Naruto met Anko Mitarashi during a hot day of Fire Country's ending summer. The boy figured it explained her outfit. The kunoichi barely hid her toned body under a mesh shirt - a skin-tight piece of armour made of fine grey silk mixed with spined polyurethane fibres reinforced with a lattice of steel wires. It left almost nothing to the imagination as it hugged her sinfully. She had shorts made of the same material and Naruto was thankful that they were hidden beneath a skirt, albeit one of provocative length.

Then, on top of that, she had a trenchcoat and honestly, Naruto wasn't sure if the overall result was a disguise to make him, and the men in Konoha in general, lose their shit - he was a hormonal teenager, Kami dammit! - or if it was supposed to be her legitimate attire reflecting her taste in clothing.

He used to wear orange and part of his clothes still had orange so he didn't want to judge but that was still weird.

The woman had purple hair done in a spiky ponytail, some bangs framing a round, attractive face with slanted, chocolate brown eyes, a small nose and thin lips chewing on a stick of dango. Naruto would soon learn the dango stick was an integral component of Anko Mitarashi's person.

"'llo Kiddo! Name is Anko Mitarashi, ex-apprentice to Orochimaru, pleased to meet you!" She said while offering a hand to the blond Naruto.

There was no pride in her tone as she mentioned her ex-master, one of Konoha foremost traitor. Rather, Naruto was almost startled by the way she spat the man's name like it was poison. He wasn't sure why Anko had introduced herself like that. Maybe she thought he would have a problem with her ex-relation to Orochimaru.

The blond shrugged. Two could play that game. He shook her hand. "Naruto Uzumaki, Mitarashi-san. Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi though you likely know that already." He said with as much provocation as he was capable of. "I'm apprenticed under Ibiki-sensei but I'm also taught by Sandaime-sama." He finished smugly.

The woman looked at him for a second, stumped before her visage seemed to open and brighten up. She laughed. "We'll get along, Kiddo, I can already tell. Alright, what do you know of the mission?"

Naruto answered with a smile before he grimaced and scratched the back of his head. "Honestly not much, Mitarashi-san. I know we're supposed to look for spies but I haven't the foggiest where to even begin."

"Good, Ibiki told me you're here to learn anyway. So you'll learn. Hunting spies and rooting them out is exciting, you'll see." Anko spoke enthusiastically, a large smile on her face.

"Ready when you are, Mitarashi-san."

"None of this "san" with me Kiddo. Anko will do."

"Hai."

Anko, Naruto discovered soon enough, had a very Anko-way of doing things and almost immediately, Naruto found himself wrapped in her rhythm.

It was far from unpleasant as he spent most of the days following their meeting with Anko at her favourite dango shop, chatting about this and that, drinking tea and eating dumplings almost non-stop, developing a taste for it in the process.

She was a woman who enjoyed simplicity; the blond understood that quickly. Stuffing her face with sweets and lazing on a sunny afternoon was her definition of a good time when she wasn't in training ground fourth-four to sweat the calories and taking care of her "killer figure".

Apparently Naruto had passed some sort of test when meeting her which had automatically put him on Anko's list of "okay people". It had earned him a nickname and the young woman always had a smile for him and their interactions felt genuine, even when talking about things that weren't strictly related to work. Spending nearly all his time - save for some training in the morning with Gai and Lee, occasional tutoring session with the Hokage about ninjutsu and games of Uzumaki-ball in the Academy - with her on the investigation allowed the boy to get to know her.

She regaled Naruto with tales of her missions gone wrong - and apparently, all her missions went wrong, made him explore the Forest of Death and taught him how to brew a good tea and hold himself during a tea ceremony.

They weren't slacking off, however, far from it. At the end of the day, inspired by the sugar-high induced by the many dango sticks she inhaled like he did ramen bowls, Anko would proceed to drag him to her apartment where they would finally get to work, often time throughout the night.

Thankfully, she allowed Naruto to sleep in, most of the time. He wouldn't have survived the new lifestyle otherwise.

Their job was straightforward: they had been given a list of suspects by T&I and they had to identify possible spies and argue why they thought so. From what Naruto understood, the list had been made by a team of analysts by crossing various clues and known behaviour of people to isolate a bunch of individuals who were susceptible to be engaged in traitorous activities. He wasn't made aware of the specifics but tabs were kept on every ninja of the village through regular psych-eval. The shinobis accepted the breach of their privacy as another sacrifice necessary to protect their home. If they had nothing to hide, they had nothing to fear.

The psych-evals didn't reveal traitors, of course, they only showed an individual's particularism and were used by T&I in their search for possible patterns. But even then, they were of limited use.

After all, good shinobis were warned against habits. As the saying went, habits led to complacency and complacency got people killed. So many tried to not establish any or at least, they tried hard to make them unremarkable. Someone seemingly completely unimportant wasn't necessary a suspect because it might just be a way to protect themselves, much like someone who tried hard to amass fame wasn't necessarily to discard as it might be a cover-up. What better spy than the one who is adored by the population? Yet again, the one going unnoticed wasn't a bad spy either.

As such, the list was made from people either too remarkable or not remarkable at all, all officially under jounin level, working in places where they had access to intelligence in all its form.

In the end, Naruto understood the goal of the game was to be paranoid but be reasonable about it. By the very definition of paranoia, it was antithetic.

Anko laughed when he exclaimed that during one of their nightly work session.

"So you fought my sensei during your own chuunin examination?"

Naruto and Anko were seated at the woman's reserved table in the only dango shop she graced with her presence, claiming the dumplings to be the best in Konoha.

Naruto suspected she had elected this place because the hosts were very friendly, even with him. Compound that with the fact he had seen the wary looks Anko received by the general populace and this particular dango shop was to the young woman what Ichiraku ramen was to Naruto.

The blond wasn't sure why Anko seemed to be seen with such animosity. It was less pronounced than the one he was receiving and she seemed to be trusted and recognized as a good kunoichi by her peers but the civilians eyed her with disdain.

Was that because of her old affiliation with Orochimaru? Maybe. Naruto wasn't sure what crimes the member of the Sannin had committed to be disavowed - it wasn't exactly public knowledge. The fact was that the man was one of Konoha's foremost missing-nin and was the root of enough fear that his sins impacted his loyal ex-student negatively.

"Right," was answering Anko. "He had puffy cheeks at the time and no scar across his face of course." She said with a smile.

Naruto tried to imagine his master with puffy cheeks and was rewarded with Ibiki glaring at him. The blond chuckled. "I can't see it."

"Don't be abused by his hardass persona, Ibiki is a kind man."

Naruto nodded. "I know. He's kinda scary though, especially when he makes me run the obstacle course."

Anko laughed. "That he is." She agreed before she seemed to register what the boy had just told her. "Oh, you run through that? What's your time?"

"A minute and forty seconds."

The purple-haired woman whistled. "Not bad Kiddo, not bad at all."

Naruto scratched the back of his head bashfully. "Hehe, just wait until I'm beating the Yondaime's record."

"Hahaha, you're aiming high Naru-chan, that's good. Always aim high. Even if you miss, you'll end higher than those who didn't try."

"Anyway, who won?" The blond asked with a large smile, trying to hide his embarrassment at being complimented.

"Pah! Do you have to ask? Of course, the one and only Anko Mitarashi! I totally won!"

"You lost, didn't you?" Naruto deadpanned.

Crocodile tears poured from Anko's eyes and her pouting lips were trembling just right. "Yes! He was so mean, too!"

"How did he do it?"

"Well, not to toot my own horn but I'm a pretty good kunoichi, you see. But Ibiki… Even at the time, he was a true genius about mind games."

"So what happened?"

"He convinced my comrade it would be better to just surrender our mission objective to him."

Naruto's eyes widened before he crossed his arms on his chest. "No. I refuse to believe that worked. You're leading me by the nose. He isn't that good right?"

Anko touched her lips with her right hands. "I swear it's the truth." She said before she nodded sagely. "If you piss him off, he can be really sadistic."

"And you were the one who had him pissed I bet!"

"Naaaaah," she protested immediately. "Maybe?" She held up her right thumb and index finger a hairbreadth apart. "Little bit. I might have taunted his chubby cheeks."

Naruto snorted. "I'm sure you had chubby cheeks too. Your face is too round for it to be otherwise."

Anko wiggled her eyebrows. "Oh oh oh, I have two chubby cheeks for you to feel but they aren't up there if you get my meaning."

Naruto reddened. "Ero-snake lady."

Anko laughed at the blond's muttered protests. "Anyway, Ibiki's bluff did work so I had to kick my teammate's ass and then, we had to redo the test all over again."

"You became chuunin at your first try?"

"Naru-chan, no one becomes a chuunin during the chuunin examination."

Naruto cocked one eyebrow up, his confusion clear on his face. "Aren't they… Organized for just that?"

"Nah, in fact, not at all. You'll become a chuunin once you have a few years of experience leading a team under your jounin sensei or as the second-in-command of a chuunin. You'll get recommended for a promotion. The exams are nothing but a show, Naru-chan."

"A show?"

Anko nodded. "Yup. Rather than fight it out on the battlefield, we organize a bloody competition between villages. Basically, the one village fielding the genins who die the less gets a boost in standing. Or the one fielding the genins who kill the most, depending on how the negotiations went. A good rep' means contracts. Contracts mean money."

"Wait… Negotiations?"

The woman sighed. "I guess you wouldn't know about it since you haven't been entered in an exam yet."

"Know about what?"

"Chuunin exams are a show, as I told you, a PR stunt. As such, they are carefully organised by the participants in order to… Orient, the results. Some exams are pretty armless, some others are pretty bloody." Anko shrugged her shoulders. "Just a way to please our most important clients depending on what they want to see."

Naruto had nothing to say to that and silently opted for disgust.

"Actual chuunin promotions are based on proper actions in the field."

"Why are we even participating in this… This masquerade?"

Anko brushed a finger against one of the boy's whiskered cheeks and smiled sadly "People enjoy seeing blood spilt as long as it isn't theirs."

"We cater to that?"

Anko's face darkened. "Konoha not so much but when the village is invited to participate in another country, then yes."

Naruto sighed. "What the hell. Really, what the actual fucking hell?"

The purpled-haired woman patted the blond on his shoulder. "Don't ask yourself too much question, Naru-chan. That's the way of things."

"Well, then things are going the wrong way. I don't mind fighting when it makes sensei, I killed to protect my teammates but for a PR stunt? The hell are we on to accept that?"

"Keep in mind it's also used to avoid solving these kinds of quarrels about contracts and influence on an actual battlefield. It isn't perfect but it keeps war from happening."

"From happening too often you mean."

Anko smiled sadly once again. "Yeah, you can say that." The young woman emptied her cup. "Alright, enough with these depressing subjects. No use focusing on what we can't change! Com'on, we have a spy to catch and that we can do!"

Hurriedly, Naruto followed the woman, her final words looping inside his head. Anko seemed to be a fan of saying that, in various ways, but it always came back to a simple consideration on life: do what you can and don't harp on what you cannot do.

The blond frowned as he followed Anko to her home. Could they truly not make anything change?

As mere shinobi, they could not, Naruto had to admit Anko was right. Only the Hokage had the power to change such important things.

"Him?" Naruto asked in a tired drawl.

The Uzumaki and Anko were holed-up in Anko's flat for the night. The place was spacious, comfortable, decorated with taste and care. The first time Naruto had seen, he had not believed it belonged to Anko. But he hadn't expected her to know anything about tea ceremony either so to see her flat decorated with onerous calligraphy panel was a surprise he had surmounted easily.

"Explain your reasoning." The purple-haired answered without looking up from the report she was reading.

It was a week and a half already since Naruto had been paired with Anko in this "hunting the spy" mission. The blond had discovered one thing and it was that Anko could totally lie. Hunting a spy was not fun.

"Urgh." Naruto sighed, his head between his hands. "He is ugly?"

Anko exploded in laughter. "Bwahaha, y-you're r-right, hahaha!" The tokunin breathed deeply. "He is goddam ugly." She suddenly found her seriousness again. "It's not enough though. If we locked up every ugly people in Konoha, you'd be behind bars"

The blond stuck his tongue out. "Well, you'd be put to death then." He retorted, causing crocodile tears to stream down Anko's cheeks.

"Naru-chan doesn't love me anymore," she complained, drawing circles on the table with her finger.

Naruto ignored her and eyed the picture of the shinobi whose report he was holding. Truly, the young adult's facial features were… Rough. That was the nicest way the blond could put it. Yoroi Akado, genin.

"You know," said the blond suddenly inspired. "What if we check good looking people? It would make sense for a spy to be attractive, right? I mean, people tend to trust good-looking people more easily, correct?"

"Yeah, it's well known," Anko confirmed. "It's so well known that nobody bothers sending good looking people as spies."

"Really?" The blond asked in a dubitative tone.

"No, of course not. A spy is selected because of their talents, like for any other mission."

"Damit, I was hoping, with my roguishly good looks, I'd get an easy position somewhere easy."

Anko snorted. "Spying is never easy Naru-chan. And you aren't roguishly handsome. You're boyishly cute."

"Ha! So I am cute!"

"Sure Naru-chan, focus."

"If you keep calling me "chan", I'll never get to be handsome. I'll be frozen in the cute-zone." The blond whined.

The woman took one of the boy's cheeks and pulled at it. "I like cute." She pulled harder, causing Naruto to grimace. "Now focus. Do you have any reasonable suspicion about this dude you showed me?"

Naruto slapped the hand away from his face. "Well, it's noted he knows how to absorb chakra."

"And?"

"It's suspicious."

Naruto returned the flat gaze his teammate was giving him by shaking the report. "Oh come on, what is the likelihood that he would develop such an ability alone? As far as I know, Konoha doesn't have any secret labs where we do secret experiments on our shinobi, correct?"

Anko nodded slowly. "Right. Absolutely. So?" She dismissed with a wave of her dango stick.

"Well, then, how did this guy gain this ability?"

Anko pointed at one part of the record. "Had it since birth. Useful mutations are rare but it's not an unknown phenomenon for a baby to develop a strange ability. Sometimes, it even turns into a Kekkei Genkai."

"Okay but this is a powerful ability. He shouldn't be a genin."

"Maybe there's a drawback to it. There isn't everything on us in those reports, precisely because they could be stolen by a spy for all the intel they hold. And being promoted to chuunin isn't related so much to your combat ability as it is with your capacity for leadership." Anko pointed out, absorbed with cleaning yet another stick of dango.

"Then he must be a terrible ninja because he has been a genin for ten years already, close to eleven. I've seen some chuunin in our list who are worse than this guy. At least in theory. I mean, this guy is the same age as Iruka-sensei! How is he even a ninja still?"

Anko snatched the report out of Naruto's hands and as she read it, her brow rose accordingly.

"Okay. That's weird. He has eleven years of experience and he only has been considered for chuunin once? Last year?" Anko's eyes were reduced to slit as the woman muttered her thoughts out loud "That's wrong. Either you learn or you die, that's the deal with our job. Not being chuunin I get but to be considered only once in ten years of service? This guy never had to survive a mission gone wrong or what? And this kind of stuff happens all the time."

Silence fell as Anko suddenly ceased to talk. Naruto didn't dare say a word, afraid to break the tokunin's focus.

"This career. It's perfectly charted. Almost too much. Shit happens in real life and plans get fucked up but not in the life of Yoroi Akado."

"Could he be a perfectly unremarkable kind of spy?"

Anko nodded slowly. "Yeah." She hesitated for a second as her eyes were suddenly drawn to the name of the genin's jounin sensei. After ten years, the genin wasn't serving under a jounin sensei anymore obviously. Elite ninjas were too precious to be wasted for too long on people who didn't make any progress. "Yeah, he could be." The purple-haired woman sighed. "I hope he isn't."

"What's the matter?"

"His jounin-sensei."

Naruto hesitated, seeing the trouble marring Anko's features. "What is it?"

"Yoroi was under the command of one of my old teammates."

"You… Do you think...?"

"No. Hamada is perfectly loyal, I trust him. Still though, if it's revealed he has trained a traitor… His reputation will take a hit."

"Well, let's not burn bridges. We have to establish he is a traitor first. His report could be a coincidence."

Naruto crossed Anko's gaze. She had many times his experience but even he knew coincidence didn't happen in the shinobi business.

AN: This chapter had a wildly different end. Then I was like "that escalated way too quickly" so I scrapped it.

Out of curiosity, do you use filters when looking for a fic? Mines are "all ratings", "English", "Naruto" and "No OC".

Anyway, just a word of appreciation for all your reviews. I read each one of them, answer some and turn them all into moar chapters. By the way, leave one?