"Do you think she knows these things because of the curse seal?" one voice asked and it was all the confirmation she needed to know who they were talking about.
"No, of course not," Kushina's memorable voice chided the others. "Seals don't work that way, you should know."
There was the spark of laughter tinkling in the room that sounded sheepish and it must have been from the Honorable Leader himself.
"Kakashi?" he called out with a hint of worry. "What do you think?"
There was a pause and a great lull in the atmosphere. Anko was supposed to be asleep and she was trying to be and would have been, had they not been so loud.
After a moment that felt too long, Kakashi sighed. "I think that she's always known these things."
Minato made a noise in the back of his throat. "What do you mean?"
"Well, when we were younger and during the Chuunin Exams we took together, she called me the Sharingan Kakashi. Years before it happened."
"And did she say anything else to you of the sort before she was sealed and the two of you were," Minato coughed before grounding out the next word into a gruff whisper, "together?"
Anko kept herself still but her mind was racing.
Together?
The word kept echoing in her head and it hit her in the chest each time it did. She couldn't remember it but... it was painful, the feeling of having a sense to a memory but being unable to hold it. Unbidden, tears built at the edges of her eyes but she refused to let them fall and refused to open her eyes. She was asleep. Sleeping forever and without a dream to have.
"Sometimes she talked as if she was never meant to exist and would refer to herself distinctly as two people in the same body."
Ah, yes. Anko and That Girl, the one without a name. Or at the very least, one that couldn't be recalled.
Who was she now? Which one? She didn't know, she didn't know and there was too much missing inside of her to ever know for certain.
"Interesting," the Honorable Leader said to the room. Silence invaded and it was the Hokage that thought to end it, asking very in a quiet tone, "Are you going to continue to care for her like you have been? We could always assign her to—."
"I will continue. She did the same for me, after all. She's the sort of inspiring idiot that never knew when to quit."
Far away, like it wasn't there at all, she heard his voice inside of her. Whispering, so softly she almost couldn't decipher it.
You make me want to live.
"Well then, you'll continue to have my support," the Honorable Leader said, and she could hear the frown in his voice.