The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

50: In An Unexpected Place

[OP: "Where is Your Rider?"--The Oh Hellos]

The others had been trying to explain to Guren and Gozo, while Sasuke and Wally were talking, that the peace mission was legitimate and...somewhat successful, though no one sounded as convinced about that as they would have before Stone.

Guren was skeptical (and Gozo was silent, so no one knew if he bought it), but she finally did conclude that they couldn't be making this up.

And Gaara could show her reports from the other Villages that he had with him to prove they had agreed to this.

Finally she accepted that they were not there for Yukimaru, and though she still called Karin "a bloodhound b---h" and said to keep her away from them, she and Gozo appeared to be no longer interested in a fight.

Guren more wanted to know how Naruto had gotten Sasuke to finally change his mind, as she told Naruto, "I didn't think you're being a fool would pay off."

Naruto would have liked to take full credit, but though he said, "Well, it did," he was forced to add, "though it wasn't just me. I mean, I did stop him from destroying the world, but I didn't convince him to join us for this mission. That was Miss Likstar."

"Hi." Shine waved. "We really should introduce ourselves now. I'm Shine. You can call me that. The kids just call me Miss Likstar because I can't get them to stop."

"I guess you know who I am already," Guren said. "I thought Naruto would be more discreet."

"You thought Naruto would be discreet?" Sakura scoffed.

"Do you ever not badmouth him to people when you first meet them?" Bakugo asked her with a disgusted look.

"I dunno, do you ever not insult your friends when you're talking to them?" Sakura retorted.

Bakugo just shrugged. "Not when we're meeting someone we need to impress."

"Didn't you tell my father we weren't friends?" Shoto asked.

"Shut up. Anyway that's your dad--I don't need to impress him," Bakugo said.

Shoto actually thought that was kind of funny, though he was not in a good mood right now, so he barely let on.

"I know most of these people from before, though not by name." Guren studied the Leaf. "But the Sand are new, and also that little one there." Meaning Hanabi. "Or any of you...colorful ones. And why does that guy have two-toned hair?"

"Because he couldn't decide which color he liked best," Dabi said before Shoto could say anything.

Shoto glared at Dabi, though really the joke hadn't been that bad, but he was still pissed at him for the other day. Dabi had never apologized for what he'd said, and they'd not been speaking since.

Dabi ignored Shoto's glare.

"I'm Camie." Camie held out a hand to Guren. "I'm a big fan. Sticking it to the man Kabuto--I loved that. The jerk only ever got his comeuppance when you nearly impaled him for hitting that poor baby. It was so satisfying."

"How did you know that?" Guren frowned.

"Uh...wiki?" Camie said.

"That sounds suspicious." Guren shook her head.

"Trust me," Shikamaru said, "you won't have to worry about Camie's knowing your secrets working against you. She'll never come up with a strategy that complex."

"Shut up, Shikamaru," Camie said.

"We have ways of knowing things," Shine said. "But it's nothing you need to worry about. Camie is only bringing it up because she was impressed by it. We had no love for Kabuto or his methods."