Hey, so I haven't written in forever. Sorry the prologue was so short, it was more of a promise really. Honestly I just wanted to post it before I lost the fire to keep going. So I wrote this as a follow up, more of a post one and two put together making a whole. I'm not sure if I'll be pairing everyone with someone, but if I do then I already know who they'll be with. Romance will not be the focus of this story, yes it will occur at one point or another, but it is not the main conflict here. Thanks for checking out my story!
Obviously R&R is appreciated, but scarce, I know. Enjoy! Also, FF keeps messing up my structure, so sorry about that.
LOL STARTING RIGHT HERE. SORRY ABOUT THE AWKWARD SPACING AND FORMAT.
She knew it was too late as soon as the kunoichi was brought to the table. The ninja's right leg was gone, most of her was unrecognizable, and she had already bled out. There was nothing to be done.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. Covering the bloody mass with a sheet, Sakura turned away from the disbelieving shinobi crowded around her.
"You're not even trying? You've got to be kidding me!" The chunin's hand went for her shoulder to pull her back. Within seconds he found himself on the floor crying in pain. "You bitch!" He screamed at her back. "She was more than you'll ever be. You turn your back on those in need!" He threw senbon at her head and words at her heart.
She turned, taking in the looks around her and the senbon she'd knocked to the floor. She knew they agreed with him. They weren't medics. They just saw their friend, not the cadaver she saw with practiced eyes. Leaning down, she pulled the shinobi up by his vest, leaning him against the wall before she moved away. She walked deliberately to the dead woman's side, hooked up all the equipment and waited. No beep, no nothing. The machinery knew that there was nothing to monitor, nothing to respond to. She ignored the looks boring into her from sunken eyes. She removed the technology and wiped it all clean before walking away a second time.
"I'm sorry," Sakura said again as she left. Her heels clicked against the sterile floor as she walked to the desk to report the death of one Izumi Tanaka. Brought into their care for a whole of zero minutes and zero seconds, Izumi Tanaka would be left in their system until the hospital was demolished. Quickly moving to her next assignment, Sakura plastered on a smile for the child whose chakra had become clotted in his arm.
"Hey there, sweetie. What's your name?" Her expression did not betray the nothing that was left of Izumi Tanaka.
THIS IS A SCENE BREAK. WHY FF? WHY?
"I don't know anything, I swear!" The man shrieked, blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth.
"Hit him again," Ibiki ordered. Ino quickly complied, she dove into his mind, clawing at the bars around the memory he was trying so hard to conceal. From somewhere in the back of her consciousness she heard him screaming. She wasn't being delicate and careful with his thoughts and memories, the pain was excruciating. Or so she'd heard. Finally wrenching the last of the barriers from the memory, she reached into the warmth of his mind.
"He loaded the boy into a cart and received money from a shinobi in Sound garb," she said, shaking her head as if ridding herself of water and criminality. "It was in the forest far from the village. He lied to the boy, said he was going to take him on a hunting trip. The shinobi collected the boy under the pretense that they were being attacked. The Sound is getting sloppy. You'd think they'd kill him just to keep his mouth shut." Ino spat.
"I didn't know the boy was anything special! I needed the money!" the prisoner screamed excuses and tales of heartache as he tried to justify his actions. "My children were starving! My wife was threatening to leave me if I did not bring in money!"
"Don't lie to us," Ibiki roared. "You experienced only a fraction of what a Yamanaka can do, much less what I can do. Yamanaka's good but I've been here longer. Just imagine. You knew the boy had a gift, a propensity for fire. He was your nephew, you piece of trash!" Drawing his hand back, Ibiki slammed it across the man's face.
"When did the Sound make contact with you?" Ino asked.
"A few weeks back, please just let me go! I don't know anything else," The man begged, eyes hopeful as he stared into her youthful face.
"Hit him again."
She dove.
THIS IS ANOTHER SCENE BREAK. OH HEY, WHERE IS MY ORGANIZATION LOL OKAY.
"One more time, Hanabi," Hiashi ordered. Hinata bent over and retched, Hanabi's hand pressing against her stomach. "Again." Hanabi's hand was on her shoulder. "Again." Her calf went numb. "Again." Finally, Hinata collapsed onto the grass of the courtyard. "That's enough." Hiashi said. Standing, he brushed off his clothes and walked back into the house. "Hinata, pick yourself up, and spar with Neji again. Whoever loses must take a full rotation of the gentle fist before the next round. Hanabi, come with me, you must meet with your jounin sensei in half an hour."
"Yes, father," she whispered. She knew better than to stutter now. To stutter in front of her father was worse than the fear that caused the stutter in the first place.
"I'm sorry, Hinata," Neji said, lowering himself into the gentle fist. "People are watching."
Hinata didn't need to activate her byakugan to see the eyes scrutinizing them from behind paper walls.
"It's okay, Neji. It's okay, I know." Hinata picked herself up and unlocked her tenketsu points before steadying herself. She smiled at him, her eyes watering with pain. "I'm ready now."
The fight was over quickly, he bested her in endurance, speed, skill, strength, and she had fought Hanabi already. She had no chance of winning. She took the rotation with grace, only hitting the ground when the barrage was over. She lay in the grass, eyes closed as she breathed through the pain. Neji quickly leaned over her, hefting her into his arms as he walked inside. Making his way through the labyrinth of wood and contracts, he settled her into her bed, wiping her face and neck clean of sweat before leaving.
"Neji, a word," Hiashi appeared in front of his nephew, coming from one of the many doors in the hallway.
"Of course," Neji replied. "What do you need?"
"Hinata is weak, we all know this. Train her. Beat her every day, a full rotation between each spar. Teach her what pain really is so that she will know the consequence of her actions. She must learn this or she will never be a proper heiress."
One of the Hyuuga's greatest and most beautiful lies: if you suffer through the pain and grow, you will eventually be worthy of the family.
ANOTHER SCENE BREAK? YOU'D BE RIGHT.
"Good morning, most youthful Tenten!" The smiles were blinding to look at, but heart-warming.
"Good morning," she giggled in response, taking in the sight of not only her personal batteries, but her more ornery than usual teammate.
"Let us take to the walls of the city! One hundred laps!" Gai-sensei yelled, firing himself up.
"Yes, a warm up! Most excellent, Gai-sensei!" Lee met his enthusiasm and pumped his fist before taking off. Tenten smiled awkwardly at her less zealous teammate, his reply a non-committal shrug as they both chased after their mentor and his clone.
While most thought them crazy, Tenten knew the results of the hard work. No one knew who she was, she was known only as the one who lost during her second chunin exams while her teammates fought and survived battles with two different jinchuriki. She was the girl; the kunoichi in the male dominated shinobi occupation. She knew she was more, her teammates often sparred each other and she was left to practice her weaponry, but she knew.
As she ran alongside her cell, she listened to the wind whistling in her ears as they carried the stories of the people opening the market. Her muscles corded and released with each step as she propelled herself forward. Tenth lap. She wasn't tired yet, that was around the thirty eight lap. Her lungs weren't burning yet, that was the seventy second lap. She wasn't a genius of hard work yet. That was when she'd finished the hundredth lap and went on to spar with her teammates.
"Most excellent, we are halfway there my friends!" Lee chattered excitedly, forty laps into Tenten's thoughts, his words carried by the strength of his spirit and the thrum of his heart beating.
"Tch, Lee, just run," Neji replied, sighing as they rounded a quiet part of the village.
"Yeah! We're halfway there, Lee! Stop being a stick in the mud, Neji!" She smiled, yawning to hide the deep breath she desperately needed.
When she excused herself from the practice after they finished their laps she knew. She wasn't a genius of hardwork like Lee and Gai-sensei, she wasn't a born genius like Neji, she was Tenten.
But she was more.
~***~ -OH LOOK AN ACTUAL SCENE BREAK THINGY HOW NICE.
"The war is beginning, Tsunade-sama. We need to bring our strongest warriors to the forefront." The council was solemn, the top shinobi sitting alongside civilians. "The demon is controlled am I correct?" The civilian councilman sat in his ignorance.
"Yes, councilman, Naruto is not a danger to us, nor will he ever be," Tsunade spat, her teeth grinding.
"Good, we need him at a time like this," said a kunoichi. "He is strong in both body and spirit, the others as well."
"Yes, the boys are more than ready to help lead the march," intoned Shikaku. "Shikamaru has been training even more with me, he is an able strategist. Chouji too has been steadily improving."
"What of Yamanaka?" Tsunade ventured.
"She is working for Ibiki, but she relies on the Yamanaka clan abilities, she is not…fit for this type of work," Shikaku replied, steadily eyeing his blonde friend as he trailed off.
"She's my baby girl, and Shikaku's right, she's not strong enough," Inoichi put in.
"Neither is Haruno for that matter. Both are shallow and weak," muttered a civilian.
"I will have the final say in regards to Sakura," Tsunade roared, her fist already through the table she sat at.
"You may have the final say in regards to her medical skills, but what of her combat skills?" The civilian replied, equally incensed. Tsunade did nothing but glare.
"You are disregarding some of the most promising shinobi," she said as calmly as she could muster.
"They are weak. As are the female Hyuuga and the brown haired weapons wielder, they do not hold the promise of their generation," a clansman said. His statement supported by the dull roar of the other councilmen. The shinobi, for the most part, kept quiet, knowing that the slander of her prized kunoichi was most ill-received.
"Fine, if that is how you feel, then we will not entrust any high level positions to them," Tsunade replied, surprising the shinobi around her.
"But Tsunade-sama," Shizune started, her face a picture of confusion. "You know as well as I that they are fully capable!" Tsunade turned to look at her advisor, her gaze silencing the argument Shizune knew she wanted to scream to the rooftops.
"They will be left here while the others of the Rookie Nine and Team Gai are sent to special forces in the militia. We are at war, and if they will drag down our army, then so be it."