Chapter 81

Kiba and I made our way to the Hokage mountain, where all the citizens had been evacuated to, and some Jonin and ANBU were standing guard near the entrance.
"You're a real pain, you know that!?" Kiba huffed, because he couldn't go help his clan.
"I never did ask you to help me!" I said.
"Yes you did!"
"Nuh uh!"
"... Forget this ever happened, alright!?" Kiba folded his arms and turned away grumbling.
"No way, so you actually helped me because you wanted to? How nice of you!" I said, grinning.
"No! I don't like you!"
"Then why? Huh? Huuuh?"
"Because- we're comrades! That's it. C-o-m-r-a-d-e-s. No other reason." He nodded, sure of himself.
"Oh, alright." I said, then turned to the crowd of thousands of people. "I wonder where Uncle Takashi is..."
"Well I'm going, smell ya!" Kiba raced out with Akamaru just like that. I began my search for Takashi.

I finally found him, helping some medics take care of injured shinobi.
"U-Uncle!"
He turned to me, and his expression became horrified at the sight of all the blood and arm. "Setsuki! Where are you hurt!?"
"Just my arm.. our house collapsed on me."
"Damn..." He sighed. "Let me look at it."
I sat down and he began to clean it up.

Everyone sat in a dreaded silence for a while, all we could hear were faint loud noises from outside, and occasional crying from children. I felt so useless sitting there, but I really had no choice.
Takashi had my arm bandaged, plastered and in a sling, it didn't take him long. Couldn't expect less from a professional!

Suddenly everything died down, it was quiet. Very quiet. Some people began to murmur. "What happened?" "Is it over?"
Takashi and I looked at each other. "We won, of course.." I said.
Suddenly, a huge shockwave caused the cave to tremble for few minutes, and when it died down, the cave was amazingly still standing.
"What the heck was that?!"
"That really did not feel good!"
"I'm scared!"
I stood up and looked around frantically. The guards by the entrance seemed shocked as well, they ran outside to investigate.
"Setsuki, stay here. Don't go outside, just in case." Takashi told me. But I ignored him and went outside anyway. To my utter shock, the whole village had been completely destroyed, erased! It was nothing but a huge hole in the ground. Every building looked like it had just been pushed aside, and they were all in pieces, pushed up against the great wall circling the village.
There was someone in the centre of that hole, but who?
"What on earth..."
Even the ANBU were surprised. "Hey what's that?! Toads?!"
A battle raged on down there, three giant toads against these strange monster-like creatures, full of piercings.

It went on and on, until the monsters were defeated, the toads disappeared, and suddenly, a giant Nine-Tailed fox appeared. I gasped loudly.
"I-Is that Naruto-kun?!" I questioned.
"The Jinchuriki! He's lost control completely! The Nine-Tailed demon will kill us all!"
I shook my head in disbelief. Everything, it all felt surreal.

One man, assuming to be this 'Pein', chased Naruto out of the village, out of sight.
"What if they catch him!? They'll kill Naruto-kun!" I panicked. By now, Takashi had come outside.
"Don't even think about it." He spoke sternly. I knew better, so I held myself back. I just hoped everything would be alright. I started to worry about Lee and the others, until I remembered they weren't actually in the village. I breathed a sigh of relief, before running down all those stairs, I had to find the rest of us, Sakura-chan and those people. Were they still alive?!

In my search, amongst the rubble pushed up against the great wall, I was devastated to find so many bodies half buried and dislocated. It made me cringe so badly.
I eventually came across Daisuke-kun, he was helping out some injured ninja. Oh, I forgot to mention, didn't I? Daisuke-kun has been practising in the art of Medical Ninjutsu for the last few months, and they have high hopes for him!
"Daisuke-kun!" I approached him hastily. His eyes lit up immediately.
"S-Setsuki..! You're hurt!"
"No, it's okay! Uncle Taka-"
"Let me heal you! I'll fix you right up!" He said. I gave a small smile at his concerned expression.
"It's fixed up, already, Daisuke-kun. See?" I said, petting his head.
"Oh..." He seemed disappointed, but got over it quickly.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"Nah, not me." He shook his head. "The village.. took quite a toll, though.."
"What village..." A shinobi grumbled, staring in disbelief at the huge crater.
"How will we over come this.. we've never had damage quite like this before.."
"Damn that Akatsuki..!"
The shinobi continued to whine helplessly.
Daisuke-kun and I glanced at each other sadly, before, too, examining the damage.
"We'll rebuild..." Shino's voice came. "Just like ants in a colon-"
"Yeah! You're right, Shino-bug!" Daisuke grinned, as if trying to cheer me up. "Just like a colony of ants, we'll rebuild the village!"
I smiled.
"Shino.. bug..?" Shino gave a questioning look that went ignored. "... Daisuke."
"What?"
"What did you mean by bu "
"Oh my goodness! Is that Hinata-chan down there?!" I shouted, noticing a figure laying down in the centre of the crater. They gasped, and followed me as I sprinted down.
Seems Sakura-chan also noticed, as she rushed down as well. There were huge rod-like stakes penetrating her.
"I-Is she still alive..?!"
Sakura knelt down to check her pulse. "Yeah." She breathed. "Hinata's alive. Just." Sakura proceeded to carefully remove the stakes and begin healing.
"Let me help!" Daisuke said, kneeling down also. Sakura gave a hesitant nod, and allowed him to help.
We were quickly accompanied by a group of Hyuugas, and they thanked us for taking care of Hinata, before carrying her away for further treatment.

"I saw Naruto-kun be chased away by that Akatsuki leader... do you think he's okay?" I asked Daisuke. He just turned and smiled at me.
"That dude is one of a kind, of course he'll be alright." He replied, giving a reassuring smile.
"I hope.."

After a few hours, he returned holding a bouquet of paper flowers. Everyone rushed to his side, and I sighed of relief.

It was only a week later when reconstruction started. We had to do it on our own, because Tsunade-sama had fallen into a coma. My arm had been properly plastered and in a professional sling now, the bad thing was, it was my right arm – my dominant arm. I tried too hard to help, and ended up carelessly hurting myself more. So there I was, sitting on a pile of logs as discipline. All I could do was stare at the sky, and wonder how long it's gonna take to rebuild.

"Oi oi.. Setsuki!"
"Oh?" I looked over my shoulder, and saw Tenten standing there. My eyes immediately lit up.
"Hey! You look so lonely over there! I thought you'd like to know we're back!" She said.
"Tenten-chan!" I sprung to my feet and ran to her.
"Woahah! What'd you do to your arm!?"
"My house kinda collapsed on me. They wont let me help rebuild either!" I groaned, giving her a pout.
"Woah! Are you alright? That sounds tough."
"Of course I'm alri- hey! Where's Lee-kun!?" I asked, noticing she was on her own.
"Oh um.." She scratched her cheek, slightly rolling her eyes. "When we arrived, about.. ten minutes ago, Lee kinda ran off to find you. You should have seen his devastation.. he really cares about you, y'know."
"Awgh.. where is he?"
"He could be anywhere.."
I scanned the area. "Do you think if I should loud enough he'll hear?"
"No. No no please don't shout." She said, wrapping her arms around me gently.
"No time for cuddles, Tenten!" I said, nudging her away. "We have a Lee to find!"