Future Plans

A/N: Beta'd by KishinoKurobi!

Chapter 26: Fourth Bite

XXX

There's nothing worse than being handicapped when the moment comes for you to leap into action. It's a corroding feeling, watching as others fight for you while you're stuck physically incapable of lending a hand or, in my case, even a voice. All of this was my fault, all of it, every single thing from two months ago to whatever transpired in the future.

From the moment I accepted Orochimaru's offer and sunk so far as to fight my best…my best….

I can't do it. Calling him my 'best friend' is an honorific term I haven't earned the right to say yet, even if he, for reasons beyond my understanding, feels that's what we were. Or are. But that's so like Naruto, to forgive...to see the 'better' in someone when everyone else is screaming for their condemnation.

Fool.

And I call him that genially now, whereas before I'd have said that with about as much malice as I could force into a four-letter word.

I never believed much in the concept of second chances in life, getting a pass to do some botched up event over again in hopes of achieving a better score or ranking. As far as my upbringing had taught me, life wasn't a school test. What you did stuck, and had consequences of a varying degree based on your actions; an ends to a means, cause and effect.

The cause? Me foolishly deciding to let my thirst for revenge overflow. The effect? Standing here in the Forbidden Forest, an abysmal patch of wilderness that was virtually ruled by Konoha's own Anko Mitarashi, the very woman who now had her arms wrapped around Naruto's neck as she mulled over the notion of giving those who would want to bring me back some much needed training.

A very large part of me was actually hoping she'd refuse. And then possibly laugh in their faces about it. Bringing back the dead was just inherently taboo—it wasn't exactly something that needed to be taught or explained in-depth why it was a criminal thing to consider. And to even attempt to reverse the set flow of life, well…that's how you got such morally upstanding shinobi like Orochimaru running around with forked tongues and seemingly boneless limbs.

Ha.

There was a little inkling, that slight possibility that this endeavor of theirs would take them down paths better left untraveled. There were only three outcomes to this: they revived me, they succumbed to the task and perished, or they obtained whatever power that was necessary and thirsted for more of it—and none of those options entirely pleased me, to be honest. Obviously the loss of life option was pressing, but then again, losing ones self to such a corrupted evil…well, that's how you get shinobi like me. And I didn't want to chance any of them going through what I did.

But still, I stood silent, as silent as the others in wait of Anko's answer. If fate loved me, she'd say no. If fate despised me, she'd say—

XXX

There was nothing Anko's keen gaze didn't pick up as she scanned the gathered genin before her, and the one rooster-haired chunin. Thrice her eyes flitted over the spiritual form of Sasuke; he stood stock still, a set of tremors rolling through his bright, pellucid body. Ever since willingly sacrificing himself during that duel with Naruto in some misguided form of repentance, she'd kept tabs on that spectral blob of wasted vengeance, noticing a distinct change in his usual behavior.

To that, she had to give him some modicum of recognition. If death wasn't enough to cause one to reevaluate their life to figure out just where they completely fucked up at, nothing was. And as tough a lesson as it was, the Uchiha seemed to be learning it well enough.

Well enough to earn a second chance? Hell no. That idea was still laughable and forever would be. Death was death for a reason.

Well enough to spend some time training this ragtag group of wannabe shinobi that wished to find her sensei? Now that… was interesting. Even if at the end of this manhunt there were some child-sized coffins to be filled, if it meant she got the chance to settle things with her dear old mentor…

There was no denying their conviction, at least. However foolhardy, they did deem this task worthy enough to risk their lives against the infamous 'snake bitch'; that alone spoke volumes of their drive. They were either really determined, or outrageously stupid.

I suppose we'll find out, she mused, then, "From what I heard of the failed little mission to retrieve the Uchiha, it was a squad of five, yes?" She began to lean over Naruto, using the top of his head as a chin rest. When no one directly answered, she lifted a hand in Shikamaru's direction. "You were the team leader, right?"

Everyone turned to Shikamaru who stood there, chest heaving as he struggled to his catch his breath. If there was one thing about the Nara boy that Anko had learned from their earlier session, it was that his ability to form judicious plans was no mere gossip amongst the Jonin and extended to in the moment as well. Granted, those strategies weren't as well polished or as effective as one of the more thought-out ones, but still, he was clearly head and shoulders above most full-grown Chunin she knew, hell, some Jonin as well.

His lips parted. "Yeah, I was team leader." The admittance came bitterly and his eyes tightened.

"Don't sound so castrated over it, boy," Anko scolded, her hips beginning to wiggle side to side as she once again met eyes ever so briefly with Sasuke who jumped. She loved doing that, making him tense with the prospect of being seen. "You led your team to the best of your abilities, annnnd against Orochimaru's shit-tastic elite no less. Everything that happened was pretty much expected. To this day I still think Tsunade-dono must've been gone off her sake stash to send genin on such a perilous mission—"

A subtle noise struck Anko in the ear and she blinked, casting a glance about for the origin. When her eyes fell upon Crowa, she saw that the orange-haired hybrid was uttering the lowest of growls, his mouth pulled back in a tight rictus.

"I'm sorry, do you have something to say, hybrid-kun?" she wondered with a smile so polite her eyes closed.

"He doesn't," said Kiba immediately.

"He's just clearing his throat," Choji chimed in, waving a hand.

"No I'm not, don't speak for me," Crowa got out with a snarl, sounding as though seconds away from diving at the snake mistress. "I don't care if we are seeking you out for help…you will not speak of my Queen in such a way. She did nothing wrong here, she acted—"

"—like a commander fresh out of the academy. Yes, I know this. I saw the insurmountable obstacle she presented Shikamaru and his squad, one that led to an unjust mission failure. It'd behoove you, hybrid-kun, to not place your superiors on such a high pedestal; it makes you woefully blind to when they fuck up. And Tsunade-dono did indeed fuck up, she'll tell you this herself. Now," she began, speaking over Crowa when he showed every sign of arguing, "who was part of the original group? This…Sasuke Revival Team?"

"Anko-sama, you can't be serious," said Tenten, lifting a hand like a question had been asked. "You're not actually going to—"

"The spice of life is tantamount to not knowing what's going to happen," Anko responded blithely, arching her back like a feline in mid-stretch. Idly twirling a finger through Naruto's blonde locks she motioned with her other hand, "The ones who were part of the SRT, step forward. I need a little refresher…."

She watched as four bodies began to move towards her, their gait rigid, clearly not letting their guard down for any reason. Smart. When only Shikamaru, the Inuzuka pup, Neji, and the chubby one with swirls on his cheeks stepped forward, each of them standing nearly shoulder to shoulder, Anko blinked. Four…but weren't there f—

Her comfortable perch suddenly shifted underneath her and she had to withhold a giggle when Naruto staggered towards his comrades and turned to face her, taking the preconceived spot before all of them as the leader despite Shikamaru primarily being squad commander.

She put a finger to her lips. "Ah, yes….That's right. And just where do you think you're going, hybrid-kun?"

In the process of joining the other members, Crowa froze mid-step, the sudden pause causing his wound to splurge a fresh line of blood. "I'm part of the SRT, too," he told her staidly.

"Not according to the mission statement you're not. It's a tad hard to be a part of something you weren't even legally allowed to participate in when it happened," Anko responded and there was a cruel sense of pleasure to be had when the hybrid gave an anxious twitch. She could feel the almost burning desire within him to lash out at her, to give in that beastial side and toss all sense of civility to the wind.

Will you go beast-mode, hybrid-kun…or will you yield to my word?

She watched as his jaw snapped open, fangs glinting with blood…but then he abruptly closed his mouth and sank into a bow of sorts, as much as his wounds would allow at any rate.

He sighed, no doubt expelling all of the smart-ass quips Anko felt sure he had in stock. "I…have methods of my own. Special methods that can…I can help, Anko-sama…probably in ways no one else can…."

Anko knew she could be a sadistic woman of torturous wiles at the worst of times, which really wasn't all that different from her natural, everyday demeanor, but the sight of someone metaphorically castrating themselves before her, even if that someone happened to be a teenage boy with fox extremities, was always a welcome sight and she smirked.

"Just let him join already!" Naruto suddenly shouted and with her keen vision, Anko watched as Sasuke came drifting up to the blondes side, one fist raised with every intention of striking him, even if they both knew it wouldn't have any effect whatsoever.

"I agree!" Rock Lee said, throwing his hand into the air with a rigid stance. "I barely know what's going on but to leave Crowa out of this would be like a slap in the face!"

The feel of being soaked in so much sweat had previously rendered Ino quite mute with mortification that everyone had front-row access to her person when she was less than 'glamorous', but now she turned to Lee with an eyebrow quirked. "It's been kind of a slap in the face to all of us with other members of our cell going off without warning!" she said, her voice rising with renewed anger upon remembering just how she came to be here in the first place.

"Indeed," said Shino. "The excuses, the sneaking away, the absences…I can't say I don't feel somewhat left behind in all of this, a side player one might say," and even through his shades, Kiba felt the full blazing wrath of those merciless black pupils as they drilled into him. "But, as cellmates, I know my own feelings of unimportance are wrongly placed, right? Because there are no secrets between us. Right?"

Anko would have laughed at the little bug-nin's words but didn't want to draw any attention to herself. In-group arguments are better than being handcuffed to the bed, she thought giddily, wishing she had some popcorn. When Lee opened his excitable mouth again, Anko tensed her sides instinctively, not wanting to bust out in a fit of giggles when he said whatever predictably nonsensical thing was sure to come.

"I remember not being able to go after Sasuke because of my leg, not being able to help from the very start; I came in late…but…after the original members of the group sent to get back Sasuke, it should be Crowa in this as well! He's here from another village to replace the very one they're trying to get back—in his position, I'd want to be apart of that, too, find out exactly what kind of shoes I was put into." He pointed a finger at the five progenitors of recovering Sasuke. "I came here kind of upset. I thought my partner had run off to do some super secret quest or that he'd found out a way to forever maintain his passionate flame of youth and sought to keep it for himself! But now I see…you guys are just tying up loose ends, finishing a mission."

When Lee finished speaking he immediately hunched over, grunting as he massaged the spot on his shin where he'd been bit, completely oblivious to how everyone stared at him, some with disbelief, others with astonishment.

It was Anko who broke the silence when she threw her head back and started laughing almost manically.

Past her, Shikamaru jerked a shoulder, a bead of sweat tracing its way down his temple. "Pretty much that in a nutshell," he began when Anko had managed to quell herself down to mere giggles behind her hand, "and also…there's this pact we all made…."

Anko's piercing gaze fell upon him and she watched as he tensed in spot, struggling not to display a hint of fear for her to prey on but it didn't matter; she could smell it on him, on all of them.

"Pact? What pact…?"

"That's what I'd like to know, actually," Ino dinged in, forgetting her immediate hesitation as she stepped up to Shikamaru's side, hands on her hips as she stared at him. "What pact are you talking about?"

The look that fell over Shikamaru's face suggested he'd just eaten some sour ramen, like he regretted ever speaking. "Yes, a pact. I wasn't too sure about the seriousness of our intentions, about who really wanted to go the extra mile to see this through to the end so…." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards his discarded chunin's vest. "Naruto, Kiba, Chouji, Neji, Crowa, and myself all signed a binding contract, with our blood. It was accepted. Our lives are on the line here, Anko-san. If any one of us fails to complete this, we all die."

Even Anko, trained and aloof as she was, couldn't keep the shock from her face. She actually forgot how to breathe in the few moments following the Nara's words. She would have thought it an outright lie to sway her were it not for the pure looks of horror that surfaced over everyone else, even Shino.

And all at once, the stuffy forest air was ablaze with alarmed voices.

"You did WHAT?"

"Shikamaru Nara of the Nara clan, what in the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Naruto-kun, I—why would you do such a thing?!"

"Interesting…."

"IS THIS HOW PASSIONATELY YOUR FLAMES BURN?"

"You guys can't be serious! Sasuke was a great loss, yes, but he's not worth all of your lives combined!"

Throughout all the screams, the outraged yells and eyes glistening with indignation, Anko noticed that besides Shikamaru, the others of the SRT, including Crowa, were regarding the Nara with a whole new level of surprise, one that caused more than a few dropped jaws. It couldn't have been any more obvious that even they weren't expecting him to reveal their teams sub rosa.

She lifted a hand.

Silence fell almost immediately. Shikamaru issued a sigh of relief as he dug into his ringing ear with a pinkie.

"Dude," Naruto spoke, utterly baffled, "did you really just do that?"

Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a spare hairband, Neji began the process of reclaiming his loose locks into its manageable ponytail, though his opaque orbs were glued to Shikamaru. "I, too, am quite surprised, Nara. I would have pegged Naruto to do such a thing first…."

Shikamaru hunched a shoulder, stubbornly ignoring Crowa who seemed the most stunned by this revelation. "We don't really have much time to bullshit around here, do we? This needs to get down and get down fast, before other forces of nature try to throw us off track. Dying is a troublesome affair and I've no intentions of losing my life," he stated matter-of-factly.

The look blaring from Ino's eyes could have melted steel; her face was red with restraint and her entire form shook. It was only second to how Hinata glared at Naruto from across the field; her clear, pupil-less eyes were watery, yet her face remained fiercely calm, the kind that was only the beginning of a greater hell.

"Crowa," said Anko, motioning with her hand, "stand next to Choji."

Without a word to it, Crowa staggered into place, struggling to stand as upright as possible. "You called me by my name…Choji, too," he noticed through his pants.

"Call it a kindness. As the six of you will more than likely perish on this road of redemption, or whatever you wish to call it, it would be a shame to remember the dead as 'the six dumbasses who failed', don't you think?"

"We're not going to die!" Naruto argued, though his tone remained controlled, respectful. "We're going to do this, and succeed. One way or another, Anko-dono, but we'd like your help."

And every pair of eyes fell upon the mistress of the forest. She brought a hand to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut before they fluttered open again and that dominating smirk upturned her lips.

"You want me to help push you lot into an early grave, is basically what you're asking me to do. You're asking me, a respectable shinobi of the hidden leaf"—there were several snorts but she continued as though hearing nothing—"to give some of our brightest and finest upstarts the skills only the truly cursed should ever know for the sake of reviving someone who by all rights should be rotting in hell for his deeds?"

She saw Sasuke flinch almost painfully and delighted in it, pausing to lick at her lips while the others frowned.

"Did you even bother to stop and consider my fate in your mad little plans? Do you have the slightest bit of concern for the dreaded consequences I'll face for even allowing this decision to weigh in my mind?" she asked them all, forming a gun with her fingers and placing the 'muzzle' to the side of her head. "I may as well put on a blindfold and wait to be executed."

For a moment, she saw a flicker of regret sink into some of their faces. The air hang thick with the stench of second-guessing and unease…until Neji, finally snapping his hair back into a proper ponytail, began to chuckle.

"Anko-sama, I'm surprised you can stand there with a straight face and act like the thought of bringing such strife and trouble by your own hands would be in any way undesirable to you," he said.

It was like that time when Naruto dispelled all doubt during the first hurdle of Chunin exam, when he called Ibiki out on his mindgames and settled the nerves of all still present. The exact same effect fell into place and upon watching their faces morph from remorse into determination, Anko giggled.

"Yes, my little Hyuuga, you have me dead to rights. And it's precisely that reason, and that reason alone, that I will assist you."

An almost tangible wave of relief flooded over the six gathered and shoulders began to sag.

Naruto suddenly gagged when Sakura gripped him by the neck of his shirt and snatched him back, nearly off his feet. "You didn't tell me you basically handed your life over to the success of this, Naruto!"

"It d—guh! Sakura, watch that grip, geez! And it d-didn't involve you so w-why would I have?" he responded, clutching at his shirt.

"It doesn't invol—of course it does! I want to help! We all do!" she exclaimed, extending a hand towards the others gathered. "That's why we're here!"

"Speak for yourself, Sakura," Tenten interrupted and she pulled at the neck of her Chinese top, no doubt trying to find some form of fresh air. "I didn't come here to help in some hairbrained plan to bring back Sasuke—he died, didn't he? Okay, case closed where I'm concerned. I came to see what my teammate was doing, whether he was in trouble. And he's…not," she finished with an almost disappointed sigh. "Surprisingly, he seems to be wrapped up in this plan to revive the dead, and, dang it…it's not like I can sit by and let my partner go off by himself, now can I?"

"Trust me, Tenten, you are not by any stretch of the imagination the first to think we've lost our minds." Neji half chuckled, half sighed. "But Naruto has a way with words and I, more or less, trust his judgment on the matter." He twitched like he had a tick and Naruto laughed, massaging his throat when Sakura released him.

"Still not used to sayin' that, eh Neji?"

"I fear I never will be, Uzumaki."

"So…how can we help as well?" There was a surprising amount of composure in Hinata's tone despite the almost painful rage thrashing around within her. She wanted to do so many destructive things at the moment that her left hand was in a state of twitches. "I can understand not joining the original five, or six, rather, but this still concerns a friend of ours. What can we do?"

"You'll more than likely spend time on your perky little derriere and watch as I put these six nice hunks of meat through the grinder," Anko responded, and she spread her legs shoulder-width apart, placing her hands firmly over her hips.

"But before all of the chaos begins, let me make two things wholly clear. Well, three things." She cleared her throat then razed them with gaze alone, her eyes narrowed into slits. "First, by the time this is all finished there will be some graves to fill, whether with your bodies or the enemies, I cannot say, so it would behoove you greatly to not tiptoe around my teachings or you'll shortchange yourself into the dirt. This is a fact, not a statement.

"Second, the previous little session we had was just preamble to see how you measure up, and I'm pleased to say you've some smidgen of talent residing within your malnourished and overly nourished bodies. Not a one of you managed to touch me, which is a shame. Because of this, we're going to do it again with just the 'chosen six', and this time, I will be striking to kill so if you don't want to get gutted and left to bleed out in this forest one of you had better nut up and hit me.

"And lastly," she continued, watching as varying levels of apprehension dawned over their faces, "if by some grace you do strike me, I refuse to send 'genin' off to their deaths. You will pass the Chunin exams before anything life-threateningly serious takes pla—"

"That's such bullshit!" Naruto bellowed, the red of his face almost like a volcano erupting. "That's…that's—fuck, Neji, how many months away is that?" he called, whirling around to the Hyuuga.

"Four months, Uzumaki. Four…very long…months."

Naruto looked as though someone had performed the '1,000 Years of Death' jutsu on him. "No. Way. No way!"

"I'm with Naruto," Kiba said, scoffing his foot on the ground. "That's a bum wrap, Anko-san, what's the point of training us if the serious stuff won't come until months later? What if we miss our window of opportunity to bring Sasuke back screwing around h—"

"You're implying there exists a window of opportunity to benefit from," Anko interrupted. "Let me put your mind at ease there: there isn't one. There's no window, there's no door; where we're starting off, there's virtually nothing," she explained grimly and she noticed that the canine companion of the Inuzuka was nowhere to be seen. Odd, yet she didn't make mention, already quite sure it was part of some sneak attack for the near future.

She bent over and reached down the length of her shin guard, pulling out a kunai colored a poisonous looking purple.

"Feel privileged. This is a weapon I've been saving for exclusive use against my former sensei. Formatted to work against his unique brand of hellish flesh, against yours…you can expect a very slow, very painful death. If you know what a brown recluse spider bite does then multiple it by ten and you have what this little invention of mine can do. Now, you have five minutes. Prepare yourselves."

XXX

Her tone left no room for jokes or even a hint of levity and already Naruto could tell she was counting down in her head, prepared to strike whether they were geared up or not.

He felt something tap him on the shoulder and nearly yelped. He was concentrated on the woman before him, but glanced over to see Crowa signaling for the others to crowd around him.

When they had, the hybrid fixed them all with a bleary, out-of-focus stare. "We're not going to win this," he stated, "and I'm not trying to be all doom-and-gloom here, but we really aren't."

Shikamaru placed a hand to his neck, squeezing it to work out a kink as he stared back at Anko. She stood there with one hand on her hip, the other carelessly twirling that diseased looking kunai. He nearly vomited, the look on his face blasé despite his mounting fear. "You'd think me and troublesome had some sort of abusive relationship…but you're right. I assume you called this gathering for a contingency plan…?"

Crowa nodded, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "I…firstly, thank you, Shikamaru, for earlier. She might not have let me join if you hadn't lied about—"

"The way I see it," said Shikamaru, "I didn't lie in the slightest. Regardless of the pact, we're all technically risking our lives; the jutsu only made it so we couldn't back out. Now, your plan…?"

"One where we get to keep our skin looking as is would be highly appreciated," added Choji with a weak smirk.

Crowa blinked. "Hopefully it will. Everyone give me your hands. There's no time to explain this so you're just going to have to trust me."

"Done," said Naruto and in unison, he, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba offered up a hand, one on top of the other, and Crowa enclosed them within his own.

There was no warning for what happened next and because of that Naruto almost lost feeling in his legs when he felt something ethereal crash into him with all the force of a tidal wave, all of it emanating from their joined hands. It was chakra, that much was obvious—but in such concentrated bursts, and so much….

Where in the hell is it coming from? Naruto grunted slightly, wincing as he felt nodes all over his body forcing themselves open with a prickling sensation, the surge of chakra growing no less weak even as the seconds wore on. There was an audible 'hiss' rising into the air like steam escaping and a quick look around saw most of their wounds were healing themselves in a way that reminded Naruto of what the fox did for him; even the gash in Crowa's side was stitching itself closed as though with invisible needles.

Giving a final grasp, Crowa dropped their hands and with his release came a fierce gust of wind that whipped through their sweat-soaked clothes and washed over their mended wounds. Only the stench of blood remained as Naruto took a step back, hands lifted experimentally as he gawked at the layer of pulsing red chakra outlining his fingers, his forearms, his entire body.

"What in the world is this…?" Choji asked and Naruto turned to see a wispy thin coating of sapphire blue chakra covering him in the same way. "I…no really, what is this? Chakra? Can't be….It feels so warm…."

"It's your passionate flames of youth!" Rock Lee yelled from the sidelines, thrusting a fist in the air as he stared transfixed at the visible waves of purple chakra that flowed from Neji. "YOSH!"

"No, not 'yosh'," Neji said stringently, his eyes zipping from one member of the group to the next, noting Kiba's pitch-black chakra and Shikamaru's emerald chakra expulsion. "This isn't normal by any stretch, we're losing too much chakra at an alarming rate…."

"Whoa, whoa, wait—people can die due to chakra exhaustion!" There was a quivering note of fear in Kiba's tone and he patted his chest as though trying to subdue the roaring flame-like chakra covering him. "How do we shut this off?"

Brandishing his own layer of pure white chakra, Crowa turned to face Anko, taking some small measure of enjoyment at seeing her twice baffled. "There's no need to worry for your life, I only helped unlock what was inside you from birth and buried under an enthroned perception of chakra control. As I previously stated, it'd take a long time to explain so we'll save that until after we get this over with."

At his word, the others calmed themselves, instinctively drawing in a lungful of air that they held before releasing, allowing this newfound vigor to further perforate every inch of their being. Naruto felt muscles he didn't even know existed bloom to life in the most pleasurable way now that his chakra system was used to the sudden influx; he sank his toes into the earth, never before appreciating the cooling dirt they always trod on until now.

"This feels…freakin' awesome," he said with a cozy grin and the sentiment was shared with the others when they nodded, Kiba slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.

"Anko's going down," he growled, and Naruto could only guess the confidence that came with this chasm of chakra was cause enough to drop the honorific.

There came a noise like a wind chime going off and a white collar appeared around Crowa's neck, a crimson lock swinging merrily from the latch. He ignored it, beginning to smirk himself. "I think it's time we got serious."

Sasuke sighed, slowly back-stepping off to the side and taking a spot next to Ino who remained completely oblivious to his presence. "Oh boy…."

XXX