Chapter 17 – More Important Than Fear

Tsume woke groggily to the sound of a whining nin-dog. Opening her eyes she saw Kuromaru at the foot of her bed staring at the messenger pigeon standing on her windowsill. Looking at the clock caused her to groan, why was she being harassed at such an uncivilized hour? The bird lacked the seal of the Hokage so she knew it was a personal message rather than an official summons, but that was what made it weird. It was not unheard of to receive a summons in the middle of the night, but to receive a personal note at such a ridiculous hour was highly unusual. Rising from her bed, her senses sharpening as she shook the sleep from her body, she finally noticed the feel of a dark chakra seeping through the air. Though it was faint, she could tell it was coming from a great distance away which indicated it was far from weak, and she promised herself she would make sure to investigate it in the morning.

Pulling the tiny scroll from the pigeon's leg, she began to unroll it and noticed the hastily written chicken scratch as Rikku's handwriting. Usually the girl's calligraphy was piss poor at best (she usually convinced Kotetsu to pen her teleportation scrolls, as her own penmanship was so atrocious they often wouldn't work if she did it on her own) but this was beyond bad, it was practically illegible. While trying to decode the message and figure out what in tarnation the damn thing said, her mind raced with possibilities for why it had been sent at all.

The fact that Rikku had written it meant that they were being secretive, she was the only one discreet enough to pull it off, otherwise one of the boys would have written it, thus it would have been legible. Incidentally it being written so shoddily, even for Rikku, suggested it had been written in a hurry, which definitely didn't bode well for the well being of her team, and led Tsume to conclude that her brats were in some kind of trouble. If only she could understand what the hell they had written down. Usually deciphering a code was time consuming enough, compounding that with the fact that the kanji looked worse than if Kiba had scribbled them down the time it took her to translate was lengthened considerably.

Approximately an hour after she'd first opened her student's scroll Tsume was still unsure of the exact message it contained, but had figured out enough of it to be very concerned. If she was correct, the gist of it was, "1000 samurai in Forest of Death, Izumo to save Anko, secret please." Even under the best circumstances the implications of it sent her reeling.

They couldn't be going into the Forest of Death, right? They weren't that stupid. Unless Izumo thought Anko was in there and needed saving? Sweet Kami! They were heading into the Forest of Death! 1000 samurai or not the consequences of such an excursion would be drastic. And "secret please?" They had to be kidding, there was no way with 1000 enemies inside the gates of Konoha she could even entertain the idea of keeping it a secret. Suiting up, Tsume quickly scribbled a note to the Hokage and sent the pigeon on its way. With Kuromaru at her side she took off toward the Forest of Death, which also seemed to be in the same direction as that ominous chakra, a fact that only served to spur her feet that much quicker.

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"Fuck!" Anko swore loudly as Amegakure's army of samurai surrounded them. Dropping Obito to the ground abruptly (there wasn't time to worry about his comfort , if she didn't win this fight he would be dead and it wouldn't matter that she'd thrown him in the dirt)she pulled her katana and wakizashi from their sheaths on her back.

"Form a protective circle around him!" she ordered only to notice Kakashi had passed out. Apparently the run had been too much strain on his already physically taxed body. Itachi had pushed him back toward Obito and now stood shakily in front of them clutching his own katana with a knuckle white grip.

Upon their arrival the samurai had originally been wary of them when the rag-tag bunch of ninja had burst into their camp. Now, however, Anko noticed they seemed very aware of the face that even though their opponents were ninja, they were in no shape to do battle. As if in response to her thought they glared menacingly and the ring of assailants began to constrict around her and Itachi as they closed in for what looked to be an easy slaughter.

"Don't come any closer and I won't kill you all," Anko snarled, hoping her false bravado would be taken seriously and perhaps intimidate those less inclined to fight a kunoichi. She knew, as most ninja knew, that most samurai, however well trained, wanted nothing to do with fighting a shinobi; in most cases it was a suicide mission. Unfortunately, today, with their vast numbers and her own very limited resources, it didn't look like that would be the case.

"Hahaha," a middle aged man baring a lightning bolt tattoo across his face cackled at her. "You're going to kill us all, huh? That's a good one doll face. You're giving me a good laugh. I have to say I'm surprised though. Is this all the great and mighty nation of Konoha could muster up? A scrawny little girl with a big mouth, two corpses, and a sniveling whelp? I have to say I'm not impressed, and here I thought we'd actually get to have a real fight."

"Sorry, but on such short notice we were all that was available. I'm sure that if you hadn't snuck in during the middle of the night like the simpering cowards you are, you would have gotten a much better reception," Anko spat; insulting their honor in hope that they would anger easily. An emotional opponent was not one that was ruled by logic or reason which would cause them to make mistakes, and hopefully they would be big mistakes. One couldn't hope to look beneath the underneath if they were charging blindly into battle, and Anko was hoping for just that. She was also hoping to buy some time while she tried to think of a plan to put under the underneath; so far she had nothing.

"Shut your mouth bitch," the tattooed mad snapped, rising to her bait. "You'll pay for that. We were just going to kill you, but just for that insult we're going to make sure to kill all your little friends here, while you watch. Then we'll all take turns having our fun with you before we slit your throat. How does that sound to you, huh?"

"Really? Is that what you think is going to happen?" she asked, and an evil grin crept across her face in a maniacal mocking of a smile. She laughed heartily throwing off the legion of samurai currently transfixed on her insane visage. Noticing the tattooed man unconsciously stepping back from her with a slightly nervous look on his ugly face she threw her head back and unleashed a mad cackle. More scared than she'd ever been in her life, there was no way in hell she was going to let that bastard see it, Konoha couldn't afford for her to have any weakness right now. She'd thought of a plan that might be able to stall the invaders long enough for their backup to arrive. Seeing the vast number of enemies around her she wished she'd sent Akasha to visit someone a little more formidable, but it was too late now. What's done is done, she thought as she activated the second level of the Ten no Juin, and put the first stage of her plan into action.

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Arriving at the Forest gate Hizashi looked at his team and then at the massive enemy encampment not far from where they stood, and grimaced. It was going to be too much; some of them were going to die, if not all four of them, and he just wasn't ready for that. He thought about ordering them to go home and as much as wanted to do so, he knew he couldn't. Knowing they were Konoha genin did little in the way of making him forget that they were just children. Children he had grown to care for almost as much as he did his own son. But facts were facts, children though they may be, they were genin, soldiers of the Leaf Village, and inside those gates stood defilers of Konoha. Even if all they managed to do was slow the charge of invaders into their home, they had to try. The Village Hidden in the Leaves would expect no less of its protectors.

Choosing his next words was more difficult then he'd thought it would be. These could very well be the last words he ever said to them, the last words he ever said to anyone for that matter, and though he hoped they wouldn't be, the odds were not in his favor. The three of them were staring at him intently. Iruka looked ready to vomit. Even without knowing about the samurai lurking behind the gate ready to stab and gut them, his students could feel the overwhelming evil of the Kyuubi's demon chakra, and his gentle hearted student wasn't taking it well. Yugao on the other hand looked blood thirsty, battle lust filled the young girls' usually placid grey eyes; her body taught and ready for battle with her muscles coiled tightly and ready to spring. Hayate he worried about least, the boy's features remained stony and blank, he face was unreadable and emotionless; exactly the way a shinobi should be.

"Listen up," Hizashi began in the no nonsense voice he'd used in ANBU, a tone his student's had thus far never heard before, but he needed to convey to them the seriousness of the situation. "When we get beyond this gate there will be no talking, you will rely solely on hand signals for communication, and none of you are to make a sound. If I hear so much as a leaf crackle underfoot you won't have to worry about the enemy killing you, because I'll do it myself. Inside that gate are 1000 hostile samurai, all strong, and all ready to disembowel you. On top of that, that angry chakra you're feeling, that belongs to a demon. There are no reinforcements on the way. The people you see around you right now are the only ones you're going to see, the only ones besides yourself that you can depend on to get you out of there alive. If we manage to take out the samurai without all of our deaths, those remaining alive are not done, ultimately the demon is the mission. We must protect Konoha at all cost. Now, look at me when I say this last part. Before we go in there I want you to know that I'm proud of you all. You're all strong and fine shinobi and I'm glad to have you on my team. That being said, once we get in there, I need you all to be perfect. There is no room for error or hesitation. Do not hold back or show mercy because none will be given to you. I don't want to be carving your names into a stone at the end of this. Do you understand?"

His team nodded somberly.

"Do you understand?" he repeated loudly, his gaze fixed firmly on Iruka.

"Hai sensei," they said clearly, and Hizashi noticed Iruka's breathes deepen as he attempted to calm his nerves.

"Alright then, I'll go over the attack formation and then we go in."

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Itachi held his katana in a vice-like grip, hanging onto it for dear life. His limbs ached with every motion and blood continued to seep from his numerous wounds. Watching the samurai close in on him and Anko it seemed he had been saved from one hell only to be thrown into another. He questioned Anko's goading of their enemy when they were so obviously disadvantaged and doomed, but then he supposed it wasn't in her nature to go down quietly and he took comfort in the fact that despite circumstance the brash kunoichi remained true to form. He really hoped she had a plan, any plan at all, because as fast as his mind was coming up with scenarios and courses of action, as far as he could tell every single one of them would end with their demise. The odds were so far out of their favor he couldn't think of any happy ending to their future.

"Really? Is that what you think is going to happen?" he heard Anko ask before gasps and whispers broke out among the samurai. Hazarding a glance behind him, he had to do a double take. Black spirals leapt across his ally's skin as she turned a blue-grey color and her dark hair faded to white. Equally disturbing, if not more so, a second pair of arms were ripping their way out of the flesh on her back while forming hand signals as they emerged, even as Anko screamed from the pain of their birth. Several of the samurai took steps back in fear of the monster she'd become, while the rest managed to stare in awe.

Hand seals completed, Anko muttered, "Soulbane," and then chaos erupted.

Unsure what he should do, Itachi watched as the samurai turned on one another and began cutting and shredding their comrades to pieces. Anko's maniacal laugh reached his ears and he turned to see the blue skinned devil jump into the horde of enemies slashing them apart. Her dual blades spun blindingly fast, cleaving effortlessly through the flesh and bones of their opponents, while her extra set of limbs continued forming hand seals and blasting their attackers with various jutsu. First a fireball exploded taking out two samurai in its blast radius, next an arch of lightning shot from her fingers catching a man in the shoulder sending shockwaves through his body, his hair lit on fire and he convulsed for several moments before falling down dead, and still her hands flashed more signs and more samurai fell.

Distracted by the ferocity displayed by his previously frail looking comrade, Itachi was paying little attention to what was going on around him.

"Look out!" Anko shouted, Itachi ducked as a rival samurai he had failed to see bore down on him barely missing his left shoulder in a wild swing.

Throwing his body to the ground he was barely able to dodge the sword coming swiftly at his head. Rolling to his knees he managed to parry his opponent's next attack while climbing to his feet. The samurai raced at him again swinging wildly and Itachi jumped out of the way. The man was fighting recklessly, completely underestimating the tiny Uchiha, and Itachi knew that if he hadn't been so injured he could have easily defeated him. Unfortunately, the snakes that had saved his life had also done a great deal of damage to his body and every motion he made sent waves of pain coursing through his entire being while his movements were getting more and more sluggish as time passed. He knew he had to finish the man off quickly before he succumbed to the pain and collapsed, but with each swing he evaded he got slower and weaker whilst his adversary's speed and strength only seemed to magnify.

The blows continued to rain down, coming quicker each time, and he could no longer elude them so he brought his katana up in an attempt to block them. Each hit he deflected jarred his already bleeding arms and weakened him even further, and with every failed swing his foe seemed to get angrier and more determined to destroy him. Noticing his fatigue, the samurai took the opportunity to press him harder and slashed at him again, only this time he was too slow to fend off the attack completely. Instead it glanced off his sword to cut deeply into his shoulder and knock him to his knees.

The enemy charged again and Itachi knew it was hopeless. The battle raged around him in an almost surreal manner. Time seemed to stop and he could hear the clang of metal on metal, as well as the gasps of the dying, but all he could focus on was the sword arching toward his face to end his life, and he hoped someone else would be able to take care of his otouto for him. Then came a moment of clarity, he could see the man coming and he calmed himself to concentrate and dodge the blow, why was the man moving so slowly? Itachi blinked and his world changed. It was like the man was moving in slow motion, with moves as leaden as that there was no reason Itachi couldn't defeat him. Why had he given up? Side stepping to the samurai's right, he moved around to the man's back and slammed his katana into his torso and out through his ribcage. Jerking his sword out sent the man sprawling to the ground dead.

Still aching and about to collapse, Itachi looked at the battle through new eyes. Dark purple chakra swirled and arched through the air surrounding Anko as she whirled from one enemy to the next, seemingly invincible. The same dark chakra clung to the eyes of the enemy too he noticed. No, that was wrong he noted, it wasn't just the eyes, the chakra was completely surrounding their whole heads. Anko must have used some kind of genjutsu on them, which would explain why the enemy was attacking each other.

Itachi watched as Anko cut down yet another foe, but the tide seemed endless and as remarkably as she was performing she was only one person, and he could tell she was tiring. He wanted to help her, and he tried to move to do so but his feet refused to move. Instead he stumbled forward, falling down exhausted onto Obito and Kakashi before everything went black.

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A sharp yank pulled her wakizashi from the back of a man's head, an action from which she used the momentum of to swing the katana in her opposite hand to slice another across the chest. Having witnessed Itachi's collapse onto the pile of their comrades Anko had done her best to draw the bulk of attention onto herself. Using a series of flashy moves to distract their opponents she was able to cast a weak genjutsu to shield the injured leaf shinobi. With her nakama hidden from danger she could now focus fully on the battle at hand.

With the power of the Heaven seal coursing through her veins she had yet to feel the fatigue she knew would be coming; instead she felt incredible despite the cuts, bruises, and scrapes now littering her body. She knew however, that as high as she was right now the crash would be all that much worse; when the low hit it would be devastating. Alone in the field with no medic, she doubted she would even survive it, but that was not one of her concerns. She had already accepted the fact that this battle would probably be her last and her only goal at this point was to last until the cavalry arrived to bring her boys home breathing.

Bringing her katana around in a high arc she severed the skull off an incoming samurai while her extra appendages were finishing a final hand seal.

"Katon Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)," she shouted before spewing a gigantic ball of fire from her lips. As it incinerated all the attackers in its path Anko used the inhuman strength she temporarily possessed to launch a back flip that landed her on the shoulders of the tattooed bastard who'd threatened her earlier. And while she really wanted to supply a witty quip before she snapped his neck with her thighs, she instead chose speed over clever banter. Breaking his neck before he said a word, she grabbed a low lying tree limb and swung up to the relative safety of the branches before his body hit the ground.

From her precarious perch she surveyed the battlefield, noticing that she had indeed managed to do quite a bit of damage to Amegakure's battalion. In the short amount of time they'd been fighting she herself had managed to take out 52 of the scummy bastards, and with Itachi's kill the score so far was Konoha: 53 Amegakure:0, not counting the companions they had killed themselves.

Anko always kept track of her kills. Orochimaru had demanded it; he'd said you should always know how many men had been unable to defeat you so you would know your own worth to the village. After every skirmish he'd ask, "So Anko how many useless nobodies were powerless to stop the blade of the Snake Sannin's blade?" Originally she hadn't wanted to take account of them, but with Orochimaru's not so subtle prodding she had done it anyway, and now even with him gone the habit was so ingrained in her psyche she might as well have been born doing it. In the beginning she believed it might have been to prove how good she was to her sensei, but now that she'd thought about it, it was likely more to boost his own ego. If he could say he trained the best genin in all of Konohagakure, it was more his accomplishment than hers. Now she kept track out of respect for the fallen; remembering each and every person she killed was her penance. She knew it was a little morbid, but she wasn't the only one to do it, and ninja all dealt with death and guilt in their own way; nobody would question her for it.

Below her the enemy combatants continued going to town on their own companions, and Anko mumbled a thanks to her former sensei. Forbidden as it was, the Soulbane kinjutsu was the only reason she was still standing and able to protect her precious people. The genjutsu targeted the mind, causing the victim to see their friends as foes, turning even the best of friends against one another was child's play with the use of the Soulbane. According to Orochimaru she was the only one in Konoha to know how to use it and she prayed he was correct because if she managed to live and anyone recognized it for what it was, she could very well find herself locked in a cell with no chance of redemption. The use of a forbidden technique was considered a very serious crime. At the moment though she really didn't care, she'd had no other option, and the safety of her team was paramount to anything else. She'd never used the jutsu on such a large group before and she didn't know how long she had before it wore off. Otherwise she would have just sat there and watched as the problem took care of itself. As it was, the enemy had managed to eliminate about half of its size all on its own.

Anko leapt from tree to tree, sticking to the treetops to avoid attacks, and observing the enemies movement below. Noticing that the further she got from the jutsu's point of origin the more lucent her opponents were becoming she knew it was time to put the second part of her plan into action. Heading back to where her own compatriots lay hidden, she kept her eyes open for any incapacitated but still breathing adversaries. By the time she returned she'd found four. Carrying one in each arm had been easy enough and she had actually hoped to find eight; thinking the more she had the better. She thought about knocking four more out on her own but decided that with her first jutsu already wearing off she didn't have enough time. Four would have to be enough.

Casting a minor genjutsu that would make anyone looking her way ignore what she was doing, she picked her own friends up along with the samurai and carried them all to the base of a large tree where she quickly drew some symbols in the soft clay lining the forest floor. She then piled up the bodies of Konoha's invaders one on top of the other until it was four people tall with all four of their heads aligned. Needing an unbroken circle to complete the jutsu Anko apologized to her friends as she laid them out in a circle around her stack of bodies, intertwining their hands with one another. As she moved to take her seat at the head of the circle the captive on the top of the pile let out a low groan and began to stir. Using the hilt of her sword she deftly smashed him on the top of his head; quickly sending him back to his slumber.

Though fairly specific, this jutsu would be completed quickly and for that, Anko was glad. The extended use of such a large amount of chakra was taking its toll on her and she was beginning to tire. Taking a last look at her friends, she smiled wistfully. They had all become special to her, even the silent Itachi had managed to grow on her, and she wished she'd had more time with them. She'd never had real friends and she was sad she'd have to leave them. Even if the recession of the Ten no Juin didn't kill her, she doubted very much that any of them would talk to her after this anyway. That was if she'd even be allowed to talk to anyone after this at all. While there was probably nobody who would recognize the Soulbane, she would be hard pressed indeed to find someone who wouldn't know of this next jutsu, and she was positive her friends wouldn't like the fact that she'd used their bodies to aid in its completion. Oh well, she thought, Konoha was more important than anything and she'd taken an oath to protect it. This was the only way she knew how.

Anko began chanting the words to the ancient kinjutsu. Utilizing her katana one last time, she nicked the palm of her hand and held it out over the enemy samurai letting her blood drip down onto each of the four bodies; marking them as her sacrifice to the Death god. While taking Kakashi's right hand and Obito's left into her own she continued her chanting. Using her own chakra she pushed a ribbon of it through Obito's left hand and out his right, into Itachi's left. Continuing the process with both Itachi and Kakashi, she was surprised to discover as it reached her own left hand that traces of chakra from all three could be found in the ribbon. Knowing the extra chakra would only add to the potency of her jutsu she smiled (it seemed her friends were still with her to the end) as she sent the ribbon rushing into the bodies in front of her. When it had entered in its entirety she unsheathed her katana. Spinning around wildly with a guttural scream of "Shisa Kugutsu," she slammed it down forcefully on the throat of the first samurai. Using all the strength she possessed, which was quite a formidable amount with the Ten no Juin activated, she muscled her way through the swing to slice through all four necks almost effortlessly. Thankfully none of the intruders had woken during the ritual, and now they never would; all four of their heads were now rolling at her feet.

Practically exhausted Anko sunk to her knees breathing heavily. She looked around expectantly but saw nothing had happened. She choked back a sob at the thought of her failure. She could hear the angry shouts of her enemy as they came closer, alerting her that her original jutsu had worn off and reminding her that there was nothing else she could do. She and her friends would all be killed here because of her failure and she was too weak to even try moving them again. With an exasperated sigh, she sat back on her haunches and closed her eyes in an attempt to quell the flood of tears threatening to spill across her face. Opening them again at the sound of a deep laughter she almost jumped for joy at the sight of the four samurai heads tinged blue with chakra floating in a circle around the central visage of a Death god.

"Your sacrifice has been found acceptable Mitarashi Anko," it cackled, and Anko thought she had never heard such a beautiful sound.

"Arigato, Shinigami-sama," Anko replied with a deep bow.

Suddenly a blue fire made completely of chakra flared up on the bodies of the dead samurai; illuminating the small clearing almost as bright as day. Then just as quickly as it came, it went out, leaving just Anko, Itachi, Kakashi, and Obito alone at the base of the tree. The Death god, the samurai bodies, and even their heads had all disappeared. From outside their small circle Anko heard the terrified screams of their attackers as the final stage of her plan went into action. Finally sure her nakama would be safe, she let the cursed seal of heaven recede. Pain rocked her body and she screamed violently as her bones shrunk and extra arms were absorbed back into her flesh. Fortunately the bone-weary kunoichi collapsed from fatigue before the transformation was complete.