Chapter 37: Return

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters of Naruto.

Tsunade ran her eyes over the man who had just parried a sword thrust that had nearly skewered her, finding it hard to believe what that it was him. From the way he parried it to the way he gave a sadistic smile at his opponent, Tsunade knew that it was really him. She had really been saved by Orochimaru. She looked at his long, black hair that seemed to look like it glided with the breeze, his pale skin, and the natural grace of his movements as if he were some lord or daimyo. At his side was Jiraiya, a little rested and ready to go again. Without thinking, Tsunade took up her axe and got ready to strike and would have if not for Orochimaru putting his arm out in front of her, preventing her from moving forward. Questioningly, she looked at him and found that he was smirking at the man who was probably his natural enemy.

"Don't you want to take this bastard down," asked Tsunade as she eyed him suspiciously, wandering if this was really Orochimaru and she could see that Jiraiya was thinking the same thing. "He is practically your natural enemy, is he not?"

"Maybe, but someone else has an even deeper hatred than me," replied Orochimaru as he looked at the rooftop of a building that was surrounded by crows. "For now we might have another opponent to face."

As if on cue, Pein, the leader of the Akatsuki, stepped into view with a sword of his own, but right behind him was Uchiha Madarra, holding the strings to his puppet. Another footstep was heard behind the three and Jiraiya and Tsunade turned to see Naruto, his eyes looking like a mixture of the Kyuubi's and the Sharingan. His finger nails were like claws and the scars on his face looked more like whiskers. The ravens seemed to be getting more restless, as if they were waiting for someone to show up for the standoff and then they started to fly in a circle, one group going clockwise and the other going counter clockwise. Sanjuro was looking at the strange behavior of the ravens and then he noticed that the three sanin were smirking at him. It was something about their smiles that pissed him off to no end. That's when he started to notice that the ravens were getting closer to the ground and as if he were resurrected from the dead, the man Sanjuro had killed appeared out of the swarm of ravens. He was dressed in black, just like the last time the two had fought, black trench coat, black shirt, black leather pants and black boots to top it all off. The one thing different about the man was his sword; it was no longer the nodachi that he had used before, but a straight blade that was wide in the place where it curved to form the point. There was another man right behind him with a black sleeveless shirt and black pants. He had bandages around his mouth, a big sword, and a shit load of blood lust. Sanjuro smiled at the familiar face of Zabuza.

"So if the gang is all here then I guess we'll get things started," declared Sanjuro as he started spinning his sword by its hilt.

Anko waited for the sound ninja to cross into the area that she had rigged with explosive tags, waiting for the signal for her to begin her attack. When it did sound, she was running out there with a burst of adrenaline and threw shuriken and her special kunai at any enemy that got in the way. Most of the sound ninja were trying to get out of the large crater that had been caused by the explosion, crawling through the body parts of their comrades. Anko might have enjoyed watching them fumble through the gore with shocked expressions on her face if Kakashi didn't help her realize that it was just the pain that she experienced from never being trusted by the villagers that made her laugh. She just needed something to help her forget her pain. Her team had been given clear orders, kill anyone who stepped into their line of view, but she decided that she could leave some alive. Ibiki would tease her later, saying she had gone soft, but then again, maybe she had gone soft. It was just that little girl inside of her getting out and it was all because of him that she was able to act like herself and not try to be one of the guys.

One sound jonin had been suing the body of one of his comrades as a shield and then he disguised himself as a dead body, waiting for someone to come close. Anko wasn't fooled even though one of the jonin in her squad nearly walked into his trap. Luckily she stopped him from going any closer, but he knew that he had been discovered and used a sound jutsu to send out a certain frequency that cause Anko great pain in her ear. Using the distraction, the sound jonin closed in on her, kunai drawn and aimed at her midsection, but Anko quickly used a jutsu to block out the sound and summoned twin snakes from her coat sleeve. The enemy ninja spun around, avoiding the snakes, but he wasn't quick enough to deflect Anko's kunai and was stabbed in the chest. At first he didn't realize he had been stabbed, but as soon as the warm blood flowed down onto his hands, he knew that he would die soon and then the pain hit him. Mercifully, Anko delivered him from the pain through the coldness of death as she slid the kunai into the base of his neck and put into his skull. If she had just moved on she wouldn't have been surprised by the jonin who popped up onto her right side. He rushed her and she was just barely able to deflect his attacks, but he punched her in her side causing her to stumble forward in pain. He followed it up with one of his kicks, but she put her arms up to block it and pushed his leg back. It hurt like hell, but she was able to cause the jonin to lose his footing and she finished him off with a quick cut. The next ninja to come up wasn't much of a fighter and was taken out easily, but behind him was a swarm of enemies, so Anko decided to have her team back out. They had been ordered to harass the enemy, not make a stand against them since they were still stuck in the outermost district.

"Everyone fall back on me, we've done enough," shouted Anko over the noise of ninja dying and metal colliding. It was then that she saw the enemy commander walk out into her line of vision and she recognized him from one of the bingo books. Without a word he used a water style jutsu one the blood and sent it out in the form of a dragon. Anko jumped over it, but most of her squad wasn't so lucky and were swept of their feet. Even though Anko had dodged the attack, the S-class criminal was on top of her in a few seconds, using brute strength to knock her around a bit until she lost her footing. When she did fall back she saw the hungry look in his eyes as the criminal licked his lips and took out his kunai.

"I had heard rumors about your beauty and fighting skills," said the criminal as he bent over and pressed the kunai to her neck. "They didn't seem to describe you accurately enough, your much more than your legend and it will me such a pleasure raping you right here and now."

The man was going to say more, but he was interrupted by a hand on his neck that had a tight grip causing him to drop his kunai. He turned his head a little to see the eyes of the person who had grabbed his neck and he could see that one eye was a sharingan and his attacker had white silver hair that seemed to puff out into a spike. He knew who the ninja was and he knew that he was screwed already, because no one ever escaped Hatake Kakashi when he had them fully vulnerable. Around him were his his men getting slaughtered by murderous sand and a man with long black hair and a sword. The world seemed to spin around him and he felt his mind go blank.

"I hope you know what you mut do," asked the blue haired woman. Kurenai didn't knwo if she should trust her, but she knew that she would finally be helping Sanjuro escape from his madness.

"Yes and I knwo just the jutsu to use," replied Kurenai determined to use what Anko had told her about once. "I will kill Sanjuro-kun and myself along with him. I must atone for what I have done."