Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, if I did I wouldn't be writing this.
Unknown Shinobi #4
The leaf village is best know for the large amount of geniuses and prodigies it churns out every year, however despite the large number of prodigies there are still far more unremarkable ninja that will never be known to any but a few. Their time slowly ticks away and they continue on helplessly for they know that they will most likely not live to retirement. They know it is only a matter of time until their name too is added to the stone, but with the will of fire they continue doing their job believing they just might make a difference. It is thanks to martyrs like these that the Village has been able to survive.
When the villages of Sand and Sound invaded it was these Shinobi, who slowed down the attackers so the civilians could escape and to give their allies time to regroup. Chunin squad 4 was stationed on the eastern wall when the attack began.
The clock was ticking for Chunin squad 4 and they knew it. The attack had come out of nowhere and they hadn't been taking their duty to seriously. After all, who would be stupid enough to attack during the Chunin Exams? It would start a war for sure, due if nothing else then to the large number of lords in attendance. This was also not counting the purpose of the Chunin Exams to begin with.
So Shinobi #1 and #2 had been messing around, playing I-spy. Shinobi #3 who was also in charge had told them to stop awhile ago, but they had all wanted to see the tournament, and this kept them awake and alert.
"I spy with my little eye something brown" Shinobi #2 looked at #1 and prayed it wasn't a tree again. The squad had been together for 3 years and even though Shinobi #2 had developed some feelings towards Shinobi #1 he swore he would kill her if she chose a tree for the 5th time in a row.
Replying with a grimace "Is it a tree?" Shinobi #1 looked at her teammate's face and replied simply.
"Nope, I can come up with different ideas sometimes. It was a mini-bear" she stuck out her tongue in her childish attempt to antagonize her teammate, he always looked so cute when he was mad.
"Fine, I spy with my little eye something grey" Shinobi #2 said after looking around for a bit. He was unbelievably bored and was hoping for something to shake things up. He didn't realize that the ancient clock of life was ticking towards just that.
Shinobi #2 should have realized something was wrong when his usually paranoid teammate was calm. Shinobi #4 had actually been resting and seemed more at peace with his surroundings then usual. When he started to speak Shinobi #2 had thought he had finally become normal.
"Is it a Sound Shinobi?" Shinobi #4 spoke with such calmness that Shinobi #2 looked at him as if he had grown another head.
"No, why would you say that?" The rest of the squad had already started sounding the alarm. Shinobi #2 just looked at the 20 or so Shinobi head to their section alone, completely unable to move. His teammates had started throwing shuriken at the attackers and he was half surprised to see he had joined in as well. He looked to his right excepting the squad leader to give them some orders, but instead he got his face covered in blood as Shinobi #3 had his juggler cut by an enemy shuriken that managed to find it's mark.
"We have to retreat back into the village, the wall isn't very defendable and the civilians need to be evacuated." Shinobi #4 said this with such conviction that his two teammates decided he had the right idea. But Shinobi #2 saw something in his friends eyes in that instant. It was a calm that he had never seen before, his friend had always been paranoid, and he had expected their leaders death to effect him more, he had expected him to freeze up as he almost had. As soon as they reached a family in the path of the invaders he realized why he was so calm. His friend did not expect to live through this, he had always been paranoid because he had a strong will to live. As they looked at the family's pitiful attempts to outrun the invaders they knew what had to be done.
It was an unspoken choice to save the family, and one that they felt they needed to make. The Sound Shinobi had not expected their prey to turn and face them as they had yet to see the family. That surprise is what the leaf nin needed as it bought them a few precious seconds to level the playing field and buy the family sometime. It was not enough as only three Sound Shinobi were stupid enough to fall for the ploy. The invaders responded with shuriken of their own.
"Look out –!" Shinobi #2 was cut off, unable to finish his warning for Shinobi #1 as a kunai with an exploding tag removed his head and the majority of his torso.
Shinobi #1 was unable to avoid the shuriken that hit her in the arm. Tears were flowing freely as the person she had begun love died in the explosion. Removing a kunai from he pouch she gripped it like a knife and charged the ones who had killed her teammate. She shouted his name, which was lost in the din of battle. She fought like a demon as she tried to kill any ninja that she could get close to. She single handedly stopped their advance for 5 seconds as they moved out of the way and cut he down under a hail of shuriken.
Shinobi #4 was unremarkable in every aspect, this he had known sense he graduated, the only thing he had going for him was hi strong will to live, but he had realized that something like this was coming. A choice between his life and another's, he had stayed up late last night and had decided what he would do. He had reported to duty this day with more explosive tags then most people would use in a week. He knew what his duty was, his friends had died for this village, and now it was his turn. He could almost here the clock of fate start to chime, marking the end of his life.
The Sound nin charged toward the lone Shinobi, irritated that 5 of their comrades had been killed and that they were severely behind schedule. They planned to overwhelm him I a hail of shuriken as they rushed forward. He appeared to be trying to respond in kind as they made a pincushion out of him. By the time they heard the tell tale hiss of a lit explosive note it was already to late.
Jiraiya heard the explosion he passed it off as nothing more than an incentive to enter the battle with more haste, "I am the legendary Toad Sanin Jiraiya!" he shouted with his usual enthusiasm.
It was heard by Kakashi and Gai, who were fighting back to back, "I'm at 12 already what about you rival Kakashi?"
It was heard Orochimaru who was determined to break his sensei's spirits "hear that, this pitiful village will fall."
It was heard by the family that never looked back to see their saviors, they kept running believing that if they looked back they would surly be killed.
The village mourned the death of their precious Hokage and those who had given their lives. But few would mourn specifically for others Yugao Uzaki mourned for Hayate and others mourned for their loved ones. However, there were those that were unidentified and went unmourned and unnamed. Few were able to tell that they had actually been saved, and so they were unable to thank their rescuers, sense they didn't know they had been rescued. And so all the civilians cried for the Hokage and their neighbors, for civilians rarely knew any ninja aside from frequent customers of their stores.
An explosion had taken out part of the registration building and a number of the files concerning Shinobi of the village had been lost. And so because few Shinobi have living relatives, it was hard to identify the bodies, if not impossible. The two unidentified bodies were found near the explosion, one was so bloody and filled with kunai not even there mother could recognize her, the other was missing the majority of his upper body. The next unidentified man was found near the eastern wall was recognized by a few of the Hokage's aides as a squad leader by his build and jacket, but they were unable to identify him. They did not find a fourth unidentifiable body; rather upon further inspection of the blast site they found the shredded remains of a headband.
The funeral went on and when the names of the unknown Shinobi were required it was decided to use the age old tradition of putting them down as unknown in the order they were found, so after the Hokage's own name had been added they chiseled in the ones next in line.
Unknown Shinobi #1
Unknown Shinobi #2
Unknown Shinobi #3
The man in charge of chiseling in the names stopped. He had heard about the mysterious way Shinobi #4 had been identified, and he recognized the method he had met his end and said a few word s out of respect.
One dies for the sake of another
Not much but it will have to do
Unknown Shinobi #4
Dedicated to all the characters of the show who go on unnoticed and with out a real story.