The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

90: Suigetsu and Hanabi Go to The Hospital

[OP:  "Pale White Horse" --The Oh Hellos]

Day 71:

Sakura wanted to leave right away, but Shine told her that one night wouldn't make that much difference--at least none they could be sure of, and they should give Momo time to work on making the right gear for them.

Then she pacified her by saying she'd portal them part of them way there, to the rock spires. Then it would only take them a day or so to walk the rest of the way.

Of course Sakura wanted to go right inside and not to the spire, but then Shine represented to her how foolish it would be to charge in without knowing what they'd find, and when they could easily get exposed to something then and captured. They couldn't even be sure the rock spires wouldn't be patrolled by people, but it was a lot easier to hide there, and then the scouts in their own team could have time to get a bead on the situation.

Well, it was only one more day, so Sakura finally accepted it--and she couldn't have changed it if she wanted to.

Shine then told her she thought it was admirable that she was so worried about Tsunade and that Shine herself was also worried about her, and she understood why it was hard to wait, but they had to be smart if they wanted to help her in the best way.

That helped a little...

Sakura was disliking Shine less and less with time, and that annoyed her, but there seemed no way to stop it.

Strangely, she had the idea that Shine was also disliking her less and less, as if her annoyance with her had just worn itself out. 

The fact is, we can get used to almost anyone, and even people who drive us crazy at first can be tolerated with enough time and the right attitude towards making the best of it. But more than that, Sakura was the type of person who, once you got past her rudeness and short temper, was rather unobstructive, so she was easier to like if you just weren't surprised by her bad qualities anymore. And most of the team had gotten to that stage by now. Even Shoto didn't really find her so grating anymore and felt sorry for her, since he knew if Aizawa or All Might were in trouble, he'd have been very worried, and he supposed Tsunade was the same for Sakura.

Momo felt even worse for her, but the only way she had to show it was to prepare as quickly as she could.

Tenten wished she had something for this in her scrolls. Momo was always outdoing her on the usefulness with tools scale.

Everyone else wanted to prepare for the problems in Stone but had no way to. They didn't know what to expect.

Early in the morning, Shine said she'd portal them there now and reminded everyone not to do anything reckless. Then she opened the door.

It was startling, really, how fast they'd accepted the change of plans. No one had ever wanted to see this Village again--but, as Gaara pointed out, when your comrades were in danger, you put your preferences aside.

* * *

The rock spires didn't appear to have any spies on the edge of them, but Temari said the bandits would be fools if they took over the Village and didn't place guards at least at the nearer end of the spires, so she was sure they'd be waiting.

The others didn't doubt it, so now the question was, what to do?

"This is like Jericho," Shine said, after they'd all gathered quietly in a circle. "It seems impossible to penetrate it, but there might be a way if we'd just put our faith in God and our heads together. Though I'm not sure blowing trumpets and marching is likely to work this time."