Chapter Two: Crossing the Line Twice
That was Anko's dream, at any rate.
As she looked at the bottom of her glass at the bar she wondered if merely having a dream made it come true. The mental picture of Orochimaru screaming and burning horribly alongside Kabuto was... satisfied. Anko, for a moment, had felt as if she'd really been there.
But, of course, she couldn't kill Orochimaru. That would be too easy. "Where the hell do I go from here?"
"Is something wrong, Anko?" asked a familiar voice. "You seem, um, distant?"
Anko looked up and saw Kurenai, on her own for once. For a moment, Anko wished alcohol gave her more than a slight buzz. She wished her vision was blurry. "I've been the damn parole officer for Orochimaru for months. In that time nothing has happened. No kunai ending up in my bed, no attempts at murder, and I haven't killed him or Kabuto outside my fantasies."
"You mean nothing has happened?" asked Kurenai.
"No, why?" asked Anko, finishing it off.
"Well..." said Kurenai, brushing brown hair away from her red eyes. "I could have sworn I read something about a fire a few months back. Wasn't there an attempt on his life?"
"Dozens," said Anko miserably. "There have been dozens of attempts on Orochimaru's life, Kurenai. And I've ended up foiling a lot of them, What kind of parole officer would I be if I let the guy I'm supposed to reform die?"
"Is professionalism that important to you?" asked Kurenai, raising an eyebrow.
"Not really," admitted Anko. "Most of the saps trying to murder Orochimaru are amateurs. I'd pity them if they ever got within ten feet of him. People with relatives he experimented on. Also the Sound Village."
"The Sound Village hates him?" asked Kurenai.
"What do you expect?" asked Anko. "He used them as a disposable tool and killed off their best ninja to get Sasuke. Then he sold them out for a pardon from Naruto.
"They are not happy.
"Anyway, it really doesn't matter. I don't stand a chance of killing him, so if they can't get past me it's a suicide mission."
Kurenai shifted in concern. "Anko, are you... talking to other people?"
"Hmm, what do you mean?" asked Anko, forcing a smile.
"Well, I just... I haven't seen you around at all," said Kurenai. "I feel like... like you disappeared from the village for years and have only just shown back up."
"It's been five months, Kurenai," said Anko, leaning back in her seat.
"Yes, I know. That's why this disturbs me," said Kurenai. "I feel...
"Do you ever get the feeling that you're under a genjutsu?"
"What?" asked Anko.
"A genjutsu," said Kurenai. "I mean, when I faced Itachi Uchiha, he put me into a genjutsu before I even made a move. I... I've heard the Sharingan can do things to people.
"That it can strip away your sense of time and space and make you exist in a world where the wielder is a god."
"What's your point?" asked Anko.
"I... well I keep wondering if I ever left," said Kurenai. "Maybe I never got out of Itachi's genjutsu and I'm lying in a hospital bed somewhere in a coma."
"Is Asuma still dead?" asked Anko. She felt wretched asking the question, but she wouldn't be surprised if she was wrong.
Kurenai looked shocked. "You know the answer, Anko."
"Did millions of people get brutally slaughtered in the Fourth Shinobi World War?" asked Anko.
"Yes," said Kurenai.
"Well then, there's your answer," said Anko. "There is no way Itachi would ever go to the trouble of creating an illusion this original and complex for you.
"He's an Uchiha, which makes him the fucking center of the universe.
"You think he'd bother with anything special for some random jonin he'd never even met before."
"I think you've drunk too much, Anko," said Kurenai.
No, she hadn't. And Anko would make a solid counterpoint. "I haven't drunk enough.
"When I start hallucinating the universe is actually making sense, then we'll talk."
Kurenai shifted, looking at her. Anko had the feeling someone else was looking through her? "Anko, what's your ideal world?"
"What?" asked Anko.
"I'm curious," said Kurenai. "What world, if you could choose, would be ideal for you?"
"How the hell should I know?" asked Anko, looking up at the ceiling and watching reality.
"You mean you haven't given it any thought," said Kurenai.
"Of course I haven't given it any fucking thought." snapped Anko. "I spent the first decade and a half of my life trying to please Orochimaru-sensei. Then the next few years were spent getting stronger. That and screaming my lungs out from the curse mark.
"Now it's just... nothing.
"Absolutely nothing. I can't kill the fucker. I had this fantasy, you know, of ambushing him and murdering him and Kabuto.
"I guess I stopped Kabuto from owning an orphanage, so that's something.
"Nothing.
"I want nothing."
Kurenai looked down. "I'm sorry."
Anko stood up. "I'm going to head for home. Do you want to come with me?" She wished she had some companionship, now.
"I, well I need to get home myself," said Kurenai, looking away.
Anko sighed. "Fine."
The next morning Anko entered Orochimaru's lab and found him working. Before him was a circle of power and scientific equipment was all around him. Orochimaru himself had set a box at the center of the circle.
This didn't look good.
"What is this, Orochimaru?" asked Anko.
"I should think that is obvious, Anko," said Orochimaru. "I am in the midst of an experiment of unrivaled importance. A gesture of goodwill to the Leaf for their mercy."
"What gesture?" asked Anko.
"The recent deaths among the Leaf have been widespread and terrible," said Orochimaru. "It is my goal to create the means by which the dead may be brought back."
"You aren't using the Edo Tensei," said Anko flatly. "We've had enough of that already."
"It is a variant," said Orochimaru. "Ordinarily the Edo Tensei requires an equivalent exchange. But with certain alterations, it is possible to return someone without human sacrifice."
"What do you mean? Like an animal sacrifice?" asked Anko, surprised.
"Well I had planned to use a puppy, but the Inuzuka Clan objected," said Orochimaru. "The same for all the higher intelligence animals.
"So instead I created a new sentient creature!" He motioned and the box opened. An ungodly screeching could be heard as Anko saw what seemed to be a limbless sack of flesh. Bone protrusions came out of it with no rhyme or reason and agonized cries came from a toothless maw.
"You can't create a sentient creature just to kill them!" said Anko in horror.
"Don't worry," said Orochimaru. "The creature is nothing more than a flawed prototype. It exists in perpetual agony, incapable of doing anything more than screaming.
"Really, it's a mercy to take them out of his world."
"Why would you create something whose whole purpose was to exist in agony?" asked Anko. Stupid question, why wouldn't he?
"Well obviously because their existence would be wholly miserable. Therefore I could euthanize them without any moral outrage," said Orochimaru.
"Moral... outrage?" said Anko. "This is... this is the worst thing you've ever done."
"Neji Hyuga was known as a great hero because he sacrificed himself as he was supposed to," said Orochimaru. "Even though he'd never had a chance to choose anything else. If fulfilling a purpose one did not choose is heroism, so is this."
More screeching as the bag of flesh spewed out blood. Anko strove to speak, but no words came out. She went for her kunai and then remembered she wasn't allowed to kill him. Her mouth had dropped open, hadn't it?
"Hmm, I wasn't expecting you to understand," said Orochimaru. "In any case, I already created enough of the creatures to fulfill my requirements. Do you want them to fulfill the purpose for which they were created? Or just kill them now and bring no one back?"
Anko tried to process the sheer horror of this. Oh wait, she lived in a world where Itachi was considered a fucking messiah. A guy who committed genocide, patricide, matricide, and fratricide. Nobody would care about this, would they? "...I think I'll bring this to the Hokage?"
"So you think consigning these poor creatures to a slow, wasting death of agony is preferable? As opposed to just killing them to bring back the dead?" asked Orochimaru.
"What are you talking about?" asked Anko.
"Naruto Uzumaki is very staunch in his no-killing policy, isn't he?" said Orochimaru.
"He'll be willing to compromise-" began Anko. Then she saw Orochimaru's smile. The pained wheezes continued for a moment. Anko reluctantly concluded that they were better off dead. Naruto would probably keep them on life support. Orochimaru had created a situation where an unholy blood ritual was the right thing to do. "-fine.
"You can bring back the fucking dead. Now, who do you have in mind?"
"Simple enough," said Orochimaru. "I will need only one of each creature to resurrect a person. My plan, therefore, is to resurrect several figures from the Sound who I led to their death in penance. And you need not fear, they will not be bound to my will in any way."
"Anyone else?" asked Anko.
"...Well, I suppose there is Neji Hyuga," said Orochimaru reluctantly. "I gather he was a close friend of Naruto Uzumaki."
"Do him first," said Anko.
The last thing they needed was Orochimaru reassembling the sound. Orochimaru smiled widely and drew up a vial of blood. Pouring it over the circle, a glow radiated. The Snake Sannin set his hand and the ritual began. "Very well then. I shall now perform an altered Edo Tensei, that brings back the dead in the flesh of a true body!" The agonized screeching reached a crescendo as a fire burned the thing to death. Black and unnatural darkness rose around them,
Out of the circle appeared Neji Hyuga, clad as he had been in life. His eyes were closed. Orochimaru yelled in triumph. "Let the borders between worlds howl in despair! For I, Orochimaru, have conquered death-"
Neji opened his eyes. "Orochimaru!"
And then Neji surged forward and started using the gentle fist on him. "Eight trigrams! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirtytwo palms! Sixty-four palms!"
"Ah! Get him off! Get him off!" screamed Orochimaru as he was pummeled by dozens of gentle fists. "A hundred and twenty-eight palms! Two hundred and fifty-six palms!"
Orochimaru was spitting blood as he fell to the ground, as Neji kept beating him nonstop.
Anko laughed hysterically till it hurt. "I dunno, sensei, I think maybe we should let him continue. You know, see if the ritual really works."
Neji stopped and glanced at her and halted the beating. "Anko Mitarashi, I trust you have an explanation reason for this?"
"Nope," said Anko, smiling wide. "Go ahead and kill him."
Orochimaru shed his skin and emerged, before spitting out blood. That's right, the gentle fist attacked chakra. So logically it would be effective against Orochimaru. After all, he healed by shedding his physical form. An attack that damaged the chakra networks might bypass such regeneration.
Neji surged forward-
And then the door opened as Naruto walked in. With him was a brown-haired girl with hair buns. Tenten, right? "Hey, Orochimaru you wanted to talk to us about..." Naruto halted. "Um.."
"Neji, how are you... you're alive!" said Tenten.
Anko sighed. "This is going to be an awkward conversation."
For once, though, Anko was looking forward to Orochimaru having to explain this.
Author's Note:
Hey, remember when the Edo Tensei was an unholy technique akin to necromancy? I remember. Orochimaru sees a return to form in this chapter.