Blood was furiously pumping all over her body, two ribs were broken, her hamstring ripped and an internal bleeding makes running fast a burden. This was supposed to be a B class mission, but the client did not know that the target was not a group of simple forest bandits but renowned ninjas of the hidden stone. Her other two companions were most probably dead by now, she had no time to check though, seeing that she is chased by four of the bandits herself. She has to relay this information to the hokage, the "bandits" are official of the hidden stone planning an attack against Konoha and it's allies, they do the tactical operations way from the village so that if they fail, they could just declare the ninjas as rogue and claim was long before that the Hidden Stone started to fear Konoha's growing power ever since Naruto became the need to get to Konoha's boundary at least, where an Anbu might find her.
She had to endure an hour more before she can reach the boundary, it was the last thought she remembered until her leg and consciousness gave in.
"Sakura-chan? Hey Sakura-chan, can you hear me?" A loud familiar voice bombarded her senses as she was gaining consciousness.
"Naruto,you may be the hokage but shut-up this is a hospital, you'll irritate the hell out of forehead if you don't calm down." The other blond said.
"Hey..guys? What happened? Who found found me? Where was I found? Sakura asked.
"Shikamaru found you. You were on the border of the Nara forest while he was making regular inspections to check for intruders. It's a good thing he did, other than chakra exhaustion, you've manage to honor yourself with 4 broken ribs a punctured lung, ripped hamstring and an internal bleeding. Good job forehead on planning yourself killed on a B-class, imagine Tsunade's proud face when she sees you." Ino said.
"Shut up Pig, and go out, I need to talk to Naruto alone."Ino can be really annoying at times, although she's a friend one loves to hate, she's also a hell of a medic so she's the one assigned to heal her injuries.
"Fine, I'll check on you tonight and remove that chest tube, you won't need it." Ino said as she close the door leaving a worried Naruto on her wake.
"Sakura-chan, what did happen? I thought you were dead when they found you, it was suppose to be a b-class mission to take you away from moping your life away on teme's marriage.."
"First, I'm not moping, I was just busy with the hospital since Tsunade retired that I didn't find time to accept missions. But anyway, the mission was not what it was; Stone is planning an attack next week. They are wary of Konoha and Suna's power and they plan to stop it. They were in the hidden key village posing as bandits so the civilians can stay out of the place. It was a group of 10 anbus and 20 rogue nins, all in Bingo books. If the attack fails, the hidden stone village will declare the 10 anbus as rogue and claim innocence on the attack. We need to be prepared Naruto. It has been too peaceful for a long while that I'm afraid some of us have let our guards down."
"Thanks Sakura, although it seems you need a week's worth of rest, I can't afford to lose good men on the field right now. I expect to see you in the hokage tower after 2 days. Shikamaru will brief you on the plan, whatever the plan will be.. For now, just rest and take your mind of things, we'll take care of it."
Naruto said as he stands up from his chair and carefully closing the door.
Naruto was not the kind of Ninja who craves for war and destruction in order to gain power and prove his strength. He's content with peace and provides all that he can for his beloved village. The peace he arduously worked hard for 10 years is now threatened to be shattered. Hinata is pregnant with their second child and he's worried of what might happen if he can't do anything to prevent this war. He was titled as the hokage since 5 years ago, when Tsunade deem it fine to entrust the village to Naruto after 5 years of bullying him into working as his diplomat to other village. Diplomat his ass, he makes him do all the paperwork and send him to far villages even if he was newly married to Hinata back then. Although 28, is not that old, he feel tired. He called a meeting to all his Anbu, most are his old trusted friends. His advisor, Kakashi-sensei, who remained a bachelor to this day, Shikamaru a brilliant war strategist married to Ino since 3 years ago were the first in the room waiting for the others to arrive.
One-by-one, the others started arriving, some are fresh from missions.
"Shikamaru, probably briefed you on what's about to happen. There will be an attack next week. Capture the criminals alive if you can, we need to have them interrogated and demand the other kages to punish Hidden Stone. They need a lesson on what happens to people who instigate war." Naruto announced going to his solemn hokage mode.
"Shino, is already sent to Suna hokage-sama, we will await the kazekage's response on the matter, mission starting today are cancelled. Iruka-san is briefing the genins on helping the civilians evacuate in case the need arise." Shikamaru said.
"Stone already know that we are aware of their plan since Sakura was able to escape, they might delay their attack or make it earlier. We need to be on our guard at all times, and-
"Hokage-sama! It has started, we are being attacked. They are at the village gates right now. Izumo, the long time village gate guard suddenly announced,
"Mendokusei, these guys are itching to fight, we haven't even finished our briefing yet." Shikamaru said.
"Kotetsu was killed and I've barely managed to escape to inform you hokage-sama"
"Good job, Izumo, everyone, protect my people. " Naruto announced
A/N: First fic, huhu please be nice and review. There are grammatical errors but I will work hard on improving them. I will update as soon as I can.