Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~ e. e. cummings

.

.

Things were hesitant, as we watched the Sand shinobi go.

"After that fight," Sasuke said levelly, eyes dark and giving no hints of his thoughts. Did he approve? Disapprove? Sasuke, I knew, likely had triggers about families and people begging for their lives. It wasn't the same but… "Everyone in the area is going to know exactly where we are."

Yeah, giant toads and sand demons were hard to miss.

"Could be a good thing," I replied, thinking the statement over. "Could be a bad thing. On one hand, if our superiors are looking for us with more orders they'll be able to find us. On the other… we don't know what kind of forces the enemy has, or how they're staggered."

The implication was there could still be many of them out there.

I weighed up the options, my brain running sluggishly and tired. But I was in charge, I couldn't not.

"We need to find a safe location to use as a base, and possibly start sweeping the forest," I said with a nod to Shino, who had been the one to bring up the standard procedure. "I'd prefer it if we got some distance from this area. If our sensei need to find us, they will."

"There's an outpost in the sixth quadrant," Shikamaru said.

Outpost was stretching it a bit. It was a guard station, a stop along a patrol route around the forest. If I remembered the designation right, it was a solo station, usually manned by a single person, though it might have been increased if security had been tightened. But like all outposts and guard stations, it was a defensible location.

"Let's go," I said. "We'll approach cautiously in case it's been overrun."

I hauled one of Naruto's arms over my shoulder, and after a brief pause, Sasuke mirrored me on his other side.

We took off, Kiba and Hinata gravitating to the front to lead us. It was a much slower trip than either of our previous jaunts, and even though we were still on the lookout for enemies, the atmosphere of the group was less tense.

"Found it," Kiba said, sniffing the air with a pleased look on his face.

"T-there is a Chunin approaching," Hinata said softly, tapping her fingers together. "We should stop."

Stop and let them approach us. Less threatening, that way. We didn't want to suffer through a case of mistaken identity.

He circled our group once, then landed easily in front of us. He was, like most Chunin, wearing the standard Konoha blues and flack jacket. His headband was worn as a bandanna and he had a small, dark goatee. He was a little battered and had clearly been in a fight or two. He also looked reasonably familiar, and I thought he might have been one of the Sentinels for the First Exam.

That was a long time ago…

Well, not really. But it felt like it. This morning felt like a long time ago.

"What's a bunch of Genin doing this far out? You guys should be in the shelters, at least." His eyes dragged over our injuries, and the way Sasuke and I were holding Naruto up.

I fumbled for a second. "We were in the stadium and were assigned a mission. It's complete now. We were headed for the outpost for updates or new orders."

"I see. Well, I'm Iwashi Tatami, from the outpost if you hadn't guessed. You're all Genin, right?"

We nodded in confirmation.

"I don't suppose you know the identification code?" The question was casual, but his eyes were careful. Infiltration was a standard tactic, but that usually came before the fighting.

"We know the standard one," I said. If there was a new one for the invasion I didn't know it. "Walls of blue flame, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end."

The identification codes were a string of basically nonsense words. The one for Genin was different from the one from Chunin and so forth. But the real beauty of them was there were variations - if I'd said 'torch of blue flame' it meant 'I'm doing this under duress'. There were hundreds of variations, designed for circumstances where information couldn't be given freely.

Memorising them all was crazy.

They didn't actually get used a lot, since most teams knew each other well enough to spot impostors in other ways. Or they preferred to use their own codes since anything 'official' could be 'stolen' more easily. But since we were strangers in the middle of an invasion, something had to be done.

His shoulders relaxed. "Alright. Lets head to the outpost and I'll fill you in. Anyone really injured?"

"Nah," Kiba answered, shrugging. "We got off lucky."

It wasn't really surprising that he hadn't immediately linked us to the fight to the east. They'd have been able to see it, more than likely, but attributing it to a bunch of Genin? Not hardly.

Iwashi led us expertly through the trees, to a spot where the trees were thickest.

"Welcome to our humble little abode. This is Mozuku, the other Chunin on duty at the moment."

I glanced around not sure what he was talking about. I couldn't see the guard station.

It was Hinata that pointed it out. "In the tree," she said softly.

Not 'in the trees' like a tree house, but physically built into the trunk of one of the giant 'Hashirama trees'. A little niche had been carved out. Not a big one, just enough to store some supplies, to provide a little bit of cover, for a single person to hide in.

"I'll take over the patrol," Mozuku offered. "If you want to get them sorted."

Iwashi nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks."

There was a small clearing by the outpost and Sasuke and I lay Naruto down at the base of a tree where he'd be out of the way. He was still out of it, and likely would be for a while. I gently brushed his hair out of his face.

"So what's going on?" Sasuke asked, voice calm and serious.

"Well, I'm going to take it that you know about the invasion," he said ironically. "A combined force of Sand and Sound ninja came in through the forests this morning, not counting however many snuck in with the Exam guests. When the signal for retaliation came, we crushed most of them between the walls and the outer forces. Right now, we're just doing sweeps of the forest to pick up any left over stragglers."

"Outer forces?" I echoed.

"Yeah, there's a fair amount of us out here. Chunin, Jounin… ANBU squads." A smug smirk kicked up the corner of his lips. "They didn't know what hit 'em."

We absorbed that.

"So what do we do?" Ino asked.

Iwashi considered. "Well, I don't want to send you kids out on your own. Those of you who are injured can wait here, and I'll take two of you with me, if you feel up for patrolling. Mozuku will probably do the same when he gets back."

"I'm in," Kiba said immediately. "Sitting around waiting ain't my style." Akamaru barked in agreement.

Iwashi raised an eyebrow. "I think you'd better put something on those cuts and scrapes first. No point having you bleed to death after everything."

That was an exaggeration, but it got the point across. Kiba groaned and flopped down on the ground.

Sasuke stood, brushing off his shorts. "I'll go." I glanced at him, but his chakra was still buzzing from the soldier pill regardless of how many Chidori he had used.

"Me too," Chouji said suddenly. "Since I didn't fight before."

I looked at him in surprise. Chouji didn't really like fighting. Unless he was making the point that he wasn't as tired as the rest of us, which was fair enough.

"Awesome," Iwashi said. "Let's go."

I felt their chakra dart off, in the opposite direction that Mozuku had gone. I hoped they didn't run into any trouble.

I stood and stretched, arching my back and wincing as it 'click-click-click'ed. Everything felt sore, probably from my impromptu tumble through a tree.

"Hey Hinata," I said softly. "Could you watch Naruto while I patch Kiba up?"

"O-of course," she stammered, and I gave her a quick smile. Team 10 had gravitated together, and Shino looked to be meditating or something in the shade.

I meandered over to Kiba. He didn't move.

"Yo," I said, dropping down next to him.

"Hey," he said, less energetic than usual.

I ran a diagnostic scan over him. "Coming down from the solider pills?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure.

"Nah," he said easily. "It's just… everything. Y'know?"

I pet Akamaru gently on the head and then lifted him off Kiba's chest so I could keep working. I unsealed equipment from my scroll and got to work cleaning the cuts so I could either heal them or apply ointment.

"It's been a crazy day," I agreed.

"Tell me about it. This morning I'm hoping Shino makes Chunin and Neji gets his ass beat… this afternoon…" he trailed off.

This afternoon we're fighting for our lives in the stadium and then chasing a Jinchuriki through the forest… I paused and rewound that thought.

"The stadium?" I guessed. It had all been so fast and crazy, but I'd fought. I'd killed people. And if I thought about it… so had Kiba.

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"You alright?" I asked, a tad pointlessly.

"Hey, you're the one doctoring me up." He grinned cheekily.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Hold still or I'll get out the ointment that stings."

"I'll be good," he promised. The grin faded pretty quickly though.

I activated my Mystical Palm Jutsu and started healing what I could. I had plenty of chakra, thanks to the soldier pill earlier but it took more… concentration to focus it. It was wilder than normal, agitated. It was something I'd never felt in my chakra before and it was very strange.

"It's just…" Kiba said, shifting awkwardly.

"Just?" I prompted softly.

"Don't get me wrong," he said hastily. "I'm not being all girly about it or anything. But… What makes it different? That we could kill there and not here? That you wanted to let them go?"

I don't know.

I killed 13 people today, isn't that enough? I blinked the number away. Nine in the forest. Four in the stands. Shit.

"Did you want to kill them?" I asked. 'Them'. The Sand Siblings. Even thinking about them made my stomach twist unpleasantly. I'd made the decision. Whatever repercussions came from it would be on my head. I knew they'd be good allies in future - the Kazekage even - but that wasn't something I could use to explain my decision.

"Not really," Kiba admitted. "That's why we tied Temari up. But… back in the stadium, I didn't want to kill him either. I just did it. I wasn't even thinking about it. I just … had a kunai and stabbed. It didn't even really click until just now. It was so crazy up there that it didn't register."

I hummed. "I wish I had answers for you," I said. I had reasons but that wasn't the same, wasn't what he was asking. "I… They were out of the fight. The guys in the stands… they would have just kept fighting, just kept attacking if we hadn't-" I cut myself off. "I don't, I can't think that mercy is inherently wrong. That killing people is the only answer." Maybe I was just a hypocrite. It didn't matter.

"Out of the fight," Kiba repeated, he looked strange. A little sad. "They just wanted to go home."

"Yeah," I agreed. "They just wanted to go home." I swallowed. Blinked harshly. When said like that… I shoved the thought away. "Here. Let me see what I can do for Akamaru."

I wasn't exactly a vet, but cuts and bruises on a dog had to be pretty similar to cuts and bruises on a human. Anything more serious was another matter, though.

Mozuku came back and agreed to Iwashi's idea to take two of us with him. Kiba jumped on the chance and Shino unfolded himself to go along with them.

"Well," I said blankly to the air.

Yup, being a ninja wasn't all hectic chases, dangerous fights and heart-rending, life-and-death decisions; a great majority of it was sitting around waiting with absolutely no clue what was going on in the village. The Chunin had told us what they could, but they didn't have up to date info either.

How were people fairing? How many enemies were there? How much longer would the fighting last?

We waited. And waited. Iwashi and Mozuku swung by to check on us and it didn't look like patrols were particularly exciting either. It was nearly sundown before we heard the ringing of the bells. Church bells, I would have said, though the local equivalent wasn't the same. But sound carried, so it was an effective way to communicate over a wide area.

"Guess the fighting's over," Ino said, listening.

"They'll be sending out runners, then," I hazarded a guess. "Orders for the outpost shinobi."

"I hope everyone is alright."

The two patrol groups came back just in time to meet the arrival of another Chunin.

"Iwashi, Mozuku," he greeted, seeming to know them. They waved back. "They're dropping the security level back down to 3, so only one of you has to stick around till shift-change."

Briefly, I wondered who was going to be taking the next shift. Surely every able bodied ninja had been fighting.

"There are check-in stations just inside the gates," he continued. "They've got more info about the village status. And new assignments." He smirked briefly.

"Here's hoping my 'new assignment' is eight hours sleep," Mozuku said, stretching.

"You'd be so lucky," the new Chunin returned. "I've got twelve more guard stations to visit."

"Level three, huh?" Iwashi muttered. "That's still pretty tight."

"Just in case there's a second attack, I guess," Mozuku said. "Anyway. I did less fighting than you, so you should take the Genin back to the village."

Iwashi hesitated, then shrugged. "If you're sure. Come on, kids. Time to go home."

Kiba muttered something about 'not a kid', but I just scrambled over to Naruto and tried to wake him. Still out of it. Which was fair enough, I guessed, since it had taken him three days to sleep off his last bout of chakra exhaustion. I pulled his arm over my shoulder with a groan and was thankful when someone took his other side and halved the weight I had to carry.

"Hey, Sasuke," I rasped. "You're being pretty quiet over there."

He shrugged. "Hn."

I sort of wished I knew what he was thinking. Was he relieved we'd survived? Upset that Naruto was the one to manage what the rest of us couldn't? Annoyed that the Exams were disrupted? Worried about the village?

Now wasn't really the time to ask, though.

The Chunin at the check in station took one look at us and shook his head. "If you're exhausted, go home. Everything is mostly covered now. The map shows the areas of high damage, and we have a list of known casualties and evacuation spots if you're looking for people."

We signed in, and I scrambled for a minute trying to remember Naruto's ID code, and reassured everyone that he was just exhausted and not injured.

We glanced at the damage report. The area that contained Naruto's apartment was shaded black - high damage - while Sasuke's was red - moderate damage.

I made the executive decision. "You two are coming home with us. Don't even argue." I couldn't in good conscious just ditch Naruto while he was like this, and I didn't want to let Sasuke go either.

Shikamaru just shrugged and yawned.

"Fine," Sasuke said. We sort of made dinner at my place a tradition after a big mission, and while this wasn't quite the same, I guess it was close enough.

"Alright," I said, and then yawned. "Let's call this day done."