Anko snorted. Naruko may have been rough, she may have been a prankster, but she wouldn't steal The Scroll of fucking Seals. There had to be an explanation. Itachi would know better, he was always so calm, always so cool, he wasn't gonna fall for all this xenophobic crap.
The young hokage walked into the room of angry jounin, his calm demeanor forcing rationality back onto them. He gave the assembled jounin a long look, his gaze lingering on Anko. He sighed. "Get back the scroll. Whatever missions you're on, whatever security is required, this takes precedence."
"And the spy?" Asked somebody in the mob. Paranoid little shit, Naruko wasn't a damn spy. She was about as subtle as an avalanche, there wasn't a chance in hell she was capable of something so duplicitous.
"Try to capture her alive," Itachi said quietly. "But if it looks like she will escape…" He hesitated, and closed his eyes. Danzou put a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Kill her."
"This is fucking crazy!" Anko shouted. How the hell was Itachi gonna listen to Danzou? "She's just a stupid genin! She doesn't know what she's doing!"
"Says the traitor," Danzou said gruffly. "I always knew you were sympathetic with Orochimaru. You were so attached to him, so willing to do whatever he asked, I suggested you be executed but nobody would listen. And now our Scroll of Seals has been stolen. I wouldn't be surprised if you were in on this. Lord Hokage, we should detain this scum at once!"
The rest of the jounin roared in agreement.
Well... Fuck them… No… Anko shivered… Their contempt, she'd always known, but they'd never made it this explicit. This was why she'd had to fail the girls. Anko would never be a part of Konoha, and neither would anyone too close to her. It's not like they'd never have another chance. If Naruko had just waited- why the hell had she stolen- you know what? Anko wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't even any proof, if they'd just blamed Naruko because she was an immigrant. Some other fucker had probably stolen the scroll.
Naruko wouldn't do something like that. Anko felt it like a fucking hangover.
"You're wasting time," Itachi said to the room of jeering jounin. "Go."
And in the blink of an eye the room was empty, but for Anko and Konoha's sorry excuse for a hokage.
"What the hell was that?" Anko asked, with such ferocity that flecks of her spit darkened Itachi's white hokage robes. "Orochimaru was exiled from Konoha for all the shit he did, but Naruko makes one mistake and she's getting fucking executed? This is such fucking bullshit! You geniuses get second chance after second chance, you can do all the evil shit in the goddamned world, and you'll always weasel your way to forgiveness! But if you're average, it doesn't matter your track record, it doesn't matter how loyal you are, Konoha is so damn eager to castigate you! This isn't fucking fair!"
Itachi wiped off his face with his sleeve. "The Scroll of Seals is where Konoha keeps its Hidden Village Seal. Without it, Konoha will be annihilated as Uzuigakure was."
Well…
Anko got to running. She had to find Naruko first. For Konoha's sake, and for the girl's. Every moment she had that scroll was a moment Konoha was vulnerable to attac-
What if it hadn't been Naruko? Because this modus operandi fit another shinobi so much better. The shinobi who had attacked and single-handedly annihilated Uzuigakure. She needed to tell Itachi, warn him about the special kunai-
No, Naruko came first. She'd find the girl, prove that she'd had nothing to do with this, escort her back to Itachi, and they'd get this whole thing sorted out.
But it was not to be. When Anko found Naruko, she did find that Itachi had misunderstood one thing. Oh Naruko had stolen the Scroll of Seals, but she hadn't done so alone.
Sakura ran up to Anko with a pleased little smile. "I learned a new jutsu sensei! From The Scroll of Seals! That means I can become a genin right?"
Anko narrowed her eyes. "Who told you that?"
"Naruko did!" Sakura said happily. "She said that she was told that any student who learned a jutsu from The Scroll of Seals will become a genin!"
Bingo fucking bongo! That was the shinobi she was after! "Naruko, who told you that? Tell me his name- if you don't know, describe what he looked like!"
Wait a second, if this was the same shinobi as the one who had annihilated the other Hidden Village, he'd be way too much for her to handle. She needed to get help right away…
Anko's heart stopped. Naruko was smirking cruelly, not at all the carefree girl Anko had thought she'd known.
"I did," said a voice behind her.
Thank goodness, Naruko wasn't a traitor aftera- What the hell was she thinking? She couldn't face a guy like-
Well, maybe she could. All evidence said that this was a man she did not want to mess with, but he just didn't have that final villain look you know? He was a gray-haired poindexter, with big square glasses. More importantly, he was a Konoha citizen, but she didn't recognize him. That meant he was lower ranked than her!
Anko activated his Caged Bird Seal.
The man smirked, as an invisible seal flared around the green 'x' on his forehead. He'd found a way to deactivate the seal, the only thing that kept shinobi loyal to Konoha. She'd always wondered how her sensei had left the village, and now she knew.
"I work for Orochimaru," the man said, with a knowing smile. "He remembers you Anko, and he regrets how things ended. He made a mistake rejecting you. With that scroll, you will be elevated to the highest of positions, answering only to Orochimaru and one other. Join us."
Anko had thought that she'd been a broken but loyal Konoha shinobi, and that if Orochimaru ever offered her a place within his ranks, it would be a tempting offer, but that she'd turn him down. She'd known it would be true. That Konoha had been justified in their suspicions, but ultimately they'd been wrong about her.
But now, with the offer in front of her, she knew that she'd always believed in a lie.
She hadn't known who she was.
Until now.
"What is Kabuto talking about?" Sakura asked.
The offer wasn't even hard to reject. She'd always thought that deep down, something within her was broken. That if given the chance for power, she'd jump on it again. She'd always thought she was a dishonorable kunoichi, and that Konoha had been right to look down on her as they did.
But she wouldn't. And all those people who called her a traitor, they may have been right back then, but they weren't right anymore.
People could change.
Anko had changed.
It turned out that Anko was the one of those honorable kunoichi she admired most.
"Kabuto is a traitor," Anko said. "And I'm gonna crush him flat!"
She let the chakra in her legs explode, surging her towards Kabuto, already going through the hand signs for a summoning jutsu. Subtler than most, her summons coiled around her arms, hidden by her vest, until she was in position. They struck Orochimaru's Follower, sinking their teeth into his pale skin. With their venom, he'd be dead in seconds.
"Tsk," Kabuto said, adjusting his glasses. He shook off the snakes, and casually sliced them apart, his fingers alight with blue chakra scalpels. "Orochimaru was mistaken. You are pathetically weak."
Anko jumped back, and levelled a barrage of kunai at him. Kabuto rushed her, only bothering to shield his vitals. Her kunais lodged themselves in his arms, but hadn't seemed to cause him any harm. How was that possible? Some kind of medical ninju-
Fuck! The poindexter was fast. His glowing fingers, the ones that had just sliced her snakes in half, had almost slammed into her arm. Anko jumped out of the way, as his next attack almost found her thigh. She couldn't just keep defending, she had to find a way to count-
Anko fell into the mud. She couldn't get up. Why couldn't she move her arm? Why couldn't she move her leg? Nothing hurt, but- just what had he done to her?
Kabuto flipped her around, and surgically moved his fingers across her. A gentle numbness spread across Anko, until the only part of her body she could move were her eyes. Kabuto adjusted his glasses.
"A shame," he said. "Orochimaru was mistaken about you. You are pathetically weak and foolish. If you had accepted my offer, you could have been wealthy and powerful. But now I'll have to kill you, and I'll be taking the scroll all the same." He stepped over her body, and-
Anko saw a flash of pink hair, as Sakura sucker punched Kabuto through a fucking tree. What the- How? Better not to overthink things, Anko was just glad she wasn't dead.
"Naruko!" Sakura barked. "Run. I'll hold him off."
If Anko could move her mouth she'd have been giving the same damn orders, because Kabuto had some kind of healing jutsu going on, and Naruko was the fastest of the three. It was almost like Sakura, the girl who'd scored the highest on the academy's tests, was actually smart.
And Anko could feel her legs again. What? As soon as she could feel her stomach, she rammed her head into something soft. Huh?
"...Eep! Hold still Mitarashi-sensei," said Hinata. She was huddling over Anko, a blue glow in her palms. Had she just motorboated Hinata's boobs? The fuck? The girl was twelve and she was already packing heat? Why the hell did she hide her girls behind that loose ass parka? Whatever, Anko was just glad she'd learned medical ninjutsu from The Scroll of Seals. Somehow. Wasn't Hinata supposed to be untalented? Then how the hell had she managed to learn so much in an hour?
It didn't matter. She mussed Hinata's hair. "Thanks kid."
She looked for Kabuto, and found him toying with Sakura. The girl had gotten better at taijutsu since this afternoon. Her technique was still sloppy, her punches were telegraphed and slow as hell, but now they had some power. Kabuto slid around a slow right hook, and Sakura's fist slammed into an elm. The trunk exploded from the strength of the blow.
Had to be careful when fighting someone so strong. But Kabuto had finished feeling the girl out. He ducked her next attack, and sent her flying with a kick. Anko caught Sakura, and laid her on the ground. "You two find help, I'll-"
Kabuto flickered away. Anko had expected as much. He didn't care about them, he was after Naruko and the scroll. She followed him in a blink. Sakura would know what to do. Find the hokage, or any other jounin. Alert them of the information, and give a description of Kabuto. Brains on a mission were always more useful than people gave credit.
When had she gotten so fucking slow? Flickers of orange shone between tree leaves, and she could see Kabuto jumping from branch to branch. The two of them were running away from her. She couldn't even see them anymore. This wouldn't have been a problem for Obito, Kakashi would have flattened Kabuto easily. Just what had Anko been doing all these years? How had she let herself become so weak? No, this wasn't about her, Anko just needed to be stronger. She had to protect her ki-
Naruko's scream echoed through the forest. Anko's fingers blurred through the signs for the Shunshin Jutsu.
Kabuto had backed Naruko against the corner of a cliffside. "I fooled the rest of them, but not you, did I?" Kabuto asked with a knowing smile. "You are a legend among us. The ultimate trickster. You just wanted the scroll all along, didn't you Naruko Uzumaki!"
"I'm not an Uzumaki," Naruko whispered, her knuckles white against the scroll.
"You could fool Master once," Kabuto laughed. "But not twice. You are the last Uzumaki, a monster and a traitor. You are responsible for your clan's downfall! You let The Masked Man into Uzugakure!"
Anko could tell he hadn't been lying. The scroll bounced on the mossy clay forest floor. Naruko had dropped to her knees, shaking because she knew that every word Kabuto had said was true… Naruko knew she was a monster… That she had done things that could never be forgiven… It was like staring into a mirror, a memory of the pas-
No.
Not on her fucking watch! Anko clubbed Kabuto into the cliffside, punching him so hard that her wrist snapped like a twig. But Anko couldn't even feel her wrist, not when her shoulder felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand serrated knives. "Maybe she made a mistake!" Anko screamed. "Maybe she did something horrible! But the Naruko I know is a good person, a shinobi Konoha can be proud of, and you're sure as hell not gonna kill one of my kids!"
"Kukuku!" Kabuto laughed, and he was upon her before she could react. She could see his fingers dance across her knee, she could react, but she was too damn slow to do a fucking thing about it. She felt the cold steel of Kabuto's kunai against her throat, and realized his laugh hadn't been for her. "Was it worth it?" Kabuto asked an orange shimmer. "The jutsu you gave up your clan for?"
Anko followed his gaze. Not one Naruko, not two, but three. Good. She'd been afraid that Naruko was going to try to fight Kabuto, but clones were incorporeal, only useful for a…
Naruko was panting. She looked winded. But the Clone Jutsu didn't require that much chakra, and… Since when did clones create footprints? But they couldn't be real could they? Anko had never heard of any jutsu that allowed a shinobi to truly copy themselves.
"Get your hands off Sensei!" The Narukos shouted. Since when could clones talk? What the hell kind of jutsu had she just-
Not right now.
"Naruko," Anko screamed. "Get the hell out of here! Run back to Hokage Tower!"
The Narukos charged Kabuto instead. And she was damn fast, faster than when she'd fought Ankoe. Kabuto kept his grip on Anko tight, as he blocked Naruko's punch. It slipped right through his arm- A fake! The real Naruko followed in the clone's shadow, and roundhouse-kicked his knee. Kabuto buckled, smirked, and-
"NO!" Anko screamed. Kabuto had sliced Naruko's neck. She was dead.
Poof.
Naruko exploded in a cloud of smoke. And the real real Naruko leapt through it snarling, headbutting Kabuto in the gut with enough force to send them all tumbling. What the hell had just happened?
That clone that had been in the other's shadow had been no ordinary clone. It could kick and punch, and moved with all the speed of the original. Anko didn't know much else about this new jutsu, but just from that she could tell it was an S-rank ninjutsu. With that technique alone, Naruko could win almost every fight. If she'd just shown Itachi that jutsu, she'd have become a chunin on the spot. So why, in all her attempts to become a genin, had she never used that jutsu?
Kabuto's words rang in Anko's ears. This was the jutsu Naruko had been given in exchange for her home. Her clan. Her family.
Her power was evil.
Naruko must have made a vow to never use it. A vow she'd broken to save Anko's life.
Kabuto had gotten up. He was limping towards Naruko, a kunai in his hand.
Anko knew what she had to do. Orochimaru had been twisted, he had been evil, but he rarely lied. All those years ago, he'd told Anko he could make her strong. And the truth was, he hadn't lied.
Anko stopped fighting the pain in her shoulder. She let it grow, let the purple flames spread through her body, let Orochimaru's potent evil chakra coarse through her channels. Her body felt light and powerful. She felt strong. Giving into the pain felt so fucking good!
Her mind was clear: her objective was simple, she had to kill the gray-haired enemy. He still had a limp, he hadn't healed his knee yet. Anko closed the distance between them, and knocked her foot against his weak knee. His cries exhilarated her. She kept on battering his knee, until she felt a ligament snap like a stretched rubber band. His knee was bent in the wrong direction. Interesting, but she could do better. She got behind him, and grabbed a handful of hair, and put a foot against the small of his back. How much pressure to put? Just how much could the human spine bend? Was that enough? She felt a few bones start to crack and his hair gave way. She pulled it right off his scalp like she was pulling up weeds, and just like dirt always came out with roots, skin came out with the hair. Fascinating! But how much more could-
The breeze from a kunai brushed gently against her skin. Blood gushed from Kabuto's carotid artery. Naruko had sliced his neck. He was dead.
Naruko was staring at her.
Fuck.
Anko forced Orochimaru's evil chakra back into her shoulder and felt it being replaced by a familiar shame. "That was the mark," Anko said quietly. "It changes me. I'm not that kind of-"
Naruko walked towards her, her fingers glowing with fuinjutsu symbols. And Anko suddenly realized something. Uzumaki, this girl was a trained Uzumaki. The last of the only clan that truly understood sealing.
Her girls had all learned a jutsu from the scroll. Hinata had never wanted to be a fighter, so she'd learned a healing jutsu. Sakura had wanted to be taken seriously, so she'd learned a jutsu that would make everyone take notice when she threw a punch. And Naruko had wanted revenge against a shinobi powerful enough to make Orochimaru submit, so she'd… She'd learned a fucking jutsu that could seal Anko's cursed mark.
"Hold still," Naruko said, her fingers brushing lightly against Anko's shoulder. "This will tickle a little."
"You've done this before?" Anko asked. But of course it was obvious that any fuinjutsu known to Konoha had originated in Uzushiogakure.
"I recognized the seals when I saw them in the scrolls. The elders in Uzu used to do this to all the children in the clan to keep our chakra sealed," Naruko said, and Anko could feel Orochimaru's presence being constricted. The seal was already working. "Every Uzumaki knows this jutsu. To be accepted by the clan, you had to perform it. It's a rite-of-passage. This is the jutsu that separated them from the Senju."
The ache of the cursed seal was rapidly fading. Anko could finally be free from her sensei, could finally be accepted by the village, but…
Anko pulled away. The pain left from Orochimaru returned. Anko looked down at Kabuto's corpse. She could never have defeated him without the cursed mark. Had it made her more brutal, more sadistic than usual? You better fucking believe it! But had it jeopardized the mission? Not a bit, it had fucking saved the mission! Her kids were gonna have to get used to seeing a little bloodlust in their sensei!
"This power may have an evil origin," Anko told Naruko quietly. "But whether it's good or evil, that's up to fucking me."
Naruko tilted her head, narrowed her eyes. Anko knew she understood, and she knew what the blonde was thinking. What the fuck does she know? It was what Anko had thought when her friends had tried to encourage her. They'd never understood what it was like to have an evil sensei. But Anko understood.
"Naruko," Anko said. "I'll help you find The Masked Man. But it'll be up to you to kill him. Do you think you're strong enough for that?"
"I have to be," Naruko whispered. Anko smiled, and patted the girl's head. For the first time in years, she was looking forward to tomorrow.
"Well my team passed," Obito said eagerly, breaking the string of failures. It had been a few days since Anko had returned with the scroll. Itachi had called all the potential senseis back to report on their findings. Anko was feeling really good, not cuz of what she was about to do, but probably cuz she hadn't touched any alcohol in a while. Not cuz she didn't still like drinking, it just felt like she'd be letting down the girls if she tried to teach 'em while she was hungover. "I always wanted a Team, and you know what? I bet my team is gonna kick your team's ass, Kakashi!"
"Hmm," Kakashi said neutrally. "I never said that my team passed."
"Did they?" Itachi asked sharply.
Kakashi yawned. "Yes. I suppose they did."
"Yes!" Obito fist-pumped. "Team Obito is gonna crush Team Kakashi! The rivalry is back on!"
"Does the team have to have my name in it?" Kakashi asked dryly. "I'd rather not have my name associated with them. They did pass, but…"
"Kakashi!" Might Guy said loudly. "That is most unyouthful! I expected better from my rival! You must dedicate your entire heart and soul into training the next generation of shinobi!"
"I agree with Guy," Kurenai scolded. "Team Kurenai has passed as well. That is no way to talk about your students Kakashi!"
The handsome man held out a hand cooly to avoid one of Kurenai's long lectures. "I suppose you're right. It may be a bit strange, but I'd like to call my team, Team-"
"My team was a buncha weaklings, outcasts, and slackers," Anko said proudly. "The sorriest bunch of genin I've ever seen. And my team, Team Underdog, passed with flying colors. And we're gonna kick all your sorry asses!"
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! And to clarify about the whole two hokages thing, Itachi is basically a new employee. He's still a teenager, and while he has the strength, intelligence, and value system required for a hokage he still lacks experience. Danzou and Hiruzen are trying to help him along and prevent him from making any colossal mistakes. Konoha is going through a peaceful transition of power.
Amaterasu53 - Naruko doesn't contain Kurama. I've tried to nerf her as much as possible. She has better taijutsu than in cannon because she was actually trained, but she has average chakra reserves and can only create one shadow clone. Of course, in this universe, the shadow clone jutsu is basically a kekkei genkei that was given to her in exchange for her clan.