Author's note: this is a flashback, right after the events of Witness. I thought I'd write Kimimaro and Anko's relationship from the villager's point of view.
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Kimimaro does not get along with the Konoha nin.
The others watch him. Whisper furtively about his past-how he had kidnapped Anko and tortured her, only to find her again in the village. Kotetsu and Izumo remembered how they found her, broken and battered and her hand mangled and clutched to her chest, and how she staggered forward, leaning against Iruka's arm and trying not to cry. "Anko-taichou! Where is the prisoner?"
"He is dead," Anko said, and her chin wobbled.
xXx
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He wasn't dead, unfortunately. He had found her again, months after.
Izumo was suspicious. "Anko! He was Orochimaru's soldier! How can we trust him?"
Kotetsu objected. "Anko! He's creepy, we can't."
She didn't listen to them. Every day at the training grounds, they watched as Kimimaro stood apart from the others, always alone and watching them with disdainful eyes. "Do you want to sit with us?" Iruka asked one day, while the others opened their bento boxes and watched as Kimimaro pointedly sat on a log farthest away from them, Iruka smiling openly and offering him a seat. "Ne, Kimimaro-san?"
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed.
"Iruka," Kotetsu said. "Shut up!"
"Don't talk to him. He'll kill you if he doesn't like you."
"You are right," Kimimaro said, and everyone else jumped. He stood, loose robes flowing over hard muscle pale skin beneath.
"I have no reason to deal with trash. Consider yourself lucky I am not bothered enough to dispose of you."
xXx
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One day, Iruka finds Kimimaro sitting on a bench underneath a large tree. The sun is setting, and great streaks of shadows fall on the tall grasses around them, the sky darkening to a cobalt blue.
Iruka steps forward. Kimimaro is polishing a forehead protector, gently tracing over the leaf pattern with a cloth. He is doing it with such a studied concentration that Iruka manages to surprise him. Kimimaro looks up, narrows his eyes, and seems to wait for Iruka to apologize for the intrusion.
"I thought we might talk," Iruka says. He doesn't sit next to Kimimaro-his body language and his posture won't allow him for that-but he does stand close to him, close enough for a proper conversation, something the other nin were so far afraid to do. He tells him as much: "Everyone is afraid of you," Iruka says.
Kimimaro turns back to his forehead protector. The Konoha insignia gleams. He traces it with the pads of his fingers. "It does not matter," Kimimaro says. "I live only for Anko's sake. All my time is spent for her."
Iruka squats beside him, carefully. "Anko is your friend?"
Kimimaro looks up sharply. Glares. "Anko is important to me. Special. I will do anything and everything for Anko's sake." He turns back to the piece of metal, tracing small circles around the edge the polishing cloth, gently. Carefully. "I polish this every night, thinking of her."
"She rescued you," Iruka says. A statement. Kimimaro frowns.
"She gave my life meaning." Quietly he tucks the forehead protector back into his pocket, before rising. "I will warn you now. If you get in her way, I will take it upon myself to hurt you. Kill you if need be. I have no loyalties to this place. Only to Anko. And that is the truth."
Kimimaro's back is toward him as he walks, the loose fabric of his robes catching the wind around them. "She is not Orochimaru," Iruka says, but Kimimaro ignores him. "You don't have to be this way."
Kimimaro stops. Turns. "Do you love her, Iruka-san?"
Iruka blinks. "What?" he says, but Kimimaro turns back, walking forward.
"Then you do not know the depths to which I will go to protect her."
xXx
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There is a fight. Iruka pushes through the crowd, horrified, watching as Kimimaro slams Gai into a wall.
"What happened?" Iruka says. The others cheer as Gai lurches off his feet and tries to punch him, Kimimaro dodging, expertly. "Why are they fighting?"
"He insulted Anko," Kotetsu says. Kimimaro whirls. A flash of white streaming from his sleeve.
"Gai! Watch out behind you!"
The shard of bone gores him, slams through the side of Gai's ribs and making him fall to his knees. "Gai! Gai!"
"Hmph," Kimimaro says, and the bone recedes, retracting back into his arm. "Trash. You are lucky I won't kill you."
"Kimimaro!" Someone running behind them. The crowd turns. "Kimimaro, what's going on?"
It's Anko. She's running hard and breathless, skidding to a stop. "Gai!" Anko says. She pushes past Kimimaro and falls to her knees, pulling him up. "What the hell did you do to Gai?"
"He insulted you," Kimimaro says. Anko throws him an angry look.
"You could have killed him!" Anko says. Gai starts to protest but Anko pushes Kimimaro against the ribs, angry. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Anko." Kimimaro looks lost as the crowd begins to disperse, Anko pulling Gai up and hoisting his arm around her shoulder. "Anko."
"Don't talk to me," Anko says, and as she walks past Iruka, he hears her mutter, "Worthless," and Iruka looks back at Kimimaro, who stands defeated, back hunched and his robes falling over his arms.
It begins to rain. Quietly the crowd disperses, and there is no one standing there, only Kimimaro, shadows falling over his face, the sky an asphalt gray, and the tortured, awful look playing at the corners of his eyes.