I do not own the rights to "Naruto", nor any of the persons, places, or concepts within. This fan fiction is a non-profit tribute to the series, as well as a critique on it's existing plotline. Therefore, if requested by the owners and distributors of the "Naruto" anime or manga, I will discontinue and remove this story immediately.
Chapter IV:
The blonde Jinchuuriki awoke from his long nap. A quick glance over his body confirmed that the bleeding had stopped, but whether it was from the medicinal herbs he had collected, or the powers of the Kyuubi, he was uncertain. The idea had come to him from his foggy memory as he wandered from the remains of Neji, trying to focus on something more pleasant. "These are the most common plants in the Fire Country which are edible or treat wounds," Iruka lectured almost a year ago during Naruto's time at the Academy. "This one in particular helps clot an open wound-"
The Genin finally noticed the silence of the forest. Where were the sounds of birds, of cicadas, and the movement of various wildlife? At least an hour had passed in this dark, impenetrable terrain, giving the boy a chance for his eyes to adjust for maximum light sensitivity. But no matter how he could cope with shadow, the spongy feel of the ground, and rotting smell of the decaying foliage, he could not tolerate the silence.
Then the image of Neji Hyuuga, lying limp in the dirt with all that gore struck his conscience again. He knew he had caused it. Somehow he had done it, but he didn't remember. Almost instinctively, Uzumaki rubbed his abdomen, the skin feeling sore, almost sunburned. This pain had been cropping up from time to time over the last few days. He thought nothing of it, since he had been training exceedingly hard the last week. But now he was starting to wonder.
"I just wanted to stay," he whimpered. "Why couldn't I just stay?"
•••••••••••••
The human body is a magnificent collection of organs and tissues. However, that scientific view did not help ease the nausea growing in the pit of Sakura's gut. Neji was a mess, but she had seen far worse on corpses before. The problem was the fact Neji was alive. She tried to convince herself the boy was still in the pleasant comfort of shock, unable to feel his injuries. But the shrieking screams and moans as he lay there, his eyes glazed over, Shikamaru trying to keep the Hyuuga's dirt-coated intestines from spilling out all over the ground broke that fantasy immediately.
The two ANBU had quickly knelt beside the girl, one trying to calm Neji, and the other trying to calm Sakura. "S...top!" Neji half mumbled, half wailed. He tried to thrash his head in a feeble attempt to distract him from the missing parts, but someone was holding him still. "Stop-" he began, before Shikamaru's tugging at his stomach lining caused the Hyuuga to vomit.
In all aspects, Neji could never be a shinobi again. He was permanently blind now, thanks to the seal technique, and deaf thanks to the damage from battle. Even if his body were healed, he could not smell, feel, and taste his way through a battlefield. He would be lucky to sit in a rocking chair like a vegetable, hoping someone he couldn't sense was nearby to care for him. Death, he considered, was a far better fate. Pain could be temporary, but even an infinitesimally short time in hell was still undesirable.
Shikamaru was about to talk to him, trying to keep him calm, but between the bile and Sakura pointing at the traces of blood running from the Genin's ears, the Chuunin understood. All he could do was hold his comrade's lower intestines in place, while Sakura tried to seal the wounds.
•••••••••••••
The shouting and screaming could be heard as far away as fifty meters, the distance Iruka had escorted Hinata to keep her from seeing her cousin revived. "I told you to hold him, goddamnnit!" Sakura cried. "Hold his guts in!" The screams could not be blocked out, no matter how hard Hinata pressed her palms over her ears. "You! Cut those off! No, they can't be salvaged!" A few more seconds passed, and screaming intensified. "I don't care if they're useless! Pick up his ribs and fingers, and put them in a baggie! Don't just leave his parts all over the fucking ground!"
Iruka felt the girl shiver, causing him to hold her tighter against his chest. "Don't listen!" he kept repeating. "Just don't listen!" He knew it was very wrong thinking to wish for one's countrymen to die. However, given the situation, he couldn't help but wish someone would deliver a mercy killing. "Hinata, listen to me! Don't listen to them."
"Oh God!" Shikamaru shrieked. "Sakura, please! Just stop it!"
Hinata couldn't stop herself from crying. She knew she had chosen to be a shinobi, but she wanted the glamorized shinobi life of service to the village. Or did she really choose to become a shinobi? She did her best to focus on those thoughts and Iruka's warm arms caressing her shoulders, rather than the noise behind her. No, she had never really chosen to become a shinobi, she realized. The days before her enrollment in the academy came flooding back from her memory.
"It is your duty, as a descendant of a bloodline limit family," her father shouted, while she lie in the dirt, scarred from her first training session. "Do not cry!" Then came the quick slap across the face, and another, and another as the tears continued to flow. "Stop crying! Your only purpose, your only value is to serve Konoha!"
"I... " Hinata sobbed. "I don't want to be a shinobi!" She didn't know if Iruka had heard her, or if she had even spoken such a blasphemous thought.
But Iruka had heard her. Somehow, the Chuunin wasn't upset anymore.
•••••••••••••
Ten Ten stared at the group of outcasts, the group she herself was associated with. Academy students who had broken the recently installed curfew pointed and laughed as the former shinobi stood about, under heavy guard by the remaining Chuunin. She thought about Neji, and how Hinata had gone after her, while she followed the group of cowards.
Though she didn't particularly care about Neji as his cousin did. Sure, he was attractive, and considered a genius when it came to ninjutsu, but he was merely a convenient source of affection. Ten Ten thought that there were plenty of other men, but why should she take the direct effort to find one who suited her tastes? "It's not like he's worth dying for," she lamented.
She didn't know how long Kiba had been standing there, or that he, like Akamaru, had excellent hearing. However, when those words left her lips, the feral shinobi did not hesitate to deliver the first blow. Ten Ten reached for her kunai, but her basic armaments and scrolls had been taken nearly an hour ago, once they got back to the village. "How dare you!" Kiba growled. "You joined the shinobi of Konoha, and you aren't even willing to sacrifice yourself for them?"
The girl gave a cruel grin, tilting her head to the side. "Look at Kurenai, your precious leader!" She pointed at the recently reocvered limbs and shavings of human torso. Somewhere in the growing pile in the courtyard before the head office. These were victims, not honorable warriors of Konoha. As such, they would be buried in a mass grave under one of the least used side streets of the village. "Is that the kind of sacrifice you are talking about?"
Chouji was the next to take Kiba's side. "We chose this path for a reason," the boy explained. "We fight for each other, and for the prosperity of the village!"
"What prosperity is there when the whole population is going to die?" Ino piped up. As soon as the blonde entered the argument, the survivors all began to take sides. The Chuunin tried to silence them, but less than lethal means proved ineffective. The shouting and debating would have continued, had the horribly mutilated bodies of two Genin not been dragged behind the yolk of two borrowed oxen.
"Hokage!" a local farmer shouted up towards the head office. Two ANBU followed behind, watching over the tall, slender blonde, and the hooded, tattooed puppeteer. "We have caught saboteurs from the Hidden Sand Village!" On a second look at Temari and Kankuro, their bodies dragged behind the oxen by the thin gauge steel wires digging into their skin, they seemed less like saboteurs and more like scared little kids.
Tsunade bolted from her office, and was studying the two Genin with great interest. She wrapped her right hand tightly against Temari's muzzle, and jerked her head up. "Why did you release Gaara?" the Hokage hissed.
However, both Genin were silent, except for Temari's hard breathing. She flinched, her eyes rolling over. Kankuro was long since dead, small flies crawling into his nose and mouth. Tsunade shouted and slapped the girl a few times, but no response came. The additional pain was marginal at best, and therefore did not result in a response. Temari was lucky. She was in shock.
"They are clearly guilty!" the farmer continued. "We found them using an alternate trail, the quickest hidden route to reach the village." The ANBU nodded hesitantly. They knew something was wrong about this, but their duty was to the civilians. If it was for the best interest of the people, the ANBU would gladly kill without mercy to ease the nerves of the Hokage and the majority.
Ten Ten grinned, and looked back at Kiba. "This is why I became a shinobi!" she smiled. "We cannot allow enemies to get this close to the village." The Chuunin tried to keep the girl within their defensive perimeter, but it was no use. Ten Ten was immediately at Temari's side. "You should have learned," the brunette chimed in a teasing note, before driving her right foot into blonde's gut. "You just had to threaten us again, didn't you?"
Shizune stared from behind the safety of the Hokage's office, her face quivering. Perhaps it was Ten Ten's ruthless attacks, Temari's limp body swaying from the embedded steel wire, or Tsunade calmly letting the atrocity take place. Either way, she knew something was wrong with the village. Twenty minutes later, when the Academy students began spitting on the bodies of the fallen shinobi as they were heaved into the mass grave prepared just south of the mountain, Tsunade's long time companion made her choice.
'I'm sorry,' the note she left behind stated, as the woman ran for both her life and her conscience.
•••••••••••••
Neji's right thumb, the only digit he had left of his two hands, squeezed Hinata's palm tightly. The bandages hid most of the gore, but Hinata could not look at her cousin. Neither could Iruka, or Shikamaru. Sakura long since gave up on feeling anything, and just tried to keep the eldest Hyuuga alive. The ANBU carried what was left of him on the improvised stretcher, while everyone else in the group ran alongside.
"Please, Neji," Hinata began, "just hold on!"
"He can't hear you," Sakura muttered. "He's deaf and blind. There is no way you can communicate to him." Sakura did not even bother to look back at Neji, nor Hinata. She did, however, take another quick glance at Shikamaru. She didn't understand why, but even though he was of little use in this recovery mission, just his support during her choices gave her enough to keep going. It was, therefore, very difficult when the recently promoted Chuunin contradicted her orders.
"He can still feel, though," the genius strategist countered. Hinata was taken by surprise when Shikamaru took hers and Neji's hands, placing them on her throat. "Now, try speaking to him."
"I... I don't understand!" Hinata answered, blushing. Neji, however, immediately responded, pressing his hand firmly against the girl's jugular. Again, his cousin blushed, but the idea was beginning to sink in. "Ne-ji", she said slowly, poking him in the shoulder. Then, she recited her own name syllable by syllable, and gripping his mutilated palm, placed it on her forehead.
"Hi...nata," Neji gasped. His cousin smiled brightly, as did he. He could not live like a shinobi anymore, but he was not alone. It was just a matter of mastering a new method to interface with his surroundings. It would take training, but it was a new goal, something that would keep him occupied in the days to come.
•••••••••••••
Gaara was unaware of his surroundings. The dark, damp forest he entered was not on any map. Although he knew he was traveling in a straight line from the Hidden Sand Village directly to Konoha, once he entered this forest, the sun was gone. The thick brush and trees were so uniform, he could not distinguish one direction from the other. Even with moss growing on the trees, which naturally point west, the moss which grew here enveloped all of the trunk of the trees.
The Jinchuuriki thought for a moment. He was tempted to scale a tree, and continue his journey at canopy level. However, dark figures and strange, unknown animal cries echoed from above. They followed him, trying to come closer, but refused to even come close to ground level, always preferring to hide behind the safety of the branches. Gaara knew they were hostile, and while he was strong, he knew there was the possibility they could not be easily defeated. But more importantly, he realized something far more disturbing.
Something here, on the ground, frightened them.
Gaara could not stand just waiting for a solution to his problem to come to him. Willing the sand into the form of a human eye, he propelled the creation skyward. It was struck down the instant it passed two meters above his head. The animal cries were coming closer, and almost a meter above him, he felt the pungent breaths of the creatures sink into his scalp.
The three-tailed creature within him could easily save him, if save was the appropriate verb. He could not take the chance of losing complete control. Naruto had taught him that, and even suggested in his letter a method to more effectively control his possessor. "A seal technique," he breathed in recollection. The animals echoed his words in their distorted, ghastly tones, corrupting both the meaning and pleasant sound of human speech.
Gaara chose that very moment to walk backwards as calmly as possible, trying to retrace his footsteps back to the main trail.
•••••••••••••
Temari glanced over at her brother's remains. He did not even have time to switch places with his puppet. This was the real thing, a mission with unknown adversaries who had taken them by surprise. Now Kankuro was dead, and she was fairly certain her turn would be next tomorrow morning. The trial would be held in full view of the public, more like a town meeting than she felt comfortable with. Something was wrong with this village, and it started when that Fifth Hokage had taken power.
The Third, she had learned from her visit during the Chuunin exams, had tried to abolish the old ways, making peace with the other shinobi villages. There were plenty of clients, after all, enough in each territory to supply the respective villages with a means to trade goods for services. Other villages were built with a well-rounded government and economy in mind. Shinobi villages, on the other hand, were built solely for the purpose of outsourcing the arts of counterinsurgency and clandestine warfare.
She didn't know when or where, but the blonde Genin had heard the quote from someone long ago. "Specialize and you breed in weakness," she choked out in a sad laughter. She realized it was not necessarily true. Her team had visited plenty of villages during their initial missions, all of which specialized in some good or service. But none of them were wholly dependent on just one source of income. There were always secondary industries that produced real goods.
But not shinobi villages, she thought. They were always focused on one thing. Even the farmlands and small businesses within the borders could not counter a lack of well-paying missions. Not for the first time, Temari wondered if Konoha or other shinobi villages could even be considered their own independent city-states. They were more a collection of soldiers of fortune, all of whom tried their best to work together, supporting each other. But that cooperation only went so far.
That was how the wars had started, small clans of shinobi and their allies joining together at first, working under the model of the Original Hidden Village. As time went by, the village succeeded, holding a monopoly over the countryside. That changed, of course, when matters of national security came into play. Other villages were no longer willing to pay for services rendered by someone whose previous clients were their enemies. Villages could not keep the shinobi constantly employed, and there was no such concept as loyalty when dinner had to be put on the table.
Of all the clans, a large majority stayed behind to form Konoha, while the remainder splintered off, seeking refuge in the other villages. It took time for the other clans to find apprentices, but in the end, new villages were formed, but not without the consent of Konoha. Temari remembered the final spark that had ignited the war: the creation of the first Jinchuuriki.
It was a small clan, not even formed into a shinobi village yet, but they had somehow mastered a crude technique. The beast was chosen to remain in the weakest of the clan's members, giving the majority a means of control over it though harming the host. While they tried their best to maintain secrecy, spies had been dispatched to the harbor town who had the resources to purchase the advertised "ultimate weapon."
Konoha did not have a Jinchuuriki program, nor the resources to fund one as their clients slowly dried up. Constant employment was now promised to the Hidden Villages capable of supplying the greatest deterrent, the cash paid out monthly to ensure the creatures were always under control. Finally, someone in Konoha's parliament had helped locate a client: a village without a Jinchuuriki looming over it for protection.
It was a fairly successful kidnapping, or should it be called theft? The victims had two Jinchuuriki, after all, and this was the third in development, using a newly researched sealing technique. The method, however, was not complete when Konoha's Jounin arrived, killing all of the research team, and taking the subject.
It amazed Temari how much restraint the other shinobi villages had, not releasing their own Jinchuuriki on Konoha for what could only be termed an act of war. They did not release their ultimate weapons, but continued a surgical, and ultimately costly ground war, which died from a roaring fire to smoldering embers as all but Konoha went bankrupt. Konoha had the manpower to continue the war, but the other clans did not. They had focused entirely on training fewer, better, than training en masse.
The treaty had been signed, and a rocky coexistence just born when the prisoner held deep below the mountain monument in Konoha truly awoke some twelve years ago. If it were not for the Fourth, a lucky student who somehow stumbled across a stable, but entirely useless Jinchuuriki technique, the Hidden Villages could have recovered the stray Kyuubi. While not entirely desirable, the end result at least stabilized the region.
Temari began to weep. In other villages, less volatile villages, she might have had a chance. Konoha, under it's new dictator, however, would not honor the treaties now. While preaching the desire for peace, the Fifth backed up her power through a clear abuse of human rights amongst her own population. She had also begun to expand Konoha's area of operations, actively participating in predatory pricing techniques. Once the other Hidden Villages were bankrupt, of course, Konoha would hike up their rates, and recover their losses from the wars.
The blonde Genin thought about Ten Ten again, and wondered just what the villagers here were taught about modern history.
End of Chapter IV
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