It took the group of three two and a half days to reach the Village Hidden in the Sound in the Rice Paddies. The trip had been a silent one for Anko, who was practically ignored by her companions. They arrived at the village and were welcomed with a run-down empty village with a torn to shreds gate.

"They must have already cleared out." Mizuki spoke up, his first real words to Anko.

"I don't know." Anko replied, crossing her arms. "The message of the Kazekage's death was sent from here so someone had to stick behind." She pulled out a kunai. "We should take a look around."

The other two nodded and obliged to Anko's idea. They crept through the dusty streets quietly, keeping their weapons and senses in check for anything dumb enough to jump them. There was no life of any sort, even a stray animal or a mosquito.

"It's deserted, we should turn back." Tsubaki spoke up suddenly.

"She speaks." Anko responded in a joking matter.

"Anko, watch out!"

Anko had no time to react when a large snake shot out from under her feet. She jumped off its head and onto a roof, only to have the serpent follow her. "Shit!"

The buildings she ran across were destroyed by the snake's open mouth, getting closer to her as she reached the end.

Out of nowhere, three kunais landed behind her and exploded, sending her flying off the buildings and too the ground below. She landed on her hands and knees and glanced felt the ground shake violently as the now dead snake fell to the ground.

She stood up and brushed herself off as Tsubaki and Mizuki approached her.

"Are you all right?" Tsubaki's timid voice asked.

"Yeah," she answered, rubbing here soar hands. She looked at the serpent and watched it disappear in a puff of smoke. 'It was summoned!'

She turned to Mizuki and Tsubaki. "I'm going to beat the Hell out of he person who threw those kunais. Speak up."

Tsubaki stepped back and eyed Mizuki.

Anko glared at him and he retorted with an accusing stare. "I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't summoned that snake!"

"I didn't do that!" Anko shouted, getting in Mizuki's face. They were both about the same height so it made their death stares easy.

"Guys," Tsubaki interrupted, softly. "Let's not do this now." She leaned into them and whispered secretly. "Someone's still here; the same person must have summoned that snake. We have to stay calm and work together on this."

Anko and Mizuki looked at her and then each other.

"Fine," Anko said "But you better keep your boyfriend in check. We'll get this done faster it we split up, later."

With that she turned and went further up the destroyed streets. Tsubaki sighed and looked at her very steamed boyfriend. She never could get use to his anger and sudden violent urges; she was just glad that he never took them out on her though.

He suddenly turned to her with a warm smile. "Want to team up?"

She smiled in relief and shook her head. "Anko's right, we can get this done faster if we split up." She gave him a slight peck on the cheek apologetically before disappearing in a black shadow.

Mizuki frowned and was about to go in a different direction was something triggered inside his head. He stared at the direction Anko had gone down earlier; she probably wasn't that far. He smirked and pulled out a summoning scroll.

"Oh, we'll split up, Anko…" his pupils became tiny slits. "But I'll split your skull right in half!"

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Elsewhere, Anko looked around the forest for a sign of human life, any kind of life really. She stepped onto a high bolder for better surveillance. She grimaced and touched the part of her neck that had been very tender for the past four years. 'It can't be him. Why now?'

Her sensed heightened and she jumped away just in time to avoid a giant kunai. She grabbed a smaller one of her own and shot around to face the appointment. She gasped and glared when she saw who it was. "Mizuki, what the Hell are you doing!"

He laughed and jumped down from the tree to land on the bolder Anko was previously standing on. "You could make this so much simpler if you would just stand still."

Shuriken were slung at her but she dodged every one of them. She quickly raised her arm and released a snake on Mizuki. He stumbled back to the ground but Anko, using the serpents' long body, broke his fall.

The snake soon re-curled into her sleeve and she approached him. "All right, what the Hell?"

He stood up; his eyes glaring darkly and his lips leering in an insane way that shook even someone like Anko up. He pulled out a scroll.

"You said that you were going to beat the Hell out of me, didn't you?" He opened it slowly, letting the long material to drop to the ground a roll to her.

Her eyes widened when she recognized the seals of a weapon scroll.

"Well, I'm willing to beat you to it." He bit down on his thumb and wiped it across the black and white paper. There was a large puff of smoke and them Mizuki held up a large shuriken covered with paper bombs.

"…You're kidding, right?"

Mizuki glared at her mocking display.

"Come on, that thing couldn't even take a deer down."

"You want to bet!" His pupil shrunk as he lunged the shuriken at her.

.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'

Orochimaru stopped and looked back at the small explosion less than a mile away.

"Is something wrong?" Kimimaro asked.

Orochimaru's eyebrows furrowed "I'm not sure. Take these men and head back to the hideout, I'll be along shortly."

The boy hesitated, worried for his master. "But…But, Lord Orochimaru-…"

"Do not challenge me, Kimimaro." Orochimaru retorted, sternly. He disappeared in the shadows. Kimimaro looked back at the bloodthirsty shinobi.

"Let's go." He ordered bitterly at the rest.

.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'

Mizuki groaned as he got on his feet once more. He smirked when he saw that Anko was nowhere in sight.

"Looks like I won you little-Gah!" He looked down at the rock that had hit his head.

"Hey, weirdo!"

He looked up at the tree Anko was leaning on.

"Try working on your aim more and then maybe you'll be able to at least get a cut me." With a mockingly laugh, she jumped to the next tree and sprang into the forest.

Mizuki's fist twisted up, his teeth gnashing in anger.

"That little…" he shook his head. "You better keep running!" he shouted out into the empty woods. "The next time I see you, I'm going to fucking kill you!"

He turned to leave but was stopped in memorization at the man staring down at him from the tree Anko was previously standing on.

.,.,

Anko laughed at the words that followed her.

"I'd really like to see him GAH!" she jumped to the ground quickly to avoid falling headfirst. She grabbed her neck, which was searing in pain. "What…No, impossible."

She picked herself up and ran back to where Mizuki was supposed to be, the place where his presence was strongest.

.,.

They stared at each other, green fearful eyes and golden sadistic ones. Orochimaru smirked at him. "Now, why on earth did you feel the need to take that poor girl out?"

Mizuki shuddered. "I-It wasn't my fault! That girl…Anko, she-…"

Orochimaru's eyes widened. "Anko, you say?"

"Y-yes. She…" he pulled on his signature maniac expression. "She wanted to tear me to pieces, so…I wanted to bear her two it."

"…I see." Orochimaru remarked. So his former student was around somewhere. How…interesting. "Allow me to lend you a hand…"

Before his words could register in Mizuki's head, his long neck shot out and his teeth sunk into his exposed left arm. Mizuki gasped and began to shake harder as a power surged through him. This man was doing something to him.

The pain as he released him was greater. Mizuki stumbled to the ground, clenching his blood arm. "What did you do to me!"

Orochimaru licked his lips; Mizuki's blood was bitter and sour, just like the man himself.

"Helping you." He laughed. "Be sure to tell Anko I said "hello"." He thought for a second about the charming, twelve years old girl that most likely didn't exist anymore. "I'm sure she'll be very amused to know I was thinking of her."

With that, he sunk into the tree bark and disappeared. The pain became worse and worse, as if chunks of his arm were being slowly peeled off. He couldn't hold it in anymore and let out a wail for help.

.,.,

Tsubaki, the only member of the three man squad who had actually been working, but stopped when she looked at the sky as a loud noise echoed through the forest. Her eyes widened as a familiarization hit her.

"Mizuki?" she wasted no time and ran in the direction of her lover.

.,.,

"What the hell is that?" one of guards yelled a little more loudly than necessary.

Kimimaro's eye stayed glued to the direction his master had gone in minutes before. Had he lost the only real father he'd ever had? He gulped the idea down. "It's Lord Orochimaru, he can't die."

.,.,

"Mizuki!" Anko called out. This was the area they had been fighting in, she was sure of it. But where was the little asshole?

She heard a pain filled groan from her left and very cautiously followed it. Just up a head of her was what looked like a body, but she had to get closer to be completely sure.

"Mizuki!" she gasped as she kneeled down beside him. He was deadly pale and was bathed in a light sweat. She snapped her fingers in front of his open eyes; his reaction was a quick blink and then a light gasp. "Easy. Easy!"

"It's killing me!" he screamed out, clutching his arm tightly.

Anko looked at the limb he was clinging to. She tried to pry his blood-soaked hand off it to see why he was going so crazy but he wouldn't relent. "Come on, Mizuki-…"

"What happened!"

Anko looked up as Tsubaki crashed on the other side of her boyfriend.

"I think he was bitten by something." Anko answered as she tugged at his hand again. "But he won't let me see it."

Tsubaki took hold of his wounded arm and pried her fingers in between his until she was able to hold his arm up.

"Whoa." Anko awed. A black seal of some sort stretched from his wrist and was gradually spreading down to his elbow, causing Mizuki extensive pain.

"We need to get him out of here!" Tsubaki stated, franticly. "This thing on his arm is killing him!"

Anko wanted to tell her to calm down but she was on the state of panic. Her neck had stopped hurting, that meant that if he had been here…

'No.' she told herself. 'I was fighting, I was pushing myself too hard and the seal just busted a little, that's all it is…' She looked at the shaking Mizuki. 'But still, this is so spontaneous.'

"Grab his arm." She ordered Tsubaki. She did so and after they had him well situated on each other's shoulders, made the agonizing journey back to the Leaf Village.

Anko glanced back only once, and by a miracle, didn't see the shadow hovering over the trees.

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Two days later, Mizuki was taken to the hospital, barely conscious and as far as the girls knew, barely alive. The second one of the medical ninja saw the marking devouring Mizuki's arm, he freaked out and ran off somewhere with a very frantic Tsubaki and a extremely pissed off Anko that called after him. They waited, with Tsubaki applying wet paper towels to Mizuki's forehead to cure an upcoming fever.

Anko was about to go crazy and demanded some help when suddenly the Third Hokage appeared. He glanced at Anko and headed over to Mizuki. He examined Mizuki's arm from different angles and finally motioned a nurse.

"Is he going to be all right?" Tsubaki whimpered.

Hiruzen could only stare. "I'm going to do what I can do for him." With that three nurses lifted off of her and took him away.

Anko watched them and then had to stop Tsubaki from running after them. She dragged her to a bench and held onto her until she calmed down. Or at least until she started crying so hard that she lost strength to do anything else. Anko felt a small stab of guilt. Why wasn't she feeling sadness or concern for her fallen comrade?

She sighed and leaned her head into the wall.

Hours passed and she and Tsubaki hadn't moved once. Tsubaki was curled up on the bench sleeping; she had had a rough day. Anko was re-playing the day over and over again. Mizuki had always been a bit demented, she had heard that much from comrades and small bar conversations that she had eased dropped on, but what had he done to himself to cause that mark on his arm?

Anko's hand twisted in the fabric of her shorts. "Maybe he hadn't done it to himself." A small voice said. At least it would give an explanation to the giant snake from earlier that no one had summoned. But she shook her head. It could've been a creature that someone had summoned and hadn't sent home. It could have been anything actually.

Suddenly, two dark shadows covered her. She looked up and was a little surprised to see the elders Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.

"Uh…Hi." She greeted sheepishly.

"Will you come with us, please?" Koharu asked, though, more like demanded.

Anko was about to wake Tsubaki.

"Leave her." Homura instructed. "We just need you to answer some questions."

Anko hesitated before following them to an empty room. The light came on and Anko blinked a few so that her eyes would better adjust. When they did, her entire face lit up for the first times in days.

"Jiraiya!" Anko squealed like a child receiving a puppy.

The Toad Sannin turned from the sunset colored window to the beaming Anko. His expression matched hers.

"Who the heck are you?" he joked. He approached her and examined her pretending to be doubtful. "You can't be Anko Mitarashi. Anko is a thirteen year old spit-fire with a flat chest!"

Anko hit him across the arm. "Pervert, it's me!"

"I know." He laughed while rubbing his soon to be black arm. Anko locked him in a hug, Jiraiya soon copied.

Even the impassive elders saw the touchiness in the moment and smiled slightly.

"Why didn't someone tell me you had grown up?" he muffled in her hair. Anko shook her head, her mind getting lost in his scent of woods and soap. Four years ago, when Anko's world had started falling apart because of her ex-sensei's betrayal, he had given her a new found hope.

Maybe it was out of pity, or maybe it was actual love, either way, Jiraiya had been with her while she recovered in the hospital and then when she started to glue the pieces of her life back together. But then he left, and other than to two letters he had written, she hadn't had contact with him. "I missed you…"

"I'm sorry, but you two are going to have to hold off on your reunion."

They released each other and turned to Hiruzen. He moved past them and stopped in front of the window where Jiraiya had been standing previously. "Anko, will you please recap what happened on your mission?"

Anko stood up straight. "Yes sir. Mizuki, Tsubaki, and I arrived at the gates of The Village Hidden in the Rice Paddies two days ago. We discovered that the whole village had been tarnished and abandoned, not mentioned in your report, by the way." There was a bit of humor in her last sentence but she did not relish on it long. "And to save a few hours, we were attacked by a giant snake, we slit up into groups and then—BAM—Mizuki went crazy and tried to kill me. He got that thing on his arm and Tsubaki and I took turns hauling his ass back here."

"Giant snake?" Homura questioned.

"We're not sure where it came from, but we handled it."

The room was quiet for a moment, with exception of the sounds of moving carts and low talk outside.

"Mizuki…attacked you." The Third broke the silence.

"Yeah." Anko nodded. "But it was just a spat, nothing worth killing each other over."

"Why did he attack you?"

Anko flinched a little at the sternness in his voice. "Well…He thought the giant snake was might fault and I…said some things to Tsubaki and then…" She stopped and looked around at the faces staring at her. She looked back at Hiruzen's back. "Where are you going with this?"

"Anko, did you have anything to do with the condition Mizuki is in now?"

"No!" she gasped, glancing back at the elders who didn't seem too convinced. "I just threw a rock at the guy-…"

"So, you attacked him back." interrupted Hiruzen.

Anko felt as if the walls were starting to close around her. "Yes…I had to!"

"So, you tried to kill him?" Koharu inquired.

"No!" Anko shouted at him. "I never even laid a finger on him!"

"Then explain to us were that seal on his arm came from!" Koharu snapped.

"I don't fucking know!" she snapped back.

"Anko…" Jiraiya whispered. He had to hold her back when she lunged at the elders.

"I had nothing to do with this! I wouldn't kill Mizuki no matter what!"

"Anko!" the Third Hokage's voice roared. This time it was softer. "No one is accusing you for anything."

Anko calmed down, but Jiraiya held on to her just in case.

"It's been a long day," he shooed her. "Go home, get some rest. We'll summon you again tomorrow evening."

Anko's eyes narrowed at him. She felt like she had been betrayed by one of the few people who she thought was a decent human being. She held her anger in a stiffened a bow.

"Goodbye." She mumbled. She stared down the two elders as they let her pass. She stopped. "Hey, can you pull some strings so that Tsubaki can stay here with Mizuki? I think she'd like that."

Hiruzen studied her reflected back in the mirror. "I'll see what I can do."

She nodded and then left.

"She's a troubled individual." Homura pointed out. She turned back to the Third. "Do you honestly thing that she was telling the truth?"

Jiraiya looked at his ex- teacher in anticipation.

"At the moment, there is no physical evidence to connect her with this crime. Mizuki could have simply messed up on a jutsu and done this himself. Only time and tests will tell." He turned back to his associates. "Jiraiya, walk with her, get to know her."

"Don't mind if I do." He smiled, nodding to the elders. "Pardon."

After he was gone, Koharu turned back towards the Hokage. "Will you be questioning Tsubaki as well?" Hiruzen didn't seem to hear him. "Hiruzen?"

The Third watched Anko's stiff form leave the hospital. Mere seconds later, Jiraiya ran up behind her, almost tripping. He rubbed the back of his head and his lips move as he spoke to her. Anko's shoulders shrugged and they left the grounds together.

Hiruzen wondered how things would have been if Anko had had Jiraiya for a student instead of Orochimaru. It would have been one less life ruined after all.

"Please." He begged to the heavens. "Don't let her be like him. Don't let his influence take her over. "

But that was one prayer that was long from being answered.

This is the chapter that was deleted almost nine months ago! Took me long enough, huh!