Dog tags.
They had been scattered across the mission desk, at least two hundred of them. Iruka stared at them in horror, not knowing if they were only the Hidden Leaf's, then brought his gaze back up to the white and red mask of the ANBU captain. After a long moment he found his voice,
"All of these for certain?" His voice wavered dangerously. The captain shook his head sharply and Iruka glanced down at the table again, when he looked up again the Captain was gone. Iruka let out a shuddering breath and reached for a small pile of tags. His fingers had just brushed against the cold metal when the door flew open making Iruka flinch and jerk his hand back.
"Son of a bitch." Tsunade snarled marching towards the desk. Her eyes flicked to Iruka's for a moment before she dropped her gaze to the identification tags. Her hands moved quickly, flipping over a tag here, shifting a tag off of another one there, silently reading the names. Iruka sat staring at her until she glanced up at him and frowned. "Umino, if you're going to just sit there, leave, otherwise make yourself useful."
Iruka nodded and reached for a pile of tags, he knew what she was looking for, he just didn't know…he glanced up at her
"Who?"
Tsunade looked up and met his gaze and his stomach clenched at the pined kindness that was evident in her eyes.
"Shiranui"
Iruka's fingers loosened unconsciously around the chains that held the dog tags he had grabbed. The sharp sound of them hitting the floor made him flinch. Leaning over he picked up the tags and set them in front of him. Flipping them over he began reading of the names.
They worked diligently for several minutes, the pile of tags already looked over growing steadily higher. Iruka looked up as the door slammed open to see white masked ANBU fall through the doorway. Tsunade was by the ninjas side, one hand sliding under the mask the other resting on the black clad chest. Iruka stared in horror as Tsunade leaned closer to the ANBU whispering urgently. The ANBU tilted his head slightly and Iruka caught the words.
"Following…twenty miles back…" then the ninja went limp his head fell back against Tsunades arm. Iruka's fist clenched unconsciously around a dog tag he still held in his hand, making it dig sharply into his palm. Turning his fist he spread his fingers staring at the blood splattered dog tag in his hand. His eyes widened as he saw what was on the tag.
"Tsunade" his voice cracked as he looked up at the Hokage. Her fingers grasped the chain, pulling the tag from his grasp and Iruka watched her face pale instantly as she read what Iruka had just read, the words:
Genma Shiranui
"God damnit"
Iruka flinched as Tsunade brought her hand down onto the table. He noticed several scrolls fall off of the table and onto the floor but ignored them as he watched Tsunade turn and make her way towards the door.
"Umino!" Sharp honey-colored eyes caught and held his gaze. "I want you to find Raidou, Naruto, and Shikamaru and report back to me with them." Iruka nodded and sprinted out of the room.