Starlight Static
Rated T for death, violence, mild profanity...all that stuff that ninja get up to. Oh, and parentheses abuse.
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The job is finished like any other successful assassination is--with someone cutting off the victim's heads and hands, in order to confirm the kill. Asuma does it this time, not that it really matters except that it matters completely. He places them in the bag as Shizune wraps Anko's stomach in bandages and asks Kakashi if he needs pain medication for his arm, which he politely declines. It's nothing less than what Shizune should have expected. Kakashi never voluntarily takes pain medication. He says that pain keeps him alert, while medication would have the opposite effect.
They get sneak out of Otogakure as quietly as they can, then run like bitches for the border. But no one can keep running forever, not even ninja (even though Anko wants to, she wants so badly to keep running and never stop), so they find a run-down, cheap motel somewhere in Rice Country. The manager's eyes dart from their headbands, insignias shining brightly through the blood, to the lumpy black bag in Asuma's hand, and they get two rooms for free.
Anko pulls off her jacket and her shoes, crawls into bed, and turns off her lamp. Shizune follows suit. Soon, her slow even breathing tells Anko that she is asleep, probably dreaming of birds and endless fields of grass and whatever else little girls dream of (for Anko and Shizune are both twenty-four, but Shizune is a little girl and Anko is not because Shizune has a boyfriend and someone who raised her and Anko has a no one who would want her and nothing but a curse mark like an ugly blossom on her neck).
Anko lies too tired to fall asleep and listens to breathing and the starlight static, and she rubs the place where her neck and her shoulder connect--the closer she gets to Otogakure, the more it hurts. She remembers its placement vaguely, a whirling jumble of pain and screaming and sharp teeth and a dirty floor and waking up with her fingernails ripped out of her hands from clawing at the ground.
Ask anyone, she thinks, ask anyone and they will say that Orochimaru was evil, insane, a traitorous snake, but they will also admit that he was a genius. Ibiki was the only one with balls enough to say the truth to her. "I'm not denying that your sensei was an evil, fucked-up son of a bitch," he said bluntly, "But he did great things. Terrible...but great."
They get back to Konoha by the end of the next day, and Kakashi's students, Sakura and Naruto, are waiting for them in front of the gates. Naruto looks like he's going to throw up, and Sakura's been crying. Kakashi goes to speak to them and Sakura says something and suddenly she's bawling and Naruto's trying to comfort her but he's crying too and Kakashi pats her back and says the things you say, and he's had a lot of practice saying them so maybe it sounds true coming from him, Anko doesn't know. She and Asuma and Shizune proceed directly to the Hokage's office. Kotetsu lets them in when he sees the day-old blood dried on their skin and clothes, and Asuma thunks the bag down on the Hokage's desk and gives her the mission report.
"Did you burn the building he was in?" she asks, shuffling paperwork around.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Asuma replies, standing at attention. Doesn't miss a trick, that one.
"Good." They're all dying to ask why, and she answers them unknowingly.
"Uchiha Sasuke's body was recovered this morning."
She looks at them pityingly, and tells them to go home and get some sleep.
Anko walks home, and people stare at her. Of course they do- she's covered in blood, and she's the crazy snake lady of Konoha. A civilian mother pulls her child away as Anko passes. She wants to think that's how the woman would react to any shinobi, but Mitarashi Anko doesn't lie to herself.
Mitarashi Anko lies in bed and listens to the starlight static. Kimimaro, the Sound Four, and Uchiha Sasuke are dead. Kabuto is dead. The laboratory went up in flames, any records or fledgling experiments lost to the blaze.
Orochimaru died yesterday, and Anko helped do it.
I am the last terrible, great thing, she thinks. And she allows the tears to come.
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Otogakure means Hidden in Sound, and Konoha means Tree Leaf. Sensei means Teacher or Master. And I realize that Ibiki stole a line from Harry Potter up there. Whatever. It's a good line.