(AN: I acctually cried as I wrote this! Cripes! Anyhoo... review please, I haven't had any yet... I couldn't write this chapter for ages because I just couldn't think what to put in it! Ah well it's here now, Enjoy!)

Chapter 6 - First Mission - Hell on Earth

Her lower lip trembled. Her breath trapped in her chest, buzzing and fluttering with fear. The vicious roar rippling across the land. They couldn't even see it yet, but they knew it was coming for them…

The Nine-Tails…

The thought in Kaida's head made her body shiver involuntarily, her eyes alert and scanning through the trees for the monster. It shrieked once more, and the scent of rancid breath flushed through the air. It was so close, so near… and Kaida knew she was going to die.

A small whimper crept out of her throat as she hardly dared to breath, and she mentally cussed at herself. Toshi placed a hand on her shoulder, offering her a little support, keeping none for himself.

Looking down at his daughter, he cursed the way of the ninja, the way of the world, and the beast that now rose it's head above the trees and glared in his direction. His will nearly quavered. He wanted to run and hide, every fibre of his being screamed at him to flee, and yet the fear was strong enough to freeze him to the spot. Such indecision could be the bane of any one.

The men and women on either side of them looked on in fear and anger. Fear for their lives, and the lives of the ones they loved, and anger at the beast for daring to attack them in the first place. A couple took a hesitant step back, but shuffled back in to the line after a moment. Toshi knew they wanted to run, and admired their resolve when they made the decision to stay and fight.

Kaida took a deep breath, her back tingling with anticipation, her hand on her sword clenched tighter. Although she wanted nothing better than to bury herself away for a thousand years until everything was gone, she also wanted to get out there and so some damage, to shed the blood of her enemy, to get it over with. Like a plaster, quickly, to lessen the pain.

She looked over towards the Hokage, he stood tall, strong and defiant. His sunshine hair almost glowing in the sunset, his blue eyes focused on the target. The fox roared challenge, and as the last sliver of gold vanished under the horizon, like some unspoken agreement, the two sides sprang into action.

The fox seemed to grin, and lashed out with his tails, sending trees into, and indeed through people. Blood flowed all too soon for Kaida's liking, and she knew here on the wall she wasn't any safer than anyone else. Toshi, looked her in the eye as he leapt over the edge of the wall, heading to death she believed, and she saw tears. He mouthed the words, 'I love you', and vanished over the edge. She cried out to him, her voice lost in the screech of the monster.

No, she wouldn't go down easy, she would go down only when that 'thing' was dead. She would fight and fight and fight, she would never give up. She would protect the people she cared about, and the people she didn't even know, the men and women of Konoha, the children that would rebuild and become the future of them all. With this thought and a yell of battle, Kaida inherited the Will of Fire. She flung herself off the wall, into the fray, the abyss.

Rain began to fall on the burned, sullied earth. Attempting to cleanse it. Rivers overflowed and the battlefield became a mire of mud and putrid bodies… all Konoha ninja.

Laying half in and half out of a puddle under the roots of what once was a great pine, Kaida tended to the wounds she had already received. Where was everyone? There were people everywhere, dead and alive, but no one she knew. Why couldn't she find them? She needed to find them, to assure herself that they were safe… but were they really? She had refrained from looking at any of the bodies too closely, fearing that she might see something she wouldn't like.

Toshi cradled the body of one of the new Genin, crushed by a tree, he'd got his right leg crushed trying to save him. The beast was still over them, they were in his shadow. The stench of death rolled over it in every direction, sending every living thing into a pit of despair.

Iruka screamed at his mother. She was leaning out, her arm outstretched towards the body of his father, who, until seconds ago, was making an attempt to save another comrade from a fireball of seemingly unquenchable consistency. Claws lashed out and she was flung through the air, her body landing hard on the cracked ground… laying limp, never to rise again. Iruka watched his mother fly, it was like everything was in slow motion, her arms and legs twisting in ways that shouldn't be possible. He screamed his pain and anguish to the heavens, stood, shaking off the mud and slime, trying to charge forward and avenge his parents. Strong arms wrapped themselves about his waist, dragging him back, to the wall. Broken in places he was pulled through with ease. Exhaustion, fear, anger and pain eventually subdued the child, and he passed out.

Toshi looked up at the sky, his head beginning to spin with the pain, his vision blurred. The fox had moved over, away from him, to kill some of his other friends. Medical ninja found him, and knew they had to get him to an aid tent fast or he would die. His leg though. The tree was much too heavy to move.

"I'm sorry," said one, "We're going to have to amputate your leg. This is going to hurt."

Toshi screamed like he had never screamed before, as his leg was sliced free, and his blood pooled out of him. Darkness caught up with him.

Kaida stumbled to her feet, watching the beast tear apart Shouta Inoue, her examiner from yesterday. She looked away, towards the horizon. The sky was just beginning to turn. The sun would rise soon. She began to pray, to any god listening, 'Please, please, please, let me live. I don't want to die.'

As if in answer to her begging, the fox turned away, looking towards the wall, away from her. It cried out in anger… and worry…?

What could be happening over there that would make the beast fear? The Hokage's words reached her ears, the wind suddenly picking up and throwing them towards the foul creature. The distant cry of a baby also reached her, and the fox's eyes widened, it growled, and looked around, as though for means of escape. The wind rose higher, screaming in protest at the monster, binding it where it stood. Kaida tried to look up at the beast once more, but the wind pushed her face down on the earth. There was an almost earth shattering screech from the Nine-Tails, and then… nothing.

Peering up, Kaida saw only the corn blue of the new sky, the glitter of a fresh sun. She smiled softly, closed her eyes and put her head back down in the dirt. She slipped out of waking.

White.

Everything was white.

Everything was… warm, and soft…

Where am I? Kaida thought, What happened?

For a moment she saw the Hokage's back as he faced the Nine-Tails on the wall, The distant glow of the sunset shining on them both.

She sat up suddenly, the nurses rushed to her side, pushing her back down. She screamed, her eyes wide with fear, the fox's eyes staring right at her!

"She needs to be sedated!"

Cried on voice, there was a sharp pain in her arm for a second, and the girl looked down at her arm like she was amazed it was even there before slumping forward.