He was so close.
It was almost over.
He had almost survived without harm.
Almost.
It was the final day of Konoha's annual Fox Hunt, an event that lasted for a full week starting on the tenth of October. It wasn't that the hunt started and stopped, but the fact that it was so much worse than any other time of the year. A whole week was enough for just about everyone to get their licks in. Twice even, given everyone offered everyone else a chance.
It was easy to put everything into your punches when you knew that the boy couldn't die.
It was even easier when you were a firm believer that a now six year old boy was once a titanic demon who laid waste to your home and murdered your friends and family.
Nearby, a woman flaunted her body to the man sitting easy in a chair. Her expression was flirty and alluring, but her eyes made it obvious that she couldn't care less about him.
She sauntered up to the man, her arms crossing over her chest and pulling her trench coat off of her shoulders to reveal only a mesh armor shirt and a simple skirt underneath. Her hands slithered down her body, fingers digging underneath her shirt and pulling it up slowly.
The door behind her flew open, letting in the orange light of the setting sun.
The woman stopped and let go of her shirt, not even bothering to pull it back down. As her head spun to look at whoever was interrupting her work, her spiky purple hair waved ever so slightly with momentum.
"What do you want?!" She snarled. They knew she didn't like being interrupted during her job, but she supposed that it was better that someone stepped in now rather than later.
The man who had barged in looked past the half-naked woman and to the man sitting down. His eyes were hidden by a pair of wide sunglasses, their pitch black tint allowing him to look at whatever he pleased without being noticed.
"We caught him." His gruff voice echoed faintly in cheer.
The man in the chair smirked, pushing his arms to the ends of the arms on the chair and pulling himself up to stand.
The woman looked to the man at the door furiously. She knew who he was, but it didn't matter to her. What she knew was that her client was leaving before she got the rest of her payment. The full payment itself was pocket change at most, but she took whatever she could from whoever was paying.
"What about the rest of my money?" She asked, her eyes following the other man as he walked past her. He had the audacity to shove her out of the way to leave the building, not caring if she hit the wall of not.
"You'll get it." He responded at the door. "Later. We still have three hours of fun to look forward to before you get my money, Anko, and I think my evening is now full." He slammed the door behind him, letting the sound ring out through the small room now only occupied by one.
She spit at the door. With the training she had, it was no problem to hit the spot where his head would have been if he hadn't moved from the frame. With a grunt, she pulled her shirt back down and picked up her tan trench coat.
They both knew the deal, as did all of the others and their clients. If the client was putting a pin on their services until further notice, it was no longer the woman's job to see it to the end. It was the client's job to rearrange another meeting time, and Anko would wait however long it took for him to get back with her about it.
Anko left the room without a word. Her hand fished out the key to the room to lock it, turning the key in the lock to ensure that nobody would be using her private room.
She took to the shadows, quickly catching up to her client in silence to see who was more important than her pay. She could take missions. They wouldn't be hard, but she had a business to run. She couldn't stay away from the village for too long without risking someone trying to take down the business that she worked so hard to create, uphold, and maintain.
It didn't take long for her prey to reach his destination. It was a single alleyway not too far from her own building. The only thing that was unusual was the fact that there were tons of villagers gathered on both ends of the alley.
She had never seen so many people in this specific area of the village before. The Red Light District was the home to the dregs of society of every kind. Even the homeless had a home in the district, finding seemingly empty buildings to take refuge in during the evenings and cheap meals that you could only come to love by living in such a situation. Pocket change was riches, half decent scraps were gourmet, and almost everyone was a low life in their own way. That was the Red Light District.
Deciding to take the rooftops, Anko slithered up the wall, sticking to the surface and grabbing all available scraps and holes to pull herself up further.
The rooftops offered a much better view. Both ends of the alley were blocked, leaving a small clearing in the middle. The men and woman keeping the openings closed off all had their rusty and broken weapons ready. The obvious state of disrepair displayed the true age of the weapons and the supposed lack of care.
Though, it wasn't the yelling and hollering ninja and civilian that captured her attention.
It was the boy in the center.
He was battered and bruised, blood spilling from a gash in his tiny head that healed only seconds after Anko's hazel eyes locked onto the wound. The wet blood continued to drip down his face; his golden locks and tattered white shirt were stained with the same crimson liquid.
His eyes were drenched in that of fear. Those crystal blue eyes of his were icy and pale, his irises shrunken and flickering about from person to person in hopes of seeing a single set of eyes that weren't filled with rage and sinister delight.
He scampered backwards to the wall, faltering only a step before and falling back against the wall of one of the many unmarked buildings in the area.
"What'cha gonna do now, fox brat?"
Anko looked down at the boy, still standing high above everyone. She knew who he was. She knew his story, and she knew that she wasn't going to punish him for taking her business away from her. She wasn't going to become one of them when she knew the obvious truth to the matter.
She may have been as close to the bottom of the scale as one could be, only steps above him.
He was the lowest point on the scale. He had no family, no real friends, other than those in the Red Light District.
That was Naruto Uzumaki.
The leader of the village of Konoha did all he could to protect the boy, but it was never enough. Hiruzen had even deployed a security detail to monitor the boy at all times.
But life finds a way.
All it took was a swift punch to knock Naruto out cold. His body dropped faster than a sack of rocks, the soft thud and lack of motion indicating that he had indeed lost consciousness.
His security seemed to have abandoned him, Anko hazarded a guess. There was not a single soul there to protect him.
Her eyes burned with passion, her hand digging into her trench coat to pull out a small throwing knife. The kunai was spun and twirled in her fingers before being thrown into the foot of the man who had left her not minutes before to go and attack a child.
He yelled with all of his might, focusing his pain into the yell in an attempt to dispel it. The kunai had cut all the way through his foot, the tip of the little blade digging into the ground underneath his feet.
With the others around him, he looked up to see who had thrown it. With wide eyes, he was surprised to find the lusty woman who was begging for his money.
His eyes widened further as she took out another kunai and licked the blade slowly and carefully.
"So this is what you do when the old monkey isn't looking."
(music: Jonas West - Epic China)
Not a word was uttered from the group harassing the boy. None of them dared say anything to Anko. Their silence was rewarded with a condescending smirk. They watched as she jumped down from the rooftop and stood over the boy, the blade of the knife pointing backward and held up in a defensive position.
The man who she had just stabbed did not move his foot. His alabaster arm rose to point at the brazen woman. "We don't have business with you, snake whore. We just want the demon brat."
Anko began to chuckle darkly. Her gaze was sick and twisted enough to match her laugh one hundred times over. Once more, she twirled the kunai between her fingers, raising it up now pointed at her former client.
"Tisk. Tisk." Her words were calm and dangerous. "You should know my name by now, Mizuki. My name is..." Her body spun, the arm holding the kunai pulled back and winded up, her eyes lining the shot to kill.
"Anko."
The blade whistled through the air.
"Mitarshi."
And made its mark.
Mizuki's body fell back and hit the dirt road with a soft thud. Anko's ruthlessness and rough demeanor were already enough to frighten the men and woman who had been pummeling Naruto, but the sudden and near soundless death of the white haired chunin forced them to take several more steps back.
"No happy ending for you." She stepped up to Mizuki's unmoving body. Her trench coat hung over her body as she leant over to pry the kunai out of his body. She was half tempted to take a nibble out of his skin for everyone to enjoy, but decided against it. Anko would normally own up to the rumors about her, but she wasn't going to disturb some kid by making him watch her take a bite out of a dead body.
She was slow to rise back up, the fire of anger sparking in her eyes as she looked to the civilian and ninja around her.
"Mizuki doesn't taste all that great." She stated, tasting the blood off of one of the kunai she had just pulled. "But I'm sure that at least one of you will taste better..." Her smirk turned wicked, untamed and ready to devour the closest person to her.
The two groups surrounding her and the boy stepped back even further. "Y-you freak! The council will have a hell of a day with you!" One of them yelled to her.
Anko's chuckle was dark and alluring. Her eyes fixated on the one who had spoken out against her, her right hand pointing one of the kunai in their direction. "Who's going to tell them?" She asked, adopting a sweet face and setting her hands just underneath her shin. "Certainly not little 'ole me. And unless you scram..." Her tone was sickly sweet, her eyes gleaming with that special brew of madness. "Definitely not you…"
Before any more words could be shared, two masked figures appeared both behind and in front of Anko and Naruto.
The one in front of Anko stood several inches above her. Though his face was unseen, his lopsided, messy silver hair was more than enough of a clue to tell her who he was. If he was who she knew he was, then her first guess as to who the other masked agent was would be her only guess.
Anko turned to look at the other ANBU agent. Though slightly taller than Anko herself, the woman's long purple hair was a dead giveaway. Anko may have had a similar color of hair, but the agent's hair was a far more vivid shade, gleaming in the last light of the day.
"Alright everyone. Weapons down and get back to your lives. The party stops here" The white haired ANBU announced. His dog-esque mask hid his prying eyes away from the world. He and the other agent watched as the group dissipated, leaving only the three adults, the blonde child, and the dead body of Mizuki.
(music end)
"So, you're the security detail." Anko looked at the two ANBU agents. Her arms crossed over one another. Huffing, she glanced at the body of her former client. She guessed he didn't get a happy ending. "Just two? I assumed with such a high priority kid there'd be more than just two ANBU in his shadow."
The silver hair one looked to Anko. In the time that it took for him to turn around, he had pulled out a small orange book about the size of his hand and had begun to read it. "He only needs two when they're the best on the forc-"
"Don't give me that shit Kakashi. You and I both know you'd rather get off to that book than protect him." Anko scowled at him.
The purple haired agent couldn't help but giggle at the treatment her partner was getting. As fun as it was to see Anko riled up, they had a child to deal with. "We were lead around the village, every time we thought we found Naruto it was just some kid in a getup. You know Inu just doesn't use his eyes whenever and wherever."
"But Kakashi could have." She retorted angrily. "That eye of his is a McGuffin if I've ever seen one. He could have found the real kid in an instant."
Kakashi sighed. His hand rose over the dog mask, pinching the nose of the mask. "We're on duty Anko, can you please use our code names?" He sighed once more. "And we all know that it doesn't work like tha-"
"No I don't!" Her retort was angry and lacking of any sort of care. "You've insisted on keeping that mask on, even when I've told you that it'd be way better if you didn't!" Anko could hear the other agent doing her best to keep her laughter silent. Anko pointed an accusing finger at the woman in question. "Don't you start Yugao." She ordered. "Or is it Neko? I can never tell when to use what name because you're too busy cleaning those swords of yours to give me an answer!"
Yugao was quick to stop laughing. In the many years that the two had known each other, Anko had more than enough dirt to bury her six feet under in an instant. Yugao was never at a position to retaliate with her own leverage due to Anko's nature to find a way to own up to any and all accusations against her, making anything she learned useless as blackmail.
"The two of you are lucky I'm such a good friend, or Dolphin would have one hell of a field week with each of you." Anko didn't need to use a harsh tone or accusing eyes or level fingers at them to get them to straighten up. Even the mention of passing along information to one of the fastest upstart ANBU captains was enough to scare even Kakashi.
"N-n-now Anko..." Yugao did her best to calm her friend down. Two arms raised in defense against the verbal attack, hoping to assist her words to her friend. "N-n-no need to be hasty, here. Dolphin doesn't n-n-need to know of what we do in our off time, and really. We were looking for Naruto. He's just slippery, and so are the people here." She could hear the small intake of air that Kakashi sucked in and pointed a finger in his diection. "Don't you start, I'm trying to save us and you certainly aren't helping."
Kakashi remained silent. He didn't care one way or the other, but he didn't like the fact that Anko had brought up his personal preferences. Yugao didn't need to know that he had his mask on for everything.
Anko smirked at Yugao, her devilish brown eyes piercing her unseen ones. "Don't worry Yugao, your preferences will be safe with me. I'm not sure that Dolphin would want to know that you tried to replace l-"
"That is enough!" Yugao spoke up quickly and loudly to overshadow anything that Anko had been planning on saying in front of Kakashi and a possibly unconscious boy.
With Naruto in mind, Yugao finally looked to him to check up on him. She knelt down beside him. Her left knee touched the ground as she bent forward to check him.
His body was covered in both dried and still wet blood. His clothing was torn and showed areas that were clearly slashed or stabbed with weapons. His breathing was slow and deep, his eyes heavy but not completely closed. His head occasionally dipped to the side before springing back, but his eyes never closing nor opening further than they were.
Yugao carefully picked him up into her arms. The time between him laboring between life and the cold embrace was taking longer and longer each time.
"He's drifting in and out of consciousness." Yugao stated. It was quick for her to realize that his condition was not getting any better. "He's fading!" Her head turned to look at Kakashi, who now stood at her side. "We should move him to the hospital as quickly as possible."
"Well." Anko spun on her heel and stepped away from the masked duo and boy. "I'll let you handle that. It sounds like a you problem."
Anko couldn't get far before Kakashi blocked her from moving forward, his arms spread wide to stop her. "Oh no." He shook his head. "You saved him. You're a part of this now!" He grabbed Anko's hands and spun her around, holding them behind her back and keeping her still. His mask turned to Yugao and Naruto, the latter of which was cradled in Yugao's arms. "Neko. You take Naruto to the hospital and meet us at the tower."
-scene break-
"And that's what happened."
Anko, Kakashi, and Yugao all stood in the darkened room of the leader of the village of Konoha, the Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi. The three all stood in the center of the room and in front of the desk that was currently being occupied by Hiruzen.
The old man was quiet. Looks were not everything, but the pensive and thoughtful look he displayed aged him decades older than he already was. The red and white robes he wore shone easily in the moonlight behind him, as did his hat of the same color scheme.
"I trust that he is in his ward?" His words carried infinite patience and understanding. The nod he had received from Yugao caused him to smile at them all. "Then that is all I require of you two. You are dismissed."
In an instant, the two ANBU agents flickered out of the room, leaving only Anko and the village leader.
Anko could only stand there uncomfortably. She was not too skilled in how to act in front of figures of great importance, despite what her job may have required of her. The room weighed heavy with the radiant energy of power and stilled rage. Even to the day, Hiruzen's appearance did not display the amount of power he held within.
"Anko," Hiruzen called her name aloud. Even with his old and frail words, each word carried power and authority. His new shift in tone heavily betrayed his withered appearance. "I cannot thank you enough for what you've done. Naruto means so much to me."
Anko did not answer. Too many questions plagued her mind now that Hiruzen had expressed how much Naruto meant to him. The silence continued for several minutes until Anko finally chose to end the lack of sound.
"If he means so much to you, why don't you just keep him at your clan house? Or even here?" She looked quizzically around at the room around her. "Nobody in the village would even think about harming him if the Hokage himself had a soft spot."
Even in his old age, even with his aged and withering body, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not a man to make an enemy out of. He was known as the God of Shinobi for a good reason. In his prime, he had mastered the use of all five of the basic nature transformation, and had been noted to have been the strongest Hokage out of the four that had been in office.
Hiruzen smiled at the girl. She was hardly an adult, even if she was seen as such officially for having ninja training and her own forehead protector. He knew her more than anyone else, even if she wasn't aware of it. Her teacher was his student a lifetime ago.
"My dear, as much as I would love to, there are more forces acting against me than I would like to disclose." He looked down at his desk, his eyes shifting to gaze upon anything that wasn't Anko. "I could. The Inuzuka clan has also made an offer to take in the boy, but I have no choice but to say no. He means so much to me, and I am doing all I can to keep him safe, but more harm would be attracted to the village if I placed him in the care of my son, Asuma, or any of the other Sarutobi clan members."
Anko couldn't help but to let out a grunt of dissatisfaction. He was the all-powerful village leader who was scared of his own villagers. He may have been old, but he was still strong. He could make anyone in the village snap to attention in the blink of an eye, so what did he have to fear?
"I'll make sure to reward you for your service today, Anko." Hiruzen finally looked back at the girl on the other side of his desk. "What do you say, S-rank pay for an S-rank target? And a little bonus because I care about him."
Anko choked on air. That was a damn great deal of money that her leader was just casually placing on the table. It was more than enough for her to live comfortably for a few months at the very least. "Um... Thank you, Hokage." She wasn't quite sure how to act. She shifted her weight onto one leg, her hands burying themselves into her pockets. She pulled her trench coat closed, keeping her mesh shirt and skirt from being seen. "Is there anything else you need of me?"
"No, that is all." Hiruzen shook his head. "Go and get some rest. It's been a long evening, and I apologize for Kakashi having put handcuffs on you to bring you here."
Anko bit her tongue. The words that almost escaped her lips were too much for the Hokage to hear. "I'll just be going then." Anko spun her body as far as she could so she could continue keeping eye contact with Hiruzen. "Kakashi and Yugao can find me pretty easily. You can just call them if you need a witness statement or anything."
Hiruzen chuckled to himself. "Thank you, but I don't think that will be required. Have a good evening, Anko."
Anko turned fully to the door, walking out and stepping out of the room with little else to say to the village leader. There was nothing more to tell, and she certainly wasn't going to disclose what she had been doing prior to finding him, only that she stumbled onto the scene.
She didn't bother taking the right turn into the building to move in the direction of the hospital. Kakashi and Yugao had everything under control. There was no need for her to step in or see to anything. She wasn't going to affect the outcome of whatever was happening in the hospital. She had already done enough by straightening out her two ANBU friends, and that was enough good for one week. She didn't even give Hiruzen's Secretary a passing glance, knowing that her eye contact would be rewarded with a glare in return.
She wasn't on her way home just yet, though. Her attention was brought back to a certain former client of hers.
He still owed her money.
Anko had been to Mizuki's house on more than one occasion in the past. Her house, his house, her personal room behind her building of operation, the location didn't matter to her or him.
It wasn't an impressive house by any means, nor was it a hovel. It was a simple home, dark in color and design, and compact in the event that he had to move on a dime.
The lock to the door broke easily with the help of a kunai. Anko knew how to use her tools in more ways than one way, and it often helped her in any situation; personal or general.
The door flew open with a kick of Anko's foot. The door slammed into the wall and creaked back forward. Anko's hand ensured that the door would stop moving. She stepped in as if she owned the place, looking around with her careful eyes for any sort of signs of a money stash.
Simple browns and grays covered the house and all that was in it. She didn't see why he didn't add more color, but each person had their own tastes and opinions. Mizuki's bedroom had a small splash of color added to it, but nothing that stood out.
Anko looked in the bedroom. She turned the whole house upside down and took all of the money that the dead man had. It was a surprising amount, given how much he spent on her and her girls, but nothing too surprising. What did surprise her was the multitude of letters addressed to Mizuki without names attached to them. They all used the same perfect handwriting and details, but none of it reminded her anything of anyone that Anko knew in Konoha. They lacked any sort of symbol or defining mark that would help her, but she did find that each of the letters seemed to reply to something that Mizuki had written first. No names were mentioned, everyone in the letters were either a "He", a "She", or "They".
They weren't important to her, but the ANBU and the police force were going to have a fun time with all of the strange and mysterious things about Mizuki and his home, notably the lack of any semblance of money in the premise.
Maybe she would confer with her friends on their findings when ANBU cleared out the home. At the moment, she didn't care what was done with the house, as she had all of the money that he previously owned. There were no signs of a bank account existing to him at all. All of the money he had was stashed around the house in various places, making it worth another S-ranked job.
Anko could retire with Mizuki's money alone.
Anko woke up the next morning as well as she could. There wasn't a night that went by without her dreams being plagued by dark whispers and horrible yellow eyes. Even with so many years since then, those slitted eyes still sent shivers down her spine.
Her eyes snapped open, her breathing loud and heavy as her body shot forward to sit upright in her bed. Her chest heaved, her heart pounding to its own beat. Sweat covered her body as she calmed down from the never ending nightmare that was sleep.
Her room was nearly pitch black. The long, dark blackout curtains kept any sort of light from getting in, only the faint glow of light from the edge of the curtains illuminated her room only slightly.
She didn't dare touch the curtains. Her bedroom was filthy enough without any light helping her excellent eyes. She didn't need to see the fruits of her labors at any time of day.
Anko dressed as she normally did. Her closet contained many different outfits picked out by her friends who insisted she needed less provocative clothing, but twice as many mesh shirts and orange skirts filled the space.
She finished her morning rituals and ate a short breakfast. Her kitchen, surprisingly, was the only room with any sort of cleanliness to it. The dishes were always washed, the fridge was normally stocked with leftovers and assorted alcoholic drinks, and her stove was almost untouched. She never had a big breakfast, just enough to get her to lunch.
Anko twisted the knob to her front door and attempted to push the door open. However, some sort of weight on the other side was keeping her from opening her door at all. Whatever it was, it was too short for her to see through the viewing hole.
Gritting her teeth, Anko shouldered the door and forced it to open, whatever was blocking her be damned.
"Ow!"
When the door flew open, Anko was able to see what had been keeping her door from opening. She knew it was at least thirty five pounds, given how hard she had to push to force the door open.
What she didn't know was that it was a person.
The boy who had been flung forward with just a woman and the opening force of a door tumbled forward.
Anko's eyes widened upon seeing the little blonde boy roll and slow to a halt. "Shit!" She yelled in his direction. "Kid, what are you doing?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his head and let out a pained groan. "Ow..." He let out once more with a groan. "Why'd you do that? I was napping."
"Why were you sleeping against my door?" She answered his question with one of her own, looking down at him. Where were his two guards? How long had he been out of the hospital? "Why are you here?" She attempted to stop herself, but all was in vain. She had already asked the question, and there was no longer any way for her to make it sound any less mean than it was.
Naruto looked up at the woman with his sparkling blue eyes. The world around them was already bright compared to Anko's room, but his shining eyes made it even brighter.
"Your door was closed. So I napped here."
"You can't just sleep against a door; someone's eventually going to open it! Like I just did."
"But then where am I gonna sleep?"
Anko stilled her reply. "When did you get here?" She asked him carefully.
"I...dunno." The boy shrugged. Something told Anko that he had received only the most basic form of education. Accumulating knowledge was not difficult in a village like Konoha. People were always outside, enjoying themselves, talking, doing things that impressionable people like Naruto could catch onto. "It was still dark when I left."
Anko did not take any time speaking back to him in a quick and orderly manner. She waited patiently for him to hopefully continue talking so they could both be on their way.
But it did not happen.
Ten minutes of pure silence passed and neither one of them looked away from one another. Anko finally decided to speak up and break the silence that settled between them.
"So?" She asked, her hands moving to her words. "Why are you here? What do you want?"
Naruto looked up at Anko with his shiny blue eyes, as bright as the sky itself and as vast as the ocean. He cracked a smile as he stood up right in front of her.
"You saved me."
Surprise was the very base emotion that Anko felt in regards to what Naruto had just told her, among others. She didn't believe that he was conscious when she finally did something about the problem. His vitals were apparently dropping when Yugao finally got around to assessing him.
She said nothing, but simply watched as the boy neared her with open arms and wrapped them around Anko's legs. She could feel him squeezing her legs to the best of his abilities. She bent over ever so slightly to hug him back. It wasn't as if she perceived him as delicate or fragile in any way, but she didn't normally hug people out of kindness, or just hug people in general.
When he finally let go of her legs, Anko did the same to Naruto's body. He continued to smile up at her, his silent thanks undoubtedly reaching her.
It wasn't long until Yugao and Kakashi appeared in front of Anko's house, still fully dressed in their black and grey ANBU uniforms and masks.
"See? I told you he'd be here." Yugao looked to Kakashi triumphantly. The revitalizing feeling of victory laced through her words. "You know the deal."
Kakashi sighed. Though he couldn't escape his fate, he could talk to Anko and Naruto to prolong them knowing about whatever had been going on beforehand.
"So, how long has he been here?"
"How long have you been looking for him?" Smarmy wasn't enough to truly express the level of sarcasm and sass that was delivered in that single sentence. Given the unkempt appearance of both of the agents, it was safe for her to say that they had been searching for him for at least a few hours, searching every nook and cranny of the village to bring him back to the Hospital before the Hokage inevitably came in to check up on him.
It was easy to tell just by Anko's previous conversation with Hiruzen that hell would surely break loose if something happened to Naruto not even a full day after he had been beaten and attacked.
Kakashi didn't reply. He looked off into the distance to avoid the topic, though he knew that Yugao was staring directly at him with no intention of looking away. After a moment of silence and a labored sigh, he finally responded.
"Three in the morning."
Anko laughed like she had heard the funniest joke on the planet. Her eyes watered and her sides hurt, but nothing was going to stop her from enjoying Kakashi's mistake.
"You mean..." Anko bent forward and set her hands on her knees. "You mean to tell me, that you've been looking for him..." She chuckled once more, losing the strength to keep calm. "For six hours? How can you be that bad at your jobs that you lose a kid, a KID, and can't find him in one village for six whole hours?"
She laughed again. It became so bad that she toppled over onto the ground in her ongoing fit of laughter.
Yugao said nothing to Anko or Kakashi, instead deciding to lift Naruto up to his feet and kneel down to his level.
"How did you find this place, Naruto?" She asked him in a calm and polite tone. Had she not been on duty, her mask would have been removed to get a better connection with the boy; though she believed that Naruto had a better connection with her mask than Yugao herself.
"I asked." His reply was simple and quick. He looked into the black eye holes of the mask, almost as if he could see her actual eyes through the one way fabric. "I asked for the person that saved me and then I found out it was a lady. So I asked for the lady that saved me, and a bunch of people looked a little scared and told me to go to this one place."
"You didn't go here first?" Yugao tilted her head in confusion before the realization hit her, but it was far too late for her to interject as Naruto began to speak again.
"Yeah." He nodded to her. "I went to this place and it was closed, but there were people on the ground and on the couches and stuff. One of the guys told me that the lady who saved me was called Anko, so I asked to see Anko, but he told me that she wasn't around and that a little kid shouldn't be in a club for adults. So he said go to the tan house with the little porch. I knew what he was talking about because it looked nicer than the other houses over here."
Yugao could see that Naruto's breath was labored as he tried to remain as still as possible. "Naruto?" She asked carefully, her hand slowly reaching to pull up his shirt.
Naruto moved his hand to stop hers from touching him. He shook his head at her and continued to remain calm. "I'm fine. I'm all healed up."
Kakashi appeared behind Naruto with his inhuman speed and pulled up Naruto's shirt to inspect his back. "What a lie." Kakashi sighed. He cast a noticeable glance to Anko, who quickly moved to keep Naruto still as the two ANBU looked over his now exposed torso. "He's still marked up. We should take him back to his ward."
Anko released the boy carefully and backed away. Kakashi's tone made it seem as if this was something unusual, but even she knew that the fox hunts were nothing new. She simply stood there and watched Yugao and Kakashi take Naruto back to the hospital. If her guess was right, he was focusing on channeling and blocking all of the pain to try and make a break for it.
What was so strange about him still bearing wounds?
Days went by since Naruto had appeared at Anko's house for the first time. Every day after that, at random times throughout the day, Naruto had shown up and sat on Anko's porch, waiting for her to return. He was never allowed inside, and he was fortunate enough to not have arrived during her business hours, but he always found a way to escape his security detail to see her.
Sometimes they would talk to one another on her porch. Sometimes she'd play some card games or even let him throw a kunai or two. Eventually, Kakashi and Yugao would find him, graze his wrist, and then take him back. She knew the truth, though. The two agents should have known where to look after the first time that it happened, but each time he escaped, they would appear after an hour or two of Anko spending time with him. They let him get away, and they let him have some time out, even though they did stress that his wounds would not get any better if he kept moving around.
Anko walked through the front doors to the Hokage's tower and stopped at the secretary's desk.
Her narrow glasses hung on the edge of the Secretary's nose, angled as such to be able to look at the magazine in her hands without having to tilt her head or raise the paper. She had dark black hair that was put up in a bun in the back and two long strands of hair descended from her bangs and were pulled back to connect to the bun.
Her onyx eyes lazily looked up to Anko, her mouth unmoving and her eyes uncaring. She only had to glance at her to tell that she was one of those who lived in the Red Light District of the village.
"I believe you're in the wrong building." She stated. "The strip clubs are back in the Red Light District."
Anko looked down at the woman. She had the audacity to insult her and not even bother to welcome her in. "Excuse me, Kaori, is it?" She smiled a sickeningly sweet smile. "I have to talk to our beloved Hokage. I have some important business with him."
Kaori huffed and set her book down with a single hand, her other hand pushing up her glasses further on the bridge of her nose. "How do you know my name, Redlighter? You were lead in here a few days ago by the ANBU, but you don't have any excuses today."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot that your husband asked me and my girls to pretend as if we had never heard of you, your husband, or your... child." She feigned an expression of surprise. "Oh! I totally forgot that too. It isn't his, is it?" Anko smirked and flicked the lobes of her ears. "I hear a lot, even if I'm not the one listening in on the conversation."
In her angry and flustered state, Kaori was unable to see Anko slip past her and enter the doors that led up to the Hokage's office located at the top of the stairs.
Anko strode up to the office and gave the door a solid knock. The faint voice inviting her in was all she needed to open up the door and walk inside. She only needed the fleeting shine of an orange covered book being shoved underneath Hiruzen's desk to know what he had been reading for the day. She didn't blame him in the least. It was a good series, but the dumbass who wrote it obviously needed a few educational classes on what was and wasn't considered being a stalker.
"Anko." Hiruzen smiled at the girl, stifling a quick cough as he blew out some smoke. "It's good to see you again. Can I help you with something?" He glanced down at the scroll lying on his desk and slid it to the side. "I don't have a lot of time, but I'm sure that I can help."
Anko bowed to the leader of her village. "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about Naruto."
Hiruzen chuckled. "Yugao came clean. She and Kakashi let Naruto sneak away after the first time so he could have some air outside. I've been told that you're taking care of him?"
Anko choked on air. Though she should not have been, Anko found herself being surprised by the fact that Hiruzen knew that Yugao and Kakashi had been intentionally slacking on their jobs, even more; he did not punish them at all for doing so.
Hiruzen laughed once more. "What about Naruto would you like to talk about?"
She shifted somewhat uncomfortably, refusing to speak for a moment. "Um...you kinda already addressed the topic." Her laugh was nervous and shaky. "When was Naruto cast out from the Orphanage?"
Hiruzen tapped his chin in thought. "He is six now, no?" He muttered rhetorically before looking at Anko with a nod. "It's been two years since Grelod the Kind cast Naruto from the orphanage. Three since the start of the Fox Hunts."
"Then why hasn't anyone done anything?" Anko did her best to hold back her growl. "I know you can't, but what about the other clans? The Inuzuka would take in a stray like him in a heartbeat. I'm sure that Chouza and his wife would love another kid."
Hiruzen smiled. Her thoughts were in the right place, but for one reason or another, none of the clans were in the position to raise Naruto. Maybe the Akimichi clan, with Chouza and his wife who had more than enough love to go around, but it was simply something that they could not do at the current moment.
The civilian half of the council had been grubbing power and stance for the last few years, slowly edging on Hiruzen's Hokage Powers throughout the years. The fourth Hokage, who had lead the village after Hiruzen stepped down to retire, had stopped the council from gaining power, even reclaiming many of them, but their actions had resumed after his death when Hiruzen took the title of Hokage once more.
"I am doing all I can Anko. He has a house, electricity, water, basic amenities, and a weekly stipend to pay for things he might want. I just can't directly take him in." He sighed, tapping the large hat that sat on his head. "We are Ninja, Anko. Sometimes subtlety is the best way to go."
Anko understood, but there was still more that the Hokage could do. There were sympathizers outside of the Red Light District, she was sure. Hiruzen could get someone to teach and train him, and if anyone asked, they decided to help Naruto out of good faith. She knew he was doing his best to manage Naruto and the growth of the civilian council, but she deemed that it simply was not good enough.
It was unfortunate that there were no clans that existed within the Red light District. Had there been some minor clan or something similar, Anko was sure that they would have the political freedom to do as they pleased without any repercussions from the others. There was no such thing as a Mitarashi Clan, filled with scoundrels such as herself to look after the boy.
She presumed that the district itself was like a functioning clan, in a way. There was no main family, but there were people with the most influence in the area, and everyone worked in one form or another to keep money circulating. Since the district worked like it did, in such a way to resemble a clan of its own, all she needed to do was bring attention to Naruto and his condition and the Redlighters would be sure to help.
Anko smiled, her plan relayed to the Hokage in hopes of a penny for his thoughts.
"It could certainly work that way." Hiruzen nodded to the girl. He could see her point of view, and knew surprisingly the inner workings of the micro-state that was the district. "I am fully aware of your influence in the area, and am sure that with enough help, you can get the district in full to help you."
Her smile widened only briefly. The look on Hiruzen's face was all she needed to see to know that he was keeping some information from her.
His look was remorseful, melancholic even. It was a sad smile as he closed his eyes, his head tilting down ever so slightly.
"Anko." His words matched his sad face. "After you killed Mizuki, I had the police force investigate his house, and clean it out. He didn't have any living family, so everything he owned would go to the village."
Anko snapped to attention. She didn't keep it a secret that she killed him, but she did find it strange that Kakashi did not arrest her on the spot for killing him. "Why are you telling me this? And why conduct a full investigation if you were just clearing it out? You could just send your cheating office slave down stairs to go do it or make her send some people."
His once sad smile turned into a knowing smirk. Hiruzen tilted his head back up and tapped his forehead. "I've always had one reason or another to question Mizuki. Though Dolphin has refused to acknowledge it, he is aware that Mizuki had been tailing him for quite a while, even before he joined the ANBU."
"They were friends, I knew that much." Anko commented. Though nobody else knew it, Anko had known Dolphin for a number of years. He graduated in the class behind hers, and even had help from her when she graduated just two years after being promoted to Genin.
Almost immediately after he had been promoted to Chunin, Dolphin had joined the ANBU, and rose to the rank of captain rather quickly, surprisingly fast even. He was surprisingly strong for having just graduated from Genin just a year before. Anko had her suspicions that he was training as much as he could and was already at a Jonin level by the time he took the exams.
Anko held down her tongue, stopping her mouth from forming any and all words that would have escaped. Her thoughts were with whom Mizuki had been talking too, but she was sure that the Hokage would not have enjoyed the fact that she had conducted her own search without him or his ANBU knowing.
"They found letters addressed to nobody, but Dolphin believes that the letters were sent to a dead drop location that only Mizuki and the unknown recipient knew about. Wherever that location is or was, we do not know." The Hokage himself, in his near infinite wisdom, refrained from telling Anko who he believed the unnamed man or woman on the other end could have been. He had his suspicions, but nothing could be confirmed through cold, hard, evidence.
Anko wondered what else he knew, but unless she was going to call him out on things that she may or may have not done, which would result in implicating herself, she was going to keep from poking around too much.
Hiruzen returned Anko's silence with some of his own. His hand reached below the desk to pull out a drawer. His hand ruffled through it, clearing out a small area to reach even further in. If Hiruzen leaning even further to reach into the drawer was of any significance, Anko believed that he was pulling from some secret area of the desk.
When his hand returned, it was holding a worn and dusty bottle of unknown contents. Whatever marking was on the front of it had been through thick and thin, and whatever it was, what remained of the red marking was completely unidentifiable to her.
"In times like these, this bottle is what gets me through a day." He pulled out the smallest shot glass Anko had ever seen and looked up at the girl. "Would you care for some?"
Anko looked at the glass in disbelief. "That little thing? I'll need a container bigger than that bottle to get me buzzed." Her words made Hiruzen smile, even chuckle a bit, as he poured her some of the black liquid to the brim of the cup. His free hand motioned for her to take a swig, which she did proudly.
Her vision had gotten blurry even before she had gulped it down. A rule of thumb was to drink it so fast that the smell wouldn't be able to reach her nostrils, but it was far more potent than she could have ever imagined.
The last thing she remembered was Hiruzen's faded and distant laugher, paired with the blurred image of him drinking straight from the bottle.
Anko groaned heavily. Her own eyes refused the command to open and her head pounded relentlessly. She could feel that she was on something soft and comfortable, a couch or something similar she believed. Her head lay back on one of the arms. Slowly, the light penetrated her eyelids and forced them to open, the shining sun blaring into the room like an angry light.
"Good morning. I hope you slept well."
Even with her head pounding and clouded, she could recognize the old and powerful voice of Hiruzen. She returned his greeting with another groan. Her vision, though still blurred, was enough to make her vaguely aware of her surroundings.
She was still in the Hokage's office, she could tell by the sight of him still sitting in his chair as if nothing had happened.
What had happened?
She attempted to move, resulting in another pained groan. Her body burned all over at the slightest movement, and her headache did not help in the least.
"Dolphin." The Hokage commanded.
The ANBU dropped down from the ceiling and held out a cup of water for Anko, waiting for her to graciously take it before jumping back into the shadows of the corners of the office.
She drank the water without hesitation, gulping it down as if it were the last glass of water she was ever going to have. Her headache refused to let up any, as if the Hokage himself was using all of his abilities to escape from her skull. Her hand reached up to pull her hair out of her ponytail. A deep and low groan escaped her now wetted lips. She was thankful for the water, but it still wasn't enough.
Hiruzen chuckled at Anko. Though he hated paperwork, he continued to sign his name and stamp the papers accordingly, taking enjoyment out of Anko's misery.
"You're handling it much better than any of the others I've seen." He complimented her, resulting in another groan.
"What the hell was that?" She asked in dry agony. "I've never had something so strong. What time is it by the way?"
"Eight in the morning." Hiruzen responded, his smile growing ever wider.
Yet another groan was let out, this time in relief rather than pain. "Oh thank god." She muttered to herself. "It's only been ten hours." Hiruzen's chuckle forced her to turn her head to him, wondering what he was laughing about. "What's so funny?"
"I wouldn't quite say that, at least not exactly anyway." He said to her. "It's been a little more than ten hours."
She didn't quite understand what he meant. Her confused look was more than enough to confirm to him that she had no idea what he was talking about.
"It is Tuesday, Anko." he stated simply.
Had Anko still been drinking the glass of water, all of it would have been spat out in disbelief in a comical spit take worthy of a picture for blackmail. "Tuesday?!" She asked in alarm. "It's been almost a week! What the hell happened?!"
Hiruzen laughed once more, heartier and lighter than before. "You had the first taste of a whiskey bottle that hadn't been touched in decades. Not the first bottle of the batch, mind you, but the most important one to be sure."
"I don't care about the bottle, Lord Hokage." Anko slowly sat up with fire in her veins; though she was glad she sat up slowly, if the dizziness was anything to judge by. "I just want to know what I've been doing for the past five days."
Another laugh from Hiruzen. A tear was wiped from his eye from all of his laughter. He was definitely enjoying her misery, Anko decided with a glare.
"The first two days were something to remember." He looked back on the past several days with a grin. "You were quite...insistent...that you were going to take Naruto home, officially or otherwise, and, I quote you now as saying, 'Raise him to be the baddest badass he deserves to be.'" He laughed again. "I didn't get you the papers to take him home though. I wouldn't want you to make such a decision like that while drunk."
Her heart raced. "What else did I do?"
The laughter did not end from Hiruzen. "You held Naruto hostage in the Hospital, demanding to the nurses that they let you take him home." He took a sip from his own glass, sighing in pleasure from the clean, clear, cold water. "Inu and Neko had to fight you to let him go, though they were heavily injured in the battle."
"Anything else?" Anko groaned holding her head in her hands. She wondered what she had done to her business or any of her other clients during her heavily hammered state.
"You passed out. Slept for the remaining three days, and here we are." He explained to her with a smirk. "You are...violent, when you're drunk. Flirtatious as well."
"Please don't tell me I tried hitting on you..." Anko groaned. Nothing could make her more uncomfortable than the thought of a completely and utterly hammered Anko trying to get busy with the leader of the village. Older men were nothing new to her. Some of the richest clients, even those outside of the village, were on the older side, wishing to feel you and be revitalized by being around young, beautiful, and energetic women.
Hiruzen shook his head in denial. "No, but Inu was one of the many who almost fell victim to your persuasions."
Anko was quiet against Hiruzen's words. She looked down at her legs and sighed.
The pen in Hiruzen's hand was set down, his eyes turning to look at Anko. "He doesn't know, does he?"
"He's a kid, Hokage." Her tone was soft and quiet, almost like she was twelve again. "He just showed up at my house one day because I did him a little favor and follows me around like a lost puppy."
Her head hung low, her now free hair falling over her face. She couldn't just tell a six year old to get lost. Not only was it more rudeness added onto the weight of the heavy world, but he would be sure to ask why, and she was not prepared to answer that question.
"It's not like I can just stop. Y'know?" She looked at him with pleading eyes, looking for the answer to her problems. The one step, easy fix that would make everything better. She was reminded of her own naiveté and fire as a child. The scene was nostalgic to Anko. Her sense of Deja Vu told her that it was not the first time that something similar had happened. "I just...How the hell am I supposed to do anything for this kid when I haven't even figured out any of the problems myself...?"
A hand reached up to graze the mark on the base of her neck. Surprisingly, it was the only thing on her body that did not burn. There was no feeling in that area of her neck. The pain the mark had caused had long since taken its toll on her, and still did from time to time. The nerve endings from the side of her neck to her shoulder had all but shut down, refusing to respond to anything but the highest of pains.
Hiruzen looked at Anko's hand. It was his fault that she was in the position that she was in. It was his fault that Naruto did not have any family, and it was his fault that he could do nothing to improve the village's view on either of them.
"You need time to sort all of this out, Anko. I will do my best to keep Naruto from visiting you as often so that you can do what you must. Talk to Kurenai, you know she is the motherly type."
Anko grunted. "I'm surprised she already isn't all over the kid. Her prude ass will never get her anywhere with Asuma." She muttered to herself, looking back down at the ground. "Maybe she's already detected my scent on Naruto and has forsaken him because I tampered with his innocence or something." She smiled to herself. Kurenai would have jumped at the chance to raise Naruto, especially after the Fox Hunts. She was always looking for some excuse to look lovely in front of Asuma without actually going up or talking to the man.
"Oh?" Hiruzen resumed with his paper signing and kept a look watch on Anko. She seemed to have been recovering from her hangover surprisingly well, but it was unsurprising to him. It was the fastest that he had seen anyone recover from a shot of the special whiskey, so it was of no surprise that she would be returning back to normal just as fast. "Well, I'll leave you to it, Anko. You always seem to make it out on top. Even if you don't realize it."
Anko nodded and took that as her goodbye. The Hokage probably had more important things to do than to sit around and listen to her all day.
Slowly, she rose from her seat on the couch and left the room with a bow.
She didn't need Kurenai. She was better off without that prude babying Naruto. There were talks of her taking the Hyuuga heiress under her wing; Anko knew that much from her more unique clients. Nothing was finalized, but Anko had never actually seen the heiress. She must have been sheltered from her nut of a father who overreacted from the event that happened three years ago.
Yugao and Kakashi were out of the picture for help. They were already following Naruto every hour of the day, and their orders were to only intervene if things got out of hand.
Anko walked alone through the streets of Konoha, her hands in the pockets of her trench coat. She was too busy to pull her hair back into a pony tail, instead choosing to focus on her growling stomach. Her favorite Dango shack was too far away for her to just get a quick meal, but another scent filled her nose.
She could smell the fresh broth from where she was standing, and allowed her body to be pulled towards the scent without restraint or hesitation.
It was a small counter top hidden behind a curtain. The scent only got stronger upon moving behind the curtain.
Anko took a seat and ordered a bowl from the little girl on the other side of the counter. She couldn't have been older the eleven or twelve, given her looks.
She ordered her food without any problems. The little girl was obviously on a stool of some sort to look over the counter fully, but she could cook just fine. In time, the food was delivered to her, and Anko began to chow down like there was no tomorrow.
She was too busy with her own food to notice the little blonde boy and the two masked agents beside him eating bowls of ramen as well.
Everybody loves Ramen.
Hello and welcome all to the story that will be replacing Raising a Fox, An Offer you Can't Refuse. Now, this story, while fundamentally similar, if going to go in a different direction than RaF did, it will be going different places, focusing on different characters, and fun stuff like that.
Hopefully Me and Ogre here can articulate why we chose to scrap Raising a Fox and start this story instead. I'm sure you'll notice the size different between this chapter and the first for RaF, but there are still a lot of things that we've yet to touch on that will be different. Hopefully you'll enjoy it was much as we enjoy writing it, so please Read, Rate, and Review for a better tomorrow! (Cheesy, I know.)