Chapter 11: To Each His Own Battle

A/N: Two updates in three days, woohoo! A longer note is at the end of the chapter.

-o X o-

Orochimaru's curse mark was a formidable construct, displaying his genius in- but not quite mastery of- experimental fuinjutsu. Entering the first stage flooded the user's coils with chakra. The second stage pushed them to the limit- I could see Sakon's chakra coils bulge and strain under the pressure. But even his double chakra system, flooded as it was, could not compare to the density, the intensity, the volume, the power, the overwhelming flood of chakra that was pouring off of Naruto, as a fraction of the Kyuubi's chakra leaked out of the seal.

And to think, this is a Jinchuriki in his weakest form- a single tail cloak.

The air around us was so thick with the red chakra that I found it hard to breathe. The blood pooling in my mouth didn't help. The sheer pressure bursting from Naruto was suffocating. But I didn't dare try to stop him. If Anko sensei was dead, then Kyuubi cloak Naruto was our only hope for survival now.

Akiko had instinctively pivoted to stand between me and the unnatural energy, her sword gripped tightly by her shaky hands as she tried to piece together what was happening.

Naruto let loose a feral scream, and turned to face the nearest threat- Sakon, a partially metallic demon looking creature. The Sound ninja stared at him in shock, trying to comprehend what was causing the insane burst of energy.

I used the distraction to pull out a sealing scroll and released some medical supplies.

"Akiko, help me wrap this," I called, drawing her attention. "Naruto can't fight them all at once. Catch."

I winced, realizing that it was a mistake to try tossing her the medical kit, despite the short distance between us. She caught it and quickly knelt down to dress the injury as I pulled my shirt up. "It's a clean wound," she muttered, quickly observing the entry and exit points before wrapping my torso in bandages. "Asakura, the samurai spirit I'm using, has seen a lot of battlefield injuries like this. You are lucky that it missed all of your vitals. It shouldn't kill you, if we can get you some real medical treatment soon." She finished securing the bandage, and pulled out a pill that she stuck in my mouth. "That's to dull the pain. Try not to damage anything further."

"I'll take that under advisement," I muttered. The pill had impressive potency, and significantly decreased the pain I experienced. But the body experiences pain for a reason- being dulled to it would make me more likely to move in ways that would further exacerbate the wound. A double edged sword, necessary for our current situation.

Meanwhile, Naruto charged. He engaged Sakon in a savage taijutsu duel, and despite his increased speed and power, Sakon's metal arm seemed to hold up against the Kyuubi enhanced strikes. "It looks like our roles have switched," I said, climbing to my feet. Akiko stood as well, and glanced at me in confusion. "Our best chance now is for Naruto to take these guys out. So, we have to distract, stall, and otherwise keep the others off of him. Can you continue keeping up with the flute user?"

Akiko nodded, but frowned. "Can you hold off the big guy? Are you even able to move?"

"I'll manage," I said, standing up with a grimace.

The remaining Sound Four seemed to finally snap to their senses, and turned to assist their metallic teammate after Naruto landed a powerful blow that sent Sakon tumbling backwards. Time for action.

I started by throwing as many shuriken as I could at Tayuya's ogres. They seemed to only respond to her flute, and didn't bother dodging as I unloaded much of my arsenal on them. The tiny shuriken embedded into the ogres' tough skin, but failed to hamper their movement in the least. Tayuya spared me a disdainful look for half a second, before returning her focus onto Naruto. Before they could reach him, I made the single necessary hand seal, and all the little shuriken exploded in fiery glory. The ogres dispelled in large puffs of smoke. The sound of the flute paused.

"What the f-"

Before Tayuya could finish her curse, Akiko was on her, swinging her sword in rapid arcs that were threatening enough to make Tayuya use her flute to block. That was good; her weapon was much less dangerous as a blunt defensive object. Sokudo followed in their wake, but positioned himself more defensively and always kept a lookout in Kidomaru's direction.

I pulled out two sedative covered senbon next, but decided to hold them at the ready as Jirobo charged Naruto. I waited for the exact moment that the giant made contact with Naruto, grabbing the smaller boy's arm in his meaty fist. I watched as a significant portion of Naruto's chakra was rapidly siphoned into Jirobo's right arm. The man's eyes widened, and he let go with a scream, pulling back from the burning, corrosive chakra. His right arm blackened and shriveled from the elbow down, where the chakra concentration was thickest. The pain was enough to distract him from the two needles I threw, striking him in the calf. He didn't even notice the small wounds in comparison to the chakra burn. Even so, those were poisoned, and he was on a timer now.

Naruto kicked Sakon away again, spun around angrily, and punched Jirobo in the gut, sending him flying backwards. But one opponent was still left unaccounted for. As he whirled around towards Sakon again, I shouted a warning, "Arrow! Move!"

Naruto instinctively jumped backwards, avoiding the worst of the damage from the golden arrow. The glancing blow opened a gash beneath his armpit, which seemed to sizzle and mend itself before my very eyes. "I'll go for the archer," I called to him. "You have to handle the other two!"

Jirobo was weakened and should be out cold sooner or later. That would make it three on three… still not great odds, since I didn't know how we could deal with Kidomaru. I turned in the direction of said archer, noting that he was already in the second state of his curse mark. Apparently, Anko sensei had at least pushed him during their fight. Then I felt two more chakra spikes.

One was Tayuya. Akiko had been handling her well in close combat, and apparently the red head was fed up with it, unleashing the second stage of her own curse mark. Her skin darkened, and demonic looking horns emerged from her head. The other chakra spike was Jirobo, unleashing his second state as well, growing into even more of a mountain of a man as his skin darkened and large warts appeared on his face. All four of our opponents were in their second state now. I wanted to go for Kidomaru, still considering him the most dangerous opponent, but Jirobo was the most immediate issue, as he changed targets and set his sights on me.

"That's it, I'm finishing you off for good!" he yelled, and the ground cratered beneath his feet as he leapt towards me with an explosive amount of chakra. As if he wasn't fast enough already…

Before I could even pull out more weapons, he was right in front of me. Instead of knocking me away this time, he grabbed me by the shirt with his good hand and slammed me into a nearby tree trunk without letting go. I saw chips of bark fly, and felt the rough texture cut into the skin on my back. Then my chakra started to drain. I tried to grab a weapon, but he punched me in the gut with the deformed stub of a hand the Kyuubi had burnt. I gasped, blood and spit flying from my lips, and went limp. Panic began to set in as I experienced pain, lack of oxygen, and loss of chakra. I shut off my Byakugan and concentrated solely on controlling my chakra, trying to prevent it from being ripped out of my body, but I could barely even slow the flow.

"Don't bother fighting it, kid," Jirobo growled. "I'm going to finish you here, then I'm going to crush the skull of your little grey-haired girl teammate. Then I'm going to sit back and laugh as Kidomaru puts an arrow through the blonde freak's eyeball. We'll kill him slowly for what he did to me."

I coughed up more blood. The blow to my stomach was awfully close to my arrow wound, and I was starting to see stars from the pain. My concentration slipped, and the last reserves of my chakra began to exit without hindrance.

My vision started to darken. The world was getting blurry, even sparkly, a surreal experience, since I had always seen this world in perfect clarity.

I thought about Naruto, and Akiko. I couldn't fail here. I had to fight, or they would die. But I had nothing left; no jutsu, no tricks up my sleeve, no ace in the hole. I was powerless.

Before I went completely under, a foot came dropping in from above, crashing into Jirobo's face with enough force to knock him off of me and send him tumbling some distance away. I dropped to my knees and gasped for breath, looking up at my savior through blurry eyes. That kick was incredible; how many ninja had the brute strength to send a second stage curse mark Jirobo flying? My head was spinning, but I could make out a faint splotch of green as I looked up. "Rock Lee?" I muttered in a daze.

My savior turned around and squatted in front of me, looking me in the eyes. I had the presence of mind to reactivate the Byakugan, and the world returned to stunning focus, despite the pain and nausea racking my body.

"Who the hell is Lee?" the minty haired girl in front of me asked, eyebrow raised skeptically. I realized my initial guess at my savior's identity was way off.

"Ah, sorry," I muttered. I tried to climb to my feet, but extreme vertigo kept me on one knee. "Thanks for saving my life, by the way. You from Taki?"

She nodded, still squatting next to me. "My team was on patrol when we saw a flare, and ran into some blondie's clones who gave us the short of it. You should probably sit the rest of this one out," she said, looking me over. "My team and I can finish up here."

I reactivated the Byakugan and looked around. Sure enough, three other Taki ninja had also joined the fray: two young ones helping Naruto and Akiko, and one older ninja facing down Kidomaru. I recognized my savior now, and concluded with some surprise that she was still on a genin team. I deactivated the Byakugan again to conserve what little chakra I had left. Jirobo's assault still had my head spinning; even though my vision had mostly re-focused, there still appeared to be a slight shimmer lingering in the air, like someone had fired a glitter cannon into the battlefield. A consequence of losing too much blood, or chakra, probably, but at least it was translucent and didn't impair my vision.

"This guy is a monster," I cautioned. "They all are, actually. This one can absorb chakra, though I guess you might be immune to that." I nearly chuckled at the thought of Jirobo getting a repeat Jinchuriki experience. "Actually, yeah, you can probably take him on your own."

Her raised eyebrow only elevated further. "I might be immune? What makes you say that, huh?" she asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Ah, I probably wasn't supposed to know that she was the Jinchuriki of the Nanabi, and definitely shouldn't have said anything about it. But my mind was still spinning from pain and chakra loss. Oh well. I'd have to be careful to at least not call her 'Fuu' until she gave me her name herself. "I'll explain later," I said with a shrug. "Just, be careful. He's physically super strong, even without chakra absorption. What's your name, anyway?"

She gave me an unimpressed look. "It doesn't matter. And I'll be fine."

"If you say so," I replied. I shifted to a seated position and leaned back into the tree. "I'll just rest here a minute and watch you work your magic. Thanks, hero lady."

She simply rolled her eyes, and stood up straight to face down our opponent. Jirobo had gotten up, and roared in anger. "I wasn't finished with my meal yet! I'll destroy you for that!"

Fuu huffed in amusement. "You don't know who you're dealing with, Warty. You want a fight? I'll give you fight. I'll take you head on."

Jirobo roared again, and charged in our direction. Fuu smirked and charged right back, not hesitating to meet him directly. Both of them cocked their arms back and threw a superpowered punch. I couldn't resist activating the Byakugan again, and could see the insane amounts of chakra gathering in both of their attacks. Their fists met in the middle with a resounding crack. Then I watched in horror as Fuu's hand and wrist shattered at the point of impact. She screamed as the force of the blow sent her flying backwards.

He has more brute strength than the Nanabi Jinchuriki?

Fuu crashed into a tree and fell to the ground in a heap, clutching the wrist of her injured arm. She whimpered in pain, then looked up in astonished horror as the giant man rushed her. She tried to get up, but couldn't get out of the way before Jirobo had seized her by the neck with his good arm, lifting and slamming her into the tree in the same manner he had held me only a minute previously.

Fuu gasped in pain, and struggled futilely against the man's crushing grip. I saw Fuu's chakra being drained, and she reflexively pulled on the chakra of the Nanabi to help her. But to my shock, Jirobo didn't absorb the chakra this time, instead just siphoning it off into the air around her.

"How many of you toxic freaks are there?" Jirobo grumbled angrily. "You smell just like the other one. All this work, and I don't even get to enjoy a good meal out of it! No matter, I'll just crush you to death, pathetic piece of trash!"

Fuu must have realized the problem too, as her eyes widened and she started kicking her legs even harder. But she had very little leverage from her current position, and Jirobo used his injured, deformed hand to start raining blows on her helpless body. If it pained him, he didn't show it, being overcome with near mindless rage.

I winced. One of those blows felt like it was enough to nearly kill me; at least Fuu was more durable than I am, but even she couldn't survive the onslaught for long. Color started draining from her face- at this rate, she would suffocate or be beaten to death before she ran out of chakra.

I looked around desperately for someone to help. Naruto was still fully engaged in combat with Sakon, and Fuu's teammate looked too terrified to try to assist him. Akiko's new ally was more helpful, and together they had Tayuya on the back foot, but they weren't in any position to come help us either. Their sensei, to my great dismay, seemed to be losing to Kidomaru. Golden knives riddled the man's body, and Kidomaru seemed to just be toying with him now. As if this situation wasn't bad enough, even if we survived Jirobo, we might have to fight a man who killed two jounin sensei today.

There was no one else. Fuu was losing, and no one else could help her. I didn't want her to die. I didn't want to die, either. I didn't want Naruto or Akiko to die. Failure was not an option. I took a deep breath, and dredged up all the chakra I could muster, and rose wobblily to my feet. I spat out some blood. The pain was just pain. I compartmentalized and ignored it. I had to focus; there were lives on the line.

For better or for worse, Jirobo seemed wholly fixated on beating Fuu to a pulp. I reached into my weapons pouch and clumsily grabbed a handful of senbon. I didn't care what they were coated with at this point. I took a wobbly step forward, then two, then charged forward in as fast and silent of a sprint as I could muster.

It would have never worked on most ninja. I'm sure I made some noise as I approached, enough to tip off any competent shinobi. But Jirobo was in such a blood-rage at this point, he was completely lost to the world around him, focused solely on destroying the opponent in his grasp. I leapt up behind him and plunged a whole fistful of needles into his neck, grabbing him in a chokehold with my other arm as I did so. The needles barely penetrated his thick, chakra-reinforced skin, but it was deep enough to deposit the poison.

Jirobo screamed in pain, dropping Fuu to the ground in a heap and grabbing me by the arm instead. He flipped me up and over his head, then slammed my body downwards, right on top of Fuu. We both wheezed in pain. Jirobo staggered backwards, ripping the needles out of his neck and tossing them aside.

"You damn brat!" he screamed. "Are these poisoned? Do you think you can poison me, one of Orochimaru's personal elites?" He stumbled a bit, his eyes losing focus for a brief second, but then straightened again. I saw his chakra surge, battling the toxins within his body. "I'll burn it right out of my system! He's the master of snakes, the king of venom! You can't beat me with this!"

A ghost of a smile spread across my face. "Does the great snake lord's blessing protect you from explosions?" I asked.

"What are you-"

I rolled over a bit, trying to position myself to shield the girl slightly from the impending explosion.

"Boom," I whispered.

With a hand sign, a string of explosive tags that I had stuck to Jirobo's neck and back during the brief chokehold lit up and exploded. The concussive force hurled Fuu and I so that we slammed into the tree, negating the noble effort I had made to protect her when my own body slammed into hers before we both fell back to the ground.

We lay there in silence for a few seconds, before Fuu groaned as she lifted her head from the ground, examining the mess. I had my eyelids closed, but it's not like that stopped the Byakugan from observing the aftermath for myself. I had been able to attach five tags to the man's neck, as well as a few more to his back before I had been thrown off of him. It left a gruesome sight, a headless corpse with large chunks of flesh torn out of his back.

"Not that I can complain too much, but were explosives really the best option here?" Fuu asked, looking at the splattered gore that had been strewn across the area- including on us. She tried to sound haughty and condescending, but there was a hint of relief in her voice as well. "You couldn't have just, like, cut off his head or something? I was beaten bloody enough already, and positioning yourself so that I cushioned your impact against the tree was just poor sport, really."

I scoffed, then winced as the action aggravated some of my more severe injuries, and I deactivated my Byakugan again. Jirobo hadn't stumbled that far away before he blew up, and I could feel some burns that lit up my back. "Believe it or not, I was trying to protect you. Be the noble shinobi protecting the damsel in distress, all that good stuff."

"Well, you have room for improvement," she replied, somehow conjuring the strength to rise to a kneeling position. She gently cradled her wrist, wincing at the movement. "I'm glad you got him though. I was having a hard time focusing, and couldn't release my glitter powder."

I opened my eyes and looked around, noticing that whenever I looked around without my Byakugan, the world seemed a bit glittery and distorted. "Is that what all that colorful shimmering stuff is? Your glitter powder?"

Fuu looked around, then gave me a dubious look. "I think you took one too many blows to the head, if you're seeing sparkles. I hadn't actually released the powder yet."

I groaned. "Wonderful, head trauma. Anyway, can you still fight? You may want to help your teammates, and mine. They were having some trouble."

"You can tell what is going on with our teammates from here?" she asked. "You a sensor or something?"

"Or something," I muttered. "Your redhead teammate is, uh, 'helping' Naruto over there," I pointed. "Don't freak out, but Naruto's like you, big chakra creature sealed inside him and everything, but don't tell him I said that, it's a secret." Fuu's eyes widened in shock, but I barreled on. "Your redhead buddy is too terrified to help, but between you and Naruto, we should have enough raw power to take the metal man down. Your blue haired teammate is helping Akiko over there. They seemed to be doing alright a moment ago. Your sensei is struggling though. He's fighting the discount Spider Man in that direction, some mutant dude who has sticky chakra string that's a real pain to deal with. Maybe you should go help him first, actually. He's in the most serious trouble."

Fuu huffed. "If that stupid old man dies in combat, you won't see me shedding any tears over it," she muttered bitterly. "I'll go help Miso fight the metal man first. Oh, and just so you know, I have questions for you when this over," she finished with a frown, and quickly headed off towards Naruto.

That was a lot of spite; what did her sensei do to her? Well, it was not the time to ponder that, nor my business, and I had more pressing concerns. I checked my remaining stock of equipment. Five kunai, six non-exploding shuriken, three exploding shuriken, and eight poisoned senbon. If I could drag myself to Akiko's fight, I might be able to provide a bit of a ranged distraction, at least. It could be the difference.

My arrow wound was leaking blood through the dislodged bandages, but I could deal with that later. My body strained in protest as I forced myself to a kneeling position, then slowly up to my feet, leaning heavily against the nearby tree for support. I was dangerously low on chakra, beyond any limit that I had ever pushed myself to in training, but I had to keep going. It could mean the difference between living or dying, for myself and my teammates. I limped in the direction of Akiko's fight, hoping they hadn't moved too far in the last minute or two.

I swayed on my feet as I hobbled towards their battle. It seemed to take an eternity, with each step sending a shooting pain through my chest, back, ribs, head, stomach… pretty much everywhere. But one more step. One more step. One more step. I can make it one more step.

I eventually made it to the spot in the woods where the three were fighting. I figured I only had one shot; once Tayuya was aware of me, my odds of landing a clean strike were slim to none. But like Jirobo, she was completely fixated on her two immediate opponents. Maybe tunnel vision was a side effect of the curse mark. I drew out a senbon, laced with my fastest acting sedative. Maybe she could burn through the poison like Jirobo boasted, maybe not. It ought to at least provide a half-decent distraction.

I watched carefully, observing the patterns and rhythms of the fight as the combatants danced through the trees. I focused, took aim, and let the senbon fly. It wasn't a perfect shot- I was aiming for the heart- but it hit Tayuya square in the side, causing her to yelp and look down in surprise.

It was good enough. Though she dodged Akiko's follow up swipe and knocked Sokudo away, she took a kick square to the jaw from the blue haired boy, and crashed to the ground below. I sagged into the tree, easing myself to a sitting position again. I could rest now, just a little bit. Naruto and Fuu could handle Sakon. Akiko, Sokudo, and the blue hair boy could finish off Tayuya. Then they could team up with Fuu's sensei, and finally kill Kidomaru.

All good in theory. But my theory came crashing down in the form of a three eyed, six-armed monster, who dropped into the clearing in front of Tayuya, causing Akiko, Sokudo, and the blue haired teammate to suddenly halt. The spider-like man was carrying the Taki jounin under one arm, bound in a cocoon of web-like chakra strings. Kidomaru had won again. Fuu's sensei was completely immobile in Kidomaru's clutches, with only his head sticking out of the end of the cocoon. Splotches of red stained his tightly woven prison. He took short, shallow breaths, but at least he was still alive.

"You're still having problems with the hatchlings?" he scoffed as Tayuya climbed back to her feet with a grunt. "What's wrong with you all today? I already disposed of the two jounin."

"Shut up, bastard," Tayuya spat. "That green-eyed, half dead corpse over there dispelled my ogres, and this bitch is a kenjutsu specialist who can break my genjutsu. This close-range fighting is the worst kind of matchup for me, without my ogres to intervene."

"And the others?" Kidomaru asked, only seeming amused at her tirade.

"I think they killed that moron Jirobo, and good riddance of that good for nothing bastard. They wounded Ukon with a lucky shot, and Sakon is taking care of the rest of the maggots right now on his own. The damn brats keep multiplying."

"You're telling me you haven't killed any of them yet?" Kidomaru demonic face was grinning from ear to ear now. "My, my, this is hilarious. And after all your warnings to me about not taking my time. Well, I can rectify that problem. It's time to bring this game to an end, one body at a time."

He tossed the cocooned jounin aside, then notched an arrow in his bow. "Might as well start with the easy one," he said with a sickening grin, drawing his bow and pointing the arrow my way. "So long, kid."

He released the string. I had nothing left. I could see the arrow coming, as if in slow motion. It was nothing fancy, like what he had to use in his fight against Neji in canon. No spin, so extra power. At least he still attached a string to steer it. I felt a bit of dignity, that he considered that I might conjure up enough desperate strength to get out of the way. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I couldn't dodge this one, string or not. I was going to die on my second mission, an arrow right between the eyes.

I resolved not blink.

Then a hand reached out and snagged the arrow, right out of the air. A bare, ink-splattered hand. Blood dripped from the deep laceration, but the grip was firm. Only a meter away from my face, the arrow had been stopped dead in its tracks.

"Don't get cocky, spider freak. Far as I can tell, your kill count is still at zero today too," the voice stated coldly.

"Sensei?" I asked in shock.

She turned her head, and I saw black, inky flame markings covering her face. I could feel the chakra pouring off of her from here, from just the first stage of her curse seal. Her trench coat was singed and in tatters, barely hanging off her body anymore. She looked me over quickly, then turned back towards Kidomaru and yanked on the arrow and string with both hands.

The attached string went taught, jerking Kidomaru in our direction. He bit through the string and brought up his arms to defend himself, but it didn't matter. Anko blurred through her hand signs.

"Fire Dragon Fist!" she yelled.

Flames erupted around her arm, and she swung it forward, projecting the fire in Kidomaru's direction in the shape of a dragon's head. The fire construct opened its maw and swallowed the man whole, causing him to disappear from sight.

Straining my eyes once again, I turned on the Byakugan one more time to see what was happening amidst the blaze. Kidomaru was secreting some kind of armor all over his body, but the heat was melting it before it could harden, turning it into a molten slag that oozed across his body. I heard him scream, then go silent.

When the fiery torrent subsided, a lumpy gold mound lay on the ground, the misshapen remains of Kidomaru's body encased in his superheated armor.

"Next." Anko voice was cold as ice as she looked Tayuya dead in the eye.

Tayuya started to raise her flute to her lips, then staggered. "W-what?" she stuttered, swaying before dropping to a knee. "What is this?"

"Sedative," I muttered, though Anko was probably the only one close enough to hear.

"It's over. Surrender, and we'll take you back to Konoha alive," Anko commanded, then shrugged. "Or fight. You know as well as anyone how this seal amplifies bloodlust. I certainly won't mind ending you here and now."

Seeing the battle winding down, the blue haired boy from Taki rushed towards his wounded sensei. "Hayato Sensei! Hold on!"

In the process, the fool turned his back to Tayuya. "Idiot! Look!" Anko yelled, sprinting in their direction.

Fighting the effects of the sedative, Tayuya lunged forward towards the boy, kunai in hand. He turned, eyes going wide as he realized his mistake. Blood splattered across his face as Tayuya halted right in front of him. The crimson coated tip of a katana protruded from her chest.

Akiko had moved at the same instant Tayuya did, but faster, drawing her sword and plunging it straight through the enemy's heart from behind. Tayuya sputtered in shock, then went limp. Her curse mark receded, returning her features to their normal human state, and Akiko let the corpse slide off her blade. Her ghostly blue eyes stared at the corpse impassively.

"Oh," the blue haired boy muttered in shock. He swallowed dryly. "Th-thank you. You saved my life."

Akiko just nodded curtly. "Tend to your sensei," she instructed, her deep, altered voice sounding older and more commanding than normal. "Come, Anko san. Let us bring the last battle to its conclusion."

"Are you still Akiko, or is someone else flying the ship in there now?" Anko asked warily.

"I am the spirit of a samurai, called Asakura," the voice in Akiko's body answered. "Akiko chan allowed me to take over her body due to the difficulty of our previous fight. Fear not, for I am a more honorable spirit than most in the Onikuma's employ. I shall not attempt to deceive you or escape while I have possession of the young kunoichi's body."

Anko nodded, but I could tell she wasn't about to trust whatever spirit was in Akiko's body so easily.

"I'll come too," I said, trying to get back on my feet, only to collapse onto my butt again.

Anko snorted. "I think you're done, kid. At least you'll still be able to watch. We'll get you patched up soon. Let's go, Aki- rather, Asakura san."

I watched with the Byakugan as the two sprinted towards Naruto's fight. Somehow, Ukon had recovered enough to fight again, though he was still missing an arm. He had split from Sakon's body so they could fight two on two against Naruto and Fuu.

I felt my eyelids droop as I tried to focus on the fight. My body had never felt so heavy. Anko and Akiko arrived at the battlefield, and I felt my consciousness slipping away. Sensei was alive. It was a four on two. They could handle it now. My Byakugan shut off, and I let the darkness take me, succumbing to unconsciousness.

-o X o-

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Most have been helpful. This will be a longer A/N explaining some of my thought processes behind the story, so feel free to skip it if you want, you won't be missing anything story-relevant. I'm sure most of you know this, but negative reviews are helpful when they list a reason, and just discouraging when they don't give a reason. For example, many reviews from the past couple chapters expressed frustration with how weak Tedashi is, and how he isn't taking enough initiative to grow stronger (these reviews are helpful to me!). This was intentional on my part, but judging by some of the reviews, I've probably overdid my efforts to limit his growth. I've read too many fanfics where the MC does some kind of insane self-regulated training program, or develops his own super jutsu, or reverse engineers kage-level techniques, and is ready to fight on par with some Akatsuki members by the time the first Chunin Exams roll around. I know many readers find that appealing, but I think these stories are unrealistic and not as fun or interesting to read. I prefer an OC that grows more slowly but steadily, both in ninja skills/power, but also in character, mentality, personality, etc. In this case, he is rather passive, and therefore quite mediocre in terms of power at the beginning of his genin career. Perhaps I overdid this aspect of his character, to the point of weakening him too much, but it is my opinion that a ninja could only do so much on his own, even an OC with extra-world knowledge. Until he became a genin, Tedashi's only real teacher was his mother (and Itachi, briefly), so his skills are limited, especially since he is not compatible with his mother's fighting style. I guess he had the academy teachers too, but in my head canon, they don't teach beyond the basic curriculum, even if a student has potential. Also, he hasn't experienced anything to kickstart his personal drive yet. Kind of like Shikamaru needed to experience that failed Sasuke Retrieval mission to kick his butt into gear; Tedashi has been content to coast through his ninja life so far, and hasn't yet experienced a rude awakening to kickstart his personal drive. I promise, he will grow more rapidly now that he is a genin and has wider access to potential teachers, and will grow even more as various story events affect his personality, character, and motivations. If my attempts to set up this kind of character and story development have been too sluggish and unrealistic, well, that's because I'm an amateur fanfiction writer, haha.

And of course, I love all positive reviews, as they encourage and motivate me to keep writing, and make this story as interesting and exciting as I can! I almost never reply to reviews, but I do read them all, and even the simplest and shortest positive reviews brighten my day. I hope you all continue to enjoy this story!

In any case, thank you all for sticking with my story for eleven chapters. I hope this note didn't sound rant-ish, I do appreciate the reviews that express why people are upset/disappointed/etc. with certain aspects of my story, and I'll try to improve. I mostly wanted to explain and defend my thought processes. Now, (this might be an actual rant, sorry not sorry) to address those who are making a big deal about Anko struggling against Kidomaru when Neji managed to defeat him in canon: Neji is a freaking genius! In that fight, he debuted the 8 trigrams 128 palms, which as far as I know, is something no other Hyuuga had used, ever. He developed a Hyuuga style technique that no one else in the history of his clan had discovered, at age 14. I'm not saying that makes him the strongest ninja ever, or even the strongest Hyuuga at that age, but it says something about what a phenomenal ninja Neji was, even at that point in time. I think it is stated somewhere official that Sakon is the strongest of the four, but due to the unique and tricky nature of Kidomaru's techniques, I think Kidomaru would fare much better in certain combat situations. Anyone who didn't have a way to easily cut through his webs would have difficulty against him, even jounin level ninja. Neji had perfect counters to all of Kidomaru's techniques in his Jyuuken, Byakugan, Rotation, etc., and he still barely won this fight. Therefore, I think it is reasonable that Anko (and many other competent jounin) would at least struggle against Kidomaru, even if they eventually prevail. Not all jounin are at the same level as Kakashi or Guy. I just wanted to get that off my chest, because I love Neji, I think he is one of the best ninja in the series, and I don't want to give people a false impression that Anko is a pushover in this fic because she didn't trounce Kidomaru. You'll be able to better judge her power yourselves as the story continues, and hopefully I'll write her skills in a satisfactory manner; she doesn't show off too many of her skills in canon, so I feel some freedom to take creative liberties in her power, jutsu, specialization, etc. Hopefully I'll do her justice! -Vote4Batman