The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

61: A Daring Attempt

[OP: "Dear Wormwood"--The Oh Hellos]

"I had an idea for how to help," Ino said. "But, uh...I think Shoto did too."

"You can go first," Shoto said.

Shine nodded at Ino.

"Uh...well...do you remember what happened to me in Stone?" Ino said. "With the thief...and my jutsu...and it's changing?"

"It is?" Sakura said.

"Shh." Karin wanted to hear this.

"Yes..." Shine said cautiously. "But, Ino, if this is going where I think it is, no way."

"Why not?" Ino said. "It's worth a shot."

"Why not? Let me think of the reasons--" Shine counted on her fingers. "1) I don't like that jutsu anyway. 2) This is Sasuke we're talking about, and his mind is a mess on a good day. 3) Currently we suspect that the Sharingan or the Curse jutsu or both, are the cause of most of those, and he's too loopy to be much help to you even if they weren't. 4) You could get hurt. Need I go on?"

"But maybe there's a way," Ino protested. "Bakugo and Dabi were saying that what I have might be a spiritual gift of some kind...working through my jutsus. Doesn't that give you guys immunity to genjutsu?"

To Sakura's surprise, Shine actually seemed to think about it.

"Well..." she hesitated. "Let's see... It wouldn't be prophetic...I think... Hmm, well, your ability does resemble the gift of mercy...or intercession perhaps."

"Huh?" Ino said. 

"Both of those gifts involve feeling what other people feel and rely on compassion heavily," Shine explained. "But intercession is a bit more active. It means you can take on other people's battles and fight for them, spiritually speaking. People do it with prayer, dance, song, that kind of thing. But it's quite dangerous to go too far into it without having time off. You can pick up people's problems for yourself. The evil forces of the world do not care whether it's your deal or not--they will try to attack you anyway. Don't think just because you're not Sasuke his curses would not attempt to harm you too if you got that close. You have no idea what it could be like."

"Intercessory," Momo said. "I read about that...but not in detail."

"Well, people often think of it as a calling to do a large amount of praying for other people," Shine said. "Something all of us have to do, but some people have a gift for it. My mother is like that... But the point is, it is dangerous if you don't have boundaries."

"So how do you set boundaries?" Shoto asked.

"Prayer and knowing when to pull back," Shine said, "and knowing how to dig deep into the good side of all this too... Look, Ino, this sounds like a very risky idea you have, a brave one, but I'm not sure you understand what you could get yourself into."

Ino was a little cooled, but then she said, "But surely you could...help?"

"Well...maybe," Shine said. "But do you want to risk being caught in a genjutsu?"

"Genjutsu can be ended," Ino said. "And...you can undo them, so...there must be some way to keep it from getting out of control... I know, I'm new to this...but it looks as if we're running out of time. How l long can he take this?"

"If it keeps going like this..." Karin said uneasily, "I would give him...another day at most."

"Only one more day?!" Sakura cried.

"You just can't live this way for long," Karin said. "And his temperature is not going down either, probably because we can't get him to lie still and actually rest... That's just adding to it."