Fodder

I am not the main character.

No, I'm just one of the 80,000 Shinobi fighting in this war to save our way of living.

Yet even if I'm not the main character, I still want to be important. I want to look cool and take out the main bad guy, even if I know that's not possible.

But instead of training or fighting important battles against the undead, I was a nameless Shinobi killing the same monster that there were 100,000 of.

I had been assigned to Squad Two, the close range fighter division, under General Kitsuchi. Even though I had been pretty far back, it was still a horrific sight as thousands of those white monsters erupted from the ground.

The battle had begun and while we started off strong, those seemingly invincible demons started taking our lives left and right. Bodies from both sides littered the field.

"Get down!" Someone behind me shouted, wrenching me from my thoughts. I dove to ground just as multiple huge explosions lit up the field in front of me. My ears rang from the sound of the explosion as I had been too close. More of our men had been caught in that blast but so had a good deal of our enemies.

Just then, a couple of them leapt from the fire. "****, cut them down!" I wasn't sure how, but I knew someone had yelled to me. I staggered to my feet and brought my trusty katana up. Back in my home village of Kirigakure I had been a swordsman. Not someone like Chojuro who was given the last of the seven, but I had recently become a Chunin so I had to be worth something.

"Raiton!" The white monsters that had jumped forward had all been zapped still by a lightning jutsu.

"Take this!" I didn't waste this opportunity and chopped them down with my katana.

"Nice going!" A Shinobi from Kumogakure nodded to me as he continued running forward. He didn't notice one of the monsters behind him get up.

"Look out!" I shouted too late.

Its hand shot forward and pierced the man in the back. A moment later and I decapitated it but there was nothing I could do for the man who had been struck. The monster had hit his heart and he had probably died instantly.

"Keep moving! They're falling back!" I heard Kurotsuchi yell. She was in charge of us at the moment; her father had taken half of our forces to go back up the mid-range fighter division.

"You! Don't just stand there!" She yelled at me directly.

"Y-yes!" I wiped away some blood that was leaking into my eye as I ran forward. I had apparently been nicked in the forehead and was now bleeding into my right eye, making it hard to see.

I dove behind a rock and scoped out the enemies ahead. "Did you hear how many of us have died?" Someone next to me asked. He wasn't talking to me but I turned anyways. It was a Hyuuga that had spoken.

The girl, also a Hyuuga nodded back. "Almost half."

I wanted to laugh out loud.

Half?

It had only been one day yet we had almost lost half.

Before I could think anymore, three more of those things came over the rocks and attacked us. I rolled to my left and away from the other two and only one came running at me, the others stayed to fight the Hyuuga.

The monster threw a punch that I blocked with the broad-side of my sword. I pushed back and slashed, slicing its arm off. Most opponents would go into shock but I knew better than to expect the same here.

As predicted, it didn't even react and attacked with its other arm. I hacked that one off too before I sliced cleanly into its head.

"How much longer can this go on?" I gazed warily at the sky. It was getting close to dusk which meant that it would be time to switch to "night mode" soon.

I just let the blood from my cut drip over my eye now. I couldn't afford to wipe it up all the time. The setting sun reminded me of my village. I had once been just a genin on a three-man team with our sensei leading us. Those days were far away it seemed.

My sensei had died, killed by a Shinobi from Sunagakure. I hated them for it, yet here I was, fighting side by side with them. What kind of joke was that?

Yet it seemed right at the moment. At least they were human. Not like the things we were fighting.

We all shared the same ideal. These monsters were just someone's lackey.

"****!" I looked down in surprise when I heard my name. How long had I been in thought for?

"We're retreating!" A Sunagakure Kunoichi shouted at me. "There's more of them than we thought and the sun is about to set. We're regrouping and taking shelter to prepare for ambushes!"

I simply nodded at her. Even if we were on the same side, I couldn't look at them the same. So much for sharing the same ideals.

"Help me!" I spun around to see someone had tripped. How lame of a trained Shinobi. Three of those monsters were running at him.

"Hang on!" I sprinted back towards him.

"H-hey! Wait!" The Suna Kunoichi yelled for me to stop but I didn't listen.

One of the monsters raised its ugly white arm. "Not so fast!" I jumped forward and pierced it right where its heart should have been.

Instead of dieing, white spikes shot out from its body. I cursed and pulled back but I was too late. A few of the spikes nicked my sides. The monster took another step forward and I realized this was it.

"Fuuton!" The monster fell to pieces as a sharp gale blew through. The other two fell apart as well.

"Honestly." It was the Suna Kuoichi. "Don't make me babysit you guys." She looked down and her face paled.

I looked down too and realized that the man in front of me hadn't tripped. His leg below the knee had been chopped right off.

"I'm sorry, just leave me." The man seemed on the verge of tears but I knew it wasn't from the pain. It was the fact that he knew he was going to die.

"Like hell." I crouched down and ripped my sleeve.

"What are you doing? We have to go!" The Suna Kunoichi looked nervously behind me. I didn't have to turn around to know there were more approaching.

With our army in a full retreat, they were advancing.

"Pick him up." I order as I finished bandaging his leg.

"What?" She looked at me in surprise.

"Pick him up and run with him. I'll protect you." I said this as casually as possible.

"You're nuts."

"We can argue about this or we can act, your choice." She grit her teeth before she crouched down and hefted the man up.

She got to her feet and I followed but a wave of light-headedness hit me. I looked down and realized that those spikes had cut much deeper than what I originally had thought.

I was losing blood, fast.

"Your wound…" She noticed too.

"I'm alright." I lied. "Let's get going." We immediately started retreating with the rest of our army but it wasn't looking good. We had fallen to the far back of the group and to top things off, she wasn't able to move very fast while carrying that injured guy.

I saw it out of the corner of my eye. One of those white monsters was in the air and descending towards the Suna Kunoichi and the injured man fast. Without thinking I jumped in the air to meet him.

"****!" The Kunoichi shouted my name but there was no use. I swung my sword and sliced the monster clear in half but it attacked in a way I hadn't predicted.

It reached its neck forward and bit down into my shoulder with strength I didn't think possible. We began falling towards the ground and I angled it so I was on top.

We crashed into the earth and the force of the fall caused the monster to release its hold on my shoulder. The arm that I usually held my sword with fell limp.

I immediately grabbed the sword with my other hand and rammed it through the damn things mouth before it could do it again.

"Hurry up! We gotta go!" I slowly stood back up and took in the scene around me. We were the farthest ones back now but we were pretty close to the return point. Just a little closer and she'd be in range of those who were holding the monsters off with projectiles.

"You won't make it with him…not if you don't have cover." I held my sword purposely in front of myself.

"What are you saying? Let's move!" There was no more time for argument though. More of those things were on us.

"Go!" I shouted and swung my blade. Another monster lost its head. I heard her feet pounding the ground as she fled.

I wonder if I looked cool?

I was standing here with a useless arm, blood covering my eye and a deep gouge in my hip while holding off an army of monsters for a girl from a village I despise.

Not cool at all.

More of the monsters charged and I decided to do the same. My blade hacked the legs off of one and while I knew this wasn't enough to finish it I moved on anyways. If I wanted to buy as much time as possible I had to maim them.

I jumped and drop kicked another in the face. It tumbled backwards into a group of its friends. It was at this point that I noticed I was surrounded by them now.

"Not cool at all." I repeated aloud.

Four of them attacked at once. I ducked low and the monsters ended up smacking each other around. I smirked and swung my sword around. Limbs went flying into the air and all four of them toppled.

I jumped over their bodies and ran at the biggest opening I saw.

I never got through.

Another monster got in front of me and I swung my sword. It dug halfway into its neck before my sword snapped clean in half, leaving a hunk of my blade still inside the beast.

"Damn it!" I shouted as I jumped and delivered a spinning kick that knocked its slightly severed head completely off.

None of that mattered though. The monsters that I had left behind had recovered and had caught up to me.

Before I could move I felt several hands piece through my skin. I looked down and saw bloody hands sticking out of my chest and stomach.

The hands retracted and I fell to my knees. The rest of the monsters ignored me and started running forward.

"Damn it…" I mumbled.

I am not the main character...

...I knew this yet I thought it would have been different.

If I was, it would be at this point that I would pull out some secret technique that I was saving or pull out some kind of determination that made me invincible.

Fact is, I'm not even close to the main character. I'm not one of the Kage. I'm not even a general in the army.

Not that Kirigakure had a general in the army anyways. Everyone but us, even the Samurai had a general.

No, I'm just a no-named Shinobi who is going to die. Right here, right now.

My face hit the ground and I was only able to stare at the dirt which was slowly becoming darker.

The sound of explosions in the distance was slowly becoming quieter.

I wonder if that Kunoichi and guy had made it?

If so, would they cry for me, are they thanking me?

Did it matter?

How uncool. I tried to say it aloud but my mouth wouldn't work.

How many of us did they say died?

Half?

Maybe I was number 40,000?

Years from now, after we've won the war, will the kids at the academy read about how 40,000 Shinobi died in the first day of the Fourth Great Shinobi War?

If so, then I'm just one of 40,000.

Someone without a name.

Fodder.