Chapter 11 - Bloodshed

Our young destroyer left Kiri in a blazing mess. The Mizukage was dead and so were 90% of their shinobi forces. The villagers had hid in the safe houses but some were braver helping to put out fires that swept the village or find survivors. Chōjūrō was the one to find Mai's body. He stood in shock of the carnage that lay before him. He had done as instructed but left her with Ao but even he was not strong enough to protect her. He spotted Ao's body a couple meters away, half of his body burned beyond recognition and the other so badly bruised you would think his skin was purple. Chōjūrō dropped to his knees with his head in his hands praying that it was a horrible dream. The shinobi with him watched as their fist in command broke down in front of them.

~X~

Sasuke's Apartment

Sasuke woke up to Hinata sleeping soundly beside him snuggling in closer for his warmth. Taking a quick glance at the time he needed to get her up, not matter how much he loved her like this or how he would love to sleep in with her.

"Hime… time to wake-up." He whispered into her ear with his husky morning tone. Hinata hummed as he sent a tingling feeling down her spine.

She placed the palm of her hand on his chest while trying to bring her body closer to his. "Sasu…"

"Come on Hime it the second day, you don't want to be late." Her eyes lazily opened to see him starting at her with laughter filling his eyes. She loved looking in to his eyes. To her it held the most emotion. Even if you could not tell how he is feeling from the way he looks his eyes will always tell you just had to know how to. Her indigo coloured hair fell over her shoulders covering the top of her bust as she stood from the bed. Sasuke took the chance to pull her close for a brief kiss before he left to change. Hinata looked at him and his eyes told her everything she needed to know. He will always be there for her.

~X~

Hokage Tower

It had been 6 hours since she had seen Sasuke and the amount of paperwork she had to through was taking its toll but as a consolation, it was almost completed. She had told Shikamaru to take a break not too long ago while she finished the last of them, that's until she saw a messenger hawk fly directly to her. She quickly got up and raised her arm before it reached the window. The emblem on the scroll read 'Kirikage' but the colour of the scroll it what worried her. The last time she saw this colour scroll was when the world was at war. Quickly opening the scroll with a small burst of chakra she scanned its' contents. Her eyes narrowed and she motioned for her anbu.

"Get me Kakashi, Shikamaru and your captain now; also place the village under high alert no one gets in without proper clearance the villagers do not need to just yet." With a bow, they were gone. Hinata went back to read the letter again trying get any more information that she might of missed. Moments later Shikamaru joined her looking confused.

"What's going on?" Hinata handed him the letter. While reading the letter he face contorted into a painful expression. "This is…"

"I know. We don't have much on him but from what I can tell he is pure destruction." She clenched her teeth in frustration as she thought about it more. Sasuke and Kakashi entered together through the open window feeling light hearted after their friendly match but soon felt the tension in the air. Shikamaru passed them the letter to read while he helped Hinata layout maps of the elemental nation. Sasuke looked calm but the chakra that radiated of him told a different story, Kakashi place his hand on his shoulder to break him out of his focus to stop sending out so much of chakra.

"From what I can tell from the letter He is going to head to Kumogakure next but he could easily cut across and head here. What do you think Shika?" Shikamaru was about to respond but Sasuke quickly cut in.

"If his coming here we need to get you a safe place away from here."

"No. I will not leave. This is my village now and I will stay here and protect the people in it whether you like it or not. Shikamaru, do you have any idea who this person might be?" Sasuke looked at her stunned by her words. Kakashi tapped him on his back before he stepped forward.

"I might have an idea of what he is but I will need to do some digging before I can give you any information we can use."

"Okay, good go now and keep me informed. Shikamaru go with him if you find anything you are our best bet at figuring out an attack plan. Sasuke I need you on the perimeter defence, make sure we are secure use the anbu but leave the skeleton crew with me, I don't need the village finding out about this when we have so little information."

"Hai" Kakashi and Shikamaru left, heading towards the Konoha archives. Sasuke stayed behind watching Hinata getting ready to write a letter.

"Hime think this through it's not safe anymore."

"Sasuke I know what you are thinking the same thing goes through my mind every time you leave me to go on a mission. What even worse is that I have to be the one to do so… and… if you die... it will be my fault. Sasuke I had my doubts about this job but you told me that it would be okay that everything will work out so I am going to put my faith in you. I trust you more than anyone. I love you Sasuke." Hinata was in tears by the time she finished and Sasuke could see how scared she acutely was. Before she was scared of never getting to be with because of being Hokage but now it because she is afraid of losing him, of never being with him, of never having children together and he could see it all in her lavender tinted eyes. He capture her in his arms allowing her to hide her face in his chest.

"I love you Hime." Sasuke kiss the top of her head before releasing his hold on her. I have to go.

"I know."

"I'll see you later."

"Hai" Hinata kissed his cheek before he disappeared into thin air leaving behind plum blossoms scattered across her floor. Hinata broke into a tear-filled smile, picked one up and placed it in her hair before she went back to work. She wrote two letters one to Tsunade and on to the head of the council and had them delivered. She started to send orders out to all the shinobi who are out on missions to come back if they where C-Rank and lower or not with in the village borders. It was going to be a long day and even longer night but all she could think about is the death of her fellow Kage.

~X~

Kumogakure

The Raikage was sitting in his office trying to understand why Bee wanted to have a music festival during rainy season until Shi (A/N he is also known as 'C') burst into the room.

"Urgent message from Kirigakure." Shi handed him the letter. The Raikage grew pale.

"I want the village on high alert now!" Before anyone could ask, what was going on and explosion went off in the centre of the village. The Raikage speed towards the centre of the village to find it completely destroyed. The Raikage stood there stunned at the total devastation of his village.

"Ah look what we have here." The young man from before him had a smug facade plastered on his face looking at the Raikage. "A, I never would have thought that they would actually make you Raikage. Congratulations." He motioned with a slow clap.

"Why are you here? You should be dead."

"OH! How rude Rai-Kage-Sa-ma. Don't you feel happy to see me?" A remained silent trying to figure out a way to take him down without destroying the rest of the village or getting anyone else hurt. "What? Cat got your tongue. Well don't worry you won't be alive for long, I will get retribution for what you a the rest of the Kages did to me and my village. I'm sure you heard about Kiri? It was a sight to see but now it is your turn and you and you village will pay with their lives. Don't you think that's fair?"

"Stop this nonsense Now! You have been contained before and we will do it again!"

"Don't make me laugh child. They barely did the last time, and that was when I was at 10% of my power level and right now I'm using 50%, so what do you think? Do you think you can take me on child?" A had seen a lot of things in his lifetime but the man before him still looked the same as the day he had meet him when he was only 10. He supposedly died after an experiment went wrong but it seemed that the experiment worked really well.

"Revenge won't solve anything, besides all the old Kages are dead."

"True, but their successor will inherit their problems, isn't that right?"

"You will not live after this."

"I beg to differ. I deserve my revenge! Your leaders stole and tortured my people because they wanted more power but when they realised that they could not use it or control it they killed us off! I will not let their deaths be in vain. You and your village will die here today, any last words?"

I won't go down without a fight!" A charged at him, leaving an indent in the ground as he charged forward but he did not get very far, he was stopped dead in his tracks by the palm of his hand.

"Then it shall be a short one." He looked away before grabbing onto the Raikage's skull and crashing it between his fingers. The sky opened up not a moment sooner and covered the village in a wet blanket. "Ah the little apprentice I presume." Darui stood not too far away shocked at the state of their village leader. He was known as one of the strongest ninja in the world but he was killed in mere seconds of battle. "Run along now child I have no use in killing you." he walked away leaving Darui to collect the remains of their fallen leader.

~X~

Konoha archives

Kakashi and Shikamaru have been looking at past documents for hours trying to follow up on Kakashi's hunch with no luck.

"This is tiring."

"It's troublesome." Kakashi chuckled and went back to sorting through the papers. As he was pulling out the next box he spotted and odd symbol at the back of the shelf. He dug around his pocket pulling out a little torch, with extra light provided he could see it clearly. A snake carved in a circle.

"Shikamaru, I found something." Kakashi felt around the circle and found a button. Once he pressed it, it opened a small compartment with a book inside. "Do you think this is what we have been looking for?"

"It better be." They looked over the first couple of pages, frowning as they went on. "This is troublesome very troublesome."

"Let's go." They raced out of the archives heading for the Hokage tower.

~X~

Hokage Tower

Hinata had just finished discussing maters with Tsunade when she had received the news of the Raikage's death. Hinata read its contents over to make she read it correctly. She could tell that Darui was still in shock over the Raikage's death by the shaky lines of his letters, but what truly got to her was the direction that he said that he headed. He was coming to here, for her. In that moment, Kakashi and Shikamaru entered the room.

"We found it..." Shikamaru stopped speaking when he saw her face.

"The Raikage is dead, and he was last spotted by Kumo-nin heading this way." You could see them visibly tense at the news. Shikamaru crushed the cigarette hanging from his mouth and Kakashi fisted his hand in his pocket. "I believe you have found some information on him."

"… Ah yes It's all here. He was from a small village with a unique kekkei genkai that was only found there. They had the ability to control the atoms around them, back when nations were still at war with each other they went after them for their power and experimented on them. All the experiments that were to increase their ability had failed and they died from it but one survived. Kumogakure captured him. Their last experiment on him was considered as failure since he was brain dead, but it seems that they were wrong." Hinata's eyes glistened with unshed tears after hearing his story. Losing everyone you loved and cared about because some ruthless idiot wanted power. Hinata felt his pain but she was not going to let him destroy her village because he wanted revenge.

"Was the council apart of this?"

"Hai" Hinata clenched her fist and brought down on to the table causing it to crack.

"God Damn those old bats! Don't they ever think about the consequences of their actions for other than themselves?!" Hinata flopped back into her chair in an effort to calm down.

"Thank you both. You should go home and rest."

"You should to you know."

"I know but I have some things to do first." Hinata stood up and put her Hokage robe on. "Go home. I'll take it from here." Hinata left the room in one swift movement leaving them behind.

"Shikamaru has she been taking lessons from Tsunade-sama?"

"No. Only medical"

"Remind me never to get on her bad side."