The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

75: Cause for Celebration

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

Days 58-60:

More time passed with them busily working in Rain.

They never seemed to run out of things to do. It was Wally's idea to offer to help the Village fix any broken pipes or anything else, which was easy for Team Zoe to do by combining their powers.

Temari could even clear the clouds overhead of a given spot if they needed a chance to paint or waterproof something out of the rain, which led to being able to insulate some things without having to put them under tents or tarps first--that sped it up quite a bit.

By the end for their first 10 days here, Rain Village was mostly in love with the team. Certainly no one had expected them to be so helpful.

And Team Zoe was enjoying it a lot more than they thought. The gloomy weather got to them, to be sure, but they were almost too busy to notice it after a while.

Anyway, Camie said, exercise creates endorphins, and that makes you happy, so the busier they were, the better to fight off the depression that too little sunlight can cause.

But even there, the sun kept coming out. It never stayed out for more than an hour or so, but it had never come out so often.

It felt random. But the pressure system, Momo said, must be shifting if it happened at all. At least they hoped so.

The villagers came out more whenever the rain stopped, so they met more of them.

Yukimaru introduced Naruto to the few other children in the Village he knew, and Naruto was a big hit with them too.

All in all, the visit seems to be going very unprecentedly well.

But Stone had made them cautious. They now realized that the lack of problems didn't mean none could surface. They were careful to look out for any sign of trouble.

But thus far, none had really appeared.

Also the in-team bickering just about stopped. No one had the energy for it now. They might get a little impatient or cross with each other, but there was no what Shine called "drama" going on.

Ino mostly felt like she avoided Sai though. She was still sorting out her thoughts about that...and she wished she didn't keep coming to the same conclusion--that any feelings she had would never be returned anyway, so she might as well just forget about it.

On the 66th day of the trip, Gaara finally got an answer from Sand about their financial plan.

He didn't think it would be an easy fight to win--at least without sending them more info on it.

But surprisingly, they had accepted it--it helped that they didn't have to send that many funds; they just had to agree to trade.

Also it helped that Gaara had been in Rain for over a week with no assassination attempts, which in itself had lost a few people bets in Sand when they heard about it.

This good news was worth a celebration, Shine said.

Camie jumped on that. "We should have a party like we did in Mist," she said. "Since we never got to throw one in Stone Village."

"A party?" Tenten pointed at the rain outside. "Sure...good idea. In the Village that barely has enough food to even survive."

"We could make stuff," Camie said.

"Momo is not your vending machine," Shoto insisted.

"I really don't mind," Momo said.

"I think you should." Tenten gestured at her. "Doesn't it make you feel like your 'quirk' is just a convenience to them?"