Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: I've taken a bit of creative licence from here on out, so please bear that in mind. Oh, and I've been meaning to mention that I am not at all Japanese and so fail miserably at getting the jutsu names in anything but an english interpretation and I really don't know how to properly use suffixes, though I've tried. Just consider them unimportant unless I've specifically put them in, or in the case of Orochimaru and Anko I've deliberately left them out. Thanks for reading :)

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Chapter 6

Anything

The knowledge that it was she who left him, her sensei, was enough to give Anko a sense of peace she had never felt before for a number of days. Kakashi had given her a more than pleasant welcome-back – the man was more than brilliant at copying a couple of techniques she didn't think would be legal in a number of more conservative countries, but she wouldn't have it any other way – and he had insisted, once hearing some of the story, that it was proof that Anko was nothing like the man who had taught her.

Anko had smiled at him, but she still had doubts in the darkness of her soul.

She had thought that the nightmares would leave her once she had found out the truth of why Orochimaru left her – I left him – but they didn't. The snake Sannin was never far from her thoughts. It seemed like her time with him, those few years, had coloured everything she saw to a deep, crimson red. Nothing she saw or experienced was untainted. Making love to Kakashi, drinking sake with Asuma and the other jonin, training to hone her reflexes and accuracy – it all contained hints of him. And the memories were still returning to her.

Memories ... Memories of how he loved to touch her, to stroke her hair or caress her cheek, to touch her shoulder or take her hand. Looking back, they were more possessive than caring, more disturbing than loving. There had always been a sensual element to his touch which, thinking back, made her sick to the stomach.

She still had flashes of things she couldn't quite remember. Anko still woke up in terror at some unnamed thing he had done, or she had done. The images of blood, in particular, never left her. Why am I so obsessed with the fucking stuff? she growled to herself numerous times. What is it about it ... what happened? What did he do to me?

The peace, the beautiful peace that she had brought back with her from the Ocean Country, evaporated soon after her return to Konoha. Whether it was the surroundings that triggered her renewed hatred for her sensei, or whether the peace had been a mere illusion, or whether she was just a stubborn bitch who couldn't let go – it didn't really matter.

Anko lay on her bed, alone in the darkness after another nightmare. She stared up at the ceiling, hearing the soft sounds from outside of her apartment, muffled through shut windows and doors. She never slept with any windows open. Kakashi would grumble, and Kurenai would scold her on how stuffy her rooms were the occasional time she would visit, but Anko didn't care. It gave her a faint illusion of safety – a barrier against the dark. As a shinobi, one who had been apprenticed to Orochimaru, she had seen so much horror. As a child, she had been afraid of the dark. He had changed that.

Of course, she'd been innocent and trusting and naïve too, but he had killed that as well.

The child she had been ...

...o..o.o..o...

Anko settled into the covers of her sleeping blanket on a thin travel mattress on the floor of the forest, staring anxiously at the fading fire. Her sensei was sitting a little way away with his back against a tree, seeming at ease in the coming dark.

He noticed her restlessness, like he noticed everything. "What's wrong, Anko?" He was always more approachable and caring when it was just the two of them. Anko loved those times, when there was no one else around to worry her sensei, when he would patiently answer her questions and smile at her enthusiasm. -How much of that was a lie?-

Anko started at his voice. She looked at him nervously, eyes wide and looking very much the child. "N-nothing, Orochimaru-sama."

"Anko ..."

Her desperation to avoid disappointing him by not being truthful fought with her reluctance to tell him her fears and possibly disappoint him more.

"Um, I'm ... I'm afraid of the dark, Orochimaru-sama." she replied quietly, her head down so that her bangs hid her eyes.

She didn't know he had approached her until he brushed the hair out of her eyes. She looked up at him worriedly as he crouched before her, looking in his slit golden eyes as they studied her in turn.

"I'm sorry." she whispered. He won't want me any more – he's going to give me to some other jonin and take a better pupil ... One who's not scared of silly things like the dark ...

The silence stretched uncomfortably for Anko, but eventually her sensei drew breath to speak. "Well, we'll just have to fix that, Anko."

"Really?" she asked hopefully, "You can make me not afraid of the dark?"

Orochimaru smiled at her slightly, cocking his head to one side. "We'll rest a bit now, and then start travelling at night. You'll see there's nothing to fear if you are competent enough."

"Hai," she said reverently. He seemed so wise to her – he was going to go out of his way to help her conquer her fears.

"One thing to remember about any fear, Anko, is that it will only weaken you. To be a true shinobi, you must not allow fear to hinder you. Weakness is something you cannot afford and something I will not tolerate."

Orochimaru only gave her one full night travelling with him before he left her in the middle of an unknown forest at night. She found out later that it was the Forest of Death, and he had left her there to fend for herself for three nights and three days with only the instructions to find him after that time. He hadn't even told her, but left her a note to find when she woke up alone at dusk after a night and half-day travelling.

She had never been so afraid ... But in the end, it had strengthened her.

...o..o.o..o...

Bloody tigers almost killed me then, too. Anko thought back, remembering her sensei's test. If she hadn't conquered her fear and survived it alone, she knew now that he would have shrugged her off as weak and moved on. I think ... I think he did a similar thing every time he found a weakness. But ... I can't remember the others now. There was something about the other memories that she didn't want to recall.

Anko stared up at her plain white ceiling, at the boards and faint marks or cracks in the paint. Fragments ... I keep remembering fragments. He just won't fucking leave me alone.

I have to kill him – I'll never be at peace if I don't. She rubbed her eyes tiredly – she never slept well unless Kakashi used his Sharingan on her, and he was off on yet another mission. (Bloody Hokage – doesn't she realise what these constant missions are doing to my sex life?)

Thinking about it just worked her up. I'll do anything to get the power I need to destroy him ... anything! she growled to herself. I can't kill him as I am now, but how ...?

Memories had been returning – memories of Orochimaru's masses of scrolls of powerful jutsus. He had collected them like children did marbles, though he took less than a day to memorise most. Sandaime took a lot of them ... didn't he? If I could find them surely I'll find something he won't be able to defeat. If I'm caught ... Anko shrugged the thought off.

If it takes me becoming a missing-nin to kill him, then I fucking well will!

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Anko slipped into the room quietly. She was in the basement of the Hokage tower, near the room where the forbidden scroll that Naruto mistakenly took just before he was made a genin was now kept. Even since that incident, security hadn't been stepped up much.

Must mention it to the Godaime ... after I'm done, she grinned wickedly.

This room held all the material confiscated from Orochimaru's labs after he had been found out and had escaped. It was all that he had left behind. Even being there made Anko shudder. His presence and scent seemed to linger among his old scrolls, an unwelcome ghost.

The walls were lined with shelves containing masses of scrolls. The Sannin had been, and still was, obsessed with knowledge. It's why he keeps stealing bodies, after all. He's just too fucking afraid to die, if you ask me.

Anko searched among the scrolls randomly for a number of minutes, not really sure what she was looking for, before she saw an ancient-looking scroll tied with a black ribbon. That ... she frowned – the scroll seemed to tug at her memory.

...o..o.o..o...

"What's that, Orochimaru-sama?" she asked curiously as a man handed her sensei a scroll. He had tensed when he untied the black silk ribbon and read it, which piqued her own interest.

The Sannin's lips widened in a pleased smirk as he turned away from her. "An interesting new jutsu, Anko. I'll see you for fire-jutsu practise this evening."

The young girl watched as her mentor moved quickly away.

...o..o.o..o...

Anko reached for the scroll, carefully untying the ribbon and unrolling it. The parchment crackled in protest as she straightened in out on a table in the middle of the tiny room.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the heading: "A soul-sharing jutsu? What the hell?" It was hard to make out the writing – the words were small and difficult to read, but Anko could catch the gist of what it said, and the seal drawn at the bottom was relatively clear.

Anko stared into space as she tried to consider the power of the jutsu. You summon a contracted animal spirit, and make a deal to share your soul and chakra in return for their amplification of your chakra capacity and any techniques they know. She re-read one sentence in particular. "'Depending on the spirit used, the chakra capacity can increase a hundred-fold' ... Gods. If I was a hundred times as powerful, I could ..." I could kill him.

Anko read through the scroll again, and then quickly copied the seal and a few words on to a blank scroll she had brought with her. Putting the old scroll back in its place, she left as quickly as she could, glad to leave the ghost of his presence behind.

Am I going to do this? If it gives me a chance to kill him, I would do anything, didn't I say that? She felt slightly conflicted. Parts of the scroll had been worn away. What if I missed something? What could go wrong if I fail?

She stopped on a roof top halfway home, and looked up at the stars spread across the sky. It made her feel insignificant, and she didn't like it. Her fists tightened painfully, and her resolve strengthened, pushing away her doubts.

I will do this. I will do anything.

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Anko moved swiftly through the forests surrounding Konoha. It wasn't called the Hidden Village of Leaf for nothing, she thought absently to herself as she concentrated on leaving absolutely minimal tracks. I really really don't want to be followed. ANBU are too nosey for their own good. The kunoichi wasn't known as one of the most formidable in Konoha for nothing, and was tough as nails with the skills to back it up.

She was heading for a very remote region in the beginning of a series of mountain ranges a few days from the village. Orochimaru, ironically enough, had shown it to her. They had used it as a training ground away from the village. Her sensei hadn't liked being around a lot of people for a long time, especially once he had been skipped as the choice for Yondaime.

God, he'd been angry, she thought back to that time briefly, but cast the memory aside. I'll think about it some other time.

She was heading there because it was the only place she could think of to perform the ritual completely undisturbed. Plus I'll be safely away from civilians in case something goes wrong. Of course, I'll be safely away from help, too. She sighed, "It can't be helped."

When she reached the secluded valley two days later, she was slightly tired from making a three-day trip in two. She couldn't rein back her desire to finish it – finish everything. Kill him.

The place was just as she remembered. A small stream ran through the edge of a clearing, where trees overhung the crystal water. Further up is the pool where I would bathe ... under protest at the cold, of course. She had been such a child, her innocent nature clinging on even with Orochimaru's influence. Now I'm a bitter adult seeking revenge. Life's just fucked up.

Anko sighed as she looked around, memories of training with her sensei and talking to him around a fire at night surfacing and refusing to disappear. She sunk to the ground, resting her back to a tree as she tried to compose herself. Cut the crap, Anko, and get down to business.

She pulled out a scroll, and unrolled it carefully. On the paper was the drawing of the seal, as well as a few words she'd written as instructions.

"Might as well get started," she said to herself, looking up at the sky to check the position of the sun. It was just after midday, giving her enough time to make a start.

Anko pulled out a bottle of ink and a brush, and stripped off parts of her clothing to expose her chest and top of her left breast above her heart. Next she pulled out a piece of mirror and positioned it so she had a good view of her neck and upper chest. She looked down at herself and then back at the seal.

"A fucking man must have designed this – it's just not easy to draw a seal above your heart when you've got breasts in the way." She chuckled to herself, "Good thing I'm not as endowed as Tsunade, because it's going to be difficult enough as it is ..."

Anko dipped the brush in the ink, and carefully marked her skin with the seal above her heart. Then she drew the required kanji on her right cheek, and the symbols that lead from the seal to the base of her throat and down between her breasts to touch her bellybutton. She then made a bunshin to draw a matching seal on her back, also above her heart.

She sighed as she studied them in the mirror and craned her neck to check they were perfect. It was nearing evening, and she was out of time for further drawing.

Anko moved to the centre of the clearing, and pulled out a kunai to slash her palm. She took a deep breath, gathered her chakra, and pressed her palm to the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" she summoned.

In a puff of smoke, the snake that typically responded to her summons appeared. It was massive, on a par with those summoned by Orochimaru except for Manda, the greatest snake of them all.

The snake lowered its great head, staring at her with slit, unblinking eyes. "Why have you summoned me? There are no enemies here."

"I want to make another contract," Anko told the serpent, unperturbed by its gaze, "As you can see, I have the appropriate seal." She motioned towards her chest.

The snake studied the seal in the dying light for a number of moments. "You will share your blood, chakra, and soul with me."

"And you will share your chakra capacity and knowledge with me." Anko replied. With increased capacity provided by the serpent, her chakra would increase in power exponentially. "You've fought with me before. You know that I am capable."

"What is the reason for this?" the creature asked unexpectedly.

"I need to get more powerful to kill someone who betrayed me." She stared up at the snake. "And I will be the one in control of my body, not you. Do you accept?" The deal relied on the snake's willingness, otherwise it would be like she was sealing a demon inside of her with no control over it. Contracts were exchanges of help for a small amount of blood and chakra. This contract involved a lot more blood and a lot more chakra, and would strengthen the creature as well as herself.

"How long."

"As long as it takes. If you want out before then, I'll need at least a month's warning."

The snake watched her for a few moments longer. "The same applies to you. One month's warning."

Anko nodded, ignoring the apprehensive feeling that was developing in the pit of her stomach. "Fine."

"Very well."

The creature was on her before Anko could move – it was so unexpected. It curled it's length around her body, holding her in place. It's head lowered to near hers as it seemed to shrink in size until its body was as thick as her own, with its head slightly larger than hers.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Anko managed to spit out, even though its constricting grip around her body made it hard to breath.

The snake looked at her expressionlessly, tilting its head slightly. "You know little about this contract. How unwise to enter into something without knowing all its aspects." It twisted around until its head was behind her, out of her sight. Her heart-rate increased uncomfortably. "But your offer is still too tempting to refuse. We will discuss your recklessness later."

"Wha-" Anko began, only to be cut off as the snake lunged forward and sank it's fangs into her skin. It bit down over her left shoulder, with it's front fangs piercing the centre of the seal drawn there and the bottom ones pierced the seal on her back. Its teeth slid between her ribs, and she couldn't breathe. Anko couldn't even scream at the pain as her head dropped back, the snake's one eye in the corner of her vision as its fangs were in her flesh. The front fangs threatened to pierce her heart – it felt to her like they already had.

The seals she had drawn then began to come to life, and Anko's body burned as she finally got breath to scream. The snake tightened both its grip on her shoulder and its grip around her. It was so tight, it felt like the creature was sinking into her body.

Anko could only stare up at the bloody sunset sky unseeing, before the power of the seal took her and she lost conciousness.

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When Anko woke up, she winced at the bright afternoon daylight and closed her eyes as soon as she tried opening them, covering them with a hand. She groaned loudly, her body aching all over as she tried to remember what the hell happened.

"That's got to be the worst damn bitch of a headache I've ever had ..." she cursed as she got up, finally looking around her.

Shit.

She remembered suddenly what had happened as she looked around the clearing. She looked down at herself quickly, checking for wounds but other than a few rips in her favourite mesh clothing and a really indecent state of dress, she was fine even though she'd been out since the previous evening.

The seal has gone ... and there are no bite marks or even blood. What the fucking hell happened?

She felt odd, like her senses had extended a bit maybe, and she felt a bit uncomfortable in her own skin. Anko shrugged and moved to her pack, grabbing some soap and a change of clothes. "May as well have a wash first. I feel like crap, and I think I smell worse."

The stream widened at one point to form a slow-moving pool. Anko stripped completely, and quickly immersed herself in the crystal water. "Just as icy cold as I remember it," she shivered, recalling why she hated washing herself in that particular pool. "Straight from the mountain ice with love." she quipped, and laughed mockingly at herself.

"Face it, Anko," she said aloud, looking down at her unmarked shoulder. "You're scared shitless because you don't have a clue what the fuck happened, and whether you might be sharing your body with a snake spirit who you last remember piercing your heart before you passed out." She stared at her hand. Even the cut from when she had originally summoned the thing wasn't there. She had never healed so quickly.

After she was clean and dressed – Boy am I glad I brought another mesh top – she sighed, standing over her pack. The only way I'll know whether it worked is if I train. Then I'll see whether my chakra has increased or not.

Anko targeted a lone tree, and took a deep breath. She threw a kunai at the tree, trailing a cord, and shouted "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!" The cord burst into massive flames as it ran along the wire to the tree which exploded. "Damn!" Anko dived behind another tree to avoid the flying bits of charred bark.

She peered around the tree, and looked at the other's remains. Anko checked her own reserves, and came up with minimal depletion even after the technique. "Well I'll be damned. Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" She created twenty shadow clones easily, which was harder than it seemed to people watching Naruto – he had the Kyuubi's chakra capacity after all – and set them attacking her.

When she'd defeated them all, she stared at her hands in amazement. "I'm still not half as tired as I should be – those bunshin would normally have taken more out of me than that. Guess that seal worked."

She moved to set up a fire and get something to eat out of her pack. It was getting dark again, the fight with her bunshin had taken an hour or so, and she decided not to head back to Konoha yet. Might as well stay here for a few days and try figure out what's going on. Not like I have to rush to get back, she thought bitterly, I'm not given many important missions anyway.

Anko settled down to sleep after she had eaten and brooded. What I would give for dango right now. And sake. And sex. Hmmm, need to catch up to Kakashi as soon as he gets back from his mission. Nothing like easing your worries with mind-blowing smut. Wonder if Kakashi's picked up any new techniques from those books of his ... her thoughts faded as she drifted off.

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Anko was in the valley for five days, training and testing her new limits, until her cursed seal made its presence known. The pulse hit her with no warning, and she gasped, falling to her knees in mid-seal. Her bunshin disappeared as she clutched the seal and swore loudly.

"What the hell?" she rasped, the pain not receding. She grabbed her seal and groaned, it hurt so much, before she suddenly felt something stir in her gut. A cold feeling washed over her, and centred on the curse seal, numbing the pain. She could still feel it, and feel the pulse, but it was dampened.

The snake spirit? Did it stop the pain? It must have ... Her breathing was still heavy, but she was recovering quickly.

The seal pulsing ... It must mean ... But why would he be here? And passing so close to Konoha as well? It doesn't make sense.

She wished she'd had more practise with her new skills and greater power before being given an opportunity like this, but shrugged it off.

It doesn't matter. This is my chance to kill the bastard.

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A/N: I realise there was not so much of Orochimaru in this chapter ... ahaha ... well, there's lots in the next and I'll be updating within the next 2/3 days. Thanks to BRS & Makoto-Koto for the reviews :)