Shizune cursed as the bleeding injury sprayed wet warmth over her chest, crimson staining the dark fabric as her patient continued to gasp raggedly for breath. His body was beginning to go into shock, twitches sporadically moving his fingers and eye lids.
She wasn't sure what caused his injury, if she had to guess a kunai, or another small knife had been stabbed into his shoulder blade, and dragged all the way down, almost to his kidneys. His comrades had managed to grab him, and drag him back as they fell back to the next defensive line.
Defensive line. She could almost snort. More like stalling lines. People were still trapped in the streets, civilians, women children. Either being cut down or taken as prisoners she didn't know. But she could still hear them screaming in the distance. The smell of smoke and burning wood and plaster faintly reached her nose and though she wondered just what exactly was going on out there she dared not look.
Night had fallen hours ago, and dawn was now approaching, the fighting had been going on all day, their attacks were never ending and their defenders were thinning further and further. Exhaustion and weariness beginning to show their effects much earlier than in their considerably more numerically advantaged enemy.
They were on their last legs, only two defensive lines stood now between their enemies and the hospital. And only the hospital stood between them, the Kage tower, and the Docks. Evacuation procedures were already underway at the hospital, but this was impossible. Especially in the small time frame they had. She could only pray that they could hold out long enough for Zhuge Liang and Tsunade to return. If they returned at all. A Naval battle wasn't a ninja's battle ground.
Had they lost that battle too? The thought caused her stomach to churn with unease. No, no that couldn't be. They had to at least have won that.
The half open door to the room was swung wide open, an Anbu, mask half broken, cloak torn and bloodied, entered the doorway, two others shortly behind him, making Shizune pause in her work as her attention turned to the three.
"Wha-"
"Shizune-san-" The Anbu interrupted as he rushed forward and latched onto the medics upper arm. "-we have to get you out of here immediately along with the rest of the medical personnel, we're falling back to the tower."
"The tower? But-the patients, we cant just-"
"We have to! All combat personnel is retreating to the tower, and any civilians we can save are being brought to the docks for evacuation."
"But the wounded we-"
"We cant! We have no time!"
"Now what would give you that idea?"
Shizune's back stiffened, a cold chill creeping up and down her spine as the cold edge of a kunai was held against her throat the tiny pinprick feeling more painful than any other sensation she'd ever felt before.
The three Anbu recoiled, bringing their weapons to the ready as they glared at the area behind the medic.
Shizune's head turned slowly, dreading to lay eyes on the person she knew the voice belonged to.
The slowly spinning, three tomoed sharingan of the Copy ninja met her gaze, the chilling sight of the blood red eye diminished only by the slumped attitude of nonchalance that hung about him.
"Kakashi." She whispered.
"Aww, how nice Shizune-chan. You remember me."
His tone was jovial, his eyes were not.
The sound of a bell rang out clear through the air, piercing through the walls of stone and brick
Kakashi's eyes trailed across the room, ears twitching at the sound as he saw Shizune's face light with a spark of hope.
"The watchtower." He heard her whisper.
'Hmm.' The copy ninja mused. Only one reason to have hope in a situation like this.
"Ships!" A voice cried from outside. "The Ships are coming!"
Help had arrived for them.
His eyes turned to Shizune, who brought her eyes to him as he could tell her mind was on the same thought.
'Either way...its a bit late for you though.'
The hanging candle's illuminated the deck of the ship with flickering orange, as the moon highlighted silver light over withering shadow. The harsh beat of the waves swayed the mass of wood to and fro.
"Oi fella's, what you recon these things be?" One of the crew members questioned, interrupting whatever conversation three of his fellow pirates may have been indulging themselves in.
In the man's hands were several small slips of paper, each with identical symbols.
Curious the other men stepped forward, taking some of the slips in their own hands to examine them. "Just look like regular paper to me with some doodles on it. Where'd you find these?" One of them said.
"On the bodies of those doctor ninja. It was just lying there along with some of their knives and weird medicine."
As he answered one of the men placed the paper on the side of the ship.
"Oi, this thing sticks. Think its some kind of special bandage?"
As the questions and speculations ran rampant amongst the group one of the men drew the slip of paper closer to his face, while also bringing the candle closer, so as to better illuminate the markings. "Wonder what these little...doodle thing's mea-"
A hand clamped down on the wrist of the hand that held the candle, startling him. But the grip was firm enough to keep the candle almost completely immobile.
Turning to face the owner of the intruding appendage he found captain Ishio standing there. An irritated expression over his face as he pulled away the candle.
"Note to self." The pirate captain said to himself as he yanked away the candle. "Find a smarter crew."
He snatched the paper out of his hand before he lit it aflame and threw the tag overboard. Ignoring the confused looks of his men for a few moments before the tag exploded, showering the upper deck with sea water as the ship lurched to one side due to the blast, the startled cries of the sleeping crew members below deck echoing up above the floorboards.
"Oh quit yer belly aching and get back to sleep." Ishio yelled stomping a few times on the deck before turning to the men behind him, marching up to each of them he proceeded to take the tags away from them. "They're called exploding tags ya morons. If ya would have bothered to pay attention to the ninja when we were at the docks of wave rather than drink yerselve's sick you'd know that instead of bumbling around like a couple of bufoons
Looking like children who'd just been reprimanded by their parents the men hung their heads, with one whispering a contrite- "I'm sorry"
Ishio rolled his eyes before looking off to the island in the distance. "How much longer before those idiots get back with our emergency supplies, the sail to Suna is a long one. And I'd rather make it there without being on the verge of starvation so we can sell that damn white eyed princess, give back their half dead blond and get out quickly. Cant stand ninja. Arrogant the lot of em."
"Soon capn' they left nearly an hour ago so their ship should be coming back soon."
"Hmm."
Up on the crows nest none of them noticed their now dead crew mate, or the person standing over him, watching them through dark blue eyes before he slowly faded from view. He needed to find and secure both Hinata and Temari. Then he could kill the captain and drag this ship back to the mainland.
"Good, just like that. You've almost got the basic movement down packed at this point." Was the voice of Kankuro, as the puppet user towered over a kneeling Kiba.
The Inuzuka male was currently sitting on the deck of the ship, his face scrunched up in concentration as he focused on moving his newly created prosthetic arm with chakra strings.
The arm was more skeletal than anything. With such little time Kankuro had barely managed to put the frame together with the joints and pivot points functional, let alone any armor platings or armaments like kunai compartments or poison cartridges for claws. It had four digits, three as fingers and one as a thumb. The wood wasn't as sturdy as the material he'd used on his own body armor but it'd be able to give a few jaw breaking punches. They both hoped it'd last long enough for them to get back to Suna where he'd be able to build Kiba some proper equipment.
Of course it'd help if Kiba would be able to grasp the concept of chakra strings quick enough to actually use his arm.
The Inuzuka was impatient, he supposed he had reason to be. He'd started teaching him just two days ago when Zhuge Liang and Gaara had announced that they were returning to Kumo. They were already sailing along side the coast and the small gulf that led into Kumo's docks was only minutes away and Kiba had only just begun to grasp the first tiers of the pupeteering art.
His impatience, though understandable was a pain in the ass right now. He knew enough to get the arm to move but it was still a conscious effort, it wasn't natural.
"Alright that's enough of that for now." Kankuro said waving him off with his normal hand. "For the next step-"
"SMOKE! SMOKE TO THE NORTH!"
The cry was up from the crows nest, and all crew eyes turned sharply towards the northern horizon where they could see a dark smog rising into the night air blocking out the still faintly glowing stars. The rising sun had set the sky to a grayish hue, almost fading into blue but not quite. It provided just enough light to see the smoke, but not enough to block out the faintly orange glow that soon greeted their eyes as they leaned over the edge of the ship.
Their view of the village was blocked out by the massive rock faces that acted as a natural fortification into the village harbor. It circled around the bay, leaving only a narrow choke point as an opening, excellent for defense, not so much however when allied ships needed to arrive fast.
As Kankuro looked over everyone's heads his attention was diverted behind him by the sound of footsteps, catching sight of Gaara, Yue Ying, and Zhuge Liang as the three marched up behind the men assembled along the edge of the ship, everyone with tension and anxiousness rolling off them in waves, hoping to be able to asses what condition the village was in.
And hoping to the gods it wasn't too late.
Zhuge Liang in particular held his breath with trepidation as the ship picked up speed with a sudden gust of wind. His heart thrumming loudly within his chest as he swallowed thickly, hoping against hope that the defenders had managed to hold off the invaders until now.
This hope was shared by many. By all the men and women that had joined him on these ships.
But as the ships approached the entry to the bay, the sight that greeted them dashed any aspirations they held of their fellow ninja holding off the Konoha invaders.
Flames seared the edges of the buildings, black smoke rising to the air as rubble and debris collapsed, spilling out onto the streets, blood coated the crumbling walls like badly spilt paint, cascading down the white cobblestone; the main gate of the city, visible from this distance, lay broken, torn into pieces, allowing more of the invaders to pour into the city streets.
"No."
"The village-"
"How could this happen?"
"No NO!"
These were only some of the words that escaped the lips of the Kumo ninja that now watched their village with ever mounting panic, fear and anger. Emotions ran rampant through the air as even some of the Suna ninja allowed themselves to feel sympathy for their allies.
Yue Ying's eyes were wide, brown hair slowly swaying to and fro as she shook her head. "This is not possible."
Gaara's face twisted with anger as he released a grunt of frustration, fists tightening until his knuckles cracked. "Gather your weapons!" He suddenly barked startling those nearest to him before he turned to the helmsman. "Get this ship on the dock now!"
The helmsman nodded, gulping down the lump of fear in his throat as those teal green eyes fixed themselves upon him. But soon another voice cut through the air, stopping his movements.
"Stay those orders!"
Incredulous, questioning gazes turned themselves onto the lone form of Zhuge Liang, face etched into a deep scowl, the lines over his face seemingly carved into his features as his lips curled in distaste as he took a deep breath. "Turn the ship around...we're leaving."
"What!"
"Raikage-sama!"
"No way!"
"He cant be serious."
Amongst the outcry Gaara's voice was strong and clear as he turned to the Raikage.
"Zhuge Liang?"
The sleeping dragon, posture weary and weighed down turned his attention to his fellow shadow, already anticipating the question about to spill from his lips.
"What are you doing?"
The silence that awaited the Raikage's answer was almost oppressive in itself.
"I'm giving the order...to abandon Kumo."
Gaara's response was a mixture of disbelief and anger as he gestured back to the city. "There are still people in there!"
Zhuge Liang nodded, annoyance beginning to form over his features as he snapped back. "You think I don't know that!"
Gaara seemed to struggle for words, his voice becoming increasingly heated with every syllable that escaped his lips. "You cannot honestly expect us to abandon innocent-"
"Exactly! Civilians!" For many, it was the first time Zhuge Liang had ever raised his voice but it didn't hold just anger, no it was also laced with frustration, disgust and even, helplessness. "Civilians which we would exhaust whatever little resources we still have available to us trying to save, something that we cannot afford to do!"
"The Konoha forces cannot possibly be expecting us We can win this we can drive them back!"
"With what men!" Liang yelled marching right up to Gaara, staring down at the slightly shorter redhead as he spoke. "Half of the men we left with are wounded, the other half still exhausted from battle and manning the ships. And not to mention the sizable portion that's now feeding the gulls out in the open ocean. With what force do you hope to win this battle? Certainly not by yourself because the only man that could possibly drive back an army by himself is the one leading them!
Gaara stared into Liang's eyes, unwavering at the mans understandable anger as he spoke.
"Not this time he isn't. The dock has yet to be overrun, we can draw a line there and hold back these forces long enough for the civilians and wounded ninja to board the ships. Then we can all retreat safely back to Suna!"
Liang shook his head, growling with distaste as he began to walk away from Gaara. "Such a child!"
Gaara closed his eyes, taking a moment to calm himself as he took a deep breath before he spoke.
"Liang get off this ship."
The sleeping dragon paused in his stride, confusion marring his brow before he turned around. "What?"
"Get off this ship." Gaara repeated. "Because I am going into that village to help those people. With; or without you."
Liang sighed slowly. "Listen Kazekage-do-"
"No!" Gaara barked, interrupting him mid sentence. "You listen." He straightened, standing to his full height as he repeated the words he'd only said once before. "I swear, if by my life or by my death, I can serve my people or those in need of my protection. I will"
Liang and those around them listened to those words, immediately knowing their meaning as well as their significance.
"That is the oath, we took." Gaara continued, embers of determination smoldering behind his eyes as he approached Liang. "The oath that all Kage's before us, and after us, have taken and will take. But somewhere along the line you've lost sight of that! I haven't and I don't intend to. So leave if you want."
Liang raised his chin an inch or two, eyes meeting Gaara's before the Kazekage looked to the helmsman, speaking in a tone that broke no argument. "Bring. Us. Into. Dock."
And as if a dam had been broken, a cheer suddenly erupted from the men and women around them Liang watched the faces of the ninja, now filled with hope, rather than despair. With righteous anger, rather than reckless vengeance.
His eyes returned to Gaara's back, as if viewing a new and interesting puzzle.
'Sabaku no Gaara. Could it really be...'
Atop the wall Kimimaro stood, skin covered in black markings, bone sword in one hand, bone whip in the other. A squad of ninja behind him as they watched the ships approaching.
"They are here then." He stated.
"It doesn't really matter at this point." Came the voice of Hatake Kakashi as the coppy ninja emerged from the stone floor of the wall coming to a stop to Kimimaro's right. The Kaguya gave no reaction to his sudden appearance, merely continued watching the ships. "The city has already fallen." The copy ninja continued. "If they want to throw away their last bit of energy in a futile attempt to drive us back. Well...I'm not going to stop them."
Kimimaro seemed to ignore the statement. Turning his head to look over his shoulder to the men behind him. "Take a unit to the docks. Kill all in your path"
As the men vanished Kakashi turned another page in his book, eyes scanning over the parchment. "Hmm."