The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

97: Girls Rule

[OP: "Where Is Your Rider?"--The Oh Hellos]

Doro and Zokei had had plenty of interesting tidbits to share with Camie and Ino.

Granted, they couldn't tell them how their "boss", whom they finally admitted was named Kasasagi, came up with the plague. [Means "magpie"--they're known as birds that steal shiny things, also thought to bring good luck in Japan, so kind of a dual-sided name for a thief to have.]

"It's probably not his real name," Doro volunteered readily. "But we've never heard any other for him."

"Bro, I like shiny stuff, but I'm not sure I'm a magpie," Camie joked.

Ino only assumed it was one of her weird reference jokes that made no sense in their world and let it go, while the thieves seemed puzzled by it.

They did confirm what the others had pieced together already, if the girls had only known it.

"Kasasagi was already planning this take over for weeks before you all came and left," Doro said. "We know that much. We've been staking out the Village with tunnels and things."

"There's tunnels all under this Village?" Ino said. "But how would they not find them??"

"Most of the tunnels only open if we make them," Zokei said. "There's one main section of them that we left open for the non-Earth Style users in the bandit cohort. It only goes to a few places though, just to allow for escape routes. The rest of us, we marked the spots with chakra trails, kind of like a snail would."

"Ew." Camie made a face, but they ignored her.

"And we can open it without using that much energy now," Zokei finished. "Simple."

"That's kind of a smart idea." Ino wished she could do something like that.

"We thought so too," Doro said. "Just one catch: Kasasagi and his uppermost people know if you use the tunnel. They don't care if we just use it to get around or anything, but if we left and weren't ordered to, they'd know for sure, and you, girlies, would definitely raise an alarm. So no using that to escape with."

"Da--, there went my idea," Camie pouted.

"Camie, don't you think that idea is a little too obvious for us to do?" Ino said. "If we knew, I mean, Kasasagi would know for sure one of his own people told us about it, then."

"But if we kick his butt, it won't matter." Camie really was Bakugo's girlfriend at times like this.

Ino shook her head. "What if it's not that easy?"

"I know you could take over his mind," Camie said. "Just have him order it."

"Oh, sure," Doro said sarcastically. "She could just do that."

"I think she could." Zokei peered at her. "I've heard of the Yamanaka clan's Mind Transfer Jutsu...but it's easy to detect, isn't it?"

"No, not for everyone," Ino said. "Sensory types might detect it."

"That's no good. We have plenty of those in the coalition." Zokei didn't seem to have a consistent term for the bandits' collection of scoundrels.

"There has to be some way we can escape," Camie murmured.

"Well, most of us are Earth users," Doro said. "But we have a few people who are from the Land of Lighting, and you want to watch out for them. And some from the Land of Water. Some I'm not even sure where they're from--rogues or smaller lands. We don't all swap our stories friendly-like. Better to know as little as possible if someone comes looking for you."