Hollow Men

The earth trembled as the creature's bulk struck the ground, its pocked, bulging, putrid flesh slapping wetly with the fall. It shuddered once, its final haggard breath escaping as tortured snorts and gurgles through a bleeding snout. A hand twitched several meters away, severed from its body and attached now only with ripped ligaments and bits of mangled muscle. And then all was still.

"Gods," Sasuke breathed, slumping to one knee. His face glistened with sweat. "Have we ever taken out an Ogrim that big?"

"Not even close," Naruto groaned, already on his back and taking in great gulps of air. He let the battered half-moon axe slip from his cramped fingers, its haft snapped cleanly in two, its head coated in thick black blood. It was useless now. "I need a new weapon, and I doubt this job will cover the cost." He grimaced.

"We'll figure it out. We always do." Sasuke was quiet for a moment then, but he stood not long after. "Think we can salvage anything?"

"Its bones were pretty dense, and I'm willing to bet its saliva would make a decent poison." He waved an arm, feeling the sting from a gash where the monster had nearly gotten a mouthful. The shallow trough was healing slowly, but nowhere near how it might have years ago.

"I'll do it. You used more chakra, so just relax for a while."

"'More chakra,'" Naruto laughed, the sound bitter to his own ears. "Three years ago that one jutsu would have been nothing. Hell, a genin could have done it with plenty to spare."

"This isn't three years ago," Sasuke said at length, and Naruto lapsed into silence, allowing his friend to work. The sounds of sloshing fluids draining and bones snapping did little to distract him.

Three years. Three years since the war to end all wars, since Madara's cursed plan had backfired, poisoning the planet and scouring nearly every soul clean of chakra. The lucky had died within days. The rest suffered still.

"Maybe we can find some flowers on the way back," he said, trying to pull his mind free from its perpetual weight. "A few are starting to bloom again. I think Sakura would like to have one." The noises nearby halted briefly, then began again a bit slower than before.

"We shouldn't waste ingredients. Without chakra, we need all the medicines we can make." He paused for a moment, a particularly sickening snap and squelch filling the temporary quiet. "Will you visit Hinata this time? Shizune says she seems better for a few days after you come."

"Probably," was all Naruto said, the same lie as every time Sasuke asked. Sasuke grunted, the same understanding sound he made every time Naruto lied.

Sunset found them tramping back into a tiny village, some flyspeck remnant of what might have been a large town once upon a time. Frightened villagers hid behind thresholds as they walked by, the dirty faces still visible displaying only fear or open loathing. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke paid them any mind, doing their best to ignore the crying children unfortunate enough to have been born into the modern era.

"You're late." A gaunt man addressed them before they reached his door, a shack only just larger than those surrounding. "I said before sunset, not at." His small muddy eyes darted at every movement, anxious fingers twitching as they clutched a small leather pouch to his chest – a very small leather pouch.

"Hey we—" Naruto began, but Sasuke overrode him.

"We are sorry, but the Ogrim was much bigger than we had expected, and as such took longer to kill." He hefted a dripping sack from his shoulder, allowing it to flap open before it struck the ground. The creature's severed head barely rolled, its milky eyes staring at them, questioning them, the only hint that it used to be human. The village leader squirmed in his sandals and looked away, licking dry lips with a nervous tongue.

"I don't care for excuses, shinobi." He spat the word like a curse, and it was. "I will pay you half of the agreed amount."

"Now wait a fucking minute you—!" Again Sasuke cut Naruto off.

"You will pay us the full amount," Sasuke said calmly, and the man blinked, then shivered. Without further prompting he reached into a pocket of his tattered coat, proffering a second pouch with the first. "Thank you. May your yields be bountiful this year." They wouldn't be. Sasuke turned sharply on his heel, pocketing the coin pouches and leaving the oozing head at the very confused man's feet. Naruto sighed and followed, glad to be leaving the ungrateful place behind.

"Did you have to use your Sharingan? You know how badly it drains you," Naruto muttered, catching his friend's elbow once they were out of sight. Sasuke had nearly stumbled over.

"I'll be completely fine in a few days, plenty of time for the next job," he coughed. "It was only a few seconds."

"Yeah, and a few more seconds could kill you. No more of that, alright? We can just talk it out next time."

"You'd have us chased out of very village if I let you do any talking." Sasuke gave a sideways smirk despite the comment, and Naruto grinned only after scowling in his general direction. "I'm fine now, thanks. Let's hurry back; should only take two days if we set a good pace."

"Don't push yourself," Naruto cautioned, releasing Sasuke's arm. The other man nodded, wavering just once before gaining a steady gait. Naruto frowned but kept pace. A few years ago Sasuke could keep his Mangekyō active at all times, let alone the base Sharingan. Now . . .

Stop living in the past. There was nothing they or anyone else could do about it. The only reason they were alive now was due to their previously massive chakra pools. The fraction they now retained and their continued survival were testaments to their former strength. There were others – the vast, vast majority of shinobi – who had died from that lack, and the unfortunate few who had suffered fates far worse.

They walked, steady footsteps leading them past a barren landscape. Skeletal remains of expansive forests dominated the horizon, an empty husk of a country once famed for its flourishing woodlands and diverse fauna. No living thing stirred now. This was a dead land as surely as every other, victims of a once insatiable Divine Tree, wasting away with no end in sight.

~§~

"Naruto, Sasuke!" Karin's familiar face greeted them where it always did, in front of the massive corpse of a great oak that marked the entrance to one of Orochimaru's old lairs. It was their home now, for better or for worse, as it was for every other surviving shinobi they had found.

"Hey Karin," Naruto smiled, happy to see a friendly face after weeks away. "How are things here?"

"They never change; you know that. You let him use the Sharingan again, didn't you?" she asked accusingly.

"I'm not his keeper. I tried to tell him every time, but—"

"Every time?" She rounded on Sasuke. "How many?"

"Karin, it was necessary to—"

"How. Many."

Sasuke sighed. "Three."

"Gods, Sasuke . . ." She chewed her lower lip, then rushed to embrace him. "We can't lose you too, you idiot. I can't."

"I know . . . I know, and you won't. I promise."

She led the way down the narrow spiral staircase, into the depths of the depleted earth. Tunnels branched off here and there, most caved in or long since sealed, but they kept going down, down, down, until the chill outside air turned frigid, and down further still. At long last Karin broke off onto a landing lit only by low-burning lanterns, their ghostly flickering lights guiding them home.

What remained of shinobi civilization spread out before them, a tidy shantytown with only a few dozen families and a scattering of individuals all huddled together in the beginnings of an endless cave. It was just as depressing as always. It was tragic, it was hopeless, and it was all any of them had left.

"Here," Sasuke said quietly, pressing a half dozen purses into Karin's hands. "It isn't much, but it should be enough for a few months of supplies."

"Yeah, here." Naruto added four more to the stack, Karin's eyes widening with each. It was more than they had ever brought back, but still so little. "We don't need too much for ourselves, but got any spare weapons lying around? A big ass Ogrim wrecked my battle axe. Old thing lasted me nearly a year, too."

"You guys . . ." The woman sighed and shook her head, barely smiling through brimming tears. "What would we do without you?" Naruto grinned and ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry about it, lil' cousin." She swatted his hand away, still smiling.

"I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, but I'll let it slide this time." She considered something briefly, fingering the drawstrings on one of the purses before continuing. "I think B said he was crafting a decent mace last week, but I'm not certain; I don't know how he manages to forge anything with only one arm, and it's always so hard to tell what he's saying." She glanced from Naruto to Sasuke, and then back again. "By the way, Shizune wanted me to tell you to drop by when you got back. She says it's important. Do you—?"

"Maybe in the morning," Naruto yawned, stretching. "I'm beat, and I want to be gone by tomorrow afternoon. Got any leads for us?"

"There is a village a few days east that posted a request, but . . . already? You really can't stay even a fully day?" She looked to Sasuke, who glanced at Naruto before shrugging and offering a tired smile.

"You know how it goes. With only three of us fit to handle these monsters, this is necessary to keep us afloat until we find more strong shinobi. Has Kakashi been back since we were last here, speaking of?" Karin shook her head. Naruto frowned.

"No one has seen him in nearly four months now. I'm worried."

"I'm sure he's fine. He's the man who trained us after all, and he never did kick that habit of being late for everything." Sasuke chuckled and tentatively took her hand. "Let's get to bed. I'm tired." He turned to Naruto and held up a fist, which Naruto rapped with his own knuckles. "See you in the morning, punk."

"See you, jerk."

Sasuke slipped away with Karin, and Naruto wandered into the darkness.

Late morning found Naruto stepping into a vast cavern, one far too deep within the complex to wander into by accident. He held up a lantern, surveying the interminable expanse of mounds and stones. He sighed. This is where he would find Sasuke. It was the same every time.

Several minutes of walking led him to a mound like any other, the stone accompanying it slashed with a bright pink swath of paint, a leaf headband tied around its narrow peak. A little diamond had been carved into the rock, and beneath it a name etched by a careful hand.

HARUNO SAKURA

"I thought you said that was a waste," he said softly, kindly. Sasuke said nothing, remaining seated on his knees, fiddling with the limp petals of a single wan cherry blossom. It held none of the warmth, none of the color that their lost friend had. Still, it was something.

Eventually Sasuke stood, having said not a word regarding the little flower, nor of the one buried beneath it. Instead he asked, "Did you visit Hinata?" Naruto looked away.

"I can't, Sasuke. I can't . . . Not yet." Sasuke said nothing, only placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. It was trembling – or was it Naruto who trembled? He didn't know. "I can't, not when she can't recognize me, Sasuke. She can . . . She can hardly feed herself, gets so angry – Hinata was never angry. Never . . ." He paused, floundering for the right words and finding none. He settled for the wrong ones. "I just can't stand to see her that way, even if it's selfish."

"It is," Sasuke said simply, without heat. "And it's okay."

They stood there for a time, trembling in that cold, shaking in that sorrow.

"Let's get going," Naruto said at last, dashing the tears from his cheeks. "We can probably make it there by tomorrow night, and I want to test out this mace." He tapped the massive weapon on the shoulder it rested against. "From there, maybe head north? It's been a while since we hit the villages over that way."

"Let's hope they need a few shinobi."

"They always do, even if they blame us for everything. They always do."

They departed the way they had come, shadows of the men they once were, leaving the ghosts for darkness to keep.

Author's Note

A warm thanks to fellow authors TrollerBear, Energeia, Rinzukodas, and Infamous Storm for their invaluable feedback on this piece.

This was inspired in part by The Witcher stories; those who have read the novels or played the games will hopefully pick out the related elements. At the moment this is intended only as a one-shot, but it's something I may expand on in the future. I'm in love with tragedies lately.

See you next time~

~ Wes