Chapter 26: On Our Own

(Author's Note)

Hey everyone! I am still alive and kicking! Sorry about the delay but hopefully this chapter makes you all forgive me. But be warned, it gets a little tear jerking towards the end. You've been warned.

Remaining story length:

As you could probably tell, this story is quickly wrapping up in a few chapters. I only have a few planned after this one, including a kind of epilogue one. I know that some of you wanted me to continue this story long after the mission but in order to get to my next story we have to wrap this story up. Such is life.

'My Hero':

If you haven't read my other Naruto story, 'My Hero' then go to my profile and give it a read. It's my next planned story. If you read it when it came out then give it another read, I have edited it a bit since then, mostly corrected the format that got ruined after I uploaded it. I still plan to edit it more before chapter 2 comes out.

Social Media:

I have a Twi tter now, I have no idea if FF will let me advertise them on here so I split it up. Hopefully it's fine. I'm brand new to Twi tter so I'm sorry that I don't really know how to use it but I plan to have it as a means of putting out announcements, questions, polls and other things in a much easier way. So if you'd all follow me on there then that'd be great.

One word: HephaestusBuil1

Remember to leave a Review, Follow and Favorite both me and this story.

I don't own Naruto, duh, if I did then the ending would've been completely different and aliens wouldn't be canon. Also Sakura would've been handled way differently. Anyway, I own nothing, nada, zilch, zero.

Chapter 26: On Our Own

Note:

"Normal conversation/Narration"

'Thoughts'

'Inner Sakura and thoughts'

"Mind Jutsus"

"Kurama text"

(With Shikamaru)

"We have a problem." When Naruto told Shikamaru those four words his good day hanging with his girlfriend went out the window. But that was the life of a ninja and the mission always came first. So after letting out a 'troublesome' and beckoning Temari over to him, Shikamaru responded to the telepathic conversation.

"What happened?" He asked, almost scared to ask. Naruto didn't sound like himself. Something really must have gone bad if his usually upbeat friend sounded this sullen.

After what Shikamaru guessed was a pause from Naruto to listen to Sakura, and after confirming that everyone was connected via Ino's jutsu, Naruto told them everything that happened with Morinosuke and Shou.

"How did Niwa take it?" Temari was the first to speak after Naruto finished his play by play. Shikamaru didn't find it surprising that she was the one to ask about the girl, given her caring, but usually well-hidden, nature.

"...She looked devastated." Naruto finally said after a few seconds of silence. "I know that we had our problems with her and Shou at the beginning, but this… neither of them deserved this."

"I agree." Sakura said. "Everything aside, she's still just a girl our age. She's probably never experienced anything like this before. This has to be unbearable for her."

A few more seconds passed before Sai spoke up. "So what is our plan, Shikamaru?" He asked, reminding them all about the current situation that none of them wanted to think of.

The ninja group could feel Shikamaru's genius mind thinking in their minds. It was a truly mind-boggling experience. Feeling his unique mind cover more ideas in a second than they could think of in an hour.

After half a minute Shikamaru stopped thinking and turned his attention back to his friends. "Well as I see it we have no other choice but to sit and wait and see what happens. And while I would rather do anything but that right now, we have no choice. We still don't have anything we can pin on Morinosuke that would warrant us arresting him and bringing him to the Feudal Lords and Kage." Shikamaru felt the others all nod in his head.

"I say right now we all go to bed and get some sleep, especially you, Naruto." He said as an afterthought. "We will try to gather more information tomorrow but if we can't we might just have to send word to Kakashi-sensei and ask if we can take down Morinosuke by force and seize control of the island ourselves without waiting for backup." He paused to rub his temple and give Temari a weary look.

"But as we all know that is supposed to be saved for a last case scenario, so we can't rely on them giving us the 'go ahead'." The Nara said before Ino spoke up.

"The problem also lies in being able to contact them from this distance, remember? Even with our fastest messenger summons it will take a few days at least to get word back." Ino reminded them.

"My telepathy jutsu can't reach that far even with an amplifier. So if something goes wrong then we're on our own." Ino said with a glum tone.

"...So what do we do if that happens?" Sakura asked hesitantly. "Normally according to regulations the commander of the mission gets to use their discretion… Do we do that now? We don't have the time to ask for orders, so do we just… do it our way?"

Sakura wasn't the type of person to go against orders, and Shikamaru knew that. So when Sakura of all people asked if they should disregard orders and act on their own he took a few seconds to think it over. She was right, even if they reported to Kakashi-sensei they wouldn't be able to get their orders fast enough to not be redundant. Shou, their only lead and informant was in critical condition and their target was already suspicious of them to begin with, now even more so. Morinosuke would no doubt try something within the next few days, Shikamaru was sure of that. The only thing he could do was wait for it and go from there. But then-

He was momentarily shaken from his thoughts when he felt Temari's hand on his own in his lap. He turned to see her looking at him with a calming expression.

"Don't stress over it, Shika." She said out loud so that the others couldn't hear her. "Even if we're on our own I'm not worrying. We have your brain to get us out of this situation, I don't doubt you for a second." She said sweetly, with a tone that Shikamaru knew was completely truthful.

He gave her a smile before giving her a chaste kiss on her head that was now leaning on his shoulder as they sat on their bed. "Thanks Tem."

"Shikamaru?" Sakura asked after not hearing from him for a little while.

"I'm here." He said, back in his authoritative voice. "Everyone go to bed. We'll talk more in the morning, it'll give me more time to come up with a plan and we'll go from there. As it stands we're still going by the original plan until Morinosuke makes his move. After that we send word to Kakashi-sensei and wait for more orders. But if what I'm assuming happens then we'll go with what Sakura said and take matters into our own hands. Any questions?"

Not hearing any he called the meeting over and told everyone to go to sleep. Hopefully he'd be able to get some actual sleep himself tonight with everything going on. After changing into a pair of shorts he joined Temari in bed and she instantly curled up next to him, half laying on him and half on the bed. It was a little uncomfortable because of the heat and weight on his chest restricting his breathing and movements but he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Goodnight, babe." She said with a yawn.

"Goodnight, beautiful."

oooOooo

(With Naruto and Sakura sometime in the night)

"Wake up, Kit! Now!" Kurama's sudden voice in his head woke the blond hero from his sleep instantly. Years of sleeping in enemy territory would do that to you. He had to force himself to not spring out of bed and take a fighting stance, he needed to hear from Kurama what was going on.

'What is it?' He asked as he moved his hand slightly to check the bed next to him and to his relief Sakura was there and still seemingly asleep and unharmed.

"I sense movement outside on the walkway, in the water and on the roof." The chakra beast said with a serious tone. "And from what I can tell they are all armed and possess more chakra and power than anyone I've sensed on this island so far."

'So they're ninja?'

"Not sure, the chakra is a bit low for seasoned ninja but skilled warriors nonetheless."

Naruto paused for a few seconds to slowly and carefully wrap his arm around Sakura's sleeping waist, preparing to move. 'How many are there? Enough to worry about them attacking at once?' He asked the fox in his mind.

Kurama was silent for a second, Naruto assumed he was trying to get an accurate number. Naruto felt Kurama about to speak inside his head and stopped moving to listen.

"I sense twenty two people, all men, and all moving in- BRACE YOURSELF!" He roared to his container. Not a second later the window closest to their bed exploded into thousands of tiny shards and Naruto could see a cylindrical shape now in the center of their room.

"It's a bomb!" "It's a bomb!" Both Naruto and Kurama yelled as one as Naruto tackled Sakura to the ground and activated his chakra cloak to protect them. Sakura wasn't even able to ask what was going on before a large explosion woke her up fully.

BOOOOOMMM!

Sakura yelled in surprise as Naruto yelled in pain from from blocking the explosion and covering her with his back. After a few seconds only silence was heard as Sakura fully realized what was going on and began to heal Naruto's back. But she was stopped short when more than a dozen figures burst into the room and a rough hand gripped her wrist.

Naruto's hand.

Before she could register what was happening, Naruto threw her to the other side of the room and once he was sans Sakura, he rushed to the nearest man with a intimidating yell.

"Hhggg!" The mask wearing man let out a painful noise when Naruto sent a full powered punch to his gut before darting to the next man. The next seven or eight men all suffered a few powerful blows.

Sakura watched in awe as Naruto jumped from man to man, dropping them all to the floor with a series devastating blows to either the stomach or a vital spot. Just as he did when he jammed two extended fingers into the neck of a man who had sneaked up on Sakura from behind. She didn't even know he was there until Naruto was suddenly in front of her, his arm extending over her as his other grabbed her. She managed to get a brief look at the man now laying on the floor, she assumed he was alive since Naruto very rarely ever killed anyone outright, but when the man didn't move at all she wasn't so sure. She wasn't able to ask before she felt Naruto's grip on her increase and felt his chakra surge, and in the blink on an eye Sakura found herself surrounded by trees and suddenly very nauseous. It took a few seconds to register but she realized that he had used his Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport them.

The pinkette had to grab hold of a nearby tree and force herself to keep her food down. Naruto's jutsu always made her nauseous. After making sure that she was okay, Naruto activated his sage mode to survey their surroundings. Finding no one around he turned back to Sakura to explain what happened.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" He asked, still a little worried that she still looked shaken from the sudden teleportation.

"...J-just give… me a… warning next time, would… you?" She asked as she clutched her stomach, bending slightly over.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan, but we had to get out of there quickly." He apologized, giving her a warm smile while scratching the back of his head. "I couldn't fight those guys and worry about you at the same time."

"I know, don't worry about it." She said, standing up straight again. Her tone turned a little more serious, as did her expression. "Stop worrying about me, I'm good, go help the others."

Naruto only replied with a nod and he was gone using his jutsu to teleport to the others who had no doubt been attacked as well.

(With everyone, a little later in the forest beyond the resort)

"I'm glad that you showed up, Naruto." Temari said once they all gathered together. "We were still asleep and if you didn't appear when you did they would've gotten the drop on us."

Naruto waved off the thanks. "It's not a problem, Temari. No big deal."

"Does anyone have any injuries?" The local medic asked.

"Sai does," Ino spoke up to her friend, pointing her thumb over to Sai. "He's just too proud to admit it."

"I am not," Sai tried to argue. "I am perfectly fine. Nothing to worry about." Ino shot him a glare.

Sai gave her a look and made the move to hide his left arm behind his back, but Ino just rolled her eyes and grabbed it, causing Sai to wince in pain.

"See?" She asked Sai. "I told you that you weren't fine. Now let Sakura take a look at your hand."

"Yes, Ino." Sai mumbled out, taking his left arm out from behind his back and showing Sakura. To everyone's surprise a broken knife blade was embedded in his hand.

"Sai! You've been stabbed!" Sakura yelled in a chastising manner. "You need to tell me these things, I am the medic of this mission."

"Okay." He mumbled as Sakura began the process of removing the blade from his hand.

"How did this happen?" Sakura asked to both Ino and Sai, but her friend only shrugged and gestured for Sai to answer the question.

"Uh, a man stabbed me?" Was his answer.

Sakura stopped her healing for a moment and gave him a glare. "Not helping." She said. "Now seriously, how did this happen?"

Sai looked uncomfortable for a few seconds and Sakura couldn't help but notice that he was looking anywhere but Ino at the moment. He only started to speak when Ino left to go talk to Shikamaru a few feet away. "Well, uh, I woke up when I sensed someone above me," He started. "Then before I knew it, the assassin was going to stab Ino in her sleep and I… blocked him…"

Sakura's eyes widened a little. "With your hand?" She asked in disbelief. He nodded. She hung her head a little and sighed. "I'd expect that kind of reckless behavior from Naruto, not you. Hell, he's done that before." She said the last bit under her breath and to herself more than him.

Sakura took a look over to where Ino was and then back to Sai. She could sense something was up. "Does she know you saved her life?" She asked, her questions surprised Sai who hadn't been paying attention.

"...No." He said softly after a few seconds. "And I would prefer that she didn't know."

Sakura gave him a questioning look. "Why?" She asked. "You do realize that she won't be upset that you saved her life, right?"

Sai seemed to squirm a little at the question, unsure of what to say. "Well I-"

"Oh shit!"

Naruto's loud and sudden voice interrupted all the conversations going on in the small group. Each of them turned to see what was going on. Shikamaru was the first to react, his face filled with worry.

"What happened, Naruto?" He asked.

"I'm so stupid!" Naruto said, not answering the question and seemingly unaware of it. He hit himself on the head. "I forgot about Shou!"

"What?" Temari asked.

"Morinosuke-, Shou is in danger too!" Naruto answered before taking a small step back and charging his chakra. "I gotta go help him and Niwa."

"Naruto, wait-" Shikamaru started to say but Naruto was gone before he could even finish.

(With Naruto a little later)

'Stupid stupid stupid!' Naruto yelled to himself as he darted through the trees to Shou's villa. 'I should've left a summons formula there, dammit!'

Naruto soared over a tall palm tree, his form against the bright full moon above him. He could see Shou's villa from here, he'd be there in a few seconds.

"I don't sense anyone else around the place, Kit. But…" Kurama trailed off but just as Naruto was about to ask he realized what Kurama was about to say.

Blood.

He smelled blood as he landed on the walkway and stepped up to the door. A lot of blood.

BAAAM! Naruto didn't even hesitate when he kicked the door in as hard as he could. He heard a clearly feminine scream coming from inside when he did.

He didn't even make it two steps in before he had to block a knife sent to his face. He caught the opposing wrist easily and was about to twist it back when he caught the sight of a familiar face behind the blade.

Niwa's face. Niwa's bawling, terrified, tear and blood splattered face.

'Oh no.' He thought.

"Y-Yuuto?!" She shrieked at seeing his face. She quickly let go of the knife, dropping it on the floor with a dull 'thud'.

"Yeah, it's me, Niwa." Naruto said as he took a step closer, bringing himself into the light and letting her see him. Her face turned from horrified to tearful when he did.

"Oh thank Kami." She said between sobs, grabbing onto him with a tight hug. "...I… I to-thought that… you were here to… k-kill me. I'm- I'm so sorry." She cried into his shoulder, he couldn't force himself to let go yet and take a look at the room, from her reaction he knew what happened. He knew what he'd find.

"Shush, shh shhhh. It's okay, don't worry." He whispered to her as calmly as possible. She was holding on to him with a deathgrip and didn't seem to plan to let go. Not that he minded in the moment. She needed comfort right now, he knew that.

Taking a gulp he pulled his eyes from the crying woman hugging him and drifted them across the room. It didn't even take a second to find an unmoving lump on the couch where he left Shou yesterday. Naruto felt his heart ache for Niwa. He didn't want to upset her anymore but he needed to know what happened. Needed to know what happened because of him.

"Wha- what happened, Niwa?" He managed to get his voice to work long enough to ask. Not knowing how he did it.

The shorter woman's head shot up quickly to look at his. Naruto felt like he was going to break when he saw her face. She was in so much pain it hurt him to look at her. "...I- I woke up and s-saw several men above me and Shou-kun. I fell a-asleep on the floor next to him." She explained.

She sniffled and more tears began to flow down her face as she pressed her face against his chest. "I wasn't e-even able to do anything! They killed him! They held me and m-made me watch…" She gripped onto Naruto even harder. "...H-he didn't even w-wake up since you brought him here… I never- never got to say goodbye."

She moved her head to look up to him again. More tears than before on her face. Her voice was so shaky and broken Naruto could barely hear her, even with the close distance. She held up something that sparkled in the dim light.

Naruto looked at the item in question and instantly lost his forced calm composer from earlier, his eyes stared to tear up. Niwa was holding up a silver band.

"H-he was going to p-propose." She cried softly. "I f-found it yesterday while you two were gone."

She held the ring against her chest. "I'm so stupid." She muttered.

Naruto's eyes widened a little as he turned her chin up to look at him. "You're not stupid, Niwa." He said.

She shook her head vigorously. "No, I am. Shou-kun's had been acting differently around me since we got here and I didn't even pay attention. I-, I just kept acting like normal! I didn't even realize that he- that he loved me enough to- enough to…"

She couldn't say it, Naruto could tell. He wish he were better with words. He wished that there was something that he could say to help her in this situation but there wasn't. So he did the only thing he knew how to do: he continued to hold her as she cried onto his shoulder. Not moving, not saying anything, just trying to comfort the poor girl as much as he could.

As he held her, Naruto's eyes drifted back to the couch that held Shou. He could see the field trauma kit that he left for Niwa on the ground with its contents thrown across the floor in front of the couch. Naruto could see several blood drenched bandages on the floor and couch, along with a sewing kit for sewing wounds. The blond felt his heart ache even more, she had tried to save him even after she had to know he was dead.

'This girl,' He thought. 'Loved Shou more than she realized.'

(Later with everyone)

"Shh! I hear someone coming!" Shikamaru said in a hushed whisper, interrupting a conversation between Ino and Temari, no doubt about his and Temari's relationship. The other ninja instantly silenced themselves and took fighting stances.

Light footsteps could be heard as a body made its way through the dense foliage of the forest. Shikamaru tensed, he wished that he had a weapon on him at the moment, his Shadow jutsus weren't much use in the dark under a thick canopy of trees.

"Don't worry, it's me." A voice called from behind the bushes. Shikamaru and the others each let out a sigh of relief, it was only Naruto. His voice sounded again a few seconds later, this time closer. "Sakura-chan, prepare a spot, I have someone with me."

Sakura stood still for a second as Naruto stepped out of a bush, a body in his arms. It didn't even take a second before her medic training kicked in and she quickly cleared a place on the ground and laid out a blanket. She then started to take out her medical bag that Naruto had stored for her earlier in a scroll.

She then looked up expecting Shou in his arms but was surprised when she saw Niwa in his arms. Naruto put the sniffling girl on the blanket and after a smile and a firm nod Niwa stopped looking so worried and faced the others.

"This is Hana, she's a medic." Naruto told the girl. "She's just going to make sure you're okay... Do you need me to stay here?" He asked.

Niwa seemed to hesitate for a second as she looked at Sakura next to her but finally shook her head. "No." She said softly. "Thank you, Yuuto."

"No problem, Niwa." He replied with a calming smile. He then turned to Shikamaru and to answer the questions that he no doubt had.

"What happened?" Shikamaru asked no less than two seconds after Naruto turned around.

Naruto shot a glance at Niwa and gestured Shikamaru to follow him a few steps to the side. She didn't need to hear this. "I got there too late." He sounded defeated. Shikamaru took a long breath and let it out slowly, he had expected this. He then nodded for Naruto to continue.

"By the time I got there they had already left. Several men broke in and killed Shou." Naruto gritted his teeth, a furious llok on his face. "They made Niwa watch as they sliced him open. She stood no chance at stopping them."

"But how did she survive?" Shikamaru asked. "I'm assuming you got there in time to save her?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, for some reason they just left her there. Left her in a pool of Shou's blood. I got there a while after they left. She thought that I was one of them back to finish the job when I broke in."

Naruto mumbled something under his breath that Shikamaru couldn't hear. "What was that?" He asked.

Naruto looked up, a little surprised, like he didn't realize that he said it out loud. "She tried to save him, Shikamaru."

"Well of course she did-"

"No." Naruto interrupted him. "Shou was dead without a doubt dead when they left… and she still tried to save him. I saw the fresh bandages, she tried to save him even though she knew he was dead."

Shikamaru's face darkened a little as he turned his head slightly to stop himself from letting the tears form in his eyes. All he could think about was the same thing happening to Temari. He cleared his throat after a few seconds and composed himself.

"Poor girl." He muttered under his breath. "I don't even know what to say."

"I don't know how people do it," Naruto mumbled softly. "I don't know how they manage to help people after something like this."

"I know." Shikamaru agreed before turning back to business again. "What about Shou?"

Naruto gave a pained look as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small scroll, showing it to Shikamaru. "...I- I couldn't just leave his body there. Not- not after what they did to it. And I couldn't leave Niwa there either, I didn't know why they didn't kill her but I wasn't about to leave her in the same room her boyfriend was murdered."

It sounded to Shikamaru that Naruto was asking him to challenge his decision. Like he wouldn't agree with it. He gave his friend a reassuring look and placed one hand on the scroll and the other on his shoulder.

"I would've down the same thing in your position, Naruto." He said before gripping onto the scroll a little harder. "And don't worry, when this is all over we'll make sure Shou gets a proper burial."

Naruto returned the look and slipped the scroll back into his pocket. After letting out a few breaths he and Shikamaru wordless walked back to the group to deliver the news.

Niwa was now sitting on the grass, the blanket around her shoulders as Sakura and Ino sat next to her, trying their best to comfort the girl. Temari and Sai were on lookout duty and walked back to the group when they saw Naruto and Shikamaru go back to the group.

"Is she okay?" Naruto asked Sakura about Niwa.

The pinkette nodded and took her hand off of Niwa's shoulder. "She's physically fine, only a few bumps and bruises but she'll be fine."

Both Naruto and Shikamaru nodded. Shikamaru hesitated for a second about speaking in front of Niwa but dismissed it. Unfortunately for her she was now involved in this, and in order to keep her safe they had to keep her with them. The Nara cleared his throat and looked to his friends with a serious expression.

"I'm sure that you're all aware…," He started slowly. "But as of now we're going off mission. We can't rely on outside help and must take down Morinosuke and the ring ourselves." He turned to Naruto and noticed his furious expression.

"By force if we have to." He said to his blond friend. "As mission leader I hereby grant you permission to enter combat and use deadly force if need be."

Naruto punched one hand into his open fist with a loud 'thud'. His angry expression replaced by a vengeful one. "Finally, time to crack some heads." His eyes narrowed. "But I get first shot at Morinosuke."

Shikamaru noted Temari's worried expression but disregarded it, he trusted Naruto but gave him a reminder anyway. "Fine. But we need him alive, understood?"

Naruto let out a disturbingly dark chuckle. "Oh, I can do alive. Maybe not in one piece, conscious and recognizable… but I can do alive."

Shikamaru smirked. "Just tell the Kage that I tried to stop you."

Naruto gave him a confused look. "But you couldn't…"

"Exactly." Shikamaru said matter of factly. "So if we return Morinosuke in less that perfect condition it's no fault of any of ours. And the Kage will of course go with whatever you say."

Naruto looked at his friend and after a second it clicked. He grinned "Oh you sneaky genius. I'd never think you'd let me beat the crap out of someone."

"Oh, I'd never let you." Shikamaru said, feigning ignorance. "I just couldn't stop you if you were to, in theory, beat that bastard within an inch on his life for… interrogation purposes."

"Interrogation purposes?" He almost laughed. "I like your idea of interrogation."

(Author's Note)

I wouldn't want to be Morinosuke right now, what about you guys? Yeah, Morinosuke has no idea who he's pissed off.

Thanks again for reading and sorry that it's a day late. Remember to leave a Review, Follow and Favorite both me and this story.

Also I just made a Twi tter yesterday so follow me on there. I have no idea how to use it but hopefully this'll be a better way for me to be able to put out announcements and info.

One word: HephaestusBuil1

Until next time, this has been Hephaestus.