"All right then. In that case, let's just get right down to it. I'm Sakon and I'm probably the last opponent you'll ever face. And you are?"—Sakon

The Cursed Brothers/Missing in Action

I turned my head fully to meet the eyes of my stalker while I continued bracing the tree next to me with my hand for support. Upon regarding his dark figure, which was not much greater or taller than mine, I frowned in disapproval. Only seconds ago, I could have sworn I sensed the presence of two different Shinobi. But now, only one stood before me. Was there another lurking nearby?

The boy's shaggy silver hair glimmered under the dim light of the moon that shone down through the trees, and his lips curled into the widest, dirtiest smirk I had ever seen.

"I hear you caused some trouble for Sasuke Uchiha back there," he said in an arrogant tone. He couldn't possibly have been more than fourteen or fifteen years old, and yet he regarded me with his nose up, as if I was somehow inferior to him.

I felt the tension in the air spike as I replied, "Maybe I did. What's your affiliation to him?"

The boy brushed some hair out of his eyes. "None at all. I'm just following orders."

"Orochimaru," I said, practically feeling the hostility rolling off my tongue as I uttered that snake's name.

The boy seemed to notice it too and he tilted his head. "Yes… Lord Orochimaru is the one I serve. And I can't have you slowing down the others, you see."

"Others?" I asked curiously. "And just how many of you are there?"

The boy released a low hum from his lips. "Well, now, where's the fun in telling you that?"

I snorted. "Don't screw with me, kid. I don't have that kind of patience."

"All right then. In that case, let's just get right down to it. I'm Sakon and I'm probably the last opponent you'll ever face. And you are?"

I glared at him in annoyance, noting his cocky attitude. Kids.

Because he didn't offer me his last name, I felt no obligation to offer mine and simply told him, "Kanata."

As the final syllable rolled off my tongue, the boy's eyes widened. I watched him warily during the few seconds that he wore a dumbstruck expression, until it gradually faded into an easy, closed-lipped smile. "Kanata, eh? Well, what do you know? Maybe I've stumbled upon a little bit of a challenge, after all."

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh? What makes you think so?"

In a flash, Sakon disappeared from my view. His frightening speed was enough to stimulate my defensive instincts, and I made a 360 degree turn to where he now stood, only a few inches away from me. I stepped back to put as much distance between us as I could, holding my hand out and planting my feet on the ground in readiness to fight. But he only sneered.

"I've heard about you, Kanata of the Leaf Village," he said. "You were one of the first ones to survive Lord Orochimaru's curse mark, right?"

The caustic remark slipped out before I could process that I had spoken. "So you've heard of me; I'm flattered."

Something that resembled laughter escaped Sakon's voice, and he replied, "Lord Orochimaru may have mentioned your name once or twice. I never did expect to meet you myself, though." I resisted the desire to recoil in disgust when he licked his lips. Something about him reminded me of a young version of Orochimaru, to an unsettling extent. The way his body moved and the soft, sadistic look in his eyes had my spine tingling. Not that I would ever let him know it. No way in hell would I allow myself to be intimidated. My fear of Orochimaru couldn't control me this time.

"This should be an interesting fight," Sakon concluded, his silver hair falling back over his face and hiding one of his eyes.

I bit my lip. Damn. If this kid had any kind of strength, which, being under Orochimaru's orders, I assumed he did, I was essentially done for. Surely, I had enough chakra for a fight, but my movement was still restricted by the bruising and my critical thinking skills were compromised due to my head injury. I was not well enough for a full scale battle with an enemy, especially out here in the wilderness where I was without resources or the potential for assistance.

I never should have tried to follow Sasuke. I should have gone to Tsunade the second that he got away from me. But in the spur of the moment, I just acted. Now I was going to pay for it. This was precisely why I needed a team.

Sakon moved with impressive speed, appearing in front of me within a fraction of a second. As soon as he extended his arm, preparing to strike the edge of my nose with his palm, I pivoted to my right and narrowly avoided him. Tilting back, I flipped myself over, hoping to catch his chin with my foot along the way. But my sloppy attempt at an attack failed when Sakon wrapped his fingers around my ankle. The air left my lungs as he made a swift spin and flung me away from him.

Luckily, I barely missed a tree and just skidded across the dirt to a stop. But the impact jarred my body and I winced from dizziness and pain as I stood on my feet.

Sakon smirked. "Hm. Your reflexes are nothing to write home about, I see. I hope you have something up your sleeve that's going to impress me."

There was nothing I had to say to Sakon in that moment that wouldn't have sounded like a nasty threat. Without a single word I dropped my arm to my side and summoned a frozen blade into my hand. I flung the weapon precisely at his face, knowing that the likelihood of it reaching him was dismal but imagining it in my head all the same. But to my surprise, Sakon didn't dodge the blade, and instead reached out and caught it in his hand before it struck him. There was about a split second of silence before Sakon hissed in pain and let the blade drop to the ground.

As the chakra dissipated and the blade melted into the ground, Sakon's hand trembled mildly from the cold that had seeped through his fingertips. He shifted his position so that the afflicted side of his body faced away from me.

"Well, that's something I haven't seen," he said quietly.

"So glad I could meet your approval," I murmured under my lips, before creating another frozen blade, this time one long enough to be a sword, and lunging at the young boy. This time, he dodged my attack, careful not to touch the edge of the blade.

I knew it would be difficult to catch him with my blade now that he was aware that it could cause him damage, but I could still use it to keep him on his toes. He didn't know the full extent of my abilities yet, despite the fact that Orochimaru had apparently told him about my existence at one point.

He was an expert at evading, and what I needed was an opening. But I felt as though I had an extra twenty pounds weighing me down and chasing him around seemed fruitless. And watching that arrogant smile on his face was starting to tick me off. Sakon continually jumped out of my range, until he used his superior speed to disappear from my view. Fortunately I had been expecting such a maneuver and I sensed him behind me. Jerking my arm back violently, I elbowed him in the ribs, forcing him back and taking advantage of the situation by whirling around to run him through with my blade.

But my forearm was brought to an abrupt stop by an arm that belonged to Sakon.

Or an arm I originally thought belonged to Sakon, until I realized that the arm was coming out of his chest instead of his shoulder socket.

I dropped the blade in horror and retreated several steps. "What the hell?"

I watched as the arm coming out of Sakon's chest curled into a fist and slowly receded back into his body. Sakon smiled, and then let out a chuckle of amusement at my obvious distress.

My skin began to crawl as I witnessed a sight that I never would have thought possible: a second, identical head growing out of the side of Sakon's neck. All I could do was stare in awe and terror as the second set of eyes glared over at Sakon.

"You really should watch yourself more closely, Sakon," he said calmly.

"Sorry about that," Sakon said. "She reacted more quickly than I anticipated."

"We're not taking any chances," the strange new head responded darkly. "I'll help you with this one."

Sakon turned his attention to me and smirked. "I think she's getting upset that we're leaving her out of the conversation." When I granted him with an icy stare, he continued, "Kanata, I'd like you to meet my older brother Ukon."

I sucked in a breath. His… BROTHER…?

In that moment I realized why I must have sensed more than one presence before Sakon appeared. It was because Sakon wasn't the only one here with me. This other boy, Ukon, was here as well. But for whatever reason, they were fused together.

That is the creepiest thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

And I had seen some creepy stuff.

"Sakon," Ukon said sharply. "Let's just finish this, all right? We can't risk playing around when we have to catch up with the rest of the group."

Well, if the outcome of this fight hadn't looked bleak enough from the very beginning…

I clenched my teeth as I saw fiery red markings making their way up the boys' body. The power of Orochimaru's curse mark, when activated, could hardly be matched. And my own curse mark hadn't been active in years. Not that I would have called on it for help in the first place, but I wasn't fool enough to deny the fact that it would have given me the strength for this fight that I didn't otherwise possess. All I had now was low-level Ninjutsu, Subzero, and the power of my brain. And I wasn't even quite sure I could count on that.

The effects of the curse mark on Sakon and Ukon were unsettling; the transformation altered the structure of their body, elongating their faces and turning their skin a dark shade of red. Their hair grew past their shoulders and became lighter, almost a pale white color. Horns grew out of the sides of their heads; they no longer appeared to be human beings, but instead monsters that children would banish from their rooms at night by flipping the light switch.

I had no such light switch.

Once their transformation was complete, Sakon and Ukon charged me, their steps quick without leaving much room for strategy. During the time it took for them to reach me, I frantically contemplated my move, knowing I had no water to use in order to create a barrier. I could easily make my own water out of my chakra, but that was only a technique I could use sparingly since it was so physically demanding.

But based on the situation, I guessed I had little choice in the matter.

"Ice Release: Barrier!"

I dropped to the ground and smacked my palm to the earth, creating the necessary about of water and freezing it as soon as it escaped my fingertips. A wall of ice shot up from the ground, in between me and my enemies, but I knew it was only a temporary solution.

Very temporary.

I only had about a fraction of a second to bound out of the way before the strength of Sakon's kick shattered the barrier to pieces.

But I took the small window of opportunity I had and performed the hand signs for Ice Crystal Deluge, letting shards of ice rain down on the brothers.

The problem with Ice Crystal Deluge was that it only had one focus, and once I set it off, I couldn't effectively control it. But it could sometimes come in handy when I was facing off against a new enemy and needed a way to catch them by surprise. That was the advantage to having ice release in my arsenal. It was so rare that many people didn't even know it existed. I was taking my chances with them, not knowing how much they knew already from Orochimaru. But based on Sakon's reaction when I first attacked him with my frozen blade, I had a feeling that their information was limited.

As ice crystals fell down on them, Sakon and Ukon tried to maneuver out of the way, but their movement was hindered by the shards that pierced their skin. The jutsu's effect brought them to their knees, and I briefly wondered if the odds were shifting in my favor.

But I knew better than to make hasty assumptions.

Once the jutsu was complete, I stared at the pair sitting on the ground as blood seeped out of their shard wounds. But the silence only lasted for a few seconds before Sakon chuckled. "That... was an interesting jutsu," he said as he and his brother slowly got to their feet. One by one, they began pulling ice shards out of their skin and each wound began to seal itself up almost immediately.

I mentally cursed myself; how did one defeat an opponent who could heal as quickly as he received injuries?

Sakon and Ukon came at me again after flicking the last of the ice shards to the side, not wasting any time in doing so. I had no opportunity to put up a barrier as a defense mechanism, and had barely raised my hand when the brothers struck my face, sending me flying back into the dirt. The curse mark gave them immeasurable strength; I might as well have had a brick dropped on my head from a two story building. I didn't even have the chance to try to sit up, for the next thing I knew, I was off the ground again, the air rushing past me until my spine collided with a tree.

I fell on my stomach, coughing violently as I fought to catch my breath. My arms shook as I tried to push myself up, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

In that moment, I knew I needed a way out more than anything. If this kept up, I was surely going to die. I had to escape somehow and come up with another plan. And I knew that, in complete darkness with Sakon and Ukon approaching from a distance, this was my best shot.

So I executed a last minute substitution and took off. It was a sloppy one at best, but it was decent enough to give me a minute or two of a head start.

The night fell into silence as I half-dashed, half-stumbled through the trees in an effort to make my escape. I had no clear destination, as I had lost my sense of direction in the darkness and the fighting, and so could not return to the village unless I happened to get lucky enough to run into a member of Root or the Anbu Black Ops.

On second thought… running into one of that man's subordinates probably couldn't be considered lucky, even in a desperate situation like this one.

But I wasn't exactly in the position to be choosy, either.

After almost an hour of non-stop running, I found a spot that sat high in a tree and came to a halt. The first thing I did was close my eyes and listen to my surroundings to try to sense if anyone was nearby. But the only sounds to be heard were those of the nocturnal creatures of the forest and the hooting of the owls. No significant sources of chakra existed nearby. Which meant that, for the moment at least, I was safe to rest.

I let out a small sigh and sank down onto the tree branch, my back resting on the trunk. I gingerly moved my fingers to the back of my neck, rubbing the sore, tender spot carefully. I wouldn't have been surprised if my body collision with that tree a little bit ago had, not only caused me new injuries, but also worsened the ones I already had.

The question was where to proceed from this point. I doubted that Sakon and Ukon would easily give up searching for me, but they also had other obligations. If they couldn't find me in this darkness, would they eventually turn their attention toward Sasuke and follow him instead? It was a possibility, but I couldn't let my guard down and take a bet on the chance that they wouldn't be able to find me. Despite the fact that I had run for quite a while, my already unimpressive speed was at least partly compromised.

So what was the plan?

Normal attacks were apparently useless against them since they could heal at such a fast rate. But there had to be weaknesses. No ninja I had ever faced was without at least one weakness. If I could just find that weakness (preferably before they turned me into a pile of soulless bones and flesh) I would be able to defeat them.

But my body ached, my knees felt so weak… did I stand a chance at all?

I shook my head, correcting myself for having such negative thoughts. Allowing myself to die tonight wasn't an option. If I did, I knew that there were several people I would have to answer to, including a certain slug queen and a ninja with a mask and a love for erotica. I wasn't getting off so easily.

Ultimately deciding to ignore my aching body, I used the stability of the tree trunk to push myself up. My eyesight was limited with only the moon as a light, so I closed my eyes again and relied on my hearing to detect movement. The air was still nearly silent, apart from the sounds of the wildlife and the wind brushing leaves. Sometimes I heard crickets chirping on the ground, but I sensed no indication of a threat nearby.

Yet I knew I wasn't alone.

I could feel it by the way that the skin on the back of my neck tingled, the way that the hairs of my arms stood on end. Or maybe I was just waiting for something to happen.

Cautiously, I opened my eyes to assure myself of my safety, only to meet the gaze of a figure standing only inches away from me. My heart nearly shot out of my chest as I instinctually moved to free myself from the situation, but a rough hand wrapped around one of my wrists and pinned it back against the tree.

"Not really on your game this evening, are you?" By the sound of his voice, I knew this one was Ukon. I swallowed to try to let the initial panic settle, but the realization that I hadn't sensed his chakra frightened me further. My focus wasn't staying consistent anymore. I had to somehow finish this before my brain was too muddled to think.

I didn't think I had ever been cornered by someone so close to my height before, and even with him standing so close to me I could look him directly in the eye. Despite being identical twins, Sakon and Ukon were quite different, personality-wise. While Sakon enjoyed teasing and cracking arrogant comments while in the thick of battle, Ukon was more to the point about it and didn't take as much time to mess around. Which, in turn, made him that much more dangerous of an opponent.

So it surprised me when Ukon didn't seem to be moving. He only stood in place, gripping my wrist to prevent my escape as he glared at me with a bright yellow eye. Considering the position we were in, trying to free myself by simply breaking his grip wasn't going to work in my favor. And continuously creating frozen blades only to have them destroyed wasn't going to work in my favor, either.

So I reached for one of the few kunai I stored in the bag hitched around my waist instead. Not that I thought it would be of much help, but at least it wouldn't eat up my chakra. As I pulled it out of my bag, I aimed for his torso, hoping to force him back. But he didn't even take action before my own body seemed to stop me. My grip on the kunai loosened until I was just barely holding it in my hand, and my body began to feel strange.

I attempted to clench the fist of the hand that Ukon held against the tree, but a feeling of weakness took over and I was barely able to close it.

I leaned farther against the tree while trying to keep as much of a grip on my kunai as I could. I felt that if I let go, the fight really would be over.

"What are you doing to me?" I demanded through my teeth.

His dark red face gave off almost an unearthly glow under the moon as his lips turned up into a tiny smile. "Just seeing to it that you won't escape this time."

"And… how is that?" I prompted, pulling at my wrist futilely.

"I'm fusing your body with mine," he replied, eliciting no more than a blank stare from me as I tried to process his meaning. "And once it's complete, I'll tear you up from the inside out."

Oh… that doesn't sound like a pleasant way to go out.

My tongue suddenly felt dry, and I swallowed in discomfort. "You've got to be kidding me…" I whispered, leaning away from him as much as I could, until the bark of the tree dug painfully into my back.

Seriously, what else could this kid do?

I turned my head to my wrist that was trapped in his. Somehow I had to will my brain to think, to figure a way out of this deadly mess. Subzero? It was one of the more obvious options, and one that rarely failed me. For a few seconds I thought back to my encounter with Orochimaru and Kabuto in the back hills. By freezing my own chakra before he soaked it up, I was able to get the upper hand on him and cause quite a deal of damage. In this case, if our bodies were fusing together (which really creeped me out by the way) then perhaps I could do something similar.

All I had to do was…

I sucked in a breath; by his expression, I could tell he had no idea what was about to happen. And I almost smirked at the thought, because he was in for one hell of a surprise. I had time to neither accept nor deny the fate that might befall me if I went through with such an act, but looking back on it, I suppose that simply being a ninja was the very definition of that acceptance.

So before I lost complete control of my body, I concentrated my chakra and let the effects of Subzero take over. A couple of seconds passed before Ukon noticed, even though I was already clenching my teeth from the searing pain in my arm as it radiated throughout the entire left side of my body. But as I expected, Ukon felt the effect as well, and reached up with his free hand to grasp his shoulder. His face contorted in pain and he shot me a frantic glare, so I pushed myself further, and the temperature of my chakra plummeted so abruptly that even I winced. At that point, Ukon released a growl from his lips that sounded almost like a muffled cry and let go of my hand.

I took advantage of my opening and dropped my kunai so that I could form a few simple hand signs. And so that I didn't do any more damage to my body with Subzero, I channeled some electricity into my chakra. Grabbing hold of Ukon's shirt front with one hand and using my other as a transfer of energy, I reached out and splayed my palm over top of his face. "Jolt Clamp." His body convulsed from the electric shock, and just before he went limp I shoved him to the side and watched him tumble down to the forest floor.

I resisted the urge to sink into a sitting position as I stared down at Ukon's motionless body. From up here, it was impossible to say whether or not he was dead. But now I had another issue to deal with: Sakon. I could only conclude based on this turn of events that Sakon and Ukon had split up to look for me; otherwise, I couldn't imagine why Sakon wouldn't have stepped in by now. Once again, the forest was quiet, and for the moment it seemed that I was alone.

So, while keeping a close eye on Ukon, I maneuvered to a different tree despite my shortness of breath from the cold I couldn't seem to shake. There, I sat and kept watch and waited for Sakon to appear so that I could (hopefully) take care of him as quickly as possible. I must have sat in that tree shivering for at least ten minutes before a figure appeared. If he noticed me, he didn't appear interested, for he was too occupied by the body of his brother lying in the dirt.

"Ukon?" Sakon called to his older sibling, reaching down as if trying to wake him. "Brother, get up! What the hell happened?"

He began to sound just a bit more desperate as he realized that Ukon was not, in fact, going to get up. And I decided to make my move while he was thoroughly distracted.

I jumped out of my tree and prepared for a deadly strike against my enemy, but he was wise to me, and he spun around faster than I was able to escape. In the next instant, I found myself pinned to the ground, Sakon's fingers wrapped tightly around my throat.

"What did you do?!" he shouted at me. "What did you do to Ukon?!"

As he blocked the path to my lungs with his hand, I hadn't the means to answer his fevered questions. Instead I clawed at his fingers in a desperate attempt to loosen his grip while I gasped for air. I knew that he had no intention of letting go, and that if I didn't act quickly, he would kill me then and there, so I decided to use the last bit of electricity that I had stored from the last jutsu. I reached up and pressed my hand against Sakon's chest.

There wasn't nearly as much power in this attack as there had been on the one for Ukon, but it was enough to get him off me. Roughly pushing him away at my first opportunity, I stumbled to my feet and formed a frozen blade in hand.

Sakon glared up at me, clearly still disoriented from the electric shock. "Why, you little…" he hissed as he tried to stand, "I am going to-"

He stopped talking the instant I stepped forward, put an arm around him, and shoved my frozen blade into the center of his chest. In spite of the pain it caused me, I pushed as much cold into his body as I could through the blade.

He didn't even bleed.

Without bothering to pull out the blade, I let go of Sakon and allowed him to drop to the ground. For a few seconds, he seemed to gasp for breath, but he soon went still and silent. When I bent to check his pulse, it was nonexistent. He had already frozen to death.

Next, I went to check Ukon to make sure, but just like Sakon, he was not going to be standing up again.

For the next few minutes, I stood in between the two corpses, taking in the fact that the battle was over. I had won. Both of my enemies were defeated, and I was somehow still on my feet. Granted, I felt as though I might lose consciousness at any second, but as of that moment I was still alive.

So, now what?

I glanced up, noting that the moon was high in the sky. In this darkness and without any equipment, I had no way of knowing where I was or how to get back to the village. Which I meant I was stranded out here in the forest with two dead people and no place to go. The more I thought about it, the less I favored the situation I was in, and I decided that I couldn't bring myself to be okay with spending my whole night so close to the fallen Sakon and Ukon.

Had the circumstances been different, I may have taken the time to bury the brothers, but one: I didn't have a shovel, and two: I simply didn't have the energy.

And so I left them, and I ran through the forest for a while until I felt that I was a comfortable distance away from the battle. I kicked the dirt and, after some thought, decided that I didn't want to be on the ground, and instead settled on a fat tree branch. It wasn't the most comfortable spot for sleeping, but I had the feeling that I bed of needles wouldn't have made the slightest difference from a bed of feathers at that point. Every movement I made hurt me somewhere… and I felt as though I was locked in a freezer.

If I die tonight… I'm sorry.

That was my last thought before I drifted into restless unconsciousness.

Tsunade was fast asleep at her desk when a loud knock sounded at the door. It jolted her awake so quickly that she barely had enough time to set her wits in order before the two men entered the room.

It was Kotetsu and Izumo, carrying the stacks of documents she had sent them for earlier. In her current state of awareness, she couldn't have really cared less about the documents, but she tried to greet the men kindly at the least.

"Oh, hello, boys. Thanks a lot," she said with a half-hearted smile.

Kotetsu looked as though he was about to answer, but then his jaw dropped. "Hey! You were sleeping before we came in, weren't you?! You send us to get these heavy documents while you just sit here napping?!"

Tsunade tried not grimace as she raised her hand up to wipe off the drool she hadn't realized was on her chin. "Uh… no…" she said with an awkward laugh.

Izumo then popped his head out from behind his stack of documents. "Anyway… more importantly, we have something to tell you."

Tsunade straightened in her seat at his serious tone. "What is it?"

After discarding their piles of documents beside her desk, Kotetsu and Izumo stood before her with grim faces. Although only a moment passed between her question and their answer, the suspense of not knowing what was wrong made her anxious, and her imagination ran wild with possibilities.

It was Izumo who spoke first. "Sasuke Uchiha left the village last night."

Tsunade could barely contain her rage at the sound of the boy's name. Slamming her hands down on her desk, she snapped, "What? Are you sure?"

Kotetsu nodded in affirmation. "Yes, it's true."

"We heard it from Sakura Haruno, herself," Izumo added. "We have no reason to doubt what she told us."

The Fifth Hokage bit down hard on her lower lip.

He's making his move, already? I can't believe this…

So that was it, then. Orochimaru wanted the power of the Uchiha. That was why he went after Sasuke. But how? How could this have happened so suddenly? Tsunade had predicted that there was some potential danger due to Sasuke's state of mind, but she never expected him to just take off.

"Wait…" she murmured, glaring down at her desk. "What about Kanata?"

When neither Izumo nor Kotetsu answered, Tsunade raised her head and eyed them intensely. "Where the hell was Kanata Fujibayashi when all this was going on? I want to know. Contact her immediately."

Izumo lowered his gaze slightly. "Lady Hokage… I'm afraid that's not possible."

Tsunade blinked, increasingly becoming more irritated. When he didn't continue, she stood up at her desk and snapped, "Well, why not?"

Kotetsu cleared his throat. "Because Kanata Fujibayashi is missing, as well."