I arrived in front of the Forest of Death and there, leaning back on a tree, clad in fishnets, and undershirt, a tight orange skirt and a trench coat was a seventeen year old Anko Mitarashi. Now I, like any hot-blooded teenager, didn't mind Anko and her antics too much, especially her first appearances in canon, sure she could be a little... deranged at times, but she had a spunky attitude and was extremely attractive, and that's saying a lot where practically every kunoichi I had seen so far had next to perfect bodies and no facial flaws what-so-ever. It wasn't a matter of finding an attractive kunoichi, it was more of finding one who wasn't an idiot or boring, Anko Mitarashi was neither. She opened her left eye lazily and I smiled, tightening my grip on the brown bag in my right hand.
"Who are you brat? I'm waiting for my new apprentice, so you better scram." she said lazily.
"Why Anko-san, I'm hurt, what makes you think I'm not the person you are waiting for?" I asked teasingly and she raised her left eyebrow at this, I could have bet it wasn't often people teased her back.
"You? You're like three or something." she said with a scowl. I was up for this game.
"And how about you? You're like thirty or something..." I said with a smug smile.
"You lil' brat, come here! I'll show you thirty..." she said, while rolling up her sleeves in preparation of an ass kicking.
"If you beat me up, you won't get your share of what I have in this bag here." I declared while shaking the brown paper bag in front of my face, her smile only grew.
"What makes you think I want any of your candy pacifiers? Damn brats." she scoffed and crossed her arms together.
"That's fine, then. I'll just eat all this dango, by myself." I said while shrugging and producing a picnic blanket and sitting down, Anko was pale as a ghost and her eyes were twitching, a drop of drool already collected at the corner of her mouth.
"Would you like to join me, Anko-chan?" I asked and she nodded dumbly with a glazed expression in her eyes.
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"So you're my apprentice, brat? I guess I could have had worse, you brought me dango, after all." she said while finishing her last dango and the smiley face on a nearby tree made of toothpicks at the same time.
"Well... you're stuck with me. I'm sorry to not be up to your expectations..." I said with a sigh while looking at the ground, I wasn't really being serious but it was fun messing with Anko. Her expression visibly darkened and she immediately reached for me with my hand, I just raised my head a bit to show the smug smile on my face and she froze.
"Oh, you're good." she muttered under her breath.
"You haven't told me your name, kid." she said somewhat questioningly.
"If I tell you my name, you're going to have to use it, I don't fancy being in the same pot as all the other 'brats' in your life." I said with a fake pout.
"Fine, fine. I like you already, anyway." she said while punching my arm playfully, I just grinned.
"It's Menma, Uzumaki Menma."
"Menma-kun, eh? You and your brother are very famous, you know that?"
"You shouldn't talk about the fox, snake lady." I said with a wink and she was now wearing the same shit eating grin I was earlier.
"Let's get down to business then. Are you good with that sword you carry around your waist, Menma?" she asked, pointing to my ninjatou.
"I don't know, you got one?" I asked, genuinely curious since I had seen no kenjutsu from Anko in canon.
"Of course, all snake summoners are proficient in kenjutsu." she said while doing a quick Summoning Jutsu, a purple snake stood upright and opened its mouth, revealing a chokutou, similar to my sword except for the tip, which ended in a curve rather than a straight line, it didn't have a guard either and the handle was all black. The blade was typically polished. I drew my own blade and did a Makashi salute, blade first turned away from me, hilt raised to the middle of my chest, splitting my image in the middle, then hand extended to the side, like splashing drops of blood from the blade.
"Cute form, but this isn't a dance lesson." she said while preparing to lunge.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." referring to Darth Vader's quote about the Force, in a light-hearted way, of course. Anko lunged, a strike aimed for my chest but not lethal if left unattended, I was hoping she would at least try to fight at full force. I simply parried in Shien style, with a light flourish, leaving my blade's edge at Anko's throat.
"Anko-chan, you are not going to even come close to me if you don't attack me at full strength." she nodded and retreated two steps, I moved into my Shien stance 1, blade held in a reverse grip behind my back and my left hand slightly in front of me preparing to counter.
Anko once again launched herself at me, this time dropping her body weight and attacking at my waist, at full speed, but against Shien's defensive capabilities, this strike was going in slow motion and was unimpressive by all standards, I merely turned clockwise, deflected the blow behind my back and raised my sword in an upwards slash, Anko saw my move a little too late and struggled to dodge it, barely avoiding the strike by jumping back. I switched to a Djem So stance and twirled the blade in an 8 motion two times, each offset by a bit and on either side. When I finished the flourish I ended in a downwards diagonal strike, with Force assisted strength, Anko barely had time to bring her sword up to block but the unexpected strength of the blow disarmed her, her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly open. It's not everyday you get to see a shocked Mitarashi Anko.
"How the? You're just a kid! You're a damn five year old!" she said, still disbelieving.
"Ah! So you knew that it was me when you first saw me! I knew it, I don't look like a three year old!" I said teasingly, she merely smiled, picked up her weapon and returned it to the beautiful purple snake.
"Firstly, Menma, yes, I knew I was going to teach you from the beginning. What I don't know is how you managed to best me not once, but twice in kenjutsu, and what kind of style is that? You seemed to be switching stances every time I engaged and I don't know anybody who can handle a blade like that! Even the snake bastard was hard pressed to beat me in straight up kenjutsu, granted I'm out of practice, but not overly so!" she was merely pouting now, to think that a five year old beat her - I actually had upwards of ten or so years of experience, not counting the fact that I had been using shadow clones for a good two years of that and my fighting style was far more refined, efficient and Force-enhanced at the same time, I didn't even use Ataru, my best attacking style, on the poor girl.
"I can't really tell you much about my style, yet. I can tell you there are three forms that I mastered, and two with which I am advanced, such as that first salute that I did. Also, they aren't meant for regular swords, originally." I said, rubbing the back of my head in shame, I hated lying and I was forced to do a whole ton of it.
"That's very descriptive and not at all vague..." she muttered under her breath but I could clearly hear her.
"Okay, you're good at kenjutsu, I'll give you that. How about your Taijutsu, your Ninjutsu and your Genjutsu?" she asked.
"My Taijutsu is all around balanced and I'm quite good at it, my Ninjutsu is limited at the moment, I don't have any elemental jutsu now, but I can do seal-less Kawarimi ( Replacement ) and some other useful jutsu. I am extremely bad at Genjutsu, I don't have the control for it and I never will, my capacity is just too large..." I said a bit disappointed.
"What do you mean, too large? I can't sense that much chakra in you." she said unimpressed.
"Well... I'm suppressing it, obviously, you wouldn't want a guy running around in a bright orange suit in your ANBU squad, would you?" I said, while releasing my full capacity for a few seconds, and then suppressing it back, Anko flinched a bit like hit by a flash from a camera.
"Okay, your reserves are insane, kid, must be the – you know." I nodded, couldn't tell anybody that I was actually the son of the Fourth and a kunoichi that had probably more chakra than the First, what with Uzumaki genes and Kurama on top of that.
"Anything else about your Ninjutsu before we spar a bit?" she asked, eager to kick my ass by the looks of it.
"Yeah... I know how to do Shadow Clones, and I can pump out... maybe over two thousand or so at full capacity, but that's kind of dangerous and the mental kick when I dispel them would knock me out probably." she nodded me to continue "I can also do a... different kind of jutsu, not quite elemental, but I can guarantee you haven't seen anything like it, although if you want me to show you, you have to swear to me that you won't tell ANYONE about it, not even the Third. Only me and my brother know of this." I explained sagely and she was hesitant to nod but did.
"I swear on dango, Menma-kun. I never swear on dango." she said officially and I could tell the conviction in her voice.
"Well... it's easier to show you, I guess..." I said while closing my eyes and focusing slightly on her, I could feel the Force flowing around her, like a rock caught in a stream, Naruto was more like a blade, only cutting it slightly and funnily enough, me and the Third for some reason just let it flow through us. The more in tune with the Force you were, the easier you would accept it and let it guide you. I opened my eyes and Anko seemed impatient.
"Well... any time you're ready now..." she said.
"Look down." I told her and she seemed rather confused for a second but did so nonetheless, her eyes almost flew out of her skull when she started running in the air, I was levitating her like I did myself when meditating.
"What is this?" she asked, now genuinely awestruck, I gently laid her back on the ground and started explaining.
"It's called the Force, it's an energy that surrounds us and binds us all together, it's in everything, be it living or lifeless... it can help me to some extent but it has a will of its own of sorts... Let's just say I can't go against it and it bends to my will when it accepts to." it was really difficult to explain to someone who was so used to chakra and how chakra is yours and you can do whatever you want with it, it actually wasn't yours and it wasn't as easy as Academy textbooks made it out to be.
"It allows me to telekinetically control objects, and also to enhance my body, my senses, to predict events in the near future to some extent, to preemptively enhance a part of my body to reduce damage, to speed up healing and to absorb energy, but I'm not really good at that last one. Of course, this were just combat related attributes, the Force is much greater than that."
Anko was confused, very much so, she thought about it for a whole ten minutes and then her face showed embarrassment, lots of it, she was ashamed of something apparently. She bowed deeply and asked formally.
"I would be honoured to learn more about the Force. Not because it can be used in combat, but because..." she paused for a moment "I'm confused, and I don't know where to continue with my life... I could use the guidance of the Force, if what you say is true... then.. maybe..." my expression softened, I would never have thought that Anko, of all people, would seek guidance from a five year old, in the ways of the Force, no less, I was touched.
"It would be my pleasure to guide you, Anko." I said and bowed back, but not quite as deep, just to show the fact that I respected her truthfulness. At hearing this she jumped at me and glomped me in one of the tightest hugs in my life, and Naruto hugged TIGHTLY.
"Anko-chan, I... c..n..t..b..r...t-" I said choking on every sound, and she immediately relaxed her grip and was now rubbing the back of her head in reminiscence to what Naruto and I did, with a sheepish expression on her face.
"Sorry 'bout that, Menma-kun, I just... lost it for a minute there." she chuckled lightly and I returned it with a full-on grin.
"How about that spar?" I asked and prepared my Kyokushin stance, she smirked and got into her own stance, which looked somewhat like taekwondo but with knees bent and leaning, prepared to jump forward, she looked like a coiled snake.
"Hebi ( snake )?" I asked, a bit confused by the stance.
"Ah, so you know this style... I'm surprised, not many people live to tell the tale." she commented, but I just shrugged.
"I don't know that style, it's just that you look like a coiled snake in that stance, it's quite intimidating, if I was a lesser character, perhaps." I said smugly and she lunged, immediately aiming for my solar plexus and landing a glancing blow when I bent back, momentarily knocking the air out of my lungs, she reached down with her hands and once again coiled up before lunging at me feet first, I barely blocked the strike but my arms were now numbed up because of the strength, not good. I reached out for the Force and let it surround me, giving me the boost of speed I needed and from less than arm's reach I raised my foot up in a roundhouse kick to Anko's head, something which she definitely didn't expect, Kyokushin Karate was very close-quarters from that point of view. She barely managed to absorb some of the impact with her forearms but got lightly slapped by my foot in the ear enough to knock some of the balance in her stance, I immediately grabbed her, turned and launched the back of my thigh in her left inner leg, propelling her forwards and up over my right leg, I threw her hard on the ground and followed with a ju-jitsu ground immobilisation, I was over her on four of my limbs, my right arm was behind her neck and was grabbing my left arm that surrounded her neck and right arm in a vice-like grip, my body was over hers and my legs hooked into hers to disable her from moving.
"You like it in this position, don't ya?" she asked while poking out with her tongue, I just smiled, her breasts were pressing into my chest but I was far too young in this body to do anything about it.
"You give up? Or should I try something that I haven't done in a long time?" she was now chuckling lightly.
"Show me what you got, tiger." she asked, struggling to get out of my grip, I merely nodded and hooked my right palm in my left elbow, now my forearm right over Anko's throat in the front, I applied just enough pressure to stop from collapsing her trachea with the bladed part of my forearm now applying direct pressure to her windpipe, she immediately choked a few insults and was now tapping violently with her free hand on my back to let her free, her face was red as a tomato and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets.
"What the heck was that brat, I thought you liked me, now you try to kill me?" she said furiously.
"I offered you a chance at surrendering, besides, I was only teaching you a lesson." I said seriously.
"And what's that? Don't trust your allies?" she said, thinking she had won the argument.
"The acceptance of others is not a guarantee. Like everyone else, a shinobi is accepted or not based on his behaviour. The shinobi who believes that he is more important than others only demonstrates that his opinion is to be ignored. It's a lesson about-"
"Arrogance." she interrupted swiftly "Just because I'm a Tokubetsu Jounin or what other rank, doesn't mean I am above others, like you, not even a Genin."
"I'm not saying that you couldn't beat me, because you could have. Maybe not in kenjutsu, but you probably could have bested me in Taijutsu if you used deadly strikes or those snakes of yours, you could certainly trump me in Ninjutsu as well as overall shinobi skills." she nodded in understanding, the line between Sensei and Student was now blurring and it was more of a two-way relationship – Anko would teach me how to be a real shinobi and I would teach her how to be a Jedi, going to have to work on those emotions of hers, she has to accept her past.
"When we go on missions, you're going to have to wear ANBU attire, mask included, you got any mask you can use or do you want me to go ask the geezer in the tower for one?"
"I'll find a suitable one. I would prefer if you did not refer to the old man as such, he is a kind of grand father figure for me and I wouldn't want my respect for you to diminish, Mitarashi-san." I said darkly, but not overly serious, I just wished that people would address the leader of the village with more respect, especially when not in his presence.
"Ara, ara, I didn't mean any disrespect, Menma-kun. Please, forgive me?" she said with a pout and it seemed quite comical on her round face.
"I could never stay mad at you, Anko, you're too much like me and Naruto." I said while smiling and she nodded in acceptance, it was a touchy subject for her but I wished to rid her of those negative emotions if I was to ever train her to use the Force.
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"Good afternoon, Masamune-san. I hope you have been well." I said while smiling at the tall, kind man.
"Ah, Menma-kun, what a surprise! I can't say that I haven't! So, what can this rugged old man do for a young stud like you?" he said while booming laughter filled the room.
"I have another order if it's possible, a classified one at that." I said and he nodded understandingly, motioning me to his 'office'. He set up some privacy seals and I reached into my pouch.
"I have been inducted into the ANBU, so I can receive classified training, you understand how the council would see things if it was not done this way." he nodded once "I'm glad that we are on the same page. Here are the plans, I would like five or six pairs of this outfit, and I'm not sure what materials we could use for it." I opened two schematics, one of a white mask with golden details that looked like a tree on the forehead and splitting the mask down the middle with two elongated marks on the cheeks and two rectangular slits that elongated downwards slightly at the inner corner of the eyes. A Jedi Temple Guard mask and one schematic of Jedi Temple Guard robes, white with overlapping lapels on the chest, doubled shoulder pads, robe that extended to the feed and was open down the middle, revealing the inside legs, brown pants that ended in combat boots with elongated knee pads, a brown utility belt over it and a grey tunic, with light brown cloth gauntlets, it was all completed by a white hood with a darker, grey margin, no piece of skin showing anywhere, not even the neck. ( Author's Note: Google Jedi Temple Guard to get an idea. )
Jedi Temple Guards were the ANBU of the Star Wars universe, protecting the Jedi Temple at all costs, reporting directly to the Jedi Council and doing whatever needed to be done. Masks concealed their identities, signifying the emotional detachment needed for the job.
"Well, I've got an idea, we're only now working with seal enhanced materials that are lightweight but can absorb light impact and are resistant to common blades, I could make this outfit lightweight but still combat-ready. As for the mask, ANBU use a type of polymer for theirs, it's sort of like a lightweight metal but it's almost impossible to break, it's extremely lightweight and it filters poison in the air, impurities, it can also be used to breathe underwater for short periods of time, and you can perfectly see through the eye slits because of a seal, it would be used for armour but it only works for compact surface areas, like the face, any larger and it would crack and warp by itself. I'll have these ready in less than a week, I'll get my daughter to help since she's taking a break from training."
"Why is that?" I asked, worried about Tenten's health, she was my parents' old friend's daughter, so it was only natural.
"She pushed herself a little too far training with weapon seals and got a bad case of chakra exhaustion, she won't be using any chakra or doing anything physically intensive for a while, but sewing is fine." he chuckled light heartedly.
"I hope she has a speedy recovery. Oh, and one more thing Masamune-san, I would like the outer tunic to have the ANBU tattoo embroidered on the lapels, in a faded yellow, barely noticeable but enough to alert allies of my allegiance.
"It will be done, Menma-kun. I'll have it delivered to your home, I suspect that you are living in your old man's house, yeah?"
"Yep. See you around and take care." I smiled and waved at the man and he reciprocated the gesture.
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It had been another two years and it was now time to depart on my first ANBU squad mission, usually it was only me and Anko. My training had gone very well and I had already mastered a little bit of all elemental jutsu, but mostly my two affinities, Lightning and Water. Initially, Anko told me I could have a Ranton ( Storm ) kekkei genkai, but told me that I would have to master both lightning and water first before I had any chances of actually using that, so I had been studying basic fire, wind and earth jutsu, going up to A-rank Raiton and Suiton ( Lightning and Water ), the fact that I knew most of the handseals for jutsus in the anime really paid off, because now I could do a decent Chidori with only half of the seals Sasuke had been using in the Chuunin Exams and I already had most of Kisame's various shark jutsus down, what I was struggling with, though, were my mother's water techniques who bordered or actually were S-ranked, such as a fully controllable Water Hydra. Apparently, my mother had an incredibly strong water affinity, that I inherited, from my mother's notes, she could summon water techniques without a water source while not actually doing many hand seals, if any for A-rank and lower techniques, I wasn't at that point so far, but I could either do seal-less techniques with water present or with seals but without a water source.
"Who's this squirt, Hebi ( snake )?" one of the ANBU present asked, Mongoose by the looks of it, funny being that the mongoose and the snake were natural enemies.
"Ask him yourself, Mongoose." Anko basically spat out his name through her snake-like mask.
"Who are you, brat?" Mongoose questioned.
"You can call me Aegis, Mongoose-san." I bowed to him, acknowledging his seniority in the field.
"Aegis, huh? Are you supposed to protect us or something?"
"I will do everything in my power to do that, yes." I said, the mask changing my voice to a slightly less bodily one, it likened to that of a robot.
"We'll see about that... We're all here, you know the drill, move out!" he said and we all dispersed, standard ANBU formation one, akin to a triangle with just a single member in the side opposite the pointed end. I was the youngest so I was there, protected from frontal attacks, but watching everyone's back. Mongoose was leading and Anko was in the second row. Our mission was simple, in theory. A castle was overtaken by missing nin from Iwagakure ( Hidden Rock ) that allied with missing nin from Kusagakure ( Hidden Grass ). It was now being held in a stalemate, threatening to end the life of several high-profile Konoha politicians that were having a meeting with the Konoha Daimyo ( Territorial Lord ). The castle was located at the border with grass country, which lead into rock, so I couldn't really wonder how THAT happened. Go in, capture the nukenin ( missing nin ), get out. Theoretically simple, though I had a bad feeling about the place, a REALLY bad feeling. Anko picked up on it too, what with her Jedi training, she hadn't gotten over her past with Orochimaru quite yet, but she was getting there, the curse mark was always a grim reminder of it. What's even funnier is that she had changed her clothes to match my own when on missions, except hers kept the mask. And her casual clothes were also Jedi robes, but not the standard ones by any stretch of the imagination. She wore dark purple boots, with slightly lighter purple leggings, over which was a kimono type of outfit in which the lapels didn't overlap, they just met in the middle and went down to mid thigh, and a leather belt that went from just under her breasts to her belly button, basically highlighting her 'assets' and showing a good amount of cleavage, this was also a pale light purple. Over these she had half of a cloak, that went to just above her knees and whose sleeves were also quite wide, that went down to the same length, the material was so light that when her hood was down you couldn't actually tell it apart from the rest of the cloak, this was a darker purple, over-all it looked very fitting for her and screamed shinobi and Jedi at the same time, it also garnered quite a few head turns when she walked down the street, but she was enjoying it. ( Author's Note: Google Female Jedi Knight and just look at the first image, but in purple. Not very original, but it's perfect. )
We finally arrived outside the classical Japanese castle and we had already gotten a plan down, because we were a squad of six and there were five of the missing nin, we could safely subdue them if we moved quickly, at least in theory, so we stealthily made our way to where the hostages were being held and lo' and behold, all the missing nin were enjoying a feast of sorts, Mongoose gave the signal and all of us disappeared.
Mongoose did a quick Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu ( Earth Style: Inner Decapitation ) and he emerged from the ground and pulled one of the enemies under the ground, Anko moved quickly and bit one with her snakes, paralysing him almost instantly, I created a Shadow Clone and he did a quick, three seal Suirō no Jutsu ( Water Prison ), leaving my hands free for other opponents, unfortunately for the other two ANBU, they failed, miserably. We had no idea who the leader was because of incomplete intelligence gathering, apparently one of the ANBU tried restraining the leader in ninja wires with a jutsu inspired by Suna puppetry, what happened was a seal-less kawarimi that restrained the ANBU himself, for short enough for the enemy to execute him instantly by drawing his katana and slicing his head, he quickly threw a couple of kunai at my clone but it already had a sword out and deflected them, as for the other missing nin, he single-handedly took our two ANBU by transforming parts of his body in rock and literally smashing the two guys into the ground, what was left of them was mere flesh and bone in a mixture of fine dust and gore. The two remaining missing nin acted quickly and were now forcing Mongoose back, allowing ample time for the Thing as I was now calling the Iwa nin to free his buried ally. Anko was already casting seals for a mud slide and called it Doton: Dosekiryū, I saw what she was doing and was now casting seals of my own Suiton: Goshokuzame ( Water: Five Feeding Sharks ) I used the water in her mud slide to seriously pump up the power in the sharks and they were now attacking the missing nin mercilessly. In a feat of immense skill, the leader cast a long range earth jutsu that buried into the ground near him and appeared right underneath Anko's legs, grabbing them and solidifying on contact, to a dark brown concrete. I didn't like this, at all. The released grass nuke-nin was using some kind of Kekkei Genkai which allowed him to spit acid like Tsunade's slugs and was melting through Mongoose's kunai at a fast pace, I was trying to keep my focus on the sharks but the enemy nin were barely even bothered by them. I nodded to my clone who nodded back and did a seal-less variation on Chidori, the Chidori Stream, around his body, shocking the missing nin inside the water prison into unconsciousness. I lunged at the rock covered nin and started matching him blow for blow, I knew lightning was strong enough to pass through his armour but I needed an opportunity and I was slowly creating one, I had already summoned 4 pumped up clones and they were probing for weaknesses, once they had found it, one of us did a four seal Chidori and plunged it into the man's shoulder, enough to render him unable to fight but not lethal. A quick prisoner scroll later and he was down for the count. I took a look around the battlefield and Anko was getting overpowered by the leader's attacks, and she was still stuck in the same spot because of that concrete-type prison, while Mongoose was simply getting acid burns all over his limbs. I was silently cursing this mission, it didn't look good. I jumped in the fight and started duelling the acid freak, deflecting his acid by pumping water chakra in my sword, creating a thin layer of water around it. Shien was perfect for his projectiles, very close to blaster bolts and I had no trouble deflecting. The guy noticed it and he broke the ice with the very first word of the fight.
"I see you're quite good at thinking on the fly minion, Konoha ANBU standards are really dropping if they accept Academy children in the corps, but how are you at defending your fellow ANBU?" he said with a cackle and started throwing split acid splashes towards... Anko and Mongoose? I made a seal-less Shadow Clone and it jumped in front of Mongoose deflecting the strikes and I did the same for Anko.
"How's it going, Hebi-chan? Need any help or have you got this?"
"You kidding me? He's been overpowering me this whole fight and I don't have much chakra left... and my feet are stuck, gah!" she screamed a grunt as she deflected another boulder from the leader.
"I'm sort of occupied dealing with Mr. Puke over here, and I can't do more pumped up clones to take care of him, my chakra is already spreading thin from all the seal-less jutsu. Think you can take care of him for a few minutes?"
"I'll try, brat. Go and take care of 'Deep Clean'." she said with a chuckle.
I jumped towards the Kusa nin and started flourishing my blade in front of me, deflecting against the initial projectiles and the splashes that were now dangerous in close quarters. I was mere metres away now and I did an Ataru Force-enhanced lunge stabbing at the enemy's right shoulder, my strike hit home and I slashed upwards, severing his bones and tendons, making his right arm incredibly difficult to use. He screamed in pain and had a look of intense hatred on his face.
"If I die here... I'll take you with me!" he hissed through closed teeth and I could see the evil glint in his eyes, he did a seal of confrontation and muttered a quick 'Katsu'. Anything else was now happening in slow motion, I already had a vague idea of what was going to happen – the nuke-nin's body exploded in a sea of green, a suicide jutsu, then... and my vision immediately moved to Anko. She was still fighting the leader and they apparently hadn't noticed the explosion. Mongoose had already erected an earth wall and was safely behind it, but Anko was literally stuck to the ground, my decision was instant. I used my fastest and most chakra intensive seal-less Shunshin ( Body Flicker ), the Raiton Shunshin and I appeared in front of a wide-eyed Anko, she apparently noticed the blast behind me. I threw my arms around her and tackled her to the ground covering her body with my own and absorbing the full brunt of the impact. It was painful, so painful. I could feel the flesh on my back burning, I was in a flame-less fire. My head was completely protected because the mask extended all the way, but my back and the back of my legs was completely exposed, I would be lucky if flesh remained. I screamed in pain, reminiscent of Anakin's painful wails when he was being burned by the molten lava. It certainly felt that way, I could feel my vision blurring, darkening and through all this, I had a smile on my face. Anko was safe.