Whew! Sorry for the long delay. I've been super busy, what with school sports/spring break/tests, the whole shebang.

Anyway, those of you waiting for Emeralds will have a longer wait. (._.) As in, it may be super long. It may return by summer, haha. Sooner, if I get to it. This one will be updated continuously, as will Obito's story. (Hopefully ^_^). I also might start one of those 100 themes things, just for fun. It'll be on all different people, not just one person or a couple. But Mariko's always included, soooo.

Speaking of Mariko, I lack Mariko in this chapter. Oh well. But hey, I'm drawing a little comic with Mariko in it, so check out my deviantART and wait for it to come out...

Besides that, I will miss mop-head and tsundere-boy! . . . I'm actually sad that the flashback's over. (no more Tobirama except for Edo Tensei...)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, of course.

I also have a gazillion other things to do. I have to read stuff by my friend Kelly, as well as...*lists off* stuff.

Like, a lot of stuff. The millions of chapters that GC has, first off. (not millions, I'm exaggerating, but still. MUST REAAAD)

Yep. That should be it...

Chapter 40: Comrade's Mission

His lips were dry, his breath ragged as he pressed a strip of his cloth to the wound. When the blood soaked through, he ripped up his own shirt and willed the blood to stop flowing. His hands shook; he gripped the fabric harder, stuffed it into the crimson gash.

"Leave me," rasped the wounded shinobi. "Someone will come soon. You have to catch up with them."

"You're dying, dammit!" the other shouted. "Don't talk!"

The wounded shinobi closed his mouth, silently watching his friend. His Sharingan had long since deactivated, chakra depleted. Kagami acknowledged the wet eyes and gritted teeth with a gentle touch.

"Go, Danzo," he murmured.

"I'm not leaving," the Shimura answered harshly.

Kagami knew that Danzo would stick to his side even if he died right then and there, but tried anyway. This was not a mission to throw away. Not this time.

"The mission needs to be completed," the Uchiha croaked, wincing when he tasted the metallic twang of blood at the back of his throat. "Backup is coming, don't worry about me."

"Shut up!" Danzo scowled at the blood seeping from Kagami's abdomen. "I will not leave you."

"Idiot," mumbled Kagami, blinking rapidly as his vision began to deteriorate. It was not his Uchiha bloodline that was taking away from his sight – he was rapidly losing consciousness, and could only see his teammate if he squinted. His peripheral vision began closing in, shutting out the majority of Danzo in front of him. "Go."

"I'll go when I'm dead," hissed Danzo, continuing to curse the wound.

"Koharu's coming, it's okay," Kagami attempted.

"Koharu's dispatched at the north end," Danzo retorted. "It'll take her thirty minutes to get here. You'll be dead."

"And our target will be long gone."

"Hiruzen wouldn't leave," Danzo said. "Hashirama-sama wouldn't leave. You wouldn't leave."

Kagami did not say anything. Danzo could not tell if it was because his point had been defeated, or because the boy was too weak to answer now. He hoped that Kagami was right; that a backup team was coming. If not, the wound would bleed out, or Danzo's petty administrations would allow it to fester and kill Kagami anyway. He had no jutsu that could cure this, he was not a medic nor a shinobi proficient with first aid. Danzo had considered utilizing some of the seals taught to him by Mito, but none of the Uzumaki formulas worked in this situation. Not even a cursed seal worked medically.

"Dammit!" he repeated.

Kagami blinked slowly.

"Danzo," he managed, just barely, "if I die, take my eyes."

"You're not dying," Danzo forced through gritted teeth.

"I know you would do good with them. Make a peaceful village. Be the change you wish to see in this world." Kagami winced, then began coughing up blood. Danzo wished he could smack those ridiculous words from Kagami's mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Kagami's vision began to fade again, and his hand dropped from Danzo's arm.

"Stay with me, Uchiha," Danzo near shouted at the shinobi, "Don't you dare die on me! Don't you dare!"

A faint smile flickered at Kagami's lips, and his eyes shut.

In horror, Danzo let go of the cloth and grabbed the boy's shoulders and screamed something incomprehensible. Kagami was limp, pale, and unmoving. Danzo's vision was blurry; he was about to pass out.

No. Danzo felt more alert than ever before, but terrified to the core. There were tears in his eyes, angry tears, clouding his sight. He was still shouting something, he had no idea what. Was he shouting for Kagami to wake up? Was he acusing the Uchiha of committing a crime by dying?

"Shove it, Shimura!"

At that moment, Danzo was harshly thrown aside by a short brunette with small hands and a small figure. He vaguely recognized her as one of his old classmates, a Senju girl with close-cropped hair and determined eyes. Her hands began to shine an eerie green, soft and warm, like a lightning bug's pulsating glow.

"Akane, status?" said another shinobi, a dark one wearing sunglasses. "The North unit is heading down," he said, when a massive group of bugs was shepherded around him. An Aburame, part of the Senju's team.

"Bad," the girl named Akane hissed. Then, she looked up briefly, eyes meeting with Danzo's. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Danzo looked helplessly at Kagami.

"Leave," she ordered firmly. Danzo shook his head, which still seemed to be out of sorts. "He's not dying anymore, go finish the mission."

"I'm not leaving," Danzo replied hoarsely.

"You are leaving," Akane said darkly, "because if you distract me any more, he will die."

And it'll be your fault, she insinuated through her forceful glare. Danzo took a step back, trying to calm his breathing. What kind of shinobi was he, showing emotion like this? He mentally punched himself, angry that he had even shed tears. In the end, he probably blamed Kagami. Stupid Uchiha, trying to die on him. He was just like Hiruzen, throwing himself in front of the stampede simply to wait for an imminent, useless death.

But Danzo found himself leaping from treetop to treetop, feet lightly hitting branches as he spurred onward. There was a loud explosion to his left, so he decided to follow it.

"GET DOWN!" came the cry. Kousuke and Homura came hurtling his way, grabbing him by the shoulders and dragging him down. They plummeted to the earth, all three striking the ground at the same time.

"You brats," seethed a menacing figure, approaching them with a short blade. He stabbed downward, but missed Kousuke by a hair because Homura had pulled the genin out of the man's reach. The bespectacled member of Team Tobirama, along with Kousuke, the eternal genin, drew their kunai. Danzo merely stared at the Kousuke's back, covered in a round plate of armor, in shock.

An exchange occurred, and it ended with the enemy's leg contacting Homura's head, sending the boy flying across a small, grassy clearing. He crashed into a tree, splintering the bark and losing his cracked glasses. Kousuke had long since been detained, crushed into the ground with some insanely powerful downwards strike.

"What are you, the backup?" sneered the shinobi. His comrades gathered beside him, appearing to be discussing their next steps. They approached him, but several kunai and shuriken shipped from behind him, deterring the enemies.

"Get up, Danzo!"

Hiruzen vaulted into the clearing, hurling a few more kunai that the enemy shinobi easily fended off. The Sarutobi approached with a mighty fire jutsu, leaping into the fray to drag Danzo out of range.

"Let go!" Danzo spat when he came to his senses, smacking away his friend's hand harshly.

"Get up!" repeated Hiruzen, attempting to pull Danzo to his feet. When Danzo finally scrambled to a standing position, Hiruzen let go and ignored him completely, hands flying through several fire jutsu seals. After warding off the enemy with a couple of fireballs, Hiruzen stepped back to contemplate.

"We need more people," Hiruzen said.

"Obviously," hissed Danzo. They were two to seven enemy shinobi, and the odds were definitely not in their favor. The one that had attacked Danzo with Homura and Kousuke had been the one that had wounded Kagami. The man's shining blade glinted almost demonically, yet Danzo's nerves prickled angrily at the sight.

Hiruzen scrabbled to his feet to avoid a deadly slash from the man with the blade. He was about to retaliate with a few kunai when a forceful wind jutsu cut off the enemy. Danzo, with a vengeance, attempted to sweep away the entire group with his powerful Fuuton. However, he was quickly knocked out by several other shinobi.

"Duck!" yelled Hiruzen, as a fireball spewed from his lips. Danzo barely managed to throw himself to the ground, a portion of his hair singed. He swore loudly at Hiruzen, but the monkey only scooped a few shuriken from his pouch and hurled them at the enemy. He engaged with the group of shinobi – they had taken out nearly half, miraculously, leaving four left – and was fending off the swordsman's short blade.

Danzo reached into his weapons pouch; he had nothing left, save two shuriken. He slipped one of them into his fingers and began to time his approach. The seconds played out, focusing more and more chakra with each mental count.

Hiruzen slashed down and broke away from the man with the blade.

One.

A second shinobi pressed his hands into a vaguely earth-attributed sequences of seals, before slamming his palms on the ground. A gigantic boulder emerged from the center of the clearing, throwing Hiruzen off balance.

Two.

The third shinobi joined the second, and together they used a Doton jutsu that smashed into Hiruzen. The fourth and last ninja was a kunoichi who rapidly dashed her way over to Hiruzen, kunai poised above her head. She was a snake about to strike.

Three.

Hiruzen dodged one.

Four.

Another Doton threw a boulder on his left arm, and the boy cried out in pain. The woman's kunai began its fast, downward arc.

Five.

Five seconds was all he needed.

"Get down!"

Hiruzen obeyed immediately, the deadly whirring of a wind-encased shuriken sending him flat on his back, eyes shut. He was glad he had not watched, because the spinning shuriken with a reach of over five feet all around had sliced the woman completely in half. Hiruzen tried to push his stomach down when blood splashed across his face, warm and sticky.

Danzo rushed over to Hiruzen, shoved the boulder off of him, and grabbed him by the good arm.

"Well that's broken," Hiruzen said rather nonchalantly, glancing at his arm. Danzo knew he was in pain, but Hiruzen did not show a shred of feeling on his face, except for the cheeky grin he offered stanchly. His eyes never strayed to the woman's corpse – well, the two parts of what it had been, anyway.

The shuriken had taken down the boulder and a line of trees, and was only now whirring to a stop as it swerved into the forest. The two Doton-users were taken aback; one of them scowled at Danzo, while the other gaped at their dead comrade.

Danzo wrapped Hiruzen's right arm around his shoulders.

"We have two options," he muttered. "Run, or stay."

"Obviously," Hiruzen chuckled, mimicking his friend earlier. Danzo threw him an annoyed glance, before casually assessing the damage done to Hiruzen's arm. But then again, he was no medic, and was in no position to judge what kind of injury the arm was sustaining. All he knew was that it did not sit right in that crooked, limp position. "Roll up your sleeve, Hiruzen."

The other boy grimaced. "I'd rather not," he managed.

"C'mon," hissed Danzo.

"We're in the middle of a battle?" Hiruzen tried, gesturing the enemy. The one Doton user who had been glaring at them was creeping forward, while the swordsman put his hand on the hilt of his blade.

"I need to know how bad it is," Danzo insisted.

"Can't I just have Akane look at it?"

"We'll be dead by then."

"Don't talk like that," Hiruzen scolded, almost like Toka clucking at her team. "How many more of the shuriken do you have?"

"One."

"Fantastic," groaned Hiruzen, glancing at his feet. When he didn't look up, Danzo wondered what he was thinking about. There was no time to ask, however, when the two Doton-users emerged from behind a smaller set of rocks and came at them with kunai and shuriken flying about.

Danzo shoved Hiruzen aside and turned so that his back would take the brunt of the attack, for they'd no time to defend, but a set of kunai from the corner of the field covered for them. Both boys glanced over at Homura, who laid on the ground with his arm outstretched, the last of his kunai as well as his energy spent.

"Go," Homura managed to shout weakly.

Hiruzen fumbled with his weapons pouch, and pulled out a roll of gauze.

"That's not going to help us now," Danzo said.

"I can still try." He somehow managed, with Danzo's brief aid, to sling his arm in the weak wrap. Though he couldn't weave seals now, Hiruzen managed to back up Danzo decently. Engaging with the two earth-style shinobi, they clashed kunai to kunai. A Doton technique struck Hiruzen's left arm, and he fell with a cry.

One,Danzo counted. He had this one chance, to line them up. He grabbed a fallen kunai and whipped it at the man about to leap on Hiruzen with a fist made of rock.

Two.

The man shouted angrily when the kunai found a gap in his armor and stabbed his side. He pulled it out of his abdomen and turned back to Hiruzen, who had wiggled his way free of the rock formation and was scuffling to his feet.

Three.

The fist of rock nearly made contact with Hiruzen, but the boy dodged and swung out a leg. His kick proved to be useless against the hard armor of the enemy shinobi, while his other partner circled round and came from behind.

Four.

Hiruzen leapt out of the way, parrying with a few kunai he'd grabbed from the ground. He managed to throw the second shinobi aside, crashing him right into his comrade.

Five. There it was, his chance. The two enemy ninja, side-by-side. The shuriken came to his lips, and Danzo exhaled an impossibly fast current of biting wind. The metal made a slight screeching noise before picking up his chakra flow and coalescing into a deadly, whirling Fuuton weapon.

Hiruzen vaulted backwards, out of range of the shuriken. Again, he turned away quickly when the wind shuriken sliced through the shinobi with a deafening screech. The accompanying squelch of flesh sent his stomach into his throat, but he was a shinobi, and he held it down. The two enemies, taken by surprise at this setup, stared in shock as their bodies tore into two, one of them turning to see Danzo a split second before his upper body disconnected from his lower.

"Nice, Danzo!" exclaimed Hiruzen.

"Shut up, you idiot," hissed the Shimura, watching his shuriken take down another line of forest before spinning to a stop. "We just have to—"

A blade ran itself through Danzo's body, appearing right in the center of his abdomen. The swordsman had come from behind him, silently. He brusquely withdrew the short sword from Danzo's back, flicking the blood off the tip and returning it to its sheath.

"Not bad, for brats," the man said lightly. "What a shame."

Hiruzen's mouth was open, but nothing had come from his throat. He watched Danzo sink to his knees, then collapse face-first in the soil. His shoulder struck a corner of the boulder that had emerged with the Doton jutsu, and he slumped sideways.

"Hiruzen," croaked Danzo. "Run."

Danzo's arm, caught under his body, felt the blood seeping from the wound. His hand was completely soaked in the crimson, too weak to try and cover the cut.

Hiruzen didn't budge. Even when the swordsman came over and threw him down, kicking his head and tossing him against the stone wall of the boulder, Hiruzen did not leave. He fought back as best he could, but he never followed Danzo's orders to leave.

"Run, Hiruzen!" screamed Danzo, his vision hazing over.

"NO!" the other boy screamed back, facing the brunt of a cruel punch to the face.

"Dammit, Hiruzen, get out of here!" Danzo hollered, his breath running short now that he'd lost so much blood and was fading from consciousness far too quickly for his comfort.

"I'm not leaving!" his friend stubbornly shouted at him, ignoring the pain of his arm and attempting a meager fire jutsu made with seals from one hand. The swordsman laughed roughly and easily pushed Hiruzen back.

"I should just finish you off, shouldn't I?" he said. "This is fun, isn't it? I'll have your dying friend watch you die, too."

"GO!"

"I will not leave you."

The solid resolve that rooted itself in Hiruzen's eyes, baring its fangs, silenced Danzo.

Hiruzen would not have left.

Hadn't he said that to Kagami? Yet he had left in the end, because the circumstances had allowed him to. At this time, there was no one here to save them. And thus, Hiruzen would not leave. He would never leave.

"That's a great decision, brat!" exclaimed the swordsman, throwing Hiruzen off his feet with a hard fist strike. Lying on his back, gasping for breath, Hiruzen fumbled with a kunai. The man stepped on the boy's hand, crushing Hiruzen's fingers with his boot. The knife clattered from his hand and he was defenseless before the tall shinobi, whose sword glinted in the sunlight. "You can watch each other die," snarled the man, drawing his blade.

Hiruzen began to tremble, despite his efforts to remain still. Both hands incapacitated and his legs turned to jelly, he was helpless. The sword tip brushed his chest, and he stiffened. The swordsman aligned his blade perpendicular to Hiruzen's chest and raised it.

A short, descending stroke.

Danzo cried out.

And then his vision faded to darkness.

It was a cool, light space. It felt like the ocean was washing over him, the soft lull of waves crashing to the shore a comforting hum in his ears. He didn't want to open his eyes; it was peaceful. Water lapped at his face and he felt the tide level pulling back, leaving him on moist land. He willed the waves to return, to cushion him and allow him to float again.

Hey! Can you hear me? Danzo? Danzo!

Someone was trying to pull him from his imaginary beach. A hand grabbed his shoulder and rolled him over onto his back, but his arms were lead and he could not swat them away. Again, wishing for the waves to lighten the dead weight of his body.

He's not getting up. Akane, what do we do?

I'll start healing him, keep trying to wake him up.

What about Hiruzen?

Hiruzen's with Koharu, he'll be fine.

Danzo? Danzo!

Names. He could not place these names to faces, only that they were vaguely familiar, and that he should've known them. The voices were even more baffling – a girl was speaking, but who was this girl? And a boy, achingly familiar. He could neither put a face nor a name to these voices, and it frustrated him. He simply wanted to fade back to the washed out whiteness that he'd been blissfully floating in, the water soothing his entire existence.

Get up, Shimura!

He didn't want to get up.

C'mon, Danzo, I know you're there!

This voice. A new one. Somehow, this new person did not sit right with him. He remembered something now. He remembered something that had happened literally moments before he'd felt the water rushing upon him like a powerful sea creature, horses made of water drawing frothing wave chariots. A falling blade into a trembling boy.

That boy was talking to him.

Danzo! Hey, Danzo!

C'mon, Danzo, get up! Akane, how's he doing?

He's still bleeding, just keep him awake!

He's not even conscious!

Well make him conscious!

Now he was confused. There were too many people. He couldn't count. One, two…three? Or four? No, three.

But the boy, the one that was dead but not dead. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be dead. The more he thought about it, the more his mind became jumbled. He tried not to remember, yet at the same time, strained to pick out a missing memory. It floated in the distance, buoying in the nonexistent waves.

Water.

"DANZO!" Hiruzen screamed in his ear, as an enormous stream of water came crashing down on Danzo's face. The Shimura spluttered and coughed to a sitting position, only to fall back when his wound screamed. He found his head being held by a wrapped up Kagami, his arm clutched by Hiruzen, and the chestnut-haired Senju named Akane trying to heal him. The strange green glow that warmed his skin was oddly comforting, and the sensation of his wound slowly closing up held him in awe for a moment.

At the same time, he was still choking on the water that had been dumped in his face as he came to. Looking to the source, he saw Tobirama standing over him.

"Sensei, are you trying to drown him?!" exclaimed Koharu, a little ways off.

"He's alive and awake, isn't he?" deadpanned the Senju, folding his arms. He kneeled then, arming clinking as he bent over. "You all right?"

Danzo's eyes flickered between Tobirama's firm but concerned gaze to Akane's green chakra misting over his wound. He nodded, then coughed again. The white-haired Senju set a hand on Danzo's shoulder, and then stood up.

"Kagami."

"What's up, buddy?" asked the Uchiha from behind him, still cradling his head like he would a sick child. It must've been the brotherly instincts, developed from years of caring for his little sister. Danzo would have laughed at this, just a little, had he been without a wound and not nearly dead from blood loss.

"What happened to that…shinobi? The one that Hiruzen was fighting," Danzo managed to croak out.

"Tobirama-sama jumped in," Kagami explained. "I saw the whole thing when Akane and I reached the clearing."

Danzo squinted, trying to recall if he had seen anything. All he could remember was water, but then again, he supposed that he had not been dreaming if Tobirama had indeed arrived. He imagined the water sweeping the swordsman out of the way, saving Hiruzen by a hair. Looking around, Danzo found the place where Hiruzen had fallen. To his horror, the swordsman was impaled on his own blade, fallen face first to the ground. If he retraced evidence of battle, the man appeared to have been struck from behind – an enormous gash on the back of his head and down his shoulder blade was evidence of Tobirama's katana – before he'd fallen. After that, Tobirama must have grabbed the blade and put it through the shinobi's heart. Danzo almost pitied him. Almost.

"Kagami?"

"Yeah?" Kagami helped Akane, along with the recently arrived backup-medical crew, turn Danzo so that the other side of the wound could be healed. Danzo had been impaled straight through, after all.

"How are you feeling?"

The Uchiha laughed lightly at this. He had a pleasant laugh, that Kagami. A light and airy tone that exuded a weightlessness to it, as if all was right in the world.

"I'm doing just fine, Danzo. Better than you," joked Kagami, looking down at his friend.

"Better than Danzo? I think not, Kagami," snorted Hiruzen, kneeling beside them. "Unless I'm mistaken, you had a sword run through your too, didn't you?"

"But I wasn't shish kabobbed," answered Kagami, patting his bandaged side lightly. Hiruzen rolled his eyes and leaned over Danzo, grinning.

"How are you doing?" he asked jovially.

"Worse, now that you're here."

"You ruin the fun," said Hiruzen, despite his growing smile.

"And you're going to kill him again," Akane snapped, waving Hiruzen away. "You're all in my way!" She shooed everyone except Kagami away, sending the rest of the medical unit to help others. Hiruzen's arm had been set and put in a temporary sling, to be casted upon return to Konoha. Homura had a concussion and Kousuke had a blue-black bruise on his cheek, but other than that, no one was near death. "Go away, Sarutobi," hissed Akane, picking up a random kunai and waving it threateningly.

"Why does Kagami get to stay?" pouted the monkey, moping childishly.

"He's actually helping," the Senju girl retorted, plucking a pack of string from her pouch. She found herself facing a sulky Hiruzen and an amused Tobirama. Akane shrugged sheepishly at her clan head's brother, but he waved her off mildly. He didn't mind the Hiruzen-teasing game.

Danzo, on the other hand, was watching Akane pull out the string. A sharp hook at the end made him wary, and he began to squirm.

"I'm going to numb you," Akane said, pulling out some other medical ninja thing that Danzo had no name for, "and then do my best to sew the rest of this wound up. I've closed the internal cuts, and now you've just got shallow incisions on both sides."

Now, if Mito-sama had been working on him, Danzo would have handed her his life without a second thought. But here he was, tensed up before a snappy brunette who looked like she could strangle a man with that string.

"She's not going to kill you, Danzo," Tobirama said from behind him, as if reading his mind. Danzo, because he couldn't turn and look at Tobirama, just remained silent. He felt Kagami's chest rumble in silent laughter.

Soon enough, his midsection was numb, and he was watching the slightly horrifying process of closing up his wound. Akane expertly sutured the wound shut, quickly looping her hook and string through the opening.

"There. Not dead, are you?" Akane grinned smugly, before cutting off the loose ends of the sutures and standing up. "You'll be dizzy, but alive."

Kagami helped Danzo stand. He looped an arm over his shoulders and helped his teammate hobble over to the others.

"Now wait a minute," barked Koharu. "Why do we have one shish kabobbed shinobi helping another shish kabobbed shinobi?" Scowling, she scuttled over to Kagami's side and unlatched him from Danzo. She slung the Uchiha's arm around her shoulders and helped him over to the group. Hiruzen, in turn, grabbed Danzo quickly and did the same.

"I don't need your help," Danzo said. "Let go."

"I'm not leaving any time soon," Hiruzen replied, grinning. His smile was whiter than his teeth, and its bright intensity almost hurt Danzo's eyes. But he recognized his best friend's resolve all the same, and accepted the help. Just this once.

"It's not like I want your help," Danzo offered. He grimaced, because now he just sounded like a tsundere in denial. Then again, he'd always wondered if he harbored a two-faced personality. Not that he cared.

"Sure you don't," laughed Hiruzen.

"Let's go home," said Tobirama, waving the platoon members over. He pulled a scroll from the dead swordsman's pouch and flipped it open. "We're done here."

Hiruzen jumped up and down in excitement, jostling Danzo painfully. He thrust a fist into the air.

"All right! When we're back, who's up for barbecue?!"

Hey, random Emeralds characters!

Akane...Tsunemori Akane from Psycho-Pass is the inspiration here. I just turned her into a Senju, lol. And changed her personality a bit.

Besides that, this was surprisingly long...

Ciao for now ~