Chapter 16

Anomie wasn't certain how much time had passed after Orochimaru left her in the training grounds, her arms bruised and battered as she stared into the distance. Oddly enough, he left her there unattended- without guard or watch.

In a way, it felt like an action of utmost trust that slightly warmed her heart in a way she found unexpected.

In that moment, her mind fell in silence and she decided she would live for him. She would kill for him. She would do whatever he asked.

In that moment- pure as day- she decided that her loyalty would be to Orochimaru and Orochimaru only.

After all, Chakra called to Chakra and theirs was completely identical.

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"Haven't you grown restless under the rule of Hiruzen Sarutobi?" Danzo's approach had managed to surprise the stoic Kakashi, causing the boy to turn his gaze onto Danzo's figure. The man was bandaged and looked rather fragile to be so high in the council, but Kakashi knew better than to judge the man by appearances. "Hatake Kakashi, is that correct?"

It had been a while since Kakashi had visited Rin's grave, as guilt had festered him to keep a distance, so he was rather irritated to be interrupted. He knew not to let the irritation show, so he settled for glancing towards Danzo's oncoming figure.

"I do not understand the purpose of your question," Kakashi admitted, and Danzo's lips quirked into a sly smile.

"I want you to work under me...what do you say?" Danzo asked, and Kakashi's brows rose into his headband for a moment, but his expression stayed blank.

"I am Anbu captain, Lord Danzo," Kakashi replied, and watched as Danzo's lips continued to stay quirked into a calm smirk.

"Yes, I am afraid I might be coming to you rather late, but I was uncertain," Danzo's eyes crinkled when his gaze met Kakashi's straight. "You are quite the fighter and you've built a name for yourself...but underneath the thumb of Hiruzen Sarutobi, your talents are wasted. I can offer you more and was it not the Third Hokage's peace loving tactics that dragged this war and caused so many...unnecessary casualties?" Kakashi noticed Danzo's eyes linger on the grave behind the silver haired boy's back. "Did they not drive Obito and Rin to their deaths?"

Kakashi's gaze slightly darkened, and he made a move to speak, but Danzo beat him to it.

"Furthermore, was it not the Third who commanded you from fighting on the night of the Nine Tail's rampage? Isn't that why the Third lost his life?" Danzo's stoic expression turned grave. "Wasn't it by the Third's order that nothing has been done about the murders and dissections of our own village children?" Kakashi's expression darkened further. "Was it not the Third who continues to allow these injustices to be swept under and towards a very unlikely suspect just to avoid conflict?"

"What is it that you want from me?" Kakashi asked simply.

"I want you to help me right these injustices. One step at a time."

"And what would you have me do?" Kakashi asked simply.

"I needed you to become captain for this...mission plans are passed directly to you. I of course needed to verify the Third's plans for this village. I don't want to believe that he's used these recent tragedies to gain more power, but he has given me no sign that he has the best interests of this village. The brittle bonds with Kumo and Iwa are still at our door and the threat of the Uchiha clan along with the unrest of the village through these recent murders will leave our gates open for attack."

Kakashi didn't want to believe the words coming from Danzo's lips, and he didn't want to believe that the Third had intentionally gotten so many killed for his rise of power. Yet, he remembered the war...children fought under the orders of Hiruzen Sarutobi. Children died under Sarutobi and Danzo had been right about another thing. The peace seeking methods had gotten Kirigakure to turn on Konoha. If the Third had acted quicker, Rin would be alive.

Rin and Anomie would be happy together.

Anomie would happy.

And yes, he would probably be happy as well.

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"You look...disturbed." Anomie's voice was distant, and caught Kakashi's surprise as he glanced at her form, sprawled out on his bed. He could vaguely feel the presence of Anbu ninja, stationed out her door.

"You shouldn't be here." Kakashi said with an exasperated sigh that caused her head to slightly tilt.

"You're watching me. No one will question you, captain," the way she said it was slightly mocking, and she sat up. "Don't avoid the question. You look disturbed."

"I'm fine," Kakashi said simply, attempting to walk past her, but her fingers wound around his wrist, so firmly that he knew if he tried to break free then she'd end up on the ground. He glanced down at her tightened grip, vaguely aware of the shiver traveling up his spine at her light touch.

He was powerless by the time she knocked his Anbu mask off his face. Memories of last week flooded his mind as he tried to forget the feeling of her lips. It helped that he knew she was crazy and he knew what her reaction would be, but it didn't stop his mind from wondering.

"You're troubled." She stated, looking deep into his eyes and nearly dropping his wrist. "Why?"

"None of your business," he said simply, and she didn't so much as flinch at his cold tone of voice.

In fact, her lips quirked upwards, "I can keep secrets, Kakashi. You can tell me."

Kakashi's eyes met hers, and he felt his control almost slip as his gaze darkened, "Do you ever blame the Third?"

She raised a single brow, tilting her head subtly to the side, "For what?"

"The war...Minato's death...the prosecution...your suspicion."

She slightly smiled, "No...I don't." She said after a single moment of silence. "I am obviously not his biggest supporter right now, but I don't believe that the war was his fault...I don't believe he caused its extension. One man cannot cause so much death. Not even the leader of Konoha. I'm grateful to the Third...he may have taken away my purpose and made me feel like an outsider to this village, but he was also the one who allowed me to stay here. He's a kind leader...sentimental at times, but kind."

Kakashi's shoulders sunk, and he let out an exasperated sigh, "Thank you...Anomie."

"For what?" She asked simply.

Kakashi shook his head, slowly resting his forehead against hers and he felt her freeze from underneath his touch.

"Just thank you."

"You know...if there is ever a moment where you need my assistance...I would help you." Anomie's voice was small, almost childish as if she wasn't offering to murder his enemies.

"You're on house arrest, Anomie," Kakashi slightly separated, still vaguely aware that her fingers were still wrapped around his wrist.

"You think that they could keep me here if I wanted to escape?" She slightly smiled, her lips quirking in a cold grin. "Did you forget who I am?"

Kakashi's darkened gaze met hers as he glanced down into her eyes, "Not even for a second."

Her expression flickered before growing empty as she glanced down at their conjoined hands. She wasn't certain when she had held onto his hand, but it didn't seem to matter as she was already gripping onto it for dear life.

"I believe times are about to change...in a bad way," she turned her gaze up towards him, her eyes still cold, but her touch was warm. "A war can rise upon us if we're not careful."

"We're never careful," he stated slowly, and more than anything, he wanted to hold her. He wanted to have her in his arms for one night, because for some odd reason, it felt like their time was limited and that the next time he looked her way...

...She'd be gone.

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"I am assigning these missions to specific Anbu divisions. A few Anbu will be selected to guard the Feudal Lord's procession back to his prefecture," Hiruzen Sarutobi stated, sitting cross-legged as his eyes swept across the room and took in the Anbu's chorus of agreement. To his left was a stack of scrolls that caught Kakashi's eye before his gaze drifted back down to the ground. "This is the plan."

It wasn't until he was handed one that he bowed in respect and he waited until the dead of night to seek out Danzo. The Root division was normally a secret kept deadly quiet, and Kakashi had never thought he'd live to see the hideout in person.

The metal pillars run high, and his feet stuck to the ends easily as he folded his body closer. The drop down was high, but he never had a fear of heights, even as a kid and he easily jumped down.

However, what he wasn't expecting was the roots to raise from the shadows, causing him to let out a small hiss of, "Wood style?" He barely had time to jump away from the attack.

He wasn't certain how the fight would have ended had Danzo not interrupted. He had never fought against a wood style and its very existence had been unheard of since the fall of Hashirama. It proved difficult to look away from the boy, even after he handed Danzo the scroll.

It was much later, after a nightmare, that he felt the need to know more. As captain, sneaking into the research library in the Hokage's main corridors wasn't difficult. Remaining unseen while he looked through the history of Hashirama was challenging, and ultimately futile when the Third caught him trying to look through the now empty envelop labeled "TOP SECRET".

The Third wasn't upset when he tossed the files in front of him, and all but commanded him to "Read them" as he slowly reached for the documents.

"It's true," The Third began, his voice far and distant. "There was a time when we tested our limits to transplant Lord Hashirama's cells...but one by one they failed and the lives sacrificed increased. Either the Sharingan or Wood style is necessary to control a Tailed Beast...we deemed it better to have a balance, and not hold the entire fate of the demon on Uchiha. After all the lives lost continued to grow, we sealed and named that Jutsu 'forbidden'."

Hiruzen's eyes grew even graver as they met Kakashi's anxious stare.

"As you are well aware, recently more and more citizens...Genin, Chūnin...and even some members of Anbu have gone missing," The Third's eyes lifted towards Kakashi's expectant face.

Anomie flashed before his eyes in a mere instant, and he suppressed his anger as he clenched his hands into fists.

"You believe that's where these deaths have come from...that they are experiments to revive this Jutsu?" Kakashi's voice was empty, but his bitterness flooded his mind at such a thing being the case of her suffering.

"What's even more disturbing...is the incidents of newborn children that have gone missing," Sarutobi took a step closer, his hands spreading over the documents on the table in an almost nostalgic wave of fingers. "Newborn children's kidnapping dates much further back than a 17 year old girl could have performed."

"You don't suspect Anomie?" Kakashi blurted out but silenced himself moment later. The Third's eyes were grave.

"Of those confirmed, there have been almost 200 kidnapping. Unconfirmed would make the numbers skyrocket."

"Then who could have...?"

"What I'm about to tell you is hearsay..." Sarutobi's eyes rose from his hat, which once shadowed much of his face. "Someone is continuing these experiments and trying to implant the cells of Hashirama...perhaps even do greater than that."

"Why would someone...?"

"There are those who wish to obtain every Jutsu that exists. Even I have wondered sometimes, if only there were someone capable of producing a Wood Style Jutsu and had that been the case...the Fourth wouldn't of been forced to sacrifice his life. Mind you, this is all hearsay."

"What if...someone was able to transplant Hashirama's cells into infants?"

"Transplanting into infants is forbidden. It would also go far beyond anything Anomie was capable of doing," Hiruzen comments, his eyes darkening. "The possibility of this even being successful is extremely low...However...if the first infant is still alive and lived through the progression...they would be...10 years old by now...but you should possibly know that the kidnappings might have been as early as eighteen years ago...any child who survived those experiments would be in between 17 and 10." Sarutobi turned his back towards Kakashi's widening eyes and continued to walk out the library. "Anomie's abilities are quite out of the ordinary...and her Chakra is quite unique..."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What indeed..." Before Kakashi could ask the Third to clarify, he had already disappeared.

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That boy. The one who was able to perform wood style Jutsu. Kakashi wondered vaguely if he should have let him escape and the guilt of nearly betraying the third Hokage festered in his mind.

A part of him even wondered if he was qualified for Anbu, and the heels of his palms dug into his eyes before he could stop himself. He wondered if the Third made the right decision in letting him stay, even though he nearly helped Danzo have him assassinated. It seemed like nearly every decision he has been making lately has been wrong.

His bed felt uncomfortable and sickening from underneath him and a part of him questioned that maybe he wasn't qualified for being a Shinobi at all.

Before he could get much farther with that thought, he saw the vague glimpse of smoke rise from next to him, slowly tucking under the covers of his sheets. In moments, it took corporeal form and Anomie was lying next to him.

"You realize that the rules are implemented for you to obey them," he muttered, but her presence made his heart ease with its violent and stress-filled tremor. He noticed she hugged the sheets to her naked body before activating a seal so she was dressed.

"I felt your Chakra," she whispered, turning her head so her eyes rested against the white of his hair and down to the dip of his collarbone. "I noticed you've been worried lately and sadly I don't have much else to do all day but wonder."

He sighed, but his heart trembled in his chest with a fluttering that he tried to snuff out so she wouldn't become crazy again. He didn't want to see her cry. "I am a guy, you know that right?"

Her lips curved into an amused smile. "I realize that, yes."

"And yet here you are, appearing naked in my apartment," he immediately knew by her mocking smile, that she knew he was trying to change the subject.

"I have the ability to nearly evaporate. I think my fears are quite quenched, don't you think?" Her words weren't cold and for a moment he grew surprised when she sat up and faced him. Her white hair cascaded down her shoulders, and her hand rested so close to his that he was tempted to cover it with his.

"I found out something...about you," he whispered, and she glanced his way.

"Is that so?" Her voice was slightly cold.

"The children and ninja who have gone missing...kidnappings have dated back to 17 years ago," at the sound of his voice, he half expected to see her surprised, but instead her shoulders slumped. "The Hokage said there was something...odd about your Chakra."

"Are you implying something?"

"Are you certain you weren't born in Konoha?" At his question, she glanced his way. In her eyes was darkness, barely dimmed by the absence of light in the apartment.

"I have never stepped foot in Konoha until after Kemuri burned," she stated with a simple shrug.

He couldn't tell if she was lying, but he wanted to believe that she told the truth.

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Orochimaru continued operating as if Danzo had never stepped in the room, but his eyes slightly narrowed in the man's direction as he stood to his left. "We must cease contact."

"Why is that?" Orochimaru's voice was empty.

"Kakashi has betrayed me and I fear Hiruzen is starting to doubt the possibility of Kougin Anomie being the killer." Danzo's voice was crisp, and Orochimaru's only raised a brow.

"That's not good. In time, he might have learned about this place and its secrets," at Orochimaru's words, Danzo's gaze narrowed. "It is the Third Hokage we're dealing with after all. I doubt he ever believed that someone like Fuyu-chan could ever perform such actions. She's a soldier. If you get her on the right side, she'd do whatever she's told."

"Have you been able to recreate her abilities into any of the other Iburi children?" Danzo's questioning made Orochimaru's lips pull into a sneer.

"Unfortunately, only one of them seems to have the slightest bit of potential, but what happened to Fuyu-chan was an abnormality of chance and coincidence. If she had not gotten that seal removed, she'd have died. If Jiraiya had not been the one to remove it, she'd have died slowly. It was by chance and circumstances that I have been unable to recreate. There simply aren't enough Iburi children to try."

"Quite a shame to scrap that project."

"I haven't scraped anything. Her talents are extraordinary and even she does not yet know their limits. What I did to that child nearly drained me..."

"I see. You're reluctant to let the Chakra you've given her go to waste."

"It's not every day that a Chakra replacement of that nature goes right. Again, by all extensive purposes, she should already be dead. It's only fitting that her life is mine now."

"Do with it what you will, but remember why your doing it."

"For the good of Konoha, correct, Danzo?" Orochimaru's lips twisted in a sly grin, and Danzo seemed reluctant to answer.

Orochimaru only shook his head and tore off the thin plastic gloves.

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He had a dream of lightning that night. His hands were covered in the blood of his teammate. Her eyes were wide and open in fear with the glistening of tears creating a river down her cheeks. The lightning crackled and he wanted nothing more than to make it all disappear.

Just as he thought it had, she whispered out, "Kakashi" in such a low voice that he thought is insides would spill out. In moments, her face morphed into Obito and then Kushina and then Minato, all reminding him of the people he couldn't save.

He woke up with a jolt, and he went straight for the sink, trying to scrub his hands free of the blood that caked in between his fingers. However, no matter how he tried, it would not dissipate and he could feel the urge to nearly rip the skin off, but instead he turned off the water and dropped to his knees.

It had been months since he last had that dream, and yet it still hit him as hard as the first night Rin died. He began to wonder if he'd ever come back from it all. He rested his head in between his knees and closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the blood that he knew still caked on his hands.

"You shouldn't get near me," Kakashi's voice came out in a harsh whisper, almost a beg that caused Anomie's head to tilt as continued to placed his head into his knees.

She wasn't certain why she couldn't stay away, and the feeling was foreign to her, but her time was starting to feel more and more limited. A part of her only wanted to be next to him and yet seeing him sitting by the sink brought her memories of the many times she'd catch him trying to scrub his hands free of Rin's blood that no longer even rested on his skin.

Her heart shook in her chest at the memory and she dropped to her knees in front of him.

His hands were shaking, still dripping with cold water and red from scrubbing. Once more, he had been unable to get the blood off his skin. No matter how long he washed, it simply wouldn't disappear.

He didn't want Rin's blood on Anomie's hands. He knew that Rin's death nearly destroyed the girl and he couldn't add anymore burden of its presence.

It was in those moments that he felt her hands lightly grab his, causing his eyes to snap up to meet her unwavering gaze. Her lips quirked up for a mere moment as she pressed her lips against the back of his hands and pressed them against her cheek.

He felt his heart quicken, painfully against his chest. His eyes traced over her lips, over and over until he memorized them. Her skin against his made his body burn like that of a warm crackling fire.

"They're clean," Anomie's voice was kind in a way he had never heard before. He couldn't control his actions as his head fell onto her shoulder and his hands gripped her waist.

His body craved her touch and the moment his skin came in contact with hers, it was as if all his suffering had disappeared. It was replaced with the soft burn of her lips against his hand, with the timid flare of her eyes, and the scathing rush of her touch.

But he didn't touch her further. He didn't give into the urge because in that instant, a part of him must have always known that what Anomie needed wasn't the same thing he felt he needed from her. She needed a friend.

He could be a friend for now.

»»⎯⎯⎯¤⎯⎯⎯««

It was on the eve of a full moon where the night hung in the sky and the villagers were caught up in passing whispers. It was on that dark night that the next murder was discovered. The only difference was that this time it wasn't a corpse in the road, and rather, a laboratory- turned into a tomb.

Bodies, helpless and thrown aside, scattered on the tables. As far as Kakashi could see, no kindness had been taken to their forms. Kakashi could hear the inhale of crow from next to him, and he nearly glanced over at the whisper of, "Koneko strikes again."

He had to push down his retort due to inappropriate timing.

Even if he had thought Anomie was a heartless murder, this wasn't how she'd do it. He knew that and he'd seen how she killed. It was gory, but never intentionally torturous. She would never do this to random people.

The bodies here were strewn to the side and some were hooked up to wires and others were inside glass containers filled to the brink with an unidentified liquid.

Anyone who thought Anomie was capable of this kind of horror likely didn't know her at all. And if she were the murderer, then he likely knew nothing about her either.

He turned towards weasel, and Itachi's eyes were blank when they met gazes, but Kakashi's eyes were narrowed in concentration. "Search for any indications of the culprit."

Without question or delay, his teammates spread out and began to search.


Author's Note

人形の目 (Ningyō no me) is the name of this chapter. In English it means 'Doll's Eyes' and the flower isn't really known in Japan at all so the translation is a rough on. Maybe I should have wrote it in katakana? ドウルの目? Idk. I was gonna use ホワイトBaneberry, (white Baneberry) as its alternate name, but I don't exactly know how to translate Baneberry into Japanese. Maybe use Katakana as well, I don't know.

Anyway, Doll's eye, also known as White Baneberry, is a flowering plant native to Eastern and Northern North America. The Doll's eyes comes from the striking fruit of the plant, which is a 1cm in diameter white berry with a black stigma scar, which looks very eye like. Although the whole plant has been declared toxic for human consumption, the most poisonous part is the concentrated toxins in the fruit, which have sadly claimed a number of children's lives, as they also have a sweet taste. The berries contain a carcinogenic toxin, which has an almost immediate, sedative effect on human cardiac muscles and can easily cause a quick death.

The flower itself is foamy, creamy-‐white flowers.

Ah, so this chapter was sort of long. I tried.

Anomie and Kakashi's relationship has taken a step back because I can't find a way to realistically put them together as of now.

We also now know a little bit about Orochimaru and Anomie's relationship which is a significant part of the story that I hope to develop.

Also, the timeline is becoming a bit more clear and huge events are going to occur soon enough. I'm excited to write them. Thank you for reading and sticking with me~ :D