Tadashi shouted insults at her for a long part of the way to her house. Anko didn't know where he heard those from, and hoped it wouldn't become a habit of his. Half of them were child-like insults, Anko had to refrain from laughing when he called her poop. But there were some insults that could only have come out of an adult's mouth first.

"I know you don't like me yet, but those things are mean and I won't accept you talking to me like this, young man," Anko warned him after a while. If he hadn't been her son, she would have hissed at him, and been way less polite with him.

Anko frowned. It was not something Orochimaru would do, to use such words. Anko was bitchy about things, but the Sannin? He usually expressed himself with politeness, or interest. His insults were really thoughtful, usually his opponent didn't even realize he was insulting them at first. So, whoever was watching Tadashi while Orochimaru was working must not have been so nice to him. Anko was not the most maternal person to ever exist, but she wanted to prove to Tadashi that she could raise him with respect and love.

They finally got to her house, and Tadashi had calmed down. Either he waited for the right moment to run away from her, or he had accepted his fate. She doubted he'd go far anyway, it had taken two hours of jumping from tree to tree to get here.

"I'm packing some of my things and we're leaving. I'm bringing you to where I grew up. You'll make tons of friends there."

"I want daddy!"

"Enough Tadashi. I know you'll miss him, but he wasn't nice with you and I promise you'll love Konoha."

"You're lying! He isn't mean. You are mean."

"No, but he did things adults shouldn't do to their children, or to anyone. No one has the right to touch your body this way. I know because he did those things to me, too. And I can see it in your eyes as well. I liked him being my teacher until I had enough of his experiments. He's a criminal and he needs to pay for his acts. You're better off living with me. I swear I will never hurt you. If Orochimaru hadn't made me forget about you, you would have been living with me for a long while now. I'm sorry you had to live through what you did."

Tadashi started crying, not giving a shit about Anko's explanations. He tried to drag his feet down as she wanted to leave the house. She only took a bit of food, enough for the both of them, and a change of clothes for the way to Konoha. She'd buy more clothes for them once in the village. Tadashi needed clothes. His were definitely too small for him, and worn down. As if he had worn them for a long while and Orochimaru hadn't been able to give him new clothes. His pants were an inch too short. As for Anko, she didn't have much to her name and didn't mind leaving her belongings behind her. Shinobi shouldn't get attached to material wealth when it serves little use, and can be used against them if they were to be attached to it. Anko knew, down to her bones, that she belonged in Konoha. Not that she was fond of bones at the moment, considering who Tadashi's guard was. She left a note to her landlord and shut the door, Tadashi on her hip. He was still looking at her with a death stare, and it creeped out Anko. He had his father's snake-like eyes. She caught him yawning, and surely he was exhausted from the day's turbulence and the emotions it brought.

With a child to carry, the way to Konoha took her longer than expected. Enough that she was spotted by the Anbu group that had killed Orochimaru. Weasel came to her, mask on.

"We're taking prisoners with us, but our mission is a success, bar a captain's death. I'll escort you to Konoha, making sure nothing happens to you or Tadashi."

Tadashi was very suspicious of the Anbu teenager. While he wasn't very cuddly to Anko before, he started shaking when he noticed Weasel's presence, and held onto her stronger than he ever did.

"Weasel is not going to hurt you, baby." Anko said, trying to sound reassuring. She never had a soft voice, but Tadashi needed her, now.

The boy fell asleep in her arms, and only when he was softly snoring, she asked details about Orochimaru's death, and who they were bringing to Konoha.

"That guy we fought, the one who killed one of our teammates, Kimimaro seemed to be his name, is dead. We found many children and teenagers in the hideout, some were loyal to Orochimaru, they wanted to be named into his close guards. We brought some of them with us to help us document the experiments, and killed the rest of them. Also, most of them were prisoners. I'll let T&I decide what they'll do with them."

Anko nodded. "I can help with documentation if the Hokage calls for it. I… they won't send me to prison, won't they?"

"I'll let them decide."

They made it to Konoha, and Kakashi waited for her to reach the gates before entering the village. Weasel joined the other Anbu squad who were responsible for bringing the prisoners into their new-found cells.

"The Hokage will want to speak with you and meet Tadashi, so I'll escort you. I still need to give my report to Lord Hokage."

Anko gulped. She just wanted to live peacefully in Konoha, now. She prayed that the Fourth Hokage wouldn't send her to T&I. She knew those interrogations were awful, no matter who was in charge of them.

She wished not to see any familiar faces yet. To her luck, they were ignored and she made it to the tower without being stopped by anyone. An advisor of the Hokage took her son from her arms.

"What are you doing, don't you dare touch my son!" Anko hissed at him. Nara Shikaku, if she recalled.

"I'm just laying him down on this couch to free your hands, he's sleeping. I'm not going to hurt him. He's your son, you say?"

"Mine and Orochimaru. One of his fucked-up experiments."

She spotted a man near her, noting on a pad "Abuse of power". Orochimaru was her sensei. Anko frowned. Since when did Uchiha's clan head take notes of reports in the Hokage's office? No matter how off-hand or informal those pseudo-reports were.

"Hound, was the mission successful?"

"Our target is dead, as well as most of his subjects. We dealt with them accordingly, and brought those we thought could be safe back with us, well guarded. They should meet with a few police officers just now. But I also have bad news. Hitomi died in the battle. I'll have my report done by tomorrow night."

The Hokage made a sad face. "Shikaku, can I count on you to tell her family tonight? And we'll need to find her team a new captain within the next week. Fugaku, please visit Hitomi's team to see how they are doing."

The Hokage dismissed Fugaku and Kakashi, to turn his attention to Anko. He wanted to hear about her.

"So, Mitarashi Anko. My Anbu hasn't brought you to the police station with the others, so I'd like to hear about it."

"I left Orochimaru two years ago, after he gave me this curse mark that I was never able to use. I was his first subject that didn't die on him while testing it. I got pregnant with Tadashi because of another round of experiments he forced me to do, when I already wanted to leave, and as I gave birth to my baby, Orochimaru erased most of my memories. I thought Orochimaru sent me away because I wasn't good enough, and I was so ashamed that I hid in a random civilian village. I'm glad Orochimaru's done. He messed me up, he messed up so many people. I hope Tadashi won't suffer from it. Please, do not send me behind bars. I want to take care of my son and live a normal ninja life. Please. I have nothing to do with Orochimaru's awful ethics."

She tried sounding the most convincing she could, while attesting that Orochimaru had made his own decisions. In the end, the Hokage still decided he wanted T&I to assess how true what she said was, and also expected Anko to write a full report of everything she witnessed within the next month. Anko was frustrated, but not very surprised. She felt a ball form into her stomach. She knew it wouldn't be easy.

"Who will take care of Tadashi while some Yamanaka torture my head? He barely trusts me, let alone anyone else!"

Weasel entered. "I will take him to the park if he wakes up."

"After your meeting with Inoichi, if the meeting is conclusive, I'll have Fugaku show you your new housing situation. I'll have Kushina prepare you an apartment and shop for Tadashi. What size does he wear? We might have clothes Arashi and Naruto grew out of stored somewhere."

Anko realized she hadn't even checked his clothes size yet. She rushed next to her son, and tried checking the fabric without waking him up to see the size. Then, she was escorted to T&I. She spotted Morino Ibiki torturing some prisoners of Orochimaru. She'd rather take the Yamanaka clan head instead. Anko knew how Ibiki was, they were in the same chunin exam, and she never wanted to fight him ever again.

She absolutely hated the experience of being at the mercy of Yamanaka Inoichi, but if it was what it took to her freedom, so be it. He went to places in her mind that she didn't want anyone to see, things that made her feel ashamed. She wasn't proud to have been Orochimaru's student, to witness the horrors and unethical experiments and abuse. The dozens deaths. The feeling of being absolutely useless with that curse mark.

When Inoichi stopped his jutsu, Anko was exhausted. She just wanted to nap after a very emotional week. But no, no she had to move in some places, and take care of a son she had totally forgotten he existed. She had to face the guilt of having forgotten about him. But she was back home. She was back to a safe place, she didn't need to hide from Orochimaru or anyone. The man that had destroyed her life was dead. And her heart was free.

She found her son playing with Weasel still in uniform. If Tadashi didn't like the Anbu at first for killing his father, apparently being pushed on the swings made him forgive Weasel. Anko called out to Tadashi.

"We have a house to visit, now. You'll have your own bed with a window facing the academy, I heard."

"Window?"

Anko's shoulders dropped. He never had seen windows. His room was likely in the basement of the hideout, just like Anko's bedroom had been. It was surprising Tadashi hadn't complained about the light hurting his eyes so far, though it hadn't been very sunny the past few days.

"You'll be able to see outside. I'll show you!" Anko said, sounding excited. She wanted Tadashi to love Konoha. She wanted him to feel at home as fast as she could. She wanted him to have a normal childhood now. She wanted him to be able to live freely and make choices of his own. She will guide him, but he'll be able to pick his clothes when she goes shopping, because she doubted the Hokage's children's clothes were to her fashion likings, even though she was grateful for the offer. She didn't have to shop immediately, she could focus on bounding with Tadashi. She also didn't want to force Tadashi to go to the academy when the time comes, even if she wished to see him with the Konoha headband. Here he had free will, and if Anko wanted to prove her better than the Orochimaru he loved, she needed to let him be.

Author notes: While Anko might seem a little bit out of character, I wanted her to have a child, and to show a soft side of hers. Besides, she must like children at least a bit, if in Boruto she became a teacher at the academy.