Disposable
A Naruto Oneshot
By: GoldenDragonClouds

Even the bloody stories she had heard as a child from the old veteran caretaker at the orphanage hadn't prepared her for this onslaught they were facing right now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Written after Naruto chapter 526. Sort of a spin off with a bit of a spoiler.

War was hell.

Choza-san and Hiashi-sama and all the other veterans around her had known what they were talking about when they were warning her and the other newbies on the horrors of war, the atrocities they had been soon to face, and even the stories she had heard as a child in the orphanage from the old veteran caretaker hadn't prepared her for this onslaught they were facing right now.

Their General - what was his name again? - a well built shinobi from the Cloud with light hair and dark skin and tattoos on his shoulders and no not now don't space out - had opened the battle with a wide range black lightning attack and the enemies - weird white clone monsters meshed together - lunged at their ordered formation on the ocean cliffs and pushed forward purely through numbers and persistence.

A bloodbath had been predicted and a bloodbath it was. Already there were so many dead around her, either from blunt physical attacks from those innumerable white clone monsters they were up against or from long forgotten but still powerful techniques of the resurrected great shinobi of the past or just unlucky and caught in the exchange of artillery with no one to heal them…

The shinobi from the Sand - Kaeru? Whyishehere? - she had been talking to yesterday - was it yesterday or a million years ago? - screamed at her to Tenten watch out! and her head had snapped up and she had released a barrage of kunai and shuriken just in time to stop - andkill? - the white monster that had landed in front of her and she turned her head to shout back her thanks -

Only to be greeted by the sight of her comrade's - her comrade's! - heart being ripped out of his chest by another one of those white - horrible! detestable! monstrous! - monsters. His head had been turned towards her, mouth opened, arm outstretched - she had been the distraction that killed him.

His eyes were still open when the white thing - monster! - slipped its arm out of his chest and turned towards her.

Staring.

Staring.

She screamed.

Screamed and screamed and screamed and there were tears running down her face now and she didn't know why she cared for that boy she had met just yesterday but he had died - died! - because of her and maybe she wanted to talk with him more and maybe she had wanted to see him more but he had died because of her and she screamed and screamed and -

There were no more monsters around her. None - at least for a few moments. Her hands were shaking and her blades were on the ground and there was no time to register how much blood - Kaeru's blood! The monsters have no blood! - was flowing around her and she looked around frantically to try and prove to herself that nonono no one else could be dead couldn't she just die?

And there was Choza-san - whendidhegetthatbig - fighting that long haired - resurrected! - shinobi - that was Dan-sama! Dan-sama! Tsunade-samaspastlover Dan-sama! - and a bearded shinobi - was that was that wasthatAsuma-san? was she allowed to cry? - and Hiashi-sama fighting - himself?

No.

His twin.

Twin.

Neji's - Neji - father.

Hyuga Hizashi - Neji?

Tenten jolted out of her people watching to brutally behead another monster - noblood - and send another volley of kunai at another one, and another one, and another one - will this ever end couldn't she just die?

One of her scrolls fell and she scrambled to pick it back up and stopped, for a moment, flat on the ground, staring at her reflection on a fallen sword. Scared - haunted - eyes.

Hardened eyes.

Dead eyes.

Killers eyes.

This wasn't even her first kill - fourteen and scared and ohkamiwherewasGai-sensei - or her first comrade to die - Midori! No! Wakeuppleasewakeup Midori! - and oh kami why was she here?

What was she doing?

Why was she fighting?

Her friends were all elsewhere, in groups of twos, threes, fours, and she was here, alone, fighting - with the dead beside her - for her life.

Temari with Shikamaru and Chouji and Gaara. Lee with Sakura and Kakashi and Gai-sensei. Ino with Shino and Kiba and Hana… Hinata. With Neji.

Neji.

Once, before their first Chunin exam, he had told her that it was a shinobi's fate, to be forever fighting, to be tools at the use, disposal, of those above them.

She had told him to shut up and keep sparring, that he was crazy, and we aren't tools! We're shinobi! People!

She grasped the hilt of the sword she had been staring at, just in time - again, be quicker next time - to behead a monster - another one - before it killed her.

There were still hundreds - thousands - left.

And for the moment - just this moment, perhaps - she found it hard to believe in what she herself had said.

War was hell.

And she a just a tool.

I honestly couldn't help it. Eh heh. Posted late because my muse and editor was away on vacation and couldn't access internet.

Reviews are love!

Ja Ne,
~Golden