Heya,

Consider this chapter an extension of the previous. I said last week that the chapter wasn't quite done yet; there's a lot more I gotta settle before I can consider this arc properly 'done'.

But we're nearing its end, which means it's time to start tying off some loose ends!

For those of you who sent me your well wishes, I really appreciate it. It was really a pleasure getting to chat with so many of you.

Okay, I'll save the rest of my yapping for after.

Back on that horse:


Tsunade sensed Shizune's arrival long before her door slammed open, her dark-haired student set with the expression of poor news.

"Lady Tsunade! The hospital is under-"

"Attack, I know," Tsunade grumbled. She ducked her head into her palm, fingers pinching fruitlessly at her brow.

If she hadn't felt the chaos spilling over beyond its range, she'd sure as hell seen the windows shatter- the people panicking their ways out of its front, in escape.

"I know," She groaned, a dozen plans already under way since she'd sensed that first impact.

"Apologies, but I've taken the initiative to direct our ANBU in advance; they are already moving to close the perimeter and await your orders!"

And that was exactly why Shizune was her assistant.

Tsunade took a long, painful breath. "Our first priority is evacuation. ANBU are to keep that circle closed while first-responders pull who they can and secure the rest.

Some patients simply would not be able to be moved, depending on their conditions. In that case, "The right thing to do here is to make sure that no further harm comes to those we can't evacuate."

"And the attackers?" Shizune's face was stone.

"... Naruto and Kurenai Yuhi are on-site." That boy's chakra was a damn beacon; she couldn't miss it if she tried. And in spite of the latter's condition, she still trusted the jonin to do her job. They will keep the fighting to the higher levels while the evacuation moves."

Both of them surely knew standard protocol for dealing with attacks on such a high-profile location. "Keep the chaos as far from available exits as possible until civilians are secured," Tsunade muttered. Louder- "Once we're clear, we'll ascend to aid them." Glancing over to the crumbling building, she let out a breath.

"Just what I needed, today…"


Kidomaru, Sakon, and Ukon. That was what Naruto had called them, right?

They were resilient. Annoyingly so.

She may not have been a taijutsu specialist like Gai, but even injured as she was, Kurenai did not have a shred of doubt in the weight behind her blows.

But her opponents kept getting up, either shrugging them off at her worst, or healing in moments whatever pain she managed to put on.

She slid back on the ball of her foot, a slight shift of her weight changing her angle as the bow-wielding one took aim. Her ear twitched, the fall of twin-footsteps on tile preparing her for a flank from the two brothers. Kurenai ducked, letting an arrow fly by; its point embedded behind her, bits of wall crumbling apart.

That one was closer; he was adapting to her dodging patterns. If she didn't wrap things up, he'd stick her like a pig, before long…

And, given the state of her chakra, she needed a good couple of moments or so to weave her jutsu. More, if she let them disrupt her hand-sign.

Kurenai whipped around, lurching forward to intercept one of the twins' opening kicks; her own leg snapped out, the inner of her foot swatting at the opener's calf. He stumbled, letting her tilt all the way forward and hook her heel into the inner knee of his leading leg.

He needed about a second or so to nock those arrows of his with any real threat.

Another arrow flew as her opponent fell, and she joined him, rolling over onto her back and letting the projectile whiz overhead- this one bleeding a line through her brow. Her tumble carried further, a second roll taking her just out of range of the faster twin's slide-tackle. His recovery was fast, the boy slinking onto the balls of his feet and rose with explosiveness; a sharp jab scraped the corner of her jaw. Two more followed, the one-armed jonin expertly weaving both. They danced across tile, one advancing while the other retreated; Sakon stayed uncomfortably close, clawing twice at her, to which she adjusted to evade both with minimal movement. His shin checked her thigh, then his foot stomped down for her toes. She raised her own foot just in time, leaning to her back leg and driving forward; her heel punted him back just out of range, her opponent barely seeming to notice the impact before he was once again upon her, shoulders, elbows, knuckles, and clawed fingers eager to deal damage.

Almost…

The screech of footwear on tile had her straining to listen for the other. That second twin was positioned in wait while the lead forced her his way. The bow-wielding one was ready to fire.

Then his aim changed.

Kidomaru fired above, his arrow stabbing into the ceiling ahead. Kurenai couldn't quite help herself; she glanced above for only a moment, her jaw dislocating under Sakon's knuckles as he finally scored a clean hit. She stumbled, crumbles of ceiling pelting her head- its debris powdering in her eyes. She squinted shut, arm swinging out blindly to ward off the attack she knew was coming.

The point-end of a knee drove into her gut, and Kurenai lurched forward, her stomach's contents fighting to rise.

Endure it.

An elbow to the spine. She stumbled forward, the pain in that point overridden only moments after, as another one of Sakon's wild punches found her face.

"You guys suck," She spat through bloodied lips. Ukon's shin careened into her side, sending her rolling and wheezing. He stalked after her, raising a foot to stomp down on her. Through bloodshot eyes, she could just make out its descent.

Not happening. She liked her head very much uncrushed!

Kurenai rolled to her back, raising her hips and lashing out; she kicked at his heel as he came, swinging his footing way off kilter. Giving him no time to right himself, she grappled his other leg between her two, taking him down with her; Kurenai scrambled to secure that leverage, wrapping around the boy's back and jabbing into his trachea with her two extended fingers. He gagged, and she capitalized, strangling him beneath her forearm and stomping with all she had on his ankle as he tried to rise. A loud 'crack', as his foot twisted to a gruesome, purple mess. She winced, pity shoring briefly, but did not let up. Her knee bruised against his ribs with the first blow; she ignored the pain and struck again, harder.

His ribs cracked on the second blow.

Harder!

On the third, they smashed completely, under her purpling knee. Gripping the back of his neck, she hurled him after his brother, Sakon slowing to catch the wounded boy even in his state of possession.

The shriek of yet another arrow sounded as it cut through air. Kurenai could only just turn as it ran her through; flesh peeled apart as Kidomarus makeshift arrow struck her center-masse, pulling parts of her with it at its exit point. Blood spilled over at her stumbling feet, and she slipped down into it, one good arm spasming for hold within the mess.

"Not good," Her wheeze bled into a coughing fit, splatters of her blood tumbling forth from her leaking mouth.

A salvo followed, three more arrows boring into her back for good measure as Kidomaru approached- a fourth ready to fly at a moment's notice. His footsteps stopped just short of her, the soles of his footwear clinging to her blood flow. Sakon and Ukon matched him, the latter limping forth with an ugly scowl on his face. Snarling, he volleyed a kick upside her limp head, but Kurenai did not move. The trio idled for a long, painful moment after that, slowly relaxing over her skewered corpse.

Then she began to crumble, bits and pieces flaking away and rising with some invisible tempest. Blood and viscera shifted as it flew, breaking off and reshaping until a storm of petals surrounded them in a vortex, too intense for either of the three to make out a single thing beyond its range.

"I am very disappointed with you boys," Kurenai's voice threw itself all around them, her irritation laid plain. "I'm worth at least four arrows."

The petals' flow idled for a split moment, hovering in place as if frozen in time. Then they flew inwards, their edges slicing into flesh like a storm of hot knives.

Ukon screamed first, his body painting scarlet as tens became hundreds, then thousands- strong. Sakon went next, his form lost in the deluge of lacerating flower petals.

Kidomaru's hands tried to form signs.

"Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram-," he wheezed, desperately. His fingers came apart, bits and pieces of himself flying away from himself as the petals' tempo doubled. A near-useless stump slapped against the ground, chakra plummeting in sacrifice.

"Summoning jutsu!"

Nothing. Not so much as a puff of smoke.

"Womp womp," Kurenai chuckled.

Then the petals condensed, crushing him fully in a storm of blades.

Their bodies collapsed, twitching and spasming at the feet of Kurenai Yuhi. The black-bordered eyes of her three foes had rolled all the way back, pulsating temples and bloodied noses belying the results of her genjutsu.

"... Alright, that was kind of fun…" Kurenai flopped down with them, curling in on her aching torso right before the unconscious trio and massaging her temples. "I'll just rest here for a quick moment." Her eyes fluttered, the paltry flow of blood from her skewered, ruined arm nonetheless sapping the final embers of strength in her. "Yeah, I think I've earned a little… Nap."

Her eyes fluttered shut, heedless of the scrape of fast-approaching footfalls.


Anko Mitarashi's reputation within the village was unkind. Though, given the way that she carried herself, Kakashi supposed it wasn't entirely undeserving.

She was sharp; in the clever sense, sure- but more than that, she was dangerous. All the talent and prowess of somebody who had once been the Orochimaru's prized student. All of that, and one hell of a mean streak to match it all.

Skilled and damn versatile; she was an integral cog to the T machine; what's more, she had a mission portfolio that elites thrice her senior could not match: Successful A and S-ranked missions numbering so high that only Kakashi, himself came even close. Really, were it not for all of that stigma surrounding her- from her attitude, to Orochimaru's insidious shadow- Kakashi was sure that Anko's status might rival his own.

She was damned scary!

He reeled back, bouncing off the ball of his left foot and sliding to the right. Catching on his right, he tilted back further, hand-springing once, then again to evade a deadly-accurate hail of weaponry; the metal shower converged on his place, stabbing deeply into buildings and littering the street. Screams sounded all around them as civilians fled in a panic.

The ground cracked- two places on either side of him; Kakashi cartwheeled away, slimming his profile and twisting just enough to let two massive serpentine shapes crash jaws-first into the place he'd stood. Debris flew up, forcing him to squint to keep the woman in his sights.

chk-chk-chk

What was that sound- oh!

Kakashi ducked low, staring up wide-eyed as a metallic sphere whizzed overhead, crashing into the wall near his head with enough force to powder wood into sawdust. He traced its path, his plain eye following a set of debris, impacted in short order.

She had managed to ricochet that thing off the rising debris to take his blind spot? Accuracy on that scale surpassed even his own.

His gaze found her again, the purple-haired woman leaping forth to spring off from her clashing serpents; it took her high, the sun's rays granting cover as she flipped over him.

And that mark that clad her, licking her flesh like putrid black flames- it sure as hell wasn't helping the situation!

Anko was vicious, every part of her lashing out with deadly force like the coil of the very snakes that she summoned: Her fingers jabbed forward, scraping just past his mask. She recovered instantly, clenching her fist and swinging to catch him on the return; a sharp duck cleared him just enough to avoid getting bashed upside the head, but she lurched forward to meet him where he was, her other palm smashing into his chest and shoving him back two steps- right into range for a hook-punch to meet his guarding elbow.

"For what it's worth, I think you would have made a great jonin!" He whimpered.

"Gee, thanks!" Anko gasped, dryly, the possessed woman leaping up as if yanked, and battering his guard with a heavy roundhouse kick; she gave him no reprieve, hooking her other leg over his shoulder and pulling him into a clinch. Kakashi could hear the race of her heart as she tried to strangle him.

God, she was strong!

Breathlessly, he wheezed out- "Is that a snake in your skirt, or are you just happy to see me- Oh god, it is a snake!"

"Surprise!"

Sure enough, a serpent coiled out from beneath the cover of her skirt, lunging for his jugular. He caught it by the neck, snapping it in a rush and punching his grappler right in the liver.

She barely even flinched.

"Huh… That usually works- wait, wait! Time-out, time-out!" He yelped as she tilted back, legs hurling him with that momentum; Kakashi rolled roughly over his shoulder, leaping back to his feet just quick enough to have to tilt all the way back again; his body was a bridge- parallel to the ground as her foot flew just over her nose. Bracing his core, he shot back up again, both palms crashing into her chest in turn for just a lick of space.

"Gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that, cyclops!"

Anko was back in his face before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, like she hadn't even felt it!

"Have I mentioned before that I am an avid fan of women's fiction? Eeep!" Kakashi yelped again, parrying a back-hand to make room for himself; he stepped in, his plated fist smashing into her jaw with a painful-sounding 'crack'. "I loved Madoka Magica!" He shunted forward, a straight jab feinting; she took the bait, and his shoulder rotated to punish her, a second punch cracking across the other side of her face. Another feint- he faked her out a second time, the back of his fist yielding her nose with a sick crunch of cartilage. "And Sailor Moon!"

Hey, just because he was a porn addict, didn't mean he wasn't a feminist.

His elbow caught her jaw, throwing her head up and sending her stumbling back.

"And I own the Princess Gale Platinum Collection, with signed copies of the bloopers reels!"

His palm impacted her gut, and Anko went rolling. Shaking his aching fists, he planted them on his hips and huffed. "What have you done for women's culture, hm?"

"I…" Anko croaked out, fumbling blindly in her daze. Her lip quivered, her bloodshot eyes unfocused. "Teach young women… About body positivity."

"Hm… Understandable. My apologies- eeep!" Kakashi dove out of the way as a brace of shuriken came for him. "It was a joke! A funny!" He pleaded as he fled. She was waiting for him where he landed, her knee crashing into his palm; the other leg lashed out as she pushed her, making just enough space to duck below it. Her leg hooked right back for him, and he couldn't quite get out of range. Instead, he tilted just right, letting the heel of her kick ring off the plate of his forehead protector; he rolled once, righting himself on one knee and shaking the ringing out of his skull.

"Quit fucking around, man!" Anko snapped. She lurched forward, the telltale mark of strain throbbing in her cheek.

Kakashi frowned. "Right, right… Sorry to seem so lax… Ask my students- I'm not really good about just saying what I mean." Glancing up at the possessed woman, Kakashi rose with a sigh. "... Truthfully speaking, I'm not exactly happy about having to fight one of my comrades." His mismatched eyes narrowed, then, his old friend's sharingan exposed to the world. "But I get the sense that you're just as unhappy about this as I am. So for both of our sakes, I'll be getting serious now; please don't hold this against me, Anko-san."

"Finally…" Anko hissed, stumbling into a ready stance of her own. "H-hey, don't… Don't let me hurt anybody else… You got that, Kakashi?"

He let out a breath, humor freezing over and cracking away to reveal the killer beneath its surface.

Yeah, Anko Mitarashi was a difficult woman. Rude, belligerent, plenty volatile, and terribly dangerous. But she was also a treasured comrade of the Hidden Leaf.

"You've got it, Anko-san…"

He wouldn't disrespect her any longer by taking her lightly.

They clashed, both white-knuckling kunai that sparked against one another in a flurry of bloodlust. Hers was faster, but he was more accurate, his lone sharingan whirling to anticipate the flurry of steel that hell's gates had unleashed upon him.

Three flashes.

Kakashi jerked his head aside, wincing as her knife's edge slit the fabric of his mask. He craned back, another knick grazing his jaw. Then he ducked, his own steel raising to parry her plunge. A twist of his wrist left her overextended.

Then it was his turn.

Kakashi's palm slammed again into her chest, this time with enough force that Anko went stumbling. He chased her with a snarl, his kunai dancing by the ring on his finger as he feinted. She raised to guard, and he slipped through with a chop at her throat, flipping his weapon in his hand and bashing the gagging kunoichi's skull with the ring of his weapon. Anko stumbled, fresh red spilling from her temple and into her waiting hand; Kakashi was close behind, killer instincts smelling blood.

Then his eyes widened as she ducked toward the ground and the surface beneath his feet began to crack again. He vaulted back, narrowly steering clear of another giant serpent.

She knew better to try the same thing twice against him. What was her game?

A hiss behind him, and Kakashi cursed as twin impacts hit his flak jacket, rapidly coiling up his torso en-route for his neck. He spun, snatching an incoming kunai out of the air, and cut it down the zipper of his vest, shedding the thing in one fluid motion and lingering for only a moment as he tossed it with deliberateness; it flew free, two black-mouthed snakes lunging from it to attack. Twin glints of steel saw their heads toppling behind him.

"Over here," Anko's breathless warning made him turn, meeting her for yet another clash; her coat had been shed, bundled roughly in her free hand.

And he caught a mouthful of her coat as she chucked it at him, blinding him.

Trying to get around his sharingan, huh?

It was said that the mark of a great ninja was the art of subtraction.

The less you had to do to achieve the same effect, the better you were at what you did. At the same time, being able to cut down the enemy's assets without risk to oneself was one of the greatest skills a ninja could have.

It was little micro-movements like this, done with minimal effort and resources expended, that convinced Kakashi more than ever that Anko was as deserving of his rank as he was.

He heard her flank, lunging again for his back, and knew he had no chance of reacting as he was.

Good thing he'd planned ahead.

A single hand-sign, and his vest began to smoke right by her feet.

"I can do that too."

And Anko was enveloped in the fallout of the pair of paper bombs, strapped to the inner of his vest. The smoke billowed into him, briefly obscuring his own form before it blew apart. When it cleared, Kakashi stared, guarded, into the crater where Anko's scorched body lay still.

Then her flesh warped, lifeless mouth and eyes stretching impossibly wide to pave way for several snakes, which slinked out of the crater for him with haste.

"Oh dear." He made to move again, but found he couldn't; glancing down, Kakashi groaned at the hand, which had burst free from the ground to wrap its crushing grip upon his ankle. Pain swelled in his chest, neck, and face- courtesy of lightning-fast bites from Anko's little helpers. Then, that grip pulled; Kakashi fell beneath the earth, buried up to his neck and asphyxiating as her serpents' venom worked through his body. He glanced up through clouding eyes, staring into the nearly empty gaze of Anko who now stood above him, her wounds from their fight already clearing.

"Ain't you… Supposed to be the Copy Ninja or something?" Sadly, she added. "Woulda thought you… Of all people could stop me."

"Hehe… You want to know why they call me that?" He croaked back through a fast-swelling throat. Anko did not answer, but he smirked beneath his mask, knowing he had her.

The ground cracked apart, and Anko's surprise left her open as a hand wrapped around her own ankle, dragging her under. The buried Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke, and when it cleared, he stood above her, seeming no worse for wear, save for some bloodless nicks to his mask and his missing vest.

Tilting his head with amusement, he smiled. "It's because I can do anything you can do, but better."

"Heh… Nice. We ain't done here yet, though."

The ground beneath their feet began to quake. Rings of ink spread out from the hole that Anko had been buried in, expanding rapidly until its range filled even the surface beneath Kakashi's own feet.

That wasn't good.

"Summoning jutsu."

The ground exploded, puffs of smoke and chakra alike tearing their way up and filling the street that they'd occupied. Its expansion doubled, then again, coalescing into a massive, serpentine shape.

If the screams had been loud before, now they were deafening, people tripping and crashing in their flight for safety. Shingles crumbled apart and crashed to the ground as Anko's summon expanded with the spread of smoke; Kakashi winced as a piece of roofing smashed down on a person's shoulder, trapping them beneath it with an audible 'crack' of bone.

A rattled tail flicked in anticipation; two massive heads slowly rose, towering over Kakashi as the twinned visages stretched to their full height. Above on one of their heads, Anko stood, the curse-mark's flames encroaching fully across her pale flesh.

One of her eyes' sclera had painted fully black, the sickly glow of one yellowed iris staring down at him.

"... I'm so fucked, ain't I?"

"Well, this is getting to be a bit of a hassle, huh?" Kakashi sighed.

He had a few jutsu on-hand that could do the trick. But if the fighting by the hospital was anything to go by, things weren't isolated to just here. "Guess I can't afford to be conservative any longer."

Then her beast lunged. Kakashi's hands clapped together, chakra rocketing to the surface in retaliation.

Then, a deafening crackle filled the air.

"Amaterasu!"

And both parties startled as Anko's snake was engulfed in flames, black as shadow. Her serpent's hiss became a screech, panic bleeding into agony as its thick hide crumbled apart under the piling torrent of heat. Anko leapt away, lest the flames consume her too; she watched her summon's death, wide-eyed- its body collapsing to the ground with not so much as a twitch in mere seconds.

Then, the screech of lightning, like a thousand birds calling as one. From the air, she whipped around, twisting just enough to let a lightning-clad fist punch just overhead. Her eyes locked with her attacker, a twinned-pair of scarlet, six-pointed stars narrowing with aggression.

"Don't move!" Sasuke Uchiha's snarl froze her in her place, unable to tear her eyes away from the whirling pair of mangekyou sharingan. Her body toppled, crashing limply in place- his feet landed before her only a moment later.

"Holy shit, I can't move at all!" Anko chuckled. The curse-mark's influence strained to reassume control, but its command grew quieter by the second. Her distraction ebbed as Sasuke crashed to his knees, the curse-mark's chakra and his own depleted all at once.

Sasuke began to hack and cough. His hazy, blood streaked eyes blinked rapidly, searching blindly into the wad of spittle he'd emptied onto the street.

He was going to collapse any second now.

"What the hell did you just do, kid?" Anko marveled. The curse-mark receded, leaving her thankfully still.

"I… I don't know," Sasuke wheezed through a clenched jaw. A palm landed gently on the boy's shoulder, the exhausted genin sending a startled glance up to regard the smiling face of his sensei.

"Well whatever it was, your arrival was a blessing."

… A blessing, huh?


He found Hinata hunched over Hiashi's broken body, scars in her chakra teeming with the telltale taint of a wounded heart.

He heard her rant, raw and unfiltered unlike anything he'd ever heard from her.

He heard Hiashi's response.

And he heard her heart-wrenching wail as it tumbled out over her quivering lips- her agony, rancid and frantic, like the death throes of a wounded animal; it bled her chakra like an oil spill.

"Go to her…"

He nodded, anxiety bullied away only by the realization that she needed him with her now more than ever. Far more than he needed himself to be invisible.

"Heya…"

Hinata jumped at his sound, turning with a twitch. Four, cloudy-red eyes spotted him in turn, petrified- something aghast- humiliated, condemning herself.

"I-" She turned sharply again, some pitiful whine leaving her lips as she took in her father's broken form, breaths so faint that he doubted them at all. "I didn't- I didn't mean to- I don't know what I was…"

"Hinata?" Naruto took one cautious step, searching his heart for comfort he knew she needed. "... Darling, can I help?"

"He- he won't wake up." Emphasizing the point, she jerked his shoulder, her one normal hand jostling the fallen man with more strength than was surely wise.

Naruto took another step.

"Look at me, Hinata."

She did, fighting to tear her gaze from the body. "Naruto-kun, he's not waking up. I don't- I don't know what to-"

Another step, then he closed the rest in an instant, wrapping two limbs around her; his others, flesh and blood, cupped her face and drew her to him, breathing his heart with that embrace.

"It's going to be okay," He promised her. "It's not okay now; it might not be okay for a bit… But it's going to be okay." Jiraiya's words back then gave him strength. "We'll make it okay, alright?"

Her returning embrace was far too tight, the jagged shell that clad her body digging uncomfortably into him. He didn't complain though as her wail stained his top, tears and snot streaking his kimono as she bawled. He squeezed tighter in turn, humming into the crown of her head.

"Katsuyu-san," He muttered, a single hand-seal aiding the call. It was only a moment before a puff of smoke erupted at his shoulder, bringing with it his patron's arrival.

"Ah geez, I'm not sure that Hyuga-related damages are covered by our usual ninja insurance plan." She laughed, a bit nervously. "I'll need double the compliments to cover this one, Young Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed, wanting to play along, but not feeling the mood. "You got it, Katsuyu-san."

"Er- right… Healing!" She slid down his arm, deposited neatly atop Hiashi's chest. "I can stabilize him fine, but I won't be able to do much else for him without some proper facilities." A moment later, she began to glow, letting him focus on Hinata again.

"Look at me, Hinata," He ordered, once again cupping the girl's face to take her attention. She reluctantly looked away from Katsuyu and her work, letting him see her as she was. Shame ballooned in her as she saw her reflection in his own gaze.

"Oh my god," She whimpered, her hand clapping over her split jaw. She froze, taking in the darkened pigmentation of her hand; the massive claw that encased her other- "Oh god, oh god… What's wrong with me?"

Naruto shook his head.

"I told you, it's going to be okay."

"I'm disgusting," She sniffled. She tried to cover her face, but he held her wrists, gently. "I wanted to beat him so bad. I kept thinking 'I'll do anything to take him down.'"

He shook his head again. "You're not disgusting. You did mess up, though." She flinched, but he couldn't sugar-coat it with her. That wouldn't help her.

She couldn't trust him to help if he made excuses for her.

A deep breath. "I need to get that mark under control, dear."

"Under… Control?" She whimpered, something ugly flashing in her expression for a moment. Wariness coiled around her chakra, her emotion so potent that he could nearly hear the insidious whisperings between her ears.

"Hinata?"

'You're a danger. A threat.'

'You need to be controlled.'

'You cannot be forgiven for what you've done.'

"N-Naruto-kun, I-"

'He doesn't want you anymore. You're broken- more trouble than you're worth; now that he's seen the worst of you, he'll throw you away.'

"Naruto-kun… You still… Want me, right?" She averted her gaze, needing to know, and yet afraid all the same of what she might hear.

"Look at me," Naruto insisted; he pulled her so close that their breaths met. "I'll never throw you away- do you understand me?" Still, she struggled to meet his eyes. "I still want you. All of you… Even the messy bits."

God knew he could be a bit messy, himself.

"I-"

'He's lying.'

… But Naruto had never lied to her. Not once- not even about his secrets.

She trusted him with her life.

"Remember what we said, right?" He took her hand, raising it to kiss the roughened flesh of her ash-brown knuckles. "We're a team. You told me you'd catch me if I fell; I promised the same, right? Well you're falling, and I'm here to catch you… We support each other, believe it."

Another kiss. "It ain't always easy. Sometimes it's gonna suck. Like- super suck."

Another. "But I'll have you if you'll have me." He took her face again. "So the real question is: do you still want me?"

Of course she did! "More than anything…"

He smiled, bright and warm like the sun she knew him as. "Then that's that. No takesies backsies, ya know!"

Her eyes watered, a wobbling smile splitting the graying clouds, finally. "Okay…"

She loved him. "More than anything."

"He'll betray you-"

'Shut up.' Hinata shook her head, clearing the thought as quickly as it came. "I'm ready."

His fingers pressed the side of her neck, and a spike of pain ripped through her, so sudden that she gasped.

But she trusted him. Sure as hell more than she trusted herself, right about now.

The mark peeled back, reluctantly. Its brazen cling to her flesh fought and lost as Naruto's own chakra closed around it, herding the mark's influence back into its pen with absolute force. A minute later, its retreat ended, penned tightly within the mark's confines and circled twice with an intricate wheel of chain. Bits of the mark's iconography remained, its creep slinking up her neck to coil up one side of her face. A ring of jagged lilies circled around her eye, as if to announce that her episode could not be so easily forgotten. The extra eyes that she had sported slowly eased shut, but Naruto noticed with some concern that the slits that stretched into her upper cheeks did not fully go, only fading like scars. Even as the shell that had collared her crumbled away, he noticed that small, colorful scale-like bits still seemed embedded in her flesh. A look at her now freed hand found that nozzle-like protrusion had remained as well, embedded thoroughly into her palm.

"He didn't just possess her… He used the mark to force permanent changes to her body. He wants you to know that he's the one steering the ship." Kushina's disgust was only further fuel for the fury that crept into his cheeks. Naruto's jaws gnashed, the rattle of metal accompanying his hiss.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata called him, nervously. She stroked his face, and he leaned into the gesture, cooling his head.

"I'm good…" A single breath, to steady himself. "We're good."

Change the subject.

"That mark was using your negative emotions as fuel, and riding the flow to mess with your better judgment," He told her, solemnly. "The way you felt was real; the way you went about it-"

It was like egging somebody on. The mark couldn't have done any more than amplify whatever she was already capable of.

"I… I know," she muttered, shamefully. Her tone was deadened, the throes of emotion slinking back now beneath some illusion of strength that he saw right through. "This is my fault."

"This is Orochimaru's fault," Naruto corrected her. "No matter how much you may have wanted to hurt him, you'd have never done it if Snake-man wasn't tormenting you and egging you on." He shook his head, gently squeezing her bicep, then leaned forward to hug her again. "We'll make it okay, alright?"

For now though, they had far more pressing matters to attend.

Kurenai's battle on the lower floors seemed just about ready to die down. He felt her chakra sluggishly coil around the unsuspecting ex-sound ninja, slowly closing their ring like the length of a constrictor. Then it lashed out like a viper's fangs, immobilizing them in brutal fashion.

He winced, sympathy for the three boys lingering in his chest.

But he couldn't judge Kurenai for such a harsh take-down, given the circumstances.

His senses panned out further, to Kakashi and Anko fighting just a few blocks down.

"Took you long enough, ya broody shit," Naruto breathed, relief swelling in his chest as Sasuke arrived, not as an enemy, but as the friend he knew him as. "I'm so glad…"

"'Beep, beep!'" Katsuyu sounded, cheerily. "Thanks for using Katsuyu's patch-a-lung! We accept payments in cash, compliments, and very recently, ninja food stamps! How would you rate your experience, one-out-of-five?"

Naruto couldn't help it. Snickering- "A perfect five, as always, Katsuyu-san," he trilled.

"Compliments it is!" Bobbing her head down towards Hiashi's body, she added- "Please be mindful. His body has the structural integrity of soggy cereal, right about now." She frowned suddenly, her cheeks puffing up into something like a pout. "Speaking of which- can you believe that some people like their cereal soggy? For shame! The only thing worse than un-crisped cereal is a flight of stairs!"

Hinata ducked her head, dim pearls of humor peeking just a bit through the heavy cast over her mood. "T-thank you, Lady Katsuyu."


Shizune had hand-delivered a comprehensive report of the incident to her. It was thorough- neatly compiled and backed by official reports from three separate ninja who had been on or near the scene.

But for the life of her, she couldn't get her eyes to focus on the damned thing for longer than a few seconds at a time.

God, she was exhausted.

"A terrorist attack, launched at the very heart of our village."

Twelve civilians injured in the crossfire, caught either in the stampede for escape or by rubble from the scuffle.

One civilian dead. An old man, dead of a heart-attack. His primary care-giver had been held up by the chaos. Between stress from the damages and a lack of access to his heart medication-

"Just great…"

When dealing with a travesty of this magnitude, even circumstantial losses like this held weight.

"'These people would not have been harmed, if we had not been harboring people afflicted by Orochimaru's mark'; that's the sentiment that is beginning to spread." Tsunade leaned forward, elbows supporting her on her desk as she stared across; before her, Naruto held her gaze, nervousness rife in his chakra- yet, not a hair out of place, outwardly. "What would you say about that?"

Naruto was silent.

"That wasn't a rhetorical question-"

"I know," Naruto cut in. A long, tired breath slipped from his lips. "I'm thinking."

She let him have his moment. A few seconds, and he spoke again. "Those that were marked by Orochimaru are just as much, victims as the people who were hurt. It ain't fair to label them like terrorists."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "That's the best you've got?"

Because she knew damn well how that would fly in the public eye.

Anko Mitarashi, an ex-student of Orochimaru; she had been seen tearing through the village en route for the hospital. Several within their shinobi corps had been seriously wounded merely as collateral. Between those wounded, and the property damage- well, any goodwill that she had managed to painstakingly wrench back in her favor since Orochimaru's defection was well down the drain.

"Sakon, Ukon, and Kidomaru… The shinobi council is calling for their deaths."

Their ninja casualties were far more prevalent… "Those three alone slaughtered eight of our own on their way to you."

Naruto said nothing.

"The only reason Tayuya isn't mixed in with those three is because you were able to keep her in check on the upper floors long enough for the evacuation to make some headway." She scowled. "But that sure as hell doesn't mean she's out of the woods."

Tayuya may not have killed anybody, but word of her own part in the chaos had nonetheless come out. "You'll be lucky if all that happens is that she's jailed or banished."

Then of course, there was Hinata…

"I've received word from the Hyuga clan. They're demanding that I issue her a summons to be branded with the caged-bird seal."

The room chilled, the rattle of chain pouring out from her student's flesh. Its screech heralded the pour of pressure, so intense that she could feel her ANBU shift. He glanced up, four pupils staring unblinkingly back at her.

"Over my dead body."

Tsunade carried on like she hadn't heard him. "They argue that Hiashi could have gotten her under control with the seal if she had been marked- something which has previously not been done only because she belongs exclusively to my ninja corps. With Hiashi currently out of commission, the clan's elders are acting in his stead- as is their right... They are demanding my cooperation with this matter."

Now time for the more difficult conversation.

"They aren't wrong."

Naruto froze, his expression completely unreadable. She could swear that even his chakra had stilled with some terrible calm. Even that pressure he'd amassed seemed to fizzle to nothing, leaving only a void where his presence had once filled the entire room. To her discomfort, she realized that she could feel nothing at all from his chakra; where once, her boy had let his heart's contents spark across his flesh, now, he had tamped them all down beneath the metal that lay within.

A moment passed- that agonizing silence that sparked nervousness in even her.

"Nothing to say?" She tried.

"... I'm letting you finish." He decided, after a moment. "I don't want to say or do something I'll regret."

His fingers twitched, and Tsunade sighed.

"Objectively speaking, Hinata is the catalyst for all of this." She had read Kurenai's report on her students' performance; frankly, she expected better of that girl. "Even disregarding the fact that it was her recklessness in her mission that allowed her to be marked, it was her inability to restrain herself that allowed Orochimaru's curse-mark to resonate with the other marked victims. Had she been branded with the caged-bird seal like her clan has long-since pushed for, she would have been in no position to cause the damage that she did to her head of house; nor would she have been so far that you couldn't have put her in check for so long." Another sigh. "Objectively speaking, Hinata is going to be the one that people blame."

Still, he said nothing.

"... Compare her to Sasuke Uchiha. He-too was marked by Orochimaru, just like everybody else. Yet, he was able to resist the compulsion and actively worked to protect the village in spite of it… Your teammate exists as proof that the mark's influence could have been resisted. Context isn't going to matter here, to people who have already made up their minds about the situation."

Still, he was quiet.

Finally, Tsunade sighed, pinching her brow. "Please say something."

Naruto closed his eyes, silently collecting himself. He considered his next words twice with utter care; when he spoke next, his words were the point-end of a shard of ice. "If anybody within that clan moves to harm a hair on her head, I'll turn that entire compound into a crater… Is that what you want to hear?"

… She didn't doubt that he would; she didn't fully doubt that he could.

"You know I won't let them touch her," She promised him. Naruto froze, and something close to guilt sat on her chest as his emotions unraveled from their binds, a silent sob of relief erupting.

"...I didn't," He told her, his clawed fingers smoothening against his chest. "I don't know what the fuck is going on, ya know!"

Oh…

"I won't let them," She promised again. "But I do need you to understand the severity of the situation, here."

She was still only newly anointed. Tsunade did not yet have the trust of the people; she did not have the respect of the shinobi council, nor of Hiruzen's advisors. "If I handle this incorrectly, there is a genuine likelihood that they will lean on me to step down from my position. Whoever takes my place- I assure you, they won't take your side here."

The Hokage's seat was not at all a democracy. However, it didn't change the fact that the acting Kage still relied on cooperation from the village's most prevalent clans to maintain relations within the village. While the shinobi council did not necessarily have the power to demand anything from the Hokage, they did represent their own people. There were many ways that a majority of incensed clan heads could make her life miserable. Such a thing had been designed deliberately by Hashirama when he and Tobirama had designed the position, granting the people they ruled influence in exchange for trust.

"I won't be able to protect you guys if that happens."

Naruto nodded, now seeming as exhausted as she felt.

"What do you need from me, then?"

She frowned. "I'm still figuring that out. But for now, I definitely need you guys to lay low. The Hyuga's demands will only increase if they see Hinata walking free; as of now, I'm stripping her license and placing her under house-arrest with you as her warden- at least until I can find an answer. I'm tasking you to keep her out of trouble." A moment, then- "That goes as well for Tayuya. Keep them close; I'm trusting you, Naruto."

He nodded. "And the others?"

"... Anko Mitarashi has willingly turned herself in; she is being held in T with Ibiki. Don't worry," She insisted, at Naruto's horrified look. "She and Ibiki are good friends, and he and I have already spoken. She's being held as much for her own safety as anyone else's."

Now came the hard part.

"Sakon, Ukon, and Kidomaru… They can't stay," She finally decided. "I need to make an example out of somebody. And of our 'culprits'-" She backed her wording with 'air-quotes'. "They are the only ones with an inarguable body count, to their episodes."

Naruto swallowed. "... Fuck, man."

Tayuya was going to be heartbroken.

"It's either I banish them, or I have them killed."

"It's the same either way!" Naruto snapped. "If you banish them, you know damn well that Orochimaru is going to snatch them right back up! They won't last a week!"

"And I'd bet my whole life that this is exactly what his goal is," Kushina cut into his thoughts.

Naruto froze.

"Think about it. If Tsunade has them killed, Orochimaru gets us to tie off loose-ends for him; if she sends them away, he can just collect them and harvest whatever information their curse-marks have acquired."

That went the same for any of them.

"Honestly… If I were really a betting woman, I'd say the whole mission to Katabami was a set-up by Orochimaru; there's no other reason that he'd have been positioned so comfortably to take advantage of their presence.

But how could he have known that Tsunade would send Hinata?

"Maybe he didn't… But it doesn't really matter who she sends, because there are only so many people she could have sent; like Tsunade said, she's still new to the position. She can only be familiar with so many people and their skill sets; of them, only so many people are equipped and prepared to handle any of Orochimaru's strays- which would be needed, given the proximity to Rice Country." Kushina shrugged, seeming a bit defeated, herself. "Even if you hadn't asked her to. Whomever she sent- Hinata, you, Anko- there were great odds that it was going to be somebody he wanted. Somebody he'd even risk running afoul with Jiraiya to get to."

So he'd completely and utterly played them.

"Right…" She sighed. "You have to remember who we're dealing with, love."

Tsunade stood, rounding the table and cupping his face.

"I'm sorry… I know this isn't easy for you. But I need to make a decision."

Naruto shook his head with fervor. "You can't banish them," Naruto insisted, something hard in his tone. "It won't end well for anybody."

Frustration bloomed in her at his stubbornness, but she stamped it down. "... Fine then; I'll humor you. What would you have me do?" She challenged him. "If I punish nobody, I look impotent. People might go behind my back to get at you guys. Anko might conveniently commit suicide by stabbing herself in the back forty-two times with a kunai; you might come home to a broken door- Hinata branded or brain-dead, and Tayuya killed in the struggle."

It was a gruesome thought, but her station demanded that she could not shy away from it.

"Tell me what you expect me to do. Give me an answer that solves our problem, and we'll do that instead."

This was as much a teaching opportunity as it was, a tragedy.

"When you're Hokage, circumstances like this will demand your attention. You can't just bury your head in the sand and hope things work out. You need to take action. Your people need to trust that you'll take action- not just that, but make the right decision! So tell me: What would you do?"


In the end, Tsunade had sent him away.

"I can't stall for longer than a few days, tops. Find me an answer that gets the council off my back, or I'm moving forward with an execution."

And he understood that she was about as unhappy about that as he was.

But that really didn't piss him off, any less.

He hadn't had it in him to head straight home- to rouse Tayuya from her bedrest just to look her in the eye and tell her that her friends might be dead before the week was up.

"Sakon and Ukon are a pair of elite, eighth prestige cocksuckers, I swear to god; they won't even talk to me anymore!" He remembered Tayuya telling him. "Kidomaru too- dude's a real jackass, sometimes…" She sniffed, staring off somewhere that he wasn't seeing. "And Jirobo… Dude was a fucking bum… But they're my friends; we all come from the same place- grew up on the same shit, ya know? I don't really know what I'd do without them."

Instead, he'd tiredly taken a seat on a chipped, old park bench, watching the skies darken as their sun departed for the evening.

Tayuya had already lost one of them; he'd failed to save Jirobo for her.

"Can't let her lose them too." Naruto shook his head. "Not happening… I gotta figure something out."

"Hey..."

Naruto startled at that sound, his head jerking up and over to stare back at its source.

A dozen things flew and died on his tongue, all harsher than he really wanted to say.

"You sure took your sweet time."

"Oh, now I'm good enough, huh?"

… But none of them really conveyed well how he really felt, seeing his best friend in the flesh, again.

"... You look like shit," He decided.

Sasuke looked disheveled; his handsome features were worn down by bloodshot mangekyou eyes and gaunt cheeks. His clothes, the same fitted black bodysuit that he'd worn, minus all the straps- they were scuffed, a litany of tears and burns dotting its surface like splotches on a canvas.

And Naruto didn't miss the flecks of dried blood on the boy's cheeks, nor its odor lingering on his person.

"Gee, thanks," His raven-haired friend huffed, plopping down beside him on the bench. "And here I was coming to hook you up." He raised a hand, a black plastic bag handled by two fingers. Naruto could see just within, spotting what looked like some store-bought onigiri. "But since you want to be a jerk-"

Naruto shook his head. "You should eat them, yourself." He stared at Sasuke for a long moment, then sighed. "I ain't trying to be a dick. You look sick, man."

"... Oh." Sasuke blinked, slowly. Unbidden, Hinata Hyuga's words snuck up on him.

"Naruto-kun loves you very much, Sasuke-san. He talks about you every day- how much he misses you; how much he worries about you…"

Sasuke's frown filled his entire face, the boy looking into the pair of snacks he'd brought. Then he shook his head. "Sakura handed them off to me; she asked me to share with you." He thought, long and hard, for a moment. "I want to share with you."

"... Give it here," Naruto caught one, rolling the thing over in his hands a few times. "Thanks."

"This too," Sasuke insisted, plucking another item from the bag. "She said you asked for this one."

A buttered roll. Naruto snickered. "Can't believe she took me seriously."

But… It felt nice. "Thanks." He'd thank her too, when he next saw her.

"... So what's got you sulking?" Sasuke asked, unwrapping his own. He looked the thing over for just a moment before taking a massive bite out of it, nearly consuming its entirety in a single go.

"My cousin's friends are going to be executed."

Sasuke choked; it took two thumps to his back to save him from a very silly death. "You're not funny!"

"... I ain't joking," Naruto sighed, and Sasuke stilled at that. "Tsunade told me, herself. Unless I can magic a solution out of my ass, they're getting sent straight to the 'bweh'-dimension…" The blonde let loose a shaky breath, his emotion bubbling into this painful warble. "I-uh… I-I tried to talk her out of it; best she could give me was a few days to figure something out.

"O-oh…"

"Yeah…"

"That's-" Sasuke fumbled for a moment, his heart wanting to comfort, but his mind drawing a blank. "And- and there's nothing that can be done?"

There was, technically.

"I'm toying with an idea right now… See, if I can neutralize all of the curse-marks, I figure I might be able to speak on their behalf as an expert… Appeal to the council's logic with plain results, ya know?"

"Then what are you doing sitting around, here?" Sasuke scoffed. "I'd have thought you'd already be on that."

Naruto wasn't the sort who just idled around.

"Don't tell me you're giving up?"

"Nah… It's just-" Naruto idled for a long moment, lips moving to explain, but ultimately giving up with a sigh. "Even if I could do that, it ain't like I'm particularly well-liked, myself. There's honestly about a ninety-percent chance they just laugh me out of the room."

Sasuke frowned for a moment. Then a soft smile curled upon his lips. "You've done more with less."

Naruto blinked, twice. Then he grinned right back. "You're damn-right I have."


Which meant those marks needed to be neutralized, ASAP.

"I need access to Anko."

He and Kushina had simulated the procedure dozens of times now. In order to be absolutely certain of success, every angle had to be considered, down to the room they chose and even minute details like the air pressure and temperature.

Thus, his demand had seen him escorted personally by Shizune.

"This is the Hokage's personal ritual-chamber," She informed him, cautiously. "Please understand just how much trust Tsunade-sama is putting in you by allowing you to use it."

"I know," Naruto assured her. Between this and the time she'd given him with the forbidden scroll, Naruto knew well just how much trust acting Kage was giving him; he knew even better the kind of hot water that mishandling such boons could land her in. "I'm dead serious about this, Shizune-san."

And he sure as hell hadn't woken Tsunade up at four in the morning for the hell of it. Now at only five, he knew well that this would take most of his day.

She nodded, a warm smile responding to him. "I took the liberty of clearing the chambers for your use. I also asked Ibiki-san to bring Anko-san for you this evening; I will inform you as soon as she arrives.

In theory, removing Orochimaru's curse mark shouldn't be that difficult; the Snake Sannin's approach to it was actually beautiful in its simplicity- a simple contract seal, binding the mark to its host, so long as conditions were met.

The conditions in question? Sanctuary within its host in exchange for the heaps of unbridled nature energy that coursed through the host upon activation of the curse mark, as referenced by Katsuyu. It was an unspoken contract: power for security; it was backed further by the various sealing clusters that Orochimaru had bound atop the seal's base.

Monitoring and diagnostics; a series of self-propagating chemical farms, set to flood the host with concentrated doses of adrenaline, dopamine, and even methamphetamines, both to further enhance performance as well as spur addiction to its effects; a yin-release activation-trigger, set to passively cause hallucinations and egg on unsuspecting victims-

Really, the list went on.

But at their core, they all hinged on two things: The base processing system, and the contract seal that bound it to the host. The seal was constantly fulfilling its end of the bargain, so breaking that contract would be the big challenge.

But there was a simple solution, and though Naruto had initially hesitated with it when they had time to spare- well, now they didn't.

Ironically though, it had been not him, and not Kushina, but Kumoko who had first given him the idea; the first time that the overgrown spider had breathed the telltale violet of Naruto's hellfire directly into his mother's unsuspecting face had sent his heart into his throat. Realizing later that she was simply trying to mimic him had been a bit more endearing, but only upon realizing that his mother was very much unharmed.

But it served as a reminder to the potential of the power he'd developed in Tanzaku town.

Hellfire burned selectively. He had used it to try burning Orochimaru's influence out of Jirobo. His mistake with that had been trying to use a completely new technique to punch way above his weight class. With his inexperience, he'd completely fumbled.

But he was better now than he'd been, back then- much better. What's more, Anko was the perfect person to try this with.

A standard counter-seal calibrated against the curse-mark's schematics would serve to confuse its initial defenses for a time; it'd get him close enough to the core that he wouldn't just be firing blindly.

"So- uh… How much is this gonna hurt?" Anko asked the blonde before her, obediently shirking her coat as ordered.

"That depends on you, actually." Naruto waved the question off, somewhat lackadaisically. "Could be days; if the mark is bound too tightly to you, I might end up nicking you a bit trying to separate it if I ain't extra super-duper careful."

And that would be bad. He wasn't an expert on the subject by any means, but he understood enough about the soul by now to know that even minor damage could be devastating.

"Uh- right… And if it isn't?"

"Then this oughta be the easiest five minutes of your life." Naruto gestured between them. At their feet lay a rather large circle, open and wide enough for two people to sit with room to spare; surrounding it was a sea of kanji that rotated on and spanned outward until it encompassed much of the chamber that Tsunade had provided them for the procedure.

"No joke, I spent about thirteen hours on this thing."

He'd thought about using clones, but his anxiety wouldn't allow it. He couldn't risk anything.

He refused to gamble on her life.

"Make sure you don't smudge anything on your way down. You mess up a single line, and I have to start all over."

Anko stepped carefully into the circle, gripping the hem of her shirt and discarding that too with little hesitation. "Don't go getting slack jawed at my bitties now, cutie."

"It's my jaw, and I'll let it slack as much as I damn well please. Now shut up and sit down," He batted back, quickly.

Sobering a bit- "So give me the rundown, then." Anko seated herself within the circle, cross-legged. "What's all the markups actually for?"

"Insurance. Though honestly, I shouldn't need it." Naruto kneeled behind her, carefully clasping his fingers together. "It's a ritual circle- protection of the mind and spirit," he explained. "If I somehow manage to screw this up, there's a brief period where Orochimaru's- er, whatever the hell it is that he's left with you- where that might be able to reach me. If that happens, the circle will flash fry his ass."

Anko blanched. "Where the hell did you learn to make something like that?"

"Ritual school. Where else?" He snorted. Nevermind the fact that he- Mito had been the teacher. With Kushina to help guide his hand, it was honestly the easiest part of all of this. More monotonous than truly difficult.

"Right…" Anko hummed back, unconvinced.

"I'm ready when you are," His mother announced. "Don't forget your safety goggles, Kumoko!" She made a show of fitting a comically large set over the gigantic creature's massive head. She drooled happily into Kushina's lap, miming after her with her two front limbs.

Naruto snickered at their antics before focusing anew.

In theory, neutralizing the curse mark wasn't terribly difficult, once he knew everything it had to offer. Knowing its ins-and-outs as he did, the procedure was simply an extension of what he had attempted with Jirobo.

"Hopefully you don't burn down a whole city block and a half this time!"

Nah. His control was far greater now than it had been, there.

"My hellfire style is a unique creation of mine," The blonde muttered, both of his hands beginning to spark. "You're not to move from that spot, you understand me?"

"Sure?"

Violet flames erupted, a chain of brilliant golden sparks lighting between his joining palms.

"Er- hey champ? Bestie? My glorious king-queen-person? W-what are you gonna do with that fire, bud?"

"Well naturally, I'm gonna light you on fire, bud." Naruto replied, cheerily.

"Wait, hold on-"

"MAXIMUM EFFORT!"

Then Anko was alight. She yelped, hands twitching to swat at the deluge of hellfire as it buried her beneath itself.

"Are you crazy!?"

"Bitch, I might be! Now shut up and let me focus," Naruto muttered back, absently. His fingers danced across her neck, the boy observing and directing the unknown flames in some manner that she could not fathom.

It was only after an agonizingly fearful moment that she realized that she did not hurt at all.

His flames all congealed at the point of her mark, not just engulfing it, but burning into it. The curse mark expanded, beginning briefly to cover her, and Anko grit her teeth as its familiar pain now began to surface.

"Hng!" Her stomach flipped, torment chasing its contents up; she bit her tongue and clenched her jaw, fighting with herself to keep it all down.

She remembered well, how its scalding creep had raced up her flesh, jerking her body about like a puppet on strings… It had been all she could do, just to stay conscious- to shout her warnings before her body truly stopped being her own.

The way peoples' bodies flew as she flew through them like a one-woman stampede; people- some, who she knew, scrambling to get away from her before she hurt them too…

"You good?" She could only distantly hear Naruto's worry through the haze of pain.

The people she'd hurt… If Kakashi had not gotten in her way, who knew how many of her own peoples' lives she could have taken before the curse-mark's influence had left her.

Compared to that guilt, this was nothing.

"Don't stop until it's done!" She ordered him with a snarl. "Whatever you gotta do- get this thing off me!"

Naruto winced, himself, as Orochimaru's chakra tried to lash out, his counter seal wavering for a moment against its snarling, hissing maw.

He stood atop a mass of writhing flesh. Twitching within the mass, sequestered about in shuddering bulbs, big and small, he knew he would find any one of the many clusters that made up the seal's influence. His footsteps took him forward, a steady gait refusing to betray his spastic nerves. He schooled his face, his familiar grin slipping into place as the pinkened meat beneath his steps lurched upward; it twisted and formed itself into a familiar shape- a towering serpentine aberration of flesh and teeth. But Orochimaru's predatory gaze, he knew anywhere.

Naruto couldn't help himself. A bark of laughter ripped from his throat, staring up at the thing. His seal held, and all at once, his anxiety dissolved, moxie taking its place tenfold as he saw it, and knew it.

"You really shouldn't have flown so close to the sun. 'Cuz now, I'm gonna put you through the fucking blender, Snake-man."

It lunged. A snap of his fingers, and its head sloshed away from the rest of the mass with a 'thud' and toppled at his feet, a cauterized separation at its neck; its final death throes were disregarded as he continued his stride past the corpse. Violet flames licked his every step, spreading like wildfire to consume his screaming, fleshy foothold. Behind him, they began to rise, chaotic shades of hellfire coalescing and expanding all at once into a familiar form.

Eight massive pillars for legs; a thick, flower-like bulb, winding free from the end of its metallic abdomen. Its visage formed, eight, unblinking orbs gleaming with hunger.

Her fangs plunged down into the screaming mass, her violet glow swelling beneath its surface and illuminating the whole with molten light; its flesh began to bubble and wither, its screams chasing his every stride.

"First your marks. Then your men. I'll tear that whole fucking Sound village up by its foundations if I gotta, to smoke you out." His grin split his face, rows of violently-jagged teeth reflecting his resolve. "Then I'll fry you too."

Then it was gone, like a cement block had been tied to Anko's back for so long that she'd forgotten how it was like to stand and walk without it.

Naruto's palm closed around the bubbling, quaking seal on her neck and it yielded, unraveling in a spill of ink that twisted its way from her and onto his gloved palm, instead. Shaking his palm a few times, he nodded once, then stood.

"Done."

Anko blinked, slowly.

Wait, that was it?

"You're done, done?"

"Super done. That's like 'regular' done, but super." Naruto grinned, and Anko yielded to the temptation of a shy one of her own, in turn. "You can put your shirt on."

"Holy shit," Anko breathed, collecting her things. "Holy shit!" You mean I'm free? Just like that?"

"Just like that." Naruto shrugged. "I told you I'd do it. My word is as good as gold, lady. Well, except for when I lie." He glanced away from her, observing the twisted, burgundy-glowing mark on his gloved palm now, right in the center of the cage he'd made for it. "I amputated the piece of him that was managing it away from you and then finished it off. Then I hijacked its processing system and canceled the contract seal anchoring it to you; from there, I uprooted the whole thing and trapped it here." Showing off his marked glove, he wiggled his fingers.

An improvised master key, made from Anko's uprooted mark.

"With this, it shouldn't be much of a leap to hijack all of the second-generation marks in Tayuya and her friends, then leap-frog my way to Sasuke, then Hinata. I'll just signal-boost a command to yield their defenses, which honestly oughta save me a lot of effort when it comes to burning up the rest-"

A set of arms closed over his shoulders, and he went stiff for a moment, unsure of how to embrace the sudden embrace from the now fully-clothed Anko.

"Thank you… I mean it, really." She hugged him even tighter, then. "Like- really, really."

Naruto scoffed, a hot blush filling his cheeks. "Ya know, I'd have had this off days ago if you hadn't fucked around so much from the jump."

"S-sorry," She whispered, a bit sheepishly. "I- er, I never thought I'd be free. I never thought-" She sniffled, then drew away, wiping her eyes with a chuckle. "You're really something else, ya know that?" She barely even noticed Naruto's fluster as her joy finally bubbled over; Anko cheered, loudly. "Woohoo! I'm gonna drink 'til I puke! Let's go!" She snagged his wrist and began to march for the door.

As far as she was concerned, they were best friends now. She'd tattoo his damn name if he wanted! God, she was going to buy them so many drinks!

"Technically I'm still in custody, so we'll have to drink in my cell- I hope that's cool. But Ibiki won't mind. Let's get shit-faced and watch ninja Gundam!"

But then she jerked to a stop, her grip on his wrist doing little to move him; Naruto shook his head. "Can't. Job's not done til all the marks are 'bweh'," Naruto waved her off with a chuckle. Her face fell at that.

"After," he promised. "When all the marks are taken care of, I promise I'll come visit you and we can celebrate. Super promise."

Anko's face lit up anew.

"But if you really wanna thank me right now, you can clean this room up before you go; I need a quick power nap, 'fore I go tackle the rest.

He needed to make sure he was absolutely at one-hundred percent.

No mistakes.


Honestly, I should have had this chapter donezo two-three days ago. But I kept feeling like there was more that I wanted to say. In the end, I decided to just cut myself a break and save some of that for next chapter, so I'm not just leaving you guys hanging for long.

Let me know your thoughts about this chapter! I really do read all of your reviews and comments. Tell me what you liked; what you disliked. Let's have a dialogue!

Okay, that's about it for now. I'll leave you all with an omake before I go:


After an exhaustingly long day, the only thing Naruto had wanted to do that evening was lie down and rest for a while.

After lengthy discussion with the other members of the household, it had been decided that Hinata could take the bed; Tayuya had volunteered to share the couch with him.

"I mean there's enough room for the two of us. You take that side, I'll take this one."

In the end though, he'd gotten comfortable plastered to the ceiling, freshly reclothed and hair still lightly damp and wrapped loosely under a towel.

Blood, snot, and tears- debris too; Hinata had gotten the first three in his hair at some point. She'd been mortified, even with his insistence that it was fine and that he wasn't upset.

Still, they were hell to wash out.

It had taken only moments for him to drift, eyes shut and consciousness waning until he snapped awake again to tropical heat and sand underfoot. The waves' crashes pulled just short of him, the smell of seafoam invoking some familiar comfort.

It was hard to miss Kushina; he and his mother shared a familiar loudness to their presence. Her especially, when paired with the other occupant of their shared space, as of late.

Kumiko was even harder to miss. Her massive body lay still, just short of the water; her huge, unblinking eyes watched Kushina with rapt attention as she spoke, his mother seemingly intent to hold a completely one-sided conversation with the spider.

"Er- what are you doing?" Naruto asked her as he approached- now just close enough to put a name to the object in her hand.

Moneymancy: The Ninja-Art of Stacking Ryō

"Reading to Kumoko," Kushina trilled, her good cheer filling her cheeks.

"You're reading her… A book about finance?"

He remembered picking up the book at his mother's request on one of his runs to the library. He even remembered having a clone sit down with the thing and memorize its pages for her. But- "I thought you were joking!"

Really, he hadn't thought at all that she seriously wanted to read it, herself!

"Money makes the world go 'round, darling."

"Sure." That made sense enough. "But why are you reading that to Kumoko?"

Kushina blinked, staring at him with an expression that told him exactly how foolish his question was, to her. "Well she's gotta learn how to read somehow, right?"

"That's not the thing I'm questioning…" He couldn't help it. A sharp giggle slipped free, mocking his mother's logic.

Kushina sighed. "You laugh now, but you'll be sorry if you leave her unattended with your checkbook and she spends all of our savings on those vintage, Taki-imported honey-crystals you like so much. Just think about it: You look away for a bit too long, she thinks she's getting you a thoughtful gift, and next thing you know, you're stuck financing enough honey to put the Nine-Tails into diabetic shock."

"Ah."

Okay, that made plenty enough sense for him!

"So you're killing two birds- teaching her how to read and about the value of goods and services."

Really, his mother was a genius. He was a fool for ever doubting her.

"That's right!" Kushina nodded, her expression thoroughly smug.

"GoOdS aND sERvICeSss."

"Very good, Kumoko," Naruto praised her, stepping forth to rub her shell. Her thick, pale hairs vibrated and colored with her pride as his fingers combed through them, feeling the metallic structure beneath.

"VeRY gOoD, KuMOkO."

"Let me read to her for a bit," Naruto decided. Kushina budged over, letting him join her between Kumoko's front claws.

"May as well take the time to teach her about ninja tax returns, while we're at it."