[OP: "There Beneath"--The Oh Hellos, animatic by easternCriminal]

Shikamaru's crew took the question a bit more seriously.

He wasn't really sure why Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo were working with his team, other than they had nothing better to do, and Karin was useful for knowing people's intentions...but as for the others...

"'Hope and faith are important, or aren't they?'" Choji repeated. "And then 'what is the most important?' So I guess that means faith and hope aren't the most important... This is weird."

"Shine does this all the time," Ino said. "She gives us these very strange conversation topics...but it gets interesting. People always have different answers for it. I've learned a lot."

"Really?" Choji didn't think it was very like Ino to show interest in this.

Ino realized that she hadn't before...huh...

"Well, it's weird, but it beats talking about jutsu all the time," Suigetsu admitted. "I guess I'm used to how nuts they are by now."

"They're not nuts." Karin crossed her arms. "They're sane, and everyone else is nuts."

"Where is this loyalty coming from all the sudden?" Suigetsu asked.

"Because they have taken us in and been trying to help us," Karin said. "And you think I'm ungrateful, but you must be the most ungrateful out of us all if you're going to keep calling them crazy for it. Maybe they are for caring about someone like you."

"Ouch," Suigetsu said. "You really don't sound the same anymore."

"Much as I think he's not saying that to be nice, he's right," Jugo mused. "Karin, you seem different. You're...not as loud as you used to be."

"Loud?" Karin said.

"You stopped yelling all the time," Jugo said, "and being cross with us. I had the idea we annoyed you. I still think that sometimes, but you seem calmer since joining Team Zoe."

Karin adjusted her glasses. "I guess... I don't like that you're just implying that I'm some kind of crazy, emotional basket case." [The truth hurts, huh? Sorry, I know Karin isn't always the worst, but she could be very obnoxious in canon.]

Shikamaru did not say that he thought Karin was pretty unstable. He didn't want to get slapped.

Ino also didn't say anything, and Choji didn't know her well enough to.

"Still, out of curiosity," Suigetsu said, "what changed? And I'm not asking because I'm really that interested in you, but it's pretty hard to believe you'd ever calm down. Did they cast out your demons like Jugo?"

"That's not funny!" Karin snapped.

"It's really not, actually," Ino agreed.

Karin folded her arms. "I guess you won't get it anyway, Suigetsu."

Now, that offended him.

"Try me," he said.

"You don't deserve it now," Jugo said. "But I would like to know the answer."

"To you, then," Karin said, pivoting away from Suigetsu. "I guess you'd understand anyway... My entire life, no one's ever given a crap about what happened to me. And I never intended to need anyone. I think that the most you could expect is that someone might just do something for you because they were that kind of person, and maybe that would work out." She meant about Sasuke. "But I never looked for any kind of understanding from people...and I didn't even know that was a thing you could have. But since we joined Team Zoe...well, some of them are pretty annoying." She meant Dabi. "But most of them have accepted us as we are, even with our past. And then a few of them even go further... They try to include me in things, even though I'm...not one of the Villages'. And...the mentors even act as if my problems matter, even stupid ones... Sometimes they say things I don't like, but they acknowledge that I've suffered. No one has ever cared what I suffered before."

She looked almost like she would cry saying this.

Ino was sad. "I'm...sorry to hear that," she said. "I know that we're not close, but...if it means anything, I don't think anyone should have to suffer the way you have...losing everything...and...if it matters to hear it, I think you're perfectly right to feel upset about that. We can't tell people to be strong about things like that as if it never happened."

Kairn struggled to hold back her emotions and didn't say anything for a few seconds.

Suigetsu knew that wasn't something he could make fun of, so he just looked down.

"It's just as Karin says," Jugo said. "No one had ever cared about what I went through before. That they freed me of my curse would have been more than I could have asked for, but they even said they were sorry I had to suffer under it... People like that, with Divine giftings, thinking that the kind of refuse I was deserved any kind of pity...it's truly beyond what I can understand. And I think if God is like that. The world has turned its back on Him, because the world is not like this."

"You can say that again," Shikamaru muttered bitterly enough to be Sasuke or Dabi.  [TBH, Shikamaru would be one of the emos if he wasn't too lazy for it.]

Choji looked at Suigetsu as if he thought some revelation would follow theirs.

"What?" Suigetsu said. "You expect me to get all sappy about this? To say something like no one's ever cared what I went through? Please. See, I'm not like these two. I don't really want pity, and I certainly don't expect it. I don't think my life is this pathetic tragedy either." He rubbed his head. "I just don't have a cursed power that drives me insane or...an entire clan that got wiped out and I got taken hostage. None of that. Sure, I was shoved in a tank for years and made to fight people to earn my keep, and I might be a freak now, but I really have no reason to complain. I'm virtually indestructible, and I can live in Mist Village again."

"Because they let you join this team," Ino pointed out.

"Well, yeah, so maybe I'm a little grateful for that, but,] it wasn't like it was something they had to try hard to do," Suigetsu said. "It's not like Sasuke, where they're bending over backward to save him from...whatever is eating that guy."

"Sasuke is tormented," Karin said. "And you could feel a little sorry for him."

"Why? As usual, he gets all the special treatment," Suigetsu said. "Everyone feels sorry for Sasuke or wants him to be better. They think he's worth something. Great for him. Why does he need my sympathy?"

"I see," Ino said. "You're jealous of him."

"What? no," Suigetsu said, but he didn't sound convincing at all.

"Camie said that too," Karin said. Though she didn't mention that Camie had implicated her as part of the reason for that. "Are you?"

"Karin, why should I be jealous of someone who's that messed up in the head?" Suigetsu said. "I mean, he literally tries to kill his own allies all the time. I should feel sorry for his friends, but I just don't have it in my heart to. I'm not a person who likes to help others."

"I really don't care about this," Shikamaru said, "but I'll point out that you seem to help people a lot for someone who doesn't like doing it."

"He's right," Ino said. "You're the best teammate in your whole team. That's what the others told us."

"Well, you know how they talk," Suigetsu dismissed it.

"You did risk your life for us a lot," Jugo admitted. "But you always say you don't care and that you just want to cause problems for Karin."

For some reason Suigetsu seemed to mind him saying that, though it seemed like something he would have said himself. He glared at him.

Karin glared at Suigetsu, but then she thought of what Camie had said.

But it was too odd--she wouldn't think of it anymore.

"So I get hooked on the idea of finishing a goal, so what?" Suigetsu defended himself.

"You seem like a softie," Choji, who could kind of be what Camie would call a "troll", pointed out.

"Shut up," Suigetsu said. "You're new. I don't have to take it from you. Fatso."

Ino and Shikamaru knew what was coming and made Karin and Jugo step back before Choji fist-slammed Suigetsu into the pavement.

Suigetsu was so unprepared that he only turned into water part of the way down, so it still kind of hurt.

Choji acted as if nothing had happened after that, but Suigetsu was a little wary of him and moved away.

"So...why is hope important?" Shikamaru decided to get them back on track.

"Are we supposed to ask the people of Rain that?" Ino asked.

Those people were coming out to stare at them as they walked.

They saw some graffiti spray painted on to walls that sounded like things Pain might have said, but so far that was the only sign of his teachings.

"I thought it was just us," Choji mused. "But, I don't really know how to answer her. What kind of answer is she looking for.? Of course hope is important."

"Hope is not something I think about that often," Shikamaru said. "I guess hope is the next generation."

"But what do they hope for?" Ino imitated what she was sure Shine would have said to him. "That's not really an answer."

"Well, why don't you answer it then?" Shikamaru pushed back.

Ino wished he hadn't. Now they all were looking at her.

"Well..." She tugged her ponytail. "I...uh...I mean, without hope, what would anyone ever try to accomplish?"

"You can just try to survive," Jugo said. "I have...but it was not good. That wasn't really living. It was just not dying."

"Many shinobi also think like that," Shikamaru said. "Hope is not the answer most of them would give you if you asked them what was important about life. They would say to serve the Village, and to defend their families. To do good at their work."

"But for what?" Ino asked. "What are we trying to do? Make a better world? What does 'better' mean?"

"Now you sound like them for sure," Shikamaru said. "But...I guess it's a fair question. I'm not an idealist. Naruto is the one with all the ideas to make each other better."

"See, I don't think that'll ever happen," Suigetsu said. "I'm a pessimist. People don't care about each other that much. Maybe now and then you'll get a very weird person like Naruto or like these DJs, but mostly people are fine as long as no one's bothering them. It's not like anyone cared about all those victims of Orochimaru's."

"Maybe we should have," Ino said, shamefacedly. "We just didn't when it wasn't someone we knew. Leaf wanted to catch Orochimaru, but we never tried that hard to. If  we had..."

Sarutobi, the 3rd Hokage, had let Orochimaru escape initially, long before the attack on Leaf using the Sand... This wasn't a very well known fact to the lower Leaf ninja, but by now, Shikamaru had heard some hints at it, just because he worked with Tsunade and Kakashi so often.

He wondered if Sarutobi had ever felt like what happened was his fault. Or did he not think of it? [Evidence suggests he was not one for taking responsibility.]

"See, you're all getting to be a little too sensitive," Suigetsu said. "You start blaming yourself for this stuff and you'll just go mad. You're no different than anyone else, that's my point. People only think of themselves."

"Are you trying to be nice or to insult us more?" Choji asked. "Though this is the first I've heard of this... Since when do you talk to people about Orochimaru?"

Ino and Shikamaru realized that it was weird.

"At some point, guess I got used to the DJs and heroes bringing it up casually," Shikamaru said slowly. 

"I just stopped feeling weird about it..." Ino said. "Is it making you uncomfortable, Choji?"

"Well, no, I guess..." Choji said. "But that's unusual too, that you're asking me that. You two both seem different."

"You know, I think he's right," Karin said. "You were much more skittish about asking us about our pasts before. Now you don't mind it the same way."

"Are we being rude?" Ino asked.

"I don't mind," Jugo said. "I think people should know not to do what Orochimaru did. More people like me might be taken advantage of by men like him. I was too blind to know he was even using me, I was so focused on how I was a menace to society...but I see now that he only ever intended to make me worse than I started off as. It was no security to be with him--yet I do ask myself, was it better at least not to be loose in the world? I don't know. To be imprisoned by your own chakra is a dark fate, and anyone else would have wanted to just kill me. I was grateful to him, but I shouldn't have been. I never knew there could be more than that."

"So you thought your entire life was one big waste," Ino said. "I can see why the heroes find that so heartbreaking. To be born only to suffer like that...that can't be right. How can one be born just to suffer?"

"Perhaps you are kinder than most then," Jugo said, with no intention of flattering her. "I think many assume some of us are just born cursed."

"Ino, has their teaching been what's made you like this?" Choji asked. "So bold to ask everyone's thoughts?"

"I must sound...too adamant," Ino worried. "Maybe I picked up their habit of speaking so forcefully a little. I'm sorry..."

"Why be sorry? At least it's more interesting than talking about flowers," Suigetsu said.

"Oh, zip it," Karin said. "You're just making fun of us for taking this seriously because you never want to take anything seriously. What are you afraid of anyway? That we'll think you actually might have a human side?"

"Whoa, whoa, why's this about me now?" Suigetsu said. "And what the h---, Karin? You never ask anyone what they feel anyway. And you don't care."

"Maybe I do a little." Karin was not really sure what she was arguing now. "But still I can sense what people feel a little...but that only goes so far. Maybe I want to ask about it so I won't be surprised again if--" She broke off.

"This is not possible." Suigetsu didn't know when to let it drop, as usual. "Are you actually saying that because you regret trusting Sasuke so much? Whoa, this has to be a joke, right?"

"Oh, why don't you lay off her?" Shikamaru said irritably. "Maybe she wants to change and grow past her immaturity, and if you don't, you could at least not stand in her way. Unless it bothers you to think that someone could surpass you."

Suigetsu frowned.

"Shouldn't you want the best for Karin and Jugo?" Ino asked him more gently. "Not to hold them back? If this is what they want..."

"Yeah, great for them," Suigetsu grumbled. "I'm not that nice, but whatever... It's just funny--after so much time being pains in the neck, they've finally started to rethink their lives. I get Jugo was just crazy before because of his curse mark thing, but Karin's done a 180 because some people were a little nice to her. That's shocking."

"Maybe their point is that someone trying to understand her instead of making fun of her helps?" Choji made a good observation.

Karin nodded at that. "It couldn't hurt to have a little respect," she said aloud.

"Respect," Suigetsu said. "There's an idea..." He seemed bitter.

"I think he is jealous," Choji said to Ino in a lower voice. "Hmm...strange guy."

"He seems almost on edge..." Ino mused. "I wonder if he's afraid he's losing his only friends...but no one's making him leave them. Or does he think they will ditch him?"

"Maybe... You seem to be suddenly good at knowing things about people," Choji said. "Two months of training with the heroes must be a lot of work."

Ino thought to herself...it hadn't felt like work. But was it true? Had they been honing her perceptive skills all this time by asking her to think hard about things, and with Camie and her strangely insightful comments about how the people of the team thought? Momo's patience with them, Bakugo and Dabi's blunt statements, Shoto's lack of concern about appearances, and Shine's constant deep insights, coupled with Wally's treatment of everyone like they were his friends.

Taking these things seriously had not seemed like a huge change while it was happening, but Ino had not realized how much it had reshaped how she thought of interactions with her teammates. And Choji was right...she and Shikamaru were suddenly comfortable talking about things no one talked about. Even Team Taka had let them do it without any seeming embarrassment about it now.

She didn't think she was close to Karin or Jugo that much, so did it mean they just saw it as something they would share with their teammates now? That they all knew a lot about each other's lives just by proximity...? They knew she'd lost her father and other stuff that she'd never planned to tell them, like her medical ninja training being cut off...

Come to think of it, Karin had never been judgmental about that, for all she was temperamental. She didn't seem in a rush to dismiss other people.

Could that be it? Could it be that it was easier to start feeling comfortable with people who didn't have extremely high standards they would hold you to?

Ino then realized that probably this also had to do with Sai. It wasn't just the DJs--Sai had started to get her to think about people's feelings and states of mind like it was a field of study.

And she'd fallen into it so easily because once upon a time she'd like doing that already, when she was younger. She'd just learned since that ninja were expected to focus on excelling and getting ahead, not on understanding emotions.

But she had really jumped at the opportunity to start doing it again...and she'd liked it, too. It made her feel like she was good at something, helping someone figure out simple things about how people felt and thought.

That had to be why she'd not noticed the change in herself till she had Choji, who'd not seen them for months, there to compare with her old behavior.

She wasn't even sure Choji was saying it was a bad thing, but even his saying it made her feel self conscious about it, like she was all exposed.

She fell silent for a while.

https://youtu.be/rT7rklLp1Fk

["The Fall"--half alive]

* * *

Dabi's crew had an interesting time checking out the most run down part of Rain Village--which did have many huge pipes all over it that clearly led to some kind of network.

It was almost painfully easy to get in there. Dabi just melted the grate off one of the pipe openings.

Naruto sent some clones in there, and Sai sent his rats.

Momo looked around for heat signatures, and Hinata and Hanabi looked for anything odd in the chakra.

Hinata reported that she did spot some people in the pipes somewhere.

"But they could just be living there," she said. "No reason to assume they're up to no good."

"Other than they're shinobi," Dabi said.

"Oh, come off it," Hanabi grumbled. She was getting a little cold and tired and wet. "Don't be biased."

"Hey, Twinkle Toes, I'm just being real," Dabi said. "When do you guys ever hide in places for innocent purposes?"

"Maybe when it's raining outside and they have no house," Momo said. "I'm sure I saw signs of people living on the streets on the way here...and the smell..." She covered her nose.

It did smell suspicious out here.

"I bet the plumbing gets backed up," Dabi said.

[Interesting story about Seattle--it used to have huge plumbing problems. It's famous for being a rainy city, but it's also by the ocean, and it's pretty gross, so I won't describe it, but look it up sometime if you want an idea of what it must be like for Rain Village to get backed up.]

"Do you think Shoto is going to be okay with Sasuke on his team?" Momo asked.

"Technically, they're on Wally's team," Sai corrected.

"I know, but...they've been even more tense than before," Momo said.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine," Dabi said. "And if they're not, he knows who to blame. Everyone but himself."

"Dabi!" Momo was shocked.

"You sure are hard on your brother," Hanabi said, leaning on the pipe with her chakra sticking to it to try to avoid the Rain a little more.

Dabi frowned. "Am I? I'm sure he'll live through it."

"You can't really still resent him," Momo said. "I thought you worked out your differences. You know he's the same as you, unhappy with your father's...way of heroism."

"Oh, like our way of ninja," Hinata said.

"Hmm..." Momo hadn't noticed she'd started to pick up their way of talking.

"Look, it's really not about Endeavor anymore," Dabi said. "I guess maybe I always should have known it wasn't that simple. But something else about him pisses me off. He thinks he's so much better than me."

"Isn't he?" Sai said. "I mean, objectively speaking, you being a criminal and him being a hero?"

"It's not as if he was always trying to do right," Dabi said. "He still wanted to spite our father."

"Really, I think you're more alike than you know," Momo said. "True, you became a villain, but you wanted to bring justice to society in a strange way of your own, and Shoto wanted to be a better kind of hero. At heart, isn't it the same goal in different ways? He wants to be the change himself, like Ghandi said, while you want the world to change for you. But you don't disagree about the changes that need to happen."

"But it's not just enough that you want to act better than Endeavor," Dabi said. "Endeavor looked down on anyone who wasn't strong. I don't see how that's much different than looking down on anyone who doesn't meet your personal standards."

"But they can help the standards," Momo said. "And they cannot always help the strength part."

Hanabi was nodding slowly like she agreed with Momo. And well she might, considering her and Hinata's history.

Naruto was hardly listening to them, since he was focused on his clones, but he looked up now. "Strength isn't everything. There's also willpower," he said cheerfully.

"Not the point," Dabi said. "Look, Princess, I think we're just too different now. We're not going to be close brothers. I think I burned that bridge a long time ago--literally. He can't let it go that I'm one massive disappointment in terms of what his idea of a good guy is. I've killed too many people to be a vigilante type to him. And I don't really want to impress him anyway. He's a kid--at best, I would have not cared what he wanted. At least he's not part of the problem. I guess it's not bad to want to be any kind of hero, but he's not going to get anywhere with his relentless judging of anyone who ever broke the law, because the problem is that villains are in a corner. And Shoto is the kind of guy who pushes them into that corner by not acknowledging that people ever change."

Dabi had even called Shoto by his name, and Momo thought it must be that he really truly meant his concern this time...and maybe he was hurt, in his odd, bitter way.

And she couldn't even argue with him. She sighed... Rain was sliding off her umbrella that she'd made, and it looked like tears now that she was in a dismal mood.

"Truly," she said, "I wish I could disagree with you more about that. But Shoto is a kind person, and he really is trying to reconcile with his father--more than you are right now, I think--and to make this right with his family. And I've seen him change so much from when he first came to UA. I was so proud of him for doing what he thought was right, even when it scared me that he'd get hurt or get expelled for it, so much that I almost got myself expelled for going along with him. But he's always been braver than I am...only that, I wish he had a little more fear of provoking dangerous people."

"You mean Sasuke," Hinata noted. "Shoto is not afraid to make him angry. But Sasuke has not done anything to him."

"How long can that last? Sasuke is not reasonable person," Momo said. "He will have his limit, and he's let on to me that Shoto's behavior does grate on him."

"I never knew that," Hanabi said. "I thought Sasuke didn't care about anyone or anything."

"He's perhaps more sensitive than he acts," Momo admitted. 

"Do you like Sasuke then?" Sai asked her.

"I...no, he's unpleasant," Momo said. "But now and then I think I see a hint that he has human feelings, just like the rest of us, and then I can't find it in my heart to hate him, just to pity him. He seems like a scared little boy at those times. But then he goes back to being cold and distant and cruel, and I wonder if I just imagined that he ever acted otherwise. Yet Shine seems to think that he's not like that all the way down."

"If he's not," Dabi said, "Snowflake will never notice it."

"I see." Hanabi gestured. "You think that's only how he sees you too. But you're his brother--I'm sure it's different with you. He has to want to think better of you."

"And that always works, does it?" Dabi said. "'Sides, not in our family. We don't really cut each other slack."

"I'm sorry to hear it," Hinata said. "Because I think you two would be good friends if you let go of this burden of yours that you will always let him down, and if he let go of his fear that you will always think he's trying to be like your father."

Hinata, in her simple, gentle way, perhaps was far better at understanding this than anyone suspected.

Dabi kicked a random piece of loose pavement.

Momo sighed again. "I care deeply about Shoto, but...lately I feel like he's drifting away from me. and I wonder if we're just...not really a good match now. I mean, it's not that I can't understand how he feels, but he doesn't seem to understand me."

"But you're so good together," Hinata said. "I'm sure you can work through it."

"I want to, but, he's getting...colder," Momo said. "More like how he used to be. When he...wanted only to reject Endeavor. That's what he told me. That's all he saw back then."

"And now it's like he only needs to reject Sasuke," Hanabi guessed. "But Sasuke is not his family, and he has nothing to do with him. What is the big deal?"

"Sasuke rejected our help," Dabi said. "Both of us, and we nearly got clapped by Snake-Fangs McGee. Snowflake doesn't handle failure too well."

"But that was years ago," Hinata said. "And Sasuke is here now...so did he really fail?"

"Sasuke is not here because of our efforts," Dabi said. "It's all Shine. She's a boss at it, I'll give her that. And it's annoying sometimes that she can literally 'outshine' us, but Snowflake takes it personal, I guess. I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't annoying me so much with this 'I'm superior to Uchihas and criminals' schtick."

"Shoto has high standards," Momo said. "He wants to defend the innocent, and he doesn't like people who don't look after their friends or family. Sasuke is someone who does not care about that. And maybe he thought you were too. I know you had your reasons, but I also don't think what you did was right. It's just that I seem to be able to let it go... Or do I just not have a strong enough sense of justice?"

"I don't see how it's justice to keep hounding him about it." Hanabi gestured widely. "Dabi's on the right path now, and Sasuke is headed there at least. This isn't justice anymore. You're better off just letting them have a chance to change. But, Dabi, take it from me, competing with your sibling is no good. One of you is always going to be better at one thing than the other, but then you're good at something else. Shoto's not really as good as sarcasm as you are, for example."

Dabi made a sound of derision.

"Or perhaps at seeing people how they really are," Hinata offered. "I think you're more...realistic than he is. Though he's a good person. I don't mean to insult him."

"He's dense," Dabi snorted. "Well, it runs in the family to be blunt and dense. I'm just a little more savvy 'cause I ran in different circles."

"If you both stop judging each other and just accept your differences are there to make you stronger, I think it would be fine," Momo said. "I want to help Shoto...but I'm so tired of this!" She suddenly seemed a little wan. "All this tension and this judging of other people and pushing Sasuke to fight and to leave! Like he just wants Sasuke to fail! I mean, the Shoto I knew never wanted anyone to fail just to prove a point."

"He might have wanted Endeavor to fail," Dabi said. "Don't you think he did?"

"But he stopped wanting that," Momo said. "And how can he forgive his father but not Sasuke?"

"I know very little of these matters," Sai said, "but judging by how I felt about Sasuke joining this team myself, I would say that his problem could be that he thinks Sasuke is still a threat. Would he feel the same if Sasuke was just off somewhere, not bothering us?"

Momo nodded to that. "No, you're right. I think that is what he's said. But that's just it--if he'd open his eyes, he would see that Sasuke is not a threat to us unless we make him one. He's been quite obedient actually. I never thought he would be."

"Oh, you just don't understand him," Dabi said. "Sasuke has always been a follower. He's just a rebel because he's pissed off at the world. If it wasn't for that, he'd never question anything. Why else would he have gone along with the snake man, Obito-Tobi, and then whoever else asked him to do anything? He's too much of a wimp to disobey someone as long as they have his number."

"His number?" Hanabi questioned.

"What he wants," Dabi elaborated dryly.

"I really do think he might have started to like them though," Hinata said. "And so, Shoto has nothing to fear. If he just realized that, maybe you would not have any reason to fight."

"It is starting to bother me, though, that he would hold a grudge for this long," Momo said. "As if I didn't know him as well as I thought."

There was a pause while that sunk in.