Why?

Why am I here? There are a few logical answers I could think of, but I didn't want to be logical right now. The battlefield which could my burial site was right in front of me. Logic wouldn't save me now, or maybe it could.

Even though I didn't like the reason I was here, I passed it off as my duty to be here. It was just a poor excuse to mask my confusion. My father had always told me I'd have to die one day.

"Listen, son, there are two things inevitable in this world. Death and life. You're either dead or alive."

Those stupid words. Why was I thinking of them now? Look where he ended up. With his name engraved on a stone, forgotten by the few who even knew him.

What a sad life.

I could smell the lingering sense of death in the air. It was almost suffocating, but it had a nice bitter smell. The smell of blood, which I was so accustomed to in the hospitals and surgery rooms.

A nice yet horrifying smell.

I turned my head and saw the man behind me. He was an Inuzuka, I could tell because of those markings on his face

Fear had taken over.

He was scared, shaking with tears and sweat, making his face wet. This is what happens when you give into death. Fear is a state of mind. The chemicals being released in his brain were forcing him to act the way he was. It forced to his heart to beat fast; it forced his eyes to dilate; it forced his blood pressure to increase. His dog next to him also looked tired and worn out.

It was funny, the man who raised in a clan barely had a way to contain his emotions. The same clans who were on top of it all cowering in the face of death.

I wasn't scared. I'd already resigned myself to death. We were in enemy lines with no intel or supplies to keep us going. The so-called genius Hokage had essentially sent us to our deaths. We were essentially cut off from the village and there was only 3 of us left.

They assigned me to this team as a medic, while my speciality was the psychology of the mind I was just as competent as a medic and surgeon. Though I was confused when the Hokage had put me on this mission.

I should've joined T&I when they asked me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here wasting away like a skeleton. The mission statement was as vague as possible with minimal details about anything. It was like they were setting us up for death. Maybe that was the reason. This was a mission with no end.

"I've decided we're going to storm the palace and kill the princess. There's nothing else we can do. We can't go back to the village with no results. We either succeed or we die for the sake of the mission."

That was flawed? Why couldn't we go back? Most of our allies are dead and we have no supplies. He feared being shunned by the village. It's been more of a trend amongst non-ninjas to shame people who come back without completing their missions. The ones who don't even fight shaming the ones saving them.

"Takumi, you'll be on support with me. Seiichi you'll be at the front for the combat and I��ll be with you."

"Sure." I was always on support duty.

"Then let's go."

For a Jonin, he was a bit of a mess. I could tell he was scared, though he didn't show it. All people have a cue they show in times of stress. For me, it's twirling my hair, though that was before I figured it out.

Our Captain could never stop scratching his left thumb. He was doing it over and over again.

"We're around 4000 metres away from our destined location. Once we get there, we must guess how many people there are."

Our sensor died along the way in an ambush by some Stone ninja who were around the border. A clean-cut to his throat. An instant death. We killed the rest with little trouble using the sensor's death as a moment of opportunity.

We stood up and made our way to the palace, which we were supposed to infiltrate. It was a palace in the Land hidden in the dreams. They were an ally with the village hidden in the stone.

The reason why this village was important was that they supplied the Hidden Stone village with wheat, which was vital to the rations of the stone. While it probably won't take them out of the war, it will put them down in terms of supply.

Once we reached the palace, we were standing on top of a cliff looking down on it. The palace looked more like a temple than a palace but

The place was littered with guards. However, no site of Ninja. Just regular guards. Though what if they were disguised as guards? The possibility was there, and it was better safe than sorry.

"Seiichi, I'm sending you in alone. Storm the palace from the other side and make as much of a distraction as you can. Give me and Takumi enough time to reach the princess."

The Inuzuka took a moment before answering. He gulped down on his spit after essentially receiving his death orders. "Yes, Captain."

That's the plan? I guess a distraction done right is as good as any.

"If any of you survive, please give this to my wife. I'm expecting a child, so I want to say sorry at least."

This is why I don't understand love between ninjas. You've signed up for a profession where you could die at any moment, yet you still forge commitments which could be broken at any time. Leaving children fatherless for the rest of their lives.

He took out a small necklace which had a picture of him with a smile on his face and placed it in the captain's hand.

"I'll try my hardest for you, Seiichi."

"When you say an explosion on the other side, that'll be the signal." He said.

After those words, he left and went around the palace through the forest which was surrounding the entire palace.

We waited and waited for a while until we heard a shout followed by an explosion.

Well, that was definitely the signal.

"Hurry but stay behind me." He said to me.

"Shouldn't we wait for a few seconds? The guards on this side should be moving now. So if we go now, they'll be closer to us." I offered.

"Yeah let's do that."

So we waited for a while and on his signal, we went inside the palace through the front gate.

The court was quite wide and had small houses on either side of it. We ran inside the palace, which was unguarded.

The moment we entered through the front door, I noticed a razor wire right above the floor. It was almost invisible because of the light entering through a window.

"Captain, wait."

He stopped, and he looked a bit annoyed.

"What is it this time?"

Poor response. He was the Captain of this mission. He should spot these things, not me. But I'll play along with him. He was allowing his fear taking over, forcing him to make irrational choices and decisions.

"There's a trap wire."

I took out a kunai and pressed the wire with it. Out of the ceiling came a hail of Kunai and spears. I took one spear that was on the floor just to hold something in my hand.

We shared no words between us as we continued walking through the palace and disabling traps on the way. These were the traps of a ninja, no doubt of it. We made our way up through the palace, which was actually quite large. It surprised me that the guards hadn't come after us yet. Maybe Seichii killed them already.

We made our way to the top floor which was the 5th floor and finally we found her the princess.

Though there was an unwanted guest. A jonin from the hidden stone. Most likely her guard.

My eyes stayed on the princess, however. She was quite young, but older than me. She looked to be in her 20s. She had smooth white skin with a red star on her left cheek. Her hair was a dark blue with her eyes being the same colour. She had a look of power and dominance on her face, which didn't match her looks at all.

While the Princess had distracted me, the Captain had engaged with the Jonin.

I was on support, so that's what I would do.

I extended my chakra out of my body and out through my foot. I focussed it into a single line to the opponent's body until it touched his foot him. When it touched him, I stopped the flow of chakra out of my body.

Genjutsu was an interesting thing. Shinobi rarely used it because they preferred the physical aspect of fighting, but I wasn't like that, not because I was a bad physical fighter but because they normally used me as a support member of a team. Though there was the rare time they gave me a weapon.

The genjutsu I just cast was a simple one which disorientated the opponent's sense of sight, skewing it to the left by just a bit.

But the main advantage we had was that this Jonin couldn't use any high level Jutsu without risking the Princess life.

The two Jonin were in a standstill of sorts. They both had Kunai clashing together, each trying to overpower the other. I took advantage of this and went behind my captain.

I lined the spear perfectly behind him and stabbed through his back until it reached the Jonin on the other side and pierced him too.

Thank god these spears were long. I stabbed the rock Jonin through the chest of my captain. Though I had to sacrifice the captain, so there was a loss. We could have won without my intervention, but time was of the essence. I had to get out of here as soon as possible and report back to the leaf. Though maybe that was just my survival instinct.

I could hear footsteps coming up the palace. I had a few seconds to get out while still completing the mission.

I walked to the princess, Kunai in hand, and we both knew what had to be done.

"I knew the leaf would send someone after me, though I did not expect someone like you. You murdered-"

Before she could speak more, I took the kunai and slit her throat with it. Slicing the trachea was the easiest way to kill someone with a kunai.

Now how would I get out of here?