The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

85: Rain Party People

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

Camie and Shine had picked a lot of the songs together, with some input from the others, and the one they picked to kick off the party was this one:

["Night of My Life"--Group 1 Crew. Underrated band--this song was in Mom's Night Out, if you've seen Christian media enough to know what that is.]

The Rain Villagers weren't used to any kind of music, so Shine had suggested making a diverse playlist so they could hear a bunch.

This pop music wasn't what anyone expected, and at first the Village didn't really seem to get into it.

But Camie, never one to care if other people thought she was weird, started bopping to the music right off and told the others, "C'mon, dance or something."

Momo didn't really feel right with this music herself, not sure how to dance to it, but Hanabi rose to the occasion and joined Camie.

Finally, that got the kids who'd shown up to join in.

As time passed, more people arrived anyway. The crowd had been small at first, likely no more than 30 or 40 people, but then others came in.

It was also, Karin said, that some had hung around the end of the street at first, not sure about going in, apparently, but when they heard the music and saw the lights and that others had gone in, they perked up their courage and entered.

Mai was there, all right, as invited.

Jakku had not been happy at all when Camie, Shine, and Wally told him he'd lost his poorly-made bet.

Though he did seem almost impressed that they'd gone to that effort, but he said Shine and Wally were crazy for asking a hooker to a party just to prove a point.

"If it's that important for Camie that you have a good time," Shine said, "then there's no reason not to do it. And besides, it was good thing. We freed some people from that horrible man who was pimping."

Jakku raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect a lady like you to use that word or go to that place."

"I think you challenged us to do it because you didn't think we would," Shine said, "but we're not afraid of anything but the wrath of God, and you had better get used to it." She smirked.

"Nice one," Wally said. "I like that."

"So you have to go now," Camie said.

"I guess I'm beaten," Jakku sighed. "I can't have it said I back out of my word by my colleagues..."

No one had told his colleagues yet, but that gave Camie free reign to do it if he did back out.

But he didn't. He showed up and didn't seem happy about it.

But Camie, still with all the nerve in the world, the others said, introduced him to Mai right off.

"This here is the lady who made us win our bet," she said. "So be nice to her and don't be a sore loser. Mai, this is the dude who started this."

Mai, who, in the few days she'd been hiding out with the team, had already gotten much more used to their easy ways of handling people (compared to what she was used to) was less afraid to deal with this than before. "I suppose I owe you then," she said. "I never liked that scoundrel anyway, and I've decided to make an honest living. I hear there's a lot of openings here for people in the factories."