Author's Note: And the winner is…
XXX
"Flash," Naruto suddenly said.
"What?" Anko asked.
"That'll be the code word," Naruto said looking and Sakura and Shino. "When I say flash that's the signal I want to use Senko Tanken."
"All right then," Anko told him. "Whenever you want to use it you'll call, 'flash.' When you two hear him say that word get clear of him. When you're a safe distance call, 'clear.' Once you hear that Naruto you are free to use senko tanken."
All three of them nodded their understanding.
"All right then, now back to what your training will be like. For the next thirty days I am going to cram every damn thing I can into you three. So far as I'm concerned the academy teaches you squat, your real education begins now. I'm going to turn you thee into killers."
The way she was smiling at them made even Shino a tad nervous.
"When we're done here we won't waste time with dog walking or chasing after stray pets, we'll be going on serious missions that will involve actual danger. That means you will need to be genuine ninja."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded. "We're already ninja!"
"That so?" Anko asked pleasantly.
Moving faster then he could follow Anko covered the short distance between them and delivered a brutal kick right to his stomach. It doubled him over and dropped him to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Sakura shouted and ran over to help him. She glared at her sensei as Anko simply stood there over a doubled over Naruto who was groaning and clutching his stomach.
"Just giving a quick demonstration of what a real ninja can do. Having a killer technique does you no good at all if you can be taken out and killed just like that." She snapped her fingers. "Or do you expect your enemies to stand there patiently and give you time?"
With Sakura's help Naruto shakily got back up to his feet. he sent his teacher and angry glance. "That was no fair! I wasn't ready."
In answer Anko kicked him in the stomach again, once more doubling him over.
"Hey!" A furious Sakura shouted.
"You be quiet Pinky." She bent over to address Naruto who was on the ground again. "'I'm not ready' is never an excuse for a shinobi! This may shock you but enemy ninja aren't going to announce themselves and make sure you have a fair chance. You have to be on your guard every single moment! The second you relax on a mission is the second you get a kunai in the back. A real ninja never lets his guard down! This isn't the academy anymore. In the real world fights are short and nasty, and any dirty trick is fair game. You never want to have a fair fight! You always want to hit them when they're not ready! The ideal fight is to take the other guy down in one shot before he even knows you're there!"
Sakura again helped her boyfriend to his feet.
As soon as he was up Anko kicked him again.
This time Naruto got both arms down to block. Anko nodded approvingly. "See? Now you're learning."
"You know I think this counts as child abuse," Naruto told her.
Grinning she tapped his hitai-ite. "Good thing your not children then huh?"
"Is this what you're going to do to train us?" Sakura demanded.
"Yes as a matter of fact," Anko told her. "During the day time I'll work with helping you on your physical stamina, your taijutsu, weapons use, chakra control, tracking, and stealth techniques. During the night I'll be the enemy." She was giving them a much too friendly smile. (Her team would soon learn to dread seeing it much more than her scowls.)
"What does that mean?" Naruto asked nervously.
"It means that when the sun goes down I stop being sensei and I become the enemy. I am liable to attach you at any time. You'll need to always be prepared. If you spot me at any time between sun down and sun up I expect you to treat me like an enemy shinobi and come at me with intent to kill. Ah, except no senko tanken," she added hastily.
"You want us to come at you with intent to kill?" Sakura said sounding appalled. "What if we actually kill you by mistake?"
"I wouldn't worry about that," Anko said sounding amused. "I'd be more worried about survival."
Naruto was still rubbing his wounded belly. "You're not really going to try and kill us are you Anko-sensei?"
She smiled at them.
The three Genin didn't find that very reassuring at all.
XXX
Day 2
Anko returned to the ruins of the small camp team five had set up in a clearing in the forest.
The once neat camp was now nothing but ashes a few scattered bits of broken and twisted metal. Up in the trees three ninja were still tied helplessly to branches. Below them a pair of hungry tigers were pacing back and forth.
"Shoo kitties," Anko chided and threw a handful of shuriken and kunai at them. The tigers growled at her, but decided to flee into the forest.
"Oh dear what happened here?" She called up to her squad.
"YOU DAMN WELL KNOW HAPPENED YOU CRAZY PSYCHO BITCH!!!" Naruto screamed at her.
"Calm down Naruto that's not helping!" Sakura told him.
"Sensei," Shino spoke in his usual calm monotone. Not sounding even slightly put out. "We were attacked by an enemy ninja shortly before dawn. Our camp was destroyed and we were left in our current state."
"Really? Well that's too bad. I guess you three will just have to build a shelter and make do without your comfy sleeping bags. That shouldn't be so tough for a bunch of ninja though." She sat herself down and began to twirl a kunai about one finger.
"Aren't you going to untie us?" Naruto asked pleading.
"Nope," she answered cheerfully. "Every ninja should be an escape artist, this looks like a good opportunity for training."
Sakura was the first to get herself free. She tried to help her teammates but Anko ordered her not to. Shino took an additional fifteen minutes to get loose, while Naruto remained tied up for close to two hours.
XXX
Day 6
Near the top of the seventy foot tall tree Naruto lost focus for just a second and slipped.
"Yaaaaaaaahhh!" He screamed as he plummeted towards the ground and saw his life flash before his eyes.
At the last possible instant a hand grabbed him roughly by the collar and brought his fall to a sudden wrenching halt.
"You need to concentrate gaki," Anko told him crossly. She did not bother to ask if he was all right before dumping his ass on the ground. "The whole point of tree walking is to teach you better chakra control. Now get back up there! I want you to climb up and down this tree fifty more times!"
Naruto knew better than to try and argue with her. With a groan he got back on his feet and began once more to walk up the side of the massive tree.
XXX
Day 11
A punch to the face knocked Sakura down. Taijutsu had never been her strong point. The spars against her sensei were driving that point home. Anko said she was taking it easy on them and claimed the fact they were still alive and didn't have any permanent injuries was proof of that. Easy didn't mean gentle though, she beat on all three of them every morning while sparring. Naruto always recovered quickly but she and Shino were covered in bruises.
"Sensei, I've decided I want to be a medical ninja," Sakura told her.
Anko appeared mildly surprised by the sudden declaration, but not put out by it. "All right, that's actually not a bad idea. Given your level of chakra control that would probably be a good move for you. Were you interested in medical jutsu back at the academy?"
"No sensei," she answered honestly. "I just thought it would be a good idea to help me and my teammates survive."
XXX
Day 15
Naruto stood absolutely still within the thick grass. His breathing was shallow and controlled. He deliberately focused on compressing all of his chakra, reducing his chakra signature to make it harder for an enemy ninja to notice him.
Anko had explained to them that experienced ninja could sense chakra; both in an active jutsu and in another shinobi. That meant, among other things, that simple jutsus like henge were worse than useless on infiltration missions. They worked great among civilians who couldn't sense chakra, but were a dead give away against ninja.
Along with everything else she was teaching them how to suppress their chakra signatures, how to move silently, and remain hidden. His clothes right now were covered in mud and bits of grass to help him blend in.
Since the start of this intensive training he'd gotten much better at becoming and remaining invisible.
A sudden hail of shuriken forced him to leap away and flee as Anko attacked him.
Yes, he was better at it, but he still had a ways to go.
XXX
Day 21
It was a little after 3 a.m. and Anko was approaching their latest camp site all set to once more blow it up and send the little brats scrambling.
She landed by a nearby tree branch.
She noticed something was wrong just in time. She leapt away just before a sharpened spike snapped up to the spot where she' been.
"She set off trap number 4," Shino called. "She is twenty yards ahead of us fifteen yards to the right."
"I see her!" Naruto shouted savagely.
A hail of sharpened steel came her way and she had to dodge seriously to keep from being hit. Her three students were coming at her as a unit with blood in their eyes. It was the first time they'd tried to set an ambush for her.
She smiled like a proud parent.
She then proceeded to blow up their camp anyway and beat each of them up before tying them to a tree again.
XXX
Day 25
"Here," she tossed a scroll to Naruto and one to Sakura.
"What is this?" Sakura asked suspiciously. They'd learned to be especially wary when sensei appeared to be nice.
"Your basics have improved enough to where I'm going to concentrate on ninjutsu training for the last five days we're here." She told them. "That scroll contains a few basic medical jutsu. I'm not a medic nin myself but you should be able to pick up the basics studying it. Later on, if you have a talent for it, I'll get you a real medic nin to help you."
"Th… thanks sensei," Sakura answered. She was actually surprised to receive help that didn't include a beating attached to it.
"What about me?" Naruto asked looking at his scroll. He hadn't opened it yet, it would be just like Anko to give him something that would blow up.
"That scroll is from the Lord Hokage. He wants you to have a non lethal option to fall back on in combat. He doesn't want you to only have senko tanken and three academy justsus to rely on. That scroll is for a B-rank jutsu called, 'yoroi.'"
"Yoroi no Justsu?" Naruto asked curiously opening up the scroll. "Armor technique?"
Anko nodded. "It allows you to temporarily encase all of part of your body with chakra 'armor.' It's both a defensive and offensive jutsu. It will protect you from physical attack and will also have the effect of making your body as hard as steel. Your punches will break bones and go through walls."
Naruto's eyes widened excitedly.
"Can I learn this too?" Sakura asked hopefully.
"You could but it wouldn't be very useful for you. It requires a lot of chakra. For Naruto it's prefect since he has such immense reserves, for you it would really only make sense as an emergency technique."
"Is there nothing for me?" Shino asked. For once there was a trace of emotion in his voice. He sounded slightly petulant.
"Sorry," Anko told him. "I figured with your clan techniques you didn't need any extra help."
"I see." His voice was it's usual empty self, but he looked a little sulky.
The rest of the day was spent focusing on learning jutsus.
XXX
Day 30
At long last Team 5 exited Training Ground 44. Their month in hell complete. Though none of them had enjoyed the horrendous experience they were all far stronger now than they had been upon leaving the academy. They were also vastly stronger than their two rival rookie squads. They would not truly understand how much they had grown until their first mission.
XXX
The next day she and her squad went to the tower hoping to get a nice juicy B-rank, preferably one where combat was almost guaranteed.
The Hokage however insisted that they get at least one regular mission before taking on anything so dangerous. Anko tried to argue but was overruled.
"Well what do you have for us then?"
Sarutobi looked to see what was available. He'd had a good mission earlier; escorting a bridge builder to his home in Wave, but he'd assigned that to Kakashi's team the day before. He found one that would serve as well though.
"Here, this should do." The Hokage handed over the mission request to Anko. It was a low level C-rank to provide security for a three day festival. Perfect for a rookie squad like hers.
She looked it over and sighed. "Well I guess doing one boring mission won't kill us."
"What are we doing?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"We're going to the village of Hikedo in northern Fire Country. We're going to provide security for some priestess during a local festival." She grinned at them. "Piece of cake."