A.N:
Thank you to DreamingIn2Eternity for reviewing, and for all those who have favorited and followed my stories!
Merry Christmas Eve, Happy Holidays, or Happy December 24th!
Thank You all for the support and on with the show!
Gimli was in shock. Really, the only one who was not is shock was that red-haired, slightly undead shinobi that had just carelessly slit Hoshi's throat. The poor boy was lying, sprawled out on his back, gasping helplessly as surprise, panic, and terror flitted across his pale face. Surprisingly, the Mouth of Sauron was the first to recover from the shock.
"What in the name of Morgoth made you do that!?" screamed the emissary as he grabbed the shinobi's collar and dragged him right to his face. "Our orders said that we were to keep him alive!"
"They were not going to acquiesce to our terms! Not now, not ever!" yelled back the man. "The mutt failed to serve a purpose beyond that! I simply taught them not to refuse such terms again."
"You stupid whore!" roared the Mouth. "Do not pretend to have any intelligence! We needed him for our plans! You were there while they were being spelled out! Now, you have ruined them!"
"Ruined them? Ruined them!" shrieked the shinobi. "That little bastard was never going to play within our hands! Not only does his future rely on Sauron not existing, he is far too loyal to his people to do anything but bring Sauron down! The mutt has the willpower and the allies to do it! Look at our supposed ally! I know Orochimaru of the Sannin! That bastard hates our guts and is trying to bring us down! This was all part of his plan, which I am trying to foil!"
"Close your filthy mouths!" yelled Legolas, his hand outstretched, and his tone exceptionally menacing. "You, Mouth of Sauron! Return to your master now, or I will cut your head off!"
The Mouth promptly dropped the shinobi, and urged his horse to gallop back to beyond the gate.
Gimli finally tore his eyes away from the vile man and turned them to Hoshi, who was being tended to by Kuro, and being placed on a stretcher by Minato. The dwarf was too concerned with the well-being of the child that he did not even think to question Kuro's sudden appearance. Orochimaru approached Aragorn with a cavalry spear.
"You requested this, Aragorn-sama?" he remarked quietly.
The ranger did not even turn his head as he took the spear from the serpentine shinobi's hand. Orochimaru bowed slightly, then ran over to the two other shinobi. Gimli watched him draw something beneath Hoshi, make a few hand gestures with Minato, then the quartet disappeared with a cloud of smoke.
"Ha! There is no way that mutt is going to live," sneered the red-haired shinobi, dusting his legs off as he rose to his feet. "He is going to bleed out, or suffocate; whichever one comes first really. Good f*cking riddance."
Without further warning, Aragorn thrust the spear into the shinobi's eye. Even as the man's hands grabbed the shaft, Aragorn brought it upright, and the undead shinobi struggled to keep from sliding down the spear. Without any display of emotion, the ranger passed the spear off to Elladan, who took it with a look that worried Gimli. Everyone stared in shock as the twins gleefully pulled the shinobi down the spear, and then tossed him to the seven zombies, who (now broken from their bonds) leapt upon him with the ferocity of wargs upon their prey. Minato and Orochimaru returned, and their eyes widened with shock as they drank in the scene.
"Is Hoshi in a safe place?" demanded Aragorn, his voice devoid of emotion.
"He is," replied Orochimaru, his face blank.
The ranger turned his horse around, and approached the pale shinobi. The two regarded each other for a second, then Aragorn's arm shot out and seized Orochimaru by the throat, lifting him into the air.
"You said he was safe!" Aragorn roared as the shinobi clawed at his throat. "You claimed that you had guaranteed that he would not be harmed!"
Orochimaru coughed, a terrified look in his eyes. "Sauron promised…"
A bitter, angry laugh left the man's throat. Dragging the shinobi to his face, Aragorn hissed:
"Oh, Sauron promised did he? Sauron the Deceiver?"
He tossed Orochimaru to the ground, a fierce look upon his features. "I do not know why I even trusted you," he spat. The ranger turned to Minato, and looked him up and down.
"You are just as bad as he is," he remarked with disgust, before urging his horse forward to return to the host.
Rather brokenly, the yellow-haired man hung his head, and turned to check on his companion.
Gimli exchanged a look with Legolas, who seemed to be just as taken aback by the situation as he was.
"Never, in all my years of knowing him, have I seen Elessar act like this," remarked Imrahil in a hushed voice. "Not even at the height of his temper were his words so filled with venom, or his actions so brutal."
"Indeed," agreed Gandalf as they all began to follow Aragorn back to where the armies were waiting for them. "It is certainly out of character."
"However out of character it may be, it is certainly understandable," argued Elrohir. "Not only was a child deliberately and severely wounded in front of him, it was also a family member and friend being harmed. That may test the civility of any living thing with half a heart."
"He was kinder than he should have been," Kakashi commented quietly. "Yuu deserves more punishment."
Elladan grinned evilly. "We arranged for that. The seven were more than happy to act as his tormenters. It is a shame that we could not take part in the punishment, but it would not do to be consumed with vengeance once more."
Elrohir nodded, and the twins urged their horses on to a faster pace, and rode to catch up with their brother. A sudden, crushing thought entered Gimli's head.
"Poor Obito," he thought. "Who is going to break the news to him?"
\/\/\/\•/\/\/\/\•/\/\/\/
By the time Rin found the army, she had been running for almost a day straight, with only a brief but refreshing nap to tie her over. Tired, hungry, and a wee bit annoyed, the medic was pleasantly surprised to find Obito and the others so quickly.
"Obito!" she yelled in greeting, weaving between the legs of horses to reach them. Obito, Kuro, and Anko were sitting on a rock, nearby who Rin assumed to be the Captains. Obito leapt to his feet, a look of delighted surprise on his face.
"Rin!" he returned joyfully as she approached them. "What are you doing here?"
"I came here to help you get Hoshi back," she answered, before looking around once again. "Where are Kakashi, Susano'o, and Minato-sensei?"
Obito chewed on his lip for a moment, thinking. "They went down with Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer, and a few others to talk with Sauron or one of his representatives. I don't know when they will be back."
Rin nodded, and released a sigh of relief. So far, nothing major had happened, and she had a chance to take a break. But before she was even allowed to walk over to the rock, Orochimaru suddenly flickered into existence right before Kuro and Anko.
"What the hell?!" Anko cursed, startled. The jōnin snapped something to Kuro, who nodded and flickered off. Orochimaru quickly grabbed a spear from one of the soldier's hands and flickered off as well. Rin, Obito, and Anko were left to stare at each other.
"Looks like something did not go so well," commented Anko with a wince.
Rin could only nod. A wave of worried murmurs swept throughout the lines, as the men began to discuss what they had just witnessed.
Obito turned to her, and looked as if he was about to say something. But a sudden, horrified yell cut him off.
"OH MY GOD!" screamed Anko. Rin ran over to her, and saw that Orochimaru and Kuro had returned, along with Minato-sensei.
"What happened?" asked Obito, confused.
"Hoshi's throat was slit!" answered the shocked kunoichi, covering her mouth in horror. "Oh my god."
Everything seemed muffled to Rin's ears. Without thinking twice, she ran over to her teammate's side, pulling out her med kit as she dropped to her knees.
"What's his status?" she demanded. Kuro gave her a brief, almost relieved glance before he renewed his efforts to slow the flow of blood.
"Unconscious, as expected. I was a deep wound, almost all the way to the spine. Both internal jugular veins and common carotid arteries were severed. Trachea, severed. Esophagus was partially severed. I have a seal that will act as a substitute to the trachea and blood vessels, but it only lasts for ten hours." The Uchiha reported bluntly.
"Do you only have one?" Rin asked, concentrating her chakra, and placing her hands on the ruined throat. Hoshi's chakra pushed back against hers, stubbornly refusing to accept the healing grace it brought with it.
"Yes," Kuro ground out between clenched teeth. "But with our luck, his body will reject it, and we would have wasted it."
Rin was gritting her teeth as well, forcing Hoshi's chakra to yield, and her chakra to move forward, and urge the cells to fix the damage.
"Do you have anything else?" she asked, forcing even more of her chakra forward.
Kuro's eyes lit up. "Oh! It was just recently released from clinical trials. It's basically liquid oxygen, and a human can live for almost thirty minutes on the stuff being injected into their bloodstream. I'm not too sure how long that would be for Hoshi, but it doesn't rely on chakra!"
The Uchiha lifted his hands off Hoshi's neck for a second, and a wave of Hoshi's chakra slammed into Rin's, causing her to yelp.
"Sorry!" he replied, quickly replacing his hands. "We need Strider, or someone else who practices Elvish medicine to help us or Hoshi's dead! He is not healing fast enough to be saved by just us."
"Positive thoughts, Kuro!" Rin yelled back to her fellow medic. "We have to think positive thoughts!"
"He is correct though," she thought miserably. "We need to find someone to help us soon, and to get Hoshi moved to a safer place. We are on a soon-to-be battlefield, for god's sake!"
For now, the medic gritted her teeth, and returned to forcing her teammate to heal.
\/\/\/\•/\/\/\/\•/\/\/\/
Obito stared at his wounded foster brother, not quite registering the bloodied neck, jaw, and chest and the half-closed eyes that were the result of the slit throat. The Uchiha felt his hands clench and unclench repeatedly, and his eyes and throat burning with the treat of crying. A series of thoughts rattled around in his head, but Obito was not willing to concentrate. It was not until Halbarad and a young Dúnedain, approached them out of curiosity that he was firmly jolted out of the state of shock he was in.
"What is going on here?" asked the man, before spotting Hoshi. "Sweet Eru!" he whispered in shock, covering his mouth with his hand.
"My brother was captured by an ally of Sauron, and supposed to be released as part of the treat I guess," Obito remarked dully. "Obviously something went horribly wrong."
"Your…brother?" questioned the other Dúnedain. Obito faintly recognized him. It was the one with an interest in cameras, Teithon.
"Foster brother," the Uchiha clarified, looking over Hoshi once again. His eyes widened when he saw the bloodied chain of Hoshi's beloved necklace peeking out from beneath the bloody collar of his cloak and shirt. The wheels in his head immediately started turning, recalling that pendant had the ability to heal, if one could tap into its power. Hope began to return, even as the two Dúnedain began to recite the same prayer of mourning that Legolas had made when Merry and Pippin were lost. Soon Gamling and Forlong had joined them, curious and worried.
"Oh the poor boy!" exclaimed Forlong, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. "Sauron is going to pay for this, and for many other deaths he has brought about!"
There was a sound of hoof-beats as the members of the rout returned. Obito stayed by his teammate and clan-member, watching them struggle to heal Hoshi. At one point, Kuro pulled out a syringe, attached a needle, and injected half of the fluid just below the jaw, and the rest into the leg. He then tossed it aside, and continued to place pressure on the sluggishly bleeding throat.
"What are you all doing in a circle?" Obito overheard Eomer ask.
"Hoshi's throat was slit. Rin and Kuro are attempting to heal him, although it appears to be rather futile," replied Gamling sadly.
There was a sudden intake of breath from the people surrounding them, which was curious enough to make Obito look around him. Everyone who had returned from the rout had a look a faint fear except Aragorn. The ranger looked like he was about to stab someone.
"Orochimaru," he said with a calm monotone. "You told me that he was somewhere safe."
The serpentine shinobi sneered. "This place is safe. Besides, it will take more effort to take him to a safer place, and I am intending to help him. Contrary to popular belief, we are not gods, and we cannot perform miracles."
Aragorn fixed a vicious glare upon the jōnin, who slowly lost his bravado and began to shake, and his aggressive expression dropped to one of fear. Susano'o quickly jumped in between the two, holding his hands up.
"Whoa, whoa. You both have to calm down!" insisted the copper-skinned genin. "Sauron is going to have his army on our behinds soon enough, so Sensei, go help Hoshi, and Aragorn, calm down and worry about the present. Hoshi is going to be just-"
There was a sudden yelp from Kuro and Rin. "Son of b-, that wasn't a listed side effect!" screamed Kuro.
"Fine," finished Susano'o, wilting slightly with defeat. Orochimaru's eyes widened with panic.
"What did you give him!?" he yelled, rushing over to them.
Obito turned back at Aragorn, who looked oddly lost. Halbarad approached him, a worried look on his face.
"Are you alright?" he asked. Aragorn shook his head slowly, and took a shuddering breath.
"No," he whispered. Obito redirected his attention to Minato-sensei, who was slowly drawing out some sort of seal around Hoshi and his healers. Kakashi filled in the gaps, occasionally glancing at Hoshi, whom Orochimaru was placing jutsu after jutsu upon. The Snake of the Sannin was growling in frustration, as each technique failed to do much of anything. Suddenly he was shoved out of the way by Aragorn, who wore a look of intense concentration on his face. The tall man started to go to work, and Obito noted the expressions of relief on Rin's and Kuro's faces.
"Elessar, what are you doing?" demanded Imrahil, distressed. "The Black Gate is going to open at any moment! I understand why you are doing this, but you cannot be the one to do it!"
Aragorn stubbornly ignored the prince; all of his attention was focused on healing Hoshi.
"Aragorn!" Eomer yelled. "Get back on your horse, please! You are needed here!"
Obito's eyes began to dart between the men, and an overwhelming feeling of dread began to overtake him. Common sense told him that Aragorn was crucial to the upcoming battle, but it did not seem that the man had any interest in participating if he could heal his son. The Uchiha could not fault him; hell, he'd do the exact same thing. But what was more important?
"Look Strider!" screamed Anko, sounding almost panicked. "You really need to get back on that horse, and be a King, not a healer! The mother-f-king gate is beginning to open right now! Leave Hoshi NOW!"
"NO!" he screamed back, his voice cracking with emotion. "I cannot leave him! I do not want to spend the next 16 years knowing that my son will die here!"
Minato-sensei then reached out and slapped him across the face. "Pull yourself together!" he yelled, grabbing both of Aragorn's shoulders. "You have a duty to fulfill and Hoshi will be downright pissed if you do not fulfill it! We will make sure that he receives care and makes a full recovery! I can take him to Minas Tirith, or Lothlórian. Rin and Kuro will stay with him. Do. Not. Worry. About. Hoshi! And that is an order!"
There was a moment a silence as wind whistled through the plain and over the hills, picking up the dust for a whirl. Minato-sensei released Aragorn's shoulders, a tired look on his face. The ranger leaned down to Hoshi's face, whispered something, then stood up.
"Take him to Minas Tirith. I cannot guarantee that Lothlórian is free from attack," Aragorn ordered softly.
Minato-sensei nodded, and with that, he and Orochimaru clasped each other's hands in the seal of confrontation, and vanished in a flash.
Obito dully watched Aragorn return to his horse. The man seemed to have gotten a hold of his emotions. However, the Uchiha was just beginning to truly cry. Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder, but that did not do anything to stop the tears. He simply listened as Aragorn and the other leaders barked out orders, not honestly comprehending them.