Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: Here's another chapter - I hope some of you are enjoying what I'm coming up with - who knows where I'm getting it from! Oh, and if there are any inconsistencies please forgive me - as the cliche goes, I'm only human ;) I'm sorry I can't give definite update times, but the next will only be after Christmas sometime, maybe after New Year. For those of you who celebrate the holiday: hope you have a Merry Christmas, and for those who don't I hope you have a great holiday!

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Chapter 10

Trapped

Anko woke up feeling like she was being suffocated. She surged upwards into a sitting position, shoving the breathing mask off her face, and coughed until it felt like her lungs were shredded. A hand passed her a glass of water, and she started raising it to her lips before her senses caught up with her. The kunoichi's hand snapped out to curl around the throat of a silver-haired shinobi with glasses. The man's lips curled in a small smile.

"It's just water, Anko-san. You have my word."

Anko let go of him when the coughing started again. She brought her hand away from her mouth when it passed, drinking the water and staring at the blood speckled on her palm.

"You're body has taken more strain than it can currently handle with the two seals acting on it." He smiled slightly at her again, but she wasn't fooled by the fake friendliness that he was notorious for. "With proper care you should be fine."

Anko took a deep breath, and stared intensely at the man. "Kabuto."

Orochimaru's infamous servant smiled widely and he adjusted his glasses before spreading his hands. "Welcome to Sound, Anko-san."

"Cut the crap, Kabuto. Why am I here?"

"Because you chose to come here, Anko-san. I suppose once you've been in Orochimaru-sama's service it's hard to leave, yes?"

Anko bared her teeth in a feral grin. "Well, you wouldn't know, would you? You've never taken a crap without his permission."

"I'm sure you'll find the leash has gotten a lot shorter since he last let you go, Anko. But I'm sure you'll get used to it." He smiled slyly, knowing the next words would hurt. "After all, you've never been off a leash, especially after you left Orochimaru. They never trusted you enough."

Anko's heart clenched. He was right. The Council had never trusted her after she'd served under Orochimaru, even after the Sandaime vouched for her innocence. Because of that, she'd never been sent on high-security missions and hadn't been allowed to join ANBU. It still burned, and of course out of anyone Kabuto would know. His intelligence-gathering skills, his spying skills, were second to none.

Kabuto seemed to study her and the readouts he was getting from the computers before she ripped the wires and sensors off her. He smiled at her suddenly, after a number of moments punctuated by her grinding her teeth in anger. "Well, it looks like the medication is helping with your control." he said finally.

"What?" she snapped. She hated the cold sterility of the room, the lack of windows and the cold stone walls. It all put her on edge. But more than anything, Kabuto rubbed her the wrong way.

He was putting on the friendly act again. "I gave you some medication to help your emotional control and thus the control of the snake serpent. I'm sure you've noticed you have the most problems when your emotions are heightened. We can't have you going out of control again."

"I don't see how it matters." a flat, blank, dead voice came from a dark shadow standing in one doorway. "I'd just kill her."

Kabuto's smile became even more strained. His eyes flashed with anger, but his voice was calm and cool as he spoke to the other man. "Ah, but Orochimaru-sama would not be at all pleased, Sasuke-san."

Anko's eyes widened as Uchiha Sasuke stepped forward into the light of the room. It had been a number of months since he'd left Konoha, and many more since she had seen him this close. His hair was slightly longer than she remembered, and he'd adopted one of the Sound-style robes. He was just as haughty as she remembered, but his face was paler and his eyes darker, more haunted and dead. Like a void, they sucked in all light and radiated none.

He ignored her completely. "And I will not be pleased if this means more time taken from my training."

"I'm sure he thought she could make an interesting sparing partner for you, Sasuke-san. A reminder of what you left behind." His eyes shone as he made the comment deliberately, meaning to dig at Sasuke's betrayal of Konoha. "I'm sorry we couldn't bring Kakashi or Sakura, and I don't see Naruto-kun as one who would defect, do you?"

Sasuke said nothing, but the murder that flashed across his eyes with a swirl of red made Anko's adrenaline kick in. It was a primal survival instinct when faced with the raw danger and death she saw in the boy's eyes.

"You really are lost, aren't you?" she asked softly. "I hope none of them have to see you again like this. It would break Kakashi's heart."

"What is he to you?" Sasuke sneered, so much like Orochimaru it was frightening. "Your fuck-partner?"

The kunoichi glared, furious. "And what are you to Orochimaru?" she snarled, "His fuck-toy?"

She watched Sasuke's eyes bleed red in fury. But suddenly, just as Kabuto thought he was going to have to intervene, Sasuke's eyes went back to black and his tense stance relaxed. He turned away from them both, and sauntered to the door. He paused for a moment at the entrance, just long enough to throw the words over his shoulder before disappearing.

"No. As always that's your position."

She had trapped herself in this cycle of self-destruction that began and ended with Orochimaru, and there was nothing she could do about it. She could feel it then, the serpent welling up inside her with blood, only blood, occupying its mindless being. She wanted to scream and rage and roar her rejection of everything both Sasuke and Kabuto had said. But there was a black hole inside her that sucked away any satisfaction she may have got from any feeling, any action. Kabuto's medicine dulled her extreme emotions and left her feeling as numb as she ever had.

Anko was left, shaking with exhaustion, able only to mutter: "I'm going to kill ... kill you all ..."

"Of course you are, Anko-san," Kabuto smiled, helping her up. "I'll show you to your new room in the mean time."

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After a number of days, Anko had settled in to a strange routine: get up, eat, train, eat, train, eat, bathe, sleep. Kabuto hadn't been worried at all that she may decide to wander back to Konoha. "You've cut your ties there," was all he would say with a knowing look in his eye. She didn't like the feeling that he knew more about the time when she'd left than she did. The kunoichi didn't remember much of it, really. Even her dreams shied away from it, and the thought of going back made her sick to the stomach.

She hadn't seen Orochimaru at all, and saw Sasuke only rarely. The boy was as aloof as always, and she'd given up trying to provoke him. Who was she to point fingers? I left Konoha to follow Orochimaru for power, just like he did. I'm not any better.

The latest encampment of Sound creeped her out. Like all of Orochimaru's hideouts seemed to be, it was mostly underground. It had the most impressive defensive and concealment jutsus that she'd ever seen though the Sannin appeared to be short on good shinobi subordinates. Anko had beaten all of those she'd managed to lure to spar with her baring Kabuto and Sasuke who both refused. Kabuto had feigned polite refusal, while Sasuke had merely sneered at her and walked away without saying a word. Most she beat easily, though when she caught the Uchiha watching once he didn't seem very impressed, and none of them used the curse seal if they even had it.

Strange screams and sounds echoed down the desolate corridors, and when Anko asked Kabuto about them he was blunt.

"They're some of Orochimaru-sama's experiments, Anko-san. From what I've heard you know a little about that." He smiled slightly at her. "Would you like to help?"

Anko had backed away, shaking her head. It brought back too many images of green tanks and floating corpses. She stayed away from him for a while after that. He was too much like Amachi, only worse, and it made her feel sick.

She made a point of not asking where Orochimaru was, or what he wanted from her. It was partly because she didn't want to show any weakness, partly because she did not want to seem like she wanted to see him, and partly because she just didn't want to know. In a way, she was afraid. The daily routine of training, walking through the corridors of Sound, and trading insults with Kabuto and Sasuke was comforting in a twisted way. She had an intuition that it would all change on appearance of the Sannin.

When Kabuto caught her pacing he'd smiled and told her that the Sannin was away meeting some contacts, and would be back within the next few days. She wanted to punch the smirk off his face, but she couldn't blame the serpent for the lack of control. The spirit had started becoming more and more restless, and Kabuto had had to up her dosage when he caught her about to beat the shit out of a lower ranked shinobi who'd dared to comment on her arrival in Sound.

It was so easy, in the routine, to forget about Konoha and Kakashi.

It was another day of the same when Anko was sitting on a narrow bed in Kabuto's medical quarters while he tested her blood and health yet again. She swung her legs idly, twirling a kunai in her right hand, and yawned ostentatiously. Kabuto ignored her deliberate sign of boredom.

"Well?" she asked, fake cheerfulness dripping from her voice. "Am I healthy enough to suit you, Kabuto?"

The shinobi grinned slightly, his trademark half-smile. "Yes, Anko-san. You're well enough to do a few missions once Orochimaru-sama gives his leave."

She looked away, switching the kunai to her left hand where she twirled it with equal dexterity. "Good. I'm getting sick of this place. These underground hideouts are bloody depressing."

Sasuke walked in at that moment for his own check-up. They weren't voluntary, and Anko could guess it was because Orochimaru didn't want any damage to his precious vessel. Sasuke bore them with his usual aloofness and sharp comments.

Anko leaned against the doorway, watching with half an eye as Sasuke pulled his robes to his waist, and held out an arm for Kabuto to take a blood sample. He turned his head away when the other shinobi checked his heart rate and blood pressure. Anko ran her eyes over the boy, seeing what all his fan-girls had seen in him – his smouldering good looks and perfection. But the compassion, the emotions other than hate and desire for revenge, were glaringly absent.

"Aren't you tired yet, Sasuke, of being treated like a prize possession?" she couldn't help but ask, if only to get some reaction out of him.

He turned his head slowly to look at her, his face and dark eyes expressionless. She knew he would use his Sharingan on her, torture her in her own head for hours, with no remorse. But she knew Naruto and Sakura, even Kakashi though he hid it, believed that this boy still had his humanity buried deep inside. Naruto still believed he could save him, but Anko thought that he would be too late.

She looked away from him, seeing through the stone walls of the room. "You know, I was on a mission with Naruto-kun not too long ago. He's an amazing boy. His power keeps growing exponentially, but more than that his heart grows faster. He believes in the goodness of people, and never seems to give up on anyone he gives his trust to. He really might become Hokage some day." She turned to lock eyes with the Uchiha. "But his trust may get him killed before then, won't it?"

Sasuke kept looking at her, but said nothing. He did not give away any hint of concern over his former companion and best friend, or at her insinuations that he might kill him one day. Finally he said quietly, "I told him to forget about trying to help me."

She smiled bitterly at him. "When has Naruto ever given up on anything?" When he didn't reply, she continued. "Kakashi was almost killed by Uchiha Itachi just before I came here. Did you know that?" Sasuke tensed visibly at the sound of his brother's name. Kabuto watched the exchange through the corner of his eye.

Anko looked away. "He's going to kill Naruto if he isn't stopped, though they seem to have backed off for a few years." She paused, and then followed quietly: "I want to kill him."

In a flash, Sasuke had his hand around her throat. His eyes burned with rage that ran so deep there was no sign of its end. He seemed to be struggling to contain it, and his eyes bled crimson. Kabuto stood, ready to intervene, but Sasuke didn't use his Sharingan on her. Anko kept her eyes on his and didn't struggle.

"No one ..." Sasuke panted harshly with the force of his fury, "No one kills Itachi except for me!"

Anko smirked. "We'll see who gets to him first."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and was about to answer, when they both stiffened with an unmistakable feeling. He let her go and took a step back, and they both reached for their curse seals. The pulse that ran through Anko's was partly painful, partly something else that she didn't want to examine too closely.

Kabuto watched both of their reactions, and felt the change in the building that heralded his master's return. Orochimaru's aura, his presence, caused an almost visible change in his subordinates. It was a tenseness, a fearfulness and an eagerness to please. In some, it was adoration or admiration, or respect at the very least. Every single person feared him to some extent, including the three in the medical room. It could almost be called stupidity not to fear the powerful Sannin who to varying degrees held their lives in his hands.

"I will go attend to Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto informed the other two ex-Konoha nin. He smirked at them both, "I hope you can try not to kill each other in the mean time."

Anko and Sasuke glared at his back as he left. She glanced sideways at the Uchiha boy, and wondered how he felt at Orochimaru's return. He seemed tense, but his eyes burned with dark eagerness. Is he so keen to learn from Orochimaru that he looks forward to having him back? Is he so blinded by vengeance that he doesn't care how he gets power? Anko sighed and cursed quietly her own stupidity. Of course he doesn't care. He's shown that often enough, and said it often enough. And I'm here for power too, aren't I?

The kunoichi left Sasuke to his brooding, and went to the training ground she'd come to think of as her own. She decided firmly to forget about Orochimaru for as long as she could.

Anko moved through her training exercises seamlessly, sliding from one stance to another and punctuating her movements with kicks and jabs, back-flips and twists of her feet. It was a graceful dance, hypnotising and deceptive because it was far more dangerous, and the moves packed far more power, than it seemed. It was easy to forget other things when her mind was focussed on the shifts of her body, the flicks of her hands. She even managed to ignore the odd twinge in her seal, though that was far harder.

Finally night fell, with no word from Orochimaru and no disturbance of her training. Anko stopped at last, after a number of hours of peace. Training was the closest she came to such a feeling. The night air was welcoming, cool and fresh. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the darkness and silence like a drug. After Orochimaru had 'cured' her fears of the dark, it was only when she slept that any lingering worries caused her to shut her windows and curl tightly into herself.

But now, standing in the dark, moonless night, she felt only a calm weariness that couldn't last.

Anko entered the fortress again reluctantly. It was a different kind of darkness to that outside, and much more oppressive. She moved through the stone corridors, like those on Kikaijima, towards what had become 'her' room. She turned the last corner, and saw his silhouette just past the doorway to her room. She wasn't really surprised that he'd sought her out. He liked keeping an eye on his recent acquisitions.

"Orochimaru ..." Anko almost sighed. "I don't feel like dealing with you right now."

"Anko," he said with a mixture of amusement and disapproval, "We haven't seen each other in a while, and yet you're so cold ..." He repeated the lines he'd spoken to her in the Forest of Death during the Chunin exams with the same mocking tone.

The Sannin moved forward, and the faint light brought out the pale glow of his skin, and the gold of his eyes. His ebony hair gleamed, and she was taken back by how striking he was. The lose robe barely hid his physical power, and his aura permeated the air and rough stone. His smirk invoked equal measures of love and hate in his old student, but she couldn't deny the attraction. She'd always been attracted to him, even as a child when he touched her shoulder and praised her skill, even when he'd betrayed her as he stroked her face and broke her soul, even as an adult when he'd caressed her cheek and shared his blood with her in a ravaging kiss.

She didn't know what he saw in her. She didn't know that he saw untamed power to be claimed, that he saw a broken soldier to twist and use. She didn't know that he saw the child who had caught his interest for so long, and the beautiful grown woman who had caught it again. That he hated anyone else touching what he had possessed, and that he was going to reclaim his possessions and leave no doubt at all about what was his.

He studied her without saying a word for a number of moments, before he gave a slight chuckle. "So how are you enjoying Sound, Anko?" he asked her at last.

The kunoichi shrugged, trying to relax. "Well enough, I suppose. Kabuto's been insufferably polite mostly, and Sasuke's been ..." she paused, finding words to describe the younger shinobi, "just plain insufferable." Her mouth widened in a feral grin as she looked away from the other shinobi, "I must say, I don't think much of your other followers."

"Really?" Orochimaru moved towards her slowly, and she didn't really notice.

"They were pretty easy to beat, actually. Not much of a contest at all. Having opponents whose faces keep hitting the dirt just gets boring." Anko smirked. "Can't say I didn't enjoy it though."

"Perhaps I'll have to find something a bit more challenging for you to do." His voice was low, dark, and Anko looked up in surprise to see how close he was: barely a few steps away. Strands of his hair fell to cover part of his right eye, but it didn't dim their intensity or the suggestion in his voice.

Anko didn't realise she was backing away from him until her back hit a stone wall, and she tensed at being cornered by him in his own fortress. If there had been no help near for her before, when they had fought in the forest around Konoha or even in the Forest of Death, there was less than none now.

He moved steadily closer, and the kunoichi felt none of her characteristic defiance or fierceness arise to protect her. She just felt weak, and trapped.

"Stay away from me," she whispered, closing her eyes and turning her head to the side so she wouldn't have to see the way he looked at her.

He slid his hand down the side of her face, across her jaw to turn her back towards him, and then back to caress her cheek, run across the curve of her neck and finally to rest on the curse seal. Anko flinched at the contact, even though his touch was cool and soothing.

"Anko," he purred, brushing her hair out of her eyes which she reluctantly opened. She avoided his gaze, knowing his ability to hypnotise with them like a snake, but it didn't save her from the hypnosis his touch was putting her under already. One hand massaged lightly the sharp bone of her hip, while the other moved softly against her cheek and throat. Her skin tingled and it started up an aching burn that even Kakashi had been unable to create, especially with such modest methods.

The thought of Kakashi woke the kunoichi up a little, and Anko shook her head in denial and tried to slide along the wall away from the man. Orochimaru blocked her path with an arm against the wall, a slight hiss of disapproval passing his lips.

She looked into his now narrowed eyes, startled. "Let me go, Orochimaru." she demanded, defiance beginning to rise at last.

"You do not belong to him." he replied, angry as he followed the line of her thoughts to Kakashi. He could read her so well.

"I'm not your whore!" she snarled, swinging her hand to slap him.

The Sannin caught her hand before it hit, using it to pull her sharply against him.

"No," he smiled, running his tongue across his lips, "You're far more than that." With those words, he leaned in and kissed her.

He ran his lips smoothly across her own, expertly tipping her head back and to one side. When she opened her mouth in a gasp he took full advantage. When he bit her bottom lip harshly, the shock of pain/pleasure was too much for Anko not to respond. The kiss became something darker, more savage, and she felt like he was devouring her whole. It made her feel amazing, and even more fiercely aching for more.

When he repeated his actions of the last time they'd kissed, and shoved her roughly against the wall pressing his knee between hers, she moaned and gripped him harder again as well. His one hand held her hip tightly against him, while the thumb of his other hand ran over the side of her breast. He was dominating her senses completely, like the drug he was.

But before Anko could lose her mind completely, Orochimaru pulled back again like he had done before. Only this time, there were no ANBU. His breathing was heavy as he ran his thumb over her bottom lip and he watched her lust-hazed eyes.

Anko licked her lips and gathered her breath with difficulty. She raised her eyes to lock them with her old sensei, and the sensuous look in his golden snake eyes made her shiver.

"Orochimaru, what ..." she murmured, lips almost numb and starting to ache from the bite he'd given her.

"A small taste of what I can give you, Anko," he replied, running his hand along the bare skin on her arm again. "But now is not the time. Not when your control is so tenuous." He watched as she shook the confusion off, appraising her rising anger at being manipulated like that, as well as her understanding. She could feel the tension inside herself, and the strain of what had happened between the two of them on the medication Kabuto had given her to suppress her emotions. The insanity of the serpent was only a hair's breadth away.

He smirked as he backed away into the darkness. "I will call on you for control-training tomorrow, and you will complete a mission for me soon."

And then he was gone, again. Anko swore loudly, turning to smash her fist into the stone wall without caring about the pain. Pain had never frightened her, and only served as an outlet to her frustration.

"Fucking bastard!" she spat, wishing there had been more of the former ... she wanted to find him again and jump him so badly ...

Anko went to her room, slamming the door behind her and cursing everything about the situation. She cursed Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sasuke, the Sandaime and Godaime, even Genma and Kakashi. It was a way of skirting around the realities of the situation, and how close she'd come to fucking Orochimaru. She forced herself to think of it in those crude, brutal terms, because that was all there was to it. She knew, deep down, that he was only doing it as another form of control over her, but some childish part of her heart clung to the trust and innocent love it had always held for her old sensei. As twisted, cruel and evil as she knew he was, she couldn't really deny him anything and that was more than dangerous – it was suicidal, for her body and for her remnants of a soul.

Anko flung herself on to the hard bed, punching her pillow into submission and a more comfortable shape. She sighed deeply as the muscles around her spine relaxed, but she was still frustrated.

The kunoichi flipped over and stared up at the bare, harsh ceiling.

Well, she thought to herself, resigned, I know what I'm going to dream about tonight.