Chapter 47: Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 47
The eccentric genin looked on at his final teammate who still remained to answer to see what he thought, it was a silent conversation between them.
Either they all went, or none of them that much every one of them knew.
...
Naruto looked up onto the sky and let out a deep breath. He squinted his left eye when a beam of sunlight peered from within the tree and smiled seeing a small bird flying over their heads.
"Let's go guys." he finally spoke, getting a small smile from Sakumo who merely nodded and Naruto clasped his green clad friend's shoulder reassuringly.
"Come on Duy, let's go." he spoke calmly and all his nerves washed away and their friend smiled himself. A moment later Naruto saw a small fire ignite in his friend's eyes and he gulped, trying to calm him down but it was already too late.
"Yosh! Let the power of youth explode!" he exclaimed when much to their horrors, he caught their wrists in his iron grip. Both knew what was coming, and before they could utter a word the pumped up boy had taken off.
With them in tow…like rag dolls peering through the bushes.
"Sensei! Let's go, we are ready!" Sasuke heard a shout and rose an eyebrow when he turned his eyes to the source of said voice. His energetic student flew out of a bush with his two dizzy and leaves covered teammates behind him.
Duy blinked, seeing his sensei's amused gaze and looked behind only to turn sheepish. His two teammates, dizzy as hell were trying to shake off their cobwebs and cleaning themselves up from their youthful trip.
He couldn't help but smile, seeing his three genins argue to each other as if the past day had lay forgotten and they were fine as long as they were together.
"Idiots…" he mumbled, hopping off the boulder he sat upon and decided to stop their banter when he saw Sakumo bonk Duy on the head as punishment and scold him as if he were a child, and himself a teacher while said boy was apologizing profusely for his youth.
But he couldn't be glad, or prouder that they had each decided to come. These three never ceased to amaze him no matter the reason.
"Alright, break it off, let's go…" he drawled out and jumped upon a tree, not caring enough to see if the three were following and sure enough they were. With quite fired up and determined eyes that is.
"Sensei what's the mission?" Sakumo finally let out the question that was on all their minds and the elder Sarutobi said nothing for a few moments, pondering on his own decision whether or not this was actually a right decision for him. He glanced back, only to see their innocent and confused faces and looked on ahead with a tired look in his eyes.
"They need it, they still don't know what they are going to be up against in the coming future. It's my burden to bear, for they need to grow up now…" he drawled out inwardly and let out a long breath.
"We have another B-ranked assignment…" he spoke up, finally breaking the tense silence. Naruto's feet met a branch and he hopped onto the next one with a curious glint in his eyes.
"What is it sensei?" he asked and Sasuke glanced to his side to see his genin all having their eyes fixed on him and turned his eyes ahead onto the path ahead.
"It's a simple scouting mission, we have to go close to the nearby border and scout out all the happenings there. That is the mission." he finally explained and Naruto nodded.
"Then why is it a B-ranked mission sensei?" Duy suddenly asked, surprising them all and the said boy blushed when all eyes turned to him and smiled sheepishly when all of the attention was fixated upon him.
"You'll see…" was all they got from their sensei before he let out a burst of chakra to increase his speed, with his three genin doing the same and whizzing past the trees at a quick and new-found pace.
...
A small clearing near the Konoha-Kusa borders…
Sasuke halted his sprinting jumps through the trees and rose a hand making his three charges do the same and crouch down on their respective branches silently.
Duy was about to voice a question loudly when he saw Sasuke placing a finger over his lips, signaling him to stay quiet and peered over the small hole between the green foliage to see what lay ahead.
Sakumo and Naruto though narrowed their eyes when their ears picked up upon something coming from the front.
CLANG…CLANG…BOOM!…
Their eyes snapped open in shock and they too parted the leaves of the tree, and peered on over to what lay on the other side.
All genin's eyes widened in horror, numerous shinobi were fighting down the small sized ravine leading onto the edge of the border.
Naruto watched on in stunned silence, as a shinobi jumped up and cleaved his kunai straight through another shinobi's jugular before moving on ahead to the next target as if the previous scene hadn't happened at all in the first place.
Duy and Sakumo too were watching on the bloodshed that was ensuing and almost at it's peak end with several small skirmishes almost at their bitter ends.
"Sensei…" Sakumo and Duy whispered, while the elder Sarutobi kept his eyes especially fixated on his blonde subordinate who seemed to be trembling at all that he was being shown right at this moment.
"What is this?" Naruto choked out, barely containing himself from puking his guts out when he watched the last two shinobi battle it all out and ripped the swords through each other's eyes.
"This is the truth of what lays in wait for us shinobi." Sasuke spoke, sadness clearly laced in his eyes. But he dared not let them take their eyes off this scene.
It would do them no good and most probably lead them to an early grave if they ever hesitated out in the battlefield even for a moment.
"But why sensei, aren't we allied neutrally with the others…" Sakumo reasoned in, his eyes stuck on the now crimson ground, laid out with several unidentifiable corpses while small bouts of smoke rose up from several places. But he was cut off before he could say any more by his instructor.
"Alliances are just that, mere paper and words of peace Sakumo. It only truly ever matters if the allied nations do truly believe in the peace they are all fighting towards seemingly for themselves…" he answered in his own wizened voice while pronouncing each and every last word with an extra emphasis to make his point clear to the boy.
"Ugh-" they all heard a painful moan and Sasuke's eyes widened momentarily when he caught a small movement in the corner of his eye.
"No don't-…" he hissed but it was in vain. His blonde genin jumped off the tree and straight down onto the ground, whizzing his way past the fully nurtured greenery and slid down the edge of the ravine expertly as he had done while playing and sliding through several places in his childhood exploration's effortlessly.
Naruto rushed past the smoking craters, several corpses lying lifelessly all around him. He couldn't help but grimace at the sight, it was as if a part of hell itself had summoned itself down onto the earth in that moment to him.
His feet stopped him by the only breathing person on the once smoking and lively battlefield. He skidded down onto his knees hurriedly, placing the man's head upon his lap, and instantly began to look through his wounds.
The man clad in all red, had a kunai jabbed right through where his liver was supposed to be and was bleeding profusely.
A fatal wound, one any shinobi was trained for, and would be proud to have made upon his enemy. His baby blue eyes, glanced into the clouded brown ones of the man in his arms who winced and tried to speak up.
"W-…" was all he could say before he coughed out blood, Naruto had instantly wiped it off his face and put his ear near his lips to hear him clearly and make it easier for the man.
"W-Water…" the man wheezed out, and Naruto nodded vigorously. Instantly, his left hand reached his back and pulled out his small bottle of canteen.
He unscrewed the supply, and instantly placed it upon the man's lips to let him drink it slowly. He smartly put some upon his face and eyes to wash off the blood and dirt so his wounds wouldn't be affected anymore for risk of further infections.
His ears didn't even pick up on the soft footsteps from behind, so far was he focused onto the wounded man in his arms.
The man's eyes squinted slightly upon feeling the foreign liquid falling upon his orbs while he tried to blink off his cobwebs and his eyes began focusing on his savior.
Naruto turned his gaze round to his side worriedly, looking at his sensei pleadingly.
"Sensei, please hand me some bandages. This man he-"
SQUELCH…
His eyes widened slightly,before widening to epic proportions and his pupil dilated in shock. He turned his eyes to the side, only to see the man in his arms gurgling blood while a kunai had lodged itself firmly within his jugular.
CLANG…
Naruto looked down by the dead man's hand when a kunai slipped down his lifeless fingers and fell onto the ground with a bounce. His own palm made it's way up straight towards his face and pulled it down, feeling a slightly wet substance upon his skin surfaces.
His blue eyes gazed at the palm in front of his eyes, only for him to go completely numb upon seeing the sticky and thick substance now coating it.
It was scarlet.
His head turned mechanically to the other side, only to see Sasuke pulling down his outstretched hand by his side as if nothing had taken place at all.
Naruto finally looked down, onto the man's completely white and dead eyes that had rolled back lifelessly.
"Why?" he asked in a trance, his mind not completely registering it while the elder Sarutobi merely let out a long breath.
"He was going to kill you Naruto. It was either you, or it was him. I chose the former…" the sensei explained calmly, as if reading a simple weather report.
"But why? He was dying, I was trying to help him then-" the boy mumbled in his own lost and trance like voice, not quite registering what had taken place just now as was indicated by his still dilated pupils.
"Look at his headband Naruto…" Sasuke spoke in a warm and comforting voice, while Naruto's eyes settled in on the red piece of cloth upon his forehead that had a stone symbol embossed upon it.
"…he was an Iwa shinobi Naruto, and skirmishes between the Leaf and the Stone have been at an all time high unknown to you kids or the village except us higher ups and border patrols." he explained, and got a small numb yet meek nod from the blonde.
"But I was merely helping-" Sasuke pulled his shoulders sideways to have him face his own stern and cold onyx black eyes into the dilated baby blue ones forcefully.
"This isn't a simple fight between two shinobi where you may show a little mercy to a dying man Naruto. This a fight between nations, as soon as that man's eyes focused on you the first thing he saw was the Leaf symbol donned upon your headband.
That was all that he needed to want to end you and leave a small mark in his dying breath for his village." he explained sternly, watching the boy's eyes squirm around but he held them firm by cupping his cheeks in his palms and making him look into his own even more forcefully.
...
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