Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto Chapter 6: Apex of All Conversations, a naruto fanfic

Hello.

I am bored right now.

So I guess that I shall conquer my boredom by writing. That what I was thinking when I actually was bored at home, so like I stated before, I began writing, and while in the midst of typing this chapter, I stumbled onto an already overstated fact that I just could not help but repeat over and over and over.

The fact of the matter was... I was freaking bored, and there was nothing I could do to get rid of it.

What I'm trying to say here people is when one's mind is gripped by boredom, the absolute worst thing to do is say "Man I'm bored." Apparently it only adds to the already built-up mountain of boredom that has accumulated in and around you. I found out that the key to countering boredom lies within the all too well known confusion of doing something totally random.

Why am I telling you this.... well, because at the time....

I was bored

'If then pen is mightier than the sword, then why are actions louder than words?'~ Two of the most contradicting yet overused statements ever to be created.

Enjoy. It would be better for your health if you did....I'm just saying. (I'm watching you)

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Youhei looked down, holding his chin down in concentration, his face heavy with thought, stolid, effectively concealing the irritation in his eyebrows. The open window near him let in a nice amount of light; at the moment it was actually annoying. The glare was ineluctable. Primarily, that was not the reason that he was annoyed, no way, the real reason was by far much more irritating then a semi-blinding glare.

His tetchiness in fact, was elicited by a certain little blond genius that went by the name of Uzumaki Naruto. Two days ago he asked him to put into operation a false investigation in order to lure out this second Oto agent. He had no problem with that, not at all, but when he showed up the afternoon the ensuing day, his request was simply bizarre. Naruto was wrong, Shino was not being imitated, he was the real deal but Naruto thought otherwise.

To his chagrin, Naruto showed up at the faux crime scene requesting that the entire operation should be dropped at that very instant. Youhei sighed, remembering the look on his face, angry yet... apologetic. He soon discovered the reasons for Naruto's unusual expression and he couldn't say that he even in the least bit agreed with the boy's method for dealing with his formerly-accused partner. Someone as smart as Naruto was should have been using his brains, not his brawn, forcing an answer out of Shino was not the best thing to do and he could tell that Naruto figured that out the instant he learned that he was wrong about his comrade.

And now, he was here. Youhei leaned with his elbows onto the shiny metallic desk in front of him. He looked around, no on else was in the forensics lab. It's not like they would be, after all, the entire criminalistics division was infuriated with him when he told them to pack up and stop investigating without even explaining anything to them. Nervously he bit down on the tip of the blue ink pen between his fingers, his other hand tapping the white and still blank piece of loose-leaf paper in front of him. This apology letter wasn't going too well.

Once again he sighed, thinking back to Naruto, the source of all his troubles. What was worse was that there was still an undiscovered and unknown, and potentially hostile enemy loose in Konoha. There was no way of luring him out now, no plan, no hope of catching him. Either this guy was really adept at hiding himself or they had really fucked up badly, unfortunately the scale in his mind tipped toward the latter of the two possibilities. There was a third possibility though, it could have been both options in one; the guy was smart and they really fucked up.

That seemed to be the most plausible considering how he was feeling at the moment.

"Naruto, why did I let you do that?" He asked into the open air, to his disappointment no one answered. How could he have forgotten, he was alone.

Youhei sighed.

Hopefully by now, Naruto had made amends with his partner.

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Kurenai's eyes flicked eagerly toward Naruto, who sat beside her underneath the obscuring shade of the tree. Further off they both observed Shino and Hinata's spar session, the young Aburame's scalp wrapped to the forehead by sweat soaked bandages. His movements were impaired as opposed to his smaller but generally quicker opponent, Hinata. The small Hyuuga girl ducked and dipped, slipping through his guard so easily that the entire match seemed to be choreographed and Hinata was playing the part of the victor. Kurenai knew the reason for Shino's faltering. The little bundle of blond haired joy next the her.

Naruto, almost flinched when Kurenai grasped his shoulder, and he turned his head to stare directly into her glowing red eyes. They seemed to glow a bit more fervently today, no doubt on his account.

"Naruto-," she began, he'd already predicted the rest of her sentence, "- apologize to Shino." He turned away, narrowing his eyes. Why should he have, why did Kurenai even care about it? With all of his wit and cunning, the answer should have been obvious to him, but it wasn't. It eluded his every attempt to find it, and on the inside it was a bit frustrating. Naruto's inside confusion was shown when he asked the question engraved in his head out loud.

"Kurenai-sensei, what is a comrade? I was trained by the Hokage alone, so I don't have that much experience with teams." Despite his recent pre-addition to Saito's team, it was true.

Kurenai opened her mouth to answer him, but her lips pursed themselves together into fine a line. This was Naruto, the mystery of team eight, her mystery. He was right there with them but seemed so distant at the same time. But a small inkling in her stomach told her that this wasn't the normal Naruto speaking to her, this was a different person. A person not used to the affects of negative consequences; this was the Naruto who's mind she might have been able to slip into, the vulnerable one. It was obvious that he was sorry for what he did to Shino, truly he was, a Jonin's intuition never led them astray when it came to their students. Even with special cases like Naruto.

Her grip increased, as did Naruto's perplexed expression.

"Naruto, what don't you asked him?" Her finger drifted over in the direction of the fierce spar occurring between his two "teammates". As if he even understood the word.

"I-... I don't know...," his gaze faltered, causing him to look away. Naruto understood what a friend was, but a teammate, he had no clue. He didn't feel bad at first for hitting Shino, strictly because the Aburame was his teammate, not his friend. The same reason he hit Sakai with that genjutsu. But after a day or so of avoiding Shino, he began to feel... anxious about something. Feelings of guilt and frustration burned in Naruto's stomach; a person's teammates were nothing more than tools just as you were to them, right? If one needed to be sacrificed for a greater cause than by all means that was what would happen. That was reality, yet the consequence felt so bad. Why?

Hinata landed a clean hit on Shino's chest, again. Her taijutsu was naturally more finely tuned Shino's normally but like this the Aburame was hardly a challenge. Her curious partner seemed to be even more distant than he ever was, and strangely she found him sitting next to her since yesterday. Hence, he was scared of Naruto.

As she fired a two pronged strike at Shino's chest, aiming right at the tenketsu point right above the collarbone, a lethal blow, her fingers stopped short. She could see that Shino's breath was taxed by fatigue. "A-ano, Shino-san, maybe we should take a break?"

Shino replied by breathing heavily, only letting his answer come through the action of nodding his head slowly. Hopefully, for his and the team's sake, Shino's hebetude would exist ephemerally and would be gone in a couple of days.

"Shino-kun, Hinata-chan, good job. Take a break for now and in ten we'll begin genjutsu meditation."

Shino's frustration was marked only by the irate edge in his voice.

"My apologies for questioning you but according to the schedule you provided us with, our meditation sessions are not scheduled to be commence until later in the day." Shino said, his left arm hanging limply as he walked back to the tree, behind Hinata off course. Kurenai almost cringed from taking a look at Shino's partial Jyuuken induced paralysis. Luckily for her she couldn't imagine what it felt like to be on the receiving end of too many Jyuuken strikes so she couldn't empathize with him.

"A-ano Kurenai-sensei...a-are we g-going to...."

"Well, I decided to rush things a bit because today we have our first mission this afternoon." Kurenai replied.

Hinata's pale, listless eyes widened, before glancing at Naruto. He was turned away, she observed Kurenai's own glowing irises using her peripheral vision. Hinata was no genius but she was smart enough to read the look in Kurenai's eyes and figured out that she'd said something to Naruto. The gloomy tint to his eyes told her as well.

Memories of Naruto's violent eruption flooded back into her head, swishing around in a big pool of clear vivid images. She hadn't even seen the kick before it connected with Shino's face, just a burst of dust followed by an insanely loud smack. Even her Hyuuga eyes, the all seeing, never missing eyes that her family frequently boasted about couldn't track Naruto's unbelievably fast motion. Even if her bloodline had been activated at the time, she doubted that it would have made a difference, her Byakugan didn't work like that, it wasn't that trained yet.

Naruto was by far the strongest person he'd ever seen, well next to her father and a select few of the Hyuuga elders that is. At the time, she was actually afraid for Shino, when Naruto released that wave of... whatever it was she'd almost wet herself. It was like being hit full force by a wave of his... feelings; smacked dead on by a wall of intention. It was frightening, while at the same time-- and she was ashamed at herself for it-- a turn on.

Kurenai's voice pulled her back from her thoughts, telling her to sit and rest. They wouldn't be doing anything physical until the mission, obviously they would need it.

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Anko didn't remember anything, just the strange and possessing sensations of rage and pain. She cracked her eyes opened, they burned from the cold air. She sat up, rubbing her sleep withered eyes free of the dry crust that built up.

Serendipity!

She was in the hospital, what a relief that was. However, reality soon hit her eyes and they parted.

Shit! She was in the hospital, what happened to her? More importantly what happened to Sanae and Konoe? Then the memories spilled back into her mind; the Anbu with a dog mask, the genjutsu of feathers, everything up until she passed out. Her neck was itchy, due to the crisp lining of the blue and white checkered hospital gown she was wearing. The airy, opened back of the gown provided her for an almost uncomfortable breeze. Looking down she could see a small clear tube snaking its way underneath the bottom of her gown.

The pounding in her head wouldn't stop.

Someone turned the knob to her brightly lit hospital room, room 206. She bit her tongue reflexively and recoiled from the sharp pain. As the warm blood trickled over her taste buds the taste in her mouth was now somewhat metallic.

The door swung inward, and the Hokage stepped inside, his eyes locked her. The pounding in her head suddenly got harder, much harder. She could not remember anything at all, yet she knew that she was in trouble. Two Anbu stepped inside with him but at his command they stepped back out, this was obviously something private. Forming one half-handed seal that she recognized as the seal for a special audio block ninjutsu, Sarutobi pulled a chair over to Anko's bed and sat.

She thought about speaking but was too afraid to say anything.

"Anko, you are hereby stripped of your rank as a Tokubetsu-Jonin." The first words hit her hard, almost causing her to faint, and her insides twisted and twisted and then exploded from the inside out, shooting the wild feeling of shock and dread together back at the rest of her body. Her lower-lip began to tremble, not because she was afraid of him but because she was afraid of what she had done to receive this.

Anko's body jerked forward and almost immediately she was hit with a flaring wave of impeding pain. She slipped off the edge of her bed, landing hard on her hip, and gripped her Hokage's robes. When she opened her mouth to say "why" her voice cracked, cutting the already small question into even smaller bits and pieces. Luckily the Hokage manage to discern her speech.

"Why, why. What type of question are you asking me, honestly your stupidity vexes me. Do you honestly want me to explain the severity of what you did yesterday, and after I told you not to go overboard with your students." Even though she could tell that he was angered, the Hokage spoke with the aplomb of a practiced professional. As she had been informed now, she had done something to her two pupils. And if she remembered clearly, she hadn't finished her dango!

Clawing at his robes once more, Anko stared him and he watched as she... climbed, for lack of a better word, up his leg.

"Wha-...at, please, t...ell me. I-I, can..'t-" She was silenced, flooded over with the sensation of heavy, thick killing intent that filled her insides. It smothered her, covered her, slipped into her mouth and filled her entire being with fear. As of now she was replete with dread.

That previous aplomb in Sarutobi's voice was gone."You can't what Anko? Don't tell me that you can't remember!"

"B-But... I- can't-...-" Sarutobi's hand came swiftly before stopping at the fore of her face, she cringed.

"Quiet, you can't remember how you viciously attacked and chased your two students around the entire village yesterday, holding no consideration for their safety or for that matter anyone else's!?" Anko gasped, and her hands fell back against the cold marble floor; she breathed heavily with fear. She was puling, whimpering, almost crying at the fear of what she had almost did to her students. If she was this damaged then she couldn't even begin to fathom the apogee of injury that her students were on. "I'm ashamed! The Anbu brought you to my office, you were conscious and very aware of what you were doing, in fact you said you were angry at them!" Sarutobi all but yelled.

The door opened again and Sarutobi growled, whipping around. "I thought I said no one come in-" but he stopped noting the person who stepped inside. The man in black, the man who worked closer to Anko than anyone else in the village, the man who helped shape the formerly respected kunoichi groveling in front of him right now.

Morino Ibiki.

His eyes were hard, angry as her mind had corrected her. Whatever this was, she knew that she wouldn't like it.

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Hinata was the first the arrive at the Hokage tower. Kurenai had allowed them to leave and go home for a moment, after that, everyone was to rendezvous in front of the Hokage's tower. She'd made sure that she slipped into the compound undetected, at least she thought, and left quickly, feeling a bit relieved that no one had seen her. The relief that she felt when not in her family's ancestral home, she admitted, made her feel somewhat ashamed.

Her neck swiveled left then right. Naruto nor Shino were here, again, she was relieved. Kurenai arrived second, and surprisingly she arrived walking next to Naruto. His eyes were disturbed and cast off to the side while her sensei walked peacefully as if nothing had happened. Something did happen, Kurenai did say something.

If she had to be honest, she wasn't as ecstatic about the team's first mission as she'd first believed she would be. The gloomy air that had settled over her team since yesterday was sucking the life out of team eight, what was worse was that she didn't know what to do. Shino had the benefit of the doubt, he was the victim while on the flip hand side... there was Naruto.

That was it, simply put. He was Naruto, what was she to do, avoid him? As if she could bring herself to do it out of contempt for him. She felt bad for wanting to take Naruto's side, despite him being at fault, but in her conscience she wanted to help him so much. She liked to see him when he was smiling and carefree, it made her imitate those same emotions.

But now... he was... he was-...

Hinata flinched when Kurenai's palm touched her, surprised at how bothered she was for still siding with Naruto after what he did.

"Hinata-chan," she whispered, "Will you do me a favor?" Hinata nodded knowing that she couldn't refuse. "I want you to speak." The Hyuuga's eyebrow was already arching itself, her confusion shown when she turned around slowly. Unknowingly, Hinata felt a little fearful of what that meant, she would have asked what it meant, but in time she would know. Was Kurenai asking for her to help settle the quarrel between her two male counterparts? Or maybe she was asking her to abandon her shyness? It didn't make sense, but it did make her uncomfortable.

"H-hai," Hinata responded, unsure of what she was agreeing to.

When Shino arrived the mood dropped to an even lower depth, from gloomy to lugubrious. His face seemed to be even more swallowed today by that high collar of his. As expected Naruto's eyes, never once met Shino's as Kurenai led the team up the stairs to the Hokage's office.

Upon walking inside, Naruto's shoulders straightened up with respect for the wise Old man."Team eight reporting in." Kurenai said, standing behind her team. Her hands rested gently on both of her two males students' shoulders. An act of comfort for the two.

Naruto was first to notice his grandfather's perturbed expression, and based on the intertwinement of his fingers, he was either focused of angry. "Ojii-san, you seemed disturbed, is anything the matter?" He asked. Kurenai rose her brow, through her eyes the Hokage didn't seem in the least bit disturbed, maybe tired, but not disturbed.

Naruto could read him though, like a book. It made her realize how little she actually understood about the Hokage, other than the fact that his job was important. Naruto, however could tell, and mostly likely could replicate this. There was something else that made itself known to Kurenai's ear. Naruto's outrageously friendly tone with their village leader. It was true that one should have always engaged in badinage with those that they were close to, but to fraternize with the Hokage on such familiar terms....

Apparently the Hokage was fine with it. "No no, I'm fine Naruto, there's just something on my mind." Naruto eyed his mentor for carefully, and then folded his arms.

"Fine, but on my way here I saw something that has me in a ...disturbed state of mind" Sarutobi perked up at this; as he seldom heard of anything that was enough to disturb Naruto. Kurenai listened carefully, readying herself to analyze and interpret his next words.

"Well on my way here, and I'm sure Kurenai-sensei noticed this as well, but there were an unusual number of shops and stores closed down today, and almost all of them sported "closed for repairs" signs. I know that's not much to worry about but something else also struck me as odd. The village is in shambles! Overturned garbage cans, destroyed doors, broken windows, cracks, abnormally large gouges plunged into walls and even a crater. Can you tell me what happened?"

Sarutobi sighed, somehow, habitually, Naruto always managed to hit the nail on the head. "It's uncanny really, because what you just said bears a direct relation to my frustration. He paused for a moment to glance at Shino and Hinata. "Do they know?" He asked.

"Yes, they know about me." Naruto responded.

Sarutobi nodded. "The vibrant depredation that you saw back in the village was the work of one of Konoha's Kunoichi."

Naruto rose his eyebrow, simply astonished. "Kunoichi, which could Kunoichi in the village could possibly do that?" Kurenai watched the Hokage's lips attentively.

"Mitarashi Anko." Hinata flinched, literally feeling the small amount of anger seeping from her sensei as Kurenai tensed up a bit, and she would have stumbled forward but she barely managed to catch herself, settling for only a small step forward. Shino's reaction was similar to Hinata's, a small shifting in body posture rather than a full step.

Naruto noted it as well, she could tell by the narrowed glance that he gave her. It brought up one question, did Kurenai like this Anko person? "Hokage-sama, please tell me what is was that she did." Kurenai said, her usually compassionate tone tainted with venom.

Scratching his head Sarutobi chuckled, it was a dry one. "Unfortunately that is as far as I can tell you, well at least while you're here with your team. Come back later after your mission and I will give you the details on it." Kurenai droned, more like growled, before finally sighing.

"We still have a few D-rank missions left." Kurenai inclined her head respectfully as the old man shuffled through a stack of papers on his desk. "There we are," he said, pulling one out and handing one to Kurenai. "I need you to report to herbalist Sunohara in the eastern district near the river. He suffered an injury last week while working on his roof and needs some help."

Kurenai led her students down to the exit, trying not to show her frustrations while at the same time restraining her laughter at the confused look on Hinata's face that somewhat echoed on Shino's. "D-rank missions," she explained to Shino and Hinata, "are considered to be little or no threat at all, and should rarely, if ever involve traveling outside of Konoha. In order to give you an opportunity to practice working together, these D-rank missions will become a regular."

As they hit the streets below, Kurenai stopped, allowing her two students to digest this. Hinata looked apprehensive, but soon sunk back into her shell. For the most part they walked through the streets without sound, not that there was anyone inclined to strike up a conversation at the time. Kurenai held to her thoughts the entire time, and while they made their way to the eastern district, her mind raced with frustration and anger every time she saw one of the many plunders caused by Anko. When they knocked on the door, a voice came to meet them, telling them to come around to the back.

They walked around to a back patio, near it, a verdant field of weeds as tall trees.

Herbalist Sunohara proved to be a middle aged and unmarried, blond, lazy-looking man with a plaster neck brace firmly holding his neck in place, with the accompaniment of a cast on his right arm. He did something similar to a double take when he saw Naruto but let his action go unaccompanied. Hinata made a note of that, people had been doing that a lot ever since they left the tower.

Their instructions were simple, help repair the roof and burn the jungle in the back yard. The teams were simple as well, Kurenai with Shino on the roof, and Hinata and Naruto in the weed jungle. (Hm, weed jungle...not a bad idea if you know what I'm talking about) Kurenai made sure that before she sent them off, she pulled Hinata to the side, whispering in her ear, "I want you to speak."

"B-But I don't understand you, Kurenai-sensei." Kurenai's only response was to look at her sternly before pointing at Naruto while he wasn't looking. After that, Kurenai shoved Hinata forth in Naruto's direction which lead the both of them to the base of the jungle. A mild blush staining her face pink.

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Speak, Speak! She was supposed to speak to him? How. Was. That. Possible?

She really didn't know, she was so close to yet so far from the answer. Her and Naruto were given two hoes to get rid of the weeds, and two large bags to carry the weeds, almost immediately she got the feeling that they'd be needing more bags.

They stared at the base of the long towering weeds, they jutted forth from the ground, coming up to their thighs. With her hoe in one hand she glanced at Naruto, secretly of course, and felt herself flush.

His voice come next. "If we split up, we can cover more ground so you should start over there," his hand directed her eyes toward a flaring path of weeds some yards away. "Don't you think?" He said.

Tucking the hoe between her arm and ribcage, Hinata pressed her fingers together. She was pressing so hard that the skin turned white. "U-uh...um, y-yes, we could. b-but don't you think that w-we could do a better job if we... covered... it...i-in the same spot?" She asked, the reality of what Kurenai had asked of her hit her like time bomb, but she followed the instruction nonetheless. Naruto took a moment to digest this.

"Well, it makes sense, if one of us misses something, there other might spot it. Well then I guess I should go for content over size in this case." He said giving her a weak smile, she smiled back but it was barely noticeable.

Prior to exchanged smiles they found themselves working on the left side of the yard, ripping weeds from the ground and stuffing them into over sized bags.

Hinata steeled herself, she could do this, she would do this. She would speak with Naruto.

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Truth be told, Anko was showing about all the signs of genuine amnesia, no recollection of past actions, an altered state of mind, anxiety, confusion, everything. He was beginning to think that she really didn't remember what she did. If she didn't, he knew that everyone else did.

Beside him, the Hokage sat quietly, no so much as uttering a word. He gave the man a quick glance before his eyes parted and returned to Anko, who's flummoxed expression further enhanced the possibility of her amnesia.

He could work her down, truly he could work anyone down given sometime, but as of now breaking Anko seemed to be... impossible, even for him. It was scary. Maybe his skills were dulling, maybe she was just that mentally fortified, whichever the case may be, it was unnerving to say the least. And he never lost his nerve.

Anko was proving to be either one of the best liars he'd ever met or that she really was suffering from amnesia. If it was in fact, the latter and she didn't remember than his best diagnosis considering all that she told him would be that she was suffering from Lacunar amnesia. As he peppered her with mind destroying questions, threats, and explanations, Anko held still and did not falter, despite her injury. Although considering the fact that she had injuries, he could file her amnesia as post-traumatic.

"Anko so you're telling me that you don't remember anything?" Ibiki asked calmly.

Anko's usually edge filled voice wasn't filled with a drop of hostility, rather she spoke in calm, depressed segments. Gone was the former brio from her personality, replaced with it, a gloomy spirit. Maybe...

He shook the idea out of his head, she wasn't lying he could tell, but still he needed to take the necessary precautions. She would need to be tested, and if it came down to the worst, tortured. Physical torture would be his only option, seeing as how he wasn't getting anywhere with her mentally.

The delayed period that Anko to in order to attempt to answer his question only evoked his suspicions that she was telling the truth. Either that or she was a hell of an actor, who knew. After all she was Mitarashi Anko, the second Hebi fang, the Kunoichi rumored to be so deceptively clever that she was revered for it. Curtailed, Anko's mastery in the Arts of Deception had made her famous; although infamous was the better word. If her reputation were even ineffable.

Ibiki was a sagacious person, and his judgment alone told him that while Anko may not have been the most scrupulous of Nin, she certainly was loyal. She was one of the most loyal. He knew it, there was something here hidden that nobody else knew about. Maybe this next question would clear things up.

"Anko, you're no longer a Jonin, you have no rights, you aren't in any position to say anything beyond what we ask you. Now tell me, what can you remember, and answer me truthfully. What you say may decide whether or not you are allowed to stay in this hospital or for that matter even in this village." Anko's response was normal.

A gasp.

Slowly she began, "There was a man, he was posing as an Anbu," her mind allowed her to recall the memory vividly. "He wore a cloak, brown or black... I think," the memory faded, leaving Anko to shift through her mind for the correct image. Then it came back, brighter than ever. "It was black, d-definitely black, oh, and he was wearing a white dog mask, no symbol, no kanji, it was blank...a-and..."

Ibiki leaned in, mirroring him was the Hokage. The two exchanged glances and in the moment, they both exchanged one silent word.

Oto.

Anko's voice brought them back. "H-he was good at Genjutsu as well, the one he used on me was too fast acting to not be high-level. Everything went white after that, and then I woke up here. B-but please, that's all I know, t-tell me something now. I-" The Hokage's disapproval of her request came in a sharp burst of potent Ki that quickly, if not instantly shut her up. Although she wasted no time starting back up."H-Hokage-sama, please allow me to see my students, please?" Anko's beseeching was in vain.

"Absolutely not." It was a simple denial, a little blunt, but it conveyed the message. "Like we said before, you have no rights. And you will definitely not be able to see your former students, I doubt that your students wouldn't even want to see you after what you did to them." His tone was grim.

"What did I do?" Anko, practically yelled but the Hokage's hand silenced her.

"Please, do not bother me with any more of your questions. Things are simple now, whether or not you are aware of it or not, you are a threat to your pupils. You were given the tutelary position of being a Jonin sensei... and you failed. You failed me, you failed yourself and worst of all you failed your students. I'm leaving now." He said simply, leaving Anko with an unhinged jaw. She realized that he was right, regardless of the circumstances, she failed, horribly.

Sarutobi stood up and walked toward the door, once he reached it he took a small step back. "Oh we were just leaving, come Ibiki, the doctor wishes to treat Anko. We will be back, after you are treated Anko, you'll be going to see Youhei." After a quick stare Ibiki got up and followed the Hokage out the room. Their exit allowed for a mid-sized white haired boy wearing transparent glasses to walk inside, draped over his shoulders a log white lab coat. In his right hand he held a pen and a clip board, in the other he held a small syringe, inside the liquid holding chamber deep purple liquid. From the angle he held it at the liquid seemed to glow.

Behind the doctor the door closed. "Hello, Mitarashi-san, I'm Dr. Yakushi Kabuto and I'm glad that you are feeling well. You gave us quite the scare there, but you're pretty stable now, I suggest that you don't try to do anything for a couple of days, let us do it for you okay?" His voice was friendly, disarming, soothing. Anko thought him to be too young to even be a doctor. Through her anxiety, Anko felt herself slowing agreeing with his words though. She did need to relax, but how could she?

"P-Please, Doctor are my students here?" The boy raised his eyebrow.

"Students?"

"Sanae and Konoe Fumina, are they here, please tell me no!" Anko said. The last thing that she wanted to was for her to harbor a guilty conscience because of an albatross that she most likely would not forget. "Dr. Yakushi" shuffled through some papers pinned to his clipboard, going through them in a matter of seconds. The look on his face was depressing. "Unfortunately," Anko mentally cringed, "They are here. And they're in critical condition."

"No, b-but, h-how, how could I have..." Anko felt the need to yell out in agony.

On the inside Kabuto was smiling, giving himself clandestine praise for using such an ingenious plan. Originally his plan was to abduct Anko and experiment on her. You see, not only was his job as a double agent in Konoha to observe Sasuke Uchiha but it was also to test a new virus developed by Lord Orochimaru. The virus, made from the venom that the Lord himself secreted when administering the "curse seal", was altered in hopes of enhancing the effects of the curse seal whenever it was already present on a person. And evidently, Anko was the only one with the curse mark...yet, so she was the only test subject. He had to give himself credit though.

Back on the training ground, he opted not to abduct her and experiment on her, instead he injected her with an intravenous drug that the Lord created, it was designed to throw off a person emotional balance, enraging them. That person was irritable to everything, and that person just so happened to be Anko. If he heard his rumors correctly, the drug worked out superbly. After her wild rampage, all Kabuto had to do was wait for her to get hurt and sent to the hospital, where he could experiment on her without suspicion.

He allowed his self-praise end with a hand that he rested on her shoulder, after setting the needle down of course. That needle was important, that needle was the Chimer Virus, or the Cv virus.

"Don't worry Mitarashi-san, they'll be alright. But for now, I need you to relax.... I have to give you an injection.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Hinata-san, do you think that I went a little overboard on Shino?" Hinata's head flicked up, caught off guard by Naruto's sudden question. She was supposed to be the one doing the talking yet it seemed that he was the one more eager. Instinctively, she looked behind her. On the roof, Kurenai was staring directly at her, a small curl tugging her lips upward. She should have known. It sometimes surprised her how helpful Kurenai could be, whether or not she knew it or not.

A mild blush tinged her cheeks and Naruto's eyes hadn't moved from her face. A tight ball formed in the pit of her stomach, causing her to drop her hoe. It hit the grass with a muffled rustle.

"Oh, the weeds," he looked around, surveying the area and his hands moved into a single hand seal. He didn't say a word, just one seal and two clones walked out from behind him. Naruto handed one his hoe and bag and reached down, doing the same with Hinata's equipment. He must have given them some sort of silent command because she never heard him utter a word in between the period when he created and sent away the clones.

She just stood there, timidly toeing the ground for the sole reason that they were now alone.

"So what do you think," he sat down in a patch of grass where they had already cut away. She mirrored him, feeling the sudden need to go with the flow.

Her heart pound loudly, reaching her ears, blocking out everything else. They were alone, together! She was happy, yes, but at the same time, her conscience was being ripped apart by her own nervousness. "W-well, M-maybe, you were a l-little to hard on him. A-after all h-he was just a little curious."

The weight of his gaze fell down her with the avoirdupois of a bolder. "Maybe, but what was I suppose to do?" He threw his hands in the air, a gesture that she wasn't used to seeing from him, genuine confusion.

It was unfortunate, especially for her. Now he thought that she was on Shino's side, which was the last thing she wanted him to think... at least she thought so. This was confusing. In her defense, she threw her hands in a noticeably defensive gesture.

"G-gomen, I didn't mean it like t-that at all, N-Naruto-san, I just..." She paused to think of what to say. Nothing came to mind. Naruto raised his brow, he really could not see what Kurenai-sensei was planning when she told him to ask Hinata her opinion. He knew of her... infatuation with him, but infatuation wasn't the right word, in retrospect--considering all the times he'd spotted her following him recently-- it was more of an unhealthy obsession. But still...

"Maybe, I was a little too hard. But honestly, I don't really understand that concept."

Hinata frowned, something somewhat short of scowl. "I-I don't think I understand what you mean Naruto-san." Naruto searched for the words and they came easily.

"Well Hinata, can I ask you something? I don't really understand this word, so could you explain to me what "teammate" is?" Again his baby blue pupils branded their image into her skin, the simple task of looking into his eyes suddenly became a few notches harder. Still she found the courage to do it.

"W-well-"

Naruto placed his hand, touching her shoulder gently. He felt the rise and fall of her shoulders when she gasped. "Please, answer honestly." If Hinata's words were to hold some veracity then they would only do so if they come directly from the place where she treasured the most, the place were most humans treasured the most; the heart. The one place that Naruto had the most difficulty understanding.

Hinata nodded, but she did it slowly, never to take her eyes away from him. "W-well to me, a teammate is..."

Naruto leaned in. She found that she could withhold nothing from him and spilled out everything.

"... a teammate, well...a teammate is.... a friend." Naruto's eyes widened with that last word. "A person w-who will support you, whenever and wherever, s-someone you can come to a-anytime, you know... someone you can...trust with anything." Hinata wasn't aware that she was pressing her fingers together again, a die-hard habit that she did whenever she was nervous. Currently she was priding herself with the fact that she hadn't fainted yet, but she knew that the moment was ephemeral, any second now her confidence would falter and she would be out like a light.

But while her confidence lasted she added, "Y-you know like h-how you and the Fumina sisters are." It must have come out in a bad way because the look Naruto gave her reflected the effect of her words.

"Sanae and Konoe, we're like... what?" He asked.

"Y-You know, how you guys are... always together" she muttered with her voice dropping to a low murmur. The steady sound of Naruto's clones hacking away at useless plant life filled the air for a moment. "The moment", really, was awkward.

"So they're my friends?"

"W-well, aren't they?"

"I... don't know. Maybe...-" One of Naruto's clones scuffled by, giving a polite 'excuse me' as he went past. Based from his observations, Naruto's own relationship with the Fumina sisters, at least empirically matched those relationships in which he'd seen in other parts of the village. It was safe to say that he, Konoe and Sanae, were friends. But then there were things that they did that could be considered slightly above the friend level. Maybe calling them 'best friends' was more accurate. He knew that people who were just friends didn't continuously engage in puerile groping marked as "revenge" by one or the other.

So then maybe the Fuminas were his best friends.

If so, what were Hinata and Shino to him? Comrades... teammates, but what did those words mean exactly? Hinata's explanation had sent his mind for a wild ride of introspective thought, in which the answer slowly, but surely revealed itself to him.

Comrades, teammates.... friends. They were his friends, at least they would have been.

"N-Naruto-san?"

"Huh! Wha-... uhh, yeah. T-they're my friends, you're right." He said lamely. "But what about Shino?" Naruto couldn't believe that he was acting like this; so childish he was and even more so, helpless.

To his surprise, Hinata giggled-- it was a very soft giggle, one that reminded him of Konoe's. Somehow, it was different, gentler, and trustworthy, not that Konoe's wasn't. He could surmise now that he could trust her, hopefully. Hinata's eyes were closed, her hand to her mouth as she laughed. Naruto didn't react, there was nothing funny really that he could discern, so he just looked. A blade of grass landed on his head as his second clone moved past, knocking him in the back of the head with his elbow. The clone never even got five feet away before a shuriken passed through its head, causing it to erupt out of existence.

The distinctive sound of the dissipating clone opened Hinata's eyes. "Naruto-san," she said, "O-Of course y-you're still friends."

"And you?" He asked, Hinata fell silent. Truly "friends" was not where she wanted to be, she wanted more than that. And for some reason she had the strangest feeling that Naruto knew it as well, it would explain the awkward feeling in the bottom of her stomach.

"O-Of course, we're fr-friends." She responded, her eyes drifting away, surprisingly, for the first time since she they began the topic. Naruto smiled, Hinata's red-faced expression reminded him of Sanae's whenever he would exact on her his "revenge." Slowly but surely he was realizing, that he was beginning to see a little of his two "best friends" inside of the girl shrinking in front of him. But that did NOT mean that she was his best friend, just a friend, a new one at that. But that left one more person.

Hinata turned even further away, like she had been slapped in the face. He was not so confused that he couldn't interpret the meaning of her reaction; the simple hiding of a blush.

Teammates, were friends, friends were teammates. They were much more than tools, he was beginning to realize partially, that they were also a means of emotional support. If that was there sole and primary function then Naruto really didn't see any use for friends. But, he had to admit, it felt good to have one around.

"Thanks. I think I understand now, at least a little bit. ... I'm glad... that we're teammates." Hinata still didn't look at him, her face looked too much like a tomato to do something like that.

He was glad! Naruto was glad to have her as a teammate! Pointing toward the single clone of Naruto's still removing weeds, she said "A-ano, I think w-we should get back to work." Allowing his eyes to follow the direction of her finger, Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Uh...yeah."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The room was spinning, or maybe that was her head spinning. It must have been her head, considering that she couldn't see anything.

Sanae's eyes cracked open to find the pale light of a hand applying medicinal chakra to her abdomen. She remembered it clearly, she remembered everything clearly.

That time when Anko-sensei wasn't... herself. She was possessed. By whom... she couldn't place the name... Oro...chi...maru?

The white rain of feathers had ceased, along with it the somnolent sensation that had numbed her senses. Anko was already awake before She and Konoe were awake. She wore this crazed expression, angry yet... tortured. It was unsettling.

After that there were no more taijutsu drills. Just running, a whole lot of running.

For the average human, the tongue was only supposed to stretch out only couple of inches past the lips. That didn't explain why Anko-sensei was literally able to lick the bottom hem of her trench coat with that freakishly long tongue of hers, it didn't explain why her sister was almost impaled by the slimy appendage as well.

She attempted to move her right arm, to her dismay, it moved about an inch. Her left arm however, exactly where that black viper had bitten her, budged not a millimeter. It was probably still feeling the effects of the poison.

White bandages wrapped themselves around her head and body, her left leg was suspended two feet in the air by a sling, the bandages were stained black with dried blood. If she remembered clearly, she'd broken that leg. Actually it was the viper that had broken it.

Air scraped against her throat with every breath, painfully drawing out agonizing sensations of rusty metal tearing up her insides. The hand moved from her abdomen to her chest, the pulsating pain was almost immediately replaced with the warm sensation of medical energy, soothing. She would have sighed if she could, unfortunately, breathing already took enough out of her, sighing was like mission impossible.

There was one thing though that kept popping up, despite her minds attempt to destroy it. One strikingly disturbing image that had branded itself into her memory. Anko's eyes, those eyes were freaky beyond all meaning of the word. She remembered how creepy Anko's eyes looked, golden, slitted, feral, reptilian. Like a snake's eye. She was scared shit-less, terrified beyond all rational thought, fortunately rational thought wasn't what she needed. Rational thought would have stopped her from pushing Konoe out of the way and taking the icy-hot fangs of the black viper, going by the name of Mandria.

That poison...

It'd hurt so much. Hopefully her sister was fine, she remembered immediately passing out after that. When the hand left the fore of her chest, the pain slowly faded back to reality. She reluctantly accepted it and slipped back to sleep, despite the fiery pain burning up her arm.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Sunohara proved to be modest, at best, or at least he gave that impression. Surprisingly, he actually shook Naruto's hand when they were finished. He unlike most of the villagers could actually look past the fact of what Naruto was and bring himself to thank the boy. As sad as the reality was, it was still the truth, but that wasn't she was most concerned about at the moment. As she had planned, Hinata and Naruto did talk, and it did have some affect on the boy, perhaps too much of an affect though.

On the walk back from the eastern district, Naruto had been retracted in his own little world. This was something that the Hokage made a note of, only when Shino and Hinata had exited the building and returned home.

"Naruto-kun," he said, raising a grey brow, "Is something the matter?" For a moment his eyes met Kurenai's, she gave him a wink. For some reason he could tell that she had something to do with it.

"N-Nothing Ojii-san, I was just thinking about something. More importantly, can you tell me exactly what happened in town?"

The scowl on Sarutobi Hiruzen's face was prominent.

"Yes... that, well apparently, Anko... went on a rampage trying to... kill her two students and-..."

Neither Kurenai nor Sarutobi could stop Naruto, Kurenai couldn't even see him leave for that matter. Apparently, he'd mastered the arts of spontaneous dematerialization that almost every Anbu possessed a knowledge of.

"Oh dear," Sarutobi said.

"What do you think he'll do?" Kurenai asked, her tone a tad apprehensive.

"Knowing him, it'll probably, if not definitely involve him paying Anko a visit." Kurenai grimaced.

This would not be good.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto was already out the window the instant the Hokage mentioned Sanae and Konoe. He knew of Mitarashi Anko's methods, he knew how extreme she could be, but never once would he have thought that she would actually attempt to kill someone from this village in cold blood, especially not her own students. It angered him.

He crossed the distance from the Hokage's tower to the hospital in less then three minutes, pouring every drop of chakra that he had into his steps. To the villagers he looked much like a blur whizzing past their vision, to other shinobi... he looked much like a blur whizzing past their vision. Nothing else could be said, the boy was fast.

The blur that was his body burst through the front doors of the hospital, it only stopped when it reached the front receptionist desk.

Ignoring the rage and worry the riddled his mind, Naruto mustered up enough discernible speech to make out a sentence. "Please, I need to see Sanae and Konoe Fumina, and Mitarashi Anko!" The dark-haired, receptionist with boring brown eyes manning the front desk looked at him with with skeptical eyes, eyes that he didn't have time for. She didn't even look surprised at the speed in which he approached her. "Come on!" The top of her lip curled with the disgust; as her name tag read, Ise rolled her eyes at him.

"Listen kid," she paused to pop her gum, "I don't know what you're try-"

She stopped when Naruto slammed his hands on the counter, deep cracks ran along the marble. His normally calm baby blue eyes had lost all equanimity. Her nerve to say whatever it was that she was going to say to this blond boy had been thoroughly stripped from her, leaving her mind naked and exposed. Naruto could see the fear in her eyes, his killing intent often did that to people. "Listen, Ise," Naruto began, taking a glance at her name tag once more, "I need you to tell me what I need to now right now. I'm warning you not to pull any smart shit with me, or else! Now what are their room numbers?"

Her fingers pounded the keyboard, sparking a clamorous staccato of clicks. "R-right, uh...F-fumina, uh....room 120 and 122 in the south ward. But they're in critical condition!" She glanced back at the computer and typed frantically, "M-mitarashi Anko's in the central ward, room 206!" And like that, Naruto's rage was gone, at least it was hidden. With a smile he patted the unruly receptionist's head and dashed off. He could barely hear her calls out to him, telling him not to go toward Anko's room, apparently everyone knew of her little rampage.

He turned the corner, that's when it hit him.

'Shit! The south ward and central ward are two different ways, I want to see Sanae and Konoe but I must see Anko...now. Sorry girls, but I need to see her first.'

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" He didn't make any hand seals, he didn't need to make them anyway, such tautological things only wasted his time. Two clones appeared behind them, it didn't take them long to receive the silent message and they both veered off at another corner, following the sign that said 'south ward'. As for him, he already knew where Anko's room was, he'd already been there before, that was the same room Shino had been in.

Shino... his teammate.

The glossy white tiles of the polished floors and ceilings passed by him in the form of one steady stream of white, he was running so quickly that he could no longer discern single tiles, just conjoined, blurred images of many.

Not long after, his foot screeched along the floor. He was there, room 206, such unwanted nostalgia gripped him.

But he quickly cast it aside, preparing himself for the long conversation he would have with Anko.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Once again she was back in the hospital, but she could not complain, compared to her sister, she had gotten off lucky. Sanae, pretty much saved her life, taking a bite from that black viper. Her right arm was rendered useless, after it had taken her sister out, she carried her all the way the to the hospital where it had taken a bite out of her as well. The last thing she remembered after getting bit and before passing out were the many white flashes of Anbu masks, well that and her own agonizing screams of pain. Her arm burned with the aftermath of that thing's venom.

One thing that Konoe could do that her sister could not do was talk, her body wasn't as damaged.

The door to her dimly lit hospital room clicked open, letting in a steady stream of incandescent light that stung her eyes.

"Konoe-chan. It's me Naruto."

Naruto's voice was shaky, that was unusual for him.

The next thing she noticed was his face, rather his eyes, they were wet with moisture. Quickly he wiped the moisture away before it technically became a tear; honestly he was too worried about this friend stuff, even as a clone he felt the panic and turmoil radiating from his creator, he couldn't help but imitate it.

"N-Naruto, are you crying?" Her voice was scratchy like crumpled paper. The clone shook his head, placing a hand on her forehead. Her blush was florid.

"Konoe-chan, I'm not the real Naruto,"

"What?"

"I'm a clone."

"Oh," Konoe said. While it touched her that he wanted to see her, it also pissed her off that he sent a clone to see her.

"Naruto, the real Naruto wants me to ask you something. He wants you to tell me everything that happened between you, Sanae, and Anko. Everything, another clone is with your sister doing the same thing as well." He said in a stark monotone that was completely contradicting with his previous tone. It was like in one instant he switched from a worried close friend to a stolid computer.

Konoe closed her eyes, shaking her head. "N-no I don't want to. I don't want to remember." She whispered. As if on cue the clone switched back to friend mode, kneeling beside her so that they were on eye level, he took her hands into his. Her skin was soft, despite the scars. Normally he would have blushed, but the original Naruto didn't quite seem to feel that way about Konoe so he refrained from doing such things.

"I'm here, don't worry all you need to do is be strong for me, hold my-" The clone stopped mid-sentence to grunt, his eyes growing wide. Air scraped against his throat and he realized that he was screaming. He dropped to his knees, screaming long and hard but he still clutched Konoe's hand. His free hand moved in front of him, he could feel his palm burning. When he looked at it he gasped.

'Blood?' He thought to himself. What could the original Naruto possibly be doing that caused him to bleed? He grimaced; it was too bad that the whole shadow clone information transfer didn't work both ways, the boss couldn't poof away and send him important information like just what the hell was happening. His time was almost up, so quickly he climbed back to Konoe's side. "I'm s-sorry, I've got to go!" He yelled out his last words with an emotion that could only be described as pain and then without warning... every pore in his body erupted with white smoke.

And like that, he was gone, the only remnants his existence being the dissipating tendrils of white smoke fading away.

"N-naruto, Naruto?" Konoe's hand passed right through the smoke swirling around her good hand, "What's going on?"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The snake's skin was hard and scaly against the palms of his hand. The dark brown constrictor that he held in his hands wriggled in his hands in attempt to free itself. It hissed angrily, locking its reptilian glare onto to Naruto. It opened its mouth, exposing rows of teeth that were curved inward. Eunectes Pressi, otherwise known as the Sorrel Anaconda, a rare species of--believe it or not-- over sized Anaconda only found and rarely seen in the deepest corners of the Forest of Death. (It's a fake species I made up on the spot.)

One thing that Naruto had deduced was that if he had not reacted in time to stop this bad boy, it would have surely taken a nasty bite out of his arm.

Not that simply holding the thing wasn't doing damage to his hands right now. Its muddy brown scales tore away the skin of his palms, leaving them bloody and raw. It felt like there were a thousand tiny kunai blades scraping away at his skin and while he wasn't bothered by it, the giant forty footer was putting up a fight for its life. Its body was so large and lanky that the thick percentage of it that wasn't already clutched in Naruto's hands coiled itself around the room, sliding around counters, twisting underneath the bed, touching the ceiling.

Still his hands gripped its airway tightly, its loud hisses being the only thing distracting him from Anko's loud chuckling. Naruto clenched his teeth.

The instant he had walked in, he could immediately tell that Anko definitely was not feeling herself at all. Prior to this vicious attack, she seemed fairly normal, shaken up about something but normal. The instant he asked her to explain her behavior, she exploded in a metaphorical sense of the word. It was actually the snake that exploded forth from her arm, and he watched as it curled around her and slithered around the rest of the room.

Next thing he knew, his hands were being torn to shreds by the thing's diamond-tough scales! And what was even worse was that his sudden parry threw off his concentration and he failed to maintain his two clones tending to Sanae and Konoe, his two friends. He blinked rapidly as he received the chopped up and segmented flashes of mental images and information left off by his two clones. As he recalled, Sanae couldn't speak, but she was crying and Konoe, while she could speak... was crying as well. It saddened him to see them like that, but that would not stop him from getting rid of this snake.

Anko shrieked, chanting the same incoherent mantra she'd been chanting since she attacked.

"Ororororororororo!"

"Shit! Anko, what are you?" He got his answer when the anaconda, using its leviathan body length, whipped its head, slamming Naruto through the wall of the hospital. The debris hit the ground before he did, so he landed on a pile of white powdery rubble that softened his landing. He rubbed his head, groaning, that one really hurt. Hopefully getting rid of this thing wouldn't be too much of a hassle, but man was it troublesome.

As he stood, a high pitched squeal next to him sent a shudder down his spine.

"Oh...N-naruto, its you...uh...what are you-"

"Not now Ino, I'm in the middle of something." He turned to the blond girl, strangely she began to follow him since that time he...uh turned her on. Frankly it was creepy, and by far surpassed Hinata's fan-girlish tendencies; Naruto knew one thing, if there was something worst than a girl who acted like a fan girl it was a fan girl who acted like a fan girl.

He turned his attention away from her florid blush, just in time to spot the giant tendril of brown heading for him. "Ino move!" He jumped back, shoving Ino away just fast enough avoid the hundreds of deadly daggers that dug into the ground in front of him. A chilling thought then occurred to him, that could have been his skin in that snake's mouth. His weird desire to have a piece of steel in his hand left him when he pulled out two kunai and jammed one inside of the snakes eyes. It sank quickly, flowing through its eyes like it would through water, filling the air with a loud, wet squish, not to mention the smell of fresh blood. After a loud hiss it reared its head back and struck again. This thing may not have been poisonous but it still had a mean bite!

Naruto cleanly moved to the side, feeling its rough hide scrape his side. Naruto didn't waste anytime with the snake though, that wasn't his target, Anko was and as of now she was running down her pet's hide, her hand making a single hand sign as she cried out.

"Orororororo! Fuuton: Daitoppa!" Wildly, she swung her arm like a pendulum gone astray. If Naruto weren't so well read he wouldn't have known to dodge the thin, invisible blade of wind that cut a few of his hairs.

He twisted and launched himself onto the volatile body of the Anaconda, charging for Anko. They met right around the middle, where its body was stretched down from the hospital room to the ground below like a scaly diagonal walkway. Anko's knee came fast and hard, but Naruto parried, bashing it to the side with his closed fist and tunneled his punch into her chest. She was thrown back but regained her footing when she flipped around and landed on all fours in the most feral of stances.

"Orororororo! Her body....ororor... too weak!" Anko trilled, Naruto raised his brow. Her body? What? He didn't need to think about that, he just needed to fight.

"Naruto, what's going on!" Ino screeched from below the ground, her along with most of the villagers kept their distance. One moment, she was walking along the street, enjoying t\her day off from training and the next thing she knew, the hospital seemed to literally explode one side, Naruto being right in the middle of the blast. And now, he was fighting a giant snake and some weird lady?

Naruto ignored them and charged. Anko didn't move, rather she released from her mouth a stream of sound frighteningly reminiscent to that of her snake's hiss and just as he approached her, the forty foot monster decided that it was time to move.

It coiled its body randomly, twisting and looping wildly thus throwing Naruto off balance. He applied chakra and stuck like glue, but something was wrong... he was now upside down!

"Die!" Anko screamed as she charged him, launching herself in the air. He did the same, crouching before shooting himself down at his opponent. They passed each other for a split second, the clang of kunai clashing ripped through the air. Naruto flipped forward, and found himself on another portion of the anaconda's body, the anaconda itself now apparently becoming some sort of bizarre maze for him to navigate. That would be a pain, fighting with Anko while trying not to get himself crushed.

Anko looked down at him... with golden, slitted, feral eyes. Eyes that matched her snake's.

HISSSS

The anaconda wriggled again, twisting itself head so that it faced Naruto and struck with lightning speed. Naruto was already out of the way by the time it was there, jumping up and literally sticking to the moving portion of snake above him. Anko's fist crashed into his face suddenly, knocking him off and down toward the open mouth of the hungry anaconda. It hissed with hungry, slimy transparent saliva dripping from the dank cave that was its mouth. From that height Naruto could smell its foul breath rushing past his face, burning his eyes. Raw meat and blood.

Naruto prepared his hands signs, he didn't say any words, he just breathed in, launching forth a blazing ball of fire into the thing's already fervid maw. He learned something at that moment: snakes didn't like to be set on fire, especially not from the inside out. Though its loud roars of pain weren't his main concern right now.

Two snakes, brown spotted vipers to be exact, lashed out of Anko's sleeves and dug their curved fangs, poisonous fangs, into the exposed skin around of his ankles. He grunted feeling the hot sting of mild poison enter his system. He'd planned on taking things slow but now that idea was in the trash bin, he'd been poisoned and he needed to finish this quickly.

"Ororororo!" Anko yelled as she jerked her snakes back pulling Naruto with her. She obviously did not know how unpredictable Naruto was. The cunning young boy actually pulled on the vipers, still attached to his legs and her arms, bringing her down toward him. The next thing she knew, he'd grabbed hold of her head and bashed his knee into her face, his elbow came next, then other one. What followed that was a nearly invisible flurry of punches pounding away at her body. His fists sank deeply into her skin , easily, as if she were made of some impact absorbing substance like clay. Meanwhile, the anaconda was too distracted to noticed its master's pain, it soon toppled over and fell unconscious.

He didn't want to do this but he had to, this was travail that he'd put himself into. He grabbed Anko's collar, bringing her closer to him.

"What are you?" He spat, his eyes ruled by anger. Naruto waited until they hit the ground, a few feet away from the snake's head, before he looked directly into her eyes... and cocked his arm back, it flared wildly with blue chakra. What he saw nearly caused him to drop her.

One eye wasn't golden anymore, it had reverted back to the normal grey-teal that was Anko's original eye color... and it was crying. A steady flow of tears flowed from that eye, Anko's eye.

The skin around his eyes tightened as he narrowed them and after little to no contemplation he changed his question, "Who are you?" He asked. The tear filled eye blinked a couple of times and Anko sniffled.

"Oro-,"she said in her sweet feminine voice, but much to his surprise, that voice was overtaken by another voice, a man's voice. "-chimaru!" Naruto gasped. Had he heard right? Was Anko speaking with what was presumably Orochimaru's voice? Orochimaru or Anko laughed, "It seems that this child is fighting my mind back. Poor Anko wants her body back, pathetic!" He cackled.

"Orochimaru, you sick twisted man! What did you do to her?" Naruto practically yelled his words for all to hear.

"In time, boy, in time. My plan has already been executed so I have no further use for this body. I shall be taking my leave now." With one final bout of laughter, Anko's other eye faded back to its original state, the golden color seeping away like paint washed away from a wall. Anko fell limp.

"No, you bastard, come back here! What do you want?" Naruto yelled in rage but it proved to be in vain, Anko was unconscious and Orochimaru was gone. The day before Anko went on a rampage, and now Naruto knew... back then, that was NOT Anko.

"Naruto don't do it!" Kurenai's voice said from afar. He hadn't noticed before but his arm was still cocked back. A moment later she was right next to him, panting heavily. She looked around, her mouth agape.

"S-so its true, Anko really did do all that damage yesterday." Kurenai's eyes pinned themselves toward the ground.

"That wasn't Anko Kurenai-sensei... it was Orochimaru, the epicenter of this entire ordeal." Kurenai gasped and she felt her anger begin to fray but she fought it down, swallowing the growing lump of emotion in her chest. Well the mystery of Anko's wild rampage had been solved, partially anyway.

The villagers began to file around again, all of them looking with curious eyes at the remains of the spectacular battle that had just occurred before their eyes.

"Kurenai-sensei, take Anko back inside the hospital-" he handed Kurenai the battered remains of the once revered kunoichi and looked away. "-I've got to take care of this snake here," he thrust his thumb back at the still unconscious reptile behind them.

Four presences made themselves known behind Naruto. On instinct, Kurenai took a step back, Naruto didn't move at all.

"Taichou, you're late. I've already neutralized Anko and her pet here. I've got some information here that everyone needs to know, Kurenai when you dropped Anko off meet us back at the Hokage's tower."

Saito's voice came with that same static known only to come through Anbu masks. "You did well."

"I know,"

"Ok... I'll be going now." Kurenai said as she slipped away from the Naruto and his team. Honestly, the aura those guys gave off, even Naruto himself seemed a bit more... intense. It was nerve racking.

In the distance, Ino, who had yet to leave... watched with wide eyes. "Naruto... what's he doing with those Anbu and did he just call that guy captain?"

"Now we've got to-" He stopped when the giant previously unconscious snake opened its one eye with an audible click. It hissed, exposing a glimpse of a badly charred tongue, wearily the thing reared its head up and opened its mouth. The insides of its mouth were just as charred as its tongue; black smoldering skin hung from the walls of its mouth, its breath had even gotten a whole deal stinkier. Burnt meat and warm blood.

"Looks like we've got company." Sakai said, no doubt smirking behind that lion mask of his while he cracked his knuckles. Naruto's Ki washed over him, the smirk was almost instantly gone. "Jeez, if you wanted the thing for yourself you should have said so." Sakai grumbled.

What a big baby.

Naruto walked past his team, parting his teammates like a ninja Moses.

HISSSSSSS

That would be its last hiss in its life. If Naruto couldn't take his anger out on Orochimaru he would definitely take it out on the guy's snake. The snake barred its rows of blackened teeth and slithered at Naruto with the speed of a shinobi.

"Guys, you're about to see one of my favorite techniques." Naruto said as he crouched low, bringing back one hand behind him. Blue chakra surrounded his hand, swirling like fire in his palm. As the snake approached him, everything slowed, and Naruto could see clearly. This attack would be going right into its mouth.

"Ninpou: Choubatsu!" As the anaconda readied to clamp its jaws on Naruto's entire body, Naruto thrust his hand forward, sending a wave of unseen energy from his palms. It ripped through the reptile's face, entirely, and in a bloody display of force peeled away the rest of its body from the head to the tail, flinging bloody chunks of flesh everywhere until it finally had nothing else to destroy and carried on into the side of a nearby large-scale building. With the last of the red, moist clumps of meat on the ground, Naruto faced his teammates.

Naruto let his arm drop to his sides. "Now we've got to get back to-" He stopped mid-sentence and dropped to his knees. His legs gave way due to the vehement pain in his legs...

... The poison had finally caught up with him.

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Alright then, I am so done. No, I'm uber done! I hope I didn't rush it toward the end. Sorry for the wait, unfortunately, I'm back in school due to its half-ass---and by half-ass I mean totally unfair-- schedule. You guys who read both my stories my be in for a really long wait. Sorry.

Okay, one thing. The Sorrel Anaconda, while made up, it is one of many. So are brown-spotted vipers as well. If I ever focus on an animal, trust me that animal won't be real, it may sound real or may have a very plausible scientific name, most of which I will make up right there out of the blue, but trust me its not.

Something to think about, I am at one 170 reviews. I would really like to get to two hundred, and if that is the case it may inspire me to right some more crazy crap like this. Anyway, I just wanted to put that there for every one to read. And I do hope that you read it.

And if anyone was wondering, No, this does not mean that Ino has become a potential candidate for a pair up with Naruto. No way, I simply felt like doing it, and plus I plan to use her later on. And plus, remember what I mentioned in the first author's note, you know about how doing something random will cure boredom. Well while writing this chapter, I got bored and as you can see, the Ino bit is... pretty random.

So there you go.

Choubatsu: It means "Super strike", you'll find out more about this move later on. This for people, you know who you are, who felt that Naruto needed a move of his own. Happy now?

Personally I think its cool.

So anyway, tell what you though, seriously, I really want to know.

Latr and Thanx

Next chapter: Discovery Summit

GrIm'S sTePpIn' OuT