Chapter 23: Forbidden Vengeance
(Authors Note: Chapter Picks Up Directly after The Toshida Gaiden Chapter 13, available in the back stories section)
Kakashi thrusts his right arm downwardand clasps his elbow with his left hand. A large accumulation of chakra builds up in the palm of Kakashi's right hand as his only original jutsu begins to form amongst the calm yet bloody backdrop of the old Tarawa creek battlefield.
"RAIKIRI!" Kakashi shouts as he lunges forward with a sparkling collage of electric looking chakra. Kakashi charges at high speed toward the exhausted and prone Toshida who does not attempt to stray from the leaf jounin's path. Kakashi uses his right hand to remove his leaf village head protector, revealing his hidden sharingan eye, to complete the technique and ensure that his aim is true.
As Kakashi thrusts his hand forward in a sum of all the anger and rage that he feels in his heart, his mind wanders for a split second as he remembers a conversation that he and a young pupil of his had over a year ago.
Flashback
Kakashi stands on a tree branch just outside the Konoha hospital with his fingers entwining a strand of kurot wire that ensnares an angry Uchiha Sasuke.
"Chidori is a power given to you because you found things that are important to you." Kakashi says to the now stoic Sasuke, as he releases his ensnarement. "That power is not something to be used against your friends . . . or for revenge."
Flashback Ends
Kakashi stands with his eyes wide open as he stares down the still calm Toshida who shows no fear, even with the crackling spark of the chidori only inches from his face. The memory of Kakashi's own words finally give the vengeful shinobi a chance to reflect on all that has happened. Kakashi powers down the chidori and slowly backs away from Toshida, hanging his head in shame.
"Why didn't you flinch?" Kakashi asks quietly.
"Because I could see the intent in your eyes. A look that I have seen hundreds of times . . . a look that could see the very embodiment of anger and pain . . . the look that yearns to lash out and attack and even kill that embodiment. In hopes that its death or pain would lead to your salvation . . . or to the easing of your own pain." Toshida lowers his head as the moment of emotion between the two is effecting him as well. "That look . . . is a gift to someone like me."
"A gift?" Kakashi repeats.
"Yes, a gift. When someone receives a gift, you never take your eyes off of that gift until to fully accept it, receive it, and find out just what it is. I could see your desire to kill me in your eyes, and ever since Tarawa creek I have always been on the look out for someone else with that look. In hopes that they may strike me down . . . to even slightly atone for what I have done. I would have owed you a great debt in the next world Kakashi if it had been you who would banish me from this one." Toshida rises to his feet slowly, still clutching at his wounded side and still out of breath from his use of the Ryuugan. "Let's go Kakashi. One day you may get that revenge that deep down you desire. But it is not today."
"Even if I hit you with the chidori . . . you could have healed couldn't you?" Kakashi asks.
"Not likely."
"Wh-what!"
"Your attack was aimed straight at my face. With the amount of chakra I felt, you could have impaled my entire skull without having any trouble. There is very little possibility that I could heal from that."
"But in your memories . . . I saw you heal from many different wounds."
"Yes but I needed to make a conscious or unconscious thought in order to do so. If I have no functional brain . . . then I can't do that can I?" Toshida replies as he gives off a bit of a smirk.
"No . . . I guess not." Kakashi rises to his feet as well and the two set off into the tree's on their way back to the leaf village at the highest possible speed. But Kakashi is still uncertain about something and his curiosity once again gets the best of him. "Toshida?" Kakashi asks.
"Yes." Toshida turns his head only slightly to reply to Kakashi.
"Where else have you seen that look before?"
Toshida turns his head forward again, staring off into the distance as he remains true to his course home. "I have seen it . . . everyday . . . when I look in the mirror."
Meanwhile, back in the leaf village Keinea finds himself pacing back and forth in the Hokage's office as it seems all of his efforts to find a technique to help his brother have come to an end. But at what cost?
"I can't give this to brother." Keinea says out loud, looking down ad a jutsu scroll he holds in his left hand. "Why can nothing ever go our way? Why must everything have to be so hard? Why must we constantly face set back after set back!" Keinea smashes the bottom of his fist into the nearby office wall, cracking the concrete slightly.
At that moment, Maea walks into the room to hear Keinea's ranting. "What's the matter Keinea?" Maea asks, "What's wrong now?"
Keinea is apprehensive to tell Maea any of the details, and he quickly dismisses his concerns as rambling. "N-nothing. Its nothing." Keinea places the scroll down on the Hokage's desk as he makes his way out of the office in an obvious pout. "I'm going for a walk."
Maea can only watch as Keinea makes his way outside. Maea then is greeted by Sakura with some good news.
"Maea-san!" Sakura says happily as she waves to her fellow medical nin. "I have some good news that I thought you may like to hear!"
"Really?" Maea asks. "What is it?"
"Ino is being released again. She has improved greatly in the last few days. She has been smiling a bit too. It may not sound like much, but considering how she was, it is a big step forward."
"That is great to hear. I was worried that she may never recover from the accident. I have to tell you again that it was not Toshida-sama's . . . I mean Toshida-san's . . . I mean Toshida's fault."
"Still having trouble not referring to him as Toshida-sama aren't you?"
"Yes. I have been indebted to him for so long, ever since I met him actually . . . that it doesn't feel natural to refer to him informally."
"That's not it though is it?" Sakura says with a concerned smile on her face.
Maea begins to blush and become flustered as she tries to answer the question. "No . . . it's not."
"I've seen the way you look at him Maea." Sakura says as she has a brief flashback of the way that she herself used to look at Sasuke. "You love him don't you?"
(Music: Queue "Loneliness" from the Naruto OST)
"I . . . I . . . I owe him more then just my life. I want to see him happy and I want to see him free from all of the burdens that he carries upon his shoulders." Maea begins to tear up as she thinks of all the things that have happened in Toshida's life . . . all that she has been told that is. "He has been through so much . . . but he is still a good man at heart. He may seem stern or unfeeling at times, but I know for a fact that his heart is aching. I want nothing more then to be Toshida-sama's crutch. I want to be able to lift him up when he needs help . . . or to have him rely on me when he doesn't feel strong enough . . . to be there for him when needs someone to be."
"I had no idea that Toshida's burdens also burdened you as well. You always seem so focused and strong, capable of taking on any challenge that comes your way. But when it comes to him . . . you become confused . . . you become weak."
Maea looks on in shock as Sakura's words are almost hurtful to her, and Sakura's look of focus and determination as an odd change for the often cheerful shinobi. "What are you saying Sakura?"
"I am saying that your heart can lead you astray. There is never anything wrong with loving someone. Or wanting to be there to support them. But in the end if you find yourself on the giving end of a crush that may never come to fruition, you will only end up hurting yourself. All I can say . . . is be careful. Men like Toshida need to be given all the space that you can give them . . . but at the same time they need to know that someone is there to catch them if they fall. Whether they like it or not."
Sakura then walks off leaving a confused Maea behind to dwell on her thoughts and Sakura's words. As Sakura heads off into the distance, a single tear falls from fragile shinobi's eye.
Elsewhere in the Leaf village, Hyuuga Neji walks through the streets wearing his newly acquired chuunin vest with something in his hand as he walks around calmly before he runs into his teammate Rock Lee.
"Lee? I thought that you would have gone with the other members of S.I.C.T. to the Waterfall village, why are you still here?"
"Gai-sensei wanted me to stay back in the village." Lee says as he kicks aimlessly at some dirt on the ground. "I wanted to go help! If there was trouble that they were heading into to, I wanted to be the one to be there to help Gai-sensei and possibly have my time to shine in front of the legendary Jiraiya!" Rock Lee says with a childish glitter in his eye.
A bead of sweat runs down Neji's forehead as his teammates actions are, as always, embarrassing. "Anyway, have you seen Tenten?" Neji asks.
"Hey! I forgot to say congratulations on becoming chuunin! With all of my training with S.I.C.T. I wasn't able to see the examination. And since Hokage-sama left for that tournament, I heard she didn't get to make her decision on who became a chuunin during the last exam."
"Lee . . ."
"But I heard you did great and she finally promoted you just the other day. But don't go getting cocky because when things finally calm down I'm going . . ."
"LEE!" Neji shouts sternly, finally garnishing the attention of the goofy ninja. "Have you seen Tenten?"
"Oh Tenten? Um . . ." Rock Lee begins to search around his immediate area in search of their wayward teammate. "Um . . ."
"Oh forget it Lee!" Neji continue's on his way leaving Lee behind. Lee quick catches up to Neji and walks alongside his teammate.
"Why are you looking for Tenten?" Lee asks.
"She left this at our practice spot this morning." Neji says as he shows Lee the object in his hand. A dagger like weapon attacked to a long thin chain at the end of a small red wooden handle. "I was just trying to return it to her."
The atmosphere overall in the leaf village is a calm and quiet one as everything begins to proceed as usual. Shikamaru walks home after completing another assignment for the Hokage. Ino is released from the hospital with Sakura and Chouji present. Iruka and the rest of the academy staff continue on as usual, and all of the civilians continue shopping along the main streets and enjoying the nice weather. No one being the wiser that the large force of cloud and sound shinobi lie only one kilometer outside the main gates of the leaf village
Orochimaru and the Raikage observe from further behind the lines as all of the forces, lead by Orochimaru's cloaked subordinate creep closer and closer to the village awaiting the signal to attack.
"Well then Raikage-dono." Orochimaru says as he advances forward. "Its time to get a closer look."
"Where are you going?" The Raikage asks.
"I have something special planned for the Hokage . . . and I want to make sure that I get a good enough seat for the action before I have to go face her."
Orochimaru advances forward, joining the rest of the forces as the Raikage remains behind with his entourage to watch the battle from afar.
Outside the village the mysterious white shinobi hides more bodies of slain ANBU patrols. Stringing some of them in the trees, other's in the deep underbrush, and burying others. All with precision and quickness to avoid the possibility of being seen.
In the bowels on the leaf village hospital, two shinobi have the unpleasant duty of transferring some corpses into the morgue. One of the corpses the two shinobi are in charge of transporting, is the slain woman that walked into the village, letting the leaf's know of the attack on the waterfall village.
"Man, why is it that we have to be the ones for this duty?" One of the shinobi asks. "I thought this was supposed to be the hospital staff's duty?"
"Yea I know. This is always such a creepy job, I don't see why we should be doing it. Get some of the genin to do it, not us."
The two shinobi then lift one of the corpses up off of the tables still covered in the white covering. As they beginning walking to the other side of the room where the corpses are to be moved to, one of the shinobi slips on a damp area on the floor, and the falls to the ground, causing the other shinobi to lose his grip and release the body, sending the limp corpse on top of the fallen shinobi.
"OH GOD GET IT OFF OF ME GET IT OFF!" The shinobi screams as he tries to shimmy out from underneath. The other shinobi lifts the limp body up off of the shinobi just enough for him to get out from underneath.
"There, ya big baby!"
"Shut up will ya, that was awful!"
The two shinobi look down on the now uncovered corpse of the woman, and notice something strange along the base of the woman's neck. An odd fold in the skin followed by what seems to be a crease just above the woman's collar bone.
"What in the hell is that?" One of the shinobi asks.
"I . . . I don't know. I hope that didn't happen while we were moving the girl, or we are gonna be in deep trouble."
The other shinobi crouches down and reaches for the odd flap of skin on the woman's face only to have his partner grab his wrist quickly.
"Are you crazy? Just leave her alone and let's finish this job!"
"And what if Hokage-sama finds out later huh? What then? Do you not want to try and fix the problem?"
The shinobi shrugs his shoulders as he realizes his colleague is correct. "All right fine, but BE CAREFUL!"
The shinobi reaches downward and gently grabs the flap of skin in an effort to stretch it back out and fix the woman's appearance. As his fingers touch the woman's skin, he notices that it's texture is slightly odd. As he moves the folded skin in the other direction, he then notices the crease along the collar bone begin to rise up. The two shinobi then soon realize, that the dead woman is wearing a mask.
The shinobi reaches under the mask and slowly removes it off of the woman's face revealing a completely new face.
"We had better get Hokage-sama!"
Just outside the Hyuuga household, Hyuuga Hinata continues her reclusive and private training sessions in an effort to improve her own sense of self. Dozen's of kunai lay strewn and broken around her as her now long black hair hairs down to her shoulders. A number of small and shallow cuts appear across the back of her fishnet shinobi shirt and along her exposed arms. Her physique has changed noticeably over the last year as slight definition can be seen along her arms, the summation of all of her training. Her body has become well toned and more athletic, baring little resemblance to the weak and shy shinobi that fought her cousin in during the chuunin exam a year ago.
A fully recovered Aburame Shino steps out from behind a set of tree's as their sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai drops from above.
"Good work Hinata!" Kurenai encourages. "You almost had it today."
"Thank you Kurenai-sensei." Hinata responds with a slightly disappointed tone.
"What's wrong Hinata?" Kurenai asks.
"N-nothing." Hinata responds. "I had just hoped that I would have the technique mastered by now. And I feel guilty having you out here so soon after you were released from the hospital Shino-kun."
"I'm all right Hinata." The ever stoic and mysterious Shino replies. "I only received minor injuries." Shino's words although truthful, are still masked behind a veil of insecurities as Shino's mind is still irritated by the visions and feelings injected into his psyche by Akira Toshida back at the tournament.
"Don't worry Hinata. These kinds of things take time. You have made some real progress in recent weeks and I just know that any day now you will master the jutsu."
"Th-thank you, Kurenai-sensei." Hinata responds. She may have in fact mastered the technique if her mind had been completely focused. However, Shino's injury and her frustrations in her training are not the only things that have plagued the young shinobi's mind. The recent hostilities between Naruto and Keinea over her own affections have made Hinata feel more then a little bit out of place. Hinata's heart belongs to Naruto, although Naruto is too clueless to notice. And Keinea desires nothing more then to win her heart, even if it means removing Naruto from the picture.
Meanwhile, the S.I.C.T. team has arrived just outside the hidden Waterfall village and they begin to survey the surrounding area with the utmost in stealth. After the first half of the team survey's the far side of the village's entrance perimeter, they return to Jiraiya who has taken command of the team.
"Jiraiya-sama, we have completed our sweep and have found no signs of forced entry, nor any signs of other shinobi. No broken branches, no displaced dirt or tracks. Nothing."
Jiraiya rubs his chin with his thumb and index finger as he thinks about their interesting situation. "That is odd. How could they have entered the village without coming this way? According to the information we had on file from team 7's mission here, this is on the only way into the village. Nevertheless, we don't have much time to waste. Both teams, let's go!"
All members of the S.I.C.T. team enter into the pool that leads to the entrance of the waterfall village. The teams swim their way through the cave system until the reach the other side. The shinobi take great care not to disturb the surface of the pool as they rise up from the depths of the entrance, using modified straws to gather oxygen from the air without revealing themselves.. Jiraiya is the first to raise his eyes above the water, and a look of shock quickly shows itself on his face.
"Im-impossible!" Jiraiya says, as his words send a bubble mass of oxygen to the surface of the water.
Back in the leaf village, Tsunade has arrived at the village morgue in the hospitals basement to examine the findings of the two shinobi.
"This . . . this can't be." Tsunade says out loud. "This is . . . his jutsu." Tsunade holds up the mask that was once strewn over the face of the deceased woman as she examines it closer with an astonished look across her face.
"It's Orochimaru . . . isn't it?" One of the panicked shinobi asks.
"There is no doubt about it." Tsunade responds. "But that is not what I am mostly concerned about."
As the scene pans outward the face of the dead woman becomes visible, the shock on Tsunade's face is understandable as the face is revealed to be that of the pudgy Yukina. The shinobi who's place was taken by Maea as a disguise during the abduction of Tsunade at the Wave country tournament.
"How did this girl come into this situation?" Then suddenly the realization of all that is going on hits Tsunade. "Oh no . . ."
Jiraiya and the rest of the S.I.C.T. are speeding their way back toward the leaf village at an even higher speed then before as they too have realized what has happened.
"We have to hurry back to the village. Everyone increase your speed as much as possible we are already out of time!" Jiraiya shouts as he rides on the back of his aerodynamic frog traveling at the front of the group. "I can't believe that we fell for this."
Flashback to several minutes before
Jiraiya looks out into the waterfall village and is stunned by what he can see. All of those townspeople walking around and going about their daily business as if nothing had happened at all. The townspeople look on in curiosity at their new visitors multiplying their numbers as they rise out from the watery entrance. One of the townspeople moves in closer and addresses Jiraiya.
"Shinobi from the leaf village?" The old man asks. "Is there something wrong?"
Jiraiya and the other shinobi only look on confused as they had the exact same question on their mind. "No . . . I suppose not. Is everything ok here?" Jiraiya asks.
"Why yes of coarse everything is ok here. Is there any reason for us to think the contrary?"
"No . . . not at all." Jiraiya says as he tries to think the awkward situation. "Why would we receive information that there was an attack here?" Jiraiya looks around the other members of his away team and notices several jounin and only a few chuunin as well as Gai and himself. "Unless it was to get us out of the village . . . oh no!" Jiraiya's eyes light up in a panic and he quickly spins around to face the rest of the team. "IT WAS A TRAP!"
Flashback Ends.
Orochimaru's spy all dressed in white sits atop one of the large guard towers along the perimeter of the village as the bodies on the sentry guards lie strewn around him. The shinobi claps his hands together twice in the seal of the ram as he begins the release jutsu on all of his hidden bombs.
"Bakuhatsu no jutsu!" (Exploding technique) At that moment several of the white shinobi's exploding tags all over the village begin to sequentially detonate. A tag blows up right along side one of the many vendors along the villages main streets. Another tag explodes on the outer wall of the intensive care unit of the Konoha hospital.
Another tag explodes along the side of the Hokage building just as Akira Keinea is walking by. The blast sends him hurdling through the air and hard to the ground. Another tag explodes on the outer wall of the shinobi academy and several more along the perimeter wall, opening up a large hole in the wall along its northern side.
Outside the village, the awaiting army has received the signal loud and clear and the ready themselves for the official order.
"Well then," Orochimaru says. "Let us begin!"
The massive army of cloud and sound then charge toward the opening in the wall as the one kilometer gap between them and the wall begins to close very quickly. The army's war cry can be heard by all in the leaf village, and their attention is soon draw the rising number of silhouettes appearing out of what seems to have been nowhere.
Tsunade runs out of the burning rubble that was once the front gate of the Konoha hospital. She is soon joined by both Shizune and Sakura as well as many other medical ninjas that await her orders.
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shouts. "What do we do?"
"You and Sakura gather all the wounded from the hospital and get them into the caves. The rest of you start organizing search teams and begin fanning out around the village and locate anyone that has been injured and take them to the tunnels as well."
"But, Tsunade-sama what about you?" Sakura asks.
"The academy was hit, I need to help the students. HURRY UP AND GO!" Tsunade shouts, sending all of the medical shinobi off into the village as Hagane Kotetsu soon comes to the Hokage's side. "Hagane! Sound the alert and get all of the shinobi in the village massed and ready for an attack. Go to my office and start sending out the signal birds and get everyone that is on missions back here as soon as possible."
"Got it!" Hagane says as he makes a run for the Hokage building.
"And find out what happened to all of our patrols!"
Meanwhile, Keinea rises to his feet after shaking off some of the injuries he sustained in the blast. "What the hell was that?" He asks out loud as he looks over his dirty clothing and examines his aching frame. "Well . . . nothing serious to worry about." Keinea's attention is soon drawn to the mass of screaming shinobi charging toward the village with reckless abandon. "Oh . . . shit! I gotta find Maea and Toragai!" Keinea then runs off to search for both of them.
The whole village is in disarray as more and more explosions rip through the once quite streets. Injured civilians riddle the streets as dozens of medical shinobi leap from burning building to burning building in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. The only defensive force for the oncoming onslaught of the massive army consists of less the one hundred shinobi against a force of over three hundred, not including Orochimaru and his closest subordinates.
The main wave of the shinobi army finally reaches the hole in the perimeter wall and dozens of shinobi begin leaping into the village with Kunai at the ready. All of the shinobi begin fanning out and attacking predetermined areas in the leaf village. Morino Ibiki and a force of some of his instructors are some of the first to engage the enemy at the perimeter. Kunai and shuriken fly in abundance as the leafs find themselves at a severe disadvantage.
Matarashi Anko runs along the streets of the leaf village toward the oncoming horde and is soon met by seven sound shinobi. The sound shinobi then attack immediately as they have already found their predetermined target. The sound ninja's aim high and Anko slides low taking out two of the shinobi at the knees and dropping them to the ground. She follows up quickly with a dual kunai attack, stabbing both shinobi at the base of the neck killing them instantly.
"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH YOU!" Anko shouts as she parries the attacks of two more shinobi, only to be on the receiving end of a vicious slash from another. The kunai slashes Anko along the cheek, distracting her long enough for another shinobi to land a straight punch to her stomach.
As another shinobi lines up Anko for a fatal stab, reinforcements arrive in the form of several leaf chuunin that use their surprise advantage to disperse the sound shinobi's permanently with a volley of shuriken.
"Anko-sensei!" One of the shinobi shouts, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. We have to rally as many shinobi as possible, and defend the village!"
Before any of the shinobi respond, they are struck down by a hail of shuriken that fly at them from the shadows. A dark silhouette leaps from the shadows and slices and stabs the remaining shinobi until Anko is left standing alone with a ring of deceased shinobi lying around her. Anko turns around to see Orochimaru's cloaked subordinate standing with their back to her. The figure turns just enough to see the look on Anko's face, and enough that Anko can see the look on the cloaked shinobi's face. The shinobi smiles and then leaps into the air, and away from Anko who quickly takes up pursuit.
Shikamaru runs through the streets as he two tries to find other shinobi to help the defensive. Shikamaru is quickly attacked by three shinobi that fall from above with kunai at the ready. They move in to attack and Shikamaru quickly slams his hands together in the seal of the rat.
"KAGEMANE NO JUTSU!" The attacking shinobi are quickly ensnared and paralyzed with Shikamaru's shadow copy. "Sorry folks, but I don't have time to deal with you people!" Shikamaru then changes his hand seals, dragon, tiger and then back to the rat while maintaining his firm shadowy grip on the three shinobi.
"KAGE KUBISHIBARI NO JUTSU!" Shikamaru's shadow neck bind then begins to climb up the bodies of the sound shinobi, applying pressure right on the shinobi's throats. "I can't kill these people. We may need them for questioning later." Shikamaru thinks to himself. "Well let's try something different!" The shadowy hands on the shinobi's throats then begin to recede down the shinobi's chests as the hands then clasp their fingers together forming a shadowy fist in the middle of all three shinobi's chests.
"Say goodnight!" Shikamaru says with a smile on his face. The fists then accelerate upward at the shinobi, uppercutting all of them with tremendous force knocking all of them unconscious with a single thunderous blow. Shikamaru quickly looks over the unconscious shinobi and smirks to himself. "Hmpf. Shadow uppercut technique?"
Shikamaru then continues on his path to try and find more leaf shinobi to help in the effort. As Shikamaru turns around the corner he collides with another shinobi and both men drop to the ground. They recover quickly, reaching for their kunai without even identifying one another. As both shinobi bring their kunai up to each other's throats, they quickly realize each other's identity as both Shikamaru and Keinea are crouched and armed, ready to kill one another.
Keinea lowers his blade quickly as he begins to lau8gh. "Shikamaru, you scared the crap out of me!"
"Likewise!" Shikamaru says as he too joins in the laughter.
The humorous atmosphere soon changes as more explosions rip through the leaf village and the sound of shuriken clashing echoes throughout the streets.
"We have to find more leafs to help defend the vital areas!" Shikamaru says.
"Agreed. I was searching for Maea and Toragai and then I was going to head to the hospital."
"Don't bother!" Shikamaru interrupts. "The hospital is in flames, I just came from there. The wounded are being moved to the tunnel system in the mountain as well as the children and the civilians. Maea was headed towards the triage center they were setting up at the mouth of the tunnels. I haven't seen Toragai."
"Neither have I!" Keinea says with concern in his voice. "He has been gone all morning. If he went for another one of his walks then he may have run into the hiding army. I need to go join Maea. If she gets hurt, my brother will kill me!"
"No!" Shikamaru shouts. "I need you to help me with the defense of the village. Maea can take care of herself. Plus she has Shizune and Sakura with her, as well as dozens of other shinobi guarding the tunnels. She has a wide medical background and we are going to need her to help tend the wounded. Please Keinea come with me."
"All right. What if we run into more shinobi then we can handle?"
Shikamaru takes a quick moment to think things over, and then suddenly an attack plan hits him. "All right! I have an idea!"
Meanwhile, Anko continues chasing after the cloaked shinobi who then stops the game of cat and mouse as he takes up a position just outside the forest of death training grounds. Anko lands just several meters behind the shinobi and she readies a kunai and prepares for to attack. Summoning chakra into her arm and releasing a set of four snakes out from the sleeve of her jacket. The snakes fan out and lunge toward the cloaked figure, landing gripping blows on the cloaked figures wrists and ankles.
"SENEI JASHUU!" (Shadow snake hand) Anko uses the snakes to try and force the shinobi backward but to no avail as the cloaked shinobi leans forward and holds his ground against the strength of the four snakes. Anko changes her strategy and yanks back on the snakes, pulling the shinobi along with them and straight into a hard punch from Anko that lands inside the hood of the cloaked shinobi and directly on his face. The shinobi's cloak rips along the base of the hood as the snakes still had a hold of the cuffs at his wrists. The shinobi then disappears with a puff of smoke leaving the cloak and a bunch of logs in his place. Anko is soon caught off guard as she notices an exploding tag on the kawarimi replacement.
She leaps into the air and avoids the explosion only to be forced to dodge a barrage of shuriken that emerges out of nowhere. One of the shuriken clips the left side of Anko's face now giving her a gash on each side of her face. Anko lands on the ground several meters away from the now cloak less shinobi. Anko looks up in shock as she can see a pair of black and grey camouflage style shorts above white bandaging along the shinobi's shins with a shuriken pouch strapped along the right leg. The shinobi wears a long black t-shirt with a high collar as well as white binding along both forearms, with a then layer of black leather binding on top connected with a single snap button on each arm. The glistening silhouette of a sound village head protector shines outward from the dark hood still atop the shinobi's head. And a red and white fan emblem can be seen on the back of the shinobi's shirt.
As he raises his head, Anko can see the piercing red glimmer of a three tomoe sharingan staring back at her as the wind blows off the remnants of the shinobi's hood revealing his chin length black hair, spiked up at the back.
"It's been a long time . . . hasn't it . . . Anko?" The dark shinobi says in a haunting tone.
"Hmpf. Indeed it has been . . . Uchiha . . . Sasuke."