Author's note: for ficc-ing purposes, we'll say Kimimaro and Anko are the same age. AU, blah blah blah.
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"Why are you blossoming down here?" the boy said.
The flower stared at him as if in rebuke.
"Why won't you answer me?" the boy said. He lifted the shard of bone. "You're going to ignore me too, right? It's not like anyone is going to see you here, anyway!"
"Oi."
The boy turned.
"Only an idiot would talk to flowers," Anko said.
xXx
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Tsunade tossed a dry branch into the fire and watched as the Kaguya boy shivered in his sleep. Anko was curled behind him, covers pulled toward her chin and breathing, softly.
Anko had run away again, and Tsunade had been dispatched to find her. She had heard the girl hiding by the outskirts of Kirigakure; she was ready to forcibly drag the girl by the arm when she saw the band of Kaguya shinobi heading toward the village. It was only a few days later when Tsunade actually found her, squatting next to the Kaguya boy and sharing with him a piece of bread.
The boy shivered again, and wordlessly, Tsunade moved and knelt beside him, covering him with her coat. The shivering stopped. Tsunade frowned, then gently pressed the palm of her hand against his hair.
He was too young. Tsunade watched as the child instinctively nuzzled up into her hand, and her jaw tightened. She had seen the pile of bodies, the charred remains of the boy's clan.
The boy stirred, and Tsunade withdrew. "Oi," Tsunade said. The boy opened his eyes.
"Eat," Tsunade said, and she tossed him a piece of dried meat. The boy caught it, surprised. "We are only a few days' walk from my village. You'll stay with me in the meantime; when we reach Konoha we'll find someone to take you in."
The boy's eyes widened. Tsunade frowned. "What?" Tsunade said.
"I am dangerous." The boy's voice was hushed. Tsunade snorted.
"Dangerous? Kid, you've got to be kidding. What are you, twelve?"
"It doesn't matter." The boy's eyes dimmed. "Once you see, you'll leave me too."
"Tch." Tsunade squatted beside him, tossing another branch into the fire.
xXx
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"So what makes you dangerous?" Anko said.
Tsunade walked a few paces ahead of them, slashing through the brush and listening to the two kids talk. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Anko said. She grabbed him by the arm.
"You're stupid, you know that?" Anko said. "With your stupid dots and your stupid makeup. It's no wonder people don't like you."
"Anko," Tsunade said. Anko glared.
"You should have let me run away," Anko said.
xXx
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They reached a clearing, Tsunade setting up camp at the river.
Everyone knew why Anko had run away; with Orochimaru's defection, the villagers had begun to look at her with disgust, nevermind the fact that she was the one he hurt the most. "He betrayed us all," Tsunade told her, sitting at the river's edge and staring at their reflections in the murky water. "He was my teammate. He betrayed me as well."
Now Tsunade watched as Anko followed the Kaguya boy around, berating him and flinging all sorts of abuse. "I could probably beat you up, you know that?" Anko said. The Kaguya boy said nothing. Anko shoved in front of him, hands on her hips. Typical, Tsunade thought. The girl would rather be hated than ignored.
"Oi! I'm talking to you! What, are you looking for your stupid flowers again?" Anko said.
Tsunade frowned, then glared.
xXx
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They were traveling down the valley when hunter nin from Kirigakure finally found them.
"Go!" Tsunade said. She whirled around, pulling her katana and just barely dodging the needles flying through the air.
"Tsunade-sama!" Anko said. The boy came running. The boy spun, and Tsunade's eyes widened. Bones burst from his body, sharp white and dripping blood.
xXx
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The boy was crying. Bodies were littered around him, and the blood of his enemies seeped into the ground. Tsunade watched as Anko stepped forward and touched him on the arm.
"Oi," Anko said. The boy looked up.
"That was really cool," Anko said. And Tsunade was surprised to see her smile.
xXx
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Jiraiya would not let her hear the end of it. "Oh ho! Looks like someone is giving into her maternal instincts!" Jiraiya said.
"Shut up," Tsunade said. "He's an orphan. What was I supposed to do?"
"Absolutely nothing else," Jiraiya said. "So I take it you'll be training him. The world needs more medic nin," Jiraiya mused. "Even if the boy is more suited for combat."
"Idiot, he's still just a child," Tsunade said.
In the kitchen, little Kimimaro looked absolutely perplexed as Tsunade stood with her hands on her hips, trying to explain the finer points of medicinal healing. "You're mixing it wrong," Tsunade said, and she pushed him aside and showed him how to mix the crushed herbs together, mixing them into a thick paste. "Honestly, if your chakra control were a little better, I could teach you how to heal properly."
"Hai," the boy said. There was powder on his face when he looked up and smiled.
At night, Tsunade dragged the child out into the training fields and showed him how to concentrate his chakra into his strikes. "So you don't have to keep using those bones," Tsunade said. "They hurt when they come out, right?"
The boy nodded, awestruck. Tsunade frowned, grimly. "Well I'm not about letting yourself get hurt," Tsunade said. She reached up behind her neck and slowly pulled off her necklace: a pale blue amulet on a leather string.
"For good luck," Tsunade said, and Kimimaro smiled.
xXx
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Unfortunately, the rest of the villagers were afraid of him.
"Narrow-minded idiots!" Tsunade said. Jiraiya watched as she raged in the tavern, slamming her fist against the table. "He's just a kid! And they're treating him like a goddamn plague."
The shinobi clans were little better. The Yamanaka gave him a wide berth, and the Hyuuga turned their noses to him. Even the good-natured Inuzaka clan watched him warily; their dogs seemed fearful of him, whimpering slightly whenever he came past.
"It is alright," the boy said, cheerfully. "I am used to being alone."
"That isn't something to be happy about," Tsunade said. She sat next to him, ruffling his hair. "Boys your age need friends. It's too bad we can't get you into a genin team; you need to go to the Academy, first."
The boy leaned against her, turning a piece of bone in his hand. "I have a friend," the boy said, again. "Anko-chan said she is."
"She did?" Tsunade raised her eyebrows: the last she'd heard, Anko had bellowed from the top of her lungs that Kimimaro was a freak and a weirdo and she wouldn't step near him with a ten foot pole.
"She is my friend," Kimimaro said. He smiled again, and Tsunade wondered when the last time was she had seen him so happy.
"Hey, loser!" Anko said, and she slapped Kimimaro on the back. Tsunade frowned, standing at the edge of the porch. "Kimi and I are going to train. Is that okay?"
"Just don't exert yourselves," Tsunade said. Anko winked and grabbed Kimimaro by the arm.
xXx
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"It is only natural that they should be drawn to each other," Jiraiya said.
They were sitting in a tavern again, Tsunade collecting cups of sake while Jiraiya cheerfully poured; he had come back after another few months of travel, but Tsunade was not the least bit surprised that he should start talking about her surrogate son. "Think about it," Jiraiya said. "They're both lonely, damaged children. Of course they'd find comfort in each other!"
"It sounds like one of your dumb romance books," Tsunade said. She tossed back another drink. Jiraiya frowned.
"Remember when we found her?" Jiraiya said. "Abandoned by Orochimaru and covered in her teammates' blood. She looked up to him like a father. Maybe even more." Tsunade watched as Jiraiya swirled the tea in his cup, quietly. "To think you might have been in love with him, once," Jiraiya said. "Now imagine how she would have felt."
"That bastard has no right to live," Tsunade said. "But I don't see your point."
"Oh, just you wait," Jiraiya said. He leaned back and winked. "Childhood friends are destined to find one another. It's the natural way."
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "This wouldn't have anything to do with us, would it?" Tsunade said.
"Only if you want it to," Jiraiya said.
xXx
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Time passed, and Tsunade watched as Anko grew into something beautiful.
She was binding her breasts when Kimimaro stepped forward. "O-oi!" Anko jumped up. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Forgive me! I thought we were going to train-"
"I'm still getting ready! Go away!"
Tsunade watched as Anko began hiding her body under thick swaths of chain mail, strapping on shin guards to hide her legs.
Kimimaro, on the other hand, entered puberty with the same grace and poise as he did in battle, blossoming at the end of his fifteenth year.
"Oh wow!" Jiraiya said. "He's quite the handsome young man! Tsunade, you must be very proud."
"Mm." Tsunade was already flushed from the six cups of sake she had tossed back earlier. "He better not be bringing home any girls. He's still too young."
"Fifteen," Jiraiya said. "That's the same age when you and I-"
"What? Went on our first mission?" Tsunade said.
"You're no fun," Jiraiya said.
For her part, Tsunade tried to ignore how Kimimaro stammered and blushed whenever Anko was near.
"Oh boy," Anko said. "Don't tell me you're getting stupid, too."
But she would dart forward and plant a quick kiss behind Kimimaro's ear, and Kimimaro would redden even more, so much so that it became a game. Ne, Kimimaro. How red can I make you now?
Tsunade nearly whacked them both with the broom when Anko pulled up her shirt.
"Ah, young love," Jiraiya said. Tsunade rolled her eyes.
xXx
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When Anko was promoted to Tokubetsu Jounin, Kimimaro couldn't stop smiling. "Idiot, why are you looking at me like that?" Anko asked, and Kimimaro smiled and squeezed her hand.
"I am just so very proud," Kimimaro said, and it was the first time Tsunade saw Anko blush.
xXx
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Anko was with him when Kimimaro first collapsed, the strain of S-class missions apparently too much for him to handle.
"Why did you have to push yourself?" Anko said. "Dammit, Kimimaro! Why'd you have to be so dumb?"
Tsunade said nothing. She had been the first to see the telltale signs of Kimimaro's illness begin to manifest itself: the fevers and chills, the way he'd sometimes cough up blood.
The Sandaime formally stripped him of his rank the summer of that same year. "He is too ill to be a jounin," the Sandaime said. "Tsunade I am sorry. But as it stands he is a liability to the rest of his team."
"I understand," Tsunade said, but inside she quietly seethed.
"It is all right," Kimimaro said. Tsunade sat at the edge of the bed, chaffing at the injustice of it - his symptoms could be controlled, there was no reason to sideline him so fast - but Kimimaro shook his head. "I will help Anko with the Chuunin exams," Kimimaro said. "There is still use for me, yet."
Anko, on the other hand, raged like a wounded bull. "They have no right to just throw you away!" Anko said. Tsunade knew it struck close to home: memories of Orochimaru's abandonment was always close in Anko's mind. "Goddammit. I should go out there and give the Sandaime a piece of my mind-"
"Anko. It is all right," Kimimaro said. "No one is throwing me away."
"They better not," Anko said. Kimimaro smiled.
xXx
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Preparations for the Chuunin exam went smoothly; for all of Anko's talent, she was sorely lacking in the organization department, and so Kimimaro helped her navigate the various piles of paperwork that found their way to Anko's desk. "This sucks," Anko said. "Remind me why I'm doing this again?"
Much to Tsunade's chagrin, Anko took a rather perverse glee in scaring the genin candidates, shooting dango spears like darts and licking the edges of knives for blood.
"I do not approve," Kimimaro said, after another one of Anko's hijinks sent a young genin sobbing into the bushes.
"Tch. If they can't handle that, they're not cut out to be chuunin," Anko said. Kimimaro frowned.
"They remind me of us," Jiraiya said, one day. Tsunade glanced back as Jiraiya leaned on the mat, staring up into the sky. "He's quite taken with her," Jiraiya said. "It's a pity she doesn't acknowledge it."
Tsunade huffed. "It has nothing to do with us," Tsunade said.
"Even if I wanted to bury myself in that big bosom of yours?"
"Especially if that were the case," Tsunade said.
They watched from the periphery as the genin teams filtered through the forest, clutching their scrolls and leaping out into the air.
xXx
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When Orochimaru came, Anko was powerless to stop him.
"Double snake assassination technique," Tsunade said. She turned over Anko's hand, which was crusted and oozing blood. "Are you okay?"
Anko snatched her hand away.
"Don't talk to me," Anko said. She pushed past Kimimaro as he entered the room, then slammed the door.
xXx
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Tsunade watched through the crack in the door as Anko hunched over the lamplight and sobbed. Kimimaro sat beside her and pressed his hand to her back. He leaned her close, their foreheads touching, and folded her up into his arms.
Tsunade didn't have to be told, as she watched the two of them together, that this was what the poets write about when they preach about love. Anko fell into the curve of Kimimaro's shoulder, and wordlessly he covered her with the rest of his body, his hand on the small of her back. There was something comforting in that gesture, something sweet and familiar, and when she tilted her head upwards, Tsunade could see how the orange lamplight fell on her face, and how her cheeks were streaked with tears.
They kissed then, and Tsunade turned and quietly shut the door.
xXx
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"I will kill him," Kimimaro said.
Tsunade turned. Kimimaro's face was pinched. His hand clenched into a fist.
"Orochimaru," Kimimaro said. "He has no right to live."
Behind them, Anko was in a fitful sleep, hunched beneath the covers. Quietly Kimimaro sat beside her, and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes.
"She is his most precious person," Jiraiya said. He and Tsunade were in the kitchen, sitting over a pot of tea and listening as Kimimaro tried to give Anko some modicum of comfort. "Of course he would want to take revenge."
"Yes, but at what cost?" Tsunade said. "Orochimaru has other plans. He's already marked the boy."
"We will have to wait," Jiraiya said.
Tsunade said nothing; she watched as Kimimaro plied healing chakra to Anko's hand.
xXx
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"You're in no condition to fight," Tsunade said.
Kimimaro quietly snapped the straps to his vest; he pulled on his breast plate and knotted his forehead protector, tight.
"You'll be throwing your life away," Tsunade said. Kimimaro turned, eyes dark and his mouth a thin tight line.
"There is a reason why people are born. That is what I believe," Kimimaro said. "If I can protect her, if I can spare her the suffering she carries now, then my life will have had meaning. I will be satisfied with that."
"And what about the people you leave behind?" Tsunade said. "What about Anko? If you die she'll never forgive you."
Kimimaro turned, and Tsunade's throat tightened. He gave her a small smile.
"Then I will just try not to die," Kimimaro said. It was the last time Tsunade saw him alive.
xXx
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They found his body in a yellow field, pale hair sticky and matted with blood. Spears of bone lay broken to the east, lost among tall grasses and half-dead leaves. Wordlessly, Tsunade knelt forward, then slowly untied the small blue amulet from around his neck. Beside them, Orochimaru lay gutted and dismembered, yellow eyes staring sightlessly at the overcast sky.
Anko didn't speak for a week.
"I gave this to him," Tsunade said. She held the necklace out to Anko, who twined it around her fingers, dully. "The men in my life has all worn it, once. Maybe it will be luckier for you than for me," Tsunade said, and Anko closed her eyes.
Now Tsunade sat perched on her knees as Jiraiya pressed pen to paper. Rain fell, and in the watery dark Tsunade pressed a fist to her eyes and tried not to cry.
"A mother's grief," Jiraiya said, and he leaned her close. "It was his decision. You mustn't blame yourself."
"Idiot," Tsunade said. "He was a goddamn idiot."
"No moreso than any other boy in love," Jiraiya said, and Tsunade gripped his hand.
xXx
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When they were young, Tsunade watched as Anko shared with him her loaf of bread, shouting and laughing and yelling for Kimimaro to follow her. She watched them grow together, watched the shy rise of young love spread and knit like the jagged edge of a broken bone.
Now Tsunade watched as Anko slowly approached the training fields, where the Uchiha genin was sitting. The skin where Orochimaru had marked him was still raw, and he was frowning, slightly. She watched as Anko sat gingerly on the bench and smiled, showing him her own mark, the amulet glinting in the sun.
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end.