No More Dead Heroes

Chapter 7: Obscurity

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.

When Sakura woke up, Tsunade was gone from her bedside. The table the Godaime had drummed her fingers on now held a vase full of colorful flowers. The clock on the wall told her it was noon.

Noon when?

Had a day passed? Two? A week? A month?

They really ought to keep calendars in all the rooms.

Maybe she would suggest that to the receptionist on her way out.

Sakura pushed the heavy blankets off, wincing at how stiff her body was. With difficulty she swung her legs over the edge, shivering when her bare feet touched the cold floor. She was still wearing the same clothes as she had been in when that damn bug of Shino's had bitten her, so she couldn't have been here for too long.

She shuffled over to her shoes, slipping her feet into them easily. There didn't appear to be a jacket of any kind in the room, so she went without, it wasn't that cold outside unless there was a wind blowing through the village. Spring was almost over, summer was about to start, hopefully things would get easier for Konoha and her allies in the warm weather.

Pushing the door open, Sakura stepped out into the hallway, her feet padding softly on the tile in her sandals. It was surprisingly empty in the hall, considering how busy the hospital usually was, but she didn't dwell on that for too long. She was awake, she was feeling a hell of a lot better than she had been when that bug first bit her, and she was ready to get out there and kick some Sound ass.

Of course, she had to find her way out of the hospital first…

It was times like this that she envied the Hyuuga Clan and their Byakugan.

Sakura walked down the hallways, glancing into all the rooms she passed, in case there was a nurse or doctor or someone in one of them that could tell her how to get the hell out of this place. Not even medic-nins are immune to the horrors that were hospitals, and she couldn't help but wince every time she looked in on some poor shinobi with a particularly nasty injury.

When she finally made it to the front room, after several false starts, wrong turns, and bolts out of operating rooms, she stopped at the reception desk. "Excuse me, could you tell me the date please?"

The receptionist, a moderately pretty blond girl, glanced up from the charts she had been reading over. She gave the kunoichi a once over, apparently trying to decide if she was a patient or just plain crazy. "Sorry?"

"The date, I just woke up, and I'm not sure how long I was asleep for…"

"Name?"

Sakura blinked, was it that hard just to tell her the date? Oh no, the girl wasn't going to call for a doctor was she? Well, if she did, she would just have to make a run for it now wouldn't she? She didn't think she would be able to stand lying in a bed staring at the ceiling, there was just too much to do. Like the mission that had probably been abandoned for example. "Haruno Sakura."

The receptionist flipped through a register until she found what she was looking for. "You were admitted at ten o'clock the night before last. You've been here for a day and a half. And you're not supposed to be up yet."

"You can tell all that from a register?"

"No. I can tell from the nurse standing behind you tapping her foot impatiently."

"Damn it!"

Hinata winced as Rin's shuriken missed the target circle by at least four feet and went whizzing on by. His target didn't have a single shuriken in it; the closest one had landed ten feet behind it, but only two feet to the left. The target next to his, belonging to his best friend Hotaka Kaburo had all ten shuriken clustered around the center.

The Genin couldn't throw shuriken to save his life. Kunai either for that matter; he had very nearly killed two of his fellow Genins when they had been practicing throwing three at once.

If it wasn't so worrying it would have been funny.

As Genins, they didn't have many skills in genjutsu or ninjutsu, which meant they would have to rely mainly on their taijutsu and weapons to stay alive. If Rin couldn't even count on being able to get a shuriken or kunai within a foot of his enemy, he wasn't going to survive his first fight. This war had just thrown the entire purpose for being a Genin right out the window. The rank had been designed so that students fresh out of the Academy could hone their skills and gain new ones before they had to take on missions where they would actually need them.

"Here, Rin, watch me okay?"

Hinata looked over at her Genins with a small smile, what they lacked in skills they made up for in teamwork; they had improved by leaps and bounds in the last two days. Takumi was still quiet and withdrawn, but he was working hard and encouraging the others. The girls, Kohaku and Michi, were working together in their spare time, Michi trying to teach Kohaku how to use kawarimi, a ninjutsu her father had taught her. And Kaburo was trying in vain to teach Rin how to throw shuriken (Hinata hated to admit it but the boy would probably be better off trying to teach the outhouse to throw shuriken).

That had been one of the main purposes of bringing the Genins out in larger groups to train before they were separated into their teams; to teach them teamwork. In the Ninja Academy it had been every man for themselves; they needed to learn how to work together before they would be able to survive in this war. She remembered the first mission she had done with her team, it had actually been depressing. Looking back, she wasn't sure how they had survived. Oh right, they had had a rather kick ass instructor, hadn't they? Still, you would've thought they hadn't know the meaning of the word team, let alone how to work in one. Thankfully things had only gotten better from there, and now? Well, they weren't exactly a team anymore, but two of them still worked together pretty damn well. Hinata smiled, it was always a good pick-me-up to think about the old days with Kurenai, even if she had been a bit of a failure back then. All that mattered is that they had been a team.

Unfortunately, no amount of teamwork was going to make that boy good at shuriken throwing.

Watching another shuriken miss the target, Hinata sighed. This was just painful to watch, even after her own rather dismal shuriken skills when she had been a Genin. At least she had managed to get her shuriken on the target block, if not in the actual rings themselves. She felt bad for Rin though; it must be hard on him that his best friend could throw a perfect ten every single time while he was lucky to get his shuriken within ten feet of the target.

Deciding to take pity on the boy, she held her hand up, signaling for them to stop. It took them a few seconds to notice her, but when they did they fell silent immediately, which was a rather nice change from a few days ago, when she had to raise her voice uncharacteristically high just to get their attention. She had a newfound respect for the Academy teachers that was for sure; she had no idea how they hadn't just given up already and quit, like she would have.

"Thank you, we are going to stop here for now, it's time for lunch. After lunch, we're going to go out on a patrol and you are going to show me your tracking skills." Hinata told the Genins, smiling reassuringly at Rin. She knew the boy, while pitiful in this area, was quite the tracker. It was possible that, if he made it through this war, he might have a future as a hunter-nin.

Other than Kaburo, none of them were particular adept at taijutsu, but their skills were passable. A few showed some skill with ninjutsu, like Michi, and even quiet little Takumi was quite the genius when it came to genjutsu. Hopefully, by the time they returned to Konoha at the end of the month, they would all be a little better off.

And if not, well, then she wasn't doing her job right was she?

Naruto blinked.

Well damn.

They were surrounded, absolutely and completely surrounded. Apparently the Sound-nin had been planning to ambush them all along. And that reconnaissance they had done? Worthless. By the looks of some of these shinobi, he'd say at least half of them were Jounins, if not more. A few of them looked as though they were about on level with ANBU.

Backing closer to Genma, Kakashi and Shizune, Naruto gulped. They could not take on all of these shinobi by themselves, they'd be killed. If Kakashi would just somehow miraculously recover and if Shizune would wake up, ready and raring to fight, they might have a chance. But it was a pretty big might, not exactly odds he'd be ready to stake his life on. It was starting to look like he wouldn't have a choice.

Unconsciously putting Kakashi and Shizune between them, Naruto and Genma each drew a kunai, thinking rapidly. Naruto could use Kage Bunshin, but against this many enemies at this level, he would need a million clones at least just to make a dent. It just wasn't worth the chakra. The blond Jounin's eyes were moving rapidly, from one enemy to another and then on to yet another, trying to find a weak spot, a flaw, anything.

There wasn't one.

The Sound-nins were packed three deep in a full circle around the clearing, all in all there were about fifty of them. On their own, without two unconscious Jounins that they had to protect, Naruto and Genma probably could have taken ten, if they were lucky. As it was, there was no way they were going to win this one.

Naruto twitched; was it just him or were the Sound-nins getting closer? He looked over his shoulder to make sure Genma was still there, not hearing the usual click of his senbon against his teeth. Once reassured that the brunette hadn't already been taken down while he had been distracted, Naruto turned his blue eyes back to the circle of shinobi.

An army of reinforcements would have been nice right about now, maybe a squad or five of ANBU. Anyone really. Hell, right now he would take help from Orochimaru if the man offered it.

And that was what you called desperate.

Fingering the kunai in his right hand, Naruto scanned the clearing for anything that could be used to his advantage, a squirrel, a leaf, a tree, anything. He didn't want to die here. He really really didn't want to die here; there were still things he hadn't done, like become Hokage for one. Or bring Sasuke home.

He ignored the little voice in his head that told him that with every passing day the likelihood of that ever happing got less and less, if there had ever been any chance to start with. He was in a bad enough situation as it was; he didn't need his own mind going all defeatist on him.

A ripple of noise from the Sound-nins behind him had him spinning on the spot, even though that left his back open and vulnerable to attack. These shinobi were pros, if they were going to break formation it was damn well going to be for a good reason. Who knows, he might be able to use it to his advantage.

The shinobi by Genma parted, opening a three foot path into the clearing. Naruto and Genma were staring at the gap, transfixed, waiting for who, or what, was going to come through. Beyond the Sound-nins the forest was dark, so all they could see at first was a foot, wearing a normal blue sandal. They watched as the Sound-nins fell silent, watched as the rest of a body followed the foot onto the path, watched as the body stepped into the light, watched as things definitely took a turn for the worse.

Naruto gasped.

Genma swore.

Uchiha Sasuke, arms crossed casually, smirked.

"Neji-kun, did you hear the sirens the other night?" Shikamaru asked once they were on the road again after lunch. They had been walking for two days already, but were still miles away from the Hidden Sound. Yesterday, once they were outside the gates, they had agreed to take it slowly. Well, not slowly, but they weren't going to push it. Shikamaru had only returned from his last mission three days before they had left Konoha, and was still slightly tired. And they hadn't really agreed either, Shikamaru had suggested it, and Neji hadn't responded, but the Jounin had decided to take the silence for agreement, and so they had walked.

"Yeah." Shikamaru sighed, again with the one word answers. What did it take to get a response out of the ANBU now? Right, he wasn't even going to go there, it just wasn't worth his limbs to find out. Besides, he'd need all four to complete the mission thank you very much.

"Do you know what they were for? I mean, do you know what happened for them to be set off?" He wished Neji would take that damn mask off. The Hyuuga had volunteered to be on watch on the first night, and Shikamaru had agreed because he had been indecently tired, and it really wouldn't have done for him to collapse the next day, today. When he had woken up, sometime around dawn, Neji had had the mask on, and hadn't removed it since.

Not that it wasn't a nice mask. As far as he could tell, it was some sort of big cat, most likely a tiger, but he wasn't about to ask. Which led him to wonder why he was so scared of his friend. It was pathetic really. His thoughts spiraling out of control, Shikamaru didn't hear the beginning of Neji's response.

"-opened the gates at one."

"Hmm? Sorry?"

The ANBU turned towards him, and Shikamaru imagined the face beneath the mask was either twisted into a look of annoyance or disdain. Maybe both. Shikamaru flinched; he didn't want Neji to think of him that way. He wasn't going to dwell on why that was, it would be interesting to try and explain the blush to the Hyuuga, especially when the sun was mainly covered by clouds. "Tsunade-sama had the gates opened at one so that a squad of hunter-nins could leave, so she obviously knows who it was, and it must be a Konoha shinobi, but we left too early in the morning to hear about it or get the official notice."

"Oh. That can't be good though, we probably should have gone to see what happened before we left yesterday, just in case we run into the missing-nin." Shikamaru said, considering the situation carefully. "It would be kind of counter productive if we helped them, you know?"

Neji just nodded; the conversation was over. Shikamaru kicked at a stone on the path, he wished the other boy would just open up a little bit, maybe comment on the weather, or something. Though, that was the longest conversation he had had with Neji since they left Konoha, so it wasn't like things were getting worse. Come to think of it, he didn't know how they could get worse; it wasn't like Neji could start taking back words.

And now he wasn't making any sense, great. Wasn't this just turning out to be the worst mission ever or what?

Shikamaru sighed; he knew he was getting desperate because he was actually considering asking Neji what animal his mask was of. He just wanted the other shinobi to talk, to forget whatever he was feeling for a just a few minutes, that was all. For that, he was willing to make a fool of himself. And he said he didn't want the ANBU to look down on him… Screw that. Even resentment was better than being completely ignored, wasn't it?

"So Neji-kun, what's your mask of?"

Again with that look. Well, it was the same as every other look the Hyuuga had given him since putting on that damn mask, but the emotion behind it was quite clear. Shikamaru shivered, and hated himself for it. "A tiger. Hokage-sama chose it."

Of course she did, Shikamaru thought. Because if she had let you, it would have just stayed blank, wouldn't it have?

Sad thing was, that was probably true.

a/n: I just keep writing and writing… Again, only four scenes, but they seem to be getting longer, as I said. I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear! This one is also around 3000 words, as I chose not to add another scene after the one with Neji and Shikamaru, because then it probably would have ended up being closer to four thousand words, and yeah… Well, at least you can't say I never update. Now, just wondering, was anyone at all surprised when Sasuke showed up?

AvaStar: Thanks! I do try! sniff Stupid hotmail messed with my review alerts! This is horrible! Hope you like this one…