Sasuke reported in that there was a shit ton of men coming for them. 3 trucks, each probably carrying six men were approaching. Fast. And it was getting too dark to see.

"Switch on your NODs. Especially you, Shikamaru, we can't have you mess up on this bomb."

"Sir."

This would give them an advantage. At least the dark of night gave them a good thing. Yet, there were tons of men approaching. Naruto and Kiba had probably already neutralized at least 10 men each, and the cover left in the room was running out, being torn apart by bullets. Kiba and Naruto were behind two stone pillars in the room. Once they lost those, they would fall back to the pillars in the back of the room, then they would be without cover.

"Shikamaru, work fast. We can't hold for too much longer."

"Oh yes, rush the guy defusing the bomb that, if blown up, will kill us all. Great idea."

"This isn't the time for sarcasm, hurry up."

Kiba killed two more men that entered the room, and a third sprayed bullets and forced Kiba into cover, damaging his column. Naruto neutralized him. They were running out of mags. Typical. Kiba took potshots at 2 more men, killing one, and the other two hid behind the door. Naruto chucked a grenade. No point in silence now. Two men dropped down in front of the door, viciously torn up by the grenade.

"Got it!" said Shikamaru.

"Kiba, Shikamaru, jump out the window, and make sure to cushion the old mans fall as best you can. It's not that high up. I'll jump after. Sasuke, start heading to LZ 1. We'll meet you there."

"Sir." they all responded.

They each jumped out, and Naruto followed. They started heading for the LZ as quick as they could, what with Shikamaru carrying the man. There were men pursuing them. Naruto stopped to take a few shots at them, then kept moving. A man jumped out at Shikamaru, holding an axe. He had a bullet planted in his head.

"Always was quite the show off..." said Shikamaru.

Sasuke smirked. He continued moving towards the LZ.

They advanced through the dilapidated adobe buildings. All of the sudden, a heavy machine gun started spraying bullets over them. They quickly took cover.

"Sasuke. How bout you plant a bullet in the head of the heavy machine gun operator." said Naruto.

"Sir. I'll be a minute."

"Damn it. Kiba! Suppress the MG. Keep suppressing until Sasuke has taken the shot!"

"Sir. Suppressive fire."

Kiba started firing bullets at the MG in order to stop it from firing for awhile. Naruto and Shikamaru were neutralizing more men.

"In position and lining up the shot." radioed in Sasuke.

Sasuke took the shot. The MG operator was quickly dropped. They continued their advance throughout the village.

"This old fart is damn heavy..." complained Shikamaru.

"Do I need to lift some of that load off your candy ass?" said Naruto, clearly exasperated.

"Of course not. I have the right to complain about what I bloody well please."

"Why the hell is this guy so damn important?" asked Kiba.

"Once we bring this guy back, he's gonna be commanding the operations in this area, though I doubt he'll get too involved with the various spec op teams."

They were close to the primary LZ. Sasuke radioed in.

"LZ's got a few people in there. I'll clear 'em out, but you people need to hurry. The Chinook pilot says he's not got much fuel left, so he has to get in there, pick us up, and get out. No waiting time."

"Damn it. Pick up the pace, people!" shouted Naruto.

More pursuers chasing them. Naruto dropped two of them and reloaded, and as he reached for his ammo pouch he realized he was out of mags.

"Fuck! Kiba! I'm out! I'll assist Shikamaru and you have to engage those hostiles!"

Naruto ran up to Shikamaru and held the other side of the old man. Kiba whirled around and engaged the targets with his MP7.

"Just so you know, I've not much ammo left either!" shouted Kiba.

They reached the LZ. The Chinook chopper was going down. They loaded the old man, and Shikamaru and Sasuke shot at the enemies while Kiba and Naruto were getting on, before getting on themselves.

"Safe..." sighed Shikamaru.

"Where we going now?" asked Kiba.

"We're going back to base to drop off the old man, then we're getting deployed into a valley that's reportedly been infested by enemy activity. We are to take out key points of the enemy defense, then take out the remaining resistance in the valley. It'll just be us operators, no Rangers or anything."

"Without the Rangers, sir?" asked Shikamaru.

"If we sent in the Rangers, they would be getting picked off quickly. They could eventually take the valley, but the defenses are well set up and most likely several ambush points. They need the stealth and surgical precision of us operators."

"Well set up defenses and ambush points across the whole valley? And we're taking it all on alone?" asked Shikamaru.

"No. There will be several other operator teams working to do the defenses and areas we won't."

"I see...so sending in the Rangers would also compromise our operations, correct?"

"Right. No Rangers. Just some spec op teams."

"Alright."

And so the Chinook flew off into the setting sun, back to the place Naruto and his fellow special operations troops called home, for just a while.