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

Karin walked into the medical center.

"Momo?" she called.

"Karin?" Momo poked her head out of one of the medical wards. "Oh...you're here... How is it going?"

"Where is everyone?" Karin didn't answer the question.

"Uh...well, the bandits kind of ran for it once they saw we were serious," Momo said. "And the medics are...kind of gathering around us...but you have to come see this."

Karin hastened to her.

"Where's Suigetsu?" she asked.

Momo didn't answer that question--she just showed her into the large room that was like an ER.

A lot of people were in there who were obviously (to Karin) still sick.

But at the far end of it there were a bunch of people who seemed to be well and who were talking in amazed tones to Shoto and Dabi, who were just shaking their heads or making sarcastic comments about the bandit attack by turns.

Everyone had different stories about how they'd seen it happen and how the plague had broken out.

"I was able to heal a lot of them," Momo said. "I'm tired, but...I'm grateful. And Shoto's ice actually seemed to help too. It countered the poison before, so I suppose it makes sense. But only on some people. Some I think it's worked too deep in their systems. I tried, but it's stubborn. It's more than just an infection--it's like it's hanging onto them."

"It has to do with it being a cursed attack," Karin said, "doesn't it?"

"Yes... Shine just sent Tsunade an update about it." Momo held up her own paper. "I was hoping you knew more, actually. Where is everyone?"

"We just brought Tsunade here," Karin said. "They have Sakura now. They're going to work on her cure for it."

"That's great news. I should go ask them about it," Momo said.

"But where's--?" Karin began, but Momo didn't hear her. She rushed out into the hall and then to the lab.

"Oh, Hot Pocket." Dabi nodded at Karin. "Finally decided to join the party. You should hear some of these. Those bandits are b-----ds."

"Dabi, please, there're children," Shoto said.

Some of the victims of the plague were children, sadly.

Karin walked up to them.

"Do you know where--?" she began again.

Someone suddenly hit the top of her head from behind, and she yelped and whirled around.

Suigetsu was standing behind her. He'd just popped out of a corner or bucket or something, probably.

He thought it was hilarious to scare her like that while she couldn't sense him because of all the other people around her.

He chuckled.

Dabi snickered too.

Karin wasn't amused.

"You a--h---!" she said, swinging at Suigetsu wildly. "That nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sheesh, Karin, it was just a joke," Suigetsu said. "What took you so long to get here anyway? I was practically dying when they arrived."

"That's a bit dramatic," Shoto said. "But it was gruesome. Thankfully, it went right out when I used my ice."

"Yeah, go figure," Suigetsu said. "Though I did get cold. It was really boring down here with all the sick people, too, and depressing. And you guys were all having fun. It sucked." [Geez, be a little sensitive, Suigetsu. The sick people are right there.]

Karin glared at him.

"What?" he said, thinking she was taking this joke a little too seriously.

"Nothing," Karin said coldly and looked away.

Suigetsu glanced at Shoto and Dabi quizzically, and they shook their heads. They didn't know.

"Not to butt in," an older man who was a patient said to Suigetsu, "but your girlfriend may be a little miffed that you just jump-scared her when she was clearly worried about your safety. Young people are very dramatic."

"Okay, first of all, not my girlfriend. That's disgusting," Suigetsu said indignantly. "And second, that's ridiculous because Karin is not that worried about my health."

Karin said nothing to confirm nor deny his statements. She pretended she hadn't heard.

"Oh, is the old guy right?" Dabi hissed to Karin. "Water Boy gave you a scare? That's so cute that you care."

"Why don't you set yourself on fire?!" Karin snapped at him.

"He tried that once," Shoto said. "It didn't go so well... Karin, are you worried?"

"Of course not. Clearly you're all fine." Karin crossed her arms. "It's just a little insensitive of you to not tell us that when we were all worked up doing things and you were just here, relaxing."

"Well, it wasn't relaxing." Shoto, as usual, missed the point of her words. "The stories are sad...and a lot of children died too... We just wanted to make their pain better. I don't like Stone Village much, but I can't deny this is really tragic. They didn't deserve this much, most of them, and the children were innocent. This just seems like it went way too far the other way. I feel as if we could have stopped it somehow, but I don't know how."

Karin shook her head.

"Shoto, if your ice is helping," she said, "you should go to Tsunade and Sakura. They're still working on something that might cure it... If they put it into your melted ice, it might be stronger."

"It's not a magic potion," Dabi said.

"Yes, but as I understand it," Karin said, "here your power mixes with the rules of our...system, which is that spiritual things become physical things. And that's how this disease works too. It's some kind of cursed thing that's becoming physical. So it stands to reason that your gifts, in physical form as they are here, would cure it the way they would have if it was spiritual."

"She makes some kind of sense," Shoto said. "Karin-san, I think I was not fair to you at first. You're very smart."

"Well, I--wait, what do you mean at first?" Karin said, sharply.

"I'll go." Shoto didn't pay that any mind.

He left.

"Well, good to know his ice can do just about anything," Dabi said. "Geez, everyone's got special talents here."

"Do you wonder what yours will be?" Karin asked.

"I'm not sure I care," Dabi said, and Karin was sure he was lying even without sensing his chakra that well. "I have enough problems with my quirk... So are we gonna bust the guys behind this yet?"

"We're waiting for Shine's signal, but you could go wait down with the others," Karin said.

"Sure," Dabi said. "Later, losers." Nodding at Stone.

"Make sure you make them pay for it," one of them said. "Those scoundrels."

"The irony of this is not lost on me," Dabi said to Karin aside as he walked out.

Karin shrugged and followed him, and Suigetsu followed her.

"You weren't worried, right?" he said.

"Of course not," Karin said. "I knew we'd never get rid of you that easily."

She wasn't making eye contact.

Suigetsu didn't quite believe her.

Well, that made him feel a little odd... It was odd to know Karin had started to feel a camaraderie bond with him and Jugo after all... Well, he'd known that already, but she didn't usually admit to it.

Not that she was now, but she might as well have been.

"Shoto and Dabi said you've been helping the team a lot with this," he said.

Karin shrugged. "I tried."

"Said you went in alone."

"Someone had to, and I was the only one who couldn't be detected."

Suigetsu shrugged. "Don't let it go to your head, but, that's pretty gutsy."

Karin stopped. Then she reddened uncomfortably. "Not much...choice about it."

"Still, not something I would have thought you'd do, not that long ago," Suigetsu said.

"I know, I'm weak!" Karin suddenly got mad at him. Maybe it was just easier for her to do that than to think about what he was actually trying to say. "And pathetic...but...I can try to do my part."

"That's not what I meant," Suigetsu said, a little tersely. "Just that you're brave at odds times, that's all. Like with Sakura when Sasuke was going to kill her--even though that's all messed up to begin with. They said you tried to warn her at the time."

"Of course, I didn't want her to die," Karin said. "I knew what he'd do..."

"What if he'd gotten mad and finished you off?" Suigetsu asked. 

"I'd have died if she did anyway."

Suigetsu shrugged. "I don't get you sometimes."

"What does that mean?"

"Sometimes you seem like you're as crazy as they say and as selfish," Suigetsu said, making her angry again. "But other times, you act a bit more like Naruto, I guess. Maybe it's in the genes, taking bigger risks than other people do. All of us in Taka are headcases anyway."

"Jugo is not a headcase anymore. And he never would have been, if it was his choice."

She rubbed her arm. "Stop casting it up to me. Jugo and I just want to change ourselves from being freaks because of that to something...at least semi-respectable. It's nothing special."

"Karin, I was trying to say something kind of nice," Suigetsu said, losing his patience. "But you're twisting it all the wrong way, as usual."

Silence.

"Oh..." Karin finally said.

"What's the point?" Suigetsu sighed. "I can't do this anyway. I know there's nothing in all the friendship crap. Some of us just don't know how to be like that. Just...every now and then, sometimes...I guess some people feel like they wish they didn't have to keep acting like they're stuck in the same tank their whole life. Literally or figuratively."

Karin knew what that felt like, and she felt a pang of guilt.

Swallowing, she said, "I've never really said I was sorry for that...have I?"

"I don't know if you have or not, but I think I got the message," Suigetsu said. "Whatever... I should probably stop casting it up to you, you're right. You and Jugo are different. You still have things you want to become."

"Don't you?" Karin asked.

"Isn't it a little late to ask that?" Suigetsu said. "Sometimes I don't even know if I'm human anymore."

Then, seeing her look, he added, "I'm not blaming you for that, Karin. It was Orochimaru and Kabuto who really did it. I get it, you had to survive. We all did. Like you guys have said before, I killed for him, and I'm not one to judge. It's not Jugo's fault either. We were all stuck. I just think I'm not the type who can control myself to change past that. I've just gone with what anyone else decided for me, and that was true before Orochimaru took me. I can't change it."

Karin felt almost sorry for him.

"All of us were prisoners," she said, "even if we were pet ones...still, we couldn't leave...so why is it different for you than for Jugo and me?"

"Nature, I guess," Suigetsu said. "Just how it is. Maybe that's not because of what happens to me but just how I am. It's like all this deep stuff they keep talking about. Sure, it sounds good, and if I was a different person, I might buy into it, but I think I'm not the right kind. It's great for them, but God has no use for someone like me, and I can't commit to something like that."

Karin wasn't sure why not.

"That doesn't make any sense," she said. "Is it just that you're afraid to hope for anything now? I mean, your goal in life is finding cool swords. That's pathetic. And they offered you a chance to be a part of something much bigger than that, and then with their team there's someone out there who considers us to be more important than just tools...or, if we're tools, we're better tools than we ever were before. And you just say you're not a good fit for it? How does that make any sense?"

"Maybe it doesn't, but it's how I feel about it."

"I don't believe it. You're just scared," Karin accused him, and she hit it on the head for once. "You're scared of caring about anything. As usual. That's what always pissed me off about you."

"Well, caring about stuff can kinda get you killed when you work for psychopaths!" Suigetsu shot back, hackles up now.

And of course he'd just felt irritated that she was right.

"But we're not working for psychopaths anymore." Karin made a great point. "You don't need to protect yourself from it. These people are not going to use you and toss you out. And neither is their deity. Has it happened to them so far? And what better life do you have to go to anyway? You can't just stay in limbo, but if you want to be that kind of pathetic, I don't care what you do. You get what you deserve then."

She turned in a huff and walked away quickly.

Suigetsu was left to be baffled by her behavior.

* * *

Sakura and Tsunade concocted their saline solution experiment using Shoto's ice.

Shoto still had his doubts about being treated like a chemistry ingredient, but he didn't see any harm in it either.

Tsunade asked Sakura what Rain Village had been like.

"Not as bad as you would think," Sakura said. "But, Sasuke was an idiot. That gave us the most trouble."

"Who did he fight?" Tsunade asked.

"Him." Sakura nodded toward Shoto.

"That fight was 5 minutes long, Sakura." Shoto didn't like her bringing it up. "And we resolved it, I think."

"I knew you didn't like him." Tsunade glanced at Shoto. "So it came to blows. I thought that wasn't allowed."

"It's not," Shoto said.

"But you're still here," Tsunade said.

"As are you," he said.

That confused Tsunade.

"It was really what happened after the fight that made it so bad," Sakura said. "Boys are such idiots, Lady Tsunade."

"No argument here," Tsunade said.

Shoto frowned. "I don't see how we're worse than the girls."

"Shut up," they both told him.

Shoto didn't Iike them while they were together, he decided.

But at least they had something like a medicine or shot ready.

It took them only a short time, considering.

"If this idea works, I'll be impressed with your progress," Tsunade told Sakura. "You might match me before too long (with poison, anyway). However, your endurance could use work."

Sakura took that about as meekly as she always did from her sensei.

Shoto couldn't help but think if Sakura ever gave everyone else the kind of respect she gave Tsunade, they'd all get along with her better. But he wondered why it was different with Tsunade... Was it just that Tsunade had actually taken Sakura under her wing? Or was it that Sakura was good at this, and it was the only thing she was sure of being good at?

He had never failed at anything enough to know how worthless you can feel if you aren't too good at something everyone else is.

"If this works," Tsunade said, "it won't work within minutes, not for most people. We'd have to  see if it's at least starting to work before we can say it should be administered to them all... Well, we need someone who's willing to be a test subject now."

Well, that wasn't hard; plenty of medics and their patients were more than willing to be tested.

Shoto wished Shine would call them. He wasn't in his element here.

Momo watched with curiosity, and so did Karin.

Karin could tell what happened at once, and the Hyuga girls could too, though Hanabi said it was gross to watch.

"Something is happening," Karin said. "I feel the chakra levels changing."

"I think the crystallized parts of it are breaking up a little," Hinata said, putting a hand to her eyes.

After few more minutes went by, the test volunteers said that they thought they felt a little more life flowing through their limbs.

"It works much faster than I expected," Tsunade said.

She turned to Shoto. "This must be your doing... How did you say it worked? Purification?"

"It's not a natural thing," Shoto said. "It's my gift. I can't explain it. I think my authority is bonding with your talents as medics."

"Who cares as long as it works?" Sakura surprisingly was not quibbling over the details for once. "We have to make more."

"We'll need gallons of this stuff to apply to the whole Village," Tsunade said. "Some of you who aren't as sick, get everyone who is on the point of death right now."

"But Lady Tsunade," said Ayari, "what about the bandits?"

"I forgot about them." Tsunade honestly had. "But I thought that Likstar was on that."

"Any minute now," Shoto said.

At that second, a note appeared in Momo's hands. Which made the onlookers give a start.

Momo opened it.

"You'll never believe this--" She looked up. "Where they took Kurotsuchi to."

"You're about to say the compound, aren't you?" Dabi said.

Momo pursed her lips.

* * *

The compound it was.

It had taken a long time for the ninja to believe Kurotsuchi was giving in to them (not that they thought she was smarter than that, but that they thought she was too stubborn while Onoki still lived), but finally her repeating several times that she was serious--and her producing the seal of the Village for them--convinced them.

They did just as Shine had predicted and took her to meet Kasasagi right away.

Kurotsuchi didn't see the team but hoped they were following her. She didn't want to be dealing with the man herself.

Shine pretty much guessed where it was once they got close enough, but the others could hardly believe it.

"This is the compound," Sai finally said outright.

"So it is," Shine said.

"I knew this street looked familiar," Wally said. "Why would he camp out here?"

"I believe I can answer that," Zokei told them. "I didn't know he was here, till now, but I had heard that they commandeered this building, as it was deserted. People said it was cursed or hexed because of you. They said you left a mark on the wall."

"I did," Shine said. "I think that was the most petty thing I've done here. I really don't know why I did it. I was just angry."

"I'm glad to hear it," Kankuro said. "You're too saintly about people rejecting your help. A little pettiness is a relief."

"Why do people keep saying that to me?" Shine asked Wally.

"When you try to be so good all the time," Wally said, "people think you're untouchable. Remember Pyrrha? They like to know you're still human. And it's charming, in its own strange way."

"I'm glad you think so," Shine said. "I'm not sure how it reflects on me, however."

"I think scratching the wall is the least you could have done," Bakugo said. "So they all got spooked? What a lot of morons."

"Rumors spread quickly in Stone Village." Zokei shrugged. "Kasasagi is not a superstitious man. He said that it was stupid, but it would do to keep the locals from interfering with us there. But not all of us want to go into it either. I haven't entered the building myself. But he and his elites could use it and don't worry about anyone going in. Maybe he's been sitting out here this whole time instead of moving around like we thought. That could just have been a rumor."

"I've heard of someone using a similar strategy before," Shine said. "And they hid in a jail every night, too. His wife said that 'a loser with a kingdom is still just a loser', and that comes to mind here."

She frowned at the compound. "You can put a crown on a pig and he will still be a pig. Only God can change a man's nature."

"That's deep," Kankuro said. 

"Even if I hate the sight of this place," Tenten said. "Somehow thinking of those bandits using our old rooms is kind of gross."

"So what do we do now, Hon?" Wally asked Shine.

"Do you have an idea?" Shine said.

"Go in there and punch people?" Wally suggested.

"Nice idea...but I would add to it," Shine said. "Remember that island fortress we took--not here, but in Bakugo's home?"

"I remember that," Camie said. "That was super rad."

"Sometimes the best defensive strategy is to act like you're going to win for sure," Shine said. "Katsuki is an expert at that. And he usually wins."

Bakugo smirked.

"So what do we do?" Ino asked. 

"The thing is, hiding and sneaking around is what ninja do," Shine said. "They'll expect us to do that. I say we just charge in there, gloves off, and whale on them just as we are--once the others catch up to us, that is. We'll need the whole team just to be sure that they don't outnumber us. But, like Poison Mist Island, I really think it would take us only minutes to stop them."

"Things always seem easy for you," Sai said. "Why is that, Miss Likstar?"

"Two reasons, Sai." Shine put a hand on his shoulder. "One is I act like they will be easy, and so I notice the hard part less, and so do you. The second is that when you go with God, things become easier for you in some ways. 'My yoke is easy and my burden is light.' But if I had a third, ninja are bigger pushovers than they think."

"The problem is they have no fighting spirit," Wally said. "They do everything out of fear or obeying their masters. That's why they go down so easy. They're not brave enough like that. You're only really brave when you'd fight for love of something or someone. Not just obligation."

"That's your secret, isn't it, Babe?" Shine rubbed his hair. "Always love people, so you will never turn aside from the right path. That's what the others struggle with."

"I do my best." Wally grinned.

"Ugh," Bakugo said. "Stop it."

"I know you like it," Shine said. "Deep down. Just makes you uncomfortable to show it."

"I don't like it," Bakugo said.

"I think it's sweet," Camie said. "Old people are cute."

"Stop calling us old," Wally said.

"Middle aged?" Camie said.

Wally pretended to pick Camie up so he could toss her, and she pretended to believe he was going to do it.

"Stop goofing off," Kankuro said. "This is serious."

"It's okay, really. I need to message the others," Ino said, holding up a pen. "I just hope--hang on." She put her hand up and thought-connected to Shikamaru.

"Hmm," she said aloud. "Okay...yeah...as fast as you can."

"What's going on?" Sai asked as if this was normal.

Ino put her hand down. "Shika says that they retrieved everyone, which we knew, but good news: Sakura and Tsunade already have something that's working on the poison. They used Shoto's ice to bond it. They think that his gift and their medical tools are working together."

"Brilliant," Shine said. "I didn't think of that, but that's good."

"They'll be here in a few minutes. No bandits are even trying to stop them," Ino said.

"If they're smart, they'll continue not trying to stop any one of us," Bakugo said, with a scary look.

"Man, it's hot when you say things like that." Camie fanned herself. "And slightly unhinged, but I'm used to that part now."

Bakugo didn't take any notice of her caveat.

"What does she mean by that?" Sai asked Ino.

Ino flushed. "Uh...ask her."

"Don't ask me," Camie said at once. "I'll get in trouble if I try to explain that."

Sai was more confused now.

"She meant it was attractive, Sai," Shine supplied.

"She thinks it's beautiful?" Sai asked.

"Sure, in a way." Camie shrugged.

"In a fierce way," Shine explained. "Strength can be beautiful, sometimes. And beauty can be a strength. Beauty has power. At the core, they are one and the same thing. We just separate them in our mortal forms because we're not perfect. If you saw a perfect human, you'd think they were the strongest and most beautiful one you ever saw."

"I see." Sai wrote that down.

Ino tapped her head again. "Shikamaru also says they found Suzushi also. He's alive...and they'll bring him because they cured him already. I guess we have one more fighter. Tsunade is going to stay behind and keep administering the cure so that we'll have more people."

"We don't need them," Shine said, confidently. "But no sense waiting."

"I like how sure you are," Wally said. "It's very attractive and reassuring."

"They're almost as bad," Kankuro remarked to Tenten. "Can anyone have the decency to just focus on the fight?"

"I know, right?" She made a face.

It took only a few minutes for the rest of the party to arrive on the street.

In that time, they had watched to see if any bandits were coming out of it, but none did.

"They wouldn't just give up, would they?" Ino asked.

"I don't think so," Zokei said. "Something is wrong."

"Maybe they're getting some counter attack ready?" Wally asked.

"Did we miss anything?" Temari came sprinting up to them right then.

"No, oddly enough," Shine said. "How is everyone?"

"Fine." Temari shrugged. "Even Suigetsu is back to normal."

Suigetsu waved weakly.

Shine tried to look them all over anyway.

"Ah, Sakura, there you are," she said.

"Yeah. You noticed," Sakura said sourly.

But then Shine went to her and hugged her before she could move away...and then she was too surprised to.

"I'm glad you're okay," Shine said, gently enough. "Wait...you have blood on your clothes. What did they do?"

"I'm a medic. Blood on my clothes isn't that unusual," Sakura said.

The others didn't tell Shine the real reason--they weren't sure they should. If Sakura didn't want to talk about it, was it their place? (Shine didn't seem to quite believe Sakura anyway, but she didn't push it.)

"Hi, Ino," Choji said cheerfully. "You're all right?"

"I'm fine," Ino said. "I had Camie to make sure nothing happened to me, no worries."

"And that reassured you?" Dabi said.

"Oh, put a sock in it," Camie said. 

"Now can we take the house?" Rock Lee asked.

"Yes, what's stopping us?" Gaara said. "This seems too easy."

"It won't be," Shine said. "I know something's off here."

Almost as soon as she said it they found out what.

When they went down the road and reached the edge of the compound, rocks and dirt rose up out of the ground and encased the house in a thick wall that had to be 5 feet deep, all around it and then over its roof.

* * *

After a moment of stunned silence, Wally said, "It really is Jericho."

"Does this feel odd to you?" Shine asked. "It feels odd to me."

"Stop saying it's Jericho." Temari leaned on her fan. "Now what do we do?"

"That's a stupid move," Bakugo said. "The jackass is just afraid of us. Let's just blow it the heck up."

"I have a feeling it won't be that straightforward." Momo rubbed her chin. "Surely they'd have a way to reinforce that dirt. If it was Cementos, he would."

"We can test that," Wally said. 

"DIE!!!" Bakugo yelled and blasted an AP shot at the dirt wall.

It blasted a hole in it...sort of. But the hole in the dirt closed almost at once and wasn't even that big.

"It looks as if it absorbs energy," Momo said. "That's a good trick."

Temari cursed. "Of course... Well, Earth Jutsu is one of the only things I can't counter. Anyone else?"

"What am I going to do? Throw a puppet at it?" Kankuro said. "Gaara, isn't this your thing?"

"My sand is too coarse to bore through that," Gaara said. "I think Bakugo had more of a chance than I do, and his didn't work."

"I can just make a bigger one--" Bakugo began, and Shine grabbed his shoulder.

"You'll hurt yourself," she said. "We need more than that. Momo?"

"I can make some landmines," Momo said.

"Did you jsut say landmines?" Sasuke finally took notice of something they'd said.

"Yes..." she said, raising an eyebrow.

Sasuke just looked away.

"If it's jutsu holding that together--" Shine held up her sword. "--this may be easier than it looks, actually. Wait till I try this and then blow it up."

"Careful, Hon," Wally said. "That's a lot of dirt."

Shine shrugged at him and then walked up to the wall and jammed her sword into it.

"What's that going to do?" Ami, who'd come with them, along with Eichi, asked.

"Aren't you one of us?" Zokei suddenly turned to look at her.

"I was," Ami replied. "Aren't you also defecting?"

"Sort of," Zokei said. "I got engaged to someone who's already defeated, and they left him at the jail."

"That's unfortunate," Ami said with a straight face.

"Yeah, what's with that?" Tenten asked.

"Long story," Sakura said.

Shine's eyes flashed, and then she stepped back.

"I don't know if one strike was enough," she said.

She meant that they might have to work together to undo the jutsu, but the others mistook it for her wanting them to attack.

Lee rushed forward to kick the wall, and Bakugo to explode it, and Momo popped out some land mines.

Tenten had some weapons ready also.

Sakura even rushed at the wall.

"Guys, wait--" Shine began.

Wally rushed to pull Shine back before any of the scattering dirt and rock could hit her, and chunks of it then flew every which way.

Sasuke blocked one with his sword. "Can they aim?"

"And how do you aim that?" Dabi asked. "Ugh, I hate dirt." He rubbed some off his coat.

Temari used her fan to make a wind that blew everything the other way.

Part of the wall came down, but some of it was still left, and it started to regrow.

"What? No!" Sakura began to punch it. "Stop it!"

"What are you doing?" Bakugo said. "It's not going to stop just because you told it to."

"It works for you people!" Sakura said.

"You're just going to hurt yourself, Cotton Candy."

"Why don't you step off?!" Sakura said.

Sasuke, losing patience with this, decided to move and jumped onto the wall.

"Sasuke!" Shine called.

He stopped literally as he was going to climb over it. "What?"

"She got stuck!" Bakugo said.

The wall was covering Sakura's hand.

"What? Hey!" she cried. "Get it off me...! It's sticking!"

Bakugo grabbed her arm and pulled back on it hard while blasting towards the wall.

"Ouch!" Sakura complained.

"You're the one who--" Bakugo grunted, "--didn't listen--so shut--up--Dang it, why is this stuff so strong?!"

"Momo, can you throw something at that wall?" Shine asked.

Momo nodded and formed a shuriken, and then she threw it. It sank into the earth, and then it exploded.

Sakura and Bakugo were both thrown free, at the same time Sasuke was jumping back over it.

Sakura crashed into him, and Bakugo nearly landed on top of them but then skidded just over their heads and onto the street.

"Ouch," Shoto said. "That had to hurt."

"Heh, never gets old." Dabi was laughing at it.

"I don't think this is working," Temari stated. "Anyone have a better idea?"

"How about not throwing bombs at me?" Sasuke was mad. He started to sit up. "Get off of me."

"I'm trying to!" Sakura was wringing her arm out. "I think Bakugo broke my arm."

"Oh, you're fine." Bakugo spat dirt out of his mouth.

Sakura elbowed him in the shin before she was able to get to her feet--and she didn't seem sorry about it.

She rubbed her shoulder. "I don't know how they infused so much chakra into that wall."

"They must have built that once they heard you were here," Karin supplied. "That's why it has so much."

"Should we try singing or blowing trumpets around it?" Wally asked Shine.

Shine was staring at it, then she turned suddenly.

"You're a genius," she said, kissing him impulsively.

"I am...?" Wally said.

"Yes, don't sound waves loosen up earth?" Shine said. "The bomb and sword had some effect, just not enough. We need something a little different."

"Oh, a high frequency weapon?" Momo said. "I can make one of those."

"Uh...why can you do that?" Dabi asked.

"Just...you know...in case," Momo said.

"Okay, Princess, you're officially on my list of scariest people I know," Dabi said.

Shine brushed a dirt clod off Sasuke's head.

"You know, I expect that kind of recklessness from Naruto," she said. "But now you both do it, and he somehow did nothing?"

"I can use Rasengan," Naruto offered.

"Just wait for Momo," Shine urged.

Sasuke stepped away from her in a hurry, with a strange look at her, as of repulsion.

Shine didn't react to it, openly. But she turned away sadly.

Sasuke knew he was being rude to her...but something in him rose up against the closeness... He was still too disgusted with himself to feel Iike accepting any kind of affection...and every time Shine did something like that, it made him feel more afraid of her, in a strange way.

"A wall stopping us for this long is embarrassing," Kankuro said.

"Have you noticed it's the simplest things that stop us the longest?" Gaara said. "Water, earth, mountains...there's something in that."

"Not the time for philosophy," Suigetsu said. "Maybe I could filter through that wall anyway...and take on all the bandits single-handedly."

Momo held out the shock bomb she'd just made.

"I hope this works," she said, sticking the bomb into the wall and then holding up a detonator. "Cover your ears."

They all did.

It was a lot like what Mandrake had done earlier.

[Maybe Harry Potter fans will know that Mandrake's power was a reference to how mandrake plants were rumored to scream when they were cut, though that is a myth. There are characters based off the idea in Harry Potter.]

The sonic waves went through the earth and vibrated it a bit, like it was made of wire instead of rock.

Then a huge portion of it collapsed, and then some of the earthen roof caved in.

"That was so sick," Camie said. "Totally tubular, Momo."

Momo looked a little tired. "I think I need to eat more."

"Go ahead," Shine said, rubbing her ears. "Everyone else, run through before they regrow the dirt. Remember, act confident and we'll probably scare them all."

They obeyed her.