Chapter 5: Kidnapping With A Dash Of Poison

Despite my situation, and my somewhat questionable sanity, I've been trying to adjust to my life in this new world. Each day brings its own challenges, and with them a new lesson. Today was no different.

I already knew that my mental health wasn't great since I got here. How could it be when each day my memories were consistently blurring together with Naruto's at an alarming rate. Hell, half the time when I woke up I wasn't sure where I was right away, or who I even was. I've been steadfastly not thinking through those problems recently, but I still acknowledged that they were present.

I also admit that I've been consciously avoiding most human contact for a while now. It clearly wasn't the best way for me to deal with things, but that's how it went down. When I spoke with Anko, however, she helped me to take a step in the right direction.

From now on I'm going to make an effort to socialize with people. Even if it's just to talk about my shitty day. I was almost completely isolated for the past few weeks, and it has clearly been taking its toll.

My first choice for a social call would be Anko. She hasn't talked down to me a single time since I've met her; which made her the perfect person for me to confide in. She treats me as one of her peers, instead of a kid, and I was more than grateful for that. I couldn't help the fact that I looked like a short eleven year old again, but at least I didn't have to act like one around her.

Even though a lot of topics were off limits I could at least trust her with some of my smaller problems. Her just listening to me and responding in kind really helped my mental state. However, the fact that she didn't comment on my obvious bruising throughout our entire meeting was a little odd. It was something that I thought I couldn't get out of explaining, but I got away with only saying a single statement. It wasn't until I got home that I understood why.

Turns out that she didn't react to my wounds earlier because they were already starting to heal. When I checked in my mirror the bruises were already turning a lighter purple, and they looked far smaller than when I first left the apartment. Hell, even the small cut on my nose was almost gone.

"So I can heal fast even when the wounds aren't fatal. Good to know."

XxXxX

I slowly started to change my routine to try and include Anko more often. It wasn't a conscious thing at first, but I found myself walking towards The Dango Shop around lunch only to spot her at her usual table. Once I saw her I quickly made a beeline for the restaurant, and took the seat across from her each time without fail. We'd chat about whatever came to mind as we ate, and I'm happy to say that I didn't have any problems starting a conversation with her anymore.

I realize that we probably made an odd sight with the two of us speaking as if we were friends. I mean, I do look like an eleven year old, and I'm pretty sure she's in her early twenties. It might seem weird, but it still felt natural for me to interact with her since I often forgot that I wasn't in her age group anymore. On her side I wasn't sure if it was because I was an Academy student, and therefore almost an adult, or if I was simply an exception because of my amazing personality. Either way I was thankful for her presence.

One day we were sitting at our table like usual when she brought up a topic I've been attempting to avoid. "So Haru-chan how's your training gone so far? Have you learned anything new to kick some ass at school yet?"

I grimaced at the reminder and replied, "If you're talking about jutsu, then no. I'm stuck with the few books I have at my place since I can't look through the library for anything useful yet. It'd be easier if my parents were around, but they've been out of the picture for as long as I can remember."

With my answer her face grew solemn and she looked off to the side. After a moment she gave a sharp nod before bringing herself out of her thoughts and sending a grin my way. "Well, that settles it kid. Finish your food. Better yet, let's bag it up to save for later. I think I can help you out a bit." She marched up to the counter to bag our food and then took out a scroll at the table.

A few seconds later and the food disappeared with a small puff of smoke. As soon as she tucked the scroll away I was hauled onto her back in a single movement. I jokingly yelled, "Stranger danger!" as she walked out of the shop with me and jumped up onto a nearby rooftop.

I snickered at the looks that the civilians were giving us as she took off, and outright laughed at the grumbling I heard from Anko because of it. From there she hopped from roof to roof in silence until we came upon a heavily wooded area.

My light reading of Konoha's history paid off when I guessed that we were heading towards a training ground. I've never been this way before, but I knew they were all spread out to minimize property damage along with accidental injuries. I also chose that reason since my only other option was being stolen off into the night, or day in my case.

A tentative plan started taking shape in my head as we grew ever closer to our destination. "It'll take careful timing and dexterity, but it should work out. Hopefully."

Before long she landed in front of the trees, jumped onto a branch, and continued on at an even higher speed than before. A couple minutes passed with the background a complete blur until she pushed off the final tree and landed in an empty training ground. Once she stopped in the middle I let go of her shoulders and stumbled briefly before steadying myself. My hands were slightly shaking still from the adrenaline, and my grin quickly mirrored Anko's once we looked at each other.

"Damn, that was awesome! How fast do you think we were going?"

"Faster than I should have been while carrying you. I might have gotten a bit carried away back there," Anko said with a sheepish grin.

"Well, I appreciate it even if you were just trying to show off."

"Brat," she replied without any heat.

We shared a smile before she remembered why we came here in the first place. When she took on a more serious countenance I knew it was time to begin. "Now show me what ya know so far, Haru."

I complied by stepping a good distance away from her and stating that I'd like to try the Kawarimi no Jutsu first. "Could you help me out? I'd rather not attempt to dodge my own kunai. For safety reasons, of course."

A small smirk was her only tell before a blur came at me with deadly precision. I flew through the hand signs in my panic and barely managed to activate it before it hit my chest. When I appeared elsewhere it was unsurprisingly not where I intended. A whole thirty feet off the mark even. I sighed in frustration while I quickly gained my bearings.

Anko was now mostly out of sight from my new position halfway behind a thick tree. It was after I skirted the wide trunk and took my first step back towards the clearing when I saw something sparkle in the light again. After my first debacle that was clearly the only warning I was gonna get.

Adrenaline flowed through me once more as I cranked out the correct signs. This time I could see that the mystery weapon was thrown upwards towards my neck instead of my chest. My body felt panic in that instant as my mind was screaming at me to do anything else. To move, but I forced myself to stay put.

I knew that I only had seconds to spare. Less than that, even, to save myself. I pushed my chakra to activate the technique and gave a ragged breath after the switch was successful. Without wasting any time I used the brief period of smoke to cancel my transformation technique and apply another jutsu in the same instant.

I stormed the last remaining feet between us to yell, "What the fuck was that? When I said help me out I didn't mean with killing myself!"

We stared each other down while my light brown eyes twitched in annoyance at her carefree expression. A brief glint distracted me, and made me take notice of her weapon. She was still twirling one of the damn things in her hand.

"Is that a toothpick? No, that's not right. It's made of metal..."

"Relax, kid. I wasn't aiming to kill you. And you're the one that said I couldn't use your kunai. Anything else was fair game with that logic."

I upped my glare at her answer and grumbled more curses under my breath. I only grew silent when she said, "Plus, you should be celebrating! I didn't think you'd be able to pull it off on your first try."

I raised my eyebrow at her admission. "So I should be celebrating the fact that I wasn't turned into a pin cushion just yet?"

"Yeah, kid. All of my senbon are laced with poison. So you would've been laid out on your ass for at least a few hours after getting hit by just one of these puppies. It's not lethal at this level, of course, but it's enough to slow down a fully grown adult. A kid your size would've been out cold for sure."

I huffed and plopped down onto the forest floor. Then I crossed my arms and muttered, "Admit it Anko. You're just calling me short again, aren't you?"

"Well, normally I would say it outright, but you look like me right now. I can wait until later if you want?" She gave me a cheeky grin while she waited for my response.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up all you want, lady. I'll get taller eventually."

I stood up, brushed any stray grass off of my skirt, and canceled the transformation technique. In my scant seconds of cover I reapplied the Henge before the smoke cleared. I just hoped that I was fast enough that she didn't see my face. Now that would've been awkward.

"So far, so good, Haru. Now how far are you on the Bunshin no Jutsu? I'm pretty sure that's the last one you need to know for the finals."

I grimaced at her question, but continued on and made the seals. "Ram, Snake, Tiger." My chakra followed through as usual, and like always I overloaded the technique. Five clones were lying on the ground when I finished, and boy did they look exhausted. They were all passed out on the ground and twitching every so often.

She simply stared at me for a moment before saying, "Wow, I've never seen someone suck so badly on that easy ass technique before. How exactly are you overloading it that much?"

I sulked at her comment and canceled the failed jutsu. "Let's just say that my control isn't the greatest. I lucked out with the first two techniques needing more chakra to use, but this one needs a lot less than them. I've tried out different exercises to fix it, but I couldn't even get them to work."

"So the problem is that you have a lot of chakra, but no control. Well, there are ways to work around that. And it sure beats having a small chakra core. Yeah, it would be easier to perform different techniques that cost less chakra, but exhaustion is far more feasible and dangerous."

"Thanks for the pep talk Anko, but how does this help me use that jutsu?"

She rolled her eyes at my remark. "You're a snarky little brat today. My point, Haru, is that you could learn a more difficult technique instead because of your huge amount of chakra. Something that most kids your age won't be able to do for some time still."

"That's good and all, except there isn't a way for me to learn a different version at the Academy. The more advanced jutsu are only mentioned in passing so they're out of my reach unless someone decides to teach me."

She smirked at me while pointing her thumb at herself.

"Are you implying what I think you are?"

Her smirk softened into a smile as she said, "Yeah kid. I think I can handle teaching you a thing or two."

In an instant I was hugging her. "Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me!"

She slowly returned the hug and said, "Hey, don't thank me just yet. I haven't even taught you anything."

I eventually pulled away from her and grinned. "So, did you want to do something else since we're already at a training area?"

She agreed with a loud, "Duh. What did you think I was gonna do? Agree to help and then ditch your ass?"

"I don't know. Maybe..."

As I looked away I felt Anko's hand settle on my head. "Listen, Haru. I'd never do that to any of my friends. So how about we get started, okay?"

The small smile on my face didn't fade away even after I began my first drills.

She started off by making me practice various hand signs. A while after that she told me to use the Kawarimi no Jutsu until she said to stop. I was continually using it for around ten minutes before she told me to quit.

"You aren't showing signs of chakra exhaustion after that long? That's great for an Academy brat! I'm sure you'll be a force to be reckoned with once you learn more jutsu."

"That's the plan Sensei."

I briefly rubbed the back of my neck before she spoke up. "Well, I think we're just about done with your evaluation for today. Let's meet up at the dango shop three days from now so I have time to create the second half of your test. Let's say around noon. Then things should get a lot more interesting around here."

I paled at the evil look she sported once she finished speaking. "I have a feeling I'm not gonna like your next test."

She laughed at that and dropped the disturbing expression. In the next moment I was being hauled onto her back, and she took off into the trees again. Soon we made it to the front of the dango shop and I was let down from her back. As she began walking away she abruptly stopped and turned around. An object was tossed towards me that I recognized after I caught it.

"Thanks for remembering to give my dango back Anko."

"No problem kiddo, and don't forget our next session. Three days from now at noon."

She jumped up onto a rooftop instead of using the Shunshin no Jutsu, and ran off into the distance. Once she was out of sight I grabbed one of my remaining dumpling sticks to snack on, and started to make my way back home. I dropped the transformation jutsu after I shut my door. Then I threw away my stick, and placed my remaining dango on the counter.

For the rest of the afternoon I was curled up in my bed with a book that I recently bought. 'The Tale of The Utterly Gutsy Shinobi' was a lucky find indeed. I stumbled upon it a few days ago when I went into a small bookstore that I've passed a few times. It was pretty good so far, so I read a few more chapters before I stood up to get ready to leave.

"It's been a while since I last ate at Ichiraku hasn't it? And I haven't gone out as myself in a while either. I hope I haven't worried Teuchi and Ayame too much with my absence. Although I don't really want to face the villagers again I'm going to have to sometime. It might as well be right now."

I changed into my orange outfit, grabbed Gama-chan, and slowly left through my front door. The usual glares were thrown my way once I reached the market, but the sudden quiet that encompassed the area was a new development. Thankfully there weren't any hecklers around, however, the silence wasn't really much of an upgrade. It still drove home that I wasn't exactly welcome in the village.

I made it to the ramen restaurant without any mishaps and sat down heavily in a chair. Ayame spotted me fairly quickly and hurried over to stand in front of my seat. "Naruto! It's been a while since we last saw you. What have you been up to?"

I grinned at her and said, "Nothing much Ayame. I've been trying out different chakra control exercises so I can use the clone technique eventually. I think I got the other two jutsu down pretty well at least."

"That's great! You'll definitely pass this year with that much dedication." She prepared a dish of ramen and placed it in front of me. "This bowl is on the house, but don't think that you can skive out on paying for the rest of your meal, okay?"

I thanked her and started in on my first bowl of miso ramen. Midway into my second bowl I heard someone sit down in the seat to the right of me. I didn't bother to check who it was until an arm snaked its way around my shoulders. I looked up with a few noodles still hanging out of my mouth to see a familiar face. It was silent for a moment as I went through what I could have possibly slipped up on.

"Fancy meeting you here. Surprised to see me so soon?"

XxXxX

AN: Hey everyone, sorry about the wait on this edit. I've been trying to rewrite the scenes with Anko and Haru to come across as more genuine, and realistic. When I read back the previous version it seemed like I was making her hold back a part of herself. Where was all of her sass and friendly banter? Her methods of teaching also needed to be changed so they were still effective, but almost sadistic at times.

- Health issues and life in general have kept me distracted for some time now, but I'm not quitting. I'll continue updating the story as I go, and hopefully work on my next new chapter soon.

* If this is your first time reading this story - What are your thoughts so far?

* If you've read this story before I edited it - How do you like the changes?

Please leave a Review to let me know :)

Edited 12/16/19