Pale, gentle eyes took in the scene of utter destruction and devastation that surrounded her as she wondered what the hell had
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
This is my first Naruto story so please bear with me. I'm still not sure where to go with this story so I welcome all suggestions.
Enemy At The Gates
By: SailorFrance
Chapter 1: Konoha 12
Pale, gentle eyes took in the scene of the utter destruction and devastation that surrounded her as she wondered what the hell had transpired here and more importantly who could have possible caused all this damage.
Each step her and her comrades took brought them deeper into the small, devastated town situated on the edge of Fire Country.
One after another they passed an endless array of crumbling buildings and burnt down homes.
She brought a hand up to her mouth as her eyes took in more of the scene around her.
Bodies lay strewn all over the place. Broken and bleeding corpses lay on the ground, impaled on wooden posts or buried beneath the rubble.
Her vision blurred as she passed by the body of a young mother who had thrown herself over her young son in a futile attempt to protect him.
She moved to get closer to the unfortunate mother and child when her foot got caught on something, causing her to stumble and fall.
Her eyes widened in fear and disbelief at the horrifying sight before her.
She sat there, frozen in shock.
That is, until the sound of distant screaming began to slowly draw her out of her trance like state.
The screaming grew louder.
'Move!'
'Someone's in trouble!'
"Hinata-sama!" Neji called out her name and was swiftly by her side.
Hinata let out a gasp as she felt a hand fall on her shoulder. She turned around and recognized the face of her cousin Neji.
The screaming stopped.
'Had she been screaming?'
Realization dawned on her, causing Hinata to blush. She clung on to one of Neji's arms as the other wrapped around her in a comforting embrace, causing her blush to deepen.
"Nii-san . . .nii-san . . ." she cried over and over again, her body trembling when her attention shifted elsewhere.
Neji followed her eyes to see that they were trained on the mutilated body of a young woman, or more accurately the top half of her body. Her arms and legs had been severed and her clothes torn off. The implication was obvious.
Hearing Hinata's screams the rest of their team soon arrived.
They were met with a rare display from the usually cold and stoic Hyuuga whose arms were wrapped protectively around his younger cousin. Hinata was clinging tightly on to him, her midnight blue hair swaying with the breeze and her pale eyes shining with unshed tears.
The kind and gentle Hyuuga looked so out of place especially when surrounded by such massive death and destruction, but her friends knew better than to underestimate her.
Hinata was a rare breed of Shinobi. She was all heart and warmth in a line of work that often required them to carry out missions with a cold heart and a calculating gaze yet despite this, there were few people they would trust with their lives and Hinata was one of them. She held steadfast to her values and humanity where many other shinobi had lost theirs long ago. She was both deadly and merciful choosing to incapacitate her enemies rather then kill them as much as possible, though she was quite capable of killing with one gentle touch.
As her teammates, her friends, approached, Hinata felt her heart twinge with guilt that she caused her friends to worry about her, disappointed in herself for reacting the way she did.
'She was a shinobi! Damn it! She should be used to these things, death and mayhem were things of the norm in her line of work.'
"Ano. . .go-gomen. . ." she started to say but was interrupted by Shikamaru who took it upon himself to be the first to speak among the friends.
He noticed the change in her features from that of shock and terror to one she wore often right before she offered an apology. The tell tale signs were there; eyebrows furrowed and eyes were downcast as she bowed her head slightly.
So, as troublesome as it was, he decided to cut her off.
"Whatever happened here, I think we need to send a report back to Konoha as soon as possible. The Hokage needs to hear of this so we can make a proper investigation and get some answers." Shikamaru was speaking to everyone but had turned his gaze to Hinata as he continued; "Whoever they are we will get them for this."
"Hinata-chan, we'll make those bastards pay! Dattebayo!" exclaimed Naruto with clenched fists and eyes shining with unshed tears, just as bright if not brighter than Hinata's.
Sakura nodded in agreement and gave Hinata a comforting smile while Tenten and Ino did the same.
Choji who was as kind-hearted as Hinata could do no more than offer a nod, letting everyone know how much this was also affecting him.
Her genin teammates Kiba and Shino stood comfortingly by her side, silently offering her their strength as Akamaru nuzzled her leg.
The usually exuberant Lee was unusually quiet, choosing to say nothing at all.
But then, he smiled that blindingly, unnatural smile that only two people in the whole wide world were capable of, and with his right arm outstretched, he gave her a thumbs-up.
It was a small, silent gesture that carried the weight of an unspoken promise immediately understood by the twelve friends as they all committed themselves to work hard to keep it.
Sasuke who was the last to approach the friends offered only his trademark response, "Hn."
However, no one failed to notice that he had purposely placed himself in front of Hinata, which effectively cut off her view of the unfortunate young woman.
"There seems to be nothing else we can do here. We should move out soon."
His words sounding cold and unaffected, but they knew him better.
Sasuke had changed a lot since he came back to Konoha after serving three long years under the tutelage of the traitor Sanin, Orochimaru.
He had come limping through the gates of Konoha bruised and battered beside a similarly afflicted Naruto and a worn looking Sakura. In spite of how they looked, it was hard to miss the large smiles that were prominently displayed on Naruto and Sakura's faces as well as the slight smirk that graced the usually stoic visage of the last Uchiha.
Nobody besides those three knew exactly what transpired between them, nor how Naruto and Sakura were able to finally convince Sasuke to return for they refused to speak about it. When prodded, Naruto would only say that none of it mattered and that he was happy because team seven was finally together again.
Sasuke was accepted back into Konoha and his punishment lessened in light of the fact that he was the one who killed Orochimaru hence, eliminating one of the biggest threats to the safety of the village. He was not allowed to be a practicing shinobi for his first year back after which he had been placed on probation for the following two years.
His first few years back in the village had been difficult as he was not welcomed back with open arms by a majority of the population. Civilians and fellow shinobi all looked at him with fear and distrust.
Few people would willingly speak with him and many refused to even look at him choosing to avert their eyes as he passed by. He was grateful to Naruto and Sakura, though he would never outright tell them this; who stuck by him through it all when he had done nothing to deserve such stalwart loyalty.
They pretended not to see the stares they received or hear the hateful whisperings about the traitorous Uchiha as they walked through the village. When she thought he wasn't looking, Sakura would send glares towards the gossipmongers daring them to speak another ill word about Sasuke in her presence.
Naruto was no stranger to such treatment by the village and carried on as he normally would, although Sasuke did not fail to notice that Naruto would subtly raise his already too loud voice in an effort to drown out the whisperings of the villagers they passed by.
Naruto and Sakura dragged Sasuke with them every time they met up with their group of friends to which Sasuke was not particularly comfortable nor welcomed, but rather tolerated especially because he was still looked at warily by Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Kiba and Lee who had not forgotten that ill-fated mission to retrieve the Uchiha when they were still genin.
It took some time but Sasuke was eventually able to gain their trust and even their friendship as he proved himself over and over again during the missions that they shared that he could be depended upon.
Upon agreeing that there was nothing else they could do here the group decided that the most important thing was to get to Konoha as fast as they could to inform the Hokage of a possible threat to their country.
They began to walk back the way they came, all of them anxious to quickly leave this place behind though none of them were more anxious then Kiba, whose heightened sense of smell did not help him at all in this situation. The town exuded the smell of death as the stench of rotting flesh and decaying bodies filled his nostrils. He was starting to feel nauseous and the sooner they left this place behind the better. He was disturbed from his thoughts when Akamaru began barking. Everyone stopped walking and turned their questioning eyes towards Kiba.
"What is it Akamaru?" Kiba asked his four-legged companion.
Akamaru's barking became more persistent conveying to the companions that whatever the dog had found it must be important. Kiba took in what information Akamaru gave him and stood still as he strained his ears.
It was then that he heared the faintest of sounds.
"Yeah, I hear it too! Lead the way Akamaru!"