Puppet Legend
Chapter 9 - Chinatsu
"Anko, what a surprise meeting you here."
"Orochimaru." Anko ground out, spitting on the floor in front of her former sensei. "What the hell do you want?" She quickly drew a Kunai in each hand and began gathering chakra.
"I want the Uchiha. Give his to me, and I'll leave you and the rest of the brats alone." Orochimaru smirked, and licked his lips with his unnaturally long tongue.
Anko smirked back, and began chuckling.
"I don't see what's funny." Orochimaru hissed, all the amusement of meeting up with his old apprentice vanishing in an instant. "The other villages wouldn't be impressed if one of Konoha's Missing Nin slaughtered all the Chuunin exam candidates."
He continued, noticing his words were having no affect on the kunoichi. "You didn't let a group of angry villagers get to your head did you? I didn't think you'd end up going crazy, but it just goes to show a dreadfully evil Snake Sannin can always be wrong.
Anko finally composed herself, and made eye contact with her old sensei. "You must have really crap spies."
"What?"
"The Uchiha left almost three months ago."
For a moment a look of intense anger flitted across his face, a moment later it vanished, and was replaced with a look of mild annoyance.
"It matters little; I will have his eyes anyway. I can have Kimimaro fetch him. He will be useful one last time before he dies. I'm afraid it ends here Anko. I can't have you telling anyone my plans, let alone reveal the embarrassing gaps in my spy network you so kindly pointed out. Kukukuku that might ruin my reputation a little."
"What reputation?"
"Come on Anko, these distraction tactics aren't like you at all. I've already killed that clone you sent for help." Anko stiffened, and looked down at the ground. She was on her own.
"Now show me that fighting spirit." Orochimaru leered.
Anko's eye's glinted with determination, as she rolled up the sleeves of her trench coat. "Let's fight."
She threw the two kunai in her hands at his chest. Then was forced to roll to the side when he caught them and launched them back twice as fast. She flashed through the seals, and extended her hands out, a swam of snakes slithered out from her sleeves, fanning out towards Orochimaru.
He quickly formed his own hand seals creating a wave of water which collided with the snakes, stopping their progress and washing them back towards Anko.
"Doton Doryuu Heki" Anko called while crouching down hands against the floor. A large wall of earth rose out of the ground in front of her, nearly reaching up to the canopy of the forest, and stretching ten meters wide. The wave of water collided with the obstacle, losing its energy, and collapsing onto the forest floor. The snakes that hadn't already vanished, collided with the wall and disappeared with clouds of smoke.
Anko leapt out from behind the wall and shouted: "Katon: Gōkakyu no Jutsu." She opened her mouth and exhaled a tongue of flame which formed into a huge ball shape, then shot off towards Orochimaru. She quickly replaced herself with a rock away to the left of her opponent, and drew a couple of shuriken.
Orochimaru was standing a little way off smirking as the technique charged towards him. He almost leisurely began forming hand seals and muttered: "Suiton: Suikōdan no Jutsu." The ankle deep water around him rose up in front of him in the shape of a shark. With a final seal, the shark shot of towards the fireball, cutting straight through the centre. The fire that hadn't been extinguished, collapsed in on itself, and dissipated into the air.
Anko silently cursed. She'd put a lot of power into the Jutsu, and had hoped that someone would notice it. She threw the Shuriken as fast as she could at the Snake Sanin. She quickly cast another Jutsu, multiplying the two Shuriken into more than fifty.
Orochimaru whirled round his eyes widening slightly. Almost instantly his hands flashed through the seals, and he opened his mouth blowing the chakra enhanced air towards Anko. The shuriken which hadn't hit any tree's whirled to a halt, and switched direction heading directly towards the snake mistress.
She vainly tried to dodge them all, however their large numbers overwhelmed her, and one stuck her in the thigh, just below the base of her skirt. Ignoring the pain she finally dodged the last one, and whirled back to face her opponent, but found he'd vanished.
"I see Sensei's taught you a few tricks, it won't be enough though." Orochimaru sneered. Anko spun around trying to locate the sound of his voice.
A snake appeared above her, it opened its jaws poised to bite and poison her; however Anko was quicker, and jammed a kunai down the throat dispelling the summons.
"Summoning Snakes to do your dirty work is a coward's job." She scoffed, taking the opportunity of the lapse in action to pull the shuriken out of her leg. She stiffened in pain but didn't cry out. Quickly tearing off a strip of her trench coat, she wrapped it firmly around her leg and tied it off.
"Don't you see how far off you are from my level of ability Anko-chan? It's pointless to resist."
Anko sensed where he was and whirled around to see a thirty foot snake crashing towards her. She jumped up into the nearest tree to avoid being eaten by teeth the size of her arm. She created a few Kage-Bunshin, and sent them off to nearby trees to look for her estranged sensei.
One almost instantly disappeared, sending Anko the memories of its last moments before being crushed under a huge boulder. The nest was cut in half by Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword, and the final one a moment later was incinerated by a huge stream of fire. Anko reeled from the information overload she was getting in the space of a couple of seconds, nearly falling out of the tree, but managing to cling onto the main trunk.
"You're outclassed in every area Anko. Accept your fate and die in peace." Orochimaru said, appearing on a tree opposite her."
He was breathing heavily, and it looked as if all the pointless high ranking Jutsu's were taking effect on his chakra reserves.
"If I'm going to die I'll take you with me." She jumped across and caught hold of Orochimaru's hand with one hand, the other forming a single seal. "Sojasosai no Jutsu!"
Two snakes appeared from the sleeves of her trench coat, winding their way around her wrists, till they met at the joined hands. Orochimaru tried to pull away, but couldn't. Both the snakes raised their heads, and bit down into both wrists.
"Why did you do that?"Orochimaru asked softly, looking at his old student curiously.
"I had to stop you for the good of Konoha."
"You wouldn't do something like that for Konoha, tell me the real reason."
"You had to be stopped, so you wouldn't ruin the lives of other innocent people like me. Now no-one will have to suffer like I have, or have that cursed seal again." A smile tugged at Anko's lips, as her finger's slipped out of Orochimaru's hands, and she fell to her knees.
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm not dying anytime soon." Orochimaru gloated. Anko stiffened, then looked up at him.
"How?"
"Do you really think I'd teach someone a Jutsu that could so easily kill me? I've integrated snake DNA into my own, my body can fight off the venom. It takes up quite a bit of chakra, but in twenty minutes it will be completely gone from my system."
Anko looked down at the ground, accepting her defeat.
"I may save you the pain though, you gave me a good fight, and for that you deserve a quick death. He drew Kusanagi and positioned it over her head.
Anko waited, she felt the stream of air the sword displaced on its journey down, then suddenly a clang of metal on metal sounded just over her head. She looked up to see two crossed swords struggling for dominance over head.
"I was wandering what it would take to get you to come out."
Anko looked up at her savoir. He had black trousers, and a loose black top covered with a strange orange design that she couldn't make out due to the poison coursing through her system affecting her eyesight. She smiled up at her rescuer then collapsed to the ground and lay still.
"That's an extremely rare poison, she'll be dead in half an hour, and excluding my old teammate, no-one has enough chakra or control to save her." Orochimaru commented casually, looking at the new arrival's concerned face. "Shame, she had potential, but had to go and waste it by staying in this village."
"I'm going to kill you for doing that."
"Now now, Naruto-kun. She had to die, beside's take a look in her mission order pouch."
Naruto cast a wary eye at the snake Sennin, who had relaxed the force he was pressing the sword down with, however it was still resting on Naruto's simple Katana only a few feet above Anko's exposed neck.
He brought up his other hand, and formed half a seal forming a Kage-Bunshin. The clone reached down and removed the small pouch from Anko's belt.
"I'm impressed Naruto-kun, most Jonin struggle to form one handed seals, and holding off my sword attack with only one hand…very good."
Naruto merely grunted in reply, and held out his hand for the small scroll which his clone handed him. All ninja had to carry their mission orders with them when on a mission so they could prove to any clients that they're genuine, and to allow them entrance into foreign countries. For example if a client hired some Konoha nin's to kill some bandits in Suna, then these papers would be needed to prove their intentions if they got stopped by any border guards.
Naruto looked down at the unravelled scroll and read the short message.
A-Rank Retrieval mission:
Mitarashi Anko of Konoha to retrieve Missing Nin Uzimaki Naruto alive.
Reward 750,000 Ryu.
Access required to all hidden countries, due to unknown location.
Naruto read the message and dropped it next to Anko, his facial expressions refusing to reveal any emotions.
"I told you, Konoha doesn't want you. Come with me, and leave those scum to suffer their deserved fate. I can teach you so much, give you all that you need for revenge, to prove to them they were wrong." Orochimaru looked at Naruto hungrily. "See the standard of Konoha ninja." He kicked Anko's writhing body at their feet. "Come with me."
"No."
"This is a once in a lifetime experience. The offer won't be available again."
"No." Naruto repeated staring back at Orochimaru levelly.
"Fine, no point in keeping pretence's up. You have the Kyuubi, I want it. You made a wise choice not to believe me, but in the end it will make no difference. You see I've been studying that seal of yours ever since I borrowed one of Sensei's old scrolls last year, and fortunately for you, I've found a way to make it work for me, so whether you come willingly or not, I'm going to have control over the demon inside you."
Naruto filed the information away for later, then jerked his sword up knocking the snake sword back towards its master, and twisted the blade around and swung at his legs. Orochimaru jumped backwards and landed on a different tree a little way off.
Naruto summoned as many clones as would fit on the branch, about twenty, and bent down to examine Anko.
"The number of clones you have will make no difference." Orochimaru commented, looking slightly disappointed at Naruto's apparent battle tactics.
Ignoring him, Naruto jumped to the floor of the forest, bit his thumb and slammed his hands into the ground calling 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu.' The smoke cleared, and three Salamanders appeared. Naruto returned to the tree, and gently picked up Anko and placed her gently on the first who had pale blue scales and was about as tall as Naruto and twice as long. The next was slightly larger, with bright red and yellow scale, elongated canines, and slightly longer thicker legs.
He motioned to half the clones, who went to join the two Salamanders.
"Get her to the hospital. Watch out for his snakes." He ordered, and pointed towards Konoha. One of the clones nodded, and the small group jumped off away from the clearing."
Orochimaru looked aghast, at the final summon, standing at least twenty five feet of the ground, with bright gold armour like scales, a giant blue sword strapped to its back.
"How did you get the Salamander contract? That's Hanzo's and he wouldn't teach someone like you. Beside's I thought my old comrades were keeping a close eye on him. They wouldn't let someone like you escape their clutches."
Naruto took the opportunity, and jumped towards him as fast as he could, drawing the Kanata he'd since sheathed.
Orochimaru gulped, and tried to bring his own sword up to meet the incoming attack, however he was too late, and the Kanata glanced off the other blade, and deflected into Orochimaru's arm leaving a deep gash. He looked down in surprise the thin cut in his shirt revealing deep purple blood seeping rapidly from the wound.
He hissed in anger, and struck out with his tongue, however Naruto ducked underneath, swinging around under the branch, and up the other side landing a heavy kick to Orochimaru's chest. He went flying backwards into a branch with a sickening thud; however Naruto didn't leave it there.
He ran through a set of hand seals, and breathed out a long tongue of flame. It blasted straight into him square on. Naruto continued the Jutsu for another few seconds, then let it fall. The fire slowly receded, revealing a burnt mangled body partially imbedded into the burning wood. Naruto kept his Kanata raised cautiously, motioning for some of the clones to join him. They immediately jumped up and began watching for sneak attacks from behind, above or below.
Slowly one of the hands moved, detaching itself from the blazing wood, and pushing against the branch allowing the body to tumble to the leafy ground below.
Naruto quickly motioned, the remaining four clones on the ground hurrying over to surround the body. One drew a Kunai and threw it at the exposed, apparently unprotected back. A hand shot out, and grabbed the weapon a moment before it would have impacted. He proceeded to run the Kunai up his back, cutting deeply into the blackened flesh. Once there was a long cut running the length of his back, the hand pulled the wound apart as if it were a costume, and pulled a perfectly fresh unmarked body out from inside, even wearing clothes.
Finally the arms and head were pulled out, leaving the empty blackened skin screwed up on the floor, revealing a completely new person. They had long black hair, light delicate features and defiantly breasts, Naruto noted, jumping down to get a closer look.
"Very good Naruto-kun. You've forced me to reveal my true form."
"What's the deal then?" Naruto demanded glaring at the woman he was now facing. "Unless Iruka-sensei consistently taught us drunk, Orochimaru was defiantly a bloke."
"Oh this is an immortality technique I developed. Every three years I can change bodies; in fact that's where your little friend the Uchiha comes in. Oh I know all about you and your little friends in Team 7."
"Right until I killed your spies." Naruto smirked, frantically thinking of ways he could escape.
"Oh those two were expendable; Kabuto's been watching up until the day those Konoha fools lost him. He was needed to look after Kimimaro, so I got that fool Danzu to have you followed."
"Oh you were the idiot in the cloak with those other three that were fooling around with my super clone. That explains a lot." Naruto was curious. Whoever this Kabuto was, if he was following him, then he'd surely know the Sasuke had left, however Orochimaru turned up to this exam to abduct him. Maybe if he got out of this, this Kabuto guy could help him.
"Enough talking, now let's finish this before anyone else gets here."
"Afraid of having to fight a few Konoha Nin's?" Naruto taunted as three of his clones ran to engage the Snake with Taijutsu. The first ran straight towards him, then at the last minute dodged under the sword swing, and tried to sweep his legs from under him, however he was stopped by the other hand which chopped down on the clone's neck instantly dispelling it.
Orochimaru turned just in time to duck under a Kunai. He shot his tongue out of his mouth connecting with one of the two remaining clones, sending it flying backwards thirty yards. The last threw a few Shuriken, which were easily deflected, then drew a sword, and charged forward. Orochimaru shook his head in contempt, and dodged to the left of the swing. He was about to bring Kusanagi down on the clone when it exploded. The Sanin displayed excellent reflexes by dropping to the floor immediately and bringing his arms up to protect his face, however it was too late, and he was catapulted back by the hot expelled air, skidding across the floor.
Naruto looked down at his opponent grinning. Orochimaru slowly got to his feet, and met the blonde's gaze. He snarled and bit his thumb, summoning another giant snake. He didn't have enough Chakra for Manda, and he would cause far too much destruction attracting the attention of others. The snake he was standing on was about a hundred feet long with a diameter of about ten foot.
It jerked forward, winding from side to side leaving large gouges in the tree's it brushed past. The Salamander reached round to its back and drew the large sword that lay sheathed there, careful not to knock Naruto off.
"Let's go Chinatsu." Naruto yelled, launching a few Kunai at the approaching snake. They bounced harmlessly off its scales, however the exploding notes exploded, causing it to jolt to one side. Noticing this, the Salamander launched herself at the momentarily preoccupied snake, stabbing the sword straight through the back of its head and into the ground. It hissed, and swung its tail around knocking Chinatsu onto her back.
Naruto just managed to escape being squashed, and watched as the giant Salamander flipped over, and announced it's only Jutsu. "Taimu: Chiyo Natsu" He reached out and grabbed a hold of the thrashing snake. The snake slowly at first, then faster, began to grow. In a few seconds it had reached the size of Manda, the current snake boss. Orochimaru jumped off looking at the snake in confusion. It had now come loose of the ground; however the Salamander's sword was still sticking out of the beast's neck.
As soon as it had reached what appeared to be its maximum height, it slowly began to shrink again, its scales one by one dropping off, revealing soft flesh underneath that was slowly wrinkling. In just a few more second, the great Snake had been reduced to skin and bones, but it didn't stop there, the skin slowly peeled off leaving a bare skeleton. Orochimaru reached over to prod one of the bones; however it disintegrated in his hands.
"It's Chinatsu's special Jutsu" Naruto explained. "His name literally means One Thousand Summers, and that's what the technique does, age whichever summons's he touches by a thousand years. Shame it doesn't work on humans otherwise we could test that immortality Jutsu of yours."
"Enough." Orochimaru snapped, glaring at the cheerful blond in front of him. He leapt forward too fast for Naruto to react, and smacked the blond in the face, however he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The Snake Sannin noticed it too late, and spun round just in time to see a spinning ball of condensed chakra slam into his chest.
Naruto collapsed to the floor breathing heavily. That move had taken a lot out of him. With everything he'd done, he was surprised he even had enough for that. He managed to look up to see Orochimaru stagger to his feet, a large circular hole in his chest splattering the ground around him with blood.
"You've surprised me Naruto, and you fought well, but it wasn't quite enough. I would take you with me, however I don't have enough chakra for a Shunshin for myself let alone two people, and with this wound I wouldn't be able to carry you." He clutched at his chest in pain and coughed up some blood. "Besides I can feel the fox waking up. Remember I will be back for you." He smirked, and his head shot out from his body, his neck freakily extending out towards Naruto.
He bit down into Naruto's neck sending the blond reeling in pain, as he felt a foreign body invade his system. Satisfied, Orochimaru removed his fangs, and returned his head to its original position. Naruto clamped his hand over the wound, covering up the small black seal that had appeared there.
"A parting gift."
AN: Wow, longest chapter yet, and it was all fighting. How was it?
To counter any flames in advanced. Naruto is not as strong as Orochimaru so this isn't unbelievable! He spent a lot of Chakra defeating Anko, and Naruto surprised him so managed to get some hits in. he was trying to capture Naruto, so couldn't use any killing blows, and also if you were a big bad evil ninja would you fight your best against a thirteen year old?
The fight between Orochimaru and Anko was different than in the real manga/anime partly because it was really short and not that great a fight, and partly because I figure if Orochimaru wants Naruto to come with him, then showing off some flashy Jutsu's would be better then acting creepy and attacking people with your long tongue.
Huge thank you to you all for the great response I got to the last chapter and the poll I did. 'Druss The Legend' made a good point in that it would be good for the reader to get to know Anko and the other characters a bit more before deciding the final pairing; however for the moment I'm going along the Naruto/Kyuubi/Anko path; however nothing will happen for a few chapters so I may have another poll at a later date.
Thanks for reading, how you enjoyed it.
ps: to 'Football Fanatic' - Totally agree!
Edit: Some people have worried about Naruto getting the cursed seal. Wait for the next chapter, I've got most of it planned out, and honestly it's not that big a deal.