POV: PFC Shikamaru Nara, USMC

"Stack up on me." I say as Naruto and Jacqueline get behind me, Maka, Soul, and a few others stack on the other side.

"Kid, Uchiha, you two got rear." Maka says and I feel a tap on my shoulder, I crack the door open and don't see any possible traps. "Swing left, I got right." I give a thumbs up and rush in, three women and a handful of children are sitting in the middle of the room.

"Hands, let me see hands." I shout, pointing my rifle at them, without intentions to fire. Their hands are clean.

"I'll search em, Nara keep your gun up." One of the other rangers says as he steps up and starts to frisk one of the women. Shots ring out behind me and I look to see a man falling down the steps, with an AK in his hands.

"Focus on them." Sasuke says as he heads to the steps. "Naruto, what are you seeing up there?"

"Nothing, I'll hold the stairwell, you guys clear the rest of the floor."

"All good."

"Good job Kid. Uzumaki has stairs, Nara, you keep an eye on them." Maka orders. "Rest of you, on me, we clear the floor." Everyone groups up and moves further into the building.

"Why did we get the shit job?"

"Fuck if I know." He answers as he looks over to the family. "Hey there." They return and point Naruto over to where I am and they head up the steps.

"Did the group heading up the steps look smaller than they should?" I ask and he shrugs his shoulders. After that, a struggle is heard down the hall from us and gunfire erupts above. Then a woman's voice screams from the hallway. "The fuck?" I grab my rifle and run down the hall to see someone with a knife on top of a woman, so I put a round into their head, and rush over to the woman. "Tsugami, what the hell happened?" She tries to answer but is unable to due to the wounds. I notice the knife in her side, just under her left arm, and more wounds in her neck, just missing her jugular, so I grab gauze and start to pack the wounds in her neck. "Hold on, we're gonna move you, NARUTO, get in here." I shout and soon Naruto comes running in.

"Yeah, Jesus Christ. That's a dead kid." I looked over and noticed just how young the person I shot was, had to be no older than 14.

"Help me move her." We grab the straps of the plate carrier and drag her into the living room when a man looks over to us.

"Who the fuck are you?" Naruto asks before he runs off, dropping something masher shaped on his way out. "GRENADE, GET DOWN." Naruto dives back into the hall and I cover Tsugami's body as one of the women grabs it and runs out the building, and tries to throw it away but it goes off. Naruto runs to the door and fires a few bursts before ducking back in just before machine gun fire strikes the house.

"Shit." I yell as I return to attending Tsugami. Maka and the others come back down the steps in a hurry.

"Did you see him?" Albarn asks as she stops.

"I don't know, but a guy just ran off before we could restrain him." I answered.

"Fuck."

"That was him. Get down." Naruto says as one of the APCs rushes past, with the machine gun firing at the house.

"Load up, we're going after him." Maka orders and they run out the door.

"What about her?" I ask as her group loads into the other APC, and Naruto breaks into some old sedan. I shake my head and pick her up, after I finish patching her up, and run to the car as Neji is able to hotwire it. I set her in the backseat as I climbed in with her.

"Neji, you set the SAW in the skylight, Sasuke you drive, I got shotgun, Shikamaru, keep the soldier girl alive." Naruto says as we finish loading up and follow Albarn and CO's APC.

"Things might get a little bumpy, kid." I say as I grab a vile of morphine to numb her pain.

"SNIPER, LEFT SIDE BALCONY." Neji calls out over the radio as he and the other gunner start to open fire.

"L-let m-me." Tsugami starts to speak, I guess what she's about to say isn't good.

"Like hell, you pals would want you to keep kicking."

"T-they're all d-dead."

"Well, think about your folks back home. Think how sad they'll be if you die."

"Shikamaru get your gun up, we got trouble." Naruto says as he and Neji start firing. I grab my rifle and notice just how far we have traveled. I pop a few shots off at targets that appear more as a blur as Neji comes down from the sunroof.

"Gotta reload."

"RPG on the ridge." Someone over the radio shouts as I feel the car jerk and everything goes black. I wake up, finding myself in my room of all places, and before I can start to understand, a nock comes from my door.

"Shikamaru, your father and I would like to have a word with you." I head to the dining room where they both sit at the table.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"It's about your next step in life." My dad says.

"What about it?" I ask as he hands me a few letters, from the university I had shown interest in. I open one up with a big grin.

"Dear mister Nara, fancy. We have thought long and hard, and we're impressed with your ACT scores… but…" I go silent, unsure of what to think.

"But what?" My mom asked.

"But due to your low GPA, we sadly must inform you that you have been denied entry. This is BULLSHIT." I shout as I crumble the letter into a ball and throw the thing across the room.

"I told you to stop being lazy. But hey, Yale is."

"I don't want to go to fucking Yale."

"Then what else are you going to do?" My mother asks as she puts her hands on my father's shoulders.

"The Marines." They look at me confused. "I can join the Marines."

"Why the Marines, why not the Air Force?" She asks.

"Naruto has already committed to enlisting. So I can too right? Plus I could get benefits, and learn life skills."

"What, like war crimes?"

"Yoshino, stop. Look son, we just think college is the better option."

"Look, I've been thinking about it for a while, but for your two's sake, I'll think about it."

"Thank you." I hugged my folks before heading back to my room, I wasn't going to think, I already made up my mind. So I shut my eyes. Next thing I know, I hear a woman's scream, and I open my eyes to see I'm still in my house, but with a lot more fire, and I'm in my fatigues. I look over and see my rifle as the screams continue. "MOM?" I grab the gun and run out into the kitchen where the fire is roaring the most and see the guy we're after holding Mom at knifepoint. Between us was a man face down in what I assume is his own blood.

"All those you love will die, American Dog." He says before sliding the knife across, and my mother's blood, somehow, sprays on my face. That's when I jolt up and find myself in the deserts of Afghanistan. I rub my face and don't see any color, but it's wet, so it's probably, hopefully, it's water. I look up to see Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji standing above me.

"About time you woke up from your nap." Naruto says.

"What happened?" I ask as I stretch.

"We went flying off a cliff, that's what happened." Sasuke answers as he reaches out to me. I grab his arm and with his help, I get back on my feet. Neji hands me my rifle. "The girl didn't make it." Sasuke adds as he points over to her body, now lifeless.

"Rigamortus started to set in by the time I came to. Nothing any of us could have done." Neji says as I walk over to her. "I didn't get around to closing her eyes yet, I was focused on getting you three out of the car." He adds as I put my hand on the side of her head, the body is starting to go cold, and I notice the sun is almost completely set.

"We need to move before the sun is completely down." Naruto says as I shake my head and close her eyes.

"Do we take her with us?" I ask as I grab her dog tags.

"Can't, we need to move quickly, a corpse will slow us down." Sasuke answers.

"Well, I'm taking her tags, maybe if they can't collect her, they can get some form of clearance."

"Sounds good, just hurry it up." Naruto responds so I yank the tags off. I look at them before putting them in my vest. I walk to the group, as Sasuke pulls out a map, and compass. "So, what way are we going?"

"Shikamaru light." I pull out a small flashlight and shine it on the map. "There's a village about… 20 miles northwest of us, cause we are here." He points to a spot on the map with a similar lay of the land as we have.

"Anything closer, it's bad enough I gotta lug this around, but 20 more miles, y'all trying to kill me." Neji groans as he picks up the SAW.

"If Yad Allah or nature don't, sure." Naruto jokes as Sasuke puts his things away.

"At least you don't have three guns." He adds as we start to make our way northwest. I'm not sure how long or how far we got when Naruto, who was at the front, stopped.

"Let's set up a camp here."

"Good call, I can't see shit three feet in front of me." Neji says as he plops down. "Ow."

"Shikamaru, are you good to keep watch?" Sasuke asks and I give a thumbs up. "Thanks pal."

"If you got an MRE, eat it cold, save your water." Naruto says as he checks his pack. I grab the brown pouch that carries our form of nourishment, Menu 16 pork rib, it's basically a formed pork sandwich you can get at that fast food place in the fall.

"What y'all got?" Neji asks as he rips open his.

"23, chicken pesto, you?" Sasuke answers.

"19, beef stew. Well it's beef roast with veg, but it's basically beef stew."

"I got the McRib. Middle-aged white men envy me."

"Is that because you're dating a girl who worked as a cashier at Mc shit food as a highschooler?" Naruto asks while chuckling.

"Fuck, that to."

"But I got, uhh, what's the name of that movie with the cooking rat?"

"Ratatouille." I answer Naruto's question.

"Yeah, that's the menu I got. Oh yeah, on the topic of trailer trash, remember that Trent guy back from school?"

"The guy who broke his hand trying to punch Shikamaru, and so he kicked him in the balls and stomped on his hand while calling him a bitch?" Neji answers with a question.

"Good times." I jokingly add.

"Yeah, he's dead."

"Really, how?"

"From what Hinata wrote, he was a meth head and he and another junkie got into a fight outside a Walmart over a cigarette butt, and the other guy stabbed him to death… you know, with how Tsugami died now probably wasn't the best time to mention that." Naruto shakes his head before returning to his meal. "Damn."

"What?" I ask as I start to open up the pouch for the pork rib… thing.

"I got lemon poppy as my pound cake. I don't care too much for the poppy seeds."

"I like it, wanna trade?" Sasuke asks.

"Depends, what desert item you got?"

"Chocolate pudding."

"Deal." They hand off components and Neji chuckles.

"Like old times huh? You two always traded shit at lunch."

"Only when it was beneficial to the both of us." Sasuke argues.

"The only thing worse than the school lunches were that bitch I had to call a foster mother's lunches she would, on occasion, make for me. I swear she was trying to kill me.

"How christian of her." I say, rolling my eyes.

"You're damn right."

"I thought that "Sister" of yours always had her lunches made up by mom of the year." Neji says.

"She got a full course meal, I got shit an inmate would even reject. You know, Sister Tareca told me she overheard that woman say she only took me in because it would make her look good."

"Isn't that, like frowned upon by the church or something?" I ask.

"Fuck if I know, and ask me if I care." He answers as we eat, everyone else is asleep as I keep watch. But I can feel my eyes start to get heavy.

"Hey, Neji, Neji." I tap his shoulder and he slowly comes to.

"Hey… oh hey, what's up?"

"Can you keep watch, I feel like I'm about to pass out."

"Yeah sure."

"Thanks man." We trade stops and I set my pack down as a makeshift pillow, and quickly fall asleep. The next morning we wake up, and we quickly get back on the move. I'm at the point, keeping my head on a swivel and I notice to our right something is kicking but sand. "We got movement, right side." I say as Sasuke looks down the scope of his M40.

"Looks to be a Jeep, coming our way, I can make out at least three figures, moving fast."

"Probably Insurgents, get down. They might not have seen us yet and when they pass, they might think we're dead." Naruto says and all four of us hit the deck. The vehicle starts to approach us and my heart starts pumping uncontrollably as it reaches us.

"What on earth?" Someone from the jeep says. They know english? That same voice says something in Arabic and a few more voices respond. Next thing I hear is Naruto yelling and one of the voices from before screaming in fear, we pop up and point our guns at them. "STOP, we're not the bad guys, they are civilians."

"And who the fuck are you?" Naruto asks, his K-Bar in his hand above his head, ready to stab one of the, as the English speaker has claimed, Afghani civilian men.

"My name is Robert Baker, I'm a British humanitarian, I spent a month here in Afghanistan helping the village these men came from, I have done so for the last three years."

"Well Mister Baker, I am Private First Class Naruto Uzumaki of the United State Marine Corps. There is Neji Huyga."

"Hey there."

"Sasuke Uchiha"

"Nice to meet you."

"And Shikamaru Nara."

"Sup."

"Wonderful, and who's in charge?" He asks, and we all look at him.

"We're all Privates." Naruto answers.

"Not to offend, but why are four Marines all by themselves in the middle of Afghanistan."

"We were on a mission and got separated from the main group. That's the long and short of it." I answer. One of the men says something in Arabic again, and Baker responds. "What did he say?"

"He said we should take you with us, maybe the head of the village can help you."

"You got room?" Sasuke asks, pointing at the Jeep.

"It might be a tight squeeze, but we can fit you all in." He answers and we all grab our gear as we pile in, it's a tight fit, but it's better than walking. Soon enough we arrive at a small little village, a larger building towards the back, small almost shack like buildings on the sides, and what looks to be some kind of tower, kinda like the one that sniper was perched on yesterday, connected to the larger building. Out of said building, an elderly man comes out saying something in Arabic.

"What is he saying?" I ask, but Baker holds his hand up. He says something back

"He wanted to know if you were here to take back the stuff Yad Allah took."

"They have a stockpile of American equipment? Why?" I ask.

"Yad Allah made them keep it here so they can resupply between ambushes." He answers before one of the others in the jeep starts saying something else in Arabic. This gets the villagers scared.

"What now?"

"He said he saw a Yad Allah vehicle heading this way, but they made a stop. Quickly, you, your friends, and I need to hide. They'll kill any Westerner who isn't with them."

"That ain't happening, we're fighting." Naruto says. "You can hide but we're Devil Dogs."

"If you wish to take them on, you'll need this." The old man says.

"You speak English?" I ask.

"Not much, but enough. Come." He leads us to a well.

"The fuck is a well gonna do for us?" Neji asks.

"Why not find out." He answers, and Sasuke pulls out his M9 Barrette.

"Hold up man. Look, I'll go down there and check it out." Naruto says.

"Fine, but if I hear anything bad down there, I'm blowing his brains out.

"It's only fair, but I assure you it's not a trap." He says, not budging an inch, even with a pistol to his forehead. Naruto climbs down the ladder, not even a second later.

"Holy virgin Mary, mother of God. It's a fucking goldmine." He says before he climbs up and tosses out a Benelli M4 shotgun, that I quickly grab as Sasuke puts his sidearm away. "Someone get on the ladder, I'll hand shit up." Neji goes about halfway down, and I stand at the top. Five to six boxes of 5.56 and 7.62 NATO each. A few boxes of linked 5.56 for a SAW. And a Browning M2, with two boxes of 50 cal.

"We hit the motherload. Thank you sir." Naruto says as he gets out of the well and shakes the old man's hand.

"No need, allow us to aid you in your fight." He says as one of the men climbs down and they start handing out AKMs.

"No, you have done enough. Besides, I don't want your people getting in harm's way more than they already are." He turns to the three of us as I start loading the shotgun. "Let's get set up, move it." We carried the equipment to the larger building, and we noticed how empty it was, with rugs all over the floor.

"The hell?" Sasuke asks as he starts to walk on said rugs.

"Careful, prayer rugs. Mosques don't have seating. Unless it's for the elderly or disabled. Muhammad told me this once when he invited me to join his family if we ever were stateside at the same time." Naruto says.

"Shit, my bad."

"I'm sure they'll understand. Sasuke gets set in that tower if possible, Neji, get the M2 on the second floor, Shikamaru, help him out, I'll find shooting positions for the two of us." Naruto gives out orders before heading off somewhere else in the building. Sasuke, Neji, and I look at one another, Sasuke shrugs his shoulders before heading to the tower. Ma Deuce is set and Neji stays up with it and sets his M249 SAW not far from it, so I make my way back down. "Shikamaru over here." Naruto waved me over to him. We end up at a wall that goes down to the basement on the outside that has a good view of the center of the village. That's when we hear three or four vehicles come to a stop, that's gotta be them, so Naruto and I duck under the wall. The elder man asks something in Arabic, of course neither of us know what he's saying.

"Don't play with me Omar, you know why we are here. There was a team of 10 Americans that tried to kill me. Half of them were able to escape with their lives, the other half were sent plummeting to their death… or so we thought. Only one was found, where are the other four?"

"By the sounds of it, Maka and company made it out alive." I say, and Naruto nods.

"I do not know what you are talking about."

"You lie old man, you're lucky I don't kill you for that British infidel." He says something in Arabic and something starts moving and a woman screams.

"Stop it Aziz, you used to be a good man, what happened to you?"

"If you tell me the truth, then I'll do the same. WHERE ARE THE AMERICANS?" He shouts before again saying something in Arabic. Again a woman screams and he again shouts in Arabic. The name rings a bell.

"Wasn't Aziz the guy we were after?" Naruto asks, and that's when it dawns on me.

FLASHBACK*

"His name is Aziz Jalal. He is believed to be a figurehead of Yad Allah. What we do know is he is dangerous, and the textbook definition of evil." Maka says as she flips to the next slide of Aziz's face, along with censored photos of heads on the business ends of AKMs. "We prefer him alive, but if need be, kill him."

FLASHBACK END*

"That's him alright." I answer as I hear someone to my left, I turn to see someone pointing at us, so I lift the shotgun up and fire two shells. Naruto pops up and starts to fire off bursts. I grab my M4 Carbine and start to fire shots, hitting a man multiple times in the chest before he falls. I put my sights on another man, who jerks back after taking a round to the skull, which I can only assume is from Sasuke. I see Naruto duck under and reload out of the corner of my eye. "Let me know when you gotta reload." I shout as he just reloads and pops his head back up. I hear a crack just above me and I duck under, now breathing heavily as I realize what that meant. I look over at Naruto, who is still firing bursts, I look over just a bit and see Insurgents falling. That's when I notice the loud shooting from Neji on the SAW and Deuce, almost like the rapid beating of a snare drum, with the occasional crack of Sasuke's M40 sniper rifle, almost like the crash of a symbol, so I guess Naruto's M16 is like the bass drum if I gotta continue that analogy. What would that make my rifle?

"The fuck are you doing? We gotta move." Naruto shouts, breaking my wandering brain's thoughts, which I am quite glad for.

"Lead the way." I grab my stuff and we book it back in the masque. We enter a dimly lit storage room.

"Fuck, start searching for a door." Naruto says as we both turn our lights on. That's when I turn to see Baker sitting at a desk with a large radio in front of him.

"What are you doing buddy?" I ask.

"Oh, it's you two, just trying to get some to help. I told them we have you four and you're fighting Yad Allah."

"How?" I ask.

"Morse code."

"Okay cool, where's the door?" He points behind me and I turn to see a door. "Thanks, now stand back, BREACHING." I kick it a few times… nothing. Naruto steps up and kicks it three to four times, still won't budge "Wait… I have a fucking shotgun." I say as I grab the Benelli M4 dangling from my shoulder.

"Why didn't you try that first?" Naruto asks as he starts to crack a little bit of a chuckle.

"Don't ask."

"Umm, it has a…" Baker starts to say something as I shoot the doorknob off and kick the door down. "Lock you have to undo… okay." We walk up a set of stairs and into the main room.

"Blue blue blue." Naruto says as he heads near the door to re-engage. I hear something from the door Sasuke went into the tower from and I raise my rifle as it comes closer to the doorway.

"Friendly." Sasuke says as he enters while slapping a new mag into his M4 Carbine. "What's happening?"

"Had to move, you?" I answer.

"Same."

"The fucking civs are starting to open fire with AK styled rifles." Naruto shouts as he pops back in the door to reload. Sasuke and I get to the door and see the insurgents start to fall back.

"AZIZ JUST HIT THE GROUND." Neji shouts over the sound of the SAW unloading.

"Let's secure the bastard." Naruto says as he and Sasuke run out as the gunfire comes to a halt. I stay to make sure Neji is coming with us and we join them. "Let me see your hands." We catch up and I notice the bullet wound in the small of his back, near the spine.

"Hands behind your back." Sasuke adds as we all point at him. "I know you speak English, Aziz. Follow our instructions and things will be a lot easier for all of us." He moves his hands in front of him and I notice his clothes move.

"DO NOT REACH FOR ANYTHING." The other three yell something along that line at the same time. Everything went slow all of a sudden and then I felt like I blacked out as two loud bangs rang out as if it was blasts from a shotgun. Next thing I know, I'm about 10 yards from where we were and Naruto is dragging me.

"SOMEBODY GET ME SOME FUCKING WATER." He yells before someone translates as he notices that I'm awake. "Oh hey buddy, alright, let's get you sitting up, slowly." I slowly raise up and see Sasuke and Neji over Aziz's body searching him over. "Let's not look at that, yeah, look at me Shikamaru. It's okay, everything will be alright." One of the village's women runs over and hands Naruto a small pocialin bottle looking thing.

"Why, what happened?"

"Don't worry about that, here drink some water. Thank you, miss." Ilook all over myself, nothing seems to be missing. Hands, check, feet, check, ears, check, yep all good. So if I ain't missing anything, why don't they want me to look?

"Found something." Neji says as he walks over to the two of us.

"What is it?" Naruto asks and he shows us a small satchel like object. "How the fuck did he get a fanny pack?"

"That's not the important part. Look inside it." He hands the fanny pack to Naruto who does as suggested and pulls out a single item.

"That's…" I start to say.

"An M67 Frag Grenade." Neji cuts me off. "Hell of a call Shikamaru, but it was the right one."

"What do you mean?"

"You wanna see it? Gotta tell ya, it's graphic." Neji asks, and I nod.

"Help me pick 'em up." Naruto says as he and Neji grab my arms and bring me back to my feet. They walk me over to the body, the head just about missing. I feel sick to my stomach and I double over to spew my guts out. "Please don't puke on my boots."

"Real pretty Shikamaru." Sasuke adds.

"What the fuck happened?" I ask as I take in more water

"You shot him in the head, twice, with a shotgun, within five yards or so." Neji answers as something starts to approach us from above. We look up and see a helo starting to lower itself.

"Looks like Baker got us a ride." Naruto says.

"You guys those lost Marines?" The door gunner asks.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Sasuke asks.

"Some guy contacted the base and mentioned four stranded Devil Dogs in a fire fight with Yad Allah. We were heading back home when they asked us to check it out. Hop in, we'll give you guys a ride." He says and we load up. As we start to rise into the air, Some of the people wave goodbye.

"Looks like my wonderful Foster Mother was wrong."

"How's that Naruto?" I ask as I notice a small chain hanging out of my vest.

"Muslims are just like Christians, human beings."

"Amen to that brother." Neji says as he lifts up his canteen and takes a swig. I pulled the chain and discovered that I still had Tsugami's tags.

"I hope someone is able to recover her body." I say as I stuff it back into the pocket it was in.

"At least her family might have some closure. Hopefully." Sasuke says before looking out to the vast desert. Once we land, a small group of Marines are gathered, some cheating our return. I ignore them and head to the armory and put my rifle and pistol away. "Don't forget this." Sasuke tosses the Benelli M4 to me.

"Thanks." I say disheartened.

"Look, if it wasn't thanks to you, we wouldn't be here. It was a judgment call, and you made the right one."

"It's not that."

"I know, it sucks. They didn't deserve to die, not like that. But that's what we signed up for." He stops and sits down on one of the benches and points at the one across from him. "Mom wasn't very happy when I told them I was joining the Corps. Because of what happened to Itachi."

"How long after his death were you notified?"

"Right as I started to head to the bus stop. I walked out the door and a car pulled up with two men in dress blues from the army." He stands up and turns to the door, just from his tone I can tell he doesn't want to talk about it.

"I'm sorry."

"Ain't your fault." He leaves and I sit in silence. For how long I don't know. Even if for a short couple of weeks, I wanna go home.