Chapter 13 The Changing Field Part 2
"Here is that better?" asked Sakura Haruno as she pulled out a needle from the arm of a young boy maybe seven of eight years old. He had scrapped his knee and normally this wouldn't mean anything more than a Band-Aid and some healing chakra but he had scrapped his knee on some rusty metal, so a tetanus shot was needed.
"Thanks Doctor." answered the little boy as Sakura smiled before rubbing the top of his head.
"No problem just be more careful." ordered Sakura as she looked at the boy's mother. She looked like she hadn't gotten a single moment of sleep in days but that was a common look in their camp right now.
"This wouldn't have happened if we had been at home." stated the mother before looking straight at Sakura "When are they going to let us out of here so that we can restart our lives?"
"I honestly don't know." explained Sakura
"How could you not know!" snapped the women before breaking down with tears in her eyes. "Sorry, it's just my husband was away on business and we don't know what is going on, I mean we have heard stories."
"Don't believe those stories." explained Sakura as he placed her hand on the woman's shoulder "All of them is nothing more than stories."
"But some people have heard the guards talking about people executing jinchūriki." added the woman "And last night they burned down our homes it isn't that big of a leap from burning homes to burning people."
"That will not happen." explained Sakura with a smile on her face "As for what is going on in other villages Naruto-kun is going to meet with Lady Tsunade about what is going on in the other villages, don't worry."
"I will try but it is hard not to." explained the woman as Sakura lead her out of the small room in which they had been treating them. For a moment Sakura just stood in the hallway of the former small hotel which had been transformed into a makeshift hospital on the second floor. She had been treating the boy in what had been a cheap bottom feeder hotel room. Where people tended to pay by the hour and the sheets where changed maybe once a month at best.
"These conditions suck." thought Sakura as she looked at the dirty carpets and what she hoped was dry mud on the wall.
"It's the best we have." added Aella "But I wouldn't take those sheets to use if I where you."
"Agreed." thought Sakura as she looked down the hall to see Rin pushing a small metal shopping cart which was filled with medical supplies.
"So Shizune has you pushing supplies around?" asked Sakura to the older women.
"I am just happy to be helpful." explained Rin with a smile on her face.
"You lying." stated Sakura as Rin swallowed a bit.
"Yes, but it is all I am good for at the moment." admitted Rin as she shook her head. "I was once considered an up and coming star in the medical field, the next Tsunade but I am nothing now."
"You are far from nothing." said Sakura as she placed her hand on Rin's back.
"I am, I lost 16 years of medical training and I can hardly walk without holding onto something or someone." explained Rin "I am helpless."
"Give it time, you will regain your strength in time and I am sure Kakashi and Shizune are helping you." added Sakura as Rin lowered her head causing her long brown hair to cascade over her face.
"Kakashi-kun is helping me at every turn but Shizune isn't helping at all, if anything she is hindering it." Explained Rin as she took a deep breath. "Shizune doesn't talk to me and whenever I ask for help with learning some medical justu she turns me down, she can't even look at me most of the time. Personally I think she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you." explained Sakura "If anything she may be jealous of you."
Rin raised an eyebrow at the young woman's comment before shaking her head.
"I don't see how, I lost 16 years of my life and everything that comes with that." Explained Rin as she looked down at the walking cane which was lying on top of the cart "Hell I can't even walk without a cane or holding onto something."
"Or someone, namely Kakashi-sensie." added Sakura as Rin's head snapped up as she looked straight into Sakura's green eyes as she realized why Shizune seamed upset with her. "You are taking all of Kakashi's time believe me if Naruto-kun was focusing all his energy on Ino I would be upset at both of them."
"What should I do?" asked Rin seeking advice from the younger woman.
"Well if Shizune will not talk to you maybe you should explained to Kakashi that he should spend time with Shizune, have him spend an evening with her instead of you." explained Sakura "Shizune may feel better if Kakashi spent some time with her."
"I will talk with Kakashi." explained Rin as suddenly a voice came over the loudspeakers.
"Those heading to the Abihu housing district report to the main gate in five minutes." ordered the voice
"Well I have to get going that is Naruto-kun's apartment." explained Sakura as Rin nodded her head.
"Thanks for the talk." thanks Rin as Sakura moved down the stairs and headed out of the building. It took her only a few minutes to reach the main gate, unlike before there was no smiling faces with hopes of returning to their lives. Instead there were only faces of pain and worry that they would find nothing but burned remains.
"Over here forehead!" yelled Ino over the crowed as Sakura pushed her way toward her friend.
"So you ready to see what we can find at Naruto's place?" asked Sakura
"Not much I am betting." added Ino as slowly the gates leading out of their prison opened and they started heading out.
While Ino and Sakura walked out of the main gates Naruto was sitting behind a desk in the makeshift ninja headquarters' located in the basement of one of the most rundown buildings. Black mold was clearly visible on the drywall of the once finished basement. A large water heater took up the far corner of the room and the floor was wet from countless numbers of floods through the years. The sound of water dripping from countless numbers of small leaks filled the air with the squeak of a rat interrupting the dripping sound. Suddenly a knock at the door caused him to look up from the paperwork in front of him.
"Enter." ordered Naruto as the door opened as Lady Tsunade entered the room. Naruto stood up as Tsunade walked down the stairs making sure not to hit her head on some of the low hanging pipes.
"Welcome Lady Hokage." greeted Naruto as he stood up.
"Naruto drop the act we are alone." ordered Tsunade
"Sure thing you old hag." laughed Naruto as he tried to put up a front but it was clear as the mold on the wall that Naruto was not in a laughing mode. "Any word on when we will get out of here?"
"None, the council will not do anything until they talk to the Daimyo." Explained Tsunade as the two of them stood in the middle of the room.
"And when will he get here?" asked Naruto
"A few days and that is what is worrying me." explained Tsunade as she moved to sit down on a chair only to stop in her tracks as she saw a massive black rat sitting there. The rat jumped off allowing Tsunade to sit down in the old wooden chair, the chair groined under her weight and for a moment the Hokage feared it would give way bit it didn't. "The daimyo's only started their meeting yesterday and they are moving very fast."
"And they never move fast." Added Naruto as he sat down on a small office chair which looked like it belonged more in the dump then the office of the head of the ANBU of one of the largest ninja villages in the world. "How screwed are we?"
"Do you want the honest answer?" asked Tsunade
"Lies aren't that useful to me." explained Naruto as Tsunade lowered her head as she took a deep breath.
"From the reports we have from the other nations, this place is the most calm." Explained Tsunade as she remembered all the reports from around the world "Riots have broken out in the Sand village as some tried to kill jinchūriki, it has gotten so bad the Gaara had to declare martial law and enforce a curfew. The same thing has happened in almost every other nation to different degrees however the worst is happening in Earth country. We have also gotten reports that they are putting jinchūriki into armed prison camps."
"No offense but it isn't that different here." explained Naruto
"No I am talking about a force labor camp." explained Tsunade "Word is that they soon plan to put them to work in some of their mines."
"Forced labor camps." snapped Naruto as his blood began to boil "They are making them slaves?"
"Don't worry we will put a stop to it but first we need to take care of everyone here." explained Tsunade "Worry about those people in other counties later."
"You don't understand, the Kyuubi is their Kage it is my duty to make sure they are safe." snapped Naruto with such force that it took Tsunade back.
"Alright, I will see what I can do." said Tsunade "I can offer that it would be better to put all the jinchūriki together in one place so that they are easier to guard."
"Do it." Ordered Naruto
"However I would have to get it past the council and that may be difficult." Explained Tsunade "It was hard enough to get them to allow me to bring the rest of the jinchūriki from fire country here."
"What?" asked Naruto
"That is what I came here to talk to you about." explained Tsunade "I am bringing the rest of the jinchūriki from around the land of fire here."
"We can't hold any more people here we are already over crowed." explained Naruto
"Which is why the council is giving you the neighboring housing direct." explained Tsunade as Naruto placed his hand head as he rubbed his temples.
"We don't want more room we want to go home." explained Naruto
"It's the best I can do right now, sorry." explained Tsunade "If it was up to most of the villagers they would have kicked you out of the village or worst."
"Sometimes I wonder if that wouldn't be better." admitted Naruto
"What are you talking about?" asked Tsunade as Naruto looked into her eyes for a moment.
"Anything I saw cannot be told to the council understand." ordered Naruto as Tsunade nodded her head "The Kyuubi has been trying to convince me that we need to leave and make our own village."
"Naruto you know as well as I do that the council would never allow that, they may hate you and maybe even want you dead but you have too many people. People who know village secrets and they wouldn't allow those secrets to escape." explained Tsunade as Naruto nodded his head.
"I am trapped between a rock in a fucking hard place right now." explained Naruto "Conditions here are horrible and probably only to get worst but if we leave we are going to be hunted and cause a war."
"Naruto let's wait and try to convince the daimyo if he comes over to our side everything will change." Explained Tsunade as she placed a hand on top of Naruto's hand.
"Alright, we wait for the moment." confirmed Naruto
Outside the compound Ino and Sakura had finally reached Naruto's housing area unlike before when the streets where empty the streets where full of people however most where giving the two of them and other jinchūriki a wide birth.
"Let's grab something to eat before we head to Naruto's place." Offered Ino as she looked toward one of her favorites BBQ pork place. "The place is almost empty so our food should be out fast."
"Alright, but we eat and go no waiting around." explained Sakura as the two of them headed toward the restaurant. The bell above the door rang as they walked in, the two women stopped by a small podium to wait to be seated however no one came over.
"What is taking them so long?" asked Ino as she looked at the three waiters who were standing in the corner just talking. Every once in a while they would look at the two of them only to go back to talking.
"Excuses me we need a seat." yelled Sakura toward the waiters only to have them ignore them. Finally another woman walked in and almost instantly two waiters moved to get her to one of the many open tables.
"What the hell?" asked Ino "We were here first?"
"Don't you know how to read?" asked one of the waiters as he pointed toward a small sign located by the door.
"Jinchūriki not welcome in dining room." read Sakura
"But we have been in here multiple times." explained Ino as she pointed toward the same table where the woman was sitting. "That is our normal table."
"Oh…I don't want to sit here if demons sat here, I may become like them." complained the woman as she moved to another table.
"Now I recommend you get out before we force you out." explained the waiter
"But…" stated Ino
"If you will not let us sit and eat we will take some to go." ordered Sakura
"Sure you can do that, but the prices will be doubled anything they say on the menu." explained the waiter
"Why?" asked Sakura
"Because your jinchūriki." explained the waiter as he pulled out a pad and pen "Now what do you want?"
"Nothing good day, ass hole." snapped Ino as the two of them stormed out of the dinner.
"Let's just head to Naruto's place and then try to find someplace to eat where we will not be treated like scum." Offered up Sakura as Ino nodded her head as the two head toward the apartment complex.
Soon Sakura and Ino were walking up the stairs toward the small apartment Naruto had lived in for almost two decades. As they neared his floor they could both smell smoke as their heart. Slowly they reached his door only to see that it had been torn down and burned into nothing more than ash. Hanging on the edge of burned remains was a bright pink piece of paper.
"Well this doesn't look good." Stated Ino as Sakura stepped into the apartment only to see all the drywall had been ripped out and even some of support beams ripped along with them. The entire apartment reeked of smoke and human waste.
"I know." added Sakura as she moved aside the remains of Naruto's couch which was pressed up against the bedroom door. "They destroyed everything."
"I already expected that." explained Ino as she handed the piece of pink which had been hanging on Naruto's doorframe to her. "They are evicting Naruto-kun. After everything he has done for them, they repay him with this."
"I am not surprised." explained Sakura as she dropped the paper and forced her way into the bedroom. Like the living room it was totally trashed with everything burned or covered with human waist. Instantly Ino moved to the closet only to find what few cloths where not burned to a crisp was covered with human piss. The few walls which where not covered with ash had bright red spray paint on them with different insults and death threats.
"Well nothing survived here." groaned Ino as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Don't be so quick." ordered Sakura as she pressed her back against one of the walls. Slowly she took three steps forward and two steps to her left.
"What are you doing?" asked Ino as Sakura slowly cleared away the floor of the broken glass and ash to reveal the remains of the wooden floor.
"Naruto-kun has gone through attacks like this before." explained Sakura as she grabbed the edge of one of the floor boards, then in one move she ripped it up only to show two small duffle bags which had been hidden under the floor. The bags where untouched and perfectly clean "And so he planned ahead, placing everything important to him down here for safe keeping. Everything that was destroyed was a copy."
"How did you know about this?" asked Ino as Sakura handed her one of the duffle bags while she took the other.
"When Naruto-kun was leaving for training with that pervert Jiriaya he showed me them so that if anything happened to him someone would know where they were." explained Sakura as she looked at the bags.
"But that was almost a decade ago, surely Naruto-kun would have started to place things out?" asked Ino as Sakura nodded her head.
"I am sure he did, but he also kept his habit and it paid off for him." explained Sakura as Ino cried a bit. "What is wrong? Why are you crying?"
"It's just you know so much about Naruto-kun, I would never have known about this." Explained Ino as Sakura placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Give it time, you will know him just as well as me in time." Reassured Sakura as the two of them left the remains of Naruto's apartment carrying the two bags full of memories with them.
Back in the housing district the perimeter wall a group of young children were kicking around an old half deflated ball. Their laughing smiling faces stood in stark comparison to look of fear and worry which covered their parent's faces. Standing nearby at one of the guard towards was a pair of young freshly promoted Jonin.
"Look at those demons play like it is nothing." grumbled the older of the jonin as he glared at the children playing "I am missing my own son's soccer game for this and last night was my anniversary my wife would have given me a great gift in the bedroom last night. Now I have to wait a whole fucking year for an experience like that to happen again."
"So your wife doesn't give you some that much does she?" laughed the younger Jonin only to get a death glare from the older one.
"Well we could have some fun with them?" offered the younger one
"How so?" asked the older one
"I have some of the riot pepper spray and some water balloons." offered up the younger one
"You mean the stuff that burns like hell and if it hits you in the eyes can blind you for hours?" asked the older one
"Yes." answered the younger "Do you want to see some demons cry?"
"Get to work." ordered the older one as the younger jumped to his feet and went to work.
At the same moment Shikamaru Nara was busy looking over the plans for one of the buildings he was overseeing. Suddenly his heart rate picked up as he smelled her scent. Slowly he spun around only to see his love Temari standing right behind him.
"You know after last night I am surprised that you are able to walk." laughed Temari as she moved to stand beside him.
"Well thanks to the demon I heal faster." laughed Shikamaru
"How is your leg doing anyhow?" asked Temari as she looked at his leg, a sign that the demon chakra was healing his war wound was the fact that he no longer needed a cane. "It seems like you are moving better."
"I can walk fine but when it comes to running…" started Shikamaru only to stop because he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"You can't run." finished Temari as Shikamaru nodded his head both of them knew that a ninja that couldn't run was no ninja. "Well there is still hope that it can heal some more."
"I don't think so." confirmed Shikamaru as his heart sank at the idea that he would have to leave the ninja core. Temari placed a hand on his shoulder "I shouldn't have raised my hopes that this would heal me totally."
"We both had that hope." added Temari as she decided to change the subject "So how are things here?"
"As good as you can expect." confirmed Shikamaru as he tried to get his mind off his leg. "How about you talked to Kakashi yet?"
"No, he and Guy where having a conversation so I decided to come back later." explained Temari as she took a deep breath "But I think we all know that unless something changes soon we will have to find a place of our own. Where are you thinking we should go?"
Shikamaru placed his hand under his chin as he quickly ran though the options based on what he knew.
"Personally the best choice at the moment seems to be the remains of whirlpool country." explained Temari "It's an island for defense, it's nearby and Naruto's clan has a history there."
"No…will not work." explained Shikamaru as he shook his head "It is too open with nothing but pure white sand beaches, great for landing troops on. Also the Fire daimyo has a massive beach house there, they will know we are there. Maybe somewhere in Earth Country, lots of places to hid."
"You want to hide on the front door of the largest military force in the world?" pointed out Temari as she took a deep breath "What we need is a place which is highly defendable yet able to support our population."
"Then the answer is clear." said a voice inside Temari head as she closed her eyes only to come face to face with the demon wolf which had joined with her. The wolf had deep blue fur with highlights of lighter blue mixed in.
"So Anita do you care to share or will I have to guess?" asked Temari
"Before we sealed ourselves away we made plans, stockpiled supplies we knew we would need to rebuild our village." explained the head military planner of the demon village "Stuff that would store that is, things like raw building material, equipment and of course rare metal such as gold and silver."
"And where is this stored?" asked Temari
"In vaults located in one of the mines located by our village." explained Anita
"And where is that?" asked Temari
"That will take some time, the world has changed since we sealed ourselves away." Explained Anita "I will need access to a highly detailed map in order to locate the valley where our village was located, if the ocean has claimed it that is. The ocean leaves have gone up a bit."
Back on the playing field the children were still playing unaware that they were being targeted.
"Get that little bitch there, the one with the blue shirt." Ordered the older one as the younger one held a large balloon filled with liquid riot pepper spray instead of water.
"I got her." confirmed the younger as he pulled back and threw the balloon toward the un-expecting little girl. As the balloon moved through the air there was nothing to stop it from hitting its target as the two jonin smiled as they prepared to watch the results of their actions. Suddenly out of nowhere Sasuke appeared catching the balloon inches away from the girl's eyes.
"Crap." Yelled one of the jonin as the kids and their parents looked at the balloon in the legendary missing ninja's hands, they could smell the pepper spray reeking out from the balloon. A man rushed forward grabbing the little girl and pulling her close.
"Thank you for saving my daughter." thanked the father as Sasuke nodded his head in response as people started gathering around.
"They threw that at a child." yelled a woman as she pointed toward the two jonin as Sasuke pulled back and took aim.
"We better report this, they may get violent." expressed the older one as suddenly the pepper spray filled water balloon smashed against his face, causing him to scream in pain as the pepper spray blinded him. The younger jonin quickly grabbed the closest weapon he could, not realizing that it was a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it.
Nearby Temari was snapped out of her thoughts as suddenly a load explosion filled the air. Training took over as she ran straight toward the source with Shikamaru as close behind her as his leg would allow him. She burst onto the scene only to see dozens of people stumbling away with deep cuts and blood covering their faces. While people were trying to get away from the scene to get medical help from the paper bomb explosion more people where rushing in. Through the mass of people Temari could see Sasuke Uchiha walking away from the scene with a grin on his face.
"Sasuke, you caused this." thought Temari as she watched the last Uchiha walk away in his open white shirt and deep blue pants with a purple belt. As more people moved in anger built and people throwing rocks and clumps of wood toward a line of two dozen ANBU which were forming up on the wall. Half the ANBU carried large metal shields which went from their knees to their neck formed a front rank with others behind them.
"You monsters!" yelled a man as he threw a clump of dirt at the ANBU team. The dirt clump bounced off the metal shield as the front part of the ANBU team formed a wall of shields. The civilians kept throwing rocks and other items which bounced off the shields and for a while nothing happened.
"Fire!" yelled an ANBU commander as the back rank of the ANBU line jumped up and threw kunai toward the civilians.
"Get down!" yelled Temari as she ran though hand signs as a massive number of wind gathered around her. "Sand Storm justu!"
Temari justu shot forward sending all the kunai upwards and away from the civilians. Suddenly all the kunai exploded with clouds of red gas.
"Shift target!" yelled the ANBU captain as the ANBU turned their target away from the growing riot toward Temari.
"Shit." thought Temari as she saw the glint of the kunai in the hands of the Leaf ANBU all aimed at her.
Well I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you are not too upset with me at cutting it off right there. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.