The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

17: More Than You Take

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

Wally could lay a foundation in less than 10 minutes, it turned out.

Frankly, no one thought he would be able to do it because it was complex, but it was nothing compared to the stuff he usually worked on.

Shine just simpered the whole time.

"You look like you're into this," Dabi said.

"I am," Shine said. "I can't appreciate it? I mean, dang, give him a week and he could build the Great Wall of China."

"That's an exaggeration," Momo objected.

"Maybe but how much of one?" Shine shrugged.

"Ugh, I hope we don't have to try to match his space," Suigetsu said. "He's not human, I swear."

"Do we have to get our hands dirty?" Karin asked distastefully.

"You're a medic." Ino glanced at her.

"Yeah...but...dirt is gross," Karin said. "Blood, I'm used to, but usually I don't even pierce the skin when I perform medical ninjutsu anyway, and dirt gets under your fingernails."

"I consider myself to be a pretty girly girl, and I'm fine with dirt," Ino said. "It's just nature. Nature is our friend."

"Nature is our enemy too," Suigetsu said. 

"I like nature," Jugo spoke.

They still weren't used to him talking about things lightly like this; it startled them.

"I don't want to do this," Sasuke said to Shine, as if she would care.

"Too bad," she said. "It's important that you participate this time. Besides, do you have anything better to do?"

"It's demeaning," Sasuke insisted.

"Oh, well, Your Highness, I didn't realize you were above all of us," Shine shot back with maximum sass. "If we the leaders can do it, so can you. And who do you have to impress?"

"That's a good point, Cactus Boy," Dabi said. "Though it might make you squeamish if you have to plant some of your own genus in there. Were there any cacti on the list?"

"I wrote down aloe," Ino said. "It's not a cactus, but it's a succulent."

"A what now?" Camie said. " A succubus?"

"Ew, no," Ino shuddered. "Completely different word, Camie. And don't ever say that again."

"Sorry, I've never heard of succulent or whatever before," Camie said.

"Aloe is a miracle plant," Shine said. "Cures a lot of things."

"Hey, guys," Wally said, "come on, let's get these walls up. That plaster isn't going to mix itself."

The assistant to Koji was the person getting plaster ready to mix. They were using jutsu, but it wasn't that much more than making it stir faster, nothing that couldn't be replicated.

Sakura, apparently resigning herself to the situation, elected to do this. It wasn't unlike her medical lab work in some ways, and she had an eye for precision.

Hinata helped with that too.

The boys were more willing to get dirty than the girls, and Naruto popped out a dozen clones to help apply the stuff as instructed.

It might not have been professional work exactly, but between Gaara being able to use sand to smooth things over and Wally's speed, it was passable according to Koji.