No More Dead Heroes
Chapter 10: Duress
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.
Kakashi blinked his good eye against the blaring light shining in his face. He could feel something digging into his back, which meant he was either still lying in the middle of that damn clearing, or he had been moved somewhere equally uncomfortable.
A hand moved towards his face, and he tried to push himself backwards and away from it, but to no avail. His arms and legs were strapped down, with at least another two straps across his chest. The hand, a surgeon's hands he noticed, gently pulled the forehead protector away from his left eye. Kakashi flinched as the Sharingan opened, still sore from overuse last time.
"Shh… Don't move." The voice was quiet and soothing, a nice break from the silence that had taken over his mind since he had fallen unconscious in the forest. How long had it been since then anyway? He blinked again, the Sharingan closing momentarily as the light returned.
Kakashi opened his mouth to try and say something, but as soon as he did something soft and spongy was shoved between his teeth. He gagged as it hit the back of his throat, clamping down with his teeth to keep it from choking him. He squinted against the light, trying to see what was happening.
Something wet slopped against the side of his face and the Copy Ninja flinched, straining against the bonds. The sensation repeated itself, and what he could only hope was water trickled down into his mouth, only to be soaked up by the cloth caught between his teeth. Fingers pressed down lightly around his left eye and he could see a pen as the doctor's other hand moved down to draw lightly on his skin.
He shivered, a slight breeze chilling the liquid on his face. The pen moved away from his eye, tracing the vertical scar down his cheek. The eyelashes on his normal eye fluttered slightly as the doctor's hand brushed against them on the pen's way back up to the bright red eye. Kakashi tried to take a deep breath, to calm himself, but he may as well not have bothered. The straps across his chest limited his movement so that shallow breaths were all that he could manage.
The Copy Ninja could feel himself starting to panic when he felt the edge of a steel knife brush against his cheek bone, light enough that it didn't even leave a scratch. Where the hell was he, and why was this doctor trying to slice his face up even more? In this position he couldn't even breath properly, let alone attempt to escape, so unless someone came to rescue him, the shame of which he was willing to suffer, he was entirely at the doctor's mercy. Kakashi bit down even harder on the cloth in his mouth, wincing as the inside of his cheek got caught between his teeth. It wouldn't help anyone if he started to hyperventilate, least of all himself.
The scalpel bit into his numb skin and Kakashi fought to keep the tears out of his other eye. Before he had received this eye, the Yondaime had always been there, looking over his shoulder, just in case he made a mistake, or was overpowered. Afterwards he had never again needed saving. He had been able to rely solely on himself; thanks to the ability the Sharingan gave him that allowed him to copy the jutsus of his opponents. He had never been in a situation since that day where he couldn't win.
If this doctor took away his eye, he would have to start from the beginning again. He would still know all the jutsus he had stolen, but he wouldn't be himself anymore. He wouldn't be the famous Copy Ninja anymore, and he wouldn't be able to stand up to the Uchihas again. The last was far more worrying than the first; it would be easy enough for him to find a new image, if you could call it that, but now more than ever Konoha needed someone who would be able to fight back should the Uchiha brothers ever coma a calling again. Especially as they didn't just have Itachi to worry about now, but Sasuke too. And if those two were killed, the world would lose the Sharingan forever.
As the knife dug in deeper, tracing around the line the pen had left behind; Kakashi stopped bothering and let the tears leak out of his good eye. This was who he was, and they, whoever they was, were taking it away on what appeared to be a whim. And he couldn't even fight back.
He had never felt so helpless in his life.
Wasn't anyone going to save him?
Outside the hospital tent, in another tent not a hundred yards away, Genma could only watch through the open tent flap as men and women dressed all in white scrubs hurried in and out. He knew that Kakashi had been taken in there as soon as they arrived here, wherever here was, but not much else. Shizune, who had apparently woken up on the way here, was the only one who had seen it, and she had still been only partly lucid.
Genma turned his head away from the opening, biting his lip gently out of habit. When he had woken up, his senbon had been gone, presumably so that he couldn't use it for a weapon, which was quite ridiculous. They had been bound to this tent with chakra, and couldn't move even a step past the flaps. They could, however, watch what was happening outside, but it didn't mean much to them. All it was was a bunch of Sound-nins and medics running back and forth in every direction, some shouting orders, others rushing to obey.
They had arrived here two days ago shortly after noon, in that time Genma hadn't seen Uchiha Sasuke once. Which either meant he just didn't feel like wandering around the camp, or he had been hurt when he fought Naruto, which he obviously had if the blond curling up in the corner refusing to say even one word to them was anything to judge by. Wouldn't Tsunade be thrilled to hear about this; she was always looking for ways to keep the #1 loudest ninja quiet, silly of her, as the only thing she needed to do was bring back his ex-best friend and make them fight. So simple, and yet, so brilliant.
He scowled, obviously Naruto had lost if they were here now, but nothing else could be expected, because even if he somehow managed to fight off the dozens of Sound-nins ready to throw themselves in front of Sasuke, die for him even, he would still have to face the Uchiha. Undoubtedly, he had been stopped before he even got within a few yards of the former Leaf-nin, who had probably then decided to add insult to injury. Just so long as he hadn't used that technique…
Genma shivered, not forgetting his own experience with it. It was all thanks to Shizune that he was actually conscious now, without the medic's help he would still be out cold for sure. Though, that was far preferable to the time he had spent actually under the Uchiha's spell. Anything was better than that. The things he could make you see, it was awful. He had heard that Kakashi and Sasuke had been caught by it several years ago, but then it had been Itachi behind it.
Ignoring the scraping noise as Shizune shifted on the dirt floor somewhere behind him, Genma focused instead on the tent wall, eyes staring blankly at it. If he did this he could almost forget that Kakashi was not too far away, being operated on most likely for his Sharingan, and that there was nothing he could do about it. He could almost forget that they were trapped in an enemy camp, being held by Orochimaru's prize students. He could almost forget that the only thing they had going for them was a sick medic, a blind copy cat, a sulking loudmouth, and himself, who couldn't even bear to face reality.
It was hard, especially when a scream bit into the midday air, only to be silenced moments later. It was hard, but if he concentrated enough, he could do it.
Shino, breathing heavily, didn't manage to see the wet bark in time. Which inevitably meant he was in for a painful fall. As soon as his foot slipped out from under him, he braced himself for the moment when he would smash into the forest floor. The crash itself was unpleasant enough, but add to the fact that it pushed what little air he had out of his lungs and it went all the way from unpleasant to downright awful.
He just lay on the ground for a while, trying to get at least some oxygen to his starved brain before he passed out. Blinking his eyes a few times in a desperate attempt to keep the tears away he finally just squeezed them tightly shut. Things just kept getting worse for him. It had been two days since he had found Daiki's body. Thankfully, he had thought to go back to it only fifteen minutes after he had continued on, and taken all of the dead school teacher's explosive notes. Even more fortunate was the huge supply of them he had been carrying. Shino had been able to leave a few every half hour or so for the past two days and was still far from done.
Of course, he had no idea how much good the traps were doing him, for all he knew it was possible that not a single one had been set off by the hunter-nins, and that they were all lying in wait for some poor unsuspecting Genin. Hopefully this wasn't the case, as he knew Hinata, Ino and Choji had taken the fifteen new Genins to various Jounin camps for training, none of them anywhere near the area the hunter-nins were chasing him through.
And they were chasing him now. Honestly chasing. It was all because he hadn't thought to take Daiki's supplies with him the first time he came across the Chuunin's body, and had had to double back, thus cutting the distance between himself and the team of hunter-nins in half. Just last night he had actually caught a glimpse of who he presumed was the leader, which meant they had probably seen him too. He had picked up the pace even more since then, but knew that they had most likely done the same.
Shino couldn't even honestly say he knew he was going in the right direction. What had seemed like such an obvious thing to do, infallible even, had suddenly turned out to be a mistake. Kiba and Iruka could have turned at some point, forked off the path in pursuit of the thief; they could have already caught him and be on their way back to Konoha even as he lay here, struggling just to catch his breath.
So here he was, winded on the forest floor, with Kiba either getting further away or heading home, and a team of hunter-nins on his tail because he had poisoned one of his friends. Well, inasmuch as he had the right to call Sakura his friend anymore, it was doubtful she still considered him as such. But that really didn't matter right now; what matter was that Kiba could be going back to Konoha, and if he tried to follow, he'd be killed.
When had this gotten so out of control? Only five days ago he had been in Konoha himself, having just returned from a mission. And then, well, things had just been on a downward spiral since then. First, he had found out Kiba had left again a mere four days prior to his own arrival, then Tsunade had refused to let him go after the Inuzuka, and had given him another mission. And then… He squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, ignoring the tear that leaked out. And then he had decided that the only way to fix this all was poison Sakura.
Tsunade would let him come back, she would have to. She needed the shinobi, and she needed lots of them. This war would never be won without fighters, and every time Konoha lost one, things got just a little more desperate. And lately it seemed like they were just dropping like flies. It wasn't like he had even killed anyone, which was more than he could say for some missing-nins. He had just poisoned, and it probably wasn't even going to have any lasting affects. Of course, it could also have killed her instantly, in which case he was lucky the Godaime hadn't just sent a squad of ANBU after him and washed her hands of the problem.
Shino opened his eyes, almost afraid of what he would see above him. Thankfully, the forest was quite desolate, empty except for him. He didn't even hear the chatter of birds and other small animals. It was most likely they had all been scared of by the wave of fighting that had gone through here not too long ago. He had fought here then himself actually, most of them had. It had been a large front, and they hadn't had a choice but to pour all their strength into stopping the forward motion of the Sound, leaving all other angles open for attack.
The forest had been a lot colder then, the air carrying the icy chill of winter. Konoha focusing all of its fighters into this one spot had had repercussions. The Sand had also sent most of its shinobi here, leaving their village nigh unguarded, except for the Kazekage, who had been waiting for messengers from Sand-nin who had infiltrated the village of the Mist, and a few guards.
When the messengers arrived they had found both the Kazekage and his guards dead. The same messengers had then run to Konoha to warn Tsunade, leaving behind the bodies.
Neji still hadn't forgiven them for that.
When they returned to Konoha, the atmosphere was far different from when they had left; both Iruka and Kiba noticed that immediately. Not only were the villagers more tense, jumpy even, but there were ANBU stationed at the gates, where none had been before. Whatever had gone wrong, it must have been a big deal for ANBU to be in a position like that.
The first place they went was the Godaime's office, not only to hand over the scroll they had recovered but to find out what on earth was going on in the hidden village. Kiba was practically dancing on the spot by the time they were outside her office, waiting to be admitted. Iruka smiled at the Chuunin's excitement; at least it let him forget about his broken arm even if only for a little while. Unfortunately, nothing could make him forget his broken ribs, his first stop after here would be to the hospital to get them looked after. Fortunately he wouldn't be given the job of speaking to Daiki's family; he just didn't know what to say in a situation like that.
Besides, he hadn't forgotten what Neji had done to the messengers from the Sand; if at all possible he would like to avoid meeting a similar fate. That didn't mean he wouldn't visit them to pay his respects once the news had actually had a chance to sink in; he wasn't heartless yet, unlike some of the other shinobi he knew. Of course, in this line of work, sometimes it was better to be heartless, then you didn't have to go through the pain and agony that inevitably followed the battles they fought, or their friends and family fought.
When at last the door opened, from the inside no less, and what appeared to be a much harried messenger hurried out, Kiba practically threw himself through the soundproofed doors. Iruka followed at a slightly more reasonable speed, but not forgetting that the sooner he was done here, the sooner something could be done for his poor ribs, which he was sure were about to start disintegrating any minute now.
The first thing he noticed was how tired Tsunade looked. The second thing he noticed was the look of horror that flashed in the Godaime's eyes when she saw Kiba, before she pushed it away to greet them in her usual calm fashion. "Iruka-kun, Kiba-kun, is Daiki-kun not with you?" Iruka knew that when only two of them had walked into her office Tsunade had already known Daiki's fate, but she wouldn't ever presume that one of her shinobi was dead, not if there was even the slightest chance that she was wrong.
"No, Hokage-sama." Iruka replied, stepping forward to bow in front of her desk. "He was killed by a shinobi of the Hidden Sound, Kiyoshi Isamu, who also killed our thief. Kiba-kun and I fought and killed him, also recovering the stolen scroll that he had taken from the thief. My ribs and Kiba's arm were broken in the process, and we were unable to recover Daiki-san's body. We aren't sure why Kiyoshi murdered the thief, who was from the Hidden Mist, an ally of the Sound."
Tsunade's mouth twisted into a thin line, and she made a note on a paper lying on her desk. "Alright, thank you Iruka. I will have someone notify the deceased's family, unless you would like to do it yourself?" Iruka wondered why she even bothered to ask, it was doubtful that anyone had ever answered that question with the affirmative; shinobi faced death enough without having to try to explain it to civilians.
"Ah, Hokage-sama?" Kiba asked, moving forward until he was standing abreast with Iruka. "Is Shino-san still in the village, or has he already left on another mission?" The hopeful look on his face broke Tsunade's heart, and she wished she could just tell him his boyfriend was here, waiting for him.
She wondered how she was going to tell him this, if there was anyway she could justify what he had done, make it a little easier for him. There wasn't, there just wasn't. And thanks to the messenger that had arrived moments before the two Chuunins, she got to drop two bombshells on him at once. It had been this kind of thing that had broken Neji; was she prepared to lose another? Tsunade sighed, ashamed she had even thought of lying to the Inuzuka. "He- he's not here Kiba-kun. He has been declared a missing-nin; as of four nights ago." She paused, watching the shock and horror register on the Chuunin's face. "A team of hunter-nins has been dispatched. I-I'm sorry."
"Hunter-nins?" He whispered, the blood draining out of his face. "Hunter-nins? After Shino?" Kiba stared into her eyes, his own horribly blank. When he spoke again, his voice was so strained she nearly missed what he was saying. "What did he do?"
a/n: It's so short! I can't believe it! Oh, and before you try and kill me, let me explain… Yes, I cut out the fight between Sasuke and Naruto. You don't get to see it. But I should hope it would be pretty obvious that there was no way Naruto was going to get near Sasuke then. And again, before you murder me, there WILL be a Sasuke vs. Naruto fight, a big one. Just not yet. So please, don't kill me. For the Kakashi torture either please...
Hujin: Really? Maybe I'll do something special then. Again, SORRY I DIDN'T SHOW THE FIGHT… -hides-
Bunch-o-Nuts: Of course, as soon as someone wants a long chapter, I can't deliver. –sigh- The next one will be longer, don't worry, this one was just kinda awkward because I didn't have a lot of time if I wanted to post it on schedule, and I have a math test tomorrow… Which I'm going to fail because I didn't study so that you all could have this chapter! So please! Focus on that, not the lack of the fight…
E. Vanity: Good to know you see it that way . Soon enough for you?
Smoking Panda-hides again- I'm sorry! Uh, maybe? –chants- there will be a fight; there will be a fight… Good to know Hinata is delightfully OOC, much better than dreadfully OOC… And I love Shino/Kiba too, can you tell? –sighs- I love long reviews almost as much…
AvaStar: Of course it works for you, anything that will keep me telling you stuff for help is good in your books…
Esther: You would hate one of the endings I considered. You all would. Just be glad I decided not to use it . –hides yet again- there will be a fight, please don't hurt me!