The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

56: Busted

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

Just as Sasuke was jumping back from that attack--and realizing that he had run onto the lake instead of grass--a bright light flashed over the field.

It was not Momo's flash grenade, as she hadn't gotten close enough to toss one yet.

Blindly, the boys turned, blinking.

Shine was standing by the lake, eyes blazing and sword out.

Shoto stared at her...then he registered the scene of the fight--the ice and scorch marks on the grass and the frozen sword and discarded shuriken.

He lowered his hands.

Sasuke froze in place while still standing on the lake.

He saw that his black fire had been smoking all this time on that one patch of ground, and he put it out at once, like a kid who yanks their hand out of the cookie jar while their mother is watching them.

Shine stared at them.

"How...how long were you there?" Shoto finally asked.

"Oh, I saw at least half of the fight," Shine said tightly. "I got a message about it and came to the edge of the village, but I didn't walk this far till just now... Do either of you care to explain yourselves?"

"He started it," Sasuke said, real mature, nodding at Shoto.

"What? No, he did," Shoto argued. "Shine, he insulted my mother."

"He threw the first attack," Sasuke insisted.

Dabi, who had come closer to hear this, started to snicker.

Shoto glanced that way and finally saw that Momo was there--and the Hyugas.

"Oh..." he said in a much more subdued voice.

Momo was just frowning at him, then she looked away.

"Did you insult his mother?" Shine asked Sasuke in the tone of a mom demanding the truth. Which worked on him surprisingly well, considering how angry he'd just been.

"I...well, I'm not sure if I did, but something like that..." Sasuke admitted sullenly. "But he started it."

"Both of you sound like 5-year olds!" Shine said sternly. "Why on earth...? And look at this field. What if the Village asks us what happened out here? What am I supposed to tell them?"

Shoto looked down. "Just...if you're going to send me home, can you just do it? I don't want to wait for the ax to fall."

Shine's eyes narrowed. "So that's what I should do, huh?"

"We did just break one of the rules," Sasuke admitted, realizing what he'd done.

He mentally started to panic...and a weird, tight feeling shot through his chest.

But Shine didn't seem that angry yet.

"Well," she said, "the thing about that rule is that it's meant to prevent people from feeling unsafe on the team. But since both of you had a pretty even fight, perhaps you don't feel unsafe yet?"

"Huh?" Shoto said.

"Anyone else feel unsafe?" She glanced at the onlookers.

"Watching them? No," Hanabi said. 

"I...was more afraid for them than me," Hinata said.

"Eh, I thought it was fun," Dabi said.

Momo said nothing at all, but she looked away again.