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

Wally explained the situation to Momo very quickly, and they both went running back outside, with some of the others right behind them.

"What a stupid thing to do!" Kankuro was worried, and so he was mad. "Temari! What were you thinking going outside?!"

"She can't hear you," Shikamaru said dully. 

"I can help, I think." Momo made an oxygen mask. "If this is even necessary. I think she'll be okay without it, but it will speed things up."

"It's surprising to see our sister lie so quiet," Gaara said to Kankuro, echoing Shikamaru's own thoughts.

"I don't like it," Kankuro said. "Not one bit. Those SOBs will pay for this if..."

"She's not dying," Momo said hastily. "Don't get so upset. She's just a little woozy, I'm sure. She won't die from a few minutes with low oxygen."

"But it can cause brain damage." Shoto had followed them.

They glared at him.

"I'm sure we'd never notice though," he added. "She's smart."

Wally sighed. "You kids are so weird."

Shine came out then too, looking concerned.

But, to their relief, Temari coughed and then blinked at them.

For a second she thought they were the Stone, and she sat up and tried to take a swing at them, but Shikamaru caught her hand before she could hit anyone.

"It's just us," he said.

"Oh, good, you're all right." Momo loosened the breathing apparatus.

"Do you feel okay?" Wally asked Temari. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"You're not holding up any," Temari said.

"Okay, she's fine," Wally said.

"This is too far," Kankuro said to Gaara. "They've almost killed three people now. I don't care if we're here for people, we can't let this stand! We still have our pride as shinobi to think about!"

Gaara was silent.

"Shikamaru, tell him," Kankuro applied to him.

Shikamaru looked up. "This is not my place to decide, but I wouldn't push our luck here any longer," he said.

"Yeah, I say we just go," Wally said. "While we can."

"I concur," Shine said.

"Te, do you still feel dizzy?" Momo asked her. "You can use this if you want."

"I don't need that," Temari said, though she felt nauseous. "My head just hurts a little. I'm fine... How long was I out?"

"Just a few minutes," Shikamaru said.

"But he was really scared." Wally took the chance to get at Shikamaru, even under these circumstances. "Just so you know."

Temari almost smirked faintly, but then she winced. "Not half as scared as I was when I realized that I couldn't get out."

She was admitting to being scared? Momo was sure she wasn't fully recovered once she said that.

"Let's get you inside." She took her arm. "And get your things... We're leaving."

Temari nodded.

They walked away.

"Well?" Kankuro said to Gaara.

Gaara looked as if he wished very much he had a different answer but then said, "You heard them... We're leaving."

Then he walked back inside also.

Kankuro was not happy, but Gaara's word was law, so he went to get his stuff.

Everyone else did the same.

Wally and Shine glanced at each other first. "Well..." Wally said.

"We've had worse shaves," Shine said. "But this was close enough. I'll be happy to be rid of this place--and to never come back, if I have my way."

"You said it," Wally said. "I'll get your stuff. It's all packed, right?"

"Yes. I thought this might happen."

"Me too. Too bad we were right." Wally managed a final joke before dashing away.

Shine looked around the empty yard.

"Well, we tried," she said, looking at the moon. "What else could we do?"

She looked down at the building with some anger, and she pulled out her sword and carved a shape into the wall--a cross shape.

"Think on that," she muttered, "just to remember us by."

Then she went inside.

[OOF...well, is everyone pissed at Stone Village now?

I think by now you know my writing is not setting out to vilify any one village in particular. I calculated how each village would react to the team carefully when I wrote this, and this is what I felt would happen.

But people are welcome to offer their thoughts on how it went. I'm interested in how this section of their journey lands.

I thought that their reasons for rejecting Team Zoe were believable and realistic to the real world, but some may think they were too simple. I think it depends on the kind of people you've met in real life. ]

https://youtu.be/t3SvjiHaTXc

["Savages"--Marina and the Diamonds. This song slaps so hard. I used it many times in my RWBY fic, but it would work in any of my stories.]

* * *

Day 45:

No one went back to sleep, but it was well past midnight anyway, so technically it was already the next morning.

They gathered their things quickly, since they were packed. But the girls also packed up whatever food was left in the kitchen.

Hanabi calmed down once they were set to leave. She said she hated the sight of the village now and hoped she never saw it again. Most of them seconded that.

But Gaara was still put out. He was likely to stay upset for a while once he got to this point, his siblings thoughts--though it had been so long since he'd sulked or brooded that they weren't really sure.

"Well, is there a song for leaving a village?" Suigetsu asked Shine, by way of making fun of her, though perhaps he was trying to lighten the mood in his annoying way.

Shine gave him a withering glance. "Is that meant to be a crack at me?"

"Geez, usually you just laugh it off." Suigetsu backed up real fast.

"Is this the time?" Wally asked him, sounding kind of weary of this. "Kicking someone while they're down is just cheap, man."

"I figure it would cheer her up," Suigetsu defended himself. "I mean, you know...a way to flip off the village."

"Well, there are many songs that would fit this," Shine said. "But none of them are likely to cheer you up. If they would cheer me up it would only be through catharsis."

"I could think of one," Wally said. "Remember that movie we watched? About Joseph? Pretty good stuff."

"What, was it a kid's movie?" Dabi asked, not enthused.

"It's not like that. The studio was actually really good," Wally said. "Trust me, it's nothing you wouldn't enjoy, not sappy or cheesy or anything. I don't like movies like that."

"You like rom-coms," Shine said.

"Shh," Wally hushed her. "I have my dignity, woman. And I don't like them--I watch them because we compromise. You watch action flicks if I watch rom-coms."

"But I do enjoy action flicks, just not as much," Shine said. "I'm not torturing you here... Well, anyway this movie fits neither category."

"I'd rather hear the song than hear you talk about this," Dabi said. "You two can argue about movies at any time, in any situation, and while that's impressive, it's also obnoxious."

"Some people have no appreciation for culture." Wally feigned disappointment.

Shine just adjusted her backpack. "Well, the song is more directed at God than it is about leaving a village, so maybe it doesn't fit that well."

"I'd like to hear it." Momo was hoping for some distraction for the situation.

"Maybe it would make me want to see the movie," Camie remarked. "I need to get into more culture."

"Well, wait till we're on our way," Shine said. "I can't focus on it while we're still in here... Even if I could, I want to be on the road."

With a few last bitter glances at the compound, they went out the door, locking it, though it was rather pointless now since the windows were broken.

No guards were in sight. They must have fled when the others did.

They walked out of the wall that did not have a gate, and, despite that, they still felt as if it was a prison wall.

The hard ground and bare terrain for the village only added to that feeling. 

"Let's take the long way around," Wally said. "I half think they'll be waiting for us if we go down the main street or the neighboring. But they won't think we'd use the edge unless it was to sneak out. And why would we bother now?"

"Okay," Temari said, since Gaara said nothing.

They turned to the left, towards the south side of the village (and going south was not lost on the heroes, save for Shoto and Momo, who wouldn't have thought of that kind of humor.)

When they were far enough from the housing district to avoid being heard clearly, Shine did begin to sing a slow, somber melody.

"I thought I did what's right. I thought I had the answers. I thought I chose the surest road, but that road brought me here."

Despite her warning, this seemed to fit the situation perfectly to the Sand and the heroes.

"So I put up a fight," Shine went on softly, "and told you how to help me. Now just when I have given up, the truth is coming clear.

"You know better than I. You know the way. I've let go the need to know why, for You know better than I. 

"If this has been a test, I cannot see the reason, but maybe knowing I don't know is part of getting through.

"I try to do what's best, and faith has made it easy to see the best thing I can do is put my trust in You.

(Chorus)

"I saw one cloud and thought it was the sky! I saw a bird and thought that I could follow!

"But it was You who taught that bird to fly. If I let You reach me, will You teach me?

"For You know better than I. You know the way. I've let go the need to know why.

"I'll take what answers You supply... You know better than I."

https://youtu.be/P6A4PGTDueQ

["Better Than I"-- Joseph: King of Dreams]

Despite that they often thought it was cheesy, the students found it a relief that she could still come up with a song about this.

Somehow, if Shine could sing about something, you felt it wasn't entirely hopeless. If she hadn't, she would have seemed defeated.

They were a little comforted...but only a little.

Going around the perimeter of the village like this, they passed something that Kankuro had passed with his team so many days ago, but then they had not gone close to it, and no one had asked much about it.

It was the shrine of Stone. It was far back from the rest of the village and hidden partially by rock walls that were part of the village wall, but there were no guards to be seen around it.

Through the opening to it you could see the steps for the shrine that led to the water pool with the stone alter in it.

"I remember that," Camie said. "That's where they had the talk about the Will of Stone. That pond there is full of river rocks. They can be replaced."

"You know, I never thought of this before," Momo said, "but having a shrine to stones that are all common stones and replaceable, to me, it just seems like they're saying they worship things that are ordinary. Or just of this village."

"There could not be a more perfect picture of the way the ninja villages think," Shine said. "I think I see why we failed here. Every other village holds up the Will of the Village first and foremost, but even they have their special exceptions. Stone is so devoted to this idea that they even have a shrine here to demonstrate it."

"Leaf Village has shrines," Sakura said.

"Do they have leaves in them?" Suigetsu asked.

"No," she said.

"Then I see her point." Suigetsu shrugged. "This is almost blind devotion."

"That makes it sound like the whole reason they rejected us was because what we're teaching is not ordinary," Temari said. "Not that it's bad, or that we're abusing it, but it's that it's not human--it's not common. But what kind of reason is that?"

"You need to understand this." Shine stopped walking suddenly, as if she wanted them to see the shrine while she made this point, and they all stopped walking too. "This here is why most men do not turn to God. It's not the great evils that keep the most people away--though they cause unimaginable suffering and crush whoever they cannot corrupt--but the great evils are too visible to fool as many people as the common, everyday life. Humans are blinded by the ordinary. But the problem is that we can get to like it so much, it becomes our god to never want to change, to make sure it stays the same, and we never have to look outside the small walls we live in. It really doesn't matter if those walls are nice ones or terrible ones. A bird in a cage gets used to the cage and is scared to leave it. A wild thing becomes used to a prison in time. And a man or woman can also. We are wild things, humans are, not meant to be tame. But we can be tamed. It starts with someone else doing it, but after a while we'll keep ourselves in check. Stone Village is not notoriously evil, is it? But they normally do the same thing over and over and over again. They may never get worse--though I doubt it, since everything tends to destruction--but they will certainly never get better. And to never change, one way or the other, is to be lifeless. Like stone."

This warning was sobering to those of the team who liked predictability, of which there were many.

"I never want things to stay the same," Gaara spoke finally, startling his siblings.

Shine nodded at him. "Then don't worry about being this way. I'm not talking to you then. Some people are never satisfied with things being stagnant. That drive is a gift. Be glad for it."

"But there's nothing wrong with being content," Sakura objected. "That doesn't make you some kind of monster--the kind of person who would do these things to us."

Shine looked at her long and hard. "Sakura, do you really not see the similarity between you and them?"

Sakura's mouth dropped open.

Shine perhaps knew that was a very difficult thing for her to say, but she didn't retract it. She just sighed. "All right, I'm done looking. If you guys are, let's go."

"No argument here," Dabi shuddered. "Something about that shrine creeps me out. It's like looking at a mausoleum."

"Just since it's rock?" Momo asked him.

"Not just that it's rock," Dabi said. "All those stones there, just like in the pool, all replaceable, makes me think of how little people care about the lives of individuals. Who does the Will of the Village even really help outside of the rules of it? Everyone else is just a stepping stone, literally, to their goals. But they tell them it's for the Village so they'll never notice it's just tyranny."

"But they seemed all right," Karin said. "I mean, I see what you're saying in one way." She adjusted her glasses. "That all this is part of why they treated us this way. But in another, they were content here, and they are content with their government of Stone, and maybe they just don't want change."

"That's what they said, Karin," Suigetsu said impatiently. "They don't want change...but change is gonna happen no matter what. I bet you didn't want your village to get destroyed, but them trying to mind their own business never made them any safer, did it? And when does it ever, in the ninja world, make anyone safer to try to be left alone? People just think they have secrets and come looking for them."

"True, our culture is obsessed with mystery," Shikamaru admitted. "How did I not see it before?"

"Yeah, you see it once it affects you," Dabi grumbled.

They reached the opening for the village some time after that.

But here they were overtaken by Onoki and his entourage.

Someone in the village had seen them at one point and alerted the Kage's house.

It can't be said Kurotsuchi was at all surprised to see them leaving, but Onoki had expected them to speak to him first--and had planned to deny any knowledge of what happened again so he could claim ignorance to the other Kages.

Perhaps if that was his plan, he should have just pretended not to notice they left, but he feared that the rumor would get around that they snuck away.

"Lord Gaara, what is this?" he said, just as if nothing had ever gone wrong, just like his usual, crochety self--which made Gaara angrier than any sign of shame would have. "Is this how you treat us? Stealing away in the dead of night?"

It was really nearly dawn, but no one corrected him.

Gaara had had enough. He saw no further use in diplomacy in this situation, and his only thought of restraint was that he shouldn't carry it too far now.

But he turned to Onoki with the most furious look any of the Stone had seen on him, since they had never known him when he was the Terror of Sand.

"You are fortunate that we're in a time of peace," he said in a tight voice. "Because going quietly is all we're going to do. You deserve less than this, but we won't stoop to your level and compromise our own mission just to be revenged."

"What do you mean?" Onoki was good at lying, to their disgust. "I'm sure I haven't done anything to earn this. The people have shown their distrust of you, regrettably, in uncivil ways, but we will address that in due time. I think I was more than civil to you, under the circumstances."

Shine was glaring at him. Wally held her back.

"Might not want to poke the bear on this one, Sunshine," he muttered.

"Lord Tsuchikage," Gaara said in a very cold voice, "do not take me for a fool just because of my youth. I know as well as you do that no Village would dare to do such things if they thought their kage would punish them for it. Nor do I believe for a moment that they got information on us by mere chance. On top of which, one of our party heard plainly that the bandits we helped you catch earlier yesterday were used to avoid your own people being implicated in the attack on our housing. Everyone has their breaking point, sir."

That last part was nearly as sarcastic as anything Dabi could have said.

Onoki began to be uneasy despite himself. This was a new side of Gaara for him.

"No one was hurt, it seems like," he said. "Perhaps it was simply the Village decided just to send a message."

"Well, we got that message," Camie muttered.

"What is the point of this?" Temari folded her arms and frowned at Onoki. "One last humiliation? You could not even let us leave without mocking us on the way out also? For shame on you, Tsuchikage. One of our leaders should have more dignity."

That remark might have cut deep; Onoki looked more bothered for a second.

"Well, we did what was best for our village," he said.

"You did what you thought was best for the status quo." Shine could contain herself no longer. "Not for the village. And whatever you thought you were protecting them from, that is no excuse to terrorize children. If they were your own, you would never have stood for this. I hope you think someday of how you would feel if your own granddaughter got this reception in Sand Village."

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened a bit.

"Well, she won't be invited there any time soon," Temari said coldly. "So he won't have to worry about it."

"Let's not make hasty promises," Gaara warned her. "I will have to discuss this with the council...but diplomatic relationships are bound to suffer, no matter how we treat the matter. I hope it was worth it to you, Tsuchikage."

He bowed so stiffly it was like an insult and turned to walk away.

"Well, what he said," Kankuro agreed, walking away also.

Temari just shot them another dirty look before she shuffled and did the same.

The others followed them.

"By the way," Dabi called back at them, "you'll be sorry for this one day. It won't be anything we'll do to you, but you'll see that you should have considered listening. Your crappy village is doomed to fail if it keeps on this way, and you should know it."

"Silence!" Kitsuchi cried.

"It always happens," Bakugo sniffed, indignantly. "Some idiots just can't see what's good for them."

"Enough," Shine called to them. "You've made your point. Don't waste words on people with such hard hearts and stiff necks."

They took her advice.

That was the last they saw of Onoki for their stretch at Stone Village. No one followed them.

https://youtu.be/dxGH33tBdDc

[Gaara AMV to "Not One of US" Lion King II (best Disney sequel other than the Rescuers Down Under) by GaaraOftheDesert. I thought this song fit how the Stone Village treated him and how it made him and the team feel.]

* * *

It took them all of that day to walk through the stone pillars again.

"I wish Tsunade had come with us." Sakura looked back from time to time. "I worry they'll do something to her."

"And Suzushi," Momo said.

Not many of them had taken any interest in him, but Momo of course was worried about any person in danger.

"In the end, they did help us," Sai observed. "They didn't have to. I suppose we should be concerned."

"I don't think they'll harm them if we're not around," Gaara said dully. "Now the question is do we part ways at the soonest available time? We can't go much farther south without needing to split if we're going both to Sand and Leaf Village...or Mist."

"I can't believe I have to go home already," Hanabi sighed. "I was really starting to get into this kind of thing."

"Well, we didn't get thanked for it." Sakura frowned.

"Yeah, those brats didn't even stick up for us," Naruto said.

"Naruto, not everyone is as brave as you," Momo reminded him. "Perhaps they were just scared."

"I don't care if they were. They should have stuck up for us," Naruto insisted.

"Why does only Sasuke ever get leeway from him?" Dabi wondered to Bakugo and Camie.

"Beats me." Bakugo didn't care. "I hate that we lost. Even if it wasn't our fault, going home like this is the pits."

"I so agree." Camie nodded. "I was really hoping to get to Cloud. I mean, we'll never find out if that lady was important or not like this... Can't we just go there anyway? See if they'll let us?"

"No," Kankuro said. "Ay was going to ask for reports from all the Village we went to first, remember? Once he hears this one, we're never going there again."

"But that seems wrong," Camie said. "I was sure we were destined to go there."

"I don't know that we were destined for anything," Shikamaru said. "It's a shame the mission got cut short. It was long shot... I mind more how they acted than that they didn't accept things the way we wanted."

"We have another day or so to decide," Shine said, "don't we? Maybe the Lord will guide us to something else. It wouldn't sit well with me to go home like this either, but it's not impossible... Setbacks happen. But it's not the end of the world. Try not to take it that way."

"Well, with you it could be the end of the world," Dabi said. "Isn't all this supposed to come at the right time to prevent some massive disaster? What if that wasn't just that we failed? What if there was more to it."

"I can't really see that," Wally said. "Stone Village might suffer, but I don't think the entire world would be at risk over this. Things didn't go that badly. You'll freak them out for no reason, Dabi."

Indeed Dabi already had alarmed most of them with that remark.

"I hope that could never happen," Ino shuddered.

"It does seem to be too short." Sai was also glum. "We can't do anything about it, but the end of the Peace Mission was supposed to be a stronger bond."

"Don't rub it in," Temari hissed at him. "You're making Gaara feel worse."

Sai had never thought of Gaara being affected by his words, but Gaara was looking down.

No one was sure how to comfort him. Shine wasn't even sure she could, since the situation was so complicated.

Of course, she and Wally had been through this kind of thing before, in smaller ways, but that might not really cheer him up. It just emphasized that this happened all too often.

Sasuke was thinking of how all of this would end before he even had all his questions answered. The idea depressed him so much he could actually tell he was depressed. He couldn't understand how all the offers, all the hints, all the promises could have led to this ending.

He was tempted to sneak away in the night just to avoid being told it was over officially.

The DJs suggesting that they might find a way to continue here for longer meant little to him. He was sure they were empty suggestions. He saw no way they could do their mission if Gaara's ended, since he assumed that Gaara's and theirs were tied together and were one and the same ultimately.

This might have been naive on his part, but he'd taken such a long time to understand anything about them, that he was far behind on what their real goals were. And Shine had still never really told him.

As if to add insult to injury, as the day waned, it clouded over and rain started to fall on them. Icy, cold rain.

They scrambled to find shelter in the rocks, and they did, but they still got very damp.

"This sucks," Camie complained, watching water drip down the outline of the rocks like a running faucet.

"No, really? I think that this is great," Tenten said sarcastically. She sighed and leaned on the rock. "What I can't get over is how humiliating it all was... I never want to do anything like that again."

"Yeah, never again," Sakura agreed.

And then she brightened a little. It was true, this had been such a disaster, all of them would surely go back to Leaf.

Sasuke hadn't agreed yet, but maybe he'd change his mind once he saw everyone else would do it.

Sakura, of course, was as foolish as usual. But she wanted to think it so badly she ignored any of her common sense, which was never that plentiful at any time. Where Sasuke was concerned, she had none at all.

Though, even now, she really didn't believe that Sasuke would do this out of care for them--even she couldn't pretend that. But she still thought he could be won over if he just gave Leaf a chance. She wouldn't accept that Leaf simply did not have what he was looking for.

She felt much more cheerful thinking this way. That it had been so awful for the heroes was not really a huge concern for her. Her pity for them was only a tiny bit...and no more than she might have felt in passing for a lost puppy. If there was nothing she could do about it, she wouldn't have dwelt on it for long.

[Again, some may say this is painting Sakura too harshly...but I've never seen any evidence to the contrary, in canon or otherwise. So until I do, this is what I believe she is like.]

* * *

The rain lasted hours before it let up, and then it was too wet to camp, and the shelter they found wasn't big enough to sleep inside, so they had to just keep walking rather than just stand there and be cold.

This was miserable enough and didn't help anyone's mood. But they were too dejected to bicker that much. In fact, bickering would almost have cheered them up to hear, but no one had the energy.

Wally and Shine alone didn't act completely downcast, aside from Camie, who was never downcast for long, and Sakura, who was just happy to be going home.

Still, even Wally couldn't joke about what happened.

Gaara remained quite somber, and you could almost see a heavy black rain cloud over his head.

Finally, since they had not slept, they made their way out of the rocky, pillared area sooner than they'd thought and into the more spread out tearing that would take them to he mountains, but they were turning to the southern mountains now, and hoped a least they would be less harsh to climb.

Or would they just portal there or fly? What was the point of doing the hard work now that it would amount to nothing?

But here they finally had to rest, and they found a spot that had dried more at least, so they spread out their sleeping bags, and Momo even put out a tarp for those who didn't really have proper waterproof gear.

They dropped off quickly, barely even trying to eat supper first.