Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: Here's the next chapter with lots more of Orochimaru as promised! Thanks to BloodRedShadows, Makoto-Koto and AnimesTribute for the reviews - they really are appreciated :) For any queries about future updates please go to my profile page. Enjoy reading!

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Chapter 7

Liar

Anko was moving faster through the forests than she ever had before, and revelling in the sensations of wind whipping her face. She had used a jutsu Kakashi had taught her to suppress the curse seal, so she hoped that he would not be able to sense her. An extra element of surprise would be really good. Just to see the look on that bastard's face ...

The anticipation started to eat at her. It was a violent, vicious feeling that was new and invigorating. If she hadn't had the thought of Orochimaru mere moments ahead, she would have worried about it.

Anko landed about four metres in front of the Sannin in her last leap. She straightened up from a crouch, and looked dead in his eyes, drinking in the sight of him. Here, with me ... for the last time.

"Anko," he seemed momentarily surprised to see her – the curse seal hadn't warned him of her presence – but when he smiled it was condescending. "What brings you here?"

Anko's eyes were shards of ice as she looked at her former sensei, his lack of concern at her presence fuelling her fury.

"Orochimaru," she said coldly, "I'm here to kill you."

The snake Sannin chuckled, his eyes reflecting his cruel amusement. "My dear student, once again," he spoke slowly, as if to a child, "How do you plan to do that?"

In a flash, faster than the Sannin expected, she was attacking. "I'm not your student any more!" she hissed as she flew at him.

The air buzzed with kunai and thrown shuriken which he managed to dodge and deflect with ease. He felt her coming from behind, and blocked a kick while she blocked a retaliatory punch. The blows flashed, taijutsu the unspoken method of the moment, and neither faltered. They seemed to flicker around the clearing, from tree to grass to sky, and countered each hit. Anko had done some training with Gai to improve her speed, and Orochimaru ... well, he was Orochimaru, and he made the mastery of every technique his goal.

Then the snake smiled, and in a quick twist dodged Anko's defences and sent her flying with a blow to the midsection. He sent a fireball following to engulf her.

Orochimaru smirked, "You have improved, Anko, in some things at least. It's good to know you didn't let everything I taught you go to waste, but you cannot beat me."

He frowned then as he felt her chakra spike strangely. Emerging from the flames was Anko, and her chakra surrounded her like a glow. She took up a ready stance, and looked at him, expressionless.

"We'll see."

As if that were the signal, they upped their games to include various jutsu. It was like they were sensei and student again, and practising their various techniques as they used to. But the reality was far more serious, far more deadly.

They fought again, and while Orochimaru's jutsu's were clearly superior, Anko managed to avoid or counter most of them. But Anko started to tire – she had been training herself to exhaustion since she sealed the snake spirit, and had used more chakra to reach Orochimaru for the fight itself – and he appeared far less affected. A cut on her cheek stung, and she was panting hard.

"I'm tired of these games, Anko. I think it's time to stop being easy on you, and end it." he said finally, amused but annoyed. Amused at his ex-student's persistence and progress, but annoyed because it was not enough, never enough, and he had tired of her.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" he summoned, and two massive snakes rose up beside him. He smirked, before deliberately turning his back on her.

"Goodbye, Anko. You have been entertaining, but not good enough."

"Fucking basstard!" she hissed vehemently.

The Sannin turned around, feeling something different about her. His slitted eyes widened as they took in his transformed student.

Anko was not glowing, but on fire with a completely different chakra – one that was much darker and more intense than her own. Her pupils were slitted and irises lighter, and her teeth had formed distinct fangs. Her eyes flashed with cold, wild fury.

She was coming towards him so quickly that, with the surprise, he would have been hard-pressed to dodge if one of his snakes hadn't intervened. Anko's hiss was startlingly snakelike and he watched with renewed interest as she proceeded to tear his summoned creatures apart. Her jutsu attacks had increased exponentially in force, as had her speed and ferocity.

And then she was standing and staring at him, blood covering her arms from where she had thrust them into the creatures and gutted them. It was splattered across her face as well, adding to her feral features.

"Very unexpected Anko, but the new power is obviously not yours." he smiled. Anko's tongue flickered out to taste the blood on her lips, which he noticed with interest.

"I have sealed one of the snake spiritss inside me," she hissed maliciously, "so that I can kill you!"

She had his back to a tree with her hand around his throat in an instant, which he allowed for the moment without resisting. The smirk remained as he laughed at her softly. "So you share your body and soul with one of them, Anko? Not a very intelligent move if you can't control it."

His lack of concern again infuriated her. Her grip on his throat tightened, but his expression didn't change. She held his life in her hand, and he just smiled at her, like he knew more than she did. He always knew more than she did.

"I hate you!" she spat, glaring into his slit gold eyes with rage in her own, "I hate you for everything you've done to Konoha! For betraying everyone, for killing the Sandaime, for taking Sasuke, for what you did to me!"

"And what did I do to you, Anko?" he asked softly, pushing her. Her control is weak. It won't take much more ...

"You corrupted me!" she shouted, smashing a fist into the wood beside his head, "You made me into this!" Images flashed through her mind, of how much she had respected him, trusted him, loved him, "You took away my normal life and twisted it, poisoned it and poisoned me!" Red flashed past her vision – she always saw red in the corners of her eyes. Dripping, crimson tears. "You made me into a thing so that all that mattered was blood!"

The blood on her hands now fuelled her flashback, her utter confusion and disorientation.

"You left me!"

The moment she said it, it was like time stopped. Her heart stopped beating for an instant, and she stiffened. Orochimaru laughed under her weakened grip. In a moment he had reversed their positions, and had her pressed against the tree.

He smiled at her stunned face, her eyes flickering back and forth between her normal purple-brown and a lighter colour with slit pupils as her control wavered. She was drowning in her conflicting emotions – those of an abandoned child, and those of a betrayed, twisted adult filled with hatred and blood lust.

"You refused me, Anko," he smirked, studying her face, brushing a hand through her hair, "You did not have the will or drive to follow, so I saw that you were weak. And now you are driven, by hatred maybe, but that is good. You always were a good student." He leaned forward, and purred in her ear:

"And you wanted the blood. Don't you remember? You begged for it. You killed for it ..."

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

She did remember. Watching him lick the blood from his fingers, and looking down at her own blood-drenched hands. Staring at her crimson palms, watching them shake as she shook inside for something ...

"Do you want it, Anko?" He was always watching. He knew everything.

"Sensei, I ..." She stared, and he watched her conflict. He had turned away before she raised her hand to her mouth, knowing the outcome already. Blood stained her lips, and she looked down at the man she had just killed with a kunai through the heart. She could taste his blood in her mouth, and it gave her such a feeling of power.

"Come, Anko." She followed her sensei, unable to see the wide cruel smile on his face.

They left the gutted corpse, staring up with blank eyes at the sky.

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

Anko shuddered against her old sensei's body, looking away in defeat. He ran a finger along a cut on her cheek, and held it up to her slit eyes before slowly licking the blood off. Her breath caught, the snake inside her magnifying her blood lust and impairing her control.

His smirk widened at the look on her face. Her chakra was fluctuating wildly, while she stared at his hand with blank eyes. Orochimaru's interest peaked at the obvious lack of control over her snake spirit resident, but more at her own blood lust. He wanted to see how far he had twisted this, his first mostly-successful experiment.

He leaned in a little, flicking his tongue out to run across the blood on her cheek again. Her eyes tracked him, not entirely sane.

Anko was struggling. She was forgetting why she was there, why she wanted to kill the man in front of her. The snake inside her, so recently sealed, was demanding blood to taste, to savour, and she was not experienced enough to control it, especially with her own sick longing for blood to compete with as well.

Orochimaru ran a finger over the seal on her neck, releasing the jutsu she had placed on it to conceal her from him. The contact, especially there where she was so sensitive to his influence, caused her sanity, that poor thing so delicately restored by the Sandaime so long ago, to crack.

"They tried to convince you that you are not like me, didn't they Anko? They tried to convince you that you knew nothing, and had nothing to do with my experiments?" Orochimaru laughed as she flinched at the words. "What lies! You were actively involved in a number of them ... you just refuse to remember."

He held a blood-tipped finger to her mouth, and when she refused to move he rubbed her own blood across her lips and on to her tongue. Anko shuddered in disgust, but it wasn't only that. She liked it, and she couldn't stop him, or herself.

Orochimaru reached up, and slowly and deliberately cut a shallow line on his tongue. She watched, hypnotised, but tried to turn her head away when he brought his lips to hers. His hand on her jaw yanked her back and he kissed her forcefully, viciously, forcing her to see that she wasn't in control. And when she tasted the blood, his blood, she truly wasn't. She couldn't stop herself, and didn't even consciously register, moaning in his mouth and pulling him closer with her nails digging in his skin, and he responded by shoving her harder against the tree with his body. One of his hands moved to rest just below her breast and the other caressed her throat.

Her chakra flared, rising to the surface as the snake spirit seemed to absorb every sensation. She could feel his own immense chakra crawling along her skin, as powerful as his presence. His body was hot, not cold like she might have thought. So warm that it burned ... Her mind had frozen, her memories for once had frozen, and all she could do was feel.

Orochimaru felt the coming ANBU much quicker than Anko, and pulled back from her. To his amusement she released him reluctantly, still not really consciously present. "You're such a liar, Anko," he purred in her ear, before stepping back from his dazed ex-student and licking his lips.

"I'll see you again, my dear student," he smirked, disappearing in a sudden flame. "Give my best to Kakashi."

Anko slumped to the ground, her snake features disappearing as the spirit retreated, sated. She stared into the distance with blank eyes, not even looking at the ANBU that appeared or Kakashi who followed them.

"Anko?" he said urgently, "I was on my way back and I felt you ... Anko, are you alright? Which way did he go?"

Anko lowered her head into her hands and wanted to sob like she hadn't done since he left ... since she left him. How did he know about Kakashi? Dear god, how could I ...? If he is a monster, what does that make me? She wanted to cry, but she couldn't – he had taught her that it was a weakness not to be tolerated (Did he leave me alone in the Forest of Death to learn that, too?). Even when Kakashi lifted her up, cradling her in his arms when she didn't respond, she did not cry.

She only succumbed to his warmth.

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"Let me see if I have this right, Anko." Tsunade said, slowly and sternly. "You felt Orochimaru's chakra, and rather than calling for back up you foolishly ran off to confront him yourself, seeking revenge. He then defeated you, and left before killing you because the ANBU arrived. Is that right?"

Shizune watched her mistress with wide eyes. She really is scary sometimes ...

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Anko stared straight ahead, expressionless.

"Goddammit Anko!" Tsunade shouted, slamming her hand down on her desk with an audible crack. Shizune winced – There goes another one ... "As if we don't have enough problems with people out for vengeance!"

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade growled, sitting back down in her chair and swivelling it so she faced away from the kunoichi and out at the village. "You are off active duty until further notice -" until I know what to goddamn do with you "And you will not leave Konoha for any reason."

She waited to see if the girl would protest, but when she didn't Tsunade sighed heavily. "Get out of my sight." she said, with more weariness than anger.

When she sensed that Anko was gone – she was taught damn well, that's all I can give that bastard – Tsunade started searching around her person and drawers. But gods only know what he did to her – or what he made her do.

"Shizune!" the Sannin shouted, "Where have you put my damn sake?!"

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When Anko got back to her apartment, she had had half an idea he might be there, and he was. Kakashi looked up from his place on the couch and his damn book when she walked in. He was about to stand up, but she waved him down. "Need a shower." she said shortly, walking towards the bathroom. He went back to his book without a word.

Tearing everything off her – have to burn it – she stepped under the scalding water. The ANBU had only given her time to wash the blood off her hands and face before taking her to see the Hokage.

Closing her eyes, she tried to let the water wash away all memory of him, of his voice, his touch, his taste. But the shower wasn't enough. She needed more ... She needed Kakashi.

They had had an understanding for a long time. It wasn't really love, or even lust though that did factor in – they were both attractive. It had started as more comfort between friends than anything else. Kakashi needed to be distracted from his memories of the past, which stopped him from really getting close to anyone, and Anko was the same. After being so betrayed, she felt that it was beyond her capacity to really love someone.

She didn't bother to put anything on, but went straight for the jonin, still damp from the shower. She chucked his book aside, and he let her – a measure of trust – and she straddled his waist. She reached for his mask, but he stopped her with a hand on her wrist and a question in his eye.

"I need this," she replied, raw emotion in her voice but what emotion exactly, he couldn't tell.

"I need you ... now."

His eye widened slightly. He hadn't seen her like this for a long time. He traced her cheek softly. "Okay." He pulled off the mask, revealing his face and both eyes, and leaned forward to kiss her, running his hands up her bare back.

She bit his lip, drawing blood, before kissing him fiercely. Kakashi was used to her ways, though she tried not to let herself get too carried away and always healed the cuts afterwards. He'd once joked that he didn't care about a few more scars and besides, Genma would drop his senbon if he saw them and knew what they were from.

Anko healed them anyway. She didn't want to mar him because of her twisted desires. She had more than enough reminders of her past without that. Though, when Kakashi needed her, especially on the anniversary of his best friend's death, she would be uncharacteristically gentle.

Later, she lay with her body against his and his arm across her back, feeling more relaxed. Kakashi was damn good at more than being a shinobi and the snake spirit was a mere hum in the back of her mind. It did not try to interfere, and she shrugged thoughts of it off.

But when she closed her eyes, the memories flashed back again and she jerked. He stroked her back as she turned towards him.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi, but would you please ...?" she said softly. Kakashi smiled a little, and caressed her face before activating his sharingan.

"Sleep dreamlessly, Anko." he replied.

Her head lolled back. "I fucking better," she murmured, making him smile, before she was out.

The Copy Nin stroked her hair once more before pulling her closer and closing his eyes. Anko, do you know how much you worried me? Do you ... do you know how much you mean to me?

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Kabuto moved swiftly towards the main chamber after being informed that his master was back. He had a feeling that something untoward had happened on the Sannin's way back from one of his many clandestine meetings, and his feelings were rarely wrong.

When he entered the room, feeling that rush of power he always got around his master, he bowed deeply. "Orochimaru-sama."

The snake Sannin did not acknowledge him immediately, eyes skimming the scroll he had in his hand. Kabuto waited silently, patiently. Patience was one thing he had plenty of. It was one of the reasons why he made such a good spy.

Suddenly the Sannin smiled cruelly and looked up at his servant. "Kabuto," he acknowledged him and then looked away, a satisfied smirk on his face as he thought his plans through. "I met my old student again today," he revealed.

"Mitarashi Anko?" Kabuto asked, faintly surprised. "Is she still alive?"

Orochimaru gave a small chuckle. "It appears she was not a totally wasted experiment."

"How so, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Her drive for revenge has caused her to seal a snake spirit within her in a bid for more power, so that she can kill me." Kabuto watched his master, noting his expression. After many years in the man's service, Kabuto felt that he could read him better than anyone. And this expression ...

"She was successful?" The spy felt a new respect for the woman. Snake spirits were notoriously hard to control, even as summons or in exchange for sharing a human soul and chakra. You also had to have a blood contract with them, but it could give the sealer more power.

"Yess, but she was foolish." Orochimaru sneered, "It will merely amplify all that I originally taught her – her lust for blood and death – if she cannot control it." He smiled and licked his lips, "And it seems that she cannot."

Kabuto watched his master carefully. Yes, I think I am right ... but to test it: "Do you want to have her killed?"

"No." came the reply, as Kabuto had suspected. The Sannin leant back in his chair, his face falling into shadows. "She ... interests me. In some ways, she was a better student than I thought."

Kabuto knew that tone of voice. It is as I thought – he wants her. It was the same when he spoke of Sasuke, but he rarely changes his mind about anything ... Has she really grown that much more powerful, to gain his attention like this again? And now he will draw her into his traps again. I don't think she will escape this time.

"How is Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked.

"He is ... anxious ... for your training." The Sannin laughed, understanding that his vessel had been trying even Kabuto with his impatience.

"Ready him for a training session."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru stared, snake-eyes unblinking as his thoughts turned back to his ex-student, and her new uses with this unexpected development. It would be more difficult than Sasuke, but she would make a useful tool and he had already seen that she could not resist him. Now he would just think of a sufficiently amusing way to corrupt her more, so that she would have to leave Konoha and would have only him to turn to.

Oh, there are ways and ways, but which will I enjoy most?