"You're actually, truly, seriously related to that crazy woman?" Naruto asked Shizune as the rookie teams and their sensei sat around the Uchiha dining table after dinner that night.
Shizune laughed. "Yes Naruto, I really am, which should tell you to be more careful of her," she answered, ruffling his hair.
"Why?" Naruto asked. "You're really nice."
"And really deadly," Itachi scolded the blond. "The few remaining Mitarashi's are experts in poison, and Anko likes to keep a few nasty surprises up her sleeves for when people get irritating as a little bonus. It's a shame there are people in this village who look down on her because of who her sensei was. She's wonderful," he added with a sigh.
"Konoha to Itachi-chan," Fukurou said, waving a hand in front of her little brother's face.
Itachi sat up straight and blushed deeply.
"Fukurou-nee-san, I-" Itachi started.
"I'm happy for you Otouto," Fukurou interrupted. "But make sure you let her know you're serious. After the exams though, she's a little busy right now."
"Oh yeah, she said to ask our sensei about where we would be taking the second part of the exam tomorrow before she dismissed us," Chouji said.
"She's picked the 44th training area," the sensei all answered at once, including Ibiki who had joined them in their celebratory dinner, congratulating each of the genin on how they had taken his test.
"And again, you will be given the option of not taking part," Ibiki added. "And you will have to sign a document relieving Konoha of guilt in the event of your deaths."
"I thought killing wasn't allowed in the exams," Ino said. "You told us all so yourself this morning Ibiki-san."
Ibiki nodded. "That's right, but the 44th training area has a reputation, Anko-san will probably tell you herself when you get there in the morning."
Further down the table, Kankuro, his arm once again wrapped around Haku's waist, was complimenting Tenten on her manipulation of the mirrors in the first examination.
"Though I could see the strings very clearly," he said, "you handled it very well. Do you do much in that sort of area?"
"No, not really, and the examiners didn't seem to notice my strings," Tenten answered.
"Kankuro's speciality is pulling strings," Temari said. "He was in a bad location to do it though, on the furthest side while the mirrors were directly above you. We were all most fortunate."
"If you like, I'll teach you a few tricks, after the examinations are over," Kankuro offered to Tenten before he pulled his attention back to Haku. "You won't be jealous will you, if I teach Tenten a trick or two? She's besotted with Neji after all, and I only have eyes for you."
Tenten, Neji and Haku all blushed deeply at Kankuro's comment, but Haku was smiling slightly – a good sign for Kankuro – and Neji surreptitiously took Tenten's hand in his under the table, making her blush deepen as a small smile appeared on her face.
Fukurou clapped loudly from the head of the table.
"All those with exams in the morning, either get to your meditation or to sleep, tomorrow will be a big day and I want you all in top condition for it. Those interested in going out drinking, I suggest moderation and that you go searching for it elsewhere," Fukurou said, banishing everybody from the table, something she didn't normally do, but was necessary just now.
Tomorrow was a big day after all.
She glared at the dishes a moment as people began to filter out, withdrew her wand and watched in satisfaction as everything became clean before flying to put itself away.
Hinata, Shikamaru and Sakura stood by, wanting to talk to her before they left.
"Yes?"
"Fukurou-sensei, may we take our broomsticks with us tomorrow?" Hinata asked, stepping forward, obviously the spokesperson for this inquiry.
Fukurou smiled at her genin.
"Come and collect them from me in the morning before you go to the 44th training area," she instructed her genin proudly. "I think you're ready to fly without my supervision, but I'd still rather you didn't take them home with you, where they could get used as regular brooms by mistake."
~oOo~
"Be careful today, alright?" she told her genin, Naruto, Sasuke and the sand siblings as she farewelled them from the Uchiha gate. "You all packed bentos?"
"Hai! We'll make you proud Fukurou-sensei!"
"Hai hai, Fukurou-san."
"Yes Fuu-nee-san, stop worrying already. Go have a date with Kakashi-san."
Fukurou smiled at these, some of her precious people.
"Alright," she said, holding up her hands in surrender. "I'll see you all later."
With a last wave at their retreating forms, Fukurou went into her study and unlocked the map she had made, quickly circling the gate of the Forest of Death where the teams were all meeting. Looking through the groups, she smiled at the variety of names among them, until she came to one which made her heart stop for a moment.
"Tsunade! Jiraiya! Orochimaru is in the village!" she screamed.
They came running.
"Where?" Tsunade demanded. "And how do you know?"
Fukurou pointed to her map. "He's masquerading as a genin taking the exam, he must be after someone among them."
"I'll tell the Hokage," Jiraiya said, and with a poof of chakra he was gone.
"We will go directly and wring the bastard's bloody neck," Tsunade said with a growl.
"You will go," Fukurou corrected. "I will stay here and monitor him. If you're late, and he gets in there, I'll be needed here to give directions so that we can get him out again as quickly as possible. Besides, I'd just as soon not meet him."
Tsunade nodded and made herself scarce.
Fukurou muttered a spell and touched her wand to the one in group of genin who were nearing the training area.
"Hinata-chan? Hinata-chan can you hear me?" she said softly.
"Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata's disembodied voice answered, surprised.
"Yes, I need you to get everybody together and away from there, right now. There's a dangerous criminal pretending to be a genin in the exams hanging around. I want you all well out of the way. Don't let anybody argue with you, not Naruto-chan, not Neji-kun, not even Temari-san. None of you are able to handle this guy. Tsunade-hime is on her way there if she hasn't arrived already, and so are Jiraiya-san and Hokage-sama. I need you to move quickly Hinata-chan. Let everybody get their forms handed in, their scrolls collected, but then bring everybody back to the Uchiha estate."
"H-hai Fukurou-sensei," Hinata answered, and Fukurou was pleased to see the dot representing the girl moving quickly to get everybody together and explaining to them what was going on, even pointing out Tsunade's presence to them to emphasise her point.
It took five minutes for the kids to return, and Fukurou immediately ushered them all into her study and showed them her map, pointing out the name Orochimaru to all of them and explaining who he was, as well as the horrific things he had done.
"He's a great man with great ambitions," she said at last, sitting down. "He just happens to be a shocking bastard and completely lacking in any kind of moral, ethical or spiritual code as well, and I don't want him setting his greedy gaze on any of you."
The genin all nodded their understanding.
"I've sent a bunshin with a message to Anko, so she knows what is going on as well, and rather than any of you starting at the gates, I will be dropping you a bit deeper into the forest personally... Once he has been dealt with," Fukurou added, turning now to watch the map with the genin, concerned for the outcome of the confrontation that was beginning.
~oOo~
Tsunade grimaced at the smell of him. She didn't know why, but for some reason he always smelt the same, and she frankly didn't like it, never had, despite his good looks when they had been younger and before he had been so blatantly a bastard. Back when he'd actually been a fairly nice guy, he'd still smelt like that.
Just for old time's sake, she used a chakra-enhanced fist to punch the bastard's skull in.
She hadn't expected a Konoha and an Oto team to come to his aid as well as the two Kusa-nin who had been in his 'team', but she wasn't a sanin for nothing, and the snake wasn't the only one with backup. Tsunade noted with dry amusement that Mitarashi Anko was running to her side, intent on beating up the guy who had once been like a father to her. Jiraiya and the Hokage both appeared quickly as well.
The jounin and chuunin were escorting the other genin teams to their gateway entrances to the exam, as far away from this soon-to-be battle field as they could get them.
~oOo~
Sakura stood up in surprise and approached the map.
"Fukurou-sensei, this one and I talked before the first examination, he's got cards loaded with information about every shinobi he's ever met, and a few more that he hasn't," Sakura said, touching the dot named Yakushi Kabuto.
"How complete was his information?" Fukurou asked.
"On some people, it was very comprehensive, others not so much. He has much in the way of statistics though, so he has probably had access to hidden village files. He had more information on Sand and Leaf nin than any others. If he's actually working for Orochimaru..."
"Then we can assume that it was Orochimaru who got him to that information," Fukurou completed the thought with a scowl. "The bastard knows who he's after, and being a bastard he won't like the idea of being stopped, but for now he thinks you are all in the forest already, so he will try to go there, and if he does head this way, we will know about it."
Fukurou turned to her map and sought out Kakashi, and with the same spell she had used to talk to Hinata, told him what was happening. He appeared in her office barely a moment later, a swirls of leaves announcing his arrival.
Fukurou was pacing her office, the fight being displayed on her map only worrying at her nerves.
"You know," Kakashi said, as he wrapped his arms around Fukurou, forcing her to halt her pacing as he turned her to face him, "if you were to just go yourself, I'm sure you would be able to bring an end to this much faster. Then you could stop worrying."
Fukurou buried her face in Kakashi's green vest, holding back hot tears.
"Oh yes, I know how to end their lives with magic. It would be very easy to do as well. I will feel filthy for a very long time, but I know how. Sometimes the knowledge makes me feel filthy. If I'm not willing to make an effort for the kill, why should I be credited with making it?" she was starting to ramble now, so she bit her lip to silence herself.
"What frightens you more Fukurou?" he asked gently, holding her to him tightly. "That you will be taking life the wrong way for the right reasons, or that he could take the lives of one or more of your students if you don't?"
"Option B," she answered, wiping at her eyes.
Zabuza entered with Haku, both carrying trays of hot drinks, and shared them around.
"Fukurou-san," Zabuza said when his tray was empty. "I am willing to go and fight the monster as well. It is a pittance of thanks for all you have done for me and Haku. I am strong, but not particularly 'gifted', as this Orochimaru guy seems to like his host bodies to be, so you needn't worry for me."
"I'm the head of the family you are now part of Zabuza-san," Fukurou answered, her voice stronger despite the slight shake of not-quite surpassed tears. "It's part of my job to worry for you, and I take it on gladly. All the same, thank you, I would be most grateful for your support."
The tall man nodded and went to fetch his sword.
Fukurou gave Kakashi a quick hug. When Zabuza returned, they both used a teleportation jutsu to take them out to the 44th training ground.
"If she doesn't come back," Sasuke said, arms crossed over his chest and Itachi standing behind him, "I will never forgive her, Zabuza-san, or you Kakashi-senpai."
Itachi nodded his agreement.
Kakashi sighed and gestured to the map.
"You're not the only ones," he told them. "But we can only watch now," he added, clearly unhappy with the situation as well.
~oOo~
Mist, unaccountable mist closed in around the battlefield, and the sound of metal through flesh tore through the muffled air. Even to seasoned fighters like Sarutobi and Jiraiya, it was disturbing. To Tsunade, it was a resurrection of bad memories and worse. Anko growled and continued to seek her enemy. She would kill Orochimaru for what he had done to her, and for what he continued to do to others like her.
A voice, a bone-chilling voice that sounded like water as it echoed, dripping, deep in limestone caves, rang clear and haunting through the mist. The voice said only two words.
"Avada Kedavra."
The sounds of steel on flesh halted with a final swish.
"You really didn't need help for this," another voice, deeper, male, commented from within the shrouding mist.
"I'm going home," another voice, like the first but with a different timbre. "Are you coming or will you walk?"
"I'll walk," the second voice answered.
There was silence again, and the mist slowly began to clear.
To the Hokage, sanin and chuunin, Zabuza came into view slowly.
"I have a nasty feeling there will be screams in the night for a while," Zabuza said as he approached them, "and Fukurou-san isn't one that screams easily."
"What happened?" Sarutobi demanded.
"Hatake-san talked to her, and he got through," Zabuza answered, sourly. "It is easy to forget, when I look at her, that Fukurou-san has been a shinobi for a greater portion of her life than you have, Hokage-sama. I would very much like for it to not be true."
He turned from them and started walking.
Anko felt the mark that Orochimaru had given her all those years ago fade away. She was finally free of his taint.
~oOo~
"Fuu-nee-san?" Sasuke asked, when she reappeared in the yard of the Uchiha estate.
"Yes Sasuke-chan?" she answered, only to have him come barrelling into her. He was only the first of many. Nearly everybody came out to see her.
Kakashi pulled down his mask and kissed her firmly when he reached her.
"Are you alright?" he asked, checking her all over for any visible injuries. "I'm sorry I got you to do that."
"I'm sorry I had to, but I'm not sorry that I did it," Fukurou answered soberly. "Teams, you are to come into my office one at a time, and I shall transport you to places throughout the forest. I'm going to assume some of you were sensible enough to raid my kitchen while you had the chance. It's time you got back to your examination."
On the map, the dots and their associated names were fading. Not one of the shinobi who had fought alongside Orochimaru had been left alive after he had been dispatched by her spell.
Three by three, the genin went into her office, presented her with their scroll, and she turned it into a portkey which would drop them near to another team who may or may not have the opposing match. One use only, and worked the instant they all touched it. When all the genin were gone, Zabuza and her house guests returned, and only Kakashi remained waiting for her of everybody who had been in Uchiha estate while Orochimaru was at large within Konoha, Fukurou was glad to sink into his arms and cry softly. Self-control, meditation, and shinobi code be damned.
"I hate how easy it is to kill, just by saying two simple, bloody words," she told him when she was calmed down again at last. "It has no honour to it, even when performed for the sake of protecting others."
Kakashi did his best to sooth her, holding her in his lap and close to his chest, stroking her short black hair and kissing her forehead.
"I shouldn't have asked you to do that, I'm sorry Fukurou," he said quietly, his own voice also slightly choked with emotion.
"No Kakashi, what I just did was the best thing for the people I care about. It was just a decision that I didn't want to make, and I was being weak about it," Fukurou answered, shaking her head furiously.
"But it wasn't what was best for you," Kakashi pointed out, wiping at her tear-stained cheek.
"I can't argue with that, so I won't," she said flatly. It was one of the Unforgivable curses, and would label her as a dark witch if anyone back in the magical world found out that she had used it, as it was she felt filthy on the inside from simply having said the words, "but I've got you, and I'll be alright as long as I've got you and everybody is still alright," she turned to look at the map.
She hadn't used the curse for fun, or to forward her own specific agenda, she had used it to keep those she cared about safe. She had to believe that she wouldn't ever become like the Death Eaters.
"They've got another few days before their time is up, but they're already heading to the tower. Did I cheat terribly on their behalf?" she asked, tearing herself away from her thoughts and back to the present.
"Yes, but I don't think anybody will be able to blame you at this point," Kakashi answered. "If they try, you could always try dumping them at a random place in the forest of death and see if they come out saying the same thing."
Fukurou chuckled at that, weakly, but there was a smile and a chuckle all the same, and that was an improvement. It wasn't as horrific as being instructed in torture, interrogation, and how to make sure you never gave away anything in the event of getting caught, after all. It just made her skin crawl.
There was a knock at the door, and Fukurou shifted off Kakashi's lap so that he could let in whoever it was.
Tsunade stood there with a tray of mugs balanced on one hand. They were steaming, and smelled like cocoa.
"What happened out there, I don't want to know," she said as she handed over the mugs. "What I want to know is if it was actually you, because the first voice we heard didn't sound like you Fukurou-san."
"Yes, it was me." She just wished that it hadn't been.