Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise, nor any of the other series I will be drawing inspiration from in this fanfiction. This is a work of fiction created purely for enjoyment, and no money shall be gained in its production.

Author Note: Naruto is now fed and clothed, and now has Momma Badger there to watch over him.

Thanks to the support of my beta, Amedao, we have managed to get another chapter out there for those who are enjoying the story so far. This one ended up being quite a bit longer than I originally anticipated, but I hope you all like it.

Warning: This is a story about Ninja, and therefore will involve violence. I try not to get excessively graphic, but be aware that there is a bit of blood and gore in this chapter.

EDIT: 02/15/2015, replaced Kinjutsu (forbidden technique) with Kenjutsu (sword technique)... thanks to TheWiseDragon for pointing out this typo.


BADGER

Chapter 08


"That looks like a hell of a lot more than 'three dozen' bandits down there, Hayate," seventeen year old Anko Mitarashi muttered to her companion.

"Okay, so the intel was a little bit off, sure," Hayate Gekko replied, only to receive a quick elbow to the short ribs. "Okay, fine... the intel sucked... happy now?"

"Not really," Anko muttered.

With Konoha's forces still struggling to recover their numbers after the Kyuubi's attack, what limited ninja they did have in supply were often overworked and spread thin due to the wants and needs of supply and demand. With the bulk of the village's economy funded by their missions, the only way that they could afford to increase their numbers was by shouldering the burden of this increased workload.

When the assignment office received a request from a minor noble in the south eastern corner near the border with the Land of Sea, the assignment office took a quick glance at the numbers reported by their intelligence network and decided that two Chuunin ranked nin would be more than sufficient to take out a small camp of those numbers, leaving Konoha with a Jounin to spare for other more pressing missions.

At first Anko had been less than thrilled to be sent out on a C-Ranked mission with her sole backup a man she had fought against in the Forest of Death during their Chuunin Exams. She was consoled by the fact that at least he had been a good challenge, as both of their Gennin teams had passed that portion of the exams in spite of what happened in the forest. Of all the Chuunin to be assigned with, at least he was one of the more competent ninja that could have been chosen.

From their hidden vantage point nestled in the branches near the top of a large evergreen tree both Konoha nin looked down on the sprawl of canvas tents and lean-tos that had apparently grown since the latest intelligence report came in from the region. Even if each tent only held one man, they were still likely looking at close to a hundred bandits in desperate need of death by Ninja.

To make matters worse, this group looked a lot more organized than most bandit camps, even going so far as to have a latrine pit dug downriver of their camp.

"I'm guessing that there has to be at least one person down there with enough brains to organize things, and enough power to keep this group of knuckleheads in line," Hayate observed.

"Or very deep pockets," Anko agreed. "My bet would be all of the above, honestly. Do you see that wagon of supplies over there next to the cooking tent? Look at how the crates are stacked and secured, that's not the work of some group of looters making off with a good haul, it had to have been loaded by professionals."

"You're right," Hayate agreed, eyes narrowing.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two as the sun began to slowly set in the distance.

Konoha's reputation amongst the Elemental Nations had taken a major hit from the Kyuubi attack, having lost not only a great number of veteran ninja, but also the Fourth Hokage, the legendary Yellow Flash. Regardless of any reservations the Chuunin now held about their mission they couldn't leave the job undone, and calling for reinforcements because the intel had been bad would cause more damage to the reputation of their village than their glorious deaths. Not to mention that the lack of available Ninja to call upon was what caused two Chuunin to be assigned to this mission in the first place.

Anko reached a hand up to a crude bone pendant that hung from her neck, the tips of her fingers tracing the familiar rough etching of a badger she had carved on its surface. Her lips moved as she spoke silently to the wind, promising a handful of roasted peanuts to the first badger she met if she got back to Konoha in one piece.

It had been just over a year since she had overheard the Toad Sannin speaking of the great Hachimitsu, finally finding a light in the darkness that had fallen upon her when Orochimaru had betrayed the Village, betrayed her. Where once her sleep was haunted by nightmares of Orochimaru and his sick experiments, now she dreamed of twisting tunnels beneath bountiful orchards, watched over by the Badgers that protected her against the snakes that wished to poison her mind.

When the Evil Suppression seal had been placed on her neck its ability to block the effects of the Cursed Seal on her neck was only as strong as her own willpower. Left alone and betrayed, ostracized by the very villagers she had sworn to protect as a Ninja of Konoha, it would have been nearly impossible for her to fight off the effects of the Seal of Heaven that Orochimaru had branded her with.

But now she had found that guiding light, and had been amazed by the subtle looks of respect and recognition she received from some of the villagers when they saw the pendant she now wore. Although it was not a religion, or even a cult, there was a bond of familiarity amongst those who called upon the Guardian Spirit of the Great Badger.

"We will have to play to our strengths," Anko muttered. "Every bandit we kill at a distance will be one less we have to worry about getting close enough to get a hit in on one of us."

"I agree," Hayate nodded. "I'm best with close quarters combat with my sword, and we both know you're better with ranged weapons than I am."

"You're not just saying that to keep pretty little O' me from getting hurt by these big, burly men, are you?" Anko joked.

"Ha, ha," Hayate deadpanned."Seriously, you know you're not my type."

"Whatever, sword boy," Anko said with a grin. "You're right though, I've seen your aim with a kunai, and I have no idea why you even carry them with you for all the good it does you. Give me all the kunai and shuriken you've got on you, and I'll make good use of them while you get in there and distract them. I'll join you when I run out, and we'll count heads when we're done to see who got the most. Loser buys the winner drinks when we get back."

"No deal, I've seen how much you can drink, Mitarashi," Hayate replied, un-strapping the kunai holster from his right thigh and passing it over to her.

"Spoilsport," she snorted, accepting the bundle and strapping it to her left thigh, her own holster already occupying her right leg. "What say we attack right at twilight, just after the sun sets?"

"That should work," Hayate nodded.


Jiraiya of the Sannin sat in a private room in a tea house just off the coast of Mizumi, the sea that acted as the natural southern border of the Land of Fire. A small scattering of loose papers and small scrolls cluttered the surface of the low table, leaving just enough room for his tea service to one side.

While many thought that his travels had more to do with drunken flirting and 'research' for his erotic novels, though he couldn't deny he did that too, a bare handful of people in the Elemental Nations knew that he was the backbone of Konoha's information network. Through a vast collection of informants, double-blind drop-offs, and various other methods, the Toad summoner wandered the lands gathering the miscellaneous bits and pieces of information that were critical to sustaining a nation built upon Ninja.

It was more than just luck that most of these meeting places could be found within a stone's throw of a hot spring filled with naked women.

Over the years this network had been built and refined so that the information he was able to supply was not only concise, but accurate. However, nobody was perfect, and it was an unfortunate fact that sometimes a fact or two went unobserved by one of his informants, and remained uncorrected until more information came from another source.

Such it was that he was currently digesting more than tea and cakes as a heavily creased paper hung loosely from his hands.

"Well shit," he muttered to himself, shoulders slumping. "This changes things a bit."

Curious about the recent increase of bandit activity in the region, he had traveled to the coast to build up his network a bit more in the region, and hopefully get a better idea of what was causing the bandits to grow in numbers so quickly.

Originally he had thought that it was due to some new self- crowned 'Bandit King' running the show, as those tended to crop up every few years. Which was stupid, really, when you took into account the fact that the Elemental Nations were nothing less than a military dictatorship, a diarchy between the Daimyo of the country and the Kage of the local hidden village. Between the Daimyo's well trained Samurai, and the sheer reckless danger of the Kage's Ninja, it was nothing less than suicide to paint that big of a target on yourself.

Unless, of course, you happened to be a highly influential owner and CEO of a large shipping company, whose monetary resources alone gained you the bent ear of many of those wealthy citizens who helped fund the Daimyo and Kage's military strength. Such was the case with Gato of Gato Shipping, who was one of the slimiest excuses for a human being since Orochimaru himself.

Gato had apparently realized that hiring large numbers of cannon fodder was cheaper than hiring mercenaries from the Elemental Nations forces. Another likely perk was that there were less questions asked by your enforcers when you were asking them to do something that they would have done on their own anyways. After all, beating up civilians and taking their property and livelihood was just what bandits did, right?

According to the report he was holding in his hands, one of the local lords had requested a mission to clear out one of these groups of bandits who had set up camp in the nobles own 'grown reserve' forest. When the mission had originally drawn up the number of bandits had been estimated at around two or three dozen, which was more than enough threat to concern the local militia force, but of little true danger to even the freshest of Chuunin.

Unfortunately, this information was no longer correct, as the bandit group had apparently been contacted by representatives of Gato Shipping shortly after the mission had been sent by courier to Konoha. With a source of not only money but supplies as well, the camp had quickly grown, with word of mouth spreading in the dark corners of the seediest bars and brothels in the surrounding area.

Now three to four times larger than it had been originally, the sheer size of the camp would now be considered a B-Ranked mission, requiring at least one experienced Jounin. He could only hope that they were lucky and no Nuke-Nin (Missing Ninja) had shown up out of avarice or sheer boredom.


Their initial assault on the bandit camp had gone quite well, with many of the bandits caught out in the open sharing bottles of alcohol around their campfires, their dinner still resting heavy in their bellies. When Hayate had reached his position at the edge of the camp Anko had started the attack with a volley of Kunai that fell from the darkening sky like rain, taking a heavy toll on the group closest to her fellow nin.

Quickly realizing that they were under attack, the bandits grabbed their weapons and made ready for battle, their shouts of alarm waking the rest of the camp around them. Confused shouts echoed throughout the camp as news spread, which were soon followed by panicked yells when a fiery explosion erupted on the far side of the camp, thanks to an explosive tag Anko had tied on one of her kunai.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Hayate moved into the camp itself, making use of his chameleon Genjutsu to blend in with the confusing blur of shapes and shadows left behind the milling bodies in the firelight. One by one bandits began to fall to his sword, causing those nearby to shout that there was a demon in their midst as they watched their fellow bandits fall to an invisible blade.

Hayate was doing a good job sowing chaos and death among the bandits, but soon enough he would have to drop his Genjutsu or risk running out of Chakra and passing out in the middle of the fight. Watching from her vantage point in a nearby tree, Anko continued her ranged assault, ready to jump into the melee the moment he became visible.

Noticing how low she was getting on kunai she switched over to her shuriken, making sure to keep two spare kunai on hand for when she needed to join in the fray. Spotting a pair of bandits trying to sneak away from the camp with sacks slung over their shoulders she threw a pair of shuriken with deadly accuracy, striking each of them in the neck.

Horrible as he was, that snake bastard Orochimaru had done a good job training her when he bothered to take the time, and bandits were a lot easier to hit than Ninja.

Spotting Hayate's chameleon Genjutsu collapse with a wavering blur of color and light, she adjusted her feet on the sturdy branch she had been perched on and gathered chakra in her legs and feet. With a burst of Chakra-smoke she appeared several feet to the swordsman's left side, her hand flashing out with a kunai and catching a bandit across the eyes. Reversing her strike, she quickly stabbed the tip of the kunai in the man's neck to silence him, twisting the knife as she pulled it out to help free her blade and ensure it would be a killing blow.

Her quick movement caused her tan trench coat to flare open, revealing her chest to the other bandit standing in front of her. His eyes widened as he noticed that her breasts were only covered by a net shirt, leaving nothing to the imagination, which was exactly the reason she dressed like that. With his arms raised up with a crude axe in his hands, his armpits were completely unprotected, allowing her to make a few quick stabs un the vulnerable area beneath the arms, severing nerves and veins alike.

Knowing that he would not be able to attack with both of his arms out of commission, she left the screaming man to collapse to the ground, the dirt already turning to mud from all the blood that had been spilled that night.

Looking over the camp she noticed several clusters of bandits who were standing together for protection from their attack. With Hayate revealed now that his Genjutsu had dropped, and their men no longer being taken out by Anko's ranged attacks, the bandits were visibly regaining their courage, and were now gathering in small groups for strength in numbers. Doing a quick count, she judged that there were only about one and a half, maybe two dozen bandits remaining.

"Should we stick together or split up," Anko muttered to her fellow Ninja.

"We would be safer if we stuck together," Hayate replied, eyeing the surviving bandits. "But that would risk some of the bandits fleeing into the night if we both focused on one group."

"Agreed," Anko said, narrowing her eyes. "How about we both sweep along the sides, and meet in the middle?"

"That could work," Hayate said with a grin.

Eyeing the remaining bandits Anko sized up her targets, noticing a group of four bandits standing in a loose half- circle with their backs to a small campfire, weapons in hand and murder in their eyes. She recognized these kind of men, the kind that thought nothing of taking what they wanted, be it food, money, or even women.

It was likely that those men who had survived this long had more experience in battle than those who had already fallen. They definitely had better gear than most of the dead bodies littering the camp, and from the familiar way they held their weapons told her that they hadn't just picked up whatever was lying around.

There were three small groups of bandits on Hayate's side of the camp, but none of them looked as dangerous as the four men on her side, let alone the armored man. It was likely that Hayate's Kenjutsu would take them out with relative ease, allowing them to take the leader together.

Deciding that it would be best to take out the four bandits closest to her before joining Hayate in taking out the stragglers, she adjusted her grip on the kunai she was holding in her right hand, wishing she had something with a bit more reach.

On the far side of the camp a fire had been knocked over by a dead body, causing a few burning logs to hit the side of one of the canvas tents. From there the fires had begun to spread during the fight, making both Ninja glad that it had been a particularly wet winter down south. At that moment the fires had reached a barrel of lamp oil, causing a weak fireball to explode into the night air.

On this signal, the two Konoha Ninja broke from each other, bloody mud splashing up from the ground as their sandaled feet carried them towards their targets.

Taking a quick glance at the area around the bandits, Anko spotted a round log sitting on its end that someone had probably used as a chair around ten feet off to the bandit's right, giving her an idea. Reaching her left hand behind her back to the weapon pouch strapped to the back of her belt, she pulled out her last three shuriken, sparing a brief thought to be impressed that the men she was charging didn't loosen their defense at the sight of her bared breast as her coat was pulled to the side.

Being more of a weapons specialist, Anko Mitarashi did not have a large number of attack Jutsu in her arsenal. Most of the Jutsu Orochimaru had taught her were based upon the Snake Summon Contract, which she had sworn off using the night of the festival a year before. Without a dedicated Jounin instructor to teach her, and being shunned by many of the Ninja in the village due to her association with the traitorous Snake Sannin, she hadn't had much chance to pick up any new skills, having to rely on refining what tools she already had at her disposal.

While another Ninja might have opened the fight with a ranged Jutsu like a fireball or rock spikes erupting from the ground, she fell back on the Academy basics.

When the bandits saw her running towards them with seeming reckless abandon they prepared to strike her down in a well coordinated flurry of steel, as they had many people before her. What they did not expect was for her to swap herself out with the log she had spotted just moments ago, their blades getting stuck for a brief moment in the soft coastal wood.

From her position off to their side where the log had been sitting she threw her last three shuriken at the startled bandits. One of the men was hit in the upper arm, which was hardly a killing blow, but would help slow him down on the attack. Her other two shuriken fared better though, hitting a second bandit in the face, causing him to fall back in a gurgling scream as one of them lodged halfway into his nasal cavity, the second cutting across his cheek and taking out an eye.

Shouting in surprise, the two unwounded bandits freed their weapons from the log, wielding an axe and a sword respectively, while the third man struggled to free his spiked club, unable to effectively use both arms due to the weapon embedded in his bicep.

"You're going to pay for attacking us, little girl," the axe- wielding bandit said, a wicked grin passing over his scruffy bearded face. "If you're lucky, you might just live long enough to regret it."

Anko's pupil-less tan eyes narrowed at what the man had just suggested, her bone badger-pendant seeming to grow heavy in warm around her neck as a low growl started to rumble from somewhere deep within her chest. Sensing a dangerous change in her attitude, the bandit's grin quickly faded, replaced with the hardened gaze of an experienced fighter.

Refusing to leave the third surviving bandit behind as he struggled to regain possession of his spiked club, the two bandits stood at the ready, forcing her to make the first move. Her eyes darted over to that third bandit, noticing that he was just about to free his weapon and re-join the fight, and a wicked idea came into her mind.

Reaching into a coat pocket, she started running towards the two bandits as they prepared for her attack, pulling out a small smoke pellet she had been saving for a rainy day. Most Ninja did not actually use smoke pellets, finding it cheaper and easier to simply use a burst of Chakra-smoke to hide their movements, which was a by-product of wasteful Chakra usage during a lot of Jutsu in the first place.

Having just experienced her use the Kawarimi to escape their last attack, they were ready for when she went to make the same move again, preparing themselves to attack her when she finished swapping herself out. It was that preparation that she was betting on when she made a few one-handed Jutsu with the hand holding the smoke pellet, finishing her technique and dropping the smoke pellet to the ground to fake the replacement Jutsu.

What both bandits saw next was her replacing herself with the bandit who had just freed his weapon from the log it had been stuck in, taking his place and grabbing his weapon for her own at the same time. Swinging their weapons with a sound of joyful vengeance they struck her down with all their strength, the axe taking her at the corner of the neck and finally stopping halfway into her chest, while the sword flashed out and cut her across the stomach, spilling her insides.

A flash of movement came from within the cloud of smoke left behind when the bandits had turned to attack, a bloody hand holding a kunai reaching out and cutting the sword-wielding bandit across the neck in one swift movement. Noticing his fellow bandit falling to the ground clutching his throat, the axe-wielding bandit failed to react in time as the same kunai flashed out of the smoke again and cut him across the tendons on the back of his knees.

Falling heavy on the ground the bandit caught himself on his hands, his axe falling to the side just out of his reach, bringing him face to face with the body of the person he had killed just in time for the Genjutsu to fade away, revealing the club-wielding bandit that had been there the entire time.

"That was my half-brother, you bitch," the bandit growled at her, teeth bared in pain.

"Oh, look," Anko drawled without a single ounce of sympathy, the man's own axe in her hands. "You lived long enough to regret it."

With the speed born of years of training as a Ninja, she swung the axe down in a controlled arc, removing the last bandit's head from his shoulders.

Taking a deep breath, Anko calmed her nerves, wincing as she realized how much chakra the Genjutsu had taken out of her. While the Henge was so easy to use they taught it in the Academy to children that weren't even Gennin yet, there was a vast difference between extending your chakra outside your body to change your appearance, and forcing your chakra to surround someone else.

Dropping the bloody axe on the ground next to the headless bandit, Anko pulled her Kunai back out of her coat pocket where she had put it after cutting the man's tendons, and looked over to see Hayate taking care of the last few bandits on his side of the camp. Seeing that he had things under control, she checked to make sure that she hadn't missed any bandits on her side, taking a moment to bend down and cut the throat of a man who had only been knocked unconscious by another bandit in the initial panic.

Glancing back at the bandit she had killed with his own axe, she wondered if he had been the leader of the camp, and if he had a bounty on his head. Explosive tags weren't cheap on a Chuunin's salary, and the one tag she had used during the initial attack on the camp had been the only one she could afford after paying for her loving expenses.

She was just starting to reach for her bingo book when she heard a shout of surprise come from Hayate on the other side of the camp.

Snapping her head around she quickly spotted Hayate on the other side of the camp, where the young man stood facing off against two other swordsman she hadn't seen before. Wielding their swords on opposite hands, the two newcomers moved as one, pressing their attack against the furiously defending Konoha Ninja. Firelight flashing off the pale steel of Hitai-ate drove home the fact that these were no common bandits, but a pair of enemy Ninja, which had definitely not been in the mission description.

There were a number of reasons for them to be there, and though it was possible that they had merely been passing through, the bandit camp was not near any of the main travel routes through the area. Either they had been hired separately to take out the bandit camp, and had hung back long enough to let the two Konoha nin do all the dirty work, or they had been part of the camp itself and had just returned to find their camp under attack.

Either way, what really mattered was that they were there, and Hayate looked like he could use her help against them.

Sparing a glance for the heavy axe laying on the ground nearby, she decided that it would be better to stick with a more familiar weapon when going up against enemy Ninja, readjusting the grip on her Kunai as she started making her way across the camp. Thankful for the light from the burning tents on the far side of the camp she started making her way towards the fight, being careful of her step to make sure she didn't slip on anything.

As she got closer to the fight, she noticed that the symbols on their Hitai-ate were scratched out, showing that they were Nuke-nin who had abandoned their village. Behind the deep gouges in the metal plates, four wavy diagonal lines showed the symbol of Hidden Mist Village, which was in the Land of Water off the eastern coast. Since Water was in the middle of a long and bloody civil war, it wasn't too uncommon to see the occasional Mist Nuke-nin in the region, but it was odd that they would have traveled this far in-land from the coast.

Wither by fate or pure luck, a bright flash of lightning lit the skies above the forest, allowing Anko to spot the polished gleam of a sword out of the corner of her eye. Reflexes gained from years of training and paranoia allowed her to replace herself with the body of a nearby bandit just in time to see it cut in two in a shower of blood.

Light from the burning fires revealed a man standing next to the tent she had been walking past, his eyes gleaming with madness as he took a step out into the light. He was a pale- skinned man wearing a pair of baggy gray pants held tight to his lower legs with bandages, his scratched out Mist Hitai-ate acting as a belt buckle. Blood was splattered over his entire right side from the body he had cut in two, slowly beading up and running down his shirtless torso in the damp coastal air.

Held in his right hand was one of the nastiest pieces of forged steel that Anko had seen in her entire life, a wide katana made of polished steel with saw-like teeth cut out along its edge, bits of bone and flesh stuck between them from the attack she had barely managed to avoid. Common sense would prevent anyone wielding a weapon like that in combat, as it was just asking to get the teeth caught on a bit of cloth or bone and get yanked right out of your hand mid-strike.

Judging the two halves of the body he had just stepped between, he didn't have an issue with that.

Wishing again that she had something more substantial in her hand than her well-used Kunai, Anko shifted into a more defensive stance as the man started towards her, cursing the fact that she had used so much of her Chakra reserves earlier. Lightning flashed again, the thunder following it much sooner, warning that the storm was getting closer.

"Say goodbye to life, and say hello to Klaus," the man said with a manic grin, following his words with a quick controlled rushing attack.

Cursing at how fast the man moved on his feet, Anko leapt away from the attack, her sandaled feet bringing her to a sliding halt ten feet away from him. At this point, she wasn't sure if she wouldn't rather swap places with Hayate, as the two Nuke- nin he was going against at least seemed sane from a distance.

"Say goodbye to life, and say hello to Klaus!"

Anko ducked under the wide sweeping blow, hoping to stick her Kunai in his exposed side, only to be forced to bring her Kunai down to block a vicious reverse strike. Half-way through his one-handed swing he had let go of his sword with his right hand, and caught it with his left to get in that second strike, before switching it back into his right hand as she landed.

Using her experience fighting both with and against Hayate, who was recognized as something of a Kenjutsu prodigy in Konoha, she kept herself moving in a constant effort to stay out of range of his sword. Her hand was still slightly numb from that first strike, and she had no intention to try that trick again if she could help it. It had been a struggle to keep her grip when their blades met, and the extra reach given to him by three feet of steel gave him a rather unfair advantage.

It was well known that those Ninja who lived long enough tended to become a little odd, Guy Maito's obsession with green spandex and 'youth' a prime Konoha example, but this Klaus fellow took things a bit far. His attacks had no discernable pattern and he had completely ignored several chances to take out Hayate as her comrade took on the other two Nuke-nin, focusing entirely on her.

Desperate for anything that would give her an advantage against Klaus, Anko spared more of her fading Chakra to Kawarimi with another dead bandit, taking the next brief moment to search the immediate area for anything of use. Trying her best to ignore the wet tearing sound as yet another body was cut in two with his saw tooth sword, she made a silent promise to sacrifice a second handful of peanuts to the first badger she found if she was able to get back to Konoha in one piece.

Spotting a nearby pony keg of lamp oil, a wicked grin spread across her face, something like a plan forming in her head as she memorized its placement.

"Say goodbye to life, and say hello to KLAUS!"

"What does that even mean?!" Anko snapped back at him.

Stumbling back from another flurry of blows she cursed quietly to herself when she noticed that he wasn't slowing down at all, despite the fact that blood was now actively dripping from his hair into his eyes and he didn't even seem to notice when anyone else would have been blinded. Doing her best to keep a safe distance between her and that wicked blade she continued to dodge and weave, slowly making her way towards a large bonfire nearby. It wasn't hard to act as if she was getting tired, her reflexes just a bit more sluggish as she lost ground to his relentless attack.

Soon enough the crackling roar of the bonfire was louder than the moans of the few remaining wounded bandits who had not yet died, the blazing heat uncomfortable on her sweat covered back as she drew near. Keeping as much of her attention on her opponent as possible she circled around the fire, keeping it on her left side to that the wide strikes of his sword swept dangerously close to the angled stack of burning wood.

She had to time this just right if her plan was going to succeed.

Anko faked a stumble towards the bonfire, noting the tense of his muscles in the bright light of the flames as he prepared a powerful strike to take her out. At the last moment she cast her final Kawarimi, coming dangerously close to Chakra exhaustion as the world seemed to spin around her, the wooden keg of lamp oil taking her place just as his blade nicked her in the arm.

Screams filled the air as the pony keg did the exact same thing the dead bandits had done when their bodies met his blade, its contents splashing over his entire body in a wave of sticky oil before quickly bursting into flame as the explosion of oil met the bonfire.

Apparently nobody had told Klaus not to try breathing flames, as his screams quickly grew faint and raspy before eventually fading into an eerie silence covered by the crackle and pop as his body continued to burn. Even as hardened as Anko was after her training under Orochimaru she felt ill as she watched his body continue to stumble in her direction for several long agonizing moments, sword pointed at her in accusation before he finally fell to the ground to move no more.

Clashing steel brought her back into the moment, reminding her that she wasn't alone. Her tan eyes darted over to the continuing sounds of combat as she spotted Hayate still caught in a desperate defensive battle against the other two Nuke-nin. Looking down at the bent and now utterly useless Kunai in her hand, then back to the two enemy ninja still standing, she spared a moment to look over at the still burning body of Klaus.

Or, more accurately, to the still perfectly sound sword now laying where it had rolled away from his hand when he had fallen.

Spotting a nearby barrel with a wooden ladle hanging from the side on a thin rope, she walked over and looked to find it a little over two thirds full of water. Dropping the useless Kunai on the muddy ground she reached down and grabbed on to the rim of the barrel, grunting as she overturned it in the direction of Klaus' still burning body.

Steam filled the chill night air as the water hit the body of the dead Nuke-nin, the burning lamp oil guttering as it was carried towards the nearby bonfire before it burst back into flame on top of the water as it ran out and began to pool. Raising the left sleeve of her coat to cover her nose from the horrible smell she made her way over to where the sword lay in a small puddle of water. Doing her best to ignore the bits of bandit stuck in the teeth of the blade, she bent down and picked the weapon up in her right hand, taking a quick moment to test its weight in her hand.

It was heavier than she had assumed from the way he had been swinging it around during their fight, causing her to take a closer look at how it was built. The spine of the blade was much thicker than on any blade she had seen before, nearly two thirds the width of a normal katana, before it thinned down into the saw blade teeth. It was that extra mass of the weighted spine of the sword that had given the power needed to cut through those bodies, and eventually the barrel of oil that had ended his life.

While it was heavier than she normally preferred her weapons, she decided that it would work perfectly fine for her current needs, her teeth bared in an almost feral grin as she made her way in Hayate's direction.

Thunder echoed against the ring of steel as Hayate continued to weave an intricate defensive dance against the continued attack of the two remaining Nuke-nin. If he had been fresh she doubted he would have found much challenge in them, but they had the advantage of attacking him after he had spent most of his Chakra and energy taking on the bandit camp with his Chameleon Genjutsu active.

At this point the fight had moved so that Anko was coming from behind the two Ninja, allowing her to approach unseen. Bouncing the unfamiliar weight of the sword a few times as she got closer, she caught Hayate's eye and nodded towards the Nuke-nin closest to her, grinning at the shocked glance he spared at the wicked looking blade in her hand.

Seeing a flash of lightning in the sky, she switched to a traditional two-handed grip on the sword, counting in her head as she waited for the coming thunder to hide the sound of her movement. Leaping into the air she closed the final distance between her and her chosen prey, the rumbling in the air hiding the slap of sandaled on wet ground as her legs propelled her into the air.

Aiming for the sweet spot where neck and shoulder met, her surprise attack was almost foiled when the ninja caught the reflection of the sword on Hayate's Hitai-ate. For just the briefest of moments the man must have mistaken her for Klaus, the familiar swinging arc of the rather unusual blade catching their eye before they realized whose arm now wielded it. Their shout of warning came a moment too late as the weight of her flying body drove the teeth of the sword deep into her enemy's flesh, cutting a deep rending tear in their shoulder before skipping along their shoulder blade.

As she suspected, the saw blade teeth on the strange sword eventually caught against bone, the blood and oil on the handle of the blade causing it to slip out of her hands even as she crashed into the back of the dying man, driving both of them down to the ground. A loud gurgling scream erupted from the man she had just struck as he flopped like a beached fish on the ground beneath her, blood erupting from the massive wound.

Without the distraction of the second swordsman, Hayate was able to make quick work of the other Nuke-nin, getting within the man's next swing and gutting him in one quick motion, sword sliding from just above the man's right hip to just below the floating ribs on his left side. Being careful with his footing Hayate took several steps back from the now dead enemy Ninja before looking over to check on Anko.

Grunting for a moment in effort she yanked the sword out of the now very dead Ninja beneath her before standing up, weaving on her feet for a moment as a sudden dizzy spell hit her. Stabbing the tip of the sword into the dead body she leaned on it for stability, her eyes closed in concentration as she fought off a minor case of Chakra exhaustion. Shaking her head after the moment passed, she looked out over the now thoroughly destroyed bandit camp, half of it now actively on fire and the entire area littered with dead bodies.

It was hard to believe that they had survived.

"Well shit, we really made a mess of things, didn't' we?" Anko asked her comrade.

"Oh, I don't know, it seemed to turn out alright in the end," Hayate answered. "After all, any battle that you can walk away from when your enemy doesn't has to count as a win. You look like you must have used damn near the last of your chakra taking that other guy out. I couldn't see much of what has happening because of these two, how did you finally take him out?"

"Ah, well," Anko stammered, looking embarrassed. "I didn't have time for any hand seals, and I only had one Kunai left, so I had to improvise. Just about the only Jutsu I can do without hand seals is the Kawarimi, so that's what I had to work with. I got us close to one of the bonfires and switched out with a keg of oil right before he would have hit me with his sword, and caught the bastard on fire."

"You know, that's the kind of thinking that made us Chuunin, instead of sticking around as Gennin," Hayate told her with a smile. "Aren't you so glad we're Chuunin now and can be sent on nice little 'C-Ranked' missions without a Jounin there to hold our hands?"

Anko speared him with a flat glare, the fires of the burning camp giving a dangerous gleam to her eyes.

"Yeah, thrilled," she deadpanned.

Hissing in pain as the adrenaline began to fade from her system, Anko examined the tear on her right sleeve left behind from her last-minute escape from Klaus' final attack, where some of her own blood was beginning to stain the cloth from where she had been nicked in the bicep. Shrugging her right shoulder out of her trench coat, and ignoring Hayate's embarrassed huff as he looked away from her net-clad chest, she probed the edges of the wound with curious fingers.

Three shallow cuts stood out against the smooth skin of her upper arm from where the teeth of the sword had caught her, the thin trickle of blood flowing from them assuring her that he had missed any major veins, as she would have been bleeding much heavier if that had been the case. While the cuts were shallow, she would need to clean them out soon, as she didn't want to imagine what was in the teeth of that sword after cutting through those bandits before getting to her.

Grabbing the handle of the saw blade sword in her left hand, with a grunt of effort she pulled the tip of the blade out of the dead body at her feet for the last time, deciding to keep the sword on hand for the time being. Remembering the supply wagon off by the cooking tent, she remembered seeing a few crates of medical supplies stacked on it earlier in the evening, and it only made sense to see if they had any disinfectant and bandages left over. If she was lucky they would have a needle and thread so that she could close up the wounds as well.

Looking around she spotted the cooking tent down near the river, the wagon still sitting next to it along with a scattering of dead bandits with Kunai sticking out of their bodies. Shifting the sword so that it was propped up against her left shoulder, the blunt spine of the blade resting on her coat to help hold it in place as her right arm was still bare, she made her way towards the wagon.

"Decided to keep the sword?" Hayate asked as he followed along behind her.

"Well, it did come in handy," she replied with a smirk, glancing over her shoulder to catch Hayate rolling his eyes. "Besides, you never know, there might still be someone lurking around that needs killing."

"True," he agreed, eyes suddenly on their surroundings again instead of her half-clad back. "If you want some help training how to use that thing just let me know. I figure with the way things have been with missions recently we're likely going to be sent out together again, and it would be nice to know I can rely on a good sword at my back."

"I might just take you up on that," she nodded as they finally reached the wagon. "Now let's see what we have to work with here."

Taking a moment to prop her new sword up against the wooden side of the wagon she reached down and picked up a nearby box painted white with a red cross on the top and flipped open the lid. Light from a nearby lantern reflected off a half dozen bottles of high-proof alcohol in the straw-lined crate, causing her to snort as the crate was made to hold twenty bottles.

Grabbing one of the bottles with her left hand she pulled out the cork with a practiced twist of her thumb before bringing the bottle above the wound on her right arm. Hissing in pain as the alcohol stung her open wounds she poured the contents over her arm, starting at the shoulder to clean off the blood and dirt.

Chucking the now empty bottle off into the woods with a negligent flick of her wrist, she grabbed the next box to the right, getting lucky this time when the firelight revealed several rolls of linen bandages, as well as needle and thread. Grabbing some of the gauze bandages she pulled on the loose end to get a handful of the cloth, and used that to dab at her wounds, examining them in the light to make sure that nothing was left in the three cuts.

"Want to lend me a hand here?" Anko asked, holding up a spool of thread and a curved metal needle.

"Yeah, no problem," Hayate replied, stepping over.

Instead of immediately grabbing the tools she offered, he grabbed one of the bottles of alcohol from the box she had set aside, quickly opening it and dumping half the contents over his hands and rubbing them together to get them cleaned off first. After he was confident that his hands were clean enough to do more good than harm he took the needle and thread she had offered to him. With deft movements the swordsman threaded the needle, eyeing the size of the individual cuts on her bicep to decide how much length to give to the thread.

As he began the first stitches, skillfully pulling the loose edges of skin together to seal the wound, he took a moment to realize how close she had timed her replacement technique. If she had gotten away too soon it was likely that the Nuke-nin would have been able to pull back his blow, escaping his fiery demise. On the other hand, if she had been any slower she would likely be missing an arm now, and he might be dead.

In the back of his head, his offer for swords training became a bit more urgent.

"I hope you know that you're real lucky to still have this arm," he told her as he cut the thread with a small pair of scissors pulled from the same medical kit.

"It's the luck of the Badger," Anko replied, her left hand reaching up to touch something on her chest.

Hanging from a leather cord around her neck was a smooth disk of bone, the profile of a badger carefully carved into the outer surface with the grooves filled in with ink. She had carved the image herself a little under a year ago after noticing that she hadn't suffered the same reoccurring nightmares once she had bought her giant Hachimitsu badger plushy. Of course, she would happily gut anyone that dared even hint that she needed a stuffed animal to get a good night's sleep.

Besides, he was right, she had been lucky that night.

When they got back to Konoha she would have to thank the Spirit of the Badger for helping her this night. She remembered seeing a badger roaming around the woods near a river that marked the edge of the Nara forests just outside the inner walls of Konoha, and hoped that she could find the badger so that she could give her offering in person.

She would also need to have her new sword looked at by one of the local smiths, and get a good sheath made. She didn't relish the idea of having those sharp saw blade teeth knocking around her thighs as she ran around doing her ninja thing.

Thinking about what she would do once they returned to Konoha helped her ignore the pinch as Hayate finished closing up the last few stitches on her upper arm, his deft hands showing practice in closing up small wounds like this. Once the stitching was complete he grabbed a roll of clean linen bandaging from the supplies, wrapping it around her bicep several times to cover everything up for their trip back.

"Alright, all set," Hayate announced, turning his gaze again towards the camp.

"Thanks," Anko said, shrugging her right arm back into her coat sleeve, making sure not to jostle the bandages too much in the process. "Now, let's see if any of these guys have a bounty on their heads."

"Likely the Nuke-Nin from Mist do," he said, glancing over to the still steaming body next to the bonfire.

Anko snorted.

"Not necessarily, what with the civil war going on," she cautioned. "Still, it's not a bad idea to check."

Pulling out their Bingo Books they began flipping through the pages, reading by the light of the spreading fire.

Hayate quickly checked the identity of the two swordsmen that had engaged him, eventually huffing in disappointment when nothing could be found matching their description. At least there was still the standard bounty for genuine Hitai-ate from non-allied nations, so it wouldn't be a complete loss. The pay was on par with a D-Ranked mission as there was no way to prove that some nameless enemy nin was any higher rank than Gennin, but every ryo counted.

Pausing on a particular page in her own Bingo Book, Anko grabbed the saw blade sword from where she had propped it against the side of the wagon and made her way over to where the dead body of Klaus currently lay, the muddy ground beginning to dry from the intense heat of the nearby bonfire despite the chilly late November air. Careful to not get the teeth of the sword caught on something she used the tip of her new blade to grab the man's shoulder, rolling his body over onto its back with a grunt of effort from the awkward angle.

Holding the book towards the light so that she could compare the picture on the page to the burnt face on the dead body at her feet she double-checked to make sure that she had a match. Many ninja would tell you that there were few things quite as embarrassing in your career as trying to turn in the wrong head for a bounty.

"Do you have something?" Hayate asked, walking over from where he had checked the other two bodies.

"Fairly sure, yeah," Anko replied absently. "I mean he kept shouting out 'say hello to Klaus' during the entire fight, so I figured I might as well check to see if that was actually his name."

"Oh," he nodded. "Was it?"

"No," she snorted, shaking her head. "But it was listed under the page of 'Miscellaneous Nicknames and Monikers Index' that they added in the most recent edition. Turns out his name is actually Sakura, poor bastard."

"Why does that name sound familiar," Hayate muttered to himself.

"If you've ever had the misfortune of doing one of the babysitting D-Ranks for Councilor Haruno you'd be aware of one of the biggest brats in the under-five range," Anko chuckled.

"Aaaand there we go, I thought I had repressed those memories," he said, a haunted look in his eyes. "Do you have any idea how much money I am going to have to spend on sake to repress again?"

"Aw, poor baby," Anko chided, putting her Bingo Book away in an equipment pouch hanging on the back of her belt. "Just remind yourself that she's old enough not to need a babysitter any more, and hope to Kami that you aren't a Jounin Sensei if she ever graduates the Academy like her mother is always spouting off."

"Hmm, joining the ANBU is sounding better all the time," Hayate said in a very serious tone. "So, was there anything interesting to note about this 'Sakura' fellow in the book?"

"Yeah, just one important thing," Anko said, lifting the saw blade sword high in the air. "Apparently he has an amazing self-healing bloodline."

Klaus woke from his healing coma just in time to see his own sword descending in a flash of reflected firelight, his mouth opening in a scream that would never break past his lips as his head rolled along the ground and came to a stop against Hayate's sandals. Shouting in surprise, the Konoha swordsman took a few quick steps back before aiming a fierce glare at the laughing form of Anko.

"Oh, oh man," Anko gasped, trying to catch her breath. "Did you see his face there, Gekko?"

"Kind of hard not to," Hayate muttered in response.

"S-sorry," she apologized, not sounding at all apologetic. "But seriously, he was probably hoping to play dead until we left. I bet it just about killed him inside to hear us calling him by his actual name, and then compare him to a little bratty girl we used to have to babysit like that!"

"Still repressing," Hayate muttered.

"Woo," she gasped, a huge smile on her blood splattered face. "I can't wait to tell that one when we get back to Konoha!"

"I'm sure," he deadpanned. "Speaking of getting back, can we finish up here? The sooner we leave, the sooner we return, and the sooner I can get a bottle in my hand and not have to worry about getting a kunai in the back."

"Yeah, yeah," Anko replied.

Grabbing a small storage scroll from the same pouch her Bingo Book had disappeared into she made her way over to where Klaus' head lay, the shocked look frozen on his face. Rolling the scroll out on the ground next to the head, she made use of the sword tip again to move it on top of the scribble of Fuuinjutsu seals before remembering that she was almost entirely out of Chakra.

"Um, I don't suppose I can borrow a cup of Chakra from you, can I?" she asked.

"You know, I just might make you carry his head in a sack all the way back to Konoha for reminding me of that little brat," Hayate muttered. "You're lucky I don't want to spend the next day smelling burnt hair."

Putting his hands into the Ram hand seal he channeled a small amount of Chakra to activate the storage seal on the scroll, causing the head to disappear in a burst of chakra smoke. Ink lines shifted on the paper of their own volition, showing that the seal was now holding something inside of it, waiting for someone to activate it again to unseal its contents.

Nodding in thanks, Anko rolled the scroll back up and put it back into her equipment pouch before standing up, hefting the saw blade sword up in her left hand and resting the less dangerous spine of the blade against her shoulder. On some unspoken signal, they began walking away from the destroyed bandit camp, their forms fading into the darkness as a light rain began to fall on the countryside.

"So, does you offer for sword training still stand?"

"Ask me again once I recover from my hangover."