know, something about leaving you alone," Temari said, turning back to grab the thief, who was going to break free.

The others had paused to stare at her in confusion, but now the merchant turned back.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave them alone," Sai said, as the man raised his fist again.

"Yeah, that's enough." Temari walked over, dragging the other thief with her, while Ino followed, confused. "We'll deal with them from here... You know who I am, right?"

The merchant looked at her balefully. "The Kazekage's sister."

"Aide," Temari said tightly.

Shikamaru released the jutsu on the other thief in time to grab him by the arm.

Jugo wordlessly moved the boy behind him.

The merchant didn't seem to like it, but he didn't dare insult someone so high ranking further.

"Whatever, keep them away from my stand." He turned and walked away.

"Leaf dogs!" the first thief said, trying to yank away from Shikamaru now.

"You're welcome," Shikamaru said flatly. "What do we do with them?"

"I guess turn them over to the Stone authorities," Temari said. "Why don't the rest of you look for one? There have to be some in this village."

"We could just take them straight to the kage house," Sai suggested. "That is where West-sensei headed."

"Fine," Temari agreed.

"The kage house?" the boy said. "No..."

"Uh...but he won't kill them or anything, right?" Camie asked.