Well, this is my first multi-chapter fic. I am so nervous with how this will turn out but I decided it was time it was posted. It might start out slightly confusing but it'll all come together in the end. I don't usually work with pairings but I'm open to any pairing suggestions or even if you think there shouldn't be any parings. There are a few OCs but they are really only there for background proposes. I'll try keep the main Ocs realistic and interesting as best I can. Rated M for later gore in the story. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes I've tried to get rid of all of them but I might have missed some.
Please review if you want, no flames unless they have constructive criticism.
I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.
Desolate. That was the only word Haruno Sakura could use to describe her home. She crouched vigilantly on the rough bark of a tree on the outskirts of the village. Her emerald eyes watched a pair of horse and riders stride through the worn streets.
She backed up further into the green vegetation to avoid being spotted. The riders vanished behind the building of the Konoha hospital and Sakura felt her old fury rekindle. They had taken the hospital away from her and the people who needed it and yet they showed no compassion to the silent building.
A sweeping wave of depression threatened to burn out her anger. Sakura had failed and she knew it. She failed everyone because she was the one who was meant to protect the hospital and its inhabitants but now she sat, forlornly, looking at the building thinking about how her mistakes had lead her patients to lose a haven, that had taken years to build, in only one night.
Sakura was jerked out of her musings by the buzzing of an insect flying past her ear. She watched the insect closely. The beetle hummed twice once it landed in a twig near the green-eyed ninja's face. When it waddled in a circle providing Sakura with the proof it was one of Shino's.
The blue and red beetle was most likely sent out to tell Sakura to meet up with the rest of the group. She hoped that the others had had better luck at finding a weakness in their enemy then she had otherwise this mission would be another dud.
Casting a final glance toward the abandoned houses being patrolled by soldiers on horseback, she slipped through the under-growth of the tree like a starving feline. Keeping slow, soft steps she made her way towards the discussed meeting point for the other ninja on the Intel team.
Dropping into the thorn-enclosed clearing, Sakura took in the sight of the ninja who'd been sent out on this mission. There were five ninja excluding Sakura, Shino and Ino on the mission. They had been dispatched that morning by Naruto for the sixtieth time since the village was stolen from their control.
"Find anything?" A female voice asked Sakura. The Haruno turned to face Ino.
Ino stood proudly in front of her friend. She had grown out her platinum blonde hair since the war. The female had been nominated as the head of the Intel division four days after the remaining people of the Leaf had gone into hiding. Sakura had severely doubted Naruto's decision to place Ino in a position with that much responsibility but Ino had proved her wrong by setting up missions that went out to try discover more information about their current enemy.
Sakura shook her head, "The security rounds have changed again. They took the main road through the village then circled the hospital before heading east."
The Yamanake clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"If the guards keep changing it will be nearly impossible to break in no matter what the goal of the plan is." She muttered touching her chin while glaring at the ground.
Shino walked up to the two conversing females and stood awaiting orders from Ino. Sakura grimaced when she saw a bug disappear under the male's pale skin. No matter how many times she worked with Shino she could not get over the fact he had live insects crawling around her skin. She wondered vaguely, while Ino was lost in thought about the next step in the mission, if her dislike of insects stemmed from the amount of times she had amputated limbs only to find pale maggots eating the rotting flesh of a live human.
Ino brushed her platinum blonde hair out her face and spoke loudly, catching the attention of the other five ninja wondering around the clearing, "Let's head back. We'll head back to Base and report to Uzamaki all the information gathered. Scatter!" She commanded causing each ninja to explode upward into the trees.
They bounded in the direction of Base. The artificially created labyrinth of tunnels the remaining inhabitants of Konoha had constructed shortly after the Avalons, a large group of people who had arrived by boat from across the sea and stolen the village. Base had become a place of safety and was lead by Uzamaki Naruto
The blonde had assumed leadership of Base after Tsunade was killed by the Prowler's and Kakashi was taken hostage along with a large number of other ninja. Naruto had stepped out of the grieving and frightened crowd of people and organised to create Base as means of protection until a fail-safe plan had been created. Although people urged him, Naruto had refused to take the title of Hokage because he said this is not the way his dream had panned out in his childhood.
Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru had created team to help the village get back on its feet. Each team was assigned a leader which reported directly to Naruto as often as needed. The program worked but the ninja were short on man-power. A large portion of ninja had been captured or killed and outside help could not get into the fire-country because of the prowler's barrier of chakra and keepers, massive winged-snake creatures that guarded the border of the country and killed anyone who ventured to close to them. The Prowler's had taken the method divide and conquer to a whole new level and Konoha was suffering because of it.
Uzamaki Naruto sat, head cradled in his right hand, staring at the large map of konoha that smothered the large stone table in the centre of the cave room. The walls that supported the low rock ceiling had shelves cut into their faces. Books, maps and scrolls lined to otherwise bland room. The area was large enough to easily fit in a hundred adults. There were three bare doorways that created intervals the rough granite.
Uchiha Sasuke leaned against the table next to the blonde. He methodically cleaned his sword's blade. The metal glinted occasionally as the light from the lamps jumped off the smooth surface.
"Until Yamanaka's team arrives, staring at that map will accomplish nothing." Sasuke drawled not faltering in his work.
Naruto lifted his pounding head and frowned at his best friend, "I know that, bastard, but it is a thousand times better than doing nothing when I know I should be doing something." Naruto dropped his head on the table, the impact resonated dully in the room, "Damn it! I hate sitting here and not knowing what's going on out there. Sakura could be in danger."
Sasuke held his sword up at eye level. After scrutinizing the object carefully he closed his miss-match eyes and re-sheathed his sword. He crossed his arms over his broad chest before speaking again, "Stop complaining, the team is due to arrive soon and aren't you the one always telling me to put more faith in Sakura?"
The blue-eyed man grumbled loudly and massaged his temples all the while keeping his head firmly attached to the table.
"Uchiha Sasuke," A tall woman strode into the room and stood in front of Sasuke. Her red hair fell over her thin shoulders as she bowed deeply before the last Uchiha, the head guard on Base, "The Intel team has arrived and is waiting for inspection outside." She informed the apathetic male.
"Sakura's back?" Naruto asked lifting his head quickly and suppressing a groan as his headache protested at the fast movement. He couldn't wait until he could flop down into his cot and hopefully sleep off this headache.
Sasuke remained silent as he pushed himself away from the table and walked with quick, measured steps out of the room. He turned down multiple hallways heading to the entrance of Base. As the head of security and the only person with the sharingan he was required to make sure it was really their ninja entering the Base and not one of the intruders who had taken over the village.
Naruto rolled his eyes at his anti-social friend and followed him, eager to get some news about what was happening outside of Base.
Squinting as they stepped into the mottled sunlight, Sasuke and Naruto, lead by the red-haired female, ambled towards the waiting ninjas. Sakura smiled gently at Naruto when she saw him coming towards her. Naruto returned the smile with his signature grin.
Sasuke mentally took count of the team. Every member who had been sent out that morning had returned sweaty and tired but alive and unharmed. Activating his sharingan, he looked at each member individually watching for any anomalies in their chakra before moving onto the next awaiting ninja.
"Clear."
Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as the small group of ninja past the inspection. Ino dismissed her team telling them to get some rest and they had done well today. With tired smiles and snorts of arrogance the jounin ranked ninja fed into a small tunnel that led to the living areas of Base.
The four ninja made their way back to the meeting room. The map of Konoha still remained open on the table. Taking a seat on one of the hard wooden chairs that surrounded the table, Ino slowly began to give her report on their mission outside of Base. She told Team 7 about the mass grave situated just outside of the prison grounds had been discovered by her and Shino. She spoke evenly as she recited the number of malnourished bodies in the pit and how many were Shinobi, civilians and unidentifiable.
Ino mentioned none of the bodies were that of Hatake Kakashi, much to the relief of her friends. Kakashi along with Ibiki and Gai were among the other hundred people being held and most likely tortured for information in their village's own prison. Each time a new mass grave was discovered the trio feared the name of their teacher would be on the list
After an hour of the Yamanaka giving a detailed description, with Sakura making notes in her book for future reference and records, she left the room to go wash the stale sweat that was clinging to her well-toned body.
The room fell into tense silence with the absence of the blonde female. Sakura fiddled with the edge of her glove while she waited for someone to speak. Naruto broke the pregnant pause with a loud groan and a thump as he dropped his head to the table again.
Sasuke and Sakura watched the blonde with varying outward signs of concern. "Naruto," Sakura whispered, her jade eyes shimmering with concern for her friend.
While Naruto was the light of the village and naturally flamboyant; this fight was taking a heavy toll on him. He blamed himself for the capture of the villagers. He also hated having to remain cooped up inside the labyrinth of tunnels instead of fighting outside.
The blonde let out another groan, "We have been fighting for six months. That's half a year and yet we are absolutely no closer to taking back our home."
Sakura sighed, "We just need to find something that is stronger than them then we can beat the Avalons. The Intel team is working very hard to-"
Naruto cut Sakura off ,"Something stronger than them?" He raised his tired eyes to stare at her face with intense blue eyes, "That 'something' is Kurama. That is our village's biggest asset and it hasn't helped us."
"Naruto." Sasuke warned but Naruto continued speaking.
Naruto snorted, "The leader will take Kurama from me with the stone-thing. I don't mind dying for the village but I can't do it if I know it's in vain, ya' know?" Naruto's voice had softened considerably by the end of his sentence.
"Naruto we know we can't use a tailed-beasts against these people. I'm sure there is another way. Besides, you can't die that's just not who you are." Sakura tried to console with the male.
Naruto offered a smile and lowered his head onto the table, "When he used that stone, Kurama was nearly taken from me again. I...I was back facing Madara, watching a part of me getting ripped away."
"That's why you will not use the kyuubi's power against Masaru." Sasuke spoke. His monotone voice vibrating in his chest, "We can't risk losing you. We don't have enough information on the stone at the moment. We will stay hidden until we have a fail-safe plan then we will attack even if we can't have Kyuubi for back-up."
Naruto raised his head again, "Got it all figured out, hey bastard?" He offered his friend a watery smile.
Sakura watched her teammates in silence. She knew that Naruto would hide his pain from his friends until it became too much and killed him inside. That's just who Naruto was. He didn't want to burden his friends with problems he expected himself to be able to handle.
But with some of the villages best ninja being held hostage, the Avalons' leader in possession of a stone which could harvest and contain the power of a tailed-beast, the lack of outside support from other villages and the waning supplies and sanitation for the remaining people at Base, Sakura was starting to doubt their ability to win this battle.