Like her father, Anko's daughter loves adventure stories. Unlike her father, she only wants true ones.
Etsuko was suspiciously quiet on the walk home. Now, some people would ask how Anko could tell—wasn't Etsuko always quiet? But that was only true for the blind and foolish, and Anko was neither. Her daughter's silences each had their own distinct quality, and this was a suspicious one. It was only a matter of time until Etsuko did something out of the ordinary. A mother always knows.
And sure enough, no sooner had they shut the front door behind them and toed off their sandals than Etsuko turned to Anko and asked, very seriously, "Mama, did you really kill your teacher?"
Anko didn't hesitate before she answered—extensive roleplay with Kakashi had seen to that. "Yes, I did," she replied evenly, pretending to pay no mind to Etsuko's widened eyes.
"He got better, though," Anko tossed out idly, before walking into the main hallway of their home. She's been gone for two weeks on a mission, and the wooden floor was suspiciously clean under her feet, with the slick feel of a recent polish—probably Kakashi had guilted Naruto into using his clones to give the house a deep cleaning while she was gone, the cunning wretch.
"Mama, don't tease," Etsuko droned from the vicinity of Anko's waist. It was a neat trick her father had taught her—using the exact tone most annoying to Anko in all the world. But that was unfair to Kakashi. It wasn't his fault their oldest child resembled him so strongly in almost every way, from the crown of her messy silver head to her long, coltish legs.
Anko drew the line at letting Etsuko wear a mask to school.
"What do you know of the Legendary Three?" Anko asked abruptly, opening the door into the kitchen. She hadn't eaten since last night, sick of ration bars and too intent on home to stop for something more substantial, but Kakashi always kept rice and pickles in the fridge, and that would do nicely to fill her up. "I can hear you thinking, Etsuko, so go ahead and spit it out."
There was some shuffling behind her, and Anko turned around. Etsuko had pulled herself up on the counter next to the sink. She was holding out a bowl and a pair of chopsticks for Anko to take. "The Lady Fifth is one of them," Etsuko said with some certainty. "And the Pervert Sage is another...?"
"Did Naruto teach you that name...?" Anko archly asked, before realizing some things were better left alone. "But yes, Master Jiraiya was the second member of that trio. The third was my teacher, the great Orochimaru—"
And at that, Etsuko audibly gasped.
"—yes, you've heard of him. I guess those kids at school left out that part of the story," Anko said drily as she picked up a bit of rice and pickled plum. "And he was great, and also very terrible, and one day, many years after he abandoned the village, he returned."
"If he was a traitor, why did he come back?" Etsuko asked with a hushed voice, already leaning forward. Anko grinned slowly and widely, and leaned forward as well, lowering her voice.
"Haven't your teachers explained that all criminals return to the scene of their crime?"
The chuunin patrol found the stinking remains of the Grass jounin near Entrance 4 of the Forest of Death. They'd called Anko immediately, just as they should have. When she laid eyes on the object of their confused missive, she felt a heavy weight fall onto her chest and crush the breath out of her.
A skin suit. It was him.
"Call everyone else in," Anko heard herself say, as if from a distance. The two boys men looked at each other uncertainly—"Did I stutter? Call everyone in now."
She said nothing more until all the chuunin were gathered round. The jounin wouldn't come, of course—they answered only to Ibiki, and Ibiki wasn't here. Not for the first time, Anko resented the Leaf's command structure, which made sense when five clans unified and there were less than a thousand active nin in the village, but was actively harmful in a crisis today. But as always, she pushed it aside and focused on the men under her command. They were gathered around her in a tight circle, she and the remains her teacher has so graciously left behind.
"We'll reset the patrols to guard the boundaries of the forest. If you see anyone suspicious, do not engage," she said firmly. "I cannot stress that enough. The person we're facing is an S-class missing-nin who will not hesitate in striking first if he sees you."
"Commander, you know who this is?" One of the newer chuunin asked that, a green boy no older than 15. He was probably promoted in the last chuunin exams, the ones held in Grass seven months ago. Anko hesitated a long minute. Operational security would dictate that she keep her silence until actual visual confirmation...but if she was right, visual confirmation will be far too late for these men.
Their lives lie in her hands. The least she can do is take care of them.
"Without visual confirmation, I can't say with utter certainty," Anko finally stated. "But given the remains, I suspect we're facing Orochimaru. This is why it is so important to watch, and not engage. We'll need a elite jounin squad to face him."
"And then you went to find Papa, right?" Etsuko said, cheeks flushed as she idly kicked her heels against the cabinet doors. Just as Anko had thought, the story had sucked her in. Anko snorted.
"What, your father? No way!" Anko snorted. Anko put the bowl and chopsticks in the sink for later. She'd eaten enough to take the edge up, in small, efficient bites between sentences. "I didn't know him too well back then, and I didn't even know he was in the village at the time. No, I went to find your Aunt Kurenai."
Etsuko chewed on her lower lip, thinking aloud. "...because she's a genjutsu master, right?"
"There's my smart girl," Anko said, before picking Etsuko up under the arms and putting her back on the floor. "Now come along, I want to check on your brother."
"But what about—" Etsuko said, only to stop as soon as Anko gave her a sharp glance. Anko waited a moment longer, just to make sure Etsuko was really being quiet, and then continued.
"Even then, Kurenai was one of the foremost genjutsu masters on the continent. Orochimaru, like Jiraiya and the Hokage, was trained for war above all else, and Orochimaru had trained me for it as well. He taught me well the art of the sword and the silent kill, but genjutsu had never been one of his greater talents," Anko explained.
Etsuko grabbed Anko's hand as she moved away. "So you didn't want to kill him?"
Anko squeezed her hand gently. "Want had nothing to do with it. He was too powerful to kill. But I didn't need to. I just needed to make him go away."
"You mean to say that Orochimaru has infiltrated the village and already killed a foreign nin," Kakashi slowly drawled. Anko internally cursed herself for her propensity to leap before she looked. Of course, Kurenai was not alone—there were other Leaf genin teams participating in this year's trial—at least 6 of them, given the number of tense jounin all standing in the lounge.
"Have you informed the Hokage directly?" Kakashi asked, still in that damnable lazy tone.
"I sent a runner to Command, he should know soon enough," Anko replied. Kakashi was still a moment more. In a sudden jolt of movement, he put away his trashy book and straightened to his full height, and that seemed to be the signal for everyone else to move as well.
"That's not good," Gai said, speaking for the first time since Anko had stormed in. Like Kakashi, all his stupid mannerisms had been cast off the very second she had gasped out her suspicion. Orochimaru had returned, and he had already killed. "But it will take time to get through his security, time we don't have. Kasaya, do you mind reporting this to the Hokage directly while we attempt to catch our infiltrator? You would be best positioned to find us from a distance."
One of the jounin in the room, a tall woman wearing the mask and goggles of a senior Aburame, nodded briskly. She lifted her arm in a brief salute, before turning and walking past Anko towards the door. Anko didn't feel a bug land on her—but then again, that would defeat the purpose of the tracking insects entirely, wouldn't it? The other jounin in the room were getting into a rough semblance of order as they cast off any unnecessary goods and took inventory of what weapons they had.
"Anko, I need you you to tell me a little more," Kurenai said, at a little remove from the crowd. She very carefully doesn't touch Anko; she's always been thoughtful that way. The younger Sarutobi boy was watching her, obviously not paying attention to the serious discussion between Gai and Kakashi. "If I am to craft an illusion for Orochimaru, it will need to be perfect."
Anko tried to smile at her, but it fell flat. "It's all right. If there is anyone alive who knows him best, it's me."
It wasn't as reassuring as it could be. Anko had never seen his betrayal coming.
Toshiaki was outside, fast asleep in the grass—she could tell from the way the Kakashi's furry menaces were all slumped around him, all of them facing a different direction. Guruko lifted his head when she opened the door, and Anko shook her head and made the handsign for "stay" before retreating back within house and closing the back door firmly.
Her little man was still far too young for this story. It was better he stay outside and sleep.
"And then what happened?" Etsuko demanded, tugging at Anko's shirt. Anko let her, just this once, because it was rare for Etsuko to get this invested in a story.
Well, this was a true story, so maybe that was why.
Anko adjusted her shirt, smoothing it over her hips with the palms of her hands. "We all went back to the Forest of Death, of course. What else could we do?"
The fence around Gate 1 was controlled bedlam. A few of the foreign teams were milling around, looking upset. Anko's chuunin were scurrying back and forth, some patiently herding the foreigners away from the fence, while others were leaping into the Forest, jounin in the lead. It looks like the message to command got one thing moving: Ibiki was here and obviously in control, standing next to the gate with a checklist in hand and a pretty peeved look on his face.
"I see you went and got the big guns," he said neutrally, nodding at the jounin who'd come with her. They all filed past to enter the forest and peer into its depths. They all had unblooded, inexperienced students somewhere in there, fresh prey for Orochimaru's unholy appetites.
"I see you got my message. You already started pulling them out?" Anko asked in return, already focusing on the hunt ahead.
"Seemed like the thing to do, if Orochimaru really is running around," Ibiki muttered. "He may or may not be aware we know he's in there, but it's a big forest, and we've mostly been getting people in the perimeter."
He hesitated a bare second—unnoticeable to most everyone, but Anko wasn't just anyone.
"What is it?" she whispered, instinctively moving closer.
"Apparently your old teammate Tsutomu showed up about fifteen minutes ago and demanded to enter the Forest to withdraw his team," Ibiki stated meaningfully.
Fifteen minutes ago. Before Ibiki had arrived.
"Noted," Anko said simply, clapped him on the shoulder and left him to do his job, walking forward until she was standing with Kakashi. He was squatting just inside the open gate, his dogs milling about him. When she got closer, she could hear him give orders to his summons.
"...you remember their scent, so get them out first," he orders. "But if you find any other teams willing to listen to you on the way, guide them out as well, the last thing we need is more dead
foreign nin, Stone is already just looking for an excuse to reopen hostilities—"
"Yeah, I got it," the little pug snapped. "Get the kids for sure, try to herd everyone else out on the way out, don't get killed. Don't you have your own hunting to do?"
Kakashi snorted and rose to his feet. "Yeah, I do."
And at those words, the dogs turned as one and lopped off into the underbrush. Kakashi just looked after them intently, the line of his back straight and true.
"You ready for this?" he asked quietly, any trace of amusement wiped away.
Anko shrugged one shoulder. The other one was already throbbing, now that she'd consciously let one of the barriers between herself and the seal fall. It would only get worse before it got better.
"Not even close," she replied. "But we're doing this anyway."
Anko fell silent at that point in the story, hands clenched in her lap.
"Mama?" Etsuko finally asked after the silence dragged on too long. "Why haven't I ever met Tsutomu, if he was your genin teammate?"
Anko shook her head slowly. "Not all teams are made to last."
There was a tiny crease between Etsuko's eyes. Orochimaru was more fairy-tale than a living, breathing man to Etsuko, but the idea of a teammate, the idea of someone who was family-but-not—that was something Etsuko could understand. "Aunt" and "Uncle" were just a shorter way to say "my mother's best friend" or "my father's teammate". Anko will have to explain this, but no amount of role-play had ever prepared her for—
"Hey, I remember this mission," a gravelly voice groaned out from the floor. Anko had never been so relieved to hear a dog speak.
"Pakkun, were you there too?" Etsuko squealed, looking even more excited than before.
"Nah, not me," Pakkun replied before he hopped into Etsuko's lap. "The boss had summoned us to go herd all the kids out of the Forest. I spent the whole time nipping the heels of Team Disobedient, making sure they stopped squabbling and actually followed orders."
Etsuko just accepted that explanation with all the weariness of one long used to the antics of Kakashi's stupidly strong students. They had, after all, been around her whole life.
"But what about Orochimaru? Did you find him? Or did he find you?"
Anko grinned slyly. "It was a little of one and a little of the other."
"That's an understatement," Kakashi said sourly, pulling his gloves off. "And not one I care to repeat."
"Papa, you're home!" Etsuko shouted, and jumped up to hug her father around the waist. Anko, sitting on the floor of the living room, leaned back on her palms and smiled at him in welcome, and her husband smiled back at her.
"I see I've returned in the middle of a very exciting story," Kakashi said mildly. "Don't let me stop you from completing it!"
Anko made a face at him, but very quickly. It wouldn't do for Etsuko to see her mother mock her father. They'd worked very hard to create a loving, respectful home for their children, and part of them was not mocking the other when their children could see it.
"All right, both of you settle down," Anko said when Etsuko released her father from her hug. "And no more interruptions, I'm nearly to the end."
It was both easier and harder to find Orochimaru: easier, because she wasn't alone, but also harder, because she wasn't alone.
"Are we close?" Sarutobi says, only to fall silent when Anko cut him off with her gaze.
"Closer than the last time you asked," she said, eyes closing as she focused yet again on the connection between herself and her teacher. "But it would go faster if some people would be silent when I worked."
Kakashi and Gai had managed to work out a plan, since both of them had faced her old teacher in the years since his defection; now it only remained to track him down and put it into place. It was easier said than done. As long as Orochimaru dominated Manda, the snakes would not lead her to him, and Orochimaru had destroyed his natural scent years ago, preventing a hunt via more natural means. It fell to Anko to find him through the only sure connection that still remained: the curse seal.
"He's very close," Anko finally said, opening her eyes. "I think it's time to put our plan into action."
Kurenai was kneeling beside her, spinning a kunai idly around one finger, eyes focused on the distance, probably running through different possibilities. The whole plan hinges on Orochimaru behaving a certain way, and that was a risky proposition.
"Go forth, Anko," Gai says instead, standing next to Kurenai as assigned. "We'll be in position when he comes for you."
And then, of course, Gai threw out the patented thumbs-up and smile he always did. Anko couldn't repress her grin, and she didn't even bother to as she initiated the first part of the plan. It was something to uplift her spirits as she ran out from the relatively protected safety of a team and in the open, bait for Orochimaru to catch.
She was a kunoichi of the Leaf; she was never alone so long as her comrades drew breath.
"Yosh," Etsuko cheered. "Gai is the best!"
"Are you sure this one is my daughter?" Kakashi deadpanned from his seat around the living room table. He didn't even flinch when his wife and his daughter both punched his arm, one on each side.
"Didn't I just say no interruptions?" Anko snapped. "Honestly, you two, have some respect for my story."
And just like that, Kakashi and Etsuko both stilled and turned their faces towards her. They were so alike it hurt sometimes; Etsuko was so much her father's daughter, it was hard to believe Anko carried her in the womb.
"I'm listening, Mama," Etsuko said urgently, small hand reaching across the table to hold Anko's own far larger hand. "Don't stop before the end!"
"OK," Anko warned, "But remember this is your last chance: no more interruptions!"
Both Kakashi and Etsuko nodded.
Anko's first meeting with Orochimaru in a decade was more nostalgic than anything else, reminiscent of the endless hunting games she'd played with him as a child. He pulled an illusionary technique on her, and Anko broke it; she threw senbon at him, and Orochimaru dodged it; he tried to pin her with his tongue, and Anko caught it and pulled the appendage tight.
And then Sarutobi Asuma used his wind blades to chop the tongue into three even pieces, and her old teacher's clone popped out of existence, although not without damaging him. The Shadow Clone technique was powerful, but not infallible. An uncontrolled release brought both the knowledge and the damage back upon the user.
"You've brought a new team, Anko?" her old teacher asked as he stepped out of the underbrush. "I confess I'm surprised. Are you truly so weak?"
Anko just circled him cautiously, eyes focused on his hands. "I want a successful mission more than I want revenge," she finally replied.
"Oh, my dear, how far you've fallen without me to show the way." Orochimaru tutted mockingly, and then he reached one hand out to his face and pulled. The face he revealed—
The face he revealed was old. The sharp, inhuman beauty Anko remembered as a young girl was wasted and emaciated. His skin looked dry and wrinkled, like a snake preparing to shed it's skin. And he was weak, that was obvious enough. He gasped like a fish out of water, like a man on the highest of mountaintops with nowhere left to go but down.
"I think I told you what you were doing to yourself was wrong," Anko said, voice steady and clear. "Did you think there would be no consequence for your reckless use of unwilling sacrifices?"
Orochimaru sank down onto hands and knees, gasping hoarsely. His coarse gray hair formed a curtain around him, guarding his face from her sight.
"You," he wheezed, somehow lacing the word with deadly venom. That, too, was also nostalgic. Orochimaru had never spared her the rough side of his tongue.
"Me," she agreed, wary. "You should never have returned here, Orochimaru. Whatever you've come for, you won't get it."
"You know nothing of what I want," Orochimaru snarled, looking up at her through his hair. His yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness, and Anko repressed a shudder. "Your pet illusionist—"
"You want eternal youth," Anko said. Part of the trick of genjutsu was keeping the subject off balance. The only way this would work was if Orochimaru was focused on her instead of Kurenai's illusion. "You want life everlasting, but not a real life, not a life filled with the slings and arrows of actually living, but a lonely, living death. That's why I left you, remember?"
"I abandoned you, you ungrateful traitor," Orochimaru hissed, and he pushed himself off the ground—but not to his feet. "You are the one who could not grasp greatness when it was offered, and you still turn away from it even today, because you are a coward!"
He'd lost control, just as Anko guessed, and there was a bare moment when Anko dared to think victory was within their grasp—
And then the illusion dropped.
Etsuko gasped. Anko would not pretend it wasn't a gratifying response.
"But Aunt Kurenai wasn't hurt, was she?" her daughter asked, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth again.
"She was fine," Anko quickly assured her. "Orochimaru had his supporters among our ranks, and they attacked her, but she's not an elite jounin for nothing. She and Gai made mincemeat out of them."
"Because Aunt Kurenai is scary," Etsuko agreed, her faith in adults restored. "But that means you were facing Orochimaru alone, Mama!"
"Have more faith in your mother," Kakashi called out from the kitchen, still listening as he pottered around. No doubt he was making tea; her husband could be such an old man sometimes. "She's an elite jounin herself, she handled him."
"Yes," Anko agreed. "I did handle him. Your father helped, though."
"Oh, I underestimated you, my dear," Orochimaru said, the sibilant register of his voice far closer than Anko liked. Now the hunt had reversed, just as it had during her childhood, and he was stalking her through the deep, dark forest. It was a waiting game, now, for Anko had never successfully escaped her teacher, save the once. She didn't even want to escape him, anyway, because if he was focused on her, at least he wasn't killing more of her comrades.
"But without a team, you're weak," he murmured directly into her ear. At the same time, her curse seals burned, sending searing pain up her neck and left arm. She threw the last of her senbon over her shoulder with her good hand and clumsily rolled away from him, coming up on her feet a little further away.
The only reason she was alive was because Orochimaru wanted her alive. She was going to use that.
"What are you playing at?" she finally asked. "Why come here now, after all these years away?"
"It turns out I miss being a teacher." Orochimaru laughed. "And what better place to find a student than the Hidden Leaf? I may have left my home, but there's no denying what talented children we train. And the Uchiha survivor is just the right age to apprentice…"
"You're lying," Anko said immediately, circling around. No matter what happened, Orochimaru must always have his eyes on her. "The Uchiha kid is, what, twelve? He's already too old to take as an apprentice, and he's too young to have a fully developed Sharingan. So there's something else that you want."
"I hope you don't think that's it's you I came for," Orochimaru ranted, no longer smiling. He was angry now—he hated being called out on his blatantly stupid lies, as if being a legend made you great at everything you did, instead of only just passable. "Maybe I just want his eyes, they can't be that hard to handle if the Hatake boy—"
And right on cue, the Hatake boy drop-kicked her old teacher from the side. It was a thing of beauty: one moment Orochimaru was menacing her, and the next he was spitting out dirt against the trunk of a tree as Kakashi vaulted to her side.
"I killed Tsutomu," Kakashi gritted out. His flak jacket was shredded on the right side, and Anko would bet a dinner at the dumpling cart that it was destroyed by several angry, venomous snakes. "Can you stand?"
"Barely," Anko replied. Her left side was useless. Her hand was caught in a spasmodic rictus, and she could barely even feel her foot, let alone channel chakra through it. Kakashi wasn't blind, and he didn't hesitate before slinging her useless arm over his shoulders and wrapping his own arm around her back.
"Don't be a fool, Kakashi. There's no way you can escape with me slowing you down." Anko bit out the words in a staccato rush.
"As if I could escape with Orochimaru on the loose," he said cheerfully. "Anyway, we prodigies have to stick together, you know."
"Stop trying to be such a hero!" Anko exclaimed. "You don't have to die with me out of some misplaced sense of teamwork, of all the stupid—"
Anko was cut off by loud, maniacal laughter. Orochimaru was standing up again, Kusanagi in hand. Anko's left hand spasmed at the sight. No one had ever survived the unsheathing of Kusanagi in battle. Anko could barely walk, and Kakashi wouldn't leave her. The only consolation was the fact that those cut by the Grass-Mowing Blade died immediately. Anko knew this because she'd seen it herself in action. "Really, Anko? You've chosen this one, of all the men in the world? Truly, you are such a disappointment to me in every single way possible."
"I could really say the same to you, my dear boy," Lord Third said sternly. He was standing on a branch overlooking the clearing, dressed in full war regalia. "You had such potential as a child, and you've squandered it so."
"You were too lenient with him," Lady Utatane murmured from beside him, dressed in armor for the first time in an age. Lord Mitokado only nodded seriously from the other side. All around them, masked and cloaked ANBU appeared out of the darkness, surrounding the clearing like so many leaves in the wind.
Anko was not going to die, not today.
"Are you kidding me?" Etsuko shouted, jumping to her feet. Pakkun managed to land on his feet after falling out of her lap, but he didn't look very happy about it. "Are you saying Lord Third actually killed your teacher?"
Anko could not lie. Etsuko's impotent rage was hilarious. She was laughing so hard she started crying, so it fell to Kakashi to defuse Etsuko's temper.
"It was a group effort," he said mildly from the doorway into the kitchen, potato in one hand and paring knife in the other. "I keep telling you teamwork is the most important part of being a shinobi."
"I thought there was going to be a cool battle—"
"Have you ever seen a thousand monkeys harrying a giant snake? I assure you, it's very cool."
"I thought Mama was going to have a cool battle—"
"You should ask her about that time she defeated the King of the Snake Summons and won the Sword of Kusanagi by way of combat," Kakashi deflected. Anko stopped laughing—dammit, Kakashi was supposed to make it better, not worse!
"Did the monkeys not kill the giant snake?" Etsuko asked skeptically.
"He got better," Kakashi and Anko said in tandem. It was insane how many times they could say that about their enemies.
"Ugh, gross," Etsuko groaned. "I'll just ask Uncle Gai! He'll tell me the truth."
"You do that," Anko said, the odd laugh still bubbling out of her like water from a spring. "Tell him we're having dinner in an hour, and Kakashi is making curry. He'll corroborate everything I've said."
"I will," Etsuko declared, and she flounced out of the room and out of the house. Pakkun gave Kakashi and Anko a very jaded look before he hurried after her, loyal to the last.
"That was very bad of us," Anko said when he was gone, directing her words towards Kakashi, still leaning against the doorframe. Her husband just shrugged in response.
"You kept winding her up — and she's just like you. She can't take a joke at all."
That set Anko off all over again.
Later that night, after Gai had left and the children were put to bed, Anko went outside.
"That was a good story you told your daughter," Hakushi hissed, twining around Anko's feet in the tall grass. "But I noticed you didn't tell her about the second time you killed Orochimaru."
At Anko's back was her home, deceptively silent under the new moon. Her children were sleeping peacefully, protected by a half-dozen snoring dogs. Kakashi was probably awake again, but he'd roll over and back to sleep soon enough. He trusted her to know her own limits. He always had.
"...she's just a little girl," Anko finally said. "Explaining the true story of what happened during the last war can wait until she's a little older and wiser. Let her stay a child a little longer."
"Interesting. You never would have said that before," the white snake responded. "Motherhood has changed you, then?"
Anko snorted derisively as she knelt down on the ground. "Do you change when you shed a skin as you grow, Big Sister?"
Hakushi slid over her folded thighs and draped herself around Anko's shoulders, a weight carefully calculated to be just enough. "Well said, Little Sister. Now...unsheathe your sword. Let us begin tonight's lesson in the art of the sage."
This story was an entry in the Naruto Gift Exchange 2018, written for kakashianko on tumblr. Her prompt asked for KakaAnko get together or them just being parents, NaruSaku angst the happy ending, and KibaHina where Hinata finds her self worth and gers stronger with Kiba cheering for her! I felt a calling to write Anko, and decided to make it especially difficult for myself by attempting to fulfill both KakaAnko prompts. I hope you enjoy this gift, kakashianko! It was a blast writing it for me.