The door to the Yamanaka flower shop opened and Inochi, the current owner, was a little surprised of who entered. "Hello miss, how may I help you?" he asked as politely as his fear would allow. Anko laid down a few bills "Do you have any Zinnia's?" she asked soberly.

Inochi nodded "Let me check, be right back." He left her to go into the back room. In his place, four year old Ino appeared. "Hey there." She said. Anko smiled, she was so small that she barely came up to the counter. She had to stand on her toes just so the top of her head and eyes could be seen.

"Hi little one." Anko said. As she finished talking, Inochi came out holding four Zinnias wrapped in white sparkling wrapping paper. "Here you go." He said, he noticed his daughter standing there so he scooped her up and she squealed out in laughter.

Anko's lips quivered. The way this man held his little girl so close, the way she smiled when he hugged her, the way they loved each other…it brought up feelings of resentment and hatred and some sort of jealousy that made her want to jump over the counter and break up that precious moment that she had never known. But she also felt sorry for them. Who would hug the little girl when her father was killed?

"Thank you very much." Anko said hurriedly.

"Miss-" but the she had already ran into the streets. Inochi sighed, the girl seemed troubled and he was somewhat curious as to why The Snake Sannin's former apprentice had bought flowers representing friendship.

He kissed Ino on the forehead, sat her down, and watched her run away. It just then occurred to him that she would be stating the academy in a year in a half.

.,.,.,.,.,

"There're nice." Mizuki said tonelessly

Tsubaki smiled and place the yellow roses in a vase. "I know you don't really like flowers but-" "It's the thought that counts." Mizuki smiled giving Tsubaki the confidence she needed. "Have you seen Anko lately?" he asked [trying to seem normal]

"Not since we returned from the mission." She said. She thought out loud for a moment "Maybe she doesn't care that you're even in here-"

"Guess again."

Tsubaki and Mizuki turned to the doorway. Anko was leaning against it in a cool, calm pose with partly crushed flowers in her hand.

Mizuki brightened "Anko, I'm so glad you're here."

Tsubaki stared at him oddly 'What is that suppose to mean.'

Anko smiled "That's pleasant to hear for once." She walked to him, side glaring Tsubaki as she did. She showed him the flowers "Sorry if there a little squished, I was almost mugged trying to get up here." This caught Tsubaki's concern "Did they hurt you?" Anko smirked "I hurt them." She laughed at her own joke. Mizuki chortled dryly also "You have quite the sick mind Mitarashi." He commented.

Tsubaki rolled her eyes 'I love this man but sometimes I don't even know who he is.' She took the flowers from Anko and began arranging them in a separate vase.

Mizuki settled down. "Anko." He said

"Hmm?" she returned

"Do have any plans this evening?"

Tsubaki dropped the flower vase 'Is he serious!'

Stared at him, she could feel Tsubaki's angry eyes on her. "Uhh…what brought this up?" she asked a little uneasily.

He shrugged his shoulders "I just wanted a proper way to thank you for bringing me back to the village after I was injured. I heard the council gave you a pretty hard time."

Anko glanced back at Tsubaki. She looked hurt, making her feel guilty. "What about Tsubaki here; she helped me drag your crazy ass back here."

"She's being questioned by Lord Hokage tonight. In other words she'll be occupied."

Anko stared at him and then at Tsubaki. She look devastated now. Anko looked back at Mizuki and caught the look in his eyes 'Hells noes' She snickered"Sorry Mizuki, I have my own business to attend to tonight. Maybe some other time okay?" she began walking away but stopped at the door "Maybe next time it could be all three of us. Iruka could even tag along if he promises not to pass out like he did yesterday." She closed the door behind her.

Tsubaki smiled; maybe Anko wasn't as bad as everyone made her out to be. She turned to Mizuki, ready to demand and explanation but stopped when she saw the expression on his face.

He was raging, his teeth were grinding together and he honestly looked ready to kill. Kill. Kill. Kill…

"Mizuki?" Tsubaki asked

He threw the covers back. "Hand me my clothes pretty please."

"You're checking out? But the doctors said that-"

She was caught off with his gentle smile and insanity filled eyes "I'm fine love, now please give me my shirt." Tsubaki gulped but obliged. "Where are you going?"

Mizuki tied on his head band "I have my own business to take care of."

.,.,.,.,.,

'Dame this day's gone by fast.' Anko thought as she made her way back to apartment. It was already dusk and she was getting tired. Still, she couldn't help but think about the past three days. Orochimaru's possible involvement, Mizuki's strange dangerous behavior, it was all so sudden and she would do almost anything to set it aside. 'Jiraiya said that everything was going to be okay…so…that means I should trust him.'

She smiled and continued on. The short trip was peaceful, until she felt a presence lurking a few feet behind her.

Mizuki smirked as he came closer and closer to his target. He thought her guard was down by the way her slacked, but as he aimed a needle at her skull…

Anko shot around "Mizuki you idiot I thought we went through this!" she launched three kunais at him. Two missed thanks to his quick reflexes but the third managed to graze his shoulder. He clutched it as he landed.

They stared at each other, a pair of brown, annoyed but amused eyes boarded into a pair of green, anger stricken ones. "What do you want?" she asked.

Mizuki smirked "The power your formal Sensei gifted me." He showed her his arm to emphasize what he meant. The seal was larger and cover his entire arm. It was also darker and seemed to sink into his skin. Anko's stomach lurched "So he did do that to you?" she said. He just continued smirking. Anko shook her head "Mizuki, Orochimaru is sick. That so called power he put on your arm is going to either kill you or will give Orochimaru complete control over you.

He chuckled softly; little by little his laughs grew until he was shrieking with insanity.

''Lord Orochimaru said the only way for my sins to be forgiven was to kill a nuisance of his and even thought I could care less of my sins…I want to prove myself worthy of the power he has given me…I will obey his commands and destroy you…besides you were starting to get on my nerves…"

Anko's eyebrow went up in question "And they say I need help."

Mizuki lunged a rhythm of shuriken and knives at her all of which she was able to dodge. 'I have to get close enough to fight him hand to hand and knock him out.'

She was less than four feet in front of him when he levitated to a building above them. He pulled out a scroll, the same scroll he had used in their battle in the forest two days ago, and bit his thumb, smearing blood across it. "You are dead now Mitarashi."

Anko took a fighting stance. He didn't look threatening but she knew better than underestimate psychopaths.

The scroll turned into a puff of smoke and in its place was a large kunai. "This kunai is made of a special kind of chakra." He said almost proudly "A single cut will put someone, you for example, in a coma. And then once you're knocked out…I'm sure you can figure the rest."

Anko smirked "Yeah…you'll kill me in my sleep and deliver my remains to Orochimaru to do God knows what. One problem with that though, I'm pretty sure there are a few people who are going to notice an alley full of blood and a two Kunochi missing."

Mizuki grinned at her all knowingly "Once I finish the task Lord Orochimaru entrusted me with, I'll gain the power he promise and kill anyone who tries to take me down."

Anko shook her head "You're one sick puppy Mizuki. Promises are meant to be broke. Orochimaru doesn't give a dame about anything but himself, as soon as he's done with you he'll toss you aside-" "You mean like he did you?"

Anko stiffened 'Yeah…like he did me.'

She closed her eyes and then opened them again. "I'm not letting a repeat of what happened to me four years ago happen to you. I'm taking you to the Hokage and we're going to have a nice long chat about Orochimaru-"

He flung the kunai at her before she could finish. She jumped in the air and managed to avoid getting sliced up by it. The enormous kunai left a crater about three size the times of its own size; Anko was thankful that that wasn't her.

She dropped down on a fire escape on a building leveled with Mizuki's. "You're really asking for it Mizuki." She yelled

He lifted his arm, revealing chakra strings attached to the kunai that he used to maneuver it back to him. "You should be more worried about yourself." He commented back. "I'm already dead." She muttered. Mizuki pulled at the chakra strings and the kunai swung up and sliced the fire escape she was on, grazing the heel of her shoe as she jumped down. Upon landing, she bit down on her thumb, made some quick hand signs and before she could say the word 'summoning' she was hit in the back by and intense sharp pain in her back.

She had no other options but to land on her stomach. She could feel blood leaking out of the gash in her back and out of the corners of her mouth. She maneuvered her head so the t her chin was on the ground holding her up and was met with Mizuki's shoe.

He lowered his self to her. "You let your guard down when my kunai got caught in the wall." He jeered "But I have a few sneak attacks that you didn't expect Mitarashi." He stood, walked around her and placed his hand on the kunai, slowly pressing it down. "See you in hell." he used all of his weight to send the kunai deep into her back, practically cutting her in half. He smirked when he felt one of the tips hit solid ground. He thought he had her. He thought that he was worthy now; he thought he had killed her.

A presentence…

Turning towards it, a giant anaconda launched out of the ground and wrapped around his neck, pulling him to the ground.

Now, Anko, the real Anko stood in front of him. He glanced at the Anko impaled by the kunai, she melted into mud. "You honestly thought I could be taken down that easily." She laughed and pressed her foot on his back. "One thing I never regretted about being with Orochimaru was my training and knowledge that he gifted me. You are no match for me."

He glared ahead, controlling his breathing so that the snake wouldn't confuse his as dinner. "You'll pay for this." He growled. The serpent tightened around his air way.

She chuckled "Sure I will, after all since it's my snake's venom in your neck, it's only fair that I pay for your funeral…"

"ANKO!"

She shot around to see Iruka, Tsubaki, and three ANBU dashing towards them. She stepped away from Mizuki and called off her serpent as Iruka bent down to help Mizuki. "You okay?" he asked as Mizuki grabbed his throat. "She…she tried to…kill me."

Iruka looked back at Anko, her expression was disbelief and murderous. "THAT IS NOT TRUE, HE ATTACKED ME-"

An ANBU placed a hand on her shoulder. "Not another word, you can tell your side of the story to the Hokage." He said dragging her away.

Anko decide not to struggle. Even she would have a hard time fighting off three ANBU black ops. She shot one more look at Mizuki. He was hunched over still catching his breath with Tsubaki's arms around him. It seemed like she was apologizing for doubting him.

His eyes wondered up to hers. She could see the smile in them…just like Orochimaru's.

.,.,.,.,.,

"I'm telling you that psycho is working with Orochimaru!" Anko shouted at Sarutobi.

"Anko…we had our suspicions that Orochimaru was involved in this but Mizuki was the victim. We can't say he's guilty base on what you say-"

She slapped her hands on his desk. "WHY NOT?

Sarutobi sighed and readied himself. "Because I'm starting to wonder if you have been telling the truth or not."

Anko shot back as if she had touched fire. "What?" she was shocked

Sarutobi stood calmly "It would seem that you and Mizuki have been at each other's necks for the past three days and after what I was told about the fight you and he got into…"

Anko understood what he meant, she really couldn't blame him. "So…now what?"

"Jiraiya, and I pulled a few strings that kept you from going to jail; they best we could do was put you under house arrest."

"What about Mizuki?"

"…Protected custody." He relit his pipe "Jiraiya will, in a way, be your legal guardian for the next week or so, he want be staying with you but don't be surprised if you walk out of your shower one day and he's in your bedroom." He looked over his pipe in hopes that there would be a smile on Anko's face. No such luck.

She looked ready to explode, her face was flushed and there was hurt and rage in her eyes.

Anko stood. "Let me know if things change." She left before he could protest.

As she walked through the halls, some of the people stopped and looked at her. As she went past them, some of them turned to one another and snickered or said some stupid comment.

"I heard she tried to kill that Mizuki boy."

"Yeah, they said she summoned snakes to eat him."

"She's got Orochimaru in her alright."

.,.,.,.,.,

It was déjà vu. Anko entered the house enraged and went straight to her bedroom. The first thing that caught her attention was the shattered remains of the picture that she had thrown against the wall a little less than twenty four hours ago. There were small bits of glass around the broken frame and a slight scratch on the wall.

She picked it up by the edge and pulled the paper out, letting the frame drop to the floor. She stared at the people in it.

Orochimaru and Anko

Sensei and Pupil.

Teacher and Student.

Savior and the saved.

Alpha and Reject.

She gripped the paper but still didn't have what it took to rip it or crumble it off. She ran her arm across her eyes just in case she had accidentally let tears fall out.

With the picture still in her hand, she walked to the closet and pulled out a backpack, followed by a few T-shirts, Capri's, shorts, and a few more essentials for the daze inflicted journey she was about to go on. She pulled out a piece of paper out of a note book on her desk. She folded up and laid it on her pillow without proof reading it.

Pulling her jacket on, she took one last look at her room and the picture in her hand before closing the door and setting off for a pit stop.

Mizuki heard something drop in the room. He looked around but saw nothing.

Laying his head back on the pillow he contemplated his next move in order to eliminate Anko. Iruka definitely had to go. Besides the hatred he felt towards him, he knew something about the 'crush' he had on Anko and even after what happened today he knew it wouldn't mean anything once the entire thing was under the bridge.

Tsubaki…he might spare her. She believed him when he told her Anko was the one who attacked him, silly girl. If she stayed out of the way, he would let her live with only a few bruises as a reminder of what he would do to her.

And as for Anko…

Someone slapped their hand over his mouth causing his eyes to shoot open. Anko appeared from the shadows and stared at him defiantly. "If you say a word, I WILL kill you despite the consequences." She spat. She glanced back at his door. It was closed and there was no sign of nurses or ANBU. 'Some protected custody.' Anko snickered and turned her attention to Mizuki. She moved her hand from his mouth to his neck.

"Since you're so eager to see him, why don't you tell me where he is so that I can tell him that you want be able to make it."

Mizuki stared at her warily "You're going after him?"

Anko rolled her eyes "No dip-shit, I want to send him flowers, yes I'm going after him!"

Mizuki grinned "Sorry to disappoint you Mitarashi but I honestly have no idea where you can find him."

Anko tightened her grip. "Do not fuck with me Mizuki, I'm not in the mood." But she could read his eyes, he was telling the truth.

"Believe what you want but I seriously was a victim when I first met Orochimaru…just like you-"

She slapped him so hard that it echoed through the room. She jumped at her own sound "Just shut up and tell me what I need to know."

Mizuki grimaced "Retrace the steps he made in The Village Hidden in the Rice Patties, that's about all I can tell you because I DON'T KNOW."

She nodded "Than you are as useless as the tests made you out to be."

His eyes widened "How did you…"

"Iruka and I might not seem like it but we are rather close. Don't hate him for telling me though." She turned away but paused and said "And don't hurt him…or that pretty girlfriend of yours, I kind of like her."

Mizuki watched her open the window and reposition her back pack over her shoulders. "If anyone asks, you never saw me. I was never here."

She jumped out and Mizuki hoped she broke her neck.

She ran past the gates of Konaha, through the small towns outside it and by sun rise reached the Fire Country borders.

'Orochimaru…Sensei … you better be ready. You better be ready to face me because I don't have mercy on twelve year old abandoning murderous bastards who think they can get away with fucking up my comrades even if they are crack heads.'

She smirked as adrenaline pumped through her veins and fueled her chakra paths and hatred 'This is gonna be fun.'