"I hate having to get rid of bodies." Uchiha briefly glanced up at his partner before he looked back down to study the covered mound of earth as he and his companion both wiped their hands down the sides of their trousers as if they were trying to get something more off than just mud, even if it wasn't the first dead body they had handled they were still left with an uneasy feeling.

"Well I'll say one thing for the Emperor, over time he's sure made it easier to do." Uchiha said and the other man chuckled slightly.

"Makes the job so much easier now people are too scared to poke around in dark corners." He muttered and then he sighed and bent down to pick up a bottle he had left by the freshly dug grave. He took a deep swig of it before passing it to his friend, "here you look like you need it." He added. Uchiha drank some himself and flinched.

"God, what is that?"

"I have no idea, some locally made stuff, but hey, as long as it has a high content of alcohol I'm all set especially after having to do something like this." Uchiha allowed himself a brief smile.

"Didn't they used to have some sort of clean up squad for this?" Uchiha said bracing himself and taking another gulp from the bottle before handing it back.

"Oh yeah, but I think that was before they decided to teach everyone torture and interrogation and people decided that they'd prefer that to the constant digging."

"If I remember right you aced that class."

"What can I say, apparently that's where my natural talent lies, it's not with body disposal that's for sure." The other man said with a laugh.

"I noticed. You left me to do most of the digging." Uchiha said dryly, the other man shrugged and took another long drink.

"How's your brother doing?" He asked.

"Do we have to get into this?"

"Come on Uchiha I'm curious, everyone knows about him he's supposed to be really good."

"One of the best but then again he never did anything by halves. I haven't spoken to him in about ten years. I hardly know him anymore." He said curtly.

"Ouch."

"Don't you have a family, I mean if you want to get into mine then you have to say something about you now it's only fair." Uchiha took the bottle away from his partner and took another drink.

"If I have one I don't know about it." He took the offered bottle back and held it thoughtfully. "Is it different, having a family? Do you think it makes people different?"

"I don't think I really have one anymore, going through the Academy broke that."

"Not exactly one for teaching love and affection there were they?"

"Neither was Itachi." Sasuke Uchiha said softly and his friend gave him an odd look. He took a deep drink from the bottle and passed it to Sasuke with a gesture to let him know it was okay to finish it off.

"Urg, what a mess." The man said. Sasuke made a noise of agreement and downed the rest of the strange alcohol he had been given he grimaced at the aftertaste that caught in the back of his throat.

"It certainly is," Sasuke said, "especially when it all comes down to it the only person I have left is you, Gaara."

"Well that is depressing," Gaara said and Sasuke laughed slightly.

"Yeah, let's get out of here." He muttered dumping the bottle in the undergrowth. "I'm sick of this place." Sasuke said and as Gaara turned to leave he spared one more glance at the grave they had dug.

It just looked like a pile of turned over earth and they were deep enough in the forest so that that the body wouldn't be found. There were other, older, lumps in the earth that were covered in moss and other plants that Sasuke tried not to think about too much.

Their earlier talk about family made Sasuke wonder about the man they had found, whether he had had a real family, if someone was still waiting for him to come home. He took out the necklace that he still had in his pocket, Sasuke couldn't have risked burying it with the corpse, it was supposed to be unidentifiable so he and Gaara had removed anything that could be recognisable. But for someone to have given that man this necklace to hold on to, Sasuke assumed that he must have been cared for.

"Are you coming Uchiha?" Gaara asked, Sasuke didn't reply. Gaara sighed and walked back towards him. "Hey, Sasuke." He continued and put his hand on Sasuke's arm startling the other man. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Sasuke said firmly, "Just tired after all this I guess." Gaara gave him a sceptical look but he didn't say any more and Sasuke was glad he was prepared to let it go.

"We should start heading back to receive our next assignment," Gaara said heavily and Sasuke nodded.

"Let's go." He muttered. Gaara nodded in agreement and they walked wearily towards the edge of the forest. It seemed heavier going on the way back even if they weren't physically weighed down by the body. They were both tired and neither of them were particularly looking forward to their next assignment, whatever it may be.

Where there had once been the sort of naive optimism that came with youth, it had been stamped out all to quickly after only a few short years, to be replaced by a bitter cynicism and a world weariness that came from seeing too much in such a short space of time. Too much poverty, too much hatred and too much loss. And even in the rare places like the village of Konoha that had largely avoided most of the trouble and violence, its people had a tired attitude and felt worn down after the years of shortages in food and clothing.

As many people had fled, seeking better lives in the town, people had often lost their friends and families suddenly and they were left unsure as to whether they have simply upped and moved away in search of a better life or if they had been snatched away in the night by ANBU operatives.

It was the uncertainty that had really worn away at people and Sasuke and Gaara had seen it everywhere. That and fear, as people huddled in their doorway as Sasuke and Gaara walked past, unsure what they would bring to their towns.

It was a broken country they all lived in and everyone knew it. And now they could only make the best with the fragments they had left. People now, who had grown up with the regime had learnt how to endure anything that came their way, they had never known anything else.

Sasuke fingered the necklace in his pocket thoughtfully. It was amazing that people were still capable of caring for each other and exchanging tokens like this in such a place even if it was out of some stupid sentimentality Sasuke couldn't understand.

"How long do you think it will take us to get back to the capital?" Gaara asked and Sasuke took as few more strides to catch up to Gaara.

"A week maybe." Sasuke said thoughtfully, "If we manage to get some horses and travel as long as its daylight."

"I thought so too," Gaara muttered, "How does taking the journey back slowly sound to you?" Gaara gave him a stern look as if he was daring Sasuke to suddenly turn on him. Sasuke smiled slightly.

"We could probably stretch it out to two weeks at least." Sasuke said slowly. Gaara looked relieved, or as relieved as the emotionless man could ever look. "You know, see the sights." He added and Gaara snorted.

"I think most places look the same now." He said and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Still, its better than being sent out to do God knows what on our next assignment."

"We should to hurry back." In another forest, in a different part of the country another team of two were staring down at three recently deceased members of the Resistance. The man that hadn't spoken leant down to yank his sword roughly out of the last victim.

"We need to at least get rid of these." He said with distain.

"Burn them then, then we can hurry back for our next mission." The first man said, his companion frowned at him and leant of his sword while the other hand fumbled for some matches.

"We've done solid missions for the last month Itachi, don't you want to at least slow down?" He asked.

"No," Itachi said firmly. "We need to keep moving." His partner Kisame sighed and after drenching the bodies in fluid bent down to set light to them.

"If we must." He said and Itachi gave him a sharp look. "Not all of us can work like machines Itachi, we need to rest sometime."

"You can rest when we're both dead." Itachi said stonily and Kisame cocked his head as he watched Itachi thoughtfully.

"What is it with you?" He asked and Itachi ignored him, "Seriously, we've been working together for about five years and by now I thought I'd know something about you, but you give nothing away."

"There's no point to that." Itachi said, "Besides there's no need look at my past beyond ANBU, we're not meant to be individuals, we move together as a team for the greater good." Kisame gave Itachi a steady look, almost as if he didn't believe what Itachi was saying but he didn't comment, it was too dangerous with him, Kisame had heard the rumours that this was the kid that sold out his entire family.

"Wow, you really read the entire handbook didn't you," Kisame said awkwardly to try and defuse the tension. Itachi continued to look at Kisame levelly.

"It was a requirement for our training." He said. Kisame cleared his throat.

"Well maybe not everyone has it memorised." Kisame said and this time Itachi didn't comment on it, or maybe he was lucky enough for Itachi not to actually hear his remarks.

"We have rules so we can keep order," Itachi said, "That's the point. On the other hand you seem to revel in the chaos of bloodshed."

"Each to their own." Kisame said with a grin and Itachi gave him a pointed look. "Oh come on Itachi is it so wrong that I find pleasure in what we do."

"It's a necessary evil to protect people not a game." Kisame looked at Itachi thoughtfully, dear God the poor sap seemed to genuinely believe what he was saying, most people had at least some quiet doubts but Itachi seemed to think that what they were doing was genuinely part of the greater good. Kisame didn't believe that a greater good had ever existed not under the Emperor or the Hokage's.

What Kisame didn't know about his partner was that Itachi stuck to the rules because he had nothing else to hold on to. The concrete words in the ANBU manual offered something real whereas the real world, a place of hopes and dreams had proved to be nothing but a disappointment.

Naruto had doubts. He had a lot of them. He was second guessing the trust he had placed in those two resistance members sometimes thinking that they were the genuine article and other times wondering if they were in fact ANBU in disguise. But surely, he reasoned, that if it was ANBU they would have taken him away by now.

He also began to doubt his place in the world and, for someone who was usually as self assured as Naruto was, everyone he knew had noticed the difference. He was quieter, and more reserved, abnormally so Sakura had said. There was an unspoken agreement that Naruto had been shaken by the disappearing body, he was a good person, people thought, maybe he wasn't as hardened to violence and the rest to them liked to believe they were.

Naruto thought about the Resistance a lot, a group that should never existed, that didn't exist as far as anyone knew, they had heard stories, that time the armaments factory blew sky high not so far from Konoha that Naruto could remember seeing a cloud of smoke in the distance, as a dark smudge on the horizon.

In the weeks that followed there had been a flurry of rumours that the Resistance had struck a huge blow to Danzo's regime and were targeting key areas of Fire Country to destroy Danzo's control. And then nothing else happened.

No more factories destroyed or anything else as far as they knew, and few months later a group of severe looking people decked out in uniform came to Konoha and issued an official statement. The boiler had broken and become highly pressurised, and despite the workers best efforts the factory had been destroyed. It had been a terrible loss to be sure but they were made aware that it had been nothing more than an accident, just a tragic accident that had taken away some of Fire Country's most loyal workers and did anyone have any questions.

At barely 14 Naruto had been unable to recognise the significance of what had been said, why the spokesman had said accident so much, almost every other sentence, and what had loyalty anything to do with it. But to the adults there, none who dared pose a question, they knew that it was time for any talk of the Resistance to be stamped out and that whatever had actually happened at that factory all they needed to believe was the version they were presented with now.

So it was left and nearly forgotten, if anyone felt the need to talk about what happened it was only referred to as The Accident and that was the truth as far as anyone was concerned.

And now Naruto recognised it to be a warning of sorts, a warning not to get too excited as even if the Resistance had made a small blow to Danzo he was still here to stay and for those nearby, well their loyalty would be rewarded as they would be able to keep their lives. You had to express loyalty to the regime whether you felt it or not, something Naruto was finding increasingly difficult. He could ignore it before, Konoha was relatively untouched by the changes of the regime and any drastic ones had happened when he was too young to understand what was going on.

But now he couldn't pretend it wasn't happening and Naruto was faced with a truth he didn't want to admit to himself. Their country was rotten, destroyed, and the man they were all supposed to revere and look to, to lead them was the cause. And Naruto himself could do nothing about it and he hated being helpless.

He knew that Sakura was watching him carefully, she was worried that much was evident but she was afraid to push him. After their conversation about making a leap of faith it was almost as if she didn't quite know what to say to him anymore, they avoided broaching that subject at all costs and did their best to bury it but something had changed and they both knew it.

Sakura had been spending more time with Shizune and Tsunade who were teaching her everything they knew it seemed and he often saw Sakura coming and going with increasingly bizarre looking plants that he had no idea what they were meant to be or what they were for.

Without Sakura to distract him Naruto was left with his thoughts more and more and he began to wonder if he'd ever see those two men again, whether Resistance or ANBU, and he thought that whoever they were at least they were doing something, they had something to fight for that they believed in whether it was preserving the regime or trying to break it.

And what Naruto wanted most of all was to regain some of the conviction he had before, so he could talk to Sakura and tell her that everything would turn out fine and mean it. He was older than her and Sakura used to look up to him when they were younger, she trusted him to tell her what was happening, what was right and wrong with the wisdom that children believed came from being several months older than the other.

Now, it was Naruto who was starting to look to Sakura for guidance, he was lost and now he didn't feel able to ask his best friend for help. Talk of the Resistance or anything anti-Danzo or ANBU was dangerous, even in the most secluded areas. The walls had ears. They also had eyes, mouths and hands to report you to the authorities and point you out in a crowd.

So Naruto kept everything to himself, knowing he was probably hurting his friend by refusing to confide in her, as he kept thinking about the mysterious Resistance and how, despite everything, they were fighting what seemed to be a losing battle but trying to do some good along the way. He only wished he could do the same himself.