No More Dead Heroes

Chapter 5: Turmoil

It's war now, and yes, it's hell. Oh how the times have changed; there aren't many smiles in this hidden village anymore. People are being separated from their loved ones left and right, either by death or duty, and some are starting to lose what hope they had left. But some are still holding out for that better day, whether it's ever going to come or not.

The Godaime tapped her fingers on the side table impatiently, watching the pink haired kunoichi with a troubled look on her face.

The sirens had gone off late last night when Sakura's parents had returned from work and found their daughter unconscious and barely breathing on the front doorstep. The only suspicious things in sight were the infected bug bite on the girl's hand and the small pile of ashes lying next to her.

Tsunade had been called as soon as the doctors realized the girl wasn't going to wake up, despite all of their best efforts. Apparently this was a job only she could do, which was not very reassuring at all. So she had poured chakra into Sakura's bloodstream, purging it of the poison left behind by the bug.

At eleven o'clock last night Sakura had woken up.

At eleven thirty she named her assailant.

At eleven fifty the poison had taken affect again despite Tsunade's efforts.

At midnight she had had to proclaim Aburame Shino a missing-nin.

At one o'clock a team of hunter-nins had been dispatched.

This was all happening too fast.

The pressure had been on for her to give him his new status, if she had refused they would have wanted to know why. Problem was, she didn't have an answer. There was no way for her to make what the ex-Chuunin had done right. She had even tried to delay sending off the hunter-nins, in an attempt to let the boy get a good head start, but that had been shot down.

In the eyes of the council, Aburame was a liability, and he had to be gotten rid of.

In her eyes, he was just a confused teenager who had made the wrong decision.

That wasn't something he deserved to be killed for.

Maybe she could have found someone else to go in Kiba's place; she should have at least tried. There were others in Konoha who were trackers, just none that were as good besides other members of the Inuzuka clan, and all of them had already been deployed on various missions outside of the Hidden Leaf's borders.

Tsunade sighed, turning her head away from the too pale Sakura. If she had sent someone else instead, Sakura wouldn't have been poisoned, and she wouldn't be down two more Chuunins.

Konoha had gone from having the strongest military power of any of the hidden villages to this; they were short on Jounins, so much so that the village's Jounin camps were largely populated by Chuunins. They were short on Chuunins, and teachers were having to be pulled from the Ninja Academy to do missions. They were starting to run low on ANBU too, as the elite fighters were the first ones targeted by the enemy.

The only thing they had a surplus of was Genins, who were all but useless in a combat situation. She had gotten so desperate that she had instructed the Academy to pass fifteen students instead of the usual nine, who were then split into groups of five to train with a Chuunin until they had enough skill that they wouldn't be slaughtered the first time they ventured out of Konoha on a real mission.

Which meant she was even lower on active duty Chuunins, as five were going to be tied up with the care of Genins, and therefore stuck doing the easiest missions, such as scouting for ANBU, or taking supplies to Jounin camps.

The Godaime looked back at Sakura, watching the kunoichi's chest rise and fall slowly.

Just when had things gotten so desperate?

"Shikamaru!"

The Jounin sighed and finished pulling his jacket on before replying to his mother's shout.

Apparently Neji had arrived.

"Hang on a second mother, I'm getting dressed." He heard scuffling feet and a door closing, so apparently his mother hadn't shut Neji out in the cold. It was a start at least; he had been fully anticipating her slamming the door on his face. Actually, he had spent the majority of the night stressing about that, which was so drastically out of character that he had actually considered telling the Godaime that he couldn't go on the mission and then admitting himself into the Konoha Hospital for observation.

Strapping his shuriken pouch to his leg, Shikamaru tried to ignore the feeling of building anxiety. He would never finish this mission if he couldn't even look at the Hyuuga; fortunately he wouldn't have to talk much, except maybe to share a plan, or discuss a change in direction, this mission was much too troublesome already.

He tucked a few explosive notes into a pocket for good measure before grabbing his leaf forehead protector (which he still wore on his arm) and joining his mother and Neji in the hallway.

The ANBU had backed himself into the corner nearest the door and was trying to avoid the Nara widow's distrustful eyes. Shikamaru sighed and hoped his mother wouldn't go off onto another of her tangents while Neji was standing right there.

Apparently that was too much to ask.

"Shikamaru, you didn't tell me your mission was with him." his mother spat. "Couldn't you ask Hokage-sama for a different partner? I'm sure she would agree if you explained the situation."

Shikamaru shook his head, noticing how the Hyuuga had bristled at his mother's words. Well, that was the biggest reaction anyone had gotten from him in a long time, it was a far cry from the usual cold stare he gave anyone who dared to disturb him.

Now that he thought about it, Neji got more and more like Sasuke everyday.

That was a lot more troublesome than his mother spewing off her usual garbage in front of the Hyuuga.

At least she hadn't gone into the whole 'fell in love with a demon/disgrace to his village' bit; Shikamaru didn't ever want to see what Neji would do in retaliation to that.

"No mother. There is no situation. Besides, I'm sure Tsunade-sama is already aware of anything you would have me tell her, she is the Hokage. Now, if there isn't anything else you need, we have to go now."

When she looked like she was about to argue, Shikamaru cut her off by kissing her on the cheek and stepping towards the door. "I'll be back in a month, if not sooner. Take care of yourself and don't forget to ask the Yamanakas or the Akimichis if you need anything."

"Alright." She whispered, all the fight draining out of her voice. "Be careful."

Shikamaru smiled halfheartedly and opened the door, gesturing for Neji to go first. Letting the Hyuuga pass, he glanced around the front hall for anything he might have forgotten before stepping out himself and shutting the door firmly behind him.

He didn't look back.

He didn't hear sobs that came from behind that closed door.

Too bad.

Things might have ended differently if he had.

Kiba stared at Iruka with disbelief; the man in front of him currently wrestling their third team member to the ground was not the civilized school teacher he remembered in any way, shape, or form. That Iruka had been sensible and civilized, except when students didn't pay attention, but that was only to be expected.

But then, Iruka had stopped for a breather, and Kiba and Daiki had stopped to wait for him to catch his breath. Kiba hadn't thought anything of it, he was getting slightly out of breath himself, but hadn't been about to admit it. That had been all fine and dandy, but then Iruka had thrown himself at Daiki, apparently forgetting that they were high above a ground standing on a tree branch. The pair had gone tumbling to the ground, Daiki fighting to get away from the Umino before they before hit bottom.

It hadn't worked.

Kiba, watching from above, winced at the sickening thud the two Chuunins made when they hit the ground. He peered over the edge of the limb of the tree to see if they were both still alive only to find Daiki still in Iruka's grasp, getting pummeled by him.

It didn't occur to Kiba that maybe he should pull the other Chuunin off of Daiki. That or he realized how useless it would be. Something about the slightly crazed look in Iruka's eye told him that he would not easily be convinced to release his victim.

"What. Did you. Do to him!" Iruka yelled between each gasping breath he took. Kiba watched, still transfixed with horror, as Daiki elbowed the other school teacher in the stomach and leaped away when the Umino fell back.

The blond leaned against the closest tree trunk; fighting to catch his breath.

Kiba's nose twitched.

Damn.

The resounding pop and cloud of smoke confirmed his suspicion; this was most certainly not Daiki. When the smoke cleared, a shinobi wearing a forehead protector with the symbol of the Hidden Sound stood at its center, sporting what appeared to be a broken nose.

Akamaru growled and Kiba put a hand up to his muzzle in a vain attempt to silence the dog.

By now, Iruka had gotten to his feet as well, one arm wrapped around his ribs.

"How did you know?" The Sound-nin asked, one hand going to his nose. Kiba flinched when the smell of blood hit his sensitive nose; it was broken all right. "No, how long have you known?"

Iruka winced as he spoke, at least one rib having cracked in the initial fall. "I noticed about ten minutes ago that your shuriken pouch is on the wrong leg, Daiki is, or should I say was left handed. I had to wait until Kiba's breathing started getting labored though, or you would suspect something when I stopped. Fortunately, he's still tired from his last mission, so I didn't have to wait too long."

The shinobi smirked. "What can I say? I didn't get a good enough look at him before I killed him I guess. Oh well, this just means I kill you now instead of tonight in your sleep."

Kiba didn't even try to stop the snarling growl from Akamaru this time.

"Nice of them to leave us behind hmm?"

Tenten rolled her eyes when Lee didn't answer. Was she the only normal one left on her team? There was Gai-sensei who would ditch his own students to work with ANBU instead; there was Lee-kun who seemed to have some sort of grudge against all ANBU in general for no particular reason; and then there was Neji-kun…

She wasn't even going to go into that now.

The kunoichi sighed and flopped against a tree trunk. Midori-san had suggested they take cover in the forest furthest away from the river and Gai-sensei had agreed, so before the ANBU and Gai had left, they had made sure the two Chuunins made it safely into the woods.

Kind of pointless if you asked her; it wasn't like they were hidden from sight by the trees, which had long since withered and died, leaving their branches grey and completely stripped of leaves. They were actually probably more noticeable here, where their clothes stood out from the decaying wood; at least in the field the green had blended to a point.

It wasn't like she was about to argue with an ANBU though; no one did. There was a reason they were the elite; the same reason that she had no doubt in her mind that Neji had been accepted into their ranks without hesitation.

One more piece of evidence that she didn't know the Hyuuga nearly as well as Gai or Lee.

Tenten drummed her fingers on the tree bark impatiently; she hated to just be sitting around doing nothing, she really didn't know how Shikamaru could stand it, even prefer it. Of course, he was different now too, but what could you do? "Hey, Lee-kun?" At least this time the other Chuunin actually looked up. "What do you think of Neji and Shikamaru?"

Lee looked confused, but at least that meant he was paying attention. "I don't think I follow you Tenten." He said before letting his head slump forward again. Tenten sighed; did she have to spell things out for him still?

"Oh come on Lee, you know what I mean. Don't you think Shikamaru has a thing for Neji?"

Judging by the look on his face, apparently not.

"What gives you that idea?" Lee asked eagerly, showing more life than he had since Gai had first tabled the idea of going for ANBU assistance. Tenten raised an eyebrow; apparently she wasn't the only one here who enjoyed a little gossip every now and then. Well, she might as well make the most of a bad situation, and use this opportunity to get Lee to lighten up a little bit.

"For one thing, he always stumbles over words when he's talking to Neji, which is even stranger for him seeing as he's such a genius. Also he stares at him sometimes and blushes whenever Neji looks in his direction." She shrugged. "Personally, I'd say it's pretty obvious, but he hasn't seemed to notice it himself yet, and Neji most certainly hasn't. But that's only to be expected isn't it? He's not quite his usual perceptive self anymore is he?"

Lee shook his head, his black hair dusting his eyes before he wiped it away. Apparently going three months without a haircut hadn't been his brightest idea to date. "No, no he isn't. Not since Gaara…"

They both fell silent; somehow, it didn't really seem right to go on after that.

a/n: I didn't mean to do that this chapter. It just kind of… happened. It seems to fit, so I'm not going to stress over it too much. Really. So what do you all think, am I absolutely insane? Just wait until you see what happens next…

SNA: Really? I was worried he was too… I dunno. Too something. But if you like him, then no worries huh? I'll try to keep them this length in the future! Thanks, and I plan to continue, don't worry .