Chapter 6: So Much For Secrets

"I'm sorry Miss, but-"

I was cut off midsentence by Anko. Who, might I add, did not look happy to see me.

"Don't you fucking 'Miss' me brat. I know that you recognize me, so don't bother screwing around." She turned to Ayame and said her order before focusing back on me. "Look, kid. I've given you enough shit for now. Let's just finish our food. But after that we're gonna have a serious talk."

I nervously agreed, and continued to eat six more bowls as quietly as I could. As I ate I often glanced over at her to guess at what she could be thinking, but her expression was blank. It was unsettling to witness, let alone be the sole cause for her lack of emotion. She was never this serious around me before. Or this quiet.

"I must have fucked up sometime today. What else could it be?"

My nerves ramped up for every minute that passed as I ate my meal. The soft sounds from slurping our noodles were the only thing that filled the silence between us. Twenty minutes later we both ate our fill and flagged down Teuchi.

As we handed him our ryo, Ayame caught my eye with a concerned look and a slight nod towards Anko. I gave a neutral expression in return and shook my head before turning to leave. The kunoichi kept up with my stride easily as I tried to hype myself up and tell her the truth. When I opened my mouth to try and breach the subject she held up her hand to stop me.

"No, not here. We're gonna take this chat somewhere a little less public."

She motioned for me to follow her out of the restaurant and stopped a few paces away from its entrance. I hesitated for only a moment before conceding and following after her. Almost immediately I saw a few villagers recognize me and give me dirty looks.

Those looks of hostility didn't waver from the villagers' eyes even slightly when they saw that I was traveling with a fully fledged shinobi. Once I noticed that I unconsciously stopped a bit closer to her than I would have originally, but it didn't look like Anko noticed the slight change.

"So where do you want to take this chat of ours? We could go back to the training grounds that you brought me to. It's light out so we still have a bit of time."

She agreed and told me to hop on her back again. Her reasons being that it wouldn't take as much time to get there, and less people would see us together at that speed. I quickly hopped on and she immediately leaped onto the nearest rooftop.

Minutes later we arrived at the same training ground as before. Once she let me down we stared at each other for a minute to gather our thoughts. It seemed like she was still thinking of where to begin, so I decided to start our inevitable conversation.

"What exactly did you want to talk to me about?"

"We've met before, but you don't look the same. I've eaten with you, traded stories with you, and celebrated with you. There was never any reason to doubt your identity until today. What I want is to hear you say the name you gave me when we first introduced ourselves."

"I can do that, but only if you tell me something first. What were we going to be doing soon, and when was it going to take place?"

A look of understanding crossed her face as she answered, "In three days we were going to meet at The Dango Shop around noon, and then I was going to give you the second half of your test."

A pleased look crossed my face at the correct answer. "So, you really are Anko. I guess I can tell you now that I'm sure you aren't a fake." I made the ram seal and transformed with a grin on my face. "Hey Anko. I'm Haru, but you already know that now, don't you?"

Her eyes widened slightly as she took in my features. I looked exactly like Haru aside from the orange clothing that I didn't bother changing. She walked up to me and lightly tugged on a strand of my hair. "How are you doing this? I've been around you for hours at a time and you didn't break your Henge. That should be impossible for someone who's not out of the Academy yet."

I smiled at her last sentence as a burst of pride shot through me. "While I'm shit at making clones I'm pretty damn good at making a Henge. Finding different variations for it was what I did in my spare time." I looked away slightly as an embarrassed blush tinged my cheeks. "I admit that my first idea for it was weird, but I promise I wasn't going around as Haru to hurt you. If anything, it lets me act more like myself around people. I also feel... Safer... When I don't look like myself in general."

The last words were hard for me to spit out, and once I was finished I dipped my head and looked at a tree off to the side. The conversation was reminding me of a memory I recently acquired. It took place on October tenth, which was the anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack, and also my eighth birthday at the time. I never left my apartment any later than nine at night on that day until then. It was a mistake that I'll always regret even though I haven't physically lived through it myself.

Let's just say that it involved a few drunk villagers and a blackout on my part. I don't even know how I made it home, but I woke up in my bed with bloody bandages over both of my arms. By the time that I was conscious my wounds had mostly healed, but the terror of what happened still stuck with me. So, yeah, I'm not feeling all that great about my current rank as a student.

I knew that working on the Academy's three E-rank jutsu should've given me more confidence when it comes to hostile people, but I can only use one out of the three correctly. Learning a different jutsu that I could actually use would give me peace of mind. For now though, my transformations are the only thing I can completely rely on.

I was eventually brought back to the present by Anko's voice. "I see that you feel strongly about using this jutsu specifically. If it helps, I won't be telling anyone anytime soon. Just know that we'll be talking about why you feel that way sometime. Even if it's a year from now."

Once she finished, both of her hands were placed on my shoulders in silent comfort. She broke the silence with, "Though, if you take any longer than that you'll be getting a visit from me. Inside your house. At the dead of night. Probably best to get it out of the way before it comes to that, yeah?"

Her slight head tilt and 'smile' at the end took back any sort of calm I started feeling. There was no doubt she'd go through with her threat, and her mouth showed far too many teeth to be considered friendly. I gave a quick nod to show that I understood before she continued speaking.

"So, now that we got all of the emotional shit out of the way... Are you still up for taking my test later?" She snorted at my shocked expression and said, "What? Like I could give a rat's ass that you were hiding something. Shinobi do that all the time. And it's not like you were using it for malicious reasons." A lowly muttered, "Unlike one asshole here," almost went unheard as I took in what she first said.

I brightened up considerably after her words sank in. "Anko... I didn't think you'd even want to talk to me after finding this out. Yes, I'll definitely take your test if it's still on the table."

"Okay, then it's a done deal. You can't back out now, short stuff."

I laughed and replied, "Oh no, I've been tricked again! Curses!" As I shook my fist towards the sky Anko finally cracked with a slight upturn of her lips. It felt like a full-blown grin with how stern she seemed only moments before.

"So, are we still meeting up on the same day then?"

She nodded and said, "Yeah. Same time and place as before. Then I can get some good old fashioned teaching in. You better prepare for anything kiddo, because I know my shit when it comes to training."

"I don't doubt that Sensei. I'll have to up my game before we meet again so I won't be too horrible."

Anko motioned for us to leave then, but a stray thought kept me from moving. "Hey, before we go I have to ask… How did you know that I'm Haru?"

She smirked at me and said, "I was staking out your apartment to see if your background story held up. Now I know that you weren't lying when you told me about yourself at least."

My right eye twitched a little as I processed that. "So you were stalking me then? That's just creepy... And how long exactly were you watching me to come to that conclusion?"

She put her right pointer finger to her cheek as if in thought. "Well, I'd say for about three days now. It was pretty easy to follow you back home earlier in the week, and then later watch the entrance to see if anyone went in or came out for a few days. I wasn't actually staying close to your place all day, but I checked it out at different times to see if anything was different. I was lucky to see you leave your home when I did, considering that I was about to book it out of there myself."

"That's creepy as fuck, Anko. Please tell me you'll stop that now."

She laughed and replied, "Sure kiddo. My stalking days are over now that I got my info." I gave a sigh of relief at her admission, which just made her laugh even harder once she saw it.

With our conversation basically done we both left the training grounds. Anko dropped me off at my apartment rather than at The Dango Shop since she knew where it was. We said our goodbyes before she used the Shunshin no Jutsu to go home right after.

I spent the rest of the night reading another chapter from Jiraiya's book, practicing the few jutsu that I could use while inside, and taking a shower before heading off to bed. I had to get up bright and early the next day so that I could focus on learning a new skill.

XxXxX

Throwing a shuriken or a kunai accurately is a necessary skill in a ninja's line of work. I was hoping to get a solid lesson through a memory or two, so I sat down on my bed and began to focus on that topic. In a few seconds I was looking through them, and continued to do so for the next ten minutes. Unfortunately there wasn't much to go through since I never had much one on one help from any of my teachers.

I huffed in irritation, and focused on the few memories that showed my teacher telling us how to hold them first. Then I skipped over to when they taught us how to throw them. "I guess I'll have to try it out for myself and see how closely my movements resemble theirs." I got up to walk over to where my weapon pouch was stored, and attached it to my upper left leg. "Well here goes nothing."

I transformed into Haru, pocketed Gama-chan, and grabbed my black backpack before I headed out to my usual deserted training area. The weather was perfect for practicing with a kunai for the first time. The sun was shining, the temperature wasn't too hot, and a gentle breeze was blowing through the area. I set my backpack down a bit behind me, and then took out my first kunai.

"It's time to see if I'm any good at throwing one of these."

XxXxX

Edited: 5/3/2020

AN: I hope everyone is staying safe out there and taking care of yourselves.

- With the quarantine happening there's been more time for me to go over and edit my work. I'll probably be finishing up the next chapter fairly soon at this rate.