"Enough," Anko said, crumpling up the list of objectives she'd been given. It was a hotass day, and the hokages had gotten cheap as hell and turned off the fucking air conditioning. This room was a fucking oven, and she was about to get cooking. She put her hand down on the wooden desk, letting her tits hang out of her open trench coat like some sorry hooker. Couldn't hurt her chances could it? "A jounin of my caliber deserves some better fucking missions than the sloppy seconds you've been giving me."
She glared down at the younger hokage's tired face, daring him to call her a special jounin, like that handsome asshat Kakashi. There ain't no way in hell she was gonna take that shit from some fresh-faced punk who was younger than her; she didn't give two-shits if he was the second coming of The Sage of the fucking Six Paths.
"Kakashi led an ambush on the Third Raikage, unsuccessfully it should be noted, and Obito got to escort the Fire Daimyo to Uzushiogakure!" Anko rattled off angrily. "Why can't I get some fucking missions that actually matter?"
"Because Kakashi and Obito are two of the strongest jounin in Konoha," the younger hokage, Itachi Uchiha said, sighing. Well Anko was very, very sorry that the weak little her was actually trying to help out the village… As if! What the hell was that little shit trying to fucking imply? She was gonna fucking tear him-
"There is a mission that may interest you. It's not dangerous, but is of utmost importance," Itachi said cautiously. No need for that. He was finally gonna give her a chance to prove herself to the village, she could kiss him right here and now. "But… Confidentiality will be…" Itachi hesitated and glanced at the older hokage for reassurance.
Hiruzen Sarutobi tilted his head slightly, in the seat next to Itachi. His wrinkly old face stretched into a kind, old-person smile, as Itachi ran through the mission details.
Apparently the young heir to the village had needed reassurance that Anko could be trusted. She tried to smile. She tried to be understanding. It would be unreasonable to expect everyone to forget the mistake she'd made, even if it had been years ago, even if she had been a child, even if she'd had no idea what she was doing… She'd still done it. And Konoha… They'd never forgotten. And they'd made sure she damn well knew it.
Anko rubbed her shoulder. It ached like a broken heart. Now wasn't that fucking poetic?
Itachi pursed his lips. "You are not to share the mission details with anyone. This stays between you, me, Hiruzen, and the rest of the team."
"Team?" Anko scowled. Of course they'd anchor her with a team. They thought she was some delicate little flower, they thought she couldn't compare with the golden boys: Kakashi and his little butt-buddy Obito. Fucking Konoha was so fucking delusional about their shinobi: Kakashi was a creepy perv who read porn in public, and Obito was a dunce who'd been the Deadlast in the Academy. He was only special because he was an Uchiha.
This was such fucking bullshit. And she made sure her old teammates knew it as they traveled all the way through Fire Country.
"Who would do such a thing?" Hayate asked sadly, holding up a tuft of silky red hair.
The Hidden Village had been abandoned. No people, no nothing except for the infrastructure. The streetlights still worked, going from green to yellow to red and then back to green. But no cars roared through the streets, and the intersections, the roads, they were all empty. So were all the glassy highrise buildings around them.
This was a ghost town.
"I saw a lot worse when I was apprenticed to Orochimaru," Anko said cheerfully, inspecting another half-rotten corpse, stuffed halfway into a trashcan. She brushed off maggots who'd tunnelled deep into the corpse's arm. "I'd have thought you'd have toughened up since our last mission together, Hayate, but I can see you're still a soft little suburban boy." The girl had died from a kunai slash to the throat, and also had a bloodless stab wound to the gut. Anko loved a good double-tap. Whoever had done this had been wonderfully efficient, a true paragon of brutality. Anko callously tossed the red-headed girl on top of their growing pile of corpses. "This one's been dead for at least a year, maybe two."
"This was thorough. There is a certain art to these killings, a certain joy," Ibiki mused. His tone was cold, almost clinical, but he held a three-year-old boy tenderly in his arms, letting the moldy flesh rub all over his jounin vest. "Not a single survivor. We haven't seen a genocide like this since the Warring States Period. I didn't know this kind of hatred still existed."
Anko rolled her eyes. This was why she hated being on a team. You had to pretend to get all sentimental when you saw dead children, as if you didn't see it everyday, as if you hadn't killed some of 'em yourselves. What a buncha' bullshit. "C'mon Ibiki. We all know the purpose of the mission. It'd be nice to know who and why, but really, nobody gives a shit." She felt around in one of the corpses pockets, and helped herself to the poor sap's wallet. "Konoha sent us here for the how. And not about how to kill a buncha' children, we all know damn well how to do that."
Anko was done looking for motives and clues. What she wanted to know was how the shinobi had gotten through The Hidden Village Barrier. Anko skipped to the center of town to find her answer, humming a little jingle she'd heard on the radio. She wasn't distracted by the murders of crows feasting on corpses, she flung a kunai to get a pack of wolves out of the way, and she sure as hell didn't stop to gawk at the skyscrapers like the two dunces behind her. Unlike those rubes, she'd actually been to a few of the other Great Ninja Villages. Konoha liked to brag about how far ahead they were, but all the other city-states had skyscrapers too.
Anko whistled. Before her was the tallest building she'd ever seen, right in the center of the city. No question, this was what she was looking for. She swung open the glass doors and strutted inside. She pinched her nose. The scent of festered meat wafted in the air.
But Anko adapted to her surroundings quickly, looking around for some clues. Reception desk, dead body, dead body, ooh a kunai- Anko pried it from the fingers of a dead shinobi- aww there it was, a map. Office space, office space, doctor, laboratory, what the hell? A dental office, they'd gotten dental? Konoha was cheap as shit! Finally Anko found what she was looking for, another elevator on the fiftieth floor. Tall buildings like this could never have just one elevator.
Whatever, it took a few minutes, and four elevator transfers, but they finally made it to the top floor. It was empty, but for the rotten corpse of an old man and a large square hole about a fingernail deep in the laminated floorboard. Anko took out a kunai, and cautiously walked to the old man. Fat fruit flies buzzed about him, and she took off the wings of those that got too close.
She kicked the man aside, revealing a single strange kunai stuck in the floor. It had three prongs and it looked like there was something written on the handle. A seal.
Hayate knelt by the corpse and closed its eyes, whispering softly while Ibiki inspected the strange, three-pronged kunai.
"Don't touch it," Anko barked. Ibiki gave her a wide-eyed stare. "See that seal on the handle? A hundred ryo says it does something nasty. I'd rather not activate it."
Ibiki nodded, and started drawing a sketch. Anko walked along the indent of the floorboard, measuring its length with her steps. It was all for show, she knew what had been taken.
The three shinobi shared a glance. They all knew what had happened.
"I was right," Anko gloated. "This wasn't some stupid vendetta. This mission was completed for a purpose. The Hidden Village Seal was stolen, and the only clan that knows how to make them was slaughtered down to the last member. Somebody is trying to end the era of Hidden Villages once and for all."
They busted their ass back to Konoha to report on their delicious apocalyptic findings. But when they returned, Anko found herself reporting to Itachi and a different old man than Hiruzen. Anko scowled.
"So you were unable to even ascertain the culprit?" Danzou asked, the condescension heavy in his voice. Why the hell did Itachi even keep him around? "I suppose it is to be expected."
"It ain't my fault," Anko protested, nodding at her teammates. "Hayate is weak and sickly and he only slowed us down. And Ibiki may be good for torture, but he's useless in a fight, and he's way too eager to explain everything psychologically."
Danzou snorted impatiently. "Was it Orochimaru? That is the only reason we sent you."
Anko swallowed and looked at her feet. Her toes were callused and shaped like elephant trunks, from years of training. Lots of kunoichi shied away from the training that fucked up your body, but she'd always given it her all. She'd dedicated her life to being a Konoha shinobi. "No. It wasn't him."
Danzou smirked. "I knew you made a mistake, Itachi," he said proudly. "I warned you about her. How she has been infected with Orochimaru's taint. She is a mediocre, clanless shinobi of low cunning and questionable loyalty. But as always, I will do my duty to the village. I will clean up the mistakes of my hokage." Danzou looked down his nose at her. "My agents will be watching you. Do not think that you can use this as an opportunity to go running back to your old master."
Anko's shoulder ached.
None of her teammates defended her.
Her hokage didn't defend her.
And Anko, she didn't defend herself either. She didn't bark back some clever retort, she didn't even think one, she just curled up and took the accusation. I deserve it, Anko thought.
"And if you do anything suspicious," Danzou continued, "They have been given the authority to use the seal."
Anko fell to the ground screaming, clawing at her forehead. It felt like hot charcoals had lodged themselves inside her skull, like her head was about to burst. And to her shame, she felt tears roll down her cheeks, as she writhed on the floor like a little civilian girl.
"Danzou," Itachi said. "Enough."
That night, Anko got very, very drunk. Like she did every night. "None of those fuuuckz truss me!" She slurred, slamming her shot on the counter. The bartender supplied her another, and he even filled it up all the way to the top, just the way she liked it. "Ya can'd fuggin make id in Konoha if ya ain't got uh inside guy…" She took a sip, and swished the liquid wood between her teeth. "They'll juss use you up ane' throw ya oud, like a russy ole kunai. When yer eh kid they tell ya yur special." She swallowed, letting the fluid fire burn her throat. "But'is only when yer older ya learn the truth." She swayed, the world was spinning pleasantly. "Konoha is a country of us and a country of thems. And if yer a them, there ain't nothin' ya can do to become an us."
Anko woke up the next morning hating herself. The world was painfully bright, her thoughts came slow and fuzzy, she could still taste the cheap whiskey on her tongue, smell it from her sweat, and feel it in her belly, sloshing around like poison. She ran to the toilet, and vomited out her soul. Flecks of half digested dango got stuck in her teeth, and she vomited some more, until there was nothing left. She kept right on heaving, until her abs started to cramp.
She rolled to the sink and sucked out some water, straight from the faucet, until her head stopped spinning and she almost felt alive. Hangovers right? Gotta love-
Some jackass pounded on the door of her apartment. They may as well have been punching Anko in the ear. "Would you quiet down," Anko barked at the door. "I can fucking hear you!"
She regretted her words in moments, when she opened the door and saw sweet, sweet Kurenai.
Her best friend glanced at her room with a frown. "Get dressed," Kurenai said, her lips thin. "The hokage has scheduled all the jounin to gather for a meeting… We went over this, remember?"
Anko groaned. Kurenai was right of course, she'd reminded her about a thousand times, but Anko really didn't want to hear about it right now. The two of them slipped in about ten minutes late, a formation of jounin standing at parade rest, like little dots on a square lattice, the two hokages elevated on a little stage. So they'd missed the beginning of the meeting, so what? It didn't matter. Itachi always began meetings with a whole buncha fancy bullshit about duty and peace and compassion. They got to skip all that.
"I'm sorry we're late sir," Kurenai said, blushing and flustered. "We… I slept in and forgot about the meeting. I'm sorry sir."
Itachi regarded her for a moment, her makeup done beautifully, her white dress neatly pressed. Then he looked at Anko, a trail of drool dribbling down her chin, she'd flung on the first set of clothes she'd found in her dresser.
"As I was saying," Itachi said. "Obito, you will be given the team of Neji Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and… Sasuke Uchiha... They are the brightest of the new generation, each of them prodigies, but they must continue to grow as men if they are to become the brilliant leaders that Konoha will need. I can think of nobody who embodies the ideals Konoha holds dear more than you Obito."
So they were handing out genin teams. Ha! It looked like perfect Obito was gonna be stuck on babysitting duty! She wouldn't wish that on her biggest enemy!
"Kurenai," Itachi said. "Your team will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi. They will be primarily trained through their clans, but do not underestimate the importance of your role. With the possible exception of Chouji, they will grow into valuable contributors to Konoha. Nurture your sense of duty into these young shinobi, and they will make the village proud." Anko gave her friend a sympathetic pat on the ass, but Kurenai was beaming with pride. Course she was. Responsible ole' Kurenai probably loved the chance to babysit a buncha' snot-nosed brats.
"Kakashi," Itachi said. "Your team will be Kiba Inuzuka, Rock Lee, and Tenten. They have shown little aptitude for the shinobi arts, but have displayed attitudes that may allow them to transcend their limits. I believe that teaching them will be a good experience for you." Kakashi groaned, and Anko couldn't keep the grin off her face. Served the handsome little smartass right!
Itachi read off the remaining names from a scroll. Anko quieted herself, and tried to act respectful. The vast majority of the students at the academy would never become genin. It was practically impossible for a civilian to become a shinobi, but it was important that civilians were exposed to the shinobi world and shinobi were exposed to civilians. And of course, there were always exceptions, like Anko herself. But most kids weren't no Anko Mitarashi. That didn't diminish the years of training they'd gone through in the academy, so to honor their hardwork and dedication the children were given the formality of a jounin mentor for a few days, before being sent back to the civilian world. It was a process that even Anko conceded was import-
"Anko Mitarash-"
"Nope," Anko said impatiently. Kurenai gasped, and Anko just rolled her eyes. What the hell had they expected from her? "No, no, no. There ain't a chance in hell I'm gonna waste my time training up a buncha' little shits."
The jounin stirred excitedly. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was less than thrilled with the mission, just the only one with the nerve to say something about it.
"You only have to administer the bell test," Itachi explained patiently, like he was some wise old mentor and she was some troublemaking dumbass. "I'm only asking for one afternoon."
"You do not know that," Hiruzen chided. "In the shinobi world, nothing is certain."
Itachi rolled his eyes, and for some reason it rubbed Anko the wrong way. Who the hell was he to claim that some little shitstain was gonna grow into a genius and another was destined for failure? Fuck all that bullshit! Nobody knew how things would play out, you couldn't judge people forever based on what they did as a fuckin' twelve-year…
...What the hell did she care what the hokage thought of a buncha' little turds? It ain't like she wanted to teach a buncha snot-nosed brats anyways.
But she wasn't gonna dismiss 'em without even getting to know 'em either. So, with a little hesitation, Anko Mitarashi asked for the names of her genin team.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the story. I'll try to give this work three chapters to gauge reader interest, before deciding to continue or not. I'm probably going to change the title of the story at some point, or maybe the summary.