Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Smoke flashed through his mind as the sound of gunfire ran rampant across the plains. Sharp screams and rabid howls greeted him with an unearthly, hellish chorus, deafening and disorienting.

A mortar blast sent up plumes of soil and blood, and after something hard and sharp hit his head, he knew no more, rolling on the ground until the rocks tore into his skin and ripped his helmet from his head.

A faded yet bright light shone beyond the barrier of his closed eyelids, coaxing him back to consciousness.

Naruto woke up not to the bitter cacophony of screaming bullets and dying men, but to silence, peaceful and welcome. Groggily (he must have been injected with something while he was out), he opened his heavy eyes, and tried to get a good look at his surroundings.

Inwardly, Naruto cursed the circumstances that made all hospital tents look alike. A dull, light-colored tarp fluttered in a breeze outside, carrying the hot air inside and putting dust in his mouth to make him cough. The place had a sharp, sterile smell; everything, from the cots to the equipment to the refrigerated cabinets to the cheap desk had been washed down with antiseptics.

Have I been captured? Naruto wondered grimly, reaching for his trench knife (he kept it in a holster on his thigh) and finding it gone. He had been stripped down to his underclothes. Everything was gone, his heavy turtleneck shirt and trousers, his rifle and handgun and trench knife, camouflage and armor (that and the clothes were absolutely unbearable in the heat), his helmet and the green Kevlar vest the Konohagakure forces issued to everyone above the rank of genin. Even his leather boots and cotton socks were gone. Naruto reached his hand to his neck and found that his dog tags and the necklace Tsunade had given him when he was a kid were missing. He didn't see any of it anywhere.

He wasn't strapped to the bed, nor were there any guards at the tent flap, but all that meant was that maybe the enemy didn't think he was much of a threat. Naruto fell back on the cot, mind whirling. He knew he had a tendency to overreact, but with the situation he was in, he had to assume the worst.

The tent flap was pushed aside by a small latex gloved hand, and automatically, his military training kicking in, Naruto stiffened, preparing himself for interrogation.

A young woman, maybe his own age, stepped inside. She wore a long white lab coat, buttoned down to the waist and dark pants and shoes. She had bright red hair pulled back in a long ponytail, pale skin unusual to such a hot, dry post, thick glasses and curiously crimson-tinted eyes. Naruto thought she looked like his mom.

Most interrogators Naruto knew of weren't attractive young women, but he didn't see how that would stop the enemy from employing them anyway.

Naruto sighed. "Name: Uzumaki Naruto. Rank: Jonin in the Konohagakure High Army. Registration Number: 0-1-…"

"Quit being melodramatic," the young woman, plainly a medic, snapped, though a grim humor played around her eyes. "You're not a P.O.W. What, do you want to be one? You're in your own military camp, safe and sound."

Naruto smiled. At least he didn't have to worry about that. "Did we win?"

The medic smiled back, face relaxing, and sat down on the cot next to his, folding one leg over the other. "Yeah, we did. Sent those Suna soldiers running for cover. We didn't even have any fatalities this time."

The skirmish had reminded Naruto a lot of a demonstration he had participated in when he was seventeen. If he remembered, it had been because of the tax rises due to increased military expenditures (The irony of it never failed to strike him now, and he knew he could credit further demonstrations to the fact that the flow of equipment and supplies from Konoha had started to trickle in the past few months).

Probably the only reason it had reminded him at all of that day's battle had been because when the crowd started to get rowdy, the nervous troops called in to survey the demonstration and make sure it didn't get out of control fired into the crowd. Four had been killed, more than a dozen more wounded by gunfire. Naruto had been sent to the hospital with a concussion; he had been knocked to the ground by the stampeding crowd fleeing gunfire and the blasts of water cannons. It had only been Sasuke and Neji noticing that he was unconscious and carrying him to safety that had kept him from being wholesale trampled by the crowd.

Well at least nobody got killed this time.

"Was I the only casualty?" It was strange, referring to himself as a casualty, and Naruto was amazed at how dry his voice was; he hadn't been out in the arid plains that long, had he?

The pink lips moved from a satisfied smile to a somewhat relieved one, though she would probably never let on to it. "You're the only one I couldn't send away with bandages." The redhead stood up and moved towards the cabinet with quick, fluid steps, taking out a small bottle and scrutinizing it intently, adjusting her glasses absorbedly. "Don't you even want to know what your injuries are?"

He grinned and shook his head, setting off a slight pain wave as he did so which he ignored. "Not really. Anything short of mortally wounded and dying doesn't really register on my radar."

The medic's red eyes settled on him incredulously. "I can see why you're in Special Op.s. You're crazy." She palmed the bottle onto her gloved hand, and came to stand by Naruto's cot; he propped himself up on his shoulders. "You have lacerations on the back of your head from shrapnel; we're not sure how it got past your helmet. The force of the blow was what made you pass out, and you know how much scalp wounds bleed.

"The bleeding's stopped, and you don't seem to have a concussion or any broken bones, so I'm discharging you. You'll be lightheaded for the next few days; the higher-ups probably won't want you running assignments. Take two of these pills twice a day—" she shoved the bottle into Naruto's hand "—with water; they're antibiotics, about the only thing in medicine we still get in decent supply." She rolled her eyes and Naruto grimaced. The Special Op.s unit weren't getting replacements for their weapons if they were damaged during battle anymore; he felt her pain. The medic smiled slightly. "You're free to go."

Blond eyebrows rose far into his hairline. "Uh, my clothes?" Naruto asked slightly indignantly, gesturing to his bare chest and boxers.

She smirked. "Look under your cot."

Sure enough, Naruto's shirt, pants, socks and boots were there, folded neatly one on top of the other, the boots to the side. The dog tags and Tsunade's necklace were lying on top of his shirt.

While his back was turned, Naruto heard the thick, heavy swish like rough sandpaper of the tarp, and whipped around. She was leaving, her red ponytail swinging wildly.

"Hey, wait a second!" Naruto called. She turned around, eyes searching. "What's your name?"

She smiled slightly. "Karin."

Later that night, Naruto was back in the men's tent, sitting on his bunk and composing a letter by flashlight.

August 11

Dear Sakura-chan,

It's 2234 where I am and the guys are starting to get resentful of my flashlight, so I'm going to have to make this one short.

It's been two years, five months, and seventeen days since I've seen you and everybody else. I miss you guys a lot; all the pictures and the stuff you send has been really great; it's probably the only thing keeping me sane at this point. Tell Sai thanks for that little painting he sent me; it looks like it could be real.

Again, I'm sorry I missed yours and Sasuke's wedding this spring; I don't think I've thanked you for the pictures you sent. You looked great in that dress.

Tell Kankuro that yes, I will tell Sasori hello if I see him.

—Naruto rolled his eyes as he wrote. Sasori was the second general in Suna's army, and had known Kankuro, Temari and Gaara as children from when they had still lived in Suna, having been a close friend of their mother's. Given Sasori's reputation, Naruto was sincerely hoping he wouldn't see him.—

I'll be sending home some pictures of the landscape; I took them with a cheap little disposable camera another soldier got from home recently and didn't want.

I have learned something new, Sakura-chan. I now know how to develop film in a dark room. The photographers were really using it to develop photos the pilots at the base twenty miles west of here took of what they think are weapons caches, but they let me develop my pictures there too. How good the pictures are is a matter of debate. I hope you guys all like them, and I think Sai will probably get some use out of them.

One last thing. I met this girl today, a medic named Karin. She sorta looks like that old picture I have of my mom from when she was still alive; they have the same hair. She seems nice, and I think you'd like her; she's crazy like us.

Tell Sasuke-teme, Lee, Kiba, Sai, Ino, Shino, Choji, Tenten, Hinata-chan, Shikamaru, Temari-anesan, Neji, Kankuro, Gaara, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Iruka-sensei, Tsunade-baachan and Shizune-neechan I'm alright.

Your friend,

Naruto

This isn't entirely based on the real world. The five nations are sort of divided into city-states, that alternate between periods of war and peace. There is modern technology and weaponry here, and no one uses ninjutsu or genjutsu in battle, but it does still slightly resemble the canon universe. This is going to be a threeshot.

The Special Op.s are pretty much the ANBU in this world.