Title: Half past nine to half past ten

Rating: Action

Pairing / Characters: Ebisu, Yuuhi Kurenai, Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Umino Iruka

Word Count: 1, 073 words

Warnings: Nothing

Summary: Hinata is wounded, Tsunade takes action to protect her village

A/N: Respect to every person who has the guts to try and write a fight sequence. As Yamisui attested (even though I haven't spoken to Yamisui myself) in an author's note for Red Blossom, writing these kind of things are hard. It's true!!! I have three books under my belt and I still battle with the damned things.

My brain is still hurting and I'm not even done yet : ( cries

Ebisu found himself back to back with another jounin, someone he vaguely recognized from her dark hair and red eyes.

Her hands were clasped together in a seal that he knew was genjutsu related, and with a faint flower scented breeze, she disappeared. Ebisu paid her no mind, knowing he had his own targets to attend to.

Spreading his legs, he bent over slightly, bringing up his hands on either side of his face. In the confusion he had lost his glasses, and his dark eyes gleamed with an unholy light.

'Foolish,' he tutted, and sprang forward.

Like Ebisu, Kurenai paid her fellow jounin little attention. Already completing her genjutsu, she crept out of the tree trunk above the two nins trapped in its branches, a kunai in hand.

Even as the first nin glanced up at her, eyes widening in realization, Kurenai slashed downward with the kunai, not even blinking as thick droplets of blood were splattered across her hands and arms.

The second nin was struggling to free himself, but it was already too late by the time the branch had wrapped itself around his neck. Kurenai formed a second seal, and the branch tightened, mercilessly cutting off his supply of air.

He thrashed wildly, gasping for air, but Kurenai didn't remove the genjutsu until he sagged against the tree trunk. She landed lightly, eyes scanning the area around her. As another nin swerved in front of her, Kurenai simply twisted her arm, embedding the kunai in his chest.

Ebisu glanced over at her. 'Moving on?'

Kurenai nodded. 'Right behind you.'

'That's right, let the gentleman go first,' Ebisu muttered, but not so loudly that she could hear him.

Kakashi plummeted through the open window, twisting through the air, already forming seals. He landed in a crouch, completing the seal as he did so.

'Suiton: Dabakufu no jutsu!'

The mass of water slammed the Kirigakure nins off their feet and into the side of the jounin offices, washing out into the body filled streets beyond the gates.

Expression bleak, Kakashi surveyed their bodies, making sure they were well and truly dead before he moved on.

Naruto swore viciously. In the fracas, he and Hinata had been separated.

He stood alone but unafraid in the centre of a ring of Kirigakure nins, and a broad, furious smirk crossed his face.

'Kage bunshin no jutsu!'

The nin closest to him laughed. 'You really think that will work on us, brat?'

Naruto looked aggrieved. 'Why does everyone call me that?' he wondered aloud.

'Maybe because you are a brat?' the nin suggested insultingly.

Naruto glared at him. 'Piece of trash,' he muttered, drawing on the chakra of the nine tails.

'I'll deal with you first, old man!' he snapped, holding out his hand. Immediately, one of the clones leapt forward and the shinobi's eyes widened as chakra began to gather in Naruto's palm.

'What the –'

Naruto leapt at him. 'RASENGAN!'

For some reason, the remaining nins didn't seem so keen on attacking him after all, and Naruto used it to his advantage. Half an hour later, panting heavily, Naruto surveyed his handiwork with pleasure despite the fact that he had been seriously wounded. The wound itself didn't concern him – in a matter of hours it would already have begun healing itself.

No, what concerned him was that Hinata was somewhere out there, alone.

Retrieving a kunai, Naruto ran down the dark streets, not needing the lights to see where he was going.

In a way it was a good thing, because Naruto didn't know quite when the electricity had gone off.

Hinata was already in position, pupils dilated, her silver eyes fixed on her opponent. Two shinobi had already gone down, completely unable to use their tenketsu, but Hinata could sense that this last one was going to be more dangerous, more deadly than the others had been.

Naruto-kun would never forgive me if I let him down now, she told herself grimly. I can do this!

Taking a deep breath, Hinata lifted her hands as the nin sprung towards her, wielding a long, slender katana.

'Shugo hakke, rokujuyonshou!'

Her opponent narrowly avoided her chakra, and Hinata paused, assessing the situation. Believing he sensed a weakness, the nin lunged at her again, this time bringing his katana down in an arc. Hinata ducked beneath the blow, stretching out her hand and slamming it against his stomach. He cried out, crumbling under her jyuuken, and Hinata leapt away, elated by her success.

As she did so, the nin brought up the katana again. Hinata saw the attack and dived to the side, but her opponent anticipated her movements and brought the katana up and to the side.

At first the pain didn't register, but the warmth of the blood – her blood – did. Silver eyes widening in disbelief, Hinata glanced down at the wound across her stomach, dark blood staining her jacket.

Her knees suddenly refused to hold her and she crumpled to the ground, her vision already going dark.

As she lost consciousness, she didn't see the kunai that embedded itself in her opponent's throat.

Tsunade slammed her fist into the wall, face contorted into an expression of rage.

Cracks radiated out from the point of impact, and Tsunade watched almost impassively as two of the Kirigakure shinobi lost their balance and fell over. Lifting her palm, Tsunade gathered her chakra, converting it into electricity and darting forward, pressed her hand against the base of the cloth-wrapped nin's neck. Once safely out of his range, Tsunade turned her attention to the other nin, simply slamming her fist into his face with enough force to snap his neck.

That taken care of, she glanced up at Katsuyu, a swift leap enough to land her on her summoning's back.

'Go!' she ordered. 'Get to the gates, and take down every enemy you see!'

'Of course, Tsunade-sama,' Katsuyu answered immediately, changing course and going straight for the gates.

There was a handful of shinobi in her path, and by the light of the fires that gutted several buildings nearby, Tsunade could see the pattern on their hitae-ates – patterns that marked them out as enemies.

She recognized their seal formation immediately as a summoning technique, and took immediate steps to counter it.

'Katsuyu! Zeshi Nensan!'

The screams of the mist nins went largely ignored as the hidden leaf Hokage concentrated on protecting her village.