Naruto : Saga of Tanya the Kunoichi

On the 3rd day, the 1st Company of SORA instantaneously appeared in an instant at an open area just in front of the military base at the border of Land of Fire, directly facing Land of Grass.

"Commander Kaito! Your company finally's here! We have been waiting!" One of the military officers was at first startled by their appearance, but then a look of joy appeared on his face.

Many officers began to greet the company, their eyes looking at Tsuyu with awe. Not Kaito who's the supposed commander.

What's up with these people? They look like bootlickers?

"Sergeant Tsuyu, we have heard of your squad achievement! To think Konoha has someone like you!"

"Kuhum… we are only doing our best for Konoha." Tsuyu straightened her vest, looking up at the tall man who had shining eyes looking at her.

"You guys must have a tiring journey, come come, have some rest."

Tsuyu entered the building with a little feeling of suspicion. It seemed her deeds on Land of Lightning had been spread deliberately to boost morale. A good strategy given the bleak situation of Konoha. She didn't mind, the better her reputation, the higher her merits and chance to rise.

She dreamed of a position like Danzo where he literally only sat in his chair and ordered his men to do his biddings while he himself barely went out. He's her role model in this regard.

Someday… for sure!

 ***

Yamato's squad along with hundreds others arrived at Land of River, the buffer region between Land of Fire and Land of Wind. The land was semi-arid, though as not rich in plantations as Land of Fire, greeneries still covered the ground. 

Yamato led 150 people to the assigned camp location. There was a village nearby and they were used as the base for the mobile camp. But the civilians were mostly untouched and were only notified of present war and skirmishes that might happen. Though, the ground of their village was used to set up tents. There's a source of water from the river flowing in the vicinity as well.

The meager 150 people made camp there as Mobile Respond Troops to fortify any of the major fronts they were fighting. Almost a third of them were medics, and they were assigned as a mobile camp to alleviate the issue of manpower and the need for medic in different areas.

Naruto looked at the villagers around them, looking scared and terrified of them. They were in a region closer to Land of Fire and it's unlikely any skirmish would happen here, he thought. For once he had to think of other people and had to read the map to see where everyone was fighting.

Besides, the camp was just temporary…

Yamato used wood release to make a cabin for the whole squad, making their respect and awe for Yamato increase by 300%.

"Suge! You can make a house so easily!"

"You are amazing Yamato-sensei!" Sakura also cheered.

Sasuke touched the walls of the cabin, impressed he could do something like this.

"We need proper rest if we want to last long out here." Yamato sensei responded with some pride.

"I agree with Yamato-sensei. We need proper rest to last. But first… I am going to clean up the river nearby. Call me if there's anything urgent, okay!" Sakura went away to clean herself after their journey. Washing their bodies was a luxury during war time and Sakura wouldn't waste such chance.

Naruto didn't have any weird ideas to peek at Sakura, his heart and mind was somewhere else. 

He looked at everyone, half of them seemed to have a feeling of anxiousness in them, being in war for the first time much like Naruto. Those who hadn't gone through hell's camp already feel depressed from being away from Konoha and the hardship of eating food pills, the anxiety over future battle, responsibility, and uncomfortable rest.

In this regard, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakure almost didn't notice anything and were like fish in water even in supposed high stress environments. They had gone through worse after all.

The squad were put on standby, waiting for order.

After hours, Naruto felt a little sticky and wanted to take a bath himself. He notified Sasuke and went out quickly towards the nearby river.

As he approached, he saw a little boy of about 10 years old, fishing there. The boy noticed the sound of footsteps and turned his head.

To Naruto's surprise, the boy seemed scared and quickly picked his fishing rod and carried his basket filled with few fishes.

"Hey…! Kid, wait…!"

The boy seemed frozen in fear, turning around to face Naruto. He turned his head up, seeing the shinobi forehead protector.

"…It's okay," Naruto said, raising both hands slowly. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

Naruto felt his heart soft seeing the boy. 

"You are from the village?"

The boy nodded, but his body seemed to tell Naruto the boy wanted to run away from him.

He walked forward slowly, kneeling to the boy's level.

"Hey, something happened?"

The boy looked down, then muttered. "My papa… he got hurt. By one of you."

"What? No… our shinobi won't… tell me what happened?" Naruto his heart hurt.

"They thought my papa was… I don't know. Something bad. He was just fishing. And they cut him. Papa managed to come back… but…"

"He can't walk much since yesterday… Mama cries a lot. My papa… he's in pain… Mama said it's poison, the village doctor can't do anything…" The boy had tears glistening in his eyes.

Naruto felt his heart sad even more.

"Bring me to your papa, our medic nin could help. Please? I won't hurt them, I promise."

The boy seemed to look hopeful. After moments of hesitation, he went to bring Naruto into the village.

The villagers look at him with scornful gazes, piercing deep into his soul. He didn't know people outside of Konoha were… scared of shinobi like him. Or perhaps, it was because of war and they had a bad impression on them.

As Naruto entered the humble home, he saw a man shaking and trembling beneath a quilt. The veins on his neck and face seemed to pop up, revealing its blue colour. His face was pale. His face squeezing shut in pain.

"...Mister… are you alright?"

"Nn…?" The man opened his eyes. But his eyes darted to the forehead protector, he shouted for him to stay away.

"Don't… come near us…! Go away… cough…" He sat up, his hand quickly pulled the boy to protect him.

"...Mister, you are poisoned. Our medic nin can help, I promise."

"Nnh…" The man seemed hesitant and reluctant. The wife came out of the kitchen, holding a knife, afraid that Naruto, or those shinobi would come to rob them.

"Madam… I really just want to help…" Naruto raised his arms. His heart felt heavy.

She looked at Naruto. Seeing he was just a kid himself, she let her guard down.

"...You really want to help?" She asked warily.

"Yes! I promise!" Naruto stood up and spoke with spirit.

"... Okay…" She couldn't bear seeing his husband in pain.

"Okay, let me get you to our medic." Naruto created a shadow clone, surprising the boy and making him look in awe. The shadow clone picked the man up easily, letting him hold onto his back.

"Suge!" The boy looked at Naruto's shadow clone and the real Naruto.

"Impressive eh? It's called shadow clone technique."

"Wow! If I can do that I can help mom and dad more!" 

Naruto's heart softened. He used shadow clones to beat people up, as tools of war. But the boy's first thought was to help his parents.

"Sorry kid, even if I teach you, you wouldn't get to use it." Naruto patted his head.

The boy pouted, feeling it's unfair. But the boy's relaxed expression turned a little worried each time he turned to look at his dad.

Naruto brought the man to the medic tent. Sakura happened to be and was surprised to see the boy and the man the shadow clone carried.

"Naruto! Who are these? You can't just bring civilians here!"

"Sakura-chan, his dad needs help. He was poisoned. Please?" Naruto pleaded to Sakura.

"Sigh… this really isn't right… but fine. Just put him down, let me see."

The man groaned in pain as he was placed on the table. Sakura's expression turned serious seeing the bulged veins on his body and neck.

"This poison… it's one of Suna's poison they apply on their weapons… Mister, where were you cut?"

The man shakily pointed at the side of his abdomen. Sakura looked at the bandaged wound. It's closed up, but the poison lingers.

She sanitized her hands and prepared the separating solution in a small basin next to her.

She opened up the bandage and cleaned up the wounds and sanitised the area. With a chakra blade she cut the wound open. Trickles of blood come out of the wound.

"Papa…!" The boy looked like he's about to cry.

"This poison wasn't that difficult. I just need to separate them from your Papa's blood, okay?"

Sakura took a deep breath and focused. Her right hand dipped into the solution, carrying a blob of water near the wound. Sakura's other hand glowed with greenish chakra light, guiding the poison, separating based on their different density through precise chakra control.

Yellowish liquids slowly seeped out of the man's wound and into the separating solution. After a minute, all of the poison was flushed out. There were only a few drops inside the man's body, but the effect was painful especially due to him being a civilian with a weaker body.

Sakura skillfully close up the wounds with a suture and heal it with a medical ninjutsu.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

"There ya go kid. Your papa will be fine."

"Thank you nee-chan!" The boy gave a thankful look to her. She smiled slightly, accepting the thanks.

"Sakura-chan, you are amazing!" Naruto praised seeing her in action.

"Mister, can you tell me where you got attacked?" Sakura finally got to the important point. With Suna's poison here, it meant he encountered their shinobi.

The man weakly sat up. Pain still lingered in his body.

"It was… I am not sure…" The man had difficulty describing. He didn't even know where south or north.

Sakura took a map out of her pocket. The man seemed to have an easier time with the map and pointed to the location.

"Around this area. Yesterday…"

Sakura frowned. That's only a hundred meters away from the village. It's possible Suna's scouts already know of Konoha's camp here. She needed to inform Yamato sensei.

"Thank you for the information. Just don't go out too much mister. It's really dangerous at this time."

The man just nodded. He figured that out the hard way.

Naruto sent the man and the boy back to their village with a shadow clone. His eyes filled with solemnity.

"Sakura-chan… war doesn't just affect us…" Naruto muttered. He naively thought it had always been between shinobi.

"That's how it is, Naruto. Even if we try to keep them away, it's inevitable."

"I hate it…" He looked down on the floor, sat down on the bed.

"Once I become Hokage… I wouldn't want war to happen ever again." Naruto clenched his fist. His sights and experiences had shaped his goals.

Sakura smiled slightly.

"I hope that day will come too."

"Yeah! Believe it!" Naruto got his spirit lifted.

"I will tell the info to Yamato-sensei." Sakura cleaned up everything and headed out.

But as Yamato heard the news, his face turned stern. He went to order some men to interrogate the villagers for sightings of Suna's shinobi, even Naruto's squad.

Naruto looked at the shinobi and went to knock on each of their homes, asking 'nicely' if they had seen them. But seeing fear in each of their faces as the shinobi knocked on their homes, Naruto felt guilty.

Yamato could confirm from the few sightings and encounters it was at most scouts. Since they patrol this area it meant they must have thought this location was suspected as one of Konoha's potential camps.

Their location was potentially compromised. But Yamato thought it was fine for a few days at least. They were a Mobile Respond Troop to begin with.

In a day however, the medic nin working figured out since yesterday the river was poisoned with a weak nerve agent and asked everyone to drink only from the tank of water they purified with medical ninjutsu.

But Naruto realised a problem, the villagers drink from the river too!

He went out to check on the villagers, and to his heartbreak, few of the villagers had signs of weakness from the nerve agents in the water, some unable to wake up from their bed.

Konoha's shinobi were only experiencing fatigue from small ingestion. Their bodies were stronger after all. But the civilians had it worse.

"Sakura-chan, the villagers, what do we do?" Naruto went to Sakura, hoping she as a medic nin had ideas.

"Naruto… our camp location is exposed. So they must have deliberately placed poisons in the river upstream. Suna had always been an expert in that kind of thing… Yamato-sensei said they would move to another location. Once we move to another area the river should be safe…"

"But, what about now? Those people are sick… we can have our medic nin treat them right?"

Sakura shook her head. "The poison is low in concentration, weak and not fatal. It would clear out on their own in a day or two. We don't have enough manpower to separate the poison one by one. As for antidotes… you need to understand each time we need to use syringe, needles, and have to sanitize them each time, even using a lot of time, It's not worth it. That's their tactic to drain our medic force and supply Naruto, using agents like these that aren't worth treatment…"

"..." 

"Sorry Naruto…" Sakura apologised seeing Naruto's downed expression.

Why is this world so cruel… damn it… 

Naruto clenched his fist. It's as if, the longer he knew about this shinobi world, the worse it got. 

***