Title: Strength

Author: ishala8

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Rating: K (contains mild violence)

Word Count: 365

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, all the cute guys would be pairing up, Itachi wouldn't have died and the entire series would have ended before celebrating the half a thousand chapters releases.

Summary: A mission gone wrong.

Dedicated to: FreedomFox whose fic 'Broken to Domination' made me fall in love with this pairing and who allowed me to use some of her ideas when my creative streak hit a wall.

Last Revised On: 31/05/11

Prologue

It had started out as a simple C-rank reconnaissance mission in the Land of Waves. They got in, retrieved the required information and got out – simple, quick and easy. It wasn't until they had almost reached the boarders of the Land of Fire that they were intercepted and ambushed by a hostile group that had nothing to do with their mission.

They were mere thugs; low-lever missing nin and other scum that wouldn't have dared show their faces had they not significantly outnumbered their prey. That's how Kiba found himself in the midst of a wild fray, not knowing what to protect and what to target.

Hinata held the retrieved scroll and Kurenai-sensei was sticking by her side, but he and Shino had been separated from the group and from each other. Kiba didn't worry too much as Akamaru jumped readily to his side, defending his back as he fought his way closer to the others.

Then, in a moment of sheer horror, the enemy numbers doubled while the two female members of Team 8 fell simultaneously. With no obvious reason as to why that might have happened, Kiba smelled the air as Akamaru whimpered.

"Yeah, I smell it too, boy," he told his companion quietly as he stepped away from the fight so as to regroup. "Shino! There are more in the trees!"

There was poison in the air, which seemed to emanate from the three mysterious figures that hid within the surrounding vegetation. With an animalistic spin attack he dived towards his fallen comrades as Akamaru growled and tore into opponents left and right.

"Hinata! Sensei!" he called urgently, with his back to them as he fend off enemies. Receiving no reply, he turned to assess the damage as Akamaru did his best to hold off the attacks for a short while.

They were both down, Hinata already unconscious with Kurenai well on her way of joining her. Searching amidst the mass of unwashed, unconscious, writhing or fighting bodies for his only team mate standing, he saw Shino struggling to hold off three opponents at once while bleeding heavily from various wounds.

"Shino!" He shouted, scared but determined. "Get them out of here!"

A Few Things to Clear Up:

Warnings

Yes, this WILL be a yaoi fic, yes, it WILL contain graphic content between minors and YES if you are offended by any of the above you shouldn't be here. Other than that, make sure to check the rating and warning accompanying each chapter and enjoy! ^^

Ages

Rookie 9 – 14

Team Guy – 15

Itachi – 17

Timeline

As you can see above, this fic is set after the chunin exams and Sasuke's defection, during the three year gap of Naruto's training.