Chapter One: Community Service
Anko was lying in bed on her day off.
She guessed she could have gone drinking with Kakashi. Or she could have read a good book, or practiced her ninjutsu. But at the moment she was having far too much fun lying in bed.
For a while, they had been afraid a war would happen. Everyone knew that Tsunade was important to Sarutobi. He wouldn't have taken her being killed or locked up lying down. But things had ended anticlimactically in a compromise.
Time to sleep.
There was a knock at the door.
Anko sat up. She didn't want to get dressed to greet whoever it was. So she lay back down.
There was another knock on the door. She ignored it.
The knocking continued.
That was it.
Anko threw on her fishnets, tied up her hair and stormed to the door, grabbing a kunai. Throwing it open, she grabbed the idiot by the throat and put the blade to his throat. "What?!"
"I'm sorry, Anko!" squeaked the man. "Ibiki... Ibiki…"
"Ibiki what?" asked Anko. "What do you want?!"
"Chief Ibiki wants your help." said the man. "It's important. About… about… about the prisoners that were taken during the skirmish to save Tsunade."
Anko looked at him. "Go to hell. It's my day off."
"But-" began the man.
She shoved him off the balcony. There was a scream, and he landed hard in the garbage. Glancing down, she saw the man scrambling up. She turned to go back to bed.
And then Anko realized that she was already dressed and out of bed. There was no going back now.
With a sigh she went back in, undressed, and took a shower. The voluptuous ninja relished the hot water pouring down her body. Using shampoos, she finished, before drying herself off with a towel. Tying her hair above her head, she redressed and walked outside. The messenger had long since fled by this point.
Good.
Making her way out, she stopped to get a cup of coffee on the way there. She ran into Kurenai on the way and chatted with her a bit about recent events. Pretty soon, she ended up ordering breakfast, and soon, it was mid-morning. Paying her bill {she didn't leave a tip.} Anko then went to the ANBU base of operations. Time to see what Ibuki wanted.
It was a one-way window looking into a cell. Ibiki was sitting in a chair; his hands clasped before him in silent contemplation. His eyes were narrowed, and he said nothing as Anko entered. No doubt, he was trying to look very impressive.
He was succeeding. But looking and being were two different things. She was surprised he didn't have anything to say to her about being late.
Anko came up beside him and looked through the glass. Before her in the room were three kids. First was a thin boy clad in bandages with only one visible eye. The second had spiky brown hair and a thick frame. Last of all was a girl with long black hair, reasonably pretty. All three were clad in white garments of a prisoner.
"So who are these kids anyway?" asked Anko.
"Sound Village Ninja." said Ibiki, hands clasped in front of him. "The one with all the bandages is called Dosu. His entire body is burned. The bandages are meant to hide that. He used a power that manipulated sound waves as a pseudo melee weapon. The girl is Kin; she wielded bells to disorient her opponent. The last one is Zaku. He's got sound wave emitters built into his arms. We've had to lock them down."
"And we're keeping them in prison?" asked Anko.
"The Sound Village doesn't ransom its own." said Ibiki in disgust. "Ever. Orochimaru doesn't want them back."
"So we're keeping them in prison?" said Anko.
"We are the ANBU black ops, Anko." said Ibiki in irritation. "We do this sort of thing."
"Look, I'm all for wiping out our enemies." said Anko. "I was doing it when I was a kid. But I was under the impression that the Leaf Village was trying to be nicer to kids. You know, by not keeping children locked up for the rest of their lives."
"Which is why I asked you to come here." said Ibiki. "You used to work with Orochimaru. You know what it's like. So you might be able to get these kids to defect.
"We offered them the chance to defect; they didn't take it. Spirits I miss the Shinobi Wars. The kids from the Village Hidden in the Mist jumped at the chance to betray their village. But Orochimaru has gotten into these kids heads.
"They know he won't come for them. And they're still loyal to him.
"If we can't turn them and we can't ransom them, our only option is to keep them contained."
"Couldn't we just let them go?" asked Anko.
"I can't." said Ibiki. "They're good. Very good."
Anko remained silent. "Does Sarutobi know about all this?"
"He's ordered that they be treated humanely and kept in relative comfort." said Ibiki. "No maximum security prison.
"Any thoughts?"
Anko considered things. "I have an idea."
Dosu was waiting.
He wasn't sure what he was waiting for. But they had not been sent to a maximum security prison. That meant the Leaf Village had something special planned. He would wait. Wait until an opportunity presented itself.
Now if only the others had his patience.
"So we're not getting out of here, are we?" asked Kin.
"We just need to bide our time." said Dosu.
"No, we really can't." said Kin. "They're only keeping us like this because they think they can turn us over to their side. As soon as they realize we won't turn on them, they'll throw us in a cell and toss away the key."
"We've got to stay strong. Lord Orochimaru may get us out of here." said Zaku. "He'll know we're loyal."
"Keep dreaming Zaku." said Kin. "We failed. We got our asses kicked. And we're not that valuable."
Zaku stood up in anger. "We can't turn on Orochimaru!" he shouted in a fury. "He pulled us off the streets! He gave us everything!"
"And right now we'll have everything in a padded cell for the rest of our lives." noted Kin.
Zaku halted. He looked around. "Maybe we could agree to work for them and make a break for it?"
Dosu considered the question. "…If we agree to defect, they will keep us under heavy guard and never trust us not to betray them. The Leaf Village isn't stupid. We won't fool them that easily.
Although, the Third Hokage has a soft spot for children.
"I expect they may offer us an alternative means of serving our sentence." He would not say openly how he would use that alternative.
"What do you mean alternative means?" asked Kin.
Dosu look to the door and heard footsteps. "Here, they come."
The door opened and into the room walked a curvaceous, brown-haired woman. She was clad in a trenchcoat and fishnets. She waved sarcastically. "Hey, kids. Hows undying loyalty to Lord Orochimaru working out for you?"
Dosu remained silent. "…And you are?"
"Well I was his most loyal subordinate." said the woman. "I followed him away from the village. Then he infected me with a curse mark and left me to die."
Dosu knew her name now. "Anko Mitarashi. Lord Orochimaru perfected his cursed seal technique on you."
"Yeah, he did." said Anko, walking forward. "And I need to wear seals to suppress the pain for it every day.
"So when I say I know what you've gone through, you can believe it."
"Shut up!" snapped Zaku, making a fool of himself. "You have no idea why we work for Lord Orochimaru!"
Anko fell silent. Her face went silent, and she looked at Zaku. The boy stepped back a pace. Then she looked to Kin and Dosu in turn. "When he found you, you had nothing. Society rejected you. Maybe because you were burned and broken. Or because you didn't have any family. Or maybe you were starving to death, stealing just to survive.
"But Orochimaru found you. He picked you out of the faceless masses and gave you what you needed. He offered to make you strong. He offered you a purpose. And all he asked in return was that you help him.
"Quid pro quo.
"What reason could you have to say no?
"And just like that, you were one of his subordinates. You wanted to please him. You didn't want to fail him. Because he was very forthright that he didn't accept failure.
"And now you have failed him.
"Do you really think he's coming to save you? Any of you? We tried to negotiate a ransom. He wasn't having it."
"Of course he wasn't having it!" said Zaku, "We're strong! We won't betray him! We'll get out of this on our own!"
Anko smiled. "Sure, you will.
"Either way, I've made arrangements for your sentence. See, the Leaf Village are kindhearted souls. But we're not going to give you free room and board for the rest of your life. Not just because Orochimaru is a heartless jackass, anyway." Anko drew out from her trenchcoat three bracers. She tossed one to each of them. "Put these on."
"What are they?" asked Dosu.
"Bracers." said Anko. "Specifically designed to halt the flow of chakra. As long as you're wearing these, you won't be able to use any kind of jutsu.
"You can put them on now, or I'll have them forced onto you."
Reluctantly Dosu clicked the bracer onto his arm. Kin followed suit. Then Dosu looked to Zaku, who was reluctant. For a moment, Zaku held silent. Then he clicked it on.
"Good." said Anko. "Now follow me. We've got a mission." She turned to walk away.
"I just said we weren't betraying Orochimaru!" shouted Zaku.
Dosu closed his one good eye and sighed.
"Yeah, I know. But you're our prisoner." said Anko. "We're allowed to force you to do things against your will. Now follow me."
Zaku opened his mouth, but Dosu put a hand on his shoulder. "Quiet Zaku."
They followed Anko out of the hall. Zaku looked like he was going to make a break for it. But Dosu and Kin hedged him in. Both of them knew that subservience was essential.
"Glad you kids are smart enough not to make a break for it." said Anko. "As of this moment, you three are going to be doing D ranked missions. Limited to the insides of the Leaf Village. You'll be playing a very important role in maintaining the village's power."
D ranked missions? Dosu supposed he didn't need his abilities to do those. "Who do you want us to kill?"
Anko glanced up. "Nobody. You'll be picking up litter under my supervision."
They were offered a number of long metal devices meant for that purpose and also bags to assist. Wait what?
"What?!" said Kin. "We're highly trained ninja!" "This is what all the kids your age do in the Leaf Village." said Anko. "Mostly to teach them humility before we force them to undertake life or death missions.
"Get started." said Anko.
"Why should-" began Kin.
And then Anko put a kunai to her throat "I don't think you heard me.
"Get. Started."
Kin shuddered.
So they began to work. Dosu took his tools and followed Anko's supervision. He said nothing as they did. Zaku, however, seemed more furious than ever. "…I hate you." snapped Zaku. "We should be trying to escape, not picking up litter."
Dosu continued anyway. "Focus on the task at hand, you fool. And stop complaining in the open."
He had suspected some means of community service. It seemed a Leaf Village thing to do. He wasn't aware their idea of community service was disposing of trash. In the Sound Village, genin disposed of people.
Not that Dosu was bitter.
It was significantly easier to pick up trash with a metal sticker than it was to strangle a man without any chakra. It was less risky. And it gave him the perfect means of observing the layout of the Leaf Village.
He would accept this, for the moment. He would wait for his chance.
And then they would return to the Sound Village in grander style than they left.
Author's Note:
Welcome to Dosu's Great Escape. This is a sequel to the Hunt for Tsunade, though it focuses on a different cast. We begin this side story with Dosu, Kin, and Zaku, who were captured by Team Guy in The Hunt for Tsunade.
Enjoy.