The story title is a Full Metal Jacket reference, if anyone was curious. Replace "Konoha" with "Vietnam", and boom: tagline.

The sun still had yet to rise when Akiko shook Erin awake. This was to be expected, given when Yamada had said they'd move out, but that didn't stop her from grumbling as she blearily shoved her boots back on. She was packed and ready to go within minutes, and she sat on her pack by the entrance while she waited for the others. It took her a minute to realize they were probably saying farewells to the injured guy, whose name she wasn't awake enough to remember – Takoyaki, or something.

Speaking of food, she suddenly remembered the First Strike bar in her cargo pocket, and began gnawing on it to try and stay awake. Slowly, other thoughts began trickling in as her brain started engaging, and by the time the rest of the group had gathered (Erin's pack once more getting Vanished into the magic scroll Akiko had with her), she was frowning.

"We're certain those guys were deliberately going after Akiko-san, right?" she asked, around her mouthful of energy bar (apple-cinnamon, yum). She was still too tired to care about the various unimpressed looks she got for that, and took another bite while she waited for an answer.

Eventually, Yamada caved in with a sigh. "With how the initial strike was triggered, and their follow-on reactions, we have strong cause to believe it was a targeted attack, yes."

"How'd they know she was there, then?"

The room went dead silent.

Yamada put up a hand, cutting off whatever had been about to leave Akiko's mouth. "The only thing this changes is that our return just became that much more urgent," he said, and she subsided. Erin was impressed at his self-control. He turned to her next with an apologetic look. "I had intended to take an easier pace, but I'm afraid it's going to be another hard run, Ohara-san."

"Yeah, I figured." Erin sighed explosively. "My feet are going to kill me after this, if they don't fall off."

The ninja chuckled with sympathetic amusement, and they all set off without further fanfare. Despite Yamada's warning, the run this time didn't seem to Erin as bad as that first stretch had been. It might've been because this time the ninja were keeping pace with her. (More or less – she was still at the back of the group, but they weren't pulling away like last time.) Unlike yesterday, they didn't stop to catch their breath at all, but Yamada seemed to have a sixth sense for when Erin was reaching the end of her rope, and would signal to slow the pace down until she caught her breath. It rankled, being the weak link. She took sips from her CamelBak whenever she could.

She'd lost track of all time in the in-in-in-out, in-in-in-out of her breathing, when her foot caught on a concealed root and she went face-first into the underbrush. Mind-fogging exhaustion was replaced by an adrenaline-fueled tirade of every curse she knew and a few she made up on the spot.

Daisuke's face was a hilarious shade of red, and Yamada just looked unimpressed as Erin loudly and crudely voiced her hatred of all things flora. As she was finally winding down, Akiko offered her a hand with a grin.

"You're all right, then?" Akiko clearly already knew the answer, but Erin appreciated being asked anyway.

"Yeah, my ego is bruised more than my–" In trying to take Akiko's hand, for the first time in however many hours, Erin looked up. There were white masks moving among the branches. Her rifle was in her hands and coming up to her shoulder as she fell back onto the ground. "Contact! Contact! Up high, in the trees!"

click

BANG BANG

Fuck! Ear-pro!

No time to dig ear protection out, the masks are moving. Allies to her right, backs against each other – they can handle themselves. She risks a roll to get her feet under her, still on one knee. Two coming at her, thirty meters.

Left target, two rounds. Right target, two rounds, pelvic shot. Left again, pelvic shot. Just like Table 2.

Her ears won't stop ringing. Breathe in, observe. Mask with a kunai in his eye, slumped against a tree. Akiko making mask flambe, and Daisuke snaps a third's neck. Yamada's opponent thrusts, and he traps their arm under his, twisting it out of place with an audible pop. He's already thrusting a kunai through the underside of their chin before they can even scream. Two more masks are making tracks away – a hundred, hundred-twenty meters out.

Shoulder the rifle, good stock weld, good sight picture. Focus on the reticule, not the target.

Breathe out.

BANG

Tango down. Shift the body, shift the aim. BANG

"Fuck!" She jerked the trigger. The mask was gone.

A moment to verify the area is secure (at least for the moment), and all the adrenaline rushes out of her. She slumps to the side, all the exertion catching up to her at once. She takes a long pull from her CamelBak and tries to catch her breath.

"Erin-san?"

Erin opened her eyes to see Akiko standing over her looking concerned. She waved her off, panting out, "Just… tired… I'll be fine… in a minute."

Akiko helped her to her feet again, before rooting around in a pouch on her belt and producing a little round ball that she offered to Erin. "Here, take this. It should help with the exhaustion."

Erin looked it suspiciously for a second before shrugging and popping it in her mouth. Biting down on the little medicine ball, she felt like she was about to jump out of her skin as energy suddenly flooded her body. "Whoa. What the fuck is this, Pervitin? If I pop on my next piss test, I'm shooting you."

Daisuke frowned. "It's made with powerful stimulants and nutrients to nourish the body and rapidly replenish its energy. It's natural."

"Sure, they say the same thing about anabolic steroids and those're still banned," She drawled, shaking her arms out to try and get rid of some of the itchiness. "Jesus Christ, I feel like I could fistfight a gyūki. I'm going to crash so fucking hard when this wears off, I know it."

"Please don't," Yamada deadpanned, "We just signed a treaty with Kumo, and picking a fight with their jinchūriki wouldn't end well for anybody."

She grinned at him, trying to ignore the traces of wariness in his posture. It was understandable, he hadn't known what her rifle could do. She wasn't hurt by his caution. She wasn't.

After a short break for Daisuke to verify no one was injured, and to gather up what weapons they could (Erin simply snagged another one of the masks and tucked it in her hydration pouch), they set off again. Whatever was in that Not-Pervitin was certainly doing its job, she felt like she could run forever.

Hours passed, and they kept going. Erin was going to have to drag the specifics of manufacture for this shit out of someone, she knew it. HQMC was going to absolutely want the details, if for no other reason than to determine just how much paperwork they could bury her under.

There was no lucky warning for the second engagement. One moment, they were running full tilt, the ninjas' mood cautiously optimistic (which Erin took to mean they were closing on the objective), the next, Erin's head was ringing like someone had chucked a rock at her helmet, and a kunai deflected off the front of her plate carrier. She kept her feet this time, somehow managing to deflect a tantō away with the barrel of her rifle. (She prayed it hadn't been scratched, or the armory would never let her turn it back in.)

At this range, she doesn't even have to aim. Her ears are ringing again, and something warm and wet is dripping down her face. She's not sure it's sweat. There's no space to properly wield it, she lets her rifle hang against her chest and picks up the tantō before rushing another hostile engaging Yamada.

She slams into the hostile from the side, taking him off his feet and ramming him into the tree. Jab to the face with the hilt, and his head bounces off the tree into the downward slice across his neck. She steps back and iron fills her mouth, unconsciously licking her lips as she turns to find another target.

She's swinging her blade to bat aside another tantō before her brain even registers it's there, and follows with a rear hook that catches the hostile just on the edge of the mask, which spins off into the brush.

Holy shit, they're just kids.

But her pistol is already clear of the holster, and her finger is pressing the trigger.

Yamada is occupied with his hostile, a second is bleeding slumped against tree bleeding out and missing an arm, and Daisuke is grappling with a third on the ground. Akiko is holding two more off with wires when one deliberately ensnares himself in it so the other can thrust a kunai in her side before she can react. The report of her pistol nearly covers up Akiko's scream, but the hostile drops, leaving his knife in her side.

Yamada blurs into motion, one-two-three kicks all punctuated by the snap of bone and the hostile ragdolls to the ground. Daisuke claps his hands together like a prayer and the earth slams over his opponent's head like a great book being closed and the body goes limp. They've already moved to Akiko's side, leaving Erin to secure the bodies.

She was breathing hard, but still nowhere near as wiped out as she was earlier. She wiped her mouth with the end of her sleeve and tried to ignore the dark stain it left behind. "How's she looking?"

Daisuke grimaced. "We're lucky it missed her kidney."

Erin turned to Yamada now. "How much further to the objective?"

He looked grim. "A little less than half a mile, but we're almost certainly going to be attacked again, if they're willing to confront us this close to Konoha."

"I can carry her, if you can keep them off of me." She didn't hesitate over whether she could even do it. She couldn't afford the doubt. She was also still a little hopped up on whatever the fuck was in that pill. This is going to suck major donkey dick.

Yamada's eyebrows were practically in his hairline. "All the way to Konoha?"

"No one gets left behind."

The ninja had a silent conversation between them, before Yamada finally nodded. Erin adjusted her rifle to hang tight to her side as Daisuke finished wrapping Akiko's wound. As soon as it was done they stood her up and Erin looped an arm between her legs, lifting the barely-conscious Uchiha into a fireman's carry. After a moment to adjust so Akiko's weight sat properly across Erin's shoulders, she looked at Yamada. "Which way?"

He pointed, and they were off. Akiko was by no means the heaviest person Erin had carried, but running with another person on your shoulders adds magnitudes of difficulty, especially if you've already been running all day. Her heart seemed to pound deafeningly in time with her feet, her vision narrowing in on the red-orange swirl on the back of Daisuke's vest.

Who thought that was a good idea, that thing's the perfect target.

In, in, in, out. In, in, in, out. There was yelling around her, and the clash of metal barely heard above the pounding of her feet and her own breath. She felt two impacts against her back SAPI, like rocks being thrown at her, and a line of fire lanced its ways across the outside of her leg as a kunai just barely missed. She hissed, readjusted her hold on Akiko, and lengthened her stride.

She could see the giant gates ahead of her now, and dragged up whatever energy left she could find. Daisuke was trying to tell her something, but the words didn't make sense, and after a minute Yamada's voice also sounded, briefly, before Daisuke took his place back in front of her and led her through the gates and down the streets, which were blessedly empty, or nearly so.

"Out of the way, old man!" she managed to bark out at some asshole in a stupid-looking hat she'd nearly run over in her hurry. She instantly regretted it as she stumbled with exhaustion, but she didn't drop Akiko. She forced herself to keep going, to keep following Daisuke. He all but slammed the door open before her, and she nearly crashed into him as she barreled past.

"CORPSMAN!" she yelled, momentarily forgetting they'd have no idea what the word meant."CORPSMAN!"

Fuck, what's the word…

"MEDIC! I NEED A FUCKING MEDIC OVER HERE!"

She was instantly surrounded by a swarm of figures all asking questions she couldn't hear, and commands she couldn't understand. Erin could feel the crash coming up at her full force but refused to drop before she knew Akiko was good. "FUCKING TAKE HER ALREADY I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN STAND!" Almost before the words were out of her mouth, she could feel the weight being lifted off of her shoulders and had to fight the urge to reflexively clamp down.

"We have her!" The medic with a hand on her shoulder insisted, "We have her!"

"Oh, thank god."

Erin was out cold before her body even hit the ground.