The Maelstrom and the Snake Charmer

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and its characters are properties of other people and not mine.

Chapter One: A Girl and a Boy

Sitting in the lounge area next to the Hokage's office was a young teenage girl with purple hair whose eyes were cast down to the floor as various people went by her in their morning activities.

Her name was Anko Mitarashi and the preteen avoided some of the gazes being leveled on her by the adults and ignored their harsh names that they were giving her in their hushed was she the subject of insult and ridicule? The answer was her sensei, one of the infamous Sannin, Orochimaru. Who now has been labeled as a danger to the village and has gone into hiding. By association, to the man who had kidnapped and dissected tens to hundreds of innocent individuals for his quest of power, Anko was now labeled dangerous or a blight to the proud village of Konoha.

Rubbing the side of her neck, where her sensei had marked her prior to disappearing, Anko looked at the door of the Hokage's office, knowing whatever fate was before her lay in the man who ruled on the opposite side of those two doors.

It would be the Yondaime's kindness or strict punishment that would decide where her career as a Shinobi in the village would take.

Sighing to herself, Anko removed her hand, just as the doors on the opposite side of the lounge opened to reveal a Jounin escorting a young blonde teen whose eyes seemed clouded and leading him to the seat next to Anko herself.

"You wait right here and I'll notify the Hokage that you're here alright?" The Jounin said.

The boy nodded without looking at the man and took his seat while his escort then knocked on the twin doors.

Anko looked at the boy from the corner of her eye, taking in the appearance of the person beside her. To her bafflement, she could have sworn she was seeing a younger version of their Hokage sitting beside her. He had spiky blonde hair, tan skin, and crystal-blue eyes. Dressed in a brown tunic and wearing black boots, nothing other than his facial appearance was outwardly remarkable.

Anko diverted her gaze when the boy's eyes shifted to her and she blushed at having almost been caught. She took a deep breath to control herself and decided to ask a question.

"So...who are you?"

The boy turned his eyes away and closed them. "I don't know..."

Anko turned her gaze back at him and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"You don't know?"

The boy nodded.

Before she could question him further they were interrupted by the Hokage's doors opening and Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime himself, came out with the Sandamie Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya of the Sannin only for the three to stop in front of the two teens sitting down.

"Shikaku was right, Minato-kun, he looks just like you did when you were his age." Sarutobi said looking at the boy.

Jiraiya nodded, "Indeed he does." His attention then went to Anko whose attention went fron the three adults to the boy as well. "What do you think, Mitarashi?"

Anko gulped as now she had the attention of the three most powerful men in the village on her. Steeling her nerves, she said, "He does look like Hokage-sama but there are some differences."

"Such as?" Minato asked.

Anko fidgeted in her seat, "Well, sir, he has some faded markings on his cheeks that almost resemble whiskers. That and...According to...O-Orochimaru you were taller at his age." Her eyes went downcast and she held her breath.

Minato nodded but kept his gaze on the boy before snapping his fingers and a Jounin appeared.

"Get me Inoichi-san, tell him I have a priority. That, and while you're at it, get Ibiki-san as well."

Anko shuddered, this was it, they were going to torture her for information on her sensei.

"Tell him that I have somebody in mind to take on the apprenticeship he wants." Minato finished with a smile.

Anko opened her eyes in disbelief.

"A-Apprentice?"

Minato nodded, "Why don't you and mystery boy there come into my office so we can talk further on this."

Anko nodded dumbly and got up and was soon following the trio inside when she realized the boy hadn't moved yet. Turning to him, she sighed and said to him, "Oi, you can come with us now."

The boy nodded his head and got up and followed them inside, turning his head he asked her.

"What's your name?"

The girl, smiling for the first time in a while smirked, "It's Anko, Anko Mitarashi."

The boy nodded, "Nice to meet you, Anko."

When the two head of the Torture and Interrogation Unit arrived, needless to say they were surprised for various reasons.

For Ibiki, it was to find out his protege was that of Orochimaru's former student. He had no quarrels with the girl being his apprentice and with her training in using so many poisons by the Sannin himself was a boon for his department.

For Inoichi it was seeing a boy that looked so much like the Hokage when he was young.

The two were briefed about the two teens before Inoichi got to work on looking into the boy's head and to sifgt through his memories. The process was long and when Inoichi finally got a proper look, he was surprised to see how much of it was foggy. It was like trying to look at a picture through a pane of dirty glass. However, what he could figure out was that this boy was indeed from Konoha.

Looking into another sector of the mind, he found restraints of some sort with chains.

Only the Yamanakas had the ability to break through such restraints without injury to themselves or the person's own psyche.

Once those chains were gone, he found out certain details. One was the boy's name and two was the fact that he had, at some point, had a demon sealed inside himself.

Taking these information with him, Inoichi canceled the jutsu and returned to his own body.

Once outside and taking a few breaths, he calmly asked the boy.

"Can you tell us your name?"

The boy, who was rubbing his head and groaning, nodded. "Naruto Uzumaki."

As Inoichi predicted, this had the desired affect as Minato soon stood up from his desk and stared at the boy.

"N-Naruto...Uzumaki?"

To be continued...

A/N: We'll see how this little experiment plays out. Please review in the meantime.

Q-n-P