A Surrender?

Naruto stood upon a rocky outcrop, on the borders of the Fire country, Sakura and Sasuke sitting a little distance away from him, kindling a small cooking fire. The Hokage looked across the horizon, hoping for any clue as to what was going on. It had been his decision to go towards the Rain country with his old team. When he had heard about Shino and his ANBU team's capture, he'd decided to personally find out what had happened. But so far, in the two days they had been travelling, they had encountered no attacks, and had heard nothing from any one from Suna or Konoha. This worried Naruto greatly, and as he stood on this rock, he scanned the countryside around him, hoping for some kind of hint, anything to lead him onwards.
"Sakura. Could you pass me some bread please?" Sasuke asked in a low voice.
Sakura kept her head down and nodded, tearing off a lump of the doughy bread and passing it to him. He dipped it into his broth and began to eat, all the while his face completely void of emotion.
Sakura looked closely at him, when she was sure he wouldn't notice. The firelight flickered on his face, and she could see how he had aged. But every now and then, at a certain angle, she could see the old Sasuke. The Sasuke she had loved with all her heart. The one who had abandoned her without hope of him ever returning. He wasn't any less handsome than he had been then, not at all. On the contrary, Sakura felt he had aged extremely well. Maybe even better than her own husband, who had many a line on his face nowadays, and a podgy belly from too much ramen and too few missions. She drank the rest of her soup, and walked to where Naruto was standing, hoping for some comforting words.
"Sakura-chan. Go to sleep now. I'm on lookout, and you need the rest." Naruto pouted, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and then turned away from her again.
The pink-haired ninja stepped backwards, muttering 'baka' under her breath. She found herself feeling alone. Again. It wasn't that her marriage to Naruto hadn't been wonderful in its own way. It was just that…He was the only man she'd ever been with. The only man she'd slept next to, cooked for, cleaned up after. She'd raised his children. With his Hokage duties, she felt she didn't get to see him that often. And that hurt. For the past 10 years, she had felt more alone than she had ever felt, her entire life. Including after Sasuke had left her behind.
Now, she laid out her sleeping mat next to Sasuke's, and bedded down for the night. Within minutes, she was asleep, breathing softly, her pink hair falling across her face.
Sasuke stirred, turning over to reach for his gourd of water. His eyes fell upon Sakura's sleeping form, her face covered by long strands of her hair. He looked up. Naruto was sat, engaged in conversation with a shadow clone of himself. Sasuke almost laughed despite himself, "Baka…" he muttered.
Carefully and silently he reached out a hand and gently moved the wisps of hair from her pale face. With that, he took a sip of water and turned again, closing his eyes tightly.

*

Tsunade stood at the gates of Konoha. All around her were bodies, fires, and evidence of destruction. But at least the battle was over: for now anyway. She sighed deeply, turning towards a tall, silent chuunin who stood beside her.
"Do you think they'll come back, Tsunade-sama?" Aburame Taro asked her.
She knew he referred to the enemy ninja who had attacked.
"That I don't know. For now, we clean up as much as we can."
"Hai." He nodded, and sped off into the village.
Naruto. Where are you? When Konoha needed you most, where were you?

*

Tenten struggled onwards through the smoke. She knew she wasn't far from the hospital. Not too long now. Her head was thumping, and she her breathing was laboured. She knew she had lost a lot of blood, and right now was not the best time to be staggering through the derelict streets of her village, but she couldn't stop until she had found Neji, and both were by their daughter's bedside. She paused at a street corner to get her bearings. Why was everything so fuzzy? Slowly but surely she trudged on, and eventually came to Konoha's hospital. Her hands shot up to her mouth.
Half the building had been destroyed. The front wall on the right hand side had been completely ripped away, baring the rooms inside for the entire world to see. Tenten's throat constricted. Hoshi's room was on the right hand side of the building, on the third floor.
The woman hurried forwards, bursting through the doors and stumbling to the reception desk as if she expected to find someone there. The whole place seemed deserted. Shaking her head, she made her way to the stairs, taking two steps at a time as she ran upwards. Her footsteps echoed throughout the corridor as she ran towards her daughter's room, her ears straining for any noise at all.
She flung the door open, her heart in her mouth.

The room was bare.

*

Akane awoke to Akako's wet nose sniffing at her face. The dog had her paws on Akane's shoulders and was whining. Ichiru sat at the foot of the bed, pulling his trousers on.
"We…we fell asleep? How could we fall asleep at a time like this?" she exclaimed.
"Akane-chan…you fell asleep. And you were only down for a few minutes. I think Akako heard something outside, so we should go take a look."
Akane sat up quickly, jumped down from the bed and whispered to Akako. The dog yapped once, and then trotted out of the door, the two ninja following. Akane's head was spinning. Only a few minutes ago she and Ichiru had shared a kiss, a wonderful, beautiful kiss. And now it was back to reality, so abruptly.
A sound from upstairs made her snap out of it. She quickly activated her Byakugan.
Above them, on the third floor was a woman, obviously in a lot of difficulty. Akane quickly began climbing the stairs to reach her.

Tenten stumbled again, this time falling to the floor. She put her hands out in front of her, palms flat upon the floor as she felt the tears well up.
"Hoshi? Hoshi, is that you?" she cried out feebly.
"Tenten-san!"
Akane had found her aunt.
She was bleeding heavily, and obviously running a high fever.
"Tenten-san, where's…where's the baby?" The Inuzuka said, panicking suddenly, thinking that Tenten had been left in the hospital alone throughout the attack.
The older woman shook her head.
"Safe…" She croaked, before slumping to the floor.
"Ichiru! Ichiru, please get help!" Akane screamed, holding her aunt up, calling her name softly.

*

"Finally! I've reached you!"
Sakura awoke to the sound of voices. Sasuke's, Naruto's and one she did not know.
"Tsubame reporting, Hokage-sama. I've come directly from Konoha. The village is under attack. I've been tracking you forever!"
The young jounin looked tired out, and so Sakura offered her some water.
"No thank you, Sakura-sama. We must leave immediately!"
Naruto turned to face the group.
"Okay. We leave right away. You, Tsubame?"
"Hai?"
"I want you to assemble a team as soon as you reach Konoha. This team will take over my mission."
"What mission is that, Hokage-sama?"
"To rescue Aburame Shino and his troop."
The jounin was silent. She watched the now legendary trio gather their belongings in awe. For her whole life she had heard tales of the three ninja, each trained by one of the famous Sannin: One, a do-gooder, the carrier of the Kyuubi and trained by Jiraiya, the renowned frog-hermit (and perverted author of many books). The second, a medic-nin, trained by the fifth Hokage Tsunade. The third, the famed 'Last Uchiha', trained by renegade ninja Orochimaru, and whom no one in Konoha seemed to entirely trust but the original 'Rookie Nine' (what those original and last great ninja were known as). Tsubame felt privileged to be able to travel with these great ninja, and would follow her Hokage's orders with no hesitation.

Nara Shinju blanked her mother as the woman tried to give her a hug. Temari frowned, and turned away, folding her arms as Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"Shinju-chan, it's not your mum's fault, okay? Gaara-san has decided it's for the best."
Shinju pouted and turned away from her father, hoisting her rucksack onto her back and walking slowly towards the gates. Temari let a tear escape her before she sighed deeply and called after her daughter that she loved her. Shikamaru put his arms around his wife, whispering that things would be fine, and at least the attack on Suna had stopped.
Actually, the leader of the enemy troop that attacked Suna was being interrogated as they stood there, having turned up at the village a few hours before to surrender. It seemed the enemy had cut their losses and decided to give up. And this certainly didn't sound like the work of the Akatsuki, from all the things Shikamaru had heard. Even after this, Gaara had still insisted on sending Shinju home to Konoha, as his mind was now fully made up. Shikamaru knew better than to argue with his brother-in-law. Last time he'd disagreed with Gaara - over the name of Yukio - Shikamaru had ended up buried in sand with just his head poking out the top. It took 3 hours for Temari to find him, and by this point Shikamaru had decided that Yukio was a fine name for his son, maybe even the best name ever created.
He was unconscious for a few days. Lack of water had caused delirium.
The Konoha ninja smiled at this memory despite himself. This family was definitely dysfunctional in the extreme. But he'd never been happier.
He knew Shinju would be safe. The message that Konoha had been attacked had reached them only an hour before a second message, apologising for the delay of the first, and saying that Konoha was now safe, and that the leader had surrendered there too.
Something about this whole thing didn't seem quite right to Shikamaru, and he began to wonder what exactly was going on.

*

Akane stood silently in the doorway to Tenten's room. As luck would have it, Tsunade had been on her way back towards the hospital when Ichiru ran into her. The medic-nin had immediately come to Tenten's aid, taking her to a room in the almost undamaged part of the hospital and putting her to bed. Ichiru had then been sent to find Hirokazu; after Tenten had told them he was safe with a villager before passing out completely.
Akane waited until she was sure her aunt was asleep, and then asked Tsunade if she could talk to her. They went into the corridor, the blonde ninja closing the door shut behind them.
"Tsunade-sama. Hoshi-san's room was…empty."
Tsunade looked shocked.
"Where is Neji-san?" she asked.
However, she did not wait for an answer and span around, leaving the hospital through a window. Akane sighed, and went into Tenten's room, perching on the edge of the bed and holding her aunt's hand tightly.

*

Ichiru breathed a sigh of relief when he found the elderly woman who had been caring for the baby Hyuuga. Thankfully, she'd been concerned about the mother's whereabouts and had been asking any passing ninja if they knew where she had gone. Ichiru held the tiny bundle in his arms; scared he might drop it, having never been around babies before. Hirokazu seemed content enough, gazing up at the Uchiha with his pale, lilac orbs. Ichiru smiled down at the satisfied baby, and quickly headed back towards the hospital. The woman who had cared for him explained that thankfully her daughter had a young baby, and so Hirokazu had been fed. Ichiru blushed at the implications of this statement, had made his excuses and then left.
Once at the hospital, he laid the baby into a cot Tsunade had bought into Tenten's room. In the last few hours, the ninja and townspeople had already begun to fix up Konoha, and the hospital was full of the injured, nurses and doctors, and people generally tidying. The right side of the hospital had been cordoned off, and was being searched as Ichiru and Akane stood by Tenten's bed. The woman was now awake, but did nothing but cry. Neji still hadn't been located, and Hoshi had not been found either. Akane tried her best to comfort her, but no words could ease her mind.
Ichiru eventually persuaded Akane to come to the Hyuuga compound with him, to change their clothes and eat before helping with the clean up operation. It was now the middle of the night, but the village was a beehive of activity as the two ninja walked the streets.
"Everyone has come together immediately to help fix everything up." Ichiru said in awe.
Akane nodded, "Everyone in Konoha is loyal. We're all a big family, I suppose."
Ichiru blushed a little as he reached out to take Akane's hand in his own.
The girl gave him a coy smile, interlacing her fingers with his own.
A shout a little further down the street made them break apart, as a ninja came running towards them. It was Aburame Taro.
"I've been looking for you. Tsunade-sama has found Neji-san. He's been taken to your house. Tsunade said something about Hoshi-chan too."
Akane nodded once and set off towards her home, Ichiru following.

"I left her. I left her there, to fend for herself. And now… now… where is she?"
Neji sat at the table, his head in his hands. Tsunade sat opposite him.
"I'm sure we'll find Hoshi, Neji-san. But right now your wife and son are in the hospital waiting for you."
"How the hell can I possibly be a father to a new baby right now? I can't even look after my only daughter!" Neji shook his head, swiftly rising from his seat and leaving the room.
Tsunade slumped in her chair, not knowing what to do now. She was acting Hokage with Naruto gone, and had deployed many ninja to search the hospital and the rest of Konoha. No news was heard yet about Hoshi though.
A few minutes after Neji's departure, Akane, Akako and Ichiru arrived in the kitchen to find Tsunade sitting in the same spot.
"Tsunade-sama? Where is uncle Neji?"
"He left. Hoshi-san is missing. We can't find her anywhere, and by gods we've looked. Now Neji blames himself and refuses to see Tenten and the baby. And Naruto is god knows where. I have the leader of the enemy troops being interrogated as we speak, and I'm getting nothing out of him. None of these events make sense, but somehow…somehow…" Tsunade trailed off, suddenly jumping to her feet and leaving the room muttering.
"Akane, sit down. Please. It'll be a few hours yet before the maids are back. And god knows when your family will return. So I'm going to make us some food and then we're going to sleep." Ichiru said, turning towards the stove.
Akane sat down wearily, her thoughts focused on the day's events. She'd fought as hard as she could, but still Ichiru had been injured. He'd done extremely well for someone who'd only been training for a few months. Unbelievably well in fact. His Sharingan had been activated, and it had made him able to follow the movements of the enemy ninja perfectly, and he had defeated quite a few all on his own. Of course, Akane had guessed this on her own, from sneaking glances at him mid-fight. This must be the famous Uchiha bloodline limit, and what made them such a great clan.

*

Inuzuka Kiba led his haphazard group through the forests. It was the dead of night now, and they knew that Konoha was not far. The ninja had been so relieved upon receiving a message from Suna. A young chuunin had been on his way to Konoha from Suna, with a message from the Kazekage to be delivered personally to the Hokage. He had stumbled across the Konoha ninja, and after declaring they were no threat to each other, told them of the attack on Suna, the surrender of the enemy leader, and of course the same events happening in Konoha. Hinata had made the decision that they would head home, relieving the chuunin of his message and heading off straight away.
Nara Yukio had been reluctant to go back to Konoha, wanting really badly to go to Suna and see if his parents were okay, but Hinata had convinced him that it would be safer to go back to Konoha with them, where his parents wanted him to be.
Now, Kiba worried about his own family. His daughters, who would have been caught up in this attack; he hoped they were okay.

The laughter echoed within the stone walls of his room. The boy looked frightened, although he had tried to hide it. Water leaked from the ceiling, dripping slowly onto the stone-flagged floor below. The boy pulled his knees up to his chin and wept. Outside, the laughter continued, fading away gradually as the person walked away. Cold and scared, the boy fell asleep, more from sheer exhaustion than relaxation.