In a flash she threw three kunai into the ground at their feet.

"Now I want each of you to take that knife and chop off your bunny's cute little head."

There was a momentary silence.

"Say what?!" Naruto shouted.

"You can't mean that!" Sakura cried.

Shino meanwhile simply picked up the kunai. "Hai, sensei."

"Shino! You're not actually going to do it are you?" Naruto demanded.

He gave Naruto a single nod. "I am."

"How can you?" Sakura asked. She was stroking Chibi.

"It is simple, because I have received an order to do so."

"Which is the point of this," Anko said approvingly. "In the field I'll expect you to carry out my orders instantly and without any hesitation. If I tell you to kill someone I'll expect you to do it; not look at me and whine. If you can't even kill a rabbit am I supposed to believe you can kill a human being?"

"But this isn't like killing an enemy ninja!" Sakura argued.

"What? You think that'll be easier?" Anko shook her head in amazement. "I hate to break this to you pinky, but ninja kill. Did they never mention that at the academy? Does it come as a surprise?"

"I know ninja kill!"

"Okay then, what's the problem?"

"Why should we kill them though?" Naruto asked. "The rabbits haven't done anything!"

"So only the guilty rabbits deserve die huh?" Her laugh was short and nasty. "Let me share a little secret with you. Something they probably forgot to mention back in school. Ninja don't just kill bad people; we kill who we're ordered to or whoever we have to in order to complete the mission. If the target happens to surrounded by a bunch of children and taking him out means taking out some of them, you do it. Sometimes the target will be an innocent woman or child."

"That's a lie!" Sakura shouted. "Konoha would never do anything like that!"

"Right, because we would never accept a contract for an assassination of anyone who wasn't a criminal or somehow deserving it." Looking into Sakura's and Naruto's wide eyes she could see they really did believe it.

"Tell me something pinky, when you practiced throwing kunai at the academy did they use human shaped targets?"

"Well of course!"

"And were there bull's-eyes for the head, throat, and heart?"

"Yeah," Naruto said.

"Why do you suppose that was?" She asked pleasantly. "It was to teach you to aim for the killing points of the human body. Didn't it ever occur to you that the target you'd be throwing at wouldn't always be a ninja? That it might be a civilian? Somebody's wife or mother? You have been taught to kill people, not just other ninja."

Naruto and Sakura shared an uncomfortable look. Throwing kunai at targets was such a routine thing they had never thought of that.

"We were taught how to fight other ninja," Naruto argued.

"And to kill them?"

"Well… yeah."

"So if you were fighting an enemy ninja you could kill him?"

"Sure," Naruto said confidently.

"But you won't kill a rabbit?" She asked with a sneer.

"It's all right to kill if you have to," Sakura said. "If you're fighting and its life and death."

"That's the thing," Anko said pointedly. "You won't always be forced to. Assassination, by its very nature, involves killing when your target is no threat to you, who may not even know you're there. Ideally they should die without ever even knowing they've been killed. Let's say there are guards and you have the chance to kill them without them being able to put up a fight. Are you not going to take them out just because you're not already fighting them?"

"Couldn't we just knock them out?" Sakura suggested.

"Not always," Anko told her. "There are times when killing is safer than incapacitating. And you're still missing the point. Killing is one of the three basic functions of ninja. We kill, we steal, and we spy. Sure we occasionally do other things like provide security or conduct searches, but basically killing, stealing, and spying are the reasons ninja exist. Normally those are considered to be criminal acts. Being ninja is by its very nature immoral. A ninja's honor comes not from what they do but from their loyalty to the ones they serve. So long as you are loyal and obedient then any act is acceptable." She grimaced. "Just so long as you never betray those you are supposed to be loyal to."

Frowning she looked back over at the two of them.

"Being a ninja you will do plenty of things you won't be proud of, but you do them to serve your Hokage and your village and your teammates. I need to be able to know that when I give an order I can count on you carrying it out to the best of your ability, whether you agree with it or not."

She then gave them a demonstration.

"Shino! Kill your rabbit, now!"

"Hai."

Holding the rabbit firmly with one hand he brought the kunai down on its neck with the other. The kunai's blade was razor sharp and cut clean, but even so the rabbit gave a single high pitched squeal as its neck was cut. Its feet kicked as its head was cut off and fell to the ground. Blood spouted out of the open neck spraying onto Shino's jacket and arm.

When it was done he tossed the dead rabbit to the ground.

Naruto and Sakura both looked sick. At the sound of the other rabbit's squeal both Mr. Floppy and Chibi began to shake nervously and they had to hang on to keep them from leaping away.

"You pass," Anko said simply. "You're a Genin now. Even if these other two wash out I'll train you to be a great ninja."

"Thank you sensei."

"That was horrible!" Sakura said.

In a flash Anko grabbed the girl and was shaking her back and forth. "Horrible?! What the hell do you think it's going to be like to kill a person? Do you think that's going to be easy when you can't even stand watching a rabbit die?"

"Let go of Sakura-chan!"

She sent Naruto a hard look that silenced him.

"I hate to break this to you future Hokage, but being ninja involves doing a lot of hard and dirty things that you will not want people to ever hear about. We do things we don't like and don't enjoy because we have to. It's a dirty job sometimes, but it's a damn important one. We keep the village safe. We provide the money that makes the village run. We fight for each other and protect each other no matter what! That's what it means to be shinobi of the leaf! And if doing that means you get your hands bloody and make yourself sick now and again that's just the price you have to pay."

She let go of Sakura and stepped back.

"It's a hard life; I can't imagine anything that's harder. Not everyone can do this, but that's part of what makes it so worth doing." She looked at both of them with an intense and honest gaze. "If you become ninja, real ninja, what you do will matter but this is the price. Are you willing to pay it or not?"

She crossed her arms and set her jaw. She'd said all she was going to. It was up to them.

Naruto looked at Mr. Floppy. His pet was staring up at him with big innocent eyes. He thought about his life and about everything he'd endured up until now. About all the sacrifice he'd made and about what being a ninja meant to him.

He swallowed and reached down to pick up the kunai.

"Naruto," Sakura said softly looking on.

"I want to be a ninja Sakura-chan. I want to be a ninja more than anything." His voice was sad but certain.

Looking on Anko silently nodded her approval; it was fine if it was hard for him, so long as he actually did it.

He did.

He brought the blade down in one quick clean motion.

The rabbit's head came right off with almost no resistance. Unlike Shino's his never let out any squeal. The blood splattered on his orange jacket and some splashed on his face. It was warm.

He let go of the rabbit and turned away from Sakura as he threw up.

"You pass; you're a real ninja now." Anko said without any mocking tone in her voice. She looked at Sakura. "What about you?"

Sakura looked to wear Naruto was bent over. She looked at Chibi who was resting nervously against her. She cared for the little rabbit. But not as much as she cared for her boyfriend. She couldn't let him down.

She picked up the kunai at her feet.

She tried to make it quick and clean as the two boys had, but her hand was shaking and when she brought the knife down it didn't cut all the way through. Blood splattered onto her face and her red outfit from the partially torn neck. Chibi let loose a series of high pitched terrified squeals and was madly trying o get away. Sakura was forced to get a better grip to hold on to him before she could try and finish. In his pain and terror Chibi bit at her hand.

Naruto moved to help but Anko waved at him to stay where he was.

Gritting her teeth Sakura brought the knife down a second time. This time she kept her hand steady and the kunai's blade went clean through. Chibi's struggles stopped as first his head and then his body were dropped to the ground.

Sakura looked at what she had done and began to silently sob.

Naruto came over to hug her. She put her head on his shoulder and and gratefully dried against him.

"You pass," Anko said. She offered no word of sympathy. When her sensei had made her do this he too had refused to comfort her. She knew this was cruel, but the shinobi world was cruel and shielding them would be dangerous. She would make them strong ninja even when it meant they hated her guts. "You are all officially Genin now, congratulations."

"What happens now sensei?" Shino asked in his usual emotionless voice.

"Usually a rookie team would waste a lot of time doing D-rank missions like walking dogs or weeding yards. I don't believe in that nonsense. You're all dismissed for the day; I want you to enjoy it. It'll be your last bit of freedom do the next month."

Naruto looked at her nervously. "What are we going to do?"

"Bring all your ninja gear and camping equipment with you and report to Training Ground 44 tomorrow at 6 a.m. Be sure to tell everyone that you won't be seeing them for awhile. For the next 30 days you're getting survival and ninja training from hell. By the time we're done you'll be ready to go on real missions."

She vanished and was gone.