Shinobi

The Escape

“Dammit!” Naruto swore as he kicked at the rocks again. He looked around, his eyes trying to adjust to the pitch blackness they were in. On the plus side, they found the kid. On the minus side, they were all trapped down in a small area and the kid was barely alive.

Naruto and Sasuke had been trying to move the boulders with the minimal light they had until the flashlight went out. They had started to use any flammable material, including Naruto’s jacket, which Sasuke would light on fire. But aside from the remaining cloths on their backs, now they had nothing and it was dark again.

Naruto coughed, “Hey, Sasuke? Find a weak spot yet?”

“No, and don’t talk…you’re wasting oxygen,” Sasuke’s disembodied voice floated up from somewhere across the room.

Naruto huffed, “What’s that supposed to mean…?!”

“You really are an idiot,” Sasuke muttered, giving up on making a dent in the wall he had been trying to destroy, “We only have a certain amount of oxygen down here, you know. And without oxygen, we’re dead.”

Naruto paled and gulped.

Sasuke sighed, “What do we have to work with now?”

Naruto frowned and thought, “Kunai, shuriken, rocks…and explosive notes.”

“I said it once, and I’ll say it again…NO,” Sasuke gritted his teeth, “Naruto, do you know what will happen if we create an explosion down here? Or even on the ceiling? The rest of whatever is holding this small area up will fall, and we’ll be crushed to death.”

Naruto crossed his arms and shivered, then sighed and sat down, glancing to his side where he heard the breathing of the unconscious kid, “…Think they’re trying to get in?”

“Undoubtedly. Now shut up,” Sasuke grunted, also relenting. Damn…no weak spots, no way out…not unless we try punching the wall down, but what good will that do? And even if we could get to the ceiling, removing the rocks may cause a cave in. He sighed and sat down. I hate to admit it…but we’re stuck.

It was quiet for quite some time before Naruto spoke up again.

“How much time d’you think it’s been?”

Sasuke shrugged, “Offhand…probably an hour.”

“How…how much longer do we have?” Naruto asked, a tad weakly.

“I have no clue.” Sasuke shook away some dizziness, “My guess is another hour…two at the most.”

“Damn,” Naruto muttered, then coughed. He gazed at the unconscious child, “Kid’s still breath’n…that’s good…and he’s out cold so he doesn’t hafta experience this…damn, I don’t feel good…”

“It’s an effect of the oxygen deprivation. Shut up,” Sasuke snapped, rubbing his temples and feeling sick. Great…I’m going to die with the idiot, trapped underground. He grinned humorlessly. At least we have our own tomb here…

More time went by, and the boys trapped down in the cave were breathing hard.

Naruto wiped sweat off his face despite his shivering and glanced over at where the unconscious kid was. Damn…if we fail, then he dies. They’re probably trying to get us out, but…it was so dark, what if they don’t know exactly where we are? Dammit…! He stood up so suddenly he nearly became sick, but shook it off. His vision sharpened when it stopped spinning, and he almost swore he could see better then before. He didn’t even realize his eyes had turned red, and resembled the fox’s. I can’t die here…I won’t! It’s not just a dream…I’m gonna be the next Hokage!! He glanced over to where he saw the faint outline of where Sasuke was sitting, probably meditating to preserve himself a little while longer. Sasuke has his own dream, even if it is a twisted one. He looked down at the unconscious child. And I’m sure he does, too! We can’t die here…we just can’t! And we can’t sit around and do nothing!!

Naruto looked up at the ceiling and could make out the outlines of the rocks that were trapping them down in the room. He looked around their room, and started to try to move some rocks over.

Sasuke opened his eyes when he heard the scraping, “What…are you doing?”

Naruto grunted again as he still tried to move the rock, managing to get it over to where he wanted it. He then moved onto another one, “I’m…gonna…get…outta…here!!”

“It’s pointless,” Sasuke felt his eyes closing again, “You’ll just die faster…”

“I’d rather go down giving it everything I’ve got then wait around here for the end to just come!!” Naruto shouted, then made hand seals, “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!” About four more of him appeared, and were able to move the rocks on top of each other, building a giant tower to go up to the ceiling.

“Useless,” Sasuke stated, “And what if you do get up there? What if you move the wrong rock and we end up buried?”

“We’re gonna die anyway at this rate…so why not risk it?” Naruto shot back.

“We don’t know we’re going to die, but if you start playing ‘hero’, we’ll defiantly die!! Think about what you’re doing, idiot!! They’re up there working on getting us out!!”

“And if they can’t?!” Naruto shot back, “Then what?! They come down here to find three dead bodies! And it’s not us…it’s that kid, too! He don’t know it, but he’s counting on us to save him! And his parents are counting on us all to bring him back!!” He climbed up the rock ladder and nodded in approval. He then started to punch and pull at the rocks. Pieces rained down, but he kept on going. His clones were also doing the same.

“Knock it off!” Sasuke shouted, covering his head from the rock shrapnel, “You’re going to bury us, you…!!”

“Look,” Naruto was breathing hard, “If you…just want to sit around and wait for the end, go ahead!! But I’m not gonna! I’m not gonna take that chance that they’ll get us out before our oxygen runs out! This kid’s counting on us!”

“It’s hopeless!” Sasuke shot back, pushing himself to his feet, “You can’t even see what you’re doing!!”

“I can see!” Naruto shouted, “I can see better’n you! I see that if we don’t do something, we’re all gonna die!!”

Sasuke blinked, “Naruto…”

Naruto winced as he pulled a rock and it slammed into his shoulder, causing it to bleed. It stung, and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was dislocated or something. But he kept going. Two of his clones had vanished, and a third had just poofed after a falling rock hit it square on the head. Even when his fourth clone vanished from his fading chakra, he continued going.

Sasuke watched in the darkness. His eyes had adjusted somewhat, and he knew what was happening…he could almost see it. What drives him to do that? Why does he keep going? He’s getting himself hurt…he could get us killed. But… “Why?”

Naruto heard, and paused. He wiped dirt and sweat off his forehead before flashing a vulpine grin and replying, tapping his hitai-ate, which made a ‘clink’ noise, “Why? Cause…I’m a ninja.” With that, he went back to furiously pulling at the rocks, punching down any that didn’t want to move. His knuckles hurt, and were bleeding raw.

Sasuke stared at the other boy for a few moments, seeing him in a new light. Just like whenever we’re in a huge crisis…Naruto always seems to come through…I just can’t believe that this Naruto is…the same one from the academy. He looked at his hands (as best as he could without lighting) as he recalled what Naruto had said.

“Why? Cause…I’m a ninja.”

Sasuke clenched his hands into fists and looked up, Sharingan activated. That’s right. We’re ninja. We aren’t kids…and we can’t depend on everyone else to save us. There are other lives on the line. If our missions mean death, so be it…but I’m not going to die in a place like this! There’s still so much I have to do! He brushed off a wave of dizziness, and ran to the pillar of rocks, then started to climb them. I won’t…I won’t…I won’t be defeated here!! When he got to the top, he gave a shout and joined Naruto in his task.

Naruto blinked a couple times, red eyes shining in the darkness before he grinned weakly at the other boy.

Sasuke looked at him, red eyes meeting red, and nodded.

The two concentrated on their task. Punching at rocks until they loosened enough, giving each other boosts to get some hard-to-reach rocks out, and climbing on each other’s shoulders as they had to go higher to get the rocks.

They pulled out one rock, and some light filtered in, as well as voices.

“Kakashi…that’s Kakashi…” Sasuke recognized it. “…and Iruka…”

Naruto grinned weakly, “Cool…” his eyes slid shut, and he collapsed on the rock.

“Hey…!? Naruto?!” Sasuke heard the ‘thump’, and looked over to see Naruto lying on the rock, barely breathing. He himself was starting to feel worse, and fell to his knees, breathing hard. Dammit…not now! Not now! Through the tiny crack they had created, he heard the voices getting louder. His hands shook as he forced them into positions, using what little chakra he had left. Katon…

“…Ryuuka no Jutsu!” Sasuke let out a burst of flame through the tiny hole as a flare to where they were trapped. Then, his Sharingan deactivated and he looked up through the tiny patch in the ceiling. He heard scraping, and the tiny hole allowed some new oxygen into the room.

“Found them!” came a voice.

The rocks started to shift, and more light came through.

Sasuke winced from the bright light, squeezing his eyes shut and flinching away. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that there was now a considerable hole where the rocks were. Light rained down all around them, illuminating the bleak prison they had been trapped in.

Sasuke allowed himself a small smile.

Naruto stirred, but didn’t wake, meaning at the very least, he was alive.

Kakashi’s face peered down at them suddenly, “Ah…you guys alive down there?”

Sasuke looked back up at him, “…somehow. The kid’s…down here, too.”

Kakashi seemed to smile under his mask, and soon, ropes with harnesses were slung down. “We can get you guys one at a time.” With that said, he dropped down the small hole and landed easily on the limited space of the tower of rocks. He glanced with a raised eyebrow at the tower.

“Naruto’s idea,” Sasuke looked away.

Kakashi seemed to grin, then jumped down and picked up the kid they were sent to rescue. Another Jounin came down while he was doing that, and gave Sasuke a hand up to two more Jounin who were at the top to help, then rigged the harness up to Naruto.

By then, Kakashi was back on the rock, and handed the child up to the waiting Jounin before climbing out himself and helping to hoist Naruto out.

Cheers went up when all three kids were out of their rock prison.

Kakashi carried the unconscious child while Iruka carried Naruto. Sasuke limped his way out of the cave, and was glomped by an ecstatic Sakura, who then helped him (despite his weak protests that he didn’t need help).

A couple days later, the three members of Team 7 were waiting at the bridge for Kakashi, like usual.

Sasuke still had a bandage or two on, and under Naruto’s jacket on his left shoulder was still a bandage from his injury. But other then that, the two were now fine.

Sakura couldn’t be happier about that.

There was no name calling that day on the bridge. There seemed to be a new camaraderie between the group, especially in the case of Sasuke and Naruto. So, the three just enjoyed the peaceful silence of the morning for a while before Sakura spoke.

“I’m glad…you two are okay.”

Sasuke glanced over from where he was leaning against the side rail of the bridge, and Naruto turned to look at her from where he was looking at the fish in the water.

Sakura blushed, “The cave, I mean…”

Naruto grinned and strung his hands behind his head, “Of course! We wouldn’t die off that easily!”

“You could have…!” Sakura started.

“But we didn’t,” Sasuke actually spoke, a slight smile on his face (well, it resembled more of a smirk, but one shouldn’t expect an Uchiha to really smile…).

“They said that if the rocks hadn’t been parted from the inside, they wouldn’t have reached you guys in time,” Sakura shook her head, “So you could have…”

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto just grinned, “Sasuke’s right. We ain’t dead.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have a tape recorder or anything of the like with me…did you just agree with me?” Sasuke grinned, raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

Naruto stuck his tongue out in return.

Sakura giggled behind her hand before speaking again, “Still, it was really risky of you to move those rocks. You could have crushed yourselves! Kakashi-sensei said there was a slight chance you would have been spared if you hadn’t…so why take that risk…?”

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged looks.

Onyx eyes met baby blue ones.

They looked back at Sakura, and Naruto was the one to speak.

“Because……we’re ninja.”

THE END

This didn’t quite come out the way I intended it to…I may make a comic out of it. Maybe it’ll come out better there.

Ah, well…

And I know I need to work on PPF…I’m getting to it…I have more planning to do for it, though. The next chapter just doesn’t wanna write, and I don’t wanna force it.