AN: Yey! I got this out relatively on time!not two weeks late.

Stats as of 12/10/2009:

Words: 28,108

Chapters: 4

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Draw whatever conclusions you want from the stats. I've seen some authors who do this and I liked it. I'll repost the stats every five chapters.

This chapter contains the first fight scene I've written. So, please tell me if I did a good job at it. (I hope I did.) There will be several technical notes at the end to explain various techniques used in the fight. Enjoy!


Chapter 5
A Snake Is Revealed

From Anko's point of view, the expanse of forest beyond the fence in front of her really wasn't worth all the hype it got. Oh yes, she knew it had giant leaches, man-eating plants, and giant tigers in it, but compared to giant snakes, people with the curse seal level two, and Sensei, it really isn't that bad. Not to mention she knew about the network of tunnels beneath the forest floor that connected the village to the tower that just had to have many entrances scattered throughout the forest. Of course, it kind of helps that Sensei's genuinely likes the Forrest of Death. This is going to be easy.

What was going to be easy was getting to the place where the trails were held. There was no way they could be held in the stadium that was used for the Chunin Exams; it was too public. Instead, the trials were held in the tower in the middle of Training Ground #44. It really was an ideal location. In order to get there, you needed to go through a little more than six miles of an oversized forest teaming with life that matched its scale, not the world outside. For anybody chunin level or below, they might be able to get to the tower in less then five hours, and that was with being let in a gate at the electrified fence that encircled the entire forest. If you were above chunin level, it was much easier, or at least it was supposed to be. As for the Anko, she, and the other ANBU hopefuls she assumed, were to somehow bypass the electric fence, travel through the forest (they were not allowed to shunshin to the tower), and get to the tower at 8am without anyone knowing they were there. For Anko, that wouldn't be hard at all.

Getting over, or rather under, the fence was easy. Because her ash shunshin could potentially set off the fence, Anko used an old trick of her sensei's. She melted into the earth on her side of the fence before shunshining beneath the ground and melting out of the earth on the forest side of fence. With a smirk, Anko went over to the too-normal-for-the-forest-of-death tree she had been looking for and channeled chakra directly into the trunk. A portion of the trunk slid upward to reveal a hole that went down through the trunk of the tree into the earth. Anko dropped down into the hole and the trunk slid down to cover it. Laughing, she ran down the tunnel towards the tower.


Come on, come on, come on! Anko thought as she pushed up on the trap door that led into the tower. It shouldn't be this difficult to open! She gave it one last push and the door popped open. One look at the floor told Anko exactly why the door had been so hard to open.

"Sorry, Hokage-sama," Anko nervously laughed. "But unless you're a Hyuuga, you really can't know when someone's on top of the door."

After making sure Sarutobi and his chair were upright and the ANBU in the room didn't try to kill her, Ibiki asked her, "How did you find out about those tunnels? I know you couldn't have found out about those in the three days you've been here."

Anko shrugged. "The Forest of Death was always Sensei's favorite training ground. It was one of the few places he said he actually missed when he left Konoha. So, he talked a lot about it, not that I minded, it was a nice break from the usual stuff, and told me exactly what to expect from it."

"Including secret ways to bypass the entire thing?" Ibiki raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Anko smiled her usual psychotic grin. "One of the better things I learned from him. Ja ne." She walked out of the surveillance room and ran to the arena on the bottom floor of the tower, completely ignoring the looks she got from ANBU stationed throughout the tower.


In the arena were the ANBU hopefuls. Not counting Anko, there were nine of them. Anko was the youngest person there and the only girl in the room. From the circles under their eyes and dirt on their gear, it was obvious they had all gone through the forest at night. Anko almost pitied them. The only person who stood out to her was a brown-haired man with a scar across the bridge of his nose. He was sitting in the most optimal place in the room to keep an eye on everything; the back corner directly opposite the entrance. He had either gotten there first or everybody else had been too stupid or tired to walk across the room to get to the corner; they were leaning inattentively against the walls. Anko cheekily laid up on the other best spot in the room for observation, the ceiling.

After ten minutes the Hokage and ANBU shunshined onto the observation decks. The Hokage looked at the people in the arena and a quick look of surprise was seen on his face. It was replaced with a look of understanding when he saw Anko on the ceiling. He frowned at her and she gave him her usual psychotic grin before dropping down to the floor.

The Hokage cleared his throat. "Seeing as we're all ANBU, I'm going to cut through all the formalities and get right to the point. You guys are going to fight a current ANBU member. Depending how well you do you'll be let in. Go up to the other deck and watch the fights until your name is called."

Anko and everybody else went up the the viewing decks and settled down to watch. The first eight matches were a joke. The hopefuls were beaten in less then a minute by the ANBU they were facing. They were so obviously bad, Anko didn't even bother memorizing their names. After each of them were beaten, they were escorted out of the arena.

The man with the scar across his nose was the ninth. His fight was different than the others. The techniques he used were were basic, but his understanding and execution of such techniques was flawless. His fight was much longer and far more interesting to watch. When he was finally overcome by his opponent, Hayate, it was obvious he was making ANBU. Anko was definitely remembering his name: Umino Iruka. Instead of being told to leave the arena, Iruka was told to stay and watch Anko's fight.


"Will Mitarashi Anko and Uchiha Itachi go to the floor of the arena?" the Hokage asked.

I couldn't have planned any better! Anko was ecstatic. She loved a good fight and an Uchiha could probably provide the best fight out of everyone in the room. Kage, Manda, I'll definitely let you guys out if he's as good as the Uchiha say they are. She quickly scanned the room and found the person who was also moving toward the stairs. He was definitely an Uchiha. Long, smooth black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and bangs fell over his black eyes and pale skin. Anko could see just by the way he carried himself that he was probably the most emotionless person in the room. It surprised her that he could be this good without having emotions; in her experience, the more emotions a person felt, the better they could fight and the less emotions they had, the worse they fought. Or at least, they give up a lot quicker. The biggest surprise she got was when she saw how old he was, he looked to be about her age. He better put up a good fight...

Itachi heard his name and watched carefully to see who would start moving. The person who did was a girl with short purple hair pulled up in a spiky ponytail. She wore khaki trench coat over a black shirt, black shorts and a tan mini-skirt. Strapped across her back was a personalized katana. One look at her face told Itachi she was probably never emotionless and wanted to fight. That just might help me out. I hope...

By now the two of them were facing each other in the arena. "Hajime!" the Hokage shouted.

Itachi immediately went into a stance from his family's taijutsu style. Anko didn't even move. She stayed where she was, her arms crossed, her weight shifted to the side. "We don't have all day, Uchiha. Don't even bother waiting for me to move," she told him, trying to goad him into attacking first. It's a win-win situation for me, Uchiha. I know exactly what to expect from you if you attack, and you don't know what I will do if I attack you. Figure it out. I want a good fight. Why'd I have to pick up that love from Sensei?

Itachi held his position. Whoever attacked first had the element of surprise, but if you expected an attack, you had the advantage. Right now though, Itachi didn't know what this girl was going to do or how she would react to his attack. It would be so much better if she was in a recognized taijutsu stance. From what she said, she is willing to wait until I attack. Why did I have to get the one no one knows about? Another thought ran through his head. Ibiki said she would be hard for me to beat because of who taught her and because of her mind set. I should have asked him what he meant by that. He looked again at Anko and saw she had arched her eyebrow and was tapping her fingers, both in what was probably impatience. Fine. You win this round. Itachi moved across the arena to knock her out, he hoped, while she still wasn't prepared for his assault.

Anko saw him coming before he even moved just by the way his weight shifted and his eyes locked onto her. When will they ever learn to stop telling me where they're going to go? she asked herself as quickly moved out of the range of his attack and snapped two kunai at him faster than the eye could see. They hit him in the thigh, drawing blood. For the first time, Anko saw an emotion on Itachi's face, amazement. She grinned. He had shown her that he actually had emotions even if they were heavily repressed. Now to get him to lose that control. "You're not the only one who can predict people's movements." She slowly walked in front of him as if he wasn't even there, casually flicking a kunai between her fingers. Come on. Fall for the bait and try and track the kunai with you sharingan. I want to see it.

As he pulled the kunai out of his leg, Itachi was in shock. She should not have know how to pull a move like that. The Uchiha's taijutsu style was never taught to anyone outside the clan. The only way she could have known how to exploit the style would be if someone from his family had taught it to her. The question is, who would betray our family to do that. "Who taught you how to read our taijutsu?" he finally asked her. "Which Uchiha told you?"

Anko's crazy laughter rang out. "Don't worry, Uchiha. No Uchiha taught me how to read you or how to exploit you. My sensei taught me how to do that and he did a very good job it." One of the few things I can actually thank him for. Without warning she flicked the kunai at him. It scratched the side of his neck close to his jugular. Hurry up and activate the sharingan. It'll make this easier for me. I don't like to be sloppy.

I couldn't even tell she was going to throw it, let alone where it was going to go. She's too fast, I think... Itachi activated his sharingan. "If he taught you how to do that, who taught him that?" he returned.

Finally you show your sharingan! "Nobody." Anko smirked. "He got annoyed with both of Konoha's doujutsu so he developed a taijutsu style from scratch that made the sharingan and byakugan useless. Interesting enough, it works well against almost everything else as well." The Hebi style, not that I'll tell you that; it'll give too much away.

You would have to be a genus to come up with a style like that. Itachi dared one more question. "Who was he? Who was your sensei?"

"You'll find out by the time we're finished here. I promise you that." The level of the match shifted up a notch.

Itachi's eyes widened as a predatory gleam appeared in Anko's eyes and she hungrily licked her lips. It seemed to Itachi he was looking at a coiled snake, ready to strike without waring and he was its prey. Itachi tried to get the image out of his head, but it stayed with him until the fight was over. Fear made it's way into his mind; Itachi had not been in this position for a long time. He realized she had stopped playing around and was getting serious, maybe too serious.


Next to the Hokage, Ibiki spoke. "Brings back old memories, doesn't it?"

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, indeed it does." He recognized the look in Anko's eyes and thought back to a pale skinned, black haired boy. "Indeed it does." He knew then and there who would win the fight and it was not going to be Itachi.


Suddenly, Anko struck. One second she was causally standing in front of Itachi, the next she was driving two kunai towards the base of his skull from behind. Itachi never saw her. Panic flooded through his body. The sharingan did not lose people's positions. How did she do that? She was not joking when she said her taijutsu style rendered the sharingan useless. But how does it do that?

Anko grinned as she wove around Itachi. She could practically see what he was thinking. Keep trying to figure out how Hebi style works. When you do, you'll switch to ninjutsu because my winning in a taijutsu fight ends with your death. Not that we'll use ninjutsu very long anyway.

After fighting Anko for at least five minutes, Itachi was beginning to see why he couldn't see her. It was not because of her speed, like he first thought, but because of her movement, or rather, because of her lack of movement. The sharingan predicted movement by taking in all the tiny changes people made when they were going to move, weight shifting, eyes flickering, hands twitching, and calculated what the person would do based off of those. Most of those movements couldn't be seen with a normal eye, hence why people didn't get rid of them, but with the sharingan, those movements were huge.

The reason, Itachi realized, he couldn't tell what Anko was going to do or where she was going to go was because she made none of those changes. Instead, she spontaneously moved from a neutral position. That took out the change of the shifting weight. She also never looked at what she was aiming at, thus getting rid of the flickering eyes. The twitching hands were taken care of by a forearm holder for her kunai which she used with deadly accuracy... That's it! Itachi realized with horror. Anko's style is not designed to maim, but to kill... "Why are you trying to kill me?!" he shouted at her, losing his emotional control momentarily.

"I'm not trying to kill you; that's just the way my style works." Yes! Finally you figured it out. Anko was ecstatic as she made another attempt for one of Itachi's kidneys which he ducked. "In fact, I don't think I've ever been this sloppy before on purpose. Besides, the Hokage told me not to, so I won't."

"I don't believe you." Your style is reminiscent of a snake's movement; quick and fatal. Nobody trusts a snake. Itachi moved his hands through seals at lightning speed and let forth a fireball from his mouth.

When she saw the fireball coming for her, Anko went through her own handseals. Let's see how you like this. A wall of what seemed to be purple glass rose up in front of her. The fire hit it and both the wall and the fire disintegrated into nothingness.

Itachi's momentary shock at his blocked technique cost him. Four snakes shot out of the dissipating fireball and rapped themselves around him, pinning one of his arms to his side. He looked to see the source of them and his eyes widened when he saw they came out of Anko's sleeve. The only person who used snakes like that was Orochimaru. If she has a connection to the snake, why would the Hokage let her in the village? From there he turned to the more pressing matter at hand. As it was, his trapped arm ruled out making any jutsu ...except that one... and he had a feeling that if he tried to escape Anko wouldn't have a hard time recapturing him. I guess I'll just have to use that jutsu, even though I was saving it for an ace.

Anko saw a subtle change in Itachi's face before he started making unfamiliar one handed seals. What on earth is he doing?

"This ends here, snake. Kasuiton: Hoekidame no Jutsu!" Itachi took a deep breath and breathed out what looked like fire towards Anko. She retracted the snakes and jumped onto the ceiling. The fire sloshed onto the floor and spread until it was several inches thick. Itachi calmly landed on the still burning fire and looked at Anko, pleased that he succeeded in surprising her for once. Kyuubi, thanks for the kekkei genkai and thanks for making me immune to it.

On the ceiling, Anko was thinking fast. I can't stand on that and he's already guessing who my sensei was. Plus he's a good opponent to have lasted this long. She bit her thumb to draw blood and swiped the blood across her summoning tattoo. "Uchiha," she called. "If you're bringing out your ace, I might as well bring out mine." She flipped off the ceiling as she snapped her bloody fingers.

Itachi gaped as smoke filled the room and something heaved under him. He looked up and gasped at what he saw. Anko was standing on the head of a gigantic purple snake with black stripes and four backwards facing spikes on the back of its head. The head itself was up near the ceiling while the rest of its body sprawled across the entire arena floor, effectively creating another floor over his jutsu. He himself was now standing on one of its coils. Itachi knew who the snake was. It was Manda, Orochimaru's favorite summon. So, I was right, she does know the snake sennin. It was a known fact that when Orochimaru left, he took the snake summoning contract with him. The only way anyone could summon snakes was if they knew him and not just anyone wanted to know the snake sennin that well. "Orochimaru was your sensei," Itachi stated. "That explains everything."

"I haven't heard that tone in a while." Manda rumbled. "Uchiha. I must say, Anko, I know I trained you better then for you to have trouble with one of them."

"Not Uchiha with extra kekkei genkai." Anko replied.

"What? Extra kekkei genkai. Why can't Orochimaru ever summon me for opponents like this?" For some reason, Manda sounded annoyed. "So, what's his kekkei genkai aside from the sharingan?"

"He called it Kasuiton, fire-water release. It has the heat and flames of fire and is expelled like a katon, but it behaves like a liquid and hasn't disappeared like a suiton. Seeing as the Uchiha's walking on it, he's probably immune to it... and that's it."

I hoped she wouldn't figure it out that fast, Itachi thought.

Manda laughed. "Sounds like fun. I'll be your floor. Have as much fun at it as I will."

"Sure thing." Anko finally turned to Itachi. "Let's go. I hate to be kept waiting." She placed her hand on the hilt her katana and silently disappeared in a cloud of ash.

Itachi began looking around trying to find Anko before she found him. He had thought she was dangerous before, but now he knew he had underestimated her. What troubled him the most was when Manda said he had trained her. Someone trained by Orochimaru was bad enough, but to be trained by a boss summon was even worse, especially since they appeared to be on good terms with each other.

Out of nowhere, something struck his side. When he looked down all he saw was empty air and the side of his torso bleeding. Anko was behind him and was holding the hilt of her katana directly behind the cut in his side. There was no blade. "What is that?" He asked Anko. He could feel a blade in his side.

"It's something you can only get by having a contract with Manda." Anko psychotically smiled at him. It's called the Kagenagi no Tsurugi: Kuragari no Tachi and you won't like it. "Get out your ninjato, you'll need it."

Itachi unsheathed it even though he thought he wouldn't need it. Kasuiton should be enough. She said Manda was her ace so she should be low on chakra from summoning him. It turned out he did need it because the fight turned into a kenjutsu match. Whatever weapon Anko had was definitely a katana and she was good with it. It didn't help that its blade was invisible or that it seemed to be to long to fit in its sheath at times.

The worst of it was not the sword, but the environment. The floor was covered with Manda's tail with kasuiton seeping up between the cracks. As they fought, Manda kept moving around, never keeping the ground stable. From the way she fought, it became apparent Anko was used to fighting on top of the moving snake. Fortunately, Itachi was able to do his one handed Kasuiton jutsu and kept doing them even as he kept fighting Anko. It evened the fight.


"Hokage-sama," a black-haired woman asked the Hokage. "Are you sure Anko's not going overboard?"

"Yes, Mikoto," the Hokage answered. "I have no idea what her actual skills are like, so I essentially asked her to show off. Although, knowing her she probably won't give everything away."

"Ah," Mikoto nodded.

"Why?" The Hokage looked at her. "Are you concerned about Itachi?"

Mikoto shook her head. "No, he's good enough to come out of this alive. I need a new sparing partner." She and the Hokage smiled.


After several minutes of fighting, Anko was getting board. Itachi's kasuiton jutsu had brought the fight to a near even match and it would not be ending anytime soon ...if nothing changes that is. She inwardly smirked and let Itachi get inside her guard.

Itachi allowed himself a small smile as he finally managed to get inside Anko's guard and knock the katana hilt away from her before he pinned her against one of Manda's coils with his ninjato. "I win," he said as he let his emotionless mask fall into place. He let out a mental sigh of relief just as a katana stabbed through his torso from behind him. Fortunately, it narrowly missed his heart and lungs and only went through skin and muscle. Looking down, he saw nothing. Looking behind him, he did not see a clone like he expected. Instead he only saw the hilt of Anko's katana floating in the air. "What is this?" he asked Anko. To Itachi's alarm, the black blade of a katana appeared from the wound in his torso and extended through a gap in Manda's coils until it hit the floor. It was well over the two and a half foot length of the sheath on Anko's back.

Anko laughed as she removed the ninjato from her neck and got up from underneath Itachi. She placed a kunai at Itachi's neck. "I win and do you really think I'd be so stupid as to tell you what my katana can do?."

Itachi shook his head and released the kasuiton that covered the floor. With a psychotic smile Anko removed the kunai and pulled Kagenagi out of Itachi. She playfully flipped the katana up in the air. It shrunk and tumbled into its sheath. A handseal was made and all of Anko's kunai disappeared into her holster. Manda disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The girl turned back to see the medics healing Itachi's wounds. "It was a good fight and I wouldn't mind having another one with you without any restrictions, Uchiha," she told him. "Ja ne." Ash swirled around her and she reappeared on the observation deck.

I would mind that either, Itachi thought as he climbed the steps to the other observation deck. Now why did I lose against her? Throughout the Hokage's short speech he thought through the fight in his mind.


"According to what you said you could do, you decided not to show him everything. Why?" Sarutobi peered at Anko through the smoke from his pipe. The two of them were lazing in his office after the ANBU trials with several plates of dango.

"Hokage-sama, what type of shinobi would I be if I didn't have some secrets." Anko gave him a satisfied grin as she finished of a dango stick. "Besides, I let him see the Hebi style, my summons, and told him who my sensei was and what my sword's abilities are."

"You decided he didn't need to know what you're ninjutsu's like?" Sarutobi had an uncharacteristic sly smile.

"No," Anko laughed. "If he want's to know the type of ninjutsu Orochimaru developed he can look it up, not that it'll help much seeing as most of the jutsu I know were developed after he left Konoha."

"And you're other ace?" Sarutobi prompted.

The snake mistress' face darkened. "That will only be used around people I can trust or when I'm completely out of options. The only reason why is because a lot of people would take it the wrong way, not because I don't like using it. In fact, it's my most favorite thing to use." She threw the dango stick at the wall to start making the spiral leaf symbol of Konoha.

"A wise decision." Sarutobi looked thoughtful.

"So," Anko's attitude made a complete one-eighty. "Have you figured out where I'm staying yet?"

"Oh, yes," Sarutobi answered. "Namikaze Mikoto has agreed to take you in."

"Namikaze, eh. Sensei's least favorite clan is still around then. He'll be so disappointed to hear that." Anko's crazy grin returned.

Sarutobi laughed. "He still holds a grudge against Namikaze Minato for taking the role of Yondaime Hokage from him?"

"Most definitely. So, when do I move in?"

"As soon as possible. Mikoto wants to have a talk with you first."

"When will that be?" There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Sarutobi asked.

"Itachi," a female voice answered.

"A codename," Sarutobi told Anko when he saw the shocked expression on her face. She nodded in understanding. "Come in," he said to the door.

The door opened to let a black-haired female ANBU in. As her codename suggested, a weasel mask covered her face. She pulled it off to reveal a pale face and black eyes that strangely reminded Anko of Uchiha Itachi. Instead of the Uchiha's emotionless mask, she had an easygoing smile on her face.

"Ah, Mikoto, we were just talking about you." Sarutobi smiled at her.

"I know. That's why I decided to drop in." Mikoto sat down next to Anko and looked seriously at Sarutobi. "I believe you know what I want to talk about, Sarutobi."

"Yes," he nodded. "Go ahead."

"Well," Mikoto looked at Anko. "I'll guess I'll start by asking you if you remember the Kyuubi attack."

Anko nodded. "Yeah, I remember it. Me and Sensei left after it was sealed."

Mikoto was surprised. "You knew it was sealed?"

Anko rolled her eyes. "When your sensei's on an insane quest to learn every jutsu in existence, demon containing seals are bound to come up sometime. That's all I know about it though; Sensei abandoned Konoha so he doesn't know who it was sealed into, although he guessed the Yondaime sealed it because no one else was skilled enough to do it." She continued wolfing down dango.

"Well, that makes my explanation a lot easier. Minato wanted to seal the Kyuubi into his son because he didn't want to force the burden of a jinchuuriki on to anyone other than his own family." Mikoto took a deep breath before she continued. "Unfortunately for him, the Kyuubi attacked when his wife was only five months pregnant with his son. His wife, Kushina, was on my genin team and knew I was ready to have my second child so she convinced Minato to ask me if I would let him seal the Kyuubi in to my unborn son. After learning the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to influence the way my son, Sasuke, thought, I agreed to it. Unfortunately, my husband, Uchiha Fugaku didn't agree with my decision and disowned Sasuke, cut out his sharingan eyes, and divorced me. I think he thought having a jinchuuriki in the clan was a dishonor so he got rid of it. Afterwords, Kushina let me and Sasuke into the Namikaze family. That was almost seven years ago." Mikoto looked pointedly at Anko. "You won't have a problem with my son being a jinchuuriki, will you?"

Anko shook her head and flicked the dango stick at the wall. She was now on the point of the spiral. "No, as long as he doesn't experiment on people or anything like that, I won't have a problem with it. People probably hate him as much as they'll hate me when they find out who my sensei was." She looked at Mikoto with a questioning glance. "You said Uchiha Fugaku was your husband, and yet you don't act like an Uchiha. Why?"

"What type of shinobi would I be if I didn't have some secrets?" The black haired woman laughed and turned Anko's own words back at her. "Although, I must say, it was very... satisfying to see you defeat my oldest son so spectacularly. That hasn't happened to him in a awhile and it'll be a good reminder to him that he is not the most powerful shinobi out there."

"Itachi's your son?!" Anko's jaw dropped. "But he seems the complete opposite of you."

Mikoto's face fell. "That would be Fugaku's doing. He's the head of the Uchiha clan and the only thing he wanted Itachi to be was the perfect shinobi; you know, emotionless, never questions orders, all that junk." A thoughtful look dispelled the sad one. "I don't think Fugaku quite succeeded, though because Itachi joined ANBU and not KMP like Fugaku wanted him to." No one noticed Sarutobi's knowing smile.

"So is that all I should be aware of?" Anko downed another piece of dango.

"No." This time it was Sarutobi who answered. "Everything Mikoto talked about, Sasuke being a jinchuuriki and Mikoto being an Uchiha specificly, is a S-rank secret. Unfortunately, the Uchiha leaked everything to the public. The only people who don't know about it are the kids born around and after the Kyuubi attack. Because of that, people aren't allowed to talk about it in public and around those who don't know." Here, Sarutobi's eyes hardened. "I'd prefer it nobody knew about it or talked about it, but I'm not that stupid." He looked at Anko. "Do you understand?"

"Yeah," Anko grimaced as flicked a stick at the wall. "Don't talk about it, but don't get startled if anyone else starts talking about it." She gave Mikoto a meaningful glance. "Is the kid going to find out someday?"

"Yeah," Mikoto sighed. "I'm planing on telling him when makes genin. Anko," Mikoto looked directly at the girl.

"Yes," Mikoto's tone was more serious then she'd ever heard it.

"There's something else you should know and it's not about Sasuke this time." Mikoto was agitated for some reason. "What I'm going to tell you right now, I shouldn't be telling you. But you need to hear it. Just don't repeat it and when you do hear it officially, act as if you've never heard it."

"Okay." Anko put down the half-eaten dango stick and looked seriously at Mikoto.

"Living in Kushina's house with Naruto, the Yondaime's son, is an ANBU who goes by the name of Yamato. His real name is Tenzo, but he doesn't want you to know that." Mikoto sighed and looked out the window. "Seeing who you were with for the past seven years, I'll just be blunt and say he was a survivor of one of Orochimaru's experiments."

Anko's eyes widened and she looked up at Sarutobi. "What?! You let a survivor of Orochimaru's experiments be a shinobi?! Depending on the experiment, that was either really smart or really stupid of you."

Sarutobi smiled faintly. "Don't worry, he's as sane as any other ANBU is, if not more. Because of the experiment, he now has the Shodai's cells in him and is able to use mokuton."

"So that experiment actually worked." Anko thought for a moment. "Does Orochimaru know about this?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "No, he doesn't, but the reason why he doesn't is because Tenzo wasn't an idiot and didn't publicly use mokuton until we confirmed Orochimaru wasn't coming back. When we found him, he had escaped from Orochimaru's labs somehow and was wondering around Konoha. The Namikaze and I believed him when he told me what Orochimaru had done to him and the Namikaze took him in so Orochimaru couldn't get to him. Nearly everyone else thought he was lying about Orochimaru's research labs under the city though, and he was only believed when they were found after the Kyuubi attack." Sarutobi nodded to Mikoto who finished up for him.

"When Kushina told Yamato you were coming to stay with the Namikaze, he said there was no way he was staying in the same house as you were. He's jealous you won't have to prove your connection to Orochimaru. At the same time, he's mad you can use Orochimaru's jutsu. He actually went so far to say you're as bad as Orochimaru is because you survived for this long." Mikoto sighed again and looked at Anko. A single tear trickled down the girl's face. "I'm just telling you this so when he reacts badly to you, you'll know why."

Anko nodded in thanks and wiped the tear away from her eye. She looked out over Konoha before she said quietly, "He's got every right to think that about me." There was a sad smile on her face. "I don't think it would help matters if I told him I was just as jealous of him." Anko looked down again. When she turned her attention back to Mikoto she was back to her usual psychotic self. "Is that everything I need to know before I move in?"

Mikoto nodded, "Just about. I need to key you into the seals at the compound, but we have to do that there. Shall we go?" Anko nodded and flung the last dango stick at the wall to finish the perfect Konoha symbol she had been making. Mikoto and Sarutobi laughed at her antics and the two women left the room.

Not ten minutes after they had left, the door was angrily opened and Uchiha Fugaku walked in. "What is the meaning of this, Sarutobi?!" He strode across the floor, planted his hands on the Hokage's desk and angrily glared down at the man seated behind the desk. "My son comes back from the ANBU trials and tells me he was beaten by a girl who was trained by the Hebi sennin! Why would you let someone trained by him into the village, let alone ANBU? She'll kill us all in our sleep! What is the meaning of this?!"

The Hokage inwardly sighed. He had hopped news of Itachi's defeat would not spread so quickly. On the other hand, messing with the council was one of his guilty pleasures and it was almost always more profitable for the village then what they were planning. "Fugaku-san, Mitarashi Anko is in ANBU and as such is it of my concern, not yours, as to what security risks she poses. I have talked with her and I have found she will not be a security threat. If you still think she is that big of a security risk, I suggest you talk with her department head."

"I will certainly do that." The tension drained out of Fugaku's face. "Who would that be?"

The Hokage could barely keep a straight face as he deadpanned, "Morino Ibiki."

All the color drained out of Fugaku's face as he mouthed, "Torture and Interrogation."

The Hokage pretend not to notice as he said, "Now that we've cleared that up, Fugaku-san, why don't you get out of my office. I have paperwork to get to and I'm sure you do to." Fugaku weakly nodded and almost ran out of the office.

When he was sure Fugaku was out of hearing range, Sarutobi finally allowed himself to laugh. He wasn't the only one.

"Nice one, Hokage-sama," said a lazy voice that reviled itself to be a male ANBU with gravity-defying silver hair and a wolf mask over his face. He was standing in the corner by the door.

"Yeah, he totally walked right into that one!" exclaimed another. This one appeared over the windows and had shoulder-length brown hair. An jackal mask covered his face.

"I'm so telling Mikoto about this. She'll get a kick out of it." A female ANBU with long purple hair and a cat mask had collapsed in a fit of giggles on the ceiling.

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and laughed along with with his "emotionless" bodyguards.


AN: As you can tell from the last couple of chapters, Sarutobi is not a weak old man who blindly lets the council order him around. In fact, he has a lot of fun messing their plans up and the ANBU have a lot of fun helping him with it, often for personal reasons. I've never quite gotten it when authors make Itachi's codename Weasel. It makes sense in English, because Itachi is different Weasel, but it when all the codenames are in Japanese it doesn't make sense at all. Who in their right mind would have their code name be the same as their real name? On another topic, sorry Sasuke wasn't in this chapter. We're getting to the end of the "laying the foundation of the story" chapters and then they'll be a lot more of him (and Naruto). He'll be in the next chapter a lot.

Here's the technique list I promised you all. I hope it explains things.

Hebi Style: This is mostly based of the Hebi style Geor-sama made up for his story Naruto: Altered History and it's squeal Naruto: Shinobi Wars. (Which are both excellent stories by the way. Read them.) It undermines the sharingan by not giving it the movements the sharingan needs to calculate where the person is going to go. Speed is needed to make it work, but that is not what confuses the sharingan. (For those of you who say the sharingan can only track chakra, what about Sasuke tracking Lee. Lee doesn't use chakra in his moves, but Sasuke still sees, predicts and copies them.) The biggest advantage of the style is that it's goal is assassination. By the time a person has figured it out, they're dead. In order to keep Itachi alive, Anko simply misses his vital points. She has to concentrate more then usual to do that which is why she complains about being sloppy. One of the weakness of the style is the kunai. Anko can't kill people without them, so if she runs out, she's dead. There is another strategy for the byakugan which will be introduced later.

Kasuiton (Fire-Water Release): This is result of Kyuubi's chakra getting sealed into Itachi. It is made by mixing katon with suiton and it is not the futton the mizukage has because the Kyuubi's chakra was used in the making of it. Like hoyoton, it can be made with single handed handseals. It is expleled like katon but it's consistency is that of suiton. Like suiton, it can be molded into all different kinds of shapes and most suiton jutsu can be easily converted into kasuiton jutsu (give the water prison Zabuaz makes the properties of heat and burning). Like katon, it burns what it touches. This means most people can't walk on it although Itachi can because he's immune to it. Itachi doesn't use this very often because of all the questions it brings up.

Kagenagi no Tsurugi: Kuragari no Tachi (Shadowcutter Sword: Longsword of the Darkness): (Yeah, I got board and started playing with my Japanese translators.) This is a less powerful version of Orochimaru's Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Kuu no Tachi, but not by much. (If you want to know why a sword called the Grasscutter Sword is also called the Longsword of the Heavens, look up the phrase "sword of Japanese legend" on wikipedia. It's a very interesting article to read if you're up to date on the manga or the anime.) Like the Kusanagi, it is carried inside a snake and can turn into one. It can also cut through just about anything, become as long or as short as Anko wants it to be, and is under Anko's control even if she's not holding it. Unlike the Kusanagi, it isn't a poisened blade (that's what makes the Kusanagi the Kusanagi). Instead, it isn't visible unless it's in sunlight or unless Anko wants it to be. Unlike the Nara's jutsu which use shadows cast by anything including artificial light, the only light that affects the Kagenagi is sunlight.

Kasuiton: Hoekidame no Jutsu (Fire-Water Release: Art of Fire Reservoir): Itachi expels kasuiton through his mouth. It covers whatever floor he's standing on giving him an outside source of kasuiton and his opponents no place to stand

The jutsu Anko uses to block Itachi's fireball is a variation of the jutsu the Sound Four use to contain Orochimaru and Sarutobi's fight in the chunin exams.

The fight scene that happens in this chapter is the first one I've written so if you think I could use improvement, please tell me! Thanks for reading!