"Hey, Anko?" Rose asked.
She was hanging out in training ground 66 after another relaxing spar, and this was a great time to say some things on her mind. This was an ideal time for a few reasons. After a spar, unless the good really upset, Rose's power levels would be on a 'low tide' so to speak. Continuing the metaphor, Anko would be in a good mood while enjoying a few waves in the ocean of Rose's power. Worn out, it would take a lot more to form a full tidal wave of anger, and neither of them were upset initially.
"What is it, Rose?" Anko asked, stiffening minutely. She was feeling great, and it would be a shame to spoil the moment with another disagreement. Slowly stopping her intake of Rose's power, Anko tried to prevent another accident that would land her in the hospital. Seeing Rose stiffen, Anko resigned herself to another bad start to another bad argument.
"I don't do those things on purpose, you know" Rose said, not looking away or bothering to hide the hurt on her face.
"I know that you don't, but that just means that precautions must be taken" Anko said, trying not to feel bad as the hurt on Rose's face only increased.
"I want to fix it. . ." Rose started, but she quickly gave up, "No, I wanted to resolve our previous argument, not start another one"
"How?" Anko asked, wincing. "I've made my opinion on your headmaster clear, and I'm not about to change it- "
"I'm agreeing with you" Rose said, unwilling to think about what Anko thought that she would use to force the argument to end.
". . . I'm not fallowing you" Anko said, not comprehending.
"The headmaster did take advantage, and I'm agreeing that it might have been better if I was cautious around him from the beginning the way that you wanted me to be" Rose said.
Now Anko was worried. "What happened?" She asked. It would take something serious to get Rose to admit that someone wasn't doing the right thing by her, and Anko really was getting worried.
"It wasn't the way that you're thinking" Rose said, drawing back. "I'm still not about to have another kid for a while"
"Longer than nine months I hope" Anko couldn't help but point out.
"It wasn't a repeat of Itchi, nor was it any other variation of the same sort of shouldn't-have-happened" Rose said, frustrated. "It's more a matter of him cashing in on all of the things that he's giving me"
"He's finally making you pay for all of the protection and cover-ups?" Anko asked. That could be very good or very bad, both for him and for Rose's personal growth.
"That depends on your definition. I asked for a little more, and he dumped a lot of responsibilities on me in return" Rose said.
"I'm almost afraid to find out" Anko said dryly.
"Not so much that you don't want to hear?" Rose teased, trying to lighten the now dark mood.
"No, tell me what horror you now bear victim to?" Anko asked, waving away her concerns.
"I found something that now is going to have be to mother it" Rose said, smiling gently.
"I thought that you said- "
"It isn't a human" Rose contradicted. "I found a little baby dragon" she said.
"A baby dragon?" Anko asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, a baby dragon" Rose said, curling up in excitement as she remembered. "I named her Snapdragon, and I'm going to keep her"
"(1), I don't think that just anyone is allowed to raise a dragon, and (2), Dragons Exist!" Anko yelled the last part, startled.
"Yeah, they do" Rose said with a foxy smirk as she practically lounged on her tree branch, looking like a queen on apon amusing subject of hers. "So do a lot of other creatures, and you are right on both counts" Rose would very much like to tell Anko congratulations on getting it right in the same way she would praise Sakumo for counting the actual number of something.
"I know that you're mocking me" Anko said.
"No, for a muggle to know about that at all is impressive enough" Rose said, still talking down in that horridly patronizing tone. "Let alone to have the common sense to know there would be restrictions"
"Will you please cut out that tone?" Anko complained. "Now, how are you managing an actual dragon? You said something about trusting Dumbledore when you shouldn't have, so how does that tie in with your needlessly dangerous endeavor?" She asked.
"Ok. It wasn't me who found the dragon technically, but it was the groundkeeper. There's nothing illegal about owning or having a dragon egg, but Hagrid got the bright idea to hatch it. Hatching a dragon egg goes under the firmly illegal side of things, so you can imagine that he would be in all sorts of trouble for it if he still remembered what state he found the dragon in" Rose said, smiling sharply.
Anko knew that that was a real thing that Rose was conspiring to do, but just like that? "You just mind wiped him, simple as that?"
"Not me, headmaster Dumbledore decided to do that" Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, it's not like Dumbledore hasn't already wind wiped the whole school except us for a whole lot of my accidents already, and Hagrid could actually have gotten a life sentence. I actually wouldn't have been hurt by that like I would have for my accidents if there had been evidence, so the mind wipe was entirely for his own sake this time"
"I'm not sure if I like how casual of a solution, you're making that, but ok" Anko said, waving on Rose to continue her story.
"Normally I wouldn't have cared about the dragon one way or another, but I got a chance to watch it hatch and it was adorable" Rose started.
"Oh no, Rose Uzumaki has been defeated by the power of cute. I would have expected as much from a fangirl, but I thought that you were better than that, Rose" Anko said, frowning.
"I'm not saying that it's eyes were deliciously big and that it's head looked overstuffed" Rose denied, a dusting of pink on her cheeks. "Well, other than to refute it- "
"How would you know that if you weren't paying attention to it in the first place?" Anko asked.
"Whatever. It wasn't the cuteness that lead me to like it, regardless of how much cuteness there actually was" Rose denied. "I was interested in the creature's potential. Even as a gangly, badly proportioned lump of scales, it had sharp curved talons and muscled forelimbs. The wings were floppy, but they branched out from the creature's front legs with a firm security. Its stomach took a lot of food to fill, true, but it was covered with firm scales. Even though it was tiny, even though the whole creature is still relatively helpless, it's going to be a strong, fast flier someday, and a battle-ready mount with proper training"
"You can't be thinking of starting a war just so you can fly on a dragon!" Anko asked, horrified.
"No, I am not petty enough to do that" Rose said, huffing. Getting rid of her supposed airs, Rose crawled over to Anko so that Rose could whisper in Anko's ear. "I've read a book about turning an animal from your other into a summon" she whispered.
Anko actually fell of the branch with her startle of surprise this time. Luckily, she took Rose with her and the girl was able to do a replacement justu with a clump of leaves she had seen above their spot. Sticking her landing, Rose let Anko regain her balance before separating to different nearby branches again.
"So, do you think that would be impressive enough for a leader to forgive a mistake form when I was only seven?" Rose asked, looking at Anko innocently.
"Exactly how far into the future is this actually planning?" Anko asked, nervous.
"Oh, I'm not going to announce anything until I have a completed product, and I'm probably not going to ask for anything until there's a Hokage who doesn't dislike me" Rose pointed out, trying to sooth her friend's concern.
"Then what's the use of all of that effort?" Anko asked, irritated. Rose had startled her on purpose.
"Oh, partially as a fun project and partially just to have a new ace up my sleeve. If anyone does target me, they probably have something to defend against excessive chakra, but it is unlikely that they will have any anti-dragon gear specifically" Rose said, smirking. "Isn't it best to have an underneath the underneath?" she asked rhetorically.
"That does embody everything that a ninja ought to be" Anko agreed, smiling. "Still, isn't there some great injustice that you wanted to complain about? All that I've heard was lucky break after lucky break"
"Oh, that?" Rose said, looking down. "I guess that I was going to be upset about how much work it was going to be to take care of the dragon and to meet the legal requirements, but it all seems to pale in comparison to how much I'm getting."
"No, do tell me what it is that you're doing for the headmaster?" Anko urged.
"Nothing, actually" Rose admitted. "He didn't want to raise a dragon, and it was beyond generous of him to work around the rules so that I could actually do it. I have access to all of the books that I need to learn about how to take care of the dragon, including some that are restricted, and Dumbledore will introduce me to the right people and has given me the right guidelines so that I can pass all the tests and get all of the licensees that I'm going to need as the dragon grows bigger. Really, the ability to disagree with him was a fair exchange for everything that I'm getting." Rose said, relaxing.
"This was another attempt to get me to stop being so defensive about Dumbledore, wasn't it?" Anko asked.
"No, I don't want to bring up arguments. I really am in a more delicate situation with him" Rose protested.
"Were you going to go against him anyways?" Anko asked Rose.
"I don't think so?" Rose asked, not really sure herself. "I still might have"
"Then there really isn't a problem" Anko said, rolling her eyes. "You already decided to trust him even before he did this much more for you. You've been relying on him sense the first cover up, even if it's only now official. If anything, for all of the leeway that he gives you, this Dumbledore is as great for you as the current Hokage is for your brother. I'm going to accept that, by the way, so the argument is technically over regardless"
"Really?" Rose asked, startled. "Here I was going to tell you that I was agreeing with you that he was suspicious, and now you are agreeing that I don't need to worry about him?" She asked.
"No, now your misreading me. I had reservations before that the headmaster wasn't someone that you could really trust. Now that I have an example of what he does when you inconvenience him, I agree that your headmaster isn't targeting you specifically"
"Oh" Rose said, thinking hard about it. "So, instead of me giving in to you or you giving into me, we have reached an accurate compromise. Dumbledore isn't targeting me and is a good person to trust to protect me, but he's still powerful and could be dangerous to me?" Rose asked.
"Yeah." Anko said.
"Is that really all that it takes to stop an argument?" Rose asked, curious.
"Well, yeah. I didn't like arguing with you, Rose, I just saw the facts in another light. I'm not going to apologize for being worried about you, but I'm not going to argue pointlessly" Anko pointed out.
"Well, I'm glad that the argument is over regardless. We've had this disagreement for most of a year, and I really don't like it" Rose simplified.