Chapter Four: Hunted
It was a beautiful day for sunbathing.
Anko leaned on the top of the roof of the shrine, hands behind her head as she sunbathed. It took a fair amount of balance not to slip off the tiles, but she had plenty of that. The rest of her team, meanwhile, were below. Well, except Kin.
"Anko-sensei, Anko-sensei!" said Kin's voice as she came up the steps. Opening one eye, Anko saw the camo-clad girl had her long hair flying behind her as she sprinted. It must have been something important.
"What's your hurry, Kin?" asked Dosu, looking up with his one uncovered eye.
Kin was looking cute, panting like that. "I just got a message from our contact. The whole plan has changed!" That was... less cute. Anko hated having to put work into changing plans. At least when they didn't involve stuff that was fun.
"Typical, really," said Zaku, who had never much liked the bastard. "We get put on call for an extraction mission, and he makes it. Anko's up there."
Kin ran up quickly and stood over Anko, who shut her open eye and shifted. The girl was casting shade, and it irritated her. "You're blocking my sun, Kin."
'But sensei, a dispatch arrived from Kabuto." said Kin, raising a letter.
Anko sat up with a yawn and took the letter. Opening it, she looked inside and sighed. Zaku had been right; it was typical, really. "Hmm.
"So we've moved up from evacuating him to hostage-taking. Fun."
"Two of them are already on their way," said Kin.
Anko stretched and stood up, so she was looking Kin in the face. "Which ones?"
"The Leaf Jinchuuriki and another, named Tenten," said Kin. "Apparently she's an expert kunai thrower. Killed three men in three seconds with three kunai."
"Fine, let's go down there, grab them, meet up with Kabuto and get the hell out," said Zaku as he and Dosu leaped up.
Anko guessed that was the easiest thing to do. But then again, if the Jinchuuriki was out here, chances are the Akatsuki had taken notice. Was there a way she could do less work and benefit from it? Anko smiled. "Oh come on, Zaku. Where's your sense of fun?"
"You have a better idea?" asked Dosu, probably guessing her mind if the tone of dread was any indication.
"I'm going to send you guys one at a time after them. We'll do this until either all of you are defeated, or one of you succeeds in capturing him," said Anko simply. There had been the one Akatsuki stalking about. No doubt she'd been thinking she'd done a good job of avoiding notice.
Anko hadn't wanted to put in the effort of catching her. Maybe this would lure her out.
"Why?" asked Kin.
"I dunno, bored," said Anko. "Anyway, if they get up here, I'll be sure to make a speech scoffing at your sacrifices or lack thereof to prove how evil I am."
"Anko-sensei, this is a terrible plan," said Kin. "Why don't Dosu, Zaku and myself just head, get the jump on them and-"
Anko surged her hand into five snakes and wrapped them around Kin. The feeling of her tensed body as Anko slither all over her was delicious. Then she drew her in, so they were face to face. Anko activated her predatory aura as Orochimaru-sensei had taught her. "You know, Kin. When you act all defiant, you look good enough to eat..." She opened her mouth in a way that put Kin in a cold sweat.
This kind of thing was always classic.
Anko let her go and went back to sunbathing. "Congratulations.
"You just volunteered to go first. Bring both of them back here. Any and all means are authorized."
"Both of them?" asked Kin. "Why?"
"Eh, figure having two prisoners could be fun on its own. No permanent damage," said Anko lazily. "Go nuts. I'm going to catch some more rays." Then she went back to sunbathing.
Kin began to walk away, and Anko listened in as he walked off, muttering to herself. "Okay, okay, so I've got to take out some genin. No big deal as long as I take out the Jinchuuriki first. It'll be fine.
"Hang on, how am I supposed to carry them back once they're unconscious?
"Maybe I could tie them up and force them to walk. But it's pretty far down, and they could get out. I mean, it's not like I can just walk up, smile, and ask them to come with me?
"Hang on, maybe that could do it?"
As Kin's voice faded away and Dosu and Zaku started playing Go Fish, Anko quickly created a shadow clone. Standing up, she had it take her place, and she went after Kin.
This was going to be funny.
And someone had to make sure her students didn't get themselves killed.
Naruto was not all that happy about being a third wheel.
Yeah, he didn't exactly have any skills to do with healing, but he wished he could do something. As he and Tenten made their way up the path, he remembered how Kabuto had known so much. He looked at her. "So, Kabuto's been here before, I guess."
"Oh yeah, I talked to him about it before," said Tenten. "Turning out, he had a tour of duty as a kid where he went all over the place undercover as a healer."
"Why do you suppose he has us going to this shrine?" asked Naruto.
"Honestly?" asked Tenten. "He probably just wants to keep us busy. Like Todoroki said, nobody is going to try and attack a place with the plague. And hey, maybe praying at the shrine will help."
"So, what kind of shrine is it?" asked Naruto. There was usually something special about it.
"Didn't you read the pamphlets Neji handed out on the area?" asked Tenten.
People read those? "...Pamphlets?"
"You weren't paying attention, were you?" asked Tenten, not needing an answer. "Okay, fine, I'll fill you in.
"Up above us is the Shrine of the Twin Serpents, one white and one black. The black one symbolizes destruction, and the white snake symbolizes renewal. People go on pilgrimages from the Land of Rice Paddies all the time, hoping to be healed of injuries.
"The thing is, Neji told me there is something special about this shrine.
"There is a ritual you have to perform to be healed, and if you get it wrong, you transform into a snake."
"What, seriously?" asked Naruto, feeling a little afraid. "So Kabuto's sending us to something that could turn us into snakes." Was he trying to get them killed?
"Relax," said Tenten. "We're not trying to get healed ourselves; we're just going to pray to the white serpent.
"I mean..." She halted as they saw someone coming down the path ahead of them with her hands in her pockets. She was an incredibly pretty girl with long hair and a headband and wore camo. "Hey, someone's coming up from ahead."
The girl scowled. "Brilliant deduction, panda bear."
Tenten halted. "Pandabear?"
The girl halted and took on a different expression. She smiled in a friendly fashion while rubbing the back of her head. "Oh, sorry, um, I'm sort of used to saying what I think, and I thought your hair kind of looked like panda ears."
"No, they don't," said Tenten.
"They kind of do, Tenten," noted Naruto.
"Anyway, I'm uh, I'm Kin Tsuchi, and I was wondering, is this the way to the Shrine of Twin Serpents?" asked Kin.
"You're going the exact opposite way," said Naruto, wondering if she was putting up an act, or this ditzy. "You should have walked right past it on your way down. At least if Kabuto was right." What was she doing in an area with the plague, anyway?
"Oh, did I, how silly of me," said Kin, sounding even less convincing. Yeah, she was putting on an act. "I must have gotten turned around when going cross country. So, um, are you going there as well?" Cross country? Was he a ninja? And if she was from the Leaf, what would she be doing here?
"Yeah, we're trying to pray for a cure to the plague down in the village," said Tenten.
"Oh, a plague, how sad. I uh... I didn't know anything about that at all." said Kin.
"You know something about the plague?" asked Tenten.
"No, no, not at all. I just, well, see, I sort of got lost on my way in from the Land of Rice Paddies and um..." Kin sighed. "You guys aren't buying this at all."
"No, not at all," admitted Naruto.
"Okay, plan A it is!" said Kin, throwing something at the ground. Naruto sprang back, only to see a set of bells.
"Bells?" said Naruto. "You've got one attack to make, and you use freaking bells?"
Tenten was distancing herself as far as possible. "Naruto, get out of the way, you'll..."
And then Tenten's voice became garbled, and then there were like forty of her. And forty Kins and forty of every tree. The whole world shifted and changed as Naruto collapsed to one knee. "They're not just bells," said Kin, drawing out forty knives. "They're sonic genjutsu emitters too."
And then the Tentens hurled forty bolases at her. The Kins leaped over her, and they clashed in a blur of kunai. "Leave him alone!"
"Oh, you want to play with kunai, little girl?" mocked Kin, their blades moving in a blur.
"We're the same age." snapped Tenten.
They locked knives and were held in place as Kin smiled. Naruto tried to stagger up and away from the bells. "Says the one wearing her hair like a panda," said Kin.
"MY HAIR DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A PANDA!" yelled Tenten, before grabbing Kin's hair and yanking on it. Both dropped their weapons and were soon on the ground, kicking and grabbing at one another.
Little by little, Naruto was able to see again. He unleashed his blade but halted as Tenten forced Kin down. Naruto moved forward and put the sword to her throat, hoping he wouldn't have to use it. "Now, what do you know about the plague?"
Kin disappeared in a poof of smoke, and in her place was a log. Then out of the trees came Kin, landing on a tree branch. "Substitution jutsu!" She hurled five kunai at Tenten, who unleashed a flurry of her own to knock them out of the air. Even as she did, however, Kin launched herself down to land behind Tenten.
Naruto leaped back as a bell landed between Kin and Tenten.
Tenten collapsed to the ground seeing things. She struggled to put up a defense as Kin walked around her with a triumphant smirk. The girl drew out her kunai and moved forward. "Ha, not so much proud now are you, getting hit by my gen... genjutsu..." And then she fell to one knee, having walked near her own bells. "Arg!"
"I can't believe you hit yourself with your own genjutsu!" said Tenten. "How is that even possible!"
"Hey, shut up! It bypasses... bypasses traditional barriers..." said Kin, staggering back. "Goddamn it, I'll kill all five of you!"
Naruto watched as the two of them tried to fight eachother and wondered what he should do. He was now pretty sure that Kin was not the mastermind behind all this. Should he knock her out and take her to Guy-sensei?
Yeah, he'd do that. Quickly walking to the back of her, he saw Kin trying to respond. "Don't think you can take me off-guard!"
She stabbed at the air where Naruto had been a moment ago. Naruto then moved forward and gripped her behind the neck. As she went limp, he hoped he'd done the hold correctly, doing it wrong could hurt her.
Yeah, she was on the side of the bad guys. But she didn't seem like the one behind this. As he lowered her down, he checked her pulse. "Okay, she's down."
"Naruto," said Tenten, "which one is down?"
"All of them," said Naruto. "Tenten, I think we should have back to Guy-sensei with her so we can find out more. If we can interrogate her, we can learn what is going on here."
And then, Naruto felt two precise penetrations on his neck, and everything went black.