The battle between Hinata and her opponent intensified, and Tayuya decided to activate the second stage of her Cursed Seal, causing her skin to darken and horns to grow from her head.
Anko's eyes widened at the sight. 'Orochimaru improved the Cursed Seal to this degree!?' Her jaw slightly dropped. It was ridiculous. The redhead became twice as strong as before while Nature Energy was being sucked into her body.
It wasn't Sage Mode, that much Anko could tell. It was some kind of inferior bastardization of the real thing but it still provided a substantial boost to the user.
'Then again... I doubt Orochimaru is generous enough to not incorporate some nasty hidden features.' Anko wryly thought while rubbing her 'Rei-remastered' former Cursed Seal, remembering the piece of his soul that Rei pulled out of its original version.
But Anko didn't have time to reminisce about the time when her time changed for the better. It was time to intervene in the fight since Hinata, as good as she was hiding it, was becoming too tired to continue without getting hurt. And in this kind of fight, where both fighters are in a stalemate, one wound would most likely decide the winner.
Anko hid behind the corner and quietly used the Summoning Jutsu while trying to make as little smoke as possible, calling forth a yellow-ish snake.
"Pochi!" Anko grinned, causing the snake to disgruntledly hiss at her.
"Why did you call me, bitch?" Pochi grumbled. He disliked Anko since he was old enough to understand he was stuck with the name 'Pochi' because his parent had the bright idea to let Anko name him.
"I need you to dig yourself a hole in the ground-"
"Fuck you." Pochi hissed out but Anko simply ignored him.
"-and sneak attack the dark-skinned redhead when she is about to play her flute. Make sure to snatch it from her since it is her primary weapon. Can you do that for me?" She asked with a small gentle smile. As rude as he was, Pochi was always her favorite tsundere.
"... Fine." Pochi petulantly averted his gaze. Anko was still his summoner so he supposed he was duty-bound to help her with her insignificant problems.
Pochi submerged into the bridge, using his Earth Release. This was the reason why Anko chose him among all of her many summons. Pochi was born with an incredible innate talent for Earth Manipulation which made him into an incredibly good and undetectable ambusher.
"Time to do my part, I guess..." Anko sighed.
Not far from the place where Anko was hidden, the battle between Hinata and Tayuya was starting to enter its deciding moments. Tayuya entered the second stage of her Cursed Seal, getting a boost in both potency and volume of her chakra which made her genjutsu that much more impactful.
Hinata barely dodged the claws of one of Tayuya's summons, flinging a kunai at Tayuya who leisurely sidestepped it.
Tayuya's second summon, the one looking like a mummy, suddenly rushed at Hinata who was still mid-air, and threw a punch at her. Hinata managed to start Kaiten, countering the force in the punch, sending it back at the summon, and toppling him to the ground. She was however forced to stop her Kaiten and twist her body mid-air because a Grey Worm was almost upon her and she had no intention to let herself be hit by it again.
Hinata landed on the ground in a crouch, and her eyes widened as her Byakugan noticed the smirking Tayuya taking a deep breath, about to start playing her flute.
'I am trapped!' That's when Hinata realized her position. Grey Worm above her, turning its head towards her, the clawed summon with the bare torso in front of her, already starting his next attack, and the mummy summon to her right, releasing the second Grey Worm that was on this way to attack her... if Tayuya managed to pin her down for two seconds with pain, there was a high chance Hinata would not be able to avoid the following attacks.
Tayuya inwardly cheered and Hinata braced herself...
Both girls were utterly flabbergasted when in the next moment both summons were blown away into the air by a shockwave so strong it took them a second to realize how much damage was caused to them before they poofed away.
Tayuya suddenly found herself trapped as a yellow snake tightly coiled around her body, locking her in place. Worst of all, it snatched her flute from her hands as she was about to play. It was the moment when her hold on her flute was the weakest as she had to use her fingers to cover holes on her flute to produce certain sounds, meaning she couldn't muster any sort of resistance when the snake's jaws suddenly pulled the flute out of her fingers. Not even her enhanced physical prowess from the second stage of her Cursed Seal was any help and Tayuya realized she was fucked.
Hinata suddenly realized Anko was crouching in front of her with a proud smile. It was obvious the woman saved her from the defeat and Hinata was very grateful for that.
"Well, look at that! You did well, girl!" Anko praised, ruffling Hinata's hair. "Leave the rest to me."
Hinata tiredly nodded and weakly smiled before she let go of her intense focus, passing out. Withstanding the momentary intense pains caused by Tayuya's genjutsu while fighting the summons was way above her paygrade. She only stayed conscious because of her mental fortitude. Any ordinary genin would have fainted from the pain long ago.
"Ah, well..." Anko stood up, seallessly creating a shadow clone that started tending to Hinata, using a spiritual healing technique that would alleviate the mental pain of the girl. The original Anko didn't want to think about it. Such advanced stuff always brought her headaches. Better leave it to clones.
"What to do with you." Anko gave Tayuya an appraising look, threateningly narrowing her eyes and subconsciously licking her lips in a way that made the redhead shudder before she even realized it.
Tayuya was slowly coming out of her shock, realizing the situation she found herself in. Her summons were all taken out and she didn't have her flute. 'Welp, I am fucked, ain't I?' She fearfully thought. The fact it was Orochimaru's disciple, the snake summon was a dead give-away, who was supposed to hate everything even remotely connected to the guy in front of her, made Tayuya quite clear about the fate that is awaiting her at Anko's hands.
"Just kill me already." Tayuya resignedly grumbled, scowling at Anko. It took a supreme effort to not add 'bitch' to her sentence. Anything that would most likely earn her torture was to be avoided in her current situation though. She tried to wiggle out of the snake coiled around her but it was just a futile effort.
"Oh? So eager to die?" Anko teased, slowly walking closer to the restrained redhead. Pochi suddenly jerked his head, throwing the flute at her and when Anko expertly caught it, any hope of escape... escaped Tayuya.
"Not really." Tayuya sighed, "It doesn't matter. The mission is a bust. Even if I return, at worst I will be punished in a way that would make me beg for death-" Tayuya knew well about the many ways ninjas, and especially kunoichi, could be punished in Sound. She was not eager to be on the receiving side. That was the whole point of becoming one of the strongest ninjas of the village. "- or at best, I would be killed outright in a painless and quick way."
"Why work for Orochimaru, then?" Anko furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what kind of masochists her former mentor was gathering.
"I can't! Anyone who has the Cursed Seal can be killed any time Lord Orochimaru desires." Tayuya irritably answered in a low, complaining tone. She didn't like the weirded-out and careful look Anko was throwing at her. 'I am not a masochist, dammit!' She inwardly screamed.
'So Orochimaru implemented a kill switch into his Cursed Seal? Huh, who would have thought he retained enough mental clarity to do something smart like that.' Anko amusedly hummed before widely grinning at Tayuya who suddenly got a bad premonition.
"If I manage to disable the kill-switch in the Cursed Seal... would you be willing to change sides?" Anko asked, her grin only widening. "The Senju Household could use a maid."
And Tayuya had to resist the loud instinctual 'Fuck you!' that wanted to exit her throat.