Paper Streets | Sakura & Hinata

One by One

As the smoke cleared, charred bodies revealed themselves. Some were missing limbs, others were so damaged they were unrecognizable. However, there were two bodies the Leaf 13, now Leaf 9, could recognize. Tenten and Neji, their arms were wrapped around each other as if they died while embracing one another. They had several burns all over their bodies and Neji was missing a leg, Tenten seemed to have a gash on her forehead that was bleeding, even though she was already gone. Almost all of Orochimaru's men were killed in the explosion, which gave them the perfect opportunity to escape.

"We have to go... But we can't bring them.." Hinata mumbles, motioning to her friends' motionless bodies.

"W-what?! Why not Hinata?!" Naruto asked, turning to her.

"We won't be able to get out of here with them, we can't move fast enough with them in our arms..." Shikamaru stated, leaning against the wall. Lee and Sai looked at each other and nodded before gently placing their friends' bodies on the floor, and running down the dark corridors with their remaining comrades.

-

"Are all entrances and exits blocked?" Madara asked, jumping down into the basement after being lowered with a rope.

"Yes, they won't be escaping any time soon." Orochimaru replied, even though most of his men were killed he still had a malicious smirk plastered onto his face.

Madara grinned and made a hand signal, his men immediately ran into the dark hallways, chasing after the Leaf members. "It won't be long now."

-

Shino was dead, some Sound members caught up to him and he died protecting Hinata from a gunshot. Next it was Lee, who charged and the Sound out of rage, only the be stabbed in the chest.

"I can't believe there's only seven of us..." Naruto mumbled as they ran.

"I can't believe we can't fight back." Shikamaru added, looking down.

"If we fought back we would most certainly die, it's over a hundred versus thir- um seven...." Chouji said, looking behind to make sure they weren't being followed.

"You all should have left us... " Sasuke said, his hands unconsciously formed into fists.

"What do you mean..?" Sai asked.

"You should have never come for us!" Sasuke growled in anger.

"What?! Why not?" Sakura asked, confusion etched across her face.

"You all would've been safe! Me and Naruto would've gotten out eventually!" The Uchiha explained, his fists clenched in frustration.

"Sasuke," Chouji began. "We couldn't leave you guys behind."

"Why not?"

"Because those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Sakura finished for Chouji, flashing Sasuke a warm smile.

All seemed well, until the hallways started to shake violently.

-

"Boss! We can't find them anywhere, we lost them!" A sound member yelled, making both Orochimaru and Madara scowl.

"I think we have to use the backup plan..." Madara said, preparing to climb up the ropes once again.

"We haven't died yet, I don't see a reason to." Orochimaru replied.

"If they find the exit, we'll have to find them all over again! There's only seven left, let's do it!" Madara yelled, his frustration getting to him.

"I see, fine then." Orochimaru agreed, preparing to climb up a rope as well. "In ten minutes, commence Plan B!"

Orochimaru and Madara climbed up the rope, followed by anyone who wasn't needed to carry out the plan. After ten minutes, the rest came up and began running as far as they could from the building.

-

"W-what's going on?!" Hinata yelled, trying to get them to hear her over the loud rumbles as she attempted to keep her balance.

"An earthquake?" Sai questioned.

"No.." Sakura said, using the wall to keep her steady. "I think this is their backup plan.."

"Backup..plan?" Chouji mumbled, right as a huge fireball came speeding down the hallway.

"RUN!" Shikamaru screamed, running down the hallway with his friends as they attempted to find a room to hide from the massive fireball.

"There's a room down the hallway!" Sakura shouted upon spotting the silver door handle.

The fireball was quickly catching up to them, they had made it just in time. Naruto slammed open the door and ushered everyone in, but one person wasn't so lucky. Just as Chouji rounded the corner, being the last one in their 'running formation' you could say, a large chunk of the ceiling fell, trapping to boy on the other side.

"CHOUJI!" Naruto yelled, fear etched into his eyes. The large piece of the ceiling had blocked the fireball's path, but as it dispersed it took Chouji with it.

Shikamaru stared at the large rock, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Damn it!" He yelled, punching the wall.

"It seems they are picking us off one by one..." Sai said, also staring at the rock.

"And that fireball, with the shaking..." Shikamaru stated, "they're setting off explosions, most likely in a chain reaction... here won't be safe for long."

Sakura sighed. "Then we better get moving."

Taking one last glance at the large rock that blocked their view of their friend, the group of now six travelled down the hallways. Every now and then they would encounter fallen rocks that blocked their paths of scorched walls, most likely from a past explosion.

"I think they're planning on blowing up the whole building bit by bit, until they trap us in here or kill us in an explosion." Naruto guessed, they had stopped running some time ago.

"Most likely. We haven't even gotten close to finding that hidden exit." Sai commented, looking around.

Suddenly, a loud ticking noise sounded around them. It wasn't coming from just one direction, it was really surrounding them.

"You guys hear that too.. right?" Naruto asked, inching closer to Hinata.

"Yeah, I guess they got tired of waiting." Sai said, sitting down on the ground.

"Hey! What're you doing?! Get up, we need to run!" Sasuke shouted, looking around for the best way to run.

"There's no point.." Hinata said, leaning against the wall. Sakura walked over and stood next to her, closing her eyes. "It's over."

"No way! You guys can't be giving up! There's still six-" Naruto was cut of by a loud explosion. It shook the floor and made pieces of the ceiling fall off in large chunks.

The part of the ceiling above them began cracking, agonizingly slow. It crumbled bit by bit, until the whole thing fell, by then they had run off down the hall. Sasuke and Naruto led the group, Hinata and Sakura were in the middle, Sai and Shikamaru were at the back. Sadly, being at the back was the most inconvenient place to be. As large rocks and metal pieces fell from above, Sai and Shikamaru were eventually crushed. The last thing they heard from them was 'keep running!'.
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I'm killing people off left and right smh. Paper Streets is almost over :,)