A/N: All right everyone, here is the fourth chapter, a little bit of a step back after the last chapter, but hopefully it should still prove entertaining.
Disclaimer: This fic is my potato, but Naruto is Masashi Kishimoto's radish.
A week's time passed since Anko and Kurenai's first heated night together. Kaizo Karyuudomi had still yet to make his appearance, but the recent emergence of a new viral strain in the village gave little hope that the madman had forgotten his promise to return. Iruka had returned to Konoha to deliver word of their progress and make a request for some back up. Anko doubted they would get there in time; Karyuudomi had given them, no given her, plenty of time to recover, it was only a matter of time before he showed up. All Anko needed to do was wait, an activity that Anko no longer minded.
"I suppose it is kind of interesting that we're waiting here just to fight this guy." Kurenai said softly in order to start up a conversation.
"Well, we kind of have to now that the virus is re-emerging. We just need to stay here and wait and eventually we'll find each other; I mean our periodic searchings of the area are bound to turn up something eventually." Anko said with a yawn.
"Oh, personally, I'm surprised, I thought you hated waiting. Wasn't there something about terminable boredom…" Kurenai started teasingly.
"I don't seem to mind that as much anymore." Anko replied sarcastically.
"I wonder what on earth could have possibly changed since then." Kurenai spoke even more overtly sarcastic in tone.
"I guess I just found a new way to entertain myself." Anko said with a light blush.
"That seems accurate." Kurenai shrugged.
"As far as I'm concerned, that bastard can take as long as he wants in showing his face here again." Anko said with deep sigh.
"Really? You know will still be able to have our little fun when we get home. Or are you scared we won't make it through this now?" Kurenai spoke with a smile.
"No, I'm definitely ready." Anko reassured her lover.
"Good." Kurenai replied simply.
Only a few hours after their conversation's end, as the sun began to set the shinobi group was greeted by its enemy. Kaizo Karyuudomi, in the same manner as his previous attack, made no effort to catch his opponent off guard but rater, entered the campsite directly and unconcerned, with a vicious smile on his face that seemed to belittle his adversaries. By the time Anko and Kurenai had arrived to the scene, the chunin squad was already staring the evil in the eye.
"We've been waiting for you freaks to show up. This time you're going down." Kiba Inuzuka taunted the evil trio vigorously with an anxious and excited yet angry expression.
"Well then, I'm glad to see someone so young, so eager to die. I trust your companions are in accordance with your view." Kaizo laughed slightly.
"This time we know what to expect, we know all your moves, and we won't be pushed back like last time." Shikamaru said in a tone completely contrasting Kiba's.
"Oh yeah! you haven't seen half of what master's capable of!" The girl known as Reimei said in a cheery way.
"I wouldn't quite say that, child… As for our two lovely ladies here, I'm curious as to how the two of you are feeling." Kaizo said with a wide smile, noticing Anko and Kurenai's appearance.
"I've been waiting for this. I'm gonna pay you back for everything you did to us." Anko shouted exuberantly.
"I too will show you my strength, and ensure you don't leave this place." Kurenai added in a cool, level tone.
"Ah, with your deaths, Orochimaru will surely place me in his best graces." Kaizo said with a wicked smile.
"Is that what you're after? You just want to prove yourself to that bastard." Anko shouted hatefully.
"I thought we went over this last time. What I seek is death, destruction, an end to everything in this foolish world. What Orochimaru seeks is different; he seeks to make the world bend to his own judgment. His ends are very different from my own, but his world is better suited to my own mission." Kaizo spoke in a particularly twisted manner.
"So you think that when Orochimaru rules the world, you'll be able to destroy it. I doubt things will turn out your way." Kotetsu said particularly calmly.
"Why not, through the spread of a destructive degenerative and contagious disease, a man could wipe out a nation. A single plague could destroy an entire race in time. My goal really isn't entirely unrealistic." Kaizo continued to give off his evil smile.
"No your vision is one that is certain to never come to pass." Kurenai said with a strong conviction.
"And why would that be, Miss Yuhi?" Karyuudomi asked with a bitter laugh.
"Simply because this place shall be your grave." Kurenai retorted with her own slight laugh.
"Oh in that case, I think we've talked enough. Let's see who's conviction is the strongest. Reimei. Musouka show these people the power I have blessed you with." Kaizo called out maniacally.
"Yes Master." Both girls replied in very different tones.
Reimei once again charged straight for the chunin group, this time engaging them with a small explosion as a greeting.
"This time I'm not holding back. Master said I have to kill you all, that he needs you all dead or else him and Musouka can't beat those Jounin ladies. So now I'm allowed to use all my power." Reimei smiled distortedly.
"This is going to be troublesome, at least now we know what we're up against this time." Shikamaru gave a bored sigh.
"I am interested to know exactly what you are, girl." Kotetsu said suddenly, intrigued.
"Oh I suppose I could let you know before you die, master told me that I was a project to see if it was possible to genetically reproduce and alter a kekkei genkai in a living specimen. Master was successful to a degree, but the experiments cost too much so he had to quit. He says the research would be useful, but he had a way's to go in completely stabilizing the subject… whatever that means." Reimei said with an upbeat smile of anticipation.
"Alright then let's do this, guys!" Kiba said brashly before he and his canine companion charged the young girl at full force, only to be thwarted by a massive explosion.
The chunin continued to each make charges at the girl, each of which was met with increasingly violent and hard to avoid attacks. As the torrent of explosions sounded down the field from her, the child known as Musouka had began trying to corner Kurenai through a series of leaps. Anko struggled to free her with constant kunai attacks, but as with last time that proved to do little to halt the young girl's movements.
"This shall truly be interesting. I did some thinking, about how you would be able to move when you should have been paralyzed by that seal… I suppose I underestimated the bond the two of you share… I found that it seemed Musouka's technique had found its wrong target. That perhaps the best way to disable you was not through pain but rather fear." Kaizo started relentlessly with a smile before giving a signal to the girl who made a direct and powerful leap onto Kurenai as if everything before that had just been a game.
The hateful red flame this time found its way into Kurenai, who responded with a painful cry before her eyes seemed to gloss over to match the sheen of the heartless child.
"Musouka has charged Miss Yuhi here with hatred, anger, rage and a lust for blood, all of which you have been made the target of, dear Miss Anko Mitarashi. Now let us see, how well will you fare when forced to fight the one you would protect through the most insufferable pain. This is a fight that shall prove to be most entertaining." Kaizo said with an amused laugh.
"No, I can't fight her... Kurenai please snap out of this." Anko said in a distraught manner as her friend and lover charged her with a kunai, her violent expression seemed so foreign to her lovely countenance.
Anko parried the attack shakingly as well as Kurenai's follow-up. She continued to defend herself in vain hoping that Kurenai would somehow recover herself. However, the rage filled Kurenai's strikes just continued to grow more and more intense and soon Anko found herself suffering on the blade of the one she loved most with a short stab to her shoulder.
"Ughh… Kurenai. Stop Please. You said we'd do this together, that we'd both get through this… You said you loved me… Please, please don't do this." Anko called out in pain with a broken look that seemed contrary to her normal strength.
"Well it seems, I really did underestimate the connection the two of you share. I guess I really am evil." Kaizo laughed, in fierce enjoyment.
Kurenai continued her ferocious attacks on her cherished lover, weakening Anko's defense as well as her will, with each consecutive attack. Anko still found herself unable to lift a finger against the other kunoichi, she knew she would be unable to fight this opponent. Her only option now was to help Kurenai recover herself. Convinced, and regaining her determination, Anko leapt forth with a vivacious strike, forcing the short knife from her beloved's hand before taking her into a constraining hold. Anko used all her strength in an attempt to subdue Kurenai's struggles. Softly Anko moved in to place a passionate kiss on the lips of the woman she so loved.
Their eyes met for an instant before Kurenai threw Anko from her roughly. She reclaimed a knife and launched another persistent series of angry strikes.
"Ha. This is too much fun. It seems that Miss Yuhi doesn't return your feelings dear Anko. If she felt as strongly as you did, she wouldn't be so intent on causing you harm." Kaizo laughed bitterly as he watched the lovers fight.
"I have no choice then… It is a shinobi's duty to accept sacrifices…" Anko said with a tear in her eye as she made a fierce charge at the one she loved. Kurenai made several attempts to parry the ensuing strike but they were in vain, as Anko's blade found it's mark deep into Kurenai's chest unleashing a fierce torrent of blood.
"Yes! Yes! This is perfect! What a show, to be rejected in such a manner and then forced to kill the one you loved most. How exhilarating, how amazing. This scene is perfect, don't you agree Miss Mitarashi." Kaizo was howling with disgruntled laughter and exuberance.
"Yes. It is perfect." Anko said with a determined look as she wiped the forced tears from her eyes.
"What? I don't understand. Why would you say that?" Kaizo looked truly puzzled.
Seconds later the bleeding lifeless figure of Kurenai Yuhi disintegrated into the air. A second figure of Kurenai, this one full of life, appeared from the shadows, capturing the emotionless child instantly. With a swift, clean and intensely bloody cut to the neck Musouka Seijo was thrown to the floor, dead.
"Clever. Yes clever indeed. I got so worked up in watching you, I ignored your obvious use of genjutsu here. I hate hard to predict opponents, and love is certainly one of the hardest. No matter… I had grown attached to that girl. Retribution will be had for her death." Kaizo now was angry in his tone, his crazed maniacal expression turned to one of the most bitter seriousness.
A/N: That's chapter four. A nice little battle chapter, chapter five will conclude the fighting. I know the dynamic of loved ones being forced to fight each other if horribly cliché, but I thought it would be an interesting scenario to use, since I had already established Musouka's emotional manipulation ability, and there wasn't much else to do with it. Reimei as you probably guessed was invented solely to keep the excess characters busy. Well anyway next chapters the finale, so yeah till then, thanks for reading.