The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

92: The Plague Revealed

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

The others had been waiting for about an hour--and had been on pins and needles the whole time.

Some had been praying, while others had just paced or leaned on the rocks.

Hinata was fiddling with her hair in her thumbs nervously.

Momo patted her shoulder, trying to reassure her.

Karin was still trying to sense what was going on.

"I'm sure they've separated," she murmured. "Why?"

"I see Hanabi's chakra signature." Hinata strained her eyes. "But Suigetsu's seems to be behind some other people's, and his isn't as bright as hers...or maybe it's because I know her better."

"Well, if he gets in trouble, he should signal me to bring him back," Shine remarked in a low voice.

Unless he couldn't, of course.

But then finally they got Hanabi's message, and Shine made sure she stood clear of the rocks before she opened her portal.

Hanabi fell through ungracefully and landed on her bad leg again and hissed in pain.

"Hanabi!" Hinata rushed to her and grabbed her shoulders in a hug. "You're all right."

"Ow..." Hanabi muttered. "Careful...I busted my ankle in there."

"What?" Hinata stepped back. "What did you do?"

"I...fell into a greenhouse," Hanabi said.

"Our greenhouse?" Ino asked.

"Yeah...the roof snapped," Hanabi said.

But she didn't want to tell them it was already broken; she didn't have the heart.

"Anyway, I got away okay, but there were these guys chasing me 'cause they thought I was starting trouble."

"I guess they knew you pretty well," Dabi said, because he was relieved.

Hanabi just made a face at him, but then she said, "And you're never guess who it was who helped me get away from them."

"Who was it?" Camie asked readily.

"I bet it was that brat from the kickball game," Bakugo said.

Hanabi stared at him. "How...how did you guess?"

"I dunno, just made sense." Bakugo shrugged. "He seems like he tried to warn us, and didn't you see him later, too?"

"I didn't know you knew about that." Hanabi felt as if he'd exposed her for some reason. She reddened a little. 

"Wait, you were seeing a boy?" Dabi said.

"No! He just popped up at the medical center once, and we talked," Hanabi said. "Well ,also he was there when Shine almost got stoned."

"Someone should really tell her what that means in slang," Wally said.

"No, Babe, don't," Shine shushed him.

"I've got your ankle." Ino held out her hand. "It's not bad. I can fix it up so you can walk again, but it might be a little tender for a while. I don't know if we have time to repair it completely."

"And where is Suigetsu?" Karin demanded.

"Oh...right." Hanabi's face fell. "We split up because I didn't want to go into the medical center and get stuck in there. He said he could escape it, so I thought he'd be right behind me, but he never followed me, and I thought I shouldn't wait too much longer, since Eichi said they would follow us."