In the dead of the night, a young man crept from the ruins of a townhouse and slunk into the shadows. He had a medium-sized metal bottle clenched in his bandaged hands, empty for now. While his wounds still dully burned, he was one of the only able-bodied ones still well enough to venture out. The rest were either too old, too young, too sick, or too injured - and if he were being honest with himself, he was glad he had the opportunity to get out of the bunker for a while. The air was heavy and smelled strongly of pus and ointment, and if you breathed too much too quickly you'd get lightheaded.
In the ruins of what once was their village, the air was crisp and humid with the rain they'd had, bringing a sense of newness and quiet with it that was unsettlingly juxtaposed with death and decaying all around him. The bodies of his friends, his neighbors - all left in various states of gore, strewn about the ground like broken puppets without strings.
He found the body of his next-door neighbor, a pretty young woman with the deepest chestnut eyes he'd ever seen, with her head twisted at an awful angle and a deep cavern in her chest. Her heart was gone, leaving only a bloody maw in its absence. Those pretty, earthy eyes were wide open and vacant, blankly gazing up at the sky as flies buzzed about her.
No matter how much he stared at her, she wouldn't get up again.
A sudden wave of emotion overcame him and he blinked rapidly, choking back tears as he turned away from her broken body. He had to focus on the mission. He had to forget what he'd lost.
He made his way through the ruins, finding a small river at the edge of the village limits. He paused, ducking down into a bush and trying his best to conceal his presence as a guard strolled on past him, looking stressed about something.
"Oh yes, he's stressed," the man found himself thinking spitefully, eyeing the Konoha headband with all the hate he could muster. "He's stressed, while I just lost everything."
"Can't believe I have to stay here for two whole days," he was muttering to himself, shaking his head as he bent to fill his canteen. "This is bullshit. It's not like those damned rebels are gonna miraculously come out of the trees to take back a dead village. Why should we even stay to kill off any stragglers? Poor bastards'll just die of starvation anyway if they don't turn on each other first."
Still muttering, he paused to take a sip before walking away, his shoulders hunched together. The young man waited for a few seconds to make sure he was really gone before rushing out and dipping the canteen into the water.
It filled quickly, and just like that he was back to the shadows, his mind troubled more than before.
"Two days… that means we may have hope! They won't be here forever! Perhaps…"
As soon as he touched back down in the bunker, he went up to their new leader: the mayor's youngest daughter, only sixteen years old. She looked up from the orphaned baby she was cradling and gave him a terse smile.
"Miss, I have some great news." He explained, handing her the filled bottle. "I overheard one guard saying that they will only be here two days; we should send to Mimei to come and help us!"
She paused mid-swallow, putting the canteen down and staring down at the dirty floor for a moment. Then she finished swallowing the water and looked up at him with a firm nod.
"We should," she agreed quietly. "I'll send you out around sundown with a formal plea. As I recall, they should have a mountain base near enough that you can easily make it back before midnight. With any luck, then maybe..." She trailed off hesitantly, but he understood what she wanted to say.
"Of course." He nodded to her and turned, walking back to his injured father. The older man patted his back and eased to the side so that he could sit on one side of the double sleeping mat.
Later that night he was shaken awake by the mayor's daughter Daitan, and after being given a letter he put on his dark cloak and ventured out once more.
Although it was more difficult to hide among the dark with the big bonfire the soldiers were burning in the town square (where the fountain used to be, he thought miserably upon seeing the cracked and broken stone ring), but he kept to the tree line and eventually made it out.
He ran as silently as he could through the wet, slippery grass. The instructions he'd been given were brief, yet easy to remember; take a sharp left at the oddly-shaped tall rock and crooked tree, then continue until you came to a post in the ground. The whole trip would take less than an hour if he hurried.
He rounded the corner past the tree and continued, his breath coming out in short puffs. His legs had been cramping up earlier, and he could feel them coming back - he would have to walk back in the darkness.
No sooner did he collapse at the pole in the ground did someone step out of the darkness.
"Are you alright?" They asked kindly, stooping and extending a hand.
"I'm- fine," he wheezed, digging around in his inner pocket and fishing out the letter. He held it out in one shaking hand. "Thuh- this is for Mimei, from- from the village of Morino."
The figure grew quiet for a moment before taking it from his hand, unfolding it and reading it over. It took them a minute and they heaved a deep sigh before refolding it and sticking it in a back pocket.
"Mimei accepts your plea," they said, their deep feminine-sounding voice growing sympathetic. "Are you expected back? You're welcome to stay and rest awhile."
"I'm- honored, but," he panted, looking up and into the face of the stranger. Her eyes seemed black in the darkening sky, but if he looked closer he could see they were a forest green. He swallowed before continuing, "Daitan-sama is waiting for me. I fear she'll think I was captured if I stay."
The woman nodded understandingly. "Of course, my apologies. Here- at least accept this before you go."
She turned and unbuttoned a pack at her hip, rummaging around before pulling out a bottle of ointment and some bandages. She helped him up onto his knees and handed them to him with a small smile.
"Thank you, miss," he bowed his head deferentially. "I- we don't deserve your kindness."
"We help the helpless, young sir," she replied, something heavy in her voice. "We'll be there as soon as they leave. You have my word."
With that, she turned and jumped away, leaving him on his knees in the path, clutching her present tightly to his chest.
Slowly he got to his feet and staggered away, this time with a renewed sense of hope.
A/N: Please tell me what you thought!
