I do not own Naruto, blah blah, blah blah. If I did, the series would be over.
Typos and fail to indent are all mine. Being stupid enough to check over these things are my fault.
Naruto is Kishimoto Masashi's and let it stay that way.
Not all of the warriors had fought as well as their fellow shinobi. No, some were actually safe and did not have to stare right into the eyes of battle. They lingered on the side lines, not even bothering to offer decent assistance. Instead, they watched as mighty warriors fell to the destroyed soil-- never to stand back up. That was not exactly true for some of the shinobi, some fought brilliantly as others watched with disturbed expressions. Some fought to protect everything they loved, others fighting because they were merely told to. The one that was branded with the name of 'Sai' had been caught in the mixture of the two. He was a stranger to the emotion of 'love', yet, Konoha was some sort of high light in his life. On the other, side, he was ordered to, being torn away from a group in which he had made friends in. A mask of mainly white was thrust into the thin fingers, truly having to act upon the orders of ANBU.
The one who plenty was seen at fault was the one where the pale shinobi had hung by, having to provide some sort of protection outside the building in which Tsunade was sitting in, surely trying to resolve the conflict of the cold battle. Through the eyes of the mask, he had witnessed a clad of red and a shrilly voice near his area, only to be brought away by the pink haired comrade. The one in the mask was to get involved, yet, Sakura insisted to get it done by herself-- 'Sai' had other things to take care of. His own battles to surely take charge of. It was almost a depressing end, if Sai could have felt such a thing and clearly witnessed it. The Konoha-nin had dragged the battle little ways from the building and there was a result of an explosion. It seemed as though she had some thought put into the situation. If the fight did not move, it would have brought down more than Sakura and the female member of Taka. There was a friend-- gone. It was nearly Sai's fault that he did not do anything, however, that was not seen through his eyes. Not that his thoughts and perspective of the whole war mattered. He was just an empty warrior.
The onyx eyes did not gaze upon other close deaths, having kept to his own nonexistent problems. No one came close enough to try to rid of the Fifth Hokage, more fighters being sent out to die. Even those who did not understand the concept of battled perished on their home soil. Sai did not meet death, he was not blessed with it like many others were. Nor did it seem to be of any bother. He was only living to carry out orders. Yet, something did bother him; the orange and black clad body was somewhere it more than likely wasn't. Uzumaki Naruto. It had hit plenty of people who survived the unfair attack, even those who did not personally know the boy. It struck Sai in an odd style, something similar to his brother's death. Uzumaki Naruto was a source of inspiration that had helped many of those who lived in Konoha-- even outside of the village. He had even helped Sai remember an important detail in a book and gave him a reason to truly smile for that one moment. Now, that shinobi-- he was gone. He did not manage to reach his goal like he promised. Everything was soon to be gone...Or maybe it was already gone.
It had been two days after the said war, black sandals slowly walking through ruins. Supposedly, all the corpses had been carried away from their dying place. A ceremony was to be eventually held for all those who had fallen during the war, when things were patched up and if everything was to ever be set back to their proper place. However, that did not seem like it was to happen any time soon. The Akatsuki had finally gotten hands on their beloved prize and it was all going to be over for all the shinobi lands. All that could be done before the time was to come was to honour the fallen in one's own way. Unfortunately, Naruto had failed his village, himself, and he had failed Uchiha Sasuke.
The dark eyes looked over the torn earth, being able to see the signs of the battle that had recently occurred. His fair face was merely slightly scratched, clothes somewhat thinner than they were when the male had first wore them. His own 'home' was only lucky to be standing, Sai having very few physical articles that belonged to him. Anything outside of it was gone. Sakura...Naruto...Now it seemed as though Sai was almost alone.
There just had to be some sort of sense to this situation. Surely the shinobi of Suna could easily come to Konoha's aid without one of their own shinobi having to be sent out to get it. And of all the people who just had to be sent out, it just had to be Sai. The word of Uzumaki Naruto having been picked up by what was left of the Akatsuki seemed a bit more of a frightening thing. This mission would just be pointless and all would have fallen under the ruling of psychos. The Akatsuki would be all powerful, with nothing being able to stop them. Being sent out like this by oneself was basically suicide, but, there was a doubt that any of them would be hanging around at this point of time.
A few shinobi were sent after to try to search for the Akatsuki, that being another clear label of suicide. There was just no point in trying to search, not trying to lead on that everyone would just have to give up on themselves. Sometimes luck was a key element to trying to restore things back to the way they once were. Hopefully there was some way that the Kazekage already had gotten the hint and that he was already trying to think of some ways to provide the allied land some assistance. Well, that could not be the case if someone had to be sent out and tell of what happened. Why was this continuing to fail to make any sense? Did Tsunade know what she was doing? Or the better question-- did the other nations act as though they were truly blind to this event?
The biggest 'concern' of Sai's was Uzumaki Naruto and the boy's safety. The rosette had fallen during her battle, but Naruto was not the sort of person who would be knocked off and defeated so easily. There was also a wonder of what happened to Naruto's main opponent during the battle. Uchiha Sasuke easily vanished along with the Akatsuki, there being no trace. It was a shame that a 'friend' went this far. Actually, it was more along the lines of crazy. The world was losing the sanity that he managed to keep.
The raven slowly began to walk into the forest that was at the border of his village, guard being kept up and even finding it somewhat difficult to blink. It was a bit unusual for Sai to be acting in this sort of manner, not the one to feel a horrible twisted feeling during a mission. This was just not part of who he was, but who said there could be anything matched up to a nonexistent identity? The thoughts of his mind were disturbed by a soft rustle of some sort of leaves. Sai stopped in his tracks, body already tensed and ready to go. However, a few moments passed where there was not any sort of action taken by an outside force, noises continuing with a soft moan going along with the sound of the leaves brushing against each other.
Sai turned slightly, straining his ears in order to try to find where the noises were coming from. He took a few slow steps forward of where he was, noting that the noises were somewhat increasing in volume. Whatever he came across, it was something that was not able to attack or choosing not to do so. It sounded rather feeble and it seemed as though a bush was making its own groaning noises. When Sai carefully pushed his way through, he was treated to a bigger surprise than he could have imagined.
"Naruto...!"
All sprawled out on the ground was a soiled body. Usual bright blond hair had dirt in it and a bit of blood, clothes having large rips in them. On one side of the ruined jacket, a deep red spot was visible which spoke for itself. Uzumaki Naruto was still alive. He was horribly wounded, but being with the Akatsuki was much worse than managing to staying alive outside alone. Blue eyes were cracked open, more than likely in response to someone saying his name, lips parting.
"S-Sai..."
The said raven went down to his knees, not sure of what to do. The first thing that flashed across his mind would be bringing Naruto back to Konoha without any question. He would be turning away from the mission, but Naruto was more than likely in danger. Sai would just sacrifice his good 'name' and do his best to help the blond.
"It is best if you don't talk."
Why did Sai not have the common sense to actually bring bandages. It was not that he was truly elite himself. Maybe he was just in a bit of a rush while trying to head out. It deemed useless for Uzumaki and it almost had Sai wanting to redo that short moment over. So due to the lack of any sort of first aid, Sai pulled his shirt up over his head and set it to the side, looking down at the blond. He was not exactly sure if it would be any good to lift Naruto up, but the gloved fingers went forward and unzipped the boy's jacket.
"It was all...a bluff," Naruto breathed, not questioning Sai's actions.
Sai blinked in slightly confusion. There was some sort of 'bluff' that he managed to miss? He did not want to press Naruto for any details, but he did wish to hear more what the blond had just mentioned. Sai did his best to gently sit Naruto up slightly which caused the said blond to wince horribly. Swiftly, Naruto's own black shirt was stripped off, revealing the wound that was in his left side. It did not seem too bad compared to what Sai had seen before, but it was not pleasant in the slightest. It must have been worse earlier if Naruto had stayed out for longer than he needed to.
"My death was all false...Just so the Akatsuki would not come for me. S-Sasuke staged it all..."
Wait-- Sasuke was truly a hero? It was something that Sai was not expecting, resting Naruto back down on the ground as his picked up his own shirt. The bottom half of the small shirt was ripped off to make a long line of cloth that was somewhat even. The long sleeve was going to provide more coverage than the torso and the short sleeve. Sai sat the blond up once more, propping up one of his thin legs to support Naruto as he firmly wrapped the shirt around the boy's torso. It was only able to go around the tanned torso once, the end of the short sleeve being tucked into the cloth that was wrapped around Naruto.
Slowly, Sai pulled Naruto into his arms as he stood up. It was time to go home, even if it was going to be frowned upon. This just felt like the better thing to do; he was not going to leave Naruto unattended. Never.