The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

71: Curse

[OP: "New River"--The Oh Hellos]

[Can you believe the Rain Arc already is almost 30 chapters long? Sheesh.]

Day 53:

The following morning marked the 53rd day of the trip.

Momo, when she mentioned it in her study notebook, couldn't believe it.  Almost 2 months... But how much had happened? Were they the same people as before?

She felt older, really, after what they'd been dealing with.

The ninja voiced similar thoughts, though in different words.

"I can't believe it," Ino said. "Two months..."

"Are you sick of us yet?" Camie asked.

"No..." Ino looked down, almost shyly.

Shine said she was happy they had made it 2 months and everyone was unharmed and in good health, mostly.

"How was your date?" Karin asked her with a sly look.

"It was great." Shine didn't act bashful about it. "Nice to pretend to be normal for a short time."

"Pretend to be normal," Suigetsu said. "I like that you know you have to pretend."

"Oh, shut up," Karin told him irritably. "At least someone around here tries to pretend to be."

Wally was cheerful also. "Yeah, it's nice to be off the clock for bit...but now that we've had time to unwind, we're raring to go...and we've gotta do something about that kid."

"Sasuke?" Shoto guessed.

They chuckled dryly.

"I guess it's in our tone by now," Shine said.

"You do need to do something," Sakura sniffed. "He's still running a light fever, you know. And for 3 days, that's not normal."

"What was normal about how he got sick to begin with?" Dabi asked.

"Shut up. I still think you're partially to blame for that," Sakura said.

"What did I do?" Dabi shrugged.

"You didn't stop Shoto-san," Sakura replied.

"Like I want to get my toes frozen off," Dabi said.

Shoto glanced at him a bit uneasily.

"I suppose I might as well tell you all this since you'll find out later anyway," Shine called their attention back to her. "I told Sasuke the best way to get rid of his current condition is to just fully remove the curse mark. This time, without leaving any traces, even in the DNA. That's the only thing to do."

They all stared at her.

"So what did he say?" Momo asked finally.

"He agreed," Shine said.

Camie nearly dropped her chopsticks.

"Huh," Bakugo said. "That's new."

"And he knows what that means?" Dabi narrowed his eyes at Shine. "That he'll be weaker."

"I guess at this point he's aware that those warped powers are not a strength," Shine said simply. "And that they make him weaker to us. And leave it to Sasuke to be short-sighted enough to wish to be powerful to only his immediate threats. But in this case, I believe it's perhaps also some slight common sense starting to take root. I was surprised also. But I shouldn't make fun of him too much. He's had a terrible few days."