.
.
"Anko. Are you still angry that I used you and threw you away?"
Anko wakes with a start. She is leaning against an old log, and pieces of bark are stuck to her cheek. She reaches up and brushes it away, glaring.
"You let your guard down enough to sleep," Kimimaro says. He sits beside her, tossing a branch into the fire. "Thank you for trusting me."
"Tch." Anko glares. "I thought we decided killing me wasn't very useful."
"As I said, it was my every intention to let you go."
"Even if I'm a threat to your precious Orochimaru?" Anko says.
Kimimaro watches her, levelly. "You are not much of a threat," Kimimaro says.
"Kisama."
Kimimaro stirs the ashes, quietly. "You were having another nightmare," Kimimaro says. "You were talking in your sleep."
Anko pulls her coat tightly around herself, staring at the shadows on the ground. "I wouldn't know," Anko says. "I don't remember what I dream."
"I suppose most people do not."
"Hmph." Anko turns on her side, pulling the coat across her shoulders. "I wouldn't be so trusting," Anko says. "You might find yourself with a kunai against your throat."
"I expect as much," Kimimaro says. "The same can be said for you."
Anko glares again, but slowly drifts back to sleep.
xXx
.
They do not speak throughout the course of their journey, Kimimaro pushing forward while Anko struggles behind him, pushing through brambles and stumbling through the brush. "Teme. You're going too fast," Anko says.
Kimimaro glances back, but says nothing; doubtless he's hoping she'll give up and go home. Anko grits her teeth. "Bastard," Anko says, and she slashes at the branches with her kunai.
They reach a clearing, and Kimimaro reaches out and pulls out a few roots from the ground. Anko stares, at turns mystified and incredulous, as he takes the roots and twists them in half. "The hell are you doing?" Anko says. Kimimaro glances up.
"It is edible," Kimimaro says. Anko rolls her eyes and fishes out her rations from her pack. She tosses Kimimaro a package of stale crackers and gives him a pointed look.
Night falls, and Kimimaro starts a modest fire. Anko sits with her knees to her chin, watching as he tosses a few dry branches into the flame. This whole thing was her fault; if she hadn't felt sorry for him, she wouldn't be in this mess right now. Stupid, Anko thinks. She remembers how she reached out to him, and she can't help but feel a little bit betrayed.
"You're an asshole, you know that?" Anko says. Kimimaro glances up. "Pretending to cry like that. You could have had the common decency to attack me head on."
"I was not pretending," Kimimaro says, quietly. He tosses in another branch. "Regardless, an opportunity presented itself. I only regret that I took advantage of you."
"Asshole," Anko says. Kimimaro frowns, but says nothing more.
Anko is too angry to sleep, so she rolls to her side and stares out into the dark. Around her, the night sounds are calm and there are fireflies glowing in the air. Kimimaro sleeps a few paces behind her, his body curled next to the flame.
She was an idiot. Angry tears begin to well up, but Anko swipes a fist against her eyes, setting her jaw.
No one in Konoha knew what it was like. No one could understand that draw, that feeling of belonging. To be wanted - special - and to have that ripped away. Stupidly she thought there was someone else who could share that pain, but of course she was wrong. Instead she got duped by one of Orochimaru's fucking subordinates, nearly choked to death when she went to hug him. "I'm a fucking moron," Anko says. Kimimaro stirs.
Why was she here? Anko furrows her brow. If she thinks about it clearly, it's obviously to rescue the Uchiha kid, and stick it to Orochimaru in the process. But then she glances back at Kimimaro, and a part of her grimaces at the thought that she's really coming to make sure he'll be okay, to be there to pick up the pieces when Orochimaru is through.
Idiot. She's a fucking idiot. Anko huffs and draws her coat closer around herself, irritated at the stupid fucking maternal instincts that have suddenly taken over her common sense.
He'd better damn well appreciate this, Anko thinks. And then she finally closes her eyes.
xXx
.
Orochimaru stepped forward, pressing a hand to the small of Anko's back. "Such a talented child," Orochimaru said. His voice was like silk, a low rumble in her ears. "Such a lovely girl."
She felt his fingertips gently trace the lines of her face, and Anko closed her eyes. His hands brushed back the hair from her neck, which was smooth and unmarred, and Anko shivered despite herself, the skin exposed to the cold night air.
A sharp pain shoots through the mark on Anko's neck, and she winces, suddenly. Kimimaro stops and turns.
"Are you all right?" Kimimaro asks.
"Fuck off," Anko says. She slaps her neck the way she would swat a mosquito, glaring. Kimimaro frowns.
"Does that mark always hurt?" Kimimaro asks.
"Sometimes," Anko says. She rubs her neck, irritated. "I never use the mark, so every once in a while the chakra builds up there. It feels like burning."
"Why do you not use the mark?"
"Because it could kill you," Anko says. "I already told you. That cough you've got is from that mark. It's on your chest, which is why it's affecting your lungs."
"I thought it was a Kaguya illness," Kimimaro says.
"It may be a part of it," Anko says. "But that mark isn't helping."
"I see," Kimimaro says.
They fall silent. Wordlessly they trudge through the woods, tramping through the brush underfoot.
"Hey, Kimimaro?"
Kimimaro turns.
"I wouldn't use that mark," Anko says. "There's too much power there. It's tearing you apart."
Kimimaro nods, gravely. "I will remember that," Kimimaro says. "Thank you, Anko-san."
xXx
.
She stabs the kunai through her hand and his, pinning Orochimaru down. "You and I will die together," Anko says. "Ninpo..."
"Do you wish to commit suicide, Anko?"
The clone melts; behind her, Orochimaru laughs.
"Useless," Orochimaru says. "You were always so useless. I only regret wasting my time."
Anko whirls around but the forest around her bleeds, then bends; kunai flash through the air.
She wakes to Kimimaro shaking her roughly by the shoulder, jerking upright and sitting up from the ground.
"You were having another nightmare," Kimimaro says. Anko draws her legs to her chest and wipes her face, then is surprised to feel the wetness at her cheek: she had been crying. Kimimaro watches her, silently.
"It's nothing," Anko says. "It's just--"
Anko cries out, the mark on her neck burning, suddenly.
Kimimaro rushes forward, then presses a hand to her neck. She can feel healing chakra swirling around her mark.
Slowly, the pain begins to fade until there's nothing but a dull ache. "Healing chakra," Kimimaro says. Anko notices his hand is still pressed against her skin. "I learned a little to help with my disease. I hope this helped."
Anko nods, and feels a slight twinge of disappointment when Kimimaro moves his hand.