It's pitch-black, and she can't even make out her own two hands. She heard nobody, felt nobody. The ground was like ice. Where was this?
"There you are."
The voice traveled downward to reach earshot, and Anko recognizes the sinister presence. Something she cannot forget.
Lanterns lit up slanted walls with no warning, casting an orange glow. One of his hideouts.
"Why are you never happy to see me any more? You used to practically grovel at my feet."
"I did teach you almost everything you know.. So, you owe me. In a sense."
"I.. hate you," She struggled to get the words out, wishing she could be half as terrifying.
Authentic hatred accompanied the disapproving glare, and he watched his former pupil lean against her knees, speaking to herself in a strange manner.
"I'll overlook that because you seem to be suffering from some mental illness."
That patronizing tone, that same way.. He had always treated everyone with immeasurable bitterness, his superiority destined to intimidate them. Even as his number one student, she wasn't good enough. For years, she believed he gave up on her. Wiping her memory to make a fact of it. Confusion about the past plagued her for more than a decade, and the truth did everything but set her free.
"Y-You're not here! You can't be here.. Get out!" She spoke defiantly, locked to the ground. She was just becoming aware of how hard she cried, probably the reason her throat sounded so sore and panicky.
"Your will used to be strong, Anko. I never told you, but I always admired that one quality. The Leaf has weakened you more than I thought."
"Shut up, Orochimaru," She gathered enough courage to stand, wobbly at first. "you.. worthless bastard."
He smiled his signature ominous smile, still above her. On a set of stairs, a throne of sorts. Flaunting his place as her senior. "Don't say such ugly things."
Anko fumbled around, unable to find the weapons pouch usually on her person. Attacking him.. would be futile. A battle that didn't need to be fought in order to lose.
"Don't bother," The Sannin outstretched his arms, "if only I had kept you.. You would be better off. The amount of potential wasted."
"I left!" She clenched her fists, "I left you and I'm glad I did. You were worst teacher ever! I'll never get the time I wasted on you back."
"That's one way of looking at it, I suppose. You'll forever have ignorance on your side."
"You're so fucked up.. I don't know why I stayed as long as I did. I'll never choose you."
"Who will you choose, then?"
A figure emerged from the floor, inky black snakes leaking off the summon. Dead behind the eyes, a reincarnated corpse with no soul.
"Ka.. Kakashi?"
"I'll kill him right away, or I'll have him take your life. You can decide. I personally prefer the latter. The village's beloved Hokage.. you have limitless trust in him, or am I wrong?"
Anko froze in horror, the replica arming himself with a knife. His left eye was a mad pool of red, a hint that lead her to believe everything had to be fake.
"I'll make sure he uses the Sharingan on you before death," Orochimaru assured ominously, "I'll re-implant the eye myself. It's simply a matter of who goes first."
"Why... Why are you doing this?"
"You should not have picked this village over me. You'll finally pay for that choice. Suffer."
Sparks uncontrollably powered off Kakashi's right hand, awaiting some signal.
"Kill her."
If it wasn't real, she would know by then. She couldn't get hit. He lashed toward her, and she escaped the blow by centimeters. Pieces of wall crumbled around them, the hideout teetering on the verge of collapse.
"Stop!" Anko cried, adrenaline pumping faster than she could handle. This had to be some new torture. "Orochimaru.. You can't do this!"
"I can," He reeled back, and Kakashi returned to his side like a puppet. "and I will. No one can stop me. He could not before, and he will certainly fail if he dares to try again. This Hokage will be easiest of all to take out."
"Why?", was all she asked, her worst nightmare becoming a reality.
"He stole you from me, that's why."
Her head shot up at that, because the statement itself was so illogical and untrue. What the hell did that mean?
Different species of snake began wrapping themselves around the clone, attempting a slow smothering.
"Stop it!" Anko screamed, dragging herself up the steps at a painfully slow pace. Nothing restrained her, but she couldn't move fast enough. Like something held her back. "Please don't touch him!"
She jerked upright, breathing inconsistently, experiencing an intense cold sweat. She frantically tried remembering anything before the actual dream took place, but nothing came to mind. The events already jumbled out of sequence, and she had the worst time piecing it together.
Night terrors for her nowadays were a rare occurrence, just unannounced and excruciating. What was the meaning? Was there a meaning? To toy with her emotions a little more?
Her former mentor was often the subject of her nightmares. Haunted her dreams from a teenager to a young adult, onto mid-twenties.. An endless abuse she had been used to. This particular one felt much different.
Anko hesitantly slid her hand behind her neck, almost afraid to find the same old mark. A permanent brand she had learned to accept over the years. A constant reminder of him, the past she wanted so desperately to leave behind. She could not see it, but she knew it wasn't there. Just skin.
Still racked from fear, she brought her knees up, careful not to disturb the sleep-deprived man beside her. He stayed relatively inanimate, and she did not understand how exhausted he seemed until then. At least one of them would get rest tonight.
Growing up, Orochimaru had to have been the biggest influence in her life. She trusted him, he made her feel safe, everything he said sounded smart.. he didn't betray her immediately. He was her role model, and she aspired to reflect his image positively. Set all her goals around him.
Only recently realizing most of it was a lie. She wondered what had made him so willing to abandon her. Knowing it was her resilience all along. She would learn eventually that he did not crave the independent-thinker type. He would find those he could manipulate.
Anko refused that life, because she was not completely closed-minded. But she was for all those years. You never needed him. Blinded by her youth, the emotional investment, and perhaps envy mixed with a little infatuation.
She preferred that pain over seeing him threaten the lives of the people she cared about so much. She couldn't put it past him. He was a twisted guy.
Typically, she might put her vest on and go for a late walk, get some air to hopefully feel a little better. However, everything hadn't sank in yet, so she held off.
Anko slipped gingerly back down under the blankets, thoughts turning to someone she didn't absolutely hate.
His back faced her, but she could make out the whole room with help of fading moonlight. His nose was uncovered by the mask, letting him breathe more comfortably. How does someone sleep with a cloth over their face anyways?
Even he could not defeat Orochimaru in his prime; that was a given. The dream was hard to comprehend alone, and remembering what he said word for word.. It scared her to hear, even if it wasn't real. Her imagination hadn't been nearly so vivid lately. Kakashi would not harm her.
Anko wanted to be close to him, and not only due to the warmth he emanated.
They got along famously when both were in an obliging mood, or when she didn't say exactly what weighed on her mind. Step down, she said, and he took that as doubts regarding his skill. She saw that he preferred other topics of discussion.
So after having him read a few lines of his inauguration speech out loud, she told him how dull and repetitive it sounded. In all brutal honesty, Kakashi wasn't incredibly creative. He was not a man of many words. However, she would look forward to hearing a speech by Naruto Uzumaki some day in the future. A more memorable, well-thought out acceptance speech that had to be in the making for years. Achieving the title of Hokage was never Kakashi Hatake's dream.
Anko shakily brought her hand to his back, opting instead to run three fingers through gray strands. Soft breathing, no reaction. Making sure he was there. Well and living.
She talked him into buying takeout for her as repayment for listening to that god-awful speech of his.
And then soon after, spent hours alone crying her heart out.