The Future: Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 184-INO-SHIKA-CHO

South Ewoa

"No sign of Elliot?" Sheer asks.

"No," Clyde says, returning from his scouting mission. "It's like he disappeared into thin air. I was certain that he would be in one of the nearby villages but nothing. I don't understand it, if he had some sort of new information to act on why wouldn't he tell us about it?"

"Perhaps our involvement would have caused him problems."

"He is a very independent and hardworking man but I don't think he would act on intelligence by himself. Nobody sticks to procedure more consistently than Elliot. Procedure means he would tell me if he knew anything."

"Why are we worrying about it?" Mirai asks. "He is gone. He will either return to us having succeeded in his mission, or he won't return at all."

"That's not very cheerful for you," Blackburn says.

"Why would I be cheerful? When was the last time we had any serious success with our mission to disrupt Homeworld's operations? We haven't made things difficult for them here in Ewoa. Thanks to our ineffectiveness General Alaa hasn't even needed to depart from his headquarters to fight against us. We are just too weak to bother them."

"Have faith, we will find a way," Clyde says.

Temari approaches Mirai and rests a hand on her shoulder. As the only other shinobi in the group she understands the Hidden Leaf Military Leader's anguish. This situation has been sustained hopelessness for so long now, longer than any of them were expecting. When they came to Homeworld as one team they had great hope for the future. They all believed that they were following the man who could defeat anyone, a man who could not be stopped. When they studied in the academy and saw what the emperor could do all that hope was lost.

Temari explains it to the general. "General, my generation fought in a great war. At the time we believed it would be the final war to decide the fate of our world. Until you arrived that seemed to be the case. As you know the greatest hero in that war was Naruto. Naruto meant a lot to the people of our world. He was the Hokage but he was more than that, he was a hero to the people of all the villages.

"We don't even know if Naruto survived past that day. We occasionally hear whispers of what is happening in the war at large, hints that a pocket-worlder may be leading the charge, but we don't know who that is. I have heard Naruto's name a couple of times, but for all we know this is all just propaganda that other survivors are spreading to make people hopeful. The only reason we all came here together is because of Naruto, and if he is no longer with us what hope have we got? Can anyone else defeat Furst?"

"We just have to hope that he is alive," Clyde admits.

Suddenly, there is an attack. The attackers are a group of two colonels accompanied by many captains. Mirai quickly realises that this group has been chosen specifically to take them down, with one of the colonels being a 'light' user, an ideal element to fight against Clyde's 'darkness' energy. She does her best to shout a counter strategy to Clyde's many subordinates, but it is a chaotic attack. This ambush has been setup perfectly, they approached obscured by the terrain, attacking those with the slowest reactions first to limit the number who could fight back.

Thankfully since returning to Homeworld Clyde's and Lara's subordinates have been the recipients of elite training at the academy and have developed strength similar to that of their Imperial Guard counterparts. General Peterson particularly has lived up to his prodigious reputation, he fights through the attackers with ruthless efficiency, second only to his commanding officer.