Crimson Dawn: Uzumaki Naruto Chapter 8: Strategies of The Vanguard, a naruto fanfic

Hello again

So I hoped enjoyed the last chapter of the story. I hope everything was pieced together to everyone's liking, you know because I really hate reading stories were the topics are desultory and have no connection whatsoever to each other. So here's something that I've been tinkering with, that concept of connection. I want to make it so that it feels like everyone in the story is connect by at least one or more linking factor. You, connections like partnerships, siblings, cousins, friends, lovers. Anything actually.

So I ask you, the readers, have I done a good enough job at portraying that whole concept of connection within the text of my story? It's just something to think about, if you want to respond, you can either PM me or tell me what you think in a review. Like most authors I prefer the answer in a review, but hey whatever floats your boat.

Now, what you may notice is that during this chapter I did something a little different. I hope that you all like the surprises that I have in here. And I know that it has been a long time, so I really tried to give you guys as much suspense as I could... without going moving forward at all with the plot. Seriously, I revealed almost nothing about what was going to happen next. You'll see exactly what I mean when you read. So..uh... read!

Anyway I have not that much to say so...

"Violence is always the answer, if it doesn't work then you simply haven't used enough of it"-- The life motto of a sadist.

Enjoy, and maybe that sadist we were speaking about won't find you. Or maybe he will?

She remembered that day clearly, she remembered everything with such disturbing clarity that it frightened every fiber of her being. That day when Anko-sensei... wasn't herself, that day when they were attack... and scarred, possibly for life. She had woken up with the strongest headache she'd ever had, and quite strangely she still clutched Konoe's leg like a plush doll. Her vision blared, and she was vaguely aware of the fact that she was being watched. By deadly eyes.

How long had they been asleep? She asked herself, she contemplated on asking her sister, but Konoe herself was still lost in the oneiric realm of sleep. It wouldn't be too long before she woke up.

First off, the white feathery landscape had come and gone like it was nothing, like it wasn't even real. And given her position right now, she doubted that it even was. She remembered the way the feathers fell from the warm heavens and swirled around her, their soft texture caressing every inch of her naked body. That was strange, she'd been naked in her dream, that hadn't happened since...never mind.

After she came to, Sanae wasted no time waking her sister, stirring her awake with a few steady but violent thrust.

"Huh, what... appened?" Konoe yawned out, by his time her leg was free from Sanae's clutch.

"I don't know, I just felt really sleepy all of a sudden." Sanae replied. The wind blew, enticing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand, sending a cold chill down her spine. The wind was creepy, a little ominous too.

"Where's-"

Konoe was cut off by the ten foot long viper lashing in between them, it passed by with a hiss, a second later it retracted back to its master's sleeve.

"A-anko-sensei?" They turned their heads.

Anko's eyes, set on them, were slitted, feral, yet she smiled as of nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Anko-sensei...w-what the hell just happened. And what happened to that Anbu guy?" Sanae blurted out.

Anko peered at the distance, her now golden eyes glistening with the sun's light. It took Sanae a moment to realize this, a few squints to be exact. "Anko-sensei...you're eyes." That's when Anko sneered, her grin taking on a predatory feature. That was beginning to creep her out. She'd thought that she had seen all of Anko's outre mannerisms, many of which she'd just ignored, but this-...

This was taking creepy to an entirely different level, another dimension even.

"You." Anko simply said, not looking at her but pointing at Konoe. Sanae had a bad feeling about the way Anko pointed at her sister, reflexively her body tensed, her mind raced, preparing to think up a thousand and one ways to escape if needed. Her sister did the same as well.

"Me?"

"Come, let's train, I want to do a little experiment." She turned her neck, letting it hang to the side creepily as an abnormally long tongue slithered out of her mouth. It stretched down long enough to lick the bottom of her coat, then it struck.

"Wha-OHHH SHIT," Konoe rolled out of the way just in time to avoid getting impaled--if that was even possible--by Anko's deadly tongue. It stuck in the ground--maybe it was possible--,dripping with saliva and over-exposed taste buds. This was weird, last time she checked, tongues didn't stretch out that far.

"Konoe, move!" Sanae's voice broke her out of her shock. Anko reared her arm back, and of course, a large spotted brown and black snake erupted from her sleeve and hissed at her.

"Shit!" Was all Sanae could say before she drove herself to her feet. Instinctively, she ran away from her deranged excuse for a teacher, who wouldn't? Her foot hit a patch of unusually soft ground and she hurled herself forward before her sensei's tongue could wrapped its slimy body around her leg.

The center of the village, that was the safest place to be right now.

"What's wrong with her?" Sanae yelled frantically, as she caught up with her sister

"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" Konoe replied. Behind them, Anko's snake and mutant tongue slithering back to where they belonged was the last thing they saw before the verdant obscurity of green trees invaded their ken. The trees were always good cover, but considering who they were up against, it may have just as well been an intricate trap. It was still worth trying.

"THAT WAS NOT ANKO!" Sanae yelled. They raced through the underbrush, then jumped, ascending higher and higher through the tree branches as they hopped. In an act of desperation, they used elevation to their advantage, eliminating some of the more effective angles of attack so that Anko would not be unable to attack from above without them seeing or hearing it.

"You think I don't know that!?" Konoe yelled back frantically. From past sessions, they learned that an aerial assault was not their sensei's style, she was the underground type.

Sanae cringed, something touched her leg, it was slimy. "We've got company!" Anko's tongue lashed out once again, from beneath them, wrapping itself around Sanae; she screamed long and hard as the tendril-like appendage dragged her down to the underbrush.

"No!" Konoe yelled from the canopy, watching her sisters face disappear into the inky depths of the dense greenery below; she stopped, hitting a branch with the sole of her foot abruptly and bounded backward so that she was just above Sanae's initial position.

Hisssss

Golden eyes opened from the darkness below and the same large brown black-spotted snake from before flew up toward her. Instinct alone told her to dig into her weapons pouch and hurl two shuriken that buried themselves into the reptile's eye sockets. It hissed with pain and veered off course, Konoe took this as a chance to act.

Gravity pulled her down toward the blinded reptile, and she grabbed another kunai from her pouch. Passing the snake's head, she stuck the kunai out, digging the blade into its body, using it as a means to slow her descent and filleted the reptile from the side of its mouth down to its mid belly. Blood splattered behind her and rained down on her head, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was her sister.

Konoe stuck her feet out, spotting the brown of Anko's trench coat. Her sensei's eyes came fast, faster than she had predicted they would and before she knew it, her ninja sandals were planting themselves into her sensei's face. Oddly, Anko smiled and her tongue, coiling around Konoe's knees, didn't distract Konoe from the fact that Sanae was struggling to free herself in her sensei's right arm.

With the force of Konoe's kick, Anko bent back a full ninety degrees at the waist with a sickening crack of bone, inhuman.

"Let go!" Sanae yelled freeing herself just enough to grab Konoe's kunai and stab her sensei in the shoulder. Anko dropped her, and Sanae wasted no time in using the same kunai to stab at her sensei's tongue which let go of Konoe's leg, instantly. It was as if that thing had a literal mind of its own, it moved, acted, even attacked like a snake!

Despite tactics being their metier, neither Konoe nor Sanae could think of anything to do but run. But they didn't have to think of about running, Anko would make them do it whether they wanted to or not.

Anko stood straight again, giggling madly, piping the same sing-song words she'd been saying this whole time. "Experiment, experiment!"

She cocked her arm back and swung, neither of the two sisters could tell what she did but they felt it, as both their bodies were thrown back several meters into the trees by an invisible wall of...wind, as they had become well informed at the moment.

"Run!" Sanae yelled, the instant she landed on a branch far away from her sister, she almost slipped, but the thick trunk served as something to hold herself on. "Run to the center of the village!" She spun around, flinging a volley of kunai and shuriken down at Anko, two of which kunai had explosive tags wrapped around their hilts, and made a series of hand seals, ending in tori.

"Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu!" (1)

For a moment, the kunai flickered, and then they multiplied before raining down on Anko in a pelt of steel rain. The weapons flying down at Anko were so many that Sanae couldn't even spot Anko in the fray anymore, all she saw was a sheet of black steel. Sanae sighed, slumping down when she felt the slight decrease in her chakra reserves after using the technique. When the rain of kunai ended Anko was nowhere to be seen, instead, a rather large python, occupied her previous space wrapping itself around her body, kunai and shuriken protruded from bloody ruptures in its scales. It looked at Sanae then dropped, dead. Anko did not even spare it a second glance, she simply stepped over the crumpled heap of reptile and glared at them with the eyes of a murderer. For a moment, Sanae's legs were locked in place, she felt like she'd just been stabbed.

So that was what the intent to kill felt like, previously Anko-- when she was normal, if she could ever be called that-- made such a big deal about killing intent that it simply drove her insane.

Now she knew what the fuss was about. Partially, her attack had seemed to be in vain, many of the shuriken, applied in a blind rush had embedded themselves into the bark of numerous tree trunks, this certainly wasn't good terrain to be hurling clouds of kunai and shuriken at a person. She knew it, but she was desperate.

"Experiment, I think that I'll try one on you too!" Anko shrieked, "Hahaha, isn't this fun?" She asked with crazed glee, there was nothing funny though, yet Sanae herself smiled as she made one half-handed ram seal. Two kunai exploded at Anko's feet, blasting dust and debris all over the place. A cloud of smoke rose from the ground, the grass below was singed and the trees were charred from the blast.

"No snakes to protect you now!" She roared defiantly

But that didn't matter, because Anko didn't really need the protection. The crazed sensei blasted through the smoke, some of it trailing behind her, and flew threw the gaps of the trees heading for Sanae, she extended her hand as if to grab her. Sanae cringed as she got closer, pinned down with fear.

"Hell no!" A voice screamed from above. In between the gap of two trees that was in Anko's path, dozens of little wires reflected the light, still attached to the many kunai stuck in some of the trees. It created a small but undeniably Anko-sized daedal net of wire, the thin kind too. Sanae smirked, feigning vulnerability was such a good ability and a very useful battle tactic. But now she was beginning to wonder whether or not she was actually acting. Konoe, who was above in the trees tugged violently on her end of the thin wire, they glowed in the light; these were the thin kind of wire, the really thin kind. The kind so thin that if one were to run into something, say...like a net of these wires, one would literally be sliced to pieces.

It appears that you understand their plan well enough.

Anko only laughed at their attempt, it was a good one, but she wasn't the one thinking that. To avoid becoming a dozen slabs of fresh meat, their sensei sent forth two snakes from her sleeves and latched on to the tree next to her, the same tree Konoe was in.

Sanae barely had anytime to warn her sister either, from up there, Konoe's field of vision was limited, which was why she didn't see Anko running up the tree with an inhuman quality. She sort of... slithered up it, but with her legs and arms, circling the tree a couple times during her ascension.

"Konoe look-" She yelled but Anko was already on her, running along the branch, driving a knee into her stomach followed by an elbow that flung her off the branch. She plummeted head first, and Sanae moved to act, but just as quickly as Anko had run up the tree, she was running down it, so fast that she passed Konoe before she hit the ground and...caught her..... Why?

Slowly Anko's head turned toward Sanae, her eyes flashing back to their original gray-teal for a moment before going back to gold. Anko growled and flung Konoe to the side, she hit a tree trunk with enough force to knock the wind out of her. She clutched her stomach, gagging, wheezing, gasping for air. Something had broken.

"Who are you?!" Sanae yelled, "Why Anko-sensei, what's wrong with you?!"

Anko only chuckled, "Absolutely nothing!" She said as she formed one hand seal, the ground underneath Konoe warped, actually for a moment it fluctuated, taking on the appearance of water and slowly, she was swallowed by the ground.

"NOOOOO!" Sanae shrieked.

"Come find me, if you can... my student." Anko said before finally sinking into the ground as well. Her laughter echoed ominously. As she had previously said before, Anko was an underground person.

Sanae sat there, crouched high in the tree, her mouth open in complete shock and disbelief. Anko... had just taken her sister.

She needed to find her, fast! If Konoe died, she didn't know what she'd do, but she did know that she would do anything to find her right now. Even if that meant endangering her life; it was set, she was going to find them, she would find Anko.

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Apparently, Anko, or whoever this person was, thought that this was all one big game. She'd actually had to audacity to put markers, through the forest leading to her position. Anko was cruel, and sometimes sadistically lucid, but never to this degree, there had to be some rational explanation to her actions. Kami forbid that this was who Anko really was, as much as it seemed to be the more and more plausible thought, Sanae found herself shaking her mind away from that thought.

All of the markers she'd found had all said the same thing, "this way to see the experiment!", followed by an arrow pointing in a specific direction. Anko was fucking with her mind, and it was clearly working, as of now she was furious. And to make things worse, she felt like Anko needed to die, never once had she given in to the psyche altering mental modifications of blood lust... until now.

She was like a wild animal, running through the trees with about as much noise as possible. Blood lust or not, she could still think, and even better, she could do it intelligently. She needed a plan, a carefully selected series of actions that would get her sister back. But things were easier thought up then they were acted out, she was still at a disadvantage. There were several factors missing from Sanae's knowledge, what exactly was the extent of Anko's power, where exactly were they, what was the terrain like, how close was it to the public, questions, questions. All of them needed to be answered and unfortunately, she was at a loss for words.

This would be hard.

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Following the markers had brought her two things: a severe case of anxiety and the knowledge of Anko's whereabouts. She was lead directly to the mouth of a dank cave dug into the side of a rocky hill , which if only a little, smelled of blood. She didn't really know how she recognized the smell of blood but she just did, it seemed that the more time she'd been around Anko the higher her tolerance and aptitude for the smell of blood was becoming.

She stepped into the cave, almost immediately she was swallowed by the darkness. With each step she took deeper into the cave, the light at the entrance seemed to get smaller. The fear she felt.... it was overwhelming, even as focused on the thought of getting her sister. Her legs shook with involuntary quakes.

She was scared alright. Scared of what might happen to her, scared of what might have already happened to her sister. She wasn't entirely blind though. The light, as long as it maintained itself, served as her guide. She could only barely discern the jagged triangular contours of the many stalactites and stalagmites jutting forth from the ground and ceiling. She froze, a terrifying thought occurred.

She was in the dark.

She was alone.

And something was slithering behind her!

Her reflexes forced her legs to move and her body was up and in the air with one soundless thrust, she stuck to the hard ceiling like glue. Below, she heard the soft underbelly of a lime green python scrape against the cave floor below, barely discernible, its tail slithered into the darkness.

She narrowed her eyes, sentries, Anko was a Jonin after all. It would make sense for her to be prepared, and if she weren't so scared, she'd say that her sensei's plan was pretty smart. Primarily, snakes hunted by smell and taste, their especially forked tongues allowed for them to gain a new directional sense, like simultaneous smell and taste all wrapped in one. In this dark cave, where vision mattered not, snakes were ultimate.

Her arms wrapped tightly around a moist stalactite. She waited for a few and when not a sound could be heard, she dropped back down and continued down the long tunnel. Sanae pressed herself against the walls, hard pressed to not let her breathing get too rowdy. Every few minutes, another snake would be pass by and she'd already be hidden by the time they slithered past. Just in case Anko had anymore snakes patrolling the place she stopped every few seconds to observe what little perception she had of her surroundings. Pretty much, she saw... nothing, nothing but black and the occasional passing by of glittery scales.

The snakes didn't even make an attempt to hide themselves, they just passed on by without the slightest drop of discreetness. Either Anko was trying to scare her, or she was just so confident in her ability that she felt that she didn't need to be discreet. Considering all that had happened, the answer may have been both possibilities

Eventually the light faded away and she'd stood there for a while, contemplating on whether or not to turn back or further descend down into the deep network of tunnels she had thrown herself into. She walked even slower now, robbed by the darkness of her eyesight, tripping, slipping, gagging from the growing smell of...

Konoe...

She refused to think about what that smell may have been.

Strangely, she found herself abundant with the gift of sight once more, the sole reason being an odd greenish glow around the corner of another tunnel. There weren't any voices so she assumed that it was safe to take that route, but she could never be too sure of her genius...

Reflexively, she reached for a kunai, as a matter of fact she palmed two... just to be safe. She hit the corner with minimal sound, quickly lunging out and firing off her weapon at her target. The kunai pinged loudly. Unsurprisingly, her "target" just so happened to be a rock, a luminescent rock at that. It glowed with a sickly green color, illuminating that section of the cavern, down the tunnel she could see dozens of other rocks strewn about, all of them glowing ominously like that, all of them placed in an order that seemed to be going in one general direction.

"Phosphorous?" Well, she'd found a new light source, despite it being a light radiating element that glowed green when exposed to oxygen. She did see the crude walkway the element covered rocks formed, she saw the deposits practically telling her to follow... and she did follow.

Fear and all, Konoe was much more important.

The voice came next, sweet feminine, familiar, while at the same time... saturated with blood lust.

"She's down there." Anko said from behind her.

"W-whaAAAA, SHIT!" Sanae yelled, instantly turning, backpedaling away from her sensei. Anko's eyes seemed to glow within the pitch darkness, they even overpowered the glow from the phosphoric deposits lining the walls. Sanae didn't want to look at those eyes, too afraid to even glance at them. So she ran, flying down the glowing tunnel walkway with speed that the rare mixture of fear and adrenaline could generate.

Konoe....

Konoe...

Where was she? Was Anko telling the truth, was she really there at the end of this tunnel, waiting for her? What had Anko done?

Sanae found out soon enough. The fear gripping her.... as she ran.... it was terrifying. She bit into her lip absently, unaware that she was drawing blood. Most people avoided the light at the end of the tunnel, in this cause though, it was the exact opposite. She thrust herself into it. And what she saw.... to say the least.

....wasn't pretty.

First off, this cave was much larger than she'd perceived it to be. The cavern she'd walked into, huge in comparison to the smaller tunnels weaving themselves around it, was at least forty feet high. The ceiling, much like the tunnels, covered to the brim with ghastly stalactites that stretched down to connect with the occasional stalagmite. There was light, much more light. The room looked more like the site of some arcane ritual; a set of stairs rose, leading onto a plateau.

Along the floors and walls were carved these strange and unknown symbols, all of which Sanae had no idea what the meanings were. In the center of the cavern, encircling the plateau spread out in a perfect circle, where nine torches were, in the middle of that lay Konoe. She was strapped to the floor by iron shackles at her wrist and ankles. Her shirt, split and cut down the middle, left her chest exposed where Sanae could only begin to see the red flesh from the many cuts that Anko had carefully carved along her skin.

"N-NO!"

Konoe's body was limp, dangling, inanimate, devoid of motion, ... bloody, dare she say think it.... possibly "de-." Her thoughts were brought to an abrupt stop when her sister sputtered, convulsing in a wild bit of coughs and gags. Like wildfire, the relief spread throughout her body and immediately, it was doused by dread.

Sanae had never found it harder to simply breath than she'd ever had at that one moment. Her eyes locked in place... directly onto the hissing maw of a rather massive pitch black viper as it prepared to sink its three inch fangs into her unconscious sister's exposed neck. Before she could open her mouth to say anything, that same wave of paralyzing consternation washed over her. She could feel Anko standing right behind her and if that wasn't enough of a heads up, Anko was laughing.

"Amazing isn't he, his name is Mandria. Truly sui generis, the only of his kind, a drake." Anko snapped and Mandria, whom she had now been properly introduced to, looked up. His eyes were the brightest green she'd ever seen, two slitted pupils of emerald fury and instinct. It--he--hissed, causing Sanae's eyebrows to pull up. What was that... resiliency?

Mandria dipped it's diamond-shaped head down once more, barring its gleaming fangs. The look on Anko's face, unseen to Sanae, freely expressed her insanity. The insane grin on her face widened as Mandria's fangs neared Konoe's pale, smooth, neck.

It would be done! The ritual would be consummated, Mandria would be complete!

Suddenly she found it hard to breath once more, to think, to even exist, In a situation like this, what was she to do. Genius or not, she felt pretty stupid at that moment.

Air burst from her lungs, scrapping against her throat; it only took her a few seconds to realize that she was screaming like a lunatic. Lost in her own little dimension of panic, Sanae ran. She needed to leave, to get out of here! But what about Konoe?

She couldn't leave!

Just then, she denied every single urge to simply grab Anko and proceed to mutilate her. Images raced through her mind, all of them depicting scenes where she tore Anko's body apart limb by limb in a simply spectacular, bloody spray. Sanae could not deny it, the blood lust was back, and she was replete with it. Angrily she wiped the tears from her eyes and sprinted back, not caring whether or not Anko decided to strike with one of her wretched snakes at that moment. All that mattered was her sister.

The kunai fit easily into her palm as she charged forth, her vision faltering with every frizzy strand of hair that flew in front of her eyes. If she remembered correctly, she'd never, EVER, run that fast in her life.

Her foot slammed into Mandria's entire head before he even got to touch Konoe, sending the voracious reptile flying away. She could hear it shrieking, "Do something idiot!" It yelled. As quickly as it was gone, Anko was on her, her eyes glowed with golden luster and she hissed much like a snake. That didn't bother Sanae though, her anger clouded her mind, it was fuel, the nostrum for a her previous dread.

Wildly, she whipped her kunai, overhead, beheading the first snake that struck out at her, and snarled like a madwoman. Metal flashed, reflecting the orange glow of the torches as she spun and sliced and probed with her kunai, even pulling a second one out to increase her chances of landing at hit. Through it all, Anko was calm... perhaps too calm.

Her barrage of steel ended when Anko grabbed her wrist, bending it back, "You know, I was planning on only sacrificing one of you to Mandria, I had intended to kill you but...-" her voice trailed off, and she bent Sanae's wrist back more, bringing the enraged girl to her knees. "-...I think he'll enjoy two meals today, after all, dying by his bite hurts all the more."

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Passing out was so NOT cool, it definitely was not a trend that a lot of Shinobi liked to follow, but as you can see Sanae and Konoe preferred to go against the trend. When Konoe woke up, the world was upside down. A few seconds later her mind reoriented herself and she realized that she was partially naked, upside down, and strapped onto an unusual, oddly star shaped skeletal frame. Anko sure had made sure that she wouldn't be going anywhere. All movement was rendered useless by leather straps pulled so tightly that they dug into the skin; they were strapped to her ankles, wrists, and her horizontally to her abdomen. Her movement was severely limited, if not completely cut off by the arcane contraption.

"You whore, let us go!" That was Sanae, and she sound enraged.

Her vision was still pretty blurry so she couldn't see all that well; and obviously, moving her hand up to rub her eyes was out of the question. So she waited until her vision slowly, very slowly, regained clarity and she could see again. Sanae's face was the first thing she saw, behind her, Anko wrapped her arms around her sister, her long tongue snaking close to her neck, threatening to touch her with its slimy "goodness". The thought of Anko "tasting" her with that freaky tongue of hers was enough to make her shudder, well she would have if she'd been able to move.

"Aww, Sanae-chan, you don't like Anko sensei anymore?" Anko piped, giving Sanae a little lick underneath the chin.

"Screw you!"

"Fufufufufu, what a disrespectful mouth you've got on you here. That's a bit dangerous you know." Anko teased, Sanae didn't stop, she simply insulted her more.

Through it all Konoe stayed silent, biding her time, hopefully, she could observe and spot, if there were any, flaws in the little set up that Anko had put them in. She didn't move, barely opening her eyes to help further increase the facade of unconsciousness that she'd put on. But it was kind of hard to act, observe, and analyze while you were upside down. It wasn't impossible though.

"At least tell us, why you're doing this." Sanae said, for a moment her eyes flicked down to Konoe's and their gazes met, only for a second though. Konoe listened attentively, despite the blood rush to her head.

Anko laughed, it wasn't her normal laugh, it was tainted with the deep and creepy baritone of a man's voice. Sanae's jaw, nearly dropped from the shock. "W-what the fuck are you?" She said.

"You're worst nightmare," Anko said in her new masculine voice, "Anyway, you're about to die, so I shall tell you what I plan. Firstly, I'll introduce myself, the REAL me." Sanae flouted him.

"Oh, don't tell me you're some freaky old spirit who loves to take over the bodies of young hot women, so that you can run wild and live out your fantasy of abducting little girls." Sanae smirked. It was amazing how insouciant Sanae could be about all this, herself, being the reticent sister would have never have said something like this to the dangerous, and outright hostile snake... lady? Man? Whatever.

"You see," the strange thing inhabiting Anko's body went on, "I want something, rather I want someone to help me get something."

"You mind sharing what that something is?" Sanae.

"Immortality," Anko said suddenly, extending her gross snake like tongue out of her mouth and licking both her lips in one big slimy rotation. "But you see, I haven't quite gotten around to a technique that will allow me to attain such status. Poor little me, huh?" She said, throwing Sanae a twisted smiled that, if she weren't trying to remain impassive at the moment, it would have totally caused her to puke.

Anko's golden eyes were beginning to creep her out even more than they had before, but what was even more bizarre was that every few seconds or so, her eyes would flash back to their original color. It was as if someone in her head was constantly flicking a light switch on and off. The period grunts and tense facial expressions that came with the labile eye color didn't go on unnoticed by Sanae as well, she was pretty sure her sister had seen it as well too.

"But that's enough about me though, I would ask you two to speak more about yourselves but-," she took a moment to laugh, "-Anko here has already has enough information about you two, and I think Mandria's getting a little impatient."

Mandria, hissed, directly next to Konoe's head. Up until now, Mandria's presence couldn't even be felt, yet, he was right her beside her. As quickly as instinct driven reflexes would allow, she closed her eyes shut. No breathing, no blinking, no movement... or else death... maybe that was putting it mildly.

"You're damn straight I'm getting impatient, now let's get down to business, I need a sacrifice!" Mandria hissed, literally. Konoe just sat there, motionless, as of now all she could do was think. Okay... what did she know about the enemy.

Well not that much; the Anko sensei in front of her obviously wasn't Anko, at least not mentally. The mental aspect of her sensei, belonged to someone else, probably someone far away, far far away. Periodically, her eyes changed color, from what she'd seen a few seconds ago, going from gold, to the original color. Possibly, that could have been a sliver of Anko's will trying to break free. That, in theory, put a limit on how much control this person had on Anko's mind, as well as form a possible hypothesis as to how the technique that was used to control Anko could be broken. All the evidence pointed to one obvious answer.

Emotion.

As for Mandria... she knew nothing about him. He was a snake, that's it. A talking snake, she'd give him that, but that was all she knew so far, there was the possibility that he was a summon, but that didn't seem to be the likely scenario. Anko didn't treat him like a summon, rather, she seemed to be devoted to him...odd. When Anko bowed low, bringing her head down to the ground, out of respect for Mandria, her thoughts were only strengthened.

"Mandria-sama, your two sacrifices await you. I hope that you are pleased with these two offerings." Anko, said in that same manly voice from before.

Konoe grimaced at the word "sacrifice". Perhaps she was wrong, perhaps Anko wasn't devoted to Mandria, perhaps she worshiped him. Just what the hell was she dealing with then, was Mandria some type of arcane god-snake, that Anko or whoever this person was, had devoted themselves to?

Mandria hissed, she felt the cold wetness of his tongue slinky little tongue slide against her ear. Just as she felt his sharp fangs just barely prick her skin... "Open your eyes girl." She did as she was told, almost immediately she felt as if she were staring down two eternal pits of green fire that were so filled with madness that they made Anko's own sadistic tendencies seem minor.

"A fresh one eh, you've done well... Orochimaru."

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"Konoe-chan, wake up! Come on please!"

"Uhhh, Orochi-..., mmm, Sasuke....trouble."

"W-what!"

"y-you're...Anbu."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Orochimaru was his name.

Mandria coiled around her, wrapping around Konoe's body in a spiral. He hissed, hungrily. His rictus, dripping with saliva and and purple venom that loomed dangerously close to her neck. His maw stopped right before one of his fangs pierced any skin and he turned his head to face Anko...Orochimaru.

He-she, raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Well?"

Mandria trilled, "What do you want to gain from having me dip my fangs into these two girls."

Anko's pretty face twisted into yet another ugly smile. "Please Mandria-sama, I am doing it solely for the sake of experiment, I want to test out the full effects of your bite, in order to make a proper toxin and enhance the curse seal."

A fleshy black section of skin rose above Mandria's eye. "And I supposed this is for the curse mark?" Orochimaru nodded followed by Mandria's long drawn out sigh. "Well, you should know the full effects of my bite, I've only done it once before and look how that person turned out."

"Yes I know, Jugo, and he's still a problem. But that is impertinent as of now, please, I beseech you, mark these two with your bite and allow me to observe."

Mandria dipped his head once more in compliance and opened his maw once more, releasing from it a hot steamy breath that burned Konoe's eyes.

The fang's neared.

Now how would she get out of this?

Sanae knew that answer, it was simple really, it had something to do with an old saying that their mother always told them as a joke. She remembered the words clearly, 'If you find yourself in a trap and you have no where to go, blow everything to hell!' I wasn't really funny, unless you were a Shinobi, and right now, that same shinobi humor brought a smile to Sanae's face. It was something that Orochimaru noticed rather quickly.

"Something funny girl, your sister is about to die, is it that humorous?"

"A little," Sanae chuckled, "I'm smiling because I know I'm about to do something really stupid." The chakra surged throughout her body, like a river, it flowed down to her waist, specifically the two weapon holsters' loosely dangling from them. Tensing, Sanae closed her eyes, vaguely remembering that the contents of the bag; a couple kunai, senbon, a few coils of wire, explosive tags...

Mandria froze, hearing the steady hiss of multiple explosive notes, his tongue flickered in and out. Cocking his head to the side he asked one simple question: "What's that sound?"

Then the bang came. Sanae tensed. 'Here goes nothing!'

Anko seemed to catch on. "You little-" she moved her slender hand to reach for the pouch, but it was too late.

What came next was one of the most unpleasant experiences that Sanae had ever had the misfortune of ever going through. Her back... for lack of a better phrase, exploded. At that moment she had already made it up in her mind, having six very low-grade explosive tags blow up her back was NOT fun at all. It was a desperate tactic, one that she would not be repeating anytime soon.

The pain, it was abundant, disorientation, by the carload. The metal framing she was attached to shattered as easily as glass would have, sending her flying forward where she sprawled out onto the ground in front Konoe. Anko who was also close to the epicenter of the blast, was thrust backward several...hundred... meters. Dust gained sovereignty over the cave interior, swallowing everything in one quick gluttonous shroud of black smoke that engulfed all in its path. Sanae didn't care about any of that though, the only thing that she focused on was the pain, the throbbing, bloody, fatal pain that was tearing her back to shreds.

She felt like literal mince meat. Her shirt was blown off during the explosion, currently a rain of burnt fabric falling down to the ground, exposing her back.

"Uuuuh." Sanae groaned, lying flat on her stomach. The extent of her injury was near fatal. Her own skin, she wore loosely, like a gown of incarnadine silk, that slipped off her back and onto the ground with wet, sloppy splats. Protruding from the scarred, red, wasteland that was her back was the tip of something white, bone, centered directly in the middle of her back. Her very own spinal cord was partially exposed.

Sanae shouldn't have been able to move, yet she did, her finger budged ever so slightly. Through the smoke, Konoe descried this and prepared her mouth to let out the dread filled yell that was so desperately trying to claw its way out of her lungs. One thing stopped her though, the sound of Sanae's voice.

It sounded muffled. "Don't...yell out, he'll notice you." She said.

She rose her brow, who, who would notice her her? Just then, she saw the black outline of Mandria slither past her, somewhere in the affray he had gotten blow back by the impact of the blast as well. Hell, even she felt a violent budge from the brace restraining her. That was when she saw her sister's suicidal plan made sense

Snakes used their smell to hunt, but by exploding several tags, she could make a fair amount of smoke. If a snake could only taste smoke in the air, and feel heat coming from all directions, then it couldn't hunt. Now she understood, she didn't blow herself up to free herself, she did it to save Konoe.

But that left her at a standstill, Sanae had sacrificed to keep Mandria from sinking his fangs into her, but....

"Now what?" Konoe said, letting her head hang low. She was still in this brace, she still couldn't move, she was still upside down. And worst of all she was still devoid of a plan. She had absolutely no clue what to do now, Sanae had brought her halfway, now she needed to take them the rest of the way. She couldn't do a thing, she was a helpless little animal and when the smoke cleared she'd be dead.

Never to see the light of day again. Konoe sniffled, clenching her teeth as a salty tear dripped down from her forehead. She didn't care anymore! She didn't! Sanae hurt herself in vain, they were both going to die here, without ever seeing their mother, or their father, or even Naruto...

She hadn't even gotten to tell him how much she liked him.

Konoe let the tears flow freely, her vision going watery as she sobbed. Bad idea, in fact... it was the worst idea.

"What's this, are those tears I smell?" Mandria's voice came from somewhere distant in the smoke. Apparently, he'd been blown away by the blast. Previously he'd been lost, but with all her crying and sobbing, she had basically pinpointed herself for him.

Her eyes widened, and her teeth pressed together so harshly with fear that they almost cracked.

Shit! She thought. She had been found. But she was going to die anyway... so why was she still so afraid? Did she really have some hope that she'd survive this situation somehow? Of course she did.

"Where are you?" Mandria trilled within the smoke, she heard the dry scrapping of his belly against the floor as he slithered past her.

'Don't move...don't move, don't even think!' She thought to herself as she waited for the pitch black reptile to pass. But he wasn't, he wasn't passing... he was simply sitting there. Had he found her?

"Ah... there you are girl." Konoe widened her eyes. Mandria wasn't talking to her! He was talking to her sister! "Well, I suppose I would have preferred you when you were in better shape but this will have to do." The snake said highhandedly. She couldn't see her sister anymore due to the smoke, so Mandria was out of sight as well, but she knew that he was right in front of her. She could feel it.

Fuck! What was she going to do? Dammit, dammit! She only had one thing to do. She didn't want to but she had to. She needed to save her sister. Shakily she opened her mouth... and yelled out at the top of her lungs.

"I'm over here you slimy worm! Come on... bite me!" The hiss was audible as Mandria turned his head toward Konoe. She knew it now, he was looking at her, she couldn't see it but she didn't have to see to believe. After this... she was very much a believer.

She heard Mandria hiss loudly.

She heard Mandria lunge at her.

But what she didn't expect to hear was the sound of the snake...choking?

"W-what? What's going on?" She asked desperately into the smog which was slowly clearing up.

Konoe's jaw's dropped, the smog cleared, and she was frantically trying to tell her mind that what she was seeing was real. Sanae was....

She was...

Her sister had her fingers wrapped tightly just below Mandria's head. She was choking the snake!(I'm sorry but that reminds me of masturbation, just saying.) Mandria hissed loudly, again and again, spewing his saliva all over her hand. He squirmed even more, managing to slip out a couple of inches. But a couple of inches was all that he needed, all that it took for him to twist his head around and stab his fangs right into the insanely burned skin of Sanae's forearm.

Without restraint she let out a panicked shriek from her lungs. Konoe watched in horror still unable to move as she witnessed her sister's arm begin to convulse.

The air tore through her lungs, and her mind registered it as screaming. She was wailing, howling, whatever you wanted to call it, whatever it was she knew she was doing it at the top of her lungs. Singly, lances of pain stabbed at her arm. Mandria's bite was... unnatural.

"Sanae! Sanae, I'm here concentrate on my voice!" Konoe barked, vainly trying to solace her sister in anyway that she could, and considering her current position, she didn't have many options.

Sanae clawed at the ground, her eyes opening and closing against her will, her lips seemed to be permanently pried open. She was gasping for air, hungering for it even. Slowly her scream died down until it was nothing more but a shrill expulsion of air passing her lips.

"K-k-konoe...I c-can't...."

"No!" Konoe was bawling now, her tears streaming down, rather up her face and onto the ground. "You can't die... y-you can't! Sanae....please....just-" She stopped talking. Just what was she supposed to say, hey don't die? This wasn't some little fairy tail, or some cartoon where the two damsels in distress were saved by a knight in shining armor. This was reality, nobody would come to their aid. Nobody even knew that they were here.

The skin on Sanae's arm had gone from sandy white to outright purple, leaving behind a fervid and pulsing lump on her arm that oozed a mysterious purple luminescent liquid. She was dying, she was going to die and it was all her fault! Why did she have to be so useless, why couldn't she help?

After a couple more minutes of convulsing and Mandria's cackling Sanae stopped moving, going limp like a rag doll. The twinkle in her eyes died, dulling out like a dying light bulb.

That's when the fear hit her full force and left her struggling to get out of the insanely tight brace, she wanted to...needed to be by her sister. Was she dead? Was she dead for real...was she all alone? What dreadful Kami could have cursed her with such an ill fate, to witness her own sister's slow, painful death right before own eyes? It was like shrapnel to the mind, mentally damaging, it stabbed and sat there, festering intensely. Her eyes twitched, uncontrollably...

But she couldn't cry anymore. She'd already lost that ability ten seconds ago, the part of her that could cry just now died along with her sister.

Mandria turned his sleek head toward her then. She didn't react... she simply stared into his verdant eyes. "Now you." he piped. His tongue came dangerously close to her ear as he coiled around her for the second time. She did not resist. After the brief spiral of scales his head rested right next to hers. "You know... you smell delicious... I'll enjoy this," he said right before raising his head and sinking his fangs into her arm."

The pain came instantly. Make it stop... make it stop! Nope, this suffering was hers exclusively. She bit her lip harshly, the taste of her own blood drowned out the sound of her muffled screams. At least to her anyway. Mandria heard everything on the other hand... and he seemed to be enjoying it. One eye widened farther than the other and one side of his mouth curled up, a smile perhaps? His fangs were still in his mouth so as Konoe jostled the sharp appendages she only cut her arm up even more.

Her vision blurred, the hazy sight of Mandria delighting in her blood and flesh being the last thing she saw. After a few seconds, with Konoe still in his maw the obsidian drake let out another string of laughter. He pulled his head back... his venom slowly trailing in a sickly line from the tips of his fangs to Konoe's arm.

He gulped... something down... taking a moment to release a loud "ahh!" of satisfaction. By this time Konoe had already passed out... she could only minutely feel the pain in her arm.

"Orochimaru...where are you?!" Mandria echoed throughout the dim cave, the torches had been extinguished during the explosion so it was pretty dark. It didn't matter though, he was a snake and the dark was his home."Orochimaru!" He yelled again.

No reply.

"Hmm... feckless servant... he must have been caught within the blast, Kami only knows that that pathetic body he was inhabiting could only take so much." He turned to slither away. "No matter."

He stopped short when he heard something, the distinct hiss of another reptile coming his way. "T-think again!" Anko yelled, latching onto Mandria by the neck, via the fangs of another viper, a red one. "The crimson fire snake, rare in Konoha. Hailed by snake hunters for its outrageously hostile poison."

Mandria only laughed. Orochimaru... that punk, he actually slipped. Anko had taken control again, the blast must have knocked that part of her out. Were it the real Orochimaru, the blast would have done nothing, but...

"Clever... but futile... don't you know? You can't poison me with snake's venom. I'm a snake!" He exclaimed incredulously, "This won't kill me." Mandria stared into the crimson eyes of the snake biting into his neck, the fiery fury it held, it was strong and young. If it weren't trying to kill him then he would have complimented it on the beauty and sheen of its scales.

But something was off, this was the Hebi Fang's apprentice.

"I know that...it's a shame, I really like this little guy too." The was a brief moment right before Anko yelled out through the darkness...."Katsu!" A spark of light traveled up the body of the snake, it hissed in pained. The light, it seemed almost like fire, flying swiftly up the viper's length, searing and burning up flesh until it reached the head of the snake. The fire snake's eyes bulged, going cock-eyed and it gave one final hiss before its head, still biting into Mandria's neck exploded.

"Hebi Bakuha!" (2) Anko screamed.

Mandria hissed as he was thrown away, and shakily Anko stood to her knees. She didn't have much time, Orochimaru was over powering her. She needed to get these two out of here before that time came. And judging by the jolts of pain in her skull... that time would be soon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Anko breathed heavily, giving one giant huff just as soon breached through the border of tree and shrub, running rapidly along a flat open clearing. Over her right shoulder, bolstered up by her arm she had Sanae who was slung limply, hanging like a wet rag. Underneath her left underarm, she held Konoe who, much like her sister, dangled as limply as a wet noodle. Both girls had taken a bite from Orochimaru's snake, its venom was already corrupting their systems, but strangely... it was having... a reverse effect.

Instead of hurting, like it did ensuing the bite previously, both girls expressed little more than slight irritation on their unconscious visages. As if they were being soothed. That was just the tip of the iceberg, things got way weirder, as far as physical form went. Mandria's venom was working more like a cure than a venom. She noticed it first when she glanced at the bloody raw of Sanae's back.

That was when she gasped and almost dropped them. To her surprise, things were different. Tone stabilization, rapid skin tissue regeneration, mild occurrences of returning consciences. Amazingly, it didn't seem at all like the "venom" was hurting them anymore, rather it was doing the exact opposite. It was saving them...

Anko took a shuddering glance at the reconstructing skin taking up the majority of Sanae's back, creeping over slowly and spreading to the bloodier parts of her back like a small cinder overtaking a leaf. It was staggering. The girl was healing!

But she was only doing it slowly, really, just the major injuries were being tended to. It seemed that the only thing that was healing on Sanae was her back injury.

She glanced at Konoe as well, she still had open cuts running along her arms and legs. Why wasn't she healing?

How did Mandria's venom work exactly, it was something eldritch to her. He was a species that she'd never seen before. A drake... and obsidian colored one as well. And he could talk too. So was he a summon? Anko shook her head... no, no that didn't seem right. He seemed to be above that, he was something else, something deadly. And apparently, he was something incomplete. Recalling back to what Orochimaru had said when she was trapped in her sub-conscious, Anko bit her lips furiously. She tasted her own blood.

"Just what the hell was he?" She screamed.

That didn't matter, her vision narrowed in on the rugged stone face gaining size as she neared it. Good, she was in propinquity of Konoha, what she needed to do was get these girls there before Orochimaru took over, if that happened...when that happened, the Anbu at Konoha could have her restrained. They might have even killed her but it didn't matter, not anymore. Her students' well-being was much more important, even if it meant endangering her life.

Konoha was coming in fast, she could see the giant green gates flying up to meet her, they were wide open. It was now or never, she could feel Orochimaru's grip tightening on her mind once more. Although she wasn't aware of it, her eyes were constantly displaying flashes of bright gold.

Two guard nin came into view, both with perplexed on their faces. One of them raised his hand to greet her, but stopped short when he noticed the two limp girls dangling in Anko's arms. She whizzed past them both, hanging her head down low. They couldn't see her eyes.

Her head was a buzz, pressurized to the point that it felt like it was about to burst open. Her pace slowed until the acid in her knees caused her to drop to her knees. She clenched her teeth.. barely containing the screams dying to get out. Like pigeons, villagers gathered, unwitting faces, question faces, all of them staring with slack jaws. All of them gazing at the two injured girls in her arms.

She could hear their murmurs, the sounds of little voices, annoying; pounding furiously against her skull. She felt movement underneath her arm. The tuft of unruly auburn hair struggled uncontrollably, Konoe was awake and she was frantic. Just as quickly as Anko had realized this, she unlatched Konoe from her grip and the girl flipped over on her butt and used her feet to push frantically away form her sensei.

She was terrified, her eyes wide as her chest heaved and undulated with each frayed breath. Fear in its primal form, this girl was replete with it. It tore Anko apart, to know that she would be experiencing this fear once more. "K-konoe... it's me, Anko. Not...him." Anko said, wincing.

Konoe didn't respond, she simply shivered, whimpering like a lost puppy, completely oblivious to the villagers encircling them.

"An...ko-s-s-sensei?" She whispered.

Anko shook her head... but slowly. She winced when an iota of pain hit her head once more. She let out a muffled scream. "K-konoe... listen, there's not much time, he's taking control again. Take your sister...ahh! Hurry up and...g-go! Go to the hospital!" Anko shifted slightly, letting Konoe take Sanae onto her back. Once the transfer was complete, Anko looked up... gazing intensely at her student. One eye was golden and slitted, corrupted already, the other was still normal. She closed the eye when she saw Konoe gasp and slowly but assuredly she told her to...

"Run."

Konoe nodded stupidly, backing away as... Orochimaru's smile crept back onto Anko's face once more. And with a speed that surprised all, lashed an unnaturally elongated and slimy tongue out right at her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Konoe woke up screaming, her face drenched with sweat. She sprang up quickly, gripping the sheets tightly in her fist, the cool air flowing through the window refreshed her moist skin. Along with the wind, the moon's fully refulgent glow shined directly onto her face. She looked left, then right.

Good... she was still in the hospital. It was only a dream. One moment, she was happily talking with friends, the most memorable friend being Naruto, and then the next minute...She shuddered, suppressing the thought, his tongue just lashed out at her just like...

Perhaps it was a bit of her memory working its way into her dreams, after all that was one of her most vivid memories. The pained look on Anko's face right before...he opened her mouth and lashed out her tongue. Konoe touched her forehead, it was fervid and pulsating.

Slowly, she lay herself back down.

"Dammit, this is the third time this week that I-" but just as she covered herself with her own covers, the door burst open, mid-sentence, startling her enough that she sat up instantly and brought the sheets just below her eyes like a child scared of the boogieman.

It was that white-haired doctor again, he'd been checking up on them periodically, just to see how they were doing. Konoe thought it was sweet, her sister however expressed disapproval quite sternly. The walls weren't thick enough to contain Sanae's complaining in the other room.

"All you alright?" He asked, "I heard you screaming."

"Oh..uh, just a b-bad dream." She responded.

"I see, will you be alright for the rest of the night?" He asked with concern.

"Yes, um I'm pretty sure that I'll be okay."

The doctor nodded and closed the door, allowing her to go back to sleep.

Outside the door Kabuto smiled, adjusting his glassed professionally. This was ideal, they had no idea who he was. Now all that was left was to make contact with one more person, this would be the most exciting job he'd ever done.

Now he just had to make Uchiha Sasuke aware of the forces watching him. What fun that would be, right?

Right, he was sure that this next job for Orochimaru was sure to be an...explosion.

Done... now if you did not notice, which is highly unlikely, I did something a little different. You should have caught on, pretty much at the beginning but just to elaborate, this was a flashback, a very awesome one in my opinion. But I want to know your opinion...so you already know what to do. Review...Review...oh and Review some more. And the part with Kabuto, yes that was in the past as well, this entire chapter occurred before the bomb chapter, the last one. I hope that you guys caught on to the little pun I put at the end..."sure to be an explosion?"

Reference to the bomb chapter that was written before this chapter, but in story time occurs after this chapter. Yeah...yeah that's about right.

I apologize for the insanely long absence, I had a shit load of crap to do. I'd rather not explain what I did, but just know that I didn't forget you. After this though, if there are any readers who follow my other story, look out for an update on that one as well.

Alert: I am working on a new story, its a very nice idea, i think, but tell me what you think. I wont reveal to much about but I will say that it involves a renegade, assassin like Naruto. Oh and also, he's fed up in this story, he's out of Konoha AND, he's feeling a little...rebellious. oooohhhhhh, bad boy Naruto. But... just so you know, he won't be as strong as the Naruto in this story, but he will be stronger than the one in Sacred Mark of the Rising Kekkei Genkai.

(1): Shuriken Kage Bunshin No Jutsu: Shadow Shuriken Clone Technique

(2): Hebi Bakuha: Snake Explosion; just to explain, this is a made-up technique from yours truly. You know, I was always wondering, how come Anko never used her deadly vipers as a pipeline for some awesome jutsu? You know like, what if she could channel a jutsu through one of her snakes, like imagine a snake spitting out a dragon flame jutsu... I wonder. I dunno, I'll be experimenting with Anko's jutsu, because, honestly you just don't see a lot of them during the anime. But don't worry she'll be performing some regular and well-known jutsu as well, this one, the HEBI BAKUHA was just one instance of my experimenting. It came from the shadow clone explosion technique, the same one Itachi used during his and Kisame's fight with Gai, Kakashi, and Kurenai. I simply created a variation using snakes. Okay... that's it.

Um happy holidays and have a Merry Christmas...Or a Happy Hanukkah... Or a Happy Kwanzaa!

Anyway

Latr and Thanx

Next chapter: The Lambent

GrIm'S sTePpIn' OuT