[OP: "Dear Wormwood"--The Oh Hellos]

Ami seemed to turn over what Sakura had said in her mind.

"I'm not a very strong fighter," she said finally. "I can't break you out of here. So what do you want me to do?"

Sakura had no idea; she was not a strategist.

Well...what would Naruto do?

No, bad idea.

She tried to imagine what Shine would have said to do at this time... Assuming they were really still out there and all still looking...they could find her. That wasn't the hard part--it was just the bandits having leverage or tricks...and the poison.

She looked up. 

"Is there a way to nullify that toxin?" she asked.

Ami shook her head. "Not that I know of. If you're one of us bandits, some of us are immune. The boss told us to rub salt over our skin."

"Salt?"

"Salt," Ami repeated, "with water, and it seems to keep it from building up, though some people still had tingling and swelling, but it didn't stop them up. But salt is kind of scarce. No new shipments of it coming in, either."

"Could salt cure it?" Sakura asked. "Why would salt work?"

"It wouldn't cure it. Wouldn't work fast enough to. They tried it. It's preventative more than it heals anything. I'm not sure how people get infected, but some thought it was the water."

Sakura had no context other than Suigetsu for how that was happening, but she thought.

Salt dissolves in water, but it also can purify things in the water, sometimes... It can stop bacteria... It can clean things too.

So was there something in salt that would dissolve whatever was in the water that was chunking together to paralyze people...as she could feel it doing in her own chakra network...? Being a bit more knowledgeable of that kind of thing as a medic, she'd figured it out eventually.

The other medics in Stone might have noticed too, if they could channel it as long as Sakura could without stopping.

She flexed her nerves, and they were stiff.

"Maybe not normal salt," she said. "But what if we infused it with chakra, to do a specific thing...? Do you think that would work?"

"It's not a thing I could do," Ami said. "But if you could...it's worth trying."

"I need someone who is infected," Sakura said. "And salt...to try. Would they let me?"

"Maybe, but how will that help us?"

Sakura looked up. "I'm not very good at strategy, but I am good at medicine, and that's all I got. If I can use that to leverage some kind of way to get me out of here, the others can rescue me...and you...but no, they wouldn't let you go with me, huh?"

Ami knit her brows. "Unless you had some reason for me specifically to escort you. I can't stay in here much longer anyway. And if anyone asks, I came in here to torture you also." She made a wry chuckle. "Most of the bandits would never believe that of me, but this batch don't know me that well yet. Maybe they'll buy it."

Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You said you're good with Earth style... What if I said that your jutsu would be the kind that could help me cure it? Would they believe that?"

"If you made it sound high brow enough for them," Ami said. "They're mostly stupid and ignorant. Why else are they bandits?"

Then she realized her own irony. "I mean the ones who were already."

"I can think of something that will sound impressive," Sakura said. "If you can go and...well, can you suggest to them that I know a way to cure the plague?"

"I can try. I think I know how I might say it... If this works... But we have to get my son. I won't go along with you all without him."

"Just get me out of here and they'll find your son," Sakura said, so hastily that Ami almost was put off.

But then, she was in no position to be picky about how Sakura acted, so she brushed it aside.

"All right, I'll try," she said. "I hope our idea works, girl, for your sake also."

Sakura hoped so too.

[For the science nerds: While the idea that salt would counter toxin is a bit of creative licence on my part, it's not entirely without some scientific basis. The right kind of salt can counter some harmful metals, and salt water is used to clean bacteria and ward off parasites. It's a bit of a stretch, but for ninja powers, not really much of one.]

* * *

 Shine and Wally had missed a lot, they knew that. Though they'd been busy pulling the rocks out of the river, Shine had kept track of the others using her "Sight".

She told Wally about them getting captured or moving.

Then they got the message about being told to back off.

"How have they not found us then?" Wally asked.

"Sweetie--" Shine gestured around. "--no one is by this river except the people guarding it, whom we evaded. Isn't it clear the 'boss', as they call him, must have told them to stay away from it? He knows it will infect them."

"Oh..." Wally said. "Yeah, that makes sense." He rubbed his head.

Then he followed the route to the pipes again.

This time when Shine climbed to the tunnel that led to the grate that went outside, she was more meticulous.

She thought that the grate still being a doorway made no sense for people who could move rocks, unless they had people with them who couldn't...unless it was originally used for something else.

And now it would be a good cover, having an exit that they didn't really need.

It was just a hunch at first, but after she'd crawled forward with her sword in the pipe to see if there was anything else in it, she found the same circle in the top, and she pried open around it like it was a manhole cover... It came open.

"Hey, Babe, look at this," she called in a hushed stage whisper. "There's another door in this pipe." 

"How many doors does one pipe need?" Wally was leaning on the wall and trying to keep watch. "I think you hit the jackpot."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure you'll fit in here. I can, barely. These people are so much smaller than us." Shine stuck her shoulders into the hole and tried to pull herself up with some difficulty, but many weeks of exercise had helped her out; she was stronger than she used to be.

It still made her arms throb, but she lit her sword up and illuminated the inside.

"It's a tunnel, all right," she called, her voice echoing in the metal pipe. "This is something else. I'm not sure how far it goes..."  She moved forward and then nearly plunged into another hole.

This one went down into the wall itself for several feet, but it had a ladder cut into the side of it.

Wally crawled across the pipe and put his head through the hole--he could do that just by standing up, it was so low for him.

"What's in there?" he called.

"Another tunnel going down," Shine said. "If I had to guess, it goes under the Village itself. Ah, that's it." She sat on her haunches. "They use this entrance so that no one ever catches them going in and out of it. If it was in the Village itself, they might be noticed if there was a trap door like this. But who would check a pipe or a water way? Only us weirdos who read comic books."

"Or who live them," Wally said. "This has Gotham sewers written all over it. Killer Croc called--he wants his strategy back."

"Ha," Shine laughed politely. "Can you fit? I hate to go in there alone, but if I have to..."

"Let me try." Wally pulled himself up with effort, and it was a tight squeeze. "Ouch...is this the tight space or am I getting out of shape?"

"You look fine to me," Shine said. "Must be the tight space."

"Thanks, Honey." Wally struggled the rest of the way in. "At least there's no sewage. I've been in worse pipes."

He still had to crawl to where she was, while Shine had room almost to stand if she bent nearly double.

"If only we had one of the teens who was short enough to do this here," she said. "But it may get bigger farther down."

She slipped into the hole and climbed down carefully.

She slipped part of the way down and fell the rest of the way. The rock ladder was hard to see.

"Are you okay?" Wally called.

"Yeah..." Shine gasped. "I didn't break my ankle, thankfully. Just jarred my bones. Be careful coming down that thing."

"I got it." Wally had a worse time than she did, hitting his shoulder blade on the rock, but finally he got down.

To their relief, the lower tunnel was much bigger and clearly meant for a large amount of people.

Wally remembered then that he had one of the flares in his pack and lit it.

Shine didn't want to use her sword--it did take some energy out of her to do it, and she wanted to conserve hers.

"Well, I also did want to go spelunking as one of our dates," Wally said.

"Really? I thought that was more of a Batman thing," Shine said. "I mean, since he lives in a cave."

"Not much of a date if you live in it," Wally said. "But Diana might like it anyway. She's into weird things like that."

"Spelunking is weird? What do you think of kayaking?"

"Pretty neutral about it, actually."

"Should we get the kids first?"

"Normally, I'd say yes, but they can handle themselves against  bandits. Please, these guys have to be pushovers. They use poison. And those kids are all trained better than I ever was at this age. We gotta treat them like fighters, not just our charges."

"That is such a dad thing to say," Shine teased.

"Oh, really? Well, worrying about them is such a mom thing to do," Wally shot back.

"But I'm not insulted by that, being like a mom. You're the one who feels old when you start to act like a parent."

"Because it is old. I'm the fun uncle. I keep telling you, I'm not dad material."

"Babe, if we're going to be married, you'd better start being father material," Shine said slyly.

Wally didn't get what she meant, and then he did and got a funny look. "Shine!"

"What?" Shine said, laughing. "Sorry, Shayera, you know. Rubbed off on me. But I want kids, don't you?"

"Sure," Wally said. "But I still want to be the fun uncle, not the dad."

"No," Shine said, as she went forward. "That makes it sound like I'm gonna cheat on you with your twin brother."

"I don't have a twin brother."

"Maybe we should focus on the problem. They still have some hostages. They don't know we're in here already, so I want to use it before they try to blackmail us too, but how long before they figure it out? I'm sure there're traps or something in here."

"We can handle it." Wally was confident. "I'm telling you, these guys aren't that tough. I know tough when I see it. Maybe we could talk them into submission."

"Are we Naruto?"

"You're better at it than Naruto is," Wally said. "And I could...maybe pull some stunts real fast, just to show off."

"Very detailed plan. I like the part where it could never go wrong," she said wryly.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Wally asked.

"I don't know," Shine said, as if they were talking about where to eat out. "It's been a while since we busted anything like a bandit camp. I mean, we didn't even bust the last one--that was Salem...so... I mean, sure, we did scare Raven, but that's not the same. And then the LOV is not the same as these people. What should we do? Just find the boss and threaten him? Or maybe we could make a deal."

"How about, 'You leave here and say you're sorry to these people, and then we'll not have to bust you up'?" Wally suggested.

"Or, 'Bow before your rulers, you peasants,'" Shine joked.

"Yeah, or, 'Hey, you want us to use persuasion and reason?'" Wally held up his fists.

"Mmm, or we could let them meet Bakugo. That might do it."

"I guess every team needs an attack dog," Wally said. "So...see anything yet?"

"Nothing," Shine said.

They went quiet for a while to listen.

By now they could both think of this without even having to say it; they were much more in sync than they used to be.

The tunnel was empty.

Shine guessed that was because the bandits didn't have the numbers to have it guarded and didn't think anyone would find it anyway.

They walked for what felt like miles.

When they did finally run into someone, it wasn't who they expected.

"Karin?" Shine said, almost at the same time, Karin said, "Miss Likstar?"

"Oh, hey, Hot Pocket." Wally had taken Dabi's nickname for Karin because it was too funny for him not to appropriate.

Karin didn't even care at the time. She rushed to them like she'd hug them, but she didn't.

But Shine hugged her, so she didn't have to worry about it.

"I'm glad to see one of you kids," Shine said. "Did Sasuke make it back all right?"

"He did, and he told us what you said," Karin said in a low voice. "Shh, though...there's people not that far from us...but I've been wandering around here for a while, and I haven't found any exit to get to the jail or to Sakura... I'm not sure I even sense her anymore. Maybe I did for a bit, but then I couldn't find an exit. It's like it just goes under the Village."

"From all I can tell, this main tunnel does," Shine said. "They must open the others with their jutsu."

"Yes, that's just what I thought," Karin said. "There are exits, but they lead only to places no one would be likely to see them come out...and all of them have locks on them that I think only an Earth Shinobi could open."

Shine held out her sword. "I can open them... So we must have come all the way across the Village, then."

"It seems shorter when you don't have to climb those steps," Wally noted. "Did you guys not find the other prisoners yet?"

"I think I sense them a little," Karin said. "But it's all this dirt--I can't get a lock on it."

Shine lifted her eyes up, and they glowed.

"It looks like they fled the jail," she said. "Perfect...they got out. I think they're headed for the Kage house, if I'm not turned around...but then, I have a terrible sense of direction when I'm not using my power."

"Well, that's right," Karin confirmed. "This is like a maze, but I can get an image of it in my head, based on the chakra signature on the rocks."

"Oh...is there?" Shine said.

"That's how I knew where the entrances were," Karin said. "But they didn't open. I was starting to think coming down here was a waste of my time after all."

"Karin, you're the best!" Wally hugged her shoulders, to her surprise. "We can get out anywhere now. Shine, where do we go first?"

"I'll swear to it that one of those leads to wherever this leader is," Shine said. "He'd stay close enough that he could slip away if he was found. If I just knew what the jerk looked like, I'd have found him already. But if anyone is likely to know that, it's the Kage, so I say we meet the girls there. Sakura... Karin, can't you find her if you go outside the tunnel?"

"Not if she's underground," Karin said.

Shine thought.

"If we brought the others here," she said. "Now...they'd have only one hostage left, and Sakura is not one they would kill, if I'm not mistaken. I don't want to risk her life, but, would they decide to follow them all to this tunnel now?"

"They would decide to follow using the stones that are laced with chakra," Karin said. "So we're stuck here or we dig our way out ourselves."

"I think we could work with that," Shine said. "Let me bring them all. Temari won't like it, but..."

Karin didn't  know what she meant.

Shine opened the doorway, and the others did come falling through.

Sasuke last of all.

He felt very ill. Actually, he always had when he'd used his Sharingan before Shine portaled him. He felt queasy every time she did it, but it was always more intense when it was after he was active.

The others were only too glad to see Shine and Wally and had been waiting to hear from Karin for several minutes.

"Well, all that's left is to get Suigetsu," Karin said, almost as an afterthought, but she'd been worried about it for a while.

Shine nodded thoughtfully. "Momo, think you could help him?"

"There's a good chance," Momo said.

"All right," Shine said. "If it's fine, will you do--"

"Whatever it is," Gaara said, "we'll do it. Believe me, I've been waiting to do anything to get around the bandits blackmailing us, so if you have an idea, we'll do it."

Shine nodded. "Fine, what we'll do is this: I can point you all the right way to find our missing teammates. Some of you will get Sakura and some will get Suigetsu. And Wally and I will go to the Kage. He'll be real happy to see us, I imagine, but, if he's alive we must know. And someone must get Tsunade too. She may be with the others, or she may be somewhere else. Once we have all our players, the bandits will have none of us. They are clearly cowed if they used these tactics, and I think it would be simple enough to scare them."

"Simpler than you know," Shoto said. "Camie sent us an update. Apparently they're scared of our team pretty badly. She mostly thought it was funny, but there were some useful things in it. They're scared of what they've heard about us."

"It really is just like Jericho after all," Shine said.

"Tall walls, spies--sure, I see it," Wally said.

"Can I be Caleb again?" Hanabi asked.

"Actually, Hanabi, you had better work on finding that kid who helped you," Shine said. "If this comes to a fight, he'd better be out of it. He and his family should be outside."

"We have a Rahab," Momo said thoughtfully. "This is strange, isn't it?"

"It's kind of cool," Dabi said. "In a weird way."

"Don't you have anything else for us to do?" Temari was getting tired of being on the sidelines.

"Once we have the others, you'll have plenty to do," Shine said. "But, given how thickly guarded this Village is, a fight will be better to avoid. There's a time and place for that. If you could try not to destroy anything else..."

She glanced at Bakugo pointedly.

He shrugged. "I just want to get Camie and then kick their a---s. But she's fine on her own. I knew she would be."

"You seemed worried before." Shoto had to rib Bakugo.

"Shut up!" Bakugo snapped.

"It's best if one of us goes with the group to see the Kage, right?" Kankuro said to Gaara. "Better if he knows we're all working together...if he's alive. And if he's not, we'll have to speak to whomever will be stepping into his place."

Gaara looked a little hard for a moment. "I thought about it, but, I don't think I could stand to speak to him as if nothing happened. It's still too new to me. And, if he was to be as condescending as he was before, I think I might say something I will regret." He glanced at his hands. "Perhaps you'd better go, Kankuro. You're the least likely to lose your temper out of the rest of us."

"I wish I could argue that," Temari said. "But I'd rather throw up than talk to Onoki like a friend right now, so you'd better do it."

"I really don't want to," Kankuro said. "But if you both are going to be so dramatic about it, fine, I'll go."

"Tenten, you will go with us," Shine decided.

"What? Why?" Tenten said.

"Simple enough," Shine said. "If the boss happens to be where the Kage is--and I wouldn't put it past him--anyone who uses chakra openly is more likely to be infected by him. You risk less because of your weapons. You use only a little bit of chakra, right? So does Kankuro, and he can cut his off. Bakugo will come with us for that reason. The rest of you will stay as far away from their weapons as you can. I'm still grappling with this explanation that they can poison chakra. By the way, I'm impressed that you put that together, Karin."

Karin smiled faintly. "Well, I had some help...but it's just a theory."

"Karin is being modest?" Dabi said.

They glared at him.

"Sorry, I felt like someone should say it for Suigetsu since he's not here," Dabi shrugged. "I almost miss the b------d's constant snark. I feel like I have to pull double duty here."

"You can be relieved of that duty any time you wish," Temari said tightly.

"Nice quip, Fan Girl," Dabi said. But didn't seem inclined to take her up on the offer.

"I can't get over how weird it is that we're helping these guys after what they did to us," Naruto said. "But, for Granny Tsunade, I'll do it."

"Well, thanks, Naruto." Shine sounded amused. "Good to know that. But I think forgiveness is also a good reason."

"How can I forgive someone for doing what they did to Gaara?" Naruto said.

"And Shine," Tenten pointed out.

"Well, yeah, her too," Naruto said.

Shine laughed at him. "Good to know how highly you think of me. That's funny."

"That's funny to her?" Choji said, puzzled.

"You don't know Shine," Sasuke said, with an air of self satisfaction over the fact he knew pretty well that Shine would find that funny.

Somehow he almost got a weird enjoyment out of Naruto getting the same treatment.

Naruto didn't really mean to be petty anyway. It was just that he found Gaara easier to bond with and to put himself in the shoes of.

[My sisters have pointed out that one of Naruto's flaws is that he only sympathizes with people if he can put himself into their position because they both suffered the same way. But anyone who suffers differently than him, such as Sakura, or Sai,  or Gaara's siblings, or Shikamaru...he doesn't seem to have any idea how to be compassionate towards or to even understand what bothers them, unless he has the same experience later. An example would be, while Shikamaru sympathized with him losing his mentor, Naruto did not sympathize with him in return, that we saw. Maybe because he wasn't in that arc, but also it just shows that the writer never really prioritizes Naruto's learning to be compassionate to more kinds of people, to grow his horizons.

Naruto is not a bad person--he's just a very narrow one, and it's never a trait I've liked in a protagonist paragon to be narrow, but maybe that's just my taste. Plenty of people do seem to find it endearing.]

The others were divided into squads accordingly.

Gaara said he would look for Tsunade, since he was her ally, and Temari said she'd go with him. Shikamaru said he would too. Tsunade might want to talk to a Leaf. 

Dabi, Shoto, and Momo would all go to the hospital. They had little fear of being unable to handle the hospital staff.

They hoped that would be enough people, because everyone else was afraid to go with them. 

Naruto would go after Sakura with Hinata, who had the best chance of finding her. Hanabi would go with them because Shine deemed it was the safest option. Sakura would likely not be heavily guarded; she was not enough of a threat to the bandits.

Sasuke would also be going with them...which seemed like an odd choice. But Shine thought somewhere he wouldn't be seen by that many people might be best, and he couldn't risk going with her and Wally.

Choji would go with them too.

Karin would guide everyone as well as she could. Sai would go with Shine so they could use ink to communicate, if she wasn't able to write them.

That made sense.

But before they split up they decided to pray--even the skeptics among them felt it was a good idea by now.

And then they had to walk a while before they could split off, Karin and Shine guiding them.

Shine decided to talk to Sasuke now. She figured it was best to settle things before he went off to fight anyone else.

So, behind the others, she pulled him aside.

Sasuke expected another lecture--if you could call what she'd said before a lecture.

But Shine surprised him instead.

"I need to apologize to you for the tone I took earlier," she said. "I was too harsh."

Sasuke blinked at her in amazement.

"I'm stressed right now," Shine added. "I hope that's a good excuse--it doesn't sound Iike one, but, it's all I got. Easy to jump to conclusions and to judge harshly."

Sasuke was too stunned to be as sullen as usual.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" he said. "Everything you said was warranted."

Shine winced. "I'm sorry you think so."

"I did break our rules," Sasuke said, "and our agreement. You should be angry."

His phrasing almost sounded like that was a threat, though he wouldn't have threatened her. No point.

Shine frowned at him. "You were in a corner. I don't like that you did it, but I have expected too much change too fast, and you have nothing else to fall back on. I was expecting more than a human being would be likely to stand. We defend ourselves with what we can, usually, whether it's wise or not. We're like that. Not that that makes it okay." She frowned more to herself now. "But, it's human. Perhaps it's not damnable to slip up. Of course, I won't allow it in the future..." With a firm look. "But, it's too late to change it now."

Sasuke couldn't bear her being nice to him. He wished she'd scold him again.

He bristled. "You're ridiculous," he said harshly. "Just make up your mind already."

"I'm sorry that i've done something to warrant you saying that," Shine said, almost sadly. "I had thought I was doing much better at being nice to you."

"That's such a chore, isn't it?" Sasuke found he was spitting more venom than he had any right to. "If it is, just don't bother."

Shine gave him a strange look. "A chore? No...it was harder not to be nice."

That confused him so much he stopped his anger for a second. "That...what?"

"I had to put a lot of work into being hard on you at first," Shine explained. "Granted, I was pretty mad at you in those days, but I'm not really the type to keep hounding it after a while. But I did it for my own reasons that I won't explain to you again. I had been getting a bit lax. I thought it wouldn't matter too much, but now you think I'm inconsistent. I suppose it seems so, but I can't help it."

"This still sounds like an apology." Sasuke was disgusted--maybe at himself more than her, but still. "I hate you."

Then he stopped.

What had he just said?

He hadn't said that to her in weeks.

Shine didn't even flinch.

Sasuke almost wanted to fly at her and shake her to get her to react in some way to his anger and his bitterness! And it had been a while since he'd felt that way, too.

"Say something," he said.

The others had elected to give them some space. They'd noticed by now that Sasuke didn't like anyone to hear his conversations with Shine, and that Shine would have had a harder time if they made him antsy. But they heard him say that, since the passage was too hollow not to carry his voice.

"Just keep walking, guys," Wally told them. "She can handle him."

They nodded.

Shine shrugged. "That's bullcrap," she said flatly.

Sasuke frowned. "What?"

"You don't hate me," Shine said simply. "You think you do, at times, because I make you so angry, and maybe a little guilty, but it's not hatred. You hate yourself. Not me."

Sasuke felt as if she'd just slapped him...but of course it was true.

"Don't kid yourself."

"I'm not." Shine was so blasé that it shook him up again. "But I don't know why it bothers you so much when I apologize to you. What's the problem? I can't admit I did something wrong? I can't be kind?"

"You're wasting your kindness on me," Sasuke said, with his same bitter tone. 

"I suppose, if I am, it's mine to waste," Shine shrugged. "This didn't have to be a problem, Sasuke. You could just take the apology. Why do you always have to make it a fight? This is why you never resolve problems with people."

"I don't want to resolve them!" Sasuke nearly snarled at her. "And I didn't want an apology from you! You think what you want about my power and myself, and that's fine with me. As long as you don't pretend otherwise."

"I do make a distinction between your power and you," Shine said, as if he was talking to her like a child. "As well as your past and your present."

"You know that I am those powers the same way you are yours," Sasuke said.

And he thought it was true. Whatever he'd started as, the Sharingan had made him, and he'd made it. The pain and suffering made sure of that. That was how the power worked.

But Shine shook her head. "This power has made me, perhaps that's true. But it's about more than that, and the power part is really a tiny portion of it. Power is nothing, Sasuke. Someday you must realize that. What's behind power is everything. And I can no more treat you the way you say I should than I can do any of the other things you think I should do to hurt people. This is not about your nature, but mine. I can't change myself for you."

She shook her head. "And you don't really want me to. You just can't accept it when it comes back to you, can you? We have no time to work this out right now. I want to finish the conversation when we can...but if you're even ready for it, I don't know."

"All this time you've said I'm not ready." Sasuke almost said something that was actually clever. "And have you ever thought that perhaps you just need to act as if I'm ready and see what happens?"

Shine stared at him.

"For once, maybe you're right," she said. "I'll consider it...after we stop the bandits. You're going to get Sakura. And I feel like you'll find her--all of you, that is. Promise me not to be mean to her about all this. She'll be scared and say stupid things, perhaps, but don't dish it back to her like just now."

"What if I do?" Sasuke said.

"If you want me to finally answer your questions," Shine said, firmly, "you will show me you trust me enough to do as I ask. That's all there is to it. Your choice. I'll have reports of it later, be sure of that. But you know I don't need them. I can tell when I look in your eyes how you've acted. You don't hide it."

She turned and walked away from him.

Sasuke followed them slowly. He didn't doubt that Shine was 100% correct about that last part. He was sure of it himself.

But less sure that he'd be able to do anything she'd asked of him in the way she wanted. And if he wanted to, that wouldn't help him, not this time. He just couldn't do it.