Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Tag, You're Dead ❯ 02 - Or ( Chapter 2 )

Edited: February 11, 2008

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Summary: The Sound is coming. Get ready to play. [A series of 6 - Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, Tenten]

 

Tag, You're Dead

Chapter Two: Or

 

He rubs his arms, chilled by the feral call Ino had just emitted. He's never suspected the seemingly shallow kunoichi capable of such emotion. Of course, he realizes, she probably saw these invaders as the men who had killed her Asuma-sensei. He decides, in an uncharacteristic burst of seriousness, that it was probably good. She was trained well enough that she wouldn't go into a blind haze, and adrenaline and hatred would keep her fighting much longer than simple politics.

 

He has his own problems to worry about. He stares straight out, the very edges of his vision grasping on the girls he stands between, blurs of dark blue and light pink, each drawn into focus as he glances at them. Hinata or Sakura? His love or his best friend? He knows that Sakura would kill him for even having these thoughts. “You idiot,” she would scream, “go protect Hinata-chan!” She would hit him, laugh at him, and then pull Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-temee into it, “I've got Kaka-sensei and Sasuke-kun to protect me! Anyways,” she would add, “I'm not that weak little girl anymore. I can protect myself.”

 

It is true that she can protect herself better, perhaps, than Hinata. But she is reckless. (He realizes the irony in this statement, coming from him). She charges into battle with no more thought than to destroy the enemy. She is too intelligent, too strong, and too fast. She fights, and thinks of battle strategies, pieces puzzles together, and then defeats her opponents, and she doesn't care about herself.

 

There. He said it. She doesn't care about herself. She cares about others. If she saw Kakashi-sensei fall, or Ino, or Kiba, or Chouji, or, god forbid, the bastard, or anyone on their side… If she saw them fall, she would be thinking of them, and she would be running to them, and healing left her wide open for any attack that might come her way.

 

And Hinata has Kiba, Shino, Kurenai-sensei… But Sakura has more actual combat experience, after being on Team Kakashi and being Tsunade-baa-chan's apprentice for so long…

 

Still.

 

The odds all point to Hinata needing him more, but they should be fighting as a team.

 

So it isn't just Hinata or Sakura.

 

It is the choice between the eighth team or his own.

 

He probably shouldn't be thinking about this - where he fights and who he fights with may not even be under his control. But it very well may be. “The Sound is coming.” The message, carried along the chain of Konoha's spies, was quick, brusque, to the point - “The Sound is coming.”

 

There had been no `or,' no `what if,' no `maybe,' or `maybe not.'

 

And days after those reports came others, pouring in until intelligence was completely swamped, and the Hokage's office piled high with reports. This, he knows, has the potential to be a Ninja War.

 

Then came reports from Sunagakure, “We're coming,” the message had read, in more eloquent terms, “We're coming, and Kumogakure has allied itself with Oto.” To say that Tsunade was stressed would have been the understatement of the century, Kakashi-sensei had said when Naruto thought about going to see her. Sasuke had responded with something about how Kakashi should know. But Gaara was coming, and with him Kankurou and Temari, so it would be okay, right?

 

Or it wouldn't.

 

Naruto turns and walks toward the stairs, Sakura and Sasuke following close behind him. They are a team, and he leads, though it doesn't seem like it. Kakashi-sensei is gone, lost in a puff of smoke. Hinata comes, too, with her team, and then Team Gai, and then the others, one by one. Ino is the last to leave, blood staining those blue gloves she has taken to wearing.

 

Looking behind him, Naruto doesn't see the faces of the people he has known for so long. Instead, he sees masks. Not all of them are the porcelain masks of ANBU, but the stone-cold, expressionless faces of the passionate people he knew. They have been building up to this battle, to this war, for quite a while now, and those that he knows who are not clad in the dark armor of ANBU wear the vests of the jounin rank over their usual outfits. They are bright, some of them, purples and pinks and blues of the younger ones, and then there are the darker, more practical colors of those who know how difficult it is to wash blood from cloth: grays, blacks, blues, and greens.

 

They are the Konoha shinobi.

 

He glares at the gate where Gaara would enter, while the other shinobi melt into the shadows, all but one. Naruto smiles down at the blue-haired girl whose hand lay on his shoulder. He will fight beside Hinata tomorrow, if he can. He is shinobi and the mission comes first, always, but he will do anything he can to stand next to her on the battleground tomorrow, and he knows that Tsunade-baa-chan will not deny him this.

 

Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, they will be the ones to stand victorious on the field.

 

For tomorrow, for always, for as long as it takes, they will fight.

 

No more `or,' no more `what if,' no more indecision.

 

Just today, just now, just this moment, just this battle.

 

The old children's game - the game he never played because he had no one to play it with - runs through his mind, “Ready or not, here we come!”

 

They are ready.