Shameless Plug: Snakes and Foxes is my ongoing series, but I'm also writing another story called Name in the Whirlpool. It is about the Fourth when he was a Genin. He has his own unique teammates and has to pass Jiraiya's version of the bell test. I've written it with attention to canon while producing something original, just like I have with Snakes and Foxes. If you like my writing, why don't you try this story. You can find it in my profile.
Snakes and Foxes
A/N: This chapter is a little late, I had many great ideas for the next chapter, but I had some trouble figuring out where to start here. This Anko chapter will lead into a huge Flashback chapter with Anko and Yondaime's relationship. This chapter has a fight scene, which I admit is a little challenging since we've only seen Anko fight once, but using her stats from the official Databook and looking at some potential techniques, she might have learned, I believe it works out. As always, I have further notes at the bottom.
Reviewers: Thanks for the reviews. It's important to know if I'm going in the right direction to keep my audiences attention (hint hint for those who like the story and never review). Also, being a new author its nice to know I'm doing well at all.
Chapter 08 – Silent Death
The sun slowly rose from the horizon. The sky was partially cloudy and the sunlight filtered through the clouds, created the affect of a red dawn.
Anko scowled at it, reminding her of what started her recent problems as she continued jumping tree to tree, almost near her destination.
If the Akatsuki hadn't killed Jiraiya, then the Legendary Sannin would have been still alive to talk to his informant. The information would have told him about Orochimaru, instead of her, and he would have stopped Naruto from running into what very likely was a trap. Instead, the kid had run off without any sort of plan or backup and here she was chasing after him doing the very same thing.
She and the Anbu hadn't seen a thing of the Akatsuki since they left, but that wasn't surprising. The destruction they found told them that Jiraiya proved his legendary status, but the individuals who outnumbered him were masters of their specialties, each prepared to fight him. However, she had no doubt their victory cost them and it was remarkable they were bold enough to try to take Naruto.
Although, they had certainly given Naruto a beating, from what he had told her, once he started using Kyuubi's power they had started to back off and retreat. She thought it was likely to heal and wait for another opportunity, but unlike Naruto, they couldn't heal back into perfect shape within five days. Yet, once they did heal, they wouldn't have Jiraiya in their way the next time. It was just another reason why she had to get him back to Konoha.
That is if she could rescue him from Orochimaru first.
The sight of the mansion filled her with both relief at reaching her destination and nervous expectations of having to face Orochimaru once again. The last time hadn't gone so well, and she was still hard on herself for not killing Orochimaru. She ignored the words the Third Hokage had said at the time, when he tried to reduce her guilt, because she thought if she had been smarter then perhaps the Third wouldn't have died.
A strange thing about the mansion broke her out of her inner turmoil and almost made her loose her footing on the tree branches as she reached the end of the forest. Her eyes opened wide as she saw the entire first floor smashed to pieces. The windows were broken, the entrance collapsed, and the destruction went all around.
"Looks like the party has already started," she spoke to herself.
Anko jumped down, grateful to feel solid ground, and landed next to a dead body. She inspected it: a Grass ninja, not even wearing a flak jacket so he was likely a Genin. The young man had an efficiently placed kunai stab wound, they could have been marks of a very skilled Anbu.
She remembered that the village had asked for an assassination mission. Other than the mission going to the Anbu, she didn't know much, not even her Anbu team she traveled with, she had been so quick to reach the mansion to find Naruto, she hadn't even thought about any other Konoha ninja being nearby. Still, she had some small hope that the Anbu would have found Naruto and dragged him way, but judging by the destruction she guessed it was unlikely.
Anko looked around, the entrance was smashed and there were concrete blocks in the way. Just as well, she didn't want to walk in the middle of a ninja battle while techniques were being slung about, especially if one of them was Orochimaru.
Instead, she climbed up the roof, searching for a window.
The sound of a kunai flying the air made a distinctive sound, like a whistle as the wind dragged behind the sharp edge of the blade. It was dead silent, but for that sound, there were no animals around after the destruction below. When the kunai flew toward her, she easily dodged it.
Anko turned and saw a dark figure in the light of the sunrise. It was a Sound ninja according musical note symbol to his forehead protector. A black veil covered his face and he wore the dark flak jacket of a Sound Chuunin or Jounin. Dark eyes stared at her with a determined intent to kill.
"Ah, not special enough for a pretty pink bow?" she mocked him. The Sound had a fashion sense she neither understood nor desired. The soldiers wore gray and black animal camouflaged scarves and the special soldiers and Orochimaru included wore unusually thick ropes tied around their waist with the bow at their back. This one merely wore a black veil and the Sound's version of a flak jacket.
The ninja didn't show any offense to her words. In fact, he stood in a relaxed stance, that wasn't overly rigid. Around one of his forearms was a metal gauntlet ,with a seven round holes in a pattern. The device was vaguely familiar to her.
"Don't tell me," she said as she gave him twisted smile, "I have to defeat you in order to enter? That won't be a problem."
Three throwing kunai fell from each of her sleeves and into her hands. The throwing kunai were smaller than a regular kunai and lacked much of a handle to hold, but were still very effective to throw. She caught each one between her fingers.
Anko threw the first set straight at him, well aware a capable ninja would dodge them or even block them, but a split second after she threw them she caught the subtle movement indicating which direction he was going to dodge and threw the second set. Ordinarily, the person's attention would be on the first set and would move right into the second. However, this wasn't an ordinary person.
He's fast, she thought as the Sound ninja managed to dodge out of the way of both sets of kunai.
She extended her arm and willed the chakra needed. Four snakes, impossibly long, flew out from inside her trench coat sleeve, stretched across the rooftop, and hit with enough force to break wood and tiles.
The Sound ninja leapt up and started running along one of the snakes like it was high wire. She started to pull the snakes back into her sleeve before he reached her and he jumped into the air and threw a spread of three shuriken. Anko dropped a regular kunai into her other hand and managed to block one and dodge the others.
The Sound ninja landed back on the roof, looking up with those dark eyes. "My name is Mokushi," he announced in an articulated whispery tone. Once again, he stood in a relaxed stance as if his defensives were down, but something told her that they weren't. "You make too much sound."
"What did you say!" she yelled back. She took his statement as an insult, but she seemed to prove it for him.
"A ninja should be silent. All those kunai you throw made sound in the air that I could easily hear them. Those snakes were even worse."
"I don't have to be silent in order to kill you," she told him with a smirk on her lips.
He charged forward suddenly, closing the distance between them in no time and swung his arm. Just as she dodged away, getting a close look at the device on his forearm as it swiped closer to her face, she realized where she had seen them before.
"Shit!" She threw herself back, despite being painfully aware of the world starting to spin around her, clutching a ringing ear with a hand. "That is just like the device that Dosu Kinuta used during the Chuunin Exam that Orochimaru interrupted. Isn't it?"
"That is correct," he whispered.
"I was an examiner at that Exam," said told him with pride. She took that job seriously, it was the first of several that told her Konoha trusted her greatly. As a result, she remembered the abilities of every ninja from the final group of Genin. "The amplifier uses sounds that can't be heard, but can damage the ears to make a person nauseous."
"You did well to dodge it, but do not mistake my skill with these with that of a Genin like Dosu. Like him, I can manipulate the sound with my chakra, guiding it to a target like your inner ear, but I can also use the Vibrating Sound Drill in very different ways."
Mokushi entered a taijutsu stance. The glare of the sunlight caught the amplifier, making it shine.
"I can create a silent death."
A high-pitched whine emitted from the amplifier and Mokushi formed a pair of hand seals. Anko could immediately feel the effects of genjutsu as her vision blurred and the roof tiles beneath her feet seemed grow and spread along the sky, creating a landscape of tiles that stretched to the horizon.
He's hiding the roof! She realized, one false step onto an illusionary tile could cause her drop to from the two story high mansion. Fall might not kill her, but it would give him an opening. Even worse, since she realized that the tiles might be fake, each step in an attack or dodge wouldn't have her normal confidence and speed, once again giving him an opening.
She smiled at him, showing no fear, but if that bothered him, he didn't show it as she charged forward using a speed she couldn't match, closing the space between them instantly. She tried to form hand seals, but he didn't give her the time.
Anko expected another swing toward her ear, but he didn't.
Instead, his aim was toward her collarbones. Once again, his strike didn't connect, but it didn't need to. A powerful vibration hit her, making the very air she breathed vibrate. The air felt like it was escaping her lungs, leaving her nearly breathless.
Anko backed away, but was painfully aware that she couldn't see the real edge of the roof behind her, but he didn't stop his motion and raised a foot in the air and released several kicks in a quick snapping motion. She managed to dodge, but felt the force of air from his kicks against her skin.
If only he gave me time to dispel this genjutsu then I wouldn't have to worry about falling, but damn it! He isn't letting up!
She backed away again and released three more throwing kunai into the air, but he dodged them again.
He swung again, but this time the swing wasn't fake. She blocked the open palm strike against her forearms, protecting her face, but the force of his attack sent vibrations down her arms, leaving them tingling in pain.
Mokushi spoke, "Many Sound techniques rely on the fact that sounds of certain pitches and frequencies can annoy or damage the human ear, but sound is also a vibration of the air. Yet vibrations can travel through the body, the human body is composed mainly of water, so it is like striking a giant bell. With these vibrations, focused through my chakra, I can damage any of your organs."
"Thanks for the lecture," she snapped as she rubbed the feeling back into her hands.
"Would you like a demonstration?"
Without waiting for an answer, he moved forward again. She tried to dodge, but with his speed and ability to focus the vibrations through his chakra, it was useless. He was only pushing her further back toward the end of the roof.
This time the vibrations spread to her stomach. It felt like he kicked her in the stomach. She landed on her knees, clutching her stomach in pain, but she knew she didn't have time to wait for her insides to settle down. She started coughing and spit out some blood that had traveled its way up to her mouth.
"This next attack with stop you heart, this is the end."
Anko's options now were slim. While on her knees, she couldn't dodge and there was no telling how much roof was left behind her. Mokushi's quick and rapid attacks had forced her in a corner.
As Mokushi rushed toward her to make a final strike, she raised a thumb to her mouth, wiped away some blood on the corner of her lips, and formed several hand seals.
"Summoning Technique."
A huge green snake appeared from under a cloud of smoke, thicker than the length of her hand and much longer than she was tall. It circled around her from her shoulders to her feet, in a comfortable protective embrace, and hissed at Mokushi, forcing him to abort his lethal strike.
With the snake unaffected by the genjutsu and free to protect her, she formed her hands into a simple hand seal to mold chakra. It took only a moment to concentrate her chakra and disrupt the chakra flow of his genjutsu.
"Something you don't know about me," she spoke up. "I'm extreme good at breaking out of genjutsu. Not an entirely useful ability, but it makes a genjutsu like yours useless."
The landscape of roof tiles that stretched to the horizon disappeared, revealing on only the tiles of the real mansion and her feet on the edge of the roof that she was very close to have fallen off.
Anko broke the hand seal and slid a hand down the silky snakeskin of her snake. It had been a long time since she had summoned one. The snakes didn't have good reputations in Konoha because of Orochimaru and the more intelligent ones were loyal to their master and not his former apprentice. Luckily, the snakes were also treacherous, so ones like this were more than happy to help her.
"You've had your fun," she told Mokushi who eyed the snake carefully. Apparently, experience with Orochimaru had already made him weary. "But its time for me to end this."
The snake uncoiled itself and propelled itself lightening fast despite its size toward Mokushi with its fanged mouth open wide. He jumped through the air to avoid it and threw a spread of shuriken that hit the snake along its length, but the skin suddenly turned dry, empty, and shredded against the shuriken.
The snake had replaced itself with its own cast off skin.
It was hard to lose a huge snake, but when Mokushi landed, he looked all around. He quickly turned and barely caught sight of the snake as it launched toward him again. Mokushi shielded himself with is arm and the snake's mouth closed on his forearm, crushing the sound amplifier strapped to it. The only sound it released now was a metallic crunch.
He prepared to strike his free palm on the snake's head, with his taijutsu even that could be deadly, but as he raised his open palm, a kunai hit the dead center of his palm.
"Too late," yelled Anko.
Mokushi didn't have time to scream in pain as the snakes tail wrapped around him. Unlike its comfortable embrace of Anko, the snake was painfully constricting around him.
While the snake was silent, Mokushi certainly wasn't as bones began to break. First an arm, then a leg, and a few ribs. Soon his arms were useless to form techniques and his legs useless to escape.
Anko walked over and pulled her kunai out of his hand. She watched without passion as Mokushi's eyes widened with horror as the snake's opened its mouth as wide as possible and closed in over him.
She watched with an empty expression as the Sound ninja disappeared into a growing bulge in the snake's belly. She remembered another reason she didn't like summoning snakes, they liked to be fed when it was over.
"Anko."
The voice behind her said her name in a familiar and almost fond way, but it made her blood run cold. She heard that voice in every bad memory that crept into her every day, making her feel miserable and every nightmare that woke her up in a cold sweat.
She turned away from the snake's meal and looked to see a flickering pale image of Orochimaru. It wasn't his physical form, but no doubt, some sort of technique he had learned since they parted ways.
"What a surprise to see you again," said the holographic image. He wasn't actually there, but his smile still sent shivers down her spine. "I was just thinking about you recently."
"Really?" she said with real bravado. Unlike others, she refused to shake fearfully in his presence. He had already used, broken, and twisted her body and soul. There was nothing else to be fearful of. "I've heard you've been kidnapping people again, are you getting nostalgic for the old age?"
"In a way yes."
"I didn't think you were the sentimental type, especially after you abandoned me like trash several years ago."
The hologram chuckled, the sound itself distorted into a buzz. "The same old Anko. You haven't changed a bit, but I suppose my old experiments are responsible for some of that. That's exactly why I wanted to see you again."
A cold shiver went down her spine. After all this time, she was still just a guinea pig to Orochimaru. Once he had thrown her away as a failed product, but now she didn't feel any better at the idea that he wanted her back. She had outlived her usefulness once and he sent her to her death. At the time she was more than happy to do so, now she was free she never wanted to do that again.
"First Naruto, now me, your becoming a collector," she managed with a brave front.
He frowned and she recognized that rare look of intense displeasure. He often looked that way when things didn't go his way. She received it often when he became her unwilling teacher.
"My goal was only to kill Jiraiya, but the Akatsuki took that away from me, ruining my delicate planning. Killing the Kyuubi kid is only revenge for taking away my opportunity."
"Why do you want to kill Jiraiya-sama?"
"To finally free myself from unnecessary bonds."
Anko thought she understood, in her last years with Orochimaru she remembered him telling her that cutting away unnecessary bonds would make her stronger. She had reasoned that if she had no friends or lover other than Orochimaru, then the secret she kept about what he was doing would be more secure.
However, in her youngest memories, past the haze of forgotten memories in the later years of her service to Orochimaru and back when she was a happy apprentice to a Legendary Sannin, things had been different. Orochimaru had been different. He was still cold, calculating, and snake-like, but she remembered he was also friends with Jiraiya. It was an unusual friendship, perhaps the friendship was more on Jiraiya's part, as Orochimaru usually had some sharp insult to make, but it was a type of friendship born from them being teammates, something she would never know for herself, but a friendship nonetheless.
"You wanted to kill your friend! Why?"
Orochimaru laughed maniacally with an evil glint in his snake eyes.
Anko was confused. Killing the Third Hokage had been an added bonus while destroying Konoha, all part of an act of revenge for choosing someone else for the Fourth Hokage. She didn't understand why he would lure Jiraiya out in the middle of nowhere, just for the crime of once being his friend.
"Remember one of the last things I taught you. By breaking our bonds we become stronger…then again, you never were that intelligent of a student. I wonder if you can understand when you couldn't even do it when I gave you the perfect opportunity."
"What are you talking about?"
The amused smile left his lips and he frowned. He looked at her critically, sensing something in the tone of her voice and the look of her expression. "Surely you haven't forgotten your last mission for me?"
She didn't remember, she couldn't remember going on a mission for Orochimaru before the lab was discovered. Anything for Orochimaru was usually helping to hide the lab's existence and eventually she had outlived her usefulness even after that. He experimented on her and each time she lived through it instead of dying like everyone else, he put her back to work until he grew tired of her again.
"You don't do you," he read her expression and started laughing in amusement.
"I don't know what you're talking about, you abandoned me in Konoha, half dead from your experiments, leaving me to be found with your mess."
"I did leave you, but you followed me like a dog," he was amused as he told her with each cruel word what he remembered. "When you found me, I sent you to act out a parting gift for the new Fourth Hokage. It confused the Anbu on my tail and if you had succeeded then the Fourth would have been dead before he had a chance to put on his robes, but you must have failed considering he lived on to fight Kyuubi and you lived to be standing here."
"Lived?" Her voice was now uncertain. She didn't want to believe him, but every word felt true.
"Of course, I didn't teach you the Twin Snakes Double Assassination technique for practice. You were meant to make yourself useful and take out one of my enemies, but I see you couldn't even do that. Just like when you were a child, you were terrible with techniques."
"Shut up!" she screamed. It was the same mocking as when she was young. She hadn't been talented enough to teach for a genius like him and he let her know it everyday. It hurt worse when she was just a girl, but those old bad feelings were bubbling up now. "I don't remember any of that, but if it did happen its only because of your brainwashing!"
"Oh it wasn't me," he smiled evilly.
Anko told herself it had to be. She had done so many horrible things because of it. Konoha had forgiven her for them, but they had not forgotten, earning her a career in the dark underbelly of Konoha with few chances for missions outside of Konoha, where others would have to risk trusting her. On the bright side, the number of missions on her profile didn't look out of proportion with her fake age, but only recently had she finally gotten recognition for her good work. Being the second examiner was something, she was quite proud of and took very seriously, but Orochimaru had ruined even that.
"You're only telling me these things to unnerve me," she told him.
"Unlike you, I remember everything about our time…together." He said the last part, after licking his lips with his serpentine tongue, insinuating more than just her help in his human experiments. It called up another set of dark memories that she didn't want to remember. "I remember Sarutobi-sensei having a technique that could make a person forget memories involving certain people or things. Did he make you forget everything you did for me? Did he have guilty conscience for making you my student?"
"I remember those memories just fine!" she hissed.
"But it's too bad. I always wondered what you did to keep him from killing you?" he asked with a sly smile. "He certainly had a reputation in the Stone Village for being a fearsome killer. A kunai across your throat would have saved him a lot of trouble."
His words were meant to insinuate something, but she couldn't remember. Everything he said only reminded her a nightmare.
No! Not now, she thought as she clutched her head in pain, images flashed by, each new to her, and yet vaguely familiar. The torrent of images wasn't going away, leaving her dizzy and forcing her to collapse no her knees, she tried to repress a whimper, but she didn't even know if that was successful.
Anko managed to pry her eyes open, past a splitting headache, and look at Orochimaru. He had a strange, quizzical look on his face until his lips curved back into an evil smile.
"Perhaps I can help you with this," he said as his holographic hands formed a seal. "I have a matter to attend to, but I leave you with this gift for old times sake."
Anko felt the technique forming, weaving around her, leaving her in darkness.
Next Chapter: Anko's Flashback (Life and Death, how many ways has the Fourth effected Anko?)
Author's Note: Well now my last original villain has also been killed. I hope they were entertaining while they lasted. Oh well…I need to make room for Orochimaru's trap.
First off, Orochimaru's hologram was based on the Akatsuki holograms in their cave. Since Orochimaru was an Akatsuki, he would also know that technique. The Akatsuki leader was able to use his technique on Sasori's subordinates even though they were physically there and he wasn't. So I'm assuming a hologram can use certain techniques, which allows for Orochimaru using a technique on Anko on the roof while he was really in the basement.
During the fight, I needed to arm Anko with more than just kunai and the Hidden Shadow Snake Hand Technique. I decided being Orochimaru's apprentice it is logical she could summon snakes. My guess is she couldn't summon Manda (plus he and any other intelligent snake may refuse to work with her now), but she has a high stamina, which means lots of chakra, and decent ninjutsu ability so it's reasonable she can summon a small or large snake.
I studied Anko's stats from the official Databook to get a feel for her abilities. They are a little different, especially when compared to other characters. Her highest scores are stamina (which plays in nicely with the Naruto inheriting some of her traits) and genjutsu. The genjutsu is strange because we've never seen her use any and because she has a low intelligent (again like Naruto). Every other person with high genjutsu has high intelligence. However, the genjutsu score represents 3 things really: the ability to case, see through, and dispel. Technically a character with a high score could be lousy at casting but great at dispelling and since dispelling requires lots of chakra, which she would have, I've decided for the purpose of this story she has a very good ability to dispel, but is not a genjutsu type.. This again ties in nicely with Naruto for those who read Part 2 of the manga.
Version 1.0
1.0: Original