[OP: "Passerine"--The Oh Hellos]

"Someone like that," Sasuke said finally, "even if they claim to worship the same God, and then still do evil...so what is the point of all this?"

"That's the right question," Shine said. "What is the point if evil still happens?"

Shine smiled.

She could smile after that. Sasuke almost couldn't bear it. Even leveraging a troubled thing about her past didn't make her act angry.

He felt sick again, but it might have been from envy more than disgust, if he'd been aware enough to know it.

"You don't feel a thing about this?" he said. "Even though you said it was so bad."

"My feelings about it have changed. Once I was angry and sad and depressed," Shine said. "But I was younger then, and I've come farther since."

She sat back down slowly. "The pain can go away, you know..."

Sasuke frowned at her again. "Even if that's what happened to you, in my case there's too much injustice to ever stop feeling angry about it."

"I hope you don't stop feeling angry about injustice entirely," Shine said. "But is that really why you're angry?"

"How could it not be?"

"It feels more like you're angry that you cannot stop these things," Shine said. "And that, also, you cannot appeal to God and say that He must stop them. God will not cater to your whims, or mine, and that is the hardest thing to accept. It's easy to assume whatever we're asking for is right...but is it? Are we sure?"

"Then you are saying that it was right for them all to die," Sasuke said.

"We've talked about this before," Shine said. "And I told you that, if they were wicked, God could have struck them all with fire from heaven, and I could not say it was wrong for Him. How can God do wrong? He's the one who decides what is good and evil. If He does it, it is good. But there are things God can do, because He is all knowing, that we are not allowed to do, because we aren't. One day we will judge entities for Him, but that day will be when we can know the way He knows, at least a little. For now, we don't know what we're talking bout. We have the choices that are right in front of us. That is what God allows us to see--the good and evil of each choice we make...not each choice He makes."

Sasuke still was glaring at her.

"I realize this is not going to comfort you because you don't believe in God, or if you do, you do not love Him," Shine said. "And many a bitter person has rejected God because of the evil in the world, as if it was God's idea to make the world evil. But it never was. God made it good. Look, I can't make you accept this, and I will not try to. I chose God because I would have gone mad otherwise. That does not make me braver than you, perhaps. I chose Him because I knew I must or I would never be free. I have suffered plenty, though maybe not the way you have, and God has gotten me through it all. He does take care of His own, but we don't get away from the suffering. He helps us through it...not always out of it. But I do know that the evil one wishes much more suffering to happen to us than actually does. Evil would have us all live in pure misery if it could...so any good moments...that is God's interference in our lives. You may choose to find that it is not enough--but I think, if you were truly honest about your life, you would know that it was enough to make a choice with. And I can assure you at least that for everyone in your clan, there was enough for them to make a choice if they were old enough to make one."

She sighed. "As for the innocent lives...God will take care of them. But it's still a tragedy. What do you want me to tell you? If I told you it was good, you would rightly scorn me. If I told you it was proof that God is not good, I would be lying to you. You know what I believe about this now. Are you asking me to change that because you're angry about this?"

That was a good question... Why did Sasuke expect her to change her mind because of his experiences? Did he have any claim on her sympathies?

No, he'd never been anything but unpleasant to her. He wouldn't have listened to himself if he was her, and he knew that, deep down.

Was him even asking her to sympathize proof that, somewhere inside his soul, he already knew that Shine was genuinely caring enough to allow him to rant or storm to her about things, even knowing how little he'd ever thank her for it?

Her way of thinking always made him think twice about his motives...but he didn't like the answers he got.

Aloud, he finally said, "I know you won't change your mind. My complaint is just the hypocrisy."

"There is no hypocrisy," Shine said. "Granted, at times, I also feel that it's not fair. Then I am a hypocrite. But in telling you the facts? I'm not. No one always feels like this is the truth, but then all of us make light of other people's suffering when we have no part in it, so we're all hypocrites. We just want to be the exception to the rule. Tell me, do you get as outraged by Karin and Naruto's clan being massacred? Why should it be them and not you?"

"Why should it be anyone?" Sasuke said.

"It shouldn't be," Shine said. "But it happens. And you've found the hatred for an entire people can be in your own heart. Against the innocent ones, too. So you know how easy it is to play the false judge and act as if it's not about us when it really is about us only. And I have found that too. But I'm trying to stop doing it. If we find this two-facedness in ourselves, how can we say that God is two-faced? Maybe He simply knows that we are selfish and would do the same as these people. And if we would, what right do we have to ask them to be judged, and not ourselves? This is a slippery slope, Sasuke."

She folded her hands. "Before you can be angry at God for not stopping the evils of others...can you ignore the evils in yourself? Ask Him to stop those first. And if you think He can't...then I suppose you have all the answers you need about the past."

Shine had, once again, cut to the heart of the matter much faster than Sasuke ever would have.

Somehow she knew that all this was about his own actions as much as everyone else's--and his attempts to justify them.

He was quiet for a long time.

Finally, he said, "The evils in myself were never stopped by god. Maybe it's the curse... For you it was different."

"No, it wasn't," Shine said. "I carry the curse of my ancestors the same way you do. Just less visible." She shrugged. "You've seen Jugo and Gaara now... You know that's possible to break curses. The Uchiha curse is not an exception to that--though it might be harder because it's ingrained into your psyche...but it's not impossible. However, till it is gone, it's true that you will likely never stop doing these things, at least in some way. But is that your choice? God didn't curse you... You actively sought out those powers after a certain point. Didn't people warn you not to do that? I think God did give you signs that you shouldn't do it... If you ignored them and now find that you can't stop...is it His fault?"

Sasuke wasn't humble enough yet to admit the full truth. But he was beginning to be deathly afraid of the answer to that question.

He turned away from Shine so that she wouldn't read his expression, but that didn't fool her.

"It's not too late for you, you know," she said, gently after all that firmness. "Whenever you want it, the same grace is available to you as the rest of us... Someday you could have peace about the past also...but it starts with the present. Always works backwards from there. I told you no special treatment--you're not more damnable than the rest of us or more virtuous. We're all the same in this way... I can't be sure that you want to hear this right now, but I can tell you that if you're carrying that burden of the Uchiha curse because Tobirama put that idea into your head, you'll never let it go. Tobirama didn't like Uchihas anyway. Was he really being fair? If there is a curse, it's not as if he could break it. Everyone calls something inevitable that they can't stop--but it does not mean it cannot be stopped." [That right there is a great point, whether it fully sinks in or not, just saying. That applies to the real world.]

Sasuke could stand her kindness even less than her scoldings.

"I'm done with this conversation," he said coldly, stalking away.

Shine knew he was not done with it. But she didn't follow him.

* * *

Sometime later that day, Ino noticed that Shikamaru was sitting outside in the shadow of one of the buildings.

She hadn't been told what happened, so she thought it was strange.

"Are you okay?" she asked, approaching cautiously.

Shikamaru didn't answer the question. Instead he stared at the wall across from them for a long moment, and then finally he spoke so abruptly that Ino flinched.

"Did they tell you?" he asked.

"Tell me?" Blankly.

"The World Walkers," Shikamaru said, "did they tell you about our fathers?"

"Our...fathers?" Ino said, uneasily. "What about them?"

She thought he meant some terrible secret about them that the DJs knew the way they knew other stuff.

"Remember when they attempted to save people from that bomb," Shikamaru said, more like a statement than a question. "And they didn't get anyone else? And we thought it was entirely unexpected, so we couldn't prepare for it? Turns out, they knew that would happen ahead of time."

"Knew...what? The bomb?" Ino said.

"They knew that, and they knew who would die," Shikamaru said. "Everyone...and they only saved that on woman. Someone we don't even know."

He snapped a twig. "The things you find out about people."

Ino felt sick...and unsteady. Her hands started shaking.

"Do you mean that they knew they would die?"

"That's exactly what I mean," Shikamaru said.

"And they didn't warn us?" Ino said.

"They deliberately didn't warn us!" Shikamaru said.

Ino sagged against the wall. "I...can't believe they would do that."

"I didn't think they would either, but they did. They admitted it to my face," Shikamaru said. "Yaoyurozu and Utsushimi did, anyway."

The use of their last names didn't escape Ino's attention.

She felt like gasping for air.

"Why wouldn't they tell us? Give us a chance to...to do something about it?" she faltered.

"That's what I've been asking myself for the last several hours," Shikamaru said. "They didn't trust us, or they didn't think it was important. You've heard them say that other woman was special for some reason. I guess they saved her... Not sure what she ever did for them."

"The...the Cloud woman?" Ino said. "She...she never even met them before. Why would they not tell us, their friends, if something was going to happen to our family?"

"Maybe they don't really think of those things as much as we think," Shikamaru said. "They were very logical about it. I might admire it from a general...but from them? It seemed two-faced. They preach that we should care about people's feelings, but they didn't take our feelings into consideration over something that big....and knowing that we could have..." He stopped.

But Ino knew what he was thinking. Shikamaru was the kind of guy who liked to have a plan, who felt that he could think through anything and find a solution. If he'd had the time to do it, he could have thought of a way to save their fathers.

She felt like even she could have. Why not just warn them? Or warn their fathers directly?

How heartless! And...she'd thought the DJs and heroes were so kind... Was that not true?

Her mind was spinning, and she knew Shikamaru's must have been too, but he'd had longer to think about it.

"Well, it's not like we can do anything about it," he said, with a hard edge that denoted more bitterness in his soul than he would have shown openly. But if you knew him, you knew. "We just have to accept that we didn't know them as well as we thought."

"We've only known them a few months, or years if you count a week many years ago," Ino said, feeling numb. "But I thought...we knew them better than that. How could they do this to us? And not tell us?"

"Utsushimi let it slip by accident. They weren't even going to own up to it," Shikamaru said. "I haven't even looked the DJs in the eye since. Not sure I can. I suppose we committed to this--but they're no senseis of mine. I wouldn't want to back out on Gaara though."

"No, we wouldn't want to just do that, with no explanation," Ino said. "But did he know?"

"I'm sure they didn't tell him," Shikamaru said. "Temari seemed as surprised as us, and if she didn't know, he didn't either."

"Was she angry at them?" Ino asked. "I mea,n wouldn't Gaara be angry at them? He had people in there also."

"I don't know. The Sand take things differently than we do, and they're harsh," Shikamaru said. "I'd like to think they'd care, but I never know with them."

"The other Leaf would be livid." Ino knew Naruto would be especially. "I just don't see why they'd save one person they didn't know, but not our fathers... I mean, if they didn't tell us, they at least would have done something themselves, I would think."

"They should have told us so we could change things. It's nonsensical not to," Shikamaru said. "I thought they were at least smart. To be foolish and cruel at the same time is not a good combination." He sounded contemptuous there.

Ino recoiled from his tone. Shikamaru was kind of scaring her a little.

His father would have known how to help him--and his father wasn't here. Was it because of the DJs? Was it their fault?

Was her father gone because of them? They had tried to comfort her about it and never thought to tell her they could have stopped it?

If she'd been constructed more like Hinata, she might have fainted from the pressure of all these conflicting emotions; she felt almost like she was going to.

Shikamaru moved inside now, and she followed after him.

Camie and Momo were sitting with the boys now. They'd been filled in on the conversation with Sasuke. 

All of them were playing cards, for lack of anything better to do.

"10," Bakugo said.

"15 for 2," Dabi said.

"Crap!" Bakugo said.

"Shouldn't have sat next to him," Camie sighed. "Why's he so good at this game? He's never played it before."

"It's not that hard to pick up," Momo said. [The game is called Cribbage if you've never played. It's fun.]

They then looked up at Ino and Shikamaru, and you could see they all knew what they'd been talking about.

Momo swallowed nervously.

Shikamaru turned and walked past them without a word.

"How could you do it?" Ino had told herself a second ago she wouldn't lose her cool, and she broke that resolution immediately.

Sai, who was sitting adjacent to this room, working on a drawing of the yard outside, looked up at the yelling.

"Ino--" Momo began.

"I thought you were our friends." Ino didn't let her finish. "But you knew something like that and you didn't tell us? You just let it happen! We trusted you!"

"Did you tell her why?" Dabi said, not very sympathetically.

"I tried to tell Shikamaru..." Momo said, "but he didn't...listen."

"I listened." Shikamaru looked back, now angry. "But it was stupid. And callous. But if that's how you see it, fine. People often see others as pawns, and maybe it's how it is for leadership. I just thought you claimed to have different priorities."

"Pawns?" Bakugo said. "Where did he get that idea?"

"I don't know," Dabi said. "Something to do with letting them die, but how does that benefit us?"

That was a good question.

"I meant that it didn't matter to you one way or the other," Shikamaru said.

"I can't believe you acted like you were sorry about it, and the whole time you knew it would happen," Ino said.

"But we were sorry." Momo wasn't sure what to say and blurted the first thing that came into her head.

"We didn't want it to happen," Shoto said. "We tried to stop it."

"If you had told us, we could have tried to stop it," Shikamaru said. "We could have planned better. You didn't give us that opportunity. You decided what was best for us. Who gave you that right?"

"I thought it was God," Dabi said. "If you want to call it a right or deciding what was best for you. But that's farther than I would go."

Shikamaru was too angry to respond to that. He stalked out of the room again.

Ino sniffled. "All of you lied to us."

"We never lied," Camie cried. "There just wasn't a reason to tell you guys about it."

"Really? There was no reason?" Ino said, more upset. "I...I can't with this." She ran out of the room so she could go cry in hers.

"Nice going, Camie," Dabi said. "If you hadn't blabbed about it, this wouldn't have happened."

Camie looked miserable.

"Oh, back off," Bakugo said. "We should have just told them before. Then we wouldn't have seemed like we were sneaking about it."

"Excuse me--" Sai came in. "--but may I ask what happened?"

"They'll tell him sooner or later," Dabi said. "So might as well explain."

Momo pursed her lips. She was afraid she'd cry if she tried to talk.

Shoto spoke. "Ino and Shikamaru found out that we knew in advance that their fathers and those other intelligence shinobi would die in the war."

"You did? How did you know that?" Sai said.

"It's hard to answer that. We have...images of things that may happen," Shoto said. "But we weren't sure it would happen, since we thought things would change after we arrived to help. Then it ended up happening anyway, and it was too late to do anything else about it. We'd hoped to stop the Tailed Beast from ever forming, but we failed to do that. That's why they died. West tried to save them, and they refused to let him remove them. All of them died but one woman, and I think she didn't even get a choice."

"And if I remember right she wasn't exactly grateful," Dabi said. "West told me that she thought she'd abandoned them. But someone else told him to take her out. I guess they made the announcement about the bomb while she was out of the room. She was just d--n lucky. That's the only reason she got out. Or she'd have died with the rest of them."

"We didn't want them to die," Camie spoke. "But when you don't know what's really gonna go down, how are you supposed to know whether to say anything about it or not?"

"Ultimately, Shine and Wally decided not to tell Shikamaru and Ino because they feared that if we tried to stop it, not being sure of how things would play out to begin with, we could put them in danger and their friends," Shoto said. "Or mess up the war in some other way. We opted to find a simpler solution. It didn't work. All of us regretted that it didn't work--but we're not sure anything would have gone differently if we had mentioned what we knew. And it wasn't a sure thing. That's the point. It turned out to be right, that was all."

"So you didn't know exactly, but you had a lead?" Sai clarified.

"Something like that," Bakugo said. "We have ideas of what could happen in the future, not certain knowledge. It helps us get a leg up on your crazy shinobi attacks, but it's not as if we can predict exact events. It could have gone way different after we showed up. If the other ninja had listened to us more, maybe... If Naruto and Sasuke didn't both do such jackass stuff, or if Obito had listened when we told him what would go down. But he didn't, and no one else did anything different mostly."

"This does not sound like it was your fault then," Sai said. "I see that you didn't wish to act rashly. That makes sense to me. The Intelligence Division was an important part of the war, and if you had been wrong, moving them would have caused more harm than good... It's unfortunate that it turned out that way, but I don't see how that makes it your fault that they died."

"Really?" Momo said, surprised.

"Warning the others might have helped, but it might also have made things worse." Sai shrugged. "I believe it's your choice, isn't it? These matters are beyond us. You only know about them because you're sent by some Higher Power. I don't see how it's our place to say what you should and shouldn't tell us."

"That's...actually very humble," Dabi said. "I'm shocked."

"Sai is the most humble of them," Shoto acknowledged.

"So why were Ino and Shikamaru so angry?" Sai asked. "Can't they see that?"

"It's their fathers," Momo said. "It's hard to be objective...and I suppose I didn't explain it very well either. Truthfully, I was conflicted about it myself. It seemed too risky to do any more than we did, but we hated not saving everyone. We're heroes... We're supposed to save as many people as possible."

"You're not just heroes now," Dabi said. "You're World Walkers. That means you get near cosmic power and almost a foresight about the future, which means to not abuse that power, you can't always save everyone by doing things that violate certain principles. Stop thinking just like heroes."

"But everything we do is to be better heroes," Shoto said.

"You're not just living to be a better hero now, are you?" Dabi said. "You have a higher loyalty now. Act like it. I'm not burdened by any feeling that I need to save everyone. I don't have a problem with this. It's a shame for them, I guess, but those two would have died if we never came, and they died anyway. Get your head around the idea that we're not crucial to everything that happens and we're not going to fix every single problem. I don't even want to try to do that."

There was a long silence.

"Is he right?" Momo asked finally. "Are we...perhaps setting ourselves up to do more than we possibly can?"

Bakugo huffed. "Even the top heroes can't save everyone or be everywhere at once. We were all on the battlefield when those people died except for West, and he tried to save a bunch. Even he only got 100, or so he said. Plus the Cloud chick, that's 101. He's faster than we are. Shine knows all kinds of crap, but even she didn't know for sure what would happen. We're still human. I don't always like that answer, but it's the real one--even All Might says so."

"I've never heard All Might say that," Momo said.

"But All Might did lose his quirk," Shoto said. "So it's true. Even he can't do everything."

"Well, who can?" Camie leaned back and shrugged. "We're capping ourselves if we think that. This is just real life, bro. And, like, I don't have a physical type quirk like you guys, so I really never could think I could just win a fight hands down. When you rely on tricks, you realize how limited you are. But I'm okay with that. I don't want the presh to be perfect."

"No one can do everything," Sai said. "If you did what you were assigned to do, I don't see the problem...but then, there are emotions here that I don't understand."

"Actually, Sai-boy, I think you understand it better than they do," Dabi said, drumming his fingers on the table. "Sometimes not letting emotion cloud your judgement is for the best. They want to control what happened because they're upset, but they can't. If they realized that as easily as you did, they'd be more serene. But it's not really my problem if they want to be dumb."

"They're grieving," Momo said. "You could be a little more compassionate."

"I wouldn't judge them for grieving, but pawning the blame for it off on us pissed me off," Dabi said. "We're dedicating all this time to them, and we're not getting paid or rewarded for it in any way. And they turn around and say we're jerks for not telling them about a thing we didn't even know for sure would happen? Gimme a break."

"But I can see how it would look different to them. If it were me, I would be angry also," Shoto said.

"Oh, and you've never let emotion cloud your judgement," Dabi said sarcastically.

"And you haven't?" Shoto said.

"I have, and look where it got me," Dabi replied.

A pause as Shoto realized he couldn't argue with that.

"But will they ever forgive us?" Momo asked.

"I don't know," Bakugo said. "But they're stupid if they want to hold a grudge about something that wasn't our fault." He flicked a card. 

"It wasn't your turn," Dabi said.

"Who remembers?" Bakugo growled.

Sai had no more to say to them about it, so he left. They went on with their game, but in a somber mood still.

Finally, Shine and Wally joined them to confer, but all they really wanted was to hear what had happened since then and to compare notes.

Wally wasn't sure if they should try to talk it out or not, and Shine was concerned that Shikamaru and Ino were not ready to listen to them yet. But if they would let this determine if they left? She didn't know... No one did.

But the thought of losing her new friend was quite depressing for Camie, and the others liked Shikamaru and didn't want him to go, especially if it was because he was furious at them.

At one point Temari came in to check on them and heard the update.

"I can't believe he's being so stupid," she said. "It's clear enough from hearing your side that you did the only thing you knew to do."

"Do you blame us at all?" Momo asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"I wondered at first why you did it," Temari said. "But hearing your reasons, I think I'd have done the same. If they'd tried to stop it, and things had gone different, they could have died too. It was war. Shikamaru and Inochi knew they could die, and they chose to rather than abandon their posts. I may think that was a stupid decision under the circumstances, but it was theirs to make. It's not your fault--any more than Sasuke leaving was your fault, though Naruto and Sakura tried to blame you for that. People blame you a lot for things you don't cause."

"When you see someone who has power like ours," Shine said, "it's easy to think they can do anything. And when they don't do exactly what you want, you resent it. Wally sees the same thing often with his friend Superman. People want God to serve them. And people who have power that resembles God's are the same way. We can get to be so spoiled and self-absorbed that we think everything should be the way we want it to be. I do it too...but in cases like this, it seemed so right to do what they wanted, that we can only assume that God may know a reason it would not have ended well." [I could elaborate on this, but if you've seen any time travel series or film, you can probably guess yourself.]

"There are things worse than dying," Wally said. "Though it's tough on them. And I feel bad about it still...but there are worse things."

"Yeah," Temari agreed. "There are. So I get it. Life is tough. Maybe they don't realize that."

"All you have it hard," Shine said. "But, perhaps compared to yours, their lives have been easier, at least for a while. Lately, they've lost their teacher and their fathers. You lost your mother so much younger than they did and don't expect things to be easy. Everything about your attitude reflects that...and it's something they've never understood about you. It's not that you're wrong for it, or that they're exactly wrong for not getting it, so much as you have differing experience that shaped you to have different views of the world. But if you get something about it that they don't because of your experience, then it may be easier for you to accept that we are still fallible. We still have things we cannot do. And God has things He will not do. As Lewis said, He's not tame. He's not safe. But He's good. He's wild and uncontrollable, but He's not malevolent. The more at peace we are with things we can't control, the better we'll understand God."

"Then I think I see the problem," Temari said. "But if I were you, I wouldn't take this from them. Maybe they're upset, but the deaths happened weeks ago, and they at least should be able to accept that it couldn't be stopped. But either way, lashing out at you over it is not fair. You tried to save their fathers. You could have just not bothered if you weren't sure. Clearly you did care. Accusing you of not caring is crazy."

"I'm just relieved to hear you say that," Momo said. "I was starting to second guess our actions... I do that so often." She sighed.

Shoto took her hand. Thankfully, she let him.

"Maybe Te is right," Camie said. "Even if they feel bad, they can't put this on us... I still feel off, though. I mean, just saying that doesn't mean he won't do it. Trust me, people so will abandon you for stuff that's not your fault all the time."

"Hmrph," Bakugo said.

Temari frowned, then she left the room.

"I know that look," Shine said. "I think she's going to have a talk with them. I hope that doesn't end up being a disastrous idea."

"You think we should try to stop her?" Wally said.

"Nope, no way we could." Shine sat back. "Better just hope this storm ends up being the good kind, because it's coming either way."

[That pretty much describes every time Temari is active in any arc. I love her for it, but she's never the easy solution. And that's fine with me.]