Agent's Spiel: Fourth one in the series. I'm gonna be bratty for a moment and admit that I'm kind of sick of hearing (3 interludes in) that people would still rather read a 'real' chapter. These are 'real' chapters. They aren't 'Snakes II' but they are a part of that chapter and are meant to clear up a few things, and make a few others even more confusing (yes I am a bit of a mean writer when it comes to not spelling things out). It's just a little annoying to keep hearing that when I wrote on the blog for the very first interlude that there would be several of these and yet people seemed really surprised in their reviews that I was spending time on multiple ones.

I would really like to write the 'proper' chapter but my brain isn't allowing it at the moment while it is allowing me to work on these. I'd rather get something relevant done than nothing at all.

Who knows, maybe I'll just skip actually writing this from Team 7's point of view and jump straight to the Prelims…nah, I'm not that cruel…or am I?

Oh! And I edited a mistake out of last chapter. Evil Genus told me I had put 'woman from Kirigakure' instead of Kumogakure. It's fixed now, sorry if anyone got confused.

Naruto will be using alternate means of communication:

Single quotation marks '' will be used to represent sign language and other forms of communication (Amarante Code begins to be used in this chapter). I'll denote which is being used but you'll probably pick it up quickly on your own.

Back slashes / will denote Naruto writing what he is saying.

Italics mean you are reading the characters thoughts; congratulations on becoming telepathic. Of course it generally only applies to Sakura and Kakashi so I'm not necessarily sure telepathy is good thing around those two.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Snakes: Interlude

Anko woke up with the sun early the next morning. Her back was killing her, an obvious punishment for sitting in a poorly chosen spot on a tree branch. She gingerly rolled her shoulders and hopped off the branch hoping that she would be able to sneak away long enough to get something to eat and chase down Kakashi – she really wanted to know how he had managed to keep Ibiki off her back.

Her morning got worse when she found a team of ANBU waiting for her near the small stand that had been erected the day before.

"We need you to come take a look at something," their captain said motioning for her to head away from the forest.

Anko remained where she was standing and crossed her arms indignantly. "I was told to stay here."

"This is an emergency. Ibiki needs your advice," the man stated.

"Like I'd believe that," she snorted. "If he's still pissed off at me and wants to see me then he has to come here."

"This isn't about whatever you and Hatake did to piss him off yesterday. We found bodies within our borders and he wants you to look them over, something about snake bites."

"Is that an accusation?" Anko asked angrily.

"No. You're accounted for already. He still wants you to come look at these."

"Please Anko!" another ANBU on the team spoke up before Anko could retort. The woman took off her mask to look Anko in the eye. "Whatever pissing contest is going on between you, Kakashi, and Morino-san needs to stop for a few hours. Just come look at this."

"Wait…pissing contest? I haven't seen Ibiki since yesterday afternoon. Did Kakashi do something that I missed?"

"Are you going to come with us willingly or do I need to drag you there?" the captain asked ignoring the grin that had spread onto Anko's face. He couldn't understand why Konoha had so many crazy shinobi.

"Fine, fine. But if I get yelled at for leaving my post I'm sending the Hokage straight to you," Anko said, relenting and following the man off the field. "And if Ibiki uses this to yell at me, I'm getting Kakashi and we'll handle it ourselves," she added, grinning at the man's back. She grinned wider when he noticeably stiffened in response, sometimes it was worth it to be scary.

Agent's Spiel: Thanks for all the reviews last time. I compiled a list of all the recommended webcomics that you guys sent me so that other readers can check them out. It's on the blog. So are the notes for this chapter (Ocotober'09 'Juniper – Interlude 4).

This interlude is mostly unedited. I'll get back to it soon but I wanted to post something so that people knew I wasn't dead.

Reviews:

Volunteer Blueberry, Tim, Kage Husha, jazzy2may, The Statue, therhoda, someone179, DarkRavie, November 5th, Sandy11-1990, show me the stars, evil genus, phoenix1023, PS, Rangerfan58, GreyGryph, NaylorFan90, InARealPickle, Lita of Jupiter, Novus Ars, Nikari87, Azamiko, AnimeOtaku31821, fionfee, Lady Mazikeen, JoriWinter, Takun18, serbii, nantukoprime, Kick-Aft, Veritas in Sanguine, Suki1, 53r4phim act-alike, dragondancer711, Khellan Rafe,

There are more of you, I think, but I haven't consistently checked my email over the past few weeks so for those of you I missed, I'll include you next time. And if I haven't gotten back to you, I'll probably get back to you soon.