I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.
Carnage
Chapter Ten: Evil Snakes and Cursed Seals
Sasuke widened his eyes as he tried to jump out of the way but his body was smothered by the Grass-nin's killer-intent and the avenger could only stare at the snake numbly, his body shaking with fear. 'Move, damn it! Move Sasuke! Naruto can't be fast enough to save you this time! Move!' However, as his body would not react to his commands, Sasuke could only close his eyes in defeat and accepted the death awaiting him. He wondered, as the snake sped to him, if his dream could ever be accomplished…
To kill his brother… It had been his dream…
"Ah! A snake! Onii-chan! Help!" a young Sasuke screamed, as he huddled against his brother, shaking with fear. The said creature was hissing venomously at the two brothers as if to scoff at their insolence. Itachi had only smiled, ruffling his brother's hair.
"Don't be silly. Are you afraid of snakes?" Itachi asked softly and he was rather amused as Sasuke nodded vigorously to show his contempt for the cold-blooded animal. "All right I will get rid of it for you. Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)"
The flames burnt the animal and Sasuke watched on, fascinated, as the animal hissed in pain. His brother had eliminated his fear.
"That was so cool, onii-chan! Can you teach me that?"
"Maybe next time, Sasuke."
It was when the next time he had met his brother, Sasuke's fears had vanished and his ambition had been changed to 'killing his brother'. Before that, it was to get his father to acknowledge him… And to Sasuke, as tears appeared at the corner of his eyes and they opened to reveal dark pupils, he only wanted to spend more time with his brother, before his whole clan had been eradicated completely due to his brother.
A tear fell from his eye, finding its way down Sasuke's cheek. He had loved his brother so much… It hurt too much when his brother had betrayed the whole clan, betrayed him. He trusted him completely and Sasuke could see what a fool he was back then. He only wanted to spend more time with Itachi, that was all.
"Hmmm… These dango are sure the best in Konoha! They go best with red bean soup too…" Anko thought as she sat on a tree branch, swinging her legs leisurely. She licked her lips as she savored the wonderful taste of her dango before throwing the stick against the tree bark, completing the Konoha sign with that final stick. "There. Hmmm, I should go to the tower to report now… Those people who are fast enough should be there in twenty-four hours time… I guess I will meet Naruto there then…"
Anko was still worried for her squad captain. She had not seen that emotionally detached blonde for several months in her squad and had personally went to ask the Hokage for his whereabouts while the Third simply informed Anko that Naruto had been demoted. At first, her reaction was to be furious with the Third and demanded for the blonde's return, but after the Sandaime explained to her about his actions, Anko found herself agreeing with him.
Naruto had always buried himself in work and missions, never finding any time to interact with people his age. Although he would have friends around Anko's age since he mingled with the ANBU squads too much, Anko seriously doubted that he would have a true friend given his 'popularity'.
What was more was that Anko had found out from the demon vessel himself almost a year ago ever since she had entered his squad that Naruto might not have more years to stay alive. She had found out that the demon vessel had been going through painful seizures due to the Kyuubi's chakra and a foreign chakra raging inside Naruto, also causing his cells to age faster than they normally would.
She knew that Naruto would rather kill himself than let his chakra control him to release carnage and chaos into Konoha. Anko knew that Naruto would be that kind of person. But she did not want Naruto to do that. He did not deserve to die. He had handled the villagers' ignorance of the demon and their hatred.
She remembered telling him incidents with Orochimaru and the agony she had to go through with the cursed seal, but Naruto had taken it all too indifferently.
"At least you know what to feel," Naruto said, his voice void of any emotion. If Anko were to listen more attentively, she could have heard the bitterness in the tone. "You only have one sole person to hate."
"What! You don't know anything! So don't come to me with all that bullshit—" Anko raged until she saw the blue eyes looking down at the village with a glare filled with hatred from their position on top of the Hokage's mountain.
Then, Anko started to wonder about the blonde's sanity as he answered so calmly that Anko wanted to strangle him, "I wish I don't know anything, Anko. I really do."
"Anko-sama! Something bad happened!" one of the examiners called out to Anko and pulled her back to Konoha as she stared down at him and asked, "What happened?"
"We just found three corpses!" the chuunin replied frantically and gulped as Anko scrutinized him carefully.
"Corpses?" Anko asked, narrowing her eyes while chewing at dango all the while.
They ran towards the scene of crime to find themselves in front of statues of gods. Glutinous-like blood was sprayed all over the picture of serenity and three corpses were added to the gruesome décor. Two other chuunin were examining the bodies before reporting to Anko, "From their possessions and their identification, they are ninjas from the Hidden Grass Village, ready to enter the chuunin exam this year… However… their faces seem to have corroded…"
Anko stared at the bodies and thought about the chuunin's words. 'The faces were corroded… If I'm not mistaken, it must be his techniques! What is he doing in the chuunin exams?'
"Let me see their pictures!" Anko ordered and a chuunin brought up a photograph of the Hidden Grass ninja and Anko's eyes widened visibly as she stared at the picture. 'That's the Grass-nin who had been staring at Naruto for a long while before the exam started! Shit…'
"This is bad!" Anko yelled, her heart thumping with fear for her captain. If Orochimaru was to enter the chuunin exam and have such a vested interest in Naruto, his life would be in danger! Anko's mind raced with thoughts of Naruto owning the cursed seal, but that should not be a possibility, right? Her captain would not endanger his life so easily. She knew that he could take care of himself.
"What!" the three chuunin shouted in confusion.
"All of you report to the Hokage about this now! After that, send two teams of ANBU to the Forest Of Death immediately! I will enter the Forest Of Death to capture the killer!"
"Shunshin No Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique)," the actual Naruto said quickly as he dashed towards Sasuke with the technique in use. The high-speed movement technique allowed a ninja to move short distances at an almost untraceable speed. To the observer, it would appear as if the user had teleported. It could be accomplished by using chakra to temporarily boost the reflexes of the user and the amount of chakra required would depend on the overall distance between the user and the intended destination.
Time seemed to slow down for Naruto as the snake moved towards Sasuke in slow motion and he noticed the tear that had fell from Sasuke's eye. 'Is he crying? Is he crying because he is afraid to die?'
Naruto moved himself in front of Sasuke and transferred large amounts of chakra to his hands and arms to push the snake back. The force of the creature pushed the blonde back but the chakra on his palms had burnt the snake's skin and the snake hissed in disdain. The blonde grunted as the effort to contain the beast was more difficult than he thought as the snake was twenty times larger than Naruto and its strength far surpassed the blonde's. His eye caught a glimpse of Sasuke and Naruto told himself that his teammate was okay, at least, for now.
'Naruto… Saved me? But how?' Sasuke thought as he looked at the blonde struggling to keep the snake at bay. For that moment as the killer-intent that held him down had vanished when the Grass-nin's concentration broke, the avenger took it as his opportunity to work together with Naruto as a team.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" his brother had said to kill his fear. Sasuke shook that thought away before performing the same technique that his brother had used to kill the snake and aimed it at the creepy ninja. "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)"
The fire technique had caught the Grass-nin at unawares and even as she tried to dodge, flames were licking at her face. Sasuke smirked in victory but his face paled in horror as the Grass-nin's face seemed to be peeled off, the skin charred and disposable like the snake the Grass-nin was standing on. It was the forehead protector that caught Sasuke's attention. It was the sign of the Hidden Sound Village.
"What—" Sasuke started but the 'Grass' ninja took no heed and sped her way down to Naruto instead. "Naruto!"
It was too late as Naruto was being caught up with the snake and the 'Grass' ninja did a handseal and her neck elongated, to Sasuke and Naruto's surprise and the creepy-looking ninja bit down onto Naruto's neck, hard. The blonde yelped and Sasuke yelled in shock, "What did you do to Naruto! What the hell are you?-!"
The 'Grass' ninja was too fast. She was too fast for Sasuke even if he had activated his blood limit again. Her elongated neck stretched towards Sasuke and grinned at the avenger viciously. The blonde had fallen onto all fours and he bit on his lower lip to prevent himself from crying out from the excruciating agony.
"It is a gift, Sasuke-kun and I'm going to give it to you too," the 'Grass' ninja said and she bit down onto Sasuke's pale-colored neck, her teeth dripping with blood. As she pulled away, Sasuke's neck revealed a bite mark, which slowly took on a shape of three water-droplets, almost like the Sharingan. "As for your question, I am Orochimaru. Both of you will seek for my power and by then, I will be waiting…" Orochimaru then did a few handseals and disappeared into the ground.
From a distance where Kabuto was fighting against Ino and Shikamaru, the gray-haired ninja had noticed Orochimaru's disappearance and decided to call the fight off. He smirked, as he looked at the unconscious Shikamaru and the girl who was panting heavily in exhaustion.
"We'll see you again. It would occur to you that Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun would need help with containing the 'gifts' that my master has given them. Bye," Kabuto said to the surprised Ino and gathered chakra to his feet before taking off, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts. By then, Choji and Sakura were starting to stir and she glanced at them before running to the place where Naruto and Sasuke were clutching their necks in unison, struggling against the pain coursing through their bodies.
Anko flitted from tree to tree, her mind anxious about meeting her previous sensei and she wondered, just wondered, if she could make it alive at all. It would be possible that this mission would probably be her last considering her sensei's strength in the past and his strength would most probably increase over the years. It would be tougher for Anko to fight her sensei.
But over the years in Naruto's squad, Anko had gotten stronger too.
Her mind was racing through pessimistic thoughts but she was pulled out from them as a distant voice called out her squad captain's name, "Naruto! Are you okay? Naruto!"
Anko looked down from where she had stopped to try and find out the source of the voice and saw a blond girl trying to embrace the Naruto gingerly but the demon vessel was pushing her away.
'Naruto never told me that he had a fan club…' Anko sighed, before dropping down to check on her squad captain, perhaps asking a few questions if they had encountered the snake creep yet.
"Oi, what are you doing here?" Anko inquired with a commanding tone that made the blond girl yelp in surprise and turn to look at the examiner, squirming in fear.
"A-ano…" Ino started, but was pushed away roughly as Anko knelt down to observe her captain's condition. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead as Naruto fought the desperate urge to fall unconscious due to the pain because he still needed to know the conditions of his other teammates. He might not survive the cursed seal for all he knew. He had known that it was a trap that Orochimaru set only when the creep had bitten him, proving his identity. From what Naruto knew from Anko, the cursed seal was designed specially and the ones who had the seals were to pass through the first stage to survive.
From Naruto's point of view, he might not survive at all, since the seal was corrupting his other chakra and the chakra inside him were raging storms, unable to calm down. When he heard Anko's booming voice beyond the buzzing sound and the pounding sensation in his ears, Naruto could only predict his imminent doom.
"Naruto?" Anko asked, as if in disbelief. She turned her head and saw Sakura tending to Sasuke sporting the same cursed seal while Choji was tending to the unconscious Shikamaru. Anko had teased her squad captain at the beginning of the exam and this was the result of it. She could not believe her eyes. She thought Naruto could at least beat him! Even Naruto was stronger than her!
If Naruto could not beat that snake guy, Anko knew that she could not too. It would be suicide to go after Orochimaru then.
"Hang on, idiot. I've sent two ANBU teams coming. I wonder why you're stupid enough to get yourself in this kind of mess…"
Ino looked at the developing events and wondered if that 'Anko' who Naruto addressed as was related to the blonde. Sasuke had fallen unconscious and Sakura stood up and asked, "Ino, what do we do now?"
Ino was speechless. Sakura, the bright one, was asking her what to do?
"A-Anko… D-Don't go a-after O-Orochim-maru…" Naruto gasped between weak breaths, the pain becoming too much to bear. "Y-you will die…"
SLAP.
Naruto winced as Anko's hand came into contact with his cheek. Anko's dark eyes were filled with unshed tears as she worried for her unnamed brother, and yet he was worried that she would go off and get herself killed instead.
"Are you stupid! I won't leave you behind! You stupid idiot!"
A buttress root caught her foot and she fell clumsily. She looked back to see their pursuers already catching up with her. Anko knew it was the end. Their opponents were S-class ranked missing ninjas and yet when she had first taken on the mission with her squad mates, she thought it would be a piece of cake. Guess she was wrong.
She closed her eyes, accepting defeat. She knew it would be honorable to die in a mission and since nobody would grieve for her, she did not bother to get up.
"Stand up," a certain blonde said, standing in front of her. Anko opened her eyes as the voice took her by surprise.
"Naruto?" she was so sure that the blonde had run away with her other squad members already. She had volunteered to be the bait when the others escaped and Naruto had promised her to come back but Anko did not believe him. Who would want to risk their lives anyway? But Naruto did come back.
He was standing in front of her now.
Anko nodded and smiled, standing up. "About time you arrived, kid."
"I would never leave my comrades behind."
Anko smiled again in the turn of events as one of the nuke-nin shouted, "What! A brat going to defeat us… This is laughable!"
Their heads fell off one by one, blood spilling all over the shoulders and onto the blonde's ANBU uniform.
As a large amount of blood smacked Anko on the face, she touched the sticky wet substance and said half-jokingly, "If you leave me behind I would have killed you personally anyway."
Naruto looked up and saw teats glistening on Anko's face, feeling surprised, despite the situation. 'She's crying… for me? Why?' Damn. Surprise, surprise, that obnoxious subordinate of his was worried for him. "A-An—" the blonde started painfully but was interrupted as the two ANBU teams arrived. They proceeded to salute Naruto but he quickly shook his head to avoid any questions asked by his teammates.
"Anko-sama, we have come as you requested," one who sported a tiger mask said and Anko nodded approvingly, "Great, let's get to the tower now."
Anko laid Naruto down on the floor and he was already drenched in cold sweat, shivering as though someone had poured icy water on him. The ANBU teams and the genin teams had reached the tower in around fifteen minutes and fortunately, they did not meet any other dangerous adversaries, namely Orochimaru and his evil minions. Anko did not want to know how much pain and agony her squad leader was in as she went through Naruto's wet bangs muttering, "You'll be okay, idiot. Just hang on."
Anko stood up and turned to walk away in hurried steps, her mind only thinking of getting a brush in order to proceed with the Fuuja Houin but was immediately stopped by somebody standing right in front of her, blocking her way. Obviously, she was way too deep in her thoughts that she had not sense someone walking up to her. She looked up—
And she found herself staring at the Hokage-sama.
"Hokage-sama! You can't believe what the snake bastard did to the brat! That —" Anko started to rant about how she was going to kill her ex-sensei but was silenced by the Third's hand.
"Now, now, Anko. You don't have to go on and fill my mind with these awful thoughts," the old Sandaime chided gently, visibly amused at Anko's tirade. This showed that the harsh, prickly girl was actually very concerned about Naruto's condition. That was Anko for him. When Anko was still in the squad before Naruto was removed, she was often spotted with the demon container and was from then on dubbed as 'Demon Lover' when the villagers saw that she had willingly spent time with the 'Village Demon'. Despite the hard, cold and bitchy exterior that Anko portrayed herself as, the Sandaime knew otherwise.
It was a mask that she had built for herself over the years, after the legendary sannin, Orochimaru, had betrayed her. But the Hokage saw right through it because Anko was only protecting herself from the further damage that might be dealt to her. After the care and concern Anko had showed Naruto throughout the years, the Sandaime was convinced that Anko was far from a threat to the Kyuubi vessel.
She was more of a big sister that Naruto never had.
Speaking of Naruto… The Third's face took on a solemn and serious look.
"Anko, you cannot try to use the Fuuja Houin on Naruto," the Sandaime told Anko, as though able to read her mind. After hearing this, Anko simply stared at the Hokage, confused at the events that were folding before her. First, the snake bastard bit Naruto, then now this! How the hell is Naruto going to control that damned seal?
"But, Hokage-sama, certainly you know that—" Anko began to rave but was interrupted by the Hokage again.
"Anko," the Third scolded softly as though gently chiding a little girl who was going to open her Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. "No doubt you know of Naruto-kun's condition."
"Wha—?" Then it hit her. Of course—it had not occurred to her until the Hokage reminded her. If he had not intervened and reminded her at this point of time, Anko would have proceeded on with the evil sealing technique and killed Naruto in the process!
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama," Anko apologized for her impotence to think properly before acting. She could have killed Naruto! "I wasn't thinking straight after what that bastard did to Naruto. I just wanted to…" She trailed off, thinking of all the possibilities that could have happened to Naruto while she performed the Fuuja Houin—this was called the Evil Sealing Technique and was by far, the only thing that could hold back the power harnessed by Orochimaru's cursed seal.
"It's not your fault, Anko. I know that you're worried about him," Sandaime smiled and then his eyes narrowed. "But we need to find a way to help Naruto with that seal, and fast."
"How are we going to accomplish that?" Anko asked worriedly, biting her lower lip. Why did such misfortune fall on Naruto? That boy did not do anything at all! Even though the village treated him like crap, he still accepted the… treatment and dealt with it! Why Naruto? He did nothing wrong!
The Hokage merely gave Anko a sad smile. "I am hoping that Naruto's… tenant would do something about the cursed seal, you see. As we all know of Naruto's condition, I have no idea how we are going to carry out the Fuuja Houin process, so we will just have to see that Naruto will survive this ordeal himself."
Anko nodded grimly. She knew that no matter how bellicose and simply evil the demon lord, Kyuubi might be, the demon would do anything to prevent the death of its vessel. Since Naruto's death would ultimately lead to the demon's downfall, Anko was sure that Kyuubi would at least do… something about the cursed seal.