AN: Enjoy.
How they all met the first time was a complete coincidence. Sasuke had been staying in a nearby town, following up on a lead, when he heard about the bandit raids. He had never liked bandits and had risen from where he sat without much thought. The victims were all too happy to give him all he needed on where the attacks had been happening and after giving the Uchiha's empty sleeve a few weary looks they had dropped all of it when he had activated his Sharingan.
The bandits had apparently gotten a little too greedy as well. Someone had taken out a mission with Konoha to have them taken care of. They didn't even care about getting their goods back, whatever they found was theirs as a bonus as long as they wiped out the bandits completely. Anko had luckily snatched it up before anyone else had. She was a little low on funds and needed time away from the village anyway. It was decidedly less pleasant with a certain freak able to walk around at his leisure. She knew he was being shadowed constantly but also knew he gave them the slip whenever he wanted to. The bastard. There wasn't anything like plain old annihilation that could just magically make any shinobi feel better. So much better. And maybe she would be picturing a certain someone's pale face as she did it.
Kabuto had a much simpler reason for going after the bandits. One of the children in his charge had ran away and gotten farther than anyone thought they would and the bandits had come across them. They survived but Kabuto knew it had been far too close for his liking. Hence why he had left the children in the capable hands of Urushi as he left. They had hurt one of the children trusted to him and they wouldn't live much longer as a punishment for their actions. He didn't bother checking in with Naruto, the Hokage would give him the okay anyway and he didn't want them to move.
Sasuke had circled the area for a few hours on the back of his hawk. Sitting with his legs crossed on the hawk's back as the hawk's eyes scanned the trees below them for signs of the bandits. They didn't seem to have any noticeable chakra so being able to sense them was far more difficult than he thought it would be.
Kabuto paused in the trees as he noticed the small snake. He lowered a finger near it and it quickly coiled itself around it. He brought the snake closer to his ear and smiled as he heard what it had to tell him. The snake vanished in a puff of smoke as Kabuto took off for the bandit's camp.
Anko walked the main road. One hand in her pocket as the other held the strap of the pack tossed over her shoulder. She whistled as her eyes checked the trees for any sign of would be attackers. She somehow held back a smile when a trio of men stepped out in front of her. They had been leering at her but their eyes quickly widened in terror as she disappeared and 2 of them fell with their throats sliced. The last was wrapped in the snakes that came from her sleeve. She threatened to feed him to her snakes if he didn't talk.
He talked. Did a lot more crying and begging but he talked. Told her how to get to their camp and how many she should expect.
He was still a bandit though. And the client had expressly stated they wanted complete annihilation..
She gave him a running start before she summoned one of her larger snakes to chase him.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open as the hawk let out a call and he rose to a crouch, peering down from the hawk at the smoke trail from a fire. He thanked the hawk as it brought him close to the treetops and he leapt from it and onto a branch. The bird disappeared shortly after. Sasuke let his eyes take in the camp and the numbers he was up against.
Kabuto hid himself on the edge of the camp, he debated putting the entire camp to sleep with a genjutsu but then he remembered the child they had hurt. He removed his glasses with practiced ease and placed them on a secure pouch on his side. It wouldn't be good to have them get stained by blood or fall off when he attacked.
Anko easily stuck to the tree as she hung upside down on the branch. She twirled a kuni by the ring on her finger as she debated how to attack. She could try a full on attack from the center and draw enough in before she used something big to take out most of them. That would risk those on the outskirts running though. And as her informant had learned, the client wanted complete annihilation. Konoha always liked having satisfied clients. Satisfied clients had a habit of becoming repeat clients and recommending them to their other friends with money. Anko blew out an annoyed breath as a good plan of action continued to elude her. A pair of bandits passed underneath her then, one having a spear and a torch while the other had a sword at his side. She watched them as they walked to take a seat at the largest fire and two more got up, one lighting their torch with the fire. They passed underneath her a few moments later and she let a snake fall on one's shoulder, the small black serpent quickly hiding itself. She needed to keep track of them and any other patrols that left the camp now.
Sasuke prowled around the edge of the camp, keeping a count of who he saw and where. A few sentries had been pulled into forest and killed when they unluckily strayed too close to him. His count had long ago surpassed several dozen and he grew annoyed at how long this was going to take. He thought this would take a few minutes but that was becoming more and more unlikely as he scouted the camp. He had wanted to try and meet an old contact but he doubted that was possible now. This would keep him busy for a while. This many bandits together always promised more somewhere else. Some type of boss they all listened to. Naruto would need to hear about this after he wiped the camp out. It would no doubt be the first of several.
Kabuto had taken in some Natural Energy to improve his senses to get a better strength estimate before he attacked and had been surprised at what he had found. The bandits were far more numerous than he had ever thought and he had 2 potential helpers. Snakes were already on their way to them and he waited for them. He never doubted they would come to him. The snakes would make sure of it.
"Kabuto." The Uchiha was the first to arrive, his red eye being the easiest thing to make out in the darkness around them.
"It's always a pleasure to see you Sasuke." Kabuto offered him a smile even as he waited for the other one.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke questioned, not knowing of the second expected arrival and wanting to get right to the point. "I didn't even know you could get permission to leave the village."
"I didn't." Sasuke's single visible eye narrowed. "I'm here because they harmed one of my children." Pure anger leaked into Kabuto's tone then. "No one gets away with a crime like that."
"You can help me then." Sasuke agreed to his presence as he stepped closer to examine the camp again. "There's a lot more here than I expected and these things are always part of something bigger."
"The guy I chatted with didn't know a lot." Anko was behind them now and neither of them even twitched at the Jonin's appearance. "Thanks a lot for the snake bite by the way." Her eyes focused on Kabuto.
"We need to get what we can out of them." Sasuke ended the potential argument. "We need at least a few of them alive at the end of all of this."
"I'll grab a few of them before they even know what's happening." Anko offered herself for the job.
"Good. I suppose you have a plan to keep them corralled Uchiha?" Kabuto asked.
"I would use a fire but it's the dry season and putting it out would take too much time and draw unwanted attention."
"And Naruto would kill you for it." Anko said.
"I have other ideas though." Sasuke ignored Anko's comment.
"And you Anko-chan?"
"The client wanted complete annihilation and I plan to deliver."
"Then we're in agreement."
"The 3 of us seems a bit much for one bandit camp." Sasuke said.
"Most kills wins." Anko said with a grin and the other two simply nodded.
It took less than 20 minutes from when they began their attack for all but a few bandits to lay dead. Anko had dragged one of the survivors off into a tent and his screams had made the other two in front of them look at the tent with wide eyes. Sasuke sighed at how much she was overdoing it. He could've just used a genjutsu but the T&I member had been insistent on doing it her way.
"You have to admit that she gets results." Kabuto spoke as he glanced at the tent.
"It just takes a while. I'm not sure how much time we have here."
"Relax Uchiha."
The shouts finally stopped and Anko stepped out of the tent, her smile being enough to make the remaining bandits recoil before she even walked towards them.
"Wasn't he just a little treasure trove of information." Anko spoke as she joined the other 2.
"What about them?"
"Don't tell me you forgot already Sasuke-kun." she tried to look innocent but the blood spots on her trench coat and face made that impossible. "The client had a very specific request."
Two senbon found their way to the bandits before they could even ask and they fell dead.
"Nothing like a lightning covered senbon."
"I'm familiar with the technique Anko." Sasuke said.
"Well with all our little bird told us I'll have to report this at the village. This operation is pretty big. Looks like some type of bandit king really. We're gonna need more teams on this or it'll take all week to hunt everything down." several Ankos were already looking around the camp for any information and one came out of a tent waving a map in the air and dancing. "Jackpot."
"I'll leave that to you two. I was never here if anyone asks." Kabuto returned his glasses to his face and the two narrowed their eyes at him.
"I'll tell Naruto about this."
"Isn't that nice of you." Anko's tone was anything but sincere as she placed a hand on her hip and looked at the Uchiha. "I need to get word to Ibiki about this and get paid, later." Anko and her clones vanished in Shunsins.
"I don't think she cares for either of us much." Kabuto spoke as the smoke cleared.
"Does it bother you much?" Sasuke questioned.
"I think we could have some type of camaraderie. We all are students of the snake in the end."
"That's not something to be proud of most of the time Kabuto." Sasuke didn't waste another moment and summoned a hawk.
"Just think about it Sasuke." Kabuto said even as the hawk rose into the air.
Sasuke didn't spare him another glance as he guided the hawk up and away from the graveyard the camp had become. The words still rung in his head though.
AN: Hope you enjoyed it. There's more to come, hopefully soon. Yeah I skipped the bandit fight because it wasn't a fight and more of a slaughter really. These three are interesting though. 3 different students and 3 different ways they feel about their teacher. 1 hates him. 1 idolized him. 1 seems to feel really nothing towards him. All 3 are weird in my eyes. Really sucks I haven't really seen them interact with one another. I don't remember seeing it in canon and can't say I've really seen it a lot in fanfiction.
I now seek to change that.
Kill competitions just seem like something shinobi would do.
As usual any and all feedback is welcomed.